Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Ch. 5 I Love You

"What?" Kari demanded. Fear swept through her. The tail ring increased Gatomon's power to Digivolve. If she didn't have it, the loss of her tail ring would weaken her, and it would be extremely bad if an evil Digimon found it. They had to find it as fast as possible.

"We looked all over T.K's apartment, but it's not there," Patamon put in, flapping his wings.

"Are you sure you looked all over the apartment?" T.K asked, stepping out of the elevator with Kari.

"Yeah! We even checked the toilet," Patamon said, looking grossed out. "Nothing there."

"Gatomon, where was the last place you remember you had your tail ring?" Kari asked, trying to remain calm.

"Er….I think it could be anywhere between the walk from school back to T.K's," Gatomon said, twirling her tail in her paws and looking at the floor. "Because me and Patamon decided to go out for a walk."

T.K groaned. "So it's anywhere…between here and school for two and a half miles?"

"Probably?" Patamon managed to squeak out.

Kari turned to T.K. "I'm sorry, but I think we have to put our project on hold. I need to help Gatomon look for her tail ring."

"No, it's alright. In fact, why don't I come with Patamon? Four pairs of eyes are better than two," T.K offered.

Behind their backs, Gatomon and Patamon were making gleeful faces at each other. Their plan might actually work!

Kari thought this over for a moment, and shrugged. "Okay, if you want."

Suddenly, her stomach made a sound, and she blushed in embarrassment. "I'm…not hungry!" she protested when T.K turned to her and raised his eyebrow at her. "Really, I'm not. Let's go look for Gatomon's tail ring!"

"Kari, you probably haven't eaten since lunch," T.K said, walking to his apartment and unlocking it. "Eat something first, and then we'll look for her tail ring."

"Uhm…okay," Kari agreed, putting her hand over her stomach to quiet it. She really didn't want to admit it, but she was very hungry. Only a sandwich and a juice box for lunch weren't very filling.

Kari walked into T.K's apartment, and then turned around. "Don't you guys need to eat?" she asked, looking at Gatomon and Patamon.

"We thought you'd never ask," Gatomon said. "But we already ate, so we'll just wait out here."

"Just come in before someone sees you and starts screaming," T.K called from inside.

The two Digimon shrugged and went inside to T.K's.

"Sorry it's a bit of a mess," T.K said sheepishly, nudging aside a pile of laundry on the floor. "Matt decided to live here for a week, and he's still as messy as ever."

"That's okay," Kari said with a laugh. "Tai's room is the worst. All his uniforms are everywhere, and his books…he'd be so mad if I told you. Mom hates going into his room but she can't do anything about it."

T.K laughed as he walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of tropical fruit juice. "I love drinking that!" Kari exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "Too bad Mom tries to make juice on her own and even though it does have fruit…kind of questionable."

He poured the juice into two glasses before he put the carton away. He took out some sushi leftovers from the fridge and asked, "Do you want to eat sushi warm, or cold?"

Kari hesitated. "I'll eat it cold."

They sat down and quickly finished off their sushi snack. Kari got up and put her dish and glass into the sink. "Hey, T.K, where's the dishwasher soap?" she called.

"It's okay, I'll take care of it," he said hastily, standing up and taking the dishes from her. He's such a gentleman, Kari thought, feeling a slight warmth spread over her cheeks.

"Okay, let's search for Gatomon's tail ring," he said as everyone stepped out of his apartment. He locked the door behind him and stuck the key into his pocket as they walked into the elevator. "So, how should we split up?"

"I'll…go with Patamon," Gatomon said, a slight blush in her white cheeks.

"Okay, I'll just go with T.K," Kari said. "But where will we meet?"

"If you can't find it in half an hour, then meet at the school," Gatomon advised as she dashed out of the elevator with Patamon on her heels.

"Uhm…okay," Kari said. She turned to T.K with a sigh. "So guess we'll have a while to look, huh…"

"It's okay," T.K said with a shrug. He was secretly delighted that he would have a chance to spend time with Kari alone. Usually they were surrounded by their friends, or with their siblings, so they usually didn't get to be alone.

"Let's get started," she said as they walked out of the elevator.

Half an hour later, and tail ring-less, Kari and T.K walked to the gates of their junior high, looking extremely tired and defeated.

"We've been through every blade of grass and hole in the distance from here to home," Kari said, feeling extremely frustrated. "Is it that hard to locate a gold tail ring?"

