DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon or any of its characters. I just like to torture them. Please don't sue.
Authoress's Notes: I had the ending done before I ever posted part one, so begging for it to be Dakari...well, I won't say it was wasted effort, but I think that with the end of part two I'm not giving away any secrets by saying you were just begging for something you already had. Take it for what you will.
Mmm. We left Davis walking away crying and depressed, Kari disgusted with herself for pulling a stunt like that and wishing she hadn't, and Tai burning an omelet. ^.^** (typical...) I'm thinking that I should just shut up...or I could ramble on for hours and hours and hours...
*random reader pulls mallet from malletspace*
OKAY, OKAY!!! I'LL SAY ALL THE STUFF I NEED TO AT THE *END*!!! *ON WITH THE FANFIC!!!!!!* *authoress runs, screaming in terror*
Kari had flopped onto her bed, having slammed her door just in time to keep Tai from seeing her fresh crop of tears. ~Davis...I'm sorry...I thought I could get rid of you without hurting you...but now that I *have* hurt you...I realize now...I never wanted to get rid of you in the first place. I'M SUCH AN IDIOT NOT TO HAVE NOTICED IT BEFORE! I *CARE* about him! I CARE ABOUT YOU DAVIS MOTOMIYA!~ She cried into her pillow.
"Kari?" It was Gatomon.
Another sob shook Kari's small frame. "...What is it, Gatomon?"
"Funny...I was about to ask you the same question."
"It's *not* funny, Gatomon...I'm such an idiot. Just...go away."
"Kari?"
"I SAID GO AWAY!!!"
Gatomon laid down next to the bed, listening to Kari's sobs, but not asking anything. Kari cried herself to sleep.
It had been early when Kari had gotten home, and she woke up around midnight with a headache.
She stumbled out of bed and went into the bathroom to get an aspirin. ~Ugh...I hate myself for this whole mess...Davis will never forgive me...I don't care if he ever talks to me again, all I want is for him to forgive me, but he never will. This is all Sora's fault!~ Kari stopped her train of thought. ~No it isn't. I can't blame her for something I could have backed out of at any time, even if she did think it up. I felt uneasy when even *Jun* stuck up for him. I felt really bad not answering her, and it turns out she was right about him. I should have done what I thought was right and just forgotten about the whole idea. I'm such an idiot!~
"Kari?" Gatomon had come to the bathroom door and was looking at her curiously. Kari was leaning against the sink for support, still in her jeans and t-shirt, her unclipped hair falling across her face. "What happened tonight? You're a mess...Did he--?"
~*I* hurt *him* and he's getting the blame for my appearance?~ "No, Gatomon, he didn't try anything like that."
"Then what?"
Kari knelt on the floor, hugging her digimon. Then she held her away at arm's length. "I was wrong about him. Remember I told you that I was going on this date to make Davis realize that I'm not all he thought I was?"
Gatomon frowned and wrinkled her nose, her whiskers twitching ever so slightly. "Yes...but I still don't understand."
"Well, he found that out. I'm not perfect. He found out I'd stoop low--very low--to get him off my case. And I found out he's not all I thought he was. He is so much more than I ever imagined..."
"More of a jerk?" Gatomon asked incredulously, knowing Kari's opinion of him had never been really high.
"No, Gatomon, more...better...I need to talk to Sora." Kari stood and went into her room, shutting Gatomon out as she headed for the phone. Gatomon was smart enough to *not* follow her.
The phone rang several times, and Kari began to wonder if Sora and her mother turned off the ringer when they went to bed. Finally Sora answered, sounding all out of breath.
"Moshi moshi?"
"Sora..."
"Kari! Sorry I took so long to answer, I had to run upstairs from the flower shop. We're working overtime...we're swamped. The number down there and the one up here are different, you know...hey, did you just now get home? Are you all right? Did Davis--"
"No, but Gatomon thinks I look like he did. And no, he got me home by nine."
"Then what happened?"
"I was crying, and I fell asleep. I just woke up needing an aspirin."
"Whoa, whoa, back up. Why are you calling me *now*? Why didn't you wait until in the morning?"
"It's a long story, but I'll try to make it short. Down out front of the apartment building, I told him he couldn't come all the way up here to the apartment. He protested, and I protested his protesting, and he realized that I hadn't meant any of the stuff about wanting to go on a date." The tears decided that it was time for an encore. "He...remembered how I'd behaved...so differently from how I usually am...and he figured it out. It was a good plan, Sora, but we both underestimated him."
Sora sighed. ~It's all starting to make sense.~ "Go on, Kari. I'm not the one who needs to be reassured right now."
Kari choked back a sob. "Anyway, while I was thinking...about how wrong it was turning out--he was crying, Sora...not angry, *crying*--he told me not to tell him that it wasn't true, and he asked if it was true, and I didn't answer. He walked off into the night...and I started crying...and I realized...that I never meant to hurt him...but I *did* hurt him..."
"Kari, Kari, you can't do a thing about it *tonight*. It's late, so whatever you do will have to wait until morning. So calm down and finish, please."
Kari took a few deep breaths, and continued. "I had thought that I could get rid of him without hurting him, Sora. But then when he started crying, I realized how deeply he cared about me, and that I had totally ignored it...and, Sora..."
"Yes?"
"I never really wanted to get rid of him!" Kari's tears fell unchecked.
Sora sighed. "Are you all right, Kari? Will you be okay until in the morning? You won't try to hurt yourself?"
"No! That didn't even cross my mind. I have to at least apologize to him. But he'll never forgive me! I know he'll never like me, and I wouldn't blame him for that, but if he never forgives me..."
"Kari."
"Oh, Sora, I'm such an idiot! I never should have listened to you!"
~Am I supposed to disagree with that?~ "Kari!"
"Sorrraaa...I hate myself."
"KARI!"
Kari jumped. "What?"
"You've already shown yourself to have a habit of underestimating Davis. He's probably more hurt over the fact that he thinks you *still* don't care about him than the fact that you did this. If you tell him how you feel--that you care about him, then he might still forgive you. Do you want me to go with you? I put you up to this and I need to apologize to him, too."
"No...this is something I need to do by myself."
"Okay, I'll wait until you apologize first. That way I can keep getting onto you to hurry up and do it so *I* can apologize and stop having a guilty conscience."
Kari smiled in spite of herself. She took a deep breath. "Okay. I'll go to school early--he'll be there with his soccer ball, practicing. I'll do it as soon as I can."
"That's my girl! Listen, Mom is at the door to our apartment up here wondering who in the world I'm talking to at this hour, so I need to get off the phone and explain why I have mysterious people calling me at 12:30. And you need to get back to bed if you want to get there as early as he does."
"Yeah. Thanks. Good night."
"Good night."
They both hung up.
Gatomon came back into Kari's room and laid on the bed. "I heard most of that."
It didn't bother Kari. It saved her having to repeat all of it to her digimon. She reached for a nightgown and began changing into it. "I know. Did you hear the important stuff?"
"You mean about your feelings for Davis?" Gatomon sat up on her front paws.
"No, I meant the stuff about the illegal aliens from Mars that are setting up a concentration camp for idiotic teenagers that I'm going to get sent to if I don't apologize soon." Kari threw the t-shirt she'd been wearing at Gatomon.
Gatomon bopped it off her head with a large paw and wrinkled her nose at Kari. "I'll take that as a yes."
The jeans sailed across the room and hit Gatomon squarely on the nose.
Morning finally came, finding both Kari and Davis pretty far down in the dumps.
Davis walked around the field, slowly kicking his soccer ball a few inches ahead of him each time. It made a soft, hollow, rubbery sound. punt...punt...punt...punt.
~Man, I think I liked it better before when Kari said she'd never go on a date with me. I didn't know how she really felt. Why did she have to go and ruin all my chances? Why did *Jun* have to talk to her?~ He'd angrily confronted his sister about it when he'd gotten home, which was after he'd cried out all his tears. She tried to tell him that she'd asked Kari to give him a chance, but he hadn't believed her. ~Why? It's not fair! No one ever listens to me and the only girl I ever cared about hates me and even my own stupid sister isn't on my side!~
Punt! The soccer ball went a quarter way across the field. Davis ran after it, releasing pent-up energy and anger. ~This is for Jun!~ PUNT! Halfway. ~For Matt calling Jun to get Jun to talk to Kari!~ PUNT! Three-quarters. Davis whirled around to kick it back to where he'd been a minute ago. ~FOR WHOEVER THOUGHT UP THIS STUPID PLAN, EVEN IF IT WAS KARI!~ *PUNT!!!*
The ball flew through the air seven or eight feet off the ground, back in the opposite direction. Davis ran as hard as he could after it. He heard it hit the ground, and then all of a sudden it was flying back towards him. He wasn't really playing soccer, and it was coming at the right height, so, confused by the fact that it was coming at all, he let himself catch it with his hands.
