It was dark; much darker than it should have been for 7:00 in the evening. Dark thunderclouds rolled across the sky, annoying Takenouchi Sora. She sat on her balcony under a thick blanket in one of those cedar chairs.
Generally, Sora liked thundershowers. On any other day than today, that was. She had just come home from work – she was the president of a fashion company that was doing fantastically well in Japan and China. She was walking home when she saw it. Smiling up at her was Yagami Taichi's profile, with his arm around a beautiful woman. She seized the front page of the soggy newspaper from the wet sidewalk, and stared at it closely.
She must have stood there for at least five minutes, the rain becoming increasingly strong, before she crumpled it up and threw it back on the street, her tears blending in with the rain.
With that, she had hurried home, just wanting to crawl into her expensive, warm bed. Sora had a very nice apartment, as she earned a large amount of money. All of her things were modern, but inviting. Like Taichi, she too had found success early in life. She was only 20 years old, but she already was at the top of an important company.
As for Taichi, well, he was in every teen magazine on the store shelves, and had been for months. He was just as good-looking at 20 as he had been at 15, and was one of the best soccer players in the world. He also was a part time ambassador for the Digital World.
Thunder clapped, and Sora was brought back to reality, abandoning her thoughts for a moment. She stared blankly up at the sky, not caring about, and not feeling anything.
…
Okay, so she was done with not thinking about anything. Truth be told, millions of thoughts were running through her mind, mostly to do with Taichi.
She didn't see much of him anymore, but there were times when he stopped in and they talked like they did when they were 15. She missed him, more than she had missed anything in her entire life. There was a time when they were inseparable – they spent every waking moment together.
He was busy though, with soccer and the Digital World. And so was she, come to think of it, with her clothing line.
Maybe, Sora thought to herself, I want more than what we are already. But it would be much too complicated…
And seeing him with another woman didn't help anything.
~*~
Yagami Taichi walked down the street, pouring rain pounding on his umbrella overhead. He looked down at a little piece of paper in his hand, looking for the right address.
He grinned to himself, he didn't mind the rain at all. At least there weren't cameras flashing in his face everywhere he turned, or reporters begging him to answer their questions.
Ah – there it was. It was a very modern, classic looking apartment building.
He let himself in with the key he had been given from Sora, deciding to surprise her, rather than to ring her up on the downstairs on the keypad. He was absolutely soaked to the skin – the first thing he had to do was towel himself off when he reached her.
Within 2 minutes, he was on and off the elevator and standing in front of apartment 605. He knocked three times, and tried to adjust his hair somewhat, but it was too wet for anything but pushing it away from his face.
The door creaked open, and Takenouchi Sora stood there, looking simply amazing. She hadn't changed in the last couple of months – for that was the last time he had seen her.
"Taichi?" Sora said quietly. "What're you doing here? I didn't expect you!"
"I know," he grinned at her, "I felt like surprising you."
He swept her up into a hug, happy to be near her again.
"You're all wet!" Sora exclaimed, "Come in!"
Taichi was so wet that he showered and changed immediately into his extra clothes from his bag. Sora had kindly put his clothes into the washing machine. There were flecks of mud all over his clothes from the dirt mixing with the rain.
Every time Taichi came to downtown Tokyo, which was often because he had the Digital World Management downtown, he stayed with Sora. He didn't really have a home of his own, the closest to that was Sora's. His parents still lived in Odaiba with Hikari, as she was still attending university.
They watched TV on Sora's big screen for awhile, talking occasionally. Taichi had helped himself to a Coke from her kitchen, and had made a quick peanut and butter sandwich.
"So…how long are you staying?" she asked him, running a quick hand through her copper hair.
"Pretty close to a week. That okay with you?"
"Yeah, only last time you stayed with me," Sora began, "the Press had a field day when we were seen together."
He grinned. "Yeah, that was funny. They'll probably do it again this week sometime."
She laughed at him.
"I'm tired. Do you mind if I turn in?" He said, glancing at her. Even when she was tired without any trace of make – up, she was still beautiful.
