Chapter One: Soccer Game

A/N: for Taiyama week 2018. Each chapter of this fic will be one of the prompts (not sure if I'll get to all 14). This chapter's prompt: invitation. Takes place immediately after Tri.

"I'm working on my faults and cracks
Filling in the blanks and gaps
When I write them out they don't make sense
I need you to pencil in the rest."
-Frightened Rabbit

Yamato didn't know what to do about Taichi's invitation.

It's just a soccer game, he told himself. It's fine. It's not a big deal.

The thing was, Yamato had been to these soccer games. He knew what he was in for. It would be hours of sitting high up in the bleachers with the other Chosen Children, hours of cheering from afar. Hours of helpless spectatorship.

Yamato didn't know if he could handle the anxiety.

Soccer had too much capacity for violence. People pulled muscles, broke limbs, got concussions.

What if something happened to Taichi?

Yamato's stomach swam as the memory rose again, unbidden. The earth heaving mightily, the bone-rattling crack as it split apart under his feet. The sickening realization that Taichi was on the other side of the split. Stranded, alone. Apart.

He couldn't bear to feel that kind of helplessness again.

What Yamato really wanted to do was just look at Taichi. Up close and personal, with nothing there to present a danger or to suddenly break them apart. Maybe even for a whole day. He wanted to just stare at his evolution partner and make sure Taichi was okay. Make sure Taichi wasn't going anywhere.

Instead he got this. An invitation for several long hours of watching Taichi in possible danger.

But how could he turn Taichi down? The Chosen Children were a team, needed to be a team. All of them, even the younger generation. If nothing else, their last adventure had taught them that.

Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Ken's disappearances should have been noticed. Even with Nishijima-sensei and the others covering the disappearances up, they should have noticed.

Unacceptable.

They would all have to stick together more.

Of course Taichi knew that, too. And he was already taking responsibility, trying to fix the problem. Yamato knew Taichi's invitation was part of that effort.

"Ishida! Are you listening?"

Yamato snapped back to himself. "Sorry, Shioya-sensei," he mumbled.

His teacher sniffed and pushed her wire-rim glasses back up her nose. "As I was saying. If you are to have any hope of being accepted into the astrophysics program at Tokyo University, you cannot get anything less than a perfect score on next week's exam. Am I clear?"

Yamato nodded and smiled, his mood suddenly buoyed by a brilliant idea. "Perfectly."

Yamato and the other Chosen Children surged to their feet, cheering. Taichi had the ball and was streaking down the field like a shot. He moved so gracefully compared to the other players that Yamato almost thought they would catch up to him. He looked like a gazelle soaring peacefully down the field, his opponents like lions stalking their furious way toward him. But Taichi had speed as well as grace. He was miles ahead.

At the last moment he stopped and passed the ball to a teammate, who kicked it past the goalie effortlessly. The audience roared in appreciation.

Yamato cheered with the rest, but sat down and opened his textbook as soon as Taichi's team pressed in around him in celebration. He couldn't bear to see Taichi buried beneath that many people.

"Yamato?" Takeru's worried voice said from somewhere above him.

"Gotta study," Yamato said, trying to sound breezy and unconcerned. "Exam next week."

"When did you turn into Jyou?" Mimi's voice teased.

"Yeah, come on, Yamato!" That was Jyou. "It's game time! Ease up for once."

Yamato frowned and kept staring at his book.

Sora sat back down next to him. "Aww, come on, guys. You know Yamato wouldn't be studying right now if he didn't really need to."

The others gave up and sat back down, too. Yamato turned to Sora and gave her a small, appreciative smile.

She winked back at him.

It was just like Sora to see right through him. Ah, well. At least she had his back.

Yamato risked a glance up from his book. On the field, Taichi had finally emerged from the mass of his teammates. He was looking up into the bleachers, searching through the faces as if looking for someone. His eyes stopped when they met Yamato's.

Taichi smiled up at him. It was the same look he'd given Yamato before the final battle with Ordinemon, that same determined look. That smile meant they were in this together. That smile meant there was work to be done.

That smile meant they wouldn't stop. Not until the battle was over.

Yamato smiled back.