Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, or anything of worth, so your suing efforts would be useless, ha! Useless I say! No seriously, I'm not out to make any money, just have fun. (and surely that's not against the law is it?)
Warning: Shounen-ai/Shoujo-ai. That is Male/Male and Female/Female romances. For the sanity of everyone involved, please don't bother to read something which will just disgust you if you don't like that sort of thing. Roll call: Taito/YamaTai (I don't care who's the seme or uke, and none of these couples seem like they'd have really strict roles, anyway. so writing one name is easier), Hiyako, Mira, Takori, Kensuke (sort of), Jyoushirou
***
Chap. 2: to
***
"Well did you try calling her?"
"Of course I did! She must have turned off her phone."
"How about e-mailing her?"
Taichi glared hard at Sora. "Do you check your e-mail when you're on a date?" he deadpanned.
"Well, it is a long distance relationship..." she trailed off, getting a big stupid smile on her face.
"Ewww, gross! I don't even want to think about it." he replied quickly, massaging his temples and looking for somewhere to vomit. "Can we get back on topic, please?" Taichi was beginning to wonder how the rest of the population could deal with people in love without getting sick. Which wasn't what was bothering him so much as the fact that he didn't have license to act the same over the object of his affection. Digging his hands into his plush volumes of hair, he dredged his brain for any clue as to where Hikari, and subsequently Takeru, leading most importantly to Yamato, could be.
They were nominally on their way to the library, but since his mother had already blown that cover, that seemed pretty much a dead end. Snapping out of a pleasant seeming daydream, Sora tried to calm Taichi's raging anxiety by suggesting, "We could ask Miyako or Iori's parents where they might be."
Taichi nixed the notion glumly, "No, they probably pulled the old library excuse too." Conversation sputtered out on the downward note, and Tai was left to some internal contemplation. 'If I were a chick, where would I go on a date? Hmm, if it were with Yamato, maybe... the aerospace museum, he loves planes and rockets and stuff. Argh, no, Hikari would never go there! Think Taichi, think!'
"Think." he said out loud.
"Look, there they are!"
"Where! Where!" Taichi snapped to attention, looking left then right and back and forth until he was dizzy.
"Oops, sorry. False alarm." She looked to be stifling a laugh.
"You know, I hate you." he replied peevishly.
"I know, I know, I just think you should lighten up a little."
Taichi sighed. 'How am I supposed to know where you'd take a girl on a date anyway?' Turning to Sora, he uttered his desperate plea. "Please, just give me a place to start, I think I know Hikari well enough to figure it out from there."
"Okay, how about over there?" Sora answered a bit too quickly, spying the sought after teenagers exiting the nearby movie theater.
Thus, Taichi did not believe her one whit. He turned to her angrily, saying, "Be serious!"
"But I swear this time, they're right there!"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and began shaking her emphatically. His mouth was working overtime. "How can you play with me at a time like this! Here I am ready to bare my heart to the person I love and all I meet is cruelty, cruelty I say! I'm very vulnerable at the moment. In this fragile state of mind I'm liable to sna-"
Sora screamed at the top of her lungs, "Hikari-chaaaan!!! Heeeeeeeelp!!!"
Taichi hastily disengaged her at the sound of his sister's familiar voice. He turned to face the oncoming wall of feminine rage somewhat sheepishly, but noted with some pleasure the nauseated look on Sora's face. He whispered snidely to her, "Ain't payback a bitch?"
"Just like you." came the amusingly disoriented reply.
***
"Oniichan, what on earth are you doing?"
"Um, Hikari-chan, that is, me and Sora were looking for you." The two groups were approaching each other rapidly, with Hikari leading to her brother.
"What for?"
"Oh, nothing impor-" he was cut off as Sora elbowed him in the gut vengefully. Hikari figured that it was probably better for both off the older kids' health that that rumor about them dating was untrue.
The older girl ran a little ahead to meet them in excitement. "We're looking for Yamato-kun so your brother can profess his love!"
Hikari stopped midstep, causing Takeru and Iori to run into her back. Iori stumbled in the backlash and Takeru helped him up, while Hikari would've fallen on her face had it not been for Miyako's steadying grip on her arm. Her eyebrows were making a valiant assault on her hairline.
Peripherally, Hikari heard her brother sputtering, "Does no one know the meaning of discretion!"
Silence reigned for a moment until as if in genuine surprise, Takeru questioned, "You know what discretion means?"
Everyone burst out laughing except for Taichi and Hikari who both seemed somewhat out of sorts.
Iori was for once unable to hold a straight face, as he reproved Takeru not too seriously. It seemed the two had really had a good time together. "Takeru-san, you don't really mean that did you?"
"Well, the two of them were never subtle about pawing each other..." Takeru murmured.
"What?"
"Oh, I was just thinking that Taichi never particularly like being discrete is all." Takeru declared, waving his hands before him speciously.
"Oookay." Iori replied doubtfully, but smiled trading comments with the other boy, comfortable.
Meanwhile, Miyako deserted her place beside Hikari stepping up to her mentor Sora, exclaiming, "Really? Oh, I knew they'd make the perfect couple!!!"
"Don't they!"
"That's so cuuuuuute!!!"
"I know!"
Ignoring the boys' banter and the girls' enthusiasm, brother and sister neared each other for a heart to heart.
"So..."
"Yeah..."
The family line was known to be terribly eloquent on occasion. This was not one of them.
Trying to forget a bit of the awkwardness, Hikari tried again. "Ahem, so you're going to tell Yamato that you love him."
"Right." he grunted in affirmation.
"Uh, so why do you need me?"
If possible, Taichi looked even more embarrassed. "I can't find him." he responded curtly. Hikari, it seemed was not magically enabled to know what the hell he was talking about from that. He continued "I couldn't find him, so Mom told us you said you'd be at the library with Takeru, so I thought..."
"Oh, I get it." She paused for a moment, trying to articulate the source of her unease. "What if he's not... or he doesn't... you know..." she stopped, feeling like she was failing massively in her attempt.
Taichi began studying his sneakers intensely, refusing to meet her eyes, but replied, "Well, I guess it sounds weird you know, but, I don't think it matters in this so much, I mean, I'm sure it would hurt..." She glanced at him sharply. He looked up but not in her direction, in fact, his eyes seemed to be looking through the scene ahead at something perhaps no one else could see. "It's just, I'm through with being afraid. I've set my heart on telling him how I feel, and I'm willing to risk rejection, embarrassment," he swallowed, "even our friendship, if it gives me the chance of being with him. I, I want to find him and find out the truth, now."
They looked at each other, eyes finally meeting, and Hikari smiled, replying gently, "I understand Oniichan." They both laughed. The other two girls, taking that as a good sign decided to broach their privacy. The siblings were still facing each other, so Hikari could see her brother's blush quite clearly, which only magnified as Miyako bounded over with Sora then impulsively, hugged first Taichi, and then more lingeringly, Hikari.
Taichi leered and answered sportfully, "Well, why shouldn't you? I'm sure you were learning a lot on your," he winked, "study date."
"I, uh..." this time Hikari flushed. Which only caused Miyako to glomp her more tightly. "Oh, Hikari-chan, isn't this great! I knew I was right!"
Hikari smiled indulgently at her girlfriend. "Okay Miyako-chan, you were right about them." Miyako was not satisfied. "And?"
"And about Daisuke and Ken."
"Yeeeeeess?" Hikari sighed. "And about Takeru and Iori making a good couple." Miyako giggled saying, "See, the crest of love is good for some things."
Hikari offered an unsolicited viewpoint, "And right about us too Miyako-chan."
"Of course." Miyako replied simply, giving her a playful kiss on the nose.
Sora interceded at this point, seeing as Taichi looked once again ready to retch. "Speaking of Takeru, I'll go fetch the boys so we can get on with trapping you your prince charming, Taichi."
Mortified, Taichi called after her angrily, "Hey! Yamato is soooo much more of a princess than I am!"
Seeing that the subjects of her machinations were getting away, Miyako jumped up after Sora, explaining, "Oh, it looks like the boys could use a little more pushing!" Personally, Hikari thought they were getting along just fine judging from their satisfied demeanors from after the movie, but she let Miyako go.
The Yagami's both sighed watching the digidestined of love go after Takeru and Iori. "Love, who needs it?" they remarked dreamily, both apparently having the same sappy thoughts. Without looking at each other, Taichi began, "Let us never speak of this moment again." Hikari finished succinctly. "Agreed."
The others were returning. Takeru, who it seemed could never resisted a good natured poke, said, "I heard what you said about my brother Taichi, but none of us could figure out which of you was more likely to wear a dress."
***
Ironically enough, one possible answer to that statement had Yamato completely blindsided. All talk of pink aprons aside.
