"What do you mean by you're leaving?"

Cold blue eyes regarded the brown ones that were filled with confusion, frustration, and... something else that Yamato could not quite read.

"It'll be better this way, won't it? Because I'm always a bother, and..."

"Cut out the crap! You're an important..."

"And others are getting uneasy because we constantly argue. It'll be better to separate."

Taichi stared at Yamato as he turned around and started to walk away, Gabumon obediently following his partner.

"...Wait a second, Ishida! Hold it! Oi! Yamato-tte baaa!"

A hand grasped Yamato's wrist, preventing any further movement forward.

"Yagami..."

"But Yamato, you can't leave like this! We're a team, aren't we? It's dangerous to go around alone, and..."

"Which is none of your concern. Gabumon and I can handle things quite well ourselves."

"Mou, that's not the point here!"

"Then what is?"

"Look, we don't have the time to waste by arguing like this, okay? Just..."

Agumon and Gabumon tensed, pulling the two boys back.

"It's dangerous..."

Suddenly the area around them twisted, turning into pieces of data that quickly started to evaporate.

"What the?"

Yamato and Taichi yelped as the ground underneath them lost its configuration, and they were tossed into the air, then into black pit that was seemingly endless.

"Yamato!"

"Taichi!"

Agumon and Gabumon jumped after their human friends, and the four clutched each other tightly as they fell.

Taichi rolled over.

"This sucks."

Yamato stirred the fire with a stick, staring at the burning wood rather then agreeing or disagreeing with his friend. Around them was desolate landscape, and above them was a sky with big black hole in the middle of it, where they had fallen from. Agumon and Gabumon were busy stuffing themselves with food, 'in case an emergency forces them to digi-volve'. Except for some fruit trees that so kindly granted the digimon their food, the area was austere.

"I wonder how we got in here... But it's a good thing that I came early in the morning to find you, and we were the only ones to have fallen here, na? It would have been horrible if Hikari or Takeru had fallen here, too."

Yamato remained silent. Taichi yet again attempted to make a decent conversation with his rather unresponsive companion.

"Naaa, Yamato, do you think we'll be able to get out of here? If not, I'll have to get stuck with you for the rest of my life, and then we'll both be old men, and..."

A fist was thrown at Taichi's face.

"Itaaa! Yamato, just what..."

"Will you shut UP?"

Yamato glared at Taichi before his face crumbled and he slowly fell to the ground, drawing himself into a ball.

"What if... What if we can never go back? What if I can never see Takeru again? I was never a good brother, and now... I'll never get a chance to! I was mean to father and mother because I wanted them to get together again after the divorce, now I may never be able to say 'I'm sorry, I'll try to be a kinder son'... Your overly optimistic personality is really annoying! Don't you care if you never get to see Hikari again? Your parents? You..."

Yamato's words were cut off as warm arms embraced him. Taichi gently placed his cheek against soft locks of Yamato's hair.

"But Yamato... It'll be okay for sure if it's us. Because... we'll be able to reach that sky, right? We'll be able to return for sure..."

Yamato trembled slightly as he tightly hugged Taichi back.

Yamato stretched, flexing his tensed muscles. Taichi's chocolate-colored eyes observed the horizon, where the Sun started to set.

"So?"

"...ari?"

"It's not 'ari?'! Plan, plan! You have a plan, do you not?"

"...anou sa. Am I supposed to have one?"

"...Yagami, don't tell me you gave me all those confident words when you had just about as much idea as me on how to get out of here!"

"We can worry about that tomorrow. Shouldn't we worry more about finding a place to sleep for today? Wild digimon can attack us if we just stay out in the open like this, you know."

Yamato stopped his advance on Taichi, thus stopping his attempt to strangle his friend. He pondered Taichi's words, then nodded.

"...it is as you say."

Taichi grinned.

"Hey, you actually agreed with what I said. That felt so... good, you know? Like we're closer friends and all?"

"Cut out stupid things, Taichi..."

Taichi did not notice the blush that crept across Yamato's face as the boy turned away from him.

"It's cold."

Yamato shivered as he tried to back further into the wall of the cave.

"It's really cold in here..."

Gabumon hesitated, then started,

"Anou, Yamato, if my coat will suffice..."

"No."

"But Yamato..."

"I don't want to take care of a sick digimon. I really don't."

Gabumon lowered his head.

"...sorry, I can't do anything for you..."

Yamato looked upset.

"Look, you have to stop taking everything I say so seriously..."

"Yamato!"

Gabumon and Yamato looked outside the cave to see Taichi and Agumon, their arms full of woods.

"This should be enough for the night, right?"

"Even if it isn't, it's too cold and this stuff is too heavy! I'm hungry!"

