This is not a lemon, but it sure comes close. I mean, like, *real* close. It's mere millimeters from lemonry--but it remains on the clean side of the line...well, the slightly clean side, anyway.

This story contains strange, unconventional things. You have been forewarned.

I do not own Digimon. I do, however, own a large plot of land in Antarctica. Or so my lawyer tells me. ^_^

This is Season 01, or, rather, shortly thereafter.

And on with the show!

~~

_agz_

~~

Tai was having some trouble processing current events.

*My sister is kissing me.* The thought rose up from the bottom of his brain like a balloon. The higher it went, the more frantic Tai became, until it bumped against the top of his skull and he just flipped out.

*My* sister *is kissing me, my* SISTER *is kissing me, my goddamn* SISTER *is* kissing *me!*

The balloon in Tai's head swelled like a rapidly-growing tumor, the string dangling down into his spine and sending jitters throughout his whole body. *My sister, my sister, sister sister sister sister--*

Kari moaned, and shifted forward, slipping her upper lip between her brother's.

*SISTER.*

The balloon popped with a BANG! that delved deep into the split between the halves of Tai's brain, cracking it with a sickly ripping sound that filled the boy's ears. His eyes went blank and dull, reflecting nothing, looking like pools of contained, stagnant brown sludge. As his left hemisphere began to break up, his eyes closed slowly, lids descending before his muddy eyes like garage doors. He slumped slightly, his forehead resting against Kari's, as he completely lost control of his thoughts.

Behind his heavy lids, the world became a backdrop of hazy pink, in front of which a shapely shadowed figure stood, arms spread wide and high, a massive flop of hair hanging between. Tai began to approach the figure, not walking or running, but seemingly floating towards it, as if propelled through space. As he neared, he realized that he was clothed and the figure was not, and that all the bits thought best covered in common society were right there in the open.

With this realization a small, round bulge appeared on the crotch of Tai's shorts, traveled up across the crease made by the zipper, and flipped up into position with the soft sound of shifting cloth. Huzzah, instant hard-on!

Back in his uniformly pink universe, Tai's scrambled mind was only just realizing that the figure was June. She gave him a mischievous wink, but he just barely saw it before his eyes dropped down to her chest. Visions of June's sugarplums dancing in his head, he leaned over and began to nibble upon her sweets. His hand gave one of the imaginary girl's buttocks a hard squeeze, and from there Tai was completely lost in the lustful fantasy.

* * *

Kari, too, had her eyes closed, but not to escape the goings on. On the contrary, they were shut to further savor the situation, which was, in the girl's mind, quickly approaching nirvana, heaven, Eden, pick a paradise, any paradise, they'll all do!

*Is this how it's always like?* she mused. *Will I fly every time I kiss?*

Soaring in her head though she was, she was really on all fours on the table, her right knee crushing her partially-eaten slice into a cheesy, greasy, pasty mess. In some part of her mind she registered the heat of the sauce seeping into the folds of her flesh, but that hardly mattered. She was riding the sky, friends and felons. She was *gone*.

Panting lightly, she slid her tongue past Tai's lips and caressed his teeth.

* * *

Reality, being a bitter and honest thing, chose to break away the shell of daydream at the pinnacle of Kari's flight.

* * *

A vibration on his lips, a foreign slug in his mouth. That was all it took to crack the fantasy.

It began with the nipple Tai was ever-so-eagerly consuming. In the blink of an eye he knew it was really his sister's lip he was gnawing on, not the older girl's nub. After that, the façade that was dream-June melted into ethereal slime that dripped and oozed into some invisible hole, where it was forever lost to the senseless boy.

From there, things snowballed.

The pink universe cracked, pieces of mental eggshell falling away to reveal the true world, where his sister was presently sucking face--namely his own. Orange light flooded his protective bubble, drowning the pink in fire, turning it all to ashes.

Now there was nothing between Tai and Truth.

He opened his eyes, which were quickly filled with more orange--had time really flown that fast? Had the sun really shifted so much? Was it really that late?--and took in the new connection he and his sister had just made, one of the lips and tongue.

He blinked.

He *screamed*.

* * *

True, it was muffled, and true, it was really no more than a panicked squeaking cry, but it was all it took to shoot Kari out of the sky.

Mind, heart, soul, and all hope plummeted like stricken ducks as Kari jerked her face away, eyes snapping wide to stare bleakly into her brother's face. She sat on her knees on the table, the mutilated slice giving out one final squeal as it was ground against the plastic surface, hands unconsciously coming to rest on her thighs.

She looked into Tai's eyes, and burst into tears.

In the same instant, Tai let out a roar that was more fear than fury, frightening only in that his utterance was:

"-KARI!-"

By the time her name stopped echoing, the girl was gone.

* * *

Realization was never something to come swiftly to Tai. This case was no different.

For minutes he sat there, just staring at the spot in the air where his sister had been, wondering if there *was* such a thing as reality, and if there was, why the hell did it have to do THAT to HIM? Why, world, oh why? What was your intent? What did you want? What's the *point*?

*I'm being punished, that's what it is,* he concluded blankly. *I've sinned by way of pornography, and now I'm being punished. Yes, that's it. What else could it be?*

He moved his head off his chin and looked down, unblinking, at his hands. With these, he had done much damage. Maybe he would go blind? How many kittens had he killed? Was he, for now and eternity, impotent, sterile, childless? Was he to go through life shooting blanks because he decided to partake in the sins of the palm instead of having sex within the sanctity of marriage? Was he doomed?

*Is all lost?* he wondered. *Is it all for nothing?*

"Am I evil?"

This last he spoke without knowing, and although no one heard, he still cringed. It was a valid question, now wasn't it? Was he a soulless sex fiend? A doujinshi addict? Could he pull himself out of this spiral? Was it not too late? Was there the possibility of retribution through repentance?

*When Kari and I get home, I'm going to go into my room, gather up all my doujins, and tear them, one by one, to shreds. Then I will go up on the roof and burn them in a trashc--*

*KARI.*

His despairing thoughts of sin were flushed from his brain, and even more desperate thoughts of Kari's fate and the predicament they were both in now became his new focus.

*She's gone.*

*She's gone in a place full of Unknowns--Strangers, People We Don't Know, Child Molesters, Kiddy Thieves, Pedophiles, I bet they're all here. She could be Gone. Worse, she could be being Used. As I sit here, the sour aftertaste of cheap pizza burning my tongue, she is probably being raped. Yes, that's it, she's being Raped. And here I am. Why am I here? Why do I continue to sit? I have to get up.*

*She's gone. You can't do anything.*

*Sure I can. I can find her. Or her remains, whatever's left.*

*She's not dead, dumbass! She's alive! She's just scared!*

*Oh? And why is she scared? Might it be because YOU YELLED AT HER?*

*"Screamed" is a better word.*

*Oh, you're mighty helpful, aren't you?*

*WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!*

*We do what we must.*

*Which is?*

*Find*

*her*

*NOW.*

The chair he'd been sitting in flew back from the table, rolled, tipping end over end, then hung in the air, legs raised high, balanced on a point, and clattered against the ground.

Before the rattle of the chair had finished, Tai had disappeared--as had his thoughts of blaming his collection of hand-drawn hentai for his present troubles.

One thing remained, however, and it rang in his mind like a gong's resonating tones:

*Am I evil?*

* * *

Tai dashed across the food court, intent on locating Kari as quickly as possible, and, if necessary, to defend her in any way he had to to keep her safe and whole. He was on a holy mission, one given to him by some metaphysical (or maybe ectoplasmic?) higher-up. Nothing could stop him. He was invincible. Unstoppable. Courageous and dauntless and--

And then he saw the crowded path, and realized--

*I've got no idea which way she went.*

He stopped and stood there, staring at this centipedal, shifting swarm of *Homo sapiens*, the one thing standing between him and finding his sister. Ominous though the sight was, his sense of purpose remained unshifting.

As he saw it, there were two possibilities: to the left, or to the right. The question was, which way?

He looked to the left. The centipede scrambled across the manmade path.

He looked to the right. More of the same. How repressing.

*Left or right? One way goes back to the entrance, the other...I don't know where the other goes...if I go one way, but that isn't the way Kari went, I'll just be wasting time and putting her into more danger.*

*Pick a direction, just DO SOMETHING.*

*But what if I go the wrong w--*

"Hey."

Tai blinked, then looked behind him.

The pizza guy waved at him, half-grinning. "She went thataway." He pointed.

Tai frowned, and pointed in the same direction.

The guy nodded, pointed once more, then turned away to tend to a new customer.

