Chapter Text
Tomoro seemed extremely nervous about leaving the hospital and there was not much that Raito could do about that since he felt similarly. He wasn’t sure where they were going to be staying till Asuka got released in another three days and Kyo was not leaving the man’s side. Another nasty freak out ending in a male nurse with a very broken nose, a lot of yelling and cursing by all parties left Asuka’s meds to be adjusted once again. Raito wasn’t sure medication was going to fix the fear factor of being touched by an unknown man when asleep because the issue was a very real fear and throwing drugs at it did not seem the right answer in Raito’s opinion but he didn’t have a medical degree so what did he know?
Tomoro was pacing around the room as they waited for Reina and Yoshimura to show up and it was driving Raito mad, “Tomoro, you need to calm down. I know leaving the room is a bit scary but it’s not like I plan to disappear on you so chill for a minute before you get sick again.”
Tomoro paused to look at Raito before pouting, “Excuse me for being nervous. The last time I left somewhere I got my head smashed by a rock and lost my sight.”
“Yes and that was also Naito’s fault. I am fairly sure the hospital is not falling apart so come over here and sit your ass down.” Raito sighed as he closed his eyes to rub his temples. He could hear the sassy huff Tomoro made before he sat down on the bed.
“Jerk,” Tomoro muttered.
“Please don’t, I was getting a headache from the level of neurotic energy coming off of you. I’m worried that you won’t feel comfortable enough to talk where we are going and then you are going to get upset and likely stop eating again,” Raito sighed as he looked at Tomoro.
“I promised to keep trying,” Tomoro crossed his arms.
“I don’t doubt that but if you're too nervous, your stomach won’t let you keep it down, like this morning,” Raito stood himself to stretch because he needed to do something but pacing seemed like a waste of energy.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be as bothered as I am,” Tomoro muttered and Raito turned to face him with a confused look.
“Why?”
“I ah…. Just didn’t expect you to,” Tomoro looked away and Raito frowned as he walked the few steps to make Tomoro look at him.
“Out with it, do you think I’m going to stop worrying once we are no longer here?”
Tomoro pinked a bit before trying to look away, “A little. I know I have been a pain being so clingy but…. You didn’t seem to mind much.”
“No I don’t, it’s the least I can do to try and make up for hurting you besides it’s helped both of us. You with being comfortable and me in not feeling like the biggest dick alive.”
“You can be a dick, though,” Tomoro muttered.
“Yeah yeah, Reina likes to point that out but I am only pushing because you need to eat and stuff,” Raito sighed as he put his hands on his hips. “I’m trying to not be super blunt and mean about things but this is weird because I’m not used to really giving a damn about anyone other than Monodramon and myself.”
“You get along with Reina well enough,” Tomoro pointed out.
“Reina and I pick on one another half the time and argue another good chunk of the time but yes I suppose at the end of the day we do. We tolerate each other-”
“Isn’t that normal for friends, though?” Jazamon pipped up with a yawn, “Are we leaving soon? I’m super bored of this room. I wanta go flying.”
“Flying? You can’t fly as a rookie,” Raito raised an eyebrow.
Jazamon grinned, “No but I can as a champion and you like to fly so we could go flying after we get out!”
Raito gave Jazamon a deadpan stare, “Excuse you? What makes you think I’d agree?”
“Because you have been bored stiff for days and you used to love flying with Monodramon so it would make sense that you’d like to fly with me,” Jazamon chirped, “We can even bring Tomoro!”
Raito looked at the other teen and was surprised that he looked to be thinking about it, “I guess it could be fun. I haven’t been flying without it being for a mission at Tactics.”
“I…. fuck me,” Raito sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, “Fine fine, we can go if Maki and Yoshimura are okay with it. We don’t need to stress anyone by doing something possibly reckless.”
“Why would it be reckless? Are we that likely to run into a bounty?” Tomoro looked very confused because it was a valid point.
