Yay! Update! This one took awhile too. Oh well, it's almost over. *sniffle sniffle* This might be the last chapter. Well, I'll need an epilogue of some sort but then that's it! AHHH!
KoumiLoccness – That's true, considering most Joumi hints were only in the dubbed version. And that's really cool that your 27. And don't worry, you've got a long way before you can call yourself old.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just this story.
Enjoy!!!
Digimon: Almost
Chapter 10: Confessions
Tai was freezing! He had forgotten his jacket back stage and he was kicking himself mentally for the lapse of retardation. He was so angry though. His plan had gone horribly wrong the moment he had sat down and wrote that song. The things he said were mean and hurtful. He knew Sora had never meant to hurt him and he was just rubbing it in her face now. He probably looked really pathetic too. She was hysterical crying and it was his fault.
Another blast of cold hit him and he considered going back for the jacket. But he shook his head and continued walking. He couldn't go back. He'd get his jacket at school tomorrow. But he didn't really know where to go right now. He had nowhere to go. He didn't want to go home because his parents would question him. Plus when Kari got home he'd hear it from her. All his friends were out of the question. They were all at the talent show anyway. They'd just question him some more or be mad at him for hurting Sora. He frowned.
"I am such a jerk!" he yelled out loud. Luckily no one was there to hear him talking to himself except an old lady who gave him a funny look and walked off. Then he got an idea. He knew where to go. Back during soccer him and Sora would go across the street to this little park and just hang out. There was a tree house there that no one knew about. The only person who knew about it was Sora and she probably wouldn't be looking for him.
He turned down the street to head in the direction of the park. Plus, he thought, the wind won't get me up there.
***
Sora walked outside with Tai's jacket. Mimi was still singing and she had told Sora to stay but she decided against it. She knew Tai and she knew there was a chance he'd forget all about the jacket or not care about it. She didn't know where to look for him so she just started roaming the streets going anywhere. She figured she'd find him somehow. She just had to. Maybe he went home. That would have the most logic to it. She decided she'd try there first.
***
Mimi turned around when the back stage door opened and her heart almost pounded right out of her chest. It was Izzy. He was standing in the door way just looking at her. She didn't really know what to say. Her plan hadn't really gone this far. She was shaking so she decided to sit down in the chair next to her. When he noticed her shaking, he smiled. It was warm and sweet, something she hadn't seen in a long time.
Something she missed.
That was when she seemed to calm down. She could breathe again and she realized they hadn't said anything to each other yet.
"Hi." She said quietly.
He chuckled and sat down in the chair next to her. It was funny, with every step he took towards her, her heart seemed to beat faster. She had a dim feeling even he could hear it.
"Hi." He said quietly. "I liked the song you picked. It…fit you." He said after a bit of thought. She smiled.
"I hoped you'd notice that." She said with a smile. Then she looked down and started to talk quickly. "You know what and who it was about right? Because that was the point and if you didn't that was really suck because then I'd have to explain a lot of things. But if you didn't get it, it was about you and I meant every word I said. Or sang rather. The point is that's how I feel about you and I don't know how true the lyrics in the song were about your feelings on this but I just really wanted you to know those things and I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier but please, please don't lie to me if you don't feel the same for the sake of my feelings because-"
She was cut off when his lips suddenly met hers. At first her eyes opened wide with surprise, then they shut with pure happiness and she was glad her mouth was occupied elsewhere otherwise she wouldn't even know how to explain how happy she was. After a moment he pulled away and his face looked almost as shocked as hers. And then he smiled and started to laugh.
His laugh was music to her ears. A sound that would be cherished as much as his amazing smile. It was sweet and innocent, and it made her begin laughing too.
"It's funny." He began. "Now it was my turn to surprise you." He told her, as they both remembered that first kiss they had shared.
She hadn't realized she had been crying when she was blabbering on and on until he touched her face to wipe the tears away.
He smiled at her. "I'm glad you feel that way. And the lyrics in that song were pretty dead on."
