Fishy shopping (Miu/Levi)

After many circling conversations with Levi which went as followed:

“Levi, you understand if we do this. You’ll have to be really really careful. Don’t make any noises or attract suspicion because they’re a lot more people in the malls than in an aquarium.”

The little shark would nod her large head and blink her eyes, rapidly.
“So, what are you going to do?”

“Levi, hungwy! Same-same foooood!” She roared, loudly as her stomach roared even louder.

So, Miu with shark in tow, had entered the mall, quietly. Hopefully it would stay that way. Levi hung from Miu’s arms, pretending that she was a plush doll. Although, she would still blink every so often, almost ruining this resemblance.

“Remember, silence is key. Okay,” Miu said, out of the corner of her mouth. “We just gonna get some ingredients for cooking and then leave. No fuss.” Levi opened her mouth as if to say something, probably something about food, but quickly closed it again and said nothing.

“Uhhh, so, probably fish. That’s what sharks eat. At least in my world. I don’t know about...” She tilted her head to one side as she considered the end to that sentence.

“You know what, never mind. Let’s just go.”

With large, hasty and quickened steps, Miu approached the fish market. A kindly old man looked over the counter at her.

“Good afternoon, young lady. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Yes! Please! I’d like uh...”

Just as Miu was about to describe the vast amount of fish that she was going to buy to feed her digital monster pet that had appeared out of nowhere at her work place but not mention any of that. Something less good happened.

“Dat one! Yummy!! Same-same!”

Before Miu could stop her. Levi had raised her fin and pointed at one of the fish that was on display. “Uhhh,,,” Miu stumbled. Her face had turned slightly whiter than usual but she soon rallied herself. 

“I’ve been practicing my ventriloquism just for this very occasion. See a fish and you sell fish. It makes sense right.”

Preemptively, as if expecting another random outburst. Miu placed her hands over Levi’s mouth and smiled at the man behind the counter who looked at them with bemused interest. She looked to her left and caught sight of a young man with a crop of short black hair.

“Oh, uh. Yeah. The shark doll really agrees with you on that one,” she added, looking at the fish that had caused Levi’s outburst.

Quickly, turning her head away and back to the stand. It seemed like a good plan to get in, buy what she needed and then leave quickly and quietly. Before, she attracted too much more unnecessary attention from the surrounding people.

Miu jumped as she heard words that she had not expected to hear.

“Did you say… d-d-digi...”

Face pale, she slowly looked across at the boy again. Although, as she did so, they corrected themselves, quickly.

Before either of them, could say anything else, Miu took the arm of the boy and pulled him gently to one side. Away from the ears of the man behind the stand, who was looking on at the pair with bemusement.

“What are you saying? You know? Like you know about? And how they? How they can? YOU KNOW?”

Her face was growing ever more pale as she spoke.

“I’m trying my best to keep incognito. Because, you’ve seen movies. You know what they do to… aliens OR whatever this is.” Miu muttered, indicating the shark in her arms.

“I’m a Levi! Same-same! This be a Miu! We frens!” Levi said, before Miu could prevent her speaking once more.

“Why don’t you have a… like, a little shark monster? You do know right? Or what, is it invisible? Is it hiding around the corner? Waiting for you to come back. Come on, man! I don't know how any of this works.” Miu said, completely losing her cool.

Miu paused her tirade and looked down as she felt a fin slapping against her arm. “Miu. People watching us!? Oooo! Do they wanna be frens too!?”

“I’ve gotten pretty good at ventriloquism, haha… yeah,” Miu said, her words fading away as she finished speaking.

A thousand and one questions passed quickly through Miu’s brain. She raised a hand as if to ask a question but then lowered it. Unsure which question to start with.

After a few more moments of silence and a look of befuddlement crossing the girl’s face. Miu opened her mouth.

“Clayton. You’re telling me. That you can turn into…” her eyes dropped to the little shark creature that she carried.

“Into something like this? That is hard to believe. Come to think of it. All of this is very hard to believe.”

He even had one of those weird devices that came with the Digimon. Although his appeared a lot different than the one that she carried. A lot more science fiction when her was more or less a cell phone.

Miu was doing as he suggested. Taking long and heavy deep breaths, trying to calm herself before she had some kind of heart attack right here in the middle of the fish market.

“I think it might be… prudent. That we go somewhere a little more quiet. Before, something worse happens. Like….” Her eyes dropped to the little shark in her arms.

As if on cue. Levi tilted her head, mirroring her master’s usual habit when in a state of confusion and then opened her own mouth and spoke in a low voice.

“Levi, fren! Okay?”

Before Miu could intervene. The little shark held up a flipper like paw to the boy for him to shake.

“Levi, be fren!”

Miu blanched. Her face turned pale. But she forced herself to laugh. “My ventriloquism is going really well. The people at the talent show are gonna love it.”

“Come on,” Miu said, smiling passively at the man behind the counter – who continued to look at both Miu and Clayton with bemused puzzlement.

“Levi, hungwy!” The little shark added, slightly muffled, through Miu’s hand.

“Oh! Uh, I’ll take some of… that and that and some of that too,” Miu said, pointing absentmindedly at various cuts of fish. Trying her best to hurry this purchase.

The man behind the counter continued to look on, quizzically. One eyebrow raised. Although, he took Miu’s money, simply enough, turning away to put it in the till.

As he did so, Miu moved her head closer to the boy.

“I think that’d would be the wisest course of action here. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but, my partner can’t keep quiet for long.”

Levi opened her mouth, maybe to complain about her hunger again or maybe to contend about what Miu had just said. However, her words were cut short by a loud roaring noise.

For a second, Miu thought that something else, presumably, large and monsterous had appeared. Although, it was just Levi’s stomach.

“So, your place, then? I can cook us some of this fish, if you’d like that? I got plenty. More than enough for the pair of us and my little shark friend, here," Miu muttered in a lowered voice. 

“Levi hungwy! Food! Fishy! Nom Nom!” Levi said, very loudly.

Jumping slightly, Miu pressed a hand over her mouth in attempt to silence her before any more people turned their heads to look at the pair of them. The little shark Digimon continued to talk, although, her next words were muffled by Miu’s hand.

“Levi hunwy! Feeds the feesh!”

Sighing to herself, and resigning herself to whatever happened next. Miu walked away from the stall. Several heads still turned in their direction, confused looks upon their faces.

This whole day was going south, very very quickly.

Miu nodded in agreement with his statement about them hurrying up. The less attention gathered the better. Miu had already been forced to explain this Digimon thing to one person, she didn’t want to have to do that again, any time soon.

“Let’s go, then,” Miu said, stepped in time with Clayton. So they walked, side-by-side out of the mall.

Levi’s eyes seemed to beam at the thought of a “new fren”. She closed her mouth and held it that way, almost like she was holding her breath. A look of great excitement seemed to have crossed over her face.

“Well, that was a good idea at the very least. All of this is… very… taxing,” Miu said as they walked together. Head slightly tilted.

“There has been one bad encounter already, and a few near misses. It’s hard work having a digital monster as a pet. Maybe next time, I’ll just get a cat like everyone else.”

Levi looked up, almost as if she was going to intervene with another statement but keeping to her word. The little shark didn’t say a thing. But her eyes seemed to say the words for her.

“I mean, I really love Levi,” she added and Levi seemed to chill once again.

“It’s just a lot of work to keep it secret, especially at work. I can’t exactly leave her at my place, that’d be chaos.” She imagined silently for a few minutes, her younger sister finding Levi and how long her “stuffed toy” act may last.

After a few minutes of silence between the two, Miu asked another question that had been playing on her mind.
“So, uh, Clayton. How long have you been a part of… this… world? Or whatever you want to call it. It’s only been a few weeks for me and it’s been tough, so far.”

As the pair continued walking and talking, Miu tilted her head slightly to one side as she considered Clayton’s words.

“Well, that seems rather… inconvenient,” she muttered, drawing her transformed phone from a pocket and looking down at it. Now Miu thought about it, she had paid very little thought to the transformed digivice-slash-phone, or rather, a digivice that had transformed from her own cell phone.

On first glance it seemed much like a normal phone, although, on further analysis. It has a lot of weird apps added to it which made it abnormal.

“I’ve not made much use of mine. It’s never transformed me into anything, anywhere. Thankfully.”

“All it did do, was change when I met Levi. It made this strange buzzing noise and then, poof, changed.” Silently, Levi put her hands into the air as if miming an explosion.

“I see,” Miu added, nodding but not following at all.

“This is all a lot to take in… once again. It’s been like that since day one and I feel like it might be like that, from now on.”

For a few minutes they walked along in silence.

“I live alone too, but I take care of my younger sister on weekdays. Because my father and step-mother work a lot. Fortunately, neither Shione nor any of my family know about Levi. That would be a difficult conversation for sure,” Miu added as Clayton spoke about his own situation.

Levi smiled up at Clayton and then turned her head back to stare up at Miu. Those large yellow orb like eyes wide. Mouth open but she still didn’t speak.

Miu sighed to herself.

“Go ahead. Before you explode...” she said, turning her head to check there wasn’t anyone nearby.

“Levi fink Clayton new fren! We be frens from now on! Okay?!”

“I guess, Levi has taken a liking to you already,” Miu mused. The impression was that the little shark was quick to befriend anyone who is kind to her.

Levi nodded in rapid succession. “Clayton fren! Miu fren! Levi frens!!”

"But, Levi. Friendship is something you build in time. You can't just order it to happen, yknow? But... uh, yeah. I'd also like to be friends with you."