After a while, the music died and a bunch of boys swarmed from the apartment door. One of them, a blond-haired boy, paused when he saw the girl.
"Back to wearing hats, Sora?" he said teasingly.
"Only for a while, Matt. And not for luck, for warmth."
"I hope it warms up soon, then. I like your hair, but I like it best when I can see it."
Sora grinned, and they walked out of the apartment building.
Two seventh-graders, one a girl with short brown hair and the other a boy with not-much-shorter blond hair, walked out of the school building into the crisp January air. Snow fell around them, thickening the sidewalk's white carpet. The boy, with an almost forced casualness, draped his arm around the girl. She leaned into the half-hug, commenting, "Thanks, TK. I was a bit cold."
A smile spread over TK's face, for Kari's gratiude to his gesture. "Too bad. I was thinking of taking a walk in the park."
"I said was, TK. Note the past tense there."
"Still, it is a bit cold. Let's make it short, Kari."
"As long as we do something else afterward..." Kari replied unsurely. "Idon't want to cut off our time together."
"Mimi! It's great to see you again!"
A pink-haired girl practically leapt out of her seat in the airport lobby. "Joe!" she replied happily, and then quizzically continued, "But where are the others?"
"They couldn't make it. Why? Aren't I good enough?" he asked with a mock-wobegone face.
"Of course. Still, it would be nice to see everyone else..."
"You'll be here for a while, right? You can always see them later."
"I suppose... Let's make the most of our alone-ness, Joe, and do something together. I haven't seen you nearly enough since the move." Mimi sighed."A long-distance relationship is hard, sometimes. Email and phonecalls are all well and good, but I prefer face-to-face conversation. GuessI'm just old-fashioned that way."
"It's snowing again, Davis."
"Your point being?" Davis replied boredly.
"I'm still a bit sore—no pun intended—about losing to you last time."
"It was close, Yolei. You know that I'm the best with a snowball in the school. You should be glad to have so nearly won."
"You!" Yolei replied disgustedly, faking a swat at Davis.
"Okay, fine! I'll take your challenge. Just don't expect me to go easy on you just 'cause you're my girlfriend."
Yolei smiled wryly and mentally debated trying to slap Davis again.
In the center of the park, there was a small square with a bench on eachside. In the summer, the fountain in the middle of the square churned merrilyand occaisionally splashed water onto the surrounding pavement. It beingwinter, however, the only thing spilling from catch-basin to sidewalk wasspare snow from the top of the now-inactive fountain's drift. Snow coveredall the park in winter, including the benches. Matt tried to clear the softfluff from atop one so he and Sora could sit, but he was having little sucessas the snow continued to fall. Eventually he just gave up and sat down onthe little bit of snow that was left. He made one final attempt to shovethe last bit of white off the bench and onto the ground, and then motionedfor Sora to take a place beside him.
They sat there for a while, not needing to talk, just watching the last rays of sunset dye the snow beautiful shades of red and purple. Then Sora suddenly spoke.
"Remember the Christmas light festival?"
"The park certainly looks different from then."
"I don't really know. What I liked about that was the fairylike beauty of the lights. Like how they arranged the lights on the fountain to imitaterunning water. I don't really see how that kind of ethereal wonder is sodifferent from multicolored snow."
"You have a point there. Of course, the colors fade with the sun..."
"But until they finally die, they're amazingly beautiful. A bit like love, I guess."
Matt was silent, amazed at Sora's epiphany.
Kari and TK walked slowly throughthe park, both clutching paper cups of hot cocoa. They had had the foresightto stop at a local coffeehouse and get something warm to drink. As they wended their way through the park's chill air, they were grateful that they hadmade that decision. Of course, the cocoa was too hot to drink—an interesting contrast to their freezing surroundings. Finally Kari took a tenative sip. She quickly ended it, almost dropping the cup in her haste to get it away from her face.
"Burned my tongue," she explained ruefully.
"Wait until we get to the benches. Maybe then you can rest it in some snow to cool it."
"I guess. Of course, cooling hot cocoa that you bought for the express purpose of warming me up does seem a bit counterproductive... Life's little ironies are wonderful, aren't they?" She said the last without a trace of sarcasm, just amused at the contrasts contained within a simple little thing likehot chocolate.
They too reached the center of the park, and took the bench on the rightside of Matt and Sora. Sitting there, they slowly drank their cocoa, carefulto avoid another burn.
Joe and Mimi, too, went to the center of the park. It had been a special area to all the digidestined for a while. No one really knew why exactly they like it so much. It wasn't the fanciest place in the park, nor was it a good spot to play in. For whatever reason, they all found it a comfortable place. They too wound up sitting on a bench, across from TK and Kari. After a while, Joe took a small wrapped box outof his pocket.
"I know that it's really late for this, but I wanted to give you at least one of your Christmas presents in person."
Mimi took the box and carefully removed the wrapping paper. It revealed a small jewelry case. She opened it to find a small, delicately made bracelet. Joe had to have made it himself; it wasn't a design you would see in stores. It was green and pink, made to resemble a flower vine. The main thread was a deep forest green, and little lighter-green loops—"leaves"—hung off it. After every third "leaf" was placed a detailed carved-flower bead. Those were in varying shades of pink.
"It's beautiful, Joe. Did you make it yourself?"
Joe blushed and nodded. "Do you need any help putting it on?"
"Thanks."
Exhausted, Davis and Yolei stumbled to the park's center after a long, hard snowball fight that had amazingly enough resulted in stalemate. They reached the final bench and collapsed on it, panting.
"So—are you still the best in school?" Yolei said between gasps.
"I let you tie."
"After you said you wouldn't? Naughty boy, Davis. Don't lie."
"All right... you did keep right up with me, and I was trying my hardest. Don't rub it in."
"Sometimes you need your ego punctured, Davis. Just be glad it's done by someone who loves you instead of someone who won't have mercy."
"And you do?"
She made another halfhearted swat. "Of course I do. Sometimes I wonder why, though, when you're at your idiotic, annoying worst... but then you do something that restores my faith in you."
They sat there for a while. Then Yolei continued. "Take the hint."
"Oh." He leaned over and kissed her.
"That's better."
They sat there, all eight of them, amidst the winter's snow.