A/N: I sincerely apologize for taking so damn long with this chapter.
Hopefully they'll come a lot quicker in succession in the future. Thank
you for those who have reviewed!
Shiva stood in the center of the meeting room just after exiting ACE. She sighed, thoroughly frustrated. It wasn't like she cared who Tai kissed. So why did it bother her so much?
"Stupid Tai..." she growled. Her fists clenched. A white-blue light filled the room once more and Tai went flying out of it, tumbling a few feet head-over-heels and then coming to a halt at Shiva's leather-clad feet. She just looked appraisingly down at him before turning and walking out.
Slowly standing to his feet, Tai scowled after her. It was none of her business what he did. She was completely over reacting in the situation.
'Fine,' he thought angrily, 'if she's going to be like that, then I'm not going to put up with her.'
And so the silent battle continued throughout the week. Tai and Shiva would only cast the occasional cold glare toward one another but nothing more. This made life at the coliseum pretty dull, particularly for Gennai, with their top humorists on a silent streak. Even Griff and Angela, who, more often than not, spent their free time in each other's company, noticed the tension around the residence. Thankfully, the silence eventually ended.
Late one Thursday night, after a few hard hours of training, Tai lay in his bed spread eagled, his wings folded comfortably underneath him. He was alone in the room because Griff decided to take Angela out on a date. Of course Tai didn't know where the hell he would take her for a date in the digiworld.
The digiworld had become Tai's home. It was something he could no longer deny. Sure he missed his family, especially Kari, but he suddenly began to feel out of place any time he thought of moving back there. Tai broke out of his train of thought when his bed sagged under an added weight. He decided to not even acknowledge her as she curled up on one of his wings, huddling close to his body. The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence.
"Look tai, I completely over reacted-"
"-I don't know what I was thinking, kissing her like that-"
"-It's a free world, so far. And she never even did anything to hurt you-"
"-And then I just blew you off afterwards-"
Silence filled the room again.
"So... do you really like her like that? I mean, not that I have a problem or anything, it's cool..."
"...No," Tai couldn't help but notice the relief that passed over her face, "I don't even know what happened, honestly. It was more like animal attraction."
"Oh."
"She's got nothing on you, ya know that right? You're a much better kisser."
More silence followed after this. Shiva looked up and caught Tai's eye. Both were thrown into a strident laughter.
Gennai looked up from the local paper, The Digital Download, smiling knowing everything was going back to normal. He settled back to reading the paper before dropping it on his lap in frustration. When was Moira going to give up? It was four on one, and even though the guardians were still in training, they were very promising. The most disturbing recent event was the brief interaction between Tai and Moira. He had to tell Tai the truth; the past between the fire and ice guardians before he was hurt. History was about to repeat itself and he felt helpless to stop it.
A small beeping noise emitted from a smoking silver box and he stood.
"They're almost ready..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning would prove to be an unusual one. For one thing Gennai was singing.
"It's a world of laughter a world of tears..."
The four Guardian trainees shared a pained look as their mentor, dressed in a frilly pink apron dished out scrambled eggs and cereal to each of them.
"This is so sad." Shiva scoffed as she watched Gennai attempt a pirouette, and dropped some eggs in the process.
Tai nodded solemnly, "Yes, I think he stole that apron from Matt."
Angela snorted into her cereal.
Griff ran a hand over his head in annoyance. His hair had grown since he arrived and he now had cornrows, much to the delight of his girlfriend. "I can't take this..."
"It's a small world after all! It's a small world after all! It's a small world after all! It's a small, small- DAMN IT! WHO THREW THAT??"
Four heads dipped simultaneously with mock innocence. Tai gave Griff a discrete high-five under the table as a newly damaged papaya rolled off into the corner inoffensively.
Gennai rubbed his slowly bruising head, "Fine! Then you won't get your presents."
"PRESENTS?!"
Gennai smiled at the expected results. In no time he had children graveling at his feet begging for what ever gift he had in store for them. Oh, how he loved this.
"Alright! Griff, let go of my leg! Stand up. Good. Now in my hand is something I think you'll find very useful, especially if you want to visit the real world."
He opened his palm to reveal four simple, silver rings with two miniature orbs on each. The orbs were a different set of colors on each one. Tai received the ring with dark red and light orange spheres. Angela had dark blue and light purple, Griff had dark green and light yellow, and Shiva had a light grey and black. They each took them completely confused. Gennai continued speaking after handing them out.
"Now let's see how good you are at following directions. Place these on your middle finger on your right hand. Alright, now push the darker of the colored buttons. Yes Angela, that's what they are, buttons, not pretty jewels."