Yamato was not doing a very good job of concealing his stupor among the crowd of familiar and yet not so familiar people. As such they had left him mostly out of the discussion as to which movie they were each opting to see. So it was, that Jyou and, Kyouko, had already made their choice and entered as Yamato liked to think of it, the movie theater in another dimension.
Mimi, being her normally persuasive self, had halfway convinced Sorata into going with her into the same movie that Jyou and Kyouko had chosen. Yamato marveled at how similar the people seemed, though it was still a bit difficult to reconcile the people he knew with these versions. He noticed, amused, that just like his world's Sora, this Sorata appeared more, cautious, around Mimi than anyone else. 'Its probably 'cause she's such a frightful nutbar.' he thought. 'Funny how well they balance each other though' since Mimi of both worlds always did seem to be more, secure with that person in response. 'Almost like me and Tai-' he killed that thought.
Currently, the most immediate cause of his distress was with Miyako acting disturbingly, girlish, not that Yamato didn't think his Taichi had a similar side of his personality. The two were conspiring to get said 'not a couple' into the mushy romantic movie once and for all. Hikaru, er that one was going to take almost as much getting used to as Tachiko, was standing off to the side with Takeru letting the girls do their thing. Apparently anyone as obviously smitten as Sorata had forfeited male solidarity. He had to admit even he thought it was a lot more entertaining this way.
Somehow, the girls managed the coercion, and Miyako and Tachiko returned to the three boys to formulate which movie they would finally attend. This was such a complicated process!
Which is why Yamato was so very surprised when Hikaru eeped and made a dash for the theater entrance, only to be restrained by his girlfriend.
"Hikaru-kun, is that you!" Yamato saw the boy cringe. He turned in the direction of the call and was met with a vision he had prepared himself for, but found his preparation inadequate.
There, looking fashionable and attractive as always, was Ichijouji Ken, with a familiar looking girl on his arm. Yamato was befuddled by the contrast in his mental images. For he knew surely this was the infamous, 'Motomiya Suka', but the reality of it was second in shock only to his discovery of Yagami Tachiko.
The strange part was the fact that the girl looked sooo similar to Daisuke, but yet, so... feminine. She looked to be exactly the same height as Daisuke was, dressed similarly, though instead of cargo shorts had on a short skirt, and most importantly, a large pair of inherited goggles strapped across her head. Her hair was still disturbingly... pointy, if quite a bit longer in the back than Daisuke's, softening the appearance. It was, altogether, very weird.
And Ken clearly adored her. Jealously it seemed, from the evil glares he would intermittently send at Hikaru when Suka favored him. Though Miyako and Takeru seemed to be on good terms with both Ken and Suka, and Tachiko was apparently Suka's hero as much as Taichi had been to Daisuke.
"So, what did you guys come to see?" inquired Takeru. Miyako looked as if she'd like to talk, but had her hands full keeping Hikaru from bolting. It brought back memories of the lengths, he, Yamato had gone through to avoid some of Jun's attentions.
"Oh, action all the way! I love excitement, and I think Ken-chan needs to get out more! He just usually isn't in the mood for it when I'm not around!"
Yamato wondered if that was supposed to be as suggestive as it sounded. Judging from the fact that this was Daisuke's doppelganger, probably not. Nevertheless, it did cause a bit of an awkward lull in the conversation.
Luckily, it seemed Miyako had handed Hikaru over to his sister for a second, since it seemed she and Ken were good friends. She and Ken picked up right away. They were obviously grateful to each other for freeing each other's objects of affection.
Meanwhile, Takeru and Yamato stepped discretely in front of the Yagami siblings as they had a tiny family squabble. Yamato was familiar with the type. He heard a smacking sound and imagined that Tachiko had just whapped her little brother on the side of the head.
"What are you doing? Suka's a nice girl, and she's got a boyfriend so you don't have to worry anymore. Besides, she and Miyako-chan are friends, you should be nice to her even if it's just for your girlfriend, dumbass!"
"It's not that 'neechan, I swear, I'm actually sort of friends with Suka-chan too, and Ken's nice when they're not together, but when they are, he's really scary!"
"Can it wussboy!"
"Bu-"
"Pshhht. I said not another word."
Ahead of them, Miyako was sweatdropping, hoping Ken and Suka couldn't hear the conversation. Takeru whispered to Yamato, "He's right though, Ken gets really freaky if you piss him off. And flirting with Suka really pisses him off." Behind them, Tachiko released Hikaru back into his girlfriend's protective custody. They reformed so they were all facing the couple in the same relative position.
"So why don't we all go see the same movie, we all like action flicks too!" Takeru remarked maliciously. Miyako sighed the sigh of a girl dealing with her man's idiot friends. She would just have to get him sensibly tied up with Shiori-chan somehow.
"That's a great idea Takato!"
"Takeru." Hikaru corrected unthinkingly.
"Oh yeah, that's right! I can be so dumb sometimes." Suka laughed, smiling in Hikaru's direction. Incurring the wrath of Ken. Yamato guessed in this world Ken hadn't exactly gotten /all/ the evil out of his system, though Suka appeared to have quite a good handle on it. Plus, Yamato had to admit, if he ever got to date Taichi, he'd probably give that look to anyone Taichi smiled at. Still it was very comical, Yamato had to laugh. And thus draw attention to himself.
"Hey, I don't think we've met. I'm Motomiya Suka, and this is Ichijouji Ken."
"Hi, I'm I- uh, Takaishi Yamato."
"Takaishi Yamato? Really? Wow! 'neechan was right! You are super cute!" Yamato watched nervously as Ken's eyes narrowed. He suddenly understood Hikaru's compulsion to run, very very far away. Safety came from an unexpected source.
"Sorry Suka-chan, this hottie's mine." Yama heard a giggle as someone curled around his arm, laying their head on his shoulder. A tuft of fluffy brown hair touched his cheek. "Just play along. I'll explain later." Tachiko whispered to him. Yamato was too disconcerted to do otherwise.
Suka, and Ken, backed off seemingly in awe, and they all proceeded into the theater together. In keeping with the ruse, Yamato found himself seated between Takeru and Tachiko, awaiting what could possibly be the most stressful two hours of his life.
***
Action movies, Yamato found, are not much fun when you're watching the popcorn. In fact, without the visuals, they just tend to give you a big headache. Or maybe that was from something else.
In the group of seven, Yama was seated right smack dab in the middle, Takeru, Ken, and Suka to his left, Tachiko, Hikaru, and Miyako on his right. As movie theater concessions are always horrendously overpriced, everyone had decided to chip in on the large refillable size of popcorn. Being in the center, Yamato was quickly dubbed food manager.
Thankfully, the two couples on the ends seemed to be too, occupied, to bother with the food, however, Yamato somehow found it very unnerving to have his male crush's female counterpart continually reaching into his lap area. Not to mention that the fake date aspect of this totally threw him for a loop.
All in all, the boy was a giant ball of stress.
Tachiko's promised explanation of her quick thinking only came in spurts, since she and Takeru seemed to be the only members of the group watching the movie. But in a disjointed fashion, the logic did eventually come out.
"Me and Suka-chan have been friends for a while, ever since she joined the soccer league I used to play for a long time ago."
There was a pause as they watched the hero shoot fifty men with machine guns without having to reload his handgun. Or move for that matter. Bah, Yamato preferred stuff with cool cars and planes anyway.
"So anyway, she started chasing lil' bro here, but he liked Miyako-chan. Then Miyako, who also liked Hikaru back, found out her friend, Ken had this thing for Suka-chan, so she introduced them."
Yamato waited for how this applied to her pretending to date him.
"Anyway, they hit it off, and everyone agrees how great Ken and Suka are for each other, but you know the Motomiya girls, they have this tendency to chase anything with two legs, or at least, act like they are."
As she paused again, he tried to figure out what bugged him so much about this anyway. The fact the it made him uncomfortable was, undeniable. To think, he'd ended up in this situation by mooning over his lost love with Taichi. In a world where the guy he liked was a girl. Heck, it hadn't even been a day and he already missed seeing Taichi, not that he'd even had a chance anyway. Yamato had the instinct to kill this train of thought as well, but a nagging feeling convinced him to leave it undisturbed.
"So, you know, as a friend, I try to make sure nothing happens that could cause a misunderstanding. I know Suka-chan really only likes Ken, but like I said, she is a little oblivious about how things can be construed."
Hmmm, just like his Taichi, a person who does weird and jerky things for reasons that make sense if they're explained. Yamato wondered what would have happened if it'd been like in his world where Tai was a guy, and the fake date person happened to be a girl. His mental block acted up again, forcefully reminding him that this was not his world, and this was not Taichi, but a girl name Tachiko. Yet they seemed so alike. The feeling of unease was getting stronger.
"And I didn't want you to get killed by Ken you know, even if Hikaru needs to be less chicken, that dude is kind of intimidating when he's angry."
