#or rather hell triweek

[polskieserce]

But the real question is why do I want to work on my Polish so much now when hell week is about to begin???

[fizzingwizard]

Waah, I really wanted to join in Triweek but I uhhhh forgot all about it >_> So I’m hastily writing little scraps of fanfic for each theme... they’re all gonna be at least a day late and probably more as the week goes on though sorry

This takes place during Saikai. I’m so hazy on the details, I think Nishijima was driving, but... I don’t really care if I’m wrong xP They are in the car, going home after the Kuwagamon fight, and this silly ficlet is the result of my bewilderment with how perky and peppy Mimi is following a trans-pacific flight to Tokyo from New York. It’s actually sort of Yamato centric though so don’t let my bogus summary trick you.

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Tri week day 1 - Homecoming - A conversation in a car

"I still can't believe it," Taichi declared to the universe. One end of a gummy from Mimi's souvenir dangled from the corner of his mouth. Thirty minutes ago they had watched him roll and skid over the asphalt like a stray soccer ball. Thirty minutes ago, Yamato had sent his partner leaping over the new crater in the earth where Taichi was hunched over his unresponsive partner, as if his thin polyester jersey were kevlar and his lean teenage back could do a thing to protect either of them.

Thirty minutes. Just barely. Disbelief, Yamato figured, was the normal way to react.

"I think we've dealt with stranger things than what we witnessed today," said Koushirou.

There were exceptions.

The van they were in wasn't especially spacious or comfortable, but it was certainly lived in, crumpled receipts and empty PET bottles evincing how used to this their driver was, or at least, the lack of respect he had for governmental vehicles, because Yamato felt pretty sure this wasn't the way Nishijima showed up in the mornings for his teaching gig. He hadn't had much to say to them in a while, which Yamato found a bit suspect, but the rest of the group seemed happy for the chance to catch up with each other without having to worry about hiding what kept them linked.

"That's not what I meant," Taichi shoved more gummies in his mouth. There was a long, angry scrape trailing up his forearm from his elbow. "I meant I can't believe she's back."

She's back could mean many things. The comeback of some superstar everyone thought washed up when she turned thirty, only to come back with a vengeance at forty when she realized she still had half her life ahead of her. The ascent of a contentious politician. In the realm of metaphor, she didn't even have to mean a person, such as with ships and vintage cars. In private Yamato referred to his motor scooter as "she," not that Taichi would have any reason to know that, since Yamato absolutely was not going to tell him.

But in this instance, she's back referred to Mimi.

Whose mouth opened in offense. "What, aren't you glad to see me?"

Taichi shrugged. "It's just sudden. You don't have like a private jet or something, do you?"

"No way!"

Koushirou muttered something that sounded a bit like "wouldn't put it past her," but the shadows in the car fell oddly with the artificial glow of his tablet screen and so it was hard to tell.

Mimi's eyebrows drew together like a pair of arrows anyway. Unmoved by this, Taichi pressed on, still knocking back gummies.  "Well, how'd you get here so fast then?"

"You invited me," she sniffed.

"I did?"

"Yes, the soccer game."

"Holy crap. The game. I totally forgot." Suddenly Taichi turned and stared at Yamato, who looked back at him unimpressed, because what the hell did he expect him to do about it?

"Oniichan, I'm pretty sure Kuwagamon buzzing through the soccer field put the game on the hold," Hikari said soothingly.

"Oh, you're right. Wait, you came all the way across the ocean to go to my soccer game? I thought you were joking."

Yamato blinked. Ah, they were talking about Mimi again.

"Well, I told you, my family decided to move back anyway, and the fee to change the date of the flight wasn't that high, so I convinced my parents to let me come over a bit early. School's out for the summer in the US so it's not like I'm missing anything."

Taichi spun around to stare at Yamato again. This time, at least, Yamato could commiserate. Who was this girl.

A couple beats later and Mimi's lower lip had begun to protrude. "I even brought you gummies! Koushirou-kun's glad I'm back, aren't you?"

The syncopated stutter of Koushirou experiencing a system error was mostly drowned out by a siren blaring as a police car whizzed by.

"We're all glad you're back, Mimi-chan." Sora reached for Mimi's hand and gave it a squeeze. It had been a while since she'd last said anything; Yamato had thought she might've dozed off.

Takeru nodded. "Taichi-san just doesn't know how to handle girls," he said cheerfully.

"Hey," said Taichi and Hikari at the same time.

"Sorry, why are you offended?" Yamato couldn't help but ask.

Hikari squared her shoulders. "Because he's my brother. I should have dibs on teasing him about girls."

Taichi shot her a look. "Hey." The effect was somewhat undercut by the mouthful of gummies he had to try to growl through.

Hikari just continued: "You have your own brother to tease."

"You're right, I apologize," replied Takeru, two hands raised and a conciliatory tip of his head. For some reason this seemed to appease Hikari, who offered him the last few gummies in her bag.

The corners of Taichi's mouth dipped in a suspicious frown. He leaned in with a furtive whisper to Yamato, but, since he had to twist his body partway out of his seatbelt and lean over Sora to do it, Yamato thought it might have been easier just to tell the whole group. "Your brother scares me."

Yamato was much more inconspicuous, hardly moving his mouth to return, "Your sister scares me."

Taichi nodded. "That's fair." A moment later Sora "helped" him back to his original position with a rather ungentle knee to the solar plexus. He massaged his chest and pouted that she had hit a bruise, one of the many he had after getting knocked around by Kuwagamon all afternoon. Sora countered that he'd be lucky not to end up one lumpy, vaguely human-shaped bruise if they had an accident while he was dangling from his seatbelt like a python in a tree. She had a point.

The car slowed on a familiar street. Mimi's eyes lit up, nearly pushing Koushirou over in her rush to peer out the window. "Oh wow! This is so weird! I'm really home!" she gushed, her breathy excitement steaming up the glass, but not being able to see did nothing to curb her enthusiasm or convince her to sit down. Yamato didn't expect it would. "And it's just so nice that I’m with all of you, except for Jou-senpai anyway. And the Digimon too! I couldn't have asked for a better homecoming."

"I would have preferred fewer Digimon destroying airports, personally," Sora demurred with a covert smile. The rest of them tittered, but Mimi didn't seem to notice.

It was after they'd all unloaded and said their good-byes, and Yamato was walking under the hazy streetlights toward his apartment complex with Gabumon that he had the thought:

He didn't like sending Gabumon into battle, but the way they fell right back into the old patterns, the way they still just knew what the rest would do, how to spot someone needing backup, who should take the offensive and when, felt good. Felt right. Fighting alongside these people, it just made sense. Standing at Taichi's side, studying where the tension bunched in his arm, watching for the subtle flicker toward Yamato his eyes made that meant he was about to launch some risky feat of daring that may or may not save all their lives -

- it was something like coming home.

He'd worried at first... the old Taichi seemed slow to come out. How silly of him. As if Taichi at seventeen would be less than Taichi at eleven. The guy Yamato couldn't help but trust, no matter how stupid he looked spitting gummies across the backseat at Takeru and Hikari to "avenge his honor."

No, Yamato thought, Taichi hadn't changed.

At least not much.

He would have noticed before now, wouldn't he?