Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, or any character here in. This is a work done purely for fun with no though of profit,
I watched him sleeping on the beach beside me, lightly snoring and using Armadillomon as a pillow, as uncomfortable as it looked. Patamon shifted beside me, stirring me from the semi-trance I was in. He was gently flapping his wings in his sleep, a sign that, I'd learned, meant he was dreaming. A quick glance across the beach revealed that all of the digidestined, aside from me, were still in a deep sleep, reclining on their respective digimon partners. A cold breeze swept across the beach, and when I turned my view back towards him, I saw Iori shivering, despite the blanket on top of him. I stood, and unwrapped the blanket from myself, and draped it over Iori, tucking it around him the best I could. As I was crouching beside him, I noticed how him mumbling frantically, and how much he was furrowing his brow. Ever since the day we got stuck underwater in the oil platform, Iori had been different. He was still the kind and gentle boy he had always been, but he was even more docile. I was like he was scared all the time, always looking over his shoulder, and perpetually jumpy. I didn't think any of the others had noticed, but I sure did. I noticed a lot about Iori. And, when he starting crying out, I noticed he was shaking this time, not from the cold, but from fear. With the wind picking up again, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and started to slide under the blankets next to Iori. I pulled him close to me. He struggled a little at first, but then snuggled close to me, and stopped shaking and crying out. I had long since woken up, but between the warmth of Iori and the blankets, my eyes became heavy once more, and I drifted back to sleep.
As usual, Iori woke before anyone else, and gently shook me awake, as well.
"Why did you sleep next to me, Takeru?" Iori asked, sleepily rubbing his eyes.
"Well, at first you were shivering, so I put my blanket over you. Then you started crying out and moaning in your sleep. But you stopped when I laid down beside you."
"Thank you, Takeru. I was dreaming. Well, i guess it was a nightmare, really"
"You're safe now, Iori." I clasped Iori's hand in mine. "You're awake and safe. And probably hungry, how about some breakfast?"
Iori nodded in agreement and stood up, following me along the beach to find driftwood for a fire. It wasn't long before we each had an armload of wood and were walking back up the beach towards the camp. Iori and I were chuckling to one another about our adventures in the digiworld when my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked him about his dream. He stopped and stared out at the ocean before answering. Iori dropped the driftwood and sat down in the sand, he asked me to have a seat next to him. He told me it was the same ocean dream he'd always had, only worse. In his dream we were all stuck at the bottom of the ocean, and Armadillomon couldn't digivolve into Submarimon, no matter how much he tried. Iori was helpless as the rest of us ran out of air and floated away. He told me that as soon as Armadillomon floated away, he woke up and found me next to him. When he finished his tale, I noticed he was sobbing. I closed the distance between the two of us, and put my arm around him. I expected him to lean into me, but he threw himself onto me,knocking us both backwards into the sand, and began to all-out cry into my chest.
"Oh, Takeru, I was so scared. It was just like when we were in that oil platform."
"No it wasn't, Iori." I reassured him, "That time you saved all of us."
"But what about when the day comes when I'm not able to save you all!?"
"That day is never going to come, Iori, there will never come a day when the five of us will ever be beaten!"
"Do you promise, Takeru?" Iori asked. There was a look in his eyes, like his entire world was riding on my answer. Iori had always been a sensitive and honest kid, so much so that he could come across as uptight. Even so, I had only seen him show such a display of emotion once before: the day his nightmare came to life in the oil platform when we were looking for the Digiegg of Reliability and Metal Seadramon attacked, leaving under the water. He sat sobbing, scared out of his mind until we sent him ashore to find Joe. But that day stuck with Iori more than any of us would have guessed. It embodied all of his fear and uncertainty about being in the digital world. I wondered how many times he had cried out in the night, before, and none of us had been awake to hear, when none of us had been awake to comfort him. With that thought in my mind, I threw my arms around Iori and pulled him tightly against me and swore to him that I would never let anything happen to the five of us.
Iori's sobs slowly came to a halt, and he pulled his face from my chest, leaving, in its place, a big wet spot from his tears. He wiped his eyes on his sleeves, and looked up at me, his frown replaced by a small, gentle smile. It was a gentle curve at the corners of his mouth. Barely noticeable, but to me, it shined like a ray of sunlight through the clouds. His smile was a leaf, drifting lazily down a small brook, barely pushed along by the placid current. It was a summer wind that blew tamely through the leaves of a tree. It was the glow of the stars, and it was hard to take my eyes off of it. He looked into my eyes for another few moments before stretching up and kissing me lightly on the cheek. His smile grew for a second before his face flushed in embarrassment and he crawled off of my and stood, looking out towards the ocean.
