Apologies if you've already read and reviewed this fic, but for various reasons, I couldn't chapter it, so it disappeared. I decided to re-submit it because I worked quite hard when I was writing it, and I think it's quite an original idea. This is First Series, in the digiworld, after Kari has joined the group. I knew very little of Gatomon at the time, and in retrospect I feel she is rather OOC, but there we go. This particular adventure occurs at any time you choose during their long battle with the Dark Masters.
Malfunction?
Chapter One – Interactions and Reactions
The sun was setting, a huge
golden globe suspended over the edge of the world, sending rivulets of
flickering light over the ever-moving waters of the small lake. The shadows lengthened, the birdsong
faltered then stopped altogether. Still
the lone figure on the shore did not move. The only sound was an occasional splash as a small pebble left a small
hand to travel a short way before disappearing into the water. Sora sighed. She knew she should get back to camp – the others would not sleep
until she had returned – but she was reluctant to forsake the peace of the
lakeside for the ever-present problems of the ill-assorted group of people back
at the campsite. The bearer of the
Crest of Love was well chosen: sometimes she felt she was the bearer of everyone
else's problems as a consequence.
The silence and her sharp
hearing made her aware of the other person's approach before they had come
within ten feet of her, but she still started as a pair of brown hands landed
lightly on her shoulders.
"Thought you must have
fallen asleep." grinned Taichi, sitting down abruptly next to her on the sand,
his knee grazing her thigh. He slung an
arm round her shoulders and kissed her cheek. Sora clenched then forced herself to relax. Really, Taichi was like a human whirlwind – everything happened
now, immediately, and with great force.
"Hey, why do you always do
that?" he protested. She turned her
face to him, surprised.
"Do what?"
"I dunno – tense up like
that whenever I touch you? It's not as
though we've never kissed before, right? Or – well, anything else." Sora
considered, and realised for the first time the truth of his observation.
"I'm sorry, Tai," she began,
genuinely contrite, "I was completely absorbed in the sunset, then you arrived
like a tornado and I - hadn't really adjusted to company, that's all." It sounded lame, she knew that, but it had
to be the reason - what else was there? Taichi smiled gently, and stroked her soft hair.
"It's okay, Sora, I
understand. You don't want me to
leave?"
"Goodness, no!" she
responded, immediately and smiled back. He stroked her hair again.
"Good." He said, his voice
turning slightly husky, "Because we don't get much time on our own as it is,
without passing up on God-given opportunities." And with no further ceremony, he tilted her chin towards him and
covered her mouth with his. Sora felt
her stomach clutch again, and forced her muscles to relax. What's the matter with you? She scolded herself. You've been going out with Tai now for –
what is it – four years? If you can
call it "going out" while we're trapped in the Digi-World. Wow! Is that how long we've been here? I wonder how these things translate into time in the real world? Perhaps I ought to talk to Izzy … Oh, for
goodness sake, keep your mind on the here and now, will you?
Taichi was by this time
Frenching her enthusiastically, his tongue jabbing around her mouth, forcing
her jaw wider. He was practically lying
on top of her, hard against her denim-clad thigh, his loose-fitting shorts
leaving nothing to her imagination. O
God, she thought, I've let this go way too far! Suddenly, she started violently and bit back
on a shriek as Taichi abruptly slid his hands under her teeshirt. He withdrew his tongue from her mouth and
pulled away far enough to focus on her face.
"Huh?" he mouthed, his eyes
dull with desire, "Why'd you do that?" She was ready for this one.
"Tai, your hands are
cold." She smiled winningly, and was
relieved to see him give her an answering grin.
"Gee, I'm sorry," He sounded
sheepish, "But they'll soon warm up!" He pushed his hands higher and tried to continue kissing her. Sora moved her mouth so that his lips landed
on her throat.
"Tai," She began awkwardly,
her smile rigid, "I really think we should get back to camp now. It's dark, and the others will want to
sleep. We had a tiring day's walking,
despite the lack of any real danger – Biyomon's really pooped." Taichi looked mutinous, almost angry, and
was obviously tempted to argue with her, but he seemed to concede her point and
agreed with reluctance.
"I guess I better put myself
on hold." He said, moving uncomfortably
to a sitting position. He stroked his
upper lip thoughtfully with his index finger and turned to her almost shyly.
"Sora," he said,
tentatively, "Do you - like me?" Her
eyes widened.
"I love you, Tai," she
replied, without hesitation, "I always have loved you." He grinned and kissed her hard on the mouth.
"That's my girl." He said,
then the smile fading a little, "It's just that you – well, you never really
say so – unless I ask, of course."
"Well, when was the last
time you said it to me?" Sora retorted with a smile. Taichi ducked his head and blushed.
"Well, ya know, us guys, we
– well, we …" Really, she
thought, he does look amazingly cute when he's embarrassed.
"Tai," she took his face
between her hands, forcing him to look her in the eyes, and smiled, "Now tell
me."
"Gee, Sora, I – "
"Tell me!"
"Okay, OKAY, I LOVE YA, ARE
YOU SATISFIED NOW?" Taichi's face was
crimson. Sora giggled and nodded.
"Well, if the others didn't
know about us before, they certainly do now." She was still laughing but, relenting, pulled his blushing face over to
hers and kissed his lips, not quite Frenching him but much more than a
peck. Taichi, still hot for her,
exhaled rapidly, stuck his tongue in her unresisting mouth and tried to pin her
body against his again. Sora, having
escaped once, was not about to be imprisoned again and, slippery as an eel,
wriggled away from his grasping hands. Laughing, she took off at a run for the campsite
.
"Why
you little..." began Taichi, leaping to his feet in hot pursuit, but Sora left
him standing. Taichi sighed. He knew he didn't stand a hope of catching her
– at soccer she could outrun anyone, either on the opposition or, indeed, any
of her own team. He ran a hand through
his unruly hair. Man, she sure is
difficult to pin down. In all the time
we've been going together, I've never yet managed to hold her long enough to –
well, I'm not exactly expecting her to go all the way, or whatever you wanna
call it, but we never seem to get beyond kissing! Something interrupts us, someone calls an alarm, she has to go to
the bathroom, someone needs a bandage/food/drink/sympathy, she needs to bathe,
the others need to sleep … it's endless. And although we sleep together every night, somehow that's just rubbing
salt in the wound - I can scarcely make out with her while TK's watching! Taichi kicked discontentedly at the
sand. Now I'm going to have to do
some serious calming down before I try to sleep tonight, or Sora's gonna freak
out at the state of me! Taichi
wandered slowly back to camp, taking deep breaths of the cool night air.
However hard she tried, Sora
couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned,
first on her back, then her side and finally her front. Mercifully, Taichi slept like the proverbial
log, and was on his back now, snoring loudly. Sora had grown used to the sound, and also to the fact that Taichi liked
to sleep very close to her, preferably with his arms around her, but tonight
she just couldn't ignore him. She
glanced at her watch and sighed – half an hour until her own watch. Not much point in trying to sleep any longer
then. She took advantage of the fact
that Taichi had unconsciously turned away from her and, escaping his searching
arms, quietly moved away from the campsite and the dying fire.
She looked around for Izzy
whose watch it was, and spotted him against the stars, sitting with his knees
drawn up to his chest on the top of a small hill. She made her way towards him, wondering why he wasn't on that
little computer of his – usually Izzy tapped away for half the night and spent
most of the days yawning. Tentomon was
asleep with his back to the glowing cinders of the fire – he was exhausted
having spent most of the day on the wing on reconnaissance. Izzy had obviously decided to let him sleep
rather than keep watch. Sora thought
longingly of Biyomon's company over her graveyard shift, but realised that the
little pink bird must be as shattered as the bug; she had been assisting
Tentomon, and had also spent much of her day flying.
Sora could see the vague
orange of Izzy's shirt in the pale starlight as she approached the top of the hill. Hearing her footsteps, he swung round
abruptly, relaxing as he saw who it was.
"Sora, you're early." He
commented. She shook her head.
"Couldn't sleep," she told
him, "No point in tossing and turning any more, I don't want to disturb
anyone. We all need our sleep these
days." Izzy smiled good-humouredly.
"Nothing you or anyone else
could do would disturb Taichi; he could sleep on the floor of Andromon's
factory and still get eight hours in!" Sora shivered.
"I'm sorry, Sora," Izzy
said, instantly contrite. The girl
shook herself.
"That's okay, Izzy," she
said, "I'm not really worried about that incident any more, it just creeps up
on me occasionally – when I'm feeling - well - vulnerable, I guess." The memory of being held upside down from one
ankle by a huge, extremely powerful android-type digimon, with a black gear
embedded in his leg was not a pleasant one, but it wasn't the worst. Izzy turned to look at her.
"You're feeling vulnerable
now?" She nodded mutely and sat down
beside him.
