She Loves me, She Loves Me Not: Part 3
By: LeaMarie F. Metallium
page 8, Tiki E. Rocket

Matt winced as he opened his eyes. Sunlight was poured through the open window. "I don't think I slept at all last night," Matt muttered at himself. He rolled over and looked at the clock. 8:30. "What woke me up?"
"Hi Mr. Ishida. Is Matt home?"
"Yeah, he's still sleeping from what I can tell."
"Oh." The female voice said sounding disappointed.
"Do you want me to go check and see if he's up yet?"
"Yes please. If it's not to much trouble." Matt rolled over and closed his eyes.
"Matt?" His dad asked opening the door. "LeaMarie is here to see you." Matt muttered something. "What was that?"
"So?"
"Aren't you going to get up?"
"No, to tired."
"Ok." The door closed. "I'm sorry, he says he's to tired to get up right now."
"Oh, ok. Could you ask him to call me when he gets a minute?"
"Sure."
"Thank you. Bye, Mr. Ishida."
"Bye." Matt heard the front door open and close. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he thought of yesterday's events. "She's in league with Ken. How could she do that to me?"
"Matt, get up!" His dad ordered flipping on the lights. Matt ducked under the covers.
"Why?" Matt asked from under the covers.
"I think we need to talk." Matt sat up.
"About what?" Matt's dad sat down on the edge of the bed.
"LeaMarie seemed upset. And last night I could hear you talking in your sleep."
"Dad, we just had a fight yesterday. I just didn't want to see her right this minute."
"I see. Well don't let things go unresolved for to long."
"I won't."

Lea walked home feeling depressed. "Well it couldn't have gone much worse. I'd feel much better if he'd just yelled at me. And the others aren't helping any. There're just making me feel worse. Well I guess that's kinda what they're trying to do." Lea sighed. "I don't even WANT to go back to the apartment. It's colder in there than Wisconsin in January... I need my long underwear in there." Lea thought sadly. She sighed as watched a couple walking side by side. "What's wrong with me!" she demanded. "Since when do I wallow in self-pity?" She sighed again. "Since now." she continued walking back to the apartment.

Izzy, Davis, TK, Kari, Sora, and Tai were all sitting in Tai's room. "How did she get into the Digiworld?" Tai asked Izzy.
"I don't know. I though only the D3's could open the Port, but now I'm no so sure."
"Maybe Ken came and picked her up?" TK suggested.
"It's possible, but if you remember, Ken didn't know her name," Izzy pointed out.
"So, maybe she never told him her name. Maybe she put a spell on him!" Davis yelled jumping up.
" Davis, I doubt she's witch," Sora said sounding tired.
"You never know. Maybe she put all of you guys under a spell and I'm the only one not under one! Maybe I'm under one too!" Davis yelled panicking.
" Davis, you're not under a spell," Kari told him firmly.
"You sure?"
"Yes. And since when do we always call Lea 'She' instead of ever menacing her name?"
"Kari's right. It's almost like we're afraid of her," TK said softly.
"Well, she did take Matt out with one blow."
"But it didn't look like she meant to."
"Hi, Auntie." They heard Lea say from the living room.
"Oh, hi, Dear. How'd it go?"
"Alright. I'm going to call home, is that alright?"
"Sure."
"Thanks." The Digidestined could hear Lea dialing the phone.
"Hi, Tiki. No, he wouldn't even talk to me. You will! You are the best! You're going to sign it like that? Wow, you haven't sighed anything like that for years. Coolness. Well I should go. Yeah, I'm using my aunt's phone. Ok. Yep. You too! Bye!" She hung up the phone.
"I wonder what she's up to," Izzy said watching the door.
"I haven't the slighted idea."
"I'm going out again!" They heard Lea yell.
"I wouldn't trust her if my life depended on it," Vemon stated.
"You really wouldn't have understood me a while ago," Gatomon told him.
"So do you think we misunderstood her?" Tai asked.
"We could've."

