Part 2: Of matchmakers, blind dates, and homework

In which plans are made and Kari is haunted by the past

"Okay, here's the plan."

Davis looked up Yolei as she hurriedly talked to him in hushed tones, trying to get the message passed to him before TK reached the table where the younger Digidestine clan had lunch.

"What plan?"

"The plan 'Helping You Get Over TK', stupid!" she hissed, and he quickly closed his mouth and let her talk, "It goes like this. I know this guy…"
"Oh no. Oh no no no no. I am not seeing some other guy." Davis replied, scooting away from her, but she reached out and seized the sleeve of his bright green jacked, giving it a tug just hard enough for a seam to burst somewhere. She wasn't particularly keen on getting her plans rejected before she'd finished planning them, and especially not by Davis. He did, after all, need all the help she could give him. And of course, he was Davis, and had the privilege of having to obey her no matter what because they rarely were willing to negotiate, and certainly not with each other.

"Do you want to get over him or not?!" It was more a threat than a question. Unfortunately, she conveniently also ignored the fact that Davis, much like her, rarely considered intimidations anything worth bothering with, and he replied in an equally annoyed tone.

"It's embarrassing enough that I happen to like one other person of the same sex, but I'm not going to…"
"Yes you are!"

"He is what?"

The two of them broke away from what had become very harsh and rather eligible whispering to look up at the blonde boy who was standing beside them.

"He's going to go out this other person I know who likes him a lot, right?"

"No, I am not…"

"By the way, TK, do you know who Davis fanc…"

Yolei hit the floor in a rather uncomfortable angle as Davis threw his body in her direction and clasped a hand over her mouth with just enough force to throw them both down from their seats. TK was staring at them.

"Do I really want to know?" he asked tentatively.

"No!"
"Yes!"

"Kari!" Not a reply, but a desperate cry for help. She congratulated him on that, and reminded herself to give him a good pounding for it. Explaining the situation to Kari would probably lead to her guessing what Yolei was doing, and although they both had the same ulterior goal, the bespectacled girl had a feeling her DNA digivolve partner would not agree in her methods.

Probably sensing that violence was about to ensue (he seemed to have a knack about that), the object of their argument reached out to help them up from the floor with a somewhat uneasy smile.

"I'm sure it's not very important." He said, and Davis smile gratefully at him and proceed to push Yolei roughly down to the floor again as he got up himself.

"I think it is." Yolei muttered grudgingly, swearing under her breath when she discovered that she had landed on the gum somebody had spit there a few minutes earlier. Davis glared at her, but broke away quickly to wave a hand franticly in the air.

"Hey Kari!" he yelled, "Come sit with me!"

Why, Yolei had no idea, but he sounded just like he would have four years earlier. Acted like it, too. It was creepy seeing that expression on his face again.

"Come on Kari!" he said with an eager smile, far too eager for it to be sincere, and she started walking again, carefully seating herself between Davis and TK and giving the former a tentative glance long enough to miss out on the annoyance that pass over the other's features. Yolei did not.

So TK had feelings for Davis. Or Kari, but there was nothing wrong with assuming the preferred option, so until the opposite was confirmed, he had feelings for Davis, and it was her rightful duty to make sure he didn't waste it on stupid things like denial or Kari. Which he unfortunately was busy doing at the very moment.

"So Kari, you doing anything tonight?" he asked with a smile slightly too wide to be reassuring and seemingly oblivious to Davis and the fact that he opened his mouth at the exact time.

"Err… homework, I guess…"

"Great! I haven't done my math for tomorrow, so if you'd like you could come over and we could help each other."

"Hey TK, I'll come over and help you!" she offered before Kari had the chance to reply and Davis had the chance to interrupt, and understood that this hadn't been the best of ideas when all three of them stared at her.

"Yolei, you're not even in our grade…"

Oops.

"Oh but I need to refresh my math a bit, you know…"

"You have an A in math."

"I do? I didn't remember that! Oh well, there will always be room for improvement I say…"

"Well, if you're going with him, then Kari can help me!"

"Actually, I'm done with my math."

"Really?!"

"Man Kari, you're just so great! I love smart girls!"

That was the point when Kari shoot up from her seat and fled the room, dragging Davis along.

