Stay Tuned As Life Continues

Yamato stepped out of the warmth of the taxi and into the harsh cold world outside. He looked through the darkness of the night into the park that stood before him. As soon as Yamato closed the door behind him the taxi quickly drove off in search of its next fare, leaving Yamato alone. Yamato walked into the park and looked around, after the first scan of the park, Yamato didn’t see his younger brother. Perhaps it was a mistake to tell the driver that he didn’t need to wait. But he had, and now he was stuck outside in the cold. Yamato looked at his clock in his phone. He was there within the time frame he told Takeru, but Takeru was nowhere to be seen. Yamato walked over to the swing set and sat down, gently swinging in the chilling breeze that had appeared.

Yamato sat on the swing thinking how stupid he was. Yamato had been stood up before by plenty of people, but this time he had known better and did it anyways. He knew he shouldn’t have came, but his black and blue heart had pushed him out the door and to the cold empty park in which he now found himself. Yamato was just about to check the time again when he heard the leaves rustling on the ground behind him, followed by a whisper, “Ishida Yamato?”

Yamato didn’t need to turn around to know that it was his little brother. “Yeah Takeru, it’s me.”

Takeru walked forward and stopped at the swing next to Yamato. “Mind if I join you?”

“Go ahead.”

Takeru then sat on the swing next to his brother. They sat there silently, slowly gliding back and forth above the ground, for several minutes. Yamato sat there, although it was felt awkward sitting there, his rather broken love muscle was content sitting there next to the one it still longed for. “Can I ask you a question?”

Takeru looked at his older brother, “Oh…ummm sure.”

Yamato let his feet drag on the ground, bringing him to a stop. “Why did you pick this place?”

“To tell you the truth, it’s simply because Mom has in her own roundabout way told me not to come here among other places. So whenever I sneak out I try to go to the places where she has told me not to go.” Takeru said, still swinging.

Yamato looked at his brother, “Well your just a little hellion aren’t you?”
Yamato said with a smile. “Did she ever tell you why she doesn’t want you to come over here?”

Takeru shook his head, “Nope, she’s just alluded that she didn’t want me anywhere over here. Why do you ask? Do you know?”

Yamato gave a slight grin, “I have my suspensions.”

Takeru came to a sudden stop, “Can you tell me?”

This time Yamato shook his head, “Not right now. Maybe some other time.”

“Well, maybe you could tell me other things then.” Takeru asked.

“Sure. What do you want to know?”

Takeru looked at his older brother, “Before my accident….was I normal?”

Yamato gave his brother a confused look. “Define normal.”

“Like was there anything different about me, apart from the average boring kid? I hear kids whispering in school that I’ve changed. I’d like to think that I’m a pretty normal kid, so that leads to think that perhaps I wasn’t normal earlier.” Takeru explained.

Yamato couldn’t help but smile. His brother was still as perceptive as ever.
Yamato had already decided not to discuss being a digidestined, digimon, or the digital world with his brother yet. That is if anything like those topics ever came up. What was he supposed to say, ‘Oh yeah, you were part of a group of kids that got sucked into another world where we all had talking digital monsters, then we all saved our world and their world numerous times.’ Takeru probably would think he was crazy and never talk to him again. Maybe some other talk further down the road, but not their first talk in so long. So Yamato said simply, “You were special.”

Takeru perked up, like he was waiting for an answer like that. “Really? Like how?”

“There was just something about you that stood apart from the others.” Yamato answered.

The answer didn’t satisfy the short haired blonde, “Like?”

“I don’t know Takeru. It’s just hard to explain.”

Takeru hung his head, “oh.” After a brief period of silence Takeru raised his
head and asked another question. “Has Mom always been so over protective?”

Yamato nodded slightly, “Nancy’s always been rather protective of you Takeru. But
after you came out of your coma after the accident she’s been even more so.”

Takeru raised an eyebrow, “You called her Nancy instead of Mom, Why?”

“We don’t really get along anymore. We never did, to be honest, but we really
don’t get along now.” Answered Yamato.

Takeru lowered his head again, “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

Yamato let out a sigh and nodded.

