Author's note: This is part five. I just thought that everyone should know. More Taito fun. Little, itsy-bitsy Takedai reference, one-sided. Look really, really hard.
Dislcaimer: Don't own.
Warning: Yaoi. Taito, which is progressing faster than the Daikeru/Takedai part. Cussing, bad language. Nice, but not brilliant, Sora.
__________________________
Author: Rae (penname)
Title: Weekend Rain
Content: Yaoi, and bad language
Matt stared at the retreating back of his best friend in stunned silence. Eventually, the crowd around him dispersed, and the mall resumed its noisy status. He simply stood there, staring at the space where his brother and Tai had disappeared around a corner. Dai stood with him, not saying anything.
"I fucked up, didn't I?" He asked the younger teen bluntly.
Dai smiled slightly. "Oh, yeah. You put me to shame." He touched the blonde's arm gently and started them toward the exit. "The question is: what are you going to do to fix it?"
Blue eyes glanced at him sharply. "Why should I want to fix it? I'm better off without that fag around, anyway!" That earned him a harsh look from two men passing by, hand-in-hand. He looked away guiltily.
"If you truly believed that, Matt, I'd have to kick your ass." Daisuke said it kindly, as if he was offering to help him wash the dishes. "As it is, I'm refraining from doing so for the pain you just caused my idol. I don't think that he'd appreciate the effort."
Matt stopped suddenly. "He said he loved me." That thought seemed to stun him for a moment. He was broken out of his trance by a voice behind him.
"Yamato?" Both teens turned to face Sora, who was following them. "I'm sorry. Sorry I lied, sorry that I put you both through all this." She paused. "But you see, I knew. I knew that he loved you, and that if he didn't tell you soon, he'd do something drastic. I was going to tell him to go ahead today, but I saw you at the last second and poured out a bunch of lies and kissed him. I thought that, maybe if you saw us together, you'd realize that you loved him, too."
They looked at her, frowning. Daisuke shook his head. "That was stupid. You had to know that they'd fight, and that Matt would be pissed."
"I did. But they always work things out better when they argue. It's kind of the building block of their friendship that they disagree so much. It helps when you can see that they understand and respect each other. I always thought that they secretly disliked each other, then I began to realize that they didn't know how to deal with each other any other way. There's this...fire, this spark between them that ignites, and I began to think that it could ge something other that animosity."
"As in, we've been lusthing after each other without realizing it for years?" Matt supplied. She nodded. "This was your way of hooking us up?" He asked incredously. Again, she nodded. "Damn it, Sora, why didn't you just break up with me and tell me all of this?"
"I knew that you'd never admit to having feelings for him if you thought that he'd reject you. You asked me out because I was a safe bet, Matt. You knew that I'd say 'yes'. With him, there was always a chance that instead of kissing you senseless, he'd beat the shit out of you."
"And now that Tai's admitted how he feels, you can do what you should, and go find him." Daisuke gave him a pointed look. "You can start by going back to Takeru's with me. He went with him and will hopefully lead him back there. With any luck, we won't have a reversal of earlier, and he'll be ready to talk to you."
Matt nodded and started to walk away, but stopped. Over his shoulder, he spoke to Sora. "I'm not certain if I can forgive you for going about this the way you did, but I would like to thank you for getting all this out in the open. No matter how it ends, I wouldn't know that he loves me if it wasn't for you."
"Good luck, Yamato. Let me know when you figure it out, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer before she, too, lost herself in the throngs of people around them.
"Now that we're all hunky-dory, what are you going to do?" Daisuke asked as Matt started for the exit again.
"I don't know, what do you suggest?"
"Me? I suggest asking someone else. Any plan of mine is doomed to failure. Look at the result of my game. Maybe Takeru will come up with something."
Matt let the selfmockery in Daisuke's voice go for the moment. "Since when do you call him by his full name." Dai's step faltered. "Just wondering. You can call me Yamato, if you like."
Daisuke looked at him in surprise. "Thanks." He said it softly, smiling to himself. "Why?"
"Because you're a good person. You remind me of Taichi, but you're truly unique, also. You were there for me earlier, and you stuck by me now. Whether you wanted to or not, you made a friend in me, Motomiya Daisuke. I don't take my loyalties lightly, either. If you ever need my help, don't be afraid to ask."
That caused Daisuke to stop and stare at him in amazement. He opened his mouth several times in an attempt to say something, but ended up shaking his head. "Truly?" It was the best he could manage. The blonde nodded with a gently amused smile. "Thank you very much, Ishida Yamato. And if there's ever anything I can do to help you, just say the word."
"Good. Now come up with a plan." Yamato nodded decisively, and pulled Daisuke with him out to the parking lot where it was still raining. If it had ever looked as if the world was going to be flooded, that storm was it.
Daisuke didn't struggle against the forceful tugging on his arm, but that didn't stop him from arguing. "That's really not a good idea. I have a knack for screwing things up worse. With my luck, I'll have you wed to Kari, and Tai to Takeru."
"Will you stop already with the self-loathing?" He didn't stop as he laid into the younger teen. "You're an intelligent person, Dai, with a lot going for you. So what if you have bad luck. Everyone does. It doesn't mean that everything you do turns out bad. Give it a chance, and you'll see. I know that whatever you come up with will work. Have faith that I know what I'm talking about, if nothing else."
They continued threw the storm in silence, both working on their plan of attack in their own fashions.
Takeru wasn't having as much luck with Tai's ego as Matt was with Dai's.
"Come on, Tai! It won't be that bad. You and Matt are best friends, he won't hate you!" This was yelled through the same bedroom door that Yamato and Taichi had spoken through earlier. Under his breath, Takeru muttered. "Why do they always hide in her room? It would be so much easier to go to my room, especially since I know where the key is."
He could hear the loud sobbing through the wood panelling. It was a heartbreaking/heartbroken sound. Each sob was followed by a sharp inhalation, a gasping of breath through tortured lungs. Then the exhale, a broken, coughing sound that sounded painful and distorted.
"Taichi, please! Let me in! You need someone, you can't take this all on yourself and try to bury it! You've done that for too long, already!" There was a pause between the sob and the gasp, and he heard the lock click. He turned the knob, and gently pushed the door open. The crumpled form of his friend lay in the middle of the floor, shaking.
He closed the distance between them quickly and pulled Tai into his arms. The brunette wrapped his arms around his waist and cried into his shoulder, his tears making no difference on the already wet material. They had walked from the mall, and Takeru didn't expect his brother to be too far behind them. They had walked in on Iori and Hikari making out in his living room, but Tai hadn't even spared them a glance. Takeru had sent them on their way with assurances that he could, and would, deal with it.
He wished that Hikari had stayed. With a gentle touch, he smoothed wild hair back and whispered nonsensical words meant to calm and comfort. After several minutes, the sobbing quieted down. "There now. Shh. Everything's going to be okay, Taichi."
"How would you know?" The question was low, forced through a raw throat. Pain and bitterness etched their ways into each syllable.
"Because I, too, have loved someone who I thought couldn't possibly love me back." Tai pulled back slightly and looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, I know, I'm too young, blah blah."
"Love doesn't have an age limit. I just never would have thought that you'd find someone who couldn't love you." As romantic and sweet as that was, Takeru knew that Tai was as biased towards him as Matt was, simply because he had become like a younger sibling, the same as Hikari.
Takeru smiled gently. "I couldn't stop myself. And it's not like he hates me, or anything. It's just that he's never looked on me as anything but a friend. I can live with that, as long as he doesn't cut me off from his life. If he's still my friend, I can live without him loving me like that."
The brunette smiled. "He?" Pale cheeks blushed, and Tai flipped his hat off dry blonde hair. "That's a really mature attitude to have, T.K. I'll have to start calling you Takeru just because such wise words have never come from T.K.'s lips." Takeru rolled his eyes.
"You're just envious because I'm smarter than you." He made his voice petulant and whiny. For added effect, he stuck his tongue out.
"Whatever." Tai froze as they heard the outside door open and click shut. "Why don't you go say 'hi', and lock the door on your way out."
"You have to face him sometime." Takeru pointed out wisely as he stood up.
Tai nodded. "I know, but that doesn't mean that sometime has to be now." His voice was pained, his eyes pleading.
"I'm not going to stop him, Taichi. I know that he's not going to hurt you. You asked him where his faith in you had gone. Where's your faith in him?"
