Chapter Text
To say that Matsuki Takato and his friends had a strange life would probably be a small understatement. This story began with a blue card and the wishes of the children who would come to be known as the heroes of two worlds. Well these children and their partners, the Digimon. It was fun at first, meeting ever compassionate Lee Jianliang and eventually befriending the tomboyish Nonaka Rika. But all good dreams eventually end.
The Devas to hunting their friend Calumon, but the children managed to combat the invading zodiac for a time, with the help of their Digimon. Then amist that chaos came Mephistomon, a foe that pushed them further. But one day they failed, Leomon the partner to a close friend of the children was slain. By the hand of another friend, Beelzemon. The face of their enemy changed as did the face of friends.
The D-reaper had come calling, craving death and torment. Yet still the children succeeded but not without loss, friends that could never return and bonds that could never be mended. Scars that would fester in the dark if not fail to heal all together. And this leads us to the inciting incident to the next four years of Tamer's life; the invasion of Parasimon that left them stranded in an unfamiliar Japan.
"One might go so far as to say that they ended up in a very quirky situation." A soft voice chuckled. Before you sits a honey blond haired person with a strange cat creature sitting in their lap. "I'm sure you're curious, about who I am. I am not someone important to this story. I have my own story though, one to be told at another place and in a different time." Soft hazel eyes kindly gaze upon you. "I am Simon Pilgrim, but I would prefer it if you would call me Si. And with that our time is up. I do hope you can enjoy the story you are about to witness."
"Dandan," The cat-like creature says to you, before they both vanish from sight.
>i<--------------------->i<
They were falling, that was the first thing that registered to Takato as his consciousness returned. Panic quickly followed, the normal feeling of absolute strength wasn't there. He wasn't Gallantmon anymore, he was the small boy known as Takato. And he was about to hit the hard pavement below. That was, before something furry grabbed him and deposited him safely. "Are you okay Takato?" A voice he quickly recognised to be Jianliang's asked.
"Yeah, just surprised. Gallantmon has never fallen apart on me like that before." It seemed like Jian was relatively unharmed but in an equal amount of shock to his fellow Tamer. "I'm glad that everyone seems to be unhurt." He stated after taking a moment to look around. Guilmon looked fine but was unconscious, but that was similar to most of the other Digimon sans Lopmon. He quickly moved to give a closer examination.
"At least you got the soft landing," Jian joked as he ponied to a suspiciously Antylamon shaped crater. "Shaochung wasn't so lucky."
"Small miracles that the one Digimon who didn't revert to rookie was the first to get spat out." Rika commented in a tone that betrayed her mood. "Where in the world are we anyways?" She asked no one in particular as she fiddled with something on her phone before hissing out something vaguely inappropriate in german. "No signal."
"Where ever we are, it's on Earth. Otherwise there wouldn't be a digital feld. Ryo supplied from next to his partner, Monodramon. The small purple dragon curling ever so slightly closer to him. He was gesturing to the fog that surrounded them from all sides. "But we should probably think about moving somewhere hidden before it lets up. Can't exactly think of any way to explain," he vaguely gestured to the prone beasts, "them."
"Yeah, moving somewhere safer before we touch base is a good idea." Jianliang agreed as he moved over to collect Terriermon. "What are we going to do about food?" He asked aloud. If they were somewhere far from Japan they likely wouldn't be able to feed themselves, let alone their Digimon. But he and the other couldn't shake the feeling that something was fundamentally wrong.
"Food first, base touching later." Shaochung piped up, stomach rumbling in tune with Lopmon, who was currently in her arms.
"That sounds like a better plan Sailor Scout." Rika piped up as she helped Renamon to her feet. The yellow fox idled at Rika's side for a few moments, allowing her balance to slowly return to her. "Considering that not all of us have Digimon that are easily carried." She gestured to the small red dinosaur that was currently dead to the world, despite Takato's best efforts. "Jian, help the poor guy out, Shaochung and I can go scrounge up some food."
>i<--------------------->i<
That was four years ago, and quite a bit has changed since that day. They were still in Japan... just not the one they knew. This world was like something out of a comic book. Digimon had begun to emerge in the world shortly after the Tamer's arrival. Takato's most powerful attack made contact with the dimensional gate created by the mind controled GrandLocomon, sending all the Parasimon back to the Digital world if not outright erasing them. But it had the unfortunate side effect of launching those closest to the gate into a third reality with no way home.
