An Easy Mistake
Title: An Easy Mistake
What: Digimon Tamers fanfiction with an element of Adventure 02 by the name of Ichijouji Osamu
Rating: M for what would be a very good dream if only it didn't end in tragedy
Words: 4994
Summary: Ryo remembers at a most inopportune moment. Jen swears. Ryo dreams. Established Jenrya/Ryo, doomed Ryo/Osamu, a moment of Ryo/Ruki, vague hints of Milleniumon/Ryo. Written for 30_ways using theme #20 with the lyric "I'm not aware of how I could possibly love you without aching" from Tegan and Sara's This is Everything.
Notes: Set a few months after Fiberglass Slipper and A Blunt Reckoning, going into the events of Runaway Locomon. Apparently I can't cope with past tense. Also, spot the references to my previous and totally unrelated Ryo fics! And, er, the homages to other people's Jenryo. I am such a fangirl. I am so ashamed.
Alternate link: Fanfiction.net
Sample: That tone of voice is sulky and jealous and threatening to go off to some midget island in Okinawa again.
If you spend almost a year in a world where you physically (or digitally, whatever) don’t need to sleep, chances are you’ll turn into a bit of an insomniac. Most nights Ryo lies in bed thinking: About the digital world’s improbable laws of physics (he needs to go back and test an equation), his past (or what he knows of it thanks to Bandai’s truly inspired franchise in this world), how much he’d rather be anywhere but a city (maybe the beach), card strategies (maybe he shouldn’t rely so much on modify cards), his boyfriend (he’s never been with one person this long if you don’t count the media mayhem with Ruki), Indiana Jones (he can’t wait for the boxed set of DVDs to arrive from Amazon), his partner (Milleniumon’s been antsy lately)... When he’s with Jen, lips on his or elsewhere, Ryo doesn’t think.
After he calls Jen Sam and doesn’t realize it until Jen pulls away to glare, he really wishes he did.
“What did you call me?” Jen demands. Ryo recognizes that tone of voice. That tone of voice is sulky and jealous and threatening to go off to some midget island in Okinawa again.
“...Jian,” he lies, drawing out the A and muffling the N.
Jen’s eyes blaze in the darkness. If he wasn’t so angry this would be hot. “I heard ‘Sam’.”
Maybe this isn’t the best time to endear him by mangling the Chinese language. “You’ve seen Digimon Adventure 02, it was an easy mistake!”
“Oh yeah, what gave it away?” His voice is sardonic, a tone adopted from Terriermon. It doesn’t suit him. “The glasses? The bubble blowing? How I never have to study for exams? How bitchy I am-”
This is the first time Ryo’s ever heard him say anything stronger than ‘oh, nuts’. “He’s not like that,” Ryo replies without thinking. Jen looks as surprised as he feels, and he wonders where that came from.
Then everything hits him like a Locomon.
Jen’s asking him something but he doesn’t hear it, because suddenly he remembers, and all he can see is this boy with blue hair and why is Sam’s hair wavier than normal and where is Ken?
Ryo throws the duvet off and runs.
But this isn’t the Odaiba skyline above him, and this isn’t Sam climbing up onto his roof, this boy has gray eyes and is half-Chinese and is his boyfriend. Jen. “How’d you find me?”
“A little Birdramon told me,” replies Jen, but Ryo notices him putting his D-Arc away. “Monodramon said to put this on, and I agree.”
He catches the sweater Jen throws him purely on instinct. Ryo hadn’t noticed he was shivering. The wool is soft on his chilled skin.
“Monodramon was acting kinda weird,” Jen informs him.
Oh, great, it is that time of year again. “You have no idea.”
The look Jen shoots him is sharp and searching. “Actually, I do; I have played the games, you know.”
Jen seats himself beside him, taking his limp hand. Ryo doesn’t say anything.
"Mind telling me what that was about?"
Maybe he should be more responsive. Jen has only recently started taking the lead with physical affection and he should reward it now. But he doesn't.
“I mean, if you’re a massive Osamu fanboy through the show and the games, then I’m sorry,” at least there’s a smile in his voice now, “but blue-haired nerds, that's a pretty sad fetish.”
If he doesn’t stop him now, Jen would be perfectly capable of making excuses for him all night, and he just shouldn’t have to do that on what’s meant to be his birthday celebration.
“I...remember.”
Hopefully the two words will be enough. Jen’s smart, he likes history, he reads a lot, he’s the brother of a writer.
It is. “Everything?”
“Everything.”
Ryo is dimly aware of Jen’s fingernails tapping on the roof, even though it’s been two months since he got his cast off. “Osamu...”
“He was my best friend,” says Ryo, “and before you ask if we were together, we were twelve when... When I had to go. Though, I think if...”
But this isn’t Monodramon, eager to please on his good days (most days), this is Jen, turning fifteen in two days, no, it’s late or early enough to be tomorrow, and this is his first time sleeping over in Kitakyushu, and this weekend was supposed to be special (and maybe their first time if it felt right) and all about him, and he wasn’t supposed to remember how much he loved Ichijouiji Osamu now.
“It’s okay,” says Jen, hugging him, and that’s how he knows he isn’t Sam. Sam wouldn’t have let him run away, he wouldn’t have backed down so quickly, and he wouldn’t have been so understanding. Sam would have pointed out his horrendous timing and they would have fought over it until Ken came in crying because he couldn’t stand the raised voices any more.
On the other hand, Sam wouldn’t have talked him off the roof and back inside and told him to stop apologizing because it doesn’t suit him and moreover isn’t his fault.
“I have to say though,” Jen has to say, running a finger along his arm, “I’ve never heard of amnesiacs spontaneously getting their memories back.”
“Maybe this is because you don’t do any sciences,” Ryo points out. Jen rolls his eyes. “Seriously, though. Had you ever heard of Digimon coming out of computer games?”
Terriermon mutters something in his sleep, something like ‘it’s wingardium leviosa, not leviosa’. Jen smiles down at him, then back at Ryo. “Well, no, but I had heard of boys falling into computer games.”
Ryo looks at the floor. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Jen agrees, then suddenly he’s pushing him back onto the bed and climbing on top of him and Sam never would have done this, they were too young, but Jen is fourteen and only a day away from sounding for a couple of months like he’s only a year younger than Ryo and Ryo can’t think any more.
Actually, it changes everything.
“Wow,” mutters Jen into his chest, and it sends a warm rumbling throughout his torso.
“Oh, yeah,” Ryo murmurs. “It gets better.”
“Wow,” Jen says again, and Ryo chuckles and pulls him up for a kiss.
“Your hair smells good,” Ryo informs him helpfully, eyes half-closed already. “God, you smell good.” Like fighting adrenaline and rain on the roof and his favorite Chinese takeaway shop.
This is possibly the most inane he has ever seen Jen, fingers trailing along his hip and into his hair. “You taste good.”
“Best compliment you’ve ever given me,” Ryo beams.
