03-07-2004, 04:50 AM
Here is a new and improved version of "Over Spilt Milk", which you can find at Mediaminer.org. It's better in every respect, except the lemon part in the fifth chapter has been unchanged.
WARNING! May contain swearing, yaoi, gay sex, heterosexual sex, lemons, nuts and an assortment of adult situations that may not be suitable for minors or brain-dead bigots, not limited to character death and mass genocide. Upon reading this you hereby agree that I cannot be held liable for any psychological or physical damage caused by the fact that I use British English spelling and the fact that this fanfic isn’t totally canonical. Digimon is copyrighted by Bandai and Toei Animation Ltd. Wolf O’Donnell is copyrighted by Nintendo Ltd. The sex will only appear in the fifth chapter and is between Henry and Ryo.
* * * * *
Chapter 01: Only a Beginning
In his dreams, he always saw them marching towards him. Grey machines with miniscule yellow eyes and purple markings on their heads. Lifeless. Soulless. Heartless. Cruel and in every way cold. Merciless. Deadly. Efficient in every way possible and faster than any living creature. Always, they marched relentlessly towards him, pushing down any tree that got in their way, trampling the grass to death and churning the earth with their metallic feet. Always, they were partially obscured in the dust they threw up, but always their yellow eyes would glow and be visible through the veil.
Villages would be burnt to the ground. Digimon would be slaughtered. Lives and families would be shattered to pieces, broken and dashed upon the ground.
Always, they would come towards him and always they would come from the direction of the beautiful city. They would always come to him from that beautiful white city that looked like a futuristic take on Ancient Greece with its white Doric-capped pillars and white streets and buildings.
Digitopia, a city where peace was maintained with extreme justice. Digitopia, a city where any Digimon that was a virus-type was slaughtered viciously. Digitopia, a city ruled by a madman from the top of Digitopia Tower, a skyscraper so tall, it looked as if it would touch the shining turquoise Real World Sphere that shone high above the Digital World.
There was never a single night when he would not dream about Digitopia. Not a single night passed without him hearing the screams of the Digimon, as they were butchered by the Digitopia Army. Every night, he would spend his dreams... no, nightmares, watching the army of digital robots, Digibots, march across the Digital World and bring suffering and hatred and despair wherever they went.
In all his nightmares, he would be helpless to stop the carnage. In all his dreadful nightmares, he would be tormented by the bloody visions. In all his nightmares, he would see friends die and friends betray friends and he would feel the despair underneath the bright blue sky.
Always blue. Never anything else. No black nor white. Just blue.
And he, Akiyama Ryo, would always wake up in a cold sweat, to find himself in a darkened bedroom with Monodramon, his Digimon partner, by his side. And he, Akiyama Ryo, would always remember that there had been a time when it was not a dream but a waking nightmare. And he, Akiyama Ryo, would always break down into tears and pass the night away in pure sorrow.
This is the story of Akiyama Ryo and his coming to terms with death and destruction and love and most of all, madness...
* * * * *
D-Reaper. It engulfed the city. It engulfed the world with its red mass. Always, its main mass would bubble and churn and move forwards, catching the light of the sun in its exterior and creating rainbows across its surface. Deadly and beautiful. Always in nature, the most beautiful things are deadly and D-Reaper followed that rule.
"Subject detected. Begin deletion procedure."
Justimon ran round the corner to get away, but it was too late. A yellow sphere with a mouth, attached to a red, flesh-like cable, rounded the corner and smashed into his shoulder, sending the Digimon flying to the floor. He turned round and saw another heading straight towards him. Justimon leapt to his feet and then leapt backwards away from it.
A large, pink, humanoid creature came lumbering around the corner. Its head was shaped like a blackberry with more of those yellow spheres set into the head, their mouths opening and shutting. Its hands had a sphere each in each palm, and it made its way straight towards Justimon, the mouths of the yellow spheres snapping away.
"Glorious destruction," announced the creature, its voice sounding like that of a girl’s. "Down with the chaos of life!"
"Get bent!" shouted Justimon and Ryo simultaneously, as the Digimon leapt through the air and kicked at the monstrosity that was an Agent of the D-Reaper.
The Agent, dubbed ADR-07 by Yamaki and the programmers, stumbled backwards and crashed into the side of a building, smashing into it.
"Destiny," announced the ADR-07. "Destiny." Another yellow sphere snaked away from the ADR unit and headed towards the Mega-level Digimon. "This is the destiny of the world."
Justimon’s right arm turned into a plasma blade and he ducked underneath the sphere. He grabbed the cord that attached it to the ADR-07 unit and then cut through the cord with his blade. Justimon felt the thing wriggle in his hand, before it burst into a spray of red goo that disintergrated into the air. He turned round and leapt over the yellow spheres that the ADR-07 unit shot out at him. The Mega level Digimon flew into the air thrust his plasma blade straight into the ADR-07 and cut his way down the middle.
The thing burst apart and disintergrated, as Justimon landed back down to the concrete ground. The Digimon turned and looked up.
"An ADR-02 unit," he muttered, as he saw a grey bird-like structure floating above him. He noted that there were strange octopus-like creatures with it, with bulbous heads and arms that looked like deformed foxglove flowers. "There’s some ADR-04 units with it as well."
(Analysing subject. Subject identified as Akiyama Ryo. Retrieving data.)
Ryo frowned. The ADR-02 unit was retreating, as were the ADR-04 units. Why? Why were they retreating, rather than coming straight towards him to attack? It didn’t make sense. Like the Digibots, the machines that the ADR-04 units were blatantly based on, the ADR units did not know fear. The ADR units were designed to carry out their missions to the bitter end or be destroyed trying.
"Something’s wrong, Justimon," whispered Ryo, afraid of raising his voice for fear of attracting unwanted attention. "Hey, do you hear that?"
"Yeah," nodded Justimon, talking to Ryo, whom was within the Digimon. He didn’t need any encouragement from Ryo. The Digimon turned and ran towards the sound. He was expecting a fierce fight, but that was okay with him. 'I hope they don’t finish before I get there,' thought Justimon, as he ran through the streets.
Up ahead was a gigantic Digimon wearing green armour. It was a MegaGargomon and there was no doubt to either Justimon or Ryo that Henry Wong was within that Digimon.
Two groups of ADR-04 units moved in towards MegaGargomon in a pincer movement. That was no way to deal with a Digimon that could fire several missiles into the air, though. The MegaGargomon leapt back and fired several missiles into the air, each one curving towards a ADR-04 unit and blowing it apart.
"We can’t let up, MegaGargomon!" cried Henry. Like Ryo, he was within his Digimon, residing within the layers of digital data that formed his Digimon partner. "We have to protect the others!" He threw a punch forward and MegaGargomon did the same, punching out at an ADR-04 unit and sending it flying away.
Justimon leapt through the air and kicked out at an ADR-03 unit, which looked like a cloak-like figure with a yellow face. He stepped back, avoiding one of the ADR-03 unit’s sharp-edged pendulums. Seeing his chance, he dived for the red cord and grabbed it with both hands, pulling at it and tugging at it until it snapped.
The ADR-03 unit burst apart, sending red goo splattering all over the place before it disintergrated and disappeared.
"Justimon? Ryo? What are you doing here?" asked MegaGargomon and Henry simultaneously.
"We’re here to help of course," replied Ryo.
"Thanks for the offer, but we don’t need any help," announced MegaGargomon. "Mega Barrage!" He fired several missiles into the air, each one curving towards its target until it exploded with ferocity against the ADR units, creating a whole myriad of bright explosions that lit the sky.
There was a strange sound like that of a Star Wars lightsabre being swung. Two circles of flashing light suddenly descended from the sky and surrounded the two Digimon, immobilising them. There was suddenly a screeching sound and a shower of lasers came hurtling down towards them, smashing into them and searing into their digital bodies. Next came a thin laser of light that passed them harmlessly before the entire ground they stood on burst into flames.
When the flames subsided and the circles of immoblising light disappeared, all that was left were two Rookie-level Digimon and two badly hurt children.
"Henry, are you okay?" asked Ryo, as he crawled over to Henry. It felt as if he had lost the feelings to his legs. He suddenly heard a laugh, a feminine laugh. Ryo turned his head upwards and gasped.
It was a new agent. This new agent looked like the D-Reaper had taken a human body, torn the legs off and torn the flesh off the chest and abdomen to reveal the ribcage and a still-beating heart. The arms were still intact, however, the skin was as blue as that of the Jeri clone and in place of hands were hideously large and sharp claws. The neck and head were still intact and the head had black hair and dark brown eyes that were so dark, they nearly looked black.
