*squeaks!* oh my goodness, I am oooveerrrjooyeed that so many people have taken the time to review! Thank you all so much!!!! ^____________________^ You have no idea the difference just one review can make! You've all made my month! :D I want to thank each of you individually but I figure you might start throwing rocks at me if I don't get this chapter up ;) So once again, a thousand million thanks to each of you, you don't know how much I appreciate it ^______^ But now, without any further ado….

Chapter 7

She stared in disgust at what lay on the bed before her. I am not wearing that thing, she promised herself and glared at it some more. "SORA TAKENOUCHI! STOP STARING AT THE DRESS AND PUT IT ON!" yelled her mother, from some distant part of the apartment. Wow, am I really that predictable? Sora thought with a cynical smile, and then glanced at the clock. Hmm…that was a good… 20 minutes of disgusted staring, I guess I can put it on now. She gave the dress one last dirty look and picked it up.

"Urgh…could they have possibly have made this any more hideous?" She muttered as she slipped on the stupid thing. In all truthfulness, it was a beautiful dress, but Sora refused to admit it.

It was pale red in color, but not pink exactly. The bottom was a shear material cut at different angles so when she spun, all the pieces fluttered around her… not that she would be spinning or anything…after all, she did loathe the thing…or at least, pretended to loathe it. The top made a small plunge at the neck and the back was a delicate array of strings. The whole thing gave off an allure of softness and delicateness that Sora considered foreign. It was beautiful, and she looked beautiful in it, deny it as she might.

Her mother had picked it out for her, realizing she would get the usual protest. But she also knew that Sora would eventually have to give in, honestly, the dress was gorgeous. It cost quite a bit, but Ms. Takenouchi was willing to pay for it, her daughter had worked long hours at the shop and had more than earned it. 

"Oh no you don't," Ms. Takenouchi said, as she watched Sora throw her hair into a messy bun. "I spent too much on that dress for you to wear your hair like that! Come on," she said, motioning to the bathroom/salon. "Please Mom! No! Please! I'll leave it down! Just…no!" Sora pleaded, knowing that if she entered that bathroom, there would be no returning. Ms. Takenouchi refused to take no for an answer and Sora was dragged, still pleading, to her doom.

"See Sora, you can be a beautiful young lady if you'd only try a little harder," her mother said sometime later, looking with satisfaction on her creation. Sora stared at the mirror…okay, maybe it didn't look all too terrible but still, she hated when her mother tried to make her something she wasn't. "Maybe I don't want to be a beautiful young lady, maybe I'm just fine being who I am," Sora remarked haughtily. Ms. Takenouchi sighed, shook her head, and walked away. Sora would always be Sora.

Sora, annoyed at her mother and figuring she had probably inhaled enough hairspray for one day, decided to step outside. Closing the door behind her, she inhaled deeply just as- "Hey Sora!" came from four doors over. In her surprise, her deep breath turned to a strange snort-like noise.

She recognized that voice. It was Taichi. She threw a quick glance back towards the door, desperately wanting to run back into her apartment and hide, but realized it was too late.

As soon as Tai had left last night, she had come back to her senses and began to dread the next time she would have to see him, knowing he would inquire about 'the kiss'.  Maybe, for some, a kiss on the cheek could be considered friendly…but Sora had a feeling that Tai would know there was something more behind it and be forced to ask her what.

She had been planning to prepare a long, drawn out speech about how it had been merely a friendly kiss, and Tai really shouldn't look anymore into it, but Tai had surprised her by being awake so early in the morning and she was left unprepared. 

Tai continued walking, oblivious to the inner workings of his friends mind. The scene seemed to be set in slow motion while Sora awaited her doom. When Tai finally reached her, he stopped, having a sudden realization. Sora's wearing a dress.

Sora noticed her friend's pause and blank stare, and had her own sudden realization. I'm wearing a dress, she thought, horrified. Quickly, she wrapped her arms around herself, as if it would hide that fact. She silently cursed herself for not bringing out a jacket so she might cover her shame. She blushed as Tai continued staring, she must look awful.

"Don't say a word, Taichi Kamiya." She said, still angry with herself, as he opened his mouth to speak. "I know it looks horrible…but my mom made me and she said-" "You look beautiful," Tai said in a dazed voiced, not having heard a single word Sora had spoken.

With a distant look in his eyes, he moved uncomfortably close to his best friend. "Sora…I…" he started, looking into her eyes. But with impeccable timing, Ms. Takenouchi exited the apartment. "Sora, we should really get…" her voice trailed off as she noticed the unusual position in which her two employees stood. "Am I interrupting something?" she asked slyly, unable to hide the evil smirk coming across her face.

See, every time Ms.Takenouchi questioned her daughter about her relationship with the eldest Kamiya, Sora would swear up and down that it was strictly platonic, but she refused to believe her, knowing Sora had always cared more about Tai then she let on. This situation made it clear that their relationship was far from platonic, meaning Ms.Takenouchi had been correct all along and was now entitled to bragging-rights.

"No!" Tai responded quickly to Ms.Takenouchi, snapping out of his daze. "No," he said, slower, lost in trying to figure out what on earth had just happened. There was a brief silence before he gave up trying. "Well…I better go…flower shop…and yeah, you know, bye" he said quickly and dashed down the stairs.

'Sora…I…' what!? Taichi thought desperately. What had he been meaning to say? There were a thousand ways that that sentence could have ended. "Sora…I…I've been having these feelings for you lately…and I'm not exactly sure what they are…but I think I might…" Might what? Yes…he did have feelings for Sora…and he was so sure if he ignored them, they would go away...but obviously, they hadn't.

