A Tamer's Story: I'll Never Leave You
Chapter 2: The Little Artist
Takato was, in the eyes of his parents, Mei and Takehiro, he was a miracle. They had tried for five years to have a child. They were about to give up, when Mei became pregnant with Takato. They named him Takato after his paternal grandfather.
All of his relatives thought he'd achieve great things since he was a gift from heaven to his parents, and so great expectations were placed upon him at a young age. His mother would never let him do any sports when he started going to school, she pushed him to try music lessons instead.
"How would you like to try to play the cello?" Mei asked the five-year-old one day.
"I'll just fail at it like I did the trombone, bass, piano, and trumpet." He said not looking up from the drawing he was working on.
"Well if you give up before you even try how do yo expect to do well in anything you want to do?"
The boy shrugged and picked up a green crayon.
"Give me that and listen to me!" She said pulling the paper away from him.
She looked at the picture.
"Hey! Give it back! It's for my friend Juri."
"You drew this all by yourself?" She said looking at the picture of a lion he'd drawn
"Uh-huh. Can I have it back now?"
"Sure." She said handing it back to him.
She stood watching as he got lost in coloring his picture. She then went to find her husband, Takehiro.
"You have to see the picture he drew. It is very well done! He's a natural talent."
She lead him into the living room where she'd left Takato, but he was gone.
"Takato! Takato! Where are you?" Mei called, but he didn't answer.
They searched all over the house, but couldn't find him. Mei stayed home while Takehiro started looking outside.
A man came in the bakery with a little girl and Takato in hand.
"Takato!" Mei cried running out from behind the counter and hugging him. "Where were you?"
"I was giving Juri my picture." He said, not understanding his mother's tears.
"Why didn't you ask me or your father to take you over there with you?"
"I don't know." The boy said.
"Has Takato come back yet? Oh! Takato!" Takehiro said seeing his son.
"I figured that you might be worried about him. I figured so because he came by himself." The man holding the girl's hand said.
"And you are?" Takato's father asked.
"Gigo Katou. Gigo. Juri's father."
"I'm Takato's mother, Mei. So this is Juri." Mei said seeing the shy little girl her son's age. "Is she always this shy?"
"No. At home she's a wild little thing." Gigo laughed.
"She's my friend from school." Takato said.
"I see. She's a pretty little girl." She said. "Would you like to come in for some tea?"
"No, we'd better not. Maybe some other time."
"Okay. Thanks for bringing him home."
"No problem." Gigo smiled and lead Juri out of the store. They hadn't gotten far when he walked back in. "Before I go home I'd better get some bread. We'd just run out at home." He said and bought some.
"Bye." Juri said as her and her father left the shop.
"Bye!" Takato responded.
While that was the only time Takato ever got in trouble by leaving home without telling his parents, but it wasn't the last time he got in trouble.
It was a few years later, when he was eight, that his teacher called Takato's mother in to school to talk.
"Takato's a good kid..." The teacher started.
"So, what's wrong that you called me here?" Mei asked
"He's a good kid, but I don't think he's putting enough effort into his work."
"I've seen his report cards. He's getting good grades."
"On every thing he turns in there are drawings all over them. And I'd hardly consider C's to be good grades, especially if he was my son. That is if I even had, or rather wanted kids." The teacher said snottily.
"Well, Takato's getting B-'s which are not the same things as C's! The only reason he draws so much is because he's talented!"
"If he doesn't stop it, I'm going to flunk him."
"Just because he draws?!"
"It's encouraging the other children to not listen."
"Did you ever ask him to stop?"
"I've written notes on his papers, and he just ignores them."
"Kids don't look at their papers when they get them back. You have to verbally tell him."
"It's not like he'll listen. He's just a troublemaker."
"I'll show you that you're wrong." Mei said and stood up.
"Hey! I'm not done!"
"Well I am." she said then left
After that Takato didn't draw on his homework, he drew in a notebook that his mother gave him.
It was about that year that Takato started growing a crush on his longtime friend Juri. Hirokazu and Kenta were his best friends, but Juri was growing to be something more to him. Maybe it was that crush that he developed which convinced him to tell her about Guilmon two years later.
After admitting his feelings to Juri, even if it wasn't her, he felt like he and Juri belonged together. Admittedly though, after the D-Reaper incident, it wasn't a good time to ask her out, so Takato took it on himself to help her deal with loosing her partner, as well as getting over the emotional trauma of being the D-Reaper's prisoner.
It wasn't until they were thirteen that Takato finally asked Juri out....and much to his surprise, she said yes!
They'd been going out for two years, when Takato got an odd phone call from Juri.
"Takato, I'm scared to be alone with this storm going on outside, would you come over and stay with me?" Was all Juri had asked over the phone that night.
Takato, who had just turned sixteen, made the decision to go over there and stay with her...
To be continued...
What is waiting for him at Juri's house? What happens that could change the lives of two teenagers? What are they going to do? Find out the answers to these questions and more in the next chapters of A Tamer's Story: I'll Never Leave You