V.

Kaito did not greet Gaomon when he returned.

Gaomon was very used to this. He often wandered in the late hours, hunting and training and other things. Kaito had human things to accomplish and Gaomon respected that. After all, it wasn't as though he wasn't provided the same privacy.

Tonight, however, as his human got ready for bed, he supposed this was a time to breach their unspoken pact,

"I met with your admirer just now," he began. Unlike most, there was no trepidation in his voice. "He looks better from his fall. Too bad."

Kaito hummed in reply.

Gaomon couldn't help but smile. "He really wants answers, you know. It's rude of you to keep secrets from the ones you love."

"Did you give him any?" Kaito asked, instead of flaring up, as he once would have. It had been different once. The Kaito packing his backpack, drawing his dressing gown over his knees, didn't respond anymore. Barely looked at him, smiled only once in a while.

Gaomon missed the willful brat a little. But he would never say so. They were under contract. "Not really," he said instead of admitting such. "Not yet. Should I?"

"He's already hurt Kei," Kaito responded in that same tired voice. "I'll hurt him if he goes after anyone else." If he goes after Aiden.

"How sweet."

Kaito did not agree or disagree. He merely turned off his light and went to lay down in bed. Gaomon waited for his squirming to stop before he joined him.

Alone in his room, his thoughts, only then did Kaito dare to make a sound of pain, to let his thin fingers puncture his sleeves.

Did you know he loves you, he heard from five hours before. He heard from Kei over the sound of water in a sink. Did you know he's loved you since he was seven and stupid? And now he's thirteen and stupid? Because I did and I can't stop hearing it and it feels like vomit. It's not mine and I don't want it. And he's not going to stop until you stop him. Or until he gets his life together. And you can't help that. But you can stop his roll before he hurts someone that's not me.

I didn't know, he had said. He hadn't known and it filled him with a dread he couldn't understand. Not the one that had told him to confess, or the one that had left that day with so many holes in it, but the one that came from Tsukiko snatching his first kiss because they were too scared to say no to each other, or the way Hirose would bump their shoulders together in solidarity and the idea of losing that made his stomach churn. The dread that had risen when Kei had said no, but abated when he'd heard why.

TV and movies were right. Everything changed when someone knew the truth about you. Or at least one secret that means something.

Taesuke was the little follower, the one with the big eyes and the big mouth and certainty that he was gonna be something in this world because everyone in his family was and he had a good foothold. He just wasn't sure yet. And he was also Taesuke the stubborn, selfish bullhead who was in love with him and Kaito had no idea why. And he had no idea what Gaomon had told him or half-told him.

Did it even matter really? All of it were things that he had not told the younger boy, had told almost no one.

Kaito rose from his bed, watched Gaomon shiver for a moment without him with a dispassionate stare. Then he stroked the fur three times and left the room. It would be another sleepless night.

He wasn't the only one who stayed awake that night. But even Taesuke gave up eventually. Kaito, eventually settling in the crook of his mother's arm, did not for a long while.

Morning came and Taesuke missed it. He woke up at noon with nausea in his gut. The house was even silent, which was rare even if it was just him and Hackmon in the house. And… He looked around. Hackmon hadn't come back into his room.

Taesuke swallowed that guilt. He couldn't even remember what Gaomon had told him, not really. Just something about a ravine, about someone at the bottom, and someone else in tears. The rest was blurry. Even trying to think of it gave his chest an uncomfortable throb.

He left his bedroom, body twinging with every step. He breathed and regretted it. Still, he kept breathing, kept walking until he made it to the living room, where he collapsed into his father's favorite squishy armchair.

Only when he was there did he notice his sister, her Zubamon, and Hackmon all on the sofa. Hackmon wasn't looking at him. Zubamon snored. His sister turned the page of her magazine, her uniform crisp on her shoulders.

"You're not patrolling today?" he croaked out for lack of anything good to say.

"Good morning to you too," she replied, turning another page. "No, I'm on watch duty so you don't go berserk and tear out of the house again. You attacked a fellow officer, Tae."

"So did you." He could remember that.

She snorted. "Yeah, with my voice. And in unofficial capacity. You had your results chip on you. You're lucky you weren't expelled the second your report came through, if you passed at all."

"I did pass." Taesuke had never cared less about anything in his life. "They'd have told someone by now if it was revoked or something."

"Probably. You slept till high noon while you were sulking."

"I was not sulking. I was thinking." He made a face. "You could try it sometime."

"Since all it's done is caused you to hurt our cousin and Hackmon, I'd rather be stupid instead. At least I can be likable."

Taesuke lifted himself up in the chair and immediately regretted it, hissing pain. He sat back. "What happened to me?"

"Automatic defense mechanism of Union Digivices," Tsukiko watched him over the top of her pages. Sure he wasn't going to try something else stupid, she settled back down. "To keep humans from becoming cannon fodder. It shapes itself depending on what the user's thinking. You're lucky Kei was just thinking of passing out. I was thinking of you dangling from the roof by the skin of your legs."

"He's not getting in trouble?"

"He probably is, but that's because you'd be starting on probation if he didn't. He's just not dangerous all the time like they think you are."

Then what makes him and Kaito monsters? "Hmph."

"Brat."

He stuck his tongue out at her, but then sank into his chair. "Is… is Kaito mad at me?"

"I sure as hell hope so." Tsu finally put her reading down and moved to stand up. "Why can't you ask out your crush like everyone else and just put a love letter in their shoe locker or get rejected behind the school? Why did you have to go and be a creep about it?"

"I wasn't being a creep." It hurt to be angry, but then, it usually did. "I was just excited! He only talked to me because he was your friend!"

"Can't imagine why!" She looked ready to puff out further, the patented Yagami hair floating like it had its own gravity. "You're thirteen, Tae! Thirteen! And you've had seven conversations with him without anyone else! Just get rejected like everyone else and move on and try again when you've lived a little."

"Why?" Why did everyone find this such a big deal?! She crushed on celebrities all the time! Dai had the stupidest crush on Kei and Miya literally winked at her deskmate at least once a week and held hands with her at lunch! Why was he different?!

Tsukiko puffed up further, and it must have been a grandma move because their parents never did that. "Because you're my brother!" she finally snapped, throwing her magazine to the floor. "And you may be a pain in the ass, but you're my pain in the ass and you're hurting yourself over a boy you don't even know! And you're hurting my best friend by acting like you're entitled to his attention. You don't know him, Tae! You know this guy who was nice to you because you were small and sad and my brother! I'm his best friend and I barely know him! But I know he doesn't love easy so he wouldn't love you!"

But I do, he thought mutinously. I know he did something bad to make something good happen. I know.

She was gone before he could open his mouth, the door to the bathroom slamming after her.

Rather than go after her, Taesuke sagged into the chair. By the time he opened his eyes again, Hackmon was draped over him like a blanket, and the sun was lower in the windows.

"'M sorry," he mumbled.

Hackmon grunted. "No you're not."

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna stop?"

"I dunno how." He didn't even know what to stop really.

"Course you don't. That's why I'm here."

Taesuke smiled, and it didn't hurt.