Desclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A/N: Sorry about having it take so long with this chapter.  I've had problems with editing it and my computer's been really messed up with something about the BIOS ROM chip… whatever… also I had social problems that I had to deal with (including my sister hitting puberty, which had played a part in causing this chapter to take so long in coming out, and my ex-boyfriend cheating on me and breaking up with me, because of it, on Valentines day –though I do have the best best-friend a person could have) and other concerns which are still playing it's part.  So anyways, those are some of me reasons (excuses) for not having this chapter out a lot sooner then it is.  Sorry, again, for the long wait and I hope you enjoy chapter five.   

Chapter 5

The next day I had woken to the feeling of little feathery kisses that trailed along my shoulder.  "Baby."  Yukio whispered into my ear.

"Hm?"  I asked as I nuzzled into the warm, sweat damp chest that I lay face down upon.  I felt his hand roam up and down the curve of my back before it looped around and his fingers hooked around my waist.  He pulled lightly causing me to roll slightly as he tried to pull himself out from under me.

I opened my one eye as I lay exposed on the coach.  I looked up at him blurrily as he lifted himself to his feet.  He looked down at my weary form and smile.  His hand came up and smoothed my hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear as he spoke.  "Babe, I need to go to work now and I think you'll feel better after a shower."

I nodded as I struggled to sit up while my head felt dizzy and all I wanted to do was fall back to sleep.  "What time is it?"  I asked quietly.

"Seven Thirty a.m.  I have lots of work to do so I have to leave, 'kay."  I nodded as I sat on the edge of the couch with my face in my hands trying to force back my exhaustion.

"You can take a shower first."  I had said.  He nodded and took off, in the buff, towards the shower.

It had been rather calm the following few days and I almost felt disheartened by the fact that I saw less of Yukio during those days then I saw him during any other time period before.  I had to keep reminding myself that Yukio has been really busy, that he told me this himself.  It had been four days that I had not seen him at all, where food had just disappeared sporadically, and I had started to worry, yet again, of his attraction towards me.

Seven days later I found myself searching though the aisles of a grocery store looking at the ingredients of a can good.  A plastic basket hung on my crooked arm which only carried a few items so far.

I swept my hand through my hair as I double checked to make sure everything that's in it was suitable for my boyfriend's diet before placing it in the basket as well.  I turned quickly but was startled into a quick stop by a body not an inch away.  I step back and look at the face of my once rival.

"Sorry, if I scared you."  He said then grinned to show he wasn't really.

I glared.  "I bet.  What are you doing here?"  I asked.

"Shopping.  This is a grocery store, you know."

I glowered for a moment, having known it was a dumb question before having asked it.  "Yeah, well.  If you were standing there, why didn't you say hi instead of letting me almost run you over like that?  ."

He looked to the person who walked by, almost nervously, and stuffed his hands into his jeans.  I wasn't expecting you to move so fast."

"Oh."  I said simply, glare vanishing from my face.  I walked around him and continued to look upon the shelves of can goods.  He followed, walking beside me with a basket of his own.

"You must not be planning to get much."  He stated, referring to the fact that I was using a basket instead of a grocery cart.

I eyed him out of the corner of my eye and looked at his basket.  "You not either?"

"I just have to pick up some snacks since I'm going to my parents tonight.  What about you?"

I turned my attention to the path a head of me as I turned into another aisle.  I shook my head.  "I'm not getting much.  Don't have the car today so I'll have to walk home and I can't carry that much."

"If you want," he offers.  "I can give you a lift.  Get what you need, kay?"

I looked at him as I stopped walking.  "No.  It's alright."

He just grinned as he stops with me and shakes his head.  "Just take the offer while it's on the table.  By the way, you'd just need to come back again if you don't, and I'm sure you don't want to make a million trips to this place when you could only make one."

I look onto the shelf, pick up a loaf of bread and look for the expiry date while being reminded why I hate the grocery store so much.  "Alright."  I say.  After finding the date and being pleased with it, I put it into the basket.  "What do you need?  We'll get it first then I need something bigger then this basket."

