estoria | [OPEN] These dreams go on when I close my eyes

Who: Hikari Yagami & OPEN
When: IC: (late July) /OOC: (early June)
Where: Gardens
What: As a Child of ~~Light~~ Water, Hikari's been having some...interesting Dreams the last few days. The kind that are keeping her up at night, leaving her exhausted during the day.
Rating/Warning: Some potentially Dark themes involving children. Mentioning of Death. ~~Basically, if you've ever seen the season 02 episode, His Master's Voice, it's a little like that.~~

"Hikari? ...Hikari?"

The eight year old girl in question's eyelashes fluttered softly, face scrunching up as she was lightly shaken, before slowly opening. It took a few seconds for her vision to readjust before she sat up. Glancing around at her surroundings and...trying to remember where she was.

"Tailmon?" Voice heavy with sleep, she glanced down at her digimon companion, who was looking up at her in concern. "What...?"

"You fell asleep. Again."

There was little surprise at the news. Because she knew it was true. And why.

Straightening, Hikari glanced around at the park they were currently in. The ground was soft, a pleasant breeze blowing across her cheeks from beneath the shade of a large tree. Any other time, and it would have been no wonder she'd fallen asleep. The little sketchbook she'd purchased some time back was still in her lap. The camera she'd been using to take pictures for inspiration, at her side.

Except...the dark shadows beneath her eyes told of a slightly more troubling story.

"I'm sorry," she offered in the middle of stiffening a deep yawn. Rubbing at one eye that stung a little in the morning light.

Tailmon's ears dropped at the apology. Worried not only for Hikari's health, but saddened that she felt she needed to apologize at all. "...you had that dream again last night, didn't you?"

Not knowing what else to say, Hikari nodded. Her gaze drifted over to where there was a small pond. The waters still, save for the occasional little ripple. An increasingly familiar sight to her these days, though not for the reasons one might think.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Being from a world without technology, Soleil found herself needing to get away from all the plastic and metal surrounding her to something more natural. Trees and grass and flowers were things she realized she took for granted. But her walk through the garden was distracted by something much different than a flower or a fountain.

Was that...a cat? Wearing gloves?

As stealthily as possible, Soleil sneaked up, intending to get as close to the cat as possible without scaring it.

Hikari was too distracted to notice. Tailmon was not.

The little digimon's ears twitched, glancing behind her. She did not yet sense a threat, but she remained on alert. Enough that, eventually, Hikari realized that her partner's attention was no longer on her.

"Tailmon? What is it?"

"There's someone approaching. But I don't know who. Or what they want."

Soleil was too far away still to hear anything, so she had no reason to assume yet that she had been noticed. Instead, she continued to tip-toe closer even after noticing that a little girl was with the cat. She had every intention of getting a closer look at the kitty, especially now that she was close enough to confirm that she had not been seeing things and the cat was, in fact, wearing gloves.

"Hehehe."

The cat was too cute to ignore, but she didn't want to have it run off. So, sneaking was the only solution...even if she wasn't aware she had already failed.

That, even Hikari heard. Together, they turned towards the sound. Hikari was curious. Tailmon looked...slightly put out.

"Whoever you are, you can come out now. We can hear you."

Soleil...was confused. She didn't think that came from the little girl, but who else could have said anything to her? She dropped any intention of being sneaky and scurried right up to the girl and the cat.

"Hehe. Sorry! I didn't want to scare the kitty. She's so cute!"

Hikari's brows rose in honest surprise. Glancing down at Tailmon, who...seemed slightly confused...before back up again. The girl...she...was telling the truth, wasn't she? That that's all she wanted. To pet a cat. In a way, Hikari could understand. Cats were tricky creatures, and didn't always want to be caught. One had to be sneaky if they wanted to avoid their target scampering off.

"If you wanted to say 'hi', you could have just said so. Tailmon won't run away."

Soleil took a moment before nodding. "Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Hehe."

She hunched down to eye-level with the little girl to get a closer look at the cat. Tailmon was a bit of a strange name, but she kept that to herself. She was still totally unaware that this unordinary cat could talk.

"Heh heh." She just stared, giggling to herself for a moment. "Can I pet her?"

It wasn't so much the thought of physical contact itself that bothered Tailmon--she had been pet before--but...something about this girl, in particular. Without seeming too rude, she leaned back. Scooting a little closer to Hikari all the while.

"No...thank you." Though the thank you seemed more of an afterthought. "You're a...very strange human, aren't you?"

Soleil paused. It took a moment for her to process that the cute cat was the one who just spoke. She blinked and shook her head, but was positive she wasn't hearing things.

"Whoa! A cute cat...who can talk?" She didn't seem to catch the 'strange human' comment. She also almost didn't catch the 'No thank you' comment, either, as it was taking her all the restraint she possessed to not pet her.

Hikari glanced back and forth between the two, awash wish second hand emotions from observing the scene before her. The other girl...it was clear she meant no harm, and yet Tailmon was still nervous. Very much so. Not even the Dark Masters themselves had forced her into such a retreat before.

"Tailmon's not a cat. She's a digimon."

She didn't know what that meant, but she knew this place had many strange creatures running about at any given time. This was the first one she ran into that looked so much like something entirely normal, though.

"Oh, that's weird. Okay." She nodded. Weird or not, she kind of understood. "But you're really cute, Tailmon!"

The little feline's fur tinged a light pink at the compliment, and she turned away to make sure it wasn't seen. After so many years...she still wasn't entirely used to hearing such things being said about her. And she would hardly want to encourage someone who'd made every effort to sneak up on her.

"Thank you," Hikari spoke up on her behalf. Even offering a polite bow in turn. "But...next time, please don't sneak up on her. You're lucky she didn't attack."

"Heh heh heh." She rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry. When I see cute things, I can kind of...get overwhelmed and forget what I'm doing." She was a person of passion and impulse and not thinking ahead. At least where cute things were concerned.

She finally turned her attention from Tailmon to the girl. "Oh, so, I've got her name. What about you? I'm Soleil."

That's not really something to be bragging about - Tailmon's words were too low for anyone but Hikari to hear.

Meanwhile, Hikari herself gave a slight bow of her head in response to the introduction. "I'm Hikari."

[OPEN] These dreams go on when I close my eyes

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