He woke, screaming. His hands and arms felt as though they were on fire, as did patches on his face. Sitting up, he waited for the pain to stop now that he was awake. When it didn't, he fumbled for the switch on his lamp.
Shock almost made him scream again. His hands – and his arms too, to a lesser extent, were scattered with angry, circular burns. Even now he could see some of them starting to blister.
It was dark outside. Had he slept to the usual time again? He glanced over at the clock. Sure enough, there it was. Just goneone in the morning. Shaking, he sat up in his bed, looking at the marks on his arms. What was he going to do now?
Steeling himself, he took a few deep breaths. First things first. He had to put something on them. There would be some ointment in the bathroom. His mother kept a pretty comprehensive first aid kit in the cupboard there.
He made his way to the bathroom. The light revealed another problem. The sore, stinging patches on his face corresponded to more burns. He leant heavily on the sink, staring at his face. How was this possible? It was just a dream, for crying out loud!
Closing his eyes, he leant heavily on the wall. He could feel his heart hammering inside him; hear his own breaths getting more ragged.
"Urgh, get a hold of yourself," he muttered, bringing his hands up to his face. Wincing, he dropped his arms back to his sides. He'd rubbed the burns, making them sting all the more.
Right. Focus. He fumbled in the cupboard, cursing now and then as he knocked the blisters on the shelves and various medicines. Finally he found a tube of salve, and set to easing it into the marks on his arms and face. Were there any more? He didn't hurt anywhere else, so presumably he'd managed to escape before the rain started falling in earnest. The thought of what would have happened had the shock not woken him up made his stomach lurch.
Now what? Patamon was in the digital world – had been there for a week now. Normally his partner would have been his first port of call, but Takeru wasn't sure he wanted the little guy seeing him like this. It wasn't related to the digital world at all, and Patamon would worry. Where was the sense in that when there was nothing he could do?
Still. He had to tell someone. The evidence that something was wrong was now plastered across his face and arms. But who could he tell? It was the middle of the night. Who was going to be awake at this hour – and who could he talk to about this anyway?
Yamato might be awake – but he wasn't sure that telling him was a good idea. Takeru didn't even know what was going on yet, and if anyone was likely to freak out and make a huge fuss, it was his big brother. He really didn't want some impromptu gathering of all the DigiDestined, so they could all stare at him. After all, maybe this was something he could sort out quietly. Maybe it was just some... some kinda weird thing that still had a rational explanation.
Koushiro was the next on his mind. Their resident solver of problems. Still. Normally those problems revolved around computers. He wasn't sure that this was really something in his field of expertise. Nor was calling Ken an option. He was smart, even without the influence of the dark spores, sure. But he'd also confessed recently that he still had nightmares about his time as the Digimon Emporer. The last thing he needed was a reminder of it, if that could be helped. It was the same reason calling Hikari was not an option.
Jou. Jou was studying to be a doctor, having finally overcome the bulk of his squeamishness. He might even be awake, ridiculously late/early as it was. Takeru was pretty sure he'd mentioned exams the last time he had spoken with him.
Mind made up, Takeru walked softly back to his bedroom, and picked up his phone. With every moment, he was better able to convince himself that Jou would have some kind of medical explanation for this. He was bound to – and if he didn't, he'd know how to look one up. Maybe... maybe it was just some kind of weird rash, brought on by tiredness. He would have to have been pretty out of it. After all, he had collapsed into bed and fallen so deeply asleep straight after school that he hadn't woken to eat anything.
Not that he felt especially hungry at the moment. His phone had slid partway under the bed, and he fished it out, wincing as he saw three missed calls from Hikari, and an unread message. At least it lent credibility to the "ridiculously overtired" theory. There was no way he would have slept through that ringing otherwise.
He ignored the message for now. It was both too late and too early to do anything about it, and he couldn't explain anything until after talking to Jou, anyway. Once he had some kind of explanation to give her, it wouldn't be so bad. Probably. Possibly. He had to admit, there was a strong chance she was going to be mad at him either way.
Now wasn't the time for that. He forced himself to send Jou a message, asking to speak to him urgently, and then to put the phone face down on the bed. About thirty seconds later, his willpower ran out and he snatched it up again.
