A/N: Happy New Year! Sorry for the delayed update. Holidays and all. ;)

Anyway, just as a warning, this chapter might upset you. I have a tendency to, well, not give people what they want or expect (just look at Chapter 27!), but more on that later.

Happy reading! :)

xXx

THIRTY-SEVEN

xXx

One Month Later…

Tai idly dribbled a soccer ball on the wet pitch, his movements clearing treks of slush and mud as flurries fell from the sky. Occasionally, flakes would fall from his hair, dusting his shoulders with the white ice, hitting his nose with splashes of cold.

Panting, he scooped up the soccer ball, spinning it briefly between his hands before he set it down on the green turf. He backed up, soccer cleats digging down to the soggy, dead grass, brown eyes alternating their focus between the soccer ball and the empty goal post some yards away from him.

He counted to three before he ran up and punted the ball, anxiously watching it through the snowfall as it collided with netting and bounced gently back to the ground. Satisfied, he went and retrieved it, placing it back on the white, circular penalty marker before repeating the kick. He did so ten more times before plopping his rear onto the cold pitch, elbows resting on his raised knees.

His winter holiday had sped past him, the merry festivities of Christmas and the New Year celebrated and quickly stored within his short term memory. The New Year was spent with his relatives. Christmas, with his grandparents and immediate family.

Christmas Eve, with Hana.

Tai inhaled deeply as he recalled the last night he spent with the aspiring ballerina, the cold streaming into his lungs and cooling him from the inside out. It had been the very night she had told him that she was going to ballet school, that she'd be abandoning her friends in Odaiba for a life focused solely on the art. And, unknowingly, she had set the stage for the pivotal moment when he had kissed her as though he had had nothing to lose.

What happened afterwards hadn't been at all what he had been expecting. He thought she'd be appalled with him, push him away and tell him what he did was wrong. But she didn't. The instant his lips reluctantly—achingly—parted from hers, she seized the lapels of his coat, her forehead resting against his frenzied heart, her body shaking as she breathed in the scent of him.

"You feel like you got a lot off your chest, Kamiya?" she phrased.

"I guess," he replied, not quite understanding her.

"Unburdened yourself? Liberated your conscience?"

"Su—"

"Good. 'Cause I haven't."

Her grasp on his jacket tightened. She yanked once and tersely, bringing Tai's head back down to her level. Their lips met a second time, and she leaned against him on her tip-toes, hands releasing hold of his coat as they crawled up his neck and through his hair. Her tongue poked into his mouth.

He relished the taste of her—spicy from the cider she had drunk, warm, and wet. He pushed her against her apartment door, and the resistance met gave way with one blind twist of the doorknob. Clumsily, they fumbled in the dark, getting pulled into Hana's bedroom as if it were a magnet to their desire. Before he knew it, shoes were chucked off. The coats followed. Hands wandered, tugging, roaming. Breath was swapped. Hips knocked. Skin touched air.

Whether it had been a spark of reason that flashed through his brain or the work of divine intervention, Tai, by some miracle or other, had stopped it. He broke their embrace, panting above her, brow rimmed with a thin coat of perspiration, his legs entwined with hers in the wrinkled mess of her bed. The spell had worn off like the frayed edges of a good dream, leaving the two of them in the vanishing remnants of their fantasy, hyperaware of the physical presence of the other, the breath that they shared, their near nakedness.

For a time, they remained motionless, the two of them listening to the other's steady breathing, soaking in the visceral scent of their sighs, the salt drying on their damp skin. He nearly lost himself again in the overload of his senses but was prevented when Hana spoke.

"I'm sorry," she had said, her fingertips grazing his cheek. She turned her face away, hiding it partially behind her other hand, wincing as the reality of their encounter sank into her tired mind. They weren't even dating and already they had gone to places some couples hadn't even trespassed.

Tai knew that she had been under a lot of stress. It was tension he had been aware of ever since the library incident, more so when she had tugged at his tie after the premiere of her ballet. As much as he wanted to help her blow it all off, he wasn't going to shame her by maximizing on the opportunity. Still, he could read her mortification as if it were letters written all over her body.

He uttered her name softly in the dark, removing the hand that covered her eyes.

"I just don't want you to think I'm some sort of hussy, Tai," she said, refusing to look at him. "I just—"

"Hey," he whispered gently, "I kissed you, didn't I?"

He smiled faintly, sliding a loose strap of her camisole back over her shoulder.

"You did, but—"

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

He stayed with her for the entirety of the night, surprisingly comfortable lying beside her in naught but his boxer shorts and she, dressed in nothing but her frilly camisole and her Christmas-themed panties. No more words were exchanged between them, and they woke to the rays of the sun streaming through Hana's bedroom window in wide slants. Outside her bedroom door, they could hear Mr. Kurosawa shuffling about, muttering to himself while he cleaned the mess in his kitchen.

