No one can be mad when there's cake! (Hiroyo)

It was a lovely day in Rosewood, much like the days Hiroyo had been enjoying before this. The sun was shining, the air was warm despite the occasional cool breeze and the area was peaceful.

Hiroyo hoped it would stay that way. Right now she was perched at the very edge of a bench near the entrance she expected Eleonora to come through. The red head carefully smoothed her floral print skirt over her knees. She couldn't make a worse impression than she had during the forest debacle right? She hadn't gone rolling in mud or had to flee anywhere today.

She sighed and reached up to readjust her hat on her head again. Morgan looked up from the part of the bench he had claimed as his and frowned at her.

"If you continue fussing you will only make it worse."

"I know! I know but I just, mrph." She sighed and dropped her hands from her sun hat before turning a grin back on the bee. "I'm glad you came, by the way. Roger would've been a nightmare with just me alone."

"Excuse you I resent that remark."

"Resemble would be more apt."

"Aha-ah! There she is-oh, oh wow that's a lot of 'mons." Hiroyo's voice faltered as she realized just how many digimon were following Eleonora into town.

Roger deigned to lift his head from his warm spot on the sun-warmed bench and turned his antenna toward the group approaching. After a couple of wiggles the Kunemon broke into a wicked cackle that would carry all the way to Eleonora even while the words accompanying them wouldn't.

"I cannot wait to see the bill for this."

"We have the funds to cover it."

"Don't talk about money in front of guests! Its rude!" Hiroyo whisper-hissed at the two before she stood up smoothly from the bench with a smile and ignored comments as the general reached easy talking range. If she was bothered by the thought of paying the bill this venture was going to create she didn't show it in front of the blond.

"Eleonora! Wow, I have to say you must've been very busy with recruiting!" She said. She started to step forward while lifting her arms then paused, stepping back quickly and only raising one hand for a shake instead. "You must have traveled pretty far."

"Gurren, Lagann." Morgan greeted both gears with a nod from the bench as he stood and stretched his wings. It was a warm greeting from him.

"Leooo!" Roger cried, rising from the bench and wiggling his upper body enthusiastically. If Morgan's tactic greeting had been warm then Roger's had been lit on fire and kicked down a hill. Luckily for Leo's fear of bugs he didn't try to approach her. "Damn girl you've been really working that army angle. Got a name yet?"

"Kamina?" Hiroyo repeated as her eyebrows rose. She was impressed as Eleonora hopped off the mole, Hiroyo herself doubted she could do the same, while she didn't doubt her coordination when it came to climbing things, riding on something was a whole other matter!

Any questions the red head had were quickly answered as the little metal-mon started talking. Hiroyo's eyes started to sparkle as the introductions were made, her face quickly taking on a look identical to a child's when their favorite super hero appeared on the television. Her eyes were sparkling when the introductions ended and she took the opportunity to introduce her own group to the army with a short bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you all! I'm Hiroyo Oda and this is Morgan the Fanbeemon and Roger the Kunemon."

"Combat specialist eh? Does that mean you'll be the one throwing rocks at people instead of the General now?" Roger asked from the bench as he leaned toward the army, the strips on his face shrunk into amused arches. "Maybe we should test our skills!"

"Not now, Roger. It is a pleasure to meet everyone." Morgan inclined his head politely to the group then went silent for a moment observing Boota and Bork. His antenna twitched curiously and then he looked over at the gears, trying to figure out the best way to ask his question. "Excuse me, but these two, are they...?" He trailed off with a short movement of his hand, frustrated at his unusual lack of tact.

"Well, I'm glad you're hungry." Hiroyo smacked her palms together in front of her, a pleased grin on her face. She was truly glad to see Leo again even if the other woman had brought more mouths than Hiroyo had expected. "I, the great Cake-Conniseur have found a most excellent place to eat! Luckily they have an outdoor patio so we should be able to push a couple tables together and be set. Let's go!"

"I admit I was unsure of how to tactfully phrase my question. Some digimon can be rather sensitive about that." Morgan said as he hovered near the gears. He had relaxed as he listened to their questions, the tension draining away as he realized he had been overly worried about the reaction to his question. "I haven't come across any I would consider truly feral myself."

"A bomb? Listen, it'd be an injustice to tease that story and not share it! Give a worm details man!" Roger echoed. He sounded absolutely delighted at the fact that Eleonora's throwing exploits had continued. Trust the catepillar to be enthusiastic about humans putting themselves in danger! "Hey hey, it wouldn't have to be a fight to the death or anything. Sparring is not as fun as a real fight but it's better than nothing!"

"It's been pretty quiet. I suspect that's part of why he's being such a butt about trying to get a fight." Hiroyo sighed at the Roger's whining as she walked along with Eleonora. She reached up to adjust her sun hat. "We've mostly been bouncing between here and the other world but that's been rough to manage, the time flow really throws things off."

Her voice dropped and she bit her lower lip for a moment before continuing. "I saw the post on Tamernet the angels made but after...that...it really didn't seem like something I should get involved with, especially after, well..." She gave the German woman a weak grin. Her voice lifted to a more normal speaking voice again. "What about you? How did you meet?" She asked with a gesture in the direction of the army.

Morgan nodded his head as if he understood then paused.

"...I do not have any experience with human world pets actually." He said while looking thoughtfully at Bork and Boota. With a shrug he dismissed it as a non issue. "I shall follow your example in dealing with them."

Kamina had a very attentive listener in Roger. He didn't interuppt but he hissed in menance at the mention of the Okuwamon and perked up when Kamina mentioned Leo's shiny title. The stripes were broad and his attenna twitched constantly with excitment. When Kamina ended with his proclamation Roger reared up to cheer wordlessly.

"That is more impressive than ElDoradimon's bulk! I mean I can't believe you all went back into the forest but with you around it sounds like its not a problem at all!" The worm wiggled his forelimbs in the air before dropping back down to speedily inchworm his way back to being about even with Boota. "Man that must've felt great watching that. We've just been dragging our heels with book reading."

Roger stuck out his tongue in distaste then immediately made a face as a stray leaf landed on it. With over dramatic gagging noises he scraped it off.

Up ahead Hiroyo did her best to ignore him completely in favor of focusing on Leo's words. She too was enthralled by Leo's tales, although unlike Roger she was content with the abbreviated versions.

"Dealing with all that I can see how you would be tired! Especially since it only happened in a week, wow you really haven't had time to rest have you?" She appeared to think seriously for a moment then nodded decisively and threw an arm around Eleonora's shoulders. "That's it! I'm declaring today a day of rest and cake! No wacky hijinks, no running after enemies, just a fun day in the sun!"

Hiroyo pouted as Leo started laughing then turned to look back at the group before she started giggling as well.

"I've probably jinxed us haven't I?" The red head asked as she watched Roger vehemently defend his stance on books and himself by proxy. He wasn't being violent and Morgan was flying near enough to referee if the situation called for it. "I just, oooh if anything happens it better be after we have our cake! Although now I'm thinking cupcakes might be better? There's less arguing over flavor if everyone's is specialized to them."

Roger would not use the words 'defensive' or 'hurt' to describe his current mood. He would, however, use 'righteous' and 'vindicated' although the accuracy of those words was certainly up for debate.

"Listen,. I told you what you needed to know about Babamon! There was nothing more I could say that would have improved that situation!" He huffed, his cheeks puffed up as a vein throbbed on his head. His glee at the name 'Red Bomber' had faded almost immediately when the gears addressed him.

"Honestly, what more than 'She's guarding the flowers' and 'these flowers change depending on who plants' them did you need? That's all I understood about them anyways!"

Hiroyo opened her mouth to tell them to cut it out, to change the subject because today was suppose to be a day not about that but Morgan beat her to it in a way.

"If you had planted a flower would it have grown into a juicy meat or an Electric Lemon?"

"I uh..." Roger paused in confusion. Very quickly though he picked up what Morgan was laying down and jumped on the subject change immediately. "Electric Lemon obviously! You can get a good piece of meat anywhere but a lot of places won't serve the best fruit!"

The Kunemon sighed mournfully. "Always talking about 'shock hazard' and 'damage to the appliances', pfft. How obvious of an excuse is that?"

"Hmm..." Morgan hummed thoughtfully before nodding toward Kamina. "How about you? If you planted such a flower what would it bloom as?"

"Mmm, flames like that would be put to good use in a group like yours. It would always burn strongly." Morgan mused. He was rather suprised at the answer, he had expected Kamina to answer with something that would let him punch harder.

He would have to reevaluate the brazen hero.

"Pfft, that's too vague of an answer!" Roger chided the gears. His tone was friendly, if conspiratorial. "You gotta think of something more specific! Like, if you got her rocket boots she could move around faster!"

"To run away after throwing things that explode?" Hiroyo asked as she shot Leo a teasing look, her eyebrows raised far above her eyes.

"Not running away...repositioning to better survey the battle field!"

A giggle fit over took Hiroyo and clamped a hand over her mouth as they walked to try and stiffle the noise. Count on Roger to offer something outrageous! Was he trying to bait the gears into answering with something more practical or did he honestly think that was a good idea?

Either way Hiroyo silently thanked Morgan for derailing the previous argument. Her giggling slowed as she considered what dark price he had had to pay in order to get the Kunemon to go along with it, but that could be discovered later!

Oh well, harmony was maintained and that was the goal!

"I would want a magic cake dish. One of those serving platters that had a new, fresh baked treat every day." Hiroyo said with a big grin. At the current moment it was the most truthful answer. She gave a friendly wave to an Igamon at a dango stall then shook her head as he tried to wave the group over.

"We're heading over there!" She said as she looped an arm around Leo's and gestured with her other hand to where the road abruptly turned to make a border around a wide-square. Their footsteps changed as they stepped off the main road and onto the square itself - an area made obvious by the low borders of raised flower beds at the corners and the colorful tiles that made up the space. There was a carefully crafted wooden border in the middle that carefully skirted around a truly massive tree whose branches shaded the entire area.

Beneath the canopy of green were a variety of seating areas. Dappled shadows shifted in the breeze, throwing patterns across everything from small sturdy tables for children to adult human-sized tables to a platform as large as a trampoline where a group of larger-champions were enjoying giant ice-cream sundaes in dishes as long as Hiroyo's arm. Strings of little lights (off due to the midday sun) ran from the branches of the tree above to the streetlights that flanked the entrances to the space.

Hiroyo released Leo's arm and took a couple steps in front to give a little twirl with her arms raised as if to say 'ta-da!'.

"Pretty great isn't it? Let's grab a table then get some sweets!"

Looking around it didn't seem like the square was very full today, there was also a notable lack of rookies and under. Beyond the group of massive Tyrrannomon at the giant table, there rest of the 'mons present appeared to be a mix of smaller champions with only one or two rookies in the crowd.

"I mean, I caaaan but..." Roger trailed off as he considered his options. If he didn't make a leash for Bork the Gaossmon might start a fight, and if the Gaossmon started a fight then Roger could probabbly jump in! On the other hand if he did leash the dino-dragon-stumpy thing then he could sit and listen to Kamina's stories better.

"Well, I don't have hands so it's probably best if one of you take over the job of actually tying it." With a flip of his antenna he straightened up. He could see Hiroyo grimacing and turning away from him as he opened his beak and smirked. Silly humans, so weird the strangest of things.

He spat out a good length of his string onto the ground in front of him, enough that they could probably tie a loop around Bork's tail or foot or however the Brave Heart army wanted to handle it. Not his feral dog-dragon-dino, not his problem! He rolled the thread across the paving stones a couple times to cover the stickiness with dirt then gave Eleonora a satisfied nod and a cheeky grin. "All set general! A bit dusty but that's probably better then the alternative."

"That's so gross." Hiryo complained. She was very carefully not looking at the string Roger had coughed up for the army's use. "On less disgusting topics - we don't need everyone to come up to the bakery and it might be better to only do a few? It's kinda cramped but if we're getting a cake big enough for everyone I'm going to need at least one other person to help hold the end up."

"I will wait at the table." Roger shot his brother a glance. The Fanbeemon was flicking his antenna in a way that meant wait-watch-patience and Roger knew what he meant and ground his beak in frustration. Morgan might've had a point but that didn't mean Roger liked it. Who knew if Hiroyo was actually going to swallow her pride and apologize? 

"I'll also hang out and watch Bork." He eyed the Gaossmon dubiously. "Will he even listen to me?"