A Prince's Parley [Gummy/Hikaru]

Gummy’s wings flapped rhythmically as he slightly hovered above the ground at a normal pace. The sun was high and overhead, yet the chilly, snowy climate of the Northern Prominence made the Digimon in the City of Y’s think twice about leaving without a scarf or a coat to wear. As for Gummy, the cold didn’t particularly bother him, but the occasional breeze from time to time did make him shiver a bit, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle, as his signature red vest, the beanie over his head, and the bandages wrapped around his torso were suitable for bracing against the cold for the time being.

It had been about a week since the battle against the terrifying duo, Doumon and Taomon at Folder Desert. It was a vicious and grueling battle, but thanks to Justice’s renewed spirit and fiery rebirth, it allowed him and his brother Vee to evolve to their perfect levels - Arresterdramon Superior Mode and Aero V-dramon to destroy Doumon while he was vulnerable. But despite their victory, they didn’t leave that place unscathed.

Justice was badly injured initially. He was bloodied, had burn wounds across his body, a few broken ribs - one of them dislodging and managing to puncture his lung in process according to Y’s doctors, but thanks to Bezil’s and Owen’s immediate medical attention, his tamer got out of immediate danger, but had to be bed-ridden for the time being, much to the Gumdramon’s relief. However, that didn’t stop his human partner from getting out of bed and tagging along with Owen, Matty and Jimmy to get him some new sneakers to replace the ones that were badly damaged. His partner was a piece of work.

As for his brother, Vee on the other hand, he was recovering just like him, but mentally, he had a feeling he was taking it pretty hard. Whenever he checked on him to see if he was ok, Vee would respond by saying he was a hundred percent a-ok with a smile on his face, but Gummy can tell from his eyes that he was not, and he was merely hiding the mental toll weighing on him. He knew that his brother would become an emotional wreck and would begin to self-blame himself whenever someone close to him got hurt. It happened when he got hurt by Tadayoshi’s Commandramon, and it happened again when Justice got hurt. So for now, he gave his brother some space per his request, not wanting to pressure him into telling him what was truly wrong so he can do it whenever he’s ready.

But still, his core weighed heavily on his brother’s mental well-being.

As for now, Gummy was on his way to the South Tower of Y’s main palace. He had received an invitation from Bezil that he’d like to introduce himself to his other dad, Hikaru, the King of Y’s, for some afternoon tea. At first, the Gumdramon felt a lump in his throat after reading it. He felt - for a lack of a better word - mixed about meeting his boyfriend’s other parent; and simply because of two reasons: one, he didn’t particularly like authority. And two, he was nervous as hell meeting Bezil’s other dad. But knowing how cool and accepting Owen was, maybe Hikaru might not be so bad, but he’ll make sure to gauge him first before relaxing.

Eventually he reached the entrance to the South Tower. Going through the entrance, the Gumdramon felt the warm air around him, letting out a sigh of relief now that he was out of the cold. He landed on the ground, giving his wings a much needed break as he walked down the halls. He then arrived at a decent-sized lounge area surrounded by decorated windows letting the sun in, plenty of spots to sit down, and drinks and snacks. But the most important thing in the room was the bundle of joy that is his boyfriend.

“Lover boy~” Gummy sang, sporting a grin on his face. He went up to the furred Gumdramon, wrapping his arms around him, loving the feeling of his warmth in this beautiful setting. “How’ve you been? I got your invitation from Matty. He was... about to read the letter out loud to everyone before I snatched it out of his claws, nothing too serious.”

By now, the Gumdramon’s tail glowed a gentle blue warmth, signifying that he was comfortable.

Bezil's yellow eyes turned at once to Gummy as he entered, and almost as quickly, he felt his usual reaction to seeing him - excitement, joy and other feelings of delight. While his tail didn't glow like Gummy's, he sure felt glowing on the inside.

Bezil exchanged the gesture, wrapping his own arms around Gummy and rubbing his cheek affectionately against his. "Aw, my wonderful GumGum~" he purred in response. At the news that his little brother Matty was about to declare all this to all and sundry, he groaned, then chuckled. "I'm glad he didn't then. Honestly, he wants to do some jobs seriously, then he goes and does that. It's Jimmy that puts him up to it though. I reckon those two are a case of twins that should probably spend less time around each other..."

Still though, Bezil didn't want to focus on his brothers here, he just wanted to snuggle with his boyfriend for now. Even though they've been doing plenty of that for the past week, somehow it wasn't growing old. Bezil just loved it in their time of recovery, just relaxing on beds and sofas together, idly chatting about the things they liked. He was about to settle into a similar routine when they were interrupted by a knock on the door. While Bezil thought it was his father at first, he relaxed a little when he heard that it was in fact his sister. That meant that he and Gummy could spend a little more snuggle time before Hikaru arrived. "Come in, Jill~" Bezil called, feeling if anything a little bit of pride for his younger sister to see him with his partner like this.

Then Jill entered, stating that Hikaru would be delayed. Bezil didn't mind that at all, especially when she had brought a delicious-smelling apple pie for them.

"Aw, thanks so much, Jill, you're awesome!" Bezil exclaimed. In fact, the furred Gumdramon thought that introducing Gummy to her would probably be good practice to introducing him to Hikaru. "How about you sit down and have some pie with us?" he invited, indicating a free chair near them.

Bezil gave a reassuring wink to Gummy to let him know that there would be plenty of time to snuggle together later, especially if this family greeting went well. After the pie slices were served, Bezil turned to Jill.

"So, what's been happening with you, sis?" he asked. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to catch up with you lately since we got back..."

"Thank father, not me," Jill replied about the pie. She put the pie down in front of them. "Hope you like them with slight cinnamon touch. You know how he makes them. I'm surprised this time there are no tea underneath and it's just all pie."

...Sit down and have a pie with them? Jill... normally would have rejected, considering she considers herself some sort of fun-killer. Informal situation need her to prepare for it, and honestly this one isn't one that she's prepared to... especially when her ears hear the "clobbering" part on her brother... Might be a joke, but it still did raise an alarm in her head.

"...As long as you don't rub the salt in too much that I'm still single," Jill answered wryly. "Then I'll take that."

The Strabimon cut a very small slice of pie for herself... yes, very. It's even smaller portion than a portion of some judging chef takes out a cooking competition's participant's dish. She doesn't seem to mind, though, and eat it like it's as big as any other slices.

Hm, the other Gumdramon declared himself (confidently) that he's the boyfriend huh. Well that in itself is fine, but the other part did caught her attention. After a handshake, she quickly questioned. "Does he need any help medical care wise? I know some quick access to many of best doctor in the city. Do tell me if you need any human specialist. Just tell me where he's currently staying if you does. I'll send someone over."

She tilted her head at Bezil's question next. "Hm? Not much. I have less jobs piled on me, thank goodness, but still busy as always. Hiring assistants were godsent. A city worth of diplomatic, development, and management issue handled by only three people were impossible anyway... so I'm quite glad we secured some great assistant secretaries. However since father took a bit of a hiatus, the job kind of piling and well... haven't been able to go out much."

She of course won't discuss more at length about that. There's an outsider here! "How about yourself?" she asked. "Been up to much? Or too much, even?" she wryly smirked, readying an ammunition to tease. "I didn't register you as a troublemaker before, brother, but lately it seems you're up to some risky adventures. My ears heard from among the grapevines that our dear Dad lectured you too recently."

“Well I could just simply take off his helmet and give him twice the noogies, but I guess I’ll go with your suggestion.” Gummy replied, a bit skeptical if something like a gentle scratch to the neck would really work. But then he realized he was Bezil’s brother and as such, they have a weakness when it comes to pets, which made him grin along with him, albeit a bit menacingly. “I’ll be sure to get him back real good.”

Payback aside, he relaxed in his boyfriend’s arms for a little while. Despite showing his happiness, he was still nervous as hell about meeting Bezil’s other dad, Hikaru. Sure, it was a bit overdue, but knowing that he was in a position of high power, it just made him uneasy. He didn’t have anything to wow him with: no wealth, no fame, nothing to impress him with. In a king’s eyes, he would be just another random Digimon from the streets. Gummy didn’t want him to think he was boring.

It was honestly one of the reasons why he didn’t like authorities. They sit up in their pedestals, passing judgment on others as if their words were just. Just thinking about it was agitating him, as evidenced by the low flame on his tail fluctuating as embers began to flicker into the air.

So when Bezil’s sister Jill arrived, Gummy breathed a sigh of relief, secretly glad that the king was held back for a moment, giving him more mental time to prepare. For now he relaxed, introducing himself to her.

Then there was the matter of Justice’s condition, which made Gummy surprised that she wanted to help him, despite not knowing him. “Thanks, but my tamer’s actually doing surprisingly well,” he responded. “He was in pretty bad shape initially, but old man Owen and Bezil manage to mostly patch him up. He just needs a few days worth of bed rest and he’s ready to go...is what I would say if he wasn’t out right now somewhere in the city." Gummy sighed, a bit embarrassed. “Old man Owen said that he was gonna go find some replacement for the sneakers that got ruined, but Justice insisted to go with, claiming that he wouldn’t know the difference between the latest sneakers and combat boots. So he’s out with him with Matty and Jimmy tagging along. If there’s one thing that won’t keep my Tamer down, it’s fashion.”

Sitting down and taking his slice of apple pie, the Gumdramon listened as Bezil and Jill talked about her job, which seemed to be exhausting her. He could tell from the noticeable eye bags under her eyes.

Then Gummy lit up in surprise about their recent adventure. “Shit...” he said with his mouth full, then quickly swallowed it down. “So you know about that?” To him, it was nothing to be ashamed about, but it was nothing to be proud of either. Sure, if it were a regular on-the-mill mission, he’d boasted about it nonstop. But as Bezil explained, it was different to put it simply.

“Those monsters got what was coming to them,” the Gumdramon simply stated He grabbed his boyfriend’s hand from the side and gently squeezed it. “We went in there blindly, but we made it out in one piece. That’s all that matters, right Bezil?” He turned to him, giving him a reassuring wink,

Besides, his wonderful boyfriend did make an awesome light show at the end.

Bezil was glad that Gummy went along with his suggestion of how to deal with Matty. Mainly because Bezil knew the Onmon really hated having his helmet removed, so if Gummy kept it to the same level as he did in their level of messing around, hopefully things would be okay.

As he held his arms around Gummy, Bezil felt that he was probably nervous, he could tell the difference from how they normally cuddled like this. There was little he could do to alleviate Gummy's tension other than to gently rub his shoulders and say “It should be fine, babe, papa's a good digimon.”

Frankly in Bezil's mind, there was no way that Hikaru would outright forbid their relationship unless Gummy did something completely outrageous, and by now Bezil trusted him enough to know this was impossible. Still though, Bezil knew that there could be ways in which they would butt heads in an uncomfortable way, and he knew he had to be on his toes to intervene if things started to look contested.

When Jill arrived, Bezil listened to their exchange. He found it interesting that Gummy referred to Owen as 'old man', but supposed it made sense, as his father did usually act more maturely than most others he knew. Apart from his grandfather Sten of course. And speaking of family traits, Bezil had to chuckle with agreement with Jill that love of sweet spices was a trait in their family. Not one brother or sister he knew would turn down an extra pinch of cinnamon on their sweets.

Bezil grinned when Gummy mentioned that Justice cared a lot about fashion. “Sounds like he'll get along great with Matty and Jimmy, they care a lot about fashion too... same with papa.”

In that moment Bezil realized that he shared that trait with his father and brothers too, after all, he wore a fine red silk coat with gold trimmings in his Adult level form. That choice of clothing was way more due to the Hikaru in him than the Owen. But he chose to stay quiet about that here.

On the suggestion to recruit from Rosewood, Bezil listened as Jill explained why that would not be a good idea. The Gumdramon agreed with those points, after all, while Rosewood was on paper a good city, there wasn't enough safeguards. A truly evil digimon could be reborn in the Village of Beginnings, wind up in Rosewood, then end up recruited to the inner workings of Ys with minimum oversight from his suggestion. When it was pointed out to him, he agreed with Jill's outlook. “Okay, yeah, that's a good point.” he said, then frowned and rubbed his chin. “Still though, how could we get the monpower we need, other than waiting 5 years?”

Then after Bezil explained his reasoning on going on the expedition to Jill, Gummy added that they may have gone in there blindly, but what mattered most was that they got out of there alive. Initially, Bezil wished that he hadn't have said that, because it was a very difficult position to justify – that they had done something stupid that could have got them killed, but they weren't, so it was fine. Yet, he loved Gummy too much to refute that point in front of his sister. Instead, he chose to move around it.

“Every digimon I've met who has evolved to Perfect level and higher has had to face a situation like ours.” Bezil explained. “We were all ready to evolve that day, we felt it, deep down. I wish there was a completely safe situation in which we can evolve to Perfect for the first time, but I haven't yet come across one.”

Still, there were moments of regret in his mind, decisions that had caused them more pain in the long run. Justice had nearly died in fact. And that did not feel like it was worth the risks they took. It was a situation in which Bezil had equal amounts of pride and regret over.

The Gumdramon's thoughts were put on hold for the moment when he heard his older brother Haku's voice saying he needed to do some checkups. And this was followed by his father Hikaru's voice joining in. Oh god. This was the moment that Bezil had been rehearsing in his mind for months. Half of him wanted to kneel and formally introduce his boyfriend to his father and king, and half of him just wanted to slouch back with Gummy and be like “Yeah, he's my boo, old man, what are you gonna do?~” and the end result was Bezil yelping and falling off the sofa from surprise.

“I totally meant to do that!” Bezil said quickly. “Just needed to fix my shoelaces...” he realized then that he didn't have any shoes. “...to get rid of the dirt on my claws...” oh god, this moment of shock was forcing him to call forth every ounce of improvisation he had. Would it work?

“Papa, big brother, good to see you.” he would eventually say, standing upright, trying to retain whatever dignity he could. “Allow me to introduce you to my boyfriend here, Gummy.”

"Natural born Ysian," Jill answered. "While we can rule outsiders for five years, that's not so with those who are born in this city and has been part of it since a long ago. We can cut the needed time by like two years let's say. Two years is quite a good amount of time for a Diigmon to finally aware of what they are and where they sands. Digimon develops quickly mentally compared to humans. While impossible for them to reach adulthood as fast as certain special Digimons... it's a complete possibility to attain them in a year. By then they just need a bit mroe of training to finally reach the moment where they can get recruited."

Then she looked at Gummy to address him. "An advice from me, then, lover of mine brother. If you would humor me, that is. It's not my place to talk more than this actually, but... Keep your cool, but don't smooth thing over too much. Knowing differing points between fatal flaw and just some little mess you can gloss over would score you a high point from father."

Now up to how he receive that it will be probably a point to judge.

A few moments later, Hikaru would appear with his tophat crown and usual royalty kilt. For some strange reason today he got a cane and shawl with him. The knitting seem to says that it's made by Perry. The moment the snack flew, Jill was quick to grab the pie and balances herself. Haku meanwhile watched in amusement at the two's reaction.

Smooth, what with the moves?

"If you're so very interested in new shoes, shall we go on window shopping to buy you some?" Hikaru commented with a teasing grin. "Now, now, Ousama is a bit too much. I guess you can just call me "Sir" or "Mister", yeah that will do for me. Ahem, nice to meet you. Hikaru is my name. I'm this," Hikaru pointed at Bezil with his paw "young man's father. I hope you have been enjoying a steady and loving relationship with my son, hmn? He's my pride and joy, just like the rest. And I hope the treats waas to your liking."

Jill's expression was distorted for a moment... something seem up. She... seem to be eyeing the shawl and the cane?

"Well then, Haku. Checkup, yes?"

"Yep! Well then Bezbez!" Haku took out the portable pod. "Come on in! Let your big brother check you for your usual health related parameters!"

Hikaru let out a small "yoisho" as he sat on opposing side sofa.

"...So how many base have you guys ran? To the first? Second Or don't tell me home run while at it!?"

"They wouldn't get that! Jill retorted.

"Pahahaha, kidding kidding! Sorry sorry, I can't help but to tease loverbirds heh heh. Well then! Are you two starving, by chance? Have you planned anything for the day?"

A comically large-sized bruise appeared on Gummy’s head as he picked his head up. He tried not to flinch, but since he was still recovering from their battle with the priest twins, evidence by the bandages still wrapped around his torso, he couldn’t help but wince and hold his head in pain for a bit.

“Agh, Yggdrashi... that’s definitely coming out of Specs’s pocket,” he said, regaining his composure. Looking at the damage he caused, and seeing his mouth dropped, and quickly he bowed his head to Hikaru again, this time not hitting anything. “Um...forgive me for displaying such an insolent sight in your presence, your grace. I’ll happily pay for the damages.” Though thankfully, Jill saved all of the treats, much to his relief.

After that “amazing” first impression, Hikaru was surprisingly not upset about the ruin table. He introduced himself and expressed Gummy to not be uptight-ly formal and instead call him the usual “Mister” or “Sir”, to which the Gumdramon nodded. “Yes sir. Your son, Bezil, has been a ray of sunshine in my life that I don’t ever want to see go dim. I love him with all of my heart. And the apple pie that you’ve made is delicious. Thank you.” (Even though the dessert’s tasty goodness almost caused his demise just now)

Gummy watched cautiously as Bezil’s older brother, Haku, gave the furred Gumdramon a health check-up. Despite his injuries, his expression narrowed in concern about his boyfriend’s overall recovery, wincing if Bezil reacted in pain. He did take a lighting attack by an Ultimate, after all, so he felt that was something that couldn’t be patched up normally through quick healing, rather a natural recovery. Unlike humans, Digimon are known for taking a beating, but even they have their limits.

Gummy’s cheeks immediately turned red when Hikaru asked about the “progression” of their relationship. He looked at Bezil, who gave him a proud smile, then back to Hikaru, giving him a nervous smile in response. Though not saying a word about the matter, he felt like the king could easily put two and two together.

When asked if they were hungry, Gummy shook his head. “I already ate earlier too, so I’m good,” he answered. Bezil said that today he’d like to introduce him to the rest of his family. Gummy took a step forward. “Yes sir. Since I’ve already met your husband Owen-- who is cool by the way-- and your other sons, Matty and Jimmy, Bezil and I figured that it was time for me to be properly introduced to the rest of the family, starting with you if that’s alright.” he said.