Takeru looked at his hand for a moment before he let it drop to his side. He stared at the empty space before him, wondering what exactly it was that he had been reaching for just seconds before. There was nothing in front of him except falling snow. His mind felt foggy and unclear as he glanced around wondering where exactly he was and why he was standing under a tree in the middle of the night when it was freezing outside. The place looked vaguely familiar, like he had been there before. He looked up at the apartment complex behind him and blinked in confusion. The more his studied it the more he was definitely getting the feeling that he had been there before. He knew he should probably get home, given the time and temperature, but his confusion and curiosity were keeping him rooted to the spot.
After a minute or so, he remembered that this was where Taichi used to live before he moved in with Yamato. But he could not figure out why he had wandered, in the middle of the night no less, to the Yagamis' apartment. He shook his head. "Must be burnout from the exams," he muttered to himself. It was the only real logical explanation that he could think of.
As he started the walk back to his father's apartment, he thought about what could have gotten him out in the cold anyway. He usually didn't have trouble sleeping; his problems usually lied in waking up. He knew he had to go to school tomorrow albeit only for half the day, but he still didn't want to be falling asleep on his feet while he was in class. There was nothing he could think of (short of one of his friends being in trouble, which was clearly not the case here as he had been completely alone without a soul in sight) that would get him out of his warm cozy apartment and out walking, apparently aimlessly, in the cold, especially since it was snowing. He wasn't particularly fond of the stuff.
He unlocked the apartment door as he reached it and shucked his shoes off his feet and put away his winter things. He shuffled off to his room, tiptoeing past his father's room to his own, where he took off his clothes and pulled back on the sweatpants and t-shirt he usually wore to bed, which he found in a heap on the floor. He frowned slightly. Even if he was going off on some strange late night foray (though logic still could not place in his mind why), it was rather strange of him to leave his things on the floor. His mother was a rather tidy person, which she had sort of passed/forced onto him. He shook his head again, his mind still foggy and unable to make sense of the situation. As he walked towards the bed, he winced as he stepped on something. He bent down and found it to be a pencil with the rest of the things in his pencil holder scattered at the bottom of his desk. He now vaguely remembered knocking it over, but he couldn't remember why he hadn't picked up the stuff. He sighed and forced the thoughts away.
He collapsed onto his bed and shut his eyes, determined to forget the whole thing ever happened.
Takeru woke up to his alarm the next morning with his head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton. He knew he was probably at the beginning of a cold at the very least, thanks to his night walk, but he only had to go to school for half the day. He lay in bed for a few minutes with his arm draped over his eyes, trying to decide if it was actually worth leaving his comfort to face the day. He sighed and pulled back his blanket, coming to the conclusion that he really didn't feel that bad and would probably get better in a few hours.
He got out of bed, stepping on the fallen contents of his pencil holder again, so he took a minute to at least toss everything back onto the desk, telling himself that he would clean it up better later. He walked to the door and opened it. As he began to mosey into the other room, he was surprised to find his father sitting at the dining room table, drinking coffee out of a mug. It was unusual in the morning for his father not to be already gone to the station by the time he woke up.
With the shock of finding his father here and the cold making his mind not function at one hundred percent, he just stood there staring at his father, leaning against his doorframe. Hiroaki set his coffee mug down on the table and wrapped his hands around it. Silence fell between them for a moment until his father finally spoke. "Are you…are you all right, Takeru?" Hiroaki asked falteringly.
Takeru blinked in surprise. He never really felt neglected by his father, despite how much Hiroaki worked, but it wasn't really like him to express concern, which was evident given his completely "I am uncomfortable" air he was giving off. "I'm fine," Takeru said, wondering why his father was asking him.
"I…heard you last night," Hiroaki said after a slight pause.
Takeru frowned. "Sorry about that," he said, not knowing what else he could say since he would rather not explain what he had been doing wandering around in the middle of the night, especially since he was still hazy about the reasons that had dragged him out of bed.
"There isn't any trouble with…you know…the Digimon again, is there?" his father asked, stumbling over the words.
Takeru smiled. It made sense that his father would come to that conclusion. Any unusual behavior from his sons was usually explained by the interference of Digimon. "Not that I know of," he said. He then decided to feed his dad the line that he had come up with as the only logical reason for what he had been doing. "I was just burned out from the exams. Sorry for waking you up."
Hiroaki took a gulp from his cup. "It's fine," he said roughly. "As long as you're sure you're okay." He narrowed his eyes in Takeru's direction. "Are you sure you're all right? You're looking a little…" he trailed off as he made a vague hand gesture.
