Warnings: Discussions of hospitals

Two - Of Shakes and Aches

Tagiru had never been good with hospitals. He'd been in and out of them until he was thirteen, a terrible immune system and a weak body and even then had never escaped the entire heavy weight of them on his back and the medicine downed every day until he could taste the pills in his dreams.

He was worse when it was someone else, and admittedly, a lot worse when it came to Amano Yuu.

Not that Yuu was weak, or dumb or whatever. He was very strong and even Tagiru could swallow his ego and admit that. But whatever had attacked him wasn't a stray cat or whatever. At best it was a rogue angry digimon and they'd been a bit slow. At worst it was something else, something angrier that ran at the sound of someone else.

So, a coward.

Tagiru hated cowards.

Taiki appeared beside him with a rush of wind and something… else, though he'd probably just gone through the door. But then, to Tagiru, Taiki-san was just like that. Something other, something beyond people, something that moved. He doubted anyone, let alone Taiki-san, even noticed the wind that followed him, or the smell of recent fires and cedarwood.

Tagiru wasn't poetic, but Taiki-san did not feel human to him and never had and he was happy with that.

Sometimes, Tagiru didn't feel human either.

He did now, in these little moments where he felt helpless.

"Tagiru," Taiki greeted, unruffled by his own wind. "What happened?"

And Tagiru explained, poorly. Words weren't his thing, but Taiki-san, the thing about Taiki-san that no number of hunts and evolutions and games and years could get Tagiru to surpass, was that he understood the jumble and mess of people. And he understood this right now.

Taiki nodded when he was done. "I see. I got it." He sat down on the bench. "Will you go check on Ryouma for me? He's probably still back at my house. I'll take any information down and keep in contact with Nene."

Tagiru flinched outright. "I… forgot about her." Which he didn't know how, her existence was hard to forget in general. "Wait… hold up, what's up with Ryouma?"

Taiki fixed him with a look that made him feel ten centimeters tall. "We don't know. I figured you'd want to help look into it rather than stick around here."

Something in Tagiru relaxed and immediately coiled up in guilt a second later. "Taiki-san…"

"Don't worry," Taiki said with that pleasant, easy smile. "I've taken care of Yuu long enough. I'm practically an expert."

Tagiru believed that. "Akari-san's not here to take care of you."

"If she appears behind a pillar with seven pillows and her school bag, I'm sending her after you," his old senior replied, waving his hand. "Now shoo."

Tagiru left gratefully. He wished he could have bounced out a little less but he hated, hated hospitals. He didn't understand how Taiki-san did anything.

Yuu would be fine. He had to believe that. Besides, he could probably help Ryouma at least a little. They were rivals after all!

… hah. Yeah, he didn't even believe that himself.

Ugh. He hated feelings.

Taiki eventually entered the now safer hospital room to a semi-lucid Yuu blinking at him and Nene at his ear via his cell phone. Taiki smiled at him and Yuu smiled back, still clearly much too out of it to actually acknowledge he was here. Taiki didn't mind. He'd rather the other boy be as out of it as possible and rest. It'd be inconvenient if the person tried for a second time but Taiki had carried people before.

It'd hurt his heart, but he'd do it for Yuu.

Okay, realistically he'd do it for anyone, but he'd especially do it for Yuu and he knew why. It wasn't the most important thing in the world, not in comparison to Yuu surviving whatever or whomever this was.

He settled and kept speaking with Nene until she hung up, having hopped on the nearest way to Japan because even if she couldn't stop whoever did this, hell hath no fury like a General who could plot revenge. And Nene has a master's degree in retribution.

He messaged Kiriha next, along with the others in the group chat.

"This sucks…" Yuu finally said, voice low and teetering on whiny. "What did I do now? It's been… I'm about to graduate. Who hates me now?"

Taiki smiled, peace in his face, fire in his eyes. "Well, when I find out who did it I promise you'll get to go to college without any worries."

"You're not going to be able to protect me forever, Taiki-san," Yuu said with a firmness of a cynical young man.

Why not? He wanted to ask. Why not be with him and protect him for the rest of his life?

Well there were all sorts of reasons. He cared about them but he wasn't sure he cared about them enough. He'd have to decide when this was over, and he talked to Yuu.

His Xros Loader warmed against his leg and he picked it up. "Hey, Taiki!"

Taiki smiled a bit. "Shoutmon. You heard?"

"Yeah Damemon's livid. It's taking Dorulumon to pin Cutemon and him from tearing across two worlds."

Yuu let out a choked laugh. "They're ridiculous."

"Love's like that," Taiki said gently, unflinching, not even when Yuu met his eyes. "Do you have any leads, Shoutmon?"

"I don't." admitted the king after a moment. "Not personally, but Lopmon does."

"Lopmon?" Something in Taiki's heart warmed. He'd always had a soft spot for the little guy. "Is he around?"

"He's headed to you right now, once Wisemon stops threatening to dissect him."

Taiki wanted to laugh. Some things never changed.

Ryouma was awake and visibly fine

Inwardly, he was scared out of his mind. That was not normal. That was not anything good. It had been a jolt of pain and then dizzying blackness. And then like a freaking machine, he'd woken back up again, on Taiki-san's bed no less.

Ugh, how embarrassing. And the thing was, he couldn't protest. That hadn't been normal.

Especially since right now he felt like things were crawling on his skin.

Then a voice whispered. "There are three of them, Ryouma. One for each of the mistakes. Be careful."

Ryouma blinked and suddenly Tagiru was in his face. "Ryouma you look like crap."

"I would never." he didn't sit up anyway, it felt like a dangerous idea. "Why are you here?"

Tagiru shrank back a bit, a sulking twist at his mouth. "If I sat and waited to see Yuu in the hospital I'd be on the ceiling. Taiki-san wanted me to look after you. You mind?"

"Not at all," Ryouma said, vaguely noticing the light shine in Tagiru's eyes. But he was worried about something else. Yuu was in the hospital and he had passed out. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Especially since he'd heard Psychemon's voice for the first time in years.