~*Project: Moment*~
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 1- Life Goes On*~
Sora Takenouchi hurried down a sidewalk in a suburb of Tokyo, her shopping bag swinging at her side as she repeatedly mentally bashed herself in the head.
*Late late late!* she wailed. *Mimi will be fit to be tied!* She shook her head and began to jog, her bag slapping her legs as she loped along. *I can't believe I'm late today, of all days! I feel like a fifteen-year-old girl again, trying to make it to tennis practice on time...* She smiled momentarily at the thought, and then sighed and broke into a real run.
A loud knock at the door of the Ishidas' apartment brought Matt's head up instantly from the piece of sheet music which he was grinding away at enthusiastically with the eraser end of a much-chewed pencil.
"Mimi?" he called into the living room. "I think Sora's here."
Mimi bustled into the room, putting on her coat. "Phew! That's a relief. I was starting to think she wasn't going to show up at all..." She paused mid-buttoning to glance at the paper. "Oh, are you still stuck?"
"As a pig in a fence," Matt said, putting his chin in his hands. "I rhymed myself into a corner again. I can't think of another word that rhymes with 'must'. At least, not one I can use."
"Have you tried the thesaurus?" she said, settling herself on the floor to put on her shoes.
"I can't find it," he muttered. "I think I lent it to Cody for an entrance exam, a couple of weeks ago. He was worried about sounding redundant on the essay questions."
Mimi sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Well, in that case, I'll buy you a new one while I'm out. That one's never going to see the light of day again."
Glancing up, Matt laughed. "Yeah, you'd think a guy that disciplined would keep his room a little neater..." He frowned at the sight of her scrunched up on the floor of the little foyer-area. "Are you sure it's okay for you to sit like that?"
She laughed. "We'll be fine, Matt. By the time I have to worry about sitting like this, it'll be physically impossible anyway. Now stop worrying about me and worry about your song instead."
"I guess..." Matt said, looking uncertain. Mimi laughed and stood up easily.
"See? I'm just fine." She leaned over to kiss his cheek, then grabbed her purse and headed out the door. "You'll just have to trust me," she called over her shoulder. Matt nodded. Suddenly his eyes lit up.
"That's it! 'Trust'!"
"You see? There you go!" Mimi said, and the door swung shut. Matt leaned over his paper again, his pencil dancing over the page. He reached the end of the line, and then stopped, his face falling into a long-suffering expression.
"Not again..." After a moment of contemplation, he got to his feet. "I need a break," he announced to the empty apartment, and began to rummage through the cupboards for coffee grounds and a mug.
Mimi greeted a breathless Sora outside the apartment, grinning.
"I see you've gotten some exercise."
"You...could say...that," Sora gasped. The two women headed for the down elevator, Mimi staying miraculously quiet to allow Sora a chance to catch her breath.
"So, how have you been doing?" Sora finally said as they left the elevator for the lobby.
A mischievous sparkle crept into Mimi's eyes. "You mean me, Matt, or the baby?" she said. Sora shrugged.
"All three, I guess."
"Well, I'm fine; Matt's been suffering from writer's block for the last few days and he needs a new song for that album they're planning, so that's been a trial, but he's making gradual headway; and the baby is the same as ever." Mimi patted her stomach, which was only just starting to round out, and smiled.
Sora smiled back. Motherhood, impending or otherwise, suited Mimi surprisingly well; she'd had a sort of glow hanging around her ever since she'd found out she was pregnant, and it hadn't faded with time and morning sickness.
Today's shopping trip was for baby clothes and basics; she wasn't due for months yet, but both women liked having things done in advance, particularly in this case. Mimi was not enamored with the idea of trying to shop while she resembled some poor sap who'd accidentally swallowed a watermelon. They were planning to meet Yolei at Exotica, their favorite restaurant, and then head out to the mall.
"You know, I was afraid they were going to stop serving breakfast by the time you arrived," Mimi joked, checking her watch, "but I think that we'll be fine as long as we catch the next bus."
Sora nodded. "Are you getting one of those sticky things of yours?"
"You mean a hot-fruit turnover?" Mimi said, smiling at the apt description. "No, I'm going with a *cold* fruit platter, thank you very much. Those things are the size of dinner plates, and I'm getting less and less room in here, in case you forgot. I'm supposed to eat healthy stuff, anyway."
A wicked grin appeared on Sora's face. "That's too bad, because I'm getting one. And I'm eating it right in front of you, too."
"You wouldn't!" Mimi gasped melodramatically.
"I would."
"Look, Sora, if this is payback for the time you were trying to diet to fit into your prom dress and I came over and brought that Godiva sampler so you would 'know what not to eat', I'm *sorry* already!"
Sora pretended to cackle evilly, Mimi grinned, and the bus pulled up.
~*~
Seven hours and what felt like a million stores later, Sora and Mimi stepped off of the five-fifteen back where they'd started, laden with shopping bags and giggling comfortably in the manner of people who have been laughing all day.
"...and when Yolei went up to the register with those sleepers!"
"I know! I kept wondering why she looked so red, and then I realized that the cashier was that dippy friend of hers...what's her name?"
"Kyoko, I think."
"Oh, right. And her eyes got all big, and she went..." Sora assumed a wide-eyed, vacantly surprised look. "'Oh, Yolei, I didn't know *you* were expecting!'"
"I'm never going to forget the look on her face," Mimi giggled. Sora grinned, suddenly thinking of something that drove her to new heights of hilarity.
"It's a lucky thing Ken wasn't there, or he would have died..." she gasped. Mimi blinked at her for a stunned second before joining her in helpless giggles.
"Oh...we'd better get upstairs before I collapse right here on the sidewalk," she managed. Sora nodded, snapping her a salute.
"Yes Ma'am!" When Mimi gave her a funny look, she added confidentially, "If I let you collapse *anywhere*, Matt's going to scatter my ashes to the four winds." Mimi snorted. "Oh, c'mon, Mimi. I think it's cute the way he gets so worried about you and the baby," she said plaintively as they walked inside.
"Yeah, well, you don't have to live with him," Mimi complained, but smiled anyway. It *was* kind of sweet, in an annoying way. But annoying or not, she was willing to put up with it. After all, this was Matt they were discussing. They headed onto the elevator, which had just come down to let a half-dozen people off.
Sora noticed that Mimi's eyes had taken on a distant, happy look and repressed a smile. "He's going to make a great dad," she commented. Mimi grinned.
"Yeah, I know..." she said happily. "Anyone who saw how good he was with TK when we were kids would know that."
Sora nodded in agreement as they stepped out of the elevator and strolled toward the Ishidas' apartment. Stopping in front of the door, Mimi fished a plastic flower key-ring out of her purse and unlocked the door, then walked inside, looking around. She spotted Matt stretched out on the couch, sleeping soundly, and giggled.
"Oh, the poor guy. He was up all last night trying to write."
"No wonder he's asleep," Sora said. "He'd better enjoy it while he can; he's only got a few more months of it before you'll both be missing more sleep than either of you can afford."
Mimi winced. "Don't remind me." She tossed her jacket over the back of a kitchen chair and leaned over to look at the much-smudged sheet of music. Suddenly, she burst out laughing.
"What?" Sora said, confused.
"He finished it," Mimi said, eyes sparkling.
Sora frowned. "How can you tell?" she said, looking over Mimi's shoulder. She caught the joke the minute she saw the paper clearly. It was filled with writing and notes, but that wasn't what caught the eye about it.
What *did* catch the eye was the large 'THANK GOD!!!!' scrawled across the bottom of the paper. Sora joined Mimi in giggles that quickly turned into hysterics. All the humor of the day and the good feelings about the impeding baby snowballed together until both women were leaning on each other, crying with laughter.
"Hmmmggghuuuh..."
A quiet groan from the living room silenced them instantly, and they hurried to look into the room. Matt was sitting up, holding a hand blearily to his head.
"G'morning," he slurred sleepily, blinking repeatedly. Mimi's hands flew to her face.
"Oh! I'm sorry...we woke you up, didn't we?"
"T'sokay," he said, gradually looking less like the living dead and more like the handsome songwright Sora knew. "I was going to get up around now anyway, to get dinner started."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Mimi said. Matt snorted.
"Then what are we going to eat?" he said with a touch of amusement in his voice. Mimi scowled at him.
"Hey! I can cook just fine."
"Mm-hmm. Hey, Sora, back me up here, unless you want to see an innocent man poisoned."
"You'd deserve it," Mimi retorted, but by now she was plainly teasing. Sora joined in.
"I wouldn't exactly call you 'innocent', Matt...but you're right, I don't want you dead. Who would send over casseroles when I'm too tired to cook?"
"Yolei?" Mimi suggested. Sora pretended to blanch in terror.
"Oh, Lord help us all. She's as bad as you, Mimi." She paused. "Hm. Then again, maybe not...that would be a hard act to top."
"Argh! They're all against me! It's a conspiracy!" Mimi wailed. Matt laughed and stood up, catching Mimi by surprise in a one-armed hug and pulling her close to his side, then kissing the top of her head.
"Not quite *all* of us," he said warmly, making Mimi blush.
"You messed up my hair," she pretended to complain.
"Hey, that's my line!" Matt replied, then frowned and looked critically at her ponytail. "Besides, that isn't messed up at all." He looked at it for another long moment, then reached up and gave her a noogie. "*Now* it's messed up!" he said smugly, and ducked the hand that reached up to whap him, then vaulted over the sofa to take shelter behind it.
"Ooooh, you're going to get it now!" she shrieked, and began to chase him around the sofa as he hooted with laughter. Sora grinned.
"Well, I'll take this delightful scenario to mean that you're fully awake again, Matt," she said in tones of great amusement. "Should I leave you to Mimi's vengeance, then?"
"Ack! No!" he exclaimed. "Not until I think of...hey, wait!" Suddenly, he stopped stock-still, making Mimi run smack into him. The couple fell in a heap on the sofa, laughing in a contentedly tired way. "I was hoping that would work," Matt said weakly, grinning. Mimi was the first to sit up, pulling the elastic out of her ruined hair and shaking it out into a cloud of brown around her head.
"I feel like an ugly old Sasquatch," she complained good-naturedly. Matt propped himself on his elbows to look at her.
"You, an ugly Sasquatch? Never! You're the prettiest Sasquatch I've ever seen."
Mimi laughed. "What would your mother say if she knew you'd married a Sasquatch?"
"She'd want to know if you could cook," Matt said with a grin.
"And when you told her I'm hopeless?" Mimi inquired. Matt laughed and reached up to pull her down into a hug.
"She'd say what a lucky thing it is I'm here to take care of you," he said softly, his voice muffled by her hair. Mimi blushed.
"Hardly," she scoffed, but snuggled up to him anyway. Sora sweatdropped, placing a hand behind her head.
"Uhm, I'll just let myself out, then, you two being so busy and all..."
Both Mimi and Matt went red to the tips of their ears. "Oh, sorry..." Matt said sheepishly. "Sure, I guess."
"Bye, then. Have fun, Mimi; don't stay up too late. Matt needs his sleep, remember?" she called over her shoulder. They blushed again, but Sora caught a glimpse of them starting to kiss as she closed the door behind herself. *Those two*, she thought amusedly to herself. *It's no wonder they have their own apartment. They'd wear out their welcome real quick anywhere else...*
She smiled. It was sweet, really. Matt and Mimi were head-over-heels for each other. She felt lucky to be friends with two people who were so in love. It always felt good to be around them; they radiated a deep sort of contentment that was something special in itself. Sora knew how precious that feeling was; she'd only felt it once before, but she'd never forgotten it, or the person she'd felt it with...
And she'd never feel it again. Her smile faded. *Tai...* she thought mournfully, feeling the euphoria of the day slip away. That perfect feeling had come once; the one time they'd kissed. She'd felt like nothing bad would ever happen to her again. But she'd been wrong. That perfect day had been the day before...
*The day before...*
Sora scowled, pushing the memory away. *Oh, stop it!* she scolded herself. *It was three years ago! Quit running yourself ragged over someone who's long gone!* Sighing, she hurried out of the elevator; she'd gotten all the way to the lobby in the time she'd spent wrapped in her own thoughts. *Someone I'll never see again... All right, that's enough!* she thought fiercely, giving herself a few mental slaps to snap out of this silliness.
Trotting off down the street, she passed a park on the way to her house. The sight of a couple of kids kicking a soccer ball stirred up the whole fruit cocktail of negativity that she'd just gotten under control again, and she frowned and walked faster until the park was out of sight. *Can't I go through just one day without remembering and getting all depressed again?* she thought beseechingly, doing her best to concentrate on the pretty flowers in that window-box a few floors up, or the nice dress that girl was wearing, or the colorful poster in that shop window advertising a production of Grease...
Her and Tai's favorite musical...
"Gaaaahhhh!" she cried, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to clap her hands to her head. Several passersby gave her funny looks, and a few swerved their paths to avoid coming to close to her. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!" she yelled. The number of pedestrians going out of their way to stay out of her range increased.
Taking deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation, she finally realized what a stir she must be causing and calmed down. Brushing self-consciously at her sleeves, she glanced around to meet the gaze of at least a dozen concerned onlookers.
"Uh...hi," she said lamely, then blushed and hurried away. *Good grief, I just made a total fool of myself! That's it; this has officially gone overboard. I am going home now to soak in a hot tub, and read cheap detective novels, the kind Tai hates, and forget totally about him for a while! So there!*
Nodding resolutely, she stopped in front of the suburban house that she rented from an elderly woman called Mrs. Murakami and fished for her key in the flowerpot by the door.
"Huh...that's funny," she murmured, frowning. "It's not here..." Shrugging, she straightened and walked over to the little one-car garage, working the twirl padlock and slipping it off of its metal loops, and then grabbing the slide-up door handle and grunting as she yanked it up. Stepping into the garage, she slid it back down. It rumbled into place without much of a hitch; it was usually fine once she'd gotten it past its' 'sticky spot' at the bottom. Turning around and switching on the light, she looked around in confusion...and then in shock.
"What the...? What happened here?!" The garage was strewn with her auto equipment and Mrs. Murakami's junk, much of it broken in some way. The orderly metal shelves were cockeyed and dented; one of them had fallen over, and paint cans and garden tools littered the floor. One of the cans had lost its lid, and Royal Blue #21 was pooled on the concrete around it. The entire room had been trashed.
Sora knelt carefully and picked up a framed picture of herself and Mimi that normally hung on the wall by the door to the rest of the house, turning it over in her hands. The glass was shattered, and the picture had been slashed from corner to corner, as if whatever knocked it off the wall had done so with a heavy machete or some other sort of bladed weapon. She frowned and carefully touched the tear in the picture. *Who did this?*
A muffled crash sounded from deeper inside the house. Sora looked up, her eyes wide. "Hello?" she said softly. "Hello...is anybody there?" No answer. Shivering, she got to her feet. *This is too creepy. I'm getting out of here and calling the police, right now!*
She started for the garage door, but almost before she could put one foot in front of the other, another, louder crash came from the other side of the door. Freezing in place for a critical second, she turned to look at the door-
Just as a scythed green blade came smashing through it, splintering the wood, and began trying to wrench the remains of the door out of its frame. Sora screamed and fell to her knees, yanking on the garage door.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Open, dammit, open!!" she wailed at the stuck door, but it wouldn't budge. Behind her, the ruined wood gave, and green terror came smashing through into the garage. Sora threw up her arms to shield herself in a futile gesture, but it was already upon her with a feral roar.
"Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!"
A female scream echoed through the house, but no one was there to hear it. The razor-limbed creature was quick and brutal in its work, and there was no Biyomon to protect her now; it was over almost before it began...
It took Sora a few minutes to realize through the fog of pain that she lay in that the creature had gone. The fog faded, and she realized that her head was strangely crystal-clear. Her body felt numb, and it was a struggle to move. Something wet was running into her eyes; she reached up clumsily to wipe it away, and her hand came away dripping red. *Blood? I'm bleeding. I have to go for help...*
She tried to sit up, but her muscles wouldn't obey her at first. She managed to drag herself into a half-kneeling position, bracing herself with her hands. The clear-headed feeling was fading away with her attempts to move, and her numbness was beginning to give way to pain again. Looking down, she dimly realized that blood was running freely down her body, spattering the floor.
*I'm making a mess,* she thought dizzily, as the room began to spin around her. *Mrs. Murakami's going to be furious...* Blood loss and pain were taking their toll; her last thought as she collapsed to the floor again was that the creature that had done this had looked familiar...
And then everything went black.
~*~
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 1- Life Goes On*~
Sora Takenouchi hurried down a sidewalk in a suburb of Tokyo, her shopping bag swinging at her side as she repeatedly mentally bashed herself in the head.
*Late late late!* she wailed. *Mimi will be fit to be tied!* She shook her head and began to jog, her bag slapping her legs as she loped along. *I can't believe I'm late today, of all days! I feel like a fifteen-year-old girl again, trying to make it to tennis practice on time...* She smiled momentarily at the thought, and then sighed and broke into a real run.
A loud knock at the door of the Ishidas' apartment brought Matt's head up instantly from the piece of sheet music which he was grinding away at enthusiastically with the eraser end of a much-chewed pencil.
"Mimi?" he called into the living room. "I think Sora's here."
Mimi bustled into the room, putting on her coat. "Phew! That's a relief. I was starting to think she wasn't going to show up at all..." She paused mid-buttoning to glance at the paper. "Oh, are you still stuck?"
"As a pig in a fence," Matt said, putting his chin in his hands. "I rhymed myself into a corner again. I can't think of another word that rhymes with 'must'. At least, not one I can use."
"Have you tried the thesaurus?" she said, settling herself on the floor to put on her shoes.
"I can't find it," he muttered. "I think I lent it to Cody for an entrance exam, a couple of weeks ago. He was worried about sounding redundant on the essay questions."
Mimi sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Well, in that case, I'll buy you a new one while I'm out. That one's never going to see the light of day again."
Glancing up, Matt laughed. "Yeah, you'd think a guy that disciplined would keep his room a little neater..." He frowned at the sight of her scrunched up on the floor of the little foyer-area. "Are you sure it's okay for you to sit like that?"
She laughed. "We'll be fine, Matt. By the time I have to worry about sitting like this, it'll be physically impossible anyway. Now stop worrying about me and worry about your song instead."
"I guess..." Matt said, looking uncertain. Mimi laughed and stood up easily.
"See? I'm just fine." She leaned over to kiss his cheek, then grabbed her purse and headed out the door. "You'll just have to trust me," she called over her shoulder. Matt nodded. Suddenly his eyes lit up.
"That's it! 'Trust'!"
"You see? There you go!" Mimi said, and the door swung shut. Matt leaned over his paper again, his pencil dancing over the page. He reached the end of the line, and then stopped, his face falling into a long-suffering expression.
"Not again..." After a moment of contemplation, he got to his feet. "I need a break," he announced to the empty apartment, and began to rummage through the cupboards for coffee grounds and a mug.
Mimi greeted a breathless Sora outside the apartment, grinning.
"I see you've gotten some exercise."
"You...could say...that," Sora gasped. The two women headed for the down elevator, Mimi staying miraculously quiet to allow Sora a chance to catch her breath.
"So, how have you been doing?" Sora finally said as they left the elevator for the lobby.
A mischievous sparkle crept into Mimi's eyes. "You mean me, Matt, or the baby?" she said. Sora shrugged.
"All three, I guess."
"Well, I'm fine; Matt's been suffering from writer's block for the last few days and he needs a new song for that album they're planning, so that's been a trial, but he's making gradual headway; and the baby is the same as ever." Mimi patted her stomach, which was only just starting to round out, and smiled.
Sora smiled back. Motherhood, impending or otherwise, suited Mimi surprisingly well; she'd had a sort of glow hanging around her ever since she'd found out she was pregnant, and it hadn't faded with time and morning sickness.
Today's shopping trip was for baby clothes and basics; she wasn't due for months yet, but both women liked having things done in advance, particularly in this case. Mimi was not enamored with the idea of trying to shop while she resembled some poor sap who'd accidentally swallowed a watermelon. They were planning to meet Yolei at Exotica, their favorite restaurant, and then head out to the mall.
"You know, I was afraid they were going to stop serving breakfast by the time you arrived," Mimi joked, checking her watch, "but I think that we'll be fine as long as we catch the next bus."
Sora nodded. "Are you getting one of those sticky things of yours?"
"You mean a hot-fruit turnover?" Mimi said, smiling at the apt description. "No, I'm going with a *cold* fruit platter, thank you very much. Those things are the size of dinner plates, and I'm getting less and less room in here, in case you forgot. I'm supposed to eat healthy stuff, anyway."
