By the time the Tamers and their Digimon had managed to make it back to the city, it was already starting to get dark, so they didn't really have a whole lot of time to waste before their parents were going to start asking questions.
Jeri decided to go ahead and take Calumon with her, considering the tiny Digimon was pretty tuckered out after using so much of his power to help so many of the other Digimon get to Ultimate level, so as Takato watched Jeri walk off with Calumon, her new partner Palmon by her side, Takato couldn't help but smile as he turned towards Guilmon while the two of them were walking home.
"Man, I'm so glad Jeri managed to get a new partner. I hated having to see her not being able to do anything when we're all out having fun with you guys."
"Well, now she can have fun with Palmon." said Guilmon.
Takato shook his head in amusement as he listened to Guilmon point out the obvious.
"Come on, boy. Let's go home. Here's hoping my mom and dad aren't going to be too mad."
At this, Guilmon attempted to stifle a yawn with his paw, but it came through pretty clearly and caused Takato to chuckle.
"Sounds like you're pretty worn out yourself there. Tell you what. I'll let you get some sleep once we get home, and I'll bring you something. How's that?"
Guilmon nodded, excited as he had a general idea of what Takato might have had in mind.
"Yeah, that sounds amazing!"
Although Takato was initially worried that he may have gotten Guilmon too worked up to want to sleep, he soon noticed as they came up to the front door of the Matsuki family bakery that Guilmon was starting to nod off, and he smiled once more.
"Mom…Dad…I'm home!"
To his surprise, though, he didn't hear anything coming from inside the house.
"Hmm..that's strange."
After quickly sending Guilmon upstairs to get his nap in as he promised, Takato looked around the bakery and the house, thinking that they must be somewhere deeper inside.
Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found, but luckily before Takato could begin to get worried that they were going to have to mobilize another rescue mission, he soon found a piece of paper on the dinner table.
Curious, he picked it up and noticed that it was a note written in what Takato recognized as his mom's handwriting.
Takato,
I never really got a chance to mention it to you since we were so busy running the shop today, but your dad and I are going out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. There are some leftovers inside the fridge, but if you wanted to go out and get something yourself, I left you some money on the table. There's even a little bit extra for Guilmon if you would like.
Takato couldn't help but notice the erase marks all around the last sentence. While he was admittedly a little disappointed that his mom still wasn't comfortable around Guilmon, he knew it wasn't really his place to try to change that, so he decided to just continue reading.
Anyway, we're probably going to be gone by the time you get home from wherever it is you kids are,
"You don't know the half of it." Takato thought as he continued reading.
so have a good night, and we'll see you in the morning.
Love, Mom and Dad
Takato immediately dropped the note back on to the table where he found it, relieved that his parents were still okay. With all that's been happening recently, Takato completely forgot about the fact that today was his parents' anniversary. Still, it was nice to have some free time to himself for once.
Takato looked over on the table and noticed that there was indeed some money as his mom promised. He initially just considered taking the money and running back out, but with how tired he was after the successful rescue mission, he decided just to check out the fridge and see if there was anything good to eat. Plus, there was also the fact that he didn't really want to leave Guilmon or make him get up so soon after going to sleep.
Takato walked over to the fridge and pulled the door open, scanning through what was inside to see if there was anything good.
Unfortunately, the only thing that would even remotely be filling in the fridge was some rice inside a takeout container, no doubt being left aside in favor of what else that his parents must have brought home that day.
Takato admittedly considered just giving up and heading back out to get something, but he didn't really want to worry Guilmon by not being here whenever he woke up, so he decided just to grin and bear it.
Groaning, Takato pulled the container out of the fridge, grabbing a bowl as he transferred the contents into said bowl. However, after giving it some thought, Takato reconsidered just eating the rice as is, so he began searching through some of the other cabinets, thinking that he might find some other things to help spice the admittedly drab meal up.
"Oh cool, I didn't realize Mom bought of this stuff." said Takato to himself as he pulled out a bottle of hot sauce.
Now, Takato knew quite well that he wasn't exactly the most durable person when it came to eating stuff with hot sauce. In fact, he remembered one time when Kazu and Kenta made fun of him for being such a lightweight when they saw him struggle to eat some lunch at school that was covered in the sauce.
Still, as much as Takato wanted just to try and find something else, he found that there wasn't really anything in the cabinets that would actually go well on rice, so he decided just to go ahead and risk it.
Anyway, after heating up the rice in the microwave, Takato decided to go light on the sauce and pour a couple of splotches of it on the rice.
Takato soon sat down at the dinner table, staring at the bowl of rice in front of him nervously for a moment before picking up his chopsticks and digging in.
At first, it was a struggle for Takato, as he predicted. The hot sauce still managed to come off pretty strong, and Takato ended up having to pour himself a glass of water to relieve the burning in his mouth. Eventually, though, Takato soon got used to the sensation, and he soon began shoveling the rice into his mouth, surprising even himself.
