My name is Tai Kamiya, and I'm not one for romance.

All of that stuff is pretty lame if you ask me. This is going to sound real cheesy, and, of course, cliché, but I didn't know about all of the cool stuff behind falling in love until I, well, fell in love. Funny concept, right? It was just never anything I figured was for me. The funnier thing, though, is that I never knew I was falling in love since day one. Little moments add up. I'm a bit of a hypocrite. All of that stuff is lame, but when it finally happens to you… you'll understand. I didn't want this to happen at all, of course. I mean, when you're with someone in that sense, you're making yourself vulnerable. You're naked, and I'm not talking physically. You're allowing yourself to have this person come into your life and give them the power to stomp all over your heart. What's worse is if it's your best friend you're in love with and you run that risk of ruining your friendship forever. Is it worth it?

For her, I'd say: hell yeah.

When you fall in love, you never quite forget all of the "firsts." Like, you know, the first time you find out she likes you back. Or, the first time you gather all of your courage to finally kiss her. But what I think is super underrated is the how. How did I fall in love with this girl? How did we finally become, in lack of other words, a freaking awesome couple? But, before I get to any of that, I have to tell you the basics. I mean, come on, every story has to start somewhere. I can't tell you squat about our story if you don't know anything about her! If I told you everything, though, we'd be here for a long, long time. No, I'll just tell you the very basics, and I guess you could call it a "first," but it leads to the how and that starts with,

The Who.

Years Ago

Come on, come on, come on. I repeatedly tapped the tip of my pencil against my desk, hitting its surface impatiently. Today was a huge day – it was nearly time for the big match. My school's soccer team, which I was quite proud to say I was a part of (I mean, who wouldn't want me on their team?), was about to play against our rival team. It was supposed to be the game of the year. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but this game was kind of a big deal for us. For me, at least. I knew I was only in fifth grade, but soccer had become a huge part of my life. When I played soccer, I remained focused. Not only were my team mates counting on me, but I was counting on myself to meet my personal goals. Besides, it was way too fun of a sport to not play.

The bell finally rang, and I bolted out of my seat and ran straight out the door. I could've sworn I heard my teacher say, "Slow down!" but my mind was running way too fast to function normally. I was way too excited – too pumped up. I spotted one of my team mates down the hall, seeing him wave frantically at me.

"Hey! Tai! Did you hear the news?" he shouted. I passed by him, still running.

"What news? Nevermind! Just tell me on the field! See you out there!" I exclaimed.

"I guess you'll find out yourself!" he remarked.

What could that mean? Oh, well. I was full of adrenaline and had no patience to stop the momentum now. I slipped into the locker room and quickly dressed, making sure to safely tuck away my trademark goggles, and headed out toward the field. Ah, the field. A vast sea of luscious green, ready to be stomped all over by some little kids kicking a ball around. Nothing seriously got better than this.

Wait a minute.

I had to do a double take once I scanned the field, because I thought that, maybe, in my rush to get here, I was imagining things. Sure enough, I wasn't. There was a girl at the edge of the field, near the benches for the home team. Her short, bright orange hair caught my eye, but it was what she was doing that was really out of the ordinary. It looked almost like she was dancing, but as I started slowly walking toward her, I realized she was kicking up a soccer ball. She had a routine going on – first, using the side of her heel to hoist the ball up to her thigh, and then she'd lift it up to her head. She'd jump up to receive the ball, headbutting it and aiming to send it a few inches in front of her. Then, she would catch the ball again with her thigh, dropping it down to her heel, and repeat. Not once did the ball drop nor did she miss. Somehow, she was elegant. Hm. Not bad… for a girl.

I wondered what she was doing out on our field.

She was dressed in a soccer uniform – funny, since it was the same one I was wearing – so she must have been on the girls' team. I didn't know they had the exact same uniform. You'd think those girls would be wearing uniforms adorned with flowers and unicorns in, of course, the hottest shade of pink you could find. But, hey, I had to admit, it was clear she knew what she was doing.

"Heeey!" I yelled, waving my arm wide in the air. She glanced over, and then grabbed the ball with both of her hands in mid-air. She smiled, brushing aside some of her orange locks out of her face. She began walking towards me, never averting her gaze away from mine. I gulped.

"You must be Tai," she stated simply. What?! A psychic?!

"H-How did you know my name?" I asked, stunned.

"I was told the first person I'd meet is a boy with big, brown hair, because he would be the first person here on the field." She took a look around, turning her head to both sides and then facing me again, grinning. "And it looks like you fit the description, so, hi." She reached out and put her right hand toward me. I raised an eyebrow, and reluctantly shook her hand.

"Yeah, that'd be me, alright. But who told you that?" I inquired.

"Oh, Coach! He sure is nice. I can't wait to play with you guys. Big game ahead! I'm a little nervous since it'll be my first game with the team today."

"Hey! Tai! Did you hear the news?"

"What news? Nevermind! Just tell me on the field! See you out there!"

"I guess you'll find out yourself!"

Tick, tick, tick, tick… ding. It finally hit me.

"Wait…" I said cautiously. "You're going to be playing in our team? Today? An all-boys' team?" I was in shock. It didn't make any sense.

She smiled, nodding her head. "Yes! I know. Weird. Say all you want about it because I've just about heard it all." Nervously, she laughed and scratched her head, frowning. "I'm not really as confident as I should be since everyone's been letting me down about how I can't play for a boys' team."

"Why can't you be on the girls' team? I mean, not that I don't think you're capable of playing for us," I asked. Though I didn't know her, and I've never seen her play, I really did mean that. Something about her was just telling me to not underestimate her skills.

Her frown formed back into a smile. "Thanks, Tai. I know we just met but that means a lot. I sure hope the other boys are okay with this."

"Oh, they will be! I mean, it is a little weird, but we're all cool!"

Okay, I might've been overhyping our team. Come on, a girl on an all-boys' team?! I didn't even know that was allowed. But the poor girl looked so sad and if any of this were true, I wouldn't want her to feel unwelcomed. Already that frown of hers just killed me. I guess she'd be alright for the team… Just as long as I'm the one who shoots the winning goal for our team today, anyway!

The coach and the rest of the team eventually came by and we started our warm-ups. The whole time, I couldn't keep my eyes off this new girl. Embarrassing, because I'm pretty sure she caught me staring at her a few times. Of course, I played it cool and pretended to be too focused to notice her, and I hope that trick was working. It was true – the first thing the coach told us before starting was that she was the new addition because she was too advanced for the girls' team. Yikes. I probably should've paid attention to everything else Coach was saying because I didn't even catch her name. What's wrong with me? I'm never this distracted! Well, most of the time.

I concluded that I had completely lost it when the game finally started. We were already more than half way into the game and we were tied, 1-1. 'Okay. Focus, Tai. Don't let some girl distract you,' I thought to myself. I wasn't even at the age where girls should havebeen distracting to me! Maybe I was finally maturing.

Naaaah.

But it didn't explain why I wasn't being myself. I had the ball passed to me three times, only for it to be stolen by the other team because I was looking over at the girl. She was panting heavily, looking over at me, as if to ask, "What's wrong?" If only I could have given her an answer. I really needed to concentrate – the game was almost over and at this point we were usually winning!

"Tai!" I heard. I turned around, and saw the girl running towards me. We both began to jog together toward our goal, where one of our players was dribbling the ball away from the other team. "I know it's not a good time to talk right now but have some courage! Okay? I'm trying, too!" She patted my shoulder with one hand and took off sprinting toward the ball.

I smiled. All I've been getting from the other guys were, "Tai, cut it out!" "Get your head in the game, man!" and the classic, "Stupid Tai!" But her words of encouragement, out of all of the negative energy I was getting, was uplifting. One of my team mates passed the ball over to me, hitting my chest. This was it. I began dribbling the ball as fast I could toward our goal, being tailed by a rival team member, pushing into me. I wasn't going to let him overpower me.

"Tai, pass it to me! I'm open!" the girl shouted to my right. I heard her, alright, but I wasn't listening. I was too stuck in my own world at the moment to let anyone else but me score the winning goal for our team. I rammed the rival team member toward my left, shoving him out of the way. This was it.

"Now's my chance to shoot! Here I go!" I yelled.

And then it happened so suddenly. I found myself losing the ball, and pummeling head first into the ground. Someone from the other team came from out of nowhere, skidding to the ground toward my feet and causing me to trip over myself. I landed hard, but nothing was hurting more than knowing that I screwed it up for the team. Nervously, I looked up to see who took the ball. To my surprise, the girl had kept alongside me the whole time. In slow motion, she bent her knees and sprung herself up into the air toward the ball, hitting it as hard as she could with her head... into the goal! The goalie fell to the ground as he tried to block the ball, but to no avail. We won.

Cheers from our team were heard all around the field. I was too flabbergasted to really take in what had just happened, and suddenly among the noise in the background, I heard, "Nice pass, Tai."

I looked up to see the girl with her hand out to help me up. I accepted, groggily getting up from the ground, my head and heart pounding. She continued, "I thought you were going to take the shot yourself."

I turned red, trying to avoid eye contact. "Remember, there's no 'I' in 'team'! Hahahahahahahah," I nervously managed to sputter. She giggled, nudging me at my waist with her elbow. She smiled, saying, "I told you all you needed was a little courage."

The other guys came running toward us – well, more specifically, toward her – chanting, "So-ra! So-ra!"

Sora. That must be her name. Unique. I think there was more to this girl than met the eye. One thing was for sure: I was going to have to get used to playing with her on the team.

"Sora," I said to myself, smiling. There really is no "I" in "team," and for a moment, I forgot that. Thanks for the reminder, Sora.

"Yeah?" she asked. I jumped, startled, thinking that she didn't hear me.

"O-Oh, nothing! Great job today. I think we're going to be great team mates," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. She flashed me a grin, shaking her head.

"No," she disagreed. I raised my eyebrow and turned my head, confused. Her amber eyes looked into mine, locking itself in its gaze, as if urging me to heed her words. I couldn't help but smile in return. "We're going to be great friends, Tai."

And I believed her.

Author's note: You know, the concept of this story sounded cool in my head but now, actually writing it out, I'm starting to have doubts. It was particularly hard to write about Tai not passing the ball to Sora, which happened in the show. The story will consist of the who, the what, the when, the where, the why, and the how - moments that have led up to Tai and Sora falling in luuurve. It'll be at least six chapters total, if not less. I've only written Taiora one-shots and one super short story up until this point, so let's see how this goes! :) For those who have read some of my past stuff, I'm back, for now! Hopefully I can keep this up. To be honest, I wanted to scrap this out, but I was a little more than halfway done writing this piece and was, like, "Eh, let's give it a shot." Let me know what you think by reviewing!

Edit 08/20/14: Added Tai's introduction of himself in the first sentence to clarify the story will be in his PoV. Thanks to shrimproll for the suggestion!
Edit 07/04/15: Added "Years Ago" in the beginning and corrected tense mistakes