"I think it's just a little cold," Takeru said, explaining what he thought his father was referring to. "I'll be fine."
"Are you staying home?"
"Nah," Takeru said. "I don't feel terrible and it's only a half-day."
"You're sure?"
"I'll be fine," he repeated more firmly this time.
Hiroaki nodded and set down his mug in the kitchen before leaving out the door to go to work, telling Takeru good-bye as he left. Takeru went through his morning routine and made his way to the school. His replies to his classmates good morning calls were less enthusiastic than usual, but none of them seemed to notice. Iori caught him that morning as well, and frowning as he asked, "Are you okay, Takeru? You're looking a little under the weather, today, if you don't mind me saying so."
"I'll be fine," Takeru assured his friend the same way he had his father. He finally made his way to his classroom, where he practically collapsed into his seat.
It was a good thing that he only had to be here for half the day because he soon found out that he had been wrong that morning in his assessment of his health and instead of getting better, he steadily was beginning to feel worse. Soon there were only a few minutes left until the end of school, so he just decided to stick it out until he could go home and sleep away his vacation.
His eyes trailed to the empty seat beside him, and he just stared at it in confusion, conflicting thoughts suddenly cropping up and fighting in his mind. He knew. He knew without a doubt that no one sat in that seat, hadn't sat in that seat since the beginning of the school year, and yet somehow, for some reason, he felt like someone should be sitting there. There was nothing logical to sustain it. It was really nothing more than a vague feeling that something was missing more than anything else.
"Takeru?"
He startled and turned to look at Ken, who sat down in the seat next to him. His brows furrowed in confusion. "What are you doing here, Ken?" he asked, since the other boy usually did not come to his class.
Ken sort of gave him a worried frown. "School ended a while ago," Ken said. "I saw you sitting here when I walked past."
Takeru glanced around him and, for the first time, noticed that the room was empty except for himself and Ken. "Oh," he sighed. He didn't say anything else since his mind was in such a fog. He could feel the fever started to surface. He knew he should get home as soon as possible, but he couldn't seem to muster the strength at the moment to stand up.
"Are you all right?" Ken asked the third person that day to do so.
He was tempted. He was so tempted to tell Ken that he wasn't all right, because he knew that was the truth, but still he said, "I'll be fine. I was up late last night."
"What were you doing?" Ken asked.
"Well, near as I can tell, I decided to go for a walk in the middle of the night," Takeru replied with a slight wry smile. The more he thought about last night the more the feeling that there had to have been some reason for him to be where he had been. But all he could come up with was that it had to have something to do with the Yagamis', since it was their apartment he found himself at, but he couldn't think of what it was. While he was getting steadily worse in this sickness that was afflicting him, he was aware that he wasn't thinking very well at all in any case.
"It had to be below freezing at the time," Ken said incredulously.
"Yes, I imagine that it was," Takeru replied simply, still trying to reach into his foggy mind for the reason that seemed to be eluding him.
"Why did you go?"
"Honestly, I have no idea," Takeru replied finally giving up on his quest for a reason. He decided that he was going to go with his earlier plan from last night and just forget the whole thing ever happened. Trying to think about it so hard was starting to give him a headache.
Takeru turned his gaze back to Ken and could read that Ken didn't really believe him from his expression, but, because it was Ken, he didn't try to force Takeru to tell him the rest. Takeru knew he wouldn't have been so lucky with most of the rest of the Digidestined, had one of them been the one to come upon him.
"Well, I'd hate to bring this up now," Ken started hesitantly. "But I know Miyako is going to ask me, so I'm going to have to or else she'll get mad. Did you find anyone to take on that double date she…er…asked you to go on with us this Saturday?"
Takeru let out a laugh. "It hasn't even been one day since she mentioned the whole thing," he said.
"I know that, but I had to ask," Ken said. "She would wonder why if I didn't." He paused again. "You could just ask a girl in your class. I'm sure one of them would go with you."
"Why is she so concerned with my love life anyway?" Takeru blurted out, somewhat aware of the steadily increasing fever that he was getting making him say things he normally wouldn't. "I'm still in high school. Is there any particular reason Miyako thinks I should have found my soulmate by now?"
"Umm," was Ken's only reply. He could see the concern that was becoming ever more prominent on his friend's face. Finally he said, "I think she's just concerned. You know that she's not very good at thinking before she speaks sometimes, but her heart is in the right place."