She shook her head, and said, "No, I think I'll get to sleep, too."
Within minutes, Taichi was in the spare bedroom, which could also be known as Taichi's room, and Sora was climbing under the covers of her bed.
She heard Taichi, from the room across hers yell, "Night Sora!"
She looked up at her ceiling for a moment before returning, "Night, Taichi."
~*~
Sora awoke early the next morning, as did Taichi. He was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper as he sipped a glass of milk.
He looked up at her for a moment, "I need some new clothes."
"We'll go shopping today, then."
"Great! Can we go now?"
Sora laughed, but Taichi had already grabbed her by the arm. 10 minutes later, they were walking the streets of downtown Tokyo. They drew quite a large amount of attention together, laughing and joking. A famous world known soccer player and an incredibly successful clothing designer walking around at 10:00 in the morning – how could they not draw a crowd?
"This is great!" Taichi exclaimed, as he held up a blue button up shirt. "Just like I had when I was a kid."
Sora nodded, as it too reminded her of his old shirts. "Get it then."
"I will, I think." He responded, looking at it carefully, as if remembering something. "Are you getting anything?"
"Just this giant 'Hello Kitty' doll. Isn't it squishy?" Sora said, hugging it. "It's so cute!"
Taichi laughed at her antics, and then said slowly, "I've got an awards dinner to go to tomorrow night."
She stopped hugging her Hello Kitty, "So? What does that have to do with me?"
"Well…I'm supposed to bring a date, and I was wondering if you'd like to go with me?"
She was speechless for a moment. "Sure…I'll go with you."
He smiled slightly at her, as she watched him exit the store. What about all of the pictures she saw in the newspapers and tabloids? He had girls hanging onto him, girls screaming for him, girls everywhere he turned.
~*~
The next morning, Sora stumbled tiredly into the kitchen, only to find that Taichi was not there. He left her a note, scripted in his untidy scrawl,
Sora,
I've got some business to attend to, down at the Management Office. Some kids were experimenting with the Digital Ports, and are somehow now trapped inside the Digital World, as the Ports won't open for them.
I guess that is what you get for messing around.
I'll see you pick you up at 7:00.
She raised her eyebrows in question, and then noticed the parcel sitting next to his note. Her eyes widened in surprise, as she slowly tore at the gift-wrap. She pulled out a beautiful and probably quite expensive, black evening dress.
She looked at it impressively.
"Not bad, Taichi," she said out loud, cocking her head to the side to examine it more so. It had a relatively tight fitting bodice, and then it flared outward cascading in shimmering folds. It was sleeveless, and very long, Sora noticed. "Hikari probably somehow helped him pick it out…"
He also included a very nice looking silver necklace, which she shook her head at. "He was much too generous."
~*~
"Taichi, you've got to be careful with her." Ishida Yamato said to his best friend. "You've been spending a lot of time around her, with her."
Taichi raised an eyebrow in confusion as he picked up his brief case and opened it. It was already 4:00 in the afternoon, he had to finish his work for the day if he didn't want to be late for Sora. "I always spend time with her when I'm in Japan for any length of time."
Yamato sighed. "You know what I mean."
His brunette friend shook his head. "I don't."
"She is putting your career at risk!" Yamato exclaimed, now loosing his patience. "Can't you see that?"
"Whether I see someone or not, does not determine how I play soccer." Taichi responded calmly.
"I've seen people go crazy when they fall in love." Yamato said. "When someone is as important as you are – you can't go around doing this! What are you going to do when you're out of town? When you're in another country, or even another continent?"
Taichi shrugged. "I'll ask her to come with me."
"This won't be good when you fall head over heels in love with her."
Taichi smirked at his friend, which didn't go unnoticed.
"What?" Yamato demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I've been head over heels in love with her for years, Yamato."
Yamato said nothing.
~*~
"You look amazing," Taichi said impressively, later that evening. The dress looked great on her and she smiled at him.
"You look pretty good yourself," Sora said, as she folded a napkin, and put it in the front pocket of his tuxedo.