“I kind of figured as much. I know Mom doesn’t think highly of you at all, or Dad
for that matter. She doesn’t even have a picture of either one of you in the
whole apartment. So to tell you the truth, I don’t even think I really know what
Dad looks like. She got rid of all the pictures that have either one of you in
it, which empties out some of the photo albums. But there are lots of other
books missing as well. I don’t know where they’re all at. She says she lost them
in the moves, but I found out that we haven’t moved in about six years and some
of those missing albums are more recent than that.”

Yamato had a few ideas why so many of Takeru’s albums were missing. Some of the
older ones had to do with the digimon and those were certainly all disposed of.
More recent ones were probably disposed of when Nancy had thrown Takeru out. Both
were issues that Yamato didn’t want to discuss then.

“Did Mom always lie to me?”

“Besides about photo albums?” Yamato asked.

“Yeah besides that. It just seems to me that she’s always lying to me anymore.
Like her and I are just living one big lie. I hate feeling like my life is built
like a house of cards.”

Yamato waited for a moment, thinking. “She used to do it occasionally when you
were young, to keep you from trouble. But the older you got the more independent
you became, so she lied more to keep you close to her.”

“Can’t she at least tell me the truth sometimes? I mean, for shit sakes, doesn’t she know that every lie she tells me is pushing me away from her, instead of
bringing us closer?” Takeru asked.

“Her mind isn’t wired like that. She has to live in her own fantasy world to survive.” Answered Yamato.

Takeru let out a sigh and began to swing a little again. “What’s Dad like?”

Yamato thought for another moment. “He’s nice, caring, and very understanding. He works a lot though, too much in fact. I didn’t see him but a few hours a week while I was growing up. But he was always there when I really needed him.”

“So what about my relationship with him? Did I know him?”

Yamato nodded. “Yeah, you used to come over a lot when you moved back closer to us six years ago. When Dad would come home you’d two would talk late into the night about how school or work was going. And believe it or not, I think he even made it to all of your Basketball games.”

Takeru gave a slight laugh, “I heard I used to play.”

“You were pretty good.” Yamato admitted.

“So what about you? What was our relationship?”

Yamato paused, trying to think of what to say. He couldn’t tell him the truth,
that is if he ever wanted to see him again.

“That good huh?” Asked Takeru sarcastically, noting the pausing.

“No it’s not that. I was just thinking that it is getting late is all. I don’t want you getting in deep trouble tonight, when we could just meet again later.” Answered Yamato.

Takeru nodded, “I know it’s late and that we can just meet again. But I just have one more question to ask, is that alright?”

“Yeah I guess.” Yamato said with a shrug.

“Yamato was I…..ummm…was I…” Takeru stammered out.

“Were you what?” Asked Yamato.

“Was I…..” Takeru took a deep breath and let it out. He then took another and let
it out, trying to calm his nerves. “Yamato was I…” Takeru then leaned closer to his brother and whispered, “…gay?”

Yamato body suddenly felt hot against the coldness of the night, as Takeru leaned close to him. Yamato’s brain went into overdrive. What could he tell him? Yamato thought about it quickly and came to this conclusion. “No Takeru, you were straight.” His reasoning for saying it made sense to him. He could lie to Takeru, thus keeping his life safe from the troubles from those that might seek to do him
harm for being gay. As well as the thoughts that his brother sounded like he would meet again. Takeru got protection and Yamato got to talk with a brother, both of them won something in Yamato’s mind.

Takeru blinked a few times, “Really?”

Yamato nodded. And if only Takeru could remember how to read his brother, he
would have known that it was just a lie. Yamato on the other hand found it easy to read his brother. Takeru was nervous and worried about something.

“I should get going now, before Mom realizes that I’m not there.” Said Takeru giving a slight jump out of the swing.

Yamato stood up from his still swing, “If you have any more questions….”

“I’ll give you a call. I have to go now.” Takeru said, he then quickly jogged off
into the night.

Yamato watched as his brother moved out of sight. He had lots to think about now
after their conversation. Although his head still slightly ached, Yamato didn’t notice it. His heart was busy doing flips over talking and being with Takeru. Yamato then left the park with a slight smile on his face to try and flag down a taxi.

