A/n: No surprises about the main characters in this fic if you've read my others. My sister did the HTML to make it pretty. I have a dream guy. He's not Matt, but Matt could probably be his younger brother. ^_~ If you review, remember constructive criticism in any area is great. Mean, nasty comments are very, very bad. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Digimon isn't mine, nor was I given express permission to write stories about it's characters. Do the creators really care though? I don't think so.
~*~ Dream Girl ~*~
"And, tomorrow's gonna be another wet one. Starting out only a little bit cooler than it was today. Gray skies and seventy-eight degrees in the morning, humidity at ninety percent. The showers will start in the afternoon and last till well into the whee morning hours. Now lets take a look at our six day fore-"
Jun sighed as she interrupted the local weather man, pressing the mute button on the large television remote. She rested her chin on her palm, and listened to the sound of the downpour outside. The lapping patter of drops was both soothing and disconcerting at the same time. She usually enjoyed a little rain from time to time, but it had been coming down all week, and she was beginning to wonder would the sun ever shine in Odaiba again.
"Well, the sun wouldn't be shining right now anyways," She muttered to herself as she rose from the paisley sofa on which she was sitting, and made her way across the TV lit living room. Eating her belated dinner in the dark while watching a late night movie on one of the local channels had become a sort of ritual these days. She'd gotten home from work a little earlier on this night. Early enough to see her father off to bed and catch the tail end of the news. Standing at the window she pulled back the curtain to peer out at the stormy activity outside.
Tiny liquid missiles streaked aimlessly through the air in sheer veils, ending in miniature outbursts upon collision with the surface of the apartment's balcony. Each drop threw off a radiant glitter as it fell past the balcony light on it's way to oblivion. Jun traced her finger along the trail of one that had strayed it's way as far inward as the window. She noticed her own reflection gazing back at her in the dark. Her typically messy auburn locks peeked out from under a green head scarf. Her large ebony eyes shown weary and a little lonely. With the sounding of the microwave she turned on her heel and headed for the kitchen, but a sudden bright blue flash from a room to her left startled her and she halted. Frozen, she turned to stare over at the study, the room the light had come from.
'That wasn't lightning,' she thought, and instinctively shot a glance toward her parents room, but quickly decided against waking her father.
'It's probably nothing. Just the computer monitor wigging out,' she finally decided and moved toward the study. Once she'd crossed the short distance to the room she stopped to let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and reached out to push the door all the way open. She jumped up again and let out a short squeal when the door made contact with something that yelped and bounced back. Her first inclination was to bolt, but before she could get too hysterical the realization hit her that it had to be her goofball brother behind the door. Though, she wasn't sure how he'd managed to get across the living room to the study without her noticing.
"Davis"! She hissed as she stormed into the room, more irritated that he'd frightened her than anything. "What are you doing to the computer?" She stood with her hands on her hips and waited for her brother to step out from behind the door. "Davis"! She raised her voice, but only a little. She didn't want to wake her parents. Finally a black denim clad leg emerged from behind the door, then the rest of the body. Jun just stood blinking for a moment, having immediately recognized that the person was not short, gray eyed, maroon haired Davis, and none other than tall, blonde, and blue eyed "Matt?"!
"Uh, hi Jun. I've gotta go now." He tried to scurry out the door, but she reached up and caught the collar of the navy blue corduroy shirt he was wearing before he'd taken three steps past her.
"Hold on. What are you-No, first of all, how did you get in here?" Her family's apartment was on the fourth floor of their building. There was no way that he'd crawled in through a window, and she knew he hadn't just walked in through the front door. As thrilled as she might've been to be in Matt's presence any other time, this situation was just a little too weird to care about that at the moment. Though, she did wish she'd been wearing something nicer than a faded T-shirt, and sweatpants.
"Jun, I um, I'm staying the night," Matt offered. "Ah yeah, Davis has the new Capcom vs. Marvel. I've been dying to play it, so he invited me over," he finished, putting on his most innocent and charming smile. His act only earned him a skeptical look from Jun as she released his collar and folded her arms across her chest.
"Right," she smiled sweetly at him with not a hint of sarcasm in her high voice. She clasped her hands behind her back. "You know, you're even cute when you're lying," she added before reverting back to the suspicious frown. "Now, what are you really up to?"
"Up to?" He placed a hand behind his head and blushed profusely. "Jun, I'm not lying." He grimaced inwardly. 'Well, if that doesn't convince her...,' he chided himself. "Look, just ask yourself would anything else make sense," he added in desperation. To his surprise, Jun hesitated and appeared as if she were considering the matter.
Finally she conceded, "Okay Matt. You're right. Nothing else makes sense. I believe you." He relaxed a little. "But, I still want to know what you were doing to the computer." She poked a finger at his chest. He caught her hand in his and pulled it away from his chest before answering.
"I-uh, I was just looking for an extra joypad, and I bumped into the desk is all. The monitor just went a little crazy for some reason." He shrugged and put on the same smile as before.
"Yeah, okay. That's kinda what I figured," she accepted his explanation, blushing a little as she pulled her hand away from his. "Um, I can get the joypad for you. I don't know why Davis told you to look in here. Mom makes him keep all that stuff in a box in the hall closet." She started toward the hall.
"Ah, wait Jun. It's okay, I can get it myself." He scrambled to deter her.
"No, you wouldn't know where to look. Besides, since Davis is still up, I've got something to ask him."
"Uh, who said Davis was still up?" Matt tried to position himself in front of her.
"Well, he is isn't he? you wouldn't need an extra controller if you were up alone." She stepped around him, and reached for the knob of Davis' door.
"Err-wait"! He jumped back in front of her and held his hands out in front of him. "You don't want to go in there."
"What are you talking about?" Jun reached past him and turned the doorknob. "Davis?" Matt stayed planted to his spot as Jun tried to walk past him. "Matt, you're kinda in the way," she grunted as she tried to maneuver around him. He knew that things would only get crazy if he continued to block the way. So, he hung his head in defeat and stepped aside allowing her to pass by. "Davis? Matt, where's Davis?" She stood in the middle of Davis' room, but there was no Davis in sight. There were, however, some pillows lined up to look like a body under the blue plaid comforter on Davis' bed. Other than that there was no sign that he'd been in the room all day.
"He...well, maybe he went to the bathroom." He gave it one last shot, but immediately appreciated his error when Jun threw him a perplexed glance. He looked behind himself, shutting his eyes tight and suppressing a groan once he had. The bathroom was directly across the hall and clearly unoccupied.
"Alright Matt, are you ready to tell me what's really going on now?" He looked up. Once he caught sight of her knowing expression, he realized that she must have suspected this all along. He shook his head.
"I can't tell you, Jun," he said quietly.
"Can't or won't?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You wouldn't believe me," he mumbled, lowering his eyes again. She nodded, and walked past him back to the study. He followed, not really knowing what else to do at that point. She stood still once she'd entered the study, and stared hard at the computer for a long moment, then looked back to Matt.
"You came out of the computer didn't you?" She finally asked. Matt's gaze shot up.
"What?"! He laughed nervously. "No. Of course not."
"I knew it," she declared excitedly. His reaction was all the confirmation she needed. "That's where Davis is, inside the computer right?" For a moment he stood speechless.
When he'd finally got his senses back, "Wha-but...but?"
"How did I know?" She shrugged, " Besides the fact that you're a terrible liar, I saw Davis do it once last summer. I was half asleep at the time, so he was able to convince me that I was still dreaming, but deep down I was pretty sure that it had really happened. This bright blue light shot out of the monitor, and then he was standing right in front of me when he hadn't been anywhere in the house a moment before."
"And, you're not freaked out?"
"Matt, If you hadn't noticed, my little brother is pretty weird. I mean, I saw him run around downtown with those monsters that attacked Odaiba three years ago. Every now and then I catch him having a conversation with that little stuffed gremlin he's always carrying around, and-" she paused for a moment and looked around quickly before leaning in to whisper, "I know I've heard it talk back."
Matt frowned. It was still much too dangerous to go telling just anyone about the Digital World, but she already knew way too much. This was bad. "Jun, no one can know about this." There was a plea in his voice.
She smiled and tilted her head to the side. "Oh, I'm not going to tell anyone."
"You're not?" After having been blackmailed into a date and several humiliating misadventures over the past three years, Matt was positive that there had to be a catch here, but Jun only shook her head.
"No, I'm not. It's not like anyone would believe me even if I did. I'd just sound like one of those nuts who are always talking about living data and digital monsters."
She had a point there. The time when the majority of people would accept the existence of digimon was still quite a way off.
"So, you aren't gonna ask for anything?" He had to make sure she wouldn't call him later on that night with some crazy demand.
"Nope," she answered, then a quizzical look spread across her face and she asked, "What do you guys do in there?"
He shook his head a little. "I can't te-"
"You can't tell me," Jun broke in, finishing his sentence. She nodded acceptance, and plopped down into the computer desk chair. He prepared to take a step back, but she spoke again just then.
"All those times when you avoided me, when you lied about where you were going," she hesitated a moment, "was it because of this whole computer thing?" Her tone was hopeful. The shocked look on his face told her that the question had caught him off guard, though she wasn't exactly sure why.
He puffed his cheeks and blew out a heavy breath, debating the different ways he might handle this question. It only took him a moment to conclude that he didn't have any choice, but to confess the truth. She would know if he were lying.
"No Jun, it wasn't."
"Oh, okay," she answered simply and looked down at her hands. 'No big deal,' she thought. 'You decided you weren't into him a long time ago.' Unfortunately the knot that had suddenly formed in her throat was telling her differently, but Matt wasn't finished.
"I mean, it's not the main reason. The reason I acted that way, the reason I do those things is because I'm..afraid of you."
"Ha! Gee, thanks." She gave a quiet chuckle without looking up. "I know everyone thinks I'm a little crazy, but I'm really not that bad."
"No, that isn't what I mean." He shook his head. He'd always had a hard time explaining himself. "Jun, you remember the date that we went on, right?" She only nodded.
"When I told you that I had a great time I meant it. I really did. I mean yeah, at first I was kinda angry about the whole blackmail thing, and you making me take you to the most expensive restaurant in town. I forgot about all that as the date went on. After a while I realized I was enjoying myself." She finally raised her head, and her eyes met his.
"Really?" At the time she'd thought he'd had a good time, but he'd stood her up on every occasion after that. "Well, why then? What happened?"
He pressed his lips before answering, "Jun, you're not her."
"Her? Oh, Sora."
"Yes. No. Well, not exactly." He sighed. It was now or never. "I-I've always had this idea of the girl that I would-of the person that I would spend...You're nothing like Jeanette," he blurted.
"Huh?" Jun didn't quite follow, and she wasn't too sure that he knew what he was trying to say judging the frustrated expression in his eyes.
"It's stupid," he shook his head, blushing. "One day Tai asked me what qualities, besides looks, would I want in the girl that I married. We started making these girls up, and he said we should name them. So, I named mine Jeanette," he finally explained.
"Oh," Jun nodded her head. She was finally starting to understand. Matt had a dream girl.
"Sora-she's dependable. She's always worrying about everyone else, and she always has something nice to say."
"She sounds like a really nice person." She wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at.
"I based Jeanette off of Sora," he admitted. "I think Tai based his girl off of Seven of Nine." Jun burst out laughing, but quickly contained herself. She didn't want to be too loud or offend Matt, but he was grinning too. It seemed to help him relax just a bit.
Feeling more comfortable he continued. "Jun, I like you," he declared. Her laughter dissipated instantly. "I like you a whole lot, and I always have. But it's weird 'cause I never wanted to feel this way about someone like you. You're spirited, aggressive, impulsive, and frank. It scares me that I love those things about you, and I don't know why." He actually looked troubled. She wasn't sure whether to feel happy or disappointed.
"Okay," was all that she could think to say. After that no one spoke, and the only sound accompanying the palpable tension between them was the steady percussion of raindrops against the windowsill. Then suddenly the computer monitor emitted an intense blue flare, and Davis materialized before them.
"Jun"! He immediately panicked. "You didn't just see that, did you?!"
"She did." Matt spoke up. "Davis she knows."
"But how?" Davis turned his mortified gaze to Matt.
"She caught me."
"Oh great"! Davis groaned rolling his eyes. "Way to go, Matt. This is just what we-"
"She's not going to tell." Matt cut him off.
"She's not?"! Now it was Jun's turn to roll her eyes at Davis' overreaction.
"No, I'm not, Davis. It's not like anyone would believe me."
"Oh. Okay, then I'm going to bed. I'm pooped. Night Jun. Matt." With that Davis started off past Matt who looked back to her.
"Yeah, I-I'm pretty tired too." He gave a sheepish smile. She nodded, dismissing him, and he turned and left the room. She sat in the darkness of the study, and listened for the doors to shut and the footsteps to cease. Once she was alone again she got up and made her way to the kitchen to get the meal she had heated nearly a half hour ago.
A minute later she settled onto the couch, and prepared to eat. But first she picked up the remote she'd left there, and turned the TV back up. However, she decided against watching the late movie that was already in progress, changing the channel instead. She snickered as the program she'd just switched to began it's opening dialog.
"Captain's log, stardate 51216.3
The Volarian prime minister has
requested that a certain borg and I along with several crewmen from Voyager's
engineering department meet with him to discuss ways to improve their
replication technology."