But no, Jen feels the need to describe it. “You taste...like...like Odaiba, in autumn. I miss it.”
So does Ryo, but it’s not the same Odaiba. Sleepy, he puts it out of mind. “Happy birthday for tomorrow.”
“Forgot about that,” the younger boy grins above him. “Thanks.”
Ryo yawns. “I love you.”
He doesn’t quite hear Jen’s “I love you, too”, only falls into sleep with the thought that maybe this is the cure for insomnia.
When he wakes up, Ryo doesn’t know where he is. Then he sees a mess of blue hair, and assumes he’s at Sam’s house.
No. Wait. Sam’s dead. Another world away, inaccessible by digivice or coincidence.
“You look like you've seen a ghost,” yawns the younger boy, and Ryo has to touch him to make sure he’s real. “Hello.”
He nuzzles into Ryo’s hand. Sam would never have been so affectionate.
This is Jen, not Sam.
Jen. Ichi- Lee Jenrya, Jianliang, Jian in front of his dad because Ryo knows how to suck up to the right people, his Jen.
“Stop thinking, Ryo,” Jen murmurs, kissing him, and how can he think when Jen’s tongue is in his mouth and he’s mmm moving above and against him and hey, why is he always underneath?
Ryo rolls over to reverse their positions and stretches out over Jen with a smile. Jen grins back, warm and wanting and his. And apparently still thinking, the hypocrite. “Ever notice how this kind of thing tends to happen after we argue?”
Actually, he had, and more accurately, it tends to happen after apologies and someone saying it’s okay, but Ryo doesn’t want to think about it; he doesn’t want to think. “And you said ‘stop thinking’. You’re the one who’s overanalyzing.”
Jen chuckles. “I guess you’re right.”
“Duh,” Ryo retorts eloquently yet loftily, “I always am,” and he is grateful when Jen doesn’t bother to correct him.
It’s just the hair. It’s just the hair. It’s just the hair.
It isn’t even the same shade, or the same cut or texture. Sam’s was (god he hates using the past tense) duller, a little more indigo, dead straight (what a dreadful pun), and layered to end in spikes, and he always put too much gel in it. Jen’s is brighter, bluer, a little wavy, and, frankly, a mess. But he never uses any hair products, so his hair is always soft to the touch and never sticky when Ryo runs his fingers through it. At most it’ll be wet when Ryo catches an obnoxiously early train and meets him first thing in the morning and Jen’s been so eager to see him he hasn’t even bothered to dry his hair.
Besides, Jen’s more golden thanks to good genes and more time in the sun, his eyes are wider and moreover gray not blue, he only wears glasses for reading (how he’d complained when the results of his eye exam had come back), he’s intelligent but not a genius, if he tries anything he tries to please rather than annoy, and, most importantly, he’s here, and gloriously alive.
Sam was not:
Someone for whom Ryo could use the present tense
A little shorter than him (if there was any difference, Sam was barely taller)
Half Chinese
The middle child
Almost as insomniac as he is
A Tamer
His boyfriend
Patient
Someone who would put up with him getting lost in his thoughts
...to the point of telling his Digimon to shut up about him being quiet
Ever the type to wear rainbow wristbands
...what?
Ryo looks again.
“Did I mention,” he mentions, “how much I like the new wristbands?”
With a sigh, Jen gives his own wrists a passing glance. “Ja-neechan has a cruel sense of pride. They’re actually a birthday present, but she insisted I wear them this weekend, she said it was fitting.”
“They kind of are,” Ryo concedes, “considering you’re down here to visit your boyfriend.”
Around them on the sidewalk, heads swivel, and Terriermon snickers, though he’s careful to keep his ‘plushie’ face on. Jen winces. “Shh.”
“Sorry. Can’t wait till I can drive, we’ll be able to avoid all...” Ryo waves a hand ineffectively. “All this. Anyway, if you don’t like those, that makes me feel a little better about your birthday present...”
The younger boy blinks. “You mean I get something else?”
“Apart from the cards, and the kite, and the painting, and the scale model of Kokura Castle made out of toothpicks?” Terriermon points out.
“Paying for your souvenirs is not a birthday present,” Ryo says firmly. “No, this is.”
He thrusts a small box at him, then looks down at his pocket, where Ketomon lurks. (Monodramon had insisted on coming to see Jen and Terriermon off, Ryo had insisted in turn that in his child form he would get too many weird looks, and so he had de-digivolved, if a bit too far.) The affectionate lick Ketomon gives his hand is probably meant to say, ‘it’ll be fine, he’ll like it’, but Jen’s silence leaves him unconvinced.
“I know, jewelry, I’m turning into a girl,” Ryo sighs, without looking up.
Ketomon senses it coming before he does. The baby darts out of his pocket and onto Terriermon’s head as Terriermon dives off Jen’s shoulder in preparation, and Jen takes advantage of his already lowered head to kiss him on the escalator up to Kokura Station, audience of Sunday commuters be damned. “You like it,” Ryo tries and fails to say, then gives up and kisses him back. God, he loves it when Jen takes over like this, it’s so unlike him it’s hot, and in front of all these people when he’d cringed at the word ‘boyfriend’ before?
Jen lets him go just before he trips at the top of the escalator, and doesn’t bother to suppress his laughter. “Sorry. Want a hand?” Ryo grudgingly accepts. “Seriously, Ryo, it’s...” He gestures with the bracelet, lost for words.
“Better than rainbows?” Terriermon supplies helpfully.
“Better than rainbows,” agrees Jen, for lack of better alternatives. He removes his left wristband, then holds out the bracelet to Ryo. “Put it on for me?”
“Girl,” Ryo replies fondly, but he does the clasp up anyway. It looked good in the shop and it looks better on Jen’s thin wrist, the black rubber cord contrasting with the steel bar contrasting with Jen’s tan. The engraver did a stunning job with the Chinese characters, especially as he was Japanese. Ryo considers pointing out a small detail he had engraved on the inside of the bracelet, then decides to leave it for Jen to discover for himself.
Terriermon scrambles back up to his usual perch on Jen’s shoulder, smirking. “You two are nauseating.”
“And you,” Jen reminds him with a grin, “are a plushie, so shut up and act like it.”
“Touché,” the child mutters. Ketomon giggles.
Despite his protests, Ryo takes both Jen’s duffle bag and his hand, tugging him gently in the direction of the train platform. “Come on, can’t have you missing your train.”
Jen shoots him a look heavy with suggestion that for the sake of practicality, Ryo tries his best to ignore. “I’d much rather miss my train.”
“Your mother would assume I’d kidnapped you and, once she got you back, would never let you see me again.” Ryo pushes the younger boy at his train. “Go on.”
Before returning Ketomon and taking a flying leap onto the train, Jen kisses Ryo so hard he almost doesn’t hear the camera flashes behind them. For a moment, Ryo watches him laughing through the train window, then all too soon his carriage is out of sight.
Damn, but there are always a few tabloid ‘journalists’ and paparazzi everywhere.
