A/N: So I know the last chapter began with Kari finding Tai on the beach and then quickly got a little derivative into the past, and I'm afraid this chapter just goes further down the rabbit-hole instead of moving on just yet. I beg your patience, and I promise I have my reasons for this meandering story structure and will try not to stagnate the pacing too much. Remember, Digimon Adventure Tri is not canon in this story, so there's really a full eight-year gap between 02 and LEK in addition to the 17 years between LEK and the 02 epilogue, so there is a lot of time and events from even before LEK that need to be covered! Surely important events both personal and digital must have happened to our twelve main characters in those eight years, and I shall try to cover the personal ones as they become relevant (I believe that small digimon appearances in the Real World like the Parrotmon fight at the start of LEK were likely common on something like a weekly basis post-02, and they may have tackled a couple of major world-ending threats on the scale of Myotismon or Diaboromon since then, but I don't have the heart or creativity to invent the specifics of those tales, it is sufficient to know that they happened).
Chapter 3 - Reminiscence
Odaiba, Japan; August 20, 2010 – 12:26 pm.
T.K. rounded the corner and approached the little cafe that he and Kari frequented. They had been going there semi-regularly for the past several years, and they always sat in the same corner booth in the back by the window when it was available. The tradition had started in the summer of 2003, a few months after the battle against Armageddemon, and shortly after the restaurant first opened. Gatomon and Patamon hadn't been with them at the time, who were spending a few days in the Digital World after living in the Real one for the previous week. It was the first time he and Kari had been alone together in a long time…
Here's my chance, thought T.K., aware of a feeling of momentousness. I've got to do this now, or I may never do it. But whatever happens, we'll never be the same after this.
As they sat there talking, the conversation flowed easily enough, but Kari could tell the boy sitting across from her was uneasy for some reason. His laughter came a little too quickly and too loud, like it was forced. His eyes darted around the room restlessly, and he fidgeted a lot.
"T.K., is everything all right?"
"No—I mean, yes! I mean, everything's fine, Kari. Why do you ask?"
"Okay, if you say so. You just seem nervous about something."
"What? No, I—" T.K. stopped and looked down. He pulled his bucket hat off of his head and crumpled it in his hands. This ruffled his hair in a way that Kari thought was kind of cute. "No, you're right. I'm sorry. I never could hide anything from you. You know me too well." He looked up at her with a crooked half-smile. "I am nervous, because I need to ask you something I've wanted to ask for a long time. But I don't really know how to do it."
Kari leaned forward. "It's okay, T.K. Take your time," she said encouragingly.
T.K. glanced down for a moment and frowned, clearly in deep thought. Then: "Do you remember the day you disappeared to...to that place?"
Kari's brow creased and she shivered, as if the air had suddenly grown colder. She knew immediately what place he was referring to, the name of which they by unspoken agreement would never again invoke openly: the Dark Ocean. "Yes, I remember," she replied in a small voice.
T.K. winced, wishing he didn't have to bring up such an uncomfortable memory. "That day…do you remember what I told you?"
Kari's eyes softened as the moment she recalled turned to a more fond one. She smiled at him affectionately; she thought she knew where he was going with this. "You said that you cared too much about me to let me go without a fight." They both had known back then that the simple statement carried under its surface a deeper meaning that—up till now—had remained unsaid. Perhaps he was about to change that. "Then I disappeared, and you came for me," she continued. "Thank you, T.K. You've always been watching out for me. Like a guardian angel."
Kari had been completely sincere, but as she finished speaking, she gave him a pointed look and smirked mischievously, and suddenly they were both laughing at the implied pun. T.K. marveled at the girl across from him; she always seemed to know how to put him at ease. Maybe this won't be so bad, he thought. After all, she'd said she cared for me too. That's got to mean—! That is, if her feelings haven't changed...? Come on, T.K., get a grip! You're the Digidestined of Hope, now start acting like it!
"And I still care about you." T.K.'s voice had turned suddenly serious, and all laughter abruptly ceased. T.K. struggled to find the right words. "Even more now than I did back then. Like, not just as a friend, but...more. Kari, I need you to know how special you are to me, and...if you feel the same way..." He trailed off. "Kari, would you—I mean, d-do you...uh..."
Kari laughed sweetly. "Takeru Takaishi", she teased, "are you asking me to be your girlfriend?"
T.K. started at the use of his full name. It was the first time she had ever called him that. "Well, I—uh—" His hands waved in a useless gesture, exasperated at his apparent lack of speech. Finally, he sighed in defeat. "Yeah," he admitted, then added with more confidence, "I am. Kari, will you be my girlfriend?"
Kari giggled again with delight. "I'd wondered when you would get around to it." T.K. blinked in shock. Had he been so obvious? She leaned forward to place her hands in his. "And to answer your question, T.K., yes, I'd love to be your girlfriend."
T.K. exhaled heavily. "Wow," he breathed.
Then Kari assumed a deadpan expression. "Poor Davis; he'll be devastated."
T.K. chuckled with her. They both knew that Davis had long ago gotten over his crush on Kari. He had begun to back off from his dogged pursuit of her near the end of their second adventure, and their relationship had much improved. Davis had matured a lot in the past year and now his friendship with Kari was stronger than ever. He still mispronounced T.K.'s initials occasionally, but it had become a sort of running joke between them that Davis used to tease him in the way that only close friends are allowed. Currently, Davis was chasing after any of several girls around their school as persistently as he used to chase Kari (that was how Davis was, after all: fully committed to whatever he did), though thus far he was having a similar lack of success.
But a new troubling thought occurred to T.K., and he sat back against the booth wall with a dull thud. "Oh, man," he groaned theatrically.
"What is it?" Kari asked.
"Tai is going to kill me."
The new couple burst into hysterical laughter.
As it happened, he and Kari didn't tell the others right away; instead, they'd made a game of seeing how long it took everyone to figure it out. Sora, of course, was the first to know, who found out less than a week later, and was frankly a little surprised it had taken them that long to get together. Tai had been one of the last, taking almost six months for the penny to drop. He obviously did not kill T.K., though he did react in predictable Tai-fashion: abject disbelief, wild gestures, and incoherent yelling. Matt had to hold him down for a couple of minutes until his mind got used to the idea. The truth was, as much as it violated his sense of brotherly overprotectiveness, Tai had to admit that if Kari was going to be dating someone, T.K. would be his first choice.
"You'd better take good care of her, T.K.", he'd said.
"He's been doing that for a long time already, Tai," Kari responded, hugging her brother gently from the side.
Tai loosened up a little. "I know. I just worry about you. It's my job."
"Don't worry, Tai. I'll always make sure she's safe."
"I know you will, T.K. Thanks." They shook hands.
Coming to the cafe entrance, T.K. grinned at the memory of how he and Kari had started their relationship. That had been a little over seven years ago. He had been so nervous then. T.K.'s hand froze over the doorknob and he frowned. I guess not much has changed. He was uncomfortable with what he was about to do. He'd promised Tai that he wouldn't tell the others. But I'm not telling them, he thought. Just Kari. But he knew that was cheating, and it bothered him.
Patamon noticed his hesitation. "What are you waiting for, T.K.?"
T.K. shook his head to clear it. "Nothing," he said, and went through the door.
Kari waved to him, who was already sitting down at her spot and holding the booth for them. "Hi, T.K.!" She rose and hugged him warmly before proceeding to fondle Patamon's ear as if he were a puppy.
"Hey, that tickles!" Patamon giggled.
"I know, that's why I do it," Kari replied, chuckling. "Besides, you love it."
"That's true," said Patamon, still laughing.
"Hey, Gatomon," said T.K., patting the feline's head, "How have you two been?"
"Just purrrfect," she answered with a wink.
The greetings complete, they sat down. Kari browsed the menu absentmindedly, though they had all but memorized it by now. "So what did Izzy want earlier? I saw his text, but I couldn't make it this time because I had class."
T.K. shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."
Kari grew concerned. "What happened? Is everything all right?"
T.K. looked around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard, then said in a whisper, "Tai made me promise to keep it a secret from the others, so you can't tell anyone—"
T.K. was cut off as a waitress approached with a notepad.
"Hello, my name is Noriko and I'll be your server today. What can I get..." The waitress's speech petered out as she looked at her patrons and recognition sparked in her eyes. "Kari? T.K.?"
The couple looked at their server more closely. "Noriko?" Kari asked. "Noriko Kawada?"
She nodded vigorously. "Yeah!"
"No way!", said Kari, standing.
"Wow! Hi, Noriko!" said T.K.
They got up and exchanged hugs. Noriko was one of the children who had been kidnapped and had dark spores implanted in them by Yukio Oikawa eight years ago. Noriko's spore had sprouted prematurely, and Oikawa, who was possessed of Myotismon's evil spirit, had used it to get to the Digital World. But with the Digidestined's help, they had managed to overcome their fears and insecurities and, believing in the strength of their dreams, MaloMyotismon was defeated. But in the process each of those children had become Digidestined themselves with their own partner digimon.
Noriko lived in Bunkyo Ward, and so she didn't have much contact with the other Digidestined in Odaiba afterwards, though she and Kari had bonded over their common career goals and tried to keep in touch. They hadn't seen each other in over a year, however, as Kari had been busy transitioning to college.
T.K. couldn't remember having seen her since the day of MaloMyotismon's defeat and hardly recognized her now. Noriko had transformed from a scrawny, shy girl into a grown woman. Her hair had grown long and silky, which she wore in a single thick braid over her left shoulder that reached nearly to her waist; her eyes were dark, but full of kindness, and her hourglass figure was tastefully accentuated by the charcoal-grey skirt and vest of her waitress's uniform. Her face, which had usually been concealed by a mask back then, was exceptionally pretty.
"What are you doing here?" Kari asked her.
"Yeah," T.K. added, "Kari and I come here all the time, so it's really weird that we haven't seen you around before."
"I just moved here last week, actually. Now that I've graduated high school, I wanted to get out on my own for a little bit and save up some money for when I start college next year."
"Wow, that's really great, Noriko!" said T.K.
Noriko fidgeted a little. "In fact, it's my first day here, so I'm a little nervous..."
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do great. Like T.K. said, we're regulars here, so you can practice on us all the time."
Gatomon piped up. "You know what would be a really good idea for this place? Adding catnip to the menu as a side. You should mention it to the owner, that's sure to make you their star employee."
"Gatomon!" Kari laughed.
"I'll keep that in mind," Noriko said, smirking.
"Hey, how's your digimon?", Kari asked, looking around. "Is she here?"
Noriko shook her head. "No, she's at home right now. My boss says customers' digimon are welcome, but he's afraid that employees' digimon would just get in the way. So for now she stays home, but I'm hoping we can change his mind about it."
"What is she now?" asked T.K. "All I know is that your digimon was a Punimon when you first received it."
"She's a Salamon now," Noriko said proudly. "She hasn't digivolved to the Champion level yet, but I'm hoping it'll happen soon."
"It'll happen when the time is right," said Kari. "She might not have digivolved yet because there hasn't been a need. All of our digimon only digivolved for the first time because we were in danger."
"Salamon is my Rookie form. Maybe she'll become a Gatomon, like me."
Noriko smiled. "I hope so."
Kari rested her hand on her chin in thought. "Do you know what college you're going to attend yet?"
"I start Seiwa Nursing College for my Early Childhood Education degree this winter."
"I figured as much—I'm going there right now! When the time comes, I could help you out with some of the intro classes if you want."
"I'd love that." Then the smile fell from Noriko's face and was replaced with horror. "Oh my gosh, I'm supposed to be taking your order! I'm so sorry for rambling on so much!"
"Not at all," said Kari, "we're sorry for distracting you from your work."
"What would you like to eat?" Noriko asked, all business once again.
T.K. and Kari put in their orders, with T.K. shutting down Patamon's request for espresso ("You're too hyper as it is! I don't want you spontaneously turning into Angemon because you have too much energy!" he'd said), and Noriko dutifully scribbled their order down on a notepad. But as she turned to go to the kitchen, she hesitated before asking, "Um, by the way, are you guys still in touch with Davis? How is he doing?"
"Yeah, we see him almost every week," T.K. replied.
"He's trying to get an apprenticeship at a ramen shop right now," added Kari. "Lately he's been dragging Ken and Cody on "research expeditions" to different places around the world to try different styles of ramen. Why do you ask?"
Noriko's face flushed. "N-No reason. Next time you see him, would you tell him I said hello?"
"We sure will!" T.K. promised.
"Thanks." Noriko left with their order.
Kari turned to T.K. "Did you see that?" she whispered conspiratorially, an amused smile tugging at her lips.
"What?" T.K. asked, confused.
Kari jerked her head in the direction that Noriko had gone. "Noriko! Asking about Davis."
T.K. nodded knowingly. "Ohhh. Do you think she…?"
"Mm-hmm. I could see it, you know. I think she would be good for him."
"Huh. I guess even Davis can't strike out all the time."
Kari smacked his arm playfully from across the table. "T.K.!" she chided, fighting a grin. The room grew silent, and their thoughts returned to the previous topic of discussion. "Hey. What was it you wanted to tell me?"
T.K. took a deep breath and sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.
A/N: Before moving the story further, I wanted to take the opportunity to fill in a little bit of the gap from Zero Two to now, specifically the evolution of T.K. and Kari's relationship. I always felt it was obvious that they should be together, and with how heavy and prevalent the ship-foreshadowing (foreshippening? Can that be a word now?) hints were in ZT, I don't think it would have taken very much longer after that for them to get together. So I wanted to flash back to that moment and wrap up that loose end before going further, as well as reintroduce Noriko, one of the Dark Spore children who became Digidestined at the end of the second season. They are easy to forget about since they appeared so late in the show and were never even mentioned again afterward, and yet are too important to just leave out.
Digimon episodes referenced: s2. e13, "His Master's Voice", and basically the Dark Spore children's subplot in general from 02 episodes 42, "Invasion of the Daemon Corps." through 50, "A Million Points of Light". Next time on Digimon Adventure: Continuing Evolution—Chapter 4. Lone Wolf.