Chapter Six: Innocence

Sora stiffened a bit and the atmosphere seemed to tense up right along with her. Tai kept his eyes on the road, not permitting himself even a glance to his companion.

Sora was blind to everything around her. It's funny how the human mind worked... Right now what she saw was a memory of Tai and herself. They were laughing. It was right after one of their private, extra soccer practices. She knew immediately that it was her heart that had conjured up this memory.

Was she into Tai? Oh, definitely. It was about impossible to lie to herself about that any longer. And was it really necessary to lie to Tai when he already knew? Probably not, but where would she be if she admitted that?

So they loved each other. Sora had always loved Tai, as a friend if nothing else. But that was just fine. This kind of love just wasn't okay. Not now at least...

So, caught in the dilemma, Sora said nothing.

To break the silence most likely, Tai turned on the radio. Just her luck... it was one love song after another...

"Oh, god dammit all!" Sora cried before jamming the off button.

The silence that enveloped them wasn't at all friendly. Sora began to feel extremely uncomfortable. Sure, she'd basically exploded at him, but it wasn't like Tai to be this quiet. Now was the time when he should make some crack about how she shouldn't take her anger out on the innocent electronics.

Sora even had her reply good and ready. How would you like it if I punched you out the window instead?

Well, you'd be screwed if you still wanted a ride home.

I can drive perfectly well myself, thank you very much!

Then Tai would chuckle and they'd go back to saying nothing. It wouldn't exactly be an accepted apology, but at least if they'd done this Sora would know that all was forgiven.

But nothing was said.

Sora sighed. She eased up on her death grip of the seat and crossed her arms over her chest. How had something as innocent as going out for ice cream ended up in this?

She glanced over at Tai suspiciously when she thought she saw him smirk.

But Tai's expression was safely blank. With one hand (he only used one even though they'd stopped at a red light) Tai took out a CD out of the glove compartment of his car. Sora didn't miss that he had to reach over her to get it.

This motion suggested that Tai was no longer upset. Not surprising, Tai was too playful to hold a grudge. Tai popped the CD into the CD player of his car and turned it up.

Sora immediately recognized Mood Rings by Relient K playing. She whipped her head over to him, ignoring the crack in her neck, with mock hurt.

Tai was openly smirking now.

"That's not funny!" she snapped.

"It's hilarious and you know it." Tai retorted.

Sora didn't laugh, but there was an immense amount of relief flooding her system. All was forgiven after all.

Everything seemed fine when they arrived at Jovi's house to pick up Tia. The two were pleasant enough, but Tia seemed to notice that her father and her "aunt" weren't standing as close as they could be.

Tia must've let Jovi in on her little plan because the young girl kept giggling and shooting glances at the two adults.

Tia said goodbye and filled the two in on everything she and Jovi had done that night on the way home. Well, almost anything. She purposely left out anything about she and Jovi planning further.

That night after Sora had gotten ready for bed, she went to go say goodnight to Tai and Tia. Sure, saying goodnight to Tai wasn't totally necessary and was pushing it a bit, but Sora did it anyway. Tai had gotten his chance to cross the lines this evening. Now it was her turn.

She found him tucking in his daughter who'd also been getting ready for bed. Sora stood a bit hesitantly outside the doorway.

She didn't really think there was anything wrong with eavesdropping this time. I mean, what could they really be talking about. It couldn't be anything important. Boy, was she wrong!

"Daddy, why don't you and Aunt Sora date?"

"It's not that simple, honey. Your Aunt Sora's already married."

Sora could almost see Tia pouting. "So what? If she was so happily married she wouldn't be over here."

Tai was silent. Probably the smartest decision because Tia was right. And Tia knew she was right. But Tia continued, "Besides, you've got dibs. You've been in love with her since you were, like, ten!"

Sora quickly ran off to her room. Ten? How would Tia know that? Did they talk about her often?

It was hard to sleep that night. The secrets hiding in the bedroom's closet were worse than any childhood monster, and after gnawing at her for hours, Sora got up and unearthed the rest. They'd considered giving Tia up for adoption?

It seemed that Kari had told T.K. and it had been her brother-in-law that had pushed Tai into asking for Jalissa's hand in marriage.

Sora didn't want to think this about T.K., but if by doing so T.K.'d hoped that Tai would stop gawking over her he was wrong.

Had Tai been miserable married to Jalissa? No.

But would he have been happier married to her? Absolutely.

The thought she fell asleep on wasn't necessarily a happy or even peaceful one. Would she herself have been happier married to Tai?

She didn't even want to consider the possibility, but she knew the answer. Probably.

...

The next day Sora didn't even want to think about staying in the house longer than she had to. And she purposefully left before Tia or Tai got up, knowing that Tia would try to push her into doing something with her father. Sora left a note, then took off in her car for the mall.

She planned on buying all the supplies she would need for Kari's wedding dress. Now that Sora had taken it upon herself to get it ready, she was putting a lot of work into it. She could feel it already. This was going to be her best creation yet. Screw white, Kari was going to have the most colorful, most exotic dress in all of Tokyo.

Plus, thinking so deeply about this got her mind off of Tai. And a certain eight-year-old who was trying to do just the opposite. Sora adored Tia, but she reminded her way too much of Tai when he was younger.

When Sora took her first break of the day she sat down on a familiar white bench with all her bags. This was the sort of thing that Mimi or Yolei would love. God knows that Yolei definitely needed a break from her all time mothering...

Sure, Sora had gotten rid of some of her tomboyish ways as she grew older, but sometimes she wished it were just like the old days when the only clothing store she'd set foot into would be the one that sold all the cleats and soccer uniforms.

As Sora noticed the giant gumball machine set up right next to her she realized why this white bench in particular was so familiar.

...

Sora had been eleven. She'd been sitting glumly on this very bench waiting for... you got it... waiting for Tai to show up.

This had been right after her first break-up. Sora couldn't even remember the boy's name now, but it had seemed like the worst disaster in the world at the time.

Finally, Tai showed up, late as expected.

He stood a bit uncomfortably off to the side of the bench, not looking at her.

Sora's mood had brightened considerably. Tai almost always made things better.

"So," he started, "My mom told me that shopping fixes almost everything..."

Sora looked up and smiled. "So we're going to GameStop, right?"

Tai looked at her for the first time that day and his face split into a wide grin. "Exactly!"

...

Sora smiled to herself. They'd had a great time and being with Tai had brightened her day.

She also remembered the first time that Tai had been dumped and she'd been there for him.

...

The two friends had been strolling across the grounds. Sora knew that this girl meant close to nothing to him. He probably wouldn't even remember her in the long run.

But she also knew how much it hurt to be dumped.

"Just forget about her. It's a well-known fact. High school sucks."

"Quite literally for some." Tai muttered

Sora had smacked him on the shoulder. "Tai!"

"What?" He laughed. "I'm a teenager. It's in the job description to have a dirty mind."

...

Moments like these made up their childhood. And as much as some times sucked... they were all important.

But the one memory Sora couldn't for the life of her get out of her head was on of she and Tai in GameStop the day at the mall.

...

GameStop had cheered them both, I mean who didn't love being in a video game store? But Tai had been quiet... a key way to tell when something was wrong. It was fairly dangerous for Tai to be deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" Sora had asked, coming over to him.

He shrugged. "Well, you just got dumped."

Sora looked at him skeptically. "And you're upset about this?"

"Not exactly. But you got dumped by someone who wasn't me."

"... You want to dump me?"

"No!" he said exasperated. He finally turned to her with the same intense look that had colored his face the night before. "This means you were dating someone who wasn't me."

Review Please! Wow, this was actually done pretty fast. Well, I guess that makes up for not updating in so long...

I don't own Digimon. Thanks for all the reviews!