Hey again. A bit busy this past week but here's the next chapter.
Candified Smile: And thank you for such a kind review on a hot afternoon.
Thanks also to DCLWLOKPR44424, Koumi-Loc and TheAceOfSpades96 for reviewing the last chapter and to artsyhime for following and favouriting.
"So you followed them all night?"
"Well, not the entire night, but yeah, mostly." Sora replied to Matt's disbelieving question.
While Tai and Sora had planned to spend their Sunday afternoon studying, that idea had been given up after little more than an hour and the couple were now detailing their observations of Mimi and Izzy's escapades from the night before to Matt via speaker phone. They knew that they would be regretting this goofing off later, but for the time being they were having far too much fun to care. Both of them were lounging in Sora's room, she lying on her stomach on her bed and Tai slouching in her desk chair, with the phone lying on her bedside table, just close enough to both of them for their replies to Matt to be clearly heard on the other end of the line.
"I really don't know whether I should respect that or be scared that you two might start stalking me." the blond commented, his voice coloured by unease, which Tai and Sora could not pin down as genuine or not.
"Don't worry Matt, you're far too boring for us to want to tail you on a date anyway." Tai jibed, grinning as he said it.
"Oh ha ha, you're hilarious Tai." Matt responded sarcastically, "By the way, shouldn't you two be finishing that assignment?"
"How do you know we're not already finished it?" Sora challenged, smiling a little self-consciously.
All the couple received was silence from Matt's end. Taking this to mean that their friend was not buying it, Sora sighed and rolled onto her back.
"OK, we're meant to be working on it, and no we're not done yet." she admitted, her smile turning from self-conscious to sheepish as she did.
"You realise Ms Goto'll skin you alive if you don't have it done for Tuesday. You know how she is." Matt advised them seriously.
"C'mon man, have a little faith in us." Tai replied lazily from his seat.
"Dude, the only reason you're on a B average in Geography is because Sora keeps helping you." Matt pointed out with a small laugh.
"Yeah, and the only reason she's on a B in Biology is because I help her, so fair trade." Tai retorted smugly.
"Oh sure, and the moon is made of cheese, Tai." Matt shot back.
"Actually that's true." Sora interjected, receiving silence from the blond for a few seconds.
"Seriously?" Matt questioned incredulously after a few moments.
"What? I'm not allowed to struggle with one subject?" she said a little defensively, and Tai grinned at her from across the room.
Again there was silence from Matt's end, which both teens were a little off put by.
"Matt?" Sora called.
"Sorry, just noting this down in case I ever need to take the mickey out of you, Sora." Matt replied in a playful, mocking tone.
Tai and Sora just laughed, knowing that while their friend was joking, in reality that probably was the best bit of dirt he had on Sora. The discussion continued for another few minutes until Sora's mother called out from outside in the hallway.
"Sora! Mimi's here to speak with you." the woman shouted.
"Oh, I think we'll have to let you go, Matt." Sora said quickly.
"Did I just hear what I think I did?" Matt replied curiously.
"Yep, and no I won't let you know what she says." Sora responded curtly before moving over to the phone, preparing to hang up.
"Alright, I'll see you two tomorrow then." Matt said indifferently.
"See ya." Tai and Sora said in unison before she ended the call.
Sora then moved over to her door and opened it to find her mother and Mimi standing on the other side. The teen seemed to be bubbling with excitement, her feet shuffling and twitching as she stood there before the redhead. The girl was also wringing her hands, clearly eager to open her mouth and spill forth an afternoon's worth of recollections from the night before.
"Here she is, dear. Now did you want anything else while I'm not busy? Have you and Tai finished those sandwiches?" the older woman said kindly to her daughter.
"No Mum, we're not done yet, so unless Mimi wants something…" Sora said, and after receiving a vigorous shake of the head from the younger girl, added, "Nope, we're fine."
"Alright then." her mother replied, "Just make sure you don't forget about that assignment of yours."
The woman flashed a knowing smile at Sora and, over the girl's shoulder, at Tai, suggesting that she was well aware of the couple's slacking off.
"Yeah… sure." Sora responded guiltily as she ushered Mimi in and closed the door hastily on her mother.
Returning to her spot on her bed, Sora pointed to a plump, red coloured beanbag in the corner of the room, wordlessly offering Mimi a seat. The younger girl took her up on it and sank down into the squishy mass, crossing her legs once she was comfortable. Tai gave her a wave and a hello when she finished settling down, and she returned them with a small smile.
"You want me to leave before you spill everything?" Tai asked.
After receiving a small nod from Mimi, he got up and headed for the bedroom door.
"I'll just be out here." he said simply as he turned the knob.
"Don't bother Mum too much now." Sora called out as he exited, laughing as she did.
"Yeah, yeah." Tai said back, waving a hand at her before closing the door on the two girls.
Sora and Mimi sat in silence for a few moments, during which the only sounds came from out in the living room where it seemed like Tai was in a conversation with the redhead's mother. Not wanting to waste time, Sora made the first move to get Mimi talking.
"So… how was last night?" she asked tentatively.
Mimi raised her head and opened her mouth to speak, but a sudden twitch in the girl's neck and a subtle furrowing of her brow suggested that she had only just then begun to consider what it was she wanted to say. Finally, she spoke up.
"It was fun… but it was kinda awkward too." she confessed, raising her arms and placing her hands on the crown of her head.
"Awkward how?" Sora probed, hoping to get a bit more information than she had already received.
"He was just so nervous for half the night, y'know." Mimi explained, keeping her hands on her head as she leaned further back into the beanbag.
"Yeah, but it's Izzy we're dealing with here," Sora commented with a small chuckle, "you had to expect that."
Mimi nodded, frowning slightly.
"It just… like, it worries me a bit." she mumbled.
"Naaaaawww, that's cute." Sora remarked cheerfully.
From where she lay, the Takenouchi girl saw her friend roll her eyes, but at the same time the brunette could not suppress a giggle, and it escaped her lips, rising and lightening the room.
"I know he's not used to all this, but I want him to relax. Izzy's so much more fun when he's in the mood." Mimi elaborated, lowering her arms and placing them on the raised sides of the beanbag.
"Yeah, you two seemed to be going great when you were walk…" Sora began, but trailed off when she realised what she was saying.
"Wait, what?" Mimi questioned, her eyes narrowing.
"N-nothing. You were talking about-" Sora tried to say, but the Tachikawa girl cut her off.
"Where were you last night, Sora?" Mimi asked suspiciously.
"With Tai." Sora answered a little too quickly.
"You two were following us, weren't you." Mimi accused, her voice rising slightly.
"No, no, we totally weren't. Me and Tai were just out and we saw you two across the street. It was a coincidence, honest." Sora insisted, hoping Mimi would buy her story.
The girl did not reply at first. She just sat there, staring at Sora. All the redhead could think to do was to smile back as genuinely as possible, which she tried but she knew her lips were twitching. Even though she could not manage to keep a straight face, she saw Mimi sigh and wave a hand at her.
"Whatever." the brunette said dismissively, and Sora inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Even though they would probably be laughing about it the next day if Mimi found out that Sora and Tai had intentionally tailed her and Izzy on Saturday night, the older girl was in no mood to be ranted at by her excitable friend.
"So, let's hear some details. How did everything go, start to finish?" Sora pressed, hoping to move the conversation on as swiftly as possible.
The next twenty-five minutes passed by quickly, as Mimi regaled Sora with tales of her evening out with Izzy. There were several times when Sora had to hide a smirk as her friend's description of events often slipped into clear exaggeration, but the redhead nonetheless remained attentive throughout, keen not to miss anything that was said. As she came to the end of her story, Mimi sighed and leaned further back into the beanbag, a contented expression forming on her face after having unloaded everything on her friend.
"He worries way too much." the younger girl mused, her lips curving into a faint and dreamy smile.
"Oh c'mon, you know you like that about him." Sora teased, now in a seated, cross-legged position on her bed.
"Maybe a little." Mimi replied, giving a small shrug.
"So he just dropped you home and that was it?" Sora asked, not expecting anything substantial in reply.
"Well… yeah, kinda." Mimi mumbled lowly, but not soft enough for Sora not to hear and the older girl's ears perked up at this.
"Whaddya mean, 'kinda'?" she questioned further, her voice displaying a rising curiosity.
"Umm, he got sort of… apologetic at my door." Mimi said vaguely, making Sora raise an eyebrow.
"Meaning?" she pressed.
Sora saw Mimi start to fidget slightly where she was seated. The girl could not keep her legs still and she was subtly, but uncontrollably flexing her fingers, as if she was constantly trying to grab hold of something that was formless and intangible, only to keep trying as she missed it each time.
"At dinner he mentioned the Digital World and our partners and I guess he thought he'd been insensitive or something." Mimi explained slowly, "So he tried to say 'sorry' for that and being nervous and stuff."
Sora's thoughts were momentarily pulled towards recollections of her Digimon partner, Biyomon, but she quickly wrenched her mind back to the present. Her curiosity was not to be derailed so easily.
"So what did you do?" Sora asked evenly.
"I just told him that I'd had a good time and everything." Mimi answered, but for some reason she refused to look Sora in the eye, which made the redhead suspicious.
"What aren't you telling me?" she probed, knowing there was more to it.
