"It's Just a Little Crush" Story Written by Freedom Fighter Chapter One Recap: After Jeri meets Guilmon for the first time, she returns home. But once she gets home, she can’t stop thinking about Takato. With some advice from her puppet, Jeri has finally decided to take the first step and admit her feelings for our resident goggle boy. But so much can happen between now and Monday morning. Will Jeri be out of luck? ****** The events of this chapter are based on the episodes “Divided They Stand” and “Juggernaut,” respectively. For those of you who have forgotten or by chance skipped right to Chapter Two without reading Chapter One (shame on you), I’m holding a little contest. At the beginning of each of the five story chapters, one (or two in one case) will sing a love song. The contest is to figure out who is singing in each chapter, what the name of the song is, and the artist(s) who sing that song. Each part is one point, which means you can earn three points per chapter. With five chapters, the maximum number of points you can get is fifteen. After the fifth chapter, I'll tally the scores and the winner will be announced in the epilogue/sixth chapter. What's the prize you ask? Well, I'll write a fanfic for you personally. Most of you probably are Digimon fans, but I'll take any request from the winner from any series, as long as I know it. Before anyone asks, I will not write any lemons, self-insertions, or fics bashing other shows. Other than that, it's open season! If anyone wants any more details, feel free to tell me in your review, or e-mail me! [Feb. 2005 Reposting Note: This contest was originally held in Feb. '02. No new entries will be accepted... but feel free to play along anyway. And don't cheat and peek at the answers in the "Making of..." chapter, okay?] I had only one guess at the first song, which was expected. I’d be surprised if anyone actually figures the first one out. Maybe we’ll get some more luck this time around with a more familiar song. And remember… if I don’t get at least five people to enter the contest, it will be null and void and this will all be a waste of time. With that said, onto the disclaimer, the song excerpt, and then, Chapter Two! Disclaimer: None of the characters or songs belongs to me, but to their respective creators. And that’s all I’m saying about this one! ****** [Begin playing song lyrics, with a band playing in the background this time] So lately, been wondering, Who will be there to take my place When I'm gone, you'll need love To light the shadows on your face If a great wave shall fall It would fall upon us all And between the sand and stone Could you make it on your own If I could, then I would I'll go wherever you will go Way up high, or down low I'll go wherever you will go Runaway with my heart Runaway with my hope Runaway with my love I know now, just quite how My life and love might still go on In your heart, in your mind I'll stay with you for all of time If I could, then I would I'll go wherever you will go Way up high, or down low I'll go wherever you will go I'll go wherever you will go [Stop playing song lyrics] ****** Chapter 2 - "You’ll Need Love" Takato and Henry run into the digital field with their goggles/sunglasses on. Terriermon continues to sit atop Henry’s head, while Guilmon runs just ahead of Takato. Once inside, they find Renamon in battle with a Harpymon. But Rika is nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, they are forced to turn their attention to the battle when Harpymon fires off an attack at their Digimon. “Wind Seeker!” Guilmon and Terriermon dodge out of the way. In the meantime, Renamon uses this opportunity to attack the now distracted Harpymon. “Diamond Storm!” Renamon sends diamond shards flying at Harpymon, hitting her all over. Just then, Rika and Calumon show up on the battlefield, to the relief of Takato and Henry. Renamon and Rika stare at each other for a few seconds before Renamon turns her attention back to Harpymon. She leaps towards her, firing out several quick kicks in almost every direction. The group could only watch as Renamon subdued the Digimon without Rika’s help. But then Renamon did something that was highly uncharacteristic of her. She wasn’t finishing off Harpymon in order to load her data. “Why isn’t Renamon loading that Harpymon’s data?” Henry asked. “Yeah,” Rika butted in. “Why aren’t you?” “Because I don’t need it,” answered Renamon. “Although I could load the data of every single opponent I face and take them apart one by one, but what’s the point?” As Takato, Henry, and Rika try to figure out the reasoning behind Renamon’s decision, Harpymon awakens and resumes her attack on Renamon. “Wind Seeker!” “Look out!” the Tamers yell in unison. As Harpymon lunges at Renamon to continue her assault, Rika reaches for a card. For some reason unknown to the others, she didn’t have any on her. Rika didn’t have her D-Arc either. So she had only one option. Looking down and finding a broken branch on the ground, she picks it up and starts running towards Harpymon. “Rika!” Henry shouts. “What is she doing?” he thought to himself. “She could get hurt that way!” “Rika!” Takato yells. “Has Rika gone crazy or what?” he thinks silently. Rika stabs the branch into Harpymon’s back. Although it ends up doing more harm than good, as the Digimon now turns towards Rika and goes to attack her. “Why did I do that?” Rika asked herself as she quickly realized that there was not enough time to dodge the attack. She was done for. That is, if not for Calumon being around. - Begin digivolution sequence - “Renamon digivolve to… Kyubimon!” - End digivolution sequence - The sleek, feminine body of Renamon is replaced by the fox like one of