Litanya: I don't own Digimon. A big thank you to everyone who reviewed- I really appreciate your comments. Anyway, on with the fic! Oh, and the 25 years later thingy never happened- so 02 happened, but not the 25 years later stuff. Oh, and my knowledge of Paris is not very good- I have only been there once, and that was for about… six hours, and I was on a tour bus from Germany, so the tour was in German, and although I am an adequate beginner of the German language, I didn't understand it. So please tell me if there is something wrong with my knowledge of Paris, or French because I only learnt French for a short time.

The Island Holiday

Chapter 2: Arriving

Sora sighed as the movie she was watching finished. The movie had gone on for two hours, but they still had to endure another three hours of flight before they reached Paris.

"Hey Sora?" Tai asked to get her attention. She was daydreaming- or at least he thought she was- so he waited for her nod before he went on, "Do you speak French? I mean… I know that Matt does because of his grandparents live there, but do you speak it?" She just stared at him. She had forgotten about that. She remembered Matt telling her when they booked the trip that he wouldn't bother asking someone to show them around the city, as Matt knew French and so he could translate for her when needed. She didn't speak French- all that she knew how to say was 'Je ne parle pas français', meaning 'I don't speak French.' This was not good.

"No, I don't. I forgot about that because Matt booked everything, and he speaks fluent French, so it was no problem. What are we going to do? I doubt that there are many people in France who can speak Japanese. This is really not going well and we haven't even landed in France yet!" she put her head in her hands, trying to think of a way to solve the problem.

"Hey, its okay you know. I just asked if you spoke French, and it doesn't really matter if you don't. I speak French. Not fluently of course, but enough to get along," she pulled her head out of her hands and stared at him in amazement. She'd had no idea that he had even taken French class.

"How on Earth do you speak French? You better not be joking, otherwise I'll… where did you learn French?" he laughed at her look. He knew that he didn't look intelligent- he knew that he wasn't very intelligent too- but for some reason he had found that he could learn a new language relatively easily. At high school his timetable had been stuffed up, and for some reason the only class he could take had been French. So he had turned up to the class, and had been roped into doing it for a year. And for some mysterious reason that he didn't know about, the same mistake happened the next year as well. And so he had ended up taking French for six years, and he was quite good- the best in his class in fact. However, he knew that there was a lot that he needed to learn about the language.

"I took French for six years due to a timetable glitch. Why do you think that I was sent to Paris with T.K? Catherine spoke no Japanese at that time- didn't you notice her accent when she came? - And so I needed to speak French otherwise there would have been no way to communicate. Don't you know Russian? You went to Russia back then, didn't you?" she shook her head slightly.

"No, they spoke Japanese. I did find it odd when Catherine came here on that exchange program and misunderstood me when I asked her a few questions. Is that how you were able to ask her out and date her whilst she was here?" he nodded, wincing as he recalled his failed 'relationship' with the French digidestined. The break-up had not been fun. He had never told Sora and the others exactly why he and Catherine had broken up, and he never really planned on telling them. All that they knew was that it hadn't been nice and that he didn't want to talk about it with them. Ever.

"Of course. Did you really think that I would go out with a girl I couldn't even talk to? Everyone knew how bad Catherine's Japanese was at the beginning of the year… didn't anyone wonder how I not only managed to speak with her, but also ask her out when she barely knew how to put a conjunction into a sentence? I thought that people just assumed that I spoke French… but obviously not," she giggled as she remembered the many puzzled conversations that she had had with many of the digidestined once they had learnt that Tai was dating Catherine. Those conversations had all started with something along the lines of 'Did he ask her in Japanese and she nodded, not knowing what he was talking about?' Now she at least knew why everything had gone along how it had. But everyone had assumed that they had broken up because they had been unable to communicate properly. Tai refused to talk about it and that had helped the rumor spread, as everyone knew that Tai hated to admit failure to anyone.

"So you didn't break up because of language difficulties then… interesting," he looked worried and she laughed, "Don't worry, I won't ask. I know that you don't want to talk about it. But it's good that you'll be able to guide us around Paris without too much difficulty." His worried look faded a little, but not much.

"Well… I hope that I can. My French is not perfect by far, but I should be able to ask for directions and read maps and information… I hope. It's been a while since I had to read or speak the language. The last e-mail that Catherine sent me was almost a year ago. Between telling me how much she hated me it was an e-mail about the Digimon disappearing as far as I know," as he finished the seat-belt sign came on, and the plane started to shake.