“Well no but Klay is still out there as is your grandfather so we could get attacked, that’s why it isn’t the safest idea,” Raito didn’t like the way Tomoro’s face fell before he groaned, “Okay okay, we can go and I’ll deal with the adults being mad. We need goggles because Jazamon goes much faster than Monodramon.”
Tomoro smiled slightly and Raito did not like how it made the impending lecture seem justified. He was going to get in so much trouble if saying yes made more sense to him than the safer option. A knock at the door had Raito turning around almost instantly to not get swindled into anything else and sighed in relief as Reina walked in with Yoshimura in tow. “Yo! Ready to go guys?”
“Yes-”
”YES!” Raito started before Jazamon yelled over him, jumping from the bed to atop his head with glee, “I am sooooooo ready to get out of this boring ass hospital!” Raito sighed before he grabbed the digimon and hugged the ball of energy to his chest.
Reina laughed, seemingly amused by Raito’s less than enthused expression, “Lighten up Raito. You look like you are being led to slaughter.”
“Feels like it,” Raito grumbled back before Tomoro bumped into his shoulder with Monodramon in his arms. The rookie was asleep and had been for the past several days after Tomoro fed him and that sat like led in Raito’s stomach but Tomoro explained that it was normal. Monodramon took a bit more e-pulse now then he used to but slept as a result for three to four days before coming round.
Raito assumed the habit was a way to slow down on how fast his digimon decayed from Tomoro’s e-pulse but every feeding just put Monodramon in more danger of losing themselves.
“Raito stop spacing out, let’s get going,” Reina reached forward and grabbed Raito’s arm and dragged him forward, causing him to trip as he stumbled forward.
“Hey! I can walk!” Raito hissed before he was in the hall and being pushed forward.
“You got lost staring at Tomoro, don’t give me that,” Reina snickered and Raito looked back at her with a glare. Reina looked somewhat confused before asking, “Was Tomoro not who you were…. OH, he still has Monodramon.”
“Monodramon has been sleeping since Tomoro gave them e-pulse the other day. I’m just worried and spaced out, now I asked you to stop teasing me about Tomoro. I don’t get why you are on that anyway, go pester Asuka when he is feeling better,” Raito sighed as Reina decided to walk next to him.
“But you two are so close, it’s hard not to.”
“What if you make Tomoro uncomfortable considering what he has been through,” Raito leveled Reina with a flat glare.
Reina hummed, seemingly unbothered, “I don’t think he minds, I asked him yesterday if it bothered him and he said no because he didn’t care.”
“Traitor,” Raito muttered, “He is supposed to tell you to fuck off.”
Reina laughed, “You are too uptight. You need to relax.”
“I’ll relax when we don’t have people after Tomoro and Asuka. I don’t want to be careless and get someone else hurt,” Raito hugged Jazamon tighter as he sighed. “I still feel like crap for what happened to Asuka, I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him since the limited access was put in place.”
Reina bumped into Raito to get him to look at her, “In a few days you can clear the air, hold out till then. You need to focus on helping Tomoro anyway since he still won’t talk to anyone else. Though I heard you two arguing which was funny.”
“You waited to come into the room? Creep,” Raito huffed as he looked behind him to see Tomoro walking with Yoshimura though he looked rather uncomfortable so Raito waited till Tomoro caught up with him. Tomoro looped his arm around Raito’s before he started moving. Tomoro was shivering ever so slightly as they moved and Raito felt terrible for having had any hand in making Tomoro afraid of the outside world. Maybe flying was the right answer in getting him to readjust to the world outside of select rooms.
The car seemed less stressful as Tomoro simply leaned against Raito and dozed on the drive even while Reina grinned like a lunatic at him. He did not appreciate her interest in whatever relationship he had with Tomoro because he knew she was reading too deep into things. Once Tomoro got used to having freedom, things would back off and that would be that. There was nothing more to Tomoro’s clinging nature than needing someone to help ground him while in spaces that made him uneasy.