"Thank you, Takeru. Thank you so much." He whispered, not turning around. He sounded like he was on the verge of crying again, but when he turned around again, his eyes shown with happiness, rather than fear. "You're my best friend, Takeru. I've never had a best friend before."
We arrived back at camp before any of the others had woken up, including our partner digimon. We collected all the firewood we needed, but we were still missing a crucial element for breakfast: the breakfast, itself. Iori and I agreed that I would make the fire while he and Submarimon caught some fish. As I began to make a small teepee from the wood, I saw Iori gently shaking Armadillomon, waking him as tenderly as possible. I wondered if the boy had ever had a malicious thought even cross his mind. Then it occurred to me how much this experience in the digital world must actually be effecting him. This soft, compassionate boy was thrown into a broken world, and forced to constantly fight; not only to survive, but to save an entire world. He had been witness to terrible things, brutal treatment and enslavement of innocent digimon from a master crueler than god. Even worse, battle had been forced upon him, leaving him no choice but to harm to keep from being harmed. When I really thought about it, I wondered why I hadn't notice Iori's underlying melancholy long before I did. My heart broke for him. But no matter what the Emperor threw in Iori's direction, he was never able to break Iori's spirit. He could never harden the heart of this beautiful boy.
Armadillomon digivolved into Submarimon, and Iori entered into the looking glass area on his back. I watched them until they dove out of sight, then turned to my backpack to dig out a spiral notebook I brought along for kindling. I could have just as easily woken Daisuke and Veemon up, and Flamedramon would have had it blazing in a digisecond, but I rather enjoyed the quiet of the beach. Truth be told, I was also hoping to have another moment of peace between Iori and myself before the others woke up. Not that I minded the others, they were all my best friends, but since Iori cried to me earlier that morning, I felt like I had so much left to say to him, I felt like I needed to get to know him better. Daisuke always tended to treat him like a kid, so I was the only real guy friend he had, and, even though he got along well enough with Miyako and Hikari, I knew he got tired of just hanging out with the girls. Plus, he told me I was the first best friend he'd ever had, it gave me quite a title to live up to.
The kindling beneath the driftwood caught fire quickly, with the smell of sulfur rising in the air. I tossed the match stick into the burning kindling and blew lightly into the fire, fanning the flames up, higher and into the pile of wood. Slowly, but surely, the wood began to catch, and the flames started to rise higher and higher. I heard the ocean rise up behind me, and turned to see Submarimon launch up onto the sand with five large fish pierced onto his harpoon nose. A grin spread across my face as I saw the morning's catch, and grew a little larger when I saw Iori slide down from Submarimon's back. When he noticed, a light shading of pink tinged his cheeks and he responded with a faint smile of his own. I'd come to love that smile throughout the events of the morning. I'd come to love Iori that morning as well, he'd become my best friend as well. I retrieved a tarp from my backpack and jogged over to Iori and Submarimon, and laid it out under Submarimon's harpoon, and as he de-digivolved back to Armadillomon, the fish fell cleanly onto the tarp, waiting to be cooked over the fire. Iori ran up to put more wood on the fire while I carefully drug the tarp across the sand, and Armadillomon used his claws to sharpen the ends of some sticks into points to roast the fish. Soon after Iori and I put our fish over the fire, the smell wafted around the camp, and, of course, Daisuke was the first that it woke up. But, shortly after, one-by-one, hunger overcame sleep and the stomachs of our fellow digidestined, and their digimon partners, including Patamon, and they gathered around the fire. The rest of the group marveled at the size of the fish Iori had caught, and their praise cause his cheeks to, once again, tint a slight shade of pink. When everyone had finished cooking their fish, we all split them right down the middle and gave a half of the fish to our digimon, as was the custom anytime we ate: half for us, half for them, and sometimes, some for us, most for them. We said our "good mornings" and laugh and joke around the fire with our friends and our breakfast. It was truly a wonderful morning in the digital world; children and digimon laughing and eating together, fellowshipping, and generally enjoying one another's company. But in the midst of all our jokes and stories, there was a heavy thought on my mind. My thoughts continued to drift back to earlier that morning, just after sunrise, when Iori was washing my shirt and chest in his tears. Afterwards, he had seemed so much happier, but I knew that his nightmare was, most likely, still on his mind. And, after my realization of what Iori must be going through on a daily bases, I was truly concerned for my friend. I thought it would be a good idea for him to take the day off, but I knew he would never agree to it. So, when he left the circle to relieve himself behind the bushes, I quickly, and quietly called the others in close. I gave them a brief, and completely void of detail, summary of the morning and my concerns for Iori's feelings. I pitched to them my idea of splitting up to destroy control spires; and while the three of them would actually be destroying some spires, I'd take Iori away from the spires and the fighting. If only for a day, I would give Iori a day of carefree relaxation. I sent Koushiro an email asking for the best places to relax and sight see around the area. I closed my D-terminal and slid it back in my pocket as Iori was returning to the group, taking a different seat, next to me.
