Author: Just like the previous chapter, this chapter was a little difficult to write (and it looks like the next chapter will be more of the same too). I'm a shipper through and through, but I always struggle with the heart to heart conversations.

XXX

The whistle blows and the game starts. Marcus leads the team against their semi-finals opponents as Tai watches at his team's bench, still not fit enough to play. Agumon, Guilmon, Flamemon and Agumon all root and cheer for the boys. The digidestined that managed to make it also cheered. Matt, Sora, Kari, Mimi and their digimon all showed up at the game to support Tai's team. Tai stays focused throughout, he would occasionally cheer for his team, but his mind was not at the game.

"Sunfire Punch!" Apollomon attacks WarGreymon in the chest, completely shattering his armor. "Weak. Just like I remember. You're too weak. Everything you have, everyone you know and love. All of it will be lost. You're too weak to protect anything, I will make you see that!"

"With the strength those guys have," Matt murmurs. "We might have to use that."
"To be honest," Izzy starts. "I'm not sure if even that's strong enough."

"When you turn into a digimon, you'll be able to feel any and every attack that you're hit with. Digimon by nature have a much higher tolerance for pain than humans. Are you ready for that?"

"Hello?" a girl's voice snapped him back to reality.

"H-huh?" Tai jerked up to see Sayo standing over him.

"Jeez," Sayo sighed. "You're really out of it."

"Sorry," Tai apologized.

"Marcus and the others are really going at it," Sayo tells him. "I haven't seen them this fired up."

"Yeah."

"Looks like the coach's motivation worked, then again who could resist a free meal? He better hope they don't order from the expensive side of the menu."

"Uh huh."

"Well, now I know something is wrong."

"Yeah."

Sayo looked at him annoyed. "Hmm… Those digimon sure can eat. I had to make 4 times the cookies to keep them satisfied."

"Uh huh…"

Sayo let out an annoyed growl, she pours water down on his head.

"Hey!" Tai jumped out of his seat. "What was that for?"

"You were drying out on me. And I don't mean your head." Sayo tilts her head and stares at Tai for a moment. "Huh, the water gives your hair a nice sheen."

Tai grumbled and decided to shake his head.

"Hey!" The fire digimon all cried out at him as water sprinkled on them.

"Sorry," Tai apologized.

"Now, are you ready to talk?"

"I'm not sure," Tai sits back down. "I have a lot of things on my mind."

"Is it about the digital world?" Say sits next to him.

"I guess there's no use in hiding it, huh?"

"You go into the digital world, get yourself hurt, again mind you, then all of a sudden half the team and their friends gets digimon. Yeah, there's no hiding it."

Tai nervously laughs.

"Is it very serious?"

"Yeah," Tai admits, not wanting to say anymore.

"It's not like you to be nervous."

"I didn't say I was nervous."

"You didn't have to, I can tell." Sayo took a deep breath. "I don't like seeing you like this. You can talk to me Tai, please."

"Gonna play psychologist now?"

"No, I'm going to be a friend. Just… don't hold anything back, it's no good to keep it in."

Tai stared at her for a moment, not knowing how to respond, then sighs. "Alright… the enemies this time are strong, very strong."

"I'm sure you've dealt with stronger, right?"

"Stronger? May be, but we always had something else on our side to help us. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get anything like that against these guys. Not that I like relying on unexplained help too much, but in this case I don't think we can rely on anything else besides our own strength."

"Then what do you normally rely on?"

"Our teamwork," Tai says as Marcus scores a goal. "It's the only thing that really got us through this far."

The two of them watched as the team play, Marcus, Takato and Takuya were doing well on their own. Together they match the opposing team more than equally.

"Tell me something Tai," Sayo suddenly starts. "Why are you the team leader?"

"Huh?" Tai looks at her confused.

"I don't know if I can put it any other way," Sayo calmly adds. "Surely, there must be a reason that you were made the leader, right?"

Tai closed his eyes for a moment. "To be honest, I think it just happened."

"Just happened? How?"

"Well," Tai sits back, trying to get comfortable. "When we had our first adventure in the digital world, we didn't really have a leader or anything like that. We were just trying to survive together. I think…" Tai paused as he sat forward again. "I think it was when Sora was taken by Datamon that everyone started to think of me as the leader. Before that, I tried to force my way into that position. There was a lot of resistance, mostly from Matt. Yeah, it was only after Datamon took Sora that I actually became a leader, or at the very least I was looked up to as one by the rest of the group."

"Hmm…" Sayo put her fingers to her chin in thought. "If that's where you feel that you really became a leader, then what was it about that time that made you feel that way?"

"I… I don't know…" Tai answers honestly. "Everyone was supporting me, pushing me to go save her. Even though it was extremely risky with how powerful Etemon was, they… we, were all doing it to save Sora."

"But you had the strongest reason to save her, right?"

"Well, yeah, it was because of me that she was taken in the first place. I think that the others knew how I felt about it and that's why they did what they did."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You said you relied on the others, you believed in them to do their things, as a leader would. But did you believe in yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"It sounds like you had quite the guilt trip after Sora was taken. You had the drive to go back to her at least, but did you have the heart?"

Tai remained silent at the question, trying to think back to that time. "To be honest, I really did want to save her, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to face her. When I had to run ahead to where Sora was, I kind of froze."

Sayo waited patiently for Tai to continue.

"There was this wall with a hidden pathway where if you didn't find it and tried to go through, you'd die. Agumon offered to just blast through it, but I knew that if he did that, I wouldn't be able to… redeem myself."

"What was going through your mind?"

"A lot of things. 'I have to save Sora, everyone's counting on me, what if I'm wrong, what if I'm too late?' Stuff like that."

