Author's Notes: This is the second installment of a one-shot meant to be. I do not own digimon; if I did Tai & Sora would have gotten together, instead of Sora and Matt. And Joe and Mimi would have got together too, but since I don't own it, it didn't happen.

Protecting Alone

Chapter 2: Learning

"What do you mean? What are we going to do? Why do you keep on telling lies?" Tai had known that Kari wasn't going to believe him as soon as she had said that first word. It hurt that she didn't believe that he was telling the truth, but he accepted it. He had known that nobody was going to believe him. He had no witnesses as nobody had ever come over to his house whilst it was happening, and his mother had been perfect whenever Kari had been over. He just said nothing and continued to stare at the wall in front of him.

"I can't believe that you would lie like that! And to think that I looked up to you!" Kari truly believed that Tai was lying to her, and she couldn't believe that he would do such a thing, "You just want to try and wriggle yourself out of trouble by telling lies and trying to convict an innocent person! How could you be so unfeeling?" She stormed out of the room, causing her parent and Matt and Sora jump. She was so annoyed at her brother for doing this to her that it never occurred to her that Tai was telling the truth. As far as she was concerned, he was a big liar. Once Kari had left the room, Tai struggled to hold back tears. The only person who had seemed to have faith in him, the person he had taken all of his mother's abuse for, had basically told him that she never wanted anything to do with him.

'You knew that this would happen, that's a part of the reason that you never told her. Now you've just lost the only person who really cares. But you still have to soldier on, but at least now you don't have to act happy all of the time,' Tai's thoughts told him, and he knew they were right, 'Next time don't open your mouth. In fact, maybe it'll be better if you never speak at all. Then at least you won't make the same mistake again.' Tai nodded and continued to stare at the wall, wanting nothing other than to be two again.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Kari, did Tai tell you anything?" Mr. Kamiya asked his daughter as she stormed out of the room, a bit surprised at his daughter's sudden appearance.

"All he did was tell a bunch of lies. I have no idea why he did that, he just made up things to try and make it seem like it wasn't his fault. I could tell that he wasn't telling the truth," Kari's voice was full of anger, mainly pointed at Tai, but a bit was aimed at herself. She did believe that Tai was lying, but a tiny voice in her head was telling her that Tai had never lied about anything to her. Sure, he had missed things out so she didn't know the whole story, and when she asked him if he was okay he had always answered that he was fine, but he had never told her a straight out lie. Kari chose to ignore that tiny voice and she flopped down in one of the plastic seats in between Sora and her father. She didn't notice the satisfaction that flickered on her mother's face, but Sora saw it and frowned. She shook her head a little and then looked at Mrs. Kamiya again. There was just the look of a sad mother on her face now. Sora sighed.

'Now I'm imagining things. Great. Why would Mrs. Kamiya be happy that her son was in hospital after trying to kill himself, and then be glad that his sister told them that he had been lying anyway?' she mentally kicked herself. All of the time that Kari had been talking to Tai, Sora hadn't been able to stop memories of her childhood with Tai flooding her. She remembered the all of the times that Tai had helped her, when she fell over or just when she had been feeling sad. She couldn't help but question herself as she remembered everything they had gone through as friends.

'Why couldn't I see that Tai was in trouble? He has always been there when I was in trouble, and now the only time that he really needs my help I ignored him. Something bad must have happened for him to want to kill himself. It must have been going on for a while too, and we never guessed. Now I know why Tai was chosen for the crest of courage. I mean, I know that committing suicide is cowardly, but it must have been a big problem,' Sora's thoughts kept on getting mixed up and wandering around in circles. She was jolted out of her thoughts by Mr. Kamiya talking to her.

"Do you want to go in and see if you can get anything out of him Sora? You and Tai have been close friends since you were very little, so maybe he'll talk to you," Sora nodded and stood up, ready to try and help her friend. She only hoped that he would talk to her.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Tai?" Sora was uncertain about what to say as she walked into the room. Tai was just staring straight ahead, not even recognizing her presence. His wrists were bandaged firmly, and for that Sora was glad. She hated seeing her best friend like he was and she knew that she had to help him. It was going to be hard to do that when he hadn't even glanced at her once.

