When the Ishida family split apart, few after moving out of Hikarigaoka, Takeru was 4 years old. As Masaharu chose to live with the eldest child, Yamato, Takeru went to live outside of Odaiba with Natsuko, his beautiful mother. Unlike Masaharu, Natsuko (who's also a reporter, but for a magazine) could spend much more time with her son; and as he was such a small child, she naturally tended to overprotect and pamper him a little. No wonder Takeru turned, at first, to cling so much to the ones he looks up to: his sempai Taichi and his brother Yamato, whom he thinks the world of. He can barely see his brother at school, as Natsuko agreed to have him attending the Odabia elementary to keep him in touch with Yamato. 

In the first part, until the kids are back to Hikarigaoka and Odaiba, Takeru is and acts like a little kid. He reminds dangerously of Yamano Jun from Ronin Warriors, in sempai's words. He squeals towards everything, cries easily, sickeningly depends on others and needs to be rescued every once and again. In few words, he's the official crybaby of the team, even more so than Mimi (Mimi can fight back when needed, and she made Palmon digievolve kinda sooner than expected...). 

The first Puppetmon chapter (in the Dark Masters saga) is the one where Takeru rebels agaisnt his weakeness. He tells Yamato not to overprotect him anymore, saying that he knows he's unuseful and babyish and wants to change it. Yamato tries to convince him (more himself than the kid, though) that it's not true, but then Puppetmon comes and captures Yamato. Takeru and his ULTRA-CUTE Digimon, Patamon (who didgievolves into the human-shaped Angemon), offer themselves as hostages instead, and Puppetmon accepts... big mistake. Takeru realizes his weak point and gets himself and Patamon free without a scratch, this pulling the trigger on Yamato's sanity, and he has the GREAT crisis that we all know by this point. 

Takeru, after Yamato leaves, goes with Sora, Koushiro, and the Yagami siblings, and becomes Hikari's best friend and companion. This is shown when they're the only two left against Piedmon (the others have been trapped and turned into keychains); it's Takeru who tries to lead the way and put her out of danger. He fails, but then the Tag and Crest of Hope he was entrusted with, shines, and Angemon (who has been fighting Piedmon) digievolves into Champion form, Magna/HolyAngemon, and saves the day. Then comes the fight of them all against Apocalypmon, and the happy-happy joy-joy end. 

In 02 Takeru definitely grows up. He's now strongwilled, easygoing, and friendly, member of his school's basketball team, and very popular. He currently has only eyes for Hikari, but his relationship with the new Digidestined Daisuke Motomiya turns out to be... sorta curious... Eeeeh, don't look at me like that! Ecchi!! 

Part 1: Takeru and Jyou? 

Blame this on Rei from "Splash Maze" and Mina-sempai! Wai, wai, cute!! At first you'd believe that Taichi is Takeru's subrogate 'Oniichan', but surprise, for us it's Jyou. Even whe in the start Yamato got jealous of Taichi and Takeru's closeness, and Takeru once ASKED Taichi to be his older brother (when PicoDevimon convinced Takeru that Yamato didn't love him anymore), Jyou ended up saving at least TWICE Takeru's life (one in 'Weregarurumon's dinner' and the other in 'City under Siege'). I've stated them already as brownie points for Jyou towards Yamato, but maybe it can work for Takeru as well... 
 
 

Mimi and Takeru are seen many times together at the beginning and, unlike others, don't seem to get involved in fights or quarrels. So I can say that, with a little time and quite more luck, a relationship between them may be.. intresting, to say the least. Maybe not the first, but intresting. And the two fics I read about TakeMi were good, so... 
 
 

Hm? Koushiro rather limits himself to reply Takeru's questions and let himself be showered in the little kid's admirating glances, but he seems more intrested in people his age or a li'l older than him. Being rather logical, Kou-chan would most likely think that Takeru's possible feelings aren't anything but the typic baby crushes, and shove them aside gently or simply ignore them. 
 
 

 (How curious, I like Koushiro with both the Yagami sibs, and sempai loves Jyou with both the Ishida/Takaishi sibs - I kinda like it too... What's the damn pattern here? Or are we just going nuts?... :P).