One Summer Day
I pretend I'm not looking for them as I enter the park, keeping my eyes mostly on the soccer ball just in front of me. I don't really need to look, anyway. Every time I come here with Kari we always end up down by the swings, in a quiet little corner that's all shady from the overhanging branches. My feet already know the way, so I let them guide me over there. Sure enough, Kari and TK - oh, excuse me, I mean Takeru - are sitting on the swings, smiling at each other in that shy, goofy way that makes most everyone smile and wink behind their backs and our parents not want them to go out together without a chaperone...
Seeing them like that always strikes me as a little strange, sometimes. I guess it's because I had a similar kind of friendship with Sora when we were younger, that never got any further than friendship. We did try a couple of times, but it just didn't work out like that. The one time I kissed her on the lips made me feel like I was kissing Kari. Too weird for me, and she agreed. So we're just friends - but good friends. Will Kari and Takeru end up being more than friends? I really can't say.
They haven't noticed me yet, too involved in whatever they're discussing to pay any attention to the rest of the park. I risk a quick glance around, and find myself caught by a steady blue gaze. One pale eyebrow lifts quizzically, and I grin, waving one hand in response.
Turning back to the swings, I let the pair sitting there know I'm here by way of the Soccer Ball Express, delivered very masterfully to Takeru's feet, if I do say so myself. He stops it automatically with his own foot, then looks up curiously.
"Tai!" he greets me, surprised, as I continue walking towards them. "I thought there was a game on today?"
"Got called off at the last minute," I tell him. It was supposed to have been a friendly match for some of the neighbourhood kids, to keep us in practice over summer; but then Ken and Shin had gotten themselves grounded, Masaki was sick, and Sora had chores to do... "Thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing instead." I grin as he raises one eyebrow skeptically at that; he looks a lot like his brother at times like this.
"We're just fine, Niichan," Kari assures me firmly. At that, Takeru picks up the ball and tosses it to me. I chuckle a little as I catch it, holding it under one arm as I take the hint and walk away from them, over to the bench where I sit down beside the so-far silent observer, placing the soccer ball by my feet. He doesn't look at me, keeping his gaze fixed on the others as they restart whatever conversation I'd interrupted.
Yamato's changed a lot in the past few years, but in some ways he hasn't changed at all. His hair's a little less wild, for one, but still cool; just like his attitude, now that I think about it. He doesn't push people away so much, but he has few really close friends - and a horde of admirers. It's not hard to see why.
I watch him as he watches Kari and Takeru, and somehow the rest of the world seems dull beside him. Probably because the sun makes his blond hair seem to glow with a light of its own, forming a kind of halo over his head. You'd think the rest of him would be cast in shadow, the light is that bright, but his eyes are just as brilliant a blue as the sky. They're just as warm, too, which means he's in a good mood. When he gets really mad his eyes are like ice, and that's not something I'm all that eager to see again.
I shiver, remembering the last time I'd seen that coldness. It's enough to gain his attention, and he narrows those very same eyes at me - but they contain is the warmth of now, not the winter-cold of memory. I plaster a grin on my face.
"So, how's the babysitting going?"
"I wouldn't let them hear that, if I were you," he replies, laughter in his words. He's right: they'd both kill me for the babysitting comment. As a matter of fact, Kari has already made me regret it a couple of times. Not enough to stop me from teasing her, but she certainly does know how to get back at people...
My sweet, innocent little sister. Ah, those were the days.
"Tai?"
"Hmm?" I blink, and find Yamato's hand being waved in front of my face. "Sorry, I was just thinking."
"About?" he prompts, curious. I think for a minute more before answering him.
"Do you ever miss the way things were back then?" I ask. "I mean..." I stop, trying to come up with some way to say how I feel that doesn't sound totally stupid. Okay, maybe I'm so sure what I mean.
"You mean when we were in the Digiworld?" he frowns.
"I guess, and before that in some ways. I mean, being the Digidestined changed us in a lot of ways." I stare at my soccer ball as I roll it beneath my feet. That's about as well as I can say it, and it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
"Not really."
I look back up again, and see Yamato staring over at his brother, who's pushing Kari on one of the swings. He's frowning, like he's thinking really hard, and I realise that even though I don't have the words, Yamato still understands.
"Why not?"
"I used to think that I was all TK needed," he says after a moment, "that he was all I needed. But I was wrong." He turns towards me, and I can tell that he's speaking from his heart. It's still kinda rare for him to do so, at least when it comes to his own personal life, so I pay real close attention for once. "We still need each other, still care about each other - but we don't control each other anymore."
I nod slowly at that. Yamato had been pretty obsessed with protecting Takeru when we were in the Digiworld, not always with good results. I could understand where he was coming from, though, when Kari joined us in the fight against disaster. "We both did some pretty crazy things back then," I say aloud, lifting my arms and clasping my hands behind my head as I look up at the sky and remember all the mistakes I'd made - there had certainly been plenty of them.
