WOW. So quarantine makes people do crazy things, and I guess even made me want to get back into this story. I'm sorry for the long wait to anyone who is still reading this, and even sorrier for this chapter it produced, but thank you to everyone for all the sweet reviews since I last posted.

Yamato crossed his arms at Kyo. "So, what's this favor?"

They had walked back to their favorite café, Julia's, and his green-haired friend had bought them both matcha frappucinos (a sure sign that he really wanted Yamato in a good mood).

Kyo beamed, but his eyes were giving Yamato all sorts of warning signals. "I don't think it should be too difficult, especially for an artist of your caliber…"

Yamato narrowed his eyes. "Okay I'm now convinced I'm not going to want to do this."

"Oh come on. I promise it will be fun. You've heard of Best Intentions by now right?"

"Uh no… is that a movie or something?"

Kyo frowned. "Have you been living under a rock or something? And here I thought you were gay!"

Yamato rolled his eyes and lowered his voice. "I am pretty gay, Kyo, I think that's been well established by now."

"Best Intentions is supposed to be a super amazing new gay club! This weekend is their grand opening."

"And…?"

"And… they're putting on a live show as well and they need performers, and I sort of, uh, volunteered. Well, I volunteered you to do an act."

"You volunteered me? To put on a show in a week?"

"Well, the guy in charge is Victor- you know, the gorgeous super tall guy I met at Revelry that one time- and I was just talking to him, and he asked if I knew anybody and, sorry, you know I couldn't just say nothing when this was such a good chance to talk to him more." Kyo took a long sip from his frappucino.

"You don't really seem all that sorry you know?" Yamato observed.

"I mean this is a good chance for you too! Best case scenario: you invite Taichi and he immediately confesses to you after the amazing show you put on; worst case scenario: everyone in the club falls for you and you get your choice of dreamy dude for your night fling. Win-win right?"

"You forgot the small detail that Taichi and I aren't talking right now-"

"You mean the self-imposed silence that you masochistically forced-"

"And, more importantly," Yamato continued, his patience starting to wear thin. "Taichi would never confess to me because he's straight." Yamato pointedly held up and waved the straw from his drink as a reminder.

Kyo bit back a retort, clearly making a split-second decision not to go down this usual path of disagreement.

Instead, he looked at Yamato with hopeful eyes. "So… Best Intentions at 10PM on Saturday? They'll want performers there a little early to set up. Also, I found a group of musicians that you can practice with all week."

Yamato sighed. "Don't worry, I'll be there. If it helps you get into Victor's pants, you know I'd do whatever it takes." He was only being semi-sarcastic. Kyo had helped him out enough over the past weeks that Yamato would be willing to do pretty much anything.

It's not like he didn't have any songs to work with either; he had plenty, as a matter of fact. More than he would like to admit thanks to the amount of material a certain someone gave him.

He was more worried about the fact that he was extremely rusty, and a week was basically no time. And yeah, he was a little nervous to be performing in front of such a large crowd at such a hyped up venue.

Kyo gleamed and put an arm around the other's shoulders. "What a charmer! I knew there was a reason I kept you around. Aside from the fact that I'm a glutton for your endless drama."

"I do not have endless drama!"

"Sure you don't, ice princess."

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?"

XxXxXxXxXxX

"Cheers to the semi-finalists!"

As the glasses clinked against each other loudly, Taichi paused to think about his current position which was causing him a bit of physical discomfort.

But there were probably a lot of guys on his soccer team who wouldn't mind trading places with him right now.

He was pressed tightly into a booth with the entire girls' college ice-skating team, sitting between his girlfriend and one of her tall teammates.

"…And, well, the girl on the other team had a wardrobe malfunction! So, I kind of luckily ended up placing higher than I expected."

Carla paused her excited rant to take a sip of her drink and Taichi congratulated her.

She blushed lightly while tucking back a strand of blonde hair. "Oh man I've been talking so much, I didn't even ask about you! So, what were you up to? Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

Taichi smiled good-naturedly. "Nothing as interesting as your stuff. Just the usual… soccer practice, going to the gym, hanging out with friends..."

Oh, and semi-frequent mental breakdowns. Probably shouldn't mention that. "By the way, Yamato and I found a nice sushi spot I think you'd like, it was kinda near-"

"Oh my god, by 'Yamato' you mean Yamato Ishida?" interjected one of Carla's friends, Izzie, who was squished up against Carla's left side within earshot of their conversation. "You're friends with him, Taichi?"

The shrill tone shouldn't have annoyed Taichi, but it did anyway. His left eye twitched ever so slightly. He could already tell where this conversation was going.

Fortunately, Carla responded before he needed to say anything.

"Yeah, the two of them have been best friends for ages. I was surprised when I found out too."

She turned to smile teasingly at Taichi, "No offense, but you two seem kind of like an unlikely friendship at first."

Unlikely friendship. Actually, Taichi had heard that a few times before. They weren't that different right?

He didn't exactly like the term 'unlikely', but he had wondered more than a few times if they ever would've even talked to each other if they hadn't been forced onto a deserted island in the digital world together.

It's not like they really even got along at first, so maybe not … But even then, it was hard to imagine an alternative timeline of his life where he had never met the temperamental blond.

It was part of the reason why it bothered him so much when Yamato kept cutting Taichi out of his life (like right now, for instance).

An excited squeeze on his right shoulder broke him out of his musings. "Why don't you bring him with you next time, Taichi?"

"Who are we talking about bringing?" a girl with glasses towards the outside of the booth questioned, craning her neck to get in on the conversation.

Izzie turned towards her, her voice a few octaves higher than normal, a drink in her hands threatening to spill over as she gestured. "Taichi's apparently super good friends with Yamato! He's that one I pointed out to you at the coffee shop the other day! Blond hair, blue eyes? Totally gorgeous?"

Taichi fought down a sigh, opting for a swig of his beer instead. This was just one of those parts of being friends with Yamato. The blond attracted attention from random people like moths drawn to light and Taichi was long used to it.

It was part of the reason why Yamato had a tough time keeping many guy friends around (aside from his not-always-so-charming personality), since they'd end up getting jealous or annoyed sooner or later.

Taichi always prided himself on being above that kind of drama. At least he had thought he was.

"Oh, him! Yeah I see him around campus sometimes. Ooo, Melissa would love to talk to him." She directed her attention back at Taichi, batted her eyelashes, and half-joked, "Since you guys are close, could you wingman for us?"

Taichi opened his mouth and immediately closed it, torn between the many wonderful responses running through his mind that he definitely couldn't say.

"Actually he's gay, ladies, so you all might be missing the requisite body parts",

or "No, because we haven't even spoke to each other in a week and he might hate my guts."

And somewhere in an uncharacteristically bitter part of his mind, "Even if he was straight he wouldn't be interested in any of you, so you should probably try your luck with someone else."

But those were all words Taichi was forced to bite back. They may not be on speaking terms at the moment, but Taichi would never reveal Yamato's sexual orientation so easily.

He was about to count his blessings as he was saved from answering yet again, this time by a classmate named Annie who had been tapping on her phone this whole time with manicured nails.

Unfortunately, the interruption wasn't necessarily in the direction he wanted the conversation to go.

"Oh you guys didn't hear?" the girl drawled. "That guy's pretty cute… but rumor is that he's, um, into guys."

The rest of the girls looked surprised.

Taichi kept his face neutral but was deeply unamused by the idea of other people who seemingly already knew that Yamato was not straight before he had. His 'best friend' ego was feeling awfully threatened.

"Ehh, do you know for sure or are you just saying that?" Izzie questioned disbelievingly. "People always make those kinds of assumptions."

"Well yeah, it's not just a rumor I guess. I mean, maybe it was at first because he never really dated any girls, but then…"

Annie scrolled on her phone for a couple seconds before lifting up her phone screen. "Some girl in my chat group took this pic like 6 months ago. Ah, she said to keep it a secret though because she felt like a creeper."

Taichi was growing more claustrophobic by the second, as if the walls of the bar were slowly tilting inward. He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.

And as he acutely heard the gasps (followed by the Whoa's and How come you never showed me's) around the group, the feeling intensified and he vaguely wondered why he kept being put into these situations.

He hadn't asked for this. He didn't want to be sitting around this tiny table in this loud bar, gossiping about his best friend's sexuality with a bunch of strangers. He would've been much happier playing Mario Kart at home, alone, with a slide of pizza in his hand.

And yet, as much as he tried to focus on something (anything) else in the sports bar, his gaze was inexplicably pulled back to Annie's phone, which was being passed closer and closer to him.

(As Yamato had told him one too many times, he was too damn curious for his own good.)

And then it was Izzie's comment that dealt the final blow ("Wait, they're kinda cute together!") and incited an automatic reaction, and suddenly Taichi was face-to-face with the screen.

The glass felt colder against his fingers as his grip tightened on his drink.

He only looked at it for about 4.5 seconds. 4.5 seconds and it already supplied Taichi's overactive brain with far too much. He didn't need more than half a second to memorize everything about the picture anyway.

He could recognize Yamato anywhere, and this picture was no different. But it wasn't just Yamato.

Blonde streaks on black hair. The gears in his memory turned back to that night at Revelry, and it clicked who the other guy was. Yuno.

The wind went straight out of him, like having a soccer ball kicked directly into the stomach.

The picture was of Yamato and Yuno. Not just them together, but them kissing. And not that any of this should even matter, Taichi reminded himself, but it clearly wasn't a first kiss, if the hands hidden under the clothes were any indication.

Taichi could actually recognize the tree they were near, since it wasn't far from his secret path to Yamato's dorm.

His brain didn't stop there. Nor did the uneasy feeling reappearing in his chest.

The dream he'd had last Saturday night made a disturbing reappearance in his mind and slowly morphed with the image in front of him, and suddenly Taichi wasn't so sure about the difference between what he had imagined and what was true.

Had Taichi been the unwanted intruder in that bathroom at Revelry, getting in between two people who clearly had a history?

Even worse, had he grossly misread the situation because of his own confused thoughts and ruined Yamato's night?

He shook his head and fought back the negative thoughts clawing through him. No, Yamato had been happy to walk home with Taichi that night, he could remember that much.

"Damn, how come it's always the really good-looking guys that are gay?" one of the girls whined. "Ah, no offense, Taichi!" she added guiltily.

Luckily for her, Taichi had completely missed her comment, still lost in his own thoughts.

He exhaled slowly. This is not a big deal. You're not homophobic, Taichi. You already knew about Yamato. You are not going to have a repeat of what happened after Cloud 9.

Still – Yamato never told Taichi about this. It was only natural that he would be shocked right? Why hadn't Yamato told him that night at Revelry?

But then again, why would he have to? Yamato shouldn't have to report every intimate situation he'd ever been in to Taichi, right? So what could explain the quiet annoyance erupting under Taichi's skin?

If he focused on it, really truly focused, he could loosely associate the upset emotions, even if they weren't exactly like anything he'd felt before. It was the protectiveness he felt when someone looked at Hikari the wrong way. It was the faint jealousy he would get whenever Carla mentioned her ex-boyfriends. It was the feeling of being forgotten when the Chosen Children first went their separate ways.

But there was more, and he didn't want to focus on it, not now and not next to Carla. He didn't want to think about why he was associating these feelings with Yamato, of all people, and he didn't want to think back to that conversation with Mimi.

The chatter on the table continued, though no one else seemed to have noticed that only Taichi and Carla were suspiciously quiet after seeing the photo.

Izzie groaned, "Ah, I'm disappointed but I guess they kind of make a hot couple."

"So, do you think they're still dating?" another classmate asked.

"They're not." The response tumbled out of Taichi's mouth somehow before he even processed the question.

Izzie looked back at him, something lighting up in her eyes. "Oo, so do you think maybe he still gives girls a chance too?"

"Who knows? It's not like I know everything about him." Taichi retorted before looking away from the girl, trying but failing to conceal the bitterness in his voice.

The girls were taken aback by the sudden hostility coming from someone who was usually so warm and friendly.

"Taichi, you ok?" Carla questioned, her voice less bubbly than normal. She placed a hand on Taichi's thigh and squeezed lightly.

Ah shit, now I'm worrying Carla too.

Taichi raked his hand through his hair. Calm down, Taichi. You're definitely overreacting. This is between you and Yamato- not any of these girls.

He reached down below the table and reassuringly held Carla's hand.

"Sorry, I was just thinking that… he'd appreciate it if no one else knew yet, since he hasn't come out publicly, you know." Taichi struggled to regain his composure. "So, I don't think we should really talk about it like this or with anyone else."

He hated that he was still worried about Yamato's privacy after all this – why should he care if Yamato didn't even bother to tell him anything? But he still cared, of course.

The girl with the glasses cooed softly. "Aw, that's total friendship goals. Izzie, if I ever come out to you as a lesbian, will you protect my reputation as honorably as Taichi?"

The mentioned girl rolled her eyes at her friend playfully. "I would try, but there's only so much I can do if you start publicly making out with girls every time you get drunk."

The whole table laughed, and Taichi was grateful that the awkward situation seemed to have passed, although he couldn't help but eye Annie's phone one more time.

Annie must have caught him looking because she quickly declared, "Ah, don't worry Taichi, I'll delete the picture too. Since he's a good friend of yours."

Taichi put on a smile in response, but it felt all wrong, stretched too thin over his face.

Do good friends keep secrets from each other?

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The air was crisp as Yamato slowly trekked in boots across campus, a syllabus ruffling about in his hand.

He wanted to skip this class one more time so badly, but his eyes traced the warning of "Quiz" under today's date once again and he knows he can't. If he missed any more points, he'd fail the damn course and failing psychology would be embarrassing.

Taichi would be there too, he knew. The person that Yamato was supposed to be staying as far away from as possible.

He probably should've thought this whole thing through a bit more properly. He knew he'd have to see him around eventually right?

And it wasn't like he even wanted to completely avoid him. (In fact, he was absolutely yearning to see Taichi's smile again, and that was exactly the problem.)

He had just wanted to set a bit of a distance between them. Keep things normal.

But now, things were downright weird. And it was all his fault.

A fresh wave of anxiety washed over him as the school building came into sight. His legs began moving even slower, if that was even possible.

He checked the time on his phone as his thoughts raced.

Should he get there first, a few minutes before Taichi? But if he's already waiting there, that could be really awkward.

Should he wait around in an empty hallway and jump into class right as it starts?

Should he try and switch seats with someone on the other side of the classroom?

No, that would be ridiculous and obvious and hopelessly childish. Get it together, Yamato.

If he wasn't so concerned with maintaining his neutral appearance, he would've actually banged his head against the building wall.

He briefly thought about how much Kyo would laugh at him if he saw him in his current predicament. (Aren't you supposed to be cool and aloof Yamato Ishida?) With that in mind, he steeled himself against the worst of his thoughts, and walked into the classroom full of chattering students.

The seat by the window that usually held Taichi was empty. Yamato exhaled slowly as he walked over to his desk and slowly pulled out his notes. Maybe he had been overreacting.

About 2 seconds before class started, the door opened and Yamato couldn't help but look up.

Taichi strolled into class, quickly bowing to the teacher, and then turning towards the rest of the classroom. His gaze lingered over a certain blond for a few seconds longer than everyone else.

Brown eyes latched onto blue briefly before breaking away.

Yamato felt the air leave his body. It was really, truly, colossally unfair: the effect that Taichi had on him. Like everyone else in the room had just done a vanishing act. Like he was a middle schooler all over again, falling into a first crush.

Another unfair thing: what puberty had done to the big-haired, loud-mouthed goggle boy of Yamato's youth. Taichi somehow made the walk from the classroom door to his desk in a pair of grey joggers – late, mind you – into his own personal runway.

He walked right past Yamato, his legs almost skimming the front of Yamato's desk, before settling in his chair.

There they sat, about three feet apart, looking pointedly away from each other.

"Okay class, put your notes away." The teacher spoke up, reminding Yamato again that there were actually other people in the vicinity. "We'll start class with the quiz for ten minutes."

If their classmates were bewildered at their sudden distance (and he was sure that they were), they don't make it obvious. Maybe they were used to it too. After all, it probably wasn't the first time their relationship had suddenly gone frigid because of Yamato being stupid.

It might've been entirely imperceptible to those who don't know him well enough, but Taichi's behavior was more off than usual.

Of course Taichi would be mad. He has every right to be mad at you, Yamato reminded himself.

It was hypocritical of Yamato to suddenly expect Taichi to be all sunshine and rainbows when he'd been treating Taichi like shit all this time anyway. How many times could he expect Taichi to keep reciprocating this one-sided friendship?

Even though Yamato knew all of this to be true, the fact that Taichi hadn't looked in his direction a single time somehow only made Yamato more aware of the brunet's presence. And more overwhelmed.

He scribbled down a few answers on the sheet in front of him in an attempt to distract himself, but it was pointless. Yamato was so accustomed to stealing glances at Taichi out of the corner of his eyes that he did it without thinking.

Taichi was hunched slightly over the desk, his eyebrows furrowed.

There was a strange tension emanating from the other boy, as if there was energy he was itching to release but he didn't know how.

He looked deep in thought, but much too focused to be thinking about the quiz or classwork.

Yamato was at a loss as to what else Taichi was preoccupied with, but he could tell it was bothering him.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Yamato was right, though he didn't know exactly how right.

Taichi's mind was a hot mess.

And most of it was centered around Yamato.

Compared to everything he had agonized about for the past few days, seeing Yamato in the flesh was actually oddly comforting. After all, they'd been through so much together that there was something about the mere presence of the other that made Taichi feel more courageous.

But life wasn't as simple as it was when they were kids, and there were other emotions too. Misunderstandings, anger, affection, curiosity, guilt, and fear – to name a few.

What did this all mean for their friendship?

Taichi could force Yamato to talk to him after class, and try to figure out what was going on. But he didn't trust himself to react normally around Yamato and didn't trust the right words to come out of his mouth.

Confusion and bitterness still weighed heavily on him.

He was mad that, yet again, he had found out more about Yamato from a total stranger than directly from his best friend. He was mad that Yamato had found happiness and comfort from someone else, and then turned around and ignored Taichi completely.

And yes, he knew Yamato well enough to know that he must have his reasons. Perhaps Taichi was jumping to too many conclusions… but he knew he needed some space to get himself sorted out for now.

When they'd locked eyes earlier, Yamato's were still the same vivid blue, but they held a tired expression and were framed by darker circles.

Was he not sleeping well? (Or has he been having late nights for a different reason?)

The ball of uneasiness inside him threatened to spill outwards.

Focus, focus on the quiz!

He re-read the second question for probably the 4th time: "What falls under Maslow's hierarchy of needs?"

Taichi pulled the information forcefully out of a brain that refused to function properly.

Shelter, food. He paused to chew on the end of his pen. Ugh, what was the last one? Sex? That's a need right?

If Yamato could've heard his stupid guesses he would've probably made a quip – They're not asking about your hierarchy of needs, idiot! – and they could have laughed about it together.

That thought just pushed his mind farther away from the task at hand.

Yes, in a previous idyllic time, they would have joked about Taichi's sex drive and Yamato's lack of girlfriends and that would be over. Back at a time when Taichi was blissfully unaware that Yamato also had a sex drive and that it happened to be directed at men.

It shouldn't bother him, but why did it?

He'd grown up being a constant witness to the unwanted attention Yamato would receive. Even as a kid, it was the prolonged touches from older women and the casual-but-too-far jokes that always singled him out from other kids their age. As Yamato got older, it only got worse.

He'd watched the tips of Yamato's ears go red, the aversion of his eyes, the way his hand would come up to cover his face (as if that would somehow diminish the effect), how he would step back and curl into himself a bit, and the cold frown that ended up being a semi-permanent form of self-defense.

Seeing it firsthand, he knew the attention made Yamato uncomfortable and that the blond somehow felt like he was responsible for all those actions around him. Even though he totally wasn't.

Subconsciously, because of all of that, Taichi had always tried to condition himself into never objectifying Yamato.

Obviously, it's not like he could blind himself, so he knew Yamato was noticeably good-looking, and he even joked about from time to time, but he always tried to make it clear that there were plenty of great things about him aside from his physical appearance.

It wasn't even hard because it was true: Yamato was so much more than blond hair and blue eyes.

He could never be one of those people who only stared because of the way Yamato looked. And he'd thought that was part of why Yamato felt so comfortable around him.

But doubt crept into the corners of his mind, driven deeper by the images of Yamato and Yuno and the things he still didn't know. Despite the strength of their friendship, maybe Taichi could never be the person Yamato really needed.

And if this was true, Taichi faced a much bigger issue – why did the realization hurt so much?

XxXxXxXxX

As he completed the last of his notes, Yamato's pen rolled off his hand and landed on the desk.

He resisted the urge to throw his head down into his hands. Or worse still, to reach out and drag Taichi away from all the onlookers and confess everything to him.

Did everything that involved Taichi always have to be polar opposites? Either Yamato was falling madly in love or he was fighting ferociously? They were either laid out on each other's floors talking until 4am or there was radio silence? No in between?

He sighed deeply. Duh, Yamato, you know this already. It's always been this way.

How many years had they been doing this dance with each other? How many years had there been ups and downs?

But he did have something on his side right now that his younger self lacked. Experience.

And experience was telling him that he wanted, no, he needed to reach out to Taichi right now.

He heard the teacher's dismissal, and turned immediately to the brunet, who looked shocked as their eyes met again.

"Taichi-" Yamato began, but of course, the universe would conspire against him.

At the same time as he started talking, a hand clapped down on his shoulder and another voice spoke loudly over his own.

"Yoo, Yamato, you still coming later?"

Yamato annoyedly shrugged the person off, barely registering that it was one of his musician friends.

He quickly turned back around, only to find that in those few moments Taichi had already left the classroom.

Eek, OK, I'm sorry about all the angst. It was kind of necessary to move the story forward in the direction I'm envisioning and I think it will make the next chapter even better. Once again, thank you for reading and reviewing!