Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic unless I created it myself. Anything that I did create was inspired by something owned by someone else. This is done for fun and entertainment, not for profit.
Fandom: Digimon Tamers
Title: Tastes
Friendship: Shibumi and Guilmon
Word Count: 2,222
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Summary: While searching for a way to defeat the D-Reaper, Shibumi takes a break and has some bread.

No one could avoid looking at the huge blob that had taken over most of the city. In fact, most of those who gathered to defeat the D-Reaper took time just to stare at it. The same thought went through the minds of all the members of the Wild Bunch. We made that. They hadn't wanted to, but the truth was the truth, whether any of them liked to acknowledge it or not.

Other thoughts went through the minds of Yamaki and his assistants, and through the minds of the Digimon Tamers: How can we defeat that thing? It existed only to delete everything. How did you beat pure destruction?

Shibumi sipped at his cup of coffee and stared out at the view. His memories of what had happened in the Digital World during his coma were a little sketchy, but he thought there might be an answer. Like everyone else, he didn't want to think about what could happen if there wasn't one.

"Do you want some Guilmon bread?" It was a slightly familiar voice, and he wasn't surprised to see Guilmon standing next to him. It took another moment for him to recognize what the Digimon held in his hands: a load of bread shaped like Guilmon's own head.

"Where did you get that?" He asked, reaching down to take it as Guilmon offered it to him. The bread was still warm, and he took a bite out of it. Butter would have improved it but he wasn't going to complain. His stomach growled in demand, wanting more. Shibumi didn't argue and took another bite. Better and better. Someone out there was a very good baker.

"Takato's dad made it." Guilmon finished his bread in just a couple of bites. "Bread is great!"

Shibumi found that he was smiling. He did remember meeting Guilmon in the Digital World. Guilmon was a true creation of the Digital Gnomes. What kind of a person was Takato that he could attract their attention? He wasn't the only fanartist in the world, nor the only one that was a child, nor even the only one that was talented for his age. If he could figure that out, maybe it would give more answers.

Or it would create even more questions. He liked the Gnomes, but understanding why they chose to do anything was beyond him. It was quite likely beyond just about anyone except the Gnomes themselves.

At any rate, there Guilmon was, the product of Takato's imagination. The Tamers had told them what had happened over the last few months, and it utterly fascinated him. Humans and Digimon becoming one being. Depending on each other for everything, but independent at the same time. It was everything that he'd ever dreamed of when they were creating Digimon in the first place.

"Those are some pretty clouds, aren't they?" Guilmon spoke up again, and Shibumi looked to see what he was looking at. A few clouds had indeed formed, pushed hither and there by the winds. "That one sort of looks like Growmon, doesn't it?"

Shibumi blinked a couple of times. He'd recovered mostly from his coma, but keeping up with Guilmon was more challenging than he'd thought. "I think so." He couldn't remember offhand if he'd even seen Growmon in person. He stared at the clouds some himself. I haven't watched the clouds in forever. He'd spent most of his time bent over a computer.

"I hope we can get rid of the D-Reaper soon." Guilmon rubbed his claws together, but the motion didn't seem to be violent. That was something else that he had to get used to, that Guilmon was essentially a benign Virus. Those were extremely rare. "I want to back to having fun with Takato in the park. And eating Guilmon bread. And watching the clouds."

"I know how you feel." Shibumi hadn't done any of that, but the way that Guilmon spoke made him want to do it. "There's a lot that I want to do."

Guilmon tilted his head a little. "What kind of games do you want to play? Do you have a Digimon friend somewhere?"

"No." Shibumi sighed at that. "Only human children can get Digimon partners." He wished that wasn't true, but even the Gnomes wouldn't break that rule. Children had the imagination that adults didn't, even the adults who had created Digimon in the first place.

"What kind of a partner would you have if you could?" Guilmon wondered. Shibumi hadn't even thought about it and said as much. Guilmon blinked a couple of times. "Why not?"

"I...don't know." Shibumi really hadn't thought about it. He'd been too busy trying to make all of them in the first place to think about making one just for himself. Or choosing one from all of the ones that he had made.

He really should be trying to get back to work and find the way to beat the D-Reaper. But this was his lunch break and the company was good, and any ideas that he was going to have would be just as likely to hit him while he was eating and watching the clouds as they would be with him sitting at his computer terminal.

"I think that one looks like a Digital Gnome," he decided after a moment of cloud-staring. Guilmon peered at it, tilting his head from one side to the other before he shook his head.

"That looks more like some Guilmon bread," the dinosaur declared. Shibumi didn't want to argue about it. Benign virus though Guilmon was, he was still a virus. Each evolution was a little more dangerous than the one before it. But when he and Takato merged, he became a knight.

Not just that, but a Vaccine as well. Dukemon, one of the Royal Knights. Exactly what the Royal Knights were Shibumi himself didn't know, but he did know that they were rare. Even after spending all the time that he had in the Digital World, he didn't know all of its secrets. Perhaps even the Digital Gods didn't know them all.

If only that weren't true. If they all knew more, then perhaps this wouldn't have happened in the first place.

He closed his eyes for a moment, thoughts skittering through his mind. Very few of them were useful to the situation at hand. Guilmon bread. Guilmon. Takato. Clouds. Flying. He'd been able to fly in the Digital World, or at least had been supported by the Digital Gnomes. It was close enough to flying for him. He recalled the kiss of the wind, the way that everything had looked spread out all around him.

I wish I could see that world when I was awake, without the D-Reaper tearing into everything. Guilmon and the rest of the Digimon and their Tamers were the only key to that happening. Even if he couldn't go there in his body, he wanted that world to be restored. He wanted to know that it was there, as beautiful as it had once been.

"That one looks like Dukemon," Guilmon's voice broke into Shibumi's scattered thoughts and he looked to see which one was being looked at now. He blinked a couple of times; the cloud did indeed resemble a knight in armor. "Doesn't it?"

"It does." A knight in shining armor, two powerful forces joining to become something far greater than they were on their own. There was something extremely primal, extremely archetypal about that. The Digital World reacts to that kind of force. There was something in there, a seed of an idea, but he couldn't get his mind wrapped around it.

He watched Guilmon a little more, his gaze flickering over to Takato when the young Tamer joined them. Shibumi had no special second sight, but he didn't need it to see the ties that bound human and Digimon together. Perhaps this was why Takato's creation, his partner, was able to overcome the restrictions of what being a Virus meant.

There was so much that he had only heard of, but hadn't seen himself. He didn't like that. Second hand information, even from the Digimon Tamers, wasn't good enough for him. Unfortunately, he didn't think there was any way that he could see some of what had happened with his own eyes. Megidramon. Just what he'd heard made him shudder. How? How could something like that even exist? The power to destroy the entire Digital World, invested into a Digimon created by a child.

Was that something else that the Gnomes had done? If it was, then they had done it on purpose and he'd never thought that they would want to destroy the world. It was the D-Reaper's purpose to do that, even when it was spiraling out of control. Did that mean there was some kind of a connection between Guilmon and the D-Reaper or the Gnomes and the D-Reaper? More of those questions that would never have answers, since the biggest question still overrode them all: how to defeat the D-Reaper in the first place.

There was always the chance that the answers tied into each other, of course. That thought appealed to him the more he considered it. So many threads that wove around one another, but weren't able to be tied together in the way that he really wanted, the way that would bring everything to the sort of ending that would make the most amount of people happy.

This isn't a fairy tale or a movie or an anime. This is real life. The best we can hope for is the least amount of people who are sad. He wanted to talk to Tao about the situation if he had a chance. He'd seen some of what had happened with the Digimon from the beginning. He had the first-hand experience that Shibumi himself lacked.

"Dad sent some more bread." He looked up when he heard Takato's voice, and saw a large basket of the Guilmon-shaped bread. "Would you like some?" Hints of amusement touched the young Tamer's voice, and Shibumi knew he was smiling once again. Even in the middle of a war for the world, Takato was able to enjoy life. Not as much as he could or would have if they weren't in this fight and if someone he cared about wasn't in danger, but he wasn't moping constantly either.

"Your dad makes these?" Shibumi picked up a loaf, and saw some small packets of butter had been included with them. He broke one open and spread it on before he started to eat, his thoughts stirring even more quickly as he did. Food had a way of doing that to him.

"Yeah, he's a baker. It runs in the family," Takato replied, rubbing Guilmon's ears as he spoke. Guilmon made a noise that Shibumi realized only after a few moments of hearing it was a purr. A dragon purring. Now he'd heard everything.

"Are you going to be one?" Shibumi wondered. As much as he liked this bread, Takato had more talents than baking. Takato himself just shrugged.

"I hadn't really thought about it yet." That didn't surprise Shibumi either. The boy was ten years old. When he was ten, he hadn't thought about what he was going to do with his life. Granted nothing even said that they would be able to live long enough for Takato to be anything at all when he grew up. Or if he would grow up at all.

Guilmon nuzzled his head against Takato for a moment. Shibumi had known dogs who weren't as loyal and the occasional person who wasn't as intelligent as Guilmon. How much of that was because of Takato himself and how much was because of the Gnomes? How much was Guilmon? Answers, answers, questions and more questions and there was no way that he'd ever be able to get all the answers, since every answer would only lead to more questions. That was the way of science. You couldn't ever stop learning.

The red Digimon coughed, one claw going up to his throat, and Takato frowned, looking around as his partner coughed some more, small bits of bread spewing out. "I need to get him something to drink!"

Shibumi looked around as well, then hurried over to the vending machine in the corner. A few coins inserted later, he tossed Takato a can of tea. "How's that?"

"Great, thanks!" Takato cracked the can open and poured it down Guilmon's throat. Guilmon coughed a bit more then relaxed as the tea soothed his throat.

"That's good, Takato. Can I have some more?" Guilmon peered at both Takato and Shibumi in hope, and Shibumi provided another can without hesitation.

He still needed those answers, and he was going to find them in any way that he could. But for the moment, the only questions he wanted to know the answers to were how many loaves of Guilmon bread that Guilmon himself could eat, and how many cans of tea would be necessary to make certain that he didn't choke.

Of course, he also wondered if he could get the recipe for Guilmon bread and try making some at home. Or find out just where the Matsuda bakery was. He thought he'd acquired a taste for the treat.

The End