Hey again! Well, I got back from Texas on Thursday and went to Vans Warped
Tour on Friday (it kicked ass!), and started writing this chapter on
Saturday, so that's why I just got this chapter posted today.
Hyper Pegesus- Yeah, I feel bad for them too. So why do I make bad things happen to them? Hmmm, interesting.
Splash- You're welcome! Yeah, she's pretty naïve, and I guess a bit cocky, too.
Crystal Ketchum- Aw well, you'd have to watch TNT to understand- it had to do with a commercial for that station... anyhow, enjoy!
Anime Writer- I actually thought about doing a Koji POV for this chapter and another chapter before this one, but once I started writing it I found that it gave away some feelings and thoughts of Koji's, which I didn't want revealed. I want Takuya (as well as the readers) to not completely understand Koji so that he's more mysterious. But I may do one in the future or else just have part of a chapter from his viewpoint. Glad you like it!
LilxAznxDragonz- Don't worry, I'm continuing!
Loner Fox- Thanks, I had a great time in Texas! It's true what they say: Everything is bigger in Texas. At least bigger than it is in Florida.
RAVENCLAWPUNKg- Yeah, he should have. Would have saved him a lot of trouble...and blood!
"......" Blah blah blah /......../ Blah blah
Takuya's POV
Digimon does not belong to me.
Taming the Wild
Wicchick
Hours of misery and pain had passed before Takuya found the strength to get back up again and continue his search for Koji. As he exited the cave he saw a small pool of water and decided to clean his wounds. He stooped down, ripped of a piece of his shirt that had been torn anyways, soaked it in water, and applied the damp cloth to his body. The blood had dried to a crust and he had to scrape it away. Seeing that no severe damage had been done to him, he stumbled back to his feet and looked around, wondering where Koji might have gone. Where would he go if he wanted to be alone? Well, he would have gone to the cave, but Koji wasn't there. Somewhere where no one could find him, where no one could see him...the forest? It'd be impossible to see anyone if they were in the middle of all those trees and bushes. But how would he find Koji then? The forest was huge and it could take days. Making up his mind that that was the best option for now, Takuya headed for the forest.
Birds chirped and lizards scuttled around, but no sign of Koji. Vibrant greenery and shimmering, startlingly blue waters surrounded him, but no sign of Koji. Ants at work and flowers in bloom, but still no sign of Koji. Eerie silence, still water, near darkness, and sitting in the center of it all was Koji.
Takuya almost gasped, he was so shocked to see him. He thought he'd never find him. He scooted back a little so that he was hidden in the trees and did his best not to make a sound as he watched Koji. Koji was sitting by the calm lake, and staring at it so intently that it seemed he was debating whether or not he should dive in and drown himself. It figured that out of all the beautiful and lively places in the forest, Koji would pick the most silent and deserted part of it to hide in. Takuya tried to read what expression was on his face, but Koji's emotionless mask was to thick to penetrate. Even though he knew it was no use, Takuya tried to sneak up on him from behind. Just as he thought would happen, Koji sensed him and sharply looked up. Seeing who it was, he made to run but Takuya was faster. He lunged at Koji and fell down on top of him.
Koji struggled to get free and screamed at him, "Get off me! Leave me alone!"
"Just let me explain!" Takuya mumbled back. "I just need to- argh!" he huffed, with the effort of trying to keep Koji down.
"No! GET OFF!!!!"
Takuya jumped to his feet, as Koji got loose, and grabbed his arm. His grip wasn't tight enough, and he knew Koji would soon get away. / Why can't he be still for a minute? I just need to explain, but he won't let me!/ At a desperate attempt to get Koji to sit still, Takuya made a fist and punched him hard in the stomach. It had the desired effect, and Koji was knocked off his feet.
Takuya let out a quick sigh of relief. "Good. Now, just listen to me. Zoë and I-" he started, but he was cut off by a blow in the mouth. It seemed he had angered the beast, whose temper was now at a boiling point.
/Uh-oh/
And so began the battle.
Fists flew, blood splattered, curses were yelled, and all the while Takuya was struggling to get a few words of his explanation out. He trashed the whole speech that he had gone over in his head while searching for Koji and decided that he should just hit the important points.
"She-argh!-kissed me, but I-ow!-pushed her away-shut up!- nothing! It meant NOTHING!" Surprisingly, Koji paused his attack. Panting, Takuya seized this moment to get out a full sentence. "It meant nothing, Koji."
"Nothing? NOTHING! If it meant nothing then why the hell am I so pissed off? How come we're fighting over nothing, hmm?" he said angrily.
