The sun was setting in the western skies, and Tk having had a long, tedious workout was glad about it. He would be able to spend the weekend with his brother, because his father was out of town again on a trip and wouldn't be back for days. As he gathered his things, he saw from the corner of his eye, his love standing outside the locker room waiting patiently for him. He knew that they'd be together later that night, but what she was about to tell him was going to make him as mad as hell.
"What?!" he sputtered angrily at Kari, as if the message were her fault.
"That's what Tai said," she replied sadly.
"But I've been waiting a month and a half to spend this weekend with Matt!" he said, his voice filled with anguish.
"Tk, look. I know your brother has broken a lot of promises, but this time, well he said he an important practice and you couldn't stay with him." Kari said sincerly as she wrapped her arms around his and comforted him, wishing she could do something more. She blamed Matt, really; he had broken so many promises to Tk that her boyfriend probably didn't trust his older sibling any longer.
Tk fumed."He can't do this to me!" the blond boy said, clearly enraged by his brother's actions.
"Tk, he did miss your birthday and your first game, and you still haven't forgiven him," the girl answered soothingly. "Maybe he's trying to say, 'forgive and forget', but your just not listening to him." Kari replied.
"This time I'm not going to forgive him. It's been three month's since we went to the other world and he promised me the day after we returned that nothing would spoil our weekend together! The only time I see him is in the digital world, but as soon as we get back he goes to practice and leaves me in the dark!" Tk almost shouted, causing those in the hallway to hear his anger.
"I wonder why he really asked Tai to tell you that you two couldn't hang out? He would have told you face to face, right?" Kari questioned.
"I don't know,but this time I am going to find out!" Tk said pulling her hand as they raced for the late bus.
"Matt. I don't get it! Why did you make me lie to Kari?" Tai asked stubbornly over the phone. Tai had been lucky to catch his loner of a friend, right before he was going out somewhere.
"Listen Tai, I'm sorry but I have things to do, and no, it isn't drugs or anything. I have a bigconcert coming up and I can't both babysit Tk and practice." Matt said soothingly.
Tai wasn't impressed. "Babysitting? Is that what you call weekends with your little brother?"he asked the blonde headed rock-star.
"Yeah. All we do is talk about the digital world..Kari..digital world...nothing else. I've got a right to cancel our weekend!" Matt responded spontaneously.
"Matt! Listen to yourself man! You have broken two promises! Two! What do you think Tk's going to do when Kari tells him that you canceled on him, huh? He's going to do something dangerous to him, or to him and Kari. He thinks you don't care about him, or even love him anymore." Tai said, and to Matt's surprise the other boy was was right on the button.
"Yeah it's like that but its much deeper. Tk, isn't an ordinary kid. He can handle not spending one weekend with his older brother. Besides, what about all that time he was in the other dimension? We could have spent time if he hadn't gone there!" Matt said into the speaker.
"Matt! He had to go, and Kari did too. Listen, why don't you think about what Tk might do if you don't get your act together, then call me." Tai said angrily, and the phone went dead.
Matt knew that he had broken a lot of promises he made to Tk... a lot of them. He just didn't know how to handle the problem. It would have been better if his dad hadn't gone away and his little..well... his average sized brother would have a father-son weekend and himself left alone to do what he wanted to do. He knew Tk was angry, he himself would of been angry if he had been in the same situation, but it was always the opposite. Two close calls, of heated arguments, the first, after the birthday party, and his not arriving to it as well as the promise broken of the first basketball game which Tk was starting in. He had to do something, or he knew Tk would put himself in serious danger. He just didn't know how serious that danger was right at that moment.
Tk sat on the edge, looking down but not listening to Kari's frantic calls. "Please Tk! Come down! Everything will be better, please come down!!"
"No, Kari! If my family doesn't care enough about me, then why should I live? Ever since the divorce and moving back here, I have never spent a goddamn afternoon with him, one afternoon. What the hell is his problem that I can't spend just a few hours with me without having to go to a band practice? It's not fair to me, and I'm starting to feel like I matter in the world! I know you love me and I appreciate that. I love you too but I am not getting the love where it's needing to come from. I feel like I'm on the outside when my brother is on the inside and I can't handle it anymore! I've always tried to be strong, not scared, but I am scared and if I have to die then I'll do it! I can't take it anymore!" Tk exclaimed.
"I'll be right back Tk. Don't do anything that I wouldn't do." she muttered, not thinking straight. She'd call Tai first and then Matt.
"Hello, you have reached the Kamiya residence. Please leave your name and number and we'll get back to you asap." the mesage rang. "Tai? It's Kari," she said, choking with emotion. "Tk... well he's about to jump from the top of his apartment building. His mom isn't home because she's on that trip to America. And another thing..."and then the speedy voice rang.
"Kari? Are you ok?" Tai's voice rang through her brain.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But you've got to get Matt! Please hurry!" and she dropped the phone and ran back to Tk.
Nobody understood him. That was the message now-a-days. He was loved, by
his mom, Kari especially, and even his dad but he felt Matt had no real love
for him, only something to make him believe that he loved his younger sibling. He
had wished it had been back how it was when he was little, always being picked up by Matt
whenever he fell, but he was older, for godsakes he was turning fourteen. He
noticed Kari's return and the cops waiting for a signal from him. He saw
Kari speaking to one of them, and then in the distance a car, the Kamiya's
car driving up the block and parking in front of his complex. Tai got out,
and so did..well Matt. Tai, looked angry and Matt looked well, like Matt,
mellow and calm. He'd wait, yeah, that was the best thing. To wait.
Matt felt like he had just been punched by Tai. He had looked up astonished
to see his little brother on the edge of the roof of the complex that he and
his mother had lived in. He still couldn't take it in that someone would
throw their life away, even though the person had a wonderful girlfriend and
close relationships with everyone he knew, and then it hit him. He had been
pushing Tk away ever since their return from the digital world five or six
summers ago. He knew what Tk was feeling, and couldn't bear it becase at one
time he had felt the same way. He either had to save Tk or lose the mostimportant thing in the world to him.
Kari repeated what Tk had told her and Tai looked angrily at Matt, but was shocked that someone that he knew could just throw his life away.
Sora had come as soon as Tai had called her. She had a relationship, and had given Tk and Kari guidance right before they started dating. She was there not because she wanted to, but because she knew that she could help Tk get over his depression.
"What's been going on?" she asked the rest of the digidestined.
"Tk hasn't moved from that spot for about four hours." Tai answered, hugging her closely to him. Kari wept, and then Matt just couldn't take it anymore.
Suddenly a rock fell from the top of the building. Wrapped around it was a
piece of paper written in Tk's hand writing.
Dear Group:
I know I've messed up big time, but it's my fault and nobody else's. I guess I
deserve this, maybe its something we all have to go through and this is my
time. Kari, I love you and I am not going to throw my life away because I
don't get to hang out with Matt. Matt, I know you love me, but I don't feel
like your doing a good job as my brother and I am angry at you because of it!
You have no right to go away and reject me whenever you please. Tai and
Sora, you have been great, especially you Sora. You have got me through a
lot of this crap that I have been going through and I thank you. Kari,
please go upstairs and meet me so we can talk. Matt, I don't want to see you
until I feel I can talk to you without you having to have a 'band practice'
just to get rid of me.
Love-Tk
"That's all?" Sora asked the others.
"Yeah. I better get going." Kari said,trying to rid the streaks of dirt from her face.
"No, wait." Tai said seriously, as if he had suddenly come upon an epifany or something. The group listened to his words, nodded, then one of them walked up the stairs towards the roof of the building.
Tk sat against the floor of the roof waiting for Kari. He couldn't believe
he had hurt her so much. Matt deserved what he had got and he was glad he
said what he did. It was the only way that he could... Then he heard footsteps and
stood up, ready to face his love, the only person who truly understood him.
Pivoting his foot he was shocked. It wasn't Kari, it was Matt.
Matt knew that his brother would be shocked by the double-crossing. "I asked for Kari! Not you!" he screamed at his older brother.
"Yeah, I know, but Tai thought this would be the best thing Tk." Matt said, swallowing.
Tk frowned, turning his back on the other. "Go away. Leave me alone. I don't need you or maybe you still think that I'm a baby-sitting job for you and you can't handle me anymore. Whatever it is, I don't care. Just leave me alone!" Tk said ,enraged. He then looked down at Kari, and she was crying too, maybe because she had lied to him or maybe because sheknew this was a way to save him but he didn't know.
"Tk, I love you, man. I truly do but spending time-" Matt started to say, but then Tk interrupted him.
"Spending time? SPENDING TIME? What?! You watch the clock every second you're with me! Is that it?" Tk said shouting so greatly that everyone on the ground could hear him.
Matt bit his lip, he had messed up what he was trying to get through to Tk. He had meant that through spending time, they hadn't been doing anything productive and Tk wasn't letting his message be told. "Matt! For the last 3 months, I haven't seen hide nor hair of you and then when dad calls out of the blue and says that I am going to spend a weekend with you I felt like I was finally going to get to do something with you! Something productive! And then I find out after a month and a half of waiting, that you don't want to see me but instead just want to play with your stupid damn guitar!!!" Tk said heaving.
Matt was shocked. He never thought Tk could have said so much to get his own point across, but he had. Matt was a bad brother. He had always wanted to protect him, but instead Tk had protected Matt. He felt ashamed... that maybe he should of spent less time with his band and more time with what truly mattered: Tk. The younger boy fell on his knees and burst into small fits of tears.
Matt looked past him, to see the back of Kari's head buried into Tai's shoulder. "Look man. I am sorry for everything I did to you. I really do Tk, but that won't solve anything will it? I've been the lousiest brother and I should know because the band is something I use to get away from everything: my responsibilities, my family, but the band isn't what is keeping me away, its the thought that I know I don't want to be there if you get hurt and Patamon can't protect you. I've always tried to protect you but its always been the opposite and I'm sorry, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to make you go through all this just so you could get some attention, I caused you to be like this and its truly my fault. You had a right to yell at me in the letter because it's all true." Matt said having to brethe after that tedious short speech, slowly shaking as he did it.
Then Tk stood up and faced the elder boy. "Listen Matt," Tk started to say after listening to his older brother. He had stopped crying but the wild messy streaks on his face were the aftermath of all those tears. "Things could get better for us, but you've got to let them. It won't happen all by itself. I'm sorry for doing this. I'm just going through something that I have to surpress or it will swallow me up, and there won't be any turning back to the light once I reach that point. I need your love as well as everybody else's, but even Kari's love can't help me the ways yours can. Please, all I ask for you is to love me."Tk finished.
Matt looked sad. "Tk, I'm sorry. I didn't know that these were your real feelings. I have been a big jerk of a brother, and its hard because even though we live in the same city we can't be together because of a stupid divorce paper. I hope things will get better for us and not worse." Matt started to say walking ,towards Tk and the younger boy wrapped his arms around him, starting to cry into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry for putting you through this Tk, so sorry." Matt whispered.
"It's okay. Achoo!" Tk suddenly sneezed, causing a smile to form on his brother's face. "You've been outside all this time? We have to...Tk?" Tk had fainted and looked flushed. Matt touched his brother's forehead and felt a burning sensation. The older boy, on instinct alone, dragged his brother to the elevator and went down to the others. "We need...." But Kari nudged him and showed him an ambulance was there already. The infirmary man and nurse took Tk onto a stretcher.
"Anyone want to ride?" the driver asked. Kari asked if she and Matt could, and the man nodded after hearing who they were to the boy.
The hospital ride was a long and lengthy one, Kari held Tk's hand and felt her crest glow, giving her love the strength that he would need to survive his test. Kari noticed something about Matt's crest as well. It was glowing. "Matt, look."She said pointing to his chest. His crest was glowing the same dark blue that it always had for his digimon to digivolve to the Ultimate level. He just didn't understand why it was glowing at that moment.
Suddenly, as they watched, Tk's life reader was just a line.