Author's note: This is the story form of my first-ever Digimon poem, "Of Fire and Ice." I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon: Digital Monsters, or anything relating to it. It is owned by Saban, Toei, FoxKids, and/or Bandai and other people or corporations. I do not claim to own Digimon: Digital Monsters or the characters thereof.

Of Fire and Ice

Opposites attract, they say
But how could that possibly be
When fire melts ice and ice kills the flames --
They cannot stay together.

I stood alone on the cliff, staring at the water. The sea licked at the rock below me, caressing, touching, feeling... My thoughts drifted back to where they always drifted.... Back to him.

I could hear his laughter, faintly, even now. He was back in the woods with our friends... With his friends. Would they still be mine, if they knew? Would he be mine...?

"Opposites attract," I'd heard that blithe phrase so often. Noone ever stopped to think about it, noone ever stopped to think about anything. Didn't they realize that with people everything -- everything -- could be different? Haven't they ever longed to be accepted by the Likes?

Opposites, opposites! Oh, I longed for the Opposites, too. How could I not? The problem was, I didn't really. I longed to long for them, that was the truth!

Him. His voice, it haunted me. All day, all night, I could hear it in my head, always there, I could never get away, I wanted to run, to hide, I wouldn't, I couldn't... I suppressed an embittered scream, and hung my head.

Him. How I wished it were a her! How much easier it would be! And how I hated those that cried over their inability to ask out a girl; they had nothing on me! Opposites. Why, oh why, did I have to love a Like?

The others, they would never understand. Not even he would! I laughed bitterly. Understanding no longer factored into my hopes. It barely made it into my dreams.

Opposites. Why much people concentrate on the physical? Take away our bodies, and he and I were as opposite as could be. He was so fierce, always in charge of the others, but never controlling himself. He was always there, even when he was so weak only a spark remained... he never stayed that way for long. I? I believed in independence, I cared for myself first and the world last. Except when it came to my brother, with him I could be as gentle as the water lapping below... I wished I could tell him, at least, he would understand -- but he would understand too much. I didn't want him hurt, he was just a child.

Opposites. Is it so sick, so wrong, to like yourself and the way you are? Must you seek out your opposite, to validate yourself? It is not easy being who I am... perhaps I would even change it... but... then there is him. He's always there. No, with him, I would not change a thing. Not if it meant being without him.

My love. If he could only trust... if he could only trust me one day. If I could hold him in my arms one day and whisper the words in my heart... My heart, my hardened heart. I never could do it. Daydreams got me nowhere.

They say that you'll never know if you never ask. Asking is a good way to lose it all, too. If I could never see him again, I might as well not bother taking my next breath.

No. I never could, I never would.

Another day, and again the same answer reached. Would it some day be different? That was one I could not guess.

I turned around and walked back. But not to my friends. To him.