Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

September 17^th, 2014

Admittedly, Taichi had never put a lot of effort into decorating his room. Sure, when he had been a kid, there had been a few posters of soccer players, but not much more. After all he had shared his room with Hikari back then. Is teen room had been barely decorated, because it had been tiny. He had lived in that until one year ago. And now, well, now he was trying to drive that god darn nail into the wall, without bending it. No, Taichi had not been artisanally minded, either.

Finally, though, the nail was properly in the wall. Finally!

“What are you doing, Taichi?” Agumon asked, standing at the foot of the bed. He had been watching him in confusion.

“I got the nail to stick!” he replied. He jumped of the kind sized bed and went to the small package he had gotten earlier with the mail. It was something he had wanted to do for at least three years now – but had not gotten around to. First, because he had been living with his parents, then, because the student home did not allow for nails in the walls.

This, however, was his first proper apartment on his own. Well, not on his own. He was sharing, with Koshiro, Agumon and Tentomon. But still: They were properly renting it and had a lot more freedoms this way.

So, he took out the flag and unfolded it. There were the two rings meant to hang it up. Once more he climbed onto the bed to hang the flag above it. Having done so, he took a step back, looking at it. It was mostly level. Trying to fix the fact, that the left nail was about a centimeter lower, would not do him any good.

He nodded to himself. This was fine.

“But why is it a rainbow?” Agumon asked, looking at the flag in confusion.

Taichi shrugged. Truth to be told: He was not quite sure about that as well. He had read, it was to represent some sort of diversity or something, but he did not really know. “Because that's just the official symbol,” he replied. “Rainbow flag. For pride and such.”

“But what has a rainbow to do with pride?” Agumon tended to take a lot of things way to literally. Even after 13 years living with his human in this world most of the time, he got easily confused by many parts of the human world. Well, maybe it could not be helped. The digital world was a different place after all.

“It's just what they decided upon,” he said. “The rainbow flag represents the queer community, you know?”

Agumon sighed heavily. “I still don't quite get what ‘queer’ means.”

Jumping down from the bed, Taichi went over to his partner. “I know, buddy,” he said, patting the reptile's head.

He was not quite sure, how things would go from here on. It might have been a rush decision to move in with Koshiro. It was fact though, that both of them would work here, in New York, from now on – both for the UN. Koshiro as a researcher, Taichi as a representative. He was still feeling pretty nervous about it. Sure, in a weird way it made sense, to have him be that person, he guessed. For once he was one of the persons having had the longest contact with the digital world, but also, he had actually studied politics and public relations. But he knew, it would be hard.

He knew from Miyako and Mimi, that there would be people looking down on him, because he wasn't white. There would also be people, who would be prejudiced exactly because of what he represented in regards to the Digimon. Being openly in gay relationship probably would not make it any easier.

Agumon looked at the flag once more. “I really don't get it.”

“You don't need to,” Taichi replied. “Isn't it enough, that I like it being there?”

“Yeah,” Agumon muttered. “Probably.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe we should make a flag for the digital world.”

Taichi smiled at his partner. “Actually, there are already people working on it.” Not to mention, there was an unofficial flag used by much of the partnered folks, many of whom were no longer children.

***

Having his work start only in five days, Taichi spent most of his day unpacking the rest of his clothes. He had to say: The digital world had made moving much easier. While they had bought most of their new furniture, they had simply transported most of their stuff through the digital world. Open a gate in Tokyo, moved one area ahead in the digital world and opened a gate to New York. No hassle with bringing the stuff to an airport and paying lots of money to ship it. And yes, he knew there were already people using the digital world for this with way less innocent means than a simple move. Which would probably be something, he would have to deal with soon.

After finally having put the last of his clothes into the wardrobe, he went out to fetch some ingredients for dinner. As Koshiro had already started working three weeks ago, having moved here ahead of him, Koshiro would not be home for another two hours – if not longer. Koshiro tended to forget time and the world around him, if he was working. Having been with him for so long, Taichi knew this too well. So often, he had to remember his boyfriend to eat and drink.

By now Taichi had learned cooking. For a very long time, he had been of the opinion that fried rice was all one needed to be able to cook. Now he knew at least a total of ten different menus to cook. He still ended up deciding on Omrice this evening.

So, he cut the veggies, cut some chicken meat, stopped Agumon from eating it raw (having grown up with cats he was quite used to it), fried the meat, the veggies, the rice, before making an omelet to put on top.

It was just, when he put the stirred egg mixture into the pan, that the apartment door was opened and Koshiro entered.

He was panting after climbing up the three flights of stairs. After all he was less sportive then Taichi.

Taichi looked out the kitchen door, which allowed him a direct view of their small hallway. “Welcome back, darling,” he said in a probably awful English. He was still practicing. By now he understood the language just fine, but Mimi kept saying his pronunciation was beyond horrible.

“Hey,” Koshiro sighed. He brushed some sweat of his face. “You're cooking?” He was speaking Japanese.

“Yeah. Omrice,” Taichi replied. He would've loved to go over and kiss him – but the omelet could not get too done for Omrice.

“Thanks,” Koshiro said. He took off his shoes, before bringing his laptop to his office. They had two small office rooms in the apartment, which was way more expensive than anything Taichi would've ever imagined renting for himself. Then again: Their income would be able to sustain it.

“How has been your day?” Taichi asked. He tested the eggs with his spatula. The bottom was already cooked enough for him to fold the omelet in on itself. Having done so, he let it cook for a bit longer, before carefully transferring the omelet onto the rice. He had only made two rather big portions instead of four. They could share. That was: One portion for him and Koshiro, another for the two Digimon. With Agumon it felt like a waste however to serve the food in a pretty or decorative way. Agumon only cared for the taste.

“This does look good,” Tentomon commented flying into the kitchen. It looked onto the two big plates. “I am actually rather hungry.”

Taichi grinned. “Did Koshiro forget to feed you today?”

“Well, our lunch was mostly energy bars,” Tentomon admitted.

“Taichi, will you feed me energy bars, too, when you go work there?” Agumon asked.

Once more he found himself patting his partner's head. “No, I'll make sure we both eat in the cafeteria. Don't worry.”

Meanwhile Koshiro had gone into the bathroom to wash his face. Drying off himself with a towel he left. “I want to note, that I am almost in time today,” he said.

Now that the food was plated, Taichi went over to him, to put both his arms around the smaller man's neck. "I noticed," he said, kissing him onto the forehead. “Very well done.”

“There is still so much I want to learn,” Koshiro muttered. “And the technology here is just unlike anything I'd ever hoped for.”

“I know.” Taichi leaned his own forehead against Koshiro's for a moment. “But you'll have all the time in the world.”

A tiny chuckle rose in Koshiro's throat. “I know. I know.”

Taichi smirked. They both knew, he knew and still had terrible self-control. Ever since they had first entered the digital world, Koshiro had been determined to decrypt all its secrets. He had always been a bit obsessive - as Mimi would remind them again and again. “I wanted to show you something,” he then said.

“Can't we eat first?” Agumon complained.

“For once I agree with Agumon,” Tentomon said.

Taichi waved away their worries. “It won't take long.”

Koshiro smiled. “Sure. Show me.”

Thus, Taichi led them into their shared bedroom, where he had finished hanging up the flag. “Tadaa! I only hammered my finger once.” He did notice Koshiro blushing.

“You know,” he whispered. “This is still pretty weird to me.”

“Weird how?”

“I don't know,” Koshiro said. “I… I've thought so long that this is wrong. Those feelings for you. And going out like this, priding ourselves in it… I am not saying it is wrong, but I still need to get used to it.”

Taichi sighed, putting one arm around his boyfriend. He had been with him all the way, while he struggled. While Taichi had not told his parents for a while, he had never felt ashamed of not only caring for women, but not caring about gender at all. Koshiro had taken much longer to properly accept it himself.

Neither of them, however, had had such an easy time as Mimi. Then again: She had lived in the US ever since she had been in her early teens. So maybe it was different for her. Or maybe it was just Mimi being Mimi. Who knew?

“Do you like it, though?” he asked.

Koshiro looked at the flag for a while. “Yeah, I guess I do.” He slight smile showed on his face. “Mimi's gonna love this, when she comes over.” So, he had basically been thinking the same as Taichi. No wonder, though, considering that them getting together had partly been Mimi's doing after all.

“Yeah, she'll absolutely adore it,” Taichi replied. Then he stretched. “Well, you wanna eat?”

“Food!” Agumon screamed from the hallway, making both of them laugh.

“I guess somebody is starving,” Taichi said.

Koshiro smiled. “Yeah, let's eat.”

Chapter Text

June 29^th, 2009

Miyako had known, it would be crowded, but she had not quite expected, how crowded it would be. People were filling the sides of the 5th Avenue, when she and Mimi arrived. She could suddenly understand, why Palmon had prefered to stay home, even though she was glad, Poromon had come along.

New York was still very new to her. She was from Tokyo, she knew crowded places, but the people in the US were simply different from the people in Japan. They were louder and way more diverse. When she was at any sort of event in Tokyo, it would be mostly Japanese people and they were more organized and just, well, quieter. In truth, she loved the loudness of it all, it was way more her style – but right in this moment, she felt a bit overwhelmed.

“Hey,” Mimi took her by the hand. “Don't fall back or I won't find you anymore.”

Without even noticing Miyako had stopped short in her step, marveling at it all.

There were so many different people, so many different bodies. And quite a lot of them were scantily clothed. Mimi herself only wore a dangerously short skirt in rainbow colors, while she had died her hair colorful as well. This was nothing new – after all Mimi had worn her hair screaming pink, when they had first met. Others, too, were wearing rainbow attire, as well as other flags and other colors.

Mimi got out her D-Terminal. “Michael and Maria should be somewhere around here.” She looked around – to no avail. Mimi was relatively short and thus unable to look over the heads of all the people around them.

“We'll find them,” Miyako said, now focusing on exactly that. They should find the others. It had probably been a bad idea to meet up at the parade itself. She should've thought of that before. Tiptoeing she tried to get a glimpse of Michael's blonde locks somewhere.

“I could look for them,” Poromon offered.

Both young women looked at the Digimon, then exchanged a glance. Frankly, Miyako was not sure whether it was a good idea. But then again, both their partners were not the only ones here. “You might as well,” she finally said, getting out her Digivice.

It lit up, when Poromon jumped out of her purse. “Poromon - Shinka! Hawkmon!” it shouted, before the light engulfed it, only for the slightly bigger bird Digimon to fly up into the sky a moment later.

Some people around them watched. Miyako saw a younger girl – maybe twelve years of age – point at the Digimon, saying something to one of her mothers, Miyako could not understand.

Mimi pulled her closer. “Is everything alright, my darling?” she asked. She probably would've whispered, but between all the voices and the music coming out of some speakers, she had to almost scream to make herself heard.

“Yeah, I am just a bit overwhelmed,” Miyako replied. “So many people.”

“You should've gone to Tokyo Pride before!”

“Well, I was not out till last winter.”

Mimi looked at her one eyebrow raised. “Yeah, it was just that everybody around you knew!”

Miyako laughed awkwardly. It might be true. At least this was the feedback she had gotten from most people – including Daisuke, who normally did not notice anything happening around him. “Maybe.” The fact still remained: It was her first Pride Parade ever – and it just so happened to be one of the biggest in the world in a country she had just moved to. This was reason enough to be overwhelmed, she though.

Just a few seconds later Hawkmon flew down to them. “I've found Michael,” it shouted. “He's in the front a bit further over there.” It pointed with its beak.

Mimi smiled at her girlfriend. “Let's go.” She pulled her along.

They weaved through the crowd past so many different people. But then Miyako finally spotted Maria's tall stature, next to her boyfriend. Michael was still looking rather awkward, having only recently started to let his beard grow in at the chin. His hair was shorter than it had been, when Miyako had once met him in the digital world, but even now his locks were showing. While he was mostly normally dressed, he had the bi pride flag painted onto his cheeks.

“There you are!” he greeted them in English, once he noticed them. “I wondered, where you've gone.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Mimi said, hugging first him, then Maria. “We've needed to find you first.”

Now he grinned at Miyako. “Hi, Miyako.”

She smiled. “Hi.”

At least both of them had their Digimon partners with them. So, she was not alone with it. Betamon was sitting on Michael's arms, while Goburimon was standing next to the fence at the side of the street.

Maria stepped over to her. “You look a bit overwhelmed.”

It took Miyako a moment to parse her words. After all her English was not perfect yet and she certainly needed a while to understand certain words. “Yes. It's many people,” she tried her best at a reply.

“Yeah, I can see that. But it's great. Great atmosphere, you know?”

Miyako nodded. “Yes. I think I understand.” She took a deep breath to try and get rid of her anxiety. She was good with people; she always had been. After all she had spent so much time working in her parent's combini. So, she was fine. There were many other east Asians here as well. She fit right in.

Once again, Mimi pulled her close. “Relax, my dear,” she whispered in Japanese. “I am here to protect you.”

Miyako smiled. “I know, you are.” Another deep breath, then she managed an honest smile. “And I am glad that you are, that we are here.” She really was.

Chapter Text

September 5^th, 2017

Once more Daisuke was crouching down to massage his lower leg. Ever since that stupid accident it would at times suddenly start aching and he hated it.

“Are you alright, Daisuke-kun?” Digitamamon asked.

He waited for the pain to subside, before standing up and forcing a smile onto his face. “Never better.”

The Digimon's yellow eyes looked out of the eternal darkness that was the inside of its shell. It shook its head – meaning basically his entire body. “Your shift is almost finished. Just go home, will you? As I remember, you had a date this evening either way.”

Daisuke looked onto his watch. “I can still do my last half hour!”

“It's fine, Daisuke-kun,” Digitamamon said. “You and V-mon just go home. I'll manage the rest alone.”

Somewhat unsure the man watched the Digimon, that by now only reached up to his hip. Admittedly, he wanted to get home, get showered and dressed. Digitamamon was, after all, right about the date. So, he sighed and got out of his apron. “Thanks, boss,” he said, before shouting into the dining hall. “V-mon, let's go!”

His partner, who was serving, looked around to him. “What? Already?”

“The boss is giving us the last hour off,” he explained.

“Yay!” V-mon gave a little jump, before running over to the kitchen. “That's great. Let's go home!” It climbed up onto Daisuke's shoulders, which by now were not as easily reached, as they once had. After all, Daisuke had grown quite a lot in the fifteen years, since their adventure had ended.

The two of them went over to the next TV, where he got out his Digivice. “Digital Gate Open!” The light engulfed them and just one moment later, Daisuke found himself standing inside his own living room. To his own dismay, his apartment was pretty small. It held only enough space for a single bedroom and a living room, that was merged with the kitchen. While he had made quite the money, when he was still playing soccer, he was no fool. He could not sustain living in a bigger apartment on what was left over from that time. As a cook in Digitamamon's ramen restaurant, he did make not enough to afford much.

All of this made his idea for the evening even worse. He was probably a bit crazy, but whatever… He would take the risk. After all, he was Motomiya Daisuke, who ran into trouble without thinking first!

“Are you sure about the thing with Ken?” V-mon asked, when walking over to the fridge, to fetch itself some cold water.

Daisuke smiled. “Yeah, pretty much,” he said. He was 25, after all. At some point, he needed to take that risk. Looking at the clock in their kitchen, he had still an hour and a half left, before he and Ken would meet. Daisuke had made all the preparations. This could not go wrong, right?

***

Showered and changed, he and V-mon left their apartment about 45 minutes later. He had two plastic bags with ingredients with him. After all, their “date” would be at Ken's home. He would cook, as he was a professional cook. This saved them money – and it was also more private. Perfect for his plan.

Daisuke stored the bags inside his motorcycle, before giving V-mon its helmet and putting on his own. The motorcycle was second hand – and his mother kept complaining about the danger of such a vehicle – but he loved it never the less. Soon, he and V-mon were racing down the C1 towards Shinagawa, where Ken was living these days.

Other than Daisuke, Ken had decided for a job, that made considerably better money. He was an attorney, specializing in cases that had Digimon involved. Ever since new people partnered with Digimon every day, those cases were on the rise. Nothing much to do about it, though.

Ken's job was stressful, Daisuke knew it, but he also knew, his boyfriend really liked it. So, he would say nothing about it.

The streets were packed around this hour, leading Daisuke to soon opt out of the intercity highway and drive through the smaller streets. This was why he loved his motorcycle: It would pass even through the smallest streets and alleyways. Thus, he managed to arrive at the apartment complex Ken was living in even five minutes, before their official meeting.

Daisuke parked the motorcycle in the garage underneath the building. He took of his helmet and hesitated for a moment. With a deep breath, he focused. He could do this! He held the digitmental of courage after all! And it would be romantic. Yes, he could do this. Hikari had given him some instructions after all.

“You okay, Daisuke?” V-mon asked.

He nodded, once again grinning. “Yeah. I'm great. Let's go.”

Taking his shopping bags, he set off towards the elevator. Just two minutes later, they were in front of Ken's apartment on the 6th floor. He rang the doorbell, waiting impatiently for his boyfriend to open.

It did not take Ken long. The door was pulled open and the two men stared at each other for a moment. Then they both blushed. While they were already dating for over a year now, it still felt weird – really weird. “Hi,” Ken finally managed to say. “You're in time.”

“Sure I am,” Daisuke said. “Digitamamon even let me go early.”

“That's unusually nice.” Ken stepped aside to let him enter.

“Yeah, we were surprised as well,” V-mon commented, before looking for his fusion partner. “Where are you, Wormmon?”

Ken looked at the two bags. “So, you're sure you wanna cook? I mean, we could also order or something,” he offered. “You must be pretty tired after working all day.”

