Yeah, just what I need right now: another Digimon fic XD. This story is focused on the Legendary Warriors, particularly Takuya. It's been about a year since Frontier's events.

Those of you looking for fights, look elsewhere. This is mostly angst, drama, and some mindscrews here and there. Also, no yaoi is present in this fic. The only trace of a coupling is Takumi, but it's more fluff than any real romance.

Impulse fic...that somehow turned out much better than expected XD

Revision notes: Replaced Kouji's and Kouichi's conversation with a different conversation between Kouji and Takuya. Not only was the first conversation not that great, but it was filled with errors about Kouji and Kouichi's family relations. Bleh, can never keep those twins' parents straight...probably the only part in this fic that seriously changed during revision. Everything else is added details and corrected errors. Oh, and the name Koji has been changed to the more accurate spelling of Kouji.

Disclaimer: If I owned Digimon...hmm, wouldn't that be interesting?

Story Time

"Well, I never thought I'd end up here, never

Thought I'd be standing where I am."

Lifehouse, "Sick Cycle Carousel"

Data Set 1: It's Just Not the Same

"Get back here!"

A chubby boy with a blue shirt, a dark green vest, and chocolate eyes charged after a small boy. This emerald-eyed youngster had on a mushroom-shaped hat, along with a green shirt that had a white star on it. The young boy possessed a lunch box with a bunch of bug stickers plastered on it.

"You gotta catch me first, JP!" the short boy cried.

Sitting nearby on a red blanket spread out on the ground was a girl with a lavender hat, lengthy blonde hair, and green eyes. Right then she was unpacking the old picnic basket that she had brought with her, seeming to summon an endless supply of food from it. Beside her were some fashion magazines she had been reading while she was waiting for the boys to arrive. She smirked at the scene unfolding before her.

On a bench in this flourishing park was a dark-haired boy, a pile of schoolbooks sitting next to him. This sapphire-eyed boy wore a white shirt with black tiger stripes on it, as well as bleached jeans. Right then he was too busy hurriedly scribbling something down on paper to notice the chaotic chase occurring nearby. At the right corner of the paper was the name Kouichi.

"C'mon, really Tommy..." the chubby boy moaned, beginning to fall behind.

Not far off was another sapphire-eyed, dark-haired boy, this one wearing a black bandana with crimson trimming. His black mane was much longer than the other boy's, and was tied into a long ponytail. He leaned against one of the numerous trees in the area, seeming more annoyed than amused at the pursuit before him. It wasn't so much that he was a cranky person; he just wanted to eat already. He hadn't eaten anything since this morning, and the little picnic his female friend was having couldn't start until those two settled down.

"Just be patient, Kouji," the dark-haired boy known as Kouichi stated, his eyes still on the paper he was working on.

"I know..."

And up in another tree, staring up into the perfect sky, was a brunette boy. On his head was a baseball cap with a deep purple hue, with a sleeveless shirt that matched. On of his legs was dangling carelessly off the branch he was sitting on, rocking gently to and fro. He had warm brown eyes.

Growing weary of the chase scene, the blonde girl with the lavender cap decided to put an end to it.

"TAKUYA! JP! TOMMY! KOUJI! KOUICHI!" she yelled, setting out the final apples. "FOOD!"

At the resonance of the word the teenage boys seemed to forget everything else and rush to the pile of goodies awaiting them.

That is, all except one.

"TAKUYA!" the blonde barked at the teen in the sleeveless shirt, his gaze still set on the heavens. "TAKUYA KANBARA!"

The brunette snapped out of his self-induced trance. "Huh?"

"FOOD!"

"Oh...okay," the boy known as Takuya replied somewhat quietly, slipping down the tree effortlessly. He strolled calmly to the picnic, where already food was being devoured by the other males. Scanning the table, he picked out a single piece of chicken leg and began to chew on it.

"Something wrong?" the blonde asked, cocking her head to one side a little.

"Of course not, Zoë," the brunette replied, a wide grin suddenly breaking out on his face.

Kouji stopped his rapid consumption to look at the boy with the purple baseball cap. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Takuya replied cheerily. "And I should be the one to know right?"

The black haired boy just rolled his sapphire eyes at this comment.

Before Kouji could continue, Takuya was tearing meat off his chicken leg savagely.

Zoë sighed and decided that she should try to get some food before these hormone-raged beasts ate it all up. When technically she'd be a hormone-raged beast too, but...well, at least she was a girl, right? That had to count for something.

A few minutes later, somebody said something so outrageous to JP that the milk he was drinking squirted out of his nose…and all over Kouji. Needless to say, the bandana-wearing teen was not amused. For everyone else, though, it was hilarious.

Naturally, Takuya's laughter danced with everyone else's. That was just the kind of guy he was, as far as the others were concerned. Was, is, and always will be. If the laughter wasn't quite so loud, or if his friends had listened a little harder, they might have noticed that his laughter didn't quite have the heart of the others.

This cocktail of laughter didn't have a chance to die down before Kouji decided to spill the remaining milk all over JP's head. The chubby boy's reply to this was a handful of mash potatoes in the face. After that, pure chaos ensued.

