Hero Worship

Part Four

+ Natsu +

A/N: Am feeling kind of down right now…light-hearted fics are not the easiest thing to write. But I've drugged myself up on chocolate and there actually seems to be some sunshine today so I'm making an effort to finish this chapter before the sun goes away and there's nothing left to keep me going. I'm also having problems with this fic because I think that Daisuke's character comes less naturally to me. Plus the fact that my muses are rebelling against the idea of me writing anything vaguely Daito. Every time I write 'Daisuke', I want to randomly change it to 'Taichi', which would of course eliminate the whole point of the story.

Alright, one more QUICK note before I let you actually read the damn chapter – I have a tendency to throw original characters into everything I write (remember Marie from London Rain???). This is just because I love making up my own characters. I am happy to keep writing fanfiction as long I'm allowed to indulge in original characters. So I apologise in advance for them, but I figure that Yamato's band would be more prominent in his life at this point than most of the DDs would be. I like them anyway…*hugs Sumi & Tomo*

For syrupjunkie! Whose incessant nagging has forced me off of my lazy arse to finish this chapter! ^^ (Okay...so maybe not quite INCESSANT...as...such...but he may have made a vague passing comment about it…somewhere…)

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Yamato was right about the bruise. It had turned nasty. Flared up with a vengeance. I stood in front of Taichi's bathroom mirror, peering at the purplish smudge on my left temple. I moved my fingers over it gently, watching as the careful probing of my fingertips sent flashes of pain wincing across my face. It hurt. Stupid bruise. But never mind. I fall over a lot and get kicked around all the time in soccer games so I'm pretty used to bruises. I was also starting to get pretty used to being in Tai's house. It's pretty cool how quickly people are able to adapt to changes in environment and stuff.

I plodded down the hall to the kitchen having been forced out of the bathroom by Tai's Dad banging on the door and claiming that he would be late for work if I didn't get out of there right this second. Kari was sitting at the breakfast table, kicking her feet and chewing mechanically as she hummed along to ABBA playing from a radio on the counter. Tai's Mum was a devoted fan, apparently. I remember Taichi always used to walk to school with ABBA songs stuck in his head after a morning's medley from his mother's radio. She turned round and smiled at me as I walked in, flinging a tea towel deftly over her shoulder.

"Morning Dai," she said and I was impressed that she called me by my name and not 'sweetie' or 'darling' like my mother would do. If she called me anything that is. Probably because she can't remember my actual name and finds meaningless pet names are the safest option.

"What on earth did you do to your head?" she asked, before I had even replied to her greeting. Her slender hands, asserted themselves on her hips as she narrowed her eyes to peer at my injury. "Did somebody hit you?" she asked and I got the feeling that if I had answered 'yes', she'd have been out on the street and hunting them down in no time. When I told her that I'd hit it on the bed, she laughed at me, good-naturedly called me a fool and handed me a bowl of oatmeal.

"Eat up," she ordered firmly, before turning back to making coffee and singing along to the radio in a pleasant, if slightly off-key, voice.

* * *

I was just about ready and presentable when the doorbell rang. I stepped out of Tai's bedroom and was nearly bowled over by Kari, who dashed down the hall to fling the front door open. TK smiled at her from the doorstep.

"Hi!" she beamed cheerfully, stepping aside so TK could come in while she gathered her bag together and tied her laces. Anyone would think that she was actually eager to get to school.

"Anyone would think that you actually want to get to school," a familiar smooth voice echoed my thoughts and Yamato raised an eyebrow as he watched Kari with amusement. I could suddenly feel Kari-like eagerness bubbling inside me as he looked up and met my eyes.

"Hi!" I said, mentally slapping myself for sounding like a love struck schoolgirl and wandered over, to jam my feet into my own shoes and snag my bag from its place on the hall floor.

"Hey," Yamato replied, glancing briefly over my shoulder before kissing me fleetingly on the cheek. I took his hesitation as a sign that it wasn't something that Taichi's parents were supposed to see. Oh joy, something else to remember. But a kiss is a kiss and I'm not complaining.

"Bye Mum! See you later!" Kari called without bothering to check if she had been heard or not, and ushered everyone out the door so that she could close it behind us.