 He knew he would have to talk to her about it…but for now, he wanted to forget it. Having 'feelings' for his best friend was just way too confusing. He tried hard to wash her image and the giddy feeling it left out of his mind.

By the time Tai had reached the shop and the usual Saturday rush had began, Sora had reached the wedding. Her mother hadn't questioned her about the situation early that morning, knowing Sora didn't have the answers herself. The long wedding service, however, forced her to think about it. 'Sora…I…' what?! she thought desperately. What was he going to say? Even as she questioned, she had some faint hope…

Her mind flashed back to a conversation she and Matt had had the day they went out to lunch.

*Flashback*

The two sat at a relatively nice restaurant, they had placed their orders and had gone through about 5 minutes of polite conversation. Sora sat quietly sipping her lemonade. She stared intently at her drink, trying to rid the uneasy feeling that Matt's staring gave her. But it was to no avail; she could still feel his vulture-like gaze.

"So," Matt said, in a nonchalant tone, "what's going on between you and flower boy?" Sora's eyes widened in surprise, and she hoped Matt wouldn't notice the faint blush that spread across her cheeks. "What do you mean?" she asked innocently, finally looking up from her lemonade.

"Is there…anything going on between you two?" Matt questioned again, this time, his tone perceivably less cool. Sora thought the question over but came up with a quick answer. "No," she said, a faint tone of sadness apparent in her voice. She had wanted to say yes, or to hesitate more, to have more to think about…but she knew nothing would ever happen between them and that it was time to move on.

*End flashback*

Or at least…she thought she knew…She wondered what she would say now, if Matt posed the same question, could she truly say there was nothing going on? There was the hug…and then this morning…She tried not to get excited, but couldn't help herself. There were so many times when her hopes had let her down…but this time…it felt real…Tai had called her beautiful…She smiled blissfully.

Sora never caught a second of the wedding ceremony that their little shop had worked so hard to provide for. While the rest of the crowd stared glumly at their watches, wondering when the ceremony would finally end, Sora seemed riveted while she replayed the morning's events over and over again in her head.

It was around 3 o'clock when they finally got home. If Ms.Takenouchi noticed Sora's anxiousness, she said nothing about it, as her daughter rushed to change out of her dress. It was merely seconds before she emerged from her room wearing jeans and a tang top, running a brush quickly through her hair.

"Mom, I'm gonna to run to the shop, k?" she asked and fidgeted uneasily as she waited for the answer. Ms.Takenouchi purposely paused a few seconds before answering, only to see her daughter squirm. "Alright," she said with a smile, and Sora was out the door.

She walked quicker to the shop then ever before. She was going to tell Tai how she felt and for once, she had a brief, flickering hope he might feel the same. Caught up in her excitement, she failed to notice the familiar face that approached. "Sora!" she heard and looked up to see Matt walking towards her.

"Oh, hey Matt," she said, hoping he wouldn't keep her too long. "I was just coming to see you. I stopped by the shop but you weren't there," he eyed her suspiciously, "Tai said you'd stayed home because you had an extremely contagious stomach virus."  She tried not to laugh.

"Oh, yeah…well, I told Tai that so I could get a day off," she lied. "I was just heading back to help him out because I felt so guilty." "Well, I'm sure he could wait a little longer. I was hoping we could talk?" Yamato asked so sincerely Sora couldn't refuse. "Sure," she said. She would have to talk to Taichi later.

Tai locked the shop door behind him with a sigh of relief. Without Sora there to keep him company, the day had seemed to last forever. Well, there were some nice parts, Tai thought with a sinister smile as he recalled Yamato coming in earlier that morning.

*Flashback*

Like some old western movie, Matt entered the shop 'guns' drawn.

"Tai." He said, narrowing his eyes at the boy behind the counter.

"Matt." Tai growled back with the same narrow glare.

"Where's Sora?"

"Home."

"Why?"

"Sick."

"Sick?"

"Sick."

"How sick?"

"Real sick."

"Real sick?"

"Throwing up all morning. Extremely contagious, can't get near her."

"…"

"…"

"Tell her I stopped by."

And if with that, the duel ended, and reckless gun-slinging Yamato walked out of the saloon/flower shop.

*End flashback*

Tai was extremely happy that Matt's plans were spoiled and was fairly certain he would stay away from Sora until the 'extremely contagious vomiting' ceased. It wasn't till recently that Tai realized how much he loathed that boy.

As he walked home, he entertained himself with thoughts of pianos and other such things smushing Matt against the pavement. The novelty in this wore out quickly though, and Taichi began watching the world around him. The short walk home seemed long as he gazed idly through shop and store windows.

He paused a second at Yosho's Ice Cream, and allowed his stare to fall upon a girl with the same light orange hair as Sora's. He smiled softly. The girl held a red rose in one hand and was chatting with someone sitting too far back to be visible from the window. The girl laughed, and tucked her hair behind her ear, allowing Tai to see her face.

Sora! He thought and smiled even brighter. Almost instinctively, he began walking to the shop, but stopped when he noticed Sora's companion had leaned forward, far forward. Tai stood in shock as his best friend and his most recent enemy locked lips.

 In his mind, a thousand pianos fell.

To be continued! :)

AN: I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up…first, it was a totally new chapter, so I didn't have anything in my notebook to base it off of and then, of course, the power went out, and I lost the first half of it and had to rewrite it :( But see! It's a long one ^_^ 5 pages on Microsoft word! Woohoo! Anyway don't get too angry at Sora yet! All will be revealed in time ;) I guess you could call this the 'climax' :) We're nearing the end…with I'd say…two chapters left…maybe 3 or 4, but I doubt it. It should definitely be done by Christmas ^_^ But now, homework! ;)

Best wishes,

Soragirl

"Have you hugged an author today? Write a review and make one's day." :)