After following these directions they continued to stare at him waiting for more. Gennai just shook his head sadly and walked out of the room. They all shared a bewildered look. Then they did a double take.
"Tai! You're wings are gone!"
"Shiva! You have pupils!!!"
"100% Skin, nice."
"No more scales! Yes!"
"No more tail! Shit!"
"... I can wear shirts again!"
Gennai strolled back into the kitchen, rolling his eyes at the one- track minds of his successors.
"As you can see, these rings can control you're appearance. The darker of the two buttons brings you to you're human state; while the lighter will convert you into you're natural selves. And we, Piximon, Ace and I, that is, finished these just in time. We seem to have run into a little problem."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"PRODIGIOUS!!!!" Yolie slipped off the chair she was dozing off in and landed hard on her bottom. She angrily pushed her glasses back to the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and wiped a couple fallen, mauve locks from her face.
"WHAT ARE YOU SHOUTING ABOUT??" Her usual boisterous voice boomed about the small classroom they were in.
Izzy seemed unfazed to the verbal attack and was staring at the school computer monitor in excitement.
"Get all the digidestined here now."
"Argh, Fine!" She huffed, pulling out her D-terminal. She was never one to easily take orders.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"As much as I pride myself on keeping the digiworld a secret from you're original world... there are some individuals that seem to figure out everything." Gennai started with a heavy tone and a pointed look in Tai's direction.
"Izzy, right?" Tai said with a flicker of a smile on his lips.
"I'm afraid so. I swear there's no escaping that kid."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what's up Izzy?" Kari asked, holding T.K.'s hand in her own.
Izzy gave them all a very smug and accomplished look, "How would you guys like to go visit our digimon as well as Tai?"
"You can't be serious?"
"But I thought Gennai sealed off our use for it for our protection?"
"You figured it out? Oh, Izzy you're a genius!"
"I can't wait to see Tai!"
"I can't wait to see our digimon!"
"How long should we stay?"
Izzy held up a hand for silence.
"I know you're all excited, but keep in mind that the digiworld is going through a rough time with a new evil affecting it and the new guardians are only in training. But we will have our digimon... so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stay a while."
"Great! When can we leave?" Davis asked eagerly.
"Well, do you all have you're digivices?"
Everyone nodded
"Then now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A bright light filled Ace's room signaling an arrival. Eleven individuals shakily got to their feet after a rough landing.
"Where are we?" Sora asked, graciously accepting her boyfriend's hand to her feet.
Izzy answered, "I believe we are in the coliseum that piximon brought us to during our first visit to the Digital world, which is now the current residence of the guardians."
"Welcome back, digidestined." The group whipped around, knowing that voice all too well.
"Gennai!"
"Yes it's me, and if I hear any of you comment on my age so help me I'll have piximon assign you to chores again." he growled threateningly. Then he gave them a hearty smile, "Please make yourselves at home. We have accommodations for the boys and girls so feel free to stay as long as you see fit!"
The digidestined sweat dropped and smiled nervously.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh shit! They're here!" Tai said in a frantic whisper after hearing recognizable voices from down a couple floors, "You guys, Shiva, please be normal. I mean, don't embarrass me or anything. They just won't be accustomed to the way things are here ya know?"
Although poorly explained, the rest of the guardians understood what he meant and gave him a reassuring nod. After all, not everyone was close enough to each other to be able to have casual co-ed showering.
"Hey, does this mean sometime we could have our friends come over here?" Angela asked thoughtfully.
Griff shook his head, "No, humans aren't supposed to be in the digiworld, besides, Tai's friends were digidestined, so they're an exception."
"Oh," Angela said disappointedly, then brightened, "well I better go get changed then! If these are our only new human friends for a while then I want to make a good impression!"
"She'll definitely get on well with Mimi." Tai muttered, watching her skip back to her room. He heard a distinct giggling to his right. He glanced over his shoulder to see Shiva trying to stifle a laugh with her hands like a little girl.
"Hey, guys, do me a favor. If you see a blimp... warm me."
Tai and Griff were able to share a quick, bewildered look, before Shiva
burst into tears and ran down the hall.
"I just don't get her, mate." Griff commented.
"Who does?" Tai made to go after her when a voice stopped him.
"Tai."
He turned to see all his friends standing together and he suddenly felt a new emotion stir inside of him. He was here, in the digiworld. In the digiworld with all his friends. Just like the old days. What he wouldn't give to go back to the times when he was a child, a leader maybe, but still an innocent child who just wanted adventures, soccer trophies, a date with Sora...
"Oof!" Kari had once again tacked Tai in a hug.
"I missed you so much! How have you been? How's the digiworld?"
"I'm good! Training's going good; digiworld is slowly but surely healing from the raids. Moira's been loosing her hold on certain parties. A bit weird now that I think about it...so how you been? Not in my bed hopefully."
T.K. gave a nervous laugh at this from the crowd.
"Wait, who's Moira?" Ken asked.
"Oh, her, she's ah, evil... yes, and she's the one trying to take over the digiworld... yup, don't know how else to explain her."
"A girl?" Davis snorted, "Shouldn't be too hard for you then right Tai?"
Mimi, Sora, Kari, and Yolie gave him a cold stare.
A tall, dark young man who was silently standing besides Tai spoke up.
"Yea, too bad he's too busy snogging her to get in a good punch." He said in a smooth British accent.
Tai gave a loud cough and elbowed Griff in his side. Hopefully his friends weren't too up to date on British terminology.
"Oh! You guys haven't met Griff," Tai spoke loudly as he gave Griff a meaning full look to keep his mouth shut, "he was just about to get his girlfriend, weren't you?"
"NO NEED!" A loud yet sweet voice came from behind him. A pretty girl with long curly blond hair that bounced behind her as she came skipping down the hall jumped strait into her boyfriend's arms.
"Hello beautiful"
"Hey stud"
"Not here." Tai warned. He gave an apologetic look to his friends only to realize their attention was focused behind him. He didn't need to look to know who was behind him. He didn't even need to know what she was doing. She was just going to get kicked. Hard. Tai whipped around.
"SHIV-a..." his voice trailed at the spectacle he met. She was dressed only in a shirt, socks, and undies with a giant smiley face on the back of them. And she was doing the booty dance. Yes, THE booty dance. Hip shaking, moon walking and shimmying were just the beginning. This had to be stopped before it got ugly.
Tai turned back to his friends, laughing nervously, "Heh heh- excuse me for a minute. Just... one minute."
Shiva ran just in time as Tai came barreling after her down the hall and out of sight. Gennai grinned at the familiar behavior of the two.
"So, who's hungry?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That was delicious!" Mimi exclaimed after daintily wiping her mouth with a napkin. Needless to say, she, Angela and Yolie got on great together.
"Yea, my compliments to the chief" Matt agreed. He, Joe, and Griff were another bunch who seemed to become fast friends. Ken, Cody, and Izzy, ever so eager to learn, had left with Gennai to go examine ACE.
"That would be the future Mrs. Spander over here." Shiva replied dryly. She enjoyed getting nice, juicy stories from Kari about her brother's childhood and pinching Davis and T.K.'s cheeks while commenting on how cute they were. Angela blushed with this comment before going into a fierce whirl of whispering and giggling with Mimi and Yolie.
Tai smiled warmly at the happy scene, glad that everyone was getting along so well. He looked to his left to see an attractive, auburn-haired girl sitting in peace. He felt slightly guilty that he had not spoken to his former best friend in a while; things between them had been awkward for quite some time after the Christmas incident.
"So Sora how goes life in the real world?" he asked casually, leaning back and resting his forearms on the back of his chair.
"It's great Tai; I came in second in my tennis championship!" She replied with a smile. God, his voice was deeper. He really had grown up. What happened to the boy who used to blush whenever she pecked him on the cheek or fantasize about becoming a pro soccer player?
"Really?" Tai asked interested, "Who beat you?"
"Oh just Kameko Hotaka."
"Hotaka? As in Diran Hotaka's sister?! You should have decked her!"
Sora laughed. How he missed that laugh. He noticed out of the corner pf his eye Shiva watching the two talking. She was always protective of him, as he was over her, and no matter how many times he tried to explain to her there were no hard feelings between him and Sora, she still resented the girl for hurting him a couple of years ago.
"Don't tell me you've still got beef with Diran?"
"Hey, he's the one who's got problem with me. You know he starts everything."
"Well I wouldn't say everything," she giggled again, "There was that one time when you shot him in the butt with a paintball gun from under your desk."
"Yea, two weeks of detention, but it was well worth it."
Gennai's voice ended their conversation. "Tai, Shiva, if you two would be so kind as to clear the table?"
Tai groaned and stood, gathering as many dishes as his arms would allow. On his way to the kitchen he walked past Sora, who seemed mildly disappointed at his departure but remained silent. Silent because she was too busy checking out his ass. What a nice ass...
"Hey hun, how are things with Tai these days?" Matt said as he plopped down in Tai's now vacant seat. Sora studied the table suddenly feeling very guilty.
"Oh he's great, Matt. We were just... catching up on old times..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tai and Shiva dropped the dishes in the sink, obviously planning to wash them some other time. Shiva sat down heavily in a chair.
"I saw you talking to that Sora girl." She replied with a conversional tone.
"Yea, so what if I was?"
Shiva frowned, "Do you still like her?"
Tai faced the sink and began to run hot water from the faucet.
"I don't know anymore," He said quietly, "I think I might still have some feelings for her, but she seems happy with Matt so I can get over it."
"You can get over it?"
"Yes..."
"Well, then do you like Moira?"
"WHAT?"
"You heard me."
"NO! I don't like her! She's my enemy!"
"So was Myotismon, but I doubt you were sucking face with him. Do you just kiss anything with breasts?" Shiva replied coolly, giving him a hard time.
"No! I couldn't help it! I think I was possessed! Stop laughing! Seriously, it was nothing more than...than... the animal attraction thing! Oh my god, I can't deal with this..."
Shiva rose form her seat to where Tai was standing. She placed a hand on each side of his head and began to gently shake it back and forth, up and down.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his cheeks cutely squished between her palms.
"I'm shaking the frustration out of your head" she replied in concentration. Next, she dropped her hands and gave him a small smack on the cheek.
"Ow, is this one of those reverse psychology things? You beat the child to make them feel loved?"
"You bet bucko"
Tai just rolled his eyes and returned to the dishes.
"My feet are cold." She mumbled absently. Tai turned and gave her an incredulous look.
"So?"
"I like my feet warm."
"Yea and I like it when you shut up." He replied harshly.
"LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA," she paused for a breath, "LALALALALALALALALALALALA..."
Tai insipidly walked away from the sink for a moment and around the kitchen corner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the living room, Shiva's singing reached the ears of many annoyed guests. Angela groaned and buried her head in Griff's shirt. Why must she be the only sane resident here?
"What is that?" Mimi screamed over the noise, covering her ears with both hands.
"That's Shiva's theme song." Griff hollered back.
"Well how do we shut her up?" Matt yelled, incensed.
Griff looked down at his nonexistent watch, "Tai should be taking care of it right about... now."
And just on time the singing stopped; only to be replaced by an equally loud noise.
SCHHHHH
"AHHHHHHHH!!!"
Seconds later Shiva came bolting into the room panting and looking hysterical.
"He- he... EXTINGUISHED MY FEET!"
Sure enough, Tai followed shortly after her, swinging a fire extinguisher in his right hand and looking quite pleased with himself.
"Barking mad, the lot of them..." Angela continued to mutter at the floor.
"Hey, if I have to listen to your shit, then you have to have cold feet." Tai smugly replied ignoring the gaping looks from the others and Angela's comment.
"It's better if you just don't ask." Griff mumbled to Kari who was about to say something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the evening passed with at ease with each others presence. The digidestined and guardians swapped adventure stories and well as a few spur-of-the-moment ones thrown in.
"Ok, so we were at this fair once, and Tai decided he wanted some pizza. Sadly, he was in a creative mood that evening so instead of buying the pizza like normal people, he picked a random kid from the street and paid him twenty bucks to run by a group of barn workers and steal a box of pizza they ordered. Well, naturally the kid did it; I mean twenty bucks is twenty bucks, right? So the kid runs by, grabs the box and continued running around the barn and gave the box of pizza to Tai."
"I started yelling at him that he just wasted 20 bucks on pizza when he could have gotten it for much less if he bought some the normal way, and he starts laughing his ass off. He's very confusing sometimes and I thought he was just having another one of them spastic moments, but no, he was a little bastard and gave that poor, manipulated, little boy fake money. I've never been more proud of him."
Everyone was in hysterics by the time Shiva finished her story.
Gennai glanced at the clock, "Look at the time! I think you should be off to bed. Some of us have training tomorrow."
He instantly found himself on the receiving end of the evil eye from a few select individuals.
"Alright ladies! Follow me!" Angela set off at a march with Mimi, Kari, Yolie and Sora right behind her. Shiva grudgingly followed too, but with a little more distance between her and the rest of them.
"Ok guys, our room is this way." Tai and Griff led the male digidestined to the boy's dormitory. Tai sat on his bed and gestured towards the rest in the room, indicating that they could pick which one they wanted. Not that it mattered seeing as they were all identical.
"Hey Tai..."
"Yea Davis?"
"Is it true you have co-ed showering?"
... TBC
Shiva stood in the center of the meeting room just after exiting ACE. She sighed, thoroughly frustrated. It wasn't like she cared who Tai kissed. So why did it bother her so much?
"Stupid Tai..." she growled. Her fists clenched. A white-blue light filled the room once more and Tai went flying out of it, tumbling a few feet head-over-heels and then coming to a halt at Shiva's leather-clad feet. She just looked appraisingly down at him before turning and walking out.
Slowly standing to his feet, Tai scowled after her. It was none of her business what he did. She was completely over reacting in the situation.
'Fine,' he thought angrily, 'if she's going to be like that, then I'm not going to put up with her.'
And so the silent battle continued throughout the week. Tai and Shiva would only cast the occasional cold glare toward one another but nothing more. This made life at the coliseum pretty dull, particularly for Gennai, with their top humorists on a silent streak. Even Griff and Angela, who, more often than not, spent their free time in each other's company, noticed the tension around the residence. Thankfully, the silence eventually ended.
Late one Thursday night, after a few hard hours of training, Tai lay in his bed spread eagled, his wings folded comfortably underneath him. He was alone in the room because Griff decided to take Angela out on a date. Of course Tai didn't know where the hell he would take her for a date in the digiworld.
The digiworld had become Tai's home. It was something he could no longer deny. Sure he missed his family, especially Kari, but he suddenly began to feel out of place any time he thought of moving back there. Tai broke out of his train of thought when his bed sagged under an added weight. He decided to not even acknowledge her as she curled up on one of his wings, huddling close to his body. The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence.
"Look tai, I completely over reacted-"
"-I don't know what I was thinking, kissing her like that-"
"-It's a free world, so far. And she never even did anything to hurt you-"
"-And then I just blew you off afterwards-"
Silence filled the room again.
"So... do you really like her like that? I mean, not that I have a problem or anything, it's cool..."
"...No," Tai couldn't help but notice the relief that passed over her face, "I don't even know what happened, honestly. It was more like animal attraction."
"Oh."
"She's got nothing on you, ya know that right? You're a much better kisser."
More silence followed after this. Shiva looked up and caught Tai's eye. Both were thrown into a strident laughter.
Gennai looked up from the local paper, The Digital Download, smiling knowing everything was going back to normal. He settled back to reading the paper before dropping it on his lap in frustration. When was Moira going to give up? It was four on one, and even though the guardians were still in training, they were very promising. The most disturbing recent event was the brief interaction between Tai and Moira. He had to tell Tai the truth; the past between the fire and ice guardians before he was hurt. History was about to repeat itself and he felt helpless to stop it.
A small beeping noise emitted from a smoking silver box and he stood.
"They're almost ready..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning would prove to be an unusual one. For one thing Gennai was singing.
"It's a world of laughter a world of tears..."
The four Guardian trainees shared a pained look as their mentor, dressed in a frilly pink apron dished out scrambled eggs and cereal to each of them.
"This is so sad." Shiva scoffed as she watched Gennai attempt a pirouette, and dropped some eggs in the process.
Tai nodded solemnly, "Yes, I think he stole that apron from Matt."
Angela snorted into her cereal.
Griff ran a hand over his head in annoyance. His hair had grown since he arrived and he now had cornrows, much to the delight of his girlfriend. "I can't take this..."
"It's a small world after all! It's a small world after all! It's a small world after all! It's a small, small- DAMN IT! WHO THREW THAT??"
Four heads dipped simultaneously with mock innocence. Tai gave Griff a discrete high-five under the table as a newly damaged papaya rolled off into the corner inoffensively.
Gennai rubbed his slowly bruising head, "Fine! Then you won't get your presents."
"PRESENTS?!"
Gennai smiled at the expected results. In no time he had children graveling at his feet begging for what ever gift he had in store for them. Oh, how he loved this.
"Alright! Griff, let go of my leg! Stand up. Good. Now in my hand is something I think you'll find very useful, especially if you want to visit the real world."
He opened his palm to reveal four simple, silver rings with two miniature orbs on each. The orbs were a different set of colors on each one. Tai received the ring with dark red and light orange spheres. Angela had dark blue and light purple, Griff had dark green and light yellow, and Shiva had a light grey and black. They each took them completely confused. Gennai continued speaking after handing them out.
"Now let's see how good you are at following directions. Place these on your middle finger on your right hand. Alright, now push the darker of the colored buttons. Yes Angela, that's what they are, buttons, not pretty jewels."
After following these directions they continued to stare at him waiting for more. Gennai just shook his head sadly and walked out of the room. They all shared a bewildered look. Then they did a double take.
"Tai! You're wings are gone!"
"Shiva! You have pupils!!!"
"100% Skin, nice."
"No more scales! Yes!"
"No more tail! Shit!"
"... I can wear shirts again!"
Gennai strolled back into the kitchen, rolling his eyes at the one- track minds of his successors.
"As you can see, these rings can control you're appearance. The darker of the two buttons brings you to you're human state; while the lighter will convert you into you're natural selves. And we, Piximon, Ace and I, that is, finished these just in time. We seem to have run into a little problem."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"PRODIGIOUS!!!!" Yolie slipped off the chair she was dozing off in and landed hard on her bottom. She angrily pushed her glasses back to the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and wiped a couple fallen, mauve locks from her face.
"WHAT ARE YOU SHOUTING ABOUT??" Her usual boisterous voice boomed about the small classroom they were in.
Izzy seemed unfazed to the verbal attack and was staring at the school computer monitor in excitement.
"Get all the digidestined here now."
"Argh, Fine!" She huffed, pulling out her D-terminal. She was never one to easily take orders.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"As much as I pride myself on keeping the digiworld a secret from you're original world... there are some individuals that seem to figure out everything." Gennai started with a heavy tone and a pointed look in Tai's direction.
"Izzy, right?" Tai said with a flicker of a smile on his lips.
"I'm afraid so. I swear there's no escaping that kid."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what's up Izzy?" Kari asked, holding T.K.'s hand in her own.
Izzy gave them all a very smug and accomplished look, "How would you guys like to go visit our digimon as well as Tai?"
"You can't be serious?"
"But I thought Gennai sealed off our use for it for our protection?"
"You figured it out? Oh, Izzy you're a genius!"
"I can't wait to see Tai!"
"I can't wait to see our digimon!"
"How long should we stay?"
Izzy held up a hand for silence.
"I know you're all excited, but keep in mind that the digiworld is going through a rough time with a new evil affecting it and the new guardians are only in training. But we will have our digimon... so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stay a while."
"Great! When can we leave?" Davis asked eagerly.
"Well, do you all have you're digivices?"
Everyone nodded
"Then now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A bright light filled Ace's room signaling an arrival. Eleven individuals shakily got to their feet after a rough landing.
"Where are we?" Sora asked, graciously accepting her boyfriend's hand to her feet.
Izzy answered, "I believe we are in the coliseum that piximon brought us to during our first visit to the Digital world, which is now the current residence of the guardians."
"Welcome back, digidestined." The group whipped around, knowing that voice all too well.
"Gennai!"
"Yes it's me, and if I hear any of you comment on my age so help me I'll have piximon assign you to chores again." he growled threateningly. Then he gave them a hearty smile, "Please make yourselves at home. We have accommodations for the boys and girls so feel free to stay as long as you see fit!"
The digidestined sweat dropped and smiled nervously.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh shit! They're here!" Tai said in a frantic whisper after hearing recognizable voices from down a couple floors, "You guys, Shiva, please be normal. I mean, don't embarrass me or anything. They just won't be accustomed to the way things are here ya know?"
Although poorly explained, the rest of the guardians understood what he meant and gave him a reassuring nod. After all, not everyone was close enough to each other to be able to have casual co-ed showering.
"Hey, does this mean sometime we could have our friends come over here?" Angela asked thoughtfully.
Griff shook his head, "No, humans aren't supposed to be in the digiworld, besides, Tai's friends were digidestined, so they're an exception."
"Oh," Angela said disappointedly, then brightened, "well I better go get changed then! If these are our only new human friends for a while then I want to make a good impression!"
"She'll definitely get on well with Mimi." Tai muttered, watching her skip back to her room. He heard a distinct giggling to his right. He glanced over his shoulder to see Shiva trying to stifle a laugh with her hands like a little girl.
"Hey, guys, do me a favor. If you see a blimp... warm me."
Tai and Griff were able to share a quick, bewildered look, before Shiva
burst into tears and ran down the hall.
"I just don't get her, mate." Griff commented.
"Who does?" Tai made to go after her when a voice stopped him.
"Tai."
He turned to see all his friends standing together and he suddenly felt a new emotion stir inside of him. He was here, in the digiworld. In the digiworld with all his friends. Just like the old days. What he wouldn't give to go back to the times when he was a child, a leader maybe, but still an innocent child who just wanted adventures, soccer trophies, a date with Sora...
"Oof!" Kari had once again tacked Tai in a hug.
"I missed you so much! How have you been? How's the digiworld?"
"I'm good! Training's going good; digiworld is slowly but surely healing from the raids. Moira's been loosing her hold on certain parties. A bit weird now that I think about it...so how you been? Not in my bed hopefully."
T.K. gave a nervous laugh at this from the crowd.
"Wait, who's Moira?" Ken asked.
"Oh, her, she's ah, evil... yes, and she's the one trying to take over the digiworld... yup, don't know how else to explain her."
"A girl?" Davis snorted, "Shouldn't be too hard for you then right Tai?"
Mimi, Sora, Kari, and Yolie gave him a cold stare.
A tall, dark young man who was silently standing besides Tai spoke up.
"Yea, too bad he's too busy snogging her to get in a good punch." He said in a smooth British accent.
Tai gave a loud cough and elbowed Griff in his side. Hopefully his friends weren't too up to date on British terminology.
"Oh! You guys haven't met Griff," Tai spoke loudly as he gave Griff a meaning full look to keep his mouth shut, "he was just about to get his girlfriend, weren't you?"
"NO NEED!" A loud yet sweet voice came from behind him. A pretty girl with long curly blond hair that bounced behind her as she came skipping down the hall jumped strait into her boyfriend's arms.
"Hello beautiful"
"Hey stud"
"Not here." Tai warned. He gave an apologetic look to his friends only to realize their attention was focused behind him. He didn't need to look to know who was behind him. He didn't even need to know what she was doing. She was just going to get kicked. Hard. Tai whipped around.
"SHIV-a..." his voice trailed at the spectacle he met. She was dressed only in a shirt, socks, and undies with a giant smiley face on the back of them. And she was doing the booty dance. Yes, THE booty dance. Hip shaking, moon walking and shimmying were just the beginning. This had to be stopped before it got ugly.
Tai turned back to his friends, laughing nervously, "Heh heh- excuse me for a minute. Just... one minute."
Shiva ran just in time as Tai came barreling after her down the hall and out of sight. Gennai grinned at the familiar behavior of the two.
"So, who's hungry?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That was delicious!" Mimi exclaimed after daintily wiping her mouth with a napkin. Needless to say, she, Angela and Yolie got on great together.
"Yea, my compliments to the chief" Matt agreed. He, Joe, and Griff were another bunch who seemed to become fast friends. Ken, Cody, and Izzy, ever so eager to learn, had left with Gennai to go examine ACE.
"That would be the future Mrs. Spander over here." Shiva replied dryly. She enjoyed getting nice, juicy stories from Kari about her brother's childhood and pinching Davis and T.K.'s cheeks while commenting on how cute they were. Angela blushed with this comment before going into a fierce whirl of whispering and giggling with Mimi and Yolie.
Tai smiled warmly at the happy scene, glad that everyone was getting along so well. He looked to his left to see an attractive, auburn-haired girl sitting in peace. He felt slightly guilty that he had not spoken to his former best friend in a while; things between them had been awkward for quite some time after the Christmas incident.
"So Sora how goes life in the real world?" he asked casually, leaning back and resting his forearms on the back of his chair.
"It's great Tai; I came in second in my tennis championship!" She replied with a smile. God, his voice was deeper. He really had grown up. What happened to the boy who used to blush whenever she pecked him on the cheek or fantasize about becoming a pro soccer player?
"Really?" Tai asked interested, "Who beat you?"
"Oh just Kameko Hotaka."
"Hotaka? As in Diran Hotaka's sister?! You should have decked her!"
Sora laughed. How he missed that laugh. He noticed out of the corner pf his eye Shiva watching the two talking. She was always protective of him, as he was over her, and no matter how many times he tried to explain to her there were no hard feelings between him and Sora, she still resented the girl for hurting him a couple of years ago.
"Don't tell me you've still got beef with Diran?"
"Hey, he's the one who's got problem with me. You know he starts everything."
"Well I wouldn't say everything," she giggled again, "There was that one time when you shot him in the butt with a paintball gun from under your desk."
"Yea, two weeks of detention, but it was well worth it."
Gennai's voice ended their conversation. "Tai, Shiva, if you two would be so kind as to clear the table?"
Tai groaned and stood, gathering as many dishes as his arms would allow. On his way to the kitchen he walked past Sora, who seemed mildly disappointed at his departure but remained silent. Silent because she was too busy checking out his ass. What a nice ass...
