A performance would be a lie
For the rest of the morning, Davis was unable to concentrate. He didn't share any of his first three hours with Tai, and was glad of the fact. After his rash behavior earlier in the morning, he had to constantly tell himself that going home at lunch was not the answer. He was not a coward. He wouldn't back down from a dare.
Even if he was in danger of losing himself in the lie. The first kiss had been easy. A stage kiss with no emotion. The second was simply a peck, despite the tingle he had felt at Tai's tenderness. The third kiss, however, had seared him. He doubted he could look at his idol now without going up in flames, or feeling the pressure from his mouth, or wanting to do it again. He had enjoyed his role too much for comfort.
A fact that was easy to hide under his desk most of the morning. At lunch, though, he would have nothing to hide behind. His best hope was that no one would notice, least of all Tai.
"Earth to Davis." He jerked to attention at the sound of the teacher's voice. "Welcome back, Mr. Motomiya. Can you answer the question on the board for the rest of the class, please?" There was no way he could get up in front of the class.
"No!" She gasped at the sharpness of his reply.
"Fine, Davis. Since you weren't following along today, tomorrow you will do problems one through fifteen on the board for the class. Have them ready by the beginning of the hour. Class is excused."
He stood up, and picked up his books. Nobody had said anything to him as yet, but he could feel most of his classmates looking at him throughout the period. He had felt uncomfortable, but had managed to hold his head high. He wasn't worried about Tai. The older holder of Courage could stand up to most anything.
His only concern with Tai was that stupid kiss, but only time would tell.
He entered the hall, and soon found Yolei attached to his side. "Davis, Davis, Davis. Why didn't you tell me? I'm the holder of Love, remember? I deserve to be told before the whole school spreads it around. I had to hear it from some girl in chemistry."
"Sorry, Yolei. It was rather sudden. We've been kind of moving quickly, and the announcement to our friends was overlooked." They reached his locker with no sign of Tai. He opened it, and shoved his books inside.
"Don't worry too much. I'm going to try to get the gang together for a party this weekend, in your honor." He choked on his gum, but she was gone before he could say anything. With a feeling of dread hidden behind his smile, he made his way to the cafeteria, and through the line.
Tray in hand, he looked to the table he normally occupied with his friends. No Tai. "Hey, babe." Two warm lips touched the skin behind his left ear, and his eyes half-closed in reflex.
"H-hi." He half-turned to face his orange-haired 'boyfriend'. Tai leaned in on the pretense of kissing his cheek.
"Nice touch this morning." It was a mocking growl as smiling lips touched the skin in front of his ear.
"Bite me, Tai." Dark brown met chocolate, and he felt the nip on his earlobe. He jerked in surprise, and swallowed hard. With a grin, Tai took his tray, and led him to the table where the others were waiting.
"What I don't understand is why you two didn't tell anyone." Mimi was complaining about their lack of thought towards their friends. She had a grip on Matt's arm, and the blonde was watching them closely. "We're your friends. We should have been the first ones to know, instead of half the school."
"Sorry about that, Mimi. I kind of got carried away this morning." Tai gave her a forlorn, apologetic look, and she swatted him gently on the hand with a shake of her head and a smile.
"He wasn't the only one that got carried away." TK looked at Davis with laughing blue eye. The dark-skinned one blushed as his friends laughed. "Cody timed them in the hall earlier."
The attention turned to the green eyed brunette. The fourteen-year-old blushed. "Three minutes and forty-three seconds." Shocked eyes returned to Davis and Tai, who were looking at each other.
Neither had realized how much time had passed, so shocked had they been. Davis' blush turned from pink to red, and even Tai had to look down at his tray in embarrassment.
"No offense, I'm happy for the both of you, if you're happy, but I never saw the two of you getting together." Tai looked up at his best friend with guarded eyes. "Personally, I never figured either of you to be into guys. I still think you two are almost too much alike."
"That's what the shirt and hair is for, Matt." Jun squeezed onto the bench between Mimi and her boyfriend. "It's kind of their way of saying that the similarities don't matter. In fact, their lack of differences makes them a wonderful couple. They won't have to worry about one wanting to see a different movie, or the other not liking something they hold dear."
Tai looked quickly at Jun, and then at Davis, suspicious of how much she knew. It was doubtful that she had come up with that speech on the spur of the moment. He smiled quickly. "I'm glad that my future sister-in-law agrees with our relationship."
Matt looked offended. "I didn't say that I don't agree with it. I just didn't know if either of you had thought this out. You both have a tendency to rush into things, and it's a flaw that both of you have."
"It's not a flaw, because Tai doesn't have them. At most, it's a minor setback, one easily overcome by two people determined to make a relationship work." Jun smiled at Davis, and winked. Everyone was watching the couple, and only they caught the look.
