Author's note: This was originally going to be the Taito, but I realized that it didn't fit for the situation that I put them in. So I made it the next coupling. No, it's not Daiken, but it has Dai, and it's yaoi. Take a guess.
^*^letter^*^
________________
Title: Break the cycle - FADE
//I try to breathe
Memories overtaking me
I try to face them but
the thought is too
Much to conceive//
Daisuke groaned comically at the embracing couple. "Too much sap for my blood."
"Whatever, hot-shot. You were egging Tai on, so don't start complaining about the consequences now." Ken hit him playfully on the arm. Takeru all but grinned at the indigo-haired man. He caught himself, and turned his gaze back to his brother, who was in the process of wrestling Tai to the ground.
Of course, he was being helped by Tai, who was pulling him down.
"They make such an adorable couple." Mimi was nearly swooning in admiration, her arm linked tightly through Joe's. With a gusty sigh, she looked up, her russet-colored eyes wide and pleading. "Why don't we go out anymore, honey?"
Trapped. Takeru smirked, rolling his eyes. The mocking expression was wiped off his face when Hikari elbowed him in the gut, and raised an eyebrow. "Just wait until it's your turn."
Blue eyes flickered to Daisuke, who was watching Tai and Matt 'wrestle' on the ground. "The horror." He said it with a bit more sarcasm and anger than he'd intended, and the other eyebrow went up.
"Personally, I'd be scared to be on the other side." Daisuke turned his brown eyes toward them to shoot that barb. Instead of getting angry, Takeru smiled.
"That's why you left, remember? You couldn't put up with my girlish mood-swings." His tone was friendly, but the spark in his eyes was were unmistakeable. The smirk was back.
"Of course. How could I forget Takeru and his PMS?"
Hikari looked between them worriedly. Ken put a hand on Dai's arm, drawing his attention away from the near snarling blonde. "We don't need you two to reenact their fight." She gestured to her brother, who was now laying on top of Matt.
With a deep sigh, he stretched his neck to loosen it up a little, and then put on his cheery grin. "Okay, everyone, time to play!"
"We already started without you!" Matt giggled shortly before his mouth was captured in another kiss. The group erupted into giggles.
"That was quick." Miyako took Dai's arm, and linked her free hand through Ken's, stepping between them. "Let's go, Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum."
"Of course, Mrs. T. Dum." The redhead grinned, pushing aside everything but his enjoyment of the moment. He wouldn't let Takeru ruin the first chance he'd had to make things up to his friends. He had run away for too long. Like Matt, he had pushed his friends aside, but he had done it willingly, assuming that one day, they'd all forget him.
Takeru watched the trio walk away.
//I only know that I can change
Everything else just stays the same
So now I step out of the darkness
That my life became 'cause//
He had screwed up. He knew that. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he a jackass. Hikari only shook her head at him before taking Iori's arm and following her Jogress partner, and soon-to-be Maid-of-Honor. Takeru was best man.
Jyou and Mimi, all but holding hands, smiled at him weakly before leaving him behind also. Sora pushed Izzy after them, and stayed at the back with him. He had planned everything to the last detail, from the food, to the entertainment. Soccer was first after lunch, then basketball, then dinner at a nearby restaraunt.
"Thank you for letting it go." Sora put a companionable arm around his shoulders. She was a beautiful woman, full of compassion and new-found happiness. "How are teams to be split up?"
He had even devised a plan of splitting the teams evenly. Family was paired first, their jogress partners, and then their crests-sharers.
Tai, Kari, Miyako, Mimi, Sora. Matt, Takeru, Iori, Jyou, Izzy. Ken with Matt, so that Takeru didn't have to be on Daisuke's team. Very simple, very organized. Only now, he didn't have captains, and he couldn't for the teams as well.
He wanted to say that it wasn't fair, his picnic had been taken out of his control, but he couldn't deny that his brother and Tai deserved the happiness they had found. They had both been miserable for so long, it wasn't right that he should wish they had waited a little longer. It was better that they'd solved their differences quickly.
"I haven't a clue anymore." He gave a resigned sigh, then chuckled. "I sound like a kid who was just told that the clown got lost on the way to his birthday party. Slap me next time I start to feel bad for myself."
"Gladly. It'll be nice to hit one of the blonde heart-breakers." They laughed together. He realized long ago his brother's interest in Sora. She was a caring and giving person. Whenever a person needed a shoulder to cry on, or a willing ear to talk to, she was there. There had been many early-morning phone calls from both brothers over the years, all recieved without complaint.
