Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Never Like This ❯ Coming Home ( Chapter 2 )

Daisuke is such a moron.

Disclaimer: Characters & Digimon not mine, story is, please refrain from stealing. R&R, or if you'd rather drop me an e-mail I'm at daisuke_san02@yahoo.com.

Have fun seeing how Daisuke attempts to drag his ass back home… and finally gives in and gets help. ^^

The last of my cash was used on my birthday. December 13th. I went to the Laundromat and washed all my clothes. I went to the corner store and bought a pack of cigarettes (which I hadn't had since a few days before I ran away - I was quitting cold turkey because I knew I couldn't afford any), a Jones soda, more batteries for my razor, a cookie, a candle, and a lighter (my birthday cake, you see) and a bottle of aspirin. Then I used the rest of my change to call Takeru.

I remember the scene exactly. I was standing on the street, freezing cold because I only had one sweatshirt (the rest were still being washed) and it was snowing like fuck. The phone rang endlessly. I waited and waited and begged the phone to pick up. It didn't. Takeru wasn't home.

For the first time, it occurred to me what I'd done. I ran away from home without telling my boyfriend that I was leaving. I left him, without a word. For three weeks. What had happened to him? Was he okay? He probably hated me! Or even worse, he thought I was dead! What if he was dead?! I'd never know! Fuck, my boyfriend could be six feet down and I'd be blissfully unaware, smoking a cigarette and humming Happy Birthday To Me over a fucking chocolate chip cookie!

I resolved to go back.

And then I remembered that I had just spent all my cash, save maybe three dollars, on cigarettes and laundry.

I had a breakdown on the street. I slumped down to the snowy ground and finally burst into tears that I'd been holding back since I left. Three weeks of tears rolling down my face and I was sobbing, not even trying to stop them. People walked past me, avoiding me. Nobody asked if I was okay. Nobody cared. Who were these people? Why was I here? What the fuck had I done?

I stayed there until I couldn't cry anymore. I remember somebody even used the payphone while I was still leaning against it and bawling. Numb from the cold and all sorts of regret and fear of how selfish I had been, I went back and got all my clothes out of the wash. I shoved them in the drier and sat down in a plastic chair, shivering and sniffling for an hour until they finished.

I went back to that shelter. I packed everything. I slipped into the kitchen and stole lunch and dinner, and a bottle of teriyaki sauce that I dumped out and filled with water.

And, once again, I vanished.

Now I was homeless and cold and broke. (At least I wasn't starving.) The only difference was now I was determined to get home. How the hell I was going to do that, honestly I had no idea.

I guess I got it in my mind to walk, as I just started… well, walking. What a stupid idea that was. Odaiba is near the Osaka prefecture, and Tokyo is probably around 250 miles from it - and that's as the crow flies. In reality I'd probably have to go 300 miles or so. How could I have ever thought I could walk that?

I ended up in Akiruno, still in the Tokyo prefecture. About this time it was starting to sink in how stupid this was and that I was just being stupid. I dragged myself to a coffee shop and sat down inside to warm up. I couldn't feel my toes or my fingers or various other parts of my body anymore, so, well, I figured it would be better to sit down for a while and risk being kicked out than to just resign myself to freezing to death.

I didn't get kicked out because I ordered myself a café mocha. Down to two dollars and thirty-seven cents, I debated bagels until I decided to starve as much as I could until I simply couldn't stand it anymore instead of wasting more cash. It was down to this. Debating if I should eat now, or be hungry a while longer and keep what little money I had.

Now I wanted to go back to the homeless shelter and collapse on that little cot on the floor and give up everything. I wasn't going to make it home. I couldn't. There's no possible way, unless someone miraculously showed up to drive me back.

Wait.

Unfortunately, my cell phone battery was dead and had been for two and a half weeks. I decided to embarrass myself (not like I had any pride left at this point) and begged the waitress to let me use their business phone.

I was either extremely pitiful or extremely cute, because she let me. And I called the only person I could think of who might actually be crazy enough to drive all that way just to drag me back home.

And by the grace of God, he actually answered.

"Yamato?"

"Yeah. Wait. Daisuke?"

I swear I nearly burst into tears again. I probably would have if I hadn't still been dried up from earlier. It'd been so long since I heard a familiar voice saying that name. Mostly I heard it once or twice, from a potential employer, way back when I just started out alone. I gave the homeless shelter a fake name so no one would be able to hunt me down. And finally, someone I knew was on the line and calling me by my name.

"Yamato… I need…"

"Where the fuck are you, Daisuke? Where the fuck have you been? We've all been worried sick and now you're just calling me up like - where the hell are you? Are you okay?"

"Well… I'm okay."

"Well praise God for that. Motomiya Daisuke, you could have been killed or… or… or who knows what could have happened! I'd almost been convinced you were dead. Where are you?"

"Um, currently in a diner in A-Akiruno."

"…Akiruno?"

"In the Tokyo prefecture."

"Yeah, Daisuke, I know where Akiruno is, we've done concerts there. Why the hell are you there? Why the hell are you in Tokyo? How did you get there?"

"Yamato."

"…Sorry. Okay. What's the matter? Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yamato, I ran away. And now I want to come home."

Silence on the other end.

"I have less than three bucks. And I'm in Akiruno. Yamato… I don't know what the fuck to do and you were the only person I could think of to call." I was begging already and I hadn't even formally asked him to come get me. God, I've turned into such a wuss. He already knows what I want though.

He sighed and I could picture him, rubbing his temples with one hand the way he always does when he gets frustrated at me and tries to be patient. "Okay. Where are you? Specifically. Give me a street name or the name of the restaurant or anything."

