[Ahoy, Chapter 9! We're moving right along with this story. Please note this story is about a boy/boy relationship and I do not own "Digimon". ]

"Graymon?" Taichi hesitantly asked.

"Rrrr. Tai?" Graymon's deep voice echoed through his body towards Tai, who was perched on his shoulder.

"What if Izzy isn't in the Digital World?" Tai and Graymon had been tromping around, hoping to see some sign of Izzy for almost an hour.

"Then they'll find him in the real world. Don't worry, Tai. Wherever he is, he can't stay hidden forever." Graymon sounded pretty confidant.

Tai tried to stay calm. It was likely Koushirou just got caught-up in the storm or forgot to tell his Mom about some overnight school trip; nothing to worry about. Izzy was going to be just fine. Everything was going to be just fine…

The expanse of forests, mountains, caves, and strange digital fields in between each one seemed endless. Tai was beginning to think their search was pointless.

Beep… beep… beep…

"Wha?" Tai grabbed his digivice. "Hey, I got a signal! It's gotta be him!"

"Which way?" Graymon stood still, waiting for directions.

"Straight ahead, and to the right a bit." Tai looked at the little red dot on the screen. It seemed to be moving. Graymon headed towards what looked like a huge desert. It would take a few minutes to get there, even at the rate of galloping giant dinosaur.

Beep… beep beep… beep…

Another red dot appeared. "Huh?" Tai looked down at his digivice, thinking it must be broken. Two red dots flickered on the screen, both on the move, headed towards him and Graymon.

"Uh… someone's with him." Tai called out to Graymon. "They're headed this way."

"There, in the sky!" Graymon stopped.

A familiar orange bird started it's decent. Its wingspan was enormous, and its tail seemed to be made of flames. Birdramon?

"Grahhhh!" Sora's partner came to a graceful landing. Sora, hopped off her digimon's giant claw.

"Tai? What are you doing here?" Sora looked confused.

"I could ask you the same question." Tai looked back down at his digivice. The second dot was catching-up to them fast. He looked out over the horizon.

Sure enough, a massive blue wolf came hurtling towards them, Yamato holding onto its back. Taichi was always envious of how Matt looked, sitting astride his bizarre mount, almost regal. Matt's face however, looked white and rather frightened.

"Tai, hey… uh, you haven't seen Izzy recently, have you?" Sora coughed.

"Was he with you? His mom is worried sick." Tai looked back to Sora, and a newly devolved Biyomon.

"Crap. I guess you're part of the search party then?" Sora whispered. Matt and Garurumon had arrived, Matt jumped off his partner's back and came running up to his friends. He wasn't alone. Tentomon flew down as well, looking rather motion sick.

"Where is he?" Matt asked Tai urgently. Tai didn't even wonder who Matt meant.

"I don't know. I thought, when I saw your signal…" Tai thought for a second. "Wait, where have you guys been? How do you know Izzy's missing?"

Matt put his face in his hands. "I should never have asked him to talk with Chris." Sora went over to comfort him.

"Ohhh…oh… I don't feel so good." Tentomon grumbled.

"Wait, wait, wait. What is it?" Tai became even more worried.

Sora looked to Matt, almost like she was asking for permission. "It's complicated." Garurumon devolved into Gabumon, and the small group headed over to Tai and a newly devolved Agumon.

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"Matt and Chris went out a few weeks ago, just for business talk. Matt hoped to secure a promotional spot at CRUSH's upcoming concert. It would be big for Matt's band. Chris was great. He said he would help make arrangements for Matt to meet some of their agents. Matt and Chris became friends." Sora sat down on the ground. Matt and Tai followed. Apparently there was a lot to tell. "A couple nights later, Chris invited Matt out to dinner. We assumed it would be another business meeting."

Sora looked to Matt. "Its my fault. I didn't realize." Matt picked-up where Sora left off. "Chris wasn't out yet, but I had the feeling he might be gay. Chris had no ill intentions, it was what might be considered a very bashful first date." Matt smiled rather gloomily.

"The media had a field day! Nothing happened, but the damage was done. Some photographer caught a couple pictures of Matt and Chris together and they just had to make it a story." Sora spat.

