Litanya: I don't own Digimon. I am sorry that this chapter is so late, but life has been pretty hectic at the moment. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

The Island Holiday

Chapter 6: The Realisation

"Do you have to leave tomorrow?" Catherine asked him quietly as they sat next to the heated pool of the hotel. Sora was up in the hotel room, on the phone to Matt, and so the couple had decided to leave her in peace. They sat at the side of the pool, dangling their legs into the water. Catherine's head was on his shoulder and he had one arm casually wrapped around her shoulders. The pool was virtually empty- it was a cold day and swimming just wasn't on the agenda for most people.

"Yes, I have to go home at some point. And the sooner I go home the sooner I can come back if I need to," she sighed. She wanted him to stay. She truly did love him- if she didn't she would never have asked him to be her boyfriend again- and so she didn't want him to be far away. It was understandable. She knew that he understood her reasons, but she also knew that he needed to go home. His family and most of his friends were there. At the very least he would have to go home to say goodbye to them and tell them that he was moving. It wouldn't be fair on him if she just expected him to drop his life for her, especially as she knew that he loved someone else just as much, if not more, than her.

"Do you promise me that you'll come back soon?" he truly didn't know what to answer. Would he come back? He supposed that he would. Sora loved Matt- and he had to accept that and try to move on. It wasn't as though he hadn't tried before, but he had to try again. The idea of moving to France, however, scared him. His family and his closest friends were in Japan and he didn't know if he could give them up to be with Catherine. Still, she had never asked him if he would come back to stay.

"I promise that I will come back here as soon as I can," she smiled, her blue eyes shining with hope. He only hoped that he didn't break her spirit if for some reason he couldn't keep his promise…

She had finally admitted it to herself. It had taken a long time- well, a couple of days- but now she, Sora Takenouchi, had admitted that she was jealous of Catherine. Before she had only told herself that she was jealous because she had to now 'share' Tai with another person. But now she knew differently. Sora still loved Matt- and she would continue to love him- but she was jealous because Catherine seemed so happy to be with Tai. It was as though Catherine could only be happy whilst she was in Tai's company. Sora knew that things were not like that between her and Matt. There were times when she wanted to hit her boyfriend because she was so frustrated with him and times when she had not spoken to him at all. It was true that Tai and Catherine hadn't been together for very long, and so they could be experiencing a "honey-moon-like" period, but she never remembered having that with Matt. There were times back when they had started dating when she had been so nervous that she had wanted to run far away from him every time they went on a date. It was only natural to be jealous of her, right? And Tai was a good guy. He could be lazy, he complained too much and he could be extremely dumb at times, but he was still a good guy. She shook her head and turned the television on. She had just finished calling Matt and now she was waiting for the couple to return from the pool. She could have gone down and got them, but she felt that they needed time alone together. They were leaving the next day after all.

"I cannot believe you Tai Kamiya!" Sora jumped as Catherine stormed into the apartment, a laughing Tai coming after her. Catherine was soaked, and she was slowly turning blue. Tai seemed to be mainly dry, and he had a look on his face that told Sora what had happened. He must have pushed her into the pool. That was mean. It was freezing outside, and although the pool would have been warm, walking back to the hotel room would have been pretty cold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you in," Sora doubted that. She had learnt from a young age that it was never wise to bring Tai near water unless you actually wanted to swim, or if you were quick enough to be able to pull him into the water too. Catherine obviously hadn't known that.

"Would I be able to use the bathroom?" Catherine asked politely, shivering as she waited for an answer. Sora quickly nodded and ushered the slightly younger girl through the door leading to the bathroom. Tai chuckled under his breath and Sora thought she heard something about 'revenge for pushing me into the lake,' but she had no idea what that meant.

"That was very mean Tai," she told him as she flopped back down onto the couch, "She could get really sick after walking in the cold like that. Honestly, what were you thinking?" He shrugged and rummaged around in his suitcase for something.

"Did I ever tell you about the time when she pushed me into the lake at Odaiba Park? It was cold that day too. I ended up having the flu for a week. She'll be fine," he found whatever it was he was looking for and straightened, "Now excuse me for a second." He climbed into the closet and closed the door behind him. She turned to the news program that was on. She had managed to find a channel onto which she could put Japanese subtitles on. Although her French knowledge had increased- she could now greet people and ask how they were- she could not even grasp the general story if it was in French. With the subtitles however, she was able to watch and understand what was going on. She watched the show for around fifteen minutes, until both Tai and Catherine were ready.

"So, where are we going to spend our last night here?" she asked. Catherine only winked.

"It's a surprise. I have made plans for the three of us, so just follow me!" And with that they followed the young French girl out of the room and out into the city…

They were coming home. Tai and Sora were finally coming back home. Matt was excited. He couldn't wait to see them again. He had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing Sora more than Tai, but that was to be expected of course.

"Hmm… I wonder what is happening today to make Matt smile so much," T.K pretended to ponder on this fact, but the big smile on his face didn't help him. Normally this would have annoyed Matt, but Sora was coming home and so nothing could irritate him.

"Shut up T.K," he said good-naturedly, "You know what's happening. Next time Kari is over, probably tomorrow, I will idly comment on why you are so happy on that day. But are you ready? We have to leave in five minutes." Matt was once again playing chauffer to the airport, but this time he was taking T.K and Kari. He was picking Kari up at her apartment before driving to the airport. Joe, Mimi and Izzy were meeting them at the airport to welcome the best friends home. It seemed a small thing for everyone to gather together for, but the group hadn't met for a long time and they had decided that it was a good enough excuse for them to throw a little party.

"Yeah, I've been ready for ages," T.K grinned, "But you're not ready yet. Your phone is on the kitchen bench. It was beeping so I think that you have a message." Matt instinctively put his hand in his pocket, where his phone usually resided. It wasn't there. As T.K had noted, his phone was on the bench, and it was beeping. He dialed the number of his message bank and waited for the message whilst eyeing his watch impatiently. He was anxious to be going to the airport.

"You have one new message. Message received at 4:30 a.m.," he sighed in frustration. The machine was seriously too slow, "Matt… I just called to tell you that I love you. Our plane… our plane has been hijacked. At least, I think it has. I heard someone call out that someone has a gun or something. Please tell everyone that I love them, and that Tai does too. I don't even know where Tai is… he disappeared ten minutes ago and he hasn't come back." There was a bang in the background of the message, and Sora caught her breath, "That was just a gunshot. I should go. The plane is starting to go down. I love you." Matt frowned at the phone, before pressing the button to hear the message again.

"What's the time?" he finally asked his little brother when the message had finished. T.K looked puzzled. Matt had been staring at his watch, so why did he need to know the time?

"Uh… eight thirty a.m. You just checked your-

"Have you seen the news yet today? Is there a news program on now? Do you have a newspaper, anything?" now T.K was definitely scared. His brother seemed to be acting irrationally. Then again, T.K didn't know what was in the message.

"I don't know if the news is on," he answered. Matt didn't seem to hear him. Instead the older blond rushed across the living room and turned the television on quickly, murmuring to himself the entire time. T.K followed him, wondering if he had finally cracked.

"…This is a special bulletin. For those of you just joining us, the Japanese government has received word of a crash on a 747 flight from Paris to Japan. The plane was over the Pacific Ocean near the coast of China when it crashed into the ocean. It is uncertain as to what caused the crash, but it was in a difficult stretch of the ocean and rescue crews have so far found no survivors. People are urged to contact family or friends who may have been on the flight to confirm whether or not they caught the flight before calling the airline for confirmation. To repeat…" Matt turned the television off again and collapsed onto the couch. T.K couldn't move. How had Matt known about that? Had the message been from one of the others telling him to put the news on? He felt so guilty- he had no idea if Tai and Sora were alright, but here he was wondering about whether or not Matt had heard about this through a phone message.

"We need to call Tai or Sora to find out whether they were on the plane or not. They might have missed it you know," he tried to be hopeful. His crest was of Hope after all. But Matt's expression almost made him lose all hope. His brother lay on his back on the couch, his eyes closed and a both hands over his eyes.

"The message was from Sora. She-she explained the situation. There was a gunshot in the background… they're dead. They were both on the plane," T.K felt as though someone had thrown something very heavy into the bottom of his stomach. It had to be a nightmare. Something like this could not- should not! - have happened. He was dimly aware that he was now on his knees, but he didn't remember falling. He had always watched movies where things like this happened, but he had never believed that they were real. People didn't freeze up; they cried. And yet he couldn't find any tears.

"Does Kari know?" Matt lifted his hands off his eyes and swore softly.

"I almost forgot about Kari. She probably doesn't know. Sora didn't know where Tai was when she called. She said that he had disappeared ten minutes before the call. They wouldn't have even been together when they died. They would have died with strangers all around them, all alone," T.K took a deep breath and stood back up again. He grabbed the cordless phone and dialed Kari's number. Luckily she answered right away.

"Hi T.K," she had caller ID, and so she knew before hand who he was. That made it worse in a way. He didn't want to tell her. She sounded happy and it so he knew that she hadn't heard.

"Kari… have you watched the news this morning?" she must have picked something up in his voice.

"No, what's wrong? Why are you so upset?" he almost couldn't answer. He didn't really know what to say.

"There's been a plane crash. It was their plane. The rescue crews haven't picked up any survivors," he didn't have to classify which 'they' he meant. She knew. He heard her swallow and take a deep breath.

"What?" he didn't blame her for not believing. She had been looking forward to seeing her brother again. She had wanted to see if this trip had made her brother happy. She had hoped and hoped that he would have changed for the better over the week he had spent there. And now she would never know.

"Sora left a message on Matt's phone. She was on the plane at the time I think, and Tai was too. The plane crashed in the ocean near China and there have been no survivors. It's all over the news," he could dimly hear the television being turned on at the other end of the phone line. He heard a thud which he interpreted as Kari falling down.

"So Tai's not coming back? He won't be home tomorrow?" he had thought that it was hard losing two of his best friends. Now he realized just how much harder it was for Kari. She depended on her brother a lot- he helped to balance her family- and without him she would have to do many things on her own now that he was gone. Whilst he had just lost Tai as a close friend, she had lost him as a best friend and a brother. He knew that it was selfish of him, but he was secretly thanking the Lord for making Matt stay in Japan. He felt guilty about it, but it didn't stop it from being true that he was thankful his brother was still alive.

"No Kari, he won't be coming home," he was crying, he realized. Although he hadn't been able to cry before, the tears were rolling down his face now. Kari was crying too. He turned back to look at his brother. Matt wasn't crying. It disturbed T.K to see his brother like that. But there was nothing he could do. His two friends had been killed and he could do nothing to bring them back…

To be continued…

Litanya: I'm sorry that this chapter is short, but I want to break it off here. But don't worry; this fic isn't finished yet. I estimate about… two, three or maybe even four or five chapters. I actually know where this fic is going now… I am up to the part that I have sort of planned. Anyway, please review and I'll hopefully see you next chapter!