The Best Part About Being Gay

~*~

"Taichi, you throw the lamest parties ever."

Well, fuck. It only takes someone like Yamato to say that.

"Let me remind you," I retort, "that Hikari conveniently kicked us out of the living room, where I thought we'd be all night. I didn't exactly plan for us to be in my bedroom the entire time with nothing to do." I decide to add, "You can leave anytime you want."

"Well, jeez, Taichi, no need to get all bitchy on me."

I sigh as I look around the room. Yamato's in his normal lifeless state and Jou is looking around the room aimlessly. Daisuke is staring out the window and Ken is just looking at the floor. Koushirou's decided to make himself inconvenient by just looking at me, waiting for me to suggest something. Iori "regretfully declined" to be here, and Takeru, well, the only reason he's in the living room is because he gets "special privileges" by being my younger sister's significant other. Whatever those other "special privileges" are, they better be rated PG, because otherwise a certain Takaishi will end up wishing he's never been born. But considering all we've heard is the occasional bunch of giggles, I can only imagine that he's being suffocated by estrogen at the present moment.

"So..." Daisuke decides to break the silence. "How 'bout a game of truth or dare?"

Jou groans. "If it includes me having to dress up in any girls' clothing whatsoever, count me out."

There's a general chuckle. We still have the blackmail pictures from that.

"Don't worry, Jou, we'll go easy on you this time," Yamato assures him. "Well, there's nothing else better to do. Everyone wanna play?"

"Sure." Ken gives a little smile.

"I'll play," I say, taking the weight off my hands and leaning forward. I turn to Koushirou, hoping maybe I'll be able to pry into his privacy, which I haven't been able to do very often. Can't help it. "Koushirou, you in?"

"Okay, Taichi-san." He smiles at me. Damn him.

"Alright, sweet! I'll go first," Daisuke offers. He looks around the room for a moment. "Hmm..." Then, he rubs his hands together mischievously. "Ken!"

Could've guessed.

"Truth or dare?"

"Hmm..." Ken thinks for a moment. "Dare."

"Great!" He gives a small, evil laugh, but honestly, Daisuke doesn't have the capacity to be evil, no matter how hard he tries. "I dare you to go in the other room and scare all the girls by convincing them you're the Kaiser again!"

I could've pummeled him. First of all, that was a lame dare. Second of all, why the hell would he have him pretend to be the Kaiser? That's probably going to tear open closed wounds or whatever!

"Fine."

We all seem a little surprised when Ken gets up as though it's no big deal and goes into the other room.

"Daisuke, why the hell would you ask him that?" Took the words right out of my mouth, Yamato.

"What?" He looks at us as though it's no big deal. "Ken and I joke about the Kaiser all the time. He says looking at it humorously makes it hurt less."

We don't really know what to say to that, but considering that Daisuke and Ken are best friends and that the girls are screaming in the other room, I guess it's okay.

Ken walks back in with a smirk on his face. "They didn't appreciate that very much."

Daisuke laughs while we kind of give an obligatory chuckle.

Stupid Daisuke.

Ken sits back down and immediately asks, "Jou-senpai, truth or dare?"

Jou flinches, but then he says, "I'm going to be safe this time! Truth!"

"Okay..."

I think Ken is still pretending to be the Kaiser, because the look on his face is downright creepy. Or maybe he does still have his evil side to him.

"If you had to copulate with any of the girls in the other room, who would it be?"

Oh yeah. Definitely an evil side.

We're laughing as Jou turns bright red. "I, uh, um... I dunno! What kind of question is that!?"

"Gotta answer, Jou," Yamato chides.

I can't help but laugh, because if only Mimi-chan was here...

"Well...I-I guess Miyako, 'cause the other two are taken..."

Metal picture. Not pretty.

"Hmm. You're right. Should've thought about that beforehand." Ken turns to Daisuke and says, "See, I told you I'm not as smart anymore."

"Yeah, okay."

...I'm not even going to ask.

"Yamato!"

"Mhmm?"

"Truth or dare?"

"Eh...I'll stick with truth."

"Okay..." Jou thinks for a moment, then suddenly he gets a look on his face. "Have you and Sora-san...done it yet?"

He blows off the question like it's ridiculous. "Plenty."

Jou's mouth drops open while we all laugh.

"Unfortunately, Jou-san, that's what happens when you go to juku," Koushirou says, patting him on the back sympathetically.

"Wait...you all knew!?" We all nod. "What? I can't believe I didn't hear about this..."

We're still laughing when suddenly, Takeru opens the door. "Koushirou-san?"

"Hmm?" Koushirou looks up.

"Hey...something's still wrong with the video games...can you help?"

"Oh, sure." Koushirou gets up and, in his usual polite way, feels to need to excuse himself. "I'm sorry, everyone."

"Having fun out there, Takeru?" Yamato teases.

Takeru just rolls his eyes and lets Koushirou pass before he simply closes the door.

