Here Comes Santa Claus

by YukiraKing

In the year 2034 the Digidestined's children have to step up to the plate and actively learn about themselves in an attempt to keep the worlds balance, and the perfect tool to do that? A Christmas celebration that Michael's daughter Louisa cooks up. (This is actually just really light as a way for us to breath in between what's going on with 08 right now)

9. Sixteen Candles

U/N: So as much as I loved writing Tenshi I had a rather difficult time writing as Hiro who was just immensely more stressful. Going into this story I said I wanted ONE thing, and that was to have that one teenager who screams at the top of their lungs about pointlessness and vents themselves in that way, and that person became Hiro. I was skeptical about having a Takari kid be so... aggressive, but it kind of works in a way, so I do like it. I rather disliked Hiro for a while, until getting a chance to write this chapter, so it was nice to finally stop thinking so negatively about our own character...

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: UrazamayKing

Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.

Chapter 09: Sixteen Candles

Hiro Takaishi:

I didn't think it was very fair that Tenshi got a day dedicated entirely to him when we were supposed to be enjoying time as a family with our current proximity to Christmas. I mean, sure it was his birthday, but my birthday had been only a month ago and Dad wasn't even here. He had to be on some book tour, and maybe I didn't complain at the time, but it was still unfair.

Mom had told me it would be okay if I invited my friends over but Nikko and Elliot had both been grounded, Makoto was in New York with his Gran watching some Broadway production and Osamu was no fun to be around alone. It ended up being a nice night in the worst way.

"Hiro, I'm sorry you're having a bad day," Mom said as she brushed her fingers through my hair. I was lying on the couch with my head on her lap and maybe I'd cried a little, and maybe she'd noticed, but she was too kind to say. I closed my eyes and tried to find a way to be happy with the current circumstances.

"It's the worst day," I said bitterly. "This wouldn't happen to Tenshi."

I heard Mom take a slow breath and I knew she was sad for me, but if she wasn't I probably would have been taking my anger out on her. That was something I did sometimes. I didn't mean to, but somehow it was always her or Tenshi that got the brunt of my rage. I just relaxed to the feeling of her touch in my hair because somehow it made me feel like she really did care, and I stayed that way for a while.

I was only stirred from my relaxed state when Patamon and Tokomon came running into the room, "Hiro we made a cake!" they exclaimed. I looked up to Mom who seemed hopeful. I hopped off the couch and followed them to the kitchen where, amidst the mess they created, Gatomon was putting the finishing touches on the cake they had made. It was tall and tilted, and looked like maybe they had thrown up on it. My stomach twisted as my last hopes faded out and I sat down to eat the cake.

As it turned out, they used salt instead of sugar, so I excused myself and stayed in my bedroom the rest of the night, lying on my bed with Tokomon silently wondering if I was okay.

That had been only one of the many nights that I had gotten an overwhelming urge to go sit in Tenshi's room and talk like we used to, but I didn't think he would appreciate it much. He was always timid and gave me that wounded look whenever I was in the room, like he was unsure whether I'd blow up on him or not. I wasn't a scary guy and I didn't do it that often, so I didn't know why he was so wary around me. I was a nice guy usually.

Though I could probably list a few instances where I hadn't been exactly kind to Tenshi , but I guess it was good Ken hadn't given me my crest then. Jou had, which Dad had only recently reminded me.

"Why weren't you there?" Dad asked, his arms crossed as he and Mom stood over me. They had sat me on a chair in the kitchen like some kind of interrogation and I hated it.

"To be honest," I told him, "I don't give a crap whether Tenshi gets into that school or not, so why would I go?"

Mom looked saddened by my response which just made me feel guilty all over again. "You should have gone because Tenshi was expecting your support," Mom said in such a broken sort of voice. I responded only by groaning and rolling my eyes. Of course we had to bow down to Tenshi's whims. I didn't care if he was expecting my support. I had a life too, and I'd been looking forward to that party for weeks.

"It shouldn't matter why," Dad said, his arms still folded in his 'I'm mad at you' way. "You promised you would go, and you didn't. Why aren't you taking your crest seriously, Hiro? You need to keep your promises—not just because of your crest, but because if you don't then no one will ever have any faith in you." I was expected to show up to the party down the street and I did, but no one cared that I kept true to that promise. "I don't see why you can't be more like Tenshi."

