Hello hello! I'm back with an update. This chapter is all about Kari and TK. There were more things to set up, and the previous chapter was already rather long, so I pretty much split it into two. The action will be coming pretty soon, I promise.

May 31st, 2014. Houston, Texas.

Matt

I sighed as I opened the door to my apartment. To my lack of surprise, every light was off. It had been about 3 days since I last got some good sleep in my own place, so that, plus the darkness, made me really want to just collapse on my bed and get some much needed rest, but then my stomach growled. Between Tai's and Sora's engagement plus Joe showing up, I completely forgot to eat something at the bar, which was the reason Mimi and I met there in the first place. My stomach growled again, and I decided my hunger was more important than my exhaustion at that moment, so I turned on the kitchen lights, took some eggs from the fridge and turned on the stove. Before starting to cook though, I figured I should inform my roommate. I knocked on his door and there was no answer, so I simply let myself in. I had to turn on the lights since it was pitch black.

"Get up. I'm making breakfast" I said as I saw my little brother sprawled all over the bed. It was truly an embarrassing sight.

"Matt, what the hell" TK groaned as he turned around, away from the light "it's Saturday morning, and I want to sleep in" he complained.

"I will most likely go to sleep after eating myself, so just do that, too" I told him, he still wouldn't budge "come on, I have to tell you something" I insisted.

"Fine" he said as he sat up and let out a yawn "I'll be there in a minute"

I nodded and headed back to the kitchen, and I finally started cooking. Yes, TK was living in Houston with me. He had been my "roommie" for almost a year, however, once the year was up, he would be headed back to Japan. As to how and why, TK was studying a master's degree in literature in the texan city. It was an opportunity that was offered to him not long after he graduated from college, and since he had me here, it made complete sense for him to take it. You would think that he would be having an amazing experience studying abroad, taking full advantage of a new and independent life in the United States, but I'm afraid that's not quite what he had been doing, at least recently. TK was honestly a miserable bastard these days: He barely left the house, had little to no local friends and spent most of his time moping. That wasn't always the case, though.

In his first months in Houston, TK was ecstatic. He went out pretty much all the time with random people, explored not only Houston but other cities in Texas, and he even took a trip around the country visiting the most famous american places such as New York, LA or Miami with Mimi (I couldn't join them since I was very busy with my astronaut training program). As to what changed, well, he would say that the very reason he came to the United States in the first place was flawed. He was running away from his problems, and in the recent months, they had caught up with him, or at least that was the conclusion we arrived to in one of our latest "serious brother to brother conversations". What was the problem, you ask? Well, only the most important thing in Takeru Takashi's life: Hikari Yagami. TK and Kari used to be the most perfect couple you could ever imagine: best friends since they were kids, which naturally and eventually matured into a romantic relationship (without any interruptions, like I interrupted Tai and Sora) and ended up being the ideal couple in everyone's eyes for the longest time. They never left each other's side, they never got sick of one another, and they never had any fights. And they stayed like that for the longest time, until about 5 years ago, when they started having issues in their relationship.

Personally, I thought they were very stupid problems, but they were a very big deal to them back then, such as TK starting to spend less time with Kari, and him getting a bit jealous of Kari's male friends. You see, Kari grew up to be a very beautiful and popular girl that had her fair share of suitors. I always thought it was beyond stupid for TK to even consider that Kari would as much as have eyes for any other guy, but that was the first time in his life that TK ever felt jealousy and it drove him pretty crazy. It also didn't help that Kari was too much of a sweetheart, she was far too inocent to see that most guys that approached her did so with any intentions other than friendship. As to why TK had the luxury of never experiencing jealousy in say, high school, well, someone did a very good job at scaring boys away from Kari: her overprotective older brother. Once Kari got into college though, Tai was no longer there to "protect" her from male attention and it just kept growing, much to the dismay of TK. They had a bunch of fights about this, which made Kari pretty upset and she'd throw the "you're slipping away" card right back at him.

It is true that TK was starting to spend less and less time with Kari, and the reason was... me. TK started to spend a lot of time with me, worrying about me and helping in any way he could, perhaps too much. It wouldn't be until years later that TK revealed to me that he was compensating for being a "bad brother" before, because he was mad at me for asking Sora out after he told me that Tai felt something for her. His confession was a shock to me, not because he was mad at me (he had every right to, I also knew Sora felt something for Tai, yet I asked her out anyway), but because he did the shittiest job at it. I never felt any animosity from TK in the years I was dating Sora, so for the life of me I could not understand why he felt guilty about such a thing and started to overcompensate. I told him as much, but he wouldn't budge, and that was that.

Anyway those were the relationship issues that Kari and TK had, but it never broke them apart, they worked through these problems and went back to being the sweetest couple ever. At least until 2012. By the end of that year something would happen that would be the greatest test in their relationship: Kari would finish her last year of college abroad, in Spain. At first it seemed that it wouldn't be a problem, after all, long distance isn't really an issue when you can see each other whenever you want in the Digital World. And in the first months it would appear that way, they were still doing great, but then the old problems came back with a vengeance. TK would get insecure again, with Kari being "too friendly" with spanish guys, even worse now because he wasn't there to see that he had nothing to worry about, which led to TK getting upset and pulling away from Kari, which in turn quickly became an issue for her as well. And they would have the same fights all over again, which wasn't doing any favors to either of them. Even so, Kari and TK love each other way too much, and no matter how much they fight or how far away they are from the other, they will always be together. But that won't stop them from making mistakes and putting each other through bad times every now and then.

TK figured he came to Houston because he was upset at Kari and he would "pay her back", at least subconsciously, he says. Kari had come back to Japan in early 2014, after Christmas. But TK was still here and he would not come back until August or September. So they were still apart and the same old drama would resurface. They could still see each other whenever they wanted, but being mad at each other gave them a pretty good reason to not meet up in the Digital World. And that brings us to the present, where TK was especially mopy about Kari. They had a recent argument and were on no speaking terms. Either way, I was more than glad to be there for my brother in such diffcult times for him, which even if I don't really understand, I didn't like to see him so mopy and helping him out was the least thing I could do after he had done so much for me.

"So what do you have to tell me?" he said as he sat down in the dining table of our kitchen. I had just finished cooking the eggs and was putting them on plates.

"A couple of things, actually" I started as I put the plate down in front of him, and then put mine on the other side to start eating myself "the first one" I said before taking my first bite, "is that Joe is here"

"What?" he asked as he dropped his chopsticks onto the plate. Yes, we still used them in America, eating without them just felt wrong.

"He's here in Houston for work" I explained between bites "he's researching some new medicine that was developed here, or something. Ask him about the details"

"That's great" TK smiled, a change in his gloomy mood, finally "how long is he staying?"

"A couple of months, you will probably come back to Japan before he does" I replied. I had already finished my breakfast. I was that hungry.

"Wow. I guess I'll meet up with him later today if he's up for it" he said as he was not done eating yet "what's the other thing?" he asked.

"Ah" I started as I took out my phone. Tai did send me a text tasking me to not tell TK about him and Sora being engaged, as he wanted to let Kari know in person over dinner, but that was a while ago so I figured they already told her. Not that TK and Kari were on speaking terms, anyway "this" I said as I handed him my phone with the picture opened.

"No way!" TK exclaimed as he almost choked on his food. After swallowing, he continued "this is great. I'm so happy for them" he smiled as he gave my my phone back.

"Who saw that coming, huh?" I smirked.

"Only like, everyone" he chuckled. His expression went back to a serious one as he checked his own phone. I knew exactly what he was doing "Kari didn't tell me..." and just like that, he was back to brooding.

"Of course you have to make this about Kari..." I sighed as I got up and washed my plate.

"This is big. I would think that this would take priority over our stupid fight and she would tell me" he defended himself.

"You're being fucking stupid" I countered "this just happened, TK. I don't know, maybe try thinking that she is a bit too busy celebrating with her brother and future siser-in-law"

"I guess that could be true..." he sighed with a miserable mood as he finished himself and started washing his plate.

"Look..." I started as I felt like I was being too harsh on him "I'm sure she will tell you. Give her some time" I tried to comfort him.

"I hope so, Matt..."

"I really think you should fix things with her as soon as possible. This is yet another stupid fight and I can't stand to see you being all depressed for no reason" I said.

"I will try..." he replied "How are you doing? How was training?"

"Exhausting. Like I said, I'm going to get some much needed sleep now" I told him "anyway, you really need to stop worrying about me, which is stupid, and direct your attention to what really matters: fixing things with Kari" I went back to the previous topic. I really did feel like TK was losing Kari because of me a lot of times and it made me feel like shit.

"You're one to talk" TK countered.

"What?"

"I'm not the only one who is neglecting my romantic life because I want to help my brother" he shrugged.

"I'm way too tired for this shit" I said as I headed to my room. TK was starting his 'you obviously feel something for Mimi' speech and I was not having it. It was starting to make me pretty angry, since he was deliberately ignoring what I told him every time it came up. Mimi and I were friends and that was final, I could not see her in any other way. I shut the door a bit aggressively to let him know that he was starting to piss me off with this.

June 1st. Tokyo, Japan.

Kari

"Koushiro will see you now" a beautiful woman told me as I was waiting in the lobby in front of Izzy's office.

"Thank you" I smiled as I walked past Izzy's assistant. She really was drop-dead gorgeous. Between that and how much she helped me, or actually him, right before this, I couldn't help but be a bit suspicious. Only one way to get answers: I knocked.

"Come in" Izzy's voice answered. I opened the door to see my friend typing something on his desktop's keyboard.

"Good afternoon, Koushiro" I bowed. Izzy sighed.

"You know, I sometimes have a hard time believing that you are Tai's sister. But then you make these stupid jokes and it clears all doubts" he said as he was still looking at his screen.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it" I laughed "it's just that it's so weird to hear everyone here call you Koushiro, to me you always have been and will be Izzy" I shrugged.

"That is my name, and this is a professional workplace, Hikari" he smirked as he looked up.

"Then why not call you Mr. Izumi?" I countered.

"I'm a laid back boss. But not laid back enough to have my employess call me by my nickname" he chuckled. I smiled. It still felt pretty unreal that Izzy had his very own company at only 25. It wasn't too big yet, but it was absolutely the best company that dealt with the Digital World, and the ever growing digidestined, which were about 500,000 now, always came to Izzy when we needed help "so to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" he asked.

"Oh" I said as I put my hand in my purse "Davis and Ken gave this to me, so I'm handing it over to you, since I was nearby" I said as I pulled a flash drive from it and gave it to him "it's about those digiport issues, they thought this could help"

"Ah, yes" he said as he looked at it "they did mention it to me a couple of days back" he plugged it into his computer. He stared at me for a while "This isn't the only reason you came here, is it..." he inquired.

"Of course not" I smiled "Kabuterimon really misses you, you know..." I started.

"Kari..." he sighed "you know that I would really like to go visit soon. But you can see it right now, I'm pretty busy these days"

"Well, I'm giving you the perfect excuse to come to the Digital World, today" I declared.

"Which is..."

"I know you know that my brother and Sora got engaged yesterday"

"You must be really happy about that" he interrupted.

"I am! Anyway, we're throwing an engagement party later tonight in File Island. I came here to invite you in person because I'm not going to take a no for an answer" I stated.

"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you..." he started.

"You won't. I'll have you know that, with the help of your oh so beautiful assistant, Ame, was it? Well, we cleared all of your schedule for the rest of the day" I smiled. Izzy's mouth opened "Isn't that great?"

"How did you...?" he stuttered.

"It was easy! She seemed more than eager to help..." I started "maybe too much? There's nothing going on there, right?" I asked suspiciously.

"Of course not, Kari!" he defended himself "our relationship it strictly professional" he explained "it does sound just like her, though... she's been really persistent on trying to make me take breaks lately, she really worries about me. As her boss" he added. I decided to believe him.

"Good to know. So you're coming, right?" I insisted.

"Looks like I don't have much of a choice..."

"Splendid!" I said as I stood up and gave him a hug "Kabuterimon will be so happy to see you" I said as I pulled away "and Tai and Sora won't kill you, either"

"The last one is the best part" he joked.

"Be very glad I was the one to encourage you to come and not either of them" I laughed.

"I do appreciate that you cleared my schedule, that was nice, for a change. But I'll have you know that the attempt of emotional blackmail is very Sora-like" he told me.

"Yeah, boo-hoo. You're coming to a party. Poor you" I mocked, in true Sora fashion, he laughed "anyway, see you there at 9?" I smiled as I made my way out of his office.

"You will" he confirmed.

I walked out of the building in a good mood, with my mission accomplished. My next stop was my brother's to inform him and my future sister-in-law of my success and continue planning the party, which we started doing the night before. To say that I was thrilled about the engagement was an understatement. I was so happy for my big brother, who was finally marrying Sora, the perfect woman for him and someone I had considered my sister since forever, so to be able to officially say that was a dream come true for me. My mom did tell me that she gave Tai her own engagement ring and tried to convince him to "tie the knot", and to my surprise, he actually took the ring. However, that did not prepare me to witness that he and Sora were engaged less than a month later. He never told me or my mom that he was proposing, he just did it and we had to actually notice the ring on Sora's finger last night to know that he was ready for marriage. I guess the way to let us know was very much like him, or them, better said, but I could have never guessed that my brother was ready for this big step in his life. It was a shock to me, the good kind, but still a shock, nonetheless.

Tai had changed so much. He was a grown man with a full time job and lived in his own place with his fiancée now. I was so proud of how much he had matured. A far cry of the hotheaded and immature kid he used to be, and even more so of the mess he was as a teenager. I suffered a lot for him in those years, when he first lost Sora in a romantic way and then altogether, and then he ruined his ankle and was forced to say goodbye to his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. Those blows were far too heavy for him, they completely broke him. The big brother I admired and that I could always count on was gone, replaced by an angry teenager that acted out pretty often: from smoking regularly, to drinking unhealthy amounts of alcohol to committing petty crimes with terrible "friends" he had made at that point of his life. It was starting to take its toll on me, too. I just really wanted my brother back, not this angry young man that quite honestly, I was scared of sometimes, it was as if he was possessed by darkness. Truth to be told, I was really worried when the Dark Masters came back to the Digital Wolrd 7 years ago to get their revenge on us, because by then we were a completely broken group with an even more broken leader, and to make matters worse, I couldn't get there until 3 days later than the rest because I was on a Christmas trip in Paris with TK. But I was more than gladly proven wrong when I got to the Digital World. When I got there, my brother was back, he had already finished off MachineDramon and MetalSeadramon, and most importantly, he had finally gotten together with Sora. I always knew that he would as soon as he would simply tell her what he felt, because I knew just as well that she felt the exact same way, but that fear and darkness that possessed him held him back from doing that for the longest time. I was so relieved and proud that he conquered his demons and stepped up as our leader once again. Maybe he could have acted better as he had a fight with Matt, but I believe than in the end that was also necessary for him, as that got him to heal that friendship (which is way more important to him than he'll ever admit). Since then, I've had my brother back, even better than before, and god knows I needed him more than ever.

The one that was struggling with darkness now was me. Being happy for him with his engagement was a great distraction, because I was feeling very depressed lately. Losing my father was brutal for me... I missed him a lot every single day. I also hated myself because I was not there for him in the end, as I was still living and studying in Madrid at the time he passed away. I came back to Japan to visit him at the hospital for a week, and it seemed that he was getting better, so he insisted that I should go back to Spain and not to worry about him, so I hesitantly did so. The sudden and intense heartache I felt only two weeks later when my mom called me to let me know... it hurt so much, and it still did months later. My brother insisted that it was better for me not to see him in his last days, as he says that experience was far too heartbreaking and it will haunt him forever. He didn't want me to bear that burden, besides, he added that my father would not have wanted me to see him like that or put my life and future on hold because of him. I want to believe Tai, I really do, but I still feel horrible about those emotionally devastating days.

And losing my dad wasn't everything. I was also in a very delicate situation with the love of my life. My relationship with TK had always been great, almost perfect. He was my best friend and I could always count on him, even more so than Tai. So it was a devastating blow to me when I had to see a very different, cold and angry side of TK. It all started when I got very popular in college and I started hanging out with a lot of guys. I honestly never saw what the big deal was, but Tai eventually made me see things: as he put it, I shouldn't "let a bunch of horny bastards swarm all over" me. However, this only made me mad at TK, for him to even think that I could ever be unfaithful to him, and with creepy guys that would approach me just to get me, was frankly very offensive. And honestly, seeing him get angry and distant because of such nonsense made me even more upset. I also felt that TK was distant when he was not angry, and it got bad for me when he was both. So a bunch of fights would start. It took a long time but we got over it, we agreed that it was really silly to be fighting about such meaningless things when we loved each other so much, or so we thought.

I moved to Madrid, Spain, in 2013. I did really well in college (proudly graduated in Education with honors) so I was offered to finish my last year abroad. I had other options such as France or the UK, but I decided on Spain, since there were a lot of reasons that made it the best destination by far. First, I have always been fascinated by this country: its culture, its people, its food... (maybe Tai's love for its soccer league made me notice all of this in the first place) and most importantly, I wouldn't be alone there since Yolei was also living there, she had been for a while, actually (she studied all 4 years of her university degree in Madrid). Having such an experience with one of my best friends was a no-brainer, and I could see my brother or TK any time I wanted in the Digital World, so there were no real cons. Also, Yolei really nedded my help then... she had broken up with Ken a couple of years ago because they had a lot of fights and reached a boiling point to where they couldn't stand each other anymore (it really put my silly fights with TK into perspective), and living in different countries for so long didn't help . Anyway, all was great the first 6 months or so, I was living, in my opinion, in the most fun city in the world, getting good grades, learning a lot of spanish and I was helping Yolei heal. She was in such a mess when I got there, I swear she brought at least 2 or 3 different guys to our place every month and she had gone pretty insane. But thanks to me, she found her true self again and was doing much better.

But then drama with TK started again. I have always been a big fan of photography so I posted a lot of pictures of my time in Spain on social media. The problem? Well, culture in Spain is very different, much "closer" and "affectionate", so people are far more physical and spanish guys would hug me or put their arms around my waist when posing for pictures, and it would make all of TK's old problems resurface. I would get mad at him right back, and we were in the same stupid cycle again. I remember a specific thing he said to me, that maybe Yolei was rubbing her "bad habits" off on me and this made me extremely upset, since TK of all people should have known that it was the complete opposite, I helped her put an end to it. Eventually, things would cool down, especially when everything with my father started going downhill. In TK's defense, he was absolutely there for me the second I needed him, be it via phone or meeting up in the Digital World, even if he was in Houston. He really helped me from falling apart and reminded me why I loved him so much.

Things didn't go back to normal, though, even after I came back to Japan, since TK was still in America, and I guess that we were feeling the backlash of being in a technical long distance relationship for more than a year. We did just fine most of the time, but kept finding things to argue about. Our latest fight had just happened last week, where honestly I can't even remember what we were actually talking about, but it made him say that I was being "painfully stubborn" like my brother, to which I retorted with him being "a drama queen" like his, and then all of a sudden, we were defending our respective brothers and insulting the other, so things got way too heated. He said that Tai was the worst of assholes to him when we started dating, to which I replied that that was only because Matt stole Sora from him, and it got way worse from there. Some very bad stuff was said that I do not want to repeat. We would "make up" a couple of days ago, when he apologized and said he didn't mean what he said about Tai. I accepted his apology, since I didn't mean what I said about Matt either. I didn't really know where that came from, as I had never spoken so ill about Matt, not even when I did in fact resent him a bit when he was with Sora. In the end, we figured out that the truth behind all that was our own problems with each other and it was best to not speak for a while and cool off, to not say more stupid stuff that we might regret.

However, I decided that Tai and Sora's engagement was way more important than that, so I forced myself to text him about it late at night. But then he replied hours later (the time zone difference did not matter, I knew he was awake because when it comes to TK, I can be that stalky) and he sounded way too dry, with "That's great. Congratulate them on my behalf". TK should know better than anyone how happy I would be about it, so I would have expected him to be a bit more upbeat with his response. Or maybe I was just overthinking things, which I was very good at, lately. As I made it to Tai's apartment, I realized I could really use Sora's offer (demand) to vent to her from the night before, so I was going to take it. I rang the doorbell.

"Hey, sis" my brother greeted as he opened the door.

"Izzy's coming" I smiled.

"Amazing... how did you pull that off?" he chuckled as I walked inside.

"Well, I got his assistant to clear his schedule for the next 24 hours. Really sweet girl" I explained.

"It's ridiculous that he even has stuff to do on a Sunday" he snorted.

"The Digital World never rests, bro" I shrugged.

"I guess" he shrugged back "anyway, you haven't seen the place now that it's finished, right?" Tai and Sora had just moved to that apartment a month before.

"No, actually" I replied as last time I was there, the place was full of yet to be unpacked boxes.

"I'll give you the tour, then" he said as I followed him "here's how neat the bathroom looks now" he said as he opened the first door we arrived at.

"Wow" I said as the place was pristine "Sora's doing, I'm sure" I teased.

"Shut up" he rolled his eyes as we walked to the next room "this is my man cave" he proudly announced as I stepped in the small room. The apartment itself was not very big, even smaller than our family's home, but Tai had truly made that tiny room his own. It was full of posters from his favorite rock bands and soccer teams, as well as team jerseys, his 3 guitars (2 electric, 1 acoustic) were also hanging on the walls. There were a couple of shelves with special soccer balls neatly displayed, along with his CDs, speakers and videogames. Lastly I saw a TV monitor on top of a desk, connected to a computer tower and his beloved PlayStation, and a guitar amplifier lying under the desk.

"This is very you" I commented.

"I know" he smirked "our sleeping quarters" he joked as he took me to the next room. Tai and Sora shared a king sized bed, with their own nightstands on each side, I also saw a couple of wardrobes and lastly, a bookshelf with a lot of books in front of the bed. There was a clear division in the middle and it was kind of funny, since you could clearly tell that the ikebana and fashion books on the right belonged to Sora, while on the left side, completely different books ranging from geography to dinosaur encyclopedias, were obviously Tai's. To the surprise of many, Tai liked to read, but his tastes were very... peculiar.

"The living room/kitchen hasn't changed at all since the last time you were here, and lastly..." Tai commented as we made our way to the other side of the apartment "Hey hun, Kari's here" Tai said as he boldly opened the door. I really hoped we weren't bothering Sora.

"Great! Give me a sec..." I saw Sora sitting down in front of a desk, working on her designs, most likely. Sora's workroom was far more clean and girly than Tai's, of course. It was full of neatly arranged flowers, and it smelled just as nice as it looked. Sora also managed to stuff a lot of "regular" clothes and kimonos all over the room, which was really impressive, because while bigger than Tai's man cave, it was still quite small.

"If you need more time..." I started.

"Don't worry, I'm done" she reassured "so" she said as she stood up "ready to talk?" she asked me.

"Yeah..." I sighed. Sora smiled as she put her hand on my shoulder and led me to the dining table that separated the living room from the kitchen.

"What am I missing?" Tai asked.

"Girl stuff" Sora replied.

"You don't really tell me anything anymore, Kari" my brother shook his head.

"Sora's better for this, I'm sorry. You know you're my first call when I need someone threatened, though" I told him.

"You got it" he smirked "well, knock yourselves out" he said as he laid down on the couch and turned on the TV. It wasn't weird, Tai was very good at tuning out distractions when he watched TV, so Sora and I were quite used to talking even if Tai was right next to us, it was like he wasn't there when he was watching something. We didn't really mind if he did hear us, anyway.

"You're watching Bayern vs. Real Madrid again? That was only the semifinal" I couldn't help but ask as I looked.

"It's like the 5th time he's watching it..." Sora sighed.

"This game is legendary. Everyone expected Madrid to get smoked but they went to Munich, responded to all the trash talk by playing amazing soccer and showed why they were the future champions, whooping them by 0-4. This is the day they really won La Décima" he explained. Real Madrid, Tai's favorite soccer team, had just won their 10th Champions League a week before, and he wouldn't shut up about it. According to him, me living there last year was their lucky charm to finally win the championship again, after not achieving so in over 10 years.

"Ignore him" Sora rolled her eyes "Tell me. What's wrong, Kari?" she put her hand over mine. I sighed.

"TK..." I answered.

"Of course..." she sighed as well "but I don't understand, weren't things getting better?"

"I thought they were. But then a week ago we had a shouting match over the phone"

"About what?"

"Over really stupid things. It wasn't even about the usual..." I didn't want Tai to hear that we argued about him and Matt, it wasn't even that important anyway, so I didn't bother to tell the specifics "we just keep finding trivial things to fight about, Sora. I feel like I'm losing him"

"You're both going through hard times and live in different countries... I'm sure you will fix everything really easily when he gets back" she tried to soothe me.

"I'm honestly starting to think otherwise. Yolei has told me a thousand times how Ken treated her before things went off the rails. And I swear that I'm seeing TK act just like that"

"I'm going to kill Yolei. Or Ken. Or both. Seriously, what is the matter with those two?" she huffed. The Yolei and Ken drama was something that Sora and I talked a lot about "Kari, don't even think about that. They have their own issues and trust me, you and TK are the polar opposite"

"Are we? TK used to do the most romantic things for me all the time and that has completely stopped for a long time now. Madrid had the most beautiful and romantic places, I fantasized about going with him some day but he never came to visit"

"TK's been very busy..."

"He wasn't the first six months I was there, he wasn't even in Houston yet. You guys were far busier than he's ever been lately and you came to Madrid to see me, twice" I snapped back. Sora nodded and paused before answering. She was thinking about something.

"Well we both know that Tai only went there to see his beloved Real Madrid play in the Santiago Bernabéu. You were the perfect excuse he needed to go" Sora shrugged. I figured that she wanted abaolute privacy for us before continuing the conversation "which I don't understand, it's not like it's Barcelona"

"I resent that. Real Madrid was the bonus of going to visit Kari, not the other way around" Tai spoke up from the couch, taking the bait and revealing that he was in fact listening "and I'm going to pretend I didn't hear the last part"

"Barcelona is better than Real Madrid, Tai. Deal with it" Sora played along.

"In your dreams, maybe" Tai rolled his eyes.

"Barcelona has Messi"

"Oh, you mean the most overrated player of all time?"

"That would be Cristiano Ronaldo" Sora replied.

"Ronaldo is there when the team needs him in the big games. Messi only shows up when they play meaningless matches. Any real soccer fan would prefer the first choice"

"Real soccer fans can clearly see that Messi is the best. Only delusional Real Madrid fanboys, like yourself, can seriously claim that Ronaldo is better" Sora shrugged.

"Don't make me pull up the numbers" Tai sighed.

"Please do" Sora replied. I was amused by this and forgot about my problems for a second. My mom and I liked to press Tai's buttons and passively get him to do what we wanted, but Sora was on a superior level and watching that was a thing of beauty.

"I will" Tai said as he paused the game and got up. He stopped for a second as he opened the door to his man cave "I take it you probably want to talk about things I don't want to hear" he sighed "I'll put on my headphones and everything" he informed before closing the door.

"He really has matured..." I said "not even you can manipulate him like that anymore"

"Well, I got rid of him either way" Sora smiled "so where were we?" she started "ah, yes. Kari, you'll have plenty of time to do romantic things with him in Madrid, Paris or wherever... I think that your real issue here is that you're not physical anymore. How long has it been?"

"Months..." I replied "but I don't think that is the problem. Honestly, I just can't do things with him under these circumstances. Can't get in the mood"

"I understand" she nodded.

"Can I just say the crazy things that have popped up in my mind these days?"

"Go for it"

"What if I was wrong? While TK has been like this... Davis has been there for me no questions asked. No drama, no judgements, no fights... I don't think that Davis would have ever been like this, and he liked me so much back in the day... Did I end up with the wrong guy? After all, you-"

"Kari, listen very closely" Sora cut me off "TK isn't Matt, Davis isn't Tai, and you're not me. You're completely different people in a completely different situation. The only thing that is similar is what you and TK have, which is the same thing that Tai and I do" she looked straight into my eyes.

"How can you know that for sure?" I insisted.

"Do you have feelings for Davis?" she asked me in a dead serious tone. I took a couple of seconds to think, and I listened to my heart, which gave me a very clear answer.

"No..." I sighed.

"Of course you don't. I know you wouldn't lie about this" Sora reassured "if you had asked me the same thing about Tai back when I was with Matt, the answer would have been an absolute yes. And I know Kari, that that is the same feeling you have for TK, not Davis. He is not only the man you love, he is also your best friend, the one that understands you better than anyone else, and the one who will always be there for you no matter what. Because no matter how bad things get, TK is always there, isn't he?"

"Of course he is..." I said as I got a bit emotional "I know you're right, Sora. I'm sorry I even said such things. But I'm so confused, and angry, and-" I was interrupted by Sora giving me a hug.

"You did warn me about it being crazy" she whispered "don't worry Kari, I get it" she said as she broke away but still held my hands "but you see things more clearly now, right?" I nodded "It's rough right now, but hang in there. It will all be worth it, I promise" she reassured.

"Yeah..." I nodded again as she did get me in a better mood.

"How about I go get Tai and we get back to planning the party?" she smiled.

"Okay" I said as I dried my tears. She squeezed my hand before she got up and opened the door.

"We're done" she announced.

"That was fast" I heard Tai say before he emerged from the room. He stared at me for a while, he must have noticed I cried a bit. But he knew how to handle that. "Did you tell Sora that you managed to get Izzy to come?" he asked me.

"Really? How?" Sora asked as both sat down.

"His assistant helped me free him up today. She actually seemed too eager to do that... and she was very pretty too... for a second there I thought they had something going on. But Izzy swears their relationship is 'strictly professional'" I explained.

"Huh..." Sora grunted as she looked deep in thought.

"Izzy is the last person likely to shit where he eats" Tai pointed out.

"That phrase is so gross" Sora cringed before continuing "But I want to think so... Well, he's coming, so good enough for me, I guess" she shrugged.

"So, the beach restaurant in File Island is a go?" Tai asked me.

"Yup" I nodded "that's confirmed"

"Time for invitations, then" Sora said as she took out her phone. I did the same.

The Original Digidestined

Sora: Hey everyone! You all know the big news... so we're throwing an engagement party tonight in File Island! It will be at 9 p.m (Japan time) in the beach restaurant. NOT the beach bar where Scorpiomon almost fried us... it's a new restaurant on the opposite side of the beach. Really nice place, and trauma free. Anyway we would love to see you all there! I know it's early for all of you in Houston, but we really hope you can make it!

Mimi: I'm SO there! And don't worry, I'll drag everyone in Houston there if I have to!

Joe: Haha, you don't have to drag me, Mimi. I'll be there, Sora. Looking forward to it.

Izzy: You can count me in, too.

Matt: I'll go. But I'll need Mimi or Joe to come wake me up, just in case.

Mimi: I'll come get you, Matt. Used to it by now. And hooray, Izzy! How did this miracle happen?

Tai: Kari had to force him to.

Izzy: She didn't "force" me. She helped me.

Kari: Always happy to.

After typing my response in the lively group chat, I switched my attention to the other one. We hadn't used it for a while, as between Ken, Yolei, TK and me, things were pretty tense... but my talk with Sora helped me to hope that things would get much better.

The Digidestined 02

Kari: Hello! I'm really sorry if I didn't tell any of you guys, but things have been pretty crazy... my brother and Sora got engaged yesterday! They're celebrating it tonight in the beach restaurant in File Island at 9 p.m! You're all invited and we would be really happy to see you there!

Cody: Wow. That's huge. More than happy to go and celebrate with you guys.

Yolei: OMG! How did no one tell me about this!? Of course I'll be there!

Davis: You know, I was starting to feel offended since I had to find out from a third party. But don't worry, I'll be there. After all, there will be no party without me.

Yolei:...

Davis: What, Yolei. It's true.

Kari: Don't start...

Yolei: Not everything is about you, Davis.

Davis: And you can't take a joke.

Cody: And they started...

I was actually smiling. Davis and Yolei bickering like they did back in the day was great and a very good step towards getting things back to normal. I did notice that TK did not reply in either group. But I decided I was done obsessing about that for the day.

To be continued...

Chapter 3 will be coming pretty soon, it's almost done. Until then!