My Little Big Sister:

Chapter Six

For Whatever Home Means

Just one more time for ever, because he'll always have a place in my heart.

I don't own Digimon.


"Matt?"

The fair-haired boy turned at the sound of his brother's voice. TK had fallen behind during the day, weary with the constant walking. Hika had tried to chivvy him along, stroking his blond hair with affection and telling him that he was surely the bravest of the Digidestined. But such attention could not be kept up forever.

"What is it, TK?" Matt turned to look at his brother, who was still struggling along with Patamon sitting on his head.

"How much further're we going to go, Matt?" There was a kind of pleading in TK's voice. "Where are we gonna stop?"

Matt glanced at TK's scuffed shoes. "I don't know, TK. You can ride on my shoulders again for a bit, if you'd like."

"I have a better idea," Gabumon put in. A few seconds later, the great white wolf that was Matt's champion-level Digimon stood before them. "Ride on my back. I can't hold this form for long, but it'll do for a while."

The two children climbed gratefully onto Garurumon's back, and Tai handed up Kari to be carried along with them. TK pulled off his shoes and clutched them in both hands, enjoying the freedom of the cool air on his feet. It was a relief to rest, and none of the others begrudged Matt and TK the privilege. Matt had carried his brother for most of the morning, and TK himself had put up with a far longer walk than should have been asked of an eight-year-old.

"If Biyomon didn't feel so shaky, we could have a free flight, Sora," Mimi complained. Hika shot her a glance that could have meant anything.

---...---

It seemed an age before evening came. No sooner had their camp site been decided than Tai was gone again, this time to see if he could find any firewood in this treeless wilderness, taking Sora and Joe with him. Hika lay in the shadow of a tall rock, utterly exhausted and asleep before Mimi had even kicked off her shoes. A short distance away, Izzy typed sleepy commands into his laptop.

"Watch Kari for me," TK managed before falling asleep, wrapped in Mimi's shawl. Matt nodded and sat down beside the unconscious girl.

There can't be much more of this left, he thought. Surely Hika will think how to solve all this mess sooner or later. Then we can finally all go home. No more dragging TK places he doesn't want to go. Sure, he's my brother, but he can be a bit of a nuisance when he's tired. And so heavy to carry, too. At least I don't have to do that at home, and pretend that it isn't making any trouble for me at all…

Matt ruffled Kari's hair with one hand, absently. "I think it's you that keeps us going as much as anything, kiddo," he reflected. Naturally, there was no reply.

Mimi sighed in her sleep. Izzy, too, had lain down, his head on the bag he used to carry his laptop. Matt resigned himself to the fact that he had silently been volunteered for first watch.

"Matt?" The small voice made him start.

"Now what, TK?" The reply came out more sharply than he had wanted, and he felt a slight twinge of guilt.

"I'm scared." TK sat up, wrapping Mimi's red shawl tightly around his shoulders.

"Scared of what, Teeks? I'm watching the campsite. Nothing's going to happen." Matt waved a hand dismissively. "Now go back to sleep."

"I'm scared about Kari. She still hasn't woken up." TK took a breath before his brother could answer. "And about Hika."

"You're scared for Hika?" Matt rolled his eyes. "Sheesh, of all the things. Don't you think Hika can handle herself?"

"I don't know."

TK was silent, but Matt sensed his worry. With a sigh, he shuffled closer to where his little brother was sitting. Even if his watch finished, it looked as though he would be getting no sleep until the over-anxious eight-year-old did.

Overhead, a thunderclap split the night sky. Perhaps they would be in for rain, the following day. Even if it would slow them down, the coolness in the air would be welcome.

Tai should be back soon, he thought.

---...---

"Matt?"

"What?" This time, he made no attempt to hide his frustration: he'd thought that TK had fallen asleep in the silence.

"Can I go get a drink of water? I can't sleep."

Matt sighed. "As far as I know, there's only the water in the lake. If you like drinking that, well, it's up to you, I guess."

There was a shuffling of footsteps on the dust, and TK's small figure became a silhouette in a sliver of moonlight as he knelt down to cup his hands.

Afterwards, Matt could never say why the word had come into his head. It was an impulse, something he couldn't resist, and he had spoken it before even knowing what he had done.

"Hika?" he called out, not in the whisper he'd been using to talk to TK, but in his normal voice.

The young woman stirred from her sleep. "Whassit? Matt?"

"Sorry, Hika." He sighed, looking down at his feet. "I didn't realise you were asleep." In fact, he realised to his annoyance, he'd had no reason whatsoever for calling her name.

"Never mind." As the clouds shifted in the sky, moonlight shone down into Hika's eyes. To Matt's shock, he saw the glitter of a tear.

