"Biyomon?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think?"

"What do I think, or what should you do?"

"Both would be nice," Sora joked biting into a bite size chocolate candies as both she and mon laid out in patio furniture the following evening staring at the stars. Keiko was fast asleep after an active school day.

Biyomon smirked. "I think two men are confusing already as it is and you should stop hogging the chocolate."

"Wha – I'm not hogging. What happened to your box?"

"Shucks," the bird snapped her fingers. "Almost had it this time."

"Biyomon, I'm serious. Yamato and I have history. I mean, we can connect in a much deeper level and been through so much together. And now that he came back… Oh, I don't know. But then, there's Ritsuo," her voice became softer resting her hands on her stomach. "I mean I agree that he holds, uh, how did you put it?"

The mon turned her head to face her. "A freakish resemblance to Yamato?"

"Yeah! He's kind-hearted, puts other's first. Biyomon, did I tell you that I can tell this man anything deep and he could relate to it and vise versa? It's just amazing. On top of that, I love that daughter of his like there's no tomorrow. There's a part of me that wants a family."

"Can I be honest with you?"

Sora held a sheepish face. "Uh oh. Sure."

"It seems to me you found a clone replacement. And now that the two of them are in the same city, as weird as it may sound, you don't want to let go of any of them. Two for the price of one. Man, I'm good."

Roughly, she let air out staring back at the stars. "At least I didn't take the chicken way out by using the answering machine on Ritsu."

Biyomon stuffed a handful of chocolate in her mouth. "Wow. Is that how you did it? No wonder Yamato was so distort. Speaking of which, didn't Ritsuo call on your break? What did he say?"

Sora placed a hand on her forehead rubbing it closing her eyes. "Oh, that. That was interesting. Listen to this."

The Phone Call with Ritsuo

"Rest assure, Ritsuo, Keiko is in excellent care."

"I'm not doubting. It's just when I see an article – several in fact, about someone I care about in newspapers and online with pictures of you in your robe I have to admit, it is alarming."

In other words, you're saying you have doubts."

"No. I'm saying be careful with that man. No. You know what? As long as my daughter is there, stay away from him."

"Ritsuo! Do you realize you're asking me to stay away from a close friend?" She pinched her eyes knowing how hypocritical she sounded. Good thing none of her good friends worked with her.

"What type of man kills cats and lets you go outside in a robe?"

"Ritsuo–"

"I still can't get over that."

"Ritsuo, listen –"

"Go to dinner with me."

For a minute there she thought she forgot how to breathe. "What?"

"It's been a long time since I've dated, but…Come on. I'll be back Monday in time for your fashion show. Can we go afterwards?"

She blushed. "You just don't give up, do you? What happened the last time we tried? Or did that memory mysteriously vanished?"

"So what if we agreed to be friends that time, or the time before that. I can't get you out of my head, Sora."

"Hmm. Do they teach guys pickup lines on the side? I knew this wasn't solely a call to check up on Keiko. Work beckons."

"Say yes."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll continue to call."

"I'll have a message taken," she grinned thinking she settled that.

"And in it will say eight o'clock dinner, then a movie. Sounds good?"

"Sounds too cliché to me."

"I'll just have to surprise you then, won't I?"

Butterflies danced in her stomach. "Surprises are good."

Present Time

"Whoa," Biyomon sat up in her chair Indian-style.

"See?" Sora did the same. "What do you think?"

"What do I think, or what should you do?"

She wrang her wrists. "Both would be nice."

"Well, the natural thing to do would be to make up your mind before anything develops so that no one gets hurt."

"Right."

"So, make up your mind."

The fashion designer took an outside cushion squishing it to her face giving a frustrated growl. So much for that. "I need more time! Why couldn't I tell him that? Yamato and I made a pact. Why couldn't I tell him that?"

"Since you're asking me I'm guessing you're in Pandora-mode."

"Who?"

"Pandora-mode. You know, the girl that let her curiosity get the best of her." The mon continued seeing she had no idea of the fable. "She was told to never open the box. Curiosity got to her, opened it, and dark things were leashed out into the world. Keep playing in Pandora-mode, girly, and watch what things might happen. Hey, do you have any of those cream-filled chocolates left?"

In the complex across from Sora's was Ken and Wormmon camouflaged in the dark starry night hiding behind objects off a porch. Ken removed the headphones he was wearing that had picked up the recent conversation. Tapping her apartment this morning proved to be successful. He heard everything he needed to hear.

"Did you get all of that, friend?"

Wormmon shut the recorder off, and removed his headphones as well. "Yep. Ken," the insect Digimon asked cautiously, "Were you looking through your binoculars too?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Maybe it's a dumb thought, but did you see how she placed her hands on her stomach when she mentioned Ritsuo? Do you think…Well, do you?"

He sighed lowering his head. "That Ritsuo may be the father? Is that what you're asking?"

"Yes."

"That was my impression. I wonder how many months she is," Ken stated looking through the binoculars again. "She couldn't be barely a month. If Yamato wouldn't have said anything at his welcome home party no one would have known. She doesn't even show."

Wormmon scratched an itch thinking out loud. "Taichi would have us call Jyou to see if we could get anything more out of him. He seemed somewhat weirded out whenever Mimi or Taichi would ask about the baby when she was in the hospital."

"You're right. Keep in mind there is such thing as a "Doctor-Patient" confidentiality. We won't know until we try, right? Let's go."

"Guess what, Mommy!" Keiko exclaimed skipping merrily out of school grounds and into Sora's arms for a big bear hug. The following day seemed to have flown by quickly. "Ms. Hikari told me a secret about you at recess when you were my age! I can use it for blackmail too!"

Sora pulled away alarmed. This woman couldn't think of anything she did at seven years to be considered horrible. "Come clean and the Little Rika manga stays."

Keiko's face turned pale. "You wouldn't."

"Dare me."

"You sure act guilty to me."

"I'm counting to three."

"You're bluffing."

"One…Two…Thr –"

"Stop! Stop! I found out that that Doll Boy is Ms. Hikari's big brother, and that you and he would take her dolls and use them as target practice for soccer. What is it with him and dolls? Don't touch my manga!"

Sora burst into a laughing fit. "She found out about that? Check that out!"

"She heard Doll Boy talking to you over the phone how cool it was that you came up with the plan to clean them after you'd finish," Keiko continued to spill. "I want my manga!"

"Some people would call you a stool pigeon," Gabumon cracked a joke from behind.

"Gabumon?" Sora turned only to find Yamato as well standing there. A warm feeling rushed all over as an uncontrollable smile crawled on her face. She stood to her feet holding Keiko's hand. Yes, there was no denying it. She still cared for this man. Did it have to be so hard to choose?

Keiko broke the love spell that was forming. "Was it always like this when you guys were kids? Yeesh. Get a room. Hey," she implied to Gabumon, "Are you a Digimon too?"

"Why, yes. I'm Gabumon. You must be Keiko."

"Cool! Can I touch your fur? Are your teeth sharp? Do you gots lots of cool moves? Can ya blink and wag your tail at the same time? Huh? Can ya? Can ya, can ya, can ya?"

"Yamato?" Gabumon's voice actually squeaked in fear in place of his normal husky voice while slowly backing away.

The Astronaut laughed nervously trying to help his partner out. "Hey, Gabumon, don't you have a meeting to attend?"

"Keiko," Sora softly corrected the child again seeing the fear in the Digimon.

"But I wanna touch it," she whined. Then she gasped. "Cool! It's not really your fur. It's a fur coat! Oh, now I gotta really see what's underneath."

"Keiko," Sora raised her voice while the mon made his dashed to his getaway. "When Gabumon gets back you owe him and Yamato an apology."

"Oh, no, that's okay. Really," Yamato objected kindly. "We all had that curiosity at one time."

For the second time the little grown-up gasped pointing to Yamato. "I figured out your game, mister! That's why ya kill cats! It's not for their blood. It's for their fur for your friend! He's bald all over!"

"Suzuki Keiko!" Sora ordered swiping away her pointing finger. How embarrassing. It had to happen in front of the cute guy.

"Bald all over?" Yamato laughed. "That's a good one! Wait until I tell him that." At least he wasn't twitching for once.

"Yamato," Sora began to apologize, "I'm sorry. She –"

"I said don't worry about it."

"But –"

"No sweat."

She turned to Keiko who then placed an ear-to-ear pearly smile. "No manga or Little Rika pickles until I say."

That smile quickly vanished.

The blonde placed both hands behind his neck clasped. "Work decided they could survive without me if I was let out early. I'm starved. How about you two beautiful ladies join me for an early dinner?"

"Uh, not sure. She has to stay in her routine."

Keiko crossed her arms in protest. "Can't I take a bath later?"

Sora raised a brow. "Then later turns into five minutes. Then not now. Then tomorrow. We're not going through that game again."

"No fair!"

"No Little Rika candies. That's fair."

"That's funny. And to think this all started with a walk down memory lane."

"You know, kid, you have a big mouth for a seven year old."

She smiled taking out a sheet of paper with five gold stars on it from her school bag. "Ms. Hikari said I should be a public speaker person. Look it!"

