Unfortunately, this part STILl became longer than I wanted it to, so there will be yet ANOTHER part after this one, and then an epilogue-thing. -_-; I've spent altogether too much time writing this wretched thing. Yet I actually like the way it has come out, even if nobody else does. ^_^.
Power of Two (second part)
by Leto
They had barely taken two steps into the terrible forest when the smoke cleared and the stench of rotting plants abated. It happened quite suddenly. There was still a dark, eerie atmosphere, but the plants seemed almost alive now, and a light, clinging mist hung in the air.
"What happened?" said Mimi, "I can see light through the trees now!"
"The soil feels cleaner!" said Palmon happily and dug her roots into it.
"I bet the others beat Puppetmon!" said Gomamon.
"Maybe," said Joe, "I guess the worlds really are connected, if so."
They walked for a few minutes more until they encountered a Digimon. Well, perhaps that is not entirely accurate - they did see two DarkMonochromon engaged in mortal combat, but decided it might be prudent not to interrupt. This Digimon was smaller, had no armour, spikes or claws, and was peacefully asleep.
They stared at the Digimon for a moment. It was no larger than they were, and covered with thick, soft fur. Its head rested on ungainly paws, eyes tightly shut.
"Well, he looks nice enough," said Mimi finally, and carefully put a hand on the creature's shoulder, shaking it. It opened one eye very slowly, fixing it on her. It did not look nice enough.
"Why did you wake me up?" it asked slowly.
"We're sorry to bother you, sir," said Joe, using the slightly smarmy tone he had developed for dealing with adults, "but you know, a lot of the Digimon in this world seem unusually stupid and as soon as I saw you I recognised a whole atmosphere of intelligence about you, and I knew you would be able to answer a couple of simple questions we happen to have."
Gomamon grinned to himself, thinking that maybe Joe had more in common with him than he'd admit.
The creature yawned, stretched, and drew itself slowly onto its haunches. It turned its head, still very slowly and deliberately, and looked at Joe closely.
"Is that so?" it said, "make it QUICK. I do NOT like being disturbed. If you weren't such a good judge of superior smarts, I would have sent you off by now."
The Digimon suddenly simultaneously extended all its claws at once and yawned again, showing rows of long teeth.
Mimi said nervously, "we were hoping you could tell us what the symbols on these crests mean?"
"Crests?" repeated the Digimon, "crests are items of legend, aren't they? Well, let's see whatever you fancy you have, then."
Joe held his tag out in front of the Digimon, making sure to keep a tight grip on it.
"Oh. I know that symbol! Isn't that supposed to mean Life or something?"
Gomamon started laughing very hard, and Joe stared in disbelief.
"Life?! What sort of crazy world IS this? I get the crest of LIFE? That's so obscure, I'll NEVER get it to react! We're all going to die!"
"Maybe your crest is for ME!" said Gomamon, "maybe if I'M lively I can digivolve! Or YOU can digivolve! Who knows how different things are here? Maybe humans can change! Hahahaha! I wonder what Joe would turn into! I bet it would be something ugly! Hahahaaaaa-ck!"
Joe grabbed Gomamon by the fur on his neck and started shaking him.
"I could not digivolve into something any uglier than Zudomon, and anyway I don't think this is the time for jokes!"
"This is the perfect time for jokes!" said Gomamon.
"What about my crest?" asked Mimi, ignoring the by-play.
"Yeh, that symbol... I think it's Passion, yeah, that's right. Passion... huh, the only thing that could save the humans of this world, I bet. None of them care about anything."
"Does that mean 'life' is supposed to save the Digimon of this world?" asked Joe.
The Digimon shrugged. "Like I know! As far as I'm concerned, we don't NEED saving! There's nothing wrong with viruses!"
"Nasalmon," muttered Gomamon, "Whinemon."
"What are you muttering about?" snapped Joe.
"Just wondering what you'd digivolve into."
"Well cut it out!"
