Rika had dragged her hand slowly down the sleek, muscular abdomen presented to her, until fingers dipped between open thighs and caressed her partner's groin.
Renamon didn't moan or squeal or do anything aside from breathe, eyes closed, jaws open, as if willing and waiting for something to happen.
Her Tamer then felt a spike of sickening panic, remembering the lack of discernible genitals. Moments passed where she was frozen in fear, like this, her own pleasure waning.
"Rika?"
"I'm sorry, Renamon," was the quietly admitted defeat. "I don't know what to do."
"Neither do I."
"I… Okay, but…"
"Just touch me," her Digimon had said, gentle, inviting.
"But… I'm not sure if I can… Y'know."
"Trust me, Rika."
"I do, Renamon. And I want to make you feel good. I'm just… I'm scared you won't like this. That I'll screw it up."
"Trust me." Blue slits appeared in the dim of the bedroom, fondly wandering over the flushed, terrified young woman overhead, paws carefully kneading breasts. "I'm thoroughly enjoying you."
"Really?"
A kiss closed their distance, unimpeded by the differences of their bodies.
Since then, Rika has tried to accept Renamon's inability to orgasm. To see sex as something between them that is shared, not one-sided or exploitative.
A hot, wet tongue laps at inked skin, as if to taste the fluttering pulse beneath.
Her eyes are closed. She feels safest when submissive like this, sprawled vulnerably underneath her partner's powerful body, helpless against the tender attentiveness that sets her flesh on fire.
Rumiko cannot understand, for their lovemaking is something that cannot be explained.
Rika doesn't understand it, either.
"Wanna go to the park, later?"
For a moment, Renamon laughs quietly, deeply, leaning against the tiled wall with her fur uncombed.
Rika is preparing a late breakfast at the stove, wearing nothing to conceal herself. In the sunlight that streams in through frail white curtains, the battle scars gleam as faintly silver criss-crosses. Her figure is strong and supple, but not as firm as it used to be.
"I'd love to."
She tosses aside a fierce smirk, red hair tossed also, allowing her eyes to bathe in sunbeams. "Then it's a date, yeah?"
The Digimon simply moves in reply, pushing herself off of the wall and striding closer, until her chest presses snugly against her Tamer's back, sturdy hips settling familiarly in the grasp of talons.
Rika kisses Renamon's muzzle, overhanging a naked shoulder, and stirs the contents of the pan.
"Mm." A little black nose twitches. "That smells fittingly delicious."
"Not as much as you."
"Careful, Rika. I am in a frisky mood."
"Your definition of 'fisky' is my favourite mood, Renamon."
The Digimon rests her head against her Tamer's.
"So, about the park."
"Mm?"
"I'm thinking… a picnic."
"Wonderful."
"Should I call the guys?"
"It would be nice to see them."
"Even Terriermon?"
"I didn't eat him the last time we met, did I?"
"Ah, point taken."
"Will you chase me?"
"And make a total fool of myself in front of the gang?" Rika nuzzles Renamon. "For you, of course."
"Guilmon would love that. He always begged you to roughhouse with him."
"And when I did, he knocked me on my ass."
The Digimon nods slowly, reminiscing with her Tamer, as if sharing thoughts. "And slobbered all over your face."
"Takato and Henry laughed so hard. Those assholes didn't do shit to help. Thank goodness for Jeri. She was in tears. Happy tears. And she fell on me, trying to rescue me from Guilmon."
"You two stank of peanut butter for days, afterward."
"Heh, I try to blot out that part." Rika turns down the heat, then skewers a browned, buttered mushroom on a nearby fork. "And you!"
"Me?"
After blowing cold air onto the mushroom, she directs the fork at Renamon.
The Digimon opens her mouth, sharp teeth gleaming white, and neatly pulls the mushroom from the prongs.
"You didn't step in until I tried to call your name underneath all that tongue. How is it?"
Contentedly chewing, Renamon's claws drift across Rika's lower stomach, allowing for a more engulfing embrace.
"Good, because you'll need your strength to outrun me, later."
Swallowing, the Digimon then murmurs seductively against her Tamer's cheek, "I am looking very forward to it."
"And maybe I'll get my revenge on Guilmon."
"Perhaps I'll finally eat Terriermon. Regardless, I want to roll in the grass."
"You big puppy. You'll get leaves in your fur."
