Summer heat made Yamato feel lazy and exhausted. He'd never been one for extreme temperatures. In fact, he preferred a chilly fall day to anything else. Unfortunately, it was summer right now, and summer meant heat.

Luckily, summer also meant a trip to his grandmother's house. Yamato always looked forward to their long weekends there, even though it was boring and there wasn't much to do. He looked forward to it because he and Takeru got to go together. It wasn't often they got to spend so much uninterrupted time together, just relaxing and eating shaved ice and playing card games. Last summer they hadn't gotten to relax very much, because of all that business with that digimon who tried to nuke them and all. This summer, he was ready to do nothing but relax.

"Oniichan?" Takeru asked, staring at Yamato from where he lay on the tatami floor basking in the sun like a cat.

Yamato frowned, wondering if he should roll Takeru into the shade to avoid letting him get a sunburn. "Yes?" He himself was lying on the floor as well (the tatami were nice and cool), but a few feet away in the shade, with a fan blowing on his face.

"What's sex?"

Yamato wasn't sure he'd ever expected to hear that question from his brother, and he was definitely sure he wasn't ready for it yet. He sat up quickly, feeling his entire face go red, and fisted his hands in his lap anxiously. "E-excuse me?!"

Takeru just rolled over to face Yamato better, giving him a curious look. "What's sex?"

Yamato's mind raced. Where had his beloved brother heard about sex?! Well, he supposed it must have been on television or in some manga... but his mother was so protective and careful about those sorts of things! So where had he heard about sex?! "Um... well... you see..." Yamato stuttered. "Why?!" he finally burst out.

Takeru slowly sat up, giving a small sigh that made his chest heave. He looked frustrated. "I heard about it from somebody. They said it was good, like kissing."

Yamato pursed his lips and adjusted his position, sitting with his legs folded under him, like his father always did when he was serious about something. "Sex is... something only adults do!" he said finally, thinking that that was a very good response. After all, he hadn't questioned it for a while when his father told him that.

Takeru's nose wrinkled and he squinted at his brother. "You're just trying not to answer me."

Glancing away, Yamato coughed. Maybe Takeru was smarted than he'd been at his age. Well, that was alright, he supposed. "It... It's just... it's a grown-up thing, that's all!"

Takeru stared at him for a long time, then sighed and flopped back onto his back. "That's not what Taichi-san said."

Yamato gaped at Takeru in horror. "What?! Why was Taichi talking to you about... about THAT?!"

"'Cause I asked him how come he got to be the leader, and not you, oniichan." Takeru said, tugging on a loose string from his shirt.

"And... and he said sex was the reason?!" Yamato was horrified.

"He said 'cause oniichan was repressed, not like him. And I asked him what repressed was, and he said it's when you don't wanna admit you want sex with somebody. And then I asked him what sex was, and he said it's something only cool people like him do, and not like you." Takeru said all of this very deliberately, making sure not to miss anything, and then glanced back at Yamato again. "But oniichan is cool, so oniichan must know about sex, too, right? So what's sex, oniichan?"

Yamato pursed his lips and glanced over at the phone sitting on the table across the room. "It's the reason I'm going to kill Taichi."

Takeru sighed and watched Yamato stomp over to the phone and dial Taichi's number, and proceed to scream into it. He toned out the screaming and went back to tugging on the loose string in his shirt, wondering if he'd ever be old enough to have Yamato tell him what sex really was. Till then, he supposed, he would just make himself feel better by eating some more strawberry shaved ice. No way could sex be better than that.