Chapter Text
(February 2014)
Nagisa looked around with wild curiosity,the mountains of greenery and ancient trees were a stark contrast to the skyscrapers and polluted apartments. Piyomon glided above them,on the lookout for the house they had only seen in photographs.Sora let out a weighted breath,she could see now why the Ishida-Yagami family only made video calls every so often,the connection in the area was near nonexistent. It was ironic,they had spent a majority of their adolescence in a Digital World, and picked up the pieces as they entered adulthood. But ever since moving to Shimane,Yamato and Hikari kept their communication limited to phone calls,an email if they were lucky, or even the occasional letter.
“What old-school romantics,” Sora joked out loud,wanting to brighten up her current situation.Nagisa blinked at the blankets of snow that surrounded them,and the upcoming hill before them. He raised his chubby arm,excitedly waving his tiny fist.
“Almost there,buddy,” Sora took a moment to pause,letting their luggage drop onto the snow. “You’ll get to play with Yurika and YukimiBotamon. Hopefully Piyomon won’t have a go at Gabumon and Tailmon…and your Mom can have a chat with Auntie Hikari and Uncle Yamato.Maybe cry a little.”
Yamato had put away the shovel,behind him the snow had already covered his tracks. Tailmon held up a warm washcloth, and in the other a filled-up thermos.They exchanged little to no words after the burial,Yamato was still composing himself with the oncoming stream of tears.
Back in the house,Hikari was situated near the heater,Yurika clinging to her mother’s lap while Gabumon and Moonmon were watching the outside world.Hikari patted down her daughter’s golden locks,the two-year-old wasn’t in her usual chirpy mood;it broke Hikari seeing her daughter grieve at such a young age.Out of habit,her other hand still rested on the stomach, it all felt too cruel.
A fiery figure was approaching the solemn household.
Tailmon approached the being first,in disbelief as Piyomon landed at the front door.
“Sora?” Yamato was in disbelief,the single mother smiled timidly.
“Sorry I didn’t call ahead,” Sora sheepishly apologised, Hikari rushed to her older friend.
“Let’s get you inside,my goodness. We could have picked you up,” Hikari ushered Sora and Nagisa in,she kept a close eye on the infant strapped to the baby carrier.
Yurika and Moonmon watched the commotion from inside,squealing to high heavens once she caught sight of her favourite aunt.
“Hi there,girlies,” Sora cooed,Yurika and Moonmon were giddy, “Oo,who’s this?”
“What’s your Digimon partner’s name,Yurika?” Hikari sniffed.
“Moonmon!” the toddler answered,picking up her Digimon with pride, “She’s Moonmon.”
“Very chatty,” Sora commented,Nagisa fidgeting in the baby carrier until his mother let him out.
Sora caught a sniff of Nagisa’s diaper,holding him up.
“Um,I know we just came,but is it alright-”
“I’ll get the diapers,” Hikari insisted with a smile,Sora held onto her.
“Come on,I can get them.If you’ll hold Nagisa for a bit?”
Hikari happily took Nagisa from his mother,beaming at him.Yamato told Sora where the diapers were in Yurika’s room,directing her to a long,dimly lit hallway.
Sora made her way through the creaking house,with each step it felt like she was being watched.The directions weren't that hard,and Yurika's room probably had a cutesy sign with her name on it, or a couple of stickers stuck to the door. She laughed,even with Hikari's old room in Odaiba,they never used it for their toddler's nursery. Yurika slept in the same room as her parents,in her pretty crib and with all the plush toys her father's money could buy.
Sora walked deeper into the hall, hesitantly sliding open a door where a lullaby was playing from inside. True enough,this was Yurika's room.Mementos from the family's life in Odaiba lit up the room,with a few more items that reflected Yurika was transitioning from a toddler to a little girl. Sure enough,there was a bed,but it didn't look like she slept on it.
"Guess she still can't sleep without Mummy and Daddy," Sora reasoned,her eyes drawn to the scribbled sketches taped to the walls. The most noticeable being two blobs that must be YukimiBotamon evolving into Moonmon,what a memory that must have been.
Sora kept scanning the room for the fresh diapers,maybe they meant the bathroom. She was about to lose hope until something else caught her eye,a baby's onesie. Sora took a closer look.
It was new,definitely brand new. She had never seen Yurika wear it,and it definitely couldn't fit her at this age. Sora ran her fingers across the fabric. Hikari and Yamato didn't necessarily buy gender-coded clothes for Yurika,but again,this wasn't an item of clothing for her.
Sora's reasoning? Apart from the size and the two-year-old's continuous growth, 'little prince' was embroidered on the front.
"You can use that for Nagisa," the Ishida-Yagami patriarch called from the door,scaring Sora, "Sorry,you took a while and we thought you needed help."
Sora looked at him,then back at the onesie,and once more at him. Yamato softened into a bittersweet smile.
"Hikari would want it to be put to better use."
It sunk in how everyone was wearing black attire.Yamato in his suit and tie,Hikari in a gown and long-sleeves,even Yurika was wearing a dark dress. In the mountains of Shimane under the February snow, Sora,Nagisa and Piyomon walked straight into a mourning household.
“Maybe this visit was a mistake.Yamato,I’m so-”
He stopped her, finding the diaper and thrusting it into her hands.
“No one comes to Shimane on a spontaneous visit,Sora. You packed up your bags and took Nagisa. It might be the end of winter,but the snow is thick and fresh.”
She hugged herself,she knew she had to open up.
“Am I allowed to ask questions?” Sora looked at the ground.
“Not yet,” Yamato answered gently,gesturing at the hallway, “My wife is very vulnerable and sensitive now.But if I know her,I know Hikari would drop everything and help you.”
“I do need help,Yamato.I don’t know where to go,or what to do.”
“When we left,Yurika had just turned two. Sora,what happened? It’s like a lifetime of events happened between then and now.”
“Crazy,huh?” She avoided the question for now,making her way back to Nagisa, “But you know, my boy’s only turning one by April. It does feel like a lifetime in this one year.”
Sora re-entered the main room to find Hikari had already started changing Nagisa out of his diaper and cleaning his bottom.
“He’s usually fussier,” Sora noted,preparing the diaper.
“Sorry I went ahead,he looked uncomfortable,” Hikari explained, Yurika watching from behind her mother.
“No,no,” Sora signalled she could take over, “I really appreciate this.”
Yurika stumbled over,leaving her mother’s side.
“Do you remember Nagisa?” Sora asked.
“Is Auntie Sora’s baby,”Yurika answered,smiling at him, “He big now.Like Moonmon. Moonmon change.”
“Yes,babies and young Digimon do change.”
“Well, you’ve just had a look at Yurika’s room,” Hikari joined, “And as you can imagine,she’s not sleeping by herself yet. So you and Nagisa are welcome to sleep there,or we can prepare another room.”
Sora was about to protest,then Yamato lightly knocked her on the head.
“Hikari,honey, as I was telling Sora earlier,” Yamato patted down her hair, a habit he had picked up from his wife, “No one comes to Shimane on a spontaneous visit. My God,Sora, look at your luggage. You’re staying with us.”
“Sleepover?” Yurika’s eyes widened with excitement.
“Maybe not tonight,Yurika. Let Auntie Sora and Nagisa rest first.”
“We sleepover with Uncle Taichi,” Yurika waddled over to a framed photo of her uncle, “We sleepover with Agumon.”
Sora’s smile loosened, and this didn’t go unnoticed by the married couple.
“Yurika,can you and Moonmon please go to your room?” Yamato asked.
“You can take Tailmon and Gabumon too,” Hikari shot a look at their Digimon partners, and they understood the signal.
“Yurika draw!” the toddler decides,running off with Moonmon taking the lead.
Nagisa blinks at his mother,then at Hikari and Yamato, before wanting to crawl into the new environment. Sora sighs, picking up her son.
“It’s lonely in Odaiba without you guys,” Sora confesses, “Just the other day,one of your former clients was asking how’s ‘Papa’ and ‘Mama’.”
“What’d you tell them?” Hikari giggled,her husband groaning.
“They’ve gone back to the stone age. I questioned myself if you had electricity running here.”
“I’ll have you know,my grandmother had the television on blast every holiday,” Yamato pointed out, “And just the other day, we had a new company in town who said they’re happy to set up the internet connection.”
“Ah,so it’s Grandpa Yamato and Grandma Hikari now.I see, I see,” Sora teased, rubbing Nagisa’s back as he grows restless.
“Can I…?” Hikari’s unable to finish her sentence,looking at Nagisa while blinking away her tears.Yamato and Sora exchange a quick look,the single mother lowering her son into the wife’s arms with a smile.
“Aren’t you a lucky boy,Nagisa?” Sora waves at the baby, “Auntie Hikari gives the best hugs.”
Hikari continues to swaddle the infant in her arms,feeling her husband watch her closely.
“Jealous?” Hikari teases, moving away from the negative thoughts.
“You got me,” Yamato scoots closer, tickling Nagisa with a grin, “I was worried he’s taken my spot as your number one guy.”
“You hear that,Nagisa? Uncle Yamato says we can’t stay for too long.”
Yamato takes a quick glance at their luggage.
“How many days’ worth of clothes did you pack?” Yamato inquires.
“Just a couple,” Sora lies, “But with a baby, you can never overpack.”
“True,” Hikari returns Nagisa to his mother, “Our first road trip with Yurika,my word, it was like we packed an entire department store to go.”
Yamato placed an empathetic hand on Sora’s shoulder,she looked at him puzzled.