Matt had finally emerged from his room and was pouring himself a glass of juice when the doorbell rang. Matt watched as his dad answered it. "Oh, hi, LeaMarie."
"Hi, Mr. Ishida. I decided that what I need to talk to Matt about can't wait."
"Come in. I'm just on my way to the station, so I'll be out of your way."
"Thanks, Sir," Lea said stepping into the apartment.
"No problem. Bye, Matt. Bye, Lea."
"Bye, Sir."
"Bye, Dad." Matt's father quickly left. "What do you want?" Matt snarled coldly.
"The chance to tell you the truth."
"I'm listening."
"Can we sit down? It's kind of a long story, but I'll keep to the main detail." Matt nodded his head and led the way over to the sofa. "Ok, you know how I told you that I've never really stayed in one spot for to long? Well that's not totally true. A long time ago, well not THAT long ago, I'd just come back to America when a couple of kids I knew and me were out at recess. One of the girls and I had gotten into a fight. After a few minutes of fighting we got bored and stopped. Just than there was a white blinding light." Lea stopped and looked up at Matt.
"So?"
"We found ourselves in another world. There we were, all alone, just us kids, when there was a low growling sound. Out of a clump of bushes jumped a giant liony looking thing. It looked very mean, and hungry. It started advancing on us when these little things jumped in front of us. Each of them were different. They started blowing bubbles at the Lionmon. But they couldn't stop him. Suddenly a bright multi-colored light surrounded them and they each changed and got bigger. They all attacked again. One shot fire, one electricity, one water, and one shot out razor sharp leaves. The Lionmon ran off.
"That was our first battle. Those little guys weren't afraid of anything. Sometimes we'd even end up helping. Sometimes throwing rocks, or hitting what ever with sticks. But we soon learnt that we could be hurt." Lea stopped and put her hand on her right hip.
"You were DigiDestined?" Matt asked skeptically.
"Yeah, we were."
"Prove it," Matt demanded. Lea sighed and stood up. She pulled out an old, beat up, looking digivice. It was older looking than Matt and the other's.
"See, when we went to the Digiworld it was still pretty new."
"Why can't I believe you were the first Destined?" Matt asked her.
"I didn't say we were the first, I said we were there when the D-World was pretty new." Lea told him softly.
"And battling that's something I really can't believe."
"We were fighting Mantismon," Lea said softly. "My bestfriend was in deep trouble. Her foot was caught under a rock and she couldn't get away. I was able to get her out of the way, but the Mantismon got me instead," Lea muttered softly touching her hip.
"Yeah, sure."
"You want me to prove it to you!" Lea asked voice rising.
"Yeah, I do."
"Well can we at least go some where without so many window?"
"Sure." Matt led Lea to his room. She pulled her pants and underwear down about an inch on her right side. There was about five inches long scar going from the top of her hip to where her thigh started.
"That's where it got me." Lea told him pointing to the scar. Matt reached out to touch it, than changed his mind. "You can tough it. It doesn't hurt." He toughed it softly.
"MATT!" TK yelled suddenly standing in the doorway.
"TK, it's not what it looks like!" Matt told him quickly. TK glared at Lea.
"What are you doing here?" TK demanded.
"Telling Matt the truth," Lea told him.
"Really." Matt told him. TK looked surprised.
"Yesterday you said you guys were through, now I catch you two doing who knows what! I told you about her before you even started dating!" TK yelled. "I wish you'd make up your mind!" He yelled and ran out of the apartment.
"Man!" Matt declared sitting down on his bed. Lea sat next to him. "He didn't believe me." Lea put her hand over his.
"He will."
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about it."
"But..."
"He'll know and believe the truth soon enough."
"What do you mean?"
"One of the other 'Destined from my group are sending Izzy a special e-mail."
"They are? Why?"
"I called her and told her what's up."
"How did you figure out we were DigiDestined?"
"You guys weren't really quite about it. Plus that stuffed Gatomon in Kari's closet was kind of a dead give away." Matt smiled.
"Um...Lea, about Ken."
"I have absolutely no feelings for him."
"Than why did you," Lea put a finger on his lips.
"I wanted to go back to the DigiWorld. When I got there I heard about Ken, and I figured that it would be the fastest way to learn about all the new stuffs there."
"I see."
"I'm sorry. I'll understand if you don't want me around anymore."
"We DigiDestined have to stick together, don't we?" Matt asked smiling.

