Act 1: Beating Heart
Segment 2: New Year, New Life
Chapter 2-5: Dreaming of a White Christmas
"Amedramon, fly!" Haru was sitting on Amedramon's back.
"Ryuta," it complained, "help." It gave him a pleading look. He was busy making a Saturday lunch for himself and his sister, since his parents were both out at some company thing for his father.
He sighed. "Haru, you're going to crush Amedramon's wings. It's not that big." She didn't move, only gave him an angry pout.
"Awwh… why couldn't you be bigger?" she complained, swinging herself off Amedramon's back. She sat on the couch instead.
"You're not as light as you look, Haru," Amedramon remarked, stretching its wings.
"Rude!"
"W-what, it's true!"
Haru was indignant. "Ryuta, tell Amedramon I'm not that heavy!"
Ryuta put down the spatula and picked his sister up, swinging her around in a circle. "See, you're fine."
"I told you, Amedramon!" She grinned at it. "Even Ryuta agrees with me!"
"If I could stand upright…"
"You can't?" asked Ryuta. "You do that to me all the time."
"Only briefly!" Amedramon paced over to the kitchen, sniffing. The pan was ripping hot, sending the aroma of seared salmon throughout the kitchen. "Hey, Ryuta, I've never seen you cook before."
"Ah… I've been learning how to do it myself the last several months. I figured if I'm going to be living on my own, I had better learn how to." He poured some vegetables into a pot of dashi broth. "It's not that complicated, honestly, but it's better than constantly buying food all the time."
"Eh, what is it?" Amedramon climbed up on Ryuta's back and looked over his shoulder. Haru watched intently from the couch.
"Amedramon! Open your wings!" she implored.
"Hm? Okay." It fanned its purple-membraned wings out, nearly clipping the fridge and a wall.
"Heh! Ryuta, now it looks like you have wings, too. Let me take a picture!"
"Uh…"
"Hey, don't move!" she commanded, fiddling with a Polaroid camera. It had been a gift from Takaharu, since their two families actually put some effort into celebrating Christmas. The day had passed two days ago, so winter break had started for all of the school kids. "Hee hee, I'm going to put this on my wall," she giggled, and ran off to do just that.
Ryuta watched her go. Amedramon's attention was fully drawn to the pan of salmon fillets, watching with intent as the salmon skin curled at the edges. Ryuta turned the pan down to stop it from getting too hot. "Hey, Ryuta," Amedramon said, "have you asked Satsuki about learning from her parents?"
"Etsuko and Gaku? They're too skilled for me. I mean, they do upscale cuisine for a living, the kind that gets international media to show up."
Amedramon pulled its lips back in a smile, exposing its fangs. "That doesn't sound like you, Ryuta."
"I guess. There are just some things I'm not that good at, to be honest." He looked in the direction of Haru's bedroom. She was singing along to a pop song. "I'm not skilled at everything."
"Mm, Ryuta, I don't think you give yourself enough credit."
Ryuta stroked Amedramon's snout. "You think so? That's what Kazuhiko and Yuuka said." He flipped the salmon fillets over and reached for an herb-miso butter paste. Satsuki had warned him only to apply it to the top after flipping it so that the butter wouldn't burn and taste bitter.
"So, what are you doing after this? Haru's got piano lessons after lunch."
"Me? I dunno." He looked outside. It was cold and rainy, and overall not a great day to be walking outside – not with temperatures that low. "Probably open the box Takaharu gave us last night."
Amedramon clung to Ryuta's back as he moved around the kitchen, assembling the bowls of soba and vegetables, as well as plating up the seared salmon. He left one in the pan a bit longer for Haru. She was still young and he was afraid leaving the fish only partially cooked might not be good for her system. "Hey, Haru! Lunch!" he yelled.
Haru yelled back, "Gimme a minute!" Ryuta figured that was going to be three. Amedramon held some chopsticks in its mouth while Ryuta took the hot bowls over to the table.
When Haru was done fiddling with her laptop, one that had been given to her by Ryuta, she came out to Amedramon staring at her and Ryuta on his phone. She cheerily sat down. "Thanks, brother!"
"No problem." He put his phone away. Amedramon handed him a bottle of chili oil after it was done with it. He poured out a good circle of it and put it away.
"Hey, Ryuta, why do you always use that?" Haru asked.
"This chili oil?" He pointed at it.
"And those hot sauce bottles. Mom says she doesn't get it."
"Eh, I dunno. I think I picked up a taste for it back in Vancouver." He chewed through a chunk of carrot. It might have been in the pot for too long, as it seemed soft. Not terrible, just very plain, even with the oil.
"Vancouver, huh?" Haru fiddled with her bowl of soba. She looked out the window, as if dreaming about it. "Mom keeps saying she wants to visit you some time when you're over there."
He swallowed the bite of carrot. He hadn't heard that before. "Really?"
Haru nodded. "She said it would be really hard for you to leave once you went."
"I can visit for maybe a few weeks in a year, in between summer and winter terms." He slurped up a bunch of noodles. "Not good enough for her?"
"She said she wanted to go back herself, too, but…"
"But?"
"Dad didn't want to spend the money."
Ryuta put his chopsticks down and stretched back, then put his hands on his face. "Always about not wanting to spend money…" he growled. Why was his dad so worried? "Whatever," he sighed, "it's not like any of us are going to convince him any time soon." He picked up his chopsticks again and continued eating quietly.
They finished lunch with the sound of some gentle radio music coming from Haru's room. Ryuta went to wash the plates while Haru prepped her practice bag with the piano syllabus inside. After that, he retreated to his bedroom and cut open the wrapped box. It was pretty big. He removed the wrapping paper.
"Oh!" Amedramon craned its head to give it a look from the right side up. "Is that WarGreymon?"
"It's a model kit, yeah."
"Heh, maybe they'll make a model kit of me one day!"
Ryuta's shoulders went up as he stifled a laugh. "Okay, bud, whatever you say."
Takaharu admired the wrap job on the present the Koyamas had given them. "Kanae really did a perfect job with this, wow."
"Takaharu," his mother, Aki, said, "you know I try my best." She started picking the tape open.
"Y-yeah, I know, mom!"
"Good." She opened the box. "Oh, my." She motioned for Shunpei to come. "Take a look at this." It was a whole care package of things from all over Canada, from coast to coast. "I think there's something in here for everyone," she said, reading the card inside. "And this is just from Kanae and Hideaki. Takaharu, Ryuta got you something, right?"
"Yeah, me and Izumi. And Lomamon!"
"Eh? He did?" Lomamon looked up at the box Takaharu was leaning against.
"Yeah, it's in the present bag in my room." Takaharu went messily at the wrapping paper on the box in his hands.
"Oh, that one!" It ran off to fetch it.
"Hah! Of course you would," Takaharu remarked. It was a few decks of Digimon cards, with the top deck featuring Examon. There was a note in the box as well:
Take it easy on Kazuhiko with this one, eh? – Ryuta
"Take it easy on Kazuhiko? Nah, I'm not doing that," Takaharu grinned. "Hey, what did they get you, Izumi?"
"Did you tell him I was on the school's baseball team?"
"Uh…"
"So you did," she remarked, clutching a sports bag. "Anyway, it came with some games in it."
Tailmon hopped up onto the table, a toy in its mouth, and crawled into a box. "Tailmon…" Takaharu started. She looked up at him as if to ask what it was doing wrong. "Ah, whatever."
"Takaharu!" yelled Lomamon excitedly. "Check this out!" It was a box of maple candies and shortbreads. "Heheheh, these are gonna be so good," it giggled, immediately popping a candy into its mouth.
Takaharu slumped forward. "Gah, I can't believe even he's enabling its addiction," he moaned.
Shunpei seemed unconcerned. "You know, if those can last longer than the syrup jugs, that might be better. I'll ask them where they got them."
"Probably online, Shunpei," Aki replied. "I can look for them."
"Hmm, that would make sense. I haven't seen them anywhere around."
"Hey, Takaharu, none of the others really celebrate, eh?" asked Shunpei.
"The other Tamers? Nah."
"Ah, too bad."
"You know, I was thinking we might as well just meet up for something during the break. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. Maybe watch the new year celebrations. Actually," Takaharu pointed out, "you think next year we can head north?"
Shunpei blinked. "Like how far north?"
"Sapporo, I guess."
"Why? Oh!" Shunpei laughed heartily. "The snow! Right, you told me about Lomamon coming from a snowy place. Ah, I'll give it some serious thought."