A/N: Hey, hey! Uh, it's me. Yeah. Oh, right, the fic. Here's the next chapter. Geesh, I never thought it was going to be this looooong. I hope you guys aren't getting bored. Oh, but it's just getting good! ^-^' Things are gonna be a little angstier, but it's going to be mixed with fluffy parts...so I don't think I'm ever going to have a COMPLETELY angsty chapter. You know, balance things out. Unless you guys prefer otherwise? I don't know, I'm not a mind-reader, you all have to tell me these things. That's what reviewing is for. (Hint-hint.)

Colorless Sky

Takeru laughed as he swirled his straw around in his drink.

"So, I got detention for weeks after that happened," Daisuke finished, grinning and sipping his drink.

Takeru shook his head, smiling, and lifted his sub sandwich to his mouth to take a bite off the end. "You're crazy."

"Oh, I am?" Daisuke asked.

"Yeah," Takeru laughed.

"So what have you done that landed you in detention? Or has perfect, angelic Takeru never had detention in his life?"

"Of course I have. I mean, not recently, but I have. I can faintly remember having detention before."

"What did big bad Takeru do?" Daisuke teased.

"Shut up! I am not an innocent little angel," Takeru said, smirking. "I actually don't remember much of what I did. No, wait, it's coming back to me. My sixth grade teacher caught me kissing a classmate in the closet."

"No shit?" Daisuke asked, raising an eyebrow. "You were caught making out in a closet?"

"It wasn't making out! God, Daisuke, it was the sixth grade. Yeah, I was caught kissing in a closet, so what? Doesn't everybody get caught doing that at some point in their lives?"

"No. Was it a girl or boy?"

"Dai, I will again remind you, this was in the sixth grade. I did not think of boys in that way back then."

"So...it was a girl?"

Takeru gave him a look. "Yes. It was a girl, Daisuke. A girl."

"Okay, okay! I was just asking." Daisuke slouched in his chair a bit more and bit on the end of his straw.

Takeru grinned to himself and leant forward. Daisuke absent-mindedly leant forward also.

"Have you ever done anything...crazy?"

"What do you mean 'crazy'?"

"Like...something really, really unusual or freaky."

"Well...there was this one time."

Takeru clapped his hands once. "Ooh, you've got to tell me about it."

Daisuke sat up straight and leant forward, elbows on the table. "I hope this doesn't freak you out."


"Try me," Takeru said, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

Daisuke stared at him awhile, noticing how sexy this made Takeru look, but then shook it off.

"Okay, well, this happened last year. I had a bird...he was a canary. We kept him in the house, in a birdcage hanging from the ceiling. Sometimes we would leave the cage door open and let the bird fly around the house, and it would go back in it's cage when it got tired-"

"By itself?"

"Yeah, by itself. Anyways, one day we found this stray cat that kept hanging around our house, and my sister wanted to keep it as a pet. We kept it outside, but every once in a while we'd let it inside to roam around the house, as long as we made sure the birdcage door was closed. It was high up enough so that the cat couldn't reach it, and there was nothing around it for the cat to climb, so it was safe. One day it was scratching at the door - the cat, that is - and I decided to let it in so it would shut up. I didn't know that the birdcage had been opened that morning by my mom and my bird hadn't gone back in yet. Well, I was sitting in the living room, watching TV, when all of a sudden, I hear the bird squawking from in that same room, and I look over the side of the couch, and the cat's got feathers sticking out of his mouth. I freaked out and got so pissed off that I ran into the kitchen, where my mom was cutting up tomatoes or something like that, grabbed the butcher knife out of her hand, ran back into the living room, pinned the cat down, and chopped it's head clean off. Then, I reached in to grab the bird-"

Takeru grinned and shuddered slightly.

"-but, sadly, it was already dead. My mom came into the living room and sort of stared at me scared-like, like 'When did my son turn psycho?', you know, and I stared down at what I did and I realized I'd just murdered my cat, and I was covered in its blood and everything. That was really freaky."

