A/N: I'M ON A ROLL! YES!

And umm…sorry for anyone who likes Sora. I really don't like Sora. Like…to the point that when I was like 13, I made an "I HATE SORA" page on Geocities.

Yeah. It goes that deep. And now, especially after tri. Ugh.

Anywho…do people do these anymore? I'm such an old-school member that I have no idea what the kids do these days. Let me know :p

Chapter 9

Mimi didn't want to talk that night, so I let her go to sleep, making her promise she'd fill us in the next day. I woke up at about 10am to find Mimi still asleep and no one else home. I took a quick shower, threw on a long sleeved black shirt with a pair of comfy jeans, put some curling cream in my hair and scrunched it, and tried to figure out what to do with my time. Being a teenager in the 21st century, I rummaged through my suitcase as quietly as I could to get my laptop. Pulling up Facebook, I discovered I had a million friend requests.

Well, not a million…but everyone at the party decided to add me as a friend. I beamed. They liked me. Yay. I clicked "confirm" on each request, but stopped when I got to the last one.

Jou.

Fuck to the no. I let that one sit and started my creeping process. Taichi's was mostly soccer pictures, but a couple of them were him with his friends. I saw one of him with his arm around a really pretty redhead…but then saw almost the exact same picture on Yamato's page, only with his arm around her.

"Sora," I whispered under my breath. Cocking my head to the side, I analyzed her a bit. She was pretty; I'd give her that. Izzy said she played tennis, and what I could see of her insanely toned legs from the skirt she was wearing definitely proved that. I clicked on Yamato's photo section to check it out. Scrolling through all of his band photos, I came across some of him and Taichi – quite a few, actually. Mimi was right; they were best friends. Seeing how close they were and how they looked at each other, and then knowing what happened with Sora and how it drove them apart...it broke my heart a bit.

I kept clicking from page to page, looking at all of their pictures together. This was such a tight knit group, consisting of people of all different ages, appearances, backgrounds, and interests. It was amazing to me, as I'd received flack before for befriending Jessie and Miranda, who were only 2 years my junior. It was wonderful to see the love and acceptance they all exhibited with each other.

There were a few candid ones of Izzy I discovered on some of their pages; most of them him spaced out or on a computer oblivious to the crazy faces they were making around him. From a small album on Miyako's page, it looked like they threw a surprise birthday party for him two years before – which all of the sudden made sense as to why Mimi left school for a week in the middle of May two years before and refused the four prom proposals she got – complete with streamers and balloons and a crazy large cake. Someone captured his initial reaction on a short, 15-second video. In it, he put his hands over his face after yelling and his shoulders started to shake like he was crying.

"I figured everyone would find you on Facebook," I looked up to see Izzy making his way over to the couch, two coffee mugs in his hands. "Are you on Miyako's page? I'm almost positive she was the one who ended up posting that video." I scooted to the edge of the couch so he could sit down. "Here," he said, handing me a solid black, glossy mug with a smile. "I made you some hot chocolate. I would have made you coffee, but I didn't know how you liked it, so I figured this was a safe bet." I looked down in the cup. Mini marshmallows. Holy shit. I was in love.

"Thanks, Izzy," I said, blowing on the cup. "I didn't even…when did you get back?"

He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Not too long ago. You seemed so engrossed in whatever you were doing on your laptop that I figured you didn't know I was here."

I eyed him suspiciously. He peeked one eye open. "What?"

"Well?"

We stared each other down.

"Well, what?"

"IZZY!" Mimi made a noise in her sleep. I lowered my voice back down. "Come on! How did it go?"

He pulled his Digivice out of his pocket. I peeked over at it, as I hadn't really had an opportunity to examine it super close. Right now, the screen was just showing the time. I looked from it, to my laptop time, and back to it. I'd been creeping for 2 hours. Whoops. "I left here at about 6:30 this morning to catch the trains in, exam started at 8." He put the Digivice back in his pocket. "I definitely did not enjoy myself with it, I will tell you that much."

"How do you think you did?"

He winced a bit. "Not up to full potential, but not horrible." He looked at his hot chocolate, and then took a drink. "I didn't fail, if that's what you're asking."

I rolled my eyes and took a drink myself. "Not at all what I was aski-hold up." I then stared at the hot chocolate. "Is this…is this homemade?"

Izzy raised an eyebrow at me. "Umm…yes?"

