Chapter Text
Yamato's stomach felt like it was a giant, tangled knot, and despite the overwhelming source of heat that Gabumon provided at his back, his whole body felt like it was shaking inside. The whole day - finding the mansion, a giant feast and warm beds - felt too good to be true, and Yamato knew that he was anticipating the catch, waiting for the other shoe to drop…
What upset him most about the entire situation was that no one else seemed to share his anxiety. Even Jyou, the normally over-protective, incredibly worrisome and so-called 'responsible one' seemed to accept that everything they'd received today was something they were entitled to, having been dropped in the Digital World on an apparent whim. Why was Yamato the only one to dare to look the gift horse in the mouth?
He'd listened as the other children came into the room and settled into their own beds, laying down with their digimon to sleep in comfort. It'd gotten so quiet so quickly, and then TK had started to snore. Not loudly, no, just that familiar, quiet little sound that had been so familiar just a few years ago… Yamato hadn't realized how much he'd missed falling asleep to that sound.
Not that he could fall asleep now, he realized angrily. Gabumon was asleep, if the digimon's tail twitching against his leg was any indication, but Yamato couldn't calm his racing thoughts enough to let his exhaustion take over. The bruises on his body ached, but even the pain wasn't enough to drown out his thoughts. He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen…
The sound of quiet breathing was interrupted suddenly by whispering voices. Taichi and Agumon, Yamato realized. He rolled over carefully, watching over the curve of Gabumon's head as his step-brother and Agumon left the room. It was somewhat comforting to know that he wasn't the only one awake, even if it was just Taichi needing to use the bathroom.
Rolling onto his back, Yamato stared up at the ceiling shrouded in shadow. If he were to be honest, he'd had trouble sleeping ever since his parents first announced they were getting divorced. How many nights had he just laid awake, listening to TK's breathing and wondering where it'd gone all wrong?
It'd been his fault, he'd justified back then. If he hadn't told otousan about what he'd seen, everything would have continued the way it always had. But that moment had changed Yamato forever, the afternoon when he'd come home and stumbled across okaasan with another man… He'd told otousan the first chance he'd had, and whether he meant to or not, Yamato had distanced himself from okaasan. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he must've known that it wouldn't end well, because he'd started doing more chores around the house as though he were silently apologizing to everyone for having seen, and having told…
After the divorce, Yamato had even more difficulty sleeping. It was the first time in his life that he could recall having a room entirely to himself, and with otousan working so many hours, he was often in the apartment alone. It'd been so quiet compared to what he'd become used to that he'd taken over all the housework just to wear himself out, and inevitably, he'd wake up to find he'd fallen asleep on the sofa or in otousan's chair…
Then otousan remarried, and Yamato found himself having to adjust to change yet again. Forced to share a room with Taichi, Yamato quickly learned that his step-brother talked in his sleep. It was unnerving the first night they'd shared a room, and Yamato had been irritable the next morning from lack of sleep. Worse yet, his new step-mother didn't expect help taking care of the apartment, and so Yamato had lost the only sure-fire method he'd found to help him sleep. He'd been even crankier those few days they'd had at the apartment before camp started, and being sick hadn't made him any easier to deal with, but otousan had told him to learn to cope with the change while they were gone.
It was easier said than done.
Yamato rolled onto his side again, burrowed down under the crisp linen sheet and closed his eyes, willing himself to sleep.
A sudden crash split the night air - followed by Taichi and Agumon's shouts echoing down the hall.
Heart pounding, Yamato sat up, eyes wide as the shadow-filled room around him seemed to disappear. The entire manor had been an illusion, he realized, painted over the ruins of a building that had long been abandoned. As the other children began to stir to wakefulness, the beds beneath them lurched into the air, spinning unpredictably.
"Hold on, Yamato!" Gabumon shouted, grabbing the headboard as Yamato struggled to keep his grip on the foot of the bed.
It was difficult to see where the bed was headed - it moved forwards and back, turned and dipped so quickly that it was all Yamato could do not to be sick to his stomach. The wind whipping his face was cold and seemed to be getting colder when he heard Gabumon's last warning.
"We're going to crash!"
The impact jarred every sore muscle in Yamato's body, but it was the cold that he detested more. His breath came out in clouds of white as Yamato searched for his clothes and pulled them on, one piece at a time.
"We need to find shelter, Yamato, or you'll get sick again." Gabumon said as Yamato finished pulling on his boots.
"I have to find TK first." Yamato argued. "I can't leave him out in this on his own."
Gabumon protested, but Yamato ignored him, choosing instead to trudge through the ankle-deep snow while shouting his otouto's name. With each step, snow snuck up the legs of his rolled-up denim pants and down into his boots, sapping him of what little warmth his clothes provided. They walked for what felt like hours, Yamato's voice going hoarse from shouting, his vision blurring from the cold.
It hurt to blink, his eyes were so cold, and he couldn't feel his feet any more. When his legs suddenly gave out, Yamato didn't have the energy to catch himself. He fell face-first into the snow, and knew in the back of his mind that he would've stayed there if Gabumon hadn't helped him back onto his numb feet.
"You have to rest, Yamato!" Gabumon shouted. "There's a cave over there. Let's get you warmed up, and then we can search for TK!"
"A cave?" Yamato repeated dumbly, staring in the direction Gabumon pointed toward. Hopeful, Yamato headed quickly towards the cave, but it was completely empty when he arrived. "TK…"
Discouraged, Yamato didn't fight as Gabumon shoved him towards a hastily built fire. He sank to the ground, feeling the warmth as it slowly chased away numbness from his fingers and toes.
"Stay here, Yamato." Gabumon insisted. "I have a fur coat, I can withstand the cold better than you can. Let me look for TK, okay?"
Yamato didn't watch as Gabumon left, instead staring into the flickering flames. He remembered what it was like to be little and lost, how it felt to think that no one was looking for you…
When Yamato was four, right before TK was born, he'd gone with okaasan to Tottori to visit his grandparents. Even though she'd been close to her delivery date, okaasan had insisted on taking Yamato to one of the ruins. Yamato remembered her by his side very clearly one moment, and in the next, an orange streak behind a wall over-grown with moss caught his eye. He'd run to investigate, only to find empty air. When he'd looked back, okaasan was gone.
Yamato had sat patiently, just like he'd been told to do if ever he was separated from his parents, for two hours before anyone gave him a second glance. Police were called, and he'd spent another three hours crying at the police station before his grandfather came to pick him up. Okaasan had gone into labor, he'd said, though Yamato hadn't understood what that meant until he'd been allowed to hold Takeru later that night…
He didn't have any excuse not to be looking for TK, though, unlike okaasan had when she'd been giving birth. It was cold outside the cave, true, but Yamato knew that TK would be just as cold, if not colder. Besides, he reasoned with himself, they'd be able to cover more ground if they were both looking for TK.
Yamato's mind was made up. He stood and left the warmth of the fire, and ventured back out into what was quickly becoming a snow storm.