~*Project: Moment*~
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 6- Blood, Sweat and Tears*~
Tai and Sora had reached Tai's 'apartment'. Joe hadn't been kidding; the walk was barely three minutes, and they were doing anything but hurrying. Strolling up to the door, sharing anecdotes from their time apart and laughing like little kids, they stopped walking-but not talking-for Tai to get out his key.
"Then, when he finally got up the nerve to ask her out, she was so surprised she dropped her books all over the floor! And when they went to pick them up, it was at the same time, and they cracked heads! Cody was mortified..."
"I feel sorry for the poor guy. Pretty violent relationship, if you ask me," Tai said, sliding a plastic card through a slot by the door. It slid open, and he stepped inside. Sora blinked at the card, and he grinned. "They're much lighter than metal keys. In fact, sometimes a little too light." She looked at him, confused, and he elaborated. "It blew out of my hand onto the roof of one of the sub-buildings once, when I was standing on a balcony, and I couldn't get in here for three hours. I had to wait at Kari's until they got a crane out to retrieve it."
Sora giggled and stepped inside. The apartment was typically bachelor-messy, but not too bad; compared to the nest of old song papers and scattered clothes that Mimi liked to very accurately compare Matt's old apartment to, it was practically the Hilton. It was made up of a kitchenette, a small living room, and a little hallway with two doors on the side away from the entrance, probably leading to bedroom and bath. A small closet stood open at the end of the hallway.
"Um...where do I sleep?" Sora said awkwardly. *No way does Joe expect me to...you know... Does he?*
Tai strode over to the sofa and took the cushions off of it. "It's a hide-a-bed. Ah, the joys of living in such a high-tech community..."
Sora grinned, as much in relief as at Tai's joke. "I'm surprised. I was expecting you to make a bunk pop out of the wall." *Okay, so that was a lie...but he definitely does not need to know what I really was thinking!*
Fortunately, Tai didn't seem to have noticed her earlier nervousness. He was off and running again, this time over to the closet. "You can put your stuff in here...oh, wait, I don't suppose you have much stuff with you, do you..." He looked embarrassed, and Sora tried to help.
"Well, there are my clothes; I can put those in there when I get them back."
"Uh...huh. Your clothes." Tai looked even more embarrassed, and Sora blinked.
"What?"
"Well...hm. You see, there's a little...problem...with your clothes."
Sora looked at him in alarm. "What is it? That was my favorite sweater; it had better not be ruined..."
"Um..." Tai hemmed for a minute. "Well, I guess I could show them to you...I was going to take you by the ward anyway to meet TK and Kari."
"Well, I'm settled in..." Sora laughed. "So sure, let's go. I presume that you three are planning to take me on that tour Joe mentioned?"
"Just of the fun places," Tai said with a grin.
"You're telling me that you all have time for fun between inventing life-saving devices, going on 'missions', and making things pop out of the walls?"
"Have you seen *anything* pop out of a wall yet, Sora Takenouchi, or are you just trying to get our collective goat?" Tai said with a mock frown. Sora shrugged.
"Not really. I just have this mental picture of technology as object-yielding walls. Don't ask me why."
"Why should I ask what I know the answer to? You're crazy."
"Hey!" Sora grabbed one of the couch cushions from the floor and lammed him over the head with it, grinning.
"Ow!" Tai yelped, trying to fend her off. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, the rest of us are just as nutty as you are! Welcome to the club! Ow!"
Sora had gotten him over the head again. "I'll show you 'insane'! Eat batting, Puffhead!"
"Okay, that's it! No one insults the hair!" Tai scooped up the other cushion and went into the fray with a will. If the pillows had been down-filled, it would have snowed feathers. As it was, the air was filled with laughter and shouts of 'ow!' and 'take that!'
*whamwhamwham!*
Sora and Tai both froze mid-swing; someone was hammering on the wall from the next room over.
"Tai, I don't care if she looks like Nicole Kidman," a voice came from the next apartment down, muffled by the wall. "Either keep it to a dull roar, or I'm going to call security!"
Tai and Sora exchanged annoyed glances. "My neighbor," Tai said in an undertone. "He's up late a lot programming, and he's really cranky most of the time. Okay, okay, we were just leaving anyway!" This was directed in a raised tone to the unseen neighbor. Tai paused, and then added with a grin, "And just for the record, she looks more like that cheerleader chick from 'The Replacements'!"
Sora's pillow slammed him in the back of the head. "Baka!"