"That was some nice footwork," he heard. Then he realized someone had to have kicked it back at him, and he looked up to see...
"Kari?!"
It was Kari, wearing a pink and yellow knee-length skirt and a pale yellow button-front blouse.
~Whoa...why is she dressed up today and not last night? Is this another stupid plan to make me feel stupid?~ He eyed her, frowning over what it might mean, but enjoying the sight of her nonetheless.
"Davis...I know you must be wondering...why I'm here so early...and...truth is...I'm here to apologize."
He tilted his head to one side, again far too dazed to talk.
"You were right. The plan last night was to make you so mad at me that you'd hate me and get off my case. I figured that way, it wouldn't hurt anybody, I'd be free of you asking me every day, and you'd decide that I wasn't as great as you thought and go find another girl. I never meant to hurt you, Davis. Honest I didn't. I wanted you to just get off my case *without* having you get all depressed." She paused a minute, thinking that he might say something, but he didn't, and she continued. "But...last night...when you got so upset"--she wisely didn't mention that he had cried--"I started crying, things were going so far differently than what I had planned. I realized that you can't plan feelings. You asked if you were right, and I didn't tell you that you were, so you just left. You didn't see that I was hurting, too. I was. I was crying. And then, after all this time, after I'd finally caused you all that pain, I realized that I never wanted to get rid of you in the first place. Never, Davis. I really do care about you and how you feel. I--I want to apologize. I know I'll never get it, but let me ask for your forgiveness. Davis--please--can you ever forgive me?"
Davis was still in shock. Kari Kamiya, the prettiest girl in the school--the city--the whole *world*--was asking him to *forgive her* for trying to make him go away, and was practically admitting that she loved him?
He dropped the soccer ball and continued to stare at her.
~He hates me! He can't believe that I was bold enough to even ask!~ Tears welled up in Kari's eyes, but she refused to let them fall until she'd gotten a reaction, even if all he did was just turn away again and walk off, leaving her to her tears.
He stood for a few more seconds, and then...
"WAAAAAAAAAA-HOOOOOOOOOO! Yeah! All right!" Davis leapt into the air, cheering and shouting like he'd won the lottery. He kicked the soccer ball off and started doing some kind of victory dance. He kept going, cheering and shouting, until Kari (who, due the movements his dance required, was now behind him), put a hand on his shoulder.
He stopped and blushed. He turned around to face her. Trying to keep a straight face, thinking that this was pretty serious stuff, he said, very quiet and low, "I forgive you."
Kari took a step back. "You do?" she asked, stunned.
"Yeah...Kari, you're the prettiest, nicest, kindest, politest, smartest girl I've ever known. I've had a crush on you for as long as I've known you. If I don't forgive you I'll shoot myself later."
Kari laughed, which made him smile.
"Hey, Kari?"
"Yes, Davis?"
"Do I still have to ask you to go out with me?"
"Yes," Kari told him, still laughing.
"Kari, will you please, please, please be my girlfriend?"
"Of course!"
The pair laughed, reveling in the joy of the moment.
Kari tripped, and fell forward. Davis caught her in his arms. She stood, but didn't pull away. They were close, very close. Kari caught her breath. Davis blinked, not sure what to do. The light caught in Kari's hair, giving her a halo, and she was so beautiful, and in his arms...
At the same time Kari was admiring how handsome Davis really was. Even with all their times in the DigiWorld when he'd overcome his own struggles for the sake of the group and led them on to victory, and all the times he'd accomplished something worth noticing, she'd never looked at him in quite this light. (A/N: I *swear* there was no pun intended.)
"Kari?"
His voice startled her. "Mmm? What is it, Davis?"
"You can call me Daisuke. But nobody else better try it."
She smiled. "Okay, *Daisuke*. You caught me off guard. That's not what I thought you were going to say."
"What *did* you think I was going to say?"
Kari blushed. "I thought you were going to ask if you could kiss me."
That had long been one of Davis's secret dreams, but he hadn't wanted to push her--that and he was nervous. Very nervous. He blinked, and looked away for a second. "Say, Kari, if I had asked that, what would you have said?" He returned his gaze to her ruddy brown eyes.
She smiled. If someone had told her just four short days before that she would be saying this to him, of all guys, she would have died. "I would have said that it would be an honor to get my first kiss from you."
His eyes lit up. She leaned a little closer against him. They both closed their eyes at the same moment and their lips touched. The kiss became deeper as the moments went on, uninterrupted, until they were both out of breath. Davis was actually the one to break it off. "Kari?"
"Yes?"
"Is it supposed to feel like you're flying a million miles an hour and you can't breathe and you're the luckiest person alive and...and..."
"I don't know, but that's what I feel, too."
They both laughed again and spent the time together until more kids started showing up for school and the bell rang for the first class of the day.
For the most part, the other students who saw Davis and Kari together simply assumed the date went well. Only Davis, Kari, Gatomon, Veemon, Sora, Tai, Agumon, Jun, T.K. and Matt ever knew differently. And they were content to *let* people think that--even Jun was merciful and didn't spread it among her friends that her little brother had cried over a girl.
Kari didn't get a chance to talk to T.K. until lunch that day, so all morning she worried what he would think of her and Davis. When she told him what had happened between them he congratulated her, and assured her that as her best friend he was truly happy for her, and that it didn't change things between them. Kari was relieved, to say the least. "But I thought that you wanted me to get rid of him because you..."
T.K. laughed. "Nah. If I wanted to ask you on a date--and I don't, I like our friendship the way it is--I wouldn't have given him a second thought. I would have just asked you. I wanted you to get rid of him because he was driving *you* bananas, but if you like him now, then I don't have a problem with him, and even if I did have a problem, I wouldn't be pushing you to drop him."
Davis actually started getting T.K.'s name right. Now that he was no longer "competition", they could be friends.
Sora apologized to Davis for putting the idea in Kari's head, and he forgave her, too, since it had made Kari realize that she loved him.
That same day, Jun cornered Matt in a study hall that they had in the same period, and managed to get her lips on his for about five seconds before he pushed her away and ran for the boy's bathroom. Even there she stood waiting outside the door for twenty minutes, until the bell rang. Matt swore that to pay for all the therapy he would need to survive the trauma of it, Kari, Gatomon, T.K., Patamon, Davis, Veemon, Sora, and Biyomon would all have to move in with him and be his slaves for the rest of their lives. Since no one offered to actually "pay their debt" he spent the next couple of weeks assuring them that he could drop dead any second.
Veemon tried to convince Gatomon that since their Digipartners were together, that they belonged together as well, but Gatomon's affections continued to lie with Patamon.
On reflection, Kari decided that the whole thing had been for the best. Of course, a lot of pain could have been avoided by just going on a date with Davis like he'd asked, but she wondered if they would have ever been as close as they were already. Also, her bond with T.K. had been really strengthened in a way it wouldn't have been otherwise, and she'd learned a few lessons about life, and about herself.
One of the main life lessons being to follow your heart instead of your head.
A/N: DA-DUM! IT'S DONE! Not bad, considering I'm not even a fan of the coupling--I prefer Takari to Dakari. BUT, I liked the idea, it had a lot of potential, and besides, I think this is my way of justifying (in my mind) my crush on T.K.. This way I don't feel guilty about leaving Kari with a broken heart...UM, ANYWAY...like I said in part one, this is my first 02 fic. I'm pleased with how this turned out. AWWW! IT WAS SO CUTE, BUT IT'S ALL OVER!!! Waaah!
Like I said at the beginning of part 2, when 02 first came out (or rather when I first started watching it, I've been a Digimon fan since season one but only since the first of 2001 have we gotten the channel so that I could watch it on a daily basis) I was not a big fan of Davis's. And I admit, the *original* idea (like I said, I had the idea quite a while before I decided it was writable) was for T.K. to suggest it and for everything to go like Kari planned so that she could go out with him in peace. But when the Digimon movie came out, I saw another side to Davis. One that struck a chord with me. So when this idea resurfaced in my brain (yes, I'm so disorganized I can't even keep my thoughts straight) I decided to tweak it a little and I like this far better than anything I could have written with the original idea.
I want to thank all of you who reviewed, especially Dyani on part one. That was both the longest and the nicest review I've gotten on any of my writing on all of the FFN. *authoress blushes* THANK YOU!
Authoress's Notes: I had the ending done before I ever posted part one, so begging for it to be Dakari...well, I won't say it was wasted effort, but I think that with the end of part two I'm not giving away any secrets by saying you were just begging for something you already had. Take it for what you will.
Mmm. We left Davis walking away crying and depressed, Kari disgusted with herself for pulling a stunt like that and wishing she hadn't, and Tai burning an omelet. ^.^** (typical...) I'm thinking that I should just shut up...or I could ramble on for hours and hours and hours...
*random reader pulls mallet from malletspace*
OKAY, OKAY!!! I'LL SAY ALL THE STUFF I NEED TO AT THE *END*!!! *ON WITH THE FANFIC!!!!!!* *authoress runs, screaming in terror*
Kari had flopped onto her bed, having slammed her door just in time to keep Tai from seeing her fresh crop of tears. ~Davis...I'm sorry...I thought I could get rid of you without hurting you...but now that I *have* hurt you...I realize now...I never wanted to get rid of you in the first place. I'M SUCH AN IDIOT NOT TO HAVE NOTICED IT BEFORE! I *CARE* about him! I CARE ABOUT YOU DAVIS MOTOMIYA!~ She cried into her pillow.
"Kari?" It was Gatomon.
Another sob shook Kari's small frame. "...What is it, Gatomon?"
"Funny...I was about to ask you the same question."
"It's *not* funny, Gatomon...I'm such an idiot. Just...go away."
"Kari?"
"I SAID GO AWAY!!!"
Gatomon laid down next to the bed, listening to Kari's sobs, but not asking anything. Kari cried herself to sleep.
It had been early when Kari had gotten home, and she woke up around midnight with a headache.
She stumbled out of bed and went into the bathroom to get an aspirin. ~Ugh...I hate myself for this whole mess...Davis will never forgive me...I don't care if he ever talks to me again, all I want is for him to forgive me, but he never will. This is all Sora's fault!~ Kari stopped her train of thought. ~No it isn't. I can't blame her for something I could have backed out of at any time, even if she did think it up. I felt uneasy when even *Jun* stuck up for him. I felt really bad not answering her, and it turns out she was right about him. I should have done what I thought was right and just forgotten about the whole idea. I'm such an idiot!~
"Kari?" Gatomon had come to the bathroom door and was looking at her curiously. Kari was leaning against the sink for support, still in her jeans and t-shirt, her unclipped hair falling across her face. "What happened tonight? You're a mess...Did he--?"
~*I* hurt *him* and he's getting the blame for my appearance?~ "No, Gatomon, he didn't try anything like that."
"Then what?"
Kari knelt on the floor, hugging her digimon. Then she held her away at arm's length. "I was wrong about him. Remember I told you that I was going on this date to make Davis realize that I'm not all he thought I was?"
Gatomon frowned and wrinkled her nose, her whiskers twitching ever so slightly. "Yes...but I still don't understand."
"Well, he found that out. I'm not perfect. He found out I'd stoop low--very low--to get him off my case. And I found out he's not all I thought he was. He is so much more than I ever imagined..."
"More of a jerk?" Gatomon asked incredulously, knowing Kari's opinion of him had never been really high.
"No, Gatomon, more...better...I need to talk to Sora." Kari stood and went into her room, shutting Gatomon out as she headed for the phone. Gatomon was smart enough to *not* follow her.
The phone rang several times, and Kari began to wonder if Sora and her mother turned off the ringer when they went to bed. Finally Sora answered, sounding all out of breath.
"Moshi moshi?"
"Sora..."
"Kari! Sorry I took so long to answer, I had to run upstairs from the flower shop. We're working overtime...we're swamped. The number down there and the one up here are different, you know...hey, did you just now get home? Are you all right? Did Davis--"
"No, but Gatomon thinks I look like he did. And no, he got me home by nine."
"Then what happened?"
"I was crying, and I fell asleep. I just woke up needing an aspirin."
"Whoa, whoa, back up. Why are you calling me *now*? Why didn't you wait until in the morning?"
"It's a long story, but I'll try to make it short. Down out front of the apartment building, I told him he couldn't come all the way up here to the apartment. He protested, and I protested his protesting, and he realized that I hadn't meant any of the stuff about wanting to go on a date." The tears decided that it was time for an encore. "He...remembered how I'd behaved...so differently from how I usually am...and he figured it out. It was a good plan, Sora, but we both underestimated him."
