wooo!
Closing Time
by Moonlit Eyes
Atarashii Taiyou (New Sun) by Fujita Toshiko (Taichi Yagami's image song)
Kimi wa mada shiranai ne (You don't know yet, do you?)
Takusan no monogatari (Many stories)
Tsutaete Okanakucha (Must be told)
Yamato came back into the room and handed the ice pack to Taichi. The bartender just nodded and put it on his knee before looking at Yamato. "Aren't you going to put ice on that?"
"What?" Yamato wasn't really expected that reaction.
"It looks like you put on make up to match your eye." Taichi said, talking about the black eye he'd given to Yamato. The other just shook his head.
"Doesn't matter, it's a little late to ice it now. Besides, it isn't that bad." The blond shrugged nonchalantly, acting like he didn't care, but actually it took every bit of his willpower not to look into a mirror. "How bad is it? You leg."
"It's..." Taichi didn't know what they were doing really. Yamato was acting like he cared but Taichi didn't want him to. He decided a while ago not to say how bad his leg really was but to be honest he wanted to cry almost. He could feel the tell-tale throbbing that promised future days of using his cane...at least around his house. Taichi hated that thing, he didn't care what the doctors said, he wasn't going to use it around town. "It's fine. I took one of my pain pills that I keep in my jacket." And he was telling Ishida this...why?
"Oh?" Yamato asked innocently. "Then you wouldn't care if I," he flicked it hard, jumping in surprise as Taichi hissed in pain. "I didn't know it was that bad. This bad."
"Yeah? Well, it's what you wanted to hear, right?" Taichi snapped. "Taichi Yagami can't even go for a damn jog for longer than a minute, let alone play soccer. That's what you wanted right? For me to fall off my high horse? That's all you'd say to me in high school, going after me from the beginning when I never did nothing wrong in the beginning." He glared at the other for a second before looking away. "Well, I fell off my horse pretty damn hard. Happy?"
"No, I'm not happy. I'm not cruel on purpose." Yamato sat on the table behind him. "And our whole war started because of you. You broke my harmonica at summer camp remember?"
"Yeah, it was an accident and I--"
"It was the last thing my mother gave me before my parents divorced and I rarely saw her after." Yamato said, trying to get the other to understand.
"I didn't know that," Taichi said softly. "If you'd of told me instead of popping my favorite soccer ball though, the whole thing might not have gone so far." The brunette felt he should get a gold star and a cookie for sounding so adult like there. Though he knew the real reason he didn't want to start a large fight was because he was going to have a hard time making a quick get away. "In fact, this whole thing could have blown over if you'd have just let it go."
"Whatever. Don't lie. You know you enjoyed sending your stupid friends after me all throughout middle school and high school." Yamato's voice was dripping with sarcasm. Taichi was just confused though.
"What are you talking about? I never sent anyone after you. It was our business, no one else's." Taichi wasn't lying either. To send someone else to fight your battles was something Taichi never approved of. Yamato just snorted.
"Yeah, whatever. So Renjiro and his crew decided to go after me by themselves to beat me up while glorifying you?" Yamato watched the other for a sign of guilt on Taichi's face, but he never saw it.
"Figures that it was Renjiro. Never liked him much." Taichi sighed. Renjiro was always following Taichi around school like a lost puppy. Taichi only stuck to him on the field though since he was the only one who could think fast enough to catch Taichi's notoriously spontaneous passes. Beyond that, Taichi felt he couldn't get rid of the fanboy fast enough.
"So you're saying you never sent him after me?" Yamato suddenly remembered how many times Sora tried to defend Taichi by saying that her best friend wouldn't do something like that.
"No, I fight my fights, I don't need anyone else doing it for me." Taichi sat up better, careful of his knee. "What did he do to you?"
"What didn't he do? Remember when I had to cancel a show because I broke my arm?" Yamato was surprised when the other nodded. "Well, that was thanks to Renjiro meeting me after gym by surprise."
"That ass. I swear I didn't have anything to do with that. I never even talked to him outside of practice and games. He didn't feel like being my tail anyway after he found out my sexual preference the middle of senior year." Not long before the accident, Taichi shook the thought out of his head.
"I guess I'll just have to believe you. The only thing that kept me from believing Sora when she said as much was the fact that I thought you'd fess up proudly if I confronted you about it. It's why I never really did." Yamato wiped his face. He was believing Taichi Yagami's words? What was the world coming to?
"Sora stood up for me?" Taichi wasn't too surprised, but still he didn't know what she talked about with Yamato when they dated. "Great, now I'm probably gonna hafta apologize to her for freaking out Tuesday. Though I am right about most of it."
"She told me about that. I didn't know that she didn't tell you. Though, this is me and you we're talking about, so maybe she just wanted to avoid getting in the middle." Yamato said.
"Yeah, I guess I can't blame her for that then. Damn it, I hate apologizing to her sometimes." Taichi chuckled. "Are we having a civil conversation?"
"I think we are." Yamato titled his head to the side. "Weird."
"Look, I know we don't like each other very much but I have an idea. Well, Sonya has an idea and she won't leave me alone about it." Taichi paused as if trying to decide if he was making the right choice then nodded his head. "Right," he stuck out his right hand, "Hello, my name is Taichi Yagami. Nice to meet you for the first time."
Yamato just looked at him as if he lost his mind. "What?"
"I said, hello, my name is Taichi Yagami. Nice to meet you for the first time." He held his hand out stubbornly. Yamato looked at the hand for a second, feeling as though something bad was going to come from this. Then he thought about having Mr. Itou telling him not to finish coming in the rest of the month because he started another fight with Taichi. Deciding it was for the best, he carefully took the hand and shook it.
"Yamato Ishida."
"Yama." Taichi said with a teasing grin on his face. "I'm going to call you Yama."
"No." Yamato glared and dropped the hand.
"Ooh, he doesn't like it, now I have to call him that." The bartender laughed.
"Do you talk to yourself often?" The blond raised an eyebrow.
"Not really." Taichi smiled. "My turn."
"What?" Yamato was getting a little tired of being confused.
"My turn. You asked me a question and now it's my turn. If we get to know each other better then we can get along with each other." Taichi said matter of factly.
"But what if it just makes us hate each other more?" Yamato crossed his arms.
"Then our principle was right and we should change classes." Taichi gave him a wink that the other only rolled his eyes at.
"Right, but I think I know enough about Taichi Yagami." Deciding that the coffee table was uncomfortable, Yamato sat cross legged on the chair at the end near Taichi's foot.
"Really? Then what's my favorite color?" Was the smart reply.
"You mean 'colors,' plural, and it's yellow and blue." Yamato leaned forward with a smirk. "What's mine?" He doubted Taichi could this one. He'd told everyone from magazines to fangirls the wrong color just because he thought it was a dumb question to ask someone.
"Green." Taichi grinned. "You have too many green shirts for it to not be green."
"How... Never mind." The singer shook his head, not realizing that the civil conversation was still going on and that he was actually enjoying it. "What's my--"
"My turn!" Taichi interrupted. "What's my favorite band? Betcha don't know that one."
"Orange Range." Really he was guessing because he'd seen the other wearing that band's shirt when he came over Tuesday.
"Damn. Yours is either Bump of Chicken or Asian Kung-fu Generation."
"How did you know that one? I love both those bands but Asian Kung-fu Generation is my favorite." Yamato suddenly felt the need to be on top. "Well, what are my hobbies?"
"Cooking and writing." Taichi grinned larger at the other's shocked expression. "Your brother told that to Mimi one time when she asked. I just happened to be there."
"Takeru..." Yamato muttered. What else had his brother said and to whom? He started to get uncomfortable. "I don't know yours anymore." He started, "not that it wasn't obvious before, I wasn't going out of my to know you or anything."
"Right, sure." Taichi chuckled for a second before looking down. "I don't really have any hobbies, not anymore. It's been three years and still I don't know what to do now. Soccer was my dream but now..."
