AN: Look, look, look! Another chapter before the end of February. Woohoo! I actually discovered that this month isn't quite as stressful as I had originally thought. However they've suddenly decided there are things I can do at work, which will mean I can't write during that time. I'll just have to try to be sneakier. Hehehe. And now I'm rambling. Daisuke, the disclaimer please!
Daisuke: Ariana does not own me, my friends, or any part of Digimon.
It's true. How sad. Now to thank the reviewers:
SoratoFan: Thanks for your review and I'm glad you're still reading this fic!
Chibi-Kari: Hmm…what would happen if his new friends showed up?
And this chapter is dedicated to Dark Qiviut who has seriously left me the sweetest reviews I've ever seen. Thanks for your support!
And on to the story!
Welcome to My Life: Chapter 6
"Daisuke! Your phone!"
Everyone paused the game as Daisuke ran over to the sidelines where Koushiro was holding out his cell. Daisuke nodded his thanks and grabbed the phone.
"Hello?" he said, breathless.
"Daisuke! Where are you?" His sister sounded worried.
"I'm at the park. Why, what's wrong?"
"You actually went?"
Daisuke laughed. "I didn't have anything better to do."
"You sound breathless."
"I was in the middle of a soccer game." He paused to get his breathing under control. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. But I'd really like if you would come home now. It's getting late and...did you know the electricity is out?"
Daisuke sighed. "Yeah, it went out earlier today. I'll explain when I get home." She didn't respond. "Jun?"
"Sorry, I thought Dad was coming out."
"He's still there?"
"Yeah...Hey, can you stop by the grocery store. I wanna try something new, but I don't have all the ingredients. And I'm probably going to need your help."
"Okay, that's fine. I'll get going right now." He looked at his watch. "I didn't realize it was so late. Give me twenty minutes." After saying goodbye he hung up the phone, only to find Koushiro looking at him strangely. "What?"
Koushiro shook his head. "Just...nevermind." Daisuke stared at him. "When did you two start getting along so well?"
Daisuke chuckled. "Since she drove me back from school." He turned to the field and called to his friends. "I gotta get going. I'll see you guys later."
Ken ran over. "Is everything okay?"
Daisuke smiled. "Yeah. Jun just wants to try out a new dish and needs some help with it."
Ken looked doubtful. "And she's asking you to do it?"
Daisuke playfully punched him and turned to walk off. He paused a looked back at Ken. "If they ask you about me at all, don't give them details."
Ken nodded. "And your parents...?"
Daisuke ran a hand through his hair. "You can tell them. Just don't tell them where my mom lives. Sorry to put you in this position."
Ken smiled sadly. "Don't worry about. You should get going if you guys are trying something new. You may not eat until midnight!"
"You have such faith in me," Daisuke responded sarcastically. "See you later." He turned and walked off, leaving Ken to watch after him.
Ken felt people approach him and turned to his friends. "He's leaving already?" asked Taichi.
Hikari looked at her watch. "It is getting late."
"We've been out later."
Hikari shrugged. "Maybe he had other things to do?"
Miyako snorted. "That's just so typical of him. Disappears for a year, pops up out of the blue, and then just leaves!"
Ken restrained the urge to glare at her. "He had to help Jun make dinner."
"I didn't know he could cook," said Iori.
"I didn't know Jun could cook," added Yamato. He shuddered as memories of the girl came back to him.
Ken grinned. "They can't, really. But they try, and they're getting better. At least that's what Daisuke told me."
"You know, I saw Jun a few weeks ago," said Jou. "She didn't look too good."
Ken mentally flinched. He knew what Jou was talking about, as he had seen her as well. He now knew some of what was going on in the Motomiya household, but Jun had looked not just stressed, but malnourished as well. Of course Jou would notice since he was studying medicine. "She was probably just stressed with finals or something." He could at least try. After all, even if Jou was a doctor, Ken knew the Motomiyas better. It was just a matter of who the group would believe.
Jou looked uncertain. "I don't know. It looked worse. Like she was sick or something. Do you know if she's been eating?"
Hit the nail on the head, thought Ken. Although the implications were all wrong. "She's not anorexic if that's what you mean."
Jou blushed. "I wasn't implying...I just, it worried me."
Ken was actually surprised by the concern Jou seemed to display. It wasn't as if Jun had ever been a member of the group. If anything she was more of a pain. "She's fine," said Ken. It wasn't a complete lie. Yes there'd been some trouble in the food department, but it was getting better. And they seemed to be taking care of themselves just fine. By this point, Ken didn't know if he was trying to convince the others, or himself.
Jou still looked doubtful, but the others accepted it. "Well if anyone would know it would be you," said Miyako. "Since you've obviously kept in touch with him." She glared at him.
Ken glared right back. "What do you mean by that?"
"If you had known where he was all along, why didn't you tell us?"
He looked at her in shocked disgust. "Had you bothered to ask I would have been more than happy to answer your questions. The few of you who did, I told you. Don't suddenly pretend your concerned and then blame me!" Ken's eyes widened at what he had just let slip. The group was silent.
"Why did Daisuke suddenly stop talking to everyone?" asked Takeru suddenly. "No matter what he says he was avoiding us. He changed his number and his email. I tried calling the house but his dad just sounded confused."
"Did you try asking Jun?" asked Koushiro.
Taichi laughed. "Like Jun would know."
"Well, she drove him home from school. She must have had some way to contact him. Besides, she just called him."
Takeru frowned. "I try to avoid talking to Jun whenever possible."
"I tried asking Jun," said Hikari. "She said if he hadn't given it to me then it was probably for a good reason." Her eyes teared up at this.
Miyako growled. "We're missing the point here!" She turned on Ken. "If you knew how to contact him, why didn't you give it to the people who asked?"
