*Disclaimer* - I don't own the characters, never have done, never will do. Sueing me will earn you all of $5.36 and if you're really that desperate for cash then you can start saving money by getting the hell off the internet. Unless you have a completely free server of course. In which case I envy you greatly. Anyway, on with the fic...

Author's Note: This last installment of ALBoH is dedicated to you, the reviewers! Because you guys ROOL and you didn't give up on me when I didn't post anything for about a year, which is a level of faithfulness I frankly don't deserve. Special thanks go to Yama-Chan_Luvvah, whose inspirational review of Ch11 hauled me off my ass and back into the writing seat, and to Uni, whose email reminded me to hurry up and finish this part off. It may not have seemed like it much but all your reviews and emails have really motivated me (sometimes just by making me feel so guilty for not having written any more!) so, without further ado, this one's for you guys!

A Love Born of Hate (Part Twelve)

Ice Melts

Takeru…

I froze at the sound of my brother's voice, and felt Tai do the same. The next five minutes ran through my head before I'd even lived them, in less than a second. Tai would push me away. He'd spit on the floor and call me a sick freak again. Then he'd shout at me, saying that he never wanted to speak to me again, and storm out. And that would be the end of it.

My panicked reverie was broken as Tai's forehead clunked onto my shoulder. "Crap," he muttered. "Yama, look."

I looked. I winced. Takeru was staring at us, eyes wide, a completely bewildered expression on his little round face. But he wasn't all. Sora stood just behind him, a hand on his shoulder, the corners of her lips twitching as she tried to fight a smile. The smile won. Jyou's jaw was somwhere in the region of the floor. Mimi was blushing and stifling giggles behind her hand, and Koushiro, for once, looked completely blank.

"What's the matter, Takeru?" Tokomon piped up. Everyone turned their gaze to look at him, and he blinked. "What? What is it?"

"Oh, it's so romantic!" Mimi gushed suddenly. "I mean, rescued from the evil sorceress in the nick of time, you could have both died! And then…" She sighed happily, clasping her hands together, not able to resist another giggle. "You two are *so cute* together!"

Tai's head had risen slowly to stare at her in disbelief. I made a noise in the back of my throat that sounded somewhat akin to gargling.

Jyou had finally shut his mouth, but still looked a tad vacant. "Why am I always the last one to find out about these things?" he asked of nobody in particular.

"Oh, I didn't know either," Mimi replied with a shrug. "But *look* at them! Whosacutie? Whoscutiesden?"

"All right, Mimi, calm down," Sora said, barely keeping from giggling herself at the interesting shade of purple I had turned. I don't appreciate being spoken to like some kind of kitten, dammit. When Tai stood up, I uncertainly did the same.

"Look, guys," Tai began awkwardly. Sora cut him off.

"It's okay, Tai. Really. We're all okay with it, right, guys?"

Mimi nodded vigorously (in my opinion, she was a little *too* okay with it) and, after a moment, so did Jyou, although he seemed a bit dubious. There was a moment's silence. "Koushiro?" Sora prompted him quietly. I swallowed. I liked Koushiro, for all his odd little ways and frankly weird attachment to his laptop. And the way he was looking at me was scaring me.

"So… you two are together, right?" he clarified, with some difficulty. I panicked, and looked at Tai. Were we? I didn't know. There was a long pause.

"Yeah," Tai eventually answered him, a little defensively, ears burning. "Yeah, we are, I guess." I felt his fingers touch mine, and I squeezed his hand. We shared a quick, embarassed smile. I could see what an effort it was for poor Mimi to restrain herself from leaping around the room, just squealing from the cutsieness of it all.

"Well, congratulations!" Sora said warmly, stepping forward and giving us both a quick hug at the same time. I felt kind of uncomfortable, but I owed her, so I didn't complain.

