#Yamataishiro

[dutchforstrangers]

Taichi Yagami week 2022 Day 4 - Goggles

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@taichiyagamiweek

For context see this post here. A/N: Souta is Taichi's (and Rei's) son, Kasumi is Yamato's (and Sora's) daughter, both as seen in the 02 epilogue. Both names are made up/created by myself. And yes. I am completing Taichi week in my own time and pace (:

Day 4: Goggles | Characters: Taichi Yagami, Yamato Ishida & Koushiro Izumi | Wordcount: 634

'The most important thing...' big Panda said, '... is to keep your eyes open.' - Page 21

Privilege

…

“Carrying around relics, aren’t you?” Yamato asked with his finger pointing towards the goggles sticking out of the pocket of his jacket. Taichi laughed.

“Souta found my goggles and now he keeps playing with them.”

“Kasumi did the same with my harmonica for a bit a year ago,” Yamato mused alongside Taichi.

“Why not giving them to him?” Said Koushiro as his reply to Taichi.  

Of course Taichi could give them to his son, but something told him he couldn’t just do that, it didn’t feel right. He played with the accessory in his hand, staring at it, perhaps hoping to find some kind of answer.

“Too precious to you, huh?” It was Yamato though who answered it for him.

Taichi growled while nodding in response to his friend’s saying. He was right, it was a very valuable piece to him since it held a hundreds of good memories and more. As he heard the screeching sound of the legs of a chair sliding across the floor, he looked up.

“No worries, Taichi-san,” Koushiro said while getting ready to go to his hobby room even his own wife didn’t dare to come. “I can get or even design Souta-kun a set all for himself to play with.”

“Ah, but you don’t have to…”

“Just be grateful,” Yamato chimed in, defending Koushiro’s actions. It made Taichi sigh, his eyes looking back at the special glasses in his hand.

Looking in the reflecting glass, he could see the adventures they had shared, the experiences he was able to collect together with his friends. The goggles were like a museum filled with both crazy and fond memories.

He could also see moments of losing himself and the goggles, right before basically resurrecting from the water in Odaiba.

“Remember when I disappeared? Back when we were seventeen?” Taichi asked, his eyes searching for Yamato’s blue ones.

“Of course, how could I ever forget?”

“You had my goggles.”

“I did.” Yamato replied rather matter of factly.

“Why’d you gave them back?”

“Why’s that even a question?”

Taichi sighed. “I don’t know. I was just wondering… holding these goggles…” He looked down at them, seeing the small scratches that after all those years were imprinted in the glass. “Was I worth it?”

“Taichi,” it was the way he had seen it. Cool, but with a stern and worried undertone in it. “They have always been yours and yours alone.”

“Yamato-san is right.” Koushiro came in as he entered the room again, laptop in hand. In his other he carried a few goggle prototypes.

“Then why do you have so many of them?” Taichi asked curiously, a hint of dismay seeping through his tone.

“Because you deserve the best, Taichi-san, and that means creating goggles after goggles to get them just right.”

Yamato smiled and nodded as he sat more upright, before continuing Koushiro’s trail of words, seamlessly connecting to the redhead’s thoughts. “And I could never offer the right sight to look through them. You can though, you always keep your eyes open, even when you don’t see it yourself. Besides, they weigh heavy on me. It’s a burden I was never destined to carry.”

Taichi lifted his hand with the goggles in it, trying to feel the weight. Of course he was aware of the metaphor in Yamato’s words, but even metaphorically speaking, he couldn’t find weight. They could be a burden, however, holding them like this he knew it was a leader’s burden he was privileged to bear. One that had made him move, see and grow. Grow up.  

He pondered. Whether the goggles were a privilege to his son was a question he wasn’t yet able to answer.

“Give me the most light ones, Koushiro. I need Souta to be a kid for as long as possible.”

…