Tai and Izzy arrived at the Kamiya residence, not without some resistance from the shorter red head.

"Now, I remember why I shouldn't have told you," Izzy grumbled.

"Just get it over with. I'm sure once you guys talk it out," Tai paused looking down at his injury.

"What?"

Tai shook his head, "nothing, just my arm started to hurt a little." He knocked on the door and was greeted by the petite, demur, and sweet face of his little sister. Tai smiled, "congratulations, Kari." He pulled her into a big brotherly hug with a couple of strong pats on her back.

Kari coughed. "Tai!" she protested.

Izzy's face turned a couple of shades red, and then blue, and then an odd shade of purple, "congratulations on your graduation, Miss Kamiya." He bowed respectfully.

Kari cocked her head to the side, "Izzy!" She caught him up in a hug, "I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear. "Thank you so much for coming."

Izzy mechanically let go and nodded.

"You okay Izzy? You look like you are going to be sick," T.K. called to him from inside the apartment.

"You might want to ask Kari about that," Tai goaded.

"Tai!" Kari punched his arm.

"Ow!" Tai cradled his arm. His face contorted slightly.

"Hey, what happened?" she peeled his hand off his arm and inspected the site. "What happened? Joe, can you take a look at this," she led Tai into the living area where most of the friends had convened.

"It's nothing," Tai muttered.

"Digimon," Izzy started. "Some weird guy appeared out of nowhere. He attacked Tai with this." Izzy lifted up the sword they had brought with them.

"It's black," Matt said as the group closed in on the item.

"Let me look," Joe pulled Tai back from the group to check on his arm.

"Is it the same material as the spires and the gears?" Sora asked.

"I would guess, but I haven't examined it yet," Izzy replied.

"This can wait, guys. It's my little sister's graduation party. I'm not going to let a new evil Digimon ruin it for her," Tai said forcefully. Everybody stared in silence at Tai.

"What?" he frowned at his friends.

"That's not like you," Davis started. Everybody nodded.

"Priorities, Davis. It is just one night; we will figure it out in the morning. But for now, we need to celebrate. Joe, what's taking so long?"

"Honestly, Tai, I've never seen an injury quite like this," Joe said.

"It's just a scratch, really," Tai looked down at the wound. The original scratch was still there, but there seemed to be a slightly gray black discoloration spreading around it. "Really," he assured Joe. Joe studied Tai's expression. Tai smiled and lifted Joe's hand off of his arm.

"At least let me dress it with a bit of gauze," Joe offered.

Tai nodded. "I'm more angry about the suit…"

The room had become silent. Several of the friends stared at each other sharing their fears with simple glances.

"Matt brought his guitar," Sora offered. "We could do something of a karaoke thing."

"Just don't let Yolei sing!" Davis chimed in followed by a yelp after being shoved.

Tai smiled as the conversation started kicking up. Matt pulled the guitar over his blond locks and strummed a few chords on the guitar. Tai caught Matt sending a grin over to Sora, who nodded knowingly in response. Tai sighed at the exchange. Sora caught a glimpse of Tai's reaction and stood, "sit down, Tai." She pointed to an empty seat on the couch.

Cody and Davis were the first impromptu singers to be volunteered, or rather "voluntold" to perform. Davis rather enjoyed being the center of attention, however Cody needed more encouragement. Tai said down at Sora's insistence and carefully looked around at his friends. Most of them were staring at him and glanced away quickly when they caught Tai's eye.

Matt strummed out a favorite child's song, Davis protested and Cody froze. Everybody started contributing song ideas or suggestions for the singers and the party pulled back into full swing. Tai smiled and said softly, "that's better."

"I think so," Sora responded.

Tai smiled at her, "thank you."

"Of course, don't worry about it."

"Matt's very talented," Tai said awkwardly.

Sora nodded. "So, what's with Izzy?"

Tai chuckled, "poor guy sticks out like a sore thumb, doesn't he?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say there was a girl involved," Sora sighed.

"Wow, that's incredibly perceptive," Tai said, impressed.

Sora looked around the room, without any change in expression so as to not add to Izzy's embarrassment, asked, "who?"

"Strangely enough, my little sister," Sora stared at Tai. Tai smiled, "she caught him off balance with a kiss."

"Go Kari," Sora giggled.

"I was kind of surprised," Tai relented.

"Why? Izzy is very sweet," Sora offered.

"I don't know, I figured she'd want someone a bit more exotic," Tai replied.

"Girls don't always want that," Sora smiled.

