Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Bishounen Boys ❯ Part 4: With Arms Wide Open ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Splash 
Yamato visits Taichi's...
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.03.2001 | Updated On: 03.09.2002 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 483 | Status: Completed
Yamato visits Taichi's...
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.03.2001 | Updated On: 03.09.2002 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 483 | Status: Completed
*******
The Bishounen Boys
Part 4: "With Arms Wide Open"
By Splash
*******
Some of these parts are the horrible result of writing in the dark in 100 degree temperature in a summer music camp dorm room ^^;; And other parts are the result of sitting around my room for two hours semi-acting out scenes with my stuffed Charizard ^^;;;;;;;;;;
Sorry, Daisuke, Ken and Takeru aren't even mentioned (directly) in this chapter ^^;; It focuses on Tai and Yama, 'cept for the first bit...
"With Arms Wide Open" is by Creed ^_^ If you heard the song, ignore the female reference ~_^
****
~August 29, 2002~
~Evening~
She played it over and over again, like a non-stop carousel ride, each time listening for something new. Each time, she found that new something, and clung onto it for as long as her memory could hold it. When it came out of her reach, she would just listen to it again and find it, always discovering another intriguing bit in the music.
" Atte iru no ka sore dake... Shiritain da."
' How do they speak like that?' she wondered aimlessly, mentally awed at the young voices' capabilities. In fact, those boys could probably surpass...
' That just might be the language, though,' she thought, pushing away any thought of someone better than her man.
" Donna ni senobi wo shitatte todokanakatta..."
A strange cycle it was, if not worrisome. The woman had been pressing that rewind button for the past three hours, listening to that same song. She should've been thankful that her tape player didn't ruin tapes, as with other players the audio would have been irritated and scratched from all of the rewinding.
" Ano hi no tobira ga ima de wa hirakeru..."
Taking a brief break from listening to the music (although it was still playing through the house) to check a certain stick-like object in her bathroom, glancing at the little plus sign in the open box. Still positive...
Satisfied, she walked back into her work area, the words slipping back into her mind. Even though it was in a completely different language, she had practically memorized all of the words by now...
" Atte iru ka na? Sore tomo... Kikenai yo ne."
Making her final decision, she pressed the stop button on her tape player and picked up the phone on her dimly-lit desk...
" Hello? Foxy Talent Search Agency? I've got an offer for you that I know you won't pass up..."
****
~August 30, 2002~
" Taichi, chotto matte!"
Taichi's locker, just past the corner near his Geometry class, clicked as the ugly tan door shut. " Eh...?"
' Why act surprised, Taichi?' he wondered to himself, ' You should know by now that it could only be him...'
Avoiding several strange looks from the gossiping crowd, the blonde caught up with his friend and joined him on his trip to the ground floor below.
" Finally, it's the weekend," Yamato sighed, following Taichi down the school stairs, violin case strapped on his arm, " Are you busy?"
" Nope, I don't even have any homework!" Taichi replied happily, feet lightly bouncing off each step of the way, " Can you do anything right now? I would sure like to hear you on the violin..."
The violin player smiled, features lightening up. " And I'd like to see your cello. Let's get going!"
" All right, then."
They exited the school, relief hanging in their shoulders. They passed the school's football field, observing the buff men on one half and the lean cheerleaders on the other.
" I don't get why football's so popular in America," the brunette said as one of the men toppled over a tackling post, " It's such a... BEASTLY sport..."
Understanding Taichi's point, the two walked to his house in uncomfortable silence. Yamato had to take an extra trip to his shack, fetching some music for his violin and harmonica. That only took a couple extra minutes...
They soon arrived at the Yagami residence, and Taichi produced a housekey from his backpack to let them inside.
A tour around the building followed from the finished basement to the guestroom upstairs, and the pair migrated to Taichi's room. Normally, he would never play in his own room, but once in a while couldn't hurt... " You wanna go first?"
The brunette nodded, his mass of hair swaying with each movement. " Just hold on for a sec."
Being the patient, lithe man that he was, Yamato made his seat on a nearby piece of furniture and rested his hands on his chin. He watched the cello player take a long, deep breathe, and again, and again... and stopped right before he could ask if he was having problems.
