OUT OF THIS WORLD~prologue


Disclaimer: I don't own digimon, or any of it's characters.

READ: This story takes place in season 1, for Taichi, right after they reach the new continent, which means he hasn't been home since he got to the digital world. Erm... yes. That's all. ^_^

Oh yes, this isn't a voting fic as the story wont be based on actual votes, but I'd like to hear from you guys, and what you'd like to see. So leave a note in the review, please? ^^ I promise I'll finish this one!

"..." is speech; '...' is thought.*...* is for emphasis, coz i'm hopeless at html tag thingies...

**

A frantic voice woke him up from his dreams. "Taichi, Taichi, you'd better get up straight away!"

"Wha-?" Taichi sat up in panic immediately. His mind was heavy with sleep, but he rubbed his eyes, trying to focus his thoughts. "What is it? Is it an attack?" His eyes traveled to his side instinctively to look for Agumon. He was shocked to realize that the orange figure lying next to him was much smaller, and was totally still. He reached out to touch his partner digimon, but jerked his hand back as if he had been electrocuted. Instead of the smooth, cool skin he had expected to feel, his fingers found something coarse and quite lifeless.

"Agumon? What happened?" Alert now, but confused, Taichi turned to the person sitting next to him. He drew back defensively when he saw a boy with soft blue eyes and sandy blonde hair, and a face all too familiar yet not known to him. The boy looked impatiently at him. Images of blue eyes swam before his eyes. "Ya...Yamato?"

The blonde boy tossed his head and snorted. "Very funny, oniisan."

Taichi could only stare. 'Oniisan?' he blinked. 'That would mean he's my brother. But I don't *have* a brother!'

Yamato's sharp blue eyes came to mind again, and Taichi just knew that these weren't his. Then that could only mean...

"Takeru?" Taichi gasped.

"Yeah?"

Taichi's head reeled. "But, but you can't be Takeru! You must be at least... at least 13... are you sure you aren't Yamato?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Actually I'm 14 already. *And* I'm quite sure that I'm not Yamato senpai, sorry for the disappointment," he made a face. "I'm sure Yamato would love to come and wake you up himself, but you know okaasan." He sighed, then stood and turned away. "Hikari and the rest are all waiting outside. If you don't hurry up you'll have an angry mob of teenagers forcing you out of bed soon." He went out, closing the door.

Taichi stared after him for a moment. 'Door? That's impossible, we're in the middle of the new continent.'

Then he looked down. 'Pyjamas.' His eyes widened slightly. '*Pyjamas.*' He was dressed in pyjamas, on a bed, with a blanket tangled around his legs. To his right, a partially opened window let in a few stray rays of sunlight, brightening up the room he was in.

'This is... my room.' Taichi looked around once again, taking in the faded white walls and the dusty toy chest lay that lay in the corner. His room was almost exactly as he remembered it; just older, more worn.

'But how can I be here? I'm supposed to be in the digital world! How did I get back here?' he tried to recollect his thoughts of yesterday, but they were all foggy and faraway. 'We were trekking through the new continent, trying to escape etemon. Yamato and I got into another fight, Sora broke it up, and we decided to set camp early. Pretty normal stuff... so how did I end up here? And who was that blonde kid?"

He turned back to the small orange figure again. "Agumon?" he called softly, tentatively reaching out to touch it. Again the figure didn't respond. Taichi picked it up and turned it around.

"A toy," he muttered disgusted. " I wonder where the real Agumon is. I hope he's ok."

Slowly he climbed off the bunk bed by the ladder, which seemed smaller than usual. He pulled on a blue and white t-shirt that was lying over a chair as he walked around the room slowly. 'Everything looks the same. But it all feels weird. Can I really be home? Or is this just a dream?'

He slipped on a pair of faded jeans, surprised to find that they fit perfectly. 'These aren't mine, maybe they belong to that Blonde Boy.' Taichi dubbed him 'Blonde Boy', as he refused to think of him as Takeru. It was simply impossible, the boy was 3 years older than Taichi himself. But as Taichi stood at the door, he realized that he had to be taller, or at last as tall as Blonde Boy. 'Have I grown overnight? Curious and curiouser.' If that Blonde Boy was really Takeru, and he was 14, that would make Taichi 17. Taichi shook his head slowly. 'This is all too weird.'

Still confused, he opened the door. The smell of pancakes wafted up to him, and he found himself grinning. "Whatever dream this is, as long as it has food in it it must be a good one!"

Taichi walked down the familiar corridor, and popped his head into the kitchen. He froze. A figure stood over the cooker so familiar that he hardly dared to breathe. There she was, in her favorite beige blouse and the silly old yellow apron, the person who made all his nights in the digiworld wrought with homesickness.

"Mama?" he whispered.

The woman turned. "Taichi. Finally up, I see. And about time too, you're friends have been here-" she was cut short as Taichi rushed to hug her.

"Mama," Tai said, surprised. He couldn't believe he was there, with her, after so long. She felt so much smaller, and so tired in his arms. 'Is this a dream? I hate it! I wish it were real...' Tai felt hot tears welling up as he tried to blink them back.

"Tai? Is something wrong, dear?" Taichi's mother was startled.

He shook his head in her shoulder. "No," he replied in a choked voice. "Everything's perfect."

"Tai... if there's something you want to talk about, I'm here for you. You know that, don't you?" She hugged him back, and stroked his hair comfortingly.

