Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Matter of Perspective ❯ Koushirou ( Chapter 20 )

DISCLAIMER: See previous parts.

A/N: Four more parts! Four more parts! Back with Koushirou again, so as to give you that unique scientific insight. Or something like that. This is where the rest of the Chosen Children learn what so many of them already know. (Isn't the suspense just KILLING you?) There's also a smidgen of Gomamon...yay! I love Gomamon. God, but Taichi's mother reminds me of Tendo Kasumi [Ranma 1/2]! Am I the only one? And their apartment is on the thirteenth floor -- Room 1306, to be exact. Just throwing that out there. ^^

"...And that's the situation," Koushirou finished.

It was 5:23 PM on Monday, and Taichi had called a meeting at his home with the apparent idea that sustained alteration for longer than a week indicated a fundamental lack of effort on the parts of those being held responsible for its reversal -- and he was at least partially right. Of course, now that his relationship with Yamato had made progress in the desired direction, the only thing that remained was subterfuge. Daisuke was of the opinion that they ought to wait a bare minimum of three days before revealing their method for reversing the change; to do otherwise would look suspiciously convenient.

At the moment, Koushirou was preparing for that eventuality. He had waited for Jyou outside his final class of the day and offered to walk with him to their mutual destination. The thought behind this was that he could explain his tampering en route and solicit assistance from the other young man. To his credit, Jyou merely nodded his head at the end of it and did not (as the colloquialism went) freak out. He obviously didn't approve of what they had done, but seemed to realize that saying so at this juncture would be unhelpful.

"Why me?" he asked after a beat of silence. "I mean, everything looks like it's in order.

Koushirou considered his response carefully; as of yet, he had only a gut instinct, and to admit that he was acting on such an impulse would not have strengthened his case. "Because appearances can be deceiving," is what he finally said, causing Jyou to frown at him.

"Oh, cryptic. That just clears things right up."

He could only shrug helplessly. "I promise a full disclosure in the future, but what I really need from you right now is a commitment. If we run into any problems with our little experiment, it might be better not to get the hospitals involved."

There was a slightly horrified expression on his companion's face. "I'll do the best I can, Koushirou, but you know I'm really just a first-year med student. My best probably won't be very much."

"Then let us both pray the occasion does not arise," Koushirou said succinctly. He attempted a smile to lighten the black mood, but from Jyou's entirely unmoved expression, he gathered that it hadn't worked. Inconsequential. He had confidence in this man's abilities. Anyone who could mend an Ogremon's broken arm with only toilet paper on hand ought to have been able to handle anything.

From somewhere deep inside his human partner's backpack, Gomamon's voice emanated. "Are we there yet? All these textbooks are digging into my back. Just once, couldn't you lug around some nice, soft magazines?"

"Somehow, I don't think my professors would appreciate that," Jyou told him playfully. "Besides, it's not that much farther. Actually, I can see Taichi's condominium from here."

The backpack wriggled spasmodically, and Gomamon unzipped a portion of it to see for himself. Satisfied that the building really was in sight, he retreated once more. "I guess so."

Rather amused, Koushirou caught the other young man's eye. "This is a perfect example of why I left Tentomon at home. Do you seriously bring him to class with you every day?"

"He most certainly does!" the digimon exclaimed. "Jyou doesn't want me to get bored!"

"It helps that I know he'd set the couch on fire if I left him alone all day," Jyou muttered.

They reached and surpassed the condominium's sliding glass doors, but Koushirou did not actually stop laughing until their elevator reached the thirteenth floor. His companion scowled for the first minute of it, glowered for the second minute of it, and said in a tight voice that he didn't see what was so funny after the third minute of it. This was the point where Koushirou started calming down; he hadn't expected Jyou to take offense. Still, the idea of Gomamon engaging in random property damage, perhaps even going so far as to dye his shock of vibrant hair or acquire a tail-piercing...

When Mrs. Yagami answered the door, she smiled broadly. "Why, hello! It's nice to see you again, Koushirou-kun. And this must be Kido Jyou. Taichi's told me so much about you! How goes the university life?"

"Fine," they responded in perfect unison, and Koushirou tried not to look overtly pleased with himself. As the Keeper of Knowledge, everyone had expected him to skip several grade -- but he still felt a spark of pleasure whenever anyone reminded him of it. He missed seeing the other Chosen Children in school each day, but there were always weekends and afternoons. Koushirou tilted his head back and caught the scent of something baking in the oven. Cookies, perhaps?