"No, it can’t be," muttered Ryo, shaking his head, as he looked at the new ADR unit that was set into the wall of chaos. "Wolf?"
The new ADR unit smiled at Ryo. It was a cruel smile and a taunting one. The very nature of the new ADR unit seemed to mock Ryo. It waved a clawed hand at Ryo, before aiming the palm of its hand straight down at the brown-haired Tamer. The mouth of the new ADR unit, which I shall dub ADR-W, seemed to mouth out a word that chilled Ryo to the bone. It pointed a clawed finger straight at Ryo, and then it dived down to the ground.
"Corona Blaster!"
The ADR-W’s smile disappeared and turned into a look of horror. It disappeared back into the chaos, just as Beelzemon’s attack struck.
The winged Mega-level Digimon landed right behind Henry and Ryo, kneeling down behind them.
"You two all right?" he asked them, but he received no verbal reply from the both of them, for the two children had both passed out.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Another Tamer," muttered Ryo, as he stood at the clearing. His eyes were wide with disbelief and he was motionless with that very same disbelief that swept over his body. "His Digimon’s an Ultimate too." He turned to face Cyberdramon and saw that the Digimon was strangely calm. It all seemed to be like a dream to Ryo, as if none of this real.
The other Tamer that sat in the clearing seemed to be much older than Ryo, and had black-hair. The mysterious Tamer wore a long, black coat around him and brown, leather boots, which looked as if they had seen better days.
"Don’t be afraid," said the mysterious Tamer, as if he was addressing Ryo.
How could that be, though? The Tamer had his back to the boy. This black-haired guy couldn’t possibly have known Ryo was there.
The nameless Tamer turned round to face Ryo. A smile formed on his face, as he looked at Ryo with dark brown eyes that were so dark they were almost black. The Tamer had blue jeans and a white shirt, and he wore a pair of thin-framed glasses.
"Come, don’t be afraid," called out the mysterious Tamer. "Come and sit! There’s no need for you to stay out there in the cold and dark."
Ryo never felt so nervous in his life. He had always been confident, always capable of speaking to whomever he wanted to speak to. This person, however, this mysterious Tamer seemed to have taken away all of his confidence. Cautiously, he stepped into the clearing.
Cyberdramon didn’t seem to be so timid, however. He strode into the clearing and sat down beside the WereGarurmon that was the Tamer’s Digimon.
"What’s your name?" asked the black-haired Tamer, as he shifted aside to let Ryo sit down beside the fire. "My name’s Wolf."
"Ryo. My name’s Ryo."
A smile spread across the black-haired Tamer’s face.
"Ryo," he repeated, as if he was practising saying the name, testing its sound out. "Nice name," he commented. He looked at Cyberdramon and then at Ryo. "So, is that your Digimon, Ryo?" he asked.
"Yeah," replied Ryo nervously.
"So, I guess it’s true," sighed Wolf, as he looked at Cyberdramon and WereGarurumon, the two sitting quietly together. "Quiet friends really do attract quiet friends."
Silence. Only the crackling of the fire could be heard soon after. Once again, Ryo felt as if it was all a dream. There was a grumbling noise and Ryo looked down. He realised that he hadn’t eaten anything for a very long time. In fact, it seemed as if he hadn’t eaten ever since he found his way back into the Digital World, having had lost his food rations to his partner, whom had been at Rookie-level at the time.
Wolf laughed.
"Hungry, eh?" he chuckled. He gestured at the fire and around the campsite. "I’m sorry, but as you can see, I have no food." He sighed. "Really, there is no need for food."
Ryo frowned at that comment.
"What do you mean?" he asked Wolf.
"You’re only hungry when you want to be hungry," stated Wolf in an almost philosophical manner. "Keep your mind off hunger and it will not come to you." With one finger, he pushed his glasses back up, resettling them. "The same goes for warmth. Here in this world, if you think you are warm, then you are warm. The only reason I lit the fire was for light."
Ryo stopped thinking about his hunger and thought of himself as being warm. The hunger disappeared, as did the cold. He felt content.
"Wow, you’re right!" exclaimed Ryo. "How is that possible though?"
Wolf just shrugged his shoulders in reply.
"I have no idea," he replied. "It’s just the way things are, I guess." He turned his head to look at Cyberdramon and WereGarurumon. "Your Digimon’s very quiet," commented Wolf. "He and WereGarurumon get on very well," he added as an afterthought.
"Yeah, they do," agreed Ryo with a nod of his head. He sighed and closed his eyes. "They get on surprising well," he stated.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Slowly, Ryo opened his eyes again. The first thing he saw was a ceiling. He sat up and looked around him and a frown appeared on his face. Where was he? He found that he was inside a sleeping bed and that... His dream! Ryo suddenly remembered the dream he had, of meeting a black-haired Tamer in a clearing within the Digital World. Deep down, Ryo knew that it was more than a dream. He had been to that clearing once and he had met that Tamer once. He suddenly felt a hand rest on his and turned round to see that indeed another hand rested on his.
It belonged to Henry and the blue-haired boy was fast asleep.
'He looks like an angel,' thought Ryo, as he sat there, looking at Henry. 'So beautiful. Why do I hesitate to tell him?' He couldn’t understand. Ryo bit his lip, as he lay there with Henry’s hand resting on his left hand. 'He probably thinks he’s with...' He trailed off mid-thought. Of all the Tamers, it seemed as if Henry was the only one whose preference was unknown. 'Takato loves Jeri and it’s obvious that something’s going on between Kazu and Kenta, but what about Henry? Is he in love with Rika?' He began to wonder. Henry had never shown any feelings for Rika and she had never shown any feelings for him. Was it a ruse?
Secretly, Ryo hoped that Henry didn’t love Rika. It would mean that he would have a chance with the half-Chinese boy. Yes, he had loved Henry ever since he first met the boy. However, he had never gained the courage to speak out his emotions. He had doubts at first. Everyone has doubts at first.
Giving in to his temptations, Ryo leant down and kissed Henry on the forehead. 'Simple pleasures are sometimes the most satisfying,' thought Ryo, but those exact words reminded him of Wolf. Didn’t the ADR-W have Wolf’s face? Ryo felt sick at the thought of it. Was the D-Reaper mocking him?
The expression on Henry’s face was enough to wipe those thoughts clear from his mind. A smile appeared on Ryo’s face.
"Henry, I hope that you will never leave me," prayed Ryo quietly.
To be continued...
WARNING! May contain swearing, yaoi, gay sex, heterosexual sex, lemons, nuts and an assortment of adult situations that may not be suitable for minors or brain-dead bigots, not limited to character death and mass genocide. Upon reading this you hereby agree that I cannot be held liable for any psychological or physical damage caused by the fact that I use British English spelling and the fact that this fanfic isn’t totally canonical. Digimon is copyrighted by Bandai and Toei Animation Ltd. Wolf O’Donnell is copyrighted by Nintendo Ltd. The sex will only appear in the fifth chapter and is between Henry and Ryo.
* * * * *
Chapter 01: Only a Beginning
In his dreams, he always saw them marching towards him. Grey machines with miniscule yellow eyes and purple markings on their heads. Lifeless. Soulless. Heartless. Cruel and in every way cold. Merciless. Deadly. Efficient in every way possible and faster than any living creature. Always, they marched relentlessly towards him, pushing down any tree that got in their way, trampling the grass to death and churning the earth with their metallic feet. Always, they were partially obscured in the dust they threw up, but always their yellow eyes would glow and be visible through the veil.
Villages would be burnt to the ground. Digimon would be slaughtered. Lives and families would be shattered to pieces, broken and dashed upon the ground.
Always, they would come towards him and always they would come from the direction of the beautiful city. They would always come to him from that beautiful white city that looked like a futuristic take on Ancient Greece with its white Doric-capped pillars and white streets and buildings.
Digitopia, a city where peace was maintained with extreme justice. Digitopia, a city where any Digimon that was a virus-type was slaughtered viciously. Digitopia, a city ruled by a madman from the top of Digitopia Tower, a skyscraper so tall, it looked as if it would touch the shining turquoise Real World Sphere that shone high above the Digital World.
There was never a single night when he would not dream about Digitopia. Not a single night passed without him hearing the screams of the Digimon, as they were butchered by the Digitopia Army. Every night, he would spend his dreams... no, nightmares, watching the army of digital robots, Digibots, march across the Digital World and bring suffering and hatred and despair wherever they went.
In all his nightmares, he would be helpless to stop the carnage. In all his dreadful nightmares, he would be tormented by the bloody visions. In all his nightmares, he would see friends die and friends betray friends and he would feel the despair underneath the bright blue sky.
Always blue. Never anything else. No black nor white. Just blue.
And he, Akiyama Ryo, would always wake up in a cold sweat, to find himself in a darkened bedroom with Monodramon, his Digimon partner, by his side. And he, Akiyama Ryo, would always remember that there had been a time when it was not a dream but a waking nightmare. And he, Akiyama Ryo, would always break down into tears and pass the night away in pure sorrow.
This is the story of Akiyama Ryo and his coming to terms with death and destruction and love and most of all, madness...
* * * * *
D-Reaper. It engulfed the city. It engulfed the world with its red mass. Always, its main mass would bubble and churn and move forwards, catching the light of the sun in its exterior and creating rainbows across its surface. Deadly and beautiful. Always in nature, the most beautiful things are deadly and D-Reaper followed that rule.
"Subject detected. Begin deletion procedure."
Justimon ran round the corner to get away, but it was too late. A yellow sphere with a mouth, attached to a red, flesh-like cable, rounded the corner and smashed into his shoulder, sending the Digimon flying to the floor. He turned round and saw another heading straight towards him. Justimon leapt to his feet and then leapt backwards away from it.
A large, pink, humanoid creature came lumbering around the corner. Its head was shaped like a blackberry with more of those yellow spheres set into the head, their mouths opening and shutting. Its hands had a sphere each in each palm, and it made its way straight towards Justimon, the mouths of the yellow spheres snapping away.
"Glorious destruction," announced the creature, its voice sounding like that of a girl’s. "Down with the chaos of life!"
"Get bent!" shouted Justimon and Ryo simultaneously, as the Digimon leapt through the air and kicked at the monstrosity that was an Agent of the D-Reaper.
The Agent, dubbed ADR-07 by Yamaki and the programmers, stumbled backwards and crashed into the side of a building, smashing into it.
"Destiny," announced the ADR-07. "Destiny." Another yellow sphere snaked away from the ADR unit and headed towards the Mega-level Digimon. "This is the destiny of the world."
Justimon’s right arm turned into a plasma blade and he ducked underneath the sphere. He grabbed the cord that attached it to the ADR-07 unit and then cut through the cord with his blade. Justimon felt the thing wriggle in his hand, before it burst into a spray of red goo that disintergrated into the air. He turned round and leapt over the yellow spheres that the ADR-07 unit shot out at him. The Mega level Digimon flew into the air thrust his plasma blade straight into the ADR-07 and cut his way down the middle.
The thing burst apart and disintergrated, as Justimon landed back down to the concrete ground. The Digimon turned and looked up.
"An ADR-02 unit," he muttered, as he saw a grey bird-like structure floating above him. He noted that there were strange octopus-like creatures with it, with bulbous heads and arms that looked like deformed foxglove flowers. "There’s some ADR-04 units with it as well."
(Analysing subject. Subject identified as Akiyama Ryo. Retrieving data.)
Ryo frowned. The ADR-02 unit was retreating, as were the ADR-04 units. Why? Why were they retreating, rather than coming straight towards him to attack? It didn’t make sense. Like the Digibots, the machines that the ADR-04 units were blatantly based on, the ADR units did not know fear. The ADR units were designed to carry out their missions to the bitter end or be destroyed trying.
"Something’s wrong, Justimon," whispered Ryo, afraid of raising his voice for fear of attracting unwanted attention. "Hey, do you hear that?"
"Yeah," nodded Justimon, talking to Ryo, whom was within the Digimon. He didn’t need any encouragement from Ryo. The Digimon turned and ran towards the sound. He was expecting a fierce fight, but that was okay with him. 'I hope they don’t finish before I get there,' thought Justimon, as he ran through the streets.
Up ahead was a gigantic Digimon wearing green armour. It was a MegaGargomon and there was no doubt to either Justimon or Ryo that Henry Wong was within that Digimon.
Two groups of ADR-04 units moved in towards MegaGargomon in a pincer movement. That was no way to deal with a Digimon that could fire several missiles into the air, though. The MegaGargomon leapt back and fired several missiles into the air, each one curving towards a ADR-04 unit and blowing it apart.
