DISCLAIMER:

The characters and all related material herein are the property of their creators and/or copyright holders, who may be too numerous to name here. Team Hydro and all affiliated parties do not claim ownership of said characters and/or material. Team Hydro does not seek to infringe upon any trademarks, copyright, or any other existing legal document that may be connected to any of the above.

This is a direct continuation of The Rematch, skipping the, uh, more mature material. Written in something like three hours, and released in record time by our editors, this chronicles the rather amusing conversation that takes place on the morning following Rika and Ryo's rematch. Enjoy.


Team Hydro Preview - Tamers #1A

Morning After

Slowly, groggily, Rika rose from her slumber. The morning light was annoying; she pulled the blanket higher, to hide her still-heavy eyes from it. She ached, had slept awkwardly. Or not… given that she was aching in places that she couldn't remember complaining before…

Dizzily she reminded herself that it wasn't even remotely that time of the month, so what gave her body the right to complain—

That particular, bleary train of thought was promptly derailed by the brushing of foreign skin against her own. Warily she cracked open an eye, just enough to see what the hell was going on… and promptly screwed it shut again when met by the sight of a face on the pillow below her.

RYO! Her mind screamed, the night before trickling back in a slow-flowing torrent of remembrance. Oh shit, Ryo! This is SOOO not happening to me!!! Their rematch… and her throwing punches - he'd cheated her, she remembered – and then… Oh. Oh, shit. Mom's gonna kill--… or not…

If not for the fact that she was trying to keep a straight, sleeping face, Rika might – would! – have positively beamed at her own audacity. She opened her eyes as she shifted up to lean on her elbows, careful to keep the blanket draped over her head to shade her morning eyes, and looked down at the sight below her.

She'd only ever imagined the two of them like this in her dreams… and had never once, for the life of her, considered what she'd do if she woke up one morning and found that dream had been made a reality. Way to forward-plan, Rika… Now what are you gonna do?

She was left little time to think up a course of action however, as the idiot below her began to stir. Rika froze as Ryo began to wake, and found herself in the perfect position to keep him reasonably pinned. Until she could make a little more sense of the night before, of course… and until the coast was reasonably clear enough that she could send him on his merry way without being seen – or make as much noise as they liked.

Ryo was roused by warm, moist breath on his face, and the faint sound of a voice calling him an idiot. A familiar voice too, one not at all unpleasant to wake up to, despite that voice now branding him a wide variety of unspeakables.

"…told you that you could sleep in my bed, huh jackass?"

His eyes opened to grace him with the sight of a very scowly, and very naked, Rika laying atop him. Instantly awake, Ryo almost panicked for a split-second, and wondered precisely how he'd come to be in this predicament, pleasant surprise as it was. The events of the previous night came back to him in a rush, and he found himself very amused, if not a little worried.

"You owe me an explanation, you asshole…" Rika muttered, her chin cupped in the palm of her hand. She didn't need one, but it'd be fun to watch him squirm.

"And good morning to you too, Pumpkin," he grinned nervously, worming his way out of answering her awkward demand.

One misstep, he knew, one tiny little word out of place, and she'd hurt him in ways that'd make him very useless to her for a repeat performance of last night. And any other girl, for that matter… not that he wanted any other girl, but that was kinda beside the point.

"So we're back to 'Pumpkin' now, huh," she muttered through pressed-together teeth.

"I distinctly remember you saying something about calling me 'Wildcat' permanently…"

Rika grinned, seeing the blush on his face. She knew that he'd said it in the afterglow of a particularly… heated moment between them, and what he'd meant by it.

"You sure were… are…" he replied,

"I dare say I have the scratch marks on my back to prove it…"

He chuckled, and they laughed together. Slowly, sleepily, Rika lowered herself down to rest her chin on hands placed carefully over his chest, and blew a childish raspberry in his face for his snide remark. She was feeling playful for some reason, strange for her this soon after waking up.

Perhaps it had something to do with the good time they'd shown each other a few hours ago… She was still feeling a little afterglow-y… if that's what this feeling was. Contentment… that's what it's called, she thought.

And she was content with the things they'd done together… she imagined that perhaps it wouldn't feel this way afterwards with anyone else; after all, it hadn't felt this way afterwards with….

TOTALLY not the time to think about that right now, Rika… she told herself, scrunching her eyes at the images that had begun to run amok in her mind. Those few, rare, and now decidedly-strange occasions when Jeri had convinced her to… play with her….

Those were not something to remember after a night of having Ryo in her bed… even if those experiences had lent themselves to her apparent prowess the night before.

"Something wrong?" he asked, below her still, the look on her face puzzling him.

"…'m still tired…" she muttered, perhaps a little too loudly, for at that moment, there came a tapping at her locked door, and they both froze.

"Rika? Are you awake in there, honey?" It was Seiko, her grandmother.

"I'll be right out grandma… 'm getting up…" Rika stuttered, but made no moves to do so – how could she, still wrapped rather comfortably around Ryo, and both of them stark-naked with no-where for him to hide.

"No, no need," Seiko replied, saving both their necks from a ton of embarrassment.

"You go right back to sleep, it's still early. I'm heading into town to do some shopping with Renamon, and I'm just letting you know that your mother had to run out to the studio…"

Rika groaned quietly; her mother was obsessed with work. What little time the woman spent at home was usually directed at trying to puppeteer her daughter's life – unsuccessfully, said daughter might add, though not for lack of trying.

"She'll probably be gone most of the day," Seiko added from the hallway,

"You know how she gets with paperwork after her photo shoots… But you go back to bed now. You must be tired after the party. I'll see you when we get back, dear…"

Rika let out an almost inaudible sigh of relief as she heard her grandmother treading lightly back down the hallway, toward the living room and the front door; Ryo's sigh was a little louder, and she jammed her hand over her mouth as she giggled, and they both proceeded to quietly crack up with laughter.

Rika pulled the covers down over their heads to muffle their voices further, before abruptly silencing Ryo's manic chuckling with a kiss.

"Now I wonder what we can do in the dark, while my grandma's out of the house…" she wondered aloud, in a voice so sly that she could almost hear him licking his lips, before sprouting a grin that was nothing short of sultry; too bad for him that he couldn't see it.

***

Down the hallway, in the living room, Seiko heard her granddaughter's hearty laughter, stifled like that of her lover, and shared a smile with the girl's Digimon partner.

"It seems those two are getting along rather well…" Renamon smirked.

Seiko nodded, with an approving smile.

"It was brewing long before Ryo disappeared, you know," she commented.

"Perhaps even since Reaper Fall… I'm just glad that they've settled their differences enough to get on with it at last."

"I agree that it's certainly taken them long enough…" Renamon answered, "Though perhaps through no fault of their own."

"We humans have a saying, Renamon, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder', and I'm quite comfortable to say that it applies directly to them."

"It might not be my place to question your judgement, but are you sure it is wise to leave them alone?"

"Quite sure, they're more than old enough to take care of themselves now… and I'm getting far too old to be worrying about the habits of the young… I did more than enough of that while you were away, dear. Now, I believe I can hear those shops calling… Rika needs another new pair of jeans, and better we get them than her mother… there'll be a small war if Rumiko buys her another dress…"

And with one last look in the direction of her granddaughter's firmly locked bedroom, Seiko turned with Renamon to depart.


So, what do you guys think? I've had a number of messages from people wanting to know what happens following The Rematch, and this is as close as I could post to it without breaching team rules. Hope you liked it, let me know what you thought with a review. ^_^