Disclaimer: Digimon and all its related characters belong to Saban, Bandai, and/or Toei Animation
(I'm a little fuzzy as to who lays claim to what). At any rate, none of it belongs to me!

Why She Cried
By: SilvorMoon

  Some people would have called Mimi a crybaby. Yolei, however, was convinced she was
not. Whatever it might have looked like on the outside, Mimi wasn't weak on the inside, and if
she cried, it had to be for a reason. This was what Yolei thought as the lay awake in bed that night
thinking about her new friend and the adventure they had been through together. They had battled
monsters together and had destroyed on of the Digimon Emperor's control spires, but none of
that had affected Yolei like seeing Mimi cry. Why had she done that?
  It had been meeting Palmon that had done it. Palmon was Mimi's companion Digimon,
just like Hawkmon was Yolei's, and they hadn't seen each other in a long time. As soon as they
had spotted each other, Yolei had seen something snap in the both of them, and they had run to
hug each other and cry their eyes out. That was confusing. You would think that they would be
shouting for joy. There should have been singing and laughter, and instead they had cried from the
bottom of their hearts. No matter what they said, it had looked an awful lot like they were sad
about something, deeply sad.
  Maybe, Yolei thought, it was a kind of sadness in reverse. Certainly the pair must have
missed each other during their long separation. Perhaps, in all the excitement of going to America
and living among the bright lights of New York and amid the beauty of the fashion world, Mimi
had forgotten just how much she loved and needed and missed her companion. Yolei had to admit
that even though she hadn't had her own Digimon very long, his comically serious ways and loyal
presence had endeared him to her, and she wasn't sure she'd be quite the same without him.
  Without him? There was a sobering thought. Mimi had been forced to leave her Digimon
in Digiworld when she had left it, and the portal had closed behind her. She would have thought
that Palmon was gone forever, so of course meeting her would seem like some kind of miracle.
And yet... and yet, it would remind her, too, that they were only going to have to separate again.
Maybe it would only be a short separation next time, but eventually there would come a time
when Mimi would have to get on with her life, grow up, and leave Digiworld to another
generation.
  But that won't happen to me,* Yolei thought. *My Digivice opens the doors,
so as long as I keep it with me, I'll always be able to find my way back to Digiworld, and
Hawkmon and I will be together forever.*
  For a brief instant, Yolei entertained a pleasant fantasy, one similar to the one she'd had
before, where she and Mimi were sisters living together in a beautiful house with a beautiful
garden. They would keep the Digivice and a computer so they could go to Digiworld together
and be with their companions. Yolei liked and admired Mimi, and she didn't want to ever see her
cry again. She would have loved to have made it possible for Mimi and Palmon to be together.
  *Palmon won't be the only one who misses her when she leaves.*
  Sometimes there is a spark between two people, an electric arc that welds them together.
Sometimes a man and woman will look at each other across a crowded room, and the rest of the
crowd will vanish for them as the lock eyes. Sometimes two strangers will meet each other on the
street, and something in the look on the other's face or some kind word or deed will start them
talking and turn them into lifelong friends. And sometimes someone will hear someone laughing
and see a smile and a sparkle in a pair of eyes, and whoever it is will know that they have found a
kindred spirit. Yolei felt that way about Mimi. Mimi was bright, cheerful, opened to the world
with all the joy of a flower reaching for the sun, spreading light even as she received it. People
gave her back the cheerfulness she spread - how could anyone not like Mimi? Yolei had never
thought of herself as pretty, with her glasses and unstyled hair and unimpressive clothing. She
often felt outshined next to the pretty and spirited Kari. It was no wonder Davis made such a fuss
over the girl! Nobody ever made a fuss over Yolei. She had never really let herself think about it
before now, but now she realized that she wanted to be beautiful. While she was with Mimi, she
felt like some of that beauty was rubbing off on her.
  But Mimi was not going to be Yolei's sister, and she was not going to help her pick out
pretty clothes and learn to put on makeup, and they were never going to stay up all night talking
about the boys who were chasing them, and they were not going to live together in a beautiful
house with flowers. Mimi had flown in on the wings of a plane, and someday she would fly away
on those wings and go back to her sparkling world, and Yolei would walk some other, quieter
path. Yolei knew she was going to grow up, and that she was going to have to do serious things,
and she wouldn't always have time to dedicate to beauty and fantasy.
  She knew, too, that she had already done some growing up. When she had been young,
she had played games of fantasy. She had been a princess, a wizard, a warrior, a carrot stick, or
whatever she wanted to be. She'd had all kinds of wonderful playmates, every bit as marvelous as
Hawkmon. She had believed them all, had seen and heard them and could describe them all
as if she had really been there. However, time had gone by, and she had found real things and
serious pursuits to take up her time, and her visions had gradually faded away. She didn't believe
them anymore. Now she began to think that it didn't matter if she did keep the Digivice and if the
door stayed open, because the truth was that she was going to grow up. She wouldn't always be
able to play in the Digiworld whenever she wanted, and the time might come when she believed
that Digiworld was nothing more than another one of her fantasies that had been more tenacious
than most. On that day, Hawkmon would fly away from her, too, much further than Mimi could in
her plane, because there would be no way for Yolei to follow him.
  And the others - Davis, Kari, Cody, TK, and the other Digidestined that had come before
them - what would happen to them all? Already, the early team was beginning to go their own
ways. It stood to reason that the current team would do the same. No matter how hard they tried
to keep in touch, they couldn't make time stand still. They would all grow up and change. They
would all have to take their own paths, and those paths might lead them very far away, be it on
the wings of planes, or hawks, or angels, or something a bit less tangible but no less real.
  Maybe Mimi had sensed something of all that, even if she could never put it into words.
She had not cried because she was weak, but because she had a sincere and loving heart that
sometimes spilled over in its attempt to give all the love she could to her friends while they were
still with her. That was why she cried, and that was why Yolei cried into her pillow that night in
her room. She cried for the sister she wouldn't have, for the loyal companion whose loyalty
wasn't enough to keep him close by, and for the friends who would someday have to leave her.
There was a part of her, too, that cried for herself, because even though she knew it was coming,
she couldn't stop herself from growing up and making her premonitions real, so she cried for
young Yolei who laughed and played and was beautiful in a land of dreams....