Litanya: Hi again. I'm sorry that this chapter has taken so long, but my Chem eng assignment was a pain, as was my Maths assignment. Anyway, without further ado, here is the next chapter!

The Island Holiday

Chapter 9: One Year Ago

A year had passed since the plane had crashed. Matt walked to the Kamiya apartment to pick up Kari and T.K to take them to the memorial. In the year that had passed, nothing much had changed. T.K still spent practically every waking hour at the Kamiya apartment, Kari still seemed unsure who she actually was, and Matt was still blaming himself. Life was going on as usual, but although Matt had promised to get on with his life, he couldn't seem to do so properly. He continued to write and play with his band- they were making a lot of money- but other than that, his life wasn't moving at all. The people from the ceremony had found out that it had been his band that had sung the song he had played there, and he had donated all of the money earned from the sale of that song to charity. He felt as though he was almost taking advantage of Tai and Sora's deaths now. At the time it had seemed a good idea to play the song- music could tell emotions that words could not speak- but now he regretted it because he felt as though his band's fame had come from that ceremony. Of course his band had been popular before the ceremony but… anyway; he still owed it to Tai at least to continue with the band. After all, Tai had only gone because Matt had had a meeting with the record company.

He sighed as he arrived at the Kamiya apartment. Once again he stared at the door, unable to bring himself to knock. This time his friend wouldn't come and let him in- he had to knock. Kari opened the door, her eyes already red, and ushered him inside. T.K sat at the kitchen table, talking to a young blonde who Matt didn't recognize at first.

"Catherine is here to come to the memorial with us, if that's okay," Kari told him as T.K and the girl stood. Matt frowned slightly. The Catherine he had known had always seemed full of energy, and almost always up to some sort of mischief somehow. The girl standing with T.K- he supposed that she was too old to call 'girl' but he couldn't think of anything else- looked… drained. Her pale blue eyes were tinged with red- she had been crying- but that wasn't the problem. It was almost as if she had lost herself somewhere. That was all that he could think of. He knew that she was usually pale, but her skin seemed to be paler than usual, almost a shade of grey. Huge bags were under her eyes and… she just looked awful.

"Bonjour Matt, it is good to see you again," she was being very polite. He had thought that she didn't like him- back when she had been a student at their school she had kept away from him- but it seemed that now he was wrong or she just didn't care about that anymore. In truth, he didn't know what to think.

"Bonjour Catherine welcome back to Japan," he could be polite too, "We should be leaving here if we want to get there at the start." The memorial was held at a park near the airport, and so Matt had to drive them there. T.K and Kari piled into the back seat, leaving Catherine to the front passenger seat. T.K and Kari started a quiet discussion in the backseat between the two of them. Catherine stared ahead at the road in front of them, not saying anything. It made Matt uncomfortable, "Are you okay?" He asked the question in French without thinking. His French had always been good- he often kept in contact with his grandparents- but he had no idea why he had spoken to her in the language. Maybe it was just so that he didn't want T.K and Kari to hear the answer.

"It's my fault," she replied quietly, "You shouldn't want to talk to me, or take me here. You deserve to know that it was my fault. I told Tai that I never wanted to see or hear him again, and now I won't." He was so surprised that he almost turned to stare at her. Instead he just kept his eyes on the road and searched his mind for the French words he wanted to say.

"Don't be silly. It's not your fault at all. If it is anyone's fault, it is mine. I sent them on the holiday in the first place. If I had just cancelled the holiday, then everything would have been fine and they wouldn't have died," she shook her head, and even though he couldn't see her, he could feel her blue eyes piercing his skin. She had no right to glare at him like that… no wait, she did. It was his fault that her boyfriend was dead. She had every right to glare.

"It was not your fault! You just wanted to give them a good holiday away, and they had fun, most of the time. I told Tai that I didn't want to see him or Sora again. Both of them! And then the next day… I heard about the plane and I knew; I knew that it was my fault," he had had enough of her feeling guilty. She wasn't supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be filled with positive energy, and even though he didn't know her, it hurt to know that she was like this. It was almost as sad as seeing a five year old crying because they had been left alone in the world. No, he couldn't let her blame herself.

"You weren't on the plane, you didn't crash it. Therefore it is not your fault. So you told someone that you didn't want to see them again. Everyone has done that before- you couldn't have known what was going to happen," he paused, the reality of what she had said dawning on him, "Why were you yelling at Tai anyway? I thought that the two of you were dating?" So maybe that was the wrong question to ask. How was he supposed to know? Tears began to fall down her face, and the conversation between T.K and Kari stopped.

"Matt, what did you say to her?" T.K muttered quietly to him as Kari leant forward to comfort Catherine. Matt couldn't turn around, but he gave his brother a helpless look via the mirror.

"I just said that it wasn't her fault, that's all. But she won't believe me. Look, I wouldn't say anything on purpose to upset her. I just asked if she was okay, then she said that it was her fault, and then I tried to tell her it wasn't her fault," he sighed to himself as T.K began to help Kari calm Catherine. This was going to be a long trip.

He still didn't understand how they had survived that first night. Then again, he didn't understand how they were still alive. It was just over a year after the crash and he and Sora were still on their island. They had developed a routine now. Every morning they woke up early. Tai would go straight to the water to try and spear some fish (he was very good at this now) whilst Sora went off to pick some of the edible leaves. (Tai had picked the leaves only once, but that had ended up in near disaster and so now Sora had forbidden him from picking them.) Once they had gathered enough food for the day, they lit a fire and had a breakfast of fish and leaves. They spent the rest of the morning doing maintenance- fixing clothes, gathering firewood etc- until the Sun was beginning to climb back down the sky or until they had finished. They then ate a quick lunch of, yep; you guessed it, fish and leaves, before spending the afternoon doing 'academic' activities. 'Academic' activities included Tai teaching Sora French, and the two of them making up their own language. (Sora had complained that she had no languages to teach Tai, so they decided to make one up. After all, their island had to have a native tongue, so it worked out well.) After this they prepared for the night, ate more fish and leaves, before staring up at the sky and sleeping. It wasn't much of a routine, but it was the best that they could come up with.

"J'aime la glass, j'aime la glass, vanielle, chocolat! J'aime la glass, j'aime la glass, fraise aussi!" Sora sang quietly to herself as she rinsed the water bucket out, "Hey Tai, what do you think the others are doing now?" it was technically the time of day in which Tai taught her French, but today they had just decided to have a 'conversation class'- in other words they just wanted to talk. They mingled languages; French turned to Japanese turned to Sortish (their own language) but they understood each other, and that was all that mattered.

"I would say that T.K and Kari would be at school because it is a Friday, and Matt would be at a band rehearsal because his band would have to practice every day to keep up with their popularity. Joe will be studying still- maybe in a uni lecture. Mimi would be at the mall, and Izzy will be playing a game of chess over the internet whilst doing something to do with physics," he hoped that he was at least almost right. He didn't want to think of any of them being depressed or sad or anything because of them being gone. He knew that they could all still be doing those things and be sad, but he hoped not. He hoped that everyone was happy and that they were dealing with everything well. It had been a year after all. He was worried about Kari, but he knew that she had T.K to look after her. He was also extremely worried about Matt. He knew that the blond musician was probably blaming himself and knowing him, he would keep it to himself. That was the worrying thing- if Matt told the others about it then they would get that nonsense out of his system, but Matt was always one to keep his feelings a secret and therefore the others might not notice his guilt. It was a big problem, but Tai had no idea what was happening. It annoyed him to no end.

"At this moment I wish that I could be at a lecture. They are going to find us, aren't they?" this question got asked every day, but it wasn't always Sora asking it. When they had first found themselves on the island, they had thought that rescue would only be a few days, or a few weeks, at most before they were found. After all, the airline would have been able to track the plane's journey and they would find the wreckage and search for survivors. But that hadn't happened as far as they knew. It was starting to get a little frustrating.

"Of course they'll find us, and then they'll take us home and everything will be back to normal," in a way, he didn't want to be found. At least on the island he could spend a lot of quality time with Sora, and even though she didn't love him back, Matt wasn't around to make him feel worse. At the same time he felt guilty for thinking that. Sora wanted to be home and he wanted to be there too. But that little voice wouldn't go away.

"You're right. Hey, maybe Catherine will have forgiven you by the time we get back," he chuckled under his breath. He sure hoped that she hadn't. Anyway, she was still in France, and she had probably met someone else by now…

Tai couldn't have been more wrong about what everyone was doing or where they were. At the same time as Tai and Sora were having their conversation, Matt was sitting in his apartment. T.K and Kari were sitting on the couch across from him, and he sat in one of the dining table's chairs. Catherine was standing behind him, leaning against a wall. He wasn't exactly sure why Catherine was there, but that wasn't what was taking up his attention. T.K and Kari were supposed to be at school, but instead they had called him and told him that they would meet him. Now they sat on his couch, looking extremely nervous. T.K was biting his lip and Kari was playing with her fingers. They had been sitting like that for five minutes, and yet they hadn't said anything. It was a month after the memorial, so Matt thought that the two youngsters were maybe going to talk to him about the crash or something. That would explain Catherine's presence.