They stood outside of the banquet hall in a massive hall, preparing themselves to go inside.
"What will people think?" Sora asked him nervously.
"It doesn't matter," he responded, holding out his arm to her. He smiled at her, and she slipped her arm through his.
"Yagami Taichi and his date, Takenouchi Sora." The loudspeaker said, and all heads in the hall snapped to look at the two.
Sora felt her face flush, and cast her gaze downwards.
"Just be normal," Taichi whispered in her ear, "It isn't a big deal."
She nodded, and allowed for him to pull her chair out at the head table, then he sat next to her. It took her a couple of minutes to adjust to all of the camera flashes going off, and she blinked from it.
"Smile," Taichi grinned at her, and she found herself grinning back. More flashes from the cameras.
The rest of the evening went rather smoothly, when Taichi was called to accept his award, Sora grinned from ear to ear and clapped politely for him, even though she would rather jump and hug him and offer her congratulations.
For Sora and Taichi, it was finally the last dance of the evening, as they wanted to get going home. She was tired, and he was getting nasty looks from his manager for actually having a date.
"Thanks for coming with me," Taichi said, as he placed his arms around her waist. She looked up at him in surprise, and then wrapped her arms around his neck.
"No problem, that's what friends are for, right?"
Taichi grinned. "Yeah, that's what friends are for."
"Are we going soon? My feet are killing me!" She laughed; her copper colored swinging and falling back into place. "Not to be a pain or anything…"
"You're never a pain – but we'll get going after this dance, okay?"
She nodded, and tentatively placed her head on his shoulder. "Taichi?"
"Mm?"
"I always see you in papers and tabloids with lots of other women – " She said quickly, before she was cut off by him laughing.
"Publicity." He offered as an answer.
"So you were never really interested in any of them?" She asked, wanting to be assured by him.
"Well, Kimoko was nice."
"Taichi!" Sora exclaimed.
"I was only joking." Taichi grinned. "Why do you want to know?"
She said nothing, and only rested her head on his shoulder again. She couldn't see Taichi smirking at her, but she felt him kiss her hair.
~*~
"TAICHI!" Terako yelled at him, "YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"
"Terako, calm down. I'm seeing Sora, and I'm not going to stop for you."
His manager looked him up and down and then gave an exasperated sigh. "Have you seen the papers?"
Taichi shook his head. "It can't be that bad."
"They want to know if the 'love bug' has hit Japan's two most important celebrities."
He shrugged. "Tell them that it has."
Terako was about to slam his head repeatedly on a nearby wall. "Taichi, it won't work out. You play soccer all over the world – "
"Sora can come with me."
"She has to work on her clothing line – " Terako continued, but was cut off again.
"It isn't as if I take her away from that." Taichi replied smoothly.
"You are part time number one Ambassador of the Digital World!"
"Terako," Taichi said, getting up from his chair across Terako's desk, "Sora is one of the original Chosen Children, as am I."
Taichi's head manager paused, and then said, "So you think it'll work out?"
"Of course it will. I pretty much live with her anyway. I've got to go. Nice talking to you, Terako."
Terako sighed, and his head fell into his hands.
~*~
"Sora, I'm home!" Taichi called out. "Are you here?"
"Hi! I'm in the kitchen! What did Terako want?"
Taichi walked towards her voice, and was met with a warm chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. "Mm…very nice."
She smiled at him. "So – what did he say?"
"He wants me to stop seeing you, because of our jobs and the press."
Her smile faltered. "But, it doesn't matter what he thinks, right?"
"Right. I'm not going to stop seeing you for anyone."
He leaned down to kiss her lightly, and was stopped when she spoke. "You're sure?"
He kissed her. "Of course I'm sure! I've been in love with you for years, and if you think I'm going to ignore that just for my manager…"
She laughed. "I love you too."
How wonderful life is, now you're in the world…
I don't own it. I'm not even sure what the story was. Some random thing that probably didn't turn out. Read and review, please!