Author: Sparkle Itamashii

Title: Clandestine Revelations

Warnings: Respect the rating. Please see my profile for details.

Disclaimer: Digimon and its characters, settings, and plot are NOT MINE.

Chapter Three

Five hundred and thirty six.

Five hundred and thirty seven.

Five hundred and thirty eight…

I blinked, wiping at the tears forming in my eyes from having them open for too long. I'd been counting the revolutions of the fan as it lazily turned around and around and-

Where the hell was Taichi?

He was supposed to be here over an hour ago. I'd made dinner and sat around in the kitchen staring at it for a while, expecting that maybe he'd been a few minutes late. Maybe he'd gotten caught in traffic so he'd be ten minutes late. Maybe his mother had something for him to do so he'd be a half hour late…

Eventually I'd eaten a bowl of the stir fry and stored the rest. If Taichi wanted to be so late he could bloody well eat leftovers. He didn't even have the decency to call. Of course, he could be dead in a ditch on the side of the road, too. I wasn't going to get angry about anything yet, but so help him god if he'd just been messing around all this time.

Which, knowing him, he probably had been.

I all but fell off the couch when I heard his familiar knock on the door. I clambered to my feet and ran fingers through my hair because it'd gotten mussed laying on the couch. He opened the door when I failed to appear after three seconds and poke his bushy-haired head in the door. I could have strangled that cheeky smile until he winked and moved all the way into my home. My eyes fell on the box in his hands and I gave him a flat smile.

"You're so dumb, Taichi." I said, shaking my head and holding out my hand. "Is this why you're late?"

He dropped the package of sweets into my hand and grinned. "Wouldn't that have made sense?" He replied ambiguously.

Rolling my eyes, I headed for the kitchen. He trailed behind me by only a few feet, quieter than usual. "I made dinner but you were so late I stashed it. Where were you?"

Giving me a half-hearted shrug, he plopped down in one of the kitchen chairs and nabbed the empty plate still lying on the table. I opened the fridge and grabbed the containers of food, sliding them across to him. He immediately dug in- amazingly enough Taichi was like a human garbage disposal. He would eat anything you put in front of him often times regardless of taste or warmth. Or at least… anything I put in front of him.

"Hikari's friends got there earlier than she expected and she pulled me aside to say she wanted to talk to me before I left. It took a bit before the flock settled down to watch a movie and she got away to chat. I'm sorry it took so long."

I gave him a funny look. Hikari sure was being a lot more talkative than she normally was. Taichi had always said he had a hard time talking to her so whatever it was that was bothering his little sister must have been big. Was she maybe seriously considering telling my little brother how she felt? Had Takeru said something to her? I would have to give him a call tomorrow and grill him for information.

"It's fine." My eyes flew to the clock in the corner. "It's almost nine, though. Did you still want to go rent a movie or something?"

"You've got stuff here." He said, though it came out almost unintelligible around the mouthful of snow pea.

I sighed, taking a seat opposite him and putting my elbows on the table to watch him eat. "We've seen all my movies a million times, Tai."

He swallowed, licking his lips. I shifted, trying to maintain eye contact. "So?" He did it again and I gave up all hope of keeping my eyes on his. "That just means we can talk and not have to pay attention to the screen."

"I guess so." I agreed, closing my eyes to maintain my concentration. I wish I knew why I felt so compelled to watch him like a hawk any time he was around me. "Maybe you can tell me what Hikari's been saying."

"Yeah…" He said distractedly as he dove into the food again with his chop-sticks. "Maybe."

Something was definitely eating Taichi and he was avoiding it like the plague. He was so weird sometimes. He could lead a whole group of people through a dangerous alien world as just a kid without showing a bit of uncertainty. Every day he played soccer like it was going out of style and he was good at it; he had fans, even. In public I could hardly ever see him when he wasn't surrounded by people and smiling. But here, he was different. Here he was alone. He was worried. He was bothered by things that never touched his "real" world.

I just wish he'd tell me what those things were, instead of always changing the subject. He was very good at avoidance tactics and I just didn't have the strength anymore to try and corner him about it. So I let it slide like I generally did and continued watching him eat until he was done.

After putting his dish in the sink to wash later, we moseyed into the TV room where I'd been sitting earlier. He flopped down on the couch and stretched out along its length in a very cat-like manner. Flicking off the fan first, I turned on the lights and plopped down by the rack of tapes and DVDs. We didn't have a particularly large collection and there wasn't anything I hadn't seen a million times over so it didn't matter to me what we watched.

"Any preference?" I asked, running my fingers over the titles as I read them silently.

"You pick." Tai said with a sleepy noise. I twisted to look at him and he gave me a lazy smile. Yeah, he was pressing buttons. He knew damn well I hated picking.

Not even bothering to look at what I grabbed, I stuck it in the DVD player and switched off the lights. I glanced between the empty armchair and the couch, wondering if it was worth the effort to try and oust Tai from where he lay so I could actually see the screen. As if he'd read my mind, he opened his eyes and smiled, sitting.

"So, what'd you choose?" He watched me curiously as I clicked play and settled on the couch against the armrest.

"Shut up and you'll find out, right?" I replied as he sat back, leaning his back against my arm as he stretched out a little bit again. I could feel his head move as he silently repeated my words with a mocking look. "I see that, you know."

"I know." He said impishly as I extracted my arm from beneath him and lay it along the back of the couch so it wouldn't fall asleep. With a contented noise he resettled, now partially pressed against my side. "But don't you see? It annoys you so I have to do it."

I punched his arm and tried not to laugh as I relaxed into the couch and let Taichi melt a little closer. He was always warm, like a big kitten. "You're so weird, Tai." I mumbled as the movie started. "Have you ever thought of, you know, not being annoying?"

With a sigh he looked down to his hands, folded in his lap, and my attention immediately fell away from the screen. I waited for a few seconds for a witty reply, some smarted-aleck remark… but it never came. Confused, I nudged him gently.

"Tai…? C'mon, you've been acting really strange since yesterday. What's wrong?" No response. "Will you please stop acting like an idiot and tell me? You're driving me nuts!"

He made a resigned noise and spoke without moving or looking at me. "Fine, but you're not going to like it."

Oh, great…

/End Chapter Three, Clandestine Revelations/