THIS STORY HAS TWO CHAPTERS!
'Fallen Embers' and 'Flora's Secret' are by Enya, and 'Desert Rose' is by Sting. I do not own Digimon, nor any of it's characters. Oh yes, it isn't one of those fluffy romances. Although, it may seem that way in the beginning. Well, it is part fluff, but not all fluff. Keep reading, and you'll find some depression and dark thoughts in the mix. Also, the story is not as it seems, so if you hate Sorato, and you like Taiora, don't stop reading! If you hate Taiora, and like Sorato, don't stop reading! There are many twists and turns to this.
~ * (insert name here) * ~ = Starting of story being told in a person's point of view
~ * ~ = End of story being told by person's point of view
----------- = Scene change
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The final note of Matt's bass guitar hummed into silence.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" all of the females, girls and women alike, screamed in unison. Matt bowed, along with the members of his band.
"Thank you ladies and gentlem-," he paused, seeing no males in the audience "well, thank you ladies for coming to the concert tonight," Matt said, addressing the crowd of swooning girls that stood close to the stage, right below his feet "we will be signing autographs in about ten minutes, hope to see you then!"
The waving signs reading 'We LOVE Matt!' danced before his eyes. Occasionally, one screaming voice would reach his ears, telling him that they wanted him. It made him sick just thinking about it.
He shook his head, walking down the hallway towards his dressing room. He had always dreamed of being a star, but this wasn't what he had expected it to be. The click of his shoes against the hard, polished granite was at a steady, soothing rhythm. He placed his hand on the cold, metal doorknob turning it, feeling the latch recede into the small hole in the door. The usual chatter of excitement reached his ears:
"I can't believe that be are going to get the Matt's autograph!" a girl squealed, her voice trembling in excitement.
"Calm down, Kyoto, he's a boy as well. He feels, just as you and I do. He's not just some toy you can play with." a voice, sounding strangely familiar, said softly. Matt decided that he liked the second girl better of the two.
"He's not just a boy, he's the boy!" the annoying girl said, "Besides, you know him personally, Sora, it's not like it's a big deal for you."
"Seeing an old friend is always a big deal for me." Sora replied, "and he's not just a friend. He's something more."
Matt froze, halfway into the door. Sora was here? Jeez, if he had known she would be here, he would have fixed his hair or something!
Slamming the door behind him, he ran to his maroon colored chair, and plopped himself into it. He scooted the chair closer to the large mirror in front of him, which was framed by huge lights. He brought his face closer to it, checking the ends of his hair, making sure that his face makeup was still on properly. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He still looked okay, no major disasters. Normally, he wouldn't care what his fans thought of him, but this time was different. Sora would be here.
As a child, he had always covered up his feelings for her, hiding them under the act of feeling responsible for T.K. He had been a fool. He kept his ground, feeling that his image would be ruined if anyone found that he was head over heels for a tomboy.
Now, she had blossomed into a beautiful young woman and yet still, he could not express his feelings to her. If only-
"Hey! Yoo-hoo, Matt! Get out of La-la land and onto the stage! There are millions of girls waiting for you, and I'm afraid that we'll have a riot on our hands if you don't come out right NOW!" Matt's fellow band member yelled from Matt's doorway. He shook his head, regaining his senses.
"Coming, Keiichi! Jeez, you whine at me more than my mom does!"
A wide grin spread across Keiichi's face. "Hey, I didn't want to have to be the one to explain to all of the girls that Matt was in his dressing room, dreaming a love fantasy about some girl named 'Sora'."
Matt bristled, "How'd you know who I was thinking about?"
If possible, Keiichi's grin spread even wider, seeming to cover his whole face, "Well, when a guy's eyes start to get all misty and he starts murmuring 'Sora, Sora, Sora' over and over again, that kind of gives a small itsy-bitsy hint, don't you think?"
Matt leaned back in his chair again, relaxing. "I'll be there, just give me a few minutes." he said. Keiichi shook his head, retreating to the stage.
"Okay, if you say so. But remember: 'the longer you wait, the more fans you have to take'."
Matt smiled at the old saying that was repeated often among the band members. It was true too. The longer you made the fans wait, the more seemed to come. He sighed again, pushing himself up from his leather chair, walking towards the hall.
Time to get surrounded by a whole bunch of freaky girls again. he thought, a grimace overtaking his features. Then, he remembered Sora's voice, and smiled. At least she would be there.