Taichi moved on to his procedure of concentration, shutting his eyes and adjusting to the room's general atmosphere. The humidity, the white noise of mild air conditioning, the sensing of a blonde's slow sulking nearby...
Feeling the unneeded heat being transferred from his hands, Yamato released his grip and began fanning himself, vision darting through other places of the unventured room.
A sure sign of short attention span, Taichi brewed for a brief moment before blacking out his eyesight once more.
Taichi had a large dressing table, corners of boxers and tee-shirts peeping out of the shelves. A convenient boom box was placed within the disarray of items splayed across the top of the table. He had left the boombox on the CD mode instead of the Tape/off one...
'Energy waste,' Yamato thought bluntly, obviously an extreme conservative. ' Maybe he won't mind if I...'
The brunette blinked open one eye, catching Yamato's movement to his dressing table. The other eye followed as he reached for the box with the little red light shining on it...
" Yamato-"
Startled like a squirrel caught in traffic, the blonde jerked, a finger accidentally pressing the CD play button. Unmotivated to move, he let the CD play, and unsuspectingly, a low murmur of a soft song came on. He was bewildered, listening to the beautiful... cello... pattern...
" Bach's Unaccompanied suites for cello, Suite No. 1 Prelude," Taichi commented. " You want me to play some of it? It's probably better live."
Yamato pressed the stop button lightly, flicking the box setting to that goddam Tape/Off mode, and turned around to sit back down on Taichi's deskchair.
" Didn't you have some other piece in mind? You spent so much time focusing on it." he queried.
" Huh? No, I was just stalling time since I couldn't think of anything to play," Taichi said, itching his cheek with bow in hand. Yamato held back a laugh, substituting with a pleasant snort.
Yamato watched attentively as Taichi's bow moved across the string, each note ringing beautifully in his ears. ' He has really graceful hands,' he noted to himself, unable to take his eyes off them. But yet, Taichi's earlier observations proved correct, as Yamato's mind began to wander off...
****
~August 15, 2002~
" Matt, is it?"
A simple glance was the only answer she got, and I moved on. She was the only witness to see every bully in the entire school not be able to land a finger on me, I had left them tangled in a pile somewhere on the football field. I'm not going there again...
Damn this school. All the girls are dead-brains and all the guys either hate me or refuse to talk to me for whatever crap reason. I gave up after a short while of trying to fit in. Why bother? I didn't like any of the things they did... girls andsports. Nothing else. Except maybe sex. But they always relate that to girls anyhow. Girls are all bitches and sports kill the hell out of me.
" But if you think that way all the time then you'll never get a date!" my dad said as I walked by him coming home. I need to stop speaking my mind, I never know if anyone actually listens. And those that do never have anything useful to say. Was this any exception? Probably not.
Never be able to get a date? In that case, I don't care. I've never felt love in my life, not even from my family. Mom is always ranting about how I'm not doing enough for the family and that my life is going nowhere, and dad doesn't say much, but when he does, he's a lot like mom...
Man does life stink. Before it was just my family, and ever since I moved here even my peers are all... Puh...
Maybe life isn't worth living...
****
~August 30, 2002~
After a revealing hour of Taichi's exception for his distate for Bach and Yamato's strange (yet wondrous) violin improvisations, the cello player's mother returned. She clumsily lumbered (and crashed) inside with six grocery bags toppling over her like a pack of football players.
" You must be Yamato. My little cuttie pie's told me SOOOOOO much about you!" she said half an hour later while storing away the new groceries ("American food! Pies! Fries! ...Instant Ramen noodles?"). A small blush arose from Taichi's face at the should-be formal name calling.
A messy experience of PBJ ("Is that peanut butter jacka-") created mini war-like landmines in the kitchen (how...?) and the boys were sent outside so the casualties could be fixed. Bored out of their minds within minutes (dead ants in the driveway from mother's Mitsubishi...wow.) they confided in a little tour of the neighborhood... THEIR neighborhood, they soon found out. Taking the scenic route, they discovered a God-awful LOT of kids roaming the streets, probably a nice average of 2.16 kids in every house... however the hell you can get a 16 hundredth of a kid...
They wandered to and forth from Yamato's house on the other side of the neighborhood, learning random facts such as Taichi having his road-rage suffering mom drive him to school every weekday, and about the annoying middle schoolers that always blocked the roads with their scooters... and when they arrived back at Taichi's, his mother shoo-ed them right back out, as a dark dust cloud followed them. Figuring that she needed some extra time, they went over to the beautiful, large backyard. Maybe if they won the lottery someday they could put a nice outdoor pool in it... and a hot spa, too. Definitely a hot spa.
****
I watch as Taichi casually plops down dead center of the grass field on his back. Well, maybe it isn't really a field, but back in Odaiba I didn't see too many grass patches around the resident areas...
I lay down a few feet next to him, admiring how green and... fluffy... that grass is...
" Ah, it's been a pretty tiring week, how about some nice companionable rest to get this school stress off of us?" Taichi suggests, staring up into the sky. I follow his lead, observing the puffs of white as they walked slowly by. PURE white... I sigh again as past memories begin to blur my mind again...
Every day was like a black cloud, overflowing with acid rain that was threatening to burst at any given moment. At school, I had nothing to look forward to. At home I had nothing to look forward to. And I had no where else to go... basically, I was trapped. If my life really was going nowhere (even though I'm an almost straight A student) I could've blamed the world for it. My parents don't motivate me (only threaten), all the teachers I've come across in high school are no help and friends... I already explained that.
And then... I heard about him the instant I came back from the orchestra field trip. A dark, silent Japanese transfer student in the premises. He caught my interest immediately, an opportunity that there might be another like me who I could befriend. As I walked out of my sixth hour class, I spotted a glimpse of him. No surprise, he stood out quite a bit. I would've gone after him, but with how crowded the halls were...
During 7th hour, I heard the rumor of Brian getting his revenge on " that big-haired dude," for attracting Jess' attention. The hell?!? You can't blame someone for being attractive... and... well...
The rumor-telling girl informed the other girls of the location... just right next to the front door entrance. If this kid was anything close to his description, he wouldn't have any support against Brian except himself.
Sure enough, I swiftly followed the buffed-up bully to the front entrance, and stopped the new kid from getting his eyes punched out. I never expected much gratitude, but small turns of events have brought us closer than I ever thought possible. The similarity of our hell-hole lives, our understanding toward each other, the only practical ones in a cursed world full of pessimistic, closed minded people and any kind of that shit. And for the first time...
He looks so peaceful lying there on the grass, like he's forgotten the faults of this planet for the moment. And then... it hits me. If I had never met Taichi, the world around me would have driven me off the edge. Around him, I'm relaxed, as if I'm on vacation without a care in the world. He's my stress reliever, the one who keeps me human, the one who keeps me... alive. Every time we meet, he indirectly saves my life, and I never realized it until now. I owe him the same.
I stare at the clouds above me, magnificent white spots covering up the clear sky. Why is it always gray or black when he's not around? I glance at him in response to the hypothetical question. He's still relaxed, his hands pillowing his head.
I feel my eyes water as the answer drives itself into my mind. I close my eyes to prevent anything from coming out, and blindly move next to him, nudging my head near his breathing chest. He suddenly exhales quickly, then holds his breathe for a lingering second. He finally breathes in, and as he exhales again, I sense his warmth surrounding me. He gently brings his arm around me, holding me, comforting me...
My eyes can hold it no longer, and streaks fall down my face as I shuddered slightly, burying my head further. This feeling... for the first time, I've met someone I've WANTED to be with, I've WANTED to spend my life with, I've WANTED to become friends with, and so much... more...
And while I tremble and let out everything I have been tucking inside me through tears, and he continues to hold me in silence, the answer rings in my mind again...
I need him, now and forever.
****
Tsuzuku...
****
If you haven't figured it out already, random stuff was done at music camp, romance during the Charizard stuffie time... O_o;
Foxy Talent Search Agency?- I was just thinking about the beginning of my Freshmen year when Paul told me that someone thought I was foxy, but he STILL hasn't told me who it is/was... it aggravates me!
Taichi, chotto matte!-Tai, wait a second!
I actually had Mrs. Hake in 8th grade, and for science class, rather than the one portrayed here. She's... nicer in this fic, but the rest goes true ^^;; Oh, raging pregnant science teachers... -.-
Yamato's thoughts are quite similar to mine, though I haven't found that one person to comfort me... T_T
Sighing off... that's not a typo...
Splash
http://gottaito.cjb.net
The Bishounen Boys
Part 4: "With Arms Wide Open"
By Splash
*******
Some of these parts are the horrible result of writing in the dark in 100 degree temperature in a summer music camp dorm room ^^;; And other parts are the result of sitting around my room for two hours semi-acting out scenes with my stuffed Charizard ^^;;;;;;;;;;
Sorry, Daisuke, Ken and Takeru aren't even mentioned (directly) in this chapter ^^;; It focuses on Tai and Yama, 'cept for the first bit...
"With Arms Wide Open" is by Creed ^_^ If you heard the song, ignore the female reference ~_^
****
~August 29, 2002~
~Evening~
She played it over and over again, like a non-stop carousel ride, each time listening for something new. Each time, she found that new something, and clung onto it for as long as her memory could hold it. When it came out of her reach, she would just listen to it again and find it, always discovering another intriguing bit in the music.
" Atte iru no ka sore dake... Shiritain da."
' How do they speak like that?' she wondered aimlessly, mentally awed at the young voices' capabilities. In fact, those boys could probably surpass...
' That just might be the language, though,' she thought, pushing away any thought of someone better than her man.
" Donna ni senobi wo shitatte todokanakatta..."
A strange cycle it was, if not worrisome. The woman had been pressing that rewind button for the past three hours, listening to that same song. She should've been thankful that her tape player didn't ruin tapes, as with other players the audio would have been irritated and scratched from all of the rewinding.
" Ano hi no tobira ga ima de wa hirakeru..."
Taking a brief break from listening to the music (although it was still playing through the house) to check a certain stick-like object in her bathroom, glancing at the little plus sign in the open box. Still positive...
Satisfied, she walked back into her work area, the words slipping back into her mind. Even though it was in a completely different language, she had practically memorized all of the words by now...
" Atte iru ka na? Sore tomo... Kikenai yo ne."
Making her final decision, she pressed the stop button on her tape player and picked up the phone on her dimly-lit desk...
" Hello? Foxy Talent Search Agency? I've got an offer for you that I know you won't pass up..."
****
~August 30, 2002~
" Taichi, chotto matte!"
Taichi's locker, just past the corner near his Geometry class, clicked as the ugly tan door shut. " Eh...?"
' Why act surprised, Taichi?' he wondered to himself, ' You should know by now that it could only be him...'
Avoiding several strange looks from the gossiping crowd, the blonde caught up with his friend and joined him on his trip to the ground floor below.
" Finally, it's the weekend," Yamato sighed, following Taichi down the school stairs, violin case strapped on his arm, " Are you busy?"
" Nope, I don't even have any homework!" Taichi replied happily, feet lightly bouncing off each step of the way, " Can you do anything right now? I would sure like to hear you on the violin..."
The violin player smiled, features lightening up. " And I'd like to see your cello. Let's get going!"
" All right, then."
They exited the school, relief hanging in their shoulders. They passed the school's football field, observing the buff men on one half and the lean cheerleaders on the other.
" I don't get why football's so popular in America," the brunette said as one of the men toppled over a tackling post, " It's such a... BEASTLY sport..."
Understanding Taichi's point, the two walked to his house in uncomfortable silence. Yamato had to take an extra trip to his shack, fetching some music for his violin and harmonica. That only took a couple extra minutes...
They soon arrived at the Yagami residence, and Taichi produced a housekey from his backpack to let them inside.
A tour around the building followed from the finished basement to the guestroom upstairs, and the pair migrated to Taichi's room. Normally, he would never play in his own room, but once in a while couldn't hurt... " You wanna go first?"
The brunette nodded, his mass of hair swaying with each movement. " Just hold on for a sec."
Being the patient, lithe man that he was, Yamato made his seat on a nearby piece of furniture and rested his hands on his chin. He watched the cello player take a long, deep breathe, and again, and again... and stopped right before he could ask if he was having problems.
Taichi moved on to his procedure of concentration, shutting his eyes and adjusting to the room's general atmosphere. The humidity, the white noise of mild air conditioning, the sensing of a blonde's slow sulking nearby...
