On my way home

Digital Love

Chapter 1: Hidden feelings

Tai Kamiya looked out the window of his family's apartment. He had just graduated from High School and was going to be moving out soon. He and Matt had been given scholarships to a high-end college in the United States. He didn't know what it was about moving that bothered him, he was excited to be going to the US and was excited about starting college, what bothered him was something felt just so unfinished. 'Ah well' Tai thought 'I'm leaving tomorrow so no use worrying about it.' He had finished packing and Agumon was ready to go as well, it had said in the college catalog that they allowed pets in the dorms and Tai thought Agumon would pass as a pet. After all, who hadn't seen a talking, 2-and-a-half foot lizard now a days? With nothing else to do Tai decided to go for a walk, after all it would be months before Tai was back home again. So Tai grabbed his coat and walked out the door. Tai walked around the park taking in all the nostalgic sights, then he saw Sora on the other side of the park. Tai ran over to her and yelled "Hey! Sora! Wait up!"

Sora looked over and saw her friend running towards her. She stopped and smiled at him "What's up Tai?"

"Nothing really" Tai replied "I was just taking a walk"

Sora smiled again, however, the look faded and she said, "So I heard you are going away to College"

Tai's smile faded too and he said "Yeah. I'm going to miss a lot of things, my home, my friends, heck I'll even miss my Mom's cooking! But you know what I'll miss most of all?"

"What?" Sora asked

"You" Tai said smiling again, Sora's face turned maroon and she looked at the ground, Tai noticed then quickly said "Oh! No, not like that. I'll just miss hanging out and stuff!" at this point Tai was blushing too.

Sora began to cry and run away from Tai. Tai ran after he and when he caught up and grabbed her arm, she slapped him and yelled, "Leave me alone!" then continued to run away from a very shocked Tai.

Digital Love

Chapter 2: Good bye

When Tai woke up the next morning Tai still felt horrible, how could he be such a jerk to Sora? And why did she react like that? So many questions flooded through Tai's brain. Tai walked into the living room to find his whole family was awake already. His mom was crying and he could see Kari fighting back tears, his dad was doing a much better job fighting his emotions. Tai walked up to his sister and mother and pulled them into a big hug. Kari's resolve broke and she began to cry. Tai let them go and walked over to his father and gave him a hug too. Gatomon was a bit less emotional, but was still sad that her friend and brother were leaving. Agumon walked up to her and said, "With me gone it'll be up to you to protect everyone." It wasn't a very Agumon thing to say but he couldn't think of anything else.

After the teary goodbyes Tai walked out the door carrying his bags, at the bottom of his apartment building he saw all the other Digidestened, when Sora noticed Tai walking down towards them all, she hugged Matt, said goodbye, and ran off before Tai could get to the bottom. When Tai did get to the others Sora was long gone. "Where'd Sora go?" Tai asked

"I don't know." Matt said

"Did you two have an argument?" Izzy asked

'Déjà vu' Tai thought "Don't worry about it Izzy…" Tai went around and said his goodbyes without mentioning it to any of the others, they didn't question because they could see that Tai wouldn't talk about it anyway. Matt and Tai got into the Taxi and drove off to the airport.

Many hours, and transitions, later Matt and Tai arrived in New York, with a familiar pink haired girl waiting for them when they got off the plane. Mimi smiled and ran up to them "Hey guys!" Mimi said

"Hello Mimi" Matt and Tai said in near unison.

"Hi Mimi" and "Hello Mimi" came from Agumon and Gabumon respectively. They talked and got caught up as they got their belongings and drove to their dorm. It was a small room with all the furniture they'd need. After unpacking their belongings Mimi gave them a tour of the city, she showed them Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and The Statue of Liberty. When she was done it was rather late, so they decided to eat out that night. After eating Matt and Tai went back to their dorm and Mimi went home. Tai went to sleep that night thinking about Sora.

No new messages. Tai hadn't checked his email in ages he had been far too busy with all his classes. He decided to send a message to Sora, but all he could think to say is "Sorry" over and over again. He ended up with a message that had the word "sorry" around 20 times in it and nothing else. He decided to send it anyway.

The next morning Tai checked his mail and had gotten a notification that the email had been deleted without it ever being read. He sent another, she deleted it again, and this pattern continued for about a week until he finally got a message from her that read "If you're so sorry, then make it up to me."

Tai was excited that he had finally gotten a reply at all so he thought about what he'd say for about a half an hour. "What can I do to make up for it?"

Sora, on the other side of the world read his message and laughed, she was going to get him good this time. "You think of something Tai, it's not a real apology if you just do something I told you to."

Tai moaned with a mixture of grief and annoyance. He didn't know the first thing about girls how was he supposed to know what to say? But then Tai remembered something, he may not know anything about girls, but his roommate did. Matt had class right now and Tai had a class directly after that, but when they got together to find something to eat Tai would talk to him about what to do with Sora.

Digital Love

Chapter 3: Matt's Genius

Matt was in the dorm when Tai got back from his public speaking class. Tai began to look through the phone book for a cheap place to eat. They settled on a local McDonalds, not the tastiest or the healthiest, but the cheapest by far. They walked there and talked about a bunch of nothing. Tai was going to wait until Matt had a mouth full of food so he couldn't interrupt Tai. They placed orders and got them 1 minute later. Tai seized the opportunity after Matt took his first over sized bite "Hey Matt, I got Sora really pissed off at me, and after sending her a bunch of emails she finally said she'd forgive me if I made it up to her but-" Damn didn't talk fast enough.

"But you don't know what to do so you came to me in hopes that I'd use some of my experience to help you." Matt said obviously loving the fact that he had power over Tai at the moment.

Tai reluctantly said "Yeah… So will you help me?"

"Of course I will but you owe me big" Matt said

"Put it on my tab!" Tai said laughing

"Heh… Ok… so here's what you have to do… don't talk to anyone else from home but her, make it seem like she's the only one you miss, even say that you miss her if you have to, it'll make her feel special, and make sure you don't say something stupid this time, it's email, you can read through it before you send it."

It didn't make any sense to Tai after all isn't that what got him in trouble in the first place? But Matt was the one with experience with women, so Tai had little choice but to listen. Tai finished his burger and ran back to the dorm and began writing his message to Sora.

"Dear Sora,

I just wanted to tell you all about New York. I had forgotten to tell you about it in-between all the "I'm sorry" letters. It's an Island, like home, but so much bigger, you really can't understand how much bigger till you're really here. And boy does it have everything, but I still can't call it home because you're not here with me. I really miss you. I've got winter break in a couple of months and as soon as I get out of class I'll be on a plane home to see you.

Love,

Tai"

Tai sat there and read over his letter, his eyes landed on the word "love" for a while, should he change it to "from"? But that just didn't seem right, didn't seem natural. Déjà vu. He sat there looking at the word for a solid ten minutes until Matt came in the room and saw Tai on his computer. Matt walked up to Tai and looked at the screen while saying "Writing the letter to Sora?" Not wanting Matt to read the letter, Tai clicked send without changing anything. Then he said "Yeah."

Matt shrugged and went to his own computer and worked on his homework. They didn't say anything else that night, they were both focused on their work and when they finished they went right to bed, they both had tests first thing in the morning.

Digital Love

Chapter 4: Discovery

Tai had overslept slightly so he didn't get to check his email before he had to go to class. A few hours later Tai walked back in the room not feeling good about his score. He looked over at the computer and saw the notification "1 new mail". Tai quickly forgot about the test and read Sora's letter

"Dear Tai,

I miss you too, and I can't wait 2 more months to see you again. Home just isn't the same without you; it just seems too quiet. I can't look anywhere without something reminding me of you. The soccer field, my digivice, even the other digidestend, they all just remind me of how much I miss you. Come home soon Tai.

Love,

Sora"

Tai read over the letter a hundred times. He didn't even notice Agumon walking into the room. "What are you reading Tai?" Agumon asked

"A letter from Sora…" Tai said dreamily

"Why are you talking like that?" Agumon asked confused at his partner's actions.

Tai finally out of his Sora-induced trance said "Talking like what?"

"Well, you sounded like you were half asleep" Agumon said

"What?" Tai said

Matt chuckled as he and Gabumon walked in the small room.

"What's so funny?" Tai demanded

"Chill man, I'm just laughing because you don't know the answer to that yourself." Matt said walking over to his stuff and pulling out a Frisbee

"What are you talking about?" Tai asked feeling totally lost.

"Just write a reply and think for a long time before you write it." Matt said, laughing again. "Hey Agumon, let's give him some time to himself" Matt added as he left the room. Agumon shot a concerned look at Tai but left with Matt anyway.

Tai thought for a very long time about what to write. He thought for hours about what Matt had said, what Sora had said in her letter and before he left. Things began to fit together and before long Tai had an image in his head of what his life looked like to others. He looked into that image and saw how oblivious he had been. He could finally see that Sora had had feelings for him all along, and almost more important he saw that he had feelings for her too. Tai typed the message; it was simple once he figured it all out. When he finished the letter he sent it and went to find Agumon, there was a lot to do.