"We can’t let up, MegaGargomon!" cried Henry. Like Ryo, he was within his Digimon, residing within the layers of digital data that formed his Digimon partner. "We have to protect the others!" He threw a punch forward and MegaGargomon did the same, punching out at an ADR-04 unit and sending it flying away.
Justimon leapt through the air and kicked out at an ADR-03 unit, which looked like a cloak-like figure with a yellow face. He stepped back, avoiding one of the ADR-03 unit’s sharp-edged pendulums. Seeing his chance, he dived for the red cord and grabbed it with both hands, pulling at it and tugging at it until it snapped.
The ADR-03 unit burst apart, sending red goo splattering all over the place before it disintergrated and disappeared.
"Justimon? Ryo? What are you doing here?" asked MegaGargomon and Henry simultaneously.
"We’re here to help of course," replied Ryo.
"Thanks for the offer, but we don’t need any help," announced MegaGargomon. "Mega Barrage!" He fired several missiles into the air, each one curving towards its target until it exploded with ferocity against the ADR units, creating a whole myriad of bright explosions that lit the sky.
There was a strange sound like that of a Star Wars lightsabre being swung. Two circles of flashing light suddenly descended from the sky and surrounded the two Digimon, immobilising them. There was suddenly a screeching sound and a shower of lasers came hurtling down towards them, smashing into them and searing into their digital bodies. Next came a thin laser of light that passed them harmlessly before the entire ground they stood on burst into flames.
When the flames subsided and the circles of immoblising light disappeared, all that was left were two Rookie-level Digimon and two badly hurt children.
"Henry, are you okay?" asked Ryo, as he crawled over to Henry. It felt as if he had lost the feelings to his legs. He suddenly heard a laugh, a feminine laugh. Ryo turned his head upwards and gasped.
It was a new agent. This new agent looked like the D-Reaper had taken a human body, torn the legs off and torn the flesh off the chest and abdomen to reveal the ribcage and a still-beating heart. The arms were still intact, however, the skin was as blue as that of the Jeri clone and in place of hands were hideously large and sharp claws. The neck and head were still intact and the head had black hair and dark brown eyes that were so dark, they nearly looked black.
"No, it can’t be," muttered Ryo, shaking his head, as he looked at the new ADR unit that was set into the wall of chaos. "Wolf?"
The new ADR unit smiled at Ryo. It was a cruel smile and a taunting one. The very nature of the new ADR unit seemed to mock Ryo. It waved a clawed hand at Ryo, before aiming the palm of its hand straight down at the brown-haired Tamer. The mouth of the new ADR unit, which I shall dub ADR-W, seemed to mouth out a word that chilled Ryo to the bone. It pointed a clawed finger straight at Ryo, and then it dived down to the ground.
"Corona Blaster!"
The ADR-W’s smile disappeared and turned into a look of horror. It disappeared back into the chaos, just as Beelzemon’s attack struck.
The winged Mega-level Digimon landed right behind Henry and Ryo, kneeling down behind them.
"You two all right?" he asked them, but he received no verbal reply from the both of them, for the two children had both passed out.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Another Tamer," muttered Ryo, as he stood at the clearing. His eyes were wide with disbelief and he was motionless with that very same disbelief that swept over his body. "His Digimon’s an Ultimate too." He turned to face Cyberdramon and saw that the Digimon was strangely calm. It all seemed to be like a dream to Ryo, as if none of this real.
The other Tamer that sat in the clearing seemed to be much older than Ryo, and had black-hair. The mysterious Tamer wore a long, black coat around him and brown, leather boots, which looked as if they had seen better days.
"Don’t be afraid," said the mysterious Tamer, as if he was addressing Ryo.
How could that be, though? The Tamer had his back to the boy. This black-haired guy couldn’t possibly have known Ryo was there.
The nameless Tamer turned round to face Ryo. A smile formed on his face, as he looked at Ryo with dark brown eyes that were so dark they were almost black. The Tamer had blue jeans and a white shirt, and he wore a pair of thin-framed glasses.
"Come, don’t be afraid," called out the mysterious Tamer. "Come and sit! There’s no need for you to stay out there in the cold and dark."
Ryo never felt so nervous in his life. He had always been confident, always capable of speaking to whomever he wanted to speak to. This person, however, this mysterious Tamer seemed to have taken away all of his confidence. Cautiously, he stepped into the clearing.
Cyberdramon didn’t seem to be so timid, however. He strode into the clearing and sat down beside the WereGarurmon that was the Tamer’s Digimon.
"What’s your name?" asked the black-haired Tamer, as he shifted aside to let Ryo sit down beside the fire. "My name’s Wolf."
"Ryo. My name’s Ryo."
A smile spread across the black-haired Tamer’s face.
"Ryo," he repeated, as if he was practising saying the name, testing its sound out. "Nice name," he commented. He looked at Cyberdramon and then at Ryo. "So, is that your Digimon, Ryo?" he asked.
"Yeah," replied Ryo nervously.
"So, I guess it’s true," sighed Wolf, as he looked at Cyberdramon and WereGarurumon, the two sitting quietly together. "Quiet friends really do attract quiet friends."
Silence. Only the crackling of the fire could be heard soon after. Once again, Ryo felt as if it was all a dream. There was a grumbling noise and Ryo looked down. He realised that he hadn’t eaten anything for a very long time. In fact, it seemed as if he hadn’t eaten ever since he found his way back into the Digital World, having had lost his food rations to his partner, whom had been at Rookie-level at the time.
Wolf laughed.
"Hungry, eh?" he chuckled. He gestured at the fire and around the campsite. "I’m sorry, but as you can see, I have no food." He sighed. "Really, there is no need for food."
Ryo frowned at that comment.
"What do you mean?" he asked Wolf.
"You’re only hungry when you want to be hungry," stated Wolf in an almost philosophical manner. "Keep your mind off hunger and it will not come to you." With one finger, he pushed his glasses back up, resettling them. "The same goes for warmth. Here in this world, if you think you are warm, then you are warm. The only reason I lit the fire was for light."
Ryo stopped thinking about his hunger and thought of himself as being warm. The hunger disappeared, as did the cold. He felt content.
"Wow, you’re right!" exclaimed Ryo. "How is that possible though?"
Wolf just shrugged his shoulders in reply.
"I have no idea," he replied. "It’s just the way things are, I guess." He turned his head to look at Cyberdramon and WereGarurumon. "Your Digimon’s very quiet," commented Wolf. "He and WereGarurumon get on very well," he added as an afterthought.
"Yeah, they do," agreed Ryo with a nod of his head. He sighed and closed his eyes. "They get on surprising well," he stated.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Slowly, Ryo opened his eyes again. The first thing he saw was a ceiling. He sat up and looked around him and a frown appeared on his face. Where was he? He found that he was inside a sleeping bed and that... His dream! Ryo suddenly remembered the dream he had, of meeting a black-haired Tamer in a clearing within the Digital World. Deep down, Ryo knew that it was more than a dream. He had been to that clearing once and he had met that Tamer once. He suddenly felt a hand rest on his and turned round to see that indeed another hand rested on his.
It belonged to Henry and the blue-haired boy was fast asleep.
'He looks like an angel,' thought Ryo, as he sat there, looking at Henry. 'So beautiful. Why do I hesitate to tell him?' He couldn’t understand. Ryo bit his lip, as he lay there with Henry’s hand resting on his left hand. 'He probably thinks he’s with...' He trailed off mid-thought. Of all the Tamers, it seemed as if Henry was the only one whose preference was unknown. 'Takato loves Jeri and it’s obvious that something’s going on between Kazu and Kenta, but what about Henry? Is he in love with Rika?' He began to wonder. Henry had never shown any feelings for Rika and she had never shown any feelings for him. Was it a ruse?
Secretly, Ryo hoped that Henry didn’t love Rika. It would mean that he would have a chance with the half-Chinese boy. Yes, he had loved Henry ever since he first met the boy. However, he had never gained the courage to speak out his emotions. He had doubts at first. Everyone has doubts at first.
Giving in to his temptations, Ryo leant down and kissed Henry on the forehead. 'Simple pleasures are sometimes the most satisfying,' thought Ryo, but those exact words reminded him of Wolf. Didn’t the ADR-W have Wolf’s face? Ryo felt sick at the thought of it. Was the D-Reaper mocking him?
The expression on Henry’s face was enough to wipe those thoughts clear from his mind. A smile appeared on Ryo’s face.
"Henry, I hope that you will never leave me," prayed Ryo quietly.
To be continued...