Well, this is un-betaed. And honestly, I'm not exactly sure if I managed to make it work with the prompt of today.

Mm. So, I tried it to make it as friendshippy as possible. I wanted to portray just their friendship, their undestanding of what they went through in the cave without having to retell the whole incident.

Yeah, I dunno if I succeded.

Disclaimer: The usual.

(Because every day is significant.)

August 16th: Promises & Future

With a strangled gasp, Sora awoke; the panic that gripped her was slowly fading away, losing its hold on her—the angry tears were all it left behind.

It happened again.

(She thought she could forget, that feeling—sinking, down, down, down into an endless ocean of darkness. She thought she could forget, the unyielding depression and the helplessness, the fear—failure. She failed and that knowledge dragged her further down. Down, down, down. And then she was suffocating and waiting—praying for the light to come. The help. For her friends to come and help her, tell her it was okay to be selfish—that she didn't need to be the responsible one all the time. She was just a kid.

But nothing came and she found herself alone in an endless abyss. There was no light, no words of encouragement; no relief, no smiles, no understanding—there was no…)

With a shuddering intake of breath, Sora sat up and brought her knees up, hugging them tight to her chest. She tried to will her body to stop shaking, scolding herself mentally, because—because it was stupid! She shouldn't be afraid anymore, of something that happened almost two years ago! Something of no… consequence anymore…

Her lips trembled, a sob began to climb up her throat, but Sora refused to let it out; she bit her lip and pressed her forehead to her raised knees, taking deep breaths. In and out. In and out. There was no need to fear, the danger had long passed; she was not alone, never again. She had her family and her friends; she was loved. It was just a dream.

Then why, did she feel the need to crawl under the blankets next to her mother and ask her to keep her safe? No.

Sora shook her head almost violently—no. She couldn't go to her mother, she couldn't. She just needed someone to listen, to understand—someone who would…

(…Yamato.)

Before chickening out, Sora scrambled for her cellphone, grabbing it from her nightstand. The little screen mockingly tells her it's five minutes to three in the morning, an entirely inappropriate hour to bother anyone, but she's already scrolling through her short list of contacts until she finds the desired number.

«Stupid nightmare…»

Quickly, still driven by her selfish need for someone to listen, typing her message—but then stopped. She sighed tiredly. It was a stupid nightmare. There was no valid reason to bother anyone because of it. Tightening her grip on her cellphone, she pressed the send button by accident, and stared at the little screen as her free hand lifted as if she could snatch back the message.

Too late.

Crawling back to her futon, Sora struggled with herself; a part of her wanted her text to be answered and another wanted it to be ignored. If the later proved to be true, in a few hours she could… come up with an explanation for it, and—her cellphone started ringing.

Her thumb pressed the talk button automatically, and Sora held the speaker to her chest as she held her breath, trying to strain her hearing in case her mother was alerted of her very much awake daughter.

Everything was silent, and she let out a relieved sigh. Moving the cellphone to her ear, she heard the rustling of what she could only assume were sheets, and then a familiar, sleepy-sounding and deep voice called out.

"Sora… Are you there? …Scream if you're being molested."

She really couldn't help the snort that escaped her. "Your jokes are not getting funnier, Yamato, I told you that."

There was a pause, and more rustling, then his voice came again, reassuring her somehow. "It made you laugh…"

"Your sleepy voice made me laugh," she paused, hesitation making her want to hang up. "I'm sorry I woke you, I'll let you go back to sleep now—"

"No," said Yamato, sounding more alert now. "Give a minute, don't hang up."

She did, even if her head was telling her to hang up, to let her friend sleep, Sora knew that, if she did, Yamato would call her again. Probably more worried than he was now. She heard him yawn and then a sound like a sliding door opening and closing.

"Yamato?"

"Yeah? Sorry, I had to come to the balcony; my father arrived just a little while ago. He's a light sleeper, surprisingly."

"Okay."

"Tell me what's wrong, Sora," he said, more like demanded but not unkindly. "And don't say it's nothing. You wouldn't have texted me for nothing."

Sora stood up and walked to her desk chair, she dropped onto it, leaning her elbows on her desk and let her eyes wander over the darkened sky.

"It… was just a silly dream…"

There was a long pause, and then a deep breath; Yamato understood now, and his question arrived seconds later, barely above a whisper, "The cave?"

"Yes… I know it's—"

"It's not silly… So, tell me about it."

She didn't want to tell him, simply because they already had this conversation the night before leaving the digiworld, and again a few weeks after the incident with Diaboromon; Sora didn't like having to depend on Yamato like this, having to burden him with her worries when he probably had his own to concern himself about. Still, she told him.

"I couldn't get out of there," she began, her voice breaking a little. "No one came—I couldn't do anything to save myself and I kept sinking… I was alone."

And that was the crux of the matter; the fear of being, once again, alone.

"It's not going to happen, not again, Sora…" said Yamato, his voice soft, and it helped. "You'll never be alone, you have… us."

"But what if it does… happen again? What if…?"

"I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

Sora smiled a little upon hearing his overconfident tone, knowing for sure he was smirking. She whispered, "You can't promise that."

Those words brought back the serious nature of their talk.

"I can promise to do my best to try and prevent it," he said after a while. "I can promise you that. And I can promise to always be there for you if you need me."

A lingering pause.

"You are… one of my dearest friends, Sora," his voice sounded a little strained, and she knew it was because Yamato still found it hard to express himself, and she supposed, that saying it over the phone helped a little. "And I swear to do my best to keep those promises."

She couldn't help the warm feeling that spiraled out from her chest. "Thank you, Yamato… you're one of my dearest friends too."

"Yes, well," now he sounded nervous; Sora didn't bother to repress her smile. "If we're honest, of the two of us, I'm more prone to start brooding and sulking. So, you'll probably be doing the saving."

She laughed. "If that was another attempt at a joke, you failed, Ishida."

The sleep would still not come, and Sora felt a little guilty to have Yamato stay up at this hour because of her, but his reassurance—his promise made her feel lighter than before.

"It still made you laugh, Takenouchi."

And perhaps more importantly, it made her feel safe.

End.

And, that.

Thanks for reading, as always, and please review!