Takeru stared at him a while, his face slightly pale, but not looking 'scared-like'. "Yeah, that is really

freaky."

(A/N: My friend actually did this, exactly how I just told it. What's weird is that instead of looking freaked out afterwards, we all laughed and said, "That is so cool!" **Shrugs**)

Daisuke shrugged and chewed on the end of his straw. Takeru blinked and shook his head, and then took another bite out of his sandwich.

"So, have you done anything like that?" Daisuke asked Takeru.

Takeru grinned and swallowed his sandwich, setting the rest down. "Actually, yeah. We must have something against cats, because mine involves one, too."

"No shit?" Daisuke asked faintly, chewing on his straw even more.

Takeru didn't know how to answer that, so he went on. "Well, there was this cat that I just hated. I mean, I absolutely loathed and despised that stupid cat. I don't even know why. There was just something about it...and I got close to actually murdering it with my bare hands sometimes, but I never did. I just hated it and avoided it when I could. So one day, I saw it dead on the side of the road-"


"You sure it was the same one?"

"Yeah, it was. I'm sure. Anyways, it was dead, so I ran up to it and I pointed at it and screamed, 'Hah, you stupid fucking sonofabitch cat! You're dead! You're dead, hahaha! Who's the bitch noooow?', and I started doing this little dance around it. Some lady saw me and stared at me like I was insane, but I went on yelling stuff and pointing and laughing and dancing...and I got some sort of sadistic pleasure out of seeing it all bloody and not able to hiss at me anymore. I mean, I actually felt the pleasure, you know? That was weird...but damn, am I glad that stupid fucking cat's dead." Takeru ran a hand through his hair.

(A/N: Another one of my friends did that...)

"Damn, Takeru. I've never heard you cuss so much in my life." Daisuke looked him over, and Takeru blushed slightly.

"Sometimes I get carried away," Takeru said, smiling. "You haven't seen me when I'm angry. I don't get angry much, that's why. I can control my temper really well."

"No shit?" Daisuke asked.

"You really like saying that, don't you?" Takeru asked, raising an eyebrow.

Daisuke blinked. "Saying what?"

"'No shit'."

"Oh. Yeah, I do say that a lot, don't I?" Daisuke hung his arm over the back of his seat and looked out the window. He looked around the restaurant once, and then eyed Takeru. "Are we done eating, or what?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm done."

They got up and cleared their table, dumped their garbage in the trash, and walked out.

~ ~ ~ ~

"No, no, it's really unnecessary. You don't have to. You can have one, I don't-"

"Ken, relax. I already said I would buy, and no, you don't have to pay me back."

Koushirou pushed down on Ken's shoulders so the younger boy sat back down on his seat, and then moved to sit across from him.

"We are going to eat ice cream with chocolate fudge on top because it will help us feel better."

"You already feel better."

"Well, I'm helping you to feel better."

"But I'm the one who doesn't really want-"

"Ken, what did I just finish telling you?"

Ken shut his mouth stubbornly, pouting, and Koushirou smiled at him.

"You look so cute like that."

Ken blushed madly and Koushirou decided it was the best time to leave Ken to blush in private and save him from embarrassment, standing and walking to the counter to order for them. Ken watched as the back of Koushirou's head gave orders to the cashier, who nodded and punched things into the cash register.

"I do not," Ken weakly protested, knowing he was a bit late in saying it, and sighed. He rested his chin on his hand, his elbow propped up on the tabletop.

Koushirou had come up with the idea of going out for ice cream to "cheer us up", and when Ken had said he didn't have money and didn't feel like it, the redhead had merely grabbed his wrist and dragged him down to the ice cream shop, stating simply, "Oh, I insist!"

