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Shades of Ice - What may become...
Thursday, 1st December
Matt Ishida walked down the busy street on his way to yet another boring Thursday at university, making sure every 20 seconds to look around him and check to see if any crazed fans were following him. They had all seemed to be controlling themselves today, which he was really thankful for. He hadn't managed to get much sleep last night and so if they descended on him there wasn't much chance of him escaping. T.K had run after Kari before Matt had gotten to his house, so he was stuck walking by himself. Yet again. Ever since T.K had found out, it seemed as though he wanted to stay away from Matt as much as possible. It wasn't like he was going to catch anything from him, it was their dad that had everything wrong with him.
'Damn fucking microwaves.' Matt thought to himself as he kicked a small stone out of his path, 'The T.V station should have known what they would do to him and now he can hardly walk because of that damn cancer.'
He was seriously thinking of not going to his lectures today, even though the nurse was there with his father. Hell, he'd even moved out of the dorms when he found out and he wasn't sure how much longer he could go on with the band. After all, it was the band that had allowed him the freedom he had at the moment but slowly it was coming to an end. Matt felt like he had had enough of everything that had gone wrong in his life, fate had never looked kindly upon him and he was almost expecting something to happen to himself soon. His dad's only crime was not paying as much attention to Matt when he was younger than he should have, but that had only made Matt stronger and all the more determined to do well and make his dad proud of him, to get his attention. Matt was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't hear a person calling out his name and was only brought back to reality when they tapped him on the shoulder. Matt shook his head and looked around him, then turned around to see his best friend in the world, Sora Takenouchi.
"Hey Sora." he said in a depressed tone.
"What's wrong Matt?" she asked worried. Matt hadn't told any of the other digidestined and he knew that T.K wouldn't say anything either.
"Nothing." Matt replied, staring straight ahead of him.
Sora sighed and knew not to press the issue any further, Matt had always told her everything in his own time.
"O.K. Matt, but you know that I'm here when you need to talk." Sora told him, which brought a small smile to Matt's face and he nodded.
"Good." Sora chirped, "Now, what have you done for your assignment?"
"Me? Um.. oh what was it? That's right, it was the aerodynamic stability of the Boeing 747." Matt replied wondering how on earth he'd manage to get the information for it.
"You just had to go into specifics didn't you?" Sora teased then said, "Mine's the impact of engineering on the safety of modern cars."
Matt nodded and they continued walking, discussing the weeks lectures. They had both chosen to do an engineering degree but Sora's being a Civil and Matt's being an Aeronautical. Mimi had gone on to choose a fashion designing course at the Technological Institute over the road, Izzy had chosen a computer science degree and was already a year ahead (the lecturer sometimes leaving Izzy to explain everything to the other students), Tai, surprisingly, had gotten a good enough score to qualify for a football scholarship and had chosen Sports Psychology and Joe was in his fourth year of a five year architecture degree. He had finally found the courage to tell his father that he didn't want to become a doctor. His father had been disappointed but accepted Joe's decision and he had chosen to design buildings for a live. All of the younger digidestined were in their sophomore year of high school (Cody having skipped a grade) and all were doing well.
The morning lectures had passed without much incident (apart from the daily barrage of paper planes from the students up the back of the hall) and Matt, having no lectures in the afternoon, had decided to go home early instead of meet the others at the library as they did every afternoon. He walked down the stairs and was just about to cross the road when he heard Tai yell out to him.
"How's it going Matt?" Tai asked as he took the stairs three at a time.
"Not bad. You?" Matt asked back.
"Brilliant, I've got a trial for the Tokyo football club this weekend. This could be my big break but then I'd have to still try and find some way of doing my Uni course..."
"Well I'm sure you'll find some way." Matt told him as he started to walk off. He was starting to get worried about his dad as his stomach felt like it had just plummeted 100 stories. As Matt did, Tai grabbed his arm to hold him there,
"What I was going to say is I've invited the others along with me and I was wondering if you wanted to come too."
Matt cringed inside, he didn't want the others to know about his father but they would if he didn't go. But at the same time he didn't like the idea of leaving his father in the nurse's care for the weekend. Sighing, he replied,
"I'll see if I can. I've got a recording session on Sunday and I've got to be back for that, so I'll see what I can do."
Tai's face brightened and a smile appeared on his face.
"Thanks Matt." he said and Matt nodded and walked off, "You not coming to the library?"
Matt silently cursed the day that he and Tai became friends and turn around, saying, "I've got this huge assignment I've got to do and I need to find out the info for it. I'll probably see ya tomorrow." and left waving.
After throwing his keys on the kitchen table, Matt dived into the fridge and pulled out a Coke. Taking a drink from it, he walked down to his father's room and found him asleep, the nurse sitting in his cozy chair reading a book.
"Oh, hi Matt. I wasn't expecting you home for another 4 hours." the nurse, Sandra, said as she book marked her place and stood up.
"Yeah, I decided to get home ASAP today. How is he?"
"Well he fell asleep just after lunch and he's been sleeping soundly ever since." Sandra told him, to which Matt replied,
"Good. Listen, you can go home now if you want. I'll be here the rest of the day."
Sandra thanked him and left after picking up her things.
Matt was busy searching the internet for information for his assignment when he heard an alarm go off. He rubbed his eyes and wearily got out of his seat, pressing the sleep button on the alarm clock as he passed it on his way to the fridge. Pulling out his father's medicine, Matt sighed and poured out the exact amount that he needed to take of the syrup then three green pills and two red ones. Pouring a glass of water, he put the medicine on a tray and carried it into his fathers room.
"Hey dad, time for your drugs." Matt said as he placed the tray on the bedside table and was mildly surprised when his father continued sleeping.
"Dad?" Matt asked and shook him. When he received no response this time, he placed a hand on his father's face and was surprised when he found it burning hot.
"Oh, no." Matt muttered before running to the phone and rang for an ambulance then opened the door for them. As possible scenarios ran through his head, a definite thought remained, he must ring T.K and tell him what was going on. Matt picked up the phone again and with trembling fingers dialed what he thought was T.K's number.
"Hello? Kamiya residence." Sora's voice said over the line.
"Oh, hey Sora, is T.K there?" Matt asked, his voice becoming strained.
"Yeah, I'll just get him." Sora told him and shouted out for T.K.
"Yeah Matt?" T.K asked. Matt just remained silent for a second, not knowing what to say.
"Matt? You there?"
"Oh, huh? Yeah I'm here. Look T.K, Dad's being taken to hospital. I went in to give him his drugs and he wouldn't wake up so I tried to see what was wrong and when I felt him, he was burning hot..." Matt was interrupted by the paramedics coming through the door.
"He's in through there. I'll follow you in my car." Matt told them and T.K's throat seized up, realizing that this was for real.
"Will he be alright Matt?" T.K asked his older brother, worry evident in his voice.
"I won't know until I get to the hospital, so if you could come as well." Matt said and could see T.K nodding as he said,
"I'll be right over there." and all Matt could hear was the engaged tone before he hung up his end.
"What was all that about T.K?" Sora asked after T.K had hung up the phone.
"Dad... he's in the hospital." T.K whispered and looked up at her with tears in his eyes, "I need to get there, will you take me?"
Sora hugged him before saying, "Sure I'll take you. We'd better get going then."
"Kari, I've got to go and I'm dropping T.K off on the way. O.K.? Tell Tai I'll see him tomorrow." Sora called out to the young girl, who was battling with her older brother on a Playstation 2 game.
"See ya Sora." Tai called out as he scored another goal and started laughing at his little sister.
T.K ran out of the frontdoor and stood impatiently waiting for Sora to unlock the door. They quickly got in and sped off to the hospital, the ride there passing in absolute silence. Sora quickly glanced over at her passenger, who was staring out the window.
'Man, if T.K's taking it like this I wonder how Matt is then.' she thought as she pulled into the car park and was relieved when she saw Matt's blue MGF Roadster a few bays away.
"Hey T.K! Wait up!" Sora called out as she took off after him.
T.K ran aimlessly around the waiting area, the gruesome stories there presenting themselves to him before he saw a familiar head of perfectly styled blonde hair.
"Matt!" T.K. yelled as he ran over to his older brother, who lifted his head out of his hands at his name, revealing red, bloodshot eyes with tears still falling slowly from them.
"T.K?" Matt asked as he sniffed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, "How did you get here?"
"Sora brought me." T.K told him as Sora came up behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders.
"Any news on your Dad Matt?" Sora asked hopefully, her shoulders slumping when he shook his head.
"They just took him and said they were going to do some tests. I have no idea how long it's going to take so you'd better go home T.K." Matt told his little brother. "Thanks for bringing him Sora, but it's going to be a while so you don't need to stay here. I'll be fine."
"No Matt. I'm staying." Sora firmly told him, which caused both Matt's and T.K's heads to pop up, "I know what it's like to not know if the one you love is alright or not and it can put huge pressures on you. You'll need someone to talk to, so I'm staying."
Matt looked at Sora's soft amber eyes and he knew he couldn't argue with her, she always did know him best.
"Well if Sora's staying, then so am I." T.K declared and watched Matt as he took his eyes off Sora and settled them down onto him.
"I'm not arguing with you T.K so you can take it up with Mum. You'd better tell her what's going on anyway."
T.K nodded and walked over to the nearest payphone, knowing he could persuade his mother to let him do anything. Sora watched him go, then brought her attention back to Matt as he sighed and sat back down on the couch. Sitting down next to him, Sora noticed the red around Matt's eyes and she knew he was taking this hard.
"What happened Matt?" Sora asked as she put her arm around his shoulder and hugged him.
"Dad... he was asleep when I went to give him his medication... but I couldn't wake him up... and... he was burning hot." Matt stuttered, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Oh?" Sora muttered, surprised.
"What?" Matt asked, looking her in the face.
"Nothing, it's just that you called an ambulance cause your Dad... had a fever?" and with her words, Matt looked down at his feet,
"But I take it there's something you're not telling me."
Matt slowly brought his face up to meet hers again.
"Dad... he's..." Matt started but couldn't seem to finish his sentence.
"Matt, it's O.K. Whatever it is, you can tell me." Sora cooed. Taking a shuddering breath, Matt continued.
"We found out that Dad's got cancerous tumors all over his body. The specialist seems to think that they're caused by the micro waves that are omitted in the T.V Station."
At his words, Sora felt her heart go out to him. After losing her father all those years ago, she knew what he was going through. Although she knew that she was lucky, being only 4 at the time, she didn't know what death meant, all she knew was that Daddy was going away for a very long business trip this time. The presents that her family and their friends gave her served their purpose and distracted her from the truth. In fact, she actually wished that more of her family went away on business trips. Only in the years later did she realize what death was and was able to grieve, although not properly.
"I'm so sorry Matt." she said slowly, "I wish that you'd have told me sooner. I could have helped you."
"I couldn't have done that to you Sora. You would have then put my Dad and I before everything else and I couldn't allow myself to let you ruin your life because of me. You deserve your own freedom. We can take care of ourselves now and you need to start thinking about your own needs, not just everyone else's." Matt explained to her then lightly kissed her on the cheek, "But I thank God every day for you and what you do for us."
Sora blushed slightly at his words, touching her cheek where he kissed her after Matt got up to talk to his mother. After waking out of her trance, she noticed a number of young women and girls glaring at her while some of the older nurses who were close enough to hear Matt's words smiled knowingly at her. Sora blushed even more and picked up a magazine to hide her face, only pulling it down when T.K jumped onto the couch saying,
"I told you so!"
"Yeah, alright. Just don't make a nuisance of yourself." Matt replied to which T.K nodded.
"What's going on?" Sora asked.
"Mum said I could stay here until she gets back from Sendai." T.K said cheerfully.
"But she also said she was leaving immediately, so I wouldn't be too pleased with myself if I were you." Matt snapped aback, then his expression instantly softened, "Sorry T.K. It's just been a long day."
T.K just smiled knowingly and let the issue slide.
Matt pulled his head up off the wall, rubbed his eyes and yawned. His eyes wandered over to the clock mounted high on the wall to his right. '12:30?!' he thought, 'It can't take this fucking long to do a couple of tests just to confirm he's now dying from those damn tumors!'
Matt sighed in disgust and his eyes fell away from the clock and settled on to the two figures next to him. T.K was lying, stretched out on the couch between himself and Sora, T.K's head resting on Sora's lap. The poor boy had fallen asleep at 11 when they still had no news. Matt's azure eyes then gazed at Sora, who was also sleeping. Or so it seemed. He noticed that she had a puzzled expression on her beautiful face and wondered what she was thinking about.
'Not a nightmare, I hope.' Matt thought as a smile spread over his lips at the sight of her. But to Matt, it wasn't just her looks. There were plenty of people he knew who were better looking than her. It was also her caring personality that drew her to people and Matt was no exception. How she hated fighting between the Digidestined, was always putting all their needs above her own, just everything about her attracted him.
'She probably would have been better becoming a doctor.' Matt said to himself, 'BUt she decided to follow me and do engineering.'
"Excuse me, Mr. Ishida?" a voice asked, breaking his thoughts.
"Yes?" Matt replied sleepily, Sora opening her eyes and shook T.K awake. The doctor looked at them, then at Matt several times before Matt said,
"You can tell me in front of them."