“Stay for as long as you’d like.”
Sora rests Nagisa against her chest,lowering her head and mumbling a ‘thank you’ to the patriarch and his wife.
“Things back at home aren’t so great,” Sora manages to say.
“And how does my brother play into it?” Hikari sympathetically asked, “Or Koushiro.”
“We had an argument,” the single mother continued, “Said things we didn’t mean. I snapped, I wanted to get away from all of it.”
She looks at the married couple,then down at her son.
“You two are the only ones who get Taichi better than he gets himself.”
The small talk continues until the world outside is pitch-black,and the ceiling lights turn on,they stopped flickering around Christmas. Yamato insists on starting dinner with the Digimon,leaving his wife and Sora to take a bath first with the children.
“It’s not really the tears-free type of shampoo you’d find in Odaiba,” Hikari admits, pumping it out and then gently rubbing it into Yurika’s scalp, “But it gets the job done.Sweetie,no. Don’t play with your bath cap.”
“My own mother never bothered getting that for me,” Sora shared, lowering Nagisa into the basin, “So I was clueless the first time around.Thank Heavens Koushiro is sensible with his shopping. We found the brand that Jyou uses too.”
“Aww, we haven’t seen Kaien in a while too,” Hikari realises, instructing Yurika to look up even with the cap on.
“He’s growing just as fast,” Sora allowed Nagisa to splash around in the water.
“Actually,Hikari,the fight I had with Koushiro and Taichi,” Sora leaned back, exhaling. Hikari stopped, watching her older friend. “I had to do with the Wendigo mother.”
Nagisa grabbed onto the sides of the basin,trying to escape.
“Again,I wasn’t there when you all first fought her. I didn’t know what she was capable of.”
Hikari briefly looked at her own stomach,the void washing over her.
“If I closed my eyes even for a second ,it’s like she could have taken him away from me.”
Sora bites her lip, stopping herself from crying.
“Sora…,” Hikari empathetically calls out.
“When I look at it,it’s silly,” Sora rubs her eyes, “Taichi and Koushiro love Nagisa as much as I do.But their love isn’t the same…that fear when she came…I could have lost him.”
The young wife wrapped an arm around the whimpering mother,pulling her close into her embrace.
Dinner that night was delayed,but Yamato didn’t say anything when the ladies and children came out of the bath an hour later than expected.Once Nagisa started fussing,Sora excused herself to breastfeed her son. In the creaky Ishida-Yagami house,down the dimly lit hall from Yurika’s room, Sora could faintly hear Hikari weeping against her husband’s chest.
(July 2014)
Nagisa sat securely on his Uncle Yamato’s shoulders,’ooing’ and ‘ahing’ at every insect that passed. When one came too close,he would ball up his tiny fists into Uncle Yamato’s hair,underneath the twenty-six-year-old man would assure him the creature meant no harm. Yurika held onto both of her parents’ hands,happily skipping between them while humming a lullaby her grandmother taught her father,and he would sing to her.
The summer heat had reached its height,but it was gentle,passing through the leaves and travelling through the mountain paths.They reached a clearing,a modest row of farmer’s stalls were set up.Yurika was in awe with the biggest harvest of corn she had seen, her parents overlooking the other crops.Not far from them,three older women observed the family.
“Do you see that?That’s Kinu’s grandson,” one woman in an apron whispered to her friends.
“Kinu Ishida’s? Look at his hair colour, that can’t be natural,” another one with a plump figure remarked.
“I hear it’s from the mother’s side,they’re European.But have you seen their registered family name?It’s Ishida-Yagami,” the third with a nasally voice made no effort to lower her voice.
“‘Yagami’?So that lady must be his wife.What a catch,” the plump one eyed Hikari from head to toe.
“They’re so young. Are those children their younger siblings?” the nasally one brought out a fan,pretending to use it.
“Oh please,he definitely knocked her up.Doesn’t Kinu have another grandson? I wonder how he is now,” the one with the apron seemed most knowledgeable of the Ishida family, albeit with gaps in her knowledge.
“If they’re anything like Hiroaki, I bet there’s plenty of empty bottles,” the nasally woman swatted a mosquito.
“Do you see those markings on his wife? You don’t think-”
“What’s wrong with his eye?It’s covered up,” the first woman interjected.
“That little ginger one can’t be their son,he looks nothing like them,” the plump woman stared at Nagisa.
“I don’t know,if you squint,he looks a bit like the wife…”
“Must be lonely being such a young wife all alone in these parts,” the nasally woman added with a catty undertone.
“You doing okay up there,little man?” Yamato checked on Nagisa.
“We’ll go home and see your Mom soon,” Hikari said while she helped Yurika put money into the box.
“Can I cook later?Pleaseee,” Yurika bounced on her feet.
