AN: I posted a drabble of this back in 2014, but me being me, I forgot the password for that account. Here's a complete rewrite of that.
Thanks to Nats for all the support. Please keep in mind that english is not my first language. All mistakes are mine.
Taiga was six years old when his father took him to his first football game.
Kagami Ichiro had come home early that day. It had been a particular slow Friday and he had managed to finish editing the last part of the merger his boss had asked of him before noon and, having nothing more to do, he had decided to head home early and spend the day with his wife and son. A luxury he often couldn't afford on a weekday.
He shut his computer off and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair, hoping to make a quick get away before any of his coworkers noticed his early departure. Just as he was about to enter the elevator, left foot already past the threshold, he heard his name being called- well butchered really, American pronunciation and Japanese names did not mix well - and all hope of a swift escape was instantly crushed.
"Ichiro, hold the elevator, please!"
The man in question turned around and wondered if it was to late to press the button to close the elevator without the other man noticing. Apparently it was, because no later had he finished that thought, the brunet -he was almost sure it was the Head of the IT department- who's name he couldn't quite recall was already slipping past him and into the elevator.
"Thanks." The man said, smiling at Ichiro, "going home early, huh. Already done with work?"
"Yeah," was Ichiro's curt answer. He turned to look resolutely at the elevators doors and hoped that it was enough to deter the man from continue speaking.
"Good, good."
There was an awkward silence as they rode the elevator down although the other man appeared completely at ease, grinning at Ichiro and fidgeting with something in his pocket. The elevator dinged and the doors opened on the ground floor. Ichiro, who barely managed to contain his relieved sigh, was out of the doors as soon as they opened, hoping to escape the other man. He was not fast enough though, because the annoying brunet fell in step with him after a few seconds, laughing at him.
"What's got you in such a rush, man?" asked the man good-naturedly and Ichiro tried to keep his temper in check. Gritting his teeth, he answered, "just want to get home, really."
"Right, how's your wife? You've got a son too, right? How old?"
"She's fine, thank you. And yes, he's turning seven this August." A smile spread across his face just thinking about his family but it was soon replaced with a frown as he remembered just who was keeping him from getting to them faster.
"Ah, a bit younger than mine then. Paul just turned sixteen and he no longer wants to hang out with his old man, you know. Which, although bad for me, is gonna turn out good for you I think."
Arching a brow, Ichiro stared in befuddlement at the man standing next to him. The brunet just grinned at Ichiro's confusion and reached into his pocket, pulling out what appeared to be two tickets for something he couldn't discern and waving them at Ichiro's face.
"You see, I happen to have two tickets for next week's football game. I was planning on going with my son but he already has plans." The man's tone adopted a sarcastic tone at the end of his sentence and the look he shot Ichiro was something along the lines of teenagers right?
"So I thought, why not help another father out?" He grinned at Ichiro, expecting something from him, most likely, but Ichiro was at a lost. "Here you go, then." The man held his hand out with the two tickets; face expectant, just as Ichiro caught up the situation and immediately regretted every bad thought he had had about his coworker up until now.
"Really?" He said, voice a bit incredulous. They really didn't know each other that well. Hell, Ichiro couldn't even remember the other man's name, but here he was, offering him what he could now see were fairly expensive football tickets.
The man shrugged his shoulders. "Well, yeah. It's not like I can go to the game alone, right? I mean, yeah I can, but it wouldn't be the same."
"I-Thank you, really thank you so much. These are- these are perfect." Ichiro stuttered. And it really was perfect. He had wanted to spend a day with his son for quite some time now but work had been hectic and his time with Taiga had suffered for it. Now the both of them would be able to spend some quality time together.
"No problem, man. You gotta make the most of your time with your son before he grows up, you know. He'll leave you in the dust in a few years, trust me." The brunet laughed good-naturedly and winked at Ichiro like both of them were part of a secret joke. Ichiro just nodded and thanked the man one more time before pocketing the tickets.
"See you Monday then!" said the brunet, already walking past Ichiro to return to the elevator.
"See you." Ichiro called after him, smiling to himself.
A few minutes later, already in his car on his way home, Ichiro still couldn't wipe the smile off his face. This was perfect, thought the man as he turned on the engine. Ichiro had loved football as a kid; he had even been part of his university's team and now Taiga would get to see the sport first-hand. He was sure his son would to take football like a fish to water, the redheaded boy had more energy than he knew what to do with and he was already taller and stronger than most of his classmates. Ichiro would teach his son everything he needed to know about football and he and Taiga would bond over the sport. He could picture it all perfectly.
Yes, he was sure, Taiga was going to love football.
Kagami Ichiro hadn't been more wrong about anything in his life.
Ichiro found his son sitting in front of the TV in the living room, inhaling what was left of yesterdays lunch, eyes glued to the screen and completely entranced by whatever kids show he was watching. It took his father calling his name three times before Taiga noticed he was no longer alone.
"Dad!" with a shout Taiga shot up from his position on the living room floor, almost making both of them fall to the ground as Taiga tackled-hugged him.
"What are you doing here so early? I thought you worked late on Fridays. Did something happen? Is everything all right? I-"
"Breath, Taiga," his father cut him off, laying a hand on top of the six-year-old's mop of bright read hair and smiling down at his son in exasperated fondness. Taiga just grinned up at him, red eyes bright and wide; gap-tooth making the kid impossibly cuter than he already was.
"I finished work early and I wanted to spend the afternoon with you and your mom, kiddo. I know I haven't been around that much for the past month." Ichiro said, grimacing as he recalled all the late nights he had had to pull for work and how he couldn't even catch Taiga awake after he came home those night, his son already snoring softly in his bedroom when Ichiro went to kiss him goodnight.
"It's no problem dad! I have school now and friends I can hang out with and mom of course!" Taiga babbled as he led his father to sit on the couch in front of the TV.
"Speaking of your mom, shouldn't she be here by now?" Ichiro asked, having noticed Asami's lacking presence as soon as he stepped into the house.
"Yeah, she was but she said she had to go get something from the shop down the street and because I'm a big boy now I can stay here alone!" Taiga replied, childish pride pouring from every word and chest puffed out.
"Sure you can kiddo," said Ichiro ruffling his son's hair and getting an annoyed look in return. Just as Ichiro was about to reach for his back pocket were the tickets lay, the door opened and a voice called from the entranced.
"I'm home!"
"Mom!"
Like Taiga had done with Ichiro, he bowled over his mom. Asami just barely managed to avoid dropping the shopping bags as Taiga curled himself around his mother, much like an octopus would to it's prey.
