+ slow dance +

+ chapter ten +

+ tai +

Summary: Tai hopes to get clarity by the time he gets home, but ends up going home even more confused.

It used to be typical for Tai to join Sora on his way home. On most days after school, their club schedules coincided, and they met up to either walk together, or for Tai to drive them home. He talked openly and she did the same about all sorts of things, such as what songs he despised on the car radio, or what book she recommended to him even though they both knew he would never get to it. Tai and Sora bickered, teased each other, and laughed together until they reached their street and parted to their homes.

Sometimes, it wasn't out of the ordinary for Tai to voyage home alongside Sora without any words shared; only tranquil silence fell between them as they both kept their thoughts to themselves.

Tai found it hard not to compare those times to tonight, where the silence was almost unbearable from the moment he drove his car out of the parking lot. Sora sat in the passenger seat, legs pressed together and hands resting on her lap, and her head looking at the window on her side.

Why was she making it so difficult for him? Or, rather, why was he freaking out about this? His heart beat calmed as he drove past a few intersections, but his mind raced with how to break the deafening quiet between them.

"School Festival is right around the corner," said Tai when they were stopped at a red light. "Is that why you've been hanging out more at drama club lately?"

"Well, you know how they can get," she replied, airily. "Script rewrites, actor switch-ups, costume changes… They're always making it so difficult for themselves."

Sora continued staring at the opened convenient store on the street corner.

"I heard you won another match," Tai continued, hoping for her to look his way. "You haven't lost a single one this year."

"I've been practicing so much. I suppose it's paying off now."

"You make it look so easy." Tai laughed as he said that, but was disheartened to see her head still toward the same direction. The stoplight signaled him to continue driving along, and the longer he drove, the more he tried to force himself to accept her unwillingness to talk.

It wasn't until a long silence later that she replied back.

"It's not as easy as it looks, Tai," she said, though she was still looking out her window.

"Don't be so modest, Sora. You even have Teacher fawning over your spectacular grades."

"You say that with such disdain."

"Haven't you noticed? She hates me."

Tai's eyes were on the road, but he heard Sora laugh. "She picks on you a lot, but I think she cares about you. She wants what's best for you."

Tai launched into his explanation about why he disagreed, detailing the times Teacher lectured him on a quiz during class, and when she pulled him back after class when everyone else left for the end of the school day. He even threw in his gripes about the pressure of being team captain, and that he chose to go to the university closest to home so that Teacher would get off his back, even though his future remained undecided.

"We're all on the same boat, Tai," Sora said once he paused from spilling everything that swam in his head for what he felt was a long time. "Some of us know exactly what we want to be, and some of us have no idea. We all have our fears, and that's okay. That's just how it is. Even I'm afraid of what might happen in the future."

"But, you're Sora. You're fearless."

Tai pulled into the driveway of his house and moved the gear to park. He noticed then that Sora had turned to face him, and she scoffed followed by a giggle.

"You think so highly of me, Yagami Taichi."

Tai leaned against his chair with a mix of emotions, all from letting those things off his chest, and from Sora lending an ear, as opposed to him seeing her back constantly turned from him. He saw that Sora leaned back in her chair, smiling at him with her cheeks slightly pink.

"I haven't talked to you like this in a while, you know," he said, smiling, and he noticed her cheeks turn even pinker.

"W-Well…" he noticed her stumbling words, something he knew that she did when she was nervous. She looked down at her fidgeting hands on her lap. "You and I… have been occupied with more than just school, haven't we?"

'You and I'…

"Oh, that's right…" he said, looking away, feeling nervous himself. "Me and Mimi… You and… and Matt…"

That was one thing neither of them divulged with each other—relationships, dating… sex. They only so much as mentioned a name of whomever they dated in passing conversation, but never said anything further. But now that they were both dating friends…Why did Tai feel more uncomfortable than before?

"Matt and I have been over for a while," she said, and Tai immediately turned his head to her in surprise.

"Really?"

