A/N: This story's almost over. A couple of chapters and I'll be through with it, and I can start working on the many fics I am tweaking around with on the side. Let's see...not so much romance in these chapters, huh? Wait until they all meet up again. You'll get your romance then, I promise. ^-~ Still unsure on definite couples. I'm pretty sure I know who's going to end up with who, though. Anyways, enjoy the chapter.
This chapter is dedicated to...several people:
Frankie, for absolutely everything.
Aero-Grrl, because it's great to have someone to actually talk to about writing, and because I just love your stories. ^-~
Mr. Kinne, the greatest teacher in the whole freaking world, whom I dearly miss. Hope you're having oodles of fun in Boston! (Are you in Boston already? X.x)
Frankie...I mentioned him already, didn't I? He gets two mentions. He's just that special. ^-~
"This isn't fair," he sighed, and his two companions gave him "no shit" looks from their own respective beds. They were in a large bedroom close to the one Osamu and Wallace shared.
"Of course it isn't fair," Takeru gave Taichi a dull look. "But I'm not having the tyrant kill the people in my village, no matter how bitter I feel towards them lately."
"There are many things I'd rather be doing than kicking a ball around in a game that I already know I'm going to lose, but I guess we don't really have a choice."
Taichi sighed loudly at Yamato's words and relented, laying down on the fluffy mattress and digging his head into the soft pillow. He stared at Yamato as the blonde rested his own pillow on his lap and slowly, carefully began fluffing it up, as if preparing it for his head. Yamato felt the heavy gaze on him and looked up at Taichi, but the brunette had already closed his eyes and was slowly drifting off to sleep.
"Goodnight," Taichi murmured to the other two, "get ready to lose tomorrow afternoon."
Takeru snorted from where he sat on the window ledge, staring sullenly out into the night.
Yamato frowned and stood up to walk over to the younger blonde. Takeru didn't seem to make note of the other boy leaning against the wall and looking him over.
"You okay?"
Takeru ignored him. Yamato narrowed his eyes and growled lightly in the back of his throat. When Takeru glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw Yamato's hair bristling. The older blonde truly was the human incarnation of the wolf.
"Don't bullshit me. You've got a personality that is quite similar to mine, so don't think you're tricking me with this whole I-don't-give-a-damn attitude."
Takeru turned to look at him at last, raising an elegant blonde eyebrow. Yamato returned the look with surprising grace. He was even better at giving a dry look than Takeru was. Takeru sighed and let his head fall back, his hair sliding back to expose the creamy white skin of his forehead.
"I'm just worried, okay?"
"Worried about what?"
"Ken, mostly. I'm a little bit worried about Daisuke, too, but if you let that slip to anyone, I'll find a way to hurt you." Takeru gave him a look that convinced Yamato he'd keep his word. Yamato could tell that Takeru cared more than just "a little bit" about Daisuke, but wisely chose to keep his mouth shut. Takeru continued, "I know they're probably doing just fine, but the fact that I'm stuck in here and I can't help them is unsettling. I mean, one of them could be in some kind of trouble right now, as we speak, and I wouldn't even know, much less be able to do anything about it."
Yamato smiled slightly. He understood where Takeru was coming from. He knew that Taichi was lying in the bed not too far away from them, and so was not worried about him, but if he had lost Taichi in the flight from the Indian village, he wouldn't have been so calm and collected then.
"I think that Daisuke and Ken are going to be okay," he told Takeru, "but you aren't, if you don't get sleep tonight. We have a big day ahead of us."
"Oh, yeah," Takeru said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I can't wait."
Yamato chuckled softly. "Get to bed."
Takeru climbed off of the window ledge and trudged to his bed. Yamato shook his head slowly as he watched Takeru pull the covers back, muttering to himself. The kid reminded him of himself way too much for his own good. Yamato went to his own bed. He checked on Takeru once before laying down, smiling when he saw the younger boy seemed to be struggling to find a comfortable position. He laid down and pulled the covers up over his shoulder, his back to Takeru's bed, facing Taichi's bed. He saw that Taichi was facing him, but seemed to be asleep already. He studied the boy for a few long minutes, memorizing the way he looked now, so when he shut his eyes and readied himself for sleep, he could still see Taichi clearly, a beautiful image burned onto his mind.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ken was bent over the towel where it was spread out on the ground, one hand resting with the palm flat on the surface, the other poking two fingers in between two spread fingers on his other hand. He was muttering to himself, eyes closed gently, looking peaceful except for the concentration lines on his forehead. He ran his fingers over the blood splotches and Sora noticed that, even though the blood was dried and should not have been able to be rubbed off, his fingertips were stained red. A blue hair was wrapped around both fingers, binding them together.
Ken slowly opened his eyes and stared into space, eyes half-lidded and rimmed with red, slightly bloodshot, looking as if he were high. Sora began to wonder if maybe using witch-powers had some kind of a chemical reaction in the brain like a drug might.
"Hey, witch-boy," Jun called, "you see anything with your third eye or whatever?"
Ken snapped out of the after-haze and gathered the towel in his hands hastily, standing up and facing them.
"I know where he is," he said briskly.
~ ~ ~ ~
"WAKE UP!"
"Eep!" Daisuke sat up so quickly he smacked heads with Koushirou. They each groaned and touched their foreheads gingerly. Miyako and Jyou laughed at them. Iori politely tried to stifle his laugh. Mimi made a gurgling sound.
"What are you yelling for?!" Daisuke demanded.
"If we don't get a move on soon we'll never get out of this cave," Koushirou said, eyes narrowed, carefully lowering his hand from his head. "Besides, you were snoring."
"He always snores," Miyako said, rolling her eyes.
"Do not!"
"Come on," Koushirou said, waving his hand in an arc.
Daisuke slowly rose, stretching and grinning in satisfaction when he heard something pop.
They gathered the food that they had left over, along with whatever else they were carrying on their journey, and they began walking north.
"How much longer until we get there?"
"It's fifteen miles away, Daisuke," Jyou said, looking at him over the top of Mimi's drooping head.
"Fifteen," Daisuke repeated, frowning. "That's too far to walk."
"How else do you presume we get there?" Koushirou asked, raising an eyebrow. "Unless you have a horse in your pocket, we're going to have to stick to walking the whole way."
They slipped back into silence. Koushirou began planning what they were going to do once they arrived at the town. They'd have to find a hotel or another place to spend the night at. The following morning, they could make more precise plans as to who was going to go where.
"But...it's fifteen miles," Daisuke whined, breaking the comfortable silence.
"Yes," Koushirou said through gritted teeth, "fifteen miles."
"Fifteen miles! You can't walk fifteen miles."
"There's a cliff about two miles ahead," Miyako said conversationally. "We could throw Daisuke over it, and we'll have one less person to worry about."
"What?!" Daisuke cried.
"You're right, Miyako," Koushirou replied, looking thoughtful. "It's on the way, too. We wouldn't have to make any detours."
"But-"
"His whining is annoying," Iori admitted quietly.
"You can't-"
"It might take our combined efforts to throw him over the edge, though. He is a fiesty one," Jyou said, grinning.
"Jyou!" Daisuke frowned, looking betrayed.
They all turned to give him barely-concealed grins. When they broke into laughter, Daisuke stopped panicking, looking confused.
"We're just playing around, Dai," Jyou assured him, clapping him on the shoulder. "We aren't going to throw you off a cliff."
"Though it is tempting," Miyako cut in softly.
"We wouldn't do that to you," Koushirou said, giving Daisuke a crazy smile.
Daisuke eyed him uneasily and wondered how many sugared doughnuts he'd eaten for breakfast that morning.
"Guys! Don't joke like that." Daisuke gave such an adorable pout that Mimi pulled out of her drugged haze enough to give him a short hug. She then collapsed onto him, making him bend over backwards and throw him arms out in an attempt to regain his balance and not fall over.
"Shouldn't she be okay by now?" Iori asked, frowning as Jyou carefully pulled Mimi off of Daisuke.
"Uh," Jyou said slowly, blushing lightly.
"You aren't still drugging her, are you?" Koushirou asked, looking worried.
Jyou bit his lip and looked away.
"Jyou! You were supposed to stop doing that!" Miyako cried, looking scandalized.
Daisuke covered her mouth, afraid that she was going to begin a feminist ranting session and run off into the woods again. "Yeah, Jyou, what's going on?"
Jyou sighed and looked uneasy, staring anywhere but at the four faces staring at him. He began stroking Mimi's hair, and Daisuke got the feeling that the act comforted the older man.
"I guess I'm sort of...afraid."
"Afraid? Why are you afraid?" Miyako asked, face changing emotions from outrage to concern in an alarmingly short amount of time.
"What if she wakes up and hates me for doing this to her? What if she doesn't want to marry me? What if she stops loving me or something?" Jyou shut his eyes as if in pain. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost her."
Koushirou squeezed Jyou's shoulder. "Jyou, if Mimi loved you before, then she's still going to love you when the drugs wear off."
"I guess so, but what if she doesn't?"
Daisuke sighed. "Jyou, you worry too much, you know that? You're so nervous about everything that you keep yourself from enjoying life as much as you should be. Just relax and trust that everything is going to turn out okay, and it will."
Jyou stared at him for a while, looking surprised. He shook his head slowly and heaved a sigh.
"You're right about me. I do worry more often than I should."
Daisuke smiled comfortingly. "True love doesn't fade away, no matter what happens."
Jyou nodded to himself. "You're absolutely right, Daisuke."