"Good afternoon passengers, this is the captain speaking. We're experiencing a little turbulence at the moment, and it is expected to last for several minutes. Please return to your seat and fasten your seatbelt," Tai groaned as the announcement finished and the plane began to shake harder. He had been feeling sick the entire flight, but he had managed to hide this from Sora. The take-off had been horrible, but he had managed to keep himself from vomiting. However, now he felt even worse than he had during the take-off. He hated motion sickness.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sora asked. She had heard him groan and she could clearly remember the last time that they had been on a plane together during turbulence. He had vomited in her hat. Tai didn't answer. Instead he quickly searched the seat pocket of the seat in front of him. He was just glad that he was by the window- he didn't have to vomit whilst sitting next to some stranger. Sora turned away and winced as she realized what Tai was doing. The turbulence was brief- Tai thanked God several times for that- and after an air hostess had helped Tai with his problem, they settled back down for the final two and a half hours of the flight. Tai, still pale, decided to sleep for the rest of the flight and hopefully the landing, whereas Sora found a movie on the airline's 'television' that she had wanted to see for a long time. Needless to say, there weren't any more problems for the rest of the flight.

"…and so Tai and Sora have arrived in Paris. Tai called me a few minutes ago to tell me that they were safe. Apparently he was sick, but apart from that the flight went well. It's about one in the afternoon there now."

"Oh, is the time difference 8 hours?"

"Yeah, it is. I looked it up on the internet before Tai went, so that I could tell him when he should call me to let me know how Paris is," Kari was on the phone to T.K. It was their nightly ritual. At around 9 o'clock Kari would 'borrow' the phone from the living room and sneak it into her room, where she would call her best friend and speak with him in private. She usually ended up falling asleep with the phone still in her room, so she would sneak out in the morning and replace it before anyone knew that it was missing. Her parents wouldn't care if they found out that she was using the phone, but she was afraid that Tai would count these phone calls as a threat to the innocence of his younger sister, and hence make sure that she couldn't use the phone. Tai was irritating that way sometimes. However, she thought that he knew about the calls, even if she had never told him. She wasn't going to push her luck though.

"Yeah, it wouldn't have been fun if he'd called you at three a.m. or some other ridiculous time like that. You miss him already, don't you?" she blushed as he seemed to read her mind. She knew that it was stupid, but she missed her brother. She was sixteen, and he was nineteen, but they hadn't really spent much time apart. And so when he went away… of course she would miss him. She missed Sora too, but not as much as she missed her brother of course.

"I know that it's stupid, but of course I miss him. And I think that it is unfair. He gets to be in Paris right now, having a great holiday, whilst I am stuck here in Odaiba. It just doesn't seem fair to me. Why should he get the holiday?" her boyfriend- best friend- chuckled.

"So you would rather be in Paris with Sora and have Tai here talking with me on the phone? Well… I think that I like this arrangement better, but that's just me. I don't want you to go to Paris without me tagging along with you," she blushed as she realized what he meant. Well… what she hoped that he meant anyway.

"I promise that I will not go near France unless you are with me. Only if you make the same promise though. If you want to that is," she waited for his answer. This was the way they operated. They never openly admitted that they cared for each other as more than just best friends. Instead, they played a game of promises that made sure that if they didn't spend the rest of their lives together, they would be breaking a lot of promises that they had made with each other. And since they would both rather die than break their promises, it was guaranteed that they would end up together forever.

"I promise that I will never go to Paris without the presence of Hikari Kamiya. Is that good enough for you?"

"Of course. Your promises are always good enough for me," and then there were red faces at both ends of the line.

At the same time that T.K and Kari were exchanging promises, another blonde teenager was on the phone to his girlfriend.

"So Tai was sick on the flight? Didn't he buy some of those wristbands I told him about, the ones that stop airsickness?"

"No, he claimed that they wouldn't work. He did buy some when we got to Paris though. He said that he would test them on the way back, to prove that you were wrong. He is so immature sometimes. Anyway, how are things back in Odaiba? Did Kari get back in time to call her beloved?" Matt smiled as he lay back on his bed, the phone propped up on his shoulder.

"Yeah, she was home ages ago. Your flight was nine hours remember. I was home before you'd even finished watching your first movie."

"Well… you would have been in Paris at the moment if you hadn't had that stupid meeting," she reminded him, and he winced. He should have known that she had meant it when she had told him that he would never forget this 'almost ruined' vacation.

"You know that I want to be in Paris right now…. Hey, wait a minute. How did you and Tai find the hotel? I forgot that neither of you spoke French and so I forgot to organize someone to pick you up at the airport. You are at the right hotel, aren't you?"

"I knew that you didn't know either… Uh… Tai can speak French. Well… not perfectly, but he knows enough to get us around. Do you remember how we all wondered how he got Catherine to go out with him? He apparently asked her in French. T.K should have known about this as he went to Paris with Tai to help Catherine out for the Digital World. But yeah, Tai got us to the hotel really easily, so you don't need to worry about us getting lost," Matt almost dropped the phone. He was sure that Tai had only been able to get Catherine to go out with him because of a misunderstanding. It wasn't that he thought that Tai was a bad person, but more that he thought that Catherine was too much of a snob to want to date Tai, who wasn't getting good grades. He guessed that he had been very, very wrong. Maybe that had been the reason why they had broken up. But it didn't matter.

"That was awfully good luck, wasn't it? I mean… there is no way that Tai would learn French of his own choice, and if he had been forced to learn a language, then he would have done English. So why did he choose French? I mean… how could he have known that he would need French for the future, when most countries use English as a way to communicate to other ethnic groups and cultures? Not that I'm complaining- at least now I know that you are safe from predators- but why does it seem like our fates are being decided at this moment?" there was a pause at the other end of the line. He waited for her to answer, knowing that she was mulling over what he had just said.

"I think that you are over-reacting. He learnt French because of a random timetable error… hang on a sec…" he waited. In the background he could hear Sora talking to someone- probably Tai- and after a moment the voices stopped, "Tai just told me that it was more than one timetable error. In fact, the same error happened three years in a row until he just decided to take French anyway. He thinks that it was his parents that did that, just to annoy him. See? There is no hidden plot by fate to make this holiday happen this way. You are just paranoid. Do you think that I'm going to leave you or something? If you do, you're being very silly you know."

"I am not paranoid!" he said quickly, stamping out the thoughts that maybe Sora would fall in love with Tai and the two would remain in Paris and never come back to Japan, "I just don't like the way that this holiday is turning out to be. I miss you already and you've only been gone for about ten hours. I can't wait until you get back. I guess that I'm just jealous that you guys get to spend a week in Paris whilst I have to spend days trying to persuade some record company that my band is worth a deal. But I really do miss you." He knew that he was probably over-reacting, but the thoughts of Sora somehow leaving him refused to leave his mind. He knew that she would never do something like that to him, and that Tai would never steal his girlfriend, but logic seemed to be evading him. He didn't like it. He trusted both Tai and Sora and as far as he knew, neither of them had any romantic interest in the other at all. But… he was just confused. Why on Earth did he secretly think that when or if Sora returned to Japan, she wouldn't be in love with him anymore? And why did he secretly think that she and Tai would make a good couple? That last question was the one that really stumped him.

"I miss you too. And if the situation had been reversed, I know that I would have been jealous of you too. But it's only for a week and I love you. It doesn't matter how fantastic this holiday may be, I am still looking forward to coming home. It does sound kind of sad that we miss each other after ten hours apart, but that is just because our love is strong. That's what I believe anyway," Matt relaxed again, and all thoughts of betrayal and loneliness flew out of his head. Sora could always make him feel better, whatever the situation. It was one of the reasons why he loved her so much. Of course they had had tough periods and fights along the way- no relationship was perfect after all- but they had made it through all of those problems. Just like they would make it through this week without being able to physically see each other. They would make it through the week. They would.

Tai explored the hotel room whilst Sora was on the phone. He could hear them exchanging 'I love yous' and 'I miss you' and other things like that, and it made him feel sick. He really regretted agreeing to come on this trip. He hated not being in control of a situation, and ever since he had arrived in Paris he had felt that he was being pushed in a direction that he didn't want to go in. All that he needed now was for Catherine to see him sometime during the trip. He shook his head and muttered something about crazy French girls before heading into the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face. He needed to wake up and face reality. The hotel room they were in was pretty good. There was a television, a small bar fridge and other standard things that one would usually find in a hotel room. There was even a couch for people to sit and watch the television on. There was one problem with it however. There was only one bed. It was pretty obvious that Matt had forgotten to change the arrangements of the entire holiday, including the sleeping arrangements. He doubted that Sora even noticed. As soon as they had arrived at the hotel, Tai had called his sister to let her know that they had arrived safely and then Sora had taken the phone. He hadn't been on the phone long, and so he doubted that Sora had really looked at the room. He sighed and went back into the main room. He sat on the couch, but he didn't turn on the television. It was a really comfortable couch. He wouldn't mind sleeping on it at all. Sora was still talking to Matt, so he decided to turn on the television. The news was on. It was a report on a wealthy French family which had been robbed the night before. His eyes widened as he realized that he knew the family. No, he didn't know the family, but he knew the blond girl standing with her parents, who were talking to the Police. He quickly turned the television off and ran a hand through his hair. What was going on? Was fate trying to taunt him or something? First with this holiday, and now with Catherine appearing on the news at the moment that he turned it on?