Sora sighed. ~It's all starting to make sense.~ "Go on, Kari. I'm not the one who needs to be reassured right now."
Kari choked back a sob. "Anyway, while I was thinking...about how wrong it was turning out--he was crying, Sora...not angry, *crying*--he told me not to tell him that it wasn't true, and he asked if it was true, and I didn't answer. He walked off into the night...and I started crying...and I realized...that I never meant to hurt him...but I *did* hurt him..."
"Kari, Kari, you can't do a thing about it *tonight*. It's late, so whatever you do will have to wait until morning. So calm down and finish, please."
Kari took a few deep breaths, and continued. "I had thought that I could get rid of him without hurting him, Sora. But then when he started crying, I realized how deeply he cared about me, and that I had totally ignored it...and, Sora..."
"Yes?"
"I never really wanted to get rid of him!" Kari's tears fell unchecked.
Sora sighed. "Are you all right, Kari? Will you be okay until in the morning? You won't try to hurt yourself?"
"No! That didn't even cross my mind. I have to at least apologize to him. But he'll never forgive me! I know he'll never like me, and I wouldn't blame him for that, but if he never forgives me..."
"Kari."
"Oh, Sora, I'm such an idiot! I never should have listened to you!"
~Am I supposed to disagree with that?~ "Kari!"
"Sorrraaa...I hate myself."
"KARI!"
Kari jumped. "What?"
"You've already shown yourself to have a habit of underestimating Davis. He's probably more hurt over the fact that he thinks you *still* don't care about him than the fact that you did this. If you tell him how you feel--that you care about him, then he might still forgive you. Do you want me to go with you? I put you up to this and I need to apologize to him, too."
"No...this is something I need to do by myself."
"Okay, I'll wait until you apologize first. That way I can keep getting onto you to hurry up and do it so *I* can apologize and stop having a guilty conscience."
Kari smiled in spite of herself. She took a deep breath. "Okay. I'll go to school early--he'll be there with his soccer ball, practicing. I'll do it as soon as I can."
"That's my girl! Listen, Mom is at the door to our apartment up here wondering who in the world I'm talking to at this hour, so I need to get off the phone and explain why I have mysterious people calling me at 12:30. And you need to get back to bed if you want to get there as early as he does."
"Yeah. Thanks. Good night."
"Good night."
They both hung up.
Gatomon came back into Kari's room and laid on the bed. "I heard most of that."
It didn't bother Kari. It saved her having to repeat all of it to her digimon. She reached for a nightgown and began changing into it. "I know. Did you hear the important stuff?"
"You mean about your feelings for Davis?" Gatomon sat up on her front paws.
"No, I meant the stuff about the illegal aliens from Mars that are setting up a concentration camp for idiotic teenagers that I'm going to get sent to if I don't apologize soon." Kari threw the t-shirt she'd been wearing at Gatomon.
Gatomon bopped it off her head with a large paw and wrinkled her nose at Kari. "I'll take that as a yes."
The jeans sailed across the room and hit Gatomon squarely on the nose.
Morning finally came, finding both Kari and Davis pretty far down in the dumps.
Davis walked around the field, slowly kicking his soccer ball a few inches ahead of him each time. It made a soft, hollow, rubbery sound. punt...punt...punt...punt.
~Man, I think I liked it better before when Kari said she'd never go on a date with me. I didn't know how she really felt. Why did she have to go and ruin all my chances? Why did *Jun* have to talk to her?~ He'd angrily confronted his sister about it when he'd gotten home, which was after he'd cried out all his tears. She tried to tell him that she'd asked Kari to give him a chance, but he hadn't believed her. ~Why? It's not fair! No one ever listens to me and the only girl I ever cared about hates me and even my own stupid sister isn't on my side!~
Punt! The soccer ball went a quarter way across the field. Davis ran after it, releasing pent-up energy and anger. ~This is for Jun!~ PUNT! Halfway. ~For Matt calling Jun to get Jun to talk to Kari!~ PUNT! Three-quarters. Davis whirled around to kick it back to where he'd been a minute ago. ~FOR WHOEVER THOUGHT UP THIS STUPID PLAN, EVEN IF IT WAS KARI!~ *PUNT!!!*
The ball flew through the air seven or eight feet off the ground, back in the opposite direction. Davis ran as hard as he could after it. He heard it hit the ground, and then all of a sudden it was flying back towards him. He wasn't really playing soccer, and it was coming at the right height, so, confused by the fact that it was coming at all, he let himself catch it with his hands.
