A/N: Prompt for this chapter is #14 - apnoea

Dripping Water
Chapter 6 - slipping figure (Akari)

Taiki looked like he hadn't slept well at all, and that was making things go from bad to worse in Akari's opinion.

She was surprised his mother hadn't tried to keep him at all. Maybe she had. Or maybe she'd thought it was too close to exam time to stay home.

She really hoped he hadn't been doing those paper rounds too. Except when she found him, he was locking up his bike and he wouldn't have had that otherwise.

'Taiki,' she pleaded. 'You look terrible. Seriously.'

He laughed, surprised. 'You've never said that before,' he commented. 'Or maybe you have, once or twice…'

'I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it.' Akari hovered, as close as she could manage without touching him directly. 'Seriously, you're paler than normal overtiredness and you've got bags under your eyes the colour of DarkKnightmon's armour.'

He touched the dark-coloured skin beneath his eyes. 'It's just a busy time,' he sighed. 'It's always busy in exam season.'

'It is,' Akari agreed, 'which is why you need to spend more time on yourself and less on other people.'

'I do it for me,' Taiki protested.

Which Akari probably knew better than anyone, except Taiki's mother. But still… 'You're selflessly selfish, you know. And that's why I can't leave you alone.'

They were silent for a bit after that, just walking. 'I know,' Taiki said finally. 'I couldn't do it without you looking out for me. Or without 'kaa-san.'

'Sometimes I wish I hadn't enabled you,' Akari admitted. 'But it's too late now. I can't leave you alone any more than you can leave everybody else.'

'No,' Taiki agreed. 'I'm sorry; it's just…'

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.

It didn't change the fact that he was overworking himself and Akari knew it. 'Taiki…'

'Hmm?'

'Don't overdo it.'

'I won't,' Taiki promised.

But Akari knew their definitions of overdoing were different, because in her opinion, he'd already overdone it.

.

They ate breakfast together. And lunch together. And Taiki finished neither of them. 'I'm full from fruit juice,' he laughed, over Wednesday's lunch. And he'd shown her the large bottle he was keeping in his desk with his books (and how had he not been caught by a teacher yet? she wondered).

It didn't matter. Drinking fruit juice would keep his energy levels up but there was a reason humans were built to eat solid foods. 'I think being in the digital world has spoilt your appetite,' she commented. 'Either that, or you're so exhausted you've ruined your appetite.'

'I don't think I'm any more tired than usual,' Taiki said thoughtfully.

'You almost fainted on Monday.'

'I was out for hours in the digital world.'

Akari sighed. 'You could sound the tiniest bit concerned,' she scolded.

'It's not a big deal.'

And, to Taiki, it wasn't, but only because he'd seen worse.

And, really, that was what kick-started it all. Taiki was always a kind person, but after carrying the weight of another's pain and his own guilt on his shoulders, it tended towards self-sacrificing.

How did she stop him? She didn't know, and if his mother couldn't manage it, what hope did she have? She was a child like him, equally shocked and equally fumbling. If an adult with an adult's wisdom and experience couldn't say all dreams could come true without somebody paying a price for it, then it probably wasn't possible. And they couldn't live under naivety forever.

It would've been nice if they could have, though. Where would they be? Would Taiki still be running track, or would he have found a different sport to be his niche? Would he have faced Zenjirou in that kendo tournament? Would they have found the digital world?

…well, she figured the Marine Day would've played out much the same, except without the soccer practice and bumping into Zenjirou. But that could've changed plenty. They might not have been in the right spot at the right time for Taiki to hear those digi-melodies. They might not have wound in the digital world after all.

Even in the digital world, the only thing she could do for Taiki was watch his back when it curled in, watch his feet when they began to stumble and his head when it tipped forward, dragging the rest of his body along with it. There were Generals, but they weren't her or Zenjirou. If it had been them, they'd have worked together. Three times the fighting force might have saved the digital world by then. Or maybe it wouldn't have. There were always too many what-ifs in the equation.

Like if Sano Tatsuya hadn't gone from the tracks to being wheelchair bound…

.

Taiki was helping the basketball team again. And he bent to pick the ball up halfway through and wound up sitting down instead.

'I just need some juice,' he protested. And that and a bit of rest had him back in the game.

But Taiki was sweating and pale when he stepped off the court, and only the first could be brushed away. 'Eat,' Akari ordered, handing him his unfinished lunch box.

Taiki only managed a few mouthfuls before he was turning green instead. 'Too much juice,' he grimaced.

'You're literally surviving on juice,' Akari frowned.

'And coffee,' Shoutmon piqued up from the Xros Loader.

'And coffee,' she agreed. 'Sugar and caffeine aren't exactly healthy. They always tell us not to drink coffee, especially, because it'll stunt our growth or something.'

'Isn't that a myth?'

Akari shrugged. 'That's not really the point.'

'It's only another week and a bit.' Taiki closed his eyes against the evening sun. 'And then the holidays. And the digital world.'

'The digital world is not a holiday,' Akari muttered. 'No offence, guys,' she added, for the benefit of the digimon, 'but we are fighting for world peace there. Like, literally.'

'It'll be a paradise when I whip it back into shape,' Shoutmon replied. 'You'll see!'

They laughed. 'We will,' Akari agreed. Taiki gave her a sidelong glance, but said nothing.

She didn't need him to, anyway. She knew the unasked doubts. She was the one who'd wanted to return the most, after all. Now, she wished they'd stayed, because the sensation of having left the digital world in peril (even though they knew, thanks to Wisemon, that no time was passing while they had part of the Code Crown with them here). But the reason she wanted to go back was because she'd been there, by the side of Taiki and Zenjirou and the digimon, and she had to see that through. She wanted to see them through.

Maybe that was part of the reason she couldn't keep Taiki away from those people that chased their dreams, because it was rarely ever a one-step process to the finish line and he couldn't leave them hanging either. He'd take as much of the weight as he could, even if it had had originally nothing to do with him. And he carried it until he wound up with bags under his eyes to carry as well, and then the colour dropped off. What would be next? If he wasn't eating properly and over-exercising, it'd be the weight, wouldn't it?

'How much do you weigh?' she asked.

Taiki stared at her. 'I – ' he spluttered. 'That –'

Okay, that was a little rude, she allowed. And a little sudden.

'It's not like I've stood on scales and weighed myself,' Taiki managed, finally.

'Fair enough,' she muttered. She hadn't for a while either. 'But you better not be losing weight.'

'I… don't think I am?' He looked down at himself.

Well, at least he wasn't dismissing the idea out of hand.

'And you're not turning into an insomniac with all that caffeine and sugar, are you?'

'…no?' Taiki still looked a little started, and Akari supposed she had switched into interrogation mode and thrown him off a little. 'I sleep fine.'

The dark bags under his eyes said something else. 'Shoutmon?' Akari asked.

Taiki side-eyed his Xros Loader. 'Shoutmon stays up studying with me,' he admitted, 'but there's really nothing…'

'Taiki sleeps through till his alarm,' Shoutmon agreed. 'He just doesn't go to bed until two or three in the morning.'

Akari frowned. 'That is not enough sleep.'

'Just till the exams,' Taiki repeated. And they were over halfway there already.

What she really wanted to do was stop everything else, but Taiki wouldn't accept that. She'd tried already, and last time too.

Last time, though, they didn't have the digital world and the digimon to factor in. He'd been okay, then, though he'd crashed pretty hard once he'd stopped with the late night coffee fixes. 'Okay,' Akari sighed, rubbing her brow. 'Okay. I just worry, you know.'

'I know,' Taiki smiled. 'And I know I'd get myself into a lot of trouble without you looking out for me. And 'kaa-san. And now Shoutmon and the other guys too.'

'Don't take advantage of us,' she harrumphed. Though it was a little bit of that, in the end. Just like how their classmates knew they could rely on Taiki, Taiki knew he could rely on them. And they were the people who dared to dream, and dared to try: the ones who had someone waiting to catch them if they fell.

If only Taiki dared to dream his own dreams, instead of other people's…

But it was a mental block that wasn't going to be easy to break apart.