Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon
Author's Notes: Lol...I was listening to the song that I used on the last chapter and it made me cry because I was thinking of what I did to Takuya and Kouji in Eternity! Now I do believe that whenever I listen to that song, I'll seriously think of that chapter...how could I do that to them?!? I seriously think that the last chapter of Eternity is probably the hardest thing that I've ever had to write, and it's all that songs fault because it gave me that idea! (And of course it gave me the idea to do a sequel to, sooooo...grins) It's such a sad song though...seriously, if you guys go and listen to it, you'll know what I mean. The song is called 'Without You' and it's sung by Laura Pausini. It's really sad and very sweet...
Rating: PG13
Warning: If you don't like the thought of slash/yaoi (or male/male pairings) then I suggest that you leave now or forever hold your peace. You've been for warned. :P
Pairings: Takuya/Kouji, Koichi/Izumi, Taichi/Yamato, and more hints of Rei/Katsume
Time Setting: Five years after Eternity-the story before this two-story arc
ForevermoreAuthor: Angel Spirit
Chapter VII: Found...but still lost
Takuya had never been more relieved in his life then when he found out that Kouji had finally been found. Even though it hadn't been by him and Rei, even she was just as relieved, as she hung up on the phone with Yamato a few seconds later.
"Let's head back to the dorms and get dried off. I hate the rain." She muttered, as Takuya nodded and they started to walk back. He couldn't help but glance at her again, seeing the fresh bruise on her face still.
They were quiet most of the way, until Rei sighed and stopped suddenly and Takuya stopped too.
"Look-I don't really know you very well Takuya, so all I'm just going to say is this. From what I hear and see it sounds almost as though you've somehow hurt Kouji in the past. I'm Kouji's best friend...and there's no way that I want to see him hurting or miserable. So if you do that...let's just say you don't want to get on my bad side. I can be a nice person...but I'm not always as nice as I appear. I want to give you a chance Takuya, really I do." Takuya had to force himself to stop from grinning.
Who does this girl think she is? She thinks she knows Kouji? Ha...she knows Kouji worth shit. He thought, but kept it to himself, and all he did was shrug as he pointed out the bruise, knowing he was going a bit too far.
"Well, from the looks of things, it looks like you got on someone's bad side. No offense Rei." The dark look in Rei's eyes actually made Takuya take a step back...and suddenly she didn't look very friendly at all.
"You know nothing Kanbara. Nothing. And you know what? If I were you, I'd stay away from me for awhile." With that, she took off running, and Takuya frowned.
That girl is crazy. She doesn't know a thing about me! Or about Kouji and me-the relationship we had-from the sounds of it, she's only scraped just the surface of who Kouji really is. She hasn't seen nothing yet. He thought again as he jogged the rest of the way back to the dorm in the rain.
Yamato and Taichi heard someone start screaming, and they were instantly both on their feet, Taichi having returned with another order of their cocoa more then a few minutes ago.
"Is it just me, or did that sound like Kouji?" Yamato murmured, looking worriedly at Taichi as the brunette nodded and started forward to where the guys bathroom was located toward the back of the coffee shop.
"That's just not you Yamato." He said as they heard the scream again, and this time even the girl behind the counter came running, looking frantic.
"What the hell is going on?!?" She yelled, and Yamato tried to calm her down as Taichi headed to the bathroom, and tried to open the door cursing when he found out that it was locked. So he pounded on it instead, to let Kouji know that someone was outside.
"KOUJI! KOUJI, IT'S TAICHI! OPEN THE DOOR!" He heard what sounded like feet scuffling on the floor and then a grunt and finally a groan of pain before there was absolute silence.
"KOUJI!" Turning around, thinking wildly, Taichi got a sudden idea as he headed back to where he'd left Yamato with the barista on duty.
"You've got a key to that bathroom, right? Tell me you do!" The girl nodded, looking as pale as a ghost as she fled to go and get the key. She came back seconds later, and Yamato quickly thanked her for being so quick as he took the keys from her and dashed back to where the bathroom was, Taichi hot on his heels.
