Title: Puddles
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Notes: Inspired by Mim coming out with, "Come inside, it's tea time!". Written during four of my six boring revision sessions today. I never liked revising. I don't care if my GCSEs start tomorrow. As long as I pass English and Spanish, I'm happy. Anyway, I've been thinking; what would the pairing of Taichi and Jyou be called? I guessed in the summary. I've just never seen it before. Interesting, yes? Heh.
Dirty water splashed around the small boy's ankles as he laughed and ran through all the puddles as fast as he could. He loved playing in his garden when it had been raining. His reluctant companion, slightly taller with dark blue hair, tugged on the hand he was being dragged by.
"Tai…my mommy says I'll catch a cold if I get my feet wet in puddles."
The shorter boy stopped and turned to his friend with large, curious, chestnut eyes. His brown hair was a mess. "But it's fun!"
"It makes you sick," the other stated, pointing his finger in the air.
"But…" Taichi didn't want to stop; he wanted to keep playing and splashing and running until he couldn't play and splash and run any more. He looked hopelessly around his garden before his eyes lit up again and he pulled his friend towards a really big puddle. "Do you want to make mud pies, Jyou?"
They stopped, and the brunette let go of Jyou's hand to sit down on the soggy ground. He immediately began to gather the sloppiest mud he could reach into a pile by his chest and tried to pat it down while holding it in place with his legs. His companion just stood nervously, twisting his hands together. After a little while, Taichi looked up at the taller boy, wondering why he wasn't joining in.
"I…I've never made mud pies."
Taichi's eyes widened at this new revelation and quickly tapped the spot next to him. Jyou shuffled his feet and looked at the dirt. "No, I shouldn't. Mud has lots of germs in it."
Shaking his head eagerly, the shorter boy protested and patted the ground again. "It doesn't."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh huh," he nodded positively, "my mommy puts mud on her face sometimes, so there can't be any germs in it."
"Um…" Jyou hesitated before sitting beside his friend in the driest patch he could find. Taichi's face brightened. He scooped up some on the mud in his pie with his arms and dumped it in front of his companion.
"What you do is you get as much mud as you can, make it all flat like this," he demonstrated by patting his own pile of mud firmly, "then put in leaves and twigs and stuff."
The taller boy stared down at the mud Taichi had dropped in front of him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get so dirty, but the brunette sure was making it look like a lot of fun…
He started by making sure that the mud didn't go any further than his palms, and that it definitely didn't get between his fingers; it didn't take long for him to start enjoying himself enough to stop caring, and he laughed along with Taichi. Eager to get it right, he grabbed some dry leaves from the lawn and stuffed them into his pie. "Like this?"
The brunette glanced over and nodded happily. "Yep. But the sticks have to stick out. See?" He pointed at his own pie, which had twigs sticking out in every direction and slowly sinking into the mud
Soon Jyou's pie looked very similar, and he sat back, grinning widely. That had been fun. Then a thought came to him; he looked at the shorter boy with innocent curiosity. "If they're pies, are we meant to eat them?"
Taichi sat back too, wondering. He'd never actually eaten one before, but he'd always thought that that was why they were called pies. "I don't know. I don't know what they taste like."
They both stared at the pies for some time before the brunette's curiosity got the better of him. He grabbed a handful of his pie and held it to his mouth.
"Taichi! What on earth do you think you're doing?"
The boy in question turned around, the handful of mud pie poised in front of his face, and was met with the sight of his mother standing on the doorstep with her hands on her hips. Jyou turned also, seeming ashamed and blushing at being caught playing in the mud. Neither of them spoke.
The mother sighed and beckoned them towards her. "Come inside, it's tea time. And both of you need to get cleaned up."
She disappeared back through the door. Taichi, excited at the prospect of food, grabbed Jyou's hand again and hoisted him up from the floor. They stumbled over their feet as they raced to get inside, all ideas of eating mud pies completely forgotten.