Overprotective.

By Moonlit Sea

Chapter 2 - Calm Down Tai.

She walked in carefully, the place was silent too silent for her liking and she jumped when a voice said.

"There you are I was beginning to think Tai forgot the way back."

She smiled and replied

"No we just had to drop off some friends Kari."

As she walked towards the bedroom and put a suitcase in.

Hikari Kamiya went over and helped Crystal with her luggage.

"So how was your trip?" she asked.

"Excellent America's a beautiful place."

"We were going to have a welcome home party for you but Tai talked us out of it." Another voice said.

Crystal turned round and saw Takeru Takashi standing at the door of the bedroom.

"Where is Tai anyway?"

"He said he was going to visit Matt." TK replied.

"Now?" Kari asked "but I thought he wanted to spend the day with Crystal."

Crystal sighed and said solemnly

"Don't worry about it Kari, I'm sure he has his reasons." She just wished she knew what some of them were.

"And besides." She said now smiling " all I want to do at the moment is rest."

As she walked though to the lounge and slumped into the sofa.

====================================*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*======================================

"Crystal's a nice girl." Max said.

"Yeah and it was nice of her to help us out the way she did." Tyson said.

"Although I don't think Tai was very impressed when she walked off the plane with us." Kenny remarked.

"I'll say did you see the way he ignored us when Crystal first introduced us?" Tyson asked.

"Well she didn't do the introductions very well anyway even Tai thought that." Max replied.

"Did you see the way Tai looked at her when she said they'd drop us off here?" Ray asked.

"If he's not careful he'll end up losing her for being possessive." Kai said looking out the window.

"That's not a very nice thing to say Kai." Kenny stated.

"Yeah just 'cos you like her." Tyson stated.

Kai turned and stared at Tyson who stared right back.

"Kai's right though." Ray said.

"Huh?" they all replied surprised that Ray agreed with Kai.

====================================*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*======================================

It was getting late and Tai was still not back yet, Crystal was starting to get worried.

*-Can he really be that upset?-* she thought.

Suddenly the phone rang making her jump, *-Please let it be Tai.-*

"Hello?" she answered with a little bit of excitement in her voice.

"Hey Crystal"

"Oh hi Davis." She replied the excitement replaced by disappointment.

"What's wrong?" noticing the sadness in her voice.

"Hm… oh nothing." She lied.

"You sure?" he asked knowing she was lying.

"Yeah."

"Hmmm well I thought I'd call to say welcome back."

"Thanks Davis. I hope you don't mind but I'm waiting for a call"

"Oh okay but before I go Takato, Rika, Henry and I are planning on coming over tomorrow. I'd thought I'd ask you first in case you wanted a rest or something."

"Well I'm wasn't planning on doing anything tomorrow anyway."

"Well I'll see ya tomorrow then."

"Yeah see ya." She sighed as she put down the receiver. She hadn't really been listening to what Davis was saying; She was too busy wondering where Tai was.

*-Tai where are you? -*

She was about to make herself a drink when something caught her eye. It was a picture of her and Tai that was taken three months after they first got together, she went over to it and picked it up. The picture was taken on the day that Tai took her for a romantic picnic down by the river, but they bumped into Davis and Kathryn and ended up with them joining them. Davis had taken the picture without either her or Tai knowing about it, they were both staring out at the river Crystal had her head on Tai's shoulder and Tai had his arm around her waist. A tear came to her eye as she stared at the picture, she then put the picture back in it's placed and turned to grab her coat from the bedroom where she had put it earlier and headed towards the door.

She had just opened the door when someone appeared making her jump.

" I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you," they said apologetically.

"It's okay." She replied after getting over her shock.

She then looked to see who it was standing at the door.

"Ray? What are you doing here?"

"Things are a little…" he said looking for the right word " crazy over at our place."

Crystal laughed.

"Kai and Tyson having another fight." She guessed.

Ray smiled and nodded.

"I was wondering if I could stay until they cool off."

"Sure." She without any hesitation and moved out of the way to let Ray in.

"Thanks Crystal." He said then walked in.

"So why do you have your coat on?" he asked as Crystal closed the door.

Crystal looked down she was wearing her coat. Wait wasn't she going to look for Tai? And now she had Ray staying with her. Dam her kind nature.

"I… I…" she stammered wondering what to say. She wanted to go and look for Tai but she couldn't leave Ray alone in the apartment what if Tai came back while she was gone? But what if he came back while they were both here what would he think then. All these questions floated through Crystal's mind.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked.