"Tai, why did you do this to yourself? Surely your life isn't that bad," Sora knew that she shouldn't have said that, but all Tai did was turn his expressionless gaze onto her. He didn't say anything, and she knew that he wasn't going to. But his stare was freaking her out a bit.

"What I mean is, you have all of your friends, Kari, and your parents. We all care about you and we all want to help you with whatever it is that's wrong," Sora thought she saw a look of incredulity flash in Tai's eyes, but it was gone before she could look harder. Tai had gotten too good at hiding his real emotions from everyone, "We all care, and we don't want anything to happen to you. You can trust us; we all just want to help you." Tai's face was still emotionless, and it was making Sora feel more than uncomfortable. Her heart was feeling funny in her chest and at that minute the only thing she wanted was for Tai to be okay. Nothing more. She sighed in her head and watched Tai for any reaction. None showed on his face, but inside he was having a major battle.

'She's telling the truth! Just let me tell her about what has been going on, and she'll believe me!' Tai was saying to his brain, but it wasn't listening, 'She just wants you to believe that! She's Matt's girl, and Matt and herself are the only people she cares about! You know that, so stop arguing and keep quiet! This is the only way to get people to leave you alone!' So Tai kept silent and emotionless, which Sora couldn't stand anymore.

"Fine then, just ignore me! I see that you don't really care about our friendship, as you can only think about yourself at the minute," Sora turned and left quietly, after saying her whispered words. She didn't see or hear Tai whisper after her, "I do care about others and that's what made this problem so big. I'm sorry Sora, I do care about our friendship, but you were the one that shattered it, the day you started ignoring me and paying all of your attention to Matt."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Any luck?" Tai's father asked her hopefully as she came out of the room. She could only shake her head and Mr. Kamiya sighed.

"Maybe I can talk to him. I'm his mother and I'm sure that he'll tell me something if I keep on asking him," Mrs. Kamiya looked determined about something, but for some reason Sora did not think that she was determined to get the answers out of Tai. Sora shook her head. Of course Mrs. Kamiya wanted to help Tai. Tai. he was so different from what he had been like when they were younger. It was almost as if something had possessed him over night. Sora considered the possibility for a second, but she quickly discarded it. She had known that something had been wrong with Tai for a while, but only deep down, so she hadn't consciously realized it. After all, she had known him basically all of her life, so of course she would know when he was acting strangely.

"You okay Sora?" Matt asked as she flopped down in the same seat she had occupied before. Mrs. Kamiya went in to talk to Tai, and both Kari and Mr. Kamiya seemed deep in thought. Sora nodded glumly, her thoughts still on her best friend. Matt was worried about Sora, she seemed to be in a world of her own since she had seen Tai. He guessed that she was deeply concerned for her friend. Tai was his friend too, but he was also his rival. Matt preferred to keep what he was feeling a secret, and he was worried about his friend, but he couldn't help but feel that Tai didn't really want his help. They had sort of drifted apart since he had started going out with Sora. Matt sighed to himself and stood up.

"I have to go Sora, but if anything happens, call me, okay?" Sora snapped out of her daze for a second and nodded.

"Yeah, I will. I'll see you tomorrow," then she went back into her daze. Matt just nodded and headed back home, ready to cook for his father.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

As Mrs. Kamiya walked through the door, Tai wanted to run and jump out of the window. He couldn't, of course, but he really wanted to. He kept his face at his neutral expression and refused to look at her.

"Tai, what do you think you were doing? You made Kari upset, and you're not going to get away with that!" she hissed angrily, and fiercely. She may have just whispered it, but Tai would have been able to hear her from the other side of the world. He didn't move, he didn't even blink as she sat back and pretended that they were having a deep and meaningful conversation, but Tai heard the hidden messages in her words. Basically, even though he had failed to do it himself, he was dead as soon as she could get him home. He sighed mentally and did the teenage thing of pretending to the lecture, but actually his attention could not have been further away. He was thinking about what he was going to do once he was out of the prison-like hospital room. The answer was that he couldn't really do anything but stay with his mother, and live a life full of misery. He hated the thought of it, but he knew that that was the only place he could go to. And nobody would believe his explanation anyway. He continued pretending to listen, his mind filled with negative thoughts.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