"What are you doing?!"

"He's hitting on you! And…"

"No, he wasn't, and what?!"

"Picture what's the worst thing: Being with you, or watching him being with you." He didn't sound as annoyed as he sounded whiny.

"Picture this: Neither – would – have – a - chance!" she sneered back. The sudden reoccurrence of Davis' crush had triggered the old annoyance over it to return as well, and she had no desire of making any big commotion about this. "So back off! Firstly, I wouldn't go with you knowing you really wanted him,"

It was strange, she briefly thought, how he probably was twice as strong as her and still let her pin him against the wall like that. She knew he wasn't a gentleman of any sort; after all, he and Yolei had been in enough scuffles for that to be a firmly established fact. It probably did have something with the crush he'd had on her when they were children; he may be over her, but some of the old affection still lingered in him. She didn't doubt that he'd have yelled at Yolei and pushed her off long ago.

"I don't want to want him!"

"And secondly, I wouldn't go with him for the exact same reason. And not to mention that I like – " she stopped herself at that, and instead stepped back. He didn't seem to be feel much better just because he was allowed to stand on his own.

"But…"

"I am not going to date either of you."

"That still doesn't keep him from hitting on you…" was he sulking?

"So why does it bother you that he is making passes on me when he doesn't have a chance and you don't want to be with him anyway?" It would have been a very stupid and obvious question with everybody else but Davis, and even with him most of the time, but the way he had handled this whole situation had been anything but intelligent. It had been a while since the last time she'd had to point out the things he didn't want to see himself to him.

The question hit the nerve she had predicted it to; he pulled his eyes back and looked at his shoes instead.

"Because… I don't want him to."

"And why is that?"

Shrug. She rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see it.

"So don't do it again."

"'Kay."

Not seeing any need for any further discussion, she entered the canteen again.

"So Yolei, you're free tonight?" she asked and kicked the other girl's leg under the table as they sat down.

"Oh, yeah, sure I am!"

"But you just told me you had this essay due to tomorrow…" TK said, but the reply was an extensive eye roll.

"Don't bother yourself with such things as that. I think you should just… you know, enjoy life, smell the roses, and be with the ones you love…" Then came loud whimper, a string of curses, and a glare at Davis who looked about ready to murder her.

-----

"So we know that TK likes Davis, and that Davis likes TK, and that they both think the other one wants Kari."

"And we're both sick of having to hear them complain about such matters."

"Complaining which would stop if the two of them just could get over it and get together."

Exchange of glances.

"And how does that happen?" Cody asked and arched an eyebrow in a way that clearly stated that he did not want to do what he thought Ken wanted him to do. Cooperation, it seemed, would probably take more than he had predicted at first. Ken and Cody did have many things in common, and although not the best of friends, they got along well enough, but this particular problem would require Cody to trust Ken just a bit more than the younger boy probably wanted to. Scheming with one of your closest friends' love life was just the kind of thing the boy never would do unless it was a matter of life and death; and how somebody's life could depend on whether or not he schemed with his friend's love life was hard to imagine.

This was where the fact that they weren't closer friends became a problem. Ken needed Cody to accept his plan, and that would take more than nice words and promises, because he saw through things like that. If Ken wanted his help to this, he'd have to be able to flash a safe way of solving the problem that didn't hurt anybody, didn't involve too much tampering with sensitive issues, and preferably also kept their part in it hidden.

He started speaking, wording himself carefully.

"I don't like to mess with other people's private life much more than you do. But in this case, I simply can't stand on the sideline not doing anything. I don't know how bad this is for TK, but Davis really needs to face a thing or two about this, and I can't see any better way of doing it."

The only reply was a still accusative look. "And the two of them would be happy together, don't you think?" he said. Cody was still silent, but moved his eyes to Wormmon and Armadillomon, who were walking in front of them, discussing what was best of chocolate and peppermint candies. Armadillomon seemed to be winning, as he kept repeating that if Wormmon did like chocolate as well there was nothing left to discuss.

"Do you think Yolei knows something?" he said instead, in what Ken only could judge as a subtle hint that he wanted more time to contemplate this.

"Why should she?"

"She really wanted Davis and TK to go together today, even if they're not DNA digivolve partners. And neither are you and me. It doesn't make much sense."

