Disclaimer - I hate this thing. I own nothing.

Summary: Love, sex, lies, and forgiveness. Without pain and suffering, there is no love. "I'm so in love with you it hurts. I was a coward. I did the worst thing possible and now I'm scared I'll lose you forever." Sorato one-shot.

Lie to Me

"It's strange to think the song we used to sing,

The smiles, the flowers, everything is gone,

Yesterday I found out about you,

Even now just looking at you feels wrong,

You said you'd take it all back, give one chance,

It was a moment of weakness and you said yes..."

She stared at the message on her phone, like she had been doing for the past thirty minutes, unable to move. She couldn't remember the last time she blinked or whether or not she was even still breathing. It was the message she'd been secretly waiting for, but also hopelessly dreading.

I'm coming home.

Eight months was a long time. This was the first message she gotten in a month. A lot had happened in those eight months.

"Sora?" A voice called, interrupting her thoughts.

Her ruby eyes looked up from the phone toward the person calling her name. She came eye-to-eye with her best friend.

"Is everything okay?" She wondered.

Sora was chewing on her thumb nervously. When she bit into skin she finally came back to reality.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," her friend said sitting next to her on the couch, "Please tell me what's going on. You're scaring me."

"He's coming home, Mimi," Sora replied in almost a whisper as thought she didn't believe the words escaping her mouth.

Mimi's facial expression didn't change. Sora didn't even have to mention a name for her to know whom she was referring to. Sora started chewing on her thumb again and turned her attention back to her phone.

"Are you going to tell him?" Mimi asked.

Sora sighed, "I don't think I have a choice. I can't keep secrets from him. He's my best friend."

"What do you think he'll say?"

"I have no idea. How would you respond to that?"

Mimi smirked, recalling exactly how she responded to said incident, "I forgave you for your momentary lapse of judgment. You were in a dark place at the time. The mind has a cruel way of playing tricks on people in situations like that."

"You didn't forgive me so easily though."

"Sora, you've been my best friend since we were eleven. It's going to take a hell of a lot more than one meaningless kiss to destroy what we have."

Sora sighed, "I just hope he feels the same way..."

"You should've said no, you should've gone home,

You should've thought twice before you let it all go,

You should've known that word about what you did with her would get back to me..."

Two months earlier...

Sora was in tears. She'd been fighting back her pain and sorrow for so long that it all finally came to a boiling point and she couldn't stop herself from all but having a meltdown. She hadn't heard from Matt in weeks. Their relationship had been just fine up until recently and her mind was running in circles.

He was on tour again. This time it was for eight months in America. He kept in touch, when he could, but nothing was guaranteed. Up until recently, he'd called her every other day. Eventually though, the calls came fewer and far between and then just stopped all together. She hadn't heard from him in almost a month and had no idea why. She would call him every so often just to see if he was okay but his phone always seemed to be conveniently out of cell phone range. It worried her.

Sora had just turned twenty two before Yamato left to go on tour again. They had been boyfriend/girlfriend since they were fourteen years old. Like every other relationship, it had it's ups and downs. Girls from their high school often envied their "perfect" relationship, as they would say. The two were even voted cutest couple their senior year and won the title of prom king and queen. For some time Sora started to believe that they were close to perfect...

When they graduated, she went to college to study fashion design and he began touring the world with his band. The tours started out local but soon moved further and further away. They had always remained strong through the distance though. She loved him more than anything in the world. It didn't matter that they'd been together for eight years... she still got butterflies in her stomach every time she saw him and his touch still made her whole body shiver. When he kissed her, she got weak in the knees. She had always thought he felt the same... up until recently, that is.

"If he doesn't want to be with me any more he needs to grow some balls and just tell me," Sora said as tears poured out of her eyes.

"Sora, don't you think you're overreacting a little bit? Maybe he just hasn't had time or is in a really bad reception area," her best friend, Tai, replied handing her a tissue.

"Why are you making excuses for him? You're supposed to be on my side, remember?"

"I'm not taking anyone's side, Sora. He is kind of my best friend too. Don't you think this puts me in an awkward position?"

"I was here first you should support me more."

"Now you're just being unfair. Look, I'm not making excuses for him. I'm just saying that maybe you need to stop thinking so much into this. He's busy with the tour; you know that. This is nothing new. He's been doing this for four years now. Just because he doesn't call you every single day it doesn't mean that he doesn't still love you."

"That's just it though, Tai. I don't want him to call me every single day but he hasn't called in almost a month. A month! How hard is it to pick up a phone and just say hello even if that's all he has time for? I just want to hear his voice... I feel like something bad happened and I don't even know because no one has bothered to tell me!"

"I'm sure he's fine. His mom would have told you if something had happened."

Sora just shook her head and cried again. It broke Tai's heart to see his best friend like this. She had always been such a strong and independent person until recently and he hated that she was resorting to these kinds of thoughts. She spoke of infidelity which always made Tai's blood boil. Matt was also his best friend but they didn't always see eye-to-eye. There was a mutual understanding, however, that if Matt ever did anything to hurt Sora, intentionally or not, Tai promised to put him six feet under. He knew Sora would never cheat, but Matt he still questioned. He was gone... a lot. He could get away with things that no one would ever find out about back at home. Tai hoped things wouldn't come to that, but he never knew for sure.

"Sora, listen to me," Tai said gripping his hands on her shoulders, "You are strong and smart and the most beautiful person I know. You don't need to be getting yourself so worked up over this. It breaks my heart to see you so upset. Matt loves you, okay? You don't need to question that. I have no doubt in my mind of that. Life can get a little hectic sometimes but it's situations like this that make you stronger. You will make it through this. Do you believe me when I say you'll get through this?"

Sora stared into his deep, chocolate brown eyes and for the first time ever, she felt something toward him that went beyond just friendship.

"Do you believe me?" He asked again.

"Yes..." She responded quietly, never breaking their gaze.

"Okay. Now," he smiled and traced his thumb under her eye, "Wipe away those tears. I love you, okay? Nothing bad will ever happen as long as I'm here, all right?"

She didn't know what made her do it. Maybe it was the heat of the moment or the fact that someone had spoken the words "I love you" to her for the first time in a while, but in that moment all of her walls came crashing down as she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.

Tai's eyes widened in absolute shock at what was happening. Sora, the girl he'd known since they were toddlers, was kissing him. He'd often fantasized about what it would be like to kiss his best friend, especially back when he thought he had feelings for her, but now that it was actually happening it just felt wrong on so many levels. He pushed her back and the look on her face mirrored exactly how he felt.

They both stared at each other for a moment completely in shock. Neither one of them knew what to say.

"Oh my God..." Sora finally said putting her hands over her mouth, "I am so sorry. I have no idea why I just did that."

Tai just continued to stare at her. His heart was racing and he could feel his face turning red. Sora kissing him was nothing like he'd ever imagined. He felt guilty and dirty, even if the kiss only lasted a few seconds.

"I am so, so sorry, Tai!" Sora said shaking her head in disbelief at what she'd just done, "Oh my God... Mimi..."

"What about Mimi?" Tai wondered.

"She's going to kill me. How could I do this to her? How could I do this to Yamato? Oh my God..." She picked up a pillow from the couch and handed it to him, "Can you hold this over my face until I stop twitching? I seriously don't deserve to live after that..."

"Listen, Sora..." Tai said and tried to find the right words to say. He was still a little shaken up by what she'd just done, "As far as I'm concerned, this never happened."

"How can you say that? I just cheated on my boyfriend! With you of all people! That's like adding insult to injury. I can't keep this from him or Mimi!"

"It was a momentary lapse of judgment. It meant nothing, right?"

"Of course not. I don't know what came over me."

"Then forget about it. Listen, I need to go. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine."

"Okay. I'd hug you but I think it's kind of inappropriate at the moment."

Sora cringed.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?" He said and she just nodded. He left without another word and the tears began again.

"And I should've been there in the back of your mind,

I shouldn't be asking myself why,

You shouldn't be begging for forgiveness at my feet,

You should've said no and baby, you might still have me..."

Sora had been beating herself up every single day since the incident. Tai didn't talk to her for a while after it happened and Mimi was furious. She used some choice words that Sora tried to completely erase from her memory. She'd betrayed Mimi by kissing her boyfriend out of self-pity and deserved everything that was said to her. Things did eventually calm down though and Mimi finally blew it off like it never happened. Tai, however, still acted awkward around her and she feared that their relationship would never go back to the way it was. Now, it was the moment of truth and she finally had to come clean.

Yamato greeted her with the biggest smile she'd seen on him in a long, long time. He wrapped his arms around her and held her so long she didn't think he'd ever let go. She was sad when he finally did.

"I am so sorry I haven't kept in tough lately," he said leading her to the couch and sitting down with her, "Things have been so crazy with the tour and band practices I really haven't been doing anything except sleeping when I get free time."

"It's okay," Sora replied, "I understand."

"I'm so glad I'm home. No more tours for us for a while. Boss man gave us a vacation so it's going to be at least a year before we do anything else. It's just going to be you and me baby girl."

Sora tried to smile but she knew all too well that it wouldn't last. Yamato noticed immediately.

"What's wrong? You seem upset," he asked.

She took a deep breath and sighed, "Yamato, we need to talk about something."

For some reason, she noticed him shift uncomfortably as though she'd found out he was hiding something from her. It almost made her question it right away but the incident with Tai overcame that thought almost instantly.

"What's on your mind?" He wondered.

"Something... happened."

"What? You can tell me anything. I won't get mad, I promise."

Sora looked into those ocean blue eyes that made her fall in the love with him in the first place and actually believed that he wouldn't hate her for what she was about to tell him. If anything, it would just be another bump in their relationship and they would quickly get over it.

She took and deep breath before explaining everything. He remained emotionless the entire time and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. When she finally finished he just sat there still and quiet. She didn't know what was worse: the silence or the fact that she could not figure out what he was thinking.

"I made such a huge mistake. It meant nothing to me. I was in a dark place. After not hearing from you for so long my mind started playing awful tricks on me. All kinds of things went through my head at that point in time and I couldn't get over it," she said as a tear fell down her face, "I'm so in love with you it hurts. I was a coward. I did the worst thing possible and now I'm scared I'll lose you forever..."

He continued to stay silent and her heart ached.

"Please, Yama, say something," Sora begged.

"Sora, listen..." He began.

"Please, baby. I can't lose you... I just can't. I'm so sorry for what I did. I can never forgive myself."

"Sora, stop. There's something I need to tell you..."

She didn't know why but as soon as the words came out of his mouth her heart stopped and she realized that her worst fears might be coming true.

"Sora... I... I slept with someone," he finally said.

Her stomach did a flip and she felt like she'd just been kicked in the gut. She was right. All this time she imagined the things he could possibly be doing when he wasn't making an attempt to call her and here it was coming out finally. She felt like she was going to vomit.

"Sora, I am so sorry. It was a mistake and its done nothing but haunt me ever since. I couldn't find a way to tell you which is why I stopped calling. I regret it more than anything in the world and if I could take it back I would."

"Stupid me..." Sora said with a wounded, tear-stained smile, "For months I have been here beating myself up over a kiss that meant absolutely nothing and you don't even have the audacity to tell me that you were sleeping with someone else. Shame on me, I guess, for actually believing that you loved me."

"I do love you, Sora! I always have! It was a mistake! I had a moment of vulnerability and regrettably I gave in to it."

"If I hadn't of told you about what happened with Tai would you have even told me you slept with someone else?" Sora wondered.

When he said nothing, she just shook her head in disgust.

"How long ago?" She questioned.

"A couple of months ago. It was around the time I stopped calling," he replied quietly.

Sora stood up from the couch and walked to the other side of the room to look out the window. She seriously considered opening it and jumping to her death but even that was a little extreme for her. She couldn't even stand to look at him any more. In that moment her worst fear came true: it was over. Their picture perfect relationship that she'd been fighting to hold on to for almost eight years was over. She had kissed Tai out of fear and haunting thoughts and hated herself for it. Yamato had gone the extra mile and actually slept with someone else and for that she could never forgive him.

"Leave," she finally said.

Matt swallowed the lump in his throat and stood up from the couch. He walked over to her and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek as he fought back the tears forming on the rims of his eyes. He messed up bad and now he was paying for it. A relationship that had lasted eight years was over in ten minutes. He left without another word and Sora's whole body collapsed.

"You can see baby I've been crying,

And you know all the right things to say,

But did you honestly expect me to believe we could ever be the same?

You say it's in the past, you need one chance,

It was a moment of weakness and you said yes."

It took Sora a long time to come to the realization that her relationship with Yamato was over. What hurt her the most was not have that person she could always go to for anything whenever she wanted. He was the only person in the world that understood everything about her. She missed that the most.

Almost six months had passed and the two hadn't spoken since the break-up. He'd been sending her random things at work and home which always upset her. It was flowers, mostly, or small jewelry items or her favorite type of candy that could only be purchased in New York City. The gifts never did have a note specifying who they were from but she didn't need a piece of paper to know it was him. It made letting him go that much harder because just as soon as she'd start to forget, something else would show up on her door step and it would bring every memory flooding back. He wasn't making their break-up easy.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't miss him. She always asked herself "what if?". What if he'd never told her about what he'd done? What if they'd tried to work things out despite the fact that he was unfaithful? What if she'd forgiven him? At that point the pain was the only thing reminding her that what they had was real. Without pain and suffering, true love wouldn't even exist. She hated to admit it but she came to the conclusion that she'd rather be with him and hate him for cheating rather than be alone and suffering. No matter how many times she tried, she couldn't bring herself to be happy without him.

She wished she could see him again. For whatever reason, she wanted to prove to herself that she would never truly get over him. In a way, she kind of wished they would run into each other and she could fall into his arms and pretend like nothing ever happened. She still had his phone number and secretly called, from a blocked number that is, every once in a while just to hear his voice. It was stupid, she thought, but she couldn't stop herself.

"Are you sulking again?" Mimi asked upon seeing her friend still in PJ's at four in the afternoon, bumming it out on the couch, "I see he sent flowers again."

A vase full of Sora's favorite roses sat on the kitchen table. They looked fresh, as though they'd just been hand delivered.

Sora just sighed.

"Get up," Mimi said turning off the TV, "You have a date tonight."

"I have a what?" Sora freaked out.

"I set you up on a blind date. It's at six so get your ass up and make yourself look presentable."

"I am not going on a blind date. You're out of your damn mind."

"Oh, you're going whether I have to drag you there or not. You have got to get out of this apartment before you drive yourself insane and I have to commit you."

"You can't be serious right now."

"I am. So get up and take a shower. Oh, and eat a cheeseburger or something before you go. You're too thin."

Sora just rolled her eyes. She'd lost weight since the break up. About ten pounds to be exact. She was already small to begin with and now her friends questioned whether she was eating or not any more.

"I'm going to count to ten and if you're not off that couch I will knock you out and throw you in my car," Mimi threatened.

"I'm not ready to date..."

"You'll be fine. He's a cutie. I promise you won't be disappointed."

Sora finally gave in to Mimi's request and agreed to go on the blind date. Mimi even went the extra mile and style Sora's hair and did her make up and picked out her outfit. Of course, Sora had to protest what Mimi originally wanted her to wear because it made her look too easy. She settled for a pair of dark skinny jeans, a green halter top and green heels. Her hair was pulled up in a half-way pony on the back of her head and her make up made her look like a barbie doll. She barely recognized herself, but then again, it was the first time she'd worn make up or even looked presentable in a while.

Mimi dropped Sora off at the restaurant she was supposed to be meeting this date at and told her she wouldn't wait up. Sora seriously doubted this date would last beyond dinner and quickly googled the number of some cab companies as a back up plan in case things went downhill. The place Mimi dropped her off at was kind of sketchy looking from the outside. Sora had never even heard of the place and didn't notice anyone going in or coming out. She sighed and decided to just go for it.

Upon entry to the restaurant she noticed the place was empty. She instantly began thinking the whole thing was just some mean joke and almost backed out and ran the other way. She was quickly greeted by a man in a tux wearing a huge smile on his face.

"Ah, Miss Sora! Right this way..." He said leading her through a dark hallway.

Sora was confused. How did this guy know her name?

"Right through here," the guy said pulling back a curtain to a small, personal room. It was so dark that Sora couldn't see anything except the flicker of a couple candles coming from a sole table that sat in the middle of the room. When her eyes finally adjusted to the dark, she saw a guy standing in the far corner of the room. He smiled and she got butterflies in her stomach.

He lit a couple more candles on the table and she almost burst into tears when she finally realized who it was. He kept the smile on his face and slowly walked to her. Her heart began racing as he came closer. Without any delay, she wrapped her arms around his neck, almost knocking him off his feet. She buried her head in his collarbone and fought back the tears that were threatening to fall. He cooed her and held her as long as she wanted him to. Everything felt right again being in his arms. When she pulled away she smiled for the first time a while.

It was in that moment she realized some things. Love is knowing all about someone and still wanting to be with them more than any other person. Love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of. Love is feeling comfortable and safe with someone but still getting weak knees when they walk into a room and smile at you. Love is forgiving past mistakes and looking forward to future memories. Without pain and suffering, there is no such thing as love.

"Yama..."

The End.

Awe, sappy little story about love and forgiveness. Eh, I thought it was cute. Hope you did too.

Song lyrics: "Should've Said No" by Taylor Swift. Oh, and the last paragraph is a quote I found on the internet. Not sure who it's by but I didn't make it up.

Thank you for reading and goodnight.