Author's note: I think someone should be very proud of me. I'm kickin' my arse into gear, little by little. Sorry if I'm not updating the stories you want (I'm sort of putting From You To Me, for example, on the back burner till I get my muse back), but on the upside I'm trying to actually tie up stories that I didn't realize I started a year ago. That's just sad. So! I'm trying to redeem myself a little. And thanks so much to those of the likes of MysticalTears, and several others whose words of encouragement and enthusiasm brought my love of fanfiction writing back. I don't remember where I read it, but someone somewhere said something along the lines of fanfiction being the last appreciated form of writing, because FF writers work hard on their stories and will never receive anything but praise for it. Thanks so much, you guys. I really did miss all of you on . And don't worry, Takeru's role will be much less filler-chapterish in the future. I have plans for him.

The room was silent, save for the sound of Hikari's labored breathing and the steady beep...beep...beep emitted by the machine monitoring her condition. Takeru didn't know where to look. Her face troubled him, bruised a nasty purplish black over her right eye and cheek, her lip bloody and a little bit swollen. Her hair was matted to her forehead, but before Takeru could push it back, Taichi did.

Takeru had never been afraid to be alone with Taichi before. As a little kid, he had admired Taichi like another big brother. And as he grew older, he became an equal, a friend. After all, his best friend was Taichi's little sister. And Taichi's best friend was, or had been at some point, Takeru's big brother. They were connected, intertwined by friendship and fate, if you believed in that. And Takeru did. He believed Fate brought the Chosen together, created friends out of their team. But what did Fate have against Taichi and Hikari's parents?

For the first time since Takeru could remember, he was truly afraid of being alone with Taichi right now. He didn't know what to say, what not to say, what to do or what to think. This wasn't the brave leader, the idol, the "big brother" Takeru could remember. Even when he'd been worrying himself sick over Hikari in the Digital World, he'd spoken. He'd looked alive, he'd been active and running towards a goal. Never before could Takeru remember Taichi being... still, silent. This was Taichi grieving, and Takeru wished there was something he could do to take it away.

"Hikari-chan," Takeru murmured. Taichi didn't seem to be paying any attention to him, and so he scooted his chair a little closer to the bed and reached for her hand. He touched it, gingerly at first, but it didn't seem as bruised and battered as the rest of what was visible to them, and so he held it with a little more firmness, more confidence. She had been on the phone with him. If she hadn't been, maybe she would've had time to throw her arms up, protect her face, get a grip so that she wouldn't have been tossed around the back seat like a rag doll... His vision blurred, and he shook his head as a sob threatened to choke him. If it would've made a difference, he'd never know. But at least she was alive. At least she'd be okay.

But that didn't ease the feeling of guilt that tore at his heart and lungs as he sat beside his best friend's hospital bed. He'd made a promise to protect her, and when the very worst happened he wasn't there. He could've gone to the tournament, maybe, or... or... The thoughts were endless now, clarified by the curse of twenty-twenty hindsight. He let his hair fall into his eyes. No matter how upset Taichi was, Takeru wouldn't allow him to see him upset. He wouldn't cry, and make it worse. He'd failed in protecting his very best friend, but he could maybe help her brother, somehow.

"Takeru..." Takeru jumped at the sound of Taichi's voice. He sounded haunted, and tired, and... Not like himself at all. He barely recognized it, except that no one else was in the room.

"Yea Tai?" He tried to sound cheerful, no teary eyes or choking sobs. Just a friend, like this was a normal hospital visit. Like she'd caught a cold again... And fallen down a flight of stairs in the process. He frowned. Okay, so it was hard to pretend it was normal. But it was hard to look upset too. It was hard to think 'this might be really bad'. It was against his nature to think anything but 'yea this is bad, but it could be worse and it isn't'. Like, Hikari was alive. Stable. Breathing. Battered, but she'd wake up. He squeezed her hand. She had to wake up.

"Koushiro. Could you call him?" His voice was totally monotonous, like he had totally used up his supply of emotion. It hurt, listening to his voice. Did Yamato ever get like this when he was sick, or hurt, he wondered? He didn't know. He didn't want to know, really. He didn't want that look, that voice, to take over his brother's familiar features. It was bad enough on Taichi. It was more than bad enough. It was torture just to watch.

But he couldn't make himself look away either. It was like, those heart wrenching movie scenes that make you cry and scream and throw yourself to the floor, but you couldn't stop the movie. And he couldn't look away anyway, because Hikari wouldn't want Taichi to do this to himself, and so Takeru had to stop him. He had to figure out how, and he could only do that if he endured. But it hurt. It hurt more than seeing Hikari hooked up to machines.

"Uh, sure." Takeru couldn't imagine why he should call Koushiro first, why he'd be requested specifically, but he wasn't going to deny Taichi either. He pulled out his cell phone, ignoring the very blatant hospital rule of keeping phones off inside. Jyou would only yell at him if it interfered with the machines, and he was pretty sure the affect was vice versa.

