Disclaimer: As always I am sorry for the delay in this fic, school, life and writer's block for this fic r only a few of the reasons. Anyway I hope you enjoy and please review so I know what you think of it and that it's still being red.
When Izzy met Alice
Before anyone else could say a word Mikey broke out in a shout as he pointed in the direct that Ryo, Cyberdramon and Impmon had come from. Everyone looking over they saw two figures flying towards them on very familiar digimon. All the digidestined hollering and waving to get the boys' attention the Tamers and their digimon stood off to the side to watch and talk among themselves. By the time the two digimon with Ken and Izzy had landed the Tamers and Jaarin had caught each other up on what had been happening on both sides and were trying to figure out what to do about Suzy and Lopmon.
"Ken!" Yolei yelled as soon as his feet touched the ground, running over to him and throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly so that the boy's face went a lovely shade of bright pink much to the delight of everyone who jumped to point it out only making the poor guy's face go brighter.
"Izzy!" Mikey called out too as he pulled away from Jaarin's side and ran over to his brother who caught him and swung him up into a big hug, pleased to see his brother.
"What on earth are you doing here, Mikey? Why did you guys bring him?" Izzy asked as he set his brother down, looking at his friends questioningly as he kept a hand on his little brother's shoulder. The Digital World wasn't a playground and who knew what trouble Mikey could have gotten into, especially without a digimon to guide and protect him. "Hey, Ryo. You okay?" Izzy said as he looked over towards where the man was standing then simply stopped and stared at the vision in front of him. He had visualized meeting her so many times..and now there she was...but it couldn't be her-but she looked just like the picture she'd sent him before their meeting, the picture he still had on his lap top. Could it be her? "A-Alice?" Izzy asked hesitantly as he let go of his brother and walked towards her looking as shocked as the Digidestined who knew it was Alice and were wondering why on earth Izzy was looking at the weird girl that way and how they knew each other.
"Hey Izzy, long time no chat." Alice said holding her cool by a thread. Her blonde ponytail blowing in the breeze her cool blue eyes never left him as she tried to think of what to say, her words having deserted her. She'd often imagined meeting him, what she'd do to him for treating her so badly and hurting her. But it looked like they could have quite possibly stood each other up, neither intending to do it either.
"What are you doing here? How did you get here? " Izzy said as he could only stare at her like a moron, finally coming to a stop about a meter or so away from her since she had walked slightly away from the people she had been speaking with to meet him part way. Gee and of course he would have to look like something the cat dragged in, Izzy thought with mental disgust. At least he'd shaved that morning but odds were his clothes were fairly dirty and knowing his hair it was sticking out all over the place like it had as a kid. Figured. "I just-I never thought-I never really expected to see you..ever."
"Yeah well I wasn't exactly expecting to see you either." Alice said with a touch of amusement in her eyes now. "And odds were that we would never have met if you hadn't decided to take Ryo and bring him here without asking first." Alice said as she motioned in Ryo's direction with a movement of her head in his direction.
Looking over at Ryo Izzy felt his heart drop and the stupid idea that she'd somehow decided that she'd been wrong not to meet him and had come looking for him. Yeah right, who would when there were Ryos in the world to sigh over Izzy thought darkly then with a puzzled air as he noticed that Ryo had an arm wrapped around a tall girl's waist and Ryo had said his girlfriend's name was Rika, not Alice. But then maybe Ryo had been playing them, or Alice liked the man but he was taken. Then he stopped to think that none of that made sense. "I'm confused." Izzy said raking fingers through his already mussed up hair so that it stuck out all over the place as was its habit.
Alice smirked slightly at how cute that made him look then ordered herself to get serious and stop acting like Suzy. Of course she'd been this nervous the first time, when she and Izzy had made plans to meet up for the first time. When he had stood her up it had hurt her a lot and she wasn't about to let emotion rear its ugly head till she was sure that he hadn't stood her up that day. "I'm from the world you snatched Ryo from; you're from this one aren't you?"
"Well of course I-wait a minute..you're from that layer of the Real World?" Izzy said as he gasped at her, completely forgetting that they now had the attention of everyone and that his brother was just behind his brother trying to figure out what was going on and why his brother was acting so nervous. "But then how did we?" Izzy asked with a confused look.
"I think that perhaps when we were both experimenting online we must have found some sort of connect between our worlds of some sort or one of us broke into the system of the others." Alice said with just a hint of excitement, the idea thrilling. "I think I might have done it because after I deleted your name I tried to find you again a month or so later and I couldn't find the chat room we met in much less you."
"Fascinating, I knew that all the worlds were likely connected somehow and this proves it." Izzy said with a excitement. "I've always thought that the Digital World was in layers which explained why there are always new areas to be discovered and that appear. I've often wondered if perhaps the Digital Worlds all connect-but wait a minute..if you're from another reality then that would mean.." Izzy said as he stared at her, ideas running through his head so fast it was almost possible to see the gears moving as he processed all the information he'd been given. "That we could never have met, that even if we'd tried we wouldn't have been able to meet anywhere since our worlds are two different worlds."
"That's what I've recently figured out, so odds are you were waiting for me? While I was waiting for you?" Alice said hesitantly then smiled slightly when a large grin split Izzy's face as he looked at her as though he'd just been told he'd won the lottery.
"You-you didn't stand me up." Izzy managed to say finally, grinning so hard it was a wonder that his face didn't shatter as he fought the urge to run over and hug her which would only embarrass them both and slowly he became aware of quite a few eyes on them. Turning his head he saw all his friends gapping at him as though he'd suddenly grown another head. Ignoring them with effort Izzy moved closer so that there was only a foot between them. "I waited for you for four hours." Izzy finally admitted with a twinge of pink to his cheeks as he spoke low enough that only she would have been able to hear him.
"I waited five; I figured you'd gotten distracted with your computers." Alice said with a small smile as her cheeks went just a little bit pink as well as she looked into his dark eyes. Sighing Alice lifted her right hand to him. 'Nice to finally meet you, Digidestined."
"Same to you, Angel." Izzy said as he took her small hand in his and shook it, the two saying a lot more with their eyes.
An hour later
"Well that was an unexpected development." Ryo said with a wide grin as he walked beside Rika as the getting bigger by the minute group of Tamers and Digidestined walked on to find their missing people. Looking over out of the corner of his eye he smiled at the sight of Izzy and Alice with their heads practically together talking about computers and other things he didn't understand and that they really only seemed to understand. They had started out a little awkward but now they were near as thick as thieves though he'd bet once they started talking about something other then computers and such they'd go back to blushing and stammering. It was rather cute Ryo thought as he deliberately caught Rika's nearest hand in his and smiled innocently at her when she shot him a dry look though she let him keep hold of the hand.
"You're telling me." Rika said as she shook her head at the way things were going, slightly embarrassed to being seen holding hands but she liked it too so she left it there. Not that she would ever admit that she liked it but that was to be expected. She had a reputation as an ass kicker to keep up after all. "Now I see why she was so upset when she recognized who had created whatever it was that brought you here."
"They look so cute together." Jaarin said with a wide smile as she walked on the other side of Ryo, a slumbering Calumon in her arms. The little guy had finally run out of his usually countless energy and was now happily curled up in her arms, dreaming dreams that were likely as bizarre and entertaining as he was. "But what's going to happen when we get back?" Jaarin added with a worried look, not liking the idea of Alice being hurt.
"Well knowing those two they'll think of some way to keep in contact." Rika pointed out though she was a tad worried herself. But she had faith in the two computer geeks and if anyone could do it she had a feeling it was those two.
"Wow, he really likes her." Tai said as he shook his head in amazement at his friend. Normally Izzy tended to stutter around pretty girls or be really quiet. But right now Izzy was talking more then he'd ever seen him and seemed to be having the time of his life-with a pretty girl at his side. Who would have thought it Tai thought with a wide grin and was glad for his friend. "This is great."
"What it is weird." Ken said with a small smile as he walked with Yolei's hand tightly in his and Wormon on his other shoulder. "Izzy mentioned her while we were camping out and Ryo mentioned Alice but we never even thought to make the connection."
"Well she definitely suits him, that's for sure." T.K. said with a grin as he walked between Yolei and Kari, Mikey resting comfortably on his shoulders. "Normally a girl that pretty showing him any attention would have sent him running or at the very least stammering every other sentence out of his mouth while he looked everywhere else but at her."
"Yeah, if only Mimi could see this, she's always lecturing him and groaning over the fact that she can't get him to go out with a girl willingly." Kari said with a laugh as she smiled happily as they continued to walk without stopping. Several of their digimon had gone ahead to scan the area for Cody and Suzy and so they had all taken a break from making themselves hoarse calling for them. "And she really seems to understand him."