"You're right." Ken said thoughtfully, frowning slightly. If Yolei had some sort of part in the play, they'd have to get her on their side relatively fast to keep her from messing it up even more.

"But then again, she tried to get me and you to get along better ever since I first joined up with you. And she wouldn't know unless one of them told her, which I honestly doubt." Cody said.

"That's true." Ken agreed as he decided to forget about her for now, "TK would go to Kari, and Davis wouldn't tell something like that to Yolei. She's probably just trying to hit two birds with one stone. Or something like that."

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Cody started talking again.

"So how do you suggest we're playing matchmakers for Davis and TK?"

He ignored the less than flattering term and praised all heavenly forces he could come up with for letting Cody accept his plans. Not letting any of this show, he carefully started explaining to the younger boy.

-----

"From what I understood, he was making passes on me to hide that he was jealous."

"Jealous of who? You or him?" Yolei asked without looking up from the younger girl's math books.

"Who do you think? He's in love with TK, you know."

Yolei nodded and quickly wrote down the equations, only pausing once in a while to underline the answers, and Kari leaned against the wall as she looked at her, petting Gatomon who was curled up in her lap.

"That's impressive. Not even I was ever that desperate."

"You never bothered hiding it when you like somebody either." Kari noted dryly, "And you still don't."

"Unlike certain others."

"Anyway, I got it pretty much covered that no matter how absurd it is, TK likes Davis too." Kari said, deciding this was a great time to change topic.

"And how would you know that?" Yolei questioned and gnawed on the pencil.

"I sit beside him in all classes we share, remember? And I'm pretty sure that somebody who first spends ten minutes doodling someone else's name all over their history notes and then ten minutes more franticly covering it up with whiteout has it bad."

"Blind date." Yolei said instead of replying, "I was trying to talk Davis into it when TK interrupted us at lunch."

Kari stared at her friend in mild disbelief.

"You did something without talking to me about it?"

Yolei finally looked up from the algebra problems to roll her eyes.

"Kari, I'm the holder of love, not to mention a year older than you and much more experienced in the matters of love, so I suggest you just sit back and let me take care of this, and just… er… " she faltered at the younger girl's stare "Come with you superior orders when it suits you."

"He's my best friend." Kari deadpanned.

"And Davis is…." She stopped and seemed to be trying to come up with something to say before looking down dejectedly, "Okay. You're the boss."

"No, I'm not." The brunette said softly, looking away. Yolei blinked.

"Huh?"

Kari's made the mistake of letting her eyes meet up with Yolei's again, and she suddenly found herself panicking about what she'd just said. Trying to calm herself down, she succeeded halfway, succeeding as far as starting to explain and failing enough to babble about things she was pretty sure she shouldn't be babbling about.

"I would never be able to do something like that on my own. Fact is, Yolei, I need you, too. I could never bring myself to mess with their lives this way by myself, but when you're here, I just…"

"Kari!" Both girls jerked up as the door was forcefully thrown open and revealed an enraged Tai glaring at his sister. "Did you wash this?!" He didn't wait for a reply before he threw the white soccer shirt in his sister's face.

"I may have…" she said slowly, picking it down from her head and gave him a puzzled look. With some luck, this would be distraction enough to get Yolei of the track she'd accidentally gotten into.

"You washed my authentically faked Manchester United shirt signed by David Beckham?! You washed it?!"

"Err… Tai, look…" she twisted the garment in her hands, and held it up to him, showing off a slightly faded twirl of black ink, "It's not gone."

Her brother snatched it from her hands and inspected it closer, and glared at her again.

"If you as much as touch it again, I swear I will…" He stiffened when their mother called his name from the bathroom. "I was never here!" he yelped and fled the room, leaving both girls staring at the spot he'd been standing at until the apartment door slammed loudly 1.2 seconds later, and their mother once again cried his name, this time in aggravation.

"So…" Yolei turned to Kari, who looked wearily at her, "Blind date?"

"Isn't that sort of… silly?"

"Well, we could just walk up and tell them to date each other and get it over with." Yolei suggested dryly.

Kari did not appreciate the sarcasm, but only nodded tiredly and kept on stroking the sleeping Digimon lying on top of her.

"I guess… it's better than nothing."