Tai looked around the crowded gym with trepidation GOCC GOCC 2 3 2001-10-16T15:47:00Z 2001-10-16T15:50:00Z 3 1501 8559 GOCC 71 17 10511 9.4402

A dream gone wrong

Tai looked around the crowded gym with trepidation. He had come with the group, but gotten disentangled at the door. Joe and Ken had slipped off to a quiet corner. Izzy and Kari, and TK and Cody were dancing with their respective partners by the stage. Mimi was waiting patiently for Matt's band to take a break so they could dance together. Yolei and Sora had simply disappeared.

He waved at a couple of the guys from his soccer team, and then walked warily around the couples gyrating to the music. For the most part, it couldn't be classified as dancing, anyway. He looked up, and caught Carl Flowers' glare from near the door. He shrugged it off, unconcerned. His friends far outweighed and outnumbered those of Carl. The ex-goalie wouldn't make a move toward him.

The music was loud, blasting out of the speakers on loan from the school. The Teenage Wolves had been hired to play, so Matt was sweating to death, having the time of his life playing to an appreciative crowd. It was only an hour into the dance, but Tai was already tired of hanging out with couples. None of his friends were single. Technically, he probably wasn't classified as that either, but his other wasn't around to be technical.

He brushed his hair out of his eyes as he moved toward the refreshment table. He had just spotted Sora and Yolei flirting with some guy, making him blush as they held hands behind their backs. The poor sucker wouldn't know what hit him when they were done. Their favorite pastime was finding new victims to introduce into their traps. They regularly picked up guys, taunted them, and then told the truth about their relationship. More than one ego had been bruised.

The music changed as the Wolves began to play some soft melody. Couples embraced on the floor, moving together easily. Matt stepped down from the stage, letting the band play on while he danced with Mimi. Tai smiled at them, moving towards the edge of the throng of people. Halfway to his destination, two strong arms wrapped around his waist from behind. Not realizing whom it was, he turned quickly, intending to punch whatever creep would dare grab at him.

Dark brown eyes met his, red hair spiky and uncontrolled. The grin set in the tanned face was happy, almost blissful. He leaned down quickly. Meeting those lips with his own, forgetting where they were, and the pain he'd been suffering for weeks. The arms tightened, drawing him closer as the mouth beneath his opened. Tongues entwined, searched the cavity of the others' mouth.

They didn't notice when the music stopped abruptly, or when the adult chaperone took the stage nervously. Something was said over the speakers, but they both missed the message. Tai curled his fingers into Davis' hair, tilting his head to gain a better angle. The speaker repeated himself, his voice persistent. Someone tapped Tai on the shoulder, and then pulled them slightly apart forcibly.

"Guys, you have to get out of here now." Davis blinked dazedly at Ken, uncomprehending. Blue-violet eyes were apprehensive, insistent. "You guys have to go. The Motomiya's are here, and they are not happy. They're working their way through the crowd now, so hurry." They snapped to, looking behind Ken to see the students beginning to part. Davis grabbed Tai's hand and started pulling him toward a front entrance. Ken stayed behind to delay his parents.

They made their way through the darkened room as quickly as possible, dodging chairs and tables. The lights were being slowly turned on as the chaperone repeated his message. "Davis Motomiya and Tai Kamiya, please come to the stage at this time. Tai and Davis report to the stage are now." They reached the doors, reaching for the handle just as it was pushed open. Davis glared at Carl, daring him to stand in their way. They could feel time running against them as the crowd began to part towards them again.

Carl stepped to the side, ushered them outside, and then shut the door soundly behind them. They escaped into the night, running together. The school was left behind quickly as they made their way toward the nearest park, anywhere they could be alone. As they crossed the street, almost to safety, a car whipped around the corner, catching them in the beam of lights as the world faded away.

________________

Tai jerked out of sleep, his sheets drenched in perspiration, his heart beating madly. His fists were curled in the covers, and his pillow had been knocked to the floor.

Go, Tai!!!!

Tai glared at the door in front of him, willing the barrier between him and the apartment beyond to disappear, as easily as Davis had disappeared weeks before. Ken was still in contact with him, but his parents were catching on, and making sure that school administrators were aware that he was a hazard waiting to happen.

He raised his fist, and knocked on the door. After his dream the night before, he was willing to do anything for a quick resolution to their dilemma. He didn't want anything between him and Davis anymore. He had left the dance after a boring and uneventful hour, only to end up having a horrible nightmare about being chased by the Motomiya's and getting hit by a car. Enough was enough. He was going to go straight to the source of his problem, and deal with it.

The door swung open, and two sets of brown eyes glared at him from the dimly lit hallway. Mrs. Motomiya moved back, allowing him to enter. Her estranged husband waved him past, into the living room. They sat down, each on a separate piece of furniture, with the formality reserved for funerals and weddings. Tai sat on a chair nearest the hall, knowing that he could out run them if they tried to kill him. He didn't know how mad they still were, but it didn't pay to take chances.

They watched him, waiting for him to start. He had called and left a message, telling them to be ready to talk to him, or else. He didn't know what the alternative was, but they obviously wanted to take as few chances with him as he did with them. He sat straight, his shoulders squared in determination.

"I want Davis back." He said it calmly, and waited. They said nothing, simply continued to glare at him. Undaunted, he continued. "What you have done to your son is unfair, and morally wrong." This, too, was met with silence. "You have a choice. You can bring your son home, let him live his life, and have someone to support you both when you're old and gray, like, twenty years from now."

Mr. Motomiya raised an eyebrow at his brass tone, but neither commented. Tai felt like rolling his eyes. They were regarding him as if he were some small child that was unaware of anything it said. He knew what he hoped to accomplish, and he had all the ammunition he could ever need.

"Or you can keep sending him to school after school, and finish off what you attempted in his first sixteen years." She looked away at that, pain flashing across her face. The man remained emotionless. Tai could guess that they had decided that the best way to handle him was to listen, then kick him out. He wasn't having that. "And in two years, your son and I will be reunited. We will not only be together, we will make certain that the whole world knows, that everyone on the face of the planet is completely aware of our exact relationship."

That caught the man's attention. His wife simply looked at her lap, uncertain. Tai went on. "Or better yet, I graduate at the end of this year. I can move as close to your son as possible, and meet him at whatever school you happen to send him to. You won't know where I am, and you won't be able to keep us apart. We'll carry on under your nose, and everyone will know but you. You'll be laughing stocks, social jokes to everyone in your circle."

"And you'll shame your own parents." Mrs. Motomiya's voice was dark, her eyes glittering angrily. Tai held his surprise in check. He had assumed that her husband was the social ladder-climber. He had planned on using her motherly sentiments against her. That wouldn't work if she didn't have any.

Instead of being cowed by her words, he smiled. "No, they won't. My parents know, and are happy that I've found someone. They're looking forward to the day that I bring Davis him as my boyfriend, instead of the little boy that used to chase my sister. In fact, they've offered another solution to the both of you, one worked out by my little sister."

He let the silence take over, wanting, waiting for one of them to ask. Finally, Mr. Motomiya sighed in frustration. "What? What can we do to make you go away?"

"I'm not going away, sir. I will be here waiting for the day that Davis comes home. What I have for you is a solution to keep your reputations at approximately where they are now. The people in your world will ignore it, simply because it will be away from you." He paused again, noting the expectancy on their faces. His gut churned at the thought that two parents could be so cold toward their offspring. "Let Davis move in with us."

"Hell, no!" Mr. Motomiya jumped to his feet.

"Never!" His wife was outraged, her face paling at the thought. Tai stayed where he was, leaning calmly back into the cushions of the chair.

"I'm not done, yet." They glowered, but resumed their former positions. "He will live with us. Kari and I share a room. My dad has an office we can convert into Davis' room. My parents sleep between the two rooms, so there is no lack of propriety. He'll be with people who care about him, and out of your hair. You can tell all of your friends that he fell into the wrong crowd, and he's staying with us for his own safety. No one will be rude enough to question it."

"Get out." Mr. Motomiya stood again, stalking toward the chair angrily. He stopped a few feet away to tower angrily over the teen, his teeth grinding in his agitation. "Get out of here, and don't ever come back. I don't ever want to see your face again."

Tai stood also, refusing to back away. He glared back, ignoring the foot of height between them. He kept his ground. "In two years, you can't stop us. You're only making it harder for yourselves now. He's going to run you both out of money before time's up. After a while, the schools won't take him, and then what will you do? You'll run out of choices, out of money, out of ideas. And we'll win. We'll be together, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."