Yeah, he was sure Taichi probably would've done the same thing for Ken and Daisuke. Wait a second, Ken and Daisuke? The implications of everyone's relationships in this world were starting to dawn on him. 'Naw, it's a different world, no way it would be exactly the same where I come from.' Still, the notion refused to leave. 'Well, in this world, Taichi and Sora are obviously not together, they seem to have some kind of brother sister thing going...' He didn't really want to contemplate it any further, but nonetheless the important point had already been reached. 'Taichi and Sora are not together. At least not here...'
He was afraid the one sane corner of his mind was the part screaming, 'No! That girl is not Taichi!' However, the thought percolating through his brain would not be stopped. 'You'd be normal here if you went after her, and not a fruity gay guy. It would be sort of like getting Taichi... You could, have your cake and eat it too...' That couldn't be right, could it? But the way he normally was was the wrong way, at least, that's what everyone else said...
What was it about Taichi that he liked anyway? If his Tai turned into a girl, would that mean he wouldn't like them? Or, if Tachiko turned into a guy, would that be any better? Or was it just the fact that this was Tai except a girl, and then could he honestly say he didn't like her? Yamato was very confused. This was a definite problem. One that warranted lots of thought. Unfortunately his mouth didn't figure that out in time.
"So, you want me to act like we're dating in front of Ken and Suka, so they don't break up, and I don't get killed?"
"Yup."
"Okay." 'Stupid mouth!' he thought belatedly, as he stuffed it full of popcorn to make sure he didn't say anything else.
***
"I don't believe this!"
The commission to get Taichi a boyfriend had yet again come up empty handed. Having found the younger kids, who'd devoted themselves to the mission of setting up the two stubborn boys, their number was up to 6. Counting Taichi. Not that any of this helped to locate Yamato.
Takeru had explained how when he'd left home, no one else had been there, so he had no real idea of where Yamato might be. Mildly disheartened, Taichi had utilized Hikari's cell phone to call the Ishida household again. No answer. Finally, here they all were checking Yama and Takeru's apartment on the off chance he had left some sign of where he'd went. And so it seemed, there was still, nothing.
Taichi, who apparently had a habit of doing such things, collapsed onto Yamato's conveniently placed bed and sprawled himself out sullenly.
"Maybe I should just give up. I guess it just wasn't... meant to be."
The maidens of love descended on him like carrion feeding birds. Everyone else in the room sweatdropped.
"You can't thwart the forces of love so easily!" That was Miyako. Even her crest sharing friend, Sora found that one a bit odd.
"Um, yeah, that too, but I was thinking, even if you don't get a chance tonight, Taichi, there's still plenty of time. Don't get too down, you know Yamato-kun always makes time for you."
Takeru was about to go over to give his own encouragements, seeing as his brother would be very disappointed if Taichi actually did chickened out, when Iori drew his attention to something.
"Takeru-san, isn't this your digivice?"
Curious, he and Hikari walked over to the boy to investigate. Upon closer inspection, they found it was that indeed. Takeru asked, "Hey, where'd you find this Iori-kun?"
"Right here on the floor. It was just lying there, partly covered by the carpet."
"Hmm..." Takeru thought over the strange matter for a second. Looking around, he noticed something else peculiar. "Wait a minute, this room is clean!"
He said this loud enough to draw odd stares from the entire contingent. "No shit Sherlock, Yama's a neat freak." Taichi responded dourly.
Catching on, Hikari defended her friend, in a manner of speaking, "No, he's right, Takeru's a pig, this room should be a mess if he was staying her."
"Meaning?" Taichi questioned, hope flickering across his face.
"Meaning, 'niisan's definitely been here sometime today! And he's been messing with my stuff. Oh and by the way, thanks ever so much Hikari-chan." Takeru concluded. Taichi deflated back into a pile on the bed.
"Argh, I thought you people were supposed to be helping me, not torturing me!" Taichi whined irritably, nearly ready to burst into very unmanly tears of frustration.
Like the supportive person she was, Sora comforted the distraught boy in her own fashion, "Aw, Taichi, we're all your friends, of course we're here to torture you." His angry glare let her know that he was still okay.
Meanwhile, Iori finding things still a bit odd, asked, "So where's the rest of your stuff now, Takeru-san?"
"Oh probably in the closet or something." Iori walked over and yanked the closet door open. Sure enough, a virtual deluge of random stuff came pouring out.
Following the reasoning, Hikari considered something as Takeru went over to help Iori free himself from the rubble and shove every back in the closet. "Hey, why is all of your stuff except for the digivice in the closet?"
Finishing the chore, Iori continued, "That's exactly what I was thinking, and furthermore, even if Yamato-san had been playing with the digivice, why was it then left in the middle of the floor when he'd gone to so much trouble to clean everything else up?"
Now everyone was interested. Miyako walked to Hikari who was holding the digivice. "Can I see that Hikari-chan?" She looked at it for a second after Hikari handed it over, then walked over to Yamato's computer. She moved the mouse, disengaging the screen saver, and was met with a display which only confirmed her suspicions.
Turning to the rest she said, "The digital gate program's up. Only, the settings on this digivice are all messed up. I think he used it, and this thing got left behind because of the adjustments."
Taichi was extremely alarmed. "What! Doesn't that mean he can't get back or something!"
Takeru chimed in, "And how could he use my digivice? Isn't that not supposed to work or something?" The implications of it all had put the others in shock. They didn't quite seem to know what to do.
Fiercely, Taichi got up and exclaimed, "We should go to the digital world and get him back, right away!"
"Wait!" Miyako cautioned. "I'm not even sure what effect this configuration could have had besides keeping the digivice isolated. He might not even be in the digital world! It's too dangerous to try without finding out what's wrong first."
Taichi seethed in frustration. "Well who would know! And what the hell can we do about it?"
"Izumi-senpai would probably be the only one who would know."
Faster than the eye could see, Taichi was at the phone. "Hello, Izumi-san? This is Taichi, is Koushirou there? No? Well could you tell him to call me back? Okay, thanks a lot, goodbye." He braced his arms hard against the telephone stand. "GRRRRRRRR, we have to do something!"
"Hi, Jyou-kun, yeah, it's me Sora. Listen, is Koushirou with you? Really? That's great. Actually, we've got a big problem about the digital world and we needed him... yeah, uh-huh, we're at Yamato's place. If you guys could come over as soon as possible it would be good. Right. See you guys soon. Bye." Sora put away her cell phone.
"Jyou's driving Koushirou over right away, don't worry Taichi, we'll figure out what happened." Then she noticed everyone's odd looks. "What, I told you being a matchmaker at heart comes in handy some times."
***
Yamato marched along stiffly beside his 'date' as the original group, plus Ken and Suka, reunited after their movies. After a while everyone decided on going to a coffeehouse nearby, because the older kids normally hung out there sometimes, and the younger liked the novelty of the idea for them.
Even so, none of the elder group was too enthusiastic about sitting with a bunch of adolescents on caffeine high, so they ended sitting in somewhat segregated groups of six. Yamato relaxed a little, since they didn't have to act couply without Ken and Suka watching. He tried to concentrate on finding out about what everyone was up to and how it differed from his plane of existence. It was quite a pivotal time after all, most of them in their last years of high school.
Jyou, a college freshman, was somewhat curious about what the rest were planning to do once they got out of high school. Even though Kyouko still had a couple years until college, she answered easily about her studies and plans for the future, appearing quite well prepared. Tachiko confessed she actually hadn't thought that much about it after all, a bit embarrassed.
"How about you Yamato-kun?" she nudged him. Distracted at trying not to compare her to Taichi, he replied absentmindedly, "Oh, I've been wavering about which I wanted to study, music or planetary science." This garnered him a round of surprised looks. "Wow, those both sound pretty cool. So you're pretty diverse?" Tachiko enthused, actually sounding quite impressed.
'Uh oh, what if I'm attracting her, ack what do I do, or do I really even mind?' He could feel warm pleasure flooding through him at the compliment. 'Is this what I want?' Swallowing hard, he fought down his misgivings and smiled at her, trying to figure if things felt right or wrong. He just wasn't sure at all!
The conversation continued without him. "So Mimi-chan, are you planning anything in the future aside from a shopping spree?" Kyouko chided her friend. Surprisingly enough, Mimi didn't take the statement in stride, looking away a little sadly. "Um, I really don't know." Her eyes were now glued to the floor. "My parents said we might be moving, to America sometime actually..." Silence.
Looking distressed, Sorata began, "You didn't tell me... " but trailed off.
All false cheer Mimi came back, "Oh, you know I'm such an airhead, I guess I forgot to tell some of my /friends/. I'm going to miss everybody if we go, but at least it won't have like a messy breakup to deal with or something. Dad said we wouldn't have to go if there was any good reason not to, like a school I wanted to attend, or anything like that, but, I couldn't tell him anything so..." 'Ouch' Yamato thought.
