The Ultimate Summer Vacation

Chapter 9

T.K.'s eighteenth birthday arrived one cold night in late January. He stared at the clock on his bedroom wall, watching the second hand of the clock tick toward midnight while Kari dozed on his bed beside him. She had snuck into his room from the terrace as she usually did on weekend nights after Tai fell asleep. Gatomon was by her side, and while both she and Patamon were still wide awake, not a word was spoken.

As midnight neared, T.K. wished for the zillionth time that he had asked Azulongmon to be clearer when he had told them they had until their eighteenth birthdays. "Your" eighteenth birthdays, he had said, but their birthdays were months apart. Whose eighteenth birthday had he meant?

Sighing, he gave up watching the clock and moved over to wrap his body around Kari's.

"Is it time yet?" she asked sleepily, stirring upon his touch.

"No, five more minutes," he replied, glancing up at the clock as if to make sure time was still moving at the same speed.

She looked up at him. "I don't want you to leave without me," she said, voicing her biggest fear of the past few years. Her birthday wasn't until September. If he left now, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle being away from him for that long, even if it meant they'd be together forever after that.

He kissed her lips softly. "I don't want to go yet either." Despite having the years to explain everything to their families, neither of them had yet. Matt, Tai, and the other digi-destineds knew everything, of course, but although T.K. had tried many times, he still hadn't found the right way to tell his parents.

"I hope I have 'til September too," T.K. said, thinking about everything he'd miss if he left now. Besides explaining everything to his parents, he and Kari were supposed to graduate from high school in the spring. He supposed in the long run his diploma wouldn't matter to him, at least, but he knew it was important to his mother. He'd miss another summer with his friends, the last one they'd have together before everyone leaves for college.

"T.K.," Patamon cried, pointing up at the clock. Kari sqeezed his hand as they watched the clock drag torturously along the last minute to twelve o'clock.

He turned to look in her eyes instead. She leaned in so their foreheads were touching. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she whispered back. The clock hit midnight and they squeezed their eyes shut tightly, expecting that bright white flash and quaking that had hit them on Mimi's balcony all those years ago.

But nothing happened.

There was an audible sigh as all four of them breathed out in relief. Then Kari laughed, and squeezed her love tightly, kissing his face. He kissed her back passionately.

"You know what this means, though, don't you?" he asked seriously.

"What's that, T.K.?" she laughed.

"We have to tell our parents. Tomorrow. No more putting it off."

"But we have until September," Gatomon said. "You can afford to wait a few more months."

"No," Kari said, "T.K.'s right. We shouldn't wait any longer. It's not going to be easy, but we have to."
"It can't be worse than telling the rest of the team," Patamon said sleepily as he curled up beside Gatomon on the foot of the bed.

Kari suppressed a laugh remembering the varying reactions from their friends. It hadn't been long after learning about their future that they'd decided to share it with their friends. The secret turned out to be not so easy to keep. Davis, for one, caught onto the changes that had occurred in T.K. and Kari's relationship and he had not been pleased. When he began challenging T.K. to fight him for Kari, they decided to tell him everything and he cried more than Yolei and Mimi did, which was a lot.

Besides the crying, Yolei and Mimi, on the other hand, handled things very well. Although they both lean toward the dramatic side, they understood the importance of the duties Kari and T.K. were required to perform. Cody and Ken both reacted in their typical stoic manner.

While Joe was disbelieving and Sora was deeply concerned, it was Izzy's reaction which surprised them most of all. After sharing the news, Izzy simply nodded his head, and stated that he already knew, which, Of course, made T.K. and Kari's jaws hit the floor, since they had lived their whole lives until then believing they were human beings like everyone else.

"I remember coming across some strange information while I was hacking into the digi-world's databases. I couldn't figure out then what it meant and I can't remember exactly what it said…something about angels, guardians, and the balance of hope and light... I didn't know then it referred to you guys, but now I see that it makes perfect sense," he told them.

All of these confrontations were simple compared to how they had told their brothers. Kari still shudders at the memory of that awful night. They had begun by preparing dinner for their two elder brothers one night at T.K.'s apartment. Somewhere between the second and third courses, however, the night took a very sour turn from the extravagant evening they had planned.

That is to say, the night had been going very well until Tai, in the middle of a conversation about the digital world, looked up from his plate straight into Kari's eyes and asked her if she was pregnant.

"What?" T.K. asked, his eyes literally popping out of his head.

"Tai!" Kari yelled, despite the blush that was spreading across her face. "Are you kidding me? We're only fourteen years old!"

"So that's a no?" Tai asked again, although the only answer he got was a plate thrown at him.

T.K. looked to Matt for help, but Matt just sighed in relief. "Thank God," Matt said, looking at Tai, "that's what I thought they were going to tell us too."

"Geez Kari!" Tai yelled back at his littler sister, wiping the food and blood off his face. "You can't blame me for asking! See, Matt thought that too! It's weird we're eating steaks for dinner because something smells fishy here and it's you two! Something's up and you might as well tell us what it is."

"And if you're going to tell us that you guys are officially a couple now you could've just saved you time making us dinner because that's no secret to anyone," Matt added.

Kari hesitated, sharing a glance with T.K. who was now sitting beside her. "It's not that…" she paused, unsure of what to say next now that their plan had been interrupted.

"We're going away," T.K. said casually, as if they were planning another vacation together.

Before Tai and Matt could ask where they were going, Kari continued for T.K., "After MaloMyotismon was defeated we found out some important things about ourselves."

"We're needed to protect the worlds," T.K. said, "and not in the digi-destined kind of way, though Patamon and Gatomon will be with us when we go."

Kari couldn't hold back the tears then, "We have to go to another world," she sobbed, "and we can't come back."

"When do you leave?" Matt asked calmly, which was good because Tai was nothing but calm.

"Not for another four years," T.K. answered.

"On our eighteenth birthdays," Kari said.

"No," was all Tai could say. "Nope, I'm not letting you."

Kari wanted to laugh and cry but fortunately it was Matt who contradicted him. "Tai, they have to do this. They wouldn't leave by choice."

What followed after was chaos in Kari's memory. It took Tai a very long time to accept that his little sister was leaving him, though thankfully Matt and the others had been able to comfort him then. He'd need them again soon, she thought.

"I don't know, Patamon," T.K. answered, pulling Kari out of her memories. "I think telling our parents could be just as bad."

"Remember Tai's reaction?" Kari asked the two digimon, "Now multiply it by ten, and that's how my parents are going to feel, because they don't understand the digital world or how important what we're doing is going to be."

"My mom too," said T.K. "I've told her a lot about the digital world but I still don't think she really gets it. She won't get this."

Kari and T.K. laid down across his bed, pulling the covers over themselves. Kari thought about what her parents would think when she told them she was leaving. Should she try and explain everything to them or would it be easier to tell them something else? If she told them she was going to heaven, they'd think she was committing suicide. If she told them she was going to the digital world they wouldn't understand why she couldn't come back this time.

"Do you want to be together when we tell them?" T.K. asked her.

Kari considered that idea. She hadn't pictured telling them alone, but now that she thought about it, she realized they would think she and T.K. were running away to live together. Which they were, but not quite in the way they would assume.

"I think I want to tell them on my own," Kari decided, if only to save T.K. from her father's reaction.

"Okay," he said, leaning in to kiss her again. She kissed him back and let his fingers trail over her body underneath her pajamas.

"What do you think it'll be like there, T.K.?" she asked.

He paused. "What do you mean? We were there once, remember? It's beautiful and peaceful, and wonderful."

"But what do you think our lives will be like? What are we going to do for eternity? Will we get to do this?"

"Of course we'll be able to do this," he said. "If we can't then I don't want to go," he joked.

"I'm serious," she said. "Forever is a long time. What if we get bored? What if you get sick of me?"

"That's not possible, Kari," he said. He leaned on his elbow to look at her better. "This is how I see it," he began, "I feel like going there will be like going to the digital world for the first time, well, except without all of the evil digimon. What I mean, basically, is that it will be like another big adventure. A never-ending vacation."

She smiled, kissing his mouth. "I like looking at it that way. But you're really sure you won't get sick of me?"

"I'm sure," he said, kissing her back. "I love you so much."

"I love you too."