Every Minute, Every Hour (Part 1)
By Firenze

A/N: Ummm...this is a story set in the future... Let's say Tai and Sora are 30, Takeru (that's what I'm going to be calling him in this fic) and Kari are 27, and if I happen to mention anyone else, you can do the math. Another sad drama thing, all right? Well, it's really romance, but when I say sad, that means the two characters don't end up together.

Disclaimer: I love Al Gore! But I'm so sad Clinton is leaving. It actually intrigued me to write a story, because I know I'm such a great writer. Digimon is the stupidest anime on earth so I'll write about this. Because it's mine, you know. I made new characters in season 02, because I hated the original Digidestined so much. And I'm getting totally rich off this! If you believe any of this at all, you are out of your mind.

* * *

Takeru and Hikari Takaishi waited patiently, as Hikari rang the doorbell a fifth time.

"Where is he? Tai said he didn't have any plans whatsoever."

"Who knows?" Takeru turned the knob, and surprisingly, the door opened. They stepped inside the apartment. Hikari drew in her breath, and Takeru's eyes widened. "Oh my god..."

Trash and clothes were scattered everywhere, furniture was upturned, things were on the floor or entirely out of place, it was a complete wreck.

"Look at this place! There's been a robbery," Hikari said in shock. "What if Tai's in trouble?"

"Shhh, hear that?" Takeru whispered, pulling her to him.

"Hear what?"

"Someone's coming." They held their breaths, and then they heard the footsteps, coming closer and closer... Their shadow appeared...

"Kari! Takeru!" someone said.

"Tai!" Hikari said in relief. "Thank god it's just you. There was a break-in, and we thought you were the robber. I was so worried--"

"Break in?" He looked around the room. "Oh, I haven't cleaned in some years. Sorry about that." Taichi was wearing sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt with holes in it. He hadn't shaved and his giant mass of brown hair looked even more unmanageable than ever before. "I forgot you two were coming, and I sort of took a nap. Again, about the mess... Well, it's how I live."

"You mean like a pig? What ever happened to your sense of neatness?" Hikari asked him, eyeing his odd clothing. "What happened to -- you?"

"Years ago, everything sort of left me permanently when -- uh, well, you know. I'd rather not go into detail." He looked away, and there was an awkward silence.

"It's okay, we understand," Takeru said uncomfortably. "Don't worry."

There was another pause, then Taichi spoke up. "Well, let's not just stand around here like a bunch of idiots, who wants coffee?"

"Oh -- um, sounds terrific," Hikari said, cautiously walking to the kitchen, trying not to step on anything.

"I got plenty of coffee," he said, "but I'm sort of out of food. I've been meaning to go grocery shopping for a few weeks, but I've been living off deliverable pizzas and Chinese food."

"It's all right, we had a brief brunch this morning with some of our friends," Kari replied, trying to imagine what expired, moldy things could be hiding in his refrigerator.

"This is worse than Matt's and my dad's pad was," Takeru whispered her.

"Hey, you can get comfortable in the living room, while I make the coffee," Taichi said.

"All right," Hikari said, taking Takeru's hand and leading him away.

During coffee, there was little conversation. Every once in a while, someone would clear their throat and seem like they were about to make a comment, but they didn't. It was completely silent as they sipped from their steamy mugs.

Takeru was tired of it. He had no idea why they were all so silent, but it wasn't the reunion he was expecting with his brother-and-law. "So, uh, Tai, how's bachelorhood?" He sheepishly glanced at Kari, whose arms were crossed. "Er, not that I miss it or anything--"

"Free, I suppose," he said gloomily, taking another gulp of the scorching coffee. "Mostly lonely. I always wanted a wife. And I thought I'd found one with--" His hand began to shake, and his mug tipped, spilling the hot liquid over himself. "Aw, damn. Excuse me a moment, will you?" He walked out of the room, muttering to himself.

Once he was out of earshot, Takeru whispered, "Boy, he's a total wreck. That break-up -- god, it's been ten years! I can't believe he's still hurt!"

"He loved her deeply. He said she was the only one for him," Hikari explained. "Hold on, honey, will you? I think it's about time for a sibling heart to heart."

Taichi changed out of his scrubby sweatpants into a pair of jeans. Then he pulled a clean shirt on, fumbling with the buttons. Glaring at his reflection in the mirror, he said, "Pull yourself together, Tai. You've got guests for god's sake..."

"Knock, knock," Hikari called from the open doorway, lightly tapping on the frame. She stepped into the bathroom. "Tai, can we talk?"

"Sure, Kari. About what?" he asked, running a comb through his tangled hair.

"Sora."

The comb fell from his hands and onto the ground, but he made no attempt to pick it back up. He put the lid of the toilet down and sat upon it with a heavy sigh. "If you don't mind, I'd rather not--"

"What are you so afraid of?" she demanded. "You cringe every time she's mentioned--"

"I do NOT cringe," he protested.

"Sora, Sora, Sora!"

He tried to fight it, but he still flinched.

"What's the matter with you? It's been ten years," she said exasperatedly. "Just get over it!"

"I can't," he croaked out.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sick of asking questions, but why? Why can't you just forget her and move on?"

Tears welled in his eyes, as he whispered the answer she needed. "Because I'm still in love with her." Hikari gasped. "After all this time. I never got over her -- I can't. I love her with all my heart, and I always will."

"Tai, Sora was nice and all, and I liked her as a friend, but what was that special about her? What made her so great compared to all your other girlfriends?"

He looked up at her with his watery eyes, which were full of shock. "What wasn't? How dare you ask that, Hikari. How can you? I never judged Takeru or wondered why you loved him. Why are you making this harder on me? In my eyes, Sora was perfect. She may not seem it to you, but you're not me. She was beautiful, compassionate, caring, she loved all the same things I did, she meant everything to me... I can't use only words to tell you how I feel about her, because it's too strong, too deep to even try. I can't explain why she's the only one I'll ever love, but she is. Think about it this way -- what if you didn't end up with Takeru? How would you feel?"

"I'd get over it--"

"Would you?" he asked angrily, his eyes flashing. "Takeru was the one you gave your heart to. What if you didn't have his? See, Sora still has my heart, she's always going to have it, even if we end up or not."

"Why don't you do something about it?" she exclaimed. "Get up, get out, pay her a visit, tell her all that!"

"I can't..." He hung his head sadly.

"Can'r, can't, can't! What happened to you, Taichi? Where's your confidence, your courage, your passion to get up and act on a feeling?"

"It left with everything else, when--"

"When Sora broke up with you!" she yelled. "That is ALL you think about! There's no reason to wallow in self pity like this--"

"You'll never understand!" Taichi shouted, pushing past her and out the bathroom, into another room and slamming the door.

Hikari pounded her fists on the door, but it was tightly shut. "Tai -- open up!"

Her voice sounded distant to Taichi, who felt as if he had just entered another world or dimension. The room was messy like any of the others in the house, but it was covered in a thick blanket of dust. He sneezed, making it fly up everywhere. He hadn't stepped a foot in this room in years. The bookshelf was crammed with old photo albums. Soccer trophies were on the top. There were boxes, full of dusty, seemingly useless junk. It was the room with every single picture, object, anything that reminded him in the least about Sora Takenouchi.

His emotions were mixed. He wanted to get out, to stop remembering about her -- but then, he yearned to think about the things he had tried so hard to forget over the years. He blew on the dust on the books and pulled out a particularly thick album. It was the album of the time before the Digiworld. He sat down on the floor and flipped through it. Pictures of him, Kari, Izzy, his other classmates, soccer team, and school friends, and of course, Sora... They were smiling, young, innocent, naive little children then. At soccer camp, Tai found himself being drawn closer to Sora as a friend... He put the album back.

And then in the Digiworld (of which there were no pictures), it developed into a simple crush. It was rather cliche, to fall for a best friend of the opposite sex, but that wasn't the only reason he liked her. It could have been because their only other female companion had been Mimi, the complete embodiment of the type of girl he didn't like, but that's when he started caring about Sora a little more than he should feel for just a friend.

Then after the Dark Masters, after Apocolypmon, back to the real world. That's slowly when he began to drift away from her. He found the appropriate album. At first, their bond had gotten much stronger, and she appeared in nearly all the pictures, but gradually, she was with him less and less. Until the end, after Mimi had moved, Matt formed a garage band with his friends, Kari picked up photography, and TK started getting good at basketball, she was hardly there at all. She was busy with tennis, flower arranging, motherly bonding... It was so slow they didn't even notice it was happening.

Then there came the Chosen Children. Davis, Yolei, Cody, TK, Kari.Things pretty much remained the same, but Kari got some great photos of the Digiworld. The old Digidestined got together a bit more, but Tai and Sora were still distanced. It wasn't even a matter of being busy anymore, it was just the fact that they had been away from each other so long they had practically forgotten how to communicate and hang out together.

Then that year... When a new evil took over the Digiworld, and it took all of them, new and old, with the help of American Chosen Children like Michael and Willis and others to defeat it. Being in danger forced all of them a lot closer, including Sora and Tai, who started talking again. Then their bond became even stronger than it ever had been -- because it was a different kind of friendship and caring. It wasn't mutual, it was love. And after they both admitted it, they were unbreakable.

He looked at the photographs from their dates and their times at dances and proms... There were tons of albums filled with only them. But a big piece of the puzzle was missing. What happened in between the golden years and the big break up? Things were too fuzzy, but there wasn't a big fight or anything. He remembered now...

One day, Sora didn't show up for their date. He wondered why, and when he saw her again, she said that her mother had died. She said she was really busy with college, work, the flower shop; her life was just too complicated for a boyfriend.

"But I'm the one who can help you through this!" a hurt, 20-year-old Taichi said in shock. "Sora, don't do this--"

"I just need to be alone right now. There's too much on my mind. I'm really sorry, Tai, but a boyfriend isn't the kind of thing I need in my life at this point. We had a great time together, right? But now...it can't keep going that way. Sorry... I'm not sure if I still love you...but I know you're just getting in the way right now, and there's too much going on in my life, and I can't--" She broke off sobbing and then ran away.

Then she pretty much up and vanished after that. Was that all that happened? That was the reason they had broken up? He still couldn't live with the explanation she had given him. She didn't NEED a boyfriend...did that mean she really didn't love him?

Hikari groaned. "Open the door, Tai!" Takeru came along to help her, and they tried to break the door down.

Taichi got up, brushed the heavy dust off his already crummy clothes, and opened the door. Takeru and Hikari fell down and a cloud of dust rose. He kept on walking to his bedroom and then slammed the door.

"Tai, where are you going?" Hikari asked, as he opened his front door, neatly dressed now, his hair fixed, clean-shaven, looking a lot fresher. He held a piece of paper in his hand.

"I'm going to pay a visit to Sora," he said, showing her the address. He remembered what it took to get the address...

"Hello?"

"Oh, uh, hi, Mimi," he said nervously. "I don't have much time to chat here. I only want to know one thing. What's Sora's address?"

Mimi told him. "But there's one thing I need to tell you--"

"I'm sorry, Mimi. It was great talking to you and all, but I really have to go now. I need to tell Sora that I still love her."

"Oh my god! Tai--"

"It's important and thanks a million, but I really have to go."

"You don't understand--"

"Bye." 'Click' He now had Sora's address, and he had to be on his way.

"Shouldn't you at least call Sora first?" Takeru asked.

"I don't know her phone number, and even if I did, if I don't do this now, I never will," Taichi replied. "It's now or never. I'd prefer now. I need to tell Sora that I still love her."

* * *

'Well, Taichi, this is it. Go for it!' Another nagging voice in his mind said, 'What the hell are you doing?! Are you crazy? It's been ten years, she probably forgot you!' 'She'd never forget you!' the other half argued. 'Ring the doorbell already!' Agumon's voice echoed in his mind. "Gather your courage..." He took a deep breath and pushed the doorbell.

A few seconds later, the door was answered. But it was a man who answered the door. He was tall, with dark brown hair and dull, gray eyes. "Can I help you?"

Taichi didn't know what to do. Who was this? Sora must have moved, or Mimi had given her the wrong address. "Oh, no, I--"

"Are you selling something? Looking for someone?" the man inquired.

"No, I just--I'm sorry I bothered you, I'll be on my way now," he said. He turned around to leave.

"Taichi?" someone asked in total shock behind him.

The sound of the voice made his heart beat faster and his palms sweat. He knew who it was before he slowly turned around. "Sora?"

"Oh my god, Tai, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing, I was just leaving--"

"Did you come to see me?" Sora asked excitedly.

Taichi nervously glanced at the man. "Well, um, yeah. I mean, it's been a while since we've been together, and I thought I'd pay you a visit because I was looking through some old photo albums and I just realized that it's been so long since I've talked to any of the -- err, you know [Digidestined]."

"I'm so glad you're here! Come in!" she said eagerly, letting him in. "Wow, you look great!" She turned to the man next to her. "Oroka, you this is Taichi Kamiya. I told you all about him."

"Great to finally meet you," he replied, extending his hand. "Oroka Makeinu."

He shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too. So how do you know Sora?"

"Oh, Tai, did I forget to tell you? Oroka and I are married."

* * *

A/N: I've long since stopped cliffhangers, but that just seemed like such the perfect place to stop. I'm really sorry! Cliffhanger madness is coming over me again... P.S. Oroka Makeinu means "stupid loser," (if that online dictionary is right) which expresses how much I like this character. I won't beg for reviews this time, but if anyone is interested, I'm working on the sad ending of "Don't Want to Lose You Too."