A jolt shoots through his body, his eyes snapping open as though he was wired to a large power source, what exposed areas of skin are drenched in sweat. The fur that still remained was drenched, and he felt it matting and knotting as he tried to right and orient himself. The room was dark, only glowing flickering lights from the machine that he was attached to lit the ruin in annoying short burst intervals. When his eyes began to focus, he could slowly make out the stereotypical hospital room amenities. The cliché TV hung upon the wall, with only a few select channels he assumed. At least that was the cliché in the real world. Perhaps being in the digital world, it would have all the channels… and still absolutely nothing to watch. His right hand slowly lifted and swung wide, knocking off a water glass perched on the stand next to his bed. The moment he struck it, a silent curse was ushered in his mind before the explosion of glass making contact with the tile floor broke the silence like a bomb erupting within a quiet village. As he grumbled and forced himself up the rest of the way, he looked towards the door as he heard it open. And then, a familiar voice entered into his mind, snapping him too. It was quiet, almost a dead faint whisper like the breeze whisking through the forest in the dead of night.
"Mi…Mikael?" Ranamon's voice quietly snuck from her lips, as though extremely frightened. "Are… Are you okay?" His right ear snaps up, hearing her slowly trying to approach the bed, not wanting to alert any of the nurses that she was in his room. "Are you still mad?" came the question that he could physically hear a tremble in her voice.
"Mad?" he thought to himself. "Why would I be mad…? What is she talking about?" When she finally reached his bedside, she kept her distance just out of arm's reach. "What's wrong?" he finally spoke, his voice still a low, harsh rhasp of a tone, which he noticed Ranamon back away as swiftly as her state would allow. When Mikael extended a hand towards her hand, she drew it back quickly, causing a very sharp pain to suddenly burst forth within his chest. "Why are you not allowing me to comfort you?" he weakly replied. It was still the same rhaspy tone but it felt different to Ranamon. It wasn't anger. It had no sharp edge to it. It sounded… heartbroken almost. When Ranamon heard this, she herself froze. It's as though she felt the pain in his voice, she felt too within herself. There's no possible way that he couldn't remember what he had done earlier that day, could there?
"Do you even remember what you did, Mikael?" The look of absolute confusion remained, his eyes looking as though they were swelling slightly with tears as he shook his head. "…How can you not? You made a huge scene in the lobby… half the staff was afraid to come near your room after you passed out?" Still the look remained the same, a poor attempt at trying to remain emotionless tried to squeeze past the emotional outline that was gripping his face. "You really have no idea what I'm talking about.. do you?" she asked, the surprise in her voice quite apparent as he slowly shook his head. As she explained the situation, she could see Mikael shifting. The look of sadness and pain slowly gave way as she recounted the details of Starmon striking her to a look of anger, a look of pure rage that someone would lay a hand on her in such a manner. Once more, the primordial growl that had found it's voice when Starmon was present had returned, causing Ranamon to slowly move away in fear.
"I cannot believe he would do such a sick… horrible thing to you!" he murmured, his voice cracking slightly once in a while. Ranamon cautiously reaches a hand over, extremely slowly as to try and not startle the enraged beast. When it comes to rest upon the back of his own hand, his whole body once again jolts hard, causing her to shriek in terror as she falls backwards from her spot, hitting the floor hard. Tears begin to form in her eyes, both from the physical pain of her wounded body striking the unforgiving solid surface, but also from the emotional pain of seeing someone whom she had connected with so well a mere two days ago, suddenly becoming an entirely different entity right in front of her. When he gazed down at her, the look in his eyes shifted. The innocence that was there before the tale suddenly surfaced and she heard a sob. She looked up in shock; disbelief was forming in her own eyes. Mikael, someone who seemed so well rounded from travel, so battle hardened that he would risk his life for a complete stranger, was starting to break down and cry as he forced himself out of his bed. "Oh god.. Ranamon.. I'm so sorry…" He kneels down, swaying back and forth from the sudden movements as he attempted to help her back to her feet and put her onto the bed so he could let her take his place.