There was no way Tomoro could actually want anything more than a friendship with him. Raito was lucky he got this much from the teen and he wasn’t about to complain even when Tomoro’s clinging was sometimes a bit too much for Raito. He still had issues with anyone touching him and Reina loved to push that as much as she safely could without making Raito flip out but he knew damn well that yelling at Tomoro to give him space could possibly affect his recovery so Raito bit his tongue even when he really really really wanted his arm back.
Unsurprisingly, they went to Maki’s and Tomoro walked in with relative ease like he had been there before but maybe he had, Tomoro had spent some time with Glowing Dawn before he got grabbed and Maki smiled at him warmly when they entered. “Welcome Tomoro, do you want something to drink? I have some orange juice.”
Tomoro hummed before nodding and walked over to a booth to sit down as he laid Monodramon down on the seat next to him. Raito at across from him and Tomoro smiled softly. Raito dropped Jazamon on the table before he jumped and glided over to Maki’s bar. “Can I help Maki?” Jazamon danced as Maki passed him a glass to hold while she poured juice into it. Raito rested his elbow on the table before dropping his chin into his palm as he chuckled at Jazamon’s excitement.
“Don’t spill it by doing something silly,” Raito snorted as Jazamon twirled around to glare at Raito.
“Killjoy! I want to help. It’s better than just sitting there like a lump on a log!”
Raito laughed, “How are you going to bring that to Tomoro? You can’t jump with it.” Jazamon opened his mouth before he looked at the glass and the distance between the bar and the booth before puffing out his cheeks to pout.
Reina walked over and picked up Jazamon before dropping him on to the table, “Problem solved.” She grinned before flicking Raito in the forehead, “Now stop picking on him.”
“I’m not picking on him! I’m pointing out that Jazamon needed to solve the distance problem with the juice.” Raito grumbled as he rubbed his forehead.
Jazamon passed the glass to Tomoro who took a small sip before sighing happily. He soon finished the glass and both Raito and Reina blinked because that was the fastest Tomoro had downed anything since he started working on eating.
“Are you hungry Tomoro?” Reina laughed and Tomoro blushed before nodding which made sense since Tomoro didn’t keep breakfast down and Raito only barely managed himself.
“Maki, can I use the kitchen? I’ll make some sandwiches,” Reina grinned as Maki nodded before she turned back to Tomoro, “Do you like turkey?” Tomoro took a moment before nodding. Reina then looked at Raito, “How about you?”
“I’ll pass, I ate breakfast,” Raito yelped as Reina swatted him upside the head lightly.
“I meant do you like turkey, you are having a sandwich,” Reina huffed and Raito sheepishly nodded before Reina grinned again and walked off to the kitchen.
“I don’t think I’ll eat a whole sandwich if they are Reina’s normal sized ones,” Raito sighed even as Tomoro made a soft squeaking laugh. The closest he got to making sound around others.
“Serves you right,” Jazamon smiled even as Raito gave the digimon an unimpressed look. “After lunch are we gonna go out?”
Raito winced as he looked at Maki and her confused expression, “Go out where?”
“I want to go flying and Tomoro wants to go so Raito agreed!” Jazamon flapped his wings excitedly, “I am so tired of being cooped up and flying sounds like a great way to let off some steam.”
“You do realize it’s not safe to go out alone,” Maki gave Raito a knowing look, like she expected him to make a better decision as he wilted in his spot.
“I know… I’m sorry,” Raito muttered and Jazamon looked like someone took his candy away as he flopped onto the table with a whine.
“Maki! Please? I am so bored and Tomoro wants to go,” Jazamon looked at Maki with puppy dog eyes and Raito watched as Maki struggled to not yield to the honestly terrible idea. “I’ll be super careful. I won’t go far from the bar!”
Maki sighed before she caved, “Fine fine, I got it but if something goes wrong, run back here as fast as you safely can.”
