Digimon belongs to Toei! It's not mine!

---------------------------
Shi-chan: 'Kay, guys, here's chapter 12...oivey...
Duo: Shinesman Violet! Ikuzo!
Ken: Shinesman Indigo! Go!
Seki: Shinesman Emerald Green! Let's do it!
Shi-chan: Shinesman Raspeberry Red! YATTA!
All: SENTAI! SHINESUMAN!!!!
Shi-chan: I need sleep...
---------------------------

Sadness-Colored Sandglass
Part 12
~By Shimegami-chan
Music: "Tobira," (Acoustic version--Yamato) Yes, again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: NANCY! And Shi-chan humor ahead. *grimaces* Brace for impact...

Warnings: Shounen-ai; it's Kensuke, Kekaizer, Daikaizer, Taito, Takari, yeah, I love having a kazillion pairings in my fics...

Important Note!

Yes, it's going in _all_ my fics for the next few days...

Fanfiction.net has suddenly started sorting fics by their release date instead of their update date, meaning that unless you're on Author Alert you may miss new chapters of stories unless you change the page sorting. It's becoming a rather large pain for me, as I read in a ton of categories and have barely enough time to check them as it is. I'm posting a convienient link to my own in-progress serial in case anyone was wondering if it's been updated. It has, as of yesterday: Chapter 3 of 'In Your Shoes,' was posted on May 25th, and you're looking at chapter 12 of 'Sandglass,' obviously. ^^;; Thanks minna-san! Enjoy the fic!





"Daiiiiii-chan!"

Daisuke snapped awake, blinking sleep away. "Ken?"

"Dai-chan," The sultry voice purred, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. "I miss you."

"Ken? Where are you?" Daisuke vaulted out of bed and ran to the window, peering out. "Ken? Ken?"

"D'suke!" Chibimon protested. "What are you doing?"

"I thought I heard Ken call me," Daisuke said uneasily.

"Daiiii....s'three a.m....I dun' hear nothin'!"

"Daisuke-chan..."

Am I going crazy?

A tapping sound came from the door and a small high voice squeaked from behind it. "Daisuke-san? Chibimon?"

"What the...Ken?" Daisuke walked to the door and opened it, Chibimon bounding at his heels. "Minomon? What are you doing here? Where's Ken?"

"Ken-chan went to the digital world," Minomon said miserably. "He was gone when I woke up, but the computer was on. Daisuke-san...if it's not too much to ask, can I have something to eat? I've already regressed from my Wormmon form, I'm so very hungry. Please?"

"Uh, sure." Daisuke pawed at the nighttable in the darkness, finally grasping his D-terminal. "I'll e-mail Ken, and we'll get you some food. That sound okay, little guy?"

"Hai! Thank you!" Minomon chirped, hopping almost effortlessly into Daisuke's arms. Chibimon joined him a second later. Daisuke carried the armful of Digimon into the kitchen, manipulating the microcomputer with his right hand and opening the fridge with his foot. An overexcited Chibimon began to raid the refrigerator while Minomon waited politely by the door. Daisuke grabbed a few packets of yogurt and handed them down to the green digimon. Minomon accepted the gift gratefully and seated himself on the linoleum beside Chibimon. "Arigatou!"

"No problem," Daisuke replied. "Not often I see you in this form, Wor--er, Minomon. Why are you at this stage?"

Minomon's blue eyes never lifted from the ground. "Usually I have enough power even in the real world to hold that form. But lately...I don't know, Ken's been acting weird. He forgets to feed me a lot, and he disappears in the night and won't let me come with him."

"Minomon..."

The pineconed little monster smiled with his eyes the same way that Wormmon did to amuse both Ken and Daisuke constantly. Ken...

Daisuke flipped open his D-terminal--no answer from his Jogress partner at all. That worried him. The mahogany-haired boy fired off a quick e-mail to Miyako, Iori, Takeru and Hikari:

Meet at my house ASAP. Ken may be in trouble.

~Motomiya Daisuke




"But, Daisuke!" Minomon complained. "It's late! Everyone's asleep!"

"Well, we'll just have to wake them up," Daisuke said with a grin. "Let's start with, say, Hikari-chan."

"Daisuke..."

"No sweat," Daisuke assured his digimon. "I've got it all under control..."


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


A few minutes later Daisuke and his two companions tumbled out of the computer in the Yagami residence. Holding Chibimon's mouth shut for good measure, Daisuke slipped out of the office and into the hall. He paused outside the door he knew was Hikari's and opened it gently, nudging Minomon inside. The brown-eyed boy then huddled outside the dark room to wait for Hikari to wake and get herself set to go.

He almost didn't see the dark shadow creep up behind him, he was so focused on making sure little Minomon had managed to find the girl in the dark and wake her without scaring her. Before he could say a word he was yanked up and shoved against the wall, receiving a punch in the side of the head. "Pervert! Theif! I'm calling the cops!" Growling, Chibimon tackled his assailant in the head, without much effect.

"T-taichi?" Daisuke stammered, recognizing his attacker's voice.

"Daisuke?" The older boy let go of Daisuke's jacket, and Chibimon dropped back into his partner's arms. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Looking for Hikari-chan," Daisuke grumbled, holding his head. "We've got an emergency in the digital world. Ken's missing."

"Geez, sorry Daisuke-kun," Taichi replied in embarassment. "I thought you were a burglar."

"No problem." Chibimon had now attached himself to Taichi's pajama leg. Daisuke reached down and pried the blue digimon away.

"Want me to get imoutochan for you?"

"Minomon's already in there."

As he spoke Hikari herself emerged from the room with Minomon in her arms and Tailmon in tow. "Hello, Daisuke-kun. Chibimon," she whispered, glancing at Taichi. "Sorry,, 'niichan, did we wake you?"

"Somewhat," her brother replied mildly.

"I guess we'll go get Takeru-kun now." Daisuke rubbed his aching head again and accepted the armful of Minomon from Hikari, who lifted up Tailmon instead. "Bye, Taichi-sempai. We'll contact Koushirou if we need any help."

"Right." Hikari led her friend and her brother into the office. "Let's go."


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Seconds later the two children emerged from the computer in the Takaishi residence, landing in an undignified heap on the floor. Hikari put her finger to her lips in the stream of moonlight and led her friends into the hallway. They passed the master bedroom and paused outside the younger Takaishi's room, Hikari quietly opening the door. She slipped inside, grabbing Daisuke's hand, and navigated to the bed without stumbling over anything. But when Hikari poked the lump of blankets with a whisper of "Takeru?" no answer came. The bed was empty. Rumpled, but empty. "Where is he?"

Both children froze as the door behind them creaked open, too swallowed in darkness to identify the intruder--Takeru?

A shrill cry--decidedly un-Takeru-like--from the doorway told Daisuke otherwise, and Chibimon gulped in terror. Suddenly Daisuke was on his back on the floor with another person atop him, a person trying to pin him down with considerable strength. Suddenly another assailant appeared behind him and yanked him up, holding him in a headlock. Chibimon attempted to bite one of his attackers. Minomon scampered away to keep from being crushed. Hikari cried out, indicating that she had been cornered as well.

Then, three things happened at once. Chibimon screamed, "Chibimon, SHINKA! Vuimon!" and evolved into V-mon, the explosion of light stunning the attackers momentarily. Minomon then tackled the light switch, flooding the room with brightness.

Then, Takaishi Natsuko appeared in the doorway, waering a terrycloth robe and brandishing a kendo stick. "Takeru!" Her mouth dropped open as she surveyed the scene. "What on earth is going on in here?"

Daisuke got a look at his attacker for the first time. "Miyako!?"

The lavender-haired girl blinked and scrambled off him. "Daisuke-kun?"

"Dai? What are you doing in my room at three in the morning?" The grip around his neck released, and Takeru stood up and dusted off his pants, extending a hand to help Daisuke off the floor. In the corner, a red-faced Iori bowed repeatedly to Hikari, the older girl blushing and holding his kendo stick firm in one hand as though stoppping a blow. "Hikari-chan!" Takeru spotted his girlfriend reassuring Iori that she was fine and that he shouldn't point sharp objects at people, especially in the dark. "You too? Why are you guys here?"

"Enlighten me." Natsuko leaned against the doorway, Minomon perched on her shoulder.

"Uh. Gomen, Takaishi-san, we came for Takeru, there's something going on in the digital world, and..."

Miyako bowed also, her face crimson. "We came for Takeru for the same reason. I got an emergency e-mail from Daisuke-kun, and I thought that the others might not have been awake, and our family has a spare key to the Hida apartment so I snuck in and got Iori-kun, and then we came for Takeru-kun, but I didn't know Daisuke-kun was already here...we were in the porch leaving when we heard someone in the apartment. We thought it was a theif or worse...I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry, Mama-san." Takeru was red-faced as well. Patamon, Poromon and Upamon emerged from behind Takeru's desk and joined V-mon and Tailmon in the confusion.

Natsuko rolled her eyes. "Be home for dinner tomorrow, Takeru." She lifted the calmed Minomon from her shoulder and handed him to her son before picking up the kendo stick and walking out the door. "Try not to wake up the neighbourhood. Good luck!"

"I won't, and thanks," Takeru promised, watching her leave.

"Well..." Hikari bit her lip. "Shall we?"

"Let's go!" Daisuke held his D-3 out to the computer on the desk. "Digital gate, open!"

The others followed in respectful silence, all but a pink-faced Iori. "I didn't know your mom knew kendo."

Takeru could only nod in amused reply.









-----------------------------------
Shi-chan: Naaaaaaaancy!
Duo: Nancy one! Nancy all! Let's all do a Nancy call!
Epy-chan: NOOOOOOOOOO!
Zippo: Sweet, sweet Nancy...
Shi-chan: *glomp*
Seki: *sweatdrops* Ignore all the Shinesman comments above...it's late and she's sleep-deprived...