Chapter 3
Going With the Flow

I did a really foolish thing then: I kissed her.

I'd kissed several humans before that-- mostly other celebrities of various sorts and some overzealous fans-- all about as intimate as a handshake. None of them were anything like what I experienced with Rika. Maybe it was so good because there weren't half a hundred cameras pointed at us but I doubt that was the real reason for the difference.

Her lips were like velvet. There was no awkwardness, no hesitation-- our mouths just seemed to melt into each other, our tongues just lightly touching in a sweet, gliding caress. Our arms circled each other as we came together in a tight embrace and the rest of the world seemed to fade away.

I don't know how long that first amazing kiss lasted but my head was spinning by the time our lips parted and Rika lay her head on my chest with a sigh. I stroked the silky skin of her back where the dress left it bare and she made a soft, satisfied sound and slipped her hand inside my jacket, combing her fingers downward though my fur.

She lifter her face again and our second kiss was even more wonderful than the first. Too wonderful.

Rika shifted her position as our kiss grew more insistent, knotting one hand in my ruff and pulling herself into my lap. The long muscles of her back tightened under my hand as she arched against me and I slid my other hand down over the sweet curve of her bottom before my brain took over from my instincts.

I lifted my hands from her body and took hold of her shoulders, pushing her away from me. Her eyes opened in surprise and she looked a bit dazed for a moment before puzzlement settled on her face.

"What is it?"

"Rika, I can't do this!"

"You were doing it quite well only a second ago," she pointed out.

"You know what I mean! Or you ought to!" I said as severely as I could, considering I found my attention was wandering back to how her lips glistened in the light. I shook my head to clear it. (That never works, by the way.) "Rika, there's only one person in the whole universe that I love and admire more than you and if it there was any way--"

"Oh, you mean Renamon?" Rika said lightly, "Don't worry-- she won't mind."

There was something about the way she said it. It wasn't just an empty assurance-- she knew something. My face must have told the story of the confused suspicions bouncing around in my brain because Rika grinned wickedly. She reached over and touched the edge of the table with a fingertip. A wall screen changed to show the map of Tokyo again and, oddly enough, it went through the same bioemergence detection sequence as before.

"Holy Tesla!" I gasped, "It's a recording!"

"Yeah. From those Kudomon last summer." Rika confirmed.

"You planned this? You and Renamon?" That damned wink of Renamon's had been directed at Rika, not me!

She leaned closer, placing her hands on my chest. "Do you really think I'd do this behind her back? Even as drunk as I am now?" She made a wry face. "That wasn't part of the plan, by the way. I think I was trying to calm my nerves or work up my courage or something."

I was completely flabbergasted. About a thousand questions and comments all tried to crowd out through my mouth and I ended up just making "Eh-uh" noises.

"So--" Rika said, suddenly looking very vulnerable, "You know we both love you-- and, hell, we're the same person half the time. Don't you think we could--?"

Yes, I'm a fool. But I'm not that big of a fool. I took her face in my hands and kissed her ever so lightly before saying, "Rika Nonaka, you are the most wonderful woman on the planet. I know I've told you many times how much I love you, but tonight I'm going to show you!"

I indulged myself with another long, passionate kiss before I unfastened the neck of her dress. It slid down her body like falling water. Her breasts were a perfect match for her athletic physique, sleek and firm with two perfect rosy pink nipples. I placed my hand on her chest just below them and guided a small pulse of data through my palm and into her body. She gave a soft little gasp as my energy flowed into her digital net and I triggered the desired sequence.

There was a sudden sharp smell of alcohol in the air and Rika was instantly stone-cold sober. She really gasped then and her eyes went wide as her world came into sharp focus. "I-- what did you--"

"I need to know that this is something you really want-- that you're not being influenced by the sake."

Rika stared at me while her aura flickered with little spikes of several colors before settling into a deep violet glow. She rose and her dress flowed away to the floor. She removed the clips from her hair and dropped them on the couch as I got to my feet and then she took my hand and led me to the bedroom as my buckskins swirled away like smoke on the wind.

