Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Just the AU.
Ashes
Prologue
Lying comfortably in the canopy bed, she felt restless. She tossed and turned but it was useless. Her body was sending messages to her overwhelmed brain to relax but her mind wouldn't take them.
Giving up the urge to sleep, the young woman laid awake, watching the silver moon creep silently through the night, with the stars speckling the ebony sky from outside the window of the room.
Nature…an eternal cycle…like love…
She then turned her eyes to back to the bed, gazing at the person lying next to her in deep sleep.
Her husband.
They had known each other since high school and had married just last year. To their friends, they seemed like the perfect couple. The pair also got along pretty well but there was something that didn't feel right to the young wife.
And she was beginning to have second thoughts about her choice. Mainly self-doubt.
And it was this self-doubt that was keeping her from her dreams.
A faint sound broke her from these thoughts; getting up from the bed, she cautiously made her way to a nearby crib. There, she slowly lifted the infant out of the crib and began to rock him back and forth gently, humming soft melodies to soothing him back to sleep.
He looks so much like his father, she thought, placing her newborn son back in his crib. She stood there for a few minutes, watching the tiny boy sleep peacefully as the moonlight shined its pale rays upon him.
Yawning tiredly, she returned to bed, settling her head into the soft caress of the pillow, while the bed sheets and blankets embraced her slender form.
The desire for sleep had finally won the battle, but not before she gave one final thought:
Why do I feel so unsure of myself? I guess I'm just nervous about this new life I'm about to have…
**Five years later**
"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS! I thought that you actually cared for me, but I was blind for too long until now, I finally see you for what you truly are…"
The woman turned and angrily left the living room before her husband could speak, not even looking back at him.
As she made her way through the hallway in a huff, her eyes fell upon the frightened face of her son, hiding in the shadows near the door of his room.
"M-mommy? What's going on? I-is Daddy in trouble?"
The young lady sighed sadly as she began to explain to the young boy.
"Sweetheart, I'm afraid that your father and I are just not getting along the way we used to,"
"W-what do you mean?"
"We...don't want to live with each other anymore, so we're getting a divorce…" she said, tearing her eyes away from the child's gaze.
"How come?" questioned the boy, his voice quivering with confusion.
The mother did not reply, instead she wrapped her arms around her five-year-old son, holding him in a gentle embrace, shedding silent tears of remorse.
The next day, she filed for divorce, and later won the custody battle for her child, leaving the courtroom and a stunned ex-husband. As she proceeded to drive away from out of the parking lot, she saw her ex's reflection in her rear-view mirror, standing outside the court doors, his handsome features contorted in an insatiable rage, his eyes gleaming like a wildfire ready to lose control.
"Mark my words…woman…you will pay for doing this to me…" he sneered.
She shuddered, and quickly drove away with her young son in tow.
Three years had past since then, the family of two had moved to a city near Odaiba, far from their old home.
Seeing her son smile always brought her joy, still, she couldn't help but feel lonely.
This began to affect her job, since her feelings of melancholy kept her from focusing on work to which one of her coworkers began to take notice one day.
"Is something wrong?"
The voice broke her out of her dazed state, and she found herself looking up at a tall, gruff-looking man, his eyes shining with concern.
"Um…n-no," she answered back hastily, "i-it's nothing..."
The man was not convinced.
"I understand that you're a newcomer around here, but if you keep this up-"
"If you don't mind, sir," she said firmly, moving out of his way, "I'd like to get back to my writing."
He scowled at her smart remark, and reluctantly returned to his work station.
…
"Aren't you planning on going home?"
The man turned around, quite surprised to see the woman he was speaking to earlier that morning, she seemed worried about him this time.
"No," he replied, "There's nothing to do at home, then just sleep, since I work here until late anyway…"
"You mean, you…live alone?" she asked.
"Pretty much." came the honest reply.
She paused.
He feels the same way I do…
"Say," he said, breaking the growing awkward silence between them, "I don't think I quite caught your name, since you started working here…"
"Nancy Takaishi." she said, "and you are..?"
"Hiroaki Ishida."
"Nice to meet you."
She then took a quick glance at the clock mounted on the wall, and gasped.
"Oh no! I forgot to pickup my son, T.K. from school!"
Nancy then grabbed her purse and light jacket and hurried out of the room.
How could I let time slip by me like that? And what was that guy driving at anyway?
-To be continued…