~*Project: Moment*~
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 8- Scars*~
"What a rush!" Sora whooped over an hour later, leaving the Arena by the back door with her friends. "And it's free?"
"As the air we're breathing," Kari said cheerfully. "Just one of the perks of living in Technology Central. It's actually supposed to be good training, if you can believe that."
"Oh, I can believe that," Sora said with a smile. "I can definitely see where that would tie in."
"Yeah, we all need to know what to do if our hostages don't want to cooperate," Tai said with a grin.
"What, drop them on their heads?" Sora shot back. Tai looked affronted.
"For the last time, I did not drop you! You fell!"
"You're nuts, Kamiya. And you dropped me."
"This from the girl who expects objects to pop out of the walls? Please. You fell!"
"Um..." Kari said uncertainly. TK snorted.
"I don't think we need to know."
"I don't think I *want* to know," Kari said with a shake of her head. Sora laughed.
"So, where next?"
It was getting on toward evening; they'd played two more games, and were all comfortably tired and ready to wind down for the day.
"How about the roof?" Kari suggested. "We can look at the stars."
TK frowned. "Kamiya Hikari, are you trying to leave me out on purpose or is it just kind of an coincidence?"
Kari reddened. "Sorry..."
"It's okay," TK said, giving her hand a squeeze. "I'm just teasing you. Maybe we could go to the Quonset? We can get something to eat."
"All right!" Sora heartily agreed. "I'm starving-I haven't eaten since those pancakes."
"*You're* starving?" Tai said incredulously. "At least you had pancakes...I had orange juice and a flat Styrofoam thing-"
"They're English muffins!" Kari protested.
"And a flat Styrofoam thing," Tai repeated loudly, "and I haven't eaten since then! My vote's definitely for the Quonset."
"You really shouldn't complain about the med-ward food so much, Tai. It was your choice to spend three days there...but all right. The Quonset it is," Kari agreed with a smile, and once again Sora got to follow behind as the 'natives' led the way.
"You know, Tai, the hospital wing food isn't that bad," TK was reasoning as they reached the little building that was apparently the Quonset.
"How would you know? You never have to eat it; you've got Kari to cook for you."
"Hey, you can cook just fine for yourself, Tai."
"With what? Rolled oats and a carton of milk? We can't all have girlfriends on Nutrition Team, bringing food home all the time."
"It's called oatmeal, Tai, and she's not my girlfriend!"
"It's called gray papier-mache slop, and if you expect me to believe that, you must be mistaking me for Davis."
"Davis? Davis would think she was my girlfriend if she said two words to me."
"I meant intelligence-wise, TK. The jealousy factor didn't come to mind."
"Sorry, I can't sympathize with you there. The 'jealousy factor' tends to hit *me* right between the eyes most of the time..."
"We're here!" Kari interrupted, looking glad for the distraction from the topic of Davis, whose unwelcome company they had barely avoided as they left the Arena. (To their great satisfaction, Kari and Sora had jointly creamed him in their second game.)
The Quonset turned out to be a sort of restaurant/dance-hall/bar combination, packed to the brim with people, none of whom appeared to be older than their twenties. They plowed their way through the mob to four seats at the counter, and were attended by a pleasant-faced, plump blond waitress.
"Hey, Kari, brought the gang down? What can I do you for?" She spoke English with a lazy drawl, and her smile was friendly and lit up her face like a beacon.
"I think burgers and shakes would be good. This is Lily," she added with a glance at Sora, who nodded.
The waitress gave Kari a dubious look. "At this time of the evening? You sure you don't want something more...adult?"
Kari blushed and shook her head, jerking a thumb in Sora's direction. "Nah, we've got one fresh from the med wing and she's got doctor's orders. We don't want to make her jealous, or we'll be the next ones under Joe's watchful eye."
Chuckling, Lily leaned across the counter to get a better look at Sora...and gave a little gasp. "Naw! Can't be...you're Miss Takenouchi, aren't you?"
"Um..." Sora said, rather disappointed. Was this friendly person going to go all weird on her, too? "I guess..."
"Well, welcome to the Project, sweetie!" the waitress said with a warm smile, and gave her hand a firm shake before picking up her pad of orders again. "Now, what was it you wanted?"
Relieved, Sora smiled back. "I think a burger and a shake sounds great right about now. What flavors do you have?"
"Hmm...for you, sugar, I'd recommend the pineapple malt."
"The what?" Sora said, unable to repress a grimace. "Are you sure that...works? Together, I mean?"
"Trust me, it's heavenly," the waitress said firmly. "Right, one pineapple malt and a burger with..."
"Everything but the onions," Sora said, deciding to give in on the malt thing.
"Got it."
When everyone had finished ordering, they sat back and talked for a while, catching up on life in general. The time flew by, and before Sora knew it, their food was ready.
As Lily set a tall glass of pale yellow stuff in front of her, ice-cold and beaded with water, Sora couldn't help looking doubtfully at it. She was thirsty, though, and after a few bites of burger, which would have been delicious under any circumstances and was like ambrosia to her growling stomach, she was desperately in need of a drink. Unwrapping a straw, she steeled herself and took a sip.
"Hm, tsrlgdd!" Swallowing, she smiled, pleasantly surprised. "Hey! That's really good!" she repeated.
"Yeah, pineapple and malt: who woulda thunk it?"
Sora gave a start. "Missy!"
