Leomon smirked. "Fine, we'll have our rematch," he said and jumped into the night, vanishing quickly in the inky darkness.
Agumon appeared in a flash of light and sat up. "Aniki was scared," he said softly. "He doesn't like it when Chika is in trouble."
Touma, Yoshino, Gaomon and Raramon all looked at the lizard digimon quietly. "Scared?" Touma asked.
Agumon nodded, "It's why he's such a great aniki," he said with a big silly grin. "Come on, let's go find them."
Masaru pulled Chika and himself out of the water, onto a short pier he guessed was for recreational fishing. "Masaru-nii-chan, you're insane," Chika gasped.
Masaru took a few deep breaths. "Sorry, but I wasn't about to let you see how cool I was. That's only allowed once you're older."
Chika giggled and playfully punched her older brother on the arm. "You're silly," she told him.
"Mm," Masaru agreed. "I'm also glad you're safe. Next time someone tells you to leave the area, you should go."
Chika sighed, "Yes, nii-chan!"
Masaru laughed and held her limp hair. "Are you cold?" he asked as she shivered slightly.
"A little," she admitted. "Maybe if you hadn't jumped into a river!"
"You're the one who wanted adventure," he teased wickedly.
Chika didn't get a chance to retort as Agumon ran over and literally pounced on Masaru. "Aniki! I was worried!"
Masaru pushed the digimon off of him. "I'm fine, I can take care of myself!"
Yoshino came down and held out her digivice. "We've been ordered back to headquarters," she told Masaru sternly.
Masaru frowned, "Can I take her home first?" he asked. "She's wet…"
"Whose fault is that, I wonder?" Touma growled softly.
Masaru shot him an angry look and started to retort but Chika patted him on the shoulder. "Can I come? Please?" she asked excitedly.
"Chika, I don't think…" Masaru started but Yoshino cut him off abruptly.
"Yes, you can," she said sweetly. "Do you want to see where your big brother works?"
"Yeah!" Chika replied excitedly. "Can I, Masaru-nii-chan?"
Masaru sighed, "I guess it can't be helped. Come on," he said and put her on the ground.
"The captain isn't happy with you," Yoshino said quietly.
Masaru shrugged and took Chika's hand. "I don't really care," he replied.
Yoshino rolled her eyes. Sometimes guys just weren't worth the effort to deal with.
Masaru carefully took the small bands that held Chika's hair in tiny pony tails out and quickly ran a towel over her head. She giggled as Masaru exaggerated the motion and pulled the towel over her eyes. She pulled it up and stuck her tongue out at her brother. "You'll get my hair all messy," she complained even though she was laughing.
"Maybe some birds will come along and decide your hair would make a nice nest. Then you'd really be a bird brain," he teased while pulling the towel over her wet clothes to try and get her more dry.
Chika pouted, "You're mean," she told Masaru.
Masaru gently finger combed Chika's hair into place. "And you're a bad kid for hiding like that," he retorted.
"If you don't towel off, you'll get sick," Yoshino told him as she brought over some tea.
"That's stupid, you can't get sick from being cold," Masaru scoffed. Even as he said it he felt an itch under his nose and after he said it he sneezed, almost knocking his sister off his lap.
"But you'll be cold and miserable because you're too proud to dry off," Yoshino muttered.
Chika took the towel off of herself and put it on Masaru's head. She gently began to towel off his hair and slapped away his hand when he tried to take over. "No," she told him sternly. "You'll only make your hair all messy then you'll complain when you have to brush it."
Yoshino hid a smile as Chika continued to dry Masaru's hair. Masaru was oddly complacent when it came to his little sister, even if he did tease her a lot.
The captain walked over while Chika was in the middle of toweling off her big brother. "Well?" he asked.
Masaru sighed, "Well what?"
"Your excuse?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Usually you've given one to me by now."
A small blush appeared over Masaru's cheeks for a second before he shrugged and tried to regain his tough guy attitude. "I just didn't want Chika to get caught up in everything," he shrugged. "That's all."
Chika giggled but didn't say anything as she finished drying his hair. She was perfectly aware of how much Masaru was worried about her and part of her loved it. Another part said that Masaru was too overprotective. Mostly she was just glad they were all safe.
The captain sighed. "I'll let it go, as keeping civilians safe is the most important thing. However, tomorrow you have to go seek out the renegade digimon, understand?"
"As long as it's after school," Chika answered for him.
Masaru eyed her. "Since when did you become mom?" he asked her dubiously.
Chika playfully pulled the towel down over Masaru's eyes. "When you started to act more like a kid then me," she chided with a laugh.
Masaru pulled the towel up and he smirked at his little sister. "I'm still older then you," he noted. "And I can do this!" he announced and started to tickle her.
She laughed until the tears came and begged him to stop. Finally, Masaru let up and she relaxed on his lap, still giggling.
"This isn't a day care center," Touma said coldly.
Masaru eyed him, "I wanted to drop her off at home," he growled dangerously.
Before Touma could retort the captain cleared his throat. "Well then, now that everything is settled, everyone is dismissed for the night. Masaru, Touma, you two will search for the digimon after 3 PM, understand?"
"Yes sir," Touma said professionally and walked out of the door.
"All right," Masaru drawled and put Chika on the ground. Chika kind of wanted to stay in Masaru's arms but she knew she was too old to ask to be carried home piggy back.
"Aniki, are we going out?" Agumon asked.
"We're going home," Masaru answered. "Before mom has a heart attack. I was supposed to bring Chika home two hours ago."
"Don't worry," Chika told him. "I'll say that I got lost and that you had to look for me."
"Why are you being so nice?" Masaru asked her.
"I didn't finish," Chika replied. "You have to promise that we'll stop and get ice-cream on the way home tomorrow."
Yoshino and the Captain saw a small grin tug at Masaru's lips before he stretched his arms over his head. "I dunno…" he sighed. "Maybe that's too much effort. Perhaps I should just admit I was late."
"Masaru-nii-chan," Chika pouted and elbowed Masaru in the thigh.
"Ow, all right, all right," Masaru laughed. "We'll get ice-cream tomorrow."
"YAY!" Agumon cheered. "Ice-cream!"
"You only get one cone this time," Masaru growled. "I'm not rich you know."
Agumon frowned. "But it's so good," he sighed.
"And expensive," Masaru finished. "One cone, that's it."
"All right," Agumon agreed. "One cone."
Chika giggled, "Agumon ate four cones last time. Almost as much as Masaru-nii-chan," she teased.
"Yeah, over a month!" Masaru argued. "Even I can't eat that much ice-cream."
Yoshino hid a smile and nodded at the captain. "I'll take my leave now," she said politely and left.
Masaru sighed, "We'll be going too. See you tomorrow, captain."
The captain nodded and Masaru pulled his sister and digimon out of Headquarters before any new embarrassing conversation could be started.
Masaru walked quietly into his house and took off his wet shoes as the last rays of the sun came through the open window. "Shhh," he told his sister and led her to her room. "Get changed," he told her and shut the door with a sigh.
"Aniki, you need to change too before mama comes back," Agumon told him.
"Right," Masaru sighed and walked into his room. "I just need to…" he opened the door of his room to find a very annoyed mother standing with her arms folded over her chest and her right foot tapping testily. "Oh boy," he sighed.
His mother crossed his room in three lengthy strides and looked him over. "You're soaked," she sighed. "And what on earth are you wearing?"
"My ummm… uniform," Masaru sighed as he took off the jacket top and placed it on the bed post.
His mother took it and held it in her hands. "It's soaked," she sighed. "I'll take it downstairs and dry it. Once you've changed bring me the rest and I'll wash it too."
"All right," Masaru mumbled. "Ummm…"
"Is Chika all right?" his mom asked.
"She's fine," Masaru said quickly. "Don't worry, nothing happened to her."
Masaru's mother smiled faintly. "You worry about her so much," she sighed. "You're so much like your father."
Masaru stiffened but didn't say anything. Agumon sensed the tension and chose to keep his mouth shut as well.
"Dinner is ready," she continued after it became clear that Masaru had nothing to say. "Tell Chika to come downstairs when she gets dressed and to give me her wet clothes."
"All right," Masaru replied as watched as his mom shut the door.
"She's quick," Agumon noted.
Masaru rolled his eyes, "I've never been able to keep anything from her. Even when I was a kid she always knew when I got into trouble." He opened a drawer and rooted around for a change of clothes. "That's what makes her such an annoyingly good mom, I guess."
"Mmm," Agumon said softly.
"Can you tell Chika to bring her clothes down to mom?" Masaru asked Agumon. "I need to get changed."
"All right, aniki!" Agumon said happily and left the room to relay the message to Chika.
Masaru sighed, "I hope that was it," he murmured to himself as he changed. Something told him that it wasn't and hoped desperately that the something was wrong.