Attempted Tranquility (Kai/Maia)

    Kyaromon would only deflate slightly before Shiro had already perked him back up. "You're on!" he giggled, wiggling his butt in preparation for running. Of course, when racing for the tree, his little legs would not outmatch the Rookie's. He even knew that, but, hey! Fun was fun, right? He didn't need to win every time. Not in this case, at least. With how Kai looked, even the tiny Digimon could see that winning could really mean everything. If that had happened to his tamer, he'd be more than down in the dumps about it. So! He had to cheer up the twins to the best of his ability!

    Listening to Kai, the girl continued her sketch, making a small hum of acknowledgement. "If you need help," Maia began, ""I could try to help you with school work, or something. Can't say I can help with your clubs, though." Again, the girl wasn't part of clubs, here or in America. Fingers tightened around the pencil, feeling kind of bad for the tamer. And for his Digimon, for that matter. "You know that they adore you, right?" she started, lowering the sketchbook to look at Kai better. "Do you feel the same about them?"

    With big ears like Kyaro's, he had to strongly resist shouting at the two. He so wanted to join in the conversation, but he knew that it could sour the twins moods. Somehow, he managed to refrain, but if there were many more openings to which he could butt in, there would be no promises!

    "I don't know if you've noticed, but they're not the same Digimon that were in my house with you. They're acting really upset," she pointed out, with a gesture at Kuro. "Has Kuro said more than one thing since you got here?" Considering she didn't even respond to Kyaromon trying to bring her into his game, it had raised some sort of flag to the girl. At least, at her home, it seemed like the black monster was the type to answer when spoken to. She wasn't even going to point out how mellow Shiro had acted when she had initially saw him. "Do you think they're worried about your injuries? Or, am I misunderstanding?" After all, the blonde had even been worried about Kai, despite hardly knowing him! How could the creatures closest to him be feeling now?

    Seeming to realize that she may have stepped over the line with her insight, Maia's eyes went wide, and she immediately began staring at her sketchpad, just to avoid eye contact. The drawing was almost done, anyway. "Sorry. I don't mean to say it in a mean way. But, isn't normal overrated anyway?" Hopefully, that could try to mend whatever assumptions she had just blurted to the boy. Why did she even care? "I mean, if you look at it this way, you might not have as many friends or acquaintances, even, without the two of them. If you could really exchange them for your old life, is that what you'd want?"

    "I bet I'll win next time!" Kyaromon was a good sport about losing, but once he reached the tree, he scurried up it. "Can you climb trees, too?" If Shiro could, the bunny eared monster would try to challenge him to some sort of climbing competition. If the rookie was not able to climb, he'd just hop back down eventually! But, Shiro was cheering up, so Kyaromon was becoming a bit more hyper.

    The tamer, on the other had, had really screwed up. She wasn't certain how to fix what she had accidentally said! Maia shifted to sit on her knees, setting her sketchbook on the ground. "I'm sorry," she started, looking around for some way to remedy everything. If only there was a quick-reverse button somewhere, to rewind saying what she had! At this point, Kai wasn't even looking at her. This was just terrible. She debated on leaving, momentarily, but no, that would probably make it worse. If the girl left now, she wouldn't probably ever be able to try to fix this situation. Maia would be too scared to try to apologize later on for it.

    Reaching out, the blonde hesitated for a moment, before delicately placing her hand on Kai's shoulder. "You care about them. That's what matters. I," she paused, throwing a glance toward the playing monsters, "I do get where you're coming from. There's nothing wrong with that." That... sounded a little better, right? "You just," there was another pause. Maia wasn't particularly great with words with people that weren't overly used to her. "You're kind of bound with them. The best you can do is try to accept it, you know?" After all, even the teen had a pretty hard time adjusting to Kyaromon. She still wasn't fully used to the rubberized creature that liked to spring across her room. Somehow, she'd grown fond of the alien, though. It was nice having the company, after all.

    "Look, uh," Maia thought for a moment, trying to find a way to bring everything back to a happier place. "We can talk about something else, alright? Does... Does that sound okay?" The nerves were becoming obvious in the girl's voice, at this point, but she was trying to sound as calm about everything. How did she not think that was going to end up awful?

    Kyaromon stared, mouth open, at Shiro's amazing jumping skills. "No fair!" The in-training quickly scrambled up the bark of the tree with his feet, trying to get closer to the rookie. "You're too cool! I want to do that!" The little monster wasn't even close to upset about losing twice. He just thought everything was amazing! This was probably for the best, considering there probably wasn't much of anything that he could beat Shiro at. Especially since neither of them could fly!

    Keeping her hand on Kai's shoulder, Maia shifted a little closer, out of concern. The coughing sounded, and looked like it hurt. Was that normal for someone with his type of injuries? She couldn't really tell. But, at least he agreed that a different topic was a good idea. "Kyaromon?" It took a second for the girl to fully shift to the subject, thinking about it for a minute. "He's not too bad, unless I leave him alone." That could be considered down-playing the issue, a bit. After all, he was a really messy little creature! And, he really liked to try to put his mouth on everything when she wasn't looking. Sometimes even when she was staring at him. "And," she glanced toward where two of the Digimon were playing, "he seems to like getting into hard-to-reach places."

    It was probably easiest not to mention that it seemed like he did things intentionally to mess with the tamer. That wouldn't sound like she had things under control! After all, it seemed like Kai had it pretty easy! Kuro didn't seem as energetic as Shiro by a long stretch. They really balanced one another out. On top of that, Maia felt like her neighbor had pretty good control over them. She couldn't even make Kyaromon stop eating out of her trash bin! "You make it look so easy. I don't think I could handle two. Kyaromon gives me headaches, alone. Not that she could really complain about headaches. At least she wasn't actually hurt.

    The Digimon's ears twitched, trying to think of a new game to challenge Shiro with. And, also because he could hear his name being mentioned. Not like he didn't already know he was a pain in the butt, anyway! It was his job! "Any other fun ideas?" Kyaro questioned his white friend, head tilting. He couldn't run out of fun things to do yet!

    For a split second, Kyaromon's ears drooped, "I don't know how to digivolve!" After all, the bunny-like creature had only become an In-Training after eating too fast and getting hiccups! The details on how it all happened were pretty fuzzy! Since then, though, the small Digi hadn't had any hiccups, which he assumed meant that he would never change size again! But, he still perked up at Shiro's suggestion of assisting. "That'd be great! I want to be awesome, like you!" Oh no, there was no way this would go over well at all! What kind of thing would the two of them think up?

    "I think I needed a second one, then," Maia huffed, lightly. With her luck, though, she'd have gotten two trouble makers instead of one that would help stop the other. "Kyaromon sounds too much like Shiro," she added, shifting to get comfortable again. "I swear, he does it on purpose." While the tamer wasn't actually certain of this, it was true! Her partner did act out intentionally! After all, Maia wasn't going to seek adventure on her own! That always left her in a spot, though, where she was having more and more difficult times trying to keep him under wraps. Especially since she hadn't even told her parents about her 'pet' yet!

    Thinking for a moment, a question came to mind. "What happens if someone's Digimon is seen, anyway?" Sure, she had been told to keep Kyaromon out of sight, but nobody had ever told her why! The girl could understand that some were dangerous, but what about the ones that were just pets? Why did it actually matter?

    Well, the answer Kai had given seemed fair. At least this gave the girl hope that Kyaromon wouldn't be taken away from her without a good reason. It was weird to think that Maia was actually quite fond of the pest, even if he was pretty obnoxious. What could she say? The stupid rabbit-thing made good company! He was always talkative enough, at least.

    Kyaromon had gleefully followed Shiro to the tamers. If Kai knew everything, this would be great! The in-training needed to be able to help people! Though, it seemed like he was fully capable of improving moods regardless of what level he was. Shouldn't that be good enough? And, apparently, Maia wasn't going to have a say in the matter, because the small monster was already getting incredibly worked up! There was no way she could tell him no, now! Why did everything have to keep changing? What if Kyaromon turned into a giant dinosaur or something?

    But, still, Maia had no protest. At least, if something stupid happened, Kai was there. Hopefully, he'd be able to help her out in that kind of situation. "Shiro's... not going to break him, right?" she questioned, almost nervously. She doubted the white monster would honestly intend to beat Kyaromon up too badly, but it was kind of hard to tell if he'd know when to stop. Then again, Kai was also the person that more-or-less had told them that putting a tamer's life in danger was also a great way to digivolve, so maybe he wasn't really the best person to be helping out right now. "Kyaromon's never even fought a cat before," she tried to point out, hoping he'd understand that the in-training had no idea about battling other monsters! Sure, he scared a couple of neighborhood cats, but that was just because he was loud and wanted to taste them! There wasn't a single thing even close to intimidating about the monster!

    The small alien had picked up on the lack of the word 'no,' however, and became even more excited. He was essentially given the go-ahead by his tamer, as far as he was concerned! The digimon puffed up, bouncing into a wide-standing stance, as if he was about to run again. "I'm always ready!" Kyaromon insisted, thrilled. Not having paid enough attention, he didn't even know what he was ready for! "I was born ready!"

    Maia's neighbor was not particularly good at reassuring her, but since he didn't seem overly worried, she figured she was stressing over nothing. After all, both Digimon looked more than excited about the entire thing. And, maybe it would give her a taste of what to expect in the case that anything became dangerous in the future. Would they actually be able to stop Digimon from fighting if they got too into it, though? Kai was proof that people were pretty weak against the creatures. "If you're sure." She supposed that she really needed to trust the other tamer's judgement, considering his Digimon were already able to surpass Rookie.

    On top of all of this, Kyaromon remained relatively oblivious until Shiro leapt at him! Sure, he had started piecing together everything, but it was too late, now! The digimon let out a childish shriek, spinning his body away, almost in reflex. "Tail Swing!" Was the In-Training's only plan to seriously try to hit the jumping monster with his tail? What kind of strategy was that? Regardless, the attack probably wouldn't be strong enough to prevent a Rookie from landing on top of him!

    There was another ridiculous squeak as Kyaromon was thrown into the air. What was he doing? Certainly not succeeding in this game! No wonder Maia wouldn't let him adventure! He was setting an awful example for how awesome he could be! Would this damage the bunny's ego? It was hard to tell, but probably not.

    The tamer glanced at Kai, but received no feedback from the boy. Was none of this concerning to him? No, probably because Shiro wasn't at any risk of getting hurt from any of this. Kyaromon, however, could very easily be injured! He didn't know how to fight, as proven by his amazing ability to remain airborne! Or, was it Maia's fault that the little monster couldn't digivolve? He had more than implied on multiple occasions that she 'wouldn't let him.' Her heart sank a little at the thought that she could actually be dragging the alien down. "Hey, Kai? Is it possible for a person to stunt their Digimon's growth?" Maybe it was a stupid question. As if to answer the question in its own way, the Digivice in her pocket made a small click, sounding almost like it was powering on. The thing was broken, there was no doubt. And, here Maia had been thinking that it seemed like the device was acting normally lately.

    Not used to battles, the In-Training was essentially a sitting duck. Where were wings when he needed them? Finally, everything fell into place in Kyaromon's mind. Maybe it was good for him to spend some time off the ground every so often. It gave him time to think! "Oh! Are we fighting? Is this a fight?" Wait, so he had tried to attack Shiro without even realizing what was going on? What was wrong with this Digimon? Well, now this was exciting! He was actually being allowed to do stuff! Not like he actually could, but he was allowed to! This was great!