A/N: Tai and Matt meet again when they both show up to work at the same school. I'm trying to build something from Tai's perspective so that when things eventually do go down between them, he can be a willing participant even if he doesn't understand exactly what's up.

CHAPTER 3

Tai looked around. Once again, he was in a dark room and there was a man standing across from him, his face obscured by shadows but his eyes bright blue even in the dim light. Tai blushed under those eyes.

"It's you again…"

"Yes…" The man's voice had a melodic quality to it that Tai decided was very sexy.

"But I don't know who you are…"

"Yes you do. You just won't admit it."

Tai felt ashamed. "That's not true. I …. I don't remember this place … or you… when I wake up."

"Don't worry… That will change soon…"

**

I'm going to fucking destroy that alarm clock, I decided as I pulled myself out of the bed. But there was no ignoring it so I just flopped out of my bed and walked into the bathroom like a responsible adult. I couldn't help shoving Sora in the side as she let out a particularly loud snore. She didn't budge an inch.

I was seated at the breakfast table munching on some cereal when Joe trudged in through our kitchen door, looking as exhausted as I felt. He'd probably just finished a night-shift.

Lucky bastard. He got to go to bed now.

"Knock 'em dead, Tai," he muttered before dropping his bag on our kitchen floor – last night must've been really tough if he didn't even take it inside his room. Out of the 3 of us sharing the house, Joe was definitely the neat freak and got annoyed if me or Sora left shit lying around. Well, mostly me – Sora was pretty clean too. I could hear him flop over in his bed and I viciously wondered whether I should wake him up and make him take his bag inside. I would do it too except that would require more work. Cursing my sleeping roommate and girlfriend, I stepped out of the house to catch the train to work.

About 45 minutes later, I stood in front of the imposingly large Odaiba high-school. If I'd still been sleepy I would have woken up by the splendor of the place. The grounds around the school were bright green, well kept and beautiful. The building was shaped like a horse-shoe and constructed out of red brick and glass. Walking to the main entrance, I saw stables, pools and a proper regulation sized soccer pitch. Little brooks and streams with pretty little bridges were all over the place – and there were a bunch of statues that looked really old and therefore was probably really pricey. The whole place was more like some exotic get-away rather than a school. How ridiculously expensive was it to build something like this nice in the middle of a bustling city like Tokyo where land was worth more than gold?

Well… all that tuition had to go somewhere.

The inside of the place were just as nice with really nice wood and heavy doors. I made my way to the main building to meet with the Principle. I didn't even have to introduce myself before the secretary ushered me into his office with a "Mr. Kamiya! We've been expecting you!" Wow – this place was really prepared.

The guy was ancient and tiny – he couldn't have been much taller than 5'0. Was he always that short or did he just shrink with age? He wore an expensive suit but he had tied his snowy white hair back into a pony tail. What an odd little man.

"Ahhh… Mr. Kamiya – did you have a hard time finding the place?" His tiny eyes squinted up into a smile and I had to smile back. The guy may look eccentric but he was friendly enough.

"Hello Dr. Gennai. It wasn't too bad at all – the train station's a 5 minute walk from here."

"Well, ready for a hard day's work kicking balls around and whipping our kids into shape?" He grinned at me.

I grinned back. "I think I can manage."

"Great – so here are your keys and your office is 1G."

As I opened the door to Gennai's office, ready to get started on my new job, I was shocked at who stood on the other side.

"Matt."

"Ah! Mr. Yamato Ishida! Right on time!" Gennai exclaimed behind me.

"Wait… wha…?" My confused brain didn't know what to make of the situation as blue eyes stared down at me.

Electric blue eyes. Like the ones that had been flashing in my mind for the past month. My mouth fell open in shock.

"Mr. Ishida is another new faculty at Odaiba, Mr. Kamiya. He's going to teaching music." Gennai said. "But I take it you know each other?"

"Yes, we've met before Dr. Gennai." Why did the sound of his low timber send a shiver through me?

"Well… in that case, you will both have an easier time adjusting now that you know already know atleast one other person here." Gennai smiled encouragingly.

Matt graced at me with that annoying smirk again. I could feel those eyes on me again; my skin started to heat up uncomfortably as I remembered the way he had stared at me in the few minutes we had spent alone at Tokyo Disney as Mimi and Sora had their whispered argument few feet away.

Except for those strange flashes of blue, I hadn't thought of this guy since that day. After Joe, Sora, & I were in the car, Sora told us Matt's whole story. Apparently, he had been in some hugely successful band called The Teenage Wolves since he was fifteen. I remembered Kari begging Mom and Dad for tickets to their show. But the band had broken up a couple of years ago and Matt had struck out as solo artist and then later as an actor. Everyone said he was notoriously private – the photo-shoot where he had met Mimi was the first magazine article he had agreed to in 3 years. He was the most eligible bachelor in all of Japan, and had a net worth over $200M. So what was the guy doing here working as a teacher?

I was brought back to the present when I heard that low timber again. "You'd better shut that big mouth before you start catching flies in there, Taichi." He smirked down at me lazily, tapping his finger underneath my jaw. At his comment, I turned bright red and stalked out of the main office with a curt nod at Gennai.

I would've loved to punch him in the jaw instead of just walking out peacefully, but I needed to keep this job. Matt wasn't worth losing my future with Sora. The guy was a grade-A asshole who probably hadn't had to do an hour of real work in his life.

I considered that for a second. That seemed wrong somehow… he'd been nothing but gracious to Joe and Sora that day – Mimi hadn't been able to stop raving about what a prize he was. He'd even acted like a gentleman to random fans who'd stopped to ask for an autograph.

He was just an asshole to me. Everything he'd said to me that day was an insult, veiled or direct. I may be a little dense but even I could tell when someone kept taunting me.

Well – he was here. So what? The place was huge. I could easily avoid him if I wanted to. And I doubt he'd seek me out himself.