"Are you alone?"

He’d already opened his present from Hajime...and from Haru, and everyone else. Last year he didn’t get any presents, but this year he had so many. It was weird, but...nice, to have friends.

Who could this present be from, though? He’s not sure, but he smiles as he opens it.

“Huh? Is that barking?” Suzume looked at the direction where a bark was coming from. Her Poliwag blinked and begin to follow the sound of the barking. “Poliwag!” The water-type Pokemon alarmed at the moment she saw Pichu, just standing there in fear in front of a boy with a Poochyena. “Poliwag!” She called out for Suzume again. “What’s wrong, Poliwag?” Suzume walked over and saw her Pichu. “Pichu!” 

“Leave it alone.”

Rei’s order went ignored until the Poliwag showed up, and Poochyena reluctantly stopped growling. It must have known better than to pick a fight with two Pokemon at once, but where did the Poliwag come from…?

His question was answered soon enough as a girl approached them. Rei glanced down at the Poochyena in his arms, making sure it had really calmed down before gently placing it down on the ground and turning his attention to the girl.

@triplehacker

“Pichu, where the heck are you?” Suzume called out for her pichu and looked down at her  Poliwag. “Do you know where she is?” Her Poliwag just shook her head. Suzume sighed and kept searching for her Pichu. “I hope she wasn’t captured by that shady Kurata team.’ 

Agitated barks caught Rei’s attention, and he looked up from his pokedex to give his Poochyena an annoyed glare. 

*SLAP* 

“You’ve some nerve, telling me that! You need to stop drinking those damn drinks and keep both eyes on your health! What if one day a new evil AI appears and Hajime-kun becomes a target!? What if something happens to you!? Who else going to take care of Hajime-kun?” 

The slap didn’t hurt as much as it surprised him. He might have expected something like that from Eri, but not Suzume, and at first all Rei could do was stare at her in a stunned silence.

"I'm going to kick your ass if you don't eat, Katsura."

He stares at the bento, and then makes direct eye contact with Suzume as he takes a sip of his choo choo drink.

"Then what the hell do you use for self-defense?" ((SUZUME PLZ))

“And here I thought I was the only Appmon of Suzume’s.” Cookmon appeared out of nowhere. “Kosomon, stop fooling around and let us continue our way out of this creepy place.” Cookmon sighed. Sometimes, humans can let their emotions get to them so easily. “Please don’t tell me that your ‘brother’ is also here.” 

“Yes, I’m here” Reviewmon popped out of the bushes and faced Cookmon, laughing a little. “I’m just reviewing what’s been going on here and I’m giving this situation is three of five due to this tempered human in black.” 

“Shut up, Reviewmon! This isn't’ the time for jokes!” Suzume exclaimed at the yellow hood Appmon while she was still clinging onto Rei. “..I just wanna go home and sleep,” Suzume said, quietly. Wait. “….” She just stared at Rei in confusion for a second or two and blinked until she realized what she was doing. “I’m sorry!” She has let go of Rei’s arm and backed away, clasping her hands together. “Oh, I see. I know Eri-san will be fine with Coachmon. After all, she’d give him a punch, right?” She added a nervous giggle. 

Cookmon, Reviewmon, and Kosomon decided to stay quiet for the rest of the walking to avoid conflict with Hackmon and his human bubby. 

Rei closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. He was tired and wanted to go home just as badly as Suzume, but that didn’t mean he was going to let a couple of annoying Appmon get to him like this.

“It’s fine.” He muttered when Suzume let go of his arm. He slipped his now-free hand into his jacket pocket. “Yeah, Eri can take care of herself.”

“Rei.” Hackmon’s ears twitched, and then went flat against his head, one eye narrowing at something in the distance. Rei followed his Buddy’s gaze, and then gave Hackmon a questioning look when he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“There’s something there. An Appmon.” Hackmon informed. Rei raised an eyebrow, once again looking up to see if he could spot whatever Hackmon was talking about. His fingers wrapped around his AppliDrive, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice, and he motioned for Suzume to stay behind him.