Little Things

by luey

"Takeru," Patamon called from his perch, "how are you doing?"

Takeru ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Patamon, on top of a nearby bookshelf, flapped his wings morosely in response. The blond author leaned back in his chair, putting intertwined hands behind his head, looking back at Patamon upside down.

"It's been a week, and my novel's still going nowhere," Takeru griped. "I'm just not feeling it."

There was a pause and a confused look. "Feeling what?"

"Nevermind," Takeru laughed.

Patamon looked worriedly at his partner. "I think you need something to distract you from your book, Takeru." Gliding down from the bookshelf, Patamon landed lightly on Takeru's head. "I don't think all this frustration is good for you."

Smiling, Takeru acquiesced. "I think you're right. But what can I do about it?"

Patamon thought about it seriously, frowning in concentration. "Isn't Valentine's Day coming up?"

"Hikari and I decided that we're not doing anything for Valentines," Takeru said, waving the idea off with a wave of his hand.

"You're kidding," Patamon said incredulously.

"Nope. Hikari and I thought it was silly that we're expected to give expensive presents and stage extravagant pr—"

"You don't really believe that do you?" the digimon interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Takeru asked inquiringly. "It was her idea!"

It was Patamon's turn to sigh, in disbelief of his friend's aloofness.

Yamato looked both ways before crossing the street, Gabumon loyally in tow beside him. A toddler child waddled into view, hanging onto Gabumon's paw as well as her father's. The older blond waved coolly as he saw his younger brother, picking up his child. Excited to see Gabumon again, Patamon floated over to the blue-furred digimon, and both digimon greeted each other enthusiastically. Takeru ambled over to his older brother, meeting him halfway. He was smiling nervously, almost shyly.

"How's it going, Takeru?" Yamato asked, clapping his younger brother on the shoulder with his free hand. The twenty-eight year-old man was still as spry as ever, though the corners of his eyes were beginning to wrinkle with laugh lines. Today, he sported a casual business look; dark-blond hair was cropped short, matching his dark denim jeans and his plain white tee, which was partly hidden by a business suit coat.

He and Gabumon had just come off of a brilliant aeronautical success, completing the first human-digimon landing on Mars. Yamato and Gabumon was now a national hero, a household name. In actuality, he had made digimon more acceptable in the human world; incidentally, this also made Taichi's job as the Digiworld diplomat much easier. Now, the chosen children could at least walk down the street without getting dirty or frightened looks from civilians.

Takeru smiled as a chilly wind blew across the public park. Yamato put down his toddler, allowing her to run to play with Gabumon. He smiled as he saw Gabumon and Patamon taking his niece, who was giggling happily as she kept going along, to play in the playpen. "I think I could be better."

"Is your novel going that badly?" Yamato laughed.

Takeru winced. "Well, that's part of it."

"Only part of it?"

It was then that Takeru unloaded most, if not all, of his current stressors on one of his closest confidants. His brother listened closely, a thoughtful look on his face.

"You've been married for a couple of years now. So…do you and Sora still celebrate Valentine's day?" Takeru asked, taking a seat on a nearby park bench.

Yamato smiled knowingly. "Well, after the baby was born, we haven't had much time to ourselves, if you know what I mean. She just takes over every moment of our time, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing either." He put his hands in his pockets, smiling at his daughter who was playing happily several feet away.

Takeru looked desperately at his older brother. "You got any better grains of wisdom?"

"I'm just saying that we don't have much time to ourselves, so we make the most of every moment." He shrugged. "Sora appreciates it when Gabumon and I take care of the kid when she has a show. And every time she sees me out the door for work, I feel very glad to have her in my life."

The younger blond looked blankly as his older brother gave him a comforting pat on the back. "I think I've spelled out every think I can, little brother."

"So…Patamon was right? I should do something for Valentine's day?" Takeru asked.

Yamato sighed, shaking his head. "Alright, let's start from the beginning. What did Hikari say exactly?"?

