Series: For All Time||Story: Open His Eyes
Ship: Taichi x Yamato
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 1,119
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG
Prompt: Taichi x Yamato Week 2022, day #1, Awakenings
Notes: Several years post-defeat of BelialVamdemon. Epilogue, Tri, Kizuna, etc., not applicable.
Summary: Taichi's been out of it for a while. Yamato stays with him as much as he can. But now, at long last, it's time for Taichi to…


For all intents and purposes, Yamato hadn't been in the hospital for about a week. At least not as a patient. But he'd not missed a single day when it came to visiting Taichi. There wasn't any reason that he would miss a day. He came here once he'd cleared everything else off of his schedule for that day - which he did a fast as he could - and then he and Agumon and Gabumon spent the rest of the day sitting with Taichi.

Truth to tell, Taichi wasn't a very good companion at the moment, but Yamato wasn't expecting much from him. All he did was lay there underneath the snowy white sheet and blanket, his eyes closed, his visible injuries slowly mending. The doctors still assured everyone that he'd wake up sooner or later and there'd be no real, or at least limited, lasting damage.

Yamato believed them, if only because the alternative to doing so was to give up, and while his particular dominant trait might not have been Hope, he'd learned a lot from his brother.

The other Chosen visited as well. Not as often as he did, of course, but Daisuke and Ken showed up at least three times a week, and Hikari came by nearly as often as he did. Koushiro had a regular visiting schedule as well, while Jou came in twice a week - he cited actually knowing Taichi as barring him from helping to take care of him. Something about a conflict of interest. Mimi and Sora came in whenever they could, as did Iori and Miyako. Takeru dropped in enough to keep updated on the situation and to make sure Yamato didn't forget to eat, and that Yamato kept in touch with their dad to be sure that he ate.

Yamato might be a full-grown adult living on his own - or with Taichi when all was as it should be - but if no one kept on eye on Ishida Hiroaki, he'd likely get so involved in his latest story that he forgot to eat or brush his hair and would end up passing out from hunger at some point. So Yamato kept an eye on him and on Taichi and that was that. At least his dad could answer him most of the time.

Yamato settled into his seat as he did every night. He'd already eaten; Takeru made him promise to do that, and make sure Agumon and Gabumon ate, before he went to the hospital at all. And it had to be something reasonably solid for all of them.

Sometimes Takeru could be as much of a mother hen as - a mother hen could be. But Yamato wasn't going to put up a fuss about it. Not when he got to sit here and wait and wait and wait and he damned well might put Taichi back in the hospital once he got out when this was over with!

"Really?" The voice was low and creaky and raspy, and at first Yamato jerked his head to the door. He thought at first a nurse or a doctor had turned up, then realized a bit belatedly that one, no one was there, and two, he'd spoken out loud and not meant to.

Third, that Taichi's eyes had cracked open and were somewhat blearily focused on him. Yamato stared, swallowing, searching for something that resembled a word and not finding anything.

Agumon found it for him, trying to throw himself on Taichi and not succeeding as Gabumon held him back. "Taichi! Taichi! Taichi!"

One pale hand reached upward as Taichi attempted to reach for his partner. Yamato shook his head, grasping for thoughts and managing to get hold of them this time.

"Took you long enough. I thought I was going to have to get a trombone and start playing it for you to wake up."

He was already getting to his feet; the nurses would have to know about this, and the doctors. The only reason he'd been allowed to visit like he did was because of Agumon. The rules involving a Chosen and their partner still hadn't been fully ironed out by hospital staff, but as long as a second human was in there with them, it seemed to be all right. At least for now.

Truth to tell, Yamato didn't want to leave Taichi, even for a few seconds. He couldn't shake the feeling that if he did, Taichi would slide back into that coma or worse. He refused to entertain thoughts about what 'worse' might be. He'd thought about 'worst' often enough since the accident and even more since he'd started visiting Taichi on a regular basis.

For now, though, he stuck his head out the door, spied one of the regular nurses coming down the hallway, and quickly beckoned to her. They'd get everything started to be sure that Taichi recovered safely.

Even as he did, he cast a few glances over his shoulder, and saw Taichi reaching out to brush his fingers against Agumon's claws. Yamato smiled; he'd held Taichi's hand as often as he could that same way. Not that it had been often; hospital rules didn't allow it. But whenever the chance came, he did.

Can't wait to do more than that. As much as it annoyed him, he'd have to wait until Taichi could be home for that. He rather looked forward to it - hoped with all of his heart that Taichi did as well.

From the way those warm brown eyes looked back at him, clarity and intelligence slowly seeping back into them, awareness of where he was and who Yamato was, along with a tiny hint of a smile touching onto Taichi's lips, Yamato suspected that he did. But they could find out more about that later.

He tugged Agumon and Gabumon away as the nurse called for others and they all started working with Taichi, checking on his vitals and asking him questions, most of which Taichi seemed to know the answers to. If he'd forgotten anything, they weren't asking questions that revealed it.

For now, the three of them just stayed in the hallway out of the way and waited until they could go back in. Yamato worked on getting everyone else notified that Taichi had - for however briefly it might turn out to be - woken up, and wasn't surprised that the Yagamis were going to be heading over as soon as they could be. He might have to wait a while to see Taichi again.

He'd wait as long as he had to. And one day, the two of them would wake up together at home once again.


The End

Notes: Not the end of the series, but Taichi has at last woken up! What's next? In time, you'll see!