Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ About Nothing ❯ chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

About Nothing

Chapter 3

Weekend nights were traditionally for staying up late, gorging himself on junk food, and watching the really bad movies that were on at about one AM. It was a tradition Daisuke had held for years now, insisting that he'd get to bed early enough Sunday night to get to school on Monday without too much complaint. It was also a tradition that this was never true. Come Monday morning, Daisuke would be dragged out of bed and barely make it on time for his first class. Jun knew this all too well. This is why she was so shocked when she went into the living room and Daisuke wasn't there. Worried that he'd died or something, Jun went down the hall to her brother's room and peered inside. Daisuke was in bed, his eyes shut tightly.

"Daisuke?" Jun asked softly, wondering if he was asleep. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," he replied, his eyes not opening.

"Why are you in bed? It's Saturday night." Jun reminded him.

"I want tomorrow to come sooner so I'm going to bed. Lemme alone, I need to sleep!" Daisuke rolled over, a grin on his face.

"What's the big deal about tomorrow? It's just Sunday." Jun waited for a reply but didn't receive one, so she turned and left, closing the door behind her.

'Tomorrow is when Taichi-senpai will call me,' Daisuke thought to himself, squeezing his extra pillow to his chest tightly. 'Or maybe he won't even call! Maybe he'll just come over and... and kiss me! He won't even say anything, he'll just kiss me! Then he'll talk about how he couldn't wait to see me, how he missed me since yesterday, and how my cookies were the best ones he ever had... and he'll say he wishes he could have cookies like that every day.' Daisuke sighed to himself, grinning wider. 'Then we'll get married!'

Daisuke's breathing slowed, his grip on the pillow loosened, and soon he was asleep, dreaming of how Taichi would look in a tuxedo, or maybe a traditional kimono, and how sweet his lips would taste. Rolling over in his sleep, Daisuke mumbled, "Taichi..."

"Daisuke... wake up..." a voice whispered.

Daisuke smiled, imagining Taichi's face, so when he opened his eyes and saw his sister's, he almost fell out of bed. "Wha-what are you doing in here?! I was trying to sleep!"

"Yeah, and I see what kind of dreams you were having," Jun said, making a face. "You talk in your sleep, y'know." With that, she handed him the phone she was carrying. "It's him. Figured you'd wanna know." Jun turned and left the room.

He stared at the phone uncomprehendingly. "Him?" Daisuke asked out loud. He held the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Heyyyy, Daisuke!" a voice exclaimed. There was loud music playing in the background and a lot of people talking. Daisuke had to strain to hear the caller.

"Uh... yeah? That's me... who is-" Daisuke began to ask, not recognizing the voice over the noise.

"Me'n the guys're hangin' out! You should come, too!"

Daisuke pulled the receiver away from his ear and blinked for a moment before moving it back again. "Taichi-senpai?"

You made me cookies, 'least I can do is buy you a drink!"

"I... I don't really drink..." Daisuke muttered.

That seemed to baffle Taichi and Daisuke could hear him saying to someone else, "He doesn't drink." Then he seemed to return to the phone. "They say you should come anyway. 'Cause it's all us old soccer guys, and even though you were too young to play with most of 'em, they wanna hang out. So c'mon!"

"Well, I guess since my parents are out tonight... I can probly go..." Daisuke said, feeling a small thrill that Taichi would think to invite him. "Where is it?"

"The bar down by the ice-cream place we always used to go to. Y'know?" Taichi said, sounding distracted.

"Yeah, okay! I'll be there in a half an hour!" Daisuke hopped to his feet and hung up the phone, grabbing the clothes he'd worn earlier. "Gotta hurry, gotta hurry, gotta hurry! Taichi-senpai wants to hang out with me!!!" Daisuke ran down the hall and was putting on his shoes when Jun noticed him.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, chewing on one of the extra cookies.

"Taichi-senpai called! He and some of the guys from his old soccer team want me to go hang out with them!" Daisuke smiled hugely and gave Jun a tight hug. "The cookies worked! I'll be home... uh... later! Don't wait up!"

Then he was gone, and Jun was left standing there, stunned, a cookie hanging out of her mouth.

***

Daisuke had never been to a real bar before. Sure, he'd walked by them, and he'd even had a few beers in his life, though he'd never liked the taste. But he'd never been inside a *real* bar. He was relieved to see it was relatively clean when he stepped through those ominous metal doors. The bar was fairly well lit, with a modern edge to it. The air was warm and a bit humid, which was a nice change from the cool air outside. The only thing he didn't like was the unbearably loud music blasting from speakers in every corner. Daisuke walked through the room nervously, eyeing various groups of people sitting at the tall stainless steel tables, trying not to fall off their stools in their drunken state.

He got all the way to the back of the building and had almost given up when he spotted a row of red leather booths, and ran over to glance into them. Sure enough, the first of them contained Taichi and a few other faces he recognized. The table was littered with empty sake bottles and beer cans, and everyone was currently occupied chugging what seemed to be the last of some sort of bright orange liquid. Daisuke didn't even want to think about how whatever that stuff was tasted.

"Uh... hi!" he said when they all plunked their mugs back on the table, looking dizzy and laughing.

Taichi looked up from his glass and gave Daisuke a confused glance. "What're you doin' here?"

"Taichi, you dumbass, you called him and told him to come meet us!" another one of them laughed. "You're wasted already?"

Taichi's face lit up in recognition. "Ohhhh, yeah! C'mon, Dai, sit over here! You guys move, Dai's gotta sit nexta' me." He shoved the two men sitting to his right out of the booth and grabbed Daisuke's wrist, pulling him in to sit next to him. The displaced men didn't seem to mind too much, laughing and climbing back into the booth to pour themselves more drinks.

Daisuke smiled, feeling elated that Taichi wanted to be near him, and even more so that the booth was now crowded enough that he had a reason to snuggle up to the older boy. "Thanks, Taichi-senpai!"

One of the men Daisuke seemed to remember being called Shinta laughed. "You still call him that? 'Senpai'? C'mon, Daisuke! You're not a kid anymore!"

Daisuke scowled slightly, feeling a blush raise to his cheeks. He'd never liked Shinta. Shinta was too fond of teasing him mercilessly. Daisuke opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Taichi.

"You're just jealous 'cuz no cute boys call *you* 'senpai'." Taichi threw an empty beer can at his friend.

Daisuke gave Taichi a stunned look and blushed, hoping it was him and not the beer talking.

Shinta laughed and tried to catch the can, but Taichi's throw was so off it hit another boy Daisuke had only ever known by his nickname, 'Spike'. Spike threw it back at Taichi and only missed a bit. "Watch where you're aimin', Taichi!"

The boy to Daisuke's right wasn't someone he recognized, but that didn't seem to stop him from leering at Daisuke really obviously. "So you're only... what, seventeen?"

"Er... almost eighteen," Daisuke said, trying to scoot closer to Taichi even though he was already pressed against him.

Taichi swatted at the strange man. "Just hit him if he gets too weird, Dai. He's a cuddly drunk."

Everyone laughed as if this was hilarious, and Daisuke couldn't help but feel he'd missed something. Still, Taichi kept calling him 'Dai', and that had to mean something, right?

Daisuke was busy laughing when everyone else did, and trying to understand half of what they were talking about, while at the same time concentrating on how warm Taichi's side was, and trying not to lean against him too obviously; when a small glass of something clear was shoved in front of him.

"C'mon, you can't just sit there! Drink somethin'!" one of the men Daisuke had never seen before said, nudging the glass forward.

"I really don't like alcohol..." Daisuke started, trying to push the glass away. But then he caught Taichi's gaze and froze. He couldn't act like a kid in front of Taichi. Not now that things were going so well! So he picked up the glass and nodded. "Okay. What is this stuff?"

"Oh, nothin' too bad!" the man said, laughing. Everyone joined him, including Taichi.

"C'mon, Dai! It's not that bad." Taichi added, taking the glass. "Here, I'll show you." With that he drank down half the glass, and then handed it back to Daisuke. "Now your turn."

Daisuke took the glass and stared at the slight smudge on it from Taichi's lips. Now he *had* to drink it. 'Indirect kiss,' he thought, as he pressed the glass to his lips and chugged down the liquid. Indirect kiss or not, the drink was horrible and burned his throat on the way down. Daisuke dropped the glass, felt his face wrinkle up in disgust, and coughed.

The man who handed him the glass laughed. "Looks like somebody doesn't like vodka!"

"Is that what that was?" Taichi asked, looking confused. "I didn't think it was that bad... guess I'm more drunk than I thought!" He laughed a bit and wrapped an arm around Daisuke's back, rubbing it gently. "Sorry, Dai! I woulda warned you! Here, this'll help." Taichi grabbed some food from one of the plates on the table and held the bit of dried squid to Daisuke's mouth.

Daisuke stopped coughing and took the squid from Taichi's fingers. He found himself leaning into Taichi's side again, comforted by the older boy's arm wrapped around him and the gentle rubbing. For a few minutes he didn't pay attention to how much Taichi was drinking. For a few minutes he forgot the laughter and loud music and yelling. He forgot the horrible taste in his mouth and the nasty way the man next to him kept staring. All he knew was how nice it felt to get all this attention from Taichi, and the way his fingers had tasted when he'd taken the squid.

A few minutes was plenty long enough for everything to go bad. Daisuke was suddenly awakened from his daydreaming by Taichi shoving at his side. "Move... move quick..." The two men on the end jumped out of the booth and moved out of the way, and Daisuke followed their lead, letting Taichi out to run to the bathroom. Daisuke stared after him.

"Shouldn't someone go..." he began, worried.

"Don't worry about him," Shinta said. "He's a lightweight. Never did get used to drinking stuff this strong!" He laughed and held up his glass, drinking down the rest of what he had.

Daisuke frowned at them and walked after Taichi, heading to the bathrooms. Taichi was sick, obviously. But Daisuke felt a strange bit of happiness, knowing Taichi wasn't used to drinking this much. It meant that, even though he was in college now, he wasn't just partying all the time. Daisuke was proud of Taichi for being mature... at least some of the time.

When he reached the bathroom doors, he stepped into another world. The clean metallic look of the bar was gone, leaving only a dingy feeling in its place. The bathroom walls were painted a vomit green, and there were stains and graffiti all over them. The floor must have been white at one point, but now it was a dirty rust color. The urinals looked as though they'd been scrubbed but the stains just wouldn't come off. And at the end of a row of stalls was one with the door half-open and Taichi inside it, bent over a toilet. Now he remembered why he'd never bothered getting used to the way beer tasted.

"Taichi-senpai?" Daisuke walked into the stall, ignoring the strange looks from the other men using the facilities, and gave Taichi a worried look. His idol was half-leaning on the wall, green in the face and propping himself up on the back of the toilet. Daisuke glanced down morbidly, but there was no mess. Taichi hadn't puked yet. "Are you okay?"

Taichi just shook his head, looking miserable, then doubled over and vomited into the water. Daisuke gagged and averted his eyes, trying not to throw up as well. There was a sudden smell of sick and acid, and it was all Daisuke could do not to run. Still, he remembered that whenever he was sick, Jun would always rub his back and it'd help, so he reached over and did the same thing for Taichi, trying not to breathe through his nose or look down.

Finally Taichi stood, wiping his face on some toilet paper, and flushing the toilet. "Ugh... I'm sick." He blinked, looking completely dazed.

"Maybe you should go home now, Taichi-senpai," Daisuke said carefully. "You've probably had enough to drink."

Taichi nodded slowly, moving to the sinks to wash himself off and rinse out his mouth. Daisuke watched him, wondering if he was sober enough to get himself back to Yamato's apartment. He'd probably have to take a bus to get back or maybe even the subway, and Daisuke didn't want him to get lost.

Taichi straightened back up and stumbled a bit, then grinned at Daisuke. "I should go home."

"Yeah. Yeah, you should." Daisuke couldn't help but smile back. At least his idol felt better now. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small mint he remembered grabbing from the Chinese restaurant he'd gone to with Ken. Their mints were the cool, green striped kind, so he'd taken a fistful. Favorite mints or not, Taichi needed this last one. "Here, this'll help with the taste and... well, the smell," Daisuke said, putting the mint into Taichi's hand.

Taichi blinked at it, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. Then his expression crumbled and he gave Daisuke what he thought was the saddest look he'd ever seen. "I don't wanna go home. Yamato'll yell at me for waking him up... and I don't have a key."

"You don't have a key?" Daisuke frowned. Yamato was probably deep asleep now, and he knew how it felt to get yelled at.

Taichi nodded unhappily, sucking on the mint. "Yamato'll yell at me and I don't feel good and I don't wanna sleep outside."

Again, Daisuke opened his mouth without thinking. "You can come stay at my place!" he said, not considering what his parents or Jun would say when they found out at all. "You can come stay at my place!"

"Really?" Taichi's face lit up and he smiled. "Great! Let's go!" Taichi was back in high spirits, and led Daisuke, somewhat dizzily, out of the bathroom and back into the less foul-smelling bar.

Daisuke followed Taichi halfway through the crowd towards his friends before Taichi stumbled over his own feet, almost falling. Daisuke grabbed his arm and steadied him. Taichi gave him a smile which Daisuke returned nervously and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leaning on him a bit. Daisuke swallowed and wrapped an arm around his waist. "Don't fall over," he said helpfully.

"I won't! I can lean," Taichi said, putting a bit more of his weight on Daisuke to indicate what he meant. When they reached the booth, Taichi pulled his wallet out of his pocket and tossed some bills onto the table. Daisuke's eyes widened when he saw how much Taichi was leaving. Either he had expensive taste, or he was too drunk to remember how money worked.

Shinta was the only member of the group not half-passed out at the table. "Takin' the sick guy home, Daisuke?" he asked.

"He's taking me home," Taichi said happily, like he hadn't heard the question.

"Seeya later, then!" Shinta said, grabbing the last bit of dried squid.

Daisuke scowled at the lot of them before turning and leading Taichi towards the doors. How could they just ignore him when he was sick like that? He decided he didn't really like Taichi's other friends much.

The walk home took an hour rather than the normal fifteen minutes. Every few steps, Taichi would stumble or he'd simply stop walking for no reason. Daisuke found Taichi's drunken antics entirely unattractive, but took a certain pride in the fact that he was going to take care of him for once, not the other way around. By the time they were within sight of his building, he thought it would all be okay. Taichi chose that moment to throw up again.

When Daisuke got Taichi up the stairs and inside his apartment, his senpai was looking a little better. 'Sure he is,' Daisuke thought. 'There's no beer left in his stomach. There's *nothing* left in his stomach.'

He made a face and did his best to lead Taichi down the hall to the bathroom. "C'mon, Taichi-senpai, you need to get cleaned up."

"M'sorry I puked, Dai. I'm better now!" Taichi said, smiling weakly.

Daisuke glanced down at his shoes and said, "It's fine, you just need to rest. C'mon, just a little further, just in here..." Daisuke led him into the bathroom and helped him sit on the edge of the tub. "I guess... you should probably just rinse your mouth and stuff. You can shower tomorrow. If you tried right now, you'd probably fall over or something."

Taichi gave Daisuke a lopsided grin. "But I can stand if I lean on you... you could help me shower!"

Daisuke paled and gulped. "N-no! You... you need your rest! Yeah! So... so you can shower tomorrow!" He grabbed a bottle of mouthwash from below the sink and handed it to Taichi. "Here, just swish a bunch of this around in your mouth and spit it out and you'll be fine."

Taichi peered at the bottle in confusion. "I don't want more to drink, Dai," he said, sounding positively whiny.

"It's... not to drink. You just spit it back out."

"Oh." Taichi opened the bottle and poured some into his mouth straight from the bottle, then sat there with his mouth full of Mouthwash. It took him a few moments for the burning to register, but his eyes suddenly went wide and he swallowed the whole mouthful. "Eaugh! That was horrible!" He tossed the bottle onto the floor, spilling half of it. "I don't like that drink."

Daisuke's jaw dropped and he stared. "You're... you're supposed to spit it out! It's not a *drink*, it's..." He sighed and stopped. "Never mind. At least your breath won't stink now." Daisuke went to the medicine cabinet, retrieved some aspirin, and filled his bathroom mug with water, handing them to Taichi. "Take that and drink the water. Dad says it keeps you from getting hangovers."

Taichi frowned. "Is this gonna taste bad, too? That blue stuff tasted bad and made my stomach hurt again." Taichi's words were beginning to slur even more, and Daisuke sighed. It'd only been an hour since he'd had his last drink. He wouldn't be sober 'til the next morning.

"No, it's just water. It'll make your stomach better, I promise," Daisuke said, trying to be patient.

Taichi gave him a skeptical look, but popped the asprin into his mouth and swallowed it, then drained the glass. "That wasn't bad," Taichi said, as if this was surprising.

"...Yeah. Okay." Standing, Daisuke offered Taichi his hand. "Let's just get you to bed, all right?"

"Bed? Let's go to bed?" Taichi asked, standing and wobbling a bit.

"Yes, bed. You'll feel much better after you do," Daisuke said, leading him down the hall.

He would've been worried about the noise, but Jun slept with headphones on so she could listen to her crappy music all night and their parents were out for the night. 'Maybe I should write her a note... in case mom and dad get home before Taichi-senpai leaves... don't wanna have 'em just find him in my bed and me on the couch.' He sighed and shook his head. 'I hate sleeping on the couch. Maybe if I use the extra pillows from the closet-'

Daisuke's thoughts were cut off abruptly when he suddenly found himself being lifted into the air.

"Okay! Bed, then!" Taichi had what Daisuke thought was a very frighteningly drunken expression on his face, and he was the one responsible for the lifting.

"T-Taichi-senpai!" Daisuke wrapped his arms around Taichi's neck tightly and clung to him. 'He's gonna drop me! He's so drunk, he's gonna drop me and I'm gonna die!'

Taichi manuvered the bedroom door open and kicked it shut behind them again once they were inside. He wobbled for a moment, making Daisuke cling tighter to him, then walked to the bed and dropped Daisuke unceremoniously onto the mattress. Daisuke sat there, wide-eyed, pale, and gasping for breath while Taichi towered over him, leering.

"Taichi-senpai, what do you think you're doing?!" Daisuke hissed once he'd caught his breath. He absolutely *hated* heights, and he hated falling from them even more. He would have been yelling, but even with the headphones, his sister wasn't *that* heavy of a sleeper.

"Going to bed," Taichi said, his voice suddenly husky.

Daisuke's eyes almost popped out of his head and he scooted back a bit. "Er... good! So, I'll just go sleep on the couch, and you can sleep here, and-"

Taichi's face was suddenly iches from Daisuke's, and he'd sat directly in front of Daisuke on the mattress, blocking any means of escape. "But I wanna sleep with you, Dai." Taichi scooted closer and Daisuke scooted back, finding his back pressed against the wall.

Daisuke was panicking. This wasn't right at all. Taichi was so close, and if he hadn't just seen his senpai throw up repeatedly, he might have been in serious trouble Luckily, Taichi still stank of beer, and the memories of puke were plenty to keep him from doing anything too stupid. "Taichi-senpai... I have to go sleep on the couch. You need to rest! Yeah. So, you'll feel better in the morning! Okay?"

Taichi's leaned in and his lips were less than an inch away from Daisuke's now. "But you're taking such good care of me... and you made me cookies... I wanna do somethin' for you..."

Daisuke was frozen in place. It would've been so easy to lean in and kiss him, just once. He wouldn't even remember... probably. But imagining Taichi's expression if he *did* remember snapped him out of it. He couldn't bear the thought of getting rejected like that. "No, that's okay. The best thing you could do for me would be to go to sleep. Really!"

The leer on Taichi's face faded into a soft smile. "Okay, Daisuke... Dai... Dai-chan!" Taichi slurred, chuckling happily. With that, he laid down, tugging Daisuke down next to him, and throwing an arm over Daisuke's chest, effectively pinning him. "Nighty night!"

It was an hour before Daisuke could sleep. When he finally got them into a comfortable position, Taichi was only half-covered by the blankets, but that wasn't really his issue. His issue was how close Taichi was, and how sweet he looked asleep like that. Daisuke smiled for the first time since he'd gone out that night, wondering if Taichi would still want to kiss him in the morning.

***

'Stupid sun,' Taichi thought to himself, squinting his eyes shut tighter and rolling over. 'Whyzzit have to be so bright? I thought Yamato had those dark blinds...' Taichi sighed, then smiled. He felt rested. His head hurt, though, and his stomach felt strangely empty and unsettled. Still, it was the best night of sleep he'd gotten in weeks. 'No dreams. No weird ass sex dreams. Man, maybe alcohol is good for you after all?' Taichi chuckled, cuddling closer instinctively to a warm presence in the bed, his eyes still shut. 'Wonder how I got home last night... barely remember even going out! I musta gotten smashed and called Yamato to come get me. Man, I'm gonna get lectured.'

He nuzzled closer to the warmth in the bed for a full minute before realizing something was wrong. 'I thought Yamato was sleeping in the guest bed.' He opened his eyes, an uneasy feeling creeping into his stomach. All he could see was dark reddish hair. His face was pressed to the back of someone's head, and Yamato certainly didn't have red hair. Taichi felt his entire body stiffen with horror. 'Wha-what did I do last night?! Who... what...?!'

Taichi slowly backed away, trying not to wake up the other occupant of the bed, and slowly sat up, peering down at the person he most definitely didn't remember shacking up with.

"Daisuke?!"