But let's return to our story for now, lest we get to far ahead of ourselves.
>i<--------------------->i<
Takato awoke in a cold sweat almost screaming from the newest nightmare his mind managed to piece together. His terror barely contained in the wake of his nightmare's sudden conclusion. His eyes moving to a digital clock kept on a nearby nightstand. It was almost four in the morning, a frankly horrible time to be awake at if you asked him. But this had become an unfortunate routine for the not nearly so young Tamer. He ran his hands through his hair that had grown a lot longer without his parents to nag him into cutting it. Playing with his hair had become a habit recently, to assist with focus. But he wasn't entirely sure if it actually did anything to help with that.
Trying to find reason within the fading vividness of his most recent self terrorizing was proving fruitless as ever. And he likely wasn't going to return to his restless sumber for fear of the memories he wasn't equipped to face. So Takato opted to quietly move out of his fairly large bed, as to not disturb Guilmon, who had come to prefer sleeping with him. Takato didn't really mind, given the fact the the dinosaur Digimon was essentially his creation. Not to mention comfort on the nights when sleep was illusive. But at the moment he wanted to be alone with his thoughts and to work out some of the anxiety that was bubbling to the surface of his mind.
"Momentai," his sleep deprived brain chasited in Terriermon's voice. Just as mocking as the original, but not in the way that made the beast tolerable. He opted to focus on softly feeling his way down to the first floor of the group's shared home. It wasn't anything fancy, but with a little work it managed to hold four teens, one child, and five digital monsters. It was better than the two years the spent on the streets of the not-Japan-Japan, so no one complained when Takato all but claimed the basement as an art studio. Sure, every now and then he 'kidnapped' Jian's computer set up for commissions, but good ol' canvas and paint was still nice to use. Not to mention the fact that he had gained a bit of fame from his works, and no one was complaining about the money that allowed them to buy the house in the first place. It was by no means easy to come this far, but still they managed. And in Takato's mind that was enough for him. The dust had settled, no need to kick up more.
>i<--------------------->i<
Jianliang stretched out his sore muscles as his alarm went off. His brain slowly allowing his senses to take in the pleasant smell of bacon, eggs, and toast. His partner on the other hand was not so keen on rising, readjusting with Jian's movements. "Terriermon, don't make me get Shaochung. She genuinely needs her sleep." He was given a glare for his troubles. His bluff was called. He supposed that was fair, it wasn't like Terriermon agreed to be woken up at six in the morning. "Okay, I'll save some breakfast for you then."
"Fine I'll get up," the 'if only to insure that I don't get leftovers' went unsaid. A very real issue given the purple and red bottomless pits they kept in the house. Terriermon stumbled slowly to his feet, sleep still managing to hold it's grip on the rookie. Doing Terriermon the favor of preventing his face from meeting the floor, Jian picked him up before leaving his room.
The door at the far end of the hall was open, Takato's room. With a distinct lack of the chestnut haired boy. He had a pretty good idea of where the smaller boy had gotten off to. Hopefully he had at least managed to eat something. But the only way to discover if that held true was to continue his trek to the dining room. So he did, finding Rika impassionately scrolling on her phone, her plate seemingly half forgotten. "Good morning Jianliang," Renamon said from her place at Rika's side.
"Oh, hey dude." Rika supplied, eyes not drifting far from her device. Clearly enthralled by whatever it was that she was seeing. "If you're looking for your boy crush, he's in the basement. I checked on 'im earlier, take some food down if you're going that way."
"Thanks, I'll do that." He responded ignoring what he hoped was Rika's attempt at being funny. He had come to regret confiding in Rika. But he honestly couldn't bring himself actually be upset by her jabbing him to let Takato to know how he feels. He had chosen to let his 'crush' fester for several years by this point and Rika was clearly tired of watching the trainwreck in progress.
