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It started, as most things did, on a perfectly normal day.
There was too much sunshine and not enough shade. The sidewalks couldn’t fry an egg, but got pretty darn close. Even the wind was full of heat.
Still, for all Impmon would have preferred to go crawl into the twins’ room and lay under the AC, he had a responsibility. Well, more like a finely honed case of justified paranoia. Two weeks to the day, Ai and Makoto had been kidnapped by Behemoth. …okay, so the twins had technically been the ones doing the kidnapping. Sort of. The walk had been their idea. Behemoth hadn’t exactly been against it. And Behemoth had absolutely been responsible for the madhouse ride that came after.
Anyway. Two weeks to the day since The Incident. Behemoth hadn’t budged from where Impmon had parked it. Ai and Makoto had been allowed to see it once - under close supervision! Nothin’ bad had come of it. Except for Behemoth getting a sunflower sticker on its headlight cover courtesy of Ai. But other than that, nothin’ had happened.
Still, Impmon suspected his bike might try something. And if it was going to try something, today would be the day.
Impmon wasn’t entirely sure about Behemoth. The fact it existed kind of weirded him out. It had been blown up in the Digital World, blown up by Locomon in the Real World, and now was just… a thing. That existed. That Impmon was responsible for, because the bike was Impmon’s.
Impmon and responsibility in the same sentence gave him hives. Just sayin’.
Landing on a treebranch, Impmon looked ahead. All clear. Looked behind him. Also all clear. Looked below him.
The dumb dog was doing his business on the side of the tree. Ai was standing by with the roll of doo-doo bags, ready to do her job when Inu-kun was done with whatever. Makoto, not having a job right now, quit watching the mutt and instead looked up. Seeing Impmon, the kid smiled like ten thousand watts and waved both hands. Grinning, a little self-conscious, Impmon waved back. He loved his Tamers more than he’d thought he could, but this whole being mushy in public thing was embarassing… At least nobody from the pineapple head brigade was around to -
“Takatomon, look! It’s Impmon!”
Spoke too soon, Impmon groaned, looking to heaven to vent his annoyance.
“Hi, Impmon! Hi!” The pineapple head himself bounced up and down waving both arms. The brains of the brainless duo had both arms wrapped around Guilmon in an effort to keep the dinosaur from getting too hyper. Already a lost cause in Impmon’s opinion.
“Impmon…?” Ai’s quiet voice was full of nervousness. Makoto looked a little scared, too.
Impmon hopped down to ground level. The dumb dog was barking at Guilmon. “Cool it, mutt. Guilmon and Takato are okay.”
“Just okay, huh?” Takato’s laugh was as awkward as Impmon felt.
Impmon shook his head before turning his attention to what really mattered. “Oi. Ai. Mako. You remember goggle head, right?”
“We met him in the park,” Ai recalled. She scooted closer to Impmon. “And then you went away.”
“Went away,” Makoto echoed, likewise scooting close.
“I had to ‘cause the D-Reaper was just that big a jerk,” Impmon reminded them. The twins still nudged in closer. Time for a topic change. “What are you doin’ out in my neck of the city, pineapple breath?”
“Oh, Guilmon and I were helping Mr. Yamaki with something.” Takato winced as he added, “And then a water mane broke - not our fault this time -”
“This time?” Impmon blinked.
Takato plowed on, “Which got water everywhere. All the dirt turned into mud. Which,” an awkward chuckle, “Guilmon kind of… rolled around in. A lot.”
Right on cue, a glob of mud flicked off Guilmon’s tail. Actually looking at pineapple head showed off a lot more mud from his belly to his feet. Bunch of dried mud was caked across his snout and neck, too.
“You need a bath,” Ai pointed out, Makoto repeating, “A bath!”
“I get a hose!” Guilmom giggled.
“A hose…?” Ai and Makoto both repeated.
The dumb dino explained, “I’m not allowed in the bathtub. I don’t fit! So I get to play in a hose instead! Takatomon turns it on and the water goes all,” Guilmon threw his arms up with each, “woosh! Woosh! Wooooosh!”
Ai giggled. Makoto agreed, “Sounds fun!” The dumb dog barked.
Goggle head looked at Guilmon. Looked at Impmon’s Tamers. And then opened his big mouth: “Hey, do you two want to help me wash the mud off Guilmon?”
