Updated chapter, woot!

Tai is a bit of a punk here...hee hee hee...

Oh, P.S. There is a contest thing going on called the FF Factor and I'm a judge in it. If you're interested, go to my profile and check it out. ;)

Chapter 7. Enter the Wicked Witch

"I don't want to play hide-and-seek!" Tai whined. "I want to go play soccer!"

"You can play soccer any time!" Mimi placed her hands on her hips. "Right now, I say we all play hide-and-seek!"

"We played that last time!" Tai frowned. "I want to play something different now!"

"I'm the queen of this kingdom and you're the knight! You have to do what I say!"

"You can't keep saying that Mimi! It's getting old!"

"That's Queen Mimi to you, Tai!"

Matt sighed sadly as he watched his husband and the queen argue back and forth on what to play this time. Tai, being the active little boy that he was, was getting awfully bored of playing the same games Mimi suggested and wanted to play his favorite sport. Mimi on the other hand, didn't want to get dirty or stinky and absolutely refused to play such a "silly game." The young brunette looked towards the blonde.

"Matt, what do you think?" he asked. Matt gulped. And he was doing such a good job at not being brought into the middle of this fight. He looked at both of them.

"Well, Tai is right about hide-and-seek being boring," Matt admitted. Tai gave Mimi a triumphant look. "But I also think Mimi is right about not wanting to play soccer." Mimi stuck her tongue out at Tai, who returned the gesture. "So maybe…we can play something different…like sand tag."

"Hmm…ok," Mimi nodded. "I'm ok with that." The two looked towards the small brunette.

"Tai?" Matt asked. Tai folded his arms over his chest.

"I still want to play soccer…" he pouted.

"Ugh! Don't be such a baby Tai!" Mimi scoffed.

"I'm not a baby! I just want to play soccer!"

"Well if you want to keep on being a baby about it, go play soccer on your own!"

"Maybe I will!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" And with that, the two quarreling children turned and ran off in their separate ways, leaving Matt standing by himself.

The young prince didn't know what to do. On the one hand, he wanted to go after the boy he was very attached to and be with him, no matter what the game was. On the other hand, he knew that Mimi might become upset and not speak to them. On the other, other, hand, it was much funner to play games together, not with leaving someone out. Matt looked at both directions to where his friends and then went after Mimi first.

"Mimi?" Matt called out in the playground. He soon found Mimi sitting on the swings with her nose in the air. The blonde trotted over to her and sat in the swing next to her. "Mimi, why don't we do what Tai wants for today and go play with him?"

"I don't want to get yucky!" Mimi argued. "I just took a bath this morning!"

"You can take another bath tomorrow," Matt shrugged. "Or even tonight if you want."

"No thank you," Mimi huffed. "Besides, soccer is a silly game!"

"Mimi."

"I won't play it!" Matt sighed and tried to think of another way to convince her.

"Ok, well what if you just sort of went to watch?" the blonde offered. The young girl looked at him suspiciously. "Me and Tai can play a game and you can just cheer for us from the sides." Mimi still didn't look convinced. "Come on, Mimi…We're all friends. And friends have fun together, not stand around and fight all the time. Please? Do this for me?" Mimi placed her fore finger and thumb on her chin and thought for a moment.

"Ok fine," she finally smiled and jumped off the swing. "I'll do it just because you love Tai so much." Matt blushed and followed Mimi as she happily skipped away to the open field. It took them a while to find the brunette and Matt was afraid that he might have just run off. Finally they found him playing soccer, but he wasn't alone.

A young girl, who looked about Tai and Matt's age, with red hair was kicking the ball around with Tai. Tai was trying his best to take control of the black and white ball, but the girl did well to keep it away from him. The girl giggled as she dodged Tai's foot and then kicked it hard towards the direction of Mimi and Matt. Tai looked up at his two friends and waved.

"Hi guys!" he called out and quickly went after the ball. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to play with you Tai," Matt said, still looking at the new girl.

"Well, Matt came to play," Mimi corrected. "I just came to cheer."

"Oh…" Tai frowned slightly. He looked back at the girl and then to them. "Well, I was kind of playing with that girl over there because you guys said you didn't want to."

"I never said I didn't want to," Matt frowned.

"You said you'd rather play tag," Tai said. Matt opened his mouth to object, but then remembered that he did say that.

"Why can't Matt still play though?" Mim asked.

"Well because, we were having a sort of one-on-one game," Tai explained. "And if Matt played too, then it'd be two against one. And that's not very fair." Matt's heart started to feel sad. "But, if you want, we can just kick the ball around."

"Ok. We can try that." Tai smiled and took Matt by the hand to led his friends to the new girl.

"Who are your friends Tai?" the girl asked. She tilted her head slightly at Matt, who squeezed his hand tighter around Tai's.

"Everyone, this is Sora," Tai introduced the red head. "Sora, this is my friend Mimi and my best friend Matt. Is it ok if we sort of just kicked the ball between the three of us?"

"What about Mimi?" she asked.

"I'll just cheer from the side," Mimi grinned happily.

"Ok then," Sora giggled. "That's ok with me Tai." The three children set themselves up so that they were in a triangle. They each started kicking the ball to one another; Tai to Sora, Sora to Matt, and Matt to Tai. Mimi would cheered for them on the side and created little chants for each of them. After a while, Matt kicked the ball to Tai and he then kicked it to Sora a little harder than usual. The ball went zooming past Sora, and she had to go chasing after it.

"Oops!" Tai laughed as he watched Sora. "Sorry about that!" The red head came back with the ball, gave Tai a mischievous look, and then kicked the ball hard towards Tai. He jumped out of the way so that it wouldn't hit him and then ran after it. Matt waited and watched as the process continued. Tai would kick the ball hard past Sora, she'd go get it and then kick it back to Tai with equal power. Soon, the two had started their own one-on-one game of soccer.

"Hey…" Matt quietly said. "What about me?" The two children continued on their game, not paying much attention to Matt. Mimi gave the blonde a concerned look. Matt shrugged and then started to walk away from the field. His heart was feeling rather sad that he was being left out.

oXoXoXoXo

A soft knock came from the Ishida's door. Matt continued on playing his video game while his mother went to go answer it. She spoke to someone and then called Matt to the door. When he got there, he saw Mimi. Matt's mother went back into the kitchen as Matt joined Mimi outside and closed the door behind him.

"Hi Mimi," he smiled. She didn't smile back…in fact…she looked rather angry. "What's up?"

"Oh nothing," she huffed. "Except for the fact that you left us, and stupid Tai didn't even care!"

"He…didn't?" Matt muttered. His heart was starting to feel very sad now.

"No! He just kept playing with that new girl. Finally, once he saw that you were gone, he asked me where you were and I said that you went home. Do you know what he said after?" Matt shook his head. "He said that maybe your mommy just called you to go home and then he just kept on playing! After that I was so mad that I just left!" Mimi took in a deep breath and then slowly let it out. "Anyways…I just wanted to come and see if you were ok. You looked very sad when you left."

"I was sad," Matt said. "And now I feel even more sad…He really didn't care that I left?"

"No…it didn't seem like it…" Matt lowered his head and let out a soft whimper. He wasn't sure why he was crying now…but he just felt so sad that he couldn't really hold it in anymore… Mimi looked at him for a moment and then gave him a hug. "I'm sorry Matt. I didn't want to make you cry." The small blonde hugged back.

"It's ok Mimi," Matt sniffed. "I'm not even sure why I'm crying." He pulled away and smiled at her. "Thanks for checking on me."

"Are you going to be ok Matt?" Mimi asked.

"Yes. I'll be ok."

"Ok…well, I have to go now. Bye bye Matt."

"Bye." Mimi skipped away to the elevator and Matt went back into his home. He trudged over to the kitchen where he sat down at the table and started munching on a bowl of animal crackers that were set out.

"Don't eat too much Matt," his mother warned. "Or else you'll spoil your appetite." Matt continued to nibble on the odd shaped animals, and thought about everything that happened today. His mother stared at him from washing the dishes. "What's wrong Matt? Why have you been crying?" The young blonde felt surprised and slightly embarrassed that he had been caught.

"I wasn't crying," he tried to defend. His mother put down the dish she was washing and joined her son at the table.

"Yes you were," she smiled as she sat down in the chair next to him. "A mother can always tell. Now what's wrong?" Matt bit off the head of the donkey he had, and wondered how to tell his mother what was going on.

"Mommy?" he stared.

"Yes Matt?"

"What happens when…you like someone and they like you back…but then something happens and they stop liking you?" Matt's mother stayed quiet for a moment.

"Well, it's not easy," she said. "It can really make you sad sometimes, and sometimes it can make you mad. But after you feel sad and mad, you just have to learn to keep going."

"But what if you still really really like them?" Matt asked.

