Written: 16.o3.o6
Argh. I've finally posted the second chapter! I guess I started doubting myself…about this chapter. And I admit…this is one of my few 'writer's block.' I don't know…I wasn't quite pleased with it…but then again, I'm never quite pleased with my work. As I get older on this site, I put more effort in each chapter I do. Perhaps I'm a perfectionist? I don't know. But I know - for sure - that this chapter isn't close to perfect. I HATE IT. Grr…Okay, I'll quit my ramblings and let you test this chapter out for yourselves…
Beachn, Night Beauty, theladyknight (thanks for signing the guestbook, dear! You're part of a jazz band? That's so cool! Haha. Yeah, I reckon jazz suits Yamato - though many people may not agree with me. But...the harmonica he plays in Digimon is a soulful instrument ;D so that's gotta mean something! You like how Sora's portrayed? Haha..that's good, I was intending to make her intriguing since this story is mainly from Yamato's view), Princess Kikyo Sora (finish it soon? haha darling, I've got a long way to go. lol...i JUST started! And i've got two other stories plus juggling school! I'll stop with the excuses ;D), hasu, nickygirl, Curtis Zidane Ziraa (nice to hear from you again!), JyouraKoumi ( sorry s-loc, no koumi here x.X . I'm really sorry. I REALLY want to write a Koumi for you since i owe you one. BUT I've been so busy lately. I might as well stop updating altogether…), Wishinstahhz (yes, they have met already - I wanted to jump straight to the point on what this story is obviously focused on - the character buildup between both Sora and Yamato. haha) & Sabishi Tomo (first reviewer! yeah, this chapter was confusing...but it'll all click into place ;D)
My Funny Valentine
Chapter Two
Diligently, he shut the door. Dark bags draped under his depleted crystal azure eyes of his pale drained face. He massaged his throat, under the impression that someone had slit it. His fingers were tingling in a numbing sensation from his perpetual strumming on his electric guitar. Thus was the life of a 'rockstar.'
As he entered his apartment he couldn't help but feel cautious of his surrounding. He had always done a quick check whenever he entered the familiar realm. Perhaps it was because he lived alone. His stomach groused.
It would have been nice if he had someone prepare him a well cooked home made lunch. He had enough money to arrange for his own personal chef, but he wasn't fond of being too posh and living 'higher-up' than to the majority of the world population. He endeared simplicity. His apartment carried a ordinary aura with plain white walls and the typical male confining mess of a adolescent teenage boy. He entered the small bare kitchen (possibly the only neatest area in his home) and hunted about for what remaining groceries he had left in that week to prepare his meal. His stomach groaned again.
Now, at that particular time, he couldn't help but ponder whether he should have had a chef. The starvation was getting to him.
After taking a handfuls of fettuccine and dunking it into steaming water, he waited patiently for it to cook. Most of the other band members would eat take out, but Yamato was a guy that was concerned about his diet. Plus there was no such thing as a 'tubby' lead singer to a famous band. He only agreed to have take out once in a while. Ever since his parent's divorce, Yamato had learnt how to cook proper cuisines and that always spending money on just take-away food was not good. His father had always busy with his night shift work, leaving Yamato to fend for himself so he had grown accustomed to fending for himself. His friends always complimented and teased him, but he didn't know whether he cooked well or they were just famished and were in need of 'free' meals. No matter how wealthy his friend were, they were freeloading thieves.
He stirred the pasta hungrily. Sure, he could cook…but he could never compete against his mother's lasagna. Darn, he was ravenous.
"Matt?" a voice piped over the boiling water. "Are you home? Mm, that smells good!"
He looked up from the saucepan, curiously. Only a few people knew about the secret keys he hid in the front porch of his apartment. There was his best friend – Taichi Kamiya (but he crossed that name out since he was on an overseas holiday with his girlfriend), his band members (they enjoyed finding peculiar ways of shaking him up awake in the morning because he was a heavy sleeper) and his brother – Takeru (nicknamed TK). No doubt about it. It was his brother.
A few seconds later his sibling casually walked into the kitchen. His dirty blond hair was covered with his uniform black beanie, which he wore everywhere (Yamato knew the only reason why he wore the beanie was because his younger brother despised brushing his hair). TK's wonted amiable grin spread across his face as he neared his older brother, giving him a punch on the arm.
"Good to see you too, TK," Yamato smirked, displaying his customary greeting of messing up his hair. It was an old habit that he would never fail to remember.
TK assisted him by making the sauce for the dish, and instead of one bowl of pasta – there were two. For that lunch, Yamato had brotherly company.
"Table for two. This feels like a date," TK commented, winking. "Where's the candlelight?"
"It's broad daylight, idiot," Yamato sneered. "And I don't comply to being incest."
"That's a pity," his brother responded jeeringly then started to squeal. "I've always dreamt of marrying Yamato Ishida, lead singer of the Teen-Age Wolves!"
"God TK. I think mum's turned you into a woman," Yamato chuckled. After the divorce, when Yamato was about eleven, both brothers had been separated to live with one parent each. Yamato lived with their father, while TK lived with their mother. "So why'd you come here, anyway?"
After swallowing down a forkful of pasta, he replied, "I was in town. Just wanted to visit you."
Yamato chortled. "You live in Odaiba too, dope."
TK shrugged, sticking his tongue like a little kid. "You know the reason why I came occasionally! Just checking up on my brother."
Every now and again TK would randomly visit Yamato just to see how he was going. Even more lately because, as mentioned earlier, his best friend was overseas.
One would have suspected that the divorce would have distanced them, but it was evident that it hadn't. It had made their sibling bond much stronger than it already had been.
"Stop checking up on me! I'm the older brother, I think it should be the other way around."
"If I stop checking on you, who will?" he questioned. "Anyway, you're always busy…so it's better if I check up on you."
Yamato shrugged as a response as he gingerly focused his attention back to his food, absorbed in thought.
Occupation wise, TK had a much easier laid back job. He was a novelist, professionalizing in writing long epic adventure stories. Yamato was certain he achieved the expertise from their mother, who was a writer for the Odaiba Times. Many people also saw his father in Yamato because his father used to be apart of a band as well.
Yamato had always wondered how TK could handle the patience of sitting on his butt all day and find it so appealing. He found writing lyric for songs a frustration, at times…but writing actual stories. He was amazed how his brother could stand it. Then again, TK had always been a dreamer. Especially after the divorce, TK used writing as a therapy to avoid the reality while Yamato had engrossed himself with a musical career.
Unconsciously, Yamato stared at his already empty bowl. He began replenishing more pasta into his bowl and devouring his meal in a wolf like manner.
"Gee…you're not hungry," sarcasm dripped from TK's lips. "I'm not even half way on my first bowl!"
"I haven't eaten since breakfast!" Yamato growled. "I had band practise and I haven't gotten a bite since."
"That's exactly what I mean!"
Yamato stared at TK, uncertain what he was talking about this time.
"What I mean is that you''re not taking care of yourself, which is why everyone checks up on you."
"Don't lecture me," Yamato mumbled. "I don't need anyone to check up on me. I don't need a damn nursemaid!"
"No, you need a girlfriend," TK said bluntly. "You need to socialize more, Matt. Not run away from every girl you see on the streets."
"Ahh…so there is a reason why you came over," Yamato laughed. He knew his brother well. "Spill it, Teeks."
"Grandma rang from France. She told me both her and Grandpa are coming in two weeks to Odaiba."
"That's early notice," he arched an eyebrow. "Oh well, good excuse to cancel some band practices. Family comes first."
"Going back to the point," TK emphasized the latter word pointing his fork at the older man.
"This sounds bad."
"Trust me, it's good."
"Then spill it!"
"I would if you stopped interrupting."
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
The brothers acted as if they hadn't been separated at all from the divorce. TK coughed. "Well, Grandma was having the usual conversation with me – you know, the lecture?"
"Yeah," Yamato bit his lip. He loved his grandparents with all his heart…but he absolutely detested being lectured by them – especially about…
"Our love lives," TK gave a weak beam.
There was something about TK that Yamato couldn't quite put his finger on and as their little talk became a longer one the more and more he didn't feel quite appealed to the whole prattle.
"…you know how she is, she's always checking up on us more often ever since our parents split! She even noted that you haven't gotten any publicity in France about having a girlfriend and then she gave me the talk that our parents had been bad influences which was why she concluded that you were queer."
"Gay?" Yamato repeated, he was beginning to get a headache.
"Well…she's got the crux about you! Even though she's countries away, you've gotta admit that she knows us very well. She knows that you haven't really trusted anything to do with 'relationships' after the divorce. She knows your whole cynical pessimistic perspective about the whole 'love' matter and how you claim it doesn't exist!"
"Exactly," Yamato muttered. "But why'd she say I'm gay! Just because I don't date doesn't necessarily mean I'm gay! I am NOT gay!"
"Which is why you owe me."
"That doesn't make sense!"
"I covered up for you with a little white lie," TK said. "Grandma's now aware that you aren't a homosexual."
Yamato relaxed a bit on his chair, tension oozing out of his shoulders. "So what did you say?"
"I said that," TK paused. "I said that I'm engaged…and you're….you're married."
"WHAT?" he blurted out. "Are you a LUNATIC?"
"Come on, Matt! It isn't that bad!"
"It's easy for you to say," Yamato groaned. "Kari's been your steady girlfriend for three whole years! Go ring up Grandma and tell her the truth!"
"But she was so pleased!" the younger man frowned. "Stop being a party pooper! Just play along, Matt! Find a girl willing to play along and then you can break up with her. It'll be easy for you! You're a celebrity!"
"Some white lie," Yamato grumbled. "It's the complete opposite! It's a black lie, I tell you!"
"No…now that you put it that way," TK spoke pensively. "It's more close to a gray lie – something in between white and black."
"TK!" Yamato felt like leaning over the table and strangling his brother with his quivering fingers. He collapsed into his hands. "What should I do Mr.-I-Am-To-Blame."
"I suggest," TK retorted, "That you find a girl."
I was meant to introduce the band in this chapter, but I thought it was best that I shouldn't. I didn't want to bring too many characters into this chapter…considering I wanted TK to make some sort of effect and to slide in more background information on Yamato. You like, you hate? I seriously think I've finally lost it and that my train of thoughts has slipped just over the borderline of sanity. Please review ;D
Note: not edited (forgive the typos for they shall be fixed when I have time to fix them)