Disclaimer: For all the love I have for Digimon, it is not mine.
A/N: Double update! Wohoo! I get a lot of writing done on the plane. This is the end of the matsuri (summer festival) arc!
The group finally ended up at a relatively empty patch of ground at the park where they met up, food spread out before them. Conversation, laughter and food flowed. Even the usually quiet outsider, Natsuhi, was engaged in conversation with Wallace, who had been blatantly flirting with her since the shooting-game stall incident. Takeru watched his brother eye the exchange warily and cheered inwardly. Maybe jealousy will help his brother finally see sense.
Yamato watched on uncomfortably from the sidelines. He knew that Wallace was a flirt. That alone was no cause for alarm, but his best friend flirting back? That was cause for concern. He chalked it up to not being used to seeing his best friend engaged in a lively conversation with anyone besides himself. Just as he thought that, he caught Natsuhi throw the American digidestined a playful grin that was definitely not platonic and the gnawing began anew.
His worried glances had gotten so frequent, that Sora and Taichi who were failing to conceal their own flirting were beginning to notice.
"Is something wrong?" Sora asked her boyfriend worriedly. He had been acting weird all night. Although he was still sweet and caring as ever, he seemed very distracted. Snapping back to the company at hand, Yamato quickly nodded.
"It's nothing. Just, checking in on Natsuhi. She isn't good with new people," Yamato explained, though he didn't really believe himself. True, the other girl did not play well with most people, but she never struggled with strangers (the bigger question was if she scared them off before any interaction could take place).
Casting a glance at the quietly laughing couple that was Wallace and Natsuhi, Taichi turned back with a placating nod, "Well she looks like she's getting on with the new guy just fine to me." Sora turned to take a look for herself and nodded in agreement.
Yamato plastered a relieved smile onto his face and shifted the topic away from the flirting couple. He was definitely overthinking this.
Food continued to get passed around. One of the items quickly caught Daisuke's attention.
"Wallace, dude, you HAVE to try this," he said, shoving a cup into his friend's face without warning.
Conversation interrupted, Wallace diverted his attention to the food item in his hand. The long, strange, fried item was unfamiliar in his hands. "Um what's this?" He eyed the food suspiciously. He was usually pretty adventurous, but Daisuke enthusiastically shoving it into your face is usually not a good sign.
"Fried burdock! It's delicious!" Mimi piped in excitedly. Most of her American friends who tried the dish all had very entertaining reactions. She was sure that Wallace wouldn't disappoint.
Eying Mimi one last time, Wallace took a leap of faith and bit into the fried dish. The crunch was followed by a chewing and moments passed as everyone just waited curiously for a reaction. Wallace rolled the food around on his tongue, trying to get a feel of the taste. Finally he swallowed.
"It's..nice?" He said tentatively, his face a vision of confusion. Natsuhi bit back a chuckle. Honestly fried burdock didn't taste like much, what was everyone expecting? Wallace took another bite, this time more assuredly. "Yea, it's pretty good…I like the texture." Honestly, if everyone was trying to prank him, they'd have to do better. His ex-girlfriends had threw even raw squid at him, strange fried vegetables had nothing on him. "You said it's..burdock?" He tried to pronounce the unfamiliar Japanese word. Everyone nodded. "What's that in English?" Wallace asked, directing the question at Yamato and Taichi.
The digidestineds of courage and friendship exchanged blank looks, then looked to Mimi. Mimi looked back at them, equally blank. "I'll look it up," Mimi quickly said, whipping out her iPhone. Natsuhi sighed, she really didn't want to cut in, but it went against her code of efficiency to have Mimi look up the answer when she knew it herself.
"Burdock." She stated plainly in English.
"Excuse me?" Wallace turned towards the unlikely source of answer. For the second time that day, everyone's attention was on her.
"It's burdock," she repeated again in fluent English. However Wallace's attention was no longer on the name of the food.
"You speak English?" He asked, switching to English completely. He was not expecting that. Evidently, neither was Yamato because he looked at his best friend, equally surprised. The gnawing feeling intensified as he was reminded of just a few weeks ago, where Natsuhi decided to declare out of nowhere that she knew how to play the piano. He was starting to realize how little he knew about his supposed best friend. Were they even really best friends? Thinking back, he realized that although he's known her for closed to 4 years, aside from her living habits and music tastes, he really did not know all that much about her. She has always been tight-lipped about herself and he never pushed because he himself did not like to be pushed by others…but now he was starting to regret that.
