Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of its characters. This is a nonprofit, fan-based story. Please support the official release.

A knock at the door. That was all it took for Yamato "Matt" Ishida to figure out who was bothering him at this hour of the night.

One of the giveaways was the timing of it. His father was working late, so even if he had misplaced his key to the apartment again, he wouldn't be knocking this early. His younger brother also had his own key, so that ruled out an impromptu visit from him. Most of his friends also knew to call ahead in case he was busy like he was at the moment.

Then there was the knock itself. This individual was less knocking and more pounding on the door, and not in a "This is an emergency!" type of way. It was more of an obnoxious, "Hey, pay attention to me or I won't stop!" kind of pounding.

As the noise continued to echo through the apartment, Matt looked down at the guitar in his hands and growled under his breath. He stood up and took his instrument with him.

"Oh, for Sovereigns' sake!" Matt called out before he reached the door. "Just give it a rest, Tai!"

He swung the door open, knowing he would find Taichi "Tai" Kamiya on the other side.

Tai grinned back at him. "Jeez, you talk to all you guests like that?" he asked casually.

"Calling yourself a guest implies that you were invited in," Matt answered, hoping that his tone made it clear to Tai that he was serious.

Tai only shrugged, confirming that either the message didn't come across or that he simply didn't care. Knowing Tai, it was more likely the latter. "Don't I have an outstanding invitation?"

"Not if I had any say in the matter."

"Please; we both know you could never say no to me." Tai gestured inside. "So..."

Matt sighed. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Sure I do. It's..." Tai reached for his belt and pulled up his digivice. "...9:42."

"Fine," Matt resigned. One of these days he would win this particular argument.

"Does that mean I can come out now?" asked a voice coming from the bag slung over Tai's shoulder.

Tai gave no verbal reply, instead opening the bag and allowing a glowing ball of light to roll out. Said glowing ball eventually turned into a small, yellow dinosaur.

"Alright!" Agumon cheered as he got to his feet. "Is there any food around here?"

"You just ate dinner like two hours ago," Tai responded to his digimon partner.

"I remember, Tai, but my stomach doesn't."

"Stomachs with no short term memory are quite common," Gabumon, Matt's own partner, chimed in as peered around a corner and at the door. "Or so I'm told."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Leftovers are in the fridge," he instructed. "Just leave some for Dad."

Both digimon scurried into kitchen. Without another word, Tai walked by Matt and slowly followed them. Matt took a second to mourn for his quiet night before joining them.

He arrived in the kitchen just in time to find Tai holding the fridge open for Agumon and Gabumon. Once the pair of them were out of the way, Tai didn't think twice before reaching inside and searching for something for himself, settling on an energy drink that he definitely wouldn't like.

"Don't-" Matt warned in vain.

"Yuck!" Tai yelled after spitting the gulp he'd taken into the sink. He followed that action up by tossing the whole can in the sink as well. "You drink that crap?"

"If I need to stay awake," Matt replied dryly. "Apparently it's also good theft deterrence."

"Funny..." Tai crossed his arms and leaned back against the sink. "So whatcha up to?"

"What's it look like?" Matt held up his guitar.

"Trying to kill a spider?"

"He's writing the Teenage Wolves' next big hit," Gabumon called out proudly from the kitchen table.

"Wait, I thought you said the band was called 'Knife of Day' now," Agumon said with his mouth full.

"We changed the name back," Matt clarified. "We realized that's who we are."

"Has being honest with yourselves helped ticket sales?" Tai asked, definitely trying to antagonize.

"Was there really no one else you could bother tonight?" Matt growled, not wanting to bite at Tai's bait.

The truth was that the band had been in a bit of a rut as of late. Part of that was writer's block, with none of them having been able to crack what their next song would be. Matt wasn't typically one to get frustrated, or at least not with things that didn't involve his current visitor, but a his recent lack of progress was starting to grate on him.

"Not really," Tai said to answer Matt's question. "The girls went out, Joe's studying, and Izzy was busy with Izzy things."

"No luck with my brother either?" Matt asked, though not as a serious suggestion.

"I didn't even try him, actually." If Tai detected Matt's sarcasm, he gave no indication. "You wanna give him a call?"

