Flutter Part 3: Focus
by loveasthouwilt
Takeru was taking it a lot better than I originally gave him credit for.
My gaze fell to the floor and I mumbled, "You aren't going to tell anyone, are you?"
He shook his head. "It's none of their business," then he added with a smile, "It's none of my business."
Yamato looked at his brother, "Then, do you mind if we..." and he pointed a thumb towards the room we had been caught in.
My eyes went wide. Was he suggesting....?!
Takeru shrugged, "Um... I guess so... but..." He rubbed the back of his neck, not sure if he was going to actually say what he was thinking.
He didn't have to. Yamato snickered, "Don't worry, Takeru, we'll be considerate of you."
I wouldn't have wanted to be Takeru right then, to be left alone while my brother went to make out with one of my best friends...
"I don't think I can do this with Takeru in there," I said as Yamato closed the door behind us, leaving the room even darker than before since the sun had moved below the tops of the buildings.
"Then we don't have to do anything," he said simply. It was too dark to see his expression.
His arms slid around my waist and he pulled me close, touching our foreheads together. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, just holding me. I wrapped my arms around him, holding him by the shoulders.
It was almost better than kissing, to just stand there and hold each other, listening to the other breathe.
To know that at this point our greatest comforts in the world were each other.
His hands moved further up my back, pulling me even closer, and I lifted my head, touching my lips to his.
In a fashion similar to before, I found myself in the bed with him on top of me, though this time instead of fast and desperate we moved slow and deliberate.
He opened up the front of my shirt so he could kiss down my neck. My hands moved under his shirt, my fingertips trailing the soft curve of his back.
He squeezed me and shuddered. "Mmmn.. that tickles..." he purred.
I loved that!
I grinned and brushed my fingertips in a fleshy area near the bottom of his spine.
Smiling, he struggled to get away by arching his back and pushing himself down against me. "Mnn..Ke..n.." he moaned playfully.
There was knocking at the door, which stopped us cold, then came Takeru's voice. "Mom called. She's downstairs waiting for us."
Yamato and I just looked at each other silently, and sighed, neither of us wanting to let go.
After a few moments, he rolled away from me, letting me button my shirt back up.
"My mother was furious about me coming over here..." I said quietly, "so I don't know when I'll get to see, or even talk, to you again..."
Yamato opened the door, sending a bright line of light across the room. "Don't worry about it," he said with a confident smile. "We'll work something out."
I walked past him, collected Minomon, and met Takeru and Patamon near the front door, Yamato close behind me.
We said our goodbyes, mine more dejected than the others, and I followed Takeru.
In the elevator, Takeru tilted his head and grinned at me. "You know, you two are actually kinda cute together."
I blushed and smiled at him agreeingly.
"The blonde and the black," he continued amusedly. "The loud and the quiet. The attitude and the modest."
Minomon and Patamon exchanged confused looks. I resolved to try to explain everything to Minomon when I got home, if I survived my encounter with Mama.
Patamon would probably get a similar explanation from Takeru, despite the promise he'd made not to tell anyone. For some reason, the idea of him telling his digimon didn't bother me.
I was just relieved that he could talk to me as if nothing had changed.
"Oh, and I was going to invite you to come play soccer with Daisuke, some other guys, and me." Takeru said. "Since no one has practice after school tomorrow."
"I'll come by if I'm not grounded." I told him.
He nodded knowingly.
The conversation on the way home mostly consisted of Takeru's mother telling us about all the shopping she had done while we were at Yamato's. I guess she doesn't usually have much free time.
I told Takeru I'd see him tomorrow and then walked as slowly as I could back to my apartment, trying to come up with good excuses and counters to every argument I thought Mama could bring up.
When I got home, Mama noticed immediately. "Ken, is that you?"
"Yeah," I called out, letting Minomon into my room and closing him in there.
"Oh, thank God," she said, obviously relieved, as she rounded the corner from the living room to meet me.
I frowned at her. "What did you think I'd do?"
She didn't want to answer that, so she changed the subject. "Your principal called me on a personal note, from his home... He's worried about your grades.... Ken, why didn't you tell me you were struggling?"
I leaned against the wall. "I'm not struggling. I'm just not as good as everyone else."
"Well, you used to b--"
"Well, I'm not who I used to be." I cut her off.
"Ken, I'm worried about you!" she said tearfully. "You don't care about school anymore. You skip soccer practice. You go off without my permission to see this... boy....!"
Panged with guilt, I walked over and hugged her. "I'm so sorry... I never meant to hurt you..."
"I don't want you to see him anymore, Ken," she sobbed. "Please..."
I swallowed hard and my chest clenched tightly.
"...please, ken...please...."
I don't want to hurt her anymore...
"....please..."
"Alright, Mama," I promised, my eyes filling with tears. "Alright..."
That night, I didn't explain anything to Minomon after all.
"It doesn't matter," I told him. "It's over."
It's over.
As if a switch had been turned, I retrieved the assignment I had only done a half-assed job on earlier and threw it away. I opened up the book, looked back over the chapter and answered the questions correctly with ease. Then I took up another book to study for a test I hadn't bothered to worry about all day.
Minomon blinked at me curiously. "Wow, Ken. I haven't seen you study this hard since you were the Kaizer."
"Don't bring that up!!" I roared at him. Shocked and terrified, he hid under the bed. I didn't even feel bad about it... he shouldn't have said anything that stupid and inconsiderate...!
Remembering a contest the computer club was having, I booted up my computer and started brainstorming a program I might enter. I worked on that well into the night before finally crawling into bed.