"I guess," Natsuhi deflected in Japanese.
"Say something!" Wallace asked, all too enthusiastically. It was rare, a Japanese girl who spoke his mother-tongue. Perhaps coming to Japan as a post-break up vacation was the right move after all.
"Something," Natsuhi obliged, with a smirk.
Annoyed, Wallace, punched her in the shoulder playfully. "Okay, I walked right into that one. But, no seriously, where did you learn to speak English."
A complicated look flitted across Natsuhi's face. Finally, she settled for a bemused smile. "I was born here and go to college here, but I grew up and spent all my time from primary school through high school in UK," she said in perfect British English.
This was obviously news to everyone (or those who spoke enough English to understand her at least).
"Oh my gosh, you have a british accent, that is so cute, say something else!" Mimi exclaimed. Although he didn't comment, Wallace secretly agreed. British accents were hot. Natsuhi sighed, this was exactly why she did not want to speak English. Everyone made such a fuss about the British accent. It's an accent, get over it. Annoyed at the attention, she shot Yamato a look, silently asking for help.
Yamato was too busy reeling at the information to actually help her, but his next question redirected the conversation anyways. "Your family migrated to UK?" Surprised, his question came out in native Japanese.
Grateful either way, Natsuhi slipped back into Japanese as well. She mulled over her answer with a bitter smile. "I went to live with my grandparents in the suburbs, that's where I learnt hunting, hence the firearm proficiency," she added the extra titbit of trivia with a rare, fond smile. Yamato's question did catch her off guard however, and it was then that Natsuhi realized that she had never told Yamato about her personal background…and she knew almost everything about Yamato's personal life. Alarmed, she quickly turned to read Yamato's carefully crafted expression. Expectedly, she found traces of displeasure and anger, mostly likely due to all the influx of new personal information about herself. She has been a really bad friend hasn't she…inwardly, Natsuhi added 'Tell Yamato about myself' to her mental checklist.
"Geez, you should have told me this from the start and I wouldn't have to struggle with Japanese all this time," Wallace mock-whined in English. Natsuhi rolled her eyes, yes, because he wasn't practically fluent in Japanese. But it was easier to talk about philosophers in English, and so Natsuhi relented and delved back into conversation with the blonde, leaving everyone else to go back to their regular conversation.
Yamato too turned back to the discussion about Sora and Taichi's extracurricular activities, except with false interest. Mentally, he was reeling. That's it, that was all he was going to get? Did Natsuhi not see the need to provide him with more information about herself? There wasn't even a 'oh I didn't tell you?' from her when he asked. Nothing. How did she think it made him look in front of all of his friends? She was his best friend, he should be entitled to these things. Instead, she just went right back to laughing with the new digidestined.
During his mental exercise, the conversation between Wallace and Natsuhi shifted to the digital world again and had now involved Mimi and Koushiro as well. Not bothering to reign in his temper, Yamato snapped.
"Not everyone speaks English you know," he shot, surprising everyone. All the chatter instantly ceased. All eyes on him now, Yamato gestured at Sora and a few other digidestined, as if that justified his outburst.
Natsuhi, who was finally engaged in a conversation with other members of the digidestined immediately retreated into her cold exterior. "I apologize for the insensitivity," she said formally, tone unfeeling, even though the whole situation was not her fault.
Despite the apology, an awkward silence hung in the air as the few who were chattering in English shifted in their seats guiltily. Tentatively, Sora reached out to touch Yamato's arm. Her appeasing touch immediately brought Yamato back to his senses and he too apologized. "Sorry, that was out of line." He had no excuse for himself now, he snapped because he was jealous. Jealous that Natsuhi was actually enjoying herself with someone besides him.
"It's alright, I should be the one to apologize, I didn't mean to alienate the others from the conversation, I guess I just got carried away. Really sorry Sora-san, I didn't mean to make you feel left out." Wallace apologized sincerely. Sora put her hands up and shook her head quickly, she was in no way offended or left out. In truth however, the apology wasn't targeted at Sora, it was intended for someone else.
"Oi! I don't speak English either, where's my apology you womenizing pig!" Daisuke ranted. That seemed to be the ice-breaker necessary and everyone fell back into the familiar routine of placating the angry goggle-head. Wallace heaved a small sigh of relief when his plan worked, he turned to resume conversation, only to find Natsuhi staring at him with her piercing gaze, except this time it was a knowing one.
