A/N: Prompt for this chapter is powerful. And here we are, at the end! WIPBB made it possible, so thank you to the organisers!

Dripping Water
Chapter 18 - new countdown (Shoutmon)

Being moral support was surprisingly boring, Shoutmon noted. Taiki's role as moral support involved far more strategizing and far more danger. He couldn't hear a thing for a bit, and then all he could hear was Akari talking to Kiriha.

He'd barely even gotten a good look at Sano Tatsuya!

And that wouldn't do so he begged Wizarmon for a quick illusion and slipped back into the stands like a human boy. And it was a pretty good illusion, he had to admit. Wizarmon had kept his headphones which was nice of him, and the red and yellow colour scheme. His face looked quite a bit sharper than Taiki's and hair was weird (but all hair was weird; it was a human thing and simply couldn't' be helped). And walking looked slightly weird but felt exactly the same as it always did. Probably because he hadn't fundamentally changed, like when he digi-xrossed or digivolved. He just looked different on the outside. Enough to fool anyone who caught a glimpse of him.

He wondered if he'd fool Taiki and Akari too. Hopefully not. Taiki knew him so well by now, and he'd learnt loads more about Taiki since coming to the human world as well. Like human foods didn't really affect digimon in different ways like they did humans. Like coffee gave quick bursts of energy, kept people awake but then made them more tired afterwards, lowered their immunity to viruses and other stuff. Like orange juice was sort of the opposite: it didn't make people sleepy (especially when chilled) but there was something called vitamin C in it that boosted the immune system. And warm milk made people sleepy. And some tablets for colds. And colds didn't mean icy terrain and temperatures but sniffles and coughs that digimon didn't get and fevers they only sometimes did and for very different reasons. And how overworking manifested in more than just inattention and sluggish movements: it manifested in physical signs like bags under the eyes and bruises in parts of the body.

He knew better what to look for now. He also knew better how Taiki thought, how he worked… He'd always known Taiki wasn't the type to sacrifice anyone, that he'd make his strategies as best he could so everyone would walk away at the end of it and that was why he wanted Taiki's help to make him King, because he wanted to give the Digital World that same kind of ruler. And it was why Taiki had refused him at first, because Shoutmon hadn't explained himself or proven himself: he'd simply asked, and been rejected, and learnt his lesson and pitched his claim better the next time.

He still didn't the human world, per say. It wasn't his home and there was no war over their shoulders. It felt strange to be so relaxed. It made him wonder if they were dulling their reflexes but relaxation was good too. They were from the Village of Smiles, after all. They knew its value. And they'd taken the opportunity to relax in the Xros Loader and, when it was quiet, outside as well. They'd sampled different foods Taiki and Akari had brought them. They'd explored a school much more detailed than their own and read things that made very little sense to them. They'd learnt things about humans they hadn't known before and that was perhaps the most important thing, because they had human companions and they needed to know as much as possible about them, just as the humans learnt about the digimon.

The hardest thing, perhaps, was learning about the normal human lives they'd taken the children from. School and home and extracurricular sports and jobs and exams… and it was a flurry of activity that, after the world, they'd find in the Digital World as well, but for now seemed so foreign. When was the Village of Smiles destroyed? It felt like so long ago. When had the children come from the human world? It had to be that long ago.

They hadn't really gotten it, had they? Why they'd wanted so badly to go back, at first? Why they'd been reluctant to get involved? But they'd become friends and become invested and stayed on to help them and now they were planning to go back to the Digital World to help them again…

But at least they were relaxing in the human world as well, and they were offloading some of their burdens: burdens they'd known about and hadn't, old ones and new ones, simple things like eating on Marine Day to complicated things like dealing with a broken friendship which may not be that broken after all.

Neither Taiki nor Tatsuya yelled. They smiled sometimes. Tatsuya stood up, then sat back down, and hadn't Taiki said his legs were ruined beyond repair? Or was it his inherent code that was ruined beyond repair, and he'd somehow managed to shuffle around the rest of his code to make up for it. Humans weren't like digimon and it wasn't easy to reprogramme them, but apparently it was possible to some extent or else Tatsuya wouldn't have stood up like that. He'd ask Taiki about it afterwards but at the moment he looked too surprised.

And he didn't want to interrupt anyway. So he watched them talk. Watched as, finally, they turned to go their separate ways with tiny relieved smiles on their faces… and then Shoutmon couldn't wait anymore. He ran onto the tracks and hugged Taiki around the middle. 'How did it go?'

'Shoutmon?' Taiki blinked, but managed to school his expression into something that wasn't undiluted shock.

Maybe he should have warned Taiki first.

'You're… Shoutmon?' Tatsuya parroted. 'That's a strange name.'

Shoutmon laughed awkwardly. How to explain digimon names without the digimon part? 'Uhh…'

'He's foreign,' Taiki said hurriedly. 'Only here for a brief visit.'

'You've got good Japanese,' said Tatsuya appreciatively. 'Sounds like there's quite a story as to how you two met but I won't ask right now. Still, thank you for being there for Taiki.'

'Taiki's the one who's there for me,' Shoutmon grinned. 'Helps me out of tight spots like you wouldn't believe.' And that was true. Taiki had tried explaining to his mother that first night, and it hadn't gone over well. 'It's because of him that I can fight for my dream.'

'It's because of him I found a dream to fight for.' Tatsuya smiled. 'If he finds a dream while with you, you let me know, okay?'

'Sure!' He had no idea how he was going to pull that off (maybe Wisemon would help?) but he would. Tatsuya was important to Taiki, just as Akari and Zenjirou and Kiriha were: another person who'd shaped the person he became.

.

Later, the three of them walked back to Taiki's home: Taiki, Akari and Shoutmon who was still dressed in his illusion. Taiki was still wrapped in warm layers and his mask and scarf, but he seemed to be moving more easily, more freely.

It really was a heavy load, he reflected, that the difference was so obvious now that it was gone. He wondered how their battles would change from it: from Taiki and Kiriha and the changes in their relationship, and the way Akari and Zenjirou had changed as well, and even the digimon, upon visiting the human world. He wondered how Nene would have been if she'd come as well, if she could have come as well…

He wondered what the next battlefield wound look like, when Twilight and Blue Flare met Xros Heart once again. And the Bagra army… They didn't understand humans like those digimon who were a part of the other armies, the armies with human Generals. What differences would they see? What different strategies would they be able to employ? And how would the humans be, themselves? Homesick a second time, or more at peace in a world so far away from home?

They'd find out soon enough, so until then was recovery and rest (and, for their human friends, exams).