[fanfic] Digimon Adventure 02: Forever & Always

[higuchimon]

Title: Forever and Always
Romance: Taichi x Yamato/Yamato x Taichi
Word Count: 2,681||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Supernatural||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Valentine's/White Day Fic Exchange; Diversity Writing, section D60, write in the dark fantasy genre; 28 Days of Love Challenge, write about your first ever OTP; Call It Heads or Tails Challenge, first person present tense; Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, prompt #5, forevermore
Note: Summary stolen from The Princess Bride. Honestly, nothing else seemed to fit it.
Summary: Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.

---

I walk through the nighttime streets, keeping my head done, tucked in under my hood. It's an act, nothing more. I'm good at acting. I've had a lot of practice after the last century or ten. I have to look normal. Not looking normal can end up being fatal and dying once was more than enough.

Looking normal probably means I shouldn't be this close to him, but sometimes I can't help myself. He calls to me. He's a part of me. He always has been. I think he always will be. I guess I'll be around long enough to find out.

He will too, kind of. Though he's not going to remember it the way that I will. Because he comes back. He dies and returns in a new body, a new name, but always the same face. That's not what I do. If I ever did, I don't anymore.

Now I just stay the way I am. I have to take blood to survive, because if I don't, I'll start taking it from everyone around me. Not a really good idea. So I feed a little, here and there, and make certain I never go over the edge.

Yeah, there's a name for things like me. I know it. Couldn't not know it. But I don't like saying it.

I never, ever take from him. I could sometimes. He makes it easy if we ever cross paths. Because every time he looks at me that first time, he remembers. He knows who I am and he knows who he is and who he was and he'd do anything for me.

He usually ends up punching me a good one after that first moment, though. I'm used to it by now. It's not like he can really hurt me. But he does it anyway, even though he also remembers that it won't hurt me. It's like his way of telling me hello.

Every time I want to not see him. But every time something happens so that we do. I wonder if we're cursed. I know I am; that's what I am. A walking curse on the world. But he keeps coming back and we never manage to have more than a few years before something takes him from me again.

The thought of making him like me is never far away. Then I'd never be away from him again. We'd always be with each other. To never again have to hold his body in my arms and to never again wait through those long years until I know that he's come back to me.

But I never will. Because I could give this curse to anyone but him. He belongs in the daylight, not like me. I will never, ever take that from him.

I can feel him. He's so close. Looking up to the lighted windows above shows a shape in one of them. I know that it's him. I don't look for more than a second. I can't risk him seeing into my eyes, to have those memories flare back up.

It's a bad night for humans to be out anyway. Too cold. Too snowy. I have to look as if it bothers me. It doesn't; once you're dead, nothing in the way of weather really bothers you anymore.

Can't say the same about a lot of other things but the weather isn't an issue. That's another reason I shouldn't be here. If he sees me, if he remembers, he's going to come out and find me, and it's not good for that. I should've stayed away until spring at least.

But I'm not good at holding myself back when it comes to him. I need him like I used to need air, like I need blood now. I think I'd be worse off if I didn't see him than if I didn't feed.

That's something I won't think about either. Once I almost took from him. I could feel his skin, so warm under my hands, and taste the sweat on his skin, and it was all I could do to stop myself.

So I move along. I have to. I want to. Being here is torture in a way nothing else can be.

I don't look up. I want to. More than anything I want to. But if he doesn't see me and doesn't recognize me then we can go on for a little longer without everything falling apart the way that it always does.

---

They called us the Chosen Children once. I don't know if the name is still being used. I do know that something happened and the two worlds became one a long time ago. I know a lot of things, but that isn't one of them.

There was a time when I slept for a few centuries. It happened then. I could ask, could find out what I missed, but I don't want to know. This is the world now, a world where humans and Digimon live together, and everyone makes the best of it.

I could find Gabumon if I wanted to. He buzzes in the back of my mind almost as much as he does. But I avoid the Village of Beginnings and anywhere else that he might be. He knows what I am. He's known since it happened. But I can't look into his eyes anymore. Not like this.

It's not that Gabumon judges me. He never would. But I judge me. And that's why I avoid him, because I know that he'd stay with me, and I don't want to take him away from his friends, even if he'd be with me.

I spend all of my time traveling. There's a lot of world to cover, even for someone like me, who has done that for so very long. Things change sometimes and I go to see what happened.

He's not the only one who comes back. He's just the one I'm drawn to the most when it happens. I've seen some of the others. Sometimes they're different. Sometimes they're not.

He's always the same, except for his name. Names change to fit the times. That's another reason I don't want to talk to him. Because my name has never changed. I give other names if I have to talk to people, but those aren't my names. They're just what I let people call me by, because my real name can't be known.

We're history. Taught in schools. Legends. Sometimes people say we never existed, even though there are a few pictures left. They're not very good ones, but the right person who knew the pictures could look at them and look at me and make connections.

For my money, it would be Koushirou. He's the kind of person who'd do that. He always is.

I don't want anyone connecting the dots. Not anyone who isn't him, anyway.

And not even him most of the time. He just ends up doing it. Every time.

So I travel. I live, in a manner of speaking. It's easy to do it like this now, not like it was at some points. I try to stay in the parts of the world that are more like the Digital World, because Digimon don't ask nearly as many questions as humans do. If they see someone wrapped up in some kind of a cloak or a hood, trying not to talk to anyone, they don't try to get close to them.

But always in the back of my mind, I can feel him somewhere, and whether I want it or not, my feet find their way to where he is. And I know that sooner or later, he's going to see me. All I can do is try to make it some time when he won't get hurt because of it.

