Always You and I [Part 1/2]
By Firenze
A/N: To get things cleared up, this has nothing to do with the 98 Degrees song, and it's not a Takari. I just suck at titles, and if you've read my fics, you know that. It's a working title, if I get a better idea, I'll change it. For once, this is not a fic that ends sadly or has some dramatic twist. I'm trying to keep things light and sweet and fluffy here. Of course, I'm not going to succeed, but it's worth a try, right? This is going to have lots and lots and lots and a heck of a lot more flashbacks, which is why I turned back to HTML so I could italicize it. And this is pure Taiora, no other character triangles or squares, and in fact, really no other characters. Mind you, I still sort of have writer's block, so if the end turns out crummy, I apologize. This idea came into my head around midnight when I was listening to all my CDs. I meant to keep this one part, but you know how I tend to drone on and on. So that's enough rambling from me. Sit back, relax, grab some popcorn, and enjoy!
Oh yeah… I fixed the error where Sora said Taichi's name before he told her… Thanks, SpeedyGP (aka dead author) [ugh, it's so annoying to type that whole thing out…can you change your alias already?], for noticing that. It's because I first had Tai introduce himself at the beginning, but he didn't know her name, but then I just decided to change it for some reason.
Disclaimer: These annoying things will be the death of me. Tai, Sora, Kari, Mimi, Mrs. Takenouchi, Odaiba, and Highton View Terrace don't belong to me. The park does, unless it somehow really exists. And also the poem in there is from Chrono Cross, my new obsession.
~*^*~
The big, bright sun set below the horizon, making the mountains seem to glow. The sky was a beautiful blend of soft pastel yellows, oranges, pinks, purples, and blues mixed in with vibrant tones of red, orange, yellow, and blue, with a few pinkish clouds. It was a beautiful sight, and it matched perfectly with the tons of flowers in full bloom. The season was springtime, and the weather and everything about the outdoors was absolutely perfect. It was getting late, but many people were outside enjoying the wonderful day.
A young man walked alone along a quiet lane in the middle of a park, which was shaded by large trees with many shades of green leaves. Sunlight poured through the gaps in the trees, casting little light on the path. The man walked with his hands in his pockets, completely silent, but just turning his head and taking in his surroundings. It was not a new place to him at all, in fact, this place was the site of so many of his memories. Much time had passed since he had last visited this huge, peaceful park in the center of the hectic and bustling city of Highton View Terrace, and he was finally back, seeing how so many things had changed. But he couldn't help but think how many things had stayed the same, all through the years. Looking at everything made him remember the events that had happened so long ago, yet it played clearly in his mind like it had happened yesterday...
The trees became sparser, and there were fewer and fewer of them along the side of the path, until there were none at all. He passed by a little sandbox, remembering how huge it had seemed to him as a child. He and his younger sister had played in that sandbox very often. Until that one summer day when he met another young girl...
~*^*~
Hikari had fallen ill and had to return to the hospital again, so it was Taichi all by himself in the sandbox. It wasn't as much fun without someone else to play with. He scooped up a handful of sand, and let it sift back through his fingers. He got another handful, and repeated the dull process over and over.
"What are you doing?" a girl about his age asked curiously. She had short, light brown hair and pretty ruby eyes. She had just stepped into the sandbox and noticed him all alone.
"Nothing," he said. He explained how his little sister frequently got sick, and this was one of those times. "I'm just here by myself doing nothing."
"So you have no one at all to play with?" He nodded, and she sat down next to him. "Me too." They were both silent for a while; the only noise was sand being picked up and dropped again. The girl did nothing, but she appeared to be reflecting on something. "I was thinking, since we're both all alone – maybe we could play together."
"That's a good idea," he said. "Wanna build a sandcastle? 'Kari and I build sandcastles all the time, like when we're at the beach. Even though this sand isn't very good."
She nodded. "'Kay." They set to work building a sandcastle, and Taichi had to admit that it was a lot nicer than the ones he and Hikari usually built. When it was completely finished, the girl sat back down and admired their work. "Well, now that that's done, what do you wanna do now?"
"I want to dig a deep hole," he told her excitedly. "Maybe one all the way to China."
"That isn't possible to dig a hole that far and deep. Holes can't go across water," she remarked. "And what's so special about China?"
He shrugged. "I dunno, but people on TV always say it. Wanna dig a hole anyway?"
"How deep will it go?"
"I guess we'll just have to find out when we finish," Taichi said. It sounded interesting to them, so they set to work digging their own hole with their hands. Their hands got dirty, and sand got underneath their fingernails, but they didn't care. It was a tiring procedure, but they kept on going, trying to discover the mystery of how deep it could go.
After a while, Taichi said breathlessly, "I think I feel something!"
"Me too!" The girl exclaimed, digging deeper. "It's definitely something, but I don't know what…" So they continued digging, more frantically now. "I got it!" she cried happily.
"So do I!" But it turned out all they had were each other's hands. Their holes had gone deeper and deeper until they connected at one point, creating a tunnel. They were amused at how excited they had been about their find, when in reality, they had only found each other.
As they were still laughing, a woman with dark hair up in an elegant twist came to the sandbox. "It's time to go now," she announced to the girl.
She stopped giggling and wiped her hands off on her clothes. "All right, Mama." She turned to Taichi. "Goodbye –" She paused for a second. "Wait – I never found out what your name was."
"Taichi," he replied, "but all my friends call me Tai."
"Oh. My name's Sora. Nice meeting you, Taich—Tai." She got up and followed her mother away, still waving. "It was fun! Maybe we'll meet again someday."
~*^*~
When she had called him Tai, it showed that they had easily become friends. And meet again they had. In fact, they kept running into each other everywhere, it seemed. But before they were old enough to go to school or play on soccer teams or anything, this park was the heart of their experiences together. He looked to his left and saw the playground, one of the places they went together often, also the place where they met for the second time.
~*^*~
Taichi sat on one side of the seesaw, trying to figure out what its purpose was. It didn't seem so fun. Hikari had recovered, but gotten sick again when he had tried to get her to kick a soccer ball. She nearly died because she was thinking only of making him happy and proud of her.
"What are you doing?"
He looked up and found himself looking into ruby colored eyes. He knew by the voice (she had asked exactly the same question last time) and eye color that it was Sora again. "It's you!" he said.
She looked extremely happy to see him. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again…"
"Me neither. Wanna play in the sandbox again?"
She shook her head. "It's too crowded. Anyway, why don't we play here?"
"But this thing isn't much fun," he said, gesturing to the seesaw. "It doesn't do anything."
She giggled, a clear, high-pitched girlish laugh. "Silly, it takes two people to ride a seesaw."
"A whatchamahoosit?" he asked. She smiled a bright smile and pushed the other end of the seesaw down. Taichi's side went up in the air. "Whoa…what are you doing?"
Sora sat down on the other side, leaving Taichi still in the air. Then she bent her knees and pushed her feet off the ground. Now she went up in the air and Taichi was on the ground again. "Now you do it," she told him. "Just push off the ground with your feet." He understood the concept quickly, and just as soon changed his opinion on the seesaw.
"That was fun, but I wanna do something else now." Sora agreed, and they both ran to the slide. He got there before her, climbed up the ladder and slid down. They went again and again, until that got boring too.
"Jungle gym?" Sora asked. He nodded. Her eyes sparkled. "Race ya!" Then she was off.
"No fair!" he yelled, running after her, but she got there first and scrambled up the bars. He climbed up like her, all the way up to the top. They had to admit there was really nothing to do on the jungle gym, so they instantly moved to the swing set.
They swung for a while, getting higher and higher until they felt like they were flying. It was a free feeling, soaring through the air. But it eventually lost its fun too, after a while. Sora put her feet down, and as her feet dragged on the ground, the swing got lower and lower until it stopped. But Tai had to make a big show. He slowed the swing down a bit, then he gripped onto the chain, leaned back, and did a back flip. He landed on his feet.
Sora clapped. "That was cool!"
"Now let's go on…the monkey bars!" It was a constant race between them, even though Taichi usually won.
He let Sora have the first go on the monkey bars, but she kept slipping. Now he had something to teach her. "Just get a good grip on the bar and don't let go, and then swing your body back, and then when you go forward, stick one arm out, catch the next bar, and keep going," he explained. It took her a few tries to get used to it, but when she eventually got the hang of it, they both had lots of fun (and blisters on their hands).
~*^*~
It was a great thing about their friendship. They could teach each other and learn so much, and have the best time in the world together, no matter what they were doing. Mostly, they spent their time in that park.
After they moved from Highton View Terrace, they never really saw each other that much. They even started attending the same school in Odaiba, and they were in each other's classes, but they didn't really talk as much. A thing called cooties had leaked its way into their minds, and they were convinced that they shouldn't hang out with members of the opposite gender. It was foolish to them, but other people would call them boyfriend and girlfriend. Girls were only supposed to chase boys, and boys were supposed to play pranks on the girls, like sticking fake spiders in their desks. So the years went by, and though they were always so close, they stayed far away.
Taichi and Sora were both big lovers of soccer, but separated into different teams because of genders. One day, each of them and a group of their teammates headed to the park in Highton View Terrace to hang out and practice.
~*^*~
The park in Highton View Terrace was a bit far, but well worth it for its wide, open, grassy fields, which weren't crowded with people. The group of boys occupied one side of the field, and the girls were playing on the other. It took them a while to notice each other. They only did when the girl's soccer ball was kicked all the way to their side.
A soccer ball soared through the air and Taichi bounced it off his head. He started dribbling it to the goal, but his teammates announced that it was the wrong ball. So he picked it up and noticed a group of girls yelling at him to give their ball back. He tossed it up in the air and dropkicked it to them. There was something familiar about that girl who caught the ball and thanked him, but he couldn't quite remember what. Her light brown hair, her ruby eyes… Ruby eyes? Could it be… "Sora?"
The girl turned back around. "Yes?" And then she finally paid attention to the boy, and there was no mistaking that huge mop of brown hair. "Tai?"
He ran over to her, ignoring his angry teammates, who were shouting for him to come back and continue the game. But an idea popped into his head. Maybe the two teams could play against each other, boys against girls. He told them, and both sides agreed that it was a good idea.
It was a heated game, and Taichi and Sora were the stars of their teams. In the end, the boy's team won with one lucky shot, but it had been so close and such a good game that neither of them really cared.
"Nice shot," Sora said to Tai, who had scored the last goal. She was panting, and he was bent over, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"Good game. We should do it again sometime," he said.
"Definitely," she agreed.
~*^*~
So their friendship was rekindled. Taichi and Sora were like peas and carrots again. (A line from "Forrest Gump.") They started talking and hanging out together again, not really giving a care to the ignorant people who teased them of being a couple. They were best friends and they had fun together, so why should a few insults matter?
Taichi smiled and put his hands in his pockets. It was such a great time when he and Sora got back together after so long. And their friendship only continued to grow stronger. He walked along the shore of a small pond. He and Sora always used to come there and feed the ducks breadcrumbs or something. One day, after they did that, he taught her something new.
~*^*~
Taichi picked up a smooth, white stone and tossed it at the water.
"What are you doing, trying to hit a few ducks or something?" Sora asked, her hands on her hips. "We just fed them and now you're trying to pelt stones at them while their digesting their meal?" She shoved the empty bag of breadcrumbs into her pocket.
He chuckled. "No, I'm skipping stones. Watch." He pointed the stone he had thrown, and it skipped a few times on the water's surface, before sinking.
She was in awe. "That's amazing! How do you do that?" She picked up a jagged rock and threw it in the same motion he had, but a little too hard. It promptly sunk.
"No, no, you have to throw it gently. Let it glide on the water. And you have to make sure the kind of stone is right too." He found the perfect one and demonstrated again. This one skipped, as Sora counted, eight times.
She looked a bit envious. "Show me how."
He smiled and nodded. "Look for a smooth, flat stone." She scouted along the shore, and picked up a large stone. "Naw, it's too big and heavy. Look for a smaller one." When she found something of the sort, he picked it up and examined it. "Perfect. Now here." He placed it back into her hand. Holding her hand, he moved his back and hers along with it. He swung it back and forth a few times. "Like that, okay? Then just sort of let if go." He grasped onto her wrist, and she gently threw the rock. It skipped twice and sunk.
Sora beamed. "I did it!"
"Now try it on your own," he suggested, skipping another stone.
A fast learner, with only a few tries, soon she was nearly as good as her teacher. "This is really cool, Tai. Thanks."
He grinned back and they spent the rest of the afternoon skipping stones across the water, trying to see who could get theirs to skip the most times, or the farthest it could go, or other little contests, until it got late and they had to go home.
~*^*~
Taichi walked to the pond, wondering where Sora was. She said she would meet him there exactly at five o'clock. And she was known to be there early. I wonder what happened to her, he thought. Maybe she forgot? But that was nothing like Sora, and more the other way around. "Hmmm…" He started walking back where he came from, down the path of trees.
"BOO!" Someone jumped directly in front of him, and he fell back, startled. As he laid on his back, that someone giggled.
"Sora," he groaned, and she stuck her hand out and helped him up.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist," she told him with a wide smile.
"Where'd you come from, anyway? You practically dropped out of the sky."
"Close," she said. "I jumped from there." She pointed, and he looked up. It was a very high branch.
"Holy crap! How'd you get up there?" Taichi asked in wonder.
"I flew," she said sarcastically. "Duh, you climb!" She walked over to the base of the tree, put her arms around the trunk, and scurried up, grabbing onto any branches sticking out that she found, and using them for footholds. He watched her as she climbed all the way up to the big, high branch she had jumped from. "See? That easy." She jumped back down and landed nimbly on her feet.
"Easy? Are you kidding?"
She stared at him. "Now don't tell me you've never climbed a tree before."
By looking at him, she could tell he hadn't. "What?" he asked. "What's wrong with that? So I haven't climbed trees before. Just because I'm not some sort of monkey—"
Sora giggled and then grabbed his wrist. "Oh, come on, I'll show you. You aren't afraid of heights or anything, are you?"
"Uh, no! Of course not!" he said, trying to act tough.
"I'll take your word for it. Now there's really nothing to climbing a tree. Just get a hold onto any branch you see and pull yourself up. Simple."
He tried, and fell down a few times, getting a few cuts and scratches. "I hope I don't get any splinters or anything."
"Relax. Climbing trees is fun and easy." Sora was right. There really was nothing to it, and he had nothing to fear. He climbed as high as he could, and she followed suit. They settled down a large branch, and they were able to get a view of the pond. "That's how I knew you were coming," she explained.
The sun was starting to set, and Taichi leaned back against the tree, watching it.
"Beautiful, huh?" Sora asked, with a contented sigh. "I love it like this. Sitting in a high tree, watching the sunset, with your best friend." She laid her head down on his shoulder, and he was surprised at first, but relaxed. He casually slung his arm around her, and they sat together, watching the gorgeous sunset.
~*^*~
A well was on top of a small hill, practically falling apart. A few of its stones were lose, and the pieces of wood were falling from the little roof it had. The bucket was rusted and lying on the foot of the hill, still connected the thick, frayed rope bound to the crank.
Taichi blinked and when he opened his eyes, he had a flash of how the well used to look years ago.
~*^*~
A well was on top of a small hill, brand new. It had large, shiny stones at its base, and a nice little wooden roof covering it. A gleaming pail hung from a thick piece of rope. When it had been built, the two children had no idea. Lots of time had passed since they came to their favorite park, because they had been so wrapped up with the Digital World. Sure, time went by a whole lot differently then, but they had been so wrapped up just remembering their adventure. It hardly seemed possible. But now they had finally returned, and there were a few new changes. But it was still their favorite old park.
"D'you think it's a wishing well?" Sora asked excitedly.
"Maybe it's just here for decoration," Taichi replied. "After all, why would you really need a well in the middle of a park. We're not living in the old ages or anything. I suppose it can be a wishing well."
"Got any money?" she asked, emptying her pockets. She found a button, a marble, a few candy wrappers, and a piece of lint.
Taichi dug in his own pockets and produced a baseball card, a few pogs, a bubblegum wrapper, more lint, and a shiny ten-yen piece. "I only have ten yen here. And it's only one coin."
"Maybe we can share it," she suggested. "One coin, two wishes?"
"Unless we wish for the same thing," he replied. "But the odds of that are – oh, leave it to Kou—Izzy to figure these things out." Koushiro was a computer nerd and genius, a fellow Digidestined. Taichi and Koushiro had met years ago, and since his name had been so hard to pronounce, he nicknamed him Izzy from his last name Izumi, and it stuck.
"But if we tell each other what we're wishing, than it won't come true," Sora pointed out.
"Oh well, it's worth a try anyway." He grabbed one half of the coin, and she got the other side, they closed their eyes, and dropped it into the well. I wish… I wish Sora/Tai and I will stay best friends forever, no matter what. After a while, they heard a faint splash of the coin in the water, and they opened their eyes.
"I wonder if my wish will come true," Taichi said.
"Time will tell," Sora said wisely. "Time will tell."
~*^*~
Has time told us? Taichi wondered. Or do we still have to wait? It's been forever since I've last seen Sora… I wonder if we're really still friends. Maybe if I see her again, we'll catch up on the times and then become best friends like always. Or maybe we haven't talked to each other for so long that we'll forget how to have a conversation together. He sighed. I hope not. Oh well, either way, I still can't wait to see her.
And then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large, grassy hill. Nothing had changed at all about that hill, except maybe a few plants. But it was nothing big. He wondered if that hill would stay the same forever. He stopped in his tracks and then changed direction. He walked up the slope and stood atop the hill, vividly remembering that beautiful night, when he and Sora spent their time underneath the stars, talking – and when a promise was made…
~*^*~
The night sky was dark, a mix of midnight black and dark blues and violets. There were billions and billions of stars twinkling in the velvety black backdrop. Bursts of stars created familiar constellations. And there was the moon, larger than it seemed possible, perfectly round, bright, and a buttery yellow color. The view was breathtaking.
Taichi leaned on his back, his head resting on one of his arms. His other arm was pointing up. "See? That one is Leo, one of my favorites. Leo the Lion is strong and brave and courageous. Reminds me of Leomon. And then again, it's sort of like me." He went on to explain more.
"Look at that one there," Sora said, pointing off in another direction. "It's Venus, the symbol of love. Like my crest." They went on, pointing out stars and constellations and other things. "Do you ever wonder if it's possible to read the stars?" she asked all of a sudden.
"Huh? Read the stars?"
"You know horoscopes and divination, right? Well, some people think that our fate and destiny is written out in those stars. Every event that's meant to happen can be perceived from the alignment of planets and suns. It's always interested me."
"I always liked to think that we made our own future. The actions we made decided what would happen to us later on. But to think that everything is already mapped out kind of makes it seem like we aren't really living…we're just following the path already in front of us," Taichi said.
"I never thought of it that way," she said thoughtfully. "But we're the DigiDestined, Tai. That means it was our destinies to become what we did. I heard that some mythical creatures can read the stars. Like centaurs and such. (That's what Firenze is in the Harry Potter books. Oh, but I'm not a centaur, and I wish I could tell the future.) Think Centaurumon can tell the future by reading stars?"
"Silly me, I never bothered to ask," he joked.
"I wonder what it would be like. Reading the stars, I mean." She put on a fake, scientific voice and said, "Oh, the alignment of Jupiter and the Polaris, the North Star, means that trouble will soon be heading out way. But the position in which Cassiopeia will be in next week means that everything will come back to normal. Sounds kind of silly when you put it that way," Sora replied. "It just sounds like a bunch of gibberish and scientific mumbo jumbo about something that can't even be proved scientifically."
"Yeah, and that's why I hate believing in fate. But how am I supposed to deny it, if I'm a Digidestined? Oh well, I really don't care if my actions are my choice or just fate, as long as it leads to the right thing. And kind of what I really want is just pure happiness," Taichi told her.
"But you can't force happiness, you know? And if you spend forever trying to achieve pure happiness, then you don't realize what you do have."
He put his hands behind his head, but turned his head to look at her. "Are you happy?"
She pondered that question for a while. "I don't know… There's always got to be some hint of joy in you. But I don't even know about my life now. Things are confusing."
"Life's always going to be confusing," he told her. "There's obstacles and boundaries to get past, lessons to learn, things you have to get past of learn to accept. That's a given. What's the point of life if there weren't any problems or changes or confusing moments? It would be the same dull thing, droning on and on. Believe it or not, confusion, chaos, and problems are actually a good thing."
"Life's full of good things. So why linger on the bad? Especially if the bad serves some sort of purpose, and then it can turn things good again. I think that happiness and sadness don't truly exist. It's just a simple feeling, and one that you determine. It depends on how you perceive things that make what's good and bad. It's all just in our head, not our hearts."
"That sounded pretty deep," Taichi remarked. "But first you say that our lives are already predetermined and now that we can't feel any emotions and it's all in our minds. Not much hope to be left then."
"I never said I was right," Sora told him. "This is just my view on life."
"Want to hear my opinion on life?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Okay. Here it is:
"Insanity leads to chaos,
Then to solitude…
The fruitless effort of adding
Meaning to what is meaningless
"A lone, crimson tear
Falls to the sea…
The echo of the remaining star
Cries out in the infinite vacuum
"The least I can do
Is send my distant prayers
Over the wind of time,
Setting sail on dreams…" Taichi said.
"Ooh, that was a little hard to grasp, but nice and poetic," Sora said, softly clapping. "I never knew you had it in you, Tai."
"I don't." He grinned. "I got that out of a video game." (It's from the poet girl in Chrono Cross, which belongs to Squaresoft and stuff, I didn't make it up and I don't own it.)
Sora laughed. "You had me fooled. But now you ruined that whole deep, meaningful moment."
"Sorry," he said apologetically. "But it was getting a little too intense for me."
"Yeah," she said. "But to top of the cheese on the nachos, or rather, this profound moment, let's make a promise."
"A promise?"
She nodded. "Yup. A promise that no matter what happens, we'll stay best friends for as long as we live, and won't let anything get in the way of that."
That was my wish anyway… "Okay," he agreed. "We'll stay best friends for as long as we live, and won't let anything get in the way of that. I promise." He stuck out his pinky and she linked hers around his.
When they let go, Sora said, "Pinky swears are kind of lame, but—"
"Now you ruined the whole deep, meaningful moment," he told her.
"Just never forget this promise," she whispered. "Never forget this night…"
"I won't forget a night this important," he said softly. "Believe me, I won't."
~*^*~
And I haven't, Tai thought to himself. I still remember it as well as anything in the world, Sora. After looking a bit around at the view from the spot, he put his hands back in his pockets, walked down the hill, and continued on his way along the path.
END PART 1
Sorry to split it up like that, but this was seriously way too long. Hmmm, it came out better than I expected. If anyone cares, the next part will be out as soon as possible. And I'm on vacation, so if the cursed writer's block doesn't get to me, that'll probably be tomorrow. Please, please, please, review if you're interested in the least! And if you've got a title idea, tell me!