Ai and Makoto brightened at the idea. Then the two hesitated. “We have to ask Mommy,” Ai told the goggle head.
“Yeah, of course.” Takato hummed, thinking. Guilmom nudged into him. Takato nudged back. “Oh I know! Why don’t I go introduce myself and Guilmon to your mom? Then, if she says it’s okay, we can all go over to my place and give Guilmon a bath.”
Excited by the prospect of giving a dinosaur a bath, Ai and Makoto agreed. As he was required to do so, Impmon made a rude face, but didn’t argue against what was going to be complete nuttiness.
Guilmon wasn’t allowed inside the apartment building - because mud - which meant Impmon had to watch him while the twins and goggle head went in to talk to the twins’ mom. The idiot dog went, too.
There was plenty of foot traffic around the apartment building’s entrance. All of it kept away from Guilmon and Impmon, and not because of the mud. People just were never gonna get used to Digimon, were they?
“Hey, Impmon?”
“Eh?” From his spot on the bicycle wrack, Impmon had a good view of pineapple head.
Guilmon poked at a pebble on the ground. “Is Behemoth okay?”
Impmon startled, and stared. Of all the people to ask about that! Shutting his jaw, Impmon asked, “What the heck brought that question up?”
“Yamaki told Takatomon about what your Tamers said. Behemoth is like Grani.” Guilmon poked the pebble. “I miss Grani. He was nice. He let Dukemon fly.” More pebble poking. “If Behemoth is like Grani, and Behemoth came back, could Grani come back, too?”
Impmon opened his mouth. Actually thought about what to say. Closed his mouth, and admitted, “I dunno. I dunno how Behemoth even got here.”
Guilmon poked some more at the pebble. Silence filled up with shoe leather hitting sidewalk; the world turning around them without letting them be part of it.
Earnest and bright in a way Impmon could never be, Guilmom wished, “I hope you and Behemoth have lots of fun adventures with your Tamers, Impmon.”
“I…” Impmon looked at the pebble Guilmon was poking. He swallowed something that tasted a lot like shame. “Thanks, pineapple head.”
Guilmon giggled.
Bright cheers of childish laughter called out his name: “Impmon! Impmon!” Impmon couldn’t not look.
Makoto came barreling out of the apartment building. He stopped a full meter away, braced himself, and hopped like a frog. The action showed off he was wearing his big boy puddle jumping galoshes to go with his big boy puddle jumping overalls. Ai was decked up in matching puddle jumping overalls and big girl galoshes. She’d stayed back with Takato, holding his hand like goggle head were her big brother or somethin’.
“Mama said we could help Takato-san clean Guilmon!” Ai reported. Makoto repeated, “Help clean! Help clean!”
“Yay!” Guilmon cheered.
“Everybody ready?” Takato asked. “Got everything? Phone? D-Arc? Partner?”
Ai opened up her special purse. “Phone!” Ai announced, holding up the special cellphone. Makoto announced, “D-Arc!” as he held it up. Both kids pointed at Impmon. “Impmon!”
“That’s everything,” Takato laughed. “Let’s go give Guilmon a bath!”
“Let’s go!” Guilmon cheered. “Bath time! Bath time!”
“Bath time!” Makoto cheered.
Shaking his head, grinning despite himself, Impmon hopped down to ground level, the better to keep Makoto from tearing off into trouble. This was gonna be a disaster. At least it was gonna be a fun disaster.
In the back of his mind, looming like a rush-hour thunderstorm, thoughts about Behemoth percolated.
Like dang near every freaking house in Tokyo, Takato’s place did not have a back yard. It did have a back alleyway big enough for food supply trucks to drop off deliveries. That back alleyway was now being host to an inflatable kiddie pool big enough Guilmon could lay down in it. It was deep enough the water could come up to Guilmon’s knees.
Takato had changed into swim trunks and an old shirt. He asked his assistants, “Hose first?”
Ai and Makoto both nodded, agreeing, “Hose first.”
“Hose!” Guilmon cheered.
Takato handed the hose spray gun to Ai and Makoto. The two kids held on tight, pointing it at Guilmon. Guilmon was making himself as big a target as possible, arms up and holding his breath.
“Ready?” Takato half asked, half warned.
“Ready!” Ai and Makoto called out.
Takato turned on the water. “And…!” He pointed with all the dramatics due the situation. “Fire!”
Ai and Makoto pulled the hose spray gun’s trigger. Water shot out so fast the twins nearly tumbled. Guilmon cackled, “Hose! Hose!” The dino started wriggling under the spray, turning to make sure all the dried mud got hit.
“And - hold!” Takato ordered.
Ai and Makoto let go of the trigger. Takato turned the water off. Guilmon kept wriggling, bouncing gleefully and sending water droplets falling all over. One droplet even got as high as the fence top Impmon was hiding out in plain sight on.
Takato made a serious circle around Guilmon. Nodding, he declared, “Got it all. Now, we can scrub in the tub!”
“Scrub! Scrub!” Ai and Makoto cheered.
Impmon grinned, baffled but deeply amused by the antics of his Tamers. What was so fun about scrubbing a pineapple head?
Takato armed Ai and Makoto with bristle brushes. Guilmon hopped in the pool. Taking the spray attachment off the hose, Takato turned the water halfway on, and set the hose to rest in the pool. Takato climbed in first, turned, and helped Ai and Makoto in.
“Back! Back!” Ai and Makoto chanted.
Guilmon turned around and plopped down. His tail twitched under the water.
“You two scrub Guilmon’s back and tail. I’ll scrub his front,” Takato directed his minions.
Giggiling, Ai and Makoto set to work.
If it weren’t for the whole not wanting to get wet thing, Impmon might have been tempted to join ‘em. …maybe. Not like he needed a bath. Just. It was… nice. Listening to Ai and Makoto have a blast.
For some reason or another, Makoto slowed down. He looked up at where Impmon was watching. “Do you want a bath, too, Impmon?”
“Nah,” Impmon waved the offer off. “My fur gets all smelly when it’s wet.”
Makoto looked at Ai. The two looked… worried.
“You two keep on splashin’, it’s fine,” Impmon attempted to assure them.
Ai and Makoto got back to scrubbing. Their motions had a lot less zeal to ‘em.
Takato looked at the twins, then up at Impmon. Impmon, baffled as well, shrugged. Takato looked at Guilmon like the pineapple head had an actual brain between his ears. Guilmon hummed. The dino looked up at Impmon; jerked his chin towards the slowing twins.
Impmon hopped down. “Alright, you two, what’s’a matter? You get tuckered out washin’ dino breath?”
Two slow nods negative.
Impmon gave a full body exhale, head tipped forward and fingers touching his toe claws. “Come on, Ai, Mako. I may be the most awesome ever, but even I need a hint sometimes. What’s got you two in a funk?”
The two lowered their brushes. Ai looked at Makoto. Makoto looked at Ai. Neither one of them could bring themselves to look at Impmon.
“Worried,” Ai got out eventually, Makoto repeating just as quietly, “Worried.”
“Worried?” Impmon repeated. The twins nodded. “What ‘cha worried about?”
“We’re not worried, Impmon-chan,” Makoto corrected, Ai noting, “You’re worried, Impmon-chan.”
Caught flat-footed, Impmon blinked.
“You don’t like coming on Inu-kun’s walkies, but you came today,” Ai pointed out.
“You stayed home all day yesterday,” Makoto pointed out.
“You haven’t played any pranks in days,” Ai continued.
“You didn’t even try and play a prank on Takato-kun and Guilmon!” Makoto added another damning bit of evidence.
“You’re worried,” Ai repeated their conclusion, Makoto declaring, “We wanna help, Impmon-chan!” The two of them shuffled, water sloshing around their galoshes. It was hard for them - for Ai to admit for them both, “We dunno how.”
Impmon felt his lips wobble a little, his Core trying to melt right out of his chest with just how much they loved him. He didn’t deserve it. Really. Those two Tamers of his were worth more than any power he could name.
Impmon looked away from them; tried to grab his emotions by clenching his hands into fists. “I’m… a little worried, yeah… Behemoth…” Guh. How the hell was he supposed to explain this?
Ai and Makoto both gasped. “Is Behemoth okay, Impmon-chan?” Ai demanded, Makoto demanding, “Behemoth okay?”
“Er. I. Think? I don’t…” Impmon struggled to admit, “I don’t… really know… a lot about Behemoth. I just kinda… found it one day.” Impmon shrugged, feeling meek under the twins’ worried looks. “I was in the Digital World, and there was this bike almost as cool as me, and I went, hey, who wants to walk everywhere, right? I grabbed the bike and it turned out to be Behemoth and I thought it exploded -“
“E-Exploded?!” Ai and Makato both gasped in fright.
“Yeah. I thought Behemoth was gone.” Impmon scrubbed the back of his head with both hands. “Except it ain’t gone. It scared me so bad when you two went an’ got dragged around the city! You two couldda gotten hurt ‘nd I wouldn’t have been able to do anythin’ and… and…!”
Two pairs of tiny arms wrapped around Impmon. Them being still wet hid Impmon’s tears pretty well.
“We’ll help, Impmon-chan,” Ai promised. Makoto promised, “Impmon-chan, we’ll help.”
After a minute more of not crying, Impmon chuckled wetly, “‘preciate it, munchkins. Dunno if you can help.”
Both of his Tamers got serious. Ai suggested, “We could find a book.”
“A motorcycle book,” Makoto concurred. “There are lots of books on how to take care of pets.”
“There has to be a how to take care of a motorcycle book,” Ai insisted.
Takato stepped over to turn off the water to the hose. The goggle head figured, “There’s books about human motorcycles, but I don’t think there are any books about Digimon motorcycles… What?” Takato blinked at Impmon’s look. “I needed reference pictures for a drawing.” At an even longer look, Takato pointed out, “I do draw more than just Digimon.”
After staring a bit longer, Impmon snorted, turning to look at his Tamers. “Goggle head has a point, shocking enough. Behemoth is one of a kind.”
“Good thing for that considering it takes over people’s -“ Takato slapped his hands over his mouth just a little too late. Two sets of brown eyes stared at him. Impmon glowered. Takato attempted to laugh. After another awkward pause, Takato shuffled back over to Guilmon. The way he did so had Impmon rolling his eyes.
“Look, munchkins,” Impmon tried again, “I don’t really like thinkin’ or talkin’ about Behemoth. Reminds me of when I got… lost in the Digital World. Really, really lost. I made some pretty big mistakes. The kind ya can’t ever fix. Behemoth’s one big reminder of my huge screwup.”
Ai and Makoto had matching serious thinking expressions.
“When you were gone,” Ai began; looked at Makoto. Started again, quieter than before, “When you were gone, Mako and I didn’t want to think about why. Thinking about why made us remember you were gone.”
“But if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have figured out you were gone because we were fighting,” Makoto pointed out. “If we hadn’t figured out why, you’d still be gone. So if…”
When Makoto faltered, Ai picked up, “If you don’t like talking or thinking about Behemoth because of something really sad, then…”
Makoto promised, “We’ll help.”
Impmon was not going to burst into sobs just because his Tamers were making him feel like melting ice cream: All soft and gooshy and sweet.
“Okay,” Impmon agreed because what else could he do in the face of Ai and Makoto’s love for him but agree, “Okay.”
Ai, Makoto, and Impmon stood around hugging one another for a while longer.
Makoto wrinkled his nose. “Would… Would Behemoth want a bath…?”
Ai offered, “Or walkies?”
“But we can’t take Behemoth on walkies without an adult,” Makoto reminded Ai. Ai frowned, struggling to come up with other options.
Ai gave a little dejected gasp as she realized, “We can’t give Behemoth a bath! The parking place doesn’t have a hose!”
“No hose,” Makoto wilted.
“You guys can borrow ours,” Takato offered. Guilmon was equally excited by the idea.
The offer had Ai and Makoto grinning. Then the two wondered, “How would Behemoth come here?”
“No walkies without an adult,” Makoto recited.
“Could Mommie bring Behemoth here?” Ai wondered.
“Nope,” Impmon shut that down. Ai and Makoto frowned. “Behemoth doesn’t let anybody ride it unless it’s me. Or you two, ‘cause you’re my Tamers. If yer mom or dad tried, Behemoth would kick them right off.”
“That’s bad,” Makoto realized, Ai agreeing, “Bad.”
“Mmmm…” Guilmon leaned so far over he was practically an upside-down pineapple head. “That one time Behemoth wasn’t there. Then it fell out of the sky! Maybe…” Guilmon tilted right-side up again to suggest, “Do that?”
“I dunno how I even did that. ‘Sides, I’d have to be evolved to even try and do that,” Impmon countered. The twins blinked at him. The look caused Impmon to get all flustered again.
“Impmon doesn’t like getting all big because it makes it harder to play,” Takato jumped to the rescue - with an actual good point this time!
Ai and Makoto both wrinkled their noses over that hurdle.
“But he shrinks,” Guilmon pointed out.
That caused a new round of thinking from Ai and Makoto.
Impmon gave a full body exhale. This was gonna be one of those go around in circles until Impmon just gave in and went with it. So. Might as well yank the bandaid off.
Pushing himself to Mega was easy. With Ai and Makoto so close, it didn’t take any effort at all. Made sense. Best Digimon had the best Tamers, after all. And since he was the best Digimon, he made sure to pick the twins up as he grew, one twin in each arm.
Ai and Makoto both squeaked in awed delight. Grinning, Beelzemon failed at not blushing.
“Big! Big!” Makoto cheered. “Impmon got big!”
Outside of an initial awed squeak, Ai had gone quiet. Beelzemon looked at her, an odd feeling of being self-conscious prickling at him. “I’m kinda scary lookin’, right?”
Ai frowned, coming to a snap decision. Leaning forward almost too fast for Beelzemon to adjust his hold, Ai planted a child’s sloppy kiss right on Beelzemon’s cheek. Solemn, Ai swore, “You’re never scary to me, Impmon-chan.”
Beelzemon’s tail damn near tied itself into a knot, Beelzemon was so flustered.
“I wish I had a camera,” the goggle head giggled.
Still blushing, Beelzemon attempted to regain composure. Emphasis on attempted. Hard to look like the awesome Digimon he was with the twins giggiling in his arms.
“Right,” Beelzemon muttered when he wasn’t blushing, “Let’s see if I can do this…”
What this was, was a question all its own. Beelzemon closed two of his eyes to better focus. When he’d been in the Digital World fighting Dukemon - no. Too many nightmares there. Think about…
The Locomon. Having to go after it. Wanting to be a hero like the pineapple brigade. Knowing he’d need to catch up to it. Trying to figure out how to catch it. And then Behemoth just - being there.
Like it was just there next to Beelzemon right now. And it was his Behemoth. Had Ai’s sunflower sticker on the headlamp cover and everything.
“Whoa,” the goggle head breathed, the pineapple head cheering, “Wow!”
Ai and Makoto laughed brightly with enthusiasm.
Beelzemon set Ai and Makoto down. “Stick put a minute, munchkins.”
There was enough room between Behemoth and his Tamers for Beelzemon to crouch down on the balls of his feet. Beelzemon looked Behemoth dead in the headlights. There was - not exactly a feeling. A ghost of an impression of nervousness.
“Munchkins wanna give you a bath,” Beelzemon informed Behemoth.
The ghost impression of nervousness turned into an impression of confusion. Beelzemon pictured Guilmon getting hosed down and scrubbed in the tub. The impression of confusion drifted.
“You good with that?”
Kind of felt stupid to ask that. But Behemoth… wasn’t what Beelzemon had thought it was. Better to ask than be an asshole.
An unfocused image of Ai leaning into his face to press a sticker against his helmet - wait. Ai leaning into Behemoth’s headlights to press the sunflower sticker onto the cover. Came paired with a faint feeling of uncomplicated happy! All bright, bouncy, and Ai’s through and through.
“Impmon-chan?” Makoto asked as quietly as he could.
Beelzemon blinked a couple dozen times. That’d been… Huh.
“It doesn’t want Ai’s sticker washed off,” Beelzemon informed his Tamers.
Ai and Makoto frowned, plotting how to do exactly that.
Takato announced, “I’ve got an idea!”
Turning halfway around let Beelzemon watch the goggle head run into his house. Inside there were a couple thumps, thuds, a shout - to ask a question, not panic or somethin’ - and some more thumps. Goggle head busted out of his place hands first. In his right fist was a roll of blue tape. In his left, a square of plastic wrap.
Takato tripped himself up as he jerked to a stop right in front of Behemoth, catching his own enthusiasm before he could steamroll himself into a problem. He held out the blue tape, identifying it as, “Painter’s tape. It doesn’t leave any adhesive behind when you pull it up. And it comes off real easy. I can just… uh…” The goggle head eyed Behemoth warily. “Don’t be evil?”
Beelzemon scooted back enough to give Takato room to do his thing. Takato stepped in, put the plastic wrap flat over Ai’s sticker, ripped off a piece of tape, and used the tape to keep the plastic wrap put. A couple more minutes finagling with plastic, a couple more strips of tape, and Ai’s sticker was covered.
“There!” Goggle head leaned back to admire his work. “You’ll still need to be careful not to get it too wet,” he warned. “It’s not waterproof. It will keep it from getting splashed too bad, though!”
“Neat!” Makoto judged.
“Thank you, Takato-kun,” Ai thanked ever so sweetly.
Takato hummed. “You know, now that I’m looking at it up close, we should be careful not to get anything stuck in the engine. Need to make sure nothing gets in the exhaust pipes, either. Is the seat leather? Sometimes leather and water don’t mix.”
His Tamers hummed. “No hose,” Ai decided, Makoto concurring, “Water buckets.”
“Ai, Mako, you two take from da handlebars up,” Beelzemon directed. “You two,” he pointed at Takato and Guilmon, “take the caboose. I’ll do the part in the middle.”
Given the grand cheers from his Tamers, the division of labor had full approval. And after a minute to get buckets of water, they all got to work.
It was kinda nice. The feel of Behemoth’s chassis under his claws. A little bit of focus and Beelzemon figured he could take the whole engine block apart, tune it all up, and put it back together again. The knowledge was, admittedly, weird. Going through and actually giving Behemoth a tuneup might… might be fun. Again - weird.
Behemoth was an obvious purr in the back of his skull. The bike was happy to get pampered. It was even happier that Ai and Makoto were doin’ the pampering with Beelzemon. It knew Ai and Makoto were Beelzemon’s precious people. There was a protectiveness to that purr which had Beelzemon dumbfounded.
Shit. This bike is part ah me.
“Beelzemon…?” Takato was keeping his voice down to not draw attention. Ai and Makoto were giving Behemoth’s front tire their complete focus. Guilmon came in closer to Beelzemon, too.
Beelzemon couldn’t take his eyes off Behemoth. Words failed to show up; he tried talking anyway. “You know how if yer lance or that fancy shield of yours goes splat, it just comes right back?”
Takato and Guilmon exchanged looks. Takato started with, “Well… yeah,” Guilmon ending with, “Gram and Aegis are part of our data.”
Beelzemon pressed his palm flat against Behemoth’s engine block.
Takato’s oh was an indrawn breath as he got it. Guilmon’s oh was a lot louder.
“But Behemoth was around before you…” Takato trailed off.
“Dunno what to tell you, goggle brains. Behemoth’s mine.” And Beelzemon really had to have a long sit-down and think about that, because holy crap, it was a revelation. Behemoth was his. It was always gonna show up because it was part of Beelzemon’s data. Part of him.
Goggle brains and pineapple head were having their own hard think.
Behemoth’s alarm caused Beelzemon to lunge. Makoto fell right into his arms instead of smashing his brains out on the concrete. Ai plopped hard to her butt. Makoto had been trying to climb on Ai’s shoulders so the two could reach up higher on Behemoth. Ai had lost her footing on the wet surface, slipped - and here they were.
Makoto blinked a few times before tears started welling up. Ai blinked a few times before she started sniffling.
“Break time,” Beelzemon declared, scooping Ai into his arms, too.
“Yeah. Break time,” Takato seconded.
Holding his Tamers tight, sitting on Behemoth, Beelzemon kinda felt all was right in his world. …well, almost right. Once his Tamers got through their tears, then the world would be just right.
A long afternoon of washing a dinosaur and a motorcycle had completely tuckered out Ai, Makoto, and Impmon. The young children had conked out on the train ride home. Impmon had stayed awake right up until all of them were in the apartment building’s elevator. So it was that Ai and Makoto’s mom opened her apartment door to find Takato struggling under the weight of two sleeping children while Guilmon carried Impmon on his back.
There were some polite nothingnesses about how their day had been and if the twins’ mother should know anything. Takato didn’t think, Behemoth is alive but don’t worry it loves your children, would have gone over very well, so he kept that to himself. When their mom tried to invite Takato inside, Takato politely refused, escaping before it could become A Thing.
They detoured through Shinjuku Park. Takato’s brain was buzzing, thoughts all jumbled up to the point Takato couldn’t sit still on a train.
“Takatomon?”
“Sorry, boy.” Reaching out a hand, Takato scratched the top of Guilmon’s head. Guilmon giggled, leaning into the absent touch. “Got a lot on my mind.”
“Thinking about Grani?” Guilmon guessed.
Takato chuckled once under his breath. Guilmon really did know Takato better than Takato knew himself. “Yeah,” Takato confirmed. “With what Impmon said about Behemoth, and Behemoth being around before Beelzemon, I wonder…”
Guilmon hummed; nudged Takato lightly again. “I miss Grani, too. He brought us all home, and let us fly! He was the best.”
“Grani didn’t really… die, die, right? He loaded himself into Dukemon.”
Behemoth had been around before Beelzemon, but was part of Beelzemon’s data. Could the reverse happen? Could a Digimon exist before something and still make it part of their data?
Could Grani…?
“Takato.”
Guilmon’s serious gold eyes reflected Takato’s own hopes.
“Let’s try,” Guilmon urged.
Takato agreed - but first! Dukemon was amazing, but he was also kind of a lot for anyone not used to Digimon. The first thing Takato had to do was get someplace quiet where people wouldn’t see Guilmon and him.
This being Shinjuku Park, there were a lot of quiet places. Before Mom and Dad had known about Guilmon, Takato had scouted out preeety much all of them. It took him no time at all to find the perfect one for what Guilmon and he wanted to do.
The trees were thick enough to hide the light of Matrix Evolution from casual view. They were tall enough to hide Dukemon from casual view, too. But they were also open enough for Dukemon to look up into the sky. The growing twilight was framed by the skyscrapers of Shinjuku in a sight pretty enough to be a picture.
“Mmm,” Dukemon agreed, following Takato’s thoughts, his deeper voice vibrating all through Takato. Tipping his head back, Dukemon took in the view. “What a beautiful sky this evening.”
:Yeah. It’s nice,: Takato agreed, seeing the sky through Dukemon’s eyes.
Dukemon closed his eyes. Takato closed his eyes, too. Standing together like this, Takato felt like he could hear the world’s heartbeat. It was so quiet. So… nice…
“Won’t you come join us?” Dukemon brought his right hand to his chest, over the Hazard crest on his armor. “Won’t you come let us fly together, Grani?”
Takato prayed, :Grani…:
A sense of a tug. Like someone had grabbed Dukemon’s cape and was giving it a yank. Except there wasn’t anyone…?!
Whirling around, Dukemon felt his heart catch in his throat. Takato’s breath caught for the same reason.
Letting go of Dukemon’s cape, Grani floated closer. Tenderly, he butted his head against Dukemon’s chest.
“Grani!” Dukemon and Takato cried in joy.
Grani floated back enough to look up at Dukemon. Shall we fly, my friends?
The only time Takato had felt happier had been when Guilmon was born. Right now, it was - this was all -!
“Gladly,” Dukemon answered, Takato unable to form words at all. “Gladly shall we fly!”
Yawning, Impmon rolled out of the nest of blankets that was his bed. A look around showed he was in the twins’ bedroom. Ai and Makoto weren’t there. Listening, Impmon could hear them talking to their parents. Impmon would bet a hot bowl of mac and cheese they were giving a detailed explanation on how to wash a dinosaur.
The sun had set while he’d been napping. Heading to the window, Impmon let himself out. A little bit of a hop got him to the balcony’s edge. The air tasted perfect for pranking -
A blur of white way too freaking close damn near sent Impmon caterwauling off the ledge and to his doom.
Once he got his balance back, Impmon realized two things: A grinning knight’s head was floating even with Impmon’s height. And that knight wasn’t just floating. He was flying! Looking down a bit, Impmon saw how.
Impmon blurted, “Huh. A flying pineapple. Now I’ve seen everything.”
Laughing, Dukemon rode his mount off into the night sky. Grinning, Impmon hopped off towards the parking garage. Pineapple head was right: Tonight did feel like a pretty good night for a drive.