Koushiro picked his words carefully. "Perhaps we should direct our attention to more pressing matters…?" he suggested delicately. Without meeting his eye, I murmured an assent. The room had gone somewhat quiet - he had been unable to keep quite all of the hostility out of his voice. I felt dirty suddenly, and ashamed. At least only one of them was getting weird about it, I mean it could have been worse I guess…

"Orb," said Tai suddenly, probably more to break the awkward silence than anything. We were all reunited, and he was back in leader mode. He strode over to the last orb, which Kelimon had presumably dropped. "Let's smash it, ne?"

"I don't understand about all this orb stuff," said Sora, and the others agreed. So Tai launched into a long explanation about how Kelimon had been using them to collect digital energy and make portals. Tugging on my leg alerted me to Takeru's presence, innocent blue eyes gazing up at me.

"I don't get it," he whispered.

"Well you see," I said, quietly so I wouldn't drown Tai out, "Kelimon came from another world called the Magiworld, and -"

"No, no." Takeru shook his head. "Not that. I mean, about you and Tai."

"Oh." I arranged myself cross-legged on the floor, and pulled Takeru into my lap. He snuggled happily against me. "It's like this," I began. "Remember how you once asked me why I pretended I didn't like Tai?" He nodded. "Well, it was because I like him… a lot. More than as a friend." I paused. Takeru looked noneplussed. I sighed. "I love him, otouto."

Faint light was dawning. "Like Mommy and Daddy used to?"

I winced. "Yeah, like that."

"But he's a boy!" my little brother squeaked, a little louder than was necessary. Sora looked round briefly. Glancing up, I could see the tips of Taichi's ears had gone pink, and he stumbled over his explanations. Koushiro, I noted, stared solidly at the wall.

"I *know* that." I sweatdropped. "It's not… something I *chose*, Takeru. It's not something I can explain. It just is. I can't help it."

Takeru regarded me seriously. "Does he love you back?"

"I think he does, yeah." I nodded slowly, smiling. Takeru threw his arms around my neck.

"I love you, too, oniichan," he said in a muffled voice.

I hugged him back. "And I love you, otoutochan." Mimi was squeaking again, and trying to pretend that she wasn't. Note to self: throttle Mimi.

"I just *went* for her," Tai was saying. "I grabbed the first thing I could get a hold on and pulled as hard as I could, and her wing… just came right off in my hand." Everyone's eyes were riveted unswervingly upon him as he told his tale. "I didn't expect them to be that flimsy. She started screaming blue murder and I staggered back, but then I remembered that she'd killed -" He stopped, and went pink again. "Anyhow, I slammed into her with everything I had, and she sailed clear into the pit. She couldn't fly, and she fell right down into the energy furnace thing. She's dead."

Various 'Ooh's and 'Ahh's accompanied the end of Tai's story. "We should definitely destroy the orb," Jyou agreed. "What if somebody else figures out how to use it?"

"Don't." Mimi shuddered. "I don't think I could go through an ordeal like that all over again."

"Stand back, then," Tai warned. He curled in on himself and then let the orb fly like a baseball, straight into the wall. It exploded with a deafening smash. Takeru clamped his hand over his ears. And as the last slivers rained to the floor and lay still, the Tower began to disintegrate. The walls around us, the ceiling above, the floor we were standing on, everything started to dissolve into a giant whirl of pink, blue and silver colour, slowly at first, and then faster and faster until we slid helplessly through the rapidly disappearing floor and began freefalling. Mimi was screaming; Takeru was gripping my leg so hard I thought it might come off. All I could see was the swirling colour. I panicked - where was Tai?

I hit something solid with a thump, the breath knocked out of me. The pandemonium that the world had broken into showed no signs of easing up. Mimi had given up on screaming and was calling out to Sora, but her voice sounded faint, as though the interference was muffling it somehow. "Tai!" I yelled. "Tai, are you all right? Where are you?" I paused. "Tai!"

"I'm over here!" His voice, too, was barely audible. "I'm okay, Yama!" Yama - I smiled. It was an odd way to shorten my name, and yet I liked it.

Takeru had let go of my leg and was now clinging to my arm. I could hear him whimpering. I grabbed him under the arms and heaved him up onto my waist, and then I could just about make out his face. Tai was calling out something about everybody staying still, so I stood where I was and tried to peer through the swirling fuzz - it was starting to make me feel a little ill.

It didn't stop all at once. It began to fade away only to return in fits and starts, like a vengeful wind. Eventually, though, I could make out Jyou standing a few paces away from me, and I trudged over to him and nudged his elbow. The relief on his face when he saw us was enormous. I was starting to panic! he mouthed. Why was I not surprised?

Soon we could make out Sora and Mimi, and they made their way over to us. The swirling whatever-it-was was fast on the wane by then, and shortly afterwards Takeru spotted Taichi and Koushiro. They were both standing together, but not talking to each other. Koushiro looked, as always, perfectly composed. Taichi was red in the face and seemed very hot and bothered about something. We all exchanged uncomfortable glances and trailed over to them. Koushiro smiled when he saw us.

"I have a theory," he announced. "This static mist is the raw magical energy that Kelimon and everything she brought with her from the Magiworld is composed of. Now Kelimon has been deleted, everything from the Magiworld is dissolving. It takes much longer than digital energy does to dissolve, because digital energy is instantly reabsorbed by the Digiworld. The magical energy has no access to the Magiworld's mainframe, so it requires more time to disperse."

"Wow," said Jyou. "And I thought we were looking at the end of the world. Silly me."

"Same old pessimistic Jyou," I muttered. Tai grinned at me, and I caught his eye and grinned back. The last of the mists were fading, and our fearless leader looked about him, taking stock of the situation.

"Right!" he said commandingly. "Time to go rescue our Digimon, I'd say!" This was met with enthusiatic agreement from all - even Koushiro - and Tokomon announced that he would lead the way. So Takeru, carrying him, walked at the front of our customary column with Tai. Naturally, after all we'd been through, I was worried for Takeru's safety. I *had* to walk at the front too. Purely out of concern for my otouto, of course.

The three of us walked along abreast, Taichi on my left and Takeru to my right. Tokomon sat atop Takeru's hat, as usual. Takeru filled what might otherwise have been a rather awkward and embarrassed silence between Tai and me with animated chatter, and he presently slipped his small hand into mine. Tai glanced sideways at him, then leaned up to whisper in my ear.

"How come Takeru gets to hold your hand, and I don't?"

Faint heat flushed over my cheeks and my lips twitched into an irrepressible smile, but I threw my eyes back at the rest of our group worriedly. Koushiro was bringing up my usual place at the rear, eyes trained on the ground in set blankness. "Koushiro -" I began to protest.

"Koushiro," Tai butted in determinedly, taking my glove in his, "can lump it. I love you, Ishida Yamato. If he doesn't like it, it's his problem, not ours." He twined his fingers between mine, and I squeezed his hand shyly. Takeru tittered.

"TANEMON!"

Mimi pushed heedlessly between Tai and me, breaking our link, and dashed ahead. Her green leafy Digimon was bounding over the small rise ahead of us, squeaking Mimi's name at the top of her voice. As I stared in disbelief, Bukamon and Motimon also appeared. We all looked at each other and broke into a sprint. "The others are coming! They're on their way!" Motimon burbled, before throwing himself at Koushiro. The redhead dropped to his knees and scooped his Digimon up, hugging him, and Jyou greeted Bukamon similarly as Tsunomon and Yokomon appeared on the horizon. Tsunomon! I realised then just how long it had been since I'd seen him.

"Tsunomon!" I yelled. I raced at him, and a huge smile split his little face as he caught sight of me.

"Matt!" he shouted, bouncing over the ground towards me. With a final fantastic leap, he landed on my chest and I hugged him tight, grinning like an idiot. Everyone else was making a huge fuss of their Digimon. It was Yokomon who first spotted Tokomon on top of Takeru's head.

"Tokomon!" she cried. "You're all right!" The other Digimon looked round and came flitting around Takeru's partner, bombarding him with questions.

"Where have you been?"

"How did you get out?"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

I left the Digimon talking amongst themselves. Nobody else seemed to have noticed yet, but Tai was scrambling desperately up the slope on his own. Koromon hadn't yet appeared. He reached the top of the rise, and even from where I stood I could see the deeper worry etching into his features.

"Koromon!" shouted Taichi, cupping his hands around his mouth. Everybody looked up at him, and a ripple ran through them as they realised that one of our group was still absent. Tsunomon left the gathering and began bounding back up the slope, and I was swift to follow. "KOO--ROO--MOON!" Tai bellowed. He turned to me as I caught up with him, eyes round and full of fear.

"Where is he, Matt? Why isn't he with the others?"

I hesitated, unsure what to say. I'm not used to comforting people, except Takeru, and reiterating what I might say to him would just sound patronising to someone my own age. Thankfully, Tsunomon came to my rescue.

"It's Tokomon," he said, with absolute conviction. "None of us knew what had happened to him. Koromon worried most of all - he blamed himself. He sees himself as responsible because he's your Digimon, Tai, and you're the leader. I'll bet he couldn't face coming back and having to admit he'd lost Tokomon. He's gone to look for him."

"But Tokomon's fine!" I cried. "That's absurd!"

"WE know he's fine," Tsunomon pointed out practically. "Koromon doesn't. He was right behind us coming up the slope… he can't have gotten far."

Tai funnelled his hands again. "KOROMON! KOROMON, WHERE ARE YOU? COME BACK!" We waited for several seconds, but there was no reply. The others, quiet and subdued now, came up behind us. Taichi turned to face them all.

"I'm going to look for Koromon," he said determinedly. "You all make camp in those trees over there; it'll be dark soon."

A barrage of protest greeted this announcement. Sora somehow made herself heard above the others. "No, Tai," she said flatly. "It's not happening. No way. Not on your own. Kelimon might be defeated, but Myotismon's still out there. It's far too dangerous."

"So I'll take someone's Digimon," Tai said stoutly. "If they don't mind, that is?"

"Garurumon and I will come with you," I offered instantly. Taichi looked at me for a moment, then smiled gratefully.

"Thanks, Yama, and I'll gladly take Garurumon. But you've been nearly killed twice over in the last few hours and you're tired. I want you to stay here," Tai said. I became instantly outraged. How *dare* he treat me like some fragile child!?

"I am not tired!" I snapped. "If you can go trekking across the digital countryside then so can I!"

"He's right, onii." I stared at my otouto in amazement, and he curled an arm around my shin. "Let one of the others go - I want you to stay here with me. Please?"

I was torn between looking after my brother and making sure that Tai would be all right. In the end, I compromised. "Tsunomon, go with Taichi, would you?" I asked him. "Make sure he doesn't do anything overly-moronic."

"Right. Tsunomon, digivolve to… Gabumon! Gabumon, digivolve to… Garurumon!" My lupine friend trotted over to stand by Taichi. Sora stepped forward with Yokomon in her arms.

"I'm coming too," she said determinedly. "One human and one digidestined on their own is still too much of a risk."

"Agreed," I said instantly, before Taichi could argue. Our fearless leader scowled.

"It's all right, Tai," said Jyou encouragingly. "We'll still be here when you get back. I mean, unless there's a fire. Or a swarm of angry Kuwagamon descend upon us while we're sleeping. Or there's an earthquake, or -"

"Jyou!" we all yelled. He blinked, then shrugged defensively.

"What? It could happen!"

Tai shook his head wearily and turned away, trudging towards the horizon. He presently broke into a jog, Sora keeping pace beside him and Garurumon at his heels. I watched him anxiously until he vanished from sight, then lay down with a sigh. Motimon, Bukamon and Tanemon had digivolved to Tentomon, Gomamon and Palmon, and were describing their escape from Myotismon. It seemed a strange pink and blue silvery fog had swirled through the building, and it had made everyone very confused. They had been able to dazedly blunder out of their cage, which a Digimon who had almost seemed to be sleepwalking had opened, had come across their crests and digivices quite by chance, and had then staggered drunkenly outside, actually walking right past a befuddled-looking Myotismon at one point. When it became apparent that none of the Digimon could decide quite why they had been captured, I sat up and took proper interest. The others, too, seemed puzzled.

"Wasn't it so you couldn't come and rescue us from Kelimon?" Mimi asked Palmon. Palmon gave her a blank stare.

"Who's Kelimon?"

"Koushiro said something about a Kelimon earlier," Tokomon chimed in. "I didn't understand what he was saying, but then I don't usually. Who is she?"

Us five DigiDestined gazed at each other in amazement. "How can they not remember?" demanded Jyou.

Koushiro cleared his throat. "It may be a side effect of the mist," he put forward. "Perhaps it scrambles the digital programming so that no trace of the Magiworld, in reality or memory, remains."

"Then how do we remember?" Mimi perfectly voiced the question that had been on my own lips.

"Because," explained Koushiro, "we're not part of the Digiworld's programming. We come from somewhere else."

"Ahhh." We all nodded sagely at each other. "Well done, Koushiro," I congratulated him.

Koushiro's only answer was a glare so fierce and full of hatred that it truly shook me. I don't let a lot get to me, but the way Koushiro looked at me was unnerving. Like I was dirt. Less than dirt. Like I was something less than dirt, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to squash me flat underneath his purple sneaker. I looked away quickly. Koushiro was a year younger and several feet shorter than me, but in that moment I experienced true fear of him.

I was determined to wait up for Tai. Takeru dozed off beside me as dusk descended, and Jyou, Mimi and Koushiro chatted amongst themselves a little way away. I hate to admit it, but Tai was right. I *was* tired. I kept steeling myself to keep my eyes open, only to snap awake a few seconds later as I caught myself drifting off again. I wanted to get up and walk around, but Takeru was leaning on me and I didn't want to disturb him. Against all good intentions, I eventually sunk into an exhausted snooze against the tree…

"Ice Wolf Claw!"

"Run!"

My eyes snapped open and I was on my feet almost before I was awake. It was pitch dark and there was a battle going on nearby. Takeru was clutching my leg again and Sora was trying to lead me away from the noise, shouting something in my ear that I didn't catch properly. "Where's Tai?" I bellowed back. "WereGarurumon!"

"This way, this way!" Sora cried. She was dragging me away from the battle. "Matt, come on!"

Was Taichi back there? I heard a distinct "GIGA BLASTER!" from between the trees, and knew he must be. I ripped my arm from Sora's grip, oblivious to her pleas, and began sprinting as hard as I could towards the commotion, yelling Tai's name - and skidded to a sudden halt. Digimon of all shapes and sizes were surging through the trees, blasting obstacles out of their path with various attacks. Sharp claws and gleaming teeth glinted at me from every direction. I froze in panic, and they came at me like a wave.

"Ice Wolf CLAW!" Just as I threw my arms up in front of my face, WereGarurumon bounded in front of me and hurled the closest Digimon back with his attack. "Matt!" he growled. "Get out of here!"

"Where's Tai!?" I screamed. But the Digimon were upon him, and WereGarurumon was too busy fighting for his life to spare me breath. I looked around wildly. MetalGreymon stood battling to my left - Taichi had fouind Koromon, then - and Birdramon, Kabuterimon, Patamon, Ikkakumon and Togemon were all in the fray. Of my fellow DigiDestined, I could see no sign.

"Matt!" And there was Sora again, pulling on my arm as though she wanted it to come off. "Taichi's this way, baka! Follow me!"

That was all I needed to hear. I dashed after her as she threaded her way swiftly back through the copse. "Takeru?" I shouted at her.