The teenager smiled, leaning on the counter next to her. She had clearly just come off of the dance floor; her rainbow-hued bangs were damp and stuck to her forehead, and she was breathing heavily. She was as irrepressible as ever, though.
"Yup, it's me all right. The fun has arrived, and all that good stuff."
"What are you doing here?" Sora asked, curious.
"Well, I *was* dancing. Now..." she shrugged, with a long-suffering expression on her face. "Now, I'm trying to get my cousin to go and dance before his feet fuse to the linoleum."
"Your cousin?" Sora said, confused. "Do I know him?"
Missy stared at her, incredulous, and then burst out laughing.
"What? What's so funny?"
The younger girl waved a hand to someone in the crowd. "Hey, Cuz, get your butt over here! Somebody wants to talk to you!"
A familiar voice sounded over the commotion of music and voices.
"Keep your shirt on, Missy, I'm coming!"
Sora openly stared.
"Joe?!"
The bluenette MD looked owlishly out at her from behind his glasses.
"Who did you expect, the Easter bunny?"
"You...you guys are cousins?" Sora stammered, staring at them. Short, sturdy, freckled Missy, with her bright brown eyes that sparkled fun, was cousins with tall, skinny, serious-minded Joe, black-eyed and nearsighted? They looked nothing alike…but as she goggled at them, she noticed for the first time that behind the rainbow-hued bangs, Missy's hair and ponytail were the same dark blue as Joe's hair, and that the stubborn set of the girl's chin reminded her of Joe when he had his mind really fixed on a goal. Blinking with surprise, she looked from Missy to Joe, and back to Missy again…
"I think we've fried her brain," Missy said knowingly to Joe, who scowled and rolled his eyes, repressing a smile.
"Oh, thanks a lot, Missy. I just got her fixed up, and you've already managed to short-circuit her?"
"Short-circuit?" an oily voice purred. "What's short-circuited?"
Sora, Joe, and Missy all turned to stare at the new speaker, a short, scrawny-looking man of indeterminate age, but probably not older than thirty, with pale, watery gray eyes and greasy-dull black hair that you could see the comb tracks in. His ratty face crinkled in a smile that looked out of place on his thin, pale lips, and he looked from one face to another with a nosy expression.
"None of your business, Geri," Missy muttered, glaring at him with narrow eyes. Geri sneered.
"Oh, it's very much my business, Ms. Kido. Being in Electronics Team and all, I take it upon myself to find out all I can about the workings within the Project HQ."
"He takes it upon himself to find out all he can about *everything*," Missy whispered out of the side of her mouth to Sora, who giggled. "Especially stuff he isn't supposed to know."
"Excuse me, did you say something?" Geri said, with slimy distaste in his voice. Missy glared right back at him, loathing in her gaze.
"Why is that any of your business, Ratface?" she said, cool as marble on a winter's day. Geri blinked repeatedly with fury, his pasty cheeks flushing. The effect was like badly applied rouge, patchy and clownish.
"I make it my business, as I have reasons to believe it was about *me*."
"Maybe it was. So what?"
Geri's small eyes narrowed. "So, I wouldn't talk if I were you. There are a few things I could say in front of these people that I don't think you'd like. For example, how you have to live off of your cousin's good graces because no one else will take you in. Or how your parents ditched you here because they couldn't stand your constant giving them crap! Or maybe how nobody really likes you because you're a worthless little-"
He never finished his tirade. Missy, twin red flags of outrage riding high on her cheeks, whipped her foot up and around in a powerful roundhouse kick to the head. Her boot connected with Geri's temple, and his face went slack as he crumpled instantly to the floor.
Sora stared in outright awe. Missy, in the meantime, bent and took the inert jerk's pulse with obvious disgust at having to touch him with anything other than her boot.
"He's not dead," she said, sounding disappointed. "Maybe I should have gone for the mouth...a broken jaw would have shut him up for a while. But I was too mad to aim very well. Oh, well, better luck next time..."
Still goggling at the younger girl, Sora managed to choke out a dazed, "Where did you learn to do that?"
"I take karate," Missy said offhandedly. "I'm a black belt, in fact. Why?"
"No reason," Sora croaked, still stunned. Joe glared at his cousin, owlish again.
"Did you really have to do that? I know he's a jerk, but in the middle of a crowded room? You could have hurt someone!" He paused, looking at Geri's sprawled form. "Well, someone decent, I mean... The hospital wing isn't getting any less crowded, you know."
"Shove off, Four-Eyes. I'm sure a cold-pack of your Super Gunk can fix him up in no time," Missy said cheerfully. "I couldn't let him tell Sora a bunch of lies about me, could I?"
"So he was lying?" Sora said.
Missy turned to look at her, a bit hurt. "What, you thought that was true? I've got plenty of friends, Sora. And my parents were very sad to see me go...but also very supportive, which I owe them a lot for. Furthermore, I have my own apartment and my own job, and I put food on my own table. If that's what he calls 'living off my cousin's good graces', he's got some serious brushing-up to do on his Japanese."
"Sorry," Sora apologized, feeling sheepish. "I just..."
"Needed to make sure? No problem," Missy said generously. "I would, too, if I'd only known me for less than a day. Hey, Joe, I think there's a slow one coming up...and that girl over there's looking your way!"
"What?" Joe cried, looking about to panic. "Where-hey!" Missy had ducked off into the crowd. "Come back here!" Pausing, he looked angrily down at Geri's body, then made a decision and gave it a swift kick. "Wake up, you."
