STANDARD FORM OF DISCLAIMATION

The characters from the canon DIGIMON ADVENTURE are not the property of the writer of this story. HE is VERY POOR. Suing would be POINTLESS.

The two intrepid adventurers Kamiya and Ishida wandered through the woods blindly. Matt had resigned to letting Tai take the lead, not because of his skills, but because of his unbelievable luck with this kind of thing. Unfortunately, that particular luck seemed to be failing him.

"You know what, Tai?" Matt said finally.

"Probably," Tai replied.

Matt ignored him. "You've probably made us more lost," he said, brushing still-wet hair out of his eyes. His hair was messy and he didn't like it that way.

"How could I do that?" Tai asked. He had no need to brush his hair away, as it naturally returned to its usual shape when exposed to air.

"Because I just saw that tree!" Matt exclaimed.

"See? We're not lost then. Already seeing familiar sights."

Matt closed his eyes, muttered a few words, and went to bang his head against said familiar tree. "I… should… kill… you… and… put… a… want… ad… in… the… paper… for… an… intelligent… best… friend," he said between the moments in which his head met the bark.

"What are you insinuating?" Tai asked angrily.

"You're an idiot!"

"Who's more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?" Tai retorted smartly.

"You make a valid point." With that, Matt went the direction Tai wasn't going and promptly fell from view.

"Look out for the root," said Tai.

"Thanks." Matt sat up and checked his leg to make sure it wasn't broken. He winced slightly when he poked it.

"You okay?" Tai asked.

"Fine. Just a bruise, I think."

Matt moved to stand and found Tai's hand in front of his face. "Need help?" Tai asked. Matt took his friend's hand and started to stand up. However, his foot had moved under the root again, and both Tai and Matt fell to the ground, tangled together quite nicely.

~*~

"Okay, maybe if we go in one direction," said Kari, "we'll end up out of the woods."

"Somehow I think if it were that easy we wouldn't be lost," said TK. He was looking around for some significant landmark so that if they were walking in circles, he'd know. Let's see… tree, tree, rock, tree, mud, dirt, tree…

~*~

"So," Matt said, inches away from Tai's face. "Maybe one of us should be getting up?"

Tai didn't respond for a while, then he finally said, "Probably."

~*~

…tree. Well, so much for that.

"You're right," said Kari. "But I don't have any better ideas."

TK's eyes fell on a fallen stick near a large patch of mud. He picked it up and wrote:

TT

+

HK

"What's that?" asked Kari.

"Takeru Takaishi and Hikari Kamiya. That way, if we come back, we'll know we've been here before," said TK.

"Good idea," Kari admitted. "Not that it helps the problem with knowing which way is out."

~*~

Both Tai and Matt finally tore themselves away from each other. It might have been Matt's imagination, but he felt distinctly colder than he had before he'd fallen.

~*~

Hours later, TK and Kari were no closer to finding the camp, or even the lake. And with walking in swimming clothes for several hours on one meal consisting of burnt hot dogs, neither teen was particularly happy.

"Is it me, or did it get suddenly cold?" asked Kari.

"Not suddenly, but yeah," replied TK. "I think it's about nightfall." Neither wanted to say it, but they both knew that setting up camp was a very distinct possibility.

"We're not going to get out of here tonight," said Kari.

"Probably not," agreed TK. "There's probably some dry wood around here somewhere, so we should probably start a fire."

"You say 'probably' a lot when you're nervous, did you know that?"

"Probably," he grinned, despite the situation, and started to gather dry leaves and such for kindling.

It wasn't long before they had a fire started that wasn't so much roaring as growling somewhat threateningly. The both of them, still clad in a wardrobe that would make much of an appearance in a certain type of horror movie, were practically on top of it.

~*~

"You know, Matt…" Tai started.

"Yeah, I know Matt," Matt replied, looking at the path before him and hoping that for once they were on the right track.

"Well, it's a big forest," said Tai. "And there's always a chance we could get separated."

"Yep," said Matt. He decided to retreat to his world of sarcasm and one-word answers until he knew exactly what Tai was talking about.

"So since we don't have any rope or anything… maybe we should just, you know, hold hands?" It was, Matt would reflect later, the most pathetic thing he'd ever heard. And what happened next was the second most.

"Sounds like a great idea to me."

~*~

The fire was dying when TK half-woke. He looked around blearily and saw Kari, not far from him, shivering. Had he been in a different state of mind, he would have rebuilt the fire. However, that logic took a holiday. "Kari's cold," he muttered as he lay next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and tried to increase his body temperature, but he fell asleep before his plan could succeed.

~*~

Matt and Tai refused, out of either stubbornness or stupidity, to fall asleep in the woods. They kept walking past midnight, and soon…

"Tai?"

"Matt?"

"Do you see what I see?"

Tai was too tired to look around, but nodded. "Yep. A tree. You know, I Spy is a crappy game in the middle of the woods."

"Not that, you idiot," Matt snapped. "Harley!"

Sure enough, Matt's baby was there, in all its beat-up glory. "That means that we can find camp!" Tai exclaimed gleefully. "I wonder what your brother has been doing to my sister in the time we've been away." He paused a minute to think. "Actually, I don't wonder. Ew."

They followed the path to where they'd set up camp. It was still more or less intact, but it seemed to be missing something. Two somethings. Two somethings of considerable importance to the destiny of the universe. "Where's TK and Kari?" Matt and Tai asked at the same time.

"I don't know, I've been with you!" they responded.

"I know that!" retorted the pair.

Tai started to speak again, but Matt put his hand over his friend's lips. The hand, that is, that wasn't still holding Tai's hand. "Look. I'm exhausted. They've been separated in more dangerous environments than this. I think they'll be able to make it until tomorrow." Tai thought, or whatever it is Tai does with his mind, and nodded. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or maybe it was the sheer simple joy of being back, but he wanted nothing more than to get some clothes on, snuggle into his sleeping bag, and fall asleep next to his best friend.

"Good," said Matt. He walked away from Tai, ignoring the sudden feeling of loss originating from his fingers, and grabbed his and Tai's bags. Keeping his own, he tossed his friend the other and moved behind a tree to dress.

While he was pulling a shirt on, he heard Tai call, "Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"About what happened in the woods…"

What did happen in the woods? Matt thought. "Uh huh?"

"What did happen in the woods?"

Neither of them spoke for a few minutes and they both stood on opposite sides of the camping area, thinking. "Probably time for bed. We've got to try to find Kari and TK in the morning," one of them said. It doesn't particularly matter which.

"Yeah," said the other. They took their sleeping bags, and, moving perhaps a tiny bit further away than was particularly necessary, they fell asleep.

Awkwardness abounds, eh? Alas, such is the life of a Digi-Destined in a romance.

Stay tuned for more romance, awkwardness, Taito, and Takari in the next "The Official IshidaKamiya Camping Trip!"