Tai's frown deepened. He turned to face the centipede again, turned back to give the pizza guy a doubtful look, turned back again, took two steps back, and ran full-speed towards the path, arms trailing behind him like the strings of balloons.

He pushed deep into that dark mass.

* * *

This second trip into the crowd found Tai struggling against two separate flows of people, who, though mindless in their movement, nonetheless seemed to be actively working against him. As he pulled and pushed and shoved his way past one person after another, he was constantly knocked into, sometimes mistakenly, sometimes with most ill intent. His head alone received several good whacks, sending it flailing from left to right. Bodies pounded into his sides, making him careen all over the path.

By the time he stumbled out of that mass he was horribly dizzy and sore. The horizon twisted and turned in his vision. The lines between the white bricks that made up the path began to curve and spiral. His eyes rolled around in his head.

He had pushed straight through the centipede, and now his body throbbed as a result.

"HEY THERE, LITTLE MAN!"

Tai, still ungainly and discombobulated, stared up at a garishly ghastly ghoul. It's red nose and white skin made its face seem to glow like the ethereal flesh of a ghost. The sun reflecting off its silver suit (which looked like a big Mylar trashbag with sleeves) made him flinch and look up--where six orange pompoms cycled through the air. They passed from one of the creature's hands to the other.

"HEY! HOW YA DOIN'?" it screamed, leaning in close to Tai's face, still juggling the pompoms, grinning at him with teeth that were even whiter than its dead face. "YOU LOOK DOWN, LITTLE MAN! WHAT'S UP? LOSE YOUR GIRLFRIEND?"

Tai pushed the loud clown away with both hands, sending the awful visage of its face back and *away*. The pompoms rose in the air--and dropped to the ground with soft *pff* sounds.

"Get *away* from me!" the boy screamed, hands still held out in front of him. "Get *away*!"

The clown gave him a scowl that defied his painted-on smile. "Fine, kid. Just settle down!" He got up, dusted himself off, and retrieved his pompoms. "Jeez, kids these days..."

Tai didn't bother to watch the madcap man go. He was too busy--

--desperately looking for Kari--

--examining his surroundings.

He was standing on the edge of a large, semi-circular, paved area of the park. He could see a good deal of booths scattered in-between all the people walking around; they appeared to be for dealers, not games. A Ferris wheel spun on its axis to the far right, and on the far left a couple massive concrete cubes--generic park buildings with generic park architecture (i.e., none to speak of)--sat like a child's discarded building blocks. Somewhere behind the Ferris the sound of roller coaster cars rumbling along a track could be heard waving in and out of range. Shrubs and trees lined the borders of this area, an attempt by the creator to make it look alive with vegetation.

It was neither the booths nor the rides that Tai's mind focused on. It was the people. Or, more specifically, the *amount* of people.

*There's too many. Too many. Way too many.* His eyes bulged as he took it all in. *I'll never find her in here.*

*Oh, but everyone who isn't supposed to find her* will, *won't they?* a sneaky, serpentine voice hissed in his ear. *They'll find her and take her and strip her and rape her and kill her and it'll BE ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT, won't it TAI?! You'll be ALL TO BLAME! ALL YOUR FAULT! YOURS!* YOURS *AND* YOURS *ALONE*!*

*Not my fault. Not my fault. Not my fault,* his mind rambled against that insidious voice. *No, it's not my fault, it isn't, it can't be, I didn't DO anything to her!*

*You let her kiss you.*

His head twitched to the side. *No.*

*Yes,* it sneered. *Yes, yes, yes. You let her do it. And you got an ERECTION! A grand ol' BONER! And you've still got it, don't you? It's still bouncing around in your shorts, isn't it? Flopping to and fro, a happy little sex-stick! What do you say to that, Tai? What do you say?*

*I say go to hell,* he thought with clenched teeth. *And stop bothering me, I've got to find my sister.*

*YOU WON'T FIND HER SHE'S DEAD YOU WON'T--*

*SHADDAP.*

Tai gave the area one last scrutinizing look, then stepped up to the side of the closest booth. The owner, a burly man with a buzzcut, raised an eyebrow at him.

"Have you seen a little girl about this high...?"

* * *

Twenty minutes passed in stealth as Tai ran from booth to booth, asking the same question at each one, and receiving the same answer in return. Between booths he'd ask the people walking around, and they, too, would respond with the exact same words:

"No, I haven't seen her. Sorry."

