Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or have any association with those who do.

Been working on this story for a few days so I already have the next chapter done. I'm not writing this for reviews, (though I love to hear what people think) so I won't stop halfway through because no one reviews my story. It's mostly for myself, but I wanted to share it with other Digimon fans.

T.K. walked back into the computer lab where Cody and a slightly disgruntled Davis had been waiting. He gave them an apologetic grin and clapped his hands together. "Sorry. Sorry." He walked over and began picking up his things from the desk.

Davis gave him a dirty look and finally asked. "Where is she?"

T.K. shrugged. "I couldn't find her."

Davis' frown softened. "Oh."

Cody looked skeptically at his old friend. "Are you leaving already?"

T.K. nodded. "I still haven't finished unpacking. I was just here today doing some make up tests and I thought I'd wait around and say hi."

Just as T.K. swung his backpack up over his shoulder a shrill excited voice chimed in from the doorway. "No way!"

T.K. smiled wearily as Yolie bounded into the room and gave him a hug. "When did you get back into town?"

"Three days ago." T.K. replied quietly.

Davis looked back at the doorway and waved at Ken who walked in slowly. "You guys are way late." He hadn't change too much over the years.

Ken shrugged. "If I let Yolie drive we're here in ten minutes. I generally like living so I drove today."

Yolie turned on her heals, her now shorter violet hair flew around her face. "Excuse me if I actually like to do the speed limit."

Cody shivered. "You mean ten miles per hour over the speed limit." Obvious past experiences had traumatized the boy.

"You be quiet." Yolie hissed at Cody.

Ken sighed. "Hey, glad to see you made it back in one piece. Heard the weather was pretty bad up north the other day."

T.K. smiled. "It wasn't terrible. The train got delayed for about twenty minutes at one stop, but that was about it."

Yolie frowned. "Ken, did you know T.K. was coming back to Odaiba?"

Ken nodded. "Well, yeah. He told me a few weeks ago."

Davis narrowed his eyes at Ken. "You didn't think to mention that to anyone?"

T.K.'s phone suddenly went off. "Shoot. I'll be right back." He stepped out of the room and answered the phone.

Ken frowned at Davis. "Well I didn't think I had to say anything to anyone. I figured he would just tell you all himself."

Cody looked guiltily at the floor. "I haven't really stayed in very good contact with T.K. since he left. I've just had so much going on with my grandpa needing me to help teach at the dojo after school and… well…"

Yolie nodded. "Don't feel too bad, basically the same thing happened with me and my family's convenience store—and college of course."

Davis shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I'm a bad friend. I never really tried to email him or anything."

Ken looked at all of them skeptically. "I'm seriously the only one that stayed in contact with him?"

Kari walked in behind Ken, looking around the room, obviously searching for T.K. "Uhm…"

Davis narrowed his eyes at her. "Where did you run off to?"

Kari set her bag down on one of the desks near the door, jostling the mouse the screen snapped to life, the digital gate idling, waiting for someone to open it. "I forgot my bag in the classroom." She lied, hoping neither Davis nor Cody had paid any attention earlier. Neither called her on it, giving her a bit of relief.

Yolie looked at Kari confidently. "I'm sure T.K. told you he was coming back. You two are like best friends."

Kari's eyes shifted to the floor. Finally she looked up at the puzzled expressions on everyone's faces. "Oh. Yeah, of course." Smiling forcefully.

T.K. walked back in, not noticing Kari standing off to the side at first. "Sorry. Matt left his apartment key at home this morning, so he's coming to get me so I can let him in." He raised his hand to wave to everyone as a farewell, thinking he could avoid the awkward encounter with Kari, but as he did he stopped, seeing Kari shift uncomfortably in his peripheral vision. "Oh, Kari." He looked at her. She was surprised by the kind smile he gave her. "Hi."

"Hi." She greeted him meekly.

"Anyway." T.K. recovered from the shock of finding Kari back so soon and waved goodbye. "I'll see you guys on Monday."

Ken walked over to him. "We're going to the digital world, aren't you going with us?"

"Huh?" T.K. stuttered. "N-no. Like I was saying earlier. I still have a lot of unpacking to do and now Matt needs me to be his back up adult."

Ken laughed. "Well I'll text you later. It'd be nice to hang out in person for once. Texting and emails aren't quite the same."

T.K. nodded. "Definitely. See ya!"

#

The gate to the digital world chirped loudly as they appeared in front of their digimon partners.

Each greeted their respective partners and then the others cheerily, happy to see their friends back again. Ever since they'd defeated MaloMyotismon they'd stayed in the digital world, never knowing when the gates could close.

Gatomon immediately noticed Kari's aura—she wasn't in her usual good mood. "What's the matter Kari?"

Kari forced a smile on her face and shook her head. "Nothing."

Gatomon was obviously not fooled by her façade but let it slide. "If you say so."

Davis knelt down next to Veemon, patting his friend on the head. "Hey, after we leave today can you get a hold of Patamon?"

Veemon tilted his head to the side, his lisp as strong as it always had been. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"

Yolie clasped her hands together excitedly. "T.K.'s back! The whole team will finally be back together."

Ken pursed his lips thoughtfully. "T.K. said he had a lot on his plate with senior year and joining the basketball team. So he may not be able to come here with us as often as we'd like."

Cody and Yolie both looked disappointed by Ken's response. Cody shrugged. "Still, he'll be around at least sometimes."

Davis nodded. "Yeah!"

#

Matt pulled up to a stop light, only a couple blocks from his and T.K.'s new apartment. "So…" he glanced at his brother in the passenger seat. "Gonna tell me what that was all about?"

T.K. shrugged. "I just needed a ride home is all."

Matt narrowed his eyes at his brother, but held his tongue as he continued up the street. "Well, it wasn't too far out of my way. Whatcha want for dinner?"

T.K. shifted, obvious appreciation for the subject change in his tone. "Hmm. We haven't gone shopping for real food, so pizza again?"

Matt laughed. "You say that like we're gonna do that often."

T.K. rolled his eyes at his brother. "I'd rather not become obese because you're too lazy to cook."

Matt eyed his brother—this week had been the first he'd seen his brother since he left for Hokkaido with their mom. "Okay. Fine."

T.K. shrugged. "Between your job and the band I doubt we'll have a ton of dinners together anyway."

Matt pulled into the small janky parking lot next to their four story apartment building. "Hey, that's not fair. I can make time—"

T.K. interrupted Matt abruptly. "It's fine. We'll still get to see each other more than when we were kids. I'll be eighteen in a few months anyway. We're adults now."

Matt pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow at his little brother. "I don't see it."

T.K. gave Matt an unamused glare. "Ha ha."

Matt laughed. "Eh. I'm just teasing you. You're probably twice as mature as I was at your age."

"Only twice as much?" T.K. smirked as he climbed out of car, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Anyway. Thanks for coming to get me."

Matt looked at his brother with concern. "Yeah. No problem."

#

"Well, that was fun." Davis stated sarcastically.

Yolie rolled her eyes. "Why? Because we had a peaceful patrol for once?"

Ken laughed. "I kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet."

Cody agreed. "No kidding."

Gatomon looked up at the silent Kari, obviously lost in thought, barely paying attention to the conversation. "Hey Kari. Can we talk before you go?"

Kari looked as if she'd snapped out of a trance. "Hmm. Sure."

Yolie opened the gate with her digivice and turned to the others. "I gotta get going. I have to drop Ken off at his apartment and I have a shift at the convenient store in an hour."

Cody nodded. "I've got dojo clean up tonight too."

Davis shrugged. "I'll wait for you Kari."

She nodded. "Thanks." She waved goodbye to the others and followed Gatomon into the forest.

"Okay." Her partner finally stopped.

Kari stopped, placing her right hand on her left arm, looking at the forest ground timidly. "What did you want to talk about?"

"T.K. for starters." Gatomon eyed her friend sadly. "You told me after he left something happened. But you never told me what. Now that he's back…" she encouraged.

Kari sighed and leaned against one of the trees. Nodding reluctantly, she began to explain what happened the day before T.K. left.

Thanks for reading!

Again if you want to check out my original books series, you can look into it by googling The Silent Ballad Series.