It has been a year since the chosen children had defeated MaloMytosimon. The digital world and real world are slowly but steadily integrating together, more and more children and now even a few adults have discovered their long missing digimon partners. And as you all know it was all thanks to a group of fortunate children who had first been chosen to save the digital world but this time the world did notice them. Being a digidestined had always been complicated, but being 'famous' just made matters ten times worse. For weeks after that final battle their nervous faces were plastered across all the tabloids, their stories, although horribly inaccurate, were written in black on white for the whole world to read, in every known language. They would be recognised while walking the streets, their usually secluded flats had been flocked by paparazzi all wanting an exclusive from the digidestined. Some of them complied, Ken was used to the spotlight so he dispersed the hawking cameras with a sly smile and a wink and, pulling Yolei next to him, and they were the ideal celebrity couple. Davis, although unwillingly, had been pulled into a large number of interviews. Usually the invitation was extended to all the digidestined but only mimi, occasionally, made guest appearances.

However the majority of the digidestined found it hard to keep their lives relatively normal. For the older digidestined, those who had finished or almost finished their studies, they had it relatively easy. Being the eldest scientists and diplomats would come to them for advice being considered experts on the topic that was the digital world. For the younger two digidestined, Hikari and Takeru, it wasn't so simple. Still at school they had, they had to block out the mass of gossip and sideways looks adolescents were prone to give to certain students. When they were lucky these looks were directed to all the young digidestined, including the quiet Cody, but there were times these two old friends were forced to suffer the whispers of their classmates alone.

The only perk?

The fact that they could take their digimon everywhere with them now. Being celebrities the schools couldn't deny the digidestined their only wish and it was because of this it had it become a normal scene to see gatomon snoozing in the sakura tree near in the playground or for patamon to just sit on takeru's head during class while the student behind him silently swore for being unable to see the board or for simply Matt and Tai to make a weekly visit with their partners to walk their siblings home. It wasn't perfect, but that's how things were.

It is on a cold December morning that this adventure begins. It is a dreary morning with bloated grey clouds coating the sky. There is a smell of rain in the air, a reminder of the stormy night that had only just ended. Takeru was running across his and his mother's small flat pulling a relatively clean sock from under the sofa while munching into a half buttered bagel.

"Takeru hurry." Sighed his mother as she daintily sipped her morning coffee. She looked tired, dark pillows had formed under eyes from the long nights she had been spending writing articles for a national newspaper. Much to her displeasure, being the mother of two of the digisetined entitled her the 'privilege' of writing all the digimon related news. Because of this it wouldn't have been the first time Takeru would stay up late to help her, being more seasoned d

on the topic then his mother.

"I'm coming mum." He says trough a mouthful of food. He finishes buttoning up his navy blue school blazer, catching a quick glimpse of himself in the living room mirror. His blond hair is looking almost as messy as Matt's, it stuck out at weird angles and his wide blue eyes stared back at him, were they looking tired too? He quickly arranged his school tie, ever since they were forced to transfer school this had become a daily occurrence, and pulled his backpack onto his back just as someone knocked on the door twice.

"Those must be Yolei and Cody!" chirped in Patamon, flying into the living room from the kitchen.

"Good." Says Takeru's mother pecking her son on the cheek. "You better get going before the paparrizi come back."

Takeru laughed. "Who thought being a celebrity would be such hard work?"

He rushes to the front door, patamon bobbing behind him.

"Have a nice day at school!" she calls as Takeru picks pulls on a green trench coat and forces open the front door. He takes in the scent of December and smiles down at his two friends. He vaguely notices that he is now taller then the two of them, although Cody, trough some mysterious growth surge, had already nearly caught up with Yolei. Cody and Yolie looked slightly less enthusiastic of this cold morning then Takeru. Like the latter his two friends had been forced to transfer and now Cody wore the authorised school uniform, tie and blazer covered with a black raincoats in anticipation of the bad weather to come.

Yolei looked like she was already half freezing. Her uniform was identical to Takeru's and Cody's however, instead of trousers, she wore a checked knee-length skirt which stubbornly bellowed in the wind. Over her blazer she wore no jacket but, at her feet, Hawkmon was leaning against a rainbow coloured umbrella while sitting on armadillomon's back.

"Good morning!" greeted Takeru calmly closing the flat door behind him.