And now, here he was, exactly where he didn't want to be - out in public. He wanted to go home and fall on his bed and succumb to the sleepiness that had become a part of his everyday personality, but Koushirou had said something about it being unhealthy. Ken tried to explain that he didn't care if it was unhealthy, he just wanted to sleep, but Koushirou insisted on waking him up every time he tried to nod off. It was getting rather annoying. Ken was surprised Koushirou hadn't begun calling him constantly during the night just to ask, "You aren't sleeping, are you, Ken?"

"I bet if it was just the opposite and I couldn't sleep at night, he would encourage me to sleep every chance I got," Ken pondered to himself. "Maybe if I tell him I can't sleep anymore..."

He trailed off as Koushirou returned and slapped down two little cups of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate fudge.

Ken managed a small smile at Koushirou. Koushirou smiled back, looked down at his ice cream, and began eating it. Ken stared down at his own ice cream, then at the spoon, and then back at the ice cream. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to eat it. He suddenly felt guilty for letting Koushirou talk him into buying him ice cream. Koushirou noticed his hesistance.

"It isn't poisoned, Ken-chan."

Ken opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but then stopped, looking up and staring at Koushirou. Koushirou noticed his slip-up and blushed.

"Uh-"

"HEY, what're you guys doing here?!"

They looked up as Taichi plopped down on the seat beside Ken, smiling brilliantly at them both. Koushirou and Ken stared at him, both bewildered. Suddenly, Ken looked a little relieved and Koushirou more than a little annoyed.

"Hi, Taichi," Koushirou greeted him, shoveling ice cream into his mouth, staring down.

"What does it look like we're doing?" Ken asked, smirking.

"Aw, shut up, you little smartass." Taichi ruffled Ken's hair and Ken squawked a protest.

"Taichi, I thought I told you to wait so you could bring your own ice cream - hey, Ken and Koushirou! How are you?" Yamato smiled at them both and set Taichi's ice cream down in front of the hungry brunette.

"Oh, goodie!" Taichi said, his eyes going wide and shiny, and he dug into his ice cream.

"Oh, goodie," Koushirou mirrored him, though much more dryly.

Yamato smirked, knowing that they were probably interrupting something, and sent Koushirou an 'I'm-sorry-I-forgot-his-leash' look. Koushirou saw it and smiled slightly, shrugging.

"Hey, Taichi, let's go get our own table, okay? I don't want to interrupt anything-" Yamato began.

"What? Why? I just sat down!" Taichi whined.

Yamato gave him a pointed look, then glanced towards the other two.

Taichi saw the glance, thought awhile, and then a thought dawned on him. "Oh. Oh. Okay, we'll go get another table." He winked at Koushirou and Ken, and they both put their heads in their hands, embarrassed.

Yamato grabbed Taichi's arm and hauled him off to another table, far away, so that he could be sure Taichi wouldn't try to fling papers at them or anything.

Ken looked at Koushirou again, smiling slightly, and Koushirou beamed at him.

Ken looked down to grab his spoon and finally start on his ice cream, but then hesitated when he found there was nothing there. He blinked and glanced up at the table where Yamato and Taichi had moved to, and watched as Yamato hit Tai on the arm, said something to him in an angry tone, and walked back to them, carrying Ken's ice cream. He set it down in front of Ken, apologized, and walked back to the table Taichi had stayed at. Taichi giggled and Yamato said something, laughed slightly, and rubbed the side of his head.

Ken watched how they seemed to have some kind of perfect couple communication and sighed to himself. He glanced down at his ice cream and kept himself from inspecting it for strange objects or odd-looking things. He began to eat it, slowly, and very aware that a pair of almost-black eyes never once left him.

~ ~ ~ ~

Takeru and Daisuke walked back to Daisuke's house, talking and laughing, arms linked. They got to Daisuke's house and had a parting kiss, and then Daisuke reached into his pocket for his key and checked to make sure the door was in fact locked. He was surprised when he found it unlocked, and he slowly peeked inside. The house was dark, but he could hear noises from inside. He took one step into the house, keeping half of his body still outside, straining his ears to make out the sounds he could vaguely hear.

