#cyclonewrites

Taiora- Aladdin

I know this is a cheesy choice, but I’m a sucker. Sora, being so capable and brave. Taichi, who is a bit of a trickster and is struggling to make his place. and they both wind up meeting each other....orz oh I think they’d be so cute. 

Taishiro-Atlantis

come on. Scientist Koushiro, discovering this lost land and learning of all the relics and ancient writing. Only to come across the people and meeting the Atlantean prince Taichi and--omg Koushiro’s face being completely flustered when Taichi is stripping down going ‘do you swim?’ and koushiro is just a blubbering mess lol

TaiYama-Beauty and the Beast

okay. I’m gonna have to mention @crackotps here. Cause this came up when we were chatting with each other. Where Yamato is the Beast, and has been isolated in his castle for so long, while Taichi is just a normal guy thats all like ‘dude really? get wifi in here. people LOVE furries you’ll be set’and basically its Yamato being well mannered while Taichi is just all over the place. The first time they have dinner it just goes like this

Taichi is like, “why is this fork so small” where Yamato is like “Thats a salad fork” And Taichi gets more confused, “what the hell? what kind of a beast eats salad.” 

before it gets all sappy lol Taichi realizes how much of Yamato’s life had been in isolation and how he’s been all by himself. So even if he can leave, he stays behind to at least try and cheer Yamato from all of the doom and gloom. He starts by opening up all the drapes to all the windows, dragging Yamato outside to the courtyard with him, and eventually they grow close to one another

Yamato + Takeru-Frozen

I know it’s super duper cheesy. BUT Come on. Yamato would sO be overdramatic enough to run away, and make himself a castle and a sparkly outfit while doing up  his hair real-cool like. And then Takeru is just like ‘welp gotta find my brother now’ xD

Sorato-The Little Mermaid

Okay okay okay. YOu could think of it in the most basic sense. With Sora being the mermaid and Yamato as Prince Eric. okay sure.

BUT bear with me a moment

imagine Yamato, a merman, always getting upset from being so scruntized so he swims up to remote coves and sings his emotions out. Sora. A princess of the kingdom, always winds up taking walks on the beach to clear her head, hears Yamato’s singing and tries to find out who it is (yamato always dives back underwater when she comes near). After the first couple of times, Yamato becomes curious of Sora and wants to meet her. And thus makes the deal to be a human. 

And like. among that mess. Taichi is the sebastian! The Crab! And he’s like ‘what the--WHAT THE FUCK! Dude! you’re the most antisocial! awkward guy in the entire ocean! Why would you trade away your ONLY TALENT OMG! --YOu know what! NEvermind! get her in a row boat! I’ll set the  mood!” 

and then when the kiss scene fails (like all the other times) crab!taichi is just like ‘oh my god. why ME’ But Sora is really understanding, and eventually he understands all that Yamato has trouble conveying before he gets his voice back 

Michi- The Princess and the Frog

Okay. I know its cheesy. But imagine. Mimi, working so hard to make a pastry shop of her own. Taichi being way too carefree cause all he does is coast through everything and stop to sing and dance and fool around any chance he gets. They both wind up in t his crazy predicament, and wind up learning each other while bickering before they wind up caring about each other AHHhhHHH

Greasing up those bets and betters

“Okay. One, two…”

“Three—Go!”

Taichi and Yamato started grunting as they started off their arm wrestling match. Both of their sleeves were rolled up past their elbows. The desk underneath them kept creaking as they changed points in pressure.

Taichi’s wrist started twisting as he was trying to not sway too much from Yamato’s push. Yamato was trying to not to lean in too much but it was getting hard as he couldn’t lose one muscle strain of power.

“Nngh--!” Taichi grunted as he had trouble keeping his wrist straight, “Okay! Okay! Break! Break time!!”

“Wait….” Yamato strained his eyebrows as his whole arm started shaking, “Okay break!”

“Oh thank god,” Taichi let go of Yamato’s hand and started wringing out his wrist, “Damn it all, my wrist was starting to hurt really bad that time.”

“You know you’re not just supposed to use your wrist right?” Yamato rubbed his forearm, “You’re supposed to use your whole arm.”

Taichi clicked his tongue, “Why would I do that? Then my whole arm would hurt and not just my wrist.”

“…” Yamato eyed Taichi before shrugging, “My entire arm does hurt. So maybe you got a point.”

“Of course I got a point! ” Taichi scoffed before rubbing his wrist, “Okay,” Taichi bent his elbow on the table and stuck his hand out, “Ready?”

Yamato rubbed his palms quickly before mimicking Taichi, “Ready.”

“Okay, One, two…”

“Three—Go!”

Instead of a gunshot, it was a clap of their hands and their contest was on. They were both grunting as they kept trying to pin the other person’s arm down. The desktop was slightly shaking and their expressions were tense as neither one of them was successfully winning.

Koushiro was sitting on the desk by the window, minding his own business during the lunch period until he was rudely snapped out of his work by Taichi and Yamato grunting like mock gorillas during their arm wrestling game. Koushiro rolled a pen between his fingers, watching them throughout their whole debacle, as they started, paused, and restarted their game.

“…Sora…” Koushiro nudged gently, “Quick question.”

“Yes?” Sora looked up from her magazine. Perfectly alright with averting her attention if it was for Koushiro’s sake, “What is it?”

“…Arm wrestling is a test of endurance right?” Koushiro leant down toward Sora.

“Yeah…” Sora sat up, “Why?”

“Because,” Koushiro glanced up at Taichi and Yamato who were still at it, “If it’s a test of endurance…why would you take breaks instead of just finishing the match?”

Sora looked over to her two friends who were currently taking a break from their duel. She sighed out loud as she saw Taichi stick out his arm for Yamato to help him stretch out. She rolled her eyes when it was Yamato’s turn to have his arm stretched.

“Koushiro,” Sora turned back to her more manageable friend, “Is one of them bleeding?”

Koushiro shook his head, “No.”

“Is one of them uncharacteristically moping about? Staring at nothing as if their life has lost all meanin. Getting clumsy and distracted doing things they are supposedly good at. And then getting really snappy when you try to be a good person and get them to talk about it?”

“That’s…oddly specific…” Koushiro narrowed his eyes, “But no.”

“Then,” Sora rolled back to her magazine, “It’s not my problem,” She flipped back to the page she was reading, “And if you want to save yourself a headache, I suggest you don’t get involved unless you have to.”

“Yeah but—” Koushiro was cut short by Taichi and Yamato yelling at each other again.

“Okay!! Break time! My wrist! Ow!!”

“Just a second longer!”

“No! Br-br-break!!”

“…I see what you mean.” Koushiro sat back down in his seat and grabbed his pen again, “Honestly, we should put dealing with those two on our resumes.”

Sora chuckled, “If we did we’d even up being overqualified.”

Nothing is as salty as your attitude

“Sora.” Taichi greeted curtly as he slid down in his seat next to his friend. 

“Taichi.” Sora responded back, not bothering to look up as she opened the lid to her lunch. She slid out her chopsticks from her container and was just about to start talking to Taichi about the assignment. The second she looked over, her train of thought halted completely as she was unable to focus on anything else, “That is not your lunch.” 

Taichi hummed in response, raising an eyebrow like Sora, “What makes you say that?”

“Gee I don’t know maybe because it says Ishida right there!” Sora’s tongue rested right behind her teeth, with cut eyes she glared at Taichi as she pointed on the side of the lunchbox where Yamato’s last name was scrawled out in permanent marker. 

“Oh.” Taichi lifted the box up to his eye level, “Eh its fine.” With that lowered the box down on the desk so he could take out his own eating chopsticks.

“Taichi you shouldn’t eat Yamato’s lunch.” “It’s fine! What’s mine is his. What’s his is mine. That’s how we work.”

“Name one time you gave him something.”

“Every day I give him my sunny disposition and pleasant smile.”

“That doesn’t count Taichi.” “Does too if it’s Yamato!”

“What about me?” Yamato asked as he just came into the room. He stood next to Taichi with a drink in his hand and a small sandwich in the other.

Sora looked up, flat-panning immediately as she saw the food in Yamato’s hand as his lunch from home was in Taichi’s, “Yamato. Why do you let Taichi take your lunch?”

“It just sort of happens,” Yamato shrugged his shoulders, his cool eyes reflecting off a neutral hue, “It’s fine really.” 

“See Sora. I told you!” At this point the lid to the lunchbox was thrown off. Taichi had a pile of rice already piled onto it as if he was dared to see how much food he could fit into his mouth at once. 

“...” Sora wasn’t sold. She’s known both of these boys for a long time. She could tell when something was up. Yamato’s expression was hiding something and—

“What the HELL!” Taichi shouted out. Coughing madly as the chunk of rice a bits of meat spat back out in small bits. Luckily Taichi didn’t quite spit out the giant mouthful of food, that’d be disgusting. He was choking and pounding on his chest with the back of his fist. Coughing out as his eyes squeeeeezed in disgust as he forced himself to swallow down his food. Food gone from his cheeks he scraped his tongue with his fingers shaking his head back and forth as he coughed until he simmered down from his fit. Eyes bleary, Taichi glared up at Yamato, “What the hell Yamato!!! Why is this so salty!! It’s disgusting!”

 “Whaaat.” Yamato’s eyes flexed, his open palm breached over his chest as if he was stupefied. But his flat tone and even flatter execution was the exact opposite of surprise, “What do you mean.”

 “Yamato!”

 “Oh no. I guess I must have accidentally put too much salt in the food.”

 “That’s bullshit!! This is super super super salty!” Taichi shouted out. In the midst of the bad taste in his mouth and the anger building up in his stomach, his vocabulary started slipping down to a child’s level, “Why the hell would I eat your lunch if it’s gonna taste terrible!”

 “Well then here’s an idea,” The monotone in Yamato’s voice dissipated. Sandwich thrown off onto another desk, he slammed his palms in front of Taichi as he cornered him in his chair, “How about...you STOP eating my lunch then Taichi!!”

 Taichi gasped, “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine!”

 “Name one time you’ve given me something Taichi!”

 “My sunny disposition and pleasant smile!”

 “Like I give a damn about your smile! Stop eating my lunch!”

“But yours is right there, I don’t have enough money to keep buy lunches!”

 “Oh and I do!!”

 Sora raised her mouth to interject, but it was immediately taken over by one of the idiotic duo. Realizing that their yelling was drawing attention of the other students, Sora rolled her eyes and packed up her lunch. She’d go find Mimi and eat with her instead.

 “YOU KNOW WHAT ISHIDA!” Taichi shouted out, not noticing that Sora left. He lunged forth and grabbed Yamato’s sandwich that was partially unwrapped from the cellophane, “I”m going to eat your sandwich!!”

 “Don’t you dare Yagami!” Yamato’s stone eyes ignited ice as he clutched his hands in skin-white fists, “Take one bit out of that sandwich and you’re going to regret it!!”

 “I’m doing it!!” Taichi chomped down on the exposed breading with stuffing. His eyes shot open, his mouth gagged as he tore the sandwich out of his mouth and started coughing and rubbing his mouth on his sleeve, “You put salt on this too!?!”

“I’ll put salt on everything if it’s means getting you to stop eating my food!!!”

I’m innocent I swear

 It was a common habit for Taichi, Yamato and Sora to walk home together whenever they could. Between Taichi’s soccer practices, Sora working at her mother’s shop and of course Yamato with his band. Most of their time was divided up to their respected interests, so any time they could walk home together was time they were willing to give each other.

 Sora was talking on about her day, most of was directed toward Yamato despite that she wasn’t looking directly at him. Yamato responded with his usual gentle ‘uh-huhs’ and ‘hmms’ as Sora continued rambling on.

Taichi yawned as he walked in line with them. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, his mind dribbling in and out of Sora’s conversation as he was too tired to think of school any longer. He rolled his eyes over toward Yamato, who despite being ‘active’ in the conversation, also was looking down at the ground with dreary eyes. Despite Yamato having a fairly neutral expression lining his face, Taichi could see the sag underneath his eyes, and the soft yawn coming out of his mouth.

Yamato rubbed his mouth with the back of his knuckles before noticing something amiss. He turned around to see Taichi staring right at him, and raised a silent eyebrow as to ask him what’s up.

Taichi blinked. Not really knowing what to say. So he did the only other thing he could do. He puffed out his cheeks and stuck his tongue right out.

Yamato flinched, glaring hard as he wasn’t expecting Taichi to do something so childish and so random. He blinked away the shock as he remember that it was Taichi he was making eye contact with. Nodding along to what Sora asked, Yamato looked back up at Taichi and stuck out his tongue back at him.

Taichi flinched. Not expecting Yamato to go along with his whim so easily. He knitted his eyebrows, his brown eyes lit with competition as he pulled down on his eyelid and stuck his tongue out even farther in retaliation.

Yamato scrunched up his nose in mock disgust. Eyebrows flat as he cocked his head back in the most exaggerated expression of ‘ew’ he could manage without making a sound or alerting Sora of such an extreme face.

Taichi pulled his hands out of his pockets and smashed his hands on his cheeks, pushing them upward to make a puffy kissy face out of his lips as he puckered up toward Yamato.

“So then I was said…” Sora’s rambling was ignored as Yamato crossed his eyes and furrowed his brow. He grit his teeth together in a manic smile ending the ugly face by sticking out his tongue again as a throwback to the initial throw down.

“Yamato?” Sora’s call was ignored again as Taichi hooked his middle fingers in the corners of his mouth. Pulling down on them as he gnawed on nothing and rolled his eyes as he closed his mouth as best as he could with his fingers pulling down on them.

Yamato scoffed at that face. He was ready to pull another ugly face. One uglier and more ridiculous than what Taichi could ever pull off—that is until he was brought back down to reality.

“Yamato!” Sora shouted out staring straight up at Yamato, “Are you listening to me?”

“Uh…” Yamato glanced down to see Sora’s frustrated stare. Trying his hardest to ignore Taichi’s snickering as he still had his middle fingers in his mouth, “Sorry I got distracted…” Yamato apologetically shrugged. There was a nagging sense that Taichi would win if he just left things like that. Even more so when he glanced back at Taichi and saw his smug face, “…Cause Taichi flipped me off out of nowhere.”

“What?” Sora gasped.

“Wha?” Taichi’s pulled his fingers out of his mouth so he didn’t sound so muffled.

Sora whipped her head around to see hands up in the air and his middle fingers slightly bent, “Taichi! What is wrong with you?”

“What?” Taichi looked down, realized how guilty he looked and put his hands immediately down, “No! I didn’t! I was just making a funny face?” Damn he did not mean to say that like how he did.

“I can’t believe you Taichi! What are you six? Grow up!”

“I didn’t flip him off!”

“That’s what you say every time!”

“I didn’t this time! Really!”

“Unbelievable! You know I’m having a bad day as it is, and to know that you just like to make light of situation like this!”

“But I didn’t! Really! Me and Yamato—”

“Oh don’t drag Yamato into this! Honestly Taichi what am I going to do with you!”

“Yeah Taichi,” Yamato smiled like a fox. He was trying really hard not to burst out laughing at how well passing the blame worked out, “You shouldn’t be so immature all of the time.”

Taichi sneered, “Oh this is all your fault!”

“Taichi! Apologize!” Sora yelled over him.

“But I!”

“Now Taichi!”

Taichi groaned out loud, hating being belittled down like a toddler. Kicking nothing he looked at Sora before looking at Yamato, “Sorry.” He seethed out between closed teeth.

“It’s fine. I forgive you.” Yamato practically sang as he nodded his head.

“I’m gonna get you back for this.” Taichi grumbled under his breath, “Just you wait and see!”

Pleasing everyone isn’t like you

“You know, thanks for making dinner for everyone tonight, it was delicious.” Taichi smiled, leaning in the entrance way of the kitchen.

 Ever the humble one, Yamato gave a soft smile, “Well I did make a promise, I’m just glad that everyone enjoyed themselves.

 “That’s ‘cause the food you made was so good! And there was so many different dishes! I mean, you must have been slaving over your stove all day making all that food!” Taichi was excitable, animated throughout his response which made Yamato chuckle out a bigger smile.

 “It’s like a labor of love,” Yamato continued stacking the dirty plates next to the sink, “It doesn’t matter how long it took. I like cooking for others. You know that.”

 “Yeah true, but I mean. Tonight’s dinner,” Taichi leaned against the countertop with a soft whistle in his voice. “Was excellent.’”

 “Thanks, you know—”

“I mean it tasted SO good, it was almost like eating at a restaurant!”

 Yamato’s arms froze, “Ha…” With shaky eyes he turned around, looking at Taichi with wide eyes, “What…how…”  

“Hey um,” Taichi snapped his fingers, interrupting Yamato again, “Remember when people started walking in. Haha,” His fake laugh broke to an evil grin, “And you called me a coat-rack and proceeded to throw your jacket on my face? Well!” Taichi pulled out a wrinkled up sheet of paper, “I found this in the jacket’s pocket!”

 Yamato’s pale face lost more of its color as his body sank in shame, “Now Taichi listen.”

 “I mean! It’s such a coincidence!” Taichi snapped the paper receipt like a whipping belt, “All of the things we had for dinner, is listed right on this paper.”

 “Okay! Fine!” Yamato slapped his hands on the counter, “I lied about making dinner! I didn’t cook a damn thing tonight!” Yamato kept slamming his hands against the hard surface in between his breaths “I was out all weekend! I barely came home like two hours prior! I didn’t have time to make dinner! I knew that I promised everyone and I knew a place nearby that does take out really quick! And, I was just gonna tell everyone the truth! But then Takeru starts going on about how great it is that I make food, and—and!” Yamato’s confession pleadingly tapered off. With upset eyes Yamato only frowned more as Taichi’s indignant smug was stubborn and wouldn’t stray from his face.

 “...” Yamato sighed out loud, crossing his arms as he shook his head, “How long are you going to hold this over my head?”

 “Oh,” Taichi broke out in an evil laugh, “Till my dying breath.”

 “You’re the absolute worst.”

The real value of friendship

The TV was the only thing creating sound as the two teens sat on the table together. Taichi had his head propped up by his arms. At his home he had a sofa where he could sprawl himself all over while watching TV, but Yamato just had chairs and a table. He made himself comfortable and watched the program silently while Yamato was sitting across from him.

“Hey…Taichi.” Yamato called out softly.

“Hm?” Taichi didn’t move. He didn’t even bother looking at Yamato as he watched TV. When he wasn’t greeted with any sort of response, Taichi averted his gaze toward Yamato. Looking at him through the lush of his lashes.

Yamato was looking down at the table surface. The color in his eyes were practically dark as he had trouble meeting Taichi’s eye contact head on.

Taichi sat up. Comfort no longer a problem as he made sure to note down the small fall of Yamato’s lips. The hair sagging over his face. And the lack of forwardness in his gaze. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong.

Despite the years that they have known each other, communication was still something that they struggled with. Taichi was blunt. To the point. He wasted no time voicing if he was mad or excited. Whenever he was sad or nervous, he still voiced things out as if he was excited or happy. That discrepancy made it hard for Yamato to realize whether or not Taichi was having a hard time or not. With Yamato, he kept things to himself. He never bottled things up, he just never was as expressive as other people. Not until it was too late and he had already reached the breaking point. That’s what made it hard for Taichi to really understand Yamato. Just because he reacted one way, doesn’t mean that’s how he really felt.

So, Taichi had gotten good at picking up signals. He was still clueless and missed a lot of them. But whenever he could pick up on a tiny motion of Yamato’s too calm and cool demeanor, he made sure to make note of it. After all, it was pivotal in making sure Yamato was okay.

“What’s up?” Taichi asked, leaning in. His large eyes made sure to scan Yamato entire visible being. He wasn’t going to miss anything.

“Well…” Yamato’s voice was quieter. He looked up at Taichi for a brief moment before sighing out and shaking his head, “Nothing. Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

Taichi sucked in a sharp breath of air. Oh something was definitely up! Something was wrong! And he wasn’t going to let this escalate into something major, “No, it’s fine,” Taichi perked with his voice as he smiled broadly, “What’s on your mind?”

Yamato didn’t reciprocate the same eagerness, “Nah, it’s nothing important.”

“It has to be. I mean. Why bother saying anything at all if it wasn’t something gthat was on your mind,” Taichi insisted.

“Yeah well…” Yamato looked away. Trying to retreat away from Taichi’s pushing, “It’s just not something that I can really talk to you about…so. It’s fine. Really.”

Taichi frowned. He bit on the inside of his lip as he tried his hardest not to take offense over something that he really felt bad about. Whatever was on Yamato’s mind had to be something really serious if he didn’t want to tell Taichi about it. There was no way Taichi could let this go past him.

With a gentle voice Taichi started, “Yamato,” He looked up, shifting slightly so that he could focus better on Yamato and no one else, “We’re friends right?”

“Yeah?”

“Best friends right?”  

“Yeah?”

“Then you can come to me about anything,” Taichi stated, finite and strong, “I don’t care about what it’s about. I don’t care if it’s bad or hurtful, or if it’s something that’s difficult for you!” Taichi smiled softly, looking at Yamato with gentle eyes, “If it’s important to you. Then I want to know about it. And I want to hear it.”

There was a pause between them. Yamato was unable to look away from Taichi as he sat from across the table. He rubbed his hands together, brushed the hair out of his eyes, before silently sighing to himself once again before surrendering, “…Okay…”

Taichi smiled, mostly to himself as Yamato started moving down toward his bag that was underneath the table. It felt really good that Taichi broke through Yamato’s shell. Good that Yamato took Taichi’s offer and was willing to accept the help that Taichi was more than willing to give. Maybe they did fight and argue all of the time, maybe they did have trouble understanding each other. But when it really counted, they could reach a mutual understanding. And that is what was important. Taichi could see where Yamato needed help, and even better he could help him work through this problems. He was such a good friend!

“So then,” Taichi folded his arms up on the table, “What’s wrong—”

“So I had a photoshoot recently and I wasn’t sure if I looked good during it despite what the photographer and director was saying.” Yamato dropped a large folder down on the table and out fell out some photographs, “Can you tell me which picture seems the most like my band? I’m torn between this one and…this one. But—”

“Wait wait wait,” Taichi held up his hands to stop Yamato from organizing all of the pictures of Yamato modeling with a bass in different positions. He pointed to all of the heavily filtered photos, “This. This is what you need help on.”

“...Yeah,” Yamato nodded, his eyes scrunching up just slightly.

“This! This is what you’ve been brooding about this whole time!” Taichi slammed his palms on the table, “You’re stupid magazine photos!”

“You said about anything—”

“I thought you had a serious problem!”

“This is a serious—”

“NO! No it is not!”

“What is your problem!?”

“My friendship is wasted on you!!”

My heart feels dead inside

Taichi was running at full speed through the school’s courtyard. His eyes were alert, filtering through the mess of unnecessary obstacles akin to the instincts of a wild predator. Some students were enjoying their break, sitting down chatting with one another. Some of them were walking toward some destination either by themselves or in flocks. Some of them were eating—Aha!  There he was!

 “Yamato!” Taichi shouted out, breaking his running stride with a skip as he jogged to where his friend was sitting on a bench, “Yamato!!” Taichi yelled again louder, sliding right next to him as he near bounced his way into the vacant part of the bench.

 Despite Taichi’s loud calling and pushing, Yamato hardly budged. He kept his earphones snug in his ears, his music player on (but on a lesser volume now) and he stared at Taichi plainly. His blue narrow eyes sending the message that he was not amused. Hopefully, hopefully, Taichi would get it, “Look Taichi,” Yamato sighed out as he started off, “Whatever you want, it can wait. Cause right now I’m busy—”

“Nope!” Taichi shouted over him, “Not anymore you’re not!” With a wide smile and bright eyes that deliberately chose to ignore Yamato’s silent protests, Taichi yanked out the earphones out of Yamato’s ears, holding the cord tight in his closed grip to make extra sure that Yamato would give all of his attention to him.

Yamato’s frown deepened. His lips were pressed against each other tight and his eyes were icy, cold, and burning with animosity at this point. The only reason why Taichi wasn’t cowering at this point was…because it was Taichi. And not even Yamato coldest demeanor could stance against his sunny disposition.

 “Look, Yamato,” Taichi started off, extra cheery so that Yamato would lighten up, “I just learned this new thing from my teammates and I just have to show you it!”

 “Taichi—”

 “No seriously!” Not allowing a word of protest, Taichi grabbed Yamato’s wrist and held up his hand so he’d have full access to his palm, “I’m going to draw a map on your hand—”

 Yamato interrupted Taichi, “You are terrible at drawing maps.”

 “Shush!” Taichi rubbed the pad of Yamato’s palm, he followed the line down from in between his index finger and thumb, down to where his wrist started, “Okay! This is gonna be a map of a beach!” Taichi pointed to the area he just rubbed, “And this is where the sand is!”

 Yamato rolled his eyes as he gave into Taichi’s wishes, “Okay…”

Taichi’s smile gained a new light as he continued, “And over here,” Taichi moved his fingers up toward the top of Yamato’s palm, point to a patch right where the fingers were connected, “There is a plateau overlooking the entire beach is.”

 Yamato nodded along, “Alright. Anything else on this map?” He asked plain and dry.

 Taichi’s innocent smile split within that second. With a devilish grin, Taichi near cackled at the prompt Yamato had just given him, “Annnnd~ Here’s the water!”

 Taichi didn’t point to the last corner of Yamato’s hand though. No. Taichi hacked up all of the saliva in his mouth. Coagulating as much as he could before he stuck out his tongue and quickly licked the remainder of Yamato’s hand. Sopping up whatever dryness Yamato had with his tongue.

 “Ah! What the hell!” Yamato retreated his hand back. He looked at the mess Taichi made on his hand, angry and confused as all hell. Disgusted by what just happened, he just did the first thing he could do and that was wipe it on his pant leg best he could, “Gross! Taichi!! What was that about--” Yamato looked up, eyes demanding an explanation for Taichi’s actions.

 But when he looked up, the only thing he saw was that Taichi had already started running away from him. Yamato could even hear Taichi’s stupid laugh fading away as Taichi ran as fast as he could away from the bench.

 “Why you!” Yamato jumped off of the bench and started sprinting after Taichi, “When I get my hands on you, you’re dead Taichi!”

You’ve played by all the same rules

Taichi was in the middle of telling some story when Yamato first noticed that something was off. He did his best to ignore it, but eventually it got to the point where he couldn’t ignore it. It was now or never, and this was an opportunity he shouldn’t miss.

 Subtle, as to not cause any unneeded worry, Yamato took a hold of Taichi’s hand. He rubbed his fingertips over the palm of Taichi’s large hand, holding it under scrutiny with an intense stare. Taichi didn’t even notice Yamato examining his hand. Not until he realized that Yamato was no longer replying back with his muted ‘mhms’.

 “What’s up?” Taichi asked, wondering why Yamato was looking over his hand like a doctor with a patient. He wasn’t greeted with a response right off the back. Just Yamato holding and staring at his hand. Taichi narrowed his eyes, and tried to pull his hand away, “I swear, Yamato. You better not spit in my hand.”

 Yamato scoffed, “No. I’m not gross like you.” Yamato clicked his tongue, reverting back to what he was doing. He continued staring down at Taichi’s hand, stroking his fingers in a line dead center of the open palm. Questions brimmed his eyes, his eyes were practically swimming in all of it. Something was on his mind, even Taichi could tell. Yamato briefly paused, immobile with his thoughts, his blue eyes widened staring at the center of Taichi’s hand.

Taichi was trying to piece this all together, he glanced down at his hand, back at Yamato, and back at his hand. To him everything seemed all fine and dandy, his hand was perfectly normal with nothing on it. Nothing he could see at least.

 Yamato lifted Taichi’s hand up, his curious scrutiny getting more intense by each and every gentle motion. He stopped rubbing the center of Taichi’s hand and instead moved it closer to his face and sniffed the spot he just rubbed, “Taichi,” Yamato called out, wrinkling his nose like a rabbit, “Your hand smells like strawberries for whatever reason…”

 “Huh?” Taichi’s hand twitched. He certainly wasn’t expecting Yamato to say something like so random like this, “That’s weird.” Taichi moved his hand away from Yamato and held his open hand over the front of his face to smell it it for himself. He tried sniffing his hand, “I don’t smell any straw—”

 -SMACK-

 “OW!” Taichi shouted, his nose stinging out in pain as his hand was forcibly used to slap himself with, “YAMATO! WHAT THE-?!” He shook his head, eyes cringing from the fresh slap, he glared at the spot where Yamato was sitting...only to see that he wasn’t sitting there any longer. No. Yamato was up and out of his spot, running as fast as his feet could carry him as he sprinted away to safety.

 “Oh that’s just a dirty trick!” Taichi yelled out, rubbing the pain in his nose away. Grumbling under his breath, Taichi pushed himself off of the bench and used the momentum to start running to catch up to Yamato,  “Just wait till I get my hands on you! I run faster and you know that!”

 Copy cat

“Hey” Taichi called out after stuffing his face full of food. He swallowed down hard, rubbing away any leftover rice on his face, “Hey. Yamato.” Taichi called out louder, elbowing him once he wasn’t giving him his immediate and total attention. Yamato clicked his tongue but nevertheless looked at Taichi instead of eating his food.

Taichi broke out in a devlish grin, holding apart his chopsticks like they were actual sticks instead of eating utensils, “Look!” Taichi was already cackling. All of a sudden he was drumming his sticks on everything that he could. His bento box. The other side of his bento box. Yamato’s arm (though Yamato didn’t look thrilled about that), “Lookie me I’m Yamato and I like to do things like sing music stuff in a lame band!” Taichi kept drumming along making exaggerated sounds.

“What the hell,” Yamato was as icy and bitter as he could possibly muster in such a short amount of time. He was glaring at Taichi, taking an angry bite out of his sandwich just to release the energy that was building up, “I don’t even play the drums idiot! I play bass! Vocals!”

“Oh lookie lookie I’m Yamato and I don’t do drums. Cause I like to do bass fish and vocal stuff!” Taichi kept using his chopsticks as makeshift drumsticks as he kept his high pitch mocking voice.

“Oh my god, you know what!” Yamato growled under breath. He shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth, rolling up the wrapper in a tight ball, “Oh look I’m Taichi and I like to waste all my time outside and then complain about my tan lines!” Yamato kept bouncing the wrapper between him and the table.

“What is—” Taichi stopped and made motion to all of Yamato’s motions, “What even is that?”

“It’s you playing basketball.” Yamato crushed his wrapper in his palms.

“I don’t play basketball! I play soccer!”

“Oh he shoots he scores!” Yamato shouted out as he tossed the wrapper up in the air.

“Okay you know what!” Taichi threw his chopsticks down and slapped Yamato’s forearm with the back of his knuckles.

“Hey!” Yamato rubbed his sore arm and punched Taichi back in the same parallel spot.

“Ah! I didn’t punch you!” Taichi punched Yamato’s arm, making sure it was a harder hit.

“You just hit me harder!”

“Not as hard as this one!”

“Oh you’re so dead Yagami!”

“Bring it Ishida!”

The silly slap fight that turned into a game of punchies escalated up to the most petty ‘fight’ of pulling one ups on each other. From punches it escalated to pulling on each other’s collars. And then ears. And then hair. And then pinching each other.

“Ow!” Taichi rubbed his nose, “Okay that one hurt!”

“Like the last fifteen didn’t hurt!” Yamato felt his hair feeling thin by Taichi’s stupid big hands.  He grabbed onto Taichi’s cheek and yanked down hard.

“Ow-ow-ow!!” Taichi hissed through his teeth. Out of retaliation he grabbed Yamato’s cheek and started yanking on it hard as well.

“Two can play this game!” Yamato used his other hand to grab Taichi’s cheek.

“Waaaay ahead of you!” Taichi mirrored the same move although tears were prickling his eyes.

“Oh my goodness what the hell is wrong with the both of you!” Sora yelled out over them, smacking the both of them upside the back of the head, “You do realize you’re sitting in front of everyone in the class right!?”

Taichi and Yamato both hummed in response as they turned to look at everyone else that had been watching their spat. Slowly they unhooked their fingers away from their cheeks and placed their hands back to a more responsible distance.

“…” Taichi tapped his hands along the desk, the redness of his cheeks was partially from the pinching, partially from being embarrassed. He looked away from Sora and the other stares from the students and crossed his arms on his desk and buried his head inside of them, “Just pretend that you’re asleep.”

“What?” Yamato asked in a hushed whisper. He had no idea why, but he started doing what Taichi was doing. He made his arms into a pillow and started to slide against the wall to lay down on the desk, “Why are we doing this?”

“Shush. You’re asleep remember?” Taichi whispered right back.

“I have to go back to my classroom!”

“Well you’re sleep walking back then.”

Let’s Groove Tonight

Taichi was standing the middle of the elevator while Yamato was leaning against the side. They both were quietly waiting to reach the floor they needed to go to in the mall, but of course, despite it being only less than a minute, Taichi was getting bored being cramped up in such a tight place.

He started to bob his head to pleasant music that was playing in the background. As Taichi kept listening to the music he kept bobbing his head, and started to sway left and right. Then his hands started pumping to the music. He kept going in tune with the music, getting more and more into as he started getting used to the song.

“Taichi.”

“Hm?”

“What are you doing?” Yamato was still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Me?” Taichi didn’t slow down his dancing. If anything he just started circling around even more, “I’m groovin’ that’s what.”

“Grooving?” Yamato scoffed, “That’s grooving?”

“Not grooving. Groooovin’. There’s a difference.” Taichi waggled his eyebrows as he started snapping his fingers along with his height of his motions.

“That’s not ‘groovin’ okay?” Yamato rolled his eyes. He tucked up his sleeves while pushing himself off the wall, “This is how you groove to music.” Synchronizing himself to the rhythm, Yamato swayed left to right while pumping his hands in small motions that matched the direction he faced.

“That’s not groovin’!” Taichi scoffed, “This is how you groove!” Taichi rolled around in large circles, his arms waving about behind him as he did not bother controlling his arms as he swung about the elevator.

“You look like a limp noodle.”

“You look like you have a stick up your ass.”

“Getting into the groove of music is all about looking cool,” Yamato rolled his eyes, still dancing. He should know. He was the one that was in a band that had a mileage of successes.

“No, getting your groove on is all about the movement!” Taichi was still acting like a helicopter, “You’ve got to stop caring what you look like and you’ve got to loosen up!”

“I groove properly! You’re one that grooves way too weirdly!”

“If you loosen up you’ll have way more fun!”

“Taichi—get your hands away from there!”

“Big motions! Swing all the way around!” Taichi was smiling as he grabbed onto Yamato’s hips and started moving them by force, “Feel the groooove~”

“Taichi!” Yamato was futilely yelling out as he was forced to swing all around the tight quarters of the elevator.

“Grooooove!”

“Oh too hell with your groove!”

“Feel the music!!”

*ding*

The elevator door beeped and the doors opened. And on the other side was an older lady with a child in her arms and another kid that was holding her hand. They were talking amicably among each other until they looked up and saw what was in front of them.

And that was a male teenager with unruly hair and surprised brown eyes. Who had his arms around another male teenager. One with blonde hair and guilty looking blue eyes. The brunet has his arms around the blond’s waist, his hands practically in the belt loops of his pants. And the older lady held her hand over her mouth as she saw the two boys practically mushed together. The only thing separating the two were the thin layers of clothes that they were wearing. And thank god they were wearing them.

“Oh um….” Yamato pitifully squeaked out as he separated away from Taichi. While Taichi just smoothed out his clothes and tried not to look like this was something that it wasn’t.

But when Taichi saw the expression lining the elder women’s face, he knew that there was no point.

He flipped over and pressed his face into the wall, “Just pretend that you’re asleep.”

“We’re in an elevator Taichi!” Yamato smacked Taichi’s arm.

If lies were cats you’d be a litter

Taichi was lazily lying down on his bed with his cat, Miko curled up on his stomach. Aimlessly looking at his ceiling, Taichi pet Miko along the back of her head up to her neck. Enjoying the warmth of having his cat on his stomach and purring like a happy automobile.

Taichi rubbed Miko’s ear, silently laughing as his cat flicked her ticklish ear like a butterfly. Taichi shifted his hands down to her paws, squeezing them out of no one else’s enjoyment other than his own.

Humming a tune that he himself had made, he patted Miko’s paws up and down along his stomach. His hums shortly transformed into beats, as he silently bopped his head to the sound of his own beat, and consequently taking his purring cat’s paws along with it.

“Meow, meow, meow,” Taichi sang quietly to himself, bringing up his cat’s paws with each syllable, “Meow, meow, meow, meooow!” Taichi did the same thing but in reverse, physically lifting up Miko with the last dragged out note. Shaking his cat in tune of his song, Taichi continued without restraint, “Meow. Meow. I’m Miko. Meow. I do Miko things. Meow. Like Mew-mew. Mew,mew,mew, mew!” Taichi once again lifted Miko up high in the air at that last syllable, “Miko, miko, miko miko.” Taichi undulated his cat’s paws straight up in the air, “Meow, meow, meow, meow,” Taichi started moving his cat’s head so that it matched Taichi’s singing, “Mew, mew, mew, mew.” He swayed his kitty back and forth, “Nya~~~” Taichi, loudly, moaned out the last bit of his song. He rolled Miko’s paw in tune with his voice, before laying his cat back on his stomach to go back to scratching his neck. Taichi giggled to himself as he saw his laidback cat close his eyes again after being played around with so much.

Then he heard another sound. A sound that made his good mood drop into his stomach and twist itself in pain and apprehension.

He heard a small giggle. A scoff. A mix of the two.

Taichi robotically moved his head to get a clear view of Yamato leaning in his doorway.

With a phone in his hand.

“Yamato!” Taichi screamed out. Throwing his cat off of him (to which the cat hotly hissed at) Taichi lunged off of his bed and darted toward Yamato at full speed.

Yamato, who was, grinning ear to ear, now stoned up. Freezing for a second too long as he whipped around on his heels and tried to make a break for it. Taichi had the upper hand, and tackled him straight on the ground. Seeing as Yamato was already caught, his small chuckles were loud, he held up his phone above his head so that Taichi couldn’t grab it out of his hands.

“Give me the phone Ishida!!” Taichi yelled out, wrestling against Yamato’s resistance as he tried to climb upward to grab the wretched phone out of Yamato’s grasp. And into his own so that he could smash it to pieces.

“What?” Yamato twirled around as best he could, straining his arms so that it remained out of Taichi’s reach, “What was that Taichi? Send the video to everyone we know? Okay if that’s what you want!”

“No!!” Taichi shouted out, pushing down on Yamato’s leg and using that momentum to slide upward against Yamato’s torso, “Noooo! Don’t send it!” Taichi cried out as Yamato kneed him right in the side. Grunting Taichi put all of his weight down on Yamato, making the blond fall back down with an ‘oof’, “You wouldn’t understand! You don’t own a cat!”

“I don’t need a cat to understand that you’re a loser!” Yamato retaliated as he pushed down on Taichi’s shoulder, grunting as Taichi failed his arms.

“How the hell did you even get in here!” Taichi cried out pulling down on Yamato’s arms.

“Your Mom let me in as she was going out for groceries!”

“What! Mom! Why would you do that!

“Don’t get mad at your family just because they love me more!”

“Well at least I have a family!”

“Sticks and stones my break my bones!” Yamato shouted out as he shoved his hand down on Taichi’s face, “But the video file has just been sent!!” Yelling out with vigor, Yamato shoved his phone in front of Taichi’s face, laughing out victorious out of his brawl.

Taichi’s eyes watered as he saw the small pixel confirmation screen on the phone. His tangled up legs and sore arms now meaningless, “Noooo!!” Taichi cried out and rolled away with his face buried in his hands.

The warmth of a companion 

The television screen was playing the movie that Yamato had picked out. He had his arm propped up on the armrest, as he was watched the movie quietly. Peacefully too. Until Taichi just had to act up again.

“Tch,” Yamato clicked his teeth as he felt Taichi fall down on his side and further try to work his way into making himself comfortable against Yamato, “Taichi if you’re going to fall asleep then head off to bed.”

“Mmm,” Taichi groaned as he rolled more onto Yamato’s shoulder, “I’m not gonna fall asleep. I’m totally awake. Totally.” Taichi yawned as he snuggled up closer.

“No,” Yamato rolled his shoulder effectively getting Taichi off and making him shoot a glare, “If you fall asleep, then you’ll be impossible to wake up. And then I won’t be able to move and we’ll both be stuck here all night and have a sore back all day tomorrow.”

“I’m not gonna fall asleep!” Taichi whined, pouting as he scratched his cheek, “I’m not even tired. I just want to lay down is all.”

“That’s what you say every time, and then every time you fall asleep.”

“I promise I won’t fall asleep this time.”

“Taichi.”

“Promise!” Taichi yawned out loud as he laid back down on Yamato. When he glanced up and saw Yamato’s unconvinced glare, Taichi smiled broadly before snuggling close against Taichi’s shoulder, “Promise. For real. I won’t fall asleep.”

Yamato rolled his eyes. He brushed his bangs out his eyes before sighing out and twisting downward to look at Taichi, “Look every single time you say this you wind up—and nevermind you’re already asleep.” Yamato took one long sigh as he realized that Taichi was already unconscious.

He leaned back against the back rest of the sofa, waiting for Taichi to move around before slipping his arm out from underneath him and up over the sleeping brick instead. It was annoying how Taichi always wanted to take random naps, and always someone managed to do it such a way that it involved him.

Yamato looked down at Taichi.  His mouth was hanging open, once they got up Yamato would probably have drool strain to clean off his black shirt. Taichi’s face was smushed by his shoulder, his eyes were still peacefully closed as he snored in soft quiet breaths. His hair was fussier than normal, but that was probably because of the awkward angle he was in.

Taichi just had the silliest sleeping faces.

Laughing to himself, Yamato sunk down so that he could get comfortable while Taichi could lay down better. He moved his hand from underneath Taichi, swinging it around so that it was resting on top of Taichi. Seeing as he was going to be immobilized by Taichi’s sleeping form he might as well use him for that he was worth. If Taichi wanted to use Yamato as a replacement blanket, he was going to use him as a heated blanket.

Yamato averted his attention back to the television, watching his movie as Taichi was practically slipping down to his lap, save the arm that Yamato was using to hold him up. In all honest truth, sitting like this while Taichi was lying down was actually quite comfortable. Yamato didn’t have to mentally whine about getting a blanket, and oddly enough, Taichi’s contorted angle was helping him sit up straight. He was so focused on how comfortable he was that he didn’t hear the door open.

“So hey, sorry about walking in the door was open and…oh my—” Takeru stopped talking as he walked into the living room.

“I hope you don’t min—oh!” Hikari gasped out as she saw her brother and Yamato on the couch together.

Yamato snapped his head up as he saw both Takeru and Hikari in the living room. There to fully see Taichi asleep and snuggling up to Yamato.

“…I can explain…” Yamato stuttered.

“No need!” Takeru started giggling, obviously you guys are busy!

“Taichi is really heavy and uh he did this without me knowing and I didn’t have a choice.”

“No no it’s really okay, we’ll just meet up with you guys later,” Hikari was trying not to laugh out to loudly.

“He’s drooling! He’s snoring! It’s not like I want this!”

“Okay sure you don’t!” Takeru had his foxy grin as he waved off, “No worries we won’t tell anyone about this!”

“Of course we wouldn’t!” Hikari followed suit after Takeru. She dug into her bag and pulled out her phone, “But we will take one picture just for memories.”

“What! No! Hikari!” Yamato tried to fail about but was unsuccessful because of Taichi.

“Okay! Thank you!” Hikari giggled as she walked after a laughing Takeru.

“Come back here!”

“Bye bro!”

“See ya Yamato!”

“Wait!” Yamato whined out as he saw the two misfits walking out of the door, “Waiiit—ah forget it.” He puffed out, falling flat on the on sofa.

Yamato was instantly soothed as he took a drag out of his cigarette. Work had been busy, but the cafe was now closed. The night air was cool, outside was quiet, and Yamato was leaning against the back of the building with a cigarette hanging off of his lips. It was Yamato’s ideal way of ending a shift, even if Mimi would smack his hand if she had caught him smoking.

Lazily going through his phone to scroll through whatever Internet updates he missed while working, Yamato simply enjoyed the quietness as he finished smoking at a walking pace.

“Okay, so what happened with you?”

That high pitched voice that ordained authority with every note could only be Mimi. There goes enjoying the quiet.

“It’s...nothing. Not a big deal.”

Yamato bit back a groan. Taichi. That was Taichi.

At realizing who was outside of the side of the cafe, Yamato’s curisoity peaked. Carefully so he wouldn’t be spotted, he peaked over the corner to see Taichi and Mimi.

Mimi was dressed in the clothes she had been wearing since the beginning of the day. The only difference is that now her hair fell freely seeing as she no longer needed to keep up work appearances for the cafe was closed.

Technically the same could be said for Taichi. Though this was the first time today that he actually saw Taichi. Having to follow the business attire that was his government office, Taichi had a black and white pant suit on. Though his blazer was hanging off of his side bag, his sleeves rolled up past the elbow and his tie was loose.

“Don’t try and hide things from me. Now spill it, what happened?”

“Meems I’m tired I--”

“You’re making this harder for yourself by not telling me.”

Maybe there was a chance that this was something Yamato shouldn’t be listening in on. But he’d be lying if he wasn’t a little bit curious about something potentially bad happening to Taichi.

“...Fine.” Yamato could see Taichi rub the back of his neck and look down as he sighed. He didn’t pick up where he left off immediately, but after a few grueling breaths his hand dropped and he spoke up, “I got offered to go to this conference thing. They say it’s like a workshop but really its this basic job shadow thing where you go set up connections and all that jazz.”

“Huh.” Mimi’s surprise was equal to Yamato’s, “For what though?”

“...Anything from higher ups in gov to even the UN.”

“What?!” Mimi shouted, from the sharp angle of eavesdropping over a brick corner Yamato could Mimi smack Taichi’s arm, “That’s good! Really good! Why are you acting like it’s bad?”

“Because!” Taichi groaned, “It’s for three weeks!”

“Like thats--”

“In America!”

If Mimi responded back, it wasn’t loud enough for Yamato to hear. Judging by the way she stepped back and looked away from Taichi. Yamato could surmise that it was a soft ‘oh’ or something of that nature.

“I can’t leave Kouta for that long,” Taichi fixed the blazer that was sliding off of his bag, “But when I tried telling my boss that but he kept pushing me and so he basically told me to take some time to think about it.”

“Well what are you going to say?”

“No obviously.”

“But Taichi,” Mimi’s voice shifted tones. Yamato could recognize the meaning of her voice despite not knowing her for so long. Despite how bossy, unrelenting and don’t forget captious, Mimi could be. She did have a side of her that genuinely cared for others, “I mean, this is a great opportunity for you! Ever since college you’ve be blabbing on about boring stuff like international affairs to public work services. You should go!”

“As much as I would like to, I can’t leave Kouta by himself.” Taichi’s gruff was something Yamato could remember in his early uniformed high school days. When Taichi had to do something he didn’t want to, his tone cut off curt and his eyes sharpened.

“Well how about you take him with you?”

“This is gonna be time consuming. I’m talking from actually doing work to going to rich people’s houses and sipping on some really bitter wine. If he comes with me, I’d basically have to leave him cooped up the hotel room all the time and that’s not okay.”

“Well what about Hikari?”

“Hikari is super busy with her own stuff. I’d hate to just come over and say ‘hey here’s my kid. see you later byyyeee’.” Taichi exaggerated his fake salutation though he ended it flatly and with a mild scoff of disdain.

“Okay fine. I’ll go ahead and watch him while you’re away.” Mimi placed her hands on her hips.

“Meems I appreciate the offer,” Taichi was unphased, “But you’re not exactly available either. Yeah sure, picking him up after daycare is fine. But you work all the time. Popping your head over the edge of his booth is okay for a couple hours, but a month? No I don’t like that.”

“...Fair enough.” Mimi relaxed. She paused for a bit before tapping her fingers, “How about--”

Taichi spoke over Mimi quickly, “You better not try to mention my ex-wife’s name.”

“Well what choice do you have Taichi!?” “I already made my choice thank you.”

“I’m trying to think of a way that will be good enough for you to go and for Kouta to be taken care of.”

“I can’t even drop Kouta off at my sister’s. What makes you think that taking him to a woman who hates my guts is a better idea?”

“She’s his mom, she should have some responsibility.”

“Nuh huh. Not happening. No further discussion--Thank you.” Taichi snapped. Crossing his arms and clearly being unopen to the possibility.

Mimi sighed. The silence between them was getting unbearable even if Yamato wasn’t directly included in. A part of him felt bad that Taichi was in such a crossroads. Another, more louder, part of him didn’t care in the slightest. After all, if there had to be anyone who deserved getting sweated out by karma it’d be him.

Yamato felt a bit smug, rolling away from peeking at the two and back to leaning against the layered wall. He finished off his cigarette quickly, dropping it to the ground and stamping it out. He’d back inside through the kitchen, maybe chat with Kouta who was sitting inside and then grab his stuff and leave. He didn’t mind tension with Taichi, but Yamato was civil. He wouldn’t intentionally cause anything.

Smoothly he turned on his heels to go head back inside. His pivot was quick, too quick. His phone that he had carelessly rested in the outer lining of pocket swung right out. Hitting the hard pavement loudly and sliding across past the treshold of his corner.

Uh oh.

Yamato looked back and realized what this meant. Sirens and red flags popped in his head as he was forced to face the facts. Mimi and Taichi know someone was nearby their ‘talk’ and no matter what that someone would obviously be him.

Inwardly cursing to himself for being so careless Yamato decided to get this awkwardness over with, and fast. He’d just go grab his phone and go back inside, and whether or not this gets talked about again would entirely be up to Taichi and Mimi. He sure as hell wouldn’t willingly bring up the time he eavesdropped on his boss talking with his ex-friend with benefits.

With plan in mind, Yamato picked up the pace as he walked over to grab his fallen (and somewhat traitorous) phone.

Grabbing the plastic cell device, he brushed off dirt and turned around to go back where he wouldn’t be so visible. In the process he caught a quick glance at the pair a little distance away. Taichi saw him, glared, and snapped his head away. Mimi saw him, kept looking at him, and then did what Yamato wasn’t expecting, she called out to him.

“Yamato.” Mimi’s authoritative pitch was loud and clear, “Come here.”

“...Uh, I have too--”

“Now Yamato.”

“Okay.” Yamato shoved his hands in his pockets. He was caught red handed and guilt was working from the down up. It was almost painstaking as he robotically moved up, but he was there. Within such close proximity of Taichi and Mimi that he could so see the details of Taichi’s muted contempt and Mimi’s ‘all-knowing’ eyes.

“Did you overhear us?” Mimi asked, cocking her head toward Yamato in a fashion that her haired swayed away from her face naturally.

“Not intentionally--”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.”

Taichi rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue loud as he shot a disapproving look at Yamato, “What the hell man!?”

“I was relaxing after work!” While Yamato had trouble with Mimi raising her voice, he definitely had no issue confronting Taichi and acting like he was right and the brunet was wrong, “You were the one that started rambling on loud enough for the entire city to hear you!”

“Oh! So this is my fault!” Taichi fell for Yamato’s instigation and retaliated back, “Any other person would be smart and go somewhere else, but you decide to stay and try to blame me?! Oh yeah, cause that’s believable!”

“Hey you were--”

“Okay both of shut up,” Mimi cut in, not willing to hear the two jump right into a pointless argument, “New idea Taichi,” With lips as smooth as poured wine, Mimi smiled as she nodded off, “How about Yamato watches over Kouta?”

Yamato flinched in surprised, “Wh--”

“Absolutely fucking not.” Taichi stomped out anything else that could have been said flat and blunt.

“...Okay. I was not for the idea either, but I’m not liking your tone at all!” Yamato shot at Taichi.

“You. Taking care of my kid? You never have taken care of anything! I couldn’t even leave you responsible for a damn cat!”

“The cat? Really? You still remember that!”

“You left Miko outside in a middle of a storm!”

“She survived it okay!”

“That is the last time I left you responsible for another life! This is not some cat Yamato, this is an offspring of my own creation, why the hell would I leave Kouta with you!”

“Taichi!” Mimi raised her voice to get Taichi to stop yelling at Yamato, “Think about it! He’s single, he lives nearby so he doesn’t have to travel to much for Kouta’s day care and other necessities. Kouta already knows him and they do get along!”

“Meems, Kouta is five! Anyone who gives him cake and juice daily is someone he’s bound to like!”

“Again with the tone!” Yamato interjected, “Look I don’t think it’s a good idea either. I mean yeah, Kouta is a good kid. Way too good to come from this bastard.”

“--Hey!”

“But I’m not a kid kind of guy, there is no incentive in this for me at all, I’m not doing his Mimi.” Yamato sharply turned away from Taichi and looked at Mimi. He didn’t appreciate being volunteered without his knowing either, but that much should already be obvious to Mimi.

“Meems I’m not okay with this. I have never left Kouta alone even for a day let alone such a long amount of time. And I’m not risking it with this shit head.”

“--Hey.”

“Who knows absolutely nothing more than caring for himself.” Taichi finished, “I’m not taking the offer, okay? It’s fine.”

“Would the two of you put away your confusing hatred for each other to the side for five minutes and think about this clearly?” Mimi crossed her arms, tapping her fingers in rhythm to her bouncing stare, “Taichi. You want to go to this thing so badly. You want to make things comfortable for Kouta. Have a little bit of both, you can go to this conference, and Yamato is an adult who already has a relationship with Kouta.” Mimi swayed towards Yamato, “And come on Yamato. You’d be doing a good cause for someone else. You know Kouta is a good kid, he won’t be difficult to handle. Think about how nice this would be.”

“...” Taichi held onto the strap of his side bag, lips wound up tight together.

Yamato brushed the bangs out of his eyes as he silently brooded to himself, “...”

“Yeah no. I’m not okay with leaving my son with this guy.”

“I’m still not willing to do this. Especially if it meant doing something nice for a guy that barely deserves it.”

Mimi’s eyebrow ticked, “Oh you guys are terrible. Okay fine. Taichi. I’ll make sure that everything is okay with Yamato and Kouta daily. Yamato. I’ll give you the time off with pay. How about that.”

“...” Taichi’s brown knitted together as he pursed his lips.

Yamato blew a stray hair out of his peripheral vision and shrugged, “...”

“When I get home with Kouta I’ll bring it up to him and see what he says.”

“Yeah I guess I wouldn’t some time off work.”

“Argh. Fine!” Mimi leaned back, “I try to be the negotiator but my efforts are wasted on you both! I’m heading back inside.” Mimi flicked her hair and promptly headed through the front doors of her cafe.

Leaving Taichi and Yamato alone outside--together. Taichi cleared his throat while Yamato coughed a bit. The two of them taking a mini step away from each other in the form of checking watches and phone notifications.

“I’m gonna go in and get Kouta now.” Taichi patted his two fists together before moving slowly toward the door.

“...Yeah I’m gonna go back and grab my stuff and head home too.” Yamato responded lamely, digging his phone in his pocket and sidestepping toward the back entrance.

Before he could turn around he heard Taichi calling out his name, “Yamato.” Under the bad light of the streetlamp Yamato could see Taichi but every highlight was on the wrong aspects of him. How wrinkled his shirt was, how his eyes crinkled with hints of crow’s feet, how tired he looked, “If I do bring this up to Kouta.” Taichi rubbed the nape of his neck, “And he tells me that he wouldn’t mind staying with you…” Taichi looked up, making direct eye contact with Yamato, “What would you do?”

It was the spark of contact that, admittedly, Yamato had yet to see in someone else. With Taichi came a surge. A surge of energy, or warmth, or whatever. It was an immediate response that Yamato locked in with and couldn’t bring himself away from it no matter what he tried.

“Kouta is...a good kid,” Even if he was Taichi’s son, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t bright, polite, kind and caring. Taichi tried to do his best with Kouta even if meant cutting things off for himself...this might be a rare chance for Taichi to do something for himself, “Yeah I’d, I’d think about it.” Yamato felt too embarrassed to give a definitive answer.

Taichi paused. His expression meaning that he was searching for something but what it could possible be was lost on something. That guise evaporated, as Taichi gave a tiny smile, “Okay then.” Taichi nodded off heading through the front door of Mimi’s cafe.

Being alone now, Yamato headed back through the kitchen door so he could directly go to the employee’s room and grab his things and head out. His relaxed mood gone as he could only fluster around about Taichi his image as he spoke and what he just might possibly agreed too.

“I know something is wrong”

The phrase that everyone repeats. Acting as if that’s what is needed to be said. A code that’s cracked, a told hidden secret, a truth someone only deemed as “close” could dare say.

A phrase that is repeated, so much so, that the willpower to respond to it...is diminishing.

Was that wrong of him?

Right now Koushiro was at his desk. His actions illuminated by the small desk lamp turned away from him. His laptop humming on the lowest brightness. Right now it wasn’t light that he wanted.

If someone saw him in the dark of his room, slouching in his chair with gravity on his lips and bags in his eyes, the’d probably think he was acting odd.

That didn’t prevent the slew of questions pouring into Koushiro. The landslide exhausting out his enthusiasm from his body like a dying car rolling to a stop.

With each puff of breath, each syllable he’d have ot process as a word of a language he understood--all of it would stack up in a mountainous pile that lead to one feeling. Irritation.

Uncharacteristically so.

Which, in his inquisitive mind, would dare ask, “Well. What has his ‘character’ then?”

Was it what people saw of him. Was it how he was when no one could see him. Was it both? Was it neither?

One by one each question rolled into the next. Making his mind swell, his hands stop working, and his person instantly tired. All of a sudden, motivation was lost. His priorities fumbled away as he was reduced to aimlessly surfing the web out of pure disdained habit.

Sad part was, Koushiro knew exactly what he was doing.

Own it up to his level of intelligence, for once the label didn’t matter to him. But Koushiro knew himself exceptionally well. What started as a necessity of comfort tunred into a shelter of his own design. He thought, therefore he was. He could be--just by thinking.

As a child he was elated by the process of his logically based mind. It was something he excelled at, something he could be useful in. A skill that he could apply in order to help himself and help others.

So that’s what he did. He focused solely on his thinking skills. He honed his livelihood with the process of elimination. He strove for understanding with the speed of the mind. He took his growth in his own hand, using relatively, comparison, given methods and careful analysis to roll all into his intelligence.

Because if he was intelligent, he could be successful.

Oh. He wished he could relearn this properly when he was a child.

Adulthood isn’t so simple to lend itself to only one skill.

What Koushiro gained in thinking prowess; he lost in approachability. Time he spent on resolute understanding, he failed in practicing courtships.

Now here he was. In university with everything he needed to excel in his field of study.

And not one person to connect with.

Sure he could call someone. He had friends that extended the very definition of the platonic love. Friends that would undoubtedly rush over to where he was the second they heard that Koushiro was feeling lonely.

But that didn’t make him move toward his phone at all.

Selfishly, and most definitely the wrong course of thinking, Koushiro thought about all of the previous children.

Taichi learned what he was weak at. Instead of throwing tantrums at each roadblock, Taichi learned ways of overcoming his obstacles. In turn making himself to be more well rounded than ever.

Yamato figured out his inner demons and could combat them. By learning how to do so, he gained the intrapersonal skills to face whatever problem came his way.

Sora came to terms with herself. Gaining confidence to stand up tall and the attitude to walk forward. Looking at things in a positive light to better make her goals a reality.

Mimi, well Mimi learned how to control herself. How to put things into perspective and how to prioritize her needs versus her wants in order to be more adaptable.

Even Jyou learned how to cope with life. Understanding how to react whenever his preparations failed to meet reality, how to be flexible enough to not lose focus of what’s important.

All of them spent their childhoods changing themselves to be prepare for the unknown circumstances of the future.

And Koushiro? He just got smarter.

His childhood was over and all he had now were feelings he didn’t know what to do with. Regrets of not pushing himself out of his comfort zones sooner. He kept rethinking about what he’d do if he could go back to his adolescent. He knew that he shouldn’t, he knew that he shouldn’t dwell on things that he couldn’t change.

But no matter what he tried, it all came back to his modern hardships and past opportunity costs.

Each night behind closed doors and dim lights, his face would flush, eyes closing periodically and his shoulders drooped lower with each hour.

He didn’t know how to talk about this. How he should bring this up to one of his far off friends and seek proper help.

How not to get irritated when he couldn’t properly explain himself. How to turn off his thinking switch so that his mind wouldn’t snowball his thoughts down the mountain. How to stop feeling miserable when his questions turned into put-downs and his put-downs turned into insecurities.

He’d get terrible lonely thinking to himself like this. He’d lament on Tentomon, and how he’d be able to provide instant relief despite Koushiro being unable to say much about his ailments.

But that was unspoken of truth with adulthood.

Some things you just have to do yourself.

Insecure and lonely.

Koushiro finds himself delaying the inevitable confrontation one more night.

Tomorrow he’ll call someone. Tomorrow, he’ll be able to rest easy and not stay up late.

Deep down he knew that he could overcome this. Every person has something they had to overcome, his change of character just came much later in his life. He could get through this somehow.

But for tonight, in this particular moment.

“You know what,” Taichi waved his hands before crossing them. His temperament was just as disarrayed as his clothes. His white dress shirt was wrinkled with his sleeves folded wrong and his sweatpants  that obviously didn’t match with the work shirt. But like it mattered to Taichi he had a busy day and now it seemed like he would have one hell of a night too, “You wouldn’t understand okay. So just shut up and back off.”

“I wouldn’t understand?” Yamato bit back. He was getting as riled up as Taichi and Taichi’s inability to have a proper talk was making it much worse, “Here’s an idea then. Why don’t you try to explain it me then!”

“Even if I could explain it, you still wouldn’t understand!”

“Oh way to try Taichi!”

“Oh like you’ve been!” Taichi yelled out, fists curled and eyes raging, “Yamato you don’t have any responsibilities! You don’t--”

“I don’t have any responsibilities?” Yamato coughed out a dry laugh. Leave it to Taichi to reuse material that’s years old, “How the hell don’t I have any responsbilities?”

Taichi clicked his teeth. rubbing his open palm over his mouth as he shook his head. Looking as if he was ready to tear Yamato apart, “Name one time something you did direclty influenced someone else’s life.”

“That’s--”

“Name one time Yamato!”

“Well that’s…” Yamato tight-lipped, “Uh--”

“You see, that’s it!’ Taichi interrupted Yamato again, “You have to think about it. It doesn’t come automatic to you. You wouldn’t understand what it’s like to responsible for a family at all!”

“Family, family, family.” Yamato rolled each word more disdainful than the last, “You always pull that card like it’s some shit excuse! You can’t keep doing that!”

“It’s not an excuse! It’s how it is!!” Taichi yelled right back. His waved his hands before rolling his elbows in front of him, acting as if segmenting his gestures would make the situation all the more clear, “Yamato, I went from being my father’s son. To fathering a son! While you--your whole family is laissez-faire! i can’t just do certain things, not like you at least! Why don’t you get that!”

“Okay yeah, I’m not big ‘family-man’ like you” Yamato exaggerated before stepping up to Taichi, “But you can’t blame me for the mistakes that you made on your own! You were the one that sprinted right off to college. You were the one that found the perfect cute woman to bring back to your parents.” He was certainly stepping on thin ice, but Yamato was way to worked up to care, “And look how nicely that all worked out for you!”

“OKAY! Yes! I’ve made mistakes!” Taichi yelled right back, pushing against Yamato’s shoulder to make him step back, “But don’t you dare think for a second that Kouta is one of them! Got that!”

Yamato held back his tongue. Okay that was were he stepped to hard down and fell right into the freezing ice water, “I didn’t--”

“I mean sure! I have had to give up some things cause of the choices I made!” Taichi steamrolled over Yamato, “I--I haven’t had a beer in three years!” Taichi snapped and sarcastically chuckled, “I haven’t gotten laid in six years! And guess what! One or both of those things sound very appealing right now but I can’t do that kinda stuff anymore!!”  Taichi stopped yelling to catch his breath, “But no matter what I have to give up. It’s all worth it. Beacuse Kouta is literally the best thing in this world for me. Okay. I don’t regret anything.”

Yamato paused biting his lip as he softened up his posture, “Taichi I didn’t--”

“You know something.” Taichi snapped his fingers, “After high school. I was so mad at you. Any time I saw a blond dude. Or someone else named Yamato, I would get this urge to punch their face in, that’s how mad I was with you.” His voice was getting raspy from yelling so much earlier, but Taichi was the type of person to keep talking once he started. At this point whatever he was thinking, came out immediately, “No matter what I tried to tell you, you never understood and I couldn’t understand you either.”

“But then. One time while I was coming back home after my classes.” Taichi lowered his demeanor almost entirely, “I realized that. I didn’t have to worry about coming home at 10 because my mother wouldn’t be waiting in the living room for me. I realized that, it didn’t matter what I made for dinner because it’s not like my sister or dad would be there to eat it too.”

“All the stuff you said about how I shouldn’t worry about what my parents thought made sense. ‘Cause even if they did love and care about me unconditionally, eventually I wouldn’t be their son anymore. Eventually, I’d have to live my life on my own.”

Yamato was about to open his mouth to respond but Taichi continued anyway, “But that was a long time ago. And right now, presently, things aren’t the same as before. My relationship with my parents is not the same as my relationship with my son.” Taichi rubbed his lips together, shoving his hands in the loose pockets of his sweats, “Kouta’s five Yamato. Five. His mother ran out on us. He tries to act so mature and proper because of that and it’s like he won’t even get to be a kid! I can’t let that happen, I have to take care of him. He’s my number one priority. If you want me to apologize for putting my fear of my parent’s reaction before you, then I’ll say sorry a thousand times. But if you want me to put you over my son, that’s just not happening.”

Taichi looked up, getting spent from this exhausting talk. So much so that it showed in his eyes and by the drag on the corner of his lips, “If you’re looking for redoing what he had in school. Then it’s not possible. If you want me. Then you also get Kouta. We’re a packaged deal nonnegotiable.”

“...” Yamato always had a tendency to be more subdued with his words. Choosing to say a few things eloquently than a lot of things that snowballed into each other. A quality vs quantity rule of thumb that has always proven true with him.

But one thing he never realized was the sheer amount of difference  between him and Taichi. Taichi was always noted as the carefree spirit. But the weight of pressure was significantly more intense on Taichi’s side versus his own.

Whenever Yamato spent time with his family, it was relatively pleasant. He didn’t have major expectations to reach, everyone was independent and trusting enough to realize that no matter what happened they’d all be okay.

Not at all like Taichi’s upbringing.

“...Okay.” Yamato uttered. Sighing out loudly as he looked at Taichi with solemn eyes, “I don’t want you to pick one or the other in the first place and...I get it.”

“...Kay.” Taichi spoke just as softly, “I like you Yamato. But I’m not exactly eligible--”

“That’s fine.” This time Yamato spoke over Taichi, “It’s completely fine. We can just...take it slow. Take our time figuring out what’s best.”

Taichi was taken aback, he had a hard time not breaking out in a defeated smile, “Alright. We’ll take it slow then.”

Yamato nodded and the two of them fell under a small blanket silence.

They were confusing.  The boundaries that could clearly define couples and people were hazy blurred lines. Just like how they had been when they were in their teens in the little world that was high school.

But now they weren’t as optimistic. Adulthood had its way of making realisim seem like the only view in the world.

Working in a kitchen meant that Yamato was surrounded by people in busy and demanding hours. Which was opposite to his comfort zone. It wasn’t like he disliked his work conditions so much that he wanted to quit. But to counteract the throes of work life, he took time to himself to relax and recharge himself.

Right now he was in the park. With Taichi and his son seeing as this would be the only time he could see the both of them. Right now Kouta was playing around the playground and Taichi had to step away to take a phone call.

Which was fine with him. After all, Yamato did like being alone from time to time.

Nothing major was on his mind. Yamato just looked around the park with a small sense of mindfulness. He noticed how the kids were playing together, wrapped up in their innocence joyous worlds of fun and creativity. How the sky was clear and made the little park so much brighter.

His eyes wandered over toward Taichi who was fully engrossed in his call from work. He couldn’t make out what he was saying but he could tell something was up. Taichi’s hands were stuffed in his pockets and he kept pacing back and forth as he stared at the ground and kicked up the scarce leaf. Yamato couldn’t help but puff a small smile, it’d be so many years since their high school days yet Taichi could manage to keep the same exact habits.

“Uh, Uncle Yama?”

“--!!” Yamato’s chest jumped as he was startled by the extra small voice. Looking down he saw Kouta, his chubby cheeks were flushed from all the ‘adventures’ he partook in the park. However now his bright candied eyes were washed with concern, and his own habit of pressing his thumb and index fingers were coming through.

Yamato tried to brush off his intial surprise with a reassuring smile, “Yeah Kouta? What’s wrong.”

“Um…” Kouta pressed his lips together as he looked away. His soft tresses of bushy hair followed suit, “Where’s Daddy?”

Yamato nodded as he pointed behind him, “Uh your dad is on the phone right now, but he’ll be back shortly!” One thing he kept learning about Taichi’s son, was how much Kouta wanted to be around him.

On one hand, Yamato couldn’t blame him. A son wanted his father, nothing wrong with that. On the other hand...Yamato couldn’t share the same mentalitly. When he was a child, he never was clingy toward his own father.

“Want to go get him?” Yamato offered.

Kouta looked where his dad was, making it obivous he was thinking by they way he pressed his lips together and clenched his hands, “No it’s okay.” Kouta nodded with a sweet voice. Looking back up at Yamato with his large round eyes. Before Yamato could say another word, Kouta grabbed the edge of the fence and proceeded to climb up onto it. He sat down properly, clicking his shoes together before he scooted closer to Yamato.

“...Alright,” Kouta’s ability to understand was both impressive and worrisome at the same time. How any five year old could have such an amazing temperament was astounding all by itself. Still, Yamato patted Kouta’s head, ruffling up his hair a tiny bit. The light sign of affection made the young child smile brightly, making him scoot even closer to Yamato.

Yamato went back to staring around at random things in the park. And somewhere along the line Kouta leaned against Yamato and nuzzled himself until he got comfortable. It was nice, sweet even. It made Yamato understand why Taichi was so insistent on spending time with Kouta any chance he got.

“Neh, Uncle Yama?”

“Yes?”

“...Do you like my dad?”

“.....Uh...”

That came out suddenly.

Yamato didn’t move physically, but he felt like he just been shocked straight to the heart. Taichi wouldn’t have said anything about the two of them--did Mimi say something? No wait, not the point right now. How should he respond to the question on hand?

“Cause um,” Kouta spoke out again, moving away from Yamato to speak up properly, “I like my dad too!”

“Uh huh,” Yamato broke out in a nervous smile.

“I think my dad likes you too.” Unknowingly, Kouta shocked Yamato again.

“..I see,” Yamato paused before speaking, “What makes you say that?”

“Easy!” Kouta smiled wide, “Daddy gets happy around you!”

Yamato relaxed, now understanding that this was 100% innocent, “I see. I get happy too.”

Kouta beamed at that, a small giggle bounced from him as he rocked back and forth, “I like Uncle Yama too! Because I um. I get happy too!” Kouta only paused when he tried to think of the other words he wanted to say, “I’m happy when Daddy’s happy and you’re happy!”

Yamato couldn’t help but laugh at that, “We’re just one happy bubble aren’t we?”

“I like bubbles too?” “And why’s that?” “Because they make you happy and then they pop!” Kouta ‘popped’ his hands by throwing them up in the air. Making Yamato laugh even louder at the cute gesture.

It wasn’t time to himself. It was nothing like Yamato’s preferred relaxing time.

“Whats so funny?” Phone in his hand, Taichi came back to the giggling pair.

“Daddy!” Kouta shouted,getting off the bench and running towards his dad who instantly picked him up the second he was close enough.

“Happy bubbles.” Yamato answered Taichi’s question,, grinning to himself.

“I don’t get it but I’ll take your word for it.” Taichi scoffed off, slipping his phone in his pocket to hold Kouta with two hands.

“Daddy do you not get it because you don’t know funny jokes?” “What?!”

“Pft!”

Yamato laughed out harder at Taichi’s expense. Kouta didn’t see anything wrong with what he asked, which added to the Taichi’s pain and made Yamato laugh longer.