Disclaimer: I wonder, would I really be sued if I conveniently 'forgot' the disclaimer? sees lawyers panting at the sidelines Alright already. I don't own any animes, any characters, or any songs. I do own my angsty story and the warped mind that insisted I write this ;)

Warning: Another pretty light chapter. Laughs I'm sure you are all panting for blood about now, so I included a little (a very little) Just another day in the lives of the unaware.

Author's Note: hmmm It's amazing. Matt is my favorite character (isn't it obvious by the way I torture him?), but oddly enough, I don't seem to be writing much in his view point. I guess I inherently knew how I was going to write this. Don't worry, there will be plenty of Matt and Matt angst, but you'll only see his true feelings in his letters. Like his friends, you will be treated to the mask he presents for the rest of the time. I hope that makes sense.

Happy Birthday

Chapter III: Falling Farther Away

Keep it inside, the image portrayed
As if I couldn't stand losing, as if I couldn't be saved, no way
A small confession, I think I'm starting to lose it
I think I'm drifting away from the people I really need

- 'Still Frame,' by Trapt

Loud talking and laughter filled the living room. It wasn't surprising, considering the room was packed with seven active children and six hyper digimon. What was surprising was how long the group had managed to remain focused on their meeting, Tai had expected them to drop any seriousness within the first thirty minutes. They had lasted a full hour before the meeting had dissolved into small talk and discussions about plans for the weekend, which had taken up the last two hours.

Tai had spent most of the time quietly observing the new digi-destined. Quiet wasn't his normal behavior, but he took a lot of pride in the new team and liked to watch how its dynamics were changing. Kari, his little sister, was, of course, seated between Tk and Davis. It was a peace-making position she had long ago taken. It didn't stop Davis and Tk from arguing, but it seemed to calm the brunette boy down a bit. He was pretty happy as long as he was next to her. Cody was sitting beside Tk with his digimon in his arms. Cody reminded Tai a lot of Izzy. He was a very smart kid, but seemed a bit unsure of himself. Tai was happy to see that he was talking a bit with the others, gaining a bit more confidence in himself and his friendship with them.

Sitting opposite of them was Ken and Yolie. Yolie was chatting away blissfully with Kari. Tai was really happy that there was another girl in the group. He hated to think of how things would have been if Kari had been stuck as the lone girl with the guys. His little sister may be Light, but even she would have probably been driven to kill one of the idiots. Ken sat nearby, but a little bit back. As if he still wasn't sure of his place. His digimon, Wormmon, sat next to him, his small green head against his leg. It was a position meant to lend comfort, but Tai couldn't help wonder who was comforting whom at the time.

"Aww, how can it already be ten o'clock," Davis' loud voice roused Tai from his contemplation.

"Wow, time sure passes when you're having fun, ne?" Yolie smiled as she looked over at the clock that Davis was staring at.

"We better be going," Cody was always serious. "If I don't get home soon, Mother will get worried."

As the kids started getting up and gathering up their things Tai noticed a small frown on Tk's face. He thought he knew why and had already planned what to do to fix the problem. Thankfully, his mother had consented without any questions.

And everybody says I'm no good at planning.

"Hey, Tk," Tai grabbed Tk's bag from his hands. "I got that. I'll just go toss it in my room for ya."

Tk looked a bit confused, but didn't get a chance to voice his confusion before Davis realized what was happening.

"Hey!! Why does Td get to stay here? He's just going to try to put the moves on my girl!"

Kari had also been confused when Tai first spoke, her own small mouth tightening into a frown. She knew that Tk was supposed to go to Matt's place for the weekend, now she knew something was wrong. Quickly she brushed the frown off her face and followed her brother's lead. Even though she knew her brother had many faults, she trusted that he had a plan and was only trying to help Tk.

"It's no problem, Davis," She said with a winning smile. "I'm going to be spending the night with Yolie. Ne, Yolie?"

The last part was said with entreating eyes to Yolie. No one would ever claim that Yolie wasn't a smart cookie, she caught on immediately.

"Of course, you are," she nodded emphatically. "Can I borrow your phone?"

Davis had stopped listening after the first sentence and was now busy alternately verbally taunting and sticking his tongue out at Tk.

And no one would ever claim that Davis had a clue.

Tai snickered under his breathe as his sister led Yolie to the kitchen where his mom was. Within moments they had returned, Kari with permission to go and Yolie with permission to have a sleep-over. Tai sighed happily as another disaster was averted.

The chatting and laughing was carried to the hallway where the five children were slipping on their shoes and grabbing up their things.