"That's the tricky part, figuring out what girls want," Tai said. "Sometimes just trying to find out what one girl wants."

"Oh, it's not that difficult Tai," Sora grinned up at Tai.

"Really?" Tai cleared his throat studying Sora's eyes.

Sora cleared her throat, "Tai, uhm… I thought you were over that."

"Same here," Tai let out a long breath staring at the ground. "Is it warm in here?"

Sora shook her head, and looked up at Tai, "no, but you are looking kind of pale, Tai."

"Must be the company," he muttered. Sora raised her eyebrows at him. "I don't mean that, I'm sorry. Here, excuse me a second," Tai apologized quickly.

"Sure," she responded slowly.

She looked up at Matt sharing a concerned expression. Matt shrugged slightly as he accompanied Ken and Yolei on a duet.

Tai ran cold water into the sink of the bathroom, splashing his face several times. He looked at himself in the mirror, "what's wrong with me?" He blotted his face dry taking several deep breaths. He clasped his arm, "it's worse than I thought. Just got to make it until the morning. Got to fight it until the morning…" He walked out mildly refreshed, smiling kindly at the frivolity surrounding Matt and his guitar.

He scanned the room looking for his sister or Izzy. He frowned slightly walking nonchalantly by the adjacent room, which served as a study. He caught a glimpse of Izzy sitting on the floor across his sister. He leaned against the door jam out of sight of the two.

"Izzy, I can't tell you how sorry I am," Kari blushed. "I don't know what came over me, but I don't want to lose your friendship after this. I mean, I understand that if you need time, you need time, but please… please, please, please still be my friend," she gushed.

Izzy stared at the floor, his facial countenance still red, "Kari…" he said softly.

They sat across from each other, staring at the floor. Neither of them was comfortable with the silence. Neither of them was comfortable saying anything. Izzy's mind was going millions of miles an hour, but he couldn't find any words to say.

"I guess I need to get back to the party… it is mine after all," Kari said.

Izzy nodded, but neither of them moved. Finally, Kari made a move to stand.

"Kari," Izzy repeated. Kari stopped and looked at the nervous young man. His throat had turned to cotton. "95 percent of me wants to run out that door. I am not comfortable with people in general, much less,…"

"Girls?" Kari offered softly.

"Yeah," Izzy's eyes widened. "But uh… I can't stop thinking about… about it. I am so useless when it comes to…"

Kari nodded.

Izzy cleared his throat, "you are so beaut…" he stopped, "so amazing, talented, strong, pure…"

Kari's eyes glistened

He looked up at her, "beautiful."

Kari covered her mouth with her hand, biting back the tears as best as she could.

Tai smirked and caught the eyes of several of the digi-destined in the room. He held up a finger to his mouth and motioned his head towards the door.

"Like I said, most of me didn't want to even think about trying. You've always been like a little sister to me. Then there is Davis and T.K. It seemed obvious that you would be more interested in them."

"Izzy," Kari interrupted.

Izzy held up a finger, "What it boils down to, Hikari Kamiya is that I can't get you out of my head." He thought for a minute, "and I kind of like it."

Kari let out a quick breath.

"I don't know what you are looking for, or even if I am what you are looking for. But I want to try. I want to see you more. I want to talk with you more. I want to," he blushed, "kiss you more." Izzy clasped Kari's hand between his hands. "That is… if you are still interested…"

"Izzy," Kari reached out with her other hand and touched his face slightly. She stopped suddenly and looked beyond Izzy. "Should I be selling tickets?"

"Tickets?" Izzy looked behind him to see their friends had all piled into the door jam. Upon being spotted, Davis yelped and the lot of them fell in a jumbled heap on the floor.

"Ow! Davis your knee is in my back!" Yolei complained.

"Get off!" T.K. shouted from beneath the pile.

Each of the group picked themselves up as graceful as possible and gave an embarrassed smile upon leaving the room. Yolei smiled and gave a thumbs-up signal, while others grinned. Sora's smile spread from ear to ear, Matt gave a bemused expression.

Izzy covered his face with his hands, "I hate all of you…"

Tai lingered in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, his face light and gentle. "Never knew you were such a poet, Izzy."

Izzy let out a growl of frustration. Tai chuckled and headed out of the room.

"Embarrassed?" Kari asked quietly.

"Yep, new level of utter humiliation," he sighed.

"Perhaps this will help," Kari held his chin up and kissed him gently. Izzy stood, offering his hand to Kari. She accepted and stood up next to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her close smiling shyly.