Tai covered Davis' hand with his own on top of the table, a visual sign of support for the group's benefit. He trained his eyes to Davis, but caught the oddly remorseful look Jun sent his way from the corner of his eye. "And we are determined."
"That's so sweet." Sora sat down next to Tai. "I'm so glad that we've all been paired off so well." She leaned over and kissed Yolei on the cheek. "Now we can all go out on big group dates, and have wonderful sleepovers."
Tai looked at Davis and saw the pain that flashed briefly through his eyes. He stood up. "We have to go. We'll see everyone later." He picked up Davis' tray in one hand, and his hand in the other, and pulled him away from the table.
"Bye, all." Davis waved with a cheeky grin. He grabbed an apple off his tray as Tai dumped the rest of his meal into the trashcan on his way out the door. When they were in the seclusion of the hall, he tried to pull his hand away, but Tai wouldn't let him. "What's up, Tai?"
The brown eyes that swung his way were hard and unreadable. He frowned, knowing that that was the look the older teen got on his face when he was set to win.
"Tai?" He was pulled down one hallway, and then another, until they ended up in a rarely used corner of the building. Tai stopped, and dropped his hand, using his other hand to run it through his hair.
"Sorry, Davis. I just needed to get away for a moment. Away from the eyes, and the gossip, and everyone. I just don't like being fawned over. All morning, girls kept coming up to me. Some 'oohed' and 'aahed' over how sweet the whole things was, us being such good friends and teammates. Others told me it was a shame that one or the other of us wasn't free, because they were."
"Some punk told me my hair sucked." Tai looked at him in exasperation.
"Some jerk told me he'd kick my ass if he ever caught me alone." He turned away and punched the wall in frustration. "I don't know how Cody and TK did it. Why can't they just mind their own business, and leave us to get to hell in our own way?"
"Because it's human nature to be an opinionated busybody. It's ingrained to stick your nose where it's least wanted, no matter how many times it gets shut in the door." Davis leaned against the wall and watched as Tai did the same across from him.
"What was up with that kiss, Davis? I mean, jeez. As if we hadn't put on enough of a show already."
Davis looked at him, standing there with his hair spiked up, and his lips still red and soft looking from earlier, and decided he couldn't lie. "It wasn't a show." He walked away before Tai could respond.
Confusion doesn't always lead to the best answer
Tai hunched over his algebra text and glared moodily at the wall as the teacher droned on about completing the square, and quadratic formulas. He was paying no attention to the people around him. Beside him, Matt kept giving him odd looks, until he finally reached over and punched the orange-haired boy in the arm. "Wake up."
Brown eyes swung to blue, and Matt frowned at the depth of confusion he saw. It wasn't everyday that Tai dwelled inwardly. He normally centered on the outside, physical world around him. His reflective daze was worrying to his best friend. "I'm awake."
They straightened up quickly as the teacher looked at them, his moustache twitching in irritation. They gave him identical expressions of innocence, and he turned back to the board for his demonstration of factoring variables. Matt leaned over again. "What's up?"
He waited patiently, but Tai had already tuned him out, gazing out the window with a distracted expression. He wadded up a piece of paper and threw it at him, hitting him on the jaw. Tai turned to glare at him, one eyebrow raised dangerously. His lips curled up in a quick grin. With a glance at the teacher, he ripped a page out of his notebook, crunched it in his fist, and threw it at the teacher.
Matt's jaw dropped, and he waited with dread as the teacher turned around, nose flaring. "Who threw that?" The class was silent, none daring to volunteer. The math teacher leaned down and picked up the paper, uncrinkling it. "Mr. Kamiya." The teacher looked at Tai, and Matt held back a groan. Why in hell was Tai trying to get himself kicked out of class? "Mr. Ishida? Which one of you threw this?"
Hands folded on top of his desk, Tai looked vaguely smug. He shook his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." He glanced at Matt, begging him with his eyes to go along.
He mirrored his posture, blinking at the teacher with as much confusion as he could muster. "Threw what, sir?"
"Both of you, in the hall! You gentlemen can return when you learn manners and respect. Go!" They picked up their books and walked into the hall slowly, giving him disappointed and sad looks as they went. He simply glared at them, and slammed the door shut behind them.
Tai sad down, his back against the wall, and his knees raised in front of him. Matt sat cross-legged, resting his elbows on his legs, and his head on his hands. "What's up, Tai? You seemed okay before and during lunch, but after you came back from dragging Davis off, you seem kind of depressed."
"What reasons would Davis and I have for going out? I mean, you're right when you said that we're so well in sync, it's almost like we're twins some days. That should make us really good friends, don't you think? Why should there be more?" He scratched the top of his head.