"So they're back together?" Tai asked TK.
"That's what it looked like." Kari put her hand on his. TK pulled her a little closer to him.
"Tai, I just received an e-mail. I think you should see this," Izzy said pointing to his computer screen.
"What's it say?" Davis asked from behind Tai. "Tai's hair is too big."
"It says 'Hi, you don't know me, but I was told that you're a DigiDestined. I, and several of my friends are too. I'm sure you want proof, so we'll meet you in the DigiWorld tomorrow at 4:30 you're time. The Crest of Earth."
"Think it's real?" Tai asked Izzy.
"I don't know. I think it might be. It originates from America. Odd."
"What?"
"The address was created about two years before we went to the DigiWorld for the first time."
"So?" Davis asked.
"We knew we weren't the fist 'Destined but they could be."
"Cool!" Davis said bouncing around.
"I'll call Matt and tell him to meet us at your house tomorrow at 4." Tai told Izzy.

Matt flipped on the TV just as the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hi, Matt. Is Lea there?"
"No, she's not. You just missed her."
"Good. I needed to talk to you without her there. We need to be at Izzy's house at 4 tomorrow. We've got some interesting things we need to talk care of."
"Like what?" Matt asked.
"You'll find out when you get there!" Tai snapped.
"Ok, ok. 4, I'll be there," Matt said as he rolled his eyes. "Geez, Tai still hasn't changed one bit."

Tai hung up the phone just as Lea walked in. Tai glared at her as she set a notebook and several books on the table. Lea glared right back at him. "Well if it isn't the traitor," Davis snarled. Lea simply walked passed him. Davis glared at her as she sat down and started flipping through the books. Tai looked over her shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"Just something," Lea said not really paying attention.
"Did any of you guys take English?" Tai asked. The others shook their heads.
"Tai, please, I'm in a relatively good mood. Please leave me ALONE!" Lea demanded.
"Oh, I wonder why you're in a good mood," TK said sarcastically.
"Oooh, sarcasm from the little angel." Dead silence enveloped the room as Lea turned back to her notebook and started scribbling in it. Tai and TK's eyes were locked together in amazement.
"Angel?" Davis asked missing everything.
"NEVER MIND, DAVIS," Tai hissed.
"Ok," Davis said softly. The phone rang and Kari rushed to pick it up.
"Uh...just a second. Lea, phone," Kari said looking confused.
"Hello?" Lea asked and then switched to English.
"Who was it?" Tai asked Kari.
"I don't know. They said 'Lea' and that was it. It was like the person didn't know Japanese."
"Was it male or female?"
"Err...I think it was male?" Kari said softly.
"You couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl? You know there's kind of a big difference."
"It was either a guy with a really high voice, or a girl, but it sort of sounded like a guy." Lea hung up the phone and went back to the notebook.
"So, who was it?" Tai asked. Lea sighed and looked at her watch.
"It was one of my friends from America," Lea told him, as she stood up.
"Now where are you going?" Tai's mom asked as she saw Lea gathering up her books again.
"To the library. I'm never going to get any work done here," She explained.
"I really don't trust her." Davis muttered. Tai sighed as he felt a headache coming on.
"First the Digiworld, the Lea, now newer...or would that be older Digidestined?" "What's next?"
Tai asked himself.
"Huh?" Davis asked again.
"Nothing."
"Tai, please don't go nuts before we meet the new destined," Kari pleaded. Tai smiled at her.
"I won't, although I don't know how much longer I can stay sane."

Matt arrived at Izzy's house at exactly 4. The others were already there waiting for him. "Hi, guys." Matt said as Izzy let him in. "So what's up?"
"We're going to the Digiworld to meet up with possibly the FIRST Digidestined," Izzy explained. Matt hid a smile.
"Really? Cool. So when are we going?"
"In half an hour. Tai wanted us here early so we could get together and plan exactly what we're going to do," Izzy told him.
"Cool." Matt smiled as Davis was hitting on Kari even though she was cuddling with TK. Sora and Tai were busy talking about soccer. Izzy and Yolei were pouring over Izzy's laptop. And Cody and Joe were discussing their crests. Matt looked around for a second seeking out the missing 'destined. "Where's Mimi?" He asked.
"She'll meet us there," Sora explained looking up from a magazine she and Tai were looking at. "Guys we'd better get going. Remember we don't knew exactly were they're going to be," Joe reminded them.
"Well then, LET'S GO!" Yolei yelled.

