Haha wow. Its been ten years since I published anything on . I am proud to say that for the first time I have an entire story plotted out and more than halfway written. This is a huge undertaking for me, and I have been writing at a very turbulent time in my life. I've recently gotten engaged, moved, and changed jobs, and writing has been the one thing keeping me sane.

I will complete this fic. I am uploading Chapter 1 to see what people think, and then will not be updating until I have the entire thing written out. I refuse to not finish it, or not update for months at a time. So once its all on my computer I will probably update twice a week or so.

This story was originally meant to be mostly humor. Not sure what happened there, but I promise it will lighten up at some point. Please enjoy Chapter One of Skittles!

Yamato's mind was reeling. How could this be happening? He was so used to disasters of the digital variety that the idea that something could happen to them in the real world seemed almost laughable. After everything they survived in the Digital World, how could anything so normal as a car accident be so devastating? It was a thought he couldn't shake.

"You should probably call your mom," Taichi interrupted his agonizing with a hand on his shoulder.

Yamato swallowed uneasily. That was the last thing he wanted to do right now. Of course the things at the top of his list, screaming, crying, running through this goddamn hospital and finding his brother, were frowned upon. So he settled for sitting agitatedly in his terribly uncomfortable chair in the waiting room, glaring at anyone who sent a sympathetic glance his way and jiggling his leg.

"She'd want to know," Taichi added quietly.

Yamato snapped his head around and hissed at him.

"Don't you think I know that?"

On Taichi's other side, Yuuko Yagami looked startled by his aggressive answer. Taichi however, looked entirely unimpressed.

"So call her," He pressed. "Before your dad gets here and he has to do it."

Yamato grimaced. That wouldn't be pretty. The last thing anyone needed now was a screaming match in the ER. The waiting room was barely controlled chaos already. It wasn't every day that a drunk driver slammed into the Odaiba Rainbow Bus. Why, why, why did Takeru take the bus back from Tamachi instead of the train? Why did he have to go to Ken's apartment with Daisuke at all? Him and Ken weren't that close. Since when did Takeru and Daisuke get along anyway, he thought bitterly. But no, that wasn't quite fair. The boys had been getting along better for a while now, and Takeru had been joining Daisuke and Ken on more and more outings and guy's nights. He had been really excited about it. Yamato had been happy for him too. It gave him and Taichi a little more space. Not that it wasn't cool for his little brother to hang out for movie night too, but Takeru still hated scary movies and sometimes Yamato and Taichi wanted to watch something rated R. There were certainly things in those movies that the kid wasn't old enough to be hearing yet. So yeah. He had been happy to hear that Takeru was invited out tonight, except now he totally wasn't because now they were waiting in the friggin' emergency room.

"I'm going to call her," Taichi's voice snapped him out of another set of spiraling thoughts. He pulled out his cell phone.

Yamato slapped it out of his hand.

"The Hell you will," He snapped, standing and yanking his own phone out of his jacket pocket. He pretended not to see the small victorious smirk on his friend's face. Clicking on his mother's number, Yamato felt his palms begin to sweat. What exactly was he supposed to say to her?

It turned out it didn't matter. The phone rang ten or so times and went to voicemail. Yamato opened his mouth to say... what? He hung up and turned back to Taichi, feeling decidedly cowardly as he looked into the face of Courage.

Taichi, luckily, did not look ashamed of him.

"Do you want to try again?"

Yamato slumped back into his chair and fiddled with the phone hesitantly.

"The hospital probably already called her," It was a weak excuse.

"But they might not have been able to. You said she's in Paris, right? That's why Takeru was staying with you in the first place this week," Taichi reasoned. "They might not make international calls."

Yamato growled in frustration.

"Fine," He flipped the phone open and pressed redial. Again, it rang and was sent to voicemail, yet when he opened his mouth his eyes filled with tears and his chest clenched tight. He froze. No, no, no. No way was he going to cry on the phone to his mother. A funny sound bubbled in his throat and the phone was yanked away from him. He was vaguely aware of Taichi speaking as he slowly covered his face with his hands. He did not want talk to his mother. He did not want to be here. He did not want to think about the fact that somewhere in the building Takeru was in surgery and his own brother didn't even know what for. The ER receptionist had regretfully informed him that she could not divulge any patient information to anyone but the legal guardian.