"But your not…" Tai pointed at Matt inquisitively.

"No." Matt laughed. "No, I'm not gay." He smiled at Sora.

"The point is, Matt feels somewhat responsible to Chris for inadvertently outing him. That's why… when everything went badly, we decided to ask Izzy for help." Sora finished.

"Why Izzy? And how does this have anything to do with why we can't find him?" Tai couldn't make the connection.

"Well, Koushirou was so… I dunno, brave about it all." Sora said.

"There's no getting around it, Sora. We'll have to tell him." Matt whispered.

Sora pouted. "Its not really for us to tell."

"I think Koushirou's safety is more important than a little embarrassment." Matt rebutted.

"Tell me what?" Tai looked back and forth between his two friends.

The digimon, by this point, had lost interest. They were concerned about Izzy, of course, but human talk was rather dull. They were having a conversation all their own about things they better understood further away.*

Matt sighed. "Izzy's been in love with you for a long time, Tai."

Tai just sat there, not sure what to think. He couldn't form words, but his mouth hung open anyway.

"He was always so careful to make sure you didn't find out. Not that you would, really. You're a little too dense." Sora added playfully, ruffling Tai's hair.

"He…. he, what?" Tai tried to make out.

"A couple years ago, after all the Digital World stuff seemed almost like a dream to some of us, Koushirou came out to both of us." Matt continued.

"I probably had the hardest time out of anyone about it." Sora smiled fondly. "But Izzy straightened me out."

"And my dad, being who he is, well, lets just say I didn't have a problem with it." Matt winked at Tai.

"Your dad… is… ?" Tai couldn't form the word, despite his practice earlier.

"Yup. But don't tell him I told you." Matt held his finger to his lips.

"Koushirou was so confidant. He seemed so at peace with being different. Only later did we really understand how hard it must have been for him. He has great parent's that guy – so loving!" Sora smiled again.

"After a while we realized, just in little things, that Izzy had a crush on you. He stuck by you, even when the rest of us had moved on with our own lives. But after Diaboromon, it was kinda obvious. We subtly let Izzy know we were okay with it, and we were there for him if he needed us."

"He confessed, but made us promise not to tell you. He could tell you didn't feel the same way, so he decided to be your friend, Tai. Even if you never realized his feelings for you, he was willing to be there for you anyway." Sora sniffled.

"But I…. I mean, why?" Tai felt hurt again. He felt stupid, and very much in the dark.

"You'll have to ask Izzy that, if we ever find him." Matt grumbled. His serious tone did nothing for their current mood.

"Oh, hush." Sora gave Matt the eye. Tai was rather satisfied to see he wasn't the only one she gave that look to.

"So why are you in the Digital World?" Tai remembered what they were there for. He could process the other details later.

"We went to the hospital yesterday, to visit Chris. Chris was still waiting for Izzy to arrive, but visiting hours were nearly over. Matt tried calling Izzy's cell to find out what the hold up was. He's not one to usually be late…" Sora looked grave.

"All I could think about was how it might hurt Chris to have Koushirou bail on him. I won't deny it. I rather hoped they'd like each other. They are both such great guys, they deserve to be happy." Matt said in a low voice.

Tai felt pain in his chest. He was a little angry at Matt for playing matchmaker with his best friend.

"There was no answer. The phone, rang, and rang, and rang. I guess I couldn't get Chris' suicide attempt out of my head. I was worried my request for Izzy to talk with Chris had given him ideas. I was so stupid… thinking only about the mess I caused, trying to make it right… what if I'd just made it worse?" Matt crumpled. He put his head in his hands again.

That's when the full weight of what wasn't being said donned on Tai. Izzy could be hurt, by another's hand, or his own. He could be lost… he could be…

"After apologizing to Chris for Izzy's absence, we decided to go look for him. We called his house first, and he wasn't there. But we didn't want to create undue panic." Sora explained.

"Mrs. Izumi called my house, to see if he was there." Tai recalled. How stupid! He was missing, even then, and Tai had ignored it.

"Matt and I backtracked the route to the hospital and school. We even asked if they had any mystery patients arrive, just in case." Sora choked up.

Tai could figure out the rest. "You've been out all night, haven't you?"

"I told my Mom I was with friends. Which was true," Sora glanced at Matt, "but the slumber party was an exaggeration."

Taichi hadn't noticed before, but both Sora and Matt had faint dark circles under their eyes. They looked rather wind blown and their shoes were very muddy.

"As usual." Tai sighed. "You guys are so dumb!"

Matt and Sora looked up, surprised. The digimon looked over as well.

"None of this is your fault! Why are you taking this all on yourselves? There are other people who care about Izzy, too, you know!" Tai glared. He got up, dusting the sand off his clothes.

"But what if he's…" Matt began.

"No… Tai's right." Sora interrupted. "We should have told someone."

"Damn right!" Tai was furious.

"What more do you know?" Matt asked.

"Mrs. Izumi went to the school with some teachers, but he wasn't there. Kari's rounding-up the other digidestined, trying to form a search party. She sent me here to look around. I haven't heard from her in a while." Tai looked around for something familiar. It was time they returned to the real world. There was a monitor a half-mile or so to the right, on the edge of the desert. Tai pointed towards it and started walking.

"So, Matt. What did you tell your Dad?" Tai asked. He was trying not to stay mad at his friends, seeing as they were trying to help, after all.

"What?" Yamato looked back, confused.

"Don't tell me you were gone all night without telling him where you were too!" Tai could have cursed again. If they had more than one group of frantic parents to deal with back home, he didn't know if he could handle it.

"He's probably still asleep. He gets home really late from work, I don't see him much." Matt sounded rather offended.

"First things first. As soon as we're through, call your Dad. We don't need more than one missing person." Tai tried giving Matt the eye. Based on Matt's reaction, Tai felt he got it right that time.

"Izzy… where are you?" Sora said under her breath.

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*OMAKE – The Digimon's Conversation

"Tentomon, you look kinda green." Agumon pointed out.

"I should have gone with Sor… hic… uhhhh." Tentomon staggered.

"I could've carried both you and Sora, no problem." Biyomon chimed in.

"Why didn't you just fly?" Agumon asked.

"I couldn't keep up with them in this stage, and Izzy isn't around for me to digivolve." Tentomon sat down, which seemed to help.

"Why is Izzy hiding anyway?" Biyomon asked.

"Koushirou isn't hiding. Matt said something like he was missing." Tentomon replied.

"They're pretty worried about him." Agumon added, looking over at his human friends.

"Maybe he's been recycled?" Biyomon was about as smart as Agumon.

"Human's don't have their organic material reconfigured into a previous stage of life like us digimon. Izzy said they decay into basic components and become new life forms altogether." Tentomon related.

"So he could be a new human now?" Agumon tried to imagine Izzy not being Izzy anymore. It was hard.

"I guess. Humans are such odd creatures." Tentomon looked sad. "I don't want a new human, though. I want Izzy!"

"Sora said we were looking for him, so he must still be himself." Biyomon's logic seemed a little hollow.

"I saw him yesterday, and he was still Izzy." Agumon tried to comfort Tentomon.

"I haven't seen him since yesterday either." Tentomon complained.

"What? You saw him yesterday too?" Agumon seemed interested.

"Yeah. He came by my little tree house with the other Motimon during something called Calculus." Tentomon said.

"Tai gave me school food! It was yummy." Agumon had a dreamy expression on his face for a moment. "Izzy was on the monitor, helping Tai come through for a visit. Maybe he went through after Tai?"

"I guess so." Tentomon shrugged. "Izzy didn't stay long, but I didn't see Tai."

"Awww… I wish Sora would visit more often. The Yokomon village finally made a hut big enough for humans." Biyomon chimed in.

"You guys are so dumb!" Tai's angry shouts were hard to ignore.

"Uh, oh. Taichi seems angry about something." Tentomon observed.

"Sora's not dumb!" Biyomon seemed put out.

"I don't think he meant it like that, B." Agumon didn't want to see his friends fight. Matt and Tai used to fight all the time, after all.

"Hey, they're moving. We should probably follow." Tentomon pointed to the small band of friends.

"Wait-up! We're coming too!" Agumon called after them.

[Next chapter will probably be the last! Please leave a review! Thanks to everyone who has made it this far. See you soon! ]