A Story for Suzie

A Digimon Tamers story by Crazyeight

Chapter: 01

"Whoa!"

Up.

"Terriermon…"

"Whee!"

Down.

"Iyaaah!"

Up.

"Ha! Ha!"

"Terriermon…"

Down.

Henry Wong sighed, his head in his hand as he watched his friend, a cream and green-colored furred digital life form with ears that made him look more like a rabbit than his namesake implied, bounced up into the air once more before coming back down onto the bed and fix him with a questioning stare with his big, black eyes.

"What?"

"Please stop doing that," Henry implored. "It's very distracting."

"Boy, somebody's missing the days when I had to pretend to be a doll all the time," Terriermon huffed, folding his tiny arms over his round chest and frowning.

"I don't," Henry sighed again in exasperation.

"You don't?"

"No, it's just… It's like I said: it's distracting."

"Henry, all you're doing is coding some program. You do it so much I bet you could do it in your sleep and not have a problem. It's no big deal. Me on the other hand? Do you have any idea how hard it is to stay perfectly still for hours and hours while Suzie dresses you in funny clothes?" A pained look appeared on his face and he seemed to shrink in on himself. "Until the Devas came along I didn't think I would ever be able to blink again."

"All right, enough with the guilt trip." Shaking his head, Henry turned back to his computer screen.

"Momentai, Henry. I didn't mean it." Hopping down from the bed, Terriermon strolled over to where Henry sat and, using his ears like arms and hands, climbed up onto the boy's shoulder, his usual spot. "What're you working on?"

"I'm trying to understand how the code for our digivices work. It's the same one that Shibumi used for digimon, the Arc, and the blue cards. I'd like to know why they're sentient but our digivices aren't."

"Maybe they are and you just don't know it," Terriermon suggested, hopping down. Henry raised an eyebrow at him.

"What makes you say…?"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to his room creaked open and in walked Henry's younger sister, Suzie Wong holding a pillow to her chest while behind her stood a chocolate-colored clone of Terriermon, ears raised in apprehension. Suzie wobbled on her feet as she clutched at the door, face flushed. Henry was on his feet in an instant upon seeing her, alarmed.

"Suzie! What are you doing out of bed! You should be resting!"

"I'm sorry," the brown-colored digimon—Lopmon, who, unlike her counterpart, was meant to be a rabbit—apologized. "She insisted on leaving her room."

"I can't sleep big bwother," Suzie mumbled. "Can I come in here?"

Oh man… Taking hold of her, Henry lifted her over to the bed and laid her down. "All right, but only if you promise to sleep, okay?"

"Hope you had your shots, Henry," Terriermon joked. Henry shot him a dark glare that caused Terriermon to raise his ears up in a placating gesture. "Sorry Henry. Don't worry Suzie, with Lopmon and I here we'll make sure you drop right off to dreamland. How does that sound?"

Suzie offered the rabbit-dog digimon a wan smile as she snuggled under Henry's blankets. Henry propped her pillow under her blanket and smiled reassuringly.

"Do you need anything? Water? Juice?"

"Could you tell me a story?" Suzie whispered. Henry gaped, looking at her and then at his computer, as though resistant to do so.

Oh, who am I kidding? he thought, surrendering to the situation with a resigned smile. It's not like I can't work on that any other time.

"All right. What story would you like to hear?" he asked, getting up to go to her room where all her bedtime books were. "Peach Boy? Am I Small? The Great Potato? Carp Streamers?"

Suzie shook her head.

"Guess she doesn't want to hear any of those, Henry," observed Terriermon.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious."

"She's read all her books today," Lopmon supplied.

"I don't have any that I can read to her," Henry said, rubbing the back of his head while his brow worked itself into knots. "I gave mine all to her when she turned three."

"So? Make one up!"

"I… Terriermon, I can't make up stories."

"Why not?"

"I just… I've…I've never told one in my life!"

"Oh come on, you lied to your parents during the entire time you were keeping me a secret from them. This shouldn't be too hard." Turning toward the little girl Terriermon smiled. "What do you say? Do you want Henry to tell you a story you've never heard before?"

"Yeah!" At that, Suzie's spirit seemed to perk up. "I want a stowy about a pwincess and a knight and a castle…"

"Hold on…" Henry began.

"But I want a stowy about a pwincess and a knight!" Suzie gave him a sorrowful, pleading face that caused Henry to rub the bridge of his nose. Clearly the fates conspired to make his evening as difficult as possible.

"Please?" Suzie whispered. "I'll be quiet and I'll go wight to bed!"

"Got to say Henry, that's a pretty good deal for making stuff up on the spot."

Henry groaned and pulled his chair over. "You're not the one having to make stuff up." Sitting himself down, Henry racked his brains for something that would get the ball rolling.

Knights and princesses huh? Kind of old fashioned, but… He closed his eyes, deepening his thoughts. This is crazy. I can't come up with stories. This is just…

There came a spark of inspiration as Takato and Rika suddenly came to mind.

Oh!

"All right," Henry said, moving closer to Suzie, smiling. "I've got one about a princess and a knight. Are you ready?"

Burrowing herself deeper into the blankets and eyes sparkling, Suzie nodded eagerly, waiting to hear what kind of tale her older brother would weave as he said the words that began many a story.

"Once upon a time…"

###

A/N: The inspiration for this fic comes from a pair of pictures I saw some months back that had Henry telling Suzie a story about Takato and Rika as a knight and princess, with the second one involving a blushing Rika interrogating poor Henry about what kind of stories he's telling about them with Takato in the background trying to calm her down. I don't know who drew them and I hope that it's not a problem that I write a fanfic based off these images. At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this little fic. 'Till next time. :P

-Crazyeight

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