Title: Reality Check
[
P] [
1] Chapter 2: The Fantasy Ends [
3] [
E]
Series: Digimon Adventure
Rating: PG
Characters: Sora, Mimi, Yamato, others appear
Pairings: Mira, some Michi, mentions of Daikari, Jyouto, and others
Word Count: 3038 / 9572
Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei, Bandai, and related entities, not me; this is a not-for-profit fanwork.
Warnings: Femmeslash, slash.
Summary: Sora and Yamato pretend to date to hide the fact that they are gay. When Mimi returns, however, she throws a wrench into their charade.
Mimi continued to blink for a while, dumbstruck. After pausing for a while, she smiled. "Sure, why not?"
Taichi grinned. "Really? Wow, Mimi... I... don't know what to say!"
Mimi giggled. Sora, however, was left to stare at the two in shock. She needed to get out before she said anything she was going to regret. "Oh no..." she said suddenly, as the trio reached the parking lot where the others were. The entire group looked at Sora expectantly. "I was... supposed to meet Yamato in a few minutes, his practice is almost over. I almost forgot. I guess I won't be able to go to lunch with you guys after all." She tried to fake a regretful smile and climbed into her car. "See you around." Without waiting for a response, she sped off.
Angry tears collected in Sora's eyes, but she refused to let them fall. How could she have not seen it coming? Mimi had boyfriends frequently; if Sora never told Mimi how she felt, something like this was bound to happen sometime. She tried her hardest to ignore the burning sensation behind her eyes.
Sora focused all of her energy on driving. She didn't have a destination in mind, but somehow, subconsciously, she found herself driving towards the dance hall that the owners had kindly allowed the Teenage Wolves to practice in during the daytime, when they didn't rent it out. She decided to make her lie into the truth, and give Yamato a visit.
Letting herself into the dance hall quietly, Sora tried not to disturb the practicing band. She took a folding chair from the wall and opened it up, throwing herself into it dejectedly, watching the band. Her eyes met Yamato's briefly and she offered a weak wave, to which he responded with a nod and kept singing:
You've got a boy, you've got a girl
Sittin' underneath a tree
They sit there everyday
Turn Around. Sora always was partial to that song. She didn't know why, really; she just always liked it. Vaguely, she recalled that this was also Mimi's favorite song off of his CD.
Mimi... every single thought seemed to lead back to her. Sora submitted to her emotions, and finally let the tears she had been holding back fall freely.
Yamato clued in to this emotional disturbance soon after its onset, and immediately interrupted the practice, setting his bass down against one of the large speakers. Takashi, who played rhythm guitar, sighed. "Yamato, our biggest gig in two years is coming up three weeks from now..."
"I know, but my girlfriend is over there crying..." Yamato replied pointedly, hopping off of the slightly elevated stage and walking Sora out of the hall.
"And you wonder why you never have a girlfriend," Yutaka quipped from behind the drum set, receiving a glare in return.
Akira sighed after a pause. "Well, this isn't the Yamato Ishida Band, you know, we can be productive without him. Let's play the new one you wrote, Takashi." Both guitarists nodded in agreement and Akira started on the opening guitar solo.
Outside of the door, Sora and Yamato leaned against the concrete precipice of the building. "What's wrong, Sora?" Yamato asked.
"Everything," Sora sighed. "Mostly the fact that Tai asked Mimi out, and she accepted. I don't know why it was so surprising, and I'm probably overreacting... but everything just seems to be falling apart in front of me lately."
Yamato placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "I know the feeling, believe me." He gave her a sympathetic smile. "Every time he-" Yamato stopped, as if correcting a mistake "-never mind, but I definitely know the feeling." Sora raised an eyebrow questioningly, but said nothing. "After practice is over, we can go get some ice cream, or whatever else'll cheer you up, my treat, OK?"
A slight smile pulled at the corner of Sora's mouth. "Alright. You know what, Yamato? You're a great pretend boyfriend, and whoever it is that doesn't return your feelings for whatever reason... well, he's really missing out."
"Thanks, Sora." A smile brightened Yamato's features and he wrapped an arm around Sora's shoulders, the pair reentering the dance hall. "Sounds great, guys!" he told the band, trying to shout over the music, as he climbed back up onto the stage, took up his bass, and found his part in the music.
"Sora! I know you're there! Pick up!"
As Mimi's voice blared out of her answering machine, Sora sighed, knowing she'd have to comply. Mimi would never give up. She placed the handset to her ear. "Hello?"
"Oh, there you are, I was beginning to think you were trying to avoid me!"
Mimi said this with a hint of laughter, but Sora sweatdropped. 'If you only knew...' She forced a laugh. "Of course not, Mimi. What's up?"
"I'm great, but that's not the issue. How are you doing? You've been kind of distant for a while."
Sora bit her lip. "Have I? I hadn't noticed." She began to pace back and forth, as much as the phone cord would allow. She never was a good liar, bur it was usually her facial expressions that betrayed her. Would Mimi be able to tell over the phone?
"Oh. Well... I'll just put this bluntly. Sora, are you and Yamato having problems with your relationship?"
"No! Of course not, what made you think that?" Sora smacked herself in the head. That answer came much too quickly, Mimi'll suspect something for sure. Sora became more nervous with every second of silence from the other end of the line, but finally, Mimi spoke.
"I don't really know. But that's good to hear. In that case, would you guys like to double with Taichi and I tomorrow night?"
Sora almost choked. "Uh... Yamato's working tomorrow night." That was true, and it still sounded like she was lying. Sora sighed in frustration. "Maybe next time?"
"Yeah, maybe. Well, you sound busy or something, maybe I should be going."
"Alright." Sora smiled. That's what it sounded like? "Talk to you later, then."
"Yeah, later."
Sora hung up the phone, ready to bang her head against the wall. She let out a scream of frustration, and decided she needed to get out of the house. 'Things just keep getting better,' she thought. Now she was really torn. Mimi was genuinely concerned about her. She'd have to come clean about her feelings sometime, or just continue to avoid Mimi like she had been doing, and continue to hurt her.
What Sora needed was some good old-fashioned objective advice, and so she went to the guy with all the answers.
"Oh, Koushiro!" Yoshie Izumi called happily. "You have company!"
"Tell Miyako it would be beneficial if I was left undisturbed," Koushiro mumbled dismissively.
Yoshie shrugged at Sora. Not having heard Koushiro's response anyway, she said, "Just go to his room. You know how he is."
Sora smiled. "Yup, he's lost in whatever he's doing on that computer of his, I'm sure," she said as she proceeded to Koushiro's room. Peering into it, she learned she was right, but she had no doubts that she wasn't, anyway. "Hi Koushiro," she said. "What are you doing?"
"Hello, Sora. Your visit is quite unexpected, yet desirable," Koushiro told her.
Sora grinned. "Let me guess, Miyako has been bugging you about a date?"
"Indeed. She visits often, and appears to have formed an alliance with my mother. The both of them have their minds set on disturbing me from my work as often as possible." Koushiro still typed, and hadn't glanced up at Sora once.
"Well, that's a good thing. We all thought we were bringing you out of your shell a while ago, but you seem to have reverted or something." Sora laughed and peered over Koushiro's shoulder at the window filled with typing. "What is this?" she asked again.
"I'm trying to write a program that will calculate the surface area of solids, having edges defined by polynomial type functions, by using their integrals," Koushiro told her, grinning. "It has proven to be quite a challenge." Sora sweatdropped and nodded. She didn't say anything - Koushiro probably already knew that she had no idea what he was talking about.
Koushiro saved the file and ran it. "Ah, I see there is an error," he said, sweatdropping as his computer froze. He restarted it and finally turned to Sora. "What brings you here?" he asked.
"I'm in need of some advice," Sora said. "I was... asked for advice on this myself, and I didn't really know what to say." Koushiro nodded as Sora paused, indicating for her to continue. "A friend of mine has one of those huge, undying types of crushes on this girl. Well, the girl got herself a boyfriend just as my friend was getting ready to tell her about the crush. My friend practically went into depression.
"Now, they have a close friendship, and the girl notices something is wrong and is very concerned with my friend. My friend knows that not telling the girl will cause her pain, but feels however that it would be inappropriate to tell her, considering she has a boyfriend.
"That is pretty much the whole situation, and when asked about it, I was completely boggled. Do you have any ideas?" Sora asked, finally finishing the story.
"Hm..." Koushiro thought about it for a while. "It would seem to me that the best course of action would be for your friend to tell this girl that he is interested in her. The girl would not be able to make a decision properly without all the facts. With that information, she may decide that she would rather date your friend than her current boyfriend. If not, at least she knows how he feels, and options are now open considering she breaks up with the current boyfriend in the future."
Sora smiled. "Thank you, Koushiro. That's really helpful. You always were so great at looking at a situation from all the angles."
"You're very much welcome," Koushiro replied. "Is there anything else?"
Sora considered this, and then grinned. "You and I need to hang out sometime. Outside somewhere, away from computers." She laughed at Koushiro's nonplussed expression. "You will, even if I have to drag you there myself!"
Koushiro sweatdropped. "They're all against me..."
Sora walked into Yamato's apartment casually, as if it was her own. "Hey, Yamato, what movie are we watching tonight?" she asked.
"I don't know," Yamato replied, holding a stack of DVDs out to her. "But, with things the way they are lately, it definitely has to be a comedy." As Sora had made her selection, he went to return the remaining ones to the DVD rack. "You know, Sora, I've been thinking."
"You have, really? That's great!" Sora quipped.
"It's great to know your sense of humor is in good shape," Yamato returned sarcastically, "but I was thinking... that maybe, it's time to level, you know, come clean with everyone. Get out of this fake relationship. Because at this point, it's only just making everything worse for us."
A relieved sigh escaped Sora's lips. "I'm so glad you just said that," she told him.
"Why's that?" Yamato asked.
Sora smiled. "Well, I went to talk to Koushiro this afternoon. I told him about my current situation indirectly. In his opinion, the best course of action would be to tell her that I like her, so that when she knows all the facts, she can make the best decision concerning Taichi and I. I think he has a point."
Yamato frowned in thought. "Hm. He does have a point there. Never thought of it like that, really."
"So we'll tell the others soon?" Sora asked hopefully.
"Better than soon. We'll tell them tomorrow. We can have everyone meet at the dance hall, right before the band and I practice. Now, what do you want to do about your parents? For me, I think it's about time everyone knew, I'll have them come down too. Are you comfortable telling your parents at this point?" Yamato paced the room while talking.
Sora frowned. "Not really... but it's better just to tell everyone at one setting and have it over with," she decided.
Reaching for the remote, Yamato grinned. "Great. You tell your parents to meet us there, and I'll get mine and send an email out to the other Chosen. This hidden nightmare will finally be over."
Sora smiled at Yamato, taking the remote from his hand as she sat down beside him. "Perfect. And now, for the movie."
Mimi flicked through the channels lackadaisically. She wasn't concerned with what was on the television; she just stayed up waiting for Sora. She had left a message telling her to come over whenever she got home from where she was, and that it was urgent. That was the only tactic she had left to use - Sora was definitely avoiding her, and she had an idea why.
The sound of the buzzer startled her from her reverie. Looking through the tiny hole in the door and, seeing wisps of red hair, hurriedly unlocked the door. "I'm glad you came, Sora, I wasn't sure if you would or not."
"Of course I would, you said it was important. I just got back." Sora stepped into Mimi's apartment.
"At..." Mimi peered up at the clock. "...eleven thirty? Where were you?"
"Yamato's." Sora shrugged. "We usually watch a movie on one of the nights we're both off work each week. So what was so important that you'd have me come over here in the middle of the night?"
Mimi looked at the floor sheepishly. "Nothing was that important. But you're avoiding me and I was afraid you'd just delete the message if I left a regular one, or if I called you, you might hang up. I needed to talk to you face to face."
"What about?" Sora asked.
Mimi frowned, noting that Sora didn't address the avoidance at all in her response. "About what I just said! About why you are avoiding me!"
"Listen, Mimi," Sora started, "I'm not avoiding you. I'm just busy, is all. The girl that usually works afternoons for my mom has been really sick for the past week, and usually she tries not to ask me to help out because I used to hate it so much, but she had to."
Mimi glared at Sora, and her eyes widened. She looked taken aback. "Don't lie to me, Sora!" Mimi almost shouted. "I know what this is about."
"You... you what?" Sora blinked at Mimi.
Mimi took a few steps closer to Sora. "Of course I do, it's been obvious from the start. It's because of me and Tai being in a relationship."
Sora still blinked, almost in shock. "It was that obvious?" she asked. Her tone softened a bit. "But how can you hold it against me?"
Another glare. "Because you have Yamato, of course! I knew there were problems with your relationship from the start, when Taichi told me about when you got serious about it at that concert, and you didn't tell me for another three months afterward! You have Yamato, and now I have Tai! If you were attracted to him from the beginning you shouldn't have broken his heart by choosing Yamato over him!" Tears trailed down Mimi's cheeks, which were bright red with anger - and hurting her friends was the thing that made her the angriest.
Sora felt a surge of anger within her as well. "Oh, this is what you think this is about? You think I'm jealous of you because you're with Tai?" Mimi nodded, crossing her arms. Sora walked over to the door, but suddenly spun around. "That's not even close at all!" She threw the door open and was about to leave when she once again turned to look at Mimi.
"Maybe the real truth is the one thing you didn't think of! Maybe the truth is that Yamato and I didn't take our relationship seriously because we were only pretending to go out in the first place! Maybe we just put on this act so that people wouldn't know the truth, that we're both gay, and that I'm in love with you!" Tears streamed down Sora's face now. She tried to keep up the angry tone but failed. "I bet you didn't think of that," she softly sobbed as she slammed the door and ran down the hall.
And Mimi was left to stare at the door, open-mouthed and disbelieving.
Sora was in love with me! I couldn't believe it at first.
But the more I thought back on it, the more I saw the signs. She cared so much about me, and I always thought it was only as best friends, because I thought I felt the same way. Could it be...?
Was the reason why I could never find true love because I was looking in all the wrong places? Was it because I dated guys, as culture and tradition dictated, without even considering that I could love another woman?
Could Sora be the one for me?
After being with Taichi for only that short while, just like with my other boyfriends, I knew he wasn't the one for me. I agreed to date him because we were friends, and love could have grown between us... but it didn't. There just wasn't that... spark. Something inside just told me that I didn't love him.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to hurt Tai - out of all of my boyfriends, he was the one I was closest to before entering a relationship - but I knew I didn't love him, at least, we didn't love each other in the same way. At the same time, Sora said she loved me, and, to be fair, I should give her a chance. Maybe that was the missing puzzle piece in my relationships... maybe, deep down inside, I never even liked boys at all. But...
I was so mixed up! I wondered, what happened to my simple life?
Unfortunately, things weren't about to get any simpler for any of us.