Can I Keep You?
«Tai x Sora x Yamato» = Slowburn Sorato

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Chapter 1
"A Lesson Learned"

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Under piles of filthy clothes, through clouds of stench, among heaps of trash, snored three high school newly sophomores into the wee hours of the morning. High school finals can tire such fragile minds.

"ZZzz…zzZZZzz…zzZZzz…"

"Tai," sixteen year old Sora grumbled in frustration tossing in the bottom bunk bed of his parent's apartment from yet another night of lack of sleep from Tai's snoring. Was it mentioned three snoring high school sophomores? Make that two and a red-eyed tomboy. What happened to her earplugs?

"Shut up," Matt growled at Tai from the top bunk to down below where the last teenager was fast asleep on a cot. Matt sunk his head under a pillow to mask the noise. Make that one snoring sophomore.

"ZZzzz…ZZZZZZZZ –"

"Shut up!" yelled Sora and Matt chunking the nearest object their hands found tangled in their sheets to Tai.

And of course, knowing Tai, the reaction to this sudden surprise in his sleep sent him rolling out of bed onto the floor with a thud yelping in pain. Matt scoffed pulling the covers over his head turning to his side away from everyone. At least something worked. Sora yawned having found her earplugs entangled with the bed sheets and rested her eyes for what hours left could be savored. Tai moaned in pain. Friends could be rude. Gross! Was he sitting on leftover jello? Oh, wait. That was the rest of the lo mien he didn't finish for dinner a week ago. Maybe it was time to clean up…Regardless of the unfair treatment, Tai managed to find another pair of shorts to sleep in and crawled back in the cot.

"Glad I'm not sleeping in the top bunk tonight," Tai grumbled eyeing both of his sleeping friends until sleep began to catch up.

Ah, sleep. How great it felt to lay under warm blankets, motionless and in peace...The only problem was that he couldn't go back to sleep. His brain was going a hundred miles an hour thinking of all the things they could do that day. Tai groaned pressing his head in his pillow tired, giving up on sleep. He looked up to Matt debating whether to wake him.

"Psst! Hey!" Tai whispered. "Hey, Matt."

Matt sighed, sitting up in bed. There was no use in fighting him. "Happy? I'm up."

"Hey, Matt," said Tai with a daring gleam in his eye as he stared at Sora.

"What?"

"I dare you to wake Sora up."

Though it sounded appealing, Matt thought better of it. "…I like being alive. No thanks." The last time that dare was given, Sora slugged Tai in the mouth and chased after the boy with her razor. It took a while for Tai's eyebrows to grow back. Of course, Matt took a picture of the new look. He planned to use it soon to scare his fans away. "I'm not doing it."

"That's not fair," Tai protested. "I can't sleep, but she can? Yeah, right."

The blonde climbed down the ladder shrugging his shoulders. At that moment until he got to the toilet everyone else could wait. He paused in the bathroom doorway, though, listening intently to silence. The air was too still. Right at that second, he heard a smack, then Tai yelping in pain. He laid his head on the doorpost with a thunk, not the least surprised. This day started out with a hit, didn't it?

"I am so sorry," insisted Sora with much sincerity holding an ice pack wrapped with a hand towel over Tai's swollen cheek and eye. The trio sat on a street curb outside of a crowded movie theater. It would be another hour until the movie they all wanted to see would show. "I was in the middle of an intense dream. But, you know, you shouldn't have grabbed me that way."

Tai scowled.

Matt grinned placing his hands behind his neck. "I heard they're looking for a new spokesperson for that company," he nodded to a building a far off. "I can see it now. The 'King of Doodles' turn 'The Human Punch Bag'."

It took every ounce of strength from Tai to hold his tongue. Instead of lashing he turned his head to him annoyed, squinting his eyes to mutter, "Aw, shut up."

Sora took the ice pack away to readjust the towel and to take a better look at the bruise. She spoke while examining it. "Oh, yeah. Hey, guys, don't let me forget. I'm supposed to help Mom at the flower shop. I told her I'd be there around four."

Matt took a glance at his watch. "At four? We'd be in the middle of the movie."

The bush-hair soccer athlete took over the ice pack holding it over the bruise again. "Aw, come on, Sor. Can't you get out of it? We've been on a roll this summer. Enjoy the freedom while we still have it."

She smiled shrugging her shoulders. "Sorry. She feeds me."

"And I haven't for the past three days?"

"Okay, she buys me clothes."

Matt interjected. "He did buy you that hair clip. And I got you that hat the other day."

She raised a brow seeing she was being cornered. "She pays the rent and buys the toilet paper."

Both male's faces faltered while a slight blush crept up her neck to her cheeks. There was a momentary silence.

"You don't have to be so touchy," Tai pouted.

"Look, the movie will be there tomorrow. We can all see it then," Sora insisted trying to soothe things over. She felt bad not remembering about having to work until this moment.

"I'll trade the tickets in for tomorrow," Matt volunteered. "That way we won't risk losing these." He then pointed with his thumb behind him referring to the movie theater attempting to crack a joke. "I mean unless you'd want to risk it tomorrow at the last minute sitting in the middle of that sob movie everyone's talking about. Tai, what's that line the tv commercials were using to draw people in?"

"Oh, yeah!" The athlete placed one hand on his chest, the other hand raised in the air palm side up speaking in a mocking overly drama way. He had placed the icepack to the side forgetting about it. " 'Don't ever forget me, Yoshiro! I'm better than her and you know you'll never find anyone like me!' Blech! Why do girls have to be that way?"

Matt shook his head. "Beats me, dude. Now, Sora, you're different. You're one of us."

For that moment she wasn't sure how to take that. She shoved her hands in her side jean pockets lowering her eyes. "One of you? If I'm not a girl what am I? A duck?"

Tai shook his head trying to clarify. "No. He means you're a girl. Yeah, a girl, but…uh…not…Or, you're a…What he said," Tai finished pointing back to Matt.

Matt elbowed his friend before he'd say anything else. "Sora, that's not what I meant. Wait, where are you going?" he asked watching her with her head lowered slightly, walking backward. It seemed like she was thinking intensely before she spoke what was on her mind.

"I may have tomboyish tendencies like my mom puts it, but underneath it all, I'm still a girl."

"Sora, hold on –" Tai stood along with Matt.

And with that, she turned around hastily headed to work. Both guys looked at each other confused at her reaction. Where the hell did that come from? She flipped the switch out of nowhere!

Throwing his hands in the air, Tai exclaimed, "Great. You try to tell a girl something and she takes it the wrong way! Way to go, Mr. Too Cool," he emphasized his point by punching the rock star on the arm.

Matt held his arm glaring at him and growled, "Watch it."

"Look what you did," Tai emphasized waving a hand in Sora's direction. "Now I have to go talk to her. That's if she'll speak to me for a week."

"What I did? I think she took both of us the wrong way. Don't you get what she said?"

Tai sighed kicking a stone on the cement, his head lowered to the ground. "She feels insecure about maybe wanting to be a girly-girl." He raised his head with a goofy grin plastered on his face. "Like a tomboy duck."

Come in," Sora said as she battled her way through the 47th level of Donkey Madness.

It was the following day after their disagreement. Sora spent the entire day lost in this video game hoping for it to distract her enough to calm down. So far it was working. The door to her bedroom opened and footsteps were heard scraping the wood panel flooring. She was too busy to look at her visitor and greet. If she beat the boss at this level she could win the Eternity Sword.

"Give me a sec – Whoa! Where'd that come from? I lost!" she yelled, frustrated, and threw the game controller at the wall behind the tv.

"Why are you upside down?"

Her eyes followed the voice to see Matt with a raised eyebrow. She could've taken this time to sulk from yesterday's incident or lash out but she didn't. Contrary to her stubborn ways she was too relaxed hanging upside down off her bed playing Donkey Madness with the television flipped upside down too. She and Tai agreed it gave a nice head rush feeling.

"Why are you upright?" she asked with a toothy grin.

Matt snorted. "You're kidding me, right?"

"What's wrong? Afraid to try something new? Come on. Play the game in a different view."

"Um," he scratched his neck, "I'm not into Donkey Madness."

"Hmm, pity," she spoke nonchalantly quickly wiping her nose with a hand then back to the game.

The second controller was next to her and she turned it on to replace the previous controller. This was a common event so she was always prepared with several controllers next to her.

"At least hang upside down with me," she said staring at the tv. It was hard not to grin while he stood there uneasy. She couldn't let him think she totally forgiven him...or, that she did so quickly. "You'll make me dizzy having to look up."

He smiled in a shy-like manner staring at the floor. He understood it to be Sora's way of letting go what happened. He happily complied making his way over. "The last time I did this my parents were still together."

After he was settled laying down, she started the game again moving through the level. He watched as Sora made comments to the game's characters whenever it attacked her as if they could hear. He almost doubted if this was a good time to talk.

"I agree with your mom," he finally said. That grabbed her attention. She paused the video game while he continued. "You're a girl; just that you're a tomboy. And because of that, we're able to connect with you without all the drama that comes with other girls. That's all. We weren't trying to say anything different. I respect you."

She scrunched her eyebrows. That was unexpected indeed. "Just so you know, I can be a girl, like, do girly things and stuff. It has happened before…Just so you guys know." She then went back to the game bitting her lower lip, fidgeting.

"Okay," he acknowledged. "So…We're cool?"

"Yeah, we're cool."

"Good."

He looked around her room experiencing the new 'view of life' Sora insisted from earlier. Odd. Opposed to the mess they made at Tai's, her room was nice and neat. He never noticed that before. He stared at the digital clock trying to make out the time. This hanging upside down thing wasn't him.

"I'd like to stay longer but I have to go to band practice. I'll call you later?"

"Sure."

He rolled off the bed with a thump causing her to giggle. Standing to his feet he reached into his pant pocket taking a 5x7 card out in a blue envelope marked with her name in the front. He felt like a little kid again staring at the card trying to think of something to say. Sora paused the game.

"What's up, Matt?"

"Nothing…" He played it cool. "Here," he said handing it to her. A sudden wave of nerves and bashfulness flooded him. He had to leave and fast.

Sora took it making note of his nerves. Before she could ask what the card was for he zoomed off. "And they say girls are weird. Phf! Weirdo," she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "What's this for anyway?"

Turned out it was a greeting card with a picture of several tulips on the front. Curiousness peaked causing her to open and read what he wrote. If ever a tomboy could blush she did. It stated a short message of what she meant to him. The thing was it was signed "Love, Matt". Throughout centuries women have always pondered on this strange predicament of friends writing a message signing "with love". What did it really mean? Did it mean "love, love", or was it just a brotherly love?

"Great," she read the card a millionth time. "Stupid Matt. What am I going to do when I see him?"

Without realizing it, a soft smile fought its way to the surface tugging on her lips. Matt. Did he like her? The thought would have never passed her mind that Matt may have feelings for her. When did this happen? Was it always there and she was just blind? Out of all the girls that constantly swooned over Matt, was it possible that he liked her? She did have to admit, he was becoming handsome with his boyish looks turning more masculine.

"Oy," she slapped her forehead flicking the card across the room then resumed with the game. "Get a hold of yourself, girl."

Still, the thought lingered in her mind. Interesting.