Author's Note: Atsuko means 温(atsu) "warm" or 篤(atsu) "kind, cordial" combined with 子(ko) "child" (I chose the name at complete random…I didn't really choose it for it's meaning).
Also…thanks SO much to Gatomon2006 for giving me an idea for this chapter. Hopefully from here I'll get more ideas. ; If not...I'm open for ideas, please people…give me some!
- (A few days later)-
"Hey Wizarmon…" Tailmon said, putting a pamphlet on a bed after she had looked at it, and was lying on it on her belly.
"Hm?" He asked who was busy buttoning up his shirt, getting ready for work.
"Let's go to the zoo," Tailmon answered, twitching her tail.
He stopped what he was doing, and tilted his head up a bit, "…What's a zoo?"
"It's this cool place, you know with animals and stuff. Mrs. Atsuko told me about it. She said that we seemed close, but we didn't spend much time together."
Wizarmon turned around all the way, letting Tailmon see his expression…which was the usual frown and a raised eye brow.
"You mean that old lady across the street, who does nothing but cook?"
"Wizarmon, don't be like that! She's nice, she's already taught me how to work the rice cooker and make rice balls and sushi!"
Wizarmon closed his eyes and sighed, and Tailmon tilted her head to the side. She got off the bed and stood in front of him, standing really close to him too and looking up at his face.
"What's wrong? You don't seem very happy or well today."
Wizarmon shook his head and looked at her, "I'm fine. Work is just stressful…it's my first case and I still haven't figured out the person. I feel I'm close…but…I don't know. What bothers me is I really think I have some of my magic powers still, definitely the mind reading. The suspects…I can read their thoughts and one of them seems really frantic, but I suspect him less than the others. If it's him or not, I don't know how to explain to the others how I know."
"Just…tell them you can read minds," Tailmon said, raising one of her eyebrows, "I don't see what's so hard about it."
"It is. None of the guys there would believe me."
"Hm…" Tailmon said, stepping back a bit and putting her hands on her hips, "Some comrades they are."
Wizarmon laughed, "It's alright. They're just like that, you'll get used to it."
"Like I want to," Tailmon said with her eyes averted.
Wizarmon kept a smile on his face and only looked at her.
She moved one eye to see him staring at her, and then she turned her head to face him. He still continued to look at her as if he had no brain. She smiled, "What's with the look?"
He finally snapped out of it and looked around, "Look…what look?"
"The look like you wanted to smother me in cream and lic-"
"Tailmon where is your head today?"
Tailmon shrugged and giggled, "I was only kidding."
Wizarmon smiled, "Of course you were, unless you wanted that. Ah well, I'm going downstairs to eat."
Tailmon, for some reason didn't catch the "unless you wanted that" bit and instead offered to make him breakfast.
He had walked toward the doorway once she asked that, he stopped and turned around saying, "No thanks…I prefer to have some cereal instead of having to wait for almost an hour for you to finally manage to make one rice ball and throw away almost half of the rice you cooked," and after he said that he gave her a quick grin and dashed out the door.
It took Tailmon's brain a minute to hear all of that before changing from a dumbfound expression to a pissed off expression and scream "Hey!! You get back here mister!"
Wizarmon laughed from the kitchen and already picked a box of what he wanted to eat.
--.--
"I'm going," Wizarmon said, pulling his trench coat off the hanger and grabbing his hat, which looked just like a hat a detective would wear.
"Alright…bye," Tailmon said, she felt sad every time he left.
He walked out the door, but within a few minutes he poked his head back in and said, "Today…we'll go to the zoo. I get off work much earlier today."
Tailmon heard, perking
her ears and tail up, as she stood up quickly, "Really!?"
He
was already gone, but she was happy to finally get time to spend with
him. She jumped up and down, twirling around in the living room, and
once she was finally tired, she lied on the couch and stared at the
ceiling. One would say that she'd act like a young girl excited after
finally going out with one of her crushes for the first time.
Tailmon blushed, why was she so excited? I…I know I've cared
for him deeply…but not this much. Unless…
Tailmon sat up and shook her head a bit, but then looked down at her lap and sighed.
"I guess I'll have to confess to myself eventually…I just love him. I love Wizarmon."
--.--
It was around 4:30 PM that Wizarmon was released. He usually was off around 8-ish, but he got a few hours to work on the case at home. Of course, he had a date to go to.
"So…" Ryouichi said, leaning against a desk, "Since we got off early, we can go out drinking me," he grabbed Hideaki by the neck, who was only walking by innocently, and pulled him closer, "We can give you more hints on you-know-what."
Wizarmon sighed, sometimes he wish he'd be like those teenage kids he saw walking around outside, always having those earplugs in their ears, banging their heads to loud music. At least they didn't have to worry about any obnoxious partners who try to convince you to have sex with your wife. Lucky for him, he had a real excuse to get out of it.
"Sorry guys," he said, closing his briefcase, "I have a date today."
"A date!? Awesome…let me a guess, a romantic dinner…then sex?" Ryouichi asked, releasing Hideaki, who had already started turning blue.
Wizarmon sighed, he knew that was coming. He picked up the briefcase and turned to the two, "No, just a trip to the zoo. We look at animals, not each other naked. I'm off."
Ryouichi frowned, he wasn't acting the same as usual, "What's with you mister grumpy? Your wife not want to-"
The string broke. The bomb went off. Wizarmon…was pissed.
"No!" He said, turning to the two quickly, "I'm just going to have a nice day together with someone I love and not in a passionate way…at ALL! I'm just going to be with her because I love her!"
Ryouichi and Hideaki stared at him, who stood there breathing heavily, then exchanged looks as they saw him sigh, shake his head and turned around.
"Sorry," he murmured, walking to the door but turning to them, "I've just…felt a little drained lately. I guess, feeling tired gets me easily provoked. Heh…well, see you two tomorrow. I'll tell you about everything, but I guarantee there won't be any sex mentioned in it."
He then walked out the door, leaving the two shocked buddies still staring at the invisible Wizarmon before them.
--.--
"Alright Tailmon, we've seen most of the aqua animals and mostly African animals," Wizarmon said looking at a map, then looked up from the map over to her, "Where to next?"
"Well…" Tailmon said, getting closer to him, leaning over to his side to see the map better," We kind of went in a circle. We'll just end up back with the African animals. So it's the bird, reptile, and other small creatures house that we should go to next."
"Hm…ok."
Tailmon looked up at him, and pulled his cheek," Smile would you? Just because you got in a little spat with your 'friends' doesn't mean you have to mess up our date-aaah I mean…our time together."
Wizarmon looked down at her, seeing her with her hands behind her back and grinning sheepishly, and smiled down at her. How he loved it when she acted that way. But hell, he loved everything about her. Ever since he met her; the sapphire blue eyes, the soft, snow-white fur, her short temper even! But it was the light in her heart he loved the most, it made him feel warm. Tailmon looked up to see him smiling at her. She didn't even say anything, she just stared into his warm, comforting eyes. She didn't even notice the blush that filled her cheeks, she just continued to look up at him. They both didn't even notice that they started to draw nearer and nearer, lips wanting to touch so badly. But suddenly…someone in the background yelled "Get a room!". Tailmon swerved to the direction it was coming from, and started yelling insults at them. If it weren't for Wizarmon there to stop her, she would've attacked them as if she was still a cat.
Tailmon looked over at him and smiled, "I wasn't going to kill him THAT much."
Wizarmon pulled his shoulders up and heaved a heavy sigh, "Whatever Tailmon…let's go."
He walked forward, but saw that she hadn't followed him and looked back to see what was wrong. She was rubbing her hands together and blowing into them.
"What's wrong?" He asked, with his hands in his pockets.
Tailmon looked up at him with a blush, "It was stupid to go to the zoo in the winter eh? I don't have any gloves, my hands are freezing."
Wizarmon smiled, walked over to her and took her left hand, sticking their hands in his right pocket, "There, that's the best I can do for your left hand. You can stick your other hand in your right pocket right?"
Tailmon nodded, she didn't like the pockets much but she just was happy to feel is warmth as they walked over to the large building that contained a variety of birds, lizards, snakes, amphibians, mice, rats and bats.
--.--
The two browsed through the birds slowly, amazed about the different sizes and colors of the feathery animals. Next they got to the reptiles, they weren't as cute as the birds or other animals they've seen before, but they were pretty amazing. The two definitely enjoyed watching a snake eat a rat, at least…Wizarmon enjoyed it. Tailmon couldn't stand to watch. It made her sad to look at live mice and rats when they looked at them next.
Tailmon pressed her hands and face against the glass of one of the places the mice were kept, "Poor guys, who knows within a few minutes you…or you…or you…or any of you could be snake food."
Wizarmon smiled and shook his head, "I don't think they feed the other animals with animals they put on display. Come on, let's see what's next."
He grabbed her be the hand, who still continued to look at the mice and talk to them till she was dragged away.
There was a black door in the hall, so they walked into the room. The room, like the door, was pitch black. But they could hear voices and squeaking.
"Are there more mice in here or something," Tailmon said looking around. She waited for Wizarmon to answer, but there wasn't any.
"Hey Wizarmon I ask you a que…what's with you?" She turned around to see him almost completely stiff.
"Tailmon…" he finally murmured, "These are bats."
The fur on her tail spiked up and a chill went down her spine, "B-bats? You mean…like…"
"Yes Tailmon…bats…" Wizarmon said, then grabbed her by the hand, "Let's get out of here."