"That smells lovely," he informed Taichi's mother.

She came as close as was humanly possible to bubbling over and put their coats away in the closet. "Oh, it's an old family favorite. If you like the taste half as much as the smell, I can give your mother the recipe."

Adopted mother, Koushirou corrected internally, but showed only a polite smile. "Thank you very much."

Meanwhile, Jyou (who had been craning his neck around the apartment while they made conversation) frowned. "Where is everybody? Don't tell me we're that early."

"Oh, no." Mrs. Yagami headed back into the kitchen to check on the oven and gestured for them to make themselves comfortable. "Taichi came home right after school like a shot. He's been in his room ever since with his little girlfriend."

"That's nice," Koushirou started to respond blandly, then processed the remark and jolted. "Girlfriend? What girlfriend?!"

A slightly confused expression came into the woman's eyes. "Well, I'm pretty sure that's the right word for it. I suppose I could always say 'boyfriend' instead, but I wanted to save that until Yamato-kun changed back. You can ask him which he prefers, of course..." As Koushirou made a slow recovery from his near heart-attack, Taichi's mother glanced in the general direction of the bedrooms and giggled knowingly. "But you might want to knock first. They've been awfully quiet in there, and my son is not a naturally quiet person."

Beside him, Jyou started to choke violently and had to be clapped on the back for several minutes. Mrs. Yagami wanted to know whether he was all right, but Koushirou was too deeply amused to do much more than nod briefly at her. Fortunately, once he had his breath back, Jyou offered a far more reasonable explanation.

"I'm fine, just a bit surprised is all. We, uh...we thought Taichi hadn't told you about that yet."

"Well, he hasn't." She winked when neither of them seemed to follow. "And shush! I'm not really supposed to know. I'll wait until he decides to trust me and then act very surprised. My husband thinks it should be any day now, since they've finally gotten together."

Well. So much for having to break the news gently, Koushirou mused. He let himself relax about a hair. This only left Yamato's parents to contend with. "You really don't mind?" he asked, just to be certain.

"Mind what?" Mrs. Yagami's slightly confused expression made a brief reappearance before clearing away. "Oh, the closed door? I doubt they'd do anything too private when they know I'm here." She looked almost mischievous. "Taichi's a healthy boy, and I'll be the first to admit that he doesn't always think before he acts -- but Yamato-kun is such a dear. He'll keep things under control for a while yet, I expect."

Although Jyou wasn't coughing any longer, he really didn't seem to be breathing, either. Sympathetic, Koushirou promptly excused them both and steered Jyou away from her. They didn't so much as look at each other until they were standing right outside the door to Taichi's room, and even then only briefly. Koushirou knocked, and put his ear to the door. Silence, then heated whispering and the soft rustle of fabric. He was rather glad of Mrs. Yagami's warning when Taichi took more than an entire minute to let them inside.

It was hard not to notice the hasty way Yamato turned on the lamp beside Taichi's bed, and even harder not to notice the fact that she waited to sit down until she could sit in his lap. At least they had all of their clothes on -- that was definitely a positive thing.

"Jeez," Taichi muttered once Koushirou had closed the door behind him. "I thought you guys were my mom!"

He paused, resisting the urge to point out that A.) they were not doing a particularly good job of concealing their relationship anyway and B.) that Taichi's mother was the last person who might have cared. "Terribly sorry," Koushirou responded instead in his most placid tone of voice. "I do hope we're not interrupting anything."

"Interrupting?" Yamato repeated, somewhat more sharply than she should have. "Wh - what would you be interrupting?"

Rude laughter emanated from Jyou's backpack. "Let's see if this rings a bell," Gomamon's muffled voice intoned sarcastically. Then he poked his head out and began to sing. "Taichi and Yamato, sitting in a tree! K - I - S - S - I - N -- "

"Gomamon!" Jyou yelped, clapping a hand over his digimon's mouth.

Too little, and far too late. Yamato turned a vivid shade of red and very nearly fell out of her consort's lap as he rocketed to his feet. They exchanged embarrassed glances, but the blonde quickly lowered her eyes. Koushirou received the distinct impression that she would have liked to hide behind Taichi but didn't want to make this look any worse than it already did. In the background, Jyou seemed to be explaining the concept of 'tact', or at least making an attempt.

"But they were kissing!" Gomamon just kept saying. "What's wrong with pointing it out?"

"Why not start with the fact that we're both guys," Yamato muttered.