“Mr. Akiyama, is that your-”
“Ryo, what happened to-”
“Akiyama-san, are you-”
“No comment,” calls Ryo, pushing through them.
The dream starts out well enough, with a fantasy reconstruction of last night: Ryo was on his back, not entirely ashamed of whimpering when Jen left-handedly pinned one of his wrists, then both to the pillow above his head.
Shh, whispered Jen, the Digimon, or, your dad...
Let them hear, Ryo thought rebelliously, but he stayed quiet, especially as Jen kissed him, slow and hot.
He couldn’t hold back a moan when Jen reached down between them with his free hand.
Why don’t we play a little game, Jen said, if you make so much as a sound I’ll stop what I’m doing.
Unsure as to whether they’ve started or not, Ryo could only give a tight nod.
Maybe the next kiss was to help him shut up. The fingers dancing down his chest definitely weren’t, and nor was the way Jen was pressing into him, weight in the right places saying more than dirty words ever could.
Jen’s right hand ventured lower again. It was only the edge of a hiss, but Jen caught it, and pulled away.
Were they still ‘playing’? Ryo didn’t know. Just in case, he stayed silent, only gave Jen a pleading look. Eventually the younger boy relented, and settled in on top of him again.
When Ryo forgot himself and whispered, Jen, he actually got off the bed and headed for the door. It made perfect sense that they were both fully clothed again, even if Ryo was back in his old violet T-shirt that he hasn't worn in years. Jen, don’t...
You couldn’t do as I asked.
Ryo didn’t question how Jen’s voice was a little colder than normal.
I’m leaving.
Jen!
And they were outside on the pavement, and Jen didn’t look as he stepped onto the road, right in front of a-
JEN!
The car sped on. It seemed to take an eternity to reach Jen where he fell, and as Ryo knelt down beside him, he cut his knee on the shards of his glasses.
Ryo turned him over, touched the blood in his spiky hair, and suddenly Sam opened his eyes and laughed.
Fooled you again, Akiyama.
Ryo wakes up gasping. The clock says 3:42. He doesn’t get back to sleep that morning.
Odaiba has always been pretty at sunrise. Ryo and Jen stood on the balcony of their apartment, watching the leaves fall into the dawn.
You know, said Ryo, passing Jen a glass of milk, most people watch cherry blossoms, not autumn leaves.
Jen grinned. We’re not most people.
Yeah, Ryo agreed, then he kissed him.
Gradually Ryo became aware of another pair of arms encircling him from behind, another pair of lips at the back of his neck. He turned around.
Leaving me out again, Akiyama? asked Sam.
Jen raised an eyebrow. We look nothing alike.
It’s the hair, Sam told him authoritatively, now, hands off.
“I’ve never been awake for the sunrise in Odaiba,” Ryo informs his bedroom ceiling incredulously.
The deserts of the digital world back home are certainly an interesting setting for a dream. Ryo tied his bandanna around his mouth to block out the sands.
What are you doing here?
There, ahead of him. He recognized Ken only from the TV show, he was never in that ridiculous costume on Ryo’s watch.
No, wait: That wasn’t Ken’s voice.
So what was Sam doing in the digital world?
I think I should be asking you that, Ryo replied. Finally found a way in, huh?
No thanks to you.
Don’t talk like that. Ryo went to him, touched his hair to check he was real. You look ridiculous, I hope you know.
Shut up.
Lifting the bandanna, Sam pressed his lips to his, a favor Ryo all too willingly returned. Of course there was sand in it, and those stupid glasses were digging into his cheek. Ryo removed them.
Eventually Sam pushed him to the ground, and there was sand everywhere, especially as they slipped down a dune and almost got buried. Then Sam laughed. It was a warm laugh, one that-
-was never Sam’s; that’s Jen’s.
I don’t belong in this world, sighed Jen.
No, Ryo said desperately, I don’t belong in your world and I’m still around.
I’d best be going.
No!
The desert melted into the city, and a car sent Jen flying.
“Ryo,” says Hopmon, “Ryo, your eyes are leaking.”
“This is ridiculous,” Ryo growls, getting out of bed. “Hopmon, would you care to come on a trip with me?”
(A translation of this admittedly cryptic note:
“Going to the digital world. Tell school I have chicken pox.”)
The last time he was here in the crooked mansion was...just over a year ago. Jen’s passing resemblance to Sam had been noted only in bullet point form, as something to mull over later. He’d noticed how Jen stood closer to him than he did Juri or ’kazu or Kenta, and called him on it, just teasingly. Jen had shrugged and taken the bed next to his.
Ryo sits down on that bed now. Jen’s scent is, of course, long gone. He remembers how he’d caught Jen trying to go for a walk, with the excuse that he walks around the house when he can’t sleep. (Except when he’s around. Jen admitted once he feels safe enough with Ryo in his bed that he doesn’t have to go anywhere. Besides, they’re insomniac together.) He’d told Jen about Knightmon, then about the curious quality of the digital world that means you don’t have to sleep, and they’d stayed up all night talking in low voices.
That was how it had all started, with Ryo hitting on Jen just to see his reactions. The innuendo was subtle at first, earning barely a reaction, and it only got bolder as the night wore on. Despite his blushes, Jen was apparently so comfortable in Ryo’s presence that by the time everyone else was asleep he was in Ryo’s bed. Over time and too many battles, eventually Jen’s lowered gazes and awkward smiles shifted from an easy source of amusement (the digital world has taught Ryo, among other things, to appreciate cheap thrills) to something cute and endearing, and by the time the Shinjuku Tamers gate crashed his house as a not-so-sweet sixteenth birthday surprise, Ryo had decided it was high time to take what was practically his already.
Jen is more his than Sam ever was.
And Sam was never here. He has never associated this digital world with Sam, whether working off vague clouds of memory or the purely intellectual knowledge from the anime. Maybe here he can shed his shadow.
Apparently the data storms hit this world more often now, especially now that broadband is becoming more widespread. It’s the only reason Ryo’s phone picks up an e-mail from Jen.
Ryo,
Want to meet up before Ruki’s party? Shuichon wants to get something special for her and knowing you you won’t have gotten your present yet either, so if you like we could go shopping.
Oh yeah, and *you* got scared calling me when I was out of range in Okinawa? Where are *you*? You didn’t say anything about another bio camp this week.
Yours.
The storm blows over before Ryo can send his reply.
No, I’m in the digital world, you know how it is with Cyberdramon, and I’ve been having (more than the usual amount of) trouble sleeping lately. (Twisted stuff and nightmares. Good times.) Not sure exactly when I’ll be back so I can’t confirm a shopping trip but I’ll definitely see you at the party.
Sorry. Love you.
“What are you doing here?”
Ryo ducks the swipe of a claw, barely glancing at Sakuyamon. “I think I should be asking you that.” With a flick of his wrist, his D-Arc emits a blue whip of energy, which twists around the Sand Yanmamon’s neck, halting it in mid-air. Realizing what he just said, Ryo laughs (this only serves to further anger the adult). “Whoa, déjà vu. At least you’re not cosplaying as the Digimon Kaiser.”