"It was a compliment!"
A snort of laughter came from the unseen neighbor. "Taichi, you are one lucky SOB...now pipe down!!!"
Laughing, Tai fled the apartment as Sora menacingly raised her pillow. Dropping her weapon, she chased him off down the hallway.
"Tai, wait for me! I don't know my way around here! Tai!!"
She caught up to him as they reached the ward. He was leaning casually against the wall, looking smug.
"'Bout time you got here."
"You left me!" Sora said indignantly, gasping with exertion and fury. "I could have gotten lost forever in this maze of a building!"
"Don't worry, Sora. If you get lost, just make some food pop out of the walls. Want to see your clothes?" Tai turned and walked into the ward.
"Ohhh, you..."
Following him with murder on her mind, Sora stalked up behind him. He was opening a cupboard and getting out a largish, red plastic box, about a foot and a half square. Sora blinked at the sight of a biohazard symbol on the lid. Setting it down on the counter, Tai opened it and turned it for her to see. All traces of fun were suddenly gone from his face.
Sora had a sudden, sick premonition that she didn't want to see what was in that box...but she had already gone this far. Leaning forward, she peered into it.
The gorge rose in her throat. These were not her clothes. They couldn't be her clothes! This was a heap of torn cloth, stained garishly red, as if painted...but she recognized the snowflake pattern on a patch of sleeve that was still relatively clean, and the hole at the corner of one of the pockets of the pants that she'd been meaning to have fixed. They were her clothes, all right, but ripped beyond repair, and saturated in blood that lay in drops on the inside of the sealed plastic bag that held them.
Sora stared at them in disbelief. There was a huge rip, right down the front of the sweater, and another tear had half-severed one sleeve. Reaching down to pull up her left sleeve, Sora looked closely at her skin for the first time, and saw a fine white line of scar tissue running cleanly across her lower arm, parallel to the slash in the sweater sleeve. It was so thin that she wouldn't have noticed it for a while on her own. Swallowing hard, she pulled her sleeve down again to cover the telltale scar, and turned to face Tai.
"I was dying, wasn't I." It wasn't a question. Tai looked conflicted for a moment, but nodded. Sora swallowed. "That's why I was brought here. This was the only place that could save me."
"That's about the size of it," Tai said, with a sigh.
"Why?"
"What?" he said, confused.
"Why was I so important that I couldn't be allowed to die? Why did I just happen to be brought into Joe's ward, and not somebody else's? How did your machines manage to save someone who had lost that much blood?" She gestured at the gruesome contents of the bag. "And for that matter, why does everyone here react like I'm King Arthur's ghost come back from the grave whenever they hear my name?!"
Tai reached out to her, trying to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she twisted away.
"Sora-"
"If you're trying to be nice, I don't need babying. I'm a grownup now, Taichi."
"You're afraid, and I don't blame you, but-"
"Of course I'm afraid!" Sora exploded. "I just found out that I almost died! As far as my experience goes, it's not the greatest thing to hear! You want me to admit I'm scared? Fine! I'm terrified! I'm scared out of my freaking mind! My hair is standing up and my hands are shaking like leaves! Happy?!"
"Sora, you're panicking," Tai said with infuriating calmness. "You need to take a few deep breaths and calm down before you do anything." Sora rankled.
*How can he just stand there and talk like this is no big deal? I almost died!*
"Calm down?! What do you mean, calm down?! I have every right to panic!"
"But you won't do yourself any good if you do. You'll just make yourself sick and exhausted. Trust me, Sora," Tai said, putting a hand on her arm. It closed over the place where her scar was, and she flinched visibly. "I know how you feel."
"How can you possibly know how I feel?!" Sora yelled, knowing she was out of control and not caring. How dare he be so cool and agreeable when she'd just found out something like this?! "You've never had this happen to you! How dare you stand there lecturing me? You've never had a brush with death!"
Tai's eyes were solemn. "Are you sure about that?"
Sora stared at him, and her balloon of anger and fear deflated with the puncture of shock. "What?"
"I'll tell you later. Look, Sora, I really do know how scary this is...but you have to remember, you're not alone. You've got Joe and Izzy, and TK and Kari, and even Davis. And me." He gently squeezed her arm. "Always me."
Tears filled Sora's eyes, and she let them spill over. It was a relief to cry, to let it all out. As the tears opened the door, the memories of terror and agony from back in the garage finally hit her with an impact like a sledgehammer, and she squeezed her eyes shut, crying harder.
A pair of strong arms pulled her into a warm hug, and she clung to Tai, letting her tears soak his shoulder. The memories washed over her like waves, but Tai was a rock to hold on to, and they didn't-couldn't-wash her away. Slowly, the tears subsided to hiccupping sobs, and she relaxed in his arms, sighing the deep sigh of relief.
"There. That feels better, doesn't it," Tai said gently.
"You sound like Joe," Sora said with a weak smile, pulling away far enough to look up at him. Tai grinned, and tilted her chin up with one hand. "I must look terrible," Sora said with a sniff, blinking away surplus tears.
"Nah," Tai said, giving her a long, tender look. "You look beautiful..."
"Hey, you guys! We're here! Are you going to open the door already, or what?"
"TK," Tai said, rolling his eyes, and let go of her to close the box and put it away before going to the door of the ward. Sora grabbed a few tissues and dried her face, and then followed him.
TK and Kari were at the door, grinning.
"Took you long enough," Kari said as Sora came into view. "Just what were you two doing in there, anyway?"
"None of your business," Tai said amiably, joining them in the corridor with Sora not far behind. "Let's blow this Popsicle stand; the young lady needs to be shown around, remember?"
"Of course," TK said graciously, taking Kari's arm. Tai offered Sora his arm, too, and she laughed and took it.
"Shall we go forth and mingle with the rabble, then?" Kari said with an amateurish attempt at a British accent.
"We shall," Sora said, and they headed out.
__________________________________
Coming soon- Chapter 7: Bomb the Town
(AN) Once again, mucho gracias to all those who feed me with those yummy ego-boosting morsels known as reviews! M_~* Minna arigatouuuuu!! Keep up the good work on your end of the bargain, and I'll keep it up on mine! *~M_M~*
Also, I think it's time I acknowledged another dear reviewer who keeps me going through thick and thin, fantastic and mediocre...
"This chapter of Project: Moment is hereby dedicated to Ralph Wiggum. Arigatou gozaimasu!"
There ya go, Ralph! Ask and you shall receive...especially if you earned it. M_~*
Action! Suspense! Laffs! And a double shot of romance! Chapter 7 is coming up soon... -Bandit O_o
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 6- Blood, Sweat and Tears*~
Tai and Sora had reached Tai's 'apartment'. Joe hadn't been kidding; the walk was barely three minutes, and they were doing anything but hurrying. Strolling up to the door, sharing anecdotes from their time apart and laughing like little kids, they stopped walking-but not talking-for Tai to get out his key.
"Then, when he finally got up the nerve to ask her out, she was so surprised she dropped her books all over the floor! And when they went to pick them up, it was at the same time, and they cracked heads! Cody was mortified..."
"I feel sorry for the poor guy. Pretty violent relationship, if you ask me," Tai said, sliding a plastic card through a slot by the door. It slid open, and he stepped inside. Sora blinked at the card, and he grinned. "They're much lighter than metal keys. In fact, sometimes a little too light." She looked at him, confused, and he elaborated. "It blew out of my hand onto the roof of one of the sub-buildings once, when I was standing on a balcony, and I couldn't get in here for three hours. I had to wait at Kari's until they got a crane out to retrieve it."
Sora giggled and stepped inside. The apartment was typically bachelor-messy, but not too bad; compared to the nest of old song papers and scattered clothes that Mimi liked to very accurately compare Matt's old apartment to, it was practically the Hilton. It was made up of a kitchenette, a small living room, and a little hallway with two doors on the side away from the entrance, probably leading to bedroom and bath. A small closet stood open at the end of the hallway.
"Um...where do I sleep?" Sora said awkwardly. *No way does Joe expect me to...you know... Does he?*
Tai strode over to the sofa and took the cushions off of it. "It's a hide-a-bed. Ah, the joys of living in such a high-tech community..."
Sora grinned, as much in relief as at Tai's joke. "I'm surprised. I was expecting you to make a bunk pop out of the wall." *Okay, so that was a lie...but he definitely does not need to know what I really was thinking!*
Fortunately, Tai didn't seem to have noticed her earlier nervousness. He was off and running again, this time over to the closet. "You can put your stuff in here...oh, wait, I don't suppose you have much stuff with you, do you..." He looked embarrassed, and Sora tried to help.
"Well, there are my clothes; I can put those in there when I get them back."
"Uh...huh. Your clothes." Tai looked even more embarrassed, and Sora blinked.