That earned him a shamed silence. He smiled softly and backed out of the room. Behind him, he heard Tai mumble, "At the mall."
Dislcaimer: Don't own.
Warning: Yaoi. Taito, which is progressing faster than the Daikeru/Takedai part. Cussing, bad language. Nice, but not brilliant, Sora.
__________________________
Author: Rae (penname)
Title: Weekend Rain
Content: Yaoi, and bad language
Matt stared at the retreating back of his best friend in stunned silence. Eventually, the crowd around him dispersed, and the mall resumed its noisy status. He simply stood there, staring at the space where his brother and Tai had disappeared around a corner. Dai stood with him, not saying anything.
"I fucked up, didn't I?" He asked the younger teen bluntly.
Dai smiled slightly. "Oh, yeah. You put me to shame." He touched the blonde's arm gently and started them toward the exit. "The question is: what are you going to do to fix it?"
Blue eyes glanced at him sharply. "Why should I want to fix it? I'm better off without that fag around, anyway!" That earned him a harsh look from two men passing by, hand-in-hand. He looked away guiltily.
"If you truly believed that, Matt, I'd have to kick your ass." Daisuke said it kindly, as if he was offering to help him wash the dishes. "As it is, I'm refraining from doing so for the pain you just caused my idol. I don't think that he'd appreciate the effort."
Matt stopped suddenly. "He said he loved me." That thought seemed to stun him for a moment. He was broken out of his trance by a voice behind him.
"Yamato?" Both teens turned to face Sora, who was following them. "I'm sorry. Sorry I lied, sorry that I put you both through all this." She paused. "But you see, I knew. I knew that he loved you, and that if he didn't tell you soon, he'd do something drastic. I was going to tell him to go ahead today, but I saw you at the last second and poured out a bunch of lies and kissed him. I thought that, maybe if you saw us together, you'd realize that you loved him, too."
They looked at her, frowning. Daisuke shook his head. "That was stupid. You had to know that they'd fight, and that Matt would be pissed."
"I did. But they always work things out better when they argue. It's kind of the building block of their friendship that they disagree so much. It helps when you can see that they understand and respect each other. I always thought that they secretly disliked each other, then I began to realize that they didn't know how to deal with each other any other way. There's this...fire, this spark between them that ignites, and I began to think that it could ge something other that animosity."
"As in, we've been lusthing after each other without realizing it for years?" Matt supplied. She nodded. "This was your way of hooking us up?" He asked incredously. Again, she nodded. "Damn it, Sora, why didn't you just break up with me and tell me all of this?"
"I knew that you'd never admit to having feelings for him if you thought that he'd reject you. You asked me out because I was a safe bet, Matt. You knew that I'd say 'yes'. With him, there was always a chance that instead of kissing you senseless, he'd beat the shit out of you."
"And now that Tai's admitted how he feels, you can do what you should, and go find him." Daisuke gave him a pointed look. "You can start by going back to Takeru's with me. He went with him and will hopefully lead him back there. With any luck, we won't have a reversal of earlier, and he'll be ready to talk to you."
Matt nodded and started to walk away, but stopped. Over his shoulder, he spoke to Sora. "I'm not certain if I can forgive you for going about this the way you did, but I would like to thank you for getting all this out in the open. No matter how it ends, I wouldn't know that he loves me if it wasn't for you."
"Good luck, Yamato. Let me know when you figure it out, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer before she, too, lost herself in the throngs of people around them.
"Now that we're all hunky-dory, what are you going to do?" Daisuke asked as Matt started for the exit again.
"I don't know, what do you suggest?"
"Me? I suggest asking someone else. Any plan of mine is doomed to failure. Look at the result of my game. Maybe Takeru will come up with something."
Matt let the selfmockery in Daisuke's voice go for the moment. "Since when do you call him by his full name." Dai's step faltered. "Just wondering. You can call me Yamato, if you like."
Daisuke looked at him in surprise. "Thanks." He said it softly, smiling to himself. "Why?"
"Because you're a good person. You remind me of Taichi, but you're truly unique, also. You were there for me earlier, and you stuck by me now. Whether you wanted to or not, you made a friend in me, Motomiya Daisuke. I don't take my loyalties lightly, either. If you ever need my help, don't be afraid to ask."
