Birthdays

By lexa000

A/N: I had to do a story for an English assesment, Id forgotten about it right up untilthe last night so I pulled apart The Special Two, stripped it to its bones, and re-wrote it for my english assesment. I felt that it hasd enough differences to wanrrant a post on to see what people thought and to compare it to The Special Two.

Disclaimer: I dont't own Digimon, If I did, I'd be rich, I'm not rich or I'd buy the rights to Digimon.

Light shone through a slit in the blinds and Takuya covered his eyes, trying to block the light out, getting up out of bed the brunette got out of his pajamas and wrapped a towel around himself. As he walked out of his room he remembered that there was a only one day left before his birthday and started moving a little faster, maybe in the hope that it would help get this day over with faster.

As he got into the shower and lathered up his hair, he started to recall events of his previous birthday.

Takuya was sitting in the living room with his father and a few of his friends, one of the presents, marked 'from Kouji' was sitting in his lap. As he removed the lid of the box he saw inside was a small bracelet with 'Takuya' engraved on the band. Takuya thanked Kouji and gave him a playful thump on the shoulder. After all the other presents were opened they all went over to the dining room table to have some lunch. While they were eating Takuya noticed that Kouji had a rather distant and forlorn, Takuya went over to ask him what was wrong but when he did he was told that it was nothing and Kouji headed off to the bathroom.

Takuya stepped out of the shower and dried himself off, satisfied, he headed over to the mirror to brush his hair.

'For all the good it will do' he thought to himself as he ran the brush through, 'its going to look exactly the same as it does every other day… messy'

After a few minutes of this he gave up and headed back to his bedroom, as he stepped out of the bathroom his senses were filled with the smell of bacon and eggs.

When he got to his room he pulled on a pair of boxer shorts and started going through his drawers for something to wear, he ended upgrabbing a pair of jeans and a white shirt. Having put thepants and shirt on he went over to his sock drawer and saw a set of broken sun glasses, sitting on the table near the drawer. He thought for a moment on when he had broken them and then he remembered.

Takuya was walking down the stairs when he realized that there were a lot more people in his living room than he had invited, thanking the fact that his father wasn't here for the party, he continued walking down the stairs. As he reached the bottom a person he didn't recognize went rushing past towards the bathroom, obviously in some kind of distress, he saw someone else go in after them and figured that they would help the person with whatever it was that was troubling them.

Takuya then headed into the kitchen and grabbed a can of coke and bourbon out of the fridge, thankful this time for the fact that he was finally eighteen. Takuya walked out into the party to mix.

The hours dragged on and we find our brunette walking around in a drunken stupor, swaying here and there trying his best to avoid running into people. As he makes his way to the middle of the room he sees someone step in front of him right at the last moment, had he been sober, he may have been able to miss the person, but in his current state, this task proved especially difficult. Both Takuya and the person he ran into went tumbling to the ground, spilling bourbon everywhere. Takuya picked himself up slowly and shakily cursing at the spilt drink and turned to the person he had run into.

"What do you think you're doing!" Takuya yelled "why the hell did you jump out in front of me like that." Takuya pushed the other person into the table behind him trying to provoke a response. The person complied by pushing Takuya back into a group of people who shoved him forwards again. Takuya, not wanting to lose face drunkenly tried to thump the person in the face making him duck out of the way and follow up with a right hook to Takuya's head. Only the person who had hit Takuya noticed the bracelet that had been given to Takuya the day before had fallen off in the fight, he reached down and picked it up before walking out the front door. Takuya felt something hard underneath him and picked up a pair of glasses he vaguely recalled were his.

Takuya walked downstairs into the kitchen and greeted his father, leaning over his shoulder to look at the bacon that was in the frying pan.

"There are some eggs on the plate over there, the bacon will be done in a moment" his father told him

Takuya grabbed the plate and sat down at the kitchen table and started into one of the eggs as his father walked over with his plate and placed some bacon on Takuya's.

"Here's hoping you haven't invited so many people to your party this year, remember the day after your party, the mess was terrible" Takuya's father joked. Takuya could remember what had happened rather well, but not because of the cleaning.

Takuya and his father were downstairs sweeping up the mess that had been left from the night before, Takuya bent down to pick up a glass when someone tapped him on the shoulder he looked up to see deep blue eyes looking down at him in rather an unfriendly way. The first thing Takuya asked himself was why Kouji was looking at him like that, but as he stood up he realized it wasn't Kouji, it was Kouji's twin, Kouichi. Takuya followed Kouichi out to the kitchen still a little confused. As he entered the kitchen Kouichi rounded on him.

"Why in God's name did you fight with Kouji last night?" Kouichi asked rather heatedly. "You've been close friends for years!"

"What are you talking about…? That wasn't Kouji… was it?" Takuya fumbled, "I mean, why would Kouji hit me like that?"

"You don't even remember, do you? You were blind drunk and of all the people you had to start a fight with you started one with your best friend!" Kouichi yelled, obviously not happy with Takuya.

With that, Kouichi stormed out of the house, Takuya stood there dumbstruck, how could he have started a fight with Kouji? No, Kouichi had to be mistaken. Takuya rubbed his wrist and noticed something out of place, the bracelet he had gotten off Kouji was missing, part of the previous night flashed before his eyes, the person he had been fighting with had leant down and picked something up, those same deep blue eyes, but, with hurt…

Takuya was just finishing his breakfast when there was a knock at the door, his father went to answer the door and moment later Izumi was dragging Takuya by the collar up the stairs and into his bedroom, once the door was closed Izumi turned around and stood over Takuya.

"Why the hell haven't you invited Kouji to your party tomorrow?" She asked.

"What do you expect, we haven't talked in a year, he probably wouldn't come even if I asked him anyway, remember what happened last time? I tried to break his nose, he knocked me to the ground and walked out." Takuya explained.

Izumi looked him square in the eye. "You're calling him right now and inviting him whether you like it or not, you invited the rest of us, you even invited his twin brother, you're sure as hell going to invite him."

Izumi grabbed Takuya's phone off his bedside table and shoved it into his hand. Takuya scrolled through the contact list and stopped on the entry titled 'Kouji Mobile' and hit the call button, the phone started ringing, end ringing and ringing, the phone continued ringing right until Takuya was about to hang up, but just at that moment the phone answered and Kouji's voice rang over the line.

"Hello, Kouji Speaking"

"Umm… Hi, Kouji…? Its Takuya… I was wondering if you would like to umm… come to my party tomorrow" Takuya stuttered.

"Yeah, whatever." Kouji didn't seem overly enthusiastic and Takuya was about to make a sharp remark back just as Izumi kicked him in the shin, making the teen yelp.
"Ok then, I'll umm… see you tomorrow around twelve then…" at that point the line went dead.

"He hung up, didn't even say goodbye" Takuya mumbled.

Izumi hugged Takuya squealing that this was going to be so cute and immediately covered her mouth. Takuya went to ask what that was meant to mean but Izumi said a quick goodbye and hurried out of Takuya's room. Takuya headed downstairs feeling a little confused. Takuya's father gave him a suspicious look as he came down the stairs, seeming to ask why Izumi just rushed out of the house as fast as she rushed in. Takuya told his father of what had gone on in his bedroom as well as a few of the details of the party last year. Takuya's father held a thoughtful expression on his face the whole time and kept it there until Takuya asked him what he thought, though he didn't know any more than his son and told him so. Takuya headed back up to his room and decided that he would read for a while, maybe an idea would come to him in the mean time.

Soon enough it was the morning of Takuya's birthday, late in the morning, sure enough, Takuya was too tired to realize either point. Takuya got up out of bed, took his pajamas off and wrapped a towel around his waist, he then headed out of his bedroom and into the bathroom.

As Takuya was finishing his shower it dawned on him what day it was and he dried himself off as fast as possible, not bothering with his hair and went straight downstairs to grab some breakfast.

The first thing Takuya noticed when he reached the bottom of the stairs was that there was someone sitting on the couch, the second thing he noticed was that the person wasn't his father.

"Nice look Takuya, you gonna wear that for the party" Izumi laughed.

"What are you doing here this early?" Takuya asked.

Izumi explained that she figured that he would need help setting up for the party, and that she was here to assist in any way she could, as well as that she didn't realize that that also meant helping him dress. Takuya, a nice shade of red by now, shuffled his way back up to his bedroom to get dressed before coming back down to get some breakfast. After a bowl of cereal and a glass of whatever that juice was in the fridge, he started to help Izumi with preparing some food for the party later on. Ten minutes later he realized that his father wasn't home.

"Izumi?"

"Yes Takuya?"

