An insistent pounding led Takeru to the door the next afternoon. He opened the door, somewhat surprised to find Ken and Miyako standing on the other side. Miyako held a grocery bag on each arm, which made Takeru wonder if they had just come from the convenience store that her family owned. He must have paused for just only a second, but that was apparently too long for Miyako as she started tapping her foot impatiently, raised an eyebrow, glared at him, and said with irritation, "Are you going to let us in or what?" Takeru glanced past her for another second at Ken, who was just smiling faintly at him with a slight apologetic look in his eyes. Takeru stepped back, swinging his arm out wide beside him, indicating for the two of them to enter. "Thank you," Miyako said with satisfaction, wasting no time in barreling past him straight into the kitchen. Ken stepped in more quietly, and walked beside Takeru after he shut the door to follow Miyako.
"How are you feeling?" Ken asked with concern etched into his face.
Takeru smiled at his friend. "I'm fine," he assured him. "I'm feeling much better really." He paused. "Though I do want to thank you for all that you did to help me."
Ken returned his smile. "You would have done the same for me," he said.
They entered the kitchen, where Miyako was pulling things out of the bags and rummaging through the kitchen cupboards for various things. Takeru glanced around the room that slowly becoming chaos before he asked, "What are you doing, Miyako?" His tone was mild with a hint of curiosity since he was amused by what she was doing more than anything else.
She stopped briefly to look at him and say, "I'm making you soup." She gave him this incredulous look, like he should have known exactly what she was doing that was just so typical Miyako that Takeru had to hold back an amused chuckle, but couldn't quite stop the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips.
"Oh," he said, since it was really the only thing he could think to reply. He realized he was lucky to have friends that were so willing to go out of their way to take care of him. He let a warm smile fall across his face as he said sincerely, "Thank you."
Miyako beamed at him, her whole face lighting up in pure delight, before returning to her work even more enthusiastically than before. A little while later found the three of them at the kitchen table, eating the rather yummy soup Miyako had made. As they finished, Miyako bit her lip and Takeru knew there was something she wanted to say. He waited patiently, content to wait for her to speak, since it wasn't very often that Miyako didn't just blurt out whatever was on her mind the very moment she was thinking it.
"So, Takeru," she began, her fingers fiddling idly with a few strands of her hair. "About tomorrow…" she added slowly, but trailed off and didn't finish, as her eyes glanced at him a little guiltily.
Takeru's heart sank just a little. Tomorrow was Saturday; the day Miyako had asked him to go on a double date with her and Ken. "I don't have anyone to take, Miyako," he said gently. "Besides, I don't know that it would be a really good idea for me to go out after just getting over…whatever that illness was."
Miyako's shoulders slumped and disappointment fell across her features. "I guess I understand that," she said. She sighed and huffed. "I was just really looking forward to going with you."
"Why?" The question came out almost before Takeru realized it. He and Miyako were friends, it was true, and maybe Miyako (having found her own happiness with Ken) was interested in helping others find happiness of their own and Takeru was just her first project (so to speak), but he suddenly wondered why Miyako would have been looking forward to going on a double date with him.
Miyako shrugged. "It's just something I've wanted to do since this summer," she said. "Since you came back, you know."
"Perhaps we could wait until he finds someone for himself," Ken said soothingly.
Miyako folded her arms on the table and let her head fall into them. She sighed dramatically. "I know, but what am I going to do tomorrow?" she asked. "I had such a great plan for everything!"
Takeru smiled at Miyako's enthusiasm. "Then you should go anyway," he said. "Next weekend we've got the Digidestined Party, so you should be with Ken this weekend." Miyako still looked a little sullen, so he added his idea he vaguely remembered offering to Ken before passing out. "Or you could take Mimi," he said. "You and Mimi always seem to get along great together."
Miyako's head lifted off the table and a hopeful look started to shine in her eyes for a moment before dejection flashed in them again. "But who would she go with?"
"Koushiro," Takeru said with absolute certainty, knowing that it was the right choice, but not really sure why he knew. Miyako shot him a doubtful look. "Trust me," Takeru said. "The two of them got along rather well this summer while they were protecting me." Ken frowned for a moment, catching Takeru's attention as he did, and his eyes took on a distant, thoughtful look for a second. He gave a slight shake of his head before turning his attention back to them, but he didn't share what he had been thinking. If it had been important, Takeru knew Ken would have shared, so he turned his focus back to Miyako. "They can at least go as friends, if not anything else," Takeru continued, smiling slightly as he thought back to those afternoons in the Digital World of Mimi nagging Koushiro to get off his computer. They were so focused on each other most of the time that it was like being alone with…
He frowned suddenly as a flash of dizziness hit him as a vision of a soft smile and a quiet laugh flickered through his brain. He sighed, a little annoyed with this cold that kept rearing up.