“I’m not going to ask,” Sakuyamon says delicately. “Need some help?”
“No,” replies Ryo, strangling the Sand Yanmamon with the whip, but Sakuyamon takes out a handful of Digimon with her Rice Cord anyway.
Ruki glares at him from the Tamer sphere. “Where’s Cyberdramon?”
“Don’t know.” Ryo kills off a Swanmon. “Probably off doing his own thing as usual.”
“But-”
“I can handle myself without him!” Ryo snaps.
This in mind, the older Tamer is promptly knocked out by a Tailmon’s Cat’s Eye. He doesn’t dream.
“You’re an idiot.”
Ryo opens his eyes. There’s a canopy overhead, giggling in the background, and, oh look, Ruki in his face, glaring, as usual. “Oh, good morning to you too.”
“I’ll ask you again: What are you doing here?”
“Well, I’d assume you brought me here, after...” Ryo considers. “What happened?”
“A Tailmon happened,” Ruki retorts, flipping out a card.
He doesn’t even need to look. “Cat’s Eye? Damn.” Of all the stupid ways to get knocked out in the digital world...
As usual, Ruki doesn’t waste any time getting back to her original subject. “I’ll rephrase that, shall I? What are you doing in the digital world? And don’t get smart on me again.”
“I couldn’t sleep, okay?” In retrospective, that sounds a weak excuse. “Not without stupid nightmares and crap. I just needed time to think.”
“Well, thanks for telling us all where you ran off to,” the redhead deadpans. “Your boyfriend’s been pretending he’s not worried about you, and when he said your cell went out of range today, I figured you’d probably be here. Did something happen last weekend or something? Jenrya keeps changing the subject when people ask.”
Fiddling with a gauntlet (Cyberdramon had replaced the last one), Ryo avoids her gaze. “Ever played those Wonder Swan games about me?”
Ruki snorts. “No; I don’t waste my time on video games.”
“Just card games, huh,” Ryo grins, and she rolls her eyes with a smile. “Well, you know how I don’t remember much of my past, beyond stuff I learned objectively from the games and anime?” She nods. “I remembered. Not just what I saw on a screen, but what I felt at the time. At a really inopportune moment, too.”
Of all people, why is he telling Ruki this?
Oh yeah, because she’s the first person he’s told besides Jen.
Letting out a sigh, Ruki flops down on the grass beside him, and they look up into the leaves together. “So what’s got Jenrya all clammed up? Would’ve thought you’d be happy about this.”
“Yeah, I kind of am, but...” Ryo sighs. “The first sign I remembered something was when I called Jen someone else’s name. Ever watch Digimon Adventure 02?”
“Stupid question.”
Ryo chuckles. “True. I used to know this kid Osamu. We were best friends, and I think if we weren’t both twelve I was a little in love with him.”
Ruki’s silence manages to sound unconvinced.
“Okay, more than a little.” admits Ryo. “And he looked vaguely like Jen. It’s just the hair, you know, an indigo mess. Though Jen’s is much nicer. Oh, and the glasses, I suppose, except Sam wore glasses all the time, not just for reading. Anyway. I guess Jen got a bit twitchy. Which made me a bit twitchy, and now I keep having nightmares where one of them turns into the other or, heaven forbid, they actually meet, or Jen gets hit by a car-”
The back of her hand knocks his own. “What?”
He blinks. “Wow, you really never have watched the show. Let’s just say the universe pulled the ultimate prank on me.”
“So he's dead?” Ruki supplies. “Ouch.”
“Ouch doesn’t really cover it,” Ryo says off-handedly. “I kind of came here to...try and separate them in my head, I guess. Cos, Jen, he’s... He doesn’t deserve a boyfriend who’s still pining for some dead boy in another universe.”
It takes him a moment to realize Ruki’s hugging him, if somewhat awkwardly - she’s never been a touchy-feely kind of girl like Juri, and it doesn’t help that he’s flat on his back. After another awkward moment, Ryo accepts the embrace, and gives it back.
“This was a mistake.”
And it is.
“This doesn’t mean anything.”
But it does to her.
“Look, happy birthday, okay? Now, go!”
“Do you have to try and rationalize one stupid-”
“Make out session? Yes, because how am I going to explain this to Jen?”
“You could just not tell him.”
“Are you insane?”
“Okay, fine, just tell him the truth, I kissed you.”
“He’ll believe that, right after ‘oh, she fell on me’.”
“I’ll back you up!”
“Go, Ruki.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
“Don’t make me escort you back to Shinjuku myself!”
“You and what partner?”
In the end, Ruki only leaves when Renamon reminds her of the birthday dinner her mother was planning. Ryo appreciates the irony.
Maybe he can blame this one on the digignomes.
“Why, hello, Cyberdramon, long time no see.” Well, technically a few days. Details. “Having fun?”
The perfect ignores both the greeting and the question. “Something’s opening a gate to Shinjuku.”
“That’ll make it easier to get to the party,” Ryo remarks off-handedly, “though I still need a present, if only to avoid suspicion.”
The full impact of Cyberdramon’s words hits him a second later. “Wait. What?”
“A Parasimon.” Cyberdramon qualifies. “He’s planning something, but he got away on a Locomon, and the Trailmon wouldn't let me mess with their tracks. I did ask,” the perfect sulks.
Ryo absent-mindedly pats his partner on the leg as he considers. “We’ll have to go after it.”
Suddenly they’re surrounded by a swarm of Parasimon.
[This was not where the gate was going to be,] observes Cyberdramon in their shared consciousness.
They whirl past a Parasimon and blindside another one with a Justice Kick. [Duh,] replies Ryo eloquently, [no tracks. You said the first one left on a Locomon.
[Crap! That means it’s going to realize at a train station!]
[So what are we going to do about it?]
Ryo weighs up their options. [The Parasimon are going through the gate here, we can’t just let them terrorize people on the other side.] Jumping, they draw the energy blade of their Critical Arm and slice it through a trail of tentacles. [After the D-Reaper, Jen and stuff can take just one, right?]
Cyberdramon snorts, and the Parasimon they’re concentrating on suffers a particularly painful death.
[That was overkill,] Ryo admonishes.
His partner ignores this comment. [I still don’t know what you see in that overgrown robo-rabbit.]
[You wouldn’t, would you?] A spinning combination of a Justice Kick and an upwards thrust of their Critical Arm. [Milleniumon.]
This also goes ignored. Faintly, Ryo wonders if he’s overreacting, but is distracted when his partner realizes just how many Parasimon are going to the real world. [Through the gate!]
Ryo is not overly surprised to see that the Shinjuku Tamers have made it to the other side before him. Swinging on a few Parasimon-spun webs, they land neatly on Saint Galgomon’s shoulder. “How’s it going, guys?”
“Justimon!” Saint Galgomon cries.
Naturally the first ‘person’ he sees after him is Sakuyamon. “Princess,” he teases.