TK and Kari chatted happily amongst themselves as we started the walk to school and I strolled leisurely along beside Yamato, enjoying the sunshine and listening to his talk about his band. I made the decision the night before that today I would put into action my plan of re-building my friendship with Ken. I like to have a project to work on. Gives me that sense of doing something worthwhile. Ken himself always used to tell me that if I put as much effort into my schoolwork as I did into my 'projects', I'd be a straight A student. Well this time he got to be focus of the project himself. Isn't he lucky? According to TK, he had spent the night at Tai's and we were going to meet him at what had once been my apartment building. That was good. It gave me some time to plan what I was going to say to him. 

When we reached my apartment building, I felt a little twinge of regret as I pictured Tai rushing around my room and gathering my things together, in the frantic whirlwind of a school morning. I wondered if all my posters were in the same places. I wondered if he threw his dirty clothes on the same chair. I wondered if he'd eaten Poptarts for breakfast. As crappy as it might have seemed at times, it was still my life and I didn't like the idea of it being completely messed up. Not that I didn't trust Tai not to mess it up or anything. I mean I don't think he could mess it up any more than I already had done. Hell, he might even be able to build on the confused remains I had left him.

The two younger (and shorter!) boys were already waiting for us outside and I threw Ken my most friendly and charming smile as we approached. Operation: regain childhood friendship, in action.

"Hey!" Tai called, adjusting his bag on his shoulder and walking up with a spring in his step and a light in his eyes that nobody should have so early in the morning. Ken trailed after him watching me suspiciously as I smiled and waved at him cheerfully.

"Hi Ken," I said as soon as he was close enough.

"Um hi," Ken returned, sticking close to Tai as he spoke. He always used to do that to me. Stay close when we were around people he didn't know or wasn't comfortable with. That was fine. I knew how Ken worked. If you don't come on strong enough, he'll ignore you and if you come on too strong you'll scare him. It's just like flirting. Not that my flirting has ever got me anywhere…but I have plenty of friends so I must be doing something right. Anyway. I kept my distance. But he had returned my greeting, politely making eye contact. And while we still had eye contact, I could press the advantage and spring conversation on him before he started talking to someone else. Oh I could so be a military general or something. Motomiya Daisuke, Command and Control, reporting for duty, SIR!

"Have fun last night?" I asked him, noting absently that everyone had started walking, and following suit.

"What do you mean by that?" Ken asked quickly, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye and falling into step beside me automatically.

"Last night. At Tai's. Did you have a good time?" I repeated patiently. Ken gets suspicious over the most random comments.

"Yes."

"Good." I wasn't surprised at getting a monosyllabic response. I knew when I accepted the mission that it would be up to me to fuel the conversation. "Do you have practice today?"

"No. Tomorrow." I knew that. You think I didn't know that?

"Cool. Hey so, have you finished that project yet?"

"No."

"What's that about anyway?"

"It's complicated…" Ken trailed off in a 'Please stop talking to me now' kind of way, and glanced at Tai for help, who was trotting ahead of us, speaking animatedly to an impassive Yamato, completely ignorant to Ken's plight.

"And I wouldn't understand, right?" I grinned. He was going to talk to me whether he liked it or not.

"I didn't say that. I just…" Ken looked at me and then seemed to realise that he had and looked away again quickly.

"Can't be bothered to explain it all? Sick to death of the whole thing? Ready to climb to the top of a tower block and threaten to jump until the world agrees to change the laws of mathematics to fit your formulas?"

Ken's lips twisted into half a smile at that one.

"Something like that."

I was pleased to have even got that far. Half a smile after only a few exchanged words. Pretty sharp. Still got it. So anyway. I've learnt from experience that it's almost always better to quit while you're ahead when it comes to people and I was pleased with myself to have even gotten a reaction. So I gave him his peace and shut up talking to him.

"How is everything going for you?" I nearly tripped over my feet when he asked that. It confuses me beyond belief when people stray from the things that I expect from them. I know how to deal with people providing they don't do anything spontaneous and unexpected. Ken was being spontaneous in showing even vague interest in my…Tai's…life.

"What?" I asked automatically. Standard response when something surprises me. Ken looked at me uncertainly, suddenly losing confidence in his ability to continue a conversation.

"How is everything? You know like with…life or…" he trailed off, watching me out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh. Sorry. Yeah, it's good. Great. Yeah. I mean because yeah, not that it's suddenly like any better than it was before. It's always been pretty good really. For me I mean. Guess I was just lucky or something. Lucky to have been able to have a good life not lucky to just be given one or anything because…" I stammered out quickly thinking that he was making a reference to the fact that it wasn't actually my own life that was going well for me and suddenly feeling guilt swell within me. Ken's just too damn smart for his own good...you just have no way of knowing exactly how much he's managed to work out about stuff. It's impossible to keep secrets from him because he seems to just magically know without having to be told. It's weird. Of course then I realised that I sounded like an idiot and coughed self-consciously, my cheeks starting to heat up. "It's fine thanks," I finished simply.

Ken gave me an odd look and didn't try to talk to me again for the rest of the walk.

The morning was otherwise pretty uneventful. We were lectured in homeroom about our upcoming exams and I had a brief panic as I realised that I could be the one doing Taichi's scary external exams. Yes. Fun for all the family. But I don't like to let things like that bother me. Won't think about it until the time comes. For now, I concentrated on dealing with stupid Mr. Furusawa and his stupid mocking 'Ha look at you all, I bet you all fail' glares. I have a tendency to answer back and speak my mind, retaliate when there isn't actually anything to retaliate to, so I decided the best bet would be to just stare furiously at the desk in front of me and ignore him. Pretty good plan, I thought, safe and easy. Yamato on the other hand met Furusawa's glare with his own. It was of a cold intensity that I would not like to be on the receiving end of.

I had Sociology first thing after homeroom and then Maths where I heard more about exams and was introduced to some scary theorem full of fractions and weird symbols. I swear, maths is like this whole different language. The board might as well have been covered in Spanish for all I could understand. I wondered if it was too late to change some of Taichi's subjects. Maths would be the first to go and Biology wouldn't be far behind. Then I could take Art. Hooray! There's nothing like getting yourself smeared with paint and paste to calm down after a run-in with a nasty page of algebra.

There was break time, which I spent talking to Yamato and Koushiro, who appeared out of nowhere having just had Physics. I'm beginning to wonder if this whole 'people appearing randomly out of thin air' thing is actually just me never paying attention and not noticing people walking up. I had PE after break, which was theory and kind of boring. But after that it was my favourite period of the day.

I brought my lunch from the cafeteria and trotted outside with it, looking for someone friendly to eat with. I almost sat down when I saw Ken and Miyako eating in our usual spot, but remembered in time that trying to be friendly with my old friends only got me weird looks and nervous smiles. I kept walking and eventually spotted Yamato sitting with Sumi and that other guy from the band, Tomo I think his name was. They all smiled warmly as I slid into the seat next to Yamato.

I suppose that in retrospect what I did next wasn't really the most intelligent thing that I could have possibly done at the time, all things considered. But I generally do not think before I do things. You have to take risks right? I mean how dull would life be if you thought carefully about every tiny little thing before you did it? Thinking before you do things? Nah...complete waste of time. It's certainly never gotten me anywhere anyway. I expect it had something to do with sitting down surrounded by the cool crowd of the upper school. Power rush. It goes to your head. There was Sumi sitting there and grinning perkily and Tomo with his funny sarcastic smile and of course Yamato who looked every bit as delicious as he had done that morning. The girls on the next table were watching enviously as I took my seat next to Yamato and one of the strikers from the team clapped me on the shoulder as he passed. And boy did it go suddenly to my head. It was just this mad rush of insane happiness that I get sometimes and it makes everything seem perfect, like I'm suddenly invincible. In reality it just makes me cocky.

I leaned over and pressed a miniscule kiss to Yamato's cheek in greeting. Next thing I knew, I was having to grab the table to save myself from falling out of my seat and my drink was hurling itself out of its container in a spurt of orange. Sumi squealed and leapt up from the table as if struck suddenly by some rare phobia of flying orange soda and Tomo's eyes widened in a way that would have been amusing if it weren't for the fact that suddenly there was nothing amusing about the situation. At all. You know how there are like, feelings in the air? Well perhaps you don't, perhaps that's just me being weird. But I always think that there's a certain atmosphere in the air that lets you know what the people around you are thinking. It helps you avoid getting punched because you can work out when people are getting pissed off with you and stuff. Anyway, it was just like the atmosphere took an abrupt one-eighty and all the good cheer was sucked away along with my soda as it ran calmly through the wooden slats of the table and onto the concrete below.

