Chapter Text
“Izzy!” Mimi whined, plopping onto the carpeted floor of her apartment. Outside her door could be heard the noise of the vacuum, her mother insistent on having the house spotless for her father’s arrival home. Mimi’s long brown hair piled beneath her head as she whined for the boy on the other side of the world to pay attention to the gravity of the situation.
“Mimi.” Koushiro stated the girl’s name plainly, putting her on speaker as he grabbed his toothbrush.
“Don’t give me that sass. I don’t know what to do, Jessica was never this… this you know.” Mimi huffed, rolling onto her side as she wiggled her socks off. “All because her parents paid for some stupidly ridiculous graphic t-shirt for some stupid band.”
Koushiro hummed his acknowledgement, going about his own business, scrubbing away at his teeth.
Mimi let out an exaggerated sigh, “Worst part is it’s a band I like. It’s like she’s rubbing it in my face. I hate America, I wanna be back in Japan with all of you guys.” Mimi’s voice lowered, not interested in allowing her mother the chance to catch her saying that. This job promotion was a good thing for her father, for her whole family. Mimi wasn’t selfish enough to place doubts in her parents' heads, no matter how upset she currently was.
There was a string of silence as Koushiro spit out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth. “It's only been a year, I'm sure it'll get better.” Koushiro tried to comfort. Mimi sniffled, tears filling her eyes from frustration. Koushiro placed his toothbrush in its stand to dry, his other hand laid itself on the counter to tap a non-existent pattern. He grabbed his phone and sighed, “If it's bothering you so much, do something you think might help, just don't get into a fight over a shirt.”
Mimi hummed, debating on if she should actually go into more detail about what's been happening or if she should just continue to leave the boy with the minimum. “Yeah… I won't.” Mim closed her eyes. The idea of Palmon smacking Jessica's new boyfriend across the face was appeasing. Mimi felt a pang of sorrow in her chest as she realized Palmon couldn't do that from the digital world. “Hey, Izzy?” There was a bit of shuffling heard over the phone, Mimi figured Koushiro was getting dressed and continued, “Have you figured out any new breakthroughs with the gates?” Mimi placed her phone on the carpet next to her head and folded her hands together as she positioned herself to lie on her back once more.
Koushiro briefly paused his actions, his green jacket halfway zipped. His face twisting up in frustration from countless attempts. He took a deep breath in, banishing the vague sense of shame. He walked to his desk and picked up his phone, switching it off of speaker. His parents were worried enough about his computer time as is. “Nothing yet.” He said simply, leaning forward and placing a hand on his desk as he waited for a response. His index finger idly tapped without a pattern.
“I figured.” Mimi sighed, pulling and twisting her hands and fingers every which way. It had been about two years now, it wasn’t like Koushiro had any luck in that period of time. The gateways were closed, all of them, Gennai had told them as much before they left. She’d never see Palmon again… Mimi caught herself, squeezing her eyes tight, there was always a chance and even if she really didn’t, she had the memories. It was weird that Jou and the two nine year olds were the ones that seemed the least whiny about it all, then again that’s for all she knew and she hadn’t seen either of them in a year.
Sure she texted them, but the last and only time she heard their voices was on birthdays, and that was a non-video call. The two children seemed to have a complete disregard for the idea of a bedtime. Hikari texts her at hours even Taichi wouldn’t via the means of stealing said brother’s phone and Takeru had forced her, ironically over Taichi’s phone, to download this app called Discord so he could message her over his home computer since he didn’t have access to a phone with the option of text often.
The two pre-teens stayed silent. Koushiro pushed himself away from his desk and jerked his zipper all the way up, phone tucked between his shoulder and head. The boy going back to preparing for school, stacks of papers being tapped into order on the desk before shoved into a folder. Notebooks divided from being pushed into Koushiro’s bag and a drawer in his desk.
“Koushiro! Sweetie, Yuuko’s offering you a ride!” Koushiro’s mother announced in the background, both preteens startling at the interruption of their silence. Kae knocked lightly on the door before cracking it open, “Ah, sorry to interrupt.” She apologized, noticing the phone in her son’s hand.
“It’s just Mimi.” Koushiro smiled at his mother and dismissed her worry, “I’ll be out in just a minute.”
Kae hid her chuckle at the notion that she had to be told who it was on the other side of the phone, simply nodding her affirmation and closing the door as she retracted her head from the room.
“Awww, school time already?” Mimi pouted, half jokingly, half not.
Koushiro sighed, grabbing his bag and patting it twice in habit as he went through his mental checklist. “Yup. Not everyone gets to live in the past.” Koushiro cracked a smirk at his own joke. He walked to his room’s door and turned off the light, entering the hallway. “Bye Mom!” Koushiro called behind him as he put his shoe on with one hand, the other covering the mic of his phone so as to not break Mimi’s eardrums, his back against the wall to steady himself.
Mimi huffed, sitting up from her carpet. “Tell your mom I said hi before you leave.”
“Mimi said hi by the way!” Koushiro tapped his shoes into place. Kae leaned into the hallway and made a small wave. “She said hi back.” Koushiro informed as he opened his apartment door, and made his way out to join the Yagami's in their car.
Mimi let out a small laugh, “Ms. Yagami taking you?”
“Yeah, why?” Koushiro adjusted his backpack as he approached the three, shoving their belongings in the car.
Mimi hummed, “Tell them I said hi. I got to go anyway, homework and all.”
“Yeah sure. Don't call during class again expecting help, though.” Koushiro lightly scolded, Mimi rolling her eyes.
