Second birthday gift for SkuAg, because she's amazing and deserves more than one gift. To prepare you for chapter 21 of The Song of Love, I'll treat you to a peek in the future of the friendship of Sora and Koushiro in that universe.
It follows the same rule of More than three words: it's only a sequel of TSOL if you want it to be. ;)
Mirror
He was taking in the cold air of the night, outside the hangar. The concert of Yamato's band would start later; at that moment, a different band was playing. The sound coming from the instruments was too loud and the boy wished to find solace in a relatively quieter place.
Koushiro was leaning on a wall, which was not dirty enough to stain his orange jacket. He looked up, admiring the few stars visible that night. Not quite the starlight of the Digital World, he mused. A wave of melancholy came from his core.
"Hiding?" A teasing voice was heard in his left. He turned to that direction and saw Sora a couple of steps away from him. She was wearing a long red coat that almost seemed to irradiate its own heat. Koushiro knew better, though. The one capable to bring warmth to the coldest places and moments had always been Sora.
"It was a bit noisy in there." The boy explained.
"Did you come to a rock concert expecting silence?" Sora giggled.
"That would be a truly innovative expression of art!" Koushiro joked. The girl's laugh in response sounded better than any music.
"Izumi Koushiro making jokes. Who would imagine it?" Sora commented.
The boy looked away, embarrassed, while the girl leaned on the wall, beside him. He could feel her eyes focused on his flustered face.
"It's funny." She said in an evasive tone.
"What?" He asked, looking to her.
"Had you not entered the soccer club back then, we wouldn't be here now."
"That would also be the case had you not given in to Taichi-san's insistence on becoming part of his club."
They both diverted their gazes at the same time. Despite years of work on becoming more honest with their feelings, it was still a little hard to think about the children they used to be.
A boy who wanted to feel integrated and a girl who wanted to rebel… who would imagine they were going to become so close? So essential to one another?
"I'm glad we met." Sora said. "Even if we only got to know each other later. We shared so much."
"Traumatic experiences, misconceptions, bad personality traits…" Koushiro listed.
"The will to defy those misconceptions, to work on those bad personality traits and to move on from those experiences." Sora complemented.
"Let's not forget about the mirror." Koushiro murmured.
The girl paled.
"There was always a mirror between us." She said, seriously. "We just took forever to realize it was there, Koushiro-kun."
"I'm glad we did." He said, smiling. "I'm glad we had the chance to truly see each other."
"Me too." She muttered.
"We should go inside now." Koushiro suggested. "Takeru-kun told me that his brother wrote you a song."
"Eh? Seriously?" Sora felt her heart accelerating as blood rushed to her face.
"… I think he also told me that it was a surprise…" Koushiro said, blinking with one eye. He knew that Sora didn't like to be surprised.
The girl giggled, realizing what the boy had done. "Thank you for letting me know in advance."
"That's what friends are for."
Koushiro gazed into her eyes, showing her the most beautiful smile he had. Sora gazed into his eyes as well, imagining the wonders hidden behind them.
They went back to the hangar and sat side by side. They deeply enjoyed the concert they had been invited to. Yamato would look in their direction every couple of minutes, making Sora blush intensively, for Koushiro's amusement.
Those moments of happiness were precious; Koushiro and Sora knew how important it was to treasure them.
They were not afraid of any hardship the future had in storage. They knew that their friendship was powerful enough to allow them to break free from any nightmare.
This was supposed to be the introduction of chapter 21 of TSOL (instead of the usual flashback), but then I thought that a flash-forward could be a little confusing. But now you know that the entire main cast survives the fic, that Sora and Koushiro become close friends and that older Yamato tries to win Sora's heart with songs. Again, only if you want to consider it sequel to TSOL. I hope you liked it. :D