The digimon swiveled his head and gave her an extremely skeptical once-over. "Um, no. You're not a boy. They don't build boys like that. Not that it matters anyway, so what's the big deal?" He peered at Jyou. "This is one of those dumb human things, isn't it?"

When he saw the bewildered expression on the other young man's face, Koushirou decided to provide an answer himself. "Yes and no. It is foolish, but I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it human. That would imply that the bias were natural or unanimous, and it is neither. Let us merely say that certain persons of certain persuasions and in certain parts of the world find certain types of love offensive."

Something like relief surged into Taichi's face, and it occurred to Koushirou for the first time that they had never actually sat down and talked about homosexuality together. Much like Mrs. Yagami, he had merely gathered the young man's affinity for Yamato.

"Oh." Gomamon smirked. "Can we call them 'morons' for short?"

Taichi wrapped an arm around Yamato's waist and glared playfully at the digimon. "Watch it, bottom-feeder. I'm dating one of those people."

"How about 'ignorant'? Is that more politically-correct?" Jyou asked, and there was a strange hesitance in his voice. Not disagreement; that would have come up at some point during their walk. This was more like the tension one feels when desiring to broach an inappropriate subject. "Oh, and by the way: congratulations."

After Koushirou had added his agreement (still rather wondering what his colleague wanted to say), Yamato smiled shyly and ducked her head. "Thanks. I think Gomamon might've been right the first time, though."

Apparently deciding that this was human-only business, Gomamon soon abandoned them to find the rest of the digimon -- all of which could now be heard arguing passionately in the next room about the rules to one of Hikari's old board games. They had obviously kept their voices low deliberately beforehand, which just went to show how terrifically unsubtle Taichi and Yamato were being. Even the digimon had noticed.

"So, uh..." Again, the strange hesitance; this time, Jyou pushed ahead in spite of it and then Koushirou immediately understood his caution. "What did you tell Sora-kun? Is -- is she okay?"

Neither of them responded for a moment, but then Yamato bit her lip. "Well...we haven't exactly told her anything yet," she said quietly.

"You what?!"

"We haven't exactly told her anything yet," Taichi repeated in a loud, clear voice -- as though that might be the problem. "Jeez. We got this sorted out yesterday! You think we should've rushed right over to give her the bad news?"

"Yes!" Jyou fairly shouted. It occurred to Koushirou that the other young man seemed to be taking this news somewhat personally. "My god, Taichi. The sooner the better with something like this. You...weren't seriously going to tell us all at the same time, were you? She's going to need privacy. Show some consideration!"

Taichi did a slow blink. "Consideration for her?" he repeated. Quiet, and bitter. "Oh, you're right! Silly me! I completely forgot about poor Sora's feelings. God forbid she should ever get hurt. Well, you know what, Jyou? I think I've been through enough hell for six people these last three years -- so I don't give a flying fuck."

Instead of bothering with a verbal parry, Jyou simply decked him.

No one moved, indeed no one seemed to breathe for almost thirty full seconds; then Yamato was on the floor beside her fallen consort, Taichi was fingering the beginnings of a nasty bruise, and Jyou was retreating -- staring at his own fist as if he had never seen it before. Koushirou smiled privately, thinking that one never could tell what a person was capable of until the time came.

"Shit," Taichi muttered once Yamato had left the room to get ice for his swiftly-purpling cheek. "Nice arm. I think my teeth rattled."

The Keeper of Faith grinned with evident discomfiture. "Thanks, I guess. I'm really sorry about that." His grin faded. "Of course...you still shouldn't have said what you said about Sora-kun."

"Yeah..." Taichi trailed away, swallowing. "I'm just pissed off about everything right now, Jyou. It's been a long time."

At that point, Yamato returned with several other persons in tow. The junior high sect had finally arrived. Perhaps their delay had something to do with the fact that all of them had obviously gone home first to change their clothes. Takeru and Daisuke seemed to be in the midst of some argument, but Koushirou was unable to determine the exact subject of it because Taichi did not seem to feel like wasting time.

"We're dating."

He and Yamato gazed around at the room expectantly, but from Hikari's faint smile to Daisuke's outright smirk, none of them were particularly surprised. Well, almost none of them -- Iori wore an expression that could only be properly described as bug-eyed.

"What, all of you?" he blurted nervously, before noticing that he was the only one protesting. "Why am I always the last to know about these things?"

Scowling, Jyou did not hesitate to point out that, at this rate, Sora would be the last to know. "Which is ironic," he added acidly, "seeing as she's the only one of us that this has anything to do with."

"I don't understand," Iori muttered under his breath, and Koushirou wondered whether he had somehow managed to ignore the fact that two of his far more familiar acquaintances were of a similar persuasion.

Ostensibly, Daisuke was thinking along the same lines. "Oh, please. Don't pull that shit with us. Your dad was gayer than a tree full of parrots. Ow, Ken! What did you do that for? He was. Am I the only one who actually listened to Oikawa?"

With an admirable dignity, Iori spun to face Yamato. "Previous remarks not withstanding, that wasn't what I meant. It's just that I was under the impression that...well, that the two of you were in love with Sora-san."

"You and me both," Yamato agreed. There was a heaviness about her suddenly, and she shied away from her consort, kneeling down instead to look Iori in the eye. "I know this must be confusing, but -- "

The door opened one last time behind her, and Yamato fell silent. She seemed to have realized who this must be even without moving. Koushirou got to his own feet, moving for the first time in what felt like ages, and attempted to greet Miyako. It caught in his throat; even the simple pleasantries seemed sacrilegious when he knew that there would be tears in Sora's eyes soon enough. He darted his eyes towards Taichi, and saw no visible change in expression. Oh god, they were really going to do this, they were just going to spit it out...

But then Sora looked from one of them to the other and softly ducked her head. "It's all right." Raw, but determined. "I already know."

A dull thud from somewhere to his left as Yamato sat down hard, and even their former leader seemed unsettled now. There was a slightly tremulous twist to his mouth, as though he wanted to smile but couldn't quite. Yamato struggled silently for a moment, then pulled herself roughly into a standing position and crossed the room. Sora lifted her face, they both hesitated -- arms outstretched, but uncertain where to proceed from there. It was painfully awkward to watch.

"I'm sorry," Yamato finally whispered, in a helpless sort of way.

Shake of the head. "I should have seen it a long time ago."

Again, the blonde struggled with her words. "Sora..."

"Yamato-kun."

The air in Taichi's bedroom seemed to thicken, and the walls almost to contract. Dimly, Koushirou could hear all of their digimon arguing again. Faint and muted sounds, although he knew intellectually that they were most likely shouting at one another.

With her eyes tightly closed, Yamato took one of Sora's hands and squeezed it. "This -- this probably doesn't help very much, but...I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know." Just those two words; acknowledgement of the intentions, though not exactly forgiveness. Sora pried her hand free and scrubbed her eyes fiercely.

"Are...you'll be okay, won't you?" Yamato asked timidly.

Nothing for several seconds while the Keeper of Love stared into space. Slowly, she moved empty eyes over the other Chosen Children in turn -- seemingly noticing their silent audience for the first time. Something like the barest breath of a smile flickered across her face. "I think so. Eventually."

They couldn't ask for anything more than that, could they?

When Sora left, as she did half a second later with vague excuses, everyone began to speak at once. Yamato wanted to go after Sora right away to make sure she got home all right, Taichi wanted her to give Sora some space, Daisuke wanted to know how Sora had figured things out, Miyako wanted someone to explain what the hell was going on around here, Hikari (surprisingly) wanted everyone to leave Sora alone, and anyone who wasn't asking questions was answering them. Then Yamato broke free of her consort's grasp, and Jyou stepped forward to put a staying hand on her arm.

"Gee, Yamato." There was a strained-looking smile on the young man's face, and his intensely quiet voice silenced everyone else. "I think you've done enough already, don't you? Why not let me handle this one."

Yamato jerked as if she had been slapped, and Taichi moved between them with an expression that looked about as stunned as Koushirou felt. He found himself thinking as his colleague walked out of the room that he seemed to have become embroiled in a very complicated situation. The Keeper of Friendship mumbled something about Jyou certainly not making things any worse than they already were, and then winced.

"Stomachache?" Koushirou asked absently. With all of the tension in the last half-hour, it wouldn't have been particularly surprising.

"Yeah. Which pain-killer is it that you're not supposed to take if you're a girl?"

Before he could respond (apologetically, as he wasn't sure), Miyako let out a high-pitched shriek. Someone had apparently explained the situation at long last. The Bearer of Purity had an enviably simple reaction -- he threw his arms around the new couple because they were in love and that was a good thing. Period.

"What are you going to tell your parents?!"

Koushirou allowed himself a tiny smirk. That was undoubtedly going to be the least of their concerns.

End Part Twenty