"What?"
"Well...hm. You see, there's a little...problem...with your clothes."
Sora looked at him in alarm. "What is it? That was my favorite sweater; it had better not be ruined..."
"Um..." Tai hemmed for a minute. "Well, I guess I could show them to you...I was going to take you by the ward anyway to meet TK and Kari."
"Well, I'm settled in..." Sora laughed. "So sure, let's go. I presume that you three are planning to take me on that tour Joe mentioned?"
"Just of the fun places," Tai said with a grin.
"You're telling me that you all have time for fun between inventing life-saving devices, going on 'missions', and making things pop out of the walls?"
"Have you seen *anything* pop out of a wall yet, Sora Takenouchi, or are you just trying to get our collective goat?" Tai said with a mock frown. Sora shrugged.
"Not really. I just have this mental picture of technology as object-yielding walls. Don't ask me why."
"Why should I ask what I know the answer to? You're crazy."
"Hey!" Sora grabbed one of the couch cushions from the floor and lammed him over the head with it, grinning.
"Ow!" Tai yelped, trying to fend her off. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, the rest of us are just as nutty as you are! Welcome to the club! Ow!"
Sora had gotten him over the head again. "I'll show you 'insane'! Eat batting, Puffhead!"
"Okay, that's it! No one insults the hair!" Tai scooped up the other cushion and went into the fray with a will. If the pillows had been down-filled, it would have snowed feathers. As it was, the air was filled with laughter and shouts of 'ow!' and 'take that!'
*whamwhamwham!*
Sora and Tai both froze mid-swing; someone was hammering on the wall from the next room over.
"Tai, I don't care if she looks like Nicole Kidman," a voice came from the next apartment down, muffled by the wall. "Either keep it to a dull roar, or I'm going to call security!"
Tai and Sora exchanged annoyed glances. "My neighbor," Tai said in an undertone. "He's up late a lot programming, and he's really cranky most of the time. Okay, okay, we were just leaving anyway!" This was directed in a raised tone to the unseen neighbor. Tai paused, and then added with a grin, "And just for the record, she looks more like that cheerleader chick from 'The Replacements'!"
Sora's pillow slammed him in the back of the head. "Baka!"
"It was a compliment!"
A snort of laughter came from the unseen neighbor. "Taichi, you are one lucky SOB...now pipe down!!!"
Laughing, Tai fled the apartment as Sora menacingly raised her pillow. Dropping her weapon, she chased him off down the hallway.
"Tai, wait for me! I don't know my way around here! Tai!!"
She caught up to him as they reached the ward. He was leaning casually against the wall, looking smug.
"'Bout time you got here."
"You left me!" Sora said indignantly, gasping with exertion and fury. "I could have gotten lost forever in this maze of a building!"
"Don't worry, Sora. If you get lost, just make some food pop out of the walls. Want to see your clothes?" Tai turned and walked into the ward.
"Ohhh, you..."
Following him with murder on her mind, Sora stalked up behind him. He was opening a cupboard and getting out a largish, red plastic box, about a foot and a half square. Sora blinked at the sight of a biohazard symbol on the lid. Setting it down on the counter, Tai opened it and turned it for her to see. All traces of fun were suddenly gone from his face.
Sora had a sudden, sick premonition that she didn't want to see what was in that box...but she had already gone this far. Leaning forward, she peered into it.
The gorge rose in her throat. These were not her clothes. They couldn't be her clothes! This was a heap of torn cloth, stained garishly red, as if painted...but she recognized the snowflake pattern on a patch of sleeve that was still relatively clean, and the hole at the corner of one of the pockets of the pants that she'd been meaning to have fixed. They were her clothes, all right, but ripped beyond repair, and saturated in blood that lay in drops on the inside of the sealed plastic bag that held them.
Sora stared at them in disbelief. There was a huge rip, right down the front of the sweater, and another tear had half-severed one sleeve. Reaching down to pull up her left sleeve, Sora looked closely at her skin for the first time, and saw a fine white line of scar tissue running cleanly across her lower arm, parallel to the slash in the sweater sleeve. It was so thin that she wouldn't have noticed it for a while on her own. Swallowing hard, she pulled her sleeve down again to cover the telltale scar, and turned to face Tai.
"I was dying, wasn't I." It wasn't a question. Tai looked conflicted for a moment, but nodded. Sora swallowed. "That's why I was brought here. This was the only place that could save me."
