I was once, many years ago in 1999 and 2000 very prolific in the digimon fandom. I was known as the Michi princess. I wrote Michi, Mimato and Tkari fanfictions. I removed the majority of my old fanfictions (one which got deleted for being a script style - The Newlyweds Show), but a couple remain: For happier and fluffier fics, see my Michi fic: Breathless or my Tkari fic: All Over Again

I have returned only because the lack of conclusion to this fic has bothered me, I needed to give this story a wrap up.

A Stranger in my House

Chapter Three

Even Angels (Have their wicked schemes)

Fear filled her heart as she backed away from the door as if it had burned her. Her heartbeat was in her ears as she tried to figure out what to do.

Takeru knocked again.

Hikari shuddered. Panicking she looked all around her, but there was nothing to save her.

The doorbell rang impatiently and mutely, she backed away from it as far as she could.

"Kari?" Mimi stood at the top of the staircase, bleary eyed and sleepy. "Who is it? What's going on?"

The younger girl's eyes widened and she rushed to the base of the staircase, hissing in a quiet voice. "It's TK!"

"TK?" Mimi's face was grim. "Okay, okay." She looked around her, trying to formulate a plane. "You go stay in the kitchen, have the back door and phone on hand. I'll deal with him, if there's any issue then you run out through the garden, do you hear me?"

Hikari was torn as to what to do, but Mimi quickly pushed her out of sight. "Go, Kari!"

She did as she was told for a moment but quickly turned back, pressing herself against the wall so she could peer ever so slightly around the corner.

Her sister-in-law opened the door and there stood Takeru. He looked surprised to see the young woman and Hikari was speechless at the look on his face. It had been so long since she had seen a neutral expression – in the darkness of their house he always looked angry.

"TK! Hello!" Mimi's voice was pitched higher than usual, giving away her own nervousness. Although the boy was younger and she had once hugged him and taken care of him like he was her brother, he towered over her now.

"Hi Mimi," Takeru's eyes slid to the ground, "I was wondering if Hikari was with you?"

"No, sorry." Mimi returned coolly, "She's not here at the moment."

He looked at her for a long moment, blue eyes calculating. "Could I come in?" Hikari's blood froze. She recognized the unleashed anger simmering beneath his tone.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, TK." Mimi said sharply, closing the door in front of her slightly more, bracing herself.

"I see, and why would that be? Because my worthless wife is hiding behind that corner there?"

Mimi sent a startled glance toward Hikari's hiding spot and Takeru took the chance to push her aside. The young woman stumbled back as he strode into the house, slamming the door behind him.

"I can see you, Hikari." He snapped, "Pathetic. You call me and then have the audacity to hide when I come?"

Hikari slowly pulled away from the wall, visible now and trembling before her husband.

"I didn't invite you here, TK!" Mimi shouted, attempting to push at him. Her attempts were futile and he marched toward Hikari, grabbing her by the shoulders. His fingers gripped into his skin, bruising the still damaged skin.

"I just wanted to …I just wanted to…"

"To WHAT?!" He roared, "You come here, slander my name to our friends, but they don't know the real story do they? You burden, you leech – you who I am so obligated too, calling me, knowing I would come –"

"LET HER GO!" Mimi was beating at his back with her fists as Hikari tried in vain to escape his grip.

"This isn't your business, Mimi!" Takeru was taken off guard and he turned, trying to push Mimi off him.

Mimi stumbled back and Hikari was amazed at the ferocity in the other woman. "You abuse my sister! That is my business! Look at you TK, you're a MONSTER! What happened to you?!"

"SHE HAPPENED TO ME!" He roared, throwing Hikari back, her head hitting the wall. "This has nothing to do with you-" And in an instant he had grabbed Mimi by the arm, twisting it brutally as she screamed and tried to hit at him, something Hikari had never had the bravery to attempt. Grabbing her in a painful grip he began to bodily push her toward the front door, clearly trying to shove her out of the house.

The door opened before he had the chance and in an instant Tai was on top of him, punching him over and over in the face. Hikari scrambled to her feet in horror as Yamato helped Mimi to her feet, checking her over before pulling Tai off Takeru.

Hikari's brother was shouting curse words by the second, vicious and enraged.

Takeru was on the floor, bleeding from his nose and a cut over his eye. He had always seemed so big, so frightening that she could barely imagine seeing him overpowered. Now he just looked weak and fallen and she wondered why she had feared him for so long.

"You come near my wife and sister again and I WILL KILL YOU TAKERU, I WILL KILL YOU!"

Well beaten, Takeru looked confused as he tried to regain his senses. "Yama? What -"

"I'm here because of you, TK. Tai called me to come, I couldn't believe it. What have you become?" Yamato stood over his little brother's sprawled form, imposing and commanding as he looked at him over his nose. "Why are you here today?"

"Hikari called me-" TK began, "She's MY wife, none of you have any right-"

"We have all the right in the world." Yamato said sharply, "What you're doing is disgusting and wrong. Do you want to be just like Dad? Is that what you want?"

