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"Who do you think wore the Goggles best?"
Tai had barely been back in his apartment for ten minutes before someone knocked on his door. Having not been expecting anyone, he tried to list off names of who his visitor could be as walked to the door. Of course, the small size of the space meant he didn't get far on his list.
"Yo!" Davis cheered once the door was open.
"Hey..." Tai's confusion kept his response from having the same energy as Davis. "Everything okay?"
Tai stepped aside to let Davis pass through the doorway. Looking him over, Davis seemed his usual self, not particularly distressed in any way Tai could see. The oddest thing he could pinpoint at the moment was that Davis was holding his goggles rather than wearing them.
"Oh yeah! Everything's great! I just, uh..." Davis hesitated for a moment before presenting the goggles to Tai. "...needed to bring you these."
Tai paused, just long enough to figure out what was happening. "Those are yours, Davis."
"And they were yours first!" Davis beamed before adopting a more neutral expression. "Look, when you passed these on to me, you said the leader of the Digidestined wouldn't look right without them."
"I remember." Tai scratched the back of his head, not sure how to get across that he couldn't accept the goggles back. "So?"
Davis shrugged. "The thing is, I'm not the leader anymore."
"Neither am I."
"Yeah, I guess not." Davis briefly looked away and contemplatively placed a hand on his chin. "There's so many of us these days, I guess no one really can be."
"So keep 'em." Tai wasn't entirely sure why they were having this conversation. He had never once regretted giving Davis the goggles, so he wasn't about to just let him give them away out of some misplaced sense of self doubt. That said, unless he was being completely oblivious at the moment, Tai wasn't sensing any conflict coming off of Davis.
"But it doesn't feel right," Davis argued with a confident smile on his face, basically confirming that he had made up his mind. Davis seemed resolved and at peace with this decision. He wasn't giving up the goggles because he thought he wasn't good enough, but choosing to let them go.
"Why not?" Tai took a step forward and gestured to the goggles. "When I gave you these, the idea was that you'd eventually pass them on to the right person later on down the line."
Davis tilted his head and glanced upward, almost making a show of considering what was being said to him. "But how do I know who the right person is?"
"Trust your gut."
"My gut says you."
Tai raised an eyebrow. "Not for nothing, Davis, but this kinda feels like you're trying to get me to do your homework for you."
Davis shook his head. "Tai, every time I've ever been backed into a corner, I've asked myself what you would do, and that's never let me down. A lot of other people look up to you too, and we're all only here because you led the way for us."
Tai's first instinct was to argue, tell Davis how he had proven himself over and over again, and shouldn't settle for placing himself in Tai's shadow. That was, until Davis presented the goggles one more time, and Tai realized what this argument was actually about.
It wasn't about Davis' doubts, or the goggles as a symbol to passed between generations of Digidestined. It was about what the goggles had represented to Tai, and his own fears and doubts that bubbled up whenever he looked at them. With that in mind, he realized what he had to do.
"Fine," Tai conceded. "I'll hold on to them, but only for now to make sure you don't lose them."
Even before saying it, Tai knew neither of them was buying this reasoning. Looking at the goggles, it was plainly obvious how much Davis had cared for them over the years, and Kari had once described Tai's ability to lose things as legendary.
"Alright!" Davis place the goggles in Tai's hands. "Now I gotta head out before I'm late for work."
Tai gave a wave as Davis took off down the hallway without another word. After closing the door behind him, Tai dropped his attention back to the goggles in his hands.
A lot had changed in the years since he had given these to Davis, a lot that had made him question his place in the world. The distortions leading to the rebooting of the Digital World came with Tai being unsure of himself in ways he never had before. Even years after the conflict had resolved, the decisions made still lingered in his mind from time to time. Just as often as telling himself that destroying Meicoomon was the only way to save both worlds, Tai told himself that there had to have been another option.
The goggles seemed to be amplifying these voices, leading to Tai resolving to stop dwelling on them for the time being. After all, they weren't serving any practical purpose at the moment, as Izzy had designed no less than three iterations of goggles that specialized in scanning for digital anomalies.
Tai walked across the room and placed them in the same drawer he kept his DigiVice, that way he would know exactly where they were if he ever needed them.
Author's Note:
The kernel to this one goes back two years to Kizuna's first release. Unless I'm misinterpreting, the implication was that Tai's goggles are in fact the same ones he had as a kid, which means Davis gave them back at some point. I had trouble coming up with a scenario where Davis would do this, let alone where Tai would accept them back.