Khgirl08: I recently became aware that it has been 2 and ¾ of a year since the last time I published anything. I could blame it on college, but that would be a cop out. It isn't that I'm not writing; I just haven't published what I'm writing. Ugh.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon. If I did, Xros Wars would be dubbed post haste…or at least sold in subbed-format, because Digimon dubs have a tendency of sucking really hard.

"Yolei, are you sure you don't need me around today? I can postpone it again." Kari leaned against her roommate's bedroom doorframe, watching the purple haired girl as she frantically tore through her desk.

"I could have sworn I left the finalized guest list right on top of the pile- wait, hold up." Yolei turned to Kari suspiciously. "What do you mean, 'postpone it again?' You called off a date again?"

Kari blushed. "Well, your first fitting appointment got rescheduled, and I know you wanted me there."

"Kari, that was like a month ago." Yolei kept her narrowed gaze on the smaller girl, who looked away and turned even redder.

"Then Sora asked me to come with you to start looking at flower arrangements. And then I had finals, and then just this past Sunday you were panicking about whether Ken's extended family approved of you, and I couldn't just leave you in a tizzy like that-"

"Kari Kamiya." Yolei took a deep breath, but Kari kept her eyes averted. "Are you telling me that you've cancelled on him. Three times. In the past three weeks?"

"…yes?"

"Why would you come up with stupid excuses not to see your own boyfriend?"

"I'm not making excuses! I'm your maid of honor, and you're getting married in exactly one week and three days!" The brunette looked up at her friend, who was glaring. Kari glared right back. "I don't know if you realize this or not, but you have a ton of work left before you can get married, which means I have a ton of work before you can get married!

"Today you're working on the place cards, and tomorrow you have to make sure the menus are right and that the cake is going to be perfect, and then there's Christmas Eve and Christmas, and then you have to start packing up all of your stuff because in two weeks I'm going to be looking for a new roommate and you'll be living across town and I will have no one to talk to and my boyfriend is going insane and Tai and Sora are too happy right now to drag down with my problems except when they're fighting and come and vent to me about it and of course you are too and the only outlet I have for all of my problems is your freaking wedding plans!"

Breathing heavily, Kari closed her eyes. Way to go. Now your best friend thinks you're an idiot.

A pair of arms wrapped around her, and her eyes opened to see a vast amount of purple hair. "I had no idea you had so much on your plate, Kari. I'm sorry that I've been behind a lot of it. But this is exactly why you need to go with TK today. You need this break."

"I doubt he wants to see me, anyhow." Kari pulled Yolei's arms off of her and smiled sadly. "I mean, every time I try to talk to him, he always has something he has to do, and if I ask if he wants to hang out he just 'he just doesn't have time.' Even when I told him I had to cancel on him, he just said 'that's fine' and promptly rescheduled." Her smile slipped completely off her face. "He didn't even try to hide his relief."

Yolei crossed her arms. "You and TK have been dating for over five years, Kari. Maybe the relationship is just changing." Kari shrugged. "Regardless, I refuse to let you skip out on another one of your dates. You need to take a break from everything here, and obviously the two of you have some issues to work out. Besides," she continued when Kari began to protest, "how long has it been since you actually saw Gatomon instead of chatting with her online?"

"I don't know…a month, maybe? I would have gone by myself, but if Tai found out that I broke that rule he'd freak." Kari sighed. "Fine, I'll go. Expect me back late."

"I'll wait up for you. I have a feeling you might need to talk." Nodding slightly, Kari excused herself and disappeared down the hall. When Yolei heard her zipping her coat, she smirked and grabbed her cell phone. Pressing speed dial 7, she held the phone to her ear and waited. "Hello?"

"Hey."

"Hey, Kari." TK and Kari looked at each other awkwardly for a few moments before he moved aside to let her into the apartment. "It's pretty chilly out there, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Winter's officially here." Kari managed a small smile, but when TK turned to dig through his closet it slipped from her face. "So what's the plan for today?"

"Well, Patamon said that he and Gatomon would be waiting at the gate, and then I figured we could just kind of wing it from there." TK came out of the hall closet holding a heavy coat.

"Going somewhere?" asked Kari, raising an eyebrow as he pulled on his wintery apparel. "I stopped by the Inoue's store and picked up enough food for all four of us. Like you asked."

"Nope. Just getting ready to go." TK smiled, but it was thin. "To the bedroom?"

"Sure." She followed him down the hall, glancing at the familiar walls in an attempt to distract herself from the unmistakable tension in the otherwise empty apartment. Nancy was undoubtedly on yet another business trip; how TK could stand living by himself so much of the time she would never understand.

The gate was already pulled up on his desktop when they got there, but the location was hidden from view. Both pulled out their D-3's and waited patiently, before chuckling slightly. "Guess this is normally Yolei's job, huh?"

"Yeah, or Davis's, but I guess I can take care of it this time. Digiport open!" The light that filled the room was welcoming. Kari wasn't expecting the freezing air, however, and the reflection from the snow nearly blinded her. "Where are we?"

"Well, Patamon told me that File Island's snow sector had expanded a little more than usual this year, so I thought it would be fun to have a snow day without completely freezing," TK answered, but hurriedly continued "but if you're too cold or want to go somewhere else that's cool too."

"No, this is great." Kari looked around. "Shouldn't they be here by now?"

In answer to her question, both Kari and TK were hit from behind with snowballs. They turned around to see a pair of large orange ears and a purple tuft of fur poking out from behind the TV. TK put a finger to his lips and knelt down, gathering an armful of snow as he spoke loudly. "I thought they would be, but maybe they're just late. We should go meet them."

Kari set down the bag of food and did the same, though she could hardly hold half the snow of her boyfriend. "Yeah. Let's go south first." They stood in unison and began to walk towards the TV, but dumped their armloads of snow over the top of it. Their Digimon cried in mock horror as they were buried.

TK began to crow with laughter at their outcries. "Serves you two tricksters right!"

Gatomon and Patamon pushed their heads out of the snow, laughing along with the blond. Kari grinned and knelt to help dig their partners out of the large pile. "Well, it serves you two right for not coming to see us in the last two weeks!" Patamon giggled.

Two weeks? Kari looked up at TK, who suddenly stopped laughing and just looked awkward. "Yeah. It's certainly been a long time," he said pointedly.

"Too long, in my opinion." Gatomon shook the rest of the snow from her fur and hugged Kari tightly. "How are you?"

"I'm just fine." The cat looked suspicious, but Patamon caused a distraction by lobbing another snowball at TK, which fell to pieces on impact and left TK's entire face completely white.

"Bet you can't catch me, TK!" As TK shook his head in a futile attempt to get the snow off, his partner flew off, cackling with malicious glee.

"Oh, it is on!" TK tore after his partner, losing his hat in the process. Kari picked it up and folded it in her hands, smiling at all the good memories it brought back.

"So what's up?" asked Gatomon as soon as the snowball fight was in full swing.

"I'm not sure what you mean. Everything's fine."

"Ha. I wouldn't be a very good partner if I couldn't tell when you're down about something." Gatomon looked at the hat for a minute before speaking again. "It's TK, isn't it?"

"He's just being really weird," she said as way of confirmation. "I haven't been able to have a real conversation with him since mid-November, and part of that is my fault. What with Yolei and Ken's wedding and work and final exams, I've been stretched pretty thin. But almost every time I ask him to go out, or come over to the apartment, or even talk on the phone, he's busy, and even when he isn't busy it's so awkward that nothing actually happens."

"Is that why you guys kept changing this date?"

"That's all on me. A lot of Yolei's wedding preparations got rescheduled at the last minute, like her dress fitting or menu planning, and I had to keep calling it off to help. One time my finals got in the way."

"Sounds rough."

"Just a bit."

"Whenever Patamon or Hawkmon starts acting weird, I just ignore them until they're out of their slump. Maybe you could try that?" Gatomon's expression was entirely serious, and Kari couldn't help but chuckle.

"I don't think that would help very much this time. When humans start ignoring one another, it usually means that they're angry. And I'm not angry. But…"

"But?"

"I think he might be mad at me about something. It's either that or he wants to break up." Kari felt a sudden tear run down her cheek.

"Break up? Why would you think that?"

Shrugging, Kari looked across the field, where Patamon was trying and failing to make snowballs as quickly as TK, who appeared to be working slower than normal to help his friend keep up. "Ever since we were kids, whenever TK and I were together he would always be talking to me and hanging out with me, making sure I was alright before everyone else and stuff like that. And when he moved to Odaiba, he and I hung out all the time. I felt like the most important person in the world.

"When we started dating, we were together almost every day. It got a little overwhelming during our freshman year at university, so we cooled things off a bit, but we still spent a lot of time together, even if we were just studying. Recently, though, it's begun to feel like he doesn't really care if we see each other. When I had to keep postponing our trip here, he just sounded relieved, and like I said earlier he was always too busy to hang out or talk properly. I just have this awful feeling that he doesn't like me anymore and just doesn't know how to break it off."

"But he still kisses you, right? And holds your hand and stuff?"

Kari shook her head. "Not recently. He didn't even hug me when I got to his apartment this morning, and…he has yet to ask if I want to hang out on Friday. It's Christmas Eve, one of the most romantic times of the year, and so far it looks like I'm going to be alone with a slice of leftover Christmas cake from Yolei and Ken."

Gatomon's eyes widened. "Oh, Kari. I don't know what to say."

"Neither do I, really." Kari and Gatomon hugged each other tightly. "I'm sorry I haven't been here to visit enough, Gatomon. Everyone's been too busy, and Tai's rule about always coming in pairs or more meant that I was stuck. Have you kept busy?"

"Oh, yeah. Patamon and I have been helping out at Primary Village a lot recently. Elecmon's getting older, you know, and it's harder for him to keep up with the baby Digimon. Sometimes I play with Patamon and the older ones, but most of the time I fish and cook for them while Elecmon takes care of the really young ones. It's a lot of WHAAA!"

A copious amount of snow rained down on the partners, and when the onslaught halted TK and Patamon were already dashing away. Kari leaped to her feet and threw TK's hat toward the bag of food. "Gatomon, it's time we showed those two who the real bosses of the snow are."

"But Ikkakumon and Garurumon aren't here," Gatomon whispered worriedly.

"No, you goof, it's us!" Gatomon's eyes widened in understanding. "Let's get 'em!"

The rest of the morning was spent battling one another. Gatomon and Patamon were the main offensive battlers at first, trying to keep the other's partner from completing forts, but once the Digidestined were happy with their defenses they joined in the fray. Eventually, a well-aimed Boom Bubble from Patamon managed to collapse Kari's fort, and the girls were hit with such a blitz of snowballs that they had no choice but to concede. "But you girls almost had our fort demolished," said TK as they made their way back to the gate, where their food awaited them.

"Maybe, but I think you two were holding back." Kari smiled at him, and his eyes glittered happily back. Maybe I was overreacting earlier. He certainly doesn't seem upset with me now.

"Did you bring me banana chips?" asked Patamon as Kari began to pull out different containers of food.

"I got the last bag, and I also found the lemon drink you like so much," she smiled. Crying in delight, Patamon tore the bag of dried fruit open and began to chow down. Gatomon had already pulled out a fish-shaped bento, rightly guessing it was picked with her in mind.

"The Digimon are good to go, but what about us humans?" TK looked into the bag and grinned. "Sweet! Yolei's parents sell the best rice balls!"

"And the hosomaki is fresh, according to Momoe." Kari opened the containers and handed TK a set of chopsticks. "It was cheaper to get a bigger container to share, and I figured the bigger container would stay warmer than two smaller ones. I hope that's okay."

"Of course it is! Bon appetit!" TK began shoveling down sushi and rice balls at a pace that would have made Tai proud, and Kari began eating at a somewhat slower one. Aside from TK's loud chewing and the rustling of Patamon's plastic bag, all was silent for around five minutes.

Kari made to take the last piece of hosomaki for herself, but her hand collided with TK's at the last moment. It was the first physical contact they had made in over two weeks, and Kari blushed in spite of herself. "Oh! Sorry about that, TK."

"No, it's my fault. You can have it."

"Are you sure?"

"I probably ate twice as much as you. It's yours." TK grinned at her, and she returned the gesture.

"Thanks." As she popped the sushi into her mouth, Patamon climbed onto his partner's head and settled down, belching loudly.

"Boy, that lunch sure was tasty!"

Gatomon put the lid back on her empty bento and nodded in agreement. "It sure was. It's been a while since I've had something that wasn't fish and berries. I love helping Elecmon, but-"

"-the limited diet gets old!" Patamon interrupted.

"So what now?" Gatomon stretched out on her back and sighed. "I'm too pooped to have another snowball fight, but I think if TK and I combined forces we'd be unstoppable."

"Ha! Me and Kari'd destroy you, with her awesome fort building and my Boom Bubbles!" snorted Patamon.

"I don't know, buddy. Gatomon's moves are faster than yours are, and she's a good bit more strength behind her attacks." Gatomon preened as Patamon gasped in outrage and fell off TK's head.

"But Patamon and I would have the advantage of aerial assault, plus my secret weapon that has, so far, stayed in the back of my arsenal."

"And what secret weapon would that be, Miss Kamiya?"

"My feminine wiles, of course." Kari winked coyly and put her arms around his neck.

TK laughed and looked at Gatomon, pulling away from his girlfriend. "I hate to admit it, but Kari has a point. I'm not so sure I want to try my luck against her."

"Scaredy cat!" she teased. Patamon took TK's momentary distraction as an opportunity to launch another sneak attack, and soon the two boys were chasing each other across the field again.

"They never change, do they?" Kari watched them for a minute before standing and beginning to pull together a large pile.

"What are you up to?" asked Gatomon.

"I thought I'd build a snowman. I happened to buy a bag of spare buttons for Yolei's wedding place cards that would make great eyes, but I could use some sticks for arms. Do you know where I could find some?"

"Patamon and I passed some fallen branches not too far from here. I can run and bring a few back for you if you'd like."

"Works for me." Kari began forming a large ball from the pile of snow she had accumulated, and by the time her partner returned with at least ten different sticks she had finished the basic segments of the snowman. "These are perfect, Gatomon!"

"Aw, go on," her partner purred. "I think I'm going to try to make one of those snow angels that everyone in those cheesy American wintery movies make."

When TK and Patamon returned to Kari and Gatomon, it was to discover a set of markings in the snow that looked like everything from a scuffle to the angel that they were all meant to represent and a snowman that was adorned with TK's hat and Kari's scarf. "It's too bad we don't have any straw, or we could give him some hair," commented TK. "Even without it, it still looks great."

"Oh, Gatomon and I can go get some straw! You two wait here, we'll be back soon!" Patamon and Gatomon took off, leaving their partners alone with the snowman and angels.

After a few minutes of silence, TK sighed and laid down. "I wish we had snow like this back home."

"Yeah. Maybe we would have a white Christmas."

"Yeah."

Kari fidgeted as the silence grew once more. "You know, Christmas really snuck up this year. It's only three days away."

"And that means that Ken and Yolei are tying the knot in ten days. Wow. Time really does fly. Seems like yesterday they were still pretending that they were just friends."

"Ha, you're right." Kari looked over at his face, but his eyes were staring straight up and gave away nothing. "Got any plans?"

"For the wedding? I'm obviously attending, if that's what you mean."

"Obviously, but I was talking about Christmas."

"Oh." Kari narrowed her eyes as he shrugged. "I just figured I'd just go with the flow. Mom said something about possibly going to Grandma's, if she gets back from Hawaii in time. It's funny how she still says she doesn't like Dad all that much but loves his mom like her own."

"Wait, your Mom is in Hawaii?"

"No, she's just over in Kyoto. Grandma wanted to take surfing lessons, and apparently she met some cute instructor and extended her stay indefinitely. I bet she'll be back tomorrow or the next day."

Kari ground her teeth. How many more hints do I need to drop? "I'm probably not doing anything either, unless helping Yolei pack on Christmas night counts."

"Cool."

"Because, you know, Tai and Sora are spending Christmas in Kyoto because of his interview with their team. What are Matt and Mimi doing for their first holiday season together?"

"If Grandma doesn't come home, they'll probably hang out with Dad. They might do that anyhow. Who knows?"

There was another lull in the conversation. Finally, Kari couldn't stand the silence any longer. "You know, I don't have to work on Christmas Eve, and if you're free then maybe we could do something."

"Hm. Maybe."

Kari stood up and put her hands on her hips. "'Hm, maybe?' That's all you have to say to your girlfriend of five and a half years when she suggests being together for Christmas Eve?" TK sat up in alarm, but she didn't give him a chance to speak. "I don't expect us to be stuck at the hip, TK, but this is the first time in over a month that both of us have had more than five minutes to hang out, and all day you've been distant. Every time I've tried to invite you over or invite myself to your place recently you've had something better to do. I haven't even managed to get you to talk to me on the phone."

"I've been really busy," he interjected, but Kari kept going.

"That's an excuse for part of it, and I have a similar problem thanks to the wedding, but there's no way that you've been so busy that you didn't have ten minutes to talk to me on the computer or the phone. You've obviously been here without me recently, and you didn't even bother to tell me you were coming! You know we're not allowed to come over here by ourselves, and Yolei only comes over with Ken nowadays so there's no one buy you who I can go with." Kari took a breath, and when TK tried to say something else she held up a hand to stop him. "TK, I know I'm not the prettiest girl in the world, or the most interesting, but I would have thought that you would be decent enough to tell me that I bore you instead of stringing me along."

TK stared at her in shock as she began to cry silently, and though his mouth opened he didn't say anything. "Is it another girl, TK? Are you seeing someone else?"

"No! How could you even think that?" he asked in shock.

"You haven't made a move on me the entire time we've been here today. You didn't hug me when I knocked on your door today, you didn't tickle attack me like I was sure you would when you and Patamon broke through our fort, and I gave you the perfect opportunity to kiss me after lunch and you just pulled away! If you don't like me anymore, if I'm not attractive enough or something, then just tell me! I'd rather know that you prefer some other girl than be nothing more than a status symbol!"

"Kari," he murmured as he stood and took her hand. She pulled away from him and turned around.

"Just say it, TK. Tell me you don't like me anymore. Go on!"

"Hey, you! Thieves!" Kari looked over her shoulder. Through her tears she could just make out a collection of white Digimon that looked similar to Agumon- no, they were Agumon. SnowAgumon.

"What do you mean, 'thieves?' We didn't take anything from you."

"Lies! Our timber is right there in that ball of snow, worthless now that it's gotten wet," said the SnowAgumon at the front.

"The snowman?" TK looked over at the smiling creation. "Oh, great."

"The man did not touch our cache of firewood. I told you before, it was Gatomon and that girl!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Attack her! Frozen Wind!"

"Run!" Kari didn't need TK to tell her to go; a ball of blue fire narrowly missed her as she took off, and she could hear the SnowAgumon begin to chase her.

"Ice Claw!"

"Frozen Wind!"

"Why did your partner have to go and steal their firewood, Kari?" TK panted as he caught up to her.

"She made a mistake! It's not like she meant to do it!"

"I'm just saying that she still did!"

"Leave Gatomon alone, you jerk! You and Patamon have done all sorts of stupid stuff over the years!"

"Frozen Wind!" Kari gasped as the attack brushed her arm, and quickly picked up the pace.

Immediately after, TK shoved her aside. "Hey!" she screeched in outrage as she nearly tripped. When she turned to confront the tall man, she realized that he was kneeling, holding his arm in pain. "TK?"

"Keep going! I'll distract them," he shouted. She started to roll her eyes but realized that his arm was smoking, and he was holding his leg gingerly.

If TK hadn't pushed me out of the way, that could have been me. That would have been me, and it would have been the small of my back, she realized with horror. The SnowAgumon slowed down, grinning at their prey. "But you're-"

"Kari, get going before they get you too!" She jumped at the harshness in his voice but ran into the nearby treeline.

She could hear the footsteps of some of the SnowAgumon behind her, but they seemed to be far enough behind that they didn't try to attack. Just as she was beginning to get a stitch in her side, she nearly ran into Patamon, who was holding a bundle of straw so big that only his eyes and ears were visible. "Whoa, Kari, calm down! Where are you going?"

"SnowAgumon- think we- stole their firewood," she panted. "TK's trying to distract some of them, but he's hurt and needs help!"

"Oh no!" Patamon dropped all of his straw on an unfortunate Gatomon, who happened to be underneath him. "I'll save you, TK!"

"Frozen Wind!"

"Boom Bubble!"

"Lightning Paw!" With Patamon and Gatomon attacking back, the three SnowAgumon who had followed Kari quickly retreated, crying about going home, leaving them to race back to TK.

"He was right here," said Kari as they approached the edge of the trees. "Oh, great, they took him hostage!"

"Wait, I think they're back by the terminal. Hold on, TK!" Patamon led the charge back to the television set.

Gatomon made it to the collection of SnowAgumon surrounding TK first. "Hey, Snow Brains, if you don't let him go you're going to have one angry cat on your hands!" she hissed.

"TK, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Patamon," he smiled. Kari stopped in confusion; one of the SnowAgumon was inspecting his leg wound with care, and another was packing snow onto the burn on his arm. The others were each holding a few of the sticks Kari hadn't used for arms. "The SnowAgumon weren't angry once I explained that it was all an accident. They just want Patamon and Gatomon to help them collect more sticks tomorrow and they'll forgive us."

"We're sorry we attacked you," said the one packing snow onto TK's elbow. "Some of the meaner Digimon like to steal our firewood and food instead of getting their own, and we thought that's what you guys were doing."

"Oh." Gatomon blushed slightly. "Well, I'm sorry I took it from you guys. There was so little of it that I thought it was abandoned."

"You were just outside our village, but we tend to blend in well so we don't blame you for not seeing us." The biggest SnowAgumon looked at his friends. "Where are the others?"

"I think they said they were going home," said Patamon quietly.

"Then we should also return. Farewell, Digidestined. May our next meeting be peaceful." TK and the Digimon waved the SnowAgumon off as they walked towards the setting sun, but Kari had eyes for no one but TK.

"You took that hit for me," she whispered.

"Huh?" TK turned to her with a quizzical look, and she knelt next to him and inspected the scrape under his torn jeans.

"That Frozen Wind attack would have hit me square in the back, and done a lot more damage than it did to you, but you pushed me out of the way."

"Of course I did. I love you way too much to let you get hurt." Kari gasped. "I didn't have a chance to properly apologize earlier, Kari. Let me finish," he said as she attempted to interrupt, "because I want to clear up the bad air between us once and for all.

"I didn't realize that you were feeling neglected recently. It's been a stressful time of year for everyone, and I really have been busy. And if I had realized that I had been ignoring you as much as I have been, I would have all but become a third roommate for you and Yolei. You could never bore me, Kari Kamiya, and there is no way another woman could be more attractive than you. I love you, Kari, I love you so much, and if you had any reason to doubt that then I will never be able to apologize enough. Can you ever forgive me?"

Kari threw herself into his chest and began to cry. "TK, I'm such an idiot. I had myself convinced that you didn't want to be around me anymore, and I thought I was doing something wrong, and then I just had no idea what to do. Oh, of course I forgive you. I love you too. Can you forgive me?"

"Always." He wrapped his arms around her, and for the first time in months she felt complete. Gatomon nuzzled into her side as TK held her, and she felt Patamon land on his favorite perch. "I really have missed you, Kari," he whispered.

The four of them stayed in that position for several minutes, comfortable in their silence, but when Kari began to shiver Gatomon backed off. "I hate to say it, but it's just going to get colder and colder once the sun sets. You two should probably go."

"Will you guys be alright here?" TK straightened his back and cracked his neck a couple of times.

"Yeah. It isn't too far to warmer weather." Patamon took to the air and smiled down at the others. "You guys need to come to the beach next time!"

"That sounds wonderful. TK, can you pack up our lunch stuff? I'll just run over and get our clothes back from the snowman."

"Of course."

Kari walked to the now lopsided snow figure and took back the hat and scarf. Just before she turned to go back to the others, the sun glinted off something on the left stick hand. "Huh? Gatomon, why is your tail ring on here?"

"We wanted to make it look as much like you as we could," her partner replied.

"What do you mean?" Kari spun around and gasped; TK was kneeling in front of her, smiling gently from his position in the snow. Gatomon and Patamon were beaming from behind him. "TK?"

"I've been planning this for a while, but I couldn't get up the guts to do it until we got here. That's why I might have seemed relieved to postpone this date, because that meant that I would get to be a Cockatrimon for a while longer." He took her hands in his, and she felt tears begin to stream down her face as she realized what was happening.

"I love you so, so much, and I realized when we were just kids and you were taken from us that I couldn't be happy without you by my side. Now that we're a little older, that feeling has only grown stronger, and I want to make sure that we'll be together for the rest of our lives. So, Kari Kamiya, would you do me the incredible honor of marrying me?"

Kari nodded ecstatically. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Oh, TK!" He pulled out a ring box from his pocket and opened it quickly, taking the ring out and slipping it onto her finger. It was a perfect fit, and once it was snugly on he stood up and scooped Kari into his arms, kissing her with as much passion as she could remember.

Gatomon and Patamon ran to join them, jumping on their partners in celebration. "We told you she'd say yes!" cried Patamon.

"Yeah, every time you came to visit us at Primary Village we kept reassuring you, and every time you half convinced yourself that she'd dump you!" Gatomon chuckled. "It was hard to pretend that I had no idea why TK was acting so weird, let me tell you, but it was so worth it to see your expression."

"You both really do need to come back soon, but if you stay here too much longer you might freeze. Gatomon and I should probably head south, too." Patamon's eyes were sparkling mischievously. "You wouldn't want to be late, either."

"Late?" Kari looked at the others suspiciously, but TK just pulled her by the hand to the gate and held up his D-3.

"Thanks for the help, you guys, and we'll see you soon."

"Bye! Congratulations!"

"Next time we'll go to the beach!"

"Love you both, bye!"

TK kissed Kari for a moment before moving back and grinning. "Digiport, open!"

Kari buried her head into his shoulder as the gate moved them back to the real world. "TK, just how long have you been planning this?"

"Well, I bought the ring back in early November, and that first date was the original time I was going to ask you. And every time since then."

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to postpone all your plans, TK. Is there any way I can make it up to you?" she whispered seductively. Before he could respond, she kissed him hard and ran her hands down his chest.

TK moaned softly before pulling away and earning himself a strange look from Kari. "I think we should go celebrate. You know, get dinner," he said hurriedly as Kari began to suggest another way they could celebrate.

Kari raised her eyebrows but shrugged. "Sure. Dinner does sound nice." She took his hand and led him into the hall, which was suspiciously dark. "Don't you normally leave a light on?"

The lights in the living room flared on at her words, and she screamed in surprise as a lot of voices shouted "Congratulations!"

"You guys!" Kari began laughing at the sight of the Digidestined and TK's parents, all of whom were crammed into the living room along with copious amounts of decorations. "All of you knew?"

"Yup, and that's why it was my job to make sure you didn't cancel again," Yolei snickered. "Hard work, but I obviously managed."

"We tried to rein in Mimi, Sakura, and Chloe on the decorations, but they couldn't be tamed," said Cody with a broad smile.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get some groove on in honor of tonight's featured love birds!" Davis pressed a button on a remote control, and music began reverberating through the room. Everyone made their way over to congratulate Kari and TK, and the last couple brought tears to her eyes.

"Tai, Sora! I thought you guys were going to be in Kyoto for Christmas!"

"We couldn't miss out on this, Kari," laughed Sora.

"Besides, Kyoto isn't looking quite as nice right now." Tai grinned and winked. "Tokyo offered me a league position right here in the city which looks a whole lot better on the grand scheme of things."

"Then congratulations to you, Tai," TK said happily.

Tai nodded, then straightened his back. Everyone in the room seemed to stop talking; Davis even turned down the music a few notches. "Now, I know you would never do anything to hurt my sister, but I have to tell you this on principle. Dad isn't here anymore to put the fear of god into you, so it falls on my shoulders to make sure that you know that if you ever hurt my baby sister in any way, you're going to be getting a not-so-friendly visit from her big brother."

"And me."

"And me."

"And me."

"And me."

"And me." Izzy, Joe, Davis, Ken, and Cody all nodded in serious agreement. TK just smiled and nodded back.

"You won't have to worry, because there will never be cause for a not-so-friendly visit," he said softly.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Mimi whispered loudly.

At the end of the party, Kari and TK were left alone. "Yolei reassured me that she's still waiting up for me," Kari said with an eye roll. "I think she wants help on the place cards."

"Well, then, she's just going to have to wait up for a while, isn't she?" asked TK wickedly before leaning down and capturing Kari's mouth with his own.

It was her turn to moan.

Khgirl08: There you have it! This is written to be a missing scene from Finding Her Light, but I made sure there's only a couple details that refer to it so nothing should be too confusing. If you haven't read it, feel free to check it out.

My biggest resolution for 2012 is to begin to publish the backlog of stories I have on my hard drive, as well as finishing the half-finished stories I have. There will definitely be Harry Potter, and hopefully I'll start publishing my Pokemon story and the sequel to FHL.

Until then, have a wonderful start to your 2012! Please review :)