Davis stared at his friends in the crowd, awestruck. This was it. He was completely drained.

Late as always, he had just returned to the school dance from fighting off yet another Digimon. This type of thing had been a shared experience for most of the group as of late. The world had just assumed that these kids would be responsible for cleaning up any Digimon problem they would ever have. Now that the portal to the Digital World was permanently open, it had become something of a real round-the-clock job only with more time cut out of their social lives and less pay.

So when the night of the school dance had come around it wasn't much of a surprise when the DigiDestined got a call about some Digimon terrorizing the town kaiju-style. Davis, being the self-sacrificing martyr everyone had known him to be, was the one who probably said

"Hey, don't worry about it guys! It'll be no problem to take care of that thing before the dance even starts!"

Davis translated Kari's sigh as he always did, as a precursor for her future affections. She may have been blowing him off now, but she would definitely be in his arms by tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the Digimon fight took a bit longer than her planned. Well...about three hours longer. It was actually an enthralling story, but there was too much damage to Davis' soul and downtown Odaiba for him to think about.

And what did Davis come to find when her returned in the final hour during a slow dance? Kari, his dream girl, his muse, dancing with his rival/sort of best bud TK. No, not just dancing, completely wrapped in his arms! Kari could not see Davis staring with his mouth hanging open, because her eyes were closed as her head was lying on TK's shoulder. TK's back facing Davis was the topping insult.

Words could hardly form in his mind through the midst of emotions pulsing all throughout the rest of him. How dare he! How dare that beach-blonde ocean-eyed bowl-hatted moral-entrenched jock steal his woman while he was away! Davis needed to bring pain. Or, at the very least, fight TK with his dragon. Fire tends to be a fairly persuasive argument.

All it took was one step forward when a hand grabbed tight onto his wrist.

"Stop it." someone said flatly. Davis turned. Of course, it was Yolei.

"Stop what?" he asked.

"You know what I mean. Stop it right now."

Davis turned his head back to the…he couldn't even try to think of the description. Couple?! When did that happen?! Sure they were always beside each other and knew one another from childhood and both of the Digimon were angels and to be completely honest they had been together more often, but Kari belonged to Davis!

The anger was rising in Davis. A slow, cheesy song was currently playing from the speakers, so starting to shout would get the attention of everyone in the room. Was that the song from Cinderella 3?! Really?! Where were the standards?!

Davis yanked out of Yolei's grip and stormed out the gym door. He wasn't breathing right. Everything falling into his vision made him angry. Even though the school hall was dark and deserted at this time of night, he could still see the hand drawn posters with horrid jokes either the principal or someone on the student council thought was funny. He hated how he could see a blue glow from the computer monitors in the lab, and he hated thinking of when how he used to go to the Digital World, which just wasn't his anymore. He hated his button-down striped shirt he wore and tucked in to impress her.

It took mere moments before he heard the door open and close again, more than likely Yolei.

"This isn't fair." said Davis, refusing to look at Yolei. He was angry at them and their happiness.

"Don't even try to act like you didn't see this coming." said Yolei.

"I know, but-"

"But listen. At home I have a stack of best-selling romance novels so high can use it as a doorstop. My life goal is to marry an academically genius yet emotionally damaged soccer player. But that's not how things turned out for you. Speaking not only as Kari's best friend but a firm believer in true love, don't ruin what Kari has."

He was able to force himself to look up at Yolei. She was wearing her best dress, red with a belt that had a circular ring in the middle, even though this was a casual middle school dance. Yolei folded her arms and glared at him.

"I deserve her!" yelled Davis.

"Why?"

"Because I love her! Should there be another reason?" Yolei squinted, clearly wanting more of an explanation. "Kari is so kind. She doesn't call me an idiot when I screw up. She's pretty and gentle and lovely and everything wonderful that I know. How can you tell me to not want her? I mean, I just saved the day. Shouldn't I get the girl?"

It is both the most easy and difficult thing to yell at someone who looks just as angry and disappointed as you are right back at you.

Just then another student burst out the gym doors before Yolei could respond. Seeing they had interrupted a confrontation, the student stiffly walked away to the nearest bathroom door. The awkward silence made Davis realize how much his voice had risen. In the distraction Yolei walked up to him, grabbed the collar of his fancy shirt and dragged him to and nearly slammed him against the window of the door.

"Look at her. Isn't she happy?" It was crowded and dark in the gym, but Kari and her pink gloves could brighten any room. That's how Davis always saw her in his mind, and now in his own eyes Kari was smiling wide. She was no longer in TK's arms but dancing with other friends while clapping along with the new song playing. "Tell me honestly that she isn't happy and I'll leave you alone."

Davis looked away again. His hatred began to veer in a different direction. He almost wished his Digimon could be here to speak for him, but who knows if he would say the same thing.

"I dunno. I just thought she would always say yes." Davis' voice became more quiet instead of loud. "Kari never said the kinds of things I said to her, but I always thought that one day I would just impress her enough for her to say 'yes' to me instead of TK. And when she didn't it meant I wasn't trying hard enough." Yolei's grip began to loosen on his fancy collar. "But I don't want to hurt her feelings. I don't want to make her not like me at all anymore."

A part of Davis wanted to ask about his feelings, but he always considered himself to be noble, and riling up drama could not end in his way no matter what. Plus, while Davis indeed had a dragon, TK had a sharp right hook and anger issues while Kari had an older brother capable of punting his head down the next square block. But friendship and courage sounded more reasonable.

Still, this wasn't what Davis wanted to deal with after being tired from fighting a monster in the middle of the city. When Yolei fully let go of his shirt he took the opportunity to step away from the door.

"Wow Davis, are you actually going to take the mature and responsible thing?" asked Yolei. Davis almost laughed but shrugged instead.

"I don't like this decision." said Davis.

Yolei slapped him on the arm, "C'mon, why don't you join the last dance and then drown your sorrows in ice cream? Show us your best Carlton, Frownie-Face."

He shook his head and turned in the other direction. "I think I'll play some violent video games with Veemon instead."

Finding his way to the door Davis did not feel good, even if nothing bad had happened, but as he walked outside towards home, at least he didn't hate himself.

Special thanks to imafangirlforever for betaing. Something I had knocking around my computer for years, so I polished it up and posted it. Davis always had his heart in the right place, but if Takari is not canon by the end of this new season I will shake my head in disappointment right at the poster for a long time.