The 'Destined arrived in a patch of woods. At first, there was silence. It was broken by a shriek.
"This way!" Davis yelled running towards the sound.
"There he goes again," Yolei muttered.
"As long as he doesn't come after me again," TK commented. Kari nodded.
"Let's go catch up with him, before he hurts himself," Tai sighed and took off running after Davis. When they finally found him he was slowly backing away from two girls and a guy all of them were in a fighting stance. "Hey!" Tai yelled to the small group.
"Hello," One girl with black hair responded.
"Are you the other DigiDestined?" Yolei asked. The girl who seemed to be the leader relaxed and motioned for the others to relax as well.
"Yes. You must be Tai. I am Tiki, crest holder of Earth."
"Yeah, I'm Tai, and this is Sora, TK, Kari, Matt, Izzy, Joe, Yolei, Cody, and Davis."
"This is Lucky, crest holder of Water, and StormChaser is the crest holder of Weather."
"It's nice to meet you," Sora ventured.
"You too," Tiki responded. StormChaser asked her a question in English. "Where's LeaMarie?" Tiki asked. All but Matt glared.
"Why do you want HER here?" Davis snarled. Tiki let out a chilling laugh.
"Well she IS the crest holder of Fire," She explained. A silence engulfed the clearing, then Tiki let out a scream that startled the others. "LEA!" A rustling sound was heard from the tree that Matt was leaning on. Matt instinctively looked up, as something fell out of the tree. Matt held out his arms and tried to catch it. It turned out to be a little bigger than he though it was and both he and "it" hit the ground. "Hi Lea!" Tiki exclaimed happily.
"Hi. Nice catch, Matt. Thanks," Lea said as she started to untangle herself from Matt.
"OW! My foot!" Tiki yelled as Lea's knee landed on it.
"Oops. Sorry," Lea said and then burst out giggling. "I'm ticklish!" She exclaimed as Matt moved his hand. Matt smiled as he tried not to tickle her. After a bit Lea snuggled into Matt.
"How about we stay here and every one else comes here?" She suggested.
"Lea," StormChaser said smiling.
"SC!" Lea yelled happily. She jumped up and hugged him. Tiki said something in English to Lea and then got a hug. Then Lea hugged Lucky.
"So, these are the new 'Destined," Tiki stated looking every one over. She stopped at Joe and smiled. "Rrrawr," She muttered. Joe started blushing.
"So do they talk?" Davis asked pointing at StormChaser and Lucky.
"Normally they won't shut up, but since they don't speak Japanese, and the translators aren't working yet, they like to keep quite," Tiki explained. Lea sat down next to Matt.
"How's that coming?" Lea asked leaning on Matt.
"It's coming, it's coming."
"What translators?" Joe asked.
"Tiki's working on a voice translator. We hope that'll translate English into Japanese and vice versa," Lea explained.
"Cool," TK started.
"Hey everybody!" Mimi exclaimed. StormChaser looked at Mimi's pink hair and shrugged. Tiki glared at him.
"Mimi, this is Lea, Tiki, StormChaser, and Lucky," Tai introduced her.
"Oh, Hi! It's so great to meet you!" Mimi exclaimed.
"It's nice to meet you too," Lea and Tiki said together. The other two just nodded their heads.
"We were wondering," Tai started looking at Sora "how much has the DigiWorld changed?"
"A lot. Everything is bigger and brighter," Tiki said looking around.
"And a lot of the digimon have changed," Lea said motioning to Agumon and Biomon.
"Yeah, come to think of it, weren't Agumons kind of a grayish yellow color?" Tiki asked.
"Yeah. Like you said, everything is brighter." StormChaser started pointing at a giant plant.
"And bigger. The last time I saw that plant, I could've stepped on it," Lea commented.
"Don't you dare! I like my plant!" Tiki declared.
"Could you tell us about your trip to the DigiWorld?" Izzy asked.
"Sure!" Tiki chirped. "We were seven and eight years old when we first got there. Every thing was big, dark, and kind of scary...