Groaning, the diminutive man rolled over, then staggered to his feet and gave Joe an extremely dirty look before hobbling away, holding a hand to his bruised temple, muttering curses all the way, but apparently deciding to cut his losses and get out of the area before Missy got back.
"You'll pay for that...you *and* your cousin," he called as he reached the door. Joe rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, whatever you say. Get some ice on that, huh? I don't want to waste a medpack on you."
Glaring poisonously, Geri stomped away.
"Talk about a Napoleonic complex..." Joe watched the unpleasant character until he was out of sight, and then quickly said to Sora, "Excuse me for a minute. I'm supposed to be looking after Missy, you know; I promised my aunt and uncle I would make sure she didn't get into any-Missy! You're not supposed to..."
Having spotted his cousin across the room, Joe was already disappearing into the crowd after her; his voice faded into the noise before Sora could hear what Missy wasn't supposed to do.
"Those two..." she muttered, but smiled. Life here certainly wasn't boring!
Up on a small stage at the other side of the room, the band was finishing up their song, a heavy-metal tune. As they pounded out the last few beats, a slender girl with long blond hair came shyly up the steps of the stage. The crowd fell silent, then let out a cheer as she took the microphone and seated herself on a tall wooden stool. Sora couldn't see her face very well at all in the dim lighting, but the girl didn't look familiar.
The band struck up a flowing tune that contrasted sharply with the rock-and-roll and heavy-metal riffs they'd been playing up until then. Someone must have been manning a lights booth, because the lights changed from neon rainbows to soft blue. Smiling, the girl began to sing. Sora didn't recognize the tune; it was a relatively stock love song, but the girl's voice made it wonderful. Her voice was beautiful, and soared over the listening people. Sora noticed a lot of the dancers pairing off and slow-dancing.
"Want to dance?" Tai asked hesitantly after a few seconds, leaning toward her. Sora opened her mouth to tell him yes...
*Do you really want to risk getting close to him? You'll be leaving soon, remember? Don't forget what almost happened back in the Arena!*
Taken by surprise by the sudden thought, Sora closed her mouth, frowning.
"Sora?" Tai asked again. Sora sighed.
"I...think I'll sit this one out, thanks."
Looking bewildered and a bit hurt, Tai nodded and went reluctantly back to his conversation with TK. Sora felt guilty, but really, it was the best thing for both of them. Friendship was great, but anything more...? She couldn't risk it.
*No matter how much you want to?*
Sora scowled at the thought. *Okay, little voice, whose side are you on? If you're going to play with my conscience, at least make up your mind which way you want to twist me!*
The song was over in just a few minutes. The singer climbed down from her seat to wild applause, and Sora lost sight of her in the crowd. The band struck up a rendition of Turning Japanese, and the whoops and hollers of people getting back into their swing drowned out thought. Tai and TK slipped off to dance, and Kari had struck up a conversation with the girl on her right. Sighing, Sora let her head rest in her hands...
"Some night, hm?"
Startled, Sora sat up bolt-upright to stare at the girl who had taken a seat next to her. It didn't take a genius to realize that this was the singer who'd been performing a minute ago; those bright-gold ringlets were impossible to forget, and her voice was light and pleasantly musical.
"The Quonset's packed to the ceiling," she continued, completely unaware of Sora's surprise...or perhaps politely ignoring it. "I'm going to overheat any minute now..." She smiled; it was a nice smile, an honest, sweet one. Sora slowly smiled back.
"Yeah, it's kind of getting stifling. I don't mind too much, though."
"You're lucky; I sweat like a pig. It's a curse." She smiled again, and laughed merrily. "I'm Yukiko, by the way. Call me Yuki."
"It's nice to meet you. My friends ditched me to dance...although I can't really blame Tai. I didn't want to go with him."
Yuki's blue eyes widened...well, the one that Sora could see did. The girl was sitting with her face turned only partly toward Sora, so that all she could see was the half of her face toward her. Still, that side of her face was wearing a very odd expression.
"Oh! You must be Sora..." she exclaimed. Sora blinked.
"Yeah...are you going to go all hyper? Because 90 percent of the people I've met here do that as soon as they hear my name."
Yuki laughed again, and the odd look disappeared. "No, I'm all right with it. I'm on Strike Team, that's all, and Tai told me about you. He liked to talk about you..." Yuki rolled her eyes, giving the unspoken impression that maybe Tai liked to talk about Sora a little *too* much. Sora smiled.
"Thanks for putting up with him. So, Tai's on Strike Team?" she said, making conversation. Yuki blinked.
"Tai is the *head* of Strike Team," she said, looking a bit surprised that Sora didn't know this already. "He helps at Joe's clinic between missions as an assistant, but he mostly works as a fantastic leader for the team."
"Tai's the *head*?" Sora said, not sure what to make of this. Something else that Yuki had said niggled at her, but she ignored it. "Wow..."
"He used to talk at me constantly about you," Yuki said with an ironic grin, getting back on subject. "I say 'at', not 'to', because oftentimes it was hard to get a word in edgewise."
"You know, with all that power and prestige," Sora joked, "it's surprising that he wasn't swamped with ladies while I was gone. I guess that's loyalty for you," she said with a sigh.
Yuki didn't answer. Sora frowned, looking up at the girl, and saw that the odd look had come back.
