When we arrived at the campsite Ms. Asaji excused herself as the class started to put up the tents.
"I call a tent with TK!" Kazu declared, grabbing one of my arms.
"Me too!" Kenta said, grabbing the other one and starting to drag me away. I blushed lightly, touched that they had taken such a liking to me.
"You guys know I can walk, right?" I asked as I dug my heels into the ground, trying to stop them from yanking my arms off.
"Yeah guys, you might hurt him." Takato butted in, worry in his voice. I have him a reassuring smile as the two boys released me, which they had started to do at my first complaint.
"Aw, TK's just a pansy." Terriermon teased from his perch on Henry's shoulder.
"Terriermon." Said in a reprimanding tone.
"So, where are you guys sleeping?" I asked.
"We're just sharing a tent together. We figure since the tents fit three we can have Guilmon sleep in ours." Henry said, gesturing to the half set up tent behind them.
"We should probably set up our tent." Kenta said, looking at our progress on our tent. Kazu had unzipped the bag, that was it.
"Yeah." I agreed. After we finished up pitching the tent, half of which was done while Takato, Guilmon, Henry, and Terriermon watched, Takato and Henry said they were taking their partners down to the slow moving river they had seen.
"I wanna go!" Calumon exclaimed, coming from somewhere in the trees.
"Of course you can, Calumon." Takato smiled at him.
"Let's go, TK!" Calumon said, turning to me.
"I don't know…" Calumon came up to me and grabbed my leg, trying to drag me by pulling on my ankle, which wasn't effective but was incredibly cute.
"Okay, fine, let's go." I gave in.
"Yay!" He exclaimed and we headed in the direction Henry had said the river was.
The rest of the camping trip was fun, if not boring, and ended without incident. Well, for me anyway. On the second day while I was hanging out with Kenta and Kazu Henry and Takato battle another Deva, which I was oblivious to until they came into camp and dragged us away. Guilmon and Terriermon were stuck as Growlmon and Gargomon.
I remember one time I had asked Patamon how that whole thing worked, de-digivolving right when it was convenient. It seemed like they couldn't purposely go below rookie level, or didn't want to, but whenever he was Pegasusmon or Angemon he just kinda did it on his own. He couldn't explain it to me, it was something he just did, like instinct, though now I was thinking that it might have had something to do with the fact that the first times he did it he was in the digital world.
The rest of the night we talked while they did handstands, Calumon normally making Guilmon fall by tickling his feet, which didn't help because of the fact that he didn't have great balance in the first place.
Then there was Ms. Asaji. I had noticed that she kept stealing glances at me in an almost secretive manner, and right around that time I had started to do the same. There was something about her that was familiar, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Of course I had never met her, but still…
By the time I got home, or I guess got back to Takato's house, I was just glad that I got to sleep on a couch with cushions and a house with air conditioning. But despite that my rest was far from restful.
I was at my Middle School, standing alone in the hallways, which were deserted. I heard a voice call my name, and I turned my head to try and see who it was. My feet where in sand, and the salty smell of the ocean told me I was at the beach.
When I looked up, the sky seemed to rip open, and a pink light came out of it. Kari appeared in it, reaching out towards me.
"TK, where are you? I need you?" I reached my hand towards her, and tried to hold hers, but when my hand closed I was in space, and when I opened it an empty tag from my first venture into the digital World floated out.
"Where's the crest?" I wondered, before I remembered that we had given them up in order to protect the world. Yeah, it didn't exactly work. Then someone grabbed the crest, and when I looked up, it was Calumon.
"This is just like me." He said, inspecting it. "But it looks like it's missing something." He looked me in the eyes. "What's it missing?" Then crest started to glow, and I was enveloped in light. When it died down I was surrounded by all seven crests, glowing. My crest, hope, disappeared, and then slowly, one by one, each of the crests lights ceased to shine, until the only one that crest of Light was still shining.
"TK." Kari's voice called, and it was full of pain and sorrow, she sounded like she was crying.
"Kari, where are you?!" I yelled into the blackness.
"TK…" And then the light of her crest, like all the others, blinked out.
"Kari!" I jerked awake, sitting straight up right, sweating, and my hand reached out towards something that wasn't there anymore. Tears were streaming down my face, and I heard footprints come down the stairs. There was Mr. Matsuki, in his pajamas.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" I asked in worry, realizing I must have yelled in my sleep.
"No, I was awake anyway, TK, couldn't sleep." He said as he came over to the couch, sitting down on the end of it.
"Did you have a bad dream?" It sounded so childish when he said it that way, but I nodded.
"Yeah…" He looked at me sympathetically.
"It's fine, when Takato was younger, he had night terrors. They were horrible! But you know what always helped him? A nice mug of hot cocoa, you know, the kind with the little marshmallows in it?" I nodded, feeling a lot younger than I was right now. "Sit tight, I'll make you some."
Mr. Matsuki went into the kitchen to make the hot chocolate. I sat there in an awkward silence, thinking about my dream. Where the heck had all that come from? I didn't understand any of it, well, maybe bits and pieces, but how do you put together a puzzle with only half of the pieces?
"Here's some fresh hot cocoa, Matsuki style." I looked up to see Mr. Matsuki smiling at me as he handed me a mug of hot cocoa.
"Thanks, Mr. Matsuki." I took it and took a small sip, careful not to burn my tongue. "It's really good!" I said, a little bit surprised how far it surpassed any other hot cocoa I'd ever had.
"When you're done leave it on the coffee table" He said, and headed towards the stairs. "Oh, and TK?"
"Yeah?" I asked, looking up.
"I'm sorry." He said, and his eyes dropped to the ground.
"What for?" I asked.
"Nothing." He replied, and then went back up the stairs, leaving me holding the hot cocoa, staring dumbly at the spot where he had been.
Well, here I am are, here you are, look at us, with this fanfiction, and another chapter. Wow, it feels like it's been maybe a day or so since I last posted. Weird. Anyway, sorry about this chapter, I'm a little unsatisfied by it, but I already wrote it all, then deleted it all and re-wrote it, so this is the better version, trust me. Hope you enjoyed it, or at least didn't hate it ;) I'm really excited for the next chapter, so I hope you are too!