"You wouldn't dare. Think of what you'd do to our dashing good looks." She nodded seriously in agreement, fighting the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Not to mention the many rabid fangirls that will be flocking to remove your head and use it as a hockey puck."
"Or a soccer ball. Are we going to play, or what?" Daisuke looked at him challengingly as they drew even with the others. They were standing on the edge of the field, the ball resting gently at Dai's feet. Sora bent down to trade her classy heels for a pair of tennis shoes. Nobody asked why she was wearing heels with shorts, they assumed it was a new fashion trend that she was trying to start.
"Sure, we just need teams." Sora smiled up at the redhead, before her gaze flickered from brown eyes to black. Izzy smiled down at her, grinning happily.
"Easy!" Dai looked at everyone. "Ken, Takeru, Hikari, Jyou, and Sora. Me, Miyako, Iori, Izzy, and Mimi. Matt's on our team when he and Tai get done, and Tai's on theirs."
With a snicker, Iori started walking toward the goal. "If they ever get done." Hikari slapped him playfully on the arm, before joining the rest of her team, who were moving to the other side of the field. Iori and Jyou were goalies.
___________
A/n: And I refuse to go into details about the game, except that Tai and Matt did eventually join, and Ken's team kicked butt. Tai and Matt used ever opportunity available to kiss, and Takeru and Daisuke mauled each other. They left the field covered in bruises and grass-stains, while the others barely broke a sweat, except the afore mentioned couple. We're not going to go into the reasons why they're all sweaty, either.
___________
//I just needed someone to talk to
You were just too busy with yourself//
"You suck." Daisuke glared at Ken, who had made the winning goal. Miyako put an arm around him proudly.
"You're just jealous, Dai, cause he kicked our butts." He moved his glare to her.
"You were supposed to be on my team, traitor." She laughed at him, rolling her eyes as she kissed Ken's cheek.
"That's what you get for splitting up all the couples. Just because you don't want to be on Takeru's team, doesn't-." Ken put a hand over her mouth, his expression incredulous.
"Stay out of it, Miya." Too late. Daisuke walked away, not wanting a lecture about growing up and facing his past. He'd heard that in every letter that reached him. He was as bad as Tai, talking to everyone except the one that needed his response the most. He had other reasons, though, and he refused to back down from his stand.
Takeru caught the exchange, flinched at the betrayed expression on Dai's face. Nothing to break the mood like mentioning him. He was starting to think that blonde's just had bad luck in relationships, but his brother and Tai were proving him wrong. Very graphically.
"God, you two, get a room!" Sora's eyes were wide as she watched them nearly strip each other in the middle of the park. The other's were politely looking away. Rather pointedly. "Geez, Yama, do you think there's an inch of his skin that you've missed with your tongue?"
Tai looked up and grinned. "You really don't want him to demonstrate the answer to that question." She closed her eyes and turned around. Takeru looked at the triumphant look on Tai's face for it was buried against Matt's chest.
They really were being rude, making out in the middle of the park. He pulled out his car keys. "Yama?" His brother looked up, and Takeru tossed the keys to him. "Seriously, go get a room." The grin he got was grateful, even if they never actually thanked him. They scurried off as fast as possible towards his car. "For some reason, I have a feeling that my car isn't going to get very far."
Mimi made a gagging noise at his prediction. "Thanks, TK. As if they're not enough, you just have to add to the picture." She ruffled his hair to show that there were no hard feelings. "We have to run. Jyou and I are going on our first date tonight."
He hugged her. "Congratulations. It's about dang time, too."
"Thanks. Whatever happened to guys sticking together?" Jyou put an arm around Mimi's waist, grinning down at her.
"Sorry. Male-bonding gets redundant when you're gay. It also gets a little uncomfortable. Like trying to sit in a women's shower room and pretend that you're not affected." The analogy took a moment to make its way through Jyou's brain. He didn't get any time to dwell on it, though. The moment the light clicked on, Mimi's elbow was in his side, warning him to keep his head out of the metaphorical shower room.
They made their exit.
//You were never there for me to
Express how I felt
I just stuffed it down//
He turned around to face Sora and Izzy, who were holding hands and looking guilty. He shook his head and smiled. "Go on. Have fun." Sora hugged him again, and he shook Izzy's hand. He wanted to feel abandoned, but he couldn't. The picnic had never been his. It had been Matt's, and he'd got what he wanted, and Takeru was going to be happy for him if it killed him.
Which was very possible. He didn't want to have to eventually face Daisuke alone, which was inevitable, since his stuff was already at his house. He'd sent a key with the invitation, and the luggage that he'd found on his last trip home to bring the food was enough to send heart into cardiac arrest. Daisuke was home, in the apartment they had shared so briefly.
He turned to watchi him, his Daisuke. His reason behind the picnic. Bluntly, they had fell into a relationship that left them both feeling fucked in the end. In every sense of the word. Takeru had felt his world shatter when he found the note from Daisuke, saying it was over.
^*^Takeru,
To the blonde angel who has made the last couple of months seem too short.
Thank you, for making me realize exactly what I want in life.
I'm sorry that that doesn't include you. You are an amazing person, and I will
never be able to replace you, I wouldn't dishonor the memory of us together to
bother to try. But I can't deal with it anymore.
You've accused me of lying, and cheating. Just when things are starting to look
up, you kill my hopes of the future by going into PMS-mode, and acting like a
pregnant woman on hormones.
I can't deal with that. As much as it hurts to leave you, I can't stay. Maybe,
someday, we can try again. But today isn't that day. I'm sorry.
Dais^*^
Blunt to a fault, that was his Dai. The bastard had been on the plane when he read the letter. No further explanation, nothing. The bastard had made a clean break. Nothing was left in the apartment, all his bills were forwarded and he removed his name from the car they had been going to buy together.
The same car that Tai and Matt were probably using in ways he had dreamed about them using to break it in.
Kari and Cody were the next to sneak away. They didn't even bother to say anything to him. One moment they were there, the next, gone. Not that he'd been paying any attention to them at all. He was carefully packing up the last of the food and sneaking glances at Dai.
He should have hated him, but it wasn't possible. He knew exactly what he had put Dai through during the five months they lived together. He had been a selfish and jealous lover, demanding more and more, until love just finally wasn't enough.
At least, not for Dai. His control had broken, and he just finally pushed it all away, not wanting to deal with it. By putting it on the back shelf, he could ignore it, and come back to fix it later.
//Now I'm older and I feel like
I could let some of the anger fade
But it seems the surface
I am scratching
Is the bed that I have made//
Brown eyes looked away from Ken and Yolei, resting on the blonde at the picnic table. Maybe five years was too long.
^*^letter^*^
________________
Title: Break the cycle - FADE
//I try to breathe
Memories overtaking me
I try to face them but
the thought is too
Much to conceive//
Daisuke groaned comically at the embracing couple. "Too much sap for my blood."
"Whatever, hot-shot. You were egging Tai on, so don't start complaining about the consequences now." Ken hit him playfully on the arm. Takeru all but grinned at the indigo-haired man. He caught himself, and turned his gaze back to his brother, who was in the process of wrestling Tai to the ground.
Of course, he was being helped by Tai, who was pulling him down.
"They make such an adorable couple." Mimi was nearly swooning in admiration, her arm linked tightly through Joe's. With a gusty sigh, she looked up, her russet-colored eyes wide and pleading. "Why don't we go out anymore, honey?"
Trapped. Takeru smirked, rolling his eyes. The mocking expression was wiped off his face when Hikari elbowed him in the gut, and raised an eyebrow. "Just wait until it's your turn."
Blue eyes flickered to Daisuke, who was watching Tai and Matt 'wrestle' on the ground. "The horror." He said it with a bit more sarcasm and anger than he'd intended, and the other eyebrow went up.
"Personally, I'd be scared to be on the other side." Daisuke turned his brown eyes toward them to shoot that barb. Instead of getting angry, Takeru smiled.
"That's why you left, remember? You couldn't put up with my girlish mood-swings." His tone was friendly, but the spark in his eyes was were unmistakeable. The smirk was back.
"Of course. How could I forget Takeru and his PMS?"
Hikari looked between them worriedly. Ken put a hand on Dai's arm, drawing his attention away from the near snarling blonde. "We don't need you two to reenact their fight." She gestured to her brother, who was now laying on top of Matt.
With a deep sigh, he stretched his neck to loosen it up a little, and then put on his cheery grin. "Okay, everyone, time to play!"
"We already started without you!" Matt giggled shortly before his mouth was captured in another kiss. The group erupted into giggles.
"That was quick." Miyako took Dai's arm, and linked her free hand through Ken's, stepping between them. "Let's go, Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum."
"Of course, Mrs. T. Dum." The redhead grinned, pushing aside everything but his enjoyment of the moment. He wouldn't let Takeru ruin the first chance he'd had to make things up to his friends. He had run away for too long. Like Matt, he had pushed his friends aside, but he had done it willingly, assuming that one day, they'd all forget him.
Takeru watched the trio walk away.
//I only know that I can change
Everything else just stays the same
So now I step out of the darkness
That my life became 'cause//
He had screwed up. He knew that. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he a jackass. Hikari only shook her head at him before taking Iori's arm and following her Jogress partner, and soon-to-be Maid-of-Honor. Takeru was best man.
Jyou and Mimi, all but holding hands, smiled at him weakly before leaving him behind also. Sora pushed Izzy after them, and stayed at the back with him. He had planned everything to the last detail, from the food, to the entertainment. Soccer was first after lunch, then basketball, then dinner at a nearby restaraunt.
"Thank you for letting it go." Sora put a companionable arm around his shoulders. She was a beautiful woman, full of compassion and new-found happiness. "How are teams to be split up?"
He had even devised a plan of splitting the teams evenly. Family was paired first, their jogress partners, and then their crests-sharers.
Tai, Kari, Miyako, Mimi, Sora. Matt, Takeru, Iori, Jyou, Izzy. Ken with Matt, so that Takeru didn't have to be on Daisuke's team. Very simple, very organized. Only now, he didn't have captains, and he couldn't for the teams as well.
He wanted to say that it wasn't fair, his picnic had been taken out of his control, but he couldn't deny that his brother and Tai deserved the happiness they had found. They had both been miserable for so long, it wasn't right that he should wish they had waited a little longer. It was better that they'd solved their differences quickly.
"I haven't a clue anymore." He gave a resigned sigh, then chuckled. "I sound like a kid who was just told that the clown got lost on the way to his birthday party. Slap me next time I start to feel bad for myself."
"Gladly. It'll be nice to hit one of the blonde heart-breakers." They laughed together. He realized long ago his brother's interest in Sora. She was a caring and giving person. Whenever a person needed a shoulder to cry on, or a willing ear to talk to, she was there. There had been many early-morning phone calls from both brothers over the years, all recieved without complaint.
"You wouldn't dare. Think of what you'd do to our dashing good looks." She nodded seriously in agreement, fighting the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Not to mention the many rabid fangirls that will be flocking to remove your head and use it as a hockey puck."
"Or a soccer ball. Are we going to play, or what?" Daisuke looked at him challengingly as they drew even with the others. They were standing on the edge of the field, the ball resting gently at Dai's feet. Sora bent down to trade her classy heels for a pair of tennis shoes. Nobody asked why she was wearing heels with shorts, they assumed it was a new fashion trend that she was trying to start.
"Sure, we just need teams." Sora smiled up at the redhead, before her gaze flickered from brown eyes to black. Izzy smiled down at her, grinning happily.
"Easy!" Dai looked at everyone. "Ken, Takeru, Hikari, Jyou, and Sora. Me, Miyako, Iori, Izzy, and Mimi. Matt's on our team when he and Tai get done, and Tai's on theirs."
With a snicker, Iori started walking toward the goal. "If they ever get done." Hikari slapped him playfully on the arm, before joining the rest of her team, who were moving to the other side of the field. Iori and Jyou were goalies.
___________
A/n: And I refuse to go into details about the game, except that Tai and Matt did eventually join, and Ken's team kicked butt. Tai and Matt used ever opportunity available to kiss, and Takeru and Daisuke mauled each other. They left the field covered in bruises and grass-stains, while the others barely broke a sweat, except the afore mentioned couple. We're not going to go into the reasons why they're all sweaty, either.
___________
//I just needed someone to talk to
You were just too busy with yourself//
"You suck." Daisuke glared at Ken, who had made the winning goal. Miyako put an arm around him proudly.
"You're just jealous, Dai, cause he kicked our butts." He moved his glare to her.
"You were supposed to be on my team, traitor." She laughed at him, rolling her eyes as she kissed Ken's cheek.
"That's what you get for splitting up all the couples. Just because you don't want to be on Takeru's team, doesn't-." Ken put a hand over her mouth, his expression incredulous.
"Stay out of it, Miya." Too late. Daisuke walked away, not wanting a lecture about growing up and facing his past. He'd heard that in every letter that reached him. He was as bad as Tai, talking to everyone except the one that needed his response the most. He had other reasons, though, and he refused to back down from his stand.