"Sometimes, Matt, you just have to let things happen. Grandma used to tell me a saying; it said, 'if you love something, set it free. If it comes back it's yours, if not, then it was never meant to be.'"

"What does it mean?"

"It means…well, let's take Daddy for instance. I love daddy but I know he has to go to work. So I let him go. If he comes back, then that means he is still mine and that he loves me. If he doesn't—"

"Daddy is not coming back? What happened!"

"No, Daddy is fine…But…Well Matt, I think you just need to wait a little bit to see what happens."

"Oh…how long do I have to wait?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe you have to wait a long time, maybe you don't have to wait that much. No one really knows…Does that help, Sweetie?"

"Yes Mommy." Mother and son sat in silence for a moment.

"Matt?" his mother finally spoke. He looked at her intently. "Do you like someone right now? Is that why you are asking?" Matt nodded his head and bit off the elephant cracker's trunk. "Who is it then? Is it Mimi?"

"No!" Matt slightly giggled. "I don't like Mimi. She's my friend, but I don't like her."

"Oh alright," Matt's mother smiled. "So who do you like then?" Matt stayed quiet for a moment, then he smiled and looked at his mother.

"I like Tai," he admitted. His mother's smile vanished from her face, but Matt didn't notice because at that moment, he turned his attention to the few remaining animal crackers.

"MOMMMYYYYY!" T.K., who had been taking a nap until now, wailed from the other room. Matt looked up at his mother as she quickly stood and hurried off to the other room. Matt examined the now empty bowl of animal crackers and sighed. Matt's mother came back in, holding T.K. in her arms.

"Matt?" she gently called out. He turned to look at her. "Remember how I said you should wait to see what will happen?" Matt nodded. "Well, I have an idea…how about you just wait inside here for a while, instead of going out to play?" Matt thought for a moment about this option.

"But I still want to play with Mimi and Tai," he said. "Even if Tai does want to play with another girl…I still want to be with him. He's my best friend."

"Maybe Tai needs some time to wait too," his mother offered. "If you wait at home for a while, then it can give you two some time to think about things." Matt thought about it again. It seemed very obvious that his mother wanted him to stay at home. The whole waiting at home didn't make sense to Matt…but if his mommy wanted him to wait…

"Ok Mommy," he finally sighed. "I'll wait here." His mother smiled and then took T.K. to the kitchen to give him something to eat. Matt in the meantime abandoned his empty bowl and went into the room he shared with T.K. He pulled out his favorite storybook, about the prince and the knight, and quietly read it to himself. He smiled as he imagined himself and Tai looking a lot like the prince and knight once they were older. Matt reached the part about the wicked witch and he gasped. The witch had fire red hair…just like the new girl Sora did!

"Mommy!" Matt quickly jumped up and ran to the door. "I have to go see Tai!"

"Matt? What's wrong?" she asked as Matt quickly tried to put on his shoes.

"Tai's new friend is a wicked witch! She's going to hurt him Mommy! We have to save him!" He ran over to his mother and tugged her hand towards the door.

"Matt, sweetie, hold on," she held Matt back and then bent down to his level. "Sweetie, remember what we said you would do?"

"Yes, but Mommy! Tai's new friend is a wicked witch!"

"How do you know that?"

"I was reading my book and the witch had red hair just like Sora! She's a witch Mommy!" Matt's mother gently placed a hand on her son's shoulder.

"Matt," she said softly. "That is just a story. It's not real."

"It's not?" Matt asked, his heart slightly sinking.

"No dear," she shook her head. "There are no such things as real witches."

"…Or dragons?"

"Or dragons." Matt lowered his head.

"Then…I'm not a real prince?" he asked quietly. His mother smiled and hugged him.

"You are my prince Matt," she said.

"…I want to be Tai's prince too…" he whispered. Matt's mother pulled back and looked long and hard at her son. Finally she sighed, stroked his hair and told him to go continue reading his books while she made dinner. He nodded sadly and walked back to his room.

Matt went back to his book and turned the page to where the prince was held captive by the wicked witch. He flipped to the next page where the knight was coming in to save the prince from the evil witch and her dragon. The young blonde started to feel very sad and started to cry a little bit.

"I'll save you, S-Sir Tai," he quietly said to the book. "I'll s-save you from the w-wicked witch, Sora. B-But right now…I have to wait t-to see w-what happens with us." Matt closed the book and put it away, before curling up in his bed and continuing to cry because of the sadness he felt in his heart.

"So sad to be all alone in the world"...Quote from Thoroughly Modern Millie...I own nothing...

Please let me know what you think!