A/N: I made a one-shot! Yay! I was reading one-shots earlier and realized that they're really cool. So I came up with one myself! Never expected it, didja? Mehehe...Hope you enjoy! (Re-edited, renewed, and hopefully no more grammatical or spelling mistakes!)
Warning: One-sided Sorato! No bashing, because I love Matt. But if you are an exclusive fan of Sorato, this is not the fic for you.
Yin-Yang and the Tokyo Grill
A One-shot. Taiora.
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Step one.
It was strange for her to have the desire to do it now, but she had to. Lately, things hadn't been working out and it was time to start fresh again. Fighting was a bi-weekly event and it was taking its toll on her. Now was the time. She couldn't wait any longer.
Sora felt sweat beading along her hair line and her hands were anxiously fumbling with one another. She wished she had something to hold onto, like a safety blanket, for what she was about to do. It had been too much, too fast, and too unplanned.
She couldn't bear to look up through the window to see him. If she looked up, she knew she was going to turn right back around and run to a safe, warm place where she didn't have to do what she was about to do.
You can do this Sora, you can do it! You've never done it before, and never thought in your entire life that you'd be doing it, but-oh what the hell am I talking about? I'm going to get killed in there! she thought dismally. This was it.
Finally, she built the courage to look up just as she entered the café. She smiled nervously at the unsuspecting boy who curiously wondered why his girlfriend asked him to meet her so far away from where he worked when she knew perfectly well that he had to be back in ten minutes. His eyes looked into her crimson ones questioningly.
Sora breathed deeply, but found that if she breathed any more deeply, she would choke on her own air supply. She slid quietly into the seat across from him and took one last deep breath before she looked up into his eyes.
"Hi Yamato," she greeted, quite awkwardly.
"Hey..." he returned, his beautiful azure eyes searching her crimson ones suspiciously. She never called him Yamato. The only times she'd called him that was when she was mad, upset, or she had some bad news for him. Actually, lately she has been using that insufferable name a lot and at this point he had had enough of it. "Sora, what's going on? I have to be back at work in-"
"I know! This is going to be quick," Sora explained. And hopefully painless... she thought, biting her lip all the more nervously. She knew this wasn't the type of thing that should be done quickly, but she was desperate, and this was the only way she knew she could do it without being a coward.
Matt took her fidgety hands and held them in his to stop them from moving. Sora averted his eyes and looked down at the mass of hands on the table.
"So...what is it?" he asked when she said nothing. "You're not...pregnant are you?" he asked.
Sora looked up at him appalled. "No! Why would you-it's not that!" She was blushing ferociously. "We haven't even done anything Yamato, why would you think I was pregnant? Kami..."
"Then what's going on? Spit it out," Matt grumbled, impatiently.
Here it goes... "I want to break up with you," she said in one breath. Once she finished that small phrase, she felt out of breath as if she'd been running a marathon instead of breaking up with her boyfriend.
Matt released her hands and scratched the back of his head. "Wha-why? Here? Now?"
Sora nodded. "I'm sorry Yamato, it's just that-lately we've been having our differences and we've been fighting more often than usual...you've been trying to get me to enhance our relationship, and I'm not exactly ready for that! And your brother hates me because I lost his favorite pair of running shoes..."
"What does TK have to do with any of this?" Matt practically shouted. Sora bit her lip hard. He looked flustered... She knew he wouldn't be taking this too easily. Why would he? If she had been the one being broken up with, she'd be throwing a fit. Matt was acting very mature at the moment. "Kami...I can't believe you're doing this now! Couldn't you have waited until after I got off work?"
"No! I couldn't, okay? This is the right thing to do. If I don't break up with you now, we'll be in a bigger rut later and end up hating each other...more than you hate me right now, at this very moment..." Sora rattled on, giving him an uneasy expression until Matt looked up at her with angry eyes.
"I—Sora—jeez….I know we've been fighting-is there another guy?" he asked.
Sora sighed distressingly. How did she know he was going to ask her that? She just knew this boy too well.
But he was right...there was another guy. In fact, it was a guy Matt was especially fond of. It was his best friend, Tai Kamiya.
Yes, the chocolate-eyed boy with the tousled brown mass atop his noggin called hair. The one with the love for rocky road ice cream and everything soccer. The one who would visit her every day, without fail, at the flower shop where she helped her mom. The one who knew what she was afraid of, and what she was allergic to. He was the love of her life, the apple of her eye, the potential father of her children-she could go on forever. Even with his vulgar language and his tendency to be very slovenly she knew that if he gave her one more chance she would do everything in her power to keep him...
Hopefully even after that fight they had on Wednesday.
Matt read her eyes very clearly after that sigh. "There is, isn't there? Don't tell me..." He paused and looked up with exaggerated thoughtfulness. "Is it Tai?"
Sora winced at the name. She felt guilty...so inexpressibly guilty...but it was the right thing to do. She nodded sullenly. "Don't blame him okay? You know how he felt about me even when we were little kids... It's my fault."
"So you're saying that if I didn't ask you out first, you would have gone out with...Tai?"
Sora closed her eyes and shook her head. Now she was frustrated too. "Look, Yamato. I don't know! I don't have an 'alternative lifestyle' fortune teller ball to tell me what might have been! All I know is that I loved you...but honestly, I think I've loved Tai even before you…and I don't think that feeling ever went away," she said softly.
"So you've been cheating on me with Tai?" He could feel the skin around his knuckles tightening as his fists clenched. His blood boiled at the thought of the girl he loved with his best friend.
"NO! No of course not! He doesn't even know…he doesn't know how I feel." The end of her sentence turning into a soft whisper.
He wordlessly stood up to leave.
"Yamato!"
"Will you stop calling me that? It's Matt! MATT! I can't believe this Sora! After two years!" Sora sulked back into her seat, embarrassed because she was suddenly very aware that they had an audience. Curious eyes watched the two silently. Matt stomped out of the café, hurt and confused. Sora wasn't doing too well either. Sora's breath trembled as it escaped her mouth. Matt really knew how to make a scene...
She stood up and followed him out the door. "Matt! Please, don't hate me... I just did what I thought was right," Sora called after him. When he didn't turn around, she shut her eyes tightly, knowing that she deserved it. Matt was going to be mad at her for a while-and she didn't know how long it would last-but she knew he deserved to know how she felt before anyone else. It broke her heart that she hurt him, but she wasn't in love with him anymore. With one last look at Matt Ishida's retreating back, she wore a troubled expression, stuffed her hands in her pockets and walked the opposite direction.
Now for step two.
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Mrs. Takenouchi had given her daughter the day of that Friday because the customers had been complaining that she was incompetent. There was something about her eyes that day... She seemed so distant and preoccupied with some exhausting thoughts that had to be cleared up immediately or she knew her daughter would never sleep peacefully again-let alone sleep, period.
So Sora floated out of that flower shop, consumed in her own unnerving thoughts, off to do whatever she needed to do to get that huge load off of her shoulders.
Mrs. Takenouchi knew she was having love problems-and she also figured that it possibly had something to do with that Tai Kamiya. That boy was always hanging around the flower shop just to see her...
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She was lucky that Tai was also working today because, then, she'd be able to find him easily. Tai was exactly the easiest person to find, even in the little city of Odaiba. Fortunately, today, she could catch him in one spot.
She entered the restaurant and scanned the building for Tai's trademark hair. She just didn't understand herself when she told herself that today was the day that everything had to change...hopefully change for the better. Or she could end up lonely and heartbroken, the perfect karma for leaving Matt so suddenly.
A young woman escorted Sora to a table where she sat silently as the young woman placed a menu in front of her. She wasn't going to eat. She couldn't eat. In fact she hadn't eaten in three days because of this internal conflict.
Today would be the bane of her love-life, or the best thing she's ever done.
"Um, excuse me Miss? Do you think you can ask that guy to be my waiter?"
"Sorry, but he's waiting on four tables. You'll have to wait," the girl said, a bit snobbishly. Sora snarled at her when she turned her back to leave.
She's not getting a tip, Sora thought.
"Sora?" Sora turned her attention to the boy holding two trays of food. "What are you doing here? Don't you have work?"
Sora stood up, in spite of herself and awkwardly stepped up to him. "I have to talk to you...this is urgent," she whispered.
"Can't I meet you after work? I'll be done in an hour."
"It can't wait an hour Tai! I haven't eaten, I haven't slept, I haven't been working well! I don't know why this is going to my head! I don't usually let things like this go to my head! It's a good thing my mom owns that shop or I would have been fired by now for being incompetent, according to many of our customers," Sora explained hurriedly, her hands flailing destroying her attempt to keep a cool façade.
"Okay, okay, calm down. Just let me put these down. Go to the bathroom. I'll meet you there."
Sora quickly hurried to the bathroom and locked it. She glanced at herself in the mirror and turned the faucet on.
All right. Just...just calm down. It will be all over soon... Just stop panicking! People do this all the time. People in Odaiba do this all the time... Tai did it, so long ago...and I stupidly rejected him then. And now, I'm really wondering if he's going to do the same to me. The thought disturbed and hurt her a lot. But then again, she believed that whatever bad things happened in the near future, she deserved it.
A soft knock came from the door. Sora quickly opened it and found a confused Tai waiting right outside. He had just put on an apron after a customer's kid spilled some food all over the floor, and with such great luck, Tai was waiting on that particular customer.
"So what is it?"
He's so oblivious...good...no, not good! What am I doing? Sora pulled him into the bathroom and locked the door.
"I have to tell you something. It's been bothering me ever since Wednesday..." Tai's eyes flew up to her.
So she's still thinking about that too, he thought, languorously wiping the excess food on his arms. Was he in trouble?
"Look. I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean for it to happen. I don't know why I kissed you-" Tai began blathering frantically. Sora placed a calming finger to his lips and shook her head.
"I'm not mad. The thing is, I think I have feelings for you. And it's not the kind of feelings you feel for you friends, but-a different kind... I know it's kind of late for me to tell you this because of Matt, the fight we had, and the awkwardness between us lately, but I had to tell you Tai...it was literally killing me."
Tai couldn't believe his ears. Was Sora really professing her love to him? But... "But what about Matt? He's your boyfriend. I couldn't do that to him," he said with uncertainty.
"I know. I couldn't either...so I broke up with him. Today. Right before I came here," she said despondently. She didn't know how she could ever face Matt again.
"How'd he take it?" Tai was afraid to ask. Inside, he was upset for Matt, but strangely giddy that Sora was finally available again after all these years! No...he had to suppress that feeling. It was never going to work not with the friendship he had with Matt and the friendship he thought he had with Sora...
"Bad. I don't think he's going to be talking to me for a while... I don't know if I should have done it so suddenly, but I would have never been able to break it off with him it if I didn't do it today." She paused to see if he had anything to say, but he was still in shock. She continued. "Tai, I'm sorry I got mad at you for kissing me on Wednesday...I was just scared and unaccustomed to feeling this way... I'm in love with you Taichi Kamiya and I'm still trying to figure out why I didn't know this before."
Tai still remained silent. Sora's heart hammered in her chest. She could hear the pounding in her ears because of the uncomfortable silence that seemed to settle and seethe right between them. The pounding was becoming so unbearable she wanted to shake Tai and make him speak.
Tai sighed and looked at his watch. "Um...Sora...I don't know what to-um I don't know what to say. Look, I have to work. Do you think we can do this later?" He looked aloof, almost apathetic, averting her eyes as he stood before her.
With that, Sora's hopes vanished completely. She was crushed. That was it...that was the rejection I needed to make my deteriorating fate come true. Crest of love...I can't believe I was given that... and look at me! Sora felt she was going to cry. There was an ache behind her eyes that she knew would eventually cause tears, but she forced them to stay in.
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from tearing up. She came for an answer. Now she had her answer.
"Yeah...of course... Sorry I bothered you at work Tai. I'm-I'm really, really sorry," Sora apologized hoarsely. She was suddenly aware of how dry her throat was. And his face was so hard to look at. She couldn't look at him because she knew he would see her cry, and she really didn't want that. Sora touched the doorknob and got ready to walk out of that restaurant, completely and utterly embarrassed.
Unexpectedly, a hand flew up to the one Sora put on the doorknob. Despite herself, her watery crimson eyes looked up into his serious brown ones.
"Sora-" he began.
Sora shook her head rapidly. "No-I know I hurt you, and I'm sorry about everything-"
"Will you let me finish one sentence?" Tai asked, quite forcefully. He grabbed her hand and held it between both of his. Sora watched with watery doe-eyes as he lifted her hand up to kiss it. "I love you Takenouchi. I always have-and even if you did continue your relationship with Matt, as much as that would have sucked, I would have still loved you. Even if you got married to him-or someone else-and got ugly and spotted, lined and mangled and disfigur-"
"I get it," Sora interrupted him.
Tai smiled sheepishly. "What I'm trying to say is, even if we did end up with different people throughout our lives, I would still love you unconditionally. I would never love anyone as much as I love you Sor. It's just—right now—it's too much for me to swallow in one day, heck, in one hour! You know I'm not very good with words..."
Sora couldn't speak. Now it was her turn to be shocked. And still, the tears were threatening to escape and she didn't know if she could hold them off any longer. This time, the reason for those tears weren't from being heartbroken, it was from that ecstatic, warm, happy feeling in her gut that she hoped would never go away.
"For you to say you love me was this-this far away dream for me. Yeah, that sounds really weird, bizarre and corny coming from me, but it's true. You and Matt seemed so happy together."
"We were, but there was always something missing…for me at least." Sora looked up at him with a shy smile.
Tai launched his famous lopsided grin at that and pulled her forward, causing her to fall against him. Sora chuckled as she hesitantly brought her arms around his waist, still looking up into his dark eyes. He ran his fingers through her auburn hair and gently kissed her forehead before his lips proceeded towards hers. She trembled at the thought of his lips touching hers.
And then it happened. The kiss was gentle and comforting for Sora so she was able to suppress the stubborn tears. She returned the kiss, pressing her lips against his with certainty, her arms wrapping tightly around him. Tai on the other hand was fighting the urge to start leaping with joy. This was something he never, ever thought he'd be able to do with her. Soon enough, their kiss became less chaste as Tai's tongue softly tapped against Sora's teeth before she allowed him in. Her mouth was soft and warm as she returned the kiss with more intensity and fury. Tai thought he had died and gone to some sort of alternate universe.
Inside, he still couldn't believe it was actually happening. Sora was finally his. And he was hers. The thought only made him hold her closer against him as they continued their passionate kiss.
Finally yin and yang had aligned themselves creating the unsuspecting fate that Sora had so yearned for after the fateful Wednesday that seemed so far away now...
"Get outta that damn bathroom, some of us need to take a deuce!"
Despite the banging on the door, the screaming, and the rabid death threats, the new couple seemed to drown them all out, absorbed in the unfamiliar feeling of being complete.
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End.
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A/N: What possessed me to write this particular type of fic, I don't know, but I do know that I wrote it, so please read it (and hopefully, maybe review)! I hope you enjoyed the can of corny I just opened.