"Look mom, dad's here! He came home early!" Taiga shouted excitedly. Asami's eyes widened in surprise and she tore her eyes from her son to look towards the living room, were Ichiro sat, watching the scene unfolding in front of him with clear fondness and affection in his eyes.
Ichiro stood and went over to his wife and son, taking the backs from Asami's hands and giving her a kiss in greeting, ignoring the eeew, gross that came from their son at the action as Asami rolled her eyes fondly.
"How was work, love?" asked Asami as she went to the kitchen to unpack the back and start making dinner.
"Just fine. I finished early so I took the liberty of taking the afternoon off," answered Ichiro. Following her into the kitchen and settling himself beside the door to watch her and Taiga as they cooked, or well, tried to in Taiga's case.
Asami just hummed in reply but he could see by the quirk in her mouth that she was more than pleased. "Anyways, I have a surprise for you Taiga."
Taiga wiped around, the half-formed rice ball he had been trying to make forgotten as soon as the word surprise passed Ichiro's lips. Asami raised an eyebrow at Ichiro in question but he just winked in reply.
"Really?! What is it? Is it the bike I asked for? Or-or that video game? Everyone at school has it and I haven't even played it yet and it's getting annoying dad I really-"
Chucking, Ichiro pulled the tickets from his back pocket, watching in amusement as Taiga's face fell.
"That's not a bike," said Taiga with a pout. "No, Taiga, it's not a bike," replied Ichiro patiently, "but I think you'll like it just as much."
Taiga's wary frown was all Ichiro needed to know that his son didn't really believe him. "Give it a chance Taiga, sweetheart. What have I always told?" said Asami in a kind but firm tone, hands on her hips and narrowed eyes looking at Taiga, who gulped after seeing the look his mother was giving him.
"Never judge a book by its title…?" answered the boy with obvious hesitance. Asami just quirked a smile and dropped a kiss on Taigas forehead.
"It's by its cover actually, but close enough." Ichiro, who couldn't wait any longer, cleared his throat to regain his son's attention. "These are tickets for a football game, Taiga."
Quicker than thought, Taiga snatched the ticket from his father's hand, eyes going wide with excitement.
"That's so cool dad! You're the best! I've always wanted to go to one. Football's the one were all the players are really tall right? The one where they jump super high and then they dump the orange ball through a hoop, that's it right? Right?"
"That's basketball Taiga," answered Ichiro, a tendril of despair leaking into his voice as Asami ringing laugh sounded through the kitchen
"No, dad, it's not."
Next Sunday afternoon found an overly exited Taiga pulling his father's hand all the way up the stadium stairs as fast as his little legs could carry him. Dogging flailing limbs and the eventual hot dog, Taiga fought his way through the teeming crowd till they found their seats. Heaving, Taiga and his father settled and began making themselves as comfortable as humanly possible on the unyielding plastic chairs of the stadium. They were close enough to the field to watch the players without the help of the big screens hanging all around the stadium. Still, Taiga couldn't keep his eyes off them- they were huge and flashy and well, kids liked huge and flashy.
Years from now Taiga would always remember the atmosphere that settled over the stadium like a mantel, although the names of the teams that played that day would forever escape him. The excitement and anticipation was clear on every face and as soon as the match began the chants and songs that filled the field rushed through Taiga till he was brimming with emotion. The crowed screamed as one and Taiga joined them. He cheered for every goal made, no matter what team scored it, all while his father sat by his side, watching him with laughing eyes full of fondness.
Then came half time.
The football players where gone and in their stead there were skirts and pompoms and human pyramids. There were cartwheels and backflips and things that Taiga couldn't even name, nevertheless understand. There were voices singing, ablaze with joy and chants filled with pure, raw, feeling. Taiga had gone still in his awe, both hands gripping the railing till his knuckles turned white and his whole body tilted forward, red eyes wide and disbelieving, trying to take it all in. His heart had started pounding. Beating faster and faster, trying to keep up with the rhythm that reverberated through the field and traveled through Taiga's feet and legs till it reached his heart until the redhead couldn't discern if what he heard was the beat of his heart or the beat of the bass. He gaped as he saw people flying, jaw dropping as three girls seemed to rise through the sky before twisting and turning so fast that Taiga lost track of them. He gawked as the people on the field danced as if they were one, stomping their feet and clapping together as their voices rose above the music till Taiga's ears rang. He was stunned by the perfection of it all; every move was coordinated and perfectly timed. Still, Taiga got a feeling of wildness, something like barely controlled energy, raring to break free, that left him breathless.
Then it was over, faster than thought.
In a flash off color they disappeared, the people and the emotion they had created.
The emotion that Taiga had pretty much fallen in love with. All gone. Taiga hadn't been sure that what he had seen had even happened. It had all been like a dream, full of impossibilities.
The glitter on the ground proved otherwise.
Stunned, he had turned towards his father who had been watching him with an amused smile on his face, clearly delighted in his son's shock.
"What was that?" Taiga had asked, voice barley above a breath. "Cheerleading," was his father's curt answer, almost dismissive. "Don't worry tough, the game will resume in a moment."
But Taiga did worry.
He didn't want the game to resume. He couldn't care less about the game right now. What he wanted was to see the pyramids and the turns and the twists again. He wanted to see the colors again. He wanted to hear the songs again.
He wanted to feel again.
Cheerleading. That was what Taiga wanted.
And if they weren't going to give him more, well then, Taiga would just have to take matters into his own hands.
Later that day, when Taiga was already asleep in his own bed, exhausted by that day's new experience, Ichiro lay in bed with Asami, hands entwined as his wife read a book at his side and he mulled over what would soon become a problem.
Suddenly, Asami laid her book down and turned to look at him with a concerned but knowing look, which she had mastered over the years of their marriage. "Well then, spit it out. What's got you so worried?" Ichiro turned to face her. His face must have been reflecting his astonishment because Asami rolled her eyes and huffed.
"Don't give me that look Ichiro, I know something's up. I know you better than you know yourself after all." She stroked through his hair and really, what other option did Ichiro have apart from giving in?
"It's Taiga."
"What's with Taiga? I thought you had a great time at the football game?"
Ichiro frowned. They had had a good time. Taiga had been so exited and Ichiro had been just as happy as his six-year-old son. He was thankful for the opportunity to spend time with Taiga, but the ride home and the conversation they had on the car was what had him so concerned. "He wants to be a cheerleader."
Asami barked a laugh so loud she had to put her hand over her mouth to avoid waking Taiga. "Ah Ichiro, you can't be serious."
Ichiro's frown became even more pronounced. "But I am. He said so himself, and you should have seen his face when he said it, Asami he was so serious about it and-"
"That not what I meant," interrupted Asami, laughter making her brown eyes shine. She tugged his hand till it lay atop of her folded legs and began stroking his over his knuckles, trying to calm him down.
"Taiga is just a child and cheerleading has everything it's required to attract a kid's attention," she smiled. "Really Ichiro, let Taiga be, he'll probably forget all about it by the time morning comes."
Ichiro just grunted and looked away, silently thankful for his wife words but too ashamed of having made such a big deal out of nothing for him to tell her so aloud. Either way, Asami's crinkling eyes were proof enough that she knew exactly what he was thinking.
Ichiro sighed and turned his bedside lamp off. His wife was right, as always. It probably was just a passing fancy.
It was so not just a passing fancy.
Over the months that were to come, Taiga took to eating, breathing and all but living cheerleading.
The redhead had made himself a pair of pompons by tying two pillowcases together and he waved them all around the kitchen every morning while Asami cooked breakfast and Ichiro scowled at him over his morning newspaper.
He tried doing cartwheels on the hall, only managing to stay in the air for a few seconds before crashing down to the floor, breaking his mother's favorite flower vase in the process with a fly-away foot.
And then came the chants.
Oh god the chants.
The first time it happened was a week after the football game. The whole family was supposed to have been in bed. Ichiro and Asami had been already dozing off when a blood curling scream came from their son's room and made the both of them bolt right up and run down the hall in frantic panic.
All but throwing the door open Ichiro went barreling into his son's room, looking around for Taiga and whatever had made the little boy scream in such a way. Asami fumbled for the light switch, turning the light on as soon as she found it and kneeling down in front of Taiga, who had been standing in the middle of his room, clad in blue dinosaur pajamas and holding his makeshift pompons.
"Taiga, love, what happened?" asked Asami in a rush of breath, frantically patting her son's body looking for any injuries the boy may have had. "We heard you scream."
"You heard me then? Awesome! That means I'm getting better!"
Silence met Taiga's answer, Ichiro's concerned look slowly melting into a furious scowl. "Cheerleading?! That was what the scream was all about?" demanded Ichiro.
"It's not screaming dad, it's called chanting," answered Taiga, an offended pout marring his childish face."It's annoying and not for boys like you, that's what it is!"
Asami sighed and looked over at Ichiro reproachfully before standing up and grabbing Taiga by his little hand and pulling him to bed.
"Taiga, sweetheart, you can't practice at this time of the night," said Asami as she tucked Taiga into bed, handing him his stuffed T-Rex for him to snuggle with. "We thought you got hurt, love, you made us worry."
"Oh for god's sake Asami, this nonsense has gone on for long enough, this needs to stop," Ichiro said, voice hard and leaving no room for arguing.
"But dad," said Taiga as he looked at his father with wide eyes, clutching his stuffed toy like a lifeline. "I just want to be a cheer-"
"No! I said this needs to stop. I will not have my son doing something as degrading as cheerleading." Ichiro regarded his son with a last strict, disappointed look before promptly turning around and leaving the room, slamming the door on his way out. Asami sighed for the nth time that night and rubbed a hand over her face.
"Mom?" came the tentative question from behind the covers where the only thing that Asami could see of her son was the top of his red-haired head. "Is dad really serious about me not being allowed to do cheerleading anymore?"
Asami forced a smile on her face and reached to pull the covers down so she could look at her son in the eyes.
"Don't worry Taiga, your father was just tired, you know he has been working a lot lately," at Taigas small nod, Asami reached down to plant a kiss on his creased forehead. "I'll talk to him okay? You can continue to practice cheerleading, just, not at night, okay love?"
"Okay"
Asami stood up and headed for the door but stopped short, her hand already over the doorknob as she heard Taiga calling her once again.
"Mom…is it really okay for me to be a cheerleader?" Taiga's voice was tentative and she could see him fidgeting under the covers. Ichiro's words had clearly rattled the little boy more than she had thought. "You know what I always say Taiga?"
"Do the things you like without hurting anyone," was Taiga's resolved response. The redhead looked determined and Asami couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"That's right, love, and do you like cheerleading?"
"More than anything!" was Taiga's automatic answer. Asami smiled at his son's excitement and turned the light off. "There you go then."
"But I hurt dad, didn't I?" Asami flinched at Taiga's tentative question. Her little boy should never sound that sad. "I mean," continued the boy, looking at her almost desperately as he continued to ramble, "he really wanted me to play football but cheerleading is much more fun! And it makes me happy too. I really don't like football but do I want to make dad happy and-"
"Like I said Taiga," cut in Asami, "your father was just tired, you needn't worry, okay sweetheart?" She smiled at Taiga once more and forced herself not to give any of her conflicting emotions away.
"Okay," answered Taiga, more calm after her reassurance. "Thanks mom."
Asami went to kiss him one more time and then ruffled his red hair softly, taking what little comfort the action offered. But as she closed the door to Taiga's bedroom she had to wonder if she was the one who should worry.
Things went from bad the worse then.
Taiga continued to practice cheerleading with his mother's support and under her watchful eyes (to avoid anymore broken vases) but now the redhead took care to do it only when his father wasn't at home, which actually left Taiga with quite a lot of time to practice. His father tried to get him to quit cheerleading whenever Taiga wasn't careful enough and Ichiro caught him practicing. He pushed him to try and give football a chance or maybe baseball, yeah? Or why not try out basketball huh?
After a while Ichiro realized it was a lost cause, Taiga was dead set on being a cheerleader and nothing was going to stop him, not even his father.
Ichiro and Taiga's relationship grew strained because of it, the father pulling away from his son so that even Taiga, for all his obliviousness, took noticed of the ever-growing distance on the once close relationship.
Comments like shouldn't you behave like a boy, Taiga? Or Go pick up a ball instead of waving those things around, would you? became a common occurrence around the Kagami household. Taiga learned to simply ignore them after his failed those are pompons dads earned him only a sneer from his father.
All Asami could do was watch and try to keep the rift between father and son from widening. But as the weeks turned into month and Ichiro stopped talking to Taiga all together when the boy refused to join the baseball team for the tent time she began to wonder if she was really fighting a loosing battle.
She saw how the then seven-year-old Taiga practiced his cartwheels diligently everyday after coming back from elementary school. These where slowly becoming better - she hadn't had to replace the vase on the hall in two weeks, which was a record. She saw how he looked up videos on the Internet of world-famous cheerleading squads and tried to copy their movements - she also had to stop Taiga before he hurled himself from the kitchen counter in a poor-thought-off attempt to try and teach himself how to do a backflip.
And although she was happy for him, elated that her little boy had found something to love and pour all of his energy on, she also saw how little by little Taiga stopped talking about his friends from school. She noticed how now every time she asked him about his day and that day's classes Taiga's face would show a mix of discomfort, hurt and anger instead of his usual happy expression.
She noticed how Taiga now longer hanged out at the park with his classmates after school like he used to do every day, instead opting to go straight home and try to remember basic cheerleading positions.
She saw the sad looks Taiga would give his father after the man came home from work and ignored Taiga outright. She was helpless as she noticed how those looks turned form sad to angry as Taiga began to glare at his father, as her once-cheerful son became aggressive and quicker to anger.
But in spite all of that, what she most remembered from that time was how Taiga would glow when he manage to pull a perfect back twist or how happy he would be after getting through an entire chant without stuttering.
So she kept silent and hoped that her support was enough.
It had to be.
If Taiga's life inside his house had been a nightmare, well then, life outside of it had been absolute hell.
As soon as his classmates found out that he liked cheerleading the name-calling started.
Taiga became Missy and then Missy became Princess and then Princess became Faggot once the older kids got wind of the strange redheaded kid with the weird eyebrows and a passion for cheerleading of all things.
His friends stood by him at the beginning, some of them even tried to get the other kids to stop teasing Taiga, but when they began to get teased in return they figured out pretty quickly that they easy way out was to deny any connection to him. Taiga couldn't blame them, not when he saw getting pushed around and shoved into locker just for hanging our around him. So he let it roll of him and he learned how to pack a punch. By the time Winter Break rolled around, Taiga was already used to eating lunch by himself.
When Taiga turned nine and started third grade had had already heard all the possible demeaning nicknames his classmates could come up with and all those that they couldn't too, thanks to the high schoolers from his neighborhood and, on occasion, thanks to his dad too.
His body became littered with Band-Aids; his knees and elbows always sporting scratches and his clothes were often dirty and torn up by the end of the day. His mother started to worry, well, more than she already did. She would shoot him concerned glances as she patched him up after a rough day in school, which he would ignore. He knew involving an adult was the worst thing he could do. The bullying would just get worse than it already was, so he kept his mouth shut and let his glare become fiercer, his skin thicker.
(His dad just sneered at him when he saw him one day with black and green bruises running along his arm and told him that this wouldn't have happened if he had joined the football team like he had told him countless time before.)
But never once did Taiga regret choosing to stick to cheerleading. The feeling he got when he pulled off his first backflip after weeks and weeks of practice was well worth a few sneers and bruises.
After the incident where a bunch of his classmates and two of their older brothers decided it would be fun to throw him up in the air and then promptly forget to catch him since he wanted to be a cheerleader and all, didn't he? And that's what cheerleaders do, don't they? They fly, princess. Talks with the principal of his school became a weekly occurrence.
Mr. Jones tried to get him to quit cheerleading. For his own safety he said, but after a tongue-lashing from his mother about how the school didn't seem to be living up to all their anti-bullying policies and how this could be a really interesting story if the local newspaper caught wind of it and oh, did she mention the head journalist from said paper was a very good friend of hers? the principal did a one-eighty and promised to begin enforcing those same policies right away. He had never been more grateful for his mother that he had been then.
The bullied lessened a bit after that. Most of his classmates were content with ignoring him and Taiga could care less if he was chosen last for PE class. Still, there were some kids who didn't' get the memo and wouldn't leave him alone.
But then again, it was thanks to those kinds of kids that he got to meet Tatsuya, so really, it all kind of balanced out in the end.
"There he is! That's his red hair across the street!"
Taiga dropped his ice cream in surprise as he turned around and spotted a bunch of his classmates pointing at him from the other side of the road, murder in their eyes. "Get Him!"
Taiga ran.
Heart pounding and sweat dripping down his neck, the redhead urged his legs to go faster, faster, faster. They were closing in on him and although Taiga was by no means scared of the three classmates that were chasing him, he knew he wouldn't stand a chance against the high school student they had brought along with them - a big brother, maybe?- as back up.
Cowards the lot of them, couldn't even fight for themselves, thought Taiga as he sprinted down the street. This Taiga knew with absolute certainty, seeing as he was the one who punched the lights out of them in recess a few hours back after they cornered him to try and take his lunch money form him because he had to stay thin to fit in the cheerleader uniform, right princess?
Taiga turned a sharp corner and in his panic didn't see the boy standing right in front of him, which caused Taiga to bowl right over the poor boy and brought the both of them tumbling down to the ground. Hard.
"Oh shit, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Taiga apologized, standing up as soon as he got his feet under him and offering a hand the help the other boy up.
"It's okay." The dark-haired boy replied, smiling back at Taiga. Now that they were both standing up, he could see that the kid was abut his age, maybe a bit older, with glossy black hair that hung over his face, hiding his left eye from view. What surprised Taiga most of all though, was that the boy appeared to be of Japanese descent, something he didn't often see in LA.
"Are you hurt?" asked the dark haired boy, a single gray-green eye staring at a spot right above Taiga's left eyebrow. The redhead lifted a hand to feel the spot the other boy was looking at and his fingers came away red. He had probably smashed his forehead after their fall, but whit all the adrenaline thrumming through his body from running; he had barely felt the wound. "Yeah, it's just a small cut. I'm-"
"There! In front of the store! Get him!"
The sudden scream startled both boys and Taiga turned back to see his four pursuers running up the street, heading straight for him, eyes alight with murder.
"-apparently still running for my life. Shit, they're faster than I thought."
The dark haired boy looked past Taigas shoulders and his eyes, well eye, really, widened at the sight of the four kids heading their way at full steam.
Taiga had taken maybe three steps, hoping to outrun his bullies and lose them at the next intersection when he felt a hand grabbing his wrist.
"Wait, it's better of you go this way, there's an alley. You can ditch them there."
Taiga looked up into the strange boy's face and locked eyes with him. After a moment of hesitation and seeing no ill will reflected in the boy's green eye, Taiga nodded his head. The boy smiled at him and immediately started to pull him into a narrow street to their left, which the redhead hadn't noticed before.
They slipped into the alley just in time to see the four bullies barrel past them shouting obscenities and waving their fist in the air. The two boys held their breath while they waited to see if the had managed to lose their attackers. They spend a few seconds in tense silence before they heard approaching footsteps. Taiga tightened his grip on the others boy hand unconsciously and he felt the other boy squeeze it in return. They caught a glimpse of one of the bullies face, peering into the alley, no doubt having retreated his steps after losing sight of Taiga's red mop of hair. They bully spotted them huddle into the wall, a vicious gleam in his eyes and Taiga waited no more time.
"Run!" With that Taiga started to pull the other boy in the opposite direction of the bully. He didn't turn to see how close the other three pursuers were and just concentrated and running as fast as he could while pulling the strange boy along with him. Taiga was sure that if he left the boy alone the bullies would beat him up t just for having helped Taiga escape and that was something that Taiga couldn't allow to happen. Not when to other boy had helped him so readily in spite of him being a total stranger and all but having crashed into him.
They ran without a destination in mind, hands clasped together and chests heaving in the hot LA weather till they came upon a deserted basketball court beside what appeared to be a public park. Since they couldn't see nor hear any of the four boys that had been chasing them, well chasing Taiga mostly, they slowed to a stop. They stood under the thin shade of the basketball hoop, both of them trying to catch their breath.
After what felt like an eternity but what was probably only a few minutes Taiga managed to get his breathing under control and finally looked up to where the other boy was standing, looking almost unruffled but for the thin layer of sweat that coated his skin.
"I-Thanks, really. I'm sorry I dragged you into this," mumbled Taiga, ashamed of having made the boy run across LA under in one of the hottest cays of summer.
"It's no big deal. I could see you needed the help," replied the boy - Tatsuya now -smile still fixed on his face. "My name is Himuro Tatsuya, by the way."
"So you really are Japanese, huh?" Taiga blurted out before he had time to think about it. The redhead grimaced at his bluntness and immediately apologized, "sorry, that was rude, I'm Kagami Taiga."
"Stop apologizing, really, it's okay," Tatsuya sat down below the hoop and looked at Taiga expectantly before patting the ground next to him in what was a clear invitation to seat down too. "I was born in Japan but me and my family moved to America when I was little."
"Same here," said Taiga, body slowly relaxing as he looked at Tatsuya's easy smile. The both of them had much in common already and Tatsuya seemed really cool. Most importantly, he had helped Taiga, which gave him all the brownie points in his opinion. Maybe Tatsuya could become from his friend from now on, though the redhead as something akin to hope settled in his chest, it would certainty be nice to have some one to hang out with.
"Why were those four chasing you for then?"
The question made Taiga freeze. He didn't want Tatsuya to find out why he had been chased. It would probably mean losing his opportunity to make a new friend.
As soon as Tatsuya found out that he wanted to be a cheerleader, he would surely sneer at him and ignore him, maybe he would even try to beat him up. Taiga grimaced; he knew he was a really bad liar so that was out of the question. Besides he didn't even want to lie to Tatsuya in the first place. Sure, he was afraid of the other's boy reaction but the boy had been nothing but kind to him and he didn't deserve being lied to.
So Taiga sighed and turned his head up to the blue sky. "It's because I want to be a cheerleader," he mumbled, voice barely above a breath, preparing himself for the other boy's reaction.
"You what?" was the sharp response, but instead of being filled with disgust Taiga could only detect pure astonishment.
The redhead turned to look at Tatsuya, who was staring at him with wide eyes full of something that Taiga couldn't quite name but that looked incredibly similar to hope. Taiga frowned in confusion; normally the name-calling would have already begun. "I said that I want to be a cheerleader and those guys back there make fun of me for it."
"Really? You're not joking right?" Tatsuya was staring at him wide eyed and the lack of mocking made Taiga nervous. He was prepared to defend himself and fight his way out of the court if it came down to it, but he Tatsuya's hopeful glance and bright smile were throwing him for a loop.
So Taiga turned to his automatic response when he was confused and scowled fiercely. "Why would I joke about something like that, idiot? It's caused me enough trouble as it is." Tatsuya just smiled at him, undeterred by his gruff tone. "I know right? People are so stupid sometimes, cheerleading is awesome but nobody seems to get it!"
Taiga gaped at him, jaw hanging open and red eyes wide in disbelief as he tried to make sense of the turn of events. "You-you like cheerleading too?!"
Tatsuya nodded his head, single eye brimming with happiness. "Yeah! A friend showed me a video of a cheerleading squad once and since then I've been hooked. I didn't know any other boys my age liked it too though."
Taiga, who still couldn't wrap his head around what the other boy was saying, just nodded dumbly in agreement.
"Hey would you like to go back to my house? I know we just met but I found this video yesterday of a squad who do really cool stunts and nobody else is interested in watching it with me. What do you say?" Tatsuya was already standing up, the sun casting shadows over his face, making it difficult to see the expression on the other's boy face but Taiga could still make out the warm smile the other boy was giving him.
Taiga rose to his feet, accepting Tatsuya's outstretched hand. "I would really like that, yeah." Tatsuya's smile became softer, more genuine and Taiga couldn't help but grin in return.
After his chance encounter with Tatsuya, life for Taiga became easier, better.
He had a friend now; no, it was even more than that. He had a brother now and the ring that always hung from his neck was proof of that.
He could always count on Tatsuya to be there for him, be it for a late night study session or a day of practicing cheerleading stunts. The other boy taught him tricks to improve his moves and gave him tips to win in a fight. He became a sort of lifeline for Taiga, steady and constant.
It was also Tatsuya who encouraged him to approach his school's cheerleading squad, which had been full of girls before he came along and asked to join in. After convincing the captain, a girl named Laura, that yes he really was interested in cheerleading and no it was not part of a dare and no he would never dare to join just so he could ogle the girls in their skirts he became part of the squad.
He found then that what he had been doing up until now had been pure child play. Although he did better with the stunts, the backflips and the like than anyone - even him- had expected, he was found severely lacking in the dance department. Taiga hadn't given dancing that much thought really, he was man enough to admit that he didn't have a single drop of grace in his whole body so he always figured that if he managed to become part of a squad, he would become a thrower. Besides, his chants and loud voice more than made up for his lack of dancing skills.
The girls of the squad thought otherwise though.
"Move your hips! Taiga, god, how are you so stiff?!"
"Don't just let your arms hang around, use them!"
"I wanna see more butt movement, c'mon Taiga I know you can do better!"
"Mind your feet, kid!"
"Don't lose your balance after the twist- damn it Taiga, are you alright?"
"MOVE THOSE HIPS!"
After three of the most embarrassing training sessions of his life Taiga managed to learn the basics of dancing. By this he meant that he learned how to sway and how to turn around in twirl without falling flat on his face and then promptly gave up and sulked for the rest of training till the girls went back to practicing throwing, which he was actually really great at, thank you very much.
By the time fourth grade came along Taiga was already a regular in the cheerleading squad. His school was fortunately very good at sports in general so the cheerleading squad got a lot of opportunities to show off their routines to the public and to other rival schools.
Laura put him in charge of creating the chants and then actually leading them. His gruff voice allowed him to be heard over the roar of the crowd at football and basketball games and he always made sure to give his 100% in very single practice and in every single presentation they had.
His classmates became easier to deal with too. When they realized that he was friends with all the hot, older girls of the cheerleading squad they all came begging to him, asking him to introduce them to the squad, which he obviously didn't do because hello, the girls could be downright lethal when they wanted to be, especially when they wore heels.
And those who still continued to tease him and bully him soon learned the same thing that Taiga had during his first week of training with the girls: no one messes with the cheerleading squad.
The older girls took it onto themselves to defend Taiga every time someone tried to pull something on him, even if Taiga argued that he could take care of it himself. They all insisted on helping and soon enough Taiga found himself with about a dozen bodyguards who accompanied him everywhere he went inside the school - and sometimes even outside of it- who all knew just how to thrown a person up in the air but could also just as easily forget how to catch them when they came back down.
After some time a few brave guys gathered enough courage to join the squad and soon Taiga found more and more people who shared the same interest as him. The squad became stronger with the new recruits and he managed to make new friends. By the time that sixth grade came around, Taiga was made captain of the cheerleading squad, much to his joy, seeing that he had been eyeing the position ever since Laura upped and went to high school.
All in all, Taiga fit right in with the cheerleading squad, he felt like he belonged for once.
The squad continued to cheer for the different sports teams of the school but Taiga wanted more. So a few months into his captaincy Taiga managed to get his squad into the State-Wide Cheerleading Competition for Primary Schools after much cajoling - and what he could now admit had been blatant ass-kissing, not that he regretted it mind you, cheerleading came always first to Taiga after all, his reputation be damned.
The competition had been brutal and served as a sort of wake-up-call. Taiga could have never imagined that the level of cheerleading in middle school could be so high. Although they were unequal both in numbers and experience to most of the other teams, his squad managed to get as far as to the semi-finals by the skin of all their collective teeth. Sadly, a powerhouse school that had apparently been the reigning champion for the last two years crushed them at the semifinals match. The bastards had even had their own sponsor, and they were in middle school for god's sake.
After all had been said and done though, they did their best whit what they had and managed to get farther than anyone would have imagined, or so Taiga told his morose squad on their way home after their last performance. This knowledge didn't stop Taiga from crying his eyes out that night to Tatsuya after their loss though.
His mother came to every single presentation Taiga participated in. She would always tell him how proud of him she was at the end of every show and Taiga would hug her so tight that she had to pry his arms away from her body to be able to breath well.
His father never showed his face to any of them, but then, that was expected.
It was the summer break before Taiga was meant to start Junior High when he and Tatsuya met Alex for the first time. A day neither of them would be forgetting anytime soon.
Both boys had been itching to go practice a new move they had seen some European cheerleaders do and had decided to head to the basketball court near Tatsuya's apartment after school let out and see if they could pull it off before sundown. Something that proved to be impossible, seeing as both Taiga and Tatsuya had been trying to do the stupidly difficult backwards twist for about three hours each and they still couldn't land without stumbling - Tatsuya's case or falling flat on their face - that was Taiga.
Just as the redhead was psyching himself up for another try, hands up in the air and back ramrod straight as Tatsuya watched from the side, eyes alert to try and catch him if the stunt went sideways, an ominous shadow fell over both boys, blocking the sun and making Taiga stop short as Tatsuya's eye went wide.
"You're gonna fall if you don't spread your feet more, you know," said a lilting voice filled with amusement from behind Taiga, "not that you haven't been doing enough of that as it is."
Taiga wiped around in surprise and found himself looking straight ahead at a pierced belly button.
"Eyes up here, short stuff."
Taiga gulped and raised his head up and up and up till he came face to face with a blond woman, who was smirking down at him. Her blond hair fell down to her shoulders; two longer strands framing her face and a pair of red glasses encasing her green eyes.
"Who the hell are you?" shouted Taiga, still bewildered by the woman's sudden appearance. He felt Tatsuya come to stand beside him and he felt his body relax as his brother in all but blood bumped his shoulder against his in a show of support.
"My, my, you've got quite a mouth on you, dontcha kid?"
"Please forgive Taiga," said Tatsuya, face betraying nothing of the wariness Taiga knew he was feeling - it wasn't just kids that made fun of them after all. Both Taiga and Tatsuya had met quiet a few adults who judged them for their love of cheerleading and they hadn't had any qualms about showing their disgust, Taiga's own father being the case in point. Tatsuya's mouth curled up into the smile that always made adults melt and girls swoon as he took over the conversation, "you just surprised him that's all."
"Ha! So you must be the one who keeps this one," said the woman, pointing her finger down at Taiga, "out of trouble then."
"Yes, that's usually the case miss…" answered the dark-haired boy, dialing up the charm till he was almost exuding politeness and childish innocence, which Taiga knew for a fact was fake - Tatsuya being innocent was about as impossible as him eating salad for lunch.
"Alexandra Garcia, but you two cuties can call me Alex." The woman winked at them and reached a hand to ruffle Taigas' red hair, which the redhead instantly swatted away.
"What do you want then?" asked Taiga sourly, frown prominent on his face. Tatsuya elbowed him on the side. "I-I mean, is there something you, ah - you needed?" He grimaced; Taiga wasn't particularly keen on being polite to the annoying woman, seeing as she had rudely interrupted their practice and then proceeded to make fun of him.
"You both were trying to pull the German backflip twist right?" she didn't give them time to answer and just went on talking, like she hadn't even asked them a question in the first place. "I was walking by when I saw you both practicing and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let you two aspiring cheerleaders butcher one of the most basic stunts in the history of cheerleading." Her smile became sugar-sweet, which just made Taiga frown even harder as he felt his anger burning hotter.
"Oi! Just who do you think you are, you wretch-"
"Taiga!" came Tatsuya's alarmed yell as he hurried to try and stop Taiga before he managed to finish his insult. The woman-Alex- just laughed, loud and completely unashamed by it.