I pointed to the cup. "Like…did you make this yourself? From scratch? Or is it powder?"

His eyes shifted. "I…made it myself?"

Hot damn. "Well, this is the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my entire life, so kudos to you." I clinked his mug, which made him laugh. "Don't tell my dad, though. He'd challenge you to a hot chocolate competition."

"I'll…keep that in mind." He slumped down into the couch. I could tell he was exhausted. Still, I could practically hear the sounds of the gears still turning in his head. Kid was always thinking about something. "Did Mimi say anything to you last night after I went to sleep?"

I shook my head. "No. She didn't want to talk about it." Putting my mug down on the coffee table, I started scrunching my hair everywhere, only smiling at his questioning look. "When she was talking in the car yesterday on the way back in Japanese, did she say anything?" I grabbed my mug again

"Not really. It was more her rambling about Jou in general." He closed his eyes again. "I tried to be as reassuring as possible, but she was so far gone emotionally that I knew nothing I said myself would pull her out of it."

We sat quietly, both of us drinking our hot chocolate and watching Mimi. Even in her sleep she looked defeated. "What do you think happened?" I whispered.

Izzy shrugged. "I have no clue. I just hope, for Jou's sake, that he didn't do something stupid. Taichi and Yamato at his door so quick." He got up and went into the kitchen, rinsing out his mug and putting it in the sink. "His common sense seems to have disappeared since he went to university."

"Would he even be good for her?"

He looked up at me, and then over to Mimi, and then back at me. He then pointed to his room and gestured for me to follow him. I felt like Violet in Willy Wonka except that instead of turning into a blueberry, I turned into a very large, very red tomato. Despite that, I followed him. He closed the door behind him and sat down on his bed. I joined him, staring at my wiggling toes.

"I figured it might be better to continue this conversation in here in case she woke up." I nodded in agreement. "In all honesty, I have always supported the two of them together, but I don't know for sure if it would work out."

I cocked my head. "Why is that?"

He sighed, putting his head in his hands. "Our crests were all given to us based on strong points of our personalities. Except, Sora had the crest of love-"

"For real?" Word vomit moment.

"Right? It makes no sense now. Anyway, Mimi's crest was the crest of sincerity, and Jou's was the crest of reliability. Both fit them very well, however Jou's reliability with what he says as opposed to what he does has definitely decreased in the last few years. Mimi's always been very sincere with her feelings for him, but he constantly flops back and forth with her. She wants him so desperately that I think she now has blinders on to this fact."

I started scrunching my hair again, concentrating on the sides. Mimi hadn't kissed anyone. Mimi had never agreed to a date with anyone. Jou admitted to her that he was interested in her before she left, but nothing ever happened. And then, for whatever reason, he got a girlfriend, who ended up breaking up with him because of his feelings for Mimi. Some pieces of the puzzle were missing here. I opened my mouth to ask what happened that made them not be together, but couldn't do anything but laugh when I saw Izzy's confused expression again.

"You really have no idea what I'm doing, do you?"

"No, I understand what you're doing. Your hair is wet, it is naturally curly, and so you are scrunching it to make it curl." He shrugged matter-of-factly, because any guy with short, most likely straight hair would know how women style their hair. "There just aren't many girls around here with naturally curly hair, so it's somewhat interesting to watch the curls just…appear."

I moved to the back. "I mean, I have stuff in my hair, but yeah…the more I scrunch, the more they appear." I smiled sadly. "My mom passed it down to me. Her hair was beautiful. It always curled perfectly without her really doing anything to it. Mine," I stopped scrunching and began to fluff, "poufs and frizzes like a poodle if I don't put anything in it."

"Do you have any pictures of her?"

I froze. "Of…of my mom?"

Izzy nodded. "Yes, do you have any pictures?"

"Oh. Well," I started fumbling around for my phone, and then pointed at the door. "The couple I have are on Facebook, and my phone and computer are out there-oh." As soon as I finished saying 'there,' Izzy's laptop appeared in my lap, with Facebook conveniently open to my page. I let out an "oof" when the computer landed on me because it was ancient and heavy. "That was fast. Why are you so curious?" I asked as I scrolled through my pictures. I'd posted an old Polaroid a while back for a throwback Thursday – mom and me at Top of the Rock when I was about 4 years old. I had her curly red-brown hair at that point. We basically looked like twins. I eventually found it and gave Izzy his computer back so he could see it.