Feeling the unneeded heat being transferred from his hands, Yamato released his grip and began fanning himself, vision darting through other places of the unventured room.
A sure sign of short attention span, Taichi brewed for a brief moment before blacking out his eyesight once more.
Taichi had a large dressing table, corners of boxers and tee-shirts peeping out of the shelves. A convenient boom box was placed within the disarray of items splayed across the top of the table. He had left the boombox on the CD mode instead of the Tape/off one...
'Energy waste,' Yamato thought bluntly, obviously an extreme conservative. ' Maybe he won't mind if I...'
The brunette blinked open one eye, catching Yamato's movement to his dressing table. The other eye followed as he reached for the box with the little red light shining on it...
" Yamato-"
Startled like a squirrel caught in traffic, the blonde jerked, a finger accidentally pressing the CD play button. Unmotivated to move, he let the CD play, and unsuspectingly, a low murmur of a soft song came on. He was bewildered, listening to the beautiful... cello... pattern...
" Bach's Unaccompanied suites for cello, Suite No. 1 Prelude," Taichi commented. " You want me to play some of it? It's probably better live."
Yamato pressed the stop button lightly, flicking the box setting to that goddam Tape/Off mode, and turned around to sit back down on Taichi's deskchair.
" Didn't you have some other piece in mind? You spent so much time focusing on it." he queried.
" Huh? No, I was just stalling time since I couldn't think of anything to play," Taichi said, itching his cheek with bow in hand. Yamato held back a laugh, substituting with a pleasant snort.
Yamato watched attentively as Taichi's bow moved across the string, each note ringing beautifully in his ears. ' He has really graceful hands,' he noted to himself, unable to take his eyes off them. But yet, Taichi's earlier observations proved correct, as Yamato's mind began to wander off...
****
~August 15, 2002~
" Matt, is it?"
A simple glance was the only answer she got, and I moved on. She was the only witness to see every bully in the entire school not be able to land a finger on me, I had left them tangled in a pile somewhere on the football field. I'm not going there again...
Damn this school. All the girls are dead-brains and all the guys either hate me or refuse to talk to me for whatever crap reason. I gave up after a short while of trying to fit in. Why bother? I didn't like any of the things they did... girls andsports. Nothing else. Except maybe sex. But they always relate that to girls anyhow. Girls are all bitches and sports kill the hell out of me.
" But if you think that way all the time then you'll never get a date!" my dad said as I walked by him coming home. I need to stop speaking my mind, I never know if anyone actually listens. And those that do never have anything useful to say. Was this any exception? Probably not.
Never be able to get a date? In that case, I don't care. I've never felt love in my life, not even from my family. Mom is always ranting about how I'm not doing enough for the family and that my life is going nowhere, and dad doesn't say much, but when he does, he's a lot like mom...
Man does life stink. Before it was just my family, and ever since I moved here even my peers are all... Puh...
Maybe life isn't worth living...
****
~August 30, 2002~
After a revealing hour of Taichi's exception for his distate for Bach and Yamato's strange (yet wondrous) violin improvisations, the cello player's mother returned. She clumsily lumbered (and crashed) inside with six grocery bags toppling over her like a pack of football players.
" You must be Yamato. My little cuttie pie's told me SOOOOOO much about you!" she said half an hour later while storing away the new groceries ("American food! Pies! Fries! ...Instant Ramen noodles?"). A small blush arose from Taichi's face at the should-be formal name calling.
A messy experience of PBJ ("Is that peanut butter jacka-") created mini war-like landmines in the kitchen (how...?) and the boys were sent outside so the casualties could be fixed. Bored out of their minds within minutes (dead ants in the driveway from mother's Mitsubishi...wow.) they confided in a little tour of the neighborhood... THEIR neighborhood, they soon found out. Taking the scenic route, they discovered a God-awful LOT of kids roaming the streets, probably a nice average of 2.16 kids in every house... however the hell you can get a 16 hundredth of a kid...
They wandered to and forth from Yamato's house on the other side of the neighborhood, learning random facts such as Taichi having his road-rage suffering mom drive him to school every weekday, and about the annoying middle schoolers that always blocked the roads with their scooters... and when they arrived back at Taichi's, his mother shoo-ed them right back out, as a dark dust cloud followed them. Figuring that she needed some extra time, they went over to the beautiful, large backyard. Maybe if they won the lottery someday they could put a nice outdoor pool in it... and a hot spa, too. Definitely a hot spa.