-o--(1)--o-

Renamon returned to the apartment around three in the morning. She padded silently into the bedroom and stood looking down at Rika and I, smiling softly. Rika was deeply asleep, twined around me with her head on my chest. Renamon bent and stroked my cheek before gently kissing me. I gave her a look that was meant to convey something like, "Boy are we going to have a conversation in the morning!" My meaning must have been clear because she gave me an unnecessarily smug grin.

She crossed to the other side of the bed and slipped smoothly under the covers, spooning against her tamer's body and softly curling her tail around both of us. Rika stirred, made a happy little sigh, and was quiet once more.

-o--()--o-

Rika woke up in the late morning and I watched with pleasure as she slowly focused on the world around her and smiled joyfully as she looked into my eyes. We kissed-- a long, comfortable sort of kiss that nevertheless made me stir with renewed desire.

"So the plan went well, did it?" Renamon asked.

Having a beautiful young woman break off a kiss with me because she was stricken with a sudden fit of giggles was a completely new experience for me. The tremors of laughter that ran through her body felt very nice and a person's aura never looks more beautiful than when they're laughing with joy, so I didn't begrudge losing the kiss-- much.

Rika half turned to face Renamon. "You were right about him getting all conscious-stricken," she told her partner. "But not until after the second kiss."

"Is that so?" Renamon said, looking at me in a cool, evaluating manner.

"They were really good kisses," I explained.

"Oh, well I suppose that's all right, then," she grinned at me, her façade of sternness dropping away.

Rika yawned and stretched, lacing her fingers together and lifting both arms above her head. (Which did wonderful things to her breasts, by the way.) "Ahhh, I'm starving! You gonna make me breakfast, partner?" she asked me.

"Just show me which buttons to press."

Rika and I ate like we hadn't seen food in a week but Renamon nibbled at her food in her usual dainty manner. Every time any of us made eye contact with another we couldn't help breaking out into huge grins.

I also couldn't help noticing that the meal included fresh doughnuts from the Matsuki bakery. Those two evil females must have been absolutely certain their little plan would succeed-- bless their conniving little hearts.

-o--()--o-

The next few weeks were truly magical. We didn't let on why Rika had suddenly come out of her depression. Most people were wigged out enough by the thought of digimon having so-called "intimate relations" with each other let alone the idea of a digimon and human couple.

Even as enraptured as I was with Rika, I didn't neglect Renamon. In fact, my lovemaking with her seemed even better than ever. Maybe it was the contrast-- the two of them were so different physically that there was no real basis for comparison. Both of them delighted me and the three of us were ludicrously happy.

In public, Rika and I still verbally sniped at each other as we had done for most of the years we'd known each other. It was an old, familiar game that we could play at almost without thinking. But each time we threw a verbal barb at the other our smiles were more than playful.

Jeri and Takato's wedding went off perfectly. There were nearly as many digimon present as humans and several had come over from the Digital Dimension just for the occasion. Even Kayamon was there as a representative of the other Sovereigns. There were photographers and videographers there from all the major news feeds. Takato and Jeri had decided that it would be better to allow a select group of them to be present rather than try to keep hoards of them at bay. There were still several unauthorized aircraft that tried to overfly the ceremony but I had arraigned to have a half dozen Ultimates guard the perimeter. Nobody got through.

"I don't see why you don't just burn a few of them out of the sky," Kayamon muttered to me. "Wouldn't that dissuade the others?" She had become Yasuramon's "troubleshooter", travelling to the most remote corners of the Digital Dimension where raw power and, frankly, brutality were the only things that maintained order. It tended to influence her way of thinking.

I chuckled. "It might not. You don't know how persistent these paparazzi can be. Besides, humans as a whole don't react well to that sort of thing. They tend to see an attack against even a despised subset of their race as a threat to them all."

Kayamon shook her head. "I'll never understand humans. But," she continued, looking up at the platform in front of the shrine where Takato and Jeri were standing together with the priest, "at least I've learned that there are some good ones."