“You can be Daddy’s little helper,” Yamato answered,he made eye contact with the three women. Smiling at them while nodding his head,Yamato led his family and Nagisa away from the stall.
Another round of gossip followed in their wake.
Sora moaned as steam rose from the pot,the kettle also boiling at the same time.Taichi panted from behind her, his pants unabashedly pooling at his ankles. Sora arched her back,Taichi’s nails digging into her skin as he buried himself deeper inside of her.
“When did they come?” Yamato’s muffled voice on the other side of the closed door snapped the couple back to reality.
“That Taichi,he could have called-”
Yamato stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he made the smallest gap in the door.
“Haha…hey there,Dad…?” Taichi awkwardly greeted his brother-in-law,Sora wished the floor would eat her up.
“Big Brother,how are you-”
Yamato spun on his heel,blocking his wife’s view as Hikari rushed into the kitchen,her face flat against her husband’s front.
“Yama,dear?” Hikari made an attempt to move her husband aside.
Gulping,Yamato stood his ground and turned his wife away from the kitchen, “Hikari,darling, can you please check on the kids first? I need to speak to your brother and our friend in private.”
Hikari trusted her husband’s actions,mouthing a ‘take your time’ as Yamato relaxed his shoulders. He walked into the kitchen backward, making sure to immediately shut the door as the couple bickered behind him.
“Are you two decent yet?” Yamato’s voice was booming.
“Yes,Dad,”Taichi groaned,earning a swat from Sora. Yamato turned to face them,glaring at the two like a disappointed parent.
“If you’re going to call me that,maybe I should start treating you like a child,” Yamato warned,still flushed from walking in on them.
“Hey,it could be worse.At least we had the courtesy to not do it in the room-”
Sora immediately covered Taichi’s mouth,and Yamato's glare intensified.
“Oh yes,how polite of you not to do it in a room,but in the kitchen .I’m sure Hikari would be delighted to hear that,” Yamato pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Yamato,” Sora began,littered with remorse, “I wasn’t expecting Taichi either. When you and Hikari offered to take the kids out, this really wasn’t my-”
Yamato put a hand up,gathering himself before looking at the two. He eyed the steaming pot and boiling kettle.
“You’re still cooking?” he asked,his tone slightly softer,but still gutted.
“Mhmm,” Sora meekly answered.
“If you two clean up and prepare an early lunch,I’ll let this slide for now ,” Yamato had his hand on the door, “I don’t want to upset my wife when her brother’s made the effort to come all the way here.”
He shut the door behind him, Sora and Taichi’s skin felt hot.
“Kinda takes you back,huh?” Taichi said with a shy grin, “When you, me, and Koushiro decided to get together,Yamato was there too. Back then,he was pissed ‘cause Hikari was pregnant,didn’t want anything to bother her. Man, he does really care for my sister.”
“I don't know what kind of rock you’ve been living under,” Sora’s fingers found Taichi’s, “But it’s like they were calling me single in every language while we were staying here.”
“You’re the one who packed up and left,” Taichi teased,nudging her, “Out of all the couples, you went crying to the one who has been married since they were nineteen and twenty-two.”
“Tell Koushiro I’m sorry he couldn’t join in today.”
Sora made a move to the sink,Taichi held onto her hand securely.
“Tell him yourself,” his voice went deeper,his look intensified, “Let me take you and Nagisa home.Plus Ren-”
“-needs a mother?” Sora interjected,a bittersweet smile crossing her lips as she leaned in to kiss Taichi’s cheek, “Ren’s got two dads,but Nagisa’s only got one mom.Me, and his Mom doesn’t need a father in her son’s life.”
“...how about two fathers?” Taichi fruitlessly suggested.
Sora opened her arms wide,tilting her head, “Come here.”
He wasted no time to bury himself into her.
“I’m sorry I suddenly left with Nagisa. But Taichi,it wasn’t easy being with you and Koushiro.”
“Aren’t you lonely here?” Taichi mumbled.
“You know,your sister and Yamato are happy,married,and are raising the cutest little girl I have ever seen. Like my God Taichi,as if your niece didn’t already luck out in the genetic pool.Those two would move mountains to ensure Yuriak’s well-being.”
Sora pulled back,watching Taichi’s eyes fill up with droplets of water at the corners.
“Things we can’t have,but I want Nagisa to grow up seeing every day .”
“Are you sure it’s for Nagisa?”
“Well,his Mom’s never been good at telling lies.”
Nagisa sat in the playpen with Yurika and Moonmon. Although the soon-to-be three-year-old had outgrown it,Yurika continued to play with Nagisa inside of the structure. Within their view, Uncle Yamato and Auntie Hikari were exchanging their own words about the three women from before. Out of earshot and behind a closed door,his mother and Uncle Taichi were tasked with cooking lunch.
Nagisa Takenouchi was unaware of the Digivice glowing at his side.