Author: Sparkle Itamashii

Title: Clandestine Revelations

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

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

Chapter Thirteen

Ah, god it hurt… I should have been more careful. I don't even know how I managed to touch the scalding hot pan and I don't know why I startled so badly and I don't know why I dropped the plate and I don't know why I stepped on the pieces and I bloody well didn't know what I was doing on the floor and-

I groaned, curling up to get a better look at my foot, which was throbbing painfully. Part of me wanted to press my hands tightly against the fresh cuts but I didn't dare- I could feel the little splintery shards that were still there. I pressed my hands against the edges of my foot, trying not to think about the way my hand still burned or how my eyes were prickling with the going-to-cry-if-things-aren't-fixed-soon sensation.

Why was this turning into such a crappy day? Nothing was going like it was supposed to go! I'd even forced a quiet day upon both of us, gotten him over here… Everything just… couldn't it all just be okay again?

Tai had gotten to his feet when I yelped and I think he may have said something but I hadn't heard what. I wasn't listening. I didn't want him to be here. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to start over. I wanted a rewind button; a way to go back in time and do things the right way. I wanted my best friend back the way things were. I wanted this awkward, painfully wrong situation to be over so that I could stop doing stupid things like burning myself and slicing my feet up because I couldn't pay attention to anything else.

I rested my forehead against my knees, jaw clenching tightly as I felt Tai crouch at my side. I touched the sides of my feet gingerly, containing a gasp at the way the motion made fire spike up around the small lacerations. When Tai touched my shoulder I told him to shove off but of course he didn't listen. Of course he didn't- when does he ever listen…

"Matt, come on…" he pleaded gently, forehead resting against the side of my head, nose touching my ear. "You're bleeding all over the floor."

I shrugged his hands off of mine and growled, though it was more pathetic than intimidating. "I don't care." Walk out the door, Tai. Walk out and wait fifteen minutes so I can clean this and pretend it didn't happen. Leave so I can try again. Give me a second chance.

"Well I do." He grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet without waiting for me to respond. I considered playing the dead weight game but in the end I let him do what he wanted. Most of the time he did what he wanted anyhow, so why bother resisting?

"What are you doing?" I asked skeptically, finding that the continued sound of his voice was pulling my attention away from my foot. Already I'd begun to calm.

"You're going to hobble your clumsy ass to the bathroom so we can put a bandage on your foot and you're not going to argue with me about it."

I opened my mouth to do just that, but I realized that not only was it against my better judgment to do so… it would be a completely useless endeavor. If I didn't walk there myself, Tai would probably drag me and I was certain that would be more painful. So I quietly resigned myself and let him walk me.

We hobbled down the hall to the bathroom and I tried to only put weight on the side of my foot. The problem was that every time I did that the skin would pinch all together and it would hurt worse than if I just walked normally. In the end I gave up using my left foot at all and let Tai become almost an extension of myself. That turned out to be much easier than trying to be two separate people walking together.

When we reached the bathroom he let me enter first, still holding onto me as if he wasn't going to let go. "Can you get up on the counter?"

"I'm not an invalid." I replied hotly, shaking off his hands in irritation I didn't really feel. I didn't want him to stop but I didn't want him to know that.

Slowly I rotated and slipped onto the sink's counter so that my legs hung over the side. Taichi stood before me, an inch from my knees, hands hovering over my hips protectively as though he thought I would fall. His gaze was focused so intensely that he didn't even notice how close he was. My breath caught in my throat when his fingertips brushed my jeans as soon as I'd settled and he glanced up without moving his head.

He was just inches away; if I just… All I had to do was…

"Matt, are you-"

I brought a hand up and ever so gently brushed his jaw with the tips of my fingers, silencing him.

/End Chapter Thirteen, Clandestine Revelations/