"That's about the size of it," Tai said, with a sigh.
"Why?"
"What?" he said, confused.
"Why was I so important that I couldn't be allowed to die? Why did I just happen to be brought into Joe's ward, and not somebody else's? How did your machines manage to save someone who had lost that much blood?" She gestured at the gruesome contents of the bag. "And for that matter, why does everyone here react like I'm King Arthur's ghost come back from the grave whenever they hear my name?!"
Tai reached out to her, trying to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she twisted away.
"Sora-"
"If you're trying to be nice, I don't need babying. I'm a grownup now, Taichi."
"You're afraid, and I don't blame you, but-"
"Of course I'm afraid!" Sora exploded. "I just found out that I almost died! As far as my experience goes, it's not the greatest thing to hear! You want me to admit I'm scared? Fine! I'm terrified! I'm scared out of my freaking mind! My hair is standing up and my hands are shaking like leaves! Happy?!"
"Sora, you're panicking," Tai said with infuriating calmness. "You need to take a few deep breaths and calm down before you do anything." Sora rankled.
*How can he just stand there and talk like this is no big deal? I almost died!*
"Calm down?! What do you mean, calm down?! I have every right to panic!"
"But you won't do yourself any good if you do. You'll just make yourself sick and exhausted. Trust me, Sora," Tai said, putting a hand on her arm. It closed over the place where her scar was, and she flinched visibly. "I know how you feel."
"How can you possibly know how I feel?!" Sora yelled, knowing she was out of control and not caring. How dare he be so cool and agreeable when she'd just found out something like this?! "You've never had this happen to you! How dare you stand there lecturing me? You've never had a brush with death!"
Tai's eyes were solemn. "Are you sure about that?"
Sora stared at him, and her balloon of anger and fear deflated with the puncture of shock. "What?"
"I'll tell you later. Look, Sora, I really do know how scary this is...but you have to remember, you're not alone. You've got Joe and Izzy, and TK and Kari, and even Davis. And me." He gently squeezed her arm. "Always me."
Tears filled Sora's eyes, and she let them spill over. It was a relief to cry, to let it all out. As the tears opened the door, the memories of terror and agony from back in the garage finally hit her with an impact like a sledgehammer, and she squeezed her eyes shut, crying harder.
A pair of strong arms pulled her into a warm hug, and she clung to Tai, letting her tears soak his shoulder. The memories washed over her like waves, but Tai was a rock to hold on to, and they didn't-couldn't-wash her away. Slowly, the tears subsided to hiccupping sobs, and she relaxed in his arms, sighing the deep sigh of relief.
"There. That feels better, doesn't it," Tai said gently.
"You sound like Joe," Sora said with a weak smile, pulling away far enough to look up at him. Tai grinned, and tilted her chin up with one hand. "I must look terrible," Sora said with a sniff, blinking away surplus tears.
"Nah," Tai said, giving her a long, tender look. "You look beautiful..."
"Hey, you guys! We're here! Are you going to open the door already, or what?"
"TK," Tai said, rolling his eyes, and let go of her to close the box and put it away before going to the door of the ward. Sora grabbed a few tissues and dried her face, and then followed him.
TK and Kari were at the door, grinning.
"Took you long enough," Kari said as Sora came into view. "Just what were you two doing in there, anyway?"
"None of your business," Tai said amiably, joining them in the corridor with Sora not far behind. "Let's blow this Popsicle stand; the young lady needs to be shown around, remember?"
"Of course," TK said graciously, taking Kari's arm. Tai offered Sora his arm, too, and she laughed and took it.
"Shall we go forth and mingle with the rabble, then?" Kari said with an amateurish attempt at a British accent.
"We shall," Sora said, and they headed out.
__________________________________
Coming soon- Chapter 7: Bomb the Town
(AN) Once again, mucho gracias to all those who feed me with those yummy ego-boosting morsels known as reviews! M_~* Minna arigatouuuuu!! Keep up the good work on your end of the bargain, and I'll keep it up on mine! *~M_M~*
Also, I think it's time I acknowledged another dear reviewer who keeps me going through thick and thin, fantastic and mediocre...
"This chapter of Project: Moment is hereby dedicated to Ralph Wiggum. Arigatou gozaimasu!"
There ya go, Ralph! Ask and you shall receive...especially if you earned it. M_~*
Action! Suspense! Laffs! And a double shot of romance! Chapter 7 is coming up soon... -Bandit O_o