Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Matter of Perspective ❯ Hikari ( Chapter 10 )

DISCLAIMER: See previous parts.

A/N: Slight warning to people who are curious about why Yamato acted the way he did in Part Eight -- you won't really know until Part Thirteen, when we go back to his POV. Skipping over to Hikari now. I tried to write part eight in her POV unsuccessfully (covering the events in the Crimson Dragon), but this went much more smoothly. I may have mentioned in the last A/N that I really enjoy writing for the digimon, and that trend continues here. Additionally, the Yagami siblings were just loads of fun. What can I say? I love all of these characters. Even Iori, and I have a tendency to skip his episodes when I'm re-watching the series. The way Hikari and Taichi bounce off each other is really cute sometimes. >3

When the phone rang at 2 AM and woke her out of a sound sleep, Hikari thought she must be imagining things. Nowhere on the planet did she have a friend inconsiderate enough to call in the middle of the night. Then it rang again, and she rolled over hatefully. She wasn't the sort of person who could ignore a telephone in favor of sleep, although developing into one seemed like a very good idea right now. The fact that she very nearly trod on a gently snoring Takeru when she went to answer it -- well, that did nothing to improve her mood.

"You should rip out the phone line," Tailmon muttered darkly from a corner of Takeru's bed. A backwards glance found the little cat lying on her stomach, paws clamped firmly over tufted ears.

Thinking about this attitude only made it seem more seductive, so Hikari smiled wanly and shrugged her shoulders instead of trying to argue. "I'll be back in a minute. See if you can't wake Takeru-kun."

"Why?"

"Because he's still asleep."

It took a moment, but then Tailmon looked down at the floor and the boy in question -- snugly wrapped up in the sleeping bag Takeru always dragged out of his closet when they spent the night. Her eyes seemed to linger on the tiny and quite obviously contented lump that was Patamon.

"Well. I can't promise anything, but you never know. I might fall out of bed and land on them accidentally. Since I'd be half-asleep at the time, I would of course panic and maybe even bring out my claws..."

"Yeah," Hikari agreed. "You might."

They shared an evil smile, but just as the Keeper of Light started to feel that perhaps the world wasn't such a horrible place after all, the phone rang again -- cutting through their camaraderie like a wretched knife through wretched butter and effectively reminding her that even spreading misery was still no substitute for a good night's sleep. She stomped into the living room while making as much noise as her current exhaustion allowed and yanked the evil thing off its hook. "Hello?"

There was a startled pause, and Hikari realized belatedly that her tone of voice had undoubtedly promised horrible death for whoever was on the other end. Then she glanced at the watch she seemed to have fallen asleep wearing and found she didn't care.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Someone cleared his throat, although he still sounded raspy when he eventually spoke. "Hi - Hikari? Is that you?"

"Yes, the last time I checked." She could hardly make him out, and having to strain her ears only made her feel more tired. "Sorry, were you looking for Takeru-kun? You'll have to ring a little louder next time. He sleeps like a goddamned log."

"Watch it," said the raspy voice. "Jeez, what would Mom think if she knew how you answered the phone? I'll have to wash your mouth out."

Whatever annoyance Hikari might have felt at this flippant attitude was completely overwhelmed by shock as she finally recognized her brother. He didn't cry very often -- hell, Taichi didn't go into his feelings in any great detail, even when they were happy ones -- but there was a roughness to his words and a certain pain behind them that meant he had been crying before he called. That scared her. She tugged on the phone cord until she could sit at the dining room table, and worked it slowly into knots.

"Oniichan. Are you okay?"

Quiet, distinctly bitter laughter. "Okay? Am I okay? I'm great, thanks for asking. Wonderful. Abso-fucking-lutely wonderful."

Something hypocritical about explicit language danced on the tip of her tongue, but Hikari restrained herself fiercely. It was an old argument -- one that they didn't need to get into right now. "What happened?" she murmured instead.

