Disclaimer: Don't own, don't ask; all characters belong to their rightful owners.
Taichi Yagami felt his life force exiting through his legs. It made sure to remind him that it was leaving by creating the prickling sensation traveling up and down his lower appendages. He tried to end the undesired sensation by pinching his calf – "Ouch, that hurt." – but to no avail; his legs had fallen asleep and there was no waking them up.
'C'mon, Tai,' he encouraged himself mentally, 'Sure, it's been two hours and twenty-eight minutes, but you can last … right? It'll be done soon.'
Taichi's tortured began at nine in the morning. He quickly agreed to participate but that was before he knew that it would require him to be in the proper sitting position for nearly two and a half hours and counting. He grumbled to himself as he looked around the room, there wasn't a single person his age there. In fact, he was the youngest person there … except for the red-haired girl instructing the class in the front of the room.
A smiled played on his lips as he watched her move a strand of hair ever so slightly out of her face. This wasn't the same red-haired girl he used to pick on for liking soccer instead of cheerleading; this wasn't the same girl that he fear playing defense against during soccer (he enjoyed having the ability to reproduce later in life, thank you very much); this wasn't the same girl that he teased for having helmet hair.
No, this girl, the very girl Taichi always had beside him, had changed before his eyes.
He noticed how slender her fingers looked as she carefully placed the stems of the flowers in the place she thought was necessary. He watched the smile grow widely on her lips as she inspected her work. He traced her figure with his eyes as she stood up and bowed. He shivered as her voice sailed through the air thanking everyone for attending.
Taichi shook his head inwardly, "It's over already?"
Sora escorted the audience out caefully. One by one, the room emptied and Sora looked at Taichi. She let out a laugh at the bareness of his flower arrangement, but retracted her laughter as she his brows in a knot of fury.
"You know, if you put a few blossoms here," Sora placed a few vibrant cherry blossoms next to the stalks of grass, "It'll look more balanced out."
"Uh, yeah," Taichi smiled, "Thanks."
"Sorry about this."
"About what?"
"Making you go to my ikebana lesson."
Taichi shook his head, "Nah. I was actually thinking of being a permanent members here. I'll come by next week too. I never knew ..." Taichi looked at Sora and smiled, "how beautiful flower arranging really was."
Sora's smile made Taichi forget his legs were still under the spell of slumber and he attempted to stand up. It ended with him falling back down. Sora laughed, "I guess I should teach you my technique to avoid having your legs fall asleep."
"Yeah, that'd be swell."