The sky turned a deep shade of orange to compliment the warmth of the air. A breeze swept by and provided the most shortly timed relief from the heat. A young girl dropped her bags onto the ground and sat in the grass. Everyone around her busily gathered their things and hustled off the school grounds, but she felt the need to enjoy the moment. Summer was coming.

Sora Takenouchi leaned back and looked up, digging her elbows into the dirt. It was that time of the day when one could see the moon and the sun at the same time. The clouds were slowly starting to blend into the sky behind them, and soon everything would be dark. She smiled a bit. Sora was always happiest in the summer. Perhaps it was nostalgia. The season felt like home.

"Eh, Sora?!"

Someone was calling her name and it pulled her from her daze. She sat up straight again and looked around. Her eyes eventually locked on a brunette boy heading her way. He waved, and Sora smiled back.

"Taichi!" She pushed her things aside and offered him a spot next to her. "What are you doing here?"

"Practice just got let out." he replied, dropping his own bags onto the ground. He happily accepted the spot next to her and glanced up towards the sky where she'd just been looking. "What were you staring at?"

"Oh, nothing." Sora laughed sheepishly. "Tennis just got let out too, but my legs need a break before I walk home."

"I think mine agree!" Taichi stretched his own legs out in front of him and kicked off his cleats. "We didn't do too hot in our game last weekend so coach had us run an extra mile before drills."

Sora scrunched her nose up at the sound of that. Extra running was something she was too familiar with. "Well," she asked, "did you do well? You know, individually?"

Taichi smirked. "I always play well."

Sora, who could have provided at least ten counter-examples, looked at him skeptically.

"Ah, alright," the boy laughed, "I thought I could make a goal someone else was in a better position for. I should have passed the ball instead. Hey, the final score was five to two though! The loss wasn't entirely on me."

Sora felt a small smile creep onto her face. She leaned back again and looked back up towards the sky. Stars were beginning to come out, but they were still faint. "You were always such an over-confident player."

Taichi groaned, causing Sora to glance back at him. "Come on, aren't friends supposed to make each other feel better about a loss?"

"You'd think," Sora began, "but best friends are honest." She nudged him and he pushed her back. "Hey," she exclaimed, "your hands are sweaty!"

"Are they?"

Sora could tell by the look on Taichi's face that he was up to no good. He brushed his hand through his dampened hair and pushed it back towards her.

"Ew!" she yelped, "Don't touch me!"

The boy began to laugh and Sora followed suit. Sometimes Sora felt like she was eleven years old again while hanging out with him. She watched him wipe his hand off on his jersey and stuck her tongue out jokingly in disgust.

"Ah, ok," Taichi said while catching his breath, "I'll stop, I'll stop. Really though, what are you doing out here?"

Sora composed herself and pushed some loose strands of hair out of her face. She hesitated for a moment but confessed. "I'm just thinking, I guess."

Taichi looked at her earnestly. She had his attention now. "About what?"

"Well," she glanced back up towards the sky. It seemed like it was darker every time she looked at it, "it's almost summer. My favorite day of the year is the first day you realize it doesn't get much colder when the sun goes down."

"Summer's alright, I suppose." Taichi replied. "The humidity, though, it doesn't really work for me." He ruffled his hair.

Sora chuckled before going on. "The summer makes me remember. It's been years since we first went to the digital world, but I remember perfectly. The nights felt like this before we went to camp, before we left-"

"Yeah, and then it started to snow!"

"Eh, Taichi!" Sora broke her gaze from the sky and scolded him for interrupting.

"Sorry!" He held up his hands defensively but quieted down. They locked eyes for a moment and he offered her an apologetic look.

Sora bit her lip and fidgeted in her spot. "I miss it."

Taichi thought about offering another joke. Sure, they missed the digital world now, but the entire time they were trapped there all they could think about was getting home. Well, that and not getting killed. However, he settled on saying something else. "I miss it too."

And it was the truth.

Silence took over and crickets filled the void. It was a comfortable silence though, and neither of them felt a particular need to end it. Sora wondered if Taichi was thinking about their adventures or if his mind had drifted back to football.

"Would you do it again?" she asked quietly.

Taichi glanced over at her and raised a brow. "What?"

"The digital world. Everything."

"Well, yeah," he said quickly, as if it was the obvious answer, "if I hadn't gone to the digital world I wouldn't have met Agumon!"

"But," Sora clarified, "if you had the option right now to go back and relive everything, would you do it?"

Taichi paused for a moment, understanding what she was really asking. He remembered the day that he got back from the digital world, after beating the dark masters and everything, all he could think about was going back. In less than 24 hours, his life had become incredibly boring. Nothing could satisfy him. He would look out the window at school and dream of another adventure, another emergency, anything to pull him back into the digital world.

Now though, he wasn't so sure. Now he'd gotten a taste of what it was like to travel back and forth between both worlds with ease. He could help the younger chosen children take down a dark tower and get home in time for dinner. He didn't worry about things like never seeing his family again, or laying in his own bed, or eating a good meal. It didn't provide the same sense of excitement, but perhaps the sort of adventure he once longed for was best left in his childhood.

"It's nice to come home and see the people you care about at night." Taichi replied, looking like he was still lost in thought. "You know, when we first went to the digital world, looking back, I was never really sure if we were going to make it out. I had this blind hope, this belief, and I'm… I'm just too old for it."

"Too old?" Sora laughed.

"Yeah!" Taichi said affirmatively. "Besides, I still have nightmares about dudes like Piemon. I trust the younger kids. I think I'm alright with them taking over. But hey, I'm sure one day we'll be needed again."

Sora nodded, but she didn't say anything. His words hit her hard. Deep down she always knew that she'd be called to action again, and the digital world would once again become the responsibility of the original eight. However, she'd never really addressed those thoughts before. They laid dormant in her mind, but now they were dragged out to the forefront. Would they be ready?

Taichi stared at her for a moment and waited for her to say something. When she didn't, he asked "So what are you thinking about?"

Sora pulled her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She took a quick breath like she was preparing to say something, but nothing came out.

"Hey, you can tell me." Taichi assured her. He leaned in towards her a little, listening intently.

"Well," the girl began, "I don't know if I could do it again. I'm glad it happened, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for new enemies. Sometimes I feel like I'm still processing what happened to us in the first place."

"Will we ever be ready for new enemies?" Taichi asked.

Sora was a bit startled by how deeply he was looking at her. It was like he could already tell what she was thinking, like he could see her thoughts. Sora broke their gaze and looked straight ahead. The orange hue of the sky had turned dark blue and the stars were out in full force now. "I… I don't know."

"Well," Taichi replied, easing up a little, "it's a waste of time to prepare for something we know nothing about! If something's out to get us, it'll find us eventually."

"That's not very reassuring Taichi."

"Isn't it?" Taichi asked, looking at Sora inquisitively, "Whatever enemies we'll have to face in the future, they stand no chance against us, whether we're ready or not."

He had spoken so matter-of-factly, but Taichi's words didn't comfort her. They actually made her feel worse. Sora must have shown the change in mood on her face because her friend started to look at her with concern. He didn't say anything, but Sora knew he could tell that something was wrong. She decided that she might as well fess up.

"I have nightmares sometimes too." She stated bluntly, unsure where the conversation would go from there.

Taichi furrowed his brow and leaned towards her again, giving her the same look he did a few minutes ago. His eyes were deep and welcoming. They'd seen her like this before. "About what?"

Sora thought for a moment and recalled the last bad dream she'd had. A few digimon had made guest appearances in her dreams over the years, but one always felt the need to come back.

"Nanomon."

"Nanomon?" Taichi questioned, "That loser?"

He instantly regretted what he said by the way Sora snapped her head to look back at him. "He almost killed me, Taichi!"

The boy sighed. He wanted to say something about it, but it occurred to him that they'd never actually talked about what happened that day. Him and his friends had managed to rescue Sora but then he was sucked back into the real world, and from what he heard, there was no closure. Everyone instantly became worried for him, and that lasted for weeks.

"I'm- I'm sorry..." was all Taichi could muster, but Sora sighed too.

"Sometimes," she began, "when I'm falling asleep, I feel like I'm on that metal table. It doesn't happen too often, maybe once a month, but it's exhausting. I'm on the verge of sleep but then I'll feel trapped, strapped down against the metal, and my body jolts me awake. I always expect to see Nanomon, but it's just my room. It's always my room, but it's still scary."

Taichi bit his lip and hesitated for a moment, wondering if it would be appropriate to ask her one of many questions he had. He felt like a pretty terrible friend for never asking her before, but he supposed in the digital world there wasn't a lot of time to dwell on the past. Too much was always happening in the present. Still though, he wondered if she'd been stuck with these leftover emotions since they'd rescued her. The boy vaguely remembered her apologizing to their friends for worrying them, but she really didn't think her being stolen was an annoyance, did she? It was more than that.

"Sora, what… what happened to you? What did Nanomon do?" Taichi said the digimon's name with a bit more disgust than he had before, but the rest of his question was quiet and careful.

Sora gulped. She hadn't talked about that day in years. No one had asked her about it, and she hadn't cared to tell. She would have felt like a burden, anyways. Her feelings had been locked up about it for so long that it felt uncomfortable to revisit them.

Taichi waited, though, and eventually she felt like she had no choice but to speak. The silence became uncomfortable.

"Well, he, uh, he took me." She said slowly, as if her words were walking on ice. "I don't really know how long I was gone for. I remember calling your name and then nothing. I woke up and panicked because I couldn't move, but then I saw Piyomon and I started to worry for her. Nanomon was telling me that he was going to use my crest to make her work for him. I remember saying that there was no chance, but then he made a copy of me. He was trying to tell me that Piyomon would digivolve for the copy, and all I could think about was my partner being forced to do something evil, and all of you getting hurt. I felt powerless, like there was nothing I could do to stop it. A lot of time went by, and I think I might have given up hope for a little. I... I didn't know if you were coming."

"I'm… I'm sorry I took so long." Taichi looked down disappointedly, struggling to find the words to apologize. "I should have come sooner, but it took us ages to figure out where you were. Nanomon could have taken you anywhere, but eventually Koushiro figured out you were right under our noses all along."

"Koushiro found me?" Sora asked, looking at Taichi out of the corner of her eye. That piece of information was new to her. She'd never really known how they figured out where she was.

"Yeah…" Taichi replied hesitantly. "He worked for hours. Everyone else was too upset. We were trying to make plans but there was nothing we could do. We felt a little hopeless too."

Sora could hear the dejection in his voice and she suddenly felt bad for bringing him down. "But you found me." She reminded him, nudging him again.

"We did." He leaned his head back and let out a deep sigh. "We did…"

Taichi thought back to the moment he burst through the electric gate and into the room Sora was being held captive in. He remembered it was bright, and it took his eyes a moment to adjust. He'd thought Sora's clone was the real thing, and he remembered how quickly his heart started beating when he saw how dead she looked. Before he heard Sora's- the real Sora's- voice call out to him all he could think about was what that monster had done to hurt her. He remembered running towards the clone and it felt like claws were squeezing his lungs. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, but then he heard her call out to him, and it was like time came to a halt and the claws let go, allowing him to breathe.

"…We found you just in time."

"Do you think if I fell," Sora asked quietly, "that I really would have been gone forever?"

Taichi looked at her intently. These were scary thoughts, and he wondered how much talking about them would help. He trusted his friend, though, so he gave her an answer. "I wouldn't have let you fall."

"But if you did." Sora repeated.

Taichi shook his head, his eyes still locked on hers. "I wouldn't have."

Sora stared at him for a moment before looking back up towards the sky. It was now as dark as the hole that almost swallowed her. She pulled her knees closer to her chest and exhaled quietly, nervous that taking a breath too heavy would worry Taichi more.

"Hey," Taichi reached an arm out around her and pulled her into him. Sora's head rested nicely against his shoulder. "I know you're pretty much the strongest girl I know and everything, but there's nothing wrong with being scared."

Sora didn't say anything, so Taichi went on. "That day- the day Nanomon took you- was one of the scariest days of my life. You know, after we left the pyramid without you, I cried? I cried like a baby in front of everyone. I was terrified I'd lost you."

Sora's lip quivered and she felt herself sniffle. She hadn't expected herself to cry, but at the same time she wasn't surprised.

Taichi noticed and pulled her in closer. "I would have never forgiven myself if I let anything happen to you though, and I faced a lot of fears that day to get you back."

"Y- you did?" Sora asked, wiping a tear away with the back of her hand. She became less tense and let herself give into his embrace.

"Yeah!" Taichi exclaimed, "Tons. But that's how important you are to me. And even though you're the most awesome, strongest friend I have and you're totally capable of taking care of yourself... I promise you, I'll never let anything happen to you."

Sora began to feel her eyes well up with water. She didn't think she'd get this emotional talking about something that happened so long ago, but perhaps it was only natural. She wrapped both her arms around Taichi's torso and fell completely into him, grateful that he'd taken the time to tell her how hard their entire group searched for her. She'd always known that they did, but it was nice to hear it, to talk about it, to process.

Taichi wrapped his free arm around her too and pulled the girl into a giant hug. "And hey, listen, if I ever let anything happen to you, I know you'd be haunting me from beyond the grave for the rest of my life. Making me… clean my room and, and eat healthy…"

Sora pulled back and eyed him. "Taichi!" she exclaimed, trying to sound mad. She didn't though. She ended up straight laughing.

"There's the Sora I know." Taichi said, flashing her a small smile. He reached up towards her face and brushed the remaining droplets of water away with his thumb. "I'm sorry you had to sit with this for so long, but you're not alone with it anymore, okay?"

Sora nodded. She felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and maybe the nightmares wouldn't hold her down as much anymore. Perhaps she would sleep well that night.

Thanks for reading everyone! It's been a really long time since I've written anything, so please leave any feedback and constructive criticism for me. It feels good to be writing again, though.

I was inspired to write this because episodes 19 + 20 of adventure were largely written to advance Taichi's character development. Although I totally understand why the writers did that, it always seemed weird to me that something so intense happened to Sora yet no one ever talked about it. Well, they definitely didn't have the chance to, but you all know what I mean. But really, Sora was kidnapped, cloned, used for evil, and then almost dropped into a black hole of forever-death and all we see is her apologizing for worrying her friends? I just felt like there, realistically, needed to be some sort of processing for her. This is my shot at it, so I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm going to brush the dust off my keyboard and try and write some more.

garudamon.