This chapter is for the prompt: tears

Chapter Two – It's Okay to Be This Way

Bouncing everywhere was, Kouichi found within two hours of being alive and hatched, really exhausting.He wanted legs. He desperately wanted legs. They would be great. To be fair he had only been actually alive for like: ten minutes, but still.

Lucky for him, his new little girl was a very observant child, even with the utter depression in her eyes, because she then proceeded to cradle him in her tiny arms wherever she walked.

To be fair, he was being mean. She hadn't cried in a good like: hour or two. Her eyes were still puffy, purple circles staring at the figures outside. But she hadn't cried. She was staring instead, bloodshot and suspicious.

"They gonna take me home?" she asked abruptly, her voice a hoarse choke.

The woman, who he still didn't know, shook her head with a simple ease that Kouichi wished he could do. "They burned it down, Sayo."

Kouichi felt the little girl's whole body stiffen up and he growled. He remembered a small apartment with worn out shutters. He remembered a woman who came home late, thin slender fingers with his own self putting a white pad over her back. Her soft sighs, the way she barely touched her dinner., the way that woman would fall asleep almost into her food, it was familiar. It was like this, but only just. IT was the same sort of emotion.

The girl's hand fell on his head, soft and comforting already, even though they were completely new to each other.

"Where'm I gonna go then?" Sayo's stiff shoulders went down in a lowering slope of possibly despair. Kouichi couldn't be certain. "Uncle and Auntie aren't here."

"They should be soon." The woman didn't seem to disbelieve it, but there was an edge of honey to her words. Kouichi had never heard that before either.

The girl kicked out her feet in what was probably exasperation, but she did not deny this. "Am I going with them?"

The young woman sighed. "You'd better. Or there will be hell to pay, I promise you that. We cn't trust you with anyone else."

The girl bit her lip and nodded. Her fingers eased on his head. Not that she had pulled out any furs, but he was grateful anyway. Kouichi licked her free hand. She almost smiled. He liked that. Yes, he liked that a lot. And maybe that was because he was so small and puppy now. Was puppy an adjective? It must be. Oh he wished for a moment that he had a tail. Or paws. Just other things beyond the tongue that he could use to show his appreciation. She didn't seem to mind either way, which was good.

"Why here?" he yipped out. Both females looked at him with that human bewilderment that he recognized from a past he could not return to. "Why are you here? Why burn things?" As far as he knew, burning was restricted to getting rid of things that were no longer useful or for evil people. Or something. Or new life, maybe, at best.

Sayo curled up on herself once more and her answer took a moment or two to decipher. She, simply put, had no idea. Well, that wasn't helpful at all.

"Some prejudices." The woman made a face of irritation. Then it softened. "For now, we'll put you two to bed. Understood?"

Bed? Bed meant sleep. Bed meant he was tired. But he was not tired. Though Sayo was probably. Everything bad had happened all at once. It would be good for her to get some rest. She was trembling like a leaf again. This time it seemed less out of fear. Seemed more of need to give up, need to end.

"Sleep." He barked. He ignored the strange voice that said if he went to sleep, that he wouldn't wake. What silliness. He would be fine. "Let's sleep."

Sayo looked at him slowly. Then he reached out and pet behind a small yet floppy ear. "Okay."

Because what else was there to do?

Kouichi woke up feeling freezing cold.

Sayo seemed to be asleep, and when his cold nose touched hers she shivered. Kouichi shook himself and stood up on his stubby legs. Then he paused. Legs. He had legs! There were this weird pink shade but, but he had legs! He didn't know why this made him so happy, but just attempting to walk felt so much better. So much more familiar.

Before his legs had been taller and stronger, covered in armor and glowing with strength and darkness alike. Before, he'd had swords and a lance and… and wings and-

Red, red, so much red.

His legs gave out and he flops onto the floor. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and he shivered at the cold. He whined and struggled to roll over. His legs only kicked up feebly and he frowned. That wasn't good, right? He should be able to walk more, right? Kouichi let out another helpless whine.

There was a movement of sheets followed by a soft thud, and then more smaller thuds. Then, Sayo's small hands reached out and picked him up by his sides. Kouichi wanted to squirm, but she hugged him close.

The chill vanished.

"Don't run away," she told him with a small tremor. "You're gonna be tired when you evolve like that. Mama says- Mama said so."

Kouichi had to ignore the small pauses and hitches of breath. Otherwise he would go mad, and he did not know why he wanted to. Getting mad, attacking others out of rage, it made him… quiver on the inside.

He nodded his upper body once more and she tucked him under her chin. She was a comforting warmth, something and he licked her throat.

She's good, he thinks in the back of his mind. Shaking, sleepy, worn, it reminds him of that person from before, but he also thinks of a limp thing, carried intwo large arms and by a screaming person.

But that was so far away.

Kouichi closed his eyes and went to sleep.

There was a miracle she was supposed to create, a happy ending.

But could it be called unhappy when it was woefully incomplete?

She had lost Kimura Kouichi.

Tailmon wasn't quite certain of how it had happened. She had died yes, but there had been a sliver of a tether due to Cherubimon, and through Patamon. Regardless, she couldn't, somehow, see him. It was like he had left the universe entirely. Which wasn't as impossible in this world. Animals and monsters talked here after all. Why was this all that surprising?

Tailmon lashed her tail and paced the disorganized library. Her librarians, and she herself, were much too small to do what needed to be done, but that was a minor frustration in comparison.

"You're thinking very hard."

Tailmon lifted her head and then a single paw. "Angemon."

"Afraid so." He alighted next to her. "No Tururiemon?"

"Delayed by a broken-down Trailmon, I'm afraid. He has no taste for flying anymore, unfortunately." Angemon shook his head with a fond smile. "Aside from of course, when he flies."

She laughed and then made a face. "We should go to him. Being alone does none of us any favors."

Angemon scooped her up without asking, earning a light scratch to his face. "Aye, it does not, you are correct." He took off from her window. She would scold him later. When it wasn't too hot for her to run. "So," He began after a while. "What has your brow so furrowed?"

"I cannot reach Kouichi."

The sobriety of her voice made him take pause. "Do you think Tururiemon has a chance?"

"If he doesn't, the spirits might." She scratched one ear. "But I would rather we discuss it together." She sighed. "I know he continues. Somewhere."

"Wouldn't Kouji have a better chance than us?" Angemon dodged a passing Piyomon flock as he spoke, eyes sparkling behind his visor at the sight of the lone Trailmon chugging along just below.

"Do you want to give them false hope?"

"Don't answer a question with a question."

Angemon laughed, and freely at that, circling below to the train. "Want to give him a grand entrance?"

The worry lifted from Tailmon's eyes and she nodded. He let her fall, and she shrieked laughter. It was all worth it for Tururiemon's disgruntled, and reluctant amusement.

Minamoto Kouji met his birth mother for the first time in an ICU room. From a woman with such a sad smile in every photograph, he had half expected to find her inconsolable, a mess of noise and bitter swaths of resentment towards him. But all she did was smile and pull him tight to her chest. It broke all decorum, all that he knew and could control. At the same time, being held like that, framing his vision of an immobile Kouichi and the IV drip, Kouji couldn't stop the thoughts that flittered in and out.

He had kind of wanted this after all. Only, if only the circumstances were better.

So he hugged her back, hesitating until he could grip her shirt.

"Does your father know you're here?" she asked. Her voice was soft and soothing. Kouichi had made him think of that, of everything stereotypical with a mother. It was close to Satomi, without the discomfort. Mom. Both moms. He had to do something about this.

"Yeah." No. He kicked himself. He shouldn't lie. His dad knew he was out, but most children were.

His birth mother smiled. She knew. "You lie like he does, much too quickly."

That brought up a whole host of questions, ones that burst in his throat. But Kouji looked at his brother instead. "What's wrong with him?"

"Skull fracture, concussion." Her response was so rote and quick it made him wince. His mother brushed his bandanna down. "They're more surprised he is alive… and they don't know how long he will stay that way."

The mother Kouji had envisioned was a soft, kind woman. She bore things and hid suffering from others. She needed someone to help her, to make things easier.

Some of this was right. But she was so much more than that.

He looked at Kouichi, who seemed to sleep on. His D-Scanner sat in his pocket, silent and still. But it wouldn't turn into his phone again.

None of them had.