It has been five months since I last updated this, and I would like to say I'm sorry. To be frank I'm very self-conscious when it comes to this story since I'm not sure of which way to think about it. For starters it heavily features on OC character which I've started having doubts about, and then the writing style of when I first started this story. Either way, I felt that it was about time that I updated.

This is something that I had part of it typed out a while ago, but I was never quite sure what to think about. Either way, this is a short chapter this update. I'm sure a lot of you are surprised to see this and probably figured that I had discontinued it, but here I am, showing you that this story is still kicking. If I'm slow on updating, feel free to come and kick me in my internet groin.

This chapter explains why Takeru stood up the double date.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon


"And that is why I love you, Yagami-san. You are my star, my perfect silence," Takeru was finally able to say out loud, the words having been stuck in his throat as he sat across from Hikari, the two of them sitting in an Odaiba cafe that Miyako had always raved about.

The cafe was set up nice enough, the style of it was distinctly American and it showed right down to the menus that were printed in English among other things. Although, the novelty of the place didn't seem to faze Takeru all that much, but he thought that was just because of the reason that they were there. The words he had said felt much too dirty for the happy-go-lucky cafe they were in, and he couldn't help but frown once he thought more about it.

Hikari herself hadn't replied, and simply continued to stir away at her coffee, not daring to look at Takeru after what he just said. The two of them had been on a lot better terms recently than they had been for much of the previous year, the ugliness of rejection and the subsequent awkwardness caused by Takeru's new love life taking it's toll on their friendship, but things had been looking up more recently.

"Hikari," she heard the voice across from her say, Takeru sounding more pensive than what she was used to hearing from him.

She didn't respond, but at the same time she stopped stirring her coffee. She could only do that for so long until it stopped looking like something that was done absentmindedly instead of intentionally. She hadn't thought that the two of them would have to have another conversation like this again so soon, though she would have been lying if she had said that she didn't expect it somewhere down the road. Frowning, she finally looked up at Takeru for the first time since he had spoken, the words he had said not being something that she exactly wanted to hear.

"Do you have anything to say, Hikari?" Takeru found himself finally asking once it became apparent that the nervous girl in front of him wasn't going to say what she thought about the situation without a little prodding on his part.

To buy a few more moments of time she took a sip of her coffee, before she sighed and set it down. It was delicious, but not sweet enough to ease her into a better comfort zone. "Well what am I supposed to say to that?"

He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck for a few seconds before he resigned himself back to reality and took another glance at the piece of paper that Hikari had given him to read. "How about we start with who is this from?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Hikari admitted before she paused mid-sentence as if unsure on how to continue. She had never been very good at hiding facial expressions, Takeru taking advantage of this during the uncountable card games that the two of them had played throughout the years, and even though she tried to force it away she knew that it looked to him as if she was debating on whether or not to give it to him straight, "except I'm pretty sure that Miyako has something to do with it since she's been trying to set me up on a date with one of Ken's friends."

Not knowing what to say, Takeru was silent for a moment. She was watching him intently gauging for a response, but he wasn't able to give it as quickly as he would have hoped. Honestly, he had no clue on how he should have felt or how to even react. It seemed like something that he should have been happy to hear, Hikari finding herself a guy oddly solving quite a bit of problems for him, but truth be told it wasn't a solution that he found acceptable. What's more, he didn't like the fact that it was a couple of their shared friends who had apparently had this Paris-bright idea.

Miyako and Ken knew the history that he and Hikari had between them, both the good stories and the more awkward or uncomfortable ones, and it somewhat rubbed him the wrong way that they would speak to Hikari about delving more into the world of dating without talking to him first. He knew that he had no claim on who Hikari dated or didn't date, but he still would have liked to have been told beforehand, or at the least had been given the courtesy of a warning. As he watched Hikari give him a smile that was more awkward than the silence that he had let fall between them, Takeru cleared his throat if just to make the silence end for a moment at the least.

"We're Ken's friends." Takeru sheepishly finally said at last, his brain freezing on him.

His face remained blank as Hikari frowned again, not seeming to be quite pleased with his answer. Feeling like an idiot, Takeru fiddled with his hands in his lap, thankfully outside of Hikari's view.

"He lives all the way in Tamachi, Takeru. Of course he has friends other than us."

"Yeah, of course." He answered slowly, which didn't really make the subject matter any more comfortable to tread.

Takeru reached for his cup of coffee that he had yet to even start drinking. The cup looked like it was something expensive, something that pretentious rich people like Masato threw their easily earned money at, and truth be told he wasn't sure what to think about it. On one hand it made him feel slightly fancy and that it was a cafe that was worth going to, but on the other it reminded him of the kinds of things that certain people, like the Oshiros and whatever other mafia or cartel organizations, did for money.

Deciding not to drink the coffee at the moment, he slightly pushed it away just as he pushed away whatever other thoughts had sneaked into his head, but then he remembered about the whole Hikari situation and he didn't know how he was going to stomach the rest of the conversation. Deciding to concentrate on only Hikari for the time being, even if the thought of her dating some stranger wasn't a very nice thought to have, he figured that that particular subject was better to dwell on than on cold-blooded murder and prostitution rings.

"So," again with words that were spoken much too slowly, Takeru wondered if his brother Yamato had ever been as bad with the opposite sex as he was, "is he a nice guy?"

In this case, as it often does, 'nice' meant was she attracted to him? Pushing aside his feelings of wanting to smash this dude's face in, he knew that it was better for him to know the answer to his question than for it to remain a mystery.

Hikari looked blankly at him for a moment, but then she did something that Takeru didn't expect to see. She laughed. "Oh yeah, Takeru. I'm totally head over heels over this guy that I don't even know." she pointed at the paper that was right in front of Takeru. "Do you really expect me to fall for that kind of flowery language?"

Takeru smiled, and whatever insecurities he had immediately floated away. He couldn't stop himself from grinning as he raised the paper up and cleared his throat to read a different section of the letter in his best narrator voice. "I don't know how much time we'll have to spend together, my sweet spider monkey, but let's start with forever."

She giggled, pretty sure that she had heard that line in a crappy movie somewhere before and she sighed, contently this time, and prepared herself to relax. She took another drink of her coffee, and was surprised that she barely realized how tasty it was. She rose her nose up in faux snobbishness, before she waved Takeru off like a queen would a servant. "Proceed to regale me with another section, dear knight."

He grinned again and rose his own cup of coffee in celebration before drinking some. He let the taste settle in and nodded, reminding himself to thank Miyako for the heads up on this cafe. He set the cup down and scanned the love letter to find another good part. "The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that I was. Lovers don't eventually meet somewhere, they're in each other all along."

She was pretty sure she had read that one somewhere as well, but decided not to say anything and gave another queenly wave to Takeru to give him the signal to continue. He nodded at her and began reading the letter again. "I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for a religion, I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more, because I too could be martyred for my own religion. Love is my religion, and I could die for that. I could die for you."

She smiled, happy to be in a good mood again. Absentmindedly, she added a bit more sugar to her coffee and began stirring again. "He does come off a little strong don't you think?"

"Yeah," he replied as he looked down at the letter, before biting the inside of his cheek as he thought of something. "This isn't the only time you've gotten a love letter."

It wasn't a question, more like an acknowledging statement. And Hikari stopped stirring so that she could lean forward just a smidgen and better study Takeru's face. He looked rather blank, not sad or jealous or anything like that, just blank. Not the dopey kind of blank though, or the stunned one, just one that bordered on him looking bored. She let some thoughts bounce around on the inside of her head for a moment or two before she answering.

"Well," she began to admit, "no. I've gotten a few other love letters before, but I'm not sure from who." She shrugged, figuring that doing so would show to Takeru that it was something that didn't really matter all that much.

Slowly, he raised his hand. "I know who they're from."

She narrowed her eyes at him, not sure if he was serious or if he was just making a joke about the whole secret admirer love letter thing. "Who?" she asked skeptically, doubting that Takeru actually had an answer.

"Me and Daisuke." he replied honestly, while looking away from Hikari and off to the side since his face was already much too flushed that it was already pretty noticeable. "I remember one time back when we thought we were competing for you, that we each wrote a letter to you and stuffed it into your locker at the same time."

Biting her lip, Hikari wasn't sure if it was wise to believe him just yet. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Both of us wrote that we wanted to meet up with you on the same day and at the same time, and we were going to see which one of us you were going to go off and meet."

Immediately, Hikari rose her finger in contemplation. That was way back when they were still in middle school, and if she recalled correctly she still had those letters sitting somewhere in the bottom of a shoe box right in her closet right between some of her brother's sports gear and a bag of emergency supplies that her mother forced her to keep on hand. "That was you guys? I thought it was a joke so I ended up not going to either."

He raised his cup again playfully. "It's all for the better I think, considering everything."

She considered asking him what he meant, but stopped herself since that was something that she was sure would be ugly. At the moment they were having a good outing, there were no older brothers hassling them, no evil digimon to defeat in battle, no Ayano which Hikari was especially thankful for, and it was just her and Takeru having a nice time. She didn't want to spoil it.

Although, that seemed to change when Takeru received a phone call and excused himself to go see who it was. She sat patiently at first, but then began worrying around the twenty minute mark when he still didn't show up. She didn't want to intrude but had a bad feeling about what had happened, and after explaining to the waitress that she was going to go check up on Takeru, Hikari made her way to the outside of the cafe. She found him there, sitting on the concrete just off to the entrance of the cafe, and he was simply staring forward, not looking at anything in particular.

She considered for a moment about what to do, before she braced herself, and knelt down to look Takeru in his eyes. "What's wrong, Takeru?"

He didn't respond at first, until she reached over and shook him a bit. Takeru rubbed his hands in his face, and when he removed them to look back at Hikari there were tears brimming in his eyes. "Yamato is missing."


You'll see where Yamato is in the next chapter, which will be told from the perspective of a member of a Yakuza. At first I had meant for the Yakuza to only be mentioned in passing, but I figured, why not use them? The digimon may also play a bigger part, but that's all in good time.