Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

58) Whispered Secrets

The next morning, Takeru shuffled out of bed on the late side, his hands coming up to rub at his eyes. He hadn't slept particularly well the night before, not that he was too surprised about this. In fact, it felt customary at this point for him to struggle with sleep when it came to these larger battles. Piemon had proven himself to be particularly troublesome, and Takeru would have been lying if he said that fighting against the twisted clown wasn't having a negative effect on him. Takeru couldn't seem to stop thinking about what it was like to fall through the air the way that he had six years prior during the initial encounter with Piemon, and even when he managed to push that away from the forefront of his mind, it seemed like there was always something else waiting for him around the corner. 

The primary fact that seemed to be intent on intruding Takeru's thought process these days was the fact that HolyAngemon was the only Digimon in the group that had not evolved to the Ultimate level. This wouldn't have been an issue under most circumstances, but Takeru could tell that it was going to be important that HolyAngemon be as strong as possible. Beyond that, SlashAngemon was stuck in his current form as long as HolyAngemon was unable to evolve to a level that would allow them to be compatible for Jogress. That meant that the group was going to have less strength than they would have in another timeline when the final battle against the Emissaries of Chaos finally arrived, and that idea bothered Takeru much more than he was willing to confess openly. 

At least Patamon had been sleeping better than he had. He could tell that the small Digimon was enjoying being able to sleep in even if Takeru hadn't been able to get more than a few consecutive hours of shuteye at a time. Takeru smiled down at the small Digimon in his arms. Patamon still hadn't woken up, and Takeru decided that this was the perfect chance for him to do something nice for his partner. Patamon had been doing so much fighting as of late, and he deserved to be able to kick back and relax for a few moments before they were inevitably launched into the next huge battle against Piemon. 

The process of making breakfast was a simple one. Takeru was nowhere near on par with his brother or Taichi when it came to cooking, but he was getting better, and when he outlined the steps in his mind, they were easy enough to follow. Besides, Takeru could use the distraction. He couldn't help but feel as if there was something dark and foreboding just out of the corner of his vision that he somehow wasn't seeing, like a shadow was about to jump out of nowhere purely to take sick satisfaction in surprising him. He didn't know how to describe it, but he felt as if there was something that all of them were missing, and it was just a matter of time before that ultimately wound up exploding in his face. 

Takeru ultimately finished making food without any issues, his eyes cast solemnly on the ground. He didn't want to think about this any more than he had to, and so, he would simply choose to avoid it. That was the best way of handling something in the heat of the moment this way as far as he was concerned. The group had more than enough in terms of concerns due to Piemon's recent actions, and he didn't want to do anything that could potentially add more stress to their shoulders. He would be able to talk about it another time. Everything would work itself out soon enough. 

He slid the plate down onto the table in front of Patamon before tapping his partner on the head. "Hey there," he said softly, waiting carefully until his partner began to stir awake. "I hope that you like eggs."

That was enough to banish the lingering traces of exhaustion from Patamon's eyes, and he gasped at the sight of the meal before him. "This looks great, Takeru!" he chirped excitedly. He immediately took to beaming up at his partner. "Thank you!"

Takeru let one hand come to rustle the space between Patamon's wings before he sat down and started to eat his own meal. Patamon was quick to follow suit in terms of enjoying the food that had been set out for him, eating as much as he could as fast as possible while still somehow managing to keep himself from getting sick. Takeru couldn't help but smile; it was nice to see his partner being able to relax after all the stress that they had been dealing with as of late.