Time Saver - a Taishirou Fanfic, Chapter 5: Familiarity
Summary: As Koushirou and Tentomon escort Hotaru and Hibismon to the office to watch over them for the rest of the night, Koushirou cannot help but to contemplate whether trusting the strange girl is a logical decision - or one he shall trust his gut over for once.
As Takeru, Hikari and their partners helped wrapping everything up, Jyou pulled Koushirou to the side carefully, only half-pretending to take a good look at the paperwork.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”, he whispered to his younger friend, still overly cautious due to the whole situation being fairly unclear. And Koushirou couldn’t even blame him; glancing over the “information sheet” Jyou was holding – it wasn’t even an official document, as they had brought her in without enrolling her –, they really didn’t know anything yet.
It surely wasn’t the first time they had helped a new Chosen Child that had gotten lost one way or another – but in this case, they hadn’t even been able to clearly identify this girl yet. No ID, no access to her phone – as Takeru had so nonchalantly figured out.
“We can’t leave her here and neither Takeru-kun nor Hikari-san should carry that responsibility”, Koushirou tried to reason, both to himself as well as to the frowning Jyou. There was a certain risk to it, he was aware. But there was also something else he couldn’t put into words – but it made him want to take full responsibility himself. “Tentomon and I will take care of everything.”
“And then what, you’ll pull another allnighter in the office?” Jyou gave him a stern look – which was at least followed by a crooked smile. “I at least have a valid reason to have bad sleeping habits… You shouldn’t worry your mother so much, you know.”
That was another aspect he had to take into consideration – even though being reminded of it made his stomach drop a little.
“I promised her to come visit once Taichi-san returned from his travels. It’s not been particularly easy to juggle the moving recently, but I am aware that she’s wanting to support us as much as possible.”
Ever since Taichi had encouraged Koushirou to move out from his parents’ home, he had been dealing with a sense of guilt. Of course he was already supporting them financially either way – but dealing with his company, the idea of living with someone he had basically been having a long-distance-relationship with for the past few years, organizing the Chosen Children network and everything in between… Sometimes made him feel like a neglectful son.
“And I do not intend to make things harder for her and my father… Which is exactly why I’d refuse to show up in the middle of the night. They would be even more worried if I got there with…”
Koushirou looked over to the girl – Hotaru –, who was now talking to the ever-smiling Hikari, showing a somewhat bashful expression. This was definitely nothing he could have calculated before.
“I understand”, Jyou said gently, patting his shoulder. “But don’t pull a Taichi and think you have to do all this by yourself.”
He smiled wearily. Through the years – and especially since he had become a doctor n training – Jyou had definitely turned into some kind of supportive mother hen for him as well as for the others. Koushirou had learned that being anything other than direct was no use – they both shared the habit of overworking after all, so keeping each other in check had also become a strange yet comforting ritual. And Koushirou was actually thankful for that – as it helped him to become more open about his intentions as well.
“I promise to be more reasonable in the future, Jyou-san.”
“We’ll see about that!” He patted Koushirou’s shoulder again, this time with emphasis – and a mischievous grin. “Taichi has quite an influence on you.”
“That”, Koushirou grinned back – not any less confident, because at this point, there was really no way to deny it, “Is barely a new discovery though.”
“Just… Be careful, okay?”
Koushirou glanced over once more. In the end, this was just the equivalent of solving another riddle, another mystery – and even if he had to do it carefully, he would make sure to collect all the necessary puzzle pieces. No matter what.
“I will.”
~
Parting ways and making their way back to the office building in the middle of the night – on Kabuterimon’s back none the less – still felt somewhat surreal. Koushirou was sure he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Whenever they had gone on late-night missions, he was usually the one to navigate the others, either from home or from the office space. In recent times, their group had been significantly smaller in terms of being combat-ready, but even then, he was rarely among those that had to fight physically – although he was almost sure Tentomon would have loved being part of the squad.
The last time he could remember was when Taichi had come back after finishing one of his exams – so it had just been the two of them. Back then, they had actually traveled back to the office together as well – but it had not been 3 AM. Thankfully, this time of night allowed for his partner – despite his size – to merge almost perfectly with the darkness surrounding them, causing the least amount of noise possible.
“Thank you for having me”, Hotaru broke through the silence eventually before they finally reached their destination. “I’m not… Taking this for granted.”