"Then you'll have to take them out of my coat, one at a time, in that gentle but grouchy way only you can."
Rika grins, tracing Renamon's toned forearms beneath the sleeves. She never knew she could have something like this. That she could be so loved. That she could return such love in kind.
Jeri, Takato and Henry are already here, accompanied by happy Digimon partners, save for one.
Years after Leomon's death, Rika still feels a pang, but disguises it, her eyes on the heavily pregnant woman sitting on the bench.
Jeri is smiling at the antics of everyone else. Still so lonely, after all this time, all this love, as if the hole he left cannot be filled.
Rika's heart is pounding. She takes her time in reaching them. She has an odd affinity for Jeri, a protective desire to see the delicate little woman smile like the child she hardly got to be.
Guilmon shares Jeri's bench. Despite his keen nose, which is distracted with the basket of food in his claws, she is the first to notice the approaching redhead.
Rika feels another pang, answering the almost invisible wave with another.
The two men, one of whom is Jeri's husband, stand over the bench, broad-shouldered and square-jawed, chatting amiably. Takato absentmindedly massages the feminine shoulders beneath his hands whilst Henry speaks through Terriermon's playful efforts at obstructing the words with his ears.
Rika is getting close, now. She is about to announce her arrival with something scathingly affectionate when Renamon drops from a treetop.
"Boo," she says, relishing Terriermon's squeal.
Guilmon makes a funny noise of excitement. "Renamon!"
Jeri quickly takes the basket.
Terriermon gets some satisfaction from watching Guilmon fall off the bench in his scrabbling effort to reach Renamon first, plunging into her arms with enough force to throw her off-balance.
"Muahaha! Destroy her!"
"Momentai," says Henry in his typically sedate, amused way, turning to smile handsomely at Rika. "Hey, you."
"Hi!" Takato's smile is bigger. He is wearing his old goggles, one of the lenses cracked. "This was a great idea!"
Jeri's dark eyes are warm and kind.
"I know." Rika sets down the items she had prepared for this, making a show of sighing melodramatically at their excitement. "Well, let's get the hugs over with. Come and get me, folks."
Takato releases his wife and runs, pushing past Henry and Terriermon, throwing his arms around one of his best friends.
The redhead returns his embrace with the intimate stoicism that she has become known for, noting that the man has picked up weight. It's comforting and to be expected from a baker, like his parents.
"It's so good to see you," Takato whispers in Rika's ear. And he means it with every fibre of his being.
"I'm happy to see you, too, you Gogglehead."
"We don't do this often enough. I don't see you often enough."
"You know me and Renamon."
"Yeah, I do."
From over his shoulder, Rika tries to reassure Jeri with hard eyes, thankful for the softness of understanding and trust that is communicated back. It's awkward, knowing that they have both been the objects of desire, only one of whom actually committed.
Takato slowly lets go, taking a respectful step away from Rika.
This close, she can see the scar beneath his left eye.
"Can I have a turn?"
"Oh, sure, man." An embarrassed laugh as he returns to his waiting wife. "Sorry."
Henry and Terriermon move in unison, enveloping Rika together.
"Wow, you're not as old looking as I'd expected! It's only been, what, a hundred years!"
"Don't mind him."
"I won't," she murmurs, blindly fussing with a spiked head. "For now."
They part with a shared laugh.
Rika glances at Renamon, who has recovered from Guilmon's adoration and moved to the bench, accepting a caress on her chest from Takato whilst reaching for Jeri's hand, holding delicate fingers within a comparatively crude paw.
Guilmon bounds over just then, burying his head in Rika's stomach. "Yay, you're here, too!"
"Of course, you scamp." She runs her hands along his hard head, his twitching ears, until he growls playfully. She knows that she should make more effort to see her friends, her mother, her grandmother's grave. Rika doesn't want to sever herself from her past. But she seems prone to withdrawals.
Guilmon suddenly clasps her arm in his claws and darts away, dragging her over to the bench, causing her no pain or discomfort. "See, the bun in the oven is almost ready!" Typical for Takato to use a baking metaphor to explain pregnancy and childbirth.
Jeri is about to rise when Rika stills her with a kiss on the forehead.
"Aw."
One woman melds into the other, sinking into the hug that follows.
"That's kinda cute, huh?"
One woman unthinkingly touches the other's stomach.
