Bound: Egasp! An actual chapter? Why yes, yes it is. I'm sorry for not updating for so many months. I got busy with life…..and just a little lazy. But at the moment I'm visiting my cousin and slightly bored. This chapter is mainly about Kouji's experience at the psychiatrist.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
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Kouichi and his father drove back in complete silence. The man dropped his son off at his house, but the boy didn't say a goodbye. His body felt numb. Kouichi felt as though he barely had the strength to stand. The dejected boy walked through his house in auto mode and shut himself in the safety of his room. It was only when he had sunk to sitting with his back to the door that he let tears streak silently down his face.
'What's happening to us, brother?'
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Kouji's aunt returned to pick him up half an hour after she left. The boy had been able to dodge the questions from his cousin the other boy had practice. He hoped his Aunt would just leave things be. After all, she was already forcing him to see a doctor. Kouji wasn't sure if he could keep from snapping at her.
The ride to the psychiatrist's office was tense. Rika tried to clear the air by chatting about nonsense, mentioning briefly that Lo seemed to like his new home. The somber boy already irate boy found himself getting more frustrated listening to her so did his best to block her voice out.
Rika seemed to get the point. She had a teenage son, after all. There had been a time when Ken had almost reached the point her nephew was at. The woman took a moment to silently thank the boy's friends. The rest of the drive was spent with the noises of a busy street as the only sound.
They arrived at the building at 4:45pm. Kouji followed his aunt wordlessly, a small frown on his face. The office they entered was small and cold feeling. Five chairs sat on either side of the area, which was more like a wide hallway. He chose to sit down across from a middle age woman and her toddler while his aunt checked them in at the front desk.
"Kouji," she called to him softly. He took his time looking up from his shoes, and saw that that his new guardian's hands were holding out a small stack of papers to him.
"You need to fill these out before you get called in. No wonder they wanted us to get here so early."
She gave a tentative smile before sitting next to him and pulling a book out of her purse. Kouji glanced at the small stack handed to him. The first paper listed his rights as a patient, information about doctor-patient privilege, and so on. He skimmed through it briefly before signing and dating it. The next one was patient information; age, sex, medications. Shouldn't they know that already?
At the bottom of the stack was a survey. He went through it quickly, circling from one to five on each of the questions. Low to high, how does this make you feel? The questions made him want to roll his eyes. Stupid scenarios were written out. At the end of each one they would ask him how he would feel in that situation. Did it really matter?
Kouji handed them to Rika when he was finished, and slumped back into his seat. 4:58pm, they'd barely been there 15 minutes and he was already tempted to walk out the door. His aunt patted him on the shoulder when she returned.
"Just a few more minutes, sweetie."
She had just finished taking her seat when a young man, around 30 years of age, approached them with a smile on his face. He had wild brown hair that looked as if it hadn't been combed in months, and warm brown eyes.
"You must be Kouji." He said in a relaxed voice. The young boy just thoughtfully quirked his eyebrow at him, the man wasn't very professional. He continued on unhindered. "I'm Dr. Kamiya; it's good to meet you. And you must be Mrs. Ichijouji." He shook hands with the woman.
"We're pleased to meet you Doctor." Rika answered for both of them.
"Why don't you come back with me Kouji, and maybe the three of us will talk later? "
"Mn." The dark haired boy followed the man as we walked to the hallway left of the reception desk and opened another door.
Dr. Kamiya's office had a simple set up. A desk facing one wall, a couch was opposite the door under a window, and close to it on the third wall was an overstuffed chair. Next to the door was a shelf that was filled with board games. Candyland, Chutes and Latter's, and other games he hadn't played since grade school were stacked messily on the shelves.
Kouji went for the chair, not comfortable with the idea of having to lie on a couch in front of a stranger. His hands started to pick at the ends of his sleeve while the man sat down on the couch. Kouji's eyes darted back and forth between the door and the man nervously.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. " The doctor chuckled. "So to start off, I'm Dr. Tai Kamiya. You can just call me Tai, Dr. Tai or Dr. Kamiya. Whichever you prefer is fine. It's important that you know I'm here to help you. If you feel pressured you can stop whenever you want. Nothing you say will ever leave this room. Unless I think you are going to hurt yourself or someone else, because at that time I'm obligated to inform your guardian."
The boy scoffed at that. Wasn't the whole reason he was here because he was "hurting himself."
"Today I just want to ask you some questions, get to know you a little. Nothing big, okay?" No response.
"You just recently moved in with your aunt, right?"
"Yeah."
"And why did you do that?"
"My dad thought I would stop doing 'it' if I had a change of scenery." He gave an especially hard tug on the loose threads of his sleeve.
"By 'it' you mean cutting," A nod from Kouji. "Did you want to move?"
"No. I wanted to be near Kouichi."
"Kouichi would be?"
"My brother, he's my twin brother." Another hard pull.
Kamiya glanced at Kouji's hands.
"Are you doing that because you're nervous?"
"I'm not nervous, I'm pissed." The boy glared up at the doctor. "I don't need to be here."
Kouji refused to answer any more questions and the sat in silence for the next few minutes.
"Well," Tai said, "why don't you switch places with your aunt for now, and I'll talk to you….let's say, next week?"
"Whatever, "he shrugged.
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When the twin's mother returned home late she locked the doors, took off her coat, and went to check on her son. Usually he was still awake and they would chat a little about their days before going to sleep.
"Kouichi," She whispered as she rapped lightly on his door. "You awake, honey?"
She opened the door and peeked her head through to see her son passed out on top of his bed. She shook her head lightly, and went to cover him. Standing over him, she petted his hair affectionately. Hopefully he would feel better soon. It hurt her to see one of her sons so distressed.
"Goodnight, Kouichi."
She didn't see the bottle of sleeping pills that was missing a few too many as she left his room.
"Sweet dreams."