A huge smile spread across his face, but then his eyebrows furrowed a bit. He leaned in closer to the screen and looked between it and myself a few times. "Your hair isn't naturally black?" He asked incredulously.

I started laughing. "Oh, heck no. I started dyeing my hair when I was 13. I went through a bit of a crappy emo phase so I bought some cheap black dye and did it one night. My dad was incredibly pissed about it, but after a few days he admitted that he actually liked it." I shrugged. "I've just kept it black ever since. Definitely a lot easier and a lot cheaper to keep it black than to do anything to get it back to that color."

"You look so much like your mother, it's uncanny."

My laugh died down to a sad smile. "Thanks. I hear that a lot."

He closed his computer and set it on his desk, plopping back down on his bed. "What happened to her, if you don't mind me asking?"

"She died when I was 7. She had ovarian cancer. They caught it really late," I said softly, twirling one of my formed curls around my pointer finger. "The doctors said she'd only have about three months to live when they found it. She fought for two years."

"Strong and courageous," Izzy said as he stretched his legs out. "I can see where you get it from."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, but I think I'm more like my dad than my mom."

"How so?"

"Well…my mom was, as you said, strong and courageous. She lit up the room when she walked in, and every came to talk to her, like she was a magnet. She always saw the good in people and believed that people would align with that side of themselves. My dad is a lot quieter; he prefers to blend in rather than stand out. He's a lot more sarcastic and cynical, I suppose." I paused. "Yeah, I'm a lot more like him, I think."

"You know what I think?"

"Hmm?"

Izzy turned his body toward me. "I think you don't give yourself enough credit."

A few more curls ended up being twirled around my finger. I felt like I was starting to sweat. Nerves. What the hell? I don't give myself enough credit? "I don't feel like I have much to give myself credit for, I guess."

Izzy stared at me with a blank expression, and then sighed, shaking his head. "I envy you, Chloe."

My turn for a blank expression. He envied me? What on Earth could he envy ME for? "Ummm…what? Why?"

He started fidgeting with the bottom seam of his shirt. "Because, Chloe," he started with a bit of an edge to his voice, "even though you seem to need a little push sometimes, you overcome your hesitations to make situations work out, both for you and for everyone else. Your eyes are always open. You look at the world differently, as if you're almost in awe. You're curious. You're driven. You're…"

He stopped talking completely. I leaned down and angled my face so that he had no choice but to look at me. He smirked a bit, but still said nothing. "What were you going to say?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "It was something…awkward."

"Awkward?"

He nodded. "Yes. It was awkward." He paused, peeking up at me through his eyelashes. "I have realized, though, that I can't talk like this with anyone else. Not even Mimi." He looked back up at me. "I feel like I can talk to you about anything."

I nodded. "Like admitting you'd had a crush on Mimi the first time we talked together?"

Izzy groaned and put his head in his hands. "Yeah. Like that."

In a moment of boldness, I adjusted myself on the bed so I could sit next to him and put my arm around his shoulders. I felt him tense up. "It's okay, Izzy. Your secret is safe with me. Anyway," I absentmindedly rubbed his arm lightly as I spoke, "I feel safe talking with you as well. I mean, I told you about Eli the first time we talked. It took me a year to feel safe enough with Mimi to tell her about that." I sighed. "I don't know what it is with you, Izzy, but I'm kind of dr-"

Mimi opened the door with force. We both flinched, me returning my hands to my lap quicker than my brain registered that I should do that. She looked ragged; bags under her eyes, hair sticking everywhere, eye makeup all over her face from crying and sleeping. She slumped down in Izzy's computer chair with a defeated air around her.

"Mims?" I said after some silence. She didn't look at me. More silence.

And then, with a raspy whisper, she spoke up. "Jou is an asshole."

Izzy pulled his phone out of his pocket. "What did he do? I have Taichi and Yamato on speed dial. They'll go after him. You know they will."

She shook her head. "Not necessary, Koushiro. They don't need to be involved in this."

"What did he do?" I started, cocking my head. I'd never seen Mimi like this – so…pitiful. It broke my heart. I wanted to punch this Jou kid in his face, break his nose, and break his glasses, for breaking my best friend's heart. Never mind that when we did self-defense in gym class that my punch slowed down before I hit the pillow thing. Irrelevant. I'd get him.