------------------
Matt hastily threw the autographed picture of himself into the shaking girl's hands. Believe it or not, he was actually starting to get tired of looking at his face. The next girl came before him, handing him a picture.
"I- I- I wanted- you-you to know- know- that- I-I," she stuttered. Matt waved her off, handing her the picture.
"Yes, I know that you've had a crush on me since the third grade, when you went to elementary school with me and that you hope you marry me someday and have three children. Be sure to have a nice day!" Matt said, very quickly and sarcastically. Sora was so close that he could almost feel her breath upon him. The girl harumphed and headed towards the exit door.
"Another one bites the dust," Keiichi sighed. "Matt, would you stop scaring the girls away? She probably bought about, I'd say, judging from her looks...about fifty dollars worth of our CDs! Another fan bites the dust!"
Matt ignored Keiichi's comments. Sora was one girl away.
"I think you're like, so, like, totally cool!" one girl said to Matt, jaws working the gum in her mouth, her lips smacking as well. "And like, all of my, like, friends, like, think so too!" While she was talking it was revealed that she had rings in various places: her tounge, her ears, her nose, and her lip.
"Here's, like, a tip:," Matt, said imitating her speech, "like, lay off of the, like, metal." He shoved the picture into her hands. Keiichi gave a low whistle.
"I'd say you have PMS, but...that's not possible."
"Shut up, Keiichi."
Sora came towards him. Her dress was a silk, floral pattern, and fit her form very tightly. Her hair was drawn back loosely in a ponytail, and her face was in a warm smile.
"Hello, Matt! Long time no see, huh?" she greeted him, face flushed. Matt couldn't decide whether it was in delight, or if it was hot in the room. He felt his face go pink as well.
"Uh, hi Sora!" he replied. She must've been getting more and more beautiful by the day.
"Too bad you're not in any of my classes this year, Tai's in my math class and he's no help studying for that!" she rolled her eyes around, indicating her exasperation at her close friend.
"I-I'm pretty good at math." Matt said, without thinking. His slight blush grew to a deep one. Now he sounded stuck up! He put his head in his hands, thinking of how to get himself out of the situation. There was a long, uncomfortable silence.
"Hey, earth to Matt! We do have, oh about, ONE THOUSAND more girls in line, don't worry, you can take your time though, no rush, nope, not at all!" Keiichi said, sarcastically. Matt looked up. Keiichi was right, there was still a whole crowd full of girls to go, they hadn't even scratched the surface of them, and they had been working for half an hour!
"Whoops! Sorry, Matt, I don't want to hold everyone up, I better go." She started to walk away, dress moving with her body movements as she went.
"Wait!" Matt called to her retreating back. She turned around to face him.
"Yes?"
"Will you go ou- I mean..." Matt stuttered "I mean...you sound like you're having trouble with math. Maybe I could, you know, tutor you or something."
She smiled that disarming smile of hers. It didn't show her teeth, but her the corners of her lips curved upward in such a way that it was enough to melt his heart.
"Sure, I'd love to. Can you meet tommorow? The Odaiba park, maybe?"
Matt, withered in his seat under her lovely gaze from those auburn eyes.
"Sure," he said "Tommorow will be fine."
He watched her walk slowly to the exit, and his legs became more solid once she was out of sight. Keiichi laughed.
"Man oh man, now I've seen it all! The Matt Ishida, struck speechless by a girl! Now I can die a happy man."
Matt was brought back to his senses.
"Shut up, Keiichi." he said, motioning for the next girl to come forward.
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~* Matt *~
I walked towards Tai. He seemed to be going awfully fast. Maybe he had soccer practice or something...
School had just been let out- for an entire summer! I could still remember that glorious bell ringing in my ears, the signal of freedom for an entire three months. Now that bell was the sound of heaven!
I pushed my way past all of the yammering kids, making little progress.
"Excuse me, sorry." I said, as I stepped on the toes of various girls and boys. I saw Jun and ducked down among the crowd. Luckily, she didn't notice me. Now there was a girl who never gave up! Tai was even further away from me now.
"Hey! Tai! Wait up!" I yelled at the top of my lungs over the chatter of exitement. I ran forward through the crowd, pushing people away, similar to what a raging bull does. Hey, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.
Tai paused and slowly turned to face me. Suprisingly, he didn't look too happy. I caught up to him, momentarily pausing to catch my breath.
"Man, what's with you?" I panted, "It's summer vacation, why do you look so bummed?!"
