This takes place during the Spectrum Series. There is a fair amount of foreshadowing in here, pretty obvious if you've read my prior submissions
This is something of a response to Gabumon's statement(below), and I want to thank Miyo for further encouraging this story by sending that sweet little Tsutane piccie, which I promise to post as soon as Crosswinds stops jerking around my files!! I get around to it!

A.S.D.A

A Little Friendship

by Nefertanya dragongurl Ahhotep

~"Before I met you, I wandered the Digital World all alone with no friends."~
-Gabumon


It was a beautiful day. A warm, bright sunny day, the type that often occur when spring lazily rolls into summer. A soft breeze tickled the undergrowth, disturbing a few tiny butterflies.

No, not a breeze, but a little tsunomon. He had journeyed a long way to be here, without knowing why. but, anyplace was better than where he'd been...

Tsunomon hopped into the open, carrying in his mouth the only possession he owned. Except it wasn't really his own. Rather it was being...held for somebody.

Carefully, he sniffed around. There were several other digimon nearby-that, in his experience, meant trouble. He should go, but to where? He had to stay. All his instincts were telling him he was needed here.

"GOTCHA!"

Tsunomon was forced to drop his prized possession as he was cannon-balled from behind. Gathering himself quickly, Tsunomon steeled himself for a fight.

Instead he found a hyperactive Koromon bouncing and giggling with delight.

"Scared ya, didn't I?" Koromon said proudly. "Hey, are you lost? I thought you guys only liked the cold?"

"Well, yes, we do," Tsunomon replied shyly, "But I needed to come here. To meet somebody."

The Koromon's blood-red eyes lit up. "You have a special talisman too?"

"A-a special talisman...?"

"That's what my village elders called 'em anyway. You know, the little beepy thingy!"

"Thish?" Tsunomon asked, picking the device up in his mouth.

"Yeah, that's it! That means you're one of us! Let's play!!"

The shark-finned creature barely had time to release a muffled squeal before being rolled over and down the little knoll. As he regained control over his vertigo, Koromon bounced around, giggling incessantly and lightly slapping Tsunomon with his long skinny ears.

"We're gonna be bestest friends!" he gleefully squealed. Another high-pitched voice called for Koromon, and the pink blob bounced off, still giggling like one blessed with a happy baby-hood.

"Hey wait!" Tsunomon cried out in alarm. "I don't know my anybody here..."

Great. He should have seen this coming. Koromon's weren't exactly considered attentive by any stretch of the definition, or at least not by his species' standards.

*But he said we'd be friends...*

"Koromon?"

Tsunomon looked up. It was the same voice that had called him earlier, but now it had an owner.

"Koromon?" A tanemon asked again as she waddled into full view.

He'd never seen a tanemon before. He decided that she appeared to be very pleasant. He liked her eyes, too.

"He's...bounced into the bush." he offered meekly. "you called, and he went to find you, I think..."

"Oh, that silly! He thinks we're still playing hide-and-seek, I'll bet! We finished *that* game half and hour ago!" she giggled, and Tsunomon decided that he liked her. She seemed like a forgiving type of digimon. She'd have to be not to be upset that the digimon she was looking for kept running away.

"Shall we play then?"

The smile on his face faded into surprise. "Huh? Play what?"

"Hide-and-seek, silly!" she giggled again as she waddled up to him and tapped his nose with one tiny paw. "Tag, you're it! Count to 20 and come find me!"

She hurried off, determined to thwart her newest playmate. She didn't realize that Tsunomon had no intention of seeking.

*So that's it, huh?* he thought miserably. *Let's play hide-and-seek, Tsunomon! She doesn't realize that I've played this game before.*

It was all so clear now. The koromon had found his tanemon friend, and concocted this idea to get rid of him.

He didn't want to be there anymore, destiny or not. They didn't want him, didn't need him, didn't like him. Same story everywhere else, why had he expected anything different?

Tears welled in his almond shaped eyes and he hopped away dejectedly. Suddenly, he stopped and stared straight ahead.

The bushes were giggling.

Tsunomon edged closer. He leaned in and sniffed cautiously.

"<SQUEAL!>"

Tanemon leapt out and hugged the little boy digimon as best as he tiny forepaws would allow. "You found me! You must have a really good nose-I blended in so good! All plant digimon are *very* hard to see in our natural environment, you know." She squealed again. "My turn, my turn!"

She bounded a little bit away and scrunched down, shutting her big eyes tight and covering them with her leafy top. "One...Two..."

Tsunomon just stared. She wasn't mad that he'd found her. In fact, she'd been all too pleased. And now she wanted him to hide? Was this for real? Or were they just trying to get his guard down?

"Nineteen....Twenty!! Aw, Tsunomon! That's too easy!"

"Huh?"

She sat there with a your-so-silly expression on her face. It dawned on him that he'd been standing in the same spot since he'd found her.

"I'll count again. And hide *good* this time!"

Sure. He'd hide, and she'd conveniently forget to find him. That had to be the game. But as likely as the scenario was, his lonely heart still wanted to believe otherwise. So, he hid in a clump of nearby tall grass, his taller fin sticking out like a sore thumb.

Tsunomon shut his eyes tight as she finished her count. Minutes seemed to stretch into forever as he waited, barely breathing. Finally, he gave up. She probably wasn't even around anymore. Sighing heavily, he opened his eyes.

"AHHHHH!!!"

"Gotcha!"

Tanemon giggled at the petrified playmate. "You're cute. I like playing with you." she said as she kissed the top of his nose.

"Eww...." Tsunomon crossed his eyes to look at the violated appendage. She laughed, then blushed as her tummy rumbled loudly.

I guess that means it's dinnertime. Come on! There are lots of fruits and berries around here."

"You want me to join you guys?"

"Sure!" she said in exasperation. "You're my friend now, and you have one of those thingies, right? That means you're special, and just like the five of us, you're waiting for someone special. So why can't we wait all together?"

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Gabumon opened his eyes with a smile. He hadn't thought about that day in years. Funny he should be thinking about it now, and in a dream, no less.

He gently rubbed his nose, as if the phantom of her kiss was still there. With a yawn, he stretched and loped towards the cave entrance. Outside, the wind and snow howled. He couldn't see out, and no one (if anyone was actually crazy enough to be out there) could see in, it was so thick.

Which was fortunate as he realized he'd left his coat on the makeshift nest. It had gotten too itchy of late-a side effect of 'the change'.

Gabumon wondered what his friends would think when they saw him again as he made his way back to the bed. What would *she* think? What was Matt doing now? Did the boy miss him as much as he missed the boy?

Curling up in the makeshift bed, he snuggled under his fur and smiled as more dreams whispered. Those, he considered, were his first true childhood memory. Rambunctious Koromon, innocent Tokomon, playful Pitchmon, loving little Tanemon. They were all so special, all unique among their kind. His clan. His pack.

His family.

Outside, above the cave's entrance, long, thick icicles quivered in the lashing winds. There was a loud *crack* as the largest fell, bouncing off a small ledge and knocking off some accumulated snow before rolling to a stop on the ground.

Had anyone been witness, they would have heard a deep, ethereal sigh as a small but hardy wildflower popped up next to the frozen column.



As Joel would say, "What do you think, sirs?" And one last thing-Tanemon says "just like the five of us" because at that point, there was. Tokomon is usually considered the youngest-at least, he is in *this* universe-so he would be the last one to have hatched and arrived at the gatepoint. So there.


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