Litanya: Hi again. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and to everyone who has read this fic. I don't own Digimon.

The Island Holiday

Chapter 10: Fish and Fire

The island had truly become their home now. It was a weird sort of home, of course. Whenever she thought of going back to Odaiba, she always thought of it as going back. As much as she missed her friends and family, life on their island wasn't all that bad. She loved peaceful moments like this when the two of them sat around the fire. It was a cozy spot that they had found a couple of days after they had become stranded on the island. Tai lay on the sand on the other side of the fire, staring up at the stars whilst she sat leaning against a smooth rock. They often sat like this- every night in fact- but it was not often that she sat back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Often her thoughts were back in Odaiba, wondering what everyone was doing. At this moment, however, Odaiba was far from her mind.

She didn't know what she would have done if it had been anyone but Tai who she had been stranded on an island with. He somehow always managed to keep her entertained and when she was depressed about being stuck on an island, he always tried to do something to cheer her up. He had never been good at listening before, but now he listened to all of her worries, and surprisingly, managed to convince her that she was worrying about nothing. She remembered back to one of the first times she had been depressed on the island…

Flashback

She stared out at the ocean, with the blanket she was supposed to be cleaning on her lap. She couldn't concentrate on her chore. Odaiba was so far away, and there had been no rescue crews to save them. Four days on the island, and no sign that the rest of the world still lived. It was very depressing. It didn't help that there was a lot of debris still floating in the water. She seemed to attract things which had been gifts from one person to another, things like inscribed bracelets or lighters or letters which were so wet that the writing had smudged until it wasn't legible… all of those things seemed to seek her out, as though they wanted to give her a special message themselves.

Every time she found something like that, she couldn't help but cry. She always made sure that Tai wasn't around though- she didn't want to upset him too. He spent a lot of his time worrying about his sister, and she didn't want to remind him of her by showing him some of the messages. Especially the one she had found that morning. It had been a small necklace, which had been engraved. It was from a young boy to his little sister. Their pictures had been inside the locket on the necklace. She was scared that if Tai saw it, he would cry. She had only ever seen him cry three times in her life, and all three times she had felt that her world was falling apart.

"Hey Sora, what's up?' he was in one of his more cheerful moods today. In fact, he almost always seemed to be cheerful. She didn't know how he did it. She only knew that he was worrying about Kari because he talked in his sleep, and he occasionally muttered under his breath. On his bad days he was far from cheerful, and it was usually then that he voiced his fears. After a bit of persuasion of course.

"Oh, I umm… I'm just washing this," she half-heartedly plucked at the blanket on her knees and looked down at it as though she was really concentrating. She knew that he wouldn't be fooled by that, but she hoped that he would be. She didn't feel like talking. Maybe he sensed her mood, or maybe he just didn't notice anything wrong, but he grinned. It was only then that she realized that he was holding a long stick, "Are you sure that your leg is okay? Is that why you have the stick?" He looked genuinely confused for a moment, before he looked at the stick he was holding.

"Oh, you mean this? I don't need it to walk; I'm going to go fishing. It's not fair that you do all of this sort of stuff whilst I sort out the leaves that you pick," she sighed. He just refused to admit that he needed to give his injury time to heal. She knew that it hurt him- he sometimes winced when he thought that she wasn't looking- and an injury like that should be given time to heal. Then again, Tai always was impatient.

"Tai, as I have told you a million times, you need to rest your arm. I'm not bothered about getting the food- you can make up for it once you are okay," he rolled his eyes and began to wade into the water. It was a warm day, and the water was actually quite nice. As Tai attempted to fish- attempted was the right word- she felt her melancholy mood slipping away. She wasn't sure if he was fooling around on purpose or if he actually just didn't know what he was doing. He splashed around a lot, and… it was just too funny to watch. She found herself laughing before she realized that she wasn't sad anymore. After an hour, Tai finally came back, a childish grin of pride on his face. He held something behind his back.

"Close you eyes and hold out your hand," she did as she was told, having to subdue little bursts of laughter as she did so. She expected him to put a small crab in her hand or something, but whatever he put into her hand was large and slimy. She opened her eyes and stared at a huge fish. He was still grinning at her. Like a child who had learnt to tie his own shoe. The fish wasn't even struggling in her hand.

"You caught this? I thought that you were just splashing around, hoping that I would feel sorry for you and come and catch the fish for you," she told him, still amazed that he had actually managed to get something. After all, every instinct told her that you were supposed to creep up on your pray, so that you didn't scare it off.

"I caught it all on my own. Now you can cook it- unless you want to eat it burnt," she laughed. She should have known that he would make her do something. At least he had cheered her up…

End of flashback

"Hey Sora?" Tai enquired from where he stared up at the sky. She jumped. It wasn't often that they talked at night, as they were both usually deep in thought.

"Yeah?"

"What are you going to do if we get rescued and everyone is different?" she hadn't thought about that. Every day had been spent concentrating on getting back; she had never actually thought what it could be like back there.

