Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, blah blah blah, so on, so forth...
Falling To Pieces part one:
{~Matt's POV~}
"Matt?" Matt, wake up..." Tk shook me out of my peaceful sleep. I leisurely opened my eyes and peered at the clock. The red digital numbers showed 03.22 in the morning. I mentally kicked myself for oversleeping again. My boss was probably going to fire me now.
"I had that nightmare again." Tk said quietly, looking down on his feats.
"That one about mom?" I asked. My younger brother nodded, then broke down in tears. I wrapped my arms around him and slowly rocked him back and forth, while whispering soothing sounds in his ear.
"Why did she have to die, onii-san?" The smaller blond hiccupped, burying his face in my chest.
"I don't know, Tk." I said honestly, feeling my own throat ache a little. Even if I hadn't seen mom so much after the divorce, I missed her too. But it was of course the worst for Tk. "I guess it just was her time to go."
It had already been three weeks since the accident. Two trains had collided in the middle of the night, and our Mom had been on one of them. She had been travelling home to Odaiba from an old friend in Highton View Terrace when it happened. Now, Tk was living with Dad and me.
"I need to get to work. You think you can go back to sleep now, squirt?" I wondered.
"Sure... But, Matt, you shouldn't work so early in the morning. You'll be too tired to go to school." Tk said, looking me in the eyes with his own ones that were red with weeping. He let go of me, and went back into my bedroom.
I was sleeping on the couch in the living room until we could afford another bed.
I yawned and stretched my complaining body, and then I pulled on my trousers. As I went into the kitchen to get myself something fast to eat I pulled a black shirt over my head. The hair could wait until I got to the supermarket I worked in.
I grabbed the last apple in the fruit bowl and took a piece of paper, writing down a quick note to Tk, before I ran out of the apartment.
{~Tk's POV~}
I woke up by Dad's coughs. I swiftly hurried out of my brother's room and ran into Dad's.
"Dad? Daddy!" I yelled when I saw him twist and turn in his sleep, coughing like a madman. I helped him to sit up and he finally awakened. He was still having a hard time breathing, but as he calmed down he managed to stop coughing.
I knew that soon he'd be gone too, just like Mom. The doctors said that it only was a matter of time, and Dad had wished to die at home. I guessed that those cigarettes finally took their toll.
"Are you okay?" I asked carefully as he lay down in the soft bed again.
"I'm fine." He choked out. I gave him a questioning look, but let it go. "You should eat some breakfast and get to school, son. And can you wake up Yamato too? I don't want him to be late either." Dad said.
I nodded slightly. Dad didn't know that his older son was working right now. Matt hadn't wanted him to know, because he'd be worrying too much. After all, this could be the last day he was alive. And if it was, he shouldn't waste it by worrying or feeling guilty or any having any negative feelings at all. None of our friends knew about it either. None of us wanted them to pity us, so we hadn't told them yet.
I forced a smile and noticed that Dad's lunch wasn't on his nightstand. Matt had probably forgot about it, I thought. And who could blame him? My fifteen-year-old brother was already having two different jobs. I went to the kitchen where I found a note from Matt. He always left me a note in the morning.
"Hey little bro. Could you check on Dad for me? I didn't have time, because I was late for work. We'll probably see each other in school. Bye! /Matt." It said.
I poured up some milk in a glass and made myself a sandwich. I hoped that Matt hadn't skipped breakfast again.
When I finished my sandwich I quickly washed the glass and cooked some pasta to Dad. Then I went back into my brother's bedroom, looking for some thing to wear. I decided that my ordinary outfit would have to do, and got dressed. I picked up some books I needed for school today and put them in my bag.
"Bye Dad! I'm going to school now!" I yelled, but didn't get an answer. I thought that he'd gone back to sleep and opened the unlocked front door. Sighing, I understood that Matt doubtlessly had forgotten to lock it. 'Well,' I thought, 'I can't do anything about that now.'
I locked the door and hurried away to school.
{~Tai's POV~}
I was sitting in the warm classroom just like every other Thursday morning. The teacher was talking about some war. I didn't care to listen, because this particular history teacher hated me for some unknown reason, and didn't give me more than a C+ anyway.
I wondered where Matt was. It wasn't like him to be late. At least not like this. I mean, he use to be maybe five or ten minutes late every morning, but not thirty. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was cutting class.
The teacher talked and talked with her toneless voice the rest of the lesson, and when she dismissed us, she reminded us about the homework.