“Nah,” Daisuke said. “It's fine.” After all he wanted to make this special. And ordering was not really special, was it now? So, he would cook. And he would make Ken's favorite. “You can help, if you want to, though.” He knew, Ken would feel bad otherwise – and somehow cooking together was more romantic than him cooking, while Ken tried to pass the time in the living room.

“Sure,” Ken said. He took a peek at his living room, where both the Digimon were already sitting on the couch.

Meanwhile, Daisuke got out of his shoes, putting on a pair of slippers. Hanging up his leather jacket on the hall stand, he brought the food into Ken's kitchen, which was bigger than his own. He sighed, feeling in his pocket, just to make sure, that the ring was still there. Admittedly, he felt a bit weird about this. After all, they could not really marry – legally. Japan had no law to allow for it. So, it would just be a gesture either way. It did not change the fact, that he wanted this gesture.

“What can I do to help you?” Ken asked, making him jump.

“Uhm.” He turned around. “Well, you could wash some rice. Then I can prepare the meat and…” He stopped himself, leaned over to his boyfriend to peck him on the cheek. “Almost forgot this.”

Ken blushed, but smiled. He had this beautiful soft smile, that Daisuke had long learned to love.

He got out the ingredients from the bags. He would make Gyoza and Katsudon for this evening, with Katsudon taking considerably less time, then the small buns. Thankfully though, he made Gyoza practically every day, so he could basically form the buns half asleep.

“How was your day at work?” he chatted along, while he washed his hands.

“Ah, good, actually,” Ken said. “I got some information from the police about the case I am working on. And I think there is a good chance, that there was not even a Digimon involved.” Obviously, he could say nothing about the details, considering he was bound by confidentiality.

“That's good, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Ken replied.

Daisuke smiled. There was a lot going on politically with more and more Digimon finding human partners. It was a good thing, he thought, but with a lot of people now having Digimon partners, it was only natural that some of those people had bad intentions. And there were those cases, in which Digimon simply lost their temper. While he really liked, how everything had turned out, this was not quite what he had once imagined, when all those partnered Digimon showed up.

“Have you heard anything new from Taichi-san or Koshiro?” Ken asked, while Daisuke had already started cutting the vegetables.

“Well, nothing much going on,” Daisuke said. “Taichi-san is always super busy right now. Like, whenever something is going on with any Digimon anywhere he has to make a statement, right? So, yeah. And Koshiro… I guess, he is doing just his thing. Miyako is as well. She tells me more then Koshiro, you know?” Not to say: She talked a lot. She had only come over to Digitamamon's restaurant last Saturday and had been like a waterfall of words. “But, as she says ‘there is a lot of mysteries unexplored’.” He laughed.

Ken, too, smiled, though he did not say anything.

Already Daisuke was done, cutting the vegetables for the Gyoza, now starting to cut up the pork.

“You are pretty fast by now,” Ken noted.

“Well, if you do something basically every day, you get efficient with it, you know?”

“I guess so.”

“You really should take the time coming over to the restaurant, you know? Heck, we could make a big meet up once again. We haven't had one of those in a while.”

“True,” Ken agreed. They both knew however, that these days most of their meet-ups ended up with only a part of the former chosen children. After all, most of them had jobs by now. Yamato even had a child – and Hikari was already pregnant. So, meeting with friends was not point one on everyone’s priority list.

Daisuke sighed with that thought. It was to be expected, he had to admit. This was simply, what growing up meant.

“We'll see, if we can agree on a date,” Ken quickly said. “And if not, me and Wormmon will simply visit together and we make ourselves a nice evening in the digital world.”

“That sounds great,” Daisuke said and finished up cutting the pork.

All in all, it took him about 40 minutes, to finish their meal. They chatted along, while he was doing most of the cooking. Though Ken helped with coating the meat and cooking the rice. It was nice, all in all.

Apparently V-mon had smelled the frying pork katsu, as it peeked into the kitchen. “Are you done?”

“Almost. Just one more minute,” Daisuke said.

“Why are Digimon always this hungry?” Ken muttered.

V-mon heard him. “Because staying in the human world uses up a lot of energy – as you know.”

Ken chuckled. “Yes, I know.”

Finally, the food was done. There was a big plate covered in about 20 Gyoza, as well as four bowls of Katsudon. This should hopefully feed them all. Daisuke handed his boyfriend two of the bowls. “Take them over, please.”

“Sure.”

“V-mon,” Daisuke shouted, once Ken had left the kitchen.

“Yeah?”

“Help me carry, please.” After all V-mon was a professional server by now.

So, V-mon carried the Gyoza, while Daisuke brought over the other two bowls. Soon, they were eating at Ken's dinner table, with some music running in the background.

“This is really good, as always,” Ken noted.

“Who knew, Daisuke would indeed turn out as a good cook,” Wormmon noted.

Daisuke shot the insect Digimon an insulted gaze. “Hey, what's that supposed to mean?”

If the Digimon had had shoulders, it would've probably shrugged. “Cooking takes a lot of patience. And the Motomiya Daisuke we met was not very patient.”

“That's true,” V-mon agreed, making Ken laugh.

Daisuke suppressed his own laughter, deciding instead to pout, his arms crossed. “Be careful, or I won't cook for you again.”

“Yeah, we don't want that, right, Wormmon?” Ken said.

His partner rolled its eyes. “I guess not.”

While their bowls were emptying, Daisuke could feel his anxiety growing. He had planned to ask Ken after the dinner, probably after they had brought the dishes back into the kitchen. He had been thinking about this for a while. Originally, he had planned, to ask him in the digital world, but there was always the possibility, they could be interrupted by a Digimon running wild. Then he had thought, about asking him in a really nice restaurant, but then he had decided that Ken was just too high profile. They were keeping their relationship a secret from the public after all. So, in the end, he had decided that maybe here, at Ken's home, was the safest and most private place to ask.

“This was really great, thank you,” Ken said, once he had finished his bowl. “You are, indeed, a very good cook, Daisuke.”

Daisuke grinned. “I know.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“Well, get the dishes into the kitchen, I assume,” Daisuke replied.

“I can do that tomorrow.”

“Nah, let's do it now. Don't worry.” After all, he did not want to propose, with the table filled with dirty dishes. Maybe he was too perfectionistic about this, but, God darn. He wanted this to be good. Romantic. Awesome!

“Okay, okay,” Ken said. He picked up the dishes, bringing them to the kitchen. “By the way, do you want to stay overnight?”

“Yeah.” Hopefully, Daisuke added in his mind. That all depended on how this would go. He picked up the last few things, following Ken over.

V-mon shot him a meaningful glance, making Daisuke flinch. Yeah, he could not procrastinate this much longer.

He took a deep breath.

“What shall we do now?” Ken asked. “Maybe watch a movie?”

“Or we could, you know, talk,” Daisuke suggested. “In the living room.”

It was clear, that Ken already suspected he was planning something. However, he shrugged, then nodded. “We can do that, too.” He walked past Daisuke to already go back to the living room.

Well, now was the time, Daisuke told himself. Now was the time for him to do this, do something brave, courageous. His heart was racing and he could feel a tingling in his stomach. Like butterflies. He did not really like butterflies. Already, he wanted to follow his boyfriend and yet he was too hesitant, standing in the kitchen. Who would’ve guessed, he would freeze up like this? “Get yourself together, Daisuke,” he whispered to himself and slapped his own cheeks. “You can do this.” With another deep breath, he went into the living room.

Thankfully Ken had turned the music down. The thing was, that he wasn’t quite sure, how to do this. He had not been present when anyone else had done this, though he had seen videos online – as well as the pictures, Miyako had sent him, when she and Mimi had gotten engaged.

If they could do it, so could he.

“What is it, Daisuke?” Ken asked, when Daisuke was just standing there, in front of the couch.

Daisuke took another deep breath. Feeling kinda stupid, he fumbled the ring – a simple, silver band – out of his pocket and went down onto one knee. He looked at Ken, his cheeks burning. “So,” he said, trying to find the right words. He had thought about what to say, had thought about it a lot, but right now all the words were gone. “I mean, I guess, you know what I wanna say.” Smooth, Daisuke, smooth, a voice in his head commented.

Now Ken was blushing as well. He looked at him, clearly not sure what to think. “I… Yes, I guess I know.” He, too, was lacking for words.

“I mean,” Daisuke said to fill the stupid silence, “I know we can’t really get married legally or anything, but, you know, just as a promise to each other.”

Ken hesitated, before coming down onto ground level with him. “I think I understand.”

“So?” Daisuke knew his voice was almost pleadingly.

It was Ken, who took a deep breath. “I think, yes,” he whispered and put his arms around Daisuke, who could almost feel the tenseness falling from him. He put his arms around his boyfriend – well, fiancé – sighing in relief.

“Though please don’t surprise me like this again,” Ken whispered.

“I thought surprises were good.”

“Mostly, yes. But…” Ken laughed awkwardly. “In cases like this I don’t know what to think.”

“Sorry about that.”

The Digimon looked at them – V-mon triumphantly, but Wormmon mostly in surprise. “To be frank, I did not see this coming.”

Chapter Text

May 11^th , 2012

Hirokazu was not quite sure about this. He sat next to the wall of the little pub, watching the other people. Most of them were young, pretty much all of the university students. He did not really fit in. He had not even finished high school. A proper loser.

Kenta did notice his gaze. He had been at the bar, talking to a pair of young women, one of whom looked to be western. Hirokazu noticed his friend’s shoulders dropping down with a sigh. Then Kenta turned towards the bar to exchange a few words with the barkeep. About three minutes later, he came over to Hirokazu, a glass of beer in his hand.

Penmon was sitting in a cozy corner of the pub, which was located somewhere in Golden Gai – the pub district, that was mostly empty in the late afternoon. The Digimon shares the corner with a Plotmon, that somehow seemed to understand the nonsensical string of “Pipapos” coming out of the penguin’s beaks.

“You really should talk to some of the folks here,” Kenta said, sliding the beer over to his friend.

Hirokazu sighed. He took the tiny glass and drank a gulp. “Yeah, maybe.” He knew, after all, that Kenta meant well. Ever since the digital world disappeared – together with Ryou – Hirokazu had done nothing but work and drink. He had not met many other people. Not Takato or Juri, not any of the new kids. He did not feel like it.

“Look over there,” Kenta said, pointing at one of the bar tables, where three young men were lounging around. “The guy to the left, that’s Yuuta. He is single, you know?”

“So, you really want me to hook up with somebody.” Hirokazu felt already sorry for the poor soul that would try. Yeah, no, he wasn’t a good catch. Heck, he was whining after a guy, who never once had shown any interest in him. A guy, who had only ever had eyes for one single woman. A guy, who was now maybe dead, maybe lost in a world they could not even name. This sucked.

“Hirokazu,” Kenta said in a stern voice. “You won’t ever get happy, if you don’t even try anything new. So, by the Gods, go out there and try!”

Hirokazu knew, his friend only meant well. Of course, he did. However, it still just felt forced. Those people were students after all. They had a plan were to go in life. He didn’t. He didn't have any sort of plan. No dreams. Nothing. Because he had been the stupid idiot, who dropped out of high school.

If things had gone different, he might have done the same as Ryou: Go to the digital world, have adventures there. No obligations, no responsibilities, not even a need to eat. The digital world promised endless freedom. However, the gate had been closed. Maybe this time forever.

Now Kenta put his hand onto Hirokazu’s shoulder. “Look. I see you are feeling bad right now. Believe me, you’ll feel better, if you get to know other people. Just go over there and talk to them.”

Hirokazu took another deep gulp out of the glass. He was still not convinced, yet muttered “Whatever”, when he put the now empty glass down. He hated everything about this – mostly, that Kenta really wanted to help him.

“Go on,” Kenta urged.

“Fine, I’ll go.” Hirokazu got up and walked over to the bartable. The three guys looked at him. Yuuta, the guy Kenta had been pointing, too, seemed to be about Hirokazu’s age. Maybe 20 or 21. He was a bit smaller than Hirokazu. His hair was black. He also wore a rather thin beard.

Hirokazu did not know the names of the other two guys. One of them seemed a bit older. Maybe something around 25, 26.

“Hey,” he muttered and wished he was anywhere else.

Glances were exchanged, before they smiled at him. “Hi. You’re a friend of Kenta’s, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Hirokazu muttered. He caught himself evading their gazes.

“What university are you on?”

There it was already. 2"No university. I work.” At a garage of all places. But, well, it was something. He liked cars after all. And mechanics.

“Ah, okay,” Yuuta said. “What was your name again?”

“Hirokazu,” he replied.

“Well, welcome to our little weekly meet up, Hirokazu,” one of the other men said. “I am Shuu, this is Yuuta and he is Riku.” He pointed at the owner of each name. “So, err, how do you know Kenta?”

Hirokazu shrugged. “We were in the same class in primary school.” He paused for a moment. “We also went to the digital world together.” Several times.

“Ah, you are one of the original Tamers?” Shuu asked. “Yeah, now that you mention it, Kenta said something about that before.”

“Yeah. I was...” He paused. “I am.”

“Where is your Digimon partner?” Yuuta asked.

“At home. I did not want to bring him along.” Even though Kenta had said, it was no problem, he had felt somewhat awkward about it. Well, he was feeling awkward now, too. Everything was awkward in the end. But he had also been afraid, that Hagurumon would say something stupid. He had not wanted that.

“Well, maybe you can bring them next time,” Shuu said.

Hirokazu nodded. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Speaking of awkward: A rather awkward silence dropped around the table. More glances were exchanged, before Riku finally dared to ask: “So, where are you on the entire spectrum, I mean.”

Hirokazu fixed his gaze on the coaster beneath one of their glasses. “I... I think I’m gay,” he said. At least he had been very much gay for Ryou.

“That's good,” Shuu said. “I am gay as well, so is Yuuta. He,” he pointed at Riku, “is one of those bisexuals.”

“You make it sound dirty,” Riku complained.

The three of them laughed, with Hirokazu managing something of a smile. Yes, he had known this was a meeting of young LGBT-folks. That was, why Kenta had taken him along. But he still felt awkward admitting to it. For the longest time, nobody but Kenta had even known.

Between the four of them, the silence grew long.

“Are you dating, right now?” Yuuta finally asked.

Hirokazu simply shook his head. “Nah.” He paused, swallowed hard. He looked around to Kenta, found him in another talk with two people. No help from there. Then he sighed. “I... I've had a crush on a straight guy for a very long time.”

“Ah, that sucks,” Riku instantly said. “Been there.”

Yuuta chuckled. “Yeah, me, too. I’ve a talent to always fall for the straights.”

“That’s true,” Shuu agreed. “And I told him to try online dating.”

“I can’t fall for someone just based on their online profile!”

“That’s why you meet them in real life.”

“But that's creepy.”

“It’s not.”

Riku laughed out loud. Apparently, this was a discussion they had had many times before. Hirokazu sighed. Truth was, that he had been crushing on Ryou so long, that he was not even sure, he could fall in love with someone else. He was that kind of a loser after all.

Maybe Yuuta noticed his absent stare. He moved a bit around the table, to stand next to him. “So, you’ve given up on the straight guy?”

Hirokazu swallowed. “Well, he is dead, probably.”

“Oh.” Yuuta looked at him. “I am sorry.”

“Yeah.” Hirokazu just did not know what else to say. Wasn’t it ironic? In the end he had never been able to give up on Ryou – just as Ryou had never been able to give up on Ruki. Maybe, in another world, another timeline, there could’ve been a happy end for both of them. But this wasn’t that timeline. This was the one, where Ryou had sacrificed himself and Hirokazu, well, Hirokazu did not know, what to do with his entire stupid life.

“For what it’s worth,” Shuu now said. “I think it is a good thing you came here. You look, like you can use some company, who is a bit more like you. In a way.”

Hirokazu looked up at him. Well, that was basically exactly what Kenta had said. That and that it was a good place to get to know someone, who wasn't straight. Though Hirokazu honestly did not feel much like dating at the moment. “Yeah,” he finally admitted. “Maybe I do.”

“And you should totally bring your Digimon partner next time,” Yuuta said. “I really wanna meat them.”

Hirokazu nodded. “I... I will – I guess.” Though that would indeed mean, he would get here again, next week. Get to know new people. He noticed himself smiling, though he suspected it was a rather sad smile. “Yeah, I guess, I will.”

Chapter Text

February 11^th, 2013

“I can’t believe this.” Ai felt, like she was probably too young to think about this kind of stuff. “When did this even happen?”

Impmon just watched her with a shrug. He had heard this tantrum several times by now and probably did not care enough about the problem to give a damn.

Makoto was meanwhile sitting on his sister’s bed. He looked, as if he was desperately suppressing a sigh, but stayed focused on her problem. “So, you’ve gotten invited on a date twice.”

“That’s what I just told you!” Ai had covered her face with both her palms. She sat on her office chair rotating around her own axis for two minutes now. Yes, she felt dizzy, but no, she would not stop. That would be too easy after all.

“Well, then you need to make a decision.”

“Yeah, as we well know, Ai is very good in decision making,” Impmon remarked sarcastically.

She looked at her partner through her fingers. “Hey!”

“I am just stating the truth.” Another shrug. Impmon was clearly not taking this entire problem seriously.

“What else am I supposed to say?” Makoto complained. “You can hardly go out with both of them, right?”

Finally, she stopped her rotation, almost falling over from dizziness. “Right.”

It was an icy cold February and Ai had assumed this Valentine's Day would be just exactly the same as the last one. As in: She would completely ignore it or maybe eat some crêpe with Impmon and her annoying brother. The same as always. But somehow it had apparently happened, that she had grown up. Sure, she was always the first to remind others, that she was 16, almost 17 by now. However, she mostly used this line whenever an “adult” told her, she could not do something. She had been rather glad, that she had not to deal with adult problems.

