Sleeping, as usual.
Did the brunette ever do anything besides sleep? Matt was beginning to wonder.
Matt slowly closed the infamously squeaky door and crept quietly (or as quietly as one could) through the mess of Tai's just as infamously messy room. When the blonde reached the bed, he kicked off his shoes and discarded his shirt.
It had been a particularly hot, sticky summer in Odaiba, and Matt was frustrated to find that this translated well into the evening.
Matt sat on the edge of the bed, smirking slightly as he admired the tan boy who slept, half naked, atop the covers.
"Yamato…?" Came a groggy voice from below.
"Yeah, it's me." Matt replied.
"Wha- what are you doin here?" Tai made to sit up, but was stopped by a hand lightly pushing down on his chest.
"No need to get up, Taichi." Matt said, eyes slightly glazed over with arousal.
"Mmmm…"
In the end, Matt thought it best to leave the younger boy to sleep and wandered out to their small balcony to think. He really needed to think.
----------
"Shit." Matt hissed, smoke rising from his arm as he pushed his cigarette deeper into the tender skin.
Lately, Matt had been running a slightly self-destructive path; he was drunk almost constantly and had taken to putting out cigarettes (his and others) on his own body. He just needed to feel.
"Why is this…this happening?" Matt was shaking now, driven by anger and a deep-seated hatred for his brother.
It had been a year since Taichi, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, Mimi (who had flown in from the States), Kari and T.K. had last visited the digital world with the new digi-destined, and, over time, a deep rift had been formed between the Ishida brothers. It was driving him insane, and, currently, Taichi was the only thing keeping Matt anchored to this world. As it turns out, the fights with T.K. had started thanks to Matt's own confession of love for the aforementioned boy.
A month or so after Matt and Tai started seeing each other, they went ahead and did the obvious thing (since Tai was tired of leaving all of his soccer gear over at the place that Matt and T.K. had currently shared, and Matt was fed up with making the 45 minute drive to Taichis almost daily) and moved in together.
T.K. was furious.
Matt was, at first, just as confused as Taichi, which was, in itself, quite a feat. T.K. had voiced his opinions one very drunken night, after the Teen-Wolves' final performance together as a band. It hadn't been very tense at the time; everyone knew that T.K. was quite an angry drunk.
Kari knew better.
"Matt, he's really upset." Kari had said, completely out of the blue, during one of the groups outings. It had only been Daisuke, T.K., Kari, Taichi and himself, Matt and Kari having slipped away some time during an argument over some play or another in some game or another.
"W-who?" was all that Matt could say.
Upon recovering from Kari's seemingly random observation, a look of recognition dawned over the blonde boy's stony features.
"Yeah, I figured as much. As mean as he is when he's drunk, T.K.'s usually truthful," Matt laughed warily.
Kari frowned.
"Talk to him. Please?"
Matt considered this, but must've gotten lost in his own thoughts, because by the time he had built up the courage to say 'Sure thing', Kari had rejoined the others. Matt was left to stew.
In the weeks that followed, Matt tried (truly, he did) to talk to his younger brother, but after the Teen-Wolves disbanded, Matt had been picked up as an independent artist. Since then, he was spending way too much time in the recording studio pounding out lyric after lyric, melody after melody. He hardly got a break…and when he did, he spent it at the bar….or with Taichi.
It was because of all of this, that after one, very tedious and stressful recording session that Matt found himself, still drunk, on the balcony of the condo that he shared with his lover.
"Fuck," Matt sighed as he lit another cigarette, taking in a long first drag and releasing it in lazy rings in the hot, sweaty, Japanese night. Damn, did he wish this weather would give way to rain, or even bend to include a light breeze…that would be nice.
Matt tensed as he felt a strong hand grasp at his shoulder.
"Yamato?"
Taichi.
Matt didn't move.
"Matt, come back in…and please, for my sake, stop that." Taichi motioned vaguely towards his companions pale arm, his voice laced with desperation.
Matt considered this; considered telling Tai to fuck off, or that none of this was his war, it wasn't his life. As he turned to face Taichi, offering a gentle hug, he opened his mouth to speak, but all that came forward was,
"I'll be right in. Get back to bed, sleepyhead."
Taichi smiled and went back inside, leaving the sliding glass door completely open. An invitation.
Pussy.
Yamato sighed and stared briefly at the last of his fag.
Taichi.
Matt chucked it in the end.
---------- on the other side of town ----------
Takeru chuckled slightly and forced a smile to his face when Kari looked over at him inquisitively.
"You're not still thinking about him, are you?" Kari sighed knowingly.
T.K. shrugged.
"Always," he replied.
Kari's brow furrowed and she fought the urge to hug the small blonde.
"It's just….just that I'm not trying to make things this way. Truly!"
Kari set down her drink and crossed the floor, over to where T.K. had been lounging on the couch.
"Yes, I know."
She lay a gentle hand on his shoulder.
He sighed.
She smiled.
"Maybe you should try talking to him again. It couldn't hurt." she offered, still smiling sweetly.
"Hmmm.."
"Only this time, try not to yell. Ease into it?" Kari suggested, stealing a sip or two of T.K.'s own sake.
As far as Kari knew, Takeru really had every intention to elaborate on every time he had run into Matt since that night at the concert. Matt and T.K. had a history of violence, much like Matt and Taichi, which led Kari to believe that this might've been mostly Matt's doing. Takeru didn't want to fight; Matt did.
T.K. had always been Kari's favorite of all of the digi-destined- boys and girls alike. The first time around, T.K. had been the only one of the chosen children that had been around her age, and, for a while, the only one that would even speak to her. Sure, there was her older brother Taichi, but to him she was just an annoying little brat. After they original digi-destines journey ended, Kari had taken to pouring over (almost obsessively) T.K., and pretty soon, they were the best of friends.
About a year ago, Kari had asked T.K. out on a series of dates (Takeru never was one to make the first move) all of which were pleasant, but none of which ended the way that the teen had predicted. T.K. was just too damn oblivious!
It was a particularly miserable day, one summer ago, when Kari finally rallied together and asked T.K. straight out.
"Takeru?"
"Yeah, what's up, Kari?"
"We've been going out on dates for about a month now and -
"Dates!? What? When?" T.K. screeched.
Kari furrowed her brow. This was…unexpected. She knew that the blonde boy was a little slow on the uptake, but nothing as slow as Taichi, and even he had known that Sora had a crush on him!
"What do you think we've been doing all this time?" Kari said indignantly.
"The movies, the expensive dinners, the moonlit walks on the beach!"
T.K. nodded slowly, understanding suddenly in his eyes.
Kari continued:
"Well, I was wondering if you would…wait a minute.."
Then it hit her: T.K. wasn't at all interested in her. All of those would-be dates had ended the same way; T.K. would steer the conversation away from the two of them and toward T.K.'s older brother, Matt. It was always about Matt with him. Kari knew that the older boy was T.K.'s role model (he practically worshipped him), but at times it bordered on something…more.
Kari shook her head frantically; this was insane.
"Kari? Kaaaaarrrriii? Kar?" T.K. asked, waving both hands in front of his friends vacant stare. Kari looked up slowly.
"Matt."
"Excuse me?"
"You like…your brother, don't you?" Kari asked skeptically.
"Of course I like him, he's my brot….oh. Oh, I see." T.K. frowned.
The two sat in silence for a long time, neither daring to look at the other.
T.K. spoke first.
"I'm sorry, Kari," his voice was barely a whisper now.
"No."
"What?"
"Do not apologize to me. It's my fault; I should've seen this before. They way you talk, the things you do, you two live together for God's sake. You can't keep your eyes off of him. I get it now." Kari finished, finally making eye contact.
T.K. was hesitant at first. "So…so you're okay with this, then?"
"Of course," Kari lied, tears already streaming down her pale face.
True, Kari had been upset at first, but she quickly got over her feelings for T.K., in favor of having her best friend back. She was more interested in seeing her friend happy than anything else.
When Kari finally went to sleep that night, a drunken T.K. passed out on the couch in their shared apartment, she prayed to whatever deity would listen that her best friend find his happiness once more.
Notes and Such: Hello, everyone! I have been a rabid digimon fan (I love Adventure one, two and the tamers seasons) and this is my veeery first time writing for this fandom! I noticed last week that there were no longer very many Taito or Yamachi stories being published, and, being insane, I decided to start this multi-chaptered fic the same day I started my ben 10 fic FlirtKissSmirk, and my drabble series "Mind Surfing". Check em out if you're a fan of BeVin...and please review if you have any suggestions..Iunno, maybe you don't like the way I wrote matt...or taichi...or maybe you do and you want more of him! Let me know!