What 'Love' Means to Me
By theladyknight
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, any of its characters, or the song "Bad Day" by Fuel.
A/N: Hey! Because you asked for it, here's chapter 6. It's basically all about Yama and Sora in the present. But why am I telling you about it? Go ahead, read on, and review!
Sorato4eva: Awww! Thank you! Keep reading to find out!
Aino Yuy aka Usagi-Hater: Humor, wow, ain't that funny! There's some more in this chapter as well. I'm glad you like it.
BlueRag: Daniel Bedingfield. I have a cd with that song on it and it just sounded like it would fit the story!
Chapter 6: Bad Day
On Monday morning, I found myself cleaning my room like I said I would. Normally I wouldn't follow through on something like this, but unfortunately my mother had stopped by the other day and after seeing it, ordered me to clean it.
I looked around my room as I put my last dirty article of clothing in the clothes hamper. Done, now if the rest of the house could look this clean! I may as well get started on it; it's not like I have anything better to do today anyway. It seemed everyone was busy but me.
Taichi and Hikari were at a family reunion, Koushiro was at a summer school session (he was the teacher, not a student!), Mimi was shopping all day, Jyou and his family had gone on a day long fishing trip, Takeru was at a basketball camp, and Sora was most likely at home packing.
I sighed to myself; what a boring day! Picking up a garbage can and some rubber gloves, I headed out to tackle the kitchen and living room. Before I could begin to scrub the mountain of dirty dishes, I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Oh darn, guess I'll have to do this later!
I walked to the door and opened it, surprised at the sight that greeted me. "Sora! What are you doing here?"
"Can I come in?" She asked.
"Of course. What's up?" I questioned while she took off her shoes. We walked to the sofa, and I sat down, getting right back up after realizing it was littered with pop cans and fast food take out sacks. Sora laughed.
"You may wanna clean that up, Yama." She said smiling knowingly.
"I'll keep that in mind. Let's go to my room. It's the only inhabitable room in this whole place."
We walked into my room, and I gestured for her to take a seat on my bed. I sat down on my newly cleaned desk. "I'm going to take you up on that offer to chat."
I studied her closely. Something was up. "Okay. Talk to me."
She giggled again at my comment, and I gave her a quizzical face in return. "Okay Dr. Ishida. Where do I begin?"
I got up and walked over to the bed. "Lay down on the nice comfortable bed and tell Dr. Ishida everything." I answered, smirking and sitting down next to her. "Dr. Ishida is the best person to come to if you need to talk. He can solve any problem." I bragged.
Sora rolled her eyes and asked. "I feel so honored." She looked at me and closed her eyes.
"What problems or issues would you like to tell Dr. Ishida?" I asked.
"Other than the fact I have one very egotistical friend?" She asked innocently. I glared at her before she continued. "But I guess that's not a major issue right now. You see, my real problem, is the fact that my mother has banned me from the house today because every time she tried to pack something, I would take it out and tell her about some memory of it!" Sora exclaimed. "We weren't getting much packing done so Mom asked me to find a friend to hang out with for a while."
"How's everyone taking it? The whole moving issue, I mean?"
"Dad's adjusted to it completely, I think. The people at the university were sad to see him go but gave him these big parties and lots of gifts. They just added to the already large amount we have to pack. Mom's used to the idea, but she's been driving me crazy lately. She's so stressed out about packing and getting everything there. I never want to be around her anymore because it seems like she's going to burst at any moment!"
I looked at her, red eyes cold and almost distant. "But what about you? You are the one this doctor is most concerned about."
Sora's hard eyes melted at once into the usual ruby pools I adored. "Truthfully?"
"Truthfully," I nodded back solemnly.
She stuck out her pinkie. "Swear you won't tell anyone?"
"I never will," I responded, locking my pinkie with hers.
"It's guess it's like this. Odaiba is the only place I've ever known. Everything I know and love is here. Everything I keep close to my heart, everything I cherish, and everything I'll miss. The rest of my family is here, my childhood memories are here, and my only ties to Piyomon are here…" She trailed off, getting a little misty in her eyes.
"Sor, the rest of understand what you're going through. You don't need to bottle it up and hide it from us."
"But that's just it!" She exclaimed suddenly standing up. "None of you know how I'm feeling. You've never had to move to another country because your father got a better job. You've never had to leave everything you know behind. You…you just wouldn't understand."
I pulled her back down onto the bed so she was sitting next to me. Grabbing her arm, I made he face me. "We don't need to experience any of that to know what you're going through, Sora. We've all had occurrences similar to this in our own lives. Hell, Takeru and I were separated when we were kids, and the first time we saw each other since then was in the digital world." Sora looked down at her shoes guiltily. Cupping her face, I moved it up so she once again looked me in the eye. "What I'm trying to say is that we are all here for you, each and every one of us. We're here to listen, to laugh together, cry together, and grow together. The eight of us have been through so much as a team and as best friends. We're not going to throw that away because you have to move."
"But what if I never hear from you again?" she asked, resting her head on my shoulder.
I grinned my million-dollar smile. "You're friends with Mimi, Taichi, and me; believe me, you'll here from us quite a lot, probably so much that you'll be sick of us."
She giggled, and I knew she'd be all right. "Without you guys, these last few weeks would have been pure, utter hell. I don't know how I would have gotten through."
"You can always count on us." I answered reassuringly.
"I know, it's just…. for the past three days, I've woken up thinking what great days these were going to be. It's summertime, there's no school, I get to see you all everyday; what more could I ask for? Then I remember I've got one week left to feel all these things. I wake up thinking each day will be a great terrific day, but then realize its really just another bad day, and the next day will be the same and so on."
"We're not going to let you have a bad day." I said looking at her again, a smile forming on my face. "Well, my dear," I added in a mock accent leaning toward her, "I have just the remedy for your problem."
Sora sat up and grinned and the gap between our bodies became much smaller. "What would that be? Candy, presents, money, I'm open to any of it." Our bodies were nearly touching and our faces were getting closer by the second.
We flirted like this occasionally. It didn't seem too odd, particualarly for our age. It was just the way it was. We liked teasing each other and pretending there was something more, or in my case, hoping there could be something more.
Her face leaned up to meet mine, and I could feel her warm breath on my face. We've never done anything like this before, though.
I don't know how she feels about me, and she doesn't know what I feel about her, but now it is a time to take a chance, a risk for love. Closer, closer our lips moved in and were about to touch. I closed my eyes, readily awaiting the taste of her lips. My lips were about to meet hers. Here goes…
"RING RING! RING RING!" the phone went off. Sora and I pulled away before the heavenly kiss could begin, both blushing rather heavily.
Damn it! We were so close to kissing. Wait a minute, if she was going to kiss me then does that mean she feels the same way about me as I feel about her? I knew I had to be grinning like an idiot, and I didn't want Sora to see. Grabbing the phone, I answered it, still depressed that what would have happened didn't get a chance to. "Hello?"
"Oh Yamato!" a voice exclaimed, "It's Mrs. Takenouchi. Is Sora there by chance? I told her to go off somewhere for a while because packing wasn't going to well with her around." I glanced at Sora out of the corner of my eye. She stood up but appeared a little flustered.
"Yeah, she's here." I responded mouthing to Sora it was her mom.
"Could you tell her she can come back here if she wants to. Unless of course I'm interrupting anything…" she trailed off. Yes you WERE interrupting something! I had to hold my tongue from chewing her out. "Did you two have plans or something?" she asked curiously.
"Actually I was wondering if Sora could spend the rest of the day with me, ma'am." I responded, thinking quickly. This was the remedy I was going to suggest to Sora. May as well get permission from her mother. Sora looked at me quizzically, but then a large smile grew on her face.
"That would be great, Yamato! You all have been so supportive of our move and trying to make Sora's last few days special. Of course she can! Just have her home by eleven!" she answered cheerfully. Eleven! That means. I mentally added up the hours (A/N it's 11:00 am right now).Twelve hours all alone with Sora!
