Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ It seemed like a good idea at the time ❯ Strawberries ( Chapter 2 )

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (second chunk) a little MummArch fic by Lithrael

Happy discalimers & warnings: This fic is fairly violent, nekkid, sadistic, and more than a little naughty. This particular chapter has very little violence and the beginnings of some serious naughtiness. Hardcore action coming next chapter... I don't own nuthin'. I'm just borrowing the characters to be mean to them for a bit and then smoosh them together. On with the fun.

Chapter 4: Strawberries

It was late morning, almost noon, when the sun crept into Arukenimon's eyes, shining down between the treetops in a patch of dappled shade. She sighed and shifted a little, raising an arm to bat at the sunbeam as if she could fend it off, and woke up feeling hungry, musclesore, and full of aches. She rolled over onto her other side in the soft leaves, and found Mummymon still asleep, curled up in a position that favored his injured shoulder. Yesterday she'd been cursing sandwiches, but right about now she'd kill for... one...
There was a little picnic laid out for them, bottles of water, plastic packets of... something, sandwiches wrapped in cellophane, and some fruit. Arukenimon stared at it. Did the children leave this? She didn't imagine for a moment that it could have been anything but heartfelt charity - they just weren't the poisoning type. But she had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea. Were they really so uncompromising in their ideals that they would help their enemies? It was ridiculous. They would never be able to do any good if they refused to cut corners.
She wasn't complaining, though. She sat up and reached for a sandwich.

About an hour later, after eating her fill and taking an after-breakfast nap, Arukenimon was beginning to worry about Mummymon again. It was past noon now, the sun shone brightly out on the grassy moor that stretched out opposite the forest, and he hadn't stirred. She hadn't wanted to wake him up, but she wanted to get back, deeper into the forest where it was cooler. She reached out and nudged him. "Wake up. It's time to go." He frowned and started to roll over, winced and rolled back the way he was. She nudged him again. "C'mon, wake up and eat something. You'll feel better." She knew she did. She was recovering almost fast enough to actually feel it happening.
"I don't feel good," he whined quietly, trying to cover his head with one big grey arm.
"That's because you haven't eaten."
"No, That's because I was knocked out three times yesterday. Ooh..." He clutched his head with his good arm, then grinned up at her, despite himself. "I wouldn't mind so much if you had done it."
"You really are a masochist, aren't you."
"I must be..." He looked kind of downcast at that.
"Anyway. Sandwiches." She gestured.
He took a minute to respond. "What kind?"
"I don't know. Food kind."
"You didn't have one?"
"I had a couple."
"What kind were yours?"
"How should I know?"
"If you can fit it in your mouth, you don't care," he smirked resignedly, looking like he might fall back asleep.
"Hey, you. UP! We have things to do today, you know."
"...find my jeep..."
"Since when is it your jeep? HEY! WAKE UP!"
But he was gone again. She rolled her eyes and gave him a good solid shove in the bad shoulder. Apparently it didn't hurt enough to rouse him. She growled in annoyance and sat back. Then she reached over for a sandwich and unwrapped it, and waved it in front of his face. "Hey, you. Sandwich." He didn't respond so she tapped him in the face with it.
He grimaced, opening his eye just a bit to peer at it. "...Don't want."
"Ingrate," she muttered, putting it down and checking over what was left of the food.
Mummymon smiled while she wasn't looking, warmed by her efforts, if not the sandwiches made by fifth-graders.
Arukenimon decided on the grapes. Sweet little green things, she knew they had a lot of sugar and that should help Mummymon regain some quick energy. She wished she hadn't eaten most of the bunch, and all the nicest ones to boot. Oh well. She picked out a big one. "Grape," she said, and unceremoniously poked it into Mummymon's mouth.
Mummymon sucked on it for a few seconds, running his tongue over its smooth surface, before mashing it against the roof of his mouth and eating it. He couldn't believe how romantic Arukenimon was being, whether or not she knew it. She would of course deny it if he said anything, but there was no possible way to hand-feed grapes to somebody without it being pretty romantic. He daydreamed for a moment that it was strawberries instead...
Another grape. The sweet, tart juice was delicious, and it was waking his hunger. His mouth was watering. Two more.
When she fed him the next one, he was unable to resist the temptation to kiss her fingertips. She didn't say anything.
A minute passed with no new grape. He peeked at her. "No more?"
She scowled at him. "Feed your own damn self."
He stretched and sat up. "Alright, alright," he said sleepily, "you were right, I'm hungry." He looked blankly at the food. "Where did this come from? Did the kids leave this?"
"Yeah. I guess they're trying to get on our good side."
"Do we have a good side?"
She chuckled. His face fell a little. She wondered if he'd been hoping they did. What was the matter with him, anyway? She watched him eat. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
He looked up, scanning the landscape, considering. "A good eight miles from where we were. We can head back through the forest that way," he gestured into the woods, "until we reach the road, and follow it. We should be on our way by..." he shrugged, guessing, and winced. "Five o'clock? Well before dark, anyway."
"That's today shot, then," she said sourly.
"Aw, come on. I think it could be romantic. A nice walk, just the two of us..."
"That's today shot, then," she reiterated, rolling her eyes.
Mummymon gave her an injured look, and busied himself packing up the rest of the food to eat on the way. There wasn't much left, but it would make a good snack during the walk.

