Mimi Tachikawa hummed a soft tune as she strolled down her usual path to school. She loved Japan in the fall – cherry blossoms scattered everywhere in a beautiful mess. This was home, she smiled. There's no way she could stay away. It was her first day of school, and she was oh-so nervous. After all, she hadn't been back for so long. Smiling up at the falling cherry blossoms, she smacked straight into a solid, hard chest and flew backwards onto her behind. She closed her eyes and remained on the floor, incoherent with surprise and pain.

"Oh crap I mauled a student. I'm so sorry, are you alright?"

Her honey brown eyes flew open and took a moment to readjust, looking up at the stranger drowned in bright light. As they refocused she saw an outstretched hand, and steely blue eyes.

"I'm sorry, I was too busy admiring the cherry blossoms. I should've been watching where I was going." She felt flustered by his gaze as she accepted his hand and straightened up. Why?

"You must be a transfer student then. We see cherry blossoms around here all the time. It's nothing new, after a while."

She narrowed her eyes, "I'm a teacher, not a student."

"What? Oh. That explains why you're not in uniform. I'm sorry, you just look so… refreshing." That was awkward. He wanted to say 'young,' but it didn't seem like the right word to describe her.

She was gorgeous; the epitome of a youth in her prime. Her long brown locks were loosely curled, framing her face. And her eyes, oh man her eyes. They were huge, taking up most of her face – and it just made her that much more adorable. Right now those honey-brown eyes and pouty lips formed a displeased expression, probably from his misunderstanding. She wore a collared button-up shirt, and a floral skirt that rested just above the knees. Her long, smooth legs were bare, and even in her wedges she was still a good 5 inches shorter than him. Really cute, he smirked.

She dusted herself off and repositioned her glasses in a quirky, nerdy gesture. They were obviously fake but she wanted to impress upon her students a more mature, scholarly image. It didn't help that she was already teaching at such a young age.

Noticing that Mimi was pretty much ignoring him at this point, the man quickly turned on his charm and tried to spark casual conversation. "Where you from?"

"I recently just arrived from New York," she answered disinterested.

"Oh yeah? I lived in New York for a bit," he kept fishing for common ground. Usually women swooned at his charm! If only she would actually look at him, grrr.

"Oh that's nice."

"I'm Yamato. Ishida Yamato," he gave his most sexy smile and extended his hand for a shake.

She immediately stopped what she was doing and stared at his face hard for a good two seconds before she skimmed right past his extended hand and straight into his arms. Wow, Yamato had no idea that dropping his name would get this kind of reaction. I mean, he was pretty well-known back in the days for his band but he didn't think there'd still be fangirls around for this long. Not that he was complaining; this girl's body was petite but definitely womanly.

After squeezing him hard for what seemed like forever, she pulled back enough to meet his gaze while still holding on to him. "It's me, Mimi!"

Dot. Dot. Dot. "OH MY GOD, MIMI!" he picked her up and swirled her around while she just laughed and look beautiful, basking in the sunlight. Then he thought back to just moments ago, when he was trying to pick her up. And checking her out. And giving her a two thumbs up on his mental checklist for girls he found attractive. It's cool, she doesn't have to know. Play it cool, Ishida. "Cool um… I was just… going to work."

"But this path only leads to the high school. Unless… you work there too?!" her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Ahh, er… no. I'm a businessman," he lifted his suitcase sheepishly. "I was just dropping Takeru off. Kids, you know. But I'm really glad you're back babe, let's go grab dinner tonight."

She blushed at the nickname 'babe,' even though he called plenty of girls that. Only Yamato could do that so smoothly. "Oh sure. I haven't really unpacked yet, so I have no idea where my pots and pans are anyway. Eating out sounds good. Where should I meet you?"

"I'll come pick up you afterschool. Wouldn't want you bumping into any other guys and having them make dinner plans with you. Later sensei," he winked as he hurried away, picking up his cell as soon as he was out of earshot.

"Ishida speaking."

"Baaaabe, where are you? You said you'd come with breakfast for my first day of school." Miyako whined.

Yamato cringed. "I'm sorry, I can't make it. I'll probably be working late tonight too. I ran into a pretty large project…"

"Mi, are you even listening to me?"

Mimi snapped out of her reverie. "Oh yeah, sorry Tai. Okay so it's… marshmallow banana marshmallow? And then just drown it in chocolate?"

"How would I know," he grumbled. "I'm just trying to cheer you up."

Her eyes softened as she looked at his overly-happy demeanor, the dorky goggles that were much too small for his overgrown head, and a replicated outfit from their old high school days. Tai pulled out all the stops when he knew someone dear to him needed cheering up – she felt special. Usually he only went to such extremes for her since she was his best friend and Hikari since she was his sister.

She dropped everything she was holding and wrapped her arms tightly around him. "I don't want to make stupid chocolate shishkabob stick things, I just needed you around. Thank you. You're always there for me."

He blushed. Good thing she couldn't see it. Truth was, there was no one else he'd rather be spending Valentine's Day with anyway. They weren't the closest within the group during their DigiWorld days, but as they grew and matured they became mysteriously drawn to each other – now more than ever since Mimi returned to Japan a year ago. They were practically inseparable; except for the times she would spend with Ishida. Yamato. Matt. Tai scowled. He needed to have a serious talk with his best friend.

Stroking her silky hair while her tiny arms remained wrapped around his waist, he picked her up and elicited a quick gasp from the brunette. He placed her neatly on the counter and told her to stay out of the way as he began cleaning the mess of chocolate and sugar they'd created.

Mimi smiled, and it made the whole tiresome, stressful day worthwhile. It was that very same serene, tranquil smile that he'd do anything for. He wanted to see her smiling like that all the time.

A/N: Minna gomen ne! 4 years later, this story is long overdue. But it must be finished! Originally this was going to be a short fic for Valentine's Day, but since it is nowhere near Valentines anymore I've decided to change it up and extend it. I hope you will all continue to support this story! :)

Some pairings for this story:

Mimi x Taichi
Takeru x Hikari x Davis (I love it, it's so fun)
The rest is a scattered mess, so TBA

+ Miyako is going to be the bad person because… I need an antagonist, and I never really liked her. SO CLICK AWAYYYY if you're a diehard fan of hers and you're going to be mean about it :[

+ I know I jump back and forth from Japanese to English names sometimes. It's because I prefer the Japanese names for some characters, but for others the English name sounds better. Bear with me, hokay?

+ I haven't written in a VERY long time so it's going to take a while to get back in the jiggy of things. But I am always open to constructive criticism! I know I definitely need to fix my POVs ^^;

Kun0x