Disclaimer-.:Kouichi:. Izumi's forcing us to be straightforward. Takuya, your turn.
.:Takuya:. We-er...I meant, Kaea doesn't own Digimon. She just wants to.
.:Junpei:. Because she's a LOSER!
.:Kouichi:. Actually, she's not a loser. She's a slacker. Takuya and Junpei are losers in comparison to me.
.:Izumi:. WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT MAKING THE DISCLAIMER LONG!
Strange Dreams, Strange Happenings
Sleep hardly came to Kouichi that night. His dreams were plagued with laughter, and he knew exactly whose laughter it was.
Lucemon's laughter.
This had happened before, a few months after he had gotten out of the hospital. Dreams of Lucemon laughing as if he had actually succeeded in coming to the real world and taken it over, then there was a scream of agony...
And then pure white feathers.
Kouichi sat up in bed, wiping the sweat from his face. There had once been a risk of Lucemon rising into power once more, but that threat had long passed. Why would he wait four years before attacking?
Looking at the time, Kouichi found it was 6:18 A.M. Almost time for school, he thought, getting ready for school as quick as he could. As he stepped into the kitchen, the strange sight of Kouji making breakfast awaited him.
"Kouji, how many pots did you blow up while I was asleep?" he asked the younger twin, getting milk from the refrigerator.
His brother flipped the egg in the skillet. "Couldn't sleep. You?"
"I had a weird dream." Mentally, Kouichi added to himself, yet again.
"Wacky Lucemon laugh, then feathers?"
Both boys exchange looks, then frowned.
Kouichi looked at the milk carton in his hand, then put it back in the fridge and pushed Kouji away from the stove. "It's still undercooked. Go call everyone else over for breakfast. I'll make the food."
As soon as everyone was over and Kouichi had finished making breakfast, they all sad down to eat.
"We have less than fifteen minutes. Let's skim through this. We all had evil Luce-laugh and feathers in our dreams, right?" Takuya asked, finishing his food as fast as possible.
Everyone nodded.
"Well," Kouji continued, "Kouichi and I discovered two feathers yesterday."
"Kouji found a white feather in Mr. Aizawa's office," Kouichi informed them.
Nodding, Junpei guessed, "And the black one in the video, right? Kouji told me yesterday."
"Why did you tape that conference, anyway?" Izumi asked, glancing at the clock. "We better start for school."
"Aw, tell me about it later!" Tomoki yelled before racing out the door as he slung his backpack on.
The rest of them headed to their school, discussing what the dream possibly meant.
"We could just be going insane," Junpei muttered.
Takuya had to agree. "Yeah, we do tend to talk about digimon and the digital world on a daily basis."
Kouichi stopped dead in his tracks, staring at a TV in an electronic store that had been put up for display. "Something doesn't feel right, though...it's to..."
"Hey! The TV went all staticky! Now it's back! Now static! Now-" Kouji frowned. "HAH! Those TVs are so messed up. Who would buy them!"
Gritting his teeth, Kouichi dragged his brother the rest of the way to school as he argued, "I don't think we're going insane. I might have, when I had this dream after I got out of the hospital, but don't you think it's a bit too convenient that we all had the same dream?" A frown was apparent on his face as he looked at Takuya and Junpei, waiting for their answer.
"I said we could be. Never said we were," corrected Junpei. Then the older boy asked, "But we beat Lucemon. How could he come back, anyway?"
"The same way Ophanimon, Seraphimon and Cherubimon came back. Through a digi-egg."
Kouji's eyes widened. "You don't think-but we destroyed the egg!"
"It's a possibility that Lucemon's still alive. He could be after our world again. And Ophanimon and the rest had their data scanned, too, but they made it. We can't be too sure about anything."
"You guys came to school late. Not that it matters. Grandpa's office was completely totaled yesterday," Kako said, covering Kouichi's eyes from behind as she stood on her tiptoes. "Guess who."
Kouichi turned around with no warning, his mouth open in shock. "WHAT!"
Kako turned red and pushed him away. "Er, as I was saying..."
W-what did I do? Kouichi rubbed his arm. "Anyone know what happened?"
She smiled crookedly. "I think Gramps does. But there's an awful lot of feathers..."
"WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS!" Takuya yelled excitedly, racing to the principal's office in hopes of finding any clues.
Everyone else followed him, only a few feet behind.
Takuya gaped at the mess in front of him once he reached Mr. Aizawa's office. "Huh...who...there are...feathers everywhere..."
Indeed, Mr. Aizawa's office was a mess. The door hung off the hinges, the window had cracks and holes, and the desk and chair were broken to bits. Amongst scattered papers, there were dull white feathers and black ones as well. All in all, the entire room looked as if it had been hit by a tornado.
Izumi yelped as she hopped over a shard of glass. "What happened!"
Kouji examined the room before ducking under the caution tape and walking over o examine the portrait from which he had filmed from the previous day.
"Damn these feathers..."
"Really, you're so pathetic sometimes. How could you leave behind feathers!"
"Shut up! Instead of wasting my time on you two, I should have just warped Ch-"
The voices stopped. Kouji backed away from the portrait, nearly tripping as he ducked under the caution tape yet again and dragged his friends further down the hall, away from eavesdroppers. "Houston, we have a problem."
"I'll roger that," Kouichi muttered, banging his head against the wall. "How stupid! It's so obvious..."
"What is?" Takuya asked as they all edged away from the room and ran to their lockers.
Kouichi stopped, signaling the rest of them to do the same. As he covered Kako's mouth, he replied in a grim voice, "I know Lucemon's plan."
The rest of the week went more smoothly for all of them. Kouichi hadn't told anyone his thoughts on Lucemon's plan despite constant protest from Kako (who had realized Kouichi wouldn't spill his secret anytime soon and decided to bug him about Lucemon's plan instead) and the rest.
Ms. Kawai, Mr. Ogata and Mr. Aizawa were hardly ever present. Ms. Kawai and Mr. Aizawa's lack of presence caused Kako to become immensely depressed. And to make matters worse, Mr. 'L' had taken over the class and had an incredibly short fuse as school neared holiday break. The only plus side to that was that Kouichi remained invisible for those few days.
As the last bell of the day sounded that Friday, signaling the start of holiday break, Kako walked between her cousin and Kouichi rather glumly. On the other side of Izumi, Takuya and Junpei were arguing about some game and on the other side of Kouichi, Kouji was talking to his twin about something else. Eventually, Tomoki ran over and joined Takuya's side.
"You go right. Right is always right," Takuya snapped.
Junpei countered easily. "No, you go left. RIGHT is a DEAD END."
"Right!"
"Left!"
"RIGHT!"
"It's left, Takuya. Junpei's correct," Kako muttered with a sigh.
Kouichi watched as Junpei cheered. "I'm right!" the older boy yelled.
"No, you go left," corrected Takuya smugly.
As Junpei tried strangling the goggle boy and Tomoki burst into laughter, Kouichi averted his gaze to Kako. "You okay?" he asked gently, tilting his head to the side.
Kako looked up at him. "Hideki and Rai had a fight, Hideki won't talk to me, Rai isn't here, Gramps isn't here, and Dad's on a business trip as usual. I miss Mom..."
Silently, Kouichi looked at the ground before him. He remembered Kako's mother vaguely. All he really remembered was that about the time he was in the hospital recovering, she had died. But that was all he knew.
"Are you spending Christmas alone?" he finally asked, looking away from her.
Kako shook her head. "No. I'm staying over at Mr. Saito's bookstore. He's Rai-er...Ms. Kawai's friend. So I can ask him what happened to her..."
"Oh..."
She rose an eyebrow and looked at him. Did he just sound disappointed or am I hearing things?
"Anyway, are you free anytime next week? I was thinking we could all go to the movies or something."
"Typical. I'm free all of next week. What's today? The 18th? or something? Er, yeah, the 18th. So I've got nothing. I'm only busy the 22nd for Christmas present shopping, but I might be able to get them tomorrow."
He was silent for a while. "Okay. Everyone has to be free on Sunday all day or I hire Kouji to hunt you down and murder you," he announced.
"Why?" Takuya asked.
Izumi rolled her eyes as she turned to him. "Takuya, it's the holidays. We spend at least one day together over breaks, remember?"
"That's not what I meant. I meant, why do you want to murder us if we don't come? Because I kinda promised Shinya..."
Kouichi twitched. "Monday?"