"Nicely played," she said.
He quickly shot her his usual smile, "I beg your pardon?"
"Quit playing, I saw what you did there," she said with a smirk, "Psychology major remember?"
Shaking his head in defeat, Wallace carefully let his mask slip and returned her smirk with one of his own, "You must be a grade A student then." His voice was tinged with innuendo. It was rare that he found a girl who could read his game. Perhaps she knew how to play.
"I don't think you're old enough to take me to school," she rallied back, her tone and expression back to her usual indifferent one. Then with a playful glint in her eye, she leaned in to whisper into his ear, "But if you must know, I'm barely passing. Would you like to help me with my extra credit?" The two of them shared a flirtatiously look before bursting out laughing.
"Lets not do that again," Natsuhi said between laughs.
"Yea, no, lets not," Wallace agreed.
While everyone else watched their laughing fit with bewildered eyes, only Yamato's stare remained cold. Alright, he grudgingly admits that he is jealous…But the small voice in his head admitted an even more brutal truth, he wasn't jealous when Wallace was flirting with Sora. Of course he could argue that Wallace wasn't flirting nearly as much with Sora as he was with Natsuhi (yes, the fact that Natsuhi flirted back had absolutely nothing to do with his jealousy, nothing!). 'He was complimenting Sora, that's why you didn't get jealous. You get jealous whenever Taichi somehow takes Sora away from you," his brain rationalized. Yes, he gets jealous when Sora is at the risk of being taken away. Takeru doesn't know what he's talking about.
'Taken away…' the words seemed to click in Yamato's mind. He was angry and jealous because he was worried that Wallace will take Natsuhi away from him. "Oh fuck." Yamato muttered under his breath. He wished he could lie to himself, he really did. But his crest was the crest of friendship, there was nothing that Yamato knew better than friendship, and precisely because of that, he knew that you never worry about your best friend, especially not one with friendship that's shared between him and Natsuhi being taken away by someone of the opposite sex. His friendship with Natsuhi was comparable to the one he shared with Taichi, and he was never jealous or worried that Taichi's girlfriend would take Taichi away from him. Which left him with only one conclusion.
"The question isn't whether or not you love Sora, Nii-san. It's whether or not you love Natsuhi-nee," Takeru's question replayed itself in his head.
And the answer is that, he does love Natsuhi.
The street lamps dusted the walkways with hues of orange and yellow and the street was deserted for all but two people. Natsuhi and Yamato.
Most of the digidestined piled into Jou's SUV after their little outing ended. Yamato was supposed to send Sora back to her hostel, but at Sora's insistence, Taichi sent her back instead. "Our dorms are near each other, if you send me home, you will miss the last train back to Odaiba." "Don't worry I'll take care of Sora, you have nothing to worry about." Their respective words echoed in his head. He knew Taichi would take good care of Sora, and that was exactly what he was worried about, that he'd take too good care of her. But his mind was still reeling from his recent realization, and so instead of putting up a fight, he let Taichi take Sora. 'It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you wanted to take Natsuhi home.' A small voice in his mind mocked. Natsuhi was one of the few who did not take up Jou's offer as she lived within walking distance of the Matsuri. Yamato honestly had meant to return to his own home that night, but somehow, when the group finally dispersed, instead of walking to the train station, he found himself walking beside Natsuhi, in the direction of her house.
Said girl walked next to him, easily keeping pace, unlike Sora who had been shuffling next to him the whole day in her sandals. The smooth pace was a welcomed change, until Takeru's parting words replayed in his head.
"Natsuhi-nee actually bought a Yukata for the matsuri, but she decided not to wear it in the end. She says it's for practical reasons, but I think she just didn't want to show up the rest of the girls."
He tried to picture Natsuhi in Sora's emerald Yukata but failed. Green was not her color. Thinking back, he couldn't remember ever seeing his friend in a Kimono of any sort, not even during new years. He suddenly found himself very curious as to how Natsuhi would have looked if she did wear her Yukata today.
Perhaps the silence stretched on for too long, out of nowhere Natsuhi decided to speak up. "My parents are divorced too. My mom was from UK actually, my grandparents migrated there, but then mom wanted to come back to Japan. She met dad here, they got married, had me. Then…the split happened…" Her eyes glazed over momentarily as she remembered the incident that would change her life forever. "Mom, I guess she didn't want to be reminded of it all, so she sent me to live with my grandparents in the UK. I spoke no English back then, she didn't think we would go back, so she didn't teach me. The first year was hell…but my grandparents were wonderful. Grandma was the one who taught me how to cook, and Grandpa taught me how to hunt…when I was younger, I would pretend that they were my real parents. I had a great childhood thanks to them."
The sudden revelation caught Yamato off guard, and he asked the first question that came to mind. "Are they still alive?"
Natsuhi stared at him and burst out laughing. "Only you Yamato, only you. Yes, they're still alive. You should meet them one day. You'll love them, they'll probably love you too," she said with a wistful smile. And then a troubled look crossed her face, "As a friend, as my best friend. Not as anything else, don't worry." She quickly clarified. Truth be told however, she has imagined introducing Yamato to her grandparents as her boyfriend…alas dreams will always be dreams.
Having reached his realization, Natsuhi's clarification hurt Yamato more that he would admit. Although he was conflicted, part of him wants the two most important in Natsuhi's life to give him their approval. Thankfully the walk back to Natsuhi's place was a short one and before his mind could start anymore traitorous thoughts, they had already reached the apartment.
Without thinking, Yamato pulled out his copy of the house keys and unlocked the door. Natsuhi followed him in as if it was the most natural thing to do. Now that he thought about it, their relationship was more intimate than he would care to admit. "You can shower first," Natsuhi said as she went about switching on the lights in the house. Catching the expensive paper bag that no doubt housed her Yukata by the foot of her bed, he nodded, a plan forming in his head. Showering in record time, he came out, towelling his hair as usual. "It's all yours."
Grabbing her change of clothes, she walked into the shower. Yamato waited patiently for the sound of the water running before acting on his plan. Quickly pulling out the Yukata from its packaging, he snuck into the room that separated the showers from the rest of the house, where the hamper and towels were located, and replaced Natsuhi's change of clothes. As quietly as he entered, he ducked out and mad a run for the convenient store around the corner. He managed to procure what he wanted before Natsuhi was done showering, and he was grateful. If he missed his timing, he would have ended up either walking in on her trying to find other clothes in the towel, or given her enough time to change into something else. He heard the shower being switched off of the shower door being slid open and waited…
On the other side of the toilet door stood Natsuhi, staring at her hamper in disbelief. Gone here were t-shirt and shorts…all that was left was her underwear and her Yukata. "Yamato…" she called out, a dangerous edge to her voice.
To his credit, the blonde didn't even try to make an excuse. "Come on, you went through all the trouble to buy it, AND I know that brand, it's not cheap. At least wear it." He convinced.
Apparently, his words had gotten through to her as there were no further protests. Certain that she was changing, Yamato went about setting up the rest of his plan on the balcony. No sooner was he done setting up, did Natsuhi pull open the door to the balcony.
"Fairy sticks, really?" She asked, amused.
Yamato took this time to look at her, really look at her. Her Yukata was navy blue, like his, with white patterns scattered across the fabric, the color complimented her complexion. Her hair, still damp from the shower, was put up in a bun with a silver hair pin. Whilst Sora's beauty was an elegant one, Natsuhi's was no doubt a cool beauty, but she was definitely no less stunning. He could now see why Takeru said that she may have chosen to not wear her Yukata to not show up the other girls.
"Are you done staring?" She asked mercilessly. At that Yamato shook his head slowly, of course, you can change the clothes, but the person inside never changes.
"You should have worn this, you look beautiful." He complimented sincerely. Expecting a smartass comeback, he was taken aback when Natsuhi blushed and moved to squat down till she was eye level with him. Grabbing a fairy stick from his hand roughly, she looked away shyly as she fumbled with the lighter, her usually nimble fingers failing her. The fact that she was in love with him once again hit him like a ton of bricks. Although he knew it as a fact, it was easy to forget that his best friend harboured feelings for him given how normally she was able to act around him. 'Question is, can you do the same now that you've realized how you feel for her?' The same annoying voice asked him. He pushed it aside in favour of helping her light her fairy stick.