"Nothing. Hey," Taichi said in scratchy mock-outrage, "what's with the Spanish Inquisition? Can't a big brother check on his little sister without anything having happened?"

"At 2 AM?"

Heavy sigh, followed by what sounded like a miserable cough. "'Vited Yama over. You know, like an idiot."

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.

But she should have known. What else could make Taichi cry?

"Did you tell him?"

"No. Didn't have to."

That set her back for a minute. "You can't mean he guessed. For the love of god, if he hasn't seen it after all this time, I -- oh no." Hikari squeezed her eyes shut unhappily. "What did you do?"

More of the horrible laughter. "Felt her up. And before you start in about how stupid that was, she asked me to. Don't know why...I guess she wanted to satisfy my scientific curiosity or something like that." Then he groaned. "She kissed me, I kissed her back. We were really going at it, right there on the counter."

"Oh, yuck. Remind me never to eat off that counter again."

Her brother didn't say anything, and slowly Hikari realized that he wouldn't have been calling at this hour in that tone of voice unless something had gone wrong. When he finally responded, his voice was thick with an unidentifiable emotion.

"Meant to back off. Figured, you know, that it was stress. Maybe even a mental breakdown of some kind. I didn't want to take advantage of her any more than I already had. But thinking...thinking was really hard. I don't know what would've happened if her dad hadn't shown up -- but with the way she reacted when he did, Yama probably would've regretted it. So that's good, right?"

She swallowed uncertainly. "Sorry I didn't come home."

"No, that's okay. Sorry I woke you up."

Guilt welled up inside of her. This was so impossible over the phone. "If you ask me," Hikari ventured bravely, "it sounds like he might care about you after all. I mean, it's not like you were drunk." She paused. That would have explained everything. "Right?"

"No. We weren't drunk. Jeez. I didn't even get depressed until after she left, and you know how Yama feels about alcohol. Or at least, how Sora feels about it."

"Bitch really runs his life, doesn't she?"

Stunned silence. Then, in a more conversational tone, "So. Just out of curiosity, when did you start hating Sora?"

"When she started making my brother's life a living hell," Hikari shot back. "Did you really think you could rant about how evil she is every day without affecting me? Anyway, you're missing the point. If Yamato-san wasn't drunk, why did he kiss you?"

"Something to do, I suppose."

"Oniichan! Be serious!"

"I was being serious. You're asking the wrong guy, okay? Yama and me didn't start getting along until I quit trying to figure her out. Like not making sense is something new. God, I just want to die."

All of her sympathy evaporated. She knew that things were messed up between Taichi and the person he loved, but self-pity didn't suit him. It was already hard enough not to say she'd told him so. How often had Hikari tried to convince her stubborn brother to confess his feelings before Yamato figured them out? How often had his condescending response been that she didn't know what she was talking about?

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," she whispered harshly. "That's not doing anyone any good. Who are you anyway, and what have you done with my brother? Sure, he was stupid sometimes and he took crazy risks, but I've never seen him just give up."

"Well. Now you have."

She wanted to reach through the phone and slap him. "Okay, then. It's funny, because I seem to remember a day in the Digital World when you wouldn't let any of us help you fight Piemon because you were so sure Yamato-san would never abandon you. I'm sure he'd love to know when you stopped believing in him."

No response. At first Hikari thought maybe she had gone too far, overestimated her own brother's thick skin; that instead of waking him out of his despair she had only plunged him further down. But Taichi needed that sort of treatment sometimes. You had to kick him upside the head if you wanted him to notice your words at all.

Fortunately, this turned out to be one of those times.

"Thanks, Hikari." His voice was gruff and muffled. Like he'd been scrubbing at his face with his sleeve a few seconds ago. "You're right. I'll see Yama at school tomorrow, and we'll talk. Even if she doesn't want to. We'll figure something out."

She felt herself smiling, just a little. "I'm sure you will. Do me a favor, okay, 'Niichan? Don't let him go without a fight. I was really looking forward to seeing the look on Reiko-san's face when she finds out that the Ishida Yamato is my brother-in-law."

