T.K. woke up with a warm, fuzzy feeling in his stomach, partly due to the fact that Kari's light had healed the fatal wound only hours ago, and partly because when he looked down he noticed a familiar brown head resting on his bare chest. Kari was lying beside him in his bed with her head just below his shoulder and her left arm wrapped around his torso.
The shock of waking up like this with her was quickly pushed aside he studied her face while she slept. The light streaming through his windows led him to believe that it was morning, Saturday morning, the day of the dance. He thought about how he had failed at asking Kari to go with him.
Suddenly he felt very uncomfortable being this close to her, remembering how irritated she had been with him. But then he thought of all that had happened since then. Seeing her once again struggling against Devimon's fist in his mind caused him to wrap his arms around her lithe body. He didn't hold her too tight, but it would be a while before he would let her go.
Sensing the change in him, Kari stirred in his arms before opening her eyes. Instinctively, she stretched out her limbs before she came to the realization that she was not alone in the bed. With a jolt, her head snapped up to look him in the eyes.
T.K. didn't wait to start his apologies, but Kari cut him off. She smiled one of her heart wrenching, earth shattering smiles at him and his heart melted. "Good morning," she said softly, trying to hold back a laugh at his hair, which was sticking out at odd angles. She sat up and made to climb out of the bed, but when the cold air of the room hit her, she thought better of it and curled back up with him under his blankets.
They lay there like that for a long while, unsure how long exactly because they both lost track of time. They were silent, but not awkwardly so, not needing to say anything. Kari was the one to finally interrupt the peace.
"T.K.?" she half whispered, thinking he might have fallen back asleep.
"Hmm?" he responded, in a barely audible hum.
She rolled over onto her side and propped herself with her elbow so that she was facing him. Slowly her eyes traveled from his face down his chest and below to his rib cage. T.K. blushed, acutely aware that he was half naked. Kari placed her hand on the smooth skin of his chest where just hours ago the gaping sword wound had been.
She stared at her hand for a moment, a distracted look on her face. T.K. didn't understand what she was doing at first, but her touch brought back the memory. He remembered watching the sword strike him, before he passed out. The funny thing was, he couldn't remember any sense of the wound ever paining him.
Kari looked back into his clear, blue eyes. "Does it hurt?" she asked, gently and most obviously concerned for him.
"No," T.K. realized that there was not only no memory of pain, but also no lingering stiffness or tenderness at all. He did feel a little queasy inside, but he figured that was just because the girl he had been in love with for years was wearing his underwear and practically sitting on top of him in his bed while he was half naked. T.K. could feel his blood rising to his face as these new thoughts broke through. His eyes met Kari's once again and he could tell that she was on the verge of tears.
All of T.K.'s grogginess vanished immediately as he sat up in the bed beside her. "What's wrong?" he asked, wondering just what had happened after he passed out. Almost unconsciously, his arms slipped around her and pulled her to him. She didn't resist, as he half expected she would, but instead returned his embrace.
"You were dying…" she whispered into his neck, "I didn't know what to do…." Understanding flooded into T.K. and he held her a little tighter. "I don't ever want to be mad at you again."
"Me either, Kari," T.K. responded as he sort of pulled her away from him; at least enough so that he could kiss her. When their lips met the world stopped. T.K. felt her light inside of him and he knew that she had saved him. It didn't really matter to him though; she was the only thing important to him at the moment.
Kari had been a little surprised when T.K. kissed her, but recovered quickly from her shock and was soon returning his kiss with just as much passion. He deepened the kiss as her hands disheveled his already disarrayed hair. It was then Kari realized that whatever she had been telling herself about being only friends with T.K. was completely out the window. She knew then that she loved him. Had always loved him. She wanted to tell him how she felt but she didn't want him to stop kissing her.
With her arms around his neck she laid back onto the bed, pulling him down with her. He freed her mouth and tilted his head down to kiss her neck. His caressing hands slipped underneath her (really his) shirt, touching the silky skin of her stomach and sides. Their lips were meeting once again when they heard a cough from somewhere in the room beyond them.
"Were they having sex?" Patamon whispered to Gatomon, who rolled her eyes at him.
"No!" she told him, clearly understanding what he did not. "Don't you watch T.V.?"
Kari and T.K. both laughed as the untangled themselves from each other. "Oh," Patamon replied, blushing. "Well does this mean that you two are going to the dance together then?"
"The dance!" Kari exclaimed, "It's Saturday! The dance is tonight!" T.K. and the two stared at the girl as they saw the beginning of a panic attack. "I don't have shoes. I don't have a dress. I don't even have a date!"
It was T.K.'s turn to cough. "Well, not to sound like Davis and repeat myself over and over, but, would you like to go to the dance with me?"
Kari smiled and leaned in towards him, "I would love to go to the dance with you," she said as she kissed him briefly on the lips. T.K. was a little disappointed with such short contact, but as T.K. went to pull her back to him, she jumped out of bed and was racing out of the bedroom.
A moment later she appeared in the doorway, "It's ten o'clock!" she cried, "Yolei's going to kill me! My parents are going to kill me!"
T.K. pulled his cordless telephone out from under his bed and casually handed it to her. "You're parents won't be that upset; I talked to them yesterday. I told your mom that we were going back to the digital world last night, but you should probably call her."
Kari nodded and dialed the phone, "Hi mom," she said a minute later. "Yes I'm alright. I'm sorry for not calling sooner, but I guess I was exhausted last night." T.K. pulled a shirt on as Kari sat down on the bed. "Yeah," she nodded, agreeing with whatever her mother was saying. "Okay, I'll be home in a little while, Yolei and I have appointments at the salon this morning. Okay, bye."
"Kari, maybe this isn't such a good idea…" T.K. said after she hung up.
"What do you mean T.K.?"
"Well, Piedmon's still out there isn't he? How can we just go around like everything's normal while he's terrorizing the digital world? What if he tries to kidnap you again?"
"Here's what I think: Piedmon's stronger than he was last time and it's going to take more than Angemon and Angewomon to defeat him now. I think we should go to the dance tonight and then call everyone together tomorrow and take him down." Kari explained.
T.K. agreed with her, but replied, "And how are we going to keep him from trying to pull you into the digital world?"
"Well…" Kari thought, "I don't know. But if Gatomon stays close to me and I keep my digivice with me, if I do get pulled in, you're digivice will tell you and then you can get everyone and come save me again." She smiled and slid her arms around him.
He returned the hug, but shook his head no, not liking to idea at all. Kari laughed softly, "Would you rather just stay like this?"
"Well, actually…"
"Please T.K.? This is important to Yolei, and I want to be there for her. Come on, I promise you'll have fun."
T.K. gave in, "Alright," he said leaning down and kissing her just as Gatomon and Patamon entered the room. Kari and T.K. broke apart and T.K. looked over at Gatomon, "Don't let her out of your sight," he said to the digimon.
"The same goes for you Patamon," Kari said about T.K., "I don't want to miss the dance because I have to go rescue you." They kissed again and it was Kari who pulled away first. "I have to get going. Yolei is going to be so mad at me, I think our appointments were at nine thirty."
"Umm…Kari…" Patamon said, "We have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is…we shrunk you're clothes."
"The good news is," Gatomon interrupted, holding up Kari's pink and white T-shirt, "now I can dress up like you."
The four of them headed towards the front door of the apartment laughing at Gatomon's new wardrobe. Kari looked down at T.K.'s shirt and boxer shorts, "Do you mind if I hold on to these for a little while?"
He laughed but said, "It's no big deal." He opened the door for her and gave her a tender kiss goodbye. "So I'll see you at six?"
"Okay, be careful," she said as she and Gatomon made their way to the stairwell.
"You to," he called out as she continued up the flights of stairs to Yolei's floor.