Believe it or not, this story came to me in a dream. Enjoy!

I don't Digimon, alright? I'd have thought that was bleeding clear.

'RENAMON!' yelled Rika as she woke up. She sat bolt upright in her bed in a cold sweat as Renamon emerged from the darkness in her bedroom.

'Yes, what is it Rika?' she said.

'Err, em nothing,' stuttered Rika as she tried to calm herself down.

'Well it didn't sound like nothing,' said Renamon bluntly, 'I can easily hear your increased heart rate and you're perspiring considerably.'

'I said it's nothing, okay!' snapped Rika.

Renamon frowned at her tamer. 'I thought after all you'd gone through with Takato and the others you'd changed. I guess you're just the same old ice queen though.'

'Fine, do you really want to know?' said a pissed off Rika.

Renamon merely remained silent waiting for Rika to continue.

'I just had a nightmare,' she said.

Renamon stared at Rika struggling to comprehend what she'd just said. 'A nightmare?' she asked.

'Yes, just a nightmare,' responded Rika.

'Might I ask, what was in the nightmare?' asked Renamon.

Rika did not respond immediately and like before, Renamon was willing to give her time to continue.

'Promise you won't laugh?' Rika eventually said.

Renamon was intrigued as to what Rika, who had never particularly shown fear towards anything, could be embarrassed about having nightmares about and so quickly agreed.

'Okay… I had a… nightmare about zombies,' said Rika.

Despite her promise, Renamon could not help herself and started laughing but quickly shut up when Rika glared at her.

'You promised you wouldn't laugh!' she shouted.

'I'm sorry Rika,' said Renamon, still trying to contain herself, 'but really, zombies?'

'Yeah, zombies,' said Rika.

'So, here's a girl who's faced the worst that the digital world can throw at her without even flinching but is scared of thing's that don't even exist?'

Rika did not appreciate Renamon's condescending tone.

'Look, it was just a nightmare. Forget about it alright?' she said as she turned over to try to get back to sleep, 'Besides, it's only because Kazu made us watch that damn American zombies flick last week at that party.'

'And you got scared because of it?' asked Renamon.

'No!' Rika snapped again, 'It just obviously… stayed in my subconscious.'

'Fine,' said Renamon, 'I'll leave you and your subconscious to it then.'

As Renamon turned to leave, Rika spoke up again, 'Wait! You don't… have to leave. Do you?'

Renamon stopped and turned to face Rika again. She could still hear that Rika's heartbeat was much faster than usual and that she'd never been in such a state before.

'Do you want me to?' asked Renamon.

Rika paused before repeating herself, 'You don't have to, do you?'

Renamon looked at her tamer. She was clearly distressed after her nightmare. No amount of rationality or common sense could make Rika overcome her irrational fear. Renamon did something she never thought she would. She walked over to Rika's bed, pulled back the covers and climbed in.

Rika jumped as she felt Renamon's figure press up against her back, but she soon relaxed and even turned to face the Digimon. Renamon put her arms round her tamer to comfort her.

'Don't worry,' said Renamon, 'Real threat or not, I'll protect you.'

Rika welcomed the embrace and eventually fell back to sleep in Renamon's arms.

I'll protect you always, thought Renamon.

Okay, to be honest, the dream I had didn't involve Digimon at all. It was actually me who woke up in a cold sweat after having a dream about zombies, but for some reason the first thing I thought about when I woke up was Rika and Renamon. I don't know why, it just was. Therefore in my mind, Rika now has an irrational fear of zombies. My mind is weird.

Besides which, don't you think Renamon would be perfect to cuddle up to if you were scared or something. I'm sure if she was real she'd kick my ass if she knew i'd described as cuddly but still. Hope you enjoyed my fic.