She hadn’t looked at Koushirou ever since they had left the hospital – not even now that Kabuterimon had evolved back to Tentomon, standing with them in front of the building elevator.
“It’s our pleasure!”, Tentomon replied upon leading her out of the elevator first as they entered the 7th floor of the office, walking straight to Koushirou’s main office. Koushirou followed, but left enough space behind them, watching closely. “Please make yourself at home here, we also have snacks and drinks stored in case you’re needing something.”
The ladybug Digimon joyfully jumped to one of the closets to fish a pillow and blanket out of it, leaving Hotaru enough room to see all the utensils inside. It really didn’t seem to fit into the rest of the neat office space, but instead seemed like a messy emergency storage room providing shelter to at six to eight people at least, if necessary.
“Always the sweetheart”, Hotaru commented with a gentle tone, still carrying Hibismon in her arms – and it caught Tentomon off guard.
“Come again?”, Tentomon asked, genuinely unsure as to whether he had heard correctly, whereas Hotaru just… Blushed immensely.
“Oh, I just... You’re very sweet! I mean, in general! You were so kind to me earlier too!”
Both bugs stared at her with curious eyes, trying to understand the sudden outburst – and Tentomon just scratched the back of his head with his claw.
“Awwwww, such flattery!”
Having watched the scene unfold and despite it all, Koushirou still couldn’t shake the thought that they had decided on doing the right thing.
“I hope the couch will be comfortable enough”, he finally raised his voice himself, taking out another blanket from the closet. “We have more blankets and pillows in the closet if you require any more. It’s not unusual to turn this space into a sleepover-fort, even if I’m not particularly proud of that habit...”
He didn’t know why he had felt the need to explain all that. She didn’t seem surprised by what he had just said, he didn’t exactly owe her an explanation – and yet, this was the first time since their eyes had met in the hospital room that she was looking directly at him.
Once again, frozen in place.
“Are you okay?”, Tentomon asked, one claw reaching out for her, but she just shook her head.
“A-ah, yes, yes, I’m just tired!”
Whether it actually had been smart to release her out of the hospital just yet, Koushirou wasn’t able to tell however, but she still seemed incredibly disoriented.
“Understandably so”, he just agreed, hoping that a few hours of sleep would help her to clear things up – and to get actual answers out of her. If there was one thing he had learned – the hard way – through the years, it was that overly tired or stressed people were not capable of giving appropriate responses. Mimi – quite literally – had hit him over the head more than once and was constantly texting him to get more than three hours of sleep a night regularly. “Take your time getting ready, there are several washing rooms in the building. We do not have showers, but any other necessities should be there, so don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything.”
Hotaru’s tension finally seemed to decrease a little as she dared to take a step closer towards Koushirou, who had just continued to ramble matter-of-factly.
“May I say, it’s very kind of you to host your friends here on a regular basis”, she said – and this time, it was his turn to be caught off guard. The softness of her voice was such a drastic change from how much she had shrieked earlier.
“It just became natural over the course of the years”, he kept explaining without hesitation. Again, she absolutely didn’t seem to find any of what she was witnessing odd in the slightest…
“It does have practical use!” An actual smile formed on Hotaru’s lips. “It’s better to be prepared in all kinds of emergencies, so there’s actually no reason not to be proud of it.”
“That… Is an interesting view point”, Koushirou just uttered, genuinely surprised by how logical it was and weirded out by the fact that he had never thought about it that way. “As I said, if you need anything else, please let me know.”
Even now, her smile didn’t vanish.
“… Thank you for trusting me.”
Just like before, Koushirou couldn’t help it. Something in his gut was telling him that there was just… No immediate danger at hand. Inviting a stranger surely was unusual, it was weird, even if she was potentially hiding something and despite everything they had gone through in the past decade…
“The past has taught us to be cautious in certain situations, so… Please don’t take Jyou-san’s or Takeru-kun’s statements as personal attacks. We will talk about everything tomorrow, now please make sure to rest.”
“Mhmh”, Hotaru nodded along, still keeping eye-contact, letting it linger for a few more seconds – up until Tentomon grabbed her hand…
“I’ll show her the bathroom and be back in a second.”
“Thank you, let’s go, Hibismon.”
… Leaving Koushirou behind with that weird, oddly familiar feeling in his gut.
~
“Tentomon?”