"Taiga is it?" Alex asked, clearly unruffled by Taiga's anger, "I was just offering a helping hand to you boys, seeing as I happen to be a former member of the National Cheerleading Squad, but then again, if you don't want my hard-earned wisdom of all thing cheerleading, I'll be on my way." She started walking towards the door on the fence of the court, back turned toward Taiga, who's jaw now hung open in disbelief. "Have fun trying to do that backflip you two."
Taiga and Tatsuya looked at each other, then towards Alex's retreating form, which was slowly but steadily moving closer and closer to the entryway and then back to each other again. A sudden understanding passed through both boys as they turned and started to run toward what was probably the best opportunity they would ever have at improving their cheerleading skills. An opportunity that was now already outside the court and slipping rapidly through their finger.
"Wait!"
Alex stopped mid-step and turned agonizingly slowly towards Taiga and Tatsuya, who skidded to a stop before they could barrel over her in their desperation.
"Yes?"
Taiga gulped and looked over to the dark-haired boy, who took a deep breath and straightened his back. Both of them knew that Taiga would most likely cost them this chance if he so much as opened his mouth. Politeness and niceties Taiga always left to Tatsuya, who wore such things as a second skin.
"We would be honored if you helped us practice, miss Garcia."
Alex smiled at them, "Now, now, there's really no need to be so formal with me," the smile she gave them turned downright bloody and her eyes filled with some sort of evil anticipation, "not when I'm about to wipe this whole court clean with the both of you."
Both boys gulped and turned to look at each other, wondering if they hadn't just made a terrible mistake.
They did, sort of.
Make a mistake, that is.
Not that Alex was a bad teacher, that couldn't be further from the truth actually.
Alex was a great teacher and an even greater mentor. She had boundless knowledge, both theoretical and practical, which she knew just how to use. She also had years and years of experience gained through a whole carrier of cheerleading which gave her a huge advantage over any other teacher Taiga and Tatsuya may have hoped to find - and of course, she was light years ahead of the Internet and YouTube How-To-s (at least in what cheerleading was concerned) which was how Taiga and Tatsuya had been learning so far.
She realized just after two days of practicing with Taiga and Tatsuya that she needed to go about teaching them a bit differently from each other, since they learned better with individual teaching methods. Tatsuya for example, did better if he saw a stunt executed before he himself tried it. He would copy Alex movements, the position of her hands and feet and after a few tries, he would match it perfectly.
Taiga on the other hand needed to try a stunt for himself and then be corrected on the particular moves, which unfortunately meant that the redhead would always end up sprawled all over the dirt covered floor of the court they had taken to practice in (and that had become sort of theirs in the two months they had been training together if they way the neighborhood kids avoided it like the plague was anything to go by) while Tatsuya and Alex laughed their faces off after another spectacular fail.
The only drawback to their peculiar arrangement was that, although Alex certainly was the greatest teacher any student could ask for, she had apparently decided that said teaching role also extended outside of the court.
Which, of course, was what led Taiga right into the situation he now found himself in.
"Man, Taiga, your sister's so hot!"
"I didn't even know boobs could be that big"
"You think she'd let me touch them if I asked?"
"No way, dude…Maybe if I asked, tough."
Taiga snapped.
"First, she's not my sister. She's my annoying mentor," here Taiga whirled towards Alex, who was grinning at him, unrepentant and surrounded by a bunch of Taiga's year mates, who ere all googly-eyed and basically drooling over her, "and she was supposed to wait by the café at the end of the street and not at the gates of my fuck-ah-freacking school." This was specifically directed at Alex just who gave him a look of surprise, which Taiga did not buy for a second.
"Now, now, tiger, there's no need to be jealous. You know you'll always be my one and only love."
Taiga just scowled harder and gave her his best we will have words look as he shouldered his way into the gaggle of teens and began pushing Alex over to the schools gates and away from this freaking nightmare. "See you around kids," said Alex merrily as she waved a dainty goodbye to the drooling mass she had made, all while looking like the cat that got the cream. Taiga's only answer was to push her even harder.
Once they were a safe distance away from his school Taiga finally stopped pushing Alex and went around her instead to fall into step with the blonde and make it easier for him to glare at her.
They walked in silence for a while, Taiga's scowl slowly melting away as they trudged thought LA's busy street, heading for the court they were supposed to meet Tatsuya at as Alex looked on ahead, eyes unfocused and glazed over, as if she were in deep thought, which Taiga secretly doubted Alex could do - at least with something not cheerleading-relevant.
"You know, I just started going to that school." Taiga said, a bit sourly but without any real bite to it, voice more resigned than angry. "I've managed to stay under the radar so far in spite of joining the cheerleading squad. Now everyone's gonna talk and soon they'll find out about me joining the squad and then the bullying will start again and it will all have been your fault."
Of course Taiga knew that was not true. The truth would have come out sooner or later and he had just been hoping for the impossible, thinking that he could get through a whole year of school without someone at least teasing him about wanting to be a cheerleader. Still, he had specifically told Alex not to go to his school, already having expected such a reaction. She usually listened to him when he asked her to take something seriously, which he had actually done. Not this time apparently and Taiga was getting a bit anxious about the whole thing, specially since Alex hadn't said a word since he begun his rant, which was not like Alex at all.
"I know, tiger," sighed Alex, "but I needed to talk to you." She came to a sudden stop and Taiga had to retrace back a few steps to stand by her side. She looked at him, all amusement gone from her face, a frown marring her unusually somber expression.
"What is it?" asked Taiga warily, had had seen her this serious only once before and that had been when Tatsuya landed on the wrong foot and twisted his ankle, so whatever the hell this was, it was no laughing matter.
"It's Tatsuya. Haven't you notice something off about him lately?"
Taiga froze.
He hadn't wanted to say anything, in case he had been overreacting, which he was admittedly prone to do, but for the past few days he had noticed something. Tatsuya had been pulling away from them; he had been pulling away from Taiga, pulling away from his brother and for the life of him Taiga could no figure out why.
Sure, he and Tatsuya had fought before, but it had always been over meaningless things, like who got the last popsicles or who's turn it was to watch out for the other while they tried a new stunt. Petty thing usually solved by a quick match of rock-paper-scissors. And if their fights somehow escalated, they were always, always anger-of-the-moment banters, all heat and big talk but without any real meaning behind them. Now though, there was no heat, no anger. Instead Taiga felt as if Tatsuya was trying to shut him out, to cut him off and it hurt because it had always been them together, it has always been TatsuyaandTaiga and TaiagandTatsuya, brothers in all but blood since the day Tatsuya had decide to help a strange redheaded kid escape some bullies. But now, now it was like Tatsuya had taken his favorite phrase keep a cool head and a hot heart a step to far and the coldness had somehow slithered into Tatsuya's heart as well and Taiga didn't know what to do, didn't even now where to start. He had always been bad with feelings, even worse at talking about them. That had always been Tatsuya's forte, but now that his brother was to one that Taiga needed to figure out, he was at a complete loss.
"So you have noticed something." Alex's voice startled Taiga out of the reverie he had been in. He looked up to se her staring at him, face a mix of sadness, pity and something he couldn't quiet discern.
"Yeah," whispered Taiga. It felt wrong; admitting it, but it also felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulder at the same time. So he had been right, it hadn't just been his imagination after all. "He's pulling away, isn't he?"
Alex just looked at him for a while longer before she started walking once again, leaving Taiga to trail after her without having his questioned answered.
They continued walking in silence till they reached their usual training court. Tatsuya wasn't there yet. His school let out a bit after Taiga's so it was not unexpected but with the subject of the conversation they had been having the older boy's lack of presence just made Taiga even more disquieted than he already was.
He was already done with his stretches and had been intending to start practicing the frontal jump Alex had been talking about the day before when his mentor spoke again, voice soft but without a hint of doubt in it.
"I think he's jealous, of you, I mean."
"Who's jealous?" asked Taiga in confusion.
"Tatsuya, of course. Who else?"
"Tatsuya?!" shouted Taiga, completely blindsided by Alex's comment because really, Tatsuya jealous of him? No way in hell.
"It's not as impossible as you seem to think it is Taiga," replied Alex patiently from where she stood under the basketball hoop, hands on her hips and green eyes staring straight at him. "You have natural talent, something which Tatsuya doesn't. He has to practice twice as hard as you just to pull to same stunt off. I think it's getting to him."
Taiga just gaped. He still couldn't wrap his mind around what Alex was trying to say. Because cool, aloof, ever-patient Tatsuya, who did backflips as easy as breathing and didn't so much as stumble after a high jump couldn't possibly be jealous of Taiga, who struggled with basic twists and fell flat on his face more times than he could count.
"He-he can't, I mean, please Alex, that's just impossible not when he- and the things he does and I can't even- I mean-!"
"It's no about what you can do Taiga, it's about what you could do" at Taiga's look of complete confusion Alex sighed and tried to explain it in more detail. "I'm talking about potential, tiger. Tatsuya has realized that someday, I'm not saying it'll be tomorrow or next week, but someday, he'll reach his full potential. He'll reach the top and for him that'll be it. But you'll still be able to keep going, you'll surpass him and that is what has got him pulling away from you."
Taiga took a shaky breath and tried to keep his breathing under control. Alex couldn't just say these things. It wasn't fair. All he had ever wanted was to practice cheerleading and now that he had found someone who shared the same dream as him, now that he had found himself a brother, he was going to lose him if he kept doing the thing he loved most.
He clenched his fist in anger, no sure if it was directed at Alex for just springing this shit on him or at Tatsuya for being so goddamn stupid for thinking this sort of bullshit or even at himself for being incapable of just talking to Tatsuya and work thing out just as they had always done.
He felt arms encircle him as Alex knelt down next to him and embraced him."It's not your fault, tiger. You have to understand that, okay?" the calming tone of Alex's voice managed to cut through Taiga's frantic mind and he lifted his head to rest it on her shoulder, hiding his face between the strand of her blond hair so she wouldn't see the tears tracks on his cheeks. "I'll talk with him, okay? You'll see. I'll all be fine and the three of us will continue practicing cheerleading together till you both manage to beat me at least once. That's a promise Taiga."
Taiga just nodded, ready to believe anything if it meant getting to keep both cheerleading and his brother in his life.
In the end it happened faster than any of them expected.
Tatsuya continued to pull away and although both Taiga and Alex did everything they could to keep the gap from widening one day Tatsuya didn't show up for their usual practice after school. He wasn't there the day after either, or that day after that or the day after, till it had been a whole week since either Taiga or Alex had last seen him and both had to admit defeat.
Taiga didn't see Tatsuya for months and neither did Alex, although both of them tried to look for him. He seemed to always be out when they went by his apartment and neither one of his parents were able to tell them were Tatsuya might have been.
It was Taiga who found him at last, well if he ha was being honest, it was really a chance encounter that had them meeting again.
Taiga's school's football team was playing a match at which Taiga's squad was cheering and there it was that he spotted Tatsuya. The other boy was on the other side of the court, looking straight at Taiga, smiling at him as if everything was completely fine, like he hadn't dropped of the face of the earth and ignored him for months. Taiga felt anger rise in him, how dare Tatsuya act all nonchalant like he hadn't left Taiga in pieces after his disappearance. How dare he stand there easy as you please when Taiga was on the verge of tear, of anger, frustration or happiness he didn't know, but numb all the same.
A flash of glossy black hair and a tip of the older boy's head had Taiga immediately going after him, completely ignoring his teammates calls and questions.
The dark haired boy led Taiga to the changing rooms of the home school, which Tatsuya had apparently had transferred into- as if the emotional distance hadn't been enough the bastard also had to change schools and damn if that didn't hurt like a bitch.
There it was that they made the promise, the promise that broke Taiga's heart all over again.
50 games.
They would face each other 50 times and the one who had won the most matches by the end would have the faith of their relationship in their hands. If Taiga won, he would get to keep calling Tatsuya his brother, on the other hand if Taiga lost he would lose Tatsuya completely. The redhead decided that it was easier if he just denied the mere possibility of him losing, because if he did lose- well, as he said, it was better if he didn't even imagine it.
Both their schools were strong enough in sports for them to be able to play that number of games. And play they did. Game after game after game they faced each other off, be it at a basketball match, a football one or a baseball game, they both gave it their all at every match, both knowing what was at stake if they lost and both fighting tooth and nail to keep that from happening.
And as they drew closer to the end of the bet they each got better, they improved by leaps and bounds as Alex watched over both of them, present at every game they cheered at even as she tried to convince them to give up on their foolish little bet and just reconcile already you're best friend damnit, you're brothers. And god did Taiga wanted that, but if there was something that Taiga didn't do, it was go back on his word. And so they cheered and so they sang and they jumped and they danced, every game they played bringing them always one step closer to the end.
But just as it always did with Taiga, life decide to throw him one last fuck you right in the face, because a week before his last match against Tatsuya, the game that was supposed to finally, finally put an end to their bet and decide the future of Taigas' relationship with his maybe-brother, his father decided that Taiga was moving to Japan.
Of fucking course.
By this point in his life, Taiga really has to wonder how he had expected anything less.