"What?" she said, a sinking feeling appearing in her stomach along with the malt and burger.
"Well..." Yuki said reluctantly. "There *was* this one girl..."
Sora's heart hit the floor. "Oh, God..." she whispered, feeling icy. *What does she mean? Does she mean what I think she means? Why on earth didn't he *tell* me?!*
Yuki looked apologetic. "I shouldn't have said that," she said quickly, alarmed by the look on Sora's face. "I'm sorry, I just...well, you asked, and I..."
"No, it's okay," Sora said, with a feeling like someone walking up to the executioner's block. "Go on, please." *At least I won't have to feel guilty anymore about telling him no...*
Yuki swallowed. "I still don't think-"
"Tell me."
Sora's voice was firm. Yuki sighed. "All right, but I..." She saw Sora's face, and began. "Well...like I said, there was this girl. She was on Strike Team, too. She joined at the second Gathering... On her first mission, Tai rescued her and two of her friends from a feral Mammothmon. She...well, frankly, she fell head-over-heels for him. She was absolutely smitten with the man."
Sora looked at the floor, feeling a bit sick. "Was she pretty?"
"Everyone I know said so," Yuki admitted, "but she didn't think she was anything special."
Sora's stomach sank even further.
"Anyway, she followed him everywhere after that. Got him drinks, carried stuff for him, tried to get on his team at the Arena, the whole shebang. She really was in love with him. She thought he was handsome, funny, wonderful; the best thing since sliced bread, really. And one day, she finally got up the nerve to ask him out..."
Sora swallowed, bracing herself...
"And he told her no."
"What?" Sora said, stunned.
"He told her no," Yuki repeated, with a sigh. "He said that he already had someone that he was waiting for. That he didn't even know if she would ever come, but that he couldn't give up the chance to be with her for anything, or anyone, no matter how wonderful." Yuki sighed again, and shook her head slightly. "He told his admirer that she was a great girl, but that he just couldn't say yes."
A mix of sadness for this poor girl and intense relief washed over Sora, and she let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. "Oh..."
"She was heartbroken," Yuki said, talking more to herself than to Sora now. "But she decided that she would do anything to convince him that they were meant for each other, so she signed up for a dangerous mission that was to be led by him, about a week later. They were supposed to go and find a valuable item, but instead they were ambushed by the enemy. Their jeep exploded..." Yuki swallowed, hard. "She was caught in the wreckage, along with one other member of the team. He was blinded; she was permanently scarred."
"TK..." Sora whispered. Yuki glanced at her.
"Oh, you know him? ...How silly of me, of course you would. You're both Core group." She smiled weakly. "Anyway, Tai got her back to the HQ, along with TK, but she took a long time to recover from her injuries. Even the immersion therapy couldn't get rid of all of the scarring. Tai spent a lot of time sitting and talking with her during her recovery, and by the time she left the hospital wing, she was finally convinced that nothing was going to change his mind about her. They stayed friends...but she never really got over him." Sitting back in her chair now that she'd finished, Yuki blinked hard, looking sadly at the wall.
Sora frowned, wondering... "What was the girl's name?" she asked carefully.
Yuki turned to look at her, full-on, and Sora sucked in her breath. The pretty girl's face was marred on the left side by a long, pink scar nearly half an inch wide that ran up the side of her face from chin to hairline, missing her eye but splitting her left eyebrow. Yuki smiled sadly, and held up her left arm; a series of similar scars branched from under the sleeve cuff, almost all the way across the back of her hand.
"Her name was Yukiko," she said, very softly, and Sora saw a slight shimmer of tears in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," Sora began, but Yuki stopped her.
"Don't be," she said gently. "It wasn't meant to be. You ought to know two things, though...first, that you're the luckiest girl in the world, and you really shouldn't throw that away, and secondly, that I think you're about to be offered another dance, and if I were you, I'd say yes this time. Not everyone gets true happiness, you see; some of us have to take joy in others' happiness, instead." She smiled, and slipped from her stool, merging into the crowd.
"Wait! What do you mean-"
"Hey, Sora, over here!"
Sora looked up, distracted, and saw Tai making his way toward them with TK in tow. They stopped next to the girls, grinning and breathing hard.
"Sorry about leaving you like that," Tai apologized. "Did you find someone to talk to?"
"You could say that," Sora said softly. She looked up again, and met his eyes. "Um..." Dimly, she realized that the band was playing another slow song, one she knew this time; Drops of Jupiter, by Train. An oldie, but one of her favorites. "Want to dance?"
Tai looked surprised, and then smiled, his eyes lighting up.
"I'd love to," he said, and took her hand. They moved out onto the floor, and turned to each other. Sora slid her arms around his neck, and relaxed in his arms, swaying to the music. The butterflies were back, but she wasn't afraid of them anymore.
She might not be staying long, but while she did, she would make her own joy.
__________________________________
Coming soon- Chapter 9: Starry Night
(AN) This fic is currently moving into third place for most reviews! Thankees! You guys rule! I owe you all so much...and so, today I dedicate yet another chapter, this time to a very appropriately named reviewer.
This chapter is dedicated to skarred for unfailing reviews and support. Arigatou gozaimasu!
Thanks skarred! M_~* Coming up, starlit fluff in Ch.9, 'Starry Night'! And yet, however wonderful a moment may seem, all is not right in the world... *dun dun DUN!* -Bandit O_o
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 8- Scars*~
"What a rush!" Sora whooped over an hour later, leaving the Arena by the back door with her friends. "And it's free?"
