The Bonds We Share Chapter 1: The First Time We Met, a digimon fanfic

The little girl shifted from one foot to the other, short black hair swishing about behind her, as her father knocked on the door of their new neighbors. He had said that the lady who'd just moved in had a son about her age, and he thought it'd be a good idea for him to have at least one friend in a place so new to him. She had agreed, albeit reluctantly, and now the little four-year-old was wondering if it was a good idea. Finally the door opened, and she immediately stilled.

"Hello!" her father said as the lady's face came into view. The girl thought that she was pretty; she had dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and blue eyes. "My name's Kamegai Hajime, and this is my daughter Reina. I noticed you moving in yesterday and we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood."

The lady smiled. "Well thank you. I'm Kimura Tomoko. Kouichi!" She turned her head back into the house. "The neighbors are here, why don't you come say hi?" She turned back to the girl and her father. "My son's always been a bit shy. Do come in, won't you?"

"Of course." The man took his daughter's hand. "Come on, Reina." They followed Tomoko inside, and Reina immediately let go of her father's hand once she caught sight of the sitting room, which was one of the only rooms that even looked fully set up. She slipped away to investigate as her father and Tomoko began talking again. It was a very warm room, with a lot of bright colors, and she immediately liked it. But soon her attention was drawn away from the colors and to a noise at the door. She found herself looking into a pair of sparkling dark blue eyes, framed by a fringe of midnight hair, peering around the doorway. They belonged to a boy, and his curiosity seemed to overcome his apparent shyness as he came out of hiding and approached her.

"Hi," he said quietly.

"Hi," she repeated, then smiled. It seemed to put him at ease. "My name's Reina."

"Kouichi." The boy spoke with more confidence now. "You're our neighbor?"

"Yeah. It's just me and Papa. I never knew Mama. Papa says she's in heaven."

Kouichi nodded in understanding. "It's just me and my mama here," he admitted. "I don't know where Papa is."

"No siblings?" She frowned as he shook his head. Then she brightened as an idea suddenly came to her. "Then I'll be your sibling!"

His blue eyes quickly met her silver ones. "R-really?"

She enthusiastically nodded her head. "Yeah! I don't have any siblings either, so it makes sense. And we live right next door, so we can see each other whenever we want. It'll be fun!"

"Okay!" He took her hand. "Wanna come help me set up my room?"

"Sure!" She held on tightly as they raced up the stairs, already forming a tight bond. Tomoko smiled as the little blurs rushed past. Maybe this little girl would be good for her son.

Reina walked over as Kouichi again sighed in frustration. "Need help?" she asked as he fumbled with the sheets that were supposed to be going onto his bed, but instead were still in a heap on the floor. He pouted, but nodded. Together they struggled but managed to finally fix the sheets to where they looked right.

"Thanks," he said as they stepped away from the blue and gray sheets. "I hate trying to do that by myself. Someday I'll be able to, though!" His eyes had a determined light to them that made her smile.

"I believe you. But Papa taught me how to do that so I thought I'd make it easier on you this time."

"Well, thanks." He smiled too. "Let's get the rest of it out now!"

Kouichi didn't have much in the way of toys, Reina noticed, silently deciding she'd have to amend that someday. What he did have a lot of was art supplies. "You like painting?" she asked.

"Yep! Only time I can get away with making a mess!" They laughed.

"That's something we should do a lot of together then," she said. "I like painting too!"

"Awesome!"

After what felt like forever everything was finally where it should be. Both grinned as they clambered onto the bed for what they felt was a much-deserved rest. "We should have lots of sleepovers," she said after a moment.

"Yeah," he agreed. "And we'll play lots of games and stay up all night and pretend to be asleep when Mama comes in to check on us so we can get away with it." Both giggled. "It's gonna be fun being your brother, Reina."

"Same about being your sister, Kouichi." It grew silent between the two children, but neither minded as they cuddled close together.

Tomoko and Hajime walked in not half an hour later to find their children sound asleep in each other's arms, looking more content than either of them had in all their lives.

Yes, I have officially re-entered the Digimon fandom over here. It was my freaking childhood. Am I kicked out yet for this story? XD

But in all seriousness, this is actually a fairly new idea. My character, Reina, has gone through lots and lots of character development (and even a name change) since I created her when I was... 11 maybe? Yeah, we'll go with that. So she's a bit different from most of my other characters. I don't usually give characters such extensive back stories with canon characters, but Kouichi is just so cute and he's my favorite character ever and it was a perfect idea. Because I imagine that Kouichi and Kouji were separated when they were about 1 or 2 years old, and Tomoko would probably move around some before finally settling down, and I thought what if they moved in beside the Kamegai household and- You get the point. And if the friendship seems like it's a little too instant... I figured, well, they're children, they're all sweet and innocent and alone and they really do need each other. And they do have kind of similar situations. But don't worry, Reina doesn't have any surprise siblings we don't know about. I couldn't rip off the twins like that. They're too precious.