Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, but I do own the story.

A/N: This is a story that I began writing on a veeeery long time ago… But I just got an inspiration-burst now, so I've finally started writing on it again! I hope you'll like it! Plus, I haven't abandoned any others of my fics, but I just needed a break. And this ficcie's parts will be up a lot faster than I usually post chapters!

Thoughts are in 'italics'. 

Tai's Birthday by ThatGirl

~chapter one~

Outside, the birds were singing like every other late morning, and the sun was already shining into the windows of the Kamiya residence.

Tai, still sleeping, was in his dark room on the second floor. The blue curtains were shutting the light out.

All you could hear was the brown haired boy's loud snores.

Then a soft chorus of his family's voices approaching from the stairs right outside the white painted and closed door.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Taichi!" they sang together, opening the door. "Happy birthday to yoouuu!"

Tai's little sister, Kari, sighed sharply as she saw her older brother still being slouched across the bed, dead to the world and slightly drooling in his sleep. She put the wrapped presents she were carrying on the floor and shook him violently. After a few seconds, Tai was awake. Quite groggy and drowsy, but awake. Tai's dad pushed away the curtains from the window, and pulled up the blind. 

"Happy fifteenth birthday!" Mrs. Kamiya cheered, bending down and giving her son a big tight hug.

"Thanks mum..." Tai wheezed a little under the weight of his mother.

"Want some breakfast, son?" Mr. Kamiya asked, not really waiting for an answer. He put the large fully loaded tray in Tai's lap.

"Yummy!" Tai licked his lips, looking at all the sandwiches, milk and yoghurt. He had always thought that the birthday breakfast that had become a tradition in the Kamiya family almost were better than the birthday presents.

"Why don't you save the best to the last, and open some of your presents now, onii-san?" Kari asked, nearly more curious about them than Tai was.

Tai gazed longingly at the food, but then decided that he also was curious about the presents. He put the porcelain tray on his nightstand and Kari handed him one of the quadrangular gifts.

He greedily tore off the green paper, and found a cardboard box.

"'Asics'." He read out loud from the carton, opening the box. "Wow, new soccer shoes! [A/N: I still think it should be called football, not soccer!!!] Thanks Mum, Dad! I really needed new ones!"

"Yes, we know. We saw your old shoes, and they didn't look very nice." Mrs. Kamiya said, shuddering a bit while thinking of the horrible sight of her son's dirty cracked soccer shoes lying under the stairs with his other training clothes. "Why don't you open another one?" she said, changing subject.

"Sure!" Kari said, picking up a present from the carpeted floor. "Here you go, Tai." She gave the red parcel to him.

"A soft one..." Tai said, with pretended disappointment in his voice. He removed the colourful strings, and then the paper literally just fell off.

"Sorry, but we ran out of tape." Kari explained.

Tai shrugged. The tape wasn't the most important thing in the world, right? He tossed the wrapping towards the wastebasket, but missed by about three decimetres. He had never been very good at basketball anyway.

He held up the midnight blue piece of clothing. It was a t-shirt.

"We thought you needed some new clothes too, son." Mr. Kamiya told him.

Tai nodded, smiling. He wasn't much of a shopper, so when he got new clothes, it was either for his birthday or for Christmas.

"Maybe you could wait with the other presents? Your grandparents are paying us a visit later today." Tai's mom said.

"All right. Can I eat the breakfast now then?" The brown haired boy asked.

"Man, how can you eat so much?" Kari wondered, but lifted the jam-packed tray from the wooden nightstand and gave it to her brother.

 Tai licked his lips hungrily and took a big bite of a cheese and sausage sandwich.

"It's easy."

"Well, your dad and I are going to eat some breakfast too, so we're headed to the kitchen now. Kari, if you want some too, you can come down to us, okay?" Mrs. Kamiya said, grabbing her husband's hand.

"Yes, but could you, Tai, come down with the dishes when you're done with your breakfast? Mr. Kamiya asked before they left the room.

Tai looked miserably on all the plates, spoons, knifes, forks, glasses and other stuff he had in his lap.

"Don't worry. I can help you with those." Kari said, patting Tai's shoulder. "After all, it is your birthday." 

"Thanks, Hikari." Tai sighed with relief and started shoving food into his mouth, while gladly, and non-stop, talking about how good it tasted.

"Try to eat a little slower, Tai, or you'll choke." his younger sister lectured him. "And by the way, the other digidestineds, including me, has got a surprise for you too." she continued secretively. She smirked at her older sibling's curious face. "As I said, it's a *surprise*." Kari teased. "We're going to meet them nine o'clock. But you better get going now, because our grandparents will be here in a few hours."

"Okay, okay." Tai said. "But you're still going to help me with the dishes, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He continued to eat. Kari sat by the white desk, playing with some pens and papers, but soon she started to sort all Tai's belongings that lay in small piles on the floor.

After maybe ten or fifteen minutes, Tai had finished the breakfast. He'd probably set a new time-record for eating that much.

He got dressed, and decided to wear the new blue Nike t-shirt. It was very comfy and the textile was soft. And he wanted to look good, when he met his grandparents, because they didn't see each other that much. And when he thought about it, he wanted to look good when he met his friends. Especially Yamato. Tai quickly shoved that thought away. Matt was only a friend. His best friend that is. A very good friend. A really, really good *friend*.

Tai shook his head violently to get the blond boy out of his mind.

'I do not love Yama', he said to himself. 'Or maybe I—'

"What are you doing? You feel alright?" Kari asked, looking worriedly at her brother. Tai stopped shaking his head, and nodded, slightly blushing. He hoped that Kari didn't notice it.

"You got a secret love?" she asked, smiling. She held up a small black package of condoms, she had found by the other stuff on the floor.

"No. I got those from school. Everybody gets a package, and you'll get condoms from school too, when you grow up," Tai said in a sarcastic tone, trying to control his blush.

"What do you mean 'when you grow up'? I'm SO much more mature than you."

"Sure, sure, little sister. Just help me with the dishes now."

Kari sighed, but got on her feats and took some of the cups and plates. She disappeared out of the door. Tai could hear her walk downstairs.

~***~

The day floated by pretty fast. Tai and Kari's grandparents came over and had some cake and coffee. They talked about how their lives went on, about how the world went on and then joked about it, and genuinely had a good time.

When the evening was approaching, they said goodbye to the elders who promised to invite them to dinner some time.

~***~

"Tai! You'd better get a move on if you don't want us to be late!" Kari yelled. She was already standing by the front door with her jacket and shoes tied on.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Just give me two more seconds!" Tai called from his room. After a moment, he rushed down the stairs.

"Where're my shoes?" he wondered, but quickly found them under his Coat that was tossed over them. Kari rolled her eyes.

"Are you finished? Good, then we're out of here." She sighed. "Bye Mama! Bye Papa!"

"Yeah, bye! See ya!" Tai yelled.

"Bye Taichi, Hikari! Have a good time!" Mrs. Kamiya said, but her children had already shut the door.

"So, Kari... Where are we going anyway?" Tai asked, not hiding his curiosity very well.

"Oh, you'll see." Kari replied, not giving any hints.

The two siblings continued to walk down the street with the orange glowing sun shining dimly beside them. Some grey clouds floated around in the sky, but the sun's last merry light hid their dark and rain filled colour. As the kids got further and further away from their house, the clouds grew thicker, but they didn't notice it at all. Soon they got to a huge grass field, almost like a soccer field, only a little bit bigger.

"Hey Tai, Kari!" They heard Davis voice call from behind. They turned around and saw him running towards them. The other digidestineds were right after him. Including Matt, of course. Tai felt that special tickling feeling in his belly as he saw the azure-eyed blond boy. He put a wide smile on his face and began walking to his friends.

"Happy birthday, Tai!" Everybody cheered.

"Thanks!" The brown haired boy said.

"Guess what!" Mimi squeaked, clapping her hands.

"What?" I answered, wondering what kind of surprise they had prepared if Mimi was this excited.

"You're going to fly a balloon!" Tk explained.

"Um... I am?"

"Yeah!"

I finally understood that they weren't joking. "Wow!" I yelled. "Thank you so much!"

"It was Matt's idea. He said you had talked about it sometimes, and I guess he was right when he said you'd like it!" Yolei said. "So when the professional you're going to fly with said that a friend could go with you in the balloon, we decided that Matt should go with you. Is that okay with you?" She continued.

"Sure!" I said.

"What!?" Matt shouted.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Davis asked.

"I don't really like heights that very much..." Matt started but was cut off by Kari.

"C'mon Matt! For Tai!"

"Well... Okay then..."

"Cool! Let's go!" Davis smiled and started walking.

"Are we going to do it now?" Tai asked Matt, who nodded and looked like if he could do anything but that for the moment.

"It'll be fun, okay," Tai said reassuringly. He felt a little guilty for being the main reason for Matt to do this, but deep inside he was happy too that Yama was.

Matt forced a smile, thinking that he would neeeever make it out of this one alive.

A/N: Oki, I know that this first particular chapter isn't that good, but please review! You want me to continue? REVIEW!