Authors Notes: As always, thank you for all the reviews and guesses and comments! They're so much fun to read and they keep me inspired! I hope this stays interesting for everyone!

Chapter 3

"I'll feel a lot better with you here, he says," Taichi mumbled to himself before breaking into another huge yawn. He fumbled in his pockets for his keys and slowly frowned. "Shit... musta left 'em..." Lifting a hand and knocking on the door, Taichi took a deep breath and tried to look less exhausted than he felt, but it wasn't easy. After all, he'd barely slept all night.

A frazzled looking Yamato opened the door. For a long moment the two boys just stared at each other, and Taichi wondered if this would be the time that Yamato melted a little, maybe this would be the time they didn't have to 'talk it out', maybe this would be the time Yamato would just hug him and say he was sorry and that would be that.

"You look tired," Yamato said in a cold voice.

Shutting his eyes and sighing, Taichi felt that icy air radiating from Yamato, just like it had every time they fought. "I didn't really sleep." Stepping into their apartment, Taichi kicked off his shoes and tried to swallow a yawn, but that just made it worse.

"Dare I ask what you were doing all night? Or where you were?" Yamato asked, his voice even and calm, hiding what Taichi knew was a frightening amount of anger.

"You won't ever guess who I ran into," Taichi said, deciding he was too tired to care about their fight, and to just pretend it had never happened. He grinned a little and sat on the couch and stretched.

Yamato arched an eyebrow, but otherwise remained expressionless. Taichi had always admired his ability to make delicate, careful motions like that. He was always so deliberate, so precise. Lately, however, Taichi had begun to hate his precision.

"Daisuke," Taichi continued, still grinning. "Ran into him last night. Crashed at his place, figured... well, we could both use some space."

A strange brushed over Yamato's face, but he quickly corrected it and went back to looking calm. "He must have some interesting stories."

"Huh?" Taichi asked, not sure what Yamato was leading him into, and he tensed just a bit, waiting for the trap to snap shut around him.

"Well, if you were so engrossed in talking to him that you didn't call to let me know where you were, or when you'd be home, he must have been quite distracting." He paused again, and then frowned a bit. "Why didn't you sleep, again?"

Making a face, Taichi gritted his teeth. 'What the hell, thinking I cheated on him with Daisuke? ...Okay, so... maybe I kinda wanted to, but I DIDN'T and that's the important thing!' "Talking."

"Oh, so he did have interesting stories," Yamato said, still standing in the same spot. "How has he been, then?" His eyes narrowed. "Did he miss you?"

Feeling himself lose it, Taichi jumped up and fisted his hands. "What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

As always, Taichi's outburst was enough to trigger Yamato's, and the icy cool in the room turned to a full winter storm. "What do you think it means, Yagami? Do you really expect that you and Daisuke were up all night having a conversation?"

Taichi gaped at him, shocked at the implication. "Are you calling Daisuke STUPID!"

Yamato's lips quirked into an angry grin. "Protective, aren't we? I believe I was calling you both the same thing."

Stepping forward and grabbing the front of Yamato's shirt in a fist, Taichi felt himself trembling in anger. "Take it back."

"Why the hell should I?" Yamato grabbed Taichi's arm and squeezed his wrist, sneering at him. "You're the one fucking around."

"Who the HELL said I was fucking around!" Taichi shouted in Yamato's face. "Why the hell do you ALWAYS think I'm cheating on you!"

"Probably because you ALWAYS look guilty!" Yamato shot back, turning red in the face.

"Just because your parents couldn't keep it together isn't any reason to not trust ME, or are you still just a scared little-" Taichi was cut off when Yamato yanked him down and kneed him in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. Taichi hadn't been expecting that, although he knew he should have. That was the one thing he'd made sure never to bring up... he knew that the moment he did Yamato would just get even more pissed. He fell to the floor and gasped for air, feeling his whole body ache with the fear of not being able to breathe for a few seconds.

Yamato hesitated, staring down at Taichi, his anger wavering for a moment, wondering if he should feel guilty or not, when Taichi grabbed his ankle and yanked it out from under him so Yamato fell to the ground.

"You bastard," Taichi hissed, climbing on top of Yamato and trying to pin him down, glaring in his face. "What the fuck was that for!"

Yamato struggled against Taichi's grip, but he wasn't quite strong enough to push the other boy off of him. He had once been able to keep up with his friend, but in the past few years Taichi had begun exercising more, and Yamato had exercised less, and now they were quite unbalanced. "You had NO right to say that," he growled back, flushed with anger. "Don't fucking talk about my parents like you know anything."

"I know you're all FUCKED UP because of them, and I know I was the one that helped you get over it, or have you forgotten that! Remember, we were friends a long time ago, and you trusted me. What the fuck happened to that!" Taichi yelled in his face, feeling the sting of betrayal and the anger radiating off of his once jogress-partner's body.

"Who the hell ever said you helped me get over it!" Yamato shouted back.

Taichi froze, staring down at Yamato in shock for a long time, and then he took a loud gasp of air and moved off of Yamato, sitting back a few feet away from him and staring at him quietly.

Yamato sat up and rubbed his wrists, still glaring at Taichi and feeling altogether undignified. He hated fighting, he especially hated getting into these childish physical fights, but it was almost as if that was the only way they knew how to relate these days.

Taichi was breathing deeply, slowly, and finally he grinned a sad sort of grin and shook his head, chuckling. "I didn't fuck him. I didn't kiss him. I didn't even touch him, not like that. I've never cheated on you, Yama."

Hesitating, Yamato let that sink in, and finally decided that Taichi was telling the truth, technically, although he was sure that wasn't the whole truth. Maybe he hadn't done it, but that didn't mean he hadn't wanted to. Still, it was something, wasn't it? It wasn't as if he'd never wanted to... "Are you alright?" he asked, glancing at Taichi's gut where he'd thrust his knee into him.

"Yeah, whatever," Taichi said, glancing away. His grin was gone already, and he was shutting down.

Yamato hated it when Taichi shut down, it wasn't right. Taichi never used to shut down. "I'm sorry." Taichi looked back at him, trying to keep his expression fixed and emotionless, but his eyes betrayed him. He was hurt. Yamato winced at his expression.

"Yeah. Me, too," Taichi responded, feeling sore and tired all over again.

"You know that I-" Yamato was cut off by a rapid knock on the door. He gritted his teeth, feeling the moment pass. He wasn't sure what he'd been about to say... maybe that he loved Taichi. Maybe that he cared about him. Maybe that he hadn't cheated, either. Whatever it was, it was gone now.

Taichi looked exhausted as he got up and went to the door. His hair was out of place, his shirt was wrinkled and stretched from the fight, and he moved slowly and carefully because of the ache in his gut. He reached for the doorknob, feeling cold all over, just like he had when he was soaked to the bone from the rain.

"Sorry for not calling ahead, but my cell ran out of batteries, and I thought you might need these, so-" Daisuke said quickly, looking a little frightened at Taichi's appearance. He held out the keys that he'd found on the floor after Taichi had left at arm's length, and stepped back a little. "They must have fallen out of your pants when you took them off!" he added, trying to sound cheerful. "Since you told me where you lived, in case... in case I needed anything, I thought you'd need these, so... I brought them by..."

Taichi slowly felt the chill in the air fade away, and his next few breaths warmed his lungs. "Thanks," he said, stepping back, not sure if he should invite Daisuke in or not.

Yamato had quickly adjusted his hair and shirt, with that ability he'd always had to hide that he'd been angry or upset only moments before, and gave Daisuke a friendly grin. "When he was taking off his pants, hm? What exactly have you been doing to my boyfriend, Daisuke-kun?" he asked in a tone that made Taichi wince. It may have sounded like a joke, but that little bit of venom that they still had told him that it was half serious.

Daisuke smiled at Yamato a little more genuinely, obviously thinking that everything was fine if Yamato was talking to him. "He just crashed at my place 'cause I asked him to," he said. "My apartment's haunted!" he continued cheerfully, kicking his shoes off and helping himself into their apartment.

Taichi glanced at Yamato, wondering if this was alright, but Yamato just grinned at him in a way that made Taichi want to warn Daisuke to leave. This was not a good time. He wasn't sure there ever would be a good time, but this was most definitely not it.

"Haunted?" Yamato asked. "By what?"

"I dunno," Daisuke said, smiling at Yamato. "But probably they won't bother me after they saw Taichi-senpai! He'd scare off any ghosts!"

Taichi couldn't help but grin a bit at that statement, feeling affectionate all over again for Daisuke's unending belief in him.

"Well, he is a little scary looking, isn't he? Especially right now, when he hasn't slept. What were you talking about that kept him up all night? Don't you know if he doesn't sleep he looks like the undead?" Yamato smirked a little, giving Taichi a somewhat friendly look, as if Daisuke's presence was putting him back in the mode they'd been in when they were still in college, before things had become like this.

Taichi had just started to grin back when Daisuke gave him a concerned look.

"You didn't sleep?" he asked, looking worried. "I'm sorry! Was my bed too umcomfortable?"

Yamato's friendly expression quickly faded. "Your bed?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Daisuke replied, grinning at Yamato. "Taichi-senpai slept with me since I was kinda scared." He laughed and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Guess I'm not used to living alone, yet!"

Taichi swallowed hard, feeling as if the air had been knocked out of him again. "Uh, see... it wasn't... I mean..."

"So why couldn't you sleep, Taichi?" Yamato asked, beginning to ignore Daisuke.

Gritting his teeth, Taichi forced a grin and shrugged. "Guess I was kinda stressed out, that's all."

"Because of your fight?" Daisuke asked in concern, turning to Yamato. "I'm sure Taichi-senpai didn't mean whatever it is he did, he just says stuff without thinking!"

Yamato's eyes narrowed when he looked at Daisuke. "I see you've inherited a few traits from him, then."

Daisuke blinked at him cluelessly. "Huh?"

"I wasn't talking about you or anything, Yama, I was just-" Taichi tried to say quickly, hoping to calm the mounting tenseness in the room.

"You were just what?" Yamato asked, looking cold as ice again.

Taichi winced, he knew that being talked about was one of Yamato's pet-peeves. "I was just talking about... how much fighting sucks and stuff!"

Daisuke suddenly gaped at them. "Hey, am I making this worse?"

Yamato shut his eyes and took a deep breath before looking at Daisuke and grinning a little sadly. "No, Daisuke-kun, this isn't something anyone can effect but us."

Taichi moaned unhappily and reached up, tugging on his hair a little in frustration. "What are we even fighting about, anyway?"

"I don't think we should talk about this now, Taichi," Yamato replied, feeling bad suddenly for dragging Daisuke into this, especially after not having seen him for so long.

"Yeah? I think now's a damn good time to talk about it!" Taichi replied, frustrated.

"Don't you think that's a little rude, Taichi? We have a guest," Yamato said, looking horrified at Taichi's manners, despite having known him for so long.

"Daisuke isn't a guest, he's a friend. And I don't give a fuck if he sees us fight!" Taichi turned to give Daisuke a serious look. "Do you care?"

"Uh... no, I mean," Daisuke mumbled, feeling that he definitely did care. He couldn't stand being around fighting, it made his stomach hurt, it made him feel dizzy, and it made him want to cry. He hated crying, especially in front of other people.

"See, he doesn't care!" Taichi said, cutting him off.

"Of course he cares, Taichi, you're so..." Yamato let out a frustrated noise and glared at him. "Can you just think about someone else for a minute!"

"Someone else! That's all I do around here, is think about you!" Taichi retorted.

Daisuke shut his eyes tightly, feeling his heart racing as the yelling continued. "Please," he said softly.

"Oh, is that what you call it? Thinking about me?" Yamato yelled back.

"Please, stop," Daisuke said a little more loudly, his eyes still shut.

"What the hell do you call it! My whole fucking life revolves around you, and US, and-"

"STOP!" Daisuke shouted, cutting them off.

Taichi and Yamato turned to stare at him, both of them stunned.

Daisuke opened his eyes and gave them both an angry look, his eyes just a little wet from trying not to cry. "You both sound stupid! Stop fighting, it just makes things worse! Talk about it like grown-ups or hit each other and get it over with, but stop YELLING!" he yelled.

Yamato tensed up, feeling absolutely stupid. He shut his eyes and nodded. "I'm sorry, Daisuke-kun, I-"

"Daisuke," Taichi mumbled, still stunned.

"You're right. It doesn't help anything." Yamato grinned a forced grin. "But sometimes it happens."

"Well, it shouldn't." Daisuke pouted at him, then at Taichi. "You're both acting like my parents! You wanna get a divorce or what!"

Taichi chuckled, looking slightly amused. "We can't get a divorce, Daisuke, we're not married."

Yamato pursed his lips. "That's right. Besides, we're not breaking up."

Staring at Yamato in a tired sort of way, Taichi wondered how long that was going to be his friend's mantra.

"Then stop fighting," Daisuke said. Then, slowly smiling again, he held out the keys. "I'll go home. You should talk and make up and stuff, or you'll be bad examples for me."

Taichi took the keys, his fingers brushing Daisuke's hand as he did so. It was warm.

"I'll call before I come over, next time, but you better not be fighting then!" Daisuke went back to the door and slipped on his shoes again. He waved and left, shutting the door behind him, and the room immediately went back to ice.