"As the air we're breathing," Kari said cheerfully. "Just one of the perks of living in Technology Central. It's actually supposed to be good training, if you can believe that."
"Oh, I can believe that," Sora said with a smile. "I can definitely see where that would tie in."
"Yeah, we all need to know what to do if our hostages don't want to cooperate," Tai said with a grin.
"What, drop them on their heads?" Sora shot back. Tai looked affronted.
"For the last time, I did not drop you! You fell!"
"You're nuts, Kamiya. And you dropped me."
"This from the girl who expects objects to pop out of the walls? Please. You fell!"
"Um..." Kari said uncertainly. TK snorted.
"I don't think we need to know."
"I don't think I *want* to know," Kari said with a shake of her head. Sora laughed.
"So, where next?"
It was getting on toward evening; they'd played two more games, and were all comfortably tired and ready to wind down for the day.
"How about the roof?" Kari suggested. "We can look at the stars."
TK frowned. "Kamiya Hikari, are you trying to leave me out on purpose or is it just kind of an coincidence?"
Kari reddened. "Sorry..."
"It's okay," TK said, giving her hand a squeeze. "I'm just teasing you. Maybe we could go to the Quonset? We can get something to eat."
"All right!" Sora heartily agreed. "I'm starving-I haven't eaten since those pancakes."
"*You're* starving?" Tai said incredulously. "At least you had pancakes...I had orange juice and a flat Styrofoam thing-"
"They're English muffins!" Kari protested.
"And a flat Styrofoam thing," Tai repeated loudly, "and I haven't eaten since then! My vote's definitely for the Quonset."
"You really shouldn't complain about the med-ward food so much, Tai. It was your choice to spend three days there...but all right. The Quonset it is," Kari agreed with a smile, and once again Sora got to follow behind as the 'natives' led the way.
"You know, Tai, the hospital wing food isn't that bad," TK was reasoning as they reached the little building that was apparently the Quonset.
"How would you know? You never have to eat it; you've got Kari to cook for you."
"Hey, you can cook just fine for yourself, Tai."
"With what? Rolled oats and a carton of milk? We can't all have girlfriends on Nutrition Team, bringing food home all the time."
"It's called oatmeal, Tai, and she's not my girlfriend!"
"It's called gray papier-mache slop, and if you expect me to believe that, you must be mistaking me for Davis."
"Davis? Davis would think she was my girlfriend if she said two words to me."
"I meant intelligence-wise, TK. The jealousy factor didn't come to mind."
"Sorry, I can't sympathize with you there. The 'jealousy factor' tends to hit *me* right between the eyes most of the time..."
"We're here!" Kari interrupted, looking glad for the distraction from the topic of Davis, whose unwelcome company they had barely avoided as they left the Arena. (To their great satisfaction, Kari and Sora had jointly creamed him in their second game.)
The Quonset turned out to be a sort of restaurant/dance-hall/bar combination, packed to the brim with people, none of whom appeared to be older than their twenties. They plowed their way through the mob to four seats at the counter, and were attended by a pleasant-faced, plump blond waitress.
"Hey, Kari, brought the gang down? What can I do you for?" She spoke English with a lazy drawl, and her smile was friendly and lit up her face like a beacon.
"I think burgers and shakes would be good. This is Lily," she added with a glance at Sora, who nodded.
The waitress gave Kari a dubious look. "At this time of the evening? You sure you don't want something more...adult?"
Kari blushed and shook her head, jerking a thumb in Sora's direction. "Nah, we've got one fresh from the med wing and she's got doctor's orders. We don't want to make her jealous, or we'll be the next ones under Joe's watchful eye."
Chuckling, Lily leaned across the counter to get a better look at Sora...and gave a little gasp. "Naw! Can't be...you're Miss Takenouchi, aren't you?"
"Um..." Sora said, rather disappointed. Was this friendly person going to go all weird on her, too? "I guess..."
"Well, welcome to the Project, sweetie!" the waitress said with a warm smile, and gave her hand a firm shake before picking up her pad of orders again. "Now, what was it you wanted?"
Relieved, Sora smiled back. "I think a burger and a shake sounds great right about now. What flavors do you have?"
"Hmm...for you, sugar, I'd recommend the pineapple malt."
"The what?" Sora said, unable to repress a grimace. "Are you sure that...works? Together, I mean?"
"Trust me, it's heavenly," the waitress said firmly. "Right, one pineapple malt and a burger with..."
"Everything but the onions," Sora said, deciding to give in on the malt thing.
"Got it."
When everyone had finished ordering, they sat back and talked for a while, catching up on life in general. The time flew by, and before Sora knew it, their food was ready.
As Lily set a tall glass of pale yellow stuff in front of her, ice-cold and beaded with water, Sora couldn't help looking doubtfully at it. She was thirsty, though, and after a few bites of burger, which would have been delicious under any circumstances and was like ambrosia to her growling stomach, she was desperately in need of a drink. Unwrapping a straw, she steeled herself and took a sip.
"Hm, tsrlgdd!" Swallowing, she smiled, pleasantly surprised. "Hey! That's really good!" she repeated.
"Yeah, pineapple and malt: who woulda thunk it?"
Sora gave a start. "Missy!"
The teenager smiled, leaning on the counter next to her. She had clearly just come off of the dance floor; her rainbow-hued bangs were damp and stuck to her forehead, and she was breathing heavily. She was as irrepressible as ever, though.
"Yup, it's me all right. The fun has arrived, and all that good stuff."
"What are you doing here?" Sora asked, curious.
"Well, I *was* dancing. Now..." she shrugged, with a long-suffering expression on her face. "Now, I'm trying to get my cousin to go and dance before his feet fuse to the linoleum."
"Your cousin?" Sora said, confused. "Do I know him?"
Missy stared at her, incredulous, and then burst out laughing.
"What? What's so funny?"
The younger girl waved a hand to someone in the crowd. "Hey, Cuz, get your butt over here! Somebody wants to talk to you!"
A familiar voice sounded over the commotion of music and voices.
"Keep your shirt on, Missy, I'm coming!"
Sora openly stared.
"Joe?!"
The bluenette MD looked owlishly out at her from behind his glasses.
"Who did you expect, the Easter bunny?"
"You...you guys are cousins?" Sora stammered, staring at them. Short, sturdy, freckled Missy, with her bright brown eyes that sparkled fun, was cousins with tall, skinny, serious-minded Joe, black-eyed and nearsighted? They looked nothing alike…but as she goggled at them, she noticed for the first time that behind the rainbow-hued bangs, Missy's hair and ponytail were the same dark blue as Joe's hair, and that the stubborn set of the girl's chin reminded her of Joe when he had his mind really fixed on a goal. Blinking with surprise, she looked from Missy to Joe, and back to Missy again…
"I think we've fried her brain," Missy said knowingly to Joe, who scowled and rolled his eyes, repressing a smile.
"Oh, thanks a lot, Missy. I just got her fixed up, and you've already managed to short-circuit her?"
"Short-circuit?" an oily voice purred. "What's short-circuited?"
Sora, Joe, and Missy all turned to stare at the new speaker, a short, scrawny-looking man of indeterminate age, but probably not older than thirty, with pale, watery gray eyes and greasy-dull black hair that you could see the comb tracks in. His ratty face crinkled in a smile that looked out of place on his thin, pale lips, and he looked from one face to another with a nosy expression.
"None of your business, Geri," Missy muttered, glaring at him with narrow eyes. Geri sneered.
"Oh, it's very much my business, Ms. Kido. Being in Electronics Team and all, I take it upon myself to find out all I can about the workings within the Project HQ."
"He takes it upon himself to find out all he can about *everything*," Missy whispered out of the side of her mouth to Sora, who giggled. "Especially stuff he isn't supposed to know."
"Excuse me, did you say something?" Geri said, with slimy distaste in his voice. Missy glared right back at him, loathing in her gaze.
"Why is that any of your business, Ratface?" she said, cool as marble on a winter's day. Geri blinked repeatedly with fury, his pasty cheeks flushing. The effect was like badly applied rouge, patchy and clownish.
"I make it my business, as I have reasons to believe it was about *me*."
"Maybe it was. So what?"
Geri's small eyes narrowed. "So, I wouldn't talk if I were you. There are a few things I could say in front of these people that I don't think you'd like. For example, how you have to live off of your cousin's good graces because no one else will take you in. Or how your parents ditched you here because they couldn't stand your constant giving them crap! Or maybe how nobody really likes you because you're a worthless little-"
He never finished his tirade. Missy, twin red flags of outrage riding high on her cheeks, whipped her foot up and around in a powerful roundhouse kick to the head. Her boot connected with Geri's temple, and his face went slack as he crumpled instantly to the floor.
Sora stared in outright awe. Missy, in the meantime, bent and took the inert jerk's pulse with obvious disgust at having to touch him with anything other than her boot.
"He's not dead," she said, sounding disappointed. "Maybe I should have gone for the mouth...a broken jaw would have shut him up for a while. But I was too mad to aim very well. Oh, well, better luck next time..."
Still goggling at the younger girl, Sora managed to choke out a dazed, "Where did you learn to do that?"
"I take karate," Missy said offhandedly. "I'm a black belt, in fact. Why?"
"No reason," Sora croaked, still stunned. Joe glared at his cousin, owlish again.
"Did you really have to do that? I know he's a jerk, but in the middle of a crowded room? You could have hurt someone!" He paused, looking at Geri's sprawled form. "Well, someone decent, I mean... The hospital wing isn't getting any less crowded, you know."
"Shove off, Four-Eyes. I'm sure a cold-pack of your Super Gunk can fix him up in no time," Missy said cheerfully. "I couldn't let him tell Sora a bunch of lies about me, could I?"
"So he was lying?" Sora said.
Missy turned to look at her, a bit hurt. "What, you thought that was true? I've got plenty of friends, Sora. And my parents were very sad to see me go...but also very supportive, which I owe them a lot for. Furthermore, I have my own apartment and my own job, and I put food on my own table. If that's what he calls 'living off my cousin's good graces', he's got some serious brushing-up to do on his Japanese."
"Sorry," Sora apologized, feeling sheepish. "I just..."
"Needed to make sure? No problem," Missy said generously. "I would, too, if I'd only known me for less than a day. Hey, Joe, I think there's a slow one coming up...and that girl over there's looking your way!"
"What?" Joe cried, looking about to panic. "Where-hey!" Missy had ducked off into the crowd. "Come back here!" Pausing, he looked angrily down at Geri's body, then made a decision and gave it a swift kick. "Wake up, you."
