Tai stood outside the bathroom door, dressed in a pair of small, white shorts and a pale yellow T-shirt. He bobbed up and down on his heels as he waited, impatiently, for Yamato to finish styling his hair. "C'moooon, Yama! We've gotta make the most of the sun whilst it's still out!" Tai shouted, attempting to encourage his friend to hurry up. "Get your butt in gear!" Yamato grumbled something in reply that sounded like "complaining won't make me go any faster…" and, realising that he was right, Tai left to go and wait by the front door.

Strangely enough, it was Yamato who had asked that they go to the park to play soccer today. Everyone knew he hated the sport; watching it was enough to give him a headache, and no one had ever seen him join in before. The only reason he attended the games at school was to support Tai, and he even found that a little painful. Still, it was a clever move on his part. Since he'd mentioned it, Tai hadn't once thought about the walking headache that was Ami, or his missing journal, or the connection between the two. He was too excited by the prospect of his Yama finally showing some enthusiasm towards his favourite sport.

Whistling tunelessly, Yamato strolled into view with his hair perfectly moulded. He had a sceptical look on his face. "So you're not planning on wearing shoes today, Tai?" He asked with a grin, looking down. Tai was wearing white, cotton socks that were too big for his feet, but no shoes.

"Nope." He smiled back, picking up a large red ball from the floor. "I don't like wearing shoes unless I have to, so I'm leaving them behind today."

"Hmm…" Yamato hummed, considering his friend for a moment, before untying his trainers and taking them off. "Ok. This way we'll both look weird together." He winked, before opening the door. "Let's just hope everywhere has dried out already. Last night's storm was pretty damn bad."

By the time they got to the park their fears were assuaged; it was completely dry, and everyone seemed to be taking advantage of the good weather. People were everywhere. Surely enough, a group of kids were already having a game of soccer across the whole of the field. "Maybe we can ask to join in? I'm sure they won't mind." Tai suggested, jogging over towards a small boy who was bent over, tying his shoelaces. "Hey, 'scuse me. Mind if we play with you guys?"

"Sure thing, Tai." Takeru said, turning around to face him. He had the biggest grin on his face that Tai had ever seen. "I saw you coming. You dragged Matt along, too?"

"Er…not quite." Tai replied, giving Yamato a quick smile. "And what's got you so happy lil guy?"

"Oh, nothing. C'mon! You can be on my team."

"Ok, what about Yama?"

"What about him?" Takeru replied, looking confused.

"Well, he wants to play too." Tai answered, laughing. "Don't you Yama?"

"Yeah…er, I thought it'd be fun." Yamato answered, nervously. Takeru's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Hey, don't give me that face TK."

"Sorry, I'm just wondering if I'm gonna be waking up any time soon." Takeru laughed, turning around to re join the game. "You can be on my team. The guys we're playing against are bigger, anyway, and they're already 3 goals ahead of us…Tai, go upfront. Matt, you get in goal." Tai replied with a cheer; Yamato with a simple nod, as they both found their positions.

Within five minutes Tai had scored three times, and the ball had only been near their end once – in which Takeru had defended exceedingly well. Yamato was yet to get any action. Not that he cared; he knew exactly what would happen when they got to him. He sighed, wondering if this was worth all the hassle.

The boys were soon in play again, and Tai was leading his team towards the opposite goal. He lost possession halfway there, though, and fell on his face due to a well-placed slide tackle from their defender, who promptly passed the ball on. It was then passed skilfully between three of their strikers as they made their way towards Yamato, swerving in and out of any mid-fielders who stood in their way. Takeru tackled the striker on the far right – but not in time to stop him from passing to the centre offender, who was left completely unchecked. A smirk raised on his face as he sped up, aimed carefully for the back of the net, and shot. Its aim was true; it soared through the air towards the top left corner with a huge amount of force behind it, and the striker cheered confidently. But he did so too soon. At the very last moment Yamato dived up into the air, his right arm in the lead, and punched the ball away before it managed to pass the line. It landed beside Takeru who, very skilfully, shot it back up to the opposite half – resulting in another goal from Tai, finally putting their team in the lead.

"Woah, Matt! That was sooo cool!" Takeru shouted, as the other team sat down to have a break; losing so badly was taking its toll on their morale. "I can't believe it! My brother is secretly a soccer whiz!"

"No, TK, I just happen to be kinda good in goal. I can't do anything else." Yamato replied, before skulking back to his position. He obviously wasn't enjoying himself, and it didn't go un-noticed by Tai. He ran over and proposed that the two of them get going.

"After all, Yama, we've walloped these guys so bad it's gonna hurt all week! See ya TK!" Tai shouted, giving him a wave.

"Wait, Tai! Can I have a moment?" Takeru asked, walking up beside him. "Y'know…in private?"

"Erm…" He looked over at Yamato, who just shrugged his shoulders and motioned for him to 'go ahead'. "Lead the way." Takeru led Tai across the park to an empty area by some trees, in the hopes that they wouldn't be overheard.

"First, before I say what I really want to…when's Kari coming home?" Takeru's bright blue eyes seemed to light up as he said her name, causing Tai to roll his own.

"Man, you two love birds can't last 5 minutes without each other!" He smiled down at Takeru, before adding "…and she'll be back this evening sometime. I'll get her to call you as soon as she gets back, ok?"

"Y-yeah, thanks Tai!" Takeru nodded, and started shuffling his feet. "Also, the thing I wanted to talk to you about…"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I…I just wanted to say that…I'm ok with it." Takeru said, happy that he'd expressed himself clearly. Tai begged to differ; he didn't have any idea was Takeru was talking about.

"Erm…great! That's great, TK. But…what, exactly, are you ok with?"

"You, silly. I'm ok with you!" Takeru replied, sticking his tongue out. "Plus, I think Matt's the same way. I'm ok with him, too."

"I don't know wha…"

"You don't need to pretend Taiii! I care about you, so I'm happy as long as you are. Ok?" He gave Tai a full, toothy grin and a quick hug around the waist, before running back towards the other kids. Tai, however, stood where he was; frozen to the spot by the conclusions he was trying to draw from their conversation, wondering what in the name of hell it was that Takeru knew about him. "Well…" He thought to himself, trying to be optimistic. "At least he's happy with…whatever I am."

Yamato followed Tai into his apartment to find that his family had returned early. Tai's parents were cooking something together, and Kari was sat watching T.V; she was too entranced to turn around and greet them, instead choosing to wave a hand in their general direction. Tai walked over and sat in her lap. "TK's expecting a call soon, Kari. He misses you."

"Yeah, I called him as soon as I got home Tai. His mum said he was at the park. I'll try again later." She smiled at him; eye's lingering on his for a moment, before watching T.V. again. "You still not found anyone you like yet?" Yamato's eyes shot up, taking in Tai's reaction to the sudden question. He was going red; he stammered inaudibly, and his eyes darted about the room as if his answer would somehow be painted across the walls somewhere. In short, he had given himself away. He liked someone. Yamato felt his heart drop from his chest like a stone. "It's ok Tai, you don't need to tell me who. I kinda guessed already." He stared at her, fear suddenly setting in across his face. "Would you say something? I feel like I'm carrying the whole conversation on my own, here."

"Er, w-well…" He began, trembling. Yamato soon interrupted, though, feeling he'd rather not hear about it.

"Listen, Tai. I'm gonna be off now. You've got lots of people here who can look after you." He gave a short laugh and put on the shoes that he'd left behind earlier, before addressing Tai's mother as she walked in from the kitchen. "Tai hit his head pretty bad yesterday. Passed out in the shower... Keep an eye on him for me?"

"Of course, Matt. Thanks for telling me. God knows he wouldn't have." She looked pointedly at the still terrified Tai, before ruffling Yamato's hair. "He's lucky to have you."

"No, I'm quite sure I'm the lucky one." Yamato replied, smiling at his friend before he turned towards the door. "Anyway, I'm gonna go now. Thanks for having me round Tai. Bye, everyone." He left abruptly, hurrying out of the apartment building and onto the street. The fresh air felt better, but he needed to be completely alone. He wasn't prepared to break down in front of other people.

Yamato strode in the direction of his house, hoping that passers by would remain oblivious to the occasional tear that crawled down his face. "Things were going so well!" He shouted out in his head, keeping his jaw clenched shut so that the words wouldn't escape from his mouth accidentally. "I thought…damn it, I don't know what I thought! Maybe I thought he could like me, the way I like him! I mean…w-we cuddled up together all night, shared a bed…I even kissed him in his sleep!" Yamato reached the door to his house and slowly unlocked it, muttering the rest of his thoughts under his breath "…and he liked someone else the whole time." He entered, closing the door behind him as he went and sat down with his head in his knees, crying for the love he could never have.

Time dragged by, eventually bringing the night along with it. Yamato had spent hours upon hours sat on his bed, playing his harmonica in an attempt to tune out his emotions, knowing, deep down, that it wouldn't help him this time. Still, it didn't stop him playing his way through the whole evening anyway - just to be sure. No one cared. His dad wouldn't be home for hours, and his neighbours never complained about his music. "Who knows, maybe they enjoy it…" Yamato had once hoped. Now, though, he was starting to think they'd just learned to ignore it.

A loud "You've got mail" pierced through the room, making Yamato jump up. No one ever emailed him except for Tai – and he couldn't imagine why he would want to after they'd just spent so long together. "Maybe it's TK…" He muttered, getting up to check his computer. Infact, it turned out to be from Sora. It read:

Hey, Matt. I bumped into Ami at the library. She was photocopying a small, blue book about a hundred times over. Kinda reminded me of the journal you gave Tai a while back. I don't know why I'm getting so paranoid! Maybe I'm just weird. Anyway, you've not heard anything from him about it going missing, have you? Love, Sora.

Yamato froze in his seat. Ami, the bitch who had stolen Tai's journal, was now photocopying pages from it. It was absurd! Surely there wasn't anything in there worth sharing with the world? After all, when he'd checked it out earlier there was nothing that special. It only said that something was different, not what it was. "Unless…" He thought to himself, feeling a pang of worry slam against his chest. "…He added something when I was away." He began composing a reply immediately. It read:

Sora. Ami stole it from Tai's desk this morning! Showed up drunk last night and we let her stay on the couch. When she woke up she went in his room for headache tablets; I guess she found something more interesting, though. Good catch – don't ever call yourself paranoid again. We need to figure out what she's planning and stop her before she messes up Tai any further. If you get any ideas…you know. Love, Matt.

"There." Yamato muttered to himself, clicking send. "That should be good enough." He laid back in his chair and allowed his eyelids to droop. All he wanted was to wake up in Tai's bed, to the realisation that today had been some strange dream, instead of fearing the nightmare that would soon be coming his way. His lips parted, and he muttered "Sweet dreams, my sweet Taichi" before dozing off into a world where, for once, he could be at peace with his best friend. If only this peace would last.

Well, there's chapter 3 people. Hope you liked it. A little R+R would be just dandy.

I still don't own these guys...yet...unfortunatly, the nice ol' people that own digimon own them.

Thanks to everyone who's read this; thanks even more to those who have read and enjoyed this, and thanks even more still to those who have reviewed. You're a massive help. =D