Note: If you don't know the songs Matt and Tai sing, the lyrics are at the bottom. And I suggest you download them! This is good, quality music here people. ^_~
"Delicious as usual, Mr. Ishida," Tai said, flopping onto Matt's bed and rubbing his full tummy.
"Why thank you, Mr, Yagami," the blonde replied, smiling. He sat himself down on the end of the bed next to Tai's feet and sighed contentedly.
"Where is your dad anyway?" the smaller boy asked, looking around at Matt's music posters.
"On assignment for Fuji," he answered, referring to the television station his father worked for. He crawled up to the middle of the bed and laid down next to Tai, fixing his gaze on the ceiling.
"Hey, there's only room for one up here," Tai giggled, shoving Matt to the side.
"It's my bed," he replied, smiling and shoving back.
"Ok I guess I can let you stay up here then."
"I'm glad I have your approval."
They lied next to each other on Matt's twin bed for a few minutes not saying anything. Tai listened to the breathing next to him and watched Matt's chest rise and fall. He glanced up several times, and when he was sure the lids on his sapphire eyes were closed, he began to gaze at the face around them. His eyes followed the contour of the high cheek bones and square jaw to the perfect lips. His milky white skin was flawless, there was not a blemish or imperfection to be found anywhere. Tai knew that under the long lashed eyelids were the most striking blue eyes he had ever seen in his life. He had begun to feel so unbelievably attracted to him in that last few months. Thoughts of the gorgeous teen flashed through his mind during school, and he'd sometimes find himself fantasizing about them being together. He wanted to tell himself he was just confused, but he knew it was a lie. He was falling desperately in love. Falling under the blonde's spell, he reached out and brushed a strand of the soft golden hair off his forehead. Matt suddenly opened his eyes and focused on the boy leaning over him.
"Can I help you?"
"Uhh, no!" Startled, Tai rolled over onto his back again. He could feel his cheeks getting hot and knew he was blushing again. The brunette quickly shifted to his side so Matt could not see his face. He felt a hand on his shoulder and resisted the urge to turn over and look at the beauty next to him.
"Is something wrong, Tai?" He asked gently.
Tai stared at the wall and shook his head.
"Hey, Tai..." Matt said. Hearing a hint of uneasiness in his friend's voice, he rolled over to face him.
"Yeah?"
"Can I talk to you about something?" Matt asked.
"Sure, Matt, what's up?" He shifted himself up a bit so his elbow rested on the pillow and his head was supported by his hand, and the taller boy stayed sprawled out next to him on his side.
"Uhh... you know how I said I haven't been able to concentrate and all that before..."
"Yeah, and that you've given up dating? That's not like you at all." Tai said. He noticed Matt was starting to appear slightly uncomfortable.
"Yeah... I don't know what's going on. For some reason I don't have fun with girls anymore. I mean, making out and stuff, it kind of turns me off lately."
Suddenly Tai felt a glimmer of hope, this couldn't possibly be leading where it sounded like, could it? Could Matt possibly feel the same way he did?
"Maybe it's just a phase," he suggested. Though this was not what Tai wished, he was trying to say what he thought his friend would want to hear.
"I don't know, I've just been feeling so weird. I can't seem to get over it. I don't think I'm attracted to girls anymore..."
This was way too good to be true, were these words actually coming from Mr. Macho-girls-fall-all-over-themselves-to-get-a-piece-of-me? If Matt felt the same way he did, maybe now he could tell him how he felt, he wouldn't have to be alone anymore. He had been waiting for a moment like this to come, but didn't think it ever would.
"I'm so scared..."
But the moment wasn't supposed to go like this. Matt really was scared, Tai saw tears start to well up in his eyes and his normally serene looking figure was trembling.
"Hey, there's nothing to be scared of," Tai said as calmly as he could. He'd never seen Matt like this before, he suddenly looked so fragile. The brunette wasn't sure what to do.
So, though he was shorter and slimmer, he gathered Matt up into his arms and held his sobbing form against his chest. He rubbed the musician's back gently and ran his fingers through the silky hair falling gracefully around his neck, whispering words of comfort in his ear.
"What will my family think..." He heard from deep within the embrace. "And the guys in the band, and the rest of the Digidestined, I'll lose all my friends..."
Could he really believe that?
"Matt, if they're real friends they would never leave over something like this. And I promise you'll never lose me. Even if you told me you were some kind of weird blood sucking alien from another dimension I would still be your friend!"