"Are you okay Tai?" he jumped. He hadn't realized that Sora had finished her phone call. He had been too busy calling Catherine names in his head.

"I'm fine. I just saw something really weird on the news, that's all. So how's Matt? I'm guessing that he misses you because you just spent at least ten minutes going on and on about how much you miss him," she picked up a cushion from the other end of the couch and threw it at him.

"You're just jealous that you don't have a girlfriend back home to call and say that to. And yes, Matt is fine and he does miss me, so there," she stuck her tongue out at him and he raised an eyebrow.

"There's no need to get childish all of a sudden. You are nineteen after all. And as for my lack of a girlfriend at the moment, I can always visit my ex. She lives only a few streets from here. I could always just go and stay with her and leave you here by yourself," she laughed. She knew that he and Catherine really detested each other now. Tai probably wouldn't go within ten miles of her house if he could help it.

"You're bluffing. I know how much you hate her at the moment. Anyway, what do you want to do today? It's half past one, so we have a lot of time to do stuff," she flopped down onto the couch next to him and stifled a yawn, "I shouldn't have gotten up so early today. I forgot that the difference was so much. By the time it is time to sleep here, it will be about six in the morning back home. I should have slept later today." Tai grinned. He had slept pretty late for him. Most people assumed that he slept until the afternoon, but for some reason, he always woke up at around six every morning. That morning he had slept until seven though, so he wasn't as tired as he could have been. Then again, he was used to only getting five hours sleep every night. He was generally an insomniac, and so he was used to not sleeping. He had tried to sleep on the flight to eradicate his air-sickness, but he had not been able to. He had pretended to sleep so that Sora wouldn't worry about him getting sick again, but he had been awake. The landing had been horrible- almost as bad as the turbulence- and so he had bought air-sickness bands at the airport to make sure that he would feel better on the way home.

"I don't hate Catherine per say… more like she hates me. But uh… I don't know what we should do today. How about we just take a walk through the city, to see what is on offer? I don't know about you, but I don't really know much about the city. All I know is that it has the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de' Triumph and a few museums, and that it is beautiful," Sora shrugged. Matt had told her that he would take her on a tour of the city, and she had assumed that he knew a lot about the city's attractions. After all, he had told her many times that he had lived with his grandparents in Paris for a year when he had been younger. That was why his French was so good, he had always explained.

"I don't know much either. But you should know more, after having learnt French. Didn't they teach you about the culture of the country, or did you miss those classes?" Tai just made a face.

"They didn't test us on it, so I never really learnt it. Besides, it's been ages since I have had a French lesson. The only reason I can still understand the language is because of the e-mails that Catherine sends me. Her Japanese is still horrible, so she writes in French. I have to constantly get out my French dictionary to try and understand what she is telling me. It gets even more complicated when she is telling me about the Digital World. There are many days in which I wish… Anyway, let's go and see the city! I'm sure that there are lots of signs around so I can tell us where we are going. I want to get a look at the Eiffel Tower- it really is amazing. I want to get a lot of pictures of it!" Sora frowned as Tai led the way out of the apartment. As excited as she was to see the Eiffel Tower and all of the other sites and sounds of Paris, she had wanted to talk to Tai and make sure that she kept him as a close friend as well. She wanted to spend time with him and she wanted to know what was going on in his life. He had almost told her something about it, but then he had cut off. She felt a little awkward. She had made sure that she kept in contact with Tai after school had finished, but she didn't know much. She hadn't even met any of his girlfriends after Catherine. They had promised when they had entered high school that they would allow each other to meet their respective boy-or-girlfriends as soon as was possible. Tai knew about Matt, but Sora had known nothing about Tai's girlfriends. And after the way he had cut himself off in the hotel room, she found that she wanted to know.

"Hey Sora, you're pretty quiet. Are you okay?" Tai's concerned voice shook her from her thoughts.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking. We're not as close friends as we used to be, are we? I mean, I just noticed it now. It's like there is a wall there that was never there before. You must have noticed it," he gave her a puzzled glance, but he took his time in replying.

"We've grown up- that's all. As you grow older, you don't have friendships that are as close or strong as those you had in your childhood. It's a well known fact. And the wall that you are talking about is completely necessary. Even best friends should keep things from each other sometimes, if it saves their friendship," he said the last sentence quietly, and she barely heard him. She thought that he had only been talking to himself. She realized that they were standing in the hallway outside of their room. She hadn't meant to make the holiday so serious. She didn't know why she had started talking to him like this so early in the trip. She had only planned to talk to him once they had seen a few sights and thoroughly enjoyed themselves a bit more. Then she could have brought up the topic much more subtly and easily. But it was too late now. She knew that Tai was going to try anything to get out of the awkward situation, so she tried to lighten up.

"You're right. Now let's go and see the city before we have to pay for staying in the hallway," she pushed him to get moving and he grumbled.

"You don't need to push me you know. Gosh, you're becoming more and more like Matt every day- using physical violence as a solution. Next thing we know you'll be playing the harmonica, refusing to show any emotions at all and get hypnotized by weird Digimon into turning against your friends," he joked as he lightly pushed her into a wall, "Don't make it so I have to punch you to keep you sane. It works for Matt, but you might end up with a broken nose or something." She mock glared at him, putting her hands on her hips.

"Excuse me but I am not turning into the way Matt was when he was younger. Besides, he's grown out of that stage and whilst he is still quiet most of the time, he does show emotions. And if I recall, Matt used the same technique on you to keep your ego down quite successfully. I might have to resort to that myself if you don't stop acting as though you are the best," he just held up his hands in defeat and laughed. 'Besides Tai, you're the one who is hiding something. I can see through this little act of yours, and I will find out what is wrong with you.' Sora promised to herself as they left the hotel, 'You won't be able to hide it for much longer. You can trust me… I just wish that you would see that.'

"Okay… this sign says that if we go this way, we'll find the Eiffel Tower and stuff. So do you want to go this way?" Tai asked, already half-dragging her in that direction, "I swear that the Eiffel Tower is amazing! When T.K and I were here before it was all lit up at night and it was gorgeous! I only wish that I took a picture of it then."

"Wait a minute… you have told me and Matt a thousand times that you've always wanted to go to Paris and yet… you've already been here! I've mentioned it before this trip, but I never really realized that you've been here before!" Sora was confused. Why did he always say that he always wanted to go to Paris if he had already been? It didn't make much sense.

"When I was here with T.K it was just for a few hours and it was in a localized area. It didn't feel like I had been, so I just pretended that it never really happened. But come on otherwise we'll get trapped within that huge group of tourists coming our way," he pointed to a group of tourists who were wearing the oddest hats that she had ever seen. The hats were like cowboy hats, but they had corks hanging from the rim. Well… only two of the tourists wore them. Some of the others in the group were holding small versions of the German flag, whilst others were holding the British flag. It was a massive group, and Tai and Sora would get caught in it if they didn't hurry. Tai grabbed her hand and pulled her along quickly to make sure that they didn't get lost. Once they were far enough away from the group, he quickly dropped her hand and pretended to study a map of the city that was on the street corner. He couldn't believe that he had grabbed her hand. He knew that it was natural considering the situation, but the thoughts that he had had whilst holding her hand were just… he shouldn't have had them.

"We have to go this way," Tai said after a moment, pointing to his right. Sora could see the top of the tower without consulting a map. She wondered why Tai had even bothered to look at the map. He began walking in that direction, but she could see that his cheeks were slightly red. Was he blushing? Maybe he had seen a girl that he liked, or maybe he had seen Catherine and wanted to get away from her. She smiled to herself at his behavior.

'He looks so cute when he blushes,' she thought to herself, 'Wait a minute… am I allowed to think that? I mean… I have Matt. I love Matt more than anything. So am I allowed to think that other guys are cute? Tai is my best friend though, so the normal rules don't apply. And since I know that I love Matt and Tai is just my best friend, then I am allowed to call him cute. See? That problem is easily resolved.' She had to admit that even though she and Matt had been dating for a few years, she didn't really know all of the 'rules' associated with being involved in a relationship. She was the digidestined of Love- she knew what Love was, or so she was told- but that didn't help her to sort out the complexity of relationships. She had to admit also that she was a little insecure in her relationship with Matt. She was scared that she would do the wrong thing one day, and that she would be caught out. But it didn't matter now. She was in Paris with her best friend and she was going to enjoy it…

To be continued…

Litanya: I am really sorry that this chapter is late. I am also sorry that it has a lot of thoughts and not much of the holiday. But I wanted to show how… insecure the three of the main characters are. To me their friendship is strong- very strong- but all of the characters have their problems to deal with in the friendship, such as Matt's insecurity, Sora's confused but doesn't realize and Tai is just trying to keep his feelings to himself. By the way, this isn't one of those "Sora realized that she loves Tai and so dumps Matt" type of fic. Relationships are difficult to deal with, and I'm trying to portray my version of what could happen. Anyway, please review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading!