THE CREST OF UNITY: Part Five

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part Five

::ahem:: It has come to my attention that the digidestined defeated Myotismon before they returned to the digiworld with Kari. Why I only just realised this? Because I live in a little country called New Zealand, which is waaay behind episode-wise when it comes to broadcasting Digimon. ::annoyed:: So, I am now as they say, up a creek without a paddle. Thus, for those of you who have read the story so far, I ask to pretend I never mentioned him, and to change his name to some other enemy they have faced. It would be much appreciated! ::grins:: I just can't be bothered going through and changing it all again! LOL oh, BTW I never thought that the kids looked the ages they have been given, neither do they act those ages…I personally think they look a lot older than said, so in my fic Matt is 15 yrs old. You can work the ages of everyone else from there k? [Besides, 11 is a little too young to fall in love dontcha think? ;-) ] Now on to the story…

Matt couldn't help but brush a strand of Harmony's hair out of her face. Because she was unconscious, and everyone else was asleep, this was the perfect opportunity for him to study her. As he gently touched her face with a gloved hand, Matt felt a new, unknown sensation take over his body. For the briefest moment he was content and felt an overwhelming need to protect the dark-haired girl. His gaze went from her closed eyes to her beautiful mouth. Her light-pink coloured lips were parted slightly in her sleep.

God he wanted to kiss her…

Matt immediately drew his hand back as the thought rampaged through his mind and took out his harmonica, hoping to forget the way he was feeling. His subconscious chose an old love-song that his mother had loved dearly. As the notes soothed his soul he leaned back against the base of a tree behind him and closed his eyes.

Beautiful music…sweet, tender…gentle….

Harmony was surrounded by darkness where she should have been afraid, but the comforting sound of a harmonica relaxed her body and made her feel protected, content. She looked around in wonder as the darkness began to fade and some sort of light became visible. Soon blurry images sharpened and she opened her eyes fully to find herself staring up at a starry night sky. She sighed and stirred slightly. Suddenly the music that had been playing stopped and she heard a rustle beside her. Harmony blinked and found herself staring into a pair of dark-blue eyes, close to the colour of the night. She rubbed her eyes and the full picture came into view. Kneeling over her was the familiar figure of the blonde boy she had met in the forest.

"Hey" he whispered. "You're finally awake!"

She tried to sit up but swayed, feeling dizzy. She felt him take hold of her shoulders and gently push her back down. His grip was warm- gentle but firm in guiding her back down into a lying position. "Don't try and get up- you need to rest" he continued to whisper.

"Why are you whispering?" she asked softly.

Matt smiled. "Because the others are asleep." He gestured to her right and Harmony turned her head to see several others lying on the ground asleep. Her eyes fell on the sight of a young girl and small white cat cuddled up against her digimon, Tigramon. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Tigramon!" she said loudly.

"Shhh! Do you want to wake everyone!" he said fiercely. She gave him a sheepish look.

"Sorry" Harmony then finally realised where she was and who she was with. She looked at him with awe.

"You guys are the digidestined!" she breathed. Matt nodded, saying nothing. She looked thoughtful. "Myotismon- he told me I am one too?" the blonde nodded again and she looked sad. "He told me a lot about you guys- and how he was going to kill you." She looked up at him with soulful violet eyes and he felt he was drowning in them. "I'm glad he didn't hurt you all"

Matt smiled at her words. "Yeah- but he hurt you." She fell silent and he watched with some amusement as her gaze wandered down to his chest where his crest hung.

"That- is your crest?" she asked with wonder. He smiled at her.

"Yep" He watched, holding his breath in anticipation as she reached out a slender hand to touch it. He shivered slightly as her hand accidentally brushed against his chest. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it towards her for closer inspection, causing him to lean in further. She looked up at him again.

"What does yours mean?" she asked in a whisper, her face close to his.

"It's the Crest of Friendship" he answered softly.

"HARMONY!"

Matt fell back in surprise and swore under his breath as he landed on something pointy in his back pocket. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the culprit.

Harmony sat up and turned towards the owner of the voice. It was Tigramon. The cat bounded up and began licking and nuzzling her human friend.

"You're okay, I thought I'd never see you again…oh I missed you!"

