Warning for anxiety.

Chapter Two - First Lesson

Orimoto Izumi was not panicking. She was doing the opposite of panicking. She was assessing her options out loud for her clubmates to hear and cluck over Unfortunately for her, none of her clubmates were remotely the clucking type, nor the type to not poke and prod at her for funsies. Except maybe Kouichi, but Kouichi was sighing into his phone like whoever he was texting had done him a great personal grievance. And it was loud, emotionally speaking.

"What?" she finally asked, too aggrieved to be nicer about it. Thankfully, Kouichi didn't react to this very often. If anything, he seemed to just find it funny. Now was no exception, as he was smirking at her.

"Takeru is more trouble than he's worth."

"And yet you haven't dumped him for greener pastures." Izumi kept her voice even now to behave and not tease the hell out of Kouichi. That way whatever he did to her after today could be paid back twofold. "You're supposed to be helping me set up."

"He wears enough green that I don't think I could find any if I tried." Kouichi raised an eyebrow. "You don't need help. You need to breathe. Remember? English class in high school?"

She glowered at him. "Kouichi-kun."

"You're just teaching a girl how to make kid friendly meals. It's not like she's hopeless." Kouichi paused. "Takeru said she wasn't hopeless anyway, just had a palate for exotic, random flavors that would scare a baby at first."

Something in Izumi relaxed at the words. "So she just-"

"She has a lot to prove," Kouichi supplied. "Or thinks she does anyway."

Don't I know the feeling. Still, okay, she could work with that sort of mentality. Had to look pretty and homemade and taste good and get the kid fed. Okay that was a lot smaller than she'd though. But that was…

She was so young. To be worrying about that sort of thing right now. This was way too young.

The girl had probably barely had to fend for herself at all. Nobody really mentioned the Digital World anymore, aside from a few random accidents that could easily have not been about Digimon at all, so it was safe to say her and her friends were an isolated incident.

It didn't make her a kid but well, the Digital World changed you.

So she'd help and hopefully take a load off of this girl's shoulders.

Hikari stepped off the bus, carrying herself with her brother's confidence. She'd borrowed it because he was sick with the flu and wasn't using it. His words, not hers. But she'd needed it, needed them, and even now as an adult, her brother was still her brother. So she took it as she walked onto the college campus, horrendously self-conscious but refusing to bend. She was only a month or so in. It would not show, and yet she felt the judgement was almost in the air. Thankfully the campus was almost empty due to classes and she was fine with that. She wasn't going to get lost. Orimoto-san had given her directions and the campus seemed easy enough to navigate. Within a few minutes she arrived in front of the designated door. She heard people chatting through the slightly ajar door and paused.

Nerves raced into her arms and her shoulders started to shake. This was simple. This was normal. Even if she wasn't pregnant, she'd still need to do this. It was normal. How could she not be able to take care of herself at minimum? (She could was the problem.)

Nostalgic yearning for Tailmon swelled up in her chest again and Hikari ignored it. Digimon were starting to be more common, more obvious at least in her area, and that didn't mean Tailmon would return. She would come back when it was her time and she had Wizarmon back and no sooner. Still, it would make it easier if she was here. She'd have someone for support.

She knocked on the door and it swung open within seconds. Izumi faced her, centimeters taller, eyes a beautiful, beautiful green and a smile soft and kindly. Rather like Hikari's grandma who often confused her for her mother. It was soothing and Hikari made herself smile back.

"Good afternoon," she said, rather than continue to stare awkwardly and smile dopily at the girl that was quite frankly saving her butt. "Am I late?"

"Not really," Izumi replied, letting her in. "No one's doing anything."

"I'm planning," called the familiar voice of Takeru's boyfriend.

"And I'm your uncle in a wig," shot back another and Hikari swallowed her nerves. They were close. Then again, she'd been close with her club mates before Digimon and everything. The others were close with her but… she was just never sure. She looked around the room. It was mostly girls, a few boys - Kouichi-kun included - but the girls were all gathering around an oven.

"Did you turn it on Yuriko?" grumbled one.

"You were supposed to preheat it!" said another and the two of them kept bickering while the third just looked like she wanted to turn into a piece of linoleum. That was a mood if Hikari had ever heard it. "Do you mean I have to reset the timer?"

"Ignore them," Kouichi offered as she took a seat. Her legs had already started hurting, though apparently she'd avoided her mother's morning sickness. She didn't quite know how. "They wanted to show off and prove their greatness."

"Sounds about right." She smiled at Kouichi. "Takeru-kun said he hoped to see you tonight."

Kouichi, to his credit, didn't blush too much. "I'm sure he is."

Izumi came back to them, holding a knife and some vegetables and rice. "I'm going to teach you knife skills," she said in the most business like tone Hikari had ever heard about food. "Or at least test them. If you can use a knife, heat up something, and look up a recipe, you've got half your issues solved. There's no way you'll be making noodles every day."

A part of her wanted to. That was what Daisuke was learning how to do. She was so proud of him, she'd have liked to ask him but he'd have been-

He would have been gentle and right now she didn't need gentle. She needed unbiased, helpful and fast. She didn't need someone who would ask-

Who was it?

- Out of worry and fear and good concern, he'd want to know who the father was and Hikari didn't want to think about that. They were all laboring under the idea that it had been completely out of her control. And-

Someday she was going to convince them that yes she was an adult. Or at the very least capable of looking after herself.

"Right," she said, before Izumi got suspicious. "Let me get started."

And she set to work.

Honestly, Izumi had no idea what she was doing here.

Hikari knew how to use a knife. If she was being extra honest today, she knew how to use it a little too well. She held it with none of the timidity of first time cooks, nor a grip so hard something was bound to crack eventually. Her only issue was the waylaid finger on top of the blade, but a lot of people did that and it was correctable.

Her eyes watered with the onions and Izumi paused to help her put the halves into vinegar before letting her continue on. "It cooks out," she said by way of explanation. "So you don't have to worry about the taste."

Hikari had nodded, face set, and had finished the work. Appeased, Izumi then showed her how to make the broth, how to sear meat, and the right timing to setting things in the pot. By the time the sun was starting to go down, Hikari had managed a creamy soup.

Izumi took a sip and shook her head. "Bland," she said matter of factly. "But we're not on spices yet. Good job!" She relaxed now, because really, the lesson was over. "I don't really know what you were worried about, you've got a knack for it."

Hikari peered at her and said in a tired voice. "This is a thing I can control until everyone else calms down so I can."

Izumi thought about this. Then she smiled. "I can't say I understand, but if you want to escape here, I'm not going to complain. At least you can turn on a stove."

Yuriko shouted something unintelligible at her. Hikari laughed and Izumi blinked. That was a very, very nice laugh.

To not think about that, she turned away and added some salt and pepper to the soup and gave some to Hikari to taste. It took a few moments, and a couple of cautious sips. But then the other woman smiled, a bit sadly.

Then, she said rather brightly. "I should have taken up knitting. My palette makes sense there."

Kouichi wheezed with laughter and it took everything Izumi had not to smile.

"Learn how and make yourself a few potholders."

The look on Hikari's face suggested that that wasn't a bad idea at all.