Gak! Over a month! Oh I am so, so sorry!! Really, I am. *hands out cookies to reviewers* a peace offering okay? I've actually had the ending planned out for ages, but I got stuck halfway through then forgot I had it … I'm rather absent minded at times. But here it is, the final installment to my fic. I hope you all enjoy it.

Epilogue

The eerie sounds of a haunting melody drifted through the hallways of the empty school, halting the footsteps of a person walking towards the exit. School hours were long over, it was closing in on dusk, yet a few people were still around. Deciding to investigate, the person changed direction and moved towards the sounds of the violin.

            Coming across the music room, he opened the door and looked in. A young boy stood there, completely engrossed in his music, a serene expression on his face. He was completely alone and unaware of his audience. Ending the song, the boy whirled around in shock at the sound of applause. He looked warily at the dark-haired PE teacher who walked inside.

            "Guess I know why you're not as interested in my class," the teacher joked with the younger boy.

            The boy blushed and hurriedly packed up his instrument. "Yeah, gym's, just not my thing Mr. Yagami."

            "Music is though." He cocked his head to the side, studying the student. 'I've never heard you play before at school concerts. Why is that? You're definitely good enough."

            The boy blushed at the praise. "I'm not one for attention."

            Mr. Yagami nodded his head. "I get that. Strange though, your friends are rather noticeable."

            The boy winced. "You're talking about Reino? Yeah, he likes attention, but he deserves it, you should know, you chose him for the team."

            "I did, he's a great player." He laughed. "Sort of reminds me of someone, you both do."

            The boy nodded and looked around a bit uncomfortably. "I should really get going now."

            "Sure. Most people would have left already. You don't have to wait for your parents or anything do you?"

            The boy shook his head. "Usually I walk with Reino, but he had practice, so I'll walk past and pick him up on my way." The boy smiled. "Hence the reason why I stayed and practiced a bit." They both walked out of the room and out towards he main entrance.

            "Speaking of your music, have you ever talked to Mr. Ishida about performance? I know you're not that big on being in front of people, but school concerts aren't that bad."

            "Maybe." The boy looked evasive. "I don't think that Mr. Ishida has time to deal with me though."

            "Mr. Ishida has lots of time to deal with many things, and he's noticed you too, but he wants you to take the incentive." He looked down at the boy seriously. "You're good, but don't let your fears or insecurities hold you back from achieving anything."

            The boy looked at him strangely. "You weren't one of those weird motivational speakers before you became a teacher were you?"

            He got a laugh in response. "No, but I do know the truth about that. Maybe I'll tell you some time about my experience with achievement. But then again, you might get a bit bored by it." He looked thoughtful as they two of them continued walking. "Of course you might be more interested in Mr. Ishida's story of fame."

            "Fame?"

            He grinned at the boy's sudden enthusiasm. "But that's another story for another day." They reached the main entrance. "I do believe we shall part here. I'll see you tomorrow in gym class Kiyu."

            Kiyu smiled at him. "Sure thing Mr. Yagami." He walked off in the direction of the soccer fields, hearing the amused chuckle coming from the teacher behind him.

            "Boy it's fun being back here."

*           *           *

Heads turned curiously as they heard the sound off approaching voices. Kiyu looked over at his grinning friend and returned the amused look. They were getting a substitute teacher for Social Studies. And from the sound of it, a very reluctant substitute.

            "But Mr. Yushimaro, I can't teach Social Studies!"

            Kiyu frowned slightly. He knew that voice. He exchanged another glance with Reino who shrugged, listening in on the argument approaching their classroom.

            "It's just for one lesson. I'm sure you'll do fine, it's just tenth grade Social Studies. You passed all of your classes with flying colours, I'm sure you'll be able to teach for just one lesson. It's not that hard."

            "But Mr. Yushimaro, that was years ago, I wouldn't have a clue about teaching Social Studies now!"

            The door to the classroom banged open, revealing a very irate principal and a pleading younger teacher. Kiyu grinned, recognizing Mr. Ishida.

            "Ishida, get in there and teach." Mr. Yushimaro pointed a finger and the teacher sighed and nodded walking into the classroom, resigning himself to a double period of torture. For what sort of students could resist torturing substitute teachers?

            As the door closed the students were all about to speak when they saw the icy glare on the handsome golden framed face. "Seeing as you're stuck with me for two periods, I'm laying out a few rules. I will not tolerate any sort of inappropriate behaviour in my class. This may not be my usual subject, but that does not mean I will expect any less respect from you than my usual students. Now, as for subject matter, I do not have anything on what you were working on before." There was a sudden cheer at this before it was silence with a cold look. "You will be expected to work on other subjects instead. Do not waste your time in this class. You have exams soon."

            There were a few grumbles at this, but they got their books out. It was strange, Mr. Ishida was usually a very laid-back teacher, always ready with a joke and a smile, the kind of teacher you could take your troubles to, or even dis the school with. He must have been in a really bad mood, because no one had ever seen him like this before.

            Kiyu really needed to talk with him about what Mr. Yagami had told him the day before, but he wasn't sure if he should approach. He glanced over at Reino, already falling asleep over his books and sighed. He wouldn't get another chance to say anything to him all day, he didn't have music until tomorrow. He hesitantly put his hand up.

            "Yes Kiyu?"

            "Could I possibly talk to you about a music assignment sir?" he asked carefully.

            "Sure." Mr. Ishida gestured him to come towards the front and Kiyu grabbed something from his bag and walked down there. Mr. Ishida tried to manage a smile for him but failed. "Sorry, I'm not in the best of moods today Kiyu."

            Kiyu smiled. "I get that sir. Social Studies isn't exactly my favourite class either."

            Mr. Ishida managed a small smile. "Strange as it sounds, it used to be one of mine in high school. I got perfect scores in it for three years." He took off his glasses and smiled softly, remembering something. "Of course it was rather easy for me to get high scores in Social Studies when I was here."

            "You went to this school?" Kiyu looked surprised.

            "I sure did. So did Mr. Yagami. We were in the same year."

            "Wow, that's kind of a freaky coincidence."

            "Not really. We both planned to come back after we'd finished our teaching degrees, not that we really needed them with our qualifications, but we thought we'd better get them anyway."

            Kiyu frowned. "Um, actually, Mr. Yagami talked to me yesterday about something."

            "I know."

            "Are you two like psychic or something? You seem to know everything the other does."

            "Most things," Mr. Ishida admitted. "I didn't actually expect to talk to you for some time. I'm surprised you actually decided to ask me anything."

            Kiyu blushed. "Well, I guess it helped having Mr. Yagami talk to me yesterday. Do you possibly think I could perform at the performance night coming up?"

            "You are definitely more than welcome to perform. It will be nice to have someone as talented as you performing for everyone."

            "Thank you sir."

            Mr. Ishida smiled at him again. "If you've chosen a piece we can talk tomorrow about it more, but right now I think I need to discipline the class a bit." Kiyu looked around and saw that many of the class were now whispering and generally ignoring the rules that Mr. Ishida had told them at the beginning of the class.

            Kiyu nodded and walked back to his seat, watching the teacher cautiously. Mr. Ishida just sat at the desk, waiting patiently staring at the class waiting for them to silence. A few noticed him and shut up while quite a few more didn't even notice the decrease in noise. To Kiyu's amusement, Reino was one of them

            "Rei," Kiyu whispered. Reino looked around in surprise, not realizing he'd gotten back to his seat. Kiyu gestured to the front of the room and Reino looked around and gulped. He had been the last person to notice the teacher watching them.

            "Nice of you to finally join us all again Reino." There were a few snickers at this. "Now does anyone remember what I —" He was suddenly cut off as someone barged in the door and quickly slammed it behind them. The whole class looked at the intruder in surprise and a few jaws dropped seeing who it was.

            "Mr. Yagami, do you know how to knock?"

            The brown-haired man turned around and grinned at the irate long-haired teacher. "You should know the answer to that, you've been trying to teach me for years." There was quite a bit of laughter at this statement. Kiyu hid a grin and watched Mr. Ishida's reaction.

            "And look how effective that was," he commented dryly.

            Mr. Yagami walked over to him with a grin. "Come on Yama, if you be like that, I won't tell you the big news I just heard."

            "I'm not interested in that, and you're supposed to keep a professional relationship." Mr. Yagami stuck out his tongue in disgust at that.

            "You can be such a party pooper at times Yama, what happened to the cool you?"

            "He can't be cool for another four hours thanks to his job that he would very much like to keep."

            "They're not going to fire us because we acted a little friendly."

            Mr. Ishida glared at him. "Maybe for your definition of 'a little friendly', Taichi. Personally, I would very much like to continue watching over the Social Studies class in peace."

            Taichi stuck out his tongue. "Fine I won't say then, I'll just sit here and wait for you to get into a better mood." He jumped onto the desk and sat there drumming his fingers on the desktop, swinging his legs a bit.

            Yamato raised an eyebrow at his actions but paid him no attention, continuing to write something in a book. The class was completely silent watching the exchange between the two teachers. Many confused glances were shared between various students, they had no idea what was going on.

            "Is it just me," Reino started, "Or are they sort of acting like we would?"

            Kiyu frowned and nodded. "Yeah, strange huh."

            "Yeah."

            Yamato kept glancing at Taichi, getting rather irritated with his fidgeting actions. He finally snapped and yelled, "Okay Tai, just what is going on?"

            "I'm not going to tell you now," Taichi replied in a rather childish manner.

            Yamato rolled his eyes. "Fine." He started to turn away.

            "Okay I'll tell you. Mr. Ukirino is coming for a visit to the school."

            Yamato paled and stood up, knocking the chair over. "Our old principal?" he asked disbelievingly, uncaring of the strange looks he was getting from the class.

            Taichi nodded. "But now he's the chairman of the district education board."

            Yamato paled further. "He's our boss?" Taichi nodded again. "Oh we are so going to get fired," Yamato moaned, holding his head in his hands.

            "I'm sure he's almost forgotten about everything already."

            "Taichi, you do realise we're the reasons for most of the new rules at this school, and I doubt very much he'll forget about his car that easily."

            "But he has a new car now, a cool silver convertible."

            Yamato paused and stared at Taichi. "What did you do?"

            Taichi bit his lip and looked around nervously. "It was a force of habit, okay, I just saw the toupee and acted, completely on instinct."

            Yamato groaned again. "Oh you didn't?"

            Taichi nodded and opened his mouth to say something more when they heard voices outside the classroom. Yamato gaped and turned around to see Taichi run towards the window. "Taichi he hissed in worry as he climbed out. He looked outside to see Taichi creeping to the side and leaning against the wall beside the window.

            "Ishida."

            Yamato whirled around, his eyes wide and his expression fearful. "Mr. Yushimaro!" He gulped and stared at the other man in the room with him and his class right now. "Mr. Ukirino," he bowed, trying to get control of his fear (and his laughter: Taichi had somehow dyed the old man's toupee black when it was supposed to be a very light brown. It looked quite strange to say the least).

            "Ishida Yamato, what are you doing?"

            "Um, I was putting a bug outside sir." There were a few snickers at this, but the tall imposing figure staring daggers at Yamato didn't crack a smile.

            "I meant, what are you doing here, at this school?

            Yamato gulped and stuttered. "Uh … t-teaching, sir?"

            The man glared and tuned to eth current principal of the school. "You actually let him in here?"

            "He does have very good references and qualifications, sir."

            Yamato gulped again at that cold gaze landed on him once more. "And where is your partner in crime, Ishida. I heard Yagami Taichi was teaching here with you."

            "Uh Taichi sir? I wouldn't know, last I saw of him, he was flying out of the room in a hurry to do something." There were a few more snickers from the class at this, which were soon silenced by glares from the two men in the doorway.

            "Indeed. I hope you know what you're doing hiring those two Yushimaro, I assume you've read the reports on them."

            "I have," Mr. Yushimaro nodded. "However I see no current reason for concern. Mr. Yagami and Mr. Ishida have acted quite admirably throughout their time here."

            "That's true sir," Yamato agreed. "There haven't been any incidences where things have been blown up, vandalized or stolen. I've come across no students making out in various places around the school and thus far the rules about cross-dressing have been upheld. Taichi and I seem to have had no negative effect on the school this time around."

            The class was staring in amazement at Yamato. It appeared that the two coolest teachers in school were even cooler than they first thought. Determined glances were shared between friends. They would get those stories out of the two teachers.

            Mr. Ukirino grunted. "We'll see. Now I have to continue my inspection of the school. Good day to you Mr. Ishida." With that the two men left the classroom.

            It was a few moments before the class burst into sound, all throwing questions at Yamato, but he ignored them, going instead to the window and looking out. Taichi was still there, looking nervous.

            "Is he gone?"

            "Yes Taichi, you can come in now." Yamato held out his hand and helped Taichi inside. However, he overbalanced when helping him in and ended up on the floor with Taichi sprawled on top of him, grinning in delight.

            "Well, this seems familiar," he leered down at the blushing man beneath him.

            "Taichi! Not in school!" Yamato pushed him off and hurriedly got up, his face still red. He looked around at the amused and slightly stunned class and coughed nervously. "Well," he started, "I guess you guys want some answers."

            "Yamato, they were bound to find out sooner or later," Taichi said, unconcerned. "It's the nature of school, the students know more about what's going on than the staff." He grinned up at the eager students and leapt to sit on the desk at the front of the room. "You guys want to hear a story?"

            "No," Yamato moaned. "Can't you find some other way to humiliate me Taichi? You know how much I value my reputation."

            Taichi pouted. "You won't let me tell them a story?"

            Yamato squirmed. "Taichi, don't do that, not the cute face." He sighed. "Fine, tell them, I don't care, just try not to get us fired. Ukirino's out for blood. I saw what you did to the toupee and black is not his colour."

            "I know," Taichi grinned. He turned back to the class. "First off, rumours, I want them. Who's doing who and where, you guys don't get a story without something in return and don't say you don't know anything, 'cause I've heard you all talking in the change rooms. Give me gossip."

            "You're worse than Mimi," Yamato muttered.

            "I resent that! And as for worse than Mimi, which one of us is the most fashion and hair conscious? I have never met someone who spends more time on their appearance than you."

            Yamato glared. "Just get on with this Tai."

            "Sure thing Yama-chan." Yamato growled at the nickname, remembering the last time he was called it. Taichi turned back to the class who were all loving every moment of interaction between the two. "Okay, one story for each rumour."

            The class shared a few more glances and hands suddenly rose into the air. It seemed everyone wanted to know about the two teachers now, hearing so many vague hints, but nothing specific. Taichi grinned at this and started writing down whatever he heard. He had a whole list by the end of it.

            He frowned. "There's nothing on here about me or Yamato." He looked up. "You guys haven't heard any rumours about us?"

            Kiyu looked nervous before he suddenly raised his hand. "I heard one that Mr. Ishida was actually in a famous band."

            "And you were captain of the national soccer team at one point," Reino added. "Nothing much else though."

            Taichi looked thoughtful while Yamato was hiding a smile behind a hand. "Looks like you guys are in for a treat then," he grinned. "Those last two were true." There were gasps and looks of amazement at this. "I was captain for the Japanese team, in fact I lead them at a world cup. We made it pretty high in the rankings too." There were loud whispers and a few grins at this. No wonder he was such a good PE teacher.

            Yamato sat down beside Taichi on the desk and asked, "Did you guys ever hear of the Teenage Wolves?" There were a few nods and some people gaped openly at him. "I was lead singer."

            "No way!" Kiyu gasped. "You were too! My older brother has all your CD's. I thought I knew you from somewhere."

            Yamato sniffed. "Ah the fleeting nature of fame, you leave the spotlight for what … eight years?" Taichi nodded at this. "And suddenly you're no longer as well known as you were. Though the press didn't give up on me for years. They never did find out who my 'secret lover' was. Their guesses weren't even close." He smirked.

            "Maybe that's a good thing," Taichi murmured. "I remember when we were almost killed by rampaging fans, thanks to the media giving out details of when we were landing to take a holiday in Paris." He shook his head. "People are quite crazy."

            "Look who's talking," Yamato grinned as Taichi glared at him.

            "Anyway," Taichi turned back to the class. "You guys haven't heard anything about us besides that?" They shook their heads. "Nothing at all?" Taichi sighed at the negative response. "Gossip certainly isn't what it used to be. It seems I have one hell of a tale to tell you all." He cleared his throat. "Like Yamato mentioned earlier, the reason you have such strange rules tacked onto the end of the normal list you're given at the beginning of each year is mostly because of us."

            "Sorry about that," Yamato apologised. "But I doubt that they would have ever been broken anyway."

            Reino raised a hand. "Um, which one of you is the reason for the cross-dressing rule?" There were a few snickers and Yamato glared at Taichi who suddenly grinned.

            "I am," he said. "But that's a story for a bit later. Our real story begins almost twenty years ago when my friend Sora made a bet with me and Yama here."

            Yamato sighed. "This is going to be hell for me," he muttered. "You're going to make it as humiliating as possibly aren't you?"

            "Of course, it's more fun that way." Taichi grinned and got back into his story-teller mode. "Okay, now the bet was we had to date each other for a month to prove that we weren't just hopeless guys who could never hold together a relationship for more than a few weeks."

            The class gaped at this. They had to date each other? This was just weird. "How long did it last?" Kiyu asked curiously.

            "About twenty years," Yamato said taking Taichi's hand in his own with a smile. Jaws fell open at this. "Of course Taichi keeps forgetting exactly how many years."

            Taichi glared. "Quiet, or I'll tell them straight away about the fan-girl costume!"

            Yamato gasped. "You wouldn't! If you do I'll tell them about the environmental protest that almost landed you in jail for vandalism and theft!"

            "Then I'll tell them about your 'brilliant' plan with the chemistry practical exam."

            "Your blunder with Ukirino's car! Both times, and the toupee incidents."

            "The school broom closet," Taichi finished with a grand smirk, knowing as he said this that he'd won the battle.

            Yamato stopped here and blushed. "Just tell the damn story Taichi," he muttered darkly. Taichi grinned in victory and continued to tell the story to the very eagerly enthralled class.

            It was fun to be back at school again.

AN: Ah and that's the end, finally. *sob* Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing and I hope you all enjoyed that. I probably won't be writing any more major works for Digimon, just one-shots … quite a few one-shots, and maybe some short stories.

Well, that's really all from me, hope you liked the ending to Realities of Friendship.

Laters.