"Sounds like a really rough time."

"It was, it really was. All the pressure the team put on me. No, that's not right, the team believed in me. It was my own self-doubt that was stopping me."

"So what was it that pulled you through?"

"Luck, I guess?" Tai shrugged.

"Do you really believe it was just luck?" Sayo puts a finger at the center of Tai's chest. "You need to think about your real power. You have your friends, you have your teamwork, but you've lost something here since then, or rather since this whole thing started. I don't know what caused you to lose it, but I have a feeling you'll need to get it back. Okay?"

Tai stayed quiet. His team managed to score another goal, the crowd cheered but Tai and Sayo were in their own little space for a moment before Sayo pulled back and loudly cheered herself. Sora, Kari and Mimi had noticed Tai and Sayo conversing with each other, and they can tell just by looking at them that the topic was heavy.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Mimi inquires.

"I don't know," Kari answers. "Ever since our last meeting, Tai's been… quieter."

"Is he still hung up on that?" Mimi asks, annoyed. "That's not like him. It must be serious."

"He's been trying to hide it from me," Kari explains. "Every time I try to get him to talk to me about it, he brushes it away."

"Really?" Mimi's face displayed shock. "He seems fine talking to Sayo about it."

Sora starts thinking. "Should he be talking about that to her though? She doesn't have a digimon."

"She might not, but she's still a friend, right?" Mimi counters.

"Still, to just be talking to Sayo about the things only we should know."

"Oh?" Mimi sneers. "Is there a problem with talking to a friend?"

"N-no," Sora protests. "I'm sure that Sayo is capable of keeping to herself, but Tai shouldn't be talking to her about the major digital world problems."

"I don't think Tai can hide anything from her," Kari speculates. "Every time I meet her, she's been able to read Tai easily. Almost like she's known him a lot longer than we think she does."

"I get that feeling too," Sora replies, softly. "But still, why would he talk to Sayo and not us?"

"Jealous?" Mimi suggests with a certain look in her eyes.

"N-no!"

Mimi giggles a little. "Honestly, I don't know why Tai chose her to talk to. The only reason I can think of is that Sayo isn't involved with the incidents, and she isn't as close to Tai as we are."

"Is that why?" Sora asks. "Because we're too close to him?"

"He probably knows how we'd talk to him," Kari implies.

"Or he could just want someone else besides us to talk to about his problems," Mimi suggests. "Sayo's pushier then most of us too, so she'll be able to get Tai to talk better than the rest of us. I'd like to know what they're talking about. Any ideas Kari?"

"None," Kari answers. "All I know is that Tai hasn't been himself since the meeting."

"Hmm…" Mimi ponders, then shivers.

"Huh?" Sora looks at her friend confused.

"I just had the image of Tai turning into Numemon."

"I… I don't think Tai would be bothered about that," Kari speaks nervously.

"But the hair…" Mimi whines.

The girls winced at the thought.

"I think it would be better to ask him about it," Mimi suggests.

"If he'll even answer," Kari replies.

"It's worth a try at least," Mimi tells her.

"I can talk to Sayo," Sora informs. "Kari, think you'll be able to get to Tai?"

"I have been trying…" Kari depressingly replies.

"I'll give it a shot," Mimi volunteers.

"Mimi?"

"If there's anyone that can get people to talk, it's me!" Mimi proudly boasts.

XXX

"Whoo!" Marcus cheered as the time ran out. "Yes!"

The team won the game 3 to zero. The crowd loudly cheers in celebration. Tai got up slowly, clapped and smiled. Marcus, Takuya and Takato were all jumping around energetically. The digimon ran up to their partners to celebrate with them. Tai's Agumon just walked next to Tai, the two partners just smile at each other.

"Here," Sayo tosses a water bottle to him. "Don't dry up now." Sayo then goes to join the rest of the team.

Tai smiles and takes a drink from the bottle. He sees his friends coming down to the field. Marcus, Takuya and Takato's friends were also heading towards the team.

"How're you feeling?" Matt asks.

"I'm excited," Tai smiles. "But it's really weird to see the team win a major match without me."

"You just wanted to hog all the glory," Marcus jokes.

"Darn, you saw right through me," Tai chuckles a bit. "You did a great job Marcus. I knew you guys could do it."

"You don't want to join in?" Marcus points at the large group of people surrounding Takato and Takuya.

"You go. You deserve it."

"Thanks man, that means a lot."

"Just don't get too comfy, there's still one more match."

"Yeah," Marcus walks back to his group of friends. "And it's the big one! So you better get better!"

"I will!" Tai yells back.

"He seems to be enjoying this," Matt comments.

"Well, the coach made a bet with the team," Tai smiles. "He's going to be treating us later."

"More food?"

"I can't wait!" Agumon excitedly leaps.

"I'm jealous," Gabumon grumbles. "Can we switch?"

"Sorry you two," Tai apologized. "It's for the team only."

"Whaaat? Why?" Agumon whined.

"I think the coach knows about how much it'll take to feed just one of you, let alone four."

"When is it?" Kari asks.

"He just needs to find a good place first, then he'll tell us."

"I don't know…" Mimi scans the coach. "He looks the type to care more about the price than the quality."

"Good luck," Matt jokes.

"Yeah thanks." Tai sarcastically replies.

Tai looks at his celebrating team and their friends. He smiles for a bit then starts walking away. "Let's go."

"You're not going to celebrate with them?" Matt asks.

"This is their win," Tai tells him. "I'm more worried about our next match."

Tai and the others quietly walk off the field. Sora felt someone watching them and turns around, she sees Sayo looking at them with a concerned look. The two girls locked eyes for moment, Sayo nodded silently to Sora before rejoining the soccer team.