I ground my teeth, too angry to speak. Why did it always have to come back to Tenshi? Why did it matter if I wasn't as good a person as Tenshi? Why did anyone care about that part of me, but nothing else?

I had been grounded of course, because I 'hurt Tenshi's feelings' or something stupid. Tenshi didn't say anything, so I didn't even know if it was true. Mom and Dad didn't care if it was true though, they were trying to teach me a lesson. Too bad that was the only lesson they'd ever bothered to teach me. 'Be more like Tenshi'.

What if I didn't relate to Tenshi? What if I had nothing in common with him? What if I just didn't want to be more like Tenshi? He was boring. Sure he was talented, smart, hardworking and kind, but I had good qualities too. I was a lot of fun, usually people laughed when I was around and I always put my friends first. I thought that might be the real issue. I put my friends above Mom, Dad and Tenshi. I knew Tenshi was better with Salamon than I was with Tokomon, but I didn't mean to be awful at it, it was just hard. I loved him though, so wasn't that enough? Didn't that mean I was a good partner?

Well, if I was such a good partner, why was Tokomon sitting out there at the table with Tenshi?

I leaned against the doorframe, looking through the living room and straight into the dining room where Tenshi had a beautiful cake set out in front of him. I could hear Louisa singing some song about how it was Tenshi's birthday which was just silly, and Kana and Renjiro were holding hands under the table, probably thinking no one could see them. And of course the digimon—Salamon, Tokomon, Bukamon, Upamon, Hopmon, Gatomon and Patamon—were making up one end of the table together, looking up over the edge—aside from Upamon who was actually sitting on the table, which was also unfair because I was scolded every time I did that—toward the cake.

It just wasn't fair that Tenshi got to have a perfect birthday when mind had gone so poorly. I heard Mom warn someone to be careful, and Haruki appeared, holding a big lighter to light the sixteen candles that made up most of Tenshi's cake. What was he even doing here? Since when did Tenshi and Haruki have anything in common at all? Dad probably suggested it because he wanted to teach me a really particular lesson. Nikko couldn't come over—even though he was our cousin—because Dad was too scared that Nikko would wander off to hang out with me instead of Tenshi. Well, he was right, because I knew Nikko would, but it wasn't fair.

I had almost convinced him to let Aika—or even Shouta—come over instead, but he caught on to the plan, realizing I was just desperate for someone to talk to, but apparently I wouldn't learn my lesson though. I was supposedly going to be grounded until Louisa's Christmas party, but that just felt like it was going to be a hundred years from now.

I would have been able to convince Mom to shorten my sentence too if I hadn't been so angry before. They had just scolded me for yelling at Tenshi and punching a hole in the wall, but Mom had managed to get me free from the grounding, but when I skipped the audition it was apparently too far.

"This isn't fair!" I shouted, storming down the hallway, "What if I have plans or something?"

"Cancel them," Dad called after me.

"You want me to be a loser!" I screamed, rounding back on him, "How am I supposed to be keep my friends if I'm locked in my room forever!?"

"It's four days, Hiro," Dad tried to reason.

I didn't care. I turned back to my bedroom, and flung myself through the door, nearly tripping over the pile of dirty laundry near the doorway and scraping my arm against the computer desk that was pressed against the wall. Pure anger coursed through me and I turned to the door and dropped my jaw, "YOU'RE RUINING MY LIFE!" And then I had slammed the door shut.

I knew it had been a bit dramatic, but while these things happened it always seemed like the right thing to do or say. It was like I lost all control of myself. I narrowed my eyes to a glare as Tenshi sliced a thin piece of cake for Tokomon, handing it to him and making him happy. I was pleased to see Tokomon so enthusiastic, but I just hated that Tenshi was the one helping him feel that way. It should be me.

"You're allowed to join them," Dad said, creeping up on me. I turned to him and refused to lessen my glare. His eyebrows raised into the air, "This is Tenshi's birthday, you should be there for him."

"Where was he on mine?" I asked, annoyed.

Dad gave me the look. "Hiro, he was signing up for the auditions. You know that, it was really important."