"I'll walk you three home," Ken's soft voice rose above the noise.

Yolie blushed happily at that statement and giggled excitedly in Kari's general directions.

"Oh, no, Ken. You don't have to do that. Isn't it too much trouble?"

"It's no problem," Ken deflected Kari's concern, "it's on my way to the station."

Sure, it's on your way…if you weren't going home, maybe. Still, I'm not going to point that out. I'm happy he's going to look out for Kari, Yolie, and Cody. Let's face it, it's not that safe out there. Cody's still pretty young and girls are just natural targets for strange perverts. I'll definitely feel better knowing someone's watching out for them.

"Wait a minute," Davis jumped in, not one to be left out, "I was going to walk them home."

"Two gallant knights," Kari easily deflected yet another potential fight. "What more could a girl ask for."

"I don't need any 'knights,'" Cody grumbled under his breath.

"Maybe not," Ken smiled gently, "But since you live in the same building as Yolie, I guess you'll just have to put up with us."

Cody simply shouldered his bag that held his small digimon and headed out the door.

"Hey, wait for us!"

The gaggle of children seemed to almost fall out the door as they continued talking and laughing with each other. Tai smiled as he watched them go, but lost his smile when he heard the soft sigh behind him.

"Thanks, Tai, I really didn't want to go home and tell mom that Matt canceled our weekend together. You're sure your mom won't mind?"

"It's no problem. I cleared it with her when I went for more snacks earlier. Besides, who said your weekend plans were canceled? We're going to get everything straightened out with your idiot brother in the morning."

"Sure," Tk felt his lips forming a smile at Tai's confident grin.

"I see everyone's left," Tai's mother peeked around the door leading to the kitchen. She was pretty good about staying clear and letting the kids have space when they held their meetings.

"Yep, just me and Tk."

"That's good. We're glad to have you Tk. Why don't you boys go to bed and I'll clean up."

"Don't worry about it, mom. We're not tired so we'll clean up and you can get some rest."

Tai knew he wouldn't be able to sleep and really wanted to speak to Tk alone, so he made the impromptu offer. His mother smiled at the idea, her son wasn't usually so helpful about cleaning up around the apartment and there was no way she was going to miss this opportunity.

"Alright, if you insist."

With a small wave and a smile, she headed off to bed, leaving the boys to straighten up. Tai waited until she shut her bedroom door before he started gathering up empty plates and glasses. Tk followed along behind him, grabbing those he missed. They worked in companionable silence at first. Simply moving back and forth, bringing empty dishes to the kitchen and straightening out the living room. Tai allowed the silence to go on until he saw the light beneath his mother's door go off. With a nod towards the kitchen, Tai motioned for Tk to follow him.

Alright, kid, now we're going to get some answers.

Turning on the facet to mask their conversation, Tai filled the sink with soapy water and began to attack the mound of dirty dishes in the sink.

"Grab a towel, kid and make yourself useful," He tossed over his shoulder.

Tk snatched up a towel from the rack and silently joined him at the sink. Tai handed him the first clean glass along with his first question.

"So how long has this been going on?"

"How long has what been going on?" Tk asked innocently, drying the glass in his hand and carefully setting it down.

"Cut the crap. You know what I'm talking about. How long has Matt been avoiding you?"

Tai watched as Tk silently thought over his answer, holding his hand out to receive another clean glass. With a final rinse, Tai handed the over the glass he had been working on as he quizzed Tk

"Would it sound strange to say, I don't know?" Tk asked as he took the glass from Tai.

"Yes," Tai answered bluntly, plunging his hands into the soapy water to vigorously wash a plate. "Care to explain that answer?"

"It's hard to explain…" Tk trailed off, his eye downcast as he saved the plate from Tai's overenthusiastic scrubbing.

Tai relinquished the plate and scooped up another helpless piece of dishware. He let the silence lengthen this time, giving Tk time to find an adequate way to explain his answer.

"I guess I first started to see it about three months ago, but I just didn't notice it at the time. That still sounds odd, ne? Maybe it's better to work backwards…."

Tk paused to take a plate from Tai and continued to try to explain.

"About three weeks ago, I noticed that Matt hadn't been over to have dinner with mom and me in a while. I invited him over, but he said he couldn't do it, he said he had band practice. I didn't think much about it at the time, but when I asked him again, he said no again, this time it was 'too much homework.' I admit I felt a little hurt. I guess I'm a bit spoiled, Matt almost always comes if I ask."

Tai nodded encouragingly and rinsed another plate, his hands falling into an unthinking rhythm as he listened.

"I felt stupid and selfish about feeling upset and I told myself that it couldn't have been that long since he last came over. But then I really thought about it, and I realized that I couldn't even remember the last time he had come over to visit mom and me. It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. It had been over a month and a half since his last visit."

"A month and a half? But you said it had been 3 months."

"I know," Tk sighed, setting down another glass. "You see, after sitting and thinking about it for a bit, I realized that in the last few months his visits were getting fewer and fewer. I hadn't noticed right away, because he was still walking me home from school everyday. He'd walk me to my apartment and make one easily understandable excuse after another for why he couldn't come up."

"I never minded though," Tk said with a smile, "I was just happy to be able to spend the time with him."

"He liked it too," Tai smiled back at him. "When he first tested into my school, he told me that one of the reasons he did so was because it was closer to you. He would usually spend the afternoon watching my soccer practice so he could waste time until your school let out."

"I know," Tk's smile became a bit sad after Tai's reply. "So tell me, Tai, when did he stop staying for soccer practice?"

"What?" Tai was a bit confused at Tk's sudden apparent change in topic. Turning away from the sink, he leaned against it with his soapy arms crossed and looked in askance at Tk.

"I didn't notice the excuses he started giving me for not walking me home either. Not until I realized that he had stopped altogether."

"Did you notice when he had stopped coming to watch your soccer practices?" Tk asked again.

"I don't know," Tai's reply was soft and hesitant.

"See, it's not that strange of an answer, is it."

Tai turned back to the sink, trying to get a clear picture in his mind of when he had last seen Matt at practice. Tk understood his silence. After all, he had been in the exact same position not too long ago. He was willing to wait for Tai to sort things out on his own.

That's strange. Why didn't I notice? It just didn't seem that strange when he didn't come to practice as often. He's a popular guy, plays in a band, has homework like anyone else. Why would I have noticed or thought it strange that he had something else to do? I wonder if those 'things he had to do' where all just made up, some kind of excuse? But why?

Tai started to backtrack his memories, trying to answer the same question he had put to Tk. How long has this been going on?

"Tk, I think we've missed something here," Tai's eyes grew wide as he re-examined his memories closely.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought this was something personal. Some kind of fight or such between you two brothers, but I think I was wrong. I think it's about all of us."

Tk frowned at this. He didn't like the idea of Matt being angry or avoiding him, but he liked the idea of Matt being upset with everyone even less.

"Look at it from a wider perspective," Tai tried to explain the feelings behind his idea. "When was the last time he spent time with any of us?"

"Well, we all went to his concert last weekend. And then there was Sora's recital, he came to support her."

"No, I mean the last time he just had fun with us; went to the movies, had a picnic with us in the park, or even had dinner with anyone. The only time he hangs out with any of us is when we need him or when we go to support him."

It's strange that I can vividly recall all the times he's been there to help us out, but I can't recall the last time I just goofed off with him. There was the time when Davis accidentally bumped into Izzy and knocked his laptop into the pool. Izzy freaked out because he hadn't printed his English paper yet. Matt didn't know anything about computers, but he stayed up all night helping Izzy. He helped take it apart, dry it out, and reassemble it so Izzy could get his English paper off the hard drive. I couldn't believe it when it actually worked. Then there was the time he let Joe play Doctor with him.

Tai almost laughed at the memory. Most kids would giggle and blush at the hidden innuendo behind the classic excuse of 'playing doctor.' Joe took it to a whole new level.

I was laughing so hard I could barely stand up. When Joe wants to play doctor, he really means it! Poor Matt had every limb splinted and so many dressings around his head, all you could see were his eyes. But he never complained, not even when we all laughed at him. He just said 'Good job with the First Aid, Joe. Now could you get me out of this, I'm going to have to use the bathroom sometime tonight.'

"What?" Tk had noticed the smile on Tai's face and couldn't hold in his curiosity.

"Just remembering 'Mummy Matt.' He even walked like a mummy with those splints on his legs."

Tk giggled in reply. He had also been there to see Joe's handiwork. Of course, Matt had always let Joe practice on him anytime he fell or injured himself. Joe had once jokingly offered to give Matt his card. He had laughed, saying that with Matt's constant clumsiness, he wouldn't need any other patients. Matt had laughed with everyone else, saying he'd have to consider the offer.

Tai looked back at the soapy water in front of him, relieved that he was almost done. He picked up the last glass and began scrubbing it furiously. Despite the pleasant memories, they had only served to point something out to him. Now he was really getting mad.