Tai had been spooning her when they both woke, the fronts of his knees comfortably against the backs of her smooth legs, his arm wrapped around her waist. He had a feeling that she was awake, but to make sure, he planted a kiss on her jutting shoulder blade. She shifted over so that she faced him.

"Taichi…" she began, her hand running through his messy hair.

The way she looked at him, her green eyes open and probing, boring into his own, made him feel like an object under scientific scrutiny, like some cosmic phenomenon being looked at through the thick lens of a telescope, viewed with equal parts of wonder and sadness—wonder because he had at last been realized, and sadness because he would continue to be distant from her.

"You know I'm still going to the ballet school," she told him quietly.

He took the hand stroking his hair and left a kiss in the palm. It was, unfortunately, a truth that hadn't escaped his thoughts despite their unplanned intimacy. He wanted to keep her where she was, which was beside him.

"If it will be easier for you," she continued, since he had said nothing, "we can just avoid each other for a while. You don't have to visit me. You can erase my information from your phone. You can delete my email address. You—"

Tai put a finger to her lips.

"If it will be easier for you," he corrected, "I'll do whatever it takes."

"I'm not worth the trouble, Tai."

He considered her words for a moment, his lips thinning as her gaze veered elsewhere, eyelids lowering over her green irises. To her surprise, he broke out into a smirk.

"I wouldn't be here if you weren't," he said jokingly, chuckling afterwards. "Besides, you've probably already gotten me in trouble. How am I going to explain all of this to your dad? 'Hey, Mr. K! Weren't expecting to find me in your daughter's bed, were you?'"

Hana punched him playfully in the arm, her cheeks hurting as she unsuccessfully tried to contain her giggles. Her laughter only augmented when he retaliated by tickling her.

The memory made Tai smile faintly as he got up from the pitch, picking up his soccer ball and tucking it under his arm as he walked back home. The new trimester for the school year had started. Soccer season was coming up again. Training and long practices would take precedence on his weekday afternoons. A pile of homework would be waiting for him when he reached home.

His thoughts continued to drift to that memorable day as he walked the streets towards his apartment complex. His cleated feet trod over the wet sidewalk concrete, the icy flakes that fell onto his shoulders dampening his soccer training kit and turning the aerated fabric a deeper shade of blue. An overcast sky lingered above him, shedding its wan, grey light over his neighborhood, which, at that time of day, was an empty residential strip, punctuated sparingly with cheer only by way of the Christmas decorations some homes had yet to take down.

Still, other families had done away with the holidays completely, and dumpsters were overflowing with the dried, discarded skeletons of firs and spruces.

His luck on that fateful Christmas Eve morning had persisted throughout the day, though even in retrospect he wondered how he happened upon such good fortune after weeks of non-stop disaster. He had even managed to sneak out of Hana's room and apartment undetected (not to mention, clothed) during the time Mr. Kurosawa had spent getting ready in the bathroom. Hana had seen him off and had stood in the front doorway still in her camisole and underwear, waving as he walked backwards to the elevator.

"Call me?" he had motioned, to which Hana had replied with a laugh and a thumb's up.

He had been expecting to be lectured when he had finally arrived home, smelling of the floral perfume worn by a certain giggly, adolescent ballerina, and wearing the same clothes he had worn the day prior. What he had encountered instead was his mother humming to herself as she cooked in the kitchen and his father and sister engaged in watching a Christmas special on the television.

"Hey, Tai," Kari had greeted, turning around on the sofa when the front door clicked shut behind him.

"Uh, hey," he had said, still confused as to why he hadn't already been yelled at.

"You boys must have been up late for you to come home at this time," commented his mother as she walked out of the kitchen to greet him.

I actually had a really good night's sleep, Tai had thought. He smiled thinly at his mother.

"You know Tai and Matt, Mom," Kari had interrupted. She got up from the couch and joined her mother and brother. "They are almost always up to no good."

"Yes, well, I suggest you take a shower and change, Taichi. Your grandparents will be here soon."

"Grandparents?" he had squeaked, scratching the back of his head.

"…Yes," his mother said. She squinted suspiciously at him. "Grandma and Grandpa always come here for Christmas, Tai. Or have you forgotten?"

"W-Well," Tai had fumbled, "I… I mean, yes, I know, but I kind of… made plans?"

Mrs. Kamiya crossed her arms, a gesture that silently commanded her son to elaborate.

"I, um… I promised Hana I'd help her move in to her dorm at the ballet school," he admitted, turning red. "It's the last time I'll see her in a while—she's going on a skiing trip with her father and a family friend tomorrow—so I thought—"

His mother's arms relaxed. She had even ended up shrugging.

