Return to Sender [Maia/Kai]

The blonde was so absorbed in the mysterious package that she almost didn't notice that one of her neighbors was outside. It only made sense, really, considering how nice it was out. "Oh! Hi," she shuffled the box awkwardly to one hand, to wave at him. Thinking about it, she actually hadn't met most of her neighbors since moving in. Though, she rarely had much reason to go anywhere aside from school. Actually, Maia didn't even think she knew the last name of the family living across the street. Not focusing enough on the box now, the contents shifted, causing her to shift suddenly to grab it again with both hands.

She doubted that the guy actually had anything to say, but figured she'd make some sort of conversation. It was worth a shot, since they were neighbors. Unfortunately, she didn't really know what to say to the stranger! "How are you today?" Basic enough, she guessed. In the meantime, she was working at picking the end of the tape covering the box, incredibly curious about what it could even be. She kept looking at the guy, though. He seemed about her age, so maybe they'd have some common ground.

Finally, the edge of the tape let up enough to grip onto, and she pulled it off with a slight struggle, so it wouldn't almost fall again. She couldn't imagine the contents were fragile, if they were rolling freely in the box, but who knew? Taking just a second to glance away from the boy, she peered under one of the flaps. "Uh," was all that managed out, and she could feel her face turning pink. There was a random egg inside! Who mailed eggs to people?! Was this some sort of joke? It wasn't even a small egg! This was like a weird ostrich egg-thing!

Amber eyes turned up to the other teen, hesitating a second, while trying to pull her thoughts together. She was trying to look a little irritated, finding it almost too convenient that mystery-neighbor was standing outside at the same time she found this strange parcel. Though, if it wasn't, she was just going to come off as a jerk or a moron. "Are you... pranking me or something?"

    The neighbor seemed equally concerned about this present. "You didn't do this?" was the first thing out of her mouth. Who else would mail her this obnoxious thing? It only made sense, since it hadn't broken, that someone dropped it off by hand. Maia couldn't tell if she should take it as a joke, or some sort of threat, honestly! Is this what people in Japan did to terrify people? Mail them weird eggs? What if it was supposed to explode or something? For some reason, she felt the need to pull it from the box, to get a better look at it. To increase her alarm, it felt almost warm.

    "Hey, uh, is this thing... is this alive?" not like the guy across the street would know, but she needed to express this concern to someone. "I mean, I've never see--" the words cut out when something else spoke, and a strange creature's head emerged from the stranger's bag. If her eyes weren't already wide, they sure felt like they were going to fall out of her head at this rate. It felt like her heart stopped for a second, as the egg almost slipped out of her hands. But, she managed to scramble it into a better grip, while speaking, in very alarmed English, "what is that?!" This was only going to make her day worse!

    Normally, if she had seen the creature, she probably would have thought it was kind of cute. But, normally it would be a stuffed animal or something. No. This was not a stuffed animal. And someone mailed her an egg. And the guy from across the street had somehow brought aliens into her life. How was she supposed to tell her parents this kind of stuff? At this point, Maia couldn't even muster the courage to keep her mouth completely closed! At least gaining enough composure to keep to the area's native language, she took a deep breath. She wanted to look at the teen, but her eyes were too glued to the little monster in his bag. "Is this why movies about Japan are so crazy?" Oh, yeah. She had to be a moron. If that was all she could seriously say in this situation, she couldn't be alright.

    Digimon? What in the world was that? Maia tried to run through her head, thinking what she could be mis-translating. She had never stumbled onto this term before. Was it... an animal? But, he said digital. Animals weren't digital! Some of them could really be little monsters, though! Still, her mouth was open, and now she was trying to handle that there were two of these weird creatures, and both could talk. And they were from a different world. Yup. This was crazy-Japanese-movie in a nutshell. Not that she really understood anything he was saying, but he knew a lot more about this not-a-bird-egg than she did, obviously.

    Through her internal, and somewhat external, breakdown, she tried to listen to what the neighbor was saying, she just ended up exhaling a puff of air. Scrambling for some sort of thoughts, she motioned toward the open door to her house, taking a step back. "I... need some tea. Or coffee. Something. I need something. Do you want something to drink? You really should; this country is crazy," she babbled, slightly, still grasping for a way to handle whatever this guy was telling her. Normally, she wouldn't invite people that she didn't even know into her house, but it was a special case. Plus, one of the little monsters was correct. She did need to sit down, or busy herself with something.

    Stepping into the house, and to the side, still motioning with her free hand for him to enter the living area of the house, she glanced between both of the creatures on his body. "Are these things even legal to own?" She didn't want to be breaking any laws by having this egg. What if it was an endangered species or something?

    Maia made a couple faces at the stranger's explanation, before closing the door to the home once everyone had piled inside. She made a motion to a couch, which was placed behind a coffee table, before making her way to the kitchen, mumbling an "uh huh," to notify him that she could still hear him. She put water on to heat up, before returning to the area that she had left him. She supposed he could easily be a thief, but there wasn't too much that was easy to steal, so she wasn't too concerned. "At least I'm a 'normal people' then," she pointed out, still carrying the egg around.

    Can I at least pick what device turns into that?" the blonde questioned, kneeling to set the egg against one of the arms of the couch. She didn't need it breaking all over the floor. What a mess! She also didn't need to have to buy all new electronics from it turning into a hunk of what seemed to be plastic. Finally, the teen turned to the digimon in her house. She couldn't believe she was about to talk to whatever-these-where, but she supposed they had started it. "Do you two want anything? Milk? I think we have donuts or something, if you're hungry? Do... do you even eat?" she hesitated. At this point, she was just trying to keep her mind too busy to just stop processing. She also needed to know this before the egg hatched. Did it need maintenance? Was it essentially an egg-cat-thing? She didn't understand the variables. Kuro and Shiro didn't necessarily look identical, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect of her own. The girl also was on the fence on asking if she could pet either of the little monsters. She couldn't tell if they were kind of terrifying or pretty cute.

    Sure, the girl had heard her company's question to her, but instead, a more pressing though arose, to counter his question on if she had heard him. "What's your name, anyway?" she knew his partners' names, but not his! But after a pause, she also made sure to answer, Humans, partners, digivices, growing," there was another pause, as something clicked into place. "Wait. Growing. They grow? How big do these things get?" Concern was swelling again, as she looked at the digimon, and then the egg. How was she supposed to hide it if the thing got huge?

    "So, don't hold expensive gadgets until I get one," she commented, regarding the digivice, before returning to the kitchen. She shuffled through a couple cupboards, pulling out a plate, and a tin of tea, and returned a minute or so later with a cup, and a with a few different kinds of donuts - some plain, some with powdered sugar, and a single chocolate. She wasn't so sure about giving digimon chocolate, so she didn't want to give him too many in the case he couldn't have them."How about five, instead? I don't need you to get sick inside," she suggested, placing the tray in reach of the more energetic of the two creatures.

    She took a small sip of the tea, despite realizing she wasn't really interested in the drink. The girl had only needed something for her hands to do. "Maia Quinn," she responded, setting the cup on the table. Maia had found that, since moving to Japan, telling people her name seemed out of place, as it really didn't fit. It just screamed foreigner all over the place. But, there wasn't really anything she could do about it.

    The terror returned to her face when Kai said that these things could become two stories. There was no way she could hide something that size. Still, she didn't ease up when he added that hers likely would not. In fact, it became more distressing when told that it could be child-sized. "I don't even really like children though," the teen fretted. "I thought I could handle it if they were cat sized. How am I supposed to hide a child-monster?" Maybe bad terming, but it was all that she could think to use for it, at the moment.

    Still, Maia seemed unconvinced by Kai's attempt to lighten her alarm. "Am I allowed to tell my parents about them, or...?" she hesitated, glancing at the egg. It just sat, crooked, against the arm of the couch, still. She had to wonder how long it would take for it to hatch, even! "I mean, we were talking about getting a new cat, but maybe I can tell them it's deformed or something if it looks funny?" How were these things so different in size that they could look like Kuro and Shiro or a child? Weren't they all called the same thing? None of this really made sense.

    "I mean, what do I even do with it once it hatches, anyway?" Then, there was a pause, as something clicked, "where were you going, with these two, today?" Hopefully not to do something illegal. She did not want to live in a neighborhood where there were dogfights and drugs, minus the actual dogs. But, all this weird stuff sure did make it all pretty sketchy. Then again, she didn't really want one of these maybe-illegal creatures, herself. But, it sounded like she didn't have much choice. "Oh. Those digivice things. Have you ever tried searching them online? Like, maybe other people can explain why they morph from stuff you own and how to fix that?" Maybe that was a little out there, but Maia really liked her cell phone, and all of her electronics. But, now she was concerned to even check her texts.

    Then, there was another unrelated question, directed more toward the little devil devouring donuts. Or to the more collected creature. It didn't matter. "And, can I pet one of you two? You're... kind of cute?" But terrifying. They were also quite terrifying.