Desperate to change the subject, she turned a question a Sorata, "Um, so, are you going to take over your mom's business, or go study like your dad?" He answered guardedly, "I'm not sure, I'd like to go to school, but Mom did want to pass on the botany thing-"
"Horticulture actually." interjected Kyouko, as eager as anyone else to change the subject.
Sorata ignored that. "But Mimi-"
"Oh, look at the time, gotta be getting home." she stood suddenly and was soon out the door. Sorata stood, hesitated slightly, sighed, then said, "I'm going to... give her a reason to stay." He was gone to follow her.
"Well finally, those two really." Tachiko let the smile on her face split into a laugh that reminded Yamato inordinately of Taichi. He took a long swig of his coffee as he tried to wash not only the sappy taste out of his mouth, but to banish his strange superimposed Taichi-vision on the brown haired girl.
The humor did seem to recover the group though. "Can you really image Sora-kun as a florist or something like that?" Jyou asked. "Florist by day, deadly assassin by night..." Yamato muttered. "What?" Kyouko asked.
"My god, you're a Weiss Kreuz fan?" Tachiko laughed. Yamato blushed over his shounen-ai anime fetish. Jokingly, Tachiko grafted onto his arm again, saying "Back off girls, this guy's a catch!" Yamato blushed harder. This was not helping his situation at all! He wondered if he really had the word 'AWKWARD' tattooed on his forehead, or if the neon sign was only temporary.
Soon, Jyou and Kyouko left, pleading academics, though they were seen off in a suspicious manner by Yamato and Tachiko. Slightly after the interlude, Yamato tried to put away his wallet after paying for another coffee to go. He did dearly love coffee. Still, maybe he could've used less, since he dropped the object. Tachiko bent faster to pick it up, so she saw some of its contents. Nothing damaging were it not for the group snapshot of the digidestined on their last reunion that he had taken to carrying around.
"Hey, what's this! That's you and your brother and there's Jyou, Mimi, Miyako, and Ken!"
"Oh, that's nothing, just a picture of me and some friends, and some of Takeru's friends." he explained quickly, tucking his wallet safely away. She seemed to believe him, just barely.
The two collected the younger kids, who were beginning to bounce around the room, then parting ways with Suka and Ken, made their way back to Yamato and Takeru's building as it was closer at this point. Miyako and the Yagami's insisted on walking them up to their apartment, so the boys invited them in.
Takeru noticed a message on the machine, and pressed play, while Yamato fetched the guests something to drink. "Boys," came their father's recorded voice, "this one looks like an all nighter. I know you guys probably feel old enough to be home alone, but since I promised your mother that I'd be taking care of you, I decided to call our friends the Yagami's and they said it was okay if you two wanted to stay the night over there. If you do, just make sure you both go okay? Bye guys. I'll see you tomorrow."
They all looked surprised, but Takeru asked Yamato, "You want to go 'niisan? Seems okay to me, and I like Hikaru's mom's cooking..." Yamato looked at Takeru horrified, he liked Yagami-san's cooking? Unfortunately all assembled seemed to take his silence as agreement. They were getting used to him already!
"All right! I'll go get my stuff."
"Hey, Takeru, wait for me," followed Hikaru.
Miyako turned to Tachiko, asking, "You think I can stay over too?"
"I don't know about that Miyako-chan..."
"Oh, come on, me and Hi-chan wouldn't do anything..."
"Oh, ewwww, don't let me know details here girl. Why don't you ask our parents I guess..." Not getting over the reference very well, she threw in, "Gross!" for good measure. Miyako whipped out a cell phone and got right to it.
Tachiko and Yamato turned to each other, at a loss. Soon everything was set up, the girls would take the bunk beds, and the boys would have to share the couch and floor in the living room. The Ishida boys continued gathering toiletries and sundries for their small trip.
***
After having gathered all their things, the group found it even a little too early for dinner, so they decided to hang out at the Ishida apartment for a little while. Takeru and Hikaru were duking it out digital style in their favorite fighting game, while Miyako was hovering around giving her boyfriend 'how to kick ass' tips. Incidentally she was also baiting Takeru's curiosity about young Shiori-chan's crush on him.
Meanwhile, Yamato and Tachiko hung back a little, watching their little brothers, and trying to get to know one another.
To Yamato she seemed very much like his Taichi, though it was amusing to view that life from a feminine starting point. She played soccer, just like Tai, was very much an outdoors person, like Tai, was actually a bit more decent at school than people gave her credit for, still Tai-ish, was popular, though preferred hanging with a tight knit group of old friends, ahem, Tai, and had a propensity for being a bit rash. Oh, and unlike his Taichi, or at least so Yamato thought, she had a soft spot for shoujo anime. Hmm, he liked her very much.
Then again, Taichi could always borrow Hikari's shoujo anime collection...
Yamato sighed. It was almost, almost, what? The phone rang, saving him from the black hole of his own misgivings.
"Hello."
[Hi, it's me Yamato.] Yamato, Ishida Yamato that is, nearly dropped the phone on his end.
Trying to lighten his voice hurriedly, he replied "Uh, hi 'niisan."
[So, Takeru, you know how I'm supposed to come over tomorrow?]
"Yeah." Yamato was glad for monosyllabic answers.
[Well, I've got this band thing, and you know, I might not be able to make it until the day after.]
"Really?" he perked up at the news, thinking this gave him more time to figure out how to get home, which it seemed he'd forgotten to think about during the course of the day.
[Don't worry though, I'll be there on Sunday for sure.]
"Okay 'niisan." This was a whole new way of talking to himself!
[Tell Dad okay.]
"I will."
[Oh, and Takeru, are you okay? Your voice sounds a little funny.]
Yamato fake coughed a few times, continuing, "Oh, just a little cold, nothing serious Yamato."
[All right, but you take it easy little bro, I'll see you soon.]
"Bye."
[Goodbye.]
Yamato hung up the phone and took a deep breath. That had been really really weird.
"Okay, who the hell are you dude?"
He turned to his right. Tachiko was standing there. 'Oh crap.' he thought. "Um, how long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to hear you talking to 'Yamato-niisan'. I came to bring you your wallet. You dropped it, again." She held it up, open to the picture of him and the digidestined.
"Look, I can explain, I really am Yamato, but um well, that was Yamato too..."
"Okay, judging from the fact that Takeru recognizes you, that explanation almost sort of makes sense, but I've been thinking there's something weird about you all day. Like for one thing, we've met before, not enough to know each other very well, but at least to remember names. Sure you could just be really forgetful, but that look you had when you caught me on the stairs was like you'd never seen me in your entire life. Talk fast mister."
"Um, well, you see, I'm a Yamato from a different dimension I think. I know it sounds weird but you have to believe me. I got sucked into a computer, and I came up here, where things are sort of the same as where I live, but not really. I don't mean any harm at all, and this family is just like mine, I mean, I'm just a guy with a really big problem, not to mention there are now two of me in this world." He realized he wasn't making a great deal of sense at the moment, but was too flustered to come up with anything more coherent. He felt so pathetic his hair was drooping.
Tachiko grinned, so reminiscently of Taichi that Yamato had to sigh again. Then she began, "I don't know, for some reason, I believe you. You don't seem like a bad guy, hey I sorta like you even. But, you are going to explain this to me in much detail when you two come over to our house tonight." Yama's jaw dropped open.
As an afterthought, Tachiko added, "Hey, does this have something to do with this picture of you and all the stuffed animals? I thought that was weird." Yamato nodded.
"Especially since most stuffed animals I know of can't fly."
Yama felt very dull at the moment. In his totally non-suspicious picture, Biyomon and Tentomon were hovering in the air around their respective partners' heads.
After he took his wallet back, Tachiko used her newly freed hand to clap him on the back. "Aw, you didn't really have to worry man, I believe you about the dimensional crap and the two you's. I looked through your wallet. All your id's say you're this Ishida Yamato guy. I just had a funny feeling about you."
***
A/N: Oooh, Kensuke of a sort. they really weren't supposed to be in this fic, but I couldn't resist (viva kensuke! they're my fav digimon yaoi couple, surprised? no? didn't think so) as for the taito, this is still not a project to turn Yamato straight. but the dilemma seems to be moving along fairly well. la, ain't i a stinker? oh, and the rest of the gratuitous couple references are for my own perverse pleasure, there isn't enough takori or jyoushirou in the shounen-ai/yaoi fandom for my tastes. and there isn't much shoujo-ai/yuri stuff period. I like yuri. spread the love i say. oh, and i also like dai-kun, he's great, so no i wasn't bashing him at all, i think he'd make a very interesting looking female, and possessive as hell ken is just funny. i apologize for some of the bad writing quality, this was done very quickly. the rest of the bad writing is just how i normally am. but i'm sorry anyway.
