Arukenimon and Mummymon are back, twelve years after the end of 02. Working in the Digital World for the Chosen Children, they find an all-consuming blob of slime, the result of a glitch caused by Oikawa Yukio's negative energy. Meanwhile, Gennai witnesses Oikawa's reincarnation. Oikawa offers himself to the slime and ends up trapped inside it. Koushirou, Iori, Mummymon and Arukenimon ponder their next move- then Iori springs into action.

Chapter 4: Learning to Fly
Arukenimon roared in frustration and Mummymon's jaw dropped as Iori, without warning, plunged himself into the ravenous blob after Oikawa. Arukenimon's hastily thrown Spider Thread missed him by moments, sticking to and slowly being absorbed by the slimy entity. "What.. What is your PROBLEM?" she shouted at Koushirou, enraged.

He gave her a blank look over the screen of his laptop. "My problem?"

She pointed furiously at Iori and Oikawa, shadows in the slime. "You humans! 'Oh, an enemy, I know, I'll sacrifice myself to it!'"

"I'm sure Iori has more of a plan than that," the young man replied, returning his attention to the screen.

"At least he's ok... like the boss," Mummymon observed, though he didn't exactly look thrilled with this turn of events, either. "Maybe he can do something from in there..."

Iori had held tight to his thoughts, entering the blob, expecting some kind of mental attack. But despite the disturbingly clammy feel of the slime around him, and the disorienting effect of not needing to breathe, it was numbly peaceful here. It reminded him of the moment of falling asleep.

Cautiously, he reached out in the darkness, searching for Oikawa. Or rather, he tried to - his limbs responded sluggishly, and in the numb darkness he couldn't tell whether he was touching anything.

As he strained forward, Oikawa's voice spoke in his head. "It's good to be with you again, Iori."

The voice was unnerving, cold and hollow, but Iori was cheered. He was right! He could talk to it! "Hello, Mr. Oikawa," he began.

"We're not Oikawa... We are just lonely. But he's within us, like you."

"I know. I'm here to help him. And you."

"There is no helping us," it admonished sadly.

"You could let me try," Iori insisted.

"That would require hope," it explained, "and we have none."

"Please... At least let me speak to Mr. Oikawa?"

It sighed, from the depths of its misery. "Within our lonely body, two friends meet... It would bring us pain to see companionship within us when we have none."

"But you could have it. Oikawa had it when you were still part of him, didn't he?"

"It brings us pain to think of such things." It sighed again, sounding defeated. "Just as you bring us pain by reminding us of all we've lost. We are pain. It doesn't matter."

Iori's hand knocked into something, and he closed it around a wrist. The wrist's owner jerked away in surprise but he held tight. "It's ok, Mr. Oikawa! It's me - Hida Iori!"

"Iori?" Oikawa's disbelieving voice called in his head, and a hand grabbed his wrist too. "What..?"

"I'll get us out, Mr. Oikawa, don't worry."

But Oikawa had pulled him close and was holding him tight. "Oh, Iori.. Why did you come? Now you're trapped too. This is all my fault!" He released him and roared in frustrated despair. It reminded Iori of Arukenimon. "Because of me, the Digital World is in danger again.. and you! Iori... You shouldn't have risked yourself for me. I'm just not worth it."

The slime's voice joined in. "Lose hope, and you can lose yourself in us. We could at least be misery, together."

Iori found one of Oikawa's hands and gripped it. "Don't lose hope, Mr. Oikawa. There's always a way. We'll find it."

"Sage advice," a new voice interrupted, chilling Oikawa to the bone. "There is always a way. And I always find it."

"No! You're not here! You're not real!" Oikawa yelled.

"I am. And guess what I can do with the power of all this misery?"

Iori felt Oikawa's other hand close around his neck and begin to squeeze.

And the sound of Oikawa screaming filled his mind.

Arukenimon tore a large branch out of one of the trees and attempted to use it to fish Iori out of the blob. Unfortunately, it dissolved in the devouring slime before she could so much as poke him with it. She growled.

Mummymon looked anxiously back and forth from the hazy shapes in the slime to Koushirou's screen. He willed himself to understand the information the human was analyzing. It didn't work. "Uh, so, can you- is he-"

Koushirou sighed with annoyance as Mummymon continued to fret behind his shoulder. "The data are relatively confusing, actually, and I'd be better able to discover what they mean if you didn't interrupt me."

Over the next few seconds, the steady graphs and readouts that had been scrolling by began to change dramatically, and the computer made a sound that Mummymon was sure had to be an alarm. He glanced back up at the slime and nearly squeaked with shock.

Oikawa was surrounded by the aura again, but much stronger now. It nearly lit up the whole blob, diffused through its translucent mass. One of Iori's hands was holding one of Oikawa's hands. The other was trying to pry Oikawa's other hand loose from Iori's neck.

"What's going on!" he wailed, "He's - the boss is hurting Iori!"

Arukenimon watched, frozen. It couldn't be. She quickly snapped herself out of it and yelled at Koushirou, whose brows were now furrowed as far as they could go. "WHAT IS THAT? Is that what I think it is?"

"No!" Mummymon cried, turning a pleading stare onto her, his claws balled up into desperate fists. "No, no, it's not!"

"Koushirou will figure something out. Stay calm," Kabuterimon suggested loudly from the other side of the clearing, where he was still managing the smaller blobs.

Both of the half-Digimon shot him a knife-filled glance. "CALM?" Mummymon shouted angrily, sneering with disbelief.

"It does," Koushirou said, and then paused, holding the entire group in suspense, the only sound his lightning fast typing. "It does appear to be Vamdemon's energy signature."

Mummymon fainted. Arukenimon grabbed him by the harness as he fell, gave him a mighty slap to wake him up, and set him on his feet. "How do we save Iori?" she demanded.

Koushirou shook his head, his eyes never leaving his screen. "I don't know yet. I don't... I haven't had enough time," he said.

"I could pull him out," Mummymon suggested in a dead voice. "We dissolve slowly in there."

"Not that slowly," Arukenimon snapped. "You'd be-" She blinked. "No, you can't!"

"I can't just watch Vamdemon destroy him!"

"I can't just watch you die," she yelled back.

"Oh, Arukenimon," he sobbed, and grabbed her in a tearful hug. "I'm sorry - but I have to tr-" He was interrupted, snatched off his feet by one of his partner's powerful arms. "There's no time for this!" he pleaded, hanging helplessly in the air.

"You're right!" she shouted at him, her face lit up with something that made Mummymon gasp. She threw him as hard as she could, turned and charged the blob.

"ARUKENIMON!" he shrieked, soaring through the air. The moment he landed he ran after her, hot on her six swift heels.

"Wait! Everyone, calm down! Don't be reckless!" Koushirou admonished, attention still desperately focused on his laptop.

The two half-Digimon ignored this advice utterly, with Arukenimon and then Mummymon plunging into the hungry ball of slime, each fearless with the need to save their family.

"Stop," begged Oikawa hopelessly, while his shadow went on screaming. He tried to take control of his arms, but he couldn't affect a muscle. He couldn't even tell how hard he was s- strangling Iori. He could only feel the warmth of the young man's neck seeping through the numbness of his hands. "Please, Vamdemon, have mercy!"

"Mercy? Heavens no!" the demon's voice dismissed sunnily. "I need your pain to become stronger. Why else did you think I brought you all here?"

Oikawa's blood ran cold. "You..."

"I'll be happy to explain- it will hurt you so much." Vamdemon chuckled smugly. "As I'm sure you've guessed by now, when I vacated your body twelve years ago, I left traces - a spore of myself, if you will, embedded deep within your code. Unseen, practically powerless, but with you always."

All this time? Oikawa felt despair welling up inside him. But no! That was just what this monster wanted! He had to take back control, and save Iori! Fighting, he tried to summon his anger instead. How dare Vamdemon do this to him again?

"When this glitch - your fault as well, and nothing to do with me, by the way - appeared... Even in your state, when you saw it, you felt horribly guilty. That guilt was the first sustenance my spore had tasted in a decade. You gave me enough strength to influence your thoughts, and you never even noticed."

Oikawa struggled. He wished his shadow, the slime, would stop screaming! It - it wasn't his fault, he was doing his best! He couldn't have known!

"You see... You didn't need to come here at all," the vampire smiled, even as his host fought him. "This glitch in the Digital World was well within the abilities of your little friends to deal with. The conviction that you alone could stop it, came from me. And now, thanks to your blindness, I have been fed, Iori will die, and your despair will give me all the strength I need to be reborn."

"I won't... Won't let you hurt Iori!"

"You lack the strength to oppose me," Vamdemon dismissed.

And he was right.

Iori found it surprisingly easy to stay calm, probably because of how surreal this was - even by the Digital World's standards. He attacked Oikawa's thumb, trying to ruin the one-handed grip on his throat. "Mr. Oikawa!" he shouted, glad he wasn't using his voice to speak here in the slime, "Don't listen to him!"

But if Oikawa could hear him, he didn't show it, and Vamdemon certainly didn't respond.

"Mr. Oikawa!"

"It's no use. He can't help you," Oikawa's hollow voice replied, while the scream faded to a background volume in Iori's head. "If you don't want to die like this, you could lose yourself in hopelessness and join us, instead. But you don't have much time."

"Never! There is always a way," Iori repeated staunchly. "You! You can absorb and break down matter and energy. You could absorb and destroy Vamdemon!"

"What?" There was a long pause. "No... It's hopeless."

"You could try! Please! Maybe you could do it!"

It sighed. "It's better that we don't try. We always meant well, and only caused pain. No good can come of us."

"You're wrong!" Iori pleaded, his blood pounding in his ears. "Even the worst parts of Oikawa, in the depths of despair and grip of evil, created worthy things. Your Digimon - Mummymon and Arukenimon!"

"They... No. They were barely more than shells. Mere constructs."

"They may have started as simple creatures. But they were alive, and they grew! They're unquestionably real, whole... Even capable of love!"

"Love?" Oikawa's voice repeated, doubtful. "No... they were just bonded... We made them that way..."

"Vamdemon knew. He used their love to bring pain, to strengthen himself. From Mr. Oikawa at his worst - from you - has come love!"

There was no reply.

The screaming stopped.

"Vamdemon?" the slime's hollow voice called out.

"I have no business with you," he replied. "Except to enjoy your miserable existence."

"We are miserable," it agreed. "And hungry."

Vamdemon found the threat in its voice amusing, until he felt his strength begin to ebb away from him. He roared. "How dare you attack me? You - you're NOTHING!"

"We are so very very empty. We'll take you and still be empty. It's you that's nothing."

Oikawa, shocked but heartened by his shadow's rebellion, tried again to gain control of his body and release Iori. He distinctly felt his arm shake, fighting to let go.

"NO!" Vamdemon roared, feeling his strength fade even faster. No, no, no! Impossible! He roared again, hating defeat, and tried to retreat, tried to hide himself in Oikawa once more.

But Oikawa didn't let him in to any of the places he could hide. The doubt, the guilt, the despair, that were his keys to the shadowy depths of Oikawa's subconscious... he couldn't find them.

"HOW?" Vamdemon ranted. "You're MINE! You've never been free of me!"

"Not for a long time," Oikawa said quietly, concentrating on loosening his grip, "but I was, once."

"Stop! You can't defeat me! I'll make you regret this!"

The slime laughed bitterly. "Aren't you wretched? A powerless human is destroying you, with nothing but his own flaws."

"I can't.. be defeated," he insisted, his voice weak and strained.

Oikawa finally pulled his hand away from Iori's neck, relief and triumph flooding through him, forcing a choked cry out of the vampire. "I won't be sad because of you anymore, Vamdemon."

The digital monster no longer had the strength to speak.

A few moments later, the slime sighed.

"We were right. He wasn't very filling."

"...Mr. Oikawa?" Iori called cautiously. "Can you hear me? You didn't hurt me. Are you OK?"

"I am," Oikawa's voice confirmed, sounding rich, deep, full. Iori was relieved to hear it.

Even the slime sounded less miserable. "You were right. We could help."

Iori sighed, rubbing his neck, even though he couldn't feel it anyway. "I'm glad I could change your mind," he said.

"You didn't."

"What? Then what..."

"Uh... Hello," Mummymon's voice joined in.

"Mummymon?" Iori and Oikawa chorused.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Arukenimon snapped, annoyed as ever. "I jumped in first, you know."

"They came into our body to try to save the two of you," the slime explained. "We looked within them and saw you were telling the truth."

"The truth about what?" Arukenimon demanded.

"We decided not to eat them," it concluded.

"Convenient," she said acidly.

"Did you want to be destroyed?" Mummymon asked, sounding hurt.

"Of course not! But I guess YOU did - Why did you follow me, you moron? I was trying to spare you."

Mummymon blinked, surprised to hear her plainly say something so caring.

"I understand, Arukenimon," Iori soothed. "You made the decision to risk your life selflessly, and then you weren't given the chance to save us after all."

She growled. "Thanks for pointing it out!"

"But, Arukenimon.. You did save us. Didn't she?" he asked the slime.

"Yes," it replied. "If we hadn't seen your soul, we would never have believed Iori. And we would never have tried to destroy Vamdemon."

"..Oh," she said, somewhat stunned.

Something touched her in the slime, and she jumped, but then it wrapped around her in a familiar annoying bony hug. "We did it!" Mummymon beamed, "and we're ok!"

"Ok, ok," she muttered. "Hooray. Now get off of me."

"What now?" Iori wondered. "Mr. Oikawa - Now that we're all on speaking terms with your - with this, shouldn't it have a name?"

"A name?" the slime echoed. "You make it sound as if we were a worthy creature."

Oikawa chuckled. "Yes, of course. How does Ishikawa sound to you?"

There was a cold, contemplative silence. "We will respond to it," the slime said at length.

Iori was cheered by its cooperation. "Mr. Ishikawa, will you accept our friendship and allegiance?"

"Perhaps," it replied, sounding surprised at itself for saying so. "We aren't sure of ourselves. We had no idea we were this flexible - no idea we had any capacity for things like friendship, hope.."

"Heroism," Iori supplied.

"Certainly we never imagined we'd save lives," it granted.

"Join the club," Arukenimon muttered, making Mummymon chuckle.

"Very well. We will accept your friendship, for now."

Oikawa smiled warmly at his shadow's turn for the better. He himself felt light-hearted, in a way he hadn't for a long time. A sudden thought struck him - Datirimon! He was going to see his Digimon again!

But here, in the slime, he could practically feel Mummymon and Arukenimon's presence, their strong feelings. They had worked hard to protect him - and hadn't Arukenimon saved his life earlier as well? They were his Digimon too, in a way that was completely unique in this world. He resolved to start finding ways to show them what they meant to him.

A confident Koushirou and Kabuterimon, a worried Gennai and Datirimon, and the few dozen leftover butterflies greeted the divers when they surfaced from the wobbly blob. Oikawa and Datirimon got center stage, a happy reunion of man and tomato, Oikawa shedding a few tears of joy and Datirimon breaking all records for looking happy and adorable. The two half-Digimon, back in their human forms, stood off to the side, watching. Arukenimon tried to ignore the way it made her feel bitter and neglected. Mummymon noticed her petulant expression, guessed the reason for it, and decided to risk giving her some attention. Casually, he put an arm around her shoulder, inviting her to lean on him.

She did. He grinned. Then Oikawa turned towards them, smiling brilliantly, and he felt her go tense and uncomfortable.

"I'd like to introduce you," Oikawa said, holding his tomato proudly.

Arukenimon looked into the fresh green Digimon's happy little black button eyes and inexplicably found herself wanting to stab them with something. To her intense disquiet, his expression changed immediately to one of saddened concern.

"This is Datirimon - my partner Digimon," Oikawa began, but broke off, noticing the tension between the vegetable and the spider.

"I hope you're not mad," Datirimon said quietly. "I know I never did anything special for Yukio like you did. I just... waited."

She stared, her anger towards him slipping away like slimy seaweed from an anchor. "Well. Maybe I'm mad and maybe I'm not. Just watch that you treat him right, or you'll be answering to me. Got that?"

To her annoyance, he read her like a book once again, cheerfully smiling and nodding his assent. "You bet I do!"

Oikawa chuckled warmly. Mummymon did, too, until Arukenimon kicked her heel into his shin, but his grin stayed up, undamaged.

Meanwhile, the blob rolled around collecting the smaller blobs into itself. Nobody seemed to mind this, so Kabuterimon reverted to his more comfortable shape and returned to Koushirou's side.

The group discussed the remaining butterflies, which probably continued to carry Vamdemon's taint, and resolved to deal with them later. They discussed the Ishikawa-the-blob's nature and future. During this conversation, it became clear that the only way to talk with Ishikawa was to stick one's head in it. Koushirou happily started work on a way around this inconvenience.

Iori regretfully had to depart for the real world, where he was overdue to pick up Armadimon from a lunch date with Wormmon. Arukenimon noticed that he didn't mention Ken. She snorted, amused by the boy's care avoiding the subject of Ken around her. Mummymon noticed too, only he more correctly guessed that it was Oikawa's feelings the young man was trying to spare.

It didn't really work, though. Oikawa gave Iori a message to relay to Ken, hoping they'd meet sometime soon. He regretted the fact that he'd never apologized to the Ichijouji boy for all the suffering he'd caused. It was another line on the long list of things he wanted to make up for.

Gennai was pleased to find his trust in Oikawa's heart so well rewarded. It was no real surprise. The Digital World had read the man's self-image and clothed him in Guardian's robes, after all. He felt honestly proud of him for coming so far, for facing his mistakes with determination, even if he was still prone to letting his angst run away with him. There were worse flaws.

"So, Yukio," Gennai smiled, "I can't help but notice you're in my uniform. Will you be working with me?"

"I've been working with you for over ten years," Oikawa replied warmly, "I'm not going to stop now. I... Thank you for accepting-"

"Stop that! You don't owe me thanks, or anything else. I haven't given you a place by my side. You've earned it."

Oikawa was at a loss for words. Tears glimmered in his eyes. Gennai was struck by an unfamiliar urge to hug him, but didn't act on it. After a moment, Oikawa got a grip on himself and smiled hopefully, his whole vulnerable soul laid out for all to see. "I can give you things I don't owe you, can't I? Aren't we friends?"

Gennai laughed, and this time he did hug the other man. "Of course we're friends, Yukio. Don't ever doubt it."

Arukenimon took Mummymon's hat off and pretended to throw up in it. Mummymon snatched it back and hit her over the head with it, giving her an exasperated look. She stuck her foot behind his ankle and shoved him. He fell over with a comical noise of surprise.

"Stop that," Datirimon shouted at them, adorably, "you're ruining a very precious moment!"

"Arukenimon?"

She looked up, wide eyed, at the sound of her master's voice, and then scowled. It was like she was two years old again. Maybe she did hate her capacity for 'positive' emotion after all.

"Will you come with me to talk for a moment?" he asked, while Mummymon got to his feet, unhurt and showing clear curiosity.

She frowned at the way her stomach felt light and her mind quietened at the thought of getting Oikawa's full attention. Ridiculous! She'd already been speaking to him for hours! She did her best to ignore it, and followed him as he walked into the quiet of the woods.

"I need to apologize to both you and Mummymon for practically everything," he said to the woods, then stopped to face Arukenimon. "And I need to tell you both how very important you are to me. But that's not what I asked you here to talk about, not yet."

"Then what is your point?" she asked, feeling less comfortable all of a sudden.

"I know you love Mummymon. And I know you're not acting much like it."

She blinked. That was the big deal? "So what? Whose rules am I breaking?"

"And I know you're not happy."

"Yeah, shows what you know."

"I understand unhappiness too well to be fooled, Arukenimon."

She pouted.

"And I understand what a dangerous thing love can be," he pressed on. "I wouldn't blame you for mistrusting it, after you saw the kind of hurt it could cause. But you'll see why it's worthwhile if you let yourself enjoy it. Trust me, Arukenimon. I've been dealt one of the worst hands of love. But I wouldn't take back a moment of it, not if it could erase every hole in my heart."

"Ugh. You know, I wish you wouldn't make it so clear that you don't know me, trying to make an argument as dripping with sentiment as that," she snapped.

Oikawa's eyes blazed with pure truth. "Mummymon loves you, Arukenimon. And the feeling is mutual. Don't you dare waste that."

Ugh! That wasn't fair. She was already trying to let Mummymon closer to her, anyway. She'd admitted to herself that she liked him, she just still... Ugh. She frowned, wanting to narrow her eyes in a sneer, to say there was nothing to waste, but with the sheer force of Oikawa's feelings directed at her, she simply didn't have the nerve to lie. She found it hard to make all her hairs stand on end, so she couldn't even bristle the way she liked. "You can't tell me what to do," she managed, "Not anymore." Ugh! Why did it make her feel so bad to say that? Why did the hurt in his eyes reflect right back on to her?

Oikawa watched Arukenimon pick up on how hurtful her rebuke was, watched her frown and look away in obvious remorse. He couldn't help but feel proud. She really had grown, and learned empathy all on her own. "You're right. I can't tell you what to do. I'm not your master anymore. You are."

She sniffed and scowled, appalled to find herself suddenly on the verge of tears. "Ok then. I'm glad we're both clear on that," she sneered, hoping she didn't sound too choked up.

"Crystal clear," he agreed, and sighed, looking around at the trees. "We should go back."

"Ok," she croaked.

He nodded, and led the way back. He didn't speak and didn't look at her, not even once.

She scrubbed at her face, and wished he would look back, so she could prove that she wasn't crying.

Mummymon and Gennai were chatting amiably about Oikawa and Arukenimon when the two returned from their walk. Oikawa caught Mummymon's curious eye and silently let him know not to bother Arukenimon just yet. She followed, looking shaken, and he had to bite his tongue to follow his boss's advice.

Oikawa called his Digimon together and somewhat awkwardly expressed his apologies for the lack of care he'd shown them, the harm they had come to because of him (and forced himself not to argue when Mummymon said he'd always thought of Vamdemon as the guilty party, not him). He told Datirimon how much he loved his little tomato, and everything that having a partner Digimon meant to him. He told each of his creations how glad he was to have made them, no matter the purpose, and how proud they'd proved to be such good people. How he loved them like a son and a daughter (while Arukenimon, with tears in her eyes, painted her nails). And how he intended to show it from now on, for a start, proclaiming that he'd be there for them anytime they needed help or a shoulder to lean on.

He would've gone on, but at that point Arukenimon erupted with ire, "Ok, we get the point! I'm tired of listening to this.. this confession therapy! So you want to move on - go on then, go! What's stopping you?

But he just smiled. "I think I've misjudged Arukenimon's patience. I'm sorry. We can talk some other time. It was good to see you both."

"You're leaving?" Arukenimon asked, a little too disappointedly for her own taste. She frowned.

"Gennai has duties, and I'm going with him," he reminded her.

"I thought Koushirou was going to work with Ishikawa, with Gennai's help," Mummymon said, looking slightly lost.

"Yes. I know. We'll be back tomorrow to help. Koushirou's arranging someone to look after Ishikawa until then. Unless you two would..?"

"No thank you," Arukenimon declined vehemently.

"I don't think she wants to be tied down," Mummymon suggested.

"I think you'd be surprised what she wants," he said.

"I think you'd be surprised how hard I can hit," she interjected, "you're healthy and sane now so don't think I won't throw you a mile for making fun of me."

"I meant no insult," Oikawa chuckled.

"I know," she scowled. "Well, go if you're going. Good luck with the guardian. I know you have a thing for brunettes."

He smiled and thanked them, shook their hands, and walked back to Gennai.

Mummymon gave her shoulder a little shove. "That was terrible," he scolded.

She shrugged. "Couldn't be helped."

He sighed and looked around. It was the middle of the afternoon now, hot and tired. "Well. Do you want to head back to the jeep?"

"Ugh, no. Let's save that for later."

"Ok," he conceded.

"That eggheaded brat owes us for our help today. We'll use his computer to go back to the human world."

"Oh! Well, ok..." He began to fidget. "What are your plans there?"

She shrugged. "Pay to be waited on somewhere? Do I have to know?"

"I was just wondering if... That is... My dear..." he swallowed, nervous.

"Spit it out, Mummymon, it's hot and I'm not feeling generous."

"Please, will you go out with me tonight, my dearest Arukenimon?"

She stared, frowning.

He opened his eye hopefully. "Darling?"

"Oikawa put you up to this, didn't he?"

"What?" he said, baffled. "No... Why would he need to? You know how much I-"

"Ok, ok, shut up. I know."

A whine crept into his voice. "Oh, please don't make this so confusing for me... I thought we were going to try to be a couple. That talk we had - and you gave me a kiss, you know - that was your idea..."

"Oh! I didn't realize I was imposing."

"That's not what I meant," he wailed, frustrated.

"Yes! Ok? Yes! My answer is yes!"

He froze in shock for a long moment. "Y-yes? You mean it?"

"Don't push your luck, you slab of meat," she snapped, grabbing his collar in her fist.

"I kind of like what pushing my luck gets me," he smiled bashfully, his eye arch with mischief.

"I do a terrible job of training you otherwise," she admitted ruefully.

He leaned down and gave her a quick, joyful kiss. She didn't throw him forty yards.

She realized she was wearing a goofy smile on her face, but somehow she didn't feel like bothering to hide it. It was her choice to smile if she wanted to, wasn't it?

Yes... Her choice. Her own.

Just like Mummymon.