#my eternal like hate relationship with patamon

[koushirouizumi]

Good News: I no longer have as much of the "hate" part of my Like-Hate relationship with 02!Takeru but I'm sometimes still tagging it that because it's funny to me (its also partly still the hats. Gd Adventure!+02!Takeru you and your HATS) Bad News {GOOD For Me}: You will still have to deal with my hyper-specific canon-based head-canons that are 100 percent based on Toei ~canon~ ~~lore~~ because Young Me's intent to write Adventure+02!Takeru & Patamon & {ANGEMON[s]} MY WAY and give my vision of Takeru everything Takeru SHOULD Get is reawakening

[munchkinmarauder]

Tales from the Tri Verse

re-posting chapters, typos and all, from an old series of mine in honour of the new trailer coming out.

AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8389810/chapters/19220815

FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12190183/2/Tales-from-the-Tri-verse

Aftermath

‘Alice in Wonderland’ was Sora’s favourite story as a little girl. She remembered laughing at the sheer lack of sense everything made (much like their adventures in the Digiworld) and scoffing at the part where Alice met the Mad Hatter and his friends. How silly it was of them to piss off the Lord of Time himself and forever be stuck in that single moment of time (one minute before tea time if she remembered correctly).

Taking that into account and her present circumstances, Sora couldn’t help but wonder whether the Lord of Time was playing a cruel joke and what had she and her friends done to deserve it. It felt like she had been standing there for an eternity since the partner Digimon had disappeared along with the distortion, since time had stopped and silence had embraced her.

Koushiro’s laptop screen flashed red, the worlds ‘REBOOT COMPLETE’ as stark and powerful as a bullet to the heart. Looking at those words Sora had never felt so much, yet felt so empty at the same time.

Piyomon was gone… their partners were gone…gone…gone…gone. Probably dead, most likely rebooted, their human partners most definitely forgotten.

If Sora allowed herself to feel more she may have hysterically laughed at the solution for the infected Digimon boiling down to a simple ‘did you turn it off and on again.’ Who knew that could take away so much?

It seemed however that the Lord of Time had decided to release her (she wasn’t sure that was much better) as the silence and stillness was broken by Takeru’s soft voice. ‘Patamon was the first one infected…. But I couldn’t say a thing because I was afraid.’

It was just a few days earlier that Sora had admitted to herself and to Piyomon (oh god she didn’t want to think of Piyomon now) that she was ‘the mum of the group’ and it was those instincts that snapped her out of her daze. As Sora came back to herself she noticed Takeru bursting into tears, Yamato rushing over to embrace his brother (as much for himself as it was for Takeru), Mimi falling to her knees sobbing and Meiko clutching her hands over her mouth as tears streamed down her face. If she looked a little more she would notice how Hikari’s brown eyes filled with tears of sorrow and disbelief and Taichi’s pained expression as he clenched his fists (Soon he would have to open his eyes and confront reality). She noticed as Koushiro stood up, his usually intelligent eyes staring ahead not comprehending anything, his laptop discarded on the ground and she noticed how much Jou was shaking as he softly and repeatedly called Gommamon’s name. Looking very much like a tall and spindly tree about to be uprooted by the wind, she wanted to reach out and prevent him from falling. She wanted to reach out and care for them all, sooth their pain and do her best to bandage their wounds. She was the mother of the group right? So it should be easy to help them surely? Much easier than focusing on how much she was hurting…but she couldn’t. Her own glass walls of emotion both so poignant and so lacking prevented her from doing so.

‘We shouldn’t stay here for too long…’ Mr Nishijima’s voice broke through the silence, his tone low and his eyes full of sympathy (but he could never understand what it was like to lose a partner…oh god…poor Takeru-Kun had lost his twice! Sora wished desperately to both embrace him and to run away…..neither of which she could do) ‘I’ll take all of you home.’