"Man, that rescue mission must have made me really hungry. Guess all that energy I spent out there didn't help." Takato thought as he continued to eat.
Soon enough, Takato finished off the last of the rice, and he let out a breath of relief as he finally placed the bowl back on to the table.
"Phew. Glad that's over."
Unfortunately, after finishing off his glass of water to relieve some of the burning taste in his mouth, Takato soon realized that it was still pretty early in the evening. While he did still have school tomorrow, he still had more than enough free time before he had to go to bed for the night.
Before he could really consider what to do, though, he suddenly heard footsteps coming from by the front door. At first, he began to think that his parents were suddenly home without any warning, but after remembering his mom mentioning the fact they weren't going to be home before he actually went to bed, he soon realized just as he came into the room that it was Guilmon, who still looked pretty bleary-eyed but functional all the same.
"Hey there, boy! How'd your nap go?"
"It was fine." said Guilmon. "I woke up, though, and I didn't see you upstairs with me."
Takato wondered what Guilmon was talking about for a moment before he soon realized just what it was.
"Oh, that's right! Sorry Guilmon, I forgot."
As Guilmon looked on curiously, finally fully awake, Takato rushed over into the bakery, quickly scanning through some of the remaining already made bread before finally picking one out. After returning to the kitchen with the bread in tow, Takato began digging through the cabinets, eventually pulling out a jar of peanut butter and spreading it all over the top of the bread.
Finally, after cleaning the knife off and sticking it into the sink, Takato walked into the family room again and handed the bread over to Guilmon, smiling as he watched his partner stare at the bread in wonder.
"Here you go, Guilmon. My present to you for a successful rescue mission."
Admittedly, Takato was just doing it to give Guilmon something to eat, but he decided that adding that special caveat would help make the meal that much more special.
"Wow! Thanks, Takato!"
Guilmon immediately wolfed down the bread without thinking. A few seconds later, though, he soon realized that there was no bread left, and he sighed, disappointed.
"It's okay, buddy. I'm sure that bread was good while it lasted." said Takato as he patted Guilmon on the shoulder.
"Aww…but I wanted to savor it!"
Takato admittedly thought about pointing out to Guilmon that he should have slowed down his eating, the sheer look of disappointment on the Digimon's face made him reconsider saying so, and he decided to try something else.
"Tell you what. I'll let you have another one of them, just this once."
Guilmon's eyes lit up, but before he could say anything more, Takato held up a finger to silence him.
"You have to promise me one thing, though."
"Okay, what?" asked Guilmon as he stared at the finger in front of his face, going slightly cross-eyed.
"I'll help you to not eat the bread all at once, but all I'm asking is that you don't try to steal the bread from me, okay?"
Guilmon nodded vigorously, only having half-listened to Takato's request as he was still too busy staring at Takato's finger while at the same time wishing he still had another one of those loaves of bread with peanut butter on them in his hand right now.
Takato ran into the bakery once more, hoping that his parents wouldn't notice the two missing loaves of bread as he grabbed another one of the same type he grabbed last time. After spreading the peanut butter on it and cleaning off the knife once more, Takato walked over and was about to split the bread in half when Guilmon made an attempt to snatch the bread away from him.
"Guilmon, no. Remember your promise." chided Takato.
"Aww…"
Takato watched Guilmon for a few seconds to make sure he wasn't going to try it again, but when the Digimon remained standing where he was, Takato finished off splitting the bread before handing one of the halves to Guilmon, who at first opened his mouth wide to shove the whole thing in.
However, when Guilmon noticed the look that Takato was giving him, the Digimon soon reconsidered his actions, and he split the bread once more in his hands, popping one of the quarters in his mouth as he savored the taste.
As Takato watched Guilmon slowly eat the bread he had in his hands, sounds of pleasure coming from his partner, he couldn't help but smile as he handed the other half to him.
Eventually, Guilmon successfully managed to finish the rest of the bread.
"So…how was that, Guilmon?"
"Oh, it was so good! I'm so glad I ate it slower!" said Guilmon, pressing his paws up to his cheeks as his eyes lit up.
Takato smiled once more, happy that Guilmon was satisfied. After checking the clock, though, he soon realized that it was getting pretty late.
"Hey, what do you say we get an early night's sleep in? I'd say we deserve it after the butt kicking we gave Vajramon. Right, boy?"
Even though Guilmon had just recently got up from his nap, he willingly agreed to go up with Takato despite it not being Takato's normal time to go to bed.
As for Takato himself, he was still pretty worn out from the battle, so he was more than happy to go to bed. So, after Takato got himself ready for bed, he hopped under his covers while Guilmon curled up on the floor in front of him, both of them satisfied that the battle against the breach seemed to finally be going their way for once.