She put her head in her hands. "He…" Izzy and I both leaned in to hear what she had to say. "He told me he loved me."

Izzy and exchanged a glance, and then, clearing his throat, said what both of us were thinking.

"Well…isn't that a good thing, though?"

"NO," she replied with a bite. "No, it's not a good thing."

"And…why?" I asked with some waving hand motions.

She took her head out of her hands to glare at me. "Because. He's left me heartbroken for the past 4 years and now, since his girlfriend broke up with him, he has the balls to tell me he loves me?" No." Her attention turned to Izzy's window. "Besides, we wouldn't even see each other if we did get together, you know, being on the other side of the world from each other and all."

"Mimi," Izzy said flatly.

"What, Koushiro?"

There was that blank expression again. "Koushiro, what is it? I know you're exhausted from your Todai exam, but formulate your thoughts and speak."

"Mimi. Think about it."

"Koushiro, stop. I don't know what you're getting at."

Izzy sighed and, getting up from the bed and walking over to his desktop, he grabbed something out of his top desk drawer. He sighed again, and then showed it to her.

His Digivice.

"You both have the Digital World, Mimi."

She drew in a sharp breath, as if a light bulb just went off in her head. "Oh. Yeah. We do."

Izzy crossed his arms. "Yeah, you do. We all do. Remember how I spent ALL THAT TIME making that program so that we ALL could go into the Digiworld when we wanted to and didn't have to rely on the D3s to get us in?" Mimi shifted in her seat. I got lost at this point, but I continued to listen. "That has worked out well with us being able to see each other in the past, so why would it make a difference now? With the two of you?" He flung his arms out. "You could go anywhere. All of our Digimon are out in different areas on watch. Go where Palmon is. Or Gomamon. Or any of them. I'm sure none of them would mind – they'd all be happy to see you both."

Mimi stared into space. "I have to go make a phone call," she said in a dazed voice. Then, as if she were a robot, she walked out of the room and over to the couch she slept on. I head some muffled Japanese from her.

I leaned up against Izzy's doorway, crossing my arms. "Good thinking, with the Digital World thing. If Jou gets his head out of his ass, that could really work."

"I spent an entire summer and the first two months of school figuring out how to make the portal work with our Digivices," he said, staring down at the device in his hand, not even paying attention to what I'd said. "Everyone begged me to do it. Said it 'wasn't fair' only the new kids could open the portal. So, I did it." He sighed. "And then, everyone forgets about it until I bring it up, or we get a signal from one of our Digimon saying they're in trouble. And then they say, 'Oh yeah, Koushiro made something that is useful.'"

I gingerly put a hand on his shoulder. He tensed up again. "So you were the reason we could go into the Digital World that one day? And when Mimi and I have gone since?"

His head turned rather quickly toward me. "You've been back since?"

"Umm…yes?"

He stared at me, as if he was trying to figure out something, and then looked over to Mimi. She was now dancing around his living room. "I guess they worked it out."

"I guess so."

Mimi ran up to us, all sunshine and rainbows. "Okay, so, I'm going to, like, take a shower and stuff, and then Jou's going to pick me up, and then…" She started dancing around. "And then I don't know!"

"Well," I started, walking over to her. "I have a piece of advice for you, that my dad has given me." She kept twirling around, but paid attention to me. "Always use protection."

"CHLOE!" She stopped twirling and busted out laughing. "YOUR DAD TELLS YOU THAT?"

I started laughing, pushing her toward the bathroom. "Shower. You look atrocious."

"THANKS, BEST FRIEND!" I heard her yell after I closed the door. I walked back toward Izzy, who was slumped up against his doorway with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. His breathing was slow. He'd fallen asleep.

"Izzy," I said, shaking him a bit. He wearily half-opened his eyes, responding with a hum. "Mimi's right; you're exhausted. Go take a nap."

"But-"

I pushed him into his room. He rubbed the back of his neck as I closed the door until it was a crack. "Oyasuminasai, Koushiro-san." I heard him mutter to himself in Japanese after I closed the door. I smiled and blushed as I walked out to the balcony. Even though I had no idea if he was talking to himself about me, I told myself he was as I took in the sounds of the city.

And that was all that mattered.

A/N: A little bit of a filler chapter, slightly, but not really…it sets some stuff up, I promise!