"He always gets mad that he's the last to know. And he lives the closest." When Takeru continued to look confused, Taichi murmured "Sora left food on the stove. It's gonna go bad if it's left out." Somehow, Takeru felt like Taichi wasn't really talking about the food. Or rather, the food meant more than just food. But he wasn't going to ask questions. He just flipped his phone open and began scrolling through his phone book for Koushiro's number.

"Sure thing, Taichi." If all he was asking for was a simple phone call, Takeru would be damned if he was the one to deny it to him. He listened to the phone ring, accidentally in accordance with the melodic beeping of the machines until there was a click on the other end, and a very formal-sounding voice saying "You've reached Izumi Koushiro." And suddenly, Takeru's tongue felt glued to the roof of his mouth. He didn't want to explain, moreso while Taichi was sitting right next to him, staring at his sister like he couldn't see her properly.

"Is anyone there?" Koushiro's voice sounded unsure, and a little annoyed. He probably thought it was a crank call. Takeru cleared his throat and turned away from Taichi. This would be so much easier if he couldn't see his face.

"Hi Koushiro," Takeru said. And then the tone of voice on the other line wasn't quite so harsh, or formal, but the voice of an old friend. An old friend who insisted on older nicknames.

"T.K!" There was a pause, and Takeru could picture their friend in his mind's eye, frowning as something clicked in his mind. "What's wrong?"

He cringed, and sighed. He thought he'd played it off casually enough, but he supposed not. But then, it was hard to trick old friends, no matter how close you were or weren't. And Koushiro was particularly observant, even if at times he could seem detached from the rest of the reality. They all blamed that on his computer, though. It was a difficult task to pry him away from the computer, no matter the situation.

"We're, um, at the hospital. In Hiroshima," he added. He heard Koushiro take a deep breath, prepared to throw him a hundred questions a minute, but Takeru quickly added "There was an accident. Hikari's hurt pretty bad." He winced and looked at Taichi. He was rigged in his chair, listening to every word. And it looked painful.

"Was Tai in the car? Is he okay?"

"No, he wasn't." As for the second question, Takeru wasn't sure how to answer, so he skipped it altogether and said "His parents were. They... well." He sighed, and Koushiro seemed to catch his meaning, for he mimicked Takeru's sigh. There was a long stretch of silence.

"Wow." He sounded shocked, numb. Takeru knew the feeling, but didn't say anything about it. Tai was gripping the arm rests of the chair so tightly his knuckles were white.

"Yea. Um, Taichi forgot some food on the stove when he and Sora left. He was hoping you could put it away, and stuff," Takeru finished somewhat lamely. He didn't want to talk about the accident. It felt kind of, I dunno, tactless, he thought. Taichi relaxed, just slightly. His knuckles were still white, but his shoulders weren't quite so stiff. Still, Takeru felt compelled to end the conversation as quickly as possible.

"No problem," Koushiro said quickly. There was a shuffling in the background, and some weird computer beepy sound that Takeru assumed was Koushiro powering down his baby. "Anything else?"

"Erm." Takeru glanced at Taichi, and shook his head. Remembering then that Koushiro couldn't see the movement, he added, "Nah. I don't think so. I'll call you if there's any news," Takeru promised, and they both said goodbye and hung up.

The soft beeping of the machines sounded a tenfold louder than before as his voice died and the room relapsed into silence. Takeru couldn't stand it. He didn't want the silence, he didn't want his thoughts to fill it, and if that meant annoying Taichi well then that was that. Takeru slipped dropped his phone into his lap and stretched his arms overhead. It was moments like this he felt strangely grateful that he was excellent at small talk. After all, someone had to fill the awkward silence when his mom began bringing a boyfriend to dinner sometimes.

"I didn't get to tell Hikari on the phone, but I got the editor's position on the yearbook committee." Takeru grinned, subtly ignoring the strange look Taichi fixed him with, as though the older Chosen couldn't quite be hearing him right. If Taichi was like him, Takeru reasoned, he needed a distraction from his thoughts. There'd be long, sleepless nights to let those run rampant. But they weren't any help right now. Of that he was positive, even if Taichi apparently didn't think so. He was sure if Yamato was the one babbling instead of him, Taichi would've told him to shove it already. "She'll be happy," he said. The word choice seemed casual, but he was determined to make it clear he believed Hikari would be fine. She had to be. "She got one of the candid photographer slots. We'll be working together."

"Huh."

"Yepp." Without the expressed 'shut the hell up' he was waiting for, Takeru took the absence of it to mean he was free to continue babbling on. Even if it was nothing exactly important, it made him feel better. Think about the good stuff. Happy thoughts, you know? As long as there were good things to focus on, Takeru's theory was that the bad stuff would be a little more bearable. Maybe not a lot more, but a little bit. And every little bit counted. Beggers couldn't be choosers, or something along those lines anyway. "Oh, Koushiro said he had it covered. The food, anyway." He chuckled at the pun, accidental as it was. "I guess he'll probably call Miyako and Iori, but I figure I'll text Daisuke later. I mean, unless you want me to call him right now. Might be kind of dangerous to my ear drums." It was meant to be a joke, but Takeru winced.