"Um... Excuse me, Mrs...um..." I really need to learn her name, I thought to myself. " Well, anyway, what was the home work again?" I asked.
The teacher didn't look very pleased with me not knowing her name, since she's been one of my teachers the whole term.
"Write a short presentation about the war we were learning about." She said snappily.
I knew better than to ask her 'which war' we had been learning about, so I rapidly got out of the classroom.
Confused, I went to my locker and shoved the history books inside of it. I gave the schedule a quick glare. English.
I sighed, and even more confused, I realized that Matt still wasn't here. I could always wait for him, I thought, closing the locker.
So I leaned back on the locker, and opened the English book. If I was going to wait, I could at least study some. But after five minutes, Matt still hadn't showed up. I waited for five minutes again, but he didn't show up. And now I was probably going to be late myself! I shut the book and ran to the classroom. I was kind of angry with him now. I mean we had a paper to turn in today, and we wrote ours together and he was the one who had it in his bag! And he was almost never at home when I called him either!
I went into the classroom, mumbling something about 'stupid blonds, who can't keep their promises'.
"Taichi, where's your and Yamato's essay?" Mr. Ryokan, the teacher, asked. Crap. He was one of my favourite teachers, and now I had to disappoint him.
"Um... You see-" I began but was cut off by the door slamming.
"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Ryokan!" Matt said, panting. He'd obviously been running.
"That's okay, Yamato. Now, where's the essay?"
"Right here." Matt said, handing him the paper. I sighed with relief, and forgot I was mad at him for a while.
"Good. You can take a seat if you don't want to stand." Mr. Ryokan smirked.
Matt swiftly got to the back of the classroom and sat down by me.
"Why were you late? You didn't even show up in history class. I know history class is plain boring but you shouldn't cut class." I whispered.
"Um... I just over slept." He hesitated. I knew that was a lie, but when Matt didn't want to talk it was almost impossible to make him. I decided that it would have to wait until this lesson was over.
The minutes flew by and before we knew it, Mr. Ryokan said that we should hurry to our next class. Somehow, Mr. Ryokan made it fun to learn, and his lessons always seemed shorter than the others.
We picked up our stuff and went out in the corridor. I decided to get things clear with Matt.
"Did you really just oversleep today?" I asked him. Matt looked surprised for a moment. But then hid it with his ordinary 'coolness'.
"What do you mean?" He replied nonchalantly, starting to fiddle with something in his bag.
"I don't recall you cutting class very often." I said. Matt just rolled his eyes and said that he'd already told me that he just overslept. I sighed.
"You've been really distant the last weeks, Matt. You're never home, never got any time over to be with your friends, you never even return my phone calls any longer. You want me to continue?"
"I've been busy."
"Sure. Busy. Riiight." I said sarcastically. I grew even more annoyed when Matt turned away to leave. "Don't walk away from me. I'm your friend, but if you don't feel like if you can trust me, I don't know." I waited for an answer, but when the reply didn't come I kept on talking about all the ways he was annoying me. "Man, why did you get the crest of friendship? You're not bothering about other people at all! When was the last time you paid attention to anyone else but yourself, huh?" I continued. When I saw that Matt didn't even seem to listen anymore, I decided that this way probably was the wrong one, if I wanted him to open up. So I walked a little faster so we were walking beside each other.
"Hey, I'm sorry..." I said sheepishly. Matt still ignored me, and I chose to change subject. "Oh yeah, we've got a new homework in History. Something about a war or something..." I didn't notice that Matt's breaths became heavier and heavier. "...And you know me, I didn't listen to that teacher, whatever her name is, so I don't know which war, but we could always ask Spencer. He use to know stuff like that and..." I stopped as I saw that Matt still didn't seem to listen. "Matt? Hello, earth to Matt, do you copy?" This wasn't like him at all. Matt was never this stubborn with being mad at me. "If it's those things I said before, I'm sorry. I didn't mean a word of it."
He still didn't reply. "Matt? Matt! Do you listen to me? Hello? You seem to be so 'detached' today." I continued to babble.
{~Matt's POV~}
"Matt? Matt! Do you listen to me? Hello? You seem to be so 'detached' today." Tai gabbled. I did listen to him, but most the things he said seemed to be out of importance. It felt like I was in some sort of trance. That's when it hit me. I had forgot to fix Dad's lunch when I was hurrying away to work. "Shit." I hissed and started to walk even faster.