Sora eyed him, as though taken aback by his sudden reaction.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Her focus was put on twiddling her thumbs, and Tai noticed her troubled expression.

"Cheer up, Sora," he said. "We guys have no idea what we want in a relationship anyway."

Her thumbs stopped twiddling, and Sora looked up at him, eyebrows furrowing.

"Does that go for you, too?"

"I—" Tai felt his voice caught in his throat, as though his mind wiped blank on what to say next. "Well—that's not—"

"…Point taken," Sora said, though now he was avoiding eye contact with her. He was only trying to cheer her up, but why was he worrying about what he said? Did he really mean—

Suddenly, Sora burst into laughter.

"I'm sorry—Tai—your chin—"

Tai looked at her, extremely clueless as she tried to breath out her words.

"You have dirt on you," she explained. He wiped his hand on his chin, noticing specks of dirt falling off, then looked in the car visor mirror to see a huge smudge below the side of his mouth.

"How the hell did you let me walk around like this?" Tai asked, scowling at her.

"I'm sorry—I'm laughing more than I should—We've been talking this whole time—" she laughed some more, wiping her eyes.

"Hey, I had to dive block for us to win the game," he told her with the need to boast. "It was pretty heroic."

"I'm sure all the girls fall for that, Tai. I just see you fall on your face."

He narrowed his eyes at her, though mostly in mockery, and she stared back with her eyebrows raised. It only made her crack a smile, then break into laughter again. The sounds of him joining along with her comforted him—it had been too long since they were together like they were now.

"Let me get that for you," said Sora, finding a handkerchief as she calmed herself. She leaned over the center armrest until her face as close enough to inspect the dirt on his chin. Silence fell between them as Sora wiped the dirt away, the cloth soft on his chin with her careful touch.

"Done. What would you do without me, Tai?" she asked. He noticed her looking up at him, her eyes lighting up with the fire he was so used to seeing in her; although, there was something different to him this time. He didn't say some self-serving comment to ignite her for any challenge; there wasn't a soccer ball on hand. It was just him, and her, alone in his car, and that familiar aroma he only got a whiff of whenever he happened to be this close to her.

He was intrigued.

"Strawberries…" he thought, although he realized he said it aloud when the fire in her eyes blew out, and she now had a look of horror as she sat further away from him.

"Sora, what's wr—"

She pushed the door on her side open, jumping out of his car with her bag.

"Sora! Wait up!" Tai hurried out of his side, meeting her at the hood of his car. There was no smiling, no aggression, only panic on her face.

"Mimi," she said, her voice heightened. "She can be a handful, and albeit very, very temperamental but she's very sweet and has a kind heart."

Tai stepped toward her, confused. "I know that, Sora. It's not like I haven't known her for as long as you have."

"She's my best friend, Tai! I want her to be happy. You're my best friend, too, so the same goes for you!" For every step Tai took toward her, Sora took a step back. It only brought back Tai's frustration.

"I get that, Sora, I really do. What I don't get is why. Why are you acting like this? Why have you been acting like this?" He stepped forward.

"Like what…?" She stepped back.

"Don't give me that!" Tai yelled irritably. "If you're so happy for me dating her, why have you been avoiding me?"

"I've told you already, Tai!" she said, raising her voice now. "There's just been so much I—"

"Bullshit, Sora! Tell me what's really going on!"

"I can't!"

Sora stopped, and so did Tai. She turned around, and he realized they were under the bright lampposts on the sidewalk, in front of the house that stood between each of theirs.

"I can't talk to you," she started, her voice now down to a quiver. "Not when you're with her. You haven't talked to me either, not when you're with her. Have you ever thought about that, Tai?"

All the time, he thought.

"Think about this moment between us, right now," she continued shakily. "I would have walked home alone if she was here. Maybe I was better off doing that tonight, anyway."

Even through the guilt seeping through, he couldn't let her detract him from his anger toward her behavior.

"Listen, Sora, if you're trying to blame me—"

"I'm not, Tai!" she whirled around, heatedly, voice raised again. "If anything, I'm the one to blame! It's all my fault, just like it was with Matt! I messed up with him, and with Joe, and with Kari!"

"Joe? Kari?" Tai approached her cautiously, still utterly confused. She stood there, her head now in her hands. "Sora, what are you talking about?"

"I'm not as perfect as you think, Tai," she said, turning as he tried to reach for her shoulder. "I messed up with Matt, and I lost him because of it. At this rate, I'm going to lose Mimi, and then I'm going to lose you."

Tai still didn't understand where Sora's erratic behavior stemmed from, but he hated seeing her crumbling, and it worried him especially hearing those last few words.

"Taichi!" Tai's mother appeared behind him, appearing stern with her hands on her hips, along with Kari following behind with a look of worry. On the other side of the sidewalk stood Sora's mother, arms crossed with a disapproving look toward him. She never seemed to like him.

"Why are you two having a shouting match in the middle of the neighborhood?!" Sora's mother asked crossly. "I was about to call the police!"

That was when Tai noticed there were a few neighbors nearby, walking out of their houses.

"Sorry," Sora muttered, and Tai repeated after her.

"Dinner's ready," Sora's mother told her. "You better finish up what you have going on here before it gets cold."

"Don't worry, Mom," said Sora, wiping her eyes with her hands, revealing tears she had been hiding from him this whole time. "I'm done here."

"Sora—" Tai said, believing that they were not done, but she turned to him, her eyes still watering.

"You were right, Tai, I am working too hard. It's about time I go home and rest."

Tai couldn't have anticipated any of this from Sora, who turned to follow her mother without even saying goodnight to him. They walked away from each other once again leaving things unresolved, questions unanswered, and now, more questions raised in Tai's mind.

He couldn't have imagined her yelling, then shouting about their friends, and then crying… Seeing her in pain made him want to hold her in his arms, kiss her forehead, maybe even start swaying to calm her down. She would call him silly, but he knew she wouldn't think it was silly at all.

He brushed those thoughts away as he remembered his promise to call Mimi.

"Took you long enough," said Mimi over the phone as soon as Tai reached his room and landed on his bed, his mind still jumbled.

"I got sidetracked," he said, referring to the whole night, but only mentioning the short walk back to his house with his mom and sister. "Kari and her chatterbox tendencies."

"Well, luckily for you, I've got a lot to talk about, too!"

Tai never questioned how Mimi got to go overseas in the middle of the school year, or how she was so chatty at such an early hour where she was. He tried, through his chaotic mind, listening to Mimi tell her stories of her day in Times Square, about the boat ride her father took her on, the shops she went into with her mother more than once, the funny people she ran into.

"He was so crazy, Tai, he had me dying! I was crying from laughing so hard."

"That's so funny, Meems," said Tai, thinking back to Sora wiping her eyes from laughing at him, and then wiping her tears from her sadness later on.

"What is it, Tai?" Mimi asked suddenly. "You sound distracted. Are you okay?"

It was the drive home. It was the argument outside in the street. It was the folder in his bag that he was going to leave in there for the night. It was the phone call he was on now.

"Mimi, I'm… I'm exhausted."

"…Well…" Mimi paused, and Tai wondered if she would be annoyed, but then he heard her sigh. "You did have that soccer match tonight. Midterms are coming up for us, too, right? You should rest tonight. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Tai was grateful for Mimi's understanding. She only echoed his words to Sora earlier that day. Maybe he truly needed to rest, to let his mind process his thoughts, to sleep away whatever confusion and doubt, and to hopefully make sense of his feelings by the time he woke up the next morning.

.

.

.

.

Author's Note: This part was originally thought to be the latter half of the last chapter, but as you can see, the parts ended up being long enough to become two full-blown chapters, and I suppose Tai is lucky to get his own chapter.

Thank you for reading! And shout out to Portgas D. Potter, thanks for your smiley face. I smiley face back. :)