Matt sat up and stared off in a random direction for a second.
"You don't think I'm a freak...?" He asked quietly.
If he only knew how strong Tai's feelings were for him, he would never have to ask a question like that.
"Of course I don't." Tai also sat up and put his arm around Matt's shoulder. It felt nice to be so close to him. It was comforting to be able to touch him when they usually kept a friendly distance.
"Please don't tell anyone about this. I'm not ready for all this to be public, you know..." He said, turning to look into Tai's cocoa eyes.
"Your secret's safe with me."
"This is just crazy..." he sighed, leaning over on Tai's shoulder. "I can't believe I could go through a change like this. I mean, me. Usually you know about someone who's like this, or just hear about it in school. But I never thought it could happen to me."
He sounded like he had contracted some kind of disease. Maybe if Tai told him he felt the same way he wouldn't feel so alone. He knew how lonely it could be, feeling this way but not being able to tell anyone.
"You don't have to be ashamed, it's just how you feel."
"People are going to treat me differently."
"Not the ones that already love you." Tai knew this was true of course, because he was becoming more and more sure that he did love Matt.
Then he realized what incredible courage it must have taken to tell him this. He began to get slightly angry with himself, knowing he still hadn't summoned the strength to tell anyone what he was going through. If he had the crest of courage, then why was he still too afraid to tell Matt how he felt?
They sat together for a little while not saying anything. Tai kept his arm around Matt's shoulders, which he noticed were rather bony, and looked around his room.
"Hey Matt," he said, suddenly getting an idea that he thought would make then both feel better. "Do you want to go out to that Karaoke bar tonight?"
"I thought you said you hated singing." He had been trying to get Tai to go out to the new Karaoke bar that had opened up down the street for months, but the soccer star had always made up some creative excuse, knowing he couldn't sing very well.
"Well, I know you like to sing so let's go! Uh, do you feel up to it?"
Matt smiled and ruffled Tai's huge mass of chestnut hair. "Sure, let's get out of this dump."
Matt stood and strode across the room, Tai hopping off the bed and following him.
"You call your own house a dump, Matt?" He giggled.
"If you hadn't noticed, this place is always a mess," he said, entering the bathroom and picking up a comb.
"Has to fix his hair of course," Tai thought. Then Tai began to feel strange, just standing behind the tall boy watching him brush his hair. He stepped up and wrapped his arms around Matt's waist, giving him a gentle squeeze.
"Uh, what are you doing?" He asked, looking at Tai peeking over his shoulder in the mirror.
"Just giving you a hug, anything wrong with that?" Tai would never have done this with his other male friends, but Matt was special of course. He wanted to confess his feelings so badly, but he wasn't sure how or when he should.
"Heh, no I guess not."
They each took a bathroom break, got their coats and shoes on, Matt grabbed his wallet and they exited the apartment. In the elevator on the short trip down, Tai tapped Matt on the arm.
"Are you feeling ok now?"
"Yeah." He said simply, nothing else. The little brunette decided not to bother him about it again tonight. He imagined for a moment that the two were actually going on a date together, but scolded himself for it silently. "Even if he does like guys, that doesn't mean he likes me..."
It was American oldies night at the Karaoke bar, and the only people there were middle aged couples waiting to sing their favorite songs from when they were young.
"I feel stupid with all these old people here," Tai said, sipping the soda Matt had just bought for him.
"It's only 7:30, younger people get here later at night," Matt replied.
"I thought you hadn't been here before?" Tai asked, resting his elbows on the table and rasing an eyebrow.
"Akira and Yutaka came last week and told me about it," Matt said.
"How come you and Takashi didn't go?" Tai inquired, remembering that Akira and Yutaka were two of Matt's band members.
"Just busy, and..." Matt turned, looking at the two women that were on stage singing some song he'd never even heard before.
"And what?"
"I kind of wanted you to come with me when I went," he finally said, turning back to face Tai.
"Oh..." Tai bit his lip and tried to think of something to keep himself from blushing. He decided to think about his really old history teacher that he didn't like. Soon Tai was thinking so hard about his history teacher that he didn't hear Matt talking to him.
"Hey! Wake up Yagami!"
"Huh, what?" Tai looked up suddenly and saw Matt waving a hand in front of his face.
"You've been so distracted today, Tai."
"Yeah..." He sighed and drained his glass of soda.
"The stage is free, want to come sing with me?" Matt asked, pushing his chair back and standing.
"Uh, you sing one alone first, I have to finish my soda," he lied. Matt glanced down at the empty glass with an ice cube at the bottom.
"Sure you do." He grinned and shook his finger in Tai's direction. "I'm getting you up there with me before the night is over Mr. Yagami, just wait."
Tai smiled and little and watched Matt step on stage and grab the microphone of the karaoke machine like a professional. Well, he was a professional at singing in front of a crowd now wasn't he? Matt selected a song from the list available and music began to play again. It was soft and sweet, and seemed strangely familiar, like Tai had heard it once or twice on the radio. The tall blonde began to sing, and after the first few lines, Tai realized it was a song his mother liked very much, Someone to Watch Over Me.
"A girl is supposed to sing this song though..." Tai thought to himself, listening to the lyrics and noting Matt was singing the song from a woman's point of view. "He's got a lot of guts to go up there and sing this in front of everyone..."
"Although he may not be the man, some girls think of as handsome, to my heart he carries the key..." Matt glanced at Tai as he sang this part, and for a split second Tai could swear he saw him wink. His chocolate colored eyes opened wide.
"He couldn't possibly be singing this to me, could he...?"
Matt finished the song, the music ended, and the people at the other tables clapped. Tai noticed that the applause seemed a bit more enthusiastic than it had been with the previous singers. The lanky boy came back to him quickly and grinned.
"All these old people like you, Matt."
"Yeah? Well now it's your turn." He grabbed both of Tai's wrists and pulled him up on the stage next to the karaoke machine. The short teen stumbled up the step and stood next to Matt, feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Matt I really can't sing..."
"Neither can half the other people here, it's just for fun!" Matt looked through the list of songs and pointed to one.
"Do you know this one?" He asked, smiling slyly.
"What! We can't sing that! I don't even know half the words!" Tai protested then he saw what his friend was pointing at.
"The words show up on the screen, stupid. And I already picked it so there's no way out now." Matt had a huge grin spread across his pretty face. "You're singing the green words by the way."
"Yamato Ishida, you are evil!" Tai whined. He heard a soft chuckle come from Matt right before the light blinked for him to started singing the song he had pick for them, which happened to be,
"They say we're young and we don't know, won't find out until we grow,"
Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe. Matt smiled as Tai began to sing, and luckily for him Sonny Bono never sang very well either.
When they finished, Tai was beet red and Matt was all smiles. The other people at the bar actually stood up and clapped for them, and Tai was surprised, not just by the fact that they had gotten a standing ovation at a karaoke bar, but that Matt had picked that particular song.
"He picked another love song, is he trying to tell me something...?" Tai thought, but decided not to get his hopes up.
~~Here are the lyrics to Someone to Watch Over Me and I Got you Babe in case you didn't know them (And Matt sings the parts with HER in front, Tai sings HIM):
Someone to Watch Over Me
There's a saying old, says that love is blind
Still we're often told "Seek and you shall find"
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind.
Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet
He's a big affair I cannot forget
Only man I ever think of with regret.
I'd like to add his initial to my monogram
Tell me where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
There's somebody I'm longing to see
I hope that he turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me.
I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood
I know I could always be good
To one who'll watch over me.
Although he may not be the man
some girls think of as handsome
To my heart he carries the key!
Won't you tell him please, to put on some speed
Follow my lead, oh, how I need
Someone to watch over me...
I Got You Babe
HER: They say we're young and we don't know
We won't find out until we grow
HIM: Well I don't know if all that's true
'Cause you got me, and baby I got you .
HIM: Babe
BOTH: I got you babe I got you babe .
HER: They say our love won't pay the rent
Before it's earned, our money's all been spent
HIM: I guess that's so, we don't have a pot
But at least I'm sure of all the things we got .
HIM: Babe
BOTH: I got you babe I got you babe .
HIM: I got flowers in the spring I got you to wear my ring
HER: And when I'm sad, you're a clown And if I get scared, you're always around
HER: So let them say your hair's too long
'Cause I don't care, with you I can't go wrong
HIM: Then put your little hand in mine
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb .
HIM: Babe
BOTH: I got you babe I got you babe .
HIM: I got you to hold my hand
HER: I got you to understand
HIM: I got you to walk with me
HER: I got you to talk with me
HIM: Igot you to kiss goodnight
HER: I got you to hold me tight
HIM: I got you, I won't let go
HER: I got you to love me so .
BOTH: I got you babe I got you babe I got you babe I got you babe I got you babe