A/N: I swore to myself at nine-thirty I wouldn't go to bed until I finished this! And now, distractions, bed stuff, and the right music aside, I have done it. Thank you so much all of you who have kept up with this, have been befuddled by it, and who have enjoyed it or hated it. It means a lot. For the record, I may explore this pairing again sometime. It was unexplored and it was random, but it was fun. It was a lot of fun. For now, this is a bit of the end, and I hope it was a realistic ending for all of you. Please enjoy, leave a review if you can, and look forward to Kei's story, Destati, going up in the near-future. Later, guys!
VII.
It's harder to apologize than she thought it would be.
Not because Hikari is too busy, or is horrible at forgiving, or even that Kei hides every time he sees her.
It's simply that Noriko has trouble apologizing to anyone, has trouble groveling, and has no clue how to even explain her fury to this little kid who just didn't know any better. She can't excuse it, can't forgive it.
Daisuke is, of course, horribly right when he says Hikari has forgiven her, because at the sight of her at work the next morning, the woman is not subtle in her examining of the slap mark or in the gentle pressing of a lunch box in her arms before the morning begins. Noriko doesn't say how much that hurts because she doesn't want Hikari to be angry or anything else, and she's still stuttering over the idea of what to say.
She doesn't know how to Kei, but after a long, distracting day, it's proven that Kei knows how to talk to her. Hikari brings him into her while she's packing up and proceeds to busy herself with talking to the principal, the clever woman.
She sees him shift from her spot at her desk, all excited eyes and wobbling steps because he's still not good at keeping himself looking at things and staying still at the same time but he's three so she thinks it's more cute and funny than anything else. He wanders around at first, as though he doesn't remember why he's here at all. But then he sees her and Noriko swears she sees him light up like a star before he runs over, almost hitting a toy she has yet to put away. He even notices the desk in the way and before she can tell him no, he's latched himself firmly to her legs and is giggling. "Nana!" Kei proclaims. "Find Nana!"
His voice is so proud that her eyes water. But she grins, taking the silly name Hikari had found in a book with the same amusement as being called "teacher", and manages to muss his hair without feeling the guilt freeze her hands. "Yep, you found me. Were we playing hide-and-seek?"
He nods, grinning and adding. "Can't find at night." Kei frowns as he says this. Noriko doesn't think he remembers the event all too well, he is a little kid, but the frown makes her wilt, just a little, when he adds. "Nana comes home now to find Kei?"
"Yes," Hikari says from the doorway. Her arms are crossed, and she's smiling an impish sort of grin. "Hide-and-seek is only so fun with two people and a little Digimon."
"It's no fun anyway if I play," Terriermon says with one of his silly grins and Noriko ignores him, pulling up Kei into her lap.
"Tell you what," she says. "We'll go play and if you find me, Mama will make fried eggs, won't she?" She winks at Hikari, who only rolls her eyes.
"If you buy the eggs."
Kei giggles. "Eggs! Eggs!" It's his fifth-favorite word and he chants it all the way out the door and almost out of the school until Hikari shushes him with a small giggle. Then he nods, as serious as you can look with a white blob on your head, and takes both their hands at the same time, walking the best he can.
Noriko wants to kick herself, but it doesn't happen, nor does Hikari kick her in the shin while they're walking. She just hums a merry little tune and carries their papers and asks how Daisuke's recipes are going.
She feels like it shouldn't be over, that there should be more to her screw-up.
That night, when Hikari is giving her novel a thorough, amused analysis over popcorn, Noriko gives up. "Don't I deserve something?"
Hikari shrugs. "I kissed you earlier." She peeks at her through one eye and sighs at the stubborn pout. "Nope. Not going to. You're doing it to yourself."
"But-"
"But Kei's three and you're a hothead." Hikari pokes her nose then slumps. "I shouldn't have slapped you."
Noriko glowers. "Hey, let me have the rain cloud of self-pity. I'm the one who said all that stuff."
"A good part of it was right," Hikari muses with a snort, putting her book down and going to caress her Digivice's grooves, a nervous habit Noriko has seen her do more and more as her son grows older and older. Hikari pauses, bites her lip, then looks at her with that same earnest stare she gave when she learned Kei was being born.
Hikari wanted to know if everything was going to be all right.
"You came back so... I... I don't really want to stay mad."
Noriko blinks. She blinks a second time. Then she sighs and gives a weak smile. "We're a couple of saps."
"I'm also tired. Now stop thinking and turn the light off."
When Tailmon comes back, Noriko is never more relieved to walk behind.
Though many of her important Terriermon moments were shared with Hikari, or another person, or had to do with another person, Noriko knows it's different for Hikari right now. She remembers the story, the story where Hikari grew up alone, with no one knowing of the Digital World but her until it all began. She had been waiting her whole life.
It's easy enough to encourage her to go and follow her heart, when she looks that happy, when Hikari looks relieved and hopeful and so much like a kid that it doesn't hurt to watch her run off. It makes her reluctant to get up actually, considering everything.
Despite that, she wants to meet Tailmon again, to see the way they are together and confirm for herself that this all isn't a dream, that she is going to be here and help Hikari be okay, that there's at least one experienced person in this Chosen Children business to guide Kei.
It's easy enough to carry Kei. He's still small, will probably always be a little scrawny, but it helps that he stays asleep and Nyaromon doesn't make noise loud enough to wake him. So they walk through the setting sun and when her Digivice chimes softly, she thinks she can hear Oikawa humming a tune to himself.
"You don't have to keep an eye on me anymore, Oikawa-san," she says, in such a quiet voice that she's not sure she's talking. "I... I think I'll be all right. Or... I'll work on it at least!"
She isn't even sure if he is here at all, but she thinks that he probably kept an eye on them every time they arrived. Because they were his children, as much as they were Chosen Children.
That thought, almost twenty-five years later, is as comforting as it is painful, but for once the pain is welcome.
Kei doesn't wake when she reaches them, so she has no trouble offering the child to his mother. Tailmon is just the same, maybe a little older, maybe with worn claws, but the small body has that same serene undercurrent running through her fur. Her blue eyes, though a little shocked, quickly melt with adoration and curiosity.
"Yours," the cat whispers breathlessly, looking at her partner with awe and some frightening innocence. "He's yours."
"Her too," Hikari says, holding out her hand for Noriko to sit more carefully on the ground. "She's mine too." Hikari hesitates, fiddling with Kei's hair, then softly adds. "I love her."
It takes a moment for the words to sink in, and then Noriko finds herself sniffling, giggling and tearing up in the same breaths. "That's not fair, Hikari! After all of this, you now decide to say it. Now... you are mean."
Hikari smiles, a trace of guilt in her face. "I didn't know how to say it... or if I could say it right."
"Well, I certainly understood it!" She wipes her eyes with an index finger, blushing. "Really now..."
"Nee-chan... why are you crying?"
Noriko grins. "Because your mama's a meany face!"
"Hey~"
Somehow... like the last puzzle piece clicking into place, everything feels all right.
It's not perfect. They still have bills to pay, and a son to raise, and mouths to feed. It's not even simple. Hikari is as closed-off and complicated as always and she's a bit too brutish for the both other.
But... it's what she has. It's probably what she's always wanted.
Simplicity... cleanliness... order...
Those don't belong to her. Those aren't what she believes in.
Noriko believes, however, in this, and that's enough.