The doctor nodded and pulled his clipboard out from under his arm.
"Well we've conducted several tests and found that your father is only suffering from a fever due to an infection in his operation wound. He should be alright but I think we should keep him here for a week or two incase complications set in."
Matt nodded at this, internally sighing. T.K laughed happily releasing the tension that had built up inside him while Sora just smiled at the good news.
"Will he be alright, if I go home?" Matt asked and the doctor nodded,
"I just need you to sign a few forms before you leave."
"Fine." Matt sighed and scrawled his signature on the pieces of paper and walked out with Sora and T.K either side of him, T.K hugging his brother tightly and crying silent tears of relief.
"Matt?" they heard a feminine voice call out over the road.
"Mum!" T.K exclaimed as he ran over and hugged her.
"How is he?" she asked, worry evident in her eyes.
"He's just got a fever from an infection in his wound from the operation." Matt explained and saw his mum relax.
"Do you want to stay the night with us?" she added and Matt shook his head.
"Thanks, but I can stay at home." Matt told her.
"Besides, I'll stay with him tonight." Sora interjected, which MAtt instantly argued.
"You've got classes tomorrow."
"None 'till the afternoon, just like you." Sora reminded him.
"But what about your mum?"
"I'll just explain to her what's going on, she'll be cool with it."
"But..." Matt attempted to argue when Sora cut in,
"Matt just accept the fact that you still do need help and keep your mouth shut." Matt sighed and chuckled, shaking his head.
"Alright, I know when I can't win. We'd better get going then." Matt said as he dug his car keys out of his pocket.
"I'll call you tomorrow morning Matt, alright?" he heard his mother call out as they got into their cars.
Matt awoke the next morning to the sound of crackling and sizzling. Thinking it was a fire, he immediately jumped out bed and sprinted into the kitchen. However he tripped on the edge of the mat and came crashing into the kitchen living room.
"Oww! SHIT!!!!!!!" Matt swore as he banged his knee on the ground. He heard a fork a being dropped and footsteps running over to him with Sora's sweet voice asking, "Are you alright Matt?" as she helped him up.
"Argh, yeah I'm okay." he replied as he held onto him knee.
"We'd better get some ice on that." she stated and walked over to the freezer, "So did you finally get a good night sleep sleepyhead?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah much better thanks." Matt said with a grateful smile and flinched slightly as Sora placed the ice pack carefully on his knee, holding it there. Sora almost giggled at the sight of Matt in his boxer shorts and his bed hair, which was all over the place. 'He must go through a huge amount of hair gel to get it the way it is.' she thought as she felt Matt's cold hand over hers.
"I can hold onto the pack myself Sora." he said, looking into her eyes with a confused expression on his face. This caused her to blush furiously.
"Well, I'm glad that you had a good night's sleep." Sora said, "I just hope that you feel like bacon and eggs for breakfast."
Matt's smile grew as he rubbed his eyes and looked at Sora in his clothes. Even wearing a pair of flannel bottoms and a huge T-shirt, she could still take his breath away.
"I could get used to this sight." Matt mumbled to himself as he grabbed a plate and picked up a piece of toast that was already on the table. Sora's head turned slightly at the comment, not believing what she thought she heard and so asked,
"What was that?"
Matt's head popped up to look at her then calmly said, "I just said that this all looks delicious."
Sora just nodded her head and smiled to herself. Maybe he did feel for her after all but was it worth breaking up with Tai to find out? After all he hadn't been paying as much attention to her recently.
'I'll leave that 'till later.' she thought as she served up the eggs and bacon on the two plates that Matt had already put toast on and they ate while enjoying idle chit-chat. Sora looked over to Matt as he ate, it was nothing like watching Tai eat. Matt had extremely good table manners.
A new announcement on the T.V caught Sora's attention and watched the section with mild interest.
"Thank you Sora." Matt said as he took his eyes off his food to look at her. Sora bringing her attention back to him which caused their faces to meet each other, a few centimeters separating them.
"Thank you for everything." he breathed as he edged towards her. Sora's heart just started beating wildly.
'I can't cheat on Tai... but this is what I've always wanted, isn't it?' she thought, also moving closer. Matt was becoming dizzy from the smell of her hair and felt his throat dry up, amazed at the effect that Sora was having on him. Their breathing quickened as they were now only millimeters apart.
Bring! Bring! The telephone rang, both recoiling backwards and blushing tremendously, not looking at each other out of guilt. Matt quickly got out of his seat and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" he greeted, his voice sleepy.
"Hi Matt!" Mimi's voice came over the line.
"Hey Mims, what's up?"
"Well... I was wondering if you could pick your sweet Mimi up on your way to Uni today." Mimi's cheerful voice laughed. Matt rolled his eyes and smiled when he saw Sora giggling. He hadn't been planning on going today, but he may as well.
"Yes, alright. I'll pick my sweet Mims up on my way to Uni today. I'll be swinging around at about 11:30 then." Matt replied.
"Thank you very much Mattie! You're the best." Mimi told him before hanging up the phone, Matt doing the same.
"I take it we're making a stop on our way today." Sora asked and Matt nodded, "I wonder what she did to her car THIS time."
"Maybe she reversed into the letterbox again." Matt suggested and they both started laughing. Matt looked at his watch and noticed that it was almost 10, they'd better get ready.
"You can have your shower first Sora, I'll clear up here." Matt said and turned his back to her when she opened her mouth to object. Sora sighed then walked over to the bathroom and Matt picked the plates up loudly and stuffed them into the dishwasher.
"Stupid me! What the fucking hell was I thinking?! There's no way in heaven she would ever love me like that. Plus she's going out with Tai... I nearly betrayed the trust of one of my best friends." Matt scolded himself quietly as he kicked the door of the dishwasher up and wiped down the table, not noticing Sora standing just outside the bathroom door.
"Hey Matt." Sora said and Matt's head instantly bobbed up to look at her not knowing if she heard him, "What towel can I use?"
Matt placed the cloth onto the table and walked over to the cupboard in the hall, bringing out a big fluffy towel.
"Here, you can use this one." Matt said as he handed it to her, Sora muttering her thanks.
'Ooo shit that was close.' Matt said to himself as he sat down and placed his head in his hands. Then a thought struck him and got up, walking over to the phone and dialed in a number.
"Hey Sandra, Dad was admitted to hospital yesterday and their keeping him in for a couple weeks so I'll call you when he gets out, okay? ...No I don't blame you, you did the best you could... Don't worry about it. I'll call you later... Bye." Matt said before hanging up the phone again. Sighing, he walked into his room and picked out the clothes he was to wear that day. He placed them on his chair that was next to the door and picked up his wallet, sunglasses, mobile, pager and harmonica. He never went anywhere without in, even now that he was able to use the most sophisticated musical instruments in the world. It didn't just symbolize his musical talent but it was also the gift that his father gave him after he and his mum had split up. He remembered the day as if it were imprinted on his mind.
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"Daddy? Why do we have to leave Mummy and T.K?" a 7 year old Matt Ishida asked his dad as they walked through the busy streets of Odaiba, their new home, after shopping for groceries.
"It was because Mummy and Daddy didn't agree on everything anymore, we decided that it was better if you and T.K didn't have to see us fighting all the time." His father tried to explain, holding his son's hand firmly. Not wanting to lose him like he lost the rest of his family.
"But why did T.K have to leave?" Matt asked, tears forming in his eyes. Matt remembered that his father had put the shopping down and hugged him in the middle of the sidewalk, trying to comfort his oldest son, glad that he was showing some emotions and not bottling it up inside as he had heard often occurred.
"Because Mummy wanted to look after him, she thought he was too young to go with Daddy and she still wanted to have one of you two." he said but immediately regretted wording it like that as he saw more tears in his son's eyes and his face contort with pain, "But that doesn't mean that Mummy doesn't love you anymore. You'll still get to see her every two weeks."
Unfortunately those visits never occurred apart from the first two times. It always ended with his father and mother fighting about what the arrangement with T.K was going to be, and the time that Nancy should be allowed to spend with Matt but he didn't know that at the time.
"Yay!" Matt cheered and wiped his tears away. He saw his dad dive into his trouser pocket and start to pull something out.
"I was waiting until Christmas to give this to you Matt, but I think you've been such a good boy that you can have it now." his father said as he pulled his hand all the way out to reveal a shiny harmonica. Matt's eyes went wide and shined with happiness at the sight of it.
"This harmonica is special Matt. Your grandpa gave it to me when I was your age and my grandpa gave it to him after he got it from an American who was trapped here during the war after your great-grandpa helped him to escape just after America joined the war. I trust you to look after it for me now." his father told him, placing it into the trembling hands of the excited young boy.
"Thanks dad." Matt said as he launched himself onto his father and hugged him tightly, "I'll make sure nothing happens to it!"
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