It took me a moment to realise that I hadn't just lost balance and nearly fallen over like a total dork, and that in fact it had been Yamato, who had shoved me quite violently away the second my lips touched his cheek. As I was busy saving myself from splattering my head on the concrete and panicking that I had finally been found out and that Yamato was just having some kind of severely delayed reaction, I vaguely noticed that the same girls who had previously been staring enviously were now watching with excited interest and whispering to one another in a worrying way.

Yamato's attention was focused on them as I finally sorted myself out and he was smiling award-winningly.

"Ignore him. He thinks he's being funny," he said, rolling his eyes and a few of them giggled in understanding. "Just go back to your lunches. Best not to encourage him," he added conspiratorially and checked that their attention was diverted before hissing at me, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

Did I ever mention that if someone challenges me, I always get this unquenchable urge to retaliate viciously? And that 'stick up for yourself' instinct basically overrides everything. Even hormones.

"Well I thought I was kissing my boyfriend," I replied sharply, feeling proud that I was able to meet Yamato's heated blue glare and resist the urge to cringe away.

"In public?!" From the alarmed tone of Yamato's voice, you'd have thought it had been something far worse than a kiss on the cheek. I think I was pretty surprised by that. I mean Yamato had always seemed to be so cool and laid-back about that kind of thing. But I suppose that if I'd actually stopped to think about it for a second (yeah right), I might have twigged that if the relationship was currently being kept a secret from parents, it was probably a safe bet that it was also being kept secret from complete strangers. Or, from fellow students that you had to face every single day at school. And if I had been able to think really hard, I might have noticed that I had barely ever seen Taichi and Yamato so much as touch one another when they were at school. But, lacking the ability to actually ever think when I need to, instead I asked a question that had a very obvious answer.

"Is your reputation really so important to you?"

Yamato snorted in response. "Yes. What? And yours isn't?"

"Of course not!"

"Well that's funny because that's not what you've been telling me."

"I have never told you that."

Yamato's eyebrows lifted about a foot in the air. "I can't believe you can just look me straight in the eye and lie like that."

"I'm not lying!"

"I can tell when you're lying."

"But I'm not!" I was suddenly feeling ready to hit something. Really hard.

"Hey come on! Easy does it, huh?" Tomo's careful voice cut in before Yamato could reply with the nasty remark that you could practically see brewing behind his eyes. He turned sulkily away and pouted to himself instead.

Sumi was dancing around behind Tomo making little whiny noises and pulling her shirt away from her stomach to stare at the tiny trail of orange specks spattered over the surface.

"Way to go Dai!" she snapped, "You've juiced my new shirt! Do you have any idea how long this took to make?"

"It wasn't his fault," Tomo said patiently, sounding as though he was used to this kind of situation.

"Yes it was. He should know by now that Yamato is a moody bitch and that you should just leave him well alone." Sumi dropped the hem of her shirt to glare over the table at an impassive Yamato. Yamato opened his mouth to reply but Tomo cut in before him, lazily righting my now empty cup as he did so.

"He is not a moody bitch. He is a tortured artist. Right Yama?" He raised one messy ginger eyebrow jokingly at Yamato, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sure. Why the hell not?"

"There you go. Now sit down Sumi, your shirt still looks lovely. It's covered in paint splatters for God's sake, you can't even tell that the orange isn't supposed to be there," Tomo ordered and Sumi complied, grumbling as she did so, "And Dai, just leave Yamato and his artistic temperament today. He's cranky because he had a run-in with the music teacher."

"Fucking bastard," Yamato contributed bitterly, no sign of what had now been termed his 'artistic' pout disappearing. It actually looked kind of sexy to be honest. I always wondered if there was a reason that Taichi and Yamato had so many clashes.

"Oh really?" It was Sumi's turn to raise an eyebrow. I really wish that I could do that. I've always wanted to. I tried to see if I could do it in the bathroom mirror this morning while examining my bruise but I could only manage to screw up one half of my face like I had some kind of weird facial tick. I guess that Tai can't raise just one eyebrow either.

"Yeah but don't ask about it," Tomo answered for Yamato, whose face had darkened at Sumi's curiosity. "He'll probably bite your head off. Let's all just calmly eat our meals okay? I plan to actually get through my next lesson without starving to death."

I shrugged and reached for my fork, happy to go along with the eating plan. Eating is never bad. Rocks my world.

Silence reigned for a few minutes, while we ate (or while Sumi, Tomo and I ate and Yamato sulked) before I noticed that Sumi was staring quizzically at me, chewing thoughtfully.

"What?" I asked, automatically smoothing my hair back with one hand.

"What did you do to your head?" she asked after swallowing.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Your head. You've got a bitch of a bruise there," Tomo supplied for her, "I noticed earlier but I thought that it might be rude to ask about it..." he sent Sumi a pointed look, who stuck her tongue out in response. 

"There's nothing wrong with asking," she said simply and then looked to me for an answer.

"I...er...hit it on the bed," I mumbled. It's embarrassing alright? Nearly knocking yourself senseless just trying to get out of bed. Sumi gave me a sympathetic look for a moment before he face curved into a knowing smirk and she looked mischievously at the still sulking Yamato.

"Oh I see..." she drawled, voice laden with suggestiveness, "got a little over enthusiastic did we?"

"Shut up Sumi," Yamato replied promptly, not lifting his eyes.

Sumi winked at me. "Is he being rough with you Dai? Poor baby."

"Surely not," Tomo said, aghast, "Super-star jock Daisuke being beaten up by the school's resident femme fatale?"

Yamato's eyebrow quirked.

"I don't even have so much as the chance to stand up for myself," I began in a long-suffering voice, happy to play along in the all too fun role of the tragic victim. Providing Yamato didn't get violent again, "to be fair, he's a hell of a lot stronger than he looks." I remembered hearing Taichi saying that once. Can't knock a little authenticity, can you?

Sumi snorted.

"Oh I find that hard to believe," she said haughtily throwing Yamato a challenging look. He must have been able to feel it or something because he looked up and met her eyes.

"Want me to prove it?" he asked, lips curving.

"Yamato no! You're such a bully!" I wailed and received a good-natured elbow in the side from Yamato. But at least now he was smiling.

It seems that he's one of those people who just can't seem to consistently stay in one mood. By the time lunch was over, he was laughing and talking animatedly about his music project. It must be so cool to have something that you're so utterly devoted to. I don't really think I have anything like that. Maybe I should start looking. Anyway...I think that, all things considered, I was able to keep up pretty well with Yamato's quicksilver moods. So when Sumi and Tomo picked up their trays and left with careless promises that they would speak to us later, I wasn't really all that surprised that Yamato caught my sleeve when I started to follow suit. He looked at me, suddenly serious. I swear, sometimes he is so intense that it's scary.

"I'm sorry about that you know Dai," he said honestly.

"Hey, don't be. It was my fault anyway." I guess it wasn't really...but almost every time I look at Yamato, I get this vague sense that he needs reassurance.

"No it wasn't," he says, reading my mind, "I really am sorry. I know I'm not the easiest person to deal with...or the most stable." He smiled as he said that. But I'm not good with reading between the lines, so who knows?

"It's not a problem, honest."

"I'll make it up to you. Promise," he persisted.

"Sure okay. But only if it will get you off my case." And I almost leaned over to kiss him again before I stood up, but I caught myself just in time.

We walked back to homeroom and sat through another five minutes of that bastard teacher before the bell freed us from his evil clutches. As I was trotting happily off to my second sociology lesson of the day, Yamato grabbed my sleeve again. Why people feel the need to do that, I don't know.

"Hey...you have a free period after this, right?" he said, and you could practically see the cogs turning in his head as he said it.

"Um...yeah, I think so. Why?" I asked suspiciously, seeing something unnerving and unfamiliar dancing in his eyes.

"Oh no reason." Yamato shrugged lightly and grinned at me before turning and heading in the opposite direction.

Yep...there was definitely something about that grin that I didn't like.

A/N: OKAY! So that wasn't the most exciting of chapters! So sue me (oh no wait...the phrase I'm looking for is 'please DON'T sue me...'). But I promise promise promise that I'll make it up to you next time. And my word is as good as Yama's. And remember kids...reviews make Natsu happy and keep her writing! You want to make Natsu happy. Right?