She turns away. Ryo can feel Jen’s gaze on him, curious and searching, and he is careful to avoid it.
insert the end of Runaway Locomon here. afterwards: Two Sets of Teeth
What: Digimon Tamers fanfiction with an element of Adventure 02 by the name of Ichijouji Osamu
Rating: M for what would be a very good dream if only it didn't end in tragedy
Words: 4994
Summary: Ryo remembers at a most inopportune moment. Jen swears. Ryo dreams. Established Jenrya/Ryo, doomed Ryo/Osamu, a moment of Ryo/Ruki, vague hints of Milleniumon/Ryo. Written for 30_ways using theme #20 with the lyric "I'm not aware of how I could possibly love you without aching" from Tegan and Sara's This is Everything.
Notes: Set a few months after Fiberglass Slipper and A Blunt Reckoning, going into the events of Runaway Locomon. Apparently I can't cope with past tense. Also, spot the references to my previous and totally unrelated Ryo fics! And, er, the homages to other people's Jenryo. I am such a fangirl. I am so ashamed.
Alternate link: Fanfiction.net
Sample: That tone of voice is sulky and jealous and threatening to go off to some midget island in Okinawa again.
If you spend almost a year in a world where you physically (or digitally, whatever) don’t need to sleep, chances are you’ll turn into a bit of an insomniac. Most nights Ryo lies in bed thinking: About the digital world’s improbable laws of physics (he needs to go back and test an equation), his past (or what he knows of it thanks to Bandai’s truly inspired franchise in this world), how much he’d rather be anywhere but a city (maybe the beach), card strategies (maybe he shouldn’t rely so much on modify cards), his boyfriend (he’s never been with one person this long if you don’t count the media mayhem with Ruki), Indiana Jones (he can’t wait for the boxed set of DVDs to arrive from Amazon), his partner (Milleniumon’s been antsy lately)... When he’s with Jen, lips on his or elsewhere, Ryo doesn’t think.
After he calls Jen Sam and doesn’t realize it until Jen pulls away to glare, he really wishes he did.
“What did you call me?” Jen demands. Ryo recognizes that tone of voice. That tone of voice is sulky and jealous and threatening to go off to some midget island in Okinawa again.
“...Jian,” he lies, drawing out the A and muffling the N.
Jen’s eyes blaze in the darkness. If he wasn’t so angry this would be hot. “I heard ‘Sam’.”
Maybe this isn’t the best time to endear him by mangling the Chinese language. “You’ve seen Digimon Adventure 02, it was an easy mistake!”
“Oh yeah, what gave it away?” His voice is sardonic, a tone adopted from Terriermon. It doesn’t suit him. “The glasses? The bubble blowing? How I never have to study for exams? How bitchy I am-”
This is the first time Ryo’s ever heard him say anything stronger than ‘oh, nuts’. “He’s not like that,” Ryo replies without thinking. Jen looks as surprised as he feels, and he wonders where that came from.
Then everything hits him like a Locomon.
Jen’s asking him something but he doesn’t hear it, because suddenly he remembers, and all he can see is this boy with blue hair and why is Sam’s hair wavier than normal and where is Ken?
Ryo throws the duvet off and runs.
But this isn’t the Odaiba skyline above him, and this isn’t Sam climbing up onto his roof, this boy has gray eyes and is half-Chinese and is his boyfriend. Jen. “How’d you find me?”
“A little Birdramon told me,” replies Jen, but Ryo notices him putting his D-Arc away. “Monodramon said to put this on, and I agree.”
He catches the sweater Jen throws him purely on instinct. Ryo hadn’t noticed he was shivering. The wool is soft on his chilled skin.
“Monodramon was acting kinda weird,” Jen informs him.
Oh, great, it is that time of year again. “You have no idea.”
The look Jen shoots him is sharp and searching. “Actually, I do; I have played the games, you know.”
Jen seats himself beside him, taking his limp hand. Ryo doesn’t say anything.
"Mind telling me what that was about?"
Maybe he should be more responsive. Jen has only recently started taking the lead with physical affection and he should reward it now. But he doesn't.
“I mean, if you’re a massive Osamu fanboy through the show and the games, then I’m sorry,” at least there’s a smile in his voice now, “but blue-haired nerds, that's a pretty sad fetish.”
If he doesn’t stop him now, Jen would be perfectly capable of making excuses for him all night, and he just shouldn’t have to do that on what’s meant to be his birthday celebration.
“I...remember.”
Hopefully the two words will be enough. Jen’s smart, he likes history, he reads a lot, he’s the brother of a writer.
It is. “Everything?”
“Everything.”
Ryo is dimly aware of Jen’s fingernails tapping on the roof, even though it’s been two months since he got his cast off. “Osamu...”
“He was my best friend,” says Ryo, “and before you ask if we were together, we were twelve when... When I had to go. Though, I think if...”
But this isn’t Monodramon, eager to please on his good days (most days), this is Jen, turning fifteen in two days, no, it’s late or early enough to be tomorrow, and this is his first time sleeping over in Kitakyushu, and this weekend was supposed to be special (and maybe their first time if it felt right) and all about him, and he wasn’t supposed to remember how much he loved Ichijouiji Osamu now.
“It’s okay,” says Jen, hugging him, and that’s how he knows he isn’t Sam. Sam wouldn’t have let him run away, he wouldn’t have backed down so quickly, and he wouldn’t have been so understanding. Sam would have pointed out his horrendous timing and they would have fought over it until Ken came in crying because he couldn’t stand the raised voices any more.
On the other hand, Sam wouldn’t have talked him off the roof and back inside and told him to stop apologizing because it doesn’t suit him and moreover isn’t his fault.
“I have to say though,” Jen has to say, running a finger along his arm, “I’ve never heard of amnesiacs spontaneously getting their memories back.”
“Maybe this is because you don’t do any sciences,” Ryo points out. Jen rolls his eyes. “Seriously, though. Had you ever heard of Digimon coming out of computer games?”
Terriermon mutters something in his sleep, something like ‘it’s wingardium leviosa, not leviosa’. Jen smiles down at him, then back at Ryo. “Well, no, but I had heard of boys falling into computer games.”
Ryo looks at the floor. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Jen agrees, then suddenly he’s pushing him back onto the bed and climbing on top of him and Sam never would have done this, they were too young, but Jen is fourteen and only a day away from sounding for a couple of months like he’s only a year younger than Ryo and Ryo can’t think any more.
Actually, it changes everything.
“Wow,” mutters Jen into his chest, and it sends a warm rumbling throughout his torso.
“Oh, yeah,” Ryo murmurs. “It gets better.”
“Wow,” Jen says again, and Ryo chuckles and pulls him up for a kiss.
“Your hair smells good,” Ryo informs him helpfully, eyes half-closed already. “God, you smell good.” Like fighting adrenaline and rain on the roof and his favorite Chinese takeaway shop.
This is possibly the most inane he has ever seen Jen, fingers trailing along his hip and into his hair. “You taste good.”
