I still don't own it. Offer from last chap still stands. Here we go.
Chapter 6.
Tai was a wreck. He had left his sister, he had left his friends and his responsibilities, everything that mattered to him, but Agumon. Travis had been right, he was a cowered. But for probably the first time in his life he didn't care.
He had gotten away from his pain for the first time in years. Yes he was running and yes he knew it was only a temporary fix but he didn't care. After living nearly four years of pure hell, any reprieve, even a temporary one, was a soothing balm.
He had moved up from hell to an odd sort of emotionless purgatory. He was going through the acts of living. Eating, sleeping and breathing happened out of pure habit. With this first act of defiance towards the destiny that he had been thrust into he no longer had to live for someone else.
Only to discover, to his shock, that he could find no real reason to live for himself.
That caught him off guard. The idea of living for others seemed more like something that Joe would do, something that as much as he hated it, Sora had become. Not him, not wild and reckless Tai. How could it be that he would be the one who needed others?
He stared up at the uncaring sky, a sky that had stars that were both familiar and disturbingly wrong at the same time. It was a sky that he had spent many a worried sleepless night beneath. Nights of fear, not so much for himself but for those that were in his care.
He never wanted this, any of it. And he really couldn't help but hated this world almost as much as he loved it. Hated it for what it put him though, the choices he was forced to make and the danger it posed and poses still to his sister. But most of all he hated it for what it had taken away from him.
Taken in the form of Sora.
Had it not been for this world she would be his, and only his. Matt would never even known she existed, never would have talked to her, never would have been able to take her away from him.
Sora had been his best friend since they were both four years old. They had done everything together. Matt and TK had been friends of theirs yes, but they lived on the other side of the complex and moved soon after the incident. He and Sora had stayed close, and would have kept going down that path to its natural conclusion had it not been for this damn world!
'Why was fate so unfair?' he asked himself. This world they had been bought to save had forced all of them to do things that they never should be forced to do. He had killed, made life and death decisions and been all but a father at the age of twelve. All of that and the only thing he truly ever wanted from life he had lost.
And with a sudden jolt he realized that she had found him. He could feel her presence. It was eerie but it was also something that had been part of his life for years. He felt calmer by simply by being near her. And he felt calmer now, much calmer.
But it was only the calm before the storm.
"Tai?" she asked in a slightly shaken voice. He could never deny her anything, and so he turned around.
*******
"Tai?"
Matt blinked at that. He had been walking around in a daze for the most part. Sora hadn't even been looking at her Digivice to find Tai, she had merely started walking, at a pace that seemed altogether to fast to him, in the right direction and hadn't deviated since.
It had been a bit spooky. She just simply *knew* where he was and headed there. A part of him wondered if she could do the same for him. Something told him she wouldn't be able to. And he felt a bit jealous of that fact, of the hold that Tai had over *his* girlfriend.
'But for how much longer?' a small voice asked in the depths of his mind. And it was a good question he knew. Tai and Sora had a bond, would she still be his once she realized just what Tai tried so hard to keep hidden from her?
Matt was far from stupid, which was not something he could say about his friend. Tai had been the one to let her get away, and then he had been the one to smile and tell her to go after a relationship with him. Tai had been the one who turned down Matt's offer to break up with Sora.
Tai was the one who let go.
And now because he ran Sora, *his* Sora, had come after him. He was here only at the insistence of his own younger brother, not because she asked him to come along. And even then it hadn't been his brother trying to do something nice for him. To let him spend some time alone with his girlfriend.
No it had been because of a promise to Tai. Tai this, Tai that. Every thing was about Tai it seemed. And the worst part was the kid that his little brother was looking for, the one who should be with Patamon, was even trying to take Sora away from him.
Take Sora away and give her to Tai. He hadn't missed Travis' remarks and he hadn't missed seeing everyone's reactions. He knew that Tai loved her, hell he even knew that she loved him. He just didn't care.
People left and love, real love did nothing but hurt you. This was a lesson he had learned early in life. His mother left him; his father was never around. TK had been taken from him. Love hurt, so he didn't go looking for love.
What he needed was a friend and Sora was just that. He didn't know why she had come to him and he still had no idea why Tai let her, but she was his now and he would be damned if he was going to let someone take her away from him as well.
He was doing this for there own good. He truly thought he was. He knew that sooner or later they would have that one big fight and the next thing they knew they were living in sprit houses with the kids broken and bleeding on the inside thinking that it was their fault.
