Fleeting Hope

Chapter 3

"...keru! Takeru!" The boy in question blinked his blurry vision away, finding his name to be coming from the mouth of his brother. He rubbed his head with a groan, when did he get on the floor?

"Yamato? What happened?" Takeru asked, still a bit dazed, unsure of why his cheeks were wet and his head was pounding.

Yamato frowned, "you tell me." He looked his brother up and down skeptically. The other boy merely responding with a confused tilt of his head.

"Did I fall out of bed again?" He laughed but quickly cut himself off noticing the unamused look of the boy in front of him. Takeru glanced down at his hands, opening and closing them as if faintly remembering something in his grasp just moments before. He closed his eyes, attempting to reach into the recess of his brain to find what he was missing, but he came up with nothing. "Patamon..." he mumbled, unexpectedly even to himself, the Digimon in question perking up at the sound of his name.

"You lied to me," Patamon said, expression dropping, "you said the nightmares were gone."

Takeru sighed, putting his head in his hands, "those nightmares are gone, they're different now."

Yamato looked between the two in silence, not quite sure of his place in the conversation between the two partners. "You should've told me," Patamon nuzzled his face against Takeru's before staring into his eyes, "it will never happen again."

Takeru smiled a bit at the reassurance, "I know, it just feels so real." He squeezed his partner hard, wishing he could never let go.

Standing up, breaking the emotional silence, Yamato finally spoke up, "let's just take it easy today, you really scared me and Patamon."

Takeru nodded, grabbing the hand his brother offered before wincing as his headache decided to push against his skull even harder, "You know where the Tylenol is?"

"I do!" Patamon perked up, flying out of the room, before Yamato could even think of a response. The two boys laughed at his excitement before moving into the small living area of the apartment.

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Takeru sighed happily as he felt his body melt into the couch when the Tylenol finally kicked in. "Hey, nii-chan," he called into the kitchen, not bothering to open his eyes to glance in the kitchen.

Yamato simply gave the younger boy a hum of acknowledgement as he continued to work efficiently.

"How much longer?" He asked. After multiple seconds of silence, Takeru peeled open one eye and stood up in shock as he was suddenly sitting on the ground on the edge of a curiously familiar cliff. He silently peered over the age, yup, that beach.

Takeru found himself wondering why he was suddenly starting on the top of the cliff rather than on the beach as usual. He tried to think back to his nightmare the previous night, the memory of it somehow blocked out of his mind. He surveyed the area he was in, alarms going off in his head, but he still wasn't sure why.

A moment later, he gasped, an image of a limp Patamon in his arms. He stumbled backwards, too shocked for words as his nightmare flowed back into him, but he could only wonder where the Digimon was now.

Was this another dream? He couldn't even remember falling asleep...

Takeru shook his head and gave his cheeks a light smack, filled with sudden determination. He had firmly decided he wasn't going to let some reoccurring nightmares get the best of him, no matter how much they could sometimes affect his waking hours with worry. He just had to find the Patamon in his dreams and he knew everything would be alright, or at least he hoped. Luckily, hope has always been his strong suit.

"Takeru Takaishi..." A voice barely a whisper in the soft wind hissed out his name. The sound came from right next to his ears, but also seemed light years away all at the same time. Takeru couldn't help the unwelcome shiver that went up his spine.

His eyes flicked back and forth for several moments before he spoke up, further planting his guarded stance, "who's there?"

The only response he was given was the cruel laughter floating in the air. Takeru scowled, deciding to ignore whatever demons had come to tease him and he continued his trek through the dull world.

Weeks. Days. Hours. Probably only minutes passed before another, louder, voice called out his name.

Takeru turned to the voice with a smile, he knew his partner would find him. However, his smile faltered, the creature before him was his partner, but there was no light in his eyes. It was similar to the screeching monster from his first nightmare like this one. The light and varying colors of his partner's eyes were gone, the life sucked out of them.

"Patamon?" Takeru frowned, taking a cautious step forward.

The ...Digimon? smiled, tilting its head to the side, slowly, creepily.

"Yes? Takeru?" the Digimon blinked innocently as its voice echoed several times even though there was nowhere for the sound to bounce off of. It was as though several voices were coming from the same mouth at the same time

Takeru opened and closed his mouth several times, lost on what words to say as he felt so uncharacteristically uneasy around the Digimon that was supposed to be his partner and friend for life. He didn't have to say anything as his partner suddenly went limp and fell the few feet to the ground. Suddenly reminded of the previous night Takeru stretched forward, gathering the Digimon in his arms. "No... no... no no no no no!" He yelled out in rage to the sky, not again.

The small body remained still, but its mouth began moving, "Why didn't you keep me safe, Takeru?" The boy in question stared on in shock, too scared, too angry, to move. "Hope isn't enough."

With a sharp gasp, Takeru was suddenly falling towards not the rocky ground, but the recognizable wood of his apartment floor right before his vision went dark.

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Takeru stirred awake, hearing voices barely through the buzzing of his brain bouncing around in his skull. He managed to sneak a glance at the clock, somehow, it was still morning. He felt as though he had been on days worth of adventures.

"Patamon? Yamato?" He called out, wincing at scared and helpless he thought he sounded. He wasn't that eight-year-old boy anymore.

The two voices he had heard suddenly went silent, both figures choosing to stare at him. Takeru frowned, they looked as though they pitied him, he hated it.

"Where the hell did you go?" Yamato suddenly growled, making the still dizzy boy flinch. His voice suddenly shifted to a softer tone, "you've gotta quit scaring me like this."

Takeru mumbled, "I just fell asleep... why are you so upset?"

Yamato's eyes widened for a moment, "what do you mean you fell asleep?"

With an incredulous look, Takeru couldn't help the laugh that managed to leak out of him. Whether it was the nerves and fear, or genuine joy, he cackled. Yamato could only stare in shock.

"I had my nightmare again, I was in the dream world, but I didn't disappear or anything," Takeru hummed, the humor still faintly in his gaze as he managed to calm himself down.

Yamato blinked once. And then again. "But you did disappear, you were on the couch and then you were gone," he explained, "I almost had a heart attack when you suddenly appeared again smacking your face into the ground."

Takeru barely heard the attempt at a lighthearted comment as his head swam, if he hadn't just been sleeping, where exactly had he gone to?