Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Fine Art ❯ Foolishness ( Chapter 9 )

Okay, Daisuke is really *really* out of character in this chapter... and I apologize for that.

I want to thank everyone who's been reviewing my stuff. So, THANK YOU! Thank you thank you thank you!

~*~

What the hell was wrong with me? Was I insane? That had to be the answer. I was insane. Yes.

My train stopped and I stepped out. It was almost eight at night, but the sunlight hadn't died yet. I stood there, right in front of the train's door, staring at the fading day above me. Someone behind me prodded me out of his or her way and I tripped forward with a curse. In my backpack, Chibimon squeaked a complaint. It was my fault; I shouldn't have been standing in people's way. Sighing, I shuffled towards my apartment, trying to remember when exactly I had lost my mind.

I stared at the sidewalk as I walked, gazing sadly at the cracks and shatters in the cement. The poor ground, it was always walked on and it was never appreciated. People dropped their trash on it, jumped on it, let their dogs make messes on it...

I stumbled towards my apartment. The walk from the train station to home was a short one, but I dragged the time one, making a usually five minute trip stretch to a twenty minute one.

It had already been established that I was crazy and sick. Normal people did not lust over their best friends, especially when the best friend was a guy. It just wasn't done. What had gone wrong with me? How come all the bad things only happened to me? Was I cursed? Or just stupid?

"Daisuke!"

I looked up, annoyed. Was I beginning to hear voices too?

"Daisuke, you dolt, I've been calling your name for the past two minutes!"

Voices that insulted me. Great. That was just what I needed.

"Hello? Daisuke? Are you sleep-walking or something?"

I cursed my luck. Voices in my head that said nasty things about me. And they weren't even doing it behind my back!

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Daisuke, dude, have you gone deaf?"

"Huh?" I turned around, coming face to face with a grinning Taichi. "Oh, sorry dude. I thought that I was hearing voices."

Tai gave me a strange look. "Well, you are crazy..."

I nodded glumly. "Sucks to be me."

Taichi chuckled. "Don't be so hard on yourself, it could be worse. Anyway," Tai swung an arm around my shoulder, "Changing the subject, feel like going on a jog with me?"

For the first time, I realized that he was wearing a pair of grass-stained shorts and an equally grimy tee shirt. He wasn't sweating, not really, but his breaths were short and quick, and his eyes were bright with energy.

Tai was my idol. Tai was everything that I wished I was. Taichi was tall, had awesome hair, was the best soccer player ever to grace the surface of our planet, and he got to sleep in the same room as Hikari.

"Sure." I wasn't in the mood to go home and face my sister, so I accepted the invitation happily. "I'll have to change though. Want to come in and get something to drink?"

"Daisuke, you read my mind."

~~~

"Hey Jun?" I kicked open the door and led Tai inside. "I'm going for a jog, okay?"

Jun was in the kitchen, making something on the stove. She glanced up, nodded at me and waved at Taichi. "Sure, squirt, whatever."

"Cool. I'll be right back, okay Tai?" I hurried to my room, quickly stripping and changing into appropriate running clothes.

Chibimon had crawled out of my backpack and was sitting on the ground, watching me as I ran around my room trying to find socks. "You look funny."

I scrambled into a pair of shorts, not noticing that they were inside out until I had attempted to stick candy into a pocket. Sighing, I tore the shorts off, fixed them, and pushed my legs into the correct places. "Thanks buddy. Are my shorts on backward or something?"

"Nope." My Digimon shook his head. "But you look silly because you're acting like Jun before she goes to see Yamato."

"Do not!"

"Do too." Chibimon crossed his arms over his tiny chest. "Yep."

"Look, I just want Taichi to think that I'm cool, I'm not trying to make him fall in love with me or anything." I adjusted my goggles until they rested perfectly on my head. "Tai's my hero. He's the coolest kid ever. If he thinks that I'm cool, then that will mean... Oh I don't know. It'll mean something though."

"Jun tries to impress Yamato."

"Yeah, that's true." Chibimon, although I loved him, couldn't understand the problems of humans. I rubbed his head affectionately. "But she's trying to win his heart, not his friendship. See the difference?"

Chibimon frowned thoughtfully. "I guess so. I think I do, anyway."

"Good." After another glance in my mirror, I knew I was ready. "See you later buddy, okay?"

"Have a good run Daisuke!" Chibimon waved a blue paw. "Bring me back some icecream!"

~~~

"...But I always thought you were good at writing." Tai was leaning against my fridge, a can of soda in hand. "I mean, you wrote all those stories about you and Yama, right? The ones in that fanclub newspaper, didn't you?"

"Yeah." My sister sat at our table, staring sadly at her open chemistry book. "And that's the problem."

I took the opportunity to interrupt the moment. "What's a problem? What are you guys talking about?"

Jun shrugged her shoulders and stood up. "Nothing, squirt. School stuff."

"Oh." The conversation was closed. I wondered what they had been chatting about, and why I wasn't allowed to join in, but I let it slide, deciding instead to focus my attention on Taichi. "Anyway Tai, I'm ready."

"Cool." Tai gave me a grin. "So am I. Let's go. See you later Jun."

"Have a good time guys. Daisuke, try to be home before ten o'clock, all right?"

"No problem." I waved to my sister. "Later." Bouncing with energy, I opened my front door and lunged into the hallway. "Come on Tai! I wanna run!"

"Hold on dude!" Tai laughed as he followed me. "Usually people jog when they're outside, not as they go to the elevator."

I slowed down, falling into step next to Taichi. Once, Takeru told me that I looked just like Tai, that I was almost his clone. I wished that that was true. I wish that I was a miniature Tai. I wanted to be just like him. Who wouldn't want to be just like him? Taichi was an awesome soccer player, he was the best friend of the star singer of the Teenage Wolves, his sister was Hikari, and he had been going out with Sora (a babe in a bathing suit) for years. He was also super nice and way cool, singularly the best seventeen-year-old on the planet.

Yamato was cool too. He let me hang out with him whenever I wanted, and he let me go behind the stage at his concerts. I had only been to one of his concerts, but it rocked. It was funny watching my sister gush over him. Funny and sort of sad, though I hadn't been sure why. I had a better idea once I had learned that Hikari liked Takeru instead of me, but the realization of rejection still didn't explain why Jun had refused to stop following him. He continued to politely blow her off; no matter what she did, he wasn't interested. That didn't change the fact that he was cool though.

I liked Koushiro as well. It was hard to get close to him since he was so smart and I was so dumb, but I thought he was cool anyway. One time he came over to fix our computer. After he was done it ran twice as fast as it had done previously. Then he fixed our television and programmed our VCR. The kid was a genius.

Jyou and Sora floated in a haze of distant friendliness. They were both nice, but I had never gotten close to either of them. I knew of them, and I counted them as my friends, but what I shared with them couldn't compare to my relationship I had with Tai.

Mimi lived in America, but the few times that we had met, I fell in love with her. Not really, of course, but we bonded together or something. It probably had to do with the fact that people had always doubted our abilities, but I wasn't sure. I had never been good in psychology.

The elevator ride was done in silence. I didn't want to bug Tai with my meaningless dribble of conversation, and he seemed just as uneager to talk. I didn't mind though, just being with Tai was good enough.

"All right Daisuke," We stepped out of the building,pausing to let Tai stretch one of his long legs. "I figure we can go through the par, just following the path. It's simple, so we won't get lost, quiet, so we won't run into other people, and cool, so we don't pass out. Sound okay to you?"

"Sounds like a plan and a half." I agreed with a nod. "And Tai?"

"What?"

I grinned and stifled a cackle. "Race ya!"

I bolted down the path, still chuckling to myself. The sound of my feet hitting the pavement fell in time with my heartbeat, and the world blurred around my eyes.

The air, which had been thick and still, suddenly whipped around my face, a thin wind that sliced into my skin. My eyes watered, but I blinked away the moisture and continued my flight.

I had always loved running. It was a way for me to leave everything behind. I liked the way that I could escape everything and how no one could catch me, no matter how hard they tried.

That was one reason I enjoyed soccer so much. As soon as I got the ball, I was off.

I didn't like running in races though. Somehow, the whole idea of having someplace to run to, or some reason to run, bugged me. It took away the wildness of it all. The savageness. The innocence. It cheapened the experience.

Or whatever.

"Oh you are so going to die." Tai panted out the words, his voice getting louder as he caught up to me. "Prepare to have your ass kicked and left in the dust."

I didn't have enough breath to snap back, so I grinned at him. My legs burned and my lungs wheezed for air, but I didn't stop running. I forced my muscles to continuing, ignoring the searing pain of exhaustion.

Tai was running beside me, threatening to pass me if I didn't speed up.

I tried. I tried my damndest to go faster. But I had my limits, and sometimes I failed.

My legs wobbled and stiffened and I knew that I had lost.

Tai zoomed past me, his arms waving in self-congratulations. "Once again, Yagami is the winner! The crowd goes wild!"

I collapsed on the ground, huffing and puffing for air. "Damn." I gasped out the word and closed me eyes. "Damn."

I heard Tai fall next to me. His loud breathing told me that he suffered from the race as well, and I was pleased. At least I had given him a challenge.

We were both too tired to talk, so we lay on the grass, winded but content, until our hearts calmed back down to normal speed.

"It was supposed to be a jog."

I opened my eyes and stared at the darkening sky. "Yeah. So it was."

"That wasn't a jog."

I rolled onto my side to face Tai. He looked smug and amused, but I wasn't sure about what. He raised his eyebrows and waited for my response.

"I dunno." I shrugged and looked away. "I just wanted to run."

Tai's eyebrows raised again. "Fair enough."

A nagging worry appeared in my head. "Hey Taichi, remember when you were talking in the kitchen with my sister?"

"Yeah. It was only about half an hour ago."

"Well, what were you talking about?"

Tai picked at a blade of grass. "School stuff. Nothing interesting. Why?"

I shrugged again. "Jun's been acting kind of weird lately. I mean, more weird than usual. I was just wondering what caused her strangeness." That was true. I didn't add that I thought that perhaps I was causing my sister's depression. It was possible that it was my fault. Everything was always my fault.

He laughed and punched me lightly on the shoulder. "What a good little brother you are, Dai. Don't worry, if Jun can't handle anything, I'm sure that you'll be there to support her. Now come on, I still need a jog. Only this time I mean a real jog. No more insane running."

He stood up and offered a hand. "Come on Daisuke, you've rested enough."

I accepted his hand and he pulled me up. "Okay Taichi," I brushed the dirt and grass from my back, "But keep in mind that I'll need icecream at the end of this, so make sure that your path brings us near someplace where you can buy me some."

"Where I can buy you icecream? Oh I think not." Tai grinned and began to jog away. "I won the race, I think that you owe me icecream as a prize."

"No fair!" I caught up with him and fell into pace beside him. "It should be a consolation for losing!"

Tai grinned again. He was the type of person who liked everything, the type of person who laughed at things that most people wouldn't find funny. I was like him in that aspect. We both were easily amused. But we had different reasons. I was stupid, so I was awed at everything, and awe usually translated into amusement. Tai, however, had a good heart and honestly enjoyed everything. "Geez, is nothing good enough for you? First I give you my goggles, and then I pass over the torch of Digidestined leadership... and now I have to buy you food?"

"Please Tai?" I made a sad pouty face and sniffed sadly. "Nevermind, it's okay. It's just that my parent's don't feed me enough and I hate begging for food at night. Sometimes I have to fight off rats to get to the food that people throw away... I guess I should be thankful though, sometimes people will toss a whole meal into the garbage..."

"Okay! I get it!" Tai's grin grew, and he chuckled into between breaths. "I'll buy you icecream. You win this round, Motomiya."

