Chapter Three: Catching Up

Tai's heart seemed to beat three times faster than usual with his daughter's words. Sora... Wow, he sure as hell hoped he wasn't hallucinating.

When he rushed out to the door.... there she was! Tai could feel his face form a grin.

Sora seemed a bit awkward standing in the doorway, but more or less happy to have completed her journey.

"Oh... uh... hey Sora."

"Hi. Sorry. Did I wake you up? I called Kari and she said that I'd be able to stay here, but if it's too much trouble I can just-"

"No! It's fine. Come in! Hang on a minute." As Sora closed the door behind her Tai raced back to his room. He snatched up his cell phone and sure enough Kari's message read:

Hey Tai.

Sora called. She said she was coming down for a visit so I told her it wouldn't be a problem if she stayed with you.

Talk to you soon!

-Kari

The only time he didn't check her message.... it just figures.

When he returned to the kitchen Sora was chatting amiably with Tia. When Sora looked up and saw Tai she seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Sorry." said Tai, "I uh, didn't get a chance to look at Kari's messages today."

"Like I said, if it's too much trouble-"

"No! It's fine. I doesn't take long to get the guest room set up." As happy as he was to see Sora, he couldn't help but realize how much this situation sucked. They'd use to be best friends, not to mention partners in the digital world and team mates on the soccer field. When had it become so awkward to talk to her?

Tia cleared her throat pointedly. Tai looked at her. He'd completely forgotten about their scheduled run. But one look out the window gave him his perfect excuse.

"Tia, it looks like it's going to pour soon. Maybe you could see if Jovi is home instead?"

"Fine." But Tia added in an eye roll that neither Tai nor Sora missed. Sora giggled, Tai rolled his own eyes. Under any other circumstances, Tai would've loved to be out running through the rain.

"I'll be right back." Tai said to Sora who nodded.

Tai and his daughter headed out the door. Jovi didn't live far away, but her apartment building was across the street.

"Thanks." said Tai when Tia darted inside after Jovi's mother opened the door.

"No problem." she said with a good-natured, motherly smile. "We love to have Tia over."

Tai smiled, nodded then headed back across the street. Just before he got to the entrance of his own apartment building the first drops started to fall.

He smiled and caught one in the palm of his hand. Thank God for the rain.

...

Sora had not been able to just sit around the table and wait for Tai to return.

Almost immediately after they left she had gotten up and started a pot of coffee. But before it was finished Kari sent her a message labeled: HHEELLPP!!!!

There have been some complications. Would you be able to design a dress for me?

Sora smiled and sent back: Of course. Don't worry about it.

...

Kari ,however, was doing a fair bit of worrying.

T.K. sighed for the millionth time. "Calm down, honey. Sora said she'd be able to fix it."

"I know it's just... look how she signed the message."

T.K. took the phone from his fiancé. He stared for a second when he saw it. Sora had signed it Sora Takenouchi. Sora hadn't gone by the last name Takenouchi for years...

Finally he said, "I'm sure it's nothing." And he handed Kari back her hot pink phone.

Kari wrung her hands. "I hope so... T.K. I set something up so that she'd stay with Tai during her visit!"

T.K. froze once more. Why did everything always have to be so complicated? But still, Sora was married to Matt!

He knew Matt couldn't stand to be away for so long and even after all this time he was still head over heels in love with Sora. And Sora felt the same way, right?

That was the problem. He just couldn't be sure anymore.

No one could.

...

Sora jumped when Tai opened the door. Then she immediately felt foolish. It was his house after all.

But Sora had been used to being more or less alone. She truly had been living under a rock. Silence could be as much of a blessing as it was a burden.

"Coffee's done." she said as Tai sat down.

"Oh. Thanks." She set down a cup in front of him and one in front of her as she sat down across from him.

"So..." he said. "What brings you down here? I've never heard of someone coming down this early for a wedding." he teased lightly.

Sora gave him a small smile, but that was such a loaded question. "I... just needed to get away from it all." But get away from what? The quiet? The loneliness?

"Like last time?"

"No!"

They both seemed to shudder and look down.

Tai wished fervently that he hadn't said it and Sora was wishing the same thing just as much.

But never the less, the memory came back to both of them.

They had been a younger and more ignorant Tai and Sora, but Tai and Sora none the less.

Sora had been quite upset that day. Matt was always busy. She gone to Tai for comfort. After all, what was so strange about that when he had been her best friend?

The answer, my friend, is everything when you took into consideration that Tai had wanted passionately to be in Matt's position.

He sure would've been around for her more.

They'd met at midnight under a willow tree by a lake in the park.

...

Sora shuddered once more. She had been seventeen and so had Tai.

One thing had led to another and it had ended with Sora losing her virginity to her best friend, not her boyfriend that fateful night.

The two of them had been plagued with guilt and it had been one of the many things that had driven them apart for so many years.

"No." she said. "I don't want to repeat the past."

But the problem was, she just wasn't so sure.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon. Ah, another complication. :)