FLASH BACK

"Oh wow! Look at the size of that flower!" A little Tiki exclaimed running toward it. Little Lea looked towards it and then at some giant trees.
"Where are we?" Whined a younger StormChaser.
"I don't know," Lea said softy.
"Oh wow! Look at this place!" Lucky exclaimed happily bouncing around.
"It's different," Lea muttered looking around.
"Hey look!" Tiki exclaimed pointing at something in the sky.
"What is that?" StormChaser asked squinting at it.
"A small plane?" Lea suggested.
"It's not the right shape," Tiki protested.
"Well maybe if we leave it alone it won't hurt us!" Lucky said happily. They watched until the thing flew off.
"I'm hungry!" Tiki suddenly yelled. Lea thought for a minute.
"Here," She said pulling out a half-eaten chocolate bar.
"Thanks!" Tiki exclaimed pouncing on the candy. Something in the bushes nearby moved.
"What was that?"
"I don't know. But I don't think I wanna find out," LeaMarie said backing away, just as a large lion pounced out of the bushes. At first, it didn't see the four kids. It looked like it was going to walk away until LeaMarie sneezed. Its head snapped towards them.
"You couldn't have waited a few more seconds?" Tiki asked slowly backing away from the lion.
"That doesn't look like any lion I've ever seen," Lucky commented. The Lionmon advanced slowly growling.
"POW!" was heard than a light pink bubble hit Lionmon.
"What was that?" StormChaser asked.
"A bubble?" Lucky guessed.
"Stay away from them!" A high pitched voice demanded. The four kids turned to the voice. They saw four small creatures. One was red, one was green, one was an aqua color, and the last was a sky blue. They started shooting bubbles at the Lionmon. It backed away under the assault of bubbles. Finally it just turned and ran.
"Wow! You guys are cool!" Tiki exclaimed.
"Thanks," The green thing responded.
"What are you?" StormChaser asked the sky blue thing.
"We're digital monsters, other wise known as Digimon," It told him.
"I'm Demitigeramon," The red one said bouncing up to Lea.
"I'm Demibeastymon," The green one jumped in right after.
"I'm Demiaquamon! Yep, yep! That's me!" The aqua one bounced in.
"I'm Demiskaimon!" The last one quipped. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too," StormChaser replied.
"Could you tell us where we are?" Lea asked them.
"We're not too far from Primary Village," Demitigeramon replied. The children gave her a confused look.
"They're not from here, remember?" Demibeastymon asked.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot!"
"You're in the Digiworld, Yep! Yep!" Demiaquamon chirped.
"So where's that?" Lea asked. "And how can we get home?"
"It's here, and we don't know," Demiskaimon said.
"Oh that's great!" Lea said sarcastically.

END FLASHBACK

"After that we battled a lot. Eventually our digimon digivolved," Tiki told them.
"Demitigeramon into Tigramon. Demibeastymon into Beastymon, Demiaquamon to Aquamon, and Demiskaimon into Skaimon," Lea said.
"Lots of weird stuff happened. We grew up really fast," Tiki continued. "At first, Lea and I couldn't stand each other but now we're more like sisters."
"So what kinds of digimon did you meet?" Izzy asked.
"Oh, lots of different ones! Lionmon, Nymphmon, Beemon, Flymon, Roachmon, Mantismon-" Matt felt Lea shiver a bit- "Just tons of 'em!" Tiki said happily. Mimi was looking excited.
"Wow! What's a Mantismon?" She asked. Lea shivered again.
"It's a big green bug that looks like a praying mantis! It's even got the big pinchers."
