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I'm amazed, after this there's one chapter left! Can you believe it? I actually like reading over my working and I don't fuss over it! That's even more amazing! *might be getting esteem*
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"Always a secret." A song by Relena Peacecraft.
---
Koushiro was typing away on his computer again. Only this time, he was not trying to run away, he was not trying to think. This time, he was using his computer as the thing to keep him awake.
Jyou's shallow breath could be heard, as he shivered from time to time. A pile of leaves covered him from his feet up to his waist, for any higher than that and Koushiro feared it would infect the wound. The wound in question was covered with orange strips of cloth, and had turned from it's dull orange hue to a reddish-orange. Reddish-orange, the colour of fire, fire that was associated with passion.
Koushiro blushed. 'He's been seriously hurt because of me and what do I think about?' Koushiro scolded himself, once again checking over Jyou to see how he was, if he needed anything.If he needed a cloth for his forehead, Koushiro had reversed one strictly for that purpose. Or if he needed his head to be propped up he could always build a pile of leaves ontop of his backpack where Jyou's head now rested. Yet for warmth..
The only to keep Jyou warm was to hold him, which required Koushiro to admit to his other secret. 'If I don't keep nii-chan warm he might freeze, and I can't use leaves, they might infect the wound even if it's covered.' Seeing Jyou shiver again, Koushiro could not ignore it.
Koushiro closed up his laptop and placed it next to Jyou's side. He then gently lifted Jyou's head from his bacpack, moved to replace that spot, then he put the backpack in his lap, then he gently placed Jyou's head back down on it. 'That should be enough elevation' Koushiro thought.
Koushiro placed a hand on Jyou's head, and to his shock found it burning with fever even through his glove. 'Jyou's had a fever ever since he was wounded...was he infected with bacteria from that axe?'
Now that he was sitting there, he could not simply get back up. It would jostle Jyou way too much. However, Jyou needed a cloth for his forehead to keep him cool. The fever was too hot to be ignored...
Gomamon was curled up next to Jyou, softly snoozing. Koushiro reached out and gently shook the digimon, "Gomamon!" he whispered.
The response was a snore.
"Gomamon!" Koushiro whisperd a little louder, shaking Gomamon more firmly.
"....fish....." Gomamon muttered in his rest. Finally Koushiro snapped and hit Gomamon on the head.
"OW!" Gomamon yelled.
"SHH!" Koushiro covered his lips with one finger. "Be quiet, or you'll wake him!"
"He's been sleeping straight for the past two days, what does it matter?" Gomamon said miserably. Then both Koushiro and Gomamon looked sadly at Jyou.
'He's right, two days straight. Is he in a coma?' Koushiro was worried, howevr this was no time to fuss. He pulled the spare cloth strip out of his pocket and handed it to Gomamon. "Go soak this in cold water, then bring it back to me."
"What for?" Gomamon narrowed his eyes. 'You've been up two days straight looking after Jyou, you're so grumpy.' Gomamon then softened his gaze. 'But I know how much Jyou likes you so I'm glad you care about him so much.'
"It'll bring down his fever and help him to get better faster." Koushiro explained, irritably. 'I hope the digimons lack of comprehension when performing their tasks doesn't affect Jyou's recovery.'
"Ok ok I'm going I'm going." Gomamon grumbled as he wanded towards water, with the cloth in his mouth. "Grumpy." he muttered under his breath.
Tentomon, who was never far from Koushiro, opened his tired eyes slowly and looked up at Koushiro. "Koushiro, you've been awake for two days straight. I know you're worried about Jyou but you really need your rest! I'll watch over Jyou for awhile, you take a nap."
"NO." Koushiro objected firmly, looking at Tentomon with fire in his eyes. "I will not." Under those firm eyes were black bags, results from Koushiro's lack of sleep.
"Koushiro..." Tentomon shook his head and returned to his sleep, saying: "Once you've made up your mind not even I can dissuade you." 'You must really care about him..'
"I couldn't sleep anyhow, knowing Jyou's like this." Koushiro sighed, gently stroking Jyou's hair.
---
Grade three, one of Koushiro's favourite school years. The main reason being that the grade threes and the grade fives had been assigned into pairs, one from each grade, to do various partner work. By this time Jyou was in grade five, which meant Koushiro was paired with him. The friendship between the two was obvious afterall, so the teachers had paired them together. That, and they always did such good work.
So it was another partner project, where you had to make a dialogue between two characters from a book both partners had to read. Boring assignment, however as long as he was with Jyou then it was fun. Besides, they had been given a week to work on it, meaning he got to see Jyou in class everyday.
The joy in it lasted until SHE showed up.
Mimi Tachikawa.
For the longest time, ever since she saw Koushiro hanging around with Jyou at the playground, Mimi had the biggest crush on Jyou.