“Best compliment you’ve ever given me,” Ryo beams.
But no, Jen feels the need to describe it. “You taste...like...like Odaiba, in autumn. I miss it.”
So does Ryo, but it’s not the same Odaiba. Sleepy, he puts it out of mind. “Happy birthday for tomorrow.”
“Forgot about that,” the younger boy grins above him. “Thanks.”
Ryo yawns. “I love you.”
He doesn’t quite hear Jen’s “I love you, too”, only falls into sleep with the thought that maybe this is the cure for insomnia.
When he wakes up, Ryo doesn’t know where he is. Then he sees a mess of blue hair, and assumes he’s at Sam’s house.
No. Wait. Sam’s dead. Another world away, inaccessible by digivice or coincidence.
“You look like you've seen a ghost,” yawns the younger boy, and Ryo has to touch him to make sure he’s real. “Hello.”
He nuzzles into Ryo’s hand. Sam would never have been so affectionate.
This is Jen, not Sam.
Jen. Ichi- Lee Jenrya, Jianliang, Jian in front of his dad because Ryo knows how to suck up to the right people, his Jen.
“Stop thinking, Ryo,” Jen murmurs, kissing him, and how can he think when Jen’s tongue is in his mouth and he’s mmm moving above and against him and hey, why is he always underneath?
Ryo rolls over to reverse their positions and stretches out over Jen with a smile. Jen grins back, warm and wanting and his. And apparently still thinking, the hypocrite. “Ever notice how this kind of thing tends to happen after we argue?”
Actually, he had, and more accurately, it tends to happen after apologies and someone saying it’s okay, but Ryo doesn’t want to think about it; he doesn’t want to think. “And you said ‘stop thinking’. You’re the one who’s overanalyzing.”
Jen chuckles. “I guess you’re right.”
“Duh,” Ryo retorts eloquently yet loftily, “I always am,” and he is grateful when Jen doesn’t bother to correct him.
It’s just the hair. It’s just the hair. It’s just the hair.
It isn’t even the same shade, or the same cut or texture. Sam’s was (god he hates using the past tense) duller, a little more indigo, dead straight (what a dreadful pun), and layered to end in spikes, and he always put too much gel in it. Jen’s is brighter, bluer, a little wavy, and, frankly, a mess. But he never uses any hair products, so his hair is always soft to the touch and never sticky when Ryo runs his fingers through it. At most it’ll be wet when Ryo catches an obnoxiously early train and meets him first thing in the morning and Jen’s been so eager to see him he hasn’t even bothered to dry his hair.
Besides, Jen’s more golden thanks to good genes and more time in the sun, his eyes are wider and moreover gray not blue, he only wears glasses for reading (how he’d complained when the results of his eye exam had come back), he’s intelligent but not a genius, if he tries anything he tries to please rather than annoy, and, most importantly, he’s here, and gloriously alive.
Sam was not:
...what?
Ryo looks again.
“Did I mention,” he mentions, “how much I like the new wristbands?”
With a sigh, Jen gives his own wrists a passing glance. “Ja-neechan has a cruel sense of pride. They’re actually a birthday present, but she insisted I wear them this weekend, she said it was fitting.”
“They kind of are,” Ryo concedes, “considering you’re down here to visit your boyfriend.”
Around them on the sidewalk, heads swivel, and Terriermon snickers, though he’s careful to keep his ‘plushie’ face on. Jen winces. “Shh.”
“Sorry. Can’t wait till I can drive, we’ll be able to avoid all...” Ryo waves a hand ineffectively. “All this. Anyway, if you don’t like those, that makes me feel a little better about your birthday present...”
The younger boy blinks. “You mean I get something else?”
“Apart from the cards, and the kite, and the painting, and the scale model of Kokura Castle made out of toothpicks?” Terriermon points out.
“Paying for your souvenirs is not a birthday present,” Ryo says firmly. “No, this is.”
He thrusts a small box at him, then looks down at his pocket, where Ketomon lurks. (Monodramon had insisted on coming to see Jen and Terriermon off, Ryo had insisted in turn that in his child form he would get too many weird looks, and so he had de-digivolved, if a bit too far.) The affectionate lick Ketomon gives his hand is probably meant to say, ‘it’ll be fine, he’ll like it’, but Jen’s silence leaves him unconvinced.
“I know, jewelry, I’m turning into a girl,” Ryo sighs, without looking up.
Ketomon senses it coming before he does. The baby darts out of his pocket and onto Terriermon’s head as Terriermon dives off Jen’s shoulder in preparation, and Jen takes advantage of his already lowered head to kiss him on the escalator up to Kokura Station, audience of Sunday commuters be damned. “You like it,” Ryo tries and fails to say, then gives up and kisses him back. God, he loves it when Jen takes over like this, it’s so unlike him it’s hot, and in front of all these people when he’d cringed at the word ‘boyfriend’ before?
Jen lets him go just before he trips at the top of the escalator, and doesn’t bother to suppress his laughter. “Sorry. Want a hand?” Ryo grudgingly accepts. “Seriously, Ryo, it’s...” He gestures with the bracelet, lost for words.
“Better than rainbows?” Terriermon supplies helpfully.
“Better than rainbows,” agrees Jen, for lack of better alternatives. He removes his left wristband, then holds out the bracelet to Ryo. “Put it on for me?”
“Girl,” Ryo replies fondly, but he does the clasp up anyway. It looked good in the shop and it looks better on Jen’s thin wrist, the black rubber cord contrasting with the steel bar contrasting with Jen’s tan. The engraver did a stunning job with the Chinese characters, especially as he was Japanese. Ryo considers pointing out a small detail he had engraved on the inside of the bracelet, then decides to leave it for Jen to discover for himself.
Terriermon scrambles back up to his usual perch on Jen’s shoulder, smirking. “You two are nauseating.”
“And you,” Jen reminds him with a grin, “are a plushie, so shut up and act like it.”
“Touché,” the child mutters. Ketomon giggles.
Despite his protests, Ryo takes both Jen’s duffle bag and his hand, tugging him gently in the direction of the train platform. “Come on, can’t have you missing your train.”
Jen shoots him a look heavy with suggestion that for the sake of practicality, Ryo tries his best to ignore. “I’d much rather miss my train.”
“Your mother would assume I’d kidnapped you and, once she got you back, would never let you see me again.” Ryo pushes the younger boy at his train. “Go on.”
Before returning Ketomon and taking a flying leap onto the train, Jen kisses Ryo so hard he almost doesn’t hear the camera flashes behind them. For a moment, Ryo watches him laughing through the train window, then all too soon his carriage is out of sight.
Damn, but there are always a few tabloid ‘journalists’ and paparazzi everywhere.
“Mr. Akiyama, is that your-”
“Ryo, what happened to-”
“Akiyama-san, are you-”
“No comment,” calls Ryo, pushing through them.