Alright, admittedly, her problem at hand was not an “adult problem”, but more of a typical “teenager problem”. Still, it was something she had never had to deal with. Because it just so happened that she had been asked out for two dates at once. This was notable for one, because she had never been on a date. For the other, because it had been her two best friends. This made it in fact a problem. No matter, what she did, their friendship would not be the same after wards. Thanks, she hated it.

“So, whom of the two do you like better?” her brother asked matter-of-factly.

“I don’t know,” she muttered, now leaning forward. “Like, I’ve not thought about them in that kinda way, you know? I mean, I guess Rin-chan is pretty cute and Takumi can be cute as well in his weird, awkward way, but…” She gesticulated widely.

“You could say no to both of them,” Makoto suggested.

She sighed. Yes, that had been her first instinct, too. “But then I won’t even give them a chance,” she replied. And she would also hurt both of them. Knowing that it had probably taken a lot of courage to ask her out, she did not want to do that. But if she only said “yes” to one of them, well, the other would be hurt.

“Well, then I can't help you either,” her brother said.

She once more started to rotate, even though her dizziness had not completely faded. “I mean, I think Rin is a bit cuter. But Takumi is really nice, as well.” However, both of them had developed a crush on her. “I am honestly surprised that they don’t date each other.”

“Please don’t come up with a plan to hook them up,” Impmon pleaded.

“I won’t.” She looked up to her rooms ceiling. “I just need to make a decision. And I do hate decisions.” She could not even decide on whether to get melon soda or iced tea for her lunch in school. Yeah, this was like the worst thing that could actually happen to her.

***

Her phone rang with a message. Rin. “So, how about VD?” Yeah, sure, put more pressure on her! Ai rolled onto her back. She was already in bed. After all she would've to go to school tomorrow. She hadn't even finished her homework properly. Her brain had been a bit preoccupied.

Once more she found herself staring at the ceiling. Then she looked at her phone. It was one of the new ones. A smartphone. She barely had it for half a year now. It even had a camera. Looking through her gallery she could find all sorts of pictures. She and Impmon. She and Makoto. She, Makoto and Impmon. She, Takumi and their Digimon. She, Ai and their Digimon. All three of them with their Digimon. Lots of stupid pictures of Impmon, she would send to Shiuchon at times.

Theoretically, it was not the first time, she went out with Rin or Takumi. She and Rin went to the movies from time to time. She and Takumi had only recently been touring Odaiba. Heck, there had been the time that she and Takumi had gone over to Yokohama for a day to visit a convention. So, yeah, going out with either of them was not a problem. Calling it a date however, was.

So many questions in her head. Did she want to date either of them? And if so: Whom? She liked both of them, of course. They were her best friends. But that might change, if they started dating. Heck, what if she dated one and the other would feel alienating, leading to them not hanging out anymore? She certainly did not want that.

Why was this so hard?

She closed her eyes and imagined kissing Rin. It was kinda hard, considering she had never kissed anyone – well, not like a real kiss at least. She could, however, very well imagine kissing Rin, who was still as rebellious as ever. They’d probably make a good match. They’d make even a better match, if they would go to the same high school. Then they’d get into trouble together. Well, and they’d probably get laughed at for being two girls in love. Though it was fine at high school, wasn’t it?

Takumi meanwhile thought himself more rebellious than he actually was. Only recently he had started to stand up to his stern father and even that he only did rarely. Ha, his father would probably hate him going out with a girl, who dyed her hair. However, she could imagine herself kissing him – Takumi that was – as well.

Theoretically speaking, she and Rin would probably be the better match. The two rebellious teenage girls, who would’ve probably been in a bike gang, if this was still the 80s. She could totally imagine herself in a bike gang. With a really cool leather jacket, a baseball bat and all. Yeah, that would've been totally cool. But it did not help her with the decision at hand.

Great. How did this happen? When had this even started? Ai had never noticed either of the two crushing on her. Admittedly, though, she was probably just bad at this. Because apparently, she had been the only one shocked, when Ruki had moved in with Shoji. So, yeah. Note to self: You suck at noticing other people's romantic feelings. Great. Now what?

***

The next day in school was not any better. Playing with her pen, she stared out of the window. A thin layer of snow covered the trees outside. A rare sight in Tokyo. All Ai wanted to do, was to go outside and play, as if she was still a kid. Wasn’t it strange? She had been in such a hurry to grow up, to be taken seriously, but right now she just wanted to be a kid once more. A kid, who did not have to think about Valentine’s Day. Darn, this was really stupid. She hated it.

“Hanegawa-san,” the chiding voice of her teacher tore her from her thoughts.

Some of her classmates were giggling, letting her assume that it was in fact not the first time the teacher had addressed her. No matter. She stood up. “Yes?”

“I want you to read the next paragraph,” Suzuki-sensei said.

“Err…” Ai looked at her English text book. They were reading from a short story, but she had not the slightest idea, where in the story they were. “Err…”

“Is there something important outside?” the teacher asked.

“No, Suzuki-sensei,” Ai said just barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes.

The teacher pushed up her glasses, watching the girl. “You go out in the hallway for the rest of class,” she said. “And you’ll stay in the afternoon to write an essay for me.”

Ai shrugged. “Fine.” Without saying another word, she left the classroom to soon lean against the hallway wall. Crossing her arms, she glanced outside to where an office building was standing next to the school. She really did not want to hurt either of her friends, did not want to say no to one of them. But going out with both of them was not a solution either, was it?

This really was too complicated for her to handle. What she could really use right now, was a good old Digimon battle. Like some wild Digimon running havoc in the city, occupying her. Sadly, no such thing had happened in a while. Those Digimon that had stayed after the wall between the worlds had been restored, had by now gotten used to this world and were living here rather peacefully. So, no Digimon battle for her. Too bad.

Even after school and that stupid essay, Ai was still lost in her thoughts. This way she did not even notice Takumi waiting at the school gates, until he addressed her. “Ai?”

She looked up in shock. He was standing there, Kotemon by his side. How did he even know, she was still in school? The answer, of course, was obvious: Makoto had told him. Traitor! “Takumi,” she breathed, “hi!” She did not need to ask, what he was doing here. She knew.

Takumi had hit a growth spurt during the last year, now being about two inches taller than Ai. He had put his hands into the pockets of his winter jacket. “You wanna hang out in the park?”

No, she did not. She still did not know how to answer him and she was quite sure the question would come up. However, her shocked mind could not find a single reason to decline. “Okay,” she hence muttered, pulling her shawl tighter. It was really freezing right now, her breath condensing in front of her face.

“Ai-chan!” Impmon shouted, jumping down from one of the trees. He only now noticed Takumi and his partner. “Hey, there!”

“Hi.” Takumi smiled, while Kotemon raised one arm in greeting.

“Let’s get a hot coffee or something on the way,” Ai suggested. “It’s really cold.”

“Sure.”

And thus, they went on their merry way. When they passed a Starbucks, they each got a hot drink, with Impmon taking a big hot chocolate, that was a bit too expensive for Ai’s taste.

“So,” Takumi said, once they passed the Metropolitan Government Building, “how is it going?” He was probably too shy to start with the actual issue at hand.

Ai shrugged, fixating on the plastic cup in her reddened hands. “Fine, I guess. You?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he agreed. When she shot him a side glance, she noted the blush on his cheeks. Why in the world did he had to crush on her? What was there even to crush about? She was very average looking and her antics could give everyone around her quite the headache. She did not get it.

Impmon groaned in annoyance, as the two Tamers continued their way in silence.

“How’s school?” Takumi asked.

Another shrug. “Annoying as always.”

“You really don’t like school, eh?”

“Nah. It's boring and useless,” she said. “Also, my grades suck.” There was no way in hell, she would get onto a proper university and frankly, she did not want to.

“Yeah, I know.” Takumi smirked. “You really should put some more effort in it. You’re in your second to last year.”

She sighed. “Probably.” By now they were crossing one of the bridges leading to the Central Park. It, too, looked right out of a fairytale book. Snow glittering on the trees and the ground. If it wasn’t for the grey skies, it would have been a really nice day.

“Ai?” Takumi asked after a moment.

Here it came. “Yeah?”

“Have you thought about Valentine’s Day? Like, do you wanna… You know…”

She took another sip from her coffee, just to have an excuse not to instantly have to answer. What should she tell him? She looked at Impmon, as if her partner could help her, but he only rolled his eyes and gave another shrug. Stupid Impmon! “Look…” She took a deep breath, the icy air burning in her throat. Then she blurted out: “Rin has asked me out as well and I totally would’ve just said yes, I am now not really sure what to say to either of you and I absolutely hate it!”

Takumi stared at her in surprise. His cheeks were even redder now, when he lowered his gaze. “Oh, Rin has, too…” He took a deep breath. “I… Then… Just forget about it, okay?”

One look told her he was hurt. Of course, he was hurt. She had known, this would end this way. Of course. God darn it. “Look, Takumi, I… I have not yet decided, okay? I’ll… I’ll need a few more days, okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.”

***

In the end, Impmon was right: Ai sucked at making decisions – except if it was a decision to fight, to go an adventure or to do something stupid. So, something stupid she did. And yes, she was very well aware, that this would probably go over badly. But what was she do to? She just could not find a proper answer for herself, so she might as well try it this way.

Valentine’s Day. It was such a weird concept, right? To make such a huge deal out of chocolates, love confessions and dating. Ai did not quite get it. Especially as one could make a love confession on any other day of the year, right? She sighed, waiting under the tree in front of the Studio ALTA TV screen.

“And I am telling you, Ai, this is a bad idea,” Impmon commented. He sat on a bench next to her and gazed at her from the corner of his eyes.

“I know!” But she would go through with it either way. If she was going to mess up, she would do it right. And, who knew, maybe she would not mess up. Yeah, alright, that would probably not happen. She just hoped, they could be friends afterwards. After all, they had gone through so much together.

She got out her phone to check for the time. Either of the other two should show up any minute now. She would see, who would be first.

Rin. Rin was the first one. She came running at her, a strong blush on her cheeks. “Ai!” she panted when she finally reached her. “I’m sorry. The train was packed. It…” She sighed. “Sorry.”

“It's fine,” Ai said. She could feel a slight flutter in her stomach. What a strange sensation. Could she in fact fall in love with this girl? Even these days Rin had her hair bleached platinum blonde, though she did not wear it in the two pig tails she used to have anymore. Too childish, she said.

Now she got something out of her purse. “I… I bought those for you.” It was a package made out of self-made chocolates – of course.

Ai raised her hand in defense. “Just… Let's wait another moment.” If Takumi was not going to be here within five minutes, though, she would certainly just go out with Rin. Up until now, Takumi was only two minutes late.

“What are we waiting for?”

Ai sighed. “It’s a long story.” Well, she had told Takumi, so this seemed only fair. “Okay, to be frank: You are not the only one, who invited me, you know?”

Rin inhaled deeply. “I know. Takumi told me.”

“Oh.” She should've thought of something like this. “I see.” Now what?

Rin frowned. “So, are we waiting for Takumi?”

Suddenly the idea seemed quite stupid to Ai. This was not right, was it? By the Gods, it was not like her, to doubt herself this much. “Yeah,” she finally admitted. “We are waiting for Takumi. See, I… I just could not decide and so. Well, I wanna go out with either both of you or neither of you.” Wow, this sounded harsh, even for her.

For a moment, Rin stayed silent. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. “I see,” she then said. “I… I guess, I am fine with that.”

Ai blinked, surprised. “You are?”

“Yeah,” Rin replied. “I guess I am.”

In that moment, another voice sounded. “Rin?” So, Takumi had finally arrived.

Rin collected herself, before turning around to him. “Yeah. I guess…”

“I’ll go out with both of you,” Ai explained once again. “With both of you or neither.”

Takumi looked from her to Rin and back to her. He hesitated. For a moment his gaze flicked towards the ground. A sign of insecurity. Then he, too, took a deep breath. When he exhaled a big cloud rose from his mouth. “A double date it is, I guess.”

“I’ll be damned,” Impmon muttered, but his Tamer grinned. This was indeed going better than expected.

“So, what are we supposed to do on a date like this?”

Chapter Text

March 25^th, 2011

Megumi put the trey with tea and cookies on their living room table, where the rather pale looking Ikuto was sitting. The boy was fifteen by now. If one had not known, one would have not guessed, the kid had grown up in another world. By now his black hair was properly cut, just like the hair of any other high school boy. Somehow his parents had also managed to tame his wild behaviour - or maybe living five years in the human world had done the trick. (Honestly: Megumi did not want to know, how Masaru was looking these days. But that boy had always been a wild child waiting to happen.)

Her girlfriend (or wife, though they were not legally married) nodded at her and smiled. “Thanks,” she whispered, before turning her attention towards Ikuto once again. “You want some cookies? Megumi has made them earlier today.”

Ikuto looked from Miki to Megumi and then at the cookies. His expression clearly told them he was actually way too nervous to eat. However, his manners told him to accept. “Thanks.” He took one of the cooked and took a tiny bite out of it.

Megumi poured the tea into the cups. It was English tea, which she actually preferred to the Japanese green tea. It just suited her taste more – especially mixed with some milk and honey. She put one cup in front of the boy, before filling cups for herself and Miki.

The later waited for another moment, waited for the boy to speak, but he didn’t. “So,” she said. “What is it you came here for?”

The boy shifted nervously in the chair. Instead of answering, he took a sip from the tea and evidentially burned his tongue. He sharply inhaled some air and might have stuck out the tongue, when he remembered that he had company, was in fact a guest in their apartment. He looked at them, before fixing his gaze onto the cup. “I… I wanted some advice,” he muttered.

Megumi raised her eyebrows, but Miki put one hand onto her knee and shook her head.

They both already knew, where this was going. There were only so many things that would bring the boy, whom they had barely seen, since the gate between the two worlds had been closed and he had started to live with his birth parents, here.

“What did you want to have advice on?” Miki asked, her voice soft.

Once more Ikuto shifted. He had put both his hands onto his knees, his entire posture stiff. He had probably not talked about this with anyone.

“So…” he finally muttered. “There… There's a boy in school. A boy I like.” His entire face was glowing red.

Admittedly, Megumi would not have guessed this, considering the kid had seemed quite attached to Masaru's younger sister. But, well, Megumi knew how those things could go. She herself had had quite a few close male friends when she was younger. That had never gone anywhere either. She had not even realized, when one of them had started to like her “that way”. 

Between the two of them, Miki was the one with tact and instinct. “And you've not told him, I assume,” she said.

A nod.

Megumi would've betted, the boy's face was at least at 40 degrees right now.

Miki smiled, sipping on her tea as well. “So, now the question is: What do you want from us?”

“I…” The boy stuttered, still not looking at them. “I am not quite sure. I… I really don't know, what I should do right now. Like, should I tell him? Or should I not? I mean, I don't really know and… Argh.” He held his head, ruffling his own hair.

“I see,” Miki said, now leaning forward herself. She watched the boy, before looking to her partner. “What do you say?”

“I say, we have a really bad case of the feelings.” Megumi couldn't help a grin.

“Yeah, I think the same,” Miki agreed. She gave sardonic sigh. “Now, tell us, Ikuto. Who is that heartthrob of yours?”

Ikuto looked at them. There was doubt in his eyes on whether he had made the right decision coming here. Admittedly, the two of them had probably a bit too much fun here. But such a young queer teen discovering himself was way too cute to not get involved.

“I…” Once more he hesitated. “His name is Shinya. He is one class ahead of me, but we are together in tennis club.” He waited for them to say anything, but neither of them did, waiting for him to continue. There was a story here, after all – a story that would make it easier to judge on what might be done next. “He has been helping me with math for the last year,” he finally added. “And we generally… hang out, you know? Like, we go to the park at times, or play video games together. Last week he came over, when my parents went out and helped me babysit Ruka.”

“Did something happen then?” Megumi asked.

“Not really,” he muttered. “Well, no. Well, I don't know.”

Miki raised an eyebrow, drinking her tea. When he raised his head and saw it, he sighed.

“Well, I really don't know. Uhm.” He paused. “So, we were watching a movie together, you know? And, like, we sat pretty close. And, well, so he put one hand on mine. And, yeah, I don't know. I don't even know whether it was intentional.”

“Did he keep his hand there?” Miki asked.

A shrug. “Well, for about a minute or so.”

Megumi had to fight down a giggle, that so desperately wanted out of her throat. At least this made it easier to give advice. There were a lot of pros and cons when things were not this clear. Because, yes, outing oneself was a risk. Especially with friends. There was a chance, they'd be harsh, not to say shitty. Megumi had gone through this with 17, when she had fallen hard for one of her classmates. That bitch had shamed her in front of the entire school. This, however, seemed more of a case of two little gays having found each other, both being too shy to openly say anything. That other boy, that Shinya, had probably waited for Ikuto to take his hand – and had been pretty gutted, when it did not happen.

“I just don't know what to do!” Ikuto lamented. “Like, what if he hates me, if I say anything?”

Miki refilled her cup and took another sip. “I am pretty sure, he was waiting for you to take his hand,” she said.

He looked at her doubtfully.

“See, there is a simple way to find out,” Megumi said. “You invite him to watch another movie with you. Maybe in cinema. At then you put your hand out there. And if he takes it, well, you go from there.” She shrugged. “In that case you'll have to say something, obviously.”

Apparently imagining this scenario was almost too much for the poor boy. “And, if he doesn't?”

“Well, in that case, we'll have to think of different measures,” Miki said. “But I agree with my dear Megumi, that it sounds like a good solution.”

