Sorry for this fic. It's cathartic. I live online, I don't have a lot of friends, and 12 years ago on this very site I made an amazing friend. He disappeared a year and a half ago, and just semi recently I found out that he went to prison, for something unthinkable. It's hard to imagine that the friend I had was capable of what he did.

I am another author on this site, but other net friends of mine knew him (and I haven't brought myself to tell them) and so I didn't want them to know it was them.

Remember Me This Way

"Everyone's here?" Tai said, looking around the room. It always nice having a get together with the other digidestend, after all it was so rare, now that they were all adults with busy lives. He just wished that this was under better circumstances.

"All except..." Izzy said with a frown.

Tai nodded. This wasn't going to be a fun afternoon, but as the leader, he felt this needed to be done.

"The bastard is where he belongs." TK said, to the surprise of everyone. Then again, he probably would have the hardest time.

Matt was in prison. He led a horrible double life that no one knew about. He got caught, and was now serving twenty years in prison.

"I would have never guessed." Davis said, quietly. Which was weird for him. "I mean I knew he had issues. But, I never would have thought he would have been capable of... that."

Joe looked down, sighing. "I just hope they don't just lock him up and throw away the key. I hope he gets help. I hope there's some kind of physiologist there."

"Guys" Tai said, putting his hands up. "I know it might sound weird but, the reason I called you all hear today wasn't to badmouth him, or worry. We lost a great friend. It's true he did horrible things, and the thought of them makes me want to beat the shit out of him... but those thoughts don't erase the years that he was our friend. We still care about him. This is going to be hard. I just thought we should... try and think of some good memories."

Sora nodded. "I think you are right. Try and get some closure?"

"Yeah." Tai agreed. "I'll go first. I usually wouldn't share stuff like this, but under the circumstances... it's kind of graphic of a sexual nature, does anyone here object? Note that it's about a story, not Matt."

No one shook their head. Cody couldn't make it, so the youngest one there was 24.

"Okay me and Matt used to go to this fanfiction site all the time, and we found this weird fic where... this guy let himself in someones house that he knew, and loved, but they were with someone else. When he walked into the kitchen, there was a bagel on the counter. The guy got jealous, and ended up... doing weird stuff with the Bagel." Of course this was met with weird looks. "Of course it was weird! We didn't think it was hot or anything, just funny. So we made a joke out of it. We would randomly say 'Bagel' to make each other laugh."

Tai smiled to himself at the memory. "I hope that someday in prison they serve him a bagel and he thinks of me and that story, and smiles."

Ken smiled. "For being about bagel sex that is actually a pretty sweet story, and hope."

Tai nodded. He then looked around. "Who else has a story?"

Joe raised his hand. "You guys know how I used to have anxiety attacks?"

"Like we could forget!" Izzy said with a grin.

"Anyway..." Joe continued. "I would have them really bad at night. I would feel like I couldn't breathe, and need to talk to someone. He let me call him, and we would talk till all hours of the night. He would really help me feel better."

"I didn't even know that your anxiety was THAT bad Joe." Mimi said.

"Yeah. I always went to Matt. He was always there for me."

Tai smiled, and nodded. "Anyone else?"

"I don't think you guys really knew this but..." Sora started. "I never had a lot of friends outside of the group, and I couldn't always meet with you guys. He was the one who always took the time to talk to me. Made me not feel alone."

"He always seemed to know when I needed a smile, and how to give me one." Izzy said, with a slight smile.

"We would always talk about anime we were watching." Davis said with a smile. "One of them had a really good soundtrack, and we would talk about how much we loved some of those songs."

Tai smirked. "I know the anime you are talking about. It's the same one the Bagel story was about."

Finally after a lot of sharing, everyone looked at TK.

"I have nothing to say. I can't think of anything positive, knowing how many people he hurt!" TK was getting upset. He almost seemed like he was about to cry. He turned around so no one else could see.

Tai walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"TK..." He said softly. "What your brother did... was unthinkable. He hurt so many people, ruined lives even. But..." Tai then walked around him, so TK could see his smile, and Tai wiped away his tears.

"He is paying for what he did. He's spending 20 years in prison. He won't be able to hurt anyone else. Meanwhile, us thinking of the good times doesn't make us bad people, just like dwelling on what he did won't make the people effected feel any better. We need to think of the good things. Not just for him, but... for us. We have to remind ourselves why we were friends with him. He needs help, and now he should be getting it."

TK nodded. He didn't want to focus on the bad, it just seemed wrong not to. But he turned back around and spoke.

"Several years ago, I was writing a story. You all know I write. Well, in this story that I never published because it was dumb, I really needed a song. I asked him to write one for me, and he did. It really wasn't the best, it was early in his singing days, but it still meant so much to me that he took the time to do it for me."

"That's a great story." Mimi said.

Everyone nodded.

Tai stood up, and went to the middle of the room.

"Okay everyone. This is the deal. We need, for our own sanity, to remember the good things that were mentioned here today. Obviously if someone brings up what he did we won't defend him, we can't. But otherwise, we gotta remember our Matt."

Everyone agreed. They all seemed to feel a little bit better, sharing stories, talking about the good times.

"Now..." Tai said, pulling out a plate. "Who wants bagels?"

The End.