"Isn't there anything the doctors can do?" Yamato blushed. "Not that I care but..."
Taichi laughed at the other's embarrassment before sobering up. "No, I don't trust doctors anyway. They told me I'd never walk again, unless I got a fake leg or something. But I really didn't want that so I just pushed myself harder in physical therapy until I could walk again."
"Sounds like you, stubborn jackass." Yamato said, but there wasn't any bite in his words. Taichi noticed too and just smiled. The brunette was grateful Yamato didn't push the subject.
"My turn."
--
The next morning, Taichi was limping into his apartment with help from Yamato. They both stayed up all night talking until Yamato decided to help Taichi home at seven in the morning while everyone was still sleeping. Carefully the two took off Taichi's shoes together, jumping in surprise when the door straight down the hallway from them opened. Out came a harassed looking Sora who was clutching a phone in her hand. "Where were you? Why didn't you call? We all waited for you so we could--" She suddenly noticed Yamato," hello, what's this?"
"Nothing! It's nothing!" Taichi tried to pull away from Yamato but almost fell over if it weren't for the blond catching him by the waist. Apparently Sora saw something different happen from her angle.
"Oh my god, Taichi!" Sora gasped. "I told you to get along better Yamato so you go out and screw him?"
"What the hell? No!" Taichi's eyes went wide and both men jumped apart. Taichi clutched onto the coat rack for support.
"Well it does make sense," this comment came from Mimi who had sleepily walked from her room after being awoken by Sora's yelling. "I mean, Yamato is Taichi's type."
"No he is not!" Taichi was blushing and he knew it.
"Actually, Yamato Ishida does match the description of Taichi's usual dates." Koushiro peeked around the corner. "So there is a high probability of Taichi being attracted to him."
"Big words not helping here, Kou-Kou!" Taichi hissed. "Remember you owe me." Koushiro squeaked at the threat and ducked further back into the other room. "Don't listen to them. Please don't listen to them." Taichi pleaded with Yamato who had, until then, become very enthralled with the tile at the door entrance.
"Um...yeah, don't worry. I'll take your word for it." The singer said with a small shudder at looks he was getting.
"Wow, Taichi. You must be pretty good in bed if you got Yamato to willingly agree with you." Mimi teased. "Well, I'm off to bed to get my beauty sleep. Ta! I'll expect the full story later." The strawberry blond American walked back into her room and shut the door.
"Well I'm not waiting for the full story." Sora crossed her arms.
"Yeah, yeah, fine. And we did not sleep together for the last time." Taichi sighed before looking at Koushiro. "Hey, Koushiro, get my stupid stick from behind my door, will ya?" The computer wiz nodded and went to fetch it.
"Stupid stick?" Yamato raised his eyebrow.
"It's what Taichi calls his cane." Sora looked at Taichi disapprovingly. "He really shouldn't call it that because there's nothing wrong with admitting to needing it. Wait, why do you need it?" She suddenly looked very worried.
"All in due time, mother." Taichi teased. A second later Koushiro came back with a silver metal cane. Taichi glared at the handle for a second before grabbing it. "Well, shall we?"
"I'll make the tea." Mimi said with a yawn as she came out of her room, this time wearing her pale pink night robe.
"Thought you were going to sleep?" Koushiro asked amused.
"And miss the good stuff? Never!" She said with enthusiasm. "Help me out, Kou-Kou."
"Yeah, Kou-Kou." Taichi snickered as he leaned on his 'stupid stick' and walked to the dinner table that sat in the halfway point between the living room and the kitchen.
"Don't call me that!" Koushiro yelled out.
"Is it in your programming to annoy people or something?" Yamato asked as he sat next to Sora.
"Something like that." Sora replied for Taichi who just pouted.
"That's not nice, you two!"
"Oh? It was supposed to be nice?" Yamato snickered at Taichi's indignant huff.
"Wow, you two seem to be getting along really well." Sora looked back and forth between them. "I was joking about the sleeping with each other thing but..."
