Chapter Ten

Sora was still smiling when she let herself into her house. No sooner had she sat down on her bed, Sora heard her mother calling from her their living room. She stood and took a deep breath, pausing at her doorway before walking out. She'd been dreading this conversation, but she knew it was inevitable.

"Yes, Mom?" she asked, trying to keep the grimace off her face as she stood far too awkwardly considering she was in her own house.

"Sora, sit down please."

She did as she was told, choosing to perch on the couch across from the chair her mother was sitting on. "What's up?" She tried to keep her voice casual, but she suspected that her mother could sense the dread. She wondered if she was imagining the matching expression on her mother's face.

"I wanted to tell how very, very sorry I am about my actions, and more importantly, my words yesterday."

"It's fi-"

"It's not fine." Her mother wasn't letting her interrupt; she wasn't done."It was an awful thing to say, whatever my intentions were. But the thing I wanted to talk to you about today was that I did have good intentions. I saw how much you changed over the course of dating and breaking it off with Matt, and then how quickly you got together with Tai… Honey, I just… don't want you to seriously get messed up over some boy."

Sora was quiet for a full minute, until she was certain that her mother was finished. "Mom," she said at last. "I know I've done some things lately that… have looked a little… questionable, but… please, trust me. I feel like I'm finally putting my life back together. I feel like everything is starting to be right again… does that make sense?"

Her mother opened her mouth then closed it, reconsidering. Her eyebrows were furrowed, like she was worried that Sora hadn't really gotten the point at all, but at that moment Sora was startled by a single beep.

"So, are we done?" she asked cheerfully, rising from her seat and nearly flouncing from the room before her mother could get in another word.

Once back in her safe haven, Sora quickly slid her digivice out from under her comforter on her bed. Soon after returning from the Digital World, Izzy had gotten ahold of all their digivices and managed to install a sort of text-messaging system into them, just in case they ever needed to get in touch with one another.

Her newest message was from Tai.

Hey, U busy?

She smiled and sent back, No… Y?

I have a date in mind.

Shud I dress up or will we b real ppl?

Real ppl. Meet me the subway station?

B ther soon.

Sora quickly changed out of her school uniform into more comfortable clothing the second the message had been sent. Perhaps it didn't exactly enforce her point to go running off like some love-crazed school girl so soon, but at the moment she didn't care. It was strange how her connected her perception of the weather was to her mood. Today was beautiful again.

The air seemed to be pushing her along to get to the station more quickly than usual. She didn't fight the idea. Sora could easily pick Tai out of the crowd when she arrived. He beamed and waved at her with one hand, and she could see that the other was holding a large basket.

"I already got our tickets," were the first words out of his mouth once she was closer.

"Not even a hello?" she asked, but he was already leaning down to kiss her. "Where are we going?" she asked when they parted.

"You'll see," he told her, still smiling as they boarded.

They managed to get seats and once they began moving Sora tried another question. "Okay, so what's in the basket?"

He slid it over to her and she lifted the top. Inside was a picnic. Sora found sandwiches and riceballs and the juice boxes that their parents had used to bring to their soccer games so many years ago. It was very complete and well thought out… Sora was betting that Kari had packed it for them.

Sora watched the familiar scenery pass by. Every time they stopped, she looked at Tai expectantly, but he never made to move. And he didn't, until the very last stop on the route. Sora was surprised when he rose, and for a moment she could do nothing more than sit there looking up at him, confused, because she'd never really planned on coming back.

As they climbed the steps leading to the entrance of their old summer camp, Sora looked around. From here, it didn't look like it had changed all that much since the last time she'd walked up these steps, but this time the place held a whole new meaning for her.

"Is it even open to the public?" she asked.

"I don't know," said Tai, carelessly throwing the basket over and then scaling the gates with ease. Sora quickly followed and the two walked further into the camp until they reached the green in the middle of all the cabins. Here, Tai stopped and set out their picnic.

"This is nice," Sora murmured, kneeling down beside him on the grass.

Tai smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I figured we should go back and visit the place where it all began at least once."

"It wasn't though…" said Sora musingly, her mind skimming over all the varied memories of the two of them playing or kicking a soccer ball around as children.

"It was for me," said Tai quietly. "Before the Digital World, I never saw you as anything more than my best friend."

Sora took a deep breath and stood abruptly, startling her boyfriend. "Tai, there are some things that I need to get off my chest…"

She took his silence as encouragement.

"My life has taken a lot of crazy turns lately… and while I know that some of them were out of my control, I also know that some of them were my fault. Tai," she said suddenly, "you know that messaging system Izzy installed in our digivices? Well, it's just been adding to this feeling I've had ever since we got back."

"What do you mean, Sora?"

She turned back to face him. On his face was an expression that made it look like he was both following her, and utterly confused, which she figured was only possible on Tai's face.

"I guess it was the whole… only having contact with each other. In everybody else's minds, it was like it was set into stone that you guys would always be my closest friends, no matter what, and it was guaranteed that the two of us would end up together and live happily ever after. I started to feel… trapped."

Sora knew her features had bunched into an almost desperate look by the way Tai was staring at her.

"So I started trying to branch out a little… I just… needed to know, you know? I quit soccer and joined tennis. When Matt asked me out… I accepted. But I found that things just didn't feel right," she continued in a rush. "My tennis friends were cool, but the more I pulled away from you guys, the more I missed you. And Matt… wasn't you," she said simply, blushing a little.

It was sort of embarrassing to own up to, but it made Tai smile, so she didn't dwell on that.

"I guess… what I'm trying to say is… I threw it all away just to discover that the life I already had was the one that I really wanted. I was just lucky enough that you were all willing to take me back," she said, sitting down again and taking one of his hands in both of hers. "Because this is what I want," she said earnestly. "All of the other digidestined, and you especially Tai, taught me who I am. And I love you."

He'd been on her mind so much recently, she was surprised to realize that this was the first time she'd said the words. When he could see that she was done, Tai smiled, leaned his head in closer so their foreheads were touching, and covered her hands with his other one.

"I never would have stopped waiting for you," he promised, and she believed him full-heartedly.

For as long as Sora could remember, she'd loved boys, but not for the reasons Mimi was always gushing about. In general, they were driven; they tended to take criticism almost as well as compliments. She knew a lot had gone down in the past few days, and Matt and Tai had said some awful things to each other, so it was refreshing knowing they would get over it.

The days would pass, and their group would slowly drift back together, to fill in the chasm she'd created in trying to get away. Matt and Tai would be best friends again. The days would pass, and she wasn't afraid of that anymore. Because she knew now that Tai would be right there beside her to see them go.

Review please!

And yes, that is the end. Ugh, I'm horible about cheesy endings… Sorry.

I know for some of you it won't seem finished, but I had to cut it off somewhere. The main unfinished thing I can think of is with Matt… Yes, he did fall in love with Sora. Yes, this may make things a little awkward in the future. But, what can I say? His life will work out. Not everyone gets a happy ending by the end of the story…

Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who has read, reviewed, and supported my story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. I do have another Digimon story planned, but I don't know when it'll get put up. I need to get around to updating (and hopefully finishing) some of my other stories, plus I've started a new joint-project Kingdom Hearts story with duckielover151. As we've split the writing fairly equally, that's taking up a lot of my time too… It's on her account if anyone's interested.

Thanks again so much, and I hope to hear from you guys in the future! (: