Hello there! This story is actually entered into several things: the Random Generator No. 8 (Questions) on the RANDOM forums, and both The 28 Days Challenge and the Digimon Bingo Non-Flash Challenge on Digimon Fanfiction Challenges. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned Digimon, Izzy would ensure that I would never have computer problems ever again...

Confounded

"There are times when silence is golden - other times when it is just plain yellow." -Ed Cole

Izzy always wondered about everything. Why was the sky blue? Was he really adopted? How did a laptop work? Why are those kids so mean? Where could he go to be in peace?

Over time, the questions changed, but the questions never stopped. What was this Digital World? What were Digimon, and why did they each have a Digimon partner? Why had they been summoned here? How could they get home?

One by one his questions were answered, or he figured out the answer himself. But new questions would soon fill the void left behind by the old ones. He had the Crest of Knowledge, so he wanted to understand everything. But how could he understand everything when there were always more questions?

Izzy thought the more he knew, the more he grew up, the easier it would be to understand life's questions. It wasn't. It wasn't the new problems that kept popping up into the Digital World years later. He preferred those problems, actually, because those were questions that he could resolve fairly easily. The control spires were the cause. The Digimon Emperor was the cause. Those strange human-like Digimon were the cause. Eliminate the cause, and you eliminate the problem. Defeat the bad guys. A simple answer to a simple question.

For other things…well, the question was simple enough: Why did he like her? There were several simple answers: he liked her long hair, he liked her cheery but spunky attitude, he liked that she enjoying fiddling with electronics just as much as he did. And she was another Digidestined, even if she had experienced different adventures than him. He even liked her name. Yolei. It suited her.

But…that wasn't enough. All those answers, and none of them satisfied him. Why? Why did he always think about her? Why did he get so nervous around her? Why did he feel a pang in his heart whenever he saw her casually flirting with other boys?

Izzy suspected he knew the answer, yet he couldn't bring it to his lips. It scared him just to think of it, and normally he loved puzzling things out. It was even more difficult (yet so nice) to just be near her, and yet unable to say a thing. Why was this so hard? He had braved numerous perils in the Digital World, and had even helped to defend both worlds. Yet he couldn't handle something like this? It was so simple: just ask a simple question to her. Get it out and over with.

I like you. Do you like me too?

Izzy watched Yolei wave to him and flit out of the room. Once again he stayed silent. Once again he asked himself why. Once again, he didn't get an answer. He quietly turned back to his laptop and began to pack his things. Part of him wished that she would notice him for something more. Part of him was terrified by the idea.

And then he wondered…

Am I…afraid of knowing the truth?

IIIIII

So, a little Yolei/Izzy for you. Not really a pairing I thought of or have written before :P. But that's the big point in me doing the 28 Days Challenge: trying out all kinds of new pairings as well as old ones. What do you guys think? Hope you liked it!