-o--()--o-

That night as Takato and Jeri were winging their way toward Paris, our little "family" lounged around Rika's apartment. Kayamon stretched herself out in front of the windows and watched the three of us with undisguised curiosity.

"I'm happy for you all, of course, but-- I-- it just seems so strange to me."

Rika carried a shallow saucer of sake over to Kayamon and held it for her to sip from. "Is it because I look-- unattractive to you?"

I'd thought that Rika's seeming insecurity about her looks had just been a ploy on the night we first made love but it seemed that she truly did have doubts as to how others perceived her.

"Oh, no, you're extremely beautiful. Remarkably so for a human." Kayamon went on, not realizing how much reassurance she had given Rika. "It's just the thought of being with a human that way--" she paused and shook her head. "It doesn't seem right somehow."

"Jeeze, has my daughter grown up to be a racist? Or maybe a 'speciest' is the right word?" I asked in a half-joking manner.

Kayamon looked at me blankly for a moment and then asked, "What do you mean 'grown up'? I'm the same size I've always been." There was no doubt that she was a creature of the Digital Dimension through and through. So many human concepts were utterly alien to her.

Rika refilled her saucer. "Well, I've got this digital thingie inside of me, doesn't that sort of make me half digimon?"

Kayamon lifted her muzzle which dripped a few drops of sake onto the floor and flickered out of phase for an instant. "Yes," she said thoughtfully as she reappeared, "that's true isn't it?"

Rika made a fist and concentrated fiercely for second. Her aura rippled oddly and then a red glow surrounded her hand. She flicked her fingers open and a few bright red sparks few upward from her palm, quickly fading from sight as the neared the ceiling.

I hadn't known she could do that. The energy configuration had obviously been the same as my Fang Flurry.

"My net seems to store energy for a while," Rika told Kayamon. "Usually I can do better than that but it's been almost a day since Coyomon and I-- um-- you know."

"Had sex?" Kayamon asked bluntly.

"Uh-- yeah." Rika admitted. "I can do a pretty good Power Paw sometimes, too, if--"

"Oh," interrupted Kayamon, "I didn't realize you were having sex with my mother too."

"What?" Rika gasped. "I'm not! It's after we biomerge that I can do it! How can you think I would do that with Renamon?"

By this time I was struggling desperately not to laugh.

"Well, you love my father and you have sex with him." Kayamon pointed out.

"But Renamon's a girl!" Rika sputtered, her face going red.

"No she isn't!" Kayamon retorted. "She's a digimon! She doesn't even have that thing you do-- what's it called?"

I couldn't contain myself any longer. I burst out into guffaws of laughter.

Rika shook an angry finger at me. "Shut up, flea-bag! It isn't funny!"

I held my hands up placatingly and tried to stifle my mirth. "I-- I'm sorry Rika," I said between chuckles.

"The plumbing doesn't matter! Look at them," Rika continued, turning back to Kayamon and hooking her thumb back at Renamon and I, "They're obviously male and female. Hell, you call them 'mother' and 'father' and 'he' and 'she'! Those are terms that indicate gender!"

I glanced over at my very female Renamon. She seemed to be the calmest one of us all but had placed a hand over her mouth and I could see the spasms of her jaw muscles and she fought back her own laughter. I truly envied her self-control.

Kayamon was looking puzzled. "That's true but--"

"And how about Lady Devimon?" Rika continued her verbal assault. "Lady Devimon! She's got enormous boobs for god's sake!"

That did it. I roared with laughter and Renamon couldn't contain herself any longer either. We fell into each other's arms nearly sobbing with laughter. Rika glared at us so fiercely that I felt somewhat relieved to know her digital web was depleted of energy.

After we all composed ourselves, the subject was dropped and we continued the evening's conversation on less contentious topics. But every once in a while, the phrase "enormous boobs" would pop into my head and I'd have to bite my lips to keep from laughing.