Sorry for not updating as quickly as I thought I would. I hope you all still want to read!

To me, this is a super cute chapter. Hope you enjoy~

Coincidence

Chapter Six: Desperate Candy Hints

Weeks passed, and the cold gradually lost its strength. The snow dared to melt into a messy mush on sidewalks and grass. Every rooftop dripped like rain. The world seems to slowly return to life, but so much had changed while it slept during the winter season.

Soon a month went by, and Koushiro diligently stayed true to his word about going to the Digital World every weekend. Not once had his parents complained or asked him to stay home at all; they seemed okay with it but a bit worried at the same time. Koushiro knew he had their support, whether they agreed or not. Every once in a while his mother would mention that he could invite some of the others to go along with him, but he only agreed and never did. It worried her most that he was missing out on friendships again.

In the Digital World, Koushiro had created a home for he and Tentomon right around the digimon's tree in Beetleland. At first he had a crude cube with a roof, but after a few weeks of playing around with the coding, Koushiro figured out how to add detail and furniture. Since Tentomon's tree was so important to him, Koushiro built the house around it where the tree could stand in the living room and rise through a hole in the ceiling. It was the center of their living area, and Tentomon often perched there comfortably. Koushiro also made himself a bedroom where he could put his things, a big office area where he kept his notes and computers, and they had the necessities like a bathroom, kitchen, and back porch that faced West so they could watch the sunset.

In all his weekends there, he hadn't mentioned it to any of the others. Every once in a while one of their partners would come by; so far only Biyomon, Gabumon, and Palmon ventured in to say hello. Koushiro wasn't much for company, so Tentomon always entertained guests and gave them a tour of the house, which they all envied. Sometimes they would even stay the night.

No matter the visitors, Koushiro always remained working. He even managed to add every piece of code he learned in a document for reference. After getting his home done, he moved onto more complicated coding. On that particular Monday in the third week of February, Koushiro was working on his function to duplicate his digital body for screw up purposes. He knew he missed school after about noon when Tentomon mentioned it was a Monday, so he wasn't in a hurry to get back yet. He was in the middle of a breakthrough with his coding, and he didn't care to leave it just yet.

In the real world, Taichi was having yet another crisis on his hands. When he arrived home, not only was he worried about Koushiro again, but Hikari was making chocolate. He was a little taken aback when his heart pounded at the sound of her telling him that Valentine's Day was tomorrow. He immediately wanted to participate, but he knew that the holiday was when girls gifted chocolate to guys, and he was a guy. However, he was in love with a guy, so he that was enough reason to give Koushiro chocolate, right?

It had been a bit over a month since his redheaded friend told him he didn't want to be friends any longer. Taichi was offered a chance to contact him when he was ready to be friends for real, but he never knew if he really was ready. Every day of not speaking with Koushiro made him want him more, but he was still worried about his friend's reaction to it.

He was also very distraught with Koushiro's behavior since that day. The younger teen was too into his thoughts, even in class. He never caught Koushiro talking with anyone, not even teachers. He usually remained quiet and thoughtful, in his own little world and ignored others. Taichi also noticed that he went straight home and didn't emerge on weekends. That was all the more reason for him to cheer his friend up with chocolates, but he had the issue of someone finding out about it.

"Taichi! Come get your ball! It's in my way!" Hikari called from the kitchen.

Taichi was in their room, mulling over his situation, but he forced himself to venture out to do as he was told. He walked into the kitchen and picked up his futbol, which had rolled right next to his sister, who was whipping chocolate in a bowl.

He really wanted to participate…

Hikari glanced at her brother and let go of the whisk, "this is harder than I thought."

"Huh?" he piped blankly as he hugged his ball.

She sighed, "well, this is my third try at this. The first batch, Mom helped, and uh…it turned out really horrible."

He reached out and dipped his finger into the mix before tasting it. His face could have turned blue from the sheer tasteless concoction that she was working on. He smiled nervously, "uh…yeah, I think you inherited Mom's cooking genes."

