The Miracle of a Courageous Light
It's Time for You to Come Home, Son.
It was already the morning of the ball and everyone was rushing around, especially the theatre students. The performance was starting at two, and it lasted almost three hours. After that the students would have their meals and get ready for the start of the ball at eight. Yamato had two hours before his band were due to play, yet he had to leave forty minutes before to change and tune his bass.
Taichi, Hikari and Takeru were all practising lines together in full dress a little before the play began. They hadn't seen their friends since the night before at dinner.
"Five minutes guys!" The stage director called. Hikari walked over to the mirror to fix her hair as everyone began to take there place. Yamato and the others had front seats and were excited about the performance.
Suddenly, the curtains opened and the audience clapped and cheered as the play began…
The performance went well and throughout it Taichi was looking into the audience. At scene three he found the blue eyed boy he was looking for, in the front row and he was looking very dressed up. Yamato caught his glance a few times during the performance which caused Taichi to stutter his lines. At the end of the show, Yamato was the first to congratulate him.
"You did really great, it was amazing!" He said with excited eyes. Taichi smiled.
"Thanks. That means a lot coming from an expert in the 'arts' as you like to say." They both burst out laughing and made their way to the dining room. They sat down and ate their meals. Everyone was congratulating Takeru, Hikari and Taichi on their performance in the show. They gave Koushiro credit for the lighting displays he'd worked hard on for the last week on his laptop and even Daisuke had played his minor role as a fairy boy to perfection.
"Hey guys, Taichi and I have something…something to, err, do. So, we'll see you in a few hours." Yamato got up, pulling Taichi up with him.
"We do?" Taichi asked, looking at the boy. Yamato nodded nervously.
"At the ball!" Mimi exclaimed. She and Hikari hadn't been able to stop talking about it the last few days. Yamato nodded, yet he still looked nervous.
"Go along, Taichi. We'll see you there." Hikari smiled.
"Do you know something?" He asked looking at her, raising an eyebrow. She just shrugged and turned back to her conversation with Mimi. Taichi sighed and followed Yamato out of the dining room.
Taichi and Yamato walked over to the dorm rooms. Taichi followed Yamato up the stairs and into their room closing the door behind him.
"You may want to lock that." Yamato said grabbing two bags from the bottom of his closet. Taichi did as he said and turned around to see the two bags on Yamato's bed. "This one is for you." He said smirking and picking up the bag furthest away. Taichi cautiously walked over and picked out the contents.
Inside was a long baby blue evening gown. Taichi pulled it out and laughed. Yamato smiled and pulled out his own, a lemon yellow gown.
"So, we're putting it to the test?" Taichi said smiling. Yamato nodded and pulled out a camera from underneath the bed. "Ah, classy. Ishida wants to keep his rep."
"We'll ask the rest of them to vote." Yamato said, not listening to Taichi's previous comment.
They turned and changed into the gowns, took their photos and eventually changed into the tuxedo's they had brought on their trip to the city. They went down to the ball room a little before seven forty five and met the rest of the group. Everyone was dressed up in formal attire and Taichi couldn't help gawping, even at some of the girls. Not that he thought of them in that way but everyone looked so beautiful. Especially his Yama…
The group walked in together and found themselves a table while they were waiting for the rest of the school to enter. The teachers and headmaster were seated at the top of the ballroom waiting for everyone.
Once everyone was seated the headmaster stood up to the podium next to his table.
"Thank you students, for another wonderful term at the Manor. I'd like to congratulate the Theatre, music and ball committee students for providing us with such a 'bang' to end the autumn term with. It's been really wonderful. I'd like to begin the evening by handing out a few awards…"
The same ritual began that the older students had been accustomed to. It was a really wonderful evening. The ball room was decorated in all shades of gold, red and green. There was a large tree at the end of the hall that complimented the ballroom's décor perfectly. The ballroom was framed with large 'floor-to-ceiling' windows. Outside, the floor was dusted in white, like icing on the top of chocolate cake. It had only started snowing a little over an hour ago, yet it was falling heavily and settling.
"Looks like tomorrow will be a great day for a snowball fight." Taichi whispered to Yamato, he smiled back and nodded.
The headmaster ended his speech and the music began, people started to dance and the chatter rose. Time had quickly passed before Yamato had left the ball room to change into his 'gig gear' and get the rest of his band together and sound checked.
Suddenly, the lights went dim and smoke jumped upwards from the raised platform at the end of the ballroom. On stage stood four figures each holding their instruments, or in one boy's case, drum sticks. One, tall, blonde bass player was stood up close to the microphone. Just as he opened his mouth to begin singing lights blasted on and the guys began playing away.
"…You can't take nothing for granted.
You gotta live life today!
I turn around and I can see what's behind me
I turn back around and I can see what's ahead…"
Yamato carried on singing his heart out throughout the rest of the night, some of the students singing along, others dancing, and everyone happy. It was the most fun Taichi had had in a very long time.
Yamato walked down off stage and walked over to Taichi, his face was red and sweaty but he still looked as good as ever.
"I don't believe you, your face is red but not a hair out of place. Honestly, you never will stop to amaze me." Taichi laughed and playfully punched Yamato in the arm.
"Heh, thanks Taichi. I guess that's a compliment?"
"Sure is." Taichi said happily, he smiled.
"Taichi, I was ju-" Yamato began, but was cut off as the doors to the ballroom banged open revealing a blonde haired man in a black suit. He was smiling and he looked strangely familiar. The room went silent and all that could be heard was the man's footsteps. He was making his way through the crowd towards Yamato.
"Good evening." He said as he approached Yamato. Taichi looked at him, and back at the man. It was him, the man he'd seen on that fateful night just a few months ago. The man who had murdered his parents. He wanted to scream, shout at him, kill the man in front of him, yet he couldn't bring himself to clench his fists. He just stood there, looking at Yamato. Horrified. "I think it's time for you to come back with me."
"Why now?" Yamato whispered. It was barely audible to anyone except Taichi and the man in front of Yamato.
"Because I am your father and I say so. I'm just doing what's best. And besides, your sixteen now. You know what that means." Yamato's father shot him a piercing glance, followed by a smile. One of those deadly smiles. Yamato looked at him with terrified eyes.
"What?"
"You know. You should be grateful I let you stay until now Ishida Yamato. Now, go get your things. A car will be waiting for you in one hour's time exactly. I think that's enough time for you to say goodbye." Yamato stared at him, then looked away and walked out of the hall, his head hanging in shame. Yamato's father turned on his heel and walked out of the hall. His two assistants who were waiting patiently for him escorted him back out of the Manor. Taichi turned to Hikari who was being held tightly by Takeru. He walked over to them.
"Hika that was him."
She looked away from Takeru's chest, her eyes were watery and her cheeks were red. She'd been silently sobbing because she knew. She nodded.
"Taichi, you have to go speak to Yamato." Takeru whispered. Talk had begun to start again now but Takeru didn't want to be heard. "Now he's sixteen it means-"
"What? What does it mean? Godamnit his father killed our parents! How can I go and speak to him? How? I don't know what to say!"
"Listen Taichi. If Yamato leaves tonight his father is going to turn him into one of them. And we both don't want that to happen." Taichi sighed.
"I guess I have to. I don't want him to hurt anybody. He's not like that." Taichi sighed again and turned and ran out of the ballroom.