She looked down again. "I never meant to hurt you when I stopped talking to you. I think I was just scared. At first I thought I was scared of what other people would think but I realized I was lying to myself. I was scared of myself. I was scared I'd get too attached. More attached then you would and then I'd get my heart broken."
"That's probably my fault though. If I wasn't such a solitary person who would rather spend the day with computers then people, maybe you would've realized how much I truly care for you." He told her sadly. He clearly regretted not being with her all this time.
"Well forcing myself to go out with Tai didn't really help things either."
He frowned. "Oh my God, I forgot about Tai. He's going to-"
"No, no! It's ok. We broke up."She said quickly. He looked relieved.
"Well, that's good. I would've felt bad." He told her.
"It was funny, we were both going to break up with each other at the same time since we both love other people." The moment she said love she covered her mouth as fast as she could and began to kick herself. Great, you just get him and now you want to scare him away?!
But to her surprise, he just started laughing again. She hadn't realized that he was still holding her until he pulled her in closer to bury his face in her hair. She wasn't noticing a lot of things tonight.
He was still laughing into her hair when he whispered. "It's ok. I think I love you too." She let out a sigh of relief at his words and he pulled away to chuckle. "You really think I'd care about all this so much if I didn't love you?" he asked.
Mimi smiled. She realized that he'd wanted this more than anything, just like her. All the times she thought she had been alone in her feelings, the kiss in the woods, her party, her time in America, the mall, even tonight, she had been wrong. He had been there feeling the same things. The pain, the sorrow, the missing, and most importantly, the love.
She smiled and kissed him again. She was beginning the like how she could do that at any time now. She had thought this day would never come but it did and she couldn't be happier.
Just then the back stage door opened and they stopped to turn their heads towards the door quickly. In the doorway was two beaming block heads, in Mimi's opinion. It was Joe and Yolei of course, come to ruin the wonderful moment. She was a bit annoyed but also extremely embarrassed at the same time. She could feel the blush on her cheeks, and Izzy's.
Yolei was now jumping up and down like a lunatic and Joe looked a bit apologetic. "Can I help you?" Mimi asked impatiently and Izzy started laughing.
"No, it's ok. They might as well come in now." Mimi had a feeling he enjoyed how pouty her face was. She looked back at Yolei and Joe who were walking in and sitting down. Yolei looked ready to burst at this point.
"YAY!" she said loudly. "I can't believe it worked!!!! Go Operation Tofu!!!" she screamed. Mimi looked to Izzy ready to explain when he started laughing. "See? Wasn't a failure was it Joe?" Izzy said. Joe laughed and shook his head.
"Wait you know about Operation Tofu?" she asked.
He looked at her funny. "You know? I mean, I kinda guessed but Joe told me the details. Who told you?"
"What makes you think I didn't guess?" she said, trying to sound smart. They all started laughing, and after another pouty face, she was laughing too.
"Ok, so Yolei told me." Then when she thought about Operation Tofu she looked around. "Hey wait, has anyone seen Sora?" she asked. They all shook their heads.
"I know Matt's out there talking to Kari. I think she was stalling but he just seems to be getting mad. Maybe we should help her." Yolei told them.
"You're right, let's go." Mimi agreed.
***
It was getting late and Tai was nowhere to be found. She was actually getting worried. She had no idea where he was. It was cold, dark and he didn't even have a jacket. A little walk to hopefully talk to him tonight had turned into a frantic search for him. At the temperature this low, he'd freeze to death if he didn't have shelter or a jacket.
Then she got an idea. It was a long shot, but he might just be there. She walked to a park across the street from her old soccer field and looked up in the trees, looking for a tree house. After a while, she found it. She climbed up the latter and sure enough, huddled in the corner of the tree house was Tai. He was asleep, and shivering.
She was worried for a moment. It wasn't good to go to sleep when that cold. They always say to stay awake or you'll freeze in your sleep. But she was here so that wouldn't happen. She got closer but had to stop and smile at his sleeping form. His face looked so calm and innocent. Not the way she always saw it whenever he saw her. Not almost pained. She missed this look to him. She took the jacket and put it over him, before gently moving some hair out of his face. She smiled. How could she have been without this? Without him? How did she live for so long without him? How did she not just die of a broken heart? She wasn't really sure.
But that didn't even matter now. What mattered was that he was here. And so was she. She tried to wake him up but he didn't get up. That was when the worry really kicked in. What if- no, he was breathing. She could hear his breathe. She didn't really know what to do. So she sat next to him, hoping that would keep him warm and waited.
***
Tai squeezed his eyes shut. If he woke up, he'd be cold again, and he didn't want that. So he thought if he squeezed them shut he'd stay asleep. He'd dream about hearing Sora's voice again. But it was no use. He was awake now, and it was time to deal with the consequences. Then something struck him, he wasn't cold anymore. At first he worried that he had gone numb or something, but then he realized he had something around him and something warm next to him. A blanket and a heater? He opened his eyes slowly looking down. No, not a blanket, his coat. But how did he get that. And when he looked next to him, it wasn't a heater.
"Sora?" he whispered. His throat was horse, almost frozen. She looked over at him quickly. "Tai! You're ok! I was so worried. I thought you'd froze! Why are you even out here this late at night in January without a coat? Why aren't you at home??" she yelled and then frowned. He smiled weakly. Yep, just like Sora to yell at him for being stupid. She was pretty good at it.
"I'm sorry." He said.
She sighed. "I know, you just worried me to death." He smiled. She was worried about him, even after everything he wrote in that stupid song.
"So you don't hate me?" he asked. Her expression softened and he thought she was going to cry again. She just shook her head and choked out, "No. I could never hate you."
So he'd been right about the crying. He smiled. "Well then I'm glad."
Then a tear did spill over. "You should hate me. I hurt you. I hurt you so much and you took it silently." She said, as the rest of the tears came bursting out.
He sat up and put his arms around her. "Please don't cry. It wasn't your fault. You weren't trying to hurt me. Plus it was my fault for just counting on you always being their waiting. I should've known that you wouldn't wait around forever." He told her.
She turned around so that his arms where now holding her and she put her arms around him back. She just kept whispering "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He tilted her head up and looked into her eyes. "Please stop saying that you're sorry. I forgive you even though it was my fault." He said.
She shook her head but didn't say anything else. He leaned against the wall and sighed, glad she had stopped crying and saying sorry. But he hadn't taken his arms back yet. And neither had she. They were just lying there, holding each other when he looked down at the same time she looked up quietly she had one tear on her cheek and he slowly leaned in and kissed it away. She smiled at that and her smile was enough to make him smile back.
Then this time she leaned up and kissed him on the lips. He was a bit surprised but he wasn't complaining. He kissed her back with all the love and passion he should have been kissing her with for awhile now. The kisses seemed to get deeper and deeper as the night went on, along with other things that neither of them seemed to think about. Neither of them thought of Matt at all since every time a thought of him popped up, a gentle touch or a kiss from one of them cleared it away immediately and the night went on in peaceful bliss, not thinking of the consequences.
(Hey, it wasn't rated T for nothing. I had plans people.)
***
"And why can't I go Kari?" Matt asked getting angry.
"Because you can't go into the girl's bathroom. Maybe Sora's, uh, sick?" She said. She wasn't having much luck keeping him from finding Sora.
"I saw her crying I need to know why. Besides, I'm just going to yell into the bathroom, I won't even go in." he told her.
"She wasn't crying! She was chopping onions! And you can't leave because the hallway is, uh, leaking." She said, mentally kicking herself for those dumb excuses. Who chopped onions at a talent show? And how can the hallway leak?
Matt looked at her, a bit angry now. Probably because her excuses where getting stupider. She was about to think of something else to say when TK finally cut in. "Kari what are you talking about? She wasn't cutting onions. Truth is, she wasn't feeling well and she didn't want you to worry so she told us to keep you busy. Sorry we lied. Truth is, she went on home already and we didn't know how to tell you. That's why Kari started making worse excuses." He said and laughed. Kari wanted to hug him for the save and Matt looked like he was buying it too. He sighed.
"Ok. That makes sense. Kari's never been a great liar. I'll just call her cell phone or something. Thanks." And he walked away pulling his cell phone out as he went. Kari sighed and looked over at TK. "Thank you so much." TK just laughed. "I'm used to lying to Matt so it's ok."
"Kari!! Where is Matt going!?" she heard someone scream. She turned around and saw Izzy, Mimi, Yolei and Joe running towards them. Yolei had been the one to scream.
"We told him Sora went home." She said with a smile.
"Did she go home?" Mimi asked.
"Umm, no. She went backstage you should've seen her back there." She told her, a bit confused.
"She's not back there and we can't find her!" She said worried.
Now Kari was even more confused. "I don't understand. Where could she have gone?"
"She must have gone to go look for Tai." Mimi guessed, since his jacket had been missing.
"Where did Tai go?!" Kari asked. Why was everyone disappearing?
"We don't know!" They all shouted. Now she was getting worried. She pulled out her cell phone and called home. Her mom answered and said that Tai wasn't there but that Sora had just been there not too long ago looking for him too.
"Is he alright?" Her mother asked.
"Yeah, he's fine, we just didn't know if he left, that's all." She told her. "Now I'm gonna go ok? Bye!"
She hung up and turned around. "Tai's not home and you were right about Sora going to look for him. My mom said she had just been there looking for Tai."
Everyone was getting a little worried. All of the sudden a phone started ringing and Mimi looked in her pocket quickly. "Uh oh. It's Matt." She said.
Kari looked at her funny. "Matt? Why is he calling you?"
Mimi shook her head. "Not me, Sora. We found her phone on the floor. She must have dropped it. What should I do? Should I answer it?"
"We could just tell him the truth." TK said and everyone gave him a look that said "Bad idea." He shook his head. "I mean, about the phone part. That she must of dropped it when she ran to the bathroom and ran home not knowing she dropped it."
"Ohhh." Everyone said. Then Mimi answered it and told him the story. "We should go look for Tai and Sora ourselves. We could split up and find them. I mean, we all have phones to keep in touch and if anyone finds anything they can just call everyone else and tell them." Izzy suggested.
That was the first time Kari even noticed Izzy was there and she looked at him for a moment, then noticed his hand holding Mimi's. She smiled since Sora had been right then nodded at his idea. "That's good I say we do that. Teams of two and we're gonna need to go get Davis, Ken, and Cody. They're here somewhere." He said, thinking.
"Me and Kari will look at Sora's house and then just around there." TK said then the others began to pair off and pick places. In the end, the groups were Ken and Yolei, Mimi and Izzy, and Joe, Cody, and Davis. It kinda seemed like all couples to Kari except for poor Davis who clearly wanted to tag along with Kari and TK, though Joe and Cody didn't seem to notice. And then they all left quickly though Kari hadn't noticed that Matt had been watching the whole time.
***
No one had noticed him standing close by. But he was now going to go off in his own team determined to find Tai and Sora and hoping he didn't find them together.
He searched all night not finding anything. The sun was starting to come out and he wondered if the others had found anything but didn't dare to call and ask. They didn't know that he was looking as well and they clearly didn't want him to know. After he had gotten off the phone with Mimi he had come back in planning to stop by Sora's and bring her phone back in the process when he heard them taking about search parties. He was a little worried about that. Apparently Sora and Tai were both missing and they were all going to set out to find them.
So he figured he could help too. It was now dawn and the sky was a purple color with the orange sun coming out from behind a cloud. He sighed. All night and he had found nothing. He was useless. If he couldn't even find his own girlfriend and his best friend then what good was he? Then again, he hadn't been a very good boyfriend or best friend. He wondered into a park and sat down.
He knew he had done wrong the day he had asked Sora out. He knew Sora liked Tai and the other way around. He hadn't seen anything between them but he just knew. And he hadn't cared. Sora was never really happy with him and he knew it. She thought he was blind to her sadness but he wasn't. She was never really into anything they did together. She was always day dreaming or zoning out. And since the day Sora had gone out with him, Tai had almost stopped talking to him. At least until recently, when he asked him to play that song. He knew what it was about but he couldn't bring himself to tell Tai "no" about playing the song. The reason Tai felt how he said he felt in the song was his fault and he knew it. Everyone thought he knew nothing but the funny thing was, he knew everything and just choose not to believe it.
But it was time to believe. He knew this day would come deep down, but he had just pushed it away and stupidly hoped he could hold on to Sora tight enough that she just wouldn't want to let go. It was stupid and foolish and everyone was paying for it now. Himself, Tai, and most importantly, Sora. He knew what he had to do.
He had to find Sora, and break up with her.
And with that, he knew he had to get back up and start his search again. Knowing that when he found her, it wouldn't be the happy reunion he wished it would be. Not by a long shot.
***
Sora opened her eyes and looked around. For a moment she didn't remember where she was but then her memory came back and she looked around quickly. Tai had been there, hadn't he? She couldn't have dreamed up a night that perfect, could she have? She was in the tree house with his jacket over her and all her clothes on but she was alone now.
And very confused. She tried to think back to remember him leaving but she couldn't. She sat up a bit and looked around. Yep, he defiantly was not here. She stood up, as much as she could in the tiny tree house and looked around some more. It was stupid to look around so much in such a tiny tree house but she was so groggy she kept looking even though she knew he wasn't there.
She even looked out the window and as she looked out at the frost covered park she found a beauty to it. Everything, the grass, the benches, the street lamps were covered with a thin layer of frost from the morning dew. It was dawn and the sunrise was beautiful as well. If only Tai was here to share it with her. That reminded her of her search. Then right before she turned to leave, she noticed something that wasn't covered in dew.
It was someone sitting on a bench. She would've thought it was Tai but the boy had blond hair and the moment she realized who it was she gasped. It was Matt. He wasn't looking in her direction; he was just sitting there, looking sad. She hadn't thought of him at all last night and now she felt horrible. Did he know? That was all she kept asking herself. Why else would he look so sad? And he just happened to be in the same park? Then she caught sight of Tai. He had been under the tree house and he was walking over to where Matt was sitting now. He must have been climbing down when she woke up and he had no idea she was awake. They wouldn't be too far away if they stayed on that bench and from here she would be able to hear the whole conversation.
Well they were talking about her, so she had a right to know, right? It wouldn't really be eavesdropping right? Oh well, she wasn't going to leave now.
***
Tai had woken up and looked out the window only to see Matt wonder into the park and sit down. He began to feel like the worst best friend in the world at that moment. He knew he had to talk to him. He just knew he did. He wasn't sure what he was going to say or if Matt was going to be very angry but he had to talk to him either way. It was only the right thing to do. He wasn't so sure about telling Matt the highlights of his night, but he could at least hear what Matt thought so far and maybe tell him how he had felt about their whole relationship the whole time. He owed him that much after what he had done.
He had left Sora sleeping not wanting to wake her up and he figured his jacket would keep her warm. He stepped right up to the bench and sat down next to Matt with a sigh. Matt didn't even look over at him, he just laughed and looked down. "Wow that was easier than I thought. I didn't even have to get up."
"You where looking for me?"
"Yeah, well everyone is looking for you and Sora right now. So where were you two?"
"What makes you think she was with me?"
Matt laughed. "Would you believe me if I said lucky guess?"
"Not at all." He laughed.
"Well, Sora may think I'm blind but I know how much she cares about you and when she went missing after you did, it only made sense that she was looking for you. Knowing you two's relationship, I knew she would've found you in a heartbeat. She would just somehow know." He said quietly, as if he didn't really want to believe that.
Tai chuckled. "Yeah, well you got that right. I guess I made it easy for her though. I was in an old hangout for us when we played soccer together." He told him.
"Where is she now?"
"Sleeping." He peeked over at the tree house and smiled when he saw her head sticking out the window. Of course she'd be awake. He thought to himself. Though he wasn't going to mention that she was awake to Matt. She would talk to him when she was ready.
Matt sighed. "I guess you won right?" He said quietly.
Tai looked back at him quickly. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's always been one of those unspoken competitions between us, hasn't it? And although I wanted to think I was winning, I wasn't. I was just making everyone miserable. She wanted you from the start and deep down, I knew that. I just didn't want to believe it. I guess what I mean is that I'm not mad at you for taking her away, I'm mad at myself for not being able to keep her, and for not letting her go when I should have. I'm sorry Tai." He looked down and sighed again. He really was sorry. Tai knew that and he wasn't angry. He could never be angry at someone who loved Sora just like he did.
"It's ok Matt. We all do crazy things when we love someone, right? And I'm probably the king of crazy and stupid things when it comes to Sora. Believe me, I understand."
Matt smiled at that. "Yeah, you are."
"Hey! You're not supposed to agree!" Matt just laughed at him. "But I guess I truly am. I mean, first not talking to her, and then that stupid song," He shook his head, wishing he could go back and change some of those stupid mistakes.
"Hey, at least the things you did only hurt yourself and not everyone."
"You seem to forget that those things hurt her too." He reminded him.
Matt laughed. "Yeah but it hurt you too, unlike my selfish acts." Then Matt stood up and stretched. "Well, tell Sora when she gets up, that she can call me whenever she's ready. And you can tell her that I'm sorry and I'd even understand if she never chose to call me."
"Wait, where are you going?"
"Well, somebody has to tell everyone that you've been found." He told him as he walked away, waving one hand without looking back. Tai just smiled and shook his head. He turned around and noticed that Sora's head was gone. He smiled wondering if she was going to pretend she had been sleeping the whole time. She climbed back into the tree house and sure enough, she was lying on the floor with his jacket over her, pretending to be asleep.
"You're too late, I saw you. Plus, you had been lying over on that side of the tree house." He told her, pointing to the real spot they had been sleeping in. She opened one eye and looked up at him. "Oops." She said with a smile and sat up.
He laughed and sat down next to her. "I take it I don't need to give you Matt's message?"
"Nope. Heard it loud and clear." She said with a smile.
"I also take it you get how I feel about you?" He said looking at her sideways.
"Hmmm, I don't know, I've never been that good with body language." She teased and he just rolled his eyes at her.
"Do I really have to say it?" He asked.
She smiled and nodded. "Fine if that's how you want it. I love you! Are you happy now? I'll even scream it if you want. I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you!! Is that good enough?" He asked and she just started laughing. He crossed his arms. "It's not funny." He said with a mock mad face. She laughed once more then leaned over and kissed him.
"Ok grumpy. It's not funny at all." She said, trying to hold in her giggles.
Then he started laughing and he put an arm around her. "And from now on, you are my girlfriend and I don't think I'll take no for an answer because I really don't want this ever happening again." He told and she laughed.
"You'd never need to take no as an answer because I'd never answer no." She told him.
"Well good. Now that that's taken care of we better go let everyone know we're alive. Apparently they're all looking for us."
She smiled. "I know." She said and laughed.
"Oh, that's right. Of course you'd already know that." He said remembering her little head sticking out the window.
"Alright then let's go." She said, grabbing his hand and going down the latter.
*********
Done with all the chapters!!! I'll just add on an epilogue and we're done!!! YAY! Wow, this chapter was a long one. Sorry it took so long. I didn't get many motivating reviews. Only one to be exact. Please review before I need to start begging! Well, I already kinda am but oh well. REVIEW!