Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Mixed Feelings ❯ What's My Niche? ( Chapter 1 )

Mixed Feelings

What's My Niche?

Disclaimer: I, like every Digimon fanfic writer here, do NOT own Digimon: Digital Monsters!

Note: I wouldn't doubt that every digimon fan that watched the ending of 02 was all like "NOOOO! IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!" because that's what I was thinking too. The couples that ended up were all wrong, and so were their occupations. Except Kari and TK, they ended up together (yay!) and I can see TK being a novelist and Kari a teacher (but I was somehow thinking she'd be a photographer too). I've always wondering why 02 ended the way it did, so, here's my 'how it came to be' fic. I was told in a recent chat that the ending couples were

Tai and Jun (Yeah, I know, not what we were expecting, but that's what I was told.)

Matt and Sora (Why? Why? Why?)

Izzy and Mimi (It doesn't make any sense to me and Mimi being having a cooking show? When did she show any interest in cooking anyway?)

TK and Kari (The only winning couple, I think. At least ONE of my fave couples happened!)

Ken and Yolei (Did Ken ever say that he liked her or flirted with her ONCE?)

Whoever Davis, Joe and Cody ended up is still a mystery. So that's why I made up 3 lucky ladies!

Enjoy the fic and I hope it answers some of your questions!

Years have passed for the digidestined and the whole world knew the story about the digital world and the creatures that live there, or once lived there. It was time for them to concentrate on getting an education, finding a job and maybe some romance?

Tai had always known what he wanted to be when he grew up. He told everyone about it all the time. He was convinced his 'calling' was to be a professional soccer player and he played soccer all the time until it made him sick. He had just graduated high school and was saving up for college. He was playing soccer by himself, imagining that his team and the opposing team was tied and he was working for the tiebreaker. It happened to be raining that day, so he just put it in his daydream and added the cheers of fans, people doing the wave and a few drunken men with their shirts off, painted in the colors of the team they were cheering for.

"He shoots, he scores!"

Tai shouted and kicked the ball in the net.

He sighed and went to pick the ball up for the fiftieth time that day. Suddenly, he lost his interest in soccer. Sure, it was all he ever wanted. Running around on a grassy field, kicking a black and white ball around, the crowd cheering him on, but what was the point of it all when Sora wouldn't be there to be part of it?

He could remember the great times they had. It was a little different having a girl on a all boys' soccer team, but he got used to it real fast. They even had conversations about their dreams about playing soccer professionally. Tai felt his eyes water when he remembered how his relationship with Sora went down the drain.

Flashback

"You're leaving the team?" Tai asked, shocked. "How come?"

"I just thought I'd give tennis a try," Sora responded. "See what else I'm good at."

"It won't be the same without you."

"Yeah," she sighed. "I know."

"Well, good luck," Tai forced out.

"Thanks, Tai."

But it didn't take long for Tai to find out what really happened. She left the team because she started to have feelings for Tai. Maybe it would be different, but they could've worked it out, couldn't they? They've been good friends for years.

End Flashback

"If you were having feelings for me, Sora," Tai said, slowly walking off the field and sitting on a bench, "Why didn't you just tell me in the first place? Why did you have to run to my best friend?"

Flashback

"Hey, Sora," Tai began nervously, "Are you going with anyone to the concert?"

"No," she replied.

"Well, would you like to go with me then?"

"No, I wanted to see if Matt was free afterwards," she said.

"Oh," Tai mumbled.

"Are you mad?" she asked.

"No, I'm not mad," Tai responded, 'just totally crushed, that's all' he added mentally then said, "You and Matt just have a fun time."

However, the concert wasn't going to be very fun after all. A digimon ruined the concert and debris was falling right were Sora had been standing. If it weren't for Matt, Sora would've gotten hurt, or killed even. Sometime after that, Tai and Sora talked about the real reason why she left the team and now she started to like Matt. Tai handled it very well, though he had a strong feeling to punch Matt right in the nose. And he intended to right after the digimon madness was over. He had no trouble finding Matt. He sitting in the mess the stage, trying to clean it all up after the digimon wrecked it. Matt covered his frustration with a laugh.

"Well, I'd say my concert was a big hit, huh?" Matt asked, dropping the boards.

"Yeah," Tai muttered, clenching his fist. 'Why don't I just do it already?'

"Something on your mind, Tai?" Matt questioned with a raised eyebrow. He stood up
"I heard you saved Sora," Tai said. "Thanks. I should've been there."

Matt nodded and put his hands in his pockets, "I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"Listen, I know," Tai said.

"Huh?"

"I know," Tai stressed. "Sora told me about everything. I know."

"Okay, go ahead and do it," Matt said, "I deserve it."

"What?"

"Punch me, go on." He took his hands out his pockets and motioned to Tai to come forward. "I stole your girl Tai and deserve to be punished. I shouldn't have done what I did and I'm sorry, man. It just sorta…happened. So hit me. That's why you came here, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah."

"So go ahead and do it already. It might not make Sora come back to you but we'll see. It will make you feel better, won't it?"

Tai laughed, "are you serious?"

"Yeah. I feel kinda bad for getting involved with her anyway. I shouldn't have done it but I did and I'm really sorry. Come on, Tai. You never hesitated to hit me before, remember?"

"Right, okay," Tai said, popping his knuckles, "but only 'cause you asked." Tai gave Matt his best punch in the face ant Matt fell over with a bloody nose and lip.

"Now that's the Tai I know," Matt said, wiping his lip and Tai offered him his hand to help him up. "Feel better now?"

"Yes, a little," Tai replied, "but I'll feel a lot better if you hit me too. Your turn."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Get real Tai," Matt said. "I have no reason to hit you."

"Yes you do," Tai insisted. "I was the coward that let Sora go in the first place."

"Okay, you're nuts, you know that?" Matt asked.

"Just hurry up and do it before I change my mind." Tai commanded.

Matt grunted and socked Tai in the face, creating a black eye. Tai stumbled but didn't fell down. "We really shouldn't let a girl get between us, you know."

"But Sora's not just any ordinary girl," Tai said.

"Yeah, I know. Hey, if you get lonely," Matt suggested, grinning, "you can always call Jun!"

"Please don't make me hit you again," Tai told him.

"Shutting up." Matt said and the two best friends shook hands.

End Flashback.

Tai smiled. He may have lost the only girl he truly cared about to his best friends, but he knew she was in good hands. Matt wasn't really the one to blame anyway. He was just trying to be a friend and that's the best thing Matt was good at. Sure, it took him a while to understand why he had the crest of friendship, but he found out that he was the best person for it. It was Tai's cowardliness that let Sora leave. He just forgot he was the crest holder of courage at the worst possible time. Tai stood up and sighed. He walked passed a trashcan then at his soccer ball. He didn't want to be a soccer player anymore. It would just remind him of what he had lost. He could always be something else. Without a second thought, Tai tossed the soccer ball in the trashcan.

Tai walked home, feeling ten times better and wondering what he wanted to do now that was soccer was scratched off. His concentration was broken when he heard grunting and fuming coming from across the street. He saw Jun Motimiya throwing stuff away herself.

"Stupid Matt, he thinks he's better than me!" She broke a CD and threw it away and ripped up a poster and love notes she wrote to him and even her cute boy T-shirt after ripping it into shreds. "Why? Why? Why?"

"Hey, Jun, um, something wrong?" Tai called.

"Oh, what do you care?" she demanded, stomping into the trashcan to throw in more of her Matt memoirs. "I know you're best friends with that, with that two-timing traitor Matt!"

"What are you talking about? You two weren't even dating!"

"Oh, that's what you think!" she snapped, "but he was the love of my life! You don't know how I feel!"

'Actually, I do,' Tai thought but didn't say anything.

"And I thought you liked Sora, at least, that's what I heard!" Jun said, "if you held on to her then I'd be with Matt right now!"

"You're blaming your misery on me?"

"Yeah!"

Tai bit his lip and clenched his fist. She was even worse than Davis. Then Jun started to bawl.

"I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have said that!" Jun sobbed. "I know it's not your fault, I mean, I don't know what it is between you and Sora anyway. It's Matt!" she snarled. "Oooh! It's all his fault! He doesn't know the first thing about friendship! He doesn't care about anyone but HIMSELF!"

"Stop it!" Tai shouted. "That's not true! You are so wrong! Matt's my best friend! Friendship is all he knows! You don't know him at all! If you had just given him a little space, maybe he would've called you sometime, but you scared the living crap out of him!"

"Huh? Really?"

"Yeah."

"So, Tai, um--"

"Jun, what are you doing?" Davis demanded. "First Matt, then Jim and now Tai? Quit looking for love in all the wrong places!"

"That's not what I'm doing!" Jun snapped.

"Leave him alone, I'll never get a date with Kari now!" Davis shouted. "Run Tai! Hurry and don't look back!"

"Davis, shut up!" Jun chided.

"I uh, better go--" Tai said, stepping back.

"Hey, wait--" Jun began but Tai turned and left. She looked at her brother and smacked him.

"What was that for?" Davis demanded. "I was just trying to save my sister from getting a broken heart…and me from total humiliation!" Davis walked in with a hand on his face.

"Davis, you idiot! He was about to ask me out!"

"Yeah, sure he was!"

*****

Tai though about his conversation with Jun when he got home. He found Kari doing her homework.

"What happened to your soccer ball?" she inquired, looking up from her math book. "Did you kick it in a tree again?"

"No, I um," he said, "Threw it away."

"You what?"
Tai shrugged, "Didn't want it anymore."

"But it's always been your dream to be a pro soccer player!" she exclaimed, "Are you nuts?"

"Maybe."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I dunno," Tai replied. "I can do anything if I tried hard enough. Heck, maybe I'll try politics."

"Politics?" Kari sniggered. "Oh, please, Tai, the day you become a politician, that'll be the day I become a supermodel! Won't our parents be proud?"

"You don't think I can do it, can you? My own little sister!"

"Don't be silly, what do you know about politics?"

"Well, at the moment, not very much but that's what colleges are for!"

"Then as your sister, I wish you the best of luck! Ha-ha-ha!"

"Yeah, you just remember that, Kari! I'll show you, I'll show everyone!"

"Don't expect me to fill out any modeling applications soon," Kari said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, when I do become an ambassador, there's no way mom and dad would let you become a model!"

"Of course, I wanna be a teacher, you know that!"

"I hope so," Tai said.

"Besides, I'm too short anyway."

"And TK would never let you model anyway," Tai added.

"Exactly!"

******

As for Matt, he was still trying to be a songwriter and musician and so far, he hasn't shown any sign of being anything else. He's been playing with his band for a couple of years and they're still popular, then out of nowhere, their drummer said he was going to go to college.

"What, college?" the keyboarder gasped. "Why would you need college if you're the drummer to the only coolest band around?"

"Hey, not forever," the drummer replied. "Besides, you guys should think about college too."

"Shouldn't we try to get money first to pay for it?"

"I have an idea," Matt said, writing a few ideas down, "for a new music video. For 'Out of this world.''

"Go on," the drummer prompted.

"Well, how about we have an outer space theme."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, of course."

"You mean, fly to outer space, land on the moon, and go around the planets and stuff?"

"Not exactly, but--"

"No way!"

"Huh?"

"I'm not going to outer space!"

"We wouldn't really go to outer space," Matt said, "We could do it all right here. You know, we play in front of a blue screen but it would look like we're actually on the moon or something. What do you guys think?"

"I think it's a wild idea," the guitarist said, "let's do it. You can do anything with these computers and stuff now. Ha-ha, can you guys see Matt as an astronaut?"

The other guys laughed around and even Matt chuckled. "Hey, wouldn't that be weird?" he said, but for some reason, it sounded like a pretty good idea.

He met up with Sora later on to tell her the news. She was at her mother's flower shop sketching something.

"A music video, huh?" She said. "That sounds like fun. When do you guys start shooting?"

"Tomorrow," he responded, "Izzy's going to help me with it. Sora--what is that?"

"Huh?"

"What are you drawing?" he asked, "Since when did you become an artist?"

"Oh, this?" she said, blushing a bit, "well, it can get a little boring here and sometimes I sketch to pass the time." She held up her sketch that was a picture a faceless model wearing a unique garment.

"Hey, that's pretty good. You should become a clothing designer or something."

"Oh, be serious, Matt," Sora told him.

"I think you can do it."

"You're just saying that," she insisted.

"No, I think you can be anything you set your mind too. What do you want to be?"

"Well, it used to be a professional soccer player," she said, counting on her fingers, "then a pro tennis player or tennis coach, but I'm not sure if I want to play tennis anymore either. I'm just a big quitter."

"You are not."

"What do you mean?"

"You're just looking for your niche," he said, shrugging. "Right now I want to be a musician but I might not always want to be one. Besides, if I'm going to lose my drummer, I'd better start thinking about my future too."

"My boyfriend the philosopher," Sora said, rolling her eyes.

"No, that's Izzy," Matt corrected.

Sora turned and flipped through a catalog of flowers. "Well, if your band ever wants to make a music video with flowers, you know where to find me."

Matt laughed, "My keyboard player is allergic to them. I'll let you finish whatever you were doing. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Sounds great, Matt."

As Matt left, Sora glanced at her sketch. For some reason, designing clothes was something she wanted to get into. She picked up the phone book and looked up different colleges.

To Be Continued