Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Get Well Soon ❯ Get Well Soon ( One-Shot )

Disclaimer: Don't own it. I'll bet that makes you feel a whole lot better, doesn't it?
Author Note: Set in my fanon universe where I like the fact that Lopmon is female. All of you who think this is sacrilige, either ignore it or scram.

It was a normal day in West Shinjuku which, after a couple months' worth of Digimon popping up in random places, a Deva boar showing up and causing massive property damage to just about the entire district and a mutated deletion program gone insane, was almost abnormal. The Matsudas had reopened their bakery and the Katous had done the same with their bar. All of the Tamers, even Ryo, were back in school as if nothing had ever happened. This morning, in the Lee household, Lee Janyuu was heading off to work while his children headed off to school.

"Ah-choo!"

Well, almost all of his children.

"She's still got that bug, huh?" Mr. Lee asked his wife as she headed for their youngest daughter's bedroom with thermometer and cold medicine in hand.

Mrs. Lee sighed. "If she doesn't get over this soon, I'm taking her to see Dr. Kido tomorrow. The poor thing's been dealing with this for almost a week. I'm going to take her temp and give her some more medicine, and pray it works this time." Her husband nodded, and poked his head into the bedroom after Mrs. Lee had walked in.

Shiuchon was sitting up in bed, thermometer sticking out of her mouth and looking as miserable as a seven year-old could look. Her hair was out of its customary pigtails and suffering from a mild case of bed head. She was dressed in a white nightgown with pink bunnies stamped all over it. Beside her on her pillow lay a stuffed toy rabbit, now in its third incarnation. The first had been an ordinary rabbit, and the second had added green stripes on the ears and a horn on its head. This third had seen the rabbit given purple stripes instead of green, and two more horns added to the one already on its head. A reasonable facsimile of Lopmon, but not as good as the real thing.

"Hi, sweetie. How're you feeling?" Mr. Lee asked from the doorway. Her reply was muffled by the thermometer in her mouth, and was followed by a gentle reprimand from Mrs. Lee not to talk with it in. After a couple minutes more she took it out and looked at it, then made a scoffing sound as she shook the mercury down again. "Still a temp?"

"99.8," replied Mrs. Lee. "I don't care if the world is coming to an end tomorrow; I am taking that child to the doctor whether it interferes with his golf game or not!" Mr. Lee nodded, although he did stiffen at the phrase "end of the world." Anyone who had lived through D-Reaper didn't want to be reminded of the fact that Armageddon had come pretty damn close. He watched as his wife poured some cold syrup into the medicine cub and handed it to a disgusted-looking Shiuchon. "Take it. It'll make you feel better."

"Hasn't worked yet," the seven year-old pouted, downing the liquid anyway. Her face twisted and she shuddered at its taste and she reached for the glass of water her mother handed her to wash away the aftertaste.

Mr. Lee checked his watch and almost started. "Whoops! I'd better get going; don't want to be late for work. Bye, dear. Bye, Shiuchon; feel better!" Shiuchon's reply was a tiny grunt as her father hurried down the hallway.

"Morning, Dad," Jenrya greeted his father as they met at the front door. Guessing where his father had just come from he asked, "Shiuchon still no better?"

"She's still got a temperature, still sneezing and coughing and she's still as angry as a wet cat," Mr. Lee answered. "Your mom's calling Dr. Kido, trying to get her in for an appointment sometime tomorrow.

Jenrya shook his head. "Poor kid," he remarked.

"You know, you could do something nice for her to help her feel better," his father pointed out. "Riinchei's fixed her dinner in bed almost every night this week, and Jaarin's read to her."

"Don't worry, Dad," Jenrya assured his father, patting him on the back as he headed out the door for his school. "I've got just the thing to cheer her up."

Janyuu blinked. "What is it?"

He knew it was time to take those Slayers tapes away from his youngest son when he winked, held up his index finger and replied, "Now that...is a secret!"

Various versions of "Hi, Jenrya" greeted the blue-haired boy as he walked over to the domed playground hut that had become the meeting place for the Shinjuku Elementary Digimon Tamers. He raised a hand in a return greeting as he sat down.

