I don't own digimon.

Story 25.5

Room for playtime

Emily wasn't completely sure what to make of this. Having just gotten home from daycare, she hadn't expected to see a massive volcanic dragon dressed up like a princess. Amazing, even if her friends would never believe in her sightest. Sort of like the time someone claimed to see a large woman walk the beach for an unknown reason. If such a woman did exist, the news channels would be all over her. No one would be safe. If they actually were a danger. Kind of like the way stepmommy talked about her uncles. Was that why she hadn't gotten to meet them? They made knives! Every boy in her elementary school seemed to think knives were awesome. Had something happened with a knife to put her on edge? Emily wasn't completely sure.

"Dad, is that actually a giant dragon out there?" the child announced and looked over to her father. He had to have some inkling of an idea in regards to what was going on… right?

"Yes, Emily. That is a large dragon dressed up as a princess." her father answered and got out of the car. Taking a moment to compose himself, time was taken to help Emily out of her car seat. Once that was done, he closed the door and focused on his wife. Having just been flung out of her own house by a former friend, Veronica wasn't looking particularly happy. "Hi honey! Did something happen?"

Veronica didn't respond verbally, choosing instead to flip the middle finger at her husband. What did it look like here? Some kind of nice conversation between two women with varying opinions on what to do with these digital monsters. No, that bitch just walked right into her home and tried to force her opinion without having a clue of the things that she had gone through to even reach this point in life. So what if she had gotten a lucky roll and secured a royal knight of all digimon?! Sooner or later they were probably going to turn on them. Just like all the rest. Surely she was not alone in that sentiment. The world had come awfully close to ruin by way of that italian woman and her harebrained scheme to 'save the digidestined'. If anything, the only thing that accomplished was putting people at risk and killing people by complete accident. And it was only going to keep getting worse with the arrival of even more digimon. This world had enough problems without introducing digital monsters into the mix.

"What the hell do you think?!" she screeched and pulled herself up, Emily's gaze swiveling over to meet her. Leave it to her daughter to stare right into her soul in order to understand what the heck was even going on. And to that, there was no clear way to answer. Not without saying something along the lines of 'I'll tell you when you're older' or a similar line to that. "I just had an awful fucking day that just refuses to end, Lucas!"

Letting out a deep breath, Lucas looked over to Volcdramon. Currently playing with her chibi moon doll, the volcano dragon digimon was trying her best to ignore her partner. Easier said than done with Veronica's behavior currently.

"Miss Dragon, would it be wrong to assume that you're my wife's partner?" Lucas inquired, Volcdramon looking away. Why did everyone just naturally assume that she was Veronica's partner? They weren't wrong, but they could at least give her the benefit of the doubt. But that was probably asking a touch too much from a man who married miss buzzkill of all people.

"What if I am?" she countered, doing her best to keep as much of Veronica out of her vision as possible while looking at Lucas. "Maybe I'm actually your partner and you don't even know it yet."

Lucas rolled his eyes, trying his hardest not to chuckle. Of all things to hear from a digimon, an offer of partnership over their original one felt so out of place. Usually they were always asking for food or if you were their partner. What exactly had Veronica done to warrant this remark?

"Much as I appreciate the offer, I sadly don't have a digivice. At least not one that I know of." Lucas countered and found himself treated to a look from the volcano dragon digimon. Even more so when Emily headed over to her father. Giving Volcdramon a wave, she didn't get a response back.

"Do you want to play with me?" Emily inquired, Volcdramon raising an eyebrow. This had to be some kind of sick joke this world was playing on her. No way would the daughter of her partner be any fun in the slightest to play with. If anything, she would just be getting any mini version of Veronica in her boring, adult state. What good would that even accomplish here? Absolutely nothing. That's what.

"What's in it for me?" Volcdramon countered as she shifted the grip on her chibi moon doll. Emily remained silent, choosing instead to run into the house. There had to be something in there that she and the dragon could play with.

Unlike the chaotic mess of the front yard and entranceway, the rest of the house looked to be remarkably normal. Even as Emily made her way up the stairs to the second story. Much like the first, this too was relatively plain. The lavender walls had given way to a nice seafoam green, the irony of that lost on both Emily and her mother for that matter. At the top, the child took a right and made her way down the hall a couple feet. Coming to a stop at a door, Emily reached for the handle. Pushing the door open, she stepped into a wonderland of pink only appreciated by young girls. A light shade of pink decorated all four walls, whereas the floor was a mix between cream colored carpet and a pink shag rug over parts of the back corner. A bookshelf filled to the brim with books on ponies, princesses and other girly things sat center on the western wall, her disc blaster right beside it. Tempted as she was to grab that, Emily highly doubted her possible friend would be particularly keen on those kinds of games. No, she had seemed like the kind of person who would much rather have a tea party with dolls or play make-believe with stuffed animals. But that was going off of the large princess dress adorning the dragon's baby and the fact they were a dragon. They were the number one kidnapper of princesses and to some extent, princes. Which didn't make her search for appropriate toys any easier. If anything, that just made it harder. Though, there was a book that talked about being in that situation. Walking over, Emily took care in pulling the book out - What to do when you're visited by a dragon. A personal favorite, her mom absolutely refused to read it to her. Thankfully, dad didn't have the same reservations. Taking a seat on the sparkly pink bed opposite of the bookshelf, she flipped the book open. Pouring through the pages, she came upon the answer.

What to do when you're faced with a Princess Dragon

1. Compliment the dragon's appearance. They obviously put a lot of effort into their appearance. The least you can do is pay that back with kindness.

2. Find your dolls and share them. They obviously want to play. Who are you to deny them that privilege?

3. Make sure you're wearing your nicest dress. That way, the dragon knows they haven't made some kind of mistake here.

4. Play with them. They just wish to have fun and do princess things with a real life princess.

5. Once you're done, remember to thank the dragon. Dragons like being praised.

Closing the book, Emily set it down on her bed. She would put it away once she came back up with all the toys. Speaking of which, she took a couple steps forward. In front of her sat a pink toy chest. Lifting the lid up, a variety of dolls and plushies stared back. Hopefully this stuff would be up to the dragon's standards. If not, Emily wasn't sure what she would do. Grab different toys next time? Find something else that they could do?

Pushing that thought away for now, she scooped some toys and plushies up. Doing her best to close the toy chest, Emily exited her room. Heading back down the hall, she went out of her way to not trip. The last thing the child needed was a massive mess to clean up in the face of a large dragon. At the stairs, she took each step one at a time. Tempting to skip steps as it was, taking a tumble would be the most dreadful thing to occur. Thankfully, there was nothing in the way of that on her way down. Once she reached the bottom, the child's pace picked up. The sooner she reached the dragon, the sooner they could play. At least, that was how Emily hoped the conversation would play out. Nonetheless, she made a beeline right for the back door. Pulling it open, Emily chose to take the last stretch of her journey as a slow walk. The dragon didn't look to be in a hurry and the only risk to this was her stepmother.

"All of this stuff." Emily announced as she carefully placed the dolls and plushies on the ground. Volcdramon looked at the collection, trying her hardest to ignore Veronica's perpetual death glare. A pretty easy task, all things considered.

"How long do you want to play then?" Volcdramon announced and Emily brought a hand to her chin. She actually hadn't gotten that far when she decided to go and grab all this stuff. Part of her thought the best option might be to stay as long as it was necessary to calm the volcanic dragon digimon, but that could take forever.

"As long as you want?" Emily announced, ignoring the death glare she was now getting from her mother. For now, her gaze hung to Volcdramon.

"That works for me." Volcdramon answered and shot Veronica a look. Leave it to Mrs Buzzkull to try and make a good situation bad by way of her negative attitude. Surely that fact was clear to her. But no, she just needed to be an asshole to everyone. All for the sake of being an adult. Whatever the hell that meant in her partner's mind. "You know, you could learn something from your daughter, Vere."

Veronica rolled her eyes. Maybe if she just waited, this would all go back to normal. Even as Emily took a seat on the ground. Beginning to play with the assortment of stuff she had brought down, Volcdramon did her best to join in.