Smile Like You Mean It

Chapter One: Paranoia

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, if I did, we would have "Digimon: Uncut" after 10PM on Tuesdays. I do not own Nintendo either though I can't think of a witty one-liner for them.

A/N I apologize to anyone who was waiting for me to finish this story, It has been almost EDIT: 'Over' EDIT: 'Well Over' 8 months since Angel Spirit asked me to write one like this and all this time I have been trying to grind out a plot, I am happy to say that the plot is finished and that the story will commence shortly. I just wish to give my thanks to Angel Spirit for the Plot idea and The Takouji ML on Yahoo Groups for inspiring me to write my first story. EDIT: Its now around 10–11 Months.

I guess it's somewhat important to note that Takuya and Kouji are around 16 years old for the majority of the story.

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"I can't believe it's been two years already" Takuya said looking over a photo album.

"Two years?" Kouji asked. "Yeah, I guess you're right, it has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, we'll have to get everyone around to have another reunion, having been almost five years since we came back from the digital world"

Around two years beforehand.

"Yes, I win!" Takuya shouted after seeing the final score on the TV "Two rounds in a row"

Its now lunchtime on a nice sunny Saturday, Takuya and Kouji have been playing Super smash brothers on Takuya's Nintendo Gamecube, and as you have already heard, Takuya is winning.

"Do you want something to eat Kouji?" Takuya asked. "I could make us some sandwiches if you want."

"Yea, sure, but I think I'll supervise, I don't want any hidden surprises." Kouji replied jokingly.

Takuya headed into the kitchen and opened the freezer. "Hey Kouji, how does leftovers sound, we don't have any bread"

"Depends on what you had for dinner last night" Kouji responded as he walked into the kitchen.

"We had Pizza, if that's alright with you?"

"Yeah, that sounds alright, Oh, have you heard from any of the others, the reunion is supposed to be coming up soon and Izumi hasn't been around much lately…"

"Ohh, miss Izumi do you, wish you saw her more often do you, hmm, something between you and Izumi that you're not telling me?" Takuya teased.

Kouji reached over to hit Takuya over the head but Takuya was too fast for him and dodged the swipe, unfortunately, Kouji then lost his balance and fell on top of Takuya.

Takuya, feeling thoroughly embarrassed and going quite a nice shade of red, pulled himself out from underneath Kouji and picked himself up, offering Kouji a hand after righting himself.

"Nah, Izumi would flatten me if I tried anything on her," Kouji chuckled, reaching for Takuya's hand. "You know what she's like, I'm just saying that she's in our year, but she still isn't around much"

Kouji caught a quick glimpse at the clock behind Takuya's head, changing the look of concern on his face to one of terror. "Oh no, I was supposed to be home by now, sorry Takuya but I've gotta run."

Kouji went running out the front door not even stopping to make sure it was closed behind him, leaving a slightly dazed Takuya holding a half empty pizza box.

A little while later Takuya walked into his bedroom thinking to himself 'Kouji sure seemed in a hurry when he left' at this point he noticed Kouji's bag sitting on his bed partially open with a few things sitting beside it, including Kouji's cell phone, wallet and a set of keys. Takuya hurriedly shoved the things into Kouji's bag and ran downstairs towards the door.

Ten minutes later, we find our Brunette slowly walking down Kouji's street looking at the house numbers, trying to remember which house belonged to the long haired boy. Eventually he came to the house he vaguely remembered to be Kouji's and headed up the driveway. The house was reasonably large and had a nice garden out the front, Takuya walked up the front step and rung the doorbell, waiting for the sound of someone walking to the door. Just as he was about to ring the doorbell again a tall burly man answers the door and looks down at him with a sour look on his face. Takuya, startled by the sudden opening of the door, faltered slightly and almost fell backwards off the porch. The burly man, who Takuya could only assume was Kouji's father, spoke in a deep and almost threatening voice "Yes?"

"Umm, I was wondering if Kouji was home" He responded as he offered Kouji's bag "He left his things at my house and I was just returning them"

Kouji's father took the bag and growled, "No, he's not, thankyou" as he closed the door on Takuya. Feeling a little hurt and confused, Takuya started on the walk home, not even noticing at first that his father pulled up in front of him in his blue sedan not 2 minutes into the walk.

Sunday came and Takuya decided he would ask Kouji where he went the day before, he ran downstairs grabbing the portable phone and bolted back up into his room again, closing the door behind him. Punching Kouji's mobile number into the phone, he hit the call button and waited for Kouji to answer. Moments later the calm, cool voice that Takuya recognised so well answered the phone.

"Hello, Minamoto speaking" Kouji said nonchalantly.

"Hey Kouji, it's Takuya, how you doin'?" Takuya asked excitedly as usual.

Kouji's voice brightened slightly as he responded, now knowing it was the brunette he was talking to. "Oh, hey Takuya, not to bad, sorry about leaving so suddenly yesterday, I was in a big hurry to get home"

"Yeah, about that, I came around later with the stuff you left behind, but your father said that you weren't there"

"Ah- oh, um… I went round to Kouichi's house after I got home, I had to see him about something" Takuya, noticing the hesitation, went to say something, but thought better of it and let it go for the time being.

"Ok then, do you want to come around again today? I got a new game" Takuya offered, thinking it best not to question Kouji any further about his whereabouts the day before, if Kouji had anything to say about it, he would.

"No, I have stuff I've gotta get done around home… Oh, I've gotta get going, I'll talk to you at school, bye" Kouji barely waited for a response from Takuya before he hung up.

'It's really not like Kouji to pass up an offer to come round to my house, maybe he isn't feeling the well at the moment' Takuya thought to himself as he lay back in bed, gazing at the roof with a concerned look on his face. Rolling off and planting his feet on the floor, he walked out of his room and headed downstairs to return the phone to see his father in the kitchen, hanging the phone back up on the wall he stalked into the kitchen and started talking to his father about his concerns.

Monday came around and Takuya, no matter how unwilling to go, was walking through the main hall of his school, deciding to go find the twins so they could have their usual morning chat before classes started. Unfortunately, Takuya was up late the night before and only got to school with enough time to spot Kouichi near the door to his home room before the bell went and Takuya had to go in the other direction.

Lunch came around and Takuya went searching for the twins again, not long into his search did he literally bump into Kouichi, almost knocking the poor boy down a flight of stairs.

"Whoops, sorry about that, you alright?" Takuya asked, worried about his friend.

"No, I'm fine, no harm done, just a little shaken, that's all" Kouichi responded quietly.

"Glad to hear you're ok, hey, have you seen your brother at all, I haven't seen him in class at all and he wasn't sounding all that well yesterday on the phone"

"No, I haven't heard from him since Friday, I hope he's alright, he didn't say anything to me about not coming today" Kouichi continued on about how normally Kouji would call him if he wasn't feeling well, but Takuya only caught parts of it. He was wondering where Kouji was on Saturday afternoon if he wasn't at Kouichi's house.

Takuya was late to school the next day, walking into class 20 minutes late with everyone watching him as he slowly wandered his way to the teachers desk to hand her a note, explaining why he was late to class. As he made his way to his desk, he spotted Kouji sitting at his own and noticed a small bruise above his left eyebrow. Making a note to ask Kouji about what was going on, why he lied to him and where he was yesterday, and where this bruise had come from, he went to his desk and sat down, giving him a friendly smile, which Kouji retuned.
"So, where were you on Saturday, Kouichi already told me he hadn't heard from you all weekend, you don't need to lie to me Kouji, we're friends, if you're in trouble, I want to know so I can help you out" Takuya said, motioning to the bruise on Kouji's forehead. Kouji visually shrunk, his face went rather weak and forlorn. Takuya started to regret saying it quite how he had and went to apologize, but Kouji beat him to it.

"I'm sorry Takuya, I shouldn't have lied to you, I was at home when you called by, but I'd asked my father not to tell anyone I was home, no matter who it was. On the way home, being in a hurry like I was, I didn't notice the pole in my way and turned around just in time for me to hit it, hard. I was really embarrassed and didn't want to tell anyone" Kouji said meekly, not looking Takuya in the eye. "Please don't tell anyone, please?"

"It's alright, I won't tell anyone" Takuya said as he slung his arm around Kouji's shoulder and they both walked up to greet Kouichi. 'I guess I was just being a little too paranoid, he seems fine' Takuya reassured himself as the three headed off to the cafeteria.

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Haha! Finally after almost 11 months, I have Chapter One posted! Cheers to everyone who read this, I unfortunately can't give you a rough estimate of when Chapter Two will come as I started typing this one three months ago. Please Read and Review, all praise, constructive criticism and monetary donations welcome insert laughing here See you all again next chapter,
Alex.