This be futuristic AU-ish. I… don't even know where in the world this came from. Aw well, hope ya'll enjoy.
Thursday, July 15th 2111
Damn but this was weird.
That was honestly the only thought going through his mind at that moment. Or well, the last couple of weeks actually. If he didn't know any better he'd say his guardian angel had decided to dump all the luck in the world on him.
Ten years ago his family had moved away from the city, and now he was moving back there. To the same neighborhood too, ironically enough.
He'd not only been able to get a three bedroom flat (one of which even had it's own bathroom!) with a pretty spacious living/kitchen with a kitchen island, he'd also gotten a very sweet gig at a popular club/restaurant as a bartender and occasional extra help. Which basically meant doing anything from pitching in as busboy or handyman. For once maybe he could just have one job instead of several and they could still live very well. Maybe he could even take on a few classes at the university later in the fall…
Pfft, as if. His luck never held up. Not for long anyway.
Tai was probably not what was considered a normal 20-yearold. Mostly since he singlehandedly took care of his little sister and one of her friends, the kid had run away from home and had nowhere else to go. Tai had only agreed to let the younger boy stay with them because A; he liked the kid, and B; he never could resist those puppy dog eyes of his sister's. Damn it.
His sister, who he was currently speaking to on his cell, chuckled in his ear at something that was apparently going on somewhere in the background. Tai raised an eyebrow down at his partner who was sitting next to him on the train. Agumon was fast asleep. Figures.
Digimon had been known to the human world for years, but people who were DigiDestined were still quite rare. They were accepted as part of the population though. As long as they did their job of defending the world from evil Digimon that is.
"You seem to be doing well with the friend-making over there Kari.", Tai commented a bit dryly, he didn't really appreciate her calling him and then ignoring him as soon as one of her new friends did something that she found entertaining.
Kari kept chuckling a bit as she spoke. "Yeah! Willis and I found a whole bunch of kids our age that are all 'Destined, and they also go to the same school we're gonna start at! Isn't that fantastic?"
"Sure it is.", Tai smiled a bit as he fingered the goggles on his head. "Just be careful not to draw too much attention to yourselves, a big group of 'Destined and their partners make kind of a big target."
"You worry too much, bro.", Willis' amused tones carried through the receiver. "Which is a very odd thing to say about you, really."
"Oh shush you.", Tai tried at a scolding voice, but failed grandly when it came out just as amused as the teen on the other end of the line.
"But in all seriousness, when are you getting here man?"
"Should be there in an hour or so, why?"
"No reason."
"Aaaw, you miss me?", Tai feigned a childish voice and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.
Willis snorted. "I only miss someone cooking for me is all."
The two teens had been living in the apartment by themselves for a few days while Tai made sure everything about the move had been taken care of. Not to mention that he had a job to pay for them living there.
"Hah, no buying it kid.", the brown-haired man sniggered fondly when he heard an audible smack and a bit of shuffling.
"Don't mind him Tai, he's just sulking 'cause I didn't let him play video games all night."
Tai laughed at that. "'Atta girl!"
He glanced across the coach as he heard some rather loud and obnoxious squeals. There was a group of girls huddling around a sitting form, crowding whoever it was more and more. A frown edged it's way across his face as he got a glimpse of the blond guy sitting there, he looked like he wanted to explode on them but for some reason he just sat there smiling at them stiffly and listened to them gush and coo at him.
"Sorry 'Ri, but it seems there's fellow human being in need of assistance here.", Tai told his sister as apologetically as he could.
Kari snorted, sounding ridiculously like Willis when she did. Honestly, those two were spending so much time together they were practically twins.
"There always is with you."
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"We can talk about it later Tai, see you then!"
And with that he got the sound of her hanging up in his ear. He scowled slightly at the phone for a second before shrugging and stuffing it back in his pocket.
The atmosphere was now so full of rage around the blond that the people closest had actually moved away to sit at the two ends of the cart. Of course his fangirls hadn't noticed how much he seemed to want to strangle them at all, and simply cooed at him some more.
"Hey, I don't know about you girls but I think some of us here would like some peace of mind.", Tai growled at them as matter-of-factly as he could manage and proceeded to give them an icy death glare.
He must have been getting better at those, if the fangirls' startled looks and fast get-away was any indication. Some of the other passengers sighed in relief.
The blond across from him stared at him in befuddlement, after that followed something that might have resembled recognition, Tai wasn't sure. Then the blond's lips curved up in a little sneer that bugged the hell out of Tai instantly. For what reason he wasn't sure yet…
When Tai further studied the guy, he did get something like a spark in his memory, from what, who, where or when he had no idea. Something caught his eye to the left of the blond and at further inspection it appeared to be a Gabumon. Huh. So this guy was a 'Destined too?
"So, music or movies?"
At Tai's off-hand question the blond blinked for a few moments, frowning a bit.
Tai wasn't really expecting an answer, so he went ahead and leant back in his seat and stretched his arms out over the backrest. He only asked because it seemed reasonable that the blond was doing something to put him on the map.
Silence covered the space between them, the guy's Gabumon kept shooting glances at Tai out of the corner of his eyes. A strange mixture of curiosity and suspicion evident in them. Agumon was still snoozing soundly and had taken to leaning against his human's side. The human in question stretched his legs out on the floor and crossed them at his ankles, giving his partner a fond half-smile.
"Music."
The word came a bit out of nowhere, so it took a while for Tai to register that it had been directed at him. The brunette looked back to the blond who was now observing him with something like feigned detached interest. Or at least Tai was hoping it was feigned.
"What kind?"
A pause.
"Rock mixed with blues mostly."
Another pause.
"That's cool. Would love to hear it sometime."
Man that was such a lame thing to say, but he couldn't come up with anything else. The blond seemed to think so too, though it was hard to tell with that unreadable look.
"Maybe if you play your cards right you will."
Tai did a bit of a double-take at that, the tone it was said in especially. Did the guy just…? Did he just…? What?
He ignored the slight smirk the blond was directing at him in favor of plastering his most charming grin on his face. "Well in that case I'm golden, seeing as how I usually clean house when I play cards."
After that they dove right into a number of subjects, discussing whatever came to mind and just generally talked through the entire train ride. They exchanged opinions the way two strangers who didn't know each other's names could, with no strings attached. Though Tai felt like he'd known the guy for a lifetime.
There was a sort of comfortable air about the blond that Tai thoroughly liked; it was like he could talk to him about anything. Something that he kind of missed in his life…
"Uh, Tai?"
So much for the guy not knowing his name. The brown-haired man cut himself off in the middle of praising a game he'd been addicted to for over a year and turned to gaze at his partner expectantly.
"Yeah Agu' what's up?"
"Isn't our stop coming up?"
Tai glanced outside the window behind the blond and then to the monitor displaying which stops came next. It saddened him a bit that the Digimon was right.
"Well, looks like we'll be getting off at the next one…", Tai told his conversation buddy just a tad ruefully.
The blond smiled, he had a very lovely smile that one, and dragged a hand through his hand. "Looks like…"
An awkward silence fell over them then. Tai would've continued from where he was; only he couldn't remember what he had been talking about.
"I just have to ask, before you get off, have we met before?", the blond leant forward on his knees and gazed at Tai solemnly.
The brown-haired 'Destined could've sworn he saw an odd fire alight in the other man's electric blue eyes.
"Uh… I don't know. Maybe? I get the feeling we might've.", Tai said and put his elbows on his knees again and adopted the same pose as the blond.
The man opposite Tai nodded seriously. "Yeah… I get that feeling too."
Tai smiled brightly as something fluttered around his torso. "Maybe if we see each other again we can find out?"
"I–"
"NEXT STOP: HIGHTON VIEW TERRACE."
The blond snapped his mouth shut when the speakers announced the next stop loudly across the cart. They stared at each other for a few moments as the train slowed down, Tai knew Agumon was looking between him and the other 'Destined and his partner in puzzlement.
The train stopped and the doors slid open. Tai hesitated slightly before he rose to his feet; he hadn't broken eye contact with the blond yet. He found that he didn't want to.
Tai grazed the other 'Destined with a brilliant grin. "I'll see you around, I hope."
"Yeah…", the blond smiled, looking at Tai in an expression of mild wistfulness that the brown-haired man failed to see as he exited the train with Agumon in tow.
Thoughts were running wild in Tai's head immediately after he left the train, and they didn't stop. Agumon kept shooting him concerned glances.
"Tai, are you okay?"
"Sure I am, why do you ask?"
"Well… you have your brooding face on…"
"So?"
"So, when you brood you get depressed."
Tai stopped short in the middle of the sidewalk, earning a few curious looks from passers-by.
"What? I don't always get depressed when I brood."
"Yeah, you do. The others would probably testify to that too.", the Digimon wasn't backing down.
Tai frowned. "Where is this coming from?"
Agumon heaved a sigh and started walking again. "Never mind."
"Matt?"
Gabumon was being ignored. He hated it when his partner did that.
"Matt?"
His partner had been still ever since that other DigiDestined left. He'd just been sitting there, staring out the window opposite to where they sat.
"Matt, for crying out loud."
Not a word. Not one single reaction. In thirty minutes. Gabumon really couldn't stand it.
"Matt!"
The blond finally seemed to catch himself and visibly started before looking down at his partner.
"Huh, what? What is it Gabu'?"
The Digimon grit his teeth. "Seriously? Matt, you've been sitting there staring at an empty seat for thirty minutes."
"It's been thirty minutes?"
"Since he left? Yup."
"Huh… well, he was… interesting."
Gabumon stared at the blond for a moment. Then he shook his head at the utterly unreadable expression on Matt's face and the feather light blush dusted across the blond's cheeks.
Oh this can't end well…
Friday, July 16th 2111
Damn it.
Why couldn't I stop thinking about him? I just met him yesterday, on a train for heaven's sake. But I couldn't help it; there were so many questions I didn't get to ask. What's his favorite color? What did he like to do on lazy days? How long had he been with his Digimon? Had we really met before?
Damn it.
Is this what Agu' meant before…? I don't brood. Much. Do I?
"Oh Tai darlin'!"
I turned from where I was restocking my station at the club to where Mimi was approaching quickly. Funny thing, turns out there were a few people in the city that I did know. Mimi was the only one I had met with as of yet, granted we hadn't seen each other since I was ten but back then she, a couple other kids and me were quite close.
Just so happened that her parents owned the club. Mimi also happened to be my 'station buddy', so to speak. See, at the Pink Palmtrees you had two bartenders at each station and those two were meant to entertain the guests with their 'specialty'. Whatever the hell that actually meant I had yet to find out.
"Hey guuuurl!", I exclaimed overdramatically and wrapped her in a one-arm hug, as my other hand was busy holding a box of pineapples.
I loved playing at acting gay-er than I was. Which really wasn't that difficult.
"How're you settling in sweetie?", Mimi smiled brightly at me as we pulled apart and I went back to stocking one of the many cabinets with fruit.
I shrugged. "Just fine I suppose, it's still really weird to move back like this after all these years."
"I can imagine.", the pinklette hopped up onto the bar and gazed solemnly at me. "I'm glad you're back though, things were never the same after you guys left."
I looked up at her, a tad surprised at the sudden change in her mood, and rose to my feet to lean in and give her a peck on her cheek. "Well, we're back now. I just hope things'll turn out okay."
Mimi's lips curved into a smile again. "Of course they will! And I can't wait to introduce you to the rest of the gang! They're gonna be thrilled to have more DigiDestined to hang out with!"
I returned the smile, albeit a bit uneasily. "I hope you're right, I wouldn't mind making some more friends."
She giggled as my wild hair tickled her hairline. "They're gonna love you, trust me."
Somehow I doubted that, other than Kari and Willis, interacting with other 'Destined was still fairly new to me.
We dropped the subject there, goofing off on the dance floor instead. It was early, and the club wouldn't open to the public until two hours later and the rest of the bar crew had yet to arrive, but that didn't mean we couldn't have some fun in the mean time.
Agumon was sitting on our bar-station with Mimi's partner, Palmon, both of them looked at us like we were insane while we danced and wrestled.
Of course, the wrestling went more like Mimi pounced on my back and tried to drag me down while I fought to stay standing. We were both sweating and laughing like crazy by the time we had company in the room. The two of us didn't notice a thing, our Digimon looked at us reproachfully. Suppose I can't blame them, at least I should've been more aware than that.
But I was too busy having fun to care.
A chuckle brought our attention to the newcomers from our spot on the floor where Mimi was straddling my waist and was trying to get me to give in by tickling me ferociously. She could keep trying, I'd been subject to the same treatment ever since Kari was born and then Willis came along and there was two of them, which made it way unfair.
"This is certainly a surprise."
"Sora! About time you got here.", Mimi shot up from my abdomen and threw her arms around the other girl's neck.
It was like a light bulb went off in my head. Or more like it exploded.
"Sora? Wait–", I got to my feet and approached them to further scrutinize the woman in Mimi's chokehold. "Not the Sora? The one whose hat I threw up in and didn't tell her before she put it on?"
My tone was incredulous when I spoke, but I couldn't help it. It'd been so long since I'd seen her, and back before the move she was my best friend.
She smiled good-naturedly at me. "The very same Tai, Mimi told me she had a surprise when I got here but I never expected this."
I beamed at her and returned the hug as she wrapped her arms around me. "Man it's been a long time."
Sora chuckled. "I hope you didn't miss me too much, and to think that we're all 'Destined now too, we have more in common than I thought."
"Huh?", I glanced around her as she released me, and sure enough, right behind her was a Biyomon. "Oh! Hi there!"
"Hello.", the Digimon was looking at me with the same cautiously intrigued expression as that blond guy's Gabumon had before.
The blond with the piercing blue eyes and fascinating smile and–
And god damn it all! I had actually managed to stop thinking about him and now there he was again… Fuck!
"Don't mind her, she's a little shy around strangers.", Sora told me and kept smiling at me with something akin to fond nostalgia.
Suppose that did make a lot of sense though…
"That's okay, I can sympathize.", I gave the pink birdlike Digimon an understanding grin and turned over to the bar where my own partner was staring at the newcomers. "Hey Agu', come over here and say hello."
Agumon looked up at me and got off the counter, sauntered over to me and waved a bit awkwardly. "Hi…"
I raised an eyebrow at him, I swear I tried to remain all stoic-like, but the sudden love struck look on his face was so priceless I couldn't stop from sniggering like an idiot even if I'd have wanted to.
He glared at me. "What?"
"Pfft! I forgot you have a thing about pink.", oh but I just had to tease him. I had to, it's in my nature.
"Shut up! I do not!"
Agumon crossed his arms and turned away from me with an indignant 'hmph'. That only served to make me giggle all the more. I stopped when he turned around abruptly with his right claw withdrawn and ready to hit me.
"Alright, alright lover-boy.", I conceded with my hands raised defensively.
The orange lizard narrowed his eyes at me for a moment and then stomped off towards the door, probably to go home and complain to Kari about how I was picking on him again.
I cleared my throat at the un-amused looks on the girls' faces. "Well it's true, he does. He just wont admit to it."
Sora sighed and shook her head; when she gazed at me she wore that fond expression again. "I'm glad some things never change."
It was my turn to narrow my eyes. "And what's that mean?"
"Oh nothing!", she chirped as she wrapped me in another hug and pecked me on the cheek. "I gotta go anyways, I'll see you Monday afternoon Mimi! Try and get the blockhead to come too, will you?"
"No prob!", Mimi waved goodbye to her friend and Biyomon as they disappeared out the door.
"Um, what's Monday afternoon?", I asked as we went back to our station to finish preparations.
"Show up at the Highton View Park at three and you can see for yourself.", the brunette chirped with a wink.
I frowned slightly, Palmon simply shrugged when I glanced down at her.
Well… this is bound to be interesting.
I changed the perspective and POV there 'cause Tai is more fun to write like this.
Ahem.
Gonna go watch Digimon and relive my childhood a bit now.
BAI.