Moving On

Tai stumbles on his way out of yet another store, again, and only his soccer skills keep him from falling flat on his face. Years of obstacle course training did him good.

"Taiiii," Mimi shrills. "Are you coming, or what?"

"Yes, your highness," he mumbles sarcastically, but he picks up the shopping bags he's accumulated with her and jogs to catch up.

"You should know what it's like to go shopping with me by now," Mimi says, lightly scolding. Today her hair is all short brown curls. Of course she can carry nothing heavier than her enormous designer purse, the brat.

"You're such a brat," Tai decides to tell her. "These are heavy, Mimi! Did you need to buy stuff the weight of rocks?"

She sticks out her tongue. "Shouldn't have offered to carry them," she snipes back.

They walk through Aqua City, and occasionally Tai has to wait for Mimi to ooh and aah over a storefront window, just like he's been doing for the past two hours. He had never realized how big a simple shopping district could be.

Finally, Mimi decides she wants ice cream, and they sit outside a girly pink cafe to eat expensive vanilla cones, her many new purchases surrounding them in piles like small mountains.

"So, are you over Sora yet?" she asks, delicately licking the dripping ice cream off the side of her cone.

Tai nearly chokes. "What?"

She sniffs. "I didn't think so."

"Mimi, what kind of a question is that?" Tai finally manages to say, around the mushy ice cream and cone that feels like it's lodged itself in his throat.

"You had plenty of time to tell her how you felt before, you know," Mimi continues, plainly ignoring him. "I think you should just move on."

"I have no problems with moving on, thanks," Tai protests, scowling. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

Mimi gives her cone another delicate lick. "Because you've been holing yourself up and not talking to anyone about anything that doesn't involve the Digital World for the past few months. That's what Izzy told me, and you know he's always right," she says. The brat. She knew he was going to protest, because she hadn't exactly been around to see anything for herself.

"So I want some time to myself," Tai says. "Big deal. It doesn't mean I'm sulking."

"You so are," Mimi retorts, her dignified air finally gone. She bites off half her cone in one bite.

"Why are you so concerned about this, anyway?" he demands, biting the top off of his own dripping cone.

"Did you know that I used to have the biggest crush ever on Joe?" she announces. "Don't think I don't know how awkward to have your group dynamics change."

"Dynamics?" Tai repeats. "That's a pretty big word for you, Meem." Then it hits. "Wait, Joe? Are you serious?"

"We were supposed to go to cram school together over spring break that one year Diaboromon attacked," Mimi explains. "I called in sick so that I could go to Hawaii, and while I was gone he sent me this big box of chocolates with a note saying Get Well Soon. By the time we got home it was all melted, of course, but it was terribly sweet."

"So... Joe liked you, too?" Tai says dubiously.

"Nah," Mimi sighs. "Once he found out I'd skipped cram school to go on vacation, he was totally disappointed. And then I moved, so I had to give up on him."

Tai gulps down the rest of his ice cream cone to shake off the feeling that he's been warped into some sort of chick flick. His hands are sticky with vanilla goop. Across from him, Mimi is the picture of primness, her legs crossed, gently leaning her elbows on the table. She also looks a lot like his cat.

"I already kind of knew Matt liked her," Tai finally snaps. "Is that what you're waiting to hear?"

"Oh, my," Mimi says, eyes wide.

"I knew it wasn't going to work out," he says harshly, scowing down at his sticky hands, clenched into fists. "And I didn't want to hurt Matt. It was dumb. I was dumb. Do we really have to talk about it?"

"Yes," Mimi says bluntly. "It's unhealthy to keep stuff like that inside."

She stands up abruptly and sticks her half-eaten ice cream cone in his face. "I can't eat another bite!" she says plaintively. "You finish it. Let's move on."

Tai stares at her. He's not quite angry, more like baffled. "Mimi, are you serious?"

"I said, let's move," Mimi says, frowning until he finally takes her cone. She scoops up a couple of the smaller bags with her free hand and waits for him to get up. "Shopping is good therapy!" she adds, flouncing away to the entrance.

"Whatever," he yells after her, picking up the rest of her bags.

On second thought, he throws away the cone.

-

author's notes: these were written in honour of Odaiba Memorial Day (so of course I start with 02). The kids end up in all these tangled relationships by the end of 02, it seems, so these are written to confront some of them. I guess this could be Michi, but I honestly wrote it from more of a friendship angle. I hope you enjoy the next few parts!