Reboot: You Me Music

Reboot – You Me Music
(contains some swearing)

When Reyez suggested they take a walk Ailurmon immediately grabbed for his iPod, snatching it from under his hand.
"Hey!" he said, but the Panda Digimon wagged a claw-tipped finger at him.
"This is mine today," she asserted.
"No, it's mine," Reyez said. "Besides, those earbuds are brand new, and they cost me a fortune." They were noise-canceling earbuds and were priced close to $100. But he bought them anyways. He liked shutting off the world, so it was just he and the music. It was peaceful, in a sense. It made everything else seem insignificant. The beat of the base, the riffs and vocals, that was all he needed. It was worth the price.
"Too bad," Ailurmon said. "Last time we went on a walk, all you did was listening to your music. You didn't even give me time of day!"
"So?"
"So I'm giving you the same treatment, to see how you like it."
"Whatever," Reyez said, pocketing a box of cigarettes. "I bet I'll like it." He let Ailurmon out the door first before closing it with a soft click.

As it turns out, Reyez really didn't like the silent treatment. He didn't like it at all.  
They were walking in one of the city's parks, which at this time of day, wasn't really frequented. Reyez walked with one hand in his pocket, one holding a cigarette, from which he occasionally taking a drag. Ailurmon strolled next to him, playing the music – his music – way too loud. She blasted it through the earbuds, so he could catch fragments of words but not the whole song, and it tormented him, bothered him, because he was the one who should be listening to that music. Not even her. It wasn't her music. Occasionally she looked at him, to check up on him. Then she returned to listening.
Reyez just gave up, after a while. He sprawled himself out on a park bench and groaned.
Ailurmon took out an earbud. "What's your deal?
"I hate it."
Ailurmon smiled and turned off the music. She jumped up to the bench. "I knew you would."
"It's like… it's like I don't matter. I'm just this person in a huge city, in an even bigger country, and it's closing in on me. I'm not important." He sat up, resting his on his hands. "I'm not even important to you."
"Yeah," Ailurmon exhaled.
Reyez pulled out another cigarette and lit it.
"Sometimes," she said, "sometimes I feel like I'm not important to you."
"Is that what this is about?" he said, annoyed. "You want to chew my ear off?"
"No! Give me a chance, Rey," she replied. "I just don't get to talk honestly to you often."
"So, be honest."
"Honestly," she said, kicking out her feet, "I feel like I'm just a tool to you, and not a person. I feel like we don't really know each other, and that there's this wall between us, that gets thicker sometimes."
He looked at the panda Digimon, and he really looked at her, because he had a talent for calling out bullshit. But she wasn't shitting him.
She really thought they were drifting apart.
"You're always thinking about yourself," she continued, "and sometimes I feel like you forget about me."
"Jesus Christ," Reyez sighed.
"What?"
"Come on, Ailurmon, you're like my best friend. You're the one person I can always count on."
"I know! So I want to know why I feel like we're falling apart!"
"You think I know? This is new to me!"
"It's Frankie, isn't it?"
Reyez flicked his cigarette, scattering some ashes, but said nothing.
"You still think about her."
"So?"
"Get over her already! You guys broke up."
"I wish I could," he laughed darkly, "I wish I could but she's in my life all the fucking time and I can't get rid of her. It doesn't help that we both have Digimon."
Ailurmon twisted a claw around one of the earbud's cords. "You're being selfish. You don't think that she wrestled with these feeling too, but she did."
"And how do you know?"
"I'm a girl. Girls know."
"What do they know?" he teased.
"A lot," she said, and Reyez gave a comical smile. "Screw you Rey," Ailurmon said, raising a fist at him. "Girls are way better than boys. Boys just want to take advantage of girls, tell girls they're pretty and then treat them like objects they can toss away. There's no room for proud girls anymore."
"Frankie was proud." Reyez responded.
The Digimon thought for a moment. "I guess she was. I guess that's why I liked her."
"Whatever."
Ailurmon picked up the earbuds again, putting one in her right ear and another lying in her lap. She scrolled through the music.
"You know Rey, when I listened to your music, I felt like I could hear you in the music."
"What's that mean?"
"Like there was your essence in the music and it shone through."
"You're just being overly-sentimental."
"I'm being serious here," she asserted. "I felt like I understood you better. Like I knew why you enjoyed walking with just you and the music. It feels good to get away, to escape from all this pressure, when it's just you and the music, and noting else. At least," she got quieter, "at least that's how I felt."
She was right. It was escape. And it felt good. "Yeah," Reyez echoed. "I feel that way too."
"I felt powerful as well. Graceful. Strong. Pictures came to me," she explained, "pictures of something from… I guess my past. When I was a goddess in the Digital World, or even before that."
"What did you see?"
"Nothing. I was blinded. But I heard the music. It was all I heard, and Reyez, it was your music."
"In the past?" he said, surprised.
"It was so loud. It filled me with intensity," she continued. "Like the music was in my skull, and in my being, and nothing else mattered. But, it was your music, no doubt."
"What does that mean?"
"It means," she started. "Hmm. It means that we're more connected than we think."
"We are." Reyez stood up and arched over, stretching out his back. He turned around to face Ailurmon. "We are, and I don't want you to think otherwise. I'll always be your Rey."
"And I'll always be yours," she replied, hopping off the bench. "So, where to now?"
"Let's keep walking, but," he said, pulling the earbuds from her ears, "no music. Just us."
"Sounds like a plan," she said. They started off, walking through the forest, listening to the city that made them feel small. And they held their heads high, with thoughts of music that brought them together.