My first go at a fanfiction, so forgive me if it's not the best or if it's choppy at points. I did my best to keep it from breaking Digimon Tamers, and the general cannon aside from the obvious "Gender-less Digimon" rule. Anyhow, enjoy. Constructive criticism is welcomed and appreciated.

It had been nearly two years since the incident with the runaway Locomon, and the Tamers and their Digimon had re-readjusted to life, with some minor differences. Rika finally put aside her dislike of Ryo, and the two became the strongest tag-team match in any card tournament. Guilmon, after having spent his time away from Takato in the digital world, learned a few things and matured a bit, to the point where he wasn't ALWAYS causing trouble. Henry and Terriermon, alongside Henry's dad finally cracked the code that would allow the Digimon to travel freely between the 'real' world and the Digital world. Shortly after Henry's family had discovered the code, Jeri, who was still shaken by the loss of her partner Leomon, despite her participation in the Parisimon invasion, found herself confronted by a Digiegg. Though she felt she had no right to another partner things soon changed when it hatched into a Tsunomon exhibiting Leomon's memories, however vague they were. Calumon who had taken up residence with Jeri, found the new playmate exciting and returned to the usual antics. Takato's teen years finally sunk in and he got the better end of puberty. Growing to be 5'2" in the short year and a half since he created and met Guilmon, and matured a bit. Not as much as Guilmon matured granted, but it was still an improvement. Renamon, however was probably the most changed of them all.

Renamon, who had, like Rika, believed that Digimon had no purpose but to fight and win, slowly began to lose her ideals. She realized that there were other purposes to her existence, that she wasn't just a fighting machine. Renamon didn't know when these ideals of hers started to decay, but she strongly suspected it had all began with Takato. Whenever she tried to think of when she started changing, she was brought back to the day she met Takato and Guilmon, and had attempted to delete and absorb the Goggle-wearing Trainer's partner. She specifically recalled how emotional Takato had been when trying to convince Rika that there was no need to fight. After that Renamon would recount all the times Takato had denied that Digimon were just packets of data, how he had argued instead that they too were living beings, that she was a living thing. Takato believed that Digimon had hearts and souls, that she had a heart and soul, just like any other living thing.

Renamon shook her angular head and tried to clear her thoughts. She felt like for the past few months the childish Tamer had been on her mind far too much.

"He never specifically referenced any Digimon." She thought to herself as soon as she had realized what she was imagining. "But he did say ALL Digimon. And I AM a Digimon too." She rationalized.

Renamon was surprised by a quick pull on her tail that broke her concentration- and consequently her balance- and sent her on a brief fall out of the tree she had been in a moment ago.

"Is that anyway to say hello Guilmon? I honestly thought you had grown up a bit more than this." She said as she stood up and brushed herself off before turning to face the red Digimon.

Only it hadn't been Guilmon. Instead there stood a human, just shorter than she was. His ruffled brown hair sitting just at eye level, his blue shirt and his grey shorts that were the signature of his look hadn't changed even after all this time.

"Takato? How did you..?" Renamon was generally flustered. Not only because a human, much less the moderately clumsy Takato, had snuck up on her, but also because of her thoughts moments before.

"It was easy Renamon, no offense." Mused the teen Tamer. "You were pretty far out there, what could you have been thinking about to have you that deep in thought? Was there another Bio-emergence? Did you have a fight with Rika?"

"No offense taken, I think? There's still no sign of other Digimon, and Rika and I haven't fought in a long time, you know that Takato." The Yellow vixen still admired his vigilance, even though there hadn't been any Bio-emergences since the Parasimon invasion. A fact Renamon proceeded to remind him of. But as usual Takato disregarded it.

"We went months without seeing you and the other Tamers' Digimon after all, if you remember when you were returned to the Digital world after we beat the D-reaper." Takato put his logic into the situation. "If you guys could find a way out after all that time, then there's no telling how long it could be before other Digimon, like those Parasimon and the Locomon could come here too, right?"

"Well you aren't wrong. And it's good to see that at least one of you haven't forgotten that." Renamon commented to herself, remembering that Rika had stopped carrying her Digivice about a month and a half ago.

"So what were you thinking about then Renamon?" The goggled Tamer asked her with a twinge of interest in his voice.

"What does it matter to you?" She asked back, as secretive as ever.

"Well, if it was something important enough to distract you so much that I managed to catch you off-guard, it must be something worth investigating, right?"

Renamon was glad that she had learned to control her outward expressions, because she wasn't sure what kind of face she could have been making at the time. "For now, I'll look into it myself. I'll inform you if I learn anything of use, alright?" She paused for a moment, and asked something she never thought she would. "Takato? You know how you're always reminding everyone that Digimon, are just as alive as Humans?"

"Uh, yeah? Are you gonna say that I'm wrong, like you used to Renamon?" Takato, who was also thrown off by this question, looked at her in a confused manner.

"No, that's not it. I believe you when you say we're alive, but." She paused for a moment, looking for the right words.

"But?"

"Takato, what does it mean to be alive? We've followed your ideal, but what makes something 'alive'?" She leaned back against the trunk of the tree, looking intently at the teen's face.

"Gee Renamon. That's a heavy one isn't it?" Takato felt like he was at a loss for words, which wasn't too uncommon, but still surprised him nonetheless.

"It's fine if you don't know." Renamon stood back up and turned to leave.

"Wait." Takato grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "To be alive...is.."

"Is what Takato?" The fox Digimon found herself acutely aware of how close his hand was to hers.

"It's..." Takato felt like he was struggling more than when he fought against the D-reaper. "It's when you. When you. When you have something to move on for. Sometimes you have something you want to protect, sometimes it's a goal you want to achieve. Sometimes people just live to be happy, or to have fun. Ah! Even more people live for another person. Having feelings and emotions and something to drive you to want to continue to live, even if it's only to survive another day is what makes something truly alive."

"You mean like with Jerri and Leomon? To live for someone else I mean." Renamon asked, only having understood the last bit.

"Well, yeah. But what I mean is like with people who really like eachother... You know... Like a boyfriend or a girlfriend or... something ?" Takato, being fifteen at this point, found himself embarrassed about it. Mainly because he still hadn't had a girlfriend of his own yet, but that was because there wasn't anyone he really liked that way.

"Oh, like with your parents?" The vixen mused.

"Well yeah, I guess that could be true." Takato smiled at the thought.

Renamon played with the idea in her head, of two Digimon living for the sake of one another. She then choked back a shocked expression when, instead of two Digimon she had though of herself and Takato curled up next to eachother on the roof of the Nonaka house. But even with her training her jaw dropped when she found herself asking what was on her mind.

"Takato, do you have anyone like that?"

Renamon instantly brought up her free hand up to her mouth and instinctively teleported back to the roof of the Nonaka residence. Not realizing that Takato still had his grip on her wrist. Which resulted in Takato being warped with her. Of course, this being the first time Takato had gone through such a thing, he quickly fell to his knees upon arrival and emptied his stomach on the roof.

It was at that point Rumika Nonaka, Rika's mother, who was walking to Rika's room to tell her daughter that dinner was finished found herself underneath a loud thumping noise, and a quick following retching. Rumika, worried that Renamon had gotten into some trouble, was surprised to see Takato heaving infront of a concerned looking Renamon when she ran out to the garden to look atop the roof.