Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Love Evolved ❯ Horned People and Crimson Eyes ( Chapter 2 )

Love Evolved

By Lord Tarsisk

Soyez influencé-Be influenced!

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Italic Text indicates someone's thoughts.

"Someone's speech…" As if you couldn't tell that one. Honestly, some people are just plain stupid.

--- Indicates a transition between different times, scenes, and/or points of view.

~~~ Indicates a transition between memories or visions (but same real scene and time and same POV.)

As always, I don't own the subject matter, but seeing as they're not busy or doing anything useful, I will now take them from their holding cells and use them for my own "Emotional Reward." Just don't sue. In fact, any jumpy lawyers can stop reading this right now.

Again: As always: Be Influenced, and review. This is my hardest worked fic yet. I think I deserve the reviews.

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Horned People and Crimson Eyes

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Hikari has these bright, crimson-brown eyes that are quite deceiving, I think. Often, red and crimson are considered dark, evil colors-but to me, and many people that know her, they're quite lovely. Red is also the color of love, they say. I'm not sure.

But her eyes-they weren't red. They were white, completely white. Light, actually, only light. So was the rest of her body, glowing really.

She has the Crest and Digimental of light, but it's really the Crest and Digimental of Hikari-the word, Koushiro told us, meant light of the gods. So does her name, it seems, and I'm sure it isn't a coincidence.

Of course, Daisuke doesn't care that she was glowing-only that I'm okay, and he is a true friend to me.

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A week later, Veemon walked along side of Daisuke, down the street, ignoring the looks and stares that accompanied them. He began considering his options for the night-would they have Pepperoni or Hawaiian? Tough choice, he decided, and asked Daisuke.

"Yuck! I hate Hawaiian. What about meatlovers?" He and his buddy deliberated for several minutes before deciding on a half and half. It was with empty pockets and stuffed faces that they left the Pizzeria.

They made it back to their apartment, and finished the rest of their pizza, eventually flipping a coin, losing it, and then arm-wrestling for the last piece-because the pizza guy had deliberately cut it into an odd number.

Veemon won, picked it up, found that there were pieces of sausages, retched, and gave it to Daisuke, who smiled triumphantly. The blue lizard sighed, walked out onto the porch, and closed the door behind him. The stars twinkled-it was an oddly clear night… He wondered. His days in the Digital World seemed to be numbered. There was rarely anything that needed their attention (excusing the flight of the Ouryuudamon): no rampaging Viral Digimon that needed "relocating" because they no longer had to rebalance the light-dark spectrum-the few that were dangerous were few and far between, and easy; no terrible plague or drought or disaster that the "makers"-if there were such things-had decided to program into the Digital World as a lark; not even a dark Chosen wreaking havoc.

It seemed to Veemon that Koushiro's-what did he call it?-"Training Program" was too good, and all new Chosen were basically nice and incorruptible. He supposed it was a good thing that no innocent Digimon were dying, but he needed some action.

Veemon chuckled. "I sound like Miyako-kun now." Thinking of Miyako made him think of Hikari and Tailmon, and he sighed again, remembering the look of pure ecstasy he'd seen on her face when she'd saved his life, almost a week ago.

Daisuke called from the inside, "Vee-kun! 'Bonsai!' is on!" which was their favorite TV show: Veemon normally would've rushed in to watch it with him. Tonight, though, his mind was filled with too much clutter, and he thanked Daisuke but remained outside for the time being. It wasn't too cool, and the breeze was calming. He put his hand on the railing.

So was the trickling of the brook they had visited earlier, before the Digimon attack. He closed his eyes.

So was the look of bliss on her face-

He groaned and banged his head on the railing in frustration-and wailed in pain, shaking his hand, which began bleeding.

Daisuke was immediately up and out the door, pulling Veemon from the porch floor and trying to calm him down; he discovered that Veemon's hand was bleeding. Veemon didn't need to tell him that he'd hit it with his head-horn. Because it wasn't too sharp, and certainly wasn't razor-like in shape, like that of Exveemon's, nor very big, the cut wasn't deep-but it sure hurt. Veemon took a deep breath, determined to keep from crying, and shuddered.

"Oh… man…" he sniffled, and looked away, wiping his eyes. Now Daisuke thought he was a wimp…

"S'okay, Vee-kun, take your time. Take a deep breath-"

Veemon inhaled sharply, though his breath was ragged-

"-And exhale." Veemon let go of his breath, and let go a small cry, but Daisuke didn't seem to notice. Daisuke muttered that he would be right back. He brought a bandage and wrapped it around Veemon's hand-"Unclench your fist, Vee-kun," he said-and Veemon slowly regained his composure, and thanked Daisuke in advance for not making a big deal of it, nor asking what had really happened. They went inside, and spent the rest of the night watching reruns of Bonsai!, while Daisuke didn't say a word to the effect of how babyish Veemon seemed to think he was.