"No, pretty sure he wanted to stay in and write tonight." Matt knew that TK's desire to become a novelist had become particularly strong as of late, and he had no desire to be the one to disrupt that. Not that he expected Tai to show the same respect, though.

"We'll leave him alone then," Tai agreed. "I'm not looking to disturb the creative process."

Matt felt his eye twitch, and managed to not point out that that was exactly what Tai was doing at the moment. Again, either it didn't come across or he didn't care.

"So I guess it's just the four of us," Agumon said enthusiastically as he pushed away his empty plate.

"What should we do?" Gabumon asked in reply.

"How about a little adventure?" Tai suggested. Before Matt could ask for clarification, he approached a laptop sitting on the kitchen table nearby their partners.

"You wanna go now?" Matt asked instead.

"No time like the present."

Realizing Tai wouldn't be swayed, Matt tried switching his argument. "What are the chances that-?"

"That the DigiPort is open? At this particular moment in time..." Tai hit a few buttons on the computer before turning the screen so Matt could see it. "...one hundred percent."

On the screen, the portal sat there ready for their use. Matt glanced away from the screen only to find three sets of eyes looking at him, all with the expectation that he would change his mind. Normally, he wouldn't cave to them, but the night really wasn't going as anticipated so far.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled his digivice from his pocket to begin the journey to the Digital World.

File Island ended up as their destination. Whether Tai had picked the location on purpose or their arrival was just coincidence, Matt conceded that there were worse places they could be. They could have, for example, been stuck wandering Server's massive desert.

Instead, they were now walking through the very same forest where their first adventure as Digidestined began. Maybe it was the nostalgia of the whole scenario, but Matt found that he had taken a liking to this little corner of the Digital World. If nothing else, File Island seemed a lot more welcoming when there wasn't a bunch of Black Gears flying around.

Surprisingly, Matt's thoughts on the matter went uninterrupted. Tai remained quiet for the majority of their trek through the forest, which Matt made note of. There was a good chance he was reading too far into things, but Tai's sudden shift in behavior nagged at him a bit.

They eventually reached a clearing and found themselves on a beach. The spot seemed familiar, with Matt feeling pretty confident in saying it was the very same beach they had ended up at on their first day in the Digital World. Any doubts went away when he noticed the outlines of old payphones off in the night's shadows.

"Let's go check out the water!" Agumon cried out.

"As long as we can keep my fur from getting wet," Gabumon replied.

"I'll do my best," Agumon said with no real commitment.

"Hard to believe those two become the Digital World's most powerful warrior," Tai observed as the two digimon ran off towards the shoreline.

"Most powerful, huh?" Matt repeated as he glanced over to his DNA partner. "We're just saying that like it's fact now?"

Tai snorted and raised an eyebrow. "Who else would it be? Imperialdramon?"

"Well, definitely not him." On the small list of things Matt took pride in was the fact that there was a finite list of digimon that could match Omnimon in battle.

Matt sat himself down on the ground, strumming his guitar a bit. The instrument didn't produce much sound due to the fact that he didn't have an amp with him, but that wasn't what he had brought it for. Having the object in hand was sometimes all he needed to get his brain working.

"So we're doing this now?" Tai asked as he sat down as well.

"Are you asking me to take a long walk on the beach with you?" Matt replied in kind. "Because I really don't think about you that way, Tai."

"Please... You were the one who asked to hold my hand during the fight with VenomMyotismon."

"That's not at all how I remember it."

Silence again. This wasn't uncommon, of course, as the two of them had agreed long ago to never force the other into small talk. That way, Tai would never have to pretend to understand when Matt spoke about his music and Matt would never have to pretend to care about soccer. It was agreements of that kind that allowed their friendship to work despite how different the pair of them were.

Watching Tai stare blankly out at the ocean, however, told Matt that this wasn't that kind of silence. Something specific was on Tai's mind, which was likely the reason he had dragged them out here. Matt had an idea of what was bothering his friend, but decided not to make any assumptions.

"Alright, out with it," Matt requested without looking at Tai. He didn't want to come across as though he needed to know the answer.

"Hm?" was Tai's only response.

"What's bothering you?"

"Nothing," Tai answered, pausing for a brief second after that. "Well, nothing new anyway."

"I thought things between you and Kari were back to normal."

With the mentioning of his younger sister, Tai paused again. Not that Matt could really blame him. Even going on a year since the defeat of Ordinemon, the events of that night still weighed heavy on all of them.

Matt still couldn't decide if the fact that they had no choice in striking down Meicoomon made things any easier. Tai and him being on the same page about it helped a bit, and Meiko herself had been the one to make the request of them. The girl had been willing to give up a part of herself to save the world, so the two of them had no excuse for letting their conviction waver.

Not everyone agreed with them, with Kari having been the most vocal detractor of the decision. Meicoomon had been a friend, and in her mind, there was always another way of solving their problems. The Kamiya siblings had trouble patching things up in the aftermath of that battle, leaving Matt to wonder if his assumption about the divide being mended was accurate.

"Things are normal for the most part," Tai explained, gaze not moving from the ocean in front of him. "Every now and then, though, I catch her looking at me. Almost like she's not completely sure who's in front of her."

"With your face, who can blame her?" Matt commented. He might have felt bad about taking the cheap shot if Tai hadn't done the same thing more times than he could count.

"Jeez, I confide in you about my problems and you make fun of me." Tai finally turned away from the water to face him, now wearing a slight grin on his face. "What was your Crest again?"

"It was the blue one. I can't think of the name right now." Matt paused for a couple seconds as Tai laughed under his breath. "For once, you're overthinking things. We made the right call, and I'm sure Kari realizes that by now."

"It's not just that call I'm worried about." Tai didn't seem like he was going to elaborate until he noticed Matt raising an eyebrow. "There was a lot going on during that battle. The stakes were too high to stand around deliberating all night."

"Yeah, I remember..." Matt tried to piece together where Tai was going with his ramblings, but only had some vague guesses at this point.

"Yeah, but like... what about when that isn't the case? We've always solved all our biggest problems by fighting, but how do we recognize when we have a different option?" Tai stopped to scratch the back of his head, almost as though he were trying to get his brain to start working. Matt could have sworn he was starting to smell smoke. "I don't know. I'm still trying to sort these thoughts out."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, Fearless Leader."

"Does being the 'Fearless Leader' always mean being the general of an army?"

Matt had no immediate answer to the question. Relying solely their own experiences as evidence, there wasn't much that contradicted the notion. Almost all of their greatest foes had been born out of darkness, meaning that there had been no reasoning with them. Ken seemed to be the most notable exception, but even in that instance they had spent months fighting him before he saw the error of his ways.

Not that Matt would be given the opportunity to try and verbalize any of these thoughts. Agumon and Gabumon had suddenly leapt backwards from the shoreline and over towards them, causing both him and Tai to jump to their feet.

Even in the darkness, Matt could make out movement in the water. Within seconds, something was on the beach and slowly moving towards them. As it stalked forward, it became easier to make out a massive, pink digimon with a gray shell.

Shellmon had been a recurring figure during their childhood adventures in the Digital World. Having been only the second digimon to attack them upon their arrival, he had only been thwarted after Agumon digivolved to the Champion level for the first time. The shellfish digimon attacked them again in between battles with the Dark Masters, and had been about as successful.

"This guy again?" Matt questioned. Logically, it could have been another Shellmon, but their track record made that possibility feel a little unlikely.

Shellmon growled and took another step forward. Matt held his ground while Tai responded by marching right towards the digimon.

"Enough of this," Tai said under his breath.

"What are you doing now?" Matt called after him.

"Negotiating!"

Matt had to do a double take. "Seriously? Look, I know you have some stuff on your mind, but maybe now isn't the best time to-!"

"Hey, shell-brain!" By this point, Tai had passed by Agumon and Gabumon and was yelling up at Shellmon. "Let's talk this out!"

Shellmon leaned forward and closer to the human addressing him, though Matt wasn't sure if it was to listen or just get closer to his prey.

"That's better," Tai continued. "Honestly, I'm no sure what kind of beef you could possibly still have with us, but I really don't care. There's no reason for us to fight, mainly because you have no chance of winning."

Matt assumed Shellmon could understand them, and any doubt of that was offset by the crustacean's eyes widening at Tai's statement. He didn't appreciate being called a weakling.

"These two..." Tai pointed a thumb at Agumon and Gabumon. "They could digivolve to Mega if they wanted to. If you just turn around and crawl back into the ocean, you won't end up hurt like the last two times."

Tai's speech was about the same as any other one Matt had ever heard him give: It inspired confidence, but was completely lacking in any subtlety whatsoever. Guessing how things were going to go next, Matt began making his way over to Tai's side.

Shellmon roared, causing Matt to sprint the last couple of feet. As Shellmon raised one of his arms with obvious intent of crushing his instigator, Matt dove forward and knocked Tai out of the way just in time. Luckily, as they picked themselves off the sand, they didn't have to worry about a follow-up attack.

By this point, Gabumon and Agumon had both digivolved, and now Garurumon and Greymon were both moving to counterattack.

"NOVA BLAST!"

"HOWLING BLASTER!"

Both attacks struck true, propelling Shellmon off the ground and sending him flying back to where he came from.

"Did he really think it would end any other way?" Greymon asked cockily.

Garurumon nodded in agreement before his gaze found a specific spot on the ground. "Uh, Matt..." he said after a couple seconds.

Matt followed his partner's line of sight, though he was starting to realize what his concern was. It finally registered to Matt that he had lost his grip on his guitar when he had pushed Tai out of the way of Shellmon's attack. As a result, the instrument had been crushed in Tai's place.

"What are we all-?" Tai began to ask before finding the answer to his question. "Oh..."

Part of Matt wanted to be angry while another part tried its best to assure him that this all wasn't entirely Tai's fault. Granted, Tai had been the one who had barged into his apartment unannounced and insisted that they come to the Digital World. He had also been the one who had been set on "negotiating" with Shellmon when the digimon clearly had no desire to do so, thus putting Matt in that position.

Matt told himself that Tai had meant well in the decisions he had made tonight. He also told himself that could have outright refused to come, so this was partially on him. Finally, he told himself that the guitar in pieces on the ground was not the only one he owned, so this was not an unforgivable setback. He should have easily been able to breathe easily and let this go.

"Do you think this is a sign about your music career?" Tai joked.

Instead of breathing easily, Matt clenched his fist

Matt strummed the last few notes and then the living room went quiet for a few seconds. This was really only the music for one verse to which there were no lyrics yet, but it was a start. At the very least, he felt better than he had while in the Digital World.

"It sounded good, Matt," Gabumon assured him from his spot on the couch.

"Kinda catchy," Agumon added. "Sounded a little angry though."

"Well, I had plenty of inspiration," Matt said as he looked to his left.

Sitting on an armchair with his feet up on the coffee table and an ice pack held against his face, Tai shrugged in response. "Does that mean I get royalties if it takes off?" he asked in a neutral tone.

"You're joking, right?"

Tai sat up straighter. "No, I'm serious. Let's hash this out right now."

"Haven't you done enough negotiating for one day?" Matt asked as he set his guitar down out of Tai's reach.

"Hey, I'm refining my technique."

"Which sometimes means almost getting crushed by a giant piece of calamari," Agumon chimed in.

"Everyone has to start somewhere," Gabumon said softly. "You should hear what he has to say, Matt."

"Not you too," Matt groaned to his partner.

"You'll be missing out if you pass," Tai teased, now having way too much fun for someone who had been punched in the face no more than an hour ago. "I could go off and be some other artist's muse."

"Like I'd ever be so lucky." Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. "It'd make my life a whole lot easier."

"And boring."

"He's got you there," Gabumon pointed out.

"He's also got a huge ego," Matt countered. He picked up his guitar again, hoping that some noise would help him shut out the conversation.

Tai laughed and leaned back in his seat. "I love you too, buddy."

Matt didn't laugh with him, but a slight smirk found its way to his face despite his best efforts. If Tai didn't mean what he said, he wouldn't have put Matt through this entire night. He was easily the worst best friend Matt had ever had.

Assuming I haven't gotten my dates mixed up, it was 20 years ago today that seven young kids went to camp for the summer and wound up living in a digital land. Thought it'd be fun to throw together a quick oneshot for today, and which friendship is more synonymous with this season of the show than this one?

Now if you'll please excuse me, I need a minute because I've just reminded myself of how old I've gotten. Leave a review if you feel up to it, and I'll talk at you guys later.