Daisuke grinned. "You know what we need to do?"
"Get really, really drunk and party all night long so we can forget about all our worries and live it up?" Koushirou guessed.
Iori's eyes widened. "Of course not."
"Actually, Koushirou's absolutely right," Daisuke said, scratching his head. "I was going to say get drunk and party."
"No one is getting drunk," Miyako said sternly, glaring at Daisuke and Koushirou, who both cringed. "We need to get to this town we're going to, and that's that."
"We're going, we're going," Koushirou said, rolling his eyes. "But once we get there..."
"It's party time," Daisuke finished for him, grinning.
Miyako sighed dramatically. "Men..."
"Stupid men," Mimi murmured, surprising everyone.
Miyako laughed and reached over to squeeze Mimi's hand. "Exactly."
"Hey," Jyou said, frowning at Mimi.
"Just walk," Iori told them all, irritated.
They continued on their way, each with lighter hearts. They didn't know that there would be people waiting for them when they got to their destination at sunset.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Are you almost finished?" the Kaiser yelled at the door, frowning and tapping his foot impatiently.
"I do not want to wear this!" the voice that the Kaiser had come to learn as "Yamato" called back.
"Why on earth not?"
"Because-"
The door flew open and he found himself being glared at with three different pairs of eyes.
"-it's pink!"
"It is not pink," he protested vehemently. "Osamu used too much bleach the last time he washed the soccer uniforms. They used to be bright red."
"Well, they're pink now!" Yamato snapped.
"Red," Osamu corrected softly. He looked the three over in slight interest. "Are you quite ready to play just yet?"
Takeru narrowed his eyes, blue flashing warning signals. "If you weren't the Kaiser's favorite-"
"I do not pick favorites!"
"I am not!"
Wallace rolled his eyes. "You all through bitching at each other? Can we move out of the doorway?"
"Just because your uniform is the closest to red-"
"Hey, I'm the one who has to wear this stupid jingling jester's hat with freaking bells on it while I play soccer," Wallace said irritably.
"He's got a point," Taichi said cheekily. "It does look incredibly stupid on him."
Wallace fixed him with a death glare and bit back any retorts, turning around and stalking to the castle's front doors. The Kaiser looked Wallace's backside over with a grin and followed him. Osamu hurried to keep in step with the Kaiser, frowning at the way his beloved Kaiser was checking the blonde boy out, and the reluctant threesome trudged after the rest.
"Where are we going to be playing this game, anyways?" Takeru asked Wallace.
"Damned if I know," Wallace grumbled.
"We'll be playing on my own private soccer field," the Kaiser called back haughtily. "I think the brunette will be impressed."
Taichi smiled. He had revealed to them all his secret passion for soccer earlier that day. Yamato had groaned and agreed that soccer was indeed one of Taichi's favorite pastimes.
They walked up to where a very large soccer goal was positioned seemingly in the middle of a large expanse of flat, grassy land.
"Where's the rest of the soccer field?" Taichi asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The other goal is in that direction," the Kaiser said, waving to the right.
"And the field is...?" Taichi prompted, moving his hands in the air in circular motions.
"You're standing on it."
Taichi, Yamato, and Takeru looked around themselves. Taichi gasped when he realized that the entire grassy expanse of land surrounding the castle was the soccer field.
"You're kidding," Taichi accused, eyes wide.
"Nope," the Kaiser said, grinning like the cat who caught the canary, rocking back on his heels, arms behind his back, looking for all the world like a child who had been the first on his block to buy a remote-controlled airplane.
"I am impressed," Taichi admitted, raising both eyebrows and looking around at the soccer field once more.
"Thank you," the Kaiser said proudly.
Just then, they heard voices from somewhere behind them. They all whirled around and watched as a group of young men made its way over to the soccer field. A tall blonde boy with shoulder-length blonde hair, flipped up at the ends in a somewhat girlish way, stepped forward and grinned at the Kaiser.
"Ah, Kaiser, you have been waiting long?"
"Hello, Michael. No, I haven't," the Kaiser replied, eyes narrowing.
"Good. You are now ready to lose?" Michael asked wickedly, sneering at them.
Michael's haughtiness was even more grating on the nerves than the Kaiser's was. All six of the boys glared at Michael and the rest of the Germans.
"Let's get the game started," the Kaiser said icily.
"Yes," Michael agreed.
They all glared at each other for a short while more before Osamu finally reached out to grab the Kaiser's shoulder and directed him towards the center of the field, whispering close to his ear. Wallace cursed under his breath and hurried after the other two.
Taichi turned to his friends. "Ready for this?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Yamato said glumly.
"Let's get the slaughtering over with," Takeru agreed.
They began walking towards the center of the field, moving like prisoners walking on death row.
They only hoped it would be a short game.