"Because you don't understand-"
"So do I mean nothing, too? Hell, why don't you just make out with everyone, girl, guy, Digimon, whatever, cause it all means nothing, right?"
"No Koji! You're getting me all wrong. Please, just let me explain." Takuya was so exhausted and all he wanted to do was sit down. Koji didn't make any comment to this but just stared at him. Finally, he shoved Takuya up against a tree and let go, allowing Takuya to fall down against it.
"Fine. Explain."
Takuya gasped for air. Finding his breath, and his voice, he started, "We were about to leave the forest and head back to camp when she just grabbed me and kissed me. I wasn't expecting it and sure as hell didn't want it, so I shoved her away from me. I asked her why she had done it and she told me that she had thought that I had been thinking about her. She told me that she liked me and thought I felt the same for her, and I told her I didn't. It meant nothing. She now understands that I don't have romantic feelings for her."
As he finished he looked up at Koji who was staring at him. "So?" Koji said shortly.
"What do you mean so? So I didn't really kiss her and don't like her, it was all a big misunderstanding on her part."
Koji just sighed. "You don't get it. It's not a question of why you kissed her or didn't kiss her or whatever; it's a question of why you didn't tell me. It's a question of trust, Takuya. So, why didn't you tell me?"
Takuya just gawked at him. He had explained himself, and yet Koji was still mad at him.
/ "It's a question of trust, Takuya." Oh brother/ he thought irritably. "What was there to tell? She came on to me, I denied her, end of story. Nothings gonna change because of that; everything's still the same between us. I still only have feelings for you; she just had the wrong idea. Me telling you would have accomplished nothing besides probably embarrassing Zoë, cause I'm sure you'd have wanted to talk with her about it. You might even have beat her up or something, I don't know."
"Well, if you had told me, it would have saved both of us a lot of bruises."
"I didn't expect you to find out!"
Apparently, he had said the wrong thing, as Koji's stare turned to a narrow- eyed glare. "Obviously not. So were you just going to keep this from me forever?"
"Yes!" Takuya cried. He still didn't understand what the big deal was. "If I'd have known that Zoë would get knocked on the head and blab, I would have told you sooner, but at the moment it seemed harmless."
"Of course you hadn't expected me to find out, but things don't always happen as we plan. You should have solved this problem before it turned into one. I need to know I can trust you, Takuya. If I can't trust you..." His voice changed from angry to desperate. He was desperately trying to make Takuya understand something.
"Koji, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. But I can't honestly say that I understand why you're so upset. I mean, would you have told me something like that even if you knew it meant nothing?"
"Yeah, actually, I would have. Even if I had thought it pointless to tell you in the first place, I would have. You know why? Because shit happens, and I would've known that sooner or later you'd find out. Takuya, even if you had thought that it was nothing, you should have told me. Like I said, I need to trust you. You don't understand-" he stopped abruptly.
"What? I don't understand what, Koji?"
"Nothing. I just want to know I can tr-"
"No, Koji, tell me. If my telling you nothing was so important to you, why don't you tell me what 'nothing' is? You wouldn't want to be a hypocrite, now would you?"
Koji glared at him but Takuya just glared back.
"It's personal," he growled.
Takuya let out a deep breath. "Tell me Koji. Let's start this whole trusting thing right now. I know that trust is important, but why is it so important to you? What don't I understand?"
Koji did nothing for a minute, and then he did a very peculiar thing, something that Takuya thought he would never do: he chuckled. "You know, you're right. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't tell you 'nothing'. All right, then, I'll tell you. I was going to say that you don't understand why. And I'll tell you why. See....well," he took a deep breath, "my whole life, I've been lied to. First of all, just before I came to the Digital world, my father told me that I- I have a twin brother."
Takuya gasped. "What! Why didn't you ever tell me? Why didn't he tell you before?"
"Calm down. I never told anyone, well, because I never wanted to. It's not like I ever talked to anyone here anyways, so I'd have no reason to spill my guts to them, would I? Back to my story, as you can imagine, that news came as a major shock. But what came next was just as surprising, if not more. Well, I don't know my mother," his voice broke, and for a millisecond, Takuya thought he saw sadness on Koji's face, but Koji quickly replaced that look with his usual indifferent mask. "I've never known her. The reason for that is that just after my birth-and my brother's too, I guess- my mother and father got in a huge argument. I was told, by my father, that they had been growing apart ever since marriage, and after we were born it got too much to bear. They hated each other, though I don't know why. Anyways, my mother left my father and took Kouichi-that's what my father said my brother's name is- with her. But when I was growing up, I was always told that..that...that my mother was dead."
Takuya blinked. How could anyone lie about someone's death?