Takeru caught the exchange, flinched at the betrayed expression on Dai's face. Nothing to break the mood like mentioning him. He was starting to think that blonde's just had bad luck in relationships, but his brother and Tai were proving him wrong. Very graphically.
"God, you two, get a room!" Sora's eyes were wide as she watched them nearly strip each other in the middle of the park. The other's were politely looking away. Rather pointedly. "Geez, Yama, do you think there's an inch of his skin that you've missed with your tongue?"
Tai looked up and grinned. "You really don't want him to demonstrate the answer to that question." She closed her eyes and turned around. Takeru looked at the triumphant look on Tai's face for it was buried against Matt's chest.
They really were being rude, making out in the middle of the park. He pulled out his car keys. "Yama?" His brother looked up, and Takeru tossed the keys to him. "Seriously, go get a room." The grin he got was grateful, even if they never actually thanked him. They scurried off as fast as possible towards his car. "For some reason, I have a feeling that my car isn't going to get very far."
Mimi made a gagging noise at his prediction. "Thanks, TK. As if they're not enough, you just have to add to the picture." She ruffled his hair to show that there were no hard feelings. "We have to run. Jyou and I are going on our first date tonight."
He hugged her. "Congratulations. It's about dang time, too."
"Thanks. Whatever happened to guys sticking together?" Jyou put an arm around Mimi's waist, grinning down at her.
"Sorry. Male-bonding gets redundant when you're gay. It also gets a little uncomfortable. Like trying to sit in a women's shower room and pretend that you're not affected." The analogy took a moment to make its way through Jyou's brain. He didn't get any time to dwell on it, though. The moment the light clicked on, Mimi's elbow was in his side, warning him to keep his head out of the metaphorical shower room.
They made their exit.
//You were never there for me to
Express how I felt
I just stuffed it down//
He turned around to face Sora and Izzy, who were holding hands and looking guilty. He shook his head and smiled. "Go on. Have fun." Sora hugged him again, and he shook Izzy's hand. He wanted to feel abandoned, but he couldn't. The picnic had never been his. It had been Matt's, and he'd got what he wanted, and Takeru was going to be happy for him if it killed him.
Which was very possible. He didn't want to have to eventually face Daisuke alone, which was inevitable, since his stuff was already at his house. He'd sent a key with the invitation, and the luggage that he'd found on his last trip home to bring the food was enough to send heart into cardiac arrest. Daisuke was home, in the apartment they had shared so briefly.
He turned to watchi him, his Daisuke. His reason behind the picnic. Bluntly, they had fell into a relationship that left them both feeling fucked in the end. In every sense of the word. Takeru had felt his world shatter when he found the note from Daisuke, saying it was over.
^*^Takeru,
To the blonde angel who has made the last couple of months seem too short.
Thank you, for making me realize exactly what I want in life.
I'm sorry that that doesn't include you. You are an amazing person, and I will
never be able to replace you, I wouldn't dishonor the memory of us together to
bother to try. But I can't deal with it anymore.
You've accused me of lying, and cheating. Just when things are starting to look
up, you kill my hopes of the future by going into PMS-mode, and acting like a
pregnant woman on hormones.
I can't deal with that. As much as it hurts to leave you, I can't stay. Maybe,
someday, we can try again. But today isn't that day. I'm sorry.
Dais^*^
Blunt to a fault, that was his Dai. The bastard had been on the plane when he read the letter. No further explanation, nothing. The bastard had made a clean break. Nothing was left in the apartment, all his bills were forwarded and he removed his name from the car they had been going to buy together.
The same car that Tai and Matt were probably using in ways he had dreamed about them using to break it in.
Kari and Cody were the next to sneak away. They didn't even bother to say anything to him. One moment they were there, the next, gone. Not that he'd been paying any attention to them at all. He was carefully packing up the last of the food and sneaking glances at Dai.
He should have hated him, but it wasn't possible. He knew exactly what he had put Dai through during the five months they lived together. He had been a selfish and jealous lover, demanding more and more, until love just finally wasn't enough.
At least, not for Dai. His control had broken, and he just finally pushed it all away, not wanting to deal with it. By putting it on the back shelf, he could ignore it, and come back to fix it later.
//Now I'm older and I feel like
I could let some of the anger fade
But it seems the surface
I am scratching
Is the bed that I have made//
Brown eyes looked away from Ken and Yolei, resting on the blonde at the picnic table. Maybe five years was too long.