Last Kiss

Disclaimer: Digimon isn't mine and  "Last Kiss" is by Pearl Jam (implicit that it's not mine either

~*~*~
We were out on a date in my daddy's car
We hadn't driven very far
There in the road straight up ahead
A car was stalled, the engine was dead

I rang the doorbell, waiting for someone to answer the door. Then I heard someone call out, "Coming!" and a moment later, a middle-aged lady opened the door. "Oh, hi TK," she greeted me with a smile.

I answered with a smile of my own, "Hi Mrs. Kamiya, is Kari ready?"

Before she had a chance to answer, the door opened even wider and Kari stepped out. She looked stunning in her light pink dress and matching shawl and bag. "I'm ready, let's go. Bye mom!"

I, however, was still staring at her with my jaw slack in amazement. "You look gorgeous," I said truthfully in awe.

Kari gave me her sweetest smile and intertwined her slender hand with mine as we started walking towards the elevator. I smoothed a strand of stray hair away from her face and she turned to smile at me again as I gently kissed her lips. "Aww…cut that out, you guys! You could at least wait until you were out of the building!" we heard.

We turned around and saw Tai spying on us from the still open door of the apartment. "Shut up Tai!" Kari retorted, "Do you want me to count the number of times you've kissed Sora in front of me and mom? There was that time before the…"

"Alright, alright! You can stop!"

We exchanged grins and entered the elevator; Kari's head now resting slightly on my shoulder. Tai couldn't resist calling out one last remark though as the elevator door lid closed, "Don't bring her home too late!"

The closed door cut off anything else Tai might have said and moments later, we where outside the building. Parked in front was my dad's car, which he had loaned me for the night. I held the door open for Kari, closed it after she got in and then took my own place in the driver's seat. We drove in silence for a while, enjoying just being together, having no need to say anything because we were close enough to know the each other's thoughts without words. Finally, Kari broke the silence, "Wow, this is pretty warm for December. I'm wearing this flimsy thing and I'm not even cold."

I responded, "Yeah...it is kind of warm. It doesn't feel quite like winter yet, even if today is the Holiday Semi-Formal. If you do get cold though, my vest is behind you. You can have it."

Kari blushed, "Thanks TK."

I turned to smile at her, taking my eyes off the road for just a second.

"TK! Watch out!" I heard Kari scream.

I turned back, a moment too late, to see that a car, hidden before by the curve of the road, was in front of us, just sitting there in the middle of the road.

~*~*~

I couldn't stop so I swerved to the right
I'll never forget the sound that night

I stepped on the brakes hard, but knew that we wouldn't be able to stop in time, so I spun the wheel as fast as I could to the right, hoping the turn would bring us off the road before we hit the other car. "Kari! Hold on tight!" I cried.

The car swerved sharply to the right, but its momentum was too great, slamming us into the other car.

~*~*~

The screaming tires, the busting glass
The painful scream that I heard last

The tires screeched as the car tried to stop, but to no avail. Because I had tried to turn, only Kari's side of the car hit the other one, but our car slammed into the other one so hard that it flipped over, rolling a few times before finally hitting a tree and stopping. The force of the impact shattered every single window into millions of shards of dancing light. The last thing that I heard was a heart-piercing scream coming from next to me. Then, there was only darkness.

~*~*~

When I woke up the rain was pouring down
There were people standing all around
Something warm flowing through my eyes
But somehow I found my baby that night

I awoke to the feeling of rain falling on my face. I opened my eyes and let out a painful groan. I saw that I was still in the car although the car was now on its side, one side crushed beyond recognition. Shards of glass were all around and the rain was falling in through where the windshield used to be. I saw the flashes of light and heard the wailing sirens of approaching police cars and the people who had gathered around the cars.

Soon, I became aware of a piercing pain in my temples and something warm tickled down the side of my face. I tentatively moved a hand and gently touched my forehead. It came away scarlet red with blood. Somehow, the sight of my blood jarred me out of my stupefied shock more than the sight of the wrecked car had. At that moment, I heard a soft groan.

"Kari?" I whispered, praying she was all right, "Kari!"

I slightly shifted my body to face the other way and caught sight of her. My heart momentarily stopped as shock set in again. However badly off I was, she was even more so; her face looked bruised, battered and cut and her beautiful brown hair was matted with blood, one arm jutted out at an awkward angle and the other was crushed between the door and her seat and she was bleeding heavily from many places. The worst was those pain-filled eyes.

~*~*~

I lifted her head, she looked at me and said
"Hold me darling just a little while"
I held her close, I kissed her our last kiss
I found the love that I knew I have missed

I reached over ignoring the sharp pain that the movement caused. "Oh Hikari," I whispered, "I'm so sorry."

She tried to give me a small smile, telling me that I was forgiven, but all she could manage was a grimace. Tears filled poignantly in her beautiful brown eyes and, in a voice so soft that it could be mistaken for a passing breeze, she whispered, "TK, will you hold me?"

I inched myself to her side and cradled her frail body in my arms. The rain poured on, getting heavier and heavier and I felt her shiver in my arms. I looked down at the beautiful angel that I held in my arms and softly kissed her lips one more time. Maybe it was the expression in my eyes or maybe it was intuition, but somehow I saw that she knew she wasn't going to live to see the morning. She clung to me desperately, not letting our lips separate as if trying to convey all her love for me through touch alone. After a long moment, she let go of me and with a painful smile, she murmured into my ear what seemed so much like a good-bye, "I love you, Takeru."

With one last heart-rending sigh, her eyes fluttered closed and she was still.

~*~*~

Well now she's gone even though I hold her tight
I lost my love, my life that night

I laid there in the rain, silently crying and cradling Kari's lifeless body as I waited for someone to find me. After what seemed like an eternity, the police pried the door of the car off and pulled us out. They gently took her out of my arms and laid her out on a stretcher. A paramedic took one look at her pale, white face and perfectly still form and without a word, pulled the blanket at the foot of the stretcher over her face

I love you, Hikari and I always will. I promise I'll never forget you…never.

~*~*~

Oh where, oh where, can my baby be
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven so I got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world

I walked on, my feet imprinting new footprints on the fresh snow. The sunny, but cold December day seemed to mock me in my sorrow. Puffs of steam from my breath hung in the air, the weather between this year and the last so different. Has it really been a year? So long and yet...so short too.

Then, I was there. A snow covered gravestone jutted out of the ground, nothing special distinguishing it from all the other hundreds of gravestones, but nevertheless I knew it was the one. I used my hand, and with one swipe, cleared the gravestone of its snow, revealing the inscription, "Hikari Kamiya, Angel of Light". A warm tear rolled down my face, freezing halfway down my cheek. I placed a single red rose on the pure, white snow before of her grave and stared at it for a moment before walking away. A little tag on the rose fluttered as a gust of cold wind stirred the otherwise still air, displaying the words that I had written for her, "Love always, Takeru."