Run

Ryo had always been the type of person to do things his own way. A way that somehow involved being extremely distant. Hard to handle digimon partner? Ryo takes off to another world and hopes it'll sort itself out in time. Friends? Doesn't make any, walks the earth, and lets his hair blow in the wind while he rides his dragon into the sunset. And if anything else comes up he just smiles it away like the insufferable idiot he is, hides himself behind his sparkling teeth and that annoingly perfect mask he always wears and forbids anybody to ever know what it really is he thinks and feels.

Well, a bad day for hero boy, because Ruki Makino knows him, and today she is having none of his shit.

Which is why he is facing her now at the airport, where he is planning to make a run for it yet again, while countless strangers walk past, oblivious to the impending quarrel.

And of course he smiles at her like that. That annoying overconfident half smirk that has aggravated her ever since her eyes fell on that face of his. And of course, and she often feels like she is the only one to see it, there is that wall behind the cyan of his irises. The one that is there to make sure no one knows what goes on in that half-empty space between his ears.

'Yo, you planning on going anywhere, wildcat?' She really wants to choke the life out of him as soon as she hears his voice and has him meet her gaze unflinchingly while he sits on his stupid suitcase, looking relaxed, the bastard.

Two high school girls stop and watch them for a moment, giggling. Ugh, probably thinking this is a lovers' quarrel.

'Nope, but you apparently are. Care to tell me what that's all about?'

He starts fidgeting uncomfortably. Good. He's also still smiling. Fuck him.

'Well I am listening. And I am convinced that you have a perfectly reasonable explanation for why you are leaving town. Out of the blue. Without telling someone. You know, like, your friends?' She takes extra care that her voice is soft yet piercing and laced with poison as she moves closer to him, not breaking eye contact.

She can see that her glare is making him uncomfortable but he keeps his damned charade up and smiles a little wider.

The girls move on whispering and giggling to each other. Good, this is awkward enough without an audience.

'Since you know I am here, I'm sure you know why.' Keeping that grin in place is hard on him. Ruki can tell and coming to a stand within reach of him clicks her tongue. 'I do have a vague summary. Akiyama is at home, Akiyama is bored, Akiyama sees something shiny in the distance, Akiyama plans to run off. How does that sound?'

'Awfully simplistic' he deadpans, which makes her want to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze. Hard.

'Do be so kind and give me the full version then will you?'

They stare each other down for what feels like half an hour before he sighs.

'Well if you need to know, I believe the reports from the US. And I need to che-'

'Ah. And we don't since apparently you are the only one with a partner.' She glares at him again and it's making him visibly defensive.

'You know that's not what I meant, but the chances are slim, there is no need for all of us to go.'

He's bullshitting himself and her and it's making her angry. 'I thought you believe the reports?' If he thinks she's going to play along with him he has another thing coming. 'Your lies used to be smoother, if not by much, hero boy.'

Finally that god awful fake smile sinks and he frowns at her. 'I don't see why I owe you an explanation.' She struggles to keep her face straight. He's going for hurting her, huh? Fine.

'6 years, a lot of battles and our saving the world together would be my best guess as to why you owe me something, but whatever.' She crosses her arms over her chest and glares again. 'And now, pray tell, why should you go, and not someone else?'

He stares right back at her, unnervingly silent and utterly expressionless. 'Out of excuses, are we?' She prompts again, her skin starting to crawl from the silence between them. He looks down at his hands and she can hear him breathe in as if to gather his strength. He better talk now, or so help her...

'There is nothing here for me.'

Suddenly everything seems to slow down, the rush of her own blood in her ears is deafening, her whole body feels like lead.

'There is nothing here for me... so I should go.'

She looks at him and he looks up again, lips pressed together, waiting for a reaction. Something about her expression must have shocked him because his face falls and he rushes into an explanation.

'Jenrya has his family and his work, Takato has Juri and his job and now that his father is ill… Kenta and Kazu are working too and have their girlfriends, and you, you just patched things up with your mother, you even started modeling. All of you have your lives and families and each other… nobody here needs me, that's why I should go. If there is any truth to the reports you all can come, I swear I will inform you before… Ruki?'

She just looks at him and feels like she has never really seen him before, his words barely registering in her brain. This is the so-called legendary tamer, this boy who can't even bring himself to tell his friends that he feels superfluous or say good-bye to them when he finally decides to leave. For how long had he been feeling that way? Was that why he always stayed just short of out of reach?

She knows he isn't a people person, neither is she. That was why she could relate and just figured that he wanted to have his privacy every once in a while. She didn't know that he really feels like he doesn't belong and a quiet voice in her head is telling her that she should have. She should have realized that his keeping to himself and maintaining contact only on a formal if friendly level wasn't him preserving his interest in being alone but him trying not to impose on them.

What a dope he is. A complete and utter moron. She wants to hit him, hard and often, until he gets it into his pea sized brain that he is a member of the club, part of the team, a friend for goodness sake!

But she doesn't. She doesn't and she won't. She just stares at him and feels a wave of incredible sadness wash over her as she looks into his blue eyes, past the wall and sees his worry, his loneliness, his doubts. So that is what the last 6 years between them amount to huh? Just as well. Without another word she walks past him, ignoring his pained expression. If pain and doubt and loneliness are everything he found in all this time with them then there is nothing Ruki can give him now.

Even as she feels his gaze drilling itself into her back she walks on, past countless strangers, out of the airport, and without ever feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun she slowly makes her way home