The blonde simply looked at him.
"We play soccer together, that makes us teammates. We saved the world together, that gives us something in common. A secret that we can share, along with all the hobbies we both due, that should make us good friends. The fact that he once liked my sister could turn him into a little brother figure for me. He used to emulate me, and copy me, that makes him my protégé."
"But what makes him your boyfriend?" Tai looked up and nodded. "I think a lot of the things you just listed make him perfect for you. He's been in love with you for ages. Kari was just a substitute. When he visited you guys, whom did he hang out with more? You. Why did he try so hard to make it on Varsity soccer this year? You. Why does he enjoy the time you two spend together? You."
"Who did he kiss like there was no tomorrow? And who did he just as much admit all that to?" Tai leaned his head against the wall. "He was right, earlier, when he said that he picked me. All this time, and I never knew." He sighed, and met Matt's gaze. "I'm not homophobic, Matt. I just never thought that dating a guy would be an option. Even when TK and Cody got together, I didn't think about it. Joe and Ken, and Sora and Yolei. I just never thought about it."
"And you're thinking now." He made it a statement, purposely skipping over the fact that he was already supposed to be dating a guy.
"Yeah, I am." He wrapped his arms around his knees, and put his forehead over top. "Did you know that your brother was right? Kissing a guy is like kissing a girl, until you get close enough to notice the difference."
"Was it a bad difference, or just different?" He tilted his head to the side patiently.
Brown eyes peeked at him from under a fringe of orange hair. "I think it was a good difference." His voice was tight, as if the admission was hard. "And that's what scares me."
"Why? Davis cares for you, and very deeply at that. I think he'd go to the end of the world for you, personally. The only thing you have to figure out is if he's worth it to you. I know that you've started to have problems already. I saw that guy push you into a wall. If he's worth it, you have to decide quickly. I don't know how much longer you guys intended this to go on, but it's going to break his heart if you don't tell him you want it to last."
"I made the mistake of calling his kiss a show, and he looked at me as if I had offended him, and told me it wasn't." He moved his hands up to pull on his hair. "I really am an oblivious jerk, aren't' I? All this time, all the stupid things I've ignored, or overlooked."
Matt stretched out his legs, and then stood up. He held out his hand. Tai looked up, his eyes red from restrained tears. He accepted the proffered hand, and let his best friend pull him to his feet. "Don't worry too much about what's happened before. Just concentrate on what you're going to do to make it good again."
"Thanks, Matt." The bell rang, and they moved away from the door. "I'll call you later." He caught the sight of orange hair moving toward them through the hall, and smiled slightly. He walked up behind Davis as the younger boy put his books away. They both had physical education for the last class, and usually walked there together. He slipped his arms around his waist, pressing close against his backside and resting his chin on his shoulder. "Hey, sweetie."
He felt the other teen stiffen, and then relax against him. "Hey, Tai." He nuzzled his neck, pressing his lips against the pulse there. His hands splayed over his abdomen, and he moved them up his chest until he reached his nipples beneath through the cotton material of his shirt. "W-what's up?"
Tai chuckled, and watched as Davis flushed, feeling the sudden heat against his lips as he kissed his cheeks, and his ear, nibbling his way around the lobe. "I was just thinking, that for all we know about each other, I don't think we know enough. We should really associate ourselves with each other, don't you agree?"
His head to one side, Davis sighed, unable to form a coherent response. Tai moved back down his neck, trailing kisses to his shoulder as he pinched one nipple bud, and then the other. A locker slammed nearby, and Davis pulled away suddenly, his face a deep red and his breathing ragged. He looked at him with dark, accusing eyes. "I think that we know each other well enough. We are dating, babe."
He turned and shut his locker, trying to regain control. He wanted to turn around and lock lips with Tai very badly, the desire coursing through his body. Instead of going to class, though, he found himself trapped against the locker with Tai's arms on either side, his body too close for comfort. "I was thinking that we could get together tonight. I know that you don't do homework, and we have practice together, so no excuses. We can stop at your house and drop your stuff of, then head for dinner."
Davis looked around at the people that were watching them, and then smiled slyly at Tai. If he wanted to continue the way they had started, he wouldn't argue. "Sounds like a plan, babe." He leaned forward, pressing his lips against Tai's gently. He expected the older boy to kiss him back and then let them both get to class.
Instead, Tai pressed closer, opening his mouth and seeking entrance with his tongue. Davis complied, sucking on his tongue gently as it invaded his mouth. He put his hands on Tai's chest, feeling the heat through his shirt. He shivered as Tai wrapped his arms around him, and pushed him harder against the locker.