"Do our crests work like normal crests?" said Mimi, "and are there supposed to be more than two?"
"Girl, does it matter? Don't you realise? Your crests are designed so that they will never react!"
"What do you mean? I'm passionate about lots of things!"
"Hayfevermon. Hammermon. Dorkmon."
"Gomamon!"
"Girl, stop bothering me with stupid questions. I want to go back to sleep."
"But if you could just -"
"If I don't get my 22 hours a day beauty sleep, I might become VIOLENT."
Mimi took a step back and nodded. "Well, sorry to have bothered you, sweet dreams!"
"Foureyesmon. Funnymon. Klutzmon."
"GOMAMON!"
"Numemon!"
Gomamon was rolling around on the ground, squeaking with laughter. Joe looked decidedly unimpressed and picked him up by the tail.
"Come on, GARBAGEMON," he said. Gomamon stuck out his tongue.
"Come on where?"
"I... have no idea. But walking's better than doing nothing. Unless we run into violent Digimon."
There was a sudden, terrible screech that reverberated through the forest, making the trees shake. An enormous shape suddenly descended, crashing through the foliage and landing in front of them. It was a Digimon that looked like a giant, pink, metal pterodactyl.
"Ooh, I love your colour!" said Mimi approvingly.
"What was that you were saying about violent Digimon, Joe?" asked Palmon nervously.
The pterodacyl glared, and lifted one enormous foot to show its talons, which it flicked. Then it squinted at Mimi and Joe's chests and moved back slightly.
"Digimon won't attack you while you're wearing the crests," it said quietly.
The kids looked at each other, surprised.
"Spearmon and Spikemon did."
"Those clowns attack anyone who touches their highway. Perhaps they did not see your crests. Did any of you step on a silver road?"
"Oh."
The pterodactyl flapped its wings once. Gomamon was blown into Mimi's arms.
"Wait!" called Mimi, "can you tell us if there's something in particular that's making this world so icky?"
"There's a virus all around. Sometimes it takes the form of Virusmon. But usually it's just in the air. I don't think you can beat him at all. Anyway, the worlds are connected. I'm sure there's more to it than one source."
"What stage is Virusmon?" asked Mimi, "is he, like, a Mega?"
"'Stage'?" repeated the pterodactyl, "I don't know what you mean by that. There are only Digimon here."
"Where can we find this Virusmon?"
"You're mad. Humans will be killed by him. And I see your Digimon are not virus-type. So you stand nothing good by encountering him. He is everywhere, anyway. But..."
"But?"
"But every digital plane thrives on legends. There are some about crests, and one is that Virusmon will meet another world soon after the crests appear, at Perillin. The forest of the dark."
"Great," said Joe, "more darkness, just what we need."
"Another world?" said Mimi, "oh you guys, you don't think he means OUR world, do you?"
"Where's Perillin?" asked Gomamon.
The pterodactyl nodded its cruel beak in a particular direction and nodded sharply.
"I'm sure those crests will offer little immunity against Virusmon."
It flapped its wings and took off, sending dust flying and trees shaking. A moment later it was soaring, a black shape against a greying sky.
And with nothing else to do, the group set off in the direction he had gestured. The forest ended after a time, leading to a seemingly endless expanse of black, tarred ground and a hot summer sun.
"We have to cross that?!" said Joe.
"We have to try," said Gomamon.
"That's right," said Mimi, "how bad could it be?"
They walked.
And walked.
And walked.
Mimi soon realised perfectly well how bad it could be. At first she was busy wondering why her crest supposedly couldn't react, and after a while she gave up on something that took so much mental effort, and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
It was hot.
And still they walked.
"Joe," said Gomamon, after a long time of silent walking, "why are we still walking? This whole thing is useless anyway."
Everyone looked at him in amazement. Although the smallest of them, he had been like a leader for most of this adventure, and that was a very un-Gomamon-like sentiment.
