"Okay students-I use the term "students" loosely-I am giving you all the period to work on your reports privately. Get to work," Mr. Lancer said.
Ten minutes later, Danny, Sam, Jazz, Valarie, and Tucker were calmly seated when Rika walked in with a mildly pissed off look on her face.
"Where were you?" Danny asked, concerned. He hoped Rika hadn't wondered into any ghosts.
"My DIGITAL alarm clock decided I was tired and let me sleep in," Rika growled. She sounded pissed, but Jazz could see the edges of her mouth twitch in a suppressed smile.
"Then you haven't told her yet?" Danny asked quietly as Rika sat down.
"No, I'm going to do it after school. She already knows something's up, though. She's been hovering more and more lately." Rika sighed.
"Hovering?" Danny asked, still quietly.
"Ninety degrees up, twenty to the left," Rika said, "Try not to make eye contact." Danny moved his head in the described direction, letting his eyes faze out of focus. Sure enough, he could see the faint outline of a feminine figure in one of the deepest shadows.
"You know, I found this really intriguing book on South American fighting techniques," Rika commented, throwing the conversation in a different direction than her love life.
"We're going to be training tonight, aren't we?" Sam almost groaned, seeing the look in Danny's eyes. Rika shivered involuntarily. She and Renamon had stood in on the training sessions. She could actually understand now why their relationship worked so well. They never fought with words because they always fought with their fists.
Of course, the fights did tend to get very, very violent. She had seen Tucker throw Danny into a wall with a single punch. Then there was the time when Sam threw, actually threw Jazz into the air. The fights between Danny and Jazz, though, those were the things nightmares were made of…
"Renamon?" Rika asked as she stepped into her room and took a deep breath. This was it.
"Yes Rika?" Renamon asked as her body coalesced from the shadows. The fox digimon blinked. Rika looked nervous. Rika was never nervous…ever. At least, not since the fight with the D-reaper. Hell, the girl had even asked her for combat lessons after she had watched her friends train.
While, technically, Renamon was against Rika fighting, it was good for her to at least know how to defend herself. She now had a marginal proficiency with knives and hand-to-hand combat. Nothing like what that Daniel boy could do, but enough.
"Renamon, what am I to you?" Rika asked plainly.
Renamon blinked again. Where had that come from? More importantly, what was her answer? "Rika, what exactly do you mean?"
Rika sighed. She had kind of expected that Renamon wouldn't understand. "What I mean is…would you be able to see me as…more than a partner, or…maybe as a lover?"
Renamon's mouth twitched into a foxy grin as she stepped towards her partner. Bending over, Renamon slid her body into a comfortable position against Rika's. Once she felt Rika relax slightly, their lips met.
It was the best thing Rika had ever experienced, to put it bluntly. She now knew why Danny, Sam, and Jazz liked to be so tender when they could. It was fulfilling to be in love and act on it.
"Danny, are you sure you're not a masochist?" Sam asked as she pulled herself up from the ground, having collapsed from exhaustion after that last round with Danny. Luckily, between Sam's healing abilities and their natural, or unnatural healing abilities, they recovered pretty quickly now-a-days.
"No, I just like to fight, I guess," Danny answered as Sam's healing hands wandered over his bruised body in areas that weren't damaged at all.
"He's a guy Jazz. They need to prove their macho-ness," Sam joked.
"Hey, I'm a techno-geek! I resent that!" Tucker said from across the training dome.
"You're also a werewolf with the muscle mass of a professional bodybuilder." Sam pointed out.
Tucker made a dismissive grunt and pulled back his wolf genes. The long hair receded, and his snout became a nose. He was getting more and more used to these odd transformations.
"I'm going to get home now," Tucker called as he walked away. "You love-birds behave now."
"I'll get him back for that," Danny promised, then let himself relax on the cushions that they had pulled down the tunnels. "Hey Sam, what was that kick?"
Sam smiled and curled up beside Danny. "That was just a little move from the advanced handbook on Indian martial arts."
"And what was that punch?" Jazz asked in Danny's direction as she, too, laid down, but beside Sam.
"Something I've been working on," Danny replied cryptically, but let up under the stare of Jazz. He couldn't blame her. Lately, they had been utilizing their powers more and more in their training sessions. Danny had thrown a punch at his maximum speed, his maximum ghost speed.
Then he had preformed two summons under his breath. One was for speed. The other was for an electrical charge. The phantom wind and spiritual charge. After that, he had moved his ectoplasm in a kind of wave. He wasn't sure exactly why he had done it, but…
He hadn't even hit Jazz, but she had been thrown back against the wall. The funny thing was that he could have gone faster. He could have punched through some kind of…barrier…that he had felt. He was genuinely thankful now that he hadn't gone all out. He wasn't sure what would have happened. That move would have to be tested out somewhere with a lot of room for error.
That was exactly what he had told Jazz. "I promise I won't question your judgment abilities for at least two days," Jazz said firmly, burying her face into Danny's shirt.
"I love both of you, you do know that, right?" Danny asked suddenly.
"We love you two Danny. Could I ask what brought this out-of-the-blue announcement about?" Sam asked sleepily.
Danny idly stroked Sam's hair, letting Jazz run her hands over his chest. "What are we going to do when someone finds out?"
"Not this again Danny," Jazz complained. "I'm supposed to be the downer around here. Just enjoy the time we have."
"We have to tell them…tomorrow," Danny sighed.
"That means we pack when we get home, just in case, right?" Sam asked.
"For what will, in all likelihood, happen?" Jazz asked. "Yes."
"And so…we're dating…the three of us, together," Danny finished with a long sigh. His parent's expressions were unreadable.
"Danny, your mother and I need to talk for a moment, alone," Jack said evenly.
Danny shrugged, he had expected worse. Though, as his parents went into the kitchen, he realized that the waiting would be infinitely worse than any yelling or shouting. Looking to Sam and Jazz, he could see similar expressions on their faces.
"You have to be kidding me," Danny groaned as a wisp of blue air came out of his and Jazz's mouths.
"And I thought I could actually take the whelp by surprise for once," Skulker said smugly. The person who he was speaking to became obvious in a moment as Technis appeared beside the legendary ghost hunter.
"Well, I don't see why we shouldn't be able to bring them down, even if they know we're here," Johnny Thirteen grinned as he road into the living room on his ghostly cycle.
"Do we have to do this now?" Jazz asked imploringly.
The ghost blinked, then looked at each other.
"Of course. After all, we did come all the way down here to reek our vengeance on you meddling kids," Technis admitted.
"Oh, if you came "all this way," then the least we can do is hand your asses to you in a good old fashioned throw-down," Sam countered.
"Guys, if you don't leave right now, and I'm just warning you, these women are not in a mood to play games," Danny sighed and pulled on his ghostly energy.