A SURPRISE
Summary : Of all the impossible things they've faced, this feels like the most impossible of them all. And certainly the most unexpected, even more so than that one time she suddenly gained a Digimon partner.
Disclaimer : We still don't have a Tamers sequel and I assure you, that is through no fault of mine. So no, I don't own the rights to Digimon.
A Surprise
Prologue
Ruki pulled away and shifted in Jen's lap, trying to get comfortable. She smirked when she felt something pressing against her thigh.
"You know, the girls in my class always freak out when this happens."
"When what… oh." Jen trailed off. He'd only just caught his breath after Ruki's sudden attack on his lips and scrambled to clear his mind and find a way to navigate through this situation. "I thought you don't participate in 'girl talk' with them." He said, hoping to distract her as blood rushed up to his cheeks. That was good, right? At least it was going in the right direction. He needed blood in his head now, not… other places.
"I don't. They're ten times louder than your sister and they sit right next to me." Ruki muttered. "It's impossible not to hear them."
"Oh." Wow, things were just getting worse. Especially with the way she kept squirming around in his lap, trying to get… wait. "Ruki." He glared at her. "You're doing that on purpose."
"What?" She asked, wide and innocent eyes staring at him. It was too bad she refused to join her mother in the entertainment world, really, because Ruki was an excellent actress. "I'm just curious."
Jen groaned. Nothing good ever came from Ruki being curious. In fact, Ruki saying I'm just curious almost always brought about bad things. Her curiosity had nearly gotten them killed a handful of times. Curiosity killed the cat, he would snap at her. Ah, she'd smirk, but satisfaction brought it back.
"Besides," Ruki said, giving him a dirty look for his reaction to her words. "It's not like I don't know what this is." She punctuated her statement with more squirming. Jen settled his hands on either side of her hips, hoping to hold her in place and stop her from moving about.
"Ruki, we're seventeen." It was, perhaps, a weak protest. Half-hearted, at most.
"So?" She retorted. "We've been doing things way too young our whole lives. Remember how we saved the world when we were kids? And the way we repeatedly risked our lives, also as kids? And there was that time we jumped headfirst into an unknown portal to get our Digimon back. We were thirteen. I think that was a bigger deal than this."
"That's really not the same thing."
She scowled and Jen knew then there was no talking her out of this. Ruki didn't pursue much, but when she tried more than once to talk a person into something, it meant she really wanted that something. He'd never been good at denying her anything; she'd used that to her advantage to talk him into kissing her when they were fourteen and she'd wanted to find out what the big deal about making out was.
"Besides, it's just sex. It's not that big of a deal."
He sighed. "That's what you said about kissing."
"We should try it." She went on, ignoring him.
Another heavy sigh. "That's exactly what you said about kissing."
"And that turned out to be fun, didn't it?" She pointed out. Of course it had, he'd been daydreaming about her for weeks, maybe months, when Ruki first approached him. And when she'd explained that this didn't mean anything, that she merely wanted to get the whole messy first kiss thing out of the way and Jen was the only one she both trusted and could tolerate, and really, it wasn't a big thing and he didn't have to feel pressured and no, it wouldn't mean they were together… well, he'd been a fourteen-year-old boy with a crush. It didn't really matter what Ruki said then, only that she wanted to kiss him and she wanted him to kiss her, and so he'd nodded along and agreed to everything.
It hadn't been that messy, as far as first kisses go. And what she'd said about trusting him, that was high praise coming from Ruki. She didn't fall in love with him after, nor did she change her mind about a relationship. But days passed, and she kissed him again. And again. And again. Eventually, Jen started kissing her too. Days turned into weeks, those into months, months flew by as seasons gave way to one another and now here they were, making out in her house while her family was out, three years into… whatever this thing between them was.
"Jen?" She called, turning his attention back to her. Ruki's eyes were wide, not with fake innocence but uncertainty and… a hint of insecurity. "Don't you want to?"
"I…" A quiet handful of seconds, and then he removed one hand from her hip to cup her left cheek, drawing her closer. "Yes. Yeah, let's."
She blinked, and the uncertainty and insecurity – he must've imagined that, Ruki and insecure were two words he'd never have thought to use in the same sentence – were gone, replaced by a swirl of other things, too many emotions for him to name right then. A smile tugged on her lips – too soft and happy to be a smirk, but a victorious smile nonetheless.
"I knew I'd talk you into-"
"There's something I have to say first!" Jen blurted out, interrupting her mid-sentence. He'd known for a while now. A few months, maybe even longer. It had taken him a long time to admit it to himself, and even longer to consider telling her. But this was a huge step for them, right? Surely she wouldn't freak out if he told her he was in lov-
"Don't." Ruki said sharply and kissed him so that she didn't have to see the disappointment in his eyes. "Just… don't. Not yet. Okay?"
"Okay." Jen agreed easily as her hands reached between them to undo the buttons on his shirt. Not yet, she'd said. That gave him a bit of hope, at least. He'd tell her someday.
.
.
.
.
.
"Ugh," Terriermon groaned as he watched Ruki lean into Jen. "Those two are getting so… mushy."
"Then give them some privacy and stop watching." Renamon said bluntly. She knew the smaller Digimon was just confused – their kind wasn't born with an innate understanding of the concept humans called romantic love. In fact, they hadn't been born with any sense of love, period. It had taken a while for them to grasp the idea of friendship and the kind of love shared between family and friends but romantic love, the kind their Tamers now expressed, continued to elude them. Perhaps it was for the best. Digimon were not made for such things, and it seemed to be far too messy and complicated, anyway.
Even so, Renamon knew enough of these matters to sense when the two teenagers deserved some privacy. She had subtly taken her leave of them as soon as Jen's hand had reached for her Tamer's, and had managed to take Terriermon with her.
Now, she stood under the shade of a tree while Terriermon tried to spy on their Tamers through a crack between the curtains. The rabbit finally gave up with a sigh.
"Fine. If they're not going to pay attention, then I'm going to steal the last doughnut." He announced, turning away from the window to head for the kitchen.
Renamon chuckled, a short burst of mischievous laughter, and promptly disappeared into the shadow realm between worlds.
"That one's another weirdo." Terriermon grumbled, ambling down the hallway on short, chubby legs. "Renamon's weird and Jen's weird and Ruki's weird. Everything's weird." The rabbit sighed heavily. "At least I get to have that doughnut." He cheered up considerably at the thought, only to enter the kitchen and find Renamon polishing off the last bite of his doughnut.
"Hey!" Terriermon cried. "That's not fair!"
The fox gave him a blank look before vanishing wordlessly.
"Fine." The small Digimon huffed. "Fine. I'll bake a cake! Jen and Ruki can clean up the mess, see how they feel then. And I'll call for take-out." He vowed, dragging a chair away from the breakfast table to the kitchen counter where Ruki's mother kept the take-out menus and numbers. Terriermon hopped on top of the chair and pulled the drawer open, gathering an armful of menus.
"Jen hates it when I answer the door and shock the delivery man."
I recently watched this season again, for the first time in ten years or so. And the obsessive shipper in me just had to find something to ship, even though I don't remember shipping anything ten years ago. That something turned out to be Jen/Ruki. So then I read pretty much all of the fanfic in the archives. When that was done, I found I was still obsessing over this ship, so I was driven to write this. It's the only way to get through this phase.
I hope some of you, at least, will enjoy this. I hope this will be a satisfactory Jen/Ruki fix for you shippers. I also hope I don't screw things up remarkably, but that's kind of my specialty, so…
But hey, give it a shot? And let me know if (when) I do manage to somehow screw everything up, maybe? Or just drop a line to tell me I haven't messed things up so far. That would be nice.
E Salvatore,
October 2014.