"Gomamon, you okay?" said Joe, "do you want me to carry you?" He was tired himself but there was no place to rest on the hot ground with the sun beating down.
"No, I don't want you to carry me," said Gomamon sarcastically, "I happen to like scraping myself along the hot ashphalt."
Joe wordlessly picked him up and they continued walking, or trudging would be a better word, with heads down, not bothering to speak as it would waste energy. Mimi, being smaller than Joe, was not strong enough to carry Palmon, who was bigger than Gomamon. The plant stumbled along, her flower seeming to wilt more with every step.
"Mimi, this is horrible," she said. Mimi just nodded, with tears in her eyes. There was still nothing but black in every direction, nothing to suggest any immediate reprieve. Her legs were tired, her feet hot, her back ached and there was sweat pouring down her face. Beside her, Joe was also plodding along grimly, both of them walking without the strength to walk.
Joe suddenly stopped walking, set Gomamon down, yanked off his vest and unbuttoned his shirt, which was now wet with sweat. Mimi looked at him blankly as he stuffed the clothes into his bag, picked up Gomamon again and kept walking. Still neither of them spoke. Usually he would have been too self-conscious to walk around bare-chested, especially with Mimi there, but both of them were beyond caring. Indeed, Mimi barely registered.
They did end up having a quick, not-very-refreshing rest, when Palmon finally stumbled and fell, unable to walk any more. Palmon rested her feet by sitting on Joe's bag, while the humans crouched uncomfortably, trying not to touch the ground.
"Joe, I can't stand being away from water so long," said Gomamon tiredly, "we're all going to die in this stupid hot ashphalt desert."
Joe sighed. He wanted water too, they all did. Palmon, with some cactus in her, was not as bad off as the others, but even she was beginning to wilt. His tongue felt dry and rough as he replied "even if we can't find water or a place to rest, night should be falling in a couple hours, it'll be much more tolerable then."
Mimi thought of a few things to say; complaints, wondering aloud about their friends, asking questions. But she discarded all of them, figuring it was easier to be selfish and stay quiet. Too much of an effort to speak, especially as it might lead to conversation, which she couldn't be bothered with.
"We should keep going," said Joe finally, hating to say it but feeling some responsibility for their little group.
Mimi nodded weakly and they each struggled to their feet. After a pause, Palmon sighed and got up too.
It was a full hour of solid walking before anything changed. Simply something on the horizon besides more flat blackness. And it seemed so far away. But the children and their friends kept walking. What else was there to do? One hour, two hours later, they finally reached it.
It turned out that what they saw on the horizon was the end of the ashphalt area altogether. It was, in fact, the beginnings of a mountain range with a 'fence' of fire hydrants around the border.
Joe thought that it seemed this world was just as weird as the digital world. His mouth was too dry to warrant saying this, though. He sank to his knees in the light sand that marked the end of their walk, and gestured simply to the hydrants.
Palmon was completely spent, but gritted her teeth and forced herself to extend a vine and attack the hydrant. Water came squirting out at high pressure, drenching them all. Not one of the four complained.
The kids sat there in the dusk in between a mountain range and an endless expanse of ashphalt, next to their best friends, a seal and a plant, with one of about a thousand fire hydrants spraying water all over them, into their mouths, down their clothes, into their hair and shoes and dripping to the ground.
"Turned out to be a pretty strange summer vacation, didn't it," said Mimi finally. Joe laughed a lot at this, almost hysterically, and Mimi soon joined in. The absolute ludicrousness of their situation hit them both, and although there was really nothing funny about it, both were relieved to be alive and cold and wet.
They decided to sleep there by the hydrants, as it felt safer than being nearer the mountains; dark, ominous craggy peaks, not much more inviting than the forest they had been in.
They sat and ate, and regained the energy to talk, although the Digimon, particularly Gomamon, were morose and not very vocal - unusual for them!
"Gomamon, are you okay?" Joe gently touched the side of Gomamon's face, and his Digimon whirled and bit him. Joe shouted out in shock, grabbing his hand and staring at Gomamon in disbelief.