Both Fashion Designer and Astronaut closed their eyes from Keiko's innocence then looked at her smirking. What a trip.

"Gosh! Hiya, Sora!" Hikari greeted from the school grounds followed closely by Gatomon. "How are you?"

"Hi, Hikari and Gatomon!" Sora greeted hugging her friends. "When are we going to have a girl's night out?"

"That's what I've been wondering," Gatomon spoke. "If I don't get any relaxing time my ears and paws will start twitching from all the papers I help grade. Who would have thought a bunch of kindergartners would have papers to grade?"

"Twenty papers isn't hard, is it?" Hikari teased.

"All I know is my whiskers are pulling me in the direction of food and my nose is aching to follow it," the Digimon spoke taking a whiff in the air.

Yamato took the opportunity to speak up. "Speaking of food, why don't we all follow Gatomon's nose? It'll be on me. Sora, please? Just this once?"

The red head hesitated to answer when the child's needs came to mind.

"Keiko," Yamato said, "Help me out. Put that smile on again."

That ear-to-ear pearly smile flashed again.

Sora smirked at Yamato placing a hand over Keiko's mouth. "You are something else, using a kid to do your begging. Of all people."

He smiled putting his own dashing smile. "Did it work?"

"…Sorry. Responsibilities comes first. See you later. Hikari, call me."

Hikari and Gatomon watched the two walk off as Yamato just stood still lowering his head somewhat baffled on what to do next. They then looked at each other and nodded their head as if they had read the other's mind.

"Hold on, you three," Hikari spoke up jogging to Sora and Keiko while Gatomon took Yamato's hand bringing them towards the others. "What responsibility is this? Watching Keiko?"

Before the little grown-up could protest, Sora placed a hand over her mouth. "It's fine. Really."

"I'll watch her again. Sure! It'll be fun. Didn't we have fun two days ago, Keiko?" she insisted.

"Oh, boy!" Keiko shouted with glee swinging Sora's hand away from her mouth. "Can I go with Ms. Hikari, Mommy? Can I?"

"Well…Are you sure?" she asked the Bearer of Light.

"Yep. It may sound childish, but Gatomon and I got hooked on the Little Rika series. So we went to buy the first four seasons on DVD. We'll have a mini party."

Sora groaned at the mention of "Little Rika". For the past week that's all she'd lived, breathed, and ate. "Fine. She's yours."

If a shout could make any Digimon drop to the ground in terror, Keiko's sure did. Before Gatomon could see it coming she was taken by the paw as swift as lighting and was being tugged, or rather flapping in the wind, after the girl to Hikari's apartment. All three grownups watched in amazement as Gatomon's cries of plea minimized in the far distance until they turned into specks.

Sora broke away from watching finally as she placed a hand on Hikari's left shoulder. "Just make sure she takes a bath. I'll come by for her around eight-thirty. Thanks, and have fun!"

Hikari blinked. "Don't scare me. She wasn't hyper last time."

Yamato crossed his arms enjoying this entertainment. "You didn't have the first four seasons of Little Rika either. Man, you're the coolest teacher ever. Wait until the whole school finds out. So," he turned to Sora, "What are you in the mood for?"

Hikari's face paled.

There sat the two at a pizza joint in a booth laughing and chatting away. Strange. It seemed it always took pushing this woman to do something with him so she could relax. Far be it for a stranger to pass by and think this was an every day occurrence.

Sora wiped her hands and mouth with a napkin pleased. "Thanks so much. I don't normally eat out so this is a nice change. I didn't know how much I was starving today."

He chuckled. "I didn't know you could still eat a pizza and a half. Good thing I ordered two."

Her eyes widened. It was like if someone just slapped her. "I didn't mean to be rude. Gomen! It-It was just –"

Yamato's eyebrows scrunched with curiosity. "Why do you keep apologizing to me? If I remember correctly the last time we ate out I owed you a tab. We're even."

She covered her lips smiling remembering a moment that was long forgotten. "That was a little after our second anniversary, wasn't it?"

The joy that was once shone on Yamato lightly dimmed. He spoke in a solemn voice. "Yeah, it was."

Ah, yep. There was that uncomfortable silence. Everything that he did to overcome this evil enemy was shattered. This was Sora's perfect escape. This was her time to become lukewarm again and take off forgetting her promise to him at the hospital bed. The only problem with this was she was true to her word. Plus, the fact that at this moment she realized she hadn't gotten any stomach pains. She turned to face the window seeing a newly constructed playground swarmed with kids.

She turned back to her former boyfriend cocking her head to the side with much curiosity. "Follow me."

He looked at her subconsciously mimicking her same actions. "What's up?"

She bit her lip with excitement jumping from her seat. "Come on! They just built that playground a month ago. How good have you gotten with your blast offs?"

"My what?" he asked confused rushing to pay the tab to follow her out the door. "Wait up, Sora!" Two cars nearly ran over him when he tried to cross the street in a mad dash attempt to follow.

"The last time I did this – Well, who cares when. If I win," she proclaimed sitting down on a swing when Yamato had caught up, "Um…aaaahh…If I win, you have to dig your nose and show it to a kid aaaannnnnndd…" she couldn't contain her laughter. "All that, then flick it to an oncoming car. Deal?"

Yamato stared at her as if she had flipped her lid. He got what she was doing, but they were adults for crying out loud. A sudden laughter rolled out. Where was a video camera when you needed one? "I see your dare," he accepted her challenge sitting in the one besides her, "And I raise mine – If I win, I help you with that fashion show then we go on our date."

Her jaw dropped. "What happened with being childish?"

He only stared back with a sly grin waiting to see what she would do or say. "What's the matter? Chicken?"

She scrunched her eyebrows, nose and lips in disapproval. In a taunting tone she commanded, "Fly, Superman."

Despite the displeased looks from the kids, they carried on each jumping farther than the other. Being rusty just made them take longer. Before they knew it the sun was setting and the surrounding noises were somewhat diminished. Superman passed the test. There they sat leaning their heads on the swing chains exchanging stories from the past, laughing, and teasing each other.

"Okay, Captain," Yamato saluted, "What are the details on the fashion show."

"I'm not really sure what you can do. Everything's been taken care of."

"What?" He pretended to plunge a knife in his heart. "You can't do that. I can call default. Come on, Sora. Something behind the scenes. We used to do everything together."

Her eyes darted to the sky quickly thinking of something. "You can man the food table."

"You can't be serious."

The auburn red head let her shoes play in the dirt while thoughts rushed in her mind of the many jobs she could make up just for him. "I'll put you in something behind scenes. We wouldn't want the media to have a field day again. Not to worry. Yamato?"

He answered in silence giving his full attention. He just loved to hear her talk. It was just like before.

She nodded towards the setting sun. "Right at this time you'd be walking me home. That was always the best part of the day."

"Mine too," he agreed wholeheartedly.

Sora then looked down to her fingernails pushing back the cuticles. She was going to confess something deep from her soul. For some reason it was beginning to feel like things had never changed. This was how they always used to talk. "All the time I've spent avoiding you I've missed you even more. I'm glad your career has done well. I'm glad you came back."

"You missed me?" he asked inquiring, his hopes rising. The sixteen year old boy deep down inside was doing jumping jacks. It wasn't like he didn't hear her the first time she admitted it over the phone. It was just that now that he heard her say it again it was like music to his ears.

"…Yeah."

There she said it in person. Turn off the blushing! Turn it off! Dear Pandora's fingers were getting itchy around that box. It was like she figured out when she was in the hospital; that maybe she wouldn't be in his way if she allowed herself back in his life.

The blonde gaigin must have sensed that struggle inside of her. Hearing what she said was enough for him today. He kept the advice that his dad said to "take time". He stood to his feet stretching with a yawn. "Looks like I'll follow tradition and accompany you home, or, rather to Hikari's place for Keiko."

She stood to her feet biting her bottom lip fighting with her insides. Dare she do it? Was the box worth it?

"What?" Yamato took a second look back at her.

Never had he seen her like this; like the words would be on the tip of the tongue, but the mind wouldn't cooperate. No, wait. He took that back. There was that time when she confessed where she wanted to be ten years from then. That took a giant leap for both of them.

He placed his hands on her upper arms. "Is there something you want to say?"

She only nodded and swallowed a lump in her throat.

He flashed that handsome smile of his like nothing. "Come on, Sora. Don't make me guess."

She simply leaned in quickly giving a quick peck on his lips. Fear consumed her every being as she waited to see how Yamato would react.

Shock, then a relieved expression shown staring back into her fearful brown eyes. He reached out to cup her face hesitating once until finally, after all these years being denied, tasted her sweet, soft lips as she responded.

Love sure is intriguing, isn't it?

When they parted Sora's insides bubbled with joy until they exploded. She threw her arms around him in a tight hug and for no explanation whatsoever laughed. Just laughed. Laughed out her worries, her pain, and her anxiety. Before they both knew it Yamato did the same. At that moment things seemed to be resolved.

Oh, Pandora Sora, why did you open that box?