Ninety Nine

Sora Takenouchi walked into her school wondering where she'd find it today. You see, she had been finding notes everywhere for a few months now. Each one was a different shape and had a different poem inside; she had received ninety-six so far; she knew the exact number because she had begun counting after thirteen or so. It felt great to have a secret admirer, even if he was overly crafty sometimes. For example, she had found a note on her pillow, number sixty-four, when she asked her mom if anyone had been to the house she had said

"Why yes, a handsome young man stopped by and asked me to leave that for you. Why?"

Needless to say her mother had kept the secret, and no level of begging, bribery, or bargaining could get her to let the cat out of the bag. It was slightly frustrating, but almost fun in another aspect. It felt like living in a mystery novel, or some TV show. She walked to her locker, opened it, and grabbed her books. When she picked up her pack and put her books away something caught her eye, it was a yellow card shaped like a star that was clipped to one of the zippers. She smiled and grabbed it, opening it to see what message her mystery man had left her.

"Through the love in your heart

And your moves of grace

Your serves put motion to art

And proved why you're a tennis ace

So much has been done on your part

That dear Sora

Is how you won my heart."

Sora smiled and sighed, placing the card gently in her pack; but then realized that the guy who wrote it had to have been to her Tennis match last week. It was the first one of the season, and not many people had showed up. Families of the players, the opposing teams friends, and Tai. It couldn't be Tai though; he wasn't the artistic type, was he, and if it was Tai, she surely would have gotten one shaped like a Soccer ball by now. That settled it, it couldn't be Tai.

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"So Tai," Matt asked, "When are you going to ask Sora out?"

"Yeah man," TK added, "You've liked her for years, don't you think it's about time?"

"I'll ask her out the day after you guys ask out Mimi and my sister." Tai said instantly silencing the pair of brothers "Besides I'm working on it."

"Working on what?" Sora asked as she walked up to the table.

"Uh…. Sweating?" Tai said the first thing that came to his mind.

Sora knew he was lying but let him off the hook this once. "Just take a shower afterwards." She said.

"Hey everyone." Mimi said walking up to their normal table with her lunch "Did you get another note?" She asked Sora.

"Yeah, he managed to slip this one right under my nose." Sora said.

"What are you talking about?" Matt asked.

"Some guy has been giving her love notes for a long time now. How many is it, eighty-four?" Mimi said.

"Ninety-seven" Tai said taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Sora asked.

"Whoa, I was right? I just guessed a number." Tai said.

"Stupid-Tai." Sora joked.

"So what did this one say?" Mimi asked.

"Here, read it." Sora said handing the note to Mimi.

She read it and squealed "That's so cute!"

"Who gave Mimi sugar?" Kari asked taking her seat next to TK.

"Read this!" Mimi said handing the note to Kari.

She read it and said "I feel like I've read something like this before."

"Really?" Sora said "Who wrote it?"

Kari paused for a moment looking at everyone at the table and had her suspicions confirmed when she saw Tai giving her a look that said "Tell and you won't have a room when you get home."

"I really shouldn't say." Kari said.

"Come on Kari! I have to know." Sora begged.

"But wouldn't that ruin the fun?" Tai said.

"What fun?" Mimi asked.

"The fun of tracking him down on her own." Tai said.

Sora hung her head and Mimi pouted, just as Izzy arrived at the table wondering what he had missed.

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Sora woke the next day and hurriedly (it's a real word, I swear) got ready, excited to get Mr. Mystery's newest note. She ate a small breakfast and left. When she arrived she kept a sharp eye, determined to not allow him to sneak by her again. She quickly unlocked her locker and shot a look around, still nothing. She kept looking while she opened her locker and quickly glanced inside to find the card at the back of her locker. This really shocked her, because only two other people knew the combo to her locker, the mean lady who issued lockers, and Tai. Perhaps Tai had helped him, or maybe it was Tai. No it couldn't be. Sora took the card, which was red and shaped like a balloon, and read what he had written.

"So close but so far,

Soon you shall know who I am,

On Valentine's Day."

Sora's eyes widened, Valentine's Day was tomorrow. What was she going to say? Where were they going to meet? So many questions rushed through her mind, and under it all was a petrifying fear, laced around the question, what if?

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Tai had been doing his best to avoid Kari, and only faced her if someone was near-by. This was his only way to make sure she didn't ask him about the notes he had been leaving for Sora. He had been doing great until she cornered him in his room when their mom had left for the health food store.

"So what's with you and Sora?" Kari asked.

"Nothing." Tai lied.

"Come on Tai, I know your hand writing, and I know your style. You wrote those notes." Kari said.

"Fine, I wrote them. What do you want?" Tai said.

"What makes you think I want anything?" Kari asked almost too sweetly.

"Come on Kar, you're my sister, and you've found yourself a juicy piece of blackmail. Now just tell me what it'll take to keep you quiet." Tai said.

Kari laughed and said "I want you to get TK to ask me to the Valentine's Day dance."

"Done." Tai said, it would be very easy, and it would keep Kari quiet long enough for Tai to ask Sora out as well.

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Sora woke on Valentine's Day, and because it landed on a Friday the school was holding a dance that night. Sora nervously got ready and left looking everywhere for the note she knew she was going to get.

She kept it up until she opened one of her books for class and saw a small slip of paper, with the words "at the dance" written in Mr. Mystery's now very familiar hand writing. Sora sighed in a partial relief; at least this time she got a warning about where he'd show up.

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Tai walked into school early and unlocked Sora's locker, planting the small piece of paper in one of her books before closing it and going to his own locker on the other side of the school.

He laughed slightly as he watched Matt open his locker and have a tidal wave of Valentines fall on him. He groaned and began gathering them in an extra bag he had brought that day.

"Need a hand dude?" Tai asked.

"No thanks, I already know who most of these are from." Matt said.

"Let me guess… Jun?" Tai said.

"How'd you know?" Matt asked sarcastically "The hard part comes later when I try and sort through all of hers to ones from the other people."

Tai chuckled and opened his own locker to be greeted by a card flood of his own. Matt laughing heartily and said "Welcome to the club Tai!"

Tai was baffled and picked one up. He broke the seal and read what was inside "OMG! Ur soo hawt! I loved watching u in the champion ships last season!"

Tai sighed and gathered as many as he could in his pack and put the rest back into his locker.

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Tai got home and began reading all the Valentines he had been given. He had managed to get a plastic bag from the office to get the rest of the cards home. Many of them were like the one he had read that morning; many more simply had "XOXOXOXOX" all over them. There were a few intelligently written ones and a few cards from his other friends. Along with the cards he got a pile of candy to rival what he used to get on Halloween. Tai grabbed a box of the chalk like hearts and made the final note for Sora. He finished the poem and put it in a sealed envelope with her name on it. Then he watched some TV and got ready for the dance.

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Ring Ring

Ring Ring

"Hello?"

"Hey Mimi." Matt said.

"Oh, hey Matt" Mimi said.

"So I was wondering, are you going to the dance with anyone?" Matt asked.

"No, I was waiting for a specific guy to ask me." Mimi said.

"Well, do you want to go with me?" Matt said

"Y-yes." Mimi said

"Cool, see you there." Matt said before hanging up.

Mimi placed the phone down and squealed in joy as she ran into her room to spend the next four hours trying to choose what to wear.

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Tai walked into the dance with the last card safely tucked in his jacket pocket. He saw many of his friends on the dance floor; Matt was dancing with Mimi and TK with Kari. Tai chuckled remembering how easy it was to set the latter two up for this date. He had simply told TK to, telling him that he could promise that Kari would say yes.

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Sora had already been at the dance for a while with no sign of Mr. Mystery and because she had long since grown tired of dancing and had decided to grab a snack. She snagged a plate of assorted goodies from the snack bar and walked away with it. She sat down and felt something odd on the underside of her plate. She looked under it and saw a circular envelope with her name on it taped in place. She peeled it off and joyfully opened the package. She pulled out the card, and was astonished by its shape. It was a Soccer Ball. Sora opened it with shaky hands and read the words that Mr. Mystery had left for her.

"I promised you we'd meet

But in truth we already know each other

I held the crest of Orange

And…

Wait

Nothing rhymes with orange

Well, at any rate, look behind you."

Sora did as she was bid and saw the only person in the world that could have left this for her, Taichi Kamiya.

"Tai… You wrote all of these?" Sora asked, somewhat rhetorically

Tai smiled and nodded

"Does that mean…" Sora trailed off

Tai nodded again and said "It means I love you Sor."

Sora smiled and jumped up to hug him, abandoning her plate of sweets, just as the DJ announced he was going to play a slow song. Sora pulled Tai onto the middle of the dance floor and began dancing with him.

"So Sora, will you be my Valentine?" Tai asked holding Sora closely against him.

"Ninety-nine cards and you only want me to be your Valentine?" Sora joked

"For tonight at least; I'll have a new question for you tomorrow." Tai said

"Let me guess 'Hey, Sor, you wanna go out?'" Sora emulated in an overly masculine voice.

"'Oh Tai, I'd love to'" Tai said in his best girl voice

"Stupid Tai, why wait?" Sora said looking up at Tai

"You know me…" Tai said leaning his face towards hers "I've got to make a big scene out of it."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Sora whispered as her lips met Tai's. The two spun slowly in rhythm to the song continuing their first loving kiss.

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DT: I hope you liked it, my first stab at a V-Day fic, not really all that different from a regular fic only things are centered on the day of hearts and bad candy. I hope the small bits of Takari and Mimato were enough for those fans that love them.

Hello, my name is The Digital Typhoon, and I'm an Alco- I mean I don't own Digimon