A wicked grin appeared on Sora's face. "That's too bad, because I'm getting one. And I'm eating it right in front of you, too."
"You wouldn't!" Mimi gasped melodramatically.
"I would."
"Look, Sora, if this is payback for the time you were trying to diet to fit into your prom dress and I came over and brought that Godiva sampler so you would 'know what not to eat', I'm *sorry* already!"
Sora pretended to cackle evilly, Mimi grinned, and the bus pulled up.
~*~
Seven hours and what felt like a million stores later, Sora and Mimi stepped off of the five-fifteen back where they'd started, laden with shopping bags and giggling comfortably in the manner of people who have been laughing all day.
"...and when Yolei went up to the register with those sleepers!"
"I know! I kept wondering why she looked so red, and then I realized that the cashier was that dippy friend of hers...what's her name?"
"Kyoko, I think."
"Oh, right. And her eyes got all big, and she went..." Sora assumed a wide-eyed, vacantly surprised look. "'Oh, Yolei, I didn't know *you* were expecting!'"
"I'm never going to forget the look on her face," Mimi giggled. Sora grinned, suddenly thinking of something that drove her to new heights of hilarity.
"It's a lucky thing Ken wasn't there, or he would have died..." she gasped. Mimi blinked at her for a stunned second before joining her in helpless giggles.
"Oh...we'd better get upstairs before I collapse right here on the sidewalk," she managed. Sora nodded, snapping her a salute.
"Yes Ma'am!" When Mimi gave her a funny look, she added confidentially, "If I let you collapse *anywhere*, Matt's going to scatter my ashes to the four winds." Mimi snorted. "Oh, c'mon, Mimi. I think it's cute the way he gets so worried about you and the baby," she said plaintively as they walked inside.
"Yeah, well, you don't have to live with him," Mimi complained, but smiled anyway. It *was* kind of sweet, in an annoying way. But annoying or not, she was willing to put up with it. After all, this was Matt they were discussing. They headed onto the elevator, which had just come down to let a half-dozen people off.
Sora noticed that Mimi's eyes had taken on a distant, happy look and repressed a smile. "He's going to make a great dad," she commented. Mimi grinned.
"Yeah, I know..." she said happily. "Anyone who saw how good he was with TK when we were kids would know that."
Sora nodded in agreement as they stepped out of the elevator and strolled toward the Ishidas' apartment. Stopping in front of the door, Mimi fished a plastic flower key-ring out of her purse and unlocked the door, then walked inside, looking around. She spotted Matt stretched out on the couch, sleeping soundly, and giggled.
"Oh, the poor guy. He was up all last night trying to write."
"No wonder he's asleep," Sora said. "He'd better enjoy it while he can; he's only got a few more months of it before you'll both be missing more sleep than either of you can afford."
Mimi winced. "Don't remind me." She tossed her jacket over the back of a kitchen chair and leaned over to look at the much-smudged sheet of music. Suddenly, she burst out laughing.
"What?" Sora said, confused.
"He finished it," Mimi said, eyes sparkling.
Sora frowned. "How can you tell?" she said, looking over Mimi's shoulder. She caught the joke the minute she saw the paper clearly. It was filled with writing and notes, but that wasn't what caught the eye about it.
What *did* catch the eye was the large 'THANK GOD!!!!' scrawled across the bottom of the paper. Sora joined Mimi in giggles that quickly turned into hysterics. All the humor of the day and the good feelings about the impeding baby snowballed together until both women were leaning on each other, crying with laughter.
"Hmmmggghuuuh..."
A quiet groan from the living room silenced them instantly, and they hurried to look into the room. Matt was sitting up, holding a hand blearily to his head.
"G'morning," he slurred sleepily, blinking repeatedly. Mimi's hands flew to her face.
"Oh! I'm sorry...we woke you up, didn't we?"
"T'sokay," he said, gradually looking less like the living dead and more like the handsome songwright Sora knew. "I was going to get up around now anyway, to get dinner started."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Mimi said. Matt snorted.
"Then what are we going to eat?" he said with a touch of amusement in his voice. Mimi scowled at him.
"Hey! I can cook just fine."