"Perfecto!" He focused back on Miyako as she jumped up from her seat. "Thanks so much, Takeru! Come on, Ken. I've got to go talk to Mimi right away!" She started rushing toward the door, throwing her coat around her shoulders.
Ken was slower to get up and he quietly asked, "Do you need anything, Takeru?"
Takeru smiled at him and shook his head. "I'm fine," he said, really truly meaning it. "Thank you, Ken."
Ken nodded and looked like he might say something else but as Miyako's voice came from the door. "Come on, Ken!" she cried impatiently.
Ken gave a resigned sigh before saying goodbye to Takeru and following his girlfriend out of the door. Takeru smiled after they were gone, thinking that life with Miyako certainly was interesting.
Sora shook her head sadly at the two boys flopped on the couches. Taichi and Daisuke were sprawled on the couches in what Sora could only assume were comfortable positions since she would never sit like they happened to be. Each of them had a bowl of popcorn within arms' reach as their eyes were glued to the screen in front of them where a soccer game was being played on the television. Sora placed her hands on her hips and asked, "Don't you have anything better to do?"
Both boys let out an extremely satisfying yelp and jumped. Daisuke spilled his popcorn everywhere, despite the fact that it hadn't actually been sitting on his lap. "You are so cleaning that up," Sora said to him
"Sora, what are you doing here?" Taichi asked, as Daisuke began to pick up the popcorn, muttering to himself as he did so. "You know, Yamato is—"
"I know, I know," Sora cut him off. "At his whole band reunion thing," she said, emphasizing the last part by making imaginary quotation marks with her fingers. Yamato and his old band that he had played with in junior high and high school decided to meet up today for a little reunion. Not that Sora was bitter about it or anything. She could certainly understand him wanting to spend time with them. She wasn't the type of girlfriend that needed to spend every second of every day with him. She was fully supportive of Yamato having guy friends. She just wished he could pick better days to do it on. It was the holidays after all and therefore some of the most romantic days of the year. She sighed and shook her head slightly. She had lived with Mimi for far too long. "I just came to pick up a book I forgot the other day," Sora said in answer to Taichi's question. "It seemed a good excuse as any to escape Miyako and Mimi's preparations for tomorrow."
"The reunion is not until next week," Taichi said, though there was an unsure cord is his voice that spoke of uncertainty. Sora resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him.
"True," Sora said foregoing the chance to tease her friend as she spotted her book on the coffee table and went to grab it. "They're going on a double date tomorrow," she explained briefly instead.
Taichi's brows furrowed and surprised Sora by actually holding onto the conversation. Daisuke had long since returned his attention to the soccer game, and she had assumed that Taichi would do the same. "But who's Mimi going with?" he asked. Sora was well aware that Taichi was more observant than he made himself out to be, but he usually kept his head out of any of his friends' romantic lives.
"Koushiro," Sora said with a shrug as she flipped through a couple pages of the book, trying to find where she had left off since she hadn't put in her bookmark and had been sufficiently distracted when she had set the book down in the first place.
"What?" Taichi and Daisuke (who spilled his popcorn again) exclaimed at the same time.
Sora snapped the book shut and shot a glare at them. "Why is that so hard to believe?" she demanded, her hands moving to rest on her hips again.
"It's just Koushiro's so…" Daisuke said as he bent to pick up the popcorn again. "Koushiro, you know," he finished with a shrug.
"And it's Mimi," Taichi added with a vague hand gesture. "As in…Mimi. I don't know. I guess I never really thought they had that much common," he finished with his own shrug.
This time, Sora did roll her eyes at them. "People don't necessarily have to have everything in common to be together," she said exasperatedly.
"I know that," Taichi said indignantly. Suddenly, he rubbed his chin in thought. Slowly, a wide grin began to grow on his face. A grin that filled Sora with dread. "Hey, Daisuke, what are you doing tomorrow?"
"Nothing, why?" He looked far too interested in what Taichi was about to say in Sora's opinion. She had been about to leave but decided to stay and see what Taichi was up to.
"I was thinking that Takeru could use some cheering up," Taichi said casually, but Sora got what he was getting at and decided to step in.
"Don't you dare drag Takeru off on one of your little schemes, Taichi," Sora said. "I will tell Yamato, and he'll make sure you can't play soccer for weeks."
Taichi's grin only grew bigger. "No you won't," he said with such certainty that it made Sora pause. "Or I'll tell him about that incident in third grade."
Sora felt her face flash red. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Come on, Sora," Taichi said with a glint in his eyes that told her he would in fact tell Yamato. "You said yourself that Takeru wasn't acting like himself. I'm just trying to help."