"I know," Takeru muttered, feeling terrible, both physically and about what he said about Miyako. He put his elbows onto the desk and held his forehead in his hands. "Why doesn't she take Mimi or something? I know she adores Mimi."
"I don't think Mimi is seeing anyone right now," Ken said and Takeru heard the cautious tone he was using, though he didn't know why. "Who would she take?"
"I don't know," Takeru said with his mind befuddled well beyond anything coherent. "Taichi, I guess. He hasn't got a girlfriend yet, that I know of. Or better yet, she could go with Koushiro. They always seemed to get along well when they were protecting us."
"Us?" Ken asked. Takeru barely registered the question and the confusion from it. He could feel his breath starting to become ragged as the fever took over more. Suddenly a cool hand was on his neck, but it was not enough to quench the heat now trailing along his skin. "Takeru, you're burning up!" Ken exclaimed shock and concern laced into his voice. "Why didn't you say you were sick?"
But Takeru wasn't looking at him; he wasn't really there enough anymore to acknowledge his friend. His gaze once again roamed to the empty desk beside him. "Someone should be there," he muttered before he felt himself fall into oblivion.
Ken caught Takeru as his friend swayed and slipped into unconsciousness. He lowered his friend to the floor, laying him on his side, knowing that he would never be able to carry his friend to help and didn't feel that dragging Takeru somewhere in his present state was the best course of action. He tried calling Takeru's name a few times, but was unsuccessful in getting a response. He looked around desperately, not quite sure what he should do. He had never seen Takeru this sick before. He pulled out his D-Terminal and sent a quick message to Iori, hoping that the younger boy wasn't that far from school yet. Then he sent another one off to Yamato, not knowing if he was available at the moment, but he also knew that the older brother would want to know what had happened to Takeru.
He glanced down at Takeru, whose breathing was still haggard and was still not conscious. Ken was worried about leaving him alone, so he just went to the door of the classroom and glanced down the hall, hoping to see a teacher that he could call over for help. The hallway was completely empty. He returned to Takeru and knelled next to his friend's side. He heard Takeru begin to mutter something. Ken leaned closer to hear what it was, but all he could hear was something that vaguely sounded like "save light", which made absolutely no sense to Ken.
He was beginning to wonder if he should call an ambulance, since he knew that losing consciousness because of sickness was not a good thing, when the door to the classroom opened and Iori came in. He looked stunned when he saw Takeru on the floor. "What's wrong?" the younger boy asked as he walked over next to Ken and Takeru.
"He just collapsed," Ken said. "He's really sick."
Iori just nodded. "I'll go find help," he said before he left the room again.
Ken watched worriedly over Takeru, feeling a little helpless in the situation and suddenly wishing that Jyou were there. Though the eldest Digidestined hadn't graduated from medical school, he still knew the most about these things than any other Digidestined. A few minutes later, Iori came back with Mr. Fujiama, Takeru's homeroom teacher. He listened to the brief explanation of Ken, before pulling out his phone and calling for an ambulance. He told the boys to stay with Takeru while he left to go see if the school nurse was still in, as they waited for the ambulance to arrive. "Did you tell Yamato?" Iori asked.
"I sent him a message, but he could be in class or something," Ken said.
Mr. Fujiama came back alone, but with a cold compress to place on Takeru's forehead.
The three of them waited in anticipation. It seemed to Ken that the ambulance was taking forever to arrive, but it was probably less than twenty minutes. The EMTs rushed into the room, pushing back the three from the fallen boy. "His name is Takeru Takaishi," Ken said as he pulled back. One of the EMTs gave a nod in understanding, before beginning to talk to Takeru. When Takeru was unresponsive to their questions, they turned to the group.
"What happened?" one of them asked.
"He was out in the cold last night he said," Ken told them. "He wasn't looking well, but he wasn't terrible until a few minutes after I started to talk to him. He was unfocused and when I placed my hand on his neck, I noticed he was burning up. That's when he collapsed and fell unconscious."
"How long ago did this happen?"
"About half an hour," Ken said.
"And he hasn't become conscious since then?"
"No," Ken replied not missing the worried glances that the EMTs gave. "He's mumbled a few words, but he hasn't really woken up. Why? Is he going to be okay?"
"We'll do our best."
As they were about to roll Takeru away to the ambulance to take him to the hospital, Ken requested to go with them, which they agreed to. Mr. Fujiama told the boys he would call Takeru's father. Before Ken followed the EMTs, Iori told him he would go tell the others what had happened and to let them know what they could do to help. Ken followed after his sick friend, apprehensive of what they would find at the hospital.