"Uh… yeah… I guess." She replied.

Then the phone rang she went to pick it up but stopped *-what if it's Tai? What do I say? What if he hears Ray's voice in the background?-* she sighed. *-Get a hold of yourself Crystal! -*

She picked the phone and tried to sound natural but it only came out shaky.

"Hello?"

"You okay Crystal?" the voice on the other end asked.

It was Matt; Crystal relaxed a little and replied.

"Yeah Matt I'm fine."

"That's good. You sounded a little…" but he didn't get a chance to finish as Crystal interrupted.

"DoyouknowwhereTaiis?" she asked hurriedly.

"What? Crystal slow down." Matt replied somewhat confused at what she had just said.

*-Come on Crystal Green get a hold of yourself! Tai's probably with Matt that's why he called.-* she thought.

"I'm sorry Matt."

"That's okay. The reason I called is to tell you that Tai's going to stay here the night and I didn't want you to worry."

"Worry… me?" she said nervously with a nervous laugh at the end.

"Why should I worry TK told me that Tai was going to see you."

"Hmmm." Matt said disbelievingly.

"Just tell him that Henry, Takato, Davis and Rika are coming over tomorrow." She said surprised she even remembered.

"Okay Crystal see you."

"Yeah bye Matt." she put the phone down and sighed.

"You were worried weren't you." a voice said behind her.

She instantly turned round and saw Ray she had forgotten about him. She gave a nod as an answer to his question.

"I'm going to get some air." And walked towards the balcony.

====================================*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*====================================== "So what did she say?" Tai asked when Matt had put down the phone.

"She said that Davis, Takato, Rika and Henry are going over tomorrow." Yamato Ishida replied while going to the kitchen to make himself a drink.

"Matt I'm being serious" Tai said.

"If you wanna know if she was worried, yes she was. I don't get it Tai what's going on between you two?"

"To be honest Matt I really don't know." Tai replied as he sat at the kitchen table.

"Well that helps." He replied sarcastically as he sat table with his drink.

"I beginning to think Crystal doesn't love me anymore." Tai sighed then got up and went towards the nearest window.

"What makes you think that Tai? Of course she loves you if what happen at the airport has anything to do with it." Matt answered taking a sip of his drink.

"You weren't there. You didn't see how she was acting, how she was…"

Matt sighed, walked over to his friend and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Tai trust me Crystal thinks the world of you."

"But…" Tai was about to say but Matt interrupted him.

"No buts Tai." He said as he shook his head "Crystal's bound to find new friends that you don't know."

"It's not that Matt." Tai said, as he turned round to face his friend.

Matt could see tears forming in Tai's eyes. *-This is serious I haven't seen Tai act like this since he broke up with Karyn five years ago.-*

"Tai I'm sure if you just talk to Crystal you'll see that she loves you," he said.

"I'm not so sure she'd want to talk to me after the way I acted today."

"I'm sure she would. Anyone would of acted the way you did if it happened to them even me." Matt said reassuringly.

"Really?"

"Really"

Tai smiled then said, "Mind if I use your phone."

"Go ahead."

"Thanks" he headed towards the phone and dialled their number.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end said but it wasn't Crystals.

"Crystal?" Tai asked wondering where he had heard that voice before it wasn't Davis' that was for sure.

"She's gone to bed. Can I take a message?" the voice asked.

"Who is this? And what are you doing at our apartment?" Tai asked curiously still trying to place the voice in his head.

"This is Ray. Is this Tai?" he asked but didn't get an answer as Tai slammed the phone down.

"What's wrong now?" Matt asked when he heard Tai slam down the phone. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't break the phone."

"I thought you said she said was worried about me." He said annoyed.

"No she didn't say she was worried about you but I could tell she was by the way her voice sounded. Why what's wrong now?" repeating his earlier question.

"Ray" Tai said the name with hate in his voice.

"Huh? You mean that guy that help her with her luggage?"

Tai nodded.

"Well what about him?"

"He's at our apartment! He said Crystal was in bed! What's he doing there anyway!" Tai shouted getting angry.

*-Oh boy!-* Matt thought. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason Tai. Just calm down."

"How can I calm down when I know he's there with my Crystal!"

Matt sighed it was too late in the night to be argueing with Tai, he just yawned and said.

"Night Tai see you in the morning."