"I said we didn't!" Taichi snapped and gave Sora a meaningful look. The girl just nodded reluctantly and let it drop. Yamato felt like he missed something.
When Koushiro and Mimi sat at the table they gave everyone a soda since the tea was gone ("Taichi it was your turn to buy it!" "No, it was yours, Sora!"). Taichi and Yamato talked about their fight and new attempt at being friends. The others were skeptical about it but eventually gave in to it being the truth. Though Taichi's roommates each secretly decided to watch them and make sure they didn't go off the deep end on each other.
When Sora's alarm clock could be heard going off in the background, Taichi was suddenly tired of yawning and bid them all "good...er...morning" as he tiredly made his way to his room. Koushiro followed to get the last bit of sleep. Sora put out a futon on the floor in her room so Yamato could sleep there instead of having to walk back to his place. Mimi grinned at she stuck her head into Sora's room real quick.
"Don't be stealing Taichi's man now, Sora!" She giggled. "Besides it's so improper for a girl to have a boy sleeping in her room!" Mimi giggled louder as she took off in time to miss a pillow aimed at her face.
--
Taichi laid in his bed while staring up at the ceiling. He suddenly felt very confused. This morning he felt as if he'd been talking to a stranger. A stranger that knew a hell of a lot about him. Watching that face laugh friendly amusement changed it so much from watching it glare with unrestrained anger. It was like he met Ishida's good twin Yamato. But that didn't make sense. Was he always this nice to be around when not angry? Had Taichi wasted those years only seeing the bad side when he could have had a good friend?
"A good friend..." Taichi whispered. "A good friend in Yamato Ishida." That still sounded weird on his tongue. Though it did seem right, now that he'd glimpsed at the person Sora had been telling him about this week. She had been trying to make him see it and now he had. It was strange.
"I mean, Yamato is Taichi's type." Mimi's comment ringed clearly in his mind. It was true too. At first, it'd only been appearance wise. Because of their constant bickering Taichi had never thought of Yamato as more than a wasted pretty face. Then this morning, he saw a person he'd like to be with.
Taichi shook the thoughts out of his head. It didn't matter. Yamato was straight and tightly strung as his guitar strings. But weren't guitar strings flexible?
With a pitiful moan, Taichi covered his face with his pillow. "Sleep, sleep, sleep, need to sleep..." He groaned into the pillow case. This thoughts weren't helping his real problem.
How much of Yamato was that nice guy from this morning who helped him and didn't make snippy comments about it? How much of Yamato wanted to use those comments for later? Was he changed, or had he always been like this way? Or was 'this way' only a trick?
With those questions whirling through his mind, Taichi fell asleep that morning with a dream haunted by a siren's song.
--
Not long after Sora got ready and left for work, Yamato snuck back out and went home. He could now be found sitting on the same couch that Taichi had been on. Sitting alone in the room, he finally got tired of the silence and picked up his guitar. He only meant to play with the strings, but was surprised when he found his fingers remembering an old song he wrote as a Sophomore. Yamato hummed for a second before the lines from chorus came back to him.
"You're like something that wasn't meant to be while feeling like it was. Like rain in the summer that cools my fire and makes me real."
Like a teenager's dream that left him confused for days after.
Yamato stopped and immediately put down the instrument. He'd forgotten that dream only to remember it now? Why? Leaning on the back of the sofa, he attempted to clear his thoughts but something stopped him. Visions of tan skin and soft lips obstructed his meditation and he growled in annoyance. He'd had that dream when he was fifteen and bruised from a particularly nasty fight with a certain captain of his school's soccer team. It stayed on his mind for days until he wrote a song about it. A song that never made it to band practice because it embarrassed him so much. After all, how many teenage boys wrote songs about dreams of lust (not love, never love) dreams involving their most hated (and very male) rivals? Not that you could tell who the dream was about, but still he never wanted to face the questions that would surely pry into his inspiration.
But maybe he could use the song now. It was a good song and now those questions could be easily thwarted with a quick "I wrote it six years ago but I don't remember of who." No one would ever know it was about Taichi Yagami, right? Besides, it wasn't like he had those particular dreams anymore.
