Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A/N: Sorry it took so long. Blame it on my friends for bugging me, and my coaches for running me ragged.
Oh and TK Takaishi, I've been trying to return your e-mail but I keep getting an error message. And alsoThe next part will be the last and I'll get it up as soon as humanly possible.


In the history of the land called Digidania, there are many stories of true love and high adventure. There is the tale of the brave young prince of Kamiya, who fell in love with an enchanting peasant girl selling flowers in the street. Likewise there is the story of the prince's beautiful younger sister, and how she came to love the handsome slave boy forced to serve as her bodyguard. And there is the fable of a sullen, wandering knight, who became the loving champion of a vain young princess of Tachikawa. These, and others are written of in the Chronicles of Digidania.....

My Father's Crown



The feeling was back again. Kari could feel it rolling around in her stomach like a cannonball, making her spit taste like metal. She knew this feeling extremely well, it had been her constant companion while Tai was away in the war, and it still came to visit her whenever TK slipped out alone in the middle of the night to do some dangerous errand for the underground. It was the sickening sensation she got whenever someone she loved was in danger. Now she stood at her balcony and gazed out at the sleeping city. Her brother was out there trying to be slippery and secretive, (not exactly pastimes he excelled at) and all she could do was stand here and worry as the feeling poked at her.

"Kari?" A questioning whisper came from the darkened room behind her.

"I'm out here." She whispered back. She immediately heard the rustling of sheets, and a moment later a familiar pair of arms wrapped around her waist. To the girl's relief the threatening feeling retreated a little at her lover's touch.

"He'll be okay Kari." TK softly told her as he placed a sweet kiss at the base of her neck.

Kari gave a thin smile as she turned to lay her head on his chest." How can you be so sure?"

TK placed his hand underneath her chin and gently raised her head until their eyes met. "We've all been through too much for everything to not work out all right in the end." He started to reach down and kiss her, but she reached up before he had a chance.

It was magic to watch them together, to see how bound they were in body, heart, and soul. Their love had not come easy, they had to fight long and hard for it. They had gone through so much in their young lives to earn the right to love each other, for the right to know that they would never be alone, but they knew their sufferings had not been for naught, and how sweet it was to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

The lovers continued their embrace for a while longer, until the cursed need to consume oxygen overcame them once again. They broke apart and contented themselves with merely laying their foreheads against each other as they caught their breath.

"Promise me again, that you will never leave me." Kari said as she allowed herself to sink into his eyes. The feeling had once again began to stir in her stomach, and she feared it might be after the boy she loved.

"I promise we will always be together." He answered. His fingers absentmindedly traced the small of her back. A thought floated into his brain and grinned at her "One day soon we'll be free of this place, and then we'll travel all over and see what this world has to offer."

She gave him a chesire cat smile, and did not notice as the feeling hid itself and made ready to strike when its prey was most vulnerable "Where exactly are you thinking of dragging me off to?" It was a little game of words they had, based on a dream of their ideal life with one another.

"Anywhere and everywhere." He pulled her tightly against him.

"And how long will we travel?" She rubbed her nose against his.

"Until we find a place that feels like home." He kissed her quickly before continuing. "And then I'll build us a house with a big bed, and we'll start a farm, and raise some cows and sheep, and grow some wheat and maybe a little barley..... And of course we'll have lots of beautiful children."

"And how many children are you planning on?" She asked in a tone of mock indignancy. "Considering that I will be doing all the work."

"How many would you like?"

She reached up and playfully pinched his cheek. "I simply must draw the line at a dozen."

He laughed a little before kissing her again, with more fire this time. They stood for a moment and simply melted into one another's arms. When they broke apart their faces were shining with gentle passion, and without another thought TK gently picked Kari up in his arms and carried her back towards the soft warm bed. Where for a time at least, all the dangerous feelings in the world would not be able to touch them.

The farm and home they had spoken of was their true dream of happiness, and it was really not much to ask for considering all they had gone through to simply have a hope of it. It was just a place where they could be safe and content, and raise a family, and love each other forever. People of a much less deserving nature had asked for much more and received it promptly. And maybe that is why it is so sad to know that this simple little dream would never come true.

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Sora's mother and father had always taught her that life has its bad times, like when the winter frost kills all the flowers, but it also has its good times, such as how the flowers always come back to bloom in the spring thaw. They had also gone to great lengths to show her that if a person is good, kind, and generous to others, then the springs of life will always outnumber the winters. And Sora believed them.

But then when she was fourteen her father was put in chains and sent off to a war from which he would never return. Soar and her mother were crushed, but they pushed ahead as best they could towards spring. But soon after Sora's father left forever, her mother caught a horrible hacking sickness, and with a last painful gasp bid farewell to the mortal plain.

