Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Or Heroes of Olympus. Or anything fluffy apparently...

Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "reply".

Well, this chapter was to accomplish two things: 1) Bring in some TK since people were asking for him - even if this isn't quite what they meant; and 2) Bring in some fluff. I don't think I quite succeeded in either, but hopefully it's still an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Enjoy!

Chapter Nine

Kari dreamed about her last day with TK.

They were walking along the beach, bundled to the teeth in their winter wear. It was freezing, so much so that Kari was pretty sure that people could hear her teeth chattering all over Japan, but she had no desire to go home. Not yet anyway. Her gloved hand held tightly to TK's as they walked, not a care in the world, not realizing that this could very well be the last few moments they would ever have together.

But at that moment, despite the cold, they'd had an excellent day, just the two of them. It wasn't often that they got any alone time. Between hovering brothers, ten very nosy but beloved friends, and their digimon partners, they had come to the realization that dating for the most part just meant that instead of just sitting next to each other all the time, they now held hands while sitting next to each other. It was simple, but Kari wouldn't change a thing. That didn't mean that she didn't appreciate these moments.

"You want to go for a swim?" He gave her a grin that let her know that he was thankfully 100% kidding: dimpled cheeks, crooked smile, and twinkling blue eyes that had girls all over school swooning and feeling overly jealous of Kari for managing to snatch up the star basketball player. Luckily, most of the girls found Kari too nice to be catty to her face, but she knew that Yolei was working on perfecting her back off glare. A green beanie covered his blonde hair, leaving only a few tufts of his bangs poking out to hang just past his eyebrows. "It could be fun."

"Or excruciating," Kari chattered.

Her cheeks flushed at the smile, though she knew that she should be used to TK's flirtatious teasing at this point. But his half-grin always managed to send butterflies shooting straight up into her throat in the most pleasant manner possible, and she saw nothing wrong with enjoying the attention that her boyfriend (the thought still made her want to join in on the swooning at times) gave her. Even if it did give Tai ammunition for the next five years.

"You're shivering." TK's smile slipped as he finally caught onto how cold she felt. He stepped in front of her so that he could start to run his hands up and down the sleeves of her coat. "Why didn't you tell me? We should head inside."

Kari shook her head. "Not yet."

She reached up to take his hands into hers again, and she tried to push the cold out of her mind. In the few months that she and TK had been dating, she realized that this right here – just long quiet walks together, without an audience – was her favorite thing to do. They were still friends first, of course, and they still hung out with the other digidestined almost all the time. She didn't regret those moments, but these quiet moments just reminded her that they were more than that now. They were just a normal teenaged couple, holding hands, making each other blush every so often…

Except that most days, Kari felt like they were more than that. They weren't a normal teenaged couple that went out for a few weeks before getting bored and moving on. This felt deeper, more permanent, something indescribable. All they needed now was a happily ever after to make it perfect – though Kari liked to think they may have already gotten that ending.

She had no idea at that time how wrong she was.

"Why? What's on your mind?"

Kari was grateful for the cold as she flushed even darker, hoping that the winter wind would be enough to hide the true meaning of her blush from her boyfriend. She didn't exactly want to keep secrets from him, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to spill the beans on where her mind had been going lately. She bit her bottom lip as she studied the salted sidewalk beneath their feet.

Ever since last month, right around Cody's birthday, a certain word starting with the letter "L" had been on her mind, but every time she thought to tell him, the moment hadn't seemed right. All day, she had been thinking of telling him. After all, it was perfect. But it was the first real date they'd had alone in almost three weeks, and she didn't want to ruin it.

But still – maybe it was time to finally tell him how she felt.

"TK, there's something—"

"Well, that's a serious face," TK teased.

Kari gave him a small shove. "TK!"

He laughed. "Sorry, sorry… What were you going to say?" His smiled faltered slightly. "It's not bad is it?"

She shook her head and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "No. It's just…"

TK waited patiently as Kari tried to find the courage to speak, but her voice seemed to catch in her throat. The corner of his lips started to tug upwards, and he turned to continue walking down the path along the beach. "Are you going to make me guess?"

She let out a small embarrassed laugh and followed. "Maybe."

"Let's play Any Three Questions."

They used to play this game all the time. Between their first trip to the Digital World and when Davis changed their lives forever by showing off his D-3, the main way they had to keep in touch was via emails and letters. The game was their way of staying as connected as possible when they lived so far away from each other. They would ask each other any three questions about their lives, thoughts, feelings… Nothing was off-limits, and they had to answer honestly. But they hadn't touched the game since TK moved to Odaiba four years ago.

Kari knew of a few girls that would find a Q&A like this with their boyfriend to be totally mortifying to the point of it even signaling the end of their relationship if the wrong questions were asked. But Kari instantly felt excited. It was like the cold – enduring it wasn't easy, but she'd handle anything to be closer to TK.

"I'll go first," she said.

"Why do you get to go first?" TK said. "You're the one that has something to tell me."

"That's why I get to go first," Kari said. "Your dad."

Despite TK's slight widening of his blue eyes, Kari knew that it was no real surprise. The relations between the Takaishi and Ishida clan were much better than they were ten years ago, but Kari knew that lately TK had been having a hard time connecting with the man known as his father. Several missed basketball games weren't exactly helping his case, but Kari also knew that the last thing TK wanted was to be mad at his father. Kari wanted to find a way to help, but she didn't know how when TK usually didn't want to talk about it.

He shrugged. "What is there to say? Matt says he's really sorry he missed last week's game, and he'll try to make the next one. When I asked Matt why he couldn't tell me that himself… he said he was busy. Work, you know. I haven't talked to Dad since."

"Don't you want to?"

It wasn't a real question. TK could say that he didn't know with it being the absolute truth, but she wanted to hear how he'd answer. He stared out at the waves.

"When I was younger," he said at last, his shuffled steps kicked up little tufts of salt and snow, "the only thing I wanted in the world was for my parents to get back together. I thought if I could just get them into a room together, they would see that they were meant to be, and we'd be a family again."

"I remember," Kari replied. "That's what you saw, isn't it? In… in the World of Dreams."

TK nodded. None of them talked much about what happened in that other world when they were all faced with their inner heart's greatest desire. She and Yolei had gotten off easy with dreams that were perhaps not as revealing, but she knew TK and Cody's desire to put their families back together somehow had been like peaking in on something nobody else was supposed to see. And even then, she hadn't seen it. Only Davis and Veemon had seen all of theirs. Maybe it was for the best.

"Yeah, MaloMyotismon really knew how to read us," TK agreed. "I wonder what Matt would have said if he'd seen it. He probably would have thought I was crazy."

"You don't think he would have wanted the same thing?"

His eyes shined with repressed emotion, and Kari saw the sadness there. Yolei said that's why the girls at school were so attracted to him. On the surface, he seemed so happy and confident, but his eyes held so much mystery. The girls wanted to figure him out. But Yolei told so many tales that Kari stopped trying to figure out which ones were actually true and which ones she just told because they sounded romantic.

"I think he's smarter than that," he said. "Matt always accepted the divorce better than I did… Plus, he's older. That probably helps."

Helps him understand why a picture perfect ending is impossible, Kari thought, while you still struggle with the reality. Helps him understand why he can't see his mother anytime he wants, especially when their schedules can never seem to line up. And helps him understand why the only thing that matters is being your brother, and everything else comes second.

"I'll probably talk to Dad over Christmas break," he said, finally answering the original question. "He'll have to take off work then, and I know Matt wants me to spend Christmas Eve over there… No point in staying mad when all I want is to enjoy the time I've got with him, right?"

Ahead of them, a head of bushy brown hair appeared over the hill, and Kari's heart sank. Tai trudged toward them, taking a shortcut across the snowy hillside as he kicked up snow in front of him, soaking the bottom half of his pants. Along with looking completely unfazed by the cold, he also looked partly annoyed, and Kari knew that he had been sent by their parents to interrupt her date.

Please go away, Kari prayed. If there's anybody listening who can give us just ten more minutes, please just make my brother go away. I'm not asking for anything bad, just a few extra minutes so that I can say what I need to say.

But Tai kept advancing.

"Hey," TK said, nodding toward the person that was undoubtedly going to end their date early as he spotted him as well, "it's your brother."

She felt him shift half an inch away from her, a self-conscious movement that he always did when faced with Tai's attention. Any other day, she would find TK's worry over Tai's approval of their relationship adorable. Today, she just wanted Tai to turn around and walk away. But he did the opposite. He stopped several feet away and then gestured for Kari to join him.

"You better go see what he wants," TK said. "It could be important."

Yes—it could. But Kari had a good idea that it was just fate toying with her. She hesitated just a moment longer before she trudged across the salted sidewalk to meet him. The smirk on Tai's face held way too much sympathy for this just to be a hello.

"You two look like you were having fun," he teased.

Kari's patience was not in his corner today. "Tai…"

His smile slipped. "Mom and Dad want you home."

"Why?"

"Mom's parents can't make it to Odaiba this year for the holidays, so last minute plans have us going to the in Nagasaki," he explained.

"When?" Kari demanded. She couldn't help it. She had just been reassuring herself that even if she didn't get to tell TK what she wanted today, she could tell him anytime within the next week, but if her parents wanted her home right now…

"They want to leave tonight," her brother said.

"Tonight?" she repeated. "When will we be back?"

"A few days after Christmas." He shrugged. "That's what they said anyway. You know Mom and Dad."

Kari did know their parents, and she knew that last minute plans like this were part of the package. They were spontaneous, and while she loved that about them a lot of the time, like right now, it was really ruining her plans. She looked back at TK who was watching the frost-crusted waves rolling in along the beach. He was probably thinking of his own parents at the moment thanks to her lousy question. He was right; he should have gone first.

At this rate, she was never going to get to tell him…

x X x

Kari's dream changed.

She stood on a mountaintop at night, volcanic heat glimmering in the pit below. In front of her, a bonfire blazed. Purplish flames seemed to cast more shadows than light, but the heat was so intense, her clothes steamed.

"This is your second warning," a voice rumbled, filled with so much evil that it seemed to taint the very air around them. Kari had heard that voice before in her dreams. She'd tried to convince herself it wasn't as scary as she remembered, but it was much worse.

Behind the bonfire, a plague mask with glowing red eyes loomed out of the darkness. The figure floated above the flames, and Kari knew that the dark shapes surrounding it must have been large demonic wings. The white hair and beard might have been woven out of silk. The figure seemed more like a horrible statue with its piercing red eyes, like raw cut rubies, and its collection of jewels around its neck on a golden cape. It smirked, and Kari shivered.

"You'll do what you're told," the demon said. "You'll lead your friends to us. Do our biddings, and you may walk away alive. Otherwise—"

He gestured toward a dark corner behind the fire. The shadows seemed to swallow this corner up, but Kari could still make out a figure – human – tied to a stake. She didn't need to see his face to know who it was.

She tried to cry out. She wanted to scream for TK, demand the demon let him go, but her voice wouldn't work.

"I'll be watching," the demon said. "Serve me, and you both live. You have my word as the Demon Lord of Greed. Fail me… and, well, I've been sealed away for millennia, young digidestined. I am very greedy for some payback. Fail, and I'll start with him."

The demon let out a low, thick laugh, and the air grew hot with the suffocating evil. A crevice opened at Kari's feet, and she tumbled into darkness.