Evenings: Part 9

Break

Summary: Jyou is on his way home when he runs into Yamato, who is determined to set Jyou's Dad straight...

A/N: Implied YamatoxJyou, implied KoushiroxTaichi, references to alcohol

Jyou was running home through the rain. He couldn't be late. Not on his first day of his senior year, he couldn't. Surely his father would think he was slacking off. He tried to adjust his glasses, but this only smudged the water droplets. He let out a frustrated sigh as he rushed down the subway steps and was surprised he didn't trip.

"Made it," he breathed, checking his watch. He obtained his ticket and anxiously awaited the next train, distracting himself by cleaning his glasses. When he put them back on again, he could finally see that the ghosts around him were people, not all patrons, mostly those seeking shelter from the rain.

"So, the fucking bitch tells me to get lost. I stole her cigarettes. Jokes on her."

A nervous laugh followed.

Jyou looked around for the familiar voice. He caught sight of the blonde at the back of the tunnel, next to a familiar redhead. Koushiro was wearing a bright yellow raincoat over his dress shirt and pants. He had probably just come from school. Yamato, on the other hand, was twirling in his long, grey trench, giving the illusion he was happy. Jyou had to smile a little. With school and his internship, he had rarely seen anyone.

"Koushiro! Yamato!" Jyou called as he made his way through the crowd.

"Ah, Jyou-san!" Koushiro waved.

Yamato stopped twirling, his cheeks burning, and gave Jyou a simple toss of his head.

"You two getting out of the rain?"

"On our way back from a movie, actually..." Koushiro shrugged. "I don't see the merits of people getting buried in a garden by their murderer."

"The man was insane, Koushiro. That's all that mattered," Yamato complained as if he had to have said it thirty times now. Jyou eyed the blonde's heavy eyes and his hands firmly planted in his pockets.

"I was lucky, just barely got here in time for the train," Jyou smiled. "Now, I get to see you two. How have you been, outside another bad slasher film?"

"Well, I wanted to spend the day with Taichi, but he said he doesn't have time. Ever since he got that scholarship, I haven't really spent time with him... I'm proud, though. I know he has to do this," Koushiro explained his feelings sequentially.

Yamato didn't speak.

"I'm almost done with high school now," Jyou replied. "But my internship feels like having a full-time job."

"He's making you intern this early?" Yamato snapped.

Jyou gave a weak smile at the blonde's concern. "I can handle it. I enjoy it because I get to work hands on. It's easier than listening to lectures for eleven hours a day."

"Ah, my train is due. I need to excuse myself," Koushiro said, giving a bow. "Later, Yamato. Good seeing you, Jyou."

Yamato raised a hand half-assedly, more of a good-riddance than a good-bye. Jyou gave a simple wave and turned to his friend. The blue-haired young man wasn't completely out of the loop. He knew of Yamato's problems from the last few months... he just didn't think things were this bad. Yamato was just entering high school, wasn't he? He should be focusing on his studies...

"Are you sleeping? Eating? You look pale."

Yamato smiled. He had expected as much. "I'm fine, Jyou. Really."

"Are you going home to an empty house again?" Jyou sighed.

"Are you going home to an abusive dick again?" the blonde snapped.

Jyou crossed his arms best he could with the book bags slung over one shoulder. "You were hanging out with Koushiro. That's good."

"He had nothing better to do. I had nothing better to do."

Jyou wasn't going to point out that he figured Yamato just didn't want to be alone. The blonde had openly admitted before he didn't trust himself and that worried Jyou. "I didn't walk over here to lecture you, I promise. Let's just talk."

"About what?" Yamato laughed. "I know your game, Jyou. I'm sorry I didn't return your call."

Jyou had to genuinely concentrate on when that was. "The one from two months ago? Yamato, I don't even remember why I had to call you."

"I can take a guess," the blonde snapped, pulling out a cigarette.

"Why are you bombarding my father right now? Did yours piss you off?"

"What the Hell do you care?"

"Oh, what did he do? Care?"

"I thought you didn't come here to fight," Yamato started, inhaling smoke.

"I didn't come here to lecture you. If I have to fight with you to talk some sense into you, then I will. Trust me, I've seen Taichi make it work."

Yamato cringed the brunette's name. I'm an idiot. He had spent a few months with the boy, thinking foolishly something could come of it, when Taichi and Koushiro were the ones making their relationship work. Another fucking disappointment, another mistake. "Let's not talk about him, 'kay?"

Jyou didn't know why he had pressed a nerve and took a moment to straighten his coat as he thought of what he wanted to say. "I know... things aren't going well. You know, I'm worried, is all?"

"...yeah, I know. That's your job description," Yamato sighed, half his cigarette gone now. "Jyou, I don't mean to snap. You know me."

"If I couldn't take that temper of yours, what kind of friend would I be?"

Yamato gave a 'fuck you' smile. "Honestly, I'm just worried about you, too. Your father pushing you too hard and all. Don't think I can't see that purple skin near your wrist or the strain in your eyes." Jyou cursed in his mind. He noticed. He's good at noticing. "Like you said, my apartment's free. You can come by, you know?"

"I can't tonight. If I'm not back, Dad will..." Jyou cringed at the thought of how he had to repair his last fracture by himself. "Anyway, maybe tomorrow, then?"

"Sure," Yamato breathed, "That's your train pulling in."

"Aren't you headed the same way?" Jyou questioned.

The blonde smiled and gave a quick dip signaling he was out. He started back up the stairs and Jyou hesitated for a moment. He could go home and be safe and sound, bleeding internally about whatever the Hell Yamato was up to, or he could follow his friend and take the physical pain later. Well, he was much better with physical pain that his own throws of despair and rushed after his forgotten crush.

"Yamato?" Jyou called into the rain. He saw the blonde walking down the street and rushed after him, nearly slipping in the water of the streets. "Bastard doesn't have an umbrella. He's going to get a cold."

Yamato trudged forward, letting the cool water hit his skin like needles. He could hear Jyou splashing like a dancing walrus somewhere behind him and the blonde broke into a full run at this point. He just wanted to be alone. He wanted Jyou to see he was suffering and come running to the rescue. No one else was going to.

Finally, that firm hand grasped Yamato's elbow and after a moment of the two catching their breath, the blonde cut off his friend, "Sorry I made you run out here and miss the train. You could have gone home."

"You... You don't want me to, though," Jyou huffed. "Where are you going? You live across town."

"There's a party over here. Thought I would hop by."

"You hate gatherings," Jyou hissed, twirling the blonde around. "How's your liver lately?"

Yamato scoffed, chuckled, anything to laugh away that he had been cornered. "Jyou, go home."

"What happened between you and Sora?" Jyou pressed finally. "I thought you two were happy together. Yamato, you were with her an entire year... that had to have meant something."

The blonde grit his teeth, It meant fucking nothing. I haven't moved forward at all, as usual, it seems... "Look, she started it and she broke it off. It's fucking over and I'm fucking glad."

"...Yamato," Jyou whispered. He noticed they were still standing in the rain and the two ducked under an awning of a cafe to talk. "Did you tell her-" "No, I fucking didn't tell her!" Yamato remarked, shoving Jyou back. He stumbled a little but managed to fall forward out of the rain again. "Why the Hell would I tell her?"

"Isn't that important?" Jyou whispered.

"Fuck," Yamato breathed. I didn't expect it to go anywhere, Jyou! The whole thing was a God damn train wreck. I was being nice. I didn't want to turn her away. I didn't want to limit myself to you... after all, you're not interested in me, right? Otherwise, you would have come up to me that summer, you would have spilled your soul to me like that night...

Jyou tried not to laugh. To him, the curse sounded like some sort of realization. Jyou just wanted his friend to be happy, no matter who he was with. "Let's head back, okay? I'll be late, but you can still make it home before your Dad worries."

"...yeah," the blonde sighed, admitting defeat.

The two headed back to the subway in silence and remained in silence. What the Hell could they say to one another? Their feelings weren't mutual, their time was sparing, their lives headed in two completely opposite directions.

Jyou's apartment was closest and Yamato should have split off and gone straight home, hoping for a bottle to drown in still somewhere around the apartment, but instead he followed Jyou. He owed the boy, after all. Yamato hadn't even considered doing something so stupid as getting wasted across town until recently. He just wanted to throw himself into oblivion and he could see now, in the comfort of Jyou's company, that was stupid.

Jyou wasn't sure why Yamato had followed him and tried to hide his embarassment as they reached for their rail of the stairs in unison. It had been too long since they felt the comfort of one another's warmth and Jyou pushed back memories. "You're going first?"

"...I'm escorting you, jerk," Yamato joked, brushing past his friend and leading them up the stairs. Jyou followed, cursing the unflattery of that hideous trenchcoat. Yamato felt his anger boiling as he reached the top of the stairs. He wasn't going to let his friend return home late and be punished of his own accord.

Jyou shifted his belongings as he looked for his keys. Instead, he was surprised to hear Yamato giving a few, solid hard knocks. "Yamato, what are you doing?"

"I'm knocking?" Yamato breathed, shoving his cold hands back in his pockets.

"I can let myself in without interrupting my father's work," Jyou explained quickly, praying his father didn't hear the knock. Then he noticed the blonde's expression. "You didn't follow me all this way to pick a fight. Come on."

Yamato didn't answer and waited as the door opened. He and Sho hadn't seen each other but once before and Sho was unconscious on the convention center floor. If Yamato had known the full extent of the man's damage, he probably would have strangled the fucker there or personally escorted him to Myotismon as a peace offering before things got this far. "Hello, sir," the blonde breathed, blinking away rain droplets from his heavy lashes. His expression was like squinting towards the sun.

Jyou's father glanced to him and Jyou wasn't sure what to say or do. He looked away.

"You're late," the man said. "Come on, get inside."

"Wait," Yamato demanded. Sho didn't like this and glared at the brat in front of him.

"Do you have some business with me?" Sho questioned.

"Yeah, I do," Yamato breathed.

Jyou looked around frantically for a hole to crawl into. Damn it, Yamato, if you wanted to kill yourself I'd rather you drink yourself to death than leave me behind with my father the angriest I've ever seen him! What are you thinking?

"Go on."

"Can I ask you why you insist on beating your son when he's done nothing but bend over backwards for you? Or is he just bending over for you, too?" the blonde remarked.

Jyou grabbed Yamato by the shoulders, "Stop."

"What did you say to me?"

"You heard me loud and clear," Yamato hissed.

"Dad, he's a little drunk."

"I wish I was," Yamato smiled. "Maybe I would have decked this fucker by now."

Sho shoved his son aside and grabbed Yamato by the collar. "Look here you punk, I don't want to see you around here again."

"What? Too afraid to hit your son's friends?" the blonde taunted.

Jyou ran a hand over his face and then quickly tried to break them apart. Yamato was being as careless as Taichi the way he taunted the grown man in front of him like some wild Digimon. "Dad, let's just go inside."

Yamato grabbed Sho by the neck, forcing the grown man to drop him and then Yamato tackled him. Jyou fretted and finally found his bearings, pulling at Yamato who was now punching Sho over and over. Jyou could see blood and as his father returned blows, Jyou wasn't sure who was bleeding more.

"Stop," he insisted. "Stop! I don't need you to do this!"

Yamato reeled back a second and Sho managed to hit the blonde in the gut, forcing him to fall backwards at Jyou's feet. Jyou sighed at his friend's bloody face and sore insides. "Yamato... there are easier ways to make an idiot of yourself. To punish yourself. Come on, give me your hand and I'll take you home."

"N-No," the blonde hissed through blood and pain. "You're a pathetic excuse for a human being!" he barked towards Jyou's father. "For someone who has had a personal punching bag, I expect more than what a schoolyard bully can do!"

Jyou had enough and grabbed Yamato by both arms and began dragging him outside and down the balcony towards the stairs. He gave his father several apologetic looks. "Look, I can't walk you home or Dad would kill me, but GO HOME. You're making things worse."

Yamato wiped his nose and sat up, looking down at his feet.

"Don't let me see that gaijin back here again," Sho demanded, slamming the door.

Jyou sighed and fought back tears. "Why did you have to do that, Yamato? Why? You're not stupid. You knew it would just anger him. You knew you couldn't win."

I just wanted to feel again. I just wanted to take out this anger on someone. I just wanted to protect you. There's too many reasons to name, but... punishing myself is the best excuse yet and you thought of it so easily. Jyou... I'm sorry. "I..." Yamato felt tears in his eyes. "I think I should go home."

"Yeah, me too."

"For what it's worth, he had it coming."

"Yeah."

"I'll go," Yamato sighed, finally managing to get to his feet. His head was spinning and it took him a moment to gain his balance. Jyou worried about a concussion, but Yamato insisted he hadn't been hit in the head that much. He started down the stairs slowly and Jyou ached to go with him, but he wasn't going to make the same mistake of following a lost dream twice in one night.

Jyou had known better, too, but he just wanted to grasp onto that old feeling again. That feeling that there was something more. There was nothing left in either of them now. Change was on them like a high wind and there was no going back to simple, blissful summers.

Yamato had managed to hide his limp well enough, even as he hopped down the stairs. At the bottom he watched Jyou go back inside and his heart sank into his sore stomach. "I hope he doesn't kill him..." Yamato smiled, then snickered, "Nah, he wouldn't kill his punching bag." The blonde tucked bloody knuckles into his pockets. "Still, I'll never make this up to Jyou... guess I've officially killed any chance of us getting together now."