Disclaimer: I am making no profit for this little fan endeavor. Motomiya Daisuke, Catherine, and any other Digimon character appearing in this are the sole property of Toei Animation. I promise to return them in mint to near mint condition.

Author's Notes: This story is being based (And originally posted) in a LiveJournal community called 52 Flavours. Fifty-Two themes, one for every week of the year. I decided to put my bid in for Daisuke and Catherine. If you don't think you can handle the idea of the pairing, that's okay. Just, don't go flipping out over my fic. Go find something that you'll actually like to read.

Fifty-Two Flavors

Theme 49. Tomorrow is Something We Remember

Motomiya Daisuke liked to sleep. A lot. And he was good at what he loved. However, this natural gift of his meant that it was nearly impossible to wake him up, unless the person was truly determined.

Fortunately for Catherine, she had a natural gift of being determined.

Shaking him hadn't worked, and neither had raising her voice in both Japanese and her native tongue. So, she opted for what always worked on her when she was little. She sat on his bed, and proceeded to tickle the sleeping boy's sides.

Daisuke's brown eyes snapped open, and the first thing his blurry vision caught was a sea of gold. He blinked a few times at the odd sight, and when his eyesight cleared he realized that it was Catherine leaning slightly over him, her ringlets cascading around her neck and shoulders. Thinking about it momentarily, he decided his first impression wasn't that far off.

"Morning, Die-skay!" Catherine smiled, kind enough to not be too loud.

"Morning," he muttered, unable to feel her enthusiasm so early in the day.

"You have to get up," she told him as she stood. "You promised to take me to Tokyo Tower, remember?"

"…Yeah. Yeah I did, didn't I?"

"Yes!"

There was a brightness to Catherine's voice that was somewhat contagious, and Daisuke found himself smiling despite his sleepiness. "Okay, okay. Let me get done."

---

It had nearly wiped Daisuke and Catherine's respective wallets clean to afford the top observatory at Tokyo Tower, but the smile on the blonde girl's face somehow made up for Daisuke's sudden lack of money. He really shouldn't have been annoyed, anyway. He had borrowed it from his parents, after all.

"Die-skay!" Catherine waved him over to a pair observatory binoculars. "You have to point out Mt. Fuji for me. I can't find it."

"You're on the wrong side," he explained, directing her to another window. "Over here. See?"

The girl looked intently into the binoculars, biting her lip just slightly in concentration. "Oh! There, I see it! It looks purple."

"It's because of the stone, and the haze around it," Daisuke replied. "We're lucky it's so clear outside. It's so far away, you can't see it at all if there are clouds."

"From up here, Japan doesn't look that much different from France, in a way," said Catherine, standing up straight. "It's just… Shaped differently. And your colors look brighter, I think. Everything is bright here. I like your country very much, Die-skay."

"Eh, it's not so bad," he shrugged. "Wouldn't mind seeing yours, though. It'd be nice to get out of here for once."

"You can!" she told him, smiling widely. "You can visit whenever you wish. I'd like that very much."

"Would you?" Daisuke muttered, almost to himself. The thought of getting away from it all seemed so inviting, especially after the past couple of months. "A change of pace would be fun, you know? Just something… different from here."

"Any time you'd like, Die-skay," Catherine repeated. "I'm sure my parents would be happy to have you. They like it when guests stay. My mother's a great cook! Any excuse to make something extravagant is good to her."

He turned to his house guest, and her hopeful expression. Could he afford it? Well, maybe his parents wouldn't mind sending him. They liked Catherine. Or maybe he could use the Digital World as a means of travel. It'd be a little more of a hassle, but he wouldn't have to pay anything. Besides, wasn't getting away from everything, even for a just a little while, sounding really good? A chance to see everything from a fresh perspective, and come back home reinvigorated. "I'll think about it," he said, finally.

His answer seemed to make Catherine smile even more, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Good. Ah, Die-skay!" she held a hand up, smacking it slightly on the side of her head. "I almost forgot!"

He watched as she began rummaging through her little pink purse, until she managed to pull out a small digital camera. "If I don't take pictures, I'll never forgive myself!"

The next thing Daisuke knew, his guest was a flurry of motion, as she went diligently to each window, taking picture after picture, even spinning herself around to take shots of the observatory itself. A few people in the tower stopped and waved at the girl, which earned them a spot on her camera's memory card. And Daisuke found himself to be the subject of quite a few of Catherine's candid snaps of life.

