Lovesick – Chapter four
By: ThatGirl
//Great.// Yamato thought dryly. //He fell asleep the second after he came and didn't even bother to roll off me!//
"Taichi! Wake up!" he tried. The response was zero.
//No reaction, okay… let's see if this works then…//
"Taichi, I think I heard a thief!" He waited another few moments, and the young bushy haired man did not move a muscle.
//Wow… what a batman.// Yamato was slightly starting to panic. Well, this one can't fail.//
"Taichi, I've been lying to you all the time! I'm not a boy, I'm a girl, and I haven't taken my pills for six months! I want to have your baby!"
Nothing.
//What the… The guy must be dead!//
"God dammit, Taichi! I gotta pee!!!"
It's a maaan's world…and since he just confessed to being a girl… Taichi chuckled evilly in his mind. He did not really want to get up yet, being quite happy with their current position, but he guessed that keeping on pretending to be asleep would only be cruel. And besides, Yamato was really beginning to freak underneath him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHH! Get off me, get off me!"
Taichi considered fake slurring sleepily to get the right voice of someone who had just been woken roughly, but at the sound of the opposite of calm in Yamato's tone he decided not to, and did as he was told.
Yamato threw himself into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. After a while he came out again, eyes a bit red. Taichi presumed he was tired because of their little party between the sheets last night, as the blond also sported a somewhat stiff way of walking today, and did not pay it any real further thought.
Yamato cleared his throat and swallowed, appearing to try to clear his head. Taichi watched him. The blonde uneasily cleared his throat a second time, smiling unsurely.
"So…" he started. "What do you say about some breakfast?"
Taichi grinned.
"Yes, please"
*****
"You didn't think so, did you? That I'd still be here when you woke up?" Taichi said in mock arrogance, leaning back and putting his arms up behind his head.
The two had made the small table and on it was a pretty plain breakfast: some coffee, some milk, some slices of bread and some stuff to put on it.
Yamato smirked.
"Guys are always still here when I wake up. After a night with me I need chemical weapons to get them off my back."
"You'll never get me off your back."
"Really? You're already stuck?"
"Don't get too cocky on me now. I'd fall in love with Yassir Arrafat if he looked like you too."
"Daddy says I can't play with street rats", Yamato said with a babyish voice.
"Well, I'm afraid you have no choice. I'll put on the Palestine scarf and the baggy jacket and occupy this one-roomer!" Taichi put a fist down in the table, narrowly missing his buttered piece of toast. Yamato arched an eyebrow, wondering where this would lead. "I'll make a manifestation head quarter out of it from now on!" Taichi jumped up from the chair and leaning out of the open window he punched his clenched hand in the air. "We are many, we are strong, crush the fascism, YEAH!"
Yamato's eyes bulged as the crazy brunette leaned even further out of the window.
"Taichi!" Yamato tried to pull him back inside in his boxer shorts. "We're on the sixth floor, you can LIVE here, just come down before you fall out!"
Taichi fell silent, turning to look at him.
"Seriously?"
//Uh-oh, what did I just say?//
"Er… yeah, sure, alright." Yamato could not believe what was coming out of his mouth. "Or, I mean, it's up to you, really…" He had lost it.
Yesyesyes! Taichi's mind exclaimed happily.
"Yeah, okay. Sure. If you don't mind or anything." Taichi's voice said.
"No, it's fine by me."
"Fine."
"Fine."
An uncomfortable silence followed upon that. Yamato tried to break the awkwardness with laugh.
"Heh, heh, heh…" That did not come out as good as it should have sounded.
"Well, I'd, uh… better call Koushiro", Taichi finally said, and with that he was off to the phone in the bedroom.
With wide eyes Yamato stared after him, an expression of shock written in his face. Then he picked up his cell phone.
*****
"Jyou, I'm going out to help Tai fix some things! Jyou!" The redhead shouted on the other side of the line, and Taichi winced. "He doesn't answer, I think he's on the phone as well. But anyway, I'm on my way right now. See you."
"Yeah, see you. And thanks by the way!" Taichi added, but Koushiro had already hung up.
*****
As Taichi and Koushiro had talked, Yamato had called up Jyou and after a good twenty minutes their shared friend showed up at the doorstep. He and Taichi made their way out of the block of flats and headed for the old apartment to collect all of Taichi's belongings. The blonde moved from the kitchen to the bedroom, where he curled up in the bed, phone clutched tightly to his ear.
"God, I don't know why I did it! How could I? And he's probably already on his way back here with like six big bags of stuff!"
"Come on, Yamato, breathe…"
"I'm screwed! I'm going to have to call Ghostbusters if I'm ever going to be able to get rid of him!"
"Yamato, calm down, you're giving me a headache!" Jyou screamed.
Yamato finally quietened and closed his eyes, slowly sucking in air through his nostrils, letting it out through his mouth, in and out, in and out…
"Somebody put a knife in my thigh and rotate it, please?"
"I'm sure it's not that horrible… I mean, you asked him out of pure instinct, right? And the first feeling you get of someone is usually the best thing to see to…"
Yamato scoffed.
"Yeah. Says who?"
"Okay, okay, so Shugo wasn't the most reliable of boyfriends, but you're over him and Taichi is different. A tad…wild now and then, but he seems like a nice guy. To me, at least."
Yamato bit the inside of his cheek distractedly.
"Shugo…"
"Don't bother to think about the pig." Jyou said and Yamato nodded, not thinking about the fact that his friend couldn't see it.
"Boyfriend", he said broodingly, "He hasn't even asked me yet, and I haven't asked him. We're still unofficial and he's moving in for Christ's sake!"
The front door of the apartment suddenly flew open and Yamato heard Koushiro and Taichi's voices.
"Oh, got to go", he said.
"Okay, bye. And Yama, just remember to *breathe*."
"Sure, thanks. Bye."
They hung up.
"But you were always nagging about how you hated your job and that you'd rather quit to do something for a real paper instead." Koushiro said reasonably in the hall.
"I know, but I've got bills to pay. I would've been easier if I'd had some kind of safety there so I could squeeze some nickels out of it even though I don't work there any longer." Taichi replied.
"Stop dreaming! Do you know how hard it is to get fired when you've got a safety these days? It would be easier for them to hire a ninja to kill you."
"I've got an idea. Next time I get a job I'll pretend to be an alcoholic! They can't fire alcoholics even if they never show up for work!"
"Don't you think anyone would come by your apartment to check?"
"So what? The only thing I do is to lie in my underwear and
ogle at the TV all day. Typical alcoholic behaviour. Though I don't think
Yamato'd like it if I turned his place into a pot head place…"
"No, I don't think he would either. But you would have to go to treatment."
"I could fall back! I could get a hold of myself when I go to those treatments, then I go to work a couple of days, before I'm tragically at it again!"
"There has GOT to be a catch with that somewhere… otherwise everybody would do it!" Koushiro threw his hands up in the air to empathize his point.
Taichi picked up a large box and carried it into the kitchen where he put it nicely on the floor.
"Koushiro, my friend, you've been brainwashed by the government to toil and pay your taxes! If you just can keep away from the booze I bet it's great being a drunk! Imagine, sleeping as much as you like in the morning, lots of spare time, no responsibilities, and all of this more or less for the same pay check!"
"I don't know… And surely it won't look too good on a reference list if you'd want to take another job sometime in the future." Koushiro pointed out.
"Who would want one? In a couple of years I can convert to being a Christian and go on a tour around Japan and tell everybody how my faith helped me get through my abuse! Do you know how much you earn on tours?"
//Wonderful, he's out of work and pretty much mad.// Yamato thought dryly in the bedroom. //I will have to get him a job, because I'm not about to let him live of me.//
*****
"So, what are you watching?" Yamato wondered the following day. Taichi was slouched in the sofa in front of the small television set, watching the screen with blank eyes.
"Nothing. Just commercials."
"Well, is there anything on soon then?"
"Lemme check… Umm…" Taichi quickly flipped through the TV
guide. "Yeah, I think Today's Name is coming right now."
"Today's Name isn't a real show, it's just like five minutes of nonsense
because the channel wasn't able to make a good schedule. The only thing there
is is boring thirty seconds long promotion films." Yamato crossed his arms over
his chest and flopped down beside Taichi.
"That's not true!"
"Well, what's on channel five then?"
"About a Book. Big Brother Yoko tells the viewers about her favourite read, The Beach of Romance."
"That's not a real program either. Come on, let's do something." Yamato begged.
"Puppy dog eyes." Taichi said.
"No way."
"Suit yourself."
Yamato sighed grumpily and sank a little further down in the fluffy cushions.
"What's after Today's Name?"
"The World's Funniest Commercials"
"I am going to expire."
"Puppy dog eyes." Taichi said again.
"No." Yamato maintained.
"Puppy dog eyes, and we'll go… do something."
"Do what?"
"I don't know. You pick." Taichi put away the remote on the small table to the
right of the sofa.
"Deal."
Yamato pouted and made his blue eyes huge and sad. Taichi put a thumb between the blonde's eyebrows and pulled them up.
"Aw, you're so cute", he snickered.
"Shut up and let's go." Yamato smiled.
They went out into the hall and put on their shoes and jackets.
"Honestly. It's like you're part of the Matrix." Yamato said on the way down the stairs.
"What?"
"I mean, humans are kept in giant cocoons where they're fed with dreams so they'll stay passive."
"So you're saying Sunset Beach is part of some major conspiracy?"
"Think about it! Who makes all TV shows? The Yankees! They make the entire world couch-addicted and thick so that they'll be able to take over the world without resistance!"
"But the Yankees are the most thick and couch-addicted of them all!" Taichi protested.
"Doesn't matter. They won't get any resistance anywhere at all! They would be able to occupy the entire continent armed only with remote controls!"
"Where do you get all those theories from, really?" Taichi asked suspiciously.
"Look who's talking", Yamato teased. "I get them from Discovery channel, the free press' last sector."
They pushed the door open and walked out of the building. The sun shone brightly from a clear sky and Yamato took a deep breath.
"What a day…" he sighed contently.
Taichi kicked an empty Coca Cola can away from the sidewalk.
"What are we going to do?"
"Umm, well… I'll have to get back to you on that one." Yamato said slowly. Then all of a sudden a crazy beeping melody and a distinct "Bzzzz! Bzzzz! Bzzzzzzz!" sounded. Yamato fished his cell phone up from his pocket and pushed button with the green receiver.
"Yamato", he said.
"Hi, big bro. How are you?"
"Hey, squirt. I'm fine", he cast a glance at Taichi who was currently engaged with bouncing the empty Coke can up and down on his knees, "I think. How are you? Is Hikari alright?"
"Yeah, we're fine. Listen, Hikari and I are in Tokyo right now, so we thought we might get together and meet some friends or something…"
"Cool, that'd be fun. Today?"
"Well, if you're free, then…"
Yamato looked again at Taichi's can game.
"Yep, we're free alright."
"Great! So, what do you say about the park, two o'clock?" Then his mind registered on the word his older sibling had used when answering. "Wait a minute, 'we'?"
Yamato nodded. "Yeah, it's 'we' now. New boyfriend, you know" He couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from curling slightly while observing the bush-head's amazing concentration when it came to kicking cans.
"Wow! That's… really great."
"He's okay." Yamato assured tiredly, rolling his eyes. "Jyou even says so, so don't worry."
Takeru cleared his throat.
"Anyway, you got the time and place?"
"Yeah, we'll be there."
"Or be square. See you!"
"Yeah, see you." Yamato put the phone back in his pocket. "Tai!"
Taichi turned to him and missed the can that landed on the ground and rolled out on the car street instead. With a crispy noise it was crushed by a blue Honda.
"Now I know what we'll do." Yamato said.
After telling Taichi "the plan", the two made their way to the nearest subway station and promptly took the tube to the one closest to the park. Luckily, it was not a very long walk to it, and they arrived about half past one.
