There isn't really a disclaimer for this story, but since 2 fan-made Digimons appear, I guess they go to Bandai and Toei Animations...

Alan, Chris, Reilmon, Tsuki, Ryu, Noriko, Shiroma, Teria and Han are characters made by me.

Kitsunemon is property of Talismon2k1, whose mail won't be here for obvious reasons...

Just as a simple heads up, this is a romantic/angst story between Tsuki and Ryu, which takes place about 15 years after "The Next Level", this is NOT a sequel whatsoever...By the way, by the time both Tsuki and Ryu are 25 years old...

When Love Ends...

So much time has passed... 15 long years of being together. 15 long years of hapinness, love and laughter. 15 long years spent as lovers, and more as friends. Their relationship had gone quite far, and both were happy for that... Apparently...

Tsuki, 15 years later had turned into a flammant woman, she was about 1.73 meters long, her body was mostly human, repeat, mostly... She had a long, fluffy tail of about 95 cms, the tail was reddish like colored, save for the last 7 cms, which were in white. She had long pointy fox-like ears of about 10 cms, but black colored instead, and about the last 2 cms in white too, she wore long gloves in the hand, reaching past her elbows, in sky blue color. Her body was that of a fully developed woman. Her shoulder-length hair flew with a wind current, the black blending with her ears, and blonde streaks running along it... She was currently wearing a simple red blouse and a pair of jeans...

She walked a couple of meters after leaving the car and entered the house where she and Ryu lived at the moment, he was already there, dinner was already served, as Ryu had turned into a fine cook, so Tsuki rarely cooked anymore.

Ryu had also changed in the last 15 years, like Tsuki, he was also a hybrid, but with his own changes. He was about 1.78 meters long, a tail also was on his back, his was about 90 cms long, just slightly shorter than Tsuki's but it's color was that of a deep blue, and the last 7 cms or so in raspberry blue, he also had fox pointy ears, about 10 cms long too, in the same color as his tail, but only the last 2 cms in the lighter shade. He wore a pair of long braces, almost fully covering his arms, the edges of them were in a gold color, and all that remained in black, he wore a necklace with a rhomboid stone in crimson red color. He wore a rather simplistic black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, since he had already come home from work, no sense in looking so formal, right?

He walked up to Tsuki as kissed her, Tsuki barely returned the kiss, which left a rather puzzled look on Ryu's face, he shaked any ideas in his mind and served dinner, both sat down and started to eat and it was a rather uneventful dinner... And the day continued like that...

~*~

Next day was a holiday, thus neither of them had to leave to work, Tsuki was still in sleep, Ryu on the other hand with nothing to do started looking at old pictures, various of the first of them consisted on them and Noriko, Shiroma, Teria and Hand on various places, they all still kept in touch, and went out every now and then, another pictures were of Alan and Reilmon, or Chris and Kitsunemon, both couples didn't lived far away, and both Tsuki and Ryu visited them about twice a week, unless work got in the way... He scrolled through all the albums until he reached the last one... Their wedding pictures... A bright, wide smile on Tsuki's face, much unlike the one she had nowadays, he still remembered most of the events of the day, how it started, the preparations, the ceremony itself, all kind of events after, and how the day had ended romantically with his love, Tsuki...

She woke up and left the room groggily, and was met by Ryu, his arms open, she huffed through with a "Not now Ryu, I'm still asleep, give me a minute" she then moved on, Ryu was rather hurt at the comment, and the 'minute' never came, and the day continued like that...

Night came again... Ryu sighed to himself as he licked the surrounding area of his mouth, enjoying Tsuki's own fluids, he then licked his fingers after he was done. He enjoyed, or more like loved making love to Tsuki, even through all the years they had gone through, as a couple or already married, it hasn't lost that special feeling whatsoever. He looked upwards at Tsuki, awaiting a thankful smile or words, but...

Tsuki already was in deep slumber... Not even a word of compliment, a simple thank you, a smile... Nothing! The night had just started, and it had already ended so fast... Work must be pretty hard on her... Thought Ryu as he sighed again, snuggled against her and drew the covers over them, ending the day fully, but not able to shake a thought from his mind...

~*~

Just a couple of days later both had earned a free day. "Any ideas on what we could do to spend the day?" asked Ryu.

"Not really, but if you don't mind, I'd rather spend it in the house, work has been a little heavy lately..." said Tsuki as she heaved a sigh, both were sitting on a couch, reading the news, and they resumed their reading after that...

Ryu folded the paper and stood up, walking to another part of the living room, he swished his tail with happiness as he looked at some pictures that were placed there, those particular ones weren't in the scrapbooks and for special reasons, those were some of the most important ones they had, most of them were about both Tsuki and Ryu through the pass of years... A sorrowful childhood due to certain persons, which then turned into a playful one... An eventful youth, a new story always happening every day made that possible... A joyful maturity, sharing their love to each other and showing it to the whole world... Then a rather stressing week, just before the wedding both had worked so hard to get... A romantic honeymoon, shared by the two newlyweds... And the last one taken not long ago, the whole group present, it had been some time since they had last seen before that pciture, so they were all happy...

"I have to run a couple of errands, I'll be back in about thirty minutes" said Ryu to Tsuki, he smiled at her and she did back, or so it seemed like a smile, Ryu looked at her for a second then left the house.

Tsuki entered the room she shared with Ryu, and brought a small box out of the closet, she eyed it for a couple of seconds, sighed, and...

~*~

"I'm back!" yelled Ryu as he entered the house, but got no answer back, he dismissed the tought and started to move towards their room, but the phone rang, "I'll get it" said Ryu, and again, got no answer.

He answered the phone and was met by Noriko, the cat-girl they had known for so long now, both talked for a couple of minutes, Han and Teria, altough living in different locations where close to Tsuki and Ryu, Noriko and Shiroma lived farther away but were planning on coming back for a short while to meet up with everyone, both then talked for a couple of minutes and then said goodbye to each other and hung up. He walked to his room.

"Tsuki" he started, as if knowing she was in there, "Noriko and Shiroma are coming and they want to..." but he stopped there...

There, in the middle of the room and facing him was Tsuki, she swayed softly, as her head laid in an awkward angle by the rope secured on her neck, her tail completely down, only the air moving it... Not far from her was a box in the floor, the same she had taken before and apparently stood on the kicked it away, the same whose existence to Ryu wasn't know. He looked at his wife, not wanting to accept the fact, Tsuki's cheeks were slighlty damp, revealing that in fact, she had been crying before. On her chest, was a note, Ryu took small steps as he approached the scene and grabbed the note, tears already on his way down his cheeks...

"My beloved Ryu,

I...I don't know what happened over time, but whatever was here, is now long gone... I know life isn't pure joy, we both experienced rather sad events together, but this is the way I chose... This is the coward's way out of everything, I know, and that's what I am... A coward..."

Ryu stopped reading, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm the tears, as they were making the reading impossible... "You are not a coward Tsuki... You were the most brave of us whenever there was a problem in our life..." he wiped his tears away and looked at the note again...

"I never thought I'd have to write this, but I was wrong... But I realized I don't know how to let you go... I'm sorry, Ryu, I'm sorry...

Your beloved Tsuki..."

"...." Ryu spoke no words as he let his tears fly openly, he let go if the note, which fluttered it's way down...

"Why...Why would you ever think that... If there was a problem, you knew you could just have told me..." he managed between sobs, but he knew Tsuki was beyond listening to him, he plummeted down to his kneels, he cried a little more then stood up, looked again at Tsuki...

"If this is the way you wanted it to be, then I forgive you... I understand..." he looked up to see her face one last time. "But don't worry dear, you won't go alone..." he said as he moved hir right hand upwards, the light reflected on the black bracer as a small orb of light appeared on his palm, a simpler version of his own trademark attack, Big Bang End, he moved his arm backwards. "Goodbye, my love..." he said as he thrusted his hand to his chest, the attack left no mark whatsoever save for a small burn, the damage was done inside, a last tear rolled into the floor as he plummeted down, laying near Tsuki's hung body as life left him...

~*~

A church, two coffins laid in the middle of it, Reilmon crying openly in Alan's arms while he also cried, Chris doing the same with Kitsunemon, their childs gone, gone by a reason they didn't knew, besides them were Noriko and Shiroma, also crying openly, and Teria and Han also, but not as openly as the females in the room... Both had been found by Noriko and Shiroma and they then told the rest the sad news, hoping that what they say was just a sick joke, nothing more, as a dear friend and a sister left them...

~*~

Night... Cold night, a couple laid down in bed, sleeping peacefully, well, one of them, as the other was seemingly tossing around, as the other was hugging the other in sleep. The one tossing around jumped awake, taking the other one in the process as well, the one who woke up was breathing heavily, a hand on it's chest, the other finally came to it's senses...

"What's wrong Tsuki?" the person asked.

"No-nothing, just a very bad dream, Ryu...." she said as a tear escaped her, which rolled and fell on the bed.

"Need to talk about it?" he offered, we all know it's usually better to comment these things...

"No, it's nothing to worry about, thanks for asking..." she took smaller, controlled breaths to calm herself.

"Very well" he said as he placed his arm around her, she finally calmed down and smiled back at him.

"Good night dear" and he kissed her, both laid down and Ryu quickly entered slumber, snoring peacefully, Tsuki looked through the window as another tear ran and landed on her pillow, she mumbled the words "God forbid..." and then joined Ryu in sleep...

What? You thought I was really going to kill them?!

Anyway, I always wanted to write an angst-like story that ends like this, hope the story was well written...
Yeah, it sounds odd saying "Hope it was good" when it ends on a double-suicide that is a dream...

Please leave a couple of words in a review or any tip/correction you have, as for flamers, please abstain...

Signed as usual,
Alan "Gray Fox" Quirino - grayfox_2510@hotmail.com
(Wonder why I switch between Haiiro Kitsune and Gray Fox every now and then...)

Well, this is a stand alone, sort of, so no sequel, altough I'm
trying to work my own "season 5" of Digimon or a sequel to
"The Next Level", so far going by the name of "Hybrid Realms"
but I need something else besides the usual fight-to-save
something plot...

Oh well, I'm done rambling, c ya.