As Friday grew close, Jenrya's nerves grew even closer to driving him insane. He was helping Takato this afternoon looking for an outfit for the occasion, which happened to be tomorrow evening. Takato was, apparently, really excited about it, seeing as he'd been unable to stop talking about it since he found out he was the lucky winner, and the more excited he sounded, Jenrya became equally as worried. He was starting to become afraid again that this dinner might be where Takato meets the love of his life, and he wanted that honour to be him!

The bluenette shook his head to get the negative thoughts out of his mind. He just had to remember what Xiaochun told him: the likelihood that Takato ending up falling for whoever he's going on this date with was slim to none.

Jenrya sighed as he sat back on the bed while he and watched Takato scouring through dozens of outfits in his closet, more than he even knew Takato had. The only good thing about this afternoon was that he constantly got to see Takato in some of his most adorable clothes, such as the light-blue t-shirt with the Katakana for his name embroidered on his shoulder and white capris shorts he was currently wearing. It reminded Jenrya of what Takato used to wear as a child.

"Hey Jen-kun, what do you think?" Takato asked, looking at himself in the mirror.

Jenrya snapped out of his daze long enough to smile and nod in Takato's direction. "Uh, yeah, that looks great Takato-kun," he answered. He really didn't care what Takato was wearing, he could show up to that restaurant wearing dirty overalls and a paper hat and the bluenette would still think he was the most adorable person in the universe. In his eyes, Takato already is.

Takato hummed doubtfully. "I don't know… It's not exactly something you'd expect to see in a fancy restaurant like Subarashii Ryorii…" The brunette sighed and started to take off this outfit and throwing it on the mountain of other discarded clothes next to him until he was standing in only his digimon-printed boxers.

Jenrya reached for the box of tissues on Takato's bed and held it up to his nose, catching the river of blood that was about to rocket out. This happened to be the other reason Jenrya wanted to help Takato with his outfit: getting to see Takato constantly running around in his underwear. Takato was really comfortable changing in front of his male friends, like Jenrya and Hirokazu, which was why he didn't bother running back and forth between the bathroom and his bedroom with each outfit and just changed in front of Jenrya, much to the latter's delight.

Takato suddenly snapped, grinning. "I know!" He dove into the floor of his closet, with his rear end sticking out straight in Jenrya's face, causing another gush of blood to shoot out and his face to grow bright red. The bluenette had to resist the urge to tackle Takato to the floor and take him there… also, the urge to pass out from blood loss. Just as Jenrya was about to reach for another bundle of tissues, Takato came back out from his closet with a small box in his hands. "Found it!"

Jenrya lowered the tissues from his face long enough to give the box a wondrous look. "What's that?"

Takato grinned again. "It's the outfit I wore the first time I went to Subarashii Ryorii, and it should be perfect!" The brunette was about to open the box and dress himself once again, he noticed the blood stains on his friends face and hands and gasped. "Jen-kun, is your Haemophilia acting up again? If it is, I'll get my mom to drive you home."

To prevent Takato from figuring out his feelings, Jenrya made up the fact he had Haemophilia as a way to explain the sudden, massive spurts of blood that came from his nose every time he saw Takato in a state of undress, or when he was just being so cute you couldn't help it. Somehow, he believed it, and never questioned the reason why it only reacted when they were getting changed either at Takato's or Jenrya's house or in the locker room at school before gym class. Sometimes, he thanked the gods that Takato was so oblivious, or he would have been found out a long time ago…

Jenrya coughed embarrassedly and shook his head. "N-No, I'm fine Takato! I-I just… got a little warm, I… sometimes get nose bleeds when I get too warm," he said quickly. He honestly didn't know if that was a symptom of Haemophilia-based nosebleeds – in fact, he didn't know a single thing about Haemophilia, other than the nosebleeds – he just made that up on the spot after he saw it on a medical show Jialing was watching.

Takato sighed in relief. "Oh, good, I thought you might have needed to go to the hospital or something. You're probably just getting a hot flash from that giant jacket you have on," he said, pointing to the over-sized black jacket Jenrya was wearing. "Come here, let me take that off for you…"

Jenrya couldn't believe the idea of what Takato was about to do: Standing almost naked, about to take his clothes off, practically by force. This was like a dream come true… just not under the same circumstances, and it was usually Takato that was getting undressed by him, but still, he was delightfully happy…

Then, the tightening feeling in his navy jeans made him realized that he was getting a little too happy in places he'd rather keep in a neutral mood. The only thing that kept Takato from seeing just how happy he was happened to be that jacket, stretching down past his thighs.

Before Takato could grab Jenrya's jacket, the latter had jumped up from the bed and spun around, barely managing to keep a straight face. "I-I just remembered… I have to help my sisters," he lied. "They wanna make my brother stop leaving his clothes all over the house and they need my help throwing them out the window. Cruel and pointless, I'm aware of that, but I they asked nicely so I couldn't say 'no'. I'm sure you'll look great, later Takato-kun! See you tomorrow!" he managed to say in one breath, each second stepping closer to the door until he had managed dash out of the room and slam the door behind him.

"U-Uh, ok, later Jen-ku-!" Takato began before he cringed as he heard moans of pain and loud bangs against the stairs, cringing with each bang and moan until finally it stopped.

"Ow…" he heard Jenrya moan softly, barely audible.

Takato sighed. "We should really get those stairs carpeted…"

-x~X~x-

After Jenrya recovered from his slip down the stairs, brushed himself off and left the Matsuda bakery, he nearly broke his legs running away and down to the subway station. When he bought his ticket and got on the subway, he took a seat and sighed in relief.

'That was WAY too close!' Jenrya screamed in his mind. The bluenette could feel his pants getting tighter by the second as he recalled the events of the past few hours. Watching that bottle of cuteness constantly switching from one handsome and appealing outfit to another, with the simply erotic glimpse of those leg-hugging, dangerously short boxers that outlined every last detail of the boy's rear. Oh, how Jenrya wanted to be holding and caressing every inch of that bundle of joy was beyond words…

And what made it worse was that the closer it got to that dinner, Jenrya felt his chances of making Takato his slipping through his fingers. He truly loved Takato more than any girl ever could, and he didn't want to lose him... and yet, he was practically giving him away on a silver platter. He could have told Takato how he felt on many occasions, however he was too scared to say those three small, but powerfully life-changing words: "I love you."

Why was he so scared? What was the worst way Takato could possibly react? Takato was so sweet and so kind that, even if he didn't love Jenrya, he would try to reject him in the sweetest and most thoughtful way possible… besides, the brunette was practically a girl already – High voice, mid-length hair, baby-smooth face and body – so it wasn't entirely Jenrya's fault that he felt attracted to him at the beginning. In fact, when Jenrya first saw met back in elementary school, he thought Takato actually was a girl! That is, until he found Takato shirtless in the boys' locker room before gym.

That's when his feelings for Takato took off, as did his realization about his orientation. He found himself lying awake at night – imagining Takato and him as adults, where Takato would great Jenrya with a kiss every morning when he woke up, got home from work, and before he went to bed; saying "I love you" to each other immediately afterwards; playing with their children; cuddling in each other's arms at night… among other things.

At first, he thought it was just a strong best-friendship he was feeling. But, when Takato went on a week-long hot spring trip with the rest of his class in Kyoto – save for Jenrya, who couldn't afford it at the time because his parents needed to save up for Lianjie to go to college the next year – the bluenette felt a sense of pain and loneliness from the second Takato's bus was out of sight, one that was completely unfamiliar to him. His breathe was short, his heart raced and ached, and he cried himself to sleep at night. It physically and psychologically hurt him to not be able to see Takato for an entire week – which he felt was the longest and most agonizing week of his life.