"Tai?"
"What?" I glance over to find him staring at me sidelong, his expression deadly serious.
"You're still nuts."
"Very funny." The thought of nuts is making me hungry, though. "Is there enough for me there?" I ask, gesturing towards the picnic spread he's been minding for the kids. He reaches over and pulls out of the picnic basket a box containing nori rolls, and I help myself. He puts the remainder away, not taking any for himself.
"I already ate," he explains, catching my unspoken question.
"You make these?" I query around a mouthful of rice. He nods, and I give him a thumbs-up. He shakes his head.
"Just because you can't cook..."
"Hey, I know how to cook! You were the one who taught me how to make eggs, remember?" I grin at him. "And fish!"
"Real impressive range of dishes, there."
"And I made Mom teach Kari, just in case we ever got caught in the Digiworld without you again."
"You mean she asked your Mom to teach her in case she ever got caught with you as chef again," he laughs.
"I am better than I was then, honest!" I couldn't really have gotten any worse, but still... "Remember how Agumon and Gabumon would light the fires for us?"
"Yeah."
Kari's laughter drifts into our silence as Takeru spins her around on the swing, the chains twisting around each other until they run out of momentum and almost pause for an instant, before starting to unwind once more.
"I miss him."
"Me too."
Our Digimon were so much more than just fighting partners, even more than friends in some ways. They were just like us, in a complicatedly simple way. Except they were generally more sensible than we were. Agumon wasn't as reckless as I was, Gabumon didn't abandon Yamato, no matter what happened... It makes me wonder why they needed us at all.
"Because we brought those virtues out in them, just as they brought them out in us."
I blink at Yamato's answer. I hadn't realised I'd spoken aloud.
"Izzy once told me that he thought our digimon were like digital reflections of ourselves," he continues, sounding more like he's talking to himself than to me. "Only they didn't complicate matters like we did. They knew the truth that was in our hearts, and lived by it even when we had trouble doing so."
That makes good sense to me, even if it does sound like something out of one of Kari's romance novels. Not that I read them or anything. She just happens to leave them lying around, open. Honest.
"So, do you live by the truth now?"
He stares at me, his face mostly blank; but I know him, I know how to read his expressions. His lips have that funny twist they get whenever he's uncomfortable, and his cheeks are slightly flushed from embarrassment. His eyes are a touch widened, showing surprise, and perhaps a little anxiety in the slight frown of his eyebrows. Yamato's almost always been an open book to me, as far as his emotions are concerned. My only problem lies in figuring out exactly why he feels the way he does.
It's one of the reasons we used to fight so often, and why we still do on occasion: we both can get too wrapped up in our own feelings, without understanding other people's. And we're both pretty quick to get physical in a fight. Which isn't a bad thing when it comes to saving the world, but it's not so good when we're arguing with each other.
"What do you mean?" he asks, keeping his voice soft. I wonder why.
"Face it, Yamato," I say, "you have been known to sit and stew over your problems rather than deal with them."
"What makes you think I have any problems?" he wants to know, and there's an edge to his tone that lets me know I've ticked him off somehow. I like to think I'm one of the people he can talk to when he needs to, but sometimes he needs a little prodding. Like now. His eyes are darkly intense, and his face is more reddish, too. I know I have to watch what I say now, or he'll really be pissed at me.
"You're angry at me, for one."
"That only indicates I have a problem with people assuming I have a problem!"
I try hard, I really do, but I can't help laughing at that. That earns me one extremely irate glare before he turns away, re-crossing his legs the opposite way and scowling at the grass so much that I'm surprised it doesn't burst into flame.
Okay, so I've never been particularly good at thinking things through before I act. He hasn't hit me yet, though, and there are two people nearby who have apparently decided to add stopping us from fighting to their list of chores. They seem to be almost psychic about when we're about to start up at each other, too.
I glance over at the swings to see Kari tilting her head to one side, a question in her eyes, and I shrug in response. Takeru frowns at me, but nods as my sister says something to him, and accompanies her over to the bench where Yamato and I sit.
"Niichan, will you get us some ice cream?" Kari asks, in the sweet, singsong tones she uses when she wants something from me. "You're paying," she adds just as I'm about to agree. I nod. I've learned better than to argue with my little sister about stuff like this.
"How about it, Matt? Want some ice cream?" I stand up and offer him my hand, kicking my soccer ball over by the picnic basket. He considers for a moment before accepting it, letting me pull him up.
"Sure, why not." He makes a move towards the picnic stuff, but Kari waves him off.
"We'll stay here while you go get it," she says. I can see from the amused glance he sends my way that Yamato realises this isn't exactly a request. He shakes his head slightly, while Takeru simply smiles.
