There was no point in returning home. It was only a few hours until dawn, and neither of the older boys wanted Takeru to go home and sleep.
"I know I said that you can't stay awake forever," Koushiro had said, "But there's a difference between that and letting you go to sleep unattended. And I'm pretty sure Yamato would bring a slow and painful death my way if we simply sent you on your way."
"I don't think I could sleep, anyway," Takeru had said, feeling guilty. He had been able to see both Jou and Koushiro stifling yawns.
In the end, Koushiro had pulled a sleeping bag out of a cupboard, and told Jou to get some rest. He and Takeru had passed the time until the sun rose talking about old times, and then switched places, so that both boys had at least a little more than half a night's sleep.
Mrs Izumi had been surprised too see her houseguests, particularly Takeru, but had taken it in her stride. By the time they roused Koushiro, there was a breakfast waiting for the three of them in the kitchen. They ate quickly, and then returned to Koushiro's room.
"Takeru, I know you said you didn't want people to worry, but I really think it's time to call the others. Yamato in particular. He is your brother, after all. He deserves to know. Besides, we can't exactly keep it a secret. It's lucky enough that it's the weekend now, and you don't have to worry about school." Jou said. "It was one thing while it was the middle of the night, but it's morning now. They'll be waking up."
Takeru nodded gloomily. The weight of his phone dragged on his pocket, reminding him that he had never replied to Hikari, either. Even if she didn't call again, there was every chance he would have an angry Taichi on his case, berating him for ignoring his little sister.
He sighed, and then looked up at the other two. "Listen," he said. "My mum is working today. She'll be leaving my apartment about now – I think it would be best for me to head back there. It's unfair of me to impose on your family any more, Koushiro. I can call the others from my apartment."
Koushiro raised an eyebrow. "And you think Yamato will be happy that we let you out of his sight, do you?"
Takeru rolled his eyes. "I'm not a little kid any more, you know. I'm pretty sure I'm capable of walking home."
"Oh, certainly," Koushiro replied. "After all, it's not as though you have inexplicable injuries and no way of explaining them which anyone other than one of us would believe. Or as though you've been awake since two o' clock in the morning and should probably have someone standing nearby if and when you go to sleep again. Or that you have a family tendency of behaving irrationally in the name of alleged selflessless, or have friends and family who care for your wellbeing. Naturally, none of those situations or conditions apply, so I would be happy for you to walk out of my apartment, and I'll just cheerfully tell Yamato that I have no idea what's wrong with his younger brother, but that's okay because he decided he wanted to walk home."
Takeru cursed under his breath. Koushiro was altogether too smart for his own good. In the end, he managed to get as far as convincing Koushiro to accompany him back to his own apartment, on the condition that he called Yamato when he got there. Jou headed home to get some more sleep – he had studying to do. Takeru felt guilty enough about disrupting his sleep as it was.
They reached the apartment around mid-morning. Takeru was relieved. He'd gotten sick of the odd looks just in the time it had taken them to get back.
"I just don't understand why people feel the need to stare so much, that's all," he said, fumbling for his key. "Haven't they got anything better to do?"
Koushiro shrugged, and held his hand out for the key when he saw Takeru struggling. The dressings on his hand made it hard to fit it in the lock.
"It's my experience that people will always stare at something they consider a novelty. That doesn't necessarily mean that they will remember it, of course. I would hazard a guess that most of the people who we passed have already forgotten us."
Takeru poked his head around the door, listening. He couldn't shake the nagging fear that his mother had stayed home from work, and would be waiting indoors to panic when she saw her youngest son. Only when he was sure her shoes weren't by the door did he relax and walk inside.
"You know, Takeru. You won't be able to conceal this much longer. On the whole, I would suggest that being open and upfront about it is a far better course of action than secrecy."
Takeru sighed. "I know. It's just that I'd like to have some time to decide what I'm going to tell everyone, first."
He sat down on the sofa, and stared blankly at his arms, wondering which blister was going to prove the most inconvenient. The one next to a knuckle on his left hand looked a strong contender. He flinched when Koushiro handed him the phone.
Yamato answered on the second ring. Stumbling his way through the words, Takeru convinced him to skip band practice and head over. His hand was shaking as he hung up.
"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not call anyone else," he said after a moment. "I'm not entirely sure I can handle it. Part of me feels as though I'm calling people up to say goodbye."
Koushiro sat down on the sofa. "Takeru, we're not giving up," he said. "This is a new problem, yes. But that doesn't mean it's unsolvable. There has to be an answer somewhere. We just have to look in the right place. Don't give up, okay?"
The younger boy nodded. "So. How about video games until Yamato arrives, eh? Gotta pass the time somehow."
A knock at the door sounded as they were just getting into their second game. Koushiro stood quickly.
"I'll get it. Just in case it's someone other than Yamato," he said. "Although, admittedly that might cause as many questions..."
Takeru sighed. "You could always tell them my computer died, and you came over to fix it. But I don't think anyone else will be coming over, to be honest with you."
The door opened. He could hear from the voice that it was Yamato. The two boys talked softly by the front door instead of walking over. Yamato sounded merely surprised at first, and then increasingly agitated. Takeru started to feel uneasy. Why had he let Koushiro talk him into calling? They should have waited until they had answers.
"What do you mean, Izumi," he heard Yamato say, with a dangerous undercurrent in his voice. Time to face the music.