"Open it Yama, come on!" Taichi hissed, and Yamato grunted as he realized that he had tried the wrong key first.
"Hang on Taichi, let me try another one." A second later on the third key, Yamato had it and the door opened. Revealing Kouji slumped on the floor, in a state of somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. Yamato got to him first, and moved him a little so that he was resting his head against his shoulder.
"Kouji? Kouji, come on..." Taichi sighed and shook his head as he gently brought a hand up to a freshly bleeding cut on Kouji's forehead.
"Man, he's really not having a good day is he?" He murmured, and Yamato shook his head.
Both of them suddenly felt a little cold, and looked to see that the window on the other side of the bathroom was open, that the wind from the storm outside was blowing in the cold air.
"Come on, let's get Kouji out of here and to some help." Yamato suggested, as Taichi nodded. They were lucky the coffee shop had only one other person in it besides the girl on duty, and both of the other two customers looked up in concern as Taichi and Yamato came out, both having one of Kouji's arms around their shoulders.
"Um...sorry..." Taichi muttered as they paused at their table and Yamato left a considerably handsome tip for the girl before they headed back out.
Halfway to the dorms, Kouji groaned and came to, hissing a little in pain as he did so.
"Kouji?" Kouji winced as his name was called out, and looked to his right, and directly into Yamato's bright blue eyes.
"That wasn't...fun." He murmured, and then suddenly closed his eyes and slumped forward. Causing Yamato and Taichi to almost loose their grip on him. It was when they shifted a bit so that they could catch him, that Yamato noticed his white shirt had a bright red stain on it-blood. His eyes opened wide as he motioned for Taichi to bring Kouji fully down to the ground, and they expected him a bit further
Yamato hissed as he saw a shallow cut on Kouji's right upper arm, where it looked like some kind of knife had sliced through Kouji's shirt.
"Let's get him back to the dorms ASAP!" Taichi said, as Yamato nodded.
"You should carry him Taichi, he's not heavy-he weighs less then I do, I'll catch up! Once you get there, tell Rei to call the nurse on duty tonight!" Taichi heard Kouji groan lightly as he picked him up as gently and swiftly as he could and then gave Yamato a brief nod before he took off running through the pouring rain.
Thinking quickly, Yamato pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number, hoping and praying that someone would answer on the other side...
Koichi heard the phone in his dorm room ring, but he just didn't want to answer it at the moment. He was curled up with Izumi on his bed, taking a nap...and quite comfortable at that.
He'd heard Rei and Takuya come in earlier arguing, but he'd decided to just leave it as it was...he'd find out what they were arguing about later-he figured it had something to do with his twin brother though.
Leave it to Kouji to make a big mess of things. Koichi thought with a teasing grin, as the phone stopped ringing and he sighed happily as he buried his head into Izumi's shoulder, hearing her softly sigh as he felt her roll over and make herself a bit more comfortable before quickly falling back asleep.
And then the phone rang again. Groaning, and knowing that whoever was calling was probably going to be quite persistent until he picked it up, Koichi reached over and fumbled until he got a hold of the phone, knowing that he wasn't going to drop it he brought the receiver to his ear.
"Kinmura speaking..."
"Koichi, it's Yamato...something's happened, something bad." Koichi stirred a little more as he heard Yamato's frantic voice on the other end and sat up suddenly, causing Izumi to loose her comfortable position that she'd just gotten into and she groaned as she opened an eye and used it to glare at her boyfriend.
"What's happened Yamato?"
"Taichi's on his way. You or Rei might want to call the nurse, and hope she can do the job instead of having to go to the hospital." Now Koichi was wide-awake, and Izumi must've been alerted by the look of worry and concern on his face because she too was starting to sit up.
"Yamato, what's going on?!?" On his side of the line, Yamato sighed.
"It's Kouji...something...something happened to him...I-"Before Yamato could finish explaining, Koichi heard Taichi's voice through the dormitory entrance and he tossed the phone to Izumi as he sprung off the bed and seemed to make it to the door in one leap.
He swiftly pulled it open and dashed as quickly as he could in his socked feet, slipping and sliding a little bit on the wood down the stairs to see Taichi holding a pale-looking Kouji in his arms.
"TAICHI! What happened?!?" Frantic with worry, Koichi leapt down the last few stairs-about seven to be exact, and winced as he landed hard on the wood floor, almost slipping...he managed to keep his balance though.
"What's all the commotion?" Rei's voice floated from their floor, and Koichi looked up to see her coming out of her own dorm room, Katsume on her heels. Koichi would've smiled if something wasn't as wrong as it was-from what he saw, he and Izumi weren't the only one's who had decided to take a nap.
Koichi's yell had also roused other students who had returned earlier that day and were looking down at concern as Taichi shook his head and made his way upstairs to Kouji's dorm, where Takuya had just opened it-looking confused...and then a bit stunned as Taichi pushed his way into their dorm.
"What's going on?" Takuya whispered as Taichi set Kouji onto his bed and then shook his arms out to generate some feeling of life back into them, wincing as he did so.
"Call the nurse...Kouji's been hurt...bad...well, not horribly bad, but..." Taichi's shirt was too dark to see the blood on it, but when Yamato came stumbling into the dorm out of breath moments later, it was obvious that something had happened.
"That's it, I'm calling security and the nurse...now." Rei said, turning pale as she fled to do what her duties as dorm captain required her to do so in a situation such as this. She hated the sight of blood, and Katsume turned to go and comfort her, finding her shaking form as she dialed the extension she needed for the nurse's office down at the medical building.
Yamato sighed as he looked down at his shirt, and grimaced. The shirt was pretty much ruined now-and it had been one of his favorites. But at the moment he knew he'd have to worry about that later, as he headed into Kouji's room to see two brunette's in there instead of one. And he did a double take as he pointed from Takuya to Taichi and then back to Takuya.
"Who are you?" He demanded, and Takuya sighed and winced.
So far, meeting people today-for him at least-had been disastrous.
"I'm Takuya Kanbara-Kouji's new roommate." Yamato only nodded at him as he glanced back at Kouji and then quickly glanced back at Takuya, his eyes opening wide.
"Wait a second...you're Takuya?" Takuya nodded sheepishly, and wished that a hole would just open up underneath him, and disappear at the look that Yamato and Taichi shared. Why did everyone seem to form a bad opinion about him today?
He watched nervously as the nurse arrived countless minutes later, and cleaned Kouji up.
"You boys are lucky that this is a shallow cut, I don't think it'll need stitches...but keep an eye on it, if it keeps on opening up on him and bleeding all over the place as things like this tend to do sometimes, bring him in and I'll be sure to stitch it up so it won't keep on happening-unless if he's active in sports or something, otherwise I'll let it heal on it's own." Koichi nodded his head as he agreed to what the nurse had told them, and then watched the nurse bandage up the cut on his brother's arm as well as the one on his forehead.
"Keep an eye on him tonight, he should be alright in the morning, maybe a little woozy-let me know if the symptoms persist." The nurse left instructions with Takuya and Koichi before leaving, and then Yamato and Taichi entered the room again, glancing at Koichi as they did so and Koichi only repeated back what the nurse had told them. Both boys sighed and Takuya slumped down onto his bed and put his head into his arms.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up, surprised to find that it was the brunette who had entered with Kouji in his arms. The blonde gave him a weak grin.
"I didn't mean to seem so pushy or act like a jerk in anyway back there, I'm sorry-I was just kind of worried about Kouji you know? I'm Taichi and that's Yamato over there." Yamato nodded his hello as he came up and wrapped his arms around Taichi's waist as he buried his head into Taichi's shoulder.
As Yamato had suddenly realized that he had had quite enough for today.
That and he had an early morning class tomorrow at six am sharp.
Takuya nodded at the two before looking worriedly over at Kouji, who stirred for a second before falling quiet again.
"I'm Takuya-but I have the feeling that you two probably already know that...I...I don't think I'm making a very good impression on people today." He murmured, and Taichi gave him a light smile and gently squeezed Takuya's shoulder.
"Hey, no worries. You'll do okay here...it'll just take...time." He added, glancing meaningfully over at Kouji and then back at Takuya who gave him a weird, questioning look.
"Anyway, I think that Yama and I had better get going, from what I remember, he's got an early morning class tomorrow-and today has been quite a day. Call us if you need any help looking after Kouji at all tonight, okay?" Takuya nodded as he watched the two leave, Taichi guiding Yamato out of the doorway. Before they left, Taichi turned quickly around as though he'd forgotten something.
"Oh, and by the way there's a soccer club meeting tomorrow afternoon about four. It's for people who are interested in joining the team for this quarter. You might want to be there." He waved at Takuya as he headed out, and left the brunette to stare at him with wide eyes.
How does Taichi seem to know so much about me, and yet I've just met him? Takuya though wearily, as he laid down on his bed and sighed, glancing over at Kouji for a moment.
Tonight's going to be a long night...
When Kouji woke up, he wasn't sure what was going on. He only felt a throbbing pain in his shoulder, and his head ached.
He tried to sit up, but only succeeded in groaning as he fell back against his pillows, wincing at the pain.
"Hey...you're up...how do you feel?" Kouji realized that he knew that voice. And as he knew that voice, he knew where he was.
"T-Takuya? What happened...?" Takuya's face swam into his vision as Kouji blinked a few times, trying to focus on the brunette in front of him.
"Yamato and Taichi said that you were attacked in the guy's bathroom in the coffee shop that you were in. They brought you back here, and discovered how hurt you really were. Rei called for the nurse who came and got you cleaned and bandaged up, and I've been looking after you since Taichi and Yamato left much earlier tonight...Yamato's got an early class in the morning." And that pretty much explained it all for him.
"So how do you feel?" For that moment in time, Kouji pushed aside any frustrated feelings that he had with Takuya, and groaned.
"My head hurts...my body hurts..." He mumbled, and watched from the corner of his eye as Takuya disappeared and came back a couple of minutes later with a bottle of Advil.
"I seem to be taking too much of that stuff these days." Kouji muttered, as Takuya only chuckled and handed him three pills and the glass of water that was sitting on the bedside table.
"Um..." Now there was nothing but that dreaded silence in the air, as Kouji managed to put the glass down on the nightstand next to his bed without tipping it over. He realized he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say to Takuya-and that he'd never got to finish the conversation that he, Yamato, and Taichi had been having at the coffee shop. And a part of him felt a little guilty for that...Yamato and Taichi had both told him their story-and so Kouji had wanted to tell them what was going on with Takuya...but...that guy...
And suddenly his eyes opened wide as he sat up too quickly and the room went spinning around him. He groaned again and put a hand to his forehead, and as Takuya moved to help him, Kouji gave him a vicious glare...that caused Takuya to take a few steps back.
"Stay away from me Takuya...just do me a favor and stay away." He hissed out, still feeling a bit of pain in his shoulder, but even more pain from the saddened look in Takuya's eyes.
"You know, that's going to be a little difficult since we're in the same dorm room." Kouji held back a snort of laughter and only continued to glare at Takuya, really not in the mood at the moment. The guy back in the coffee shop had sounded serious. And Kouji valued the few friends that he had...and didn't want anything to happen to them.
"Then find yourself a different dorm room, I don't give a damn-just stay away." Takuya slowly bit down on his lower lip, an sighed as he shook his head.
"Not even a thank you for watching over you while you were unconscious. You don't even want to talk about it or anything, you just want to call it quits right here and now, don't you?" He whispered, and it took all of Kouji's courage to not throw himself at Takuya, to tell him that he was sorry for being a jerk, to tell him that he still loved him.
But I don't love him! He thought as his eyes opened wide at the startling realization that he'd made.
But you do...you love him...you still love Takuya. A small voice inside him claimed, and Kouji shook his head. To Takuya, the shake of his head had more meaning then one.
"Takuya, I called it quits five years ago when I realized that you weren't coming back to me. End of story. Now just do yourself a favor and stay away from me, okay?" The last part came out in a small whisper, as Takuya shook his head and headed for the door.
"You know, you can tell me to stay away from you all you want to. But I know that this is just a shield you're using Kouji-and just like all the other's that you've put up before, I'll break this one down too. I know that somewhere deep down inside you still love me. Even if it means that I have to wait an eternity for you to realize that."
The moment Takuya walked out of their dorm, there was nothing but an eerie silence. And in that eerie silence, Kouji allowed his tears to finally fall. He was hurting...in more ways then just one now.
Managing to roll over in his bed, Kouji buried his head into his pillow, and cried himself back to sleep.
"So you yelled at Takuya?" Rei nodded her head at Katsume's question, feeling miserable as she lay on her bed while Katsume sat at her desk working on something that her work had no doubt given her to do on her off time.
"I did...and I feel miserable for doing it. He's as concerned about Kouji and his well being as the rest of us are. And I had to go ahead and snap at him. Just because I had a lousy week, doesn't mean that I had to take it out on him." She murmured, feeling plenty guilty about what had happened between her and Takuya on there way back earlier that afternoon.
"And now Kouji's hurt on top of everything else. Has it occurred to anyone but me, that maybe there's something going on here?" Rei propped her head up with her right arm as she stared at Katsume for a few minutes, before slowly nodding her head.
"Yeah...I have actually. There's way to much going on here for my liking-"She wasn't able to finish what she was saying, because there was a soft knock at their door. She groaned as she stood and headed to the door, opening it to see a very worried looking Koichi, who motioned her out of the room.
She sighed and threw an apologetic glance over her shoulder to Katsume, but she was already immersed once more into whatever it was she was doing. Sighing again, she gently closed the door behind her.
"What's up Koichi?"
"I just thought that I'd let you know that Kouji's doing okay. The nurse bandaged him up and said that he didn't need stitches-at least; she didn't think so and said that if Kouji took it easy he should heal fine. He's sleeping right now, and Takuya's with him. Yamato and Taichi headed back to their own residency awhile back...I told Takuya if he needed any help with Kouji that he can call any of us." Rei nodded. The meaning behind 'any of us,' included her as well.
"Are Junpei, Kita, and Kai back?" She asked, having not seen Kita come in. Koichi shook his head.
"They might've gotten delayed due to the stormy weather-from what I've heard on the news, traffic is really bad on the highways, and that the way that the three of them were coming home is quite congested at the moment. I was thinking of trying Junpei on his cell phone and seeing when they're going to get back." Rei nodded, suddenly feeling tired...and sore.
She winced as she brought a hand up to massage her neck. She had forgotten how sore her left shoulder was, and she had jarred it a bit when she'd gone to massage the kink that she felt while standing there listening to Koichi. All she wanted at the moment, was a hot bath-unfortunately, a hot shower would have to do.
"You okay?" For a moment, Rei spaced, wondering why Koichi was asking her if she was okay...and then realized the look she must've had on her face.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired...I think that I'm going to go ahead and take a hot shower and go to bed. Tell Takuya that if he needs anything I'm available...and...and also tell him I'm sorry for earlier, okay? I'm not myself today."
Koichi nodded, knowing that there was a meaning behind her message to Takuya, but decided not to ask. If Takuya wanted to tell him, he'd tell him what had happened earlier that Rei had to be sorry about. No doubt though, that Rei probably just lost her temper at one point...and Takuya had just happened to be the closest person she could snap at.
Usually Rei wasn't bad when it came to loosing her cool...but lately-as Izumi had pointed out-she seemed to be under some kind of stress...
"Okay...so I'll see you in the morning then? Remember, we've got history together." Rei nodded as she turned around and headed back into her room. Katsume looked like she didn't even notice that she had been gone.
"Koichi says that Kouji's doing okay...and that Junpei, Kita, and Kai aren't back yet. He said that he was thinking of calling Junpei and finding out when they thought they were going to get back...if he tells him that they're getting back tonight, then that means I might have to stay up and let them in." Katsume shook her head.
"You won't have to, you can go to bed if you want...I'll stay up, I've got these documents that I need to finish looking at anyway." She told her, and Rei sighed.
"Okay...I think I'm going to go and check on Kouji and then take a shower." Katsume nodded.
"Alright." The blond watched from the corner of her eye as Rei gathered the stuff she needed and then silently left the room, shutting the door softly behind her.
Katsume had noted the stiff movements that Rei made tonight-she wasn't her normal graceful self, and when Katsume had given her a massage earlier that evening, she had felt the knotted bones in her shoulder...and then there was that fading bruise on her face...to Katsume, it seemed like Rei was hiding something from her-from all of them.
As soon as she felt like Rei was completely gone, she reached over and grabbed her cell phone from across the table and opened it up, hitting a number that instantly dialed another number...and then waited as that number rang through.
By the time someone on the other line answered it, Katsume was getting impatient-and the voice on the other side sounded sleepy and irritated.
'What the hell do you want at this time of night Monroe?'
"I wanted to tell you that there has now been official interaction between our suspected stalker and the prey." There was a snort of disbelief from the other extension.
'You've said that before...what changes it this time?' Katsume frowned. She wished that her boss would take this more seriously.
"Because this time there's evidence on the prey...and a lot of other people have seen it...two even seemed to witness some of what had happened-they were in the same facility when our suspect decided to act."
'So how do we go about making inquiries without letting our main suspect know that there's someone actually digging up the stuff that's needed to get him where he belongs...back behind bars?' At this question, Katsume sighed...this was what she had been thinking about most of the night.
"I don't know sir-I'm still thinking of ways we can do that without the suspect...well, suspecting."
'Why don't we get your girlfriend involved? She's close enough to the prey so that if she were to be the one asking the questions, our little birdie won't decide that it's time to fly away...either that or fly closer." Rubbing her aching temples with her left hand-as she held her phone in her right-Katsume let out a low growl of warning.
"I already told you Chief...there is no way in hell, that I'm going to get Rei more involved then she already is-damn it, she doesn't even realize how involved she is already in this-she has no idea of the danger that she is in just by hanging out with the prey!" The sigh on the other side sounded irritated-and Katsume knew exactly how he felt.
'Look, I'm giving you forty eight hours to figure out how we can pry information out of that boy...if you can't do it the way you want to do it within that time frame, you're out of luck-and we're doing it my way." Katsume sighed; giving in-there was no other choice.
"Alright. Alright, fine."
'So we're in agreement then? That, this is what we're going to do?'
"Yes...yes, we're in complete and total agreement."
'Good-you've got forty eight hours-starting now.' With that, the person on the other side of the line hung up, and Katsume closed her phone as she tossed it aside and groaned.
"How in the hell did I ever get involved in this? Why did I get involved in this?" She murmured as she lowered her head so that it was sitting in her arms on the desk, not sure if she wanted to cry, or if she wanted to scream...
TBC
Ending AN: grins ...my writer's block for this is over! I can feel the plot flowing back into me now as we speak-so thanks to all of you guys who have been so patient in waiting for me to update this! I've already had one reader tell me that they think they're starting to understand what's going on now and what's going to happen...I want to know if any of the rest of you feel that way, or if you're still in the dark...(because if some of you are still in the dark, then that means that I get to have more fun! mischief look inserted here ) but don't worry, because eventually everything will be fully explained...just...probably not as soon as some of you would like...