After we finished gathering up our blankets and supplies, and storing them away in our packs, I relayed my plan to everyone, once again. Iori was standing adjacent to me, his mouth hanging open in anticipation at my words. When Iori was clear on the plan, as I had told everyone else previously, we all broke from our huddle and started to walk in separate directions. Daisuke, Miyako, and Hikari started North East; while Iori and I walked parallel to the beach, heading west towards the mountains. I stopped our group for a moment so Patamon could armor-digivolve to Pegasusmon to make our journey a lot faster. Iori pulled his blanket from his pack, and placed Upamon, who had de-digivolved to save energy, in the pack so he would be safest in flight. He placed the blanket on Pegasusmon's back, and we climbed on. I took the front, and Iori sat behind me, and wrapped his arms around my waist. My face flushed at his touch, and I was glad he couldn't see it. Pegasusmon took flight and climbed quickly into the sky, causing Iori to hug against my back tightly. Feeling his body pressed against my set my skin on fire. Even through both our clothes, I could feel his warmth and it send a heat radiance throughout my body. As Pegasusmon leveled his flight path, my mind wandered to the feeling in the pit of my stomach; what did it mean? The only other person that ever gave me that feeling was Hikari, back when we were kids. That feeling had long since disappeared. She remained my best friend, through out the years, but that was just it: she had become my best friend, my companion, my sister, and my fellow digidestined, but not my girlfriend. Did this mean I liked Iori? It had never occurred to me; I never liked boys, at least not until now. I mean, I had glanced at Daisuke in gym before, but I didn't think anything of it; I didn't like Daisuke in that way. But Iori? Iori was cute, now that I thought about it. And I had come to really care for the boy, but could I really like him? I supposed I would find out soon enough.
"...Keru! TAKERU!" Iori yelled behind me.
"What?" He surprised me so much I accidentally kicked Pegasusmon and caused him to veer downwards and loudly voice his complaint. I quickly and profusely apologized, then turned my attention back to Iori. "I'm sorry, Iori, I was in...deep thought."
"I said, 'You're D-terminal went off.'"
"Oh, thanks, Iori. It's probably Koushiro."
My guess was correct, Koushiro sent me a small list of local paradises and their coordinates. But Iori, always the perceptive one, caught on quick. He knew that there were no control spires in our direction, and began to ask what we were really doing. I told him that he would find out soon enough and turned to give him a sincere smile. He looked into my eyes, before quickly averting his gaze and looking back, with that gentle smile gracing his mouth again. But when I saw his smile that time, it was different; this time, it sent a slight shiver down my spine and cause that feeling to return to the pit of my stomach. For the first time, I noticed how Iori's forest-green eyes shined when he smiled like that. Gentle eyes for a gentle smile. This time, however, I couldn't turn my face fast enough to prevent him from seeing the blush race across my cheeks. I quickly turned around to face our destination, and leaned down to whisper our destination into Pegasusmon's ear. Iori only giggled behind me. I had head him laugh before, but I had never heard him giggle like that. Maybe I was thinking way too much into it.
Pegasusmon touched down at the base of a mountain with steam rising all around. Iori asked me why we had stopped there when we dismounted. In response, I opened my pack, and dug out two towels from under the blanket, and tossed one in Iori's direction. He still looked at me questionably, so I thought it best to tell him everything.
"Iori," I began, "What happened this morning really got me thinking, and watching you," Iori gave me a puzzled look when I said I was watching him. "You're a very gentle boy, Iori. I've that since i first met you in our apartment complex. But I never thought about how that might change how the digital world effected you. You're very kind and sensitive, Iori, and I know what the fighting does to a kid like that."
Iori's expression drastically changed when I said that. He went from anxiously waiting to solemn with the droop of a brow.
"After all,"I continued, "Even I got to explore the digital world for a little while before the fighting started. You got thrown into the mix right away, and the Digimon Emperor is more vulgar and violent of a villain than we faced for a long time. But you've had to watch him ruthlessly abuse digimon and even make them fight one another, as if he were Caesar in the Roman coliseum. In your short time here, you've experienced horrors beyond what any child should. And it's force you to react with violence, simply to survive, and-"
Iori cut me off there by throwing his arms around me as he started sobbing, once again. I returned his embrace, and gently rubbed his back in an effort to comfort him.