Takeru returned to his two story condo to find Hikari bent over a stack of papers, a red pen in hand. A focused frown graced her features, a few strands of shoulder-length brown hair escaping their scrunchied bindings, falling into her face. He saw her blowing them out of her face as Tailmon pointed out another mistake, which Hikari marked accordingly. His heart warmed to see her sitting in his usual work area, as if she owned the place. Which, if he actually thought about it, she pretty much did.

After Hikari took her position as a teacher's assistant at the local middle-school, she started to spend more and more time at Takeru's place, bringing more and more stuff into his home. He didn't mind at all, even giving her a key to the place once a quantifiable amount of her clothes found a way into his already small closet. She moved through his place like it was her own, knowing where everything was stored. He smiled at the memory of comparing her to a cat, confident and regal enough to claim a territory for its own, taking no smack for anything. She had smacked him for it, though she was obviously pleased.

As to not disturb her working atmosphere, Takeru quietly closed the door. At the noise, Hikari looked up and smiled. He wasn't surprised; Hikari always had the reflexes and the sensitivity of a cat. So really, his previous assessment of his girlfriend was correct. It certainly explained her…territorial…ness.

"Hey," she greeted quietly.

"Hi," he replied.

Patamon flew over to Tailmon and landed on her head, much to the chagrin of the vaccine-type. Takeru noticed he did that a lot lately; perhaps it was his new "thing."

"Where've you been?" Hikari asked.

"Just…out," he answered. He threw his keys in the glass bowl near the door.
Tailmon, struggling with her balance after the newly added weight, wobbled into the kitchen.

Hikari's head followed them through, a look of wonder laced with amazement on her face. She looked back at Takeru and opened her mouth to say something.

"I was out with Yamato," Takeru filled in quickly.

"Oh." A pause. "How's Sora? We haven't seen her in a while, and the last time we saw her, she was already really pregnant."

Takeru bit his lip. She was awfully quiet…Did she suspect anything?

"I didn't ask," the blond admitted. "But I hear the rest of the guys and us are getting together next Saturday. I think we're celebrating something, but I don't know. Maybe the birth of the second baby?"

"That sounds fun," Hikari said, returning to her work. "We're free,right?"

"As far as I know."

Takeru looked at Hikari again, trying to work up the nerve. Well, any nerve really. It was odd, because he never had trouble with expressing himself, or mustering enough confidence to do anything. All anyone had to do was look at his sports record, and his profession. He was a writer, for god's sake! It was his jobto tell people things. In any case, this was much more work than writing his novel.

"Hikari?"

"Yeah?" she said, still focused on trying to correct the paper that was already riddled with red marks.

Takeru walked over to her, pulling up another swivel-chair. He sat down next to her, almost uncomfortably close. She looked up, tucking those strands behind her ear, surprised at his sudden proximity. A worried look appeared in her eyes, and he struggled to find the words. Well, it was best to just spit it out.

"Happy everyday," he said with a straight face.

"What?" Hikari laughed, looking up and utterly confused.

"I know we said we wouldn't celebrate Valentine's Day, since we said it was stupid to do something only one day of the year, along with bajillions of other couples and stuff," he began hurriedly, "so I thought I'd just do something for you, one random day of the year. It'd make it a lot more special, you know?"

Wasn't he a lot more eloquent a couple hours ago? Damn, why did Patamon have to put ideas into his head? And why did he have to be right about it? He struggled to pull something out of his coat pocket, finally handing it to his girl.

"It's a pair of ticket to the local amusement park. I'd thought we'd just take the time to spend time with each other, have a little fun. You know, like when we were kids."

Hikari took the decorated tickets and stared at them with a blank face. Out of the corner of his eye, Takeru saw Tailmon and Patamon stealthily watching the whole thing. He flushed a little, knowing he looked like a total dork.

"Y-you don't like them?" Takeru asked worriedly, after a long while.

Hikari looked up and smiled brilliantly.

Disclaimer: I originally posted this on my deviantArt! So if it looks familiar (which it probably won't), I'd like you to know it's not plagiarized. ^^;;