"They won't be different. After all, it has only been just over a year. They can't have changed much, and they won't have forgotten us. Once we get back, everything will go back to normal," she had to repeat that to herself in her head; otherwise she would never believe it. She and Tai had already changed- they had become harder in a way. Trinkets from the dead no longer made her cry. She and Tai had collected a few that they hoped to return to friends and family of the ones they had belonged to. If they had already changed, would they change more if they were forced to stay on the island for much longer?

"That's what I tell myself. I don't know how much longer I can take wondering what it is like back in Odaiba. Is Kari okay? Is Matt still blaming himself? I didn't even get to apologise to Catherine for our fight… this whole thing just sucks," ah, so that was what was wrong with him. He was still worried about that fight with Catherine. Curiosity got the better of her.

"What exactly was that fight about?" she knew that she was prying, and that he needed to be told that his fears were perfectly normal, but she couldn't help asking the question. She needed to know, "Anyway, you can apologise when we get back and I'm sure that she'll forgive you and the two of you will be a couple again." He sat up, the dim light of the fire showing his face. He had his eyes closed and it appeared that he was struggling with something.

"It doesn't matter what the fight was about… well, in a way it does I guess. I just told her the truth. The reason why we broke up in the first place was because she found out that I was in love with someone else. I wasn't cheating on Catherine," he said this last bit quickly so that she didn't interrupt with a harsh comment, "but still… it was really bad of me to pretend that I wanted to be with Catherine when I didn't. Anyway, when we got to Paris she figured out who I loved and she decided that she still wanted to be my girlfriend anyway. I agreed to it because… well, I needed to move on again. In the end though, I knew I couldn't lie to her again, so I told her that I couldn't pretend and she got angry at me. And because you were there at the time, she got angry with you too. But none of that really matters anymore. I still need to apologise," she was shocked. Tai and Catherine's relationship had seemed so perfect, and yet he wasn't in love with Catherine at all. Well… maybe he did love her, but whoever it was who he loved more was keeping him from acting on his love for Catherine. That was how she read the situation anyway. She desperately wanted to know who he was talking about, but she didn't want to make things too awkward. The question was just too personal.

"Whoa… well, umm… it'll all work out. I'm sure that she will accept your apology when we get back. After all, she only said those things on the spur of the moment. She has had a lot of time to calm down now, so she'll forgive you. You shouldn't worry about it so much," she had missed talking like this. If she had to pick the one thing that she was completely grateful to the island for, it was the fact that she and Tai could now talk about anything as they had done when they were younger. The island had fixed their friendship.

A month had passed since T.K and Kari had told him their news. He sat at the kitchen table at his apartment with half a dozen bills set out in front of him. His attention couldn't have been further from them if they hadn't existed. A lithe girl sat across from him- he still couldn't call her anything but a girl- and she held his attention, even if she didn't realize it. She was sitting in front of her own pile of bills, as well as a small silver lap top.

"Thank you for helping me with this. I didn't realise that the Japanese system was so different to what I was used too. I owe you a lot," he just shrugged.

"I couldn't let those nasty companies threaten a nice little French girl like you. What kind of a friend would I be if I let them harass you? I do have the crest of Friendship after all," he motioned to his left arm, where she could just see the symbol for friendship tattooed onto his skin. As a sign of their friendship, Tai, Sora and Matt had all faced their fears and as a result, the three of them each had a tattoo of their own crest on their left arm. It had originally been to make sure that they could recognize each other if they were separated for many years, but it was mainly a symbol of their friendship; they would face everything together. Or at least that was what they had promised.

"Well, I want to thank you anyway. Come on, pack away all of that paperwork and follow me. For everything that you have done, I am going to treat you to dinner," she pushed her lap top into its case and stood, gathering her papers with her free hand. He raised an eyebrow. From the view he could see out of his window, it was still mid-afternoon. And he hadn't really done anything for her. He had only helped her to settle in Japan. She never had explained why she had moved to Odaiba, but he knew that she just wanted to be near people who knew what she was going through. That was why she stayed around him a lot. And he wanted to be near her because she knew what he was going through. At least, that was the reason he wanted to believe anyway.

"Catherine, it's only three in the afternoon. It's too early for dinner!" she pouted at his words and after a few moments he sighed in defeat. Why did she always tie him up in knots like that? He knew that he should technically stay and finish off paying his bills and start to clean the apartment, but he definitely didn't want to upset her. The mere thought of making her feel insulted or hurt made him cringe. This wasn't the first time that she had gotten what she wanted from him, and he doubted that it would be the last time either. He had a feeling that she was going to be his friend for a very, very long time, "Oh, alright, I guess a few hours won't hurt. But where are we going to do before dinner?" She smiled, her blue eyes radiating a happiness that had been non-existent half a month before. He frowned suspiciously. She had had all of this planned from the start. He had wondered why she had picked up the system so easily. But he had already accepted; he couldn't let her down now. The idea only tempted him for a millisecond, but as soon as he had thought it, he felt guilty. He was frustrated with himself.

"Let's go to the memorial," he was surprised. Why did she want to go there? His face must have changed because she quickly added, "I need to say goodbye to something that never really existed." He didn't quite understand, but he nodded anyway. He had something that he needed to say there too.

"Alright then, let's go. I have to say goodbye to something too," for some reason her expression changed for a millisecond to an emotion that he couldn't read. He thought that he was very good at reading emotions, but it couldn't have been hope that he had seen in her eyes. He grabbed his jacket and locked the apartment. It was time to say goodbye to his relationship with Sora.

Kari peered around the corner into her living room, watching the scene in front of her with an undisguised curiosity. T.K stood behind her, mumbling incoherently about not being able to see. The objects of their attention didn't seem to notice that they were being spied upon. Matt and Catherine sat on the Kamiya's couch. That was a regular occurrence nowadays- Catherine was always over visiting Kari and T.K, and since T.K practically lived at the Kamiya apartment, this was the only place that Matt could really see his younger brother. No, the unusual thing was that Matt and Catherine were sitting on the couch holding hands. They seemed to be perfectly comfortable with the situation too. They were only talking now, but the hand holding meant something. She hoped that they had gotten over their lost relationships and had finally seen what was in front of them.

"Okay, so maybe it was a good idea to get Catherine to come over here. I don't think that even you would have predicted this result though," T.K's deep voice whispered into her ear. She didn't want to admit that he was right, but she couldn't really take the credit for all of this. It had been her idea to bring Catherine to Japan too, but she had only done so because she had heard that the girl was depressed. She had never really counted on the French girl bringing Matt out of his shell though.

"They needed each other, that's all. And now they probably realise that they have found what they needed in each other, and everything else has developed from there. I admit that I never foresaw this, but it was one possible result of her coming here," together they backed away from the living room entrance and went back into Kari's room. Their homework lay scattered all over the floor, with Maths in one pile and physics in ten.

"I think that I'll be sick if I see another physics question. Let's do Japanese instead. After all, the book is pretty good, and so it is a more relaxing subject," she had to agree with him. Their physics homework had been impossibly hard and as a result the only answers that they had to the questions were question marks.

"Okay, we'll do Japanese in a second. I just want to call Mimi for a few minutes," she picked up the phone, but T.K took it from her before she could dial, "Hey, that's not fair!" He held the phone above his head, out of her reach.

"It isn't fair on Matt and Catherine for you to tell the others about it at the moment. After all, we have our own secrets from them. It would be like Matt telling your parents about the baby," he paused for a second, considering, "We should actually tell them about it soon, otherwise they are going to kill us just for keeping it a secret for so long. Then they will kill us for the other stuff about it." She pouted, but she moved towards her Japanese books.

"I just wanted to tell her that I don't think that she has to worry about Matt anymore. I know that she worries about him because he bottles his feelings away most of the time, and so I just wanted to calm her worries. But you are right. They have been good for us and so we should keep their secret until they tell decide to tell everyone. And I know that we should tell my parents about…"

"About what?" Kari jumped a mile as her mother appeared in the doorway to her room. Her father was behind her, also looking curious. She felt her knees start to shake, but she couldn't hide it from them anymore. She motioned them into the room and they cautiously sat on her bed.

"Mum, Dad… we have something to tell you," T.K grabbed her hand from behind her and she squeezed it quickly. She didn't want to be there at that moment. She had no idea what their reaction was going to be.

"Kari's pregnant, we know," they froze. Her mother had said it so calmly that they had almost missed the magnitude of it. They knew.

"Someone already told you?" the shock of the situation was enough to take away Kari's nervousness. Her parents knew. She didn't have to tell them. But if they had known all of this time, why hadn't they said anything? Her mother sighed and shifted in her seat on the bed.

"No, I just recognized the signs. I was only eighteen when I was pregnant with Tai. I was hoping that you wouldn't do the same as I did but… with what has happened recently… Look, we are a little disappointed in you, but we're not going to throw you out or anything. We love you Kari and you too T.K, and we don't want to lose you. We have talked about this and we will support you in any way," this was not what she had been expecting. She had thought that they were going to yell, scream or do anything but sit there calmly.

"You are our family- nothing will ever change that. These past months have made us realize what it is like to lose family and we never want to go through it again. Besides, we had always said that we wouldn't need to yell at you if you were in this situation. But if you ever see your brother in the next life, I'll bet that he'll yell at you enough to make you wish that you'd never even met T.K," her father added, which explained a few things about their reaction to her. She felt tears come to her eyes. Her parents were being so nice and she missed her brother. In a way, she wanted to be yelled at by Tai. She would do anything to be able to be yelled at by him. She was grateful that she had understanding parents.

"Thank you," those were the only words that she could find to say. T.K seemed to be in the same situation. She could only reach over and give her parents a hug. She was lucky to have such a great family.

To be continued…

Litanya: Well, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to review if you wish and have a good… whatever time it is! (For me it is a good night.) The next update may be a little late as my exams start soon, and I really need to study.