Title: road to recovery

Author: No Heart

Summary: Chika was just trying to cheer him up, but with interesting consequences. Takes place about two weeks after the digital gate is closed.

A/n: First Digimon savers Fic. Weee….

The dark haired boy gasped as he was jerked back to reality. He'd been walking seemingly aimlessly along a busy street, dark clouds rolled overhead, threatening to drop their load of rain down on him if he didn't hurry home.

You want to stay with me…? He blinked sadly at that. "Bull shit," he said flatly, his once sharp amber eyes were dull. "If he'd meant any of that then why didn't he stay here? Why didn't he let me come?"

Several passersby watched the young boy dressed in his strange attire mumbling absently to himself and averted their eyes.

It'd been a few weeks since Masaru and the Digimon had returned to the other world, and Ikuto was having some trouble adjusting to his new life, being around no one but other humans.

The preteen froze, other humans? He shuddered slightly at the thought, even if he was a human, it still didn't feel right. He'd known himself as a Digimon all his ten years, and now here he was in an unfamiliar world with unfamiliar people. He was living with two humans he hardly even knew, they were his parents and he loved them. It was a biological bond that couldn't be broken, but it wasn't the same. Mrs. Noguchi just wasn't Yukidarumon; the Digimon that had raised him, Mr. Noguchi was in no way Mercurimon, the one who'd made him the Digital World's warrior. That thought made him want to laugh and cry at the same time. It seems that everyone he's ever loved has died, or gone away for ever.

It took a while for Ikuto to realize that he'd stopped walking again, and even longer to realized that it'd started to rain. Oh, that's just perfect. The human with a Digimon's heart thought somewhat bitterly in Japanese that was much more fluent than it had been a few months ago. He had a ways to walk before he reached home, if he turned around now he could probably get to the Daimons' house in about twenty minutes and call home from there. But it then his parents would just have to drive out in what was quickly becoming a storm.

None of this would be a problem if he still lived in the Digital World.

Suddenly Ikuto felt a firm grip on his shoulder. As he spun around his had went instinctively to the boomerang strapped to his back, preparing to fight whatever was attacking him. He stopped when he saw who it was. Chika's large brown eyes were even wider as she starred at Ikuto in surprise. She was holding an umbrella in one hand, and a black and purple backpack was slung over he shoulder. Damn, I always forget that She was smiling slightly despite of the fact that he'd been about to splatter her brains all over the sidewalk.

"Hi Ikuto," She said, pushing the large bone weapon out of her face with one finger, her voice cracked a little as she spoke, betraying that the sudden violence had rattled her some. "I you forgot your pack again." Her tone was light, but scolding. "What're you doing out here in this storm?"

The Digimon boy raised an eyebrow at that, they'd just left the elementary school together about an hour ago and now he was walking home, (Ikuto has some issues with cars). He would've commented that she was out in the rain as well, but instead just muttered a curt apology for scaring her.

"It takes a lot to frighten me," Masaru's younger sibling assured, brushing the incident off. And that was true. Not many little girls can go up against one of the Royal Knights like she had and still come out relatively sane and with all of their limbs intact. "You just caught me off guard."

Ikuto stayed silent.

"Well, giving you your backpack isn't the only reason I'm here. Wanna know why else?" She laughed nervously.

"Not really."

Chika's cheeks flushed with annoyance, "You know, you've become a real ass ever since Masaru and the Digimon left." She growled.

Ikuto ground his teeth together; a nasty remark got caught in a growing lump in his throat. It came out as a strangled sob. A few tears slid down his cheek. Ikuto had been crying more often now, never in front of anyone though. He hoped that the rain would hide them and quickly wiped his face of the evidence.

The look on the girl's face told him that he'd failed. "Ikuto," she looked at him worriedly, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" He said to quickly, this time his voice cracked. He turned to keep walking home but her small but strong hand caught his wrist.

"C'mon you!" She said, yanking him back, the ten year old was reminded of when he'd first met her and she'd dragged him and Falcomon away to take a bath.

"Chika," He whined, yanking his arm roughly out of her grasp. "Let go!" He snarled.

The brunette hit him over the head with the umbrella. "No. Yoshino's waiting so get moving!"

"What…?" Looking over Chika's shoulder, he saw the small car, headlights and windshield wipers on. He couldn't see Yoshino through the darkened windows but knew she was probably drumming her fingers on the steering wheel and saying something like 'this is the worst'.

"You didn't think I was able to catch up to you on foot did you?" She asked in disbelief.

"Uhm…"

Chika sighed and dragged him over to the car, this time he didn't fight. She let him into the front and took the back seat so that he wouldn't get carsick. "Yoshino," She said as she slammed the door. "Can we go by the grocery store on our way home?"

"Why?" The driver asked, putting her car in gear, she turned around both to give the younger girl an inquisitive glance and to check for oncoming traffic.

"There are some things I need to get."

"Alright, but you have to hurry, your parents are going to be mad if I we don't get back soon."

By now the Digimon kid was seriously confused, looking between the two scheming women in confusion. He knew they weren't going to his house, the car was now headed in the wrong direction. He looked at Yoshino curiously. "What's going on?" Had something happened to his parents? Probably not.

