As His Heart Hopes...

If not for Hope, his heart would break

The two sets of footsteps continued down the hall. One set sped up and within seconds reached the doorway. Before T.K. could even plan a course of action the owner of the footsteps revealed themselves.

A head peeked into the doorway, at about waist level, the small navy beanie perched on it staying perfectly in place. Baby blue eyes scanned the room in one swift motion and widened when they fell onto T.K. 

Wait...

Uri? 

"There you are, T.K.!" the young boy smiled before yelling over his shoulder, "Ephram! He's in here!"

"Uri! You can't just barge into people's offices." Ephram's footsteps quickened and within a moment he stepped up to the doorway and knocked on the frame. "Sorry to intrude, Takeru, but this one refused to stay put. He's also developed a new level of crazy..."

Ephram shakes his head, while Uri triumphantly puffs out his little chest. T.K. relaxed a little, feeling the weight of  his fear lift off him. T.K. looked from Uri to Ephram and back again. "Do I even want to know what that means?" 

"Well...since Ephram was just gonna sllllloooooowwwwllllyyyyy let things happen between the two of you; I used every ninja skill I've learned in my power to-"

"He remembered you mentioning being with an Izzy today; so he stalked your social media to find Izzy, then stalked his social media to see where he worked, then he coaxed me into a 'walk'  telling me to put this address into my phone's GPS...and we're here." Ephram interrupts a flush dancing across his cheeks. "I'm so sorry. Sometimes he's beyond control." 

Ephram's eyes break contact with T.K.'s and its as if he only just noticed the group of T.K.'s friends silently gauging the situation. Ephram instantly grew nervous, only a slight chuckle escaped.

"I'm not! I regret nothing! I could join the FBI or something!" Uri smirked, an unrelenting smile gracing his face. 

T.K. watched as Uri glanced from him to the rest of the Digidestined present, "Hi there! I know you're Izzy; but I didn't get a chance to find the rest of you on social media! But I'm Uri! And this is Ephram!"

"Uri!" Ephram brings his fingers up to the bridge of his nose, as if his little brother was causing him a headache. "Lets add that to the list of things you don't open with when talking to strangers. Otherwise, it is a pleasure to meet some of T.K.'s friends. I was beginning to fear I was the only one."

"That's okay," Sora said, looking between Ephram and T.K. before squatting to be at Uri's eye level. "Its nice to meet you, Uri. I'm Sora." She holds Ephram's gaze for a minute. "And the pleasure is mine, Ephram. I'm sorry I can't stay and chat but my friend, Mimi, and I were just leaving." 

 "We were?" Mimi asked, confused. T.K. shook his head and caught Ephram unable to hide his smile. "I wanted to stay and chat. I have so many questions for Ephram...And Uri! Of course! You both seem really great! I wanna know all the details; like how you met T.K. and well, quite frankly, what Ephram's intent-"

"Mimi!" Sora, T.K., and Izzy shouted in unison.

Izzy was the one who followed through as T.K. took notice of the fires searing Ephram's cheeks, his smile gone. "I'm sure that Ephram and Uri didn't come here to be interrogated...They seem like they came for some time with T.K...So for the love of T.K., lets leave them to chat. Shall we?"

Sora chimed in, "Yeah. We'll go to the mall and if T.K. needs anything he'll be sure to let us know now, right T.K.?"

"Yes, mom." T.K. joked as he walked over to hug her. "But we'll be fine."

"Better than fine I imagine." Mimi added not so subtly, "He's cute. But he better be good to-"

Ephram takes a step forward to rest a hand on a huffing Uri; Mimi's questioning seemed to have left a sour taste in Uri's mouth. 

With his hand resting on his little brother's shoulder, Ephram locked eyes with Mimi. "If I may? To answer your questions;  Takeru and I met when he decided to play in traffic. I tried to recreate a heroic scene from the movies and ended up as just a way to break his fall. As for my intentions; I have none other than to see where this goes. Truth be told...I like Takeru, but I cannot be selfish. I can't just force him out of the closet. This is his journey to self-acceptance, and I am just a side character..."