He scrambled off the sofa, and over to where the others were standing. Yamato paled when he saw him – then shoved Koushiro roughly against the wall.
"What happened!" he yelled at the other boy.
"Hey!" Takeru shouted back, darting forwards to grab his brother and pull him off. "Just calm down. This has nothing to do with anyone else. It's... it's not as bad as it looks, okay. It's just a bit on my arms and face, is all. Nothing else. There's no good taking it out on Koushiro. I went to him for help."
Yamato glowered at him, his breathing uneven. "You went to Izumi?" he asked shortly, finding his balance. "Why not me? I'm your brother Takeru. You should have called me first. You know I'd have dropped what I was doing to help. And instead you leave me out of the loop. I mean, for crying out loud, you're covered in bandages. You couldn't tell me before seeing a doctor?"
Takeru winced. It didn't help that Koushiro had his very best I-told-you-so face on. "I didn't see a doctor, Yamato," he said at last. "It was Jou."
Before Yamato had time to yell, Koushiro grabbed his arm. "At least listen to him first?" he said. "While I can't say that I necessarily agree about timings, he did have his reasons."
"Thanks a bunch, Koushiro," Takeru said, managing to find the smallest of smiles in there somewhere. He turned to his brother. "Look, this all kicked off in the middle of the night, and I didn't know what to do. I called Jou because he's studying medicine. I thought he could reassure me that it was nothing. Only he didn't know what was wrong either, so we ended up at Koushiro's."
"Are you sick then?" Yamato asked. Takeru could practically see the worry spreading across him. The anger had evaporated already. "Maybe you should go and sit down."
"We don't know," Koushiro said softly. "I would say that this reeks of the particular kind of unusual that we Chosen Children deal with, except there's nothing tying it to the Digital world."
"It was just bad dreams, Yamato," Takeru said, sighing. "Like Hikari, and Ken, with the Dark Ocean. Except this wasn't the same place. It was too bright and colourful, not grey. And then last night I woke up like this."
Yamato blanched, leaning against the wall for support. Koushiro and Takeru stared at him. It was a shock, yes, but they hadn't expected the almost infamously taciturn Yamato to react so strongly.
"Okay, let's all go and sit down then," said Koushiro, with false cheer. "You two on the sofa, and I'll make coffee. I don't care if you don't want coffee; you need a pick-me-up, with plenty of sugar."
Takeru found himself being propelled towards the seat. Beside him, Yamato followed without protest. His face was ashen. The transformation scared Takeru, a lot. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his brother look so terrified.
When Koushiro left them for the kitchen area, Yamato leant forward and put his head in his hands. Every inch of him drooped, as though it had been him who'd stayed up half the night.
"Takeru, please tell me what's going on," he said hollowly. "And no leaving things out this time. I need to know what happened."
By the time Takeru had finished explaining, Koushiro had sat down nearby, having brought a chair over from the dining table. There was silence for a few minutes.
"It's impossible," Yamato said at last. His voice was almost cracking – he sounded as though he was trying to swallow his words as much as say them. "That- that can't be happening Takeru. It just can't."
Takeru, already tense, finally snapped. "Well it is. I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away. I'm sorry I didn't tell everyone when I started having weird dreams, and I'm sorry I woke up in the night covered in mysterious blisters, but that's what happened. I'm not making any of this up, okay? Did you want me to peel the dressings off so you can have a good gawp at them for yourself? Did you think this was the sort of thing I would make up just for a bit of fun? I'm not that kind of person Yamato. I don't know anyone who is. I thought you knew that."
He stood sharply, unable to sit any longer. It was just too much, on top of everything. Part of him wanted to storm out of the building and go... somewhere. Instead, he leant his back against the wall, letting his head rock backwards until it connected with a soft thud.
"That's not what I meant," came Yamato's voice, low and miserable. "What I meant was... You're not the only one who's been having bad dreams, Takeru. That world you described: I think I've been there too."
A.N: Okay, so having had a few more days to stew on this plot, I figure I should clarify some stuff (I'll be adding a note to chapter 1 as well, but this is to track things for myself as much as anything.
Firstly, in terms of events prior to the story, I am counting the initial adventure, the events of 02, and both battles with Diaboromon/Diablomon as being part of the same continuity. With slight fuzziness on the details due to the timeline conflicts, but let's just handwave that. The story itself therefore kicks off in about May/June 2004. So, I'm working on the assumption that Yamato, Sora and Taichi have just started senior high school, Takeru, Hikari and Daisuke have just started junior high school, and Koushiro is in his final year there, with the other Chosen Children fitting in around that. (Also, the Japanese school system seems reeally complicated to me, coming from the UK. Feel free to point out when I screw something up. I'm not used to real world settings when I write!) I haven't yet decided if Mimi is still in America or not, but fear not! She will be appearing in this story at some point.
I know that chapter length so far has hovered around the one or two thousand word mark. I'm not sure how much that will stay the same or change - mostly when I'm writing I don't use chapters at all (I read too much Discworld .) so there quite possibly will be sections which end up being somewhat longer, as I get more into the story. I'm also unused to sticking close to one PoV throughout (I write a lot of ensemble fiction in 3rd person Omni), so there is a chance that at some point I will switch heads for some chapters. If you think it doesn't work, yell at me (nicely plox) and I will be a good little writer and stick to what I started. Anyway. Let me know what you think! Permit me to cackle evilly! Things of this nature!
Tott