"It's nothing." he replied softly, avoiding my face and turning to continue walking towards his house. I shrugged it off. It must've been a mood swing. I had 'em all of the time.
"Okay, whatever," I said, jogging up to him again, "I just want to ask you one question."
"Is it about Sora?" he asked, his face turned towards the oncoming traffic, still refusing to look at me.
"Yeah...it's about Sora...are you sure you're alright?" I said. He looked kind of sick and depressed. Like someone had died or something.
"I'm fine, come on, let's talk while we walk home." he said, voice still in that annoyingly soft, unexpressive tone. Definite mood swing. I was sure of it.
"Okay, let's go go go!" I said, imitating Mimi. I grinned. Still, no emotion came upon Tai's face.
--------------------
"I wanted to ask you some personal stuff about Sora," I said. He was looking down, kicking a coke can along down the gray pavement as we went. I scuffed my shoe against the curb. "I mean, you've known her all of your life. I wanna know the things that she like, what kind of movies she watches, you know, that kind of stuff."
Tai continued to keep his eyes to the sidewalk, as he smiled for the first time that day. It was a wistful smile, one that a man makes when remembering the good times of life.
"She likes daisies, white ones. She also likes the ocean. She used to say that it was so calm and comforting, like a lullaby sung to a child, that's what the waves are to her: a song. One ever-changing melody..." he trailed off, probably thinking about the other stuff on his mind.
The ocean. I was gonna have to think about that one. For a long time, the only sounds were that of the city: an occasional car passing, birds chirping in the small tress that lined the sidewalk's edge. I walked on the curbs for a while.
"Well, see ya then." Tai said. Unknowingly, I had arrived at my doorstep.
"Uh, okay Tai, thanks for the info. See ya around!" I said, in a desprate attempt to be cheerful. I walked up to the doorway. This mood of his was very dark. It scared me.
"Yeah, good luck on your date with Sora." he said, harshly.
His eyes met mine. They portrayed a feeling so intense that I could not begin to comprehense it. It was creepy. I shuddered, looking away, breaking that cold stare. I walked into the door, and slowly closed it behind me, putting the latch into place. I leaned up against it. What was wrong with Tai? Mood swings usually weren't that bad. Something about the way he looked at me was... unsettling, it somehow burned it's way into my soul, just as Sora's gaze had melted it. This was much different from Sora's. It was almost...violent.
I shook the thought from my miind. I had more important things to worry about. Like what to do with Sora this afternoon...
~ * ~
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~ * Tai * ~
"...good luck on your date with Sora." I called. Yeah right. I didn't want him to have good luck. If anything, I wished him bad luck. I had known Sora since she was a small child. I had always thought that our relationship had been more than just 'friends', but it wasn't. That's all we were. Just friends.
I stared at Matt hard, evaluating him. He wasn't worthy of Sora. He looked back, and expression of confusion and horror on his face. Good. I wanted him to be scared.
I never cried. Ever since I was little, I never cried. When I was a baby, my parents thought that something was wrong with me. All of the other parents complained about their children crying, but I never did. They took me to see a doctor, but nothing was wrong. I just found no reason to cry. Nothing was sad enough, or depressing enough, to ever make me even want to. The first time I did cry was in the digital world. Sora had been taken by Datamon. I thought I'd never see her again. My companion from childhood, the one I secretly loved...gone, in the clutches of some cold-hearted machine. That made me weak. Yes, the leader, Taichi Kamiya, had a weakness: the child of love. That was the first time I ever felt the need, or the want, to cry. And I did.
I thought that Sora loved me, but I guess not. People always say that they want the best for others, but that's a lie. Everyone wants what's best for them. Do what's best for yourself. Even animals, who usually take life as it comes, chase after one another's love. Donating to charities? That's for your image, for your ego. Giving your old clothes and toys away? You didn't need them in the first place.
I wanted Sora for me, not for some hotshot rock star. It was her choice, and she had chosen. I had lost the unofficial battle. I had given up everything for her. I followed her from my old home to my new one. I played on the same soccer team as her. I looked out for her. I gave her comfort when she needed it. Where was Matt when she thought her mother didn't love her? Probably playing his harmonica somewhere, doing something for his own selfish purposes. Maybe there was hope, maybe she still loved me, somewhere deep inside. Maybe.
Perhaps it was just me, but the whole world seemed dimmer that day. The sun didn't shine as brightly as it usually did. The flowers seemed to slowly wilt and die as I passed.
The beauty in my world had disappeared.
~ * ~