A Love More Precious Than Gold: Part 1

A group of six teenagers stood by a white, wooden bench in the City Park. The sun was shining it's brightest that made the people outside sweat like crazy. Most of the little ones were complaining, but their guardians were all too hot to care. Four of the teenagers sat on the bench while the other two leaned against either sides of it. One of them constantly looked down at his watch. Finally, he spoke up. "Where is she? She's usually never late."

At that time, the only girl in the group looked up at her wild haired brother. "Tai, calm down. I'm sure she has a good reason to be late." Tai glanced at Kari for a quick second. Then he turned his gaze back to staring towards the park roads. The other guy standing up turned towards him.

"Tai, you shouldn't be talking. Every time we meet, you're late. That's how we all got used to this. And plus, it's been only forty-five minutes."

Tai seemed surprised as he stared at the blonde. "It's been forty-five minutes already? What's taking her?"

"Matt, it's only been thirty-five minutes. My computer's clock says so and I'm quite sure it's correct. Don't worry, Tai. There are two possibilities: A) Matt purposely stretched the truth, or B) His watch is incorrect." Izzy said, keeping his eyes on the computer screen, which distracted him from noticing Matt's glare. He was sitting between Joe and T.K. Kari's next to Joe by her brother's side of the bench. T.K.'s the exact opposite. They've been in a fight and officially broke up not long ago. They both still like each other, but they're also extremely stubborn, like their brothers.

"Izzy, you better stay out of this," Matt said in a threatening tone. Then he turned back to Tai and realized that he's glaring at him with flames in his eyes. Then he seemed to have cooled off. "And plus, Tai. Even though it's been thirty-five minutes, I recall someone being two hours late before!" Their glares met and electricity seemed to have come out of them.

"Matt just had to bring that up and start this again," Joe mumbled to Izzy. Izzy nodded in agreement even though he was completely spaced out. Matt and Tai're already in fighting positions. With their brother and sister behind them cheering them on. But the whole time, Kari and T.K. were just glaring at each other. They often compare their older brothers and show them off.

"Matt? You are dead meat!" Tai shouted. Without another word, he lounged at Matt and the fight broke out. Before anyone can get severely hurt, another girl with short hair came running up the road.

"Sorry I'm late!" She kept repeating as she ran. Everyone froze and stared at the girl's direction. Matt was strangling Tai and Tai was holding Matt by his shirt. They just froze for a while and then the girl came and broke them off.

"What took you so long?" Tai asked Sora as he wiped the dirt off of his shirt.

"I am so sorry! But I do have a surprise for you guys. Let's say it's a way to say sorry for being late. And plus, it was the reason I was late anyway." Sora explained, still trying to catch her breath from the long run.

"Well? What is it? Tell us already!" Matt rushed. He really didn't have much patience for surprises. He really didn't like surprises ever since his parents' divorce.

"Geez calm down already! It's coming. Can't you hear it?" Sora asked. They concentrated and finally heard a bell ringing. It's sound was really faint, but still able to hear.

The next thing they heard was a girl continuously repeating, "Excuse me, pardon me, coming through." The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but the group couldn't quite put a finger on it. The sounds came from the road in which Sora came from and it's getting closer by the second.

Just then, a girl on a bike came to view. She was pedaling pretty hard and her hair was blowing in the wind because of the speed. She quickly stopped in front of the teenagers and cause sand to blow all over the place which blurred everyone's version. When the sand finally settled, they could clearly see the girl.

The girl had waist length chestnut hair which curled at the end. Two pieces of her hair framed her face. She wore a pair of tight, black capris suit for biking. Also, she wore a light pink belly button tank top that matched the shade of her sunglasses. She took off her sunglasses and showed her brown eyes. She leaned forward and placed her arms on the handlebars while balancing on her feet.

Everyone was a little shocked at first. But then they recovered from the shock and recognized their old friend. T.K. and Kari jumped up from their seat and ran towards the girl. "Mimi!" They shouted in unison. When they realized this, they looked at each other for a quick second and looked away. Seeing this, Mimi looked at Sora to ask for information. Sora just mouthed the word fight and Mimi nodded understandingly.

Everyone stood up and crowded around their old friend whom they shared many adventures with. Everyone except Matt, who's still recovering from shock. His eyes were widened and his mouth hung open. 'You don't like her anymore!' Matt kept reminding himself in his mind.

After she said her greetings to everyone, she turned to Matt. She glanced at him and smiled, which pulled Matt back to earth. "You still haven't change a bit. Still the man?" Mimi said. She tried to sound as normal as possible, but inside, her heart was beating fast. She used to have a huge crush on him, but now she don't know. She had butterflies in her stomach, but it felt exciting to Mimi. 'This is just a feeling you get when you meet old friends. Chill out, Mimi. You haven't seen him in years and you're just a little excited. I mean, there's no possible way you can still like him after all this time, can there?' Mimi spoke to herself. She shook her head a little to get all the thoughts out of it.

'Play it cool, Matt.' "Of course. But you've changed obviously. Biking? That's not your style." Matt said, trying to take the quiver away from his voice. He gave up when he found out that it was useless. Mimi giggled a little. Then replied.

"Yea. Biking and rollerblading is really popular in America. And plus, it keeps my diet balanced."

"So how did you find her, Sora?" Kari asked.

"Well, I was stopping for a cup of coffee because it was still early, and I saw her sitting there, eating a salad. So we started talking and I decided to bring her here to surprise you guys." Sora explained.

"You've got to tell me all about America, Mimi." Kari said excitedly. "How long are you staying?"

"Well, for all I know, I might be coming to school here again since our parents' are concentrating their business in Japan again. But I might leave before school starts. They don't think it's safe for me to live alone in the house or something." Mimi paused for a second and looked down at her watch. "Oh, it's getting late and my parents don't know that I'm here so if I don't go back, they're gonna send the national search party to look for me. See you all later!" Without another word, Mimi rode out of sight.

"Wow, Mimi's changed so much. She's not complained a word about all that pedaling." Tai said as he watched Mimi disappear.

"Yeah." Sora looked down at her watch. "Wow. It is getting late. We better get home before any of our parents go psycho," she suggested as she turned to walk off. She waved goodbye without looking back and headed for her mother's floral shop. One by one, the former digidestined departed.

At the floral shop *@----}----{----@*

When Sora arrived at her mother's floral shop, Mrs. Takenouchi was just closing up. She locked the door and bent down to pick up a basket of flowers that needed to be replanted. She wore a worried look on her face and kept her head down. Sora knew that something was wrong. She slowed down her pace and walked up to her mother, who didn't seem to notice her until she said something.

"Let me help you with that, mom." Mrs. Takenouchi looked up to find her daughter taking one handle of the basket and she smiled. She returned her gaze back onto the floor and they walked on either side of the basket. It was pretty heavy and Sora wondered how her mom could carry it all by herself. They remained silent the whole way and the tenseness was killing Sora.

When they finally reached their apartment, they set the flowers on the kitchen counter and Mrs. Takenouchi took out the new pots. The mother-daughter pair went to work as soon as they got everything ready. In the middle of replanting a rose, Sora spoke up and broke the silence. "What's wrong, mom?"

Mrs. Takenouchi looked up and hesitated for a moment. Finally, she settled on the answer. "It's nothing really, nothing to worry about, Sora. Just don't think about it." Then her gaze turned back to the pot in her hands.

"Don't lie, mom. I can tell. Now tell me the truth. I know something's gone terribly wrong. I don't care, I want... I need to know." Sora insisted.

Mrs. Takenouchi stared Sora straight in the eye and decided to tell the truth. "Sora... honey... It's the bills. We can't afford them anymore. I mean, the landlord of the floral shop is constantly bugging me about the money. And the landlord for the apartment has also been on my case. I'll have to sell the shop if I want to pay the rent for the apartment. But if I sell the shop, we'll have no profits what so ever. Business is pretty bad and we just can't keep up. If I sell the store and manage to pay the rent for the apartment, then what about the next few months? If this keeps up, then we'll be on the streets in no time. I'm tired, physically and emotionally. I don't know what I'm going to do, Sora."

Then, she couldn't keep it in anymore and she broke down into sobs. Her hands shook and she let go of the pot and covered her face instead. Teardrops raced down her face as Sora rushed over to comfort her by wrapping an arm around her. She gently patted her crying mother's back and whispered to her that everything will be all right, even though she's shaking inside also. Mrs. Takenouchi buried her face into her daughter's shoulder and Sora rested her chin on her mother's shoulder. They stayed like that for a while.

Sora managed to keep all her fear and tears in until she finished all the replanting, put her mother to bed, and crept up to her room. She buried her face in the pillow and turned it damp with tears. Her face was red from crying. She cried as softly as possible so she won't wake her mother up. But she's shivering with fear. She's cold on this hot summer day. She pulled her shits up to her shoulders and cuddled beneath it, trying to keep warm. She kept crying and crying the whole time. 'What are we going to do?' She asked herself, not expecting an answer. 'Tai will never ever like me if I end up homeless!"

Mimi's house *@----}----{----@*
(AN: This is happening at the same time when Sora and her mom walked back. So this is when Mimi first arrives. Don't get confused.)

"I'm home!" Mimi said in a loud voice. Her parents came down the spiral staircase on the side as Mimi took her shoes off and got ready to go to her room. "Hi mom, dad. I'm going up to my room now, see you at dinner!" She said as she began to walk up the staircase that led to her room.

"Hold on, honey, we need to talk to you about something." Mr. Tachikawa said and Mimi began to walk back down the stairs. They led her to the living room and they sat down on the sofa.

"Well?" Mimi asked impatiently as she folded her hands. She couldn't wait to write in her diary about today.

"Mimi, dear. I know that it's hard, but... we can't stay here. We're moving to England in two days. It's for business. And we know how much you want to stay here with you friends, but there's no other way. I'm sure you'll make new friends at England. Remember how popular you were in America? We would let you stay here, but there'll be no one to look after you. I'm sorry, Mimi. Why don't you start packing tomorrow?" Mr. Tachikawa said quickly.

"You... you can't be serious..." Mimi said in an unbelievably stern tone. She looked at her parents eyes and hoped greatly that they'd say they're just joking. But it never came. She slumped back into the couch and sat there gazing at the distance. Her mouth hung open and her eyes widened. She broke a cold sweat and then she burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.

"The only reason I was popular was because they liked how I dressed and they liked how I looked. But they don't like me for me! I'd hardly call them my friends. Now that I've reunited with my best friends in the world, you decide that you can just call me away? They know me better than anyone else. I just can't bear to lose them again." Her voice broke and she cried a little louder than before.

"I'm sorry, Mimi, honey. But it's all for the good of the..."

"Business! I know! It's always because of the business. Is the business so important that you don't even care about my happiness?" Mimi shouted out. A few servants peeked in through the door, but then returned to their work.

"Now don't be silly. Um..." Mrs. Tachikawa paused and looked at her husband for help. Not receiving any, she continued. "We'll make you a deal. If you can find an adult to look after you and stay in this house, then it'll be no problem if you want to stay."

"And where am I supposed to find an adult to stay here? And in less than two days?! This is not fair!" Mimi yelled as she got up and ran up to her room. Her mother got up to follow, but was stopped by her father. He told her that Mimi needed some time to cool off.

Mimi didn't come down for dinner and a servant brought a tray of food up to her bedroom door. It wasn't touched at all the whole time and her parents became very worried but decided to give her until the morning.

Mimi's room *@----}----{----@*

Mimi laid down on her back on her bed. She stared at her white ceiling and images appeared on the ceiling like movies. But she saw everything so clearly. When she had to leave Palmon, when she left the digidestined four or five years ago for America. She thought about their reunion today. Everyone's so happy and excited. But wait til they hear about this.

Memories of her and all the digidestined came back. Sora, Tai, T.K., Kari, Joe, Izzy, Matt... Matt. 'I'll have to miss you all over again, Matt.' She took out a gold pocket watch which she'd plan to give him the day she broke the news to him that she was going to America. But she never got the guts to give it to him or tell him how she felt. She touched the words carved inside it:

To Yama-chan,
From Mimi with love always.

'I was so stupid.' She opened the watch and a melody played. She used advanced technology to combine her harmonica music which she secretly recorded with her harp music. Every year, she'd have a check up to make sure nothing is wrong. 'What was the point anyway? I'll never have the guts to tell him.' She thought as she gripped onto the gold necklace that he gave her for her birthday a long time ago. It had an angel playing a harp. She's started playing it since they got back from the digiworld. He'd said that he looked like an angel when at her first performance when the spotlight's on her. He was really sweet and nice. "How can I ever live without you, Matt? I hope you can deal with this better than I." she whispered to herself as more tears came racing down. 'I'm sure he will. He did last time...'