It was amusing, he thought, to watch her run around almost like a little girl. She tried to act so mature for the most part, but every so often she'd show this giddy side to her that seemed to de-age her about five years. He actually thought it was rather endearing.

"Mmmm, pardon me," the blonde asked a middle aged woman suddenly. She held up her camera, and smile politely. "Would you take a picture of me and my friend?"

The woman looked at the French girl and then at Daisuke, and smiled back. "Of course."

"Thank you!" Catherine rushed over to her host's side, and wrapped her arms around his left one.

It was a simple gesture, really. Something that he knew was done in her society all the time, and he should really be putting it in that context. Still, his brain couldn't help but analyze it to his own culture's standards, and that caused him to blush from chin to forehead.

What was a casual touch to Catherine was a completely different thing to Daisuke and everyone that surrounded them. Didn't she even notice the surprised expression on the woman's face in front of them? Maybe not, since the surprise then gave way to a wise knowing smile, and the older woman, mischief in her eyes, flashed the boy a quick victory sign before taking the picture.

"Thank you," Catherine said again, retrieving her camera. She spun back to Daisuke, her smile still as bright as before, "So, do you want to stay a little longer?"

"Actually," he tilted his head back, trying to cool his flushed face off, "we could go next door to the Zojoji Temple. My cousin works there, so if we're clever enough we can get in for free." He winked, a devious grin on his face.

She grinned back, giggling. "Let's do it!"

---

Temple touring, Daisuke found out, was much more fun when one not only snuck in through the back entrance, but had a foreigner with them with no idea what to do at any given time.

"See, you ring the bell here," Daisuke explained, proceeding to do just as he said, "and then you clap twice and you pray."

Catherine seemed rather skeptical that she was being told the truth, but after a moment seemed to take Daisuke's word on the matter, and clapped twice before lowering her head for a quick prayer.

"Wanna see the rest of the gardens?" he asked when she lifted her head.

Her camera made its second appearance for the day. "Yes!" Catherine stated, smiling.

Every single statue and monument became her subjects, and most of Daisuke's questions to her were answered in camera clicks and giggles. She would impishly grin at him, and speak in quick French, making it impossible for him to figure out what she was saying to him in reply.

Her coquettishness made him dizzy, and he laughed when she would marvel at a plaque, stubbornly trying to decipher it with her meager knowledge of written Japanese. She would turn to him and flatly tell him that it wasn't nice to laugh at someone, and then would poke his nose and giggle.

She was a bundle of contradictions, and he found himself loving that.

She made him wonder if he thought too highly of himself. She made him wonder if he thought too lowly of his country. She made him wonder if he had been moping too much lately. She made him wonder how a day of sight seeing could be so enjoyable.

She made him wonder if he could somehow make Friday never come to pass.

---

On the way home on the train, Catherine turned to him. "Die-skay, I want to do this again. But in France. I want to show you the Eiffel Tower, and all the places I love."

"In France…" Daisuke repeated, the thought once again being brought up and still sounding just as inviting.

"Please, Die-skay. Visit me," she pleaded. She frowned, her blue eyes sad. "I'm afraid if you don't, you'll forget me."

Surprised, he looked at her, eyebrows quirked. "What makes you think that?"

"People always forget what they don't see," she whispered. "It's inevitable. I don't want you to forget me."

"I won't," he promised, not liking the solemn expression on her face.

She sighed, and shook her head. "You say that now, but-"

"No."

Daisuke didn't know why he placed his hand over hers. He barely acknowledged that he had at the time. All he knew was that he never wanted to see Catherine sad because of him, and he had to convince her somehow. She needed to smile again. He liked it when she smiled.

And so there he was, his hand over hers and leaning in a bit more than what was acceptable. But he had her attention, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"I swear, I won't forget," he vowed. A small smile appeared on his lips. "I'll remember, no matter what. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. I'll remember it all. Because I don't want to forget you, either. You believe me, right?"

She stared at him with wide eyes, which slowly filled with tears. Quickly, she blinked and turned away to brush aside her tears without him seeing. When she turned back to him, she offered him a shaky but happy smile. "Yes, I believe you."

"Good," Daisuke nodded, relieved. "Maybe… Maybe I can visit this summer. If I can swing it with my parents."

"I'd really like that," Catherine said, her smile becoming stronger.

"Yeah," he nodded again, taking in her grin, and feeling somehow proud at making her happy again. "I think I would, too."