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HELLO! Alright, I've been having a nasty case of writers block with my other story and this has been bugging me for a month. I decided to make A BUTTLOAD of one-shots concerning Frontier and Adventure 02. And if you were wondering about Romeo and Juliet: Digimon Frontier Style, well... it got deleted. I just logged on one day and it was gone. I'll repost it sooner or later...

Alright, so this is one of the shittier pieces of work I did. Oh well, there will be more.

Season: Frontier

Character Focus: The twins : )

Time Period: About a year after the Digital World.

POV: Kouji! Hooray!

Hate, Fear, and Sleep

Sleep.

Some say it's a little slice of death.

I say it's an eight-hour orgasm.

Sleep is the greatest time of, well... anything. Think about it: when you sleep there's no suffering, torment, pain, anguish, sadness, or anything else; unless you're having a nightmare, but still, you don't feel anything. And to most people nightmares are uncommon, so all you're left with is your dreamscape, which (for the most part) is usually filled with things that you'd find pleasant. So, sleep is a habit for me.

I'm not one of those kids who stays up all night on the weekends just because they can. Everything is routine for me, it doesn't change just because a certain day pops up. I have a pretty straight-forward snoozing schedule.

Now, don't get me wrong, sleep is fine and dandy and all, but I do have those nights where I just need to stay up. It's usually if I have a problem, I'm staying the night at someone's house, or if I need to fight my thoughts.

All of those choices are pretty common.

I've got a few problems that like to rear their ugly heads once in a while, mostly weight that I throw on my own shoulders 'cause I think too much sometimes; all of that is tossed into the 'if I need to fight my thoughts' category.

And yes, it's true. Big, bad 'I don't need anybody' Minamoto Kouji actually stays the night at people's houses. Mostly with Kouichi, but sometimes all of the chosen children will have a giant sleepover at Takuya's.

Tonight, I was with Kouichi.

And let me tell you something, my 'nii-chan is a grade-A insomniac. I know what his problem is, so I don't blame him. His mind is constantly racing at about seven-hundred miles per hour, thinking and getting worked up about God-knows-what. Now, when people are tired their mind and thought-process slows down, calming and relaxing them; Kouichi's never slows down. I know I'm over-eggagerating a bit; I mean, it's not that bad. But still, on a bad night it takes him about an hour or so to fall asleep.

This was one of those bad nights.

I was comfortably curled up in a ball of blankets on the floor in Kouichi's room next to the mattress he was laying on, contently dozing and about to reach full-on sleep. He seemed calm enough, maybe he was actually sleeping too. 'BUZZ! Sorry, you're incorrect.'

Tug-tug on my shirt sleeve...

I just groaned and slapped his hand away without any conscience thought about the action, just a reflex. I heard shuffling on the mattress next to me, then a bodily warmth on my back.

"Otouto..." Kouichi's voice was a little shaky as he lightly tugged at my sleeve again.

"Ugh, what?" I groaned, then lazily and clumsily pawed at the figure in back of me, trying to shoo him off like a pestering fly.

"Kouji," he started again. "Is it wrong to..." he trailed off for a second, as if trying to find the right words. "... hate my own element?"

My eyes shot open and I furrowed my brow. He's all worked up over that? I gave a mixture of a sigh and a groan, then turned over to face him. The moonlight casted an eerie shadow around his features; he looked like a ghost. I shivered, thinking about the 'Staircase Incedent' and how he was so close to actually becoming a ghost. I shivered again, this time from the biting cold even though I was under the blankets. Kouichi must've been freezing, so I lifted up the covers and gave him access to a little warmth.

He muttered a 'thank you' and cuddled next to me, gently digging his face into my neck. I stiffened up, feeling a little awkward with the sibling affection.

C'mon, Kouji. A little voice in my mind spoke. He's your brother, for God's sake. Comfort him, no matter how ridiculous!

So I listened, 'cause oddly enough that little voice is usually right. I hesitantly put my arms around him, pulling his body a bit closer into an embrace.

"So, is it wrong?" He spoke into my neck.

"Is what wrong?" I felt a little guilty that I didn't remember the question right away, but then brushed it off. I was too tired for this.

"Is it wrong to hate my own element?"

I'm not going to lie, I was a little confused by the question. Element? Like H2O is water and EU is gold? As far I knew, Kouichi didn't have an element. Unless he meant...

"Darkness?" I asked. "Is it wrong to hate darkness?"

He nodded timidly and shrunk back a little, as if I was about to strike him. I pulled him back into me. I thought about it for a minute; was it wrong? Hell, who was I to decide that?

When I was silent for longer than a moment, my nii-san whispered "Did you go back to sleep, 'touto?"

I ignored the question, having a stoke of thought. "I don't think you hate it." My vision hazed as I absently stared at the moon, which seemed to be perched on Kouichi's window, watching us. "I think you just... fear it."

He pulled back from my embrace; the dim light from the dead rock in outer-space provided little illumination, but I could still see that my brother's eyebrow was cocked.

"I fear it?"

"People often get hate and fear mixed up," I sighed, wanting to get back to joyous, wonderful, sublime sleep so bad.

"I know."

"You don't hate the darkness, you-"

"Yes, yes. I know." He pulled completely away from me and flipped over on his back, putting his hands behind his head. "I fear it." If I didn't know any better, that comment almost sounded mocking.

"We tend to hate what we fear," I replied with a yawn. "because we usually fear the unknown and we hate what we don't know."

"So," he started. "Hate and fear are practically the same thing." I couldn't help but wonder why the hell he decided to have a deep conversation at three o' clock in the fucking morning...

"Almost, it all depends-" I yawned again. "-on the circumstance and situation." Flipping over, I nuzzled my head into the pillow and closed my eyes; hopefully that signaled to him that I was done talking.

He was silent for what seemed like a long while and I was pleasantly entering the golden gates of Dreamland...

Tug-tug on my shirt sleeve.

"Hey, Kouji," came a voice from behind me. "That doesn't answer my question... Is it wrong?"

"Kouichi?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and go to sleep."

Okie dokie. I won't tell you to review, but it wouldn't hurt if you did... -wink-