AN: This fic is dedicated to my friend Christina (Arciam on this site) because a conversation with her inspired me to write it and I wrote the ending for her. She's cool and you should read her fics!
Anyways, the start of this fic is set sometime during 02.
"Hey, Tai?" asked Yamato, in a voice that sounded much too innocent to actually be innocent.
"Yeah?" Taichi responded warily.
"You know your last name?"
"Of course I know my last name. What kind of question is that?" asked Taichi.
"Your last name is Yagami," Yamato pointed out.
"Uh, yeah, as I said, I'm aware of what my own last name is," said Taichi, rolling his eyes.
"Well, are you aware of the fact that the romanization of "Yagami" is "I'm a gay" backwards?" asked Yamato, as he tried to stifle the giggles that were attempting to escape from him.
"What?"
"Do you know enough English to understand what "I'm a gay" means?" asked Yamato. By now, Yamato's face was going red from trying to hold in his laughter.
"I know what it means!" exploded Taichi. "I...just...what?"
Unable to contain himself anymore, Yamato gave in and collapsed in a fit of laughter. For a while, Taichi stared at him, round-eyed. Then Taichi eventually broke into a smile and began laughing as well. For a while, the two were in hysterics. When they finally managed to compose themselves, Yamato sat up and brushed at the tears of laughter that had gathered in his eyes, and Taichi flopped down onto the couch next to him.
After a few moments of silence, Yamato asked, "Well, are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Are you gay?" asked Yamato.
"You have got to be kidding me," said Taichi.
"No, I'm serious," said Yamato. And for the first time during the conversation, he actually did look serious. He put his chin on his hand, and looked Taichi in the eyes.
Taichi's brow furrowed. "Why would you ask that?"
"It's just...you know, when we were in the Digital World, it seemed like you were hanging all over me a lot of the time. Always hugging me, putting your arm around me, saying sentimental stuff to me..."
"Oh, you're one to talk," retorted Taichi. "You got touchy-feely with me more often than I did with you! And what about some of the stuff you said to me? It sounded like it could have come out of a romance movie! Like the stuff you said to me after I got hurt by Piedmon? Or what you said right before Angemon and Angewoman shot us with those arrows?"
"My behavior isn't the issue here," said Yamato haughtily.
"And why not?" asked Taichi.
"Because I asked about your behavior first," said Yamato. He nodded firmly, as if this ended the disagreement.
Taichi cocked an eyebrow at him. "Is there a certain answer you're looking for here, Yamato?"
"Maybe," said Yamato, shrugging his shoulders and sounding nonchalant.
"Well, what if I said yes?" asked Taichi. "What if I said, "Yes, Yama, I'm gay, and I've been desperately in love with you ever since we were kids!" What then?" Taichi's tone was neutral, and his face was blank, so there was no way to tell if he was making a serious confession, or asking a rhetorical question.
"What if you said that, and then I said I felt exactly the same way?" asked Yamato. He was careful to keep his face blank as well.
"This," pronounced Taichi, "is stupid." And he suddenly tackled Yamato, knocking him over onto his back on the couch.
"Tai!" squeaked Yamato.
Yamato was now completely pinned by Taichi's weight. Taichi leaned down towards him, until their faces were only inches apart.
"Well?" asked Taichi.
Yamato shivered at the feeling of Taichi's breath ghosting over his lips. Then he began struggling. Taichi quickly grabbed Yamato's hands and pinned them above his head, trying to stop any attempt at escape. Yamato made a noise of protest and continued to fight, but eventually he realized that it was useless and stilled himself. Taichi's hands were still pressed firmly down on top of Yamato's. Taichi slowly opened his hands, sliding his fingers in between Yamato's, and then closed his hands again, interlacing their fingers. A blush slowly crept up Yamato's cheeks.
Just to be sure, Taichi ground his hips down into Yamato's, drawing a gasp from both of them.
"Well," said Taichi, "I think we both have our answer now, don't we?"
Yamato lifted his head and captured Taichi's lips with his own. He heard Taichi moan softly as he returned the kiss.
For the next couple months, neither of them mentioned what had happened that day- not to each other, and certainly not to anyone else. Yamato was attempting to avoid Taichi without making it seem as if he was avoiding him. He didn't want to hurt Taichi's feelings, and he also didn't want anyone else to think that anything strange was going on. Unbeknownst to Yamato, Taichi was doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same reasons. The end result was that the two of them still occasionally spent time together, but much less so than they had in the past. When they did see each other, things were quite awkward, and any conversation that passed between them seemed a bit stilted. They both made sure that they would not ever end up alone together.
That all ended on one lazy, rainy day, when Taichi was sitting around his house with Hikari. Nobody else was home. Having nothing else planned for the day, the two had decided to rent a movie. Just before Taichi was about to start the movie, Hikari suddenly spoke up.
"You know, Yamato is hardly ever around here anymore. How long has it been since you've seen him, anyways? Why don't you invite him over to watch the movie with us?"
Unable to think of a rational reason to object to this, Taichi agreed, and called Yamato to invite him over. He made sure to mention that Hikari would be there as well.
Caught off guard, and unable to think of a polite way to turn down the invitation, Yamato accepted, and thus made his way over to Taichi's house, feeling at least somewhat secure in the knowledge that Hikari would be around as well.
When a knock came at the door, Taichi made no move to answer it, so Hikari rolled her eyes and got up to go let Yamato into the house. Yamato and Taichi greeted each other stiffly, and then Yamato sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Taichi. Hikari sat in the middle, and both were glad to have her as a buffer between them. Neither Taichi nor Yamato made any further attempts at conversation. Taichi simply picked up the remote and switched on the movie.
An hour later, all three were staring glassy-eyed at the TV screen.
"You know," Hikari commented in a listless voice, "this movie is really boring."
Just then, Hikari's phone rang, and she quickly picked it up to answer it.
"Takeru?" she said into the phone. "Oh, no, I'm not really doing anything. Just watching a movie with Tai and Yamato, but it's not a very good movie at all...SURE! I'd love to! Right now? No problem, I'll be there in a few minutes! Bye!"
Hikari giggled as soon as she hung up the phone. Then she bounced up off the couch and started heading towards the door. Yamato glanced at Taichi, a worried look on his face.
"Hey!" said Taichi. "Where are you going, Hikari?"
"Out with Takeru!" she said happily.
"Do you really have to?" asked Yamato.
"Oh...well, I'd like to see Takeru, and I already told him I'd meet him. Besides, this movie doesn't interest me in the least," said Hikari.
"Oh," said Yamato dejectedly.
"Why?" asked Hikari. "Is there some reason you don't want me to go?"
"Oh, um...no, just...haven't seen you in a while, that's all," Yamato finished lamely.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Yamato! I didn't realize you wanted to spend time together- you've barely spoken to me since you got here. But, hey, if you want to hang out some other time, we can! But like I said, I already told Takeru I'd meet him, and I told him I'd be there in a few minutes, so I've really got to get going. I'll catch up with you later!"
And with that, Hikari was out the door.
Yamato sat there for a moment, seemingly dazed. Then he said, "Hikari's right. This movie is really boring." He was already starting to get up off the couch by the time he got to the end of his sentence.
"I do, you know," said Taichi.
It seemed like a total non sequitur.
"What?" asked Yamato.
Taichi averted his eyes. "Love you," he said quietly.
Yamato dropped back down onto the couch. "Tai...I know...it's just...you know..."
"Yeah, I know," said Taichi. His eyes were downcast now.
"I do too," said Yamato suddenly. "I mean...love you. I want you to know that."
"Then what the hell are we doing, Yama?" asked Taichi.
"You know, Tai. What else are we going to do? Start dating? Tell everyone we're madly in love? I think the other Digidestined would probably accept it, but what about the other kids at school? Our parents? Society as a whole?"
"Yeah...yeah, I know you're right," said Taichi. He sighed.
"I mean, you want to get somewhere in life, don't you?" continued Yamato. "You want to have a career someday? We can't just "come out"- not if we don't want to be ostracized from society. It's not like we live in Canada, Taichi. This is Japan."
"Let's move to Canada," said Taichi dreamily.
"Be realistic," said Yamato.
Taichi sighed again and put his head in his hands. "Yeah, I know...but...isn't there some other way?"
"Like what?" asked Yamato. "I'm already worried that people have started to wonder about me, considering I've never shown the least bit of interest in dating a girl. You haven't either, for that matter."
"Well, maybe we should," said Taichi, looking up at Yamato. "I mean, we could pretend to be interested in girls, but be together secretly. People do that, right?"
"It seems kind of mean to the girls. Faking it like that," said Yamato.
"Well, we could let the girls in on it," said Taichi. Seeing the horrified look on Yamato's face, he went on quickly. "Not just some random girls! People we can trust. You just said that the other Digidestined would probably understand."
Yamato scrunched up his face a little. "I don't know, Tai. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go off and tell a bunch of people yet, even if they are our fellow Digidestined."
"We don't have to tell all of them right now. Actually, we don't even have to tell more than one of them. We could both pursue the same girl...that would be a good front," said Taichi.
"What, is there someone you have in mind?" asked Yamato.
"Yeah, Sora!" exclaimed Taichi immediately.
Yamato looked at him skeptically.
"No, Sora's perfect," insisted Taichi. "She's basically my best friend...well, after you, of course. I know she wouldn't be judgmental, and I know she can keep a secret."
"Wouldn't it kind of hurt her feelings for you to ask her to do this?" asked Yamato. "I thought she sort of had a crush on you."
Taichi shook his head violently. "No! I don't know where people get that idea! What has she ever done to make it seem like she has those types of feelings for me? We're like brother and sister. Trust me, Yama."
"Oh, alright!" Yamato finally conceded. "You can tell Sora...just Sora...and if she's alright with it, and agrees to everything...we can go from there."
Taichi jumped up and hugged Yamato, but Yamato pushed him away.
"I think I should go for now," said Yamato. "I don't want things to get out of hand. Let me know when you've talked to Sora."
Taichi sighed. "Alright, Yama."