As Yamato entered his apartment door Hikari was sitting in the living room anxiously awaiting his return. She flagged Yamato down as and had he join her on the couch. She turned off the tv. “So how did it go? Why did he pick that
location?” Were just a couple of the many questions she asked.

Yamato did his best to retell the brief conversation he had with brother. When he got to the part about Takeru’s last questions Hikari surprised him. She freaked.

“YOU TOLD HIM WHAT!?” Hikari shouted.

“I told him he was straight.” Yamato answered back.

Hikari demanded an answer, “Why would you do something like that?”

Yamato looked at Hikari with disbelief. How could she not see where he was coming from? So Yamato tried his best to explain his reasoning with Hikari. She didn’t buy it.

“You still lied to him!” Hikari screamed.

“It doesn’t matter. Think how it will help him.” Said Yamato.

“It does too matter. You lied to him, telling him to be who he isn’t for your own personal gain. You’re just as bad as Nancy!” Hikari shouted as she stood up and
began to walk out of room.

“I am not as bad as Nancy!” barked Yamato standing up.

Hikari stopped and turned around. “Then prove it. Tell him the truth, or I will.”

Yamato didn’t want to, but he knew Hikari was right. He what he did made him just
as bad as the woman he once called mother. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

Hearing the answer she wanted Hikari then turned back around and left the living
room. Yamato then retired to his bedroom for the evening, allowing him to review
the evening in his head.

Yamato and Takeru briefly met a couple more times after that throughout the next week. Yamato mainly spent the time discussing Takeru’s past with him. How life was when they were both little kids, before their parents split up. And every time Yamato lost the nerve to tell Takeru the truth about his old sexual orientation. Each time as well they met in the park by Heighton View Terrace. But
as Takeru and Yamato were talking on the phone, plans changed.

“So after school tomorrow?” Takeru asked.

“Sure, I don’t have anything planned. So I’ll meet you at the park tomorrow
afterschool.” Answered Yamato.

“Actually Yamato. I was hoping that we could meet at you place tomorrow. Would
that be alright?” Takeru asked of his older brother.

Yamato didn’t answer, he was too shocked.

“Or not. Don’t feel like you have to. It’s just keeps getting colder outside, I
was just trying to think of a warm place we could meet for a change.”

“No, it’s okay. We can meet here.” Assured Yamato.

“Good. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” Takeru said.

“Wait Takeru, do you even know where I live?”

“Nope, but I’ll just have Hikari take me. She says she stays there on the
weekends.” Explained Takeru.

“Fine. See you tomorrow.”

After both blondes hung up their phones, Yamato started cleaning the apartment.
After all he had to make a great re-first impression on his brother.
Yamato glanced at the clock on the wall. Hikari and Takeru would be there any
second. And sure enough they were. Hikari knocked on the door a couple times before coming in. After taking off their coats and shoes Hikari and Takeru journeyed further into the apartment. Yamato called them into the kitchen.

“Are you two hungry? I just made some snacks.” Yamato said putting a large plate of various snacks on the table. He then took off his apron and hung it up.Yamato watched as Hikari and Takeru sat down at the table but didn’t eat anything. “You two better dig in, Taichi will be home soon. And once he is you can be sure he’ll be hungry and eat that whole plate.”

Takeru stared at the large plate of snacks in disbelief. Hikari noticed the look and gave a quiet giggle. “My brother can eat a lot of almost anything.”

Takeru gave a slight nod before grabbing a couple wraps off the plate.

Yamato then got to watch as Takeru and Hikari sat and greatly enjoyed the cooking
he had spent the entire afternoon on. He was glad that everything turned out so
well. Besides the cooking helped him calm his nerves, if only by allowing him to
throw himself completely into something.

Once they were done with the snacks, Hikari excused herself so that Takeru and
Yamato could talk privately. As Yamato began to clean up, Takeru quickly joined
him. As Yamato began to do the dishes he noticed that he was in a slight pickle.
As usual when he met with Takeru, he was wearing a long sleeve shirt. He couldn’t
roll the sleeves up without showing his scars to the one he was trying to keep
them from. But keeping them down would in fact draw attention to his arms. But
perhaps by some off chance Takeru wouldn’t notice his odd behavior. It didn’t
happen, he noticed.

