As His Heart Hopes...

All his lively Hope and gracious fear...

Tonight is the night, T.K. thought to himself as he walked towards the concert hall. He firmly left one hand resting on his purple fedora in hopes of keeping it on his head as he hurried down the oddly empty streets. "I have to at least tell him."

T.K. quickened his pace as the image of his brother, Matt, filled his mind. They had never been extremely close but after their very first adventure in the Digital World, they shared a bond. And as destiny would have her way, that bond was tugged this way and that, putting more distance between them than whipping them closer than they had ever been. 

But even though he and his brother had gotten closer through their shared connection with all of the Digital occurrences over the course of the last few years, T.K. had shrugged off any opportunity to share with Matt what he was slowly discovering about himself. Matt was just like the others-he was married to the idea that T.K. would eventually marry Kari...

And although T.K. did love Kari, being wed to her was not in his plans. He first realized that when he had laid eyes on Ken Ichijouji. Sure, he and Ken had opposing viewpoints on-well, everything-but T.K. first felt a physical attraction to Ken that opened him up to the realization that he may in fact be into guys rather than girls. But that attraction was short-lived and replaced with a rage that made it easy to suppress any feelings he may have been struggling with. Even to this day, he feels nothing but anger towards Ken, he had just gotten better at faking other emotions.

And when he and Kari encountered the American DigiDestined Willis, T.K. knew immediately that Willis made him feel things that Ken nor Kari could ever make him feel-and the latter he had known his whole life. The interactions between himself and Willis were scarce, but just being in his presence made T.K.'s heart jump. And when they parted ways, when Willis laid a kiss on both Yolei and Kari's cheeks it was the first time T.K. felt a sting of jealousy-he wanted to be on the other end, and he envied that it was his best friend there instead. 

Since these feelings had manifested, T.K. had slowly started pulling away from Kari. Their crests may go hand-in-hand but in the real world, without a threat of Digital destruction, he felt it was his first chance to separate from expectations, do his own thing, and...breathe. 

Exhaling, T.K. reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. With only a quick glance at the walk signal, he looked down at the time. But before he could understand whether he was late or not, when he was at least halfway across the street, his senses were overloaded. 

He heard someone laying on the horn and turned at the sound of squealing tires, quickly realizing that he was unable to see because of the blinding sunlight that glinted off of the approaching car's windshield. His immediate reaction was to freeze, and he began screaming internally for himself to move; This isn't going to help you! Stopping isn't gonna save you from the car. Oh god...Oh no...

Unable to form a coherent thought, T.K. shut his eyes at least hoping to be saved from seeing his own demise-until he felt hands awkwardly wrap around his waist from his right. With an unflattering grunt, T.K.'s eyes shot open as he felt a sharp, and uncomfortable tug coming from the arms holding him-twisting him a little and allowing him to see the car fly past where he was frozen, just moments before. With the momentum, he watch as the street transitioned into sky, before a deep sigh sounded from beneath him...

What is under me? Wait..underneath me...? Oh. 

"Crap," T.K. spoke as he tried his best to gracefully unpin whoever had just saved his life, facing away from them to avoid further embarrassment. "Sorry...I was checking the time, and I thought it was safe but apparently not." 

He instinctively reached up to his hair as he chuckled nervously and he panicked slightly when he couldn't feel his fedora. His hats have always been a security blanket of sorts for him; he couldn't explain why though. And so he spun around to face his savior in hopes of finding his hat on the ground and then just being on his way.

Instead, he came face to face with a young man about his age. The pale boy was using his hands to rid his sandy hair of dirt when T.K's eyes rested on him. T.K. easily stopped trying to form other thoughts and just stared-this boy was cute from what he could see and he had just saved him...Matt will understand if I am a little late, besides once...once I tell him that I..that I'm--

"No, my apologies really. That scene went a lot more gracefully in my head...It looks so easy in movies." The boy's voice broke T.K. out of his thoughts. This cute boy looked up at T.K. with bright chartreuse eyes-the color of yellow and green married together in perfect harmony-and simply smiled, "I'm Ephram, by the way. Ephram Meyer."

"Takeru Takaishi. But everybody calls me T.K.," he spoke the words never breaking eye contact with Ephram. "Thanks, uh, thanks for saving me. I just need to pay more attention."

"Or you could use a partner-you know, someone, to watch your back. To keep you entertained and outta trouble," Ephram responded, confidently at first, and then he seemed almost shocked by his own words. "Okay, so that, too, sounded more graceful in my head...I only meant to imply that I could walk you to your destination while trying not to use the terminology 'walking buddy...'"

T.K. felt the tugging of his smile as he watched the sandy-haired boy blush madly, "And what did you think I would think you were implying...?" 

Ephram opened his mouth and shut it again multiple times trying to form the right words. T.K. smiled brighter, lightly shaking his head as he waited for the boy to speak. Why is this so easy? Wait. Ephram was afraid I would take his comment a certain way then maybe...? Could he be...?

"Ah...you know, forget it. Maybe we can talk about it some other time..?" Ephram finally said, breaking T.K.'s thoughts again. He smiled once more, this time a little more defeated-and turned to leave.

"Wait!" T.K. spoke before he could think about stopping himself. He watched Ephram stop in the bright afternoon sun, and turn with a look of confusion on his face. 

"Yeah?" Ephram asked something in the soft, vulnerable way he spoke that almost made T.K. choke on this new courage. 

I hope this works...

"You don't want to be my walking buddy, anymore? It's kinda obvious I could use one." T.K. said with a smile that he hoped would comfort Ephram, as he rested a hand on the back of his head.

It took a minute before Ephram pivoted to face him completely. The blush had returned to his cheeks, and the smile rested on his plump lips once more. "That, dear Takeru, is a dire understatement. But I would gladly walk with you for a little."

T.K.'s heart jumped when Ephram called him 'Takeru,' and he blushed once more. "I had hoped you would say that. But...can you help me find my hat first?"

At that, Ephram filled the streets with laughter. Laughter that made T.K.'s heart soar and his stress of coming out to Matt feel a million miles away. 

Once he was finally able to speak again, he touched T.k.'s shoulder and shook his head, "You, sir, are a hopeless mess."

But all T.K. could do was smile. Maybe you, Ephram, can change that...That's what I'm hoping for...Hopefully, you are too...