This is boring, Mikami thought, staring out the window.

That was about the only thing she had been doing since she was brought to the castle. The alterative to that was dealing with the various Digimon that ran around the castle on a daily basis, and she had decided to avoid running into any of them. To do that, she had been staying in the room. At that point, though, she was considering taking the risk. If she spent another day watching the clouds go by, she would go crazy. Hell, she'd even read the world's most boring book if it meant having something else to do.

There was a knock at the door.

Out of everyone she had had the pleasure of dealing with during her time there, only one of them knocked. None of the others seemed to have any manners.

Considering who they all worked for, that wasn't very surprising.

"You know you can just come in," she said. "It's pretty much a normal thing by now."

The door opened and Beelzemon poked his head into the room. "That would be impolite of me."

"Yeah, yeah." Sometimes it was annoying just how polite he was. Although, she couldn't complain too much about it. At least he tried his best not to be an asshole towards her unlike everyone else. "What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you would like to accompany me on a walk."

Well, that's funny. Beelzemon's timing was perfect, if nothing else. She hopped out of the chair and nodded. "Sure. Why not?"

Her answer must have surprised him, because he stared at her for a moment before saying, "Oh."

"What's that look for?"

"I wasn't expecting you to agree to come with me."

Shrugging, she walked up to him. "Beats staying in here. Maybe getting some fresh air will keep me from going insane."

A brief look of concern appeared on Beelzemon face, only to be replaced by confusion when Mikami said, "I'm joking. Don't take everything I say so seriously."

"It's in my nature to do so."

"I noticed." The brunette put her hand on her hip. "You know, there's something else I've noticed about you. When you're in a bad mood, you don't use contractions. Opposite for when you're in a good mood."

"I do? I've never noticed."

"Jeez. It's like you're out of touch with yourself. Kinda weird." When he frowned at her, she raised her hands in front of her. "Alright, sorry. I won't say anything else about you. No need to be touchy."

In a deadpan tone, he said, "You are the most confusing individual I have ever met."

"I don't think that you've met that many people. No offense."

He harrumphed and began walking down the hallway. She hurried after him, silently wondering why he was so annoyed by something so trivial. It wasn't like she had insulted him. If she had, she would understand the annoyance, but it seemed silly to her to get worked up over what she had said.

I wasn't trying to be a jerk to him or anything. Then again, the past week has been getting on my nerves. Maybe he thought I was trying to make fun of him? I don't even know. He's moody, just like… She paused in her thoughts to stare at his back and shook her head. Nope, don't think about it.

The castle hallways were surprisingly empty as they made their way to the entrance. Mikami thought that the place would have been full of Digimon, yet they passed by no one. Either they were lucky, or they were being purposefully avoided.

Considering who she was walking with, being avoided wouldn't come as a surprise.

For the first time in days, she found herself standing outside. Before then, she had never gotten the chance to see the castle surroundings. Now that she was finally out of the castle, she could see that there was plenty of greenery around—more than she would've guessed, at least. Beelzemon noticed that she had stopped walking and motioned with his hand for her to follow. She trailed behind him, shoving her hands into her pant pockets. When he had mentioned going for a walk, she hadn't thought that he would mean going around to the back of the castle. Once she saw why, she decided not to complain.

"Oh, wow."

She was staring at a massive garden.

"I thought you might enjoy walking through the garden," Beelzemon said.

"I gotta admit that it looks nice."

"Laylamon tends to this garden whenever she is able."

Scoffing, Mikami folded her arms. "That's a surprise, considering she can't treat anything else nicely."

Beelzemon sighed and headed down the path through the flowers. Mikami walked alongside him, looking at the various strange flowers. When they finally stopped, they were by a large fountain. Both took a seat on the bench, with Mikami looking upwards at the clouds. After a moment, she turned to stare at the water being sprayed into the air.

I hope everyone is doing alright, she thought. Hopefully they haven't gotten themselves into trouble…

"Is something wrong?"

"No, just thinking about my friends."

"I'm sorry."

She glanced up at him and laughed. "Nah, it's alright. At least I'm not in their way while I'm here. I mean, I do miss them. That's pretty much a given. I'm just hoping that they're safe. Sometimes they can be a little…" Trailing off, she waved her hands around a bit. "Honestly, it's hard to explain. We're like a circus sometimes."

"A…circus?"

For a second she stared at him incredulously until she thought about the fact that there probably weren't circuses in the Digital World.

"Ah, never mind. It's an expression from my world. There's groups that train animals to do tricks for audiences to watch. They make the animals do all sorts of things," she explained.

"That sounds terrible for the poor animals," he muttered, horrified.

"There are some pretty shitty circuses, I'll give you that." She leaned over the back of the bench to look at one of the flowers. There was a question she had been wanting to ask him. It was as good a time as any. "Why do you work for Laylamon?"

The question caught him off guard. Sitting straight, he turned his head towards her. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just a bit hard to believe that you'd willingly work for her. Pretty easy to see you don't actually like hurting others. Not to mention the fact that I've seen the way you look after she talks down to you. So, why? Why do you put up with it?"

"I have my reasons, just as you have yours for opposing her," he whispered, looking away. "I have nothing more to say on the subject."

Seeing the hardened expression on his face, Mikami shifted and placed a hand on the back of her head. "Look, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to…"

"It's alright. I understand why you're curious."

An awkward silence followed until Mikami said, "So, I noticed that you haven't been going on very many missions. Trying to avoid them?"

"You could say that," he answered, lowering his gaze to look at the stone beneath his feet. "I prefer not to battle."

"I never would've guessed. You seem to be pretty good at fighting. Heck, you don't even need to hurt someone in a fight."

"Being good at something doesn't necessarily mean that you have to enjoy doing it."

"True. I'm just used to being around people who like to fight," she said with a grin. "Are you in a better mood now? I know I kinda ticked you off earlier."

"Yes." Thoughtful, he tilted his head to the side and crossed his arms. "You have the strange ability to both irritate me and calm me. It's odd. I can't understand it."

"Yeah, well, you're easy and hard to read at the same time, so I think we're in the same boat." Taking note of his confusion, she said, "It's an expression. Haven't you heard anyone say anything like that before?"

"No."

"Oh. Guess that makes sense. No one around here seems like the kind to use those kinds of sayings." She smiled. "Maybe I should teach you some to use when you talk to Laylamon. I'm sure she'd love that."

He chuckled. "That is tempting."

"There's a really good saying about—"

"Mister Beelzemon?"

The third voice cut off Mikami, making both of them turn to see that a small reptilian Digimon had joined them.

"Ah—sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but Lady Laylamon wants to speak with you. She said that it's important."

The good mood Beelzemon was in seemed to vanish immediately upon hearing Laylamon's name. Exhaling, he stood and nodded to the messenger. The scowl on the gunman's face made the small Digimon shrink back in fear. If Beelzemon noticed, he didn't seem to care. That was the first time that Mikami had seen him unconcerned about scaring someone else.

It worried her, to say the least.

"Tell her I will be there in a few minutes," he muttered. The messenger nodded and scampered off, leaving Beelzemon to turn Mikami. "I apologize. It seems we will have to save this conversation for later."

"Probably for the best. I wouldn't want you getting on her bad side. Again," she said, adding the last word in a quieter voice. She forced a smile. "I could use a nap anyways."

~0~

Laylamon was not pleased in the slightest. Tapping her fingers against the armrest of her throne impatiently, she glared at the door. She had given Beelzemon permission to escort the human around the castle, but she had not thought that he would use it as an excuse to weasel out of missions. In hindsight, she should have seen it coming. He would do anything to avoid having to participate in a battle. Not to mention the fact that he felt it necessary to protect the girl, as there were many Digimon who would be more than happy to get their hands on her. If Laylamon allowed anything to Mikami, she knew that Beelzemon would refuse to listen to her orders until drastic actions were taken by her.

The entire situation was ridiculous and was causing nothing but trouble.

That was why she had come up with her current solution.

Her eyes narrowed when Beelzemon entered, noticing the way his hands were clenched into fists and how his head was held high. No doubt Mikami had been filling his head with nonsense again.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

"It would seem that you have earned the girl's trust," she commented. By the way he became tense, she knew she was right. "Good. That will make your new mission easy."

Uneasy, Beelzemon swallowed.

"Scouts say that the DigiDestined are making their way to the Desert Zone. We know that Resistance has their headquarters near there, but we have yet to find it. I must give them credit on how well they have hidden it. Your mission is take Mikami back to her friends and follow them. Once you have found the location of the headquarters, report back to me."

There was no response. Silent, he hardened his gaze.

A growl entered her voice when she spoke again. "Let me be clear, Beelzemon. I have been lenient with you these past few days, but I will no longer tolerate your insolence. You have disrespected me for the last time. If you do not do this mission, I will have no regrets when I punish you. Do you understand?"

Doing his best to hid his emotions from her, he kept his voice monotone. "Yes, ma'am. I understand. I will do as you ask of me."

"Good. Go rest. You will be leaving tomorrow."

A feeling of satisfaction washed over her as she watched him leave the room.

Things will be interesting from here on, she thought, her lip tugging upwards.