The dream starts out well enough, with a fantasy reconstruction of last night: Ryo was on his back, not entirely ashamed of whimpering when Jen left-handedly pinned one of his wrists, then both to the pillow above his head.
Shh, whispered Jen, the Digimon, or, your dad...
Let them hear, Ryo thought rebelliously, but he stayed quiet, especially as Jen kissed him, slow and hot.
He couldn’t hold back a moan when Jen reached down between them with his free hand.
Why don’t we play a little game, Jen said, if you make so much as a sound I’ll stop what I’m doing.
Unsure as to whether they’ve started or not, Ryo could only give a tight nod.
Maybe the next kiss was to help him shut up. The fingers dancing down his chest definitely weren’t, and nor was the way Jen was pressing into him, weight in the right places saying more than dirty words ever could.
Jen’s right hand ventured lower again. It was only the edge of a hiss, but Jen caught it, and pulled away.
Were they still ‘playing’? Ryo didn’t know. Just in case, he stayed silent, only gave Jen a pleading look. Eventually the younger boy relented, and settled in on top of him again.
When Ryo forgot himself and whispered, Jen, he actually got off the bed and headed for the door. It made perfect sense that they were both fully clothed again, even if Ryo was back in his old violet T-shirt that he hasn't worn in years. Jen, don’t...
You couldn’t do as I asked.
Ryo didn’t question how Jen’s voice was a little colder than normal.
I’m leaving.
Jen!
And they were outside on the pavement, and Jen didn’t look as he stepped onto the road, right in front of a-
JEN!
The car sped on. It seemed to take an eternity to reach Jen where he fell, and as Ryo knelt down beside him, he cut his knee on the shards of his glasses.
Ryo turned him over, touched the blood in his spiky hair, and suddenly Sam opened his eyes and laughed.
Fooled you again, Akiyama.
Ryo wakes up gasping. The clock says 3:42. He doesn’t get back to sleep that morning.
Odaiba has always been pretty at sunrise. Ryo and Jen stood on the balcony of their apartment, watching the leaves fall into the dawn.
You know, said Ryo, passing Jen a glass of milk, most people watch cherry blossoms, not autumn leaves.
Jen grinned. We’re not most people.
Yeah, Ryo agreed, then he kissed him.
Gradually Ryo became aware of another pair of arms encircling him from behind, another pair of lips at the back of his neck. He turned around.
Leaving me out again, Akiyama? asked Sam.
Jen raised an eyebrow. We look nothing alike.
It’s the hair, Sam told him authoritatively, now, hands off.
“I’ve never been awake for the sunrise in Odaiba,” Ryo informs his bedroom ceiling incredulously.
The deserts of the digital world back home are certainly an interesting setting for a dream. Ryo tied his bandanna around his mouth to block out the sands.
What are you doing here?
There, ahead of him. He recognized Ken only from the TV show, he was never in that ridiculous costume on Ryo’s watch.
No, wait: That wasn’t Ken’s voice.
So what was Sam doing in the digital world?
I think I should be asking you that, Ryo replied. Finally found a way in, huh?
No thanks to you.
Don’t talk like that. Ryo went to him, touched his hair to check he was real. You look ridiculous, I hope you know.
Shut up.
Lifting the bandanna, Sam pressed his lips to his, a favor Ryo all too willingly returned. Of course there was sand in it, and those stupid glasses were digging into his cheek. Ryo removed them.
Eventually Sam pushed him to the ground, and there was sand everywhere, especially as they slipped down a dune and almost got buried. Then Sam laughed. It was a warm laugh, one that-
-was never Sam’s; that’s Jen’s.
I don’t belong in this world, sighed Jen.
No, Ryo said desperately, I don’t belong in your world and I’m still around.
I’d best be going.
No!
The desert melted into the city, and a car sent Jen flying.
“Ryo,” says Hopmon, “Ryo, your eyes are leaking.”
“This is ridiculous,” Ryo growls, getting out of bed. “Hopmon, would you care to come on a trip with me?”
(A translation of this admittedly cryptic note:
“Going to the digital world. Tell school I have chicken pox.”)
The last time he was here in the crooked mansion was...just over a year ago. Jen’s passing resemblance to Sam had been noted only in bullet point form, as something to mull over later. He’d noticed how Jen stood closer to him than he did Juri or ’kazu or Kenta, and called him on it, just teasingly. Jen had shrugged and taken the bed next to his.
Ryo sits down on that bed now. Jen’s scent is, of course, long gone. He remembers how he’d caught Jen trying to go for a walk, with the excuse that he walks around the house when he can’t sleep. (Except when he’s around. Jen admitted once he feels safe enough with Ryo in his bed that he doesn’t have to go anywhere. Besides, they’re insomniac together.) He’d told Jen about Knightmon, then about the curious quality of the digital world that means you don’t have to sleep, and they’d stayed up all night talking in low voices.
That was how it had all started, with Ryo hitting on Jen just to see his reactions. The innuendo was subtle at first, earning barely a reaction, and it only got bolder as the night wore on. Despite his blushes, Jen was apparently so comfortable in Ryo’s presence that by the time everyone else was asleep he was in Ryo’s bed. Over time and too many battles, eventually Jen’s lowered gazes and awkward smiles shifted from an easy source of amusement (the digital world has taught Ryo, among other things, to appreciate cheap thrills) to something cute and endearing, and by the time the Shinjuku Tamers gate crashed his house as a not-so-sweet sixteenth birthday surprise, Ryo had decided it was high time to take what was practically his already.
Jen is more his than Sam ever was.
And Sam was never here. He has never associated this digital world with Sam, whether working off vague clouds of memory or the purely intellectual knowledge from the anime. Maybe here he can shed his shadow.
Apparently the data storms hit this world more often now, especially now that broadband is becoming more widespread. It’s the only reason Ryo’s phone picks up an e-mail from Jen.
Ryo,
Want to meet up before Ruki’s party? Shuichon wants to get something special for her and knowing you you won’t have gotten your present yet either, so if you like we could go shopping.
Oh yeah, and *you* got scared calling me when I was out of range in Okinawa? Where are *you*? You didn’t say anything about another bio camp this week.
Yours.
The storm blows over before Ryo can send his reply.
No, I’m in the digital world, you know how it is with Cyberdramon, and I’ve been having (more than the usual amount of) trouble sleeping lately. (Twisted stuff and nightmares. Good times.) Not sure exactly when I’ll be back so I can’t confirm a shopping trip but I’ll definitely see you at the party.
Sorry. Love you.
“What are you doing here?”
Ryo ducks the swipe of a claw, barely glancing at Sakuyamon. “I think I should be asking you that.” With a flick of his wrist, his D-Arc emits a blue whip of energy, which twists around the Sand Yanmamon’s neck, halting it in mid-air. Realizing what he just said, Ryo laughs (this only serves to further anger the adult). “Whoa, déjà vu. At least you’re not cosplaying as the Digimon Kaiser.”
“I’m not going to ask,” Sakuyamon says delicately. “Need some help?”
