Kindred Pairs
by milesprower06
"Come on, mommy! Come on!" Ai excitedly said, after her and her brother were told to not run too far ahead on the sidewalk. Their purple-ringed digivice was held in both of her hands, as her eyes were glued to it as they tracked the signal home after they had walked down the block for lunch.
"You two aren't the ones carrying all of the leftovers," their mother reminded them, as they were quite adamant on stopping lunch and heading home as soon as the digivice started beeping and showing the compass pointing back home. "Besides, he might want some of this when he gets here. Dimension-crossing has to work up an appetite, right?" She added.
They rounded the corner onto their street, and saw the white beam of light erupt out of what they were certain was their backyard. That certainly bumped up their mother's pace as they ran down to their house. Instead of going up the front walk, they went around the right side, hearing their dog growl for a moment, then bark excitedly. By the time they had reached the backyard, the fog had nearly dissipated, and there was Impmon, having clearly been tackled and currently being slobbered on by their dog.
"Okay okay, I'm glad to see you too!" He said, protesting the barrage of kisses.
"Impmon!" Ai and Mako exclaimed simultaneously, running towards him. As soon as he got up from under the dog to greet them, he found himself on the ground again from a dual tackling hug from his two tamers.
"Oof! Well, you two have certainly grown..." He managed to squeeze out of his lungs as he returned the hug. "Say, somethin' smells good."
"Backyard picnic!" Maako said, finally getting up off of their partner, letting him get to his feet. Ai immediately agreed, and their mom set the bag of leftovers down next to them.
"In that case, I'll go get the blanket. Welcome back, Impmon."
Impmon nodded at her with a smile, again embracing his two partners as they sat on either side of him.
"It's good to be back."
Henry couldn't be absolutely confident that he wasn't breaking any cycling laws at the moment, but that was in the rearmost reaches of his mind as he was only skidding to a halt when it was apparent that he wouldn't make a green light. Apart from that, he put standing weight behind each pedal, and just made sure that he didn't lose the cooler that he had haphazardly tossed into his front basket before making a beeline for his apartment building.
Hopping the curb up from the bike lane to the sidewalk outside his complex, he likely would have knocked the bike rack over if it weren't for the five other bicycles currently latched to it. Not even bothering to lock it to the rack, he jumped off of his bike and grabbed the cooler, rushing down the walk to the complex's front doors into the lobby. His thighs already burning from the mad dash here, he came to the elevator and was disheartened to see it already heading to the top floor.
Taking a deep breath, he ignored the throbbing protests of his legs, and jogged to the stairs at the side of the building. He shoved the side access door open and took them two at a time, his deep breaths being the only thing keeping him from tripping and falling. Coming up to the fourth floor, he pushed the door open with his shoulder and ran down the hall to his door, hastily digging out his keys from his pocket, and promptly dropped them to the floor as he fumbled for the right key with one hand. Putting down the cooler, he picked up his keys, slid the correct one into the door, and quickly stepped into his apartment, kicking in the cooler just far enough for the door to swing closed. He turned into his bedroom, and couldn't even see his computer desk through the fog that surrounded it.
"Are we going the right way?" He heard a feminine voice ask.
"You got me. Last time I was quite exhausted." Replied a familiar voice.
Slowly navigating his way to his computer, trying in vain to wave away the fog, Henry bumped into his computer chair, and he pushed it out of the way. Now close enough to see the light of his computer monitor through the haze, he slowly reached forward.
"Terriermon...?" He asked, his throat tightening, and it was all he got out before the glow of his monitor more than doubled, and he was hit in the chest not once, but twice, with a weight that his exhausted legs refused to balance, and he was knocked down to a sitting position as the fog began to clear.
Henry looked down, and saw Terriermon and Lopmon in his arms.
"Well, what do you know? Right where you were last time." Terriermon said, looking up at him with a smile.
As the tears very quickly built up and overflowed, he turned back to his open door.
"Suzie! Suzie, look who's here!" He called, hearing the thuds of stocking feet moments later as his little sister came into his room, and immediately got an overjoyed smile on his face.
"Lopmon!" She cried, running towards them. Henry immediately let Lopmon down to the floor, as he used both arms to embrace Terriermon as his body quivered, curling up his aching knees to cradle him against his chest, as his tears fell down onto the bunny's head as he snuggled against his shirt.
"Hey, that stuff hasn't gotten any warmer, you know." Terriermon remarked.
Henry couldn't help but giggle at that, taking a deep breath as he tried to get himself under control, largely failing due to hearing his sister's reunion with Lopmon behind him.
"Welcome home, pal."
'Of all the days to race Gogglehead...' Rika mused as she pushed her bike's pedals as fast as her legs would let her. Out of the three of them, bolting out of the school's track in separate directions, she had the farthest to go by far. She double-checked her D-Arc, and confirmed that it was indeed pointing her home.
She began to wonder if she didn't get there fast enough, if Renamon would merely fade into view behind her.
No. She wouldn't be last again. Memories of the message packets brought a second wind to her legs as she continued biking towards her house. Getting going after a stop sign was the worst, without even factoring in having just run a mile. She was going to ache so badly after this...
On the plus side, all they'd have to do is find a public pool on the route, and they'd have a triathlon on their hands.
Turning onto her street, and seeing the gradual uphill climb, she got off the bike a quarter of the way up, and jogged it up the rest of the way. She put all of her exhausted body weight into pushing the wooden gate open with her shoulder, and quickly dropped the bike just inside as she checked her D-Arc again, and jogged across the central garden to her room. Feeling her legs turn to jello, she grabbed the sliding door to her bedroom and shoved it open.
Standing there, on the other side of her table, was Renamon.
The yellow kitsune turned to see her partner leaning against the door frame, shoulders heaving as she gasped for air.
"Rika..." She greeted.
Ignoring the searing protests of every muscle in her legs, Rika pushed herself off of the door frame and sprinted forward, jumping up onto the table and took a flying leap towards her digimon, who swiftly caught her as she threw her arms around the fox's neck.
Her feet hung in midair like limp noodles as she began to sob into Renamon's chest fur, clinging to the vixen as if for dear life. Renamon slowly dropped to one knee and then the other to lower her tamer to a half-sitting position.
"Rika, are you alright?" Renamon asked her shuddering partner.
Sniffling, Rika pulled away from Renamon's chest, and looked up into her eyes with wet vision, managing a smile.
"I am now."