A/N: Read. Enjoy. Review… because reading your reviews makes me dance, and I love dancing and I love you guys :)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or rights to any of the characters; I'm not making a profit off of this, etc.

Second Heartbeat
by: neo-chan

When Yamato woke up the next morning, he felt completely confused. His head was a jumble of thoughts, and there was a strange feeling in his stomach that he couldn't decipher. All he knew for sure was that he didn't regret the previous night, even though he knew it shouldn't have happened.

Yamato wasn't really sure why he didn't regret it, because he had many reasons to, but he figured it was partially because he was so relieved to have Tai back. He felt like snuggling up to the brunette, wrapping his arms around him, and never letting go. He felt downright clingy.

Shifting closer to Tai, Yamato wondered if his friend would feel any different when he woke up. Yamato hoped so, because he definitely felt different. For one, he really didn't want to do the whole "casual, fooling-around best friends" thing anymore. Of course, he'd already ended that habit but if Tai woke up thinking that this was the beginning of that little routine again, he would be wrong. Yamato didn't know exactly what he wanted, but he definitely didn't want to have casual sex with Tai. He felt like it would just cheapen their relationship.

But what if Tai did just want to have casual sex? What if he woke up and treated everything like he usually did? Yamato frowned when he considered that scenario- especially because, due to Tai's past actions, it kind of seemed likely.

Suddenly Yamato remembered the biggest problem with their situation- a little someone named Sora.

Yamato immediately felt sick to his stomach with guilt. How could he have done that to Sora, especially after he'd promised of his own free will that he wouldn't do anything with Tai anymore? She'd trusted him and accepted him as her friend, and now… well, now he wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to see his face again. He was the worst friend ever, not to mention a horrible human being in general- and the worst part of it all was that he actually wanted Tai to dump Sora now.

All of a sudden, Yamato really didn't want Sora in the picture. He didn't want to think it was because he was so selfish that he wanted Tai all to himself, but… well, what else could it be? The more Yamato thought about it, the worse and the more confused he felt. Wanting Tai to himself obviously meant that he wanted more than friendship from Tai… but that couldn't be right, could it? He'd never felt anything more than friendship towards Tai in his life… how could it change overnight?

Yamato guessed the sex had something to do with it.

Letting out a deep sigh, Yamato glanced over at the clock. It was almost noon, and something inside of Yamato told him that there was something wrong with that. But why? Yamato mulled over it for a few minutes before realizing exactly what it was.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, sitting up quickly and shaking Tai's shoulder. Tai groaned and attempted to roll over and go back to sleep, but Yamato pinched him to stop his actions.

"Ow!" Tai rubbed his arm, opening his eyes reluctantly. "What the fuck was that for?" he grumbled crankily.

"You're supposed to be at work!" Yamato exclaimed. "Crap, what if they fire you? Can they do that? Oh my God, you should go right now."

Tai didn't seem fazed by Yamato's little freak-out. In fact, he propped himself up on one arm and watched Yamato with a smirk on his face, waiting for the blonde to stop speaking. Eventually Yamato stopped in mid-sentence, realizing that Tai didn't seem nearly as worried as him, and looked at Tai in complete confusion.

"I called in sick," Tai said with a grin.

"…oh."

Yamato felt himself blushing as Tai laughed, and hurried to defend himself.

"Well, how was I supposed to know?"

"You weren't. It's just funny that you were so worried about it. You'd think it was your job, not mine."

"Yeah, well… why did you call in sick? You're not sick… are you?"

"No, but I didn't want to just leave you here alone after last night, so… yeah." Tai shrugged. "I called work early this morning and told them I couldn't come in."

Yamato felt a smile tug at his lips. It was sweet that Tai had called in sick just so that Yamato wouldn't wake up alone. It was very sweet, in fact, considering that Tai hadn't even stayed with Sora the morning after their one-year anniversary.

"Speaking of last night," Tai began, pulling himself up to a sitting position and meeting Yamato's eyes, "I-"

Tai stopped and sighed in annoyance when his cell phone started ringing. He grabbed it from the nightstand beside the bed and rolled his eyes as he looked at the screen.

"It's my friend from work," he said aloud, then flipped the phone open and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

Tai listened for a few moments, then took the phone away from his ear for a second to press a kiss to Yamato's lips quickly and whisper, "I'll be right back."