Somehow his father still counted in an emergency, and Hiroaki was thankfully on his way.

Yamato let his hands fall into his lap and heard the tail end of Taichi's message.

"-will stay as long as he lets me."

"Hey, you can leave any time," He grumbled loudly as his friend snapped the phone closed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not going anywhere," Taichi returned to his seat and handed the phone back to its owner. Yamato wondered if he looked as tired as he felt. They had been there almost two hours, but it felt like ten.

Taichi gave a wry chuckle.

"You know, you're handling this surprisingly well. If it was Hikari in there, you'd have had to punch me by now."

Yamato snorted wetly.

"If it were Hikari in there, I would have had to tie you to that chair," He gave a humorless chuckle. Taichi's laugh was a bit more genuine. "But if it was Hikari, I would have to tie Takeru down too..."

Taichi sobered as Yamato looked at him questioningly. He sighed in return.

"I'm not telling Hikari anything until I have something to tell her. She's at Miyako's tonight. I'll let her have a night of fun before I break her heart."

Taichi raised his eyes to meet Yamato's, but they quickly focused on something over his shoulder.

"Your dad is here."

Yamato whirled around in the creaky chair to see Hiroaki Ishida, looking probably the second most disheveled Yamato had ever seen him. A giant vampire blowing up the TV station was hard to beat to be fair though. He spotted them in the corner and headed over. Yamato's insides squirmed.

"Yamato! Anything new?" Hiroaki asked gruffly as soon as he was close enough.

Yamato just shook his head.

"They might at least tell you something though. The lady wouldn't tell me shit because I'm still a minor," He ground out.

His father nodded distractedly and headed towards the front desk. He returned a surprisingly short time later, looking relieved.

"He's in surgery for a wrist injury," He answered his son's questioning stare, dropping into the chair on Yamato's right. "He should be out soon, and we can go see him."

Yamato felt numb, tingly almost. A wrist injury? That didn't sound life threatening. Not like anything he had been picturing since he saw the crash report on the news. He felt Taichi pat his arm and Mrs. Yagami stood on the edge of his vision. Was that his only injury? Or had Dad just not asked? Sure Takeru was getting his wrist fixed, but he had been hours. How long does that kind of surgery take? He had no idea.

Someone walked in front of him and he jolted back to the present. Mrs. Yagami was leaving, but his best friend still sat stubbornly beside him. He settled back and tuned the world out again.

After a little while he heard Taichi start up a conversation with Hiroaki, despite Yamato sitting between them. The words floated around his head but made little sense. He felt his eyes getting dry and his eyelids began to feel heavy. He blearily looked at the time on his phone. It was almost 11:30pm. Normally he wouldn't have difficulty staying up this late on a Friday night. Goodness knows he was up much later on nights they played concerts. Yet this kind of mindless sitting and waiting was wearing on him in a way he hoped to never experience again. Maybe if he just closed his eyes for a few minutes they wouldn't be so itchy. He let them fall.

"Takaishi?" A voice called out clearly above the chatter.

Yamato surged forward before his eyes had even opened all the way. Taichi was right beside him as he shouldered his way through the crowded room towards the doctor near the reception desk. It amazed him how the body could be nearly unconscious one moment and filled with adrenaline the next. Hiroaki arrived moments after the two teens stopped short in front of the man.

"Are you Takeru's guardian?" He asked.

"I'm his father. How is he?" Hiroaki answered shortly.

"I'm Takeru's attending physician, Rentaro Nakashima. Your son has been moved to the children's ward and should be just about settled in, so we can head up that way while we talk," He gestured through the double doors with his clipboard.

Yamato was glad they weren't going to waste time standing around the waiting room. He was beyond ready to see his little brother.

"Takeru just got out of surgery for a badly broken wrist, " Doctor Nakashima began in a clear voice as they walked down the hallway. "We were forced to insert two metal pins in order to keep bone fragments in place. He should have these removed in a matter of weeks, and the wrist should heal normally. He may experience reduced range of motion when his cast is removed, but there are many exercises and stretches we can recommend."

"Is it his left or right?" Yamato couldn't help from blurting out as they stepped into an elevator. Takeru would be crushed if he couldn't write or play basketball.

"His left," The older man replied, pressing the button for the sixth floor.

Yamato could have smiled.