“Umm, Yamato aren’t you going to roll up your sleeves?” Takeru asked as he
pointed to Yamato’s covered arms.

Yamato had to think fast. “Oh, no actually. It’s kind of chilly in here, I don’t
my arms getting cold.”

Takeru gave his older brother a look. A look that said that he didn’t buy the
line of bullshit he was trying to be fed. But he didn’t push the issue, Yamato
had lied to him so that meant he didn’t want him to know the truth for some reason. Perhaps at a later date he would find out, once he had gotten close to
his brother again, earned his trust again. Yamato and Takeru then made small talk until the kitchen was once again spotless. They then retreated to Yamato’s room
as Taichi returned home and began to ransack the tidy room they had just left.

As Takeru got into the bedroom he began to look around, trying to find out more
about his brother. He was rather surprised by the lack of posters and items on the wall he was expecting a college student to have. But his keen eyes did notice an item tucked away in the corner. Yamato’s guitar. “Cool, you have a guitar!”

Yamato nodded his head, “Yeah.”

“That is so neat. Think you could play me a song?” Asked Takeru.

Yamato thought about it. It had been months since he had done anything than just
moving the guitar out of his way. He didn’t even know where he could find a pick, but it didn’t matter. He could still play. “Alright, just don’t expect much. I haven’t played in quite a long time.” Yamato walked over to the guitar and picked it up, and wiped the layer of dust off of it.

“Really, why not?”

“I haven’t really felt like playing is all.” Which was the truth, Yamato had lost his entire urge to play the guitar since Takeru’s incident. But now things were different, Takeru now stood before him, anxiously awaiting a song. Yamato wouldn’t disappoint.

As Yamato began playing one of the Teenage Wolve’s popular songs, he saw the smile on Takeru’s face grow. Yamato’s heart swelled at the thought that he was bringing such happiness to him. Once the song stopped Takeru loudly applauded the wonderful private performance. Yamato gave his brother a smile before setting the guitar and himself on the bed. Takeru pulled up a chair and they began talking, about Yamato’s band, his cooking skills and many other things for a couple hours.
Takeru then looked at his watch and shot out of his chair. “Oh shit. I need to
get home. It’s been fun Yamato. Thanks for the food and music, they were both really great.” Takeru then headed for the bedroom door.

Yamato felt his stomach churn, he was dreading what he was about to say. But he knew he needed to, he had lied to Takeru long enough. “Takeru wait.”

Takeru stopped in front of the door, “I’ve got to go.”

“I just have to tell you something really quick.” Yamato said, he eyes became glued to his feet.

Takeru turned around. “Okay, I’m listening.”

Yamato was still focusing on his shoes. It was easier then looking at the one he
had lied to. “I’m sorry Takeru. I lied to you.”

“I know.” Takeru said gently. “I thought it was too odd that you didn’t roll your sleeves up when you were washing dishes.”

Yamato’s focus was broken, he looked at his brother. “What?”

“Your arms.” Takeru explained.

Yamato looked down at his arms and stared at them, until it clicked in about what
Takeru was talking about. {Shit. That’s two lies I’ve told him.} He then shook his head to clear it. “That’s not actually what I was talking about.”

Takeru raised an eyebrow, “Then what are you talking about.”

Yamato took a deep breath, “Remember last week when we first met in the park? I
lied to you about the last question.”

Takeru closed his eyes as he tried thinking back to that day, that conversation,
that question. His eyes shot open as he remembered. “You lied about that! Why would you do something like that? I thought you were trying to help me!”

“I’m sorry!” Yamato shouted back. “I was just trying to protect you.”

“You can’t be serious! You out of everyone knows how much I’ve been lied to and how much I hate it all. So tell me Yamato, how is lying to me supposed to help me? You’re no better than Mom. At least I know everything she tells me is a lie, but with you it’s harder to tell. Actually, that makes you worse, because I trusted you.” Takeru gave a small humph as a thought came to him. “You know, maybe Mom doesn’t lie all the time, she sure told the truth about you.”

Yamato felt like he had just been stabbed repeatedly as Takeru’s words sunk
in. “I’m sorry.” He said weakly.

“Are you? Or is that just another lie too?” Takeru said.

Yamato winced at Takeru’s stab.

Takeru shook his head in disgust and turned to leave.

“Takeru wait!” Yamato said standing up.

Takeru turned back around, “If you want me to stay, you better tell me the truth. About me, about you, about everything!”

Yamato nodded weakly.

“Was I gay?” Takeru asked quickly.

Yamato nodded weakly again.

“Did I have a boyfriend?” Takeru asked.

Yamato nodded, “You did, but he wasn’t always there for you. He did things that would get you so angry, you’d fight and he’d leave and be out all night. He always seemed to cause you more heartbreak than anything else, especially right before the accident. He just wasn’t good enough for you. He finally realized it and left, perhaps when you needed him the most.”

Takeru paused as he took in the information that Yamato had told him. He then moved onto the next question on his mind. “What’s wrong with your arms that you have to keep them covered up?”

Before Yamato could answer, a loud noise came from Takeru’s pants. Takeru reached in and pulled out a cell phone, it was a different one than the one that Yamato had given him months earlier. Takeru put it up to his ear and with a cheerful voice said, “Hello Mom.” “No, I’m on my way home now.” “I’ve been studying at the library, with Kaya.” “Yes I can pick milk up.” “I love you too Mom.” “Bye.” Takeru hung up his phone and put it back into his pocket. His voice returned to one tinged with spite and hurt. “We’ll talk about all this later. I really have to go.” Takeru then turned, opened up the door and walked into the hall. Yamato quietly followed his brother to the front door.

Just as they reached the door, Yamato remembered something. “Wait, one last thing.” Yamato turned and ran back into his bedroom grabbed two large photo
albums off the top of dresser and handed them to his little brother. “Here, you can borrow these and look through them. Just don’t let Nancy catch you with them.
Okay?”

“Thanks and don’t worry. They’ll be safe. I’ll talk to you later.” Takeru said stepping out of the door.

“Alright, take care. And Takeru, I’m sorry.” Yamato said. Takeru didn’t respond he just walked away. Yamato then closed the door softly. After he heard Takeru’s footsteps grow lighter Yamato cracked the door open again. Watching as the one he still loved walk away from him one more time.

Late that night all the lights were off in the Takashi apartment except for one.
Takeru sat in the middle of his bed looking through the photo albums his brother had given him. There were various pictures, pictures of their various friends. Picture’s of Yamato’s graduation. Pictures of Takeru’s basketball games. As well as many other various activities throughout the past few years. Once Takeru had finished looking at the last picture he closed the album and got off his bed. He picked up both albums and walked over to his closet and hid them away. As he turned around he saw that a picture lay on his bed. He hadn’t taken any of the
pictures out, so he didn’t know where it possibly could have come from.

As he got closer to the picture his eyes quickly picked up three things. Himself, Yamato, and what looked like a hippopotamus in the background. As he got closer he noticed something else, that Yamato and him were standing very close to each other. So close in fact it looked like their faces were touching. Takeru gave a loud gasp as he realized their faces were indeed touching. Their lips were pressed together, and both of them looked lost in the kiss. Takeru felt his knees began to shake and weaken, his heart rate began to speed up and his breaths started to quicken.
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Author's Note: Sorry it has been like nine days...Not only did I find this chapter rather hard to write, I was on a trip that where I found no time to write and then when I got back a had another temporary job that had me wake up before the crack of dawn, so I couldn't write into the late hours of the night like I usually do. Sorry if this chapter was confussing or just plain horrid. I just tried to plow through it to get it done.

On another note I have decided that I will be writing a Koushrio/Yutaka story. But as was pointed out to me, writing it as filler chapters in this story can be a cruel thing. So they will just get thier own little short story. So be looking for something along the lines of :Stay Tuned As Life Continues For Others. Or something along that line, haven't really put much thought into the title. I thought I had more to say but I can't think of it right now. So I'll let everyone go, so they can review and rate. Enjoy your day or night.