The Fires of Passion
Mimi's True Love
The plane touched down on a foggy Saturday morning, the gray clouds swishing along damp pavement in the murky light of early morning. A teenage girl with bubble gum pink hair walked slowly out of the terminal, tired from her long journey.
"Ooh, switching from New York to Odaiba time, plus factoring in the end of Daylight Savings, I lost a lot of time. Oh well, I can always take a nap in the hotel room," she murmured to herself, picking up her bags and walking out to the parking lot. Mimi sighed, wondering what her friends were doing right now. Her guess would be sleeping, for the most part. Then her thoughts strayed to her friend Michael, who lived not too far from her.
Ooh, maybe Matt's broken up with that Lia girl by now. If not, there's always Michael. What a sweetie. I wonder if Joe still has a crush on me.
~*~
Joe sighed, staring at his untouched mug of coffee. He was tired of listening to the others coo soft words into their beloveds' ears. He was sick of watching Matt walk in with Lia in his arms and lipstick on his cheek, sick of seeing T.K and Kari holding hands and nuzzling each other gently, tired of watching Izzy and Nicki poke each other out of love, annoyed with Tai and Sora and their romantic arguments over soccer and tennis, getting irritated by Yolei as she fawned over whoever was available, most times Ken, and especially aggravated by Davis as he hit on each girl in turn, using pick-up lines "borrowed" from Brock of Pokémon. At least Cody didn't have a girlfriend…although he and Sakura from Card Captors were pen pals, and he made friends online with the many talented writers at fanfiction.net.
It's your own damn fault you're still single, Joe's inner voice chided. You should have just told Mimi you liked her in the first place, when you still had a chance. Now it's too late and you're going to end up a grumpy old coot like Gennai. You could at least flirt with some of the FF.net girls, they all adore you. But no, you just wait around hoping Mimi will see the light.
"Joe? Joe? Hey Joe!" came a shout.
"Huh? What? Oh, I'm sorry, you were saying something?"
"You're zoning out worse than Wizardmon. Are you all right?" Tai asked.
"Yeah, just peachy. Are we going?"
"Shouldn't we wait for Davis?" Yolei asked.
"He's not coming. Jun passed me in the hall today, said Davis is grounded until Thanksgiving for egging a house," Matt stated casually.
"That's all she said, right?" Lia asked warily.
"Don't worry, I have no feelings for her whatsoever. You're the only one I could ever love."
The others made gagging noises, rolling their eyes. Matt frowned and threw candy corn at them.
"Sorry…I'm late…did I…miss…anything?" somebody panted as they stood in the doorway.
Even exhausted and out of breath, Mimi still looked radiant in Joe's eyes. She seemed to have a shine to her no other girl could possess.
"Nope, just in time, Mimi. You just get here?" Sora asked, yawning.
"Uh-huh. The plane got stuck in the runway back in New York, and that slowed us down. What's new with you, Matt?" she asked, a hint of flirtatious charm in her voice.
"Exhaustion, too much homework, ten thousand screaming girls pushing me into a parking meter, the usual," he replied, rubbing a bruised temple.
"Mmm, I can put some ice on that if you want," Lia murmured, gently fingering the mark.
"Nah, I'm okay."
Okay, so Matt's a no-go. At least I have Michael, what a sweetie. Huh, I wonder why Joe is staring at me like that. I hope my hair is all right.
I'm staring right at her and she doesn't even realize it. Can't she see that I'm in love with her? What do I have to do, hold up a sign? And how come she keeps flirting with Matt? He's got a girlfriend!
"Can we go yet?" Yolei groaned.
"Yeah, we need a change of scenery. Digiport open!" T.K cried.
There was a flash of light and color as the Digidestined were pulled into the computer and to the Digital World.
"Our objective for today is…" Tai stated, cuffing Agumon playfully.
"Topple control spires?" Gabumon suggested.
"Take down Ken once and for all?" Tentomon added.
"We could…or we could take today as a holiday," Tai answered, putting an arm around Sora.
"Let's at least get rid of one spire, then we can chill out," Shadowmon said, nuzzling Gomamon lightly.
(Author's note: I don't think I did a Digimon Analyzer for Shadowmon, so I'll just do it now. She's a black kitten with a stripe of blue fur running down her spine, meeting at her long tail, which splits in two at the tip. Her specialty attack is psyflare, and she's highly psychic.)
So without further hesitance, the group marched off in search of the nearest control spire.
"Wow, it sure is weird to be walking around and not hearing Veemon lisping all the time," Armadillomon pointed out.
"Be nice," Cody reprimanded.
"I am, I'm just stating facts!"
"He has a point. No 'I've gotta kill myshelf sho I can cheer up Davish' or anything," Yolei teased.
"All right, stop picking on Veemon. At least he doesn't sound like Puppetmon," Patamon scolded lightly.
Joe stared longingly at Mimi, who was casually chatting about fall fashions to Palmon.
Look at her, Joe. She's perfect. Everything you've hoped and dreamed of. Just tell her already. Maybe the feeling is mutual.
"Hey Joe!" Gomamon shouted. Joe wasn't paying attention. "Hey Joe! JOE!"
"Huh? What is it, Gomamon?"
"If it's all right with you, I'm heading off with Shadowmon."
