Another fun filled edited chapter :D Basically a preview to the relationship between Taichi and Koushirou! YAY! I also first wrote this ON Christmas, so I shall leave the happy cheers as they are :D

Also I made Koushirou live in Osaka—it's far from Odaiba and I thought the country would drive poor Koushirou insane :3

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It's the obnoxiously loud ringing of my phone that awakens me in the middle of the night. I recognize the song as one of Yamato's sample ring tones he forced me to download a few weeks ago as some sort of publicity stunt. He must have also changed my previous tones, thus resulting in this new, unfortunate way that brings me into consciousness.

I drag my feet out of the comfort of my warm blankets. Even in the dead of winter my mother finds it inappropriate to use the heating system for fear of the Horrible Electricity Bill of Doom. The house is freezing and my body now used to warmth shivers with the new atmosphere. I reach for the sweater I purposefully left on the side of my bed for such this purpose, yawning as I leisurely pull the darkened gray sweater over my bushy bed head.

The ringing stops for the moment, obviously the caller having reached my voice mail by now. This doesn't completely concern me as I continue taking my time with another yawn. I'm certain with myself that in bare moments the call will come through once more and I'm rewarded for my correct thinking (this is not the time to laugh at the pure irony of my statement) as Yamato's Song livens my room.

It's times like these, while I stumble blindly in the dark around objects on the floor, using the melody as my guide, that Hikari and I no longer share a room. She moved into Dad's old workspace a couple of months before my departure to college. It was ridiculous for two practically grown siblings of the opposite sex to be sharing the same living space together. Also late night essays to different colleges helped keep her awake well into the night. There was a complete violation of privacy and lack of sleep occurring in this room that even though it mattered less after college, it was still nice returning to a room I could call my own.

"Hello…?" My voice slurs on it's own accord. After receiving three hours of sleep on average since starting college my voice, and the rest of my body, tingles with utter exhaustion. It really can't be helped.

I knew who it was on the other line without even glancing at the caller ID. There was only one person in this world that could find late night, or early morning, calls to my cell phone perfectly natural.

"It's me…Koushirou. Did I wake you?" A sleepy smile dawns my face at his hurried words. He knows damn well I had been asleep, as I knew this would not be the last time I heard his voice at four-thirty in the morning. Honestly, I would be less surprised if he had yet to go to bed himself and instead been working on one of his many insane inventions.

"Don't worry about it. What's on your mind?"

"The repercussions NASA engine fuels have on the environment and its effects on astrological atmospheric pressures…" he gasps out, as though he had been withholding his thoughts far too long. It's all gibberish to me, personally. I suppose it's his way of paying me back for all the soccer games I dragged him to during college, or the ones I watched almost religiously on the television.

"I've been having some trouble sleeping myself," I laugh off handedly, feeling the tingles of sleep leave my body now. It was a horrible feeling I'd suffer only for these morning talks with him. Only him, just as I was the only person I'm sure he felt safe enough calling during the peak hours of the morning while the sun was just starting to rise.

"…I suppose I have become accustomed to the sounds of campus life on the other side of my window, or the breathing of someone else in the same room. Being home, alone, like this has had an outstanding effect on my psychological functioning.

"Suppose I never find sleep again? I know it's impossible to die due to sleep deprivation, but how shall I function during data control? Or suppose I doze off during a difficult procedure that brings about a devastating effect on the human race… the environment?!"

I laugh quietly as his overly analyzed paranoia jumps over the line. Typical Koushirou. The way he speaks and acts, most people have trouble understanding, but for about the last three years of our friendship I've learned to translate Koushirou rather well. Not that I'm bragging or anything.

"I miss college, too, Kou. You'll get back into the groove of things soon!"

"Yes, but perhaps not soon enough! I fear I may be shortly running out of NASA programming material… Taichi, what will I do then?!"

"Probably call me again at four in the morning to discuss the lack of protection in the pentagon security system?" I try with a small laugh. In my mind's eye I can visualize a panicked, sulking Koushirou grabbing at strands of fiery red hair to clear the very awful notion that NASA will ever stop providing him with enough material. Really he's been hacking the same area since Junior year of college when the both of us had been assigned the same dorm room. It's the greatest pleasure he has ever known on this Earth.

"Sorry, Taichi. I'll let you go back to sleep?" He offers meekly, fearing the jest was somehow negatively attached.

"Nonsense. I'm awake now, you should take some sort of responsibility!"

(I really just want to hear you talk more).

I love him.

We practically live on opposing planets, we have dissimilar interests, and half the time I have no idea what he's doing or saying. Yet we're the best of friends. And I, Taichi Yagami, of twenty-two years have fallen undoubtedly head over heels in love with deep onyx eyes and a penchant for technology.

And while there is so much I have told him about my life, secret dreams, and lifelong interests there are some things I will never say.

Out loud.

"You're too kind Yagami," he drawls out in his way of both reprimanding my character, while conveying his undying gratitude.

"I try," is my cheeky response.

(As long as it's for you).

"It's snowing down here. How about near you, Taichi?"

"I haven't checked, hold on," I simultaneously open the shade of my bedroom window, peering out into a blurry window. I wipe the condensation away with the sleeve of my sweater, still holding the phone to my ear as I work.

Outside as far as I can see is a winter wonderland staining the Odaiba area—the city streets are covered under the white crystals and I can't help the smile that reaches my lips begging to crack open my chapped lips.

"It's a blizzard out there! I can't wait to call the crew together for sledding!"

(I feel closer to you, knowing we're both seeing the same sort of sky… If only you were with me tonight, without just this phone connection).

Silence greeted me for the longest while. Then hesitantly he says, "…Do you remember the snow storm in Senior year?"

"How could I forget?! It took an hour and three people to drag you off the computer!" And I literally mean the word 'drag.' We had him eating snow by Midnight, and he was laughing with the rest of us by three in the morning. He even figured out how to get the sleds to go faster by using some snow, sticks, and something he learned from a physics textbook.

"…I'm glad you did so. I have no recollection of any memory of greater value to me. I wasn't really enjoying college life until I met you. I deeply appreciate your friendship, Taichi."

I think I'm blushing in the secrecy of my room, mulling over his words. Innocent as they are, my heart pounds sweetly against my chest, listening to the peaceful humming of his breath on the other line.

Just listening, it feels as though he were here in this room beside me. That we were having another late night discussion in our room, rather than miles and counties apart using the wavering signal of a digital connection.

"Taichi…?" his voice breaks through the silence, bringing me back to this gruesome reality. "Nevermind…. I will tell you only if it's for certain…"

For the last two and a half years I have undeniably, unfoundingly been in love with one Koushirou Izumi of the far away Osaka. The boy who refuses to leave my thoughts, who's nestled a home in my dreams, and forces my heart to beat a rhythm that could in all possibility bring my life to an end.

He's the only person who I would purposefully leave my cell phone on for incase of five in the morning phone calls to discuss atmospheric mumbo jumbo, and the negative effects of sleep deprivation—even though knowing the cause of such happened to be said early morning phone calls.

If this were one of those shoujo mangas my sister hid under her bed—which I completely did not read!—now would be the time Koushirou confesses his undying love to me. Myself, I'd find a way to far away Osaka in mere moments, the two of us would lay peacefully in each others arms, marry, and (as preposterous as it may sound) have a couple of kids running about the yard.

But reality isn't a shoujo manga (that I've never read), or a welcoming friend who asks, "What can I do for you?"

"Merry Christmas, Taichi!"

Reality is a bitch you went to middle school with, who decided to pants you in front of your friends during Gym class. They, and it, will probably never stop busting your balls for as long as you're alive (or awake).

"Yeah, Kou. Merry Christmas to you, too!"

(I love you more than you will ever know).

But then again, there are some things I could never say to him. Not then, and maybe not now.

"I shall call again next week! If that is not problematic?"

"I look forward to it."

(I really do).

I wouldn't hear from Koushirou again for another three weeks.