Hmm, I feel myself getting lazy and it's not even summer break yet, bleh. Okay, so here's the third chapter, not as long as I would have liked, but I got all I wanted in it, plus it's sorta fluffy like Tai's hair (I like his hair ^^). I'm gonna go ahead and apologize now for the OCs, can't help it, they're in a new country with new people, but I'll try to make my OCs cool in some way.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Logan and Sephyr, though I wish I owned Matt. Lucky Tai!

Chapter 3 -- People and Places

Uh, sunlight, the mortal nemesis of all late sleepers. Yamato turned away from the window groaning. He hated when his sleep was interrupted too early on his free days by that wretched ball of fire they liked to call the sun. When the light still wouldn't let him fall back into the peaceful darkness of sleep, he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Once he could see clearly again, he looked at his alarm clock. It was almost eleven. What time did I got back last night, he asked himself. Not carrying seeing as it was the weekend, he stretched and flopped down back on his bed. His hand hit something hard and he looked over at a large lump beside him.

The lump began to move, a brown fluffy mass emerging from the blue and green sheets. "Couldn't have given me a nicer wake up call?" grumbled Taichi rubbing at the back of his head.

"Tai?" The blonde blinked at his friend a couple times before realization rolled over him like a bulldozer, and he pushed the brunette to the floor. "Get out of my bed you freeloader."

"Hey, I'm not ready to wake up," complained Tai trying to climb back into Yamato's bed. Yamato just kicked him off.

"No, and who said you could stay over?"

"You did," answered Tai, his arms crossed behind his head as he stood at the edge of Yamato's bed.

Yamato looked down at his sheets guiltily. He knew that stupid promise would come back to bite him in the butt. He remembered going to the bar to get a drink and ended up ordering whatever Tai had been drinking. After three glasses he had realized the sweet brown colored liquid wasn't soda. "Well, you shouldn't take advantage of a guy when he's drunk."

Tai laughed. "Well, maybe you should learn to hold your liquor better. And you weren't even that drunk, I mean, three, come on, Matt."

"It was four. And if I wasn't drunk, then why are you here? I sent you home as soon as I opened the door."

"Well, I came back. I know you weren't drunk, but you were really tipsy. I just figured I'd stay the night and make sure you were alright," said Tai, concern in his eyes. "You don't have a hangover, do you?"

Yamato looked away blushing. He didn't like it when Tai looked at him like that, it made him feel all fuzzy inside, a feeling that had been even stronger in middle school. "How'd you sneak back in?"

"Heh, I climbed through your window."

"My what!" Yamato snapped his head to the window that had allowed the sunlight into his room and found it opened. "That's why the sun was so infuriatingly bright!"

"I'm sorry, Yama."

Yamato took in a deep breath before yelling, "Don't call me Yama!" Then he started after the brunette, a pillow in hand.

"I'm sorry, Matt, calm down."

"Calm down! You dumbass, a burglar could have come in here and raped me while I slept because you left the window opened."

The brunette peeked out of his hiding place on the other side of the bed. "No he wouldn't, Matt, because I'm here to protect you."

The blonde froze in mid swing, blushing red as he thought over those words for a minute. "You idiot!" He threw the pillow at Tai, but missed. Frustrated, Yamato jumped on the bed for another pillow.

Tai laughed then grabbed the blonde's wrists as not to get another pillow thrown at his head. They wrestled with each other, both smiling all anger gone, until Yamato fell down on the bed in a blur of sheets and pillows, Tai fallowing after.

Yamato was trying to catch his breath, not minding the extra weight on top of him. This game had been something he and Taichi had played many times before, and he usually ended up loosing. They'd bicker then fight then end up laughing about it, except, this time there was something different. Tai had laid on top of him just a little too long, and Yamato was becoming nervous.

"Tai?"

There was some shuffling, but the brunette didn't move off of him. Warm breath tickled his ear, and it was making Yamato's nerves go haywire.

"Tai?" he repeated.

"You know, Matt," Tai said as he lifted his head from where it laid beside Yamato's ear until his face hovered just above the blondes, "what I said last night about claiming your first kiss, it still applies."

Tai's chocolate eyes pinned Yamato down and he was lost within them without words to reply. The brunette just grinned stupidly, but his eyes...oh those eyes.

"Tai, get off me," Yamato finally said after what seemed like hours.

With those words, the spell was broken and Tai sat up, pouting. "Why? It's the weekend, you're free, aren't you?"

"Yes, but now that I'm up, I don't exactly feel like laying here under your fat butt all day."

"I'm not fat," Tai said as if offended and emphasized this point by rubbing his 'fat butt' into Yamato's stomach.

The blonde jumped, eyes going wide, his heart beating like crazy, but the second it started, it stopped. What the heck was that?, he asked himself. "Look, Tai, do you want food or not?"

The promise of food was always the best way to get the fluffy haired brunette to do something you wanted. With a yelp of excitement, Tai jumped off the blonde and headed out of the bedroom. When Yamato tried to fallow, however, he found that he had a little problem.

"Hey Matt, hurry up," called Tai peaking back into the bedroom when he realized his friend hadn't fallowed.

Yamato quickly turned so that his back was to the brunette. "I'll be out in a second, I've got to go to the bathroom."

"Oh, okay, then I'll watch t.v."

"Whatever, just don't fallout of the recliner again," warned Yamato as he carefully maneuvered himself past Tai and to the bathroom.

"Hey," Tai called after him, "that was one time."

But, Yamato wasn't paying attention. He was concentrating on his little problem. How had this happened? Why had this happened? He wasn't suppose to be getting aroused by his best friend pushing down on his stomach with his 'fat butt'. That cute nicely shaped fat butt.

Thang it Matt, don't do this to yourself!

It had been three years since he had given up on his crush for Tai, and he wasn't about to let those three years of hard work convincing himself that he didn't like his best friend go to waste now. No, it was probably just an after effect of the alcohol and Logan's getting them to come out. It was all his fault.

Yes, this little slip up was all the fault of the alcohol and Logan, Yamato decided. Though it was probably not best to pin the blame on others, it sure beat admitting the possible truth -- that Tai's declaration of claiming his first kiss was reawakening Yamato's old feelings.

Monday came, and with it, the new work week. Yamato had to go to the music corporation that had hired him after school. The last week they had been busy getting candidates for the other members of Yamato's band. They had only been able to cast one member, a Sephyr Harada. She was a keyboardist slash accessory and string player. She had a tendency to say strange things when she decided there was a need to talk, otherwise she was quiet. Yamato thought she was a really amazing person, even if a bit weird at times.

"Hey, Yamato, what about this one?" asked Sephyr handing him the mini portable DVD player she was watching with one of the auditions for drums. They were in one of the conference rooms waiting for their manager to finish up at a meeting with the head of the company.

Yamato took the DVD player and listened for a few seconds before removing the earphones. "He's good, but I don't know, I was kinda hoping for a girl drummer."

"That's right, you wanted a majority girl band."

"Yeah, I've never seen one of those, I think it would be cool to be the only boy in a girl band."

Sephyr laughed. "It's ironic how it's a majority girl band, but you're the voice of it. Are you sure it's not just because you want to be surrounded by pretty faces on tours?"

Yamato gave his band mate a critical eye. "Do you think I'd take advantage of you? I'm gay."

"Really now," said Sephyr surprised then waved it off. "Doesn't matter, couldn't get into my pants anyways, I'm married."

"Married, that's not going to be a problem is it?"

"Course not, Leon and I have an understanding about things. We find not being around each other twenty-four seven a lot more exciting, so I'm all good for the tours and stuff. Plus, he knows I won't do anything bad, and he won't do anything cause he knows what will happen to him if he does."

"Oh, okay." Yamato was a little frightened by this lady and wondered what the punishment for her husband would be if he was to cross the line. Then he had a thought. He was already getting along pretty well with his first band mate, and since he had no other real friends besides Tai and maybe Logan, he decided to ask her for advice.

"Hey, Sephyr, can I ask you for advice on a personal problem?"

Sephyr shut off the DVD player and removed the earphones from her ears she had just replaced. "Sure, I like hearing stories."

"Well, yeah, I guess it's kind of a story. I'm not really good with people..."

"That's okay, neither am I, just the people I find interesting," interrupted Sephyr.

"Well, since you have a husband, I was wondering if you could help me with some a relationship problem I'm having?"

"I don't know if I'll be much help since I only ever dated my husband, but go ahead and shoot."

"Let's see, how to word this." Yamato was getting nervous. Sephyr would probably tell him he was silly and not to worry about it, but the thing with Taichi was still bothering him. He wanted to be prepared for whatever his fluffy haired best friend threw at him.

"Having trouble with your boyfriend?" guessed Sephyr.

"NO! No, no, he's not my boyfriend, it's my best friend. I've never kissed anyone before, so he got this crazy idea in his head that he was going to steal my first kiss."

"Is your friend gay?"

"He said he was bi, but, I don't know," Yamato confessed ruffling his handsinto his blonde hair causing the perfectly groomed locks to stick out in a cute mess.

"Well, a kiss between friends isn't so bad, is it? I mean, if it's so important to you, just tell him to back off. Unless, of course, you don't want him to."

Thang it, that girl was too smart for her own good. Yamato grined his teeth in agitation. The fact was, since that little incident Saturday, he wasn't sure. Taichi had been more clingy than usual when they went out on the weekend, and a couple times he caught the brunette just starring at him. Of course, he also caught himself starring unnecessarily at Tai as well. "I use to like him."

"Hmm, well, when I was being chased by Leon, I just let it be. If I caught him trying to steal a kiss, I'd pull away."

Yamato sighed. He wished Taiwas just trying to steal a kiss, but no, the brunette had made it clear that he wanted to steal an actual kiss, with both sides participating, not just some chaste one second worth of physical contact. "But he doesn't want to steal a kiss, he wants the full thing."

"Well then, seems you've got yourself a real problem," Sephyr announced, amusement in her slate colored eyes.

"No kidding."

Just then, the door opened and their manager arrived.

So many people just walking around without a care in the world enjoying the sunshine and sidewalk icecream while they walked or skated or drove from place to place. So many people. So many places. And yet, Yamato was sitting in his living room curled up in the recliner after school watching random movies on the screen, a distracted Tai sprawled on the floor in front of the television fiddling with his goggles. Yamato stared at his friend frustration wrinkling his forehead. The talk he had had with Sephyr hadn't helped much, and only succeeded in making him more confused. Just let him be and see where it went, was what she'd said. If he did just leave it and let Tai try this little game, what would happen? Maybe the brunette would fail, because, of course Yamato didn't like his best friend in that way even if the fact that they were boy guys didn't matter anymore seeing as Tai was interested in a relationship with guys now.

"Hey, watch it with that thing, you could seriously do damage with how far that elastic on those crazy things go," Yamato warned his friend.

"Don't worry Matt, I'm not going to hit anything with it," assured Tai, the goggles now pointing straight at the blonde. "I am a pro with these things, they'll never leave my ha...nds. Oops!"

WACK!!! The goggles hit Yamato straight in the face. The impact caused the blonde to flip over the back of the recliner and he rolled once before landing spread eagle on the floor. "Ow."

"Matt! Are you okay?" Tai asked rushing over to his friend and kneeling down beside him.

"Ugh," groaned Yamato as he sat up touching the spot on his face where those darn goggles had hit him. He took a painful breath at the contact of his fingers. "O...ow."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Matt. I'm really really sorrrrrrrrrrrrry!"

"I get it! Now shutup. Shit, I'm gonna have a bruise on my face." He touched his fingers again to his face and yelled, "Shit, Tai, it really hurts, and I need my face!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Taichi repeated. "Here, let me see it."

Yamato froze as Tai leaned closer to him. He lifted one hand and gingerly touched the red mark on Yamato's face from the goggles. When the blonde made no protest of pain to the touch, he placed his hand ever so softly on the side of his face and caressed the red skin with his thumb. Yamato could feel his heart beating frantically. Even though Tai's touches where light and tender, they caused dramatic actions inside Yamato. He thought he almost felt a fluttering inside his stomach.

"It's not so bad," said Taichi in a soft voice and blew a bit of warm air on the mark causing Yamato's eyes to flutter and rubbed his thumb across the mark again. "Wow, your eyes are really blue."

Yamato could feel his face going red, but even though Tai's words were sweet and voice soft, he had that stupid grin on his face. What in the world was this boy thinking?

Please Read and Review because they make me happy and give me energy to type. Two reviews and I'll start on the next chapter. ^^

-- Zee ;)