"Daisuke!" he heard his sister yell. "Daisuke, is that you?"

Daisuke brought his foot back outside quickly, feeling his breathing quicken slightly and his pulse jump. She didn't sound very happy. She was supposed to be out on a date...why was she home early? Did she get stood up again? Daisuke slowly stepped back and closed the door as quietly as he could.

He looked around to see where Takeru went and saw the blonde walking down the sidewalk towards his own own.

"Takeru!" he called out, sprinting down the sidewalk.

The blonde stopped and turned around to watch Daisuke run towards him.

"Daisuke?" he called uncertainly, and he began walking towards him to meet him halfway.

They soon arrived in front of each other and Daisuke bent over to catch his breath.

"What's wrong?" Takeru asked, a hint of concern evident in his voice.

"Nothing. Hey, do you want to go by the park and stay there a while? I don't want to go home yet."

"Sure," Takeru replied, concern still written on his face. "Are you sure everything's fine?"


"Yeah, yeah, it's fine. I just want to spend more time with you."

"Oh." Takeru smiled and laced his fingers through Daisuke's. Daisuke managed a true-looking smile and they walked the way to the park in silence.

When they got there, they found a nice, soft spot on the grass and Daisuke removed his jacket to spread out on the ground and lay on. Takeru only wore a hoodie, so he lay snuggled up close to Daisuke, his arm spread across Daisuke's middle.

They stared up at the greying sky - it looked like rain would pay a visit sometime later that day. They lay in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and then Daisuke turned to Takeru, opening his mouth.

He made a small noise and closed his mouth as Takeru turned to look at him. He stared into Takeru's deep blue eyes for awhile, remembered he was going to say something, and opened his mouth again.

"Yes?" Takeru prompted, biting back a laugh.

"I just wanted to tell you something that's been bugging me for a long time," Daisuke said, looking uncertain. "Since I trust you more now and all."

Takeru turned onto his side to give his boyfriend more attention. "Go ahead."

"Well, first you have to promise me you won't get mad."

"Why would I get mad?" Takeru asked, feeling a little uncertain.

"Just...just promise, okay?"

"Okay, I promise. I can control my temper easily, remember?"

Daisuke stared at him for awhile longer. Takeru let him stare, figuring he was summoning the courage to say it. It was weird, waiting for his usually very blunt and bold boyfriend to summon the courage to tell him something.

"It's about something that happened last summer."

Takeru felt a little feeling of familiarity. Hadn't he heard about something else that had happened the previous summer? He decided to be patient and waited for Daisuke to get the story out.

"I went to a party that one of the juniors had...he was in soccer, so I had met him before and talked to him and stuff. Taichi and Yamato went, too, so I wouldn't be totally alone. Sometime during the night, Taichi and Yamato had a fight...I still don't know what it was about, but Taichi left, and Yamato got pissed off because Taichi was how he had gotten to the party and he didn't have a ride anymore. Well, I decided to stick with Yamato during the rest of the party so when my mom came, we could give him a ride, and besides, he didn't really know anyone. Taichi was the one who had been invited, and he had just brought Yamato along. Yamato started drinking a lot because he was so mad at Taichi and he had started going off on one of his depression things. He drank so much that by the end of the night he was so drunk he could hardly stand up straight. He was so totally wasted..."

Daisuke gave a nervous laugh, and then stopped himself, clearing his throat. Takeru was having a growing feeling of nervousness as well, wondering if he really wanted to hear this, but knowing that it was too late now.

"The music started hurting his head, so we went outside, and we found this little tool shack thing in the backyard, so we went in there. I told him to lie down on this mattress that was in there...I have no idea what a mattress was doing in a tool shed...so he did. Pretty soon he started crying and blabbing stuff about Taichi this and Taichi that, so I sat down with him and tried to comfort him, since no one could see us anyways, and he looked so sad and scared that I couldn't help it. After a while he calmed down and he kept his head on my shoulder, and I was running my fingers through his hair without really realizing it...and then he...I mean, we..."

Daisuke stopped, running his hands through his hair.

"And then we started kissing. Uh...he called me Taichi. I guess he was so drunk I looked like Taichi to him or something. Well...I'm sorry Takeru...I..."

Takeru noticed that Daisuke had tears running down his cheeks. Takeru furrowed his brow and wiped them away. "It's okay, just tell me. I won't be mad."

"I lost my virginity to your brother in that shed, Takeru," Daisuke blurted out.

Takeru stopped and stared at him, his eyes widening slightly. Daisuke's head slowly fell from Takeru's hand and rested on Daisuke's arm. Takeru stared past him now, taking it in. Daisuke had sex with his older brother at a party last summer. His boyfriend had sex with his older brother. His then-fourteen-year-old boyfriend had sex with his seventeen-year-old brother.

"You what?" the blonde asked softly.

"I'm sorry," Daisuke whispered, his voice muffled by his sleeve.

Takeru rolled over and fell onto his back on the grass. The grass seemed harder and it knocked a little wind out of Takeru, but he stared forward at the grey, colorless sky.

"You were the one that Yamato cheated on Taichi with..." Takeru muttered to himself. "You...he said...oh, but you drank."

Takeru got on his side, smiling slightly at Daisuke. "You said you drank, right? So it wasn't really your-"

"I didn't touch a drop of alcohol last night. Yamato didn't know what the hell had happened the next morning...but I knew every detail...even while I was doing it."

"Oh," Takeru said, deflated a bit, and fell onto his back again.

"Quit doing that, you're gonna hurt yourself," Daisuke said, glancing at him with eyes still filled with tears, but now looking emotionless.

Takeru didn't seem to hear him. "Thanks for telling me," he finally said.

"Well...I couldn't go on not telling you..." Daisuke said to himself, also staring at the bleak sky. "Too damn guilty and all..."

"But this was last summer, so it wasn't cheating on me at all."

"I know, but I still feel guilty."

Takeru blinked to himself. "You were only fourteen."


"No, no, don't go giving me that too-young lecture," Daisuke told him. "Yamato and Taichi both gave me that the next day."

"What did Tai say?"

"He stared at us like he'd just had the energy zapped out of him, fell back on the couch, and asked to hear the whole story. Once we'd told him, he gave Yama a lecture on drinking too much, and me that lecture I just told you about, and then he told me to go home and tell my mom I had slept at his house. My mom yelled at me for not telling her where I was, but I didn't care...imagine how mad she'd be if she knew the truth about where I was and what I was doing."

"So you don't know what Tai told Yama?"

"No, but when I hung out with them after that, they didn't talk to each other for, like, a week. They still stuck together all the time like usual...only this time, they both looked depressed and just sat with each other, looking as if they weren't really there."

"Oh."

"Would you quit saying 'oh' all the time? It's getting annoying."

"Sorry."

"So you aren't pissed off?" Daisuke asked in a smallish voice.

Takeru glanced towards him. "Well, I'm not going to cry over it, and there's no point in yelling, since we weren't going out back then or anything. What's past is past, right?"


"Right."

But they both felt the new air of discomfort circling around them, and they both watched the colorless sky as it stared back down at the equally colorless boys.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: This seemed like the best place to end it, and I'm going to have to go take a bath in a little while, so...anyways, hope you all liked this chapter. Oh, and I know it seemed sort of like Ken doesn't like Koushirou back, but you have to remember that he's still getting over his crush on Takeru, so he's still sort of uncomfortable about getting in a relationship with someone else. Be patient, young grasshoppers. ^-^' Boy, I've been waiting to write that last part for ages. It's been stuck in my head since I first began this fic. The only thing is...now that I've written it, I have no idea what to do now! O.o' It's brainstorming time. **Grabs her thinking hat**