Hikari slammed the bowl down and huffed, "this is impossible! I followed the recipe, but it keeps getting worse and worse."

Taichi tossed the ball into the living area, "I'll help." Perfect.

She eyed him, "you can make chocolate?"

"I don't know, but I'll try. If you remember, I can make more than you can," he teased.

She huffed, "oh, okay. Let's try then." She took the bowl to the sink before handing him a clean one from the drying rack.

He took it and looked at the paper of ingredients she had on the counter, "cocoa powder, butter, sugar, milk, confectioner sugar, and water. This sounds easy, Kari."

She turned on the stove again and put a pot with the correct amount of water to boil, "yeah right."

"I mean, it's so simple. I didn't know that you could make chocolate just by doing this," he told her with a smirk.

She huffed and leaned against the fridge with her arms crossed, "It's a simple recipe, and if you think you can then prove it."

He didn't hesitate to get started. He knew if he could make this batch, he could keep it, maybe say that it was his and no stealing. He began by boiling the water, cocoa powder, and butter, and he ended with stirring everything together in the clean bowl she left for him. He tasted it all quite a few times, and it seemed fine, nothing spectacular but fine.

Hikari watched with pouting face, but she never complained or insulted him. She also got the chance to taste it a few times, but she was a little frustrated that hers didn't come out edible like his. When he was finished, she allowed him to use her chocolate mold, which consisted of hearts, stars, and ovals.

Taichi was so proud of himself, and he was even happier that he managed to create average chocolate—more than he could say about his sister's candy. He starred down at the mold and spoke hesitantly, "how long before it gets hard?"

Hikari sighed again, "until it cools. And why do you want to know? You're not eating it."

"What? Yeah, it's mine. I can do whatever I want with it," he told her.

She frowned, "but I need it! I have to give some to TK and a few others in class."

He glared at her, "oh really?"

She blushed a bit, "yeah, why? He's my friend."

He knew it wasn't right to tease her about her friend, because he had a crush of his own. He just couldn't let her take the chocolate; he had too strong of an urge to give it to Koushiro. He smiled at her after debating silently, "well, I could always help you with yours."

She blinked, wondering why he was so adamant about keeping it for himself. "Okay," she mumbled.

Taichi spent the rest of the evening helping her, but he made sure to keep his out of the way of hers. He was actually proud of himself, and the entire time he was helping his sister, he had pink cheeks. He thought about how Koushiro would be so surprise, how he would look at the chocolates with that cute confused stare. He thought about how his friend would be too embarrassed to find who gifted him. That's right, Taichi was too bashful to give them to him by hand, and his plan was to sneak them into the younger teen's locker.

But he couldn't really decide why he wanted to do this. He didn't know if he was just caught up in the yoai romance novels or if he really wanted to win over his friend. He was still just as confused as he was when he first realized his feelings, perhaps that was why he didn't want to deliver the gift in person. Little by little he was accepting his love for his friend, and very gradually he was starting to feel comfortable about it.

When the next morning rolled around, Taichi left early—very early. He didn't want anyone to catching him hiding the paper bag of treats away in the boy's locker. He couldn't find a nice box like Hikari, so he drew a heart on a lunch sack, hoping it would be enough. He also refrained from writing actual words as he was sure Koushiro could recognize his hand writing.

He arrived at school, found the correct locker, and hacked the combination to place his gift there. He wasn't shocked that Koushiro's locker was organized and had room to spare, but there were quite a few notebooks that didn't have labels. He was too curious not to know what they were, and since no one was around, he slipped one of the grey folders from the locker to skim through the pages. It was all code. He flipped through the pages, finding nothing but equations, functions, and variables that worked together to form a language. He couldn't make heads or tails of any of it, but he wondered if it was what kept his friend silent and thoughtful. He took out another notebook, but it was filled with the same thing. He wished he were smart enough to understand.