Koji's voice now became so monotone and expressionless that he could have been teaching algebra. "I believed that. I hated it, but because I loved and trusted my father so much, I believed that my mother was really dead. When I was eight, my father started dating. I didn't have a problem with that, because all I wanted was for him to be happy. I believed that he deserved happiness. When I was ten, my father's girlfriend became his wife, and my new 'mother'. I did have a hard time dealing with that, but I tried to be as nice to her as possible to make my father happy. A few months after their marriage, I was cleaning out the attic when I came across a letterbox. I searched through it to see of I could throw it out or not, when I found a letter from my mom. In it, she wrote that she needed money because she still owed her lawyer for their divorce trial and she needed to take care of her son, Kouichi. That's how I found out the truth.
"I ran downstairs and yelled at my father, and then he told me everything. He would have never told me had I not found that letter. I would have gone through life thinking that my mother was dead, and never knowing I had a brother. I trusted my father. He used that trust against me. Ever since then, I've found it very difficult to trust people, to open up to them. That's why trust is so important to me, Takuya. I need..I need to be able to trust someone. I thought that maybe I had finally found someone that I could trust. I wasn't looking for a boyfriend in particular, just for someone I could trust- a friend, a relative, whatever. I just want...." tears filled his eyes, "someone I-I c-can," they streamed down his face, "I can trust!" he broke down completely.
Takuya was stunned by Koji's sudden outburst of emotion. He had never seen the other boy let his guard down, and now, it seemed, the walls surrounding Koji had finally given way and all of Koji's pent-up feelings were pouring out of him. Takuya did the only thing he could think to do: he crawled over to Koji and wrapped his arms tightly around him. Koji's head fell onto his shoulder and he sobbed into Takuya's shirt. "I've been lied to m-m-my entire life! That's why I don't talk to people, cause I can't trust them! The only person I had ever trusted was my father, and look what came from that! Lies!"
Takuya played with the ends of Koji's long hair. "You can trust me Koji. I'm sorry. I should have told you, you're right. But I would never hurt you- now that I know how important trust is to you, I'll tell you everything. Don't be afraid to trust me; I wont hurt you."
And they sat like that, Koji curled up into Takuya, crying, for a very long time. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
Yeah, sort of a sappy-chapter. Really dealt with trust issues. I don't know what I'm gonna do about Kouichi yet; I'll see if he fits in the story or not. R&R!
Hyper Pegesus- Yeah, I feel bad for them too. So why do I make bad things happen to them? Hmmm, interesting.
Splash- You're welcome! Yeah, she's pretty naïve, and I guess a bit cocky, too.
Crystal Ketchum- Aw well, you'd have to watch TNT to understand- it had to do with a commercial for that station... anyhow, enjoy!
Anime Writer- I actually thought about doing a Koji POV for this chapter and another chapter before this one, but once I started writing it I found that it gave away some feelings and thoughts of Koji's, which I didn't want revealed. I want Takuya (as well as the readers) to not completely understand Koji so that he's more mysterious. But I may do one in the future or else just have part of a chapter from his viewpoint. Glad you like it!
LilxAznxDragonz- Don't worry, I'm continuing!
Loner Fox- Thanks, I had a great time in Texas! It's true what they say: Everything is bigger in Texas. At least bigger than it is in Florida.
RAVENCLAWPUNKg- Yeah, he should have. Would have saved him a lot of trouble...and blood!
"......" Blah blah blah /......../ Blah blah
Takuya's POV
Digimon does not belong to me.
Taming the Wild
Wicchick
Hours of misery and pain had passed before Takuya found the strength to get back up again and continue his search for Koji. As he exited the cave he saw a small pool of water and decided to clean his wounds. He stooped down, ripped of a piece of his shirt that had been torn anyways, soaked it in water, and applied the damp cloth to his body. The blood had dried to a crust and he had to scrape it away. Seeing that no severe damage had been done to him, he stumbled back to his feet and looked around, wondering where Koji might have gone. Where would he go if he wanted to be alone? Well, he would have gone to the cave, but Koji wasn't there. Somewhere where no one could find him, where no one could see him...the forest? It'd be impossible to see anyone if they were in the middle of all those trees and bushes. But how would he find Koji then? The forest was huge and it could take days. Making up his mind that that was the best option for now, Takuya headed for the forest.
Birds chirped and lizards scuttled around, but no sign of Koji. Vibrant greenery and shimmering, startlingly blue waters surrounded him, but no sign of Koji. Ants at work and flowers in bloom, but still no sign of Koji. Eerie silence, still water, near darkness, and sitting in the center of it all was Koji.