Which suddenly gave her the right to call herself Koushiro's "friend" and hang around with them at recess. Koushiro was raised on the principle "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all", thus he would not tell Mimi to bluntly get lost. Even though he wanted to because the way she would cling to Jyou was really annoying. She would just grab Jyou's hand and follow them around at recess and at lunch time, which bothered Koushiro to no end. Jyou was too nice to tell her to go away too, thus the duo was in a tight spot.
However today, today just took the cake. Today was the day Koushiro would lose it.
By cruel fate, Mimi's partner was away today, so she had been told to help another group with their dialogue. Which group did she choose?
"Hi Jyou! Hi Koushiro!" Mimi's cheerful voice shrouded a different intent.
"Hi Mimi..." Koushiro grumbled, very aware of his and Jyou's space being invaded.
"Hi Mimi." Jyou was more polite, trying his best not to laught at Koushiro's sudden pout.
So they worked on their respective dialogues, Jyou and Koushiro helping more with Mimi's than Mimi helping them with theirs. However, to Koushiro, the sooner she went away, the better.
"Say, Jyou.." Mimi said sweetly, placing her hand on Jyou's.
Steam was coming out of Koushiro's ears at that, and he had to bite his lip to prevent himself from saying some very cruel and truthful to Mimi.
"Yes, Mimi?" Jyou asked, he had noticed Mimi's hand as well. Only he had not noticed the steam coming out of Koushiro's ears.
"Did you want to swap partners? We make such a good team and I'm sure my partner wouldn't mind working with Koushiro." Mimi asked, smiling.
"Mimi-" Jyou began but Koushiro cut him off.
Koushiro slammed his hands down on the table and stood up. "No! Mimi! We have been working hard on this dialogue and we're not about to give that up now! Stop being selfish and think of other people for a change!"
Mimi looked shocked, then hurt, then she calmly walked away.
Jyou gaped at Koushiro, and Koushiro blushed and sat down.
---
"Koushiro..." Mimi said softly, from her place by the trees. She watched Koushiro sadly, as he placed a cloth on Jyou's head, fixing it until it was in a perfect position, then resumed stroking Jyou's hair. Gomamon curled up beside Jyou again, and Tentomon fell asleep by Koushiro.
'He won't even let Tentomon take a turn looking over Jyou. Is he that posessive?' Mimi wondered. 'Or maybe, he's that worried.'
Mimi walked up to Koushiro and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Koushiro jumped, then fumbled a bit to make sure Jyou was alright, then turned on Mimi.
"Mimi! You shouldn't of startled me like that! I might of jostled Jyou." Koushiro then turned away, returning his attention to Jyou. Not before Mimi had seen the bags under Koushiro's eyes.
"Koushiro...why not let me look after Jyou? Get some rest." Mimi asked, using her sweet girl voice to persuade him. However this was something beyond sweetness. "It's ok, Mimi. I couldn't sleep anyhow.." Koushiro sighed, rubbing Jyou's arms in an attempt to warm them up.
"Oh..." Mimi sighed and walked away, trying hard to supress her tears.
---
"Man, look at that! Koushiro must really love Jyou, he won't let Mimi or Gomamon or anyone else takeover for him." Taichi said, crossing his arms. He, too, had been watching Koushiro look after Jyou.
Yamato slapped his head. "Ok, genius, how long did it take you to figure out that Koushiro was inlove with Jyou?"
Taichi grinned. "Ever since I first met them!"
Yamato sweatdropped. "...RIGHT."
For a moment, the two watched Koushiro stroke Jyou's hair, fuss over details, make sure Jyou was as comfortable as possible.
"Would you do that for me, Taichi..?" Yamato asked softly.
"What?" Taichi asked, looking at Yamato.
"Would you take care of me like Koushiro is for Jyou, if I was hurt or sick?" Yamato was very sincere, and very vulnerable.
"Of course not!" Taichi's bright voice shattered Yamato's heart.
"What..?" Yamato asked, hurt and dissapointment showing in his voice.
"I'd never let that happen to you in the first place." Taichi said, his smile turning sweet as he wrapped an arm around Yamato. "I'll give you baths to keep you clean, I'll keep you warm if you get cold, and I'll always protect you in battle." Taichi kissed Yamato, lovingly wrapping both arms around him, pulling him close.
'Taichi..' Yamato blushed as he returned the kiss.
---
Koushiro had dozed off slightly when Jyou's head began to toss and turn in his lap. His eyes snapped wide open as he looked at Jyou.
"Shu...tup..." Jyou muttered in his sleep, tossing and turning his head, sweat trickling down his forehead, his cheeks flushed with fever.
'Shutup?' Koushiro wondered. Who was Jyou talking to?
"Go...away...not..true.." Jyou muttered, tears starting to trickle down his cheeks along with sweat.
"Nii-chan..?" Koushiro asked aloud, worried that if Jyou did not cease the tossing and turning that he would jostle himself and tear the wound open.
"Devi....." Jyou said painfully, his brow creasing, his face cringing.
"Devi...DEVIJYOUMON?!" Koushiro yelled, causing Jyou to cringe.
---
"SHUTUP!" Jyou yelled, falling to his knees covering his ears, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"I'm only telling you the truth." DeviJyouMon stood in front of Jyou, grinning down at him. Soon the two were surrounded by a wall of fire.
"No! He, he called me nii-chan! He stills thinks I'm in big brother!" Jyou yelled, trying to block out the digimon's influence, trying in vain to cling to what had happened.
"Does it matter?" DeviJyouMon pointed to Jyou. "Soon you will be dead. They are not tending to you, this fire? A fever. You will be left alone to die because they hate you."
"SHUTUP!" Jyou sobbed. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his sides, and he cried as he clutched them. When he brought his hand up, he saw..
Blood?
His blood?
DeviJyouMon..was telling the truth?
"They...they really...abadonned me?"
---
"Abadonned..." Jyou muttered, his head thrashing about.
Koushiro was about to yell, however stopped himself. 'If I yell, I'll upset him. I have to calm him down, and help him beat this.' Koushiro thought. He removed his gloves, then placed his hands on either side of Jyou's face. Then he began to stroke Jyou's cheeks gently.
"Jyou, nii-chan, can you hear me?" Koushiro asked gently.
---
"Jyou, nii-chan, can you hear me?"
'That voice..' Jyou thought. "Koushiro?" he asked outloud.
---
"...shiro?" Jyou muttered.
"Nii-chan.." Koushiro sighed with relief. "Listen to me. Is DeviJyouMon with you?"
"..yeah.." Jyou started to relax, as he ceased his thrashing.
"We're going to beat him together, ok?" Koushiro said.
---
'Koushiro...' Jyou thought. "Ok." Jyou nodded. He got up off the ground, and looked DeviJyouMon in the eye, who was silent and gazed back with that malicious grin.
"A poltrigeist is a manifestation of a person's negative energy." Koushiro explained.
Jyou could feel something cool touching his cheeks, a sensation he enjoyed, even though he did not know it's source.
"Meaning you've been penting up these negative feelings all this time." Koushiro said, his voice choking.
Jyou nodded grimly. "That's right...that's who he is."
"Do you think that we all hate you, Jyou?" Koushiro asked gently, soothingly.
"Yes.." Jyou responded as soon as the question was asked, starting to sob.
"Why?"
"Because I try to look out for everyone since I'm the oldest and I have to be responsible. But I think I spoil everyone's fun too..." Jyou said miserably. "I just want to do the right thing.."
"We're all trying to do the right thing Jyou, you're not the only one. We don't hate you, we never did."
Jyou was numb from fever and Koushiro's voice just being there.
"We're all friends Jyou, we're all in this together. And we all care about eachother."
"And I've always cared about you, Jyou. You've always been my nii-chan."
Jyou's eyes threatened to spill over. "But why.."
---
"Did I push you away? Jyou..I..I'll explain that to you when you wake up. But it's not because I hate you, that's never been the reason. Nothing is farther from the truth." Koushiro swallowed back his tears. And the urge to say something else.
"Jyou, ever since I was little, I don't remember but I know it's true, you've always been my best friend. You've always been there for me. I've always looked up to you as my nii-chan and considered you my best friend."
"That hasn't changed, it never will. Even when I pushed you away, I still considered you my best friend. Jyou, the truth is, I really care about you. I-"
---
Had he heard right?
Did Koushiro, really say that?
Did he really mean it?
"Koushiro.." Jyou said softly before he passed out. The fire dissappeared, and he closed his eyes as he heard the totured scream of DeviJyouMon before death took him.
---
"You're acting like he's your boyfriend!" Mimi pointed a finger at Koushiro accusingly, fire in her eyes.
"What?" Koushiro asked, stunned.
"The way you're so jealous of me and everything, you think you were inlove with Jyou!!!" Mimi shouted fiercely.
Koushiro was about to retort when something small and soft inside him agreed with her.
---
Jyou's tears had stopped, the sweat no longer trickled. Koushiro laid a hand on his forehead to find the fever was already dropping. Just to make sure, he placed two fingers on the side of Jyou's neck, checking for his pulse.
There was one, and it was more steady now. Koushiro let out a relieved sigh Jyou started to snore gently in his sleep.
'He looks so...peaceful..' Koushiro thought.
Koushiro's eyes started to close slowly, as he leaned close to Jyou's face...
And...
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