Even if he had wanted to, Koushirou had only ever managed to nap for short periods of time. He was perfectly aware that neither Mimi nor Jyou nor Taichi or anyone else would have been pleased with that behaviour. But with a girl sleeping on his office couch – which, under any other circumstances, probably would have been considered problematic –, arms wrapped around her bug Digimon partner and a thousand questions in his mind, he simply wouldn’t have been able to sleep. Hotaru, however, as far as he could tell from the other side of the room, had fallen asleep mere seconds after laying down.
Completely and utterly exhausted. And weirdly comfortable.
“Mhh?”, Tentomon mumbled sleepily, nuzzling into Koushirou’s side on the other couch.
“Have you sensed something strange about her before?”
“I would not exactly call it ‘strange’, but…”, Tentomon yawned, slowly but steadily finding his way back into an awake state. Just like the girl, his partner had a much easier time letting his guard down. “Hotaru-han has a very peculiar smell about herself.”
“A peculiar smell?”
“Yes, it is very familiar, and it’s not even just that…” Once more, he scratched the back of his head as if what he was saying was thoroughly embarrassing. “I’m not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me, and it may all be just a big coincidence, but not trusting her would feel entirely wrong, even if I… Have troubles putting it into words. It’s a bit silly, isn’t it?”
Koushirou couldn’t help but to smile softly. With all their contrasts and differences, they really were soulmates after all. So he had sensed it too…
“… No, I feel similarly. I would have asked her to stay with us myself if you hadn’t.”
“Oh, how come?”
Maybe Jyou had been correct to assume that Taichi had too much of an influence on him – because he usually wasn’t basing his judgement on what his gut was telling him. Plus, he was almost certain Taichi would have handled all this the exact same way.
So I have been doing a lot of filet and mesh crochet recently and I got to thinking.
There has to be a faster way.
Disclaimer: This is not my original idea, and I will admit that I basically took this and extrapolated. Hence why I'm sharing this for free.
I figured out the equation that tells you how to crochet a lot of rows at the same time.
Caveats:
I've tested this on mesh (3DC blocks) and fillet (4DC blocks) up to 5 rows at a time. I use ergonomic hooks and doing more than that on them just isn't physically comfortable with Super Saver yarn, though I can confirm that a 5 row setup also works with lace weight yarn so if the yarn is thin enough or you're using a Tunisian hook I don't see why you couldn't do more than 5 at a time.
You don't have to use this method, but if you do want to smash out a quick mesh or filet project, you can.
I made this on a 11" tablet so it should be very zoomable on any device for readability.
Can you please show me the swatch of the skin you used. That would help me out tremendously. It shows as the first for me but that's a really light pale color 🤔 ty
I mean-
tries to suppress pms-grump-vee but fails
It's a base sim. You can customize however you want him. You can choose whatever skin color suits him best to your likings. So why not figure out yourself?
For Wednesday, I cut up the rest of the vegetables I'll need for the rest of the week, put 2 more lunch snack boxes together, and made extra dinner so that I still have 1 more serving of tilapia and at least 2 more servings of pasta 😃
I already feel like it's saving time, since all the chopping was done while tonight's dinner cooked, so only spent about 45 mins in the kitchen today and won't have to do much more the rest of the week!
Previewing a new character on the PTS for a Pact play through.
Do yourself a favor people: If you have - or can beg/borrow a PC - make your char in the PTS, screenshot the sliders, AND THEN make it in the actual game. It will save you ENDLESS frustration.
PTS is the closest thing eso has to god/console mode. It’s also FREE if you already have the PC game. You have access to every dye, every outfit/armor, a fully leveled character template, and most importantly, FREE CROWNS for INFINITE APPEARANCE CHANGE TOKENS! No more stupid lighting screwing up your skin colors, etc. Just port to a sunlit area and check yourself out!
If you (or your pc friend) have the Psijic manor, it’s the best place to screenshot, since it never gets dark. Artaeum is second best because you can’t put a dye station right in front of you for fast changes, but its 24-hour daylight, so it works. Also, you don’t have to equip armor to use the outfit station, just plug in the motif pieces on your naked body and “buy” a bunch of outfit slots for easy previews.
The stuff in the shots is Mannimarco’s Worm Cult motif of course. Imo one of the nicest outfits in the game. I swear, the villians always get the BEST clothes. Why is that anyway?