Harmony laughed at the excited digimon. Around her she heard the groans and moans of everyone waking. She frowned.

"Way to go Tigramon- ya just woke everybody up!" Kari and Gatomon, having been jolted awake when Tigramon rolled out from under them, were the first to see the girl awake.

"SHE'S AWAKE! SHE'S ALRIGHT!" Kari yelled. Tai rubbed his eyes and stretched.

"Take it easy sis" he yawned. "I mean, you are- HEY!" he spotted Harmony, Matt sitting next to her, looking at something he had found in his pocket. Everyone slowly made their way over to the girl and sat down in a semicircle around her. Matt sat behind her, still lost in thought as he looked at something in his hand. Harmony smiled as the brown-haired boy introduced himself.

"Hi! I'm Tai- and this is Agumon" he gestured to his digimon pal. The little dinosaur grinned.

"Hi!"

"Yeah- and this is Mimi and her digimon Palmon…Izzy and his digimon Tentomon…"

The boy called Tai went around the circle introducing everybody.

"And we are the-"

"Digidestined, yeah…Myotsimon explained everything to me." Harmony finished for him. He grinned.

"So I suppose you know that you are a digidestined too?"

Harmony nodded. "Yeah- I was just talking to Matt about crests." This caused the blonde to look up, startled.

"Huh?- oh yeah…"

The dark-haired girl began to speak again. "Pity I don't have my crest yet…" she sighed.

"Well…actually….I think I might have found it." Matt spoke up and everyone stared at him in amazement. The blonde shuffled over and sat down next to Harmony. He held up a necklace with a tag and crest attached. On it was a silver symbol, much like his own but with two arrows intertwined. He watched as Harmony's eyes widened in awe and surprise. She slowly took it from him and inspected it. Before anyone could ask him where he got it he began to speak.

"Just as we were getting out of that underground room I noticed something sparkle on the floor, but before I had the chance to look at it another piece of the roof fell, so I had to shove it in my pocket and make a run for it with Tsunomon" His digimon, who had digivolved back to Gabumon, grinned.

"I wonder what it was doing there…" Sora said aloud.

"Myotismon might have dropped it, he could have found it before us" Izzy went over possible explanations. Tai agreed.

"Probably..I think-"

"Where's my digivice?" Harmony interrupted. She began to panic. "I know I had it before…"

"I've got it!" Tai said and handed her the electronic piece. "Myotismon dropped it when Agumon attacked him"

She smiled at him gratefully. "Thank-you, you are all so nice" she said softly. Matt was puzzled as he realized how sad she seemed. Sora also had picked up on it,

"Are you okay Harmony?" she asked, concerned. The girl's head shot up as everyone looked at her.

"Oh-I- I'm fine…I just was ah…" she thought fast. "I just was thinking about what my crest could stand for" Matt didn't believe her and he knew Sora didn't either, but both wisely kept their council. The others seemed to accept her answer and began talking about what it could be.

"Well, whatever it is I guess we'll find out soon enough…Hey! Maybe Gennai knows" Tai said excitedly. Izzy nodded his head in agreement.

"Yes- I could send him an email and ask him. I'll get right onto it tomorrow, but now I think we should all get some sleep- we have had quite a day what with rescuing Harmony and all" he shot the girl a teasing smile and she blushed slightly as she realised what they had done for her.

"You know, I never properly thanked you for rescuing me" she said, embarrassed.

"Ehh…it was nothing really" Tai rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "We just attacked Myotismon…it was really Tigramon and Matt that saved you personally"

Harmony looked at Matt with surprise. "Really?"

It was the blonde's turn to be embarrassed. "Well…yeah. You should be thanking Tigramon though, she was the one I told to get you out of there"

The girl smiled and turned to her digimon, hugging her. "Thanks Tigramon"

"Well," Tai yawned "I'm going back to sleep, anyone else gonna join me?"

Everyone nodded their heads and laid back down where they had been sleeping earlier. They murmured their goodnights and slowly drifted off to sleep. Harmony had just laid down and closed her eyes when she heard someone shuffle over next to her.

"Uh…Harmony?" She opened her eyes. It was Matt.

"Yeah?" she whispered. He produced something from behind his back.

"Is this your backpack?" Harmony looked up at him in surprise. "Yes- it is! Where did you find it?"

"It was back in the cave. I thought it might be yours so I grabbed it"

She smiled and took it from him. "Thank-you!" her face then fell as she thought about something else she had possibly lost. As if reading her thoughts, Matt showed her what else he had found.

"Uh…there was also this guitar." The blonde almost melted as Harmony looked up at him with absolute delight.

"You found it!" she whispered loudly. She put the guitar down beside her and Matt turned to go, but halted as the girl's hand suddenly shot out and latched onto his arm. He almost fell onto her as she pulled him down and hugged him tight.

"Thank-you so much Matt!" she said softly, her voice choking with emotion.

"That's…okay…" he said with surprise, slowly wrapping his arms around her and returning the hug.

Although he was thin, he was still quite strong and Harmony felt that strength in his arms as they circled her waist, pulling her closer. She sighed softly, enjoying the feelings he evoked just by hugging her.

"You have no idea how much this means to me" she said, her voice saturated with happiness. Realising he had been hugging her for way too long, Matt pulled back. "I think I have a fair idea, I'd hate to lose my harmonica"

"You play the harmonica?" she remembered the beautiful music she had woken up to. A faint colour rose up on his cheeks. "Yeah"

She smiled at him, but the smile slowly faded and was replaced with a sad look. "It was my brother who gave me my guitar." Matt now understood why it meant so much to her- particularly after hearing what Tigramon had to say about her brother.

"He must have cared a lot about you" Matt said, surprised that he was talking so easily about feelings and other such personal things; things he usually found hard to communicate.

She looked up at him and gave him a sad smile.

"Yeah- he did" she said softly. Matt had the overwhelming urge to hug her again but held himself in check. How would it look? Besides, he still couldn't understand what it was that he was feeling for her. It was different from any other emotion he felt when in the company of the others…even TK.

He's so understanding…Harmony thought to herself. He's cute too…

She was horrified at herself when she realised what she had been thinking, AGAIN!…She couldn't have feelings for him…could she? After her brother died, she had distanced herself from everyone…hardening her heart to avoid any kind of relationship, so she couldn't be hurt again. She didn't want to feel or love. Everyone she had ever loved had been taken away from her. Hell, it was only just recently that she had brought down enough of the wall she had made to let Tigramon in…and she had known the digimon for two months! Two months with just the digimon for company. She envied Matt…to have the crest of friendship! She didn't really know what friendship was until Tigramon had come along.

Harmony realised that the two of them had been sitting in silence for some minutes. Matt seemed to also realise this and he stood up.

"'Night Harmony!" he whispered. He turned on his heels and walked away. Harmony watched as he laid down a short distance from her and drifted off to sleep.

She sighed and rolled over. Tigramon came over and laid down beside her, wrapping her three tails around the girl's body to keep her warm.

"He's nice!" the digimon purred in her ear. Harmony smiled.

"Yeah…he is…" were the last words she uttered as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

Unknown to Harmony, Matt was actually still awake, but lay with his eyes closed.

"Psst…Matt!" The blonde turned his head to find his brother TK lying near him. He smiled at him.

"She's nice!" TK said brightly. Matt's mouth turned upwards in a small smirk.

"Yeah, she is" he replied, wondering what his bro was getting at.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you like her!" was the startling answer he was given.

"Wha-" but his younger brother had already rolled over and closed his eyes. The blonde lay down again and rolled his eyes at the absurd notion. Or was it absurd? Maybe he did like her…

He looked over at the sleeping form of Harmony. There was something about her…something that drew him to her. She made him feel accepted, comfortable. She made him want to open up and tell her everything, but Matt had always considered feelings and emotions to be dangerous, and to add to the mess he had no idea how to communicate what he was feeling to anyone anyway. If he got too close to Harmony, he felt he would possibly lose all hold on reality and he would have to communicate his emotions. It was a scary thought. He would do anything to avoid doing that. He looked in her direction once more and a new feeling of nervousness took over.

That was it. He would have to avoid getting close to her…

At all costs.

::winks:: heheh…told ya things would start to get interesting! Still want me to continue?

::grins:: until next time…