A few girls walked into the hallway, all with cute boxes of chocolates. He put the notebooks back and shut his friend's locker, knowing that the school would fill up soon. He set the paper sack on the self above the books inside. And of course he picked a very creepy corner to peer from in order to see the reaction on his friend's face when he arrived to find the gift.

Koushiro actually did come to school that day, but he had no idea it was Valentine's Day as being deep in his work didn't allow for him to keep the date in his mind. He looked fine, not sick at all, which made Taichi all the more curious as to why he missed school the previous day.

Among the other students walking around, Koushiro stopped at his locker and opened it. Taichi was bursting at the seams with suspense as he waited for the reaction. Koushiro didn't really look into his locker and took the textbook for his first period class before shutting the door. He then proceeded to walk to his first class in silence.

Taichi paled, wondering how Koushiro didn't see it. The heart he drew on the brown paper bag was very red and bright. He had no choice but to go to first period and get back to the hall right after to wait again. He chalked it up to a fluke, that maybe Koushiro was too oblivious, but he had total hope that he would see it the next time he opened his locker.

The next changing of classes, Koushiro went back to his locker, not noticing that he was being watched. He opened it and exchanged his books, then shut the locker again. He left for his next class.

Taichi wanted to throw a fit, and after everyone was gone to class, he opened the locker again and placed the gift on top of the books, so the redhead would definitely see it. Taichi then hurried to class, only to get a tardy.

Much to his dismay, though, Koushiro skipped going to his locker the next hours, and then it was lunch. During that time all of the girls were delivering their chocolates to the boys. Taichi was very tempted to go into the computer lab, where he knew Koushiro was eating alone. But he was stopped in the hallway when Mimi rushed up to him.

The teen girl held about three small boxes, all glittery and pink. She held one out to him and spoke cheerfully, "Taichi! Here you go!"

Taichi blinked, confusingly and took the gift. The first thing that went through his mind was that Mimi of all people was giving him a Valentine's Day box.

She explained with a smirk, "now, you have to get me something on White Day!"

His expression fell into a deadpan as he cut his eyes at her, "is this the only reason why you went to the trouble?"

She winked at him, "mostly, but you are my friend. I got all the digi-boys one!" She picked up another one and sighed, "actually Sora was a little peeved that I tried to give Matt one. Do you want two?" She pointed at him with her pinky, "and by accepting two, you know you have to get me two gifts in return."

He rolled his eyes, "n-no thanks. I'm good." He waved to her as he passed her, "thanks, Mimi! Remind me to get you something next month!"

She giggled, "no biggie!" She skipped down the hall and towards Koushiro's locker, because she wasn't really willing to be rejected as she thought he would do towards her chocolates. She knew her nerdy friend would probably get flustered and start lecturing about how he didn't want or need it, so she decided to leave it in his locker. Unlike Taichi, she actually knew the combination to their friend's locker, because once Koushiro gave it to her in order for her to get something from there.

She opened it with ease and noticed right away that the paper bag was crunched between the books. Unfortunately she didn't see the heart, because the item was turned the wrong way. She hummed to herself, "his lunch is getting smooshed." She picked it up and tossed it onto the top shelf before putting one of her glittering boxes in front of it. She then closed the locker and hurried off to find someone to give the last box to.

Sadly Taichi waited after each class for Koushiro to notice his gift, but he was perturbed that even oblivious Koushiro couldn't see a bag right in front of him. He wondered how in the world he could ignore it when he placed it onto his books. By the end of the day, he worked up enough courage and annoyance to just inquire about it.

Koushiro was at his locker, putting his books away and placing those he would need for homework into his backpack. Taichi walked up to him rather cautiously, hoping that he wouldn't be pissed off that he wanted to talk. He decided to take a friendly approach, something casual. "What's up!" he blurted out.