"He didn't want me to," Ken mumbled.
Everyone's eyes widened. "Why not?" asked Hikari quietly.
Ken shook his head. "I don't know." Miyako glared at him. "I don't know," he repeated. "He didn't tell me. All he said was not to give his info out to anyone."
Sora sighed sadly. "What has been going on with that boy?"
Ken looked at their expectant faces and hoped he'd be able to answer their questions while still keeping Daisuke's request. "He's been going through a lot lately," he said carefully.
Miyako raised an eyebrow. "Like what? And don't say school, we all had that."
Ken took a deep breath. "Last year Daisuke's parents divorced." Once again the group went completely silent. They all stared at him for what seemed like hours. Finally Takeru spoke up. "Why didn't he tell us?"
Ken shrugged. "I guess he didn't want you guys to worry."
Yamato nodded. "I could see that."
Taichi glanced at Yamato. "When did this happen?"
"Beginning of second semester, senior year," said Ken. He too glanced at Yamato. The blonde seemed to be deep in thought. Ken sighed as they began asking more questions. He soon realized that he most of the time when he said he didn't know, he wasn't lying.
Daisuke pushed through the door, groceries in hand. "Jun!" he called softly. He crossed his fingers, hoping his father was still in his room.
"I'm in here," she answered from the kitchen. He walked in to see her scooping rice into a pot. "Let's see if I can actually add enough water this time," she said in amusement. "With the power out, we can't use the rice cooker. I've already thrown away one batch of rice."
Daisuke placed the bags on the counter. "How'd you get the stove to light?"
"Match."
Daisuke nodded. "So what are we making?"
"We're gonna try a casserole." Daisuke stared at her. "Don't look at me like that. We can't keep living off of hot dogs and macaroni."
Daisuke shrugged. "So what are the hot dogs for?"
Jun blushed. "Well seeing as I still don't trust myself to cook meat, I figured we could add the hot dogs to the casserole."
Daisuke crinkled his nose. "That sounds disgusting."
"Well you never know until you try." She got out a smaller pot. "What we're gonna do is boil the hot dogs first. Leave the vegetables out to thaw. Then we'll throw it all together into a pot and hope that it turns out okay."
"Okay..." said Daisuke, secretly fearing their lives.
Jun did end up adding enough water, and after everything was cooked and added to the casserole with just a little drama, the siblings sat down to eat with a couple of candles on the table. Daisuke looked at his plate and then to Jun. She was looking back at him. She smirked. "Dare you to try it first."
Daisuke glared at her, but true to his crest, took a bite. He grimaced and looked at his sister. "It's edible," he said finally.
Jun took a hesitant bite. "Edible, but not that good."
Daisuke nodded in agreement. "It's a bit bland."
"And the vegetables are still cold." Jun sighed. "Well, at least we tried."
"Hey, it's not too bad. The next time we make it, it'll turn out better. Don't worry about it," Daisuke tried to convince his sister. He heard a door open down the hall. He and Jun stared at each other, holding their breaths as footsteps approached the dining room. Their father emerged from the hall and glanced at them.
"What are you idiots up to now?" he asked with a slur. They gaped at him. He frowned. "I asked you a question."
Jun swallowed and said timidly, "Eating dinner."
"No lights?"
"The powers out," said Daisuke quietly.
He sniffed. "Where'd you get it?" he asked gesturing to their plates.
"We made it," said Daisuke a little more bravely this time.
Their father snorted and walked to the kitchen, a definite sway to his step. Daisuke looked back to his sister to see her watching the kitchen with eyes full of fear. They both jumped as a pot hit the wall in the kitchen.
Their father came storming out. "Shit. It's plain shit." He walked to his daughter and pulled her from her chair with a firm grip. "Get in there!" he yelled. "Clean that shit up. I can't believe you would waste so much food." Daisuke jumped out of his chair. His father turned at the sound. He laughed and walked up to him. "And what do you think you're going to do?" he mocked. Daisuke dug his nails into his palms. "That's right. Now be a good little boy and help your sister in the kitchen." He patted him on the head and swaggered back to his room.
Daisuke ran into the kitchen. Casserole was all over the wall and floor. Jun sat crying, scooping casserole back into the pot. Daisuke knelt down beside her. She looked up at him. "How could he? I know it wasn't good but it was food. We bought it. Not him. It was our money!" Daisuke pulled his sister to him as she broke down in uncontrollable sobs. As he tried to quiet his sister, he began to think up a plan for the rest of the summer.
Yamato stared lazily at the TV show he was watching. It was Sunday afternoon, and once again his father was away on a business trip. He sighed as he clicked through the channels. Sundays could be so boring.
He left the TV on some music channel and thought about yesterday's events. Daisuke's arrival had been quite a surprise. He had personally resigned to never hearing from the boy again. But something was different. Daisuke had been distant the entire time. The others hadn't noticed, but Yamato could tell he had been wearing a mask. A mask of who he once was, but obviously was no longer. He had successfully evaded questions he didn't want to answer, and had obviously forbidden Ken to give anyone too much detail.
Yamato chuckled as he realized the younger boy sounded a lot like himself. And to think he had always believed that they would never have anything in common. If he was honest with himself, he had felt a sudden desire to go and talk to the brunette. He wasn't sure how he'd be received though. He and Daisuke had never been very close. In fact, he couldn't stand him when they first met. And then that sister of his.
Yamato jumped at the sound of the doorbell. He frowned. Who would be calling at this time? He got up and opened the door. He stood at the door shocked. Standing outside was the last person he expected.
"Daisuke?"
Ooh, cliffy. Ok not really but I tried. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon, but that all depends on whether they have anything for me to do at work.