"Mikael, it's alright. I just… I'm not sure how to feel around you…" The words were the true dagger that finally stabbed him fully through. "You were so kind. Sweet. Wonderful to me. I couldn't believe how amazing you were. But as of late, you've become something else entirely. I know you are still there, but… there's another you there too… I don't know what to make of it. At first, I felt safe near you. Now, I feel like I have to watch my back with you. It's like you'll suddenly turn from who you truly are to this… this hunter within. This monster who will stop at nothing to protect what he cares about at any cost. Mikael, I just don't know what to think about this!" After she had finished pouring her heart out, a deafening, almost painful dreadful silence filled the room. His eyes had faded to a truly emotionless state. There were no tears. There was no anger. It was empty. As though his soul, his entire essence had left him as he rose up after finishing helping her to her feet and putting her on the bed. She wanted to speak again, but she felt it wasn't right. All she could do was slowly, quietly try to whisper his name to get any kind of reaction from him. But there was nothing. The silence remained, only interrupted by the sound of a gentle breeze caressing the window from the outside. For what was only perhaps fifteen seconds at most, a silence that felt forever held the air tightly. Ranamon finally tried to break it. "Mikael…?" Again, a short burst of dead silence filled the room.
"Just… don't even speak," Mikael finally began. "You need your rest. You obviously are in no state to be moving around. Take my bed, I'm not risking you going back to your own room and falling in the hall somewhere…" She started to open her mouth to speak but a trembling paw rose from the Renamon, halting her before she could usher even the beginning of a breath. "No. Don't argue. Don't say a single thing. Just stay here and rest." A sheepish nod was all she could manage. She felt embarrassed, almost humiliated that she was being treated as such a child. What made the situation worse was she couldn't figure out Mikael's intentions. Or even which Mikael it was that was speaking to her right now. It had the concern in the words that the Mikael she had first met had shown, but that tone of anger. That tone of annoyance, of a seething rage slowly building under the surface waiting to erupt like a fissure slowly breaking open under the water exposing an underwater volcano.
"Mikael, I'm sorry to have put you through all of this…" she quietly whispers trying to make it so he doesn't hear her in fear of getting scolded more.
"I'm the fool who put my life on the line for you," he replies, surprising her. "I'm the one who latched onto the missile, full on knowing what I had coming. Honestly I'm amazed I'm even still alive. I'm STILL trying to figure out how I'm still here. I have done nothing but think about it and you the entire time I've been stuck in this god forsaken place." The entire time he spoke, his eyes were locked on her, trying to figure her reaction. Her jaw had lowered only slightly, leaving her mouth agape, what he believed to be shock from his confession of her being on his mind. After that, her eyes began to water. This reaction he was unsure of. Was it still from the confession, or was it from guilt of feeling as though she was responsible for his state. A heavy sigh worked from his lungs and passed his lips before he walked over to her and did something that even surprised him. Before he or she even knew what to think, his arms were wrapped gently around her, his left around her shoulders, his right gently cradling her head as he held her into his chest. Her eyes shot open in shock at the move but without even thinking, her arms gripped his waist tightly, tears forming heavier in her eyes.
"Mikael…" she whimpered, sobbing quietly as the warmth of his fur rushed through her flesh on her face, her eyes closing. She wasn't sure what to make of this situation. Yet again he had done a complete one-eighty. He wasn't the same mon yet again. That anger had left him, she could feel it. The warm sensation he was giving off was apparent that any ill feelings were gone. As she was held, she could hear the heartbeat racing through him. It quickened already just from her being there, but when she squeezed him softly, she could literally feel his heart race faster when she did. What she did next caught them both so off guard, and made her more than embarrassed enough for them both. She turned her head slightly to her left, and placed a gentle kiss into his chest, in return causing his heart to beat so quickly she was worried he'd pass out from how quickly it was racing blood through his system. "Mikael …" she tried to start. She was at a loss for words. She couldn't defend herself, make up a reason, anything. "I.. I don't know what just happened. I'm so sorry Mikael.." In one swift motion, before her brain could register what was being done, a finger was underneath her chin forcing her to look up, and Mikael's lips were planting themselves into hers, causing an inhalation of air to be swept into her lungs. She had to leave her eyes open for a few seconds, trying to figure out if what was happening was real. When she kept her gaze fixed on the fox in front of her, his gaze locked into hers. And within that split second, her body gave out. The last thing she saw for the moment was a grin on Mikael's face as he laid her down gently.
