Disclaimer:  We do not own Digimon, we just like writing about them.

Pandora's Icebox

By Fenris5000—Angelica

            TK rolled his eyes for the ninth time in the last half hour.  His big brother Matt was sitting in the front passenger seat of the minivan ignoring TK and their best friend Tai Kamiya.  TK sighed audibly as he watched Tai repeatedly poke at the back of Matt's head with the straw from his grape, cola and orange mixed flavored slushy drink.

            Matt's shoulder blades contracted, but he did not turn around.

            TK bit his lip.  How long would it take before Tai drove Matt over the edge?  He glanced out the icy window and scratched some of the frost away to see better.  Maybe this little snowboarding trip had been a mistake.  Sure it was his and Kari's idea to get Matt and Tai to be friends again, but so far it looked like a mistake.  After all, he and Kari were only human and were capable of making the odd mistake.

            Poke, poke, poke, po…

            Matt whirled around and grabbed the straw in a heartbeat, glaring at the boy with the impossibly big spiky brown hair.  Probably if Tai still sported a pair of goggles, Matt would have pulled them and let them go 'THWAK' against Tai's head.  "Tai." Matt said in a calm quiet tone.  "If you touch my hair one more time, I'll knock your teeth out."

            "Matt!" Mr. Ishida said from the driver's seat, glancing at his oldest son sternly.  "Is that any way to talk to your best friend?"

            Tai smirked.  "Oh, haven't you heard, Mr. Ishida?  Matt and me are not friends anymore.  Isn't that right, Matt."

            Matt turned back around and put his headphones on.  "Whatever."

            "Come on you two." TK whined.  "I wanted this trip to be fun!  It won't be any fun if the two of you are sulking or trying to irritate the other."

            "Here here." Mr. Ishida agreed from the front.  "Why don't you two declare a truce just for the weekend, huh?  Shake hands.  For TK?"

            Matt's head bent forward.  "It's not that simple, Dad."

            TK frowned.  All he needed was for one of them to say they'd go half way.  The other one would be honor bound to do the same.  "Come on Matt, just for the weekend." He paused, waiting for Matt to turn around.  He didn't.  "Please?"

            Tai reached over and jabbed Matt in the shoulder.  "I can't believe you wouldn't do it for TK, dude." He turned to TK.  "For you, I'll just pretend I'm not angry with Matt."

            Matt turned around slowly and glared at Tai.  "Hey, I'm not the one who started this stupid fight, remember?  I'm not even mad at you.  Yeah, we can call a truce for the weekend."

            TK smiled, wondering what exactly the whole fight was about anyway.  Neither Matt nor Tai had spilled a thing.

            The van pulled into a large parking lot and rolled to a stop smack dab in front of the largest cabin.  Mr. Ishida turned around to face the three boys.  "Now you boys keep out of trouble.  If I hear that anything even remotely related to trouble has happened, I'll be here so fast to drag you back to Odaiba that your heads will spin." He smiled.  "Otherwise, have fun guys." He glanced at TK.  "Good luck."

            TK gulped.  Did dad know what the fight was all about?

            Matt was about to get out.  "Wait Matt; don't forget these." Mr. Ishida handed a package to his oldest son.  "Now don't you forget about them."

            Matt sighed, cramming the package into his sports bag.  "Okay Dad.  See you on Sunday."

            Mr. Ishida waved as he drove away.

            TK stared at Matt suspiciously.  "What was that all about, Matt?"

            Matt shrugged.  "Dad didn't want me to forget to take my vitamins.  He's been working on a documentary about them and decided I probably have a vitamin deficiency, so he bought a truckload of them." He led the way into the chalet.

            Tai rolled his eyes.  'I hate vitamins."

            Matt looked over his shoulder at them.  "They're not so bad.  At least dad buys the chewable kind."

            The three adventurers signed in at the front desk and proceeded to their room.  Matt dropped his stuff and then himself onto the bed beside the window and closed his eyes.

            Tai dropped his stuff on the same bed.  "Hey, who said you get the window-bed?"

            Matt opened one eye blearily.  "You want it?  It's yours." He sat up and grabbed his bag.

            Tai pushed him back.  "Who says it's mine.  Maybe TK wants it."

            TK put his bags on the middle bed and sat down heavily.  "I don't care.  I actually would rather have the middle bed." He had to keep those two from killing each other.

            Matt glared up at Tai.  "Can I get up yet?"

            Tai removed his hand and stepped back.  "Oh keep your stupid window-bed." He grabbed his stuff and stomped over to the other bed and plopped himself down on it.

            TK glanced at Matt, who just sighed and shrugged before lying back down.  TK frowned.  Maybe dad was right.  Matt didn't seem to be as energetic as usual.

            "Hey Matt." TK whispered.

            Matt's head turned so he could see his younger brother.  "Mhmm?"

            "Are you going to take those vitamins now?"

            Matt brought his arm up over his eyes.  "I knew I shouldn't have told you about them." He sat up.  "I'm supposed to take them with food."

            TK checked his watch.  "We missed supper.  Evening Coffee is in four hours." He grabbed his packsack.  "I've got some snacks in my bag."

            Tai leapt off the bed as if he'd been shot.  "Come on you guys!  We didn't come here to wait for meals.  Let's get a couple of night runs in before bedtime.  We can eat later."

            TK joined him.  "Okay, you're right.  Coming, Matt?"

            Matt got up as well.  "Alright, lead the way, TK."

