Find A Way

Rating: T

Summary: Takes place directly after the encounter with Yuu. When Kiriha falls ill after an ambush, Nene takes it upon herself to care for him and restore the boy back to health. What she didn't expect was that she would fall for the blue flare general. Or that he had fallen for her, too. KiriNe.

Author's Note: This fan-fiction is based on a dream I had. :3 Yes, I dream about KiriNe. I know I am officially crazy, but I honestly don't care. 8D It was adorable, and is going to have to be over one chapter as it was a pretty legnthy dream. But the more the merrier, yes?

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon Xros Wars.

Chapter One: "Ambush"

They were completely surrounded.

A large army of many different, diverse Digimon - no doubt under the control of the Bugra army - had ambushed them as they had prepared to set up camp for the night in a secluded area of Honey Land. Or so they had thought.

Taiki had just finished helping Shoutmon with the tent, while Nene brought back a load of firewood and Kiriha attempted, very moodily, to get the fire going when they were suddenly attacked.

A large blast erupted from the bushes next to them, startling all three children out of their activities. Kiriha jumped to his feet, pulling out his Xros Loader and summoning Greymon in a single, swift motion. "We're being ambushed!"

Taiki grit his teeth, as Shoutmon growled and prepared himself for a fight. "Yes, but why? We defeated the Death General, there should be peace and calm!"

Nene frowned as she also pulled out her Xros Loader and reloaded Mervamon and Sparrowmon. "They must be controlled by the Bugra army, there's no other reason for them to be attacking us!"

At once, the massive group launched themselves at the three generals, and their Digimon jumped forward angrily in retaliation.

"Damn it, there's too many of them!" Kiriha shouted, as a couple of Ninjamon appeared behind him. "Taiki, we need to DigiXros -"

One of the Ninjamon snickered. "Too bad for you that won't be happening today, brat."

He quickly withdrew one of his spears and loaded it towards the blonde-headed boy. He had no time to dodge it, and the others were preoccupied; he brought his arms up instinctively to cover his face, and he could not keep himself from yelling as the blade pierced deep into his upper arm.

Both Nene and Taiki turned at the sound and gasped, running towards him.

"Kiriha!"

"Kiriha-kun!"

"Stay back, you idiots!" He snapped, falling to his knees and cradling his injured arm that was seeping with blood. He looked up angrily, his face twisted in pain. "Annihilate these guys, MetalGreymon!"

"Gladly," MetalGreymon growled.

He did not shiver, did not flinch, as MetalGreymon made easy work of the remaining enemy. Soon, all of them had been obliterated, and Kiriha stood with difficulty, clutching his bleeding arm.

"Kiriha!"

Taiki and Nene had reached him now. He grunted as he staggered to stay upright. The gloved hand that was clenched around his wound was now thoroughly soaked in blood. "I'm fine," He growled to his two friends, as he caught the worried expressions on their faces.

"No, you're not," Nene frowned, and he turned a glare at her. "You're bleeding pretty badly, Kiriha-kun..."

"It's nothing," He said shortly, as he pushed past her and Taiki. "I'll wrap it, and it will be fine. More importantly, we need to set up camp for the night."

But as the three children turned to face what was going to be their temporary campsite, they saw that it had not been spared during the attack, and their hard work from earlier now no longer mattered.

"Aw man!" Taiki moaned as he stood in front of the deflated, dirty tent. "We'll have to start all over again!"

Kiriha glanced briefly behind him and shook his head. "No, we won't," He said. "Because night is falling. The sun is almost down."

An eerie silence lingered before Nene broke it. "Then, what are we going to do?" She asked worriedly. "This may not be the human world, but I'm sure still that a lot of ferocious Digimon come out at night... just like that clan we just had. We can't stay out in the open with no shelter..."

Suddenly, a clap of thunder vibrated over their heads, and rain began to pour harshly onto the earth below.

"Tch, just what we need," Kiriha swept his now soaked fringe from his eyes and clenched his teeth. "Nene's right, we can't stay here. Especially not in this weather," He added when a stroke of lightning highlighted the sky. "Look, we'll take my MailBirdramon, look for some sort of cave or something."

"Sounds like a plan," Taiki agreed, one bleary eye opened. "Let's hurry up and go, then!"

Kiriha nodded and shouted over his shoulder, "MailBirdramon!"

The bird-like Digimon appeared overhead and landed low enough for the three children and Digimon to load upon. A split-second later, he stiffened and exclaimed, "Everyone, down!"