"Mm-hmm. Hey, Sora, back me up here, unless you want to see an innocent man poisoned."
"You'd deserve it," Mimi retorted, but by now she was plainly teasing. Sora joined in.
"I wouldn't exactly call you 'innocent', Matt...but you're right, I don't want you dead. Who would send over casseroles when I'm too tired to cook?"
"Yolei?" Mimi suggested. Sora pretended to blanch in terror.
"Oh, Lord help us all. She's as bad as you, Mimi." She paused. "Hm. Then again, maybe not...that would be a hard act to top."
"Argh! They're all against me! It's a conspiracy!" Mimi wailed. Matt laughed and stood up, catching Mimi by surprise in a one-armed hug and pulling her close to his side, then kissing the top of her head.
"Not quite *all* of us," he said warmly, making Mimi blush.
"You messed up my hair," she pretended to complain.
"Hey, that's my line!" Matt replied, then frowned and looked critically at her ponytail. "Besides, that isn't messed up at all." He looked at it for another long moment, then reached up and gave her a noogie. "*Now* it's messed up!" he said smugly, and ducked the hand that reached up to whap him, then vaulted over the sofa to take shelter behind it.
"Ooooh, you're going to get it now!" she shrieked, and began to chase him around the sofa as he hooted with laughter. Sora grinned.
"Well, I'll take this delightful scenario to mean that you're fully awake again, Matt," she said in tones of great amusement. "Should I leave you to Mimi's vengeance, then?"
"Ack! No!" he exclaimed. "Not until I think of...hey, wait!" Suddenly, he stopped stock-still, making Mimi run smack into him. The couple fell in a heap on the sofa, laughing in a contentedly tired way. "I was hoping that would work," Matt said weakly, grinning. Mimi was the first to sit up, pulling the elastic out of her ruined hair and shaking it out into a cloud of brown around her head.
"I feel like an ugly old Sasquatch," she complained good-naturedly. Matt propped himself on his elbows to look at her.
"You, an ugly Sasquatch? Never! You're the prettiest Sasquatch I've ever seen."
Mimi laughed. "What would your mother say if she knew you'd married a Sasquatch?"
"She'd want to know if you could cook," Matt said with a grin.
"And when you told her I'm hopeless?" Mimi inquired. Matt laughed and reached up to pull her down into a hug.
"She'd say what a lucky thing it is I'm here to take care of you," he said softly, his voice muffled by her hair. Mimi blushed.
"Hardly," she scoffed, but snuggled up to him anyway. Sora sweatdropped, placing a hand behind her head.
"Uhm, I'll just let myself out, then, you two being so busy and all..."
Both Mimi and Matt went red to the tips of their ears. "Oh, sorry..." Matt said sheepishly. "Sure, I guess."
"Bye, then. Have fun, Mimi; don't stay up too late. Matt needs his sleep, remember?" she called over her shoulder. They blushed again, but Sora caught a glimpse of them starting to kiss as she closed the door behind herself. *Those two*, she thought amusedly to herself. *It's no wonder they have their own apartment. They'd wear out their welcome real quick anywhere else...*
She smiled. It was sweet, really. Matt and Mimi were head-over-heels for each other. She felt lucky to be friends with two people who were so in love. It always felt good to be around them; they radiated a deep sort of contentment that was something special in itself. Sora knew how precious that feeling was; she'd only felt it once before, but she'd never forgotten it, or the person she'd felt it with...
And she'd never feel it again. Her smile faded. *Tai...* she thought mournfully, feeling the euphoria of the day slip away. That perfect feeling had come once; the one time they'd kissed. She'd felt like nothing bad would ever happen to her again. But she'd been wrong. That perfect day had been the day before...
*The day before...*
Sora scowled, pushing the memory away. *Oh, stop it!* she scolded herself. *It was three years ago! Quit running yourself ragged over someone who's long gone!* Sighing, she hurried out of the elevator; she'd gotten all the way to the lobby in the time she'd spent wrapped in her own thoughts. *Someone I'll never see again... All right, that's enough!* she thought fiercely, giving herself a few mental slaps to snap out of this silliness.