“Make it a romance movie,” Megumi whispered.

Miki looked at her chidingly, though with a big grin on her lips. “That doesn't leave a lot of plausible deniability.”

“True.” Megumi only gave a shrug.

Ikuto sighed deeply, before picking up his cup and gulping it down. He was out of things to say, probably too insecure for further words. It was only, when the silence grew awkward, that he looked up. “How did you meet?”

They exchanged glances and at least Megumi could not help but blush a little, too. The truthful version was not quite T-rated. “Well, we went to university together,” she said. “And we met each other properly on a party.”

“And there we realized, we had a lot of things in common,” Miki added. That was the cleaned-up version. The full version involved way too much alcohol and split decision influenced by said beverage.

“And how did you, you know, confess to each other?”

Another set of glances was exchanged. “Well, that somehow came naturally.” Not to say, that the question of their sexual orientation was no longer in question after said alcohol influenced decisions.

Ikuto's next sigh was even deeper. “Must be nice.”

Miki put her hand over Megumi's. “It was.”

The boy stared at his own hands. “Are you serious about the entire cinema thing?”

“Pretty much, yes,” Miki said. “The entire ‘putting his hand on yours’ affair sounds very much, as if this is a mutual thing.”

“That would be… good,” he muttered and for a moment seemed to relax. Then another thought crossed his minds. “How do I even tell my parents?”

Admittedly that was a different question. Megumi knew Noguchi Kenji superficially. Her first thought was, that Ikuto could be basically anything, as long as he was here instead of the digital world. After the boy had grown up in an entirely different world, she doubted that him being gay or bisexual would shock them too much. Also, he had never taken much offense in her and Miki being a couple. She might be wrong though. “If you want, we can come with you to tell him,” she offered him. “As moral support. And as folks, who, you know, are gay and have a fulfilled life.”

He looked at her shyly. “You would do that?”

Miki smiled at her girlfriend, before looking at the boy. “We would, of course.”

He nodded quietly. “Thank you.”

***

Megumi had to say one thing: young love was rather cute. Especially young, queer love. And she was in a way happy for the boy to be able to name his feelings and to have a realistic chance, from what she could tell. Obviously, she and Miki were only guessing. They did not know this Shinya-boy after all. But it sounded, like it might be mutual.

Miki had cleared the table, after the boy had left, now entering the living room to sit beside Megumi. With a smile on her face, she put one hand onto Megumi's, waiting for her to take it. She did.

“What do you think?” Megumi asked.

“Different things,” Miki replied, leaning heavily against her. “For one: It's adorable. And it might be a good thing, that he came to us for help. For the other: I hope he gets through this alright.”

Megumi stayed quiet for a moment. “I mean, that kid somehow managed to get along in school after basically having grown up in the wild. I think, he'll do just fine.”

Miki nodded. “You're probably right. I wonder though, if this world is not a bit harsher, in a way, then the digital world.”

“It might be,” Megumi agreed. She sighed a little. “Yeah, it probably is.” At least Digimon did not care the least about your sexuality, as they had not even a proper concept of sexuality at all. So, folks being straight was as alien to them, as people being gay. “Well, we'll see how this turns out.”

“And if it goes bad, we'll be there to help, right?”

“Of course.”

Chapter Text

September 13^th, 2031

It had been one week since they defeated Leviathan. Well, defeated was not the right word, was it? After all it was more that Leviathan had agreed to leave humanity alone after Yuujin had sacrificed himself. It hurt, how normal everything seemed ever since. Sure, the attack had happened. People remembered it. But now that all was over most people were all too eager to return to a sense of normalcy. Haru knew, he should not be bitter about it. However: He was. He hated seeing his classmates laugh and play and hang out like normal. He hated seeing the kids from the soccer club running around chasing that ball. It just did not seem right without him here, without Yuujin.

So, he stood by the playing field. It was almost as if he could still see him there, like he had seen him so many times before. Running, playing, laughing, turning around to him, waving, shouting “Haru!” But he was not there anymore. He was gone. He had sacrificed himself, so that Haru would not be forced to.

Haru just did not know, how he felt about it. There was no doubt: He would have sacrificed his best friend as well. As much as he loved him – it was love, right? – he could not do the other thing, could not sacrifice all of humanity instead. That would've been egoistical and, well, just not the right thing.

He wondered, if he had wished to make this decision himself. In that case he could simply blame himself. This way… This way he did not know what to think. Yuujin had sacrificed himself exactly so that Haru would not have to carry that burden. He had done it to protect Haru.

How much would he have loved to return to normalcy, but without Yuujin, how could there be a “normal”?

***

Haru woke up. He had been up late working the last evening. He did not even know how long, just that it had been long dark, when he fell into their bed in exhaustion. It was often like this ever he started university. After all he was also working at the university as well, assisting one of the professors. He was only paid for 18 hours, but somehow, he ended up doing often more than 40 a week. He actually liked the work researching and building neural networks. He wanted to learn more, wanted to understand better what had happened those seven years ago.

When he came into the kitchen, he could smell cooked rice and eggs.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” his boyfriend greeted him. He was standing in front of the stove, apparently making some tamagoyaki to go with their breakfast rice.

“How late is it?” Haru rubbed his tired eyes.

“Past eleven,” Yuujin replied. “But it's Saturday, so no reason to get all panicky on me.” Which, admittedly, had happened several times. Haru simply lacked a proper concept of time. For once he could work hours on end, if he was interested in something. He would not even notice the time passing. But also, he felt everyday as if it was a Monday.

“Yo! Haru!” Gatchmon ran up to him. “You really work too much!”

He yawned. “I know.” With that he went over to the bathroom to go to the toilet and wash his face. One glance at the mirror told him, that he really had not slept much. There were dark bags under his eyes. Yeah, this was really getting out of hand.

***

One month after the incident and the media had finally moved on. There was no more talk about Leviathan and the L-Corp. Not much, anyway. School had completely returned to normal, as if nothing had happened - even though a part of their school building as no longer usable. Haru, however, had made a decision: He would learn computer science, just like his grandfather. He would become a programmer, a scientist that worked with artificial intelligence. That way he would maybe be able to understand, what had happened. How did Leviathan come to be? How did the Appmon come to be? And how could Yuujin have been alive, feeling, loving? He needed to understand this. And maybe then, someday, he would be able to reconstruct Yuujin.

Maybe this was a highly egoistical wish. Maybe it could not even be done. How was he even supposed to try? After all: Even if he did build a program based on Yuujin, it would just be a program based on Yuujin. It would not be the real thing. Not the real Yuujin. Not his Yuujin. All those moments they had once shared would be artificial. They would be filtered through the lense of Haru himself, how Haru had lived those moments. It would not be Yuujin's memory.

And still, he had to learn. It was the only way to keep him out of that deep hole his mind would otherwise drift into. He had spent the better part of the last month inside that hole, no matter how much Gatchmon and the others had tried to help him.

It was just after school had ended, that he entered the library together with Ai, whose father greeted him. “Ah, Haru, here to read again.”

He nodded and forced a smile. “Yes. I am here to learn.” He had to learn. He had to find a way, no matter how hopeless it seemed.

***

“You know, what you need?” Yuujin said, when putting a bowl and a plate in front of him. “You need a full day to relax. Heck, you could need a whole weekend. Just you, me and some relaxation.”

“And me!” Gatchmon shouted his mouth filled with rice.

Yuujin smiled. “Yes, and those two.” He motioned at Gatchmon and Offmon.

Haru sighed. He had worked so much in the last week, that Yuujin was probably right. Heck, he forgot to eat most of the time. “You're probably right,” he muttered and looked up. “Do you have something in mind?”

“We could drive out of the city and visit an onsen,” Yuujin suggested. “We haven't done that in a while!”

Gatchmon was fully on board with that idea. “We can eat onsen tamago!”

Haru smiled mildly. He would've loved to work this day, but he knew Yuujin was probably right. He needed to relax from time to time. A relaxing day at the onsen would probably do him wonders. “Okay,” he agreed. “Where do we go?”

Yuujin ruffled his hair. “We'll look into that after breakfast. For now, you should eat.”

Looking at his bowl, Haru noticed he had barely eaten anything yet. And he was hungry. When had been his last meal?

“Really, Haru. What would you do without me?”

***

Three months after the incident. By now the nightmares at least had mostly stopped. This did not mean, Haru had no nightmares at all, but they were less frequent and less excruciating. Most of his dreams now were either sad or hopeful. Most of them still had to do with Yuujin. Wasn't it crazy? By now at least he had openly admitted to one thing. He had loved Yuujin. No, he loved Yuujin. He would find a way to bring him back. If Gatchmon could be alive, so could Yuujin. And Gatchmon was very much alive.

He had started with some simple programming, after getting an overview of the theory. Thankfully his grandfather had been supportive and had gotten him a notebook that could handle the necessary tasks.

So far, Haru was not very good with this. He could only do very simple tasks. It was far, far away from the neural networks, that he would need to one day understand. But it was a start. His grandfather would look over his daily work and be all in all rather proud.

“You're missing a semicolon, Haru,” Gatchmon noted upon looking over his shoulder.

He was right, of course. Those stupid little mistakes kept creeping up on him and in the end, he would look forever where he had forgotten a simple semicolon or bracket. Whenever he looked at Gatchmon it was hard to believe, that lines of codes and what ended up to be 1s and 0s would result in a living, thinking being. It seemed like a miracle.

Could he, Haru, even do this? Could he create something so complex? He was not sure. But he had to try.

However: For the biggest question he had not yet found an answer. Where would he get Yuujin's base data from? His memory? His personality? He might be able to emulate it, but it simply would not be the real thing. What he wanted was the real thing, though.

***

Somehow, they'd gotten a ticket for the Shinkansen. Off they were towards Kyoto. Somehow, Haru did not consider it “relaxation” to rush to get a train and the crowded Tokyo main station, but half an hour later they were finally on the train speeding westwards. He could lean against Yuujin's shoulder, close his eyes and relax. It was so weird, even now. Yuujin felt so real, felt so alive. He was soft, warm, and yet Haru knew that he was technically cuddling up to a very advanced robot. It did not matter anymore, however. It had long stopped mattering.

“Haru! Haru! The Fuji!” Gatchmon shouted. Even after six years it was as easily exited as it had been, when they had first traveled to Kyoto.

Squinting Haru looked out of the train window. It really was the Fuji – or at least the mountain's top, which showed over the clouds. He smiled, before closing his eyes again. Admittedly he felt really tired by now. The others were right. He should sleep more. But he was an idiot at times.

Yuujin put one arm around him. He did not say anything and he did not need to. This had never been in question. Haru also did not care that some people were looking at them funnily. Who cared about them? When anyone asked him, the weird part about this was – if anything – the fact that he was cuddling up to a robot. Not, that Leviathan had once decided to give said robot the male gender. Nobody cared about that. Nobody at all.

***

Half a year had passed. Haru was still far away from being able to develop anything even close to an actual AI. And yet, he found himself here. Maybe it was stupid. He did not even know for sure, what he was doing here. But he had not been able to think about anything else. Oozora Nami had been working for Leviathan. She had been the one maintaining Yuujin, acting as his mother to the public. She was a scientist. Maybe the only scientist who knew about Yuujin, about Leviathan, about how everything had worked.

“You sure about this, Haru?” Gatchmon asked by his side.

“No,” he whispered but rang the bell.

There was a long moment of silence. Maybe half a minute even. He was almost discouraged, when he heard steps behind the door. Feeling himself tense up, he stared at the brown door, when it opened. The woman behind was pale and clearly had slept way too little during the last few nights. She stared at him, blinked. "Shinkai Haru?"

He nodded, unable to speak a word. This woman had willingly cooperated with an AI intent on destroying humanity. To say, he was afraid of her, was a bit of an understatement. At least he had Gatchmon with him.

“Why are you here?” she finally asked.

Swallowing hard he fought to find his voice again. “I want to talk about Yuujin. You… You are the only person left, who knew anything about how he… how he came to be.”

The woman watched him for a long while, before taking a long breath. “Come in.”

***

Haru regretted nothing, once they were finally at the onsen. Lowering himself into the hot water made all his worries fly away. For once, he was not thinking about work, about programming, about neural networks. He was simply relaxed.

They had been unable to take the two Appmon along, as they would've drawn too much attention here. However, this meant, he had some time alone with Yuujin. Well, not completely alone, as there were other visitors in the onsen as well, but at least without two little monsters craving their attention.

“See,” Yuujin noted upon seeing his relaxed expression, “this is really nice.”

“It is,” Haru admitted and gave a long sigh. He would've liked to lean against his boyfriend, but he did not dare in a place like this. This night, however, they would sleep in a Ryokan on futons and could properly cuddle - after having had a nice dinner in a traditional restaurant.

“You really need to take better care of yourself, Haru. I am worried at times.”

“I don't want you to worry.” Haru sighed. “I just… I don't notice the time passing, if I work.”

“Maybe you should just use an alarm,” Yuujin suggested. “That should help you.”

“Maybe I should.” Haru gave a reluctant smile. “I…” He stopped himself short, when a thought crossed his mind. “We never fought an alarm Appmon, did we?”

Yuujin rolled his eyes, putting one hand onto his back. “You are distracting. Point is: You should eat and sleep regularly.”

“I know.”

“So, you'll try to keep your working habits under control?”

“I can try.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“For me?”

Now it was Haru's turn to roll his eyes. “For you.”

***

It had almost been a year since Leviathan had vanished and Yuujin had sacrificed himself to save humanity, to save Haru. The latter was no closer to bringing his friend, the one he loved, back. While Oozora Nami had vaguely hinted at having some of the data, Haru had no access to it. He would need to ask her later on once more. He would not give up. Yuujin had sacrificed himself for him and the world and he would bring him back. And be it just to tell him, how he felt.

It was another day at the library. Once more he was looking into theory, into books about what made an AI think, about whether AIs were actually thinking, about program structures, about so many things. He was not sure, he yet understood everything, but he would one day. Then he would bring Yuujin back. Even if he had to wait until university and even later. After all, running a complex AI such as Yuujin, would probably need so much more calculating power, than he could afford. Not to mention the complex robot body.

He had been studying for so long, taking notes. Slowly he started to feel sleepy, having spent much of the last night reading. He just barely stopped himself from falling over, bumping his eraser off the table in the process. He sighed, bend over to pick it up, when he heard an all too familiar voice: “Haru.”

His heart stopped for one moment. This could not be. He was probably so sleep deprived that he was already hallucinating. He looked up and saw him. Yuujin. Just the way, he was remembering him. There was a certain insecurity in his expression and a reluctant smile on his lips. He came down the stairs.

This could not be. It could not be. This must have been a dream. And yet he found himself jumping up, knocking over the chair with his movement. He did not care. Not now. Even if it was just a dream, he at least wanted to hug him once. And so, he did. “Yuujin,” he whispered and then felt the other's hand in his hair.

“You've really missed me,” the other whispered in disbelief. “After everthing…”

“Of course, I did.” Tears were burning in Haru's eyes. “I… I like you.”

***

The night had fallen. For once, Haru was in bed early. It was just, as he had thought. They were lying on futons cuddled up to each other. Somehow it still felt very much like a dream that they could be this way – together. After Leviathan had been defeated, it had been but a faint hope that he could bring Yuujin back. In the end it had not been him, however. It had been Oozora Nami, the woman who had for so long played the part of Yuujin's mother that her love for him had grown real. It was all thanks to her. It was thanks to her, that Yuujin was back. It was thanks to her, that Yuujin had been able to “grow”, become an adult.

Now Yuujin's arm embraced Haru, pulled him close.

“You should sleep,” the artificial man whispered.

“I know,” Haru replied and once again closed his eyes. “I am just… happy.”

“Happy for what?”

“To be here… With you.”

Maybe it was his imagination, but Haru thought he could feel Yuujin smile against his neck. “I'll stay by your side.”

“I know,” Haru whispered. He wished for nothing more. “Life would not be the same… without you.”

Chapter Text

May 16^th, 2029

“Explain to me what happened here?” Seki-san welcomed Eri, when she entered her private changing room.

Eri glanced at the phone pointed at her. The cynical side of her wanted to reply “a phone”, but she bit her tongue. Instead, she looked onto the phone screen. A browser was opened and within the browser some tabloid website was displayed, showing her and Ai in Osaka last week. It had been Golden Week and they had used the vacation time wisely.

It was obvious, what Eri's manager was going on about. Eri and Ai hat visited the aquarium while they were there, had ridden different Ferris wheels and had all in all a nice time. The photograph had been taken from outside one such Ferris wheel and showed Eri leaning over to kiss her girlfriend.

Eri knew exactly, what was expected of her. She was supposed to break down, cry and ask for forgiveness. After all idols from the A470 were not allowed to have any sorts of relationship. Frankly, barely any idol was allowed that luxury. However, Eri wasn't feeling it, so she looked at her manager pretty deadpan: “It's a photo of me and my girlfriend.”

Her manager's eyes gleamed. “So, you admit, this is your girlfriend?”

“Yeah.” Eri put her bag onto the sofa in the room. She shrugged. It was a stupid rule after all.

“You do know, that is again the rules, right?” Seki-san asked.

“Yeah.” Once more she shrugged. What else was there to say?

“The producer has seen this. He wants to talk to you.”

That was to be expected. Eri sighed. “Fine,” she simply said. A part of her wondered, how she was able to stay this calm. Then again: She was in the group now for 8 years having grown up to be one of its oldest members. If this bullshit was, what would end her carrier, she would take it. She would not be humiliated over it.

Heck, one of her best friends was a successful Apptuber. If push came to shove, she could simply ask Tora to give her a push and start, well, something. Streaming sounded like fun. She could stream games online. Folks liked watching that, right? And she was pretty good with fighting games.

While she was surprised over her own demeanor, her manager however was shocked. The older woman stared at her. “How can you be so calm?”

Eri gave yet another shrug. “If the producer wants to ax me, he will do so. If he wants to ax his number 2 idol, sure, he can go ahead.”

“You are aware that not only your carrier depends on it, right?” the older woman asked.

Yeah, Eri would not be guilt tripped. “You manage like six other idols from the group. You'll be fine.” The managers of all the other idols, whose secret relationships had been found out, where fine, too. After all it was them, the idols, who tended to be replaceable. Sure, everyone in the industry was in a way (even L-Corp had been replaced), but managers were rarely blamed much. Sure, they were expected to bow to the producers and say sorry for about a hundred times, but in the end, they were always fine.

Eri let herself fall onto the sofa, getting out her phone. She wanted to see the article for herself.

“What are you doing?” Seki-san asked.

“Looking at that stupid article.” She had already found it by googling her name in the news. “Karan Eri's secret lover is… a girl?!” the title said. There were several other pictures of herself and Ai. So, a paparazzi had stalked them. God damn it. Eri had always considered herself careful about this sorta stuff. Well, nothing she could do about it now.

“You should get ready for training,” her manager said.

Eri looked at her. “I thought I'm getting fired.”

“We don't know that yet.” Seki-san's gaze was stern, when she looked at her charge. “Get dressed.”

For a moment Eri wanted to protest. Then she decided against it. She wrote a short message to her girlfriend: “If strange people call you today, just ignore it. We were seen in Osaka. Don't worry too much. We'll talk later.” That was all, she could do for now. Hopefully Ai did not panic. She did not want her girlfriend to blame herself or get harassed by more paparazzi. That would be too much.

Even though it was backbreaking, Eri actually liked training. At least the normal everyday training. Singing, dancing, fitness. That stuff was quite fun. She only hated the “training camps” they were sent to every October. Three weeks with ten or even eleven hours of training each day – including the weekends. That just did not serve any purpose but to break them down. By now she was quite aware of this.

Eri loved being an idol. She loved making people smile. She liked, that people felt good when listening to her music, or that they were happy, when she got voice acting roles. She felt sorta honored when those people paid actual money to just shake her hand. Sure, she also felt kinda iffy about some of the fans, who would send her loads and loads of messages – including some very creepy ones. But all in all: It was nice. She had what she had wanted. She made people smile.

There was just a lot of other stuff going on that she hated. There was that incident with Umi and that filthy producer from Tenzen. There was also the stuff with that interviewer from the TV station groping Komaki – and her being berated for saying something about it. Heck, something like that had happened even to her. While fans loved the entire “Dokkan-Punch” idea and there was more than one guy clamoring for her to punch or step on him, there had been that creep who had groped her under her skirt on an event. She had punched him right on the nose. The producers had made quite the big deal out of it. She had only gotten away with it by referencing her idol persona. And, yes, a lot of her fans had applauded her reaction. She was Karan Eri after all, dokkan-punching everyone.

Sadly, she was very sure that there was no way to dokkan-punch herself out of this situation. Having a girlfriend was not part of her persona, so it would get her into trouble. Yeah, it most surely would.

And yet, she was not nervous when she was led to the producer’s office after having finished training, showered and gotten herself clothed. She took one deep breath, before following her manager inside.

Her manager, who had taken over after L-Corp had failed, was called Yuguwara. He was quite thin, especially his face. Even though his hair was still black (probably dyed though), his face was quite wrinkly – a fact not helped by his deep frown. He got up, when she entered. “Karan-chan,” he welcomed her.

She forced a smile. “Yuguwara-san.”

He gesticulated for her to sit down. Sure, he wanted to stand, while she was sitting. Probably, because she was at least two inches taller than him.

However, she obliged, sat down. Her hands she put onto her knees, sitting upright to look at him. Once more she repeated it to herself: She would not be humiliated.

“What are you doing, Karan-chan?” Yuguwara now asked.

This time she could not hold back her snidey remark. “Sitting, apparently.”

That actually made him stumble. He had not expected her to enter this way. In the end he decided to ignore her comment. “What happened, last week in Osaka?”

“I went there together with my girlfriend for three days. We went to the aquarium, rode some Ferris wheels and had an all in all merry time.” Internally she was almost giddy when seeing his reaction. He, too, had expected her to deny it. It would have been easy, after all. They were girlfriends. It was not that unusual for girls to kiss outside a romantic relationship. Sure, most wouldn’t do it after an obvious date in Osaka, but there was still some plausible deniability.

“And you have not forgotten A470 guidelines?”

“What guidelines are you speaking of exactly?”

“Eri!” her manager chided her.

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know, we are not allowed to have relationships. Though the way the rules are written in our contracts it seems to mostly apply to boys, I might say.”

“I think you are very well aware of the purpose of the rule,” Yuguwara replied. His voice was kinda squeaky, Eri noticed. It made it even harder to take him seriously. When she did not reply, he said: “We are selling young men a fantasy. The fantasy of the girls of their dreams.”

“Yeah,” Eri said. “So?”

“You can’t be a girl of their dreams, if you’re in a relationship. If you aren’t available. Even less, if you’re a lesbian.”

“I am actually bisexual.” Once again Eri found herself shrugging. “And, quite frankly, I consider that rule rather weird. I mean, everyone knows about the rule. It is no industry secret. So, me being an idol makes me in fact less available than me being in a relationship. I mean, there is such a thing as an open relationship, you know?”

“This is not about realism, it is about dreams!” Yuguwara insisted.

“Well, if the guys can dream about me giving up idoldom for them, they can dream of me ending my relationship.” She shrugged once more. “Honestly, Yuguwara-san. Those rules are like more than 30 years old. Don’t you think they are somewhat obsolete?”

Slowly, but surely the producer’s patience ran out. With his hands he was fumbling the lower hem of his grey suit. “You really need to learn some respect, Karan-chan.”

“So, do you. Calling me ‘chan’. I am 21 years old, Jii-san.”

“You won’t talk to me like this!” he suddenly snapped. “You are our employee. We can end your carrier as simple as this.” He snapped his fingers.

“I am very well aware of that,” she replied. “But I decided, I will not be humiliated.”

“Eri,” Seki-san once more chided. She came to her, held her shoulder.

“Look, Yuguwara-san. If you wanna fire me, then fire me. But don’t play stupid mind games with me, okay?”

He stared at her. Yes, he certainly had not expected this. It was not the reaction he got from most. Now he came around the desk, standing right in front of her, staring down at her. “So, you just want to throw everything away? Are you even aware, who we are? You won’t be able to work for any fucking label ever again, you know that? Heck, you won’t work for anyone anymore. Same goes for your girlfriend.”

Eri did not snide at him that it would be hard to get Ai away from her job in the family-owned library. It would only give the guy ideas. “Yeah, I guess we’ll see about that,” she simply replied. “I take this as ‘you are firing me’, am I assuming correctly?”

He snorted. “I...”

She did not let him finish. “Fine,” she said instead. “Well, if there is anything else you want from me: You’ve got my phone number. Seki-san, you can come by tomorrow and pick up the company stuff from my home.” A part of her was expecting her to regret it. “So, if you’ll excuse me. Otherwise, I might endup dokkan-punching you, Yuguwara-san. And we don’t want that.” With that she stood up and turned around to go.

“Eri!” Seki-san called after her, but Eri knew she could not falter. Instead, she just marched on.

“And you just walked out of there?” Ai asked in shock.

“Yeah, she totally did!” Dokkamon grinned. “It was awesome!”

Eri leaned back. They were in their secret little hideout underneath the library. One of the places where it was no problem for the Appmon to be out. “I mean, what else was I supposed to do? I am certainly not begging for them to keep me.”

“Well, you could've negotiated,” Ai muttered. “Maybe there would've been a solution.”

“Nah. I know the type of solution. It would've been me going through a media circus saying sorry over and over and crying for the cameras, denouncing you. Wouldn't do that. No thanks.” She stretched.

“But… Wasn't being an idol always your dream?” Ai asked. She was awfully quiet, just as she tended to be. “I mean, I don't want you to give up on that, because of me.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

Eri turned around to her. “Don't worry. This isn't because of you. It's because of them and their stupid rules.” She put one arm around her girlfriend, pulling her close. Pressing a single kiss onto Ai's forehead she said. “Look, my dream is to make people smile. And, I mean, how can I make other people smile, if I'd make you cry?” She smiled at Ai.

“Yeah, Eri is way too awesome for that,” Dokkamon agreed.

“Look,” Eri said, “there are other ways to make people smile. I think I'll try some online streaming, maybe write some of my own songs, too. Tora has already agreed to help.”

Ai looked at her for a long time. There was a hint of tears in her eyes. She really felt bad about this, even though she should not. “Are you sure?”

“Totally,” Eri said. “I'm gonna be fine. Heck, those arseholes would've probably sorted me out in two or three years either way on count of me getting too old.” Another shrug. “It's okay, really.” She kissed Ai once more, this time on the cheek. “Believe me. This is going to be way better than before. I'll have more time for you and everything.”

“Are you really sure?”

“100%!” Eri replied. “We're gonna be fine!”

Chapter Text

October 5^th, 2010

Sigma sighed upon looking in the mirror. Their face was still not the way they would've liked it to be. While they were lucky to not have grown a beard, they still had a rather square jawline – and no money for any sort of surgery. They liked their hair however. Long, flowing and still bleached to be blond. That the way they had always liked it. The years in high school had been the worse, as their parents had sent them to one that did not allow bleaching – or long hair in “boys” for that matter.

University afforded them more freedom. They took their spironolactone, before washing their face and brushing their teeth. Just the normal morning routine.

And times they were attempted to try estrogen, but in the end, it would not help with their pressing problems. Only surgery could fix that. And frankly they also did not want to grow boobs.

After cleaning up, they went back into the room of their painfully small student apartment, which was still painfully expensive. They would've moved away from Tokyo, but aside from Osaka there was not much in terms of a queer culture in this country.

One day, they told themselves, one day they would move to Europe. Maybe Sweden or Finland. It should not be too hard to get a job as a software developer over there. But first they had to finish university.

Today was no university day however. Today was one of the increasingly rare meetups with their old friends. What had started with almost weekly meetings, hat turned to monthly meetups during high school. Ever since university had started, they only met whenever time allowed it.

Even today it would not be all of them. Just them, Mari, Taichi and Rei – mostly because Rei was in town again. She had started university in Nagato and was rarely around ever since.

A train ride took Sigma to Minato, where they were supposed to meet. Just out of sheer habit, they took their old pendulum with them. Piedmon had long since died. The V-Pets were not programmed to have an incredibly high life expectancy and batteries also did not last forever.

They had long stopped fighting with the pendulums. By now, there were new Digimon V-Pets out there. Sigma had even collected a few of them during their youth. Maybe a part of them had hoped, that some sort of miracle would lead them once more back to the digital world. They were not even sure, why. But the digital world had felt freer. More like a place, where everything would be possible. And considering that Rei back in the day had gotten movement over her legs back, while she was there, maybe the digital world would give them the body they wanted?

It was just a pipe dream. The gate to the digital world would probably never open again. Or even if it did, it would likely take someone else to the digital world. Why would it bring them back – or any of the others, aside maybe Taichi. After all Sigma knew, they had been part of the bad guys in their adventure over there. So, there was nothing much to hope for in that regard.

Heck, maybe the gate had long been opened again, taking a few kids they had never once met over there. Maybe those kids had fought their own big bad guy or had made alliances with him. Maybe those kids had been able to enjoy the brief freedom that strange other world had offered.

Sigma took the pendulum out of their pocket. They had put new batteries in a few days ago. Right now, a Wizarmon was bobbing up and down on the little screen. Not as good as an outcome as it was possible, but also not the worst. They simply had not had the time to always look at the device in time to feed and clean.

They could not help but wonder: Was this little Wizarmon also alive in the digital world somewhere? Did it actually exist, just like Piemon had once existed?

They sighed. Maybe they were missing the digital world a little too much today. It was probably because of the meetup. They were getting nostalgic. But for all the Gods sake, was it really too much to ask to live in a world with no gendered expectations?

They had finally reached the park, where they were meant to meet up with the others. It did not take Sigma long to find Taichi and Rei. They were close to one of the decorative pagodas inside the park. Taichi saw them first, waving them over.

Sigma could feel a slight smile on their lips, when they went over to the others.

“There you are, Sigma!” At least Taichi and the others were calling them by their real name - the name they had chosen for themselves so long ago.

“Am I late?” they asked.

“No, you're fine,” Rei said. She had a new wheelchair – something they had already told them about in her last mails. It was more sportive than the last one. She said it allowed her better mobility. “Mari however is running late.”

A gaze onto their phone told Sigma, that they were indeed right in time. Well, it was to see how long it would take Mari to get her. Other than them, she had an actual job, working as a florist.

“So, how are things going for you?” Rei asked.

Sigma shrugged. “I should finish my masters next year.” They could see, that Taichi held his own Pendulum in his hands. Other than, the others his had somehow never given up. Maybe Holy Angemon's reward to him for saving the world. “How is Zero?”

Taichi showed him the screen, where Ulforce V-dramon was bobbing along. “He is great!”

Sigma smiled. "Of course, he is." They looked up to the sky from which they once fell down upon returning to this world. “I kinda miss that world, don't you?”

“I mostly miss Zero,” Taichi replied, looking onto his V-Pet. “I mean, he is probably totally bored without me anyway.”

“Would you go back there, if you could?” Sigma asked.

“Totally.” Taichi paused. “Well, at least for a couple of weeks.”

Rei hesitated. Well, it was probably all different for her. She had neither been chosen, nor had she ever had an actual partner. Her digital world experience had been complicated. “I don't know,” she muttered. “Maybe just to have a look how everyone is doing.”

Taichi laughed. “I bet Gabu is by now a big Garurumon. Or even a WereGarurumon.”

“Probably,” Sigma replied. They looked onto their own V-Pet once more. “I really would love to go back. At least for a while. Just… Just to see how things would be over there.” Just to escape this world with its stupid norms and ideas for a while.

Chapter Text

April 2^nd, 2011

“Leave that,” Neo said, when Hideto opened one of the last boxes.

Hideto looked up. “You sure?” He had been helping his friend to move. The first apartment of his own. It was a big step after all.

Neo came over to him to gaze at the box. “Yeah. I am sure.” He sighed and looked onto his watch. “It's past 9pm. You should probably get home.”

“It's alright,” Hideto said. “It's a Saturday. So, I am free tomorrow.” Yeah, admittedly there was still one essay he had to submit for one of his university classes, but he would easily finish that one tomorrow. He had already done the research and did not need to do much more work. Without thinking much of it, he opened the box, to find a couple of picture frames, but also something else. Old Digimon V-Pets.

Hideto sighed. Yeah, he remembered the Digimon, the digital world. It was strange. Today it seemed like a strange unreal dream. The pictures as well. There was one of him, Neo and Rei. It had been taken before the accident, that had left Rei in the wheelchair.

She had been helping today, too. Well, she had kept them fed. By now she could stand for a while, she was just unable to walk very far or to carry heavy things. So, she had cooked for them.

Taichi had been here, too. That guy always wanted to help. He was well-meaning. And there was the fact that he and Rei were dating. Another thing, that seemed somehow surreal. Where had the time gone? Middle and High school had passed them by within the blink of an eye.

“Give me that,” Neo said, gesturing towards the picture, Hideto was holding.

Of course, the later obliged. He was a bit unsure of what to say. It all seemed a bit strange. From the five kids, who back then had ended up in the digital world, it seemed they were the ones, who had been most in limbo. Sure, both of them had gotten onto a university. Sure, neither of them had landed the Tokyo University or in fact any prestigious school, but they were studying. Mari had gone an entirely different way, deciding for a career in arts. And Sigma had finished college in record time, already working in software development. Taichi and Rei were off studying well, with Rei even having moved out of Tokyo.

And, sure, they were doing something with their lives – he and Neo. But somehow…

Neo noticed his expression. “What is it?”

Hideto sighed. “t's just strange. Between the five of us…” He shook his head. “I don't quite feel grown up yet, you know?” It kinda bugged him, that Taichi felt much more grown to him than he did himself. That guy was two years younger than him.

Neo leaned against his desk they had hauled into the small apartment this afternoon. “What makes you say that?”

“I don't know.” Hideto shrugged. “I mean, I don't really know where I wanna go with my life, you know?”

“You're studying law.”

“I know. But… I mean, will I be a lawyer, a prosecutor or maybe some guy giving legal advice to a company? I just don't know any of that.” He sighed. “And also, apart from that. I mean…” He shook his head. “I don't want to burden you with my thoughts.”

Neo smiled. A sight that had gotten more frequent in recent years. He offered him a hand to help him up. “It's fine.” He looked at the opened box. “As I said, I'll empty those boxes tomorrow. How about… I don't know? How about we eat some ice cream and talk?”

How had they gotten to this? The day had been stressful enough. Hideto should not spend the evening sharing his worries. That would be egoistical.

“It's fine,” Neo said.

“If you say so.” Hideto took his friend's offered hand, to allow him to help him up.

This apartment was not big. Well, this was to be expected, as they were still in Tokyo. It was just one big room, that did not offer much of a sitting opportunity, aside from the desk and the bed. “Is it fine, if I sit on your bed?”

“Sure.” Neo shrugged going over to the fridge in the kitchen corner to get out some ice cream. Then he got some bowls, as well as some chocolate sprinkles.

Between the four of them and the two other friends of Neo, who had helped, they had emptied much of the large ice cream package, but there were rests to go between the two of them. It was vanilla ice cream with some red bean paste mixed in.