"So I decided that today was your day off, Iori. That's why I brought us here, to the hot springs. You and I are going to spend the day relaxing, and doing whatever you feel like doing."
"But, Takeru," Iori argued, in between sobs, "We don't have time for me to take a day off just because I'm having a bad dream, no one else is-"
"Shush, Iori. You can't compare yourself to any of the rest of us. You have an empathy that far surpasses any of our own. The digiworld is full of pain now, I can't imagine what it's doing to you. And it's non-negotiable, anyway; I talked it over with everyone at the camp earlier, and decided that I was going to to take care of you today. No fighting, no sadness, just you, me, and our digimon, and nice day together."
"Wait, when did you talk to everyone else? It couldn't have been right before we left."
"It was when you were having private time with the bushes." I said it in a way that I knew would make him blush again; Iori was very modest, and it embarrassed him to talk about it. He replied with a short Oh, and looked down. I chuckled at his reaction as I took his arm and led him to a patch of bushes where we could change. Iori understood why I'd given him the towel when I pulled my shirt over my head. He followed in suit and soon we walked out of the bushes covered from the waist down, with a towel, carrying our clothes. I let my clothes fall to the ground, with my towel following suit, and hurried to dip into the hot spring. I expected Iori to be right behind me, but I turned to see him carefully folding his clothes, and placing them on a rock. I smiled at him as he walked towards the spring. He hesitated at the edge, but didn't say anything.I looked at him questioningly until his face began to turn a deep red, and I understood he didn't want me looking while he got in. I quickly turned my head, and waited until I felt the water stir beside me to turn back and face, Iori. He was smiling sheepishly, and his cheeks were only beginning to fade. Patamon and Armadillomon settled in to float in the spring with us.
"Takeru, a moment ago, you said exactly how I felt, how did you know so well?" Iori asked, looking at me intently with his deep, green eyes. I thought for a minute I'd be lost in them.
"I remember what it's like to be so young in such a place. In our first battle with Devimon, Angemon gave his life to defeat him, and I thought I'd never see him again. I was terrified. The digital world can be a scary place, especially if you can't talk to anyone about it. I was so much younger than everyone else that I thought they'd think I was a crybaby, so I rarely told anyone how scared I really was. But you can always talk to me about it, Iori, I know how you feel. I know how unfair it seems. I know how much it hurts seeing our friends hurt in these battles."
"Sometimes I think," Iori's breath hitched in his throat, and I realized he was about to start to cry again. I reached across the small distance between us and took his hand in mine. "Sometimes I think about what would happen if I lost Armadillomon in a fight. I don't know what I'd do, Takeru! I love Armadillomon, and I can't bear to think about losing him." Iori's speech was getting harder to understand, and tears we starting to fall down his cheeks. "
"I've always liked you, Takeru, you've always listened to me, and didn't write me off as a child. Even before this morning, I thought of you as my best friend. Well, a couple nights ago, I had a nightmare that Ken captured you. We all looked and looked and looked, but we couldn't find any trace of you. I remember running and yelling your name, but I just couldn't find you. I woke up and cried for an hour until I could get back to sleep. Even though I saw you sleeping, it wasn't enough. I wanted to wake you up, to make sure you were okay, I wanted to hold you-" Iori noticeably winced as the last word slipped out. And immediately following, he started crying heavily, as if those two slipped words opened the floodgates. I grabbed him beneath the arms and pulled him up onto my lap. I thanked preventive thought for thinking to tuck myself between my legs incase my body reacted to the water, or something else, and Iori happened to brush me. I hugged him tightly to my chest and told him that I was there. That there was nothing for him to be ashamed of, because I was scared of losing him too, and I wanted to hold him too. When my words sunk in, Iori's crying lightened to broken sobs, and he looked up at me.
"Do you really mean that, Takeru? Are you scared of losing me? Did you really want to hold me too?"
"Yes to all three of those." I smiled down at him.
"So...so you don't think I'm weird now? You still want to be my friend?"
"Iori, think about it. We're both naked and I'm holding you in my lap, in a hot spring to stop you from crying."
It took a moment for my words to sink in, once again. But this time, when they did, both of us realized exactly what was happening and both turned redder that Myotismon's Crimson Lightening. He tried to slide off my lap, but I held him in place, and assured him that it was alright."
"You..you really do care for me, don't you, Takeru? You really care!"
"Yes, Iori, I guess I really do. I guess I love you." I said, leaning down to give Iori a kiss,