Perhaps TK was right. Maybe she isn't as tough as she always makes out to be.

"Huh?" Hika's voice broke his thoughts. "Why aren't there any trees? Where are we, anyway?"

"You know where we are. It's where we made camp this evening." Matt paused. "Come to think of it, you fell right asleep. You must've been too tired to look around."

Hika was kneeling now, not wanting to go back to sleep. "And where's Tai?"

"With Joe and Sora, gathering firewood." He shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a better position to keep watch. "And TK is down by the lake. He's gone to fetch a drink—"

"—of water," Hika finished slowly.

The look in her eyes sent a chill through Matt's body. Turning away from her, he got to his feet. "TK? TK!"

"What?" TK looked up, puzzled at the sudden noise. "Is something wrong?"

"TK, I think you should—"

The world exploded.

A torrent of water showered down over Matt and Hika. Mimi squealed in her sleep as the droplets soaked her clothes.

"TK? Are you all right?" Matt's yell carried across the lake, echoing into the distance.

The answer was a deafening roar.

A pair of enormous wings spread across the water, followed almost immediately by a curving, spiked head. There was another crash as the body of the huge Digimon rose into the sky.

"Dragon," Matt whispered, unable to move for his terror.

He managed to turn and look at Hika. For once, the older girl was not in control of the situation. Her head bowed, she closed her tearful eyes as if remembering something she would rather forget.

TK stood frozen on the shore, trying in vain to tear his eyes away from the monster.

"Hika. Hika." Matt attempted to attract the girl's attention. She would know what to do. She always knew what to do.

"Matt." It was Gabumon, running to his partner's side. "You want me to do anything?"

Matt glanced across at TK, paralysed with fear in the gaze of the dragon. "Can you Digivolve? Run and get him?"

"Doubt I could hold it for more than a minute," Gabumon answered regretfully. Matt kicked a stone in frustration, staring at the scene in front of him. Patamon hovered next to him, sobbing helplessly. The little Digimon was obviously too exhausted to transform, even for a second.

"Stupid." Hika seemed to be staring at nothing. "Stupid idiot."

"Who?" Matt shook her shoulder, hoping to wake her from her reverie.

"Me. I can't believe I didn't spot this situation coming." There was something in her eyes a lot like panic. "I'm forgetting, Matt. I'm finding it harder to remember what he said."

"Hika! Look at me, for crying out loud!" Matt was practically screaming now. "TK is in danger. Tell me. What to do. Now!"

"TK?" The word seemed to bring Hika back to reality. "I remember!" Jumping to her feet, she ran forward a few steps. "Matt, we have to do something, and fast."

"No kidding." Matt gestured towards Gabumon. "He says he can digivolve for about a minute. I could maybe try to go get TK, or create a distraction or something."

"No!" The force of Hika's reply shocked him. "If one minute is all he's got, we're gonna make that minute count. I'll tell him what to do. You wake up Mimi."

As the dragon swooped towards the frightened TK, a small, glowing red light shot past it, dazzling the creature's eyes. Tentomon wheeled round and dived back into Izzy's arms, utterly terrified.

Roaring aloud, the Digimon turned to see what was attacking it. Faster than it could blink, a green vine wrapped around its body, flattening its wings.

"Go, Mimi!" Hika yelled, and Palmon dropped the ivy vines as a glow of pale green light enveloped her. The next minute, the dragon was writhing in a shower of needles as Togemon attacked.

A blue light shone close to the ground, dazzling TK's eyes as he tried to hide. From somewhere nearby, he heard the sound of running paws.

Then he was in Matt's arms, riding Garurumon towards the shelter of the rocky cliffs.

Togemon and Kabuterimon bombarded the dragon-Digimon with their attacks, co-ordinated by Hika's signals. Garurumon's Howling Blaster joined them a moment later, fading into a simple Blue Blaster as the white wolf finally used up the last of his energy.

Then another roar split the silence, and Greymon descended like an avenging angel. It seemed only a few seconds before the dragon that had threatened them was nothing but a cloud of pixels, drifting into the wind.

---...----

Against all odds, TK was sleeping.

Matt could only suppose that the terror and excitement of the night had worn out his younger brother. Tai was asleep too, lying on the other side of Kari's eternally still body. Save for Sora, who was keeping watch, he could see no-one else awake.

"Bar of chocolate for your thoughts."

He jumped, then looked behind him. "Oh, Hika. It's you."

"It's me," she said simply, sitting down beside him.

"Listen, Hika…" He paused. "I just wanted to say thanks. To you. For what you did tonight."

"Don't mention it." Her reply was short and almost harsh, as if she was thinking of something else.

TK was right, he thought. She is more fragile than I thought.

