Ashes

Scorch

"Well, looks like everyone's all here!"

"Have you had your eyes checked, Goggle Brains?" Yolei said sarcastically, "Who do you think is not here?"

Davis groaned, "T.K.'s not here again?"

"I'm afraid so." Kari sighed.

"Can't we just go without him?" asked Davis, "I mean, we went to the Digital World without Yolei that one time,"

"Hey!" Yolei shouted as she stood up in anger, "I chose not to go! But I'm still a member!"

"But we need T.K.!" protested Cody, "He's a valuable member of our team!"

"So I'm not an important teammate?" Yolei questioned, glaring at Cody.

Davis opened his mouth to speak, but the right words wouldn't come, so hanging his head in defeat, "Calm down, Yolei, he didn't mean it like that. Let's wait for him."

So, the quartet sat and waited five minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

When half an hour passed, Yolei was growing impatient.

"URGH! Where is that T.K.?" she complained, raising her arms up in frustration, "He was supposed to meet us here in the computer lab right after school!"

"Maybe your whining is keeping T.J. away." Davis joked, earning a death-glare from the violet-haired girl.

"It could be that he had to go home early and forgot to tell us." suggested Cody.

"No," stated Kari, "that isn't like T.K. at all."

She turned her gaze to the door, and suddenly became startled to see the shadow of a figure from the door's glass window, hurrying across the hallway.

"That was T.K.!" she cried.

"W-where is he going?" Cody asked,

"Come on," the goggle boy said, making his way to the door, "Let's follow him!"

"And find out where he's been sneaking off to!" added Yolei.

The four quietly left the computer room, and began trailing behind the blonde from a short distance.

T.K. stopped shortly near the entrance to catch his breath, then looking around for a moment, made his way through the front doors of the school.

As soon as T.K. left the building, the others came into the main hall, and opened the doors slightly ajar, and poked their heads outside.

There, the Digidestined saw their friend standing on the sidewalk, beside a blue car and to their surprise, a man with blonde hair came out of the car and began to speak to T.K.

"Why is T.K. talking to that guy?" whispered Yolei, "He should know better than to-"

Kari shot her hand up, silencing the older girl, "Hold on a minute, there's some sort of connection between T.K. and that man."

The other three looked closer and saw the stranger was talking to T.K. in pleasant manner with the younger boy doing the same.

"You're right, Kari!" exclaimed Davis, "Do you think that he's his cousin?"

"No," answered the brunette, "I think that he's T.K.'s father."

Cody watched on confused, "If that's his father then why did his mom divorce him? T.K. seemed really close to him…"

Yolei nodded in agreement, "Yeah, he seems like a nice person; maybe T.K.'s mother really was the bad guy for taking him away from his father."

Hearing the sound of an engine cranking, they turned to see the blonde get into the car with his dad and drive off into the distance.

"Do you guys think we should call his mom?" Cody asked, worried.

"No, T.K. probably made up some story about coming home late." Davis stated.

"I guess the only thing we can do now," Kari said, as a cool wind brushed against her face, "Is to wait."

…

"So, where are we going today, Dad?" T.K. asked excitedly.

"To a basketball game not too far from here."

The Bearer of Hope was silent for the majority of the drive as he sat in the passenger seat next to his dad. He began to think about how life was for him before the divorce. Although his memories were few, T.K. could recall that his parents did love him as well as each other; that is, until the last day that they were a family.

If they really loved each other, why did Mom leave Dad and take me with her?

Then, T.K. remembered what Nancy said to him that day when he viciously yelled at her to know why she left Dad after learning about her pregnancy.

"Your father and I have gone through with the divorce. It's final now. We're not getting back together."

"I had reasons to leave your father."

He clenched his fists angrily.

Since she won't tell me why, T.K. thought, then Dad will!

"Umm..Dad?"

"What is it, T.K.?"

"Can you tell me why Mom divorced you?"

The older man looked surprised, "Why hasn't she said anything about it to you?"

"She refused tell me," T.K. answered bitterly, "She obviously thinks I'm too young to know what happened."

"Well then, son," his father said, "I believe that you're ready to for what I'm about to tell you."

"I am!" replied T.K., "Tell me everything!"

"I loved your mother so much and thought the world of her," the man said, "but unfortunately she didn't feel the same as I did. She merely brushed off my feelings of affection. As the years passed, her love for me started to die and I desperately tried to secure our marriage for your sake, T.K. But she refused to reason with me and filed divorce taking you away from me as well as cutting off all bonds with me for seven long years. You see, son, your mother was the cause of the divorce, not you, if that's what you were thinking. I think the reason why she never talked about it was because she didn't want you to see her as the bad guy."

He then pulled the car up into the parking lot of the basketball stadium.

"Well, here we are."

As the two got out from the vehicle, T.K.'s father asked,

"Do you believe everything that I told you?"

"Yes." the blonde answered sternly, "I believe every word."

"That's a good boy," his dad said, wrapping his arm around his son's shoulder, pulling him closer to him as a gleam of success shone in his eyes.

Everything's fallen right into place, if I just keep making the right moves, I'll have my eyes on the prize.

-To be continued…