Step into Grandmother's House

Camping stove. Fuel. Water purification tablets? Nah, the water seemed fine. Warm, padded sleeping bag- maybe two, in case Lucemon wanted one. Did digimon feel cold? Some climbing gear for the cliffs around the C0ve could be useful. Ren grabbed a compass when he passed them, curious to see how it would function in the Digital World. A few simple tools would be a good idea- shovel, hatchet, that kind of thing. He also made good on his promise to grab a supply of dehydrated noodles and other easy to store food for when they got tired of meatfruit. What the hell was a meatfruit, anyway? I mean, how does that happen.

With his supplies picked out, Ren wandered back towards the front of the store to pay for his purchases. He stole a glance over at Lucemon on his way up to the register. He was still parked in front of the game, head down and cocked curiously. He must have been really into the arcade- wait. Did his chest just glow?

"Sure, yeah. Here you go," Ren said absently handing Lucemon some of the gear. He paid for everything, loaded it into the now bulging duffel, and they left the store, Ren watching his friend strangely as they walked. He started them in the direction of the train station- no way they were trying to river again. "Yeah, we can grab some ice cream and more food on the way back. Running out of space in the bag, though."

"You, uh... want to tell me about that glow you've got going on? I don't remember you doing that before, Luce'." He peered at his friend curiously; there was still so much he didn't know about digimon. Still, as new as it all was, Lucemon was right. He was ready to get back to the adventure, too.

Seeing that Lucemon was stronger than he looked like he should be, Ren may have handed him a slightly larger pile of gear than what he was carrying. If he was the type to do such a thing. They walked along with their increasingly heavy burdens, companionably chatting. Ren was a little quiet, collecting his thoughts perhaps. Soon, his pace perked up a little and he led Lucemon into a bright, cheery shop with a long glass counter along one wall and a number of small two- and three-person tables scattered around. The sign on the door outside read Ice Monster in English. Seeing the look on Luce's face, Ren chuckled as they walked in. "No actual monsters here, just ice cream."

Leading his friend up to the counter, Ren looked through the menu posted on the wall behind before ordering a gigantic dark-chocolate milkshake in his halting, imperfect Japanese. Turning back to offer Lucemon an easy grin, he popped the question: "So what will you have?"

They were still standing at the counter. They hadn't even taken their seats yet and the only evidence of Luce's dessert was an empty cardboard bowl and a ring of chocolate around his mouth. Ren stared for a moment, disbelieving at the sheer speed and enthusiasm for which Lucemon had eaten his ice cream. Chuckling, he turned back to the counter and placed another order, took a second cup to go with his milkshake and led Luce' to a table. They took their seats, and Ren offered him the second cup.

"It's a milkshake. Dark chocolate ice cream, milk, chocolate syrup all blended together. White chocolate shavings on top. It's my favorite; always get it when I come here. Grandpa and Grandma took me here the first time I visited after they moved. I, ah... didn't come nearly often enough. I've always felt kind of guilty about not visiting them more." He got quiet a moment, reflecting on missed opportunities and time lost with his grandfather.

"You wanted to know more about me... I guess this is as good of a place as any other. So, my Grandpa was a sailor and a soldier in the War. He might my Grandma while fighting overseas..." and so the story began.

It never once occurred to him that it looked just like a date.

"You can take your time and enjoy them you know," he explained, sipping on his milkshake. "I don't even understand how you physically could have drank that that fast." Lucemon though wanted to know more about him. If anything, Ren seemed a little reluctant. His life up to inheriting that driftwood chest was largely dissatisfying. Why revisit it? Why go back when the best adventure of his life was so obviously forward? Because Lucemon was his friend, of course. And he asked.

"Well to be honest there's not a lot to tell. Most of my life has felt like waiting for that moment my D-scanner lit up and turned that nasty river into a portal to the Digital World." Seeing the look Lucemon gave him, he could see that wouldn't be enough to satisfy the digimon. That was fair.

"I grew up in Miami, Florida in the United States, a different country on the other side of the world from Japan here. Dad loves to sail like Grandpa did, and all three of us went out on the water pretty often when I was younger. When I was young, before Grandpa and Grandma moved back here they were always close by. Grandpa would come by to sit on the porch with my dad and drink tea when it was warm, and he'd always come in to tell me stories when I went to bed."

"Big surprise- my favorites were the pirate stories."

"Sometimes. When people have kids they usually share their interests and hobbies with them. Sometimes their kids share in their interests, sometimes they don't. In my case I took to sailing just like Dad and Grandpa, but I didn't take to engineering, like dad did. I'm apparently a lot like Grandpa was when he was young, so it kind of makes sense we'd have similar interests." He paused, taking another drink of his milkshake to give himself a chance to think.

"I guess I've been waiting for something 'more,' you could say. I spent a lot of my life dissatisfied with the world. I didn't know what I was meant to do... Now, I feel like I'm much closer to figuring that out. I think they key's in your world. Somewhere."

"Oh. And it's 'My-Am-ee." He pronounced it slowly, letting Lucemon hear the emphasis on the syllables.