"Do you know where my father is?" He asked.

"Yeah, he just nicked down to the shops for a few things" Izumi responded.

"Oh, ok…"

Takuya placed a pizza base down and started to load different toppings onto it as Izumi proceeded to remove half of them.

Half an hour went by with still no sign of Takuya's father when finally there was a sound come from the front door. Takuya went out to check what it was when he saw his father with a small carry cage. His father looked up at him and wished him a happy birthday, offering him the cage with a bright smile on his face. Takuya thanked him and took the cage and knelt down to check the occupant. Inside was a small grey dog looking a little scared, Takuya opened the door to the cage and let the puppy slowly make its way out of the confines of the cage, working its way over to Takuya. Inspecting Takuya slowly it worked its way around to his side where Takuya picked it up and rolled it on its back playfully and gave it a scratch under the chin. At once the dog relaxed and gave Takuya a small lick on the hand, getting a smile from the teen. It was then that Izumi walked out to see what was going on, once she saw the puppy in Takuya's arms she knelt down next to Takuya and gave the dog a pat.

"What are you going to name him?" She asked

"I think I'll call him wolf, it sounds fitting" Takuya responded.

"Haha, that's cute" Izumi squealed.

Another hour went by as Takuya, his father and Izumi finished getting things ready for the party, though Takuya went and played with wolf more often than not. Finally there was a knock on the door and Takuya, not doing anything greatly important at the time, went to answer it. Standing in the door was Junpei.

"I'm not too early am I?" Junpei asked.

"No, that's alright, Izumi has been here for over an hour." Takuya said while giving wolf a scratch on the head.

Takuya let Junpei in and followed with wolf in arms into the living room, Junpei placed a gift wrapped box on a spare table that was to one side of the room. Just as Takuya was about to sit down again there was another knock on the door, Takuya went back over to the door and opened it to see only a short person behind a large box, placing the box down Tomoki walked around to wish Takuya a happy birthday, told Takuya that the box was a little big for him to hold and that maybe Takuya himself could move it into the living room and then inquired as to where the food was.

Just as Takuya had set the box down there was another knock on the door, this time Takuya knew who it would be, it would be the twins, Kouji and Kouichi. He prepared himself for whatever evil glare that he was going to get from the former and opened the door. Kouichi stood there, smiling as ever with Kouji tagging behind, avoiding Takuya's gaze… Takuya was taken aback, he couldn't understand why Kouji was avoiding his gaze, he was expecting to get one of Kouji's trademark ice cold glares and was rather surprised to find that it wasn't there. Inviting the two in, they headed into the living room once again, Takuya sat down, not expecting anyone else to be knocking on the door that night.

The party went on, Takuya and Kouji scarcely making eye contact, until Takuya had had enough and went to confront Kouji about it. Kouji had just turned around when Takuya got to him and Kouji grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out the back.

"Why did you invite me here?" Kouji demanded half heartedly.

Not wanting to admit that Izumi had made him, he explained that he thought it was time that the whole gang got back together again. It was at this point that Kouji thrust a small box into Takuya's hand. Takuya slowly opened it to reveal the same bracelet that Kouji had picked up when they had had the fight almost a year ago. Takuya had a slightly awkward look on his face as he looked at the bracelet.
"Kouji… I'm so sorry, If I hadn't been… I'm so sorry" Takuya was leant in to give Kouji an apologetic hug. Takuya noticed that Kouji was shaking and pulled away. Kouji was standing there trying to hold back tears, Takuya put his hands on Kouji's shoulders and tried to comfort him when Kouji leant in and kissed Takuya. Takuya was a little shocked and was about to pull away when there was a bright flash and he saw out of the corner of his eye a blonde girl running back into the house. Takuya thought to himself that he was going to have to confiscate that photo off Izumi.

Takuya pulled away first, and look Kouji in the eyes, those deep blue eyes, filled with an emotion that Takuya couldn't decipher.
"I think I owe you an explanation" Kouji said.

"That's alright, there's no need to explain" Takuya grabbed Kouji by the hand and slowly they both walked into the house.

A/N:I may contemplate either doing an extended version, with bits that would be innappropriate for an english assesment, or I may even contemplate a sequel, but, not right now, I regret to inform you that I will be going on temporary Hiatus for all stories as school is a bit of a time consuming task right now. Reviews are welcomed, Thankyou all and goodnight.