Warning: Shounen-ai/Shoujo-ai. That is Male/Male and Female/Female romances. For the sanity of everyone involved, please don't bother to read something which will just disgust you if you don't like that sort of thing. Roll call: Taito/YamaTai (I don't care who's the seme or uke, and none of these couples seem like they'd have really strict roles, anyway. so writing one name is easier), Hiyako, Mira, Takori, Kensuke (sort of), Jyoushirou
***
Chap. 2: to
***
"Well did you try calling her?"
"Of course I did! She must have turned off her phone."
"How about e-mailing her?"
Taichi glared hard at Sora. "Do you check your e-mail when you're on a date?" he deadpanned.
"Well, it is a long distance relationship..." she trailed off, getting a big stupid smile on her face.
"Ewww, gross! I don't even want to think about it." he replied quickly, massaging his temples and looking for somewhere to vomit. "Can we get back on topic, please?" Taichi was beginning to wonder how the rest of the population could deal with people in love without getting sick. Which wasn't what was bothering him so much as the fact that he didn't have license to act the same over the object of his affection. Digging his hands into his plush volumes of hair, he dredged his brain for any clue as to where Hikari, and subsequently Takeru, leading most importantly to Yamato, could be.
They were nominally on their way to the library, but since his mother had already blown that cover, that seemed pretty much a dead end. Snapping out of a pleasant seeming daydream, Sora tried to calm Taichi's raging anxiety by suggesting, "We could ask Miyako or Iori's parents where they might be."
Taichi nixed the notion glumly, "No, they probably pulled the old library excuse too." Conversation sputtered out on the downward note, and Tai was left to some internal contemplation. 'If I were a chick, where would I go on a date? Hmm, if it were with Yamato, maybe... the aerospace museum, he loves planes and rockets and stuff. Argh, no, Hikari would never go there! Think Taichi, think!'
"Think." he said out loud.
"Look, there they are!"
"Where! Where!" Taichi snapped to attention, looking left then right and back and forth until he was dizzy.
"Oops, sorry. False alarm." She looked to be stifling a laugh.
"You know, I hate you." he replied peevishly.
"I know, I know, I just think you should lighten up a little."
Taichi sighed. 'How am I supposed to know where you'd take a girl on a date anyway?' Turning to Sora, he uttered his desperate plea. "Please, just give me a place to start, I think I know Hikari well enough to figure it out from there."
"Okay, how about over there?" Sora answered a bit too quickly, spying the sought after teenagers exiting the nearby movie theater.
Thus, Taichi did not believe her one whit. He turned to her angrily, saying, "Be serious!"
"But I swear this time, they're right there!"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and began shaking her emphatically. His mouth was working overtime. "How can you play with me at a time like this! Here I am ready to bare my heart to the person I love and all I meet is cruelty, cruelty I say! I'm very vulnerable at the moment. In this fragile state of mind I'm liable to sna-"
Sora screamed at the top of her lungs, "Hikari-chaaaan!!! Heeeeeeeelp!!!"
Taichi hastily disengaged her at the sound of his sister's familiar voice. He turned to face the oncoming wall of feminine rage somewhat sheepishly, but noted with some pleasure the nauseated look on Sora's face. He whispered snidely to her, "Ain't payback a bitch?"
"Just like you." came the amusingly disoriented reply.
***
"Oniichan, what on earth are you doing?"
"Um, Hikari-chan, that is, me and Sora were looking for you." The two groups were approaching each other rapidly, with Hikari leading to her brother.
"What for?"
"Oh, nothing impor-" he was cut off as Sora elbowed him in the gut vengefully. Hikari figured that it was probably better for both off the older kids' health that that rumor about them dating was untrue.
The older girl ran a little ahead to meet them in excitement. "We're looking for Yamato-kun so your brother can profess his love!"
Hikari stopped midstep, causing Takeru and Iori to run into her back. Iori stumbled in the backlash and Takeru helped him up, while Hikari would've fallen on her face had it not been for Miyako's steadying grip on her arm. Her eyebrows were making a valiant assault on her hairline.
Peripherally, Hikari heard her brother sputtering, "Does no one know the meaning of discretion!"
Silence reigned for a moment until as if in genuine surprise, Takeru questioned, "You know what discretion means?"
Everyone burst out laughing except for Taichi and Hikari who both seemed somewhat out of sorts.
Iori was for once unable to hold a straight face, as he reproved Takeru not too seriously. It seemed the two had really had a good time together. "Takeru-san, you don't really mean that did you?"
"Well, the two of them were never subtle about pawing each other..." Takeru murmured.
"What?"
"Oh, I was just thinking that Taichi never particularly like being discrete is all." Takeru declared, waving his hands before him speciously.
"Oookay." Iori replied doubtfully, but smiled trading comments with the other boy, comfortable.
Meanwhile, Miyako deserted her place beside Hikari stepping up to her mentor Sora, exclaiming, "Really? Oh, I knew they'd make the perfect couple!!!"
"Don't they!"
"That's so cuuuuuute!!!"
"I know!"
Ignoring the boys' banter and the girls' enthusiasm, brother and sister neared each other for a heart to heart.
"So..."
"Yeah..."
The family line was known to be terribly eloquent on occasion. This was not one of them.
Trying to forget a bit of the awkwardness, Hikari tried again. "Ahem, so you're going to tell Yamato that you love him."
"Right." he grunted in affirmation.
"Uh, so why do you need me?"
If possible, Taichi looked even more embarrassed. "I can't find him." he responded curtly. Hikari, it seemed was not magically enabled to know what the hell he was talking about from that. He continued "I couldn't find him, so Mom told us you said you'd be at the library with Takeru, so I thought..."
"Oh, I get it." She paused for a moment, trying to articulate the source of her unease. "What if he's not... or he doesn't... you know..." she stopped, feeling like she was failing massively in her attempt.
Taichi began studying his sneakers intensely, refusing to meet her eyes, but replied, "Well, I guess it sounds weird you know, but, I don't think it matters in this so much, I mean, I'm sure it would hurt..." She glanced at him sharply. He looked up but not in her direction, in fact, his eyes seemed to be looking through the scene ahead at something perhaps no one else could see. "It's just, I'm through with being afraid. I've set my heart on telling him how I feel, and I'm willing to risk rejection, embarrassment," he swallowed, "even our friendship, if it gives me the chance of being with him. I, I want to find him and find out the truth, now."
They looked at each other, eyes finally meeting, and Hikari smiled, replying gently, "I understand Oniichan." They both laughed. The other two girls, taking that as a good sign decided to broach their privacy. The siblings were still facing each other, so Hikari could see her brother's blush quite clearly, which only magnified as Miyako bounded over with Sora then impulsively, hugged first Taichi, and then more lingeringly, Hikari.
Taichi leered and answered sportfully, "Well, why shouldn't you? I'm sure you were learning a lot on your," he winked, "study date."
"I, uh..." this time Hikari flushed. Which only caused Miyako to glomp her more tightly. "Oh, Hikari-chan, isn't this great! I knew I was right!"
Hikari smiled indulgently at her girlfriend. "Okay Miyako-chan, you were right about them." Miyako was not satisfied. "And?"
"And about Daisuke and Ken."
"Yeeeeeess?" Hikari sighed. "And about Takeru and Iori making a good couple." Miyako giggled saying, "See, the crest of love is good for some things."
Hikari offered an unsolicited viewpoint, "And right about us too Miyako-chan."
"Of course." Miyako replied simply, giving her a playful kiss on the nose.
Sora interceded at this point, seeing as Taichi looked once again ready to retch. "Speaking of Takeru, I'll go fetch the boys so we can get on with trapping you your prince charming, Taichi."
Mortified, Taichi called after her angrily, "Hey! Yamato is soooo much more of a princess than I am!"
Seeing that the subjects of her machinations were getting away, Miyako jumped up after Sora, explaining, "Oh, it looks like the boys could use a little more pushing!" Personally, Hikari thought they were getting along just fine judging from their satisfied demeanors from after the movie, but she let Miyako go.
The Yagami's both sighed watching the digidestined of love go after Takeru and Iori. "Love, who needs it?" they remarked dreamily, both apparently having the same sappy thoughts. Without looking at each other, Taichi began, "Let us never speak of this moment again." Hikari finished succinctly. "Agreed."
The others were returning. Takeru, who it seemed could never resisted a good natured poke, said, "I heard what you said about my brother Taichi, but none of us could figure out which of you was more likely to wear a dress."
***
Ironically enough, one possible answer to that statement had Yamato completely blindsided. All talk of pink aprons aside.
Yamato was not doing a very good job of concealing his stupor among the crowd of familiar and yet not so familiar people. As such they had left him mostly out of the discussion as to which movie they were each opting to see. So it was, that Jyou and, Kyouko, had already made their choice and entered as Yamato liked to think of it, the movie theater in another dimension.