"Um, Yamato, are you still there?" She asked. I realized I'd been silent for about a minute, lost in my thoughts.
"Yeah, sorry about that. We'll have a lot of fun today. Talk to you later Mrs. Takenouchi and hope you get the packing done."
I could here her sigh on the other end. "Thanks, Yamato. You're a good boy. Bye!" She hung up the phone, and Sora began questioning me.
"She said yes I take it." I nodded, grinning at her cockily. "Is this my remedy? A day with you?"
"How'd you guess?" I asked. She rolled her eyes, and I put on a hurt expression. "You should be happy. I'm paying for everything today!" I exclaimed, picking up my wallet from the dresser.
Her eyes lit up. "Well maybe I'll reconsider now…" giving me a sly smirk. "Okay! What are our plans for today, Dr. Ishida?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out. Let's just say we'll have plenty to do between now and eleven tonight."
Her eyes widened. "Eleven! I like the sound of that. What first?"
I got up and offered her my hand. "We're going to Inoue's store to buy some stuff and pick out a movie. I'm cooking us lunch here and we can watch the movie when we're done. Let's go now. Depending on what you pick out to eat, I may need a long time to prepare it." I was ready to leave when Sora started giggling and nearly fell on the floor.
"What?" I asked, tying to figure out what was wrong.
"You may want to take that off before we go, Yama." She laughed, pointing at what I was wearing. I blushed, realizing I still had the frilly pink apron we used when one of us cleaned up the house. It was in good shape considering we hardly ever cleaned the house! I took off the apron, and we made our way to the store.
We walked over laughing and talking and both apologizing for the near kiss. "I just got a little caught up in the doctor mode." I lied. "You know the old saying, a kiss'll make it all better."
"Are you sure you weren't just trying to woo me in, playing the charming doctor?" She teased.
I stuck out my chest boastfully. "Well, dear, was it working?"
Sora stuck out her tongue, and I responsed in the same fashion. "I know what you mean. I got caught up in the whole thing too..." She trailed offf whistfully,though I could've sworn she looked a little disappointed. I sure was. God, Ishida! You and the stubborn hardhead or yours. You're never going to get up the guts to tell her how you feel!
We reached the store and Sora decided pizza was what we needed. Homemade pizza. At the movie counter she picked out Pirates of the Caribbean (A/N I don't own the movie, but I sure do love it!)
Sora and I stood in the checkout line after picking up all the necessary ingredients for making an extra cheese pizza. There were two other people in front of us in line. One was a young boy, probably only around nine or ten. The clerk, I'd seen her before; I think her name is Miyako. She's one of the Inoue kids. Miyako was talking to the boy. "Iori, let me guess, your grandfather needs some prune juice."
"How did you know?" He asked grinning.
"I'm psychic." She replied knowingly, handing him a twelve pack of prune juice. "Here you go. That'll be two seventy-five." Miyako said.
Sora leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "I know you can buy beer in twelve packs but prune juice? Now I've seen it all!" We both began laughing, and the rather large woman in front of us turned around. We both gulped when we saw her face.
"Yamato, Sora," she said in reproachful tone.
"Hello Mrs. Wong," we both said in unison, bowing courteously. Mrs. Wong was our science teacher last year. She kind of didn't like us, to put it bluntly. You see Sora and I kind of destroyed the science lab. But it was an accident, I swear.
"Excuse me, ma'am, you're next." Miyako said, saving the day, as Mrs. Wong was about to talk to us. She turned, giving us a glare and turning to check out. When she had stepped away, Sora and I both let out the breath we had been holding in. "Can I help you?" Miyako asked.
We handed her our things, and she began ringing them up, humming lightly to herself. "Is this all? That'll be thirteen fourteen." She said, sacking up everything. "And the movie is due back in one week." I paid her, and Sora and I left.
The minute the door had shut Sora began talking. "Did you see Mrs. Wong's face when she saw us? I thought she would blow!"
"You're telling me. I didn't realize she would carry her grudge against us for so long." Sora nodded in agreement.
"Well, blowing up the science lab was really your fault, not mine, so she really shouldn't have been mad at me."
"My fault! You added hydrochloric acid to our beaker!" I exclaimed.
"But then you added some zinc pieces, sulfiric acid, and sugar, mixed it up, and told us to run!" She countered. Damn, I was stuck.
"Fine, maybe it was my fault, but you sure as hell had something to do with it!" She smiled sweetly at me, and we both began laughing once again.
The rest of the afternoon passed like a breeze. The homemade pizza turned out fantastic, but then again I did make it. We had each seen Pirates of the Caribbean many times before but it never got boring.
We went to the park after cleaning up and walked around, looking at everything more closely than we had ever done before. And it the park I saw someone who would be the very bane of my existence the first day of high school through the end of it, Jun Motomiya.
Sora and I were swinging when two figures, both with very large amounts of hair, ran by us. One was a boy and the other was a girl. The girl was chasing the boy. "Is that Taichi?" I asked. "And if it is, is that like his cousin or something." Then the thought hit me. "Or is it Hikari with him? I know she admires her brother, but did she crack and decide to grow her hair out like his? Oh, Takeru's gonna die when he sees it!" I exclaimed fearfully. Sora took that chance to clamp her hand over my mouth. I could tell she was trying very hard not to laugh.
"Baka!" she exclaimed. "That girl is Jun Motomiya. She's a year older than us. And that boy is her brother, Daisuke. He's Keru and Hika's age I think."
"I hope I never see her again!" I muttered. Sora laughed and we decided to leave because these two siblings were causing a lot of noise and mayhem in the park. From there, we walked around, visiting all of Sora's favorite places, my wallet considerably lighter around seven o'clock that night.
We had decided to eat supper tonight at Mazurka's, Sora's favorite restaurant. It was very hard to get into, but I had a feeling my charm would win us a table.
"Reservations?" asked the brunette waitress. She looked around seventeen. Time to put the charm in motion. I smiled my million-dollar smile at her. She blushed and dropped the menus she was holding.
Here goes. "You see, miss, my girlfriend and I," Sora and I caught eyes and looked away quickly, "are celebrating our three month anniversary. We came here for our first date and we were planning on coming here to celebrate tonight. But everything just went downhill. I woke up this morning and found out my little brother's appendix had burst, and he had to go to the hospital. My car broke down on the side of the road, and her dog died." I said pointing at Sora.
Sora, who was near a fit of laughter, put on a serious expression as the waitress looked at her. "It's true miss, we've had such a bad day. I broke a nail," she said indicating her to her left hand, "and this morning I spilt coffee all over my brand new purse. Is there anyway you could get us a table?" She asked. I put on my best pair of puppy dog eyes. The waitress began to get teary-eyed.
"I'll do my best. I'll be right back." She said sniffling. Sora and I caught each other's eyes once again and snickered.
I leaned down so her ear was next to my lips. "I cannot believe she bought that!" I whispered, my lips grazing her ear. Sora turned to face me, her face a little darker.
"I know. But what's this whole business of us being an item? Couldn't you think of something a little more original? Long-lost siblings, new girl in town…something out of the ordinary."
"C'mon, we just have to act like a couple while we're here." I whispered. "Then we can go back to being Yama and Sora. Okay?"
She didn't get a chance to answer because the waitress had returned, and she was still misty eyed. "You two are so cute together. I can see why you are a couple." That shocked both Sora and me.
"What do you mean?" Sora asked.
"The way you whisper in each others ear and then blush about it and the way you always look into each others eyes when you talk. It's so cute!" Sora and I turned away from each other. We act like that? "Anywhoo, I managed to get you two lovebirds a table up on the top floor. Follow me please." I was about to take off when Sora grabbed my hand. Keep up the act, she mouthed. I grinned and squeezed her hand.