I sigh. I hope Koushirou doesn't take too long, 'cause I really want to ask him something... What, I'm not entire sure. I don't want to seem as though I'm particularly interested or something –

"Taichi."

I look over at Yamato. "Yeah?"

"Truth or dare?"

Yamato looks at me with an unusually serious face. Suspicious as all hell.

"Gotta stick to my Crest, you know: Dare."

"Perfect." His expression turns into a rather...diabolical one.

Great.

"I dare you..." he starts slowly, "to go into a bathroom during school, and while you're at the urinal to turn to the guy next to you and say, 'This is the best part about being gay!'"

There's silence for a moment. Then everyone bursts out laughing. But I'm just petrified. No...I'm pissed. Because there's Yamato with that stupid smirk, knowing full well that I am gay and just trying to embarrass the fuck out of me...and let it get all around the school!

Evil! Just evil! Because I know that he'll tell everyone if I don't do it...he doesn't even have to tell me that. It's understood.

Blackmail. Ugh.

"Fine."

His smile remains. "Glad to see you understand, Taichi."

"It's okay, Taichi-senpai. We'll make sure to tell everyone that you're not actually gay if it gets around the school," Daisuke says.

I try not to let the irony affect me too much. "Thanks, Daisuke."

That's only made Yamato's smile wider.

Well, at least Koushirou wasn't here...

Speaking of Koushirou, I'd ask him next, but since he's still in the other room fixing our video games (which I've been meaning to ask him to do for awhile now, anyway), I decide on Daisuke. "Daisuke! Truth or dare?"

The rest of the game is mostly filled with lame truths. There are a couple funny dares including Daisuke dancing around in his underwear in front of the girls (and a mortified Takeru and Koushirou) and Ken wearing Hikari's hairclips for the rest of the night. After awhile, I decide to get some sodas out of the fridge. Koushirou's finally come back (and our video games are now playable!), and I'm getting anxious to ask him something. The problem is that I still don't know what to ask him without it seeming obvious! Well...obvious to me, anyway.

Wrapped up in my distraction, I grab too many cans at once and end up dropping them all over the floor. When I finally get new ones secured in my hands and arms (so soda doesn't explode everywhere), I head back. But as I go to walk in, Koushirou walks out.

"Hey, where're you going?"

"I'm sorry, Taichi-san... I forgot that I have some homework to do. I'll see you at school on Monday."

And with that, he leaves.

I blink a couple times as I watch my chance walk out the door. Well damn. This sucks.

I'm half-heartedly into the game the rest of the night. I just can't help but be nervous about Monday...

Who is going to be my unlucky victim? And are they going to tell everyone?

Damn. This really sucks.

~*~

We pick lunchtime since Yamato will be able to sit in the stall to make sure I complete the dare.

"Remember, Taichi, that you'll suffer a far worse fate if you wimp out..." he calls from the stall.

"Yeah, yeah... Don't remind me." I sigh as I step up to the urinal. No one else is there at the moment, but I stand there, ready and waiting.

I hear the door open, and I swallow, staring at the wall like the unspoken urinal rule states. I hear them start to go, and that's when I muster up all of my Courage, turn to them and say...

"This is the best part about being gay!"

Then...my heart stops as I see who it is.

Koushirou just looks at me blankly for a moment. Then, he smiles and replies, "I know, isn't it?"

I almost fall into the urinal.

"You...! You're...!" My mouth drops open in disbelief. I cannot believe what I am hearing!

"I...I had no idea!"

He stares at me in confusion. "Really? I thought Yamato-san would have told you after I left Saturday night..."

"Huh?"

"Yamato-san asked me in a truth question when you were getting sodas." Then he blushes. "I...felt kind of awkward after that, so that's why I left..." He looks up at me. "But considering you are, too... That makes me a bit more comfortable about it. But I'm surprised that you would just announce that to any person at the urinal..."

"Well...actually...I was dared by Yamato to do that when you were fixing our video games... But I am!" I can envision my head popping off my neck, followed by steam spurting out instead of blood. That's how red my face is.

At the same time, I swear I can hear my chances of capturing Izumi Koushirou's heart rise significantly...

"Ah...well..." He blushes harder as he pulls away from the urinal, and I hastily do so as well. Yeah...awkward. "Well...now we know." He smiles.

"Y-Yeah..." Damn. Can I just take him now?

We wash our hands in silence.

"So...see you later..."

"Yeah..."

He leaves, and I stand there, unable to comprehend what just happened. Then I say, "Yamato, why the fuck didn't you tell me?"

"Oh, you know, I thought I'd let it all play out..."

He laughs as he walks out of the stall and then out of the bathroom, leaving me there alone.

Damn him!

~*~

Oh, lollerskates! Aha...Yay for boredom on planes! Except not really... And Taichi's dare was not my idea. I totally stole it from some list I read on the web and thought it would work well. So yeah, at least I'm honest!