I want him so much. He's hardly the only lover I've ever had. You don't live as long as I have without picking up a few here and there. Sex and love are two different things. You can have one without the other. I don't have all the same desires that I used to, and I don't know at times if that's because of what I am or how old I am or some combination.

I bet if I asked Jou he could figure it out. He's not always a doctor; they never pick the same professions all the time, but there are always paths they're drawn to, and his tends to be some flavor of medicine. I think if I were still mortal and still tied into the cycle of life, mine would be music somehow. Or maybe travel. I traveled the stars once.

His is leadership. When he's had the time, he's found his way into many prominent roles. I'm a little surprised that no one's twigged to reincarnation because of him. Maybe they just don't want to believe. I'd buy that.

I don't think I mind that much, because it means no one is going to be looking for me when I come back. And since I never do, not the way they do, they won't miss me.

---

Time flows. It has a way of doing that. Winter into spring, sprint into summer, summer to autumn, and back around to winter. This one isn't so bad as the last time I was around here. There are several nights where I can walk down any street and not worry that a human out here might suffer.

I try to fool myself that I'm not thinking about him in particular, but I'm not all that good at lying to myself. If I ever was, I'm not anymore. I can pretend I lie to myself, and I usually do when it comes to him. It makes passing the time that much easier. For a little while.

But now I need to feed, and I know I shouldn't have left it as long as I have. This is a bad place to need to eat for me. But what can I do? If I wait until the next settlement, which is a fair distance even for me, then it might be too much. So I can't let it happen. I have to find someone.

They have to be human. I've tried to take blood from a Digimon before. The less said about that the better.

This settlement isn't that big, but there are enough of my kind of prey so I don't think I'll be looking for long. I don't like to take from innocents. I've done it before and hate myself to this moment and beyond. But I don't want to. I try to take from those who would hurt other people.

So I try to look like prey myself. I pull my hood down around my shoulders and walk as if I can't hear every single noise around me and know whether or not it's something I should worry about.

It never is. All that can bring me harm is fire and wood, and in this village of stone, I'm not stressed about either one. But my prey doesn't need to know that.

Footsteps. Calm and unhurried. Too calm, given the late hour and the fact it's the dark of the moon. More than one person; perhaps up to three. I can scent their excitement in the air. Have they seen me?

I think they have. They sound excited, the kind of excitement I've heard many times before, right before a good meal.

With a little patience, I can hear them well enough. Yes, three of them, and this is something they've done before, finding late night travelers and beating them, taking any wealth their victims have for themselves. Done before, but never done again.

Even if I let them live, they won't do it again. Because they will always be afraid that if they strike again, it will be me they see. No one likes to see me more than once.

So they circle around me. They try to look menacing, and I'm sure they do, for mortals. Large muscles, sneering faces, wielding short lengths of chain as weapons.

"What do you want?" I want to sound scared. I think it works. They laugh at me.

"Give us your money," the one in front of me says, "and we'll let you out of here."

I shake my head. "I don't have any." Not actually true. But they have no more need for the contents of my pocket than I have for theirs.

That one steps forward. "You'd best not be lying to us." He raises his chain, as if to scare me. I cower back. I want them closer. They've chosen a dark alley for this.

Dark to them.

They all come closer, chains whistling as they spin. I take another step back. I'm so hungry.

One of them moves in range. I can't wait anymore. He brings his chain down and I grab it. For a moment they start to laugh, thinking I got lucky. But then I pull him closer. And I bite.

There isn't any more laughing after that. The other two are too surprised to move, and when they make an attempt, it's pathetically easy for me to stop them. I so hate to let a good meal get away, and the fact there are three of them is what will save all their lives.

"Hey!"

This is not happening. It's not at all the first time someone has happened upon me feeding, nor is it even the first time he did. I just wish it hadn't happened yet again.

He stands at the end of the alley, staring. He has no weapons. He only looks angry, as gloriously furious as only he can. "What are you-" And then he breaks off and stares even more. As if he's never seen a vampire indulge himself with his prey before.

Or as if he's remembering having seen it before.

I could leave. I could avoid his eyes and abandon my feasting and slip away into the shadows and let him wonder forever if he truly saw what he knows that he did.

But I'm never, ever good at denying myself when it comes to him. Not for long. And it's been so long already.

I don't let my current meal go. He will know me for what I am, and I'm not done eating. I bring my eyes up to meet him, and smile. It's been so very long.

Same wild hair, that he only rarely cuts. Same large, warm eyes, so filled with a mix of confusion and memories. Somewhere behind him, I can scent a Digimon. A lizard-type. Agumon, again. As always. And... Gabumon? What's he doing there?

This is going to be a very interesting turn of events. I can tell it already.

Our eyes meet. Whatever he's trying to say stutters to a halt as he truly sees me for the first time. It's dark but he can see me anyway. I'm not surprised by this.

He swallows. The memories are surging; I can feel it in the way he stares at me. He's about sixteen now. I look older than he does; I didn't stop aging until I was in my twenties. That's another reason I try to wait before we meet again.

"Yamato," he says it like a benediction, a blessing. I smile. I know what it has to look like, all blood and teeth.

"Been a while, Taichi."

He comes over. The way he moves is shaking and confused, with over a thousand years' worth memories firing through his mind. I don't move. I know what's coming next, and I do move my prey to make it easier. Might as well get it over with.

The punch doesn't hurt. It's like coming home. Or home coming to me. And I smile again. "Nice to see you again."

"Jerk."

Yeah. I love you too, Taichi.

The End