Takuya almost gasped, he was so shocked to see him. He thought he'd never find him. He scooted back a little so that he was hidden in the trees and did his best not to make a sound as he watched Koji. Koji was sitting by the calm lake, and staring at it so intently that it seemed he was debating whether or not he should dive in and drown himself. It figured that out of all the beautiful and lively places in the forest, Koji would pick the most silent and deserted part of it to hide in. Takuya tried to read what expression was on his face, but Koji's emotionless mask was to thick to penetrate. Even though he knew it was no use, Takuya tried to sneak up on him from behind. Just as he thought would happen, Koji sensed him and sharply looked up. Seeing who it was, he made to run but Takuya was faster. He lunged at Koji and fell down on top of him.
Koji struggled to get free and screamed at him, "Get off me! Leave me alone!"
"Just let me explain!" Takuya mumbled back. "I just need to- argh!" he huffed, with the effort of trying to keep Koji down.
"No! GET OFF!!!!"
Takuya jumped to his feet, as Koji got loose, and grabbed his arm. His grip wasn't tight enough, and he knew Koji would soon get away. / Why can't he be still for a minute? I just need to explain, but he won't let me!/ At a desperate attempt to get Koji to sit still, Takuya made a fist and punched him hard in the stomach. It had the desired effect, and Koji was knocked off his feet.
Takuya let out a quick sigh of relief. "Good. Now, just listen to me. Zoë and I-" he started, but he was cut off by a blow in the mouth. It seemed he had angered the beast, whose temper was now at a boiling point.
/Uh-oh/
And so began the battle.
Fists flew, blood splattered, curses were yelled, and all the while Takuya was struggling to get a few words of his explanation out. He trashed the whole speech that he had gone over in his head while searching for Koji and decided that he should just hit the important points.
"She-argh!-kissed me, but I-ow!-pushed her away-shut up!- nothing! It meant NOTHING!" Surprisingly, Koji paused his attack. Panting, Takuya seized this moment to get out a full sentence. "It meant nothing, Koji."
"Nothing? NOTHING! If it meant nothing then why the hell am I so pissed off? How come we're fighting over nothing, hmm?" he said angrily.
"Because you don't understand-"
"So do I mean nothing, too? Hell, why don't you just make out with everyone, girl, guy, Digimon, whatever, cause it all means nothing, right?"
"No Koji! You're getting me all wrong. Please, just let me explain." Takuya was so exhausted and all he wanted to do was sit down. Koji didn't make any comment to this but just stared at him. Finally, he shoved Takuya up against a tree and let go, allowing Takuya to fall down against it.
"Fine. Explain."
Takuya gasped for air. Finding his breath, and his voice, he started, "We were about to leave the forest and head back to camp when she just grabbed me and kissed me. I wasn't expecting it and sure as hell didn't want it, so I shoved her away from me. I asked her why she had done it and she told me that she had thought that I had been thinking about her. She told me that she liked me and thought I felt the same for her, and I told her I didn't. It meant nothing. She now understands that I don't have romantic feelings for her."
As he finished he looked up at Koji who was staring at him. "So?" Koji said shortly.
"What do you mean so? So I didn't really kiss her and don't like her, it was all a big misunderstanding on her part."
Koji just sighed. "You don't get it. It's not a question of why you kissed her or didn't kiss her or whatever; it's a question of why you didn't tell me. It's a question of trust, Takuya. So, why didn't you tell me?"
Takuya just gawked at him. He had explained himself, and yet Koji was still mad at him.
/ "It's a question of trust, Takuya." Oh brother/ he thought irritably. "What was there to tell? She came on to me, I denied her, end of story. Nothings gonna change because of that; everything's still the same between us. I still only have feelings for you; she just had the wrong idea. Me telling you would have accomplished nothing besides probably embarrassing Zoë, cause I'm sure you'd have wanted to talk with her about it. You might even have beat her up or something, I don't know."
"Well, if you had told me, it would have saved both of us a lot of bruises."
"I didn't expect you to find out!"
Apparently, he had said the wrong thing, as Koji's stare turned to a narrow- eyed glare. "Obviously not. So were you just going to keep this from me forever?"
"Yes!" Takuya cried. He still didn't understand what the big deal was. "If I'd have known that Zoë would get knocked on the head and blab, I would have told you sooner, but at the moment it seemed harmless."
"Of course you hadn't expected me to find out, but things don't always happen as we plan. You should have solved this problem before it turned into one. I need to know I can trust you, Takuya. If I can't trust you..." His voice changed from angry to desperate. He was desperately trying to make Takuya understand something.