When she suddenly came to, her eyes yet again reached to a blurry world. Her vision hadn't focused in, but she could see movement. Lights moving overhead, as though she was being funneled through a tunnel. When the vision finally snapped into full picture, she realized that's about the size of it. She was being carted down a hallway. When she looked up, she saw Mikael over her, pushing her down the lengthy corridor in a wheelchair. "Mikael? What's going on?"
"We're being released. They feel we have both healed enough to be let out of here. We just can't do anything too crazy." She smiled warmly and reached a hand around, placing it on top of his upon the handle.
"Did… did last night really happen?" she questioned, blushing extremely heavily as her gaze wandered back up to him. The only thing that met her stare was a warm, gentle smile upon his face which answered her question right then and there. She blushed more as she returned her gaze forward.
"Oh my!" a Biyomon waiting for them exclaimed. "Are you alright? You're quite flushed!"
"She's fine, I promise. Just a tad bit of embarrassment," Mikael replied for her with a chuckle. "I shall be taking her home and watching after her. I do apologize for this supposed scene I made a few days ago. I truly don't remember doing any of that, but I did not mean to." Biyomon nods a bit nervously, remembering the strength Mikael had found somehow even in his wounded and battered state. He helped Ranamon up and slowly guided her outside. When the automatic doors shot open, sunlight poured over them, blinding them with the burning sensation they have not truly seen since their acceptance into the building.
"Mikael… thank you for everything you've done for me. I know I haven't said anything since we've been in there… but you have no idea how much what you've done for me means." Again, another warm smile meets her from the Renamon's expression as he takes her hand and walks beside her, wrapping his free arm around her to make sure she doesn't lose her balance or collapse if she feels faint. They arrive at her house and he helps her inside, carefully helping her to the kitchen and sitting her down. "Would you like to stay here for the next few days? I know you don't have a home to go to or a place to sleep. You can use my sofa if you'd like." An unexpected chuckle crosses his lips and she cocks her head curiously. "And just what, may I ask, is so darn funny, huh?"
"Can't I just share the bed with you?" he asks with a playful wink, making her blush furiously once again.
"NOW YOU JUST WAIT ONE DARN MINUTE, MISTER!" she proclaims loudly. "I AM A LADY AND YOU DO NOT ASK SUCH A THING OF ME!" A rousing, boisterous laugh escapes the fox as she huffs furiously. "I do NOT see what is so darn funny, sir!"
"Please. I truly wouldn't ever actually ask such a thing of you. That is extremely disrespectful. " She huffed once again, her blush still remaining as she folds her arms across her chest. "And so shall this next comment be," he smirks. "Careful where you cross those arms, they make other parts of you look quite luscious." She looks down and growls as she glares back up at him, realizing he was talking about her squeezing her breasts together.
"What has gotten into you?!" she snaps, unsure where this perverse nature of his was coming from. "I have never heard such words come out of your mouth, and I would appreciate it if it would stay that way! I like to think maybe you just happen to be the first true gentleman I've met! And that maybe something possibly could happen between us!" Those words drew an immediate halt to his laughter, and he looked at her in pure surprise.
"Ranamon… do you mean that?" She nodded as she looked down. "Then… then I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say such things. I just feel more comfortable around you, and I always have been kind of a jokester when I get to know people better. I thought maybe I had crossed that point where I could be my true self with you."
"I want that, Mikael. I truly do. But I would appreciate it if you would keep your gentlemanly ways going. I truly like you as you are. I won't mind a joke here and there, but goodness, I don't want you to become just another typical male out there." He nods slowly and understandingly. "Thank you Mikael. You mean a great deal to me, and I'd hate to lose that." They spend the rest of the afternoon together in her home, trying to slowly get readjusted to being free from the confines of a hospital. As nightfall beckons, Ranamon looks at Mikael from the steps. "If you need me for anything, and I mean anything Mikael, please don't hesitate. My door will be open." A smug smirk crosses his face with a quiet chuckle, and she glares playfully. "Now now, mister, don't you be gettin any ideas, you hear me?" she states as she places a hand on her hip, the other wagging a finger, but a playful wink follows along with a smile of her own. "Have a good night, Mikael. I shall see you in the morning." She blows a kiss in his direction and ascends the steps. As she does, Mikael watches her, but a shift in his eyes flashes quickly, the familiar low growl that emits once again finds a voice from the throat of the beast, it slowly filling the empty living room.
"Tonight…," he thought to himself, "Whether she likes it or not… she is going to be mine…"