Mimi, being her normally persuasive self, had halfway convinced Sorata into going with her into the same movie that Jyou and Kyouko had chosen. Yamato marveled at how similar the people seemed, though it was still a bit difficult to reconcile the people he knew with these versions. He noticed, amused, that just like his world's Sora, this Sorata appeared more, cautious, around Mimi than anyone else. 'Its probably 'cause she's such a frightful nutbar.' he thought. 'Funny how well they balance each other though' since Mimi of both worlds always did seem to be more, secure with that person in response. 'Almost like me and Tai-' he killed that thought.
Currently, the most immediate cause of his distress was with Miyako acting disturbingly, girlish, not that Yamato didn't think his Taichi had a similar side of his personality. The two were conspiring to get said 'not a couple' into the mushy romantic movie once and for all. Hikaru, er that one was going to take almost as much getting used to as Tachiko, was standing off to the side with Takeru letting the girls do their thing. Apparently anyone as obviously smitten as Sorata had forfeited male solidarity. He had to admit even he thought it was a lot more entertaining this way.
Somehow, the girls managed the coercion, and Miyako and Tachiko returned to the three boys to formulate which movie they would finally attend. This was such a complicated process!
Which is why Yamato was so very surprised when Hikaru eeped and made a dash for the theater entrance, only to be restrained by his girlfriend.
"Hikaru-kun, is that you!" Yamato saw the boy cringe. He turned in the direction of the call and was met with a vision he had prepared himself for, but found his preparation inadequate.
There, looking fashionable and attractive as always, was Ichijouji Ken, with a familiar looking girl on his arm. Yamato was befuddled by the contrast in his mental images. For he knew surely this was the infamous, 'Motomiya Suka', but the reality of it was second in shock only to his discovery of Yagami Tachiko.
The strange part was the fact that the girl looked sooo similar to Daisuke, but yet, so... feminine. She looked to be exactly the same height as Daisuke was, dressed similarly, though instead of cargo shorts had on a short skirt, and most importantly, a large pair of inherited goggles strapped across her head. Her hair was still disturbingly... pointy, if quite a bit longer in the back than Daisuke's, softening the appearance. It was, altogether, very weird.
And Ken clearly adored her. Jealously it seemed, from the evil glares he would intermittently send at Hikaru when Suka favored him. Though Miyako and Takeru seemed to be on good terms with both Ken and Suka, and Tachiko was apparently Suka's hero as much as Taichi had been to Daisuke.
"So, what did you guys come to see?" inquired Takeru. Miyako looked as if she'd like to talk, but had her hands full keeping Hikaru from bolting. It brought back memories of the lengths, he, Yamato had gone through to avoid some of Jun's attentions.
"Oh, action all the way! I love excitement, and I think Ken-chan needs to get out more! He just usually isn't in the mood for it when I'm not around!"
Yamato wondered if that was supposed to be as suggestive as it sounded. Judging from the fact that this was Daisuke's doppelganger, probably not. Nevertheless, it did cause a bit of an awkward lull in the conversation.
Luckily, it seemed Miyako had handed Hikaru over to his sister for a second, since it seemed she and Ken were good friends. She and Ken picked up right away. They were obviously grateful to each other for freeing each other's objects of affection.
Meanwhile, Takeru and Yamato stepped discretely in front of the Yagami siblings as they had a tiny family squabble. Yamato was familiar with the type. He heard a smacking sound and imagined that Tachiko had just whapped her little brother on the side of the head.
"What are you doing? Suka's a nice girl, and she's got a boyfriend so you don't have to worry anymore. Besides, she and Miyako-chan are friends, you should be nice to her even if it's just for your girlfriend, dumbass!"
"It's not that 'neechan, I swear, I'm actually sort of friends with Suka-chan too, and Ken's nice when they're not together, but when they are, he's really scary!"
"Can it wussboy!"
"Bu-"
"Pshhht. I said not another word."
Ahead of them, Miyako was sweatdropping, hoping Ken and Suka couldn't hear the conversation. Takeru whispered to Yamato, "He's right though, Ken gets really freaky if you piss him off. And flirting with Suka really pisses him off." Behind them, Tachiko released Hikaru back into his girlfriend's protective custody. They reformed so they were all facing the couple in the same relative position.
"So why don't we all go see the same movie, we all like action flicks too!" Takeru remarked maliciously. Miyako sighed the sigh of a girl dealing with her man's idiot friends. She would just have to get him sensibly tied up with Shiori-chan somehow.
"That's a great idea Takato!"
"Takeru." Hikaru corrected unthinkingly.
"Oh yeah, that's right! I can be so dumb sometimes." Suka laughed, smiling in Hikaru's direction. Incurring the wrath of Ken. Yamato guessed in this world Ken hadn't exactly gotten /all/ the evil out of his system, though Suka appeared to have quite a good handle on it. Plus, Yamato had to admit, if he ever got to date Taichi, he'd probably give that look to anyone Taichi smiled at. Still it was very comical, Yamato had to laugh. And thus draw attention to himself.
"Hey, I don't think we've met. I'm Motomiya Suka, and this is Ichijouji Ken."
"Hi, I'm I- uh, Takaishi Yamato."
"Takaishi Yamato? Really? Wow! 'neechan was right! You are super cute!" Yamato watched nervously as Ken's eyes narrowed. He suddenly understood Hikaru's compulsion to run, very very far away. Safety came from an unexpected source.
"Sorry Suka-chan, this hottie's mine." Yama heard a giggle as someone curled around his arm, laying their head on his shoulder. A tuft of fluffy brown hair touched his cheek. "Just play along. I'll explain later." Tachiko whispered to him. Yamato was too disconcerted to do otherwise.
Suka, and Ken, backed off seemingly in awe, and they all proceeded into the theater together. In keeping with the ruse, Yamato found himself seated between Takeru and Tachiko, awaiting what could possibly be the most stressful two hours of his life.
***
Action movies, Yamato found, are not much fun when you're watching the popcorn. In fact, without the visuals, they just tend to give you a big headache. Or maybe that was from something else.
In the group of seven, Yama was seated right smack dab in the middle, Takeru, Ken, and Suka to his left, Tachiko, Hikaru, and Miyako on his right. As movie theater concessions are always horrendously overpriced, everyone had decided to chip in on the large refillable size of popcorn. Being in the center, Yamato was quickly dubbed food manager.
Thankfully, the two couples on the ends seemed to be too, occupied, to bother with the food, however, Yamato somehow found it very unnerving to have his male crush's female counterpart continually reaching into his lap area. Not to mention that the fake date aspect of this totally threw him for a loop.
All in all, the boy was a giant ball of stress.
Tachiko's promised explanation of her quick thinking only came in spurts, since she and Takeru seemed to be the only members of the group watching the movie. But in a disjointed fashion, the logic did eventually come out.
"Me and Suka-chan have been friends for a while, ever since she joined the soccer league I used to play for a long time ago."
There was a pause as they watched the hero shoot fifty men with machine guns without having to reload his handgun. Or move for that matter. Bah, Yamato preferred stuff with cool cars and planes anyway.
"So anyway, she started chasing lil' bro here, but he liked Miyako-chan. Then Miyako, who also liked Hikaru back, found out her friend, Ken had this thing for Suka-chan, so she introduced them."
Yamato waited for how this applied to her pretending to date him.
"Anyway, they hit it off, and everyone agrees how great Ken and Suka are for each other, but you know the Motomiya girls, they have this tendency to chase anything with two legs, or at least, act like they are."
As she paused again, he tried to figure out what bugged him so much about this anyway. The fact the it made him uncomfortable was, undeniable. To think, he'd ended up in this situation by mooning over his lost love with Taichi. In a world where the guy he liked was a girl. Heck, it hadn't even been a day and he already missed seeing Taichi, not that he'd even had a chance anyway. Yamato had the instinct to kill this train of thought as well, but a nagging feeling convinced him to leave it undisturbed.
"So, you know, as a friend, I try to make sure nothing happens that could cause a misunderstanding. I know Suka-chan really only likes Ken, but like I said, she is a little oblivious about how things can be construed."
Hmmm, just like his Taichi, a person who does weird and jerky things for reasons that make sense if they're explained. Yamato wondered what would have happened if it'd been like in his world where Tai was a guy, and the fake date person happened to be a girl. His mental block acted up again, forcefully reminding him that this was not his world, and this was not Taichi, but a girl name Tachiko. Yet they seemed so alike. The feeling of unease was getting stronger.
"And I didn't want you to get killed by Ken you know, even if Hikaru needs to be less chicken, that dude is kind of intimidating when he's angry."
