Disclaimer:I do not own Digimon, nor do I own anything to do with 'Loveless'. I'm just obsessed with both…

Balance

Chapter 13: Friends

Takuya wondered what he had done, karmatically, that had stuck him in the seemingly endless position as a fifth wheel in every single social situation he ever managed to get himself into.

Initially, he'd slipped into the twins' living room with the intention of double-checking the door and window locks, cleaning up whatever dinner the brothers had been forced to leave behind and keeping a subtle eye on their two 'houseguests,' just to be absolutely sure that they weren't up to anything...sneaky. But the first two had already been taken care of before he even stepped through the door, which left him with only the third task, which wasn't going to be particularly subtle anymore, especially since the pair were currently stretched out on the couch, Ryo's pillowed in Ruki's lap.

So Takuya had resorted to settling down in the single armchair, letting his eyes scan around the room in what he hoped was a lazy manner, trying hard to lose himself in his thoughts and block out the light humming noise Ryo was making as Ruki feathered her fingers through his hair.

Takuya sighed and forced his eyes closed, letting his mind wander. He was tired, no, exhausted. His head seemed to be full of nothing but a faint buzzing noise, like static over a radio. He leaned his head back against the soft cushions and rubbed his temples with a groan, trying to push through the day, through everything that had happened, just for a moment…

Then a single bright, wonderful smile cut through the haze like sunlight on a foggy day, and for a moment, his mind was quiet under the memory of gentle, wonderful blue eyes.

For a second, he was calm. And he loved it.

"Looks like somebody's found his happy place."

Takuya snapped his eyes open at Ryo's comment and sputtered, barely coming out of his fantasy with time to catch his breath. "Wh-What?"

The dark-skinned boy grinned up at him like a cat curled in the lap of his master, in full view of a sunlit window. The many rows of teeth seemed to hold the adventure-loving confidence of one who had seen danger, laughed in its face and lived to give it a wedgie later. "You're pretty obvious. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Means you're a nice guy. So what're you thinkin' 'bout?"

Ruki turned her icy purple gaze to meet Takuya's evenly, letting a smirk curl across her lips. "I think the question is 'who'."

Takuya flushed, his cheeks turning a deep red that was almost maroon.

"Auw, pumpkin, it ain't nice to tease him," Ryo snickered, reaching out to run his fingers along Ruki's jaw line affectionately. "He's just in love, after all."

Takuya's blush darkened even more and he sputtered awkwardly, his tongue slipping around behind his teeth, unable to get a grip on much of anything beyond a few short, not-quite-connected syllables. "Huh…wha…but…I…"

"So you don't have any feelings for the little blonde girl?" Ruki asked without inflection, her expression matching perfectly.

"I didn't say that!"

Ryo chuckled again, longer and louder than before, his head leaning back to expose the taunt, tanned skin stretched over his throat. His brown eyes shown cheerily as he sat up, looking at Takuya over his shoulder with a cocky grin. "Of course you didn't. Though there's no need to be embarrassed about it all. We know what it's like, don't we, Pumpkin?"

With the last sentence, he swung his legs around to sit beside Ruki on the couch, wrapping his arm around her shoulders brightly. The girl didn't tense or move much at all, except for her eyes, which swiveled to shift their cold glare onto his partner. "You are such a sap."

Ryo grinned even wider and pulled her closer. "Love you too, hun."

Ruki rolled her eyes, but Takuya almost imagined the faintest blush had crept up under her pale cheeks. But before she or anyone else could comment further, a familiar, cold voice echoed from the hallway.

"I could use a hand."

Takuya snapped his head up to look at Kouji, who was looking more than a little tired, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. His sleeves were wet around the cuffs and rolled up over his elbows, several beads of sweat were running down from his temples. Despite that, his eyes were narrowed and had managed to regain the little determined spark that had been knocked out during the fight.

"All done?" Takuya asked, jumping over the armrest of the chair to land on his feet. "Whattya need?"

Kouji gave a tired little half-shrug, one shoulder lifting and falling barely half and inch. "I can't carry him alone."

"You don't have to bother them…"

Kouichi's voice was weak, and sounded strained against the rawness of his throat, which made Takuya wince just the slightest with sympathy. He replaced the pained expression with a bright grin and pushed forward to nudge Kouji back into the bathroom. "No trouble at all, Kimura. Always glad to help."

The boy inside grinned at him humorlessly from his place on the bathroom floor, a pair of blue flannel pajama bottoms secured around his waist. Layers and layers of blood-stained white gauze were wrapped around his chest and arms, holding his skin in place. He had one leg pulled up and looked as though he'd been trying to pull himself to his feet, but the shaking in his limbs was too much to even think of it.

Takuya crossed the small room with a few carefully-placed steps, knelling down to pull the arm Kouichi was trying to hoist himself up with over his shoulders. Kouji mirrored his actions on the other side, reaching across to grip Takuya at the elbow and support his brother carefully. Takuya grinned at the younger twin and counted off in his head before the both climbed to their feet, pulling Kouichi to his feet.

"Yeah, this is good, right, Kimura?" Takuya grinned brightly as their careful steps started to pick up pace, and nodded his head back and forth to keep up the rythmn. "One, two. One, two. We'll get you settled in in no time!"

Kouichi giggled and Takuya's grin spread even wider, keeping up the cheerful banter until they made it into the twin's bedroom and gotten the elder brother settled in on the bed. He kept the grin in place, though, and held it as such even as Kouji rearranged pillows to make his brother a bit more comfortable. "There we go, all done. You still doin' okay, Kimura? 'Cause I can…"

"Kouichi."

"…Huh?"

The injured twin looked up through his bangs modesty. "You've done more than enough to call me by my first name by now."

Takuya blinked several times in rapid succession. Of everything that had happened today - the weird conversation with Soubi, his friend nearly getting torn to ribbons in a magical battle, meeting and then losing the girl of his dreams - this was the last thing he had expected.

"Kouji, too," Kouichi glanced at his brother with a small smile, not really asking permission but making sure that it really was okay. "Right?"

Kouji glanced Takuya's way and grunted in a manner that wasn't quite noncommittal, but not quite agreeable anyway. It seemed to be close enough for Kouichi, who was, admittedly, probably better at reading Kouji's non-communication than anyone else in the world, as he turned back to smile at Takuya again. "So please, from now on… just call us by our names. That's what friends do, right?"

"Uh, right. Kouichi." Takuya grinned a bit, rubbing the back of his head. His ears twitched awkwardly in the air, betraying his nervousness. "I guess…you can just call me Takuya, then."

"So whattya want us to call you?"

Takuya jumped a foot, all of his hair and fur standing on end, and twisted to find Ryo leaning against the doorframe. It seemed that Fearless had decided to busy themselves in the apartment again while Takuya wasn't around to watch them; especially as Ruki was standing in front of him, bearing a tray and a large bowl of what looked and smelled like instant chicken-flavored ramen.

The girl rolled her violet eyes at her partner in annoyance. "It doesn't matter what we call them," she scolded, crossing the room to place the tray in Kouichi's lap like a peace offering. "It's not like we're staying, anyway."

"Not staying?" Takuya felt his cat-ears press against the top of his head and frowned at the statement. It wasn't like he really liked Fearless or anything, but they seemed to be at least vaguely decent. "Where are you going to go? Back to the…"

"There is no longer a place for us at The School," Ruki scowled darkly as she backed off, crossing her arms over her chest. "Reflection has guaranteed that."

"Then where will you…?"

"We'll make by," Ryo grinned and gave his cocky little wink again, though both actions were tinged by a sort of…sadness. Takuya couldn't imagine what they had to be sad about, but…each to their own.

Kouichi seemed to understand better. "At least stay the night."

"Where? On that little couch of yours?"

"It's a fold-out. It's the least we can do."

Ryo lifted one eyebrow, glancing at Ruki out of the corner of his eye suggestively. The girl rolled her eyes again and swatted at him in annoyance. "You don't owe us anything," she said to Kouichi. "We owed you for the win."

"You did more than your share. We're in your debt."

"We don't need your sympathy."

"It's not sympathy."

Takuya shrugged with a bit of a grin. "Hey man, never look a gift horse in the mouth. It's not like you've got anywhere else to go."

Both of the Sacrifices turned to look at him, Ruki with annoyance and Kouichi in amusement. After a moment, the girl sighed and backed off, raising her hands in defeat. "Fine, then. We'll stay the night. But no more."

"Then keep it quiet," Kouji growled under his breath. "We're not some stupid hotel."

Takuya laughed at that, as did Ryo, and even the combined glare-wrath of Ruki and Kouji couldn't get them to shut up. By the time they'd all calmed down, Kouichi had fallen asleep again, leaving Kouji with that rather mother-hennish task of showing their guests where to sleep and unceremoniously tossing Takuya out the door.

As Takuya walked home, he was vaguely aware of a slight shadow - identified only by the love-of-adventure smirk that gleamed in the moonlight - that was following him, but he didn't mind. For all the crap that had happened today, someone was still willing to watch out for his safety.

It was good to have friends.

TBC…

Whew…finally got past this part. I'm sorry for neglecting this story for so long. I moved to college and stuff has been piling up, so I guess something had to suffer for it. I'll try to be better. My muses seem to have flitted over here for at least a little bit. Let's see how long they stay occupied. Next chapter will probably include a time-jump of a few days. Here's hoping we all stick with it long enough to get there. (Reviews are a big encouragement - hint hint)