a short one this time, simply because i was bummed i couldn’t find much content for my favorite digimon
if the sky keeps falling (angemon x gender neutral!reader, digimon)
The scrape on your cheek has started bleeding by the time Ogermon flees. You go to swipe at the offending wetness, uncaring of dirtying your palm in the process, but Angemon stalls your hand with a touch of his own, fingers wrapping loosely around your wrist.
“Let me.” He kneels at your feet for a better look at the wound, taking in the details of your face on the way down - your furrowed brows, the slight twist of your lips that you would vehemently deny as a pout, and - most telling of all - the way your eyes carefully avoid contact with his.
Stubborn, Angemon thinks with a fond smile, holding out his hand for the first aid kit you always carry with you.
You’re silent as he tends to your cheek, even as you wince at the sting of the antiseptic he applies to your torn skin. He lightens his touch in an effort to slake your pain, and though you’re sure to notice, you refrain from calling him out for it. He knows you’d like to - you’ve never been fond of such delicate treatment - but you remain willfully silent until he’s finished tending to you.
“Sorry,” you mutter, so soft it might have been a sigh. Your eyes flick up to meet his and dart nervously away. “I was reckless.”
“You were.” Angemon curls careful fingers around your bandaged cheek, the size of his palm in comparison to your jaw a startling reminder of how much smaller you are compared to him and so many other digimon you’ve encountered, and how dangerous the digital world is for your kind. He coaxes you to meet his gaze. “If Ogremon had done more than graze you - “ Angemon trails off meaningfully, the implication not lost on either of you.
Your sigh this time is wet. “I know,” you murmur, reaching up to cover his hand with your own. Your warmth soothes him just as his proximity seems to soothe you. “It’s just… hard. To stay back.”
Angemon smiles. He has yet to meet a Tamer as headstrong - as brave - as you. “My duty - my purpose is to protect you.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t protect you back,” you mumble stubbornly. “I can fight.”
“I know you can,” the holy Digimon assures you. “And your courage is a virtue I cherish. But it frightens me.”
Your lips twist. You had not always been so keen to toss yourself into the fray, but you had watched him fall in battle to Devimon a few short months before, and his swift recovery had not lessened the fear in your heart that he would one day be taken from you. You had spoken none of this aloud, of course, too stubborn to allow yourself that vulnerability, but Angemon knew you, and knew your heart.
You lower your head. “I’m sorry for scaring you.” The words are uttered softly, your eyes falling from his in something like shame.
Angemon will not allow it. He tucks his brow against yours, your skin warm from the last dregs of adrenaline remaining from the fight. It takes a moment of hesitance for your gaze to return to his, but when it does, it refuses to falter.
“I frightened you, too,” he reminds you, voice solemn. Your expression when he’d fallen to Devimon’s strike remains all too clear in his mind, and he never wants to place that look upon your face again.
“I’ll be braver,” you promise, and there’s steel in your eyes. You would take on the whole of the digital world if it meant keeping him safe, and Angemon knows it.
He smiles, and in a moment of softness, presses a kiss to your forehead. “Impossible,” he murmurs, feeling your skin heat with a flush at the sensation of his lips against your brow. “There is already none so brave as you.”
You huff out a breath in clear disbelief, but rather than argue, you toss your arms about him in a hug - seeking and giving reassurance at the same time.
Angemon places another kiss against your brow, though this one is firmer.
You are my courage, he thinks fiercely, tucking your body against his in a vain attempt to protect you from all the harsh realities the digital world has to offer. And my hope. His many wings gather close against you, hiding you from the world.
It’s a long moment before he’s able to let you go.