"Would you care to talk
about it?" Looking towards the
red-haired boy, she marvelled at how much he'd changed in four years. No longer small for his age, Izzy was nearly
as tall as Joe now, and was starting to put on some muscle. His red hair was as bushy as ever, and his
face still held the absorbed expression of one who spends most of his life
inside his own head, but he was beginning to relate rather better to his
digi-companions. This last offer to
listen to Sora's problems was a good example. Sora shook her head.
"It's nothing really, Izzy,
it's just..." she trailed off.
"Just something about Taichi
perhaps?" She was amazed at his
perceptiveness, and said so. He
shrugged.
"It didn't take much
guessing. To be honest, I've been
wondering myself what's gotten into you two."
"Huh!?!" Now he really had surprised her.
"Sora," To Sora's surprise,
Izzy took her by the shoulders and turned her so that she looked him full in
the face.
"Sora, is he trying to make
a move on you?" Sora burst out laughing.
"Izzy," she said between
giggles, "We've been going out for four years – it would be pretty strange if
he hadn't tried it once in a while, particularly considering he's Taichi!" Izzy nodded, blushing faintly, but still
serious.
"But you don't want to,
huh?" Now it was Sora's turn to blush.
"Oh, I don't know, Izzy."
She started drawing patterns in the dust with a stick, "Whenever he tries to
get friendly, I just, well, back off I guess. I don't understand why I do it. I love Tai, I've always loved him, but when he gets heavy I just can't
deliver – all I end up doing is teasing him, and that's just not fair."
"Like tonight?" replied
Izzy. She nodded sadly.
"I found myself thinking
that if I hadn't stayed on my own by the lake so long, I wouldn't have had to
deal with him. Now that can't be right,
can it?"
"Hmm." Izzy pondered,
"Speaking theoretically, of course, as I've never tried to make a move on a
girl myself, I would hazard a guess that Taichi can be a little – insensitive?"
"If you mean he's like a
force 10 gale through a cornfield, then you're absolutely right." Sora put her head in her hands. "He's
unbelievably insistent, and so forceful that you feel sort of mowed down,
crushed into submission. He never
really gives me time to match his mood, or to have any opinion of my own as to
how things should be." Sora suddenly
realised that she was talking to a guy, and that he was suspiciously silent.
"Izzy, I'm sorry, I
shouldn't be telling you these things." He shook his head.
"I asked you, Sora, and I
would help if I could, believe me." She
smiled at him, patting his arm gently.
"You already have." She
replied, a little ruefully, "I guess I needed at least to put it into
words." They drifted into silence. Sora was so absorbed in her own problems
that she hardly noticed that Izzy was inching his thigh closer to hers and that
their shoulders were brushing gently. Eventually, she sighed and looked over towards him.
"Izzy, shouldn't you be
getting back to camp now? It's my watch
and you need your sleep …" Her words trailed away as the boy, as if mesmerized,
reached out a hand and gently caressed an escaped tress of her hair.
"So soft." He murmured. His hand brushed the skin of her cheek, leaving a tingling
sensation in its wake.
"Izzy …" she whispered,
uncertainly. He shook his head,
admiring the beauty of her profile in the sudden rose-coloured light.
"This is totally crazy." He
whispered, "You belong to Taichi. You
could have nothing to do with my world, and yet … and yet …" His soft mouth
grazed her lips, touched then held for a moment, as a flood of sweetness
enveloped them both. Izzy closed his
eyes. Briefly, Sora leaned into the
kiss, then she leaped up as if she had been stung.
"Izzy, what the …" But the
red-haired boy had already turned away in hasty confusion.
"I'm really sorry Sora, I
don't know what came over me, I'll go back to camp now." As crimson in the face as Taichi had been
earlier, Izzy grabbed his laptop and pelted back down the hill towards camp as
fast as his now very long legs would carry him.
Sora stood and watched his
progress with her hands on her hips and her jaw practically on the ground. What in digi-world was that all
about? Izzy? IZZY?? The computer nerd
who never had a thought that wasn't connected with his laptop, the Internet, or
Tentomon, kissing her? Sora felt
dizzy just thinking about it. And why
did her crest pick a time like this to decide to glow? As she stared at the glimmering light in
confusion, it pulsed once and went dark. Sora sat down heavily and leaned her head in her hands. Izzy was one of her best friends; she'd been
seeking his company increasingly over the years for his analytical approach to
problems and his interesting opinions, which often differed widely from her
own. Their relationship had always been
completely platonic, particularly since she and Taichi had reached their
understanding, and now of all times, Izzy had decided to make a move on her! She felt like she'd just been mugged by a
teddy bear. Which was perhaps why she
didn't hear the approaching menace until it was only a few feet away.