For a while, there was nothing but companionable silence and the sizzling sounds of the fairy sticks, Yamato alternated between looking at the sparkles flying off his stick and the girl across him. Her face was usually soft as she stared at the sparkles with genuine childlike wonder. He decided that he liked this look on her. A piece of hair chose this exact moment to fall out of the bun, falling dangerously close to the sparks. Instinctively, he moved to tuck it behind her ear. The sudden contact brought Natsuhi back into reality and the usual hardness in her features returned.
"Don't do that," she bit out.
Usually, he would have apologized or backed off. But today, he didn't want to. "Why not?" He challenged. He watched as her usual mask of indifference take on an edge of intensity.
"It's not appropriate." She insisted as she levelled a glare at him.
Perhaps it was the sparks reflected in her eyes, or perhaps it was the Yukata, but really it was probably love, Natsuhi's usual piercing glare made her look extra beautiful, and Yamato reached out defyingly to brush another piece of hair away from her face.
"Why? I'm just making sure your hair doesn't get burned." His reasoning was sound, the action was legit, but the huskier tone of his voice and darker look in his eyes betrayed the sincerity, or lack of, in his excuse.
Natsuhi could feel the guilt slowly creeping, but her racing heartbeat at the intimate contact drowned it out. She desperately wanted to believe his explanation, but if Yamato had been anyone else, she would have called the banter nothing more than flirting disguised as riling comments. But this is Yamato…the same guy who has already rejected her. Despite what her instincts were telling her, Natsuhi chose denial and the look in her eyes softened.
Yamato watched her expression shift and his eyes drifted from her face to her neck. All the jealousy from the day came crashing down, translating into an impulse of desire to reach out and mark the column of skin as his. Not bothering to reign in the impulse, Yamato reached out and caressed the exposed nape of her neck.
Natsuhi immediately stiffened at his touch, but the intensity in Yamato's dark blue eyes stopped her from moving away.
"You let your guard down too much around me, you shoulder remember that I'm a man too," he said was his fingers traced patterns against her skin.
Natsuhi shuddered at his touch, her mind now in a frenzy. Every part of her was screaming at her to move away, to stop this…whatever this is. She was basically helping Yamato cheat by just staying here. But who was she kidding, she was in love with the man before her, and she has been replaying that chaste kiss they shared on the balcony over and over again and has been craving his touch ever since. Yumiko's words echoed in her mind like a devil's advocate, 'All is fair in love and war.' Fuck it all, she's decided that she would just run with it anwyays.
Looking back at Yamato with thinly veiled desire, she levelled a retort of her own, "And you shouldn't forget that I'm a woman too, my self-control only extends so far." Her eyes darted to his lips as she bit her own for emphasis.
They were at a stalemate, the tension between them almost palpable. For a moment, neither of them moved, as they were locked in each other's heated gazes, and then, Yamato brushed her lips with his thumb and with one last thoughtful look, abruptly, stood up.
"We should go to bed." He said, stepping inside the house, sliding the door shut behind him.
The moment the door was shut, Natsuhi released the breath she did not know she was holding and twirled the burning fairy stick in her hand, hard, sending sparks flying everywhere. Letting out one final sigh, she put out the fairy stick and stepped into the house as well.
Yamato was already in bed by the time she got out of the Yukata and changed into sleeping clothes. They both knew, by the speed of their respecting breathing that neither of them were asleep yet. The tension from the balcony lingered, both of them knowing that something significant have changed between them although they did not know what.
Attempting to diffuse the tension, Yamato turned around to ruffle Natsuhi's head. "Don't worry about any of that k?" He smiled warmly.
She knew that tone, it was the tone she used when she asked Yamato to forget everything that happened on that balcony at the gathering. Figuring that it was for the best, she nodded, bid him goodnight, turned around and tried to sleep. She really needed to buy that Futon.
Minutes passed, and Yamato could sense that Natsuhi's breathing had finally slowed. She was asleep. Allowing himself just one final transgression for the day, he reached out to wrap his arms around her waist, hugging her against him.
Eyes snapping open, Natsuhi resisted the urge to stiffen so as to not alarm him. She was pretty sure Yamato wasn't asleep yet…this was a conscious action. This was wrong, she knew it was, she musn't help him cheat…but she was too tired of doing the right thing. Especially not after that episode just now.
'It's just this once.' She caved. It's just this once, right?
A/N: Okay, I'm glad that was over with. I haven't been very happy with my writing lately, so I apologize if the style seems off. But I have the storyline all worked out, so the next chappy should be soon-ish. Next up, the digimon world! (Finally)