After giving me the standard Renamon fare of 'I have no preference,' I finally decided that for now some Mexican food would be good for now. Making a mental note to draw her out of her shell in one way or another, for the moment I ignored the problem and we drove to the nearest restaurant I could think of.
As we sped thru town, my thoughts drifted to my parents again. I had called ahead to them before I had picked up Renamon, opting to tell them I'd run across friends in town and I had offered them room and board for a couple of days. They packed up quickly and left, saying something about taking off for someplace exotic or another; they just had stopped by to tell me the news in person.
I was glad, mainly. They would blow all the money I gave them on their vacations, completely distracted and as far from me as possible. I could delay telling them about Renamon for as long as I needed. I don't know why, I guess telling them worried me, more than I may realize.
As we arrived at the restaurant, I noticed how uncomfortable Renamon was. She was tense, icy blue irises darting all over the room. Her fists were clenched, and she seemed like she was ready to run or fight at any moment. Deciding to ease her into the public scene, eating this at home was probably a better option until she was more at ease.
To be honest I couldn't blame her. After what happened today…
Back home, I discovered she absolutely loved Mexican food, and almost ravenously tore away at the meal. I ate my burritos fairly quickly too, apparently I was hungrier than I realized.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye the entire time, trying to come up with a good way to get her to warm up to me. She managed to keep this… air about her, even when she was shoveling food in her mouth. There had to be a way.
"So, what's up for tomorrow? Aside from a small project I've been working on, my schedule is pretty free. What about you?"
She seemed to think for a moment, pushing her empty plate away. "I usually train."
I did a double take. Renamon as a species were known for their rigorous routine and strict self-discipline, but…"You mean ALL DAY?! You don't take breaks, relax, watch movies, nothing?"
She shook her head in response. "No."
Baffled, but curious, I saw an opportunity. Beggars can't be choosers. "Would you mind if I joined you?"
She almost choked. "You. Want to… train. With me?" She seemed shocked, not at all what I had expected. "Yeah, I mean that's what you're interested in. Besides, I could use some pointers from someone who knows fighting styles, and who knows them better than you?"
"So… you want me… to train you?"
"No! Not like that. I don't want to make you my personal trainer or anything like that. I just need a few pointers to start off, and to adjust to your normal routine. Whaddya say?"
She thought it over a moment more, her eyes roving over me as if judging how much she would have to slow down for me. She finally sighed and shrugged. "Very well. But I'll warn you. This isn't like any training program you've ever seen. At times, it can be excruciating."
Renamon rose and cleared her spot, placing the dirty dishes into the sink. "I usually start at about 5:00 in the morning. So, if you still want to join…" she trailed off with a shrug.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be up god-awful early. I got it. I wonder if you really do get up this early or whether you're just trying to stop me from training with you."
She actually smiled, the first time since I'd seen her. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but it suited her. "Is there a bedroom I may stay in? I don't have the money for a hotel or a place of my own yet."
I looked at her dumbfounded. "As long as I can still breathe you won't be finding a hotel room or another place to stay. I have a room right over here." I spoke firmly with a gesture to the guest room. I opened the door to show her inside. "It isn't much, but I want you to feel at home. Whatever you need you can keep in here, and feel free to decorate as you please. If you need anything, anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask."
She nodded and sat down on the bed. "Thank you. What is your name?"
I resisted the urge to facepalm. In all the commotion I had forgotten to tell her my own name.
"Justin. Justin Keenan. What do I call you?"
"Renamon will do."
"Goodnight Renamon. See you tomorrow morning."
I shut the door on my way out, giving her some privacy. I went about my nightly routine of tidying up my home, brushing my teeth, and climbing into bed after turning on the fan. Given the day's events, I had no time to think, I was asleep almost instantly.
"I didn't think you would go thru with it," Renamon commented as I walked out the back door to join her for her morning exercises.
"I didn't either."
A 4:30 alarm viciously silenced, a pot of coffee, and a granola bar breakfast led be to believe much the same thing as she did. However, I was determined to bridge the gap between me and my newfound partner. A few sleep circles around the eyes and some tough exercise wasn't that bad in the scheme of things.
"Well, to begin I usually stretch," Renamon stated, demonstrating, "then a walk that escalates into a jog, and finally a run. Understand?"
I nodded, copying her stretches. She started a brisk walk, heading from the backyard to the sidewalk out in front. After about ten minutes, she looked behind and gave one final piece of advice.
"Try to keep up."
"That… *huff* isn't… *huff* fair. *huff* Not even a little. *huff* *huff*"
The jog was fast, and by the end of that, I needed a breather. THEN she broke into a run, leaving me to sprint as fast as I could behind her as she sped around the empty street corners. By the end of that I needed an oxygen tank and heart attack medication. I did my best not to let on, but that didn't say much.
"You actually did a lot better than I thought you would do," the vixen replied, barely even showing she'd just sprinted half a mile. "I fully expected to have to go back for you."
"Gee thanks. *huff* Wow, I haven't done that in a loooong while. Kinda let my exercise routine go since I stopped pouring concrete. I needed a good kick to get back into shape. Okay! What's next?"
She gave me the same look as earlier, obviously surprised I was continuing. Okay, so a few sleep circles around the eyes, some exercise, and a few trips to the hospital. Nothing I couldn't handle. All in the name of partnership.
"I do a cooldown with a bit of yoga, my own style of course. Are you sure you want to…"
Yes, stop asking that. Believe it or not I'm a bit more flexible than I look."
She shrugged and moved to the first pose, bending gracefully as she shifted. She gave a brief glance to see if I was doing it correctly. "You have to move for it to be yoga," Renamon stated matter-of-factly noticed I hadn't moved from my standing position.
I managed to dislodge my eyes from her form, cheeks burning red, and moved into the first pose. Even still, it was hard not to stare, which felt very, very wrong to begin with. She was a digimon for god's sake! I tried to focus on copying her motions and posture, but it was difficult, watching her flow from pose to pose, eyes shut in concentration. It was like artwork in motion, compounded by the fact she was a very… feminine looking Renamon... "OOF!" Losing concentration I wasn't paying attention and lost my balance, crashing in an extremely uncomfortable position on the ground.
Sighing, Renamon just held her pose, waiting for me to get back into position. I did, my cheeks burning impossibly redder than before.
I managed to make it through the rest of yoga without any more incidents, although I did catch myself staring a time or two again. I was a far cry from the balance and grace she had.
"How'd I do?" I dared to ask, anxious as to how I was matching up to her standards.
"Not as bad as I expected." Oh great. THAT line again. "You need more balance and flexibility and focus," she said with a glance in my direction, "based on the yoga. And judging by the run, you need more endurance and speed." She stated, ticking off the points on her fingers. "The muscles needed seem to be there, although out of shape and nowhere near the necessary level of training. Regardless, the next step is combat training. I usually practice advanced moves and techniques but for now I'll show you the basics."
She actually seemed to enjoy teaching me various blocks, punches, and kicks from every sort of training from karate to judo into a blend of her own style. I went along with her, smiling to myself. This was her element, and it seemed she enjoyed not just practicing but also teaching me how to fight and defend myself. I took that note and stuck it in the back of my head to use later.
"Not bad," she said with an approving nod, "if you keep training you'll be up to a decent skill level within a few weeks, if not sooner. Now, I usually find another digimon and spar, but I think you'll do fine for now."
"Woah, woah, WOAH. How in the hell is this fair? You are a DIGIMON. I am a HUMAN. You have every single advantage, except for size."
She frowned at my last comment, but answered nonetheless. "Has no one explained this to you?" She sighed. "Digimon get their strength from two places. One is from energy. Energy comes from eating, digivolving, cards, data, from tamers, and can be exchanged from digimon to digimon. Energy is what gives us our special attacks, as well as out inhuman speed and strength.
"However, there is also a physical strength to us as well, same as with humans. That comes from training and sparring, exercise, and the like. Digimon train and spar to get stronger physically and to supplement our energy. A smart digimon will train their physical body as well as their energy, so even if their energy runs out they can still fight or escape.
"I will be using only physical strength, but even though I may be small, I am probably a bit stronger than you, and have far more experience. Since you are a beginner, I will go easy on you."
Oh, so that's how she's gonna play it, eh? Well, time for a wakeup call.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"Ready," I replied with a grin.
I dropped into an offensive stance and quickly approached, tripping her and pinning her before she had time to react. She was honestly and genuinely surprised, and to see it scrawled on her face was enjoyable.
"Okay, so I practiced my fighting skills at varying gyms and self-defense classes, and just happened to be one of the best. I made it a point back when I was still partnered; I wouldn't make Sasha do all the work. Sorry if I deceived you, it seemed like you had fun teaching."
I let her up, prepping for the worst. Instead, she had a wicked grin on her face. She cracked her knuckles as she leveled her gaze at me. "Noooo. This is good. This is very good. Now I don't have to hold back." Renamon moved back a few feet, taking a stance. "Ready?"
Before I could answer she had closed the distance between us and I had to dodge quickly to avoid the first of a flurry of punches. I put some space back between us as we both started to circle each other. We both tested each other's reactions. A punch, a block, a kick, a dodge, all in sync to the other party as we continued to circle each other.
Finally, I noticed she favored using her large feet to counter after blocking or dodging whatever I threw at her. Taking advantage of this, I let her approach and dodged a punch with a swing to the left. I threw a jab of my own which she blocked with ease, and just as expected she moved to kick me with one of her rabbit-like paws. Instead of dodging, I used the split second to land a punch to her chest, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her kick off. I used my own foot to sweep her other foot out from under her and pinned her, using my extra weight against her. She tried desperately to get me off, seeing as I was using my elbow to restrict her air flow. It was a tactical move; I was trying to get her to tap out faster. Her eyes widened, and she panicked. She had to have used energy, seeing as she wrenched her limbs from my pin faster than I could see, punching me in the solar plexus, giving her enough room to coil her legs and slam me away.
Unfortunately, this also launched me a good ten feet in the air. Oh, this is gonna hurt, I thought miserably.
I crashed into the ground, hard, but I didn't just stop there. I bounced up another two feet, still flying backwards as I collided again with the unforgiving ground. I finally rolled to a halt, a groan escaping my lips.
Renamon was by me in a flash, checking me over for serious injury. Luckily I had hit in the grass, and no real damage was done, save for a couple LARGE bruises. She picked me up, which I thought was weird, in a strange, fractured sort of way. I should be picking her up that way… I thought.
"You shouldn't carry me like this," I said, an unusual feeling overtaking me. She had started to carry me inside, but stopped on the back porch.
"Why?" she asked, worry and confusion creeping into her voice.
"Put me down and I'll show you."
Curious, she set me down, if nothing else to see if I could stand. "So why shouldn't I carry you like that?"
I scooped her up bridal style before she could protest. "Ishould be carrying YOU like this."
Renamon, sensing something was off, went along with it. I carried her over to the couch and laid her down. True, my bruises hurt immensely, but years of working in concrete and construction in some of the most brutal conditions had given me a way to cope with pain and do what was needed. This involved two things.
One, the extreme tolerance to pain and ability to push past and sometimes ignore it. Often, this came at the price of…
Two. The partial loss of mental control. I cracked jokes constantly, lost all brain-mouth filtration, and generally acted like someone fed me a live wire. To put it in a nutshell, I became crazy in my own way.
Go ahead, laugh. It dulls the pain and lets me finish jobs accomplish things no one thought possible. What is said and done is usually not that bad. And this all comes at the low, monthly cost of a small bit of sanity! Oh, sorry. There it is again.
After resting her on the couch, I went to the kitchen and flash boiled some water on the stove. (Gotta love digimon tech.) I emerged a moment later with a cup of herbal tea, no sweetener and handed it to Renamon, then settled on the couch to nurse my own cup of earl grey tea.
After I took a sip I started talking to fill in the awkward silence.
"Sorry about choking you, I really am. I was just trying to get you to tap out; I would never ever threaten your life like that, Never. In a million years. You're the first digimon that's even given me two bits, much or less stuck around. Well, I suppose you ARE stuck with me in a way. I-I'm sorry for dragging you into this. Now I've messed up your routine AND my ribs, and… I'm… well… sorry."
I finally calmed down, the tea working its way through my system, sanity returning along with a great deal of pain, but now bearable. She quietly observed me from over the rim of her mug, regarding me with that emotionless gaze Renamon have mastered so well.
Seeing as my episode was over, she decided to ask a few questions. "Okay, so what was that about? I almost killed you, and you want to be all friendly and chivalrous and carry me and apologize to me? What is going on?"
That was the question wasn't it. How do you explain years of difficulty in a harsh work environment, and the mechanism you got just to deal with it? I still can't explain why I picked her up; it just seemed like the right thing to do. Neither of these explanations would do, so I just had to tell the truth and hope she didn't just take off running.
"I, um, well… you see… *sigh* Okay. You deserve the truth. I honestly don't know. When I get hurt, get pushed past my breaking point, it kind of kicks in. I lose control and I act kinda crazy. Sometimes I don't even remember big chunks of what I do during that time. It's kind of a side effect of pushing myself so hard for so many years. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.
She seemed to cock her head to the side, as if taking it in. Great. That came out sounding like I'm insane. Well, I kind of am… but that's not the point. I just… keep making her feel like she got the most broken tamer in the world. I wouldn't want to partner with me. I hung my head in shame, waiting for her to explode, call me crazy, or worse.
But she didn't.
"Interesting. You seemed to be fine a moment ago, but now it seems like you are in a lot of pain. Whatever that is or what made it, it seems to work. Don't apologize, like I said, I almost killed you. Besides," she said with a coy look at me, "who's to say I didn't like being carried?"
I did a double take, but she had shifted back to the emotionless stare, nonchalantly sipping on her tea. I sat for a full minute and a half stunned speechless trying to come up with some sort of reply to that before she finally broke down and laughed. It was the first time I'd heard her laugh. It was a pure, perfect sound. I chuckled and shook my head.
"Well, it's good to know you have a crazy side too. Though it took me flying thirty feet and a set of bruised ribs to get you to show it."
She changed back to serious, looking me dead in the eye. "I am sorry. It is my fault that you are injured and I…"
I cut her off. "No, it is my fault if anyone's. I don't blame you; you've had to protect your life from things like that, being a digimon. I should've thought of that." When it looked like she was about to argue, I cut her off again. "If it's not my fault it's no ones. Least of all yours. Nothing we can do about it now. The past, no matter how recent, is the past. Let it rest."
She stayed quiet for a moment, then set her tea down and walked over to me.
"Very well, at least let me help. Lay down."
"I'm sorry, we just met, and…"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't even start." I chuckled and complied, curious as to what she was about to do. She seemed to concentrate for a moment, then outstretched both of her arms.
"Power Paw!"
In a flash, both of her forearms down to her fingertips were coated in an ethereal, glowing blue fire that matched her eyes. She looked down to me, relaying further instructions.
"Now hold still, from what I'm told this feels very weird, but it's important for you not to move too much, okay?"
I nodded and held as still as possible. She reached down and removed my shirt with a slice of a claw, the fire surprisingly not so much as singing the edges. Her palms hovered half and inch from my torso, the flames licking across the damaged skin as they spread over the bruised areas. Then, much like the fire itself, her arms slowly faded until you could see through them, like she was a ghost. Her hands passed through my skin, spreading the fire, relieving pain from the inside out.
It felt strange, having something actually pass through you, almost as if it were catching and giving a slight tug on every molecule it touched. It was painless however, and in short order she had finished her work, letting the fire spark off of her paws and go out. Upon examination, both the bruises and pain had vanished, completely healed.
She examined her hands, musing. "Fire has always had healing properties. The fire from my attacks is slightly out of phase, and is a powerful force for healing or inflicting damage, depending on how I use it."
I stood, feeling not so much as a stiff joint. As a matter of fact I felt better than I had in a long time. "I feel great! Thank you so much. Ready for another sparring match?"
This earned a 'what-the-crap-are-you-thinking' look from renamon, who stood there dumbfounded for a full minute before I busted out laughing. I was glad I had gotten her on the other end of that stick. She smiled and chuckled with me.
"Maybe tomorrow. So, what now? I don't normally stop training until I dinnertime, so I am a bit at a loss."
I grinned, seeing as how my original bonding plan had worked, at least to some degree. She seemed to at least accept partnership for now. It felt good. I'd also had an idea.
"Come with me. I'll show you my new job."