It happened to him, after all. And it had happened to her.
*******
Beth bit off a curse. What the hell was Love doing here? She bit the inside of her cheek worriedly. Sora was the only thing that could keep Tai from coming to her. And she needed him right now.
Once she had used him, she wouldn't care. He could stay by her side or he could go back to his precious Love and die like the rest, but right now she needed him or she would never reach the full existent of her power. And now that... that... cow of a tomboy could ruin everything!
What could she do? There had to be some way to stop this. And Stop it quickly before one of them finally broke. Friendship had plenty of fear for her to use, but his fear would only make him argue that love only hurts people. Having the boyfriend shout out that he didn't love her, wouldn't be the best of things right now.
So what of the two love birds? She was fearful of her own emotions. That was surprising. Did she know? And if so why hadn't she acted yet?
And then there was Tai. There was no fear in him at all. No, no fear, but something else...
"Sora." Was all he said, but there was enough ice in that word to freeze a lake. And she understood what he was feeling at that moment.
Anger. Pure, unadulterated anger. Now if she could only figure out why...
*******
He said her name so coldly she wasn't even really sure it was him speaking. He never acted like that, not to her. She looked into his chocolate colored eyes and saw nothing but a blank onyx stare looking back at her.
This wasn't Tai, not her Tai at any rate. As Travis' words floated back to her, she remembered what TK had said, something she had overlooked because of both his tone and Kari's reaction.
'*You* mean more to him...' More then his little sister? That was impossible, wasn't it? Something in her wanted desperately to believe it wasn't. But those blank black eyes looking down at her all but shattered that pipe dream. And for some reason, that made her mad.
"Damn it Tai, you're my best friend. Don't shut me out like this!" the words came before she even knew she was thinking them. But still that blank stare kept boring into her crimson eyes. And then he did something that was very un-Tai-like, he smirked. He didn't smile, he didn't give a lopsided grin, he just smirked. A cold, unfeeling little smirk. And then he spoke.
"Why shouldn't I? You cut me off first." His gaze then flashed to Matt, "You both did." He did laugh then, a cold self-mocking chuckle. "I'm tired of being the third wheel, Sora. You have no idea how hard it is. Especially since I love one of the other two."
There he had said it, oddly he didn't feel much of anything. It was over and he knew that. Now all he had to do was make a clean break of it before he collapsed and gave into this depression that had suddenly gotten him in a vice grip.
"Do you know why I've held on this long Sora? Do you know why I put myself though the agony of seeing you two together, laughing and hugging all the while wishing it was me instead of him? Do you have any idea how much it hurts every time I see you two together?"
His eyes were anything but dull now. They seemed to almost glow, she opened her mouth to respond but he simply barreled over her and kept on going.
"I'll tell you why. That gods damned hair clip! The same stupid piece of plastic that kept you from helping against Diaboromon. That same stupid piece of plastic that led to an argument, an argument that I apologized for and first told you I loved you because of!"
'Thanks to Kari's interference, but you don't need to know that...'
Once again she tried to speak, and once again he cut her off. "That same hair clip you've been walking around with in your hair the whole damn time you've been dating him!" he emphasized *him* with a stabbing finger at Matt. "And let's not forget the fact that your digimon loves mine. Can't think of his" once again with the finger, " as anything more then a friend. And we both know damn well how close our digimon are to our souls!
"Just get the hell out of my sight, both of you! I don't know what the hell Travis was thinking sending you two after me, but I can't take this anymore. So just LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!"
And with that he stormed off, obvious to everything but his own pain and anguish. So he missed the quiet, "I know just how you feel Tai, I'm sorry." That was directed at his back. And he also missed her collapsing after he stomped off.
Agumon was there though. He saw it all, including the end were Matt tried to comfort her and she pushed him away with a "You knew didn't you? You knew and you let me do this to him!" before she too ran, leaving Matt alone with three digimon and his own thoughts.
The most prominent of which just happened to be, 'I knew it. Love never works, all it was put here to do was make out lives miserable.' He shook his head to clear it, not knowing what to do. His two best friends were both in pain and he didn't know which on to help first.
His new D-3 chose that moment to beep at him before reciting Davis' message in its robotic voice. Had he not been so startled he never would have turned to look at it. And he would have missed the flash of red and green that moved on the hillside where Tai had gone. As it was, his curiosity was peeked.
As it turned out, it's a good thing he is a wolf and not a cat...
Chapter 6.
Tai was a wreck. He had left his sister, he had left his friends and his responsibilities, everything that mattered to him, but Agumon. Travis had been right, he was a cowered. But for probably the first time in his life he didn't care.
He had gotten away from his pain for the first time in years. Yes he was running and yes he knew it was only a temporary fix but he didn't care. After living nearly four years of pure hell, any reprieve, even a temporary one, was a soothing balm.
He had moved up from hell to an odd sort of emotionless purgatory. He was going through the acts of living. Eating, sleeping and breathing happened out of pure habit. With this first act of defiance towards the destiny that he had been thrust into he no longer had to live for someone else.
Only to discover, to his shock, that he could find no real reason to live for himself.
That caught him off guard. The idea of living for others seemed more like something that Joe would do, something that as much as he hated it, Sora had become. Not him, not wild and reckless Tai. How could it be that he would be the one who needed others?
He stared up at the uncaring sky, a sky that had stars that were both familiar and disturbingly wrong at the same time. It was a sky that he had spent many a worried sleepless night beneath. Nights of fear, not so much for himself but for those that were in his care.
He never wanted this, any of it. And he really couldn't help but hated this world almost as much as he loved it. Hated it for what it put him though, the choices he was forced to make and the danger it posed and poses still to his sister. But most of all he hated it for what it had taken away from him.
Taken in the form of Sora.
Had it not been for this world she would be his, and only his. Matt would never even known she existed, never would have talked to her, never would have been able to take her away from him.
Sora had been his best friend since they were both four years old. They had done everything together. Matt and TK had been friends of theirs yes, but they lived on the other side of the complex and moved soon after the incident. He and Sora had stayed close, and would have kept going down that path to its natural conclusion had it not been for this damn world!
'Why was fate so unfair?' he asked himself. This world they had been bought to save had forced all of them to do things that they never should be forced to do. He had killed, made life and death decisions and been all but a father at the age of twelve. All of that and the only thing he truly ever wanted from life he had lost.
And with a sudden jolt he realized that she had found him. He could feel her presence. It was eerie but it was also something that had been part of his life for years. He felt calmer by simply by being near her. And he felt calmer now, much calmer.
But it was only the calm before the storm.
"Tai?" she asked in a slightly shaken voice. He could never deny her anything, and so he turned around.
*******
"Tai?"
Matt blinked at that. He had been walking around in a daze for the most part. Sora hadn't even been looking at her Digivice to find Tai, she had merely started walking, at a pace that seemed altogether to fast to him, in the right direction and hadn't deviated since.
It had been a bit spooky. She just simply *knew* where he was and headed there. A part of him wondered if she could do the same for him. Something told him she wouldn't be able to. And he felt a bit jealous of that fact, of the hold that Tai had over *his* girlfriend.
'But for how much longer?' a small voice asked in the depths of his mind. And it was a good question he knew. Tai and Sora had a bond, would she still be his once she realized just what Tai tried so hard to keep hidden from her?
Matt was far from stupid, which was not something he could say about his friend. Tai had been the one to let her get away, and then he had been the one to smile and tell her to go after a relationship with him. Tai had been the one who turned down Matt's offer to break up with Sora.
Tai was the one who let go.
And now because he ran Sora, *his* Sora, had come after him. He was here only at the insistence of his own younger brother, not because she asked him to come along. And even then it hadn't been his brother trying to do something nice for him. To let him spend some time alone with his girlfriend.
No it had been because of a promise to Tai. Tai this, Tai that. Every thing was about Tai it seemed. And the worst part was the kid that his little brother was looking for, the one who should be with Patamon, was even trying to take Sora away from him.
Take Sora away and give her to Tai. He hadn't missed Travis' remarks and he hadn't missed seeing everyone's reactions. He knew that Tai loved her, hell he even knew that she loved him. He just didn't care.
People left and love, real love did nothing but hurt you. This was a lesson he had learned early in life. His mother left him; his father was never around. TK had been taken from him. Love hurt, so he didn't go looking for love.
What he needed was a friend and Sora was just that. He didn't know why she had come to him and he still had no idea why Tai let her, but she was his now and he would be damned if he was going to let someone take her away from him as well.
He was doing this for there own good. He truly thought he was. He knew that sooner or later they would have that one big fight and the next thing they knew they were living in sprit houses with the kids broken and bleeding on the inside thinking that it was their fault.