"Joe!" said Gomamon, sounding scared and apologetic, "I'm sorry! I don't know why I did that!"
"Don't worry about it," said Joe, sounding pretty worried himself. He forced himself to pat Gomamon on the cheek. "I trust you."
"You shouldn't trust anyone," said Palmon.
"Well, aren't you two cheerful today," said Joe.
"We've always been like this, Joe, you just haven't noticed it before."
Both Digimon looked quite depressed, both had lost the usual friendly sparkle in their eyes. Joe was suddenly annoyed.
"Hey, I know everything's not perfect but we've gone through worse - well, maybe - and you shouldn't be giving up so easily! Is all your optimism only worth something when the going is good?"
"We should've given up long ago."
Joe stared. Gomamon was glaring at him! Gomamon did NOT glare unless it was in defiance and on his partner's behalf.
"Don't ever say that!" shouted Joe.
"I'll say whatever I want! All this time I've been following you around! And YOU call the shots, but you're the worst decision-maker I've ever met! You never wanna do anything brave!"
"Gomamon."
"You're just a big coward, Joe! No wonder the group didn't mind getting rid of you!"
Joe stared at his Digimon who stared steadily back, with cold eyes. He was saying all the things he was secretly feeling...
"Joe, it's not true!" said Mimi.
He looked at Gomamon again, thoughtfully, and then pulled his crest from around his neck and looped it around Gomamon's. Gomamon shook his head a few times, as if to clear it, and then stared at Joe looking slightly bewildered.
"Joe!" said Gomamon, "I feel better! Why was I saying those things? I didn't meeeean them!"
"I know," said Joe calmly, "I trust you, remember?"
Gomamon grinned and then looked serious. "Are you sure you want me to wear this? You're only protected against bad Digimon if you're wearing it yourself."
"Yeah, but we can't have you turning virus on us! The vaccine version of Gomamon is bad enough!"
"Very funny."
Mimi looped her own crest around Palmon's neck.
It wasn't very late, but the summer sun had nearly completely set, and it was never very pleasant to wander around dangerous unknown territory in the dark. There was no moon. And so they went to sleep, knowing they should have someone on guard, but even reliable Joe couldn't be bothered.
Since getting up that morning, they had both waited around, trapped in their own ways; Joe trying to get into town, and Mimi imprisoned by the Bakemon. They had finally gotten both of their crests to work, fought Myotismon, checked up on their families, fought VenomMyotismon, returned to the digital world, met the Dark Masters, escaped from, fought and beaten MetalSeadramon, been manipulated by Puppetmon, challenged by Matt, gone off on their own, tried to escape to their own world and ended up in a new one with new crests, walked for hours, and had about a dozen near-death experiences throughout the day.
It had been, to say the least, a very long day.
And so they slept, and they did not wake up again until mid-morning.
"GOOD MORNING!"
Gomamon's scream got through to the others, who all groaned like dying frogs and kind of stared blearily at him. Gomamon had a big, cheerful smile on his face and ran a few laps around the others, slapping the ground with his flippers.
"Rise and shine, everyone!"
Joe still just stared at him blankly. After about twenty seconds, he belatedly realised it might be easier to see with his glasses on. He put his glasses on and stared at Gomamon blankly some more.
"Well? Don't just lie there, lazy bones!"
"Grrmph," said Joe intelligently and started picking sleep out of his eyes.
Mimi was still lying facedown in the dirt - how times had changed since she had entered the digital world! - and after realising that Gomamon was not waking them for any real reason, lay her head back down again and didn't stir. A loud groan came from her general direction.
Palmon closed her eyes peacefully and said nothing. She was enjoying the sunlight in her leaves, and although the soil was not as good as she would have liked, she'd had quite a decent night's sleep.
"Boy, you humans sure are lethargic in the mornings!" said Gomamon.
"Grmn," mumbled Joe - croaked, really - "shrmmm orr I krryu."