“No,” replies Ryo, strangling the Sand Yanmamon with the whip, but Sakuyamon takes out a handful of Digimon with her Rice Cord anyway.
Ruki glares at him from the Tamer sphere. “Where’s Cyberdramon?”
“Don’t know.” Ryo kills off a Swanmon. “Probably off doing his own thing as usual.”
“But-”
“I can handle myself without him!” Ryo snaps.
This in mind, the older Tamer is promptly knocked out by a Tailmon’s Cat’s Eye. He doesn’t dream.
“You’re an idiot.”
Ryo opens his eyes. There’s a canopy overhead, giggling in the background, and, oh look, Ruki in his face, glaring, as usual. “Oh, good morning to you too.”
“I’ll ask you again: What are you doing here?”
“Well, I’d assume you brought me here, after...” Ryo considers. “What happened?”
“A Tailmon happened,” Ruki retorts, flipping out a card.
He doesn’t even need to look. “Cat’s Eye? Damn.” Of all the stupid ways to get knocked out in the digital world...
As usual, Ruki doesn’t waste any time getting back to her original subject. “I’ll rephrase that, shall I? What are you doing in the digital world? And don’t get smart on me again.”
“I couldn’t sleep, okay?” In retrospective, that sounds a weak excuse. “Not without stupid nightmares and crap. I just needed time to think.”
“Well, thanks for telling us all where you ran off to,” the redhead deadpans. “Your boyfriend’s been pretending he’s not worried about you, and when he said your cell went out of range today, I figured you’d probably be here. Did something happen last weekend or something? Jenrya keeps changing the subject when people ask.”
Fiddling with a gauntlet (Cyberdramon had replaced the last one), Ryo avoids her gaze. “Ever played those Wonder Swan games about me?”
Ruki snorts. “No; I don’t waste my time on video games.”
“Just card games, huh,” Ryo grins, and she rolls her eyes with a smile. “Well, you know how I don’t remember much of my past, beyond stuff I learned objectively from the games and anime?” She nods. “I remembered. Not just what I saw on a screen, but what I felt at the time. At a really inopportune moment, too.”
Of all people, why is he telling Ruki this?
Oh yeah, because she’s the first person he’s told besides Jen.
Letting out a sigh, Ruki flops down on the grass beside him, and they look up into the leaves together. “So what’s got Jenrya all clammed up? Would’ve thought you’d be happy about this.”
“Yeah, I kind of am, but...” Ryo sighs. “The first sign I remembered something was when I called Jen someone else’s name. Ever watch Digimon Adventure 02?”
“Stupid question.”
Ryo chuckles. “True. I used to know this kid Osamu. We were best friends, and I think if we weren’t both twelve I was a little in love with him.”
Ruki’s silence manages to sound unconvinced.
“Okay, more than a little.” admits Ryo. “And he looked vaguely like Jen. It’s just the hair, you know, an indigo mess. Though Jen’s is much nicer. Oh, and the glasses, I suppose, except Sam wore glasses all the time, not just for reading. Anyway. I guess Jen got a bit twitchy. Which made me a bit twitchy, and now I keep having nightmares where one of them turns into the other or, heaven forbid, they actually meet, or Jen gets hit by a car-”
The back of her hand knocks his own. “What?”
He blinks. “Wow, you really never have watched the show. Let’s just say the universe pulled the ultimate prank on me.”
“So he's dead?” Ruki supplies. “Ouch.”
“Ouch doesn’t really cover it,” Ryo says off-handedly. “I kind of came here to...try and separate them in my head, I guess. Cos, Jen, he’s... He doesn’t deserve a boyfriend who’s still pining for some dead boy in another universe.”
It takes him a moment to realize Ruki’s hugging him, if somewhat awkwardly - she’s never been a touchy-feely kind of girl like Juri, and it doesn’t help that he’s flat on his back. After another awkward moment, Ryo accepts the embrace, and gives it back.
“This was a mistake.”
And it is.
“This doesn’t mean anything.”
But it does to her.
“Look, happy birthday, okay? Now, go!”
“Do you have to try and rationalize one stupid-”
“Make out session? Yes, because how am I going to explain this to Jen?”
“You could just not tell him.”
“Are you insane?”
“Okay, fine, just tell him the truth, I kissed you.”
“He’ll believe that, right after ‘oh, she fell on me’.”
“I’ll back you up!”
“Go, Ruki.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
“Don’t make me escort you back to Shinjuku myself!”
“You and what partner?”
In the end, Ruki only leaves when Renamon reminds her of the birthday dinner her mother was planning. Ryo appreciates the irony.
Maybe he can blame this one on the digignomes.
“Why, hello, Cyberdramon, long time no see.” Well, technically a few days. Details. “Having fun?”
The perfect ignores both the greeting and the question. “Something’s opening a gate to Shinjuku.”
“That’ll make it easier to get to the party,” Ryo remarks off-handedly, “though I still need a present, if only to avoid suspicion.”
The full impact of Cyberdramon’s words hits him a second later. “Wait. What?”
“A Parasimon.” Cyberdramon qualifies. “He’s planning something, but he got away on a Locomon, and the Trailmon wouldn't let me mess with their tracks. I did ask,” the perfect sulks.
Ryo absent-mindedly pats his partner on the leg as he considers. “We’ll have to go after it.”
Suddenly they’re surrounded by a swarm of Parasimon.
[This was not where the gate was going to be,] observes Cyberdramon in their shared consciousness.
They whirl past a Parasimon and blindside another one with a Justice Kick. [Duh,] replies Ryo eloquently, [no tracks. You said the first one left on a Locomon.
[Crap! That means it’s going to realize at a train station!]
[So what are we going to do about it?]
Ryo weighs up their options. [The Parasimon are going through the gate here, we can’t just let them terrorize people on the other side.] Jumping, they draw the energy blade of their Critical Arm and slice it through a trail of tentacles. [After the D-Reaper, Jen and stuff can take just one, right?]
Cyberdramon snorts, and the Parasimon they’re concentrating on suffers a particularly painful death.
[That was overkill,] Ryo admonishes.
His partner ignores this comment. [I still don’t know what you see in that overgrown robo-rabbit.]
[You wouldn’t, would you?] A spinning combination of a Justice Kick and an upwards thrust of their Critical Arm. [Milleniumon.]
This also goes ignored. Faintly, Ryo wonders if he’s overreacting, but is distracted when his partner realizes just how many Parasimon are going to the real world. [Through the gate!]
Ryo is not overly surprised to see that the Shinjuku Tamers have made it to the other side before him. Swinging on a few Parasimon-spun webs, they land neatly on Saint Galgomon’s shoulder. “How’s it going, guys?”
“Justimon!” Saint Galgomon cries.
Naturally the first ‘person’ he sees after him is Sakuyamon. “Princess,” he teases.
She turns away. Ryo can feel Jen’s gaze on him, curious and searching, and he is careful to avoid it.
insert the end of Runaway Locomon here. afterwards: Two Sets of Teeth