"Hey hun, how are things with Tai these days?" Matt said as he plopped down in Tai's now vacant seat. Sora studied the table suddenly feeling very guilty.
"Oh he's great, Matt. We were just... catching up on old times..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tai and Shiva dropped the dishes in the sink, obviously planning to wash them some other time. Shiva sat down heavily in a chair.
"I saw you talking to that Sora girl." She replied with a conversional tone.
"Yea, so what if I was?"
Shiva frowned, "Do you still like her?"
Tai faced the sink and began to run hot water from the faucet.
"I don't know anymore," He said quietly, "I think I might still have some feelings for her, but she seems happy with Matt so I can get over it."
"You can get over it?"
"Yes..."
"Well, then do you like Moira?"
"WHAT?"
"You heard me."
"NO! I don't like her! She's my enemy!"
"So was Myotismon, but I doubt you were sucking face with him. Do you just kiss anything with breasts?" Shiva replied coolly, giving him a hard time.
"No! I couldn't help it! I think I was possessed! Stop laughing! Seriously, it was nothing more than...than... the animal attraction thing! Oh my god, I can't deal with this..."
Shiva rose form her seat to where Tai was standing. She placed a hand on each side of his head and began to gently shake it back and forth, up and down.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his cheeks cutely squished between her palms.
"I'm shaking the frustration out of your head" she replied in concentration. Next, she dropped her hands and gave him a small smack on the cheek.
"Ow, is this one of those reverse psychology things? You beat the child to make them feel loved?"
"You bet bucko"
Tai just rolled his eyes and returned to the dishes.
"My feet are cold." She mumbled absently. Tai turned and gave her an incredulous look.
"So?"
"I like my feet warm."
"Yea and I like it when you shut up." He replied harshly.
"LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA," she paused for a breath, "LALALALALALALALALALALALA..."
Tai insipidly walked away from the sink for a moment and around the kitchen corner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the living room, Shiva's singing reached the ears of many annoyed guests. Angela groaned and buried her head in Griff's shirt. Why must she be the only sane resident here?
"What is that?" Mimi screamed over the noise, covering her ears with both hands.
"That's Shiva's theme song." Griff hollered back.
"Well how do we shut her up?" Matt yelled, incensed.
Griff looked down at his nonexistent watch, "Tai should be taking care of it right about... now."
And just on time the singing stopped; only to be replaced by an equally loud noise.
SCHHHHH
"AHHHHHHHH!!!"
Seconds later Shiva came bolting into the room panting and looking hysterical.
"He- he... EXTINGUISHED MY FEET!"
Sure enough, Tai followed shortly after her, swinging a fire extinguisher in his right hand and looking quite pleased with himself.
"Barking mad, the lot of them..." Angela continued to mutter at the floor.
"Hey, if I have to listen to your shit, then you have to have cold feet." Tai smugly replied ignoring the gaping looks from the others and Angela's comment.
"It's better if you just don't ask." Griff mumbled to Kari who was about to say something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the evening passed with at ease with each others presence. The digidestined and guardians swapped adventure stories and well as a few spur-of-the-moment ones thrown in.
"Ok, so we were at this fair once, and Tai decided he wanted some pizza. Sadly, he was in a creative mood that evening so instead of buying the pizza like normal people, he picked a random kid from the street and paid him twenty bucks to run by a group of barn workers and steal a box of pizza they ordered. Well, naturally the kid did it; I mean twenty bucks is twenty bucks, right? So the kid runs by, grabs the box and continued running around the barn and gave the box of pizza to Tai."
"I started yelling at him that he just wasted 20 bucks on pizza when he could have gotten it for much less if he bought some the normal way, and he starts laughing his ass off. He's very confusing sometimes and I thought he was just having another one of them spastic moments, but no, he was a little bastard and gave that poor, manipulated, little boy fake money. I've never been more proud of him."
Everyone was in hysterics by the time Shiva finished her story.
Gennai glanced at the clock, "Look at the time! I think you should be off to bed. Some of us have training tomorrow."
He instantly found himself on the receiving end of the evil eye from a few select individuals.
"Alright ladies! Follow me!" Angela set off at a march with Mimi, Kari, Yolie and Sora right behind her. Shiva grudgingly followed too, but with a little more distance between her and the rest of them.
"Ok guys, our room is this way." Tai and Griff led the male digidestined to the boy's dormitory. Tai sat on his bed and gestured towards the rest in the room, indicating that they could pick which one they wanted. Not that it mattered seeing as they were all identical.
"Hey Tai..."
"Yea Davis?"
"Is it true you have co-ed showering?"
... TBC