"It's still light out too," T.K added, looking every bit as frustrated as her. He put his hand over his blue eyes and frowned. "No sign of it here either…"

Gatomon and Patamon now come around the corner. There wasn't a tail ring on Gatomon's tail, and they both didn't look very happy. "Any luck?" Patamon asked T.K as he fluttered up and perched on his shoulder.

T.K shook his head and let out a loud sigh. "Nothing shiny either. Are you sure there's somewhere you went that you might've forgotten about?"

Gatomon frowned, scrunching her face up in concentration. "No…?"

"We went to the river," Patamon interrupted. Gatomon blushed, her white cheeks going pink.

"Why did you go to the river?" T.K asked somewhat suspiciously.

"So we could…spend time together," Patamon said sheepishly. The funny thing about this was that he really was telling the truth – he'd gone to the river with Gatomon to spend time with her.

Kari sighed. "And off to the river we go."

"We already checked," Patamon said, giving Gatomon a covert look. She scowled at him from behind Kari.

Neither of their owners noticed. "We might as well go back and check," Kari said with a sigh. "Our eyes might be able to catch it."

T.K nodded and started heading out past the school gates. "C'mon, let's go."

By the time Kari and T.K reached the river, the sun was low in the sky, casting a warm golden glow over everything. Not quite sunset.

"Let's look over here," T.K suggested as they walked down to the river. "Gatomon, where was the…"

He trailed off to see Gatomon and Patamon chasing each other in the opposite direction, and sighed.

Kari giggled. "At least they look like they're having fun."

T.K shrugged and bent down to look for the tail ring along the water's edge. He was trying to fight back looking at her, or surely all his feelings for her would spill out. Especially now that they were alone, with the exception of their two Digimon.

Kari sighed and dropped to her knees to look as well. We're alone now…but he's barely looking at me. Am I really that hard to look at? she wondered sadly as she crawled along, looking for any sign of the missing tail ring.

Ten minutes passed with them looking by the water's edge. "It's not here!" Kari sighed, sitting down on the ground with a loud sigh. "Ugh…"

"We'll find it, Kari," T.K soothed, putting his arms around her to comfort her. When their skin touched, Kari felt warm all over, and shivered at his touch.

T.K quickly let go of her, and looked away, his cheeks burning. "Uh…sorry."

"It's fine," Kari said. Why did he let go of me so fast?

Her frustration bubbled over, which was unlike her. She now stood and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why are you not looking at me even now? Am I really that hard to look at?"

T.K stared at her, but recovered himself. He'd never seen Kari so agitated. "No, no! It's not that. You're…very pretty." He blushed instantly and thought, Now why did I say that?

Kari looked like she was going to cry. "Really? Then I must not be pretty enough for you to even look at me." She turned on her heel, and was about to stomp off, but T.K grabbed hold of her arm.

"No, it's not like that! Please, listen to me, Kari." His voice cracked with emotion.

Stunned, Kari slowly turned around so that they were facing each other.

"I'm so tired of holding this back," he burst out, much to her surprise. He looked down into her warm eyes. "Kari, I love you. It's because I love you that I can't look at you, knowing that you don't feel the same way about me. I think I've loved you ever since you came to join us on our trip to the Digiworld four years ago. When you got so sick that time in the Digiworld…I was terrified you'd never wake up. And I was so scared when you vanished to the Dark Ocean not so long ago, because I thought I was going to lose you."

Kari stared up at him, her eyes wide and her heart racing in her chest. "T.K…I never knew you loved me. You're such a guy sometimes. I love you too, T.K. I don't know when I fell in love with you, but I know it's always been you."

A shy smile crossed T.K's face, and he took her hands in his. "Really?"

"Yes," Kari said, smiling up at him.

There was a slight pause, but it wasn't uncomfortable. "So…would you like to go out sometime?"

Kari blushed quite pink but she nodded, her heart filling with happiness. "Yes, I would."

At that moment, Patamon and Gatomon ran out from the bushes. "Congrats, you guys!" Gatomon said, clapping her paws together. "You finally got together."

"W-what?" Kari stammered, her cheeks going even pinker as T.K put his arm around her.

"We've been waiting for you guys to get together," Patamon said as he flapped his wings and settled on top of T.K's head. "Let's go home now!"

T.K and Kari smiled at each other, and they walked to T.K's home, holding hands the whole way.

Just one more chapter to go...want to give a big thank-you to those of you who've actually been reading this :)