Part Two: His Secret

Chapter Six: It's what we do

If school weeks were Digimon and last week had been an ultimate level called Brutalmon, then it had digivolved over the weekend into its mega form, Insanemon. For that is exactly the metaphor Tai Kamiya would have used to explain how this past week had been worse than last. Except this time, there would be no respite for him over the weekend. The homework gods having forsaken his class and, quite frankly, went out to get hammered. Leaving space for the homework devils to move in and torment them. Cycling through the traffic, Tai bemoaned his fate for the umpteenth time that day. And it had been a long day. When the chime to signal the end of school had sounded, he'd headed for the computer lab instead of home. The former being the lesser of two evils. He'd stayed until one of the janitors had politely asked him to leave so he could lock up.

After Monday's twin fight's, his mother had barely said a word to him all week. In normal circumstances, she would have at least softened somewhat by now. However, the events of Tuesday had put pay to that happening anytime soon. When he'd come home from after study class, he'd found her in a thunderous mood. Having bought some brown hair dye, she had intended to undo the 'damage' that had been done to his sister's hair. Except when Kari had arrived home, she had point-blank refused to play ball and locked herself inside her bedroom. He had then received the riot act, for it had been his bad influence that had caused the whole mess. Dinner time had only compounded the situation, for Kari had decided to prove a point and arrived at the table wearing her short tartan skirt, new t-shirt and choker. She had also spiked her hair and applied some heavy dark eyeshadow. Their mother had gone nuclear. She had yelled and screamed at them both in turn and then rounded on their father who had surprisingly not been too bothered. If that wasn't bad enough, Tai had also caught himself staring at Kari with a thought of how hot she looked passing through his head. In the end, there was nothing more their mother could do and Kari's hair remained like a lit match.

Locking his bike in the undercroft, Tai dragged his feet as he carried his bulging bag of books up the multiple flights of stairs and along to the apartment. Opening the door with less enthusiasm than he had to see Myotismon again, he stepped inside and exchanged his shoes.

"I'm home," he called, more out of habit than a wish to announce his presence.

"Tai!"

He lifted his head and came face to face with his sister's lamp-like eyes. Where the hell had she come from? And why did she look and sound so happ…AY! Before he could cross the threshold into the main living area, his sister had descended on him and wrapped her arms around him.

"Miss me?" she asked with a smile

"Hey, Kari," he replied, managing to push her off so he could step forward.

"Geez, Bro, you sound worse than you look. What happened, your teachers spring a set of surprise tests on you or something?"

He gave her a horrified look and in an unintentionally frantic manner said, "don't say that sort of thing out loud or that's exactly what I'll walk into on Monday morning!"

"Ok…" Kari replied as she tilted her head to look at him, "you been hitting the coffee as well as the books too hard?"

She stepped aside and allowed him to pass, but chose to follow him to his room. "Where's mom and dad?" he asked upon realising that the apartment seemed empty bar the two of them.

"Dad took mom out for the evening. Something about dinner and alcohol being the only two things that would stop us turning her prematurely grey. So don't expect them to be back any time soon."

"It's going to take a lot of alcohol to get mom to lighten up after this week," he said absentmindedly as he dropped his bag onto the floor.

Without thinking, he started to undress and it was only when he realised that Kari had not said anything for a few moments that he froze. Now wearing nothing but his boxers, he turned to face the door. His sister stood with her back against the frame, a mischievous smile dancing on her lips.

"KARI!" he exclaimed in alarm.

This only caused her to laugh. "What, you're the one who decided to strip. I'm just enjoying the show." In a flash, a hungry look filled her reddish-brown eyes and a devilish grin spread from ear to ear. "How much will it cost me to see you take off those boxers?"

Tai responded by hastily finding a pair of jeans and stuffing his legs inside them.

"You're no fun," Kari pouted as he found a t-shirt.

"This isn't a peep show you know."

"It would be if you took my money."

Tai shook his head and left the room. He had suspected that Kari might try pushing the boundaries of their relationship, now that he knew her secret. Probing to find out how close she could get before he drew the line. A hug waited for him every time she greeted him and some of her commentary, such as what she had just said, verged on creepy. Yet for some reason, he had not put his foot down. Maybe it was because he enjoyed seeing her happy, or did not want to hurt her feelings? Regardless, he made a mental note to put the kybosh on it if she started trying to kiss him. The memory of the last time still haunted him whenever it caught him in an unguarded moment. And not because he thought it weird or wrong.

"What's for dinner?" he decided to ask, as his stomach let out a growl.

"Well, mom bought stuff to make dinner…"

He gulped at the thought of another one of his mother's home-cooked meals. All week there had been a noticeable drop in effort, which, inconceivable as it might be, had resulted in even worse experimental nightmares.

"…fortunately, dad intercepted her before she could so much as open a packet of rice and told her that he was taking her out. So I said I would cook for us."

Tai's eyes lit up like a pair of new-born stars at the news of a Kari cooked meal. He could think of nothing, after a week of surviving on cafeteria food and energy bars, that would appease his stomach more.

His sister must have seen the expression on his face for she then said, "are you sure you won't fully strip for me? I can get my camera."

She laughed when his eyes widened at the suggestion. "Kari, that is not fair!"

"Well, unless you've got some US dollars to pay for your dinner…"

"I'd rather wash every dish in the house!"

She looked at him pointedly, "you really have had a bad week, haven't you?"

"The worst," he sighed.

Taking him by the hand, his sister led Tai to the dinner table and sat him down. "You know what would improve your mood…" she asked, leaving the question hanging.

He gave her a suspicious look, half expecting the answer to be something she would enjoy and he would not, "what?"

"Losing a bet."

He gave her a blank look. What was she talking about and how would that improve his mood?

Kari rolled her eyes, "do I need to explain everything to you?" When he did not respond she continued, "it's Friday night and you haven't checked your phone since before school ended."

"How on earth would you know that?" he asked, for it was true.

His sister let out a long-suffering sigh. "If you'd bothered to check your phone, you would have known Dad took Mom out. Which means you won't have seen the message from Teiko that will lose you our little bet but result in you having a date."

Tai felt completely flabbergasted at his sister's assertion, such was the confidence with which she made it. "How would you know if Teiko messaged me or not?" He paused for a moment, "have you spoken to Izzy and had him bug my phone?"

Kari laughed. While he'd meant it as a joke, it was not beyond the realms of possibility. Izzy's ability with computers bordered the mad genius at times and Tai would not put it past him to be able to do that. "It's nothing creepy-stalker-like, Brother. I'm a girl, she's a girl. I know how she thinks. She'll have been pondering what she wants all week, made a final decision at some point today and texted you."

Tai's mouth fell open as Kari explained the basic workings of the teenage female mind.

"However, since you've not bothered to look at your phone, she'll now be wondering why you haven't messaged back… and possibly pondering how she's going to punish you for it." A wicked grin that sent a shiver down his spine formed on Kari's lips as she spoke, "I think you'd better check your phone, Tai"

As his sister left to go into the kitchen, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Sure enough, after reading a few other messages, he found one from Teiko. "Hey, Kamiya, how'z it hanging? So, there's a fair in town next weekend and you're going to take me. You can pick me up at 6 pm on Saturday." Tai did not know how to feel in regards to the 'demand', or the fact Kari had been dead on. While he liked Teiko a lot, he was unsure how a date between the two of them would go down. His past experience of trying to date a good friend hadn't exactly ended well. As for his sister, she was becoming scary.

"So what did she say?" Kari asked innocently as she placed a plate of tempura vegetables with boiled rice and tentsuyu dipping sauce in front of him.

Tai barely heard her as he stared longingly at the meal she'd just put down. It smelled so good his stomach tried to gorge itself on the aroma alone. A hand then waved itself in front of his face, causing him to jump. "Earth to Tai. What did Teiko say?"

"Oh," he shook his head to try and clear the desire for dinner from it long enough to answer her. "She wants me to take her to the fair next weekend."

Kari did a fist-pump as she declared, "yes!" before smiling at him, "you lose, Bro. You can pay up when we next go into town. On the flip side, you get to go on a date with Teiko."

Tai thought about this for a moment, his wandering eyes noticing the black bra she wore beneath her slashed t-shirt. Maybe a date was exactly what he needed. At the very least it might help take his mind away from Kari. "It might be fun," he said as he picked up the first tempura vegetable; a slice of mushroom.

"Of course it will," Kari replied. He watched her eat some of her own food before she added, "you know what else will be fun? Getting your butt kicked at Killer Instinct."

"Sorry, Sis, I've got a tonne of homework I need to make a start on."

The irony of the whole situation was not lost on him. This Friday, it seemed they had swapped roles. Unfortunately, unlike his sister last week, his homework was legit. The devilish grin once more spread over Kari's face and he pondered whether or not he should just surrender now.

"Come on, Tai, you can't spend your whole life studying, you'll turn into Joe."

Hearing his sister turn his own words against him caused Tai to shake his head and he could not help give her a grin. "My butt better be on that couch in ten minutes or you'll drag me there?" he asked in amusement.

She laughed, "you do look like you can use the R&R. However, if you really do need to do homework, here's what I suggest. We play a few rounds, then we can mutually study while listening to some music. I know this English guy whose music is great for that. We then get to play a few more during break time. Sound fun?"

While he certainly needed to get some of his homework done tonight, Kari's idea sounded way more appealing than holing himself up inside his bedroom alone. "Yeah, let's do it."

They finished dinner, cleared up and headed for the sofa, where he noticed that Kari had already dug out the N64 and Killer Instinct Gold. She certainly did prepare well. Deciding to play the best of seven before hitting the books they hit the character select screen. He went with one of his two tried a tested warriors, Jago, while Kari, like when they played Mario Kart, threw him a curveball and picked Spinal over her traditional choice of Kim Wu. Round one was not fun. Not knowing what he was up against, left his character in a world of hurt. It seemed that his sister's skill at Killer Instinct rivalled that of Mario Kart. Round two played out much the same as he desperately tried to shake off the rust. Giving Kari an easy 2-0 victory in the first bout. The next round also went her way, though he did not go down without a serious fight this time. Finally, he managed to claim the fourth but lost the fifth to go two-nil down in matches. It was bloody, brutal and played at a blistering pace, but unfortunately, left him licking his wounds after a 5-2 defeat. Those first two matches costing him dearly.

"Hope you study better than you fight, Tai," Kari taunted with a smug grin.

Somehow he got the impression that she'd wanted to do that for a long time but thought he wouldn't play with her anymore if she beat him. Which, given how much he hated to lose, he might well have done. However, he was older now, an adult and so going to get revenge. "Come break time, your ass is mine."

And so it was. After an hour and a half of studying, during which Kari played for him two albums called The Songs of Distant Earth and Ommadawn, he and Jago got their revenge against his sister and her new pick Maya. Tubular Bells II and Crises came next and were followed by Maya sending his second character, Glacius, back into orbit. A short Wish You Were Here length final study period ended in Glacius crashing back down to Earth and crushing Spinal's ancient bones to dust. Both worn out after the evening's activities, the siblings agreed to call it a draw.

"I think we should make this our new thing," Kari said as they cleared away their respective piles of books and laptops.

"What, beating each other into a virtual pulp every time we have homework?"

They both laughed at his joke.

"You make it sound like we need therapy," Kari chipped in.

To which he replied, "at the rate we're going, the whole family is going to need therapy by next weekend."

"Too bad you have a date next weekend," Kari said slyly.

He thought for a moment before replying, "Teiko's really good at listening. Maybe I can double book."

"Listening to all your issues will probably send her to the nuthouse. Then who would do my hair?"

They sat back down on the sofa to have a slice of chocolate cake and a soda each before heading off to bed. After a few moments, Tai caught himself gazing at the orange, yellow and blonde strands of her hair. It was hard to picture her without the lit match look now, given how perfect it was for her. "So you've decided to dye it again once this iteration wears off?"

"Yep. I can't go back to the old me. Not after everything that's happened over the past week."

He ate a mouthful of cake followed by a drink from his soda can. "Good. Mom will come around eventually. And if she doesn't, and goes prematurely grey, you can call her a hypocrite when she uses that hair dye she bought on herself."

A bout of hysterics from both parties later and Kari pulled him into a hug. "I've missed this," she whispered.

"I thought you maintained that all my jokes were bad?"

"They are. However, that doesn't mean I haven't missed them."

When she snuggled her head against his chest, Tai felt the oxymoronic urges to both push her away and wrap his arms around her and never let go. Why did he feel so conflicted? Surely he couldn't… he snatched the thought out of his mind before it fully formed. No, that had been a moment of weakness, nothing more… He sighed internally. Perhaps this date with Teiko couldn't come soon enough.