Minomon, for the first time in months, slept on the floor...
I took a test early the next morning. By the end of the day, the grades were posted...
My name at the top of the list...
I smiled smugly as everyone stood, gaping in shock at my regained success.
Mama would be so proud when she found out...
After school, I made my way to the park near where Daisuke lived, where we would often go to play soccer against each other.
When I arrived, Daisuke temporarily pulled himself out of a game already started of about six other people. "Uh.. Hi, Ken." he greeted me timidly.
"Um... Hi." I responded in kind, though mockingly. I didn't know what he had to be so hesitant about. "Takeru invited me to come play. He isn't here yet?"
"Umm... not yet," he said, obviously avoiding eye contact.
I frowned confusedly. "Is there a problem, Daisuke?"
"No!" he blurted unconvincingly, "No, no problems! I gotta get back to the game. Bye, Ken!"
Uh... Ok...
I invited myself into the game declaring myself against Daisuke's team, which caught him by surprise because he knows I'm not as good as I used to be.
I smiled at him challengingly.
Returning the challenge, he quickly discovered that I was as good as I used to be.
My team and I dominated the ball. Daisuke's team couldn't score against us to save their lives. It was exciting, to make them as unsure of themselves as I had been such a short time ago.
Takeru arrived when the game was practically over. Daisuke's team called it quits, not wanting to finalize the upset and the three of us gathered under a tree to discuss my sudden reversal.
Daisuke was sitting with his knees drawn under his chin, his arms wrapped about them. "I've only played against you like that one time before..." he said carefully.
I was standing, leaning against the tree. "I just lost my focus. I think I have it back now."
He looked up at me. "'Cause of Yamato..?" he guessed.
Takeru's eyes went wide and he looked at me to catch my reaction.
I frowned. "Who told you about that?"
"Your mom did when I called your house yesterday looking for you."
Figures Mama would do something like that. Oh well. No big deal.
"Well, it's not because of Yamato," I said. "I'm not seeing him anymore."
"What!?" Takeru demanded. "But you just found each other!"
"But he's not good for me, Takeru," I argued. "I can't concentrate on school or anything else if all I think about is him."
"You didn't concentrate on that before you met Yamato," Daisuke pointed out with a grin.
Yeah, but...
...Maybe he had a point...
"So how long have you been...like that, anyway?" Daisuke asked concernedly, changing the subject. "What about when you were the Kaizer?"
He really didn't need to know the compromising positions I as the ruthless Kaizer had imagined him in.
So I just grinned evilly, teasing him.
His mouth gaped in horror.
I chuckled. "I'm just kidding. Not until after."
It was a lie, but one I thought was courteous in this case.
Takeru was still looking at me with that disappointed expression on his face.
"Look, you said yourself it was none of your business," I said.
"I'm just trying to help!" he yelled.
"Well, don't," I retorted unappreciatively.
I looked back and forth between the two one more time before pushing away from the tree and announcing, "I'm going home, I have homework to do. See ya around."
"Bye, Ken," I heard Daisuke say behind me. Takeru said nothing.
Mama wasn't home when I got there, which was unusual, but I'm sure she had a good reason.
Minomon, greeted me timidly from the floor.
"Sorry about last night," I said, kneeling down and rubbing his head. "I wasn't in the best mood."
I thought he was going to cry, "I'm so glad we're still friends."
He's a really sensitive little guy. I don't blame him.
I finished my homework and continued work on my program for a few hours when the phone rang. Without a second thought, I picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Ken?"
Yamato.
"I'm not supposed to talk to you," I said flatly.
"Is your mom there?"
I hesitated. "......yes."
"I can tell you're lying, Ken...!" he said painfully.
I said nothing.
"Takeru told me..." then he stopped. I could hear his breathing, deep and tortured.
Yama...
I gritted my teeth "I'm.... not supposed to talk to you..." I repeated.
"Ken, don't let that bitch break us up! I love y--"
I hung up on him...
I stepped backwards away from the phone, pressing my back into a wall and sliding down it into the floor, drawing my knees to my chin and crying.
I love you, too...
The phone rang again.
I didn't answer it, even though I wanted to terribly.
It must have continued to ring for twenty minutes before he finally gave up.
The silence was... engulfing... lonely...
Yama...
I picked up the phone and called him back, but no one answered.
That's when Mama came home and spotted me with the phone in my hand.
"Who are you talking to?" she demanded.
"I just got off the phone with Daisuke," I said.
She eyed me suspiciously. She could tell I'd been crying. "Go to your room," she said. "No more phone calls."
I hurried away before she started asking any more questions.
Some time later, I was startled by the sound of my mother yelling at someone.
"You!! Get out of here, right now!!"
Y-Yamato....?
I ran into the hall.
It was him! He came over here...?
He looked around Mama and saw me. "Ken! I have to talk to you," he begged.
Mama closed the door in front of him and locked it. Then she turned to me "Go back to your room," she ordered.
She stood between me and the door, knowing I would be through it the second she moved.
Then I had an idea.
I went to my room and opened the window, leaning out and watching the sidewalk. It seemed like forever before I finally saw him walk by.
"YAMA!" I yelled, hoping he would hear me. Mama did, for sure. She screamed at me furiously from elsewhere in the apartment, but I had already locked my door.
He spun around, looked up and spotted me.
I tucked a wild strand of dark hair behind my ear and called down to him, "I love you!"
He grinned up at me.
My beautiful blonde.
"We can make it through this!" he yelled back confidently.
I rested both my arms on the windowsill and watched him dreamily.
Yama...
We can make this work...
I just know it...
to be continued