What he said, eventually, was "Hika, are you all right?"

"I nearly got it wrong tonight," she said softly. "Matt, it's getting harder and harder to remember what I was told before I came here. It seems so far away, somehow."

He didn't know what she meant, or what to say.

"You looked troubled," he told her finally. "Was that what was making you cry?"

"No." She shook her head, absently fingering the ribbon on her hat. "That was something else. The dragon, and TK there… it just reminded me of something. That was all."

"If you hadn't been there…" He stared at nothing for a moment. "If you hadn't been there, TK would've died. I can't stand thinking about that."

"I know." She gave him another of those uninterpretable looks.

"It's a good thing Tai came back when he did, that's all."

"I... I know."

Holding the bundle of wood awkwardly in his arms, Tai struggled back towards the cliffs where he had left Matt, Kari and TK. Agumon trailed behind him, carrying as much as his feeble, clawed arms would allow.

The silence was the first thing to strike him, along with the fact that the flimsy fire they'd made had gone out. Then he saw another, smaller light, higher up among the rocks. Unsure what he would find, he moved towards it.

At first, it looked as though the figure slumped inside the shallow cave was unconscious. Then Tai saw one raised hand stroke Gatomon's white fur, as if in a dream. Kari lay nearby, oblivious to it all.

"Look. It's Tai." The cat-Digimon shook her companion's shoulder. "He came back."

"Tai…"

The fair-haired boy looked at him without really looking, and Tai knew with a cold certainty what was wrong.

"He's gone," he whispered, and it wasn't a question. He had no need to ask where the missing child was.

"He's gone."

Matt had long given up trying to guess what time it was. Now, his conversation with Hika kept him from the guilt and worry that haunted his mind.

"Hika?" A thought occurred to him. "How did you get so good at fighting? You're only a few years older than Joe."

"Age doesn't have anything to do with it." She leant back, setting her rucksack down. "In… the country where I come from, there's a war on. You learn to fight pretty quick."

"Oh." Matt felt out of his depth. "You speak Japanese pretty good, for a foreigner."

Her smile was a puzzle as she looked back at him. "Well, I've known a lot of Japanese people in the past. My… boyfriend came from there."

"Your boyfriend?" It was the first time he'd heard her mention anything of the sort.

"Yeah." She looked away for a moment, taking in the silver light on the lake. "He had fair hair a bit like yours, Matt."

"You must miss him." She nodded, silently. "Hika, will you be able to get home once you're done with whatever's brought you here? Because I sure don't know how we're getting home, and Tai really doesn't have money for an aeroplane ticket."

"It's OK. I could go home any time, if I wanted to." She sighed. "But I'm not going."

"Not…?" Matt stared. "Hika, what about your home? Your boyfriend? Your friends? Won't people miss you?"

"I told you, there's a war on. They'll just think I'm dead." Hika was quiet for a moment. "And if I go back, sooner or later, I will be."

"Then…" He couldn't see that the offer was his to make, but he said the words anyway. "You're welcome to stay with us, Hika. Heck, we owe you just about all our lives. If you want to make this your home, you'll always be welcome."

"Thank you." Her expression was hard to see in the darkness. Rummaging through her bag, she pulled out a small flask. "Here, have some of this. It'll help you to sleep."

Matt sipped the strange-tasting drink cautiously. It didn't feel comforting or warm, but within moments, he felt darkness spilling out into his body.

"Matt?" Hika whispered. Her voice seemed very far away.

"Huh?"

"TK would've been all right." Her words enveloped him in warmth as he slipped into his dreams. "After all, he had you."

Her voice faded to nothing as Matt slept.

---...---

"Tai." There was no sign of hope in the voice that finally spoke. "Tai, I can't do this any more."

"You have to," Tai answered, as gently as he could. "For the whole Digiworld. We have to keep going, no matter how much we lose on the way. There's no-one but us."

"He was my brother, Tai. He said... He said it was…"

Tai nodded. "He was your brother, and he cared about you. I know. And if we don't keep going, I'm going to lose my sister. Kari. If you can't live for the Digiworld, at least think of that."

On some level, the words seemed to break through. They couldn't stop the tears, but Tai felt the boy's resolve strengthen as the two of them sat together.

"I'll keep going," he whispered, each word a struggle. "For Kari."

"For Kari," Tai nodded, and reached out for TK's hand.


If you don't get the ending to this chapter, feel free to drop me a message and I'll try to explain. But if you know me, I imagine you won't have to. I actually feel this chapter is closer than I've ever got to the way that Matt actually is, which is ironic considering how I felt about him for the best part of my teenage years. Still, it's one last indulgence, if you will.

Rainbow "It must've been love but it's over now" Daydreamer