Edibles became quite effective missiles as all the teens joined in on the fight. Globs of jelly, butter, and carrots went flying through the air, often colliding with unintended targets. A speeding peanut butter sandwich slammed into the face of Takuya, who soon after fired a barrage of grapes at Kouji. Instead of hitting his attacker, he managed to nail Zoë with them instead. The result: the brunette found himself drenched with a bowl of fruit punch. He did manage to get black-haired boy in the end though; Kouji found himself getting whacked by a rogue chicken wing.

The laughter roared on, as Takuya began an ever-distinguished celery sword match between himself and JP. Yet in the midst of this happy chaos, he couldn't help but think...

If only it could stay like this.

"Aw no, look at my shirt!" Zoë whined.

Her pale yellow T-Shirt was now splotched with various hues of jelly. Her pale jeans weren't in much better shape, with mashed potatoes and peanut butter smeared all over them. She remained blissfully unaware of the streaks of strawberry ice cream running across her forehead.

"And these were new too!" the blonde continued to complain, holding her head and discovering the edible pink substance smudged on the upper part of her face. "I so need a bath. If you guys got any weird gunk in my hair, you are so screwed tomorrow!"

The others didn't think her clothes were that messy, at least, not compared to theirs. They had gotten a wee bit more involved in the food fight, and it showed. It was almost impossible to tell what the real colors of their outfits were now. Kouji coughed a couple of times while Kouichi rubbed his forehead.

"Hey, it ain't so bad," Takuya stated lightheartedly. "Least yours aren't as bad as mine. I could probably stick these into the microwave and eat 'em if I wanted to."

"EW! Takuya!" the green-eyed girl replied.

There was a brief eruption of laughter.

"Come on guys, we better get going," JP insisted, looking at the sky and rubbing his shoulder while little Tommy shivered. "It'll be getting dark soon."

"Yeah, you're right," Kouji replied, taking a brief glance at the heavens. "Let's go, bro."

"Allright," Kouichi answered quietly, beginning to follow him.

"Well, see you guys later, I guess," Takuya responded, starting to wander off.

"Bye!"

"Later!"

"Farewell!"

"Cya!"

"Chow!"

After the shower of goodbyes, each of them went their separate ways.

Takuya found himself lying in bed, staring at the blank ceiling of his room. Various posters dotted the room, mostly of his favorite rock bands. Scattered on the old desk against the wall was a jumble of CDs, a packet full of pictures with his friends doing mostly stupid things, and some old homework papers that would never get themselves done. Old socks and soccer magazines mingled with each other around his bed. In the farthest corner of the room was an old CD player, currently orchestrating the melody of We've Got a Problem by Korn.

He could hear an especially loud shriek of laughter ever now and then over his rather loud music. His little brother Shinya had just invited over a bunch of friends to play all kinds of cool videogames on his awesome system. Well, technically it was his awesome system, but his parents had given the goggle-wearing brunette no choice but to share. So as of tonight, he, the older brother, was officially banned from his own videogames. Stupid siblings...

He was reaching for one of his sports magazines on the red-carpeted floor when the light above him began to flicker violently. The CD player began to stutter and phase in and out, but not because of old age. Through the quiet moments, the boy with the purple baseball cap could hear his brother whining about the TV not working right.

Crap

Takuya jerked up into a sitting position at once, as he felt the power surge through him.

No...no...

He gripped at his abdomen, hunching forward. His body began to pulse with golden light.

I don't want to change! Not here...not with all my brother's friends over...

The glow intensified, now causing him to emit light steadily. There was that burning sensation inside of him, the one he was so familiar with.

I just want to be myself! I don't want to be anyone else!

The power continued to gush through him, continued to escalate.

I don't want to change! What is so wrong about that?

Because it is your punishment. Your punishment for being unworthy

Yes, yes, he knew that. It was because he had been a coward, because he had completely disregarded the others. But that was just one time, just one time...

But you still did it. You still gave in

Yeah...that was true...but still, he knew better now, right?

Leaders can't make those kinds of mistakes. It was because of that mistake that this happened.

A sharp pain shot down his spine, causing him to yelp.

Dammit, I know. But...no I won't let it happen! If I let it happen...

But it will happen. You know that.

Yeah, I know! But it ain't gonna happen yet!

The power within him receded, letting the yellow light fade away. He blew a sigh of relief as he plopped back down on the bed.

He was drenched in sweat, he was sure. That's what usually happened. Now his body ached all over, barely containing the light inside of him. He pulled the covers over him, more than ready to take a nap.

I really should just go to the Digital World and get this over with

Sleepiness was steadily overcoming him. He felt a heaviness settle on him, a hot heaviness.

After all, it's not like I won't have my friends after this...

His eyes closed without him noticing, as he continued to wander inside himself. The heat of the heaviness was reassuring to him, somehow, even though he couldn't move.

But still...I'm scared. Once it's done, it's done. That's it. I can't go back, not really. I mean, there might be some kind of fluke, but it wouldn't last very long...

As the blackness numbed his mind, among his last rational thoughts were...

Once it happens, I won't be able to pretend anymore. And I want to pretend for as long as I can...

IIIIII

Well, I hope you liked it. If you're confused, that's fine too XP. Theories are welcome, but I won't tell you if they're true or not.

Please tell me what you think.