-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTES: My attempt at the clichéd-but-still-fun "Daisuke
Seeks Outside Help with His Attraction to Ken" plotline. I hope you
enjoy anyway. ^__^ My first COMPLETED Daiken - I ~do~ have about five
more in the works. Gah. Reviews are warmly welcomed but not desperately
and hopelessly craved. ^__~
P.S. While the Japanese language does have the needed ambiguity,
darn English does not have a genderless third-person singular pronoun
that can be adequately used for a human being. [How many times have you
called a full-grown person an "it"?] Hence the use of "they" in
Daisuke's speech, since I couldn't very well write the dialogue in
Japanese.
PAIRINGS: Daisuke/Ken
ARCHIVED: If you want it, just send me the URL of your site.
Otherwise, it will be available at http://aurabuster.net/fics/ and
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=147503
WARNINGS: Waffling Daisuke, Clever Taichi, Happy Ken, and
shounen-ai gooey-ness. Light cussing. Not beta-read.
Usual disclaimers apply.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainy-Day Man
by Phi [ juki@aurabuster.net | http://aurabuster.net ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When the doorbell rang for the fifth time that day, Taichi was
somewhere between confusion and annoyance. He never got this many
visitors -- not even on his birthday, which, come to think of it,
annoyed him greatly because a birthday was a very special occurrence
and the people close to you were supposed to acknowledge that,
goddammit.
Oh well, he told himself. Nothing he could do about it now. But
still he made a mental note to start bugging Hikari about throwing him
a much-deserved birthday bash.
Taichi continued to grumble under his breath as he made his way
to the offending door. Was he ~ever~ going to get his work done today?
Those International Relations courses were hard, and he still had to
start brainstorming topics for two term papers! Taichi sullenly wished
that his roommate was home to ward off all these impromptu and unwanted
visitors, and then promptly turned on himself for being so rude.
Besides, it wasn't like he ~wanted~ to do the reading, and at least
this way he had a viable excuse for his procrastinating tendencies.
When he finally opened the door, he was only somewhat surprised
to see Daisuke there, slightly soaked from the day's drizzle and
grinning sheepishly. "Hey, Taichi-senpai."
"Daisuke!" Taichi exclaimed a little louder than necessary, but
the other boy didn't seem to notice. "This is a bit unusual. What are
you doing here?"
"Umm...." The boy looked down at his feet as he nervously
shifted from foot to foot. "Can I... uh, talk to you for a few
minutes?" Without waiting for an answer, Daisuke sped on, "I promise I
won't take that long and it's really, really important and I just
~have~ to talk to somebody ~now~--"
"Whoa, whoa!" Taichi laughed and held up his hands in
surrender. "Okay, it's not a problem. Come on in, and I'll get you a
towel."
"Thanks a lot," Daisuke said gratefully. "I'll try to be quick,
I promise."
"Daisuke, trust me, it's no problem. I'd much rather talk to
you than read about the African Diaspora."
"Huh?"
Taichi laughed again and just shook his head. "Never mind. Go
ahead and sit down -- I'll be back in a sec."
After setting down his book-bag and slipping off his shoes in
the entryway, Daisuke padded over to the apartment's only couch and
proceeded to slump with the refined grace of one who'd had many years
of practice. When Taichi returned, he found the boy idly fiddling with
a loose strand of thread at the edge his shirt, looking utterly
dejected.
"Okay kiddo, spill."
"Huh?" Daisuke looked up in confusion, causing Taichi to sigh
as he draped the towel over his head.
"You said you wanted to talk, so…."
Daisuke swallowed nervously and returned his gaze to the thread
currently wrapped around his left forefinger. "Oh, yeah... um...
well...."
Several moments of silence ensued as Daisuke apparently
attempted to screw up the courage to tell his idol whatever it was that
was bothering him so badly. Taichi decided to take pity on him and
asked instead, "Why're you so wet? Didn't you bring an umbrella?"