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That night, Veemon tossed and turned in his little bed that Daisuke has fashioned from a board of wood and a couch cushion. His head, still cluttered, wouldn't shut down enough for his liking, and every few hours he would reawaken, covered in sweat.

When he did get sleep, it was unsettling-he dreamt of a peaceful valley, and of Digivolving again… he dreamt of the others fighting, but Veemon was unable to Digivolve, Daisuke wasn't there… Then Veemon finally felt as if he had gotten some deep sleep when a soft voice, lighter than air, spoke to him in soft tones, "I've missed this place; haven't you?"

Veemon nodded, finding himself in a cave-where he had emerged from his Digimental. He recognized it instantly. And beside him was-

Hikari knelt beside him and continued speaking, "and I've missed you…" and Hikari took his hand-then squeezed it, hard, it hurt, he screamed, and awoke, finding that he was sleeping on his bitched hand.

"Uhg… 'Swrong?" Daisuke asked, teetering on the verge of consciousness. Veemon pretended to be asleep, and soon he heard Daisuke snoring-but Veemon didn't regain his slumber for the rest of the night.

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Koushiro sat at his computer, wringing his brain as to how that one little Dark Tower had avoided his spider-scripts. All the other Dark Towers had been found in minutes, but this one…

"And it couldn't have been newly created," he said, answering his own, unasked question, "because Ken-kun was making them, and now he's with us… hmm…" He started thinking hard.

The idea was absurd-Ken surely wasn't trying to make more, was he? Koushiro couldn't accept that as a possibility, little though he liked the only other explanation that he had missed it. Yet he couldn't let go of the idea, however, and after he went to bed at around 2:00AM, he started losing the ability to avoid that ugly thought.

By the next morning, he was all but convinced that Ken must've been doing some experiment that he didn't want anyone to know about. He called Ken.

By the fourth ring, Koushiro was about to hang up, but he heard a voice ask, "Moshi-Moshi? Itchijouji residence."

"Ken-kun? It's Koushiro. I was wondering… do you know why there was another Dark Tower in the Digital World?"

"… What? You think I did it? Koushiro-" here Koushiro noted the absence of the -kun that Ken, formal as ever, always added "-I thought you knew I'd changed!"

Koushiro heard him huff over the phone. "I'm sorry, Ken-kun, but I couldn't think of anything else. You were the only one who made them, right?"

Ken sighed, calming down. "I apologize. But the technology they used was pretty basic, Koushiro-kun. Anyone with a little skill could've made this one. Arukenimon had the ability to change them into BlackWarGreymon; why couldn't someone just outright make more?"

Koushiro found himself huffing now. He had more than a little skill…

"Because one that I made certainly wouldn't have missed your spiders, right?"

"Right. Thanks. Sorry," he apologized, sweat-dropping.

"Bye!" and Koushiro heard the phone click.

Thoroughly embarrassed for having accused Ken of this, Koushiro sat back at his computer, reviewing his spider logs. Then another solution presented itself, and he began typing furiously, while at the same time pulling his Digi-Control Manuals from the shelves and flipping to various function references…

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Veemon "awoke" a little after Daisuke did, and though he gave a good show of having gotten a good rest, he hadn't slept at all. He was still tired, though he was worried about more than tiredness, or his hand, which Daisuke inspected and deemed "Healing well!"

Veemon ignored him, and Daisuke frowned. "What's wrong? Does it still hurt?"

"No, it doesn't hurt-" he snapped, instantly regretting it. "I… I'm sorry, I didn't sleep good…"

"Don't worry about it," Daisuke muttered, and went off to the fridge. He whined, finding that they hadn't saved any pizza for breakfast. He then flicked on the TV. Veemon spent the rest of the morning determined to ignore his nagging conscience, and instead settled on picking at his healing wound, which opened up again and started bleeding.

Daisuke picked up the portable phone and dialed Ken's number. He waited. "Damn. Busy." He hung up, watched some early morning cartoons-the one with the coyote and the roadrunner was his favorite-then tried again.

"Ken-kun? It's Daisuke. What are you doing today? … Why not? … Well, do you want to come over? We're just watching TV here, though it's pretty boring. … Nah, he didn't sleep and his hand's messed up… Hit it last night-" Here he eyed Veemon "-by accident, I guess. With his horn… Okay, sure."

He nodded, said goodbye, and hung up.

"Is Wormmon coming over?" Veemon asked hopefully.

Daisuke shook his head.

"Then… I'm going to go for a walk. See you later, Dai-kun."

Veemon left; he passed Ken on the street, exchanged quick greetings, and carried on. He didn't really know exactly where he was going, nor did he care: he had too much to think about.

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Hikari put her homework into her bag, and nervously looked over the rest of her room… it was sparkling, and she noticed a tiny spot on her dresser-

This is insane, she mused, and gave a soft, hollow laugh. Hikari sighed and flopped down on the bed, she knew she was only delaying the inevitable, and in that moment of admission she started thinking again about Veemon and Chibimon and Daisuke and Paildramon and Ouryuudamon and their fight-

She sighed. She'd failed to find anything else to distract her, and now she'd pay the consequences. She felt scared, almost-fearful of rubbing the wound open and revealing a scar of emotion. She'd saved his life! Hikari had never awoken the dead, as Miyako had so gently put it-but it was Veemon, one she'd never suspected. Not Takeru, not her brother-hell, not even Daisuke. Veemon.

Chibimon had looked so vulnerable, so… lifeless, she thought sadly. The tiny blue lizard was the cutest of all their fresh Digimon, and to see no life, no vigor in this usually bouncing-off-the-walls creature was disturbing.

She smoothed out her bed, determined to delay the reflections of such god-like actions as long as possible, when a knock at the door made her jump four and a half feet in the air.

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Takeru stood nervously outside of the Yagami's apartment. He was sweating: should he rush home and shower again? Hikari was expecting him; he just didn't know if he could go ahead and do this. He had prepared a speech, thought it over-it was time… any moment now… just knock!

Finally, he banged his head on the door, and then knocked properly.

Hikari was there, beautiful as ever, her hair radiant and sparkling, and she was yawning-though as the door moved out of her way she stopped, mid-yawn, smiling.

His heart raced to a 150+ beats a minute upon seeing her face, deciding that this was rash-but he shook his head and with new resolve, croaked, "Hi."

She smiled at the sight of his face. He sighed, and asked, "Can I come in?"

Hikari nodded, hoping that he would finally make a move, and slid to the side, letting him in. Takeru had been in here before; they had had some good times here, but those times were with a different, younger Hikari, less serious. Now Hikari was becoming too adult about their relationship for him-she wanted more than a kiss on the cheek. Takeru feared she actually wanted sex.

He sat down on the couch, realizing that his speech had flown out the window at the sight of her. But there was nothing for it but to try.

"Umm, Hikari-chan… I need to talk about something… I mean," he started sweating, "I have a problem. With us."

Hikari stared. "Excuse me?"

Takeru was silent for a moment, trying to decide what to say. Hikari stared.

"I mean, it's not you, just… I'm not good at this stuff-"

"What's not me?" she asked quickly.

"Only, I guess… I'm not ready for this relationship. It's moving too fast. I mean-"

"Too fast? Ha!" she interrupted again, laughing, though Takeru knew she couldn't find the situation funny at all. "We've been going out for months. And you won't even let me kiss you properly! I've had a crush on you for ages, Take-chan!"

"I know, it's me, I know, just… You've been getting more forceful lately; I'm worried that you want… to…" he mumbled the last few words too quietly to hear.

Hikari seemed to get the jist of it. "Oh, I see. You think I want to have sex with you, don't you?"

He blushed. "Well, just that-"

"Well, I'm not too young these days, and I think we're both mature enough to let whatever happens happen. We've done so much together, Take-chan. You fought VenomVamdemon with us, and did a fine job. You saved me from Piemon, and you didn't flinch, or get cold feet. But now, I want to jumpstart this relationship and you get scared?! I think you and I would make great love together. Why aren't you happy for us?"

Takeru found his temper rising. "I am happy! But I'm happy where we are! I can't believe this. I'm trying to explain why I've been so distant, but you can't-"

"Can't WHAT?"

"-Can't understand that I need time-"

"Takeru, you've HAD time. You've had months and months of time. I can't go on like this; all this waiting is killing me. I LOVE you, Takeru. But if you can't see that, then maybe we need to stop doing this and wait a little while, to think things through."

But Takeru had no intention of thinking anything through. He was so mad; tears of anger and fear started to form. He made some incoherent noises, but she ignored him; "Just… get… out…" she sniffled, and buried her face in the nearest cushion. Takeru was suddenly afraid that he had gone too far, and was tempted to try and comfort her, but he turned and ran out, slamming the door.

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Hikari wailed, afraid that Takeru would never come back. She didn't hear Tailmon coming in through the door.

Tailmon stood in the doorway, appraising the situation. She waited for Hikari to calm down, then hopped up onto the back of the couch, and draped her arm over Hikari's sobbing figure, and sighed.

"Takeru's completely tactless," she whispered, guessing (because their bond was strong, and she'd felt Takeru's lack of courage herself) what had happened. "I'll kill him…"

Hikari sniffled, wiped her tears and shook her head. "Don't hurt him. He's just… he just…" she trailed off, tears running down her face. She pulled Tailmon into a strong hug, who gasped for breath-but Hikari held on for support from her Partner.

Hikari tossed and turned that night, she knew she had to go to sleep, because she had school the next day-but for some reason she couldn't will herself to lose consciousness. When she finally did, her dreams were disturbing and she woke up many times that night. Eventually, she lost track of whether she was asleep or awake.

And at that point, she noticed something in her room. She didn't start, nor did she cry or call for Taichi, who was snoring on the bottom bunk. The shadowy form, whoever it was, ignored Taichi as well and walked up to the bunk, looking up at her. She noticed the light from the streetlamp glinting off of the figure's head-horn. He/she/it was just about to speak, when Taichi snored really loudly; Hikari opened her eyes, looked down at the floor, and found that it was as it should be: devoid of horned people.

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Man, that was weird-I don't know why I felt something right there, but now I'm worried. Sudden sadness, and anger, and fear-emotions I know well, but from a different angle, a different point of view. I hope they don't mean what I think they mean.

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The next day was Monday, and the Chosen had school. Takeru decided for once to take the long way to school-he didn't want to see Hikari too soon. He didn't know what he would do for the rest of the day: he couldn't hide from her: they shared three classes.

Hikari, however, having cried a lot that night, was very distant that day and didn't even seem to notice Takeru, even when he gave up and looked back at her. Takeru shuddered: Hikari seemed to be pale, but her eyes-her eyes were no longer the radiant sunbursts they had once been. Now, he noticed, they were soulless and black, and he turned around, scared.

Few of the other kids seemed to notice, or care-even Daisuke, who shared Japanese with them, didn't notice that Hikari seemed different at all. But then again, Daisuke himself seemed preoccupied and Takeru didn't pursue the point with him either: not only did he seem busy with something, but Takeru knew that Daisuke wanted to hook up with Hikari himself, and he didn't want to let slip that their girlfriend-boyfriend status was less than secure. The only one he consulted was Patamon, who shrugged, not knowing much about how human relationships worked.

Takeru asked, "Well, how do Digimon couple?"

"What? You wanna know how we mate-"

"NO!" Takeru said quickly, shuddering. "Only, how do your relationships work?"

"Well, that's about it-we mate. The mother raises the baby, and often the father leaves to find another mate. Digimon can only have kids if they are at a Adult level-like Angemon."

"But you don't love them?"

"Oh, some do, I suppose, but it's rare. In our world, survival of one species isn't guaranteed, like with People. You humans have been assured a place in your planet's future-but no one Digimon species is safe forever. Digimon aren't always reborn on File Island, so we need to keep the numbers up."

Takeru thought Patamon sounded like he was very educated about this.

"So it isn't about being loyal, it's about having kids," Takeru surmised. But that doesn't help me.

But then the lunch bell rang and Takeru sped off for class after saying his goodbyes, leaving Patamon once again to his own devices for a couple hours.

---

Takeru felt relieved: Hikari wasn't in the last class they shared. Perhaps she'd gone home-he was almost glad, because at that moment he hated himself for not caring enough about her, or not being able to move forward like she needed. He also felt quite unsure of what to do when they'd meet up again-but he hoped they would, because after thinking about for a whole day now, he was scared of losing her. He wouldn't mind kissing her, trying to make up.

He even considered making love and didn't, on closer inspection, find the notion too disturbing. Especially not with Hikari.

The class passed quickly, and soon, so did the whole day. Takeru ran home, frantic now-he started to feel scared, and he needed to talk to Hikari. He picked up the phone with fingers shaking slightly, and dialed-

"Yagami Residence."

"Tai-kun, is Hikari-chan there?"

"You've a lot of nerve, calling here, Takeru. After what you did to her-"

"I know, and I need to apologize to her, I know I made a mistake-"

Taichi huffed.

"Please, is she there?"

Takeru waited, while Taichi considered. At last, Taichi told him that Hikari hadn't yet come home from school, but they expected her soon, and would at least tell her he'd called. Takeru knew the chances of her calling him were slim, but agreed, thanked Taichi, and hung up.

But Hikari didn't call all that night. Takeru felt worse and worse with each passing hour, and knew it was his fault. He could get angry with her, could yell and swear and insult her-but he didn't mean any of it. He didn't call her house again, fearful that Taichi or Hikari might decide he was desperate.

He spend the night, tossing and turning, dreaming of a running figure, Hikari, ahead of him-he could catch up, and she was flipping between goading him on and crying for his touch. When he would get closer to her, she would speed up, and when he got too far, and started to stop, she would slow down for him.

He spent the night playing cat and mouse, then awoke in a flurry of bed sheets and covers.

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Veemon wrung his hands, he felt dirty. He looked over at Daisuke, who was silently watching more television-except it was a movie this time. And looking at Daisuke made him feel even more infected, with some dangerous virus, some bug of infidelity.

Something happened on TV and Daisuke laughed suddenly.

Veemon had to tell Daisuke he was dreaming about Hikari now-in all of the dreams that previous night he had dreamt about her, in some way of another, and he didn't even want to think about that third one. But Veemon knew that Daisuke liked her as well. And he felt as if he would infect Daisuke as well.

Did Veemon like Hikari? Was he attracted to her? He certainly didn't seem to think so, though he could definitely see himself getting attached. Once, last night, he had spent a whole hour in Hikari's loving arms, in a deep, passionate hug-only to awaken and find himself whimpering. He'd decided to sleep outside that night after that, making sure he didn't hit his hand.

And now Veemon couldn't stop thinking about her. But Veemon knew that Daisuke liked her as well. So he remained quiet, which disturbed Daisuke slightly, as he had been acting weird lately.

The phone rang, and Veemon started. Daisuke hobbled over and answered, it was Miyako, could they come over; they weren't doing anything, why not? And they left.

Veemon followed Daisuke to Miyako's house. Miyako, Takeru, Ken, and Iori were discussing about what they were to do. Takeru had apparently confessed to the others about what had happened, and although Miyako was less that thrilled with him, they agreed that he was trying to make up for what he'd done. Veemon watched Hikari stand outside of the rest of the group, and she looked so sad that Veemon left, because it was too uncomfortable for them.

Miyako brought up an interesting point, as Veemon watched TV: "Has anyone seen her lately?" and they shrugged. Veemon ignored them as Hikari sat down beside him, watching TV. He couldn't hear what the others were talking about, and really didn't care. He also tried to ignore how Hikari seemed on the verge of tears-no doubt Takeru had done something stupid. Finally, at length he could no longer bear the situation; he turned and asked her, "What's wrong?"

Hikari didn't answer, instead choosing to concentrate on the television. Daisuke called Veemon over to their discussion, and he closed the door, because evidently they were involved in something and Hikari didn't want to be disturbed right now.

They turned to Veemon. "Have you seen Hikari-kun?"

He sighed. "Yeah, she looks terrible! What's wrong with her?" He eyed Takeru, and asked quietly, "What did you do?"

Takeru winced, and was about to answer him, when Miyako interrupted and asked quickly, "Where did you see her?"

Veemon noticed that they were all now looking at him. He frowned, wondering what they were playing at, and turned slowly, pointing in the direction of the family room. "Umm, right out there?" he asked tentatively.

Daisuke jerked his head outside, and then sighed. "She's not there."

Veemon looked, and saw her gleaming hair over the back of the couch, except it was partly blackened now, though he assumed she was in shadow. "What do you mean, Dai-kun? On the couch?"

They all looked. Miyako scowled, "Veemon, stop playing games. We're serious."

"So am I! She's right there!"

"Veemon! Now is not the time!"

Veemon backed up slightly, Daisuke was acting like a jerk, Veemon knew he was just being a jerk, she was right there-

He scowled in turn and went back into the living room, sitting beside a placid Hikari, the whole absurdity of the situation weirding him out. Moments later, Daisuke left Miyako's room and told Veemon that he and the others were going to look for Hikari. He stared, open mouthed at them, then looked back to Hikari, then back to Daisuke, and whispered, "You can't see her right in front of you?"

Daisuke's hands flew up in frustration and he left Veemon alone.

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There you go, chapter 2 to Love Evolved. Some things to think about: What's going to happen to Hikari and Takeru? Will they get back together? And what about Veemon-why is it that he sees Hikari, when the others won't? I'm not sure, but I hope we'll find out soon. Seeing as reviews are hard to come by these days, I'll post the next one when I feel like it.

© 2003 Lord Tarsisk (Not the characters, or anything else Toei owns, just everything else! Don't steal my ideas, or the insects will get you!)