"...Christma-OH! I GOT IT! WE'LL DO OUR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TOGETHER ON MONDAY!" Takuya yelled.
Kako blinked. "That's the first smart idea you've mentioned all day," she commented, ignoring the glare he gave her in return.
Kouji sighed. "So I can't murder anyone?"
His brother patted his shoulder and replied, "You can murder Lucemon. Or Mr. Ogata. They're one and the same. One has paradise punch, the other has homework punch. I just know he failed me on purpose..."
Kako smiled at him momentarily until she saw her brother walking a few feet ahead of them. "Er...I guess I better go," she said running over to Hideki and waving back at everyone. "See you guys Monday!"
Kouichi waved back smiling, and continued waving until Kouji whacked the back of his head.
"Idiot, stop waving," Kouji muttered, edging away from his brother.
"STUPIDITY TRANSFER!" Takuya shouted, suddenly pointing at the twins.
"You know," Kouichi said, walking ahead with the rest of them and leaving Takuya behind, "I wonder if your stupidity was transferred to Takuya."
Kouji snorted, "Found it's rightful owner, then."
Izumi hit both of them over the head with her biology book. "Hey, only Kako and I can insult Takuya!"
"But I didn't insult him," muttered Kouichi, cringing as he rubbed his newly made wound before digging into his pocket for the house key. He quickly opened the door and threw his backpack on the ground, humming as he ran into the kitchen to make something to eat.
As they all eventually came in, Junpei asked, "Is Kouichi okay?"
"Yeah, he seems..." Tomoki started, trying to find the correct word.
"Happy?" supplied Kouji, snorting. "He's been like that almost all week."
"Wow...scary."
"D'you think Ai did something to him?" wondered Izumi.
Takuya shook his head. "Kako said he ditched Ai and that's why she told everyone."
"No, she only told a few people," Kouji muttered. "I never found out." And my master plan, which I nearly forgot about, nearly went into dust. But I have a new plan! Sucker!
Izumi laughed and headed to the kitchen to check up on Kouichi. "Need any help?"
"Nah, I'm good," Kouichi returned good-naturedly. "Where do you think we should meet for the Christmas shopping?"
"No clue..." Izumi stared at Kouichi as he poured some chocolate chips into the batter. "Say, Kouichi, is it true, then?"
He faced her with a small smile on his face. "Well..."
She laughed, "But you know, you said you're afraid of girls. And-"
"I know, but, you know, I've known Kako since fourth grade."
"So when-"
"Well...seventh grade. And that's part of the reason I'm scared of girls," he added quickly.
"And about the other rumor..." Izumi grinned slyly.
Kouichi nearly dropped the bowl in his arms. "What other rumor?"
"Well, Kako said you have pink boxers, but-"
"HOW WOULD SHE KNOW EVEN IF I DID!" Kouichi screamed, turning red. Coughing, he added, "Uhm, and I don't."
"Uh huh."
"I DON'T."
"You don't what?" Kouji asked excitedly, running to the kitchen.
Izumi laughed as she replied, "He's denying the secret you don't know."
"Well, whatever it is, it's true, then!" Kouji declared, running back to the living room.
Kouichi sighed. "Kouji has pink polka dot boxers."
"TOO MUCH INFO!" exclaimed Izumi as she turned red.
"Well, he does. He thought it was amusing."
Izumi rolled her eyes. "One thing I'll never understand...boys."
A/N-
Was this a longer chapter? Or did I totally screw something up? I have no clue what the hell I do anymore. Oh, credits for the pink boxer idea goes to The Light's Refrain. XP I was cracking up when I read that in your review. I hope you don't mind I added it. And credits for 'Stupidity Transfer' are only half mine. The other half goes to Sora Keyblade, who I was SUPPOSED to IM yesterday night, but my Dad is so dumb, he hogged the online connection. We have dial up. It sucks. Sorry, I'm falling behind in updating.
Review. Tell me if you want more humor or romance or angst or whatever. There's going to be a lot of romance about...two chapters from now, I believe, if all goes well. The next chapter and third chapter from now should be big humor chapters. Third chapter from now should have Kouichi going all angsty. That's the plan. Now...off to plot ways to eradicate my dad from the computer. Is that even a correct sentence?