She shrugged at his gratitude, seemingly out of some odd discomfort. "Just be honest. Goggle head doesn't need another Jeri in his life right now." Jian had to suppress a slight cringe at the mention of the girl's name. "Not that she was in the wrong for how she acted, given... everything. But she didn't need to go nuclear on him." That was the truth, after the death of Leomon and the D-reaper kidnaping her, she had all but distanced herself from the group. Be it envy or grief, she inevitably lashed out and chose to blame Takato. Failed romance with the girl aside, Jeri just couldn't take the loss and Takato had awful timing in that moment. That was all the other Tamers knew, the truth of that interaction was kept under Takato's lock and key. "Point is, you've been crazy about him since we were kids and it's exhausting watching you two pussy foot around eachother. Takato's not gonna make the first move, so you have to do it."
"Like you and Ryo then," Terriermon snarked, earning a glare from Rika. Renamon chuckled as Jian walked off, a heated debate sparking between Rika and his partner. He was glad that RIka was comfortable enough to openly discuss such things. She likely would have told him to confess ether way, it just would have been far ruder. And most definitely involving far cruder language. Just more proof that things had changed.
"Don't forget to send Goggle Head my way when your done! That art thing's today!"
"Kay!" Jian responded at a similar volume, halfway to the basement. He could see that the lights were still on at the bottom. The sounds of Takato at work weren't present. He was ether taking a break or was passed out on the lazyboy he had moved down there after the first time Takato was caught sleeping in the basement. Sure enough, there was a Takato sized lump curled up in the chair, covered head to toe in a fairly thick blanket. It was a wholly endearing sight to the taller of the two Tamers. Jianliang chuckled as he poked the lump, "Time to get up Takato."
The lump in turn shifted as a hand emerged from the blanket, trying to shoo him away but quickly retreating to warmth. Plan B it was then. He swiftly yanked the covers off forcing the lump to reveal it's human shape. A groggy and groaning brunette, sleepily rubbing his eyes. Softly mumbling some form of curse as he adjusted to his awakening. "Jian is that you? What time is it?"
"A little past six." He supplied discarding the removed blanket on the floor. "I brought some food if you're hungry." Softly, the boy mumbled his thanks before shifting into a more upright position. The two just sat in a comfortable silence, only disturbed by the sound of silverware meeting plate. Color that Takato lacked slowly returned to his face, allowing a unnoticed weight to lift from Jian's chest. He thought about just blurting out his feelings in this moment as the clawed to be heard. But some part of him found the moment to be lacking as he opened his mouth. "Rika wants you for something by the way. But, I think she won't mind waiting for a bit if you want to talk."
"I don't mind talking if there's something you want to talk about." Takato responded with a soft smile. Jian could almost feel his heart threatening to burst from his chest. He took a few breaths, cleared his already clear throat, and tried to find the words. This wasn't something he normally did, growing up a gay kid in Japan helped him to keep his romantic feelings close to his chest. But Takato wasn't the type to be cruel in a potential rejection. Even now as he scoured the boy's ruby eyes, he found only a genuine fondness.
"I want to tell you something... something you may find, untoward." The words seemed to stick in place as his mind rushed to find a reason to avoid what he wanted to say. But it was quickly losing what little ground it had. 'Takato was non-binary for sovereigns' sake,' he rebuffed his own mind. Takato's lips tightened together, his breath becoming more erratic by the moment. "Is something wrong?"
Takato let out a wezy and nervous chuckle, "So she had this conversation with you too." That's when it all came together. Rika, the wonderful and horrible friend she was, planed this. Jianliang's face flushed crimson in embarrassment that quickly shifted to flustered as Takato kissed him softly on the forehead. "For the record, I like you too." He chuckled with an equally red face.
The blue haired Tamer entered into his own fit of laughter. "She was really sick of us, wasn't she?"
"To be fair, I may have been a tad bit more insufferable with my feelings." His mind went to one of several conversations with the red-head. She looked likes she wanted to kill him the moment he started gushing about the easel Jian had gotten him for his birthday. "Yeah, looking back on it, I was a little insufferable." The next few minutes were just spent laughing at their shared stupidity.
"This was a long time coming wasn't it." Jian admitted, his tone full of fondness. Takato nodded in response. "How long do you think she was planing this?"
"Probably since yesterday." He shrugged, "That's when she unsubtlety hinted that you had feelings for me. When she was finishing up my dress for tonight." So she lied to him about needing the other boy for something. Well he couldn't find it in himself to be mad at the result. "I guess that makes tonight our first date."