Wanting to ignore him but knowing their ‘teacher’ was right the Digidestined followed him to the parked jeep. The seating area at the back as symbolically cold and empty as they felt. Sora felt detached from her body now, tethered to it like a balloon to a bed post. She again could only watch as Hikari burrowed into her brothers arms, shoulders shaking with silent sobs and as Meiko sat as far away from the rest of them as she could. Head down and shoulder hunched, Sora felt like she should try console new girl but at the moment she couldn’t really bring herself care.

She could not hate herself more for her inaction as she watched Jou carefully place Koushiro’s laptop in its owner’s arms. That’s right; she remembered her friend had left behind his prized procession as he tried to get into the van as fast as his legs would allow him. She had seen it happen; she could have picked it up for him but she didn’t (thank goodness for Jou!).

Nishijima had started the jeep and the Digidestined watched as they got further away from the battle ground.  They weren’t taken home immediately, Nishijima was stationed at the school for a reason, he was deeply empathetic and he knew none of the children (even if they didn’t say it) were quite ready to be alone or go home to their empty bedrooms. He bought them hot tea to sip on and just drove, taking random streets until the sun had set and he figured the kids were as ready as they’ll ever be to go home.

The jeep remained silent the whole while, broken only by the occasional muffled sob and shuffle of one of the younger teenagers, both of whom had cried themselves to sleep (In Takeru’s case it was more like he had passed out from a combination of despair and exhaustion, the culmination of several nights of sleep lost to dealing with Patamon’s infection. In Hikari’s case her sleep was more a light and uneasy doze).  Sora was eventually reeled back into her body as the vehicle jolted to a stop in front of Meiko and the Yagami sibling’s building. Hikari was immediately awake (albeit groggy but then she’s always been a light sleeper, even when she was eight) and she clutched onto Taichi as they stood to leave. Sora reached out to steady her but was too late to even offer a word of comfort to Meiko as her friend bolted out of the jeep’s open doors. Sora then turned her eyes towards Taichi (she had to try now…Her friends were hurting and she wanted to help them.  Surely that would be much better than thinking about how much she already missed Piyomon?)

‘Is there anything I can do? Anything you need? Please don’t hesitate to call me!’  Taichi just returned her gaze (his eyes shouldn’t look so old…) ‘It’s alright Sora… We’ll cope…’ he said softly, his mouth twisting into a weary grin ‘even a mama bears got to look after herself!’ It felt like a shot to the heart and Taichi knew it immediately. His expression turned panicked ‘I…I…mean… you need to worry about yourself too…I’m sorry Sora.’  (He didn’t need to apologise, she knew he didn’t mean it…it was her that wasn’t good enough). Not sure what else he could do he turned to his sister ‘Hikari are you ready to go?’ The girl briefly nodded before reaching over to touch her best friend’s hair ‘Takeru-Kun…’ (Sora remembered how Hikari had held him from the moment he collapsed after Angemon succumbed to the infection).  

Yamato finally spoke ‘I’ll look after him Hikari-Chan…’  (Sora couldn’t help but notice how his arms tightened around his brother, knuckles turning white). ‘Thank you Yamato- San…’ Hikari was then quick to latch onto her brother, who shared a brief look and nod with Yamato before bidding everyone goodnight. He then shot Sora one last apologetic look, before he and his sister finally stumbled out of the jeep arms wrapped around the other’s waist.  

Nishijima started the jeep again, Sora took the seat next to Takeru and Yamato as the silence returned. Takeru looked so small, face tucked into the crook of his brother’s neck, the tears that had long since dried leaving a web of tear tracks down his face. Sora was about to say something to Yamato but she was cut off by Nishijima announcing they had arrived at Takeru’s apartment complex. The teacher then turned around to address Yamato ‘I’ll wait until you drop him off and then take you home.’ ‘Not need to bother Sensei….. Take the others home… no need to get up Jou… I’m gonna stay with my brother. I don’t want to leave him alone.’

