Update: Hello guys! It's been a very long time since I wrote anything so please excuse if the writing style has changed, for the better or worse. I apologize for the lack of updating anything! Check my bio, I've updated it there so I don't have to ramble here. I'm going to try and finish stories eventually. Now for notes on the story itself!
Author's note: This story takes place in the digimon universe, all the chosen children/digidestined are in Japan, not the digital world. Kari and the others reserve a hall for the party. I'm using the English names because I'm not too sure how close the others are to each other and wanted to make it somewhat realistic. Can you figure out how old they are through their speech? If not, it's going to say how old T.K is turning hehe so I'll be using the English equivalent ages too, in the Japanese version less time goes by between seasons 1 and 2.
Disclaimer: I do not own the digimon characters; they are property of Toei Animation, etc.
Birthday's can be full of surprises by aka WardenMistress and Lady-RyuuXX87
"Ah, yeah that looks good! Now for some balloons!" Kari giggled.
It was nearing the set time of T.K's birthday party celebration. Kari and the gang were setting up a surprise party for T.K and nearly all the decorations were complete. Sora and Mimi had just finished with the crepe paper ribbons and the balloons were being taped up on the walls and some even had helium. Those were tied together and set on the table so they would float over everyone. Kari was in charge of where all the decorations were going.
"Yeah looks great! I… Tai!" Kari turned to see that Tai and Davis were goofing off with the balloons. They blew them up a little bit then released them so the balloons zoomed around the room. They were shaking with laughter. Kari stormed up to them, putting her hands on her hips, "You could just go outside and wait for Matt! Then things would go along much smoother!"
"Sorry sis!" Tai smirked, quickly making more balloons without causing more mayhem.
Davis made a face, "Yeah, we'll be good! I promise!"
Kari eyed Davis suspiciously; she wasn't sure if she could trust that. Just recently T.K had finally asked Kari out on a date and the two were now a couple. This was probably too soon for Davis to be in high spirits to be nice to T.K.
Kari turned and looked worriedly around the room, making sure everything else seemed to be in place. Suddenly someone tapped her on the shoulder, turning hurriedly to make sure T.K hadn't decided to go along with Matt she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was Yolei.
"Don't worry about Davis. If he starts acting up then I'll just hit him."
Kari sweat dropped, "Um thanks Yolei but I was kind of hoping that things would go well without any sort of violence.
Yolei shrugged, "Violence-shmiolence! I suppose I could always tickle him but I suppose Ken wouldn't like that."
Kari's eyes lit up, "Oh! How are the two of you doing?"
Yolei blushed, "Aww don't ask me about us!"
Kari nudged Yolei in the ribs. "Come on! You're just dying to tell me something aren't you?"
Yolei looked at her fingernails then looked around to see if anyone was listening. She then motioned Kari to come closer. Curious, Kari leaned over and Yolei whispered, "Well um next week is our anniversary so I think he's been hinting at getting away like a trip for two or something.
Kari squealed, "Ooh how romantic!"
"What's romantic?" Tai had managed to finish his balloons and came over to eavesdrop.
"Nothing for you to worry about." Kari said, sticking out her tongue. Tai made a face right back at her and the two began to squabble. Finally, Sora walked over with a disapproving look on her face.
Tai let Kari go out of the headlock he had her in and immediately tried looking innocent. It didn't work.
"Tai, Kari is trying really hard to make this place look nice so don't try and make things difficult for her."
"Sora, you're not our mother."
"I'm sure she would tell you the same thing though."
"Yeah? Well-" Kari stood on Tai's toe to make him stop whatever he had in mind of saying and gave him a very stern look.
"Tai, if you're ever going to get Sora to like you more then why don't you act more grown-up?" Kari whispered very seriously.
Tai made a face and decided to give up the conversation, "Oh whatever, I'm going outside to wait for Matt and T.K." He walked off; hands in pockets with a very disgruntled look on his face.
Sora watched him with a troubled look and looked back at Kari, "Did I say something wrong?"
"'Course not Sora, Tai just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Kari said soothingly, patting Sora on the arm. When Sora still looked unhappy, Kari managed to signal to Mimi to come over and help. Mimi hurried over and at once tried making Sora feel better.
"Hey? What's wrong? Tell Mimi all about it!"
Smiling to herself, Kari again made sure that everything looked okay. She checked the time and saw that it was almost the specific meeting arrangement she had planned on. Almost giddy with pride and hope she began pacing back and forth. She was sure that T.K had no idea of their plans. It was a little last minute but that was how she had thought it would work. His 18th birthday wasn't until next week and a birthday party before the actual birthday was how she thought a surprise party could work. Plus, the way Matt was to lure T.K away was to tell him about some gig that Matt needed help setting up with and T.K had become a real fan of live music so it was sure to work.
"They're coming in now!" Tai yelled as he raced by everyone to his hiding position.
"WHAT?!" Kari screamed, racing after her brother.
Sensing danger, Tai immediately corrected himself, "OH! I mean, Matt's pulling up in the car but they haven't come out of the car yet!"
Kari signaled to everyone to get to their hiding places. Joe and Izzy hid under the food table (there was a tablecloth on it), Tai was hiding behind a wall so his hair wouldn't be visible, Sora and Mimi were hiding behind some plants, Cody, Yolei and Ken hid behind some stairs, and Kari, Davis and some school friends of T.K and the others all hid behind a small stage that was used for plays and other things.
They waited quietly as they heard the approaching footsteps of Matt and T.K. Kari nearly fainted with glee as she heard T.K speaking.
"So this is going to be a rather large gig isn't it? This place is pretty big…"
T.K and Matt had now stopped in the middle of the room.
"Um? Where's your band-?" T.K started to ask and this was the cue Kari was waiting for and she jumped out from behind the stage, the others followed her cue a moment later and everyone shouted," SURPRISE!"
"What the-?" gasped T.K.
"Happy 18th Birthday!" Kari squealed running at him full speed. T.K nearly didn't catch her on time and they spun around before hitting the floor.
"My birthday isn't till next week!" T.K started laughing but everyone else had emerged, all smiles looking at the two, well just about everyone.
Kari felt uncomfortable for a moment as she noticed Davis walking over towards Ken and Yolei (who were further away from the rest of the crowd) and T.K seemed to notice too because he picked themselves up and starting thanking everyone.
Davis stared at T.K with a mutinous expression but mumbled a 'happy birthday' when he approached.
"Thanks. Davis it was really nice of you to bother showing up."
"I did that for Kari." Davis grumbled.
T.K's eyes narrowed, "Well, I guess I don't have to tell you that there's no way I'm going to do anything to screw up our relationship so I hope you'll be able to get over her."
Kari hovered uncomfortably around them. She didn't like T.K saying things like that, especially on a joyous celebration.
"T.K be more polite please!"
Turning, he gave her a sour look, "What? You encourage him too much! It's nicer to let him know the truth than gloss it over."
"I don't like how he's treating you Kari, he shouldn't be acting like this. I think he might think of you only as some sort of trophy that he's won." Davis said loudly.
Kari gasped in horror because she saw a terrifying look cross over T.K's face.
"What? Say that again you stupid-" T.K grabbed for Davis but Kari got in between them, extremely furious at the pair of them.
"Stop this right now! T.K! This is your birthday party! Not some brawl for the two of you to duke it out! And Davis! Don't say things like that! I tried so hard to make everything really nice today! Davis is still our friend T.K!"
Both boys fell silent as they noticed Kari's eyes swimming with tears.
"I'm sorry Kari-"
"Kari don't cry please-"
"Apologize to each other!" she cried furiously.
Davis and T.K glared at each other for a moment before they mumbled, "Sorry."
Sniffling, Kari walked away from them both, looking for Yolei or one of the girls to talk to. Yolei wasn't too far away and had noticed the tension and was at Kari's side in a second.
"Alright, what's going on?"
"Davis and T.K are arguing over me-"
"Still? When will that knucklehead realize that you and T.K are going out now? He can't possibly think he has a shot-"
"Yolei! That's exactly what T.K was telling Davis but he was being really mean about it!"
Yolei paused for a moment, "Yeah but it's true right? Davis acts way too much like your brother and not to mention looks like him so there is no way you'd ever date him right?"
"No. I don't think I'd date him but it doesn't mean I can't still be friends with him! T.K was being really mean and Davis may be right-"
"About what?"
"Well…" Kari blushed, a slight worry line appeared in her forehead, "I'm not happy about saying this but Davis mentioned he thinks T.K was acting like he had won me or something and it really sort of seemed that way."
Yolei patted Kari on the shoulder. "Well, I know for a fact T.K is crazy about you, you can tell just by looking and I don't think he meant to hurt you. I think he's still sort of jealous of Davis and wanted to have the upper hand by trying to tell him point blank that he had no chance with you. Yeah, it isn't a great idea but that's how boys are, you know?"
Kari sighed and nodded. "Let's play some games or something, maybe it will help."
"Sure."
The two walked back over to the boys, hoping to get things rolling for the party but before they could ask them anything, T.K walked right up to them and said, "Can I talk to Kari?"
"Hey we're both supposed to talk to her!" Davis said grumpily, walking up to the girls too.
"What is it?" Kari asked hesitantly.
"I wanted to apologize to you, Kari. I know that you spent a lot of time having this set up together with everyone and it wasn't right for me to start picking a fight with Davis."
"And he did apologize to me too, I think he meant it." Davis put in cheerily.
T.K flushed slightly but continued, "Anyways, you probably didn't want Davis to feel left out so invited him too and I didn't thank you for putting this together either, so thank you! It was really nice of you to think about me and put this together."
"Yeah. And thanks for inviting me, it's nice to know you still like me enough to invite me to things." Davis chimed in.
Smiling, Kari accepted their apologies and informed them that she wanted to start some birthday games.
T.K groaned, "What kind of games?"
"Well, I have 'pin the tail on the donkey', some board games, 'twister'-"
"Hey, how about 'spin the bottle'?" Davis suggested innocently.
T.K threw him a dirty look, "Kari, I'm going to be eighteen, aren't those things a little too kiddy?"
Kari's eyes widened in mock shock, "Why T.K, I had no idea you wanted some more adult-themed games! And with our brothers here too, I'm sure that would go over extremely well."
T.K eyed Tai warily then agreed to play some of the board games Kari had suggested. After several games of Monopoly, Scrabble and LIFE, things started to get boring so with some well planned out suggestions, the younger digidestined played some pranks on the older digidestined, like 'pin the tail on the Tai'.
"Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?" Tai yelled angrily as Kari tried pinning the tail on his butt. Laughing hysterically, the younger digidestined ran off to cause more mischief.
"I thought you were turning eighteen! That means you're an adult!" Tai called after them but directed his glare mostly at T.K.
T.K grinned, "Well what about you? You're older than I am! And you goof around all the time!"
"That's because it is part of my personality." Tai said trying to look important but merely looked silly.
"Yeah you try too hard!" T.K snickered.
Tai then began to chase T.K and the rest of the kids.
"Anyone want to play 'twister'?" Yolei asked jumping around excitedly.
"Yolei, that game can be pretty perverted in a way." Ken said grinning.
Yolei stopped jumping around and stared at him with her mouth open.
Tai started laughing, "He's right! It really can be, depending on how things work out!"
"Well then I suppose that isn't such a 'kiddy game' after all now is it T.K? Kari smirked as T.K walked around them all trying to decide what to do next.
"Yeah you're right. I'd rather not risk it though." T.K said as he eyed Tai again. He had only been chasing them around for fun but he'd hate to get Kari's brother worked up if they were to do anything more than kiss at the party.
Tai was such a protective older brother. Kari didn't seem to care about it though; she always said 'Don't worry, he'll understand someday that he can't always protect me'. But would he? T.K wasn't so sure about that, maybe in another ten years or something.
"Well then, who wants cake?" Kari asked.
T.K smiled and raised his hand, grinning. Half the others around Kari also raised their hand. It was so 5th grade! Or younger even! Still, it was fun and that's what mattered most.
The other digidestined and guests hadn't heard what was going on but as Kari walked towards the snacks and kept saying 'cake', everyone seemed to gather around the tables.
"Bring out the cake!" Kari called.
From an adjacent room, Matt, Mimi, Yolei and Ken brought the cake out. Yes, it took four people to do so because it was a HUGE cake on a table that rolled. They all seemed to want to bring it out even when supported on the rolling table because that was the part they might have been fascinated about the most.
The cake was large, it had tons of strawberries on it and instead of frosting, it was smothered in whipped cream and best of all, it was a chocolate cake! Kari had to make sure beforehand that no one was allergic or at least liked chocolate enough so that they could go all out and buy the enormous cake.
There were even letters written in what looked like hot fudge proclaiming 'Happy 18th Birthday Takeru!'. The crowd of guests had surrounded T.K leaving a space for the cake to make its way through. When the cake was finally in front of T.K, Kari lit the 18 candles. They had decided to light them after rolling the cake to him so they wouldn't blow themselves out!
"Make a wish!" she whispered to him.
Smiling to himself, T.K wished that no matter what, he and Kari would always be together, that they'd be able to work anything out and live happily ever after. He knew it was corny, but no one else had to know that!
Hoping that the candles were not trick candles, he blew out all the candles in one breath and to his delight they didn't re-light themselves.
"Phew!"
"Wow T.K! How did you manage that?" Cody asked in awe.
T.K lifted his chin a little and said, "Well I've practiced enough for 17 years, and I think I perfected it!"
Everyone laughed, some were not sure if he was joking or not and then the cake began getting cut up and served among the guests. T.K got the first and biggest slice but didn't start eating until many of the guests had some too.
The digidestined all managed to sit at a table together while the other guests sat next to each other around their table.
"I wish Patamon were here... Um, hey Izzy? Have you figured out how to keep the gates open now that we no longer have to go to the digital world?" T.K asked after drinking some milk.
Izzy who had just shoved some cake in his mouth held up his index finger, a motion that meant he would talk as soon as he finished chewing.
"Yeah I think I have! If you like later, whenever the party is over we can all come to my house and check it out."
"I'd like that!" T.K nodded but then turned to Kari, "Um just wondering but when does this party end?"
"Don't you like it?" Kari asked, her brow puckering in worry.
"Of course I like it! I just didn't know since it was a surprise so I know virtually nothing."
"Oh. Well, it ends whenever you want it to end."
T.K looked at the time, it was nearing 5pm. Looking back at Kari he asked, "Well what did you tell the guests?"
"I told them they could leave after cake if they needed to leave." Kari giggled, "But then I also said they could stay as long as the birthday boy."
"Oh. Well, I was just talking to Izzy and he says we might be able to visit the digital world."
Comprehension and excitement dawned on Kari's face, "Oh I see! In that case when would be a good time for you to leave?"
"Is six alright?"
"Hmm two to six, so that's four hours… I guess that's enough. We can always continue it there!"
"Yeah I was just thinking that!" T.K nodded.
Kari and T.K then began telling the rest of the digidestined their plan to go to the digital world after the party.
"Oh, but my band is here and we really are going to play some songs." Matt grinned.
"Ha! Well that's funny. How long were you guys going to play?" T.K asked.
"Hmm. I think we were going to play a few but we didn't set up yet since then you really might have figured it out a lot sooner. I mean, if all the stuff was set up you might have been like, well why is everything set up already?"
"Ha-ha, you're probably right! But how long does that take?"
"Well if you help us it shouldn't take too long."
"Ok!"
So with that, the two blond brothers got up from the table and went in search of Matt's band mates. After everyone had finished their cake and milk, some people had to leave for their jobs or were tired but there were still enough people lingering when Matt and his band had set up. They played a few numbers for the guests, who decided to dance or sing along with the band. Some people stayed in their seats and just listened. T.K and Kari danced to a lot of the songs as well as Ken and Yolei.
Tai was eyeing Sora for the longest time that Kari decided to cut in. She whispered to T.K a plan, he smirked and nodded, then the two separated and headed towards their goals. T.K asked Sora to dance and Kari pulled her brother out of his seat.
"Hey! What are you guys doing?" Tai asked as he noticed T.K taking Sora onto the dance floor.
"Work with us here ok?" Kari winked.
Tai glared at her as they went onto the dance floor too.
"How am I supposed to work with you if I have no idea what you're doing?" he asked grumpily.
"Trust me, the less you know is probably the better." Kari said innocently. As Tai frowned at her, she glided over towards T.K and Sora. As they got closer, she heard Sora talking to T.K.
"Seriously, this is very nice of you T.K but don't you want to dance with Kari?"
It was almost too perfect! At this T.K and Kari nodded at each other.
"Oh, why now that you mention it maybe I do, I mean she's right behind us." T.K said cheerily.
Sora blinked and turned around to see Tai and Kari there. She noticed Tai glaring at Kari and turned back to see T.K grinning and then back at Kari, who was starting to speak,
"Excuse me Sora but I'd like to dance with T.K some more but while Tai is here, why don't the two of you dance?"
"Yeah yeah." Sora sighed, understanding what had happened.
"Thanks." Kari grinned, handing her brother over to Sora and returning to T.K. Before Tai and Sora danced off she managed to whisper, "Now be good Tai!"
He threw her another dirty look and danced off to the other side of the room with Sora. Kari began to laugh, "He'll thank me later."
"I hope so." T.K laughed.
After a few more songs, the band finally called it quits and T.K announced that he'd like to get going.
"Thanks so much for coming everyone! I'm sure we're all busy though so I won't keep you any longer. If you'd like to help clean up then that would be cool too!"
The digidestined began cleaning up cups, plates and any other trash that got on the floor. After everything looked good enough, they headed over to Izzy's to see if they could go to the digital world.
T.K and Kari remained outside as the rest of the group trudged up to Izzy's apartment.
"Something wrong?" Kari asked worriedly as T.K held her back as the last of the digidestined marched their way upstairs.
"No." he said simply, leaning in to kiss her. After a moment, they broke apart and stared at each other. He smiled warmly at her, "Seriously, thanks so much for that. It really was a surprise."
"Really?" Kari asked eagerly.
T.K laughed, "Of course silly." He snuggled up to her and she giggled.
"Hey! T.K! Kari!" Joe called from over the balcony.
"Yeah?" they called back.
"Izzy has the gate open! Get up here!"
"Ah ok!" they called and started their way up.
After entering the apartment and making their way into Izzy's room, Kari glanced over at T.K and said, "Hey T.K?"
"Hmm?"
"Happy 18th birthday!"
Grinning, he replied, "Thanks."
And with a flash of light, the digidestined vanished from Izzy's room to enter the digital world.
The End!