The bowls in hand, Neo came over to him, handing him the second bowl. “I mean, you gotta know what you plan on doing, right? You picked this major for a reason.”

Hideto shrugged. “Main reason: My dad is a lawyer.” It had seemed only natural to him to choose this major, when he had been unable to think of anything else.

“I see,” Neo said. “Well, that's as good as a reason as any.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Hideto said. He ate a spoonful of the ice cream.

He knew, that many other folks, who started university, did not quite know, what they were aiming for. Heck, quite a few would change majors at some point or another. It was only natural, he reasoned. But, well…

Today, when Taichi had been there, that guy had been talking about how he had gotten accepted to the school he had aimed for. He would become a teacher, he said. And it had seemed so very natural. As if Taichi had always known, this was, what he was meant to be. Rei, too. She was studying psychology. For years now, she had been talking about wanting to be a children's psychologist. The two of them had been joking about working at the same school. It had all seemed so natural, as if it had taken them not a moment to think about.

“What are you thinking?” Neo asked.

“Just… Rei. Taichi. They seem to have everything figured out, you know?”

To his surprise it was now Neo, who sighed. “I guess so.”

“What is it?”

“I just… You know. The two of them dating?” Neo shook his head. “You know, Rei is already talking about marrying that guy once they finish their degrees.”

“Wow.” Hideto starred into his ice cream bowl. He guessed he should've figured. After all those two were together since they had started High School. Somehow, that, too, had only seemed natural.

“You know, when we were kids, I always assumed it would be you,” Neo said.

“What?”

Neo shrugged. “I thought, that one day you'd marry Rei and become my brother-in-law.”

A slight chuckle rose in Hideto's throat. At first this seemed such a weird thought, but once he thought about it for a moment, he could see it. When they had been kids, Rei had always been looking up to him. She had spent so much time with both him and her brother, had looked at him with those sparkling eyes. Maybe she once had had a crush on him. He had never asked it, had never considered it. Then he sighed. “Yeah, that… That would not have worked out.”

Surprised Rei looked at him. “Why? I mean, you two were…”

Hideto shook his head. He hesitated. It would be easy to lie. There was the same excuse, he had come up with a long time ago: He could not be with Rei, because he still blamed himself for her injury. But it was a lie. Nowadays more than ever. Rei had a good life. Rei enjoyed life. The wheelchair was simply a part of that.

No, the truth was different. A truth, that he had never shared with anyone. He looked over to Neo.

“What is it?” his friend asked.

Hideto sighed. With his spoon he pocked the ice cream. “You know, I am not… that way,” he said.

“That way?”

Even know there was a way out. Even know he could lie. He had always lied to everyone. Why was he even considering to do something different now? Well, of course he knew why. Because it was Neo - and Neo, well, Neo was special. “I am not straight,” he muttered, before putting a spoon into his mouth.

Neo was silent at this.

Already Hideto was regretting to have said anything. It was stupid, really. He had noticed it a while ago. In the few months after they returned from the digital world. He was not quite able to say, why it was. Maybe, because for once he had been at peace with himself.

“I didn’t know that,” Neo finally said.

“How could you,” Hideto muttered. “I have never told anyone.”

“No one?”

Hideto shook his head. “No one.”

Neo looked at him for a long while. “Wow. I guess I am honored,” he finally said.

What should Hideto reply to this? Carefully he looked at his friend. “You don’t think less of me?”

For a moment Neo thought about it, before shaking his head. “No. I mean, why would I?”

“I don’t know. A lot of people do.”

“I guess so,” Neo said. He sighed, looking at his own melting bowl of ice cream. He took a spoon full, put it into his mouth, before asking: “Since when did you know?”

“Back, when we returned from the digital world. Well, sometime after.”

Neo inhaled deeply. “And you really never told anyone?”

“No.” Shaking his head, Hideto once again avoided the other’s gaze.

Again, Neo fell silent. He ate some more, apparently thinking about this for a while.

To Hideto it was at least relieving to know, Neo would not hate him for that. More than that: It was relieving to have told someone. Finally. Because somehow it felt, as if this made it more real. He was still not sure, whether he would ever dare to tell his parents. Maybe someday. For now, he was glad, that said parents were content with his “I have to focus on university” explanation for why he had no girlfriend.

Neo made a noise, as if he wanted to talk but stopped himself last minute. Then he looked at Hideto. “How did you realize it?”

Yeah, there was the one question, Hideto was not sure, whether he wanted to discuss it with Neo just yet. Sure, in an ideal world, he would tell him the truth and they’d see, where it would take them. But he was not quite sure, whether this world was anything like idea. So, he simply shrugged. “I just noticed, that I liked boys, not girls. I guess.”

Neo blushed just a bit. “I guess that makes sense.” He laughed. “I am sorry, that was a stupid question.”

“It’s fine,” Hideto said and inhaled deeply. “You now, it feels good to have finally said it.”

“I can see that.” Neo smiled. “Thank you, for telling me.”

“Sure,” Hideto muttered.

Then Neo hesitated. “Is this, why you are unsure about university?”

“I don’t know.” Hideto looked at the picture of himself, Neo and Rei, which Neo had now put onto the little table next to the TV. It was a good question. Maybe it was. After all, he just did not quite know, what his future would look like. “Maybe.”

Neo patted his back and managed a genuine smile. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out.” He chuckled. “You’re still young, my grandma would say.”

This actually did make Hideto smile. “Yeah.” Once again, he looked at his melting ice cream. “I guess I am.”

Chapter Text

They had defeated Yggdrasil, Omegamon, Death-X-mon. They had saved the digital world. And yet, they had never gotten a chance to return to their own world. They were still here, in a world so wonderfully alien from their own, and might be here for the rest of their lives.

At first, they had tried to find a way back home. After all, something had brought them here. If one could get from the human world to the digital world, the same should be true the other way around. They had travelled the digital world for more than two years. They had visited all three servers: Urd, Verdande, Skuld. On their travels they had met so many different Digimon, had had so many adventures smaller than the one that had brought them here, but they had not found a way back.

And after a while, well, it had seemed less important to get back. After two years they were not the same anymore. After two years, the human world would be as alien to them, as this world had been, when they had first arrived.

They had settled down. Somewhere on the Verdande server, they had built their own little house, with the help of DORUmon and Ryuudamon.

While the digital world was wild and had seemed so dangerous once, it was just different from their own. There were more than enough Digimon living here, that were friendly - especially now that Yggdrasil did no longer try to “control the population”. Some of the Digimon visited from time to time. They would tell stories of their parts of the digital world. They would bring them fruits and other things to eat.

If no Digimon brought them food, they would go out looking for themselves.

The digital world was a strange place. Here meat grew on plants. It was just a thing that existed, that no Digimon ever questioned. More than that. It was actually well seasoned meat, that grew on those plants, that after a while Yuuji thought to cultivate. So, they did. They cultivated meat plants, some trees that bore a strange fruit tasting of vanilla, as well as some berry bushes.

It was a good life. A peaceful life.

The biggest problem, they had, was the clothing. After all, they had outgrown the clothes, they had worn, when she had gotten into the digital world, rather quick. But thankfully an Agumon X had known about a Shurimon, that was a master of the needle. It had gladly helped the two boys, providing them with new clothing.

From time to time, they travelled. Then they visited the other parts of the digital world as well. A part of Kouta always hoped, that they would find other humans. He had given up on the idea of ever returning to the world, he had been from. But still, it would have been nice to meet another human soul. But they never did. Nor did they ever learn, what fate had brought them here in the first place.

It seemed only natural after a while. They were fifteen by then. Teenager, people would have said in the human world. Here they were basically adults. They were taking care of themselves after all. But yeah, it had only been natural. There was this certain curiosity. The curiosity about love, about touch, about... something more. It happened on one of their travels. One evening, while they were camping out by a fire, the Digimon were already sleeping. Kouta and Yuuji talked, they joked with each other. By now the company of the other had become so natural. They looked up to the blinking stars of the digital world, that were nothing but a projection. Then Kouta's hand found Yuuji's. They held hands, both not quite knowing what to do, what to think about this. They had looked at each other, both their faces flushed. Then Yuuji leaned over, kissing Kouta. It had been an awkward first kiss. After all, they had not many references to go by.

When they had gotten to the digital world, they been too young to care about such things. They had never watched any movies or had cared for those girly manga, that went into kissing or touching or more. Thus, it was for them to explore by themselves.

It seemed only natural. They were the only two humans in this world, the only people, who could touch each other like this. And it felt good to touch this way.

What in the human world might've been strange, might've even been taboo, seemed the only right thing in this world. The Digimon would not judge them. To the Digimon all human love was alien, but they did not care enough about it to condemn them for it. To DORUmon and Ryuudamon it seemed natural in quite the same way. They were the only two humans after all, and human love and kinship was something they had heard much about.

And thus, they lived together in that little house they had built for themselves. This was their world, after all. A world of their own.

Chapter Text

It was good to see Tsurugi thrive, it really was. Ever since he had started university, he was somehow more energetic than he had been before – even though that was quite hard to believe. Yet, he managed to study medicine, to play soccer and to volunteer at a local youth hospital.

Shou really liked seeing him this way. It was just, well, that it always seemed to be him, who had to give up on a bit of his boyfriend's time.

Now it was the same. Tsurugi had clapped his hands together, bowing to him. “I am super sorry! I won't make it on Saturday. There is a fundraiser at the hospital and I have promised I'd help.”

Shou sighed. He did not want to impose himself. Tsurugi might be his boyfriend, but that did not mean, he owned him. “It's alright,” he said, trying his best to smile. “We'll just have to postpone it.”

Tsurugi beamed at him. “Thank you so much!” He hugged him, pressing a kiss onto his cheek. “You're the best.”

“It's fine, really.” Shou shrugged. “I'll have time to work on my game.”

“Yeah! I am looking forward to see it finished!”

Shou smiled and shrugged once more. “We'll see.”

***

Admittedly, it was not easy like this. Shou was studying software development, but his dream really was to become a game developer. It might not be the healthiest dream, maybe. But then again, him engrossing himself with the Battle Terminals had had all to do with Yggdrasil and not much with the game itself. And it had ended up helping him, too. The digital world had allowed him to connect with others, with Tsurugi, with Ami, with Yuu. Peckmon had helped him, too.

He would've loved to develop a Digimon game, but obviously he did not have any rights to the IP. So, in the end, he had to make due with doing a “sort of” Digimon game.

He knew, what he was planning would be quite the undertaking, so he started small. It would be a tamagotchi game, where one would raise little monsters, play minigames with them and the like. His big plan, was to allow players to later upload those monsters into an MMO and explore with them there.

But they were still busy with the smartphone game, which would allow players to raise the not-Digimon.

“Knight?” a voice on his headset asked, jerking him from his thoughts.

“Yeah?”

The voice belonged to Blue, one of his fellow developers. They were working on the game together with five people. A small development team. It was developed in Android, as this was the cheapest way to go about it. Their plan was, to sell it for 200 or 300 Yen, once they could release it.

“You seem rather out of it,” Blue said. They were all chatting via voice chat. It made certain things easier.

“Ah, I…” Yeah, how was he to explain this to them? They did not know about Tsurugi or anything. And it was stupid, after all. Tsurugi was doing, was he liked to do, was helping people. Shou should be happy about it. So, he lied: “I still have this homework for university to take care of. I am thinking about that. I can't quite crack it.”

The ever-helpful Shuya chimed in: “What is it about?”

“Err…” Shou thought about their current programming homework. He should be able to solve it himself, but now he was committed to the lie. “It is a calculator to map out functions and color them in. The coloring part is bothering me.”

“I can help with that,” Shuya said. “I've had to do something like that, too.”

Shou nodded, even though the others could not see him. “Sure. Thanks.”

After that intermission, Shou tried to focus on what they were talking about. Their fourth member, Kikiki, had created sprites for some of their little monsters, including attack sprits and some for the minigames. They wanted to show them of and were hoping for feedback.

“Those really are looking good,” Shou said. The little bird monster reminded him a bit of the Falcomon, he had once raised on his Digimon mini. He still possessed that V-Pet to this day, though the Peckmon from way back then had long died and been reborn. At least that was, what he told himself. This was still Peckmon, somehow.

When the call finally ended, Shou tried his best to go on programming the next mini game. The monsters needed to attack targets from afar and the user would have to tap, when the target moved into a certain area. The game still had a few kinks, when it came to recognizing, whether the user had actually hit. But somehow, Shou could not focus on this day. Maybe, he should actually go out, go to that hospital, help with the fundraiser. Then he could be with Tsurugi. But then again, that fundraiser would be crowded and Shou hated crowds.

There had been a reason, why he had played Battle Terminal from his home PC instead of going to an arcade, even though the arcade would have allowed him to use better tech.

In the end, he gave up. He sighed. While he might not go out to the hospital, he could take a walk by the levy. Fresh air would probably help him a bit.

***

It was a nice and sunny early summer day. Since it had rained last night, the air was still surprisingly clear. It felt good to breath it in, to fill his lungs. It was also good, to be out in the sun. Nowadays Tsurugi would probably tell him something about Vitamin D and that sitting in his room the entire day, would prevent his body from creating enough of that vitamin.

He shook his head with that thought and looked at his Digimon mini. Right now, he was raising a Devimon. A pretty strong Devimon.

If it really was something like his Peckmon way back then? If it really existed inside the digital world, having a connection to him? He wished a bit, to be able to talk to it. A Digimon would always be one's true best friend. Someone, who would never betray you or leave you behind. Someone, that was easy to talk to.

As if summoned by his thoughts, a voice sounded from behind him: “Shou?”

He turned around, surprised to see the red-haired young woman behind himself. “Ami.”

She was walking a small dog - as in a really small dog. Shou did not know enough to be able to tell the breed. Sure, Ami had once told him, but he had long forgotten. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Walking.”

Ami looked less than impressed. “I can see that. It's rare to see you walking, though. And it's Saturday. Would you not, you know, hang out with Tsurugi?”

Why could he not just flee this conversation? Ami was always direct, always hit the sour spot. “He is at a fundraiser for this hospital of his.”

“Ah. I see.” She looked out onto the water, apparently thinking about it for a while. “You really should give him a talk, you know?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Give him a talk?”

“Yeah. You know? For leaving you hanging.” Ami crouched down to pet her dog, as it started wagging its tail. “He does that a lot, you know?”

Once more Shou turned his back to her. “I guess. But most of the time he has good reasons.” Most of the time, there was work stuff or university stuff. Often it was something like: “Yeah, another volunteer can't make it, so I will fill in.” That was simply a Tsurugi thing: He could not leave people hanging.

Ami sighed with annoyance. “Yeah, but your relationship should be important, too.” She stood up again and stepped close to him. “Look, I get Tsurugi is always involved with many things. But you are his boyfriend. You should be important to him, too.”

Shou looked around to her, not quite managing to look her into the eyes. “But… I mean, all those things…” It was more important than him. The fundraiser would help sick children. That was important. And when he was volunteering, that was important, too.

“Shou, just think about it: There are other people volunteering, too. I mean, I don't think Tsurugi thinks badly of you, but the guy needs to get his priorities straight. And as his boyfriend, you should help him do that.”

What was Shou to say about that? Maybe Ami was right. At his university, there had been a talk about “work-life-balance”, and it seemed quite clear, that said balance did not really exist for Tsurugi. But on the other hand, it was as if Tsurugi was radiating happiness, if he only got to help other people.

“Shou,” Ami said, when he stayed silent. “You are his boyfriend. You are important, too.”

Was that true? Could he be as important as helping sick children? He was not really sure about that. He was only one guy, after all.

Ami sighed. “If you are not gonna talk to him, I will.” As if to reinforce those words, her little dog barked.

“Okay,” Shou said. “Fine. I'll… I'll try to talk with him.”

***

Shou had just hung up on his mother, when the microwave dinged. His dinner was ready. Yes, he knew very well, that he should bother cooking for himself, but upon returning home, he had just buried himself in programming once more, so that he would not have to think about his talk with Ami.

His mother was always worried, that he would end up like back then. A hikkikomori, never leaving his house. But he would not. While university was stressful, he actually liked learning. And he wanted to do something, work, archive stuff. So, no, he would not go back to that place. And, no, he would not let himself get kidnapped back to the digital world without away back. Though at times he thought, it would be nice to travel that world again. Just for a week or two.

His dinner was some sort of potato gratin from the supermarket. Nothing special. With it, he went back to his computer, trying to finally solve that accuracy problem.

It was just then, that somebody rang on the doorbell.

Glancing on the clock in the corner of his computer screen, he sighed again. Who could it be, just past 9pm? Maybe a neighbor borrowing some salt or something.

He got up and went to the door. The next moment, he was surprised to find Tsurugi standing there. He was panting, as if he had run here from the subway station. “I…” He tried to regain control over his breath again. “You wanted to talk?”

“What?”

“Ami wrote me a message, saying you wanted to talk.”

Stupid Ami, not keeping her nose out of their affairs.

Shou sighed, however. He shrugged. “Come in.” With that he went back to his desk, while Tsurugi knelt down next to the small table, on which Shou normally ate.

“You are angry, aren't you?” Tsurugi asked in worry.

Shou looked at his screen, before forcing himself to turn around. “I am not angry,” he replied. “Really, I am not.” He wasn't, right?

“What is it then?”

Gods, the truth was kinda hard. He loved this stupid idiot with his normally radiating smile. It was exactly, because he loved him, that it hurt so much, to not be a priority in his life. “I am just… Tsurugi, I want to spent more time with you.”