Sora helped Yamato pull Takeru onto his back, getting out of the jeep with him. She briefly, much as Hikari had done earlier, rested her hand on top of his head as if she could channel what strength she had into him. She then lifted her other hand to touch Yamato’s shoulder before asking ‘You don’t want to be alone either do you?’ Blue eyes met hers, before he broke into a sad smile ‘Yeah.’ And then he left. She couldn’t help but watch him go; he was so much like her… when he was hurt he channelled his energy into looking after others. She suddenly longed for the days when they were dating, before they drifted into the hard-to-define status their relationship was in now (of loving each other but not quite being together), when they would sit for hours on his balcony saying nothing and holding hands. She wanted it now but she knew she would never be able to break through his defences and ground him the way his baby brother did.

Nishijima called her back into the jeep, as she got back in she couldn’t help but notice how much more imposing the silence was. She looked towards the remaining Digidestined; Mimi’s head was gently resting against Jou’s shoulder as she let out the occasional whimper and Jou had his phone open, staring at the name of the person who could only be his girlfriend, his finger hovering over the ‘dial’ button. Sora sat next to Koushiro (who had his head in his hands), ignoring the pool of oolong tea that had spilled on the floor, resting her hand on his shoulder as she did so (She had the crest of Love… She had to think of the others...If she didn’t then she would think of Piyomon and she couldn’t handle it right now) and was rewarded with a small smile of gratitude for her efforts.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at Mimi’s, Mr Nishijima standing up to escort her to her door (as he had done for the others). Sora watched her best friend stand up, still graceful despite looking like a wilted flower, giving everyone left a brief hug before she departed. Her hug with Sora lasted a little longer as Sora asked her to ‘do her best to get a goodnight sleep’ and tried to rub away the tears that still escaped her friend’s eyes.

Koushiro was next to be dropped home but his departure was different from the others. While the others had left dejected (or practically unconscious in Takeru’s case), the bearer of Knowledge seemed to have come to a realization of sorts. He gave her had a grateful pat as he got up, looked both Jou and Sora in the eye with the promise he would think of a solution, then bowed politely and thanked Mr Nishijima. He then left, determination in his eyes and his back straighter than it had been before.

And then there were two…  the journey to Sora’s once again took place in relative silence, broken only by the sounds of traffic and the random snatches of conversation caught through the open window. Sora was dimly aware of the jeep coming to a stop, before Nishijima was opening the door and announcing that he would walk her to the complex’s entrance. She turned to her friend and said ‘goodnight Jou-Sempai’ before getting up to leave. She was however stopped by a hand on her wrist and before she knew it she found herself in Jou’s tight embrace. ‘Before you say this is out of character for me… I j…just want you to know that Taichi’s right….you need to look after yourself too….and thank you for looking after the others.’

‘But I didn’t do a very good job!’  

‘Sora-san, you did your best and that’s enough.’ She was then released from the hug and he returned to his seat.

Feeling almost displaced, Sora could only mutely nod at him before she followed her teacher to the entrance of her building. She then thanked him and after receiving advice from him along the same lines Jou gave her, went inside. It was a full ten minutes before she could even bring herself to open the door.

It was just as she turned the handle that everything; all the pain, shock, feelings of uselessness and silence from the evening finally came crashing down on her. She flung open the front door, startling her mother before bolting to her room (she barely heard her mother’s confused questions as to where she had been so long and where was Piyomon). Sora then proceeded to wrap herself in her futon (only stopping to kick off her sticky shoes) before curling into a foetal position under the covers, she didn’t even realize she was sucking in huge gulps of air as she squeezed her eyes shut and shook uncontrollably.

Piyomon was gone…gone….gone! What use was those six years of memories if she didn’t have anyone to share them with?

In her grief she almost missed the sound of footsteps entering her room and her covers being lifted as her Mother slipped under the futon and warm arms wrapped around her. It was then that Sora allowed herself to cry tears of anger, frustration and sadness until she was exhausted.

For the first time in years, since she was a little girl eager to hear about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Sora slept in her mother’s arms.

After all how could she be a mother to anyone else, when all she wanted since her partner was lost was her own mother?

[koushirouizumi]

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