"Guilmon, what are you doing?" Takato asked, as he curiously walked to his partner. He was, without a doubt, surpised by what the digimon was doing. Guilmon had his legs wrapped around the branch of a tree, and was hanging upside down. He appeared to be light-headed, and slightly dizzy, which made his tamer worry. Guilmon looked up (From his angle, he had to) at Takato, and smiled.
"Hey, Takatomon, what are you doing here?" He said, struggling to focus his eyes on him.
"Henry told me he saw you here, doing something unusual. Now I see why," Takato said, recalling his encounter with Henry. He looked up at the branch his friend was hanging by, and noticed a few cracks on it. Some of them were pretty large. "How long have you been doing this?"
"I don't know," He said, trying to remember exactly when he started. "Maybe an hour ago." This shocked Takato. Why would Guilmon be handing upside down for so long?
"Why are you even doing this?" He asked, though Guilmon was completely oblivious to Takato's concern.
"Impmon told me that if I hung upside down on a tree, a mountain of bread would fall on me!" Guilmon said, happily. "He said it happens because of the Bread Fairy." Takato sighed, realizing that Guilmon had been tricked by Impmon, again. The little digimon always liked to fool people, especially naive people like Guilmon. No matter how many times anyone tells him to stop, he just does it again. It really got annoying.
"Guilmon, you really shouldn't believe things like that. Fairies aren't real, and a mountain of bread can't fall from the sky," Takato said, bursting Guilmon's bubble.
"No bread?" He asked, surprised that he had been lied to. Then he got an idea. "If it can't fall from the sky, then where can it fall from?"
"Nowhere. Bread doesn't just fall into your hands."
"Can it fall into my mouth?" Takato sighed again, at how clueless Guilmon was.
"I should really get you a teacher," He thought, as he looked up at the digimon. "Just get down from there, and never listen to Impmon again, ok?"
"Aww, I have to get down? Can't I stay up here for five more minutes? I like how the world looks from here." Normally he would let Guilmon do something like that, but Takato had to go home to do some chores, so he didn't have time to argue.
"Fine, but be careful. I wouldn't want you to fall and get hurt," He said, as he turned to leave.
"Don't worry, I won't. Bye, Takato!" Guilmon shouted, after his tamer began to leave. He waved goodbye to him, and then let his arms hang above him. His mind was still on the bread, that was supposedly never going to come. "What if Takato is wrong, and the bread does come?" He thought. "Takato hasn't been wrong before, so he probably isn't this time. But how does he know it won't come? Did he ever try it? And how does Impmon know it will come?" His thoughts about what will happen, and what won't happen, were starting to get him confused. He eventually decided that the bread really wouldn't come. After all, Impmon has been known to lie a lot, but Takato was the one person who never lied to Guilmon. If he said something was coming, it was. If he said something wasn't coming, it wasn't. "I wish it was that easy to get bread..." He said, looking down at the sky. There was no sign of any bread... or fairies. He sighed, looking back up at the ground.
"Renamon should be here, by now," A voice said. Guilmon insantly turned his head, to see who it was.
"Bread fairy?" He asked, hoping to see a fairy carrying bread. But he didn't see what he wanted to. Instead, he saw someone who was certainly not a fairy. It was Rika. She was pacing back and forth, and had an irritated expression on her face. "Rika?" Guilmon said, before he heard a cracking sound, and felt the branch he was on start to weaken. "Woooaah!!!" He shouted, after the branch broke. Then he fell out of the tree, and landed hard on his back. "Ow..." Guilmon sat up, and rubbed the back of his head. He now had a headache, from hanging upside down for so long. "Takato was right, that was a bad idea." He looked up, and then realized that Rika was looking at him.
"What are you doing here?" She ask, now even more annoyed.
"I was hanging upside down, because Impmon told me if I did I would get a mountain of bread."
"A mountain of bread?" Rika said, crossing her arms over her chest. "That's stupid. Where did you think the bread was going to come from?"
"The Bread Fairy." Rika would have found that funny, if she wasn't in such a bad mood. Instead she was annoyed even further by guilmon's child-like behavior.
"For your information, fairies don't exist. They're completely fictional, but it's just like you to believe such a dumb thing. I guess Gogglehead doesn't have the patience to teach you anything."
"Huh?" Guilmon said, tilting his head to the side. "What does fictional mean?"
"My point, exactly." Guilmon stared at her, puzzled. Rika sighed, realizing that he didn't get what she was saying. "When something is fictional, it doesn't exist in real life. Only in stories, books, and things like that. understand?"
"Haha, you sound like Takato's school teacher!" Guilmon laughed, making Rika feel like an idiot for even trying to teach him.
"I don't have time for this," She said, turning to leave.
"Wait!" Guilmon said, running to her and grabbing her hand. "Can you tell me more about fiction?" Rika just stared at him, surprised that he actually felt it was ok for him to make physical contact with her. She didn't know him too well, but she did know that he was naive, and stupid in her opinion.
"Fine, if it'll get you to leave me alone," She said, as she swiped her hand from him.
"Yay!" He said, sitting down in front of her, and preparing to listen.
"Ok, where should I begin?" She said to herself, before starting her explanation. "If something is fiction, it is made up by someone. Like super heroes. They were all imagined by people, and soon became very popular. Have you ever heard of Superman?"
"Yeah, Takato has a comic book all about him. He goes around saving people who need help! I wish I could be just like him," Guilmon said, remembering the hours he spent reading about Superman, after he learned about him. Rika chuckled at his statement.
"You could never be like him. He saves the world all the time, and I don't think you would enjoy doing that. Also, it puts your family in danger. If you keep everyone safe from villains, they'll start targetting the ones you love."
"You mean they would want to hurt Takato?" Guilmon gasped. Rika simply nodded.
"Yep, that's what they would do. Would you really be willing to risk Takato's life?"
"No, of course not! Takato is my friend, and I would never want him to be in danger!" It was true. Guilmon would let himself get hurt, before he let it happen to Takato.
"That's why you're not cut out to be a hero. You're not willing to take risks, or do anything that doesn't guarantee your friend's safety. You would let the world be destroyed, before you let Takato be destroyed. In other words, you don't care about anyone other than him." Guilmon remained silent. He wanted to say that he did care about other people, but he didn't want to say he would let Takato die. "Anyway, I'm getting out of here. I would say it was nice talking to you, if it was." She turned to walk away again.
"...Would you put Renamon in danger?" Rika stopped, and turned around to look at him. She looked him in the eye, and could tell that it was a serious question. It was the first time she had ever seen him being serious.
"What does that have to do with anything?" She asked, crossing her arms again.
"You make it sound like caring about Takato is a bad thing, so I want to know if you care about Renamon." Rika didn't answer, mainly because she didn't know the answer. She was Renamon's tamer, but she didn't exactly see her as a friend. Rika always thought that the whole reason they were together was so she could make Renamon stronger, and in return she could use her power to please her. But, even if they weren't friends, Renamon was too valuable to just give up. Though, if she was in danger, she could obviously take care of herself.
"If I had to, I would put her in danger. She's strong enough to take down any threat, unlike you." Guilmon's ears dropped, as he became sad. Rika turned, once again, but was stopped by Guilmon's voice.
"Why do you have to be so mean?" She took a moment to think about the question, but never came to a conlusion. Guilmon hadn't done anything to her, so why was she insulting him?
"Why shouldn't I?" She asked, unable to think of a better answer. Guilmon finally stood up, and took a few steps closer to her. She still had her back to him.
"Because I think we could be really good friends, if you would just be nicer," Guilmon said, innocently. Rika turned around, and was surprised to see that he had a smile on his face.
"We could never be friends," She said, after a moment. "We're too different."
"Friends don't have to be the same, they just have to care about each other, like me and Takato. We're obviously different in many ways, but we're still best friends." Rika was somewhat shocked by what he said. He was starting to act less like a child. "I like you, Rika," Guilmon suddenly said, making her gasp a little. She stared at him, as he continued to smile at her. Soon she began to feel a little bad, for being mean to him. He was being so nice to her, and all she did was insult him. Rika then looked away from him, and thought about everything she had done to him, and his tamer. They both were nice to her, but she never returned their kindness.
"Hey, Rika," Guilmon said, getting her attention. Once she was looking at him, he sat close to a tree, and patted the spot next to him. She hesitated, before taking a seat next to him. Rika wasn't used to being so close to Guilmon. It felt weird. "So what do you want to do?" He asked, smiling at her.
"Um, Guilmon, can I ask you something? Why are you so nice to me?" Guilmon laughed.
"Because I like you, silly!"
"Yeah, but why?" Guilmon stopped smiling, and thought about the question.
"Well, I think the only reason you're mean is because you don't know what it's like to have a real friend. I be nice to you, because I want you to be nice to me, so we can become friends." It was hard for Rika to believe that Guilmon figured all that out by himself. She looked at him, as he began watching a butterfly fly around.
"Hey, Guilmon?" She said, making him look at her.
"Yes, Rika?"
"Um... Well, I kind of wanted to... apologize..." She looked away from him, embarrassed by the fact that she was apologizing. When she didn't hear him say anything, she was afraid he wouldn't forgive her. She sighed, and was about to speak, but then she felt something she never expected. A pair of arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. "Guilmon!" She said, as she looked down at him. He was hugging her.
"I accept your apology, Rika, and I don't want you to feel bad. I consider you one of my friends, and I want my friends to be happy," He said, as he leaned his head against her chest. Rika had a strange feeling in her chest, one she never felt before. It was like a mixture of pain, and relief. But the weird thing was she didn't want it to stop. She was enjoying the feeling she was getting from Guilmon's hug. Before she knew it, her arms were wrapped tightly around him. They were both loving the feeling of the embrace, until Rika remembered why she was there.
"Wait, Renamon was supposed to meet me here, a while ago," She said, letting go of the digimon. "I wonder why she didn't show up."
"Maybe she forgot?" Guilmon suggested. "I forget things all the time." He smiled at her.
"I bet you do," She said, and she actually smiled back. "Well, I'm going to go home, and see if she's there. I guess I'll see you later, Guilmon." Rika stood up.
"Aww, you're leaving?"
"I'm afraid so. Bye." She began to walk away.
"See you later... Rikamon," Guilmon said, smiling. Rika laughed at the nickname Guilmon had given her. "You know, you're alright," She said, glancing back at him for a moment. Guilmon simply smiled at her. Rika continued her walk back home, with only one thought going through her head. "He's kind of cute."