"C'mon." Tai answered enthusiastically. "You want to get to the bottom of this, don'tcha?"

"Of course I do, Tai. But that doesn't mean we have to read every single story in the entire forest."

"We're not reading every single story." The brunet panted, heaving under the weight of stacked paper. He wore a carefully feigned smile on his face. "Just every story that I could carry."

"You know." Izzy half muttered, defeated. "You got over the shock of them at an exceptional speed..."

Tai halted, suspiciously narrowing his eyes. "So what? I'm quick to adapt."

"Sure." Izzy replied sarcastically. "That's the reason."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Izzy remained quiet for a moment. "Nothing, Tai. It means nothing."

"Good." Tai's smile returned and he continued to walk. "I'd hate it if I had to punch you for implying something about me."

They toiled on in silence beneath the scolding sunlight for a few minutes, before Izzy spoke up. "They must be in that building over there." He pointed to the horizon ahead.

"What makes you say that?"

"Their footprints are all over the beach."

Tai wobbled a little. "I knew that. I was just testing you."

"Whatever you say Tai."

They crossed the beach slowly and climbed a series of steps, which led them into the entrance yard of the Taito Resort. Tai, still carrying his stack of paper, walked up to the door and kicked it a few times.

Izzy remained further back, looking at the resort's signpost. He was frowning. "Tai..."

"It's about time you two showed up." Matt interrupted, opening the door. He seemed flustered.

"We were distracted." Tai attempted to shrug but almost lost balance.

"Do you know how much you worried Agumon?"

"He can take care of himself. He's a big dinosaur."

"He was worried about you, moron. Not himself."

"Ok, ok." Tai said hurriedly. "I get it. I'll go see him soon. Just help me with these, would ya?"

"What is all this?" Matt asked, as if seeing the paper then for the first time. They placed the stack on the reception desk carefully. "Did you bring these from that forest?"

"Sure did. I'm investigating them with Izzy."

Izzy walked past the pair and looked around. His gaze wondered from the rose on the table, to the heart shaped handles on all of the doors, and back towards the sign outside. He swallowed.

"Geez, what's with him?" Matt said out of the corner of his mouth, tilting his head towards the redhead.

The goggle-head shrugged in response.

"Tai I need to talk to you." Izzy said.

"What about?"

"Just come on." He grabbed Tai by the arm and pulled him back outside.

Matt turned to face the stack of paper, curiously.

"What's got into you, brainbox?" Tai shouted at Izzy, trying to keep his balance.

Izzy ignored him. "There's something wrong here Tai."

"What are you talking about?"

"I think those stories we read earlier might be linked to this resort."

"Really?" He exclaimed, excited. "How do you...?"

"Because, the signs have your name on! And this place looks like some kind of a romantic getaway. And the forest that led here is with filled with stories about you and Matt. And-" He halted. "Wait. Where are the stories Tai?"

"I left them with Matt." Tai responded cheerfully.

"With. Matt." Izzy repeated.

"Yes, with Matt. Is that a problem?"

Izzy looked down to his feet, anxiously. "He...might not be as quick to adapt to them as you were, should he read them."

"What do you..." His voice fizzled out into a noise that somewhat resembled 'uh oh'.

Izzy held his head in his hands.

"Matt!" Tai shouted, running back into the reception. "Matt! Matt! Don't read those things, they're not...!"

The room was empty. The stack of paper remained where it was, though, apparently untouched.

"Well, the good thing is that this will all make a funny story someday." Tai laughed nervously. "If he doesn't freak out and kill me before then, that is."

"Hey, look. A phone." T.K. chirped, picking up the nearby telephone and holding it up to his ear. It sounded like somebody was already speaking when he picked it up. "Uh, hello? Who's this?"

"..."

"Who is it T.K.?" Patamon asked, flapping about around his head.

"A woman I think. I don't know." He answered. "Hey Kari, come listen with me."

Kari edged closer to him and they held the phone between their ears.

"I can't hear what she's saying."

"I can't either." Kari agreed. "Put it on speaker phone."

T.K. did as he was told.

A soft, sensuous female voice came to being within the corridor. "...said himself, he might be gone the whole hour! We definitely have a little bit of time-"

"T.K.?" Matt interrupted, appearing suddenly behind his younger brother. He was sliding a folded piece of paper into his pocket. "What are you guys listening to?"

"We don't know." He shrugged. "There's this woman on the phone, and..."

"Hey. Matt!"

"Oh no." Matt whispered to himself, hesitantly turning to face the oncoming source of raucous energy. "Uh, hi Tai. What is it?"

"We were just wondering where you had disappeared to, and..."

"I didn't disappear." Matt crossed his arms and leaned against one of the corridor walls. "I just went for a walk."

"Right." Tai put his hands in his pockets. "Well, I was wondering. Did you read any of those stories that were on the desk? Because you weren't supposed to. I didn't want you to see..."

"...and with that he undid his pants, finally letting out the throbbing erection he had in his shorts." The sensuous voice spoke, playfully.

Tai and Matt turned to face the telephone, very, very slowly.

"What-"

"-did she just say?"

"'Gaah.' Matt said." She continued.

"No I didn't!" Matt panicked.

T.K. looked confused. "What's going on?"

"I-I don't know T.K.".

"...Tai started focusing his rubbing on just below his head, that was Matt's weak spot."

"When was Tai rubbing your head Matt?"

"Does she know you Tai?"

"N-No!" Tai stuttered, his senses finally returning to him. He shut off the phone and the voice disappeared, only to be replaced by the sound of rapid breathing.

Matt's heart was racing. What had they just listened to? He stood there, eyes unsure of which way to stare, darting from the phone to the luxurious decorations on the walls, to Tai's own unsure pupils.

The brunet looked away immediately, as if hoping not to be caught staring.

This was all too much. The folder in the computer files, the story in his pocket, and now this? Matt crumpled into the wall behind him. His head hurt.

"What's up with Matt?" Joe asked, entering the reception with Izzy at his side.

"Oh, uh, I don't know." Izzy stumbled over his words, looking over at the blue eyed boy. He was sat in the chair behind the reception desk, with Gabumon quietly stood next to him. "It's been a long day. It's probably best just to leave him for a while."

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

"Hey you two. Have you found anything interesting around here yet?" Mimi asked, smiling. Without waiting for an answer she continued. "Well, I found a hot tub. A romantic, couple-sized hot tub."

"And I found some old sports equipment." Sora continued, appearing at her side. "We could play a game of volleyball together if we set up a net on the beach."

"Forget volleyball. Did anybody find sun cream? I'm starting to burn up..." Joe said, his arms hanging limp at his sides.

"Nope, sorry." Mimi laughed in a carefree kind of way. "But that reminds me. Sun cream was on sale last time I checked at the mall!"

"Very helpful Mimi." Joe said sarcastically.

"So, do you two have any ideas on what this place is?" Sora asked. "I'm still unsure, but to me it seems like..."

"A romantic getaway?" Izzy finished, apprehensively.

"Yes!" She replied. "That's exactly what I thought, Izzy."

"You think?" Joe asked, looking around. "Well, I guess everything is a little...red."

"And the doorknobs are all heart shaped."

Palmon stuck her head out from behind Mimi. "And there's a rose on the desk."

"And don't forget the hot tub...!" Mimi sang.

"Interesting..." Izzy rubbed his chin, feigning thought. Of course it was a romantic getaway, but what the others were yet to deduce was that it was a romantic getaway designed, somehow, for Tai and Matt. It sounded impossible, but it had to be true. He was convinced. The stories that fell from the trees on the road to the resort, the signposts with Tai's name on that plagued the trail, the phone call that Tai had mentioned, which told mature stories about the pair – it all added up, kind of.

"So have you two found anything, anyway?"

"Not much." Joe answered. "Just a bunch of locked doors. Rooms for guests, probably."

"Oh? There must be keys in here somewhere, since this is the reception." Mimi smiled.

"Keys? You're not thinking of using those rooms are you?" Joe shook, anxiously.

"Of course. We are guests after all." Tai jumped into the conversation from nowhere, carefully eyeing Sora. "Right Sora?"

Matt shifted a little in his seat across the room.

"Well, the evening is already drawing near..." Sora said. She looked ready to fold her arms, but softened upon seeing Tai's goofy grin. She settled for narrowed eyebrows. "Even if we were to head back now, we would probably just end up sailing in the dark."

"You're right, that sounds like an even worse idea than just staying here..."

"Guys, look what I found!" Mimi waved at them, standing next to the sulking Matt with a pair of keys in her hand. "The drawer beneath the desk is full of them!"

"Well, that's settled then." Sora smiled. "Now before we pick out rooms, who wants to help me set up the volleyball net?"

"Kari, you wanna bunk with me?" Tai asked.

"No thanks. Don't take it the wrong way, but you snore too much." She held a hand over her mouth and tried not to laugh. "I'll just share with T.K."

"We share a bedroom back home. I figured you'd be used to it..."

Kari shrugged, and began to leave the room. "Sorry."

"Ah, whatever. Go have your little sleepover with your friend. I'll just go and find someone who can stand my snoring." He turned to face the boy in the doorway and smiled, charmingly.

"What?" Matt asked with his arms crossed. "Don't look at me."

Tai stamped to floor, frustrated. "Wait, you won't even share with me?"

"Why don't you ask Sora?" Matt offered.

"And get evil eyes all night? No thanks." Tai rolled his eyes. "C'mon, dude. What's your problem?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing." Matt repeated, blue eyes pointed sternly. "I just don't want to share with you tonight. Don't take it personally."

"But it is personal." Tai whined, hurt.

Matt shrugged.

"Is this because of those stories from before?"

"What? N-"

"Or that phone call? Because I totally understand why you'd be freaked out." Tai felt a pang of sadness as he said that, however he swallowed the feeling as deeply as he could. "But I'm not going to do anything to yo-"

"I know that Tai." Matt responded, a little louder than intended.

Tai lowered his eyes, taken aback. He would normally fight back, say something, offer a shove; but a quiver in the blonde boy's voice had taken the fight clean out of him.

"I'll share a room with you if you want." Izzy said from behind the blonde. "…if Matt really doesn't want to tonight."

Tai glanced at Matt for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, then looked back at Izzy and smiled. "Cool. I hope you don't mind my, er, snoring."

"Do you think he doesn't…like me anymore?"

"I'm sure he still likes you." Izzy replied, seemingly more interested in his laptop than in the conversation at hand.

"Maybe I did something to upset him and I didn't realise it at the time."

"It's possible." Izzy nodded. "Matt can be sensitive sometimes."

"Yeah. And I speak without thinking sometimes." Tai sighed. "I might have said something and he might have taken it the wrong way and I might not have noticed and…"

"Take a breath, Tai." Agumon said, taking hold of the brunet's hand.

"…he can't take a joke and I always end up being the bad guy 'cause I can't shut my big mouth!"

"If you really think you've said something to offend him, then maybe you should go and talk to him about it." The dinosaur offered. "Show him that you didn't mean it."

"You might be right."

Agumon smiled. "Uh huh."

"But, from what I saw earlier…he doesn't really want to talk to me." He fell silent for a moment, before dropping his voice to that of a mutter. "So much for the child of friendship. He doesn't even like his best friend."

"He does like you, Tai. Don't be so negative." Izzy assured, looking up momentarily. "He's probably just going through some of his own problems right now and taking them out on you."

"It wouldn't be the first time." Tai mumbled. "Hey, do you think those stories from today might have bothered him?"

"Well, uh..." Izzy shifted where he sat, nervously.

"What?"

"…nothing, Tai." Izzy sighed, still tapping away at his keyboard. "No. I don't think he was bothered by those stories."

Tai fell silent again and began to ponder to himself. Izzy continued to tap. A volleyball passed by the window in a red flash, followed closely by Biyomon. And Tai gasped. "Hey, do you think he likes Sora?"

"What?" Izzy looked up from his laptop again. "Why would you think that?"

"He looked really weird for a second when you joked about me and Sora today, down at the dock. And then when we were arguing he said that I should spend the night with her instead of him and…do you think he might like her? And that he's jealous of me, or something, because me and Sora are so close?"

"It's possible I suppose."

Tai got to his feet. "But I don't like Sora! He knows that."

"Then maybe that's not the problem."

"But what else could it be?"

"I don't know, Tai. Why don't you go and ask him instead of torturing yourself in here?"

"You think it'd help?"

"It can't do any harm."

"But, what if...?"

"Just do it."

"Yeah. You're right." Tai nodded, and bounced up and down on his feet once or twice. "I'll go talk to him, and I won't come back until I know what's what."

Tai left the room in a hurry, and Agumon scratched his head.

"Humans have such strange problems." Agumon said. "And I used to think we Digimon had it tough."

"Can we play volleyball yet Izzy?" Tentomon buzzed. "I don't like it in here, we..."

Izzy didn't really hear the Digimon though, stuck in his head as he was. He was thinking crazy, not to mention illogical, thoughts. Tai and Matt? It was implausible. He had read one too many of those romantic stories, and they had got to him - that was all. Because -

"Oh Izzy I wish you wouldn't zone out like that when I'm talking to you. I want to go outside." He whined.

"I'm sorry Tentomon." He closed his laptop. "Let's go."

-Because the idea of Tai liking Matt, and of Matt liking Tai, was absolutely impossible.

First things first: I used an extract from one of Takato the dreamer's (mature) fics, Detention, in this chapter. I like very many of his stories, but this one is a personal favourite of mine. It just has such character.

Moving on. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. As always, I'm very sorry for the wait. The first chapter of this fic was posted nearly a year ago, which means that it has only had four chapters within a whole year's worth of time. I'm not sure whether that suggests to you how busy I am, or whether it suggests a lack of motivation on my part. In truth, it's both. But don't worry, because this is not one of those stories that is going to be left in the cyber-dirt somewhere, abandoned. It may take some time, but I will definitely finish this.

Also - we're finally getting into some real Taito stuff! Exciting, no? This story has required a lot of building up, and in turn it has been lacking in romance so far. I apologise for that, but things are very quickly heading in the right direction now. Woo hoo!

Thank you very much for your time. I'll see ya when I next update.