Tai got up, pulled on his boxers, and then walked out of the room.

Yamato drummed his fingers on his knee impatiently as he waited for Tai to return. He really wanted to know what Tai had to say about the previous night. It could be anything, from "It was a complete mistake and I'm sorry" to "I love you and it was the greatest experience of my life". Yamato was hoping for the latter- or something like it, anyway.

Yamato got up, pulled on his own boxers, and began to make his way to the washroom. On the way, he could hear Tai's voice from down the hall.

"…I don't care if you 'need' me," Tai was saying, sounding irritated, "I called in sick! That means you've got to deal without me!" There was a pause, then, "I don't care if I don't sound sick! I'm busy!"

Smiling to himself, Yamato entered the bathroom and shut the door. His smile quickly disappeared when he saw himself in the mirror- his hair was a complete wreck! It was all messy, and tangled, and… well, he just couldn't leave it that way.

Yamato made his way back to his room a few minutes later, feeling much more presentable. He heard Tai speaking on the phone again, sounding like he was just wrapping up the call.

"…that should solve everything, alright? And if not, I'll be in tomorrow to deal with it." Yamato was about to tune Tai's voice out when Tai lowered his voice a bit and Yamato became curious again. "Listen, I slept with my best friend last night and I've got to stick around to make sure he knows it wasn't a mistake." There was another pause, then, "Yes, I'm going to make him my boyfriend. Shut up."

Yamato stopped in the doorway of his room at this discovery. Boyfriend? Tai wanted him to be his boyfriend?

Unfortunately, Yamato didn't have time to be happy about this discovery, because Tai's next line was, "Yeah, I know, I've got to dump her… again."

Shit.

Yamato trudged the rest of the way into his bedroom, sitting on his bed and burying his face in his hands. For a few minutes, he'd somehow completely forgotten about Sora. How could they have gotten themselves into this mess?

Tai's voice and footsteps neared as he said goodbye to his co-worker and a few moments later, Yamato felt Tai ruffle his hair and then press a kiss to his cheek. As Tai wrapped his arms around Yamato, he whispered,

"Aw, your sex hair was cute."

When Yamato didn't respond, Tai changed from a teasing tone to a serious one.

"What's wrong?"

Yamato let out a heavy sigh and sat up straight, looking at Tai. He voiced his worry in one word: "Sora."

"Don't worry about Sora," Tai said with a wave of his hand. "I'll take care of it."

Yamato frowned. "Tai, I've told you before… you can't just-"

"Yama, I'm dumping her," Tai cut the blonde off. "That's all there is to it."

"But I still completely betrayed her trust-"

"Well, she doesn't have to know that. Anyway, we've got more important things to talk about here." Tai looked directly into Yamato's eyes. "You and I had sex last night."

Yamato felt himself blushing, but he forced himself to maintain eye contact and nodded.

"So," Tai said, "first of all- tell me you don't regret it."

"I don't," Yamato said honestly. "I mean… I probably should, but it just felt… right."

Tai smiled. "Good. That's what I wanted to hear."

"…but still, it wasn't fair to Sora," Yamato couldn't help but add.

Tai rolled his eyes. "Yama, it doesn't matter- it's not like we can change things now, right? Besides, if I don't break up with Sora now, won't it just be worse?"

Yamato couldn't think of what to say to that- it was true, things would only be worse if Tai didn't break up with Sora immediately.

Tai took Yamato's silence as agreement. "I'm going to break up with her tonight," he said. "Hell, I never would've gotten back together with her if I knew you'd end up feeling the same way about me as I do about you. Shit, screw that- I never would've gone out with her in the first place."

"How do you feel about me?" Yamato asked before he chickened out. Then, after re-playing Tai's words in his mind, he added, "and… wait… you've felt this way for…?"

"A hell of a long time?" Tai filled in for him. "Yeah, I have."

"I didn't know," Yamato said guiltily.

"I know. I mean, I don't know how you didn't, but I knew that you didn't. That doesn't matter now, though."

It didn't, but Yamato felt like an idiot for being so oblivious. Looking back, he realized just how ignorant of Tai's feelings he'd been. Then he realized that everyone else must have known- Jyou, Mimi, even T.K. had hinted it to him! First there had been Jyou with his "find the deeper reason" speech; and then Mimi had obviously known all along but refused to let Yamato in on it- that explained why she'd known what Tai had meant by that comment those couple of weeks ago and he hadn't; and T.K. had probably even known when he talked about the "model couple" thing… how many other hints and remarks had Yamato missed? How could he have been so stupid?

After a few moments of silence, Yamato remembered that his initial question hadn't been answered.

"How do you feel about me?" he repeated, watching Tai anxiously. Yamato didn't really know what he wanted to hear, especially because he wasn't sure what he felt towards Tai at that point. All he knew for sure was that he definitely wanted to be with him in a more-than-friends way.

"I feel like I really want to be with you," Tai said, slightly avoiding the question. "So… this is going to sound corny, but… will you be my boyfriend?"

A smile automatically graced Yamato's lips and he was about to nod yes when he remembered Sora again.

"No," Yamato said, shaking his head. "I can't," he continued when Tai's face fell a little. "I mean… Sora…"

"I told you, I'm breaking up with her."

"But you're not broken up yet. I can't do that to her. I already feel guilty enough, Tai… I can't. That would just… it would be so wrong."

Tai looked somewhat annoyed, but accepted Yamato's words. "Fine. After I break up with her tonight, though, I don't want to hear any more of this 'feeling guilty' stuff."

Yamato gave Tai a look. "Tai… I'm always going to feel guilty."

"I know," Tai groaned, then shook his head and reached his hand up to the back of Yamato's neck, stroking lightly. "But that's why I love you," he murmured before leaning in and meeting Yamato's lips with his.

At first Yamato kissed back, but then he pushed Tai away for two reasons- one; he was still betraying Sora by kissing Tai, so it would have to wait and two; Tai's words had just made Yamato realize that Tai might actually be in love with him.

He knew that Tai loved him as a best friend and now liked him as more than a friend, but Yamato hadn't really thought about the fact that Tai might be in love with him that way. It made Yamato panic a little inside because he still wasn't even sure of what he felt towards Tai. If Tai was in love with him… well, that would make things a lot more complicated.

"I'm not allowed to kiss you until tonight?" Tai asked in disbelief after Yamato broke the kiss.

"No, you're not," Yamato confirmed.

"Goddammit," Tai muttered.

Tai's phone rang again at that second, and he looked at it to find Sora's number displayed on the screen. He was about to pick it up when Yamato quickly stopped him.

"You're supposed to be at work, remember?" he reminded the brunette.

Tai nodded and compliantly let the phone ring, and when it stopped he looked at the screen and announced,

"She left a message."

"Does she usually call and leave messages while you're at work?" Yamato asked.

"No," Tai said as he dialed his voicemail, "only when she needs to tell me something important."

Tai put his phone on speaker and Sora's recorded voice sounded.

"Hi, hun! I know you're at work, but I thought I'd leave you this message so that you can hear the good news the second you check your phone after work!" There was a dramatic pause, then, "My parents invited you to a family dinner!"

Tai and Yamato locked eyes at this point.

"They called me earlier," Sora's voice continued, "and they said that it's about time that you meet the family- all of the family! So they've planned a big family dinner and everyone is going to be there- my grandparents, aunts, uncles, some of my cousins… I can't wait! I just know they'll love you. Anyway, the dinner is May 21st and I'll give you more details later! I love you!"

Tai hung up and looked wordlessly at Yamato for several moments. Yamato stared back looking equally speechless. Finally, Tai spoke.

"Fuck."

Yamato didn't say anything, and Tai spoke again.

"Tonight is going to suck."

Yamato shook his head at Tai. "No. You can't, Tai… she'll be devastated. Just… go through with the dinner and-"

Tai groaned loudly, interrupting the blonde. "Fuck, Yama, no…"

"Imagine what a terrible position that will put her in! Not only will she have to cope with being dumped so unexpectedly, but she'll have to break the news to her whole family that you're not coming to the dinner because you broke up with her!"

Tai groaned again. "Shit, Yama, you honestly need to stop considering Sora more than you consider yourself."

"Tai, please don't make her go through that… it'll crush her."

"Well, are you going to say I'm still not allowed to kiss you and shit until after the dinner? That's almost two fucking weeks!"

"No, you're not allowed because it's still not right- and you can't dump her right away after the dinner, you have to wait a little more or it'll be obvious that it was planned."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tai exclaimed. "How many fucking rules can you possibly make?"

Yamato gave Tai a look and Tai instantly apologized.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to talk to you like that, you know that. I just…" Tai sighed in frustration. "Yama… I don't want to have to wait to be with you. I want to be with you now. I know you don't want Sora to get hurt- I mean, more than is inevitable- but this could go on forever! There's never going to be a 'perfect time' to break up with her. I just need to do it so we can stop stretching this thing out."

Tai watched Yamato expectantly for an answer. The blonde bit his lip briefly, sighed, played with his fingers, and then looked up at Tai.

"I know. Just… wait until a few days after the dinner, please? For me?" Yamato pleaded.

Tai sighed in defeat. "Fine."

Yamato wrapped his arms around Tai in an embrace, squeezing lightly. "Thank you."

"These days had better go by fast," Tai muttered.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

That evening, Tai went over to Sora's house… and stayed the night. Yamato tried not to feel bothered by that- after all, Sora had already made it clear that she wasn't going to have sex with Tai again "until they got married", right? And even if she did decide for some crazy reason to have sex with Tai again… he wouldn't let her, would he? No, he wouldn't, Yamato convinced himself. Especially after he'd told Yamato that he had feelings for him.

Yamato didn't hear from Tai on Tuesday, which kind of worried him- especially because he knew Tai had Wednesday off of work and he figured Tai would want to hang out and would call on Tuesday to make plans or something. However, Yamato was re-assured that Sora and Tai hadn't had sex again or anything like that when he, Sora, and Mimi went on a shopping trip Wednesday afternoon. Sora rambled on about how she and Tai had cuddled all night on Monday… which still kind of irked Yamato, but whatever- he knew Tai didn't want to cuddle with Sora all night, he just had to.

…and thinking that way made Yamato feel like a prick. So he tried to focus on the purpose of their shopping trip, which wasn't much better- Sora wanted a new outfit for her family dinner with Tai… which she wouldn't stop talking about, by the way.

"I can't wait!" Sora exclaimed excitedly as the three friends walked through the mall. "My family is going to love Tai, I just know it!"

"Well, your parents already do," Mimi pointed out.

"I know, because Tai's the kind of guy that my entire family wants me to be with. Once they meet him, we'll definitely have their blessing and then we can move in together!"

Yamato hid his initial reaction (staring in shock and yelling "What the fuck do you mean, move in together?") and instead tried to appear simply curious as he asked,

"You guys are moving in together?"

Apparently Mimi had heard the tone that Yamato had tried hard to hide, because she was suddenly giving him a suspicious look. Sora, however, was oblivious.

"Yes!" she responded happily. "We were talking about it Monday night! I said that this dinner was the next step in our relationship because after we get my family's blessing, our relationship will be that much more serious and then he asked me to move in with him- and he practically asked me to marry him!"

Yamato felt sick. Sora's story couldn't be true, could it?

"What do you mean, practically asked you to marry him?" Mimi asked, obviously sensing that Sora's story might be a little skewed also. "Do you have a ring?"

"Well, no, he didn't actually ask me officially yet… he just told me that we are going to get married."

"That's great," Mimi said, trying to sound more enthusiastic and less skeptical. "Isn't it?" Mimi prompted Yamato when the blonde didn't say anything.

Yamato nodded, trying to smile and appear happy for Sora. "Yeah, it is. Congratulations."

"Thanks!"

Sora was too busy being happy for herself to notice the way Yamato was acting, but Yamato knew that Mimi definitely noticed. When Sora went inside a fitting room in one of the stores they visited, Mimi instantly dragged Yamato far away from the fitting room and confronted him.

"Tell me right now what is going on. If you're upset because you and Tai aren't speaking, that's fine- but don't put a damper on the fact that he and Sora's relationship is getting better."

"Tai and I aren't not speaking anymore," Yamato said, then smacked himself mentally. How would he explain that?

Mimi's eyebrows rose immediately. "Since when?"

"Since Monday," Yamato admitted.

"And what exactly brought about this change?"

Yamato swallowed a lump in his throat and hesitated, not knowing what to say.

Luckily at that moment, the door to Sora's fitting room opened. Mimi and Yamato quickly pretended that they were checking out some clothes near them.

"This top is perfect!" Sora exclaimed, her two companions turning to her on cue.

The top really was perfect. It complimented Sora in all of the right places and while it wasn't "sexy" (Sora was definitely not looking for a "sexy" top to wear for her family dinner), it was gorgeous instead.

"Buy that," was all Mimi said. "Now."

Sora obeyed Mimi's orders and bought the shirt, and then they were off to find her a skirt. This took a little longer, as the skirt had to be a certain length that was quite hard to find. Eventually, though, the trio did find a skirt that went wonderfully with the top and then decided that their mission had been accomplished.

As they were just about to leave the mall, Yamato's cell phone rang. He nearly froze when he saw that it was Tai, not knowing what to do. Mimi made that decision for him, plucking the phone out of his hands and answering it.

"Hi, Tai," she said, then followed with a fake-surprised, "I didn't know you and Matt were talking again."

"You and Tai are talking again?" Sora asked Yamato, looking genuinely surprised. Yamato nodded, and Sora broke into a smile. "That's great!"

Yamato nearly cringed at her words. Sora wouldn't think it was so great if she knew why he and Tai were talking again…

This brought him to think about how to confess to Sora. He couldn't not tell her, could he? He knew Tai would say he shouldn't tell her, but if he didn't he'd feel even more guilty about doing what he'd done in the first place. Of course, he couldn't tell her before her family dinner- that would be the same, if not worse, as having Tai break up with her before the dinner. Should he wait until after Tai broke up with her? No, that didn't seem right either…

Yamato was snapped out of his thoughts when Mimi shoved his phone back into his hand.

"He said he was calling because he knew you were out shopping with us, and he wanted to know what colour shirt Sora was wearing so that his tie could match," Mimi announced. "Oh, and of course he wants it to be a surprise for you, Sora, so don't tell him I told you."

"That's so sweet!" Sora squealed. "And it's perfect- my family picks up on little things like that!"

One look at Mimi told Yamato that Mimi didn't buy Tai's story… and Yamato couldn't blame her.

Luckily for Yamato, Mimi dropped him home first after they left the mall. He'd been afraid that she would have dropped Sora off first in order to talk to him more about the Tai situation, but it seemed he had been spared and he was extremely thankful for that. As he entered his house, his phone rang again. He looked at the screen and found that it was, as he'd expected, Tai.

"Are you home?" Tai asked the moment he answered.

"I literally just stepped in," Yamato replied, "and it's a good thing because if you'd called again while I was still with Mimi and Sora-"

"Yeah, that was pretty bad," Tai cut him off. "I told her that we were speaking again because I came over and apologized or some shit like that. I also told her that I was doing some stuff for work or else she'd tell Sora and Sora would expect me to hang out with her. Anyway, I want to see you- I'll be there in half a minute, I'm around the corner."

Yamato couldn't help but laugh. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, Mimi told me you guys were leaving when I called so I figured you'd be home by now."

"You know, if you weren't my best friend, I'd have to call you a stalker."

"Then it's a good thing I'm your best friend," Tai replied. "…and your soon-to-be boyfriend."

Yamato didn't get the chance to respond, because Tai continued with, "I'm just about to pull into your driveway. See you in a few seconds."

Opening the door he had just closed moments ago, Yamato saw Tai's car pull into the driveway and shook his head as the brunette exited his car.

"What speed were you going?" Yamato asked Tai, giving him a look.

Tai laughed and rolled his eyes as he walked up to Yamato's front door. "Don't worry about it." He reached the blonde and began to lean in for a kiss, then stopped halfway and pulled back.

"Can I kiss you?"

Yamato felt torn. On one hand, he was delighted that Tai had actually taken his "no kissing until after Sora's dinner" rule seriously and wanted to reward him for that. On the other hand, if he didn't stick to his word then it would spoil the entire thing and Tai might not take him as seriously in future situations.

All of a sudden, Yamato remembered what Sora had said at the mall and blurted out,

"Did you tell Sora you'd marry her?"

Tai made a slight face. "What?"

"Sora said you asked her to move in with you and then implied that you'd be getting married someday," Yamato said.

"Are you kidding?"

Yamato shook his head.

Tai let out a laugh of disbelief. "Sora's delusional."

"She said," Yamato elaborated as he and Tai headed into the living room, "that on Monday night, you guys were talking about the family dinner she's having and taking your relationship to the next level-"

"Oh my God, she is delusional," Tai cut Yamato off as they sat down on the couch. He shook his head. "Do you want to know what really happened?"

Yamato nodded immediately, hoping for anything that would prove Sora's belief wrong.

"Alright, we were talking about the dinner- well, she was talking about it- and she was going on about her family giving us their blessing or something like that and then she said that after all of this, we can take our relationship to the next level. And I thought that was kind of funny because usually when people say that, they're talking about sex- but obviously she doesn't want to have sex again until marriage. So then I started wondering what exactly 'the next level' would be- like, would her family believe in moving in with each other before getting married or would they want the guy she's with to ask her to marry him right away? So I asked her if her family believed in living together before marriage… and then she started acting really happy and saying stuff about moving in together and finding apartments… man, now it makes sense!"

Yamato felt completely and utterly relieved. Tai's story sounded much more believable, even if it did make him feel kind of bad that Sora was so misled. Yamato was so relieved that he actually breathed out, "Thank God."

Tai looked at Yamato in amusement. "What, you thought I all of a sudden fell in love with Sora and decided to marry her?"

Yamato blushed a bit. Put that way, it did sound kind of stupid.

"No, I just… I don't know what I thought. It just wasn't fun to hear that- especially after I heard that you stayed over at her house Monday night and then you didn't even call me all day yesterday."

"I was actually going to visit you last night," Tai told Yamato, "because yesterday was a crazy day at work and I didn't get the chance to talk to you, but then Sora called and she wouldn't let me off the phone. She just kept rambling on about the dinner and us supposedly moving in together."

"Yeah, that's all she would talk about today too," Yamato said. He sighed. "It's really going to crush her when you break up with her, Tai… she thinks you two are going to get married and have kids and live happily ever after."

"I know. That's why I think I should just dump her now- the sooner the better, right? Before she really gets used this idea of us moving in together and stuff… besides, won't it be worse if she has to tell her family that we've broken up after they meet me?"

Yamato hesitated.

"I'm calling her," Tai decided, taking his cell phone out of his pocket. "I'll tell her we need to talk or something and then go over to her place and-"

Tai stopped in the middle of his sentence, startled when the phone in his hand started to ring. Seeing that it was Sora, he raised an eyebrow.

"That's freaky. It's Sora."

"Well, answer it!" Yamato urged.

Tai flipped open his phone and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

Yamato's cell phone chose that moment to ring also. Getting up and heading into the kitchen for a more quiet setting, he looked at the screen to find that it was Mimi and answered it.

"Hi, Mimi."

"Want to go to a rave this Friday?"

Yamato couldn't help but laugh at how eager Mimi sounded. "Um, sure? Tai might freak, though."

"He can come, too. It'll be so much fun- it's a Friday the 13th rave!"

"Friday is the thirteenth?"

"Yeah! Anyway, I'm busy right now- I just called to make sure we'd be going. Talk to you later!"

Yamato turned to re-enter the living room, but Tai was approaching him instead.

"She was crying," Tai revealed, not looking very happy. "She said she wants me to come over because she needs support or something."

Uh-oh, that was never good.

"What happened?" Yamato asked.

Tai shrugged. "I don't know, I could barely understand her because she was crying so much. I guess I've got to go over there, though."

"You guess?" Yamato looked at Tai in disbelief.

"Well, I don't want to leave you," Tai half-whined. "I just got here, and I haven't seen you since Monday."

"Well, I don't want you to leave either, but you have to."

"I know," Tai said with a sigh. He headed to the front door, Yamato following behind him.

"By the way," Yamato mentioned as Tai shoved his feet into his shoes, "Mimi just invited us to a rave Friday night. Do you want to go?"

"Are you going?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm coming."

"I figured," Yamato said with a roll of his eyes. "Anyway, call me later, okay? Or tomorrow, if you end up staying at Sora's or something."

"I'm not going to stay there, Yama."

"Well, if you do-"

"I'm not." Tai met Yamato's eyes. "I'll be back here tonight. I promise."

"Okay." Yamato smiled a little. He knew he shouldn't be so selfish, especially when Sora obviously needed Tai, but… well, he couldn't help it.

Tai took Yamato's face in both of his hands gently. "Can I kiss you?" he repeated his earlier question.

Yamato responded by pulling Tai's head down and pressing their lips together. Tai smiled when the kiss was broken and planted another brief kiss on Yamato's lips.

"I'll see you tonight," he said.

Yamato nodded. "Okay. Bye."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

A/N: This chapter seemed really short to me, but the next two chapters are going to be jam-packed with stuff so that should more than make up for it!