"The language of the computer geek, the language no one that isn't a genius can understand." Tai said with a laugh as stretched his arms over his head, getting more then a little sore with all this exercise but this was also turning into quite an adventure and he was having a lot of fun. It would be better if they weren't looking for their missing friends, that was more then a small worry but he was sure they'd find them in no time. At least he hoped so for everyone's sake.
Meanwhile
"So then Rika tackled Takato and they both went down but they landed wrong and ended up rolling down the hill and right into a gigantic mud puddle, I mean they were covered from head to toe." Suzy said as she cracked up just thinking about it. "So anyway we're all laughing and then Henry and Kenta offer them a hand up. Well Takato and Rika just looked at each other then taking their hands pulled them face first into the mud with them. So then we're laughing even harder and then they start hurling mud at us and needless to say by the end we were all covered in mud but boy was that a lot of fun."
"I'll bet." Cody said with a smile as they sat under a tree munching on some fruit their digimon had managed to find for them. Both Armadillomon and Lopmon were fast asleep beside their partners and the two were being as cute as possible as they let their digimon rest up. "A lot of my friends play soccer and there was this big game coming up so they roped us into a game to help them practice. It had rained the night before so the field was all muddy and everything put we played anyway and we were so bad Kazuyuki's mom took the hose to us before she'd even let us in the house."
"I'll bet." Suzy said with a laugh as she pictured what they must have all looked liked coming in after playing in the mud for over an hour. "But sometimes you have to get a little messy."
"Yeah I guess so." Cody agreed as he leaned back against the tree, thinking that if it weren't for the fact that they were out in the middle of nowhere with no idea if they'd ever see any or their friends or family again this would be really nice. Of course he was alone Cody reminded himself as he set a hand on top of his digimon's hard head, grinning slightly when the digimon shifted under his hand. Plus he had Suzy and Lopmon to keep him company too and that was certainly no hardship. Suzy's digimon reminded him a lot of Kari in this form and Suzy was just great period. Blushing ever so slightly at that Cody tipped his head up to look at the leafy branches of the tree instead of at her.
Humming under her breath Suzy wondered absently if she was going to end up stuck here for the rest of her life. Even if they did manage to find everyone there was no guarantees that they could get themselves back to their Real World. It wouldn't be all that bad since from what she understood it was the same as hers only it was missing some key elements. Her family and friends. Tearing up slightly she turned her head away so that Cody wouldn't notice, she was being a baby anyway and she didn't want him to see.
His ears catching a faint sound Cody looked over at Suzy in time to catch the sparkle of tears in her eyes before she turned her head so that he was now basically looking at the back of her head instead of the front which was what interested him. "Suzy? you okay?" Cody asked hesitantly. He really had no experience in these kind of situations but he was pretty sure ignoring it was not the thing to do. Maybe he should pat her on the shoulder of something.
"Oh Cody." Suzy said as she turned to look at him and before he knew what hit him she'd basically jumped into his lap and was hugging him tightly, her wet face pressed against his neck. "What if I never find my sister, or what if we do but we can't get home again. What'll we do?" Suzy sobbed into his neck, holding on tightly though a small corner of her brain was frankly horrified with what she was doing. However the feat outweighed the embarrassment at the moment.
"Don't cry, Suzy, it will all work out. You'll see everything will be fine." Cody said as he hugged her not really knowing what else to say as his face went the color of a tomato.
"Suzy?" Lopmon's sleepy voice rang out as she rubbed away the sleepiness to find Suzy crying and Cody trying to make the effort to comfort her while going as red as Guilmon. Rushing over to her Tamer's side with her ears flying out behind her Lopmon tugged on Suzy's shirt, asking her what was wrong.
Pulling away slightly from Cody Suzy could just cry and reaching out picked up her digimon and hugged the bunny like she was a stuffed animal as she continued to sit on Cody's lap, snuggled against him as she cradled Lopmon.
Elsewhere
Kurokitsunmon hopped from tree to tree, not really caring overly where he was going as he made his way through the forest. Suddenly a scent caught his nose and stopping at the top of a large pine he breathed in deeply, his almond shaped eyes going wide when he realized what it was he was smelling. The humans were about to get in a serious amount of trouble the fox thought as he stood there, fighting his instincts and losing the battle. He would simply go to watch, it wasn't like he was going to help them or anything.