"Good," He whispered.

Taichi stood stonily at his side like a bushy haired shadow.

"Takeru also had a range of minor contusions and lacerations typically seen in vehicle incidents-"

"What?" Yamato knew he knew those words but at nearly midnight his brain was slow to catch up with the doctor's mouth. Hiroaki sent him an almost irritated look.

"Minor cuts and bruises," Doctor Nakashima clarified. "He has some moderate bruising on the left side of his face, which may spread in the next few days, so do not be alarmed if you come in tomorrow morning and see that he has acquired a black eye overnight."

They left the elevator and Yamato was startled to see that the walls in this hallway hardly resembled the ones downstairs. The paint was a light blue, and white clouds decorated the ceiling. Each door had a sticker of a cartoon face under the nameplate. Most had their eyes closed, most likely indicating that the patient was sleeping, but here and there Yamato spotted one that was awake and smiling, and one that was frowning.

"This brings me to Takeru's most pressing injury," The doctor continued, now sounding quite serious. He stopped in front of a door with a sleeping face and turned to face them. "In the crash he received a severe blow to the head. He was brought in unconscious, so we were not able to discern the full extent of the damage. The initial CT scan showed significant swelling on the left side of the skull, along with some hairline fractures. He was given three stitches near his temple. These injuries should heal well enough on their own, and luckily there was no signs of hematoma- It's when blood pools in the brain cavity and puts pressure on the brain and skull," He explained when Hiroaki glazed at him with a blank expression.

Yamato was having a hard time processing all this. So was Takeru okay? Taichi stood so close that their shoulders touched. One of them was shaking slightly. He wasn't sure whose.

"With this serious of a concussion there are many repercussions that we will not be aware of until he wakes, but we have been able to rule out any type of paralysis. He also scored very highly on the Glascow Coma Scale, which means that when the sedation wears off from the surgery, he should be able to slip into a normal sleep and wake up relatively quickly. This is an extremely good sign. However there are effects of a serious concussion that may be present when he awakes. Amnesia, hearing or vision loss, loss of coordination, nausea, and even mental retardation are all possibilities," He sounded regretful, raking a tired hand through his black hair.

"I am sorry I don't have more answers for you now. Once your son wakes we can do a more thorough examination. He will definitely need an MRI to detect any potential brain damage."

Yamato tuned the doctor out and looked around at Taichi, feeling more lost than he could ever remember feeling. Getting dropped in the middle of a monster filled jungle didn't compare to the confusion and anxiety that gripped him now. His friend had such a pained look on his face that Yamato had to look away. In all his wallowing and agonizing he had pretty much forgotten that Taichi was practically Takeru's other big brother. They spent so much time together in the Digital World... More time than he himself had. He used to hate how Takeru looked up to their fearless leader, but had swallowed his pride years ago. Taichi had been what Takeru needed at the time, encouraging, supportive, and more than anything, present.

A hand gently pushed him towards the door.

"Go get him, tiger. Say hi for me, okay? I'll be right here."

Yamato's eyes flooded with tears. He wasn't sure he had ever been so grateful of Taichi before.

"You got it."

Yamato stared down at his little brothers face, breathing shallowly. Takeru was pale, with ugly dark bruises coating the left side of his head. The doctor was right, they were already blossoming under his eye and streaking out across his cheek. A strip of cloth at his temple covered the small path of stitches. His hair stuck up at odd angles, looking slightly damp. Yamato's stomach lurched when he realized the nurses must have had to wash blood out of his hair.

His brother laid half reclined on the bed with the sheet pulled up to his chest, head flopped limply to the right. Yamato took solace in the fact that Takeru's breathing was steady and he didn't need the help of one of those oxygen tube things. That was good, right? No broken ribs, no internal bleeding. Small blessings. At least he was alive, right? Man, he was not good at being optimistic. That was all Takeru's thing.

Hiroaki rested a heavy arm around his shoulders, sighing deeply.

"Come on, we're staying at the Yagami's tonight. Yuuko offered. Its closer to the hospital," He grunted, eyes still glued to his youngest's face.

Yamato swallowed dryly.

"When can we come back?"

"Six." He said with an air of finality that meant they would not be even a minute late.

Yamato brushed his fingers along Takeru's lime green cast.

"We'll be here when you wake up Teeks."

I promise.