Yeah, he was sure Taichi probably would've done the same thing for Ken and Daisuke. Wait a second, Ken and Daisuke? The implications of everyone's relationships in this world were starting to dawn on him. 'Naw, it's a different world, no way it would be exactly the same where I come from.' Still, the notion refused to leave. 'Well, in this world, Taichi and Sora are obviously not together, they seem to have some kind of brother sister thing going...' He didn't really want to contemplate it any further, but nonetheless the important point had already been reached. 'Taichi and Sora are not together. At least not here...'
He was afraid the one sane corner of his mind was the part screaming, 'No! That girl is not Taichi!' However, the thought percolating through his brain would not be stopped. 'You'd be normal here if you went after her, and not a fruity gay guy. It would be sort of like getting Taichi... You could, have your cake and eat it too...' That couldn't be right, could it? But the way he normally was was the wrong way, at least, that's what everyone else said...
What was it about Taichi that he liked anyway? If his Tai turned into a girl, would that mean he wouldn't like them? Or, if Tachiko turned into a guy, would that be any better? Or was it just the fact that this was Tai except a girl, and then could he honestly say he didn't like her? Yamato was very confused. This was a definite problem. One that warranted lots of thought. Unfortunately his mouth didn't figure that out in time.
"So, you want me to act like we're dating in front of Ken and Suka, so they don't break up, and I don't get killed?"
"Yup."
"Okay." 'Stupid mouth!' he thought belatedly, as he stuffed it full of popcorn to make sure he didn't say anything else.
***
"I don't believe this!"
The commission to get Taichi a boyfriend had yet again come up empty handed. Having found the younger kids, who'd devoted themselves to the mission of setting up the two stubborn boys, their number was up to 6. Counting Taichi. Not that any of this helped to locate Yamato.
Takeru had explained how when he'd left home, no one else had been there, so he had no real idea of where Yamato might be. Mildly disheartened, Taichi had utilized Hikari's cell phone to call the Ishida household again. No answer. Finally, here they all were checking Yama and Takeru's apartment on the off chance he had left some sign of where he'd went. And so it seemed, there was still, nothing.
Taichi, who apparently had a habit of doing such things, collapsed onto Yamato's conveniently placed bed and sprawled himself out sullenly.
"Maybe I should just give up. I guess it just wasn't... meant to be."
The maidens of love descended on him like carrion feeding birds. Everyone else in the room sweatdropped.
"You can't thwart the forces of love so easily!" That was Miyako. Even her crest sharing friend, Sora found that one a bit odd.
"Um, yeah, that too, but I was thinking, even if you don't get a chance tonight, Taichi, there's still plenty of time. Don't get too down, you know Yamato-kun always makes time for you."
Takeru was about to go over to give his own encouragements, seeing as his brother would be very disappointed if Taichi actually did chickened out, when Iori drew his attention to something.
"Takeru-san, isn't this your digivice?"
Curious, he and Hikari walked over to the boy to investigate. Upon closer inspection, they found it was that indeed. Takeru asked, "Hey, where'd you find this Iori-kun?"
"Right here on the floor. It was just lying there, partly covered by the carpet."
"Hmm..." Takeru thought over the strange matter for a second. Looking around, he noticed something else peculiar. "Wait a minute, this room is clean!"
He said this loud enough to draw odd stares from the entire contingent. "No shit Sherlock, Yama's a neat freak." Taichi responded dourly.
Catching on, Hikari defended her friend, in a manner of speaking, "No, he's right, Takeru's a pig, this room should be a mess if he was staying her."
"Meaning?" Taichi questioned, hope flickering across his face.
"Meaning, 'niisan's definitely been here sometime today! And he's been messing with my stuff. Oh and by the way, thanks ever so much Hikari-chan." Takeru concluded. Taichi deflated back into a pile on the bed.
"Argh, I thought you people were supposed to be helping me, not torturing me!" Taichi whined irritably, nearly ready to burst into very unmanly tears of frustration.
Like the supportive person she was, Sora comforted the distraught boy in her own fashion, "Aw, Taichi, we're all your friends, of course we're here to torture you." His angry glare let her know that he was still okay.
Meanwhile, Iori finding things still a bit odd, asked, "So where's the rest of your stuff now, Takeru-san?"
"Oh probably in the closet or something." Iori walked over and yanked the closet door open. Sure enough, a virtual deluge of random stuff came pouring out.
Following the reasoning, Hikari considered something as Takeru went over to help Iori free himself from the rubble and shove every back in the closet. "Hey, why is all of your stuff except for the digivice in the closet?"
Finishing the chore, Iori continued, "That's exactly what I was thinking, and furthermore, even if Yamato-san had been playing with the digivice, why was it then left in the middle of the floor when he'd gone to so much trouble to clean everything else up?"
Now everyone was interested. Miyako walked to Hikari who was holding the digivice. "Can I see that Hikari-chan?" She looked at it for a second after Hikari handed it over, then walked over to Yamato's computer. She moved the mouse, disengaging the screen saver, and was met with a display which only confirmed her suspicions.
Turning to the rest she said, "The digital gate program's up. Only, the settings on this digivice are all messed up. I think he used it, and this thing got left behind because of the adjustments."
Taichi was extremely alarmed. "What! Doesn't that mean he can't get back or something!"
Takeru chimed in, "And how could he use my digivice? Isn't that not supposed to work or something?" The implications of it all had put the others in shock. They didn't quite seem to know what to do.
Fiercely, Taichi got up and exclaimed, "We should go to the digital world and get him back, right away!"
"Wait!" Miyako cautioned. "I'm not even sure what effect this configuration could have had besides keeping the digivice isolated. He might not even be in the digital world! It's too dangerous to try without finding out what's wrong first."
Taichi seethed in frustration. "Well who would know! And what the hell can we do about it?"
"Izumi-senpai would probably be the only one who would know."
Faster than the eye could see, Taichi was at the phone. "Hello, Izumi-san? This is Taichi, is Koushirou there? No? Well could you tell him to call me back? Okay, thanks a lot, goodbye." He braced his arms hard against the telephone stand. "GRRRRRRRR, we have to do something!"
"Hi, Jyou-kun, yeah, it's me Sora. Listen, is Koushirou with you? Really? That's great. Actually, we've got a big problem about the digital world and we needed him... yeah, uh-huh, we're at Yamato's place. If you guys could come over as soon as possible it would be good. Right. See you guys soon. Bye." Sora put away her cell phone.
"Jyou's driving Koushirou over right away, don't worry Taichi, we'll figure out what happened." Then she noticed everyone's odd looks. "What, I told you being a matchmaker at heart comes in handy some times."
***
Yamato marched along stiffly beside his 'date' as the original group, plus Ken and Suka, reunited after their movies. After a while everyone decided on going to a coffeehouse nearby, because the older kids normally hung out there sometimes, and the younger liked the novelty of the idea for them.
Even so, none of the elder group was too enthusiastic about sitting with a bunch of adolescents on caffeine high, so they ended sitting in somewhat segregated groups of six. Yamato relaxed a little, since they didn't have to act couply without Ken and Suka watching. He tried to concentrate on finding out about what everyone was up to and how it differed from his plane of existence. It was quite a pivotal time after all, most of them in their last years of high school.
Jyou, a college freshman, was somewhat curious about what the rest were planning to do once they got out of high school. Even though Kyouko still had a couple years until college, she answered easily about her studies and plans for the future, appearing quite well prepared. Tachiko confessed she actually hadn't thought that much about it after all, a bit embarrassed.
"How about you Yamato-kun?" she nudged him. Distracted at trying not to compare her to Taichi, he replied absentmindedly, "Oh, I've been wavering about which I wanted to study, music or planetary science." This garnered him a round of surprised looks. "Wow, those both sound pretty cool. So you're pretty diverse?" Tachiko enthused, actually sounding quite impressed.
'Uh oh, what if I'm attracting her, ack what do I do, or do I really even mind?' He could feel warm pleasure flooding through him at the compliment. 'Is this what I want?' Swallowing hard, he fought down his misgivings and smiled at her, trying to figure if things felt right or wrong. He just wasn't sure at all!
The conversation continued without him. "So Mimi-chan, are you planning anything in the future aside from a shopping spree?" Kyouko chided her friend. Surprisingly enough, Mimi didn't take the statement in stride, looking away a little sadly. "Um, I really don't know." Her eyes were now glued to the floor. "My parents said we might be moving, to America sometime actually..." Silence.
Looking distressed, Sorata began, "You didn't tell me... " but trailed off.
All false cheer Mimi came back, "Oh, you know I'm such an airhead, I guess I forgot to tell some of my /friends/. I'm going to miss everybody if we go, but at least it won't have like a messy breakup to deal with or something. Dad said we wouldn't have to go if there was any good reason not to, like a school I wanted to attend, or anything like that, but, I couldn't tell him anything so..." 'Ouch' Yamato thought.
Desperate to change the subject, she turned a question a Sorata, "Um, so, are you going to take over your mom's business, or go study like your dad?" He answered guardedly, "I'm not sure, I'd like to go to school, but Mom did want to pass on the botany thing-"
"Horticulture actually." interjected Kyouko, as eager as anyone else to change the subject.
Sorata ignored that. "But Mimi-"
"Oh, look at the time, gotta be getting home." she stood suddenly and was soon out the door. Sorata stood, hesitated slightly, sighed, then said, "I'm going to... give her a reason to stay." He was gone to follow her.
"Well finally, those two really." Tachiko let the smile on her face split into a laugh that reminded Yamato inordinately of Taichi. He took a long swig of his coffee as he tried to wash not only the sappy taste out of his mouth, but to banish his strange superimposed Taichi-vision on the brown haired girl.
The humor did seem to recover the group though. "Can you really image Sora-kun as a florist or something like that?" Jyou asked. "Florist by day, deadly assassin by night..." Yamato muttered. "What?" Kyouko asked.
"My god, you're a Weiss Kreuz fan?" Tachiko laughed. Yamato blushed over his shounen-ai anime fetish. Jokingly, Tachiko grafted onto his arm again, saying "Back off girls, this guy's a catch!" Yamato blushed harder. This was not helping his situation at all! He wondered if he really had the word 'AWKWARD' tattooed on his forehead, or if the neon sign was only temporary.
Soon, Jyou and Kyouko left, pleading academics, though they were seen off in a suspicious manner by Yamato and Tachiko. Slightly after the interlude, Yamato tried to put away his wallet after paying for another coffee to go. He did dearly love coffee. Still, maybe he could've used less, since he dropped the object. Tachiko bent faster to pick it up, so she saw some of its contents. Nothing damaging were it not for the group snapshot of the digidestined on their last reunion that he had taken to carrying around.
"Hey, what's this! That's you and your brother and there's Jyou, Mimi, Miyako, and Ken!"
"Oh, that's nothing, just a picture of me and some friends, and some of Takeru's friends." he explained quickly, tucking his wallet safely away. She seemed to believe him, just barely.
The two collected the younger kids, who were beginning to bounce around the room, then parting ways with Suka and Ken, made their way back to Yamato and Takeru's building as it was closer at this point. Miyako and the Yagami's insisted on walking them up to their apartment, so the boys invited them in.
Takeru noticed a message on the machine, and pressed play, while Yamato fetched the guests something to drink. "Boys," came their father's recorded voice, "this one looks like an all nighter. I know you guys probably feel old enough to be home alone, but since I promised your mother that I'd be taking care of you, I decided to call our friends the Yagami's and they said it was okay if you two wanted to stay the night over there. If you do, just make sure you both go okay? Bye guys. I'll see you tomorrow."
They all looked surprised, but Takeru asked Yamato, "You want to go 'niisan? Seems okay to me, and I like Hikaru's mom's cooking..." Yamato looked at Takeru horrified, he liked Yagami-san's cooking? Unfortunately all assembled seemed to take his silence as agreement. They were getting used to him already!
"All right! I'll go get my stuff."
"Hey, Takeru, wait for me," followed Hikaru.
Miyako turned to Tachiko, asking, "You think I can stay over too?"
"I don't know about that Miyako-chan..."
"Oh, come on, me and Hi-chan wouldn't do anything..."
"Oh, ewwww, don't let me know details here girl. Why don't you ask our parents I guess..." Not getting over the reference very well, she threw in, "Gross!" for good measure. Miyako whipped out a cell phone and got right to it.
Tachiko and Yamato turned to each other, at a loss. Soon everything was set up, the girls would take the bunk beds, and the boys would have to share the couch and floor in the living room. The Ishida boys continued gathering toiletries and sundries for their small trip.
***
After having gathered all their things, the group found it even a little too early for dinner, so they decided to hang out at the Ishida apartment for a little while. Takeru and Hikaru were duking it out digital style in their favorite fighting game, while Miyako was hovering around giving her boyfriend 'how to kick ass' tips. Incidentally she was also baiting Takeru's curiosity about young Shiori-chan's crush on him.
Meanwhile, Yamato and Tachiko hung back a little, watching their little brothers, and trying to get to know one another.
To Yamato she seemed very much like his Taichi, though it was amusing to view that life from a feminine starting point. She played soccer, just like Tai, was very much an outdoors person, like Tai, was actually a bit more decent at school than people gave her credit for, still Tai-ish, was popular, though preferred hanging with a tight knit group of old friends, ahem, Tai, and had a propensity for being a bit rash. Oh, and unlike his Taichi, or at least so Yamato thought, she had a soft spot for shoujo anime. Hmm, he liked her very much.
Then again, Taichi could always borrow Hikari's shoujo anime collection...
Yamato sighed. It was almost, almost, what? The phone rang, saving him from the black hole of his own misgivings.
"Hello."
[Hi, it's me Yamato.] Yamato, Ishida Yamato that is, nearly dropped the phone on his end.
Trying to lighten his voice hurriedly, he replied "Uh, hi 'niisan."
[So, Takeru, you know how I'm supposed to come over tomorrow?]
"Yeah." Yamato was glad for monosyllabic answers.
[Well, I've got this band thing, and you know, I might not be able to make it until the day after.]
"Really?" he perked up at the news, thinking this gave him more time to figure out how to get home, which it seemed he'd forgotten to think about during the course of the day.
[Don't worry though, I'll be there on Sunday for sure.]
"Okay 'niisan." This was a whole new way of talking to himself!
[Tell Dad okay.]
"I will."
[Oh, and Takeru, are you okay? Your voice sounds a little funny.]
Yamato fake coughed a few times, continuing, "Oh, just a little cold, nothing serious Yamato."
[All right, but you take it easy little bro, I'll see you soon.]
"Bye."
[Goodbye.]
Yamato hung up the phone and took a deep breath. That had been really really weird.
"Okay, who the hell are you dude?"
He turned to his right. Tachiko was standing there. 'Oh crap.' he thought. "Um, how long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to hear you talking to 'Yamato-niisan'. I came to bring you your wallet. You dropped it, again." She held it up, open to the picture of him and the digidestined.
"Look, I can explain, I really am Yamato, but um well, that was Yamato too..."
"Okay, judging from the fact that Takeru recognizes you, that explanation almost sort of makes sense, but I've been thinking there's something weird about you all day. Like for one thing, we've met before, not enough to know each other very well, but at least to remember names. Sure you could just be really forgetful, but that look you had when you caught me on the stairs was like you'd never seen me in your entire life. Talk fast mister."
"Um, well, you see, I'm a Yamato from a different dimension I think. I know it sounds weird but you have to believe me. I got sucked into a computer, and I came up here, where things are sort of the same as where I live, but not really. I don't mean any harm at all, and this family is just like mine, I mean, I'm just a guy with a really big problem, not to mention there are now two of me in this world." He realized he wasn't making a great deal of sense at the moment, but was too flustered to come up with anything more coherent. He felt so pathetic his hair was drooping.
Tachiko grinned, so reminiscently of Taichi that Yamato had to sigh again. Then she began, "I don't know, for some reason, I believe you. You don't seem like a bad guy, hey I sorta like you even. But, you are going to explain this to me in much detail when you two come over to our house tonight." Yama's jaw dropped open.
As an afterthought, Tachiko added, "Hey, does this have something to do with this picture of you and all the stuffed animals? I thought that was weird." Yamato nodded.
"Especially since most stuffed animals I know of can't fly."
Yama felt very dull at the moment. In his totally non-suspicious picture, Biyomon and Tentomon were hovering in the air around their respective partners' heads.
After he took his wallet back, Tachiko used her newly freed hand to clap him on the back. "Aw, you didn't really have to worry man, I believe you about the dimensional crap and the two you's. I looked through your wallet. All your id's say you're this Ishida Yamato guy. I just had a funny feeling about you."
***
A/N: Oooh, Kensuke of a sort. they really weren't supposed to be in this fic, but I couldn't resist (viva kensuke! they're my fav digimon yaoi couple, surprised? no? didn't think so) as for the taito, this is still not a project to turn Yamato straight. but the dilemma seems to be moving along fairly well. la, ain't i a stinker? oh, and the rest of the gratuitous couple references are for my own perverse pleasure, there isn't enough takori or jyoushirou in the shounen-ai/yaoi fandom for my tastes. and there isn't much shoujo-ai/yuri stuff period. I like yuri. spread the love i say. oh, and i also like dai-kun, he's great, so no i wasn't bashing him at all, i think he'd make a very interesting looking female, and possessive as hell ken is just funny. i apologize for some of the bad writing quality, this was done very quickly. the rest of the bad writing is just how i normally am. but i'm sorry anyway.