"You know what this means, don't you, Tk?" Tai continued to rub the already clean glass. "He's avoiding all of us. Just brushing us off. And worse than that, we didn't even notice."

Tk nodded thoughtfully at that. Tai was right, Matt only seemed to be giving them a token friendship. He didn't seem to actually want to spend time with them, he was just doing it under obligation.

"And it's been going on much longer than just three months."

Tai felt his anger rise up at the deception his friend had been playing on them. His hand tightened reflexively, but he didn't notice until the shards of the broken glass cut into his palm. He looked down in surprise at the blood welling up in his hand.

"Hold still," Tk had heard the glass shatter and had immediately come to Tai's side. "Here, sit down I'll get the glass out."

After making sure there was no glass left in the wound, Tk made a hasty bandage with the towel. Tai sat quietly under his ministrations, but inwardly he seethed.

No more worthless excuses, Matt. You're going to tell me everything tomorrow.

--------tbc

Not too happy with this one, but it needed to be there. Don't worry, everyone, Matt will return in force in the next chapter. Plus, the fifth chapter will be another letter from Matt. (you'll just have to wonder if you will be the only ones reading it ;P)

I hope I'm not losing readers with these lighter chapters. The angst is there, but only the readers will truly understands it.

Now for the fun part….

Special Thanks to:

CharmedBookworm aka Kai the Ruthless Blader: You know, for a charmed bookworm, you're quite blood-thirsty. How can you expect me to update when I don't have my intestines? Laughs I do love the new name by-the-way. Thank you for the praise. I'm glad that this fic is living up to the same great praise as World So Cold. I'm proud of them both (as much as an author can be).

Yakari Taito: Sorry for the long delay. I'm going to try to alternate my posting between this story and my other one. That way, hopefully readers for both of them will be satisfied. Don't worry about me not continuing this one though. I never write what I don't intend to finish. Plus, I never write unless I already know how things will end. ;)

Syaoran-Lover: grins happily I'm glad this is one of your favorites. I promise I'll answer all your questions, but you'll have to wait and read them. Although, the answer to why doesn't Matt want to see Tk is an easy one. I'll give you a hint, what is Matt always doing? (easy, ne?) Ja ne!

YamatoFangirllaughs I thought it was blood and guts that made people ill, not laughter and totally clueless morons. I know, I know, this chapter was way too angst free as well, ne? Don't think of it as angst-free, think of it as angst-hidden. It's all there, but the kids just don't see it. ;P

blondie121147: Yeah, poor Tk, he's totally clueless. It's got to be hard for him to see his brother pulling away, but not know why. Boy, I hope he figures it out soon, don't you ;)

Amanda: Thank you so much! Such a pretty review. I'm glad you like the letter. I plan on two more before the story is finished. The first letter was what inspired the story. It popped in my head and started wailing for attention. I just couldn't let it cry without letting others see it too. I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Matte ne!

Dannee-san: Yep, Matt angst seems all the rage, but we demented authors just can't help it. He is just a misunderstood boy begging for understanding. That's why we torture him, so that we can create that understanding in others. (too weird?) The answer to whether or not the others will finally figure it out is still pending, stick around to find out if they remain ever clueless, or if one of them will develop some miraculous insight.

Fey Phantom: want to know a secret whispers conspiratorially I like math too. My calculus teacher used to invite all of us over to his house to study before a test. We always had a blast. Laughs As for the story, I am getting a bit nostalgic myself. It's kind of nice to write a little lighter fair once and a while. (especially since World So Cold has been so dark recently) I threw in comment about playing in the snow on a whim last chapter, but I like the idea of a snowball fight, now that you've planted it in my head. I don't know if I'll be able to fit it in, but I may just try ;)

YamatoforeverYou got it! My hidden angst clues. They weren't that subtle this time were they laughs I already know the ending to the story, and I'm afraid to say I don't plan to compromise on it. I'm not sure yet how you guys will like it though, so I'm a bit anxious. We'll just see how the ending comes when it gets here ;)

Kayla: O.O Such high praise. Arigatou!! I wanted the letter to be simple, but speak from the heart. It sounds like it worked J I'm glad you are enjoying the story and the suspense I am holding the other characters in. This fic shouldn't be too long. I'm not sure of the chapter count yet, but it won't be nearly as long as my other one, so the suspense shouldn't kill anyone here (hopefully) I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too, and that you'll come back for the next one.

Thanks to everyone who read, even those who didn't drop a line. Please don't forget to leave a little light on your way out. I promise the next chapter will be full of fun, a fight, some blood spilt, and lots of angst!) Catch ya next time!!!