"Okay, now things are getting a little weird."
"Terriermon, I can still send you home."
"Momentai, Henry, remember?"
Rika feels the life under her hands and it takes her breath away.
Jeri is beautiful, with a femininity that the taller, stronger woman marvels at whenever they meet, almost as much as Rika marvels at this unborn child.
"You can have one of your own, someday, you know." Henry winks at Renamon, who is grazing against his arm in a friendly way and lending her shoulder to Terriermon.
"Ooh. You're comfy, you know that?"
"Thanks, I do try."
"Yeah, right."
"I'd make a terrible mother," Rika says, mostly to herself, after a few seconds of critical thought.
Renamon has no trouble overhearing, blue eyes careful to conceal any emotion.
"I think you'd be a fun parent." Jeri doesn't mind the overly careful movement as Rika sits beside her.
"I'd be interesting, at least."
"You and Renamon would be great moms," says Takato in his optimistic, kindly way, so much the boy, still.
"Thanks, Gogglehead." Rika tries not to blush in the open-minded acceptance of her friends, avoiding Renamon's cold gaze. "You've gotten so…"
"Big?"
"That doesn't sound flattering, but yeah."
"It's okay." Jeri's stomach shifts a little beneath her dress. "It's been a while. I must seem like a balloon, to you."
"That's what I said." Takato chuckles good-naturedly, massaging his wife's shoulders. "But not the balloon part. So, where're we gonna set up?"
"I like the look of that spot over there," answers Guilmon whilst taking the basket gently from Jeri, licking her cheek once before galloping over to said spot.
They watch him go with expressions of fondness unique to each face.
"Over here, over here! No, wait, a little closer to that tree… Here!"
"He's such a dolt."
"See the pretty flowers, Takatomon?" the Digimon bellows some distance away, using that pet name casually, now, without need.
"I sure do, boy!"
"That seems like a good place." Henry looks between them. "Guys?"
They agree.
"Right, then!" Assuming a leadership role that isn't arrogant or bullying, Takato gives his wife's shoulders one final squeeze before helping Henry and Renamon with collecting and carrying their things. "Let's get this picnic underway!"
Rika offers her arm, which Jeri accepts, easing the pregnant woman to her feet. Together they follow the others. It is a short trek, but they take it slowly. By the time they step into the bed of freely growing flowers, the others have begun to unpack.
"No, don't do it that way!"
"How shall I proceed, then?"
"And here I thought you were the smart one, after Henry and me."
"Henry and I."
"Don't correct me when you can't even lay out a blanket just right!"
"Your 'just right' has yet to be defined. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're merely pestering me."
"Sheesh. Like I would do such a thing." Terriermon makes an exasperated noise on Renamon's shoulder. "Henry, maybe you should take over. This one is having some trouble."
The larger Digimon takes a casual swipe at the nuisance, sending him careening harmlessly onto the blanket.
"Hey! We were having a moment!"
"This may be the day I learn what you taste like."
"I'm flattered, really, but our moment aside, you're not my type."
"Why, you little–"
"Henry! Aah!"
"Nope."
"What d'you mean, 'nope'?"
"I'm busy."
"Your partner is in peril, here!"
"You're on your own this time, buddy." The man sighs, reaching into his camping bag. "You do love to antagonise."
Guilmon stops following an ambling butterfly, pursuing Renamon when she dashes past him, in turn pursuing Terriermon.
Rika is between Jeri and Takato, asking about the pregnancy, trying not to seem too curious.
"Momentai, Renamon, momentai!"
The three of them pause to watch the game.
"I'll save you, Terriermon!" True to his word, Guilmon lunges onto Renamon's back, slowing her down enough for her intended target to scamper up the nearby tree.
"Whew, thanks! That was a close one!" Terriermon stoops over, paws on his knees, catching his breaths in pants. "Man, I gotta work out, more. Next time, I might not be so lucky."
Renamon could climb with Guilmon, but she bows under his weight instead, pretending to collapse, repaid with his delight.
"We've come so far," murmurs Takato, his arm around Jeri, her head on his shoulder.
Rika nods, joined by Henry, who ruffles her red hair despite her answering scowl.
Renamon teasingly bares her teeth under Guilmon's nuzzling snout, to match Terriermon's belittling facial expression from the tenuous safety of his branch. Sometimes, one must know when to accept defeat for the benefit of others.