I don't own digimon.

Characters: Rei/Astra

Universe: Applimonsters

Series: Rei's Bonds

Notes:

What is this? Two of the same series in a row? Unheard of!

Also, thank you to the three users who binged this.

Chapter 91

Rei's Resolve

When it came to cleanliness, Rei's apartment left a whole lot to be desired. From the piles of energy juice pouches to the general junk that had been piled up in the aftermath of our hacker here freaking out and just needed an escape from the mess that was his life, it was a feat of dexterity that our protagonist didn't hurt himself while moving through it.

"There has to be an easier way to do this." Rei muttered as he waded through the piles of junk. While it had only been around a year since his brother had been swept away in that freak revolving door accident, it still stung.

After getting the groceries in the fridge and the bags all gathered up, Rei let his attention turn to the mess he had made.

So the hacker got to work, grabbing a garbage bag and began filling it up with as much trash as he could. Hackmon helped to the best of his abilities, while Sleepmon just… slept. That was only thing Rei's brother was good at currently. Okay, outside of being used as a paperweight. If there was any mass to him. Did appmon have mass? If they are a large meal and didn't exercise? Would they gain any grams? Would there waists change? Maybe that was why they didn't look like humanoids.

Pushing that thought out of his head, Rei returned his attention to the task at hand. It was going to take more than one filled garbage bag. If anything, he would need some help with this mess. Which made it a perfect opportunity to try out that whole friendship thing and prove Yuujin wrong.

"Let's see here…" the hacker remarked and made his list of contacts appear on his MInerva band. While this functionality wasn't part of the original device, it was absurd that you had to be so direct with what was supposed to be the next step in technology. Even his workaround still required voice commands

"Minerva, call Haru Shinkai."

Of course this being a voice recognition software, it didn't work out like he intended it too.

Calling Astra…

Rei was tempted to smash the watch into a million pieces, never to be used again. But he held himself back. Accidentally calling the wrong person was the least of his problems at the moment.

"Who you are? I think I know you? Hello!" Astra greeted in his usual tone. One would think his dad could at least try to teach the ten year old proper manners. I guess that's a bridge too far in this case. "What can I do for you, Rei?"

The apptuber got a sigh.

"While you're not my first choice, I need someone to help me clean." Rei explained. Personally, he was hoping for a swift and utter 'no'. But when that desired answer didn't come, there was cause for concern.

"Of course, Rei! See you tomorrow!"

For the second time today, Rei wanted to smash the minerva band into a million pieces. He held himself back. While he could just go and buy a phone, L-Corp were the only ones who really had phones with all the features that he wanted. On top of all the spyware in the world. They could at least try and hide their intentions, but the hacker would find them again. He had a bad talent of doing that to himself.

"Is something wrong, Rei?" Astra continued, noticing the still open line on the band and taking full advantage of it. "We're all here for you and stuff."

Rei took a deep breath. Which in turn, got him a look from Hackmon. While he would prefer his partner to not be questioning his decisions. Like the time he bought a Cure Sunshine plush in the hopes of cheering himself. But his partner thought otherwise. At some point, it had gotten lost in the various piles of junk. Hopefully to be seen again.

"We're go-"

Before Hackmon had a chance to finish his sentence, Rei cut him off. Which took the form of the hacker cradling the hacking Appmon in his arms and covering their mouth.

"If you could bring some tea over, that would be nice." he explained and waited for a response back. There was less of a delay in Astra's response this time.

"Of course! Any preference on flavor?" the apptuber asked and got silence in return. It was possible that his audience had assumed that all tea was the same, an insult to the generations of tea specialists and their craft. He let it slide. "I'll just bring some normal blends."

"Sounds good." Rei answered and made sure to hang up properly this time. After, he set his partner back down. "Phew."

While he hadn't intended for this conversation to occur, the result was something that could be worked with.

"You could have just said no." Hackmon remarked and watched his partner sit down beside him. "You got Yuujin's words stuck in your head, don't you?"

Rei looked away as he tried to hide a nod. While his meltdown at the supermarket was by no means the hacker's proudest moment, he would have normally brushed it off and just continued on with his day. This time, he was left with questions for himself. Of how he could handle that better and what to do in the face of difficult situations such as that.

"Yes." he finally whispered and looked down towards the ground. "I'm in high school now. I can't be fighting these kind of battles so foolhardy."

That got him a look from his partner.

"What do you want for dinner at least?" Rei continued and watched Hackmon's attention now fully on him.

"I'm fine with whatever you make for us." the hacking appmon answered as Rei got up, wading his way over to the kitchen. What follows, is eggs and some sausage. If Rei had wanted to go say, American, some bacon would be all that was needed. Okay, there was probably more to it than that, but the semblance of the idea was there.

"What do you think?" Rei asked and watched his partner dig in. At first, his expression looked to be that of indifference. But then he began chewing and stuff. It seemed to go down a whole lot better that way.

"It's alright." Hackmon answered, getting a sigh in return. "The eggs were burnt and it would've worked better with some bacon."

Rei gave a nod. While he probably should've trusted his gut or something, he decided to dig in as well. But not before giving Hajime his portion. It would be rude otherwise. Even if it was highly unlikely that the sleep appmon would actually take a bite. But it was worth a shot.

The morning came not that long after, signaled by the guitar arrange of the opening song from Heartcatch Precure. I guess getting a track from the source material itself that didn't sound like total electronic garbage was a bridge too far here. But you can get the guy behind My Hero Academia soundtrack for no less than three seasons of precure. No, I'm not making that part up.

Whatever the case, Rei shot his now silent alarm clock a glance, only to do a double take right after.

"Crud." he muttered as he scrambled to get some semblance of an outfit on. Of course, the doorbell was now ringing and someone needed to go open the door. To make matters slightly worse, Hackmon and Sleepmon were both soundly asleep. Because why wouldn't they be? "Crap."

So Rei waded through the piles of trash and junk to reach the front door, pulling it open in when he got there. There was just one small problem. In his rush to get in some semblance of being 'ready', he had forgotten to put a shirt on. Could be worse. "Uh… Good morning, Astra."

The king of apptube looked him over, seemingly confused by Rei current lack of an upper garment.

"Are you alright?" Astra finally remarked, watching Rei just shake his head.

"No. I feel awful." the hacker explained as he let his teammate in. "My head feels like it's been hit upside by a nokia phone."

Astra only understood part of that sentence. I guess someone needs a history lesson in phones and their uses. Except both he and the hacker had a smart watch. I think those are smart watches, at least.

Nonetheless, Astra and Musimon made their entrance.

"Nice place." the music Appmon remarked as he began debating how exactly they go about this. That, or what music to play. One of the two.

As it would turn out, it was the latter - taking the form of some generic music one could get for free off of a number of sites. Music-based or otherwise.

"I'll get some tea and breakfast ready while you get your shirt on." Astra explained and got a nod in return.

This time, Rei made sure to get on a clean shirt and to wake up at least Hackmon. There wasn't use in doing it to Sleepmon. He could just continue to sleep in peace. Well, sort of peace.

Back in the kitchen, Astra was hard at work making... something. It looked like breakfast, but one could never truly be sure with this guy.

"What is that?" the hacker remarked as he took in the mess that his guest had made. Which was just adding to the cumulative mess in this place.

"My signature jelly and eggs, of course!" Astra answered and let a massive smile hang on his face. The tea kettle was on the stove, somehow not setting stuff on fire. But that's beyond the point. Someone needs to try this… dish. It can't be Astra and I doubt that the music will play when Musimon is eating. Which just left Rei to dig on in.

"Fine…" Rei muttered and was handed a fork. He dug in right after, afraid of what awaited him. But the result was far more enjoyable than he was expecting, the sort of thing you expect when swedish fish are put on pepperoni pizza.

"So on a scale of 1 - 10, what did you think?" Astra inquired as he set a tea cup down, somehow managing to hold the video camera in his other hand. There just had to be a catch to this, didn't there? No such thing as a free lunch. Or something like that.

"An eight." the hacker remarked and muttered something under his breath. Static followed right after, with our apptuber here giving his host a look. "You should've asked before filming me."

You would think that Astra would know that, but you would have thought wrong. Or perhaps the result of just having himself being the only one to film and stuff.

"Yeah, you're probably right about that." Astra answered and let out an awkward chuckle right after. "Can I videotape you, Rei?"

