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A Takari Psychosis
Please enjoy reading this...or not... It matters not a whit to me, but my alter ego, since it is his work, would greatly appreciate any feedback you might have, good or bad. As a favor to me, send multiple flames! Flame him good! Mwhahaha!
By the way, I'm the evil one.
Those words had sent a shock all throughout her being. Could he mean that...? She had felt her heart skip a beat as it took off in a wild racers pace.
But then he had run off, leaving her once again alone.
Alone and feeling confused as well as afraid of the situation she was suddenly finding herself in. Could she count on anyone at all to be able to help her deal with her feelings of dread and terror?
Then, as she found herself in the Digital World, without her guardian Gatomon or her D-3, he flew to her aid in her time of need, riding aback Pegasusmon like some hero-knight out of a fantasy novel, just in time to save the day.
Afterwards, when she had questioned him about what he had meant, he acted somewhat embarrassed and at a loss as how to respond. 'You know, just stuff' he'd said. But she didn't know.
She wanted to. Kari sighed quietly as she continued to listen to her algebra teacher drone on. She wanted to know what he really thought of her. The way he'd been acting lately, though, wasn't leaving her much in the way of evidence. She looked over at his desk, briefly watching him take notes, his face a study of concentration. Did he know how she felt about him?
Did she know how she felt about him?
Kari's gaze returned forward wanting nothing more than to banish such problematic thinking from her mind, but thoughts of TK and relationships persisted in creeping back, ruining her concentration and working to further her already considerable confusion. Algebra didn't stand a ghost of a chance amongst the turbulent storm that her emotions had become.
Why did he cause her to feel those warm fuzzy sensations stir every time she thought about him? Why was she possessed of the urge to spend spare moments on his facial nuances or how his eyes seemed to twinkle with an inner light all their own? What could the reasoning for the way he made her feel happier when he smiled that special smile he only seemed to do for her alone, the one that made her heart race so fast it made her dizzy, possibly be?
Was it. . .love? Did she love TK? She'd never really even had a crush on a boy before, and now suddenly she was in love with TK? That didn't make any sense... but as she thought about it, Kari realized that feelings for her old friend had been building for a long while. He'd always been there for her when she needed him. He was always looking out for her, but never trying to get in the way of her personal growth. He'd done all the things that one would think a good friend was supposed to do.
Was it more than that, though? Was it more than simple friendship that existed between the two of them? Kari looked deep within herself and found that she desperately wanted the answer to be 'yes'.
Kari absently chewed the eraser end of her pencil. She had to find out how he felt towards her, but lately, it seemed as if TK was trying to avoid her.
* * * * *
TK struggled furiously to finish the problem he'd been working on for the past ten minutes, but thoughts of a particular girl sitting two rows parallel to his right continued to interfere with his concentration.
'Kari...' he sighed mentally, giving up at accomplishing any meaningful work this period. How could he possibly concentrate on algebraic equation when she was a mere paper airplane toss away from him? Try as he might, he couldn't seem to be able to get her out of his mind ever since the dreams had started a few weeks ago.
TK had never really paid attention to his dreams before. For him, reality had proven strange enough as it was. He'd seen a different dimension, made friends with a flying pig, and battled monsters far worse than any nightmare could likely conjure. His mind had no real need to create the fantastic during sleep, it got more than its fair share while awake, leaving TK's nights rather uneventful.
A few weeks ago, something happened to liven them up. He awoke during the morning's earliest hours, finding himself twisted up in his bed sheets, his whole body feeling too warm as if from a laborious exertion, his heart beating heavily in his chest. Though he tried to recall what had sent him into such a state, he found he remember nothing of what had transpired during the time he was asleep.
A few nights later it happened once again. TK awoke in the middle of the night, his body feeling much the same it did the night before, uncomfortably warm and damp with sweat. This time, though, he found himself able to recall fragments of the dream. These pieces all shared one unifying trait: They all involved Kari Tamiyia. They were images mainly: her smiling face, the look of those two large brown eyes of hers, and more things of such ilk. Certainly, nothing of the sort that would cause him to wake up in such a condition as he had. That notion led TK to ponder over the question what in the dream had done this to him.
The next night, the incident occurred once again. He still could only remember disjointed fragments of the dream, but now they were far more vivid. Detail, though was not the only thing that was different: their was a drastic change content. He found himself remembering the sensation of holding Kari's slight hand in his own, the texture of her lips touching his, the delightful feeling of the two of them lying in an embrace amongst a grassy field somewhere unknown to him; all as real to him as if it had really happened.
Dreams had woke him every night since then, and still he could not remember much more than fragments of them. Each night had involved Kari. As the fragments became even more vivid, they also became saturated with feelings of warmth, joy, and something TK wasn't quite comfortable putting a name to.
TK was unsure of what to really think of all of this, but he realized it made him a might bit uncomfortable. He'd never even kissed a girl before and now, suddenly, he was dreaming of it on a nightly basis. Not to mention it was with his best friend. Where in blazes did this come from all of a sudden? Out of the blue, he suddenly was dreaming of a romantic relationship with Kari?
That isn't the truth, TK, chimed a voice deep within his psyche. He risked a glance in Kari's direction, just missing her head turning away from her own contemplation of him. He'd felt something for Kari for as long as he could remember, something he didn't really know how to describe or really wanted to for that matter. "Just friends" was just fine with him; why screw up a good thing?
He'd almost had, when the scubamon were trying to pull her into the digital world. In a moment of rash impulsiveness he'd revealed his true heart to her. When he realized what he'd said to her, he'd fled the scene, much to his later regret. Because of his emotions, Kari had been kidnaped into the digital world and placed in grave danger. Long ago, he'd vowed to protect Kari, during the battle with Piedmon. Even through all these years, he never had really relinquished that oath and thus blamed himself for her disappearance.
Just what did he feel for Kari, anyway? He pondered this as he watched Kari chew on her pencil's eraser, something he'd noticed she always did when she was thinking hard about something.
From his experience, love wasn't all that great a thing. His Mom and Dad had been in love at one time, but now they couldn't stand to be within sight of one another without starting another argument. Was that what eventually happens to two people who fall in love? TK didn't even want to think about that large of a rift getting between him and Kari.
He tore his eyes away from her, hoping no one had noticed him staring. If that was love, TK could live without it. He couldn't bear to think of Kari hating him.
'What a big mess...' he thought to himself. The bell rang, heralding both the end of class and the end of school for the day.
...But for TK, the bell signaled that his troubles were only just beginning.
* * * * *Kari decided that the best way to get someone who's been avoiding you to stop doing such was to corner them and leave them no avenue for escape. It might not have been the best solution to her current problem, but it was the only feasible one that she came up with by the time the class bell had rang. Quickly gathering her belongings, she set about putting her plan into action.
* * * * *
TK had only just began to gather his belongings when he heard a familiar voice beside him.
"Hi TK..."
It was her. Kari. "Hi Kari..." he replied, smiling. Despite the problems he was having, her mere presence seemed to make things brighter.
"I'm supposed to get Yolie's homework for her since she's sick." Kari explained, "Would you walk with me to her place?"
"Sure." TK responded on reflex. He could never deny a request from her.
Kari smiled at him. "Great! I'll see you by the school gate in a few minutes?"
"I'll be there" TK replied.
I'll be always be there he added mentally. He watched as she left, then shook his head ruefully. No matter how real his dreams might seem, the dream Kari couldn't even hold a candle to the real thing. Sighing, TK gathered his things, then made his way to their arranged meeting place.
As might have been expected, he arrived before Kari did, which left with some time to burn. For lack of anything better to do, he spent some spare moments admiring the fall colors of the sakura trees that were scattered across the school's campus.
'The leaves change and fall away,' TK mused to himself, 'Yet the tree, for the most part, remains unchanged by this. They change often on the outside and yet they remain the same in a basic sense.'
"Hi TK!" a female voice jarred him from his ponderings. Removing his attention from the trees, he saw that it was Keiko, a girl from his class. A very popular girl and considered by many to be one of the prettiest as well.
"Hello Keiko," TK greeted her cordially. He and Keiko chatted occasionally, but their relationship was nothing more than that of casual classmates.
"What are you still doing here?" Keiko asked, striking up a conversation. "It's the weekend!"
"I'm waiting for Kari," TK explained, "She went to pick up a sick friend's homework."