****
I watch as Taichi casually plops down dead center of the grass field on his back. Well, maybe it isn't really a field, but back in Odaiba I didn't see too many grass patches around the resident areas...
I lay down a few feet next to him, admiring how green and... fluffy... that grass is...
" Ah, it's been a pretty tiring week, how about some nice companionable rest to get this school stress off of us?" Taichi suggests, staring up into the sky. I follow his lead, observing the puffs of white as they walked slowly by. PURE white... I sigh again as past memories begin to blur my mind again...
Every day was like a black cloud, overflowing with acid rain that was threatening to burst at any given moment. At school, I had nothing to look forward to. At home I had nothing to look forward to. And I had no where else to go... basically, I was trapped. If my life really was going nowhere (even though I'm an almost straight A student) I could've blamed the world for it. My parents don't motivate me (only threaten), all the teachers I've come across in high school are no help and friends... I already explained that.
And then... I heard about him the instant I came back from the orchestra field trip. A dark, silent Japanese transfer student in the premises. He caught my interest immediately, an opportunity that there might be another like me who I could befriend. As I walked out of my sixth hour class, I spotted a glimpse of him. No surprise, he stood out quite a bit. I would've gone after him, but with how crowded the halls were...
During 7th hour, I heard the rumor of Brian getting his revenge on " that big-haired dude," for attracting Jess' attention. The hell?!? You can't blame someone for being attractive... and... well...
The rumor-telling girl informed the other girls of the location... just right next to the front door entrance. If this kid was anything close to his description, he wouldn't have any support against Brian except himself.
Sure enough, I swiftly followed the buffed-up bully to the front entrance, and stopped the new kid from getting his eyes punched out. I never expected much gratitude, but small turns of events have brought us closer than I ever thought possible. The similarity of our hell-hole lives, our understanding toward each other, the only practical ones in a cursed world full of pessimistic, closed minded people and any kind of that shit. And for the first time...
He looks so peaceful lying there on the grass, like he's forgotten the faults of this planet for the moment. And then... it hits me. If I had never met Taichi, the world around me would have driven me off the edge. Around him, I'm relaxed, as if I'm on vacation without a care in the world. He's my stress reliever, the one who keeps me human, the one who keeps me... alive. Every time we meet, he indirectly saves my life, and I never realized it until now. I owe him the same.
I stare at the clouds above me, magnificent white spots covering up the clear sky. Why is it always gray or black when he's not around? I glance at him in response to the hypothetical question. He's still relaxed, his hands pillowing his head.
I feel my eyes water as the answer drives itself into my mind. I close my eyes to prevent anything from coming out, and blindly move next to him, nudging my head near his breathing chest. He suddenly exhales quickly, then holds his breathe for a lingering second. He finally breathes in, and as he exhales again, I sense his warmth surrounding me. He gently brings his arm around me, holding me, comforting me...
My eyes can hold it no longer, and streaks fall down my face as I shuddered slightly, burying my head further. This feeling... for the first time, I've met someone I've WANTED to be with, I've WANTED to spend my life with, I've WANTED to become friends with, and so much... more...
And while I tremble and let out everything I have been tucking inside me through tears, and he continues to hold me in silence, the answer rings in my mind again...
I need him, now and forever.
****
Tsuzuku...
****
If you haven't figured it out already, random stuff was done at music camp, romance during the Charizard stuffie time... O_o;
Foxy Talent Search Agency?- I was just thinking about the beginning of my Freshmen year when Paul told me that someone thought I was foxy, but he STILL hasn't told me who it is/was... it aggravates me!
Taichi, chotto matte!-Tai, wait a second!
I actually had Mrs. Hake in 8th grade, and for science class, rather than the one portrayed here. She's... nicer in this fic, but the rest goes true ^^;; Oh, raging pregnant science teachers... -.-
Yamato's thoughts are quite similar to mine, though I haven't found that one person to comfort me... T_T
Sighing off... that's not a typo...
Splash
http://gottaito.cjb.net