Frowning, Daisuke continued to pull the wayward thread from its
stitches. He now had several centimeters to work with. "Mom forgot to
tell me the weather report this morning, so I didn't know that it was
going to rain. Nobody at school had an extra umbrella, and I came
straight here after practice." He raised his gaze to find Taichi
looking at him oddly. "It wasn't raining that hard, I'm fine."
"~You~ may be," Taichi dryly noted, "but I think my couch may
have a few choice words. So either get up and drip over by the door, or
sit on that towel."
"Oh, yeah, right," Daisuke half-smiled as he stood and arranged
the towel over the noticeable wet-spot where his body had been. "Sorry."
"It's okay -- I'll just know who to bill when my couch starts
growing mold."
"Senpai!"
"Joke, joke! Man, you're acting pretty strange today, Dai." As
soon as the words slipped out, Daisuke wilted visibly. "Did something
happen to you?"
Another heavy silence descended as Daisuke sat back down on the
couch, this time leaning forward with his forearms resting on his
knees. "... Yeah. Sort of."
"Is that what you wanted to talk about?"
"Yeah."
Taichi suppressed the urge to roll his eyes -- he swore,
sometimes it was like pulling teeth with Daisuke. The kid could take
forever to get to the point. "Soooo..." he prompted.
"Uh... well... you see," Daisuke stammered, clasping and
unclasping his hands as he stared with a fanatical determination at the
room's off-orange carpeting. Suddenly he took a deep breath, closed his
eyes, and exhaled sharply. "There's this person that I like. Like,
~like~ like."
There. Finally out in the open. Daisuke relaxed, all the
tension draining from his shoulders, the hardest step over and done.
Nodding, Taichi asked, "So what's the problem?"
The boy groaned and threw himself back against the couch,
flinging his hands up in despair. "Everything!"
"I think you're going to have to be a little more specific,
Dai."
"I know, I know… it's just so hard to ~begin~...."
"Well..." Taichi scratched his scalp, the part that always
bothered him, right behind his left ear. "Tell me what this person is
like."
Daisuke's eyes literally lit up as his mouth formed a small
smile. "They're perfect... nice, and kind, and beautiful, and really
smart. I just feel... warm and happy whenever they're near me, or when
I think about them. And then I get all nervous and tongue-tied because
I don't want to say something stupid, you know?"
"I take it you haven't said anything to them?" Taichi was
having a hard time holding back the knowing smirk that threatened to
break out on his face.
"No! I can't!" Daisuke looked as close to terrified as the boy
ever got.
"Why not?"
Another pause in the conversation as Daisuke looked everywhere
but at Taichi and folded his arms over his chest protectively. "I
just... can't. I don't know how they would react."
"Daisuke, I seriously doubt that Ken would react in a way that
you didn't want him to."
The stunned silence that followed was confirmation enough for
Taichi. He let that grin slip through.
Daisuke was busy gasping for words, his jaw opening and closing
like a dying fish. "How -- how did you know!?"
"You just told me." Chuckling at the other's expression, he
elaborated, "It was pretty obvious, Daisuke. First, if you were still
crushing on Hikari, you certainly wouldn't come to ~me~ for advice, so
that rules her out. Then, you start playing the pronoun game and never
specify this certain person's gender, which could only make me think
that it was another boy and you were afraid about how I'd react. And
then, knowing you, it would have to a guy that you spent a lot of time
with, leaving Takeru or Ken." Taichi shrugged at Daisuke's partially
glazed face. "Plus, you usually go to Ken with your problems. Since
you've come to me, it probably means that the problem itself is with
Ken." He did not add the fact that Daisuke shamelessly flirted with Ken
and found countless excuses to touch him -- apparently all
subconsciously. Frankly, before today, Taichi thought that those two
were already together.
When Daisuke was not forthcoming, he plowed on, "So why me? Do
you want my approval or something?"
"No... maybe, I guess...." Daisuke looked up with the biggest
puppy-dog eyes Taichi had ever seen outside of a digimon. "What should
I do, senpai? I don't ~want~ to be gay, but I really like Ken...."
Taichi realized that this would require some delicacy, and once
again he found himself wishing that his roommate were home to handle
this. He didn't exactly have the best track record with romance. "Look
at it this way, Dai. Are you attracted to me at all?" He watched
Daisuke shake his head slowly. "Yamato? Koushirou? Jyou? Takeru? Iori?
Any random hot guy on the street?" He almost laughed as Daisuke pulled
a disgusted face at the last few suggestions. "So it's just Ken?"
The boy nodded. "I thought that maybe it was just a side-effect
of the Jogress thing... y'know, that warm feeling whenever he was
around...." Daisuke sighed and slumped further into the sofa, his chin
now resting on his chest. "But then nothing was going on with you and
Yamato-senpai, or Hikari-chan and Miyako, so...." He scrubbed his palms
through his hair in frustration.
Taichi stared at him in surprise. ~Daisuke~ had actually...?
The younger boy caught the look and his frown deepened. "What?"
he demanded irritably. "I'm not ~stupid~, you know. I can come up with
theories too."
Grinning at his expression, Taichi held up his hands in
self-defense. "Hey, did I say anything?"
"I know what you're thinking," Daisuke muttered.
"~Aaany~way," Taichi drawled in an attempt to get back on
topic. "This attraction is solely with Ken, right?" At Daisuke's nod he
continued, "Then I don't think you're gay. Why would that be so bad,
anyway?"
Daisuke hesitated before answering, "It's not that it be ~bad~,
I guess... but...." He thumbed his nose and sniffed. "My dad isn't
exactly the most understanding guy."
"Ah. I see." Yet another silence fell between the two before
Taichi sighed in exasperation and said, "Look, Daisuke, am I going to
have physically prod everything out of you or are you just going to
tell me why liking Ken is such a problem?"
The boy's eyes grew rounder as his eyebrows merged with his
hairline. "It's not a problem! .... Well, not really, anyway. I don't
know," he muttered as he buried his face in his hands. "What should I
do, senpai?"
"Since I think we've established that you like Ken," Taichi
answered dryly, "maybe you should think about what you want to come out
of that." At Daisuke's quizzical look, he elaborated, "Do you want to
tell him? Or do you want to bury it in denial?"
"I... want to tell him, I think, but I don't know how."
"Daisuke, with Ken, you can just come out and say it. ~Trust~
me. He's ~not~ going to react badly."
"Really?" The uncertain hope on his face was almost
heartbreaking.
"Yes, really! What, you don't trust me?" Taichi brought his
hand to his heart in mock-affrontedness. "Have I ever lied to you,
kiddo?"
"Well..." Daisuke squinted suspiciously. "Not that I ~know~ of."
"See? Completely trustworthy, ole Yagami Taichi." He winked and
motioned for Daisuke to lean in closer. "In fact, just between you and
me, I'm sure Ken'd be pretty happy to find out that you like-like him."
Daisuke immediately perked up. "Really? Cool! That's great!" He
paused, and favored Taichi with a sideways glance. "Are you ~sure~
sure?"
"For God's sake, Dai, yes!" Taichi laughed in exasperation as
he pulled the boy off of the couch. "Now go over there and tell him
before I have to tie you up and bring you there myself!" He gave
Daisuke a playful shove toward the front door, but not before the other
boy stuck out his tongue in a playful rebuke.
As Taichi watched Daisuke tie his sneakers back on his feet, he
asked curiously, "What brought all this on, anyway? It seems like you
came here pretty suddenly."
A slow, faint flush appeared over the bridge of the boy's nose.
"Heh heh... funny thing, really." Standing, he rubbed the underside of
his nose self-consciously and favored Taichi with a half-hearted smile.
"This girl in my class confessed to me today.... I was so totally ~not~
prepared for anything like that, so I kinda bungled turning her down,
and then she started to cry, and then she started saying some
things...." He shrugged slightly. "It just got me thinking. I got hit
in the head twice today in practice because I was so distracted."
Taichi chuckled and mock-cuffed the shorter boy. "Knocked some
sense into you, I bet!"
"Yeah!" Daisuke grinned broadly. "Thanks a lot, senpai."
"No problem. Now get out of here before I have to hit you for
real!"
"Right!" With a laugh, Daisuke slipped out the door and began
to sprint down the hallway.
"Well!" Taichi exclaimed as the door shut behind his younger
friend. "One down, one to go." The walk from the entryway to the
bathroom was short, and luckily for its occupant, view into the small
room was obscured from the front areas. As he crossed his arms and
wedged his shoulder against the doorjamb, Taichi raised one eyebrow
significantly at his other guest. "Can I take it that this answers the
question you wanted to ask me?"
Looking up from the towel he had twisted in his hands, Ken
looked at him with bright eyes and a wide smile. "Yes, it does. Thank
you very much, Yagami-san."
Waving his hand in the air, he replied, "It was nothing."
Literally -- he had barely gotten Ken into the bathroom and wrapped in
a towel before Daisuke had appeared at his doorstep. "But what are
sitting here for? If you hurry, you can corner him in the lobby."
Ken hastily stood. "Thank you again," he bowed before taking
off at a near-run to the apartment door and the hall beyond.
Taichi chuckled as he watched the boy's retreating back and
shook his head in amazement. "Those two are so in sync it's almost
scary," he muttered to himself as he reluctantly made his way back to
his textbooks. "The same day, practically the same minute, and the same
problem. Creepy." Ken had confessed that he had sought out Taichi
because he was the one who could understand Daisuke's mentality the
best -- although Taichi wasn't sure that was necessarily a compliment
-- and Daisuke had come because he couldn't talk to Ken and he needed
his idol's advice. But he pushed thoughts of the two of them out of his
mind, as he was certain that things would work out just fine, and
turned his attention toward something that was not as pleasant as
playing matchmaker.
As he stood over his desk and glared at his book, hands on his
hips, Taichi declared to the empty air, "I'm thinking that all these
distractions are a sign from God. I clearly was not meant to study
today." And with a self-satisfied smirk, he turned on his heel to make
a phone call.
"Hey, Yamato. You want to get something to eat?"
-----------------------
The End!
-----------------------
You may interpret the last sentence however you wish. ^__~
AUTHOR'S NOTES: My attempt at the clichéd-but-still-fun "Daisuke
Seeks Outside Help with His Attraction to Ken" plotline. I hope you
enjoy anyway. ^__^ My first COMPLETED Daiken - I ~do~ have about five
more in the works. Gah. Reviews are warmly welcomed but not desperately
and hopelessly craved. ^__~
P.S. While the Japanese language does have the needed ambiguity,
darn English does not have a genderless third-person singular pronoun
that can be adequately used for a human being. [How many times have you
called a full-grown person an "it"?] Hence the use of "they" in
Daisuke's speech, since I couldn't very well write the dialogue in
Japanese.
PAIRINGS: Daisuke/Ken
ARCHIVED: If you want it, just send me the URL of your site.
Otherwise, it will be available at http://aurabuster.net/fics/ and
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=147503
WARNINGS: Waffling Daisuke, Clever Taichi, Happy Ken, and
shounen-ai gooey-ness. Light cussing. Not beta-read.
Usual disclaimers apply.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainy-Day Man
by Phi [ juki@aurabuster.net | http://aurabuster.net ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When the doorbell rang for the fifth time that day, Taichi was
somewhere between confusion and annoyance. He never got this many
visitors -- not even on his birthday, which, come to think of it,
annoyed him greatly because a birthday was a very special occurrence
and the people close to you were supposed to acknowledge that,
goddammit.
Oh well, he told himself. Nothing he could do about it now. But
still he made a mental note to start bugging Hikari about throwing him
a much-deserved birthday bash.
Taichi continued to grumble under his breath as he made his way
to the offending door. Was he ~ever~ going to get his work done today?
Those International Relations courses were hard, and he still had to
start brainstorming topics for two term papers! Taichi sullenly wished
that his roommate was home to ward off all these impromptu and unwanted
visitors, and then promptly turned on himself for being so rude.
Besides, it wasn't like he ~wanted~ to do the reading, and at least
this way he had a viable excuse for his procrastinating tendencies.
When he finally opened the door, he was only somewhat surprised
to see Daisuke there, slightly soaked from the day's drizzle and
grinning sheepishly. "Hey, Taichi-senpai."
"Daisuke!" Taichi exclaimed a little louder than necessary, but
the other boy didn't seem to notice. "This is a bit unusual. What are
you doing here?"
"Umm...." The boy looked down at his feet as he nervously
shifted from foot to foot. "Can I... uh, talk to you for a few
minutes?" Without waiting for an answer, Daisuke sped on, "I promise I
won't take that long and it's really, really important and I just
~have~ to talk to somebody ~now~--"
"Whoa, whoa!" Taichi laughed and held up his hands in
surrender. "Okay, it's not a problem. Come on in, and I'll get you a
towel."
"Thanks a lot," Daisuke said gratefully. "I'll try to be quick,
I promise."
"Daisuke, trust me, it's no problem. I'd much rather talk to
you than read about the African Diaspora."
"Huh?"
Taichi laughed again and just shook his head. "Never mind. Go
ahead and sit down -- I'll be back in a sec."
After setting down his book-bag and slipping off his shoes in
the entryway, Daisuke padded over to the apartment's only couch and
proceeded to slump with the refined grace of one who'd had many years
of practice. When Taichi returned, he found the boy idly fiddling with
a loose strand of thread at the edge his shirt, looking utterly
dejected.
"Okay kiddo, spill."
"Huh?" Daisuke looked up in confusion, causing Taichi to sigh
as he draped the towel over his head.
"You said you wanted to talk, so…."
Daisuke swallowed nervously and returned his gaze to the thread
currently wrapped around his left forefinger. "Oh, yeah... um...
well...."
Several moments of silence ensued as Daisuke apparently
attempted to screw up the courage to tell his idol whatever it was that
was bothering him so badly. Taichi decided to take pity on him and
asked instead, "Why're you so wet? Didn't you bring an umbrella?"
Frowning, Daisuke continued to pull the wayward thread from its
stitches. He now had several centimeters to work with. "Mom forgot to
tell me the weather report this morning, so I didn't know that it was
going to rain. Nobody at school had an extra umbrella, and I came
straight here after practice." He raised his gaze to find Taichi
looking at him oddly. "It wasn't raining that hard, I'm fine."
"~You~ may be," Taichi dryly noted, "but I think my couch may
have a few choice words. So either get up and drip over by the door, or
sit on that towel."
"Oh, yeah, right," Daisuke half-smiled as he stood and arranged
the towel over the noticeable wet-spot where his body had been. "Sorry."
"It's okay -- I'll just know who to bill when my couch starts
growing mold."
"Senpai!"
"Joke, joke! Man, you're acting pretty strange today, Dai." As
soon as the words slipped out, Daisuke wilted visibly. "Did something
happen to you?"
Another heavy silence descended as Daisuke sat back down on the
couch, this time leaning forward with his forearms resting on his
knees. "... Yeah. Sort of."
"Is that what you wanted to talk about?"
"Yeah."
Taichi suppressed the urge to roll his eyes -- he swore,
sometimes it was like pulling teeth with Daisuke. The kid could take
forever to get to the point. "Soooo..." he prompted.
"Uh... well... you see," Daisuke stammered, clasping and
unclasping his hands as he stared with a fanatical determination at the
room's off-orange carpeting. Suddenly he took a deep breath, closed his
eyes, and exhaled sharply. "There's this person that I like. Like,
~like~ like."
There. Finally out in the open. Daisuke relaxed, all the
tension draining from his shoulders, the hardest step over and done.
Nodding, Taichi asked, "So what's the problem?"
The boy groaned and threw himself back against the couch,
flinging his hands up in despair. "Everything!"
"I think you're going to have to be a little more specific,
Dai."
"I know, I know… it's just so hard to ~begin~...."
"Well..." Taichi scratched his scalp, the part that always
bothered him, right behind his left ear. "Tell me what this person is
like."
Daisuke's eyes literally lit up as his mouth formed a small
smile. "They're perfect... nice, and kind, and beautiful, and really
smart. I just feel... warm and happy whenever they're near me, or when
I think about them. And then I get all nervous and tongue-tied because
I don't want to say something stupid, you know?"
"I take it you haven't said anything to them?" Taichi was
having a hard time holding back the knowing smirk that threatened to
break out on his face.
"No! I can't!" Daisuke looked as close to terrified as the boy
ever got.
"Why not?"
Another pause in the conversation as Daisuke looked everywhere
but at Taichi and folded his arms over his chest protectively. "I
just... can't. I don't know how they would react."
"Daisuke, I seriously doubt that Ken would react in a way that
you didn't want him to."
The stunned silence that followed was confirmation enough for
Taichi. He let that grin slip through.
Daisuke was busy gasping for words, his jaw opening and closing
like a dying fish. "How -- how did you know!?"
"You just told me." Chuckling at the other's expression, he
elaborated, "It was pretty obvious, Daisuke. First, if you were still
crushing on Hikari, you certainly wouldn't come to ~me~ for advice, so
that rules her out. Then, you start playing the pronoun game and never
specify this certain person's gender, which could only make me think
that it was another boy and you were afraid about how I'd react. And
then, knowing you, it would have to a guy that you spent a lot of time
with, leaving Takeru or Ken." Taichi shrugged at Daisuke's partially
glazed face. "Plus, you usually go to Ken with your problems. Since
you've come to me, it probably means that the problem itself is with
Ken." He did not add the fact that Daisuke shamelessly flirted with Ken
and found countless excuses to touch him -- apparently all
subconsciously. Frankly, before today, Taichi thought that those two
were already together.
When Daisuke was not forthcoming, he plowed on, "So why me? Do
you want my approval or something?"
"No... maybe, I guess...." Daisuke looked up with the biggest
puppy-dog eyes Taichi had ever seen outside of a digimon. "What should
I do, senpai? I don't ~want~ to be gay, but I really like Ken...."
Taichi realized that this would require some delicacy, and once
again he found himself wishing that his roommate were home to handle
this. He didn't exactly have the best track record with romance. "Look
at it this way, Dai. Are you attracted to me at all?" He watched
Daisuke shake his head slowly. "Yamato? Koushirou? Jyou? Takeru? Iori?
Any random hot guy on the street?" He almost laughed as Daisuke pulled
a disgusted face at the last few suggestions. "So it's just Ken?"
The boy nodded. "I thought that maybe it was just a side-effect
of the Jogress thing... y'know, that warm feeling whenever he was
around...." Daisuke sighed and slumped further into the sofa, his chin
now resting on his chest. "But then nothing was going on with you and
Yamato-senpai, or Hikari-chan and Miyako, so...." He scrubbed his palms
through his hair in frustration.
Taichi stared at him in surprise. ~Daisuke~ had actually...?
The younger boy caught the look and his frown deepened. "What?"
he demanded irritably. "I'm not ~stupid~, you know. I can come up with
theories too."
Grinning at his expression, Taichi held up his hands in
self-defense. "Hey, did I say anything?"
"I know what you're thinking," Daisuke muttered.
"~Aaany~way," Taichi drawled in an attempt to get back on
topic. "This attraction is solely with Ken, right?" At Daisuke's nod he
continued, "Then I don't think you're gay. Why would that be so bad,
anyway?"
Daisuke hesitated before answering, "It's not that it be ~bad~,
I guess... but...." He thumbed his nose and sniffed. "My dad isn't
exactly the most understanding guy."
"Ah. I see." Yet another silence fell between the two before
Taichi sighed in exasperation and said, "Look, Daisuke, am I going to
have physically prod everything out of you or are you just going to
tell me why liking Ken is such a problem?"
The boy's eyes grew rounder as his eyebrows merged with his
hairline. "It's not a problem! .... Well, not really, anyway. I don't
know," he muttered as he buried his face in his hands. "What should I
do, senpai?"
"Since I think we've established that you like Ken," Taichi
answered dryly, "maybe you should think about what you want to come out
of that." At Daisuke's quizzical look, he elaborated, "Do you want to
tell him? Or do you want to bury it in denial?"
"I... want to tell him, I think, but I don't know how."
"Daisuke, with Ken, you can just come out and say it. ~Trust~
me. He's ~not~ going to react badly."
"Really?" The uncertain hope on his face was almost
heartbreaking.
"Yes, really! What, you don't trust me?" Taichi brought his
hand to his heart in mock-affrontedness. "Have I ever lied to you,
kiddo?"
"Well..." Daisuke squinted suspiciously. "Not that I ~know~ of."
"See? Completely trustworthy, ole Yagami Taichi." He winked and
motioned for Daisuke to lean in closer. "In fact, just between you and
me, I'm sure Ken'd be pretty happy to find out that you like-like him."
Daisuke immediately perked up. "Really? Cool! That's great!" He
paused, and favored Taichi with a sideways glance. "Are you ~sure~
sure?"
"For God's sake, Dai, yes!" Taichi laughed in exasperation as
he pulled the boy off of the couch. "Now go over there and tell him
before I have to tie you up and bring you there myself!" He gave
Daisuke a playful shove toward the front door, but not before the other
boy stuck out his tongue in a playful rebuke.
As Taichi watched Daisuke tie his sneakers back on his feet, he
asked curiously, "What brought all this on, anyway? It seems like you
came here pretty suddenly."
A slow, faint flush appeared over the bridge of the boy's nose.
"Heh heh... funny thing, really." Standing, he rubbed the underside of
his nose self-consciously and favored Taichi with a half-hearted smile.
"This girl in my class confessed to me today.... I was so totally ~not~
prepared for anything like that, so I kinda bungled turning her down,
and then she started to cry, and then she started saying some
things...." He shrugged slightly. "It just got me thinking. I got hit
in the head twice today in practice because I was so distracted."
Taichi chuckled and mock-cuffed the shorter boy. "Knocked some
sense into you, I bet!"
"Yeah!" Daisuke grinned broadly. "Thanks a lot, senpai."
"No problem. Now get out of here before I have to hit you for
real!"
"Right!" With a laugh, Daisuke slipped out the door and began
to sprint down the hallway.
"Well!" Taichi exclaimed as the door shut behind his younger
friend. "One down, one to go." The walk from the entryway to the
bathroom was short, and luckily for its occupant, view into the small
room was obscured from the front areas. As he crossed his arms and
wedged his shoulder against the doorjamb, Taichi raised one eyebrow
significantly at his other guest. "Can I take it that this answers the
question you wanted to ask me?"
Looking up from the towel he had twisted in his hands, Ken
looked at him with bright eyes and a wide smile. "Yes, it does. Thank
you very much, Yagami-san."
Waving his hand in the air, he replied, "It was nothing."
Literally -- he had barely gotten Ken into the bathroom and wrapped in
a towel before Daisuke had appeared at his doorstep. "But what are
sitting here for? If you hurry, you can corner him in the lobby."
Ken hastily stood. "Thank you again," he bowed before taking
off at a near-run to the apartment door and the hall beyond.
Taichi chuckled as he watched the boy's retreating back and
shook his head in amazement. "Those two are so in sync it's almost
scary," he muttered to himself as he reluctantly made his way back to
his textbooks. "The same day, practically the same minute, and the same
problem. Creepy." Ken had confessed that he had sought out Taichi
because he was the one who could understand Daisuke's mentality the
best -- although Taichi wasn't sure that was necessarily a compliment
-- and Daisuke had come because he couldn't talk to Ken and he needed
his idol's advice. But he pushed thoughts of the two of them out of his
mind, as he was certain that things would work out just fine, and
turned his attention toward something that was not as pleasant as
playing matchmaker.
As he stood over his desk and glared at his book, hands on his
hips, Taichi declared to the empty air, "I'm thinking that all these
distractions are a sign from God. I clearly was not meant to study
today." And with a self-satisfied smirk, he turned on his heel to make
a phone call.
"Hey, Yamato. You want to get something to eat?"
-----------------------
The End!
-----------------------
You may interpret the last sentence however you wish. ^__~