Trotting off down the street, she passed a park on the way to her house. The sight of a couple of kids kicking a soccer ball stirred up the whole fruit cocktail of negativity that she'd just gotten under control again, and she frowned and walked faster until the park was out of sight. *Can't I go through just one day without remembering and getting all depressed again?* she thought beseechingly, doing her best to concentrate on the pretty flowers in that window-box a few floors up, or the nice dress that girl was wearing, or the colorful poster in that shop window advertising a production of Grease...
Her and Tai's favorite musical...
"Gaaaahhhh!" she cried, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to clap her hands to her head. Several passersby gave her funny looks, and a few swerved their paths to avoid coming to close to her. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!" she yelled. The number of pedestrians going out of their way to stay out of her range increased.
Taking deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation, she finally realized what a stir she must be causing and calmed down. Brushing self-consciously at her sleeves, she glanced around to meet the gaze of at least a dozen concerned onlookers.
"Uh...hi," she said lamely, then blushed and hurried away. *Good grief, I just made a total fool of myself! That's it; this has officially gone overboard. I am going home now to soak in a hot tub, and read cheap detective novels, the kind Tai hates, and forget totally about him for a while! So there!*
Nodding resolutely, she stopped in front of the suburban house that she rented from an elderly woman called Mrs. Murakami and fished for her key in the flowerpot by the door.
"Huh...that's funny," she murmured, frowning. "It's not here..." Shrugging, she straightened and walked over to the little one-car garage, working the twirl padlock and slipping it off of its metal loops, and then grabbing the slide-up door handle and grunting as she yanked it up. Stepping into the garage, she slid it back down. It rumbled into place without much of a hitch; it was usually fine once she'd gotten it past its' 'sticky spot' at the bottom. Turning around and switching on the light, she looked around in confusion...and then in shock.
"What the...? What happened here?!" The garage was strewn with her auto equipment and Mrs. Murakami's junk, much of it broken in some way. The orderly metal shelves were cockeyed and dented; one of them had fallen over, and paint cans and garden tools littered the floor. One of the cans had lost its lid, and Royal Blue #21 was pooled on the concrete around it. The entire room had been trashed.
Sora knelt carefully and picked up a framed picture of herself and Mimi that normally hung on the wall by the door to the rest of the house, turning it over in her hands. The glass was shattered, and the picture had been slashed from corner to corner, as if whatever knocked it off the wall had done so with a heavy machete or some other sort of bladed weapon. She frowned and carefully touched the tear in the picture. *Who did this?*
A muffled crash sounded from deeper inside the house. Sora looked up, her eyes wide. "Hello?" she said softly. "Hello...is anybody there?" No answer. Shivering, she got to her feet. *This is too creepy. I'm getting out of here and calling the police, right now!*
She started for the garage door, but almost before she could put one foot in front of the other, another, louder crash came from the other side of the door. Freezing in place for a critical second, she turned to look at the door-
Just as a scythed green blade came smashing through it, splintering the wood, and began trying to wrench the remains of the door out of its frame. Sora screamed and fell to her knees, yanking on the garage door.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Open, dammit, open!!" she wailed at the stuck door, but it wouldn't budge. Behind her, the ruined wood gave, and green terror came smashing through into the garage. Sora threw up her arms to shield herself in a futile gesture, but it was already upon her with a feral roar.
"Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!"
A female scream echoed through the house, but no one was there to hear it. The razor-limbed creature was quick and brutal in its work, and there was no Biyomon to protect her now; it was over almost before it began...
It took Sora a few minutes to realize through the fog of pain that she lay in that the creature had gone. The fog faded, and she realized that her head was strangely crystal-clear. Her body felt numb, and it was a struggle to move. Something wet was running into her eyes; she reached up clumsily to wipe it away, and her hand came away dripping red. *Blood? I'm bleeding. I have to go for help...*
She tried to sit up, but her muscles wouldn't obey her at first. She managed to drag herself into a half-kneeling position, bracing herself with her hands. The clear-headed feeling was fading away with her attempts to move, and her numbness was beginning to give way to pain again. Looking down, she dimly realized that blood was running freely down her body, spattering the floor.
*I'm making a mess,* she thought dizzily, as the room began to spin around her. *Mrs. Murakami's going to be furious...* Blood loss and pain were taking their toll; her last thought as she collapsed to the floor again was that the creature that had done this had looked familiar...
And then everything went black.
~*~