Well. Digimon. This is the series that split the nucleus for me, when it came to fandom. The first fic I read was a Digimon fic. I'm done being nostalgic, so I'll just say, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to publish a Digi fic. The idea occurred to me while watching Season 2, and it's fairly simple, actually, and all planned out. Without further delay, here is the first chapter.

Matt decided not to bother trying to make something for dinner. He'd set the plastic bags from the grocery store down over an hour ago, when the sun was still out and the sky was bright orange-red. He looked down at the freshly sharpened knife in his hand, and saw his dim reflection, where his eyes were grey instead of blue. Two days ago, the knife had been delivered in a lacquered wood box, without occasion or explanation, its arrival leaving Matt in a brief quandary as he tried to remember the birthday or holiday he'd overlooked. After Matt's equally confused father announced tiredly that he had no idea who would be sending a gift at this time of year, Matt had shrugged, taken Tai's lead, and opened the box without preamble. Expectations completely bypassed, he'd turned the box's sole contents over in his hands as if searching for a clue; a quick search of the elegantly embossed, 'Sakai Takayuki' that decorated the blade's right face yielded the third party assertion that Matt was now the proud owner of a piece of 'the finest of Japanese steel.' Matt could only question who would send him an anonymous gift worth almost a week's pay at his after school job at the music store.

"Sakai Takayuki," Matt muttered the name as he put the knife back in its box. It didn't seem right to keep it with the other cutlery. He set the box on the counter, then took a notepad and pen from a drawer and wrote

Gone out to eat. Be back in an hour.

-Matt

He stuck the note on the counter, next to the box, and started placing the grocery bags' contents in the refrigerator when the doorbell buzzed.

Matt sighed before realizing TK might be visiting, and that he wouldn't be averse to company.

The bell sounded again as Matt touched the handle.

"All right, all right. I'm here." He swung the door open and paused.

"Tai?" Matt frowned, and his hand slowly slackened and fell to his side.

Tai smiled, in perfect form. "Well, it's nice to see you too. This a bad time, or can I come in?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Matt stepped aside and allowed his friend inside. "I just wasn't expecting anyone."

Tai nodded. "Right, right." He paused in the middle of the living room and sniffed the air, his eyebrows assuming uneven height.

"Hey, Tai. You all right?" Matt reached Tai's side and tried to puzzle out his expression.

Tai's face relaxed. "Actually, my mom is making something new tonight, and uh, the second I heard the words 'casserole' and 'surprise', I knew I wasn't going to like it, so I came to the best chef I know." At this Tai grinned, eyes alight with expectation.

"You mean the only chef willing to give you free food that you know," Matt deadpanned. He regarded the packages of chicken and pork, the fresh cucumbers, garlic and spinach. He'd bought them for a reason, yes, but...

Tai had apparently already waved off Matt's accusations, and was seated at the kitchen table. He leaned back precariously and without care.

"Yeah, all right, just make yourself at home." Matt griped softly, and Tai didn't seem to hear. He shouldn't have expected anything else.

"I'm telling you right now, you're not getting anything fancy."

Tai laughed. "Something edible is all I want." He leaned forward, taking the chair with him. "And maybe something sweet on the side, just for me." Tai winked.

Matt shook his head and peeled back the plastic from the chicken. "What's gotten you in such a great mood?"

Tai stared. "Are you kidding? This year's gonna be great. Championship. I'll bet you anything we'll make it, and win. We've got a killer team, and now that I'm assistant coach, the guys actually have someone they can relate to and feel comfortable talking with." Tai paused. "Oh and I got basically all the classes I wanted."

"And you're excited about classes now? Really?" Matt paused at the drawer. The other knives needed sharpening; they didn't cut cleanly, left stray strands of muscle and vegetable fiber. Matt hesitated for a few breaths before he grabbed the box and slid it open. He took the knife and held it in front of him, delicately at first before he finally reasserted his grip and made it firm. The rippled metal shimmered as though immersed in water, even in the dull kitchen lights.

Matt stopped again, at the silence. He looked over at Tai, who had stopped talking and instead leaned forward farther, attentively as though ready to follow urgent instructions. His lips were threatening to quirk upward.

"You like it?"

The question forced the words farther down Matt's throat. He took a breath and it came short. Did he...Matt examined the knife, then Tai. Finally he coughed, and as though he'd just saved himself from choking on a morsel of misplaced food, said breathlessly,

"You sent this?"

Tai nodded, completely at ease. "Yeah." Then his grin returned. "You're always complaining how none of the knives around here are sharp enough, so...I got you a new one."

"Huh." Matt just shook his head. "A new one. I..." He frowned.

Tai laughed. "Whoa. I figured you'd like it, but I didn't think you'd be speechless." He stood, walked over and threw his arm around Matt's shoulder.

"Now you can prepare as much food as you want, as often as you want, without worry about...what'd you say? 'Shitty stringy pieces of meat?' Sounds about right, coming from you." Tai removed his arm and inspected the food set out on the counter; he drummed his fingers in a quick staccato.

"So. What are you planning on making, anyway?"

Matt shook his head. "Tai. How did you afford this?"

"Really? My grandparents love me. They give me boatloads of money for soccer stuff, whether I need it or not."

Tai still talked like it was Matt's birthday, and he and his gift had simply arrived first, and all that was left was to wait for everyone else.

"But, you know. I had to ask Mimi about what exactly to buy."

Now Matt couldn't help but give his full attention to Tai. "What exactly does Mimi know about cutlery?"

Tai shrugged. "A hell of a lot more than I do." His eyes briefly narrowed at Matt's lingering confusion.

"Seriously, Matt. It's no big deal. You needed a better knife. I wanted to get you one. I mentioned it to Mimi, she pointed me to this one. I paid for it with money I got from my grandparents. And now you're gonna use it to make a dinner that won't give me indigestion." Tai spread his hands in front of him as though concluding a grand presentation.

Matt snorted. "Well, when you put it that way." He sighed. "All right. Thanks, man. I don't know when I'm going to be able to return the favor."

"Dinner at least once a week for the next few months would be good enough."

Matt snickered as he started slicing through green onion stalks, as easily as through soft butter.

"Sounds like a date to me."

"A long, six month date," Tai said seriously. He cracked his neck and shoulders. "You need any help?"

"Nah. I've made this lots of times before." Matt faced the stove and drizzled olive oil across a pan and turned the heat up to medium.

Tai crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. "How's TK been doing?"

"Eh. He hasn't been over in a while. Our mom is moving into a new apartment, and she paid for movers, so they didn't really need my help with anything. I only just saw the place yesterday." Matt dropped five pieces of cleanly sliced chicken into the pan, and watched them sizzle in silence. Yes. It was practically better to use professional movers. Of course.

Tai snapped his fingers. "House warming dinner." He nodded, agreeing with his own idea.

"Yeah, because it wouldn't be awkward if I showed up at my mom's apartment like some kind of self-employed delivery boy."

"I like that, actually. Might be more convenient than me coming over here." Tai paused for a reaction, received only a muttered 'fat chance,' and continued. "I'm actually serious, though. About the housewarming idea. Nothing makes people come together and feel happier than food."

"Want me to make that your epitaph?" Matt considered adding sliced garlic, but no, the green onions would add enough flavor on their own.

"Who says you're outliving me?" Tai sounded genuinely offended.

"You do. Well you didn't really say anything, you just ordered Aguman to digivolve and then charged head on toward the insane monstrosity of the moment."

"Oh come on. That was years ago. And let's not get started on charging head on into things. I remember, who was it? Cherrymon? Yeah, told you that I was a creep and holding you back, so you decided to have Gabumon tear my innards out."

Matt tightened his grip around the pan handle.

"I don't remember telling Metal Garurumon to tear anything out of you. And I did apologize for that. A lot." Matt wrinkled his nose at the scent of smoke. "Shit." He took the pan off the heat. He looked at Tai.

"So much for a perfect dinner."

Tai pushed himself off the counter edge. "Hey, Matt. I didn't mean anything..." He stopped as Matt laughed.

"Relax." Matt divided the chicken between two plates. He held a plate out in front of Tai. "Didn't get burnt at all." He went to the table, sat alone for a few moments before Tai took the seat across from him. Matt was the first to take a bite, and paused before swallowing just to reflect that Tai had yet to touch his food.

"It's good. Really good, actually."

Tai cut into his own piece with an abrupt, acute, motion.

If he were a doctor, the patient would be dead, Matt couldn't help but think. Well, time I had a sense of humor for once.

"Man, you really are sore when you think you've offended someone, don't you?"

Tai gave him an incredulous look.

Or not.

Matt shifted as though he could rearrange his body and thoughts all at once.

"What you were saying earlier, about not meaning anything by what you...said earlier. Yeah. Same for me."

"But it does mean something," Tai said, suddenly and brilliantly animated. He stood and the table shifted. "A lot. Or else we wouldn't need to sit here and try to explain what we did or didn't want to say. Tai cleared his throat. "You know even after we came back from the Digital World, I was really pissed off at you for what you did in that forest."

Matt tried to speak, but Tai plodded forward.

"Not for punching me. I can handle myself well enough. And Agumon and Gabumon get along great, so I can't be mad for that." Tai ran his hands through his hair; they met at the top of his head and remained there, bound together.

"So what was the reason?" Matt finally asked.

"You and me. My ego." Tai left the words to work between them, and Matt couldn't get them to trigger any response in him.

"We fought a lot, yeah. I figured that was good for us, and after Venom Myotismon, I really got it into my head that 'yeah, it's good now, Tai, you've manged to hold everyone together, Kari is safe, you've got Matt as a friend. You're good." Tai unbound his hands and set them on his lap. Matt took it almost as a gesture of supplication.

"I didn't know you thought you had to keep everyone else from flying apart." Matt's hands started to sweat. He shouldn't have felt uncomfortable, not around Tai.

"Well, I wasn't patting myself on the back every night, you know?"

"That's not what I meant," Matt said, more loudly than he should have. "I know. Let me finish." He pushed his plate aside. "I went to go off to find myself, or whatever. I didn't...I didn't know what I was doing. At all. You though. You just went for it, and made everything look so easy and natural." Matt held up his hands quickly. "And I know it wasn't. Now I know. But back then, it was like a constant slap in the face, watching you get along with TK, Kari, Sora, and everyone else. I thought you and I were as far apart as two people could be, but we were actually pretty similar."

"Were?" Tai finally sounded at ease again.

"Are. And were." Matt at first refrained from eye contact, then thought better of it. "And now...we're here and. It's good."

Tai didn't say anything. Matt's expression was pained.

"I don't actually have to say it, do I? Tai, you're may..."

"No." Tai's hands flew up. "Nope. You don't have to spell it out for me. I'm not Davis."

Matt frowned. "Who?"

"Kid on my soccer team. He's, uh...oblivious. Even more than I was back then."

"That's impressive." Matt moved his plate back.

Tai smiled. "He's a good kid, though. Looks up to me a lot." Tai hesitated, his smile still present. "He actually calls me 'senpai.'"

Matt snorted. "Seriously?"

"Yup."

"You sound way too proud of that."

"You get your slobbering, crazy fangirls. I get a loyal friend who looks up to my athletic and leadership skills."

Matt slowly chewed a piece of chicken. "And what am I?"

"Eh, I'm not gonna say that. We just agreed."

"Want me to slobber all over you, then?"

Tai leaned back and spread his arms wide. "I'm all yours." He held a straight expression for all of a breath before he was hunched over the table, laughing like someone half his age.

Matt continued eating and took in the sight, even as his lips trembled against mirth.

"Oh, man." Tai stood with his empty glass in hand. As he passed he clapped Matt on the shoulder, squeezed and said,

"It's gonna be a great year."

"Ow. God... don't shove the tissue through my nose and into my brain." Tai squeezed his eyes shut and let excess moisture flood out and dribble down his cheeks.

Sora muttered, "That might do you some good. Maybe it'd loosen whatever was stuck up there in the first place."

Tai would have snorted, if he weren't afraid of the deluge of blood and phlegm that would probably follow. Instead he scowled, but the expression didn't illicit sympathy or caution from Sora, who proceeded to twist another tissue into a funnel, and unceremoniously shoved it up his other nostril.

"Ow. You know, you could be a little more gentle." Tai glanced behind him at the bed. "I notice you didn't smack Matt around with that ice pack."

Matt grunted, but didn't sit up, or remove the ice filled plastic back from the left side of his face.

Sora rolled her eyes. "Matt hasn't been complaining non-stop since he got here."

"Hey, I'm the injured one here. Have some sympathy. Ow!" Tai yelped when Sora rubbed an alcohol soaked cloth into the scrape along his cheek.

"And you could learn to stop acting like a ten year old who doesn't want to go to the doctor."

"Yeah, well. Joe wasn't available, so you were the next best thing."

"Thanks." There was no anger or irritation in Sora's voice, even as she slapped a band aid over Tai's freshly cleaned wound. She stepped back as though to admire her handiwork. Tai smiled.

"And? How do I look?"

Sora sighed. "Tai, what exactly happened?"

Tai grimaced. "Ask Matt. He started it. I just had to pull his ass out of the fire."

"Excuse me?" Matt rose and removed the ice pack, revealing a swollen, purple welt around his eye and cheek. "You're the one who said, 'Hey assholes, I bet we can take on all five of you, no problem.'"

Tai turned fully to face Matt. "And we did. I mean, come on. We faced down Myotismon and the Dark Masters, and you're telling me you didn't think we could take on a bunch of trash talking pricks who think they can do whatever they want just because of their family names? And anyway, you threw the first punch."

"At one guy. Because he wouldn't leave that underclassman alone."

"And I made sure his asshole friends knew what would happen to them if they pulled shit like that again."

"Oh yeah, Tai. You. Just you." Matt reapplied the compress.

Tai waved his hand. "We've had worse." He turned back to Sora and grinned. "Well, was that a good enough reason for you? Defending the downtrodden?"

Sora shook her head. "Or defending your ego." But she smiled none the less. "You are right about us having had worse, though. I don't think anything will ever compare to being turned into a key chain by a sword throwing, psychotic clown."

Tai grinned. "Two against one, Matt."

"Oh for...it's not a competition. Ass."

"There's a lot of 'ass' going around here," Tai said. "I think we should shift topics."

Matt groaned. Sora didn't dignify Tai's comment with any response.

"Matt, Matt. Being a drama queen. Relax. It's done. We won. We beat the bad guy. Easy."

"This isn't the Digital World, Tai. It's not as easy as just pummeling someone and walking away." Sora offered her criticism as she usually did, calmly and without refrain.

"Tai's expression shifted, becoming sharper and serious. "There's no way I'll ever let someone like Yue and those other guys get away with shit like that." Tai looked behind his shoulder again. Matt had removed the pack and was sitting up again, his expression equally solemn.

"It would have been enough to take out the leader. But," Matt cut Tai off with a raise of his hand. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good taking out those other guys."

Tai grinned. "Atta boy."

"Tai, if you're done patting yourself on the back..." Sora left the question unasked, hoping she wouldn't have to reiterate what they'd talked about the previous week.

Tai nodded. "Matt, are you good enough to come over here, or should we go over there?"

Matt responded with a long suffering, guttural sigh.

"Fine. Jeez." Tai stood slowly, gingerly, and ambled over to the bed. He stopped at the edge and looked down at Matt. After a few moments of contemplation, Tai brought his hand down, lightly touching the back of Matt's hand, still resting on top of the ice pack, with the tips of his fingers.

Matt's visible eye widened, his lips parted before tightening. Then his body shifted abruptly, and his other hand started to move.

"Hey," Tai said softly. "I just wanted to see. Make sure you're really all right."

Matt stilled, but his credulity didn't return; slowly, his motions tempered as though through caution, Matt removed the pack.

It was a fresh bruise, the area of impact still swollen and flushed. In hours or a day, the skin would turn, red and purple, a badge of honor to some, Tai included. He'd do it all again, and gladly take Matt's black eye in the process. Tai's expression didn't change. Wincing wouldn't mean anything, wouldn't convey any sympathy or concern, just reinforce shock and uncertainty. They'd been through enough, both of them, all of them, to know how to react.

"It's not bad," Matt assured. "Like you said, nothing we haven't been through before. Hell, I think you gave me one like this when we were fighting in the forest." The brief upturn of Matt's lips saved Tai from any guilt.

"Thanks for the reminder," Tai spoke affectionately. He turned and caught Sora's expression, unreadable but on the cusp of something.

Probably hysterical disbelief. Tai pulled his own face, even as he felt heat rise to his cheeks. He could only clear his throat and try to speak in his still dry voice.

"It's all clear. Just...making sure I'm not being too big of an insensitive jerk."

"I won't comment," Matt said.

Tai laughed, his previous discomfort still showing through.

"Yeah. Well, let's get started, I guess." He sat down, his back resting against the side of the bed; Sora could take the chair, as far as Tai was concerned. She didn't break eye contact with Tai, and he was forced to look away, even as he started speaking.

"So these other kids. They've got their work cut out for them, if they're going to keep being this squeamish."

Sora frowned, her attention now dispersed between two parties.