I nodded my head bitterly. Stupid Tenshi and his stupid cello. "So where were you?" I asked. I had caught him off guard, and I took that as my cue to leave, and I strode across the living room to where I sat on the couch, reaching for the remote. Dad moved quicker and grabbed it from me. "Oh come on," I groaned.

"You're supposed to be grounded," Dad said, placing the remote on the arm of the couch, "You should be thinking about your actions and brainstorming better ways to deal with your anger. You should also be clearing your schedule for the twenty-seventh because Tenshi was called for the final audition."

Without my control my head fell straight back and a loud groan escaped my mouth. "So I get off grounding just to go to Tenshi's dumb audition?" Dad was looking to me like I'd just insulted him or something. "Why don't you just keep me grounded until after that too? Maybe forever since I don't get a say in what I do anyway."

"I'll talk to your mother," Dad said, sitting next to the remote. For a brief moment I thought he was going to let me get out of the stupid audition. "I wouldn't mind you being grounded indefinitely. We could use a stay-at-home maid. Patamon's no good at cleaning." Of course he was joking, but that didn't make it any less insulting. He didn't even consider letting me have my own mind to make my own decisions. Was there an exact moment where everything in my life began to suck? I couldn't pinpoint an exact moment but I knew it could have something to do with Mom and Dad caring about Tenshi and not me.

"I heard that Takeru!" Patamon called from the dining room. Dad grinned, his tongue between his teeth, and he leaned to the side and craning his neck to see Patamon. I reacted quickly, reaching out with my hand for the remote. As I was pulling it away, it nudged Dad's leg and he looked sharply toward me.

His hand flew out expectantly and I sighed, giving him the remote in defeat. "Why don't you do something productive with your time?"

"Why don't you give my computer cord back to me so I can go to the Digital World?" I asked in retaliation.

"I think you can figure out why that might not happen," Dad said, patting my shoulder as he made his way to the dining room to spend time with Tenshi on his birthday. As he made his way through the door he bumped into someone who apologized like a hundred times before Dad assured him it was okay. It turned out to be Renjiro and he made his way through the living room without noticing me at all. I was bored, so I followed him and found him slump down on a stool in the kitchen where no one could see him. Aside from me of course.

I found it weird that he was being so reclusive so I crept up on him and looked over his shoulder where he was holding his phone and scrolling down some web page that looked really official. That was a weird thing to be doing at a party, but then again it was Jou's kid. He was weird too. He told me so even.

"Wait," I said skeptically, looking up to him as he reached his hand out to me. I swatted his hand away, feeling concerned. "So you're gonna give me your crest?" Jou nodded. "And what if I don't want it?"

Jou tightened his lips and knelt down to be eye level with me. "I didn't want it either," he admitted in a very quiet voice. "I've never told anyone that, but when I found out I was destined to carry the weight of this trait on my shoulders, I just wanted to yell at them and tell them that my shoulders weren't strong enough to carry what they expected me to. I didn't have that choice, but in the end I showed the world that it was right about me. I could do it. You can too." I still felt a little worried and Jou seemed to know that. "But you get the choice, Hiro. I don't know what will happen if I die with this crest. No one does, but I don't want to make you take the responsibility. There may be someone else that can do it."

"B—but then I won't be a hero," I told him nervously.

Jou shook his head, "You're already a hero," he promised, "You don't need to save the world to be a hero. You don't need to save lives to be a hero either. As long as you're living your life honestly and caring about the people and doing everything in a way that one day you will be proud of, you're a hero."

"So..." I said, nodding my head, "If I take your crest, will I have to... be weird like you?"

Jou snorted and I felt embarrassed, "No," he said, suppressing a grin, "All you have to do is be faithful. Believe in yourself, believe in others and always give them reason to believe in you."

I smiled, "I can do that."

"As long as you're not weird like me," Jou said, laughing still. "You're sure?" I nodded my head and he smiled, happy with my decision.

"What are you doing?" I asked sharply, startling Renjiro into fumbling his phone. It fell to the counter and skidded toward the cookie jar that I wasn't allowed to eat out of until I was done being grounded. I was pretty sure denying a child cookies was illegal or something, but Mom and Dad weren't so sure. I grabbed the phone for him and handed it to him. He thanked me and nervously ensured that the screen was blank so I couldn't see what he was looking at. "What are you doing?"