It happened to him, after all. And it had happened to her.
*******
Beth bit off a curse. What the hell was Love doing here? She bit the inside of her cheek worriedly. Sora was the only thing that could keep Tai from coming to her. And she needed him right now.
Once she had used him, she wouldn't care. He could stay by her side or he could go back to his precious Love and die like the rest, but right now she needed him or she would never reach the full existent of her power. And now that... that... cow of a tomboy could ruin everything!
What could she do? There had to be some way to stop this. And Stop it quickly before one of them finally broke. Friendship had plenty of fear for her to use, but his fear would only make him argue that love only hurts people. Having the boyfriend shout out that he didn't love her, wouldn't be the best of things right now.
So what of the two love birds? She was fearful of her own emotions. That was surprising. Did she know? And if so why hadn't she acted yet?
And then there was Tai. There was no fear in him at all. No, no fear, but something else...
"Sora." Was all he said, but there was enough ice in that word to freeze a lake. And she understood what he was feeling at that moment.
Anger. Pure, unadulterated anger. Now if she could only figure out why...
*******
He said her name so coldly she wasn't even really sure it was him speaking. He never acted like that, not to her. She looked into his chocolate colored eyes and saw nothing but a blank onyx stare looking back at her.
This wasn't Tai, not her Tai at any rate. As Travis' words floated back to her, she remembered what TK had said, something she had overlooked because of both his tone and Kari's reaction.
'*You* mean more to him...' More then his little sister? That was impossible, wasn't it? Something in her wanted desperately to believe it wasn't. But those blank black eyes looking down at her all but shattered that pipe dream. And for some reason, that made her mad.
"Damn it Tai, you're my best friend. Don't shut me out like this!" the words came before she even knew she was thinking them. But still that blank stare kept boring into her crimson eyes. And then he did something that was very un-Tai-like, he smirked. He didn't smile, he didn't give a lopsided grin, he just smirked. A cold, unfeeling little smirk. And then he spoke.
"Why shouldn't I? You cut me off first." His gaze then flashed to Matt, "You both did." He did laugh then, a cold self-mocking chuckle. "I'm tired of being the third wheel, Sora. You have no idea how hard it is. Especially since I love one of the other two."
There he had said it, oddly he didn't feel much of anything. It was over and he knew that. Now all he had to do was make a clean break of it before he collapsed and gave into this depression that had suddenly gotten him in a vice grip.
"Do you know why I've held on this long Sora? Do you know why I put myself though the agony of seeing you two together, laughing and hugging all the while wishing it was me instead of him? Do you have any idea how much it hurts every time I see you two together?"
His eyes were anything but dull now. They seemed to almost glow, she opened her mouth to respond but he simply barreled over her and kept on going.
"I'll tell you why. That gods damned hair clip! The same stupid piece of plastic that kept you from helping against Diaboromon. That same stupid piece of plastic that led to an argument, an argument that I apologized for and first told you I loved you because of!"
'Thanks to Kari's interference, but you don't need to know that...'
Once again she tried to speak, and once again he cut her off. "That same hair clip you've been walking around with in your hair the whole damn time you've been dating him!" he emphasized *him* with a stabbing finger at Matt. "And let's not forget the fact that your digimon loves mine. Can't think of his" once again with the finger, " as anything more then a friend. And we both know damn well how close our digimon are to our souls!
"Just get the hell out of my sight, both of you! I don't know what the hell Travis was thinking sending you two after me, but I can't take this anymore. So just LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!"
And with that he stormed off, obvious to everything but his own pain and anguish. So he missed the quiet, "I know just how you feel Tai, I'm sorry." That was directed at his back. And he also missed her collapsing after he stomped off.
Agumon was there though. He saw it all, including the end were Matt tried to comfort her and she pushed him away with a "You knew didn't you? You knew and you let me do this to him!" before she too ran, leaving Matt alone with three digimon and his own thoughts.
The most prominent of which just happened to be, 'I knew it. Love never works, all it was put here to do was make out lives miserable.' He shook his head to clear it, not knowing what to do. His two best friends were both in pain and he didn't know which on to help first.
His new D-3 chose that moment to beep at him before reciting Davis' message in its robotic voice. Had he not been so startled he never would have turned to look at it. And he would have missed the flash of red and green that moved on the hillside where Tai had gone. As it was, his curiosity was peeked.
As it turned out, it's a good thing he is a wolf and not a cat...