Jazamon hopped up from the table, “Yay! After lunch then! OH! I’ll go look through Maki’s stuff for goggles!” Jazamon hopped off the table and disappeared before anyone had a chance to stop him.
Raito just shook his head before snorting got his attention. He looked at Tomoro and he was struggling to breathe through how badly he was snorting. That got Raito laughing because Jazamon’s enthusiasm was infectious if you allowed it to be. “Do you have goggles or is he on a wild goose chase?”
“I might have some old ski goggles laying around from when I was younger but I haven’t a clue where I put them. Tomoro, do you want more juice?” Maki walked over with some tea for Raito and he took a small sip of the unsweetened liquid. Tomoro shook his head as he watched Raito sip his tea.
Raito internally sighed, “It’s unsweetened but want to try? Reina picked it out and it's pretty good.” Tomoro took the cup to smell before taking a sip. His face twisted up and Raito chuckled, “I warned you, it's not sweetened. I don’t like a lot of sweets. So, do you want that juice now?”
Tomoro glowered but nodded and Maki chuckled as she took Tomoro’s glass to refill, “You don’t need to be so reserved, if you want juice just let me know. I have plenty.”
“I FOUND SOME!!!!” Jazamon hollered as he came bouncing back into the room, tackling Raito in the shoulder as he shoved to old looking pair of goggles into his face, “These will work right? RIGHT!!”
Raito pushed the digimon off of him before he took the goggles while fighting to not laugh at how over the top Jazamon was being, “Yes, these look like they will work. Reina is making food if you want to help her.” Jazamon nodded before disappearing again only for Reina’s yelp to echo from the kitchen before an annoyed Raito followed it and Raito snickered, “Serves her right for flicking me in the head.”
Reina appeared a few minutes later with three plates of sandwiches, the one she set in front of Raito was massive. Likely having double the fillings of the other two sandwiches that she put down. “I expect you to finish it Raito, otherwise I’m kicking your ass for wasting food.”
Raito swallowed down his dread at a two inch thick sandwich, upset stomach incoming it seemed. Tomoro started to pick at his, polishing off half of it before working on the second half. He picked up his sandwich and began to work on the first half himself since Tomoro was doing so good with his food. He was stuffed by the end, eyeing the second half before his stomach twisted in clear discomfort as he picked the other half and took a bite. He ended up slamming the sandwich down and running for the bathroom, followed by the sounds of Reina calling after him, to vomit everything up because he just could barely handle the first half the sandwich, nevermind the whole thing.
Raito was still gagging when someone came into the bathroom and hissed, “Crap. I’m sorry.” Reina muttered as she came over and rubbed Raito’s back as he coughed up another mouthful of food and bile. He felt like crap, wasting food would have been better than not keeping any of it down. “I figured you’d tell me off on the sandwich.”
Raito coughed again before his stomach finally emptied itself and he collapsed against the toilet, heaving still. It was a moment before he tried to talk, “I-I’m trying to eat more.”
“I noticed, you have had breakfast and at least lunch or dinner the past few days. I’m glad to see it. I didn’t want to make you sick though. I assumed you’d have stopped when you couldn’t manage anymore. I was going to tease you but that was it,” Reina muttered, she sounded almost as sick as Raito felt. “I won’t do that again, I’m really sorry.”
“T’s fine, I shouldn’t have pushed my stomach when I know how hard it is to keep stuff down normally,” Raito muttered.
“How hard? Raito, what are you talking about? I thought you just didn’t want to eat?” Reina shifted on the floor till she was looking at his face and yeah, she was pale.
“Oh…. I feel sick almost every time I eat and then I don’t want to eat. I only eat when I’m hungry enough to warrant dealing with the stomach ache. It’s just nerves though, I’m sure. So as everything settles down, it should get easier,” Raito tried to sit up only for his stomach to start cramping again, forcing him to heave a few more times before he gave up moving.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Reina looked hurt and Raito couldn’t understand why.
“Cause there has been so much going on, I didn’t want to be a bother. I have been doing okay.”
“Raito, you have been dropping a lot of weight, that’s not doing okay,” Reina huffed as she stood and grabbed a face cloth before she wet it and helped Raito sit up, wiping his face as he leaned against the wall. Reina flushed the toilet before she sat back down, hugging her knees, “You can’t keep hiding stuff, even if you think it’s silly. How can we help if you don’t tell us?”
“Is it really that big a deal? I’ve only lost like ten pounds,” Raito muttered as he shifted against the wall to make looking at Reina easier.
“You were already underweight, dummy,” Reina sighed, dropping her head to her knees. “I’m telling Maki and Kyo.”
“No!” Raito sat up, regretting the swift movement as he gagged, swallowing down the bile, “D-don’t tell them! I don’t want to worry them! We have enough going on.”
Reina looked up at Raito and glared, “I’m telling them because this is a real issue. You aren’t being a burden.”
Raito winced because he sure as hell felt like one when Tomoro and Asuka objectively had bigger issues than his inability to eat but he also knew that once Reina made up her mind, there was no changing it. “Will Kyo be mad that I didn’t tell him sooner?”
“Mad? No, but he will be really disappointed because this is the second big thing you have kept from him,” Reina sighed before she stood. “I’ll go fix up the couch so you can lay down for a bit and then I’ll fill Maki in on what happened.” Raito bit his lip as he watched Reina go.
“I’m sorry…” Raito muttered and that got Reina to pause.
“You don’t need to be but it’d be nice if you trusted us more with these kinds of things. We want to help,” Reina muttered back before she left the room and Raito balled his hands into fists as he sucked in a breath, why did he suck so much? They had been having a good day and he ruined it by not being able to handle a sandwich. Now he couldn’t take Tomoro flying and he seemed to be looking forward to it. He was such a fucking idiot.
Reina returned and helped Raito to the couch before he hid under the covers with a bucket in case his stomach turned on him again. He could hear the disappointed whine Jazamon let out before he heard someone come into the room. They didn’t say anything and Raito didn’t feel up to talking so he stayed quiet till he drifted off.
---
Raito woke up to the soft sound of drumming and Jazamon’s muted but excited chattering, “So that’s how you do it?”
Tomoro hummed before doing something else, a sharper beat that was still rather soft, like he wasn’t hitting a very hard surface. Raito rolled over to see him drumming on a pillow with Jazamon hovering close to listen. Raito smiled because at least Tomoro looked reasonably happy despite the broken promise. Jazamon looked at him as he settled again with a smile, “Raito’s awake.”
Tomoro looked up from what he was doing, stilling his hands, “Did I wake you?”
Raito raised an eyebrow at the talking but they seemed alone in the room, “No, sorry for not being able to go flying.” Tomoro shrugged as he went back to drumming. “How long have I been out?”
“About six hours but you ended up puking in your sleep, thankfully we got it in the bucket. Reina got some medicine for your stomach and Maki made some soup that you can eat later to hopefully help settle things down. I had some, it was pretty good,” Tomoro changed the beat he was drumming again as he spoke, moving onto a more complex pattern before he huffed, “Damn, I messed up.”
“You did?” Raito didn’t know how because it sounded fine to him.
Tomoro nodded, “Yeah, it’s been a long time since I last drummed and my hands are a bit rusty. I missed a note. I’ll need to practice a lot to get back to where I was before.”
“‘M sorry,” Raito muttered as he watched Tomoro go back into the same rhythm again before the teen paused and looked at Raito in confusion.
“What are you sorry about? You didn’t make me mess up.”
Raito yawned, “You’re out of practice because you got kidnapped.”
Tomoro frowned, “I still don’t blame you for that so can you stop that?”
“‘M? Stop what?”
“Feeling sorry, I accepted your apology already so stop feeling like everything wrong with me is your fault. Last I checked, you didn’t tell Naito to do anything to me so I don’t get this obsession you have with still feeling sorry,” Tomoro sighed before a noise had him whip around to see Reina standing at the door with a tray and several cups of tea. Tomoro dropped his drumsticks from his suddenly lax grip.