"Okay, who wants what?"
"Strawberry and chocolate!" Like that's a surprise. She hardly ever gets anything else.
"Chocolate and caramel for me, please."
Am I the only person in the world who doesn't especially like plain old chocolate ice cream? It sometimes seems that way.
Yamato and I leave Kari and Takeru to sort themselves out on the blanket, walking through the park towards the ice cream shop. Kari and I have terrorized our parents for years with our demands for ice cream from this place. It only took us a couple of visits to convince Yamato and Takeru that they serve the best ice cream in Odaiba here - and I mean 'a couple' as in one visit for each brother. They're always adding new flavours, too, although some of them are pretty way out.
"Tuna and olives?" Yamato pronounces dubiously, staring down at the latest additions to their gallery of flavours. "I don't think so."
"How about orange and peanut butter?"
"Forget it!"
"You have no sense of adventure."
"I have a great sense of what I can stomach!"
I just grin, not about to admit that I'm not all that eager to try them, either. "So what are you going to have?"
"I don't know." I watch him as he scans the available flavours, having already made up my mind. "How about you?"
"Rocky road, all the way."
His head jerks up at that, startled blue eyes meeting my own. "Why?" he asks somewhat sharply.
"Because," I answer, trying to work out what's got into him, "I happen to like it."
His lips have that funny twist to them again, and he just keeps on staring at me like I'm an olive in the tuna ice cream.
"Matt?" I'm tempted to wave my hand in front of his face, but he speaks before I can raise my arm.
"Vanilla."
"Huh?" I blink. "There are dozens of flavours here, and you want vanilla?" He nods. "Why?"
"Because," he says, smiling this weird little smile, "I happen to like it."
He orders and pays for our ice creams while I stand there scratching my head. Yamato can be a little strange at times, and this would have to be right up there amongst those times.
We head back towards Kari's swings with an ice cream in each and every hand, hurrying our steps to get there before the ice cream melts too much. The kids are stretched out side by side on the blanket when we reach them, their heads close together as they lean over something in front of them that I can't quite see. But I can see that they're holding hands. I glance over at Yamato, who just shrugs.
"Wouldn't it be weird if they did get married one day?" I find myself asking. "That would make us brothers, sort of."
"They're just kids, Tai." The look on his face is completely incredulous, and he shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot.
"They're not all that much younger than us," I reply. "Hey, they helped save the world at age eight - why shouldn't they be a little more mature than the average kid?" He starts to respond, but I cut him off. "And if your answer is 'But he's my little brother' you can shut your mouth right now, 'cause that's my little sister over there with him. If I can handle it, then so can you."
He shuts his mouth, just as something cold and wet slides down the back of my knuckles. I lick the sticky trail of strawberry from my skin and call out to my sister to collect it before it melts further. There's a brief flurry of activity as they put away whatever it was they've been looking at before coming over to rescue their sweets. From the quick glimpse I get, I can tell it's one of Kari's sketchpads.
"What were you showing Takeru?" I ask her between slurps of ice cream as we walk back over to the blanket.
"Oh, just something we've been working on."
"Can I see?"
"Not yet."
"Why not?"
"It's a surprise."
"Can't I be surprised now?"
She bursts out laughing. I slide my eyes over to Takeru, and see that he's trying to hide a grin behind his ice cream. They both have these mischievous twinkles in their eyes that tell me I probably don't want to be surprised just yet.
"Forget it - I can wait."
She shrugs, still smiling at the world in general and Takeru in particular. I catch him winking back at her, and he pulls an 'innocent' face. I don't believe it for a second.
We manage to fit ourselves all onto the blanket, and the kids pull out another sketchbook - Takeru's this time, judging by the number of angels I can see as they flip through the pages together. He's pretty good for still being so young. They linger on one that's half-coloured, and I have to smile.
Angemon stands there in all his glory, holding his staff out before him crosswise; but there's one major difference between this image and what I remember of the angelic digimon: his mask-thingy is gone, and -
"You gave him Yamato's eyes."
Takeru looks up at my statement, grinning somewhat sheepishly as he sneaks a glance over to his brother.
"You would notice that first," Kari murmurs low enough that only Takeru and I can hear. I start to turn my head to question her, but am rather distracted by the sight of Yamato's expression.
He's blushing as he stares down at Takeru's sketch, and only looks up at Takeru through the veil of his eyelashes.
Then he smiles.
There are times when I feel I could really be jealous of Takeru, and this is one of them. He's had not one but two guardian angels watching over him throughout his short life. Okay, so I had Agumon when he had Patamon, and I really wouldn't change that for anything; and having Yamato as an older brother probably would have driven me insane, come to think of it.
But there's something special about Takeru's angels... even though I spend half my time fighting with him...
I start to laugh. The others all stare at me.
"What's so funny?" Yamato wants to know, his blush fading.