The red-head's eyes widened and she slapped herself on the forehead. "Oh, sorry Ikuto. I thought Chika would tell you." She paused, Ikuto nudged her in the side with his boomerang. Yoshino cried out in shock, Chika snatched the weapon from it's owner, smacking Ikuto on the head with her umbrella. After a moment more Yoshino remembered that she was explaining. "Well, this storm," she jerked her head towards the driver's side window, "is about to get a lot worse and your parents didn't want you wandering about in it. Plus there are some downed trees on the way to your house and the roads are blocked. So the Daimon's have decided that you'll stay with them for the weekend and then go back home after school Monday, hopefully by then the weather will have cleared up some." she pulled into the parking lot of a small convenience store, Chika grabbed her purse filled with some allowance money and ran into the store, Yoshino quickly following her.

Ikuto stayed put, watching the rain falling nearly horizontal to the ground. Had it been this windy a few minutes ago?

Eventually the girls returned, Chika carried two paper bags that were getting soaked and ripping. He got out of the car and helped her with them. The wind was blowing even worse than he'd thought. When he grabbed a hold of Chika's arm it was freezing, or was that his own hand? He couldn't tell, and it probably didn't matter.

After what seemed like forever Yoshino drove up to their driveway. As she parked the car Chika unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned up to talk to her. "You're staying right?" He big eyes wide and desperate. Yoshino looked like she was going to refuse, "Mom's said she was going to make a big meal!"

Hey, who could resist a free meal.

As the family and guests ate the meal (some faster than others…[backs away from Ikuto and his jaws of fury) Saryuri laughed happily, "If only Touma were here then we'd have everybody," She commented.

"Not everyone…" Ikuto, who'd already finished his meal, muttered, only Chika heard.

He acts like he's the only one who's Digimon left, I miss Piyomon every day! Chika resisted the urge to throw her fried egg at him and start yelling for him to snap out of it.

After dinner the adults stayed downstairs to talk about adult stuff while Ikuto and Chika went up to her room. Earlier she'd brought the bags up, warning Ikuto that he couldn't see them. When they got up he saw what the mysterious contents were. Not that he knew what the weird pile of tiny objects wrapped in colorful plastic were. Beside the bile were two large cylindrical containers with spoons laid out on top of them.

"Er…Chika?" Ikuto sat down on her bed, "what are those?" He gestured to the pile.

"Um… candy and ice cream…" The girl raised an eyebrow at that. Hasn't Ikuto ever had sugar? It'd been a few months hadn't it? Surely the DATS members didn't deprive him of the miracle that was candy!

"Chika?" The bluish haired boy was waving his hand in front of her face, wondering if she was broken or something.

Suddenly the girl dashed forwards, grabbing a handful of the shiny candies. "Don't worry," She said loudly, "I'll cure you!"

"What?" Ikuto blinked, wishing that his boomerang hadn't been left downstairs.

"You can't deprive a child of sugar!" She ranted on, "that's like- a crime against humanity!" She unwrapped one of the candies and shoved it in the boy's face.

Ikuto continued to stare at her, she seemed to be taking this very hard. He grabbed her hand and moved it away from him. Taking the candy he sighed, "Okay, I'm going to eat it. Just…breathe okay?"

Chika breathed.

Ikuto ate the candy.

-Ten minutes later-

Perhaps introducing someone (especially someone like Ikuto) that has been deprived of all sugar substances for ten years to an entire pile of it wasn't such a good idea after all. Not like Chika cared, she was too busy bouncing off the walls with the sugar high Digimon boy. Most of the candy and all of the ice cream was gone. The two ran around in circles for the better half of the first hour. Ikuto seemingly having forgotten his depression for the moment.

Chika's mom and dad had been scared to come upstairs, Yoshino had learned the hard way to leave the preteens be.

A sudden blast of light interrupted their insanity. Followed shortly by the booming sound of thunder. The lights flickered out. Sayuri and Yoshino screamed in perfect unison from the living room. Suguru cursed loudly, apparently having stubbed his toe on the furniture. Chika and Ikuto weren't scared of the blasts, having seen much worse in their time.

After a while Masaru's sibling's soft voice cut through the darkness. "So, are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah…" But the sudden darkness had snapped him out of his temporary ecstasy and the dark feeling of loss was clouding in his mind again.

Chika sighed, she felt her way over to her friend, quietly wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "Listen up you." She said, "you're not the only one feeling this. Me, Yoshino, Mom, Dad, Touma, everyone at DATS and all the people all over the world who had to say goodbye to their digimon."

Ikuto looked where he thought her face would be, eyes shining curiously.

"I'm sure all of the Digimon and my brother feel the same too. They probably miss us all very much. I know Piyomon does." There was the sound of shifting as she place her hand over her heart. "I can feel him, and he's sad, but he knows that we're going to see each other again someday." She reached down hand grabbed Ikuto's hand, placing it over his heart, a digimon's heart. "Can't you feel Falcomon? Can't you?"

Ikuto closed his eyes, Falcomon was staring up at him. I love you Ikuto. His foster brother smiled sadly at him. And I really do miss you.

"Can't you…?" Chika asked again, quieter, she sounded like she was going to cry.

Ikuto felt a little like crying now too. "I can…" he said softly.

The lights all over the house came back on, and the clouds let out one last dying gasp of thunder.

A/n: well, that's it. Unless anyone wants another chapter or two. I have this idea with Jawbreakers...