Title: What Comes Next
Characters: Hikari, Miyako||Romance: Hikari x Miyako/Miyako x Hikari
Word Count: 2,136||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing, D13, use the polysyndeton device; Mini-Fic Masterclass Challenge, Wild Card option; Include The Word Boot Camp, #20, spicy; What-if: What if Miyako's hair were dyed?; Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, #15, warming; 28 Days of Love, write about any pairing; Dice Gods, random prompt: ribbon
Notes: Does not acknowledge the 02 epilogue or Tri.
Summary: Hikari helps Miyako with a new hair style, learns something new, and wonders what else can unfold from this point onward.

Miyako's hair is so beautiful. Hikari could've spent forever helping her brush and comb it out, let alone considering new hairstyles. As pretty as the wave of violet looked going down Miyako's back, Hikari thought it could look just as good, if not better, shaped a little differently.

Besides, playing with hair was fun, and after everything they'd gone through, they all deserved a little fun.

"What do you think of this?" Hikari asked, twining the hair into a neat little ponytail. It was a very simple style, but better to start simple and be able to undo it if something went wrong than start complicated and not be able to undo it.

Miyako wrinkled her nose at her reflection. "I wear it like that when I'm going to bed. You're not trying to get me into bed, are you?"

Hikari wished she had some sort of instant blush nullification ability, because no sooner had the words passed Miyako's lips than she turned a brilliant shade of scarlet and tried to stutter something. If someone asked, she wouldn't have known exactly what she tried to say in the first pace.

Miyako's reflected eyes caught her own and she blinked before turning around and looking at Hikari, eyes wide. "I shouldn't have said that! I didn't mean it like… like that! Really, I didn't!" Her own cheeks blushed red and she ducked her head, muttering words Hikari couldn't understand and didn't care to, not while she was still trying to sort out her own short-circuited brain.

It shouldn't have been anything more than a quick laugh between them. But the words hung in the air even as Hikari waved off the apology and mumbled something in her own turn about how she'd known that, really, and everyone said things they didn't mean sometimes.

Only Hikari wasn't at all certain of whether or not she didn't mean it. Nor was she sure of what she would've done if Miyako did mean it.

Little by little over the last couple of years since they'd defeated BelialVamdemon, she'd noticed just… little things changing about the way that she and Miyako spent time around one another. For one thing they spent a lot more of it, now that they weren't having to put up with some evil Digimon trying to destroy the world every other week, and they found out facts about each other that Hikari wouldn't have imagined when they'd first met at school.

Not just things they had in common, but points they didn't, points they could talk about and learn from. The world of darkness and learning to jogress evolve with one another set the stage there, but ever since they'd begun to move beyond that, to not just learn what they could do, but doing what they could do.

"What about this?" Miyako picked up a golden-brown ribbon from her table and offered it up to Hikari. "Chizuru thought I'd like some of these." She toyed with the ending of it before letting Hikari take it. "I'm not sure if it really works, though."

Hikari took the ribbon and examined it; it would fit magnificently against Hawkmon's feathers, she knew that right away. But as she looked from the ribbon to Miyako, she couldn't be quite sure if it would really match her hair.

"You know, I'm a little curious," Hikari said as she undid the ponytail and started to comb out Miyako's hair one more time. She vaguely considered asking which shampoo Miyako used, since her hair hung soft as silk against Hikari's hands. But something else came out instead. "I don't think anyone else in your family has hair like this, do they?"

Violet hair wasn't the strangest shade she'd seen by far. Ken had blue hair, as did Jou, and she knew for a fact neither of them dyed it. But now she wondered about Miyako.

And once again in the mirror, she saw a flush creeping up Miyako's neck and the older Chosen ducked her head.

"No..." Miyako's lips parted as if she weren't entirely sure she wanted to say anything next. Then she forged ahead. "Because I don't either. It's brown."

Hikari tilted her head, looking from the reflection down to the hair in her hands, and something of her confusion must have expressed itself, because Miyako reached into a drawer on her table and pulled out a bottle.

"Purple is my favorite color, and I always wanted purple hair when I was little," Miyako said, not quite meeting Hikari's eyes as she spoke. "Then one day mom brought this home for me. She thought it would just be something I'd get over if I had purple hair for a few months." She reached up to poke at her hair. "But I didn't."

One of the first thoughts in Hikari's mind was that Miyako should be so glad that Odaiba's school system didn't completely insist on non-dyed hair for their students, like some she knew of. It was preferred that if someone did dye their hair that it not be distracting somehow – she vividly recalled someone with acid-green hair who had been asked to try something else – but Miyako's tasteful violet definitely wasn't distracting.

At least not to people who weren't Hikari. Every time she saw it in the school hallways, her heart skipped a few beats, and the year spent with Miyako in high school and Hikari still in junior high had stretched out forever.

"It's really beautiful, no matter what," Hikari said at last, checking out the bottle. She'd seen this shade before for sale, but somehow, the connection to Miyako just hadn't hit her. "I didn't have any idea."

Miyako shrugged, reaching to take the bottle back. "It's not a big deal. I've just done it for so long I don't know if I'd recognize myself without this hair anyway."