"How's it going?" he asked. Everyone responded with his (or in Juri's case, her) own variation of "Fine." It was a vague improvement over the answers that question would have received earlier in the month. Takato, Hirokazu and even Kenta would go on about how much they missed their partners. Sometimes Juri would join in this litany, but often she would just sit there quietly. Jenrya had heard rumors that her father and step-mother had sent her to a psychiatrist, obviously to help her deal with the whole aftermath of D-Reaper, Leomon's death and even the death of her own mother when she was no older than Shiuchon. But he was polite; he didn't pry, and neither did any of the others. Even Hirokazu, Mr. Foot-in-Mouth himself, kept his trap shut.

"How's Shiuchon-chan feeling, Jenrya?" the girl asked him now. After hearing about Shiuchon's battle with The Cold That Came to Stay, the Tamers were doing their part to try to make the little girl feel better. Takato had brought over bread from his parents' store after she'd been able to keep food down again and Ruki had even come over once or twice to teach her how to play the card game. A couple more lessons from the Digimon Queen, and she'll be able to beat me! Jenrya thought to himself.

He sighed now. "Her temperature's still up there. Mom's going to take her to the doctor tomorrow. And Shiuchon's tired of being sick, tired of staying in bed and just generally ticked off at the world, I think."

"Poor Shiuchon-chan," Juri's puppet squeaked. It might have been Jenrya's imagination, but he thought he actually saw that thing frowning. Shaking that sensation off, the blue-haired boy turned to Takato.

"So, is it ready?" he asked.

The Tamers official yet undeclared leader nodded. "Yup. You can stop by my house after school and pick it up." At the others' questioning looks Takato explained, "Jenrya's present to cheer Shiuchon up. It's been in the works since Monday." A light of understanding came on in everyone's eyes. They knew what Monday was.

At that moment the bell rang, and the meeting of the Shinjuku Elementary Tamers officially ended.

Some hours later, after school had let out for the day, Jenrya could be seen standing outside the door to his family's apartment, struggling to open the door while maintaining his grip on a rather good-sized box. Just as he'd been about ready to give up the door opened, causing Jenrya to almost lose his balance and fall through the doorway, box and all.

"Whoa," Riinchei said as he caught his younger brother by the shoulder, one-handed. "Careful there, bro. Don't want to break anything."

"Thanks, Riinchei," Jenrya said, setting the box down on the couch and wiping the sweat off his brow. The contents of the box had been heavier than he anticipated (although he suspected part of it may have been Takato's fault), and the walk from the Matsuda apartment/bakery to his own home longer than he'd thought. The box shifted a bit, and Jenrya tapped it on the side.

"What's in the box?" the eldest Lee child asked.

"Present for Shiuchon," Jenrya asked. "Poor kid needs something to cheer her up, and I think this just might do the trick."

Riinchei looked the box over. "You didn't go overboard, I hope," he remarked.

Jenrya's answer was a short laugh. "Are you kidding? I don't have enough money to go overboard. Actually, Takato's been helping me with this."

"I see. Well, last I checked Shiuchon was napping. She might be up now, so you can go check if you want," Riinchei said. Jenrya nodded his thanks to his brother, picked up the box again and headed for Shiuchon's bedroom.

The sky was red; when had it turned red? Why wasn't it blue anymore? And there was fire, fire everywhere. It blocked her path every time she tried to run, although why and from what she was running she didn't know. All the while there was the feeling that somebody should be there to protect her, but every time she looked around she was alone.

"Leave me alone!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "I just wanna go home! I want my mommy! I want my daddy! I want Jen-niichan!"

They're not here, insignificant human! No one and nothing can save you! a loud and commanding voice boomed, followed by more fire. She shrieked, dodging, and felt a searing pain on her arm as flame licked at it. She was running, trying to get away from this fire, but she had no idea of where to go. Quite often she ended up in the very place she had started from.

Finally all that running tired her out, and she ended up tripping over her own untied shoelaces and falling flat on her face. She pulled herself up, and found herself looking into the face of an angry, almost demonic-looking bird that looked like it was made of fire.

There is no one here to save you, insect, he restated in that loud voice. Now you shall pay for defiling this world! A pillar of flame unleashed itself from its open mouth, straight at her. There was no escape. She screamed.

