A/N: This is…a bit different from what I usually write, as this particular subject isn't one that I normally explore and for the longest time had no intention of ever exploring. However, I feel that I should expand and explore a little so I can grow as a writer as there's only so far I can go with the same themes and such before it becomes a rut, and to do that requires touching on topics that I normally don't or wouldn't.

It is my intention – and hope – to approach this subject with the characters in a respectful manner. I cannot say if this is how the characters would act a few years down the road, but some of it I've extrapolated based on how they've acted toward each other in the show and feel it would expand a little to incorporate the changes they've gone through upon entering puberty which, to be fair, is a lot more intense than their younger years and involves impulsiveness that, if not more is certainly bigger in impact.

This fic is largely inspired by the seeming never-ending heat made worse by the fact that I'm near a heat source for five hours a day, five days a week. Yay.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Hot Summers Day

A Digimon Fanfic by: Crazyeight

Hot.

Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot.

Her shirt – a sleeveless, loose, low hanging affair of turquoise – clung to her in odd places, causing her to shift uncomfortably and tug at it, attempting to dislodge it so she could let some air in. It did nothing however, as it had been doing nothing all day, offering her no relief from the oppressive summer heat. Rika's violet eyes flashed up to the fan that sat adjacent to her and Takato, who was across from her, his own crimson eyes frowning down at his summer homework. Sweat stained his shirt and crawled down his face as well, causing him to wipe at his forehead, leaving a wet sheen across his arm.

Rika was not happy in the slightest.

Normally she liked the heat – a certain incident with an ice-themed digital monstrosity having turned her off from everything cold save for ice cream – but the heat this August was abnormally harsh, beating down on Shinjuku like a hammer on an anvil until, finally, she gave into the temptation to sit at home and enjoy the air conditioner.

Unfortunately for her and many denizens in Shinjuku, such a necessary appliance for survival broke down under the pressure, and under the worst possible timing.

Rika shifted and huffed, glaring back and forth between Takato and the fan. The heat made her itch it was so bad now. Despite Takato's insistence that he would be fine on account of working near a heat source at the bakery most of the time anyway, the fan was meant for them both. She didn't want him to suffer, and it annoyed her that he would say that, as if he were doing her a favor. She didn't like being coddled or protected. Most of all, she didn't like the way he just sweated his way through the heat, working on his assignments doggedly, even though it was clear that he wasn't concentrating very well.

She took it as a challenge, and attempted to do likewise, but as time wore on, it only got worse and worse, until she found herself biting back undeserved sarcastic comments with considerable effort, until, finally…

"Aaargh!"

Grabbing hold of the fan, Rika spun it around and thrust it at Takato's face, causing him to jerk back in surprise, one of his papers blowing past him now by the force of the fan's setting.

"Buh-wha…?" came the intelligent reply. "Rika! What are you…?"

"Stop…looking…hot!" Rika growled, pushing the fan ever closer to the teen. She blushed lightly at her words, hoping Takato wouldn't notice. At 17, Takato remained more or less the same as he always did, his roundish face and small build indicating that he took after his mother more than his father, but he did mature, becoming quite the teenager, at least in her eyes. Not 'handsome' the way some girls would consider her rival, Ryo Akiyama, or their mutual friend, Henry Wong, but he was…as much as she hated to say it…cute.

She hated that he looked cute. She hated associating the word with him, as it sometimes made it…difficult to deal with him. Yet he was cute all the same. She had to live with it.

"Okay, okay," Takato pleaded, pushing back against the fan, completely bewildered by Rika's sudden behavior. "I'm not hot anymore! Man, what's gotten into you?"

Rika harrumphed and spun the fan in her direction.

"Watching you sweat makes me feel bad," she grumbled as the soothing, cool air caressed her face. She closed her eyes and lost herself to the bliss as her body temperature lowered.

"Sorry," Takato chuckled lightly. "I guess I could just wish for snow and then things would be cool."

"Don't even joke about that, Gogglehead," she said, using his old nickname from their childhood. "Knowing your luck and the way the digital world operates, it would probably happen."

There was sufficient evidence for that. Years ago, a digignome infiltrated the real world from the digital plane, going unnoticed for some months, causing accidental mischief and even going so far as to create a portal between the worlds. The digignome was eventually caught and returned to the digital world, but not before spreading panic across the city as wishes turned into nightmares.

Needless to say, the summer that the digimon returned was one for the history books.

"Well, I wish we could figure out how Renamon stays cool all the time," Takato said, now taking his turn to grumble. "She has fur! How can she stay so cool? Guilmon and Terriermon are miserable in this heat!"

He glanced outside where his partner was currently lying in a children's swimming pool that Rumiko had bought for the benefit of visiting digimon and for Rika's friends. Guilmon looked miserable even in the water filling it, but was, fortunately, quiet.

"It's not fair," Takato sighed, leaning his head into his hand.

"I'm sure it has something to do with her being part ninja," Rika replied, adjusting the fan before rising up to her knees. "You didn't exactly draw Dinoboy to be anti-heat you know."

In spite of feeling considerably better now, she still itched. The dampness of her shirt made her feel uncomfortable. Feeling the need for better airflow, she impulsively leaned toward the fan and yanked the top of her shirt down. Her eyes rolled up into her head in pure, unadulterated bliss as relief flooded her body.

"So?" continued Takato. "He's still a digimon. Shouldn't that count for… Ah!"

Takato found himself interrupted in his rambling as he turned toward Rika and found himself looking down the gap of Rika's shirt, finding the two, small, soft mounds of her breasts hanging in his vision. The vision lasted only for half a second as Takato quickly jerked away in shock and surprise. Humming in agitation as his face flooded with crimson, he grabbed a random sheet of paper from his spot at the table and began to study it.

The sheet of paper, unfortunately, was blank.

Ah nuts… he thought, pressing the paper to his face to blot out the temptation to look again. Stop it! Rika's your friend! Don't…Don't look at her that way!

"What's gotten into you?" Rika asked, raising an eyebrow at his sudden outburst, only to blush in realization that she was literally exposing herself in front of him, however accidental it had been.

"Sorry," she apologized, frowning a little, though as yet she didn't release her shirt. She glanced down at it, at her breasts nestled within, feeling an odd sense of disappointment at his reaction. She let go of the neck of her shirt, closing her eyes as the blast of cool air was reduced. "You can look now."

Slowly…carefully…Takato peeked out from behind the sheet of paper, only to eep and jerk it back up around his eyes.

"Sorry," he said. "You're still…um…" He coughed. "…showing."

Rika resisted the urge to roll her eyes at herself and him – him for his blushing and tiptoeing around her, and herself for not having realized that she was still leaning forward, giving him quite the eyeful.

Again, she felt a flash of disappointment, as well as irritation.

Once more, Takato lowered the sheet of paper and breathed a sigh of relief upon finding Rika settled back down.

"Sorry," she said back, scowling down at her homework before glancing up at him, a small, teasing smirk climbing onto her face.

"Like what you saw?" she asked, and right away she got the reaction she expected, wanted and – truth be told – liked. A bright blush spread across his face like wildfire, causing his hair to prickle a little from the heat that baked off his skin.

It was a…cute reaction.

"I… Rika… That's…" he stammered, his brain becoming unhinged from his mouth. Rika couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"Chill out, Takato," she cut in, leaning her head into her hand. "I was just having fun with you." A pause, and a thoughtful expression came across her face as she looked at the boy while he attempted to rally. "But seriously though," she resumed, "did you like what you saw down my shirt?"

Takato closed his eyes, counting just under his breath, his face going through several shades of red and Rika waited patiently. She remembered how he picked this habit up last year, becoming frustrated with how increasingly nervous and agitated he had been getting since puberty began, and it worked after a fashion. She had thought, at the time, how strange it was that his confidence fluctuated so badly since puberty began. One would think that when a person has stared down world destroying abominations on multiple occasions that confidence would be the last thing to be concerned about, yet Takato had been hit hard by his body's changes. In battle with wild digimon he remained fine, but outside of that…

Takato finished counting, and Rika raised an eyebrow, eager to see what his answer would be.

"I think you already know the answer to that," he said finally, his voice low and, much to Rika's surprise, a touch of shame to it.

"Probably," she replied, feeling a bit bad for him now. It wasn't easy for someone like Takato, the poster child for sensitivity, to admit to showing an appreciation for her body. "But…" she continued, "…I'd like to hear you say it." She dropped her head out of her hand and tilted it slightly, trying to get a better view of his face as he looked away, still blushing. "Takato… It's okay. I'm not going to yell at you. I know you, remember?"

Takato shifted, hesitating, and in his hesitation, Rika understood what it was that had been annoying her.

"Takato… Do I scare you?"

Takato's head snapped up at that, and she caught a flash of an emotion in his eyes that looked to her like…hurt? She honestly wouldn't have been surprised if she did. When they first met, she tried to kill Guilmon, and then attempted to do so a second time on their second meeting. While she warmed up considerably since then and counted the boy as her best human friend outside of Renamon, she knew that she could be…difficult at times. She had a very combative and competitive personality and she had high standards of excellence that were hard to live up to, something Takato often believed he didn't.

"I… No! It's just…" He shifted, rubbing the back of his head before turning his eyes to her. "Rika… I…I'd be lying if I said I didn't like…" He swallowed, blushing darkly. "…didn't like what I saw, it's just…"

Takato felt his mouth quaver a little, becoming stiff and twisted, and he felt once again that familiar blockage in his mouth. A freezing of sorts that he had every time his mouth and brain ended up at odds with one another. He squeezed his fists tight and closed his eyes again, deepening his breathing, trying desperately to relax so he could speak properly again. Rika watched him carefully, a part of her wanting to go over to him and comfort him, but she knew from experience that this was something he had to work through on his own, as sometimes just the act of giving such comfort exasperated the problem.

"It's just…" he began after what felt like an eternity to him. Opening his eyes, he offered her an apologetic smile as he spoke. "…I worry about hurting you because of that."

He breathed a heavy sigh of relief, grateful to have gotten that out of his system. Smiling softly, Rika harrumphed. Getting up, she made her way around the table, spinning the fan around and then planted herself down next to him, bumping her naked, scraped knee against his to make a point.

"You've got a long way to go before you can do that, Gogglehead," she smirked, sharing the fan air with him. "A really long way. Remember what I said? I know you. You freak out over the weirdest things." Reaching up, she brought her hand to rest on his and threaded her fingers between his, giving it a tough squeeze. "Chill out. I'm not going to bite."

She suddenly grinned at Takato. "Unless you want me to that is."

Takato's face changed two colors of crimson in rapid succession. Between her holding his hand and teasing him, he clearly had no idea how to react to her.

"I wonder…" she continued. "You work in a bakery. Do you think you taste like bread?" Rika playfully snapped her teeth at him, causing the boy to turn several more different shades of red

"Not…Not funny, Rika," he stammered.

"Kami…" Rika laughed, ruffling his hair. "You have no idea how cute you are when you get nervous."

Takato cocked an eyebrow at that, taken off guard by her statement. "Say whaaa…?"

"Yeah," Rika sighed, rolling her eyes. "I said it. The word. Don't make a big deal out of it, okay?"

Takato chuckled uncertainly, wondering where this was all coming from. "You're weird, you know that, Rika?"

"And you're a Gogglehead," Rika, changing her ruffling of the boy's hair to a grinding with her fist. "So when am I going to get a show?" she chided.

"A…show…?" Takato blinked before realization dawned on him, and once more crimson flooded his face. "I…" He coughed, his heart suddenly hitting his chest hard as he immediately became self-conscious about himself. "There's…There's not much to see…"

He stopped speaking as the girl suddenly flopped against him, bringing her head to rest against his shoulder. She heaved a heavy sigh and then snorted.

"If you can't tell a joke from the real thing, then it's no wonder you don't have a girlfriend, Gogglehead," she derided. "I wouldn't actually pressure you into doing that. Besides…earlier was an accident."

A small smile crossed her features and she pushed her elbow against his side. "Besides. I've seen you when we've gone swimming remember? So why are you suddenly getting all squirrely now about how you look?"

Takato scratched the back of his head, not in the least bit sure just what was going on here today.

"Because how I look usually isn't a topic of conversation between us?"

"You mean since you ditched your goggles," Rika pointed out, giving his hand another squeeze. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable around me," she continued. "I trust you, Takato. With…everything."

The boy felt his throat lock up, and he swallowed nervously.

"Everything, huh?" he asked, looking down at their still intertwined hands. She was holding his hand. Holding his hand.

Just what the heck is going on here? a part of him exclaimed, for once glad that Terriermon weren't around to comment on this little scene. He was sure the little dog-bunny would never let them live it down.

He felt the heat from Rika's body suddenly increase as she chuckled at his question and he turned to her in alarm.

"Are you all right? You're hot all of a sudden."

Rika chuckled again, her blush grew deeper.

"Took you long enough to notice," she said, giving him a light punch to the ribs. Adjusting the slip of her shirt, she got to her feet and padded to the other end of her room, sorting through her things until she produced some money. Placing it in her back pocket, she turned back to Takato, who was promptly blushing again and trying to pretend it was over nothing. Rika grinned, knowing just what had caught his attention this time. She planted a hand on her hip and nodded to him, not even pretending to make him think she didn't know, but content to not say it out loud.

For now, Takato's reaction was well worth it.

I just hope I don't accidently make him burst into flames. The way he is sometimes… Well… I'll figure out a way to put him out of his misery if that happens.

"You want to go get some ice cream?" she asked. "I know a good spot not too far from here. It should take the edge off things."

"Ah… Sure," Takato nodded, getting to his feet. "I'm sure we could both use a break. Kind of seems like the heat's getting to our brains."

Rika eyed him with amusement behind cat-like eyes as he dusted himself off. Turning around, she started toward the gate, giving her hips a slight sway as she dropped off the porch.

"I'm sure it's something like that," she smirked at him over her shoulder, seeing that he was rooted at his spot again, red rising in his cheeks again. "You coming or are you going to stand around there all day gawking?"

Takato pressed his face into one hand, the crimson only growing in intensity as it spread across his face like wildfire. "Rika…"

Cute… came the thought in her mind again. Laughing, Rika went back to him, took him by the wrist and pulled him after her.

"Let's go, Gogglehead," she said as the bewildered and confused boy stumbled after her, wishing he knew just what it was that was going through her mind.

With my luck, he thought with certainty, probably something weird and embarrassing…

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