"Any other questions?" Lea interrupted. Matt pulled her closer to him.
"Yeah, I have one. Matt was really upset with you. How did you two get to be friends again?" Davis asked. Tiki's eyes widened, and she quickly translated what Davis said for Lucky and StormChaser. Their eyes widened. Lea frantically waved her arms.
"NO! I told him the truth about me being a digidestined!"
"And he believed you right off the bat?" TK asked skeptically.
"No it took a while."
Tiki was quickly translating for her siblings. SC smirked, and said something that had Lea yelling at him a hundred miles an hour. He raised his arms up and started yelling at the same pace. Tiki and Lucky were rolling on the ground laughing.
A beeping noise emanated from StormChaser's pants. Everyone looked, and then the girls looked away blushing, while SC pulled a pager out of his pocket. He pushed a button and looked at one end of what was obviously a pager, and said something quickly to Lea in English.
"They've got to go now," Tiki translated. Lea glared at her.
"He was talking to me."
"Yeah, but I'm faster tongued than you," she said, sticking the object in question out at her sister figure.
"A bird's gonna land on that!"
"There aren't any real birds in the digiworld..." Tiki muttered back.
StormChaser thought for a moment, then said "Iko!", the Japanese word for "Let's go!"
Lea sighed, and moved to hug Tiki good bye, but Tiki stepped back. Lea gave her a questioning look, to which Tiki responded, "I'm staying here."
"Oh really?" She translated this to StormChaser, who didn't look surprised.
"I already told them," Tiki said, grinning. "I'm going to stay here. It makes the job easier when you've got more than one person working on it, you know?"
Matt looked at Lea, puzzled. "Job?"
"The translators on our Digivices, and generally remodeling them," she explained.
"Can I help?" Izzy asked. "I've always wanted to look at one of those on the inside."
Tiki nodded, though a little reluctantly, at him. "I suppose you could... But you can only watch!"
Lea rolled her eyes. "Tiki, be nice!"
"Fine..." She sighed. "You can help... but only a little."
"I'll work on getting her to lighten up later," Lea whispered to Izzy.
"Thanks!"
Lea and Tiki returned to saying good bye to their surrogate siblings, then turned back to the rest of the DigiDestined.
"How'd you get here?" Tai questioned, suspicious of Lea's methods. "The computer password is turned on."
"I used my laptop."
"What laptop?" TK asked.
"Yeah, I've never seen you with a laptop!" Kari agreed.
"Eh," She said, waving her hand dismissively. "It's been around."
Tiki grinned. "She probably stole Xanatos's credit card."
"I didn't!" Lea cried indignantly. "He gave it to me!"
"Who?" Davis asked.
"Whoa, he had a smart question," Tiki muttered to Lea, then snickered.
"He's my uncle who owns a big company and gets paid lots of money!" she declared.
"Oh..." Davis's stomach growled in hunger. "I'm hungry! Let's get back and get something to eat."
"I'm with Davis! Let's GO!" Veemon yelled, jumping up and down.
"We might as well go back, there's nothing to do here," Yolei commented.
"Okay, Let's go!" Davis echoed Veemon.
"You hungry?" Matt asked Lea.
"Yeah," Lea replied. "Tiki?"
"I need to eat once every three hours or I get crabby," Tiki said. "What do you think?"
"When was the last time you ate?"
"An hour and a half ago. How long will it take these people to pick a restaurant?"
"Damn," Lea muttered, "We'd better hurry..."
With that, the troupe set off for the real world.

Tiki loaded up the third layer of food onto her plate at the buffet line.
"Tiki, you know, you can always come back for another plateful..." Sora said hesitantly.
"I know!" Tiki replied through a mouthful of crab wonton. "This is just plate one!"
"This is nothing," Lea said, grinning. "You should see when she adds Jell-O to her ice cream."
Tiki swallowed, held up a dignified finger, and responded with "That's later."
At the table, Mimi was sitting uncomfortably close to Matt.
"How've you been?" Mimi asked. "It's been so long!"
"I've been fine," Matt said, scooting closer to Lea's chair. "I've got a girlfriend and everything."
Mimi's eyebrow twitched. "Oh, really? That's so sweet? What's she like?"
"Oh, you've met her. It's Lea."
"What about me?" Lea asked, sitting down. She gave Matt a light kiss on the cheek. He blushed faintly and smiled.
Mimi's eyebrow twitched again. "Oh, you two are SO cute together!"
Lea half smiled her appreciation at Mimi, then dove into her food.
"So Matt," Mimi went on, "Do you ever remember what we had?"
"We had something?" he responded, giving her a blank look. He picked a pork bun off his plate and took a bite.
"Don't you remember?" She said, feigning hurt. "When we went to the Digiworld the first time! We tried to hide it from each other, but we never could..."
"Uhm... yeah..." he muttered, pretending he knew what she was talking about.
"Actually, I don't think I ever quite got over it," she continued, half hiding her blushing cheeks behind her hands. "Don't you think we'd still be cute together?"
"Sure," Matt said, completely ignoring her now.
"Really!" Mimi cried.
Lea choked on a spring roll. "What!"
"Whuh?" Matt looked up to see one ecstatic girl on one side of him, and one very pissed girl to the other side.
"What's goin' on?" he asked.
"Matt, which one of us do you like best?" Mimi said.
"Yes, do tell," Lea continued, glowering.
"How'd I end up in this mess?" Matt muttered to himself.
Tiki snickered from her spot in a nearby booth.
TK gave her a strange look. "What's so funny? My brother's about to be lovingly ripped to pieces!"
Tiki giggled at the analogy. "Nah. Mimi's too ditzy to do anything if he says no to her, and if he says no to Lea... well... she likes him enough for it to be a quick and painless ripping."
TK blanched. Kari giggled.
"I don't think you need to worry, TK," she said. "I bet Lea wouldn't hurt him even if she had to!"
"What about her and Ken?" TK pointed out. "She sure seemed ready to hurt him then."
"Nuh uh!" came the response from both girls.
"I know my sister," Tiki explained. "She didn't want to hurt anybody then. It kinda turned out that way, but it wasn't intentional. 'You've got to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.'"
"Tiki's got a point," Kari said. "Lea didn't want to hurt any of us."
"Well..." Tiki commented, "Maybe Davis..."
"No big loss!" came the response from Kari and TK.
"What're they laughing about?" Davis muttered from his table, glaring at the table where Kari was sitting. He watched Joe sit down somewhat cautiously next to Tiki.
"My guess is, it's something you wouldn't want to hear," Izzy stated. His sharper hearing had picked up on every word, and it'd taken some effort to keep from laughing along with them.
"I think you just need to lighten up, Davis," Sora said, smiling kindly at him. Davis sighed.
"Yeah!" Tai agreed. "You can't lead in a team when you're in a bad mood!"
Yolei and Cody sat side by side across from the fight over Matt, watching.
"I think I've seen better stare downs on wrestling," Yolei commented.
"You watch that stuff?"
"Only when I have nothing else to do."
"Oh."
Cody picked at his Lo Mein noodles. Yolei munched thoughtfully on an eggroll.
"Do you suppose they're gonna stop glaring at each other sometime soon?" Yolei asked.
"They might..." Cody said skeptically. He reached slowly across the table for a piece of grilled chicken off of Lea's plate.
A fork came stabbing down at him, missing his hand by a centimeter, causing Cody to yank his hand back to his lap in surprise.
"Do that again, and I promise: I won't miss," she said, never taking her eyes off of Mimi. Mimi's stare had turned into more of a vacant gaze.
Yolei reached across the table for Mimi's plate. Slowly, she picked it up, and brought it back to her side of the table. She began eating the remaining food.
Mimi did nothing.
"Lea?" Matt said, having watched the whole ordeal. "I think you can sit down and eat now."
"Yeah, Mimi doesn't seem to be responding," Yolei added.
"I don't think she's awake any more," Cody muttered.
Lea sat down, smiling. "I won!" she cheered.
"I don't want to know what you did to win," Cody murmured under his breath. She tossed the piece of grilled chicken onto his plate.
"You can have it, I didn't really want it any way," she said, smiling at him. He smiled weakly back.
At Tiki's table, Joe was uncomfortably watching as TK and Kari fired ice cubes back and forth at each other. It had started when neither one was looking; Tiki had thrown a carefully aimed ice cube, which bounced off of Kari's neck and hit TK's exposed arm. Both of them thought it was the other one's fault, and the ice cube war had ensued. Tiki sat back giggling at them. "They're eventually going to figure out it was you who did it," Joe said.
Tiki grinned, nodding. "I know. But the fight was well worth the watching."
"It's not all right, though!" he cried. "I'll be caught in the crossfire!"
Tiki paused, gave him a thoughtful look, and made a sudden, swift movement.
"Ahagh!" Joe cried. "That's cold!"
Tiki cackled as Joe tried to fish the ice cube out of his shirt. "That wasn't nice!" He yelled at her.
