Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Gone with the Digimon

"You're not the only one that misses them, you know," said Henry calmly. He, Takato, and Rika were all walking at the park where Guilmon used to play at. Takato was looking rather nervous about the conversation behind him; he kept laughing nervously.

"So what? I'm not saying that I am," said Rika angrily. Henry had been bugging her ever since the Digimon had left for the Digital Plane again since she seemed extremely depressed, and she was annoyed. It had only been three days, and everyone was already feeling the impact of the Digimon leaving.

"You're not saying it, but you act like the only Digimon that had to leave was Renamon," said Henry. Rika almost exploded.

"Of course I act like that! Renamon was my best friend!"

"But you have no right to ignore the fact that the rest of us have lost our partners as well. What happened to the cheerful Rika when Renamon was around?"

"She died," said Rika brutally.

"Guys… can we change the subject?" asked Takato nervously. Henry shrugged nonchalantly, while Rika simply glared at Takato.

"Uh…" said Takato.

"Takato!"

A new voice entered the conversation. Looking up, Takato saw Jeri, one of his friends (and also the one he had a crush on). Looking even more nervous at her presence, he grinned weakly.

"Hey, Jeri!"

She ran over to them and hugged Takato, who was looking rather happy.

"So, what's going on?" whispered Jeri, pointing at Rika and Henry. "Did they…?"

Takato sighed. "Yeah, they're arguing again."

"Well," said Jeri cheerfully, "I'm sure that they'll be fine after a while."

"Jeri," said Rika as calmly as possible, "I know you mean well, but mind not talking about me like I don't exist when I'm right behind you?"

"Oopsy," said Jeri. "Takato, let's go." She grabbed his arm and ran away, Takato stuttering behind her.

"I'm leaving," muttered Rika. Henry nodded.

"Just think about this," he said. "Would Renamon want you to act like this?"

Rika whipped around and glared at Henry ferociously, but he didn't back down. "Don't you dare bring Renamon into this conversation!" she yelled, pulling back a fist. Running forward, she tried in vain to punch Henry, but his years of taijiquan practice weren't for nothing. Neatly, he brought up a hand and grabbed Rika's arm before she could make contact. Struggling, Rika threw another punch with her other arm, but this time, Henry tapped a series of pressure points on her arm. She buckled and gasped, panting for air at the numerous emotions swirling inside of her.

"Don't," said Henry, gray eyes steely, "ever do that again, or it's not just your arm that's going to hurt." He relinquished her arm and stared at her calmly. Rika, having collected her breath, stood up.

"I hate you," she said coldly. Henry looked rather indifferent. Rika closed her eyes and turned her head away from him.

Henry grinned and moved next to her, before gently kissing her on the cheek. Rika's eyes snapped open at the contact and she whirled her head around to come face to face with Henry's cheeky grin.

"…Do you want to be killed?" asked Rika, amazed, scared, and annoyed at Henry. His grin faded and he looked like he usually did again; calm and collected.

"No, and even if you tried, you wouldn't be able to kill me," he said, before walking away. Rika, now red-faced and irate, turned away as well. And then –

Rustle, rustle.

"Jeri!" screamed Rika.

"I told you to be quiet!" Jeri whispered to Takato. They were hiding behind a bush, watching the exchange happen. Takato had grinned at the kiss – he knew that Henry seemed to like Rika, but he was never sure. Jeri, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that Rika adored Henry (in a violent, malicious sort of way), seeing as every time Jeri stealthily brought up the subject, Rika, blushing lightly, would clamp her down.

"Jeri, on the count of three, if you and Takato are not at least a hundred miles away from here, you are going to regret it!" yelled Rika, staring directly at the bush the two in question were hiding behind.

"Jeri, come on!" Takato tugged urgently on Jeri's arm; finally, she came to her senses and ran away with Takato.

Rika snorted at the sight of them and turned to walk back to her house. "Stupid Jeri. Stupid Takato for letting her ring him into spying on us. Then again… she could probably make him do anything." Rika smirked at the idea. Then, after a few silent minutes, random thoughts began to appear in her mind. Back there, when Henry had done the unthinkable (Rika was still confused about that), she wasn't just annoyed with him… She was… well, she'd never admit that to anyone. Sighing, she thought about herself and Henry… when they were together, she just felt better. Still… Rika grinned slightly at the thought of couples and marriage. A while back, when the gang had just went to the Digital World, she, Kazu, and Kenta had wound up in the home of two Mega level Digimon: Jijimon and Babamon. Grinning she recalled that they were blown into their house by a ferocious wind…

Kazu and Kenta were screaming, and then they hit a circular door that revolved. Renamon hopped in with Rika as well.

"We got to stop hitting stuff," groaned Kazu and Kenta.

"I wonder who lives here," said Rika as she looked around at the bare interior.

"We do! Uh, we do live here don't we?" came an elderly female voice. Another voice, old and male this time, said,

"The real question is, who would be so rude as to barge in unannounced without so much as a cookie!"

Rika grabbed her D-Power and scanned the two. "Jijimon, Mega level, special attack, Claw of Doom. Babamon, Mega level, special attack Empress Haze. Hey! Well! What do you know! They're married!"

Jijimon whacked his staff on the floor. "That's right! Happily married for forty years! Not so happily for ten after that."

"Don't listen to this coot," said Babamon. "He just likes to hear himself talk. Lock the door already!"

Kazu, Kenta, Rika, and Renamon all picked up a long, wooden block with Jijimon telling them to place in holders to lock the door.

"They know what they're doing!" said Babamon impatiently.

"Don't talk back to me, you evil little shrew, let me get at ya!" said Jijimon.

That was when things became strange. The two were fighting each other with their broom and staff, trying to whack each other while everyone else simply watched.

"Why are they fighting, anyway?" asked Rika.

Renamon cheekily replied, "Maybe this is how you'll be when you grow up, Rika."

"Very funny, Renamon."

Rika smiled slightly. "Maybe that's how I'll be when I grow up, hmm?" she whispered. In truth, she admitted to herself that she thought that Henry looked… what was that strange word again? Cute? Handsome? (Although she was disgusted at the thought.) She even laughed when she realized that if… if she and Henry… well, let's just say that Babamon and Jijimon would be losing their broom and staff soon. And then she remembered something else. She and Henry had been searching for the injured Impmon in the Real World when…

"I don't get it. Where could he have gone?" asked Rika.

"Not too far, I imagine. Looked like he was hurt pretty bad," said Henry.

"It's his own fault. It wouldn't have been so bad if he had a partner," muttered Rika.

"Rika, you do have a heart!" exclaimed Henry. Rika startled, looked at him confusedly.

"Uh – I –"

Henry shrugged and laughed slightly. Rika pouted at him, and turned away, arms crossed.

"So I do have a heart," smiled Rika at the front of her house, before calling out, "Mom, Grandma, I'm home." She shoved off her shoes as her grandmother, Seiko, replied.

"Oh hello, Rika. Your mother is at a photo shoot. Have fun at the park?"

Rika scowled, reminded of Henry and their argument. Possibly only the fiftieth since yesterday.

"As much fun as I would have being in a photo shoot. I'll be in my room."

"That bad, hmm?" said Seiko as her granddaughter stalked past her.

She collapsed onto the futon on the floor that she never bothered to straighten out. Amidst the crumpled and scattered blankets, she began to think. Once again, her stray thoughts brought her to Henry. She thought about him, and how he was even similar to her. She smiled slightly, but then scowled again. The only person she knew that was better at putting up barriers around emotions than her was Henry. And she hated it when other people were better than her. He almost never actually revealed anger, sadness, or other negative emotions. He was usually either calm or happy. Then again… Henry must be going through a hard time, she realized. After all, it was his father that forced all of the Digimon to leave. He probably felt betrayed. Well, she knew that he felt betrayed. Still… she couldn't believe that he had kissed her! Even if it was just on her cheek! Her cheek was now defiled by… by… possibly the best thing in the universe that could have defiled her cheek. Grinding her teeth, she started to plan the best way to completely decimate his geeky little self…

"I'm home, everyone," called Henry. To his surprise, no one was home. Catching sight of a note, he walked over to it, picked it up, and read it. "So," he said to himself, "everyone's gone to dinner?" Smiling, he dropped the note and hurried to his room, his haven. It was filled with tons and tons of technology, with a bed and table squeezed into the side of the room. Sitting down at his computer, he drew up a program making software that he had made himself; much easier than just downloading another program. That would take minutes! Slowly, he began to write…

A few weeks later, Rika picked up the ringing phone. "Hello?" she said.

"Rika, come down to Guilmon's hideout, right now!" Takato's excited voice startled her.

"Why? Anyone else going?"

"Why? Because I told you so. And yes, everyone's coming! See ya there!"

"Wait!"

Too late. Takato had hung up.

So, everyone's going to be there, hmm? That means that… Henry's going to be there too.

Henry grabbed the phone from Suzy. "Hello?"

"It's Takato! Come down to Guilmon's old hideout!"

"Why?"

"Because!"

Sighing, he handed the phone back to Suzy, but just as it left his hands, it rang again. Henry snatched it back and said, "Hello?" again.

"Bring Suzy!"

A few minutes later, when everyone in the gang was gathered at the old hideout, Takato looked ready to burst.

"Alright, what's going on, gogglehead?" asked Rika impatiently. The sun was almost setting, and it was almost dinnertime for everyone.

"Come with me," said Takato excitedly. He brought everyone into Guilmon's hideout and pointed. A sparkling light was flashing in front of everyone.

"See that, guys?" asked Takato.

"Well, obviously, we're not blind!" said Kazu excitedly. "Well, Kenta might be."

"Hey!"

"Enough chitchat!" said Rika. "What's the point of a portal if we can't go through it?"

"Why can't we?" asked Takato, confused. "We could leap through it right now!"

"No."

Everyone stared at Henry, although Rika pretended that she didn't hear him and refused to look at him.

"Why not?" asked Takato. Henry glared at him.

"This isn't like last time! Last time, we were trying to save the world. If we ran off again, who knows if they'll," said Henry, referring to Yamaki and the others, "be able to pull us back again? And what about our parents?"

"Henwy…" said Suzy, looking at her brother fearfully.

"We can't just run off again. We have to at least have some sort of preparation if we want to go through. We'd need to pack well this time, tell our parents, organize some way to get back. And then, when we get to the Digital World, who knows if we'll be able to even find our partners?"

Everyone was shocked at his outburst. Henry was always the calm one, the negotiator, the pacifist. But on the rare occasions that his imprisoned emotions got a jailbreak, he was frightening.

"Okay, okay," said Takato. "We'll talk about this later. I just wanted to let everyone know about the portal… It might disappear, so we'd better decide within the next few days. Everyone got it?"

"Yes!"

"Then let's beat it!" said Kazu, grabbing Kenta and running. Jeri went with Takato, and Suzy was waiting for Henry. However, Henry told her to wait a minute. Seeing that Rika was almost about to leave, he quickly grabbed her arm.

"Again with the arm-grabbing?" she asked snappily.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" asked Henry. She kept walking, Henry right behind her, leaving Suzy in the hideout.

Once they reached the hill, Rika and Henry sat down.

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine," said Rika. Henry rolled his eyes.

"What's the question?"

"Why'd you kiss me?"

Henry wasn't exactly surprised; he knew that she would force him to talk eventually.

"Well?" pressed Rika. Henry smiled.

"I never said I would answer you."

Rika exploded. "What? Why I should –"

Henry kissed her, gently pressing his lips to hers. His eyes were closed, but Rika's… well her eyes were wide open and staring. Weakly, she tried to push him off away from her, pushing his shoulders, but she gave up eventually. Finally, Henry pulled back, not even blushing. Well, maybe it was just hard to see in the sunset. Rika, on the other hand was speechless. Henry smiled and wrapped an arm around her.

"Do you have a death wish?" asked Rika. Henry didn't answer. Rika leaned her head on his shoulders on instinct, looking up at him. "Henry?" she said, violet eyes soft. He looked at her inquisitively, his grey eyes meeting hers.

"Yeah?"

Rika's eyes narrowed into a familiar glare in the short pause before she answered.

"I still hate you."