Hey there. Sorry the third part's a little late. I'll try and get the whole thing out within the next couple of weeks.
To remind my loyal readers of the exact situation: Tai and Joe have just walked in on Matt and Izzy sharing an experimental kiss. Ooo, tense.
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit.
Shameless plug: Watch out for my next story. I'm about halfway through a new Taito which SERIOUSLY kicks ass. I've already made myself cry, and Nyara likes it too. I'll tell you what it's called as soon as I decide on a name.
"What's wrong?" a confused Izzy demanded- then noticed the direction of Matt's gaze. He turned slowly around. "What the hell are you two doing out here?"
"We wanted to make sure you were okay!" Joe snapped. "And we find this!"
Matt growled, "If you don't like what you see, why don't you bloody leave us our privacy!"
Tai folded his arms, his eyes cold. "How long has this been going on?"
"About thirty seconds," defended Izzy. "Way to interrupt a first kiss."
Fists clenched, Tai stepped forward. "Who can I fight- who can I fight?"
"Yeah, the typical Tai problem-solving method," sneered Matt, rising to his feet. "Balls over brains, as usual. Jesus, Tai! I'm gay. So is Izzy. Get over it."
Tai stalked even closer. "That's not what bothers me, Matt." The two of them started circling one another. "What bothers me is the two of you skulking around behind our backs. Like you don't trust us!" He leapt at Matt, delivering a powerful blow.
Eyes narrowing, Matt wiped away at the blood that was trickling from his split lip. "Enough already, Tai!"
"I don't think so!" In one swift move, Tai swept Matt's legs out from beneath him and pinned him down. He glared at the youth struggling to free himself. "You've hurt me and Joe. I'm gonna hurt you back!"
Matt tried not to cry out at the swift flurry of punches that followed that. "Give me a break!" he yelled defensively. "Like the two of us kissing once is really that painful. Like you care!"
"I care!" Tai shouted. "I get jealous." He looked horrified at his own words.
Matt felt his heart leap and sing. It took a huge amount of effort not to show it, and just keep glaring. "Jealous?" he repeated, voice hissing through his teeth.
Tai hung his head for a moment, before meeting Matt's eyes again. "Yeah. I'm gay too. Probably known it for a lot longer than you have." He glared down at the blond. "I don't like to see my crush kissing another guy."
Hearing those words, Matt could have died from sheer happiness… and upon hearing the next ones, he wished he had.
"So leave him the fuck alone!" Tai roared, landing one final, gigantic punch on the other boy's chin.
The brunette pushed himself back to his feet. He didn't look back, else he might have felt bad about the shattered, broken expression on Yamato's face. Just strode across to grab Izzy by the arm and drag him away from the others.
"What the hell are you doing?" the redhead protested.
Tai pushed him up against a tree, glaring into his eyes. "How could you do that, Izzy? With him? I'm right here. What does Matt have that I don't, huh?"
Izzy stared at him in shock. "W- What?"
"You heard me."
"I can kiss who I want to!" snapped the redhead. "You're talking like I belong to you or something; I didn't even know you were gay until a moment ago."
In answer, Tai lunged forward to kiss Izzy roughly, thrusting his tongue into the other's mouth, voracious in his tasting.
Izzy pushed him angrily away. "NO! Dammit, Tai, I'm mad at you. If nothing else I'm angry at you for being such a jerk to poor Matt. He's your friend!" He forcibly removed Tai's hands from his shoulders. "And just because you've found out I'm gay doesn't mean you can drag me off and ravish me. The fact that I like guys doesn't mean I like you."
Tai fell silent, having the good grace to look a little ashamed. Then asked softly, "Do you like me?"
Izzy gave himself a moment to think before answering the question. "I can appreciate that you're a good-looking guy, Tai. I feel a deep friendship for you, even though I'm still angry right now. But any attraction that I have felt for you was fleeting. I wouldn't feel comfortable in a real relationship with you."
"I don't want a relationship," Tai answered, matching brutal honesty with brutal honesty. "I want a night. One night. A series of single nights. That's what I want."
Sadly, Izzy replied, "Well Tai… that's not what I want."
Joe looked at Izzy sadly, trying not to pay attention to the nearby fight. He had no real idea how to feel.
Black eyes met his, and then fell. Izzy murmured, "I'm sorry, Joe. I should have told you. That would have been better, I think."
"That you were dating Matt?"
Izzy blinked. "Oh, we're not dating. We thought we should kiss once, just to try things out."
"Oh, good!" Realising his slip, Joe quickly continued. "I'm sorry we interrupted. We really shouldn't have; we were just worried there was a problem, buddy."
"No problem," smiled Izzy. "No problem, indeed…" Was it possible that Joe did have feelings for him?
Right then was when Tai strode over and dragged Izzy away.
Blinking, Joe silently wished both of his friends luck, knowing that a big confrontation- of one sort or another- was coming up. Then headed over towards Matt, steeling himself.
The blond was lying where he had fallen, his frame shaking uncontrollably with the force of the tears he was fighting not to shed. Bruises were slowly forming all over his arms and his beautiful, heart-broken face.
Joe knelt by his side, sighing sadly. "Wow. He really did a number on you this time, Matt."
Snarling, Matt flinched away. "He hates me! He fucking hates me, he really fucking hates me… I…" His breath hissed through his teeth.
He was really upset. Joe shyly laid a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be okay."
A blond head bowed… but he didn't pull away from Joe's touch. "Tai… hates me."
"He doesn't hate you, baka," Joe reasoned fondly, "He's just pissed off that you kissed Izzy before he could. He's still your friend… or will be, when he comes back to himself."