"Good Morning!" they chorused as patamon happily sat on Takeru's head.

The trio and their digimon quickly made their way to the elevator and out into the rain soaked street below.

They put their hoods up and opened their one umbrella just as the first drops and the first camera flashes began.

"Yolei! Takeru! Please a quick word! Cody!" like every morning this, and several variations of this statement, greeted them. Men and women with giant cameras and microphones stood around them, the trio simply ignored. In the past they may have told them 'no comment' but when that didn't seem to work they simply decided to ignore them. Today they focused on trying to reach the school without getting soaked by the rain. Like always the cameramen and news-people followed them like a pack of stubborn puppies and they only stopped when the teenagers crossed into school property. After being reported to the police for disturbing "the students at study" the paparazzi knew better then to follow them past the gate. However that did not stop some from continuing to take photos even as Cody closed the school door behind them.

"You'd think they would have gotten bored of us by now." sighed Yolei as she shook rain drops off her umbrella.

"They will… eventually." Said Hawkmon as he shook rain off his wings.

"Cody we better get going, we're going to be late for English studies." Commented Armadillomon.

"You're right." Said Cody looking at his watch. "I'll see you guys later." He said giving them a small smile and rushing off to class.

"I better get going. I didn't get to see Hikari." Said Yolei sounding disappointed.

"Don't worry I'll tell her." Said Takeru, smiling. "It wasn't your fault."

"But I won't get to see you guys today!" she said pouting. "I have computer club and then I'm going to Ken's house later."

"Oh yeah." Said Takeru remembering.

"And Cody has Kendo practice right?" Said Hawkmon looking up at Yolei.

"You're right." Agreed Yolei. "I can always call ken an reschedule. I don't like leaving you guys along her…"

"Don't stay worrying about us." said takeru giving his friend a comforting smile. "I'll be fine . Your forgetting I'll be with Hikari. We've saved the digital world countless times, I think we can survive a day at school."

Yolie playfully nudged him. "Of course you didn't forget."

Takeru just rolled his eyes.

"Yolei aren't you going to be late?" observed Hawkmon.

"I'll see you later." Called Yolei as the two digidestined separated to walk to their respective classes.

Takeru kept his eyes on the window. Outside, it was still raining . It wasn't vaguely interesting to watch , admittingly, but he had noticed a lot of students, especially the girls, were looking at him and saying something in hushed whispers.

With just about five minutes to spare he walked into his noisy classroom. Students were chatting and running around the class, greeting friends and complaining about the upcoming school day. Not many paid him much attention. They had gotten used to him and patamon, he didn't bother them so they didn't bother him. It was like a silent agreement.

As if on autopilot takeru's feet steered him to the back corner of the class where, as expected, Hikari was already bent over her desk reading a book, gatomon reading over her shoulder.

"Hikari!" greeted Patamon jumping off Takeru's head and flying towards the girl as she looked up at them, half startled. She greeted them with a smile.

"Good morning."

"New book?" enquired Takeru taking a seat besides his friend.

"Lord of the rings." Answered Gatomon. "I do wonder if this Tolkein man had visited the digital world at some point, these 'hobbits' sound a lot like rooky digimon."

Both Takeru and Hikari looked at the feline digimon and laughed.

"Oh Gatomon." Said Hikari patting her partner on the head.

Before she could answer a rather solemn-looking teacher walked into class and loudly dropped his books onto the teacher's desk. The class instantly fell silent as students grudgingly took their seats.

The teacher, who must have woken up on the wrong side of the bad, was about to start his lecture concerning differential equations when a small beep echoed around the class.

"Hikari." There was a warning in the teacher's voice as he addressed her. "All mobile phones must be off or on silent during lectures."

"Sorry." She murmured as she rummaged in her bag and, too takeru's surprise, pulled out her D-terminal.

Snickers had begun to surround them.

"Must have been the cat."

"I bet it's running out of battery."

Seemingly pleased, the maths teacher was about to continue with his lecture when yet another beep resounded from the pupils. This time it was takeru's turn to apologize. To his surprise he pulled out his D terminal and gave Patamon a quizzical look.

He had a message.

Silently he clicked on it and read the short message that had disrupted the class.

Takeru,

Meet in the digital world at 11? Usual place.

Matt

He looked up at Hikari who, with a small smile, nodded her head.