Ars Technica Digimonae 6: Fitting In
#6 of Ars Technica Digimonae
There was nothing cheerful left in Ezra's mind at that moment--it was far too occupied with despair. Despair at losing the only love he ever had, despair that there might not be anything he could do about it, and despair that it was his fault for getting her into this in the first place. He had an urge to look down at the floor and accept his fate that way, but he kept his head held up instead.
"I'm sure I'm going to regret this later, Mr. Harlow," he began. For the first time in their conversation, he was leaning back in his chair, treating this as the business that he was attending to then. At least he would go out knowing that he put a kink in the DDTC's schedule. "But, this would solve everything. Again, I'm sure I'm going to end up regretting this later, but I'm going to go ahead and offer you a position here."
"...what?" Ezra couldn'tw help but adopt a blank stare. This wasn't what he had in mind at all. "Here? Me?" h continued to stare blankly, not entirely sure what he was supposed to think about that offer.
"Yes. You obviously possess skill as a ... 'tamer', you obviously know what you're doing, which is a lot more than I can say for some of the people here--" Ezra's eyes flicked over Sydney's bemused expression for a moment, "And I'm sure there would be value in having a digimon here with us--" Ezra's blank stare became a spear of fire directed directly between the government official's eyes.
"You will do nothing to her!" An image quickly came to mind of them sticking her in a lab somewhere and subjecting her to various kinds of technological and biological experimentation.
"Oh, no. Not that. I mean it would be a valuable personnel asset."
"She."
"Pardon?"
"She. Not it."
"Of course..." his eyes quickly ran themselves over Luna. "Well, as it is, R&D has developed some quite lethal ways of dealing with Digimon, but from what I've been told, there's nothing that is capable of simply subduing them, something we may need to do. So ..."
This was quite a moral dilemma that Ezra had managed to get himself dropped into. On the one hand, he risked the loss of his principles and possibly end up becoming the priest that they had encountered earlier. Alternatively, on the other hand, he risked the loss of Luna, which he didn't want to happen at any cost to himself. Luna's head turned toward him and slightly to the side. Her expression looked innocent, but he could see in her light blue eyes that she understood what was going through his mind.
"I won't kill anyone," he eventually answered. Some part of his mind told him that was the same he told to himself in the event that he ever became a tamer. But he had already managed to violate that principle no less than three times in the past two days. "But...I'll do it," he concluded after a long, uncomfortable pause.
"Great," a large, fake smile flashed across the face of the man who was apparently his new boss. "I'll get the paperwork down to HR, they'll call you later. In the meantime, you'll have to go over these." He practically threw an official looking folder at the desk space in front of Ezra. He didn't even pick it up.
"What is it?"
"Your marriage papers."
"My what?"
"Your marriage papers. In order to be a federal employee, she has to be a legalized citizen." Ezra immediately blushed. Luna ... his wife. He smiled inwardly at the thought. It wouldn't be any different for her, she already saw him as her mate, and he assumed that was the Digimon--or at least Renamon--equivalent to what the director was referring.
"What are they talking about?" she asked him.
"Marriage...it's like being your mate, only for humans," he answered with a slightly embarrassed blush.
"Then I'll do it!" He smiled again at the thought of being able to call her by that title. They were such an unlikely couple...by chance they had met, and by chance would they be wed. That folder of papers bearing the official looking seal of the DDTC seemed far less intimidating to him now that he knew full well the nature of its contents, and he picked it up, almost all his fear abolished by the happy thoughts of her soon-to-be new title.
"Whether or not you want to have a ceremony is up to you, of course, but it needs to go through preferably Tuesday. There are things that certain departments would value your insight on that can't do so while you're still a civilian."
"Of course..." Ezra's eyes moved up Luna's back and up to her face, wondering if she would mind wearing a wedding dress for the occasion--or any dress for any occasion, now that the thought was brought to mind.
"Also, Ezra, eet would seem that you're een luck again...one of the Department's benefactors has arranged for a substantial number of reservations at the Hotel Rouiat."
"The Rouiat?" Ezra raised an eyebrow. The Rouiat, a five star hotel in downtown Boston, was also the home to a very exclusive large restaurant of the same name, often host to large formal events. He had only been able to see the inside of it once, and that was at a recognition dinner for one of his professors whom he had become well acquainted with his freshman year. He was working for about a week to fully pay off the bill that he had made while he was there. Ezra supposed that given the DDTC's lack of success, they needed the morale boost.
"Oui, the Rouiat," Sydney answered. "I wasn't planning on going myself, but eef you are..."
"Fine." Ezra conceded. "I'll go." He looked at Luna and grinned, continuing his earlier line of thought. "I guess we'll have to find you a dress."
"A dress?"
"To wear o dinner!" his grin widened as he pictured Luna stumbling around in a dress.
"If you four are done, I've still got much to attend to. If you will?" he gestured towards the door, and Ezra quickly obliged, taking the others along with him. A great load had been lifted off of his shoulders, and he was quite happy because of it. By some weird fluke of nature, however, Gustaf seemed even more jovial than he did at the moment.
"What's got you so happy?"
"They offered me a job in tech services!" he grinned.
"You accepted?"
"Ja, why not?"
"Did I miss something here? We're not supposed to even like them, Gustaf. I had no other choice I don't know what they would have done if I declined the position."
"That well may be, Ezra but here we haff the opportunity to protest. Besides, what could possibly be more fun/" Maybe he was right about that, far fetched the ambition may be. There were bound to be peaceful, non-wild Digimon who would come to the Real World to get away from it all, and Ezra didn't want them to be subjected to whatever the DDTC would do to them. Maybe being that something would give him a place from which he could demonstrate that they were more than incredibly powerful organisms.
"Well, bienvenue, I guess." Sydney grinned, taking them back outside. "I'm surprised that turned out as well as eet did."
"What happens now?" Luna asked, who had remained largely silent for most of the day.
"I told you, we're going to find you a dress." he grinned. Even though Luna was at least a foot taller than him, she somehow managed to look cowed at the thought. He smiled again, again picturing her wearing human clothing.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course," he grinned and took a hold of her hand. You can't go in just your fur, this is a very exclusive place."
And so it began. The two of them left their entourage behind and went shopping. Luna's dimensions, naturally, ended up proving to be far too much of a problem for them to do their shopping at a department store, although that didn't prevent him from trying. Not to his surprise, most of the people there had never seen a Digimon before in their life, much less one walking through stores looking for a dress to wear to a formal affair. They got a number of strange looks from everyone there, as well as comments along the line of 'You want what?' when he told them what he was looking for. Even when they cooperated, it became obvious that they weren't going to find anything. It was either too short in one place, too long in another, too tight ...
"I tend to fall between sizes myself," one of the most cooperative ladies at the store had said to Luna after she came out of one of the fitting rooms wearing something that managed to fit even worse than the previous few attempts. Ezra eventually broke down and went to the nearest tailor he could find (an event that take long enough in and of itself, considering the fact that he had never needed a tailor for anything in his entire life).
"You want what?" the tailor, an old man wearing a dress shirt and a sweater vest asked in the same way that everyone else had for the entire day.
"I need a dress for a dinner party," Luna answered before he did. Hearing it come out of the mouth of Luna herself, rather than his own, renewed his amusement at the whole affair, and he had to look away to hide the expression on his face that resulted when he stifled his laughter.
"Um, alright." the tailor responded, gathering the measuring tools of his trade. "A job is a job ..." he muttered, then started to ask questions while measuring Luna. "Do you have anything particular in mind?"
"I was thinking something in black. Maybe with sequin highlights," he suggested.
"I can do that." He nodded, measuring the Digimon's slender waist. Ezra smiled at the result. "Where's the dinner?"
"The Rouiat."
"Fancy ... full length, then?"
"Yes."
"I've done a lot of work in my time," the old man commented, slipping the tape around the top of Luna's chest. She looked about ready to pound the man into submission from the constant physical contact he was heaping on her. "But this is a first for me."
"You don't seem nearly as disturbed by this as anyone else I've tried to get a dress from today. Have you ever seen a Digimon before?"
"A what? ... No." He measured the length of her shoulders, then the length of her arms. "I just take life as it comes at me." Maybe that was the wisdom that came with age. He wished there was more of that floating around--it would certainly make his life with Luna easier. "Silk or polyester?"
"Silk."
"Straps, back...?"
"Um..." By this point, Ezra had pretty much exhausted his knowledge of dresses. He knew what the tailor was asking, he just didn't have the kind of fashion sense that was required to know what would or wouldn't look good on his future wife. "I'm not sure. What do you think?"
"That would depend on whether or not you're trying to show her off," the tailor gave him a small, knowing grin. A few really sketchy thoughts ran through Ezra's mind before it returned to the matter at hand.
"Am I showing you off, Luna?"
"..."
"Right... Do whatever you think will look good."
"Very well. I'm not a designer, but I've made enough these to know what I'm doing. At least, I hope so." He joked. "I should have i done for you by five o'clock, and if you don't like it, I can change it by tomorrow morning."
"Thank you...you're a lifesaver."
"I do what I can."
* * * * * * *
Luna was glad for that other human to finally be leaving her alone. He had measured her in what had to be every possible way she could be measured. But it was for Ezra, and it made her happy to be able to do things for him, even if they seemed very strange for her.
"I guess this eliminates the problem of figuring out what you're going to be doing everyday. Since you'll be with me and everything." Ezra said from her side. "I guess that's one good thing that has come of all this."
"I do not understand," Luna said. "Why do you seem so depressed? I don't have to leave, and you've been given a job with the group of people that would otherwise either have me removed from you world or killed."
"Oh, no, you've misread me. I'm glad that you can stay, Luna. And I get to marry you, which is even better. But these people exist to treat Digimon like objects, and I don't want that to happen to you. I love you too much for you to be an instrument of destruction."
"But that is what I am," she pointed out. Whether Ezra wanted to accept it or not, she was a warrior. Maybe not a very good one in the Digital World, but she couldn't change what she was.
"Not here, you won't be."
"Then what purpose will I serve?"
"Your own."
"And what is that?"
"That's your decision." Ezra held her hand. "I know this must be difficult for a Digimon to understand. Especially one of your species. But living things are living things here, Luna. They aren't just data any longer. You aren't just data. That Ninjamon wasn't just data. Neither was that DarkLizardmon. They all--"
"I had no choice, Ezra. You know that."
"I know, I know. That's not what I mean. I'm saying that I don't want you to become that."
"I will not."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I am a female."
"What?" She suddenly realized that Ezra didn't have quite the same grasp on her clan's social system that she did, so she was going to have to enlighten him.
"I am a female. Female warriors are not as prestigious as their male counterparts. Because of that, we do not serve the same function. I am...was...a protector and guardian only. I never left until I came here."
"What are you saying?"
"Wanton destruction is not in my nature, partially because I do not have the power."
"You do now, when you become IceRenamon."
"Perhaps. But I can not do that at will. And even if I could, I have no penchant for needless destruction."
"But you just told me that you were 'an instrument of destruction'."
"Yes."
"Which is it? Yes or no?"
"I do not understand the question."
"Destruction. Do you, or do you not, want it?"
"No, I do not. But it is what I am written to do."
"You can learn other things."
"Such as?"
"Anything you want."
Luna looked at her mate. He seemed very convinced somehow that she would never have to fight again. It seemed like it bothered him now more than before, though. Did this have anything to do with the human that she had fought earlier?
"Ah, Luna ... " Ezra sighed. "I'm not mad or anything, I just--"
"Does this have anything to do with my engaging that human?"
"What human? Ohh, that priest guy. No, its not that. I'm just worried..."
"About what?"
"What they'll want you to do is fight other Digimon that come to the Real World with the wrong reasons."
"Like Ninjamon?"
"Yes."
"Then what is the problem?" she cocked her head. If that was what the two of them were going to be doing ... that was basically what she had done--or would have done, if ever attacked--to protect her clan. That question seemed to have hit the spot with Ezra, who struggled for an answer. Either he didn't know how to say what he was trying to say--evidently a problem that he frequently encountered--or he didn't have an answer.
"Gah, I don't know...never mind."
"... ... ... ... you've never been to the digital world, Ezra. You wouldn't understand."
"I know." He took a hold of her hand reassuringly. "But you're not there any more. You're here. You're here now, and you're mine, and I'm yours, and I don't really want this to be like the Digital World for you if you don't want that. I know I wouldn't if I were in your position." He took his hand and hugged her. "I'd rather have you do what we did before we had to think about this. Talk...eat...learn the violin," he said. His tone was almost one of pleading now, and she started to feel guilty for making him feel like he had to d that.
"I do, Ezra, I do," she threw her arms around him and hugged him. "I want to do all of that with you." A few people on the other side of the street started staring at them, but she didn't care. She didn't care at all.
She opened her eyes, looking at him to get his reaction. He looked back at her, directly into her eyes for another one of their eternities, before developing a grin on his face for no apparent reason, then started laughing. Without knowing what it was they were laughing about, she joined him, not moving her hands or arms an inch.
"Why are we laughing?" she asked after about a minute of this.
"You can't know everything, Luna," he winked slyly at her. "You'll find out eventually."
She smiled at her mate, unable to help herself but what was going through Ezra's mind at the moment. Ezra was everything she could ever have wanted in a mate, and then some. He was caring and gentle, she didn't feel like she had o work to impress him or compete with anyone else for his attention. She didn't have to worry about his status or what others thought about him. It was just him and her, nothing else. And she liked the sex. At first, it had been kind of odd for her, being with a human like that, but she didn't regret what she had done. It had been a wonderful experience, even if it did hurt at first. Digimon or human, there was nothing more she could have wanted from him.
After holding each other on the middle of the sidewalk for a while, Ezra took her back home while they waited for her 'dress', where they spent the remainder of that time laying on top of his--their--bed, looking at one another. Secretly, and despite herself, she found herself wondering what he would have been like as a Digimon. She shook away the thoughts, leaving behind a guilty recollection of what she had been doing, and tried to justify it to herself by telling the regretful part of her mind that he was probably imagining what she would be like if she were a human like him.
"Luna," he gave a small sigh very unbecoming of his character, "Tell me more about the Digital World," The new topic prompted a half-loving, half-amused smile from the Renamon.
"For something that you don't want me to be involved in, you want to know a lot about it."
"I've never been there...all I know is that's where you're from, and there's a lot of fighting there."
"Alright. Since you're a Tamer and you should it anyway," she grinned, "I'll answer anything I can."
"Where you're from ... what was it like?"
"Well..." she got a little more comfortable, which consisted of rolling over Ezra onto his other side and spooning with him--which would have been a hilarious sight for anyone other than the two of them to see, she was sure--speaking into his ear. "There are these four valleys," she started, "Each one is separated by a small series of hills from the nearest two." Luna gave him a few moments to digest, absorb, and visualize that information before going any further. "Each one of those valleys is home to a different clan. They interact from time to time, and sometimes males looking for .... short-term, very short term, mates .... will cross the hills to find it somewhere were no one will know who they are."
What she was implying seemed to make Ezra uneasy, so she quickly searched her mind for a way to change the subject to something else.
"Beyond the plains is a big forest, and then beyond that, a big lake."
"And past that?" His back edged a little closer to her front.
"I do not know," she answered, tilting her head slightly to the side. She had never bothered to go that far. The lake was pretty much as far as anyone went, and hardly anyone ever did that. There just wasn't any reason to, everything they needed was right there. "That is as far as I ever went, and that was farther than most."
"But you didn't like it?"
"No, I liked it as much as anyone could. It just always felt like there was something missing," the last part was deliberately set up for a romantic moment.
"What was that?"
"You," she answered, putting her arm over his chest.
"As your tamer or your mate?"
"Both, I think." she smiled and got as close to him as the physical laws of this world woud allow her to. "Is that all, or is there something else you wanted to know?"
"No," he laughed lightly, turning around and looking straight into her eyes. "I think that about covers it, except for one thing."
"And what is that?"
"...would you ever want to go back?"
"Not without you," she smiled. "But I don't see why...I like it here."
"Then you don't have to." There was a pause in his speech as his other arm found its way under her and around to her back, pulling her into a tight hug with him. She closed her eyes to enjoy the moment with her mate, and after a minute or so of that, she found herself doing something that she had never done before--she was purring involuntarily.
"Luna..." he laughed softly. "Are you ... purring?"
"Yes..." she answered, a small blush covering the edges of her muzzle. "It is beyond my control...I just...so happy."
"Oh?"
"Yes." She kept doing it for at least five minutes on end while they laid there together until she felt Ezra's mouth press against the very tip of her muzzle, prompting her purring to intensify as she was pulled into a kiss. Her fingers curled up on Ezra's back, and her legs found their way around his sides.
It wasn't long before her soft, calm purring turned into moans in anticipation of breeding with her mate. They each tugged at the others garments until they were completely removed--Luna, after a few moments of being careful not to rip it, was able to remove Ezra's shirt, and with a little bit of cooperation from her, he slid her purple gauntlets off and tossed them to the floor. Opting to let Ezra deal with his pants, she simply watched him with a lustful gaze as every inch of his body was made available to her.
"...Ezra?" she asked, a little timid at what she was about to do.
"Hmm?"
"Show me that I'm yours," she said suggestively, getting down on all fours and pushing her head into one of the pillows, putting herself in a completely submissive position.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Show me ... that I'm yours," she repeated herself, moving her backside from one side to other slowly and demonstratively.
"Ohh," he exhaled after a few seconds, hopefully understanding what she was asking from him. A moment later, she felt his cock brushing against the fur on her backside. With a soft, feminine moan, she gripped the pillow her head was resting on, digging her claws into it and puncturing it as her mate's hands moved around where she couldn't see, pushing her legs a little farther apart, moving up her thighs then flitted over her entrance.
This was very arousing, very erotic...not being able to see what Ezra was doing, what he was about to do, until the moment that he did it. That very instant in time where she was thinking about that, she felt something she wasn't expecting press against the part of the body she was giving him a joking opportunity to claim: his mouth. The pressure alone was enough to bring her moan up in pitch, but when his tongue started moving against the way things normally went down there, she moaned even louder, unable to contain herself any longer, and started moving backwards against him.
That prompted a surprised, muffled noise from the face that was shoved in between her legs, but it didn't stop anything that was going. Instead, it intensified when a finger started moving in small circles over a particularly pleasurable place, intensifying her moan even further. At this rate, she wasn't going to last long at all, but somehow, it just seemed to continue and continue and continue...
Without any warning at all, the wet, slippery thing that was wiggling around her insides was withdrawn, but before she could complain or say anything about it, it was quickly replaced by the semi-familiar feel of Ezra's cock, which immediately began thrusting with an animal-like desire to climax.
She was starting to feel just such a desire herself, and started moving her backside harder and faster to achieve it. Hands grasped her sides and pushed her down against the bed, and the foundation of her position almost buckled, but she maintained it by going onto all fours, digging her paws into the bed and foregoing the use of the pillow her head was on.
Surges of sensation, some of them minor pain, others of incredible delight, ran through the lower regions of her body. To feel something inside of her, pumping and thrusting as wildly and without abandon, it was exhilarating.
"Ezra!" she cried out, feeling herself almost reach the point that she had been straining to get to. A finger jammed itself roughly against her clit, and a feeling of warmth spread through her insides as Ezra came into her, tightening his grip almost to the point of being painful where his other hand. The finger that was against her pussy pressed even harder, making her yelp, moan, and orgasm all at the same time. Kind of exhausted, she slumped forward and rested, laying on her stomach and turning her head to the side. Ezra followed suit, laying on her back and hugging her stomach. The weight of his entire upper body ended up on her tail, crushing it against her back and making her quite uncomfortable. Despite that, she giggled, knowing that he probably didn't realize what he was doing.
"My tail..." she laughed, trying to wiggle it out from underneath him.
"Sorry," he laughed in between pants, raising up and moving her tail out of the way, then laying back down. She made a soft, murring sound as his hands slid back around her body. "I'm not used to sleeping with women who have tails..."
"You will be," she promised, smiling to herself.