AN: Yes a long time between updates and it will probably be longer still before the next one. It just depends on when inspiration strikes. Also the fact that I'm now working on PoT fics and my Slam Dunk fics at the same time (and PoT is taking priority since people in my every day life craze PoT).
Not much to this chapter, but I hope that you enjoy it anyways. Of course, as usual, completely unbeta'ed. I didn't even give it a proper read through.
Chapter 3:
It had only taken them an hour to do all the shopping they needed to do at the mall, and unfortunately Matt had not been able to find any outfits that were to his liking. With nothing else to really do, he followed TK and Kari to the high school to watch Tai's soccer practice.
They seated themselves on the bottom row of bleachers that were separated from the field by the track running around it. "Where are they?" Matt asked noticing an almost empty field. "I thought practice was supposed to run for another hour or so?"
"They probably took a small break," TK said, "We do it in basketball practice. It's not just about running around with a ball. You have to do weight training and different exercises so that all your body is strong. It helps build up stamina," He grinned, "Or at least that's what my coach always tells us. We're not as well known as the soccer team, so we don't work nearly as hard as they do."
"Yeah I guess that makes sense." Matt shrugged and leaned back against the bleacher seat above him watching the sky.
About 20 minutes later the soccer team came back onto the field and Matt watched the remainder of the practice with disguised interested. He'd never seen an actual sport played on anything other than a television, so it was a new experience for him. He definitely liked watching the boys in their rather short shorts and t-shirts run around with unfettered abandon.
There was one thing he noticed however that he needed clarification on, "I thought Tai was supposed to be one of the best on the soccer team?" he asked, "So why does he seem really slow and clumsy compared to the rest?"
"Oh," Kari said, "Well we got home really late last night and dad made him wake up at 5 am as normal, which was probably a good thing, since he had to work at 6 am today."
"He closed last night and then went back to work so early today? Does he do that every Saturday?"
"Yep," Kari said. "Tai always works on Saturday mornings and then goes to soccer practices in the afternoons. Sometimes he'll go back for a second shift in the evening if our dad isn't home."
"Doesn't he ever sleep?" Matt asked incredulously.
"I don't know how he does it honestly," Kari said, "I know some nights he doesn't sleep at all and some nights he gets a lot of sleep. I don't memorize what he does really, since he locks himself in his room pretty much as soon as he gets home."
"You know that's not normal, right?" Matt asked.
Kari shrugged. "It's not like I can really say anything. He's doing what he thinks is best right now. Everyone's tried talking to him, but it doesn't matter very much in the face of our dad's beliefs. Tai doesn't want to let him down again."
Matt shrugged, letting the conversation drop. It wasn't his responsibility to open other peoples' eyes to something that was obviously wrong and most likely dangerous. Even though he didn't want to say anything more now, he had a feeling that he wouldn't always be able to stay away from making comments. Something about Tai completely drew him in and he knew that he wouldn't be able to resist it forever and he was pretty sure he didn't want to. He wasn't looking for anything long term since he planned to leave as soon as he could, but Tai reminded him a lot like his friends back home and it appealed greatly to him.
He went back to watching the soccer game silently, letting his mind wander to the concert next week. He wasn't sure he was ready to do it; he and the band hadn't practiced together in a week and while that wasn't all too unusual, it was unusual for them to not practice right before a gig. He would have to think of a plan that wouldn't get him in trouble so that he and the band could get together during the week to rehearse at least a few times.
While his mind was going over possible scenarios for the coming week, he didn't notice the practice ending or TK and Kari talking animatedly with Tai, until he felt himself being stared at intensely. Coming out of his reverie he noticed that it was Tai who was staring at him and couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at the obvious way he was being checked out.
Sitting up fully he stretched his arms over his head, which made his shirt ride up a bit higher and contained a smirk when he noticed Tai's eyes widen slightly. Feigning innocence he asked, "So are we ready to go out and get something to eat?"
"Sure!" Kari said standing. "I'm hungry since we didn't stop to eat anything at the mall."
"So are we going to The Grill, or what?" Matt asked. "I don't know too many places around here."
"Anywhere but work," Tai interjected, finally taking his eyes off Matt's abs, "After this morning I don't want to see that place until I work again on Monday. I got in trouble for being late to soccer practice again and it took forever to convince the coach not to call my dad."
"So where do you suggest then?" Matt asked.
"We could always go back to the apartment Matt," TK said, "We've got plenty of food and we can always order out instead. We could watch a few movies or something and Kari's dad would have less of a problem with that, then us going out until all hours of the night."
"What about mom?"
TK shrugged. "She won't care. I'll just let her know we're having people over. She won't be back until morning anyway."
Matt shrugged, "Whatever you guys want to do, though I would prefer we not have take out."
"Does that mean you'll cook for us again Matt?" TK asked with a grin on his face.
"Yeah I'll cook, but I'm not promising anything fancy. I'm still waiting on Kai's call," he turned to Tai, "Is that okay with you?"
Tai shrugged, "Sure, it seems I'm the only one who hasn't had your cooking yet."
TK phoned his mom while Kari phoned her parents and let them know what was going on and then they all headed back to Matt and TK's apartment.
As they were passing the park near the apartment building they all suddenly heard a squeal and a girl about their age stopped right in front of Matt. "Oh wow, you're Yamato! I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me at first once I saw the shirt, but it really is you!" The girl said excitedly.
"Who're you?" Matt asked in an icy voice.
"Oh you don't know me personally but I'm Hiroshi's cousin. I went with him once to one of your concerts a few years ago when you two were dating."
Everyone in their little group was now staring at Matt with equally shocked expressions. Matt didn't seem to notice the looks or the fact that he had just been outed to his brother and his new friends by some girl he didn't even know.
"Was there something you wanted?" he asked, his expression now completely matching the icy tone of his voice, showing that he did notice.
"Well I heard that the Teenage Wolves were holding their last concert next weekend and I wanted to know if it was true," she said.
Matt shrugged. "I don't live there anymore so it would be too difficult to say whether the group will continue or not, but it is true that we will be having a concert next weekend. If you'll excuse me, we have to be going home now." He started walking, leaving her standing there while everyone hurried to keep up with him.
Once they got back to the apartment they decided on a simple chicken stir fry for dinner. Matt stayed to prepare everything while TK and Kari went to get a few DVD's from the video store. Matt was surprised that they went by themselves since Kari's dad had been pretty insistent about a chaperone being with them at all times, but apparently he had left town on a business trip right after his earlier meeting.
Tai stayed at the apartment, claiming he was too beat to walk down to the video store with them, which Matt figured was probably true since Tai was practically falling asleep with his head on the table.
"Are there any vegetables you don't want in this?" Matt asked while slicing up the chicken.
"Nah, doesn't matter to me," Tai responded, lifting his head off the table, "Do you want any help cutting things up?"
"No, but it would go a bit quicker if you could wash the vegetables for me, if you're not too tired."
Tai stood up and went to the counter where Matt had already laid out the vegetables he was going to use, "No, I think I can manage that. Don't be too surprised though if I crash during the movie. All the caffeine I had to keep going today is starting to wear off."
Matt and Tai continued their small talk for a while until all the good was prepared and Matt was starting to boil water for the rice.
"So are you really gay?" Tai asked Matt while they waited for the water to start boiling.
Matt wasn't surprised the question had finally come up. He was actually surprised that it waited until he got back to the apartment. Mostly he was surprised it was Tai who was asking him first and not TK. "Yeah, I'm gay. I have been since I was old enough to figure out that I didn't like girls very much."
Tai sighed, "How can you be so open about it?"
Matt shrugged. "I've never been someone who hides from people, at least not things I don't care about. Everyone back home knew I was gay and it didn't matter to most of them. I mean sure, there are assholes who think it's sick and wrong, but on the whole I just ignored them. My dad never minded either, so that wasn't really an issue. TK and my mom didn't know but it wasn't important since I hardly ever saw them."
Matt turned and looked Tai in the eye, "You don't have a problem with people being gay, do you?"
"Not at all," Tai quickly responded, "I have a couple close friends who are gay and I am too although very few people actually know that. Only my close friends really know. I think my mom suspects, but she's never said anything."
"So why are you hiding it?" Matt asked, turning the conversation off of him and more towards Tai. It was the perfect way to find out more about him. "I figure you have to be, since you asked me how I could be so open about it."
"Oh well if my dad ever found out I would probably end up dead," Tai grimaced, "Well no, that's not true. I don't think he would kill me, just make my life more of a living hell than he already does." Tai gave a lopsided smile, "Though making my life any harder would probably kill me from overwork."
Matt didn't comment nor did he pry on that comment, he didn't want to push too far too fast. "Well if you're thirsty, we have some soda in the fridge. It might give you a bit of a caffeine boost."
Tai nodded and went to the fridge and grabbed a soda. "So did you write any more on that song you were working on yesterday at lunch?"
Matt nodded. "It won't be ready to use in the concert next weekend, but it's almost finished."
Matt's cell phone rang right then and he hastily answered it after looking at the caller id display on the front. "Hey Kai, so you guys finally decide on what time we're gonna meet tomorrow?" He listened for a few minutes while adding the rice to the boiling water.
"Noon is fine, I should be up by then, but I don't really know any places around here to eat. Hold on a second," he looked at Tai, "Tai, is there a really good All You Can Eat place here?"
Tai thought for a minute, "Yeah there's a good Mongolian restaurant near the University downtown it's not too expensive either," he sat down at the table watching Matt while he went back to the conversation on the phone.
"Tai says there is a good one, but I want to get some work done before you three go stuff your faces," He listened for another moment and tried his best to keep his face from showing any kind of emotion.
"Yeah that one Kai, and no it's nothing like that. Listen, I'm in the middle of making dinner for everyone so you wanna call back or something?" He listened for a minute and then sighed, "Kai just chill. I'll talk to you tomorrow when I'm not up to my elbows in stir fry." He went to hang up the cell phone when Kai suddenly said something loudly and Matt frowned placing the phone back to his ear. "What was that?"
Matt's expression darkened, but his voice remained normal, "They didn't wait long did they? I don't think it's such a good idea to bring him here, but there's really nothing I can do about it can I?" He pulled the phone away from his ear when Kai swore loudly. "Hey chill out, Kai. It was for the best, I'm just surprised your brother went for him so fast. It's not your life and I'm fine with it."
Matt listened for another minute and Tai could see him raise an eyebrow, "You want to what?" he glanced at the stove and noticed that the rice was done and quickly turned it off. "I'll talk to you about it later. I promise I'll call you. I've really got to go though, bye." Matt ended the call quickly and put the cell phone back in his pocket.
"I think TK was right," Matt mused, "I have some fucked up friends." He shook his head ruefully and started heating the oil in the wok for the stir fry.
"So what was that about," Tai asked cautiously.
"Oh Kai's brother Sei wanted to bring my ex with him tomorrow when they came to visit," Matt shrugged, "It'll be annoying as hell but I guess it confirmed the rumors I was always hearing."
"That doesn't seem very considerate," Tai mused, "I mean I'd hate to see one of my friends with my ex." He paused for a moment, "Was it a bad break up?"
Matt shook his head. "Kouji didn't want a long distance relationship and I didn't want to always be wondering what he was up to. He wasn't all that great at keeping his hands to himself since I wouldn't sleep with him."
"That is the weirdest relationship I've ever heard of," Tai said shaking his head.
Matt shrugged, "Well I never caught him with anyone; I just heard the rumors. Besides, I guess they were confirmed. Honestly though, I guess it didn't really mean very much since I'm not horribly hurt by it. By the way, Kai wants to know if you can show us that Mongolian place tomorrow since none of us are familiar with Odaiba."
Tai shrugged, "I have a get together with my friends, but if it's after that it shouldn't be a problem."
"You really don't have to if you don't want to; I have a feeling Kai's just being overprotective of me. He's like a big brother worrying all the time. He probably just wants to make sure I'm making friends here."
"It's not a bother at all. I don't have anything to do after the meeting. Before I go I'll give you my cell so you can give me a call when you guys are ready," Tai gave Matt a semi-shy smile. "I want to be friends with you. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered you so much over the last two days."
Matt laughed lightly as he added the chicken in the stir fry, focusing his mind on his cooking and not the shy smile that Tai had given him. While he was definitely interested, he wasn't sure to what extent if any he wanted for a relationship.
Matt woke up the next morning around 10 am, so that he could get ready to meet his friends. Tai and Kari had been picked up by their mother at 11 pm the night before, after they had watched a couple movies. He and Tai had exchanged numbers so that they would be able to coordinate later in the day after Tai got done with his friends.
After showering and coordinating his outfit for the day, he went and made himself a small breakfast, and watched a bit of television. TK had already left about an hour before he woke up, so he had free reign of the apartment since his mother was still at her friend's house. When he still lived with his dad he would invite friends over to play video games or just watch movies when he was alone, now he had no idea what to do.
Sighing he stood up and glanced at the clock. Since it was only 11 am, he could sit and do nothing for thirty minutes before he had to get ready to leave. However, since he was already bored he figured he might as well get ready and leave a bit early. Since he had already done his hair right after he had gotten out of the shower, all he had left to do was change. Since his outfit was already picked out for the day, it would only take him about five minutes.
After dressing in a pair of emerald green jeans, he put his eyebrow ring in and his navel ring. Since it was warm outside he decided to dress in his white half t-shirt that said in bold emerald green letters on the back, "If you see me getting smaller, I'm leaving." After a moments debate he decided on a simple silver chain to go around his neck. He didn't feel as gothic as he usually did, which was why he had chosen brighter colors.
Making sure he had his ATM card and plenty of cash in his wallet he grabbed his CD player and the song he had been working on earlier (which was almost completed), he put on his shoes and locked up. He figured he would be able to walk slowly enough that he would only be about 15 minutes or so early.
Once he got to the park, he waited underneath a tree near the north parking lot with his headphones on. He had only gotten through a few songs before he saw Kai's van pull into the parking lot and park. He took a couple deep breaths before standing up and going to greet them as they were getting out.
As much as he had denied it to Kaishi and then to Tai, he was not as over Kouji as he let everyone believe. It wasn't that he was still in love with Kouji; it was more than he had wasted almost a year of his life on Kouji and that pissed him off. He was worried that he wouldn't be able to be completely civil and everyone would get the wrong idea.
He smiled warmly and returned the hugs that Kai and Hideki gave him and chatted happily with them for a few moments. After their greetings had been exchanged he calmly asked, "Where's Seiji and Kouji?"
Kai grinned at him. "They're still hiding in the van. I think they're a bit afraid of how you would react."
Matt shrugged, "I told you last night that I don't care. I meant it." He sighed and headed back to his shady spot underneath the tree, "Well whatever, go tell them to hurry up. We have business to get down to."
Hideki grinned and jogged back over to the van and stuck his head in the door. Matt couldn't hear what he said from that distance but less than 30 seconds later both Seiji and Kouji emerged from the van and headed over to the tree as well.
Matt waited for everyone to sit down and took out his notepad. "So, we need to decide which songs we are planning on playing since the concert will last an hour and a half. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we should play?"
Kai noticed how Matt was deliberately not looking at Seiji or Kouji, which was probably for the best, since Seiji was sitting on Kouji's lap and not paying as much attention as he usually did.
An hour later their planning session was interrupted when someone yelled Matt's name frantically. Matt glanced around and stood up quickly as he saw TK running as fast as he could in Matt's direction holding a single rollerblade in his hands with a death grip. "TK," he asked quickly as his brother ran up to him and practically hid behind him, "What's wrong and why do you have that rollerblade?"
TK panted frantically and peeked out from behind Matt. "Hide me from him! If he catches me, I'm dead meat!"
Matt's band mates looked at the two in interest, glad for a break from their planning session.
Matt was about to ask TK who he was supposed to hide him from when he saw Taichi run around a corner, soaking wet and completely barefoot and carrying what looked like a water balloon in each hand. "I take it the rollerblade belongs to Tai?" Matt asked. His thoughts weren't completely together, considering the vision that was progressing ever closer to him.
Tai was topless, wet, and wearing baggy, barely-staying-on-his-hips, cargo pants. His wild hair was somewhat covering part of his face and it made him look incredibly sexy.
TK nodded slightly from behind Matt, "Uh huh."
"Care to explain why I should protect you when it belongs to him?" Matt drawled.
"It wasn't my fault! Sora dared him to rollerblade down the roof of the ramada in the middle of the park, and before I knew it Mimi took his rollerblades and gave one each to Daisuke and me and told us to run like hell."
"Does he have a fucking death wish or something?" Matt practically growled his expression darkening as Tai got closer.
"He usually won't do any dares that our group gives him, but he's unusually hyper today. I think he actually got more than a few hours of sleep last night," TK said, still trying to make himself as small a target as possible behind his brother.
"I see those pretty blonde locks hiding behind your brother Takeru! Give me back my damn rollerblade!" Tai yelled as he slowed to a walk and stopped less than three feet away from Matt.
Matt stepped forward, "Tai, I can't let you kill my brother and you sure as hell aren't going to use those water balloons on me." Seeing as Tai had stopped his advance, Matt pushed his brother behind Kai and walked closer to Taichi. He could tell Taichi wasn't happy, but for what reason he wasn't sure. All he knew was that Tai wasn't going to get that rollerblade.
Matt stepped even closer to Tai, so that they were barely a few inches apart. "Come on Tai," Matt coaxed quietly, "I want you to meet my band mates. Do you really want to go out to dinner with us, possibly hurt?"
Tai's eyes narrowed as he looked at Matt and suddenly his expression became less murderous. "Hey Matt, is that an earring in your eyebrow?"
TK an extremely audible sigh of relief and started to slowly edge out from behind Kai. "Oh good, he's been distracted," he murmured.
Tai's eyes moved off of Matt's face and he narrowed his eyes. "I heard that Takeru," he went to move around Matt, when Matt grabbed his arm.
"T.K, give Tai back his rollerblade," Matt instructed, not letting his grip on Tai's arm loosen.
T.K shuffled over to where Tai and Matt were and placed Tai's rollerblade on the ground. "I'll just let you two be, won't I? I think I hear Kari calling me," with that he took off running in the direction he had come in.
"It's not over T.K! I know where you live!" Tai shouted at T.K's retreating back.
Matt let go of Tai once his brother was a safe distance away and quickly took the water balloons out of Tai's hands while he was distracted. "There all better. Come meet my friends, Tai."
Tai turned the rest of the way around and finally took notice of Matt's band mates, "Hi, Kai," Tai waved cheerfully with his free hand.
Matt led Tai over to the group and started making introductions, not realizing that he still had a firm grip on Tai's arm. When he sat down, he dragged Tai with him.
Tai laughed as Matt let go of his arm in a rush once he had realized what he'd done. "I would love to stay for a while Matt, but I need to get going before your brother or Dai tell Mimi that I have one of my rollerblades back."
Tai stood back up. "Call me when you're done or whatever, or just come over to the middle of the park. You can't miss us; we're the group with all the crazy people."
Matt smirked, "Crazy people, with you leading the bunch."
Tai grinned and bounced on his feet. "Of course! Though Daisuke could give me a run for my money." He waved cheerfully, grabbed his rollerblade and his water balloons and started jogging away.
Matt watched him with a hungry expression on his face until he was out of sight, and then turned back to his band mates.
"He seems a lot more talkative than he was the other night," Kai commented noticing Matt's attention was finally back.
Matt shrugged. "He can be pretty hyper sometimes, I guess." He didn't feel like talking about Tai or sharing any information about him. He wanted to keep Tai to himself for a little while longer at least. He was sure Tai would be bombarded with questions later at dinner anyway.
Matt picked up his notebook, "So, let's get back to the task at hand," he said, while Kai groaned out loud.