Digital Love

Chapter 5 Tai's Letter

Sora's alarm had gone off about an hour ago, but she couldn't get up just yet, this had been happening from the time Tai had left without getting to say goodbye, sure that was her fault, but it still bothered her. She finally got up and walked into the living room for breakfast. Tai had only been gone for a few months but to her it seemed like an eternity. Nothing had the same light with him that far away. She ate breakfast with her mother watching her very concerned for her daughter. She hated Tai for hurting her like that, but at the same time she wanted nothing more than for him to come back. Sora's D-Terminal beeped, and Sora's face lit up. For a short while, when she read Tai's messages, she would look like she did when he was around. Sora ran into her room leaving half her breakfast behind. Se picked up the small device so gently that it was as if she thought it could get angry and delete Tai's message if she did anything else. She opened Tai's message and read over it and a look of shock crossed her face. She hadn't expected this at all, but it was the best thing Tai could have said. She put her D-Terminal down and walked back into the living room smiling. She grabbed her hat from the Hat-rack put her shoes on and said "I'm going for a walk Mama!" For a moment Toshiko thought that she haddn't gotten a letter from Tai and was going to throw herself off the roof, but then she remembered the look on Sora's face when she left, untouchable happiness. Toshiko knew it was bad to read her dauther's mail but she had no choice, she had to know what Tai said. She walked into Sora's room only to find Byiomon already reading Tai's letter. She thought about scolding Byiomon but that could be hippocitical, after all she was here for the same reason, so instead she said "What does it say?"

Byiomon nearly jumped out of her feathers when she heard that. She quickly put the D-terminal down and was about to start throwing out excuses when Toshiko walked over, picked up the device, and read the letter

"Dear Sora,

Meet me at the Airport at 4:30 pm tomorrow.

Love,

Tai

P.S.

I mean that last part ;-)"

Digital Love

Chapter 6: On my way Home

Tai and Agumon got off the plane and looked around the airport but didn't see Sora anywhere. Tai hung his head then thought 'what if she didn't get the email?' talk about worse case scenario now he's have to walk home. At least his parents wouldn't be mad about wasted money, he had been given a full ride, funny that he didn't stick around long enough to play soccer, which was the only reason he had gotten the money in the first place. He thought about using the last of his cash for another ticket to go back, but then he heard he voice "Tai!" She ran up and hugged him crying slightly. "I'm so sorry I'm late, the guy in front of me in line kept forgetting about little pieces of metal in his pockets and I-"

Tai stopped her there when he hugged her back and said, "Shh, it's ok."

They stood there for a long time in each other's arms until a familiar pink bird flew up and said "Sora! What's taking so long? Everyone's waiting!"

Tai looked at Sora and said "Others?" and started following Biyomon.

Sora laughed lightly and said "Well I was just too happy that you were coming back to keep it to myself." When Tai and Sora got to the lobby they saw all of Tai's friends and family there to welcome him back

Tai laughed and walked up to them with his arm still on Sora's shoulders. Kari giggled and said, "It's about time." The whole group got in the various cars that they had brought to come to the airport. When they got back to the Kamiya's apartment Tai found the whole place decorated for his homecoming. Everyone sat around for a bit while Tai's mom prepared dinner, enthusiastically calling out that it was Tai's favorite, Liver Sticks!

Tai and Kari exchanged looks of horror, and everyone laughed. When Tai's mom brought out enough plates for everyone it was Tai and Kari's turn to laugh. Everyone ate enough to be polite but no more, they couldn't have eaten any more if they had wanted to. Afterwards Tai joked with his friends by telling them there were lucky that she had burnt them. Everyone left and Kari went to her room, as did Tai's parents, leaving only Tai and Sora in the living room. They sat on the couch in silence, Tai put his arm around her again and she snuggled as close to him as she could, laying her head on his chest and closing her eyes. The moment couldn't have lasted too long for either of them, but Tai, against his better judgment, shifted so he could look her right in her eyes and said "I really meant what I said in the letter"

"I know Tai" Sora said, "You're here aren't you?"

"No, I mean the post script." Tai continued, "I really do…"

Sora knew full well what he meant, but she needed to hear him say it so she pushed him by saying, "Do what, Tai?"

"Love you" Tai said, "I really do love you"

Sora kissed him lightly on the cheek and said, "I love you too"

Tai pulled her closer and they shared their first kiss in the dim living room, both of them trying to put all of the passion they felt for each other into the simple act. Peaking out her door a few feet away Kari whispered, "Click" as she took a picture of the couple. Thinking to herself, 'They'll want that picture for a scrap book someday.'

Done. I like this story personally. It may not be that original or anything of the sort, I still like it. Might be because I named it after a Daft Punk song that I dig (you should listen to it, it's on the Discovery album). Anyway I hope you enjoyed this story, and to those who have read and enjoyed my other stories, I hope I lived up to your expectations. And to finish: don't own Digimon, or enough stuff to make it worth your while to sue me anyway.