"Koji, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. But I can't honestly say that I understand why you're so upset. I mean, would you have told me something like that even if you knew it meant nothing?"
"Yeah, actually, I would have. Even if I had thought it pointless to tell you in the first place, I would have. You know why? Because shit happens, and I would've known that sooner or later you'd find out. Takuya, even if you had thought that it was nothing, you should have told me. Like I said, I need to trust you. You don't understand-" he stopped abruptly.
"What? I don't understand what, Koji?"
"Nothing. I just want to know I can tr-"
"No, Koji, tell me. If my telling you nothing was so important to you, why don't you tell me what 'nothing' is? You wouldn't want to be a hypocrite, now would you?"
Koji glared at him but Takuya just glared back.
"It's personal," he growled.
Takuya let out a deep breath. "Tell me Koji. Let's start this whole trusting thing right now. I know that trust is important, but why is it so important to you? What don't I understand?"
Koji did nothing for a minute, and then he did a very peculiar thing, something that Takuya thought he would never do: he chuckled. "You know, you're right. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't tell you 'nothing'. All right, then, I'll tell you. I was going to say that you don't understand why. And I'll tell you why. See....well," he took a deep breath, "my whole life, I've been lied to. First of all, just before I came to the Digital world, my father told me that I- I have a twin brother."
Takuya gasped. "What! Why didn't you ever tell me? Why didn't he tell you before?"
"Calm down. I never told anyone, well, because I never wanted to. It's not like I ever talked to anyone here anyways, so I'd have no reason to spill my guts to them, would I? Back to my story, as you can imagine, that news came as a major shock. But what came next was just as surprising, if not more. Well, I don't know my mother," his voice broke, and for a millisecond, Takuya thought he saw sadness on Koji's face, but Koji quickly replaced that look with his usual indifferent mask. "I've never known her. The reason for that is that just after my birth-and my brother's too, I guess- my mother and father got in a huge argument. I was told, by my father, that they had been growing apart ever since marriage, and after we were born it got too much to bear. They hated each other, though I don't know why. Anyways, my mother left my father and took Kouichi-that's what my father said my brother's name is- with her. But when I was growing up, I was always told that..that...that my mother was dead."
Takuya blinked. How could anyone lie about someone's death?
Koji's voice now became so monotone and expressionless that he could have been teaching algebra. "I believed that. I hated it, but because I loved and trusted my father so much, I believed that my mother was really dead. When I was eight, my father started dating. I didn't have a problem with that, because all I wanted was for him to be happy. I believed that he deserved happiness. When I was ten, my father's girlfriend became his wife, and my new 'mother'. I did have a hard time dealing with that, but I tried to be as nice to her as possible to make my father happy. A few months after their marriage, I was cleaning out the attic when I came across a letterbox. I searched through it to see of I could throw it out or not, when I found a letter from my mom. In it, she wrote that she needed money because she still owed her lawyer for their divorce trial and she needed to take care of her son, Kouichi. That's how I found out the truth.
"I ran downstairs and yelled at my father, and then he told me everything. He would have never told me had I not found that letter. I would have gone through life thinking that my mother was dead, and never knowing I had a brother. I trusted my father. He used that trust against me. Ever since then, I've found it very difficult to trust people, to open up to them. That's why trust is so important to me, Takuya. I need..I need to be able to trust someone. I thought that maybe I had finally found someone that I could trust. I wasn't looking for a boyfriend in particular, just for someone I could trust- a friend, a relative, whatever. I just want...." tears filled his eyes, "someone I-I c-can," they streamed down his face, "I can trust!" he broke down completely.
Takuya was stunned by Koji's sudden outburst of emotion. He had never seen the other boy let his guard down, and now, it seemed, the walls surrounding Koji had finally given way and all of Koji's pent-up feelings were pouring out of him. Takuya did the only thing he could think to do: he crawled over to Koji and wrapped his arms tightly around him. Koji's head fell onto his shoulder and he sobbed into Takuya's shirt. "I've been lied to m-m-my entire life! That's why I don't talk to people, cause I can't trust them! The only person I had ever trusted was my father, and look what came from that! Lies!"
Takuya played with the ends of Koji's long hair. "You can trust me Koji. I'm sorry. I should have told you, you're right. But I would never hurt you- now that I know how important trust is to you, I'll tell you everything. Don't be afraid to trust me; I wont hurt you."
And they sat like that, Koji curled up into Takuya, crying, for a very long time. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________
Yeah, sort of a sappy-chapter. Really dealt with trust issues. I don't know what I'm gonna do about Kouichi yet; I'll see if he fits in the story or not. R&R!