Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of its characters. Please support the official release.

Wants and Needs

"That's my turn," Kazu declared confidently, knowing that his moment had finally come.

He surveyed the cards in front of him one more time, followed by a sense of satisfaction washing over him. He had stacked his HiAndromon card with enough modify cards that nothing his opponent put out would be able to overpower it. On his next turn, he'd take the win.

Across the table, Suzie stared back in his direction, dark circles under her eyes and a gloomy expression on her face. Kazu almost felt bad seeing her demoralized in this way. Her defeat was at hand and she didn't know how to cope with it.

Thinking about it, though, Kazu felt like the biggest shame was that there was no audience around to see his victory. Aside from Guardromon and Lopmon, this section of the park was deserted, despite the warm weather and clear sky.

Suzie waited a few more seconds before moving, long enough that Kazu had to wonder if she had decided to quit. To her credit, however, found enough resolve to put down her final card.

A card which just so happened to have the image of a Dark Spiral printed on it. It's effect involved taking control of Kazu's HiAndromon, and winning Suzie the game as a result.

"Are you satisfied?" Suzie asked calmly, the expression on her face not changing at all.

Kazu drummed his fingers on the table as he looked over the cards again, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. As far as he remembered, he had played his hand perfectly, with the only explanation coming to mind being dumb luck.

After wracking his brain for a few more seconds, Kazu looked upward. "Let's go again."

At first, Suzie didn't react at all. Then her eye twitched, followed by her burying her face in her arms. The sound of muffled screaming came shortly thereafter.

"Suzie?" Lopmon said softly.

"I think she's blown a gasket," Guardromon commented.

"No!" Suzie shouted as she lifted her back up, revealing bloodshot eyes. "You have officially ruined this game for me! I quit!"

"You can't just quit," Kazu replied after recovering from being startled.

"Watch me." Suzie began to collect her belongings.

Kazu reached out to stop her. "Now, hold on-"

"Touch me and I tell my parents!"

Kazu stopped short and retracted his hand. "Tell them what?"

Suzie glared daggers at him. "The truth, because I'm pretty sure we passed the point of harassment a long time ago."

"Whatever..." Kazu sat back, knowing a crazy look when he saw one. "I don't need to beat you to prove anything anyway."

Silence immediately followed, and the park seemed to go still around them. Kazu looked around to make sure it actually hadn't, his gaze settling on the Digimon. Their eye-lines were on Suzie, who herself had an uneasy smile on her face.

"You don't need to beat me?" she asked, her voice shaking a bit.

Kazu narrowed his eyes on her. "That's what I said."

"And you just decided that now?"

"Pretty much."

"You jerk!" Suzie attempted to scramble across the table towards Kazu, only stopped when Lopmon got in between them.

"Suzie, wait!" the former Deva pleaded as she tried to hold her partner back. "Remember Sensei's advice!"

"Sensei's advice would have been different if he actually had to deal with this narcissist!"

"Who's a narcissist?" Kazu shot back.

Suzie suddenly stopped trying to push past Lopmon, holding on Kazu as though she were looking for something. Whatever she was looking for, Kazu couldn't guess at what it was, and it seemed like he wasn't going to get the chance to act.

"You know what?" Suzie finished collecting her things. "You're not worth it."

Kazu sat there trying to come up with a response, but by the time he had come up with one, Suzie and Lopmon had already walked off.

"I kinda think she's in the right, though," Kenta said without looking away from his phone.

Kazu had just finished telling him about how the card game in the park had ended. Sitting in his back yard with no one else but their respective partners around, Kazu had expected some kind of vindication after telling his side of the story to his best friend. Apparently, he had been mistaken.

"Seriously?" Kazu jabbed a finger in said friend's direction. "You're against me too?"

"I'm not against you, Kazu." Kenta looked up from his phone. "I'm just not agreeing with you."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that I'm just trying to be honest with you here," Kenta said as he stood up and slipped his phone into his pocket. "And honestly, I think you should just count yourself lucky that Henry never got involved."

"Please..." Kazu crossed his arms. "I could take him if I had to."

Kenta raised an eyebrow. "You don't think that that kind of mindset could be part of the problem?"

"What exactly are you getting at?" Kazu shot to his feet, his mood getting worse by the second. Everyone seemed set on talking down to him today, and if they weren't going to stop, they could at least tell him why they were doing so.

"Forget it. I'm not looking to start a fight with you because I'm not telling you what you want to hear." Kenta waved over to MarineAngemon, who had been preoccupied with Guardromon on the other side of the yard up to this point. "Besides, I have somewhere to be."

"Where could you possibly have to go?" Kazu asked, not sure if he was relieved that he was about to get a break from all the judgment being thrown at him or insulted that his friend was walking away from him mid-conversation.

"I, uh..." Kenta paused to scratch behind his ear before looking back towards Kazu. "I'm meeting Miki to go over our history homework."

"Miki?" Kazu mind went blank as he tried to match a face to the name, until recalling the girl as one of Jeri's friends from school. "Really... her?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kazu shrugged. "I'm just saying, you were interested in Jeri last time I checked, weren't you?"