"You," I manage to get out. He frowns at me, obviously trying to puzzle the pieces together, while the kids just shrug.
"You're lucky this ice cream is too good to waste on your hair," Yamato says at last.
"It is?" I lean over and snatch a quick bite out of his ice cream.
"Hey!" he protests, a little too late.
"You're right - it is good," I grin at him as he scowls between his cone and mine. I stuff the remainder of my ice cream into my mouth, cone and all. He gives up, rolling his eyes and crunching on his own cone instead. It's kinda hard to chew, but I manage to get everything down eventually.
Looking back at the picture of Angemon, I watch as Kari helps Takeru pick out coloured pencils to finish off his drawing. They make a great fuss over what colour to use for his eyes, calling on Yamato to look at them so that they can compare. He pretends to ignore them as he finishes his ice cream, but his cheeks get redder the more they debate. I just have to rescue him before he blushes to death.
"That one," I declare, picking up the right one and handing it to Takeru.
"Aren't you even going to check?" Kari asks.
I don't really have to, but I can't resist reaching out and cupping his cheek with one hand, tilting his face to get a better angle. He blinks at me, startled, and I peer intently into his eyes, losing myself in them.
"Blue as the sky on a perfect summer's day..."
Kari's giggling snaps my attention back to reality.
"Somebody's been reading mother's romance novels," she says, a teasing note in her voice.
"Hey! You're the one who leaves them lying around!" I protest, but Yamato and Takeru are both already grinning at me.
"You read romance novels, Tai?"
Great. Now I'm the one blushing. "Hey, I was just telling the truth!" That starts Yamato blushing again. I have to grin. "You blush way too easily, Yamato." He glares at me, but he's having trouble keeping a straight face.
"Shut up, Tai."
"Are you going to describe his complexion for us, too?" Kari urges me on relentlessly. I look over at her briefly, but my eyes wander inevitably back to Yamato. Who's still blushing.
"I think I'm all out of mushy descriptions for today." The truth is there's only one word that seems to be sticking in my mind right now.
Beautiful...
"Tai, speechless? Oh my, that's a first!"
I sort through the coloured pencils until I find a red one and toss it towards Takeru. "Here. A picture says a thousand words. You can draw Matt blushing." He laughs and flips through his sketchbook until he finds an already drawn sketch of Yamato, and starts to colour his cheeks.
"T.K.!" Yamato lunges for him, but I catch him in my arms, hauling him backwards, holding him firm despite being elbowed in the gut. Takeru frowns at the use of his old nickname and picks up another pencil. Yamato struggles half-heartedly for a bit, but gives up when Kari joins in by colouring his eyes the blue I'd picked out earlier. He leans back against me, craning his neck to look me in the eyes.
"This is all your fault," he grumbles. I can only grin down at him, still held in my arms.
I only release him when Takeru presents the newly-coloured picture to us. Yamato tries to snatch the book from him, but Takeru and Kari both keep it out of his reach, Kari eventually passing it to me. I have to sprint a distance before I get a chance to take a decent look at it.
It shows Yamato with his arms wrapped around one leg, resting his temple against his knee. He's looking off a bit to the side with his brilliant blue eyes, smiling slightly below cheeks tinged with the red of roses, while a golden glow seems to surround his hair.
It's perfect.
"Huh."
Of course, the owner of those blue eyes pretends not to be impressed as he peers down at it over my shoulder. I grin back at him, then turn to his brother. Takeru grins and nods, and I carefully tear the sheet out of the book, rolling it up tight.
"Mine," I inform Yamato, who just smiles. I think he's blushed out for today.
"Mmm."
We make our way back tot he blanket where Kari and Takeru are still giggling away. Yamato takes the sketchbook out of my hands and pretends to hit Takeru over the head with it. Takeru rescues it from him and stows it away in his backpack, while I help Kari pack the rest of the stuff away. Yamato and Takeru walk with Kari and me to our apartment block as it's fairly close to the park, and we end up saying goodbye there.
"So, same time tomorrow?" I ask, knowing already that Kari and Takeru will most likely agree. The joys of summer vacation.
"Don't you have anything better to do with your time?" Yamato responds, poking at the soccer ball under my arm.
"Not really," I grin, fingering the scrolled paper in my other hand. Somehow going to the park seems better value these days.
"I guess we'll see you there then."
"I guess so."
I walk into the building with Kari, looking back just in time to see Takeru disappearing from view. I turn around once more to find Kari smiling up at me. Before I can blink, she's standing on tiptoes and kissing me quickly on the cheek.
"What was that for?" I ask, curious.
"Oh, just because," she answers, and heads on up to our apartment, leaving me behind.
I stare after her for a minute, then hurry to catch up. Maybe if I move faster things will happen sooner - and for some reason I just can't wait until tomorrow.
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