#mimato in the bg being best couple 🫶🏻

[ashxketchum]

Taiora - Hugging them from behind.

Is it ok to ask for Sora to be the one hugging Taichi?

+ smirking in a way that suggests more requested by @xnananko

Thank you for the request Anon, and for letting me know that you wanted Sora to be the one to initiate the hug. Though I'll be honest, when I first saw the notification of the ask, I could only read the first part and I'd already decided that Sora would be the one hugging so I'm glad our thoughts matched up 💖

This fic is set in a post adventure canon divergent au aka no 02/tri/kizuna/epilogue etc 😌

Hope you guys like reading it, posting something Taiora related after 7 months 😅

🧡~~❤️

Taichi would be lying to himself if he said that he had remembered Sora’s birthday correctly.

In fact, in the week leading up to it, he kept thinking he was forgetting something important but couldn’t put a finger on it. Until he arrived at school that morning and passed by Sora’s classroom, almost doing a double take noticing the crowd that had gathered inside. He’d always known that she was the kind of girl who made friends with people easily, but it was when he saw seniors and juniors alike handing her little packages and wishing her enthusiastically did Taichi realise, that maybe he didn’t know Sora all that well after all. He’d quickly made his way back to his own classroom, a little grateful that they weren’t in the same class this year and he could take this time to think about how he was going to make it up to her.

A distant memory of a failed gift from his childhood appeared in Taichi’s mind, how when he’d assumed what was better for Sora without asking her how she felt, it left her feeling upset with him during a crucial Digimon attack. He reminded himself to not make a mistake like that again, lest a wormhole opened up above their school and dropped more evil Digimon which Sora might refuse to fight against together with him.

All jokes aside, Taichi knew that he had to act and act fast. He texted Koushiro casually, asking him if he’d gotten anything for Sora at school, trying to make it seem like that he just wanted to check whether it was better to hand over the gift later, outside of school. His friend replied almost instantly, stating that he’d handed his gift to the birthday girl right at the school entrance this morning. Taichi tried his best not to curse under his breath, he’d seen a glimpse of Mimi’s pastel hair in Sora’s classroom, so he knew there was no point in asking the chirpy brunette. So as a last resort, he turned in his seat and came face to face with his best friend.

“You forgot Sora’s birthday,” Yamato muttered dryly, not looking up from the book he was reading, as if this conversation didn’t deserve that honour.

“Yeah.” Taichi accepted his fault, knowing that there was no point in trying to hide the truth from someone as observant as Yamato.

“And?” Yamato turned the page of the book he was reading and still did not seem as invested enough in this problem as Taichi would like him to be.

“Did you get her anything?”

“I’m dating her best friend, Taichi, so of course we got her a gift. As a matter of fact, we handed it over to her yesterday itself.” Yamato stated this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and it was Taichi’s fault that he hadn’t figured it out yet.

“And you didn’t think of reminding me?” Taichi asked, exasperated by his best friend’s cold behaviour.

“What am I? Your assistant?”

“No, I’d like to think you’re my best friend, but apparently not.” Taichi gritted his teeth and turned away from Yamato, letting his head drop on his desk with a loud thud that scared some of his classmates seated around him.

“Just go to the convenience store during lunch and buy her some chocolates.” Yamato offered in a much softer tone than before, maybe the best friend comment seemed to get to him.

“It’s Sora! I can’t just buy her cheap chocolates for her birthday.”

As much as he wanted to hide his guilt and frustration with himself, it was hard to keep the emotions in when he felt so helpless. With his current track record of gifting stupid stuff to Sora, he wanted to make sure that this time around he’d get her something she would truly like. Of course, to do that he should’ve strived to remember her birthday correctly in the first place. However, Taichi still felt that if he had time on his side, he could make up for this blunder and walk up to Sora with the perfect gift in his hand. Maybe Yamato had figured his intentions out too, because he heard his friend sigh loudly behind him.

“I’ll help you in avoiding her today,” Yamato said.“Just make sure you go buy a gift after school and hand it over to her in the evening.”

“You’d do that for me?” Taichi raised his head and looked at Yamato with shining eyes.

“Yes. I am your best friend right?” Yamato smirked as he turned his attention back to his book.

It seemed that Yamato and Mimi were addicted to texting each other in between classes, which is how his best friend was able to figure out Sora’s schedule for the day, and that made hiding from her a very simple task for Taichi. He managed to keep his profile low the entire day, only stepping out from the comfort of his classroom when it was time for his afternoon soccer practice. But he wasn’t worried about getting caught then since most of the school would’ve emptied by the time his practice was over and Yamato had mentioned something about Sora making plans with Mimi for the evening.

And that’s why, as practice went on and Taichi completely immersed himself in the sport, he let his guard down, ruining all the effort he’d put into staying under the radar during school hours.

He stood gulping down water from his sipper at the edge of the soccer field. Their Coach had wrapped up practice with a few words of advice and while most of his teammates were heading back to the locker room, he considered if he should stay back for about thirty minutes to work on his weak points. He’d already figured out what he would buy for Sora, so he knew he wouldn’t take too much time in getting the gift to her, which should free up some extra time for soccer right now. The sun had only just begun to set and Taichi viewed the orange hue that had started to spread across the skyline with a hint of confusion.

Before he could reach a decision, however, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist.

Taichi felt his whole body tremble as a familiar and sweet, flowery scent reached him along with the warmth that spread across his back as someone pressed themselves against it. He was frozen to the spot and colour rushed into his cheeks when he looked down and noticed the slender arms that now rested comfortably around his waist. The dimmed rays of sunlight made the beige coloured skin shine like bronze, making his fingers twitch with an ache to trace his name slowly across her arm.

“Gotcha!” A soft giggle reached his ears as he felt a chin rest upon his shoulder.

Taichi tried his best to not jump as an electric sensation ran across his body through his ears, the part where Sora’s breath had tickled against his skin still buzzing. His heart began to beat fast when the fact that Sora’s chest was now touching his back registered in his panic stricken mind.

Deep down he didn’t mind the proximity, especially when Sora had been the one to initiate it.

He was used to letting his hand brush past hers or bumping his shoulder with hers when they walked side by side. He didn’t try to hold himself back when he sat next to her, letting his knee rest by hers, letting his head fall onto her shoulder for a quick nap. He never hesitated to take her hand into his own when they walked through crowded streets or ran to get to school on time. However, Sora had never done anything like this before, sure she played along with him when he tried it, but in those few moments when he expected this of her, she’d shy away by averting her gaze or moving further apart.

Something about today must really be different for Sora to suddenly hug him from behind like this.

With all the willpower he could muster, Taichi pried her hands away from his body carefully and took a few step forwards, so he could turn around and face her with a nervous smile.

“Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you.” She returned his smile in full, cherry eyes filled with excitement as she looked at him.

“You’re quite the popular girl today, huh?” Taichi joked, an attempt to hide the anxiousness of being caught before he had the time to get her a gift.

“Is that why you didn’t come to see me all day today?” Sora folded her arms across her chest, tilting her head as she passed him a confused look.

“Yeah.” He lied, swallowing the nervous gulp in his throat with great difficulty, “Almost couldn’t find you, what with your ladies in waiting forming a wall around you.”

Sora narrowed her eyes at him, he could see the gears in her mind turning as she dissected his words and behaviour. He squirmed under her gaze, finding it difficult to hold his ground, he looked up at the sky instead and started to whistle in a low tune. If Sora hadn’t figured out he was trying to hide something from her till now, he knew that this would’ve definitely given him away. As expected, in the next moment she shook her head and sighed tiredly.

“You forgot it was my birthday today, didn’t you?”

“No, I did not! I totally remembered, you just looked so busy-”

“Oh, Taichi please don’t lie to me today.” She interrupted him with a raised hand and he hated how disappointed she sounded. This was the exact opposite of how he’d expected their conversation to go once he finally decided to face her today.

“Just admit that you forgot, I won’t be mad at you,” Sora said, letting her hands drop to her side so she could fidget with the hem of her uniform skirt.

“I didn’t forget.” Taichi reasserted, though he had no idea from where he was getting the guts to lie so confidently. “I...I even- I even prepared an amazing gift for you.”

Since he’d already dug a hole for himself with the first lie, Taichi decided that he might as well dig a little deeper. Looking at the sudden spark of interest that spread across Sora’s face, he felt more motivated to keep going with the plan he’d just come up with a few seconds ago, despite how utterly crazy and reckless it was.

“Really?” She asked him, eyes wide with hope as she stared at him.

“Yeah. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should get you this year.” Taichi cleared his throat and took a step forward, reducing the distance between them slightly, “But nothing I saw seemed like the perfect gift that I know you deserve, so I came up with something else. Something...something I couldn’t have given you in front of everyone else.”

The sun had pretty much disappeared against the tall skyscrapers of Tokyo, which left the sky drenched in deep shades of purples and oranges. The violet hues danced off of Sora’s auburn hair, surrounding her with a reddish glow that made it hard for Taichi to look away from. Her bright eyes were fixed on him, anticipation bubbling through them as a pink tint spread across her cheeks. What he was about to do next scared him slightly, but looking at her right now, when she was surrounded by a mesmerising radiance that beckoned Taichi to come closer, he knew that he was taking the right step.

This might not be the gift he’d originally thought of, but it was still a perfect gift nonetheless.

With that thought, Taichi took another step forward to close the distance between them.

He cupped Sora’s chin in his hand and tilted her face upwards, pressing his lips to hers gently. He smiled against her lips when he felt both her hands clutch onto his t-shirt as he leaned deeper into the kiss. A soft moan reached his ears when he used his tongue to caress her lips, tasting her orange-flavoured lip balm. He raised his other hand and traced his fingers across her cheek, feeling her soft skin at his fingertips just so he could remind himself that this wasn’t a dream, but he really was standing on the school soccer field and kissing Sora.

The thought jolted awake his rational side and Taichi pulled away from the kiss abruptly, darting his head around to check if they were being watched. He sighed with relief when he noticed that the lights were out in the school building and the field was completely deserted as well. When he turned his attention back to Sora, he saw that she was still clinging to his chest as pouted up at him.

“So..uh..yeah, happy birthday,” Taichi murmured as he avoided looking at her eyes, feeling the repercussion of his bold move flood to his cheeks in the form of a hot flush.

“Hm. I wouldn’t consider it a happy birthday yet,” Sora said as her lips curved upwards and she let her gaze drop to his lips.

“Uh, I don’t understand-”

“Come on, Taichi,” Sora smirked at him as she stood on her toes so she could lean closer towards him. A mischievous glint danced across her dark, rosy eyes as her smile and low tone suggested more than what her innocent words let on, “You can still give me a better gift than that, right?”

Taichi held his breath for a moment, waiting to see if Sora would laugh and push him away, claiming that she was just joking. But when her eyes stayed fixed on his face and her hands continued to hold onto his chest tightly, he allowed himself to grin as he snaked one arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

“The birthday girl’s wish is my command.”

🧡~~❤️