The hacker shook his head. While it wasn't that he didn't like being seen by a camera, he just rather not risk giving L-Corp any juicy information that could possibly slip out of his mouth. Especially when Astra is involved.

So the apptuber set his camera down on the table and gave his full attention to Rei.

"Okay. Where do we want to start?" Astra inquired as his partner changed music tracks. It was another generic one, slightly more catchy than the last. Which wasn't saying much when it came to this genre of music.

I was thinking here would be best. Since you're working on the tea and stuff." the hacker explained, watching his audience give a nod. So he walked over to a nearby drawer and pulled out a big roll of garbage bags. Rolling part of it put, Rei handed a bag to both Astra and Musimon. Then to Hackmon, with him rounding it all out. "Just grab a new bag if yours fills up."

His three workers gave a nod and got to work. The pile nearest to the stove was the first to be attacked. While there was a struggle, victory came quickly for the boys.

"Can I ask you something, Rei?" Astra remarked as he went to check on the tea.

"Shoot." the hacker answered, awaiting what possible question that could come out of the apptuber's mouth.

"Do you take advantage of us?"

For a kid, sometimes Astra's mouth could bring him a lot of trouble. This was one such case of it on full display.

So Rei took a deep breath and let his attention focus fully on the boy. While there wasn't much in the way of an easy answer to his question, this would do.

"Not at all." the hacker answered, replaying the past events to the best of his abilities. While sure he had bounced on in at least once or maybe twice, he had least made an effort at connecting with them. But Yuujin's word came right back.

"I thought we were friends." he had told him, the words now mocking him at the moment. Like some sick joke on repeat.

"Rei?"

Whoever that was got no response.

"Rei?"

Still no response.

"REI!"

The hacker returned to reality, finding himself staring down Astra.

"Sorry about that." he whispered and let his gaze shift away from the apptuber. In the pile of junk and possible garbage, what appeared to be something precious awaited. "I'm sorry if it seemed that way. My intentions were never that."

He began to dig into the trash. The first couple scoops felt like a fool's errand, mocking him for letting it get lost in all the rubble. But as he got deeper and Astra handed him a tea cup for some reason, the hacker could feel his pace getting quicker. He did make sure to drink the tea up as well.

"You'll have to tell me your recipe." Rei continued and got a chuckle from Astra in return. I guess that's a no then. So much for that. "Please?"

Astra shook his head.

"It's a family secret." he answered and puffed his chest out. While it did give him maybe an extra inch of height, that still wasn't enough to be at Rei's eye level. "If I told you, it wouldn't be that much of a secret."

That got him a chuckle of sorts.

"Maybe after this, I can show how to look at your secret stats." Rei finally answered as his hand touching something soft. His attention turned to the pile, where the Cure Sunshine plush awaited. "There she's is!"

Throwing all caution to the wind, the hacker left the plush meet his chest. Which did get the snap of a photo from Astra.

"I guess I need to hide it again." Hackmon muttered and got a look from his master. "As long as it doesn't distract you from your duties, I'll allow it."

Rei gave a nod and headed for his bedroom. There, Hajime slumbered.

"Here's a friend." he whispered, slipping the plush into the appmon's hands. Somehow, the comatose boy managed to hold onto it. "You probably can't see her. When I was looking for you, she was my light. May the same be said for you."

He left the room right after.

"You alright, Rei?" Astra inquired, not at all noticing Musimon change tracks. It was a somber track, the sort to be listened through tears.

Nonetheless, they got down to cleaning. While they all did lose track of the number of garbage out in the hall (they did make sure to clean up the mess), Rei's apartment did eventually get cleaned.

"You said something about secret stats?" Astra inquired and watched the hacker pull his laptop out. Fingers dance about their keyboard, until Astra's apptube page comes up. A single page the boy has never seen before appears. "So that's what it is."

Rei let out a chuckle.

"I'm not entirely sure why they hide this stuff from you." Rei explained as he watched his friend look it over. "It has everything you need to kickstart your apptubing into the next level."

Astra gave a nod, letting a smile form on his face.

"Thank you." he whispered, his tone that of a kid on Christmas morning.

"Of course." Rei answered and sat himself down. "Anything that you want to do today?"

Astra held out his video camera.

"Okay. Just one video."