He grinned as he led the way.  "So, how are you and Yukio?"  He asked while watching my face.

"Good."  I say shortly.  He chuckled lightly and adverted his eyes away to watch the aisle ahead.

"I doubt that."

I was taken back at his bluntness and asked, sounding offended that he was calling me on my lie, "And why's that?"

He glanced back at me.  "Because you frowned when I said his name."

I blinked.  "Well, I wasn't exactly smiling with joy before?"

"I guess you're right."  He said, though not taking back his earlier assumption.  It went quiet between us as we just walked threw the store and I started thinking about Yukio. 

For some reason, I can't remember why, but I finally said, "Not bad." 

"Hm?"  Taichi asked curiously, probably wondering what I meant by that. 

            "You asked how Yukio and I are.  Well, it's not bad, I suppose.  He just works a lot, that's all.  I don't really see him much.

 "Yeah, I kinda thought so." 

I turn my head to look at him with narrowed eyes.  "And what makes you kinda think so?"

He shrugs.  "Just that it looked that way at the reunion.  He practically ditched you to go to work.  Great sign of a workaholic."

I sighed.  "My father was a workaholic, too.  That's what my dad liked most about him, was how much he was devoted to his job."

The grin left Taichi's face then and he glanced at me in an almost sympathetic way.  "To bad he's not devoted like that to you, huh?"

My eyes widen slightly.  "He is… just, his work keeps him busy.  By the way, he says he's trying to retire early so we could be together more in are later years."

"To bad that will still take twenty, thirty years for that 'early retirement'.  And you'll still be working then."

My eyes narrowed again.  "You're making it sound awful.  It's not like that." 

"Tell me at what point did I lie."

I had snorted as I thought but only came to a painful conclusion.  He was right.  For twenty or thirty years I would be completely alone and he'd be coming home for, maybe, six hours a day and I'll always be doing the groceries and house keeping, and working part time at that restaurant… but… but it wouldn't be like that always, I had thought hopefully.  Yukio would still come in now and then with surprises such as the surprise he had for me seven or so days before.  Also Taichi and I were now friends so that means life was getting better. 

            Even as these thoughts ran through my mind I knew it was pure non-sense but it was what I needed to hear. 

"See?"  Taichi said suddenly, bringing my mind back its thoughts. 

            I realized, then, that I had stopped walking when I plunged into my thoughts but now that I was being brought out of them I started moving again, head held high as I responded, "You don't know what you're talking about."

Taichi smiled slightly, "Sure…"

            But the subject was dropped. 

We had finished our shopping and pilled our stuff into his Xterra.  He drove me home and helped me lug the bags of groceries into the house.  The moment I put down the first bunch of bags I started putting them away as he went back to his car to get the last few more

"Anyways," Taichi began when he came back.  "Did I tell you, you have an awesome house?"

"Yeah, you might have mentioned something along those lines."

He placed the bags on the island counter.  "Good 'cause it is.  Man, you're doing good for yourself."

I shook my head, not even in the slightest flattered for I knew that I wouldn't even be living in such a place if it weren't for Yukio.  "Yeah, well my boyfriend has a good paycheck.  It's his money that pays for the place and, with him working up to 120 hours a week, it's easy to see why."  I forced to keep my voice from sounding bitter as I continued putting away the groceries.

He pulled a few things out of a bag and asked where they went.  I told him and, together, we put the groceries away.  When we finished and had all the bags stashed away for what ever convenience I could find for them later, he said.  "You know, I don't have to visit my parents for a few more hours, would you mind the company?"

"No.  Not at all."  I said, probably more quickly then I should have.  Truthfully, I would've been grateful for any company I got.  It got so quiet in that house that it got on my every nerve and I found myself hoping for those annoying telemarketers to phone.  "But I have to warn you I'm really not used to entertaining guests."

He waved a hand through the air as if to dismiss the notion.  "Doesn't matter.  We can order food, talk or watch TV or something.  It is about time to eat anyways and I'm starving."  I shrugged.

"Alright, what do you want?"

"Pizza… no, Chinese food.  I hadn't had that in a while."

I smiled as I walked towards the phone and looked in the phone book for a Chinese food restaurant.  I hesitated a moment before saying, "Maybe I should just make something… If Yukio comes home then at least I could have something for him."

The smile left the brunet's face as the words left my mouth.  "And how often does he join you for super.  Just order.  You cook all day for everyone else; I think it's time to treat yourself."  I look back at him to see the smile back.

"Alright but I'll also order for Yukio, just in case." 

I had ordered a fair deal of Chinese food.  Enough to last me two or three days in leftovers but apparently it wasn't enough.

"That's all you're getting?  That's barely enough to feed me."  I raised an eyebrow at him as I placed back the phone back on the receiver.

"You couldn't possibly eat all that, not even half."  A cocky grin made it on his face.

"You have a lot to learn about me, don't you?"  I scowled and kept in the, possibly, nasty retort I had on the tip of my tongue as I walked into the living room with the brunet in toe.

An hour or so later we found each other sitting, crossed legged, on the grey soft cushions of my coach, face to face, while eating our food out of the take-out boxes.  Taichi smiled and talked enthusiastically to me with enough vigor to fuel a rocket.

A large smile was spread across my face and the foreign feeling it held told me I hadn't smiled like that in ages.  Even though he probably thought I appeared so happily because of his talk of his past triumphant soccer challenges the truth was that I found his enthusiasm on the subject to be amusing.  After all I had a feeling he was… 'exaggerating' some of what he was telling me.  I honestly never believed that he kicked a soccer ball, through the air, across the entire field with enough force to knock the goalie, off his feet, and into the net at the age of eight but I didn't argue with him on the subject, just rolled my eyes as he moved onto another false tale of is younger years while playing the game. 

After a while of quietly listening I decided to speak up, cutting him off in mid sentence which he hadn't really seemed to have minded.  "You know," I said, "The first time I heard of you, the great Yagami Taichi soccer champ, it was because you had, at least rumor had it, a temper tantrum on the middle of the soccer field at the school because your team lost the game."  I smirked as I saw his smile turn upside down into an irritated frown while a light burgundy color tinted his cheeks.

His eyes spaced for a moment until the focused back on me in a defiant sort of way.  "When?"

"Tenth grade.  Some time in the beginning of the year."

Taichi sighed, but in good humor, as he said with closed eyes, "You have one tempter tantrum and they never let you live it down."  He sighed again as he opened his eyes with the smile back on his face.  "But it wasn't my fault… well it was… but they had to have been cheating.  I mean, they beat me.  Me and Kenji, Ozaki, and Hikaru.  We were unbeatable together."

I took a bite of the take out food and looked at him curiously.  I swallowed before I said, "How could you cheat at soccer?" 

Taichi shrugged.  "Steroids or something.  I don't know I wasn't the one who cheated."  He took another bite before he continued.  "Speaking of which, I've heard stuff about you back then too." 

I cocked an eyebrow at that.  "Really.  Like what."  I chewed thoughtfully as he spoke.

"Well, just people were saying you were sleeping with people on my soccer team."  I nearly choked.  The food I had been swallowing was suddenly taken down the wrong air pipe as I attempted a gasp.  I found myself coughing while trying to breathe while tears were being brought to my eyes.  Taichi started hitting my back and before I knew it, air was flowing through me again. 

            "What?!"  I coughed out as I looked at his more-then-amused facial expression. 

            "You okay now."  He said sounding slightly concerned despite the humor in his voice. 

            I ignored his question.  "Are you serious?  Who was saying this?" 

            "Well, it was around the school for an about a week in grade eleven.  No one on the team really denied it, to be honest, so I kind of thought it was true as well."

            I shook my head as I wiped the tears from my eyes.  "Well it's not and, now thinking of it, the guys who usually just walked right by me as if I weren't even there started smiling at me and acknowledging my existence for about a month that year.  I was wondering why."  I sighed as I rested relaxed again as I had been before.  "In fact, all through high school I was a virgin."

            Taichi's eyes widened when I said this.  "Really?  Wow!  I always found abstinence to be rea…"  He stopped suddenly as I stared at him, waiting for him to continue but all he did was cough nervously and advert his eyes for a moment.  "Um… heh… anyways," He stuttered as he looked back at me.  "When did you loose it?  You're virginity, I mean." 

            My expression didn't change.  "How about, when did you?" 

            He went through his nervous behavior once again, but quicker this time, and answered, "That's not really important.  After all, I've been talking all this time and I'd like to hear your voice now, since, might I add, it's very lovely."  I might have been flattered by the compliment if I didn't know he only said it to distract me form his obvious mistake. 

            I just scowled at him but answered anyways.  "Well, in honesty, my first time was on my graduation night."

            "Really?!  You waited till your high school graduation?!"  He said in obvious amusement and it was because of this behavior that made me think twice about telling him the truth but, in the end, I just happen to be an honest individual. 

            "Actually… College graduation…"  I felt myself blush as he gave me a cocky grin. 

            "Well, aren't you going to fill me in on all the dirty details?"  I scowled as I felt my blush strengthen. 

            "Actually, there wasn't anything dirty about it."  The scowl left my face as a subtle smile came to my lips upon memory of that night.  "Yukio was my first.  It was one of the best nights of my life.  Yukio and I had been sharing an apartment and he brought me home and surprised me with a meal he had cooked for me himself.  He had said some of the sweetest things to me.  Told me so many times how much he loved.  It was so nice. There was soft music, gentle lighting… just everything was so beautiful." When I finished I was trapped in the memory of that magical night but was rudely brought out of my reverie by the not so subtle laugh Taichi broke into.  I glared at him. "And what's wrong with that?"

He forced himself to stop laughing as he chocked out the word, "Nothing." He laughed a bit again before he struggled to control his laughing again and said. "Just that it sounds so romantic." He mocked. "Did you do it by candle light? And you married your first."

"We're not married."

"Common law marriage." Tai countered with a giggle. I scowled as he continued to mock me. "You're a romantic. I didn't know that about you. How cute." And he continued to laugh as I scowled into my Chinese food.

I took a bite of the food then swallowed. "Okay. That's enough. I don't want to talk about this any more." For some reason this made him laugh even more. I scowled further and turned forward on the couch, sinking my back into the cushions, as I took small bites of my food.

He stopped laughing but the humor was still in his voice. "Aw. Don't pout."

I glared at the coffee table in front of me. "I'm not pouting. I don't pout."

"Yes you do. You're doing it now. Even your lip's all poofed out." He said as his hand came forward and his fingers softly held the lip he was referring to. I knocked the hand away and placed the take-out box on the coffee table as I stood up. I walked past him while looking straight forward then turned to go down stairs. I heard him stand as another giggle left him. "Aw. I'm sorry. I'll stop."

"Sure sounds like it." I state dully.

"Wait." he said as I reached the bottom of the steps in the little five by five area that leads to outside or the basement. I turned towards him, glare on my face, as I saw him. He was kneeling on the couch, looking over the railing to see me standing below him. "Oh Romeo, oh Romeo…" I growled as he laughed harder and fell onto the length of the couch. I continued to go down stairs. "Wait, let me let down my hair!" He continued.

"Certainly long enough." I mumbled to myself.

When I reached the basement I turned towards where my guitar was placed beside the couch. I walked over to and sat on the corner of the couch as I plugged the mentioned guitar into my amp and put on my head phones so I could hear what I was playing but no one else could.

I started out playing a few simple cords, warming up with doe ra me fa… When I had thought myself warmed up enough I launched into one of my songs.

A few moments into playing I felt Taichi's hand on my shoulder. I looked up and fixed him with a glare.

He had a smile on his face, though no longer the cocky mockery of a smile he had before, as he pulled the ear phones off of me. I stopped playing. "What?" I said.

"So you do still play. I was wondering." I snorted.

"Like I'm about to give up my music." I muttered as I pulled back on the head phones.

A moment later he pulled them back off. "Play something for me. After all I am your guest."

"No. You're a nuisance."

He sat down comfortably beside me. As I turned my head to glare at him as the head phones rested in his hands. "You still angry about me teasing you? Don't be. I was just playing with you."

"Then play with someone else." I said as I continued to strum some cords, only barely being able to hear it through the headset that rested in the other's hands.

"What? You can't be teased."

"Not about that." I mumbled though I knew it was a stupid retort and hoped he hadn't heard.

"Oh yeah. Forgot you were a romantic." The cocky grin was back.

I turned and glared at him as I stopped strumming. "Well, sorry if candle light dinners appeals to me and I can't match your frenzy for one-night-stands."

"You don't have to be sorry." He joked and, for some reason, my anger dimmed to half mass.

I went back to playing my guitar and listened to the soft sounds coming through my headphones again. A few moments later Taichi stood and walked over to my amp, I continued to play, though kept a watchful eye on him while trying to pretend I wasn't. A moment later my music came booming through the speaker on my amp and the sudden loudness caused me to jump and hit ever wrong note before slamming my hand on the strings of my guitar to halt all noise.

I glared at him as I heard the neighbor's dog bark in its yard next door. "Wow, that's loud." Taichi said his eyes wide like saucers after he had jumped away from the amp.

"There are reasons I don't listen to myself play through the speaker in my amp." I state.

Taichi shrugged. "Well, there's a way to turn down the volume, isn't there."

"Yeah but my neighbor, Tabitha, will complain. She always complains. One time she complained while I had my headphones on. I don't know how she knew I was playing. I think she just doesn't like me."

"Oh." Taichi said. "Well, this once won't hurt will it?" He asked. I smiled at the hopeful expression he held on his face.

"I only play rock music, you know?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, I know. Your music's the only rock I've ever liked, to tell you the truth. I might have not admitted it in high school but I had been grateful when your band played at the prom because I didn't really want to listen and be forced to dance to music I hated."

I smiled, proud of myself and my music. "Okay. Turn down the volume and if someone knocks on the door, you're answering it."

Taichi laughed as he found the volume and turned it down. I started playing a melody and let the remainder of my anger flow from me and dissipate in the air around.

I don't know how long I was playing for before my voice joined in. It felt good to sing again to have someone who could hear and cherish the words that left my mouth. I found myself closing my eyes as the tune flew from the speaker and surrounded my very soul.

I listened to my voice, to the soft rhythm and the breathing of the other occupant of the room. The dog's barking had long given and as I continued to play I felt that overwhelming joy I always felt when playing for someone else.

Some time had passed before I felt the last note being dragged out over my tongue as I played the last cord on my instrument. A short silence clouded the empty room until Tai's marveled voice reached my ears. "You're really good, you know?"

I smiled, a sad smile, while I remembered, long ago, singing on stage with my band or on my own. The sensation it gave me was ecstasy. Something I'd always miss. The jumping and shouting crowds. The same words I was singing flowing from a hundred other people who all adored the hard work I put into ever lyric. "I've been told." I said simply.

"Why'd you give up your band? You didn't seem to like playing as much when you where by yourself. When I came down first you looked like you were just doing it for something to occupy yourself with, but when you played just now… you were happy." The smile left my face as I placed my guitar down and turned off my amp.

"I gave it up because it was childish to hold on to it. I was in University, training to be a chef. I had real work that needed to be done and, to continue it in hopes that someone would see me and think I was good enough to go professional then help me get there… I had to grow up. Yukio had been right about it. Dreaming to be a rock star was as childish as dreaming to be an astronaut. If I wasn't willing to devote myself to my studies then where would I go in life?"

"Maybe you'd be someplace you'd like. Someplace that'd make you happy." Taichi said softly.

I stared hard in his eyes, my defenses up out of old habit. "What makes you think I'm not happy?"

Taichi shrugged and looked away as he sat cross legged in front of me on the floor. He looked uncomfortably and I could tell he was trying to find a way to not answer, as if he was afraid of how I'd take it if he gave me his reasons.

I didn't like how uncomfortable he seemed to be so I ran a hand through my hair while I searched for a way to change the subject. Luckily Taichi did it for me. "Why don't you play another song?"

For the next half an hour I continued to play before Taichi had spotted a board game and we got in to a game of that. It was a while later that Taichi had spotted the clock as his eyes grew twice as large.

"Holly shit. That is not the time." He stood up in the middle of the second round of the game.

I looked at the clock too and noted it to be eight. "Time to go, huh." I said feeling disappointed to be left in that quiet house again.

He offered me a smile as he nodded and helped me stand from the floor we had been kneeling on while playing the game. "If you want," He began, "You can come. My parents won't mind having me bring a guest, in fact it'll help me with the excuse I'm going to use for being late, and I'm sure you don't want to spend the night alone."

I thought of it for a moment. "You sure they won't mind." His eyes seemed to light up at the prospect that I was actually considering it. I suppose he thought I'd decline and had wondered if he only offered the notion to be nice but then common sense came in and reminded me of the cheerful look he wore.

"Of course they won't mind. Coming?" I smiled.

"Sure. Do I need to bring anything?" He shook his head.

"Not unless you want to." Well, I hadn't wanted to. Nothing was needed to be brought and nothing I had been willing to take to a house of strangers either, so we left moments later.

It took longer then I'd thought to get there and I was surprised, though I knew I shouldn't be since we had went to the same high school, to find that his parents house was near my old house.

I felt my insecurities coming back to me as we took the elevator to his apartment. I found myself wishing I had a mirror so I could make sure I didn't have something smudged over my face or that my hair was not doing something athletic or maybe I was wearing something they'd thought was indecent.

"May I ask?" Taichi said as the elevator opened and we stepped off it and walked towards his apartment door. "How you could have been in a band and sing in front of hundreds of people yet feel so nervous about meeting my folks?"

I turned to him and gave him a confused look. "I'm not nervous."

He raised an eyebrow to me. "Yeah right... It's kind of obvious, ya know. Your arms are wrapped around your stomach so tightly you're gonna get a bruise." I remember I had looked down and was surprised to find he was right. I let my arms drop to my sides and instantly wished I could curl them around myself again as we stopped in front of a door.

"Meeting people and having detailed conversations with them is different then singing to a group of people you'll never see again."

"Yeah, but if you mess up on stage a thousand people will see while only three will see if you mess up today."

"But that's the thing about fans. If I'm on stage singing and I trip I'll give some joke to the event and they'll laugh and awe to me but if I do something stupid while talking to someone they'll think about what a klutz I am for the rest of the evening."

A sorrowful look passed over his face as he took my arm, which had wrapped around my midsection again, and pulled it away. "Man. You need a confidence boost." I put my arms down at my side while raising my chin to try and look more confidence then I felt. "If it means anything, my families really nice." I gave him a smile but not so much for him but to test out how well I could fake one.

I suppose it went well for he smiled back and turned to the door, and then opened it. He walked through and held it open for me.

"I'm here!" Taichi shouted out. He swung the door shut and started kicking off his shoes while switching the plastic bag which held the chips and a few other things from one hand to the other.

"Hello honey. We're in the living room." A women's voice shouted which I understood as a mother's.

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow as he blushed. I smirked. "Honey?"

He scowled and glared at me. "Like your mother doesn't call you something stupid like that."

"Actually," I said, keeping the same laid back vocal expression, "She doesn't. I lived with my dad. My parents divorced."

"Oh." He said; scowl still on his face but not as stern. "Coming!" He announced. I gently untied and removed my shoes then placed them neatly by the door. When I turned back to the brunet he held an expression on his face that simply said he didn't understand me.

"What?" I asked.

He shook his head as he sighed. "Nothing, nothing."

"No, what?"

"I said 'nothing'." He cupped my upper arm and pulled me towards the living room. "I told my parents I was bringing you so they'll want to meet you now anyways."