"Shut up or you'll kill me? But Joe, I'm your best buddy! You don't really mean that! Come on, it's a bright new day!"
Joe just kept looking at him blankly, incapable of much coherent thought in the mornings.
"And Mimi! You've had many hours of beauty sleep! Shouldn't you be - woargh!"
Mimi looked up at him, her face covered with dirt, her hair mussed, and some dried drool at the corner of her mouth.
"Mreh?" she said.
"Forget what I said about beauty sleep! You should take a shower!"
Mimi hit out at him but he easily dodged and laughed, running around the two semi-conscious humans. Finally he thought of a nice idea, called "Marching Fishes!" and had them come out of one of the hydrants. The hydrant's lid was forced off and water sprayed everywhere, completely drenching the two children, and Palmon, who didn't mind as she needed watering anyway.
The dirt Mimi was lying in suddenly turned to mud, and that was something not so easily brushed off. She yelped and jumped up and lunged at Gomamon before falling down.
"Gomamon, I'm going to kill you!" shouted Mimi.
"I'm going to help!" shouted Joe.
Gomamon found this very funny. "You have to admit, it got you up!"
"Can we eat the fish?" said Joe.
"No way! Those guys are my friends!"
Joe sweatdropped. The fish were flopping on the ground, unable to breathe, and in a couple more seconds they were dead anyway.
"Breakfast's on," said Joe.
"Barbarian!" said Gomamon.
"Uggh," said Mimi, "my arms and legs are all stiff!"
"My back hurts," agreed Joe, "must have been all that walking yesterday. You know it's just going to get worse."
"Joe," complained Gomamon, "every time you go all pessimistic this crest hurts me."
"Maybe we have to be positive in this world," said Mimi.
"When we were all depressed I felt like I was turning into a virus Digimon," said Palmon.
"Think happy thoughts," said Gomamon.
"What is this, Peter Pan?" said Joe.
Mimi found that funny. "Joe Pan, the boy who never grew up! He lived among fairies and pirates and wild animals!"
"I'm the fairy, right Mimi?" said Palmon.
"An' I'm the wild animal!" said Gomamon, baring his little fangs.
"I guess that means Mimi is the pirate?" said Palmon.
"What's a pirate?" said Gomamon.
"I AM NOT A PIRATE!" shouted Mimi.
"Mimi Hook," Joe couldn't resist teasing, "the mean pirate captainess of good form!"
"Is captainess a word?"
"'Good form'?"
"Joe, what're you talking about?"
"Never mind," he sighed. He got up, rubbing his back, and started poking around in the scrub, pulling out twigs.
"Oh, firewood?" said Mimi, "here, I'll help." She stood up awkwardly and pulled branches off of bushes.
"Mimi, you shouldn't do that," said Palmon, "it hurts the plants."
"These trees are icky anyway," said Mimi, "don't you think they're practically dead? I'm doing them a favour. Anyway, it's too much of a bother to bend down to pick up sticks."
"It's not good for my back, I'll give you that," said Joe, but Mimi had got about five times as many sticks as him and she dumped them - away from the miniature flood created by Gomamon - and Joe sat down next to them.
"How are we going to light a fire? Agumon and Gabumon aren't here."
Joe took off his glasses. "Like this!" he said proudly, "have you ever read 'Lord of the Flies'?"
"No, but I've seen the movie, all I remember was a fat kid getting hit with a rock, so violent!"
"Well, I hope I don't get hit by a rock, but you never know in this world."
Joe held his glasses over the fire at different angles, grimacing in discomfort.
"Your back really hurts?" said Mimi, "here, let me give you a back massage! I'm good at these! You just hold your glasses there and relax!"
"Relax? Joe doesn't know how to relax! He's too busy coming down with something!" said Gomamon.
"Gomamon, I know it's really difficult for you to keep your mouth shut but for once could you - waaaugh!"