"What?" Tai asked confusedly. I didn't care to answer. I was to busy thinking about how I would be able to get home to the apartment and get Dad some food. He was way to sick to out of the bed.
What would happen if he tried to fix his own lunch? He could collapse! And then he'd just lye on the cold floor until Tk or I came home.
I felt my breathing get heavier but didn't care. My stomach ached in a strange way, and I stopped walking.
Tai, who'd almost been jogging beside me, stopped surprised and went back a few steps.
"What is it, Matt? Maybe you should go to the nurse or something?" Tai said, resting a hand on my shoulder.
"N-No... " I managed to choke out. Tai probably hadn't got a clue why I acted like this. Tk and I hadn't told anyone about the 'situation'. Tai didn't know I was working either.
I just stood there like if I was paralysed or something, not knowing what to do. My muscles were tensed and it felt like I almost wanted to cry. I felt claustrophobic in some way, just like if these billions tiny little hands were pulling me in all different directions at the same time, each one wanting me to do something.
"Chill, man! What happened?" Tai's worried voice said. But just like before, his words didn't seem to matter.
I ran out of the corridor, not caring that the other students were looking. I heard Tai's footsteps behind me.
When I made it out of the school building I ran straight over the asphalted schoolyard. Almost no kids were out today, because of the dark and rain filled clouds hanging from the sky. My feats just kept on moving and hit the hard ground hard each time I took another step. My panting became worse and worse and my entire chest felt like if it was going to blow any minute.
I then felt something harsh tackle me from behind. I cried out in pain as my face hit the grey asphalt. The heavy thing on my back got off me and rolled me over. When I wasn't facing the ground any longer, I saw that it was Tai who'd tackled me. I felt blood flowing out of my nose. I had landed on it when I fell.
"What's wrong with you today?" Tai asked angrily. He grabbed my shoulders and banged me to the ground. I grimaced in pain, but still felt that strange 'alarm' in my entire body. It seemed to suck all energy out of my body. At first my hands and legs felt numb. Then the 'unfeeling-ness' continued to move up my chest and neck. Thousands of small tiny dots were covering my sight.
"Matt? Matt? You hear me?" Tai asked. He sounded worried.
It felt like if I slipped away, not hearing anything, not seeing anything and not feeling anything. All there was, was just a calm and cold darkness that covered all of my senses...
Please Review.
Falling To Pieces part one:
{~Matt's POV~}
"Matt?" Matt, wake up..." Tk shook me out of my peaceful sleep. I leisurely opened my eyes and peered at the clock. The red digital numbers showed 03.22 in the morning. I mentally kicked myself for oversleeping again. My boss was probably going to fire me now.
"I had that nightmare again." Tk said quietly, looking down on his feats.
"That one about mom?" I asked. My younger brother nodded, then broke down in tears. I wrapped my arms around him and slowly rocked him back and forth, while whispering soothing sounds in his ear.
"Why did she have to die, onii-san?" The smaller blond hiccupped, burying his face in my chest.
"I don't know, Tk." I said honestly, feeling my own throat ache a little. Even if I hadn't seen mom so much after the divorce, I missed her too. But it was of course the worst for Tk. "I guess it just was her time to go."
It had already been three weeks since the accident. Two trains had collided in the middle of the night, and our Mom had been on one of them. She had been travelling home to Odaiba from an old friend in Highton View Terrace when it happened. Now, Tk was living with Dad and me.
"I need to get to work. You think you can go back to sleep now, squirt?" I wondered.
"Sure... But, Matt, you shouldn't work so early in the morning. You'll be too tired to go to school." Tk said, looking me in the eyes with his own ones that were red with weeping. He let go of me, and went back into my bedroom.
I was sleeping on the couch in the living room until we could afford another bed.
I yawned and stretched my complaining body, and then I pulled on my trousers. As I went into the kitchen to get myself something fast to eat I pulled a black shirt over my head. The hair could wait until I got to the supermarket I worked in.
I grabbed the last apple in the fruit bowl and took a piece of paper, writing down a quick note to Tk, before I ran out of the apartment.
{~Tk's POV~}
I woke up by Dad's coughs. I swiftly hurried out of my brother's room and ran into Dad's.
"Dad? Daddy!" I yelled when I saw him twist and turn in his sleep, coughing like a madman. I helped him to sit up and he finally awakened. He was still having a hard time breathing, but as he calmed down he managed to stop coughing.
I knew that soon he'd be gone too, just like Mom. The doctors said that it only was a matter of time, and Dad had wished to die at home. I guessed that those cigarettes finally took their toll.