Mimi twitched even more and she still had her gaze directed away from Sora, off into a corner of the latter's room. But still, the brunette opened her mouth to respond.
"Well, I might've, y'know… kinda, sorta… like… umm…" she blathered with little giggles interspersed in her ramblings.
Sora could not be sure from where she sat, but it seemed like Mimi's cheeks had taken on a very faint shade of red. Grinning to herself, she felt she could deduce what had probably happened at Mimi's front door.
"I bet you gave him a little kiss, didn't you." Sora suggested slyly, her grin widening as she said it.
Mimi squirmed in her squishy seat, an embarrassed smile plastered across her face.
"Yeah… just a small one." she admitted, looking her friend straight in the eye for the first time in a minute.
"Ha! I knew it!" Sora exclaimed.
"I couldn't just leave him feeling guilty like that." Mimi laughed, easing up a little now that it was all out in the open between the two friends, "Besides, I couldn't think of anything else to get him to stop apologising."
They both shared a laugh and Mimi's cheeks slowly lost their tint of red from just a few moments before. Sora eventually decided to move onto another topic.
"So when's your next date?" Sora asked, as she leaned back, propping herself up with her arms.
"He's invited over for dinner on Friday, so probably then." Mimi replied.
"It's a good thing he already knows your parents then." Sora commented, chuckling to herself.
"Oh, they're harmless." Mimi insisted, but by her tone it was clear that even she was not convinced.
"Depends on your definition of harmless." Sora retorted.
Mimi was about the respond when they heard a knock on the door.
"You two done yet, or do I have to stay out here in the cold?" came Tai's voice through the door.
Sora rolled her eyes. It figured that Tai could not amuse himself for too long. Although, in his defence, she thought, it had been well over half an hour since he had left the room. The redhead looked to Mimi, who cocked her head to the side and shrugged her shoulders. Nodding back, Sora fell onto her back and responded to Tai.
"Yeah, we're done." she said in a raised voice.
The door swung open and in strolled Tai, a thoroughly bored look on his face. Clearly he had finished his conversation with Sora's mother some time ago.
"Man Sora, you really need to get yourself a Playstation or something. Your Mum's great and all, but I can only talk about flowers for so long." he moaned, mostly exaggeratedly but his boredom was clearly genuine.
Sora chuckled in spite of herself. She knew exactly what he meant.
"So, what'd I miss?" Tai asked nonchalantly, but Sora could tell he was dying to know what was said.
"Anything Tai should know, Mimi?" Sora asked the Tachikawa girl, leaving it up to her whether or not she wanted anyone else to know.
Mimi sat and looked to be considering what to say. Her gaze lifted to the ceiling and her lips parted and closed, making small popping sounds as she thought to herself. After a few moments, she blinked heavily and mumbled something to herself that was too quiet for Sora to hear. Suddenly she sprung to her feet and gave her two friends a wide smile.
"You can tell him whatever you want, Sora, just keep it to yourselves." Mimi announced in a bubbly voice, "Right now I've gotta go – so much homework."
She bade them both goodbye and skipped out of the room. From outside they could just barely hear her farewell to Sora's mother and the click of the front door closing. Tai looked over at Sora with an incredulous look on his face. Sora just shrugged back at him.
"It's Mimi." she said simply and received a nod from Tai, which she took not as him understanding as much as him saying he could not be bothered to talk about it.
Despite his confusion at Mimi's spontaneous exit, Tai wasted no time in plying Sora about what was said while he was outside.
"Alright, what'd she say?" he probed.
"We were on page three hundred and ten of the text weren't we?" Sora replied, playfully waving her Geography textbook in front of her, grinning mischievously at Tai.
"C'mon Sora, you are not leaving me high and dry on this. Mimi even said you could tell me" Tai pleaded.
The girl just laughed at him.
"Later, Tai." she told him teasingly.
"Pleeeeeease!" he begged, desperate to hear absolutely anything.
Sora laughed again and looked at him thoughtfully. Perhaps a small taste of what he wanted to hear would not hurt.
"Let's just say Izzy got a goodnight present from Mimi." She said slyly.
Tai stared back at her with a blank face for a couple of seconds before he realised what she meant. At that point his face lit up and an ear to ear grin shot onto his face as fast as Sora could blink.
"Ha ha! Way to go Izzy!" Tai exclaimed excitedly and the couple both started laughing happily together.
"What else? What else?" Tai questioned feverishly, hoping to get more.
Sora smirked and looked down at her book.
"The area surrounding Mt. Fuji was once thought to have been…" she read, much to Tai's chagrin.
"Soooooraaaaa!" he whined,
All she could do was laugh. He had gotten his little titbit of information. Now, for the rest of the afternoon, she was going to have fun watching him sweat.