Takeru, what is going on? First you bolt on me, and then you don't pick up? Did I do something to make you mad? Can't you tell me so I can at least apologise for whatever it was?
Shit. He'd thought she would be mad at him, not that she would blame herself for it all. Anger he could deal with. The thought that she was sat at home feeling as though any of this was somehow her fault made his chest hurt. He'd wanted to protect her from this.
Jou wasn't replying. He had to be asleep, or so far gone with studying that he'd left his phone somewhere out of earshot. With every minute of silence, it got harder to convince himself that this really was just some run of the mill medical issue.
Jou, are you there? It's really important. I-
Cursing under his breath, Takeru deleted the message, and called him instead. Just as he thought it was about to ring off, Jou answered. To judge from the bleary voice on the other end of the line, he had been asleep. Takeru pushed guilt to the back of his mind.
"Wha- who is this? It's the middle of the night!"
"Jou, it's me," Takeru said, realising his voice was shaking. "I... something weird happened, and I need your help."
"Wait... Takeru? Why do you need my help? What's going on?"
"It's... I... Have you ever heard of people waking up covered in blisters? I know you're still studying, but I couldn't think of anyone else to ask who might have answers."
"Well, what kind of blisters? Like a rash?"
"Um... almost? It's on my hands and arms, and a few on my face." He fought to keep his voice as calm as he could.
"Well. Illnesses like chicken pox do show up like small blisters on the skin. Do they itch? Although, Takeru, I'm not really sure why you called me up in the middle of the night over chicken pox. Couldn't it wait until the morning?"
"No! I mean... They don't itch, they feel like... like they're burns. They weren't blisters at first, just really red and sore, and now they've blistered. It's like someone sprayed hot oil over me while I was asleep, and I was having this dream where it was raining something which burned, and when I woke up I had all these red marks where the rain hit me and I'm slightly freaking out!"
He took a deep breath, wincing. He hadn't meant to spill everything out like that, but in the face of Jou's tangible impatience it had been impossible to stop talking once he'd started. There was silence on the other end of the phone. Finally:
"Takeru... I want you to go to Koushiro's. I'll call ahead, let him know we're on our way."
"What!" Takeru cringed as he realised how loudly he had cried out. He carried on more quietly. "I mean... what? It'sgone one in the morning! He'll be asleep!"
"And I wasn't?" Takeru winced at the tone of Jou's voice, then heard him sigh. "Look, either it's serious enough that we can't wait until the morning; or it's nothing, and you woke me up in the middle of the night for no reason at all. Which is it?"
Takeru sat back so his head was resting against the wall, and looked at the marks on his free arm. "It's bad then," he said, closing his eyes. "You know, I'd really been hoping you would tell me there was some kind of normal reason."
"I'm not saying there isn't, somewhere," came Jou's voice. "But with us, I think it pays to make sure there isn't an abnormal reason first. Will you go?"
Takeru sighed heavily. "Yeah. I'm sure as anything not gonna go back to sleep, that's for sure. I'll be over there as soon as I can. They sting like crazy."
"Okay. I'll call Koushiro now. Meet you there." The phone clicked dead.
For a few moments Takeru didn't move, save to let the arm holding his phone drop to his side. What if Jou and Koushiro couldn't find an explanation? The rising panic in his chest was back. He'd take nightmares every night for the rest of his life for this to just be another bad dream. How was he meant to go back to sleep if it was real?
Less than five minutes later, he closed his bedroom door behind him. There was a note on the table which he hadn't seen before. In his panic to get to the bathroom he had walked right past it.
-Takeru, I checked in your room when I got home and saw you were already asleep. I couldn't see signs of you having eaten, so I made dinner enough for you as well. It's in the fridge for when you wake up. Hope you're feeling okay. Mum-
He turned the note over. Fishing for a pen, he scrawled on the back:
-Something's come up. Had to go to Koushiro's. Don't worry, I'm fine. I'll grab food on the way.-
He hated doing it. Hated lying; hated sneaking out of his own home. But he couldn't risk anyone else seeing him like this. Couldn't risk anyone else worrying. It was bad enough as it was. As the door closed behind him, all he could do was pray that Koushiro would have some kind of answer.