Part 19: A Loaf Of Bread, A Jug Of Wine, & Thou
After a minute she came back with an assortment of breads, fruits and vegetables laden in a bowl.
"Dinner is served, Monsieur Wizardmon," she offered, serving him the food along with a bad French accent. "The establishment hopes it is to your liking?"
The digimon gave her a quizzical look as he politely asked, "Are you all right, Lady Natalie? Your voice sounds different."
His waitress noticeably deflated at that, placing the bowl in front of him.
"Just eat."
The two Earth dwellers watched in mute fascination as the boyish wizard---eschewing the fork his host had provided--- began to devour everything by systematically holding the edibles to his mouth and shaving away at it with his stitches--- even the tough rind of a cantaloupe that she'd cut into sections for him. And not one drop or crumb made it to the floor.
"That was good!" Wizardmon sighed, the tip of his tongue delicately maneuvering between the now relaxed metal in order to carefully lick the area clean of errant scraps. "Thank you, Nicholas my friend and Nicholas' friend, Natalie."
"Isn't that dangerous," Natalie winced just watching the operation, the early demise of her mirror still etched into her mind. "You could give 'bite my tongue off' a whole new meaning."
Wizardmon grunted in agreement. "It took some practice, but I am careful. It's not like everyone would stoop to aid a 'glitch' clumsy enough to injure himself. I do use a brush for a better job of it, but as you might imagine, the replacement rate is rather high." Feeling suddenly melancholy, he looked down at the empty bowl. "Too, I don't know if I'll ever get home again to buy a new one… so I want it to last." He surreptitiously wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall from his eye.
Nick and Natalie exchanged glances.
"Hey, chin up---I was only joking," told him kindly. "And I'm sure we have the equivalent of stitch brushes somewhere on Earth---as a temporary solution until you get back home, of course."
The wizard smiled his gratitude for her optimism on his behalf. He had to think positive---he *would* get home again.
Dr. Lambert took the empty bowl from his hands. "Well, at least he's cleaner than some of my regular patients," she commented in passing to her coworker. "And its refreshing that one of you isn't a picky eater." Her eyes twinkled. "That reminds me..." Rising up to her feet, Natalie headed for her kitchen. "Excuse us a minute, Wizardmon, but…Nick? I have something I want you to try. It's a new recipe..."
Nick made a show of consulting his watch. "Gee, Nat...I think its time we..."
"Nicholas…?" Wizardmon began to question, sensing distress coming from his friend.
Shooting Wizardmon an admonishment to "wait there a moment," Natalie grabbed the knight's sleeve and neatly steered him into the kitchen where she pulled out a chair from her small dining table. "Oh, no--you two aren't going anywhere. Sit, buster. You're 'Norwegian troll' will be fine by himself for a few minutes."
Nicholas gave a theatrical moan, but dutifully---if unhappily--- sat.
Opening her refrigerator, Natalie took out a plastic tumbler and set it before him. He didn't need to bring it to his nose to decide that the concoction smelled even viler than the last batch she'd devised for his tasting. Ruthlessly, he suppressed his automatic 'gag' reflex.
"Try that while I fix my own cup of liquid energy and we can discuss in private what we're going to do with your friend out there."
"We?" Nicholas asked absently, most of his mind busy trying to figure out how he was going to get rid of the drink without hurting Natalie's feelings. The stuff was part of her attempts to cure him of his vampirism by weaning him off of blood. So far, they'd only managed to sicken him and leave him as hungry as ever. He was sure that if he'd been human, the drink would taste just fine, unfortunately, as it was... But then, if he was human, then she wouldn't be experimenting with his diet either. For one thing, the 13th Century man and the 20th Century woman would never have met.
It was a nice little Catch 22. He couldn't have a closer relationship with her because of the very thing that had made it possible for them to be in the same time period at all.
Natalie chuckled as she fished out some milk from her refrigerator, pouring some into a bowl for Sydney as well as into the machine. "Hey, you're the one who brought him over to show me. I am now officially involved." She turned on her espresso maker.
Catching the slight movement of the kitchen door opening a crack, Nicholas looked over to see Wizardmon cautiously peek inside. A sly grin spread over the vampire's face as he clandestinely indicated for the digimon to enter. Glancing back to make sure Natalie was preoccupied with her caffeine preparations, he again gestured---this time that Wizardmon should get under the table.
Puzzled, but willing, Wizardmon did as instructed and was rewarded by a delicious aroma when Nicholas silently passed him the tumbler.
Well, if Nicholas wanted him to eat even more Wizardmon was happy to oblige! In a matter of seconds, he had downed the container's liquid contents, happily licking his mouth in an attempt to claim every last gooey molecule of the stuff.. Nicholas hastily snatched the empty tumbler back as the coroner turned around, steaming coffee mug in hand.
"So, what do you think?" Natalie asked, pulling out a chair to sit beside him.
"Uh...about what?"
"The protein drink, Nick."
He spared the container a quick glance, trying to appear nonchalant. "Oh. It was... uh, passable."
"Really?"
She gave him a radiant smile, making him feel guilty for lying to her. But she had no idea how awful those things were to his vampire palate. Besides, the stuff had been 'passable' in a literal sense. He'd just passed it to another hadn't he?
"Nick that's great!" She appropriated the tumbler and looked inside. "Wow...and you ate all of it?"
The vampire was feeling more guilty by the second. Not to mention worried. He could almost see the gears in her scientific mind working. Oh, god---she was going to make him more of these, wasn't she?
"We've finally found something you can tolerate besides..." She felt her foot bump into something that was too soft to be part of her furniture set, and too angled away from Nicholas to be a part of him.
Her eyes narrowed a bit.
"Nick?" she asked pleasantly.
"Hmm," he murmured, gracing her with an unnaturally bright smile which only served to confirm her suspicion.
She made him wait while she took a sip from her cappuccino.
"You know, Nick... If I were to say...oh... look under this table, I wouldn't happen to find a certain garbage-disposal of a digimon, would I?"
"Um…" De Brabant thought that he'd rather be anywhere else at the moment. Even if it was sunbathing on top of the CN Tower.
"Because if I did, said digimon and his fangy partner will be toast."
The vampire's smile turned sickly as an anxious voice piped up from the vicinity of their feet.
"Then, please, Lady Natalie, do NOT look under this table!"
The wizard scrambled out from under the table, giving them a moment's fright at the sight of his protein-drink gummed visage. "You didn't tell me she could shoot flames! Can all humans here do that?"
Ignoring the questions, Nick coughed into his hand, kicking back his chair as a prelude to vacating the area. "Well. I think it's definitely time we left. I've got to see someone about getting Wizardmon set with some Norwegian identity papers and such."
"Nick..." his girlfriend sternly warned.
"No time like the present." Her vampire friend knelt down to scoop up the digimon, heading for the door. "The captain just might decide to look into his background after all, and I want to have all the bases covered."
Joke over, an alarmed Natalie rushed after them. "Nick, you aren't thinking of taking him to the Raven! How will the Community react? I mean, that cover story you gave will only go so far. Why can't you do all this over the phone?"
Wizardmon---whose stitches were getting more gunked up by the second courtesy of the drying protein drink--- agreed. "I don't know what a phone is," he told Nicholas, "but she is genuinely worried---as you are sorry for hurting her."
"Wizardmon, shut up."
"Yes, Nick." The digimon cringed within in his grip, turning his attention to futily scrubbing at the concrete substance on his face in forlorn silence.
Damn.
"Sorry...just try to keep other's thoughts to yourself." Nick ruefully faced Natalie as he let Wizardmon down on his feet. The digimon promptly floated up, much to the doctor's surprise despite seeing it before.
"He's right, I am sorry about trying to trick you, Nat. I really should have at least tasted your recipe myself. But I was going to drop Wizardmon off at my place, not take him to the club."
Tearing her gaze from the digimon levitating two feet off her floor, Natalie was quick to point out, "In the same vein---if you'll pardon the expression---of avoiding unnecessary contact with your extended relations, why don't you let him stay here? You said Lacroix woke him up last time...maybe he'd be more comfortable sleeping here away from any surprise visitors?" She gave the Data a meaningful look. "Besides, he still owes me for the food, and I'm not letting him weasel out of our deal."
Wizardmon floated closer to Nicholas as if seeking protection. He'd rather hoped she'd forgotten about that!
Laying a reassuring hand on the digimon's shoulder, the corners of Nicholas' mouth twitched into the beginnings of a smile. "He'd eat you out of apartment and home, Nat."
"But at least I'd know that someone enjoyed my cooking."
"Ouch." De Brabant pantomimed being struck in the chest with one hand while reaching for his cell phone with the other.
Reaching over, she grabbed a wide-eyed Wizardmon by a sleeve and hauled him along to her bathroom. "Now c'mon, Mr. Bottomless Pit… It looks like your going to need the assistance of a washcloth and an introduction to something called WaterPik."
Chuckling, Nicholas punched his speed dial number for the Raven and was rewarded by deep, thumping music coming from the nightclub's background. A pleasantly accented male voice came on.
["This is the Raven, where the night's enjoyment is eternal..."]
Nicholas almost laughed, wondering who had come up with that greeting. "Catchy opening, Miklos, you should go into the commercial jingle business. Patch me through to Janette will you?"
["Nick? Sure thing."]
He waited as he heard the amused bartender repeat his sister's name to someone.
[ "Hello?"]
"Janette, I need some information."
(Hearing the sexy vampiress' name being spoken through the open door, Dr. Lambert made an expression of distaste, as she scrubbed away at the mage's face with a washcloth.)
Wizardmon gave her a sideways look when he felt her thoughts darken considerably---along with the intensity of her scrubbing.
He'd tried to tell her he could do this by himself, but she'd insisted, giving off all sorts of strange vibrations as she'd 'assisted' him ---not to mention changing her vocal tones. It was not unlike those behaviors he'd observed while studying adult humans interacting with the smaller children they had.
Surely she didn't think he was a dependant child? He was several hundred years out from the digital egg, for Azulamong's sake! An adult by digimon standards for several decades! He was no infant who needed to be coddled and…
Then again… this did feel sort of… nice.
For years the wizard had played the part of protector for Gatomon. For a long time before that he'd been alone---his own sole guardian against the evils of the world. But before that he had had someone that he'd been able to go to for protection and comfort. He'd forgotten how wonderful a treasure that was---to have someone willing to 'chase the kwagumon' away.
Would it hurt to swallow his pride just a little?
Slowly, he relaxed his 'martyr pose' and succumbed to her ministrations.
.
"Lady Natalie, who is this 'Janette'?" Wizardmon telepathed to her, wishing to know if this was a new enemy he'd have to be on guard for.
"Janette DuCharme, owner of the Raven and Nick's sister," the coroner scowled. "A vamp in all meanings of the word."
"Ah," Wizardmon commented, not understanding what she meant by that, but seeing Nicholas' look of disapproval aimed at them, decided it was best to keep quiet while the vampire concluded his business.
After a minute she came back with an assortment of breads, fruits and vegetables laden in a bowl.
"Dinner is served, Monsieur Wizardmon," she offered, serving him the food along with a bad French accent. "The establishment hopes it is to your liking?"
The digimon gave her a quizzical look as he politely asked, "Are you all right, Lady Natalie? Your voice sounds different."
His waitress noticeably deflated at that, placing the bowl in front of him.
"Just eat."
The two Earth dwellers watched in mute fascination as the boyish wizard---eschewing the fork his host had provided--- began to devour everything by systematically holding the edibles to his mouth and shaving away at it with his stitches--- even the tough rind of a cantaloupe that she'd cut into sections for him. And not one drop or crumb made it to the floor.
"That was good!" Wizardmon sighed, the tip of his tongue delicately maneuvering between the now relaxed metal in order to carefully lick the area clean of errant scraps. "Thank you, Nicholas my friend and Nicholas' friend, Natalie."
"Isn't that dangerous," Natalie winced just watching the operation, the early demise of her mirror still etched into her mind. "You could give 'bite my tongue off' a whole new meaning."
Wizardmon grunted in agreement. "It took some practice, but I am careful. It's not like everyone would stoop to aid a 'glitch' clumsy enough to injure himself. I do use a brush for a better job of it, but as you might imagine, the replacement rate is rather high." Feeling suddenly melancholy, he looked down at the empty bowl. "Too, I don't know if I'll ever get home again to buy a new one… so I want it to last." He surreptitiously wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall from his eye.
Nick and Natalie exchanged glances.
"Hey, chin up---I was only joking," told him kindly. "And I'm sure we have the equivalent of stitch brushes somewhere on Earth---as a temporary solution until you get back home, of course."
The wizard smiled his gratitude for her optimism on his behalf. He had to think positive---he *would* get home again.
Dr. Lambert took the empty bowl from his hands. "Well, at least he's cleaner than some of my regular patients," she commented in passing to her coworker. "And its refreshing that one of you isn't a picky eater." Her eyes twinkled. "That reminds me..." Rising up to her feet, Natalie headed for her kitchen. "Excuse us a minute, Wizardmon, but…Nick? I have something I want you to try. It's a new recipe..."
Nick made a show of consulting his watch. "Gee, Nat...I think its time we..."
"Nicholas…?" Wizardmon began to question, sensing distress coming from his friend.
Shooting Wizardmon an admonishment to "wait there a moment," Natalie grabbed the knight's sleeve and neatly steered him into the kitchen where she pulled out a chair from her small dining table. "Oh, no--you two aren't going anywhere. Sit, buster. You're 'Norwegian troll' will be fine by himself for a few minutes."
Nicholas gave a theatrical moan, but dutifully---if unhappily--- sat.
Opening her refrigerator, Natalie took out a plastic tumbler and set it before him. He didn't need to bring it to his nose to decide that the concoction smelled even viler than the last batch she'd devised for his tasting. Ruthlessly, he suppressed his automatic 'gag' reflex.
"Try that while I fix my own cup of liquid energy and we can discuss in private what we're going to do with your friend out there."
"We?" Nicholas asked absently, most of his mind busy trying to figure out how he was going to get rid of the drink without hurting Natalie's feelings. The stuff was part of her attempts to cure him of his vampirism by weaning him off of blood. So far, they'd only managed to sicken him and leave him as hungry as ever. He was sure that if he'd been human, the drink would taste just fine, unfortunately, as it was... But then, if he was human, then she wouldn't be experimenting with his diet either. For one thing, the 13th Century man and the 20th Century woman would never have met.
It was a nice little Catch 22. He couldn't have a closer relationship with her because of the very thing that had made it possible for them to be in the same time period at all.
Natalie chuckled as she fished out some milk from her refrigerator, pouring some into a bowl for Sydney as well as into the machine. "Hey, you're the one who brought him over to show me. I am now officially involved." She turned on her espresso maker.
Catching the slight movement of the kitchen door opening a crack, Nicholas looked over to see Wizardmon cautiously peek inside. A sly grin spread over the vampire's face as he clandestinely indicated for the digimon to enter. Glancing back to make sure Natalie was preoccupied with her caffeine preparations, he again gestured---this time that Wizardmon should get under the table.
Puzzled, but willing, Wizardmon did as instructed and was rewarded by a delicious aroma when Nicholas silently passed him the tumbler.
Well, if Nicholas wanted him to eat even more Wizardmon was happy to oblige! In a matter of seconds, he had downed the container's liquid contents, happily licking his mouth in an attempt to claim every last gooey molecule of the stuff.. Nicholas hastily snatched the empty tumbler back as the coroner turned around, steaming coffee mug in hand.
"So, what do you think?" Natalie asked, pulling out a chair to sit beside him.
"Uh...about what?"
"The protein drink, Nick."
He spared the container a quick glance, trying to appear nonchalant. "Oh. It was... uh, passable."
"Really?"
She gave him a radiant smile, making him feel guilty for lying to her. But she had no idea how awful those things were to his vampire palate. Besides, the stuff had been 'passable' in a literal sense. He'd just passed it to another hadn't he?
"Nick that's great!" She appropriated the tumbler and looked inside. "Wow...and you ate all of it?"
The vampire was feeling more guilty by the second. Not to mention worried. He could almost see the gears in her scientific mind working. Oh, god---she was going to make him more of these, wasn't she?
"We've finally found something you can tolerate besides..." She felt her foot bump into something that was too soft to be part of her furniture set, and too angled away from Nicholas to be a part of him.
Her eyes narrowed a bit.
"Nick?" she asked pleasantly.
"Hmm," he murmured, gracing her with an unnaturally bright smile which only served to confirm her suspicion.
She made him wait while she took a sip from her cappuccino.
"You know, Nick... If I were to say...oh... look under this table, I wouldn't happen to find a certain garbage-disposal of a digimon, would I?"
"Um…" De Brabant thought that he'd rather be anywhere else at the moment. Even if it was sunbathing on top of the CN Tower.
"Because if I did, said digimon and his fangy partner will be toast."
The vampire's smile turned sickly as an anxious voice piped up from the vicinity of their feet.
"Then, please, Lady Natalie, do NOT look under this table!"
The wizard scrambled out from under the table, giving them a moment's fright at the sight of his protein-drink gummed visage. "You didn't tell me she could shoot flames! Can all humans here do that?"
Ignoring the questions, Nick coughed into his hand, kicking back his chair as a prelude to vacating the area. "Well. I think it's definitely time we left. I've got to see someone about getting Wizardmon set with some Norwegian identity papers and such."
"Nick..." his girlfriend sternly warned.
"No time like the present." Her vampire friend knelt down to scoop up the digimon, heading for the door. "The captain just might decide to look into his background after all, and I want to have all the bases covered."
Joke over, an alarmed Natalie rushed after them. "Nick, you aren't thinking of taking him to the Raven! How will the Community react? I mean, that cover story you gave will only go so far. Why can't you do all this over the phone?"
Wizardmon---whose stitches were getting more gunked up by the second courtesy of the drying protein drink--- agreed. "I don't know what a phone is," he told Nicholas, "but she is genuinely worried---as you are sorry for hurting her."
"Wizardmon, shut up."
"Yes, Nick." The digimon cringed within in his grip, turning his attention to futily scrubbing at the concrete substance on his face in forlorn silence.
Damn.
"Sorry...just try to keep other's thoughts to yourself." Nick ruefully faced Natalie as he let Wizardmon down on his feet. The digimon promptly floated up, much to the doctor's surprise despite seeing it before.
"He's right, I am sorry about trying to trick you, Nat. I really should have at least tasted your recipe myself. But I was going to drop Wizardmon off at my place, not take him to the club."
Tearing her gaze from the digimon levitating two feet off her floor, Natalie was quick to point out, "In the same vein---if you'll pardon the expression---of avoiding unnecessary contact with your extended relations, why don't you let him stay here? You said Lacroix woke him up last time...maybe he'd be more comfortable sleeping here away from any surprise visitors?" She gave the Data a meaningful look. "Besides, he still owes me for the food, and I'm not letting him weasel out of our deal."
Wizardmon floated closer to Nicholas as if seeking protection. He'd rather hoped she'd forgotten about that!
Laying a reassuring hand on the digimon's shoulder, the corners of Nicholas' mouth twitched into the beginnings of a smile. "He'd eat you out of apartment and home, Nat."
"But at least I'd know that someone enjoyed my cooking."
"Ouch." De Brabant pantomimed being struck in the chest with one hand while reaching for his cell phone with the other.
Reaching over, she grabbed a wide-eyed Wizardmon by a sleeve and hauled him along to her bathroom. "Now c'mon, Mr. Bottomless Pit… It looks like your going to need the assistance of a washcloth and an introduction to something called WaterPik."
Chuckling, Nicholas punched his speed dial number for the Raven and was rewarded by deep, thumping music coming from the nightclub's background. A pleasantly accented male voice came on.
["This is the Raven, where the night's enjoyment is eternal..."]
Nicholas almost laughed, wondering who had come up with that greeting. "Catchy opening, Miklos, you should go into the commercial jingle business. Patch me through to Janette will you?"
["Nick? Sure thing."]
He waited as he heard the amused bartender repeat his sister's name to someone.
[ "Hello?"]
"Janette, I need some information."
(Hearing the sexy vampiress' name being spoken through the open door, Dr. Lambert made an expression of distaste, as she scrubbed away at the mage's face with a washcloth.)
Wizardmon gave her a sideways look when he felt her thoughts darken considerably---along with the intensity of her scrubbing.
He'd tried to tell her he could do this by himself, but she'd insisted, giving off all sorts of strange vibrations as she'd 'assisted' him ---not to mention changing her vocal tones. It was not unlike those behaviors he'd observed while studying adult humans interacting with the smaller children they had.
Surely she didn't think he was a dependant child? He was several hundred years out from the digital egg, for Azulamong's sake! An adult by digimon standards for several decades! He was no infant who needed to be coddled and…
Then again… this did feel sort of… nice.
For years the wizard had played the part of protector for Gatomon. For a long time before that he'd been alone---his own sole guardian against the evils of the world. But before that he had had someone that he'd been able to go to for protection and comfort. He'd forgotten how wonderful a treasure that was---to have someone willing to 'chase the kwagumon' away.
Would it hurt to swallow his pride just a little?
Slowly, he relaxed his 'martyr pose' and succumbed to her ministrations.
.
"Lady Natalie, who is this 'Janette'?" Wizardmon telepathed to her, wishing to know if this was a new enemy he'd have to be on guard for.
"Janette DuCharme, owner of the Raven and Nick's sister," the coroner scowled. "A vamp in all meanings of the word."
"Ah," Wizardmon commented, not understanding what she meant by that, but seeing Nicholas' look of disapproval aimed at them, decided it was best to keep quiet while the vampire concluded his business.