"They're doing a good enough job with what they have to work with. And TK and Kari are there to help them through, even if we aren't."

"TK and Kari," Tai repeated. He didn't like the idea of his sister, and even Matt's brother, of assuming the whole burden of breaking through built up senses of right and wrong, like snapping that one bad bone to reset it. Tai winced at the thought.

"TK can handle it," Matt said with quiet confidence. "He's been through enough. Devimon. Piedmon. I don't think the Digimon Emperor can throw out anything worse than that." He paused. "He basically is Devimon, only with a cape and sunglasses."

"But he's human." Sora placed the fact before them, simply for consideration.

Tai closed his eyes. Human. As though that was even so special, intelligence, speech and the ability to build, to create. There were digimon who could and had reshaped the world just by thinking about it, whole advanced cities filled with robotic intelligence that rivaled anything on Earth. Were they supposed to let all the burn, because of one overblown bully?

"No." Tai surprised himself with how rough his voice sounded. He stood and walked toward the opposite wall so he could face both Sora and Matt. The feeling was short of what he'd experienced when he'd addressed the full group on the summit of Spiral Mountain, but he could let it carry him, impart some of that confidence and energy to them.

"We don't stand for that kind of tyranny. We didn't with evil digimon, why should we with an evil human? Being Digi Destined means we do whatever it takes to protect the Digital World. And our world. And if that means throwing everything we have against the Digimon Emperor, that's what we'll do. No matter what."

Tai finished and his pulse was steady, his chest relaxed. Sora leaned forward in her chair, disbelief plain on her face, and Matt...

Tai gave Matt his full attention. Matt's eyes were narrowed, in defiance of pain and injury, and he gripped the sheets hard enough to whiten his knuckles. He didn't speak, or couldn't.

"Tai," Sora spoke, breathless, "are you really saying you want to...kill him. Kill a teenager?" She shook her head, as though her body rejected the idea out of reflex.

"No," Tai said, just as sharply as before. "I don't want to kill anyone. I'd never want to. But if we have to, if there's no other way except to attack him, only him, directly with everything we have, then that's what we have to do."

Sora didn't relent. "When Digimon are destroyed they come back. Their data is reconfigured, but they come back. People don't. If we..." And now she laughed, helplessly, "if we do this, it's permanent." She looked Tai full in the eyes. "Is that something you're prepared for?"

"I don't think you can ever prepare for that." Matt took up the conversation.

Tai nodded, then let his shoulders slump. "Look, I'm not saying I'm some hardened assassin. But we can't let this guy win. That's it. I can't back down from that. But if it comes to life or death..." Tai swallowed heavily, "I." The word stalled in Tai's throat. His mouth was partially open, as if to form new words, but his body wouldn't obey him, and he was left stranded.

"We do this," Matt's voice, cold and clear, issued from his now relaxed frame. "If it's on anyone, it's going to be on us. Not TK. Not Kari. Or any of the new kids. And not just on you, Tai."

"Don't make yourselves martyrs for them," Sora said softly.

Matt shook his head. "We're not. We're just preparing ourselves, since Davis and the others aren't ready for something like this."

"And we are?"

"More than they are." Matt hesitated. "Sora, if you don't..."

"Matt, I know what being Digi Destined means, just like you and Tai. I just don't want to rush into doing something that I'll never be able to take back."

"And that's why we'd have to do it." Tai regained his voice, his old energy, and both Sora and Matt looked to him, and Tai could only hear it, Matt's strong, controlled voice. We. He strained to suppress a smile.

Sora folded her hands in her lap and seemed to examine them. She always had a special kind of poise, even on the soccer field, something Tai could match when he was at this best as center forward, but otherwise left behind for his casual, almost careless gait and posture.

"There's a big difference between doing this because we're desperate, and because we've run out of options. I won't go along with it unless we reach that point. We have to be sure. Absolutely sure. Because we can't take this back. And I don't know what it would do to any of us."

Tai couldn't say anything in the wake of those words. He settled for nodding, even though he didn't need to convince himself, anymore than he could deny that it was part of his responsibility. Always had been.

"What about the others? Sora asked. "They need to know."

"We're the closest to this right now. Joe's in med school, I haven't talked to Izzy for a few days, Mimi isn't even in the country, and TK and Kari do not get anywhere near this. For right now. It's us." Tai looked at Matt, and the word danced on his lips again.

Us.