            Tai laughed.  "Hey, that rhymed.  Maybe you should write a song about our trip."

*     *     *

            TK zipped his parka up and readjusted the big warm hood over his extra warm thermal toque on his head.  If he didn't get outside soon, he was going to die of acute heat stroke.  He had on two pairs of socks, a pair of long blue thermal underwear (that he had bought on-line at blueunderwear.com) under a jogging suit that was under his electric blue snowsuit.  Okay, so he felt like a giant marshmallow man, at least he'd be warm.

            Tai was struggling to get his ski jacket closed over the three wooly sweaters he was wearing.  Once he finally got it (with a mighty grunt), he topped off his look with a pair of fluorescent green earmuffs.  It wasn't like Tai could find a hat to cover his enormous hair.

            "Come on Matt!" Tai yelled at the bathroom door.  "We're ready to go here!"

            Matt came out wearing his black leather jacket, matching gloves, black jeans and sunglasses.

            TK gawked at him.  "You're wearing that?  Where are your snow-pants?"

            Tai frowned, "Where is your parka?"

            Matt frowned back.  "I don't have any snow-pants and this is my parka.  Come on, let's go before you guys start to melt."

            "Matt, you're going to freeze." TK said, not budging from his spot.

            "TK, if I get cold, I'll come back in." Matt declared firmly.  "We're not going to be out for that long anyway."

            TK sighed in defeat.  "Okay."  He grabbed his packsack and tried to put it on.  "A little help here, please."

            Tai groaned.  "TK, that pack will never fit on your back with that stupid house you're wearing."  He grabbed the pack from the younger boy and inspected the straps.  "This stupid bag may not even fit over my coat."

            Matt sighed.  "Here, put it on my back."

            "Thanks Matt."  TK smiled.

*     *     *

            The three boys walked to the main snowboard hill and strapped their equipment on.

            "I think I'm wearing too many layers." TK admitted, straightening, his face glowing red from exertion.  He tried to bend, but did not get too far.

            Matt smiled.  "Catch you guys at the bottom." He pushed off the lip of the hill and glided down, leaving TK and Tai eating a spray of snow.

            Tai cleared the snow from his face and shook the flakes from his hair.  "That jerk."

            TK awkwardly bent over and removed his snowboard.  "I think I'm going back to our room to lose some of these layers.  This is too hot, even outside in the snow."

            Tai did a few warm-up exercises to see if his motion was hampered.  It was.  "I guess I might as well join you.  I don't exactly want to accidentally end up looking like a pretzel."  They walked a bit in a comfortable silence.  It was so peaceful.  The delicate little snowflakes were blowing gently around them.

            TK caught a few on his tongue, just for old times sake.  "Hey Tai." He asked, getting bored watching snowflakes.  "What are you and my brother fighting about?"

            The tall brown-haired boy cocked his head to the side.  "You mean Matt hasn't told you?"

            TK shook his head.  "I asked him and he said it was nothing.  He almost didn't come this weekend when he found out you were invited too."

            "Well." Tai began, scratching his head with a gloved hand.  "You remember that basketball game I invited everyone to come watch about a week ago?"

            TK grimaced, remembering how badly Tai's team had been stomped, eliminating any chances they had in the league playoffs.  "Yeah.  What about it?"

            "Every single person gave me their word they'd be there." Tai replied.  "To cheer us on.  It was the most important game of the whole season.  You, Kari, Sora, Joe, Izzy, Cody, Yolei, Davis, and Ken were there, even Mimi came special from America for me.    Everyone but Matt." Tai kicked at the snow.  "He said he'd be there, and didn't even bother to show up."

            TK bit his lip.  "Did he at least say why?"

            Tai laughed harshly.  "Yeah.  He said he forgot."

            TK's eyebrows soared, disappearing under his toque.  "Gee, that isn't like Matt."

            "No, it's not." Tai agreed, pulling his jacked up around his neck higher.  The wind felt like it was picking up, and the snow was starting to get heavier.  "It may sound petty and all that, but it was important to me."

            "He must have had a reason for forgetting." TK muttered.  His brother was the digidestined holder of the crest for friendship.  No matter what, Matt always respected his friends.  Even when his life seemed to be crumbling down around him and he felt unworthy of his crest, in his heart, his sense of friendship always pulled him out of the darkness.

            "Well he didn't share it with me." Tai shouted over the howling wind.

            "TK!" A voice carried over from about fifteen meters away.  "Tai!"

            "Matt?" TK yelled back.  Now what was he doing coming back already?

            They met near a tree at the edge of the hill.  "Hey." Matt gasped, bending forward to catch his breath.  "They're closing the slopes…  there's a blizzard coming."

            Tai grinned.  "I think it's already here."

            Matt finally recovered, straightening.  "This is nothing Tai.  They're expecting about two feet over night."

            Tai paled.  Two feet?

            "Come on, let's get back to the Chalet." TK urged.  "We can have a nice cup of cocoa and sit by the fire."

            Tai nodded, starting to walk, only to trip on his loosened bootlace.  He lurched over sideways into TK, who lurched over into Matt, and the three rolled over the lip of the hill and started sliding down at a break-neck speed.

            Almost as soon as it started, it was done when Matt slammed into a tree, followed closely by TK, then Tai.

            Tai rolled over with a groan.  "Are we there yet?"

            TK sat up as best he could in his giant parka and wiped the snow out of his face.  It didn't help very much; and it was really coming down.  He glanced over at Matt, who still had not yet moved.

To be continued…