"Are you okay?" I asked carefully as he lay down in the soft bed again.
"I'm fine." He choked out. I gave him a questioning look, but let it go. "You should eat some breakfast and get to school, son. And can you wake up Yamato too? I don't want him to be late either." Dad said.
I nodded slightly. Dad didn't know that his older son was working right now. Matt hadn't wanted him to know, because he'd be worrying too much. After all, this could be the last day he was alive. And if it was, he shouldn't waste it by worrying or feeling guilty or any having any negative feelings at all. None of our friends knew about it either. None of us wanted them to pity us, so we hadn't told them yet.
I forced a smile and noticed that Dad's lunch wasn't on his nightstand. Matt had probably forgot about it, I thought. And who could blame him? My fifteen-year-old brother was already having two different jobs. I went to the kitchen where I found a note from Matt. He always left me a note in the morning.
"Hey little bro. Could you check on Dad for me? I didn't have time, because I was late for work. We'll probably see each other in school. Bye! /Matt." It said.
I poured up some milk in a glass and made myself a sandwich. I hoped that Matt hadn't skipped breakfast again.
When I finished my sandwich I quickly washed the glass and cooked some pasta to Dad. Then I went back into my brother's bedroom, looking for some thing to wear. I decided that my ordinary outfit would have to do, and got dressed. I picked up some books I needed for school today and put them in my bag.
"Bye Dad! I'm going to school now!" I yelled, but didn't get an answer. I thought that he'd gone back to sleep and opened the unlocked front door. Sighing, I understood that Matt doubtlessly had forgotten to lock it. 'Well,' I thought, 'I can't do anything about that now.'
I locked the door and hurried away to school.
{~Tai's POV~}
I was sitting in the warm classroom just like every other Thursday morning. The teacher was talking about some war. I didn't care to listen, because this particular history teacher hated me for some unknown reason, and didn't give me more than a C+ anyway.
I wondered where Matt was. It wasn't like him to be late. At least not like this. I mean, he use to be maybe five or ten minutes late every morning, but not thirty. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was cutting class.
The teacher talked and talked with her toneless voice the rest of the lesson, and when she dismissed us, she reminded us about the homework.
"Um... Excuse me, Mrs...um..." I really need to learn her name, I thought to myself. " Well, anyway, what was the home work again?" I asked.
The teacher didn't look very pleased with me not knowing her name, since she's been one of my teachers the whole term.
"Write a short presentation about the war we were learning about." She said snappily.
I knew better than to ask her 'which war' we had been learning about, so I rapidly got out of the classroom.
Confused, I went to my locker and shoved the history books inside of it. I gave the schedule a quick glare. English.
I sighed, and even more confused, I realized that Matt still wasn't here. I could always wait for him, I thought, closing the locker.
So I leaned back on the locker, and opened the English book. If I was going to wait, I could at least study some. But after five minutes, Matt still hadn't showed up. I waited for five minutes again, but he didn't show up. And now I was probably going to be late myself! I shut the book and ran to the classroom. I was kind of angry with him now. I mean we had a paper to turn in today, and we wrote ours together and he was the one who had it in his bag! And he was almost never at home when I called him either!
I went into the classroom, mumbling something about 'stupid blonds, who can't keep their promises'.
"Taichi, where's your and Yamato's essay?" Mr. Ryokan, the teacher, asked. Crap. He was one of my favourite teachers, and now I had to disappoint him.
"Um... You see-" I began but was cut off by the door slamming.
"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Ryokan!" Matt said, panting. He'd obviously been running.
"That's okay, Yamato. Now, where's the essay?"
"Right here." Matt said, handing him the paper. I sighed with relief, and forgot I was mad at him for a while.
"Good. You can take a seat if you don't want to stand." Mr. Ryokan smirked.
Matt swiftly got to the back of the classroom and sat down by me.
"Why were you late? You didn't even show up in history class. I know history class is plain boring but you shouldn't cut class." I whispered.
"Um... I just over slept." He hesitated. I knew that was a lie, but when Matt didn't want to talk it was almost impossible to make him. I decided that it would have to wait until this lesson was over.
The minutes flew by and before we knew it, Mr. Ryokan said that we should hurry to our next class. Somehow, Mr. Ryokan made it fun to learn, and his lessons always seemed shorter than the others.
We picked up our stuff and went out in the corridor. I decided to get things clear with Matt.
"Did you really just oversleep today?" I asked him. Matt looked surprised for a moment. But then hid it with his ordinary 'coolness'.