Renjiro looked over his shoulder to ensure no one was coming up behind him. "I was... looking at the college forum to see if anyone else had yet to receive their acceptance letters."

"Oh yeah, you didn't get in that big school," I remembered, "Forgot about that." Renjiro's eyes widened in horror but I shrugged it off. I couldn't read emotions well. "So what did you find?" I asked, pulling a stool toward me to sit on.

Renjiro seemed unwilling to answer, but when it was entirely clear that I was going nowhere until he did, he finally said, "Nothing." It was like he was admitting this deep dark secret, but I didn't see how it was that important. It was just school. I had a couple years to go before I had to really think about my career anyway. I'd let future Hiro deal with that problem. "No one said anything. Everyone is talking about their acceptances and how excited they are to go. I even posted a question myself and no one responded to me."

"No one?" I asked in disbelief. Renjiro handed me his phone. I unlocked it and saw Renjiro's question written at the top of the screen. 'Hello, my name is Renjiro Kido. My best friend received her college application and I have yet to get one myself. I was wondering if I'm being paranoid by making the assumption that I have not passed the acceptance requirements. This is urgent because I need to know whether I should be speaking with other schools. Could someone help me understand if I am alone in not receiving my reply? Thank you.' My first thought was that maybe no one had seen it, but he had posted it six days ago and there was over a thousand people on the site at that moment if the counter in the top was to believed. "That's horrible." I told Renjiro, giving him his phone back.

I still wasn't sure how school could be that important, but Renjiro sure thought it was. Renjiro couldn't say anything though because Louisa had come into the room and was spinning around, as if she were dancing to some upbeat fun song that was only playing in her head. She finally reached her destination, which was the refrigerator and she pulled the freezer door open. She grabbed a massive tub of ice cream and grinned when she saw us.

As she was walking back toward the door, Haruki popped up, looking confused. When he saw Louisa he froze and she stopped dancing, embarrassed about holding like a hundred pounds of ice cream. Sure, it was probably only like three pounds, but it was still embarrassing. Haruki cleared his throat, "D-do you have a bathroom?"

He was talking to me now. "No," I told him sarcastically. "We use the sink." Haruki narrowed his eyes in a funny way and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him. "It's down the hall." He thanked me with his eyes and then retreated, leaving me alone with Renjiro and Louisa.

Louisa clicked her tongue and leaned back against the fridge, dipping her finger into the now open ice cream. "Boys," she sighed, sounding like someone had run her over with a car like twelve times. Well she didn't sound dead, so it would have to be a special car that was designed to never kill someone though. I didn't want to talk about relationship drama because I had none and still had to put up with enough of it with Makoto, Nikko and Elliot. It was only Osamu who really understood what it was like to not be obsessed with girls all the time.

As I was leaving the kitchen I found Tenshi looking for the others. He stopped just short of running into me and slipped aside, letting me pass. If Dad saw that he probably would have yelled at me for not getting out of Tenshi's way instead. See, Tenshi was the god of our household and everyone was supposed to treat him with respect and adoration. "Hiro," Tenshi said, stopping me in my tracks. "There's cake if you want some."

I looked back to him, just over my shoulder though, to let him know that I didn't actually care enough to fully give him my attention. "I'm not even allowed cookies, I'm sure I'm not going to be able to have cake."

"I already asked Mom," Tenshi said, and I saw that he was smiling. Why was he smiling? Why did he have to be so annoying? It was his fault that I wasn't allowed to do anything and he was just rubbing it in now.

I turned away, "Well I'm not having any," I snapped, "I don't want to risk being banished for eating too noisily or something." Tenshi didn't respond and I could tell he had that sad look on his face that he always got when I talked to him. "This is your fault, you know," I said, finally turning back to him, and feeling anger build up because of Tenshi's wounded look. "I didn't go to your audition and I get in trouble."

"But I didn't ask them to ground you," Tenshi tried to reason, "I never asked you to come to my—"

"I don't care what you did Tenshi," I growled, "And that's the problem. Mom and Dad care too much and I don't care enough so I'm in the wrong. Good job on your cello playing, I guess? I just don't care. I shouldn't be punished for not caring about your stupid music."

Tenshi hesitated, not sure how to reply, and finally settled on nodding his head, "Okay, I'm sorry."

