A/N: I'm sooo very sorry for not updating in such a long time… again… I hope there are still some people that haven't forgotten all about this fic!!! Without your really great reviews, I don't think I would have managed to write anything at all… Thank you! You're the best.

Fallin' to pieces part ten:

{~Tai's POV~}

What had we gotten ourselves into?

"Hurry!" Kari hissed as the key turned. In the same second Matt and Tk had gotten into the small space under the stairway, she closed it.

Then the front door opened and in stepped our parents.

"Hi mum, dad." Kari said cheerfully.

"Umm... hi, kids," dad answered. He eyed us strangely. I was so, so, so extremely sure that he had seen right through us there and then, but to my relief he dropped it and went into the kitchen, putting down the plastic bags of food he and mum had bought while mum went into the living room.

A half gasp, half shriek from our mum later, Kari and I hurried into the messy room quickly telling her that we would clean it up before she could blink.

When she had left, I scooped up a bunch of magazines.

"I still can't believe we haven't found anything worth knowing for us in these." I said, glancing at my sister as she put that thick book I had been looking through before, back into the bookshelf where we had found it. At this very moment, everything in our house that had something to do with laws and such was gathered in the same room we had to clean now. But it probably wouldn't take such a long time. All we had to do was to carry everything up to our rooms, where we could finish it later.

"I know," Kari replied. "Maybe we should ask mum and dad for help. I mean, they probably know a lot more of this stuff than we do."

I bit my lip.

"How are we going to help Matt and Tk if we don't have a clue how to?" Kari continued. She certainly did have a point.

"I'm just afraid that they'll..."

"We'll what, son?"

Kari and I spun around. Dad was standing there, his coat still on.

"Umm... nothing. We'll, uh, tell you later," I said, presssing a smile.

"Okay."

Dad turned and took a few steps until he was right by the small closet-like space under the stairs. He stopped and looked at it and Kari and I held our breaths.

"Honey, I think I'll put this old jacket away now. It has gotten too cold to wear it outside," he yelled to mum in the kitchen and took the coat off.

"Just throw it under the stairs and I'll see what to do with it later. You need a new one, anyway."

Dad rolled his eyes, most likely thinking that he did not need a new coat and that the old, worn out piece of clothing in his hands was perfectly fine. Either way, he reached for the small knob...

"Dad!" I yelled at the tip of my lungs. He looked at me confusedly. "I... I mean, uh, you just go and... and sit down in the living room. Kari and I are almost done with the cleaning and I can take care of that jacket for you,"

Dad's expression grew even more confused, if that was possible. He handed me the coat. I managed another smile, aware that it probably looked more faked than Matt's forced ones when Jun was following him, trying to do whatever just to touch him. I laughed silently when I thought about the panicked look on Matt's usually so calm and cool face.

Putting the coat somewhere else than the small space Tk and Matt were hiding in, I began to help Kari with the mess in the living room instead.

Kari had almost gotten all the papers off the floor and had carried most of them to my room, telling me that my room was such a disarray anyway, that it wouldn't look suspicious.

{~Tk's POV~}

My back has started to ache from the crouching position I'm in and all I'm longing for was to stretch it. It's pitch black in this small space too.

Boy, was I scared when Mr Kamiya was about to open the door!

Not that Matt noticed that. My elder brother had already fallen back to sleep by then.

I looked at him. He leant back against the wall, his neck bowing and his chin against his chest. It would just be cruel to wake him up, even though I was sure his neck would be sore when he finally stirred.

I could smell food now. It really smelled delicious and I realized that I was hungry. But as I sent a glance at Matt, I realized that I was also very tired...

{~Tai's POV~}

"Dinner's ready!" Mum shouted from downstairs. Kari and I competed to the kitchen where, to our surprise, our best porcelain was on the table. The food smelled mouth-watering and looked the same way too. Mum and dad had lit candles and on the table, there was even a tablecloth. We never have tablecloths if it isn't some special holiday or occasion. And it wasn't then. At least not that I knew of, and judging by the looks of Kari, neither did she.

"Sit down, kids. Help yourselves," mum said, her bubbly, cheerful voice giving away the fact that something big was going on.

I took my ordinary seat by Kari, mum and dad sitting on the opposite of the table, facing us.

I did as mum told me and helped myself with the food and soon everyone had some on their plate. I took a bite.

"Wow, this is really good." was my first reaction.

"I'm glad you like it," mum said.

We ate a while under silence, the feeling that my parents had something important to tell us nagging my back. Then they finally spoke up.

"Your mum and I have something to tell you, kids,"

I was right.

"It's important." dad continued.

Right again. The only questions left now was if it was good or bad and what it was about.

"Important, but very good at the same time." mum filled dad in.

Kari and I didn't say anything, waiting for them to continue. Mum let out a small, nervous laugh.

"Maybe we should just spill the beans, hun'?"

"Yeah," dad agreed. "Tai, Kari, you're going to get a brother or sister."

My jaw dropped and I was sure my eyes were as good as popping out of their sockets. I was thankful for that I hadn't got any milk in my mouth at that point.

"But... I thought that you couldn't get any more children," I spluttered.

"We can't, but there is a thing called adoption." Dad chuckled.

I didn't really know what to say except for, "Wow... That's pretty big news."

"How old is the baby?" Kari asked.

"Oh, no! We're thinking about adopting someone from the orphanage. There are so many poor kids there..."

"Someone in our age then?"

"Yes, maybe."

I was too surprised and shocked over the sudden and happy news I couldn't come up with something more to say. The rest of the dinner, mum and dad talked and talked about the adoption and I let Kari ask all the questions.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Just as I had gotten out of the kitchen, I grabbed Kari's arm.

"Hey, what if they can adopt Matt and Tk?" I whispered.

"Huh?"

"What if they can adopt Matt and Tk?" I repeated, still whispering, not wanting our parents to hear us.

"Adopt Matt and Tk?" Kari said, looking as if she hadn't understood my words.

"Yes!"

"Adopt them?" I saw that Kari finally started to get it. "Having them live here? With us?"

"Yeah,"

My sister's face cracked up in a wide smile.

"That would be..."

"Really great, I know," I smiled.

"What are you talking about?" mum wondered from the kitchen.

"Nothing!" We said in unison, a little louder, for her to hear us. Before we could tell them, we had to get Tk and Matt to our rooms where we could get them some food. They had to be really hungry by now. And it wasn't even sure that they'd want to adopt the two, because they was... well, *two* and not *one*.

We decided to wait until mum and dad had gone into the living room, watching the news.

After about twenty minutes, they had seated themselves in the sofa in front of the TV.

Kari quietly opened the small door under the stairs and I glanced behind my shoulder to see if mum and dad had noticed anything. They hadn't.

"Umm... Tai," Kari whispered.

"What?"

I went to my sister's side and looked into the mini-'room' Kari was pointing into. There, I saw Matt and Tk, of course, but what I hadn't expected was that the both of them would be asleep. Matt leaned on the wall and Tk leaned on Matt's shoulder, his facial expressions telling me that the dream he had wasn't pleasant.

Bending down, I nudged Matt's shoulder, but as I got no reaction, I instead poked on Tk's arm.

"Wake them up." Kari said. "They can't stay here all night, then mum and dad will notice sooner or later."

I drew a soundless sigh and poked Tk's arm again. He at last started moving a bit.

"Tk," Kari whispered. The only reply that she got was a whimper from the back of his throat. It was easy to tell that she was worried.

"He's having a nightmare." I stated, tilting his head up with my hand, away from Matt's shoulder. That's when he woke up. His eyes shot open and he threw himself back at Matt, screaming.

I jumped back, startled by his alarmed shriek. My heart beat like the bass in one of those all-too-fast techno songs.

"Shh!" Kari hissed, putting a finger in front of her lips, but it was already too late:

"Kari? Tai?" Our parents came running from the living room. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Then they saw Tk and Matt, who also had come round when Tk had screamed and thrown himself at him.

"Matt? And Tk?" mum sounded all at sea. Her eyes travelled from us, Kari and I, to them, Tk and Matt, and then back to us again.

"Umm..." was the most intelligent thing I could come up with to say.

"We, uh," Kari hesitated.

"There's a perfect explanation to this," I said dumbly.

{~Matt's POV~}

Guess if I got a fright when I was woken up by Tk bumping his head into me and screaming. My neck hurt like hell, and I was still groggy when other voices were heard. At first I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but then, when the sleepy fog in my head had disappeared somewhat, I could understand them.
"There's a perfect explanation to this," Tai reassured his parents, waving his hands in the air as to seem extra confident of that. Not that I believed he actually had a perfect explanation to this though.

Mr and Mrs Kamiya fixed their eyes on their son and an awkward silence settled.

"Umm…" Tai said maybe a minute or two later.

"Umm…" Kari mimicked nervously.

I didn't know if I should say something or if I should just stay quiet. But as neither Tai not Kari seemed to find something good to say or way to start, I decided to speak up.

"Tk and I ran away."

Tai and Kari's parents turned to me and I shifted awkwardly, not liking the sudden attention. I thought that it was the easiest to begin as Tk had begun when he had told Tai and Kari what happened.

"Well… we…" And starting with those to words, I blurted out the whole story, with some inputs from Tai and Tk occasionally. Everything. Ms Matsuoka, the Yu family, the hospital and dad… I didn't have to be too detailed, since Tai and Kari had talked about our 'situation' with their mum and dad before, and I was very thankful for that. It was the part about how Ms Matsuoka had signed that contract and by doing so, forcing Tk to live with the Yu's and me to live at the orphanage that the Kamiya parents got the most shocked to hear about.

That's when Kari and Tai decided to pop a question that I surely wasn't prepared for!

"Mum, dad… We just thought that as you're going to adopt some kid anyway…" Tai began.

"That you could… Well, adopt Matt and Tk." Kari finished, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Despite Kari's attempt of being unfussy and relaxed about it, I choked. I was lucky that I hadn't got anything in my mouth at that point, because then I would probably have spluttered it our all over the floor. Tk's grasp on my arm tightened until it more or less was painful and it almost looked as if Mrs Kamiya's eyes would pop out, her mouth gaping like a fish's.

"W-What?" Mr Kamiya stammered, shocked.

How much I'd ever want to live with the Kamiyas, I just couldn't believe that they could actually say yes. They would get two new people living under their roof and two new mouths to feed. I could only come up with reasons why they would tell us no and the only conclusion I could find if their answer would be yes, was that they'd only want to take care of one of us. If that was the case, I genuinely hoped that it would be Tk, in view of the fact that he doubtlessly would hate living with that Yu-couple, even if they weren't that bad people. I mean, I would surely loathe living in the orphanage, but… It would at least feel better if I knew that my brother was happy.

It felt like years had passed when the Mrs Kamiya opened her mouth again, this time to speak.

All I can remember of the seconds between when she opened her mouth and what she said was the silent plea I kept on repeating and repeating inside my head, "Please let them say yes, please let them say yes…"

Then came her words and answer…

A/N: Sooo… You want me to continue?

/ThatGirl