And then they'd move on, leaving the boy--working on becoming a young man--to continue his search with despair digging ever deeper into him, stabbing and cutting into his hope until it lay dead, blood pooling beneath it from wounds that cut down right to the bone. That bone was stripped clean, and then broken, marrow flying.

And lo, the lifeless corpse of hope is known as dread.

Tai stumbled up to the next booth, his legs aching, his head clouded by worry and growing fatigue. He leaned against the booth, trying to regain whatever energy he could. He looked up, eyes bleary, and said, without even looking at the owner, "Have you seen a little girl this high--" He raised his hand to about Kari's height. "--with brown hair down to here, brown eyes, wearing a yellow shirt and pink shorts?"

The answer came. He sighed, pushed away from the booth, took two steps and stopped dead. He turned his head to look back at the owner. "*What* did you just say?"

The owner pointed with one long-nailed finger. "I said, 'I think I saw her go in there.'"

Tai followed the finger, eyes widening as realization dawned on him. "Oh. Thank you."

She peered at him. "Kid, are you all right? You look like shit."

Tai gave her a blank look.

She shook her head and waved her hands in the air. "Fine, fine, I won't ask. Just go." When he continued to stand there, looking blankly, she made a shooing gesture with her hands. "Go!"

He went. With steps that grew steadily more stable and speedy, he went, his head clearing, eyes focusing, and all the aches and pains invading his body retreating in defeat. Adrenaline, oh adrenaline, how we love thee.

He charged right up to one of the blocky park buildings and stopped in front of the door. A blue circle with a white stick figure of a person wearing a skirt etched into it was nailed to the surface. The ladies' lavatory. He took the doorknob in one hand.

Suddenly, all sound seemed to drop away. The buzz of human activity ceased to exist in the park. Human heartbeats grew quiet and breathing stilled. It was as if all the Earth's atmosphere had been swiftly siphoned away and replaced by a noiseless, airless vacuum.

A vacuum in which Tai was the Great Attractor.

Tai suddenly felt very, very self-conscious.

There was a baby of nine months in a stroller just to his left whom he was *sure* was staring at him. The mother pushing the stroller was gazing at him with wide eyes. A passing single father gaped at him as he walked past, head turning to remain focused on him. Everyone around him was looking at his hand on that shiny silver doorknob, or at the blue-and-white emblem on the door. He felt a sudden rush of heat in his fingers, and knew that even the sun was staring.

*It's in my mind it's not real none of it is real none of it don't think about it don't don't don't even consider it don't don't don't think about it don't don't don't even muse upon it don't don't don’t' don't don’t DON'T THINK ABOUT IT.*

His resolve firmed, he gripped the knob tighter and began to turn.

"Mommy, why is that boy standing there?" queried a little girl.

His resolve faltered, his fingers went slack.

*This is so childish,* he thought, squeezing his eyes shut tight. *I* need *to go in there. I* need *to find Kari, and if this is the last place* anyone *saw her, this would have to be my best bet so far.*

*So just step inside.*

*I can't!*

*DO IT.*

The knob turned. The boy entered.

* * *

Tai stepped inside--

--and was rewarded with a sudden revelation: this place didn't stink of urine with a faint trace of feces, like a men's room would. Instead, there was the sickly-sweet smell of mixed perfumes, a noxious miasma of thick and fruity smells, accented by the bitter odor of hairspray. It had its own stench, for sure, but it was an almost pleasant trade-off.

Once in, Tai took one step and froze again, his body caught between the door and the frame, the knob pressing into his belly. What if there was someone else inside? What if there were *grown women* in there? What could he possibly say that wouldn't have them instantly breathing down his neck? It was foolhardy to think that "Hey, don't mind me, I'm just here to find my sister. Why isn't she with me? Well, y'see, she kissed me on the lips, and then I yelled at her, and..." would go over very well with the more motherly types. He was bound to get knocked upside the head with a heavy purse for just about anything he said. He wasn't even supposed to be in this bathroom in the first place, now was he?

What to do, what to do...

"Screw it." He moved forward and into the room, letting the door fall into place with a louder-than-life clicking sound. He winced, shoulder jerking up towards his face, and half-turned to glare balefully at the door.

Something made a soft shifting sound in the bathroom behind him.

Tai's body tried to jump and spin at the same time. This resulted in one ankle catching on the other and sending him crashing, ass-first, to the ground. The spot where he'd been pinched earlier cried out at the sudden impact, and he let out a tiny wail of protest.

The sound of his cry echoed in the tiled room, then faded into nothingness, leaving him all alone in the silence.

Tai just sat there on the floor, staring at the tile between his legs. He sat, and waited for some matronly woman of thirty or forty to come stampeding out of one of the stalls, screech at him, and clobber him good with her handbag.

No such thing happened. Eventually he looked up and, detecting no one in sight or in sound, got up. There was an insistent pulsing pain coursing through both of his buttocks, but he felt he could stand (ha-ha) that without much effort.

The bathroom was divided into two halves: on one side there was a row of sinks and soap dispensers, on the other a line of salmon-colored stalls. Both stretched from the far wall to about five feet from the door, where they stopped abruptly. The fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling were almost blindingly bright, and did not allow for the existence of shadows. They cast a bluish hue across everything in the room. Tai had to blink several times before his eyes adjusted to the light, and even then was forced to keep his eyes down.

Eyes half-squinted, he stared at the stalls.

"Kari, are you in here?"

Echo, echo, echo, no reply.

He took one step, two steps, three steps, four. He now stood in front of the first stall. "Kari?" He pushed on the door--

--empty. One step, two steps. Push--

--empty. One step, two steps. Push--

--empty. One step, two steps. Push--

--empty. And on, and on, and on. He passed by two stalls whose doors were already ajar, a hefty lump rising like a freight elevator in his esophagus. Maybe the lady with the long nails had been wrong. Maybe he'd misinterpreted her directions. Maybe he'd gone into the wrong building. Maybe the lady had seen a different girl, one who'd already left the bathroom when he'd come in. Maybe maybe maybe maybe.

Maybe she was in this last stall.

The lump settled into place just below his vocal cords as he stretched his arm out and pushed on the door--

--opening the stall, which was just as empty as all the others.

She wasn't in here.

Damn. It.

The lump rose, lodging in his throat and nearly choking him. He made a nasty noise and held a hand to his mouth. He'd almost thrown up. That would've been pretty. A puke-covered boy, wandering around, looking for his sister. Yeah, in that get-up he could get ALL the help he wanted.

"Dammit Kari, where *are* you?" he muttered, and shuffled over to the door.

* * *

He had his hand on the knob when a heavy thump filled the room with its sudden, rocking clamor.

The lump disintegrated. His eyes widened, and he turned--this time successfully--and half-walked, half-ran back between the rows of stalls and sinks.

"Kari?!"

No reply.

"Kari, I *know* you're in here." He stuck his head into that first stall, examining every inch of it before moving on to the next. "C'mon, Kari, come out." Second and third stalls were empty. "Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you. You surprised the hell out of me." The fourth and fifth stalls were vacant, as well, and he felt the lump reappear in the pit of his stomach. "Kari, *please* come out." He ran his tongue over his lips, which had chapped considerably in the past thirty seconds. "C'mon, stop screwing around. You're scaring me. C'mon." He heard his voice crack on the second 'C'mon,' and he knew he was sweating like a pig, and that his face was flushed from running around, but he didn't care. What did it matter how he looked, or if his fear was showing through the cracks?

He just wanted to know his sister was safe.

He poked his head into the sixth stall, looked forward, looked right, looked down, looked left, looked up, and STARED.

And then he laughed.

"Shut up," Kari growled.

Tai stumbled into the stall, grinning and chuckling. He pushed the door closed and locked it in place, the whole time trying not to just burst into peals of laughter.

"Now," he began, swallowing some of his sudden good humor. "Do you want to tell me just how you got yourself up there, little lady?"

Kari glared at him from her rather...unique position. Her arms were stretched over her head, where her hands held the coat hook screwed into the back of the door in a deathgrip. Her legs were folded up like a frog's, laid flat against the smooth surface of the door. Her teeth were grit tightly against one another, and her face was even redder than Tai's. Trails of sweat shone on her face. Sister on a hook, get 'em while they're hot!

She looked him straight in the eye and said, "I jumped."

"Did you really?"

"Yes."

"When I came in?"

"Yes."

"So...you jumped in the air, just managed to grab hold of that hook, and hung there while I searched all the stalls? All without making any more than a rustle and a thump?"

"Yes."

"Liar."

"...am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too." He leaned up against the side of the stall, still grinning, and watched his sister try to weasel out of her predicament.

"How would you know?"

"I just know. Do you wanna get down now?" His grin was gone now, replaced with the most serious look he could muster.

Kari squirmed a bit, then nodded. Tai could see her cheeks fill with blood as she blushed, and decided to refrain from making any more wiseass comments. He wrapped his arms around her waist, waited for her to let go of the hook, then slowly lowered her to the ground.

When he looked at her again, she too was wearing a somber face. Hers, though, was one to be taken for more seriously than his. Tai immediately kneeled next to her--ending up with his foot in the bowl of the toilet--and peered into her face. He didn't say anything, just watched and waited.

Kari opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry."

Kari blinked and looked at Tai, her mouth still hanging open. She shut it, then opened it again. "What for?" she asked, hands unconsciously rubbing one another, trying to get the pins and needles out.

"For yelling at you. I don't know why I--well, okay, I do know why, but--I can't believe I--can you ever forgive me?" he rambled.

Kari blinked again. She tilted her head to the side. "Why are you sorry? *I* was the one that kissed you. *I'm* sorry."

Tai flinched. He couldn't argue with that.

That wouldn't stop him from trying, though.

"Look, about that--"

"You were mad at me, weren't you?" She wasn't looking at him anymore.

Tai paused to smack his lips noisily a few times, then tried to go on without seeming as panicked as he really was. "No! Why would you think that?"

"I saw it in your eyes." She turned her foot back and forth on the tip of her shoe as she spoke. "Before you yelled at me, I looked in your eyes and I saw that you were very very angry. You were *mad*."

"No I wasn't! I was--" He stopped short, unable to find a descriptor for exactly what he *had* been. "I was--" He snapped his fingers and stammered into a conclusion. "I-I-I was scared! You startled me! I wasn't mad!"

"Liar."

"...am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

Tai frowned. "How would you know?"

Kari caught his eyes with hers. "Because I saw it."

Kari: 1. Tai: 0. "I'm not mad anymore."

"I know."

"You saw it in my eyes?"

"I heard it in your voice."

"Oh." He swallowed. "Kari...why did you kiss me?"

Kari gravitated to the corner of the stall furthest from her brother. "..." Her eyes were aimed down at the ground.

"Oh, c'mon, please talk to me." He stared at her pleadingly, willing her to communicate. "I promise I won't be angry any more."

She twisted her shirt in her hands.

"I swear. Come on, Kari, when have I ever broken a promise?"

A phantasmic smile touched the edges of her lips. "What time is it?"

Tai scowled, forcing his mouth downward to keep himself from smiling. Sometimes she was too funny for her own good. "*Real* funny, Kari. I'm not *that* bad." *Am I?* part of his mind asked, but he dismissed its words instantly; he had just discovered that he had something new to say. "Look, I swear on Agumon, okay? Is that good enough for you?"

Kari turned her face towards him. "You promise not to get angry if I tell you?"

"I swear on a big orange dinosaur, I do I do." He half-grinned. "I will not get angry, so help me Agu." His grin, pathetic as it had been in the beginning, faltered dramatically as he looked at his sister. She wasn't smiling. She wasn't frowning. The expression she wore dropped his body temperature by twelve degrees. It was nothing short of apocalyptic.

His mouth was suddenly very, very dry.

Kari began to speak, and he listened.

"I kissed you because...well, because...because I...because..." She slid down the wall until she sat on the floor, her eyes peering between her knees. "Because...because...because..." And then her eyes took on a glazed, glassy look, the look of someone who is detaching their mind from their body to shield themselves from some unavoidable cataclysm. "Because...well, because I just love you. I've loved you ever since you and Agumon came back home...after you went back I just sat in my room and cried. I didn't know why until it was all over and we were out of the Digital World. It's because I love you, and I don't know what do about it."

"Why do you..." Tai felt the lump stir in his stomach. He knew that when Kari said "love" it wasn't the normal kind, the kind that only went as far caring for the person. It wasn't simply platonic, the friend-to-friend or brother-to-sister type of love that's *supposed* to be there. This was pure, untainted and unrestricted love they were talking about here. There were no walls in this love. If the person you loved were threatened, you would think nothing of sacrificing yourself for their safety. If they were hurt, you would do your all to comfort them. If they were happy, you couldn't help but be happy, too.

This was love unshackled.

"Why do you...love me?" The lump traveled up his throat just a bit. Just enough to be uncomfortable.

"Why?" she said, and Tai was stunned to see her smile in her half-dazed state. "I love you because...I don't know why." Her brow wrinkled. "Does *anyone* really know why they fall in love with someone? One time I asked Mommy how she fell in love with Dad and she couldn't tell me. She just said 'It happened, just like that!' and snapped her fingers." Kari laughed. "I guess that's what happened to me, too.

"Today was supposed to be a date, you know." She turned her head to look at him, her eyes suddenly alive and awake again. "Mommy and Dad don't even know we went. I wanted to ask you out all by myself."

*A date?! Ask me out?! WHAT?!* Tai thought hazily. His mind swam with the concept.

Kari continued. "I got you a prize, I paid for dinner, and I kissed you." She giggled shrilly. "I guess I did everything I was supposed to, if the movies and the books and all my friends are right." She looked around at the bathroom with an exhausted sigh. "I don't know why, but I really don't think any of them are.

"After all, you don't love me," she whispered.

Tai stared at her. "Wh--"

"You love me, but not like I want you to." She stared up at the super-bright fluorescents, tears just beginning to drip from her eyes and roll down her cheeks. "And don't try to deny it," she croaked, voice thick and low. Her eyes closed as she laid her head back and cried.

Tai was caught in information overload. *When did my sister get so wise?! When had her thoughts become so deep? How come I never noticed it?* He goggled at Kari, completely unable to say anything. *Is this what being a Digidestined did to her? If so, damn Gennai and his prophecy!* He made a fist and closed his eyes. *Kari, I'm so sorry...you were the Eighth, the last, and look what it did to you.* He opened his eyes as an equally disturbing thought crossed his mind. *What did it do to* me *? What did it do to* all *of us?*

He looked at his sister, who looked back unblinkingly through her tears.

*And what am I supposed to do about my sister LOVING me?!*

A long silence stretched between them, broken only by the sound of Kari's soft sobs and Tai's labored breathing.

"Kari..." he whispered after a few minutes.

The girl lifted her head to look at him properly. "What?"

"You know..." He swallowed. "You know that loving me like that is wrong?" He almost choked on that last word.

She nodded. "That's what Mommy said. But I don't really care."

"Y-you told Mom that you love me?"

"Yeah. I don't think she thought I was serious, though. She was making dinner. You know how she is when she's making dinner."

Tai smiled slightly. "Yeah. She can't take her mind off it for even a second."

Another silence.

"You don't hate me, do you?"

"No."

Kari looked into his eyes. "Good."

"I thought so."

"But," she went on. "You don't love me, either, right?"

One more silence, the longest of them all. Kari watched Tai, outwardly calm but inwardly anticipatory, full of little girl energy. If she hadn't been sitting in the corner of a stiff stall on hard tile floor with the weight of knowledge on her shoulders, she would have been bouncing to and fro.

Ten days, hours, minutes--Kari couldn't tell which--later, Tai spoke, his eyes boring into hers, brown unto brown.

"Kari...an hour ago I would've said 'no' right off the bat. Now..." He shook his head. "...now I don't know...I can't even think right now...too much, too soon, too little time to absorb it all." He squinted. "I can't even see properly, let alone think.

"I'm going to have get back to you on this, Kari, because I don't know."

Eyes on eyes. A staring contest with no known purpose.

Tai won.

"Okay." Kari got up and wiped her eyes with her wrists. "I'm going home."

She opened the door and was gone.

And in her absence Tai began to cry.

* * *

* * *

My baby's got a heart of stone

Can't you people just leave her alone?

She never did nothing to hurt you

So just leave her alone

The motion of her tiny hands

And the quiver of her bones below

Are the signs of a girl alone

And tell you everything you

Need to know

I can't explain it

I feel it often

Every time I see her face

But the way you treat her

Fills me with rage and I

Want to tear apart the place

You try to tell her what to do

And all she does is stare at you

Her stare is louder than your voice

Because truth doesn't make a noise

No, truth doesn't make a noise

Truth doesn't make a noise

--"Truth Doesn't Make A Noise," by