"With the others!" she answered over her shoulder. We cleared the last of the trees and there they all were, Jyou comforting a frightened-looking Takeru, and Koushiro grimly holding Taichi back, who appeared to be struggling to be be allowed to throw himself back in amongst the trees. Mimi seemed to be getting a good kick out of panicking, but changed her shrieks of panic to ones of delight when she spotted Sora and me approaching.

"Here they are! They're all right!" she squealed. Taichi at last broke free of Koushiro - or maybe Koushiro had let him go - and flung himself at me. We collided hard and I hugged him as tight as I could, feeling a similar grip glomp itself onto my leg. The noise of the battle still raged from the trees.

"What's going on?" I heard Jyou's voice demand. "Where did all those Digimon come from?"

"I sent them!" roared a voice from above us. Taichi and I sprang apart and stared up at Myotismon, who curled his upper lip at us. "How touching. The friends are reunited. Enjoy your solidarity while it lasts, DigiDestined!" He glared at us all menacingly. "It is clear to me that something strange has occurred in the last week or so. How responsible you DigiDestined are for that strange occurrence is not something I am entirely sure of - however! Make no mistake about this: I am my normal self again, and this army of my forces proves that to each and every one of you. Fear me, DigiDestined. Soon, I will have you all in my power!"

The madness of his laughter echoed in the night air long after he and his army had departed.

* * * * *

The sun was beginning to rise, and the campfire had smouldered down to its last few glowing embers, which occasionally crackled and spewed out plumes of ash. Everyone else was asleep. I had drifted into that hazy, dream-like state between asleep and awake where everything is fuzzy and warm. The feel of Tai's hand running slowly through my hair, and the sound of his heartbeat beneath my ear, were very relaxing. I sighed heavily, sleepily.

"Back to normal, then," I mumbled. "At least, as normal as the Digiworld gets."

"Mmn," replied Taichi. I think he was nearly asleep, too. There was a long pause. Then, "I think Myotismon's forgotten all about her as well. Kelimon, I mean," Tai said.

I nodded. His dramatic speech had been but a couple of hours ago, but Myotismon seemed like a very distant memory just then. Across the campfire, Jyou snorted as he inhaled a blade of grass, and rolled noisily over. Koushiro muttered and turned his head away. I watched Koushiro until my heavy eyes slid shut again.

"It's funny," I speculated, a little more awake again now. "I never thought Koushiro would turn out to be… you know… phobic."

"Me neither," Tai agreed. "But there's always gonna be some people, you know…" His voice trailed off, a little hopelessly. I suddenly needed to make something very clear.

"I don't care, you know," I said. "Koushiro, Otousan, anyone… I don't care what they think. I don't."

I felt an oddly out-of-shape kiss on my forehead, as though Taichi had been smiling as he'd planted it there. "I know you don't," he whispered. "I don't either, but we've still got to be careful who we tell, when we get home." He sighed. "If we get home."

"Don't say that," I said immediately. "Never say 'if'. It's 'when'. It's got to be."

I felt Taichi swallow beneath me. "But what if it's not?" he said quietly. "I'm the fearless leader, right? I'm supposed to get us all home. What… what if I can't? What if I never do?"

"You can. You will. We all believe in you, Tai - I believe in you. I believe in us, the team. And I know that we can make it. I just know it, Tai." I raised myself up a little, and looked into his troubled eyes. "Okay?"

"…Okay."

"Good." I kissed him, taking my time about it. He wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me back down on his chest afterwards. I smiled. I could still taste him on my lips as the thick blanket of sleep began to pull itself back over me.

"Goodnight, Yama-chan," I heard, as if from some distance away.

"Night, Tai-chan," I murmured in reply, already almost asleep.

"I love you…"

I think I told him I loved him too, but it may just have been a small incomprehensible sigh of content. He carried on stroking my hair, and I could still feel it long after I had become oblivious to the waning heat of the fire, and to the sound of Jyou's soft snores, and I think I dreamed that he was still stroking my hair long after his hand had slipped to the floor and he, too, drifted away into blissful slumber.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch out for an epilogue! Ti x