Part Three: Their Secret
Chapter Five: Welcome to the machine
Thump, thump… thump, thump… thump, thump… Silence. Kari Kamiya let out a slow exhale and then opened her eyes. After hearing it for the first time yesterday, she had listened to The Dark Side of the Moon twice today; this being the second time. While very different from Wish You Were Here in terms of style, it still gripped her long after the final heartbeat had faded. Needless to say, it would be receiving several more plays over the coming days. She turned to look at her brother. Tai still had his eyes closed and his chest slowly rose up and down. The memory of them Frenching on this very sofa last night stirred in her mind. Even now she found it difficult to comprehend that he returned her feelings. However, the evidence was incontrovertible now and the knowledge made her feel warm and content like she was held within his embrace. The world would not see it that way, by and large they would call it wrong, sinful… degenerate. And if she did manage to convince him to give a proper relationship a chance, she knew it would be problematic. They would have to hide it from virtually all their friends, go on dates well away from Odaiba and above all, ensure that their parents never found out. However, if it meant that she could be with Tai, Kari felt prepared to make that sacrifice.
Her brother's eyes opened and he turned to stare into her own. "What do you think that last line means?" he then asked.
Kari gave him a smile, "everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon."
"I know what he said," Tai replied. He gave her a suspicious look, "are you suggesting my English isn't good enough to understand the words?"
She burst out laughing, "me, suggest a sporty guy like you doesn't pay attention in his academic classes? You wound me, Brother."
Tai scowled at her, "if you're so smart, what do they mean by it then?"
She thought for a moment before answering, "maybe it's the idea that everything that should matter in life could be alright, but we all ignore it in pursuit of our own selfish goals."
"Sounds rather depressing if you ask me," Tai said with a sigh, "but I can see the truth in it. People do seem to have a tendency to ignore what's important in favour of getting what they want."
"I suppose it all comes down to what we each consider to be important. No one has the right to tell someone else what to value." Kari reached out an laid a hand on top of his. "Take me, for example, the most important thing to me is you."
Tai met her gaze and the pair stared deeply into each other's eyes. "It really would be a case of us and them," he said grimly. "Even something as simple as this," he indicated their hands, "could be misconstrued if the wrong person saw it."
Kari could almost feel the mix of emotions radiating from her brother. A cocktail of longing, fear, desire and worry that she knew all too well from her own struggles. She reached a hand up and touched his cheek, desperately trying to convey a sense of calm and security. "Then we'll just have to be careful." Sliding over so that their bodies touched, she drew him into a hug. "Because I can't give this up, not after having waited so long for it."
"After last night, I'm beginning to feel the same," Tai replied and gently brushed his lips against her own.
Kari responded with a soft kiss of her own before nibbling on his bottom lip. The devilish grin then danced upon her lips. "No more sugar for you, Tai Kamiya. Not until after you've finished your homework."
A sour sulk covered her brother's face. "That's not fair!"
"Call it incentive," she said with a smile. "Now, you had better get started."
"What are you going to do?" he asked grumpily as he stood up from the sofa.
"I'm sure I'll think of something," she answered airily.
She followed suit and watched Tai head for his bedroom to fetch his school books. In turn, she headed for her own. Having completed her own weekend homework during yesterday's study session, she had the rest of the day to herself.
Going into her wardrobe, she pulled out her new leggings, hung them on the door and then started flicking through her vanilla clothing. She pulled out a long-sleeved pale blue top, held it up against the black leggings only to shove it back inside. Not suitable, she thought as she continued rifling. Next she removed a long white shirt. Had she been able to afford the brown leather, steampunk corset, it would have worked perfectly without alteration. Her mind wandered for a moment to an image of her wearing the outfit, complete with a matching pair of thigh-high boots; it held a very swashbuckling pirate air. Alas, some things were not meant to be. Instead, she would have to partner the leggings with something else. Eventually she found a short-sleeved white top with a wide neckline. It would dye any colour she wanted once she'd figured out what to do with it. However, that was the only thing suitable she found.
Closing the wardrobe doors, she took both top and leggings in hand and fetched a sketchbook from her desk drawer, along with a pack of coloured pencils. Her drawing skills were not great, but good enough to do some rough sketches of her designs. Absentmindedly she flicked through the pages as she made her way out of her bedroom. Her eyes paused when she reached the first of many drawings in the Digivolution of her Digital Punk outfit. She would dearly love to take some photographs of her creation, but lacked the means to both star as model and act as photographer. Maybe she could rope Yolei into modelling for her. They had a similar build so her clothes should fit the other girl no problem. Perhaps if she said it was for a folio… Kari smiled to herself, or just offer her a stack load of chocolate filled crepes.
At the dinner table, Tai had already made himself comfortable and opened his school books. He raised an eye and watched her for a moment as she pulled out one of the spare chairs and draped the white top and leggings over it. Before she sat down, Kari made her way over to the hi-fi and opened her CD box. Her finger ran across the spines of the jewel cases, however, before she could make a choice, her brother spoke.
"Can I pick?" he asked, drawing her attention back to the table.
She gave him a quizzical look, "sure if you really want."
Tai smiled at her. "Crises," he said with certainty.
Kari pulled the green covered CD case from the box and opened it. If he was actively making a selection, it meant his initiate phase had come to an end and that he genuinely enjoyed the music; she'd reached him. Switching out The Dark Side of the Moon and putting it safely back in the box, she felt a warm smile form on her lips. "Welcome to the machine, Brother," she said with a laugh as she put the CD on.
He chuckled and quickly fired back, "I thought I'd requested Crises, not Wish You Were Here."
She crossed back over to the table and gave him a hug from behind. Taking in a deep breath through her nose in order to fully experience his scent of fresh grass, honey and lavender. Kari then sat down and opened her sketchbook to a fresh page. Picking up a standard drawing pencil, she sketched out both items of clothing while staring at them; waiting for inspiration. Eventually, after staring at the tips of her pencils, she pulled out one from each end of the spectrum, then shaded the left side of the top red and the right blue. She then considered the logistics, for ultimately that's what it all came down to. If she could not physically do it, she would need to come up with a new idea. It would require two different dyes and she would have to stand and hold half of the top into the trough until it took, or rig up some sort of stand. It would then be a case of rinse and repeat for the other side. A pain in the butt, yes, but doable all the same. Kari then looked at the leggings in her drawing. Was there any way of incorporating the two colours into them? Her eyes glanced over the top of her sketchbook to the actual article of clothing and she had a lightbulb moment. Reaching out a hand she whipped them off the chair and looked at the ribbon that crisscrossed down each leg. It would be easy enough to remove. Tossing them back, she picked up her eraser and removed that detail from each leg in her sketch. And then made the left side blue and the right red.
"Have a bolt of inspiration?" she heard Tai ask from the kitchen; she hadn't even noticed he'd moved.
She smiled at him, "something like that. You making any headway with your homework?"
He grimaced, "calculus sucks," before holding up a soda can, "do you want one?"
Kari licked her lips and found them to be rather dry. "Please," she replied, having not realised that she was thirsty.
The sound of the refrigerator door closing was accompanied by the closing notes of Crises. She glanced over to the CD player. "While you're on your feet, can you put Tubular Bells II on?" she asked when Tai appeared from the kitchen.
He nodded and headed for the hi-fi. The sound of the opening piano notes stoked the fires of her creativity and she made to go back to her design, as her brother sat the soda can down in front of her.
"Once I'm done with this, I want another Mario Kart rematch," he said upon sitting down once more, giving her his game face.
She sighed and deliberately rolled her eyes. "If you insist. However, I'm beginning to wonder if Davis will give me more of a challenge."
Kari laughed when she could practically see the steam rising from his mass of chocolate hair. Her continued winning streak had clearly been getting to him and made it almost as easy to wind him up as it was to kick his butt.
"You're going to slip up sooner or later, Sister. And when you do I'm going to shove one of your own turtle shells somewhere unpleasant."
She threw her head back and let out a roar of laughter as a tear slid from her eye. "If you can pull them out of your own backside first."
Tai growled at her as he picked up his pencil and started writing furiously. However, she could not resist one last dig, "and you haven't even challenged me to Smash Bros yet. I can only assume that you're too scared to."
The sound of his pencil breaking caused her to grin evilly at him, but he somehow managed to contain himself. She decided to leave it at that, for he did still need to finish his homework after all. After taking a much-needed drink from her fresh soda, she returned her attention to her sketchbook, adding a red converse to the left side and a blue one to the right of the design. The former she already had, which meant she would just have to find a blue pair or buy another white pair and a can of blue fabric spray paint. Neither of which would be the most expensive of outlays. On a fresh page, she started to sketch herself, a grin still playing on her lips four weeks on when she coloured her hair orange and yellow instead of brown. Once she had finished attiring herself in her newly designed outfit, she tapped the tip of her blue pencil gently against her teeth. It felt unfinished. After a few moments of thought, it came to her; gloves. She sketched a blue fingerless glove on her right hand and then a red one on her left. They would be more difficult to come by than the shoes, but might still be manageable. However, while they improved the look, something else was still missing. She looked again at the sketch, tilting her head as she turned it this way and that. While some sort of jacket might work, anything other than her short denim one was beyond her means at present.
Glancing around the room for inspiration, she caught sight of Tai and the orange shirt he wore over his t-shirt. She smiled. A jacket might be beyond her means, but a shirt she could definitely do. Kari drew a baggy, open, long-sleeved black shirt onto the sketch of herself, adding a strip of red ribbon to the right arm and a blue one to the left. Perfect. She looked again at her brother when a thought occurred to her.
"Tai," she ventured with a slight hint of caution.
He looked up from his calculus work, "yeah?"
"Do you have an old black shirt I could steal?"
Tai gave her a funny look, "maybe. What for?"
"I need one for the new outfit I'm designing and I think a guy's one will look better," she answered, feeling slightly embarrassed at having asked.
He thought for a moment before saying, "go have a look in my wardrobe and see what you can find. If you show me I'll tell you if I still wear them or not."
Kari tentatively sat down her sketchbook and headed through to his bedroom. Urgh, boy's, she thought when she opened the doors to his wardrobe and was met with a disorganised mess of clothes, some of which lay in a heap at the bottom. Not to mention the smell of sweaty socks; yuck! It had not been nearly this bad when she'd been in here two weeks ago. However, given what her brother had gone through in the time since, it was no wonder that everyday things had taken a slide. Resisting the urge to pinch her nose, she started sorting through it.
"I thought you'd found a portal to the Digital World in there, you've been taking so long."
Kari jumped when she heard the sound of Tai's voice from the doorway. "Your wardrobe was a mess!" she declared on turning her head to face him.
"Was?" he asked, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
She picked up a ball consisting of dirty socks, boxers and a t-shirt and threw it at him. "It was until I cleaned it."
Tai's reflexes were quick and he caught the laundry bomb before it hit him in the face. "Hmm, I probably should have warned you about that," he conceded airily, not sounding at all sorry.
"Put that with the dirty laundry," Kari growled with a scowl, realising now that she had been played. Revenge for the Smash Bros comment no doubt.
He chuckled as he dumped the ball into his laundry hamper and crossed the room to join her. Reaching a hand into the abyss that was his wardrobe he plucked a long-sleeved black shirt from a hanger and held it out to her, "how about this one?"
Kari looked at it and recognised it instantly, he'd worn it only a few weeks ago. "You still wear this one," she replied, without taking it.
"I know," Tai said with a smile, "but it feels nicer than the other one I have and I want you to have it."
She reached out a hand to stroke a brushed cotton sleeve. "I can't just take one of your favourite shirts."
"Of course you can," he said and in a flash, reached out his arms and spun her around. Before Kari knew what was happening, Tai had draped the shirt over her shoulders followed by his arms. "Consider it a gift for having cleaned out my wardrobe for me. I've been dreading doing it since I got dressed yesterday."
"Are you sure?" she asked, craning her neck to try and get a look at him.
"Absolutely. However, I want free re-matches at Mario Kart for as long as it takes for me to kick your sexy butt."
She laughed and feigned a sigh, "I guess I won't be getting any more CD's from you any time soon."
Tai retaliated by childishly pinching her bottom, causing her cheeks to burn slightly. "Well, guess what, Sister. I've finished my calculus homework. So get that nice ass of yours to that sofa and we'll see how long it takes me."
"Bring it, Bro," she replied with a sassy smile.
His arms still wrapped around her shoulders, Tai turned her around and practically frog marched her out of his room and to the sofa. Still wearing what was now her shirt across her shoulders, Kari picked up her gamepad and waited for him to turn on the TV and GameCube. The logo's flashed on the screen and her brother navigated to the two-player mode. On the character select screen, they picked their pairs of drivers; the Mario bros for him and the father-son Bowser duo for her. It was time for battle to commence once more.
##
It was a strange thing, being on top, Kari mused. While it had amused her to see the look on her brother's face the first time she'd beaten him, it would not have bothered her if it had been a one-time deal. However, now that she had become used to winning, she felt an unfamiliar desire not to let her crown slip. So she'd raced her damnedest to ensure that didn't happen. And thanks to a little good fortune, it didn't. They'd played two tournaments, the first of which she'd won outright by four points. However, a vengeful Tai had managed to pitch her off the race track three-quarters of the way through the last lap of the first race of round two. He'd gone on to win and she'd only managed to salvage fifth. From that point on she'd been fighting to claw back the deficit. In the end, in a happy twist of fate, it had actually worked to her advantage. They'd finished level on points, but because she had been forced to win more races in order to make up for the bad result in the first, she came out on top.
"Close but no cigar, Bro," Kari said with a grin as she sat down her pad.
His eyes narrowed as he glared at her. "We didn't beat the Dark Masters in one day. Rather we slowly chipped away at them one at a time as we climbed Spiral Mountain. And I'm almost at the summit, little Sister."
She flashed him a wicked grin, "I've heard this one before." She then changed her voice so it was a fair approximation of Pidemon's, "the sole Digidestined was then defeated by the Dark Mistress and sent tumbling all the way back down to the bottom."
Tai laughed as he stood up. "I'll put an end to your tyranny, Dark Mistress if it's the last thing I do."
"It seems this little Digidestined is getting a bit ahead of himself… TURTLE SHELL!" Kari yelled as though calling out an attack and sprang to her feet after him.
Catching Tai unawares, she barrelled into him and knocked them both to the floor. They wrestled for a few minutes, however, no amount of skill at Mario Kart would ever change the height and weight imbalance between the pair and Kari soon found herself pinned on her back. Their gazes locked and she felt as though a spark had just been ignited amidst the dying embers of last night's fires. Her brother must have been struck by it too as instead of launching a tickle attack on her, he lowered his head until their lips met. Wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders, Kari passionately returned the kiss. Within moments they had engaged in a glorious battle of tongues and lips.
The feeling of having her brother so close to her was the equivalent of dropping a petrol bomb amidst the now glowing embers and they exploded into an inferno of passion and desire. Without thought, Kari ran her hands down his back and found her way inside his top. Such was her want… no, need to feel his naked skin beneath her fingertips. She felt his back arch as she gripped his shoulders and furiously began rubbing. However, Tai did not respond in kind and she knew that he would not do so without her express permission; Bushido was not dead when it came to him at least. Between bouts of kisses, her breaths came in sharp pants and she could not get enough air to form words. So instead she withdrew one of her hands from beneath his top, took hold of one of his own and guided it underneath her green weirdo t-shirt, pressing it gently against her naval. The look in Tai's eyes asked her if she was sure, to which she gave a brief nod. When both of her brother's hands began to rub the soft flesh of her abdomen, Kari felt a jolt of pleasure shoot through her. In the heat of the moment, she wanted him so badly it hurt to try and contain herself. She gasped as he moved his hands around and lifted her back up off the floor so that he held her upright against his chest in his strong arms and began to massage her shoulders. Like ice cream on a hot day, she melted under his touch. Seizing the initiative, Tai began to run kisses down her neck, much like she had done with him the previous night. All Kari could do was clutch onto his back as she dissolved under all the attention that he gave to her. When his hands ran over her bra strap and did not even pause to consider, she felt the urge to yell at him to remove it so her breasts could join in the fun. However, both parties were denied the opportunity of second base by the ill-timed sound of the telephone ringing.