"Oh..." Keiko responded. "Um, TK, I've been meaning to ask you a question. . . I mean if you don't mind me asking or anything."
"Go ahead Keiko, ask away." TK replied.
"Are you and Kari an item?" she asked, all hint of her earlier hesitancy gone.
"A-an i-item?" TK stammered, startled by her question. "N-n-no we're n-not an i-item. We're just good friends. What makes you ask?"
Keiko smiled impishly. "Oh, no reason. . . I'll see you on Monday TK!" With that Keiko left the scene, vanishing as suddenly as she had appeared.
Now TK felt even more confused than before. 'What the heck just happened here?'
"Oh well..." he sighed quietly to himself. 'Is that really Kari is to me? A good friend?' He asked himself this as he went back to his earlier contemplation of the sakura trees.
'Yes.' a part of him responded.
'No.' replied another part of him at the same time as the first.
"Ready TK?"
'Ready for what? What should I be ready for?' he asked the conflicting voices within his soul.
"Hey TK!" something shouted.
"Huh?" TK mumbled, suddenly realizing that his internal conversation wasn't the only one that was taking place.
"You okay, TK?" Kari asked, looking concerned.
"Yeah... I'm fine." TK replied, coming of the trance like state he'd been in. "I was thinking, that's all. You know, off in my own little world... You get Yolie's homework?"
Kari nodded. "Yeah. Shall we go?"
"Yes, lets." TK laughed.
* * * * *
They walked in silence for a long while. 'So far, so good.' Kari thought to herself. 'Now for phase two.'
But she really hadn't planned as far as 'phase two'. She'd barely planned for a way to get TK to stop avoiding her.
'Come on Kari!' a voice within her chided. 'Keep your eyes on the goal. The rest of the details will work themselves out!'
Goal? What was her goal?
'Finding out what TK feels towards you!' the voice within her exclaimed, sounding a bit exasperated. 'Remember?'
Oh, yeah. That was the reason she had asked TK to walk her in the first place.
"TK... she started, finding her courage fleeing as soon as she opened her mouth. 'Steady, Kari!' something within her encouraged. 'Just keep talking!'
"Yeah?" TK responded.
"Have you noticed how everyone seems to be pairing off lately?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" TK asked, sounding a bit puzzled.
"You know... boys and girls becoming couples... that sort of thing." Kari replied.
TK thought about it a moment. "Now that you mention it, yeah, I guess that sort of thing has been happening a lot lately. I guess I never really thought about it a whole lot before. What about it?"
"I've been wondering as to why its been happening all of a sudden." Kari said, examining the ground beneath her feet.
"I dunno," TK replied quietly. "Maybe it isn't really happening all of a sudden. Maybe it's been happening before now, building up, but we just never noticed it until just recently.'
Kari's heart started pounding so heavily that it resounded in her ears, as if attempting to drown out all other sounds. 'Could he... Should I... But what if...' Questions crowded her mind, plunging her into chaotic disarray. She wanted to say more, so much more, but her mouth refused to utter the words her soul longed to say. Silence blossomed.
"I think you're right about that." Kari managed to say after a while. She looked up from the ground and over at TK just as he was in the act of looking over at her. Their eyes met and time seemed to grind to a halt. Kari's head swam as her knees felt as if they were turning to jelly. She felt as if her soul had taken leave of her body to swim in those sapphire blue pools that were TK's eyes...
Suddenly, the moment ended almost as spontaneously as it had begun. Both of them broke eye contact, each secretly fighting a blush. Taut silence sprouted once again, making the two digidestined feel rather awkward and uncomfortable.
'What happens next?' Kari wondered, unable to look up from her close examination of the concrete.
As you might have expected, the answer to the question was nothing other than this: TK fell for her.* * * * *
'Things had been going so well, too...' TK bemoaned mentally as he walked in silence beside Kari. They were having a normal conversation and then their eyes had met. Their eyes met and every dream fragment TK had remembered from the past month came flashing to the forefront of his thoughts.
'No!! She's your best friend! You can't have these feelings about her!' screamed one of the voices that resided in the depths of TK's soul. 'It just isn't right!'
But he did have feelings for her that way... didn't he?
'Yes. You know that you do, TK.' said the other voice inside him. 'You should really know better than to lie to yourself.'
'But she's you're best friend! Do you want to lose that?' the first voice shouted. 'You know exactly what will happen if you move on these feelings. Nothing good will come of this!'
TK did not need to be reminded of the very real possibility of losing Kari's friendship if he did end up revealing his feelings. He didn't want that to happen. Ever.
Lying to himself was a small price to pay.
Being so preoccupied with all this, TK didn't even notice the curb. Curbs do not like being ignored, and are quite vengeful for inanimate objects. This particular curb was not very different from its brethren, and sent TK, who had not expected the sudden change in elevation, careening to the pavement.
...And that's about when everything went dark.
* * * * *
Kari had been so engrossed in her continued examination of the concrete passing beneath her feet that she had almost missed TK's headlong dive into the street. Almost, but not quite.
TK didn't even throw his hands out to stop himself and ended up landing flat on his face.
"TK?" Kari asked. Perhaps he had done it on purpose? No, that might have been something Davis might have done, but not TK.
TK did not respond. 'What if he's hurt?' she wondered. The icy snake of panic began to crawl around her insides as she rushed to where TK lay on the ground. 'Please, oh please, pleeease be alright, TK!'
"TK?! Are you all right, TK?" she asked as she knelt down next to him. She rolled him over on to his back. 'Well, he looks alright...' For someone who'd just fallen flat on his face, TK barely had a scratch on him, but his eyes were closed.
"Hey TK, come on! Wake up!"
* * * * *
Wake up!
Kari's voice pierced the fabric of nothingness that TK's reality had become. Grudgingly, he stirred to consciousness as ordered.
He opened his eyes to see Kari kneeling over him, concern clearly written on her angelic face.
"Are you all right, TK?" she asked him immediately.
'Real smooth, TK...' He chided himself. 'Only you could manage that trip.'
"TK?"
"I think I'll live." he responded, getting himself up. 'If I don't die of embarrassment, that is...' he added mentally.
"What happened?" Kari asked, proffering a hand to help him up.
He accepted her hand and pulled himself to his feet. "I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going..." he said in response to her question. "You know me... always daydreaming too much."
Kari said nothing, only looking at him. "You sure you're all right, TK?" she said after a few moments.
TK smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "I'm fine. Don't worry. We better get moving, though. Yolie is probably going stir crazy as we speak."
Kari smiled at the jest and agreed. All tension that had existed before the fall was now gone, the quick trip having caused a sudden climax and an equally spontaneous crash back to normal interaction.
Their ordeal was far from over, however...
* * * * *
The rest of the trip passed without much incident. They talked about school, complained about teachers, griped about homework, and had what stands as a pretty normal conversation for people their age. Before they knew it, they were in front of the door to Yolie's apartment.
"Well, uh, I'll see you around, uh, Kari." TK said, feeling awkward.
Kari only nodded, not knowing what to say. She didn't want their time together to be over yet, but saw no way to extend it without acting unnatural.
"Well, uh, bye." TK said, then turned and left.
Kari sighed. She'd gone through all that emotional turmoil and still hadn't gotten any closer to discovering how TK truly felt about her. She hadn't really had a chance to, though. TK's fall had really "tripped up" the direction of their conversation. Kari found that she couldn't come with a reasonable way to turn the subject back to relationships, and thus was unable to uncover what she yearned to know.
'Brooding over this doesn't help it Kari,' something within her stated firmly as Kari knocked on the door to Yolie's residence. 'You'll get another chance.'
The door flung open after the third knock, revealing a purple haired girl who at the moment had a wild look in her eyes that somewhat frightened Kari.
"Uh, hi Yol-" Kari began.
She never finished. "KARI!" Yolie squealed, sounding delighted. "You remembered my homework, didn't you? Come in! I've been cooped up to long, I thought I was going to go crazy." Yolie grabbed Kari by the arm and dragged her into the apartment.
Yolie had come down with a case of the chicken pox (she had never had them before) about a week and a half ago, keeping her from school. She was well enough now to be up and about, but still had to remain home from school and the digital world. Now, imagine someone as hyperactive as Yolie usually is, and then imagine forcing them to stay in a bed for a week. Scary to think of what that person would be like, huh?
Kari was finding out first hand how frightening such a scenario could truly be. Yolie was ravenous for news and gossip from school, determined to wring Kari for every detail she possibly could. Kari, fearing what response resistance might elicit, complied readily. Yolie calmed down after about fifteen minutes, putting Kari's fears of a Yolie (@LastNAME@)-style spaz attack.
Despite her many faults, Yolie can be a very sensitive girl at times, and while she and Kari were chatting, she noticed that something about Kari was not quite the same as normal. She couldn't her finger on it exactly, just that something about her friend was, well, off somehow. 'There's only one way to be sure...' Yolie told herself.
"Kari, you okay? I mean, it's just you seem a little troubled or something. You got something on your mind?"
Kari was shocked. 'Is it that obvious?' she wondered.
"C'mon girlfriend, you can tell me. You know I can keep a secret. Besides, telling someone might make you feel better."
Kari was met again with indecision, torn between revealing her feelings or keeping them a secret. After an eternity of thirty seconds, she found that she needed to tell someone about this before she went crazy. "Well, um, it's sorta about TK."
Yolie said nothing, but her expression encouraged Kari to continue. "I've known him for a long time, and we've always been friends, but lately..." Kari faltered. Saying it out loud was turning out to be much harder than she had anticipated.
Yolie still remained silent, her face wordlessly urging Kari to continue. Kari inhaled deeply and forged ahead once more. "...But lately, I've been wondering if that's all our relationship is exactly."
"In other words, you like him, and want to know if he feels similarly." Yolie said, finally breaking her silence.
Kari nodded. "Something like that. Yeah."
"I knew it!" Yolie suddenly burst out, causing Kari to jump imperceptibly from surprise. "You two are just soooo perfect for each other!"
Kari winced inwardly. Telling Yolie was looking more and more like it had been a mistake, one she was going to truly regret. Yolie noticed Kari's reaction to her spontaneous outburst, and decided to make her next move a bit more toned down. "You haven't asked him how he feels yet." It was more of a statement than a question.
Kari's eyes became downcast as she released a sigh. "No," she said as she shook her had sadly, "Not exactly. I've started to, but I haven't made much in the way of progress."
"Hmm..." Yolie hmmed thoughtfully, causing Kari to bring her eyes back to their normal position. The look on her friend's face started to worry Kari some. It looked as if Yolie was plotting something.
To her credit, Yolie wasn't actually plotting some scheme. Not yet, anyway. Yolie was merely assessing her friends' situations. She counted both Kari and TK as good friends, and thought that they would be very happy together as a couple... but she felt it wasn't her place to stick her nose in, at least for the time being. Yolie concluded that the best she could do for Kari was give her friendly advice and encouragement. "It sounds like you're on the right track, Kari," Yolie said, "But TK isn't the type to open up easily, at least from what I've noticed anyway. It seems like he was hurt deeply by something, and became withdrawn somewhat in an emotional sense."
"Now that you mention it, TK has been acting kind of strange lately..."Kari said reflectively.
Yolie shook her head. "I don't think it was anything recent. In all likelihood it was something a long time ago, something TK doesn't even consciously remember." Yolie then shrugged, "But, of course, I could very possibly be wrong."
Kari mulled over what Yolie had said, and concluded that it did make a good deal of sense. With that judgment came the realization that achieving her heart's desire was going to be an even more challenging task than she had originally had thought.
"Don't worry Kari," Yolie said, noticing her friend looking increasingly depressed, "If anyone can break through his emotional barriers, it's you. You two were meant to be together."
Kari looked to her friend, her face full of gratitude. "Thanks, Yolie."
Yolie smiled warmly. "Hey, what are friends for?"
Let me clear up the matter of ownership. I own nothing, not even the body I "borrowed" in order to write this story. I most certainly do not own any rights to Digimon.
This work was the collaboration of various personalities housed within the mind of a "disturbed" young man of the age 18. If it may seem disjointed at times, well, that's because it was someone else writing it. All of us would appreciate any feed back you might have to give us, even if contents are highly combustible. Puck (the one whom introduced the fic, at least the rest of "us" think it was him) will especially enjoy ones of that particular type.
I hope you found this reading to be pleasant, and have a nice day.
