28/11/2003
Disclaimer: Digimon, Ishida Yamato and Yagami Taichi do not belong to me.
Warning: A little language, and muchos confusion. I don't think that there's really anything else to warn about...
A/N: Erm... I have absolutely no idea. Random scene just came to me late last night, and I just got the whole thing done this afternoon. I was thinking of maybe just keeping it as an idea to perhaps go in something bigger, but the way that it turned out, I don't really want to add anything to it. And besides which, I have no idea what it could possibly fit into anyway...
Wish Fulfilment
~Jheya Ono
He knew that something was seriously wrong. He could tell that, easy as breathing, requiring no extra effort on his part at all... But although he knew that something was wrong, he didn't know exactly what was wrong. Nor did he know exactly what had happened to make it that way, when everything had seemed to be just fine, mere moments ago.
Staring deep into blue eyes that were too bright, he worriedly chewed at his lower lip.
"Yamato-" he began to say, voice hushed so as not to attract the attention of the teacher at the front of the class, but the blonde shook his head quickly, cutting him off before he could even properly start.
"Listen," came the equally quiet reply. "You're the one who was busy saying earlier, how you really wished that you could skip this class, right?"
"Well yeah, but-"
"No 'buts', Taichi." his friend grinned mischievously, and the brunette couldn't help but feel that the expression didn't look quite right. As if it had also been affected by the wrongness that now seemed to permeate the very air around them, tainting everything. "You don't want to be in this class at the moment, and neither do I, particularly... So it's fine, I'll sort it."
"Ishida Yamato!" a voice rang out suddenly, causing Taichi to jump, and look guiltily towards the front of the class. But beside him, the blonde made no such reaction, merely getting to his feet and staring calmly back.
"Yes, sensei?"
"Would you care to tell me exactly why you deem it appropriate to talk during my lesson?"
"Certainly, sensei. I was just about to ask that Taichi could be excused from class on terms of medical conditions."
There was a pause whilst the teacher's gaze flicked to the figure seated beside the blonde, and Taichi knew that he flinched, just slightly. He knew that he wasn't ill, and he was pretty damn sure that everyone else in the room could tell that fact too... So just what the hell did Yamato think that he was playing at?
"Really." was the level, disbelieving reply. "And what 'medical conditions' would those be, then?"
"Merely the fact that should Taichi continue in this class today, I shall punch him in the gut."
There was utter, utter silence. He wasn't the only one gaping up at the blonde where he stood, looking calm, and utterly composed.
Wrong.
Everything still felt so, so wrong... And if there was anyone in the room that still couldn't tell that, then that person must suffer from total sensory deprivation.
And the silence still stretched onwards, with no one quite sure just how to break it, and everyone feeling uneasy about the atmosphere the air held. The sense of waiting, and not knowing just how the situation would be resolved to bring back some sense of normalcy. Some inkling of the mediocre that had been so unexpectedly lost.
Even the teacher was not immune to the effects, and surely they were meant to be trained to deal with any situation that could occur in class? Told how to deal with any comment a pupil could make? But no, such training appeared to be lacking in this case, and he simply stood there not knowing how to react.
The only one who didn't seem to notice that something was amiss, was the one who had generated the unease in the first place. Yamato merely stood in the same position, not moving, and looking at the teacher politely, awaiting his response.
Eventually the teacher softly cleared his throat, obviously still not knowing what to say, but wanting to do something, anything, to break the unbearable silence that had descended.
"Ishida?"
Was a teacher, the one supposedly in control, in the position of power, of responsibility within the classroom... Was someone like that meant to sound so small? So obviously unsure?
"Yes, sensei?"
And in contrast, a pupil, one of many who were meant to be under the guidance and influence of the teacher... Was someone like that meant to sound so sure in a circumstance such as this? Were they meant to sound so confident, as though they knew the script and what to say, when all around everyone else was floundering blindly?
"Uh..." a pause, a moment to gather thoughts and wonder just how to string together a sentence, a question to fit into the current situation. "Did I just hear you say what I thought you did?"
Not quite right. It didn't sound right, the way that had been phrased.
"That depends, sensei, on what you thought you heard me say."
No pause, and again it didn't sound right, not coming from Yamato's lips in a conversation such as this.
"I thought that I heard you say that if Taichi wasn't excused from this lesson then you would 'punch him in the gut'?"
A little better. Still a note of uncertainty held in the teacher's voice, but better than before. No pause in the sentence, and it was delivered smoothly. Did this mean that things were back on track?
"Then you did indeed hear me correctly."
The train derailed once more. A simple sentence of affirmation that meant that once more things had to be reassessed, re-evaluated, thought out again...
"Yamato, are you feeling all right?"
Concern now. Worry entering the voice, and formalities dropped. Ah. Perhaps things were back on track, after all... But then again, maybe they weren't? None of this seemed to make sense... Not even his own attitude towards it all. Surely assessing everything so analytically when everything seemed amiss wasn't normal... And if Taichi thought that about his own thoughts, then well... Who was there to argue?