"It's nothing, mama. I just missed you." The tears came suddenly, and he hastily tried to wipe them away.

She let go of him, and smiled a gentle but puzzled smile. "Whatever is the matter, child? Which world did you have to travel to in your dreams, to miss me so much in just one night?" Raising her hand, she wiped away his tears. She looked at him long and hard, then sighed. "You're so grown up now... almost a man... how did you grow up so fast?" she said, as if speaking to herself.

She turned back towards her pancakes. "Oh dear, I've burnt this one!" Taichi watched as his mother piled up a gigantic plate of pancakes for him, and drenched it in honey. She was much shorter than he remembered. 'How much time has passed since I was stuck in the digital world? Mama looks so frail, and so worn.'

"You can take this and go eat in the living room. Your friends have been waiting for quite some time now." Dumping the saucepan in the sink, she continued in an oddly strained, neutral voice, "That Yamato is here as well."

"Mama?" Taichi asked questioningly. He was surprised as his mother turned and looked helplessly in his eyes.

"Oh, Taichi. You know..." Taichi was alarmed as his mother looked slightly distressed "Oh, never mind, forget it." She gave him a weak smile and pushed him out of the kitchen.

'I wonder what that was about.' Taichi munched on his pancakes thoughtfully as he walked down the hall towards the living room. An uncomfortable part of him was worried, worried that this dream felt too real. He could actually feel the floor under his feet, and the taste of honey lingered. But the pancakes and many confused thoughts hindered clear thinking. 'If this is a dream, I'll have to wake up eventually. If this isn't... well, then what is it?'

He poked at another pancake. 'If this is another parallel universe, maybe time has been forwarded. I'm older here, I think. But everything is awfully familiar. Do I belong here?' he felt a desperate need to get back to what was familiar. 'I wonder if the others got warped here as well. I don't think they can hold on long enough without me or Agumon, or with that idiot Yamato leading them.' There was a brief panic attack as he thought of Yamato and Hikari and the rest in trouble. 'Maybe this is all just a dream.'

The hall opened into the living room. There was a bunch of kids sitting on the sofa and chairs around the coffee table. He stood unnoticed for a while, taking notes on the group.

'The Blonde Boy is there.' Tai still couldn't think of the boy as Takeru, or as his ototo. How can someone older than him be his little brother? He caught a flash of red hair behind a laptop he knew all too well. 'Kou is here too! In this dream, or this weird warped world.' He felt immensely relieved at the thought of having his friend stuck with him in a parallel universe. 'If anyone can figure this out, it's him.'

He was about to call out Koushirou's name when familiar laughter rang out somewhere-unmistakably Sora. But Taichi couldn't see her. 'Maybe she's somewhere behind those kids.' A group of people he definitely didn't know were sitting around. The whole group of them looked very chummy, and Taichi suddenly felt sulky about being excluded like this.

His eyes strayed to a horrific sight. A kid he didn't even know was sitting on his favorite sofa, wearing his beloved goggles. 'My goggles!' Taichi's hand automatically traveled to his head, but he didn't find his goggles. Immediately over-possessiveness took over. 'He's wearing *my* goggles!'

Taichi started towards the Goggle Boy in a huff, when the head between to the Goggle Boy and another blonde person turned towards him, and Taichi found himself staring at the most beautiful person he had ever seen. The Beautiful Person's deep dark eyes softened as they met with his own.

"Taichi." The Beautiful Person said in a softly in a clear voice, smiling. Taichi couldn't tear his eyes away from him.

The others also turned, and a sudden wave of d‚j… vu and a chorus of familiar, less soft-and-beautiful voices hit Taichi.

"We've been waiting for ages!"

"And he's eating again, as usual. Typical."

"What do you expect? This is Taichi we're talking about."

"Finally, he decides to grace us with his presence."

"And the sleeping beauty finally awakes!"

"But he hasn't had his kiss from prince charming yet." One person strode towards him. It was the blonde who had been sitting next to the Beautiful Person.

As their eyes met, Taichi was in sudden shock at the sudden recognition of this person. Through the many faces impossibly familiar people, he knew with stunning clarity who this person was. Taichi looked disbelievingly at the person who was now standing so close to him, somehow older yet even better looking than before. His hair was still golden, his skin was still fair, and his eyes were still piercing. Everything exactly the same, but different. Before he could catch himself, found himself saying the first thought that came to mind...

"My god, Yamato, do you *still* use so much hair gel?"

**

AN: Eh... how? ::scratches head:: we don't know whether Tai is stuck in a weird dream or a warped dimension, yet. He's just an 11-year-old boy who somehow got stuck in the digital world, and now he's stuck in some other place again. Poor Tai-chan... ^^ the worst is yet to come.

Beautiful Person is Ken-chan... of course. I really do love him ::huggles ken:: and sorry for the sucky descriptions, coz the only words that came to mind were "indigo" and "purple". Boring, ne?

Would love to hear your views on the story! And whether this should be a Taiken or Taito. Surprisingly. I am losing faith in Taito... after watching many reruns of digimon season 1. ::smiles sadly:: it's so sad. And my fics are just such crap. And school starts Monday. And I have to miss cartoons tomorrow morning again. Gaah... ::goes crazy::

::becomes sane again:: oh yeah, before I forgot, a million thanks to Tien for beta-ing for me! ::huggles Tien:: thankoo so much~ ::goes crazy again::

Anyways... please review... love you. ::huggles:: and thanks for reading.