Phantom of the Digiworld

Chapter 14 – The Moment

Kari knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep much that night. When the girls retired to their tent Kari willed them all to sleep soon so she could sneak out and meet T.K. by the lake. Unfortunately, Yolei, Sora, and Mimi had no intentions of falling asleep early. They were up for several hours contemplating why Davis had climbed Infinity Mountain and what had taken place when Tai and T.K. had found him there.

They questioned Kari many times about what she knew, but they were disappointed when she told them honestly that she hadn't a clue what had happened. The possibilities were endless, Kari realized, after her friends had gone through what seemed like hundreds of different scenarios.

Kari relished the moment when they were all finally asleep in their sleeping bags beside her. Quietly, she snuck out of the tent as she had done so in the nights before.

T.K. stood waiting for her in the trees just down the beach in their usual spot. He stepped out onto the sand as she approached.

The night air around them was hot and sticky, the humidity level much higher than it had been throughout the entire trip. Surprisingly, this was the first time she had noticed how the all of the time spent outdoors in the sun was turning his skin to dusky gold. In the dim moonlight, his cornflower blue eyes contrasted beautifully with his fair hair. Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached him. It was definitely not the first time she noticed how his thin t-shirt clung to his muscular chest.

As they met, her eyes were pulled to the shadow around his eye and the business aspect of their meeting was restored.

"How's your eye?" she asked, reaching up to lay a hand on his cheek below the bruise.

He shrugged his shoulders, but contradicted the casual motion by smiling down at her. "I'll live."

"T.K., what happened up there? Did Davis hit you?"

"Yeah," T.K. sat down on the sand, pulling her down beside him. They sat close together, the side of their hips and legs pressed together. "When we got to the top of Infinity Mountain Davis was just sitting there, staring down at everything through the clouds. Veemon was trying to convince him to climb back down but he just kept telling him he wasn't ready yet. When we saw that he was alright I wanted to go back and let him be, but Tai wouldn't listen to any of my persuasions."

Kari snorted, "Sounds like Tai."

T.K. continued, "He jumped off Pegasusmon and just started yelling at Davis for being insensitive and making everyone worry about him. I tried to pull him back, but I think he was actually getting through to Davis. At least, Davis genuinely looked sorry. Until he saw me, that is. I apologized again for not telling him about us sooner, but he flew at me. I blocked a few of his hits, but one got in," he pointed up at his eye. "Davis and I have fought before, but never like that. If Tai hadn't been there to pull Davis off me, I don't know what would've happened."

Kari grabbed T.K.'s hand in hers and he lifted it to kiss her fingers.

"Afterwards, we just laughed it off," T.K. said, "but something was still not right. I don't think he'll ever forgive me, Kari."

Kari could no longer feel his lips against her skin. He had lost a good friend because of her. What kind of girlfriend was she if she made such a bad thing happen?

As if he read her mind, T.K. said, "This isn't your fault, Kari." He kissed her lips sweetly. "Besides, you're definitely worth a black eye."

She felt an involuntary smile tug at the corners of her mouth as she kissed him back. As things heated up between them, Kari felt as hot and sticky as the night was. The lake, however, sat below them cool and inviting as the waves teasingly lapped against the shore. When she and T.K. finally pulled away from each other they stared out at the moonlit water.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kari asked him, unbuttoning her shorts.

T.K. looked beyond flustered as she stripped in front of him, revealing her lacy pink undergarments. Before he could manage to say anything in response, however, she raced into the surf. He didn't hesitate to follow, pulling his cotton t-shirt over his head as he ran after her.

Before she turned to look back at him, he dove beneath the surface and sneakily swam behind her, careful to stay low on the sandy floor so she wouldn't notice him. Suddenly, he grabbed her ankles and flipped her down into the water.

She screamed out in surprise before dipping beneath the waves. T.K. was laughing as he emerged from the surface, wiping the water droplets from his eyes.

"Shh, Kari," he told her as she regained her footing. "You'll wake everyone up."

She shoved his chest playfully and pushed him backwards into the water.

"Or maybe you'll wake up Seadramon," he teased. "We know one lives here."

Kari shivered involuntarily. She hadn't thought about Seadramon. "But without the black gears or black rings he's bound to be friendly now."

"I don't know," T.K. said, trying to scare her. "I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night."

She wrapped her arms around his torso, painfully aware of the distance between her and the campfire where Gatomon, Patamon, and the other digimon were sleeping soundly.

He returned her embrace. "I'm just kidding. I didn't mean to scare you, Kari."

She laughed as she leaned her head against his bare shoulder. Her fear of a cranky underwater digimon was fading but the need to be close to T.K. was most definitely not. They were floating now in the water, the waves rocking them rhythmically against each other.

All of the tension she had been building up the last few days eased out of her body as the cool water refreshed and revived her. Kari felt invigorated holding onto T.K. like she was. Each time his bare skin would brush against her she could swear there were electric currents traveling down her body. Surprisingly, even though she was extremely aware that she was wearing next to no clothing, she was not feeling self-conscious at all. There was a certain freedom in being naked against him, knowing he wouldn't judge, just accept and love her body and all its flaws. She had never guessed that it would be so pleasurable either.

A soft sigh escaped her as his lips trailed lightly over her neck and collarbone. Their bodies pressed closer together, the meager layers of thin fabric that separated them were nearly nonexistent in the water.

Kari was slightly surprised when she felt the sandy bottom rise up beneath her feet. She hadn't noticed they were moving back towards the beach, but grabbed his hand as they dragged themselves out of the water and onto the pure white sand.

Her heart was racing so fast the next thing she knew they were lying in the sand wrapped around each other as he ravished her mouth with his. Hands were moving quickly as they struggled to remove the last layer of clothes between them.

There was a brief moment of hesitation for both of them; the silent realization that their relationship was reaching a new level and the understanding that if they wanted to stop, this was the moment. Then their eyes met. For Kari, it was just like being on stage performing with him. She knew that whenever she felt nervous all she had to do was look into his eyes to calm her nerves. At this moment as well, she stared into those beautiful blue depths and felt no uncertainty.

It was that moment she knew. No, this was not the point where she fell in love with him or realized that she loved him; she had always loved him and she suspected that she had been in love with him for the greater majority of her life. This was the moment where she became fully aware of just how deeply she was in love with him.

Seeing a look of concern in her eyes, T.K. hesitated momentarily. He leaned forward until his mouth was right next to her ear and whispered, "Kari, I love you so much."

"I know," she replied as she reached down to touch him. "T.K., I'm in love with you."

He smiled as his fingers caressed her. The pleasure he showed her was unlike anything she had ever experienced and left her aching for more.

Much later, when they finally collapsed into the sand, the tiny annoying granules clinging to their bodies, T.K. hummed in her ear as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

He stroked her soft hair and whispered their favorite lines: "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime…Lead me, save me from my solitude…"

He motioned sliding a ring onto her finger.

"Say you want me with you, here, beside you…" he continued. "Anywhere you go let me go too…Kari, that's all I ask of you."

She laughed as he changed the last line to fit her name instead of Christine. So completely absorbed in each other and their happiness, neither of them noticed the pair of eyes that watched them from behind the trees.