Cookies and Closure

"O-oh… I see. Matt, huh? It's okay…"

"You're not mad at me, Tai?"

"No, of course not. Now get in there and say hi to Matt for me."

"Thanks, Tai."

"Urgghhh…" Tai groaned as he rolled towards the edge of his bed. It was another day of torture, a.k.a. Hell on Earth, a.k.a. school. Waking up early was never Tai's idea of fun, let alone going to school. He continued to roll in his warm, soft blanket until he nearly fell over his bunk bed. He sat upwards and jumped down from the bunk, groggily heading over to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

It was spring – naturally, Tai's ideal day would consist of playing a game of soccer, or spending a day in the digital world. Of course, he was glad he was able to still see his friends at school. They were the only reason he'd actually look forward to going to class for. Tai rubbed his eyes. His hair was wilder than ever, proving that gravity really could be defied, even without hair gel.

He heard the door bell ring, shrugging it off as he slipped inside the bathroom. Meh, Mom'll get the door.

"Tai!" he heard Kari call from the kitchen. "Tai! Wake up!"

"I'm already awake!" he shouted back, reaching out for his toothbrush. Great, the toothpaste is almost out. This is not my morning.

"Sora's here to see you!"

The drip, drip, drip of the sink faucet seemed to ring in his head. His heart was pounding faster, and he didn't know why. Was that sweat falling down his forehead? Goosebumps – all over his arms, and it was the middle of spring. All of a sudden, Tai wanted to crawl back into bed – away from reality, and away from what was going to come next. This is definitely not my morning.

"Tai! Did you hear me?!"

He choked out, "I-I'm coming!"

What's Sora doing here?, he thought. We haven't talked in months. Well, I guess we've talked every now and then, but … but it's not the same anymore. Why is she here? Tai was beginning to pace back and forth in the bathroom, trying to ignore the dripping of the faucet and how the world seemed to be crashing down to his knees once again. He stopped and turned to the door. Okay. Okay, whatever. She's your friend. There must be an important reason why she's here, so, let's not make a big deal out of it.

He walked towards the door and grasped the knob, hesitating. What am I going to say? Oh, right, I have to wait and find out what she needs first.

Before he could react, the knob began to turn by itself, and Tai yelped and jumped back. He nearly fell into the bathtub as he lost his balance, and then –

"S-Sora!"

Sora stood in the doorway, one hand on the door knob, and the other holding a small box wrapped in a nice shade of dodger blue gift wrap, accompanied with a rather large silk white bow, the perfect cherry on top. She looked a little sheepish as she stepped forward towards Tai, making him uncomfortably nervous. All he could think of was how unfortunate it was for him to be wearing pajamas in her presence.

"Hi, Sora. It's been a long time. Sort of – well, I know we talked two weeks ago, but – I –"

"I know, Tai. I'm sorry I came unexpectedly, but I wanted to give you something."

Tai raised his eyebrows, and then his gaze averted to the box she was holding. He frowned. "It hasn't been that long, Sora – I thought you knew when my birthday was!"

She let out a small giggle. "No, silly. It's your special cookies I promised you on Christmas. Did you forget?"

Oh, so this was it, Tai thought. She must be kidding. How could I forget? I thought she was the one who didn't remember. It's been months. Agumon's been bugging me about these cookies every day.

"Tell you what. I'll make some special ones for you."
"I'll be waiting… Thanks."

"Sora… You didn't have to. Of course I remember. That's awfully nice of you."

Sora placed the box in his hands, and he could feel the warmth from underneath. The aroma of freshly baked cookies filled his nostrils. When she'd leave, he knew he was going to devour the cookies like no other, and was definitely not going to share with Agumon or Kari. Yep, I'm eating these cookies for breakfast, he decided. He snapped back into reality when he saw Sora smile at him.

"I know I didn't have to. I've wanted to, and I've been meaning to... I'm just sorry they're sort of late, but better late than never, right?" She let out a nervous laugh.

"Right."

Twenty seconds of awkward silence felt like an eternity. The drip, drip, dripping of the faucet was playing the song of its people and Tai shifted uncomfortably. This is harder than I thought, he told himself. It was never this weird between us before. He stared into her eyes, mentally urging her to say something first, until finally he couldn't stand it –

"So how are you and Matt doing?"

Sora seemed to let out a small sigh of relief that the ice was broken – slightly. This was the first time Tai had asked her about her relationship with Matt since their encounter on Christmas. Tai bit his lip in anticipation of what she was going to say. Maybe I shouldn't have asked her, he thought.

"We're doing well, Tai," she said, a bit too quietly for comfort.

"Oh. Well, that's good. That's really good. I'm happy for you two. My two best friends," Tai replied, grinning from ear to ear. The truth was, he really was happy for them, even if he felt a little hurt about it himself. It took a long time for Tai to come to terms with himself: he had feelings for Sora. Like, actual, real feelings for this girl. However, those feelings seemingly faded away after Matt and Sora began to date. Well, until now.

"Tai…" Sora reached out for his arm. "You really are such a great guy. Are you really okay with … with this? You don't have to lie to me."

"I'm not lying, Sora," Tai protested. Okay, I guess I could tell her the truth. Maybe it'll make things less awkward. Or , er, more awkward. At any rate, there was no win-win situation so it didn't really matter what his next move was. "I'm so happy for you – to have found someone that you really like, that's great. I mean, I was sort of, you know, hoping, er – I mean, wondering what would have happened if you had gone to the concert with, I don't know, me, but we can't really change the past and I've moved on and –"

"You… you had feelings for me?"

This caught him off guard. Drip, drip, drip. He was surprised she didn't know. Or maybe she did, but she wanted to hear it herself. For someone who has the crest of courage, Tai sure didn't feel very brave when it came to this stuff. It still felt new to him – actually, it was all very new to him.

"I… I do. I did. I do? I don't know! All I know is that… whatever choices you make in your life, I'll support you one hundred percent because you're my best friend. I would do whatever it takes for you to be happy, and if that means seeing you go with someone you love, then that's fine with me. I guess I was just a little too late is all. But I will always love you, Sora… no, no, not like that, but as a fellow Digidestined, my partner-in-crime, and… most importantly, my friend."

Sora's grip on his arm was tighter than ever. Blood circulation surely must have stopped in his left arm. His heart was beating so hard and rapidly at this point that he thought it'd explode out of his chest – quite a disturbing sight and thought, but he continued, "It doesn't matter what you do as long as we're still friends."

Drip, drip, drip.

The tension was more intense than ever. Drip, drip, drip. Someone should really fix that faucet.

"Tai…" Sora whispered. "That… that makes me really happy to hear that."

It took him a moment to realize that tears had welled up in her eyes. She began to sniffle softly, letting go of his arm to wipe away her tears.

Tai grinned, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Well, you don't look so happy. Chin up! If this keeps up you're going to make my cookies all soggy!"

She laughed, hiding her face behind her hands. Putting down the box of cookies, Tai reached for her hands, pulling them away from her face. "Sora, it's okay. I'm just really glad you're here. Mostly because of the special cookies. Really, it took you long enough to finally bake them for me. And you can bet I'm not sharing with Agumon, either."

"You're stupid!" Sora giggled, and he thought she was going to punch him, but instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. It took him by surprise because it had been so long since they were this close, but he placed his arms around her waist, holding her in a tight embrace. She whispered, "I'll always love you, too, Tai."

"I … I know you will. Crest of love, duh."

"Oh, shut up!"

"What are you two doing in there?!" a voice came from out the door. Of course it'd be Kari. She better not have been eavesdropping, thought Tai.

He pulled away from Sora, smiling gently. "I'll walk you to school?"

"I'd really like that, but you should probably get ready first. You're still wearing your pajamas."

"I could pull off going to school in pajamas, you know."

Eventually, like old times, Tai and Sora headed off to school together (Sora forced him to put on "normal clothes" instead of proving to her that he could look cool in pajamas), but Tai felt a change in himself – he felt different than before, and he didn't know what it was to explain how or why. It was a bittersweet feeling – but what was it? Maybe Agumon was right, he thought and smiled. I guess I am growing up, even if it's a little bit of a pain. Well, a big pain. But that's life… right?

"Why are you smiling?" Sora asked, looking up at him.

"I… I'm just really happy, Sora," he answered after a moment. She raised her eyebrows, and all he could do in return was flash his sheepish, trademark grin, causing her to laugh and say, "Stupid Tai," as he began to talk about how excited he was to eat the special cookies and that she should bake him treats every morning.

"Say, Sora. You think you're going to last forever with Matt? Not that it matters to me... just wondering what you thought."

"Nothing lasts forever, Tai."

Well, I guess growing up is sort of easy. It's just moving on that's the hard part.

Author's note: As much as I love Taiora (and trust me, I LOVE Taiora), I wanted to try writing something that really would happen after that wretched, evil episode of "A Very Digi Christmas." The ending was the hardest part for me to write because I wanted so badly to write them to get together! My next fic will be much happier x_X (in the meantime I just posted a happy Taiora fic the other day called "Tomboy" if you guys could check that out!) Reviews and constructive criticism would be much appreciated! :) Thanks for reading if you got this far! Special cookies for all of you!