I hope you enjoy this little story I've wanted to write for quite some time:) Not to sure where to take it yet though! We'll see.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, lol.

Chapter 1: So Many Years

TK's POV

Nothing about it was weird, really.
It was just us. Ironically and pleasantly intertwined in a form of distance.
And I guess, there's always been that space.
That gap.
In a moments noticed, it could be filled with the care we have desperately tried/succeeded to pull back over the years.
It's been… so many years.

It feels like minutes ago I had found out that she was the 8th digidestined, the one we were all searching for. And even then I think I knew that finding her wasn't just for the digital world, but for mine too.

It feels like Seconds ago that Azulongmon was explaining the importance and power of our crests, of us. The compelling compatibility.
I remember the talk the two of us had about that on our separate time, later that evening.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Kari spoke up as we sat innocently upon the fire escape of her building. It had been a long day, a lot was going on with the combined worlds and we just decided to have a simple chat before we hit the official goodnight parting. Just the two of us, though. We liked that…
The two of us.
I set down the hot cocoa I was drinking while she brought that comment up, I then wiped off some residue from my upper lip. This was the only food/drink Mrs. Kamiya could prepare to the point where it was deliciously satisfying.
"What's funny?" I pondered allowed to her.
She kicked her legs up and down a bit on the old stairs we were sitting upon.

"How it ended up being me and you." She admitted, I could see a secret blush across her gentle face.
I knew what she meant. Heck, I knew what she meant before she even began speaking.
Kari and I were different than the other digidestined.
Hope and Light were ultimately the base of the digital world. And if you really thought about it more… of our world as well. Of every world.
To fight off darkness, you need light.
But while there is light, there will always be darkness.
Where do you find the love in the balance? Hope.
"What do you mean?" I ask her, only because I want her to keep talking. She knows it too. Or at least she senses it.
She throws me a bit of a side grin before sighing, then continuing.
"Well… it's just… us. There aren't any other digidestines with our attributes, and we just so happen to go together… we almost need to. Plus, there's an irony to it." She tries to end, but she sees me continuing to gaze curiously upon her, so she proceeds after taking a sip of her cocoa. She doesn't notice the slight remains of whipped cream that managed to find it's way upon her cheek.
"Our brothers… they're kinda the original leaders. The old prophecy from years ago, we kind of dismissed the fact that we may be the bigger picture here. Even now! Davis has the crests that Matt and Tai bare, as well as the other new kids. But we remain here, we stay this constant. And it's just funny that it's me and you… cause even as a child… I think I knew." She poured her heart out happily, contently, knowing it was us. I wondered if she would be this delighted if it was her and someone else, or if she's so happy because of me specifically. Either way, I'm still fixated on the wiped creme resting on her cheek, and without thinking any longer, I gracefully glide my thumb upon her frail skin, swiping it off without damaging her simplistic beauty in the slightest.
She starts to blush, and I do too. We looked into each others eyes for distant seconds, captivated.
This feeling: It's new, but not.
It's always been there, just like the knowing she was just speaking of.
We just wouldn't dare to address it out loud.

Abruptly, I get up, calling for Patoman before I tell her I better get going. She looks up at me in a mild wonder as she remains on the step.
Patoman soars onto my cap and says some sort of farewell to gatomon that I drown out because I'm still looking into her eyes, even though I'm not.
I begin to turn away to leave, until I decide we aren't finished here.

"You're right, Kari, about us. About the differences we share with only each other. The irony of our brothers being the leaders, although we're the heart. And I think it's pretty cool… Even more than pretty cool. But I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm glad you're my person." I end with a smile. I try not to let it drop after realizing how stupid that sounded.
"you're my person"
What does that even mean!? I suppose I meant our crest pairing.

But I suppose I also meant more than that.
Because I knew… I knew more than I knew anything else, that she was indeed my person.
A soul mate, in other words.

And as I saw the fight of a smile sweeping upon her as she sat in front of me, I knew she knew too.

And now, we're here. Laying on the grassy park in Odaiba. Minutes from school, but a walk that felt like seconds, because I was with her.
We were both 17 now. The digital world remained without troubles, and ours remained without digital world troubles. But oh how troubles still flowed on through.
Our hands were touching slightly… just slightly.
In the time that's past, we've remained best friends.
We've remained each others person.
It just goes without saying.
Everyone is all still around, they're finding their lives, but they're around.
Our Digimon partners accompany us still, they're more independent, and still not out in the open to the people world much. It's moderately okay in our town, due to all the digital relations, but still, we keep it on ease.
But currently, in this moment, it was just Kari and I. No one else, not even our Digimon, we just fell into the pieces we have left open for one another.

"Isn't it funny?" Kari asks me, reminding me of the moment I was previously at.
I turn my head to look at her as she keeps her focus to the clouds above us, she sees them through the shade of the trees. She's so beautiful. Her hair is longer now, a bit past her shoulders, and she's developed into a young woman, not a little girl. But I still see that little girl in glances, in sentences, in tears.
"Enlighten me, Kari." I tease, even though she knows I'm serious. She always knows.

"Well… we still have that constant." She states, letting a little grin slip from her grasp.
This time, I'm not entirely sure what she means.
I have a hope of a thought.
But I mean, I am the digidestined of hope, so I tend to find it in many things.
It's silent between us, and I can tell she has the need to continue.

"At the moment, there's no great struggle that demands of the digidestined to save both worlds, but yet, we're still here… me and you. The remain of hope and light and their delicately special collide. Sometimes I wonder if it's because we both feel like we have to stick together because for so long, it's what we were never directly told, but knew it's what we had to do. But then I shake off my insecurity of a person, and remember the security of TK. You. And I smile… because after all this time, you're still my best friend. You still walk me home, lay with me in the park, play stupid videos games, crack jokes, and talk about everything… with me. And I want to say thank you, to you. Because I don't do it enough. I hope you don't put up with me, and I hope you enjoy me. This. Our careful balance of hope and light. Because it means the world to me." She explains. I see her sink into embarrassment towards the end, and I can't help but feel an incredible wave of joy/comfort because of it. We're so close to one another, but we still struggle with sharing our feelings ABOUT one another.

She lied though.

She says "thank you" more than enough. But I love her for it.

God, I'm so lucky to love her.
Even if it is just the friendship sort of way.

I decide in that moment, to lock her hand with mine.
I hear a little gasp from her when I do so, and I can't help but smirk because of it.
I've held her hand once before… and I know her mind immediately went to that moment.
But I'll save myself.

"I think I should be the one saying the 'thank you's' here. You sure are special, Kari Kamiya. And I'm very blessed to have you as the light to my hope." I simply say. I could go on for hours and hours continuing my point, but my thoughts tend to jumble up, leaving me feeling dumb.

It's because I'm crazy about her.

And she has no clue.

Suddenly with that thought, I remember our hands being locked, and decide then to interject another sentence.
"Cant a best friend hold his best friends hand? Our brothers used to do it all the time. Probably still do every once and awhile." I joked with her. Her giggle escaped like a cool breeze on the hottest summer night.

And we remained there, intertwined in a form of distance. Closer though, than moments ago.
Closer.

Kari's POV (A few days later)

"For fucks sake." I heard Yolei snap quietly to the left of me. I snapped out of the brief fog I was in and turned to her questionably.
She made eye contact with me then cocked her head to the side a bit, then rolled her eyes.
"Really, Kari?" She sassily remarked. I really had no clue to what she was going on about, and she realized that.
Yolei was 18 now, and we were all finishing up Highschool. She was a year ahead of me, and had definitely matured since middle school. Her lavender hair was curled often, and she turned from nerdy, to hipster… I guess.
And as she stared me down in the cafeteria of the school, I found myself re capturing my past innocence.
"You were staring down TK like a hawk over there… thank god I pulled you out of your little trance before he noticed." She confesses.
I felt my cheeks start to warm and I looked down at my food from embarrassment.
"W-was I really?" I stuttered out, biting my lip before looking into her eyes again.
She sighed heavily.
Before I could get another word in, some of our friends sat down at the table with us, filling up our little group.
"I just find it ridiculous that you haven't done anything about your little crush of yours. How long has this been going on, anyways?" She whispers more to me so others don't catch on.
"Uh… Well… Probably since he saved me from piedmon." I answered her simply, immediately after realizing how fast I responded.
Yolei's eyes were wider than ever.
"But Kari… that was almost 10 years ago. You've dated since then! So has he!" She runs on, I giggle a bit at her.

"We all have that one crush we can't let go of, Yolei. But it doesn't matter because we go so much better as best friends. Or else something probably would have happened by now, don't you think?"
"No. No I don't think so. I think now is the time. And you should go hang out with him, get to know his friends more. You guys are too much of an after school special." She insisted, while pushing me out of my seat.
Everyone at the table was staring at me standing now, I awkwardly smiled back to them all while I grabbed my food to throw away, I had lost my appetite.

I straightened out my school uniform the best I could while I walked over to TK's table. It was filled with his basketball players I didn't really know.
One of them saw me walking over and nudged TK playfully.
When TK looked over to see me, a smile rose upon his face, and within an instant, he stood up and walked over to me happily.
"Hey Kari!" He said excitedly.
"Hi, TK." I replied back, a tad nervous for some reason. I didn't usually talk to TK during lunch. We conversed during passing periods, english since we had it together, and when we walked home. Occasionally, I missed our dangerous adventures in the digital world. I missed our team, and the hope and light team in the midst of it.
He looked at me with a tint of confusion and concern before saying, "Is everything alright?"
Oooh…
I began to feel embarrassed with the thought of him thinking something had to be wrong for me to talk to him outside of the usual scenerios.
"Yeah!" I tried to remove the nerves from my face "I was just wondering if I could sit with you today?" I asked him sweetly.
His eyes twinkled cutely before his smile grew wide.
"Of course you can! You don't have to ask. But you never sit with me… is Yolei running on about Ken or something?" He asked before leading me over to the table with his friends, motioning them to scoot over.
"Oh, no. I don't know. I just… uh…" I rambled like an idiot, I didn't really plan this out. God why was I so nervous with him right now. Maybe because we were around other people.
He laughed before smiling down.
"Well either way, I'm glad you wanted to hang out with me." He said adorably.

He introduced me to the guys and they all politely said hello to me, he had some cute friends, I won't deny this.
One of them, Evan, began flirting with me a bit during conversation which made TK a little uncomfortable, I think.
Evan was a very attractive kid, messy brown hair, emerald eyes and definitely had a reputation as a ladies man.

"You're a really good dancer, Kari. Definitely the best on the dance team. The performances you all do during half time are way better than the cheerleaders." Evan complimented me sweetly.
"Thanks, Evan! We work really hard."
"Well it sure pays off. And don't tell the rest of your team, but you're the cutest too." He ended with a flirty grin you could see as he drank some gatorade. This made me blush a little.

And well… that's when TK put his arm around my waist, pulling me a little closer to him.

And that's when he knew, that I knew, he was jealous.

And that little thought made my heart skip all kinds of beats.

I knew he'd been jealous before when Davis tried his best to get my attention, but this time was different. He was trying to make it apparent to me without words that he didn't like Evan trying to win me over.

Or… maybe it was just TK, being protective TK. He's the only boy besides Tai that would do everything in his power to keep me safe.

I was crazy about him.

And he had no clue.

But as we casually sat amongst his laughing friends, them continuing their banter, we were almost in a world of our own. Or at least I was.
Something was forming… even though it was already formed.
It formed before we had even meant.
This bond between us.
But I think now, we were tired of fighting the closeness of us. We weren't kids anymore.

and we were… closer.