"What are you...?" Taiki was cut off as a Dokugumon appeared from behind the bushes; apparently, she had been lingering and watching them, waiting to attack for the previous lot.

She quickly launched a poison thread, and in the confusion, no one could react quickly enough. The attack was headed straight for Nene, who froze in shock and surprise.

"Nene, look out!" Before he knew what he was doing, the blonde-headed boy had shoved Nene to the side and gave a yell of pain as the attack hit him full on. The smell clouded his senses, and for a long moment, he could barely breathe. His vision and hearing tuned in and out, and he thought he heard Taiki and Nene screaming his name, but he could not comprehend it. He felt himself falling as if he were spirting from the air to the ground at an instantaneous rate of speed, and he was claimed in darkness.

"I swear, that guy is so reckless! Especially when it comes to you."

They had reacted quickly; as soon as Kiriha had collapsed, the remaining two Generals had lifted the boy had hoisted him along with themselves on top of MailBirdramon, the Digimon not lingering as Dokugumon prepared to attack again. Quicker than they had expected, they spotted a cave from overhead, near a sea of forest, and landed there. Immediately, they had prepared a fire and began to care for their friend.

Nene, sitting beside Kiriha, looked up from tending to the unconscious boy and blinked at Taiki. "What do you mean?"

Taiki sighed, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "Kiriha... he never seems to have any problem doing something either incredibly stupid or dangerous when you're concerned, Nene. Like what happened earlier... with Yuu. He broke through that barrier without any regard for the danger it could have put us in, all he cared about was getting to you."

Despite herself, Nene blushed in shock. "You mean.. Kiriha-kun...?"

Taiki sighed again and smiled. "He cares a lot about you, Nene. I don't think he wants either of us to know, but I've noticed how he gets around you. He always says it's because you're good at manipulating people, but that's not true at all. Because if you were, wouldn't you have been able to do that with me?"

Nene grew a darker shade of pink. "Y-yeah..." Unable to think of anything else to say, she turned back to the sleeping boy.

The goggle-headed boy frowned, and moved forward to get a closer look at Kiriha. "Is he going to be all right?"

The girl frowned. "I don't know. The bleeding's stopped, but I'm worried about the poison. He got hit directly, and with an open wound, that can cause a lot of problems." She pressed her palm onto her forehead and gasped. "He's already running a little bit of a fever. If I had thermometer, I could keep track of it, but..."

Now Taiki was even more concerned. "Is there anything we can do to help? I mean, if he was hit with poison..."

Nene nodded and stood abruptly. "I remember, when I was operating with disguises back in Dragon Land, that one of the Betamon mentioned that the forests of the Digital World carry many rare herbs that could be beneficial to poisonous assaults. Digimon often use it on each other, so hopefully, it can be successful for human use as well."

"Forests," Taiki bit his lip and looked out upon the landscape from the cave. "There's plenty of forests around here. We should be able to find something."

Nene nodded again, her eyebrows creasing. "Then, I will - "

Taiki held up a hand to stop her, shaking his head. "No, I'll handle this, Nene." At Nene's confused look, he jerked his head at Kiriha, smiling. "You stay here and tend to Kiriha. I'll take Shoutmon and the others with me, and we'll be back as soon as we can."

"All... All right," Nene agreed as she looked back down at the boy. "He did get hurt partly because he helped me, so I should be the one to tend to him."

Taiki nodded encouragingly. "Okay, then. We'll be back soon, Nene. I'll leave Greymon and MailBirdramon here with you so in case anything happens, there will be extra forces for Sparrowmon and Mervamon."

"Okay."

Taiki waved as he and Shoutmon exited the cave. "See you in a bit."

And then he was gone. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Kiriha's deep breathing. Nene sat back down next to him, her arms folded around her knees as she watched him sleep.

He looked quite vulnerable, she realized. His face was scrunched up in pain, and his chest heaved at a steady, if not slightly fast, interval. He was sweating a cold, clammy sweat, and he gave a slight moan as he twisted his head on the soft pillow below his head, but did not awaken.

"Kiriha-kun.." She whispered quietly. Hesitantly, she reached for the cloth wrapped around his bare arm, (She had removed his jacket, but he was still dressed in his black tank-top) and peeled it back to check the wound. She frowned deeply when she saw the first hint of yellow beginning to appear. "It's becoming infected..."

She stared longingly out of the entrance of the cave, into the heart of the forest itself. "Please hurry, Taiki-kun..."