Gomen nasai! I am a little late putting this up. I was a little later finishing this than expected... and my internet hates me... XP
(I had this finished a MONTH ago, but as I said, my internet hates me, or FF.net hated me for a while, and I just finished a huge project for one of my courses. Video! ARG! FF.net hated me!)
~ Day Seven ~
"Feel better?" Tai grinned at Kari.
She glared at him, but could not defy her brother's infectious smile.
"You set us up, didn't you, Tai."
"A conspiracy," Maia replied absently. "All for the best."
"How can a conspiracy be good?"
"When it stops your sister from arguing with your best friend's little
brother, it's very good." Tai shrugged lazily.
The two older siblings looked at each other, with all the shared understanding
that twins seem to have.
"We'll see you later, Kari. We have to pick up Izzy at the airport
and get to the place to set up. T.K.'s picking you up later, right?"
"Mm-hmm."
"See you then."
Kari lounged on the couch after they had left, smiling at the prospect of an afternoon with T.K. but… Sudden suspicion drew her up short. What had her two siblings wanted to talk about? She recognised the look that had passed between them. They wanted to talk about something.
~~~~~
"Did you have the dream?" Tai slammed the door shut.
"Which one?"
"Don't kid around with me, Maia. You know which one."
She sighed deeply. "Yeah. I do."
He waited for her to go on, and raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
"Don't look at me like that, Tai. I have no idea why Gennai told us
that…" She trailed off and shrugged. "I really don't know what we can do.
I have no idea why he told us though. You would think that he would
tell T.K."
"And what, foretell his death?" Tai rubbed his forehead.
"I guess you're right. All we can do now is go with the flow and hope
everything turns out for the best."
"The best way isn't always the happiest way."
"Then we'll just have to hope."
They looked up at the crunch of shoes on the gravel outside the apartment building. Sora. She looked very seriously at them. "Did you have the dream?"
~~~~~
T.K. pushed his chair back from the table where he had been playing
cards with Susan. "I'll see you later, Suz. I told Kari I'd go to lunch
with her."
Susan hardly looked up, immersed in building a house of cards. "OK.
Are you coming back later, or are you staying out?"
"Staying out for awhile. Mom knows."
"It's your head and skin if you haven't told Aunt Nancy."
T.K. sighed exasperatedly. "She's my mom, Susan. I told her."
~~~~~
"But is it important?" Sora frowned at them from the backseat of the
car.
Maia shrugged. "Dreams would be pretty important if we all had the
same one."
"But…" continued Tai, "Did anyone else have the dream besides us?"
"No idea."
Maia added a thought. "It all comes to a head tonight. We can't do
anything now, so we've just gotta hope that everything will work out."
The sleek car continued its way down the freeway to the airport.
~~~~~
Izzy paced in front of the luggage belt, waiting for his bags. Strange things had been happening that week, even while he had been away on a brief business trip. If he hadn't seen weirder things than what he thought might be happening, he might even be worried. Strange. Important things always seemed to happen all at once.
He finally saw his bags and dragged them off the conveyor belt, grunting his thanks when Tai showed up and helped.
~~~~~
Kari greeted T.K. at the door and gave him a quick kiss.
"So, where do you want to go for lunch?" he asked lightly.
"Anywhere. Preferably romantic."
"I know just the place."
~~~~~
"So we chow down on sushi while T.K. and Kari get to have a romantic
dinner
by candlelight?" complained Davis.
"It's hardly late enough for dinner," Cody reminded him.
"Lunch, then."
"Give them a break. They just got over a huge fight, after all."
"Whatever, Yolei."
Sora peered around the door. "Is that sushi? Any extra?"
Davis handed her a box of sushi. "Is everyone here yet?"
"Izzy and Maia should be coming up, and Tai's parking the car. Matt
called to say that he'd be up soon. So did Ken."
"Great."
"So all we're waiting for are the two lovebirds?" asked Yolei.
"What, aren't you waiting for me?"
"Mimi!" exclaimed Sora. "What are you doing here?"
"We had a photo shoot downtown by the tower. Great view. I bumped into
Joe too, and he told me about the gathering today. He says he'll be over
as soon as his shift at the hospital is done."
~~~~~
Kari rested her head on T.K.'s shoulder. "That was a nice place."
"Your family suggested it."
"Really?"
He smiled and waved for her to get into the passenger seat.
"So, where should we go?" asked T.K.
"Mm… Well, I did hear that Mimi might come, and we should get her a
gift…"
"Gotcha."
The car hummed off down the street.
~~~~~
"The time comes…" Gennai slowly closed his eyes, anticipating their pain.
A car screamed out of a side street and barrelled headlong into their car.
~~~~~
The second of impact. Kari saw so many possibilities.
They both died.
They both lived.
She knelt, sobbing over T.K.'s corpse.
All her friends and family attended her funeral as T.K. wept.
Each one a distinct chance, hazy with indecisiveness.
Thousands of possibilities, stretching off into the future, flickering
past her mind in a single instant. They merged into brilliant white light
that became a roaring blackness.
~~~~~
Darkness. Kari slowly opened her eyes and was overwhelmingly aware of
the crimson smell of blood. Blood dripped from a long gash in her arm.
She shifted to look at T.K.
"Oh my god…T.K. are you alright?"
He groaned faintly. He had been badly injured and blood dripped down
his cheek.
Kari heard the faint wail of a siren in the distance. "It's okay, T.K.
Don't try to move." She bit her lip. His injuries looked horrible. The
car had crashed into the side of theirs.
An ambulance howled up by their car. "Everyone all right?" Joe leaped
out of the ambulance. Another medic went over to the other car. "Get a
stretcher over here! We've got a guy in pretty bad shape!" Joe yelled back
at the medics. He offered a hand to Kari. "Didn't expect to see you here.
C'mon Kari, get out of that wreck." The other medics rushed over and gently
began to get the unconscious T.K. onto a stretcher. The other driver appeared
to be okay except for a few cuts and bruises. A policeman was talking to
several eyewitnesses.
"Is T.K. going to be okay?" asked Kari anxiously.
Joe's brow was furrowed. "I hope so, Kari. We'll do our best. We'd
better take a look at you too." He bundled her into the ambulance.
That ride, listening to T.K.'s laboured breathing, was probably the
longest that she had ever taken.
She kissed his forehead lightly.
At least T.K. was alive.
For now…
And so was she.
And that was all that mattered.
~~~~~
Maia: I would have loved to end it right there, but then, several people
would be after my blood and screaming: "What happened to T.K.!?! All questions
answered tomorrow. Epilogue goes up April 11, 2003. Don't read it if you
like the ending already. (but that should go without saying) ^_^