Litanya: Hi again. I don't own Digimon. I am sorry that this has taken so long, but I have had exams, and I still have a couple (but those are a week away). And for anyone following the World Cup… the Socceroos (Australia!) are awesome! They're ranked 47 I think, and they beat Japan (rank 14) 3-1 yesterday. Yay!

The Island Holiday

Chapter 11: Autumn Leaves

Just over two years had passed since the crash now. Over two years of living on an island, eating leave and fish, and only having one other person for company. It didn't sound very fun, but Tai found that there were moments where he wouldn't be anywhere else. This morning was a good example. He had woken up just before sunrise. Sora was still asleep- it had been her turn to watch the fire late into the night and so he decided to let her sleep. He knew that she worried about the others at nights, and any rest that she could get he wanted her to take. He moved silently to the beach and washed his face with the salt water to wake himself up. It was pretty dark, but the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. Once he felt that he was awake enough, he walked along the beach whilst watching the sun rise. Some of the trees to his left were losing their leaves, and the wind blew them around across the sand. Luckily the leaves they were eating (Sora had told him their proper name, but even she couldn't deny that they were just leaves) were not among the ones on the ground. The swirling leaves were all a dark yellow or a light orange and they had made beautiful patterns in the breeze. He had finally settled on a rock away from the beach in among a group of trees, and watched. In Japan he had never really taken the time to appreciate nature. Of course, when he had gotten back to where Sora was now awake, she demanded to know where he had been because she had been a little worried when he didn't respond to her call, but he had still had a peaceful start to the day. The rest of the day had gone relatively quickly, and he now found himself lying on the ground next to the fire, staring at the stars. A very peaceful day.

"Hey Tai," Sora asked from her spot on the other side of the fire. He turned his head so that he was facing her direction, but he was feeling sleepy from the fire, so he wasn't paying all that much attention.

"Yeah?" he mumbled, as he realized she was waiting for him to make some sign that he had heard her. She still seemed to hesitate before continuing. It was obvious to him that she wasn't exactly sure of what she wanted to ask- whether she was unsure of his answer, or unsure of hers- and so he knew that she was going to bring up Japan in some way.

"If… no when we get back to Odaiba," he briefly noted that she didn't call Odaiba home, "I mean… now that we've been here for two years, is there anything that you want to change about your life in general?" He woke up a bit now. He knew that Sora liked thinking about that sort of thing, but he had decided a long time ago that his life would probably never end up going the way he wanted it to, and as a result he liked to take every day as it came. Well… he tried to anyway.

"I don't know, I've never really thought about it. I believe in that saying that goes 'life is like a box of chocolates- you never know just which one you'll get.' I never really dwell on what I can change in the future- I like thinking on what I can change right now. I know that I am avoiding the question in a way, but I honestly don't know what I'd change. Maybe… maybe I wouldn't stress over my exams and my work as much… then again, I never really stressed over them anyway," he knew that he was blabbering, but the question had surprised him. Why had she asked that question? Was there something big in her life that she wanted to change when she got back to Japan? "Is there anything you want to change?" She stared at the fire for a few moments and he wasn't sure if she was going to answer.

"My priorities would change," she said finally, "It's amazing what a little time apart from everyone can make you realize. You finally realize what the most important thing in your life is, who the most special people you know are. I must say, I have learnt a lot, and some of the answers are different than I thought." He blinked. He kind of understood what she meant, generally, but he had no idea about the specifics. He had learnt a lot about himself too- for instance, he actually missed his political science classes more than his soccer practices. Of course, he and Sora had devised a way to play soccer on the Island, but it just wasn't the same as his soccer practice.

"Well, there's nothing like a little solitude to get you to know yourself. It's like we've gone to one of those 'spiritual camps' and stayed there for two years. But the things you've discovered can't be too different from what you knew anyway, can it?" the expression on her face told him that she wasn't sure about that.

"Well… you've been in love with two people at the same time, right? How are you supposed to know which one you're in love with when you're surrounded by all of your friends and family who you love in a million different ways? I know; I know… I'm the digidestined of Love and I can't figure that out," now he was really confused. Love was her expertise, not his. He had enough problems with it as it was. Then again, he did love two people at the same time, and he did know who he loved more. But how was he supposed to explain it? Did she really expect an answer? He looked back up at the stars, but they didn't help him this time. He could feel her eyes on him as if they were trying to see through his head to where the answer lay. He sighed and kept his eyes on the sky.

"Yeah, I love two people very much, but it's easy to tell which one I'm in love with. I love this girl more than I love Catherine. The trick is to not think about it, and then the answer comes. I can't be more specific than that, other than you want to be around one of them more than the other. And… umm… yeah," he felt his cheeks turn pink as he realized that he was talking about love with Sora. How did this happen? Was he going to start asking her about Courage next? To him, Sora was a physical embodiment of Love- she loved everyone and everything indiscriminately, and until that moment, he had been sure that she knew exactly how and why she loved everyone. Well… if he couldn't gather up the simple courage needed to ask her out, then he guessed that she was allowed to be a little confused as to how she loved someone. It was only fair after all.

"Are you going to tell me who this mysterious girl is yet? I need to know Tai!" strangely enough, he was more comfortable now that she was asking him questions like this again. He would take being hounded for an answer about his own love life than a question about love in general any day. At least he kind of knew what he was talking about with his own life.

"No. You know her and it might make the situation even worse. I want to keep my silence until she breaks up with her boyfriend, if she ever does, which will probably be never. So you will never know," he flashed a grin as she groaned. She really did want to know, but he couldn't risk telling her. They had grown to be close friends again, and he didn't want that to disappear. He especially could not risk it now, when they were alone on an island. It would be a very, very, very unbearable experience.

"Do you think Matt has a new girlfriend by now?" she was jumping topics so quickly that he was starting to get mentally dizzy. He prayed for a rescue boat to find them right at that moment so he wouldn't need to answer, or anything to happen that would interrupt the scene. Nothing came. The stars really were being mean to him.

"I don't know. You know Matt better than I do, but even I know that he takes a long time to get over things that hurt him emotionally. Then again, two years is a long time, and if the right person came along… I just don't know," he said all of this cautiously as he didn't know what her reaction would be. He didn't know if he could deal with it if she started crying about how much she missed him or something. Well… he would probably just do what he had always done if she and Matt had had a fight- comfort her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. However, it turned out that he didn't have to worry about it.

"I hope he has. I don't want him to be sitting around his apartment all miserable and blaming himself. He needs to move on. He always was too serious about everything," Tai struggled to keep his jaw from dropping. She wanted Matt to move on? She was a lot stronger than he was. He had never wanted her to have a boyfriend, other than himself of course. But here she was, saying that she hoped he had moved on. She had a lot more courage than he did.

"You want him to have another girlfriend? But then… when you get back, you'll end up having to either get him to break up with his girlfriend, or you'll be heartbroken for a long, long time. We could be rescued tomorrow; what would you do if he had a girlfriend?" the words were out of his mouth before he could speak. Of course he knew that she would never intentionally hurt someone else by stealing their boyfriend, but she loved Matt… didn't she? She took a long time to answer again, and she traced her tattoo of her crest as she spoke.

"I would wish them all the best for the future. I was in love with Matt… I'm sure that I was, but I just realized that there is someone who, in your words, I love more," she smiled a bit at that and shook her head a little, "I never realized that it was possible to love someone more than someone else, but… I guess that you can. Maybe the whole point of us getting the crests we did was to show us that even though we think we know everything about something, we can never really know everything about it." He kept silent as she seemed to drift off into thought. But he couldn't stay silent for long. He wanted to know.

"So, who is this other guy you love more than Matt?" she blinked at him as though she had forgotten that he was there. Then she laughed.

"If you want to know the answer to that question, you have to tell me who you love first," he had expected an answer along those lines. Her words about the crests made him wonder though. He knew that it took a lot of courage to fight for your friends and family, and he knew that it was hard to gather courage to ask someone out, but… he should have been able to say the words he wanted to. He should have answered her question. But instead of doing the brave thing and tell her what he felt, he chickened out.

"Well, I guess that I won't be finding out that answer for a while then," they fell into silence, neither of them noticing that the other was looking at them from the corner of their eye.

The twins were now two months old, Kari realized as she settled her son down in his crib. T.K was settling their daughter down on the other side of the room. Yep, they had twins. They had named the twins Taichi and Sora, and the little twins seemed to be well on the path of living up to their namesakes. They were only two months old, but their favourite things to put in their mouths seemed to be objects that were round and black and white, like mini soccer balls. All of the digidestined had fallen in love with the twins, and Kari and T.K never had to look far for a babysitter. Not that they had taken their friends up on that offer yet, but it was good for the future.

"Thank goodness they're finally asleep!" T.K sighed in relief and looked at his watch. It was ten thirty. She had never thought before that ten thirty was late, but with the twins waking up at odd hours during the night and sleeping in irregular hours during the day… the problem was that they never usually woke up at the same time. Taichi usually awoke first, and just when he was about to go back to sleep, Sora would start crying and they would have to settle her down as well. She loved the twins with all her heart, but there were trying times as well. She was just glad that her parents hadn't thrown them out just yet. T.K was working and they were saving up for their own apartment, but they couldn't afford to move just yet. Her parents were so considerate about everything and she felt extremely guilty. After all, she and T.K were not the only ones woken by the twins' cries during the night.

"I wonder why your twins have such a weird sleeping pattern," Matt remarked from where he was seated on the couch, "According to Joe most babies just sleep most of the night and pretty much all day. The twins seem to like being awake." Kari nodded as she sunk into the nearest armchair. The digidestined were all gathered in the living room of the Kamiya apartment. Her parents had gone out, and so the others had decided that it was a good time to have a gathering. Kari just wanted to sleep, but she also wanted to talk. She contented herself to just sitting in the armchair. She could sleep soon.

"It's got something to do with my family. According to my mother, Tai and I were also difficult- we liked being different or something. It'll get better soon, or so my Mum says," T.K also flopped into a nearby chair. She knew that he was exhausted. He had had a seven o'clock meeting that morning at his job. He worked for a local newspaper as an editor. Usually one would have to have gone to university to get a job like his, but his mother had been training him to be an editor since he had shown an interest in the job when he was fourteen. It also helped that his Aunt, who had helped to train his editing skills, ran the local paper that he now worked for. He had had to earn his spot before she would let him work there though.

"I'm just intrigued at how a difference in genes can cause insomnia-like symptoms," Izzy mused. Although he didn't have his lap top in front of him now, she could almost see him typing away, trying to find some way to explain it. Mimi hit the short brunette over the head, and Kari knew that she had seen it too.

"Izzy, do you have to try to know everything? Tanja, I don't know how you put up with it," this last was directed at Izzy's girlfriend, a quiet brunette who had slowly been adopted into their group of friends. Tanja just smiled.

"I hide his lap top every second day when he gets home from work," Kari had always wondered why Izzy didn't bring his lap top to their gatherings. Now she knew why. Joe snickered at Izzy, who was mock-glaring at his girlfriend. Mimi just gave Tanja an understanding smile.

"I have to take Joe's books away after nine pm every night unless he has assignments otherwise he would be buried in books by now," Joe's laughter cut short and everyone else laughed. Joe and Izzy were just too studious most of the time.

"So Izzy, have you gotten any further in our project?" Joe asked, ignoring his girlfriend, who was talking quietly to Tanja, occasionally giggling. Kari sat back and watched the group, too tired to really participate in the discussions. Matt had joined Izzy and Joe's conversation about trying to get their respective girlfriends to spend less time dragging them around shopping centers, and the three of them were trying to drag Ken and Cody into the debate. Catherine had joined Mimi and Tanja in their secret discussion. Davis and T.K were talking about a basketball game that they had seen, and Miyako was trying to help Cody with his Maths homework when he wasn't talking with Matt and the other guys. She truly loved evenings like this, even when she was tired. Although they made her remember that her brother and Sora were gone, they also made her remember the good times.

"Hey Kari, wake up," she sat up and blinked. Izzy, Tanja and the others were gone. The only ones left in the room were herself, T.K, Matt and Catherine. It had been Catherine who had woken her. Matt seemed to be doing the same service for T.K. She blushed as she realized that she had been asleep and so she had missed saying goodbye to the rest of the gang. Catherine noticed, "Don't worry about the others leaving. We offered to wake you up, but they insisted that you needed to sleep. We agreed. But I think that you would get a better sleep if you were actually in a bed, not an armchair." There was a hint of a smile on her face, but she was trying to look serious. Then again, Catherine always seemed to wear a smile now.

"Thanks," she yawned and Catherine tried not to laugh.

"We should go now. Have a good sleep," the blond couple left and Kari shuffled sleepily to her room. She opened the door and… Sora started crying. T.K groaned behind her.

"I'll go," she told him before firmly pushing him away from the twin's room. He didn't need to be told twice. He didn't even protest. She sighed and picked her daughter up, rocking her gently, "Now what do you want, little one?" She murmured to her. Two innocent eyes stared back up at her, and a tiny hand came up to try to touch her nose. As much as she hated waking up at night, as much as she grumbled about having to try doing homework to catch up on the months of school she had missed, she wouldn't change anything she had done. Still, she could do without the sleepless nights…

To be continued…

Litanya: Thanks for reading this, and I'm sorry that it is short. And the second half is pretty boring… sorry about that. Anyway, please review and I'll try to update again as soon as possible. Have a good night/day/afternoon etc!