"That's perfectly fine, Taichi. Just make sure you're home for dinner. Hana and her father are welcome to come, too, if they want."

Tai was left staring unblinkingly down at his mother, his mouth agape but silent.

"Uh… All right," he had managed to say. "I'll, um, I'll… I think I'll go take a shower now."

Hurriedly, he had ended the conversation with his mother and had gone into his room, a hand running through his hair as his mind grappled over what miraculous thing had just happened.

Kari had followed him and she leaned against their bedroom door, which she had closed behind her. The smile on her face was smug almost to the point of looking evil, a look which didn't quite fit her innocent visage.

"You just had the best Christmas Eve-Eve of your life, haven't you?" she had said wryly. Tai's instant reflex had been to deflect. He scoffed.

"No," he snapped. Kari raised an eyebrow. "Okay, fine. I… Yeah. I had a really good Christmas Eve-Eve. And a really good Christmas Eve, so far, at least." He paused. "How'd you even know…?"

Kari chuckled.

"I told Mom and Dad when they came home last night that you went to sleep over at Matt's… seeing as you didn't come home from walking Hana to her apartment. Figuring out what likely happened between you two wasn't rocket science. Even Cody could guess as much."

Tai laughed cheaply.

"Heh… It wasn't, really," he said, struggling to find the appropriate words to describe his night with Hana. "I mean, what happened isn't what you think happened. I mean, it is, partially, but—"

Kari raised a hand.

"I don't need to know the details, Tai. In fact, spare me the retelling."

"O…kay, then."

An awkward silence filled the gap between brother and sister.

"So…" Kari began, "…is there anything else you'd like to announce?" Her pale brown eyes widened in anticipation. "Anything relating to you and Hana, maybe?"

It had been a question posed weeks ago, and, still, as Tai recollected the conversation with his sister, he didn't have a proper answer. Occasionally, he'd let the mystery behind his undefined tryst with Hana get to him, allowing him to brood and mull over the decision the two of them had arrived at the night of Christmas Eve. But more often than not, he accepted their agreement for what it was.

With a loud thud, Tai kicked the door to his apartment open, pulling the housekeys out of the lock as he stepped inside. He slipped his dirty cleats off, leaving specks of mud on the wooden floor. His mother would be thrilled to have the dirt welcome her home from her errands. He dropped his soccer ball beside his shoes and walked into the kitchen, realizing, as he opened the refrigerator door, that there were multiple people in his living room.

As soon as he pulled out a can of soda and nudged the refrigerator door shut with the back of his heel, he looked into the living room, one eyebrow piqued.

"Thanks for telling me you were throwing a party while I was away, Kari," he deadpanned.

He drank from his beverage as he joined his sister and their friends in the living quarters, brown eyes glancing at the black and white film playing on their television. The gibberish coming from the actors on screen told him that it was a foreign film.

"Sorry," Kari said sheepishly, looking at him from her place on the loveseat with T.K. "It wasn't really planned. We just got a package in the mail, and some of the stuff in it was meant for our friends, so I figured why not just invite everyone over to look through everything?" She gestured at a box perched on the dining room table.

"So explain the French film," he said.

He noticed that the rest of his friends seemed to be actively avoiding joining his conversation with his sister, even though the words he had to say to Kari weren't exclusive. Matt's blue eyes glanced a few times in their direction, though he kept silent, his arm lying lax over Sora's shoulders. Izzy was sitting on the floor, his back against the sofa, legs under the coffee table. His dark eyes shifted from the screen of his laptop to the T.V., ever the multitasker even in social situations.

Davis, Cody, Ken and Yolei were situated closer to the television. Cody and Ken were leaning back, their shoulders slightly hunched and their hands spread flat beside their hips. In contrast, Davis and Yolei stared mesmerized at the screen while they lay on their stomachs, Yolei's feet swaying gently and occasionally bumping Ken's arm.

"It was in the package she sent us from her training program in Russia right now," Kari answered. "The movie was labeled specifically for me. Since everyone was already here, I thought we'd watch it. There are subtitles, you know."

"Are you going to watch or just stand there, Kamiya?" Matt finally said, smirking when Tai shot him a glare. "We can make room for you on the couch."

Tai declined.

"I need to take a shower," he said, already making his retreat. He went to his room to grab his towel, tempted to look into the box on the dining table as he exited and made way to the bathroom.

His hands clenched as he wondered about the remaining contents in the package.

No, he told himself, before rushing into the bathroom and closing the door harder than anticipated.

The loudness of the door slam left his friends looking amongst themselves as Tai's feelings about the entire situation lingered in the air like a fog.

"There wasn't anything else in the box, was there?" T.K. asked Kari.

Kari looked down.

"No. There wasn't anything for him."

xXx

Tai stared up at his phone screen as he lay on his bed, wet hair dripping into his pillow. He stared at his list of contacts, thumb clicking methodically between the up and down arrows as he contemplated on a gap between two names. He could still hear the movie going on in the living room, interrupted every now and then by a cry from Yolei.

"Seriously?" he heard her exclaim often. "Just kiss her already!" which was usually followed by groans of frustration and the snickers of their friends.

Tai could sense the familiar emotion of dread creeping up on him, an effect that would leave him feeling much like the way the world outside looked—grey, overcast, lined in abandoned items and memories. He was prevented from doing so when he detected another outcry from the living room.

"Take it easy," T.K. advised. "Everything will sort itself out in the end."

"Just be thankful you're not the characters in the movie," Sora contributed.

"Man," said Davis, "that would suck!"

"Mimi says 'Hi,'" Izzy commented idly.

"She does?" Yolei burst, the tangent making her forget her anger over the movie plot. "How's she doing?"

Tai lowered the phone in his hands as he folded his arms behind his head, exhaling audibly through his nose.

Shortly after the New Year, Mimi had left to return to America. Tai had expected her to weep grandly at the airport, but she surprised him by exerting an astonishing amount of self-control—or, perhaps, confidence that she would see them all again and see them soon. Her goodbyes to him and the rest of their mutual friends had been brief and thoughtful, but she had spent the majority of the time before her flight sitting beside Izzy, head leaning against his shoulder, holding his hand while he explained various things to her on his ever-present laptop computer. Sometimes, judging by the laughter coming out of Mimi's mouth and the many cries of "Prodigious!" from Izzy's, Tai thought they were killing time by watching cat videos on the internet.

When the time had come for Mimi to board her flight, Izzy watched her go in silence, her absence already felt under his skin even though she was still within arm's reach. Tai leaned his elbow on Izzy's shoulder.

"You're not going to run after her or anything, Koushiro?" he had joked.

"Only if she was in danger of never coming back, Tai," Izzy had replied. He had smiled faintly as he looked up at Tai, and he read in the brief exchange of glances a shared comprehension. And so the computer genius offered his comrade a sympathy of which he was quite familiar.

"But she's coming back," Izzy had resumed, "And I'll be waiting for her."

Tai blinked and found himself staring at the bleak underside of the top bunk, Izzy's words still rattling within the borders of his skull—words he knew were spoken in reference to Mimi but couldn't be helped in their application to someone else. His cell phone was still in his clutch, his fingertips sensitive to its marred surface—the dents and scratches it secured from many a fall and smack on the ground; and, still, it functioned. Perfectly, in fact, even if it was missing a name in its memory.

He veered his gaze to the side. Based on the increased laughter seeping under the crack of his bedroom door, Tai gathered that something else of importance had happened while he had remained locked in his room. Resisting the urge to groan, he sat up, brown eyes regarding the piece of technology in his palm before he shoved it under his pillow.

His friends were still laughing when he emerged from his bedroom. One glance at his living room explained the entire ordeal to him. In her anger, Yolei had thrown a couch pillow at the T.V., which nearly tipped the expensive gadget off its stand.

"What'd I miss?" he said, joining his friends and squeezing himself between his sister and T.K. on the loveseat. The young teens squirmed, the looks on their disgruntled faces priceless as they were separated.

"Did you really have to do that?" Kari complained.

"What?" Tai quipped, grinning mischievously. "I can't sit in between my two favorite protégés?"

"I know why you did that," Kari murmured, not buying his excuse.

"Hey!" whined Davis, overhearing them. "What does that make me? Chopped liver?"

Tai promptly shut him up by chucking a sofa pillow at him. To his surprise, Davis dodged it, laughing and making a face at his senpai only to be hit smack in the nose with another pillow, one thrown by Matt.

"Your big head was in the way, Motomiya," was Matt's excuse as Davis rubbed his head.

The rock musician traded knowing looks with the soccer captain, Tai allowing a weak grin as he gave Matt a subtle nod.

"All right," Tai announced. He leaned back and stretched his arms across the back of the sofa, making Kari and T.K. increasingly uncomfortable. He looked amongst his friends, their faces all turned toward him, some gazes expectant, others encouraging, but all expressing some semblance of understanding. He smiled, oddly content with the way things had turned out.

"Who wants food?" he said. "Yamato's paying."

xXx

A/N: I know, I know. How upsetting. They didn't even have sex! (Though, if Tai hadn't gotten some sense knocked into him, I don't know what would have happened… The first time I wrote that scene, things played out quite differently… but I deleted it. Damn.)

And you're probably left wondering why Tai and Hana didn't just start dating after their night together. All will be explained—sort of.

Stay tuned, and thank you for reading!