I rolled my eyes and turned around to storm off to my room. Instead of an empty hallway I found Dad standing there looking all too frustrated with me. I groaned but otherwise pretended I couldn't see him. As I made my way passed him and his folded arms held tightly across his chest he said in a quiet voice, "Why can't you just be kinder to your brother?" there was a pause as I ignored him. "Tenshi's always been nice to you."

There it was. "Why can't you be more like Tenshi?"

I turned back to Dad snarling but he saw me coming. "Go to your room," he said flatly.

"I'm already going," I snapped. "You don't have to tell me to get out of here. I don't want to celebrate another year of Tenshi's life. It's not even an accomplishment. He just sits around and smiles and we're all forced to worship him or something—"

"Hiro," Dad said, looking entirely flabbergasted that I couldn't see his point. Well I may look harder if he would bother to look at mine. "I may be revisiting this indefinite grounding idea."

I felt my eyes widen with rage and I let out a strangled scream of anger before storming away to my bedroom and standing in the doorway. "You're ruining my life," I told him, quiet enough so the others couldn't hear, but loud and angry enough that maybe—just maybe—he would understand for once. I slammed the door before he could reply and pressed my back against the closed door, letting my anger fester and grow into something more.

"Why can't you be more like Tenshi?"

"Tenshi's always been nice to you."

"Hiro, you need to find a better way to vent your anger than to yell at Tenshi or your mother."

"Tenshi is amazing at the cello and you should respect that."

"Maybe if you had a hobby, like Tenshi's cello, you would understand what it's like."

I found myself creeping out of my room silently and walking through the open door right across the hall. I strode right across the bare hardwood floor after closing the door and fell to my knees in front of the big black cello case. I popped it open without hesitation and pulled out the big instrument and the bow that went along with it.

Tenshi's room had long since been soundproofed, so I knew it would be safe to try, but as I sat down I realized I didn't even know how to hold the stupid thing. I had seen Tenshi do it before, but it was a lot more complicated than it looked. When I finally settled on a comfortable position I readied the bow and began playing. Only horrid squealing sounds came from the instrument, like it was yelling at me and refusing me. It couldn't be that hard. It was just like rubbing the bow along the strings, so why wasn't it working right?

I grabbed a piece of sheet music from Tenshi's desk and stared to the mess of symbols, confused. What did that even meant? It was like a different language you had to learn to be able to play instruments and that was stupid.

I chucked the bow at his bed in frustration and made my way back to the case to put the cello back, but stopped. What if the cello didn't go back? What if Tenshi couldn't find it? Then he couldn't practice? Of course they'd know it was me who hid it, and I'd tell them where it was, but the initial panic could be kind of funny.

I put the sheet music back and closed the case, leaving it empty, then grabbed the bow again, making my way back to the door. I poked my head out the door and saw no one, so I moved quickly and heaved the heavy instrument across the hall and into my bedroom. I closed my door softly so no one would hear and I climbed over all the junk on the floor. As I made my way to the stairs at the other end of the room I stepped on one of Tokomon's toy cars and nearly fell flat on my face. My heart was slamming in my chest as I caught myself on the railing.

I took a moment to relax and then looked down the stairs. These stairs led to the basement rec room, and there was another set just outside the kitchen. I couldn't be sure that no one was down there from here. "Hello?" I called, but no one responded. That was good enough for me. It was annoying that someone had opened the door at the bottom though. I usually kept it closed, but it may have been opened for Tokomon to get out, so I couldn't be too mad.

I made my way down the stairs, wondering if maybe Dad was in his office that was off an extension of the rec room, and panicked, trying to think up an excuse in case he caught me.

And then I missed a step.

I clamped my mouth shut so I didn't scream and draw attention, but I was falling and all at once I had hit the carpeted floor of the rec room. The carpet was over concrete, and apparently that was hard enough to break a cello?

The cello shattered underneath me, breaking into like a billion pieces or something.

My heart was beating like crazy and in my panic I didn't even notice that one piece of the wood had stabbed itself into my leg. I pulled it out and winced. Oh crap. I had to fix my leg and clean up a cello, and come up with some burglar story to get out of this one.

Featured Evolution Line: Hiro: Poyomon—Tokomon—DemiDevimon—Devimon—Volcamon—BanchoGolemon