EDUCATING MR MOTOMIYA

"I’m going WHERE?" Tailmon* rounded on her human partner, paws planted firmly on her hips and an expression of frank disbelief on her face. There were only two explanations for what she had just heard. Either her pointed ears were playing tricks on her, or Hikari was finally cracking beneath the strain of being a Chosen Child. She tilted her head and looked worriedly at her friend. Appearances were deceptive, but she seemed sane. Dressed in a flannel bathrobe, she had her back to her Digimon and her head in the wardrobe. From time to time, she would pull out an outfit and hold it against her, before replacing in the wardrobe with a shake of her head.

" . . . With me on my date, princess. If I have to go out with Daisuke tonight, you’re coming along with me to keep me company. Besides, I know V-mon will be there."

"And will Takeru and Patamon also be there?" she asked hopefully, deciding to disregard Hikari’s comment about V-mon. She liked Takeru. He was one of the few humans who knew the special spot behind the ears where all Tailmon liked to be scratched, and who was prepared to spend hours doing so. That was a rare combination of qualilities in her opinion. She even allowed him to hold her on occasion, which was an honour she usually reserved for Hikari.** And Patamon was her best Digimon friend. He understood her, her different moods. He was not offended when she wanted to be alone, and he was always up for a game when she was feeling playful. That was the best kind of friend to have. She had an odd feeling that they might have been more when they had evolved into their angel forms, but thinking about it made her feel uncomfortable.*** Everyone knew you became a different Digimon when you evolved, didn’t they? Angewomon isn’t me.

"I’m afraid not," Hikari sighed, finally selecting pants and a shirt from her closet, "It wouldn’t be a date if I had my best friend - my best, human friend, that is - tagging along with me."

With a sigh of her own, she replied, "Can’t you tell them that I’m at home washing my fur?"

Wiggling into her capris, "I thought our Digimon partners were meant to suffer along with us, Tailmon."

"Throw BelialVamdemon at me and I’ll field it," she said wryly, "Daisuke and V-mon are another story."

In general, Tailmon did not approve of Daisuke. Sure, she knew he had a good heart beneath all his bravado. The problem was that it was set on Hikari. No matter how her partner tried to tell him that she was not interested in him, he pursued her relentlessly. His crush had plumbed new depths last week when he had borrowed his sister’s guitar to serenade Hikari outside of her window. Unfortunately, as she lived in a block of flats and as Daisuke was no Ishida Yamato when it came to singing, he had ended up having various shoes and vegetables thrown at him. Even that had not dissuaded him! He had gone on caterwauling until after midnight! Poor Hikari had been too embarrassed to show her face the next morning, and Tailmon did not like anybody who embarrassed Hikari. That, and she had still not forgiven him for stepping on her tail a few weeks ago. As to V-mon . . .

"I thought you liked V-mon," Hikari’s reply was muffled by the shirt she was slipping over her head.

She gave her the flat, defiant stare that her former master had hated so much, "Put it this way, kid. I’d take a case of the fleas over him, because they’re less irritating."

Hikari ignored the comment and the expression, doing a little twirl for her partner, "So, how do I look?"

Even in the midst of her sulk, Tailmon felt a surge of possessive pride as she looked at her human. Even though she could not understand the other species’ obsession with clothes, she knew that Hikari had impeccable taste in them. For her so-called date with Daisuke, she had chosen to team a pair of khaki capris with a white tanktop. The shirt was printed with a glittery butterfly that twinkled different colours whenever her friend moved. She was proud of how beautiful her human was. Not that she cared to share that observation at the moment.

"Why do you care how you look for Daisuke?"

"I don’t, but he has to think I do. Otherwise, he’ll know for sure that the date’s not real."

Before Tailmon could snidely comment that it looked pretty real to her, Taichi poked his head around the corner. She could tell he had gone into protective older brother mode. He was chewing at his bottom lip and he had a concerned expression on his face beneath all his hair. That usually meant trouble for somebody.

"Do you mind, Taichi?" Hikari sounded irritated, "I could have been getting dressed."

Her brother waved her objections aside with a hand, "This is more important than manners. Tell me you aren’t going out with Daisuke tonight."

"How did you find out about it?"

"Simple, Hikari. He’s at the door!"

TBC

NOTES:

* She’s Gatomon in the dub. Don’t ask me why they went with the Spanish word for cat, when Tailmon is a perfectly simple name.

** See the third movie. In the train, he has both Pata and Tail on his lap.

*** ‘Tis coda, even if it is a case of you’ll miss it if you blink. There’s a scene in the second season where you see Angemon with his arm around Angewomon’s shoulder.