"What do you mean?" He replied nonchalantly, starting to fiddle with something in his bag.
"I don't recall you cutting class very often." I said. Matt just rolled his eyes and said that he'd already told me that he just overslept. I sighed.
"You've been really distant the last weeks, Matt. You're never home, never got any time over to be with your friends, you never even return my phone calls any longer. You want me to continue?"
"I've been busy."
"Sure. Busy. Riiight." I said sarcastically. I grew even more annoyed when Matt turned away to leave. "Don't walk away from me. I'm your friend, but if you don't feel like if you can trust me, I don't know." I waited for an answer, but when the reply didn't come I kept on talking about all the ways he was annoying me. "Man, why did you get the crest of friendship? You're not bothering about other people at all! When was the last time you paid attention to anyone else but yourself, huh?" I continued. When I saw that Matt didn't even seem to listen anymore, I decided that this way probably was the wrong one, if I wanted him to open up. So I walked a little faster so we were walking beside each other.
"Hey, I'm sorry..." I said sheepishly. Matt still ignored me, and I chose to change subject. "Oh yeah, we've got a new homework in History. Something about a war or something..." I didn't notice that Matt's breaths became heavier and heavier. "...And you know me, I didn't listen to that teacher, whatever her name is, so I don't know which war, but we could always ask Spencer. He use to know stuff like that and..." I stopped as I saw that Matt still didn't seem to listen. "Matt? Hello, earth to Matt, do you copy?" This wasn't like him at all. Matt was never this stubborn with being mad at me. "If it's those things I said before, I'm sorry. I didn't mean a word of it."
He still didn't reply. "Matt? Matt! Do you listen to me? Hello? You seem to be so 'detached' today." I continued to babble.
{~Matt's POV~}
"Matt? Matt! Do you listen to me? Hello? You seem to be so 'detached' today." Tai gabbled. I did listen to him, but most the things he said seemed to be out of importance. It felt like I was in some sort of trance. That's when it hit me. I had forgot to fix Dad's lunch when I was hurrying away to work. "Shit." I hissed and started to walk even faster.
"What?" Tai asked confusedly. I didn't care to answer. I was to busy thinking about how I would be able to get home to the apartment and get Dad some food. He was way to sick to out of the bed.
What would happen if he tried to fix his own lunch? He could collapse! And then he'd just lye on the cold floor until Tk or I came home.
I felt my breathing get heavier but didn't care. My stomach ached in a strange way, and I stopped walking.
Tai, who'd almost been jogging beside me, stopped surprised and went back a few steps.
"What is it, Matt? Maybe you should go to the nurse or something?" Tai said, resting a hand on my shoulder.
"N-No... " I managed to choke out. Tai probably hadn't got a clue why I acted like this. Tk and I hadn't told anyone about the 'situation'. Tai didn't know I was working either.
I just stood there like if I was paralysed or something, not knowing what to do. My muscles were tensed and it felt like I almost wanted to cry. I felt claustrophobic in some way, just like if these billions tiny little hands were pulling me in all different directions at the same time, each one wanting me to do something.
"Chill, man! What happened?" Tai's worried voice said. But just like before, his words didn't seem to matter.
I ran out of the corridor, not caring that the other students were looking. I heard Tai's footsteps behind me.
When I made it out of the school building I ran straight over the asphalted schoolyard. Almost no kids were out today, because of the dark and rain filled clouds hanging from the sky. My feats just kept on moving and hit the hard ground hard each time I took another step. My panting became worse and worse and my entire chest felt like if it was going to blow any minute.
I then felt something harsh tackle me from behind. I cried out in pain as my face hit the grey asphalt. The heavy thing on my back got off me and rolled me over. When I wasn't facing the ground any longer, I saw that it was Tai who'd tackled me. I felt blood flowing out of my nose. I had landed on it when I fell.
"What's wrong with you today?" Tai asked angrily. He grabbed my shoulders and banged me to the ground. I grimaced in pain, but still felt that strange 'alarm' in my entire body. It seemed to suck all energy out of my body. At first my hands and legs felt numb. Then the 'unfeeling-ness' continued to move up my chest and neck. Thousands of small tiny dots were covering my sight.
"Matt? Matt? You hear me?" Tai asked. He sounded worried.
It felt like if I slipped away, not hearing anything, not seeing anything and not feeling anything. All there was, was just a calm and cold darkness that covered all of my senses...
Please Review.