Taichi shrugged. "No. That's fine."

"I'll just text him in a bit. I think that's safer." Takeru decided. And Taichi didn't say anything. "You know, I wonder--" He was stupidly going to say he wondered if any of the girls on Hikari's dance team knew about the accident, but he highly doubted it. But luckily, Taichi had cut him off before he had the stupid question could seize the opportunity to blurt itself out.

"TK, why don't you take a walk," Taichi asked, eyebrows raised just slightly. Part of Takeru felt like he should be offended at being dismissed, but the other half shrugged it off and smiled. It was a brave face.

"Nope. Promised Jyou I'd stay here," he said stubbornly. He wasn't going to pretend it was a secret; Taichi wasn't as unobservant as people liked to think he was. He just got a little reckless sometimes, and people took that to mean he was a complete idiot. It wasn't anything close to the truth. And anyway, in Takeru's mind, he'd already broken one promise that night. He hadn't protected Hikari. He wasn't going to break his promise to Jyou, too. No way in hell.

"Of course you did." Taichi muttered and ran his hand over his face, but Takeru pretended not to notice. It was probably a smart move, actually. Taichi didn't sound like he was in the best mood, and Takeru didn't really bame him. A cheerful "Yepp" probably would have gotten him stabbed with a scapel or something... Not that Takeru knew where the scalpel would come from, but he didn't doubt that Taichi would find one if he actually wanted to.

Come on, Hikari, Takeru pleaded silently as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Her presence usually made things better; she always knew what to say, what to do, how to dispel the tension and cast off the anxiety. Or maybe she just held it in herself, to spare the rest of them from it. But this, this was new. This was something none of them knew how to cope with, and they didn't have patient, quiet Hikari holding their hands and whispering "It'll be okay". That was their job, this time, but it sounded wrong in any other voice.

"Come on, Hikari." He didn't even notice that he had spoken the thought outloud, and was oblivious to Taichi's sharp look as Takeru's quiet whisper broke the silence. It sounded louder than it really was, the only sound in the room besides the dripping of the IV and the rhythmic beeping. It seemed to be the only thing connecting Takeru to the room, instead of letting his mind float away to only a few hours before, when Hikari had been laughing. Or at least, she had been laughing until her parents started bickering in the front seat. He hadn't heard it at first, hadn't been able to pinpoint what had made the ecstatic Hikari suddenly go quiet. But then it had gotten louder, and quieter again, and Hikari had told him that her mom was calling Taichi, she'd be home soon.

"Oi, Takeru." The blond jumped at the sound of his brother's voice. He dropped Hikari's hand as though it were forbidden to touch, despite the fact that Taichi hadn't said a word. But Yamato was different; Takeru felt like Yamato would tease him about it and never let it drop. It was a silly fear, probably, but you know. Get Yamato in the right mood and... Well.

"Yeah Matt?" Was it just him, or did his voice sound disgustingly inappropriately chipper, considering his best friend was unconscious and her parents were dead and her brother was totally unresponsive to Sora putting her hands on his shoulders, which somehow seemed to be the most disturbing thing at all. Takeru averted his eyes. It's hard to see your childhood hero hurting.

"Koushiro's on his way; he just texted me. Can you meet him in the lobby?" It wasn't an instruction, or a command, but to Takeru it certainly felt like one. There was a sort of clipped tone to his brother's low voice (like the voice you used around someone on their death bed, but Hikari wasn't... She wasn't.) that implied that he really shouldn't argue with him, and for once Takeru didn't. He didn't want to leave Hikari though. He stood up from his chair quickly enough, but he stood looking down at the bed for a long moment before Yamato said casually, "I don't think she's going anywhere. Oh, Tai, Jyou said he'd be back after his rounds. Might be a while." It was like an after thought, like the first thing he said hadn't made everybody in the room wince, even him a little bit. That was just like Yamato. Either overreact, or under react.

"Right. Lobby. That works, I need to call Daisuke." That same strange, chipper voice came out. It didn't sound right, it didn't sound like Takeru's voice, but he knew the words were his. Sora smiled at him, a strained but encouraging smile. Taichi frowned, but not at Takeru. He was looking at Hikari's face. Yamato was headed for the chair Takeru had abandoned, and tousled Takeru's hair as he passed. Takeru bit his lip, but didn't say anything. Before he realized it, he had backtracked to the lobby; if he focused on looking for Koushiro and remembering to call Daisuke, he didn't think about why he was calling him until there was a click on the other line, and a voice spoke through the phone.

"Takeru?"

Caller ID was a wonderful thing. It made the time-old "hello" totaly dated in today's world, apparently.

"Yeah. Hey, Daisuke, there's something I need to tell you..."