Sora narrowed her eyes at him, trying to gauge if he was actually sincere or not. "Fine," she said relenting, knowing that despite his rather unorthodox methods, Taichi probably would have the best intentions for Takeru. "I won't tell Yamato. But if he gets sick again, I'm not protecting you from Yamato's wrath."
"Fair enough," Taichi said. He turned away from her then and began explaining his plan to Daisuke, who began to sport an identical grin that had graced Taichi's face just moments ago. Sora rolled her eyes at them and left the apartment, determined that the less she knew the better off she would be.
"This is a terrible idea."
"So you've said…fourteen times already." Taichi said. He flashed a grin to the mildly frowning Takeru. "But you still came along," he pointed out.
"Well, you didn't give me much a choice, did you?" Takeru said and Taichi could hear the amusement and faint exasperation (but there was no anger; there was hardly ever anger when it came to Takeru) in his voice, but couldn't really argue the point. He and Daisuke had basically shown up at his door, thrown his coat around his shoulders, his hat on his head, and his shoes on his feet and then dragged him outside with them, despite his protests or threats to tell Yamato what they were doing (in other words, they pretty much kidnapped him). When they told him what they had planned, Takeru told them it was a terrible idea, but still followed them anyway rather than choosing to go back to the apartment. He told them that it was more to keep them out of trouble than to actually go along with them, which may very well have been true, but Taichi considered his plan a success in either case. Something may very well be wrong with Takeru, as he and Sora had discussed, but Taichi was determined to do all he could to restore his friend to his bright cheerful self.
Daisuke wrapped an arm around Takeru's shoulders. "Ah, don't be like that, Takeru," he said. "We just thought some fresh air might help you feel better."
"And spying on our friends…" Takeru said trailing off expectantly, raising an eyebrow slightly with amusement sparkling in his eyes with just minor disapproval behind it.
"A complete coincidental bonus," Taichi said, glancing across the street from behind the tree the three were hiding behind, so that he got a glance of the four friends they were following, before turning back to the younger two boys and sharing a conspiratorial grin with Daisuke.
"This is a terrible idea," Takeru said again, but it sounded more resigned than anything else this time.
"Fifteen," Taichi said holding up a finger with another grin.
Daisuke glanced around the other side of the tree. "Come on, they're getting away," he said impatience lining his voice as he rocked slightly on his feet.
Taichi grabbed Takeru's arm and pulled him along behind him and Daisuke as they followed their prey. Daisuke was trying to act inconspicuous, so of course was more conspicuous because of it. Taichi chuckled at their goggled friend and Takeru began to laugh.
As Takeru laughed, his whole face lit up with cheerfulness. Taichi smiled at him, since it seemed his plan must have been working since Takeru was looking better by the minute. Then he frowned slightly as Takeru looked his other side and began to say, "Hey, what—" but then his whole body froze. Taichi stopped alongside him and thought for a minute that maybe Takeru thought that Daisuke (who was in fact still walking a few paces in front of them) had been standing there, since no one was there, and was just startled that he wasn't there, but after a few seconds still had him frozen in place, Taichi walked around to where he was facing in front of him.
He was shocked to find that Takeru was staring at the spot beside him, but not at his eye level, almost as if he was staring at someone shorter than himself, but no one was there. But what alarmed Taichi was the pure panic that was clearly visible in his eyes. "Takeru?" Taichi asked, reaching out and grasping the blond boy's shoulder.
Takeru looked up at him and Taichi was sure that he hadn't seen that much terror in Takeru's gaze since Angemon went up against Devimon. "Taichi—" was all Takeru said before his eyes rolled and he began to sway.
Taichi grasped Takeru's other shoulder to keep him upright, as he said worriedly, "Takeru, are you all right?"
Takeru blinked a few times, but his eyes were clear and bright when he looked at Taichi again. "I guess I'm still not feeling all the way better," he said softly, confusion flickering in his tone.
Daisuke had finally rejoined them. "What's the holdup?" he asked, glancing between the two of them.
Takeru's smile was so genuine that Taichi almost thought he had imagined what had just happened. "Nothing," he said. "Did we lose them?"
"I'm taking you home," Taichi said firmly before Daisuke could answer. It was one thing to try and cheer Takeru up. It was something else entirely to threaten his health, especially if Yamato found out. Taichi thought he should have known better than to take someone out after they'd been sick, even if they didn't look so bad.
Both Takeru and Daisuke looked as if they were going to protest (no doubt for different reasons; Takeru because he hated being babied and Daisuke because he just didn't want to leave), but Taichi fixed them both with a glare that would brook no arguments. As they walked home, Taichi sent wary glances at Takeru, who appeared to not even remember what had happened just minutes before. Sora was right. Something else was wrong with Takeru. He determined to talk to Sora about it the first chance he got.