"Mommy!" Shiuchon bolted upright in bed, breathing heavily. Just a bad dream, she told herself as she looked around her bedroom, which was darkened with the light off, door closed and the window blinds drawn.

There was a knock on the door, followed by Jenrya's voice calling, "Shiuchon, it's me. Can I come in?"

"Yeah," she called back, and sniffled. Jenrya entered the room backwards, using his back to open the door because of his full hands.

"Hey there, Shortstuff," Jenrya greeted her, slipping one hand off the box and using his knee to prop it up as he turned on the light. "Heard you screaming a second ago. Everything okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. Just had a bad dream." Looking at the box he was carrying she asked, "What's in the box, Jen-niichan?"

Jenrya set it on the bed in front of her and answered as non-chalantly as possible, "Present for you. Go ahead, open it," he added at the eager expression on his sister's face. It was the most active he had seen her in a week since she had caught the bug.

Shiuchon looked at the box. It was a cardboard box that had been painted in pinks and purples; she could still see the faded outline of the Matsuda Bakery logo underneath. A purple ribbon had been tied around it. Shiuchon reached up and untied the ribbon then carefully lifted off the lid, wondering what could be inside such a box.

"Surprise, Shiuchon-chan!"

"Terriermon! Lopmon!" the little girl fairly squealed as two rabbit-like Digimon, one white with green stripes and one horn on his head and the other brown with purple stripes and three horns on her head, leapt out of the box and into her lap. Shiuchon wrapped her arms around both Digimon and hugged them tightly, loosening her grip a little when Terriermon began acting like he was being strangled. She looked up at her brother. "How..?"

Jenrya grinned. "Remember that portal I told you the rest of us used to get to the Digiworld?" His sister nodded. "Well, about a week ago Takato went up there and found out that it was open again. Since you were feeling under the weather, I figured this would be a nice way to cheer you up; it just took so long because they didn't all come back the same day. Everyone else's partners are back, too."

"Even Leomon?" Shiuchon asked hopefully. When Jenrya shook his head, Shiuchon wrapped both arms around Lopmon and buried her face in her partner's neck and started to cry quietly. Terriermon took advantage of his freedom and scrambled up onto Jenrya's shoulders before regarding Shiuchon with a worried look.

"What's the matter, Shiuchon-chan?" Lopmon asked, concerned. Before Jenrya had wrapped her and Terriermon up in that box he had explained that Shiuchon was sick; she dearly hoped she wasn't making the poor thing worse.

"M-my bad dream," she said between sobs. "That big fire-bird was trying to hurt me, and no one was around to help me. Not Mommy, not Daddy, not Jen-niichan and not you. I was all alone." Jenrya rubbed his sister's back soothingly, and Lopmon wrapped her ears around the little girl in a hug.

"It's okay, Shiuchon-chan," she assured her Tamer. "I'm here now, and I'll never leave you again." The red-haired girl grinned and hugged her Digimon before trying to fight back a yawn and failing.

Jenrya patted his sister on the back. "Why don't you go back to sleep, Shiuchon? I'll have Mom bring you something to eat later, okay?"

Shiuchon nodded. "Okay, Jen-niichan," she said sleepily as she lay back down. She giggled as Lopmon cuddled up next to her.

"Do you want me to stay with you, Shiuchon?" asked Terriermon. The little girl shook her head. By the time Jenrya had pulled the covers up over her and Lopmon, placed the box on the floor at the foot of her bed and turned out the light, Shiuchon and her partner were both fast asleep.

Later that evening Mr. Lee came home from work to find his wife in the kitchen preparing dinner, Riinchei watching television, Jaarin working on homework in her room and Jenrya talking on-line in one of the chat rooms he had set up for the Tamers. Having been warned by Mrs. Lee that she was sleeping, he quietly opened the door to Shiuchon's bedroom to check on her. She was sleeping quietly, one arm slung over a familiar-looking Digimon. The Digimon had one floppy ear slung over her in similar fashion. Almost immediately Mr. Lee figured out what his son's present to his sister had been. He closed the door and smiled, assured that his daughter was finally on the road to recovery.