Taste of life
Author: Nekocin
Disclaimer: characters are not mine. Fic is mine. The one bad word 'fudge' is also not mine.
Warnings: OOC, weirdness, OCs
Author's notes: Sadly, I've to admit I'm losing interest in writing more Digimon fanfictions. Probably because the fandom is so big and has a lot of good (hidden) writers here and there, whose stories are much more worth your time reading than my puny collection. I might write a few more one shots and maybe some more AUs (I know you all will probably avoid reading them, since I tend to take very long with updates nowadays when it comes to this fandom and Gundam Wingit's because I'm sophomore and because I've way too many anime series to keep my eyes on)
Oh by the way, the previous chapter is replaced (since there were 2 of the same chapters, namely chapter 10), so be sure to read that one first before this continuing with this one. I believe it will be confusing if you just head.
Thank you for reading!

Chapter 12

For the rest of the week, both main characters for the school play, Yamato and Sora, had been avoiding each other unnecessarilyunnecessarily, because even if they didn't want to see each other for weeks-slash-months-slash-years, they would still see each other, either at home or school.

-It couldn't be helped. They were just bound to meet again and again-, Taichi had thought when he noticed how drastically their attitudes towards one another had changed; Yamato, from an admirable young man to thisthis -scared-y cat- and Sora, once an indifferent lady to this more emotional one, think dramatic Juliet.

Taichi didn't know if he making any progress to get them together. The last few days he'd tried throwing either of them into each others arms. And yes, yes and yeshe did all those too.

He tried sending sappy love letters to Sora signed under Yamato's name. No such luck; Sora had torn them into millions of pieces, clearly having seen through the whole thing -or maybe not? She still thought Yamato had written them- and burnt them in the garden, when the Gardener was busy burning the dead leaves to ashes.

He tried sending the love letters reversed, meaning said letters were sent to Yama under Sora's name. Well, nothing much came out of it thoughit seemed whatever Sora's words had been that one day when they got cornered, they had hit Yamato gravely. Wonder if the guy's finally noticed his mistake of trying to drive someone like Sora away. Hmph. The poor bastard. Sora seemed like the perfect someone for him!

Other than love letters, he'd tried sending each of them little gifts and -oh my gosh- did either of them know how much money he'd spent on all those gifts together? His fortune would probably be bled away before he was qualified to be the head of his family. His father would instantly chastise him for being so careless.
(He sighed sadly, but perked up immediately. He could borrow some money from Yamato in the near future if he was broke)

The gifts hadn't worked sadly. But the only improvement this time was actually that neither one of them had dumped the gifts into the trashthey kept the gifts. That's a whole improvement. Such troublesome people.

"Prrrr," Neko purred contently under Taichi's absent scratches behind its ears.
He'd been sitting on that straight-back sofa chair with Neko curled up on his lap for the last few hours, brainstorming. He needed a plan while making use of his knowledge of hidden meanings behind the flowers.

As he continued to brainstorm, the last thing he heard was Neko purring in front of his face... "Mrow,"

---

Neko padded down the hall, elegantly swinging her tail from side to side. She occasionally looked up at the giant doors passing her sight with disinterest and continued her daily walk.

One of the doors at the end of the hall opened and someone stepped out. It was her master's brother and her all-time victim. Narrowing her eyes at the tall human, she quickly sped forward to launch herself at his shiny shoes

-only to find herself being picked up by the scruff of her neck. "KCHCHCHTTT! MROW! KCHCHCHTT!"

Solemn ice-blue eyes stared indifferently at her. Eyes that never had that look whenever he looked at her straight in the eye. Whatever the heck happened to the smug human? The evil human? The prissy human? The flaunting human?

"It's not nice to attack me, Neko-chan," the human said softly. Neko had an immediate heart-attack!

Meow meow nya!
Translation: What the -Fudge-?

He'd probably noticed her eyes widening in surprisedo cats even understand human language?but did not erase the look of solemnity from his face.

"If you're looking for Takenouchi," his eyes darkened, turning azure, as he spoke in that same soft tone before pausing. Something between a cross of pain and helplessness swept over his face, blatant enough for Neko to see the changes.

Whatever the -fudge- happened to this human?

The human let out a troubled chuckle and put Neko back down on the floor. "never mind," he whispered and ran down the stairs, leaving Neko without a fight. For once.

Neko could only blink and tilt its head to one side, questioning. The -fudge-? The human had escaped her grasp without a scratch. Amazing. He'd finally found some brains to work on. Muahwaha, I mean, Meownyanyanyanya! Neko will some day rule the household!

In one day she'd ruled her master and that girl with the pretty red eyes. In one week she'd won over that guy with the big hair. And now, she'd won over the stupid one with the weird obsessionswho exactly liked to stack up all the presents in the closet without opening any of them? Who in their right mind liked to argue with a cat like her? Such a weird bastard.

Oh well. Neko made up her mind and continued her peaceful walk, her tail swishing side to side

"Oh, there you are Neko-chan!" She found herself being scooped up into someone's arm. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you,"

"Mew," Neko answered sweetly and looked up at her master.
Translation: I'm right here. Right here.

Master laughed heartily, his eyes crinkling up and his smile widening into a grin. He always had the smile on his facesuch a gentle smilewhenever he looked down at her in his arms, unlike master's brother. Master's face would immediately lit up when she answer him sweetly, and he would promise her a very good meal afterwards.
Sometimes she wondered why exactly master and the other guy were blood-related. Cats like her usually don't have great sibling relationships.

"Come on, Neko-chan. I hope you haven't been bothering big brother," Master's eyelids slid open again, revealing the same pair of blue eyes Neko had seen previouslyonly this time, the eyes were showing complete contentment.

"Mew," Neko widened her eyes, if possible, and perked her ears gently, just to appear innocent.
Translation: Who me?

Master chuckled and brushed his fingers through her fur gently as he made his way down the stairs, "You know, Neko-chan, maybe you should stop pestering big brother. He hasn't been himself these last few days and has gone as far to avoid everyone. Everyone including me. I assume he's busy thinking about his poor fate and Sora-san."

Neko purred under the caress and leaned into the touch.
"Mrow,"
Translation: Whatever you say, master!

---

"Let's play a game!" The Literature teacher suddenly spoke up excitedly, clapping her hands to gather everyone and ignored the many groans coming from her students. They still needed to practice the play a few more times before the big day, but it seemed that no one really wanted to helpwhich was a big understatement. Both main characters for the play stopped moving and blinked at their teacher.

"Since neither of you are cooperating I thought we should do some socializing," She explained, her smile widening while her eyes brightened.

"What's the use, teacher?"

"Yeah, it's not like we're still kids who play stupid games,"

"Boring. I hate practising this shit! I hate doing any sort of games!"

"I want to go home! Please, teacher, send me home. We've been doing this stupid scene for quite a while and I'm not very fond of games, so forget it!"

Her smile didn't waver. Then she narrowed her eyes.
"Now, now, children. If I say we'll play a gamethen WE'LL PLAY A GAME!" Her voice echoed through the gym hall, scaring nearby birds from their nests and making teachers on a break, look up in surprise. She coughed sheepishly, turned round and headed to the teacher's desk on which she'd put her bag.

The students were all clinging to each other, their feet shaking as they watched their teacher pull out a piece of paper from her big note-block and start tearing it into small pieces.

"Ch', cowards," Yamato muttered under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited patiently for the teacher to yell "Action!" again, on the stage. His eyes unconsciously turned to look at Takenouchi, who had taken a seat on the edge of the stage on his right. It took a moment or two for him to notice that he was staring at her. Again.

Ever since the little incident with his fan club he kept feeling troubled about this Takenouchi character. Something had changed after she spoke those awful wordswhatever words she'd said had made him snap. Something had definitely changed. Other than the strange change, these last few days he'd received many, many gifts from a certain secret admirer, which was very annoying. He didn't opened any of them. He didn't have to, because he knew just what exactly was inside.

The teacher grinned and held her hands to her chest as if treasuring the torn pieces of paper. "Now here are a few simple rules. Girls will write the questions, while the rest of you write the answers,"

She received dubious looks from the students. "What?"

She smiled, "Each of you will get a blank little piece of paper. Write any question you like, for example casual ones like 'how are you?'-stuff. Same goes with the answers. Just write something down,"

"What does that have to do with our game?"

"What kind of game is this?"

"How should we start?"

"What exactly are we doing?"

"Why should we write questions? What kind of questions am I allowed to write?"

The students complained as each of them received a blank piece of paper. The teacher kept her smile up as she glared down at her pupils.

"Any more questions?" She wondered sweetly.

"No," And they started to scribble down something.

X X

"What are you cooking tonight?" one of the guys read the written little note calmly.

"You're a jerk," one of the girls answered monotonously with the written note on the piece of paper.

The teacher instantly laughed out loud, leaving her students in the dark. They all blinked at each other and then at the teacher. They must have missed something

"What was that?"

"Don't you guys get it? That's the answer to the question you'd written!" the teacher finally elaborated. Realization slowly dawned the students' faces and they let out a long 'oh' to show that it was understood.

"Next," The teacher shook her cupped hands filled with the question notes and randomly picked out a boy to read out one of the crumpled little things. Then she left the heap of crumpled questions in a cup and took a different pile of crumpled notes between her hands. She shook hard and then picked out a random girl too.

"How are you?" It was again, read out monotonously.

"None of your business," was the answereven more monotonously.

Snickers. More snickers. Then everyone snickered.

"That one fit," Ms. Inoue commented. "NEXT!"

"Why are you at school?"

"Mom and Dad,"

Everyone blinked and all eyes were on the teacher. Her smiling face hