#The scene with the leaf bed might just have been when I started shipping Takari

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Takari Week, Day 7- Healing, Taking Care Of

Takeru can’t stand to see a sick Hikari sleeping on the cold hard floor, set between episodes 48 and 49 of 01, done as part of @takariweek​.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gen for putting this all together. 

Takeru had never seen a fan so big before.  Many fans were bigger than him, but this one had to be about ten times as big as he was.

It wasn’t the weirdest part of this underground tunnel they landed in, but the rays coming in-between the blades were the only source of light they had to see by.  In that weak light, he saw Hikari, lying on the cold ground, clothes still wet with sweat.

And it scared him.

He’d seen more monsters and baddies than he could count over the past few months, beat ghouls that made even adults run away scared. But somehow seeing his friend, weak and heaving on the floor, scared him more than anything else.

He’d rather fight Devimon again than see her go through this.

Maybe not Mungendramon.  They hadn’t lasted five seconds before that metal dragon had destroyed the floor, sending them plummeting to wherever this was.

“Takeru, are you okay?” Sora asked.  A tremor ran though his body as he looked up at her.

“I’m fine.  No, I’m good.” He said, pushing a smile.

“Of course you are.” She returned. “Taichi and the others weren’t too far away when we fell, they might be nearby.  We should head out and look for them.”

He nodded, even before thinking about it.  Finding Taichi would be good, Hikari would want to see her brother when she woke up. “Are you going to carry Hikari again?” he asked.

“No, we’ll let her rest.” Sora replied “Tailmon will stay here and look after her, and when we find the others, we can use this place as a base.”

That made sense, it was hard for Hikari to sleep when she had to hold on to Sora.  He looked back at the sleeping girl again.  It couldn’t be a good sleep on the cold hard ground, he knew that from experience, but even after looking they hadn’t found any benches or anything soft to help.

An idea struck him, as he began to walk away. “Wait!” He told the older girl, suddenly running back to Hikari.  When he reached his friend, he started to move slower, more carefully, he didn’t want to disturb her.  He slowly removed his backpack, softly setting it down, then he raised Hikari’s head ever so slightly, sliding his backpack underneath.

There, now she would have a pillow, that had to be better than the cold hard floor.

He began walking back towards Sora, stealing a look at Hiakri whenever he thought he could get away with it.

“Takeru.” Sora said softly, “Would you like to stay with Tailmon?  I’m sure she could use the company, and Biyomon and I will be able to handle any foes we find on our own.”

It was true that Garudamon could beat stronger enemies than Angemon could, although that didn’t make Takeru feel any better.  Despite the hit to his pride, he nodded “Taichi did tell me to protect her.”

“He did,” Sora agreed with a smile.

Patamon flew back towards him but Takeru waved him away. “Go with Sora, help her find them with those big ears of yours.”

His partner looked like he might start a fight for a second, but then didn’t. Instead flying to join Sora again, “We’ll be back before you know it, just stay right there.”

They weren’t.

Maybe it was just because he wanted them to be fast, like on days when Dad was picking him up after school and he swore the teachers made the clocks run twice as slow as usual.  Every second spent watching over Hikari’s weak body stretched on for years.

The girl shuddered, one hand moving from her side to rest across her chest in her sleep.

“She’s cold.” Takeru said, louder than he should have. He stood up, walking around the edges of the room.

“We don’t have a blanket.” Tailmon reminded him, “Unless you remembered to pack one in your backpack before we left that house.”

He didn’t.  He should have, Hikari was clearly still sick, but they needed to leave quickly and were expecting Taichi to come back with the medicine.  And Taichi never failed before, so there was no need to worry about Hikari still being sick later.

But even without a blanket, he couldn’t just look at Hikari lying there cold.  There had to be something he could do, something he could use to help her.

The wind began to blow against his face, moving in weird patterns with the slow movement of the fan.  Takeru chased the wind headfirst, turning a corner to find a pile of dry leaves, lazily blown there over time.

He gave a slight pause, were their spiders in the digital world?  Like not giant spiders that could eat him in a single gulp, he knew those spiders existed, but normal ones?  He couldn’t remember Yamato or Sora ever needing to check for spiders when they used leaves for blankets before.

He scooped the leaves up in a big hug and raced off to where Hikari and Tailmon were waiting.  “Lookit what I found.” He said, not caring as half the pile escaped from his lose grip.

“Leaves?” Tailmon asked, “But, where did you?”

“There was a wind, I just followed where it blew and there was a pile of them, we’ll have more than enough for a blanket.” He said.

“I suppose it’s better than nothing.” Tailmon said. Takeru wasn’t sure why she didn’t sound too happy about it, he used leaves and branches as blankets all the time.

Tailmon took the leaves from him and began gently padding them around Hikari.  Takeru took off as soon as he could to grab a second scoop, Tailmon was already waiting for him by the time he returned, so he resolved to make the third, fourth and fifth trips faster.

A few times after he stopped counting his trips Tailmon told him to stop, informing him they had ‘more than enough leaves’, and Takeru went back to his place beside the girl.

“There,” he declared softly. “Now she has a real bed.”

The Digimon’s tail twitched.  “This hardly compares to her bed at home, or even the one in that old house.  If that didn’t help, I don’t see why this one will.”

Tailmon turned to him directly. “And that was a very reckless thing you did, what if you’d gone too far away while looking for these?  What if you’d found an enemy?  I would have been forced to choose between protecting you or protecting Hikari.”

Takeru felt his joy vanish at the feline’s words. However, there was one small part of him that would not give in.  “But I had to do something.  And you said yourself, this is better than nothing.  I couldn’t just let Hikari sleep without a bed.  And even if there’s only a small chance this will help her, I couldn’t just not take it, right?”

Tailmon looked like she might quiet-yell at him again, but she was stopped before she could.  Takeru’s crest was beginning to glow faintly, but in the weak light of the room it stood out like the moon amongst the stars.   He reached into his shirt and pulled the tag out, staring at it in awe.

“Where’s Angemon?” Tailmon asked “What’s going on?”

Takeru wanted to aske her the same question, but before he could, a beam of light shot out from his crest, covering Hikari in a yellow glow like a blanket of light.  The light that surrounded Hikari turned from yellow to pink, before softly growing weak and disappearing.  

When the light show was done, Takeru fell back against the floor.  He felt like he ran from his house to school and back again.

“Takeru?” Tailmon asked, standing over him, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He replied “Just give me five more minutes.”

“If you insist.”  The Digimon said, turning back to Hikari. “Huh.”

“What?” Takeru asked, still looking at the roof.

“It’s just, Hikari looks a lot more, peaceful than she did before.”

Takeru rolled onto his side, using what strength he had to look at the girl.  She did look peaceful, and so calm as she slept, not like the tossing and turning she had before he found the leaves.  For some reason, he couldn’t bear to look away.