"Well," Tai said resting his head on the carpet of his dad's office, "What now?"

"What now?!" Izzy was baffled by his best friend's behavior sometimes. He had just returned from defeating Diaboromon with Omnimon and he was already looking for something else to do. Being courageous is one thing, but there is definitely a limit. Tai just hadn't yet found a balance to work with.

"You just helped save the world. Again. Give yourself some time to relax" said Izzy as he walked out of the office into the Kamiya's living room.

Tai rolled his eyes as Izzy walked away. "I didn't see you becoming digital today," Tai mumbled. "You're just jealous of how badass I am."

"I heard that!" yelled Izzy from the other room. "And yah, no."

"Great! You boys are done just in time to try my cabbage cupcakes!" said Mrs. Kamiya emerging from her bedroom.

"Oh, boy!" said Izzy.

"Oh, brother" groaned Tai.

Mrs. Kamiya later invited Izzy to stay for dinner. Izzy and Tai worked endlessly to fabricate a story on what they had done all day on the computer. Mr. Kamiya was suspicious, but left it alone once he discovered his computer was just as he left it.

"Izzy, it's getting really late" said a worried Tai, "I don't want you walking home in the dark by yourself, wanna spend the night?"

"Sure! Thanks, Tai. Let me just call my mom and tell her" said Izzy as he dialed his house.

"Tai, Kari is spending the night at her friends house, so Izzy can sleep in her bunk, ok?" said Mrs. Kamiya.

"Oh, ok" said Tai. Tai looked over at Izzy to see if he had heard, but he seemed too engaged in the conversation with his mother. Tai and Izzy had slept in his bed at sleepovers before, but age has a way of making people grow too big for that. Despite that, Tai always enjoyed the company and hoped Izzy wouldn't mind the lack of space.

Izzy hung up the phone and made his way to Tai's room. "Do you still have that old sleeping bag from camp?" asked Izzy.

"Yah I do," said Tai "But you're our guest! Kari will be home late, so you can just sleep in my bunk…if that's ok?"

Izzy stared at Tai before staring at the bed that seemingly shrunk with every second that passed. "BOTH of us in THERE?" thought Izzy. "I don't want to disappoint Tai…"

Halfheartedly, Izzy finally responded. "Of course that's ok, it'll be like the old days!" Izzy loving punched Tai on the shoulder before heading into the room.

Tai was left grinning, excited about sleeping over with Izzy. Tai had lied about Kari, but he was too thrilled to really care. Tai would never let anyone else know, but Izzy was his true best friend and he loved spending time with him. "Brains and brawns are better friends than enemies," Sora had once said about the two. Tai couldn't contain the smile spreading across his face.

It was nearing 1 AM and the digidestined friends had played video games until they were so tired, their button pushing reactions were too slow to win anything anymore.

"We best get to sleep, Tai," said Izzy. "We'll be useless tomorrow if we don't."

"I plan on being useless tomorrow anyways, but I'm too tired to argue with you" said Tai with a weak laugh.

The boys in their Digimon themed tanks and boxers crawled into the top bunk and turned out the lights. They faced each other, talking in hopes of easily falling asleep. "Tai, you've got crumbs in your hair" said Izzy, "I got it." Izzy ran his fingers through the top of Tai's hair and flicked away something Tai couldn't see. "Thanks, buddy," said Tai yawning, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight" said Izzy. As Izzy turned his back towards Tai, he felt guilty. There hadn't been anything in Tai's hair at all. Izzy just adored the way the tan boy's soft brown hair felt more than anything. He was embarrassed to even admit it to himself in his thoughts. His adventure with Tai was the last thing he thought of before finally falling asleep.

Izzy felt groggy as he awoke. His eyes moved towards the window where the moon was shining brightly across the room. It was still the middle of the night, which explained his grogginess.

Coming to, Izzy suddenly realized he couldn't move his arms. He peered down to see arms with light brown hair. Izzy gasped when he realized these arms didn't belong to him, but to Tai. At some point, Tai had wrapped himself around Izzy in a spooning position. Izzy thought it was weird, but was oddly comforted by the soccer player's warmth. Tai had gotten extremely comfortable. His even hairier legs were on top of Izzy's. His breath graced the computer boy's neck every few seconds.

Izzy carefully peered over the bed to see if Kari had returned home. He was greeted with the sight of an empty bed. "Kari never came home?" thought Izzy, "Or did Tai tell me the wrong thing?" Izzy suddenly remembered the position he was in and moved too roughly, waking Tai. Tai jolted up, causing Izzy to shriek and almost fall off the edge of the bed.

"Woah, Izzy!" said Tai "Were we spooning? I'm sorry, I do that sometimes."

Izzy looked at his friend, who was avoiding making eye contact. It was obvious that both boys were embarrassed.

"I guess seing Agumon today reminded me of when we used to sleep in the digital world. Agumon was definitely made for me, he liked to cuddle too."

Izzy remained silent. He wanted to make Tai feel better about the incident, but didn't know how without explaining that he actually enjoyed it.

Tai could feel his stomach hurting and could feel his heartbeat in his throat. "What the hell is this?" thought Tai. Tai's thoughts were at war within his skull and they had sharp weapons. Izzy looked at him with confusion and concern, a look Tai adored on the red head. Then, Izzy was all Tai could see. Not the beautiful moonlight or the flashing menu on the video game screen; Tai's attention was entirely set on his best friend. "I…I get it," thought Tai. He finally dismissed all thoughts but one and realized what he had been ignoring all this time.

"Izzy," whispered Tai. "Has anyone ever made you feel special?"

Izzy was again baffled by his friend's behavior. Who asks a question like that in the middle of the night? Izzy never knew where Tai's mind was, but then again, the same could be said in vice versa.

"Special?" asked Izzy. "Care to be more specific?"

"Someone who makes you feel like everything about you is good. Someone who laughs at all your jokes and doesn't ever make you feel like you're wrong. Someone who you could spend an entire day with and still be excited to see them in the morning. You know, like a best friend. But better." Tai was trying incredibly hard not to look at his friend now. Tai felt as vulnerable as a rookie digimon against a mega.

Izzy thought about when Tai came to the science fair to cheer him on. And when Tai would defend him when nobody laughed at this physics jokes. Izzy remembered how excited he would be every time Tai would invite him over. Tai was the only person Izzy would tell about his dreams. Izzy felt a sensory overload. He did have a someone.

"Tai," whispered Izzy.

"Izzy?" said Tai with a gleam of curiousness in his eyes.

"Tai, that's you," said Izzy with a breath of relief. "For me, it's you. You, always."

"Good. Because you're mine too" said Tai.

Tai grabbed the waist of his red-haired friend and pulled him into his chest. Collecting every ounce of gentleness he had in his body, Tai pressed his lips against Izzy's. Time seemed to stop as the two boys held one another, moonlight peering onto their faces.

"I love you, Izzy. I can't believe I've gone this long without admitting it to myself" said Tai.

"You're not the only one at fault. I denied it too" said Izzy. "But that doesn't matter now, what matters is what happens now."

Izzy removed his hands from his best friend's face and ran his hands through his hair. "So, what happens now? What do we do come tomorrow?"

Tai laid his head on Izzy's pillow and pressed Izzy's head into his chest. He pulled him in as close as humanly possible and kissed him on the forehead.

Tai smiled. "This."