Groaning, the diminutive man rolled over, then staggered to his feet and gave Joe an extremely dirty look before hobbling away, holding a hand to his bruised temple, muttering curses all the way, but apparently deciding to cut his losses and get out of the area before Missy got back.
"You'll pay for that...you *and* your cousin," he called as he reached the door. Joe rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, whatever you say. Get some ice on that, huh? I don't want to waste a medpack on you."
Glaring poisonously, Geri stomped away.
"Talk about a Napoleonic complex..." Joe watched the unpleasant character until he was out of sight, and then quickly said to Sora, "Excuse me for a minute. I'm supposed to be looking after Missy, you know; I promised my aunt and uncle I would make sure she didn't get into any-Missy! You're not supposed to..."
Having spotted his cousin across the room, Joe was already disappearing into the crowd after her; his voice faded into the noise before Sora could hear what Missy wasn't supposed to do.
"Those two..." she muttered, but smiled. Life here certainly wasn't boring!
Up on a small stage at the other side of the room, the band was finishing up their song, a heavy-metal tune. As they pounded out the last few beats, a slender girl with long blond hair came shyly up the steps of the stage. The crowd fell silent, then let out a cheer as she took the microphone and seated herself on a tall wooden stool. Sora couldn't see her face very well at all in the dim lighting, but the girl didn't look familiar.
The band struck up a flowing tune that contrasted sharply with the rock-and-roll and heavy-metal riffs they'd been playing up until then. Someone must have been manning a lights booth, because the lights changed from neon rainbows to soft blue. Smiling, the girl began to sing. Sora didn't recognize the tune; it was a relatively stock love song, but the girl's voice made it wonderful. Her voice was beautiful, and soared over the listening people. Sora noticed a lot of the dancers pairing off and slow-dancing.
"Want to dance?" Tai asked hesitantly after a few seconds, leaning toward her. Sora opened her mouth to tell him yes...
*Do you really want to risk getting close to him? You'll be leaving soon, remember? Don't forget what almost happened back in the Arena!*
Taken by surprise by the sudden thought, Sora closed her mouth, frowning.
"Sora?" Tai asked again. Sora sighed.
"I...think I'll sit this one out, thanks."
Looking bewildered and a bit hurt, Tai nodded and went reluctantly back to his conversation with TK. Sora felt guilty, but really, it was the best thing for both of them. Friendship was great, but anything more...? She couldn't risk it.
*No matter how much you want to?*
Sora scowled at the thought. *Okay, little voice, whose side are you on? If you're going to play with my conscience, at least make up your mind which way you want to twist me!*
The song was over in just a few minutes. The singer climbed down from her seat to wild applause, and Sora lost sight of her in the crowd. The band struck up a rendition of Turning Japanese, and the whoops and hollers of people getting back into their swing drowned out thought. Tai and TK slipped off to dance, and Kari had struck up a conversation with the girl on her right. Sighing, Sora let her head rest in her hands...
"Some night, hm?"
Startled, Sora sat up bolt-upright to stare at the girl who had taken a seat next to her. It didn't take a genius to realize that this was the singer who'd been performing a minute ago; those bright-gold ringlets were impossible to forget, and her voice was light and pleasantly musical.
"The Quonset's packed to the ceiling," she continued, completely unaware of Sora's surprise...or perhaps politely ignoring it. "I'm going to overheat any minute now..." She smiled; it was a nice smile, an honest, sweet one. Sora slowly smiled back.
"Yeah, it's kind of getting stifling. I don't mind too much, though."
"You're lucky; I sweat like a pig. It's a curse." She smiled again, and laughed merrily. "I'm Yukiko, by the way. Call me Yuki."
"It's nice to meet you. My friends ditched me to dance...although I can't really blame Tai. I didn't want to go with him."
Yuki's blue eyes widened...well, the one that Sora could see did. The girl was sitting with her face turned only partly toward Sora, so that all she could see was the half of her face toward her. Still, that side of her face was wearing a very odd expression.
"Oh! You must be Sora..." she exclaimed. Sora blinked.
"Yeah...are you going to go all hyper? Because 90 percent of the people I've met here do that as soon as they hear my name."
Yuki laughed again, and the odd look disappeared. "No, I'm all right with it. I'm on Strike Team, that's all, and Tai told me about you. He liked to talk about you..." Yuki rolled her eyes, giving the unspoken impression that maybe Tai liked to talk about Sora a little *too* much. Sora smiled.
"Thanks for putting up with him. So, Tai's on Strike Team?" she said, making conversation. Yuki blinked.
"Tai is the *head* of Strike Team," she said, looking a bit surprised that Sora didn't know this already. "He helps at Joe's clinic between missions as an assistant, but he mostly works as a fantastic leader for the team."
"Tai's the *head*?" Sora said, not sure what to make of this. Something else that Yuki had said niggled at her, but she ignored it. "Wow..."
"He used to talk at me constantly about you," Yuki said with an ironic grin, getting back on subject. "I say 'at', not 'to', because oftentimes it was hard to get a word in edgewise."
"You know, with all that power and prestige," Sora joked, "it's surprising that he wasn't swamped with ladies while I was gone. I guess that's loyalty for you," she said with a sigh.
Yuki didn't answer. Sora frowned, looking up at the girl, and saw that the odd look had come back.