She willingly agreed. The two had enough of bats when they were with Vamdemon. But, much to their dismay, before they even grabbed the handle a man's voice came.
"Ah, more people to view our flying friends. Why don't you come over here, we can let you hold one!" Said the man, which they figured was the keeper of the bats.
"Uh…we were just about to leave…" Tailmon said, pointing at the door. But then again, she barely could see it, which had her wonder how the man spotted them.
"Ah sure you were," the man said, thinking they were being sarcastic and grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over. Wizarmon wasn't going to let her be tortured alone, so he followed.
"Now, hold your arm out," the man said to Tailmon.
Tailmon looked around, at Wizarmon, the kids and families next to her, the keeper, and just around before she slowly raised her right arm.
"Good," the man said, then moved his arm with a bat hanging on it and let the bat crawl to Tailmon's arm. Even through her thick jacket, she could feel the claws of the creature. She gulped, not loud enough for anyone to hear, and shivered a bit.
"See, now kids. Tell me why do these bats only stay up at night time?" The keeper asked as a few kids raised their hands.
Tailmon rolled her eyes, it didn't have to take a rocket science to figure that out. They were evil and couldn't stand the light or else they'd burn. Tailmon giggled at the sight of seeing a bat burn, definitely Vamdemon.
Wizarmon leaned closer and whispered into her ear, "You're alright, right? I'll hold it if you want me to."
"N-no…I'm fine…I-" then she looked down to see it trying to crawl up closer. For a second there should could imagine Vamdemon again, him and his fangs wanting to bite. He never bit her, but his whips reminded her of any kind of bite. With that, she began to scream and try to shake the poor thing off her arm. But the stubborn flying "rat", as some would say, stuck to her arm with all its might. The keeper tried to calm her, but how could anyone keep calm with the experience she had gone through with bats! Soon her screaming had other bats flying about. Kids screamed, and the adults ducked down as some tried to swoop down at them. Finally the bat let go, feeling dizzy from being shook around so much. Once the bat was off her arm, she turned around quickly and dashed out the door before Wizarmon even knew. Once he noticed, he followed her out. She was just outside the door, bending down with her hands on her knees and breathing heavily. He smiled, he wanted to giggle about the way she reacted but he knew she wouldn't be happy about him laughing at her; he bent down and put his hand on her back, "You alright?"
She breathed in and out one more time before looking at him with a smile, "I'm good now."
He smiled back, stood up and waited for her to stand up with him, then walk out the door and take a break and have something to eat.
--.--
"Do you want to continue looking, or just go home?" Wizarmon asked, when he finished his meal. Tailmon was nearly finished, but stopped to talk with him.
"Well I don't mind, if you want to go home we can," she said, playing with her food with the fork.
He shrugged, "I don't know. I though you might want to go home, I won't mind staying for a bit longer either."
"Alright, then we can stay for a bit. I like it here, I really enjoy all the animals…besides the bats."
Wizarmon giggled, knowing that she was cool now it would be ok to laugh about it.
"That's not funny," she said, but had a smile on her face. Now that she thought about it, it was kind of funny how she screamed and waved about like that.
The two paid for their food, and looked at the remaining animals. Some of the animals were lovers, laying next to each other or just rubbing their heads together. The sight of it made Tailmon inch closer to Wizarmon, even at some points she would lay her head on his arm. She wanted to muttered, "I love you" so bad, but for some reason she couldn't get the words to escape her lips. It was the same with him.
So they continued their day at the zoo, and went home quiet. Wizarmon had already learned to drive a car, but kept it on auto just in case. So it pretty much was like he was playing with the wheel. Half way there, Tailmon decided to break the silence.
"So…which was your favorite animal to look at?" She asked, but continued to look out the window.
He smirked, "I enjoyed the bats."
She looked over at him, slapping him on the leg, "That's not funny!"
He smiled and shrugged, "I don't know, I liked all the animals I guess."
"Except for the bats?"
"Yes, except for the bats, and what about you?"
"I like the tigers and lions. It's amazing to know we're from the same family."
Wizarmon raised an eyebrow.
"What? I'm a cat Digimon, so to humans I can be related to the cat family right?"
Wizarmon shrugged his shoulders, "I guess…"
Tailmon smiled and nodded, then looked back out the window. She sighed, then thought for a minute and spoke again, "What will we do next time? You know…when will we spend more time together again?"
Wizarmon sighed, "I don't know. The only reason I was off early was so that I can work at home. I was supposed to be looking through files and clues and such, but I decided to hang with you instead."
Tailmon look over at him wide eyed, "You did that just for me…why?"
He shrugged again, "I don't know, because…because I…well we do need to hang out more often."
She smiled at him, "You're weird."
He said nothing and kept his eye on the road as she turned back at the window.
Maybe, she thought, I'll tell him how I feel eventually.