Kyubimon, Renamon’s champion form. Kyubimon quickly takes flight and counters Harpymon’s attack with her own. “Fox Tail Inferno!” Kyubimon fires a few rounds off, finishing off the rampant Digimon. But as Harpymon begins to dissolve into data, Kyubimon decides not to absorb it. “You’re not absorbing her data?” Rika asked, slowly recovering after her near fatal mistake. “I don’t need it because I have you,” Renamon replied. “Besides, I just saved your life. But why did you do try to help me?” “Well, someone had to do it since you saved my life once.” “So, you’re just simply repaying a debt?” “That’s not what I meant. You’re my partner.” “And that’s what partners do. They protect each other. Is that what you’re saying?” “Yeah, it’s something like that. We should watch each other’s back.” As Rika and Renamon share a hug, Takato just stands there, dumbfounded over the whole scene. “I don’t get it.” “Isn’t it obvious?” Henry asked him. “They were worried about each other. Their problem is that they’re too hardheaded to admit it. Knowing them, they’ll probably keep playing silly games until they drop.” “I guess being honest with each other is too hard for them.” The two share a hearty laugh as they leave the battle scene with their Digimon in tow. ====== Takato heads back to Guilmon’s house to put his Digimon in hiding for the night. Henry, in the meantime, decides to depart and head home himself. As he does, though, he seems to have a lot on his mind. And Terriermon quickly notices this. “Whatcha thinkin’ about, Henry?” “Nothing,” Henry replied, shrugging his shoulders and denying his Digimon’s accusations. “Oh, you can’t fool me!” “Seriously, it’s nothing!” “If you say so,” Terriermon states, relenting his inquiry for the time being. ====== Meanwhile, over at Guilmon’s house, Takato opens the gate so that Guilmon can go inside. “There you go, boy.” “Thanks, Takato.” “Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.” “You too.” Takato closes the gate as Guilmon begins to get comfortable inside the mini- shelter. The young boy then waves goodbye once more as he walks off. Takato heads in the direction of his house. But he too has things on his mind. “Just what was up with Jeri earlier?” he thought to himself. Takato thought back to when Jeri mentioned that Guilmon was cute, rather than cool, as Takato always thought of his Digimon. But by the time they went their separate ways, Takato had admitted out loud that Guilmon was cute too. That produced a giggle and a smile from Jeri. “I don’t know. This is all so confusing.” Takato continued to ponder the whole thing as he continued on his way home. “Tomorrow, I’ll tell him. I just have to.” ====== After spending some time to renew her bond with Renamon, Rika returned home. Upon entering her house, she saw her D-Arc and her cardholder in the trashcan. She pulls them both out and clips them on to their normal positions on her belt. “You have feelings for him, don’t you?” Rika turns around as Renamon materializes in front of her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “But I just heard you say…” “Forget what I said, Renamon. It’s just a little crush.” “A little?” “Okay, so it’s a BIG crush. Happy? Now, just drop it!” “As you wish.” Renamon disappears without an objection. Rika heads for her closet to look for something to sleep in. “There’s got to be a way to tell him without looking stupid.” ====== As Takato arrived home, his mother stopped him on the way. “Jeri called for you, dear.” “Really?” “Yes. Are you going to call her back?” Takato sighed. “Sure.” Takato followed his mother straight to the phone. She dialed up the number to Jeri’s house and then gave it to Takato. She then walked away so that she could warm up Takato’s dinner. ====== At the Katou house, Jeri’s dad answers the phone shortly after it begins ringing. “Hello?” “Hello? I’d like to speak to Jeri, please.” “Who is this?” “Takato. Her classmate?” “Oh, right. She’s already in bed, mister. Call her tomorrow.” “Okay. Sorry to disturb you.” With that, Mr. Katou hung up the phone and went about his business as usual. “That’s strange,” Takato thought as he hung up the phone. “Jeri’s already asleep this early on a Saturday night?” “Takato!” his mom shouted. “Come and eat!” “Yes mom.” ====== The following afternoon, Takato’s thoughts about what was so funny about Jeri were interrupted when he and Guilmon ended up taking on a DarkLizardmon all by themselves. To top things off, they didn’t even finish their battle because Yamaki had once again stepped in and interfered. Takato and Guilmon watch as DarkLizardmon is captured, but Takato refuses to let Guilmon go with the strange man, whose identity he did not know as of yet. After a stern warning, Yamaki departs, leaving Takato and Guilmon alone. The two head back to Guilmon’s house, where they talk about the day’s events. “Good job tonight, Guilmon. I think you’re getting better.” “Thanks!” “If you keep winning, you’ll get stronger! Then you can digivolve again! In fact, I wish you could digivolve this very moment!” “I wonder when I’ll be able to digivolve.” It then came to mind what happened the last time Guilmon digivolved. This began to worry Takato, as he didn’t want to go through all of that again. “Wait, I don’t want you to fight any more!” “Why not? No more fights means no more data. How am I supposed to get stronger? I thought you wanted me to digivolve?” “No! I don’t! You’ll change too much!” With that, Takato runs off. Guilmon watches his tamer sprint into the night, wondering what he said wrong. Takato didn’t want Guilmon to digivolve to Growlmon. Nothing good came out of it the last time, and plus, hiding him was a big problem. He hoped that he would never have to face