Sora's Choice

Sora's chin rested on her folded arms as she lay in bed and watched the morning sun slowly materialize over the horizon, and at the sight she surrendered a melancholic sigh. It was finally here. Her sixteenth birthday had come, and all of her friends would soon be arriving to help her celebrate her transition from girl to young woman. In the past she'd had reason enough to hope that it would be an exceptionally happy day for her, but now that it had was here she could easily foresee the heartbreaking fiasco that this day was likely to bring.

It had been five months, almost to the day, since she had made her fateful decision. The night after she and four of the other children had stopped the criminal Roan and his gang of miscreants from assailing the world with their dark digimon, she had given in to emotion and acknowledged her romantic love for two of her best friends. Each of the boys, in turn, had readily confessed to the same feelings, only to be stunned into silence moments later when told that he had a rival for her affections.

She sighed and fell face forward onto the bed, covering her head with her pillow. They both could have made it much easier by not being so understanding about her predicament, by yelling or just by saying something mean, but each had promised that they would wait on whatever decision she made.

Of course that had been almost half a year ago, and the impatient nature of each was beginning to get the better of them... though to humor her they were doing their best to hide it. As a matter of fact, all of her friends seemed somewhat baffled by what had to be perceived as flightiness on her part. Well, all except for Kari, she amended.

The younger girl had advised her to wait until she was sure, no matter how long that took. Easy for her to say, Sora thought almost grudgingly. She's already got T.K. wound around her little finger.

That much was unmistakably true. These days it was an increasingly uncommon sight for the younger two to be seen apart from one another, and they were slowly breaking their parents into the idea that they were somewhat more than good friends.

And, to possibly make matters even worse, Mimi had kept her promise and was now back in the country for her winter break. As soon as Izzy had let the headstrong girl in on what was happening, she became doggedly determined to see Sora become "official" with one of the boys before she had to leave again. Just which of the two didn't seem to matter to her in the least.

Sora hadn't necessarily appreciated the other girl's input. "You've gotten too wrapped up in those romance novels Mimi," she'd snapped at one particularly upsetting moment. "It just doesn't always work out like that!"

The girl sighed again, then rolled out of her bed. Any more sleep seemed out of the question with her thoughts racing away from her as they were, and she wanted a bath before her friends arrived anyway. She went to the tub and turned on the warm water, pouring a minute amount of bubble bath in as well. Her mother had already left for work, leaving behind a note that she would be home late that night but would take the girl out for dinner as a celebration.

Sora stayed in the tub for a long time, soaking and relaxing... but mainly thinking. So that the other could move on, she'd almost promised Matt and Tai resolution by today... and still she had not come through with it. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Nine o'clock. The others would be arriving any minute, and of course, she still had nothing new to tell them about the… situation.

The girl wrapped one towel around her auburn hair to dry it and another lengthwise around her body, then left for her bedroom to find something appropriate to wear for the party. She was closing the bathroom door behind her when she heard a familiar voice from the living room couch. "Sora? Is that you? Nobody answered when we knocked so we sort of… let… ourselves… ah..."

Matt's voice trailed off as he caught sight of her, then Tai turned to see exactly what had made his friend stop in such a manner. "Eeek!" Sora shrieked, clutching the towel tightly around her. The look on each of the boy's faces was one of astonishment and incredulity. "Close your eyes!" she shouted at the pair with angry indignity.

Neither of the two obeyed the heated demand, but each gave the other a half-hearted shove in response to it. "Yeah... close your eyes," they each echoed to the other in perfect unison. The brown eyes of Tai, in particular, seemed to be doing a bit more roaming than was good for them.

"Oooh!" the girl fumed, then furiously stomped through her bedroom door and slammed it shut behind her.

She could hear an almost instantaneous argument ensue as the door closed at her back. "See! I told you we should have waited!" Tai shouted.

"What? What are you talking about? It was your idea to come over here early in the first place!"

"Not me! Kari just wanted me out of the way so she could have some time alone with T.K.! And you were the one that said 'Oh, she won't mind. Look, she even left the door unlocked.' "

Sora was fuming as she rifled through her closet to find something to wear, forgoing her earlier plans to find something appropriate for an important occasion such as her birthday. Throwing on the first set of clothes she found that didn't seem to clash too horribly, the girl threw open the door and burst back into the living room. Her hair was still quite wet, and dangled in long tendrils in front of her eyes while her breath came in rapid, seething gasps as she glanced sternly from one boy to the other.

After a long moment, during which neither Matt nor Tai seemed inclined to even look at her, the girl snapped. "Well? Don't either of you have anything to say for yourselves?"

Tai had been working on what he hoped was a charming smile. Nervously he threw it her way and stammered in a light-hearted voice, "Uhm... Nice towel?"

Sora's teeth snapped shut, and an alarmed Tai observed the smoking cinders of her eyes as they erupted into raging bonfires. He took one nervous half-step backwards before his attention was drawn to the girl's hands as they stiffened into quivering talons and started to stretch towards his throat.

Like a tigress stalking her prey, Sora moved slowly around the couch in Tai's direction while he nervously backed away. And then the boy bolted in alarm, increasing his stumbling pace in fear as the irate girl reached for him. Matt hurled himself out of the way, leaving Tai the sole focus of the girl's wrath. "Sora! Sora, please! I was just kidding!" the brown-haired boy shouted desperately.

A light knock sounded from the front door, and Izzy entered with Mimi on his arm. The two had been seeing each other casually since the girl's return, though both knew that she had to leave eventually and thus carefully avoided making any serious commitments. "Oh, don't tell me you started the party without us!" the girl protested, and the pursuit was broken off momentarily.

Izzy surveyed the scene frozen in front of him: Sora's hands, extended into claws, were reaching for Tai's neck as Matt cowered on the ground well away from the two. Sora was still breathing quite heavily, and her eyes were still wild and narrowed dangerously at the boys. "Uhm… I like what you've done with your hair," he ventured hesitantly, breaking the awkward silence.

Another moment brought Sora back to her senses, and instantly the girl turned on her heel, gave a disheartened sigh and went off to her room, slamming the door behind her. Mimi dropped Izzy's arm and followed. "Sora, wait! If it's about your hair let me help! I've got some fabulous new idea on what we can do with it--"

Izzy glanced at his two friends, who were both looking quite sheepish after all the commotion. "So who'd she pick?" he asked.

*****

Mimi grinned in delight while her fingers worked their way through Sora's hair, the younger girl determined to discover a way to arrange it that would leave the two jealous suitors slack-jawed with longing. The older girl sighed while submitting herself to the makeover, bowing her head in dismay before the other rather forcefully pulled it back to where she needed it. "Mimi, this isn't going to work," Sora groused, hoping that it didn't sound like she was whining. "My hair just doesn't work like yours does. You can twist yours around just about anyway you want and it looks great, but mine…"

The younger girl continued to concentrate at the mirror in front of them. "It'll be fine, Sora. We'll figure something out. After all, you've got to look your best for that pair of Romeos out there, right?" She frowned as the braid she was working on just didn't seem to fit Sora's personality, and unwound it to begin again.

"Oh, Mimi just grow up!" the older girl huffed in response, though she felt instantly guilty about doing so. Her outburst shouldn't have been directed at Mimi (who after all was just trying to help) but she felt that she just had to yell at somebody.

The younger girl looked hurt, almost crestfallen with a look of betrayal on her face. Her hands went limp and dropped from Sora's hair as her eyes drifted downward. Sora blinked in surprise. "Uh, Mimi… I'm sorry if I hurt--"

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the younger girl threw her arms around her friend and started weeping feverishly, burying her face into Sora's shoulder. The older of the two was startled, and embraced the other tightly in concern for her. "Mimi? What… what's wrong?"

Mimi sniffed, and her lips were trembling as she looked up. "That... that's the second time since I've been back that you've told me to grow up, Sora. And I know that, to you at least, I must seem to be acting pretty silly about the whole thing, but I'll tell you the truth... I'd give anything to be less grown up than I am right now. Anything. I don't think I can take it anymore."

"Huh?"

"You just don't understand, any of you. You've all got each other, people to talk to about… about what happened to us all. But I've got no one. I try to tell people at my school about the things that we all went through, the sacrifices we made, our friends who died trying to save us, but they don't... they can't understand. All the girls in my class ever want to talk about is the latest musical group of teenage boys or the latest fashions in those stupid magazines, and it's killing me Sora! It's just killing me."

Sora took a deep breath, and pulled back for a moment. All of them at one time or another had run into this problem, though it apparently was bothering Mimi more than the rest of them. They were still children, for all practical purposes, but had been through events that had matured them rather rapidly. Even the cares of most of their older classmates at their respective schools now seemed juvenile after what they had all been through, and Mimi was right: they at least had each other. When she was away, she had no one to be there for her.

Sora held her friend at arm's length. "Oh Mimi, I'm sorry. Truly sorry. I should have thought about that before I actually said anything. I know how hard it must be for you"

The younger girl sniffed. "And you've got Matt and Tai. I can't even find someone that's suitable to go out on a date with back home. The boys are as bad as the girls… they're all just so childish. I've got nothing in common with any of them, and I can't even think about forming that kind of attachment with someone that I can't even be friends with first..."

Sora stared at her, somewhat taken aback. Even if unintentional, that passing comment had been the most profound piece of advice that she had been given since she had started trying to make her decision. All the emotions that she'd been experiencing quite suddenly made perfect sense to the older girl. "Thanks. Thanks a lot, Mimi. That's the most help that I've gotten in a long time."

"What?"

*****

"What's taking them so long in there?" asked Izzy. T.K., Kari and Joe had all arrived by this time, and according to the explanation of Tai and Matt, Sora and Mimi had been alone in the room for nearly two hours.

T.K. shrugged. "Who can tell with girls?" Then, "Ow!" as Kari cuffed him lightly on shoulder.

"Maybe she's waiting for an apology," Joe suggested bluntly, glancing over at Matt and Tai. The two had attempted a stammering explanation of exactly what had happened earlier, though both had been blushing darkly the entire time.

Tai and Matt looked at one another and gave a short, nervous laugh. "Well?" the blond boy asked.

Tai sighed and came to his feet, moving slowly towards Sora's room while seemingly ready to bolt if she should come after him again. Lightly he rapped his fingertips across the door. "Ah, S... Sora?" he said hesitantly, then paused and glanced back over his shoulder at the others. When no answer was forthcoming, he continued. "Listen. Matt and I... well, we just wanted to say that we're sorry about what happened earlier. I... I mean, with the towel and everything…"

The door opened and Sora stepped out, a triumphantly smiling Mimi trailing behind her. "I know, Tai," she said simply and with a smile. A single long braid hung on the side of her head, and she had dressed in what Tai assumed was the most elegant casual clothing that she had. Joe's eyebrows raised slightly. "Gee. Suddenly I feel kind of underdressed."

The party got underway as most of their gatherings usually did, with extended conversation about their adventures in the "other" world and what might be happening there right now. And, more importantly, if it might ever be possible to get back. Izzy had some thoughts on that latter topic. Sora, with Mimi's permission, explained what was happening with the younger girl back in her new homeland, and each of the others made a special point during the day of getting together with her and explaining how they all had run into similar feelings at one point or another.

At the insistence of the other three, Tai, Matt, Sora, T.K. and Kari again went over what had happened to them on their camping trip half a year ago. Mimi, who had still not heard the story from those who had actually been there listened intently, and along with the rest wondered what had happened to the dark angels after Kari and T.K. had driven them away.

Then Sora stood up. Mimi looked at her with hopeful eyes, but Sora seemed to shake her head at the other girl. "Who wants something to eat?"

"Cake?" asked T.K. hopefully, drawing a smile from Kari.

Sora grinned at the younger boy as well. "Later," she said apologetically. "Mom left some real food in the oven for when we got hungry."

The meal was relatively uneventful, with the exception of the giggling fit that overcame everyone when T.K. and Kari started trying to force-feed one another the gelatin dessert. "They really are so cute together!" Mimi whispered to Sora.

After the meal (and Tai's whimpering confession that he had probably eaten much more than was good for him) Sora asked if everyone was ready for the cake.

"Sora!" Mimi whined, obviously anxious to move on to other things.

But it just wasn't time, the older girl knew. It wasn't right yet. "Um… Ice cream?" Sora amended.

Kari went to Sora's side and took her by the hand. "How about the presents now?" she suggested.

Sora smiled gratefully. "Good… good idea."

Mimi folded her arms across her chest in a huff, then thought better of it and pulled a carefully wrapped package out from under the table and presented it to their host. "Happy birthday, Sora," she said, feigning cheerfulness but obviously quite impatient to witness the emotional conclusion that was about to take place.

The older girl unwrapped it slowly, and opened the small box to reveal a small, silver hair clip. Just like one that she would need now that Mimi had put the braid in... her... hair… "Mimi!"

"Okay, okay," the other confessed, grinning ever-so-slightly. "I'd already made up my mind to do something with your hair. I just couldn't stand to see it so plain anymore. Your fit just gave us an opportunity to talk while I did it."

"Izzy, this is lovely," Sora breathed, holding the objected he'd just given her up to her eye. It was an intricate and very cleverly designed prism, which seemed to catch the fading sunlight and send colored beams of it shining everywhere. "Thank you so much."

Joe's gift was a book, entitled '101 of History's Greatest Love Poems and Sonnets'. Seven pairs of eyes turned as one and blinked in surprise at the young man, who cleared his throat nervously in response. "What? It's not for me..."

"These were kind of meant to go together," said Kari, as both she and T.K. offered their packages to the older girl. The paper wrapping around each of the small objects suggested delicacy, so Sora took care as she opened each of them. The gifts were a pair of sculpted crystalline doves whose wings, when turned to face each other, formed the shape of a heart between them.

Matt went behind the couch and retrieved his package, much larger than the others, and offered it to the girl. Sora looked quizzical as she pulled the wrapping from the gift… "Oh, Matt-" she exhaled, her breath catching in her throat.

It was a painted portrait of her holding her friend Biyoman in her lap. The detail was exquisite, and the frame and detail of the painting made it somewhat obvious that the boy had not spared any expense in shopping for her. But then she frowned. She hadn't ever posed for such a picture…

"I…I had it done from memory," Matt said, his cheeks reddening somewhat. "The guy who did it for me was pretty fussy about it, but I think it turned out okay in the end."

"Okay? Matt this is unbelievable. The detail, the colors… it's extraordinary. Thank you."

"I think I'll have to give you mine a little later," said Tai hesitantly, as if in apology. "It kind of requires an explanation."

There were tears of joy in Sora's eyes as she nodded, and stood up. "Thank you all," she said, smiling at each of them in turn. "You're all the best group of friends that anyone could ask for. I really don't deserve all of you."

Then there was a momentary, awkward silence. Mimi stared pointedly at the older girl and gave a small motion with her head. Sora sighed, knowing that she couldn't put this off any longer. "M… Matt? Can I see you in my bedroom… for a sec?"

The blond boy nodded, and flashed a triumphant grin at the others as he followed the girl into her room. All but Tai returned the smile.

"Well, I guess that leaves me to cut the cake," Mimi said.

*****

"Remember Tai, you promised," his younger sister chided the boy, who had refused all offers of cake or conversation since Matt and Sora had retired almost an hour ago.

"I still don't see why they have to take so long. I can deal with it, but if they're just going to make out while the rest of us are still here-"

"Tai?" Matt had a wide grin on his face, so wide that Tai had to resist the impulse to slap it off of there. "Your turn," he said, motioning towards the room that he had just left.

The dark-haired boy's eyes were dark and his teeth clenched tightly together, but he straightened his back and marched steadfastly into the room. He was determined that his friends not see him broken by this. He might cry a river of tears in private, but his pride would remain intact.

Sora was sitting in her bed, her head lowered and tears evidently staining her shirt as the boy closed the door behind him. The floral scent of her perfume lingered in the air, and Tai stopped for a moment to allow it to hold him in its embrace. He never wanted to let go of that moment, despite what she was going to say to him. When several minutes passed without the girl speaking, he cleared his throat gently. "S... Sora?" He swallowed deeply, but still couldn't make the lump in his throat go away. "Listen, I know I made a promise to you about this, and I'll keep it... but I never promised that I could--"

The girl's head bowed even lower. "Tai... stop. It's you."

The words stunned him for a moment, daring him to believe that they meant what he thought they meant. "H…huh?" he stammered.

She arose and wiped the tears out of her eyes with a sleeve. "That doesn't mean that what I feel for Matt has lessened any, but… it's just not the same thing that I feel for you. It took me a long time, longer than it should have for me to see it, Tai, but it is you. It... it's always been you…"

The lump was back in his throat, and in a moment, the girl was in his arms. A feeling like a warm, gentle wave caressed his skin. "If it's always been me, then why--"

She looked up into his dark eyes. "I thought that what we had would be ruined if I fell in love with you, so I guess I tried to bury the love underneath the friendship… at least that's what your sister tried to tell me. I really didn't understand what she was saying until Mimi put it another way. And so somewhere along the way I got the friendship and the love confused, until what I felt for you was kind of like what I felt for Matt. But what I do feel for you is really nothing like what I feel for any of the others. Please forgive me for taking so long to figure it out."

"Forgive you?" he answered, choking on a sob. "Sora, I love you..." His voice was fervent but his lips gentle as he bent down to kiss her; not as before when they had played at dating, and not in friendship as he had when he first made his confession of love. No, the kiss that he offered now was one truly born out of commitment and passion.

They broke off the kiss after a while but still he hugged her tightly to his chest, as if he would draw her into himself. The blissful feeling could not be made more perfect. Unless perhaps…

"Oh, and happy birthday," he said to her, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small envelope.

She opened the proffered package, then her eyes went blank. "The park? The horse and carriage ride through the park?" The tickets, she knew, were not at all inexpensive, and were usually cost prohibitive except for particularly special occasions. Several times she had heard that graduating couples from the high school had gotten engaged on the trip. "I thought you weren't sure that I was going to pick you?" she asked teasingly.

He looked almost embarrassed. "Hence the explanation. If these had been for you and Matt, I just would have wanted to let you know what a great guy you were getting."

"He said pretty much the same thing."

"Should we go out and see the others? You might finally be able to get Mimi off of your back."

"In a second," she said, her arms still around his neck. She drew him down towards her for another kiss.

"Or a few seconds," he murmured against her lips.

It was actually several minutes before the couple emerged from the room to the knowing smiles of their friends. Well, all except for…

"Matt," said Tai, looking around.

T.K. stepped forward to speak for his brother. "He'll be okay, Tai. He was ready for this, and really is happy for both of you. He just wanted some time to himself for a while. Don't worry."

"About time," Kari said to the two as the boy's arm and looked at the older girl.

"You knew all the time," Sora nodded, smiling at the other. "I guess this time it was me that didn't understand what you were talking about. How did you know?"

Kari coughed, looking somewhat sheepish. "Well, actually… you kind of…rather tend to…talk in your sleep."

T.K. looked at her, disappointed. "Oh, and all this time I though you had some wonderful feminine insight into the whole thing." He turned his head to the side, rolling his eyes and lowering his voice. "Talks in her sleep..."

The group got a big laugh at that, and gathered around to wish their congratulations to the new couple. "Now, about the rest of that cake…" Tai said.