Mimi elongated her bye until Koushiro ended the call. The girl sighed, flipping over on the carpet in order to slowly push herself up. She really couldn’t just punch Jessica or her boyfriend or her entire new posse of popular rich kids with no sense of respect. Not so much because she cared about getting in trouble and more so because her noodle arms weren’t gonna do anything.
Mimi exited her room and crossed to the restroom, smiling at the sight of her mom mopping the kitchen floor while humming, vacuum still set up in the living room. She left the door open to the restroom, not actually planning on doing anything that required privacy. She reached into the cabinet nearby with one hand and pulled out a hairbrush, using her other to let her hair down.
“Mimi! Could you get me from closet the Febreeze spray?” There was a pause as if the older woman was thinking deeply, “The one for the couches!” The brunette paused on her downstroke to listen to the instructions, completing the brush through only when she was sure her mother had finished. Between herself, her mother and her father, Mimi's mother had had the most trouble picking up the new language. Despite the reassurances from herself and her father, Satoe refused to not take every opportunity to practice. That was the side of her that Mimi had picked up the most, no matter how delicate they seemed they had a headstrong determination to see their goals and achievements through.
Mimi put down her brush and walked out of the restroom to oblige her mother’s request. “Here mom.” Mimi handed the product to her mother. Satoe did a double take when accepting it.
“Oh my, we’ll need to tell your father to schedule you a hairdresser appointment. I’ll make sure when he gets home to do just that.” Satoe grabbed a few strands and pushed them behind her daughter’s ear. Mimi hummed in agreement before she paused.
Mimi couldn’t retaliate… but she could definitely be petty.
“Can I dye my hair?”
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2018/MM/DD(D)
PlantMom: 3:33pm
IZZY
IZZY
DUDE
IZZY
ANSWER
Koushiro blinked at his phone. He had only gotten discord in an attempt to reach out to people who had experienced digital crises as a means of investigation. When that effort led to nowhere he deleted it before Takeru had bugged him into adding him on the platform. As of now the only one with Koushiro’s discord tag was Takeru. So who was blowing up his phone practically right after school.
2018/MM/DD(D)
Izumi_TechGuy: 3:37pm
I believe you have the wrong contact.
PlantMom: 3:39pm
It’s Mimi, dummy.
Koushiro blinked at the screen. He had considered giving his discord to Mimi on multiple occasions when he found out Mimi had the app, but had yet to actually go through with the action.
Izumi_TechGuy: 3:43pm
Ah, did TK give you my username?
What happened? Isn’t it around 2 in the morning for you?
PlantMom: 3:45pm
Yeah, Teeks hooked me up.
Oh nothing~
You available to call rn? 😀
Izumi_TechGuy: 3:46pm
Sure?
I am on the street right now though, so you might wanna wait til I arrive at home.
PlantMom started a call. Today at 3:47pm
Koushiro stopped walking and glared daggers into his phone slightly. You would think the other would have taken the hint, but nope. Koushiro sighed, taking headphones out of his bag and plugging them in. He pressed the join call button and was about to make his best version of a snide remark when the sight of his friend of 2 years caught him off guard.
He hadn’t noticed Mimi had started a video call. Yet there she was, clear as day. It had been only a year, yet that time frame seemed so large now that Koushiro realized he hadn’t seen her at all. The redhead cleared his throat, suddenly aware his camera was also on and that he had very much been staring open mouthed for a good minute. Heat made its way to his cheeks, embarrassment burning him alive.
“Is it bad?” Mimi pouted, and it took Koushiro embarrassingly long to realize the girl was referencing her hair. Long and brown as alway, except it was complemented with bleached highlights and curled. Koushiro felt his face flush more in an odd manner, probably due to not having made that simple observation sooner.
“Ah- N-No. It’s not bad at all. It looks good.” Koushiro corrected, trying to strike confidence in the brunette.
Mimi beamed at his words. “Ha! HA!” Mimi pumped a fist into the air. Koushiro finally restarted his walk, not before noticing that Mimi was in fact in pajamas and in her room. “I knew I could pull it off. You know who couldn’t pull it off, Jessica. She got highlights and they looked horrible. I, on the other hand, look fabulous! Henderson wouldn’t have come up to me otherwise.” Mimi laughed, her nose slightly upturned as she goaded.
Koushiro couldn’t help the fond sigh of exhaustion that left him at that declaration. “Why did you ask if your peers already validated the new look?”
Mimi hummed, putting on a thinking face. “I don’t know them all that well.” Mimi shrugged, bringing her legs up to her chest as she adjusted how she sat. “Your opinion matters so much more to me than those wannabes.” Mimi gave a soft smile to the camera, placing her chin to her knees and tilting her head as if she were an innocent angel.
Koushiro stopped walking again, eyes scanning Mimi calculatively. “You just wanted more compliments before you went to bed, huh?” The redhead rolled his eyes, pushing and shoving the warmth Mimi’s words had originally brought out.
Confusion washed over Mimi, her own words hitting her all of a sudden. The brunette gave an awkward laugh, face flushing as she gladly took the out that Koushiro had created for them. She meant what she said, but she should have phrased that totally differently. “Yup! But hey I deserve them. Anyway, I’m really tired right now.” Mimi yawned to sell it. “Call me when you get home, I wanna know what happened today with you. Bye!”
“Yeah. I will. Bye.” Koushiro smiled and waved at his camera. Mimi’s image suddenly disappeared. Koushiro let out a sigh and exited the call as well. Face slowly shifting color to match his hair as he thought over the interaction.