“I know,” his boyfriend said. “It's just, the fundraiser…”

“It's not just the fundraiser and you know it.” Shou had to force himself to look at Tsurugi. “Just in the last three months, how often have you walked out on our dates?”

Tsurugi thought about this for just a moment. “Six?” Now it was for him to sigh. “I know. I am… probably a bad boyfriend.”

“I…” What was he now supposed to say? “Look, I don't think you're a bad boyfriend. Well, not, when you have time. I love spending time with you, and…” Now his gaze darted to his small TV in the corner of the apartment. “Look, I talked with Ami and… I think, she is right.”

Tsurugi swallowed hard. “With what?”

Was he thinking, Shou was breaking up with him?

“That you need to make time for me, too.” Shou said. “I am your boyfriend, and, well, I would like at least one day a week just for us.”

“Oh.” So, he really had been thinking, Shou had wanted to break up. Then Tsurugi sighed. “I guess, that sounds fair. I am sorry. I just…” He shook his head. “I should stop making excuses.”

“Yeah, you should.” Shou managed a weak smile. “Can you promise?”

Tsurugi looked at him. “Yeah, I think I can.” With that he slid up to him. “I promise,” he said, putting his hand on Shou's. “I promise.”

Chapter Text

“You should've seen her with those kids!” Nene pulled her legs closer to her body, while she was sitting on the couch. “Those kids actually listened to her and she was so… happy.” She looked over to Kiriha, who was clearly fighting down a chuckle. “And then one of the kids fell and started to cry. But she had him going again in no time.”

Now Kiriha lost his fight, laughing out loud. “You totally have a crush.”

Nene pouted, but could not bring herself to lie. Yes, she had crush. A crush that had been long coming. Even back in the digital world, when they had first met, there had been something about Akari, that had caught her eye. How the girl, even without being a general, had back then managed to keep everything going, to organize Xros Heart.

Kiriha sat down next to her. “You have a crush,” he teased, making her roll her eyes.

“Maybe I do.”

He pulled her close, kissing her onto the forehead. it struck Nene, how this was just a strange reaction, considering he was her boyfriend. But after all, he had a boyfriend of his own. “The question is,” he now said, “what you gonna do about it.”

“I don't know yet.” She was still pouting. Her life had gotten way too chaotic during the last few years. This would only make it more chaotic.

“You could ask her out,” Kiriha suggested.

“But she is Taiki's girlfriend!”

“And I am Taiki's boyfriend.” He shrugged. “You point is?”

Admittedly, it was a weak argument. As Taiki did not care to share Kiriha with her, he probably would not care about sharing Akari. That was, of course, if she was even interested. Nene did not know. She knew, the girl had been plenty flustered, whenever Nene had flirted with her back in the digital world, but that could mean a lot of things. It had always been sorta obvious, that Akari would end up with Taiki. The same went for Kiriha. And meanwhile, well, Kiriha had been the one caring for Nene and her sister, when she had moved in with the relatives she had been so afraid of. So that one had long been coming, too.

It was just that Akari. Well, she seemed so straight.

Kriiha grinned, ruffling her hair. “C'mon. You're Amano Nene. You shouldn't be afraid to ask the girl out.”

Now Nene blew him a raspberry. “You're impossible.”

“Says the Digimon general, who is afraid to ask another woman out.”

“As if it was this simple!”

“It is, actually,” Kiriha said. “Just ask Taiki.”

“It has been quite different with Taiki! Akari had been pining for him for years, when he asked her out.”

“Which he didn't know.”

“Because he's an idiot!”

“Yeah, he is.” Kiriha blushed just a little.

Yeah, yeah. The idiot he loved. Sure thing. Nene found herself rolling her eyes.

Now as an adult, she had a way to describe her feelings. She was pansexual. She easily fell for people, who were kind, but also strong and confident, no matter their gender. People like Kiriha. People like Akari.

She sighed, getting out her phone. “Fine.”

“Ask her about Sunday,” Kiriha said. “I'll be out the entire day. So, you girls can have all the fun.” He gave that word a certain innuendo.

Nene did not quite know, why this was so hard for her. What was the worst thing, that could happen? Sure, Akari could not return her feelings. Akari could be straight. But, well, she would not think less of Nene because of it, right? Nene had been open about her pansexuality for a long while. And, well, Akari was living together with Taiki, even though he was dating Kiriha. So, yeah, Akari was certainly open to this type of stuff. Maybe their relationship would grow awkward afterwards, if Akari was not to return Nene's feelings, but, well…

Taiki looked at her. He clearly had not slept much in the last few nights. Not a big surprise, because his training had been especially hard recently. But he was good. He had always been good with all the sports and now specializing in Basketball seemed to be just right. He also worked as a cashier in a combini – because a professional basketballer did not make enough money in Japan to sustain himself. He yawned. “What is it, you wanted to talk about?”

They were sitting in a coffee shop. Nene had just gotten back from her own practice. Slurping an iced coffee, she watched him carefully. “I wanted to ask you something about Akari.”

He took a slip from his own coffee, as if he was hoping it could wake him up. “And you are not asking her this, why?”

Because in a weird little way Nene was actually a coward. She knew Kiriha would hear about it and she also knew he would tease her about it. But it seemed only fair, she argued with herself. Just letting Taiki know beforehand, that she had those feelings for Akari.

Pah. As if Akari was a possession of his. Why was Nene even like this?!

“Because it's a bit awkward,” she muttered. She felt so weird, sitting here with him. Probably she was bothering him. Probably he should've lied down, as he had the chance this afternoon. And yet, here she was. “So, you know Akari for so long and I was wondering…”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I was wondering, whether you know, well… You see… I was wondering, whether she is…”

“Into girls as well?”

This reply surprised Nene. After all, Taiki used to be thickheaded in these regards. He did not get stuff, until he was told. Or maybe that was just, if it did concern himself.

Well, there was no need denying it. So, Nene nodded. “Yeah, that.”

“Well, she once had this crush on her senpai in her second grade of high school,” he said. “Mihira was the girls name.” He frowned. “I think, at least.”

“Ah.” Nene sighed with relieve, before she could stop herself. Sure, after all it was not this uncommon for girls to fall for other girls. “That's… good.”

Taiki's expression was surprisingly deadpan. “You've a crush on her.”

Gods, Nene really needed to work on her poker face. Was she so easy to read? So easy, that Taiki out of all people got it? “Yeah,” she admitted. “I do have a crush on her.” Thinking about Akari with her students just made her heart flutter once more. Akari just had this energy about her, when she worked with those children. Calm. Friendly. Strong.

Taiki scratched the back of his head. “I don't mind,” he then said. “If you want to ask her out, that is.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “That's basically it.”

“Go ahead. Have you asked her about Sunday, because…”

“Because you and Kiriha are out all day. I know. Kiriha said so much.”

At this, Taiki shrugged. “Yeah. Well, just ask her.”

And thus, Nene really did ask Akari. It was just a short message, that left enough plausible deniability: “Wanna hang out on Sunday, while the boys are out?”

Akari had simply replied with a grinning emoji. “Sure!”

So, Nene ended up standing there at the Shibuya main station around Sunday noon for her first “first date” in ages. She was wearing a frilly pink dress she really liked. Her hair lay open over her shoulders, as she wore it these days most of the time. She was rocking a bit back and forth on her heels, nervously waiting for the other woman to arrive.

“Nene-chan!” The voice made her almost jump. But there she was, Akari, her glowing red hair pulled back in a short ponytail. She was grinning. Even with 23, she preferred wearing jeans trousers. Her t-shirt was wide and bright blue, with some phrases printed in front. “Have you been waiting long?”

“No, no. Just about five minutes,” Nene said. She could feel herself blushing already. Why did her body betray her like this?

She had been glad that nobody had told Kotone about this. Because otherwise her little sister would not have stopped bugging her about it. Little sisters were supposed to have a bit of respect, one should assume. Nene had risked her own life to save Kotone once. And yet, the young woman enjoyed teasing her more than anything.

“I am relieved.” Akari beamed at her. “So, what were you thinking?”

“I don't really now,” Nene replied. “Maybe go to a café or something. Hang out a bit? Maybe karaoke?”

“Karaoke with just the two of us?”

“Sure, why not?”

Akari laughed. “Okay. Fine. If you say so. Wanna go to a Motsuba shop? They have chara drinks right now.”

Nene shrugged. She followed those things less than Akari did. But after all, Akari was a teacher. So, knowing what those kids were into, was maybe even helpful to her. “I don't have any preferences.”

And thus, Akari led them to the next shop from the Motsuba chain. There was one not far from the Shibuya station. Going into the karaoke bar made going to a café first rather redundant. After all the karaoke place served drinks and some little treats as well.

“We really don't hang out often enough,” Akari chatted, when they were in their little cabin. “At least not without the boys.”

“Yeah, pretty much what I was thinking,” Nene replied. Her smile was way too shy, she could feel that very well. “How is Zenjiro doing even? I have not heard about him in a while?”

“He is doing fine.” Akari shrugged. “He plans on staying in Canada, you know?”

Yeah, Nene had guessed as much. With his girlfriend over there, it seemed only natural he would stay. “I should call him sometime soon.” Even though it was a hassle with the different time zones.

“He would love that,” Akari said. She drank a bit from her firery red drink, that showed the main character from some sort of shonen anime, Nene guessed. She had seen that character before, but did not remember the name. She herself had gotten a yellow drink, that tasted of sweet lime.

There were also two small pieces of short cake on the table.

“Do you mind, if I start?” Akari asked, flicking through the karaoke menu.

“Go ahead.” Nene sipped from her drink. She was not quite sure, how to go about it, with Akari. After all, this was already kinda sorta a date. Going into a karaoke bar with just the two of them was a date thing to do. But how to tell Akari she liked her?

Finally, Akari had found a song she liked. The newest opening from One Piece, if Nene was not completely mistaken. Akari had gotten up, tapping along with the beat, before starting to sing. There was just this glimmer in her eyes, while she was bursting out the lyrics… She was not a particularly good singer, but it was fun watching her. In fact, Nene would not mind watching her for quite a while.

The song, however, ended in a bit less than four minutes, with Akari almost breathless. She was beaming, before handing Nene the microphone. “Now you!”

Nene laughed, took the microphone and skimmed the menu. Then she found what she was looking for. A newer, rocky sonata. She got up, mockingly took a bow and waited for the intro of the song to end. With a deep breath, she started singing, almost losing herself in the song. Singing was one of those things, she had always loved doing.

But even now she noticed a strange expression on Akari's face, while the woman was watching her. An expression, that made Nene blush.

However, she finished. Taking another deep breath.

“Your singing voice is so beautiful,” Akari raved. “You'd've made a great singer!”

“I sing sometimes on my concerts,” Nene said. Even though she was mostly a pianist.

“I know. I know. Just not often enough.”

Nene flushed. She could not help, but feel honored by this, even though she knew she was singing well. “Want to sing something together?”

They did. Then one of them sang again. Then the other. Then they just talked for a while. It was fun, but not quite, what Nene had wanted to meet for. She found herself quietly sighing, while Akari was finishing another song. Their time in the cabin was almost up. It was now or never (or at least not today).

Maybe Akari noticed her shoulders hanging down, as she sat next to her. “Is something wrong?”

Nene looked at her. “Not wrong, per se.” Darn it, her heart was fluttering so badly, she felt just like a teenager again. “Really, nothing is wrong.” Yet, she sighed again.

Akari seemed suspicious. “There's something, you're not telling me, Nene.”

“There is.”

For a moment Akari waited for her to go on, before prompting: “And that would be?”

How to start this? “You remember what I always said, back in the digital world?”

“You said quite a lot of things in the digital world, Nene.”

It would've probably been too easy this way. “I always said, that I liked strong boys, right?”

“Yeah?” Now Akari seemed to be outright confused.

“And that I liked strong girls, too.”

That one hit. Finally, it was Akari, who was blushing as well. “Yeah. I remember something like that…”

“You see…” Nene fought herself fighting against a lump in her throat. “You are not a girl anymore, Akari. But, well…” She swallowed hard. “You're a strong woman, you know?”

The blush spread across Akari's face. Now she evaded Nene's gaze. “So, you're saying…”

“I am saying I like you.”

Akari took a deep breath. “Woah.” She did not ask any question about Kiriha at least. Then she forced herself to look at Nene again. “You're serious?”

“Absolutely serious,” Nene replied.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, before Akari lifted her hand to brush a strand of Nene's hair aside. “You know, you are pretty cute.”

A nervous giggle fought its way up Nene's throat. “Cute?”

“Yeah. I said it,” Akari said.

Nene looked at her, pursing her lips. “So, you're saying?”

“Maybe we can give this a try,” Akari replied. She hesitated for a moment, before softly kissing Nene on her cheek. Then she giggled as well. “Yeah, you're cute.”

“So, how did it go?” Kiriha asked upon returning home, just a short while before eleven in the evening.

Nene was sitting on their sofa, eating some sweets. Even now her face was still flushed, she could feel it very well. She looked at him with a smile, that desperately wanted to turn into a grin.

Kiriha put his jacket up on the rack and put on his slippers, before coming over to her. One hand on her knee, he looked her right in the eye. “Now tell me!”

“We've another date next week,” Nene finally whispered, still in utter disbelief about it. “An actual date!”

“Today was not an actual date?”

Nene giggled once more. “Not quite.” She noticed a hickie on Kiriha's neck, not quite hidden enough by his t-shirt. It was not hers, so it had to be Taiki's. She pulled her legs underneath herself, before leaning over to him, to kiss him right beside that one.

“See,” he whispered, brushing through her hair with his fingers, “you were way too nervous for that.”

“Well, I am not used to being the one, to ask people out,” she said, now looking him in the eyes. “Usually, I get asked out often enough.”

He grinned, before kissing her lips. “Well, I can't argue with that.”

Chapter Text

The Haneda airport was packed with people. Why did Niko's flight had to arrive at the same time, as a flight from the US and another, delayed flight from Singapore? So many people were crowding the hall, it was hard to make anyone out.

Akiho held firm to Taiga's hand, as he was at least somewhat taller than her, having an easier time to look over the heads of other people. “Do you see him?” she asked.

“Nah,” Taiga replied, now tiptoeing to see something.

She could feel his hand clutching hers. He hated crowds like this and if it had not been for Niko, he most certainly would not've come along. Now, however, he was here with her, waiting. Akiho knew fairly well, he wanted nothing more than get outa here. They'd probably find a quiet corner, once they had collected their boyfriend, to wait until the crowds had dispersed.

He pressed his hand just a bit, to show her support. They'd be happy, once they were back in their little apartment.

Then they both heard the very much familiar voice. “Taiga! Akiho!”

Akiho did her best to tiptoe as well, but she just could not see over the heads of the people around her. While the boys had both grown quite a bit since their teenage years, she had stayed the same age, since she had been 14. She hated it.

Now Taiga pulled her along through the crowd. She could not do much, but follow him. Then, she finally saw the familiar dirty brown hair, just before Taiga fell into Niko's arms.

“Wow, you really have missed me, eh?” Niko laughed, pulling the other man close. “There, there.” He patted Taiga's back. “Thanks for picking me up.” However, Taiga would not that easily let go of him, needing the support within the crowd.

Akiho smiled, waved Niko her hello. Talking was not much use with all the kafuffle going on around them. Better wait until they were somewhere quiet - wherever that might be. Maybe one of the Starbucks in here was sufficiently quiet.

It took Taiga a moment, until he finally broke away from Niko. “It's good to have you back,” he said with a hoarse voice.

“How about we go somewhere a bit quieter,” Akiho proposed. Admittedly, she would be quite thankful herself to get out of the crowd, which made her feel as if surrounded by walls out of bodies.

Niko nodded. He did not ask about taking the first train back. He knew, this was not an option right now. So, they once more struggled through the people, until they found a quieter place. It was not a Starbucks – the Starbucks was packed – but instead an airport bistro.

“I need something to eat,” Niko muttered, getting out his purse. “Something for you?”

They both shook their heads. Without saying much, Akiho brought Taiga over to a table in the corner, away from the few other guests of the little (and overpriced) place.

Only, when Niko got to them with three drinks, he sighed. “It would've been fine, if you'd waited at home,” he said.

“I know.” Taiga looked at him with a tired smile. “But I wanted to see you.”

It was in fact still quite early. Just past 9am. They had left their apartment just after 7, to make it here in time. Considering that being around people (well, human people, that was) always took a toll on Taiga, Akiho would not be surprised, if he went right to bed back at home.

“That's sweet of you,” Niko replied with a grin, that was probably overplayed.

Akiho got the straw out of its paper cover and put it into the soda, Niko gave her. “So, how was Russia?”

“Weird,” Niko replied with a long, melodramatic sigh. “And my grandparents are still super annoying.”

“Why?” Akiho raised just a single eyebrow. She had perfected this expression long ago.

Niko grunted, his arms crossed. “I am 21 and they are already talking about their greatgrandkids!”

At this Akiho laughed, accidentally getting some soda into her nose and starting to cough in the next moment. “Yeah, no. Just tell them no!”

“That's what I said!” Niko shouted, getting a bit too much attention for that. He shook his head. “Apart from that: The language is weird, the food is weird and it's fucking cold.”

“I see,” Taiga said. “But…” He stopped himself short, as if unsure, what to say.

Still, Niko totally got, what he wanted to say. “Yeah, I know, they are my family.” He groaned at bit. He went on complaining, more because Niko loved to complain, than because he found Russia so unbearable. Still, he complained about his (admittedly overbearing) grandparents, about having been left to them by his father for most of his time there, about the food, about having had to walk a lot (then his burger was served, which shut him up for approximately five minutes), then about not knowing the language well enough and about a particular family gathering, with a lot of aunts and uncles. “So, yeah, I am glad I am back,” he finally finished.