"Sweet!" I skipped ahead of Taichi. "Finally, Daisuke wins!"

~~~

"Icecream..." I could hear the icecream calling my name, and I answered by drooling. "Tai," I whined as we drew closer to the icecream stand, "I want icecream!"

"You're getting some! Can't you wait one more minute?"

"No! Need it now!" I sounded like Chibimon but I didn't care.

Tai grumbled but pulled out money from his pocket. "What do you want?"

"Something chocolate!"

I found a bench to relax on while Taichi bought me food. I wished that he was brother, and that we did something together everyday, especially if he kept buying me treats. I cursed my luck. Instead of having a cool older sibling, I was stuck with Jun the demon girl.

"Here Daisuke." Tai held out some type of chocolate icecream. "Quick, before it melts."

"Thanks Tai." I took the icecream and greedily shoved it into my mouth.

I was reminded of my day, and how I had shared a similar moment with Ken. It was strange, how one action could have such a different feeling when shared with different people. When it had been me and Ken, I was jittery and excited, but with Tai, I was comfortable. I had completely different relationships with them.

I had another realization: I had been eating almost nothing but junk food all day. It'd serve me right if I got cavities.

I wondered what Ken was doing. It sucked that he lived on the other side of the city. Once I told him that he had to move because I didn't like not having him close by. I had added that he could live with me and share my room.

"Crap!" I choked on my icecream. What a stupid thing to say to him! Of course, he would think that I liked him!

"Daisuke, are you okay man?"

I coughed and spit out the icecream that had lodged in my throat. Hacking, I managed a nod. "I'm perfect."

Tai looked skeptical, but dropped the subject. "So... what have you been up to lately?"

It had felt like a loving domestic scene when I had sat with Ken, but sitting with Taichi made me feel like I supposed to feel, like a normal kid with a normal life. Meaning, people walking by saw Taichi and me as two regular kids. Two stereotypical boys, eating icecream after having done normal boy activities. They probably thought that we were talking about girls, sports, or some other normal guy conversation topic.

I didn't want to ruin it all by blabbing about drawing or about my confused feelings about Ken.

Tai was what I wanted to be. Tai was the epitome of everything.

So was Ken, but in a totally different way. Ken was perfect, obviously, but so was Tai. They were just different types of perfection.

"Not much." I decided to finally answer the question. "School sucks as usual, soccer's been okay, and that's my life."

"What an exciting life you lead."

"What about you?" I turned the tables. "What's been going on in the magical, mystical world of Taichi?"

"Very interesting and astounding things." Tai said with a laugh. "First off, school sucks. And soccer is okay."

"Good gads!" I pretended to fall off the bench. "I just can't handle all this awesome information!"

"I'm learning how to play the guitar."

Now that was interesting. I sat back up. "Really? Dude that's cool! Who's teaching you?"

"Yama." Taichi leaned back, linking his arms together behind his head. "He said that he could use another player in his band. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I'm doing it."

"Lucky." Tai was so cool. Playing the guitar was yet another perfect thing he did. "Chicks dig musicians."

"Yep, and Yama knows all about that." Tai stood up and threw his icecream wrapper into the trash. "Come on Daisuke, it's getting late and you told your sister that you'd be home by ten."

"Yes Mom." I said in a singsong voice. "Must be back in time for bedtime!"

Taichi shook his head but smiled. "Hurry up Dai, I'll race you home!"

~~~

I loved taking showers. There was something almost religious about them. I liked baths too. When I was little I used to play in the water for hours, manning my toy boats, fighting off toy sea monsters, and laughing attacks on my toy army men.

Being older meant that I couldn't have fun anymore. One could fun only at certain appropriate times. Showers were for cleaning one's body, not for playing games.

I still like bathing though. I liked hot water and I liked singing in the shower. And afterwards, it was like all my skin could breathe.

I stood under the running water for a good twenty minutes before I made any attempt to clean myself. It was nice to have the cool water on my sticky hot skin, and I relished in the experience.

I searched through our supply of shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and face scrubs, looking for something normal an not girly to wash my hair with.

One of the down sides of having a sister was that her stupid girl things littered our apartment.

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" My search had been in vain, no regular stuff had been found. So, I decided to use the weirdest ones that my sister owned. I wanted to come out smelling like a fruit salad.

Well, I was a fruit, wasn't I?

"No," I told a bottle of shampoo firmly. "I am not gay. I am not in love with Ken. I want to smell nice to... impress... Chibimon!"

The shampoo bottle was silent.

"Some help you are," I grumbled as I opened it. I poured some of the goo onto my palm, reading the label as I rubbed it in my hair. "Strawberry Kiwi Passionfruit Madness. Sounds good to me."

Once I finished with that, I moved on to body wash. "Grapefruit Lemon Lime Dessert." I pondered that for a mooment before giving in. Well, I do like desserts."

Half an hour later, I stepped out of the shower, scented a delicious combination of every fruit on the planet.

I was pleased.

Dripping water everywhere, I scurried into my room and closed my door. Chibimon was curled in a furry blue ball on my bed, so I stepped quietly around my room, gathering items of clothes.

I had just slipped into my boxers when I caught a glimpse of myself in my mirror. Smitten by my reflection I stopped to admire myself.

"You are one fine foxy lady." I posed for myself. "Damn, how come you don't have oodles of girls swarming over you?"

That was an upsetting question.

I sat on my bed, careful not to disturb my Digimon. How come people didn't like me? I smelled good, so body odor wasn't a reason. I liked soccer, so I wasn't weird. So, what was it?

Why did Hikari choose Takeru over me?

I sighed and put on an old tee-shirt to sleep in. Life wasn't fair.

It sucked being me.

***

Bleh. Hopefully the next chapter will be better. Au revoir for now! And thanks again!