Title: All You Need to Know (About Friendship)
Chapter: Advantage (1/?)
Author: Charlie (Lycthem)
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over DIGIMON. I'm just a teen with a computer and an idea that decided to scream it's way into said computer.
Warnings: Liberal use of foul language. Mutilated words. Abundance of fragments. Teenage crap.
All You Need to Know (About Friendship)
01. -Advantage-
There are two unwritten rules in the world about truth. Well, I'm sure that there are more, but I'm going to focus on these two. If you want an honest opinion go to a small kid. They have nothing to lose and haven't yet had the chance to have their brain washed. And secondly, never underestimate the power of good sarcasm. More often than not, the person wielding that sword is giving you their honest opinion, but is too scared about what your reaction may be.
Then again, they might just like being mean.
My friends call me Tai.
My parents named me Taichi.
I love football, and I suck at good sarcasm.
Must be why I'm good with the whole to your face honest shit and get compared more than I'd like to a kid.
I'm also on a self proclaimed mission.
I'm out to let each person in my world know all they need to know about everything. I started with friendship, of course, since that seems to be one of the most difficult topics these days. No one bothers to have any real friends anymore, and I think someone should fix that. Since no one wanted to, I took it upon myself.
When I first ran the idea through my best friend Yamato (doesn't that give you the mental image of the idea literally running through him?) he had the misconception that I was trying to take away his reason to live. He has this thing where he thinks that he's the one who knows the most about friendship and all that. I think he honestly believes that's true, but I don't know. I mean, I don't think there's only one person who knows all about friendship. See, told you I wasn't very good at that sarcasm thing.
Anyway, when I told Yamato about that idea, he seemed to think I was crazy. After all, who takes something as weird as that as a goal. Teaching people all you need to know about a certain subject. And as I so greatly, if my opinion counts for something, said to him, I said:
"I'm not going to show the whole world all about friendship. That would be stupid, and there's no way the whole world is going to listen to me about something like that. D'you know how many people there are in the world?"
He was sitting in one of those blown up couches that I always think are about to explode if you just touch it, and he rolled his eyes. I hate it when people roll their eyes, it's about as annoying as when people raise one of their brows. I mean, who really needs to do that. They only want to show off or show that they can be aloof or whatever. Yamato thinks it looks cool. Says I'm jealous because I can't do it. Raise one brow, I mean. Anyone can roll his or her eyes. So I continued:
"I'm just going to tell, maybe show, the people that I know, all they need to know about friendship. There's a difference. You can learn all about something, but everything isn't going to be useful. There are some things that are necessary and some things that you can do without. I'm going to focus on the things you need to know, not the things you want to know (which is everything). And if some things you wanted to know turn out to be things you need to know, than all the better for you, right?"
He looked at me with that odd look people get when someone who they think is crazy is talking weird shit to them, but I could tell that he was interested in what I was saying. I can tell because I know him since we were wee (I've always wanted to say that) and he tilts his head a little when he's paying much attention to what you're saying. Reminds me of a dog, and I told him so once, we got into a fight over it. Apparently he's very touchy about that.
He then asked me how I planned to do that. If I was planning of giving special classes and all. I'm sure he was being sarcastic but really wanted to know, and I told him he was being silly. I told him I was going to be myself, just adding that to my list of things to do in life. It's not like I wanted to show them all in a day. Even famous people would have trouble with that deadline. Hah, turned out I was right. I didn't do it in a day. But I did manage to do it in a week. And for me, well, that's pretty darn fast. Even if it was only about friendship. But then again, I'm not sure I managed to cover everything.
***
Most days start pretty early for me. I know I'm far from an early riser, but they start early just the same. First, my mother wakes up to make some breakfast. Then a few minutes later my dad gets up and Kari is close to follow. You don't know how hard it is to sleep when the house is full of activities like that. Someone's taking a bath, someone else is cooking, the other's watching TV, honestly, it's summer. Vacation. You're not supposed to even know that this time of day exists during summer. It's written on the life manual! Just look it up!
So I have to wake up.
There's nothing much to do in the morning and I know this because I've lived through enough summers to realize this. Most shows are for kiddies or else it's news and I don't like seeing all that gore and tragedy so early in the morning, thank you. I woke up that first day with every intention of visiting Yamato to work on my plan.
See, I can be organized if I want to. It's in my DNA, you'll never meet someone as organized as my father. I can seriously bet on that. He's even neater than Jyou for crying out loud, and Jyou's pretty neat what with all his allergies and stuff. So I ate my breakfast, (mom's cooking, I don't know how I'm still alive now), and headed towards Yamato's.
I walk almost everywhere, that's what you get when you're father's adamant with the fact that you're too young to drive and blah. You see some pretty interesting stuff that way, but I don't remember seeing much that day. Think I was too focused on getting there.
I caught Yamato's father leaving (that's how early I was), and saw that Yamato was still sleeping. Lucky bastard, still, I didn't let him sleep for long. Threw him off the bed I did. And when that didn't wake him, I just sat on him until he did. But he's cool when he's waking up, didn't even hit me. But I think that had more to do with him not being able to see properly than with him not wanting to hit me.
The planning didn't take much of our time. Turned out we -and when I say we I mean I- don't have the dedication to spend so much time on one thing. I should've thought about that since we've known each other for so long, and when one knows someone for a long time, you tend to predict how most things will come out. Of course, that takes dedication and that's just what I was telling you we didn't have. Figures.
We did manage, however, to make one of those agendas that have these outlines of what you're supposed to do. Yamato wasn't much help; he was mostly on his bed playing with that guitar of his. I swear he had this obsession with it; it's not even funny. Heh, never mind that. It is pretty funny. Except when he gets all territorial about it. I mean, once when he was acting really pissy I picked it up and, man, did he throw a fit. You know those dogs that just had puppies, how if you even think of standing near one of them they start yapping and barking and you swear they're off to bite your hand off? Well, he was worse.
Still, the outline came out pretty neat and everything was set in only a few minutes. That was cool cause it left the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted to do. It took a while before we decided just to pig around the house, but it was fun. Then again it's us I'm talking about. We're so fun. And I'm not even being sarcastic here.
While we were pigging out in the couch something interesting did happen, though. We were watching this horrible show about some people that were stuck in a room and couldn't get out and they spend a whole hour just whining instead of looking for a way out only to realize that the back door was open all along. Anyway, Yamato got all freaky all of the sudden during the middle of the show. Not freaky as in girl in the Exorcist or anything like that, I mean nervous-freaky. Probably should've said that in the first place, huh?
So, he got all nervous and I could tell cause he was all fidgety and all, and I asked him what was wrong and he looked at me for a second then back at the TV, and I swear he said this in the weirdest voice, he said:
"Oh, nothing's wrong."
I mean, what's up with that?
I could completely tell something was wrong, and I told him so, because I'm not one to keep something like that in my head. And you know what he had the guts to do? He turned off the TV and left. Of course by the time he did that the show was already over, but really, if something's wrong, aren't you supposed to be able to tell your best friend about it? Talk things through or whatever it is that the saying says and stuff?
Thank goodness I'd decided to go through with that teaching the people I know all they need to know about friendship. Yamato should know that he can count on me with everything. It's just something friends know, right?
Besides, what up with acting all weird in that part where the two guys kissed? Sure, it's not like it's something you see all the time, but that's not something to be all freaky about either. Hell, he gets along just fine with Daisuke and Ken, and hell if they're not together and very mushy-mushy most of the time.
That kept me thinking the rest of the day, even after Yamato returned and started acting all normal. But I'm sure that's what he was doing, acting. Yamato's pretty good at it. I don't know whether that's such a good thing. It was stupid of me not to ask again, though. I now realize that. Could've saved us both a lot of shit.
***
I had to go home at the end of the day, I don't know why but my mother didn't let me sleep over at Yamato's. Probably had something to do with the fact that I'd been sleeping over so much that it seemed my house was just the place I changed clothes in. If that much. And Yamato didn't seem as put off as he normally did when I didn't stay to sleep, he always tried to convince my mother (most of the time getting his way) but this time he didn't even try. Just shrugged as if it were beyond his control. Sheesh.
I decided to clear off him the next day. It was stupid of me, you don't have to tell me I already know, but I didn't want to deal with all the things one had to deal with when a friend is in trouble. How hypocritical of me, since I was supposed to be showing people all you needed to know about friendship. Guess I should've decided to show them all they needed to know about being a friend and actually know it myself. And that's when I had that epiphany of mine. Epi, I like to call it. Yeah, I named my epiphany, so what?
Instead of focusing on all the people I knew, (which I now admit would've been pretty hard since it was summer vacation and all and most of my closest friends were out of the country) why not concentrate on one person. I'd take one person to teach friendship, then another person to teach something else and so on and so forth. Now, tell me...Wasn't that a beautiful epiphany? Marvelous, I'd say. And that's what I decided to do.
So Yamato was my target, and getting him to know all you needed to know about friendship (and therefore being a friend) was my mission. And I had no time limit to complete it. I remember I did this little dance in the middle of the street and almost got hit by a car. I was out buying ice cream since it was hot and nothing else came to mind. After buying that ice cream I went directly to Yamato's house. Because I had to tell him, you see?
And damnit if I didn't have worse timing. Still, it could've been worse. I could've never made it at all.
***
The first thing you need to know about friendship is that what you say matters. And after you know this you have to realize that what you don't say matters too.
I'm pretty oblivious most of the time, as I'm sure most people are as well, and say things that I don't mean in the spur of the moment. I also refrain from saying things that I should say. I'm not about to go into one of those sappy, always tell the people you love that you love them or it may be too late crap. I admit that might be true, but you won't be getting a lecture of that from me. Call Sora if you really want to hear one, hers is pretty good. (Long too so be ready).
No, I'm talking about saying what you think and telling the truth. See, most of the time I match up what I'm saying. The truth is very important in friendships. Friendships based on lies rarely, if ever, come through. Mostly because, sooner or later, everything comes out. You can't keep something a secret forever, (and if you do, can you please tell me how?). It's just not possible. People are made flawed that way.
Was Yamato breaking some rule about friendship by lying to me about everything being normal? Hell no! Being a friend doesn't mean being a saint. You don't have to say the truth all the time, people lie all the time. But it's better not to lie about things that count. Not when friendships get broken because of said lies.
I read this story (it was a short one!) and it was about this little lie that kept getting bigger and bigger because the little girl was always adding another layer, etc. At the end, that little lie had turned into a big lie, and I'm turning into a girl with all these girly metaphors and shit. Excuse me while I go clean my ears.
Sorry. Got off track there. I tend to do that a lot.
Now, what you say matters. What you don't say matters as well.
So I went that afternoon to tell Yamato just that because it was my mission and he is my friend.
The idiot was baking a cake; I thought he was trying to kill himself. Show's you how much I know about life.
When I got there (the door was open) I immediately headed towards the kitchen. Yamato's house is much like mine, and if you enter and see that he's not in the living room, and that no music is making its way to your ears, then it's a safe bet that Yamato's in the kitchen. That boy loves to cook, and I swear if he wasn't so damn good at it, I'd complain it was (aside from music) all he ever thought about.
Thankfully he was very good at it because I'm pretty sure he'd be insulted if I ever told him that.
Anyway, he was holding this humongous knife. And take me seriously here; I'm not one to waste a word like humongous over something that wasn't huge. That should've been the first tip off; no one tries to kill themselves with a big knife in the kitchen with many ingredients around. At least I don't think so. Still, in my defense, it was pretty suspicious. How the hell was I supposed to know that he was cleaning it? I mean it's not like you needed a knife to bake a cake, right? Even I know that much. Idiot me of course, I jumped to an erroneous conclusion.
"Don't!" I yelled. It was pretty stupid, now that I think of it, but as I yelled it all I could think about was, why would he want to kill himself. "Don't do it!"
Yamato turned to look at me with that cursed raised brow of his, knife still in hand, and said in the flattest voice ever: "Don't do what?"
'Don't kill yourself', I was going to say. But thankfully I thought that one through first. It was pretty silly to think that. And I was just going to remain there staring at him without saying anything until he spoke. Quite rudely might I add.
"Don't cook? Come it off, Taichi, what's up with you now?" he turned back to his cooking, placing the knife back in it's drawer (I was quick to notice that) and I headed to him to overlook his cooking.
I love watching people cook. I used to do it to Mimi all the time, until she got tired of it and told me that it distracted her. When I found out that Yamato didn't mind I was quick to take advantage of that. It pissed him off now, though.
"What do you want?" he said. Man, did he sound pissed. I half expected him to take out that knife again and cut my head off. Heh, seems the knife affected me more than I thought.
"Hey." I said defensively. "Can't a guy visit his best friend without any ulterior motives?"
I heard him snort, but he didn't even grace me with a look. The bastard.
He didn't want to deal with me at the moment, I could tell, so I had to spend the whole time sitting on the kitchen table (yeah, on the table, you have a problem with that?) and just waiting until he acknowledged me. Kind of stupid, since he obviously didn't want to talk to me, but I did it.
When he was done placing the soon to be cake on the oven and washing everything and placing everything where it was supposed to be (he was stalling, can you tell?) he finally turned to look at me.
"What now?" he asked for the third time. I don't know what bug bit him, but he was acting more paranoid than ever, and between you and me, that's a lot. I shrugged since there really was nothing I wanted to tell him. Somehow I didn't think telling him about Epi was going to go so smoothly with him.
He frowned and then told me quite clearly: "Then leave, please."
I was about to protest, when I saw he was serious. I think that was the first time I had ever been seriously thrown out of his house. And in the week that was to come I was to find out that it wouldn't be the last. With one last look at his determined face, I left.
It felt weird, I knew there was something wrong, but he didn't want to admit it. And I left with only one thought in mind. Maybe this friendship thing isn't the best thing to do at the moment. I mean it was suddenly causing all this shit between us. So I did the only thing I could think of doing at the moment. I went over to Sora's.
***
A/N: Well, here it is. This is completely different than anything I've posted, I won't go as far as to say written since I've written many like this, but there you go. I hope the writing style is easy to understand, it sort of rambles a lot, but I just wanted to write something were it was like the flow of Taichi's thoughts expressed in words. As if he's telling the story as it comes to him.
I'd really appreciate some feedback here because I'm unsure of whether this style or my other is better for story telling. Still, it's an adventure and I'm liking it a lot. Updates will come on Mondays, except when inspiration comes in the middle of the week, and I'll probably cave and post something between Mondays. See you then!
~Charlie