Hikari rested one hand on Miyako's shoulder, enjoying the warm sense of contact. "I'd recognize you, no matter what." Their hearts and minds had touched during their Jogress together. How could they not recognize one another? Perhaps it hadn't been as dramatic as Ken and Daisuke, whose hearts beat in tandem, but it was a bond all the same, one Hikari wouldn't have ever wanted to go without.

Miyako peeked back up at her and offered a brief smile. "You know, I kind of wonder what you'd look like with hair like this. And maybe grow it out a little?"

Hikari laughed at that. "You mean look more like you?"

"Yes. No. I don't know." Miyako fiddled with her fingers before she raised her head once more. "I think you look great just the way that you are."

Hikari found it difficult to breath, and tried to push things back the way they'd been, picking up the ribbon that had somehow slipped from her fingers in all of this, and taking up Miyako's hair with her other hand. "What do you say we try a braid this time? You've got enough hair for it."

Miyako's response was just a bit distant. Not angry or upset or even hurt, but somehow… Hikari didn't know what to think about it. Instead she just started to weave a braid together, fighting her way through her own thoughts.

"You look great, too, just the way you are," she said at last. She wanted to find something that would fill the awkward silence that hung between them and grasped onto the first thing that came to mind. Under other circumstances she might not have. "Once we're done here, do you want to go see a movie or something? There's a really good one at the theater."

She hoped Miyako didn't ask her what the name of it was, because she didn't have the faintest idea. She just remembered that Taichi mentioned seeing it with Yamato the previous weekend, and if it was good enough for them, then it was probably good enough for her and Miyako.

"Sure. Um, maybe dinner somewhere afterwards? Somewhere nice, not a fast food place." Miyako essayed a smile and Hikari returned it full force. "My treat."

Sounds like a date, Hikari thought, and this time decided not to say it. If it wasn't one, then she could enjoy everything with her best friend. If it was one, then she didn't want to make Miyako nervous about it . As much as she liked Miyako – which was far more than she'd thought possible once upon a time – Miyako did have a habit of getting a little overenthusiastic at times, and Hikari sort of thought it would be better for everyone if that didn't happen this time.

It could happen another time. When it wasn't a potential first date and they weren't treading on the edges of something that could change their lives in such a good way.

She kept on working on Miyako's hair, wrapping it off finally with the ribbon being tied at the bottom. "There, what do you think of that?"

Miyako moved her head from side to side, then faster, a wild grin lighting her face up. "I love it! It's wonderful!" She was on her feet in a second and wrapped her arms around Hikari. "Thanks!"

Hikari shivered at the warm sense of Miyako all around her, her heart pounding faster than ever before. "T-thanks." She wanted to say so much more but right now, everything that would've created words shut down, letting her bask in the glory that was this lovely young woman.

She managed to step away, more because she wanted to think again than anything else, and glanced at the time. "Uh, if we're going to the movies, we'd better get ready. I think we've got maybe an hour."

Hikari didn't recognize the word out of Miyako's mouth, but she understood the intent anyway. She agreed with it as well. The sooner they got ready, the sooner they could go, and perhaps have time not just for dinner and a movie, but a long walk afterward. She could think of several places that she'd like to see by moonlight with Miyako.

"I'll run back home and change," she said, looking down at her own rather boring outfit. She wanted to wear something much better for this, no matter what kind of an outing it was. A thousand little thoughts raced around in the back of her head, mostly concerning what to do with her own hair and if she should bother to wear makeup at all and if she did what kind of makeup and what they should do with Hawkmon and Tailmon and if this really was a date what she would do when Taichi found out about it and Miyako had two sisters and a brother and they were going to say things and Hikari had to stop herself before she lost her breath and passed out from the rush of thoughts.

Miyako didn't seem to have noticed anything unusual, so Hikari decided that she hadn't noticed That was good; she didn't think that she could explain any of that anyway.

"See you soon!" Hikari didn't wait for more than a quick wave from Miyako before heading out the door. She recalled one particular outfit that might look good with anything Miyako wore. She'd also have to remind Miyako that she loved spicy food; that could help them decide which restaurant they stopped by after the movie.

If a thousand thoughts rushed in her mind before she left, then ten thousand marched in formation as she hurried home. The idea of whether or not this was an actual date spun around there first and foremost. By the time she was out of the shower, she'd decided one thing: she did want it to be one. She liked Miyako. She liked her more than anyone she could remember liking in her entire life, in a far different way than she'd also liked anyone else.

It might not be love – Hikari wasn't even sure if she liked girls or boys or both girls and boys and wasn't sure either if it made a difference at this point – but she did want to spend as much time with Miyako as she could, and not just doing things friends did. She wanted to feel Miyako's arms around her, and to have her own around Miyako. She wanted to kiss her. She wanted Miyako to kiss her back.

If that was what it was to love someone, then she thought she might well love her. It was definitely worth a chance. She didn't think either one of them would lose anything if it wasn't love.

And if it was, then they'd both have something that they wanted. She hoped. Oh, she hoped so hard.

And tonight would help them find out one way or the other.

The End

Notes: And they lived happily ever after.