Sora was heartbroken and abandoned, left alone with only her tears for company. She looked ahead in her life and saw an endless winter without even the faintest hint of spring.

Others in her situation would have withdrawn into themselves and become cross and stingy. Why bother searching for happiness when it was impossible to find? But that sort of thinking was simply not in Sora's nature, or more accurately, it was not in her physiology. You see, some people are born with a rare condition that causes the heart to produce an excess amount of love. In Sora's rather advanced case, her heart pumped the stuff out at a rate that was simply astounding. And as any licensed doctor can tell you it is physically impossible to contain as much love as Sora's heart was constantly cranking out. So Sora had no choice but to share this love with other people, and as six years rolled by every orphan, beggar, and derelict for miles knew that a bit of food, a place to rest, and many kind words could always be found in the little hovel belonging to the young woman who sold flowers in the city square.

Selling flowers was what her mother had done before her passing, and this made floristry a sort of bittersweet occupation for Sora to take up, but she needed money and flowers came natural to her. She knew where to find the different types and how to care for them. Sometimes she even spent whole days in the forests outside the city searching for the rarest (and most expensive) types. She happened to be returning from one of these expeditions late one night when something quite extraordinary happened.

She strolled along the quiet streets, yawning and thinks of her comfortable straw pallet back home, when a young gentleman crossed the street in front of her. He was so deep in thought that he did not notice her, or the loose cobblestone in his path. Sora started to yell out a warning, but by the time she opened her mouth it was too late. The young man stumbled forward and hit his head on the ground with a cracking sound that made her wince. Being the caring soul that she was she immediately rushed to his aid.

"Are you all right sir?" She asked as she bent down next to him. With a groan the young man turned over and Sora grimaced at the lump already forming at the point of impact.

He lifted his head up a little and fixed Sora with a confused glance. His jaw slackened and he smiled a tiny bit. "You're beautiful." He said in a dreamy voice, and then his eyes rolled back and his head fell back to the ground with a dull thunk.

Sora glowed beet red at the young man's words. "He must have hit his head pretty hard to think I'm beautiful." She joked to herself with a hurt voice. Granted this is not what a young woman usually thinks when a handsome young man complements her looks, but Sora had been somewhat gawky and skinny, and well...... somewhat ugly when she was younger, and since she had not exactly had ready access to a mirror for the past few years, she was not aware of just how much she had changed.

She sighed dejectedly and looked around for some help, but the streets were deserted and the citizens snug and cozy in their warm beds. Sora sighed again a little louder as she slung her bag of flowers over her shoulder, she then picked the young man up by his underarms and proceeded to half-carry and half-drag him towards her hovel. Which, thank God, was not too terribly far away.

A short while and some aching muscles later, Sora kicked opened her thatch door and deposited her cargo on a soft straw pallet. She gave longing look to her own soft little bed before stooping down to inspect the small purple knot protruding from her guest's forehead. A quick glance and some careful prodding told her that it was no worse than some of the injuries she had taken care of for the neighborhood children.

She smiled a little as she applied a damp cloth to the young man's forehead. "You should be fine in the morning." She told her guest, who by coincidence moaned softly.

Sora grinned a little bit before releasing an impressive yawn. She had been up since early that morning and would have to get up just as early in order to sell her wares. She went over to her pallet and crawled beneath the thin blanket. As she settled down she turned and took one last look at the young man, who was still sleeping soundly. With a last quiet yawn she closed her eyes and began the descent into sleep.

And then she saw his face.

Her eyes immediately snapped open even as a peculiar warm tingle stirred in her stomach. Curious as to what could have made her suddenly think of the young man, she sat up and studied him as he slumbered. His face was both playful and mature at the same time, and if you looked at it the right way it could be seen as very handsome. But that was nothing to lose sleep over. His wild, untamable hair was certainly ridiculous looking, though Sora did find it sort of charming. However it was still nothing special. Now If she remembered their initial meeting correctly he had eyes the color of warm coffee with cream, which simmered with a low flame that could erupt with courageous passion at any moment. And she had to admit that as a whole he was truly beautiful, but that was still no reason for her to stay awake gawking at him. So she fluffed her chicken-feather pillow and turned so she was facing away from him. She closed her eyes once again and let her mind float where it pleased.

It pleased to float towards the young man, and he was smiling sweetly this time.

Her eyes flew open once again, and the tingling moved up into her chest giving her a giddy, lighthearted sensation. Her heart skipped a few beats as she turned to gaze at him once more. He's so very, very, beautiful. She thought. A comfortable warmth spread through her body and adoration filled her eyes. She wished he would wake up.

Wait a minute. She shook her head. This was crazy! She knew nothing about this man! She had never spoken to him! He had been unconscious for the majority of their relationship for God's sake! These and many more good, solid, reasonable thoughts flooded her head. But it was not her head she was listening to.

Her heart, which had never led her wrong, was telling her that she was falling in love. And as she listened attentively, she saw that this was true, and she wished and hoped with all her might that this person who had suddenly stumbled into her life could somehow love her back, and end the winter storms of her life with the blazing sunlight of his heart.

For a long while that night she just sat and lovingly gazed upon him as he slept. And even when she could not keep her eyes open a moment longer, and so succumbed to the long fought urge to sleep, her dreams were filled with him. Marry you? I don't want anything else in the world as much.

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When Tai came to, the first thought in his mind was of the amazingly beautiful angel that he had seen in his dream. The second thought was of the epic tragedy of the fact that she was only a dream. Then he turned his head to the side and his dream suddenly came to life.

In a quick and immediate train of succession the events of the night before; his talk with his sister, his plan to leave the castle, his meeting with Cody, the apparent knock to his head, all flashed into his mind and then just as quickly flashed out. Because he wanted to focus every last bit of his mental prowess focused on one thing and one thing only. Her.

She's even more beautiful in real life. He thought. And he was right. Her features were so soft and delicate that Tai imagined they must have been cut from porcelain, and they glowed with the gentle aura of one who had never know the emotion called hate. Her hair was the rich, bold, red of autumn leaves, and it fell down to her shoulders in soft little ringlets. Her lips were a deep rosy shade, and they opened in a gentle pout as their owner slept. Tai looked at her and saw a goddess.

Within seconds of opening his eyes the young prince bore a deep affection towards the young woman. Before the minute mark had passed he was in love with her. And when she opened her enchanting cinnamon eyes Tai was seized with the realization that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her by his side.

"G-good mo-morning." He stuttered while his face filled up with color.

"G-good m-morning." She stuttered back as her ears began to burn. She looked down at her feet in embarrassment. "Does your head feel okay?"

"What head?"

A jingling giggle escaped from Sora's mouth as she shyly peeked at him. "Your head of course."

Tai's face was on its way to discovering previously unknown variations of red. "It's okay I guess." He still could not take his eyes off her though.

"Well, let me take a look at it anyway, just to be sure." Sora got up and wet a cloth in her water basin. She walked over to Tai and was about to push the hair back from his forehead when a bout of extreme shyness suddenly caught hold of her. "I-I mean I'll take a look at it if you want me to. I mean if it's okay with you."

"Huh?" There was simply no room in Tai's head for anything else but her. And now that she was so close to him Tai could smell the intoxicating aroma of blooming flowers that surrounded her. If he had known that flowers smelled like that he would have started a garden a long time ago.

"Is it okay for me to check your head?" Sora's nervousness increased. The absurd thought that he was stricken thoughtless by her amazing ugliness crept into her mind.

Tai blinked his eyes a few times. "W-would you please. I-I mean if its not any trouble." His gaze had locked onto her enchanting eyes.

"No trouble at all." She responded in a barely audible voice. She became lost in his gaze, and she did not think she ever wanted to be found.

Sora applied the cloth to his head and gently cleaned the wound. Just the fact that their skin was touching was enough to send excited shivers down each of their spines. For a while they just stood there and got drunk on the overwhelming beauty of each other, oblivious to anything else. Their hearts whirled along at the brisk clip of children on Christmas morning, caught in awestruck silence by the glory of heaps of presents

Eventually Tai managed to summon enough of his famous courage to ask a question that had been burning on his brain. "Would you mind terribly If I asked you to accompany me around the city today? To thank you for taking care of me last night."

Sora's heart and face both leaped skyward, but then her mind remembered something that brought them crashing back down. "I would love to really, but I have to sell my flowers if I want to eat." She suddenly developed a profound dislike for flowers, and for the need to consume food to live.

Tai was not about to be beaten by such a petty problem. "Then sell them to me. I'll take every single one of them."

They both grinned and blushed like idiots as they exchanged a few of Tai's coins for Sora's bag of flowers. Then the blushing and grinning got worse as Tai promptly gave the flowers back to Sora as a gift.
Without any further ado, Tai graciously offered her his arm, which Sora took gratefully, and they left to explore the city and each other.

The early part of their day can best be summarized by the fact that it was close to noon before they realized they did not know each other's names. Naturally when they exchanged "Tai" for "Sora" they silently proclaimed them to be the most beautiful sounds ever uttered by man. And it was this moment when they truly started to fall in love.

They thought they had been in love before this, but they had not. They had merely been experiencing the sickeningly sweet herald to love, the giddy feeling of wild abandon that hints at the idea that this is the person you have been waiting your whole life to find. All through the rest of the day their tender new love became stronger and stronger. Until it came to the point that they could look into each other's eyes and see into the depths of their souls.

Sora saw that Tai was a true warrior and leader, a possessor of unlimited courage, but also of an amazingly gentle and loving spirit. He was one who would bare the weight of the world for those he loved, and Sora felt warmth spread through her body when she discovered that after years of giving all of her love to other people, this was someone who would take her gift and return it a hundred, a thousand times over.

Tai looked into Sora's eyes and saw someone who had lost loved ones as he had, but she still hung on to the love she had felt and used it to strengthen herself. Tai found someone who could teach him the true power of love, and how there was nothing, not even death itself, that could break its bonds. He was in awe when he realized that standing before him was someone he would never fail or shame, because she would always be there to support him when he could not stand, and comfort him when he fell.

It was close to sunset when Tai decided he wanted to let Sora into the most private, most secret area of his heart. So he rented a horse, and with Sora hanging on to him tightly, they raced through the rivers and hills outside the city until they came to the sacred place of Tai's childhood; Mt. Julian.

Sora loved it immediately, if for no other reason than because she could tell how important it was to him. They sat down on the soft, springy turf and leaned against each other in a familiar manner, and as the bold red orb slipped below the horizon, they turned to each and saw sunlight reflecting in their eyes, and they felt their hearts open up like flowers unfolding to receive the dawn, and deep within themselves, at the point where their souls were binding them together forever, they heard the other's voice; "I would die for you."

Tai gently cupped Sora's face in his hands and touched his lips teasingly to hers, sending tremors running through them both. She let her arms slide around his shoulders as he moved his mouth back to hers. Their lips touched again, but this time their kiss became deeper and deeper as they let themselves fall into it. And it was rapture. It overloaded their senses until they could only feel, or hear, or see with their hearts. And that was all they needed, because they were in love, they had each other always, and they would never let anything tear them apart.

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Sora had fallen asleep hours ago, safe and content in her lover's arms, a smiling "I love you" on her lips. Tai lay awake and just marveled at the way the moonlight lit up her face. He softly stroked the curls of her hair and reveled in this thing called love. Is this how Hikari and Takeru felt? He wondered. Did they feel as if they had finally found a piece of themselves they never knew they had been missing? Did they feel as if they were sharing all of their most intimate thoughts and feelings with someone else, like two hearts beating as one?

Tai felt like that. He also felt like taking Sora into his arms and riding off to somewhere they would be found. Some place where he would not have to think of his uncle, or crown, or even his father. He had found the thing that made his life complete and now he just wanted to be let alone to live his life with her.

A part of him shuddered at these thoughts and told him he was being selfish. And Tai did shut his eyes and waited for the ghost of his father to appear and chastise him, as had happened when he had thoughts like this before. But his father did not come this time, and the only image that came from the darkness was of Sora.

So that's it then. Tai thought. He could run away with Sora and forget about everything. Jyou and Davis could lead the army against his uncle. Hikari would make a better ruler than he ever could hope to, and Takeru would always be there to love and protect her. Tai could just fade away and everyone would still be happy.

But now another part of Tai raised its voice. It was the part where his courage, honor, and even his love resided, and it reminded him of the time he swore a vow to free his people, and it reminded him of those he cared about back at the castle who put their faith and trust in him. And then it told him to look at Sora, and ask himself if she would want him to run away from his responsibilities. Tai already knew the answer.

He gently let go of Sora and slipped from the bed, every inch that he moved he felt his heart threatening to break. He slowly picked his clothes off the ground and put them on, then felt around in his trouser pocket for something. After little bit of digging he found it and held it up to the moonlight.

It was his signet ring, made of soft gold and bearing the ancient crest of his family; a bold midday sun watching over everything from the summit of the heavens. He kneeled down and gently, so as not to wake her, he slipped it over the ring finger of Sora's left hand. He leaned over and kissed her tenderly one last time. He breathed in her sweet flowery scent, locking it away to comfort him when needed it. Then he softly whispered in her ear. "I love you so much, and I would rather face the devil himself than leave you now. But I will come back for you as soon as I have made this place safe for us to live. I will make you a queen, and all the people of this land will love you as I do. And then we'll live happily ever after, together forever."

He then took the money he had left and slipped it under her pillow and got up to leave. As he did so he did turn around again, because he was afraid he would not be able to persuade himself to leave if he saw her for one more second. So he just waked with his head and heart both hanging in sadness, towards the dark days ahead when everything he believed in would be tested, and he and those close to him would be pushed to the breaking point.

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Well, do you still like it? What happens next? Well, lets just say that the darkest hour is right before dawn.