August 12th: Celebrations

Summary: After the fight with BelialVamdemon, Mrs Ichijouji invites the Chosen Children to a party.

Rating: K

Words: 700 approx.

Something to Celebrate

"Cheers!"

Everyone raised their glasses and brought them to their lips. Yamato leaned back on one of the walls and looked around the room, wondering how so many people had managed to cram themselves into the apartment. Mrs Ichijouji was resting her arms on the counter and smiling as she watched the proceedings, bringing out more food from a seemingly endless supply when she deemed they were running low.

Taichi, Hikari, Ken and their digimon were laughing at something Daisuke was animatedly describing with the help of Vmon, while Jou, Koushiro and Tentomon looked on sceptically. Gomamon seemed amused at least. Takeru and Miyako were talking with Mimi while doing their best to keep Iori's spirits up. The youngest of their group would sometimes wander away and stare out the window with Armadimon standing by his side. Losing someone, no matter what they had done of how much of a stranger they were, was hard.

Takeru had told Yamato what had happened in the dream world with BelialVamdemon. It was just like that monster to use others and then throw them away at the slightest provocation. The grip on his glass tightened as memories of Pumpmon and Gotsumon resurfaced. He took a long gulp, hoping the action would distract him a little. Once again, the price of victory had cost others' lives.

A light touch on his shoulder drew Yamato's attention down to his girlfriend. It still felt bizarre referring to Sora as someone so intimate, but he loved every moment with her. Giving her a tight smile as some sort of reassurance, he transferred his glass into the hand furthest from her and clasped her free hand in his own. Sora smiled back and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"You're looking awfully melancholy for someone who's supposed to be celebrating."

Yamato looked around the room, his eyes finding Iori again as Takeru pulled him back towards the conversation.

"We couldn't protect them."

"You knew it was only a matter of time before they had to fight real digimon. We should be glad that we didn't have to lose any of our friends this time."

"Somehow it doesn't feel like a blessing."

"No, it doesn't," Sora agreed.

Yamato's attention was drawn back to Sora when she unlinked their hands and wrapped her arm around his waist. She looked up at him with a sad smile and Yamato felt his stomach flip-flop. Sora was beautiful in so many ways, conventional and not so. He moved to that his forehead rested against hers, the background noise a quiet hum in the distance. She really knew how to bring him back.

"If there's one thing I'll draw the line at, it's my childhood friends making out in front of me."

The two pulled away from each other in embarrassment and Yamato shot Taichi a glare. As if that's what he was thinking of doing in someone else's house. Out of the corner of his eye, Yamato watched as Sora slowly turned scarlet. Taichi's words had obviously had their desired effect.

"Geeze, boys have no sense of romanticism," complained Miyako, who had stepped forward with her arms crossed in obvious annoyance.

"You shouldn't make them feel embarrassed," Hikari reprimanded her brother softly.

The discussion continued when Daisuke foolishly came to Taichi's defence and found himself being ganged up on by Hikari and Miyako. Yamato caught Sora's eye. She rolled her eyes and then rested her head on his shoulder again.

"Thanks for being my boyfriend," she whispered.

Yamato let out a light snort. "You're the one that had the courage to ask. If it had been left to me you probably would have given up and moved on to someone else."

"You wouldn't have asked me if I was still single at thirty?"

"I might have gotten the hint at sixty five."

Sora laughed quietly into his shoulder and hugged his free arm.

"Good thing Taichi was there."

"Taichi?"

Yamato looked over to his friend, who was facing off against his sister with his arms up in surrender. Guess he owed Taichi a favour since he'd come along at the right moment. They had all grown up a lot. Yamato met Taichi's eyes across the room and nodded in thanks. Taichi merely grinned back . He and Sora were definitely going to be teased for a while still. However, Yamato found himself smiling at the thought. He supposed it was a small price to pay.

Thank you for reading! Please review!

Unfortunately, I've decided to scrap the story I wrote for the next prompt and write something new (the rough draft is mostly finished, but I'm not sure how happy I am with it), so might be a little late to post the next chapter.