"Friend," Matt snorted. He was beginning to regain self-control. "Yeah, that's right, isn't it."
Dawning realisation. "Oh, no," breathed Joe. He dropped his head, letting his hair fall forward to cover his face. "You want Tai."
"I'm in love with him!" Matt snapped. Then blinked. Bashed the back of his head into the ground. "Jesus, I'm good at this one," he spat bitterly. Shook his head and sat up. "Joe… I'm sorry."
"For what?" Joe asked blithely, not looking at Matt.
Matt shyly touched Joe's hand. "I didn't realise… I'm sorry."
Slowly, Joe looked at him. Smiled. "It's okay. I- it's not anything, really. Not love or anything." He blushed faintly. "I'd like to get into your pants, Matt. That's about it."
Matt looked down, a tiny smile on his lips… slipped his hand into Joe's. "You probably can."
The raven-haired digidestined gaped. "But- but you said you loved Tai!"
"I do," answered Matt calmly. "Right now though… I'd very much like to be touched." His thumb rubbed Joe's knuckles. "Joe… would you touch me?"
Uneasily, Joe looked at him. "You do know, that you just want to do this to forget Tai for a while…"
"Could we be friends still, after?" Matt's voice maintained its light calmness.
"I… I think so."
"Then touch me."
When an angry, frustrated, disappointed Tai stalked back into camp, his emotional state was not helped when he realised that Joe and Matt were not nearly far enough away… and Matt was a screamer.
Great, now he was jealous too.
A little nervously, Gabumon asked, "Tai, do you know why Matt's shouting? I was going to go and help him but I heard him yell something about not stopping, but I'm worried."
Tai turned around and punched a tree so hard his knuckles bled. "Matt's fine," he ground out. "He's having a great time."
Agumon put a hand on his partner's leg. "What's happening, Tai?"
Fists clenched uselessly. He hated that he could hear those noises. And, despite himself, Tai started to spill the whole story.
"Wow," Agumon said finally. "But Tai, why are you so upset about Izzy? You don't love him."
"No," Tai admitted.
"Then why does it bother you so much?"
Tai tried to ignore the wordless, yet very eloquent, screams building to his left. "I- because… I… look, if I admit that I don't love him, and he doesn't want me, than that means it's nothing. And if it's nothing, then I should forget about it."
"And that's bad because?"
He sighed, sinking to the ground and burying his face in his hands. "It's just bad."
Agumon gave him a reproachful look. "I'm your digimon, Tai. You can trust me."
"I don't have a problem trusting you, Agumon. Really. I just- if I say this it's out there, and there's no taking it back."
The yellow dinosaur waited.
Tai gave a tortured sigh. "If… if this whole thing about Izzy is nothing… then I have to admit what's something. And I don't want to do that."
"Tai… it's not healthy to keep secrets from yourself."
"I know." He raked a hand through his shock of hair. "I can't pretend," he whispered sadly. "Can't pretend I didn't see the look on his face when I said that. Damn me. I fucking broke his heart."
"Who?" asked Agumon gently.
The former leader of the digidestined wrapped his arms over his head. "Matt," he breathed, his voice cracking. And repeated it louder, at the same time as his beloved's final cry rang through the air. "Matt."
"Tai…" Agumon offered.
"I love him. I love everything about him. I should be the one out there making him scream! Dammit!" He bit his lip hard enough to break the skin. "I love Matt. And I'll never have him because I broke his heart before we even had a chance, and now he's with Joe instead, and he'll never forgive me this."
Some time later, Tai looked up upon hearing someone enter the camp. He didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed when he saw it was Joe.
"Hey, Joe." I envy you. "How was he?"
"You- you heard?" Joe blushed to the roots of his hair. "Well, I hadn't expected him to be so loud." Grinning, he sat down next to Tai. "It was, uh, pretty great… but there was something missing," the young doctor admitted.
"Missing."
"I think we were with the wrong people," Joe said in a small voice. "Matt told me I called him Izzy."
Tai blinked.
Joe looked down. "I… I feel pretty bad about that. He's been my fantasy for a year, and when he let me touch him, I called him another name… I feel bad." He glanced at Tai. "And I feel like I've betrayed your trust, Tai, because I want Izzy." His gaze dropped again. "I might be in love with him. I'm not sure."
"Don't worry about it, Joe. I realised just now that I love Matt."
"Oh, good!"
"Mwah ha ha!" Ken threw his head back and laughed triumphantly from the back of his Seadramon. "You cannot defeat me!"
Helplessly, the four digidestined cradled their exhausted in-training partners.
"You won't get away with this, Ken!" yelled Kari.
But they knew there was no way they could defeat the terrible Chimeramon before them.
Violet eyes narrowed. "This is boring me. Go away and come back when you provide more amusing competition," the Kaizer sneered.
He watched in contempt as the digidestined trudged, shoulders slumped, to the nearest computer. Detestable weaklings! And they had dared to damage his fortress, and demand the return of Davis! His Davis!
Abruptly, Ken spun on his heel, stalking back into the depths of his fortress. Looking for one room in particular. Wormmon was bouncing along behind him, pleading for him to calm down before he visited the already injured captive- but of course Ken ignored him.
He fumbled briefly with the lock and then flung the door open, eyes burning.
Davis didn't wake up as Ken grabbed Demiveemon around the head and unceremoniously threw the small lizard digimon out of the room. "Watch him, Wormmon!" he shouted harshly, slamming the door behind him.
He pulled out his whip.
Wooh, I think we're about halfway there. More Kensuke in the next one, I promise… I can't help being mean to my boys. But the more miserable they get, the happier they can be at the end :)
Anyway, please review.