"Oi, Agumon, you ate so much just few hours ago!"

"Exactly!"

The four burst into laughter at that. Soon the fire was lit and the cave was warmed considerably. Taichi glanced at Yamato, then frowned as concern crossed his face.

"...Yamato, you're shivering. Are you still cold?"

Yamato shook his head, trying to stop his body from shaking. He yelped as Taichi's hands grasped his waist, pulling the other boy into his lap and placing his arms around Yamato's stomach. Yamato tensed as Taichi's chin rested on top of his head.

"There, it's better, right?"

"...Yagami..."

"Oh shush up. I don't want to take care of a sick, cranky blonde. I really don't."

Gabumon started to chuckle while Yamato sulked. Taichi and Agumon looked at each other, confusion written on their faces. Yamato slowly relaxed against the welcoming warmth. The four snuggled against each other and soon fell asleep.

"Yamato, why didn't you come?"

Yamato stared in horror at Taichi. Taichi was on the floor, his face twisted with pain. Wounds covered his body as blood stained the ground underneath him. Taichi's huge white wings were cruelly ripped away from his back, leaving the boy with two large rips down his back. Feathers floated everywhere, raining down and covering Taichi's bloody body.

"Until the last minute... I was waiting for you... Even when you left me, I believed in you..."

Taichi shook his head.

"No, I still believe in you, even now... We're friends, right? We'll always be together... Even... though you didn't come and the digital world will be destroyed now, you... didn't mean it, right? You were just scared... It's not that you didn't come because you hated me; it was that you were afraid to die, right?"

Taichi started to cough up blood, then reached out a hand stained with blood to Yamato.

"Poor thing..."

Yamato stared at Taichi, his blue eyes filled with disgust for himself and fear of the future. He stumbled back, then turned and ran away. Tears were pouring down his eyes, blurring his vision.

'No, this was not my wish... I did want to be acknowledged by everyone, but I did not want Taichi to be hurt... To leave him like this... My true wish was...'

"IYAAAAA!"

"Yamato! Yamato! Wake up! Stop it! It's only a dream! Come back to me! Yamato!"

Yamato's eyes snapped open, then focused on Taichi. He suddenly pulled Taichi down, hugging him tightly.

"Ya... Yamato?"

"Thank goodness... Taichi... You're okay... Taichi... I'm so sorry... Didn't mean to... But... I'll never leave you alone again like that... I'll come back to you no matter what, so... Don't die..."

Taichi's eyes widened, then softened as he hugged Yamato back gingerly.

"...it's okay. It was only a bad dream, Yamato. I won't leave you. Yamato... I'm here, so... I won't die, so..."

Yamato tightly held on to Taichi's hand as Garurumon paced nervously.

"...we don't know what'll happen to us when we pass through that hole, right?"

"Right, even though it was okay for us to fall through that sky, we might be transcribed as bits of data and disappear when we try to go out through it. Koushirou is not here, so we have no way of knowing what will happen when we go through."

Taichi grinned.

"But hey, we can't just sit here. And we most definitely don't have any other option, right?"

Yamato nodded, biting his lower lip slightly.

"Don't let go of the hand. Since... you're going to be scared, right?"

"Yeah right. It's more like the other way around."

Yamato turned around to smile at Taichi. Taichi's eyes widened as he watched the ultramarine blue-colored eyes lighting up as well. Taichi stared at Yamato for few seconds, captured by that beautiful smile, before grinning widely back. The hand on Yamato tightened its grip slightly.

"Friends forever, right?"

"Yeah, even if we get reconfigured into bits of digimon food."

"Cynical bastard."

"You're just too optimistic, that's all."

Agumon gently patted Garurumon's head, leaning down to whisper into his friend's ear.

"...at least they finally became more honest to their feelings, ne?"

Garurumon smiled before backing up slightly.

"Then I'm flying up. Everyone, please hold on to me as tightly as you can."

Taichi, Yamato, and Agumon tensed as Garurumon spread out his wings and started to fly towards the hole. As the hole got closer and closer, Taichi and Yamato tightened their grip on each other.

"Even if my wings are still fragile, Yamato... we'll be able to fly for sure, na?"

Yamato looked surprised. Taichi turned to smile at Yamato.

"You'll fly with me, won't you?"

Yamato brightly smiled.

"Aa!"

Owari

Finished on 5/6/2003. ...it didn't turn out the way I wanted to at all, but then again... I sat down in front of the computer, only remotely thinking that I'll do a fan fiction based on "Butterfly"(1st season opening theme), so... ^^;; Nn, this will probably be my first and last Digimon fan fiction to see the light of the world. Others are too horrible; they're not even worth editing and posting... *bows* Thank you to all the reviewers! May wings of freedom find you, too.