Phantom of the Digiworld

Chapter 10 – The Seduction

Over the next few weeks Kari fell into the cyclic routine of after school rehearsals, private voice lessons, set construction, line memorizing, with some short breaks for eating, sleeping, and schoolwork thrown in here and there. Davis had not given up, like she had hoped he would, in wanting to take her on a second date, his ego continuously fanned by the rumors circling around school that he and Kari were a couple. In other news, although T.K. and Kari had agreed to not let anything come between them, the reconstruction of their friendship was put on hold due to the play. They were still spending time together, though the only thing they did together now was sing or read lines to each other.

Despite all of the hard work, Kari was thoroughly enjoying herself. Being a part of the musical filled all of the empty spaces in her life caused by the saving of the digital world from Malomyotismon. With the digital world at peace, Kari could now look back and see that her life had been rather boring since the fighting had stopped. The stress of the Phantom production was probably equivalent to the stress of saving the digital world, if not greater.

Although Kari enjoyed most days she spent working on the musical, some days she did not.

"Again from the top!" Mrs. Fujita called, issuing a sigh from the entire cast present onstage. They had been at this for over an hour now.

Kari took her place. They were working on The Phantom's opera, Don Juan Triumphant, which is a scene near the end up the musical. Because it is such an important scene, Kari could understand why Mrs. Fujita was making them practice it over and over again. Don Juan's seduction of Aminita was equivalent to the Phantom's seduction of Christine, a huge supporting scene leading up the to the story's climax.

T.K. began singing the song, "The Point of No Return:" "You have come here, in pursuit of your deepest urge, in pursuit of that wish which 'til now has been silent, silent."

Kari sighed again as Mrs. Fujita stopped him. Every time she had something new to point out that they were doing wrong. She made him start again.

A shiver ran down Kari's spine. This scene made her very uncomfortable. The way T.K. would look at her made her shudder. When it came time for her to begin singing her part she couldn't help the permanent blush that seemed to be fixed on her face every time they practiced this scene.

"You have brought me to that moment where words run dry, to that moment where speech disappears into silence, silence." She knew she should be more confident, but it seemed impossible at the moment. "The Point of No Return" was a song not very subtly written about sex and seduction, things which embarrassed Kari to sing about in front of her fellow classmates. Of course, Tai's presence backstage probably wasn't helping either.

"Stop, stop stop," Mrs. Fujita called. "It's almost five o'clock. Everybody come over here!"

The cast and crew members quit what they were doing and made their way to the front of the stage.

"Thank you all for working very hard this week," she told them. "As a reward for your hard work, I am cancelling tomorrow's rehearsal." There were cheers all around as they packed up their belongings for the day. "However," she Mrs. Fujita said when she had pulled T.K. and Kari aside, "I would suggest that you two use the extra time wisely and practice. It doesn't matter if you two even like each other, when you are on stage playing the part, you need to find your passion, something which I cannot teach you."

Kari blushed again before she nodded to Mrs. Fujita and followed her friends offstage. It didn't take T.K. very long to catch up with her.

"Hey Kari, wait up!" he called out, as he ran to where she was waiting for him. "Do you want to come over to my house after school tomorrow? We can practice 'The Point of No Return.'"

"Sure, T.K., though it might take us a long time. Is your mom ok with it?"

"Yeah, I'll ask her just to make sure, but I think she has to work late tomorrow."

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow, T.K.," Kari said as they reached their typical parting point of their walk home. He waved goodbye as Davis ran up to her.

"Kari, do you want to hang out after school tomorrow since we don't have rehearsal?" he asked eagerly.

"Sorry, Davis, but T.K. and I will probably be practicing all day." He looked disappointed, but it couldn't be helped.

"How about I come too and practice with you guys! We can work on the lair scene," he suggested.

"Maybe next week," she said, trying to let him down gently. "I think Mrs. Fujita really wants us to focus on 'The Point of No Return' right now."

It took a while before Kari could finally convince him that his presence at T.K.'s would not be necessary. If anything, Davis being there while they practiced would probably make her more uncomfortable with the scene, if it was even possible for her to be any more uncomfortable than she already was.

The next day when they arrived at T.K.'s apartment, Kari was nervous. Being alone with T.K. in his apartment, singing a song about sex was just a very awkward situation for her. Sex wasn't a topic she was very comfortable with. Heck, until a few weeks ago she had never even kissed a boy, let alone even considered having sex. She smiled involuntarily to herself as she remembered her first kiss: the time when T.K. had kissed her in the digital world. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself that he was just her friend, the feelings she had for him fought against her to resurface.

After they took their shoes off by the door, she was a little confused when he headed down the hallway instead of to the living room, where they usually hung out.

"I thought we could use the stereo in my room," he told her as he pulled open the door for her.

Kari's heart was pounding. It's no big deal, she told herself. She'd been in his bedroom plenty of times before.

She set her school bag on the floor and took a seat on his bed as he dug the orchestra's recording from his backpack and inserted it into the stereo.

"Do you want anything to eat? We don't have to start right away if you don't want to," he said.

"No," Kari decided. "This could take a long time, we should probably get to work."

The music began and Kari's heart thumped against her rib cage. T.K. began his part, moving toward her, meeting her eyes. He reached out a hand and pulled her to her feet. It wasn't just the music they had to practice but the choreography as well.

She looked into his eyes as her part arrived and strangely enough, she suddenly wasn't so nervous. The blue of his eyes reminded her of the ocean, not the dark ocean, but a peaceful calming ocean. It had an amazing effect on her and the words of the song flowed out of her without any hesitation or embarrassment.

The song picked up again and he pulled her closer, their bodies brushing each other, their faces just inches apart. Then he pushed her away and they simulated moving across the stage, first away from each other, and then back toward the center of the room. When they met again, he turned her around as he pulled her in so her back was flat against his chest, his arms wrapped around her.

He voice added to hers, though she didn't know how since his mouth was lingering on her neck, his breath warming her skin. Her blood was pumping in her veins, surging throughout her body. His hands were caressing her sides and when one hand slid upward to cup her breast she instinctively arched her back beneath him, further pressing her backside into his crotch. Then his other hand slipped in between her legs and she realized that neither of them was singing anymore. Though the music was still playing in the background, the lyrics and choreography were long forgotten. He had to stop singing in order to kiss her neck, her shoulder, his mouth sucking, teasing her skin. She let out a small moan as he caressed her through her clothes.

All of a sudden, the music struck its famous chord, the part where Christine rips off the Phantom's mask, exposing his deformities to the opera house audience. The volume and unexpectedness startled Kari, breaking their trance and ruining the moment. Kari froze in his embrace and he released her at once, stepping away from her. Kari turned around to face him, already knowing that he would be blushing as scarlet as she was. He laughed nervously, placing one arm behind his head.

Kari laughed too. "I wonder what Mrs. Fujita would say about that, there was definitely passion. I think we're finally getting somewhere."

T.K. looked back into her eyes. "Kari, I wasn't acting." He stepped forward and took her hands in his.

"Oh," was all Kari managed to say. Her head was spinning, or maybe it was the room spinning around her. She sat down on the edge of the bed to steady herself so T.K. sat down beside her, rubbing small circles on her back.

"Are you ok, Kari?" he asked, very concerned. "I'm really sorry…I didn't mean to get so…carried away…"

She looked up into his eyes, using that ocean blue to calm herself again. "Don't apologize, T.K." Kari couldn't say anymore because she was blushing again.

T.K. seemed to already know what she meant to say because he said, "I do have to apologize. I have to apologize for what I told you that day at the call backs. I lied to you, Kari. I wasn't sure exactly what I was feeling and I was scared that you were going to hate me and that we would never be friends again. I'm sorry I lied to you, and I swear I've never lied to you about anything else. And I swear I'm not lying when I tell you that I've wanted to be more than your friend for a long time now."

Kari smiled up at him and placed one of her slim hands on his cheek. He took the palm of her hand and kissed it, trailing kisses on each of her fingers and down to her wrist. She pulled her hand away from his face and placed it behind his head, tugging gently on his hair to pull his face to hers so she could kiss his lips.

This kiss wasn't like the ones they had shared before in those brief moments of celebration. This kiss was passionate, and tender, and everything Kari had ever dreamed kissing him would be like.

They were both so happy that they stayed like that for quite a while. Lying next to him on his bed, it was almost getting dark outside when T.K. became suddenly very serious.

"Kari, what are you going to tell Davis?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" she asked.

"Isn't he your boyfriend?"

"What!?" Kari exclaimed, "Did he tell you that?"

"No," T.K. said, defending his friend, "It's what everyone at school thinks. I think it was Kim who told me, but I'm sure there were others."

"That figures," Kari said, rolling her eyes at the mention of Kim's name. "No, Davis is not my boyfriend. We went on one very horrible date and decided, well I decided at least, that we should just be friends."

"Oh," said T.K. "So you're single?"

Kari laughed. "Yes."

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

Kari smiled. "I would love that T.K."

He kissed her again, when a thought occurred to her.

"Wait, T.K., maybe this isn't a good idea."

He looked horrified, "Why?"

"Not us being boyfriend and girlfriend," she exclaimed, leaning up to kiss him in reassurance, "I mean us being publicly boyfriend and girlfriend. I don't want people to think I cheated on Davis."

"Why not?"

"Because I would never cheat on anyone! Davis probably won't like this either."

"So?" T.K. grumbled. "Why does it matter what Davis or anyone else thinks?"

"Because Davis is still my friend and I don't want to hurt him. Maybe we should just keep this between us for a while, how about until after the performance? That way, if he does get upset he won't have to see us every day."

T.K. sighed. "Alright, I guess you do have a point. I know what Davis is going to go through and believe me, it is not fun, especially at rehearsals."

Kari frowned, "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Don't be sorry. It was my fault. Besides, we can make up for all that now." He kissed her again as she smiled up at him.