Takuya smiled as the line went dead, like he always did whenever he spoke to Izumi. But this time it was a little different, a little colder, less all encompassing. He didn't like their plan, didn't like the idea that their would-be savior was actually playing them. And if Dorian was hiding something, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know about it. Get his hands dirty with it. Gingerly, he stood up, stretching and slipping the cell phone back into his pocket. The clock read way-too-early and he kicked himself for not planning better. Izumi liked to take her time in the mornings, get everything in order and appropriately styled/ packed before the day had a chance to get going. He'd known she'd be up and fully conscious by now, which was why he'd set his alarm for 0'dark:30 AM. What he hadn't considered was the very real possibility that their conversation might take less than an hour… Now he was awake and alone with his own thoughts. Not even quite enough time to justify hitting the football field for some early morning practice.
"Takuya?"
He jumped a bit, startled by the small, stillness-shattering voice. His brother Shinya poked his groggy head through the door, giving him a blurry-eyed judgment face.
"Hey little buddy," Takuya greeted, sighing heavily and plopping right back down onto his bed. "What's crackin'?"
"What are you doing? You're never up this early."
"Tell me about it. But, you know, important stuff to do." Shinya blinked at him.
"Is something going on?" Damn. Takuya may've been somewhat of a complainer about the majority of his problems, but he tried his best to keep those related to the Digital World private. It wasn't so much that he didn't trust his family, he just never wanted to take the time to explain it all to them. That, and he had no proof. But Shinya was intuitive, more so than Takuya ever gave him credit for, and every time one of these less normal problems popped up, his little brother always knew about it. Takuya sighed heavily and made a face, patting the blanket next to him. Shinya moseyed over and sat down, rubbing one eye with the heel of his hand.
"Yeah," Takuya said, draping a protective arm over his brother's shoulders. "Yeah, something's going on."
"Is it your train-friends?" Takuya gave a soft chuckle; the official story was that he and his Digital World cohorts had all happened to meet on a train to Shibuya and had just really hit it off. When Koichi tripped down the stairs and they all wound up going to the hospital, a life-long bond had been forged. This was, of course, a half-truth they used to explain how they'd gotten so close over the course of maybe three hours and Shinya knew it. At first he'd badgered Takuya about what had really happened, then eventually gave up and just started calling them all "The Train Gang." Whenever Takuya didn't talk about something, it was because that something was super-secret-gang-business. Enough said… sometimes.
"You could say that," he answered vaguely, looking at the door as if something mildly interesting had appeared there. Shinya pushed away from his big brother's side and stared at him, brows furrowed. It wasn't like him to be so cryptic.
"It's bad, isn't it," he said in a quiet, conspiratorial voice. Takuya looked down at him, working his face into an encouraging smile.
"It's just big kid stuff, nothing you need to worry about." A moment of silent uncertainty passed between them. When Shinya finally gave up on getting any more out of him and made a move to leave, Takuya tightened his grip. "Just," he started awkwardly. "Be careful, alright? There are bad people out there."
"Takuya, I'm 12," Shinya chastised, rolling his eyes dramatically. "I can take care of myself."
"Yeah," Takuya laughed, releasing his brother's shoulder to ruffle his hair affectionately. "I know little man, you're all tough now."
"I've always been tough," Shinya shot back, wrinkling his nose and batting Takuya's hand away. Takuya shoved him off the bed, laughing a little louder.
"Sure you have," he teased. "Alright then, tough man, think you can manage to put on some pants while I go get breakfast started? If we go fast then we might beat Mom to the punch, what'd ya think?"
"I don't think you'll ever be fast enough to beat Mom to anything."