[Here it is! Final chapter for Trigonometry Hearts. Please note this story is about a boy/boy relationship and I do not own "Digimon". ]

Taichi, Yamato, and Sora stepped through to the real world, their digimon not far behind. At first, Tai just stood in place. Where were they?

"Ouch! Hey, Tai, what's the holdup?" Sora and Matt ran into Tai's back. The three friends nearly fell to the hard floor.

"Ms. Ya… yamiko?" Tai felt a chill go down his spine.

"Hi Tai, …Sora." Ms. Yamiko sat at the front of the computer lab sipping what looked like coffee.

"School food!" Agumon sniffed the air.

And so it was. Tai looked around in wonderment at the familiar, but unexpected surroundings. Matt and Sora did the same.

Sora seemed to try and make an excuse. "Uh… Ms. Yamiko… we were just…" But she couldn't seem to think of something fast enough. They were at school, on a Saturday, with small colorful monsters.

"Its okay. You don't have to explain. However, you weren't who I was hoping to catch." Ms. Yamiko set her coffee down on the desk. Her composure was certainly commendable, seeing as a dinosaur was now sniffing around the corners of her desk. "Now I see why you know Koushirou."

"Uh…?" Tai and Matt said in unison.

"Oh, please." Ms. Yamiko rolled her eyes. "You didn't think everyone was oblivious to the existence of the Digital World."

Matt grabbed Sora's hand. He looked suspicious. Biyomon and Gabumon went into guard mode, just in case.

Ms. Yamiko just moved her coffee out of Agumon's reach in response.

"Wai… what?" Ms. Yamiko knew about the Digital World? Tai was still reeling from not arriving at his own home from the digi-port.

"Gennai told me I might expect some activity here, so he told me to wait. I guess he was right." Ms. Yamiko sighed. "I suspect you haven't seen anything of Izzy either?"

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Apparently, after school officials received a very worried call from Mrs. Izumi, Ms. Yamiko and some other teachers accompanied Koushirou's mother to the school in search of the boy. Ms. Yamiko somehow knew about Izzy's otherworldly adventures and immediately suspected the Digital World. Having had her own digital experience, she maintained some connections, through which Gennai sent her a message.

Ms. Yamiko's explanation took no more than a few moments, but it took much longer for Taichi and the others to understand. "Gennai was rather vague, but as usual, his instructions were best followed. He told me Izzy's digivice was still active, so I didn't need to worry about him just yet, but that I should stay put at the school."

"How do you know Gennai?" Tai still couldn't comprehend it.

"I imagine I met him the same way you did." Ms. Yamiko gave a sly smile, refusing to answer the question fully.

"You're one of the… I mean one of us, aren't you?" Matt said after a moment.

"I was once." Ms. Yamiko didn't look Matt in the eye when she replied. "My story didn't end quite as happily as yours."

Matt and Sora seemed to understand. Taichi, was still trying to connect his dreaded Trig teacher to the spooky, old Digital World guide.

"Gennai! Of course… why didn't we think of contacting him? He probably knows where Izzy went." Sora mentally kicked herself.

Tai seemed to come around again at the mention of Izzy. "Hey, I need to talk to Kari. She's gathering the others for a search party."

"I've got a cell. Here." Ms. Yamiko handed Tai a purple flip-phone. He only had a second to appreciate the irony of his teacher giving out her cell phone to a student on school grounds before dialing his home number.

"Hello? Kamiya residence." It was not the voice Tai had expected.

"Takeru? Hey, can you put my sister on?" Taichi grumbled.

"Tai!" TK's voice grew loud enough for the others to hear as well. "Thank heavens. We've been trying to reach you! Izzy's back! He made it home."

"Wha…?" Tai stared at the phone for a second. "Where is he? What happened?"

There was a muffling sound, like the phone was being traded to someone across the room. Sure enough, Kari's voice was heard next. "Tai?"

"Kari! What's going on?" Tai demanded.

"Its you! Good. Where are you?" Kari sounded flustered.

"Why does that matter!" Tai yelled at the phone now. "Where's Izzy? What's happened?"

"Calm down. Izzy's fine. I'll explain later. Can you make it home okay?" Kari asked simply.

"Of course I can make it home okay. I'm at school." Tai didn't go into detail.

"Izzy's coming over in a few minutes with his mom. Just come home." Hikari sounded relieved.

"…Fine. Be there in ten minutes." Tai hung-up.

"Koushirou's with his family? What a relief." Ms. Yamiko didn't need Tai to relate the phone message, as they had all overheard.

"I hope he's okay!" Sora looked up at Matt, who seemed speechless.

"Well you won't find out sitting here." Ms. Yamiko scooted the kids out of the computer lab. "But I think the digimon should stay here with me until you guys come back. We don't want to give people out on the street heart attacks, now do we?"

"School food?" Agumon asked in earnest. He had a one-track mind.

"I'll see what I can do." Ms. Yamiko laughed.

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The sidewalks were still damp and the sky cloudy but it had stopped raining. Tai leaped over puddles, jogging at a brisk pace back towards his family's apartment building. Sora and Matt were close behind, struggling to keep up.

"Wait up, Tai." Sora called. Matt seemed to be falling behind.

Taichi didn't slow his pace, but just kept on straight ahead. Everything was going to be okay… at least Tai hoped everything would be. He tried to remember how relieved TK sounded when he said Izzy had come back. Koushirou had come back, but from where? Where did he go? And why?

Tai leapt up the stairs three at a time. He remembered doing the same thing not long ago with Izzy right behind him. Koushirou was coming over to tutor Tai on his Trig homework. Tai had made a fool of himself and had insulted his friend that night. What he wouldn't give to go back, knowing what he now knew…

The apartment door was already open. Tai walked in, looking around at the small gathering in his living room: Miyako, Iori, Daisuke, Takeru, and Joe.

"Welcome home, Tai." Kari leapt up from her spot on the sofa next to TK and gave her brother a hug. This seemed like a good sign.

Izzy hadn't arrived yet, it seemed. Tai automatically hugged Kari back. "What happened?"

"Izzy will explain." Kari shook her head. She refused to say more, but welcomed Sora and Matt as they breathlessly arrived at the front door.

"Where have you been? I've been calling your homes for ages. I think your father is a little irked with me for waking him up." Kari smiled at Matt.

"Oh." Matt remembered his promise to Tai. "I guess I need to call him."

Tai was pacing back and forth.

"Hey, where's Mrs. Kamiya?" Sora asked Hikari.

"She went to go get food." Kari gestured towards their company.

"Great, I'm starving!" Daisuke shouted. Everyone glared.

Taichi couldn't think about eating. His stomach was still in knots. He'd gone through too much in one day too quickly. Everyone started making small talk. Tai ignored them and kept pacing. All he could think about was what Matt had said back in the Digital World. Izzy's been in love with you for a long time…

What did that mean? How was he supposed to react to that? Even if Izzy was home safe and sound, things weren't going back to normal. Tai's stomach flopped again, thinking that maybe he might lose his best friend in a different way. What if Izzy had found someone else? Someone who loved him back?

"Welcome back, Mom. Do you need a hand with those?" Kari got up again to help Mrs. Kamiya with what looked like enough food to feed a small army. Pretty soon the girls were all in the kitchen preparing dinner.

Time ticked by and still no Izzy.

Mrs. Kamiya told Tai to stop pacing, as it was making her dizzy. Joe readily agreed. He tried engaging Tai in conversations to no avail. After a while he gave up, leaving Tai to sit on the sofa alone.

…rrrrring. The doorbell rang. The room went quiet.

"I'll get it." Mrs. Kamiya made her way to the front door. Tai couldn't wait; he followed his mother to the door.

"Please, come in! Its so good to see you're alright, Koushirou." Mrs. Kamiya said as she opened the entrance. Tai leapt out before Izzy and Mrs. Izumi could get through the door.

There he was. He was safe. Tai pulled his friend into a hug, wordlessly. Izzy resisted at first, spluttering. But after a minute, it was obvious Tai wasn't letting go.

"Where were you?" Tai demanded. His voice muffled from trying to talk to Koushirou through spiky, red hair. Izzy just hugged back.

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It turns out Koushirou was on his way to the hospital to meet with Chris when the train route got canceled due to flooding. He tried to take an alternate route only to find himself stranded halfway across town, too far from anywhere familiar to walk.

His cell phone got wet from the downpour. He didn't have money for a cab or a hotel, but he had to get out of the rain. Izzy found a relatively dry place to wait the storm out under a bridge. But it got cold, so he got out his trusty pineapple laptop and sought refuge from the storm in the Digital World. He hadn't intended to spend the night, but as time went by he had no choice. He slept in a digital hiding tree.

In the morning the battery on his laptop had died. Koushirou had to go out searching for a monitor, without disturbing grumpy, or potentially dangerous digimon. Without Tentomon for protection, Izzy was easy prey. "But I finally found a monitor with an open gate. From there I borrowed a phone,called my mom, and she came to pick me up." Izzy finished.

Everyone had gathered around the coffee table in the living room by this time, listening to Koushirou's story. "I'm sorry I worried everyone so. I should have known my boy would be just fine." Mrs. Izumi said, sitting by her son, obviously proud but also relieved.

"But how come you could open the gate in the first place?" Daisuke interrupted. The older digivices weren't made to traverse between worlds like the newer D3 version.

Izzy blushed. "I made some alterations." Everyone laughed.

"It seems to have created some unforeseen effects on the gate system. The only open gate I could find access to was Highton View Terrace, but I arrived in the real world several blocks away in a department store." Koushirou began.

"Oh, I see. You didn't alter your digivice, you altered the gates. That's why we came through at the school." Sora chimed in. No wonder Kari sounded so concerned about where they had came through to the real world earlier, worrying they might be stranded somewhere just like Izzy had been.

Izzy's cheeks went even redder. "I'll fix it. What were you doing in the Digital World?"

"We were looking for you, of course." Matt answered roughly. He seemed to be back to his haughty self. "How long have you known about Ms. Yamiko?"

"Er." Izzy clammed up.

Sora and Matt gave the shortened version of what they had told Tai in the Digital World about Chris Fairway, going off to search for Izzy, meeting Tai, and eventually coming through to the real world at school. Tai noticed they conveniently skipped their blabbing about Izzy. He guessed it was something best left unsaid, for now.

"Wow! She's probably one of the original digi-destined Gennai talked about." Takeru's eyes sparkled.

"She doesn't really like to talk about it." Izzy said.

Everyone started chatting in groups again, discussing this new development. Mrs. Kamiya had food ready and passed it around. It wasn't long before the mood changed from gathering of concerned friends to one of celebration. Mrs. Izumi, Joe, and Iori took a car to pick-up the digimon from the school. Earlier worry fell way to laughter.

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"Tai?" Izzy's voice was soft but shaky.

Mrs. Kamiya was dishing out ice cream. Most everyone had gone to the kitchen. Tai looked over at his friend. He hadn't left Izzy's side since his arrival hours before.

"Yeah?" Tai replied.

"You can let go now. I'm not going anywhere." Izzy looked down at their clasped hands.

Tai didn't immediately let go. "Er. Yeah."

"I went by the hospital on my way here. That's why it took so long." Izzy apologized.

Tai felt his heart sink. He didn't respond except for nodding.

"I saw Chris. I think things are going to be okay. Richey was there…" Koushirou whispered. Tai couldn't imagine Richey visiting Chris in the hospital being a good thing.

"He wasn't there to throw more punches, was he?" Tai's eyes narrowed.

"Quite the reverse, I think. He had roses." Izzy giggled.

"Really?" Tai snickered. "You don't think…?"

"Sometimes those who fear gay people the most are gay themselves, so who knows?" Izzy shrugged. "I promised to stop by again before Chris is released. You want to come?"

Taichi wasn't sure. He wasn't sure about a lot of things. But somehow he felt safer when thinking about accompanying Izzy. "Sure. So you don't get lost again."

"Sorry for making you worry." Koushirou added.

Tai looked down at Izzy's hand. It was a small gesture, and he wasn't sure yet where it might lead, but he took Izzy's hand in his own again anyway.

"Just don't do it again, okay?" Tai smiled.

[And there you have it! Please, please leave a review. I left the ending open on purpose, and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on what happens next! Many thanks for reading through my second complete story. Stay tuned for another!]