"It was funny, though!" she responded.
"Oh yeah? Take this!" He removed the ice cube from his shirt and threw it in her direction.
She yelped as the ice cube hit her in the collar bone and slid down her shirt.
"Eep! You're right, that IS cold!" She squeaked. She giggled, reaching down the front of her shirt to remove the offending object.
"Ack! Don't do that in public!" Joe cried, blushing as the neck of Tiki's shirt slipped lower. She froze, looking at him blankly, hand still in her shirt. "What?"
"Get your hand out of your shirt in public!"
TK and Kari had stopped their fight to watch the two across from them.
"Why?" she asked. Her face suddenly darkened, and a wicked grin played on her features. "You want to get it out yourself?"
Joe's nose began to bleed profusely. "No! I- Never- How could you- agh!"
TK laughed and tossed a napkin at Joe. "You two are too funny!" He said.
"Almost as much fun as watching a sitcom!" Kari added, giggling. "Tiki, are you going to get the ice cube out of your shirt?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, I forgot about that," she said, grinning sheepishly. "Are you sure you don't want to help, Joe?"
Joe's face couldn't have gotten any more red, but the napkin did. "Stoppit!" he cried.
"Oh, fine," Tiki said in mock exasperation. She reached into her shirt again, and fished around. "Huh?"
"What's wrong?" Kari asked.
"I can't find it!"
"Whoops!"
"It must've melted," Tiki said, pulling her hand out of her shirt again. "Poor Joe, just missed a golden opportunity to grope a girl with her permission."
Joe reached for a fresh napkin. "Don't make me bleed on you," He muttered from behind the white paper.
"What's wrong with Joe?" Davis asked, walking up to the table. "Why's his nose bleeding?"
"He was thinking about groping me," Tiki responded.
"I was not!" Joe yelled, standing up.
"Are you sure?" Tiki said, pulling the front of her shirt down an inch.
"DON'T DO THAT!" Joe yelled, throwing his jacket over her. "Put that on, button it to the top, and DON'T TAKE IT OFF."
"Not even when I shower?"
"You can take it off then." Joe's eyes widened suddenly, and he grabbed the napkin again.
"Okay!" Tiki cried, pulling his jacket on. "Wow, it's nice and warm..." She snuggled into it, either oblivious to or ignoring Joe's sigh of exhaustion.
Back at Lea's table, everyone was standing to leave.
"What do we do about Mimi?" Yolei asked, concerned.
"Leave her here!" Lea volunteered.
"We can't do that," Yolei scolded.
"Why?"
"Because she's a digidestined."
"Why don't we put her in the D-world with Palmon? She needs to go home to America, doesn't she?"
Yolei shook her head. "Nope, she's staying here for a while. I know!" Yolei smiled suddenly in excitement. "I'll take her home with ME tonight!"
"You'll take care of her?" Matt asked.
"Yeah! I can call her family and ask if she can stay the night. They'll probably be lenient."
"Go for it, then," Lea responded, "But you're carrying her."
Lea hailed the other members of the DigiDestined, and announced, "I'll handle the bill tonight, but let's all go home! It's late, and I'm starting to get kinda tired..." She fell dramatically against Matt. "Hold me!" she smiled at him as he caught her.
"Of course!" he responded, hugging her close.
"Oh, they're so CYUTE!" Tiki cried, jumping up and down a little. She stopped suddenly. "Ooh, I gotta go!" Without further explanation, Tiki made her exit.
"That was unusual..." Tai said, watching her leave.
"That," Lea stated, "Was Tiki."
"Well, yeah, obviously. But it was unusual..."
"For her? No it wasn't. By the way, Joe, what'd she do to you? You've got blood on your nose."
"I'm not going to say it," he said. "That'll make me think about it, and that'll make my nose bleed more."
"Tiki was exposing a little more skin than what Joe is usually exposed to," Kari whispered to Lea.
"Oh... Tiki was flirting!"
"So that's what you call it?" Joe asked. "It looked more like shameless exposure to me."
"Girls wear less than that on the streets," TK said. "She wasn't doing anything more than teasing you!"
"Teasing, ha! Yeah right..." Joe muttered to himself.
"Aw, she likes you!" Lea said, smiling happily.
"How can you tell?" Tai asked.
"He's the only one she's hit on."
"Oh..."
"She must feel sorta comfortable around him!" Lea said, grinning. "Otherwise, she'd probably have sat there in silence the whole time!" Lea understood her sister's strange psychological practices; scare them enough like that, and they'll have a hard time saying no to her waltzing into their house and asking for a place to stay... She knew what Tiki was up to, but she decided not to say anything.
"Shall we be off?" Lea said to Matt.
"All right," he agreed. The pair led the way out the door, and into the city.

Authors's note: Tiki: Well, we finally finished Chapter 3! That... took too long...
Lea: That's why we're moving on to Chapter Four now! I'd like to make a special thanks to all the people who've reviewed and to my wonderful sister Tiki who's taken up the cause and...
grabbed the keyboard...
Tiki: bows graciously Gladly! You type slow, and I write better, so HA!
Lea: Snot.
Tiki: S'not what?
Lea: Anyway... thanks sis
Tiki: You are most welcome. And now, since I've joined in the story, I shall shamelessly-
Lea: Flirt with Joe!
Tiki: yes but no. -advertise the next coming attraction:
Lea: Chapter Four?
Tiki: Nope! Tiki's side of "SLMSLMN"!
L: What!
T: "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not" abbreviated.
L: Oh...
T: Yup! You get to see what I was doing while Lea was in Japan (not much), and what happens to me after I show up! (A lot of Joe stuffs; Lea got Matt, so JOE IS MINE DAMMIT!)
L&T: Mata mite ne! (See you again!)