Clocks

Since the age of three. Three! They'd been best friends for that long, yet in all that time she had never been late to meet him. Not once. If anything it was the other way around. She always arrived five minutes early, he always ten minutes late. Not so today. After fourteen long years of friendship, there he sat, staring at the clock and wondering where on earth she could be.

It took a few minutes for Taichi to realize that the clock on the wall was broken. Stupid clock! he screamed mentally. Staring at the motionless device did nothing to help his already poor sense of time. He had no idea how long he'd been waiting, though it felt like an eternity. Annoyed, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. 2:38. He'd been sitting there for a good half-hour.

Could he possibly have missed her? But she knew he always ran late; she wouldn't have left so early, would she? Maybe he misunderstood her. Had she perhaps meant the coffee shop inside the mall rather than the one across the street from it? Had something happened to her? Maybe he should call. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. He anxiously dialed her cell phone number.

"Hi, this is Sora. I'm not here right now, but leave a message so I can get back to you." Damn it, straight to voicemail. He hung up without leaving a message. This was so not like her. What was going on?

Just as he started to dial her home number, the copper-haired girl burst through the door, completely winded. Hair ruffled in the back, one shoelace untied, last two blouse buttons askew, she looked like a wreck. "Ohmigod, Taichi, I am... so... sorry," Sora panted as she made her way over to his table. "Today's been horrible... Tried to call, but my phone's acting funny..."

He reached out and caught her in a hug. "Hey, don't worry about it. Just sit down and catch your breath while I get us some drinks. Strawberry frappe okay with you?"

She nodded, smiling gratefully. How was it that he always knew just what she needed?

A few minutes later he returned to the table, two drinks in hand. "So what's this about you having a horrible day?" he asked as he sat back down.

"Well, it all started this morning when my alarm kept going off at crazy times..."

"Stupid broken clocks!"

Author's Note: Gotta love Taiora friendship. Written in late 2005 with the 20 AUs prompt, "a machine with broken workings" in mind.