Again with the practically bawling. "Thank you so much Yamato. I swear to God I'll pay you back for gas and everything. I swear to God."

"It's okay, Daisuke. It's okay. Just tell me where you are. I'll bring you home."

It took him three and a half hours to drive to Akiruno, and I sat in that diner for the entire time, staring down the road waiting. The lady that let me use the phone gave me a couple of free refills… she was really nice. She reminded me of my mom, sort of. When my mom wasn't being a bitch, that is.

And then there he was. I saw the car coming down the road and nearly started tearing around the restaurant in excitement. I gave the waitress the rest of my cash and thanked her about thirty times, then bounded out the door.

Yamato stepped out of the car and he fixed me with a look about three times as stern as he'd sounded over the phone. I stopped bounding. Not cool. He was probably furious with me, even though he came all this way. What if he came all this way just to yell at me and then leave me alone here again? I'd have to see if the waitress lady wanted to adopt a son or something.

But when I reached the car, he flung his arms around me and hugged me. Huge surprise. I dropped my bag and buried my face in his shoulder. My God. I was actually touching someone I knew. Feeling them, smelling them.

I felt like I was home already.

He pulled me away from him and studied me carefully, making sure I was actually okay and hadn't been lying. He wiped tears off my face, tears I didn't even realize were there, and grinned slightly. "You look like hell."

"I've frozen my ass off for the last month, so I've had a constant cold," I defended myself. Hey, if I look like hell there had better be a good reason. "And I wanna go home," I added.

He smiled and ruffled my hair a bit, which probably hadn't been washed for several days (the shelter ran out of hot water pretty quick and I refuse to take cold showers.) "Then get in, and I'll take you home."

Yamato, who I'm now convinced is a god or something, grabbed my bag and shoved it in the backseat, then presented me with a couple of blankets and cranked up the heat. What a smart guy.

Even though I was warm and going home now, I still wasn't completely happy. Yamato bitched me out for the first hour. "Why didn't you say anything to any of us? If you wanted to get away from home, you could have stayed with - hell, you could have stayed with me! I wouldn't have told anybody! Shit, Daisuke, don't do anything like this ever again. We were all really, really scared."

"I'm… sorry…" was the only thing I could even think of to say. "I didn't… think. I wasn't thinking and I wasn't… I'm a dumbass, all right? You should know that by now."

"No, Daisuke," Yamato sighed and softened up a little, "you aren't a dumbass. But you didn't think, you're right. And when you didn't contact any of us… not even Takeru…"

Takeru. "Is, um. Is Takeru all right?"

Yamato shot me a look and then turned back to the road without a word.

"Yamato, is Takeru all right? He's not… he's not dead, is he?"

"No, no. He's not dead."

I sighed in relief and snuggled into the blankets more. "Well, then, he must hate me. But at least he isn't dead."

Yamato said nothing for a few minutes. I leaned back against the seat, snuggled into two blankets with heat on high, blowing straight onto my face. The car ride was so smooth and so calm it was almost cozy enough to make me forget all those freezing nights on the porch.

I fell asleep. I don't know when, and I'm not sure how long I was asleep. But when I woke up, Yamato was pulling into a rest stop and the heat was cranked down. Yawning, I twisted a bit to get out of the blankets enough to stretch. He tossed me a look and grinned. At least he wasn't mad anymore.

Staggering out of the blankets and into the rest stop, I enjoyed my first piss in a restroom closer to home.

Hey, you have to take it one step at a time.

Yamato, being the great guy he is, bought me a can of tea and a candy bar. Whoo-hoo! "Happy Birthday," he grinned.

I'm not complaining. I was very happy. Cracking open my can, I shrugged. "You didn't even have to say happy birthday. This whole thing is the best present anybody could give me. Ever."

"Ah, I'd do it even if it wasn't your birthday," he shrugged a little.

"Want me to drive the rest of the way?" I figured maybe I could make some of it up to him by letting him sleep now.

"Sure."

I missed driving. I wish I had taken my car when I left, but I wouldn't have had anywhere to park it.

The second half of the ride home was typical Daisuke and Yamato togetherness. He turned on the radio and this beautiful punk music I haven't heard since I ran away filled the car. And pretty soon we were both singing at the top of our lungs, and then we started changing the lyrics and insanity ensued. God, it felt good to be back with one of my friends. I got that incredibly home feeling again. My friends. I was going home.

I think I nearly started bouncing by the time we reached the Osaka prefecture and Odaiba was only a short distance away. The only thing keeping me from bouncing about in my seat was the fact that I was driving. (I probably was hyper because of a sugar rush from that candy bar, too, but who knows.)

I didn't go to my apartment. I went to Yamato's. I don't know, I guess I just took it for granted that he wouldn't mind if I crashed there for a while.

"Go shower," was the first thing he told me when I got inside.

Hot water is fantastic. There's so much people take for granted. And shampoo, and conditioner, too. And soap. Ohhhh soap. How I love thee.

After about a thirty minute shower (mental note - give Yamato an extra twenty to cover water bill costs) I was all sweet smelling, fresh, and clean. And Yamato, my hero, was just finishing making dinner.

I haven't eaten so much since Christmas dinner with my grandmother. God, I ate four helpings and I don't even remember what it was. It just tasted so good.

And finally, I was warm, full, and home.

I curled up on the couch for the night and I remember Yamato pulling a blanket over me. Facing Takeru would have to wait until the next day. For now, I was sleeping.

By the way, depending on how I feel when I finish, this may be Yamasuke… reviewers, tell me how you'd like it to end. I could go Daikeru-Yamasuke-Daikeru, too. Hmm. That would just cause more chapters… I need your feedback! R&R please! Punk homeless Daisuke will love you!