"That was some nice footwork," he heard. Then he realized someone had to have kicked it back at him, and he looked up to see...
"Kari?!"
It was Kari, wearing a pink and yellow knee-length skirt and a pale yellow button-front blouse.
~Whoa...why is she dressed up today and not last night? Is this another stupid plan to make me feel stupid?~ He eyed her, frowning over what it might mean, but enjoying the sight of her nonetheless.
"Davis...I know you must be wondering...why I'm here so early...and...truth is...I'm here to apologize."
He tilted his head to one side, again far too dazed to talk.
"You were right. The plan last night was to make you so mad at me that you'd hate me and get off my case. I figured that way, it wouldn't hurt anybody, I'd be free of you asking me every day, and you'd decide that I wasn't as great as you thought and go find another girl. I never meant to hurt you, Davis. Honest I didn't. I wanted you to just get off my case *without* having you get all depressed." She paused a minute, thinking that he might say something, but he didn't, and she continued. "But...last night...when you got so upset"--she wisely didn't mention that he had cried--"I started crying, things were going so far differently than what I had planned. I realized that you can't plan feelings. You asked if you were right, and I didn't tell you that you were, so you just left. You didn't see that I was hurting, too. I was. I was crying. And then, after all this time, after I'd finally caused you all that pain, I realized that I never wanted to get rid of you in the first place. Never, Davis. I really do care about you and how you feel. I--I want to apologize. I know I'll never get it, but let me ask for your forgiveness. Davis--please--can you ever forgive me?"
Davis was still in shock. Kari Kamiya, the prettiest girl in the school--the city--the whole *world*--was asking him to *forgive her* for trying to make him go away, and was practically admitting that she loved him?
He dropped the soccer ball and continued to stare at her.
~He hates me! He can't believe that I was bold enough to even ask!~ Tears welled up in Kari's eyes, but she refused to let them fall until she'd gotten a reaction, even if all he did was just turn away again and walk off, leaving her to her tears.
He stood for a few more seconds, and then...
"WAAAAAAAAAA-HOOOOOOOOOO! Yeah! All right!" Davis leapt into the air, cheering and shouting like he'd won the lottery. He kicked the soccer ball off and started doing some kind of victory dance. He kept going, cheering and shouting, until Kari (who, due the movements his dance required, was now behind him), put a hand on his shoulder.
He stopped and blushed. He turned around to face her. Trying to keep a straight face, thinking that this was pretty serious stuff, he said, very quiet and low, "I forgive you."
Kari took a step back. "You do?" she asked, stunned.
"Yeah...Kari, you're the prettiest, nicest, kindest, politest, smartest girl I've ever known. I've had a crush on you for as long as I've known you. If I don't forgive you I'll shoot myself later."
Kari laughed, which made him smile.
"Hey, Kari?"
"Yes, Davis?"
"Do I still have to ask you to go out with me?"
"Yes," Kari told him, still laughing.
"Kari, will you please, please, please be my girlfriend?"
"Of course!"
The pair laughed, reveling in the joy of the moment.
Kari tripped, and fell forward. Davis caught her in his arms. She stood, but didn't pull away. They were close, very close. Kari caught her breath. Davis blinked, not sure what to do. The light caught in Kari's hair, giving her a halo, and she was so beautiful, and in his arms...
At the same time Kari was admiring how handsome Davis really was. Even with all their times in the DigiWorld when he'd overcome his own struggles for the sake of the group and led them on to victory, and all the times he'd accomplished something worth noticing, she'd never looked at him in quite this light. (A/N: I *swear* there was no pun intended.)
"Kari?"
His voice startled her. "Mmm? What is it, Davis?"
"You can call me Daisuke. But nobody else better try it."
She smiled. "Okay, *Daisuke*. You caught me off guard. That's not what I thought you were going to say."
"What *did* you think I was going to say?"
Kari blushed. "I thought you were going to ask if you could kiss me."
That had long been one of Davis's secret dreams, but he hadn't wanted to push her--that and he was nervous. Very nervous. He blinked, and looked away for a second. "Say, Kari, if I had asked that, what would you have said?" He returned his gaze to her ruddy brown eyes.
She smiled. If someone had told her just four short days before that she would be saying this to him, of all guys, she would have died. "I would have said that it would be an honor to get my first kiss from you."
His eyes lit up. She leaned a little closer against him. They both closed their eyes at the same moment and their lips touched. The kiss became deeper as the moments went on, uninterrupted, until they were both out of breath. Davis was actually the one to break it off. "Kari?"
"Yes?"
"Is it supposed to feel like you're flying a million miles an hour and you can't breathe and you're the luckiest person alive and...and..."
"I don't know, but that's what I feel, too."
They both laughed again and spent the time together until more kids started showing up for school and the bell rang for the first class of the day.
For the most part, the other students who saw Davis and Kari together simply assumed the date went well. Only Davis, Kari, Gatomon, Veemon, Sora, Tai, Agumon, Jun, T.K. and Matt ever knew differently. And they were content to *let* people think that--even Jun was merciful and didn't spread it among her friends that her little brother had cried over a girl.
Kari didn't get a chance to talk to T.K. until lunch that day, so all morning she worried what he would think of her and Davis. When she told him what had happened between them he congratulated her, and assured her that as her best friend he was truly happy for her, and that it didn't change things between them. Kari was relieved, to say the least. "But I thought that you wanted me to get rid of him because you..."
T.K. laughed. "Nah. If I wanted to ask you on a date--and I don't, I like our friendship the way it is--I wouldn't have given him a second thought. I would have just asked you. I wanted you to get rid of him because he was driving *you* bananas, but if you like him now, then I don't have a problem with him, and even if I did have a problem, I wouldn't be pushing you to drop him."
Davis actually started getting T.K.'s name right. Now that he was no longer "competition", they could be friends.
Sora apologized to Davis for putting the idea in Kari's head, and he forgave her, too, since it had made Kari realize that she loved him.
That same day, Jun cornered Matt in a study hall that they had in the same period, and managed to get her lips on his for about five seconds before he pushed her away and ran for the boy's bathroom. Even there she stood waiting outside the door for twenty minutes, until the bell rang. Matt swore that to pay for all the therapy he would need to survive the trauma of it, Kari, Gatomon, T.K., Patamon, Davis, Veemon, Sora, and Biyomon would all have to move in with him and be his slaves for the rest of their lives. Since no one offered to actually "pay their debt" he spent the next couple of weeks assuring them that he could drop dead any second.
Veemon tried to convince Gatomon that since their Digipartners were together, that they belonged together as well, but Gatomon's affections continued to lie with Patamon.
On reflection, Kari decided that the whole thing had been for the best. Of course, a lot of pain could have been avoided by just going on a date with Davis like he'd asked, but she wondered if they would have ever been as close as they were already. Also, her bond with T.K. had been really strengthened in a way it wouldn't have been otherwise, and she'd learned a few lessons about life, and about herself.
One of the main life lessons being to follow your heart instead of your head.
A/N: DA-DUM! IT'S DONE! Not bad, considering I'm not even a fan of the coupling--I prefer Takari to Dakari. BUT, I liked the idea, it had a lot of potential, and besides, I think this is my way of justifying (in my mind) my crush on T.K.. This way I don't feel guilty about leaving Kari with a broken heart...UM, ANYWAY...like I said in part one, this is my first 02 fic. I'm pleased with how this turned out. AWWW! IT WAS SO CUTE, BUT IT'S ALL OVER!!! Waaah!
Like I said at the beginning of part 2, when 02 first came out (or rather when I first started watching it, I've been a Digimon fan since season one but only since the first of 2001 have we gotten the channel so that I could watch it on a daily basis) I was not a big fan of Davis's. And I admit, the *original* idea (like I said, I had the idea quite a while before I decided it was writable) was for T.K. to suggest it and for everything to go like Kari planned so that she could go out with him in peace. But when the Digimon movie came out, I saw another side to Davis. One that struck a chord with me. So when this idea resurfaced in my brain (yes, I'm so disorganized I can't even keep my thoughts straight) I decided to tweak it a little and I like this far better than anything I could have written with the original idea.
I want to thank all of you who reviewed, especially Dyani on part one. That was both the longest and the nicest review I've gotten on any of my writing on all of the FFN. *authoress blushes* THANK YOU!