A few days later, and after a couple of hours with a psychiatrist in which he said nothing, Tai was finally able to get out of the hospital. He went to school as usual, but he was silent, a ghost of his old safe. All of his friends knew what he had tried to do, and they were amazed and upset at the change in their old leader. Even though none of them had spent much time with him lately, they still depended on him. To see him become a ghost of himself was depressing to say the least. He still hadn't said a word to anyone, and his life was back to as it was before, except that he wouldn't talk. His friends all seemed to take it upon themselves to try and get him back to his normal, cheerful self, but none of them were succeeding so far. They still met at the same place at lunchtime, but Tai was no longer there. Or so they thought. Unbeknownst to them, Tai always arrived first at the trees and climbed up into the top branches. He was curious as to what they thought was going on, as he wanted to know how far he could trust them these days. Not that he was planning on saying anything to anyone.

"What the hell is going on with Tai? He's so. weird. I mean, he won't even talk to us, so what are the chances of us helping him? He doesn't even acknowledge our presence, never mind listen," Mimi seemed pretty upset, and she had a reason to be. They had just had maths, and Mimi had tried to get through to him. He had just kept his expressionless face on and kept on working. Since he had come back to school most of his teachers had been surprised because he had started to boost up his grades immediately. He was smart, and had always been so, but he had always found that talking to his friends was better than doing his work. Now he wasn't talking to anybody, he could concentrate on his work, and that was what he was doing. It was the only thing he could do, really. Mimi had spent the whole maths lesson trying and trying to get him to even acknowledge her presence, but he hadn't. He knew that it was better for everybody that he kept quiet, so keep quiet he did.

"We don't know what's up with him, but whatever it is, it's not good. Tai is one of those people that others depend on, even if he doesn't know it. We need to find a way to help him, and soon," Izzy stated this, not even looking at his lap top, which was actually turned off for once. The others nodded in agreement, and Tai wanted to laugh. People didn't depend on him; they usually ignored him most of the time. Sure Sora, Matt and Kari sometimes paid attention to him, but even his little sister had forsaken him and called him a liar. She had had the most faith in him and if she called him a liar, he even began to doubt himself, never mind the others believing him.

"If only he would tell us what was wrong, or even drop a hint," Joe cried out in frustration. Even his reliability had failed in trying to get Tai to talk, and that annoyed him a lot. He was extremely worried about his friend, and that also contributed to him being annoyed at Tai. Tai himself was looking in his pocket for some maths questions. He might as well kill two birds with one stone and do his maths homework while he listened. As he took the maths sheet out of his pocket, another piece of paper fell out, and the wind blew it out of his grasp. It spiraled around the trunk of the tree before moving away completely and floating away. Sora happened to notice the paper, but she didn't see where it came from.

"I have a feeling that this piece of paper is important somehow," she said, pulling the piece of paper out of the air. The others looked at her as she read it, whilst Tai desperately tried to remember what he had written on that piece of paper. Sora paled a bit at what she read, but she recovered quickly. Ai realized that he would have to climb out of the tree to get back the paper before she read it out to the others, as much as he didn't want to reveal that he had been there all along.

"What is it Sora? What does it say?" Matt asked his paling girlfriend, who looked like she was in shock at what she saw on the paper. Tai climbed down a few branches and jumped out of the tree on the other side to where the others were. He walked back around the tree and glanced at Sora and the others. They all stopped talking as they realized he was there, and Tai held out his hand for the piece of paper that Sora held. Sora glanced at it again, before she handed it back to him. As soon as he had the paper in his hand again, Tai walked away without saying a word.

"What did that paper say? It was obviously Tai's paper, or he wouldn't have come and gotten it off you. What was on it?" T.K asked with one arm around Kari. They all looked at Sora, who was still pretty pale.

"Uh. it was nothing really. Just some maths," Sora lied badly even when she wasn't shocked, so the others just stared at her as she played with her fingers.

"We're not that dumb Sora. We can tell when it's something serious, and it is serious now. What are you hiding that was on that piece of paper of Tai's?" Kari started to look uncomfortable at T.K's question, and she looked at the ground. Matt noticed this and wondered what was wrong with the young girl.

"What's wrong Kari?" everyone swapped their gaze from Sora to Kari at Matt's words. They all noticed her discomfort and they too wondered what had caused it.

"I uh, I just remembered something that I have to do. I'll see you guys later," she managed to catch Sora's eye as she turned around and quickly escaped, managing to dodge her friends who were trying to find out why she had been so nervous. Sora quietly escaped the other way, whilst they were all distracted on stopping Kari. When they finally gave up on Kari, they turned back to ask Sora, only to find that she too had disappeared.

"I give up with girls!" Matt and T.K both groaned as they realized that their girlfriends had beaten them this time.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Sora, what did that paper really say?" Kari panted as they met up after their escape from the others. Sora wasn't panting at all, but then the younger girl had had to run further. Sora hesitated a moment before she answered.

"It looked like it was just something Tai scribbled down when he was bored in class or something. It read: I wish I could go back to being three years old again. Back when I was allowed to be happy. I had my family and my best friend, and. I had everything. Now. I don't want to even think about it. Kari doesn't believe me, and my mother. I don't want to see her ever again. My best friend, well, I basically don't even know her anymore, so what's the use of having a best friend? The rest of the digidestined have all found happiness, but I have lost all of mine. Why did Kari have to come and check on me on that particular day? It seems that everybody wants me to suffer. I guess I should just resign to my destiny and be depressed, as everything on Earth won't stop until I am." Sora couldn't believe that Tai no longer thought of her as a best friend, but as someone he hardly knew. She realized that they hadn't spent a lot of time together like they used to, and she didn't really know Tai very well anymore either. She turned to Kari, who seemed to be fighting a battle inside.

"Kari, what is it that Tai told you that you didn't believe?" Sora knew that this was important, and she wanted to get it out of the young girl. Kari hesitated, still battling inside. She wanted to help her older brother, but what he had told her seemed so unbelievable, so unreal. A tiny fragment of her brain was telling her that it was true though, and although it was only a small voice, it still didn't help her. Kari opened her mouth to answer, but at that minute the bell rang loudly, and the two girls both sighed.

"Look, I have soccer after school, and then I have to help my mum, so we'll continue this conversation tomorrow before school, okay?" Kari nodded in agreement before they both hurried off to their classes, where they were both questioned as to where they had been by their friends. Sora and Kari just ignored the questions though, but neither concentrated on their classes. They were both worrying about Tai.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

During English, the class that Tai had after lunch, he couldn't help but stop paying attention to the teacher. He had glanced at the paper which Sora had found once he had taken it off her, and he knew that now Sora was going to try and talk to him soon. And he wasn't looking forward to it. Why did she have to have found that piece of paper? He had felt upset during the maths class, and so he had written that on an old sheet of paper, after finishing the class work. Mimi hadn't noticed that he hadn't been doing maths anymore, and so she hadn't seen the paper. Tai wondered who Sora had told about what was on the paper. He desperately hoped that she hadn't told everyone, they would probably just try and get him to see a psychiatrist for depression or something.

"Mr. Kamiya, are you still with us?" the teacher snapped. Tai just glanced up at Ms. Hayne, his teacher, with the same expressionless face that he wore every day, and she backed off and continued with the lesson, "Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas." Tai let his concentration wander again. Why did life have to be so hard? He settled down in his seat, his thoughts all negative.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

After school Sora went to soccer practice, but she found that she couldn't concentrate. Her thoughts kept on wandering to her 'best' friend. Soccer just wasn't the same without Tai to talk to and laugh with, and his negative attitude that had seemed to come up over night both frightened and worried her. She had no idea what Tai had told Kari, but she had a feeling that it was very bad. It had to be if Kari didn't believe him as she always looked up to her older brother, and she would usually believe anything that he told her. Usually. That was the key word. Sora tried to get her mind back onto soccer, but without her invincible team mate, she couldn't play as well as she would normally. The coach noticed this and pulled her over to talk.

"Sora, you don't seem to be able to concentrate today. Is anything wrong?" he asked, concerned about the welfare of one of his star players. Sora shrugged, a bit uncomfortable.

"I'm fine, it's just that Tai usually plays in attack with me and now that he isn't here, I don't know the moves of the new guy playing in attack. He keeps on surprising me, and so I can't play my game as well as I used to, that's all," she replied, and the coach nodded in agreement.

"You know Tai pretty well, so do you know why he stopped playing? I don't believe a word that he said about 'not liking it anymore.' I know Tai and that kid almost lives for soccer. He wouldn't just stop liking it all of a sudden," the coach knew what Tai had tried to do, and he was no fool. Sora shook her head sadly.

"I don't know why he quit. He's gone extremely quiet now; he won't even say a word after. you know. I know that he never stopped loving soccer though I don't know why. What are we going to do? The tournament is coming up in two weeks and I can't get the plays right unless I know how my fellow attackers play! I'm going to have to get Tai to come back. Do you mind if I skip practice today to try and convince Tai to come back? I'm sure that I can do it!" the coach thought for a second before nodding.

"Yeah, after all, we need Tai to win the tournament, and it might snap him out of whatever is making him act so strangely. Good luck Sora!" but Sora was already on her way to the Kamiya's apartment, ready to find what was wrong with Tai.

* * * * * * * * * * * * Sora arrived at her friend's apartment, a bit out of breath. She leant her head on the door, to get her breath back, but she found that she could hear what was going on inside the apartment.

"You're worthless Tai! All you bring is bad luck! If Kari was here instead of you, I would still have my job and we would all be happy. But no, I get stuck with you! You know that you are worthless, nobody cares about you anyway. I wish that you had succeeded in your mission before because at least then my bad luck would disappear," Sora backed away in shock at what she had heard coming from Mrs. Kamiya. She had also heard some things that sounded like slaps. Why was Mrs. Kamiya beating Tai? They had always been a happy family, at least all that Sora had seen. Tai had never shown any signs of abuse before, so what was going on? It sounded like a normal occurrence from what Sora could gather. She stumbled back home, wondering why Tai had never told anybody about the terrible abuse that he was put through.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The next day at school Sora was still thinking about Tai. She didn't even bother to greet Matt properly; she didn't even notice that he had spoken to her. Matt was feeling uncomfortable because he wanted to break up with Sora and it wasn't helping that she was staring off into space.

"Sora, I really need to talk with you," he repeated himself, and Sora finally seemed to notice what he was saying.

"Hmm? Sorry Matt, my mind has been wandering a bit," Sora confessed, but she didn't want to tell Matt what she had found out right at that moment.

"Well, I um. I think that we should break up," Matt told her quickly. He had discovered that he didn't have feelings for her when a new girl had moved to their maths class, and he had felt something deeper than what he felt for Sora. He realized that he just felt that Sora was like his sister, not like a girlfriend.

"I agree. I mean, I just realized that I feel as if you are a brother, and I love you like a brother. It just took a while to sink in," Sora amazed herself by realizing that statement as she said it, and Matt looked relieved too.

"Yeah, I love you like I would a sister. I'm glad you understand Sora," she just nodded in reply and stared off into space again, her thoughts again returning to Tai. She had seen him that morning, and he had had a black eye. Sora was sure that it had been given to him by his mother. Matt went and broke their news to the rest of the digidestined, who had already guessed that they would break up sometime soon. Especially as they saw Sora worry so much over Tai. Kari came up to Sora and tapped her on the shoulder.

"You okay Sora? You seem a bit spaced out there," Kari said quietly, as to not startle Sora too much, "What's wrong?"

"I went to talk to Tai last night, to try and convince him to rejoin the soccer team, but when I got there I was puffed, so I leant my head against the door to get my breath back, and I could hear what was going on in the apartment. It-it sounded so horrible! Your mother was saying all these bad things about Tai and- and I could hear a sound that was like a slap. Tai has a black eye today. I think that your mother is abusing him," Sora was surprised as Kari slowly nodded; taking in everything that Sora had said.

"That was what Tai told me in the hospital. He told me that it had been going on ever since my family split up. I couldn't believe him when he told me. It was too hard to believe that my own mother would do something like that. But now that I know that it is true, I have to do something about it. What should we do?" That was one question that Sora did not know the answer to. But she was going to find it at all costs, to help Tai so that he wouldn't be alone.

End of Chapter 2

Well, there's the second chapter of my was-going-to-be-a-one-shot-but- didn't-make-it-fic. I hope you enjoy it! It was going to be put up earlier, but I got delayed in writing it because I had exams. Anyway, please R+R, and I'll update A.S.A.P! Please review!!!