Chapter Seven- Unforgettable



"Uh oh...." Kari stood in Tai's doorway the next morning and bit her bottom lip. Matt and Tai were lying in Tai's bed asleep in each other's arms. They looked so peaceful, she could hardly bear waking them up.

"Tai, Matt wake up. Mom and Dad are going to see you."

Matt pulled Tai closer to him while still asleep, and Tai just snored. Kari bent over and shook the two of them.

"Go away TK..." Matt mumbled. "Make your own breakfast."

Kari sighed in frustration and pondered what to do. She then reached down and yanked on Matt's hair.

"OW!!" Matt screamed and sat up in bed. This also awoke Tai and he sat up slowly, rubbing the side of his head.

"What's goin on?" He said, not fully realizing what was happening.

"Tai, mom and dad are going to be up any---"

"Oh my!" Kari turned when she heard a coffee cup smashing to the floor and her mother standing in the doorway.

"Minute...." Kari sighed again.

Tai looked at his mother, then looked at Matt. Matt's eyes were opened so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

"Uh, Mom, I can explain!!" Tai said frantically.

To make matters worse, Tai's father had heard the cup smashing to the floor and hurried over to the door.

"Honey what's going....on?" Tai's father's facial expression now matched his mother's.

"Maybe I should leave." Kari said nervously, and hurried out of the room, sliding past her parents.

"Son...what is Matt doing in your bed?" Mr. Kamiya said.

Tai could feel himself start to sweat like he was under an interrogation light. "Well...I guess you might as well know."

His mother and father stepped into the room now, and Matt inched himself away from Tai.

"Tai, is there something you'd like to tell us?" his mother asked.

"Please don't be mad Mrs. Kamiya!" Matt jumped into the conversation. "I came over here last night without permission, I'm really sorry."

"If you wanted to sleep over, Matt, you could have just asked." Mr. Kamiya said.

"Dad, it's..." Tai halted for a second. "More than that." Tai took a deep breath and gathered himself. "Mom, dad, Matt is my boyfriend."

Tai looked up and waited for their response. They didn't look angry at all, just confused, very confused. After what seemed like an eternity with no one saying anything, Tai's father finally spoke.

"You're...gay?"

"Uh huh."

"We've been together for almost a year Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya." Matt put his arm around Tai, kind of confirming the fact that they were finally telling the truth.

"Are you...mad?" Tai asked.

Tai's mother knelt down in front of the bed and put her hands on his.

"Of course we're not mad. You are our only son and we'll always love you."

"You could have told us anytime, son" his father added.

"Momma...." Tai leaned over and hugged his mother and she hugged him back. Matt just leaned back and smiled. He was so relieved, one less thing he had to trouble his already troubled soul with.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you before, I didn't think you'd understand." Tai said while still hugging his mother.

Tai's father reached out and shook Matt's hand. "Put'er there, son!"

"Don't I get a cigar or something?" Matt burst out laughing, everyone did. Matt laughed for the first time in quite a while, and for a moment, just a fraction of a second, he was actually happy.



"What did your dad say?"

"He said he's going to be right over."

"Well did you tell him?"

"No, I'm not going to tell him over the phone. I just said I needed him to come over here and get me and I had something important to say."

"Ok, how long do you think it'll take him to get here?"

"A few minutes....Tai I'm so nervous."

"Don't worry about it, my parents understood everything I'm sure your dad will!"

"I don't know...I just...."

"Come on Yama don't worry."

Matt sighed and poked at his scrambled eggs.

"Tai, does your family always eat nothing but eggs?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

"Oh yeah, thanks for making breakfast for us Matt, nobody here cooks that well. I think this is the best breakfast I've had in a long time!"

After Matt and Tai had finally revealed their secret relationship to Tai's parents, everyone had gotten up and Matt made breakfast for the Kamiya family. Tai had already finished gobbling down his eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, and juice. It was amazing but Tai's parents seemed to be in an exceptionally and honestly cheerful mood. They had no problem with Matt and Tai's relationship at all.

He had just gotten off the phone with his father and sat back down at the breakfast table. He asked him to come over and pick him up, so he and Tai could tell him how they felt for each other with everyone there.

Matt ate his food slowly, worrying about his own father's reaction. He hoped so much that he would be happy for him, but he knew what his father's real response would be. He wondered if he should even bother telling him at all.

"Here comes the airplane!"

"Huh?" Matt snapped back into reality and realized that Tai was holding a sausage up in front of his face on a fork.

"Eat up, Matt! It's really good, I mean, you cooked it!"

"I'm not very hungry Tai."

Matt reached up and pushed Tai's arm away from him. Even with four other people around him, he felt so alone, like he was the very last person on the face of the earth. Sometimes, one feels most alone in a crowded room.

Matt's father arrived about 30 minutes later. Tai waited in front of the door with anticipation and Matt stood nervously by his side. The door to the apartment opened up, and there was a figure of a man both familiar and a total stranger to Matt. A few moments seemed to last like hours, Matt looked at his father, and he looked back, burning a hole right through Matt's already tainted blue eyes.

It was like he already knew what was coming and the anger was building up inside him like a fire that someone keeps adding more wood to.

"Well Matt, are you gonna say something?" Tai said, nudging him in the side.

"There was something you wanted to tell me, Matt?" his voice was calm but there was an underlying hostility.

Matt took a deep breath and clenched his fists. He knew this was the moment that could make or break the rest of his life.

"Dad, last night I snuck over to Tai's house, so...I'm sorry about that. And I also have a confession to make. We already let Tai's parents know, and we feel it's time that you knew too."

Matt had been staring at the floor but he now turned his focus to his father's face. The same face that had raised him, but also the same face that had stared down at him the night his life had begun to unravel.

"Dad, Tai is my boyfriend."

Mr. Ishida still managed to appear calm, but Matt could see he had just snapped. It was easy to predict what would happen up to this point, but Matt had no idea what his father would do next. He took a step back, almost in fear of his father actually striking him. He grabbed Tai's arm as well, ready to pull him away as quickly as possible if Mr. Ishida decided to take his anger out on Tai.

"Matt, go get in the car."

"What?"

"I said go get in the car, now."

Matt flashed Tai a look of despair.

"But--" was all Tai managed to say in response.

Matt walked by his father and headed downstairs.

"Goodbye Tai." Mr. Ishida said, and slammed the door behind him.

The car rolled slowly down the street and reached a traffic jam at a red light. Matt and his father had ridden in silence since they had left Tai's apartment.

"Dad, are you going to say anything at all?"

Matt's father gripped the steering wheel so tightly the vein on his hand was starting to pop out. He stared ahead intently and Matt could tell he was gritting his teeth. At last, he spoke.

"Matt, you are not allowed to see Tai anymore."

"What!?" Matt's eyes opened wide. He could barely believe the words that had just been spoken to him. He stared at his father in astonishment. "What are you talking about?"

"You're not allowed to see Tai ever again."

Matt's astonished facial expression changed to anger and his eyes overflowed with tears. Hadn't he already ruined his life enough? Now he was trying to take away the only thing that could make him happy!?

"I HATE YOU!" Matt screamed. He pulled the handle on the door and then kicked it open.

"Matt! Where are you going!? Get back here!" His father yelled, and tried to grab onto Matt's shirt to keep him in the car. Matt batted his hand away and hopped out of the car. Before his father could do anything, Matt had taken off down the street. The car was surrounded by traffic on all sides, allowing Matt to escape his tormentor.

"Where the hell am I supposed to go? I can't go to Tai's, he'll find me there. I have no place to go...I don't belong anywhere."

Matt walked down the street in kind of a daze. It was freezing cold outside and had begun to snow, but he had no coat or gloves on. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.

He stumbled along, occasionally bumping into people and getting dirty looks, but he didn't care.

"Maybe I'll get lucky and a car will drive up onto the sidewalk and hit me..." He said to himself. "Or maybe I should just walk out into the traffic and end it myself."

He reached up and wiped the tears out of his eye and rubbed the side of his head. His cheeks where a deep red from the bitter cold, his nose was running, and his wind blown hair was a complete mess. It was wet from the snow and sticking to the sides of his face. His hands were numb and his legs were weak.

The buildings surrounding him were unfamiliar, he had no idea where he was. When he jumped out of the car earlier, he had just started to run. He ran as far away as he could and didn't turn back, but now he was lost, freezing, and alone.

"Matt!"

He heard a voice calling out to him from somewhere, it sounded like it was coming from behind. For a minute he ignored the voice, thinking he had only imagined it.

"Matt!!"

He felt a hand grab his arm. Matt slowly turned his head to see Kari standing next to him.

"Matt, I'm so glad I found you, everyone is looking all over the city for you."

Matt looked back down at the sidewalk. "Why bother?" He sighed.

Kari took off her coat and wrapped it around his shoulders. "We got a phone call from your dad a little while after you left saying you had run away. He sounded really angry, Matt, what happened?"

"It doesn't matter."

Kari frowned, she didn't know what to do or what to say to him. She had never seen anyone with such a look of hopelessness across their face. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed a number.

"Tai? I found Matt, yes he's ok. I'll meet you back at the house. Let Izzy and Sora know they can stop looking too. Ok. Alright Tai." She turned the phone off, terminating the connection and slipped it back into her pocket.

"Come on Matt, let's go home." She placed her hand on his shoulder and began walking with him back to the Kamiya's apartment building.



Matt was sitting on the sofa looking at, but not drinking, a cup of hot tea, when Tai burst through the front door.

"Yami!!" Tai didn't even take the time to remove his shoes before climbing onto the couch and wrapping his arms around Matt. "I was so worried about you!" Tai smothered Matt in kisses, but it was like Matt didn't even realize Tai was there.

"Yami? Hey what's wrong? Tell me what happened."

How ironic, Tai's pet name for him meant darkness.

Matt glanced up at Tai with empty eyes, completely hallow. Tai waited a moment, but didn't really expect Matt to say anything. He never said much about his feelings, he just kept it all inside, behind a locked door that no one could reach. Tai wanted to help Matt, to understand the pain he was going through, but he could not find the key.

Tai ran a hand through Matt's hair and got up off the sofa. He walked to the door to remove his snow covered coat and shoes. Matt was left alone with himself once again.

This whole time, Matt and the shape of Matt had been fighting inside his head. It was an ongoing battle and at times he was nearly torn apart by it. Part of him was trying to forget what he had done, but the other part was trying to punish him for it. Sometimes, it seemed like that night at the cabin hadn't even been real, just like that night when it all began so many years before. Just when he was starting to drift away, something snapped again and he was back there, reliving the whole thing. He had committed a sin so terrible he simply hated himself. He didn't want to put it into words, and hoped he never would.

A decision was made that Matt should stay with the Kamiya family for his own safety. Tai's parents felt that Matt's father was unstable and might lose control if something went wrong, and in Matt's present condition, they weren't sure he'd be able to protect himself.

At night, when Tai went to bed, he always checked the living room couch to make sure Matt was safely lying there. He then went into his own bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering what was going through Matt's find that was torturing him so, and wondering,

"Why does he always leave me in the dark?"

Sometimes, darkness is ones only companion.