"Yes, sensei, I think so. Why do you ask?"
The conversation continuing onwards... Still not seeming right; perhaps nothing could with all had been said before, but at least now it was continuing fairly smoothly, without all the awkward pauses. And perhaps also with some sense of purpose.
"Because you don't quite seem to be yourself today... Listen, are you sure that you're feeling all right?"
"Yes, I think so..."
"There isn't anything that is particularly troubling you?"
"Not to my recollection...no..."
It struck Taichi that this was a conversation that perhaps really ought not be held in a room with other students still present... That this was something that ought to be held privately, in quiet one on one discussion.
The same thought seemed to strike the teacher as well, from the way a small frown suddenly creased his forehead, and the way he tapped his fingers quietly on the desk in front of him. A mannerism that all his pupils knew to be a sign that he was trying to figure out a particularly vexing problem.
"Taichi." he said at last, looking at the brunette with almost a mute plea in his eyes. As the one supposedly in charge, he was meant to know how to handle to situation, but he didn't. Taichi couldn't help but empathise a little, something he had never really thought he'd be able to do with a teacher, as he felt that he knew the same feeling well. He didn't know how he was meant to act either.
"Yes, sensei?" he replied, and it was strange, how he knew that it was his voice issuing from his throat...and yet it didn't seem to belong to him. He wondered if he wasn't the only one who felt that way at the moment.
"Would you take Yamato along to the nurse's office, please?"
A slight hint of desperation, wanting to unload the problem onto someone else?
"Of course, sensei."
He stood then, and the noise his chair made as it scraped back across the floor sounded unnaturally loud in the silence that still pervaded. Usually a few small, quiet conversations amongst the pupils not involved in the confrontation, would have sprung up by now... But none had. Not this time.
Again, the strangeness as he could hear every little sound made by him moving his books and pencil case, and whatever else he had onto his desk, into his bag. No point leaving them behind, and the teacher wasn't objecting to him pretty much excusing himself from the rest of the lesson. Yamato did the same thing with his books, collecting everything before slinging his bag over one shoulder, and nodding to his friend.
Then without a word, they both made their way to the classroom door, winding their way between the silent desks... And then they were outside, with the door closing quietly behind them.
And it was at that point that it struck him, just how unnerving the silence had been... For he could hear quiet noises coming from behind the doors of the other classrooms. A little chatter, the sound of a teacher calling for silence... Friendly, and above all normal sounds that he was so used to hearing that he'd never really noticed them before.
But from the room that he had just exited... Nothing. Silence still. A silence so completely unbroken that it seemed to suck in and swallow all sounds that came near it...and he shuddered unintentionally at that thought.
"Hey, Taichi!"
A jubilant, not quite shout, and he jumped, not having expected it, and his head snapped up to try and locate the source of the sound...
...and his gaze came to rest on Yamato, standing halfway down the corridor, hands on his hips as he grinned merrily at his friend.
"Hey, are you coming, or what? We'll never get to the nurse's office if you don't move, you know..."
He blinked. And then after only the merest moment of hesitation - so short that he wasn't sure whether it was hesitation, or whether he'd just imagined it - he walked quietly away from the door, and towards his friend, who was standing bathed in a pool of sunshine. The blonde waited until he caught up, and then they walked together, side by side down the corridor as they started on their way...
And he noticed that Yamato seemed...right again. He didn't know how else to explain, or describe it, not even in his own mind. The wrongness that had pervaded his words, actions, and attitude before had evaporated as soon as they had left the classroom behind...
Yet still things weren't quite right. Though now the elements that felt wrong were not to be found in Yamato, but himself. He was too aware of the little sounds around him, the play of sunlight, and the light hint of sakura on a breeze that suddenly ruffled their hair as they passed by an open window... And the careful way that he was analysing and noticing everything... That didn't feel right either. It didn't feel like something he would do, even though it was him doing it, even now...
"See..." There was suppressed laughter in the blonde's voice as he whispered conspiratorially in Taichi's ear. "I told you to just leave it all to me!"
And just as suddenly as everything had become wrong, no more than perhaps a few minutes ago, although it seemed far longer... Just as suddenly, everything was right again, and he laughed, and the strange analytical way of thinking vanished as if it had never been.
Beside him, Yamato laughed too, the sound of their laugher mingling as they walked, and Taichi wasn't really aware of anything else but that sound, and the way they were leaning heavily against each other when their laughter threatened to become too much, and they staggered along trying to breathe and laugh at the same time...
But one last thought sneaked through, sounding as though it belonged to the strange version of himself that he wasn't entirely sure that he liked...and he swore that the next time that he cut class with Yamato, the blonde was most definitely not going to be the one in charge...
~owari~