that problem again. “I wonder who would take my place if I decided to drop out of this whole Digimon raising thing,” he debated privately. But as Takato tried to put that problem out of his head, a new one came up as he ran right into Rika. Well, they didn’t exactly knock each other down. They just bumped shoulders. Rika was still a bit peeved at the whole situation, though. “Watch where you’re going, goggle head!” “Sorry ‘bout that, Rika. I was thinking about something.” That brought Rika back to her own thoughts. She had been waiting all day to meet Takato and now was the time to ask. “Actually, you’re just the person I wanted to see.” “I am?” Takato blinked, pointing at himself. “Allow me to explain…” ====== Another night passes. Takato arrives at school the next morning bright and early. After dealing with Miss Asaji and having to answer what seemed like twenty questions about something he was hiding under his shirt, although in reality she only asked one before jumping into a rant about how bad being a zookeeper was. As Takato enters the classroom with a look of anxiety on his face, Jeri glances at him and begins to worry. “I wonder what’s wrong with Takato,” she asked herself. “Something must be up. He never returned my call the other night.” She then notices that Kazu and Kenta are staring Takato awkwardly. “Something really must be up if those three aren’t talking to each other.” Jeri suddenly brightens up. “I know what will cheer him up!” Jeri takes out a piece of paper and begins to doodle something on it. It seems that Takato wasn’t the only artist in the class. Miss Asaji arrives a few minutes later and starts class, as all of the students take their seats. As she gets into one of her lectures, though, Takato’s mind wanders off and begins to think about Guilmon again. “I’ve always wanted a Digimon like Guilmon,” he thought. “One which I could raise so that he could get stronger and digivolve like I’ve always dreamed.” Takato then remembers what Yamaki said to him. “But maybe that guy is right. This isn’t a game. What happens if Guilmon turns out to be just like the rest of those bad Digimon? What if he stops being my friend?” All of a sudden, someone taps him on the shoulder. As he looks over, that person passes him a note. He then looks over to the next row and sees Jeri waving happily at him. “I can see that Jeri’s in a happy mood,” he thought. “Wait… could this be from her? Hold up… I forgot all about calling her back! Man, she’s probably mad at me. This note’s probably got a death threat in it or something.” Takato then opens the letter and doesn’t find a death threat, but rather a cute drawing of Guilmon dressed in a white T-shirt and red shorts. “Well, she must have forgotten about it already if she drew a picture of Guilmon. Wait… a picture of Guilmon? Whoa.” Takato took a second to examine the drawing in detail. “At least she’s not scared of Guilmon. Unlike Kenta and Kazu are, that is. Still… I bet she’d scream like a banshee if she saw Growlmon.” Takato then gulped. “I’d rather not think about it.” Putting the drawing away, Takato sighed and turned his attention towards the board. “Yeah… Jeri would hate me for that.” Takato was then passed another note. He turned and saw Jeri looking at him. This time, she had a slightly more serious look on her face. Takato opened the note in suspense. “Oh great. Now I’m going to get it.” Takato reads the note as if Jeri were saying the words on it right there and then. “Takato, I want you to meet me after school. Love, Jeri.” “She wants to meet me after school? Wait… since when did she end her notes with ‘love?’” Takato then remembers the conversation he had with Rika last night. “Oh great again,” Takato remarks sarcastically to himself. “Not her too.” Despite the predicament Takato is now in, he decides to meet with Jeri anyway so that she wouldn’t think that he’s ignoring her again. It was decided that they would meet out by the entrance to the schoolyard. Takato found Jeri already waiting for her, with that smile of hers plastered on her face. “Okay, she’s smiling. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Takato then waves at Jeri as she runs up to him. “Hi Takato!” “Hi, um, Jeri. What’s up?” “Well, I wanted to ask you something.” “Okay,” he said. But in his mind, he was praying that she wasn’t going to ask what he thought she was going to ask. “Well, we’ve been friends for quite awhile. And I’ve found myself getting more attracted to you with each passing day. I just thought that it was time I told you.” “Told me what?” Takato asked, although he now knew his worst fear was coming true. “That I think I’m in love with you.” “I knew it!” Takato shouted excitedly, although he didn’t mean to do so. “You mean you knew I had a crush on you the whole time?” “Well, not exactly.” “Then tell me!” “Well, I thought that you were going to tell me you loved me because…” “Because what?” “Because last night Rika told me that she loved me.” ****** Next Chapter: Takato’s thoughts about what to do about Guilmon are sidelined as he deals with a more pressing problem. Will he choose Rika or Jeri? What happens when the two girls meet? What is Henry thinking about? And how much of a problem will the devas be as they start appearing? ****** Well, is anyone confused? As I said last time, I am splicing in bits and pieces of the anime episodes. I don’t have them on tape, though, so don’t kill me because the lines aren’t accurate. In fact, I think it’s better off that way. This will all make sense in the end. Hopefully… Anyway, remember to leave a review, especially if you’re participating in the contest! Chapter 3 is coming in two days! Stay tuned and see what happens next! Copyright Date: 2/4/02