Three hours later, Yamato would wake up only to curse every swear word within his vocabulary, including three foreign languages.
--
Monday Yamato came over to Sora's apartment to get to together and go do...something. He didn't know what, Yamato usually left the planning to whoever he was with. Currently he was sitting in the kitchen talking to Mimi about some American place.
"Seriously, you have to go there and you'll totally know what I'm talking about! I mean, Americans go crazy at concerts! It's nuts!" She said enthusiastically, trying to get him to understand how different American rock shows were to Japanese rock shows.
"Hey, Mimi?" Sora called around the corner. "Can you come here for a second? I need your help with something."
"Okay!" She turned to Yamato. "Be right back." She walked out of the room. Yamato looked around the apartment. The living room/kitchenette looked nice. It was hard to tell that four different people lived there with how clutter free it was. The windows were covered in colorful blinds that matched the patchwork couch. Where they found those pieces of furniture, Yamato had no idea, but despite how ugly they were it was almost as if the living room wouldn't have been as nice looking without them.
"You know, the couch isn't going to eat you or anything." Taichi's voice carried down the hall behind him. Yamato turned to see Taichi leaning on the doorframe of his room. He briefly remembered his dream and blushed. He hoped Taichi didn't see that. Yamato would die of embarrassment if Taichi saw that.
Taichi smiled. He saw it. He thought for a second that Yamato looked good in red.
--
"Did you hear that?" Mimi asked after putting the finishing touches on Sora's hair. Sora just looked at her before shaking her head.
"No, I didn't." She said quietly, grabbing her jacket. The two girls walked towards the living room but stopped in the doorway as they noticed that Yamato was gone. Looking towards to door, they saw the evidence that he was still there in the form of his shoes next to the coat rack. They looked at each other.
"Where--" Mimi began but was interrupted by the sound of a crash from the hall straight across from them.
"I heard it this time." Sora muttered as they both padded quickly over to the end room. What they saw didn't surprise them... almost. The tell-tale signs of a fight lingered on both men as they breathed heavily, the two obviously trying to catch their breath. Taichi's lip was split and Yamato was clutching his side in slight pain. That's not was surprised them though, it was how Taichi and Yamato were found. Taichi laid on his bed with his feet hanging out of his window and his head resting upside-down off the edge of his bed. Yamato was lying closer to them half way on his side looking like he somehow enjoyed lying on random people's floors.
"Hiya, Sora! Mimi!" Taichi grinned upside-down. "Whatcha doin?"
"What are we... What are you doing!" Sora planted her hands on her hips and giving them both severe looks. Mimi was trying her hardest not to start laughing at how this all looked like two boys being scolded by their mother. The 'two boys' in question just looked at each other, then at Sora before shrugging.
"Saying hello?" Yamato said sarcastically, but he really didn't feel like he was lying. The two were talking one second and fighting the next. There wasn't any real anger behind the hits, it just seemed like they needed it after everything that happened. All that stress from the weekend just built up to a point where only a good struggle would get it all out. It really was rather simple. If only Sora could see that.
"Saying hello? Saying hello?" She suddenly looked angry at their calm attitudes. "Why can't you just say hello like normal people?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Taichi asked sweetly.
"Well, are you two done saying hello 'cause I'd really like to get to the movies now!" Sora snapped. Taichi and Yamato looked at each other before raising their hands in fists. They both let out a punch that didn't even come near the other before falling back into their original places.
"Yeah, I think we're done." Taichi snickered as Sora just sputtered for a second before throwing her hands in the air with a frustrated yell and walked out the room. Mimi started giggling and followed.
"Honestly, girls." The two boys started laughing, though Yamato had to stop and groan while clutching his side. Taichi got him real good there.
Yes, this was definitely the start of a good friendship.
TBC
Ooh, the two are friends now, but will it last? Is one weekend enough to end years of bitterment? Is that a word? Find out next time on CLOSING TIME! ...eheh heh...yeah...