"You guys called me so that we could talk, and yet you've just sat there for the past five minutes. Just say what you want to say. It's not like I'm a big scary monster," he ignored the remark from behind him and continued on, "If you aren't going to say anything, then you should be at school. In fact, I should call Mum now and tell her-

"Kari's pregnant," Matt sat very still after T.K's outburst. Kari stared at the floor and T.K looked as though he was about to jump up and race out of the door. From the silence behind him, Matt could tell that Catherine was shocked too. To say that he was shocked was an understatement. He felt many emotions- shock, anger, sadness, guilt- he had told Tai that he would make sure this wouldn't happen after all. But mostly he was shocked. This was Kari and T.K. They were supposed to be innocent teenagers, representing hope and light. He still thought of them as little kids, and now this. He couldn't move; he couldn't think. His mind seemed to have gone completely blank.

"Uh… Matt? Are you okay?" he blinked as a hand waved in front of him. It was then that he realized that five minutes had passed since T.K's little outburst. He nodded slowly in response to the –he thought it was Catherine's- question. He ran his hand through his hair, something he always did when he was angry. He could see T.K stiffen across from him. T.K knew that he only did that when he was angry.

"I umm… uh… I mean… oh, I don't know what I'm supposed to say! You guys are still in school and… and… what did your parents say?" he jumped up and began to pace around. Tai would have been much better in this situation. Light, Tai was going to kill him! Well… he would have killed him if he could have. From the looks on T.K and Kari's faces, they hadn't told their parents yet. He took a deep breath.

"We thought that we'd tell you first. We knew that you would freak out and… well… we thought that we owed it to you to tell you first," Kari pretended to be calm, but he could hear the wobble in her voice. She was scared of what he would say. Catherine moved from behind him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Stop pacing- it's annoying," he obediently sat down and she smiled before turning to the others, "Now… I assume that you want an opinion on this, right? Well, I'll give you mine. I am disappointed in the two of you- I thought better of you- but these things happen I suppose. Matt, why are you laughing?" He couldn't help it. T.K and Kari had no idea what she was saying. She had unconsciously chosen to speak French, and although Matt understood, T.K had never learnt the language properly. He only knew a few phrases.

"You're speaking French. They don't understand you," he stopped laughing, "Tai would kill me. He is going to kill me, somehow, when he finds out. Anyway, I agree with Catherine. I am disappointed with the two of you, but what's done is done. I can't say anything else. What are you going to do about education and everything?" He could feel their relief. Catherine dropped onto a chair next to him. He still didn't understand why she was there, but she had been visiting him a lot. He didn't mind- they had their occasional word fights, but it was all fun. But still, this was a conversation between him and his younger 'sibling'- he didn't really know if she was supposed to be there. But he couldn't exactly throw her out, could he? He almost felt as though the world had turned upside down to get him; next he would find out that a crazy flying penguin had taken over Japan.

"We haven't completely decided yet. I will finish school somehow, and we were thinking that Kari could take classes up until she can. And then… well, we have to find out what Mum and Dad say about it…" at least they were being serious about it. Although they didn't seem to know what they were going to do, there was a lot of evidence that they had been talking about it. What he wouldn't give for Tai to be there to help him out.

"Well you had better get to school now. I need a bit of time to get used to this," they obediently grabbed their bags and left the apartment, after exchanging goodbyes with both him and Catherine.

"I'll make some tea," he stared after the French girl as she began to search through the cupboards for the tea. How did she know that he always drank tea when thinking about problems like this?

"Why do you think that it is your fault?" that hadn't been what he had meant to ask, but Tai was on his mind, and he wanted to know what had happened between Catherine and his best friend. They had gotten along so well, or so Sora had told him. She didn't stop looking through the cupboards, but she stiffened.

"I have already told you. I told him to go away and that I never wanted to see him or Sora ever again. It was unfair, I know. I was just upset because he told me that he couldn't pretend anymore. You see… when we broke up the first time it was because I knew that he was in love with someone else. I didn't know who, but then… I figured it out when they came. I told him that I didn't care that he loved Sora, and that I still wanted to be with him. After all, I loved him. And then… on the last night he told me that he couldn't pretend. I got annoyed at him, as you can imagine, and I got annoyed at Sora too, although she had no idea why. All she knew was that Tai and I were screaming at each other in French. It was so stupid. I would give anything to take those words back now," it was quite an interesting tale. It explained a lot. At least now he knew for sure.

"So Tai was in love with Sora. And I never got to apologise to him for not noticing," she paused in taking two mugs out of the cupboard. Her blue eyes seemed to weigh him up as she looked at him.

"I don't think he wanted an apology. You must know by now that Tai is much more complex than he appears. He knew that you didn't mean to hurt him, and so he made it so that you weren't hurting him. Or something like that. You have nothing to apologise for," she placed the mugs on the bench and came back to sit next to him again.

"But if I can't blame myself, then what else can I do?" she didn't have an answer. The silence stretched on…

To be continued…

Litanya: Well, I hope you like this chapter. Please review and yeah… have a good afternoon/morning/night!