Chapter 6- First Kiss

'I do love her…' was TK's last thought before their lips met. It was a brief, chaste kiss, but nonetheless, his knees felt like they were going to buckle when they parted.

Kari felt her lips meet with his, and a huge surge of emotions flooded her body. It took an immense amount of willpower not to put her arms around him and break free of the confining chains of her mind, to not tell him how much she loved him. She finally opened her eyes to look into his, and she saw in them what her own eyes looked like. It was only at this point that they remembered there was still a group of immensely curious people waiting for them by the campfire.

They tore themselves from the silence, embarrassed, and quickly looked away from each other. But, inevitably, their eyes met, and there was such a look in TK's eyes that Kari couldn't help it, and unconsciously stepped towards him again. They were about to start kiss No. 2 when Kari tore herself quickly away from the hypnotizing blue of his eyes, noting the hurt look in them when she stepped away again and purposely stood with her back to him. 'If I look at him, I won't be able to resist, and he can't fall for me… He can't… Can he?'  Self-contradicting thoughts flooded her already confused mind. 'No…'

Meanwhile, at the campfire, Davis and Matt were growing increasingly fidgety. Sora looked at Matt with an amused look in her eyes. "Thought you were scheming for this?" Matt just shot a 'Look' at her.

Yolei was sharing a bench with Davis, and was getting annoyed with his constant turning and straining to see what was going on behind the jutting rock. "Would you quit that?" she complained irritably. "I mean, they need a little privacy, you know."

"Yeah, but they don't have to make out while we're still out here waiting." Davis snapped back.

"Somebody's touchy." Yolei said huffily, and moved to another log.

At this moment, TK and Kari emerged from behind the rock, both looking very embarrassed, and something else that the others couldn't quite fathom.

Matt grinned at them, his original frame of mind evaporating. "So, how'd it go?" he teased them, waiting for the expected response, namely, blushes. What he wasn't expecting was the dreadful, stretched out silence that followed his question.

"Fine." Kari said tersely. The silence stretched out some more, and everyone shifted uncomfortably. It was Kari who broke the silence. "Why don't we all go to bed?" She said, pasting a thin layer of enthusiasm over her true feelings. It was enough to stir everyone, and they bustled about making preparations.

In all the hustle and bustle, TK and Kari still managed to find each other. They looked at each other, neither speaking, then Kari drew from under her shirt a fine gold chain. She took it off, and TK could see the tiny round locket dangling from it. He knew the feel, the smoothness of it, and the weight. He had given it to her. She pressed the round disc into his palm, and whispered to him, "Don't ask. Just look." and stepped away.

TK looked after her, confused, then opened it. Inside was a small miniature of the picture that the two of them had had taken in New York. A tiny flicker of hope dawned in his dead mind…

Kari, meanwhile, was tucked into her sleeping bag, arguing with herself. 'You're just getting his hopes up.' One voice said. 'But I had to!' Another voice argued. 'Really.'  The other said, dripping with sarcasm. 'Yes…' Just then her PalmPilot beeped. It was a message from Mimi.

'Kari,

Seeing as you're the only one of you ladies over there that checks her mail, I'm sending you this message. Wanna play Truth or Dare? I mean, even if we're not together, we can still play, after all.

                                                                             Mimi'

By this time, Sora and Yolei had joined her in the girls' tent. Sora looked at Yolei, who looked at Kari, who shrugged, as if to say Why not? And then turned to send mail back. Soon the tent was full of the giggling of girls.

Meanwhile, in the boys' tent, Matt turned away from the side of the tent. "Oh no, we won't be getting much sleep tonight. There's the Truth or Dare giggle." He complained.

"Kari, I dare you to…" Sora said, looking at her PalmPilot for suggestions from Mimi. "Go knock at the door of the boys' tent and kiss the person who opens it!" Kari looked crestfallen. Not only had she had enough of kissing, there was also a chance that Davis would open the door. Nonetheless, she took the dare (she already had four skeletons).

There came three soft taps at the door of the boys' tent. Matt looked at Davis, who looked at TK, who looked at Patamon, and so on. There was a hissed chorus of "you get its", but no one moved. They were all thinking of the time the girls collapsed the tent on all of them after tricking them into getting up. The unknown visitor knocked again.

"Why not you, Davis? After all, you're the one with the Digi-Egg of Courage."

"Me?! Get TJ to do it. He's the one that they all like so much."

"Why me? Matt, you're the one that knows about girls."

"Patamon, why not you? They all think you're cute."

"Me?! Get Cody to do it. He's too nice for them to do anything bad to."

This continued for another few minutes, then TK tired of it and got up. "I'll go, but if they kill me, you know how I want to be buried, Patamon." He walked to the flap that was the door, and unzipped it to look into Kari's unhappy face.

"It's a dare." She hissed before giving him a quick peck on the cheek and dashing away into the night. TK blinked, surprised, and touched a hand to the place where her lips had touched.

Davis looked up as TK came back into sight. "Well, what'd they do?" He demanded. He hadn't heard very much, but he could tell that it was Kari, and they didn't do anything bad from what he could see of TK's face.            

"Um…" TK faltered, his voice petering to a mumble, effectively hiding the word he obviously didn't want anyone to hear. "They dared Kari to mumble the first person who answered the tent door."

"What?"

"Kiss." He mumbled, but they still couldn't hear.

"What? Speak up TC! I can't hear you!"

"Kiss!" He said loudly.

Davis stared for a second, then started to sniffle. "I-I should have answered the door!" He cried.

Matt grinned. "How sad for you, Davis. Better luck next time, then!"

Kari dashed back into the girls' tent. "There. I hope you're happy." She said, and then tucked herself into her sleeping bag and purposely turned her back on the rest of the girls. Sora and Yolei looked at each other and shrugged, then slipped into their sleeping bags too. After checking in with Mimi to say they weren't playing anymore, they fell asleep.

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A/N Okay, so the title kind of gave away the content. I'm getting hooked on these little afternotes … they're fun! Oh, I forgot to say, please R+R!!