"What?" she said, a sinking feeling appearing in her stomach along with the malt and burger.
"Well..." Yuki said reluctantly. "There *was* this one girl..."
Sora's heart hit the floor. "Oh, God..." she whispered, feeling icy. *What does she mean? Does she mean what I think she means? Why on earth didn't he *tell* me?!*
Yuki looked apologetic. "I shouldn't have said that," she said quickly, alarmed by the look on Sora's face. "I'm sorry, I just...well, you asked, and I..."
"No, it's okay," Sora said, with a feeling like someone walking up to the executioner's block. "Go on, please." *At least I won't have to feel guilty anymore about telling him no...*
Yuki swallowed. "I still don't think-"
"Tell me."
Sora's voice was firm. Yuki sighed. "All right, but I..." She saw Sora's face, and began. "Well...like I said, there was this girl. She was on Strike Team, too. She joined at the second Gathering... On her first mission, Tai rescued her and two of her friends from a feral Mammothmon. She...well, frankly, she fell head-over-heels for him. She was absolutely smitten with the man."
Sora looked at the floor, feeling a bit sick. "Was she pretty?"
"Everyone I know said so," Yuki admitted, "but she didn't think she was anything special."
Sora's stomach sank even further.
"Anyway, she followed him everywhere after that. Got him drinks, carried stuff for him, tried to get on his team at the Arena, the whole shebang. She really was in love with him. She thought he was handsome, funny, wonderful; the best thing since sliced bread, really. And one day, she finally got up the nerve to ask him out..."
Sora swallowed, bracing herself...
"And he told her no."
"What?" Sora said, stunned.
"He told her no," Yuki repeated, with a sigh. "He said that he already had someone that he was waiting for. That he didn't even know if she would ever come, but that he couldn't give up the chance to be with her for anything, or anyone, no matter how wonderful." Yuki sighed again, and shook her head slightly. "He told his admirer that she was a great girl, but that he just couldn't say yes."
A mix of sadness for this poor girl and intense relief washed over Sora, and she let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. "Oh..."
"She was heartbroken," Yuki said, talking more to herself than to Sora now. "But she decided that she would do anything to convince him that they were meant for each other, so she signed up for a dangerous mission that was to be led by him, about a week later. They were supposed to go and find a valuable item, but instead they were ambushed by the enemy. Their jeep exploded..." Yuki swallowed, hard. "She was caught in the wreckage, along with one other member of the team. He was blinded; she was permanently scarred."
"TK..." Sora whispered. Yuki glanced at her.
"Oh, you know him? ...How silly of me, of course you would. You're both Core group." She smiled weakly. "Anyway, Tai got her back to the HQ, along with TK, but she took a long time to recover from her injuries. Even the immersion therapy couldn't get rid of all of the scarring. Tai spent a lot of time sitting and talking with her during her recovery, and by the time she left the hospital wing, she was finally convinced that nothing was going to change his mind about her. They stayed friends...but she never really got over him." Sitting back in her chair now that she'd finished, Yuki blinked hard, looking sadly at the wall.
Sora frowned, wondering... "What was the girl's name?" she asked carefully.
Yuki turned to look at her, full-on, and Sora sucked in her breath. The pretty girl's face was marred on the left side by a long, pink scar nearly half an inch wide that ran up the side of her face from chin to hairline, missing her eye but splitting her left eyebrow. Yuki smiled sadly, and held up her left arm; a series of similar scars branched from under the sleeve cuff, almost all the way across the back of her hand.
"Her name was Yukiko," she said, very softly, and Sora saw a slight shimmer of tears in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," Sora began, but Yuki stopped her.
"Don't be," she said gently. "It wasn't meant to be. You ought to know two things, though...first, that you're the luckiest girl in the world, and you really shouldn't throw that away, and secondly, that I think you're about to be offered another dance, and if I were you, I'd say yes this time. Not everyone gets true happiness, you see; some of us have to take joy in others' happiness, instead." She smiled, and slipped from her stool, merging into the crowd.
"Wait! What do you mean-"
"Hey, Sora, over here!"
Sora looked up, distracted, and saw Tai making his way toward them with TK in tow. They stopped next to the girls, grinning and breathing hard.
"Sorry about leaving you like that," Tai apologized. "Did you find someone to talk to?"
"You could say that," Sora said softly. She looked up again, and met his eyes. "Um..." Dimly, she realized that the band was playing another slow song, one she knew this time; Drops of Jupiter, by Train. An oldie, but one of her favorites. "Want to dance?"
Tai looked surprised, and then smiled, his eyes lighting up.
"I'd love to," he said, and took her hand. They moved out onto the floor, and turned to each other. Sora slid her arms around his neck, and relaxed in his arms, swaying to the music. The butterflies were back, but she wasn't afraid of them anymore.
She might not be staying long, but while she did, she would make her own joy.
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Coming soon- Chapter 9: Starry Night
(AN) This fic is currently moving into third place for most reviews! Thankees! You guys rule! I owe you all so much...and so, today I dedicate yet another chapter, this time to a very appropriately named reviewer.
This chapter is dedicated to skarred for unfailing reviews and support. Arigatou gozaimasu!
Thanks skarred! M_~* Coming up, starlit fluff in Ch.9, 'Starry Night'! And yet, however wonderful a moment may seem, all is not right in the world... *dun dun DUN!* -Bandit O_o