Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.

Yep, it's another taiora fanfic by emichii…

I hope you all enjoy! Please read and review!

Best Friends

Chapter 1- But she's my best friend!!

Tai was out on the soccer field. The sun was high in the sky, the weather was beautiful, and there was a refreshing breeze in the air. He was feeling good as he yelled out to his teammates for the ball.

It was a good game. Yeah, it was good because they were totally kicking the other team's ass into the goal and beyond! The crowd was going wild as Tai ran down the green field, with the ball at his feet, expertly maneuvering past the defenders and towards the goal.

Suddenly, he noticed somebody's feet in front of him. There was someone right in his path. Tai frowned, and immediately pushed the ball behind him, and shot it away to another teammate. Tai side-stepped the opponent and ran forward again, yelling for the ball.

The crowd in the stands cheered. They were all dressed in the colours of Tai's teams, everyone standing on their feet, cheering and waving. Tai felt his confidence soar, as the captain of his team, and ran forwards. The team-mate sent a huge kick at the ball, making the soccer ball soar up and towards him, a huge kick.

There were girls standing at the front of the stands and they were practically in tears as they screamed for their hero to get the ball. A grin spread wide across Tai's face as he leapt up in the air to head it.

Then, time seemed to slow. Tai rose in the air, determination on his face as the soccer ball fell closer, and closer to his head.

"Tai!!"

He knew he had it! It was right there, in the perfect position, to head the ball straight into the goal.

"TAI!!"

CLUNK!!

Ouch. That was not a soccer ball.

What the heck??

Tai blinked open his eyes and sat up, abruptly. A hard black metal object fell from his forehead and onto his bed. Tai groaned and rubbed his head. He squinted at the offending alarm clock, blinking its bright red numbers at him. He couldn't make out what the numbers said, perhaps because the clock was upside-down.

"TAI!!"

Tai jolted. Next to him, beside his bed stood his little sister, Kari, with an absolutely ferocious look on her face.

Tai looked up sheepishly at his sister. "Hey, Sis. Whassup?"

Kari yanked the alarm clock off Tai's bed angrily. "What do you mean, 'whassup'?? You're late, Tai!! Your alarm went off over half an hour ago!! I've been trying to wake you!!"

Tai frowned. His head was still not quite awake, and he was unable to take in all this information. He glanced at the clock in Kari's hands. It read 8.35am.

Tai yelled out a very rude word and leapt out of bed.

Kari stood there, looking very disapproving of her older brother, while Tai slammed open his closet and began searching for his school uniform, while chucking out various clothes onto the floor.

Tai hurriedly pulled on his school uniform, threw on his wrinkled green school blazer and rushed out his bedroom door, grabbing his school bag as he went. He hastily ran a hand through his messy brown hair and critically threw a look at the mirror as he passed by.

Crashing into the kitchen, his mum was sitting at the table, calmly buttering a piece of toast.

"Mum, I'm gonna be late!" Tai cried as he put on his shoes.

"Yes, I know, Tai." Mrs Kamiya finished buttering the piece of toast and passed it to Tai, who shoved it into his mouth and sprinted down the hallway.

"Tthnnks, Mm!" He mumbled as he went.

"You better apologize to her when you get out there!" called Kari from the kitchen.

"What?" Tai yelled, unlatching the front door.

"SORA CAME OVER TO WALK TO SCHOOL WITH YOU!!" Kari yelled.

"WHAT?" Tai yelled in reply, yanking open the door and almost dropping the toast as he went. "Oh crap!"

He banged the door closed behind him, and sure enough, standing outside the Kamiya apartment was Sora Takenouchi. She had been leaning against the wall, a small frown on her face as she looked at her watch. She looked up as he burst out, panting and out of breath.

"…Sora!" Tai gasped. "I'm sorry you had to wait so long! I… I woke up late! You could've just gone ahead without me!!"

Sora grinned. "Nah, it's all right! I couldn't leave my dim-witted best friend behind!"

Tai beamed back at her, chest heaving up and down from exhaustion.

She gave a little laugh and started to run down the corridor towards the elevator. "Hurry up, Tai! Or we'll be even later!!"

Tai shoved the rest of the toast into his mouth and nodded urgently, running after his best friend.

---

Tai was in a pretty cheerful mood that afternoon. He grabbed his soccer gear bag and slung it over his shoulders; he was laughing and conversing with his friends, excited about the end of the school day and looking forward to soccer training.

Tai banged the locker door shut and walked through the crowded hallway with his friends, oblivious to the groups of girls huddled along the sides of the corridors, sneaking glances at him and flushing bright pink.

He scratched his head, running his fingers absentmindedly through his thick chocolate brown hair. He pulled a face as he headed towards the changeroom. He'd be happy to get out of his prim school uniform and into his soccer clothes. Tai smiled goofily to himself amidst the noise and bustle of the ending school day around him.

The fourteen-year-old looked up at the bright blue sky up ahead and grinned happily before breaking into a run, his soccer gear bag swinging back and forth from his shoulder. He had a feeling it was gonna be a good day.

---

"Hey Tai!" One of his soccer mates was walking towards him, throwing a soccer ball up in the air and catching it again.

"Hey," he greeted him. They stood and waited on the edge of the field, for the rest of the players to get here. A few more of Tai's friends joined them; some of them seemed a bit fidgety as he stood there.

Tai was a little confused.

He noticed that there was a group of girls walking past, giggling and chattering away excitedly. Tai gave a little shudder. He, for one, was not a fan of giggling girls. It was a bit… creepy.

They were quite a few of them. Tai was not impressed. Why did they travel in such large groups? He was impatient, waiting for them to pass by so that they could start their soccer training.

"Oi Tai!" A team-mate nudged him, "Look over there!"

"What?" Tai impatiently glanced over to where his friend was pointing. He was pointing at part of the throng of girls, at the red-haired girl with a bag slung over one shoulder, talking animatedly with a pink-haired girl and making some of her other friends giggle loudly.

Tai frowned.

"Her! Sora Takenouchi!" Tai's friend urged.

"What about her?" Tai asked bluntly. Then he was suddenly curious and even wary, wondering what business his friend wanted with his best friend.

Tai's friend put on a look of shock horror. "What do you mean 'what about her'? She's gorgeous!!"

Suddenly, Tai felt himself tense. He practically spat out the words, he couldn't help it, he was defensive now, protective of his best friend. "What?" He almost snarled.

Tai's friend looked cautious. Then he gave a slight chuckle and jokingly punched Tai lightly in the shoulder. "Open your eyes, mate! Takenouchi is amazing!"

He then launched into a long explanation of why she was so, detailing every thing from the way she smiled to the sound of her voice to the way she packed up books after class and straightened them against the desk.

Tai scowled, not really listening to the continuous babble of words.

The pack of girls was at last moving of the oval and around the corner, almost out of view. Tai picked up the soccer ball at his feet and started to head out onto the field, when he unconsciously caught a glimpse of her.

His heart stopped.

And he wondered how come he had never noticed before.

She was very pretty, she was laughing with her friends, and he could hear her laughter from here. She had deep red eyes and short red-brown hair, still in the same style as she always had. Of course, she no longer permanently wore a hat, but…

Tai was shocked.

She had long legs, but she looked comfortable with them, she'd grown into them. Whereas Tai, he was currently stuck in that very lanky stage where all his limbs seemed too long and clumsy.

And he knew, somewhere in the corner of his mind, that this was still his best friend, this was still Sora. This was Sora from just this morning! He'd seen her and she'd been exactly the same this morning. And the day before that. And the day before that.

But he'd seen her so many times; he'd spent so much time with her! How could he have been by her side all this time, and never really… never really see her?

Because maybe… he felt a flicker of shame. Here she was, surrounded by her girlfriends… Maybe he had never thought of her as a girl before.

She'd just been Sora. Good old Sora. Sora, who wasn't afraid to get messy or wet and would climb trees with him or play soccer with him in the rain. She was unlike the other girls, unlike Mimi, who fussed over her nails and her clothes and her hair.

She hadn't been afraid to laugh out loud when something was funny, she was perfectly comfortable in scruffy old shorts and T-shirts.

'cause she had been a tomboy.

And before Tai knew what was happening, all he could hear was his own heart is his chest beating so loudly it was drowning out everything else.

For all he knew, Sora and her friends were already gone and probably were far away by now and he was probably just standing there dumbstruck in the middle of the soccer field, looking like a moron while all his friends and teammates wondered what on earth was wrong with him, while he still didn't know what was going on, didn't know what had happened, didn't know…

And Tai realized what had changed with Sora. It had probably happened a while ago, he'd just never noticed.

She'd grown up. Into a stunningly beautiful teenage girl.

"Tai?"

Someone was calling his name.

Tai blinked. He had only froze for a fraction of a second, and he sighed inwardly, thank goodness, he couldn't let anyone know what had just rushed through his head just then. The soccer team was noisily making their way slowly on to the field, messing around and shoving their friends around, acting like teenage boys basically.

But at the sound of his name being called out by one of his friends, a few of the girls who were just moving off the field, turned around. It was Sora, Mimi and another girl who he didn't recognize.

"Tai! Geez, dude, what's with you? Zoning out just like that! Come on, man! Let's go!!"

Tai felt another one of his teammates playfully whack him over the head. "Clueless as ever, Kamiya!"

Tai pulled a face as he defended his head. "Aw shut up!"

As Tai followed his team out onto the field, he couldn't help turning his head to catch a glimpse of Sora and her friends before they left. To his shock, Sora was also looking back at him, trailing behind her other friends. No doubt she had seen the zoning-out stunt from before and was laughing at him. He didn't recognize the long-haired girl beside Sora that was clinging to her arm shyly, but it didn't matter.

All he saw was Sora looking back and meeting his eyes, grinning at him. Usually, he would have returned the smile, but he'd never noticed before… how… how incredibly cute her smile was.

Horrified, Tai looked away from her and ran to catch up with his team.

As he stood there, just one of the soccer players, camouflaged with the others, even then his heart could not stop pumping out of his chest.

He felt weak at the knees, absolutely flabbergasted, his head seemed to be spinning, he felt light-headed and completely confused. The worst thing was all he could hear was the ever-increasing beat of his heart. He tired to take a deep steady breath.

His friend's words came back to him.

"What do you mean 'what about her'? She's gorgeous!!"

Tai tried to calm down, but he felt positively delirious. But… but, no way, she's… she's just Sora!

"Open your eyes, mate! Takenouchi is amazing!"

Tai shook his head very hard, to the stares of the people around her. This is ridiculous! This can't be happening!! Impossible!!

But he imagined Sora smiling at him again, that adorable smile… and his heart leapt.

Tai's face was flaming hot. He was absolutely horrified. He was astounded at the way his heart was pumping, at how warm his face was. He was confused and staggered by how much Sora had changed, and at the same time she was exactly the same as she had been in the last few weeks!

He was already fetching a lot of strange stares from his teammates.

He had never looked at Sora that way. Never really felt attracted to her like that.

Tai put a hand over his mouth as something even worse came through his mind. And he screamed out, in his mind, absolutely bewildered and completely horrified at what had happened, all the while, his face so hot it was positively smoking.

And he screamed out in his mind, in his inner turmoil of denial and confusion.

BUT SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND!!

End of chapter 1! And yeah, this is my brand-new taiora fanfiction. Yes, I know this first chapter seems a bit similar to Outta Control, doesn't it? Haha! Anyway, I have big plans for this story, it's going to more light-hearted and good-humored I think. And for the purposes of this plot, Tai and his friends are younger than in the other stories. He's 14, in case you missed that. Well, I hope you enjoyed it! ^_^ Please review!!