Litanya: Here's the next and probably last chapter. I do not own Digimon etc. Sorry for the long wait.
An Old Box
Chapter 13
They were all there waiting. Tai was still feeling some side-effects from the fire but he was still there, fiddling with a piece of grass. He had made sure that his family was okay before he had snuck out of the hospital, getting Joe to cover for him. After all, even though Kari had said that everyone would go to the meeting, she had wanted to keep him in hospital. Sora was seated next to him in silence, also playing with the grass. Since no one was talking, there was nothing else better to do. She wore a bandage around her arm where the burn had been, although she felt no pain in it thanks to T.K. Cody, Davis and T.K were watching on with a touch of horror at the game of 'Bloody Mary' that Yolie and Ken were playing. Ken's hand was thoroughly bruised already and they had only been playing for five minutes. This was how the Australian Digidestined found them.
"It's great to see that you all made it," Entier greeted the others as he arrived. He knew Emma's 'gift' very well and so he was able to judge when they would arrive. He also was accustomed to the motion-sickness that it was possible to get from the sudden transportation system that Emma used. Josh was looking pretty pale when they landed, and Melissa fell over with the velocity of the landing.
"It's good to see that you made it too Entier. When I heard of your mode of transportation I admit that I had my doubts," Emma's reply was to stick her tongue out at Tai, who had made the comment, "But I suppose that they were wrongly thought out. After all, I forgot who it was that was using their 'gift.'" There was a hint of something in Tai's voice, but both Entier and Emma ignored it.
"We're here because we want to make a proposition to you, which most of you will probably agree to," Steph said quickly, wanting to head off an argument that she knew either Emma or Entier would start, "Not all of you will, but most of you will agree. Melissa here is the only one that did not agree to it back home." Melissa gave a small smile.
"It's a great idea and all it's just that…" she trailed off as she realised that the Japanese Digidestined had no idea what they were talking about. Entier sensed it too.
"Okay, here's a brief explanation of our plan…" he began to explain, looking at the Japanese Destined to see which ones were agreeing with him. He saw a lot of nods from everyone and quite a few confused looks from Davis, but overall he knew that most of them would agree. The fire had helped them realise what could happen.
"I'm in," Tai said immediately after Entier had finished explaining. He had been thinking of doing something along those lines after the fire but he had not wanted to go alone. Now Entier was offering the perfect opportunity for him to go to a place where he could not do much damage. It was almost too perfect to be true.
"Why? I'm sorry, but I have to check the reasons," Entier continued on after he saw Tai's incredulous look.
"Because I go around starting fires unintentionally," Tai told him, pointing out the obvious, "And that can be very dangerous if you hadn't noticed." He examined his left palm intensely as he said this, seeing a small orange flame flicker out of it. He knew that fire was going to come out of his hand, so he placed it on his right hand. Almost immediately the fire leapt out of his palm, but was contained on his right hand before it went out.
"A very good demonstration Tai," Steph pointed out, seeing the smoke pour out of his hand. She then spoke again, but the words were too fast for the others to hear. She sighed to herself as she realised this, cursing her 'gift' for working when she did not want it too. It did not matter all that much at that moment though because she had not been going to say anything important.
"What about the rest of you?" Josh asked, getting to the point again. He did not want to stay at the meeting all day as he had to make plans on what he was going to tell his parents.
"I'll go too," Sora decided, "Because the wind in the Digital World is not as strong. Besides, someone has to keep an eye on Tai. If we don't watch out, he'll have the entire Digital World on fire!" Tai stuck his tongue out at her very childishly, and she just responded with a grin.
"We'll be going too," Yolie cut in smoothly, stopping the argument that would definitely have cropped up between the two best friends, "I mean Ken and I will be. We've already discussed it. The only problem that we could come up with was that we had no way to get there. But now that you've explained your plan, it seems that there is a way."
"Cody and I are in too. We were also discussing doing this with Yolie and Ken. We were on our way to tell the others when we heard about the fire," Davis spoke up for the duo. By now T.K was the only one that had not replied.
"I want to stay here. My powers are not dangerous and I have something that is keeping me here," he said after a few minutes.