That caused Daisuke to stop and stare at him in amazement. He opened his mouth several times in an attempt to say something, but ended up shaking his head. "Truly?" It was the best he could manage. The blonde nodded with a gently amused smile. "Thank you very much, Ishida Yamato. And if there's ever anything I can do to help you, just say the word."
"Good. Now come up with a plan." Yamato nodded decisively, and pulled Daisuke with him out to the parking lot where it was still raining. If it had ever looked as if the world was going to be flooded, that storm was it.
Daisuke didn't struggle against the forceful tugging on his arm, but that didn't stop him from arguing. "That's really not a good idea. I have a knack for screwing things up worse. With my luck, I'll have you wed to Kari, and Tai to Takeru."
"Will you stop already with the self-loathing?" He didn't stop as he laid into the younger teen. "You're an intelligent person, Dai, with a lot going for you. So what if you have bad luck. Everyone does. It doesn't mean that everything you do turns out bad. Give it a chance, and you'll see. I know that whatever you come up with will work. Have faith that I know what I'm talking about, if nothing else."
They continued threw the storm in silence, both working on their plan of attack in their own fashions.
Takeru wasn't having as much luck with Tai's ego as Matt was with Dai's.
"Come on, Tai! It won't be that bad. You and Matt are best friends, he won't hate you!" This was yelled through the same bedroom door that Yamato and Taichi had spoken through earlier. Under his breath, Takeru muttered. "Why do they always hide in her room? It would be so much easier to go to my room, especially since I know where the key is."
He could hear the loud sobbing through the wood panelling. It was a heartbreaking/heartbroken sound. Each sob was followed by a sharp inhalation, a gasping of breath through tortured lungs. Then the exhale, a broken, coughing sound that sounded painful and distorted.
"Taichi, please! Let me in! You need someone, you can't take this all on yourself and try to bury it! You've done that for too long, already!" There was a pause between the sob and the gasp, and he heard the lock click. He turned the knob, and gently pushed the door open. The crumpled form of his friend lay in the middle of the floor, shaking.
He closed the distance between them quickly and pulled Tai into his arms. The brunette wrapped his arms around his waist and cried into his shoulder, his tears making no difference on the already wet material. They had walked from the mall, and Takeru didn't expect his brother to be too far behind them. They had walked in on Iori and Hikari making out in his living room, but Tai hadn't even spared them a glance. Takeru had sent them on their way with assurances that he could, and would, deal with it.
He wished that Hikari had stayed. With a gentle touch, he smoothed wild hair back and whispered nonsensical words meant to calm and comfort. After several minutes, the sobbing quieted down. "There now. Shh. Everything's going to be okay, Taichi."
"How would you know?" The question was low, forced through a raw throat. Pain and bitterness etched their ways into each syllable.
"Because I, too, have loved someone who I thought couldn't possibly love me back." Tai pulled back slightly and looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, I know, I'm too young, blah blah."
"Love doesn't have an age limit. I just never would have thought that you'd find someone who couldn't love you." As romantic and sweet as that was, Takeru knew that Tai was as biased towards him as Matt was, simply because he had become like a younger sibling, the same as Hikari.
Takeru smiled gently. "I couldn't stop myself. And it's not like he hates me, or anything. It's just that he's never looked on me as anything but a friend. I can live with that, as long as he doesn't cut me off from his life. If he's still my friend, I can live without him loving me like that."
The brunette smiled. "He?" Pale cheeks blushed, and Tai flipped his hat off dry blonde hair. "That's a really mature attitude to have, T.K. I'll have to start calling you Takeru just because such wise words have never come from T.K.'s lips." Takeru rolled his eyes.
"You're just envious because I'm smarter than you." He made his voice petulant and whiny. For added effect, he stuck his tongue out.
"Whatever." Tai froze as they heard the outside door open and click shut. "Why don't you go say 'hi', and lock the door on your way out."
"You have to face him sometime." Takeru pointed out wisely as he stood up.
Tai nodded. "I know, but that doesn't mean that sometime has to be now." His voice was pained, his eyes pleading.
"I'm not going to stop him, Taichi. I know that he's not going to hurt you. You asked him where his faith in you had gone. Where's your faith in him?"
That earned him a shamed silence. He smiled softly and backed out of the room. Behind him, he heard Tai mumble, "At the mall."