Mimi knelt behind Joe, wincing as her stiff knees cracked. She pulled off her muddy gloves and started digging her fingers into Joe's back. Hard.
"MIMI, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FINGERNAILS TRIMMED BADLY!" shrieked Joe as he was clawed.
Mimi sweatdropped and moved the angle of her hands. "Well, I was wearing gloves so I wouldn't bite my fingernails so that they'd grow long enough to French manicure them!"
"Well, it worked, they're long enough to use a chainsaw on!"
"Okay okay. Is that better?"
She pounded his back, crunching her fingers into it and grinding them into the skin.
"FINE EXCEPT I THINK MY RIBCAGE IS GOING TO CAVE IN!"
"You don't have to yell!"
She moved to massaging his thin shoulders, but it was not very relaxing for Joe.
"Your back and shoulders are all red," said Mimi.
"I get sunburnt easily," he said, gritting his teeth.
"Best cure for sunburn is cold water!" said Gomamon cheerfully.
"Don't you DARE, Gomamon! I am trying to make a fire here!"
"It doesn't seem to be working."
"What's meant to happen?"
"I guess the light is refracted through the lens of the glasses and concentrated onto the wood until it becomes hot enough to ignite?"
Gomamon, Palmon and Mimi had confused looks on their faces. Joe shrugged. "I made that up. But you have to admit, it sounded feasible. Hey, if Izzy said it you'd all be nodding!"
"I don't think you can make fire out of glass," said Palmon.
Mimi kept kneading Joe's back and he kept giving little yelps of pain and trying to find the right angle for the glasses. They sat there for about ten minutes.
"Well, it's obvious this doesn't work," Joe said finally, "it must have been an old wive's tale or something."
"Or maybe you just did it completely wrong, Joe," said Gomamon cheerfully.
"Gee, Gomamon, where would I be without your encouragement."
"Um, Joe, I hate to bring this up but I was just wondering why you don't just use the matches you put in your bag?"
Joe turned and stared at Mimi, who shrugged. "Just a suggestion!"
He sighed, and muttered something unintelligible under his breath, before finding the matches and starting a fire. They cooked the fish, and ate (Gomamon complained a lot, mumbling about cannibalism, yet they all noticed he ate his full share, and a few bites of Joe's when he thought the boy wasn't looking).
After a little while of lazing around, Mimi looked away from the group up to the mountains.
"They just seem so BIG," she said, "do we have to climb them or something?"
"If we find the biggest mountain, maybe we can see Perillin from there!" said Gomamon happily, "remember when we climbed Infinity Mountain, Joe? We're a great team! This is gonna be fun!"
"Gomamon, I think the virus in the air is really getting to you!"
"I wonder if there are any people or Digimon around here," said Mimi, "it seems deserted so far."
"Well, whenever someone says that it usually means we're about to be placed in life-threatening peril, so don't worry Mimi, I'm sure we'll encounter someone," said Joe.
"Can't wait," said Mimi spiritlessly.
She stared out over the mountain range. So far to go, so much to do. All she had wanted to do was go home. She felt so small, and helpless without her friends and family. They were both kids. Back home, they wouldn't be trusted to catch a train by themselves, or to register for an e-mail account without adult permission, or go rollerskating without a helmet. Now they were trying to save a world by themselves, and in doing so save all the worlds.
If she were back home, the only time she would have woken up with stiff muscles would have been after going to the mall for too long, and then she could spend the whole morning sleeping in and lounging around and not doing anything too energetic for a day or two. Her parents would just take care of her, give her meals and make sure she didn't have to deal with anything herself.
That would have been a good thing... right?
Sometimes she wished there were adults around. Adults always seemed to feel in charge, and know the best thing to do. There was security. The bearer of Reliability's crest was pretty good on inspiring security, but it wasn't the same, because when it came down to it, he didn't really know what they were doing either.
She thought how serious Joe seemed, even when he was joking around. He didn't smile very much. She could tell he was constantly worrying, but trying to keep it to himself, and trying to be like the responsible adult, which he could be without Tai or Matt around. She felt like she understood him better, and that he understood her better.
"I wanna be with my family SO much," said Mimi suddenly.
Joe just looked at her. He liked it how she said that so sincerely; he felt that any one of the other kids would have said nothing, or made up an excuse, or at least hidden the emotion behind the statement. He couldn't imagine feeling the same way; sure, he missed Jim, but he didn't feel like he would get any protection or warmth from being with him, and as for his parents...
But it also made him feel inadequate.
"I'll be your family," he said impulsively, wishing he could offer more.
"You mean like a big brother?"
"If... if you like. Or..." He picked a small daisy and threaded its stem through its head, making a small hoop. He held it up, a little nervous. "You ever heard of 'eternity rings'?"
"Joe..." she said quietly. She was happy that someone like him could offer her something like that. They were so different.
"Don't you feel like we've been made partners here together?"
"For life."
"Or eternity."
She took the daisy chain and put it on her finger.
"Sorry it's not a real one," he said.
"It's real enough," she said, and threaded him a daisy too, "and this way I can make you one too."
Joe grinned. She was glad when he held up his hand to accept the flower. She thought it was cute. She suddenly realised how much he had been doing in this adventure - the one she had made him come on. And by contrast, how little she had been doing.
'You're different,' she could remember Palmon saying, 'you like to take things easy'. And she remembered her mother telling her that different people were capable of different things, and it was nothing to be ashamed of if it seemed like you weren't helping when other people were better at something.
She didn't agree. When there were only two of you, both of you had to try your hardest even if you weren't so good at something. She was glad it was Joe with her instead of Sora or Tai or someone who would make her feel weak because she wasn't as strong as most of them.
Even if she had felt so pretty and popular and polished in her world, she'd suddenly realised that those things didn't help much in the digital world. Sure, maybe she could sucker a Numemon into helping her, but generally she'd found her talents, and herself, suddenly useless, a liability even - someone the other kids scorned instead of how it had been in real life, with her on top of the world.
She suddenly felt it might have been better to be good at sports or know how to cook or be a computer genius, than to go shopping and gossip with friends, than to be good at finding a good sale and matching colours. She couldn't even scrub floors properly. Izzy had always been laughing at her...
But throughout their journey, Joe had always been worse at practical things than even her. Mimi was sheltered and unused to these things, but Joe was just clumsy, and she laughed at him with everyone else, relieved that she wasn't the biggest failure. His clumsiness made her feel more comfortable. But she wouldn't dream of laughing now.
Even if the two of them didn't have the useful skills the others might have had, or the raw power, they were both needed and both part of the team. They had been chosen somehow.
And now, she realised that both of them had to do everything they could, even if they weren't good at it.
She looked at the ring on her finger and smiled. These days would be hard, but days always end. The sun always sets, and then rises again, even in a greying, decaying land far from home, where the only familiar face was someone she didn't even like before the adventures, let alone trusted completely. And someone who was too insecure to dare to trust anyone, let alone someone seemingly so out of his league as her.
But social circles meant nothing. When you see someone first thing in the morning, when they stand by you when you're afraid, when they volunteer to support you when nobody else would, when they pull you out of danger's way, when they hold you to stave off the forces of fear and death, when they give you the ability to stand up again... then the masks that you once wore break, and even if you put them back on for the rest of the world, that other person will always remember what you really looked like.
Mimi watched Joe as he pulled his shirt back over his head, and his vest, carefully doing up all the buttons and tucking the shirt in. Even in the middle of nowhere, he was still habitually doing things the correct way, carefully straightening his unfashionable clothes even in the middle of the wilderness.
She smiled.
And she felt that the exchanging of eternity rings had given them both the strength they would need.
~*~
If you didn't know, an eternity ring, or a promise ring, is indicative of commitment. It's usually considered to represent "engaged to be engaged" (to be married). Love for life.