"Don't you mean someone?" Tai teased, knowing what T.K was thinking about. The younger boy blushed as Tai had thought.
"I don't know what you're talking about Tai."
"My sister of course. Look after her for me when I go, okay? I know that I can trust you to do that."
"Of course Tai, you didn't need to ask."
"What do you say if we all meet here again in about two hours? That should give everyone enough time to get everything sorted. Then we can leave for the Digital World," Entier suggested, making it almost sound like a command.
"That sounds great," Sora agreed. They said a quick goodbye to each other and then separated. After all, they had to get their own things sorted, not each others.
"Jun! Jun, come here!" Davis called to his older sister once he got home. Their parents had gone on a cruise around the world and they were not expected back for a few months. They had left the week before and the cruise took six months to complete. At the time Davis had complained because he thought that it was unfair that they got a cruise whilst he had to stay home, but now he was glad. He would not have to say goodbye to them then.
"What is it Davis? You sound as though something important is happening," Jun walked into the room, drying her hair with a towel. He ran up to her and gave a big hug, something that he had not done since… ever.
"I'm leaving for a while. You know how I was in that coma and then I had those strange powers?" Jun nodded, "My powers never went away and they were out of control and I don't want to hurt you or Mum or Dad so I have to go and…" He trailed off as he realised that it was the last time he was going to see his sister. He did not want the last time with his sister to be wasted with a hug.
"So you're leaving?" she asked as he pulled out of the hug.
"Yeah, are you going to be glad to get rid of me?"
"I'll think about it and give you the answer later," she promised, "So, what do you want to do with your last bit of time here?" He was surprised that she was letting him go. They did not get along all of the time, but she was his sister and she was used to having him around. Even though they did not like to admit it, they enjoyed each other's company. Sure, they were not as close as Tai and Kari, but still, they were family.
"Let's play Monopoly! I only have two hours here, less than that, but we always used to play Monopoly when we were younger," he begged, having a sudden urge to play the long and highly competitive game. Jun raised an eyebrow, but she led the way to the games cupboard.
"The only Monopoly we have is Pokemon Monopoly," she warned, grabbing it out before the other games could fall over.
"It doesn't matter, let's play!"
"Mum, Dad, I'm leaving now! See you in a few… years!" Emma called from her bedroom. She had gathered all of the things she needed and she wasn't planning on staying. She had told her parents through the door that she was leaving as she had not wanted to face them. Her three brothers would only find out that she was gone through her parents.
"Wait Ems!" her Dad called out and he twisted the doorknob again, trying to get into the room, "We don't want you to go!"
"It's too late for that. See you," and she disappeared out of her room, knowing that she would start to cry if she had been any longer.
Cody sat with his grandfather. Both of them were holding glasses of prune juice, the colour of the juice staining their lips.
"I'm sorry that I have to go Grandpa," Cody told the old man, "I really want to stay but… the Digital World will be safer and more accepting of me. If I had healing powers like one of the others, then I would stay. I just wish that none of this had happened."
"It's okay Cody. Some things happen for what seems to be no reason at all, when really they are the most important things in life. For example, I first tried prune juice by accident. I picked up the container believing that there was something else inside. But no, it was the most delicious problem-solving drink; prune juice," Cody nodded, understanding what his grandfather meant even with the bad choice of metaphor.
"So what you are saying is that even if you are not expecting it at first, the things that happen may be for a reason? I'm a little confused, but I think that I get it," Cody took another sip of his prune juice, his thoughts only on the topic at hand.
"That's right. But even if things do not turn out good, take a sip of prune juice and it will all turn out to be better," Cody just sighed. Whenever it looked as though his grandfather was being extremely wise, he would always stuff it up because of prune juice. In a way that made Cody love him more, but it was very repetitive.
"I'm going to miss you Grandpa," his eyes started to run with tears, but he just took another sip of prune juice and continued to stare into the distance.
Entier packed up the things that he would need without a thought. There was no one home as his parents were at work and his brothers were at some party. He had left a note of the bench, but he was a little disappointed that he would never see his family ever again. He hoped that the others were having more luck. He knew that Emma's family would be at home; they always were. His family was always out somewhere. It was not that he cared most of the time, but this would have been the last time to see them. He sighed as he closed the front door to his home and went to the meeting place. After all, he could not jump himself all over the place like Emma. If he could do that, he would have seen his family.
Yolie raced to the convenience shop that her family owned and hastily pushed open the doors, not really caring if she was going to make a fuss. Her apartment was over the shop, so there was only a small chance that all of her family was not somewhere within the building.
"Yolie calm down! Why are you rushing about like that?" her oldest sister remarked as Yolie almost demolished a pyramid of soup cans.
"I'm sorry but I really need to talk to you. Can't you just close up the shop for an hour or two? Please?" Momoe looked at her as if she was crazy.
"What? Mum and Dad would kill me! They're only upstairs so they will know if I close up shop."
"Fine, I'll go ask them first, then I'll come get you, okay?" and with that she went flying up the stairs to their apartment. Momoe could only watch in shock as her baby sister disappeared.
"Mum, Dad, I need to talk to you," Yolie called as she entered the apartment. Her parents appeared almost out of nowhere.
"What is it Yolie? And next time you don't need to be so loud," her father did not look very happy about something. Yolie knew it was a bad time, but she also knew that it was the only time she had.
"I need to talk to everyone. I have to leave…" she went on to explain when and why they had to let her go.
"Go get Momoe honey and the others. We can watch some of the baby videos before we go, just so she won't forget…" Yolie felt bad as her mother was on the verge of tears. Her father just left the room without a word. Yolie took that as a sign that he too was upset.
"Great idea Mum… But I'll never be able to forget you."
"I know that, but still… you're my little baby girl and I don't want to lose you," she straightened up before she could cry, "Now lets go get some popcorn and get the movies started!" The rest of her family poured in and they had a huge family goodbye which ended in tears and memories.
Steph's brother Jeff opened the door, holding a backpack and about to go out.
"Bye Jeff," she called out to him as he left, not really feeling as though she needed to talk to him. She went straight to her room, knowing that her parents would only be home in about half an hour. She packed everything that she thought that she would need in a small bag, feeling grateful as her eyes swept over a book on Anton Chekhov. She was relieved that she would never have to do that English oral. She felt sorry for Emma, who had had to do the oral a few days before. She was happy that she was leaving, but at the same time she could not help but feel sad. She had so many friends there, and even though most of them were not digidestined, they were still some of the very best people that she knew. No, they were the best people that she knew. She blinked, refusing to think of them anymore. She heard the door bang, signaling that her parents were home. She left her room and approached her parents carefully. She had no idea what they were going to say.
"Steph, what are you doing home this early? Don't you usually work now?" her mother asked as soon as she approached them."
"Yes, normally I do but… I'm not going to work anymore," that probably wasn't the best way that she could have said it, but her parents had started the conversation that way.
"What? Why not? You need the money for when you move out later in life. What if you cannot find a job later, once you're out of school? Then you will have no money and you'll be living on the streets-
"Mum, I'm leaving in about half an hour," that statement stopped her mother in her tracks.
"Where are you going? If you're not going to work then you'll need to study harder than what you are doing right now! I forbid you to go out with friends," her mother obviously was not in a good mood.
"Well, I'm not going out with friends. I'm leaving as in I'm going to the Digital World and living there for the rest of my life. I need to be there and I want to be there. You can't stop me," she did not mean to sound as demanding as she did, but it had the effect that she wanted. Her parents were shocked.
"What do you mean that we can't stop you? We are your parents. We control where you are most of the time and most of the things you do. Therefore we can and we will stop you from going," her mother told her sternly. Her father still had not said a word.
"What do you think Dad?" Steph asked, hoping that he would agree with her. He looked between the two women and sighed. He did not really want to do this.
"I think that if Steph really feels that she needs to go there, she should go. She is sixteen now and she is old enough to fend for herself. She has lived in the Digital World before, so she knows what she is doing. Besides, if she does not like it there then she can always come back," Steph was relieved. At least one of her parents agreed with her.
"But-
"No buts. Steph can look after herself. After all… I have a feeling that there is much more to this than what she is saying. All I really know is that she needs to go."
"Thanks Dad… and Mum… I'm sorry that I have to go, but this is what I want to do. No, this is what I need to do. I'll send you messages from time to time and I may be able to come see you, but for now this is goodbye," and with that said she turned and walked out of the door. It was funny. She had always wanted to leave her family, but now that she was doing it she felt a little sad. But then she realised what life was going to have in hold for her and she cheered up. A life without her family would suit her just fine… for a little while at least.
Ken did not go home straight away. He knew that his parents would be upset at him leaving, especially as they had lost their other son all of those years ago, but he had to go. A 'gift' of water could be very dangerous and he did not want to hurt anyone. He was walking along the river that wound its way under the bridge that was near his apartment, just thinking of what he could possibly say. He was surprised when he heard his name being called out loudly.
"Ken! What are you doing out here son?" it was his father. He did not know how the man had found him, but he could not run away now. He had to tell him the truth.
"I was just taking my last walk along here," he said truthfully, looking at the reflection of the golden Sun in the river instead of seeing his father's reaction.
"Your last look? Whatever do you mean by that? You weren't planning on running away again, were you?" his father's voice was accusing, but Ken forgave him. After all, he had run away a lot in the past.
"I have to go and live in the Digital World. You know how I was in that coma before I fought that evil Digimon? The powers that I received in that coma never went away. It's too dangerous for me to stay here… I might hurt someone unintentionally. Most of my friends that were in the comas are also going because it is too dangerous for us to stay here. I really don't want to go if it means leaving you and mother, but I don't have a choice. I just don't want to hurt any innocent people. It's a chance that I cannot take," his father said nothing for a while, only staring at the ripples that a duck was making in the river. When he finally spoke his voice seemed a little strained.
"I understand Ken… I think. Your mother and I will miss you very much. I just want you to promise me one thing."
"What's that Dad?"
"I want you to promise me that you will come and visit us sometimes. And when you visit you should bring Yolie too. We'll want to see the girl that we almost consider as a daughter too. But most of all, we will want to see you. Do you promise that you will visit?"
"Of course. I was planning on doing that anyway. I'm going to miss you and mother a lot you know. I'm just afraid on how I'm going to tell her that I'm leaving."
"Well, come on son. We'd better go and get this over and done with," and the father and son changed direction and began to walk towards their home in silence. They wanted their last words to each other to actually mean something. What they would say would come from the heart at the right time, and that minute was not it.
Josh walked to the meeting place with his bags, all ready to go. He had said goodbye to his family quickly and he had barely stayed at his home for five minutes. He just had not been able to stand saying a long goodbye. The time that he had spent with his family had been good, but he had not been able to stop thinking that that would be the last time that he would see them for a while. That was why he had left. He sighed to himself and began to walk to the meeting place, pushing his family from his mind. As much as he did not want to forget about them, he also did not want to think about them. Instead he began to think about his reason for going. There was only one and he grinned as he thought that he was heading straight for it. At least one of his dreams could be kept alive.
The flower shop was almost empty as she walked through the door. Bells jangled to signal her arrival as the door closed behind her. She could see her mother at the counter, serving a dark-haired customer with a smile, lovingly wrapping the flowers up in tissue paper. Saying goodbye was going to be harder than she ever could have imagined.
She walked through the shop until she found the section where the roses were kept. They were quite close to the entrance as they were the most popular flower in the shop. There were four different colour roses that they sold; red, white, pink and yellow. Red was by far the most popular as it symbolized love, with white coming second as they symbolized purity and were commonly used for weddings. Yellow and pink roses were hardly bought anymore, as most people did not give their friends yellow roses to signify their friendship and pink roses did not look as important as red roses. Sora grabbed a single pink rose and walked up top the counter. Her mother had just finished serving the last person in the line, so she acted as though she was a customer that wanted to pay for the rose. Her mother still had not looked up, so she did not know who was standing in front of her.
"Good afternoon how may I help you," she looked up and put on a confused look, "Sora? What are you doing here? You're not working until next week because of exams and you have always told me how much you hate this shop!" Sora just smiled and handed her the rose.
"I just wanted to buy this for you Mum. I'm thankful for everything that you have done for me, including making me work here. You have a beautiful heart Mother and I just want to say… thank you," Mrs. Takenouchi narrowed her eyes a little. Whenever her daughter said things like that to her, she always wanted something. That was her experience anyway.
"What else do you want Sora?" her tone was suspicious and Sora knew that she could not keep it from her any longer.
"I have to leave. I have to go and live in the Digital World… it will be safer for everyone if I do," her mother looked extremely confused now.
"Why? Please tell me Sora, I don't understand!"
"You know the powers we all received when we fought that digimon after we awoke from our comas?" she nodded, her eyes showing that she knew what was coming, "They didn't go away. The fire in the Kamiya's apartment proves this. Tai didn't mean to do it, but he started the fire. The reason why he received no burns was because he was immune to the effects of the fire, except for the smoke of course. My 'gift' has something to do with Wind, so the smoke did not affect me at all. If we don't go to the Digital World, we could destroy the world unintentionally. Our 'gifts' work automatically. Tai wasn't even thinking about fire when he started one. We have to leave. I don't want to, but I have no choice." A short silence followed the explanation.
"Are all of the digidestined leaving?"
"No, only Ken, Yolie, Davis, Cody, Tai and I. The others don't have 'gifts' except for T.K, and his 'gift' is something to do with healing. He couldn't harm the Earth or anyone on it. We're leaving later today with a few digidestined from Australia. They have someone that can transport us to the Digital World," it felt good to tell her mother all about it. When she had been younger, the two had not gotten along. Ever since Sora had first come out of the Digital World however, their relationship had gotten a lot better and they often talked to each other. In a way Sora wished that her mother could go with her, but she knew that it was impossible.
"If you must leave, then you can go. I trust you enough to let you go. You and Tai will have to look after the others, but I know that you will be able to do it. I only wish that I could have had further notice, then I could have organized something special for you…" she disappeared into the room behind the counter, leaving Sora waiting. She came back out a minute later, holding a purple rose. The thing that surprised Sora was that it was a real flower, not fake.
"How did you get a purple rose?" she could only ask as her mother held it out to her.
"It was an accident. Something spilt on to the rose as I was trying to turn it blue and it turned this colour instead. I want you to have this so that you will always remember me and your time here. If things don't work out in the Digital World, remember that you can always come back home, okay?" she did not want her daughter to go, but she understood. She had had a long time to get used to the idea of her daughter being a digidestined and she knew that sometimes that meant Sora would be in danger. She also knew that if Tai was going then there was no way that she could keep Sora there. She was glad that at least Sora wasn't on her own.
"I'll never be able to forget you Mum," Sora gave her mother a great big hug and then left quickly, knowing that she would change her mind if she stayed a moment longer. Her mother watched her leave, before turning back to the pink rose that lay on the counter in front of her. At least her daughter was thankful that she had been there. That was all that mattered.
Melissa casually walked through her front door. She had to be at work in half an hour, but first she wanted to discuss something with her father.
"Hey Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we go and live in Japan?"
"Umm… If I can find a job over there, maybe."
"I've already found you a job over there."
"Well… I suppose that we can move there then."
"Cool! I'll go and tell work and then we can leave as soon as we can!"
"Okay… See you soon then!" and Melissa turned and walked back outside to go to work.
Tai walked with T.K back to the hospital, where his family would be. He needed T.K there because Kari would probably not let him leave. He remembered back to when he had defeated Etemon and he had been sucked back to Earth. Kari had not wanted him to go back and help the others in the Digital World. That was why T.K was coming along; he was going to be the distraction. Tai had a letter in his hands. He could have just asked T.K to give it to Kari, but he wanted to see his sister. He was going to talk to her for a while without mentioning that he was leaving and then he would leave, pretending to be going to the bathroom. T.K would then give her the note. That was his plan anyway.
"Tai, where have you been?" Kari asked as soon as the duo walked into the room, "I've been looking everywhere for you!" Tai gulped and held T.K in front of him.
"Don't shoot me Kari or you'll hit T.K instead!" he joked, still using T.K as his human shield, "I was only at that meeting that you promised I would go to. It was your fault that you said I could go really." Kari just gave him a pointed look and then pointed at the bed that he was supposed to be occupying with her le hand. Tai sighed and sat on it, still refusing to lie down.
"Tai, what am I going to do with you? You need your rest! You were in a fire just yesterday and your throat still isn't better. And don't tell me that it is because I can hear your voice rasping sometimes," Kari seated herself down in one of the chairs next to the bed and T.K sat next to her, "So what was the meeting about?"
"Oh we were just discussing some of the techniques that 'Master' devised and how we could use his methods for something good… but we didn't manage to find anything. Apart from that it was nothing," Tai lied expertly. He did not want her knowing the reality at that moment and if T.K had answered then she would have known that they were lying. Kari was especially good at knowing when the blond boy was lying.
"Oh, so nothing interesting then I take it," Kari lost interest in the subject, somehow sensing that the two boys did not want to talk about it.
"Yeah, nothing really," T.K agreed, keeping his tone neutral.
"Hey Kari, you know how the whistle I gave you burnt in the fire?" Tai asked suddenly, putting his hand around something in his pocket.
"Yeah?"
"Here. On the way back from the meeting I found this," it was a whistle that looked almost exactly the same as the one that had been destroyed. Tai had seen it when he and T.K had passed by a shop that sold toys. Tai had noticed something gleaming in the window and he had seen the whistle. He had then gone in and bought it, using the money that his mother had given him in case he had wanted to get a drink from the drinks machine in the hospital corridor.
"Wow… you didn't need to buy me this Tai," Kari knew that it could only have cost a few dollars, but to her it meant much, much more. The whistle was a symbol of the bond that the two of them shared. It meant that she could call Tai whenever she was in trouble and he would help her. Always. She immediately put it around her neck, fingering the top as she did so. She could feel the symbol of light engraved lightly on the top, as though Tai had just gotten something sharp and traced the pattern on. That made it even more special. It was the best present that he could ever have given her. The brother-sister duo talked for a little while about meaningless things, with T.K saying only little. He knew that it was their time to talk. After about half an hour of small talk Tai stood up.
"I'm just going to go to the bathroom okay? I'll be back in a few minutes," that was the cue for T.K to distract Kari.
"Okay," T.K said, although it seemed that he was answering a different statement. Kari just nodded, "Hey Kari, you know that project on…" Tai exited the room and walked down the corridor. He passed the bathroom door and continued on. He had chosen this path and now nothing could stop him. At least he knew that T.K would look after his sister. As long as she was okay, Tai did not care if he had to leave. His parents would be fine with it, but Kari would worry. But she had T.K with her, so she would be fine. That was all that Tai wanted.
After she left the flower shop there was only one place that she wanted to go before she left for the meeting place. As she reached the Cherry Blossom tree she flopped down onto the ground for a moment, to get her breath back. She had ran the entire way and so she had to wait a while before she could breathe properly again.
"You wanted to say goodbye to this place too," it was more of a statement than a question, but she still replied.
"It's a good place… I have many memories here. We always used to come here when we were younger," she stood up and climbed the tree, knowing that he wasn't very far behind her. She was thankful that she was not wearing a skirt as that would have been embarrassing.
"I know what you mean Sora. This is my favourite place in the world… and now I have to leave it. It's too bad that we can't take this tree with us," they had reached the top and they sat on two branches that were opposite of each other. This was where they had always come when they were upset, angry, and happy or if they just wanted to be alone or find the other. They could not remember a time in their lives when they had not come to this tree.
"I agree. Why did this have to happen to us Tai? We never asked for it and we are happy here. Now my mother is going to have to work in the shop alone and Kari is going to have to protect herself from any potential boyfriends. Why do we have to leave everyone behind?"
"We're not leaving everyone behind, remember? We have Yolie, Ken and the others with us. Kari won't have to protect herself from potential boyfriends because she will have T.K. And Kari has already offered to work at your mother's flower shop before… I'm sure that she will offer again. And don't forget that we can always visit. Emma can transport us back if we need to be here. And anyway… I'm just glad that at least my best friend is coming with me," Sora gave a small smile, but she still wasn't very happy.
"I suppose that you are right… We do have our best friends going, don't we? I'm very happy that we have our friends going but… it's just not the same as family."
"But don't you see? We digidestined have become family! The two of us are like their parents and the rest are like children. I use that metaphor because that's what Kari has always told me. I am the leader… which is the father figure and I can't lead properly without you to point out my mistakes, so you are the mother figure. Therefore we are taking family with us, just a different type of family. Do you know what I mean?" Tai's cheeks were slightly red as he blushed. He liked the metaphor that Kari used but for a slightly different reason. He liked the idea that he and Sora were a couple. It was slightly embarrassing, but he could not help but feel happy that some people thought of the two of them like that.
"I know what you mean. I'm being stupid I know but… I just love my Mum and I don't want to leave her," Sora's cheeks too were a little red, her thoughts mirroring Tai's to an extent. Although the two had feelings for each other, neither of them had actually admitted it before.
"No, you're not being stupid. I'm going to miss my family too. I think that you're being brave just saying that you're leaving and actually telling your mother. I didn't even tell my parents, I didn't even tell Kari either. I just left a note with T.K. You are doing the right thing in the end. It may be difficult at first but it is better than endangering the people we love here. Sorry, I'm just blabbering on here," he had noticed that she was staring down at the ground, a usual sign that she wasn't listening.
"No, it's not that it's just… I always dreamt of what my life would be like. I'd graduate from high school and go to university before falling in love with my dream guy. He'd-
"Propose to you on a beach and then you' would get married in a church with lots of flowers… then you would graduate from university and become a teacher, then have children later on and you would die at the age of eighty-five a very happy person," Tai finished for her. He had known her life plan since they had turned fourteen. Sora did not like to change her plans and so she had repeated the same thing every time that someone had asked her what she wanted to do with her life.
"Heh, I guess you know me too well," Sora muttered under her breath before she continued, "But now I can't do any of that."
"You never know… You could meet the guy of your dreams in the Digital World."
"But you'd be basically the only guy there!"
"Do you have a problem with that?" the question had come out of his mouth without thinking and the two blushed at the same time and looked away.
"Not particularly," Sora finally replied, taking her eyes of the ground and sneaking a look in his direction.
"I was just thinking… that I… I think that I'm in love with you, so I wouldn't really mind either," Tai thought that he had only been thinking it, but he was surprised when Sora spoke again.
"Really?"
"Umm… did I just say that out loud?" she nodded, "I mean… I do mean it. I uh, kind of had a crush on you when I was younger and then it kind of… developed into something and… Oh crap, I'm no good at this romantic stuff." Sora just giggled at his vain attempt to say something romantic.
"It doesn't matter Tai. I know that you're not a romantic. Just promise that you'll stay with me forever."
"I promise."
"That's good; I didn't want to have to force you to promise. I guess that now that you've told me that you are in love with me… I should tell you that I love you."
"Are you just saying that because you have to?" Tai just wanted to make sure.
"No you dolt! I said it because I meant it!"
"Good!" his heart was pounding in his chest. That had been the scariest moment of his life, "Now what's supposed to happen?"
"Now we kiss and say how much we love each other."
"I have no problems with that."
"I didn't think you would," and they leaned in and kissed for the first time ever.
The big group was standing in the park, each carrying a small backpack. They were all ready to leave.
"Are we all ready?" Emma asked, her hand firmly clasping Entier's in her own. She was scared of leaving and so she had to hang on to him to make sure that she didn't just bolt back to Australia by herself.
"Yeah, we should be. There's no point in hanging around here; it will only make us want to stay. We should leave now," Entier told her calmly, squeezing her hand to try and comfort her.
"Everyone, take your last look at Earth for the time being. It's a beautiful place but we have to start a new life in the Digital World. Let's go!" Tai commanded, taking on the position of leader.
"Okay!" they all chorused as they disappeared from the Earth, all ready to start their lives in the Digital World.
The End
Litanya: There, this fic is now finished. I admit that the ending is quick and a little lame, but that is because I do not have much time. Sorry that it took me so long, but it was because it is hard for me to access the computer these days. The next chapter of 'The Reason' will be up in a few weeks. I want to put it up sooner, but I cannot because I am very busy. Thank you for reading and reviews are appreciated!