A soft chuckle. "Sure thing. Wouldn't want to disappoint the oh-so-perfect Hamasaki Reiko. You sure you don't want me to just beat the crap out of her?"

"I'm sure." Hikari yawned, a rude reminder of the hour. "Does this mean you're going to be okay now? Because we've got a test tomorrow, and I could really use a decent night's sleep."

"Oh. Yeah, same here. What I wouldn't give for a junior high science course right now. You don't know how easy you've got it."

"Save the lectures, Old Timer. 'Night?"

"'Night."

A dial tone had never sounded so satisfying. She hung up and turned around, thinking vaguely of getting something to drink before she went back to bed. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone anymore. Takeru stood in the alcove between the dinning room and the kitchen, tugging on his borrowed white cotton sleep-shirt and frowning worriedly the way he always did when he thought she was overtaxing herself.

"Was that Taichi-san?"

"Yes," she admitted, and then hedged. "Where's Patamon?"

"Well, after your trained attack-digimon pounced," he began with a tired but amused inflection, "I tried to bring him with me to return the favor. He squeaked incoherently about the cold and his mother, then sort of rolled over defiantly. Figured I'd let him sleep." When she didn't laugh, the worried frown returned. "So, Hikari-chan. Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or do I have to guess?"

Further hesitation. She would never have lied to Takeru, not for anyone, but omitting something private about her brother's life wasn't entirely out of the question. Of course, this particular private something involved his brother -- didn't Takeru deserve to know? If Taichi had told her the truth about what happened, Yamato would almost certainly need someone to talk to. He seemed to her like one of those people who looked calm and collected on the outside but constantly worried about how other people saw them on the inside. Self-images that fragile didn't need this sort of beating.

"Something happened today, didn't it?" Takeru asked quietly. "With Oniichan."

She sighed. Not telling him wasn't an option. "Yeah."

The blonde sent a frustrated breath of air straight up into his own bangs and they ruffled slightly. "I knew it. I could hear it in his voice when he called earlier. She called. Whatever."

Hikari smirked humorlessly at the brief war with pronouns. He had done that ever since it happened, correcting himself no matter which way he started out and then giving up. She didn't try to interfere. They all seemed to have their own ways of dealing with this situation and their own reasons for making the choice. Takeru's struck her as conflicted and uncertain, even though she did everything she could think of to make him more comfortable. Like slipping her hand through his now and squeezing it gently.

"Didn't you say that call was just so your father could make sure you were really all right?"

"That's what he told me," Takeru confirmed with barely contained anger. He returned the squeeze forcefully. "I could tell there was something wrong, but I wasn't sure what and she wouldn't tell me." Abruptly, the vehemence drained out of him and he sighed. "I get to thinking we've made all this progress, but then Oniichan laughs his fake laugh and I realize I'm still a little kid to him. Having your brother actually trust you must be nice."

This was something else that Hikari couldn't help, and she considered her words thoughtfully. "You know that Yamato-san just doesn't want to worry you," was what finally came out. "And my brother really isn't all that different from yours. They call when they need our comfort, but we aren't supposed to figure out what's wrong."

"Except that Taichi-san told you," he persisted stubbornly.

She took hold of her boyfriend's shoulders and forced him to look at her. It was slightly easier than it would have been before. "He told me because he had to, Takeru-kun. He wanted advice, and our parents don't even know he's interested in other boys. They aren't going to care, as they're not morons, but I still wouldn't pick a crisis to broach the subject. Would you?"

Eventually, Takeru sighed and shook his head. He looked cold, and she shifted her grip on his arms so that they were hugging. Having his body pressed against hers felt different, but not in an important way. Right at the beginning, Hikari had put all of the changes into that category.

"So." He grinned faintly, backing off to a speculative arm's length. "What did Taichi-san do this time, and how are we going to fix it?"

End Part Ten