Koushiro nearly jumped out of his skin and whipped his head around to look at Taichi right next to him. He placed his hand onto his chest, "you startled me."

Taichi held up his hands, "sorry. I didn't mean to." He leaned against the locker next to his and smirked, "so, Valentine's Day."

Koushiro offered a lift of his brow, "…yeah?" He was very confused and a little taken aback that he was finally being talked to.

"Did you get anything?" Taichi asked.

The shorter boy sighed, "y-yeah, from Mimi. She had a note attached to it, saying I had to get her something on White Day."

Taichi crossed his arms, "and?"

Koushiro cut his eyes away then back at him like he was getting nervous, and he was. He didn't understand what he was getting at, "and that's it."

Taichi frowned, "huh? Well, did you check really good?"

The redhead tilted his head to the side in that cute way Taichi loved. He looked into his locker and frowned, "Tai, you know I'm not popular like you-"

Taichi blushed, noticing that his gift from Mimi was the only thing he received. He remembered last year he got tons of gifts, but none this year, so what was up with that? He huffed, "for your information, I only got one of those glittery boxes from Mimi, too."

Koushiro stared at him, "sorry…?"

Taichi suddenly pushed him out of the way gently and began rummaging his locker for the paper sack. "Let me check for you!" he snapped abruptly when Koushiro made a noise of protest. He moved all of the books, even tossed some out to get a good view, but there was nothing. He then looked on the top shelf and saw it shoved in the back. He picked it out and showed it to him, "what do you call this, huh?"

Koushiro was more confused and even more nervous. He hesitantly looked at the item and mumbled, "what do I call it?" He honestly didn't remember it being put there.

Taichi noticed that he had it facing the wrong way and turned it around to show his friend the heart. "It's a valentine of course!"

Koushiro glanced away and then back to him, "is it?"

"Are you saying that you don't want it?" Taichi asked in concern. He didn't even think about how transparent he was being, but thankfully for him, neither did Koushiro.

The younger teen hesitantly took the sack and opened it to find destroyed chocolates. They were half melted and squished. He hummed, "I think the person who gave me these really didn't care about presentation."

Taichi leaned over and looked inside. He gaped, "they're ruined!"

Koushiro eyed him, "Tai…are you really so interested in this?"

The older boy froze with lightly blushing cheeks, "uh-"

"I have to get home," Koushiro mumbled a bit lowly. He held the sack towards him, "do you want these?"

Taichi could feel another piece of his heart chipping away. He frowned, "n-no, it's yours. You should at least try them. I mean, someone probably worked hard on them."

Koushiro hummed, "well, I doubt it is anyone I would be interested in, so I see no point."

"Why would you say that?" Taichi asked worriedly.

"There was no name," Koushiro told him.

"Then how do you know it's someone you're not interested in?" Taichi asked quickly.

Koushiro's face turned almost as red as his hair, and he stammered out, "I h-have to go." He turned heel and rushed off, leaving his locker in shambles. He just couldn't face his friend any longer with such a heated face. He was afraid that Taichi would find out, but he was more interested in why Taichi seemed intent on the messy chocolates in his locker. He had to admit that he didn't find them during the day, not until Taichi pointed them out. He wondered if Taichi saw someone put them there, but honestly, he didn't care who did it… He didn't want anyone to like him, because the only person he did love was someone he couldn't have. However, it did feel good to talk to him again.

Taichi was left with the mess he made, but he cleaned it up rather slowly. He felt bad about getting in Koushiro's face; it seemed all he did was make things worse. He wondered if he should catch up to him and apologize again, but he didn't want to keep saying sorry like some kind of wimp. He wanted to be strong, courageous, and confident again. He just didn't know how. All he wanted to do was go home and take a hot shower, sulk for the rest of the night about how Koushiro didn't like the chocolates.

I hope Koushiro doesn't seem too jerky, but he is pretty much super withdrawn and bitter atm. Look for the next chapter sooner than later this time.