Summary: When the princess runs away a war begins in which all sides want her dead or as a weapon. But Kari's heart is torn between her freedom and doing the right thing. With dangers at every turn the time to choose draws close and she's not ready.
Disclaimer: I do not own digimon, its characters an anything related
Chapter 12 – To Talk
The fire crackled in the dying light. It's soft glow danced on Kari's face as she rested her eyes, after being awake so long out of fear of getting caught TK had finally managed to persuade her that she should get some rest.
There had been a tension between the two for the last few days because of their fight that nobody dared to mention. Kari knew it had been wrong for her to react the way she did but the stress and guilt of killing the unnamed soldier that had gained her respect had gotten to her.
Things weren't so black and white anymore. She killed an innocent man for the selfish desire to stay free.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, looking up at TK.
"For what?"
"For not telling you about this," She said lifting her arm slightly, "because I didn't say anything I put everyone in danger, including Gatomon."
"It's okay," TK shrugged. He had done a lot of thinking himself and decided it wrong of him to react the way he did. There were secrets that he kept too.
"No, it's not. I had no right to endanger everyone like that. You could've been killed," snapped Kari.
"Don't blame yourself. I trust you had a good reason for not telling us. I trust you."
"You do?" asked Kari, slightly surprised. She had never really been anything but cold to her companion. He had no reason to trust her like he said he did. "Why?"
TK looked up at her, his sapphire eyes meeting her own ruby eyes, "Because we're friends." Kari must have looked shocked because he continued; "We've been travelling together for a over week now. That makes us friends."
"Bu-but I've been nothing but harsh to you," stuttered Kari.
"You're a good person. I can tell that and…"
"And what?"
"You remind me of someone I once knew?"
"Oh…what happened to them?"
"I didn't see her for a very long time and she vanished just before the war." A smiled tugged onto his face at the irony of the statement. Princess Hikari's disapearence was the cause of the war.
"I'm sorry," whispered Kari.
TK shook his head, "Don't be." A small smile grew on his face. "We used to play together all the time as kids. We'd sit at this pond and just talk for hours whilst our digimon went off and caused havoc. We made a promise on the night of the solstice that we'd be friends forever but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
"I knew from the start it wouldn't last. She was the daughter of a highly ranked nobleman," he explained, leaving out the part where her father was the highest a nobleman could get. "I was just a simple kitchen boy. My mother wasn't even married to my father. The scandel made it hard for us to find nwork in many places.
"Anyway, my friend's father, he didn't like me very much. It wasn't befitting of her to be friends with someone like me, especially as I'm male. She was bossy at times and didn't often realise how much trouble her actions got me and my mother into but she was a good friend.
"She tried her best to protect me from the goings on the the upperclass but, after a certain incident, her father made it so that if I ever went near her again I'd be killed on the spot.
"Me and my mother had to leave after that. It was even harder to get a job but we got by. Then there was the fire. King Ashnark found me and took me in. He's done so much for me. Without him I would be stuck in so no name town fearing the king's guard. I owe him so much for what he's done."
Kari nodded but remained silent. This was the first serious conversation she had really had with TK and several things he said struck her. She never really thought about how her actions would affect other people and him some cases still didn't. She never once stopped to think about the lives she would destroy by abandoning her duties. She was reckless and selfish but because of what TK said, she was forced to think about the harm her actions caused to others.
"When I was younger I only really had one friend," she said softly, looking up through the caps in the forest sky, "Before then I was always alone. Training meant everything to me. It meant I could get stronger, gave me more control. Control was something my life always lacked. In a way there was too much of it and in another there was none at all, at least none that I had over it.
"So when my friend came along, part of me, no matter how small, enjoyed the fact that I was in charge and he had to do as I wished and in return I had to look after him. I didn't realise until he was sent away that I was never in control. My actions cost me something I cared about.
"I through myself into training even more after that, control of the blade, contol of the body, and contol of the mind. Those were the three things I could always count on to be mine. After I saved you from the fire, the control of my mind slipped and somebody was able to get in.
"I couldn't fight it. I couldn't do anything. Something I had always relied on as being just mine was taken from me. The sorcerer managed to put a seal of his own magic on me so I could be traced because I lacked control.
"I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to worry all of you but deep down, saying it outloud would mean admitting I lost contol. I couldn't do that. I need that stability. When I lost my friend, it was all I had left."
TK nodded before smiling slightly. "Has something I said changed your opinion of me?"
"Why?"
"That's the most I've heard you willingly say about yourself since I met you – and by a long shot."
"Then I guess, yes, you did say something."
"You going to tell me what?"
Kari pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Maybe someday, just not yet. For now just know that, in a way, I'm glad to be your friend and I want to start over. No harshness and blocking you out completely."
"That sounds pretty nice."
"Yes," sighed Kari, "It does."
TK smiled at their newfound friendship and wondered what it was that made her change her mind.
She closed her eyes and began to drift off to sleep and whispered so softly that TK could only just hear, "It'll be nice to know how it feels to have a friend again after all these years."
-
The young princess laughed as Nyaromon landed on her head. "Come on silly, he's waiting for us."
"Is Tokomon going to be there too?"
"Uh huh," nodded the ruby eyed girl, "Now stop messing up my hair and let's go," she said with a grin, hopping out her room cheerfully before running down the corridors. "Catch me if you can Nyaromon," she shouted back as she ran round the corner.
She giggled and looked back, the small head that was her partner hopping along close behind her.
"Not – fair – you – have – legs – Kari," Nyaromon complained, her words punctuated with every bounce.
"You could still catch me if you tried to," teased the Kari, running round the corner and into someone. She was about to hit the floor when someone grabbed her wrist. She looked up into large chocolate brown eyes. "S-sorry," she apologised, turning red from embarrassment.
"No need to be princess. It is I who should apologise," replied the older brown haired boy, "Are you alright though?"
She nodded and smiled. "You sound awful pretty to be a kitchen boy. Why is that?" she asked, her curiosity picking up.
"I just…"
"Just what?"
"I just try to copy how important folks like you and the other royals speak your highness," he replied quickly before looking down at his side to his pink digimon, who was balancing a tray on his head precariously, "You should be on your way princess and I need to help Korromon before he spills her highness's tea otherwise Madame Aihiritu will be angry at me when she has to take it in."
Kari nodded happily, "OK. It was nice meeting you; maybe you can be friends with Takumi and me one day. Bye," she waved, taking Nyaromon in her hands and running off round the corner.
"Who's Takumi?" asked the brunette when she was gone.
"That's what she calls one of the kitchen boys for some reason," replied Korromon, trying to shrug which is difficult when you're only a head, and only succeeded in sending the tray balanced on his head flying.
"Oh no," the boy gasped, "I'm so in for it when Aihiritu finds out."
"He was nice, wasn't he?" commented Hikari.
"Yep, he was," replied Nyaromon before her eyes lit up, "Tokomon! Bye Kari," she said, hopping out of her hands and joining Tokomon.
The blonde looked puzzled. "What?"
"Can't tell you yet. It'll ruin the surprise. Come on, take my hand," she said handing her petite hand to him, smiling when he clasped his own around hers.
"Where are we going?"
Kari smiled mischievously, "Not yet, just follow me," she replied, giving a tug at his hand and pulled him along the corridors. Their footsteps echoing in the richly decorated palace until she pulled him into a courtyard, lit by the torches since it was night.
Kari let go of his hand and ran over to the Koi fishpond. "Come on Kumi," she said waving to him, or you'll miss your surprise."
The blonde laughed and ran to join his friend under the full moon. As he got closer he noticed there was a blanket laid out on the floor. "What's this for?"
"Your surprise. It's almost time."
"Time for what?"
"I've already told that I can't tell you," the princess said sitting the down on the blanket, beckoning for 'Takumi' to join her. "It's just as well that it's a cloudless night."
"Is that something to do with my surprise?"
The princess blushed, scratching the back of her head. "Did I say that out loud?" The boy nodded, a small grin on face. "Oops."
The young princess lay her head down on his lap and smiled up at him. "You're the best friend I've ever had."
"And you're mine."
Kari smiled. "It's time, look at the sky," she said, marvelling at something unseen to her friend's eyes.
"I can't see anything?"
"You can't see it?" asked Kari disappointed. The blonde shook his head. "Oh…" Suddenly she shook her head, "I forgot, only some people can see it but that's OK, take my hand."
He did as he was told and silently gasped as a silvery rainbow appeared in the night sky. "What is that?"
"It's a lunar rainbow. They appear on the winter solstice and the summer solstice to those with the ability to see them. I don't know why I can see them but father wasn't too happy when I told him. I wanted you to see it because you're my friend and I don't ever want to loose you."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"But my father…I'm scared he'll send you away."
The blonde looked at her, saddened by the tears forming in her eyes. "Don't worry, even if that does happen I promise we'll be best friends forever."
The princess wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. "Swear?"
"I swear."
"So do I. I swear by the lunar rainbow that you'll always be my best friend." She buried herself further into his chest to hide her face, rosy from being so close to him.
-
Kari opened her eyes slightly. "So it was you TK," she whispered silently to herself. "But why are you after me now? Surely you know how important freedom is to me, why would you want to take that away from me?"
So Kari knows and there's a more peaceful, although not completely peaceful relationship between the two. Kari's going to be struggling with how to act around him. Knowing that he was 'Takumi' brings out the old feelings she had for her friend, she now knows she caused lots of pain for TK, and there's also the fact there's a feeling of betrayal there.
Takumi was her only friend aside from Gatomon as a child and because of that he became really important to her, finding out that he's hunting her down so that some king she's never met can practically use her as a weapon is a huge betrayal of that trust she gave him. She knows that he cared about her so she doesn't know why he's acting the way he is.
Also, they're not the same people they were as children. They've grown up a lot. TK was more or less banished from his home with her mother and then because of the king's soldiers she died in a fire. King Asxhnark took him in, helped him, and trained him. Without the man TK proably would have died a long time ago so he feels indebted to him.
On the other hand Kari has isolated herself from all friendships, caring only about Gatomon, her training, and her desire to be free. Those are the only things that kept her going instead of giving in. She's also grown to hate her father more than anything else in the world. In other words, Kari is fiercely independant, is constantly trying to become stronger, and cares little about anything besides a few things, and is very temparmental, seeing how she's so angry at the world and her father.
During the journey so far, she's been forced to open her eyes a bit. Not everything is black and white. She used to hate the soldiers because they kept her locked up in the palace but she's realised they're just doing thier jobs. She;s also had to kill a man to keep her freedom, something which is going to make her see the world more clearly.
Please review. Next update will be soon.
Oh and can someone tell me the difference between Naruto and Naruto Shippodon. Or are they the same thing?