We followed our waitress up to the top floor and into a secluded room. I heard Sora gasp next to me. There were candles all over the place, a crystal chandelier set on sepia tone, and one fantastic view of the city. I was impressed. Thinking quickly, I pulled out Sora's chair and gestured for her to sit. I then took my seat across from Sora as the girl gave us our menus. Sora and I both ordered the specials the girl told us about, not bothering to look at anything in the menu.
We made idle chit chat while the food came and when it did come, words cannot even begin to describe how good it was. Our waitress returned with the bill, and I got my wallet out to pay her using all but five dollars. Man, I need to get a job. Sora caught my attention, and I noticed the waitress was standing there waiting for her tip. I pulled out my wallet once again and gave her the rest of my money, resisting the urge to groan. She grinned, and I extended my hand to Sora, pulling her close to me. Then she did something unexpected.
"You're the best, Yama," she whispered, kissing my cheek lightly. Heaven, I'm in heaven!
I assumed she was just putting on an act for the girl so I decided to play along. "Anytime, angel," I responded brushing my lips up against her temple. The waitress finally lost it. She ran out crying and telling us to have a good day, also muttering something about young love. She was a weird one. I realized Sora and I were staring into each other's eyes. I cleared my throat, and we both looked away. Glancing at my watch, I realized we had better get going in order to get to the last part of my surprise for her on time. "We've gotta jet." I announced.
"Whatever you say, Dr. Ishida." She answered. I led her down the stairs, past our hysterical waitress and out the door. "You know, I'm surprised they actually believed us considering we're not exactly dressed up enough for that place."
"Hey, I told you we'd get in." I answered.
She smiled and leaned up against me. "I never doubted you, Yama." We walked in a comfortable silence to the final place on the agenda. "Here we are." I said. Sora took her head, which had somehow found my shoulder, off its resting place.
"Old Man Tokuhira's. What's here?" Old Man Tokuhira was one of the richest men in Odaiba and lived in a huge mansion on the outskirts of town.
I smiled down at her. "I just happened to hear his little girl is turning eighteen today, and they are putting on one very expensive and very exciting fireworks display tonight in about twenty minutes."
"How are we going to get in?" Sora asked. "Not just anybody is invited."
"Taichi and I found a secret way in one day."
"Where was I?" she asked indignantly.
I smirked. "Probably still grounded for the whole science experiment…"
"Whatever. Let's just go." I led her through the little hole in the fence Taichi and I had found. We climbed through and settled ourselves on a hill where no one would notice us.
We were silent for a while and then Sora began to talk. "Yama, do you think we'll ever see our Digimon again. They all seemed so positive we would."
"I think there's a pretty good chance, Sor." I answered. "Gennai will make it happen or something like that. I think it is very likely." A boom sounded, and the fireworks began. Sora sat straight up, but I pulled her down. "Don't you know the only way to watch fireworks is by lying down?" She lay down next to me, resting her head on my chest. The amazing display of fireworks went on for another hour and a half. Everyone was clapping and cheering as the last one went off.
Sora and I stood up and left. My watch told me I had a half an hour to get her home. We walked the fifteen-minute walk to her apartment and finally approached with time to spare. "You turned a bad day into one of the best days of my life, Yama," She said wrapping her arms around me and giving me a big hug. "Thank you,"
"Of course," I answered. "So I'll see you at Mimi's on Wednesday, right?"
"Of course," She mimicked. Mimi was throwing a goodbye party yet Sora didn't know about it. She just assumed we were going to have movie night. "Well I better get in, plenty of packing to do tomorrow. Goodnight."
"Night, Sor," I answered, watching her open the door and ascend the staircase to her apartment.
Standing there watching her only made me surer of what I was planning on doing at the party. I can't wait any longer; I've gotta tell her I think that I may possibly be falling in love with her.
A/N: This took such a long time to write and type but I think it turned out okay. The question is what'd y'all think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Beautiful? Let me know and expect the next chapter to be up soon. I posted this a day earlier than planned on cuz I had it done and tomorrow I have to go to my niece's birthday party and I won't have much time. So hopefully I'll come back alive from it, she turns six, and I'll be able to get you all another chapter! Please review and thanks to all of you who do!