Shortish chapter because these two together would have been really long. :)

Sometimes – no, actually, make that every time they were at the office – Jun really wished that her field team, the Beta field team (or as Masaru and Hikaru occasionally called them when Doug wasn't in earshot, "Yo, n00bs!") had been together longer. Or that they were more successful with Wild Ones more often. Anything that would make them worthy of either a bigger office or upgraded digivices, like those iCs that the Alpha team had. This room just really wasn't big enough for her, Elecmon, an antsy Tatum, an overprotective Tsukaimon, a restless Doug who tended to annoy Tatum when he was bored (which was far too often lately), Doug's Elecmon (thankfully far more placid than his Tamer), his overeager Gotsumon, a Floramon who couldn't digivolve, and Doug's latest acquisition from his last trip to the Archipelago, a Tyrannomon who couldn't dedigivolve. (It was a miracle he'd gotten him through the city to the office, never mind to the city.)

Having a Magami-accredited Tamer on a Digital Accidents Tactics Squad field team seemed like a good idea on the outside and it certainly made sense to Jun – more digimon on a team meant that the Wild Ones could be dealt with more efficiently – but this kind of logic just didn't seem to apply to Doug. The Southerner had gotten so used to League battles, where fights were two on two at most, that any more than that was simply too many cooks in the kitchen for him. It was frustrating to watch and it was frustrating for his digimon, as Floramon and Elecmon sometimes told Jun. Sometimes she really wondered why Doug didn't just leave some of his digimon at home in Wallonia.

"Do you know you're staring at Doug?" Tatum suddenly whispered in her face. Surprised, Jun jumped what felt like almost a foot but probably wasn't any more than a couple of inches at the most. "I mean, he hasn't noticed, but..." She grinned. It was kind of alarming. "Shit, Jun, he just didn't seem like your type."

"He is not my—!" Jun started, only to be interrupted by the intercom reluctantly buzzing into life.

"There's a Wild One realizing in Factorial Town!" announced Reika. Jun would have thought that after several years working at the Digital Security Guard, she wouldn't sound so panicked every attack. "If it gets loose, half the city's electrical grid could be knocked out!"

"Eh, I give it another minute before the Kaiser slaps a ring onto it," Megumi said mildly.

Tatum moved to their end of the intercom and pressed the 'speak' button. "I say two. Less than that and I'll shout you a coffee."

"You're on, Tau!"

"Megumi!" Reika admonished her fellow technician. "Miki, here's the initial scan, can you get a reading on it?"

"It's pretty big, I can tell you that," said the other Megumi.

"Thank you for your input," Reika retorted wryly.

"Alright, I've got it," Miki interjected after a moment, "it's a Lighdramon. Adult level, data attribute, Metal Empire family, uses electric attacks."

Jun elbowed Tatum aside for room by the intercom. "My brother has one of those. I didn't think they could go bad, his is a vaccine att."

"Welcome to Zentrum," Tatum sighed.

Reika ignored this exchange, focusing as she always did on the job at hand. "It's starting to attack some of the local factories. I'm uploading a virus to the wifi network before it can reach the power plant, in T minus—"

"Bang!" interrupted Megumi the technician. "Aaaaand it's calming down and wandering out of town. Did anyone clock that?"

Doug stopped his shadow-boxing in the corner to toss his stopwatch to Tatum, who caught it deftly. "Forty seconds. Damn!"

"You owe me coffee!" sang Megumi.

There was a crackle which had to be from Captain Satsuma's intercom – he didn't really have the best technology in the Guard. "If there's any more this morning the Kaiser will probably get to them first, you might as well go home."

Another quieter, more short-lived buzz indicated Yamaki was gate crashing the system too. "At this rate, the police will probably decide to hire him and then we'll all be out of a job."

"I just love your optimism, boss," Megumi crooned.

-

It was really just not a good day for Jenrya. The first thing he'd had to face that morning was a pouting Masuken, and Masuken was always unbearable once he got it into his head that he was going to pout. Masuken had then tried to do everything in his power to stop Jenrya from getting onto that Trailmon to the west, including but by no means limited to burning both the bacon and the eggs the three of them weregoing to have for breakfast (Jenrya had resorted to a couple of sandwiches bought at Pihanga Station), stealing his clothes (Jenrya had rolled his eyes in disgust and merely taken Masuken's jeans, too long as they were), and eventually he had taken the rather desperate measure of locking Terriermon in the laundry room (granted, it had taken Jenrya a good fifteen minutes to work out where the heck he was).

He made it to the station eventually, though, even if Masuken followed him all the way down the Trailmon platform. Once there, Jenrya gave him a questioning look. "Do you know how annoying you are this morning?"

"I was under the impression I was being charming," Masuken replied, examining his glasses for scratches.

Terriermon sniffed. "Locking me in the laundry is not charming."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Masuken hazarded. "Just be glad the washing machine itself didn't have a lock."

Jenrya glanced at his watch. The Trailmon was late, and all delays considered, it was a good thing, too. "You're really determined to keep me in Zentrum, aren't you?"

"Was," the younger man hastily corrected him. "Was. Note the past tense. You told me you were leaving and I just kind of... stopped thinking."

He looked up at Masuken in surprise. "That's not like you."

Masuken was gazing at the ground as if it held all the secrets of the universe. "You have that effect on me. In a good way. It's like, around you, I don't have to think."

Was this really the time for an inappropriately emotional moment? Jenrya didn't answer.

"But then in the car on the way here, I remembered the look on your face the day you came into work after your sister ran away. It was like you'd lost Terriermon or something. And I realized just how important finding her is to you, because you never gave up even when Donna wasn't coming up with anything and the police had given up. So I figured I'd better let you go."

"Look, honestly, we don't have to talk about this," attempted Jenrya. "We're not in a relationship or anything; we're just workmates who happen to sleep together occasionally because no one else is going to put up with our odd hours. Well, okay, except the prostitutes around your place, but that's a different story. We're like... we're like Yamaki and Reika, except we don't live together."

Abruptly, Masuken's eyes met his, bright and focused behind his glasses. "Would you like to?"

The Trailmon pulled into the platform, but Jenrya could only gape at Masuken in shock. "Is this really the moment?"

The younger man shrugged awkwardly. "Well, you've got the whole trip and then some to think about it."

"I have," Jenrya replied. "No."

"For convenience's sake," argued Masuken, looking very much like he wanted to say something entirely different. "It splits the living costs, we can carpool and save the ozone layer; look, Jun and Tatum on the n00b squad – sorry, the Beta team – live together, Miki lives with the Megumis, and if you care about what they'll think at work you can just point at Yamaki and Reika."

"And if half the Guard was jumping off a cliff would you do that too, is that it?" he challenged. "Should I take up smoking because Yamaki does it?"

"Don't be an ass," Masuken pleaded, "that's Hikaru's job. Come on, at least say you'll think about it. Please. You can come back to Zentrum with your sister and say you won't but at least think about it."

Shaking his head in wonder, Jenrya stepped onto the Trailmon but didn't quite look for a seat just yet. "I'll think."

"Thank you." said Masuken. "Hurry back, Hikaru's unbearable around Sigma."

Jenrya managed to make a nod look like another 'I'll think about it'. Masuken moved to kiss him, but he turned his head, and Masuken landed on his cheek. Looking a little taken aback, Masuken gave an uncomfortable wave. "Well, take care."

"Yeah," replied Jenrya, waving back and finding a seat. He glanced out the window as the Trailmon took off to see Masuken saying something that, as far as he could lip read, looked like 'love you'.

As Terriermon pulled faces at the young girl sitting across from them, making her giggle, Jenrya gazed out the window without seeing Pihanga Station disappear or the Hione Hills fast approaching. What was getting into Masuken lately? First that 'I love you' a few weeks ago, now asking to move in with him. It was like they were in an actual relationship, not the workmates with benefits approach they'd been operating under, and the younger man expected milestones and a civil union and children via a lesbian couple or something equally absurd. It was never going to happen. Jenrya didn't love him. He was a good friend, good in bed, and good at his job. That was all.

"I'm gonna go up to the front with Yuka and talk to the Trailmon, okay?" Terriermon checked, derailing his Trailmon of thought.

"Okay," he replied distractedly.

Terriermon grinned and clambered up onto the girl's shoulder, and, happily chattering away, she made her way to the link between carriages, but Terriermon stopped her at the door to glance back at Jenrya. There must have been something written in his face, because Terriermon looked a little worried. "Hey, Jen, momentai."

Jenrya forced himself to smile. Unconvinced, Terriermon poked his tongue out at him, before he and the girl disappeared into the next carriage.

"That... Terriermon," said the woman in front of him – she must have been the girl's mother – before he could return to his reverie. "Is it your digimon?"

"Yes, he's my digimon partner," Jenrya replied, attempting to assume his 'official police business' tone and failing miserably. He settled for 'friendly' instead. "But don't call him 'mine', it'll just make him mad."

She still looked concerned. Jenrya tried smiling again. This time, it seemed to work. "I've known him since I was thirteen years old. He's really good with kids. Your daughter will be fine with him. And if you're really worried I can get in touch with Terriermon for you and have a look at what he's seeing. The wonders of technology these days, eh."

"Thank you," the woman smiled. "I'm Misuzu, your partner went off with my daughter Yuka, and the sleepyhead next to me is my husband Kenji."

He shook the hand she offered him. "Jenrya."

"You're so young to be going out to the west alone," mused Misuzu, "are you running away to become a cowboy?"

Inwardly, Jenrya bristled. Young? He was twenty-three! On the outside, he merely shook his head. "Nah, I've got a fairly steady job already, if the Kaiser doesn't make us all redundant. Terriermon and I work with the Guard on one of the Digital Accidents field teams."

"The Digital Security Guard?" Misuzu asked. "Sorry, we're Eastenders, so while we've been hearing about the Kaiser and all the would-be attacks on the news, I'm still a little vague on the whole thing..."

"Not a problem," Jenrya replied, "I know it can seem pretty weird to anyone who's not from Zentrum. Wild digimon in Zentrum are pretty feral, so the Digital Security Guard seeks to protect civilians from the dangers that Wild Ones pose. It's basically divided into two groups: Hypnos traces Wild Ones as they appear, identifies them, and tries to stop them remotely. If their measures fail, a Digital Accidents Tactics Squad field team goes in to deal with the Wild One and evaluate the damage."

Misuzu wrinkled her nose. "So are there Wild Ones in Westside or something?"

"If you believe the rumors. I'm not actually going out for anything work-related." He hesitated, then decided he didn't want to talk about it with a complete stranger. "It's a family thing."

"Ah," Misuzu said, unenlightened. "We're just going out for a bit of a family holiday."

"I always thought the Northern Territories were more of a tourist trap?" Jenrya suggested.

She winced a bit. "Bad experience there before Yuka was born."

"I'm sorry."

The woman briskly shook her head. "It's not your fault." Brightening, she smiled again. "This was Yuka's idea, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to it."

Oh, great, she was chatty. And Jenrya had been planning to use this time to catch up on his Masuken-stolen sleep. This was going to be a long ride.