Scythe: Ok let me explain something for those of you who don't read closely/use your imaginations. Taichi knows Matt but we don't know how yet, its called FORESHADOWING. You learn that in English class in like 7th grade... Just stick through it, and if it ends and things still don't make sense, then my bad.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own them but I'm not making any profit, blah blah, all rights reserved for those people, blah blah.
Warnings: YAOI. If you don't know the couple by now, you should be shot.
Thank you's: To all my reviewers for telling me what they think. I'm glad you all like it. (However I think there was one person who was like: "bah this sucks"... on the first chapter... how first grade is that?) It's amazing how many of you really read this shit. Nice... I appreciate it.
ALSO:
Sorry about the seemingly random transitions... the bars weren't working and I was just like: "fuck it" after ten minutes of trying and re-trying... lol
P.s. Sorry this took so long... Work and Spring break and memorizing lines.. x.x
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Exchange
Chapter 4
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Taichi sat up in shock and then looked around, desperately hoping that there was someone else they could be looking at...
Matt gaped and looked from the assistant, to the photographer and to Taichi in astonishment.
"Are you suggesting I put him in the shots?" the photographer asked, but it wasn't a harsh tone... which scared Taichi even more. "You know, I think he should be in the shots instead... He's got beautiful skin, he's exotic and fresh, and he fits well with Matt. I'm a genius..."
The assistant looked at the photographer, offended, but he was used to this by now and just rolled his eyes. "Indeed. Let's get this done wi-"
"Wait just a moment," Taichi interjected. "This... I mean I have never... don't you think you're making a mistake? I'm not cut out for this kind of work."
"Relax kid," Curtis assured. "You'll be a natural; just pretend the camera isn't there. Get him in make up and costume. You better make it fast, got it? We're already behind schedule."
Taichi, being pushed away into the make up/dressing room, managed a single glance at an amused blonde who just smirked at him.
...Payback for attitude?
...Probably...
They didn't have to wait long. True to their words, the make-up team was immediate and effectively decisive. When the Japanese exchange student was pushed from the room, everyone's jaws hit the floor in amazement.
As sexy as he was before, Matt was sure his nose would bleed at any second now. The younger teen had on the most interesting and opposite attire of that he had come in with. He looked professional in his green dress jacket and khaki pants, though scandalously undone was the shirt and jacket, showing just enough bare chest to make anyone want to see more. Even the photographer was left speechless for a good while, making Taichi a little uncomfortable, but once everyone gathered their wits, all hell ensued... at Least for Taichi, anyway.
The shoot was a blur for him, and he didn't even have time to think before he was swept away and didn't even notice when Matt wasn't in the shots anymore. Matt, however, was not objecting or jealous at all; simply fascinated by the brown haired Japanese boy before him striking the sexiest poses and the cutest little grins that he'd ever seen in his life.
"I'm thinking he could be our theme for our music billboards you know? Tranquility; something that grips them and intrigues them," Matt said into the photographer's ear, practically brainwashing him with subliminal messages.
"Yeah huh," he agreed completely.
Several costume changes and poses later, it was finally time to wrap it up. Curtis definitely went over his schedule, but ironically he didn't care much. He was always like this once he found new talent.
"Well," Matt said to Taichi, hooking an arm around his shoulders. "Looks like you are going to be a star. What a story to go home and tell, hmm?"
Taichi looked and him skeptically and said, "Won't it? I still can't believe it happened... it doesn't seem real."
"Come on, loosen up. Time for..."
"And you lied to me, you know." Taichi said, interjecting and crossing his arms as they left the building."
"What? When?"
"I thought you said we were going to a rehearsal..."
Matt scratched the back of his head a little. "Yeah, so did I... Apparently the band pictures are on a separate day and this was, technically, for a magazine and my buddies just didn't bother telling me. They know I hate photo shoots."
"You seemed fine in there."
"Only because you were there," he laughed, ruffling the brown hair. "Gotta be suave."
"Ha, ha, very funny. Buy me some Americanized clothes and show me the corporate world."
Matt had to laugh. "Sure thing." He grabbed his keys from his pocket and swung them around his finger as they exited together.
A pair of dark eyes narrowed as they watched the couple go and thin lips pursed to an even thinner line as jealousy seemed to drip over usually calm personage. Stepping from behind the wall, the youth stared after, arms crossed and glaring. That kid...
"Hey, what are you doing in here?"
The youth looked up to see a security man staring at him disapprovingly. He instantly plastered a helpless smile on his face. "Sorry, I'm looking for Studio B? I was supposed to do a photo shoot with Ishida today, but I'm really late and I came to apologize to Curtis."
The youth was escorted to the studio in which Matt and Taichi had just left, Curtis setting up for the next shoot just as he walked in. When the photographer spotted him, a look of death came to the older man's face as he stomped over to him.
"You! Do you know how you jeopardized the photo shoot? Do you know how much money we could have lost because of you!" he shouted, waving his arms and gesturing towards the shoot.
Could have lost? What the hell did that mean? The youth wondered, narrowing his eyes just slightly in thought, but he quickly put on his best face.
"I know, I know, I'm so sorry Curtis!"
"Don't give me that bullshit act. I know your god damn tantrums you throw just to piss someone off. The question is: what did Ishida do to you, huh? Or maybe you're trying to get back at me for something? Well it didn't work because we found someone better. Consider finding a new studio to work in." Leaving the young model speechless, Curtis turned to his employees. "Don't mess that up, Alex. You pay for it if you do, damn it. Security, please escort this young man outside, please. Thank you."
"But..." The youth's eyes widened in pure shock. Found someone better? How was that even possible?
He didn't have time to think as he was rushed from the studio and out the building. Ishida's car was gone, not that he expected anything different, but he couldn't help wonder who could have replaced him...? Surely there were no other models in the building... and that stupid boy that Matt was with didn't even compare... Did he?
Just as he was to dismiss the thought, a few of the stage crew members emerged from the double doors and laughed and chatted idly.
The youth slapped on his best face again and smiled at them, vaguely remembering them from some shoot or another.
"...yeah, and the look on his face when Curtis decided to use him in the shoot? Priceless!" One said.
"No joke," replied the other, smiling. "but wow, did you see how he turned out? Amazing. To think that diamonds in the rough really exist out there still. Absolutely amazing."
"Hey," said the youth, waving. "You boys going home?"
They stopped and smiled and waved back. "Yeah, it's been a long day."
"Really? Has Curtis been yelling again?" He asked, laughing in jest.
"Well he was, but that was because some model didn't show today."
The youth narrowed his eyes just slightly, but regained himself and acted surprised. He pried for information in such a delicate way. "No way! He should have called me."
"Yeah, but we found someone so fantastically photogenic, it was insane!" said the first man.
"Wow. How'd he find someone on such short notice?" He asked innocently, prying again.
"You wouldn't believe this, but Matt Ishida came with some friend of his or something," said the first eagerly.
"No, no. It's his foreign exchange student," the other corrected. "But, hey, I think I've seen you around before..."
As the world seemed to be crashing down on him, the youth barely caught he statement and hastily replied, "of course you have. Curtis and I go way back. I was his first model to go pretty big, you know?" He said, his ego pouring forth in a fit of jealousy and rage.
But the two stage crew didn't seem to catch the hostility. "Oh yeah! Cebre, right?"
"That is correct." He forced himself to smile cutely. "But hey, it was so nice talking to you, but I have to go in and do a shoot. I'm so late already.
"Oh no problem. See you around!" And they left together and Cebre made like he ws entering the building, but steered himself around once they were out of sight and made for his car.
That stupid kid was better than him?
"You ruined everything," the youth mumbled angrily taking his keys from his pocket and thrusting them into his car door. He wrenched open the piece of metal and sat inside the comfy seats, only to shove the key into the ignition and start the car almost violently.
Finally, he was able to calm himself with the soft purr and hum of his car. He took a deep breath and then looked at the rearview mirror, pulling it down so that he could see himself.
His deep raven hair spiked and flopped in all directions in a stylish, sexy way, and his softly sunken cheeks made for the perfect face and complexion. His eyes were a soft blue that were just irresistible and the more he looked at himself, the more he was convinced that that stupid brown haired brat could never be as great as he.
"Well... I'll just have to take my time with this one..." he said to himself, then readjusted his mirror and sped off into the distance.
o-o
By the time Matt and Taichi were finished shopping, it was getting late and both agreed that they were way too hungry for their own good. Taichi, being who he was, usually didn't want anything in particular, but this time, he had a great idea.
"Hey, Yamato?"
"Hm?"
"I had a thought..."
"Did you?" Matt intercepted, snickering at him. "Hope it didn't hurt too much."
"...Refrain," Taichi said, glaring. Matt just laughed. "anyways, I'm thinking take out... With a twist."
"Yeah, I'm listening."
"Let's go get some traditional Americanized Chinese food and sit on the highest, grassiest hill you have that looks over the city." He made sure and gave him the prettiest puppy dog eyes he could manage, but he didn't even get a fight.
"That sounds awesome! Let's go." He grabbed Taichi and made for the car, shoving shopping bags into the trunk.
This was his chance to be alone with the brown haired pretty boy so that he could finally move in for the kill! Well... not the kill, he noted to himself. However, a kill would be nice...
All he had to do tonight was determine whether or not the Japanese teen could possibly be attracted to him, and once he found that out, all he had to do was advance with his suave words and delicate teases and he'd have the kid hooked and wrapped around his finger... and then he'd go for the kill... on a later date...
It was all a blur: ordering the food, grabbing a blanket, driving to the perfect hilltop and setting the mood, but once they got to the top, it was as if Time itself had stopped for them. As they were digging through the take out boxes with chopsticks and hungry mouths, Matt suddenly got a sickening thought in his mind.
He really, really liked Taichi but... Taichi would have to leave eventually. With this in mind, he slowly put his take out back into the bag and then looked at the Japanese boy who sat beside him.
Gods he's beautiful... Matt thought. He instinctively wanted to touch him, grab him, kiss him, but he had a great deal of willpower... sort of.
"Tai..." Matt said softly, making the exchange student turn to face him questioningly.
Tiachi could read the look on Matt's face quite easily for once, and it gave him a massive whirl of rabid butterflies in his stomach. He found he could no longer swallow, captivated by the look on Matt's face.
"Yeah...?" He asked slowly, licking his messy lips. That look of distress and lust mixed together worried him...
"When are you leaving?" The words were forced so painfully from his lips.
"Not for another month..."
Yeah, but most of that month would be spent away from him studying, Matt reflected, sighing softly. "Well, that sucks. I kind of like your stupid attitude and your air of innocence."
Well that was blatant, Taichi thought, but somehow, it also filled him with satisfaction and an urge to show that he liked him back... No, maybe he was misreading things... There would be absolutely no way that things between them would become mutual. He was just some fan, and Matt was this super rock star that was taking the world by storm! It was amazing that he was even living in his house with him at this time.
Gods, he wanted to tell him. He wanted to tell him how he'd been saved by his music; how things were so terrible for him in Japan that he had wanted to commit suicide; how he'd held that knife against his wrist, closed his eyes and was ready to slice, but his music came on and the emotion he'd felt through his voice and his words was so intense, he stopped himself. But how could he tell him that? He would think he was lying or something. At the time, he didn't really understand much of what was being said in the song, but he could tell it was uplifting, and it had inspired him to work even harder in his English class... but that was so long ago, it seemed. Now, Matt's band was extremely popular, all over the world, and he was just a blip on the radar of success for him...
"Yamato..." He said gently. He wanted to tell him... he wanted to so badly.
"Yeah...?"
Well it was now or never... it was the perfect time, and he didn't want to waste it.
"I..." he started quickly, "know who you are!" Gah! No, wrong. That came out terribly, horribly wrong. He cursed himself mentally as Matt got a strange look on his face of confusion. "I mean... I know that you're famous and stuff..."
"What do you mean?" He was thoroughly confused now. Taichi knew who he was? But he lived in Japan!
"I've liked your band for a really long time. Um..." He was a bit nervous, here, and he was wringing his shirt in his hands shyly as he tried to explain. "Well," He sighed deeply and took a deep breath. "Let me just start from the beginning. It was by accident I found your music online. You were still a semi-small band trying to make it big then, but I didn't really know who you were. One of your song titles is the same as another of the bands that I listen to, so I thought it was the same song, but when I listened to it, naturally I was a little freaked out at first because it was in English... but I started listening to the emotion in your voice... and I couldn't help but wonder who you were and why you were so amazing... Your voice was so awesome and..." He trailed off a little. Somehow, they'd gotten awfully close and Matt's eyes were half lidded with amazement as Taichi's mesmerized state. And he was close, gods, so close that they were almost kissing. "And..." he tried to keep going, but those lips so close to his were making him lose his train of thought.
Their lips met and Taichi sighed a deep sigh of pleasure, melting into the kiss, forgetting all that he was saying as a gentle hand came and softly caressed his cheek. All else seemed to dissipate away from them.
Matt gently pulled the Japanese teen closer to him, hooking an arm around his waist and keeping their lips locked with intense passion. It felt so good, so.. so right. He didn't want this moment to end, he didn't want Taichi to leave ever. He just wanted this right here, right now, and surprisingly, he didn't want sex, like he thought he did, he just wanted to make Taichi feel good with this single kiss.
When they parted, Taichi was panting softly, his heart was racing and his fingers pulsed with the need to touch Matt's skin. "Yamato..." He said softly, swallowing hard, his gaze clouded with satisfaction and gratitude.
Gently, Matt knocked their foreheads together and gently cupped his face. "I'm so glad you told me... It's unbelievable but so incredibly awesome," he whispered, gently rubbing his thumb along his cheek.
Taichi was speechless. He knew not what to say, only that he loved this, that he loved Matt... that he wanted to be with him always.
"I don't want you to leave," the blonde rock star interjected, barely above a whisper.
"I don't want to leave either," Taichi said, almost frantically, lifting his hand to gently grab Matt's arm, his eyes closed as if he didn't trust his eyes to not give away the sorrow he felt in that moment...
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Scythe: So... yeah that took a while to get out, but it wasn't because of writers block, it was just because of crap going on in my life. Thanks for waiting. Hope you enjoy it.