“So as long as you think it’s just you two, you talk. Good to know, I got tea and you’re totally right. Raito needs to stop taking the world on his shoulders. The fact that it’s advice he has griped at Asuka over is funny. Raito’s bad at taking his own advice, actually Asuka is very much a do as I say not as I do kind of person too,” Reina snorted before she shoved a cup of tea into Tomoro’s hands before staring at Raito expectantly. Raito sighed and sat up before being offered a cup which Raito took and sipped on slowly. The tea was perfect and he downed it rather swiftly. Reina seemed to expect that because she filled the cup again with the tea pot he seemed to miss. “Think you could stomach some soup? Maki made a killer chicken and rice soup.”
Raito sipped his second cup before nodding, his stomach seemed to have settled while he slept. Reina grinned before disappearing, leaving a tray of cookies next to Tomoro, who grabbed one to nibble on. “Hungry?”
Tomoro shook his head, “Not really but Asuka used to get me these cookies a lot when I was little. Their good,” Tomoro offered Raito one and he wrinkled his nose at the sweet. “There a shortbread, not super sweet. They go with the tea.”
Raito sighed before taking the cookie and taking a small bite. He was thankful they were in fact not sweet as he ate the rest of the cookie before Tomoro offered him another one. Raito was half way through his second cookie by the time Jazamon had eaten six of them, happily munching away. Tomoro was on his third before pushing the rest to Jazamon who smiled before devouring the remaining few cookies. Raito smiled because it seemed the two had kept themselves entertained despite not going flying.
Reina returned with the soup to Raito and he had to admit it smelled and looked good. He took a small bite before a second. He made sure to eat slowly so that he didn’t overeat again because he didn’t feel like throwing up again. Reina seemed satisfied when he ate two thirds of the bowl before stopping at the early signs of his stomach being full. He likely could have finished the bowl without getting sick but he wanted to make sure it stayed down.
“Maybe we need to focus on lots of small meals verse a few big ones. Maki said that sometimes the stomach forgets how to deal with large meals so maybe instead of two or three meals we do four or five small ones to get your stomach used to food again. It will do Tomoro good too since he can try a bunch of things to find things that taste okay. We have, what, thirteen foods that you don’t mind?”
Tomoro thought it over before nodding as he sipped his tea.
“Eggs are sometimes okay, sausage has been a win most of the time, bacon is hit or miss, you said the soup was good, the turkey sandwich, um… three types of pudding…. That’s not thirteen.”
“Oh I gave Tomoro an orange, there is orange juice, strawberries, fried tofu and bananas,” Reina smiled. “Not the biggest list but its a lot of good foods we can build off of. Fruit seems like it might be a good place to work on since we could make smoothies and stuff for snacks.”
“Then we need to know if Tomoro likes yogurt,” Raito yawned before he yelped as Tomoro moved and all but flopped onto him, pushing him into the couch, “Tomoro?”
Reina snickered before she gathered the dishes, “I’ll leave you two alone, Maki made up a room for you while you were sleeping if you want to move to a bed versus being piled on on the couch.”
Once Reina’s footsteps faded, Tomoro muttered, “I’m glad you are feeling better.”
Raito looked down at the top of Tomoro’s head with a raised eyebrow, “Thanks but why are you on top of me?”
“I’m tired but you were sick and I didn’t want to wake you.”
Raito sighed, “Oh, you want a nap. We gonna move or stay here?” Tomoro didn’t answer and Raito resigned himself to his fate as he flipped the blankets over Tomoro. Jazamon was soon on top of Tomoro, curling into a feathery ball, “Not you too,” Raito huffed as he stared at the ceiling. He wasn’t even that sleepy but now he was stuck. Listening to the others’ even breathing did slowly pull him under against his will, not that he could really fight given being pinned.