An hour and a bit later, Mummymon's breakfast had taken effect. The pain in his shoulder, which he had screwed up even worse wrestling with the boy that morning, was bearable now even when he flexed it, and his headache had settled down to a background buzz of discomfort. And now he was hungry again. He looked over to Arukenimon, walking beside him through the cool forest afternoon. She had the rest of the food, and was munching on the contents of the plastic packets, which had turned out to be trail mix.
"How are you feeling, my dear?"
"Better. I'm sure I could go Digimon if I had to. How about you?"
"Not quite that good. Oh!" he exclaimed happily, noticing the now unbroken smoothness of her face, "look, your cut's healed!"
"Has it?" she raised a hand to brush across the place where it had been, but looked worried. "It didn't leave a mark, did it?"
He looked closer and saw a pale white line of a scar painted on her face, but he knew it would disappear in a day or two. "No, my darling. You're as perfect as ever."
She let out a relieved breath. "How much longer? We haven't even seen the road yet."
"We should reach it soon," he reassured her. "In the meantime, how about a little more of that food?"
"Hm? Oh, sure." She took out the trail mix and handed him the cloth the rest of it was tied up in. There wasn't much left, a sandwich, a bottle of water and a couple of pieces of fruit. Mummymon devoured the last sandwich with a guilty glance at Arukenimon, and then went for the last of the fruit.
Which turned out to be strawberries. He tried not to chuckle to himself. He held the water bottle in the crook of his arm, dumped the strawberries out into one hand, and tucked the empty cloth into his pocket. They were perfect, juicy, firm, and not too sweet, and before he knew it he'd almost polished them off. He hadn't seen Arukenimon have any, and offered her one. She just looked at him funny and refused.
"Are you sure? They're deliciousss."
"Oh, alright. I'll try one. If it'll shut you up."
Mummymon smiled and held one out so that she could eat it from his fingers. She gave him a reproachful look and took it with her ungloved hand. "Moron," she said. He chuckled, amused.
She ate it, deliberately, he was sure, in the most sexy way possible. He stared openly, watching her stroke it past her lips. She took it in two sensual, sucking bites and flicked the leafy part away, and when she was done she delicately licked the juice from her fingertips. God, he thought to himself, what was *that* for? "Arukenimon..." he whispered, quite seriously turned on, his voice heavy with longing.
"What?"
"Why do you... tease me like that?"
"Like what?"
"The way you ate that."
She looked at him, confused and a little put off. "That's how you were eating them, you perv."
He blinked. He was? God. He hadn't realized. Then she wasn't teasing. And if she wasn't teasing, she would kill him for sporting this hard-on. The last time she'd caught him all het up for her, she'd punched him in the guts and refused to talk to him for three days. As if he could do anything about it. Why couldn't she at least spare him some sympathy?
It was time for an expeditious retreat, then, before she noticed. "I'm sorry, my dear. Never mind. I, ah.. I'll be right back." Turning away, he grimaced. God, that sounded bad. He hoped she would think he was just going for a slash. He dashed off into the woods, out of sight.
Ugh. He hated that it had to be like this. He wished, wished that she would love him. He was sure she could. He didn't know why she didn't... At the very least it would be nice if he didn't have to hide every time he got excited. He didn't want to end up associating excitement with shame the way everyone in the Human world seemed to.
All the angst was making his erection fade. In a few moments, he would be able to safely return. That last thought about shame gnawed at him, though. Why should it be noble to deny himself pleasure? He knew Arukenimon didn't deny herself. He'd heard quiet, rustling evidence of that sometimes, in the dead of night. That thought was enough to get him into full swing again, and he sighed and calmed his emotions, leaning back against a tree, closing his eye, and stroking himself softly through his clothes. The last thing he wanted to do was jerk off angry.
And the last thing he expected was for Arukenimon to be standing, bristling with anger, in front of him. But something in the air had changed, and he froze, and opened his eye to find her standing there, radiating outrage.
She stood, immobile, unable to decide which to bawl him out for first- taking off and leaving her alone in the woods at all, or taking off and leaving her alone in the woods to do THIS. "What's the matter?" she eventually hissed. "Can't wait?"
He couldn't believe it. Why had she followed him? She never followed him... "I... didn't want... to offend you, my dear..."
"So you left me alone in the middle of nowhere while you went off to have a wank? You selfish bastard..."
The world was crashing around his ears. How did this happen? "I wasn't going to- I mean, when I left it was just because I knew you would be angry..."
"Wait a minute. Is this about the fucking strawberries?" She was practically crackling with outrage now. Had he *played* her to get that scene? The utter fuck... But the blank and panicked look he gave her calmed her suspicions somewhat. Okay- he hadn't premeditated this. But she still couldn't believe how thoughtless he was.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion, worked up, confused, and frayed almost to the point of tears, "I couldn't help it. You were so beautiful... You are so beautiful. Please, forgive me, my dear. I never meant to.. to leave you, but I knew you wouldn't.. that you hate it when I.. when I'm..." a tear spilled from his eye and a moment later he broke down entirely, and slid down the tree to sit, face between his knees, bawling. "I don't know what to do, my dear! I'm so sorry. I know you hate me, but I can't help it. I would never do anything to hurt you. But it keeps happening. And I don't- I don't know..." He crushed himself down a little tighter, in misery. "I know I should leave. I can't stop," his breath caught, he choked, and sobbed out the rest of his words, "...loving you and I know, I know now that you won't ever, and I shouldn't keep following you, it just hurts me for no reason and I should go... It's better to go.. or I'll never get... get over you..." He pulled into a tight little ball and cried his heart out, wondering why, why did she have to be so cruel? Just this morning she'd held him and said sweet things to him, when really she didn't want him at all. Then he came down on himself hard for thinking that way- if she would take him as a friend and nothing more, he should have respected that, or realized that he would never be able to control his emotions and left.
Arukenimon stared, stunned. With all the puppy chatter he had for her every day, she had never thought he had a thing on his mind that he didn't speak out loud. And she had never once imagined he was capable of such depths of misery- and over her. It was creepy.
No.. in anyone else it would have been creepy. But Mummymon- aside from anything else he was or wanted to be- was her companion, and she couldn't blame him for becoming attached.
And it wasn't as though she hadn't ever thought about him, either...
She sat down next to him. "Mummymon," she said, and he shivered when she spoke. "Mummymon. I don't hate you."
"I know," he whispered. "I'm sorry. I was exaggerating."
"No," she said softly, coaxing his face out from between his knees with a gentle stroke of her gloved fingers. He looked at her, his eye so full of pain and confusion that it almost broke *her* heart. "I *don't* hate you." She leaned forward and kissed him, right on the mouth.
The moment seemed to stretch on forever, and when she broke the kiss and leaned back, Mummymon melted her heart with a look that was utterly, hopelessly lost. "I don't understand," he said, tears running fresh tracks down one side of his face.
She pondered what to say- that she had never quite realized? that she didn't mean to hurt him so badly?
that she'd never felt despair until she thought she'd lost him?
that she needed him?
Her ego retaliated. It was ridiculous. She didn't need-
But it had only happened yesterday, the hastily healed wound in her heart was still tender, and it hurt her when she tried to pretend it wasn't there. Her throat got tight as she looked into Mummymon's face. At this moment, he was as vulnerable as it was possible to be. She knew she should find him pathetic, that she should call him a name and step on his spirit. But suddenly, overwhelmingly, one feeling changed her mind-
Power.
She didn't know it could be such a rush. She'd always thought his dependence was just annoying, always following after her like a dog. But this.. She had absolute power over him, the power to crush him or fulfill his dreams. Once again, her ego tempted her to destroy him. What fun it would be to watch him suffer. He was a sentimental fool and deserved no better.
But she knew now... She did need him. And he wasn't such a fool, if he was able to cut through his love and offer to leave her side. She knew he had meant every word of that, even overwrought as he was. And if he was able to face up to the idea that he ought to move on, that meant he was stronger than she had realized.
She found herself gazing at him with admiration, and let herself enjoy the feeling. She let it mix with the always-present-but-often-ignored affection, the power, the need, and the latent, constantly denied spark of physical attraction. Together they added up to a strange, deep emotion she wasn't used to, and ignited some dark and wonderful thing inside her.
She wanted him. All of him. Forever.
Holy god, she exclaimed to herself, this *can't* be what he feels like all the time...
Mummymon had watched the unmistakable fire of lust flare up in her golden eyes and had gone completely blank in awe. Was that for him? "...Arukenimon?" he hazarded, almost as if he was wondering whether it was really her.
"What do you want?" she whispered, like she was afraid of hearing it herself. "Whatever it is, it's yours."
The words seared across him. This was no misunderstanding, no, she was offering herself to him. Out of sudden love-fired lust, or just plain desire, at the moment he really couldn't care less. Pulling both of them to their feet, he reached out and glommed on to her in a desperate, possessive hug, crushing her small frame to himself. After a while, when he trusted himself to speak, he broke the clench, stepping back to hold her at arm's length. "You know I love you. I've always loved you." he pulled her close, his eye dark with passion. "And I want you so much it hurts." He leaned into her and she tipped her head back to meet him in the most passionate kiss of either of their short lives.