Author's Note: This takes place 2 years after 'In the Beginning', the part 3 should be up soon.
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The Dream - Starting Dramas.
Matt mentally checked all of the items that he had packed against what he needed. Satisfied that he had everything that he required, he called for a taxi to pick him up. When the buzzer rang for their apartment, Matt picked up his three bags and called out, "Bye Dad. I'll see ya in a couple of weeks."
Carrying his luggage out to the taxi, Matt thought about going and picking Sora up before going to the airport.
"Where to?" the driver asked.
"Uh, Odaiba Mansion first." Matt replied and settled back in his seat for the short drive to Sora's apartment. Pulling up at the apartment complex, Matt got out of the cab and buzzed Sora's apartment.
'God I hope she's ready.' Matt thought as Sora's voice came over the intercom.
"Yes?"
"Hey Sora. I was wondering if you wanted a lift to the airport." Matt said.
"Yeah, thanks. I'll be down in a sec." Sora replied and grabbed her bags.
"Don't forget your tickets or passport." Sora's mother said as she helped Sora downstairs with her luggage.
"Mum, I'll be fine." Sora replied, "And I know, phone you every night."
"Alright. I'll see you in a couple of weeks darling." Mrs. Takenouchi said as she kissed her daughter good bye and Sora walked over to the other side of the car.
"Oh, don't I get a kiss good bye as well?" Matt asked jokingly as he got into the cab. Mrs. Takenouchi laughed as she waved the two off.
"If you were out to embarrass me, you succeeded." Sora said angrily.
"Hey, I was just joking Sora." Matt responded, "Dad never does things like that for me. I said good bye to him when he was probably still asleep."
"Airport?" the cab driver asked the two, who replied, "Yeah." simultaneously.
The rest of the drive passed in an uncomfortable silence, both glad to jump out of the cab when they arrived at the airport.
"Here you are." Matt said as he handed the driver the fare.
"Matt, I'll pay my fare as well." Sora told him as she put her bags on a trolley.
"No, I was the one who called by your house. I've got it." Matt replied as he took his bags from the driver.
"Excuse me, Mr. Ishida." he heard the driver say, "I was wondering if you would sign your autograph for me. My children are big fans of yours and I was hoping that if it wasn't too much trouble..."
Matt interrupted him by pulling out a picture of the band from his carry bag and signed it for the man.
"There you go." he said, to which he received the drivers thanks.
"That from a guy who said 'No autographs please.' when we first got the the Digiworld?" Sora whispered as she leaned into him.
"Hey, times change." he simply responded and walked over to the check in counter, taking Sora's trolley with her. Sora just shook her head, smiling before following him.
The face of the check-in assistant brightened when she saw Matt Ishida walking up to her first class check-in counter.
"Hello Mr. Ishida, where are you traveling to today?" she asked.
"I'm going to Sydney." he replied flatly, rummaging through his bag to get his ticket. He was always sick of women practically throwing themselves on him and going out of their way to please him.
"If I could just..." she stopped when she saw Sora walking up to him.
"I've got my bags now Matt." she told him, but was surprised when he took her ticket out of her hand and placed it on the counter with his.
"I'm checking in and I would also like to pay for Ms. Takenouchi's seat to be upgraded to first." Matt told her, both women staring at him. The assistant reluctantly pulled Sora's ticket off the counter and looked at it.
"I'm sorry but this ticket isn't upgradable." she told him, to which Matt reached over the counter, grabbed Sora's ticket and called a senior manager over.
"Is this ticket upgradable?" Matt asked him sternly.
"Of course it is sir." the manager replied, "Why? Has Jun refused to upgrade it?"
Matt nodded at this.
"I am so sorry Mr. Ishida, she's always like that with celebrities with friends." the manager apologized and immediately went around the counter to change it.
"How much will that be?" Matt asked the man, to which he shook his head and held up his hand.
"For this inconvenience sir, nothing."
"Thanks Ken." Matt said, then placed his and Sora's bags on the conveyer belt.
"Your seats are 4 A and B and your flight will board at 1300 hours. Feel free to use the club lounge while you wait and here is Sora's pass in. I'm sure you've got your members card haven't you Matt?" Ken asked as Matt nodded and picked up their boarding passes and passports from the counter.
"I'll see you next time Ken." Matt said as he waved to him, Sora doing the same.
"I'm not surprised that Jun got stuck working behind a counter, but I would have thought that Ken would have tried for something a bit higher up in the pay scale." Sora commented.
"You have no idea how much that guy earns just for doing that, plus he loves it. It's probably a welcome change from leading evil digimon." Matt told her, walking over to some seats near the check-in area.
"I'm going to wait for T.K and Kari." said Matt as he sat himself down in a chair, attracting glances from fans.
"I'll wait too. We may as well go in together." Sora told him as she sat down next to him.
"No, I'm waiting so I can give T.K the money to upgrade his ticket." Matt replied smiling.
"That's another good reason." Sora said, laughing, "What class is Kari traveling?"
"She's going first as well." Matt told her, "The newspaper is paying for their best photographer to go and cover the Games."
"So Tai and the other's are going in business?"
"Well, technically only Tai and Davis are." Matt said, laughing, "Yolei and Izzy have enough money so that they can fly first, same with Mimi, Joe and Jim. You and T.K got upgrades, I'm sure Kari will try and tell me that she'll pay for T.K's and Cody's gift from his parents was a first class ticket." Matt relayed to Sora.
"HEY guys!" they both heard two cheerful voices call out to them. Matt and Sora looked up to see T.K and Kari walking up to them, T.K's mother in tow behind them.
"Now remember Matt, look out for T.K. Make sure he doesn't go off in a crowd, he changes his clothes every day and that he puts his hat on when he goes outside.
"Oh, mum!" T.K whined, "I'm not a little kid anymore."
"Besides, if he's not allowed to go off in a crowd then how can he go in the opening ceremony?" Matt asked snidely.
"You watch your mouth young man." his mother scoulded him, "Just take care of each other."
"That's what we always do mum." T.K replied and waved goodbye to her as he, Matt, Kari and Sora all walked over to the check-in counter, deliberately avoiding the first class one where Jun was.
"Hello, where are we traveling to today?" a young man asked them and they handed him their tickets.
"I'm paying for my brother to be upgraded into first." Matt told the man and he looked at the tickets.
"Alright, that's a thousand and six hundred Australian dollars, which is...98, 825.88 yen please." the assistant said then Matt handed him the money.
"I could have paid for it Matt." Kari grumbled as she helped T.K load their bags onto the conveyer belt.
"There are your passes and everything. The flight leaves at 1300 and the gate will be shown on the departure board."
"We need to go Kari." T.K whispered as he pointed over to where two bushy headed figures had just walked through the door.
"Thank you." Kari said as she and the three others all ran to the immigration department. Luckily there weren't many people around, so they all went quickly through the channels. The officer checking Matt's passport giving him a second look to see if it truely was the famous rock star that went through his gate, giving him something to tell his kids when he got home.
"So what do you want to do?" T.K asked Kari.
"I want to go SHOPPING!!!!!" they heard a loud voice call out as it approached them. They didn't need to look up to know that it was Mimi walking towards them, Joe following closely behind her.
"How did we know that Mimi?" Sora asked rhetorically before everyone laughed and were dragged to the nearest store by Mimi. Matt walked up and down the aisle looking for a new blank minidisk for his player, when he looked up at the music charts.
"No Shit!" he exclaimed as he hurried up to it, looking at it in disbelief.
"What Matt?" T.K asked his brother, running over to where he was.
"Our CD was at the top the last time I took a trip and that was almost a month ago." Matt told him.
"Yeah, well your new CD is a huge hit."
"No, that one is the same CD." Matt told him, picking one up. They both noticed a shop assistant hesitantly walking up to them, being cheered on by his collegues.
"Ex..excuse me Mr. Ishida." he stuttered, Matt looking at him.
"Yep."
"I was wondering if you could sign that CD for the shop, so we could like have it as a souvenier."
"Yeah, sure." Matt replied as he took out a pen, quickly signed it and handed it to the young man.
"Thank you sir." he said before running off with the prize to show his workmates. Matt looked over at where Mimi and Sora were, looking back at him when Sora rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. Matt just replied with giving her the middle finger and smiled at her. Mimi sighed, exasperated and walked off to find Joe and Tai, while Sora responded with her own hand jestures and soon they were in a war of hand signals. It eventually ended when T.K ran over, grabbing Sora and Matt and ran with them over to the Club Lounge where Kari was desperately waving at them to hurry up, Izzy and Yolei already there reeking havoc with the lounge's internet system.
"That was close, Davis caught sight of you but thankfully you lost him." Kari said breathing a sigh of relief when they all sat down, "I just hope that he doesn't manage to find us."
"You know how dumb he is." Matt told them, "He couldn't find his way out of a paper bag."
"Yeah, but you never know Matt." T.K reminded him.
"Prodigious!" Izzy exclaimed as he started typing furiously on the computer.
"What's up Izzy?" Sora asked as they all walked over and looked at the web site over his shoulder.
"Let's just say that I cannot wait until we disembark our mode of transportation when we arrive at our destination." Izzy told them.
"What's so good about Australia?" T.K asked.
"They have a huge abundance of rare flora and fauna, in Sydney itself there are the architectual wonders of the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. There is actually a fair amount to do there. I can't wait." Izzy reported.
"JOE! WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!" they all heard Mimi scream at the top of her lungs.
"Poor Joe." Yolei sighed as she went back to her typing.
"Yeah, being yelled at like that mustn't do much for his feelings towards Mimi." Izzy commented, T.K and Matt nodding.
"What's that?" Sora asked.
"I thought it was obvious that Joe was in love with Mimi." Matt stated with concern growing on Sora's face.
"Oh poor Joe." Sora whispered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Matt asked after hearing her.
"Oh, it's just that Mimi has a crush on Tai. She did have one on Joe when we were in the Digiworld, but..." she trailed off.
"Your right, poor Joe." Kari agreed and a silence fell over them.
"Would all passengers for flight QF22 to Sydney please make their way to Gate 35." a cheerful voice said over the intercom.
"That's us." Izzy commented as he packed up his equipment and walked with the others to the gate.
"Hey guys!" Tai yelled to them as they approached the boarding area, "We were looking everywhere for you."
"Yeah." Davis reitterated his mentor, "I was looking everywhere for you Kari."
"Well you found me now." Kari said, getting slightly nervous as she felt T.K tense up. Putting her arm through his, they went through the gate together and lead him down the gangway, Davis following them.
"Hello Mr. Takaishi and Ms. Kamiya, your seats are this way." the steward greeted them as he checked their boarding passes and pointed them towards the front of the aircraft. Davis tried to follow them but the steward caught his collar and grabbed his boarding pass.
"I'm sorry Mr. Motiyama. Your seat is upstairs." he said as he handed the boarding pass back.
"But..." Davis interjected, but the steward towered over him,
"No 'buts' your seat only entitles you to a business class seat. Plus First is full up anyway."
Davis cowered and quickly ran upstairs, Kari and T.K giggling as they watched him scamper away.
Outside, Matt and the others had been intercepted by the rest of Matt's band, complaining that their girlfriends had to travel business class.
"Suck it up guys, I can't help it if everyone got here before you did." Matt told them, clearly getting annoyed at their whinning.
"Come on Matt, let's go." Sora said as she lead him through the gate and down to the aircraft.
"Your seats are right here, Mr. Ishida and Ms. Takenouchi." the steward said as he lead them into the first class cabin.
"Thank you." Sora said as she sat down and Matt handed the man his coat,
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"This is great Matt." T.K said excitedly, "I can't believe that you're able to travel like this all the time."
"You get used to it T.K." Matt replied with a smile on his face.
They were starting to relax when they heard Tai's voice yell out.
"HEY I want to be with my friends! You can't stop me."
"Oh yes I can." the steward said as he almost booted Tai up the stairs. Everyone started laughing as Tai picked himself up and tried to walk away with some dignity but lost it when he slipped on the stairs and fell back down.
"See ya at the other end Tai!" Matt said cheerfully as Tai scowled at him and walked up to his seat.
"Stop it Matt." Sora scolded him and hit him in the stomach. Matt held his hands up in defeat.
"Hey Matt, can I sit in your seat for take off?" T.K asked quietly, "Kari's hogging the window."
"You sort those things out with your girlfriend." Matt told him before turning to Sora, "You want the window seat?"
Sora's face brightened, "Can I?"
This of course set a scowl on T.K's face, then started laughing as he and Kari sang together, "Matt and Sora sitting in a tree...."
but they were interupted when Matt hit T.K on the head. Izzy and Yolei leaned forward and Izzy said, "Acutally the chances of Matt and Sora getting together are quite high."
"That's right." Yolei agreed, "I calculated their zodiac signs on this new program on the net and they came up with a perfect compatability."
Both Izzy and Yolei saying this in voices just loud enough for Matt and Sora to hear them and were pleased with the results of both breaking into a blush and they gave each other a high five.
"At least we're not as bad as you too." Matt snapped back, "There's just as much chance of you and Yolei getting together Izzy."
"I know, we are going out." Yolei simply replied and Matt muttered something about walking into that one.
"Excuse me sir, ma'am, but could you please put your computers away until 30 minutes after the flight has taken off." an air hostess asked them to which they both closed their computers and almost started to make out.
"Ho shit." Matt muttered after the flight had taken off, "I can tell this is going to be the flight from hell."
T.K and Kari started watching T.V together, Izzy and Yolei were still at it, Joe and Jim were talking about visiting the hospital for Joe to pick up some viles of anti-venom for all the spiders and snakes and Jim to see all the new advances in the treatments of cancer, Mimi was starting to talk to one of Matt's band, Jeff, about what moisturiser he should be using on his skin, the other two, Satler and Wilton, were fighting over who had the more beautiful girlfriend and Matt was listening to the music stations. Sora just sat there looking out the window, thinking, 'What if Izzy and Yolei are right?'