One:

He had bought a single wrapped lily; that was all he could find in the flower shop. If he had remembered to buy flowers beforehand, he would've preordered a bouquet instead. It would've been filled with white lilies, the ones that were planted out in the fields in summer.

So why didn't he go to another flower shop? He'd say that the lone lily reminded him of the harshness of life and sparked a sense of courage and determination. Of course, it was merely a sentimental lie. He was simply short of money. A bouquet of lilies cost far more than the money had had on hand, so when the kind receptionist offered a small discount, he agreed. She even tied a pink ribbon around the delicate tissue paper holding the flower, smiling apologetically.

"Is this for your girlfriend?" she asked softly, fingering the petals.

"No…just a friend," he replied. She nodded, as if understanding, and left it at that.

Year after year, he had insisted on delivering the same present. Beyond the bulk of the city, there was a secluded area, where the lonely graveyard was.

"I'm back," he announced. It felt eerie, standing in front of the grave, and it reminded him of how much he wanted to leave. "I, er...I brought a flower." He shrugged helplessly, setting down the lily.

"Look, the flower lady had none left. I did the best I could." He mindlessly kicked the ground, spraying dirt on the grave.

An awkward silence. He averted my eyes toward the sky.

"So…did I tell you about dad's divorce?" he hesitated. "Oh…yeah, I forgot. That was way back last year. Well, everything's fine…I'm living with mom, and dad's found another girl. She's really pretty…I think you would've liked her. I like her." Okay, that was a lie and he knew it, but why did it matter? No one was listening.

He kicked at the ground again, trailing his eyes towards the gravestone with the single lily safely tucked in the bottom, safe from dirt. Traces of a sad smile tugged at his lips.

"So…everything's the way it should be. Everyone's doing just fine. I don't think you should worry, wherever you are. As you can see, we're all content here." He paused briefly. "I just want you to know I have a life. Hard to believe, isn't it?" he asked, laughing lightly.

He bent down, and out of odd compassion, touched the lily one last time. It would die and rot here, inevitably mixing into the earth, into places where he hopefully wouldn't end up in for a long time.

"Happy Birthday, Arista," he whispered, before turning away and leaving.

The old woman stomped out of her house, staring at the girls standing before her. She waved her broom around wildly, rasping shrilly. "Just you wait! I'll have that Kumamon!"

The girls looked at each other, the blonde nodding to the dark-haired one. The blonde smoothed her skirt out, looking at the short digimon in an attempt to keep a sense of authority. "Look, ma'am, just calm down for a moment. I'm sure that it was all an accident. I'm sure you two can work things out through compromise…"

The Babamon wasn't listening. She muttered things under her breath, her broom jittering in her clutches. The dark-haired girl slowly and carefully edged away from the scene.

"…and you will do as a side!"

That was the cue. The girls quickly scurried away as the lunging woman threw a storm of fire their way, the quickly door slamming shut after them. They made their way down into the long grass and leaned against the fence to recover.

"I don't think that Kumamon is going to get his hat back anytime soon," the dark-haired girl murmured in thought, tugging her sweater closer to her body.

"Yeah," the other girl said, looking over the fence and waving at the house. Babamon, who was looking through a window, quickly ducked down and closed the curtains. The girl grinned and ducked back down, zipping up her jacket. "…that madwoman!"

"The nearby village always said that she had an exotic appetite…"

"Exotic? She said that she wanted to eat me! Me! It's not polite, you know, eating someone right after she introduces herself!"

"Or prior."

"…True." She stood up, twirling her hair with one hand. "Come on, we should go back to the village. I don't think Matadormon can handle playing with all of those little kids for long…"

The younger girl smiled at this. "Oh dear…"

Not too far away, there was a small village in the middle of the forest, with small houses and huts were packed tightly together. Near the entrance of the village, a tall, cloaked monster stood, a red rabbit-like creature on his shoulder. He would have looked much more menacing if it weren't for the mob of tiny in-trainings clambering and climbing on him.

"Wow! This is socool!"

"Look at those swords! Can I have one?"

"When I digivolve, I wanna look like this guy!"

The monster twitched angrily. "All you children…go on, get off of me!" He waved his leg to kick off a Motimon. "My body is not meant to be climbed on! Or slept on, for that matter!"

The dozing Elecmon opened up one eye lazily. "Well, I don't see you doing anything about it…"

"Oh really?" The ultimate waved his arms. "Well, I'm afraid that I'll just have to force you off…with my super omega ultimate attack…the Matador Finishing Faze…" He spun and flung out his arms, several long rapiers whipping out of the folds of his cloak. "X!"

"Oh, give me a break…" As ridiculous as it was, the Elecmon knew the ultimate long enough to know that the monster was being serious. The Elecmon closed his eyes and tucked his head back into the cloak.

"That's amazing!" The in-training digimon gazed up in awe, gathering around Matadormon once more.

"Halt! Stop it, all of you! Get off, or else I shall use my arsenal ofburudoggutechniques on you all!"

"Wow!"

"Yeah!"

"I wanna see!"

Matadormon lowered his head. "Ugh…Miss Zeffy, please come back soon…"

Foehn walked into his house, taking off his shoes with a sigh. Another day…at least today was Saturday. That was something.

He walked into the living room, which was drafty, as usual. The TV wasn't turned on, so the room was silent, except for the occasional rustle of pages as his mother flipped through a book. He stopped to look at her for a moment. She was sitting in her favorite set of pajamas, with a mug of something warm on the table beside her chair. She was so engrossed in her book that she didn't even notice his arrival, which was usual of her.

He was closer to her than anyone he knew, even his father. He looked more like his mother, too. They both shared the same light brown hair, although his hair was always messy, unlike his mother's. He loved his mother dearly, as she was his grounding force and his moral support.

"Good morning, mom," he said as he sat in a chair close to her, draping his coat against the back of the chair. She was still oblivious to his presence. "That must be a good book," he said a bit loudly.

"Oh! Good morning, Foehn," said his startled mother, her eyes jumping up from the page. "Yes, it is a good book. Eleanor recommended it to me and it's very exciting!"

"Well, that's good."

She nodded with a smile, her gaze turning back to the book. "So, what do you have planned for today?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll go downtown for a walk later."

His mother nodded with approval, and he turned to the TV, putting his feet up on the hassock and grabbing the remote control. Quietly, he began flipping through the channels, noting with a frown that there was static on the screen, no matter what channel he watched. He studied the screen, which was covered in a fluctuating wave of snowy static.

"I think there's something wrong with the TV," he thought aloud.

"Hm?"

"The screen. Look at it."

She looked up reluctantly, frowning at what she saw. "Is it plugged in wrong?"

"No…let me check." He walked over to the TV, pulling the cabinet it was on away from the wall. He noticed the wallpaper had been chewed away slightly, and a vent in the wall had been shoved open. There was also a slightly frayed extension cord attached to the TV.

At this new discovery, an uneasy knot grew in his stomach. There was enough room between the cabinet and the wall for something to squeeze through…it could have been a rat, but a rat couldn't break open the vent.

"Mom? Can you go get a broom? There's something in the vent…"

Foehn stared down into the vent, biting back his fear. Maybe it was a cat. He opened up the vent, squinting down the shaft. Sure enough, there was something furry stuck inside of there…and it wasn't a cat or a dog. He quickly snapped out of the shaft, his eyes squeezed shut and panted, holding a hand over his chest.

He had to calm himself…this was a littleirrational. It was only a little monster, right? It couldn't do much harm. But he had heard stories about how these monsters could do such horrible things…but this was only a small one. Could it…could it…could it kill him?

His mother returned, looking worried. "Is something wrong?"

"I…I think it's a digimon."

She relaxed slightly. "Well, let's see what it is. Go on, try getting it out—but be gentle!"

Be gentle? It was a digimon, for crying out loud! He stared down the ventilation shaft, biting his lip. There was a tail…he could just grab that, and pull it out. How would the creature react? Would it bite him, or kill him, or what?

"Don't just sit there, Foehn! Go in and grab it!" She waved the broom in his face.

Foehn sighed, shoving his hands inside and grabbing the creature's tail.

There was a soft growl from inside the metal shaft, and Foehn pulled out the creature by the tail, placing his feet against either side of the opening. Eventually, he had to reach in and pull out the creature by its legs when the tail was pulled out of his grasp, and the creature tried scrabbling away from the human.

Foehn groaned, giving one last pull to pop the creature out. "There! Now hit it!"

His mother simply smiled. "Look at it! It's cute!"

Foehn looked at the monster with an abject look. It was some odd purple dog-like creature, with a weird red stone embedded in its forehead. Really, it did not look at all cute. It was a monster, not a puppy like his mother was acting like it was. After all, it had tiny black wings on its back, and its front legs were much shorter than its hind legs were, the tail was way too long and the nostrils looked like two miniature black holes ready to suck in everything in sight. "Uh…I don't think so."

"Foehn, please! Why would you even think about hitting something like this?"

"Because it'll potentially try and bite my hand off?"

"Can't you see that it's weak?" The creature was lying on the ground, breathing heavily and its eyes half-opened. "We need to take care of it!"

"Mom, you say that about every injured animal we meet! You're too caring!"

"There's no such thing as that! Make a bed for it, Foehn."

"Mom! It's a digimon, for god's sake!"

"We're taking care of it, Foehn," she said sternly, her tone suddenly changing. "You need to get over what happened to your sister. Until you do, you will never be happy. I have watched you for so long, just an empty shell of the boy you once were. You used to be filled with such spirit, but now…" She shook her head. "I know what happened. I know that a monster has taken away so much from us—our family. I have moved on, Foehn, and I suggest that you do the same. Now go get a box."

Foehn shut his mouth, his head swimming. The articulate, contrived nature of her tirade could not have been improvised given the short period of time. She must have had that in her head for a long time, ready to pull it out at the right time. But what had made it the right time?

That digimon.

With a sigh, he got up onto his feet and walked to the closet.

"Besides, you can have a partner now! After all, just about everyone else at your school has one, right?"

Foehn rolled his eyes. "Yeah."

A/N: Euh, more boring angsty expositional stuff. Next chapter we should get some happy-fun-time with exciting stuff and action and wow!

And as a warning I abuse dashes and ellipses. You can probably see the ellipses abuse already, but I restrained myself as much as I could with the dashes. If I'm not careful, the dashes make me look like Emily Dickinson in novel form, and it looks worse than it does with the ellipses.

So I had laryngitis and cold...that wasn't nice. Then it turned out that I was taking my medicine wrong. Two pills instead of one? Ugh...anyway, I started following the instructions and now I am getting better. Yay.

Blargh!