Kenta didn't answer, instead turning away from Kazu. The expression on his face was hard to read, not seeming to give off any particular emotion. He looked more lost in thought than anything else, something Kazu noticed his friend do more often as they got older.

"Jeri was just a crush, one that I only really had in the first place because I don't spend a lot of time with people outside our group." Kenta shook his head and looked back in Kazu's direction. "Not that any of that matters. I'm pretty sure Miki's only hanging around with me because she likes MarineAngemon."

Who's an extension of you, doofus, Kazu thought, keeping quiet only because he felt the notion was so obvious that Kenta should have reached the same conclusion on his own.

"Well, don't let me keep you then," Kazu said instead, not wanting to drag the current conversation out any longer than they had.

"Just think about what I said," Kenta replied as he turned to leave.

"What for?" Kazu snapped, having officially run out of patience for being told what to do.

Kenta seemed to take the hint, leaving without another word. Once he was out of sight, Kazu stuffed his hands in his pockets and marched over towards Guardromon, who seemed to be making it a point to watch him closely.

"Can you believe him?" Kazu asked his partner as he sat down next to him. "Telling me what my problems are?"

"I don't think he meant any offense, Kazu," Guardromon replied earnestly. "It seemed like he just wanted to help."

"Who says I want his help?" Kazu asked back as he looked up at his partner. "Or need help from anyone, for that matter?"

Guardromon placed a hand on his chin, or at least where his chin would be if he had one. "You know, I can't help but recall the time in my life right before we first met. I was determined to defeat Orochimon, and no one could convince me otherwise."

"And you eventually did, remember?"

"Well, uh, no, I didn't. Leomon did."

"Is this story going somewhere?" Kazu asked through his teeth. The fact that his own partner was trying to lecture him too was not lost on him.

"I'm suggesting that Orochimon was defeated because I accepted my limitations and opted for a different approach."

"Unbelievable..." Kazu said under his breath as he stood back up. "I'm going for a walk."

Not even turning around to listen to Guardromon's acknowledgment, he left the backyard with no destination in mind.

"You're not worth it."

The words echoed in the back of Kazu's mind, followed immediately by questions seemingly spinning out of that thought. Kazu tried to throw these thoughts out of his head, as they were the last thing he wanted to think about at the moment, but they only seemed to burrow themselves deeper into his brain as a result.

Who was she to talk down to him?

No one, for that matter. Kazu was Suzie's senior, both in age and in regards to their time as Tamers. She wasn't better than him in any way whatsoever.

Was that entirely true, though?

Ryo had chosen Suzie over Kazu to be his protege, despite the girl's young age and lack of interest in fighting, and despite Kazu's own enthusiasm for learning from the Legendary Tamer himself. For whatever reason, it had been decided that Kazu wasn't going to be held in the same regard as a member of the team.

And the two of them weren't the only ones to think that way, were they?

Sure, Rika had always had a superiority complex, always talking down to the others. What bothered Kazu the most was that Takato and Henry hadn't turned out any different. Once they had learned how to bio-merge, Kazu had essentially been sidelined, treated as a second tier Tamer who was only actively included when the others needed an extra body and had no one else to turn to.

Then there was Kenta, who perhaps because dumb luck had led to him getting partnered with a Mega Digimon, had also joined in on putting Kazu down. Kazu's reminded himself that MarineAngemon had next to no offensive abilities, so anything Kenta had to say had little to no weight.

"...I accepted my limitations and opted for a different approach."

Guardromon's advice interrupted his train of thought briefly, but by that point Kazu had decided to disregard it. Everyone seemed so set on putting their two cents in on what they perceived as his personal issues, that none of them picked up on the fact that Kazu didn't needtheir help.

With that, he stopped walking, his wanderings having brought him to the Katou's tavern. A smirk formed on his face as he stepped inside, deciding to go after something he wanted. After all, Kenta had admitted to no longer being interested in Jeri, so there was no reason to not capitalize on that.

Kazu maneuvered around the current occupants of the tavern, eventually spotting Jeri as she carried a large stack of dishes towards the kitchen. He quickly moved to cut her off.

"Just the girl I was looking for," Kazu announced, pouring on all the extra charisma he could.

Jeri slowly turned to face him, struggling to find the necessary leverage to keep the dishes from falling out of her hands. She eventually succeeded by the time she had turned all the way around. She didn't smile as she often did when she greeted her friends, though the dark circles under her eyes told Kazu that this was likely because she was tired from working.

"Hey, Kazu," she finally replied. She glanced around the tavern before returning her attention to him. "Look, is there any chance this could wait til later? I'm a little busy right now."

"No worries," Kazu assured her. "I only need you to answer a question for me real quick."

Jeri paused, her gaze lowering to the floor before coming upward again. "Go ahead."

Kazu cleared his throat. "I was thinking that you and I could hang out sometime. You know, just the two of us."

"You mean like a date?"

"I mean exactly like a date."

Another pause followed, with Kazu once again wondering if the world around him had gone still. Jeri expression remained unchanged, long enough that Kazu was almost unsure about how she would answer. Eventually, though, Jeri stopped keeping him in suspense.

"Sure."