Koushiro woke with a jump, his heartbeat accelerated and breathing drastically increased. Grabbing his chest, his dark eyes darted around the room for any signs of distress, but he could not find anything, only Tentomon sleeping peacefully next to his feet. He sighed in relief. It was just a nightmare, he concluded. The third one this week…

A bright glowing screen in front of him was a hint that he wasn't in his bed, but in fact still in his chair and still working. He huffed and rubbed his tired eyes. He desperately needed a change of scenery. He needed to clear his mind. A voice rang in his head.

Let's talk about it. What goes on through your mind?

He knew where he could go. But would she be awake? Without waking up his partner, he grabbed his shoes and keys before heading out of his apartment.

The sky was still dark outside, so he continued to walk. About halfway to his desired destination, he looked down at his phone to see the time. It was 2:34 am. Unlocking his phone, he continued to walk and scrolled through his contacts. He eventually found her name, but his thumb hovered over it. Maybe she's asleep. I don't want to wake her. Maybe she has to plan lessons in the morning. Maybe she changed her mind. I don't want to burden her….

"Koushiro?" A voice in front of his path caused him to jump. It was the name on his phone his thumb would not dare press.

"Hikari?"

She chuckled. "Where are you going?"

"I was… I was going to ask you the same thing." He sighed in relief.

She smiled and said, "I was actually walking over to see you. I've been thinking about you a lot lately."

His heart skipped a beat. "You were? Why?"

"I just wanted to check up on you. See how you were doing. Maybe talk about anything new."

She always knew when something was up. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. We can do that," he agreed as he shoved his phone in his pocket. Once she reached his side, the two headed back to his apartment.

A comfortable silence sat between them as they walked down the path back to the Izumi residence. Koushiro noticed that she was wearing his jacket from the last time they talked as he failed to return the following day to retrieve it, but he didn't want to mention it to her. His mind went into overdrive to think of things to say whenever she would ask a question. He wanted to tell her about everything that has been going on, but didn't want to burden her with his struggles. "How's your new job? You told me your first week went well. Is it still good?" Koushiro asked, hoping to move the attention to something else.

"Oh, I absolutely love it! The kids are so sweet and kind! It's like a dream," she paused before she continued. "Let's talk about you. Are you sure you're liking your job? You seemed unenthusiastic the last time we talked in person."

He waved his hands in front of him, as visions of the last time they saw each other on the Yagami residence roof played in his head. "Of course I am! Why wouldn't I? It's something I've wanted to do since I could remember."

"I don't know. You look stressed," Hikari said, narrowing her eyes.

"Well," he replied, looking up to the night sky. "To be honest with you, I am a little stressed. There are so many things to do... And I am only one person. I just have to get everything done in time. There's all this… pressure."

"You know you don't have to do everything by yourself, right?" she said, moving her eyes upward, too.

Koushiro moved his gaze from the stars to the girl next to him. The starlight from the late summer sky lightly brushed her face. "Yeah, I know."

"What's wrong? What's really bothering you, Koushiro?"

She always knew when something was up.

He shrugged, hands in his pockets. "I don't know what's wrong, okay? I'm just… really tired."

She looked back at him, concerned. "You look tired."

"It's because I am tired," he whispered.

Hikari stopped walking, causing him to stop, turn around and face her, "Talk to me, Koushiro. What's bothering you?"

He sighed and averted his eyes to his feet. "You remember a couple years ago with the reboot?"

"Yeah?"

He held his breath, scared of what to say next. "I've… I've been having these dreams… About something like that happening again. And I never want something like that to happen again because I don't know what I would do if it did. So I've been trying and trying and trying to find something, anything that might stop anything like that from happening again…"

Hikari slowly walked up to Koushiro and wrapped her arms around him. She felt him shudder at her touch, knowing that it was from his inner struggle and not from her. Even after breaking his walls down in front of her, he himself did not want to break entirely.

"Breathe, Koushiro. It's okay. The world won't fall if you're not holding it up. You can't do everything by yourself. Everyone is here for you. Me, Tentomon, Tailmon, Taichi. Everyone."

Koushiro stayed silent as he moved his arms to return the hug. He buried his head in the crook of her neck, scared to show any emotion from this confession. "You always know what to say, Hikari."

She chuckled. "You know, I'd do anything for you… you guys."

He didn't know if it was the lack of sleep or the comfort he felt being in her embrace, but he didn't stop himself "Of course, I know. I've known you since… forever. I can't imagine my life without you."

A pause set it as she thought about what to say next. "How long has it been since your last good night of sleep?" She whispered.

He grumbled at the question. "I'm not sure. Three? Four? Maybe five?" He mumbled against her skin.

She giggled at his vague answer. "Five what? Days? Weeks?"

A pause. "Yes," he simply responded.

Her laughing stopped and she pulled away from the embrace. "Okay, buddy. We need to get you home."

His head shot up and met her eyes. "No, you don't have to do that! It's a school night for you. You have kids to take care of and lessons to plan!"

"Koushiro, it's Saturday."

"What?" His brain could not compute.

"What day do you think it is?" She started to ask.

His eyes widened. "Saturday, of course."

"Yeah, we seriously need to get you home." She responded, well knowing he was hiding the truth and that he most likely wasn't joking about having a lack of sleep for weeks.

As they continued to walk down the path back and up to the Izumi residence, Koushiro fumbled to get his keys out of his pocket to unlock the door. Hikari started to remove the oversized jacket she was wearing. "Oh, I forgot to return this to you."

After unlocking the door, he turned to face her. "It's okay. You can have it. It looks nice on you, anyway." He admitted before he had time to realize. The door swung open and he turned on the hallway lights, illuminating the hallway and kitchen of the apartment. "Do you need anything? Do you want any tea?" Koushiro quietly asked, careful not to wake Tentomon in the other room.

"Don't worry about me! I can make my own tea. You need sleep. Let's get you to bed," she replied, lightly pushing him toward his room.

"But how are you going to get home? Who's going to walk you home?" He argued.

"Don't worry about me," she said as he slowly opened the bedroom door.

He looked around his room. It was the same as the way he left it. Without any hesitation, he plopped himself down on his bed, shoes still on his feet. As he laid down on his back, his eyes immediately felt droopy. He was about to drift off to sleep when he felt another weight join him.

"What are you doing?" He tried to protest, but couldn't open his tired eyes.

"It's a long night when you do it on your own. Is it okay if I stay to make sure you get some sleep? No more nightmares, just sweet dreams?"

His heart fluttered at the scent of cherry blossoms filling his nose and he smiled with closed eyes. "Yes, of course."