Akiho giggled. “I see.” After all, she was used to Niko complaining. She had been used to it for years. Even when they had still been no more than friends, he had always complained. She looked through the glass door of the bistro, which lead to the entrance hall of the airport. “I think we can get going.”

“Fine,” Niko groaned. “I just want a hot shower!” Then he noticed Taiga absent gaze, sighed – this time softly – and took his boyfriend’s hand. “And I want to lie in bed for a while,” he added quietly. “And just, you know…”

A tired smile found its way onto Taiga's face. “Yeah. Lying in bed sounds great.”

Akiho took his other hand and pressed it. “We'll be home in a bit more than an hour. Then we can relax.”

“And I want to watch some anime,” Niko added.

“I think we can do that,” Akiho said with a smile. “And then you'll have to fight me and Digitorin, because you haven't for four weeks.”

“What was I supposed to do? The Russian countryside does not have proper internet.”

“Well, you owe me at least 20 matches!”

“20?!”

She grinned at him. “At least.” With a sidegaze to Taiga, she found him smiling. She always knew their little, unserious arguments would cheer him up. With attitude she got up, almost tipping over her chair. “Well, let's get going then. I want to get home before noon!”

Chapter Text

It had been a simple message in their group chat, that had made Nokia uncomfortable. It had been a message from Arata: “Going on a date!” And somehow, Nokia had known. She had known it would be Ami. Ever since, an angry feeling had been lurking in her stomach. She could feel it in every waking moment and every time, she wanted to go to sleep.

It had been her own fault, really. She had been thinking about asking Ami out properly for at least three months. But, well, she had not. They had gone out, sure, but things were like they were. Them going out could easily be read as gals being pals. It was a normal thing for two gal pals to go into cafés, to spent an entire afternoon with another, to gift each other a little something for Valentine's Day. Just normal gal pal things. And that was, probably, why Ami had not quite gotten the clue.

It really was Nokia's fault and now, well, now it was stupid Arata going out with Ami.

Nokia was not really sure what to do about this entire thing. She liked Ami. She liked her a lot. She had been fantasizing about kissing her for a while. Well, kissing, maybe more. The thought was enough to make her blush. After all, she had thought this feeling was somehow mutual. Ami always said those things from time to time. Flirty things. But maybe that was a gal pal thing as well.

The reasonable part of Nokia knew, that the only way out, was to either give up on Ami or talk to her. But talking to her, well, that would hurt Arata and even though Arata could be a stupid bastard at times, he was still her friend. So, in the end this was out of the question.

Giving up. Giving up was her only option. And Nokia hated giving up.

She did not even know why she was now hanging out at the Nakano Broadway. She had gotten here without much thinking about it. After all, it was where they had hung out the entire time before. Gods, she missed her two little buggers. Agumon. Gabumon. They would not have been good for any advice, but they sure would be able to cheer her up.

Instead, she ended up walking through the rows of second-hand merch shops on the upper floor, looking of some cute keychains and trying to get her mind of those thoughts bugging her. What else was there for her to do?

Worst thing that could happen now: She would run in either Ami or Arata. They had hung out here so often during the EDEN affaire. Heck, Ami was still working for Kyoko. The new Kyoko, that was, who was not Alphamon.

Heck, what was Nokia doing here? There were better things for her to do, right?

She was not even interested in buying anything. No. She was just… Well, trying to keep herself busy.

In the end, she came down the stairs with a long sigh. She would probably just have to give herself over to a life of eternal loneliness. Yeah, something like that sounded probable.

On the ground floor, she almost ran into somebody. “S-sorry,” she stammered, when she realized, that it was in fact Kyoko – the real Kyoko, that was.

The blond-haired woman looked at her. “Shiramine-san.” A smile appeared on her face. “What are you doing, running blindly through the crowd?”

Nokia quickly lifted her arms to divert any suspicion of something going on. “Nothing. Nothing. I was just… err… thinking about what to have for dinner.”

Kyoko eyed her. “I can offer you some bagels and coffee.”

Gulping hard, Nokia wanted to come up with a quick excuse. After all, she very well remembered Kuremi Kyoko's coffee creations. “I…”

“Great,” Kyoko said. “Let's go.”

Cursing under her breath, Nokia resigned herself to her fate. Well, this would at least take her minds of things – once she had survived seaweed coffee or whatever else Kyoko might come up with. She followed the older woman to the back corridor, where the Kuremi Detective Agency was located to this day. The place where Ami would work on other days.

It was just a tiny bit tidier these days than it had been, when Alphamon had played the part of Kyoko. But even now there were files and papers littered over the desk and the table in the middle of the room.

“Sit down.” Kyoko gestured towards the sofa.

“Thanks.” What else was there to say? Nokia let herself fall onto the sofa. At least she could count herself lucky, that Ami was not working right now.

Admittedly, she had rarely ever eaten bagels. Those were an American food and they were not even sweet. Not much for Nokia's taste, really. Still, she had not been lying completely. She was hungry. So, she thanked Kyoko, when she offered her a bagel on a small plate. It did not even feature any strange ingredients, but seemed to be garnished with some cheese and salad.

Then followed the horror she had been expecting. A cup of coffee was put onto the table in front of her. Kyoko then sat down on the other sofa, crossing her legs just as Nokia had seen her (well, Alphamon) do so often. “Enjoy,” she smiled at her.

With a sigh, Nokia took up the cup. She was well-mannered, after all. She took a sip and… was surprised. It tasted just like a normal café latte. No seaweed, no red beans, nothing. Just perfectly normal coffee.

“Is something not alright?” Kyoko asked, upon noticing her surprise.

Nokia quickly shook her head. “No. Everything is fine.”

This was a different Kyoko, she reminded herself. A very different Kyoko even though her mannerisms still seemed so much like those of the Kyoko she had gotten to know a bit more than half a year ago.

Thus, Nokia ate her bagel and drank her cup of coffee, feeling all in all very relieved.

Maybe this showed on her face as Kyoko smiled at her. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah, a bit,” Nokia said.

“Great.” Kyoko was eyeing her over once again. “Now tell me what is bothering you.”

A nosy detective. Yeah, that was something that any version of Kuremi Kyoko seemed to be. She had to get involved in anything – and be it just with the hope that she could make some money out of it. And be it just 300 Yen. “Nothing,” Ami lied, knowing very well she had already lost.

With one finger, Kyoko rubbed her own nose. “I am deducing from your denial, that you are having love troubles.”

“I have nothing of that sort!” Nokia protested.

“I thought so,” Kyoko replied, as if Nokia had just confirmed everything she had said. Her eyes narrowed while she kept watching Nokia. “Now the question is, who the beloved is.”

“Nobody!”

Kyoko sighed. “I don't know you very well, Shiramine Nokia-san, but I do know a heart in trouble. We'll get to the bottom of that and then find a solution.”

Probably, Nokia should've just gotten up and left. She did not, feeling as if she had been glued to that stupid sofa. “I don't need a solution!”

Kyoko drank a bit of coffee. “I see.” She thought for a moment. “You being here means, you've either wanted to meet that someone or avoided them.”

“Are you even listening?”

“You always hang out with Ami and that other boy – Sanada Arata. Sometimes there is those Kamishiro siblings, too.” Kyoko made a pause, but kept her eyes firmly on Nokia's face. “It might of course also be somebody outside your normal friend group. Maybe a salesperson in one of the shops here?” Another pause. “No. I would not think so. So, one of the friend group it is.”

“I am not a puzzle for you to solve, Kuremi-san!”

“I think I can safely rule out the Kamishiro boy, Yuugo. He seems a bit on the young side, right? A bit too young for you?”

Was that woman listening?

“Then the Kamishiro girl, maybe?” Kyoko looked at her, as if she wanted to see right into her soul. “No, that woman has too much class.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

“Arata and Ami remain. And your pained expression tells me, I am right about that.”

Nokia grunted, trying to fixate her gaze onto the cup in front of her.

“Sanada-kun then? Ah, that would make for a pretty dramatic story, considering he has started to…”

“I know, he is dating Ami!” Nokia burst out. She inhaled sharply. “I know that.”

Kyoko blinked. Nokia had actually gotten her to blink. Then the detective chuckled. “My dear Shiramine-san. You do not make for a good detective.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

The detective leaned forward, putting her elbow onto her knee. “Now tell me, what let you to that conclusion?”

Nokia stared at her in disbelief. What kind of woman was this even? “What conclusion?”

“The conclusion that Sanada Arata is dating Ami-chan.”

“He wrote it in a group chat.”

“He did?” Kyoko raised an eyebrow. What did she know, that Nokia didn’t?

“He wrote, he was on a date,” Nokia said. “And he had an obvious crush on Ami, you know? For a while, that is.”

“What makes you think that?”

“He got flustered a lot around her,” Nokia replied.

Another chuckle. Kyoko looked at her as if in pity. “Yes, I am sure there is no other reason for an introvert like Sanada to get flustered around pretty ladies.”

This was getting too stupid for Nokia. “What is it you’re not telling?”

“Well, I can tell you something. He is dating an Aiba.”

Already Nokia wanted to ask, whether Kyoko was just messing with her, when her mind suddenly remembered something. There was another Aiba. The Aiba from Fukuoka. Ami’s twin brother. Takumi. “He is dating Takumi?”

“That took you a while,” Kyoko said with a shrug. She got out her phone and opened a picture to show it to her. It was from some social media feed – and indeed it showed Arata together with Takumi in what seemed to be Kyoto. When Nokia sighed in relief, Kyoko smiled. “So, it is Ami you have the crush on.”

“W-what?” Nokia looked at her in surprise.

“Well, I guessed as much. She should get here in approximately half an hour. I would advise you, to make a move. She is a cute girl after all.” Kyoko smirked. “And until she arrives: Would you be a dear and go to the coffeeshop to get me a sandwich?”

“But we just ate.”

“Yes, but I shared with you.” Kyoko gave a shrug. “And you need to be kept busy.”

Chapter Text

Armageddemon followed the two Digimon with its chameleon-like eyes. The scales on its back opened up, launching tens, if not hundreds of rockets in the air. However: Dianamon had their backs. She took her bow, summoning a single ice arrow. “Arrow of Artemis!” When she fired the arrow, it split first into two, then four, then eight. More and more arrows were created, until they matched the number of rockets. Arrows and missiles collided in the air filling the sky with explosions.

“Now, V.V.!” Rina yelled.

Her partner knew exactly, what to do. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Shining V-Force!” With that a laser formed like a V was fired from his chest, hitting Armageddemon right in the head. Once more the spider-like creature tried to fire a fireball from its moth, trying to wart the attack of, but while the two attacks were colliding, Dianamon appeared overhead. “Arrow of Artemis!” Once more she summoned an ice arrow – a giant one this time, aimed right at the back of Armageddemon's head. Before the monstrum could react, the attack hit with a force that was enough to catapult the creature's head onto the ground. Water from the lake they were fighting in splashed in all directions.

“Is it over?” Sayo whispered.

Rina squinted trying to see more. Yes, something was happening. Data was flowing out of the wound, Dianamon had created. “It is. I think.”

She thought right. Just a few moments later, Armageddemon's body exploded into data particles spreading into all directions. They had done it. Once more. Another digital world saved.

“Come on! High Five!” Rina said, lifting her hand in a gesture.

A faint smile showed on Sayo’s face, when she (softly) met the hand. “Yay.” She had by far not the energy Rina felt rushing through her veins all of the time. But never the less: This was fun.

***

The Digimon in the village celebrated – and by the four holy beasts they knew how to celebrate. They had lit a bit fire in the town's square. Some Dondokomon were drumming along, with the other Digimon dancing around it. Their world might have been destroyed under other circumstances, but it was not. They had saved it. Once again.

Rina sat on a bench by the side of the town's square. It was strange to see this digital village, which was built more like a European town, celebrating in such a Japanese way. But traveling the digital worlds, Rina had stopped wondering about such things.

“What do you say, V.V.?” she asked, looking at her partner, who was once again in his child level form. “Where to next?”

The V-mon rolled his eyes. “As if we had any say in that.”

She pouted. “Party pooper.”

It was true, though. Originally Rina had thought that after defeating the demon lords and everything, they'd get back into their respective worlds. That had not happened however. Instead, she and Sayo had ended up in another digital world in need. Once that had been dealt with, well, another gate had opened and yet they had found themselves in yet another world. By now the same thing had happened twelve times over and slowly, but surely, Rina was getting used to it.

Sayo sat down next to her, Lunamon by her side. She handed her a candied apple – or at least something that looked like it. “Try this,” she said. “It's good.”

“Thank you!” Rina said, winking. She bit into the apple and found it tasting of chocolate. “Yum!” This was the fun part about all those digital worlds. One knew never what to expect.

“So, what do you think, where we are headed next?” she asked between two bites.

Sayo shrugged. “Who knows?” A faint smile showed on her face, while she watched the Digimon dance. “Probably fighting some more.”

“Probably.” Taking another big bite Rina got into thinking. “I feel, whoever does the entire gate stuff owes us a vacation, don't you think?”

“A vacation?”

“Yeah. Like, some tropical islands in a digital world, going swimming or surfing or something.”

V.V. shot her a side gaze. “Well, for the swimming part you came prepared.”

“Hush!” She leaned back, looking at the clearly digital night sky. There was data dancing between the stars. Such a strange and surreal sight. Finishing her apple, she put her hand upon Sayo’s. It was those small gestures they had become used to sharing in between them.

Sayo grinned. Probably about V.V.’s stupid joke. “Well, maybe there will be an apocalyptic disaster happening on some File Island in some digital world.”

“Yeah. That would be nice.”

Sayo giggled. “You are so weird.”

Now Rina looked at her with a big grin. “I am not weird, my dear. I am unique! Big difference.”

That got Sayo to laughing out loud. “Yeah, pretty unique. I agree.”

***

Their gate did not open this night. A nice change of pace. The last three times they had saved a world, their gates had opened right after the big bad had been defeated. Then they had been spirited away into another world. Not always to instantly fight the next battle. This time it had taken some investigation, some mystery solving and some getting rid of a mysterious artifact, that had made the Digimon in this world go full on zombie-mode. The artifact, which had ended up sealing Armageddemon away, but not successfully. It had started to break down. Hence the zombie Digimon. Hence their big fight.

It was nice to have a night of rest. Rina was sharing a big bed with both Sayo and their two Digimon. V.V. was snoring happily by her feet. Meanwhile, Sayo’s head was bedded on Rina's arm. Her expression while sleeping was almost childlike.

Sayo wondered, if all of this was the plan of some important godlike Digimon. Sending them through the worlds. Or maybe it had to do with Mirei. Another possibility was, that it was linked to Rina's own Decode ability. She could not quite know and, to be honest, she had stopped caring by now.

She liked this. The adventure. The fights. The part, about being a hero. Saving worlds again and again. And she liked being with Sayo, who in many regards seemed to be her polar opposite. Yet, they had fun together. They really had.

It was one of the reasons, Rina hoped, this would not end. After all, they came from two entirely different worlds. Whenever they’d get back to their own worlds, it would mean to say goodbye, and Rina did not want that.

She did not want to say goodbye to Sayo – or to V.V. for that matter. She just wanted to go on adventuring. It was certainly more fun than going to school, later university and then get a boring, boring job. Nah. She would rather go on, save the worlds and then, well, someday settle down in a digital world. Together with Sayo, V.V. und Lunamon.

***

It was the next day that a gate opened on the town’s square. Rina was just eating a very meaty menu, that the Nanimon cook of the little town had served. Her mouth filled with the delicious spicy meat she almost jumped, when she heard the familiar “SWOOSH” of the gate opening.

And sure thing, once she turned around there was a gate. They always looked the same: black ovals hanging in the air. Just big enough for the two young women to pass through. Green data packets flared within the blackness.

“I think it's time to go,” Lunamon said. It had been eating a skewer of mushrooms, showing way more class than V.V. – or Rina for that matter.

“Gods darn it, let me at least finish my meal,” Rina complained, quickly putting a big chunk of meat into her mouth.

Sayo looked at her. “There should be enough time for that.”

About four worlds ago, they had played with the thought of just staying where they were, to not go through the portal. However, after a few hours, the noise had started. Just a permanent ringing in the ears of both of them. That way they learned that whatever was going on, it would not just let them “opt out” of it.

V-mon was one step ahead of her. He swallowed the contents of his plate in one big gulp, rubbing his belly.

“And I am telling you,” Rina muttered, after finishing her plate, “we do deserve a vacation.”

Sayo patted her back in sympathy. “There'll be a world, where it'll allow us a couple of days of downtime.”

“I sure hope so!”

Jijimon reached the town’s square panting. There was somehow always a Jijimon. No matter what digital world they came to, there seemed to be a Jijimon taking care of a town or maybe of a village of beginnings. They had come across those three times now. “What is happening?” he asked.

“It's our call to leave, old man,” Rina explained. “Don't worry about it.”

Sayo offered one more explanation: “Whenever we have saved a digital world, a gate like this opens to send us to the next world.”

“Then you are not staying?”

“We never said, we were,” V.V. said. He jumped off his chair to march towards the gate, waiting for Rina.

She looked at the Nanimon. “Thanks for the meal.”

“Thank you for saving us,” Nanimon replied.

Then she got up as well and stretched. “On we go!”

“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Jijimon asked.

“Nah, we're good,” Rina replied. She shot Sayo a gaze, who was smiling her typical soft smile. For a moment, their eyes met, before Rina offered Sayo her hand. The other girl took it, their fingers interlacing.

“Shall we?” Rina asked.

Sayo nodded. “I guess so.”

They shared just a short moment, the moment of gathering the courage to move on. Then they stepped through the gate.