"…Mother said-"

"Yes, Hikari told us. After everything Mother went through, even if she loathed Kari, do you think she'd have wanted you to treat her the way Dad treated her?! You really have gone insane if that's how you've been justifying it to yourself."

Takeru stared at his brother and it gave Hikari the strength to move over to her fallen husband.

"Takeru." She said softly and he turned stressed blue eyes toward her. "You hate me." Admitting the lack of love was difficult, "You lost your hope and that made me lose my light. Together we spiraled down somewhere so dark. I called you because I remember what we had once, but that is truly gone isn't it? Your love for me is nothing but hate now, it's for the best, don't you see?"

For the first time in years they looked at eachother with clarity. Takeru had a terrible temper, a dark side none of them would have ever guessed, but she also understood the stress he had felt: The loss, the stress of supporting the both of them, the blame. It didn't excuse him, but here, him on the ground, bruised and beaten like she so often had been, she saw him as human once more.

"There is no future for us. I want this to be over. Please, let me go." She begged.

"You have to let it go, TK." Yamato agreed, "If you have any hope in becoming a man again, of getting your soul back, you need to start today. There is no future for either of you this way. When would it end? When you kill her?"

"I wouldn't have –" His jaw dropped.

"You wouldn't have hit her a few years ago." Mimi reminded, angry and held in Tai's arms.

"I…I have so much anger." Takeru said, wiping the blood that was dripping into his eye. "I can't control it."

"I will get you help, TK." Yamato lifted his brother up, "And now you have to help her."

Takeru set startled eyes onto Hikari and her lips trembled, tears flooding her cheeks. He said nothing, but let his brother lead him out of the house and outside.

That afternoon, Tai had scolded a sobbing Mimi over having opened the door in the first place. Defensive, Hikari had darted in between them, only to see she had once against misjudged her brother's temper. Taichi would never hit Mimi, ever. Even if was angry. That was normal. That was right. She had to keep reminding herself.

She also had to keep reminding herself that the only thing in her relationship with Takeru was fear, and that was nothing to miss or dream about.

Her family put her immediately into counseling, as did Yamato for Takeru. The divorce proceedings began and were handled by the lawyer her brother hired. They hadn't had many assets in the least, but to her surprise what little there was was liquefied and given to her. Takeru also would pay her spousal support for the subsequent five years. It was generous but her family was being generous by not pressing charges.

Hikari knew Takeru deserved to go to prison but with Yamato personally overseeing his every move, knew that this way would at least be a little therapeutic.

Living with her brother and his wife slowly introduced her into what a loving relationship should be like. Not living in constant fear allowed her to get back into substituting and within a year she was offered a proper position at a local elementary school.

On the eve of their divorce, Takeru sent Hikari a long letter of apology. He took full blame for what had happened to them, expressed his deep regret and guilt and made it clear that she was the more worthwhile person of the two of them and deserved a lot better than what he had become.

It wasn't easy, but Hikari managed with the help of her friends and family and a good counselor. She had been surprised to see just how many people wanted to help her, from co-workers to other women who had been in similar positions. Lost in a black hole of abuse she hadn't been able to notice, but they were there and their hearts were good.

She moved into her own apartment a short time afterward and it was on the night of her first nephew's birth that she shared her first kiss with the gentle, kind principle of the school. He had a son who had been in her class the previous year and pretty soon Hikari was a bride for the second time and a new mother to a tall, quiet boy.

She heard that TK had had a short lived relationship with another woman and produced a small son in that time. He had become a relative recluse, supported by his brother and putting all his time into anger management and his writing.

Many years later their friends had a reunion. Mimi had expressed nervousness over Hikari facing her ex-husband, but Hikari had waved her off, arm around her step-son and hand on her swelling stomach with what would be her new daughter.

"It's TK!" One of the children called and seeing him approach, she saw in his face a gentleness that had been gone a long time.

It really was TK.

They acknowledged eachother from afar like two strangers.

And that was alright, because looking at her son who looked so much like her husband, she knew her own house was filled with light and love and not a single stranger in sight.

The End

I know it's a fairly summarized ending, but my only want was to give this story an end after 10 years of never concluding.

My original concept of this short story was that TK would have had no redemption, and Kari would have found love in Daisuke who would have been one of Tai's friends. When I decided to finally finish the story, I instead decided to write it as if the 02 epilogue could potentially fit this storyline (or not, depending on what each reader would like). The story was also originally meant to be a little longer, but I am 12 years out of the fandom so I wrote this to conclude it.

If Hikari had stayed with Takeru the abuse would have continued, it would never have stopped. Too often people think an abuser will change one day, they won't. TK gained redemption slightly in this story by realising that he had a dark side to himself and as such should not be around people he could hurt. His change came only from isolation.

For a HAPPY Takari fic please see my story: All Over Again. For a HAPPY Michi fic please see my story: Breathless.

Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts.