VII.

Training was hell.

Training was absolutely unforgivable hell. How had his sister been doing this for so many years?

Taesuke dragged his legs forward down the track. Just trying to eke out this one last part of the mile. His supervisor looked at him over her orange baseball cap with a complete disinterest. And it burned. "Stop Yagami. No need to overdo it."

"Yes ma'am," he wheezed as he ground to a halt, eyes wide, body aching.

She didn't tut, didn't show any real disappointment. But then this girl didn't show much of anything but the constant tension in her shoulders. "Your stamina's terrible. I thought you played soccer."

"I do!" he managed to say through gasps for air. "We don't run like this for hours in a row though!"

"It's been an hour and a half you brat." Again, no real concern. "Drink some water and get back out there."

"Y-Yes ma'am."

Hackmon was still on the track for a minute. But at the sight of Taesuke flopped helplessly in the grass, he waddled over and sat beside him. "You suck."

"Do not."

"You barely made a mile."

"You're a Digimon. 'S not the same."

"You're a human who plays sports. It should be."

"Only cause dad played." Dad had showed him how to play. Tsu hadn't wanted to, only Dai had wanted to and now Dai didn't want to do anything with him anymore. He'd been the one who got hurt and Dai was mad, he didn't get it! Even though everyone else (except Kaito) seemed to be better. Maybe Dai was just bitter.

"Weak."

"I am not!"

"If you have enough energy to yell, you have enough energy to run."

Taesuke made a face at Hackmon and rolled himself over to stand. As he got to his feet, he caught a glimpse of Kaito walking on the other side of the fence. Gaomon trotted loyally at his side, eyes roving around as he padded along. Taesuke froze up as they fell on him. A smile crossed the dog's face, almost all teeth. He placed a gloved paw on Kaito's back. The human paused, turned his head, looked.

For a moment, Kaito's eyes met Taesuke's own. And that moment seemed to last much longer than it ought to have, quite reasonably. Heck, Tae could hear his own heartbeat! That wasn't normal right?

Then it ended and Kaito pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Tae risked a glance at his coach, who was turned to face another trainee. Then, he jogged to the fence, managing to get there just as Kaito put his phone away.

"Kaito!" He shouldn't sound so happy. He didn't mean to. He hadn't seen the other this close in three weeks, with training and, well, everything. But he couldn't help it, really. It was… really nice to get someone still willing to look him in the eye after, well, everything. Tsu didn't even eat meals with him anymore. She was barely home anymore anyway, to their mother's chagrin.

He wouldn't have minded, except he remembered her face during their fight. So stricken and cold and hurt.

"Are you in love with my sister?" As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he threw his hands over his face. "No, I didn't want to ask that, I didn't mean to say that, are you okay, that's what I meant to say." He shut himself up with an audible clack and earned some sound - not a laugh, not even close to a laugh - in return.

"Of course I'm not," was his actual reply. "To both of those questions. Why would I love your sister?"

"I dunno, why wouldn't you?" Sure, he thought Tsu was a butt sometimes and she was bad at sharing, but his heart always went back to every time he got too sick to get out of bed how she'd come straight home and tell him how his friends were and got his homework and made the miso taste good. She was still his sister and she loved sometimes when it was weird. So he couldn't think of a reason why not.

Kaito only shrugged, scratched Gaomon behind the ears. "Her writing's messy and she's loud," he said. "She thinks romance movies are stupid and won't watch them with me. She hates the way I sleep and I don't like anyone who wears headphones to bed."

"I'm loud," Taesuke objected. "Dad said loud people are usually honest."

"Or poor liars." There was a pause. "And I'm not in love with you either."

"... I didn't think so."

Everyone said your heart breaks when you're rejected. Taesuke just felt at most like there was a cookie crumbling in his chest.

"Can't help hoping though," he said, trying to sound cheery. He thought he succeeded.

"No you can't, really." Kaito glanced back at him. "I'm sorry, Taesuke. I really didn't know."

"Everyone else did." Tae paused. "That wasn't what I meant, I just… why didn't you?"

"Why didn't you notice I liked Kei?"

"Because everyone does." It was easier to say it this time, not as harsh or mean. "Even Tsu likes him. Not like that but she likes him better than she likes hanging with me sometimes, even though he's lied so much and even though he didn't like you back." Taesuke shook his head miserably. "I thought it wouldn't mean anything. It never does for everyone else."

"I'm stubborn unlike everyone else." Kaito smiled at him, and it was small and private and Taesuke couldn't stop just looking at it, at the tilt of his lips. "It didn't work out though."

"I, I wish it did a little." It surprised him that he really did, that all those feelings Kaito must have had had gone to somewhere, unlike him, except now they're both in limbo, with nowhere to go, not even up or down.

"Maybe there's hope for you yet then," Hackmon said dryly and Taesuke put all his strength into stomping on his partner's paw.

Kaito didn't laugh or smile again, but his eyes were quiet. "Talk to me about it when you're older."

"Are you really not in love with me because I'm thirteen?"

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "It's not helping."

"But I-" Taesuke stopped himself. "Oh. Okay. You just got dumped. I'm flying at the speed of sound."

Kaito almost laughed. Taesuke watched his eyes crinkle, watched his lips quirk up, and felt warmth flush his face. "Now you're getting it."

Gaomon laughed instead and Taesuke shivered. All the warmth was gone. "Your instructor is watching you, little boy," crooned the dog.

That was the only warning Taesuke received before a hand dragged him away from the fence and threw him bodily onto the track. When he looked up from his now officially irate coach, Kaito was gone like he'd never been there in the first place.

Taesuke was half sure he'd imagined him now.

But… this was his curse. And he had to break it. And he had to get his answers. And if training was where he would start, then it was.

And no matter how long it took, he would kill that Gaomon. It was a promise.

A/N: Ok I really didn't intend for it to end this way entirely. Also today was a two chapter update! Make sure you read the previous one! But anyway, back to what i was saying. This was going to end with them not together. That was something i decided from day one. Neither of these characters are remotely ready for that and even if they were, Tae is kind of a moron. Kaito is mentally and emotionally screwed up and it has a lot to do with Gaomon. And also to do with life. But I won't talk about that here. The next new fic in this series will be Don't Think Twice, which is for Kaito, followed by Face My Fears (because I am a shameless KH fan) which will explore Kaito and Kei's unorthodox friendship, Kei's asexuality, just what makes these kiddos monsters in their own minds, and probably some Hirose. But this will be after I write the rest of Sweet Song, Dearly Beloved and Celebration.

This probably isn't the last you see of Tae. I have to figure out just where he's going to go now that he's had his own little sidestory. So until then, thank you so much for reading. Please drop a review, it really helps me out and as always, thank you for dropping by.