"Okay, just watch out for Ken and his flunkeys, and no hentai."
"Do I look like the kind of digimon that would get involved in hentai?"
"Yes, now go!"
Joe glowered. Even the digimon were finally starting to understand how romance worked, and it was amusing to watch them tangle themselves up in complicated love triangle. Meanwhile, Mimi was completely oblivious to how Joe felt.
~*~
"Three hours of walking and still no spire!" Yolei groaned.
"We better find one soon, I have to get something on the table by the time Dad gets home," Matt muttered.
"Yeah, and I have a biology paper I have to hand in," Lia added.
"And I need to study for a Spanish test," Nicki moaned, trying to remember her pronouns.
"I bet Ken will be very sympathetic of all of you," Tai replied sarcastically.
"Oh, so now that Davis isn't here you get to be the egotist again?" Sora asked playfully.
"Yup!"
Just then a bloodcurdling howl pierced the air. Thousands of moans and shrieks chorused in a cacophony of torture and pain.
"What…what was that?" Kari asked in fear, clinging to T.K as their faces paled.
"Noctemon," Wizardmon whispered, eyes wide.
"A what?" Cody asked.
"Well, in this case it sounds like a whole bunch of whats," Armadillomon pointed out.
"Noctemon are these shadow shade digimon that feed on fear. They have this attack, 'nightmares' blackness' and if you get hit, you're seriously toasted," Gatomon explained.
"You'll be lost in your own nightmares for all eternity," Patamon stated solemnly.
"We have to get away from here right now!" Mimi cried, clutching at Palmon.
"They can already sense our distress, let's go!" Agumon hollered.
The Digidestined fled, panicked. Lia was already half sobbing, tripping over every stone in her path. Matt nearly pulled her arm out of her socket, trying to keep her from the clutches of the dark digimon in pursuit of their souls.
"We should digivolve, or something!" Hawkmon suggested.
"That would be a good idea, but I can't find my D terminal!"
"And there's the spire, so that leaves us out!" Biyomon pointed out.
"Somebody do something!" Palmon shouted.
The Noctemon were advancing ever closer, their blank, dark faces glaring at them with no remorse. The digimon turned, prepared to fight.
"Fight in a minute, run now!" Izzy called, grabbing Shadowmon by the tail and Tentomon by the arm (thing).
Mimi, who was leading the pack of terrified children and digimon, didn't see the pit in front of her. Screaming, she tumbled headlong into the black chasm. But somehow, almost miraculously, she had managed to take hold of the sides of the hole. Palmon stood there, too frozen with fear to do anything. Mimi began to slip, slowly but surely.
Joe quickly shoved the others aside, wrapped his hands around hers and pulled with all the strength he possessed.
"I won't let you fall, Mimi! I promise! Just hang on!" he managed to say through clenched teeth.
"I'm scared, Joe!"
"It's all right, Mimi, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
I can't. I care for you too much.
"I don't think I can hold on much longer!" Mimi sobbed.
"You have to! Mimi, I know I'm not brave like Tai, or compassionate like Matt, or smart like Izzy, but I won't let you go because I care. I care…and I…I love you, Mimi!"
There, you said it, Joe. Now pull her in before you lose her.
Mimi regarded Joe with shock as he lifted her from the hole.
He…he loves me? I can't believe it. Here I am, fawning over other guys, when Joe is pouring his heart out to me and I'm too blind to realize it. What a fool I've been. I never even realized how much he means to me until now.
"Joe, I…I think I love you too," she said softly.
The others smiled as Mimi put her arms around Joe and hugged him tightly.
"And Yolei Inoue gets left out again," Yolei sighed.
"Oh, you'll get a boyfriend…eventually," Hawkmon mumbled, wrapping a wing around Biyomon.
"Looks like another happy romance. One of these days I'll get a story. Maybe I'll go see if Cherry Chibimon or Melissa Ishida or Gatomon 2000 or one of them wants to go out with me," Cody muttered.
"Uh, Cody, I have a feeling they're all too old for you," Armadillomon pointed out.
"Getting ideas, Yama-chan?" Lia murmured.
"Way ahead of you."
"Izzy?"
"I'm reading your thoughts, Nicki. Totally reading your thoughts."
The others walked off slowly, in little pairs. Joe turned his attention back to Mimi. She was glowing with her usual effervescent shine, but this time she seemed more beautiful than ever. Leaning closer to her, Joe breathed in the light scent of perfume on her skin. He smiled at her, pushed his glasses back up to where they were supposed to rest, then kissed her gently. Mimi didn't resist, and kissed back a bit more passionately. Palmon and Gomamon watched from the bushes.
"Dammit, I just realized something," Gomamon muttered.
"What's that?"
"Digimon can't exactly kiss. Shad's gonna be wicked miffed."
"So what are we gonna do?"
"Uh, try to digivolve really far to something with lips?"
"I don't think anything Gabumon can digivolve to anything that has lips," Palmon mumbled. Gomamon cast her a wary glance as she trotted back towards the others.
"Wacky plant."
So, Sincerity has found her one true love, and Reliability has shown his true colors. Now the fires of passion have grown to an inferno sweeping through the Digidestined and even their digimon. And they couldn't be happier.
~*~