That's when Jenrya realized: he was in love with Takato Matsuda. He loved his warm, loving smile; he loved his deep, crimson eyes; he loved the vibe of good fortune that he gave off. There wasn't a single thing about Takato that Jenrya didn't like…

…Which explained why it was so hard for him to just sit back and let Takato go on this date. When it was with Juri, he didn't mind as much ('As much' being a relative term…) because he knew Juri didn't like him like that. She only agreed to the date so Takato would get over her and they could go back to being friends. But with this mystery girl… he didn't even know how he should feel, because it literally could have been anyone from the school. He knew it wasn't Juri or Ruki because he'd already asked them and both and they both replied that they didn't win, so the fact that Takato could end up with some complete slut or someone who would be yelling and bossing Takato around all night made Jenrya want to scream in agony and demolish a wall with a single punch.

Jenrya gripped the safety rail of the subway angrily. Why did it have to be Takato, out of EVERY boy in their high school that had to win that dinner? Why couldn't it have been him? or Ryou? Or even Hirokazu or Kenta?! Sure, one of those two would be a little ticked off, but at least Jenrya wouldn't have the urge to kill the other half of the date!

"For crying out loud Jen, you're gonna break the damn thing if you don't relax!" a snarky voice said sarcastically from beside him. Jenrya looked up and saw Ruki grinning down at him, dressed in her casual jeans and 'broken heart' brand tank-top. "Alright, let me guess… still stressing over Takato's dinner tomorrow?"

Jenrya sighed. "Yeah, it's driving me nuts…" he said. He didn't even bother resisting Ruki's question, because she would find out the truth – either by him telling her straight up, or her beating it out of him. So he chose the least painful path. "When I see him, I want to run up and hold him in my arms and never let him go…"

"Then why don't you do it, stupid?" she asked. "Seems pretty simple to me: You see someone you like, get 'em while the gettin's good, no hassle."

Jenrya looked down at his lap and sighed. "It's not that easy Ruki," he stated. "You don't know what it's like to love somebody. You don't know what it's like to want something that you can't have. Takato isn't like me, nor does he. Just because he is… a little girly, doesn't mean he doesn't like girls, I've seen the way he looks at some of the girls at school, and he's never looked at the guys like that… I just want him to look at me like that, is that really too much to ask?"

Ruki groaned. "Jen, you're an oblivious idiot you know that?!" She walked past Jenrya and took a seat on the bench next to him. "Ok… I'm gonna try something… that's completely new to me: …Being kind and considerate. So don't go getting upset if I say something wrong…" She took a deep breathe, exhaled and looked Jenrya in the eye. "You're right. I don't know what it's like to want someone I can't have. I've never felt love before. I never have and I never will. Whenever you're pouring your heart out about how much you love Goggles, I usually go off into my 'happy place' I hear you people talking about-"

Jenrya stifled a laugh. "YOU have a happy place?"

Ruki glared him in the eye. "I'm trying to help you here…" she muttered bitterly. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is… I've known Takato as long as you have, and if you weren't so blinded by your love for him you'd realize that Goggles isn't the lovey-dovey type. The closest he came to that was with Juri, and we all know how that ended."

Jenrya sighed. "Ruki, I know that in my head… but not-OW!" he cried loudly, feeling Ruki's fist deal him a direct blow to the top of his head.

"I am NOT in the mood for a cheesy melodrama where the guy in loves says 'I know in my head that's not true, but not in my heart,' and, so help me, I will strangle you now if you finish that sentence, Jen! Am I clear?"

Jenrya nodded fearfully, clutching the large bump forming on his scalp. The bluenette was a black belt in Tai Chi, could pin an opponent in two seconds and break their arms and legs if need be; but Ruki had the strength and intimidation that would make even him crawl into a corner and cry. There wasn't a single human being alive that Ruki couldn't strike fear into. In fact, he literally witnessed her make a military commandant cry like a baby after he got on her nerves the day he came to speak at school. He thanked the gods there wasn't anyone else in the subway car at the moment, because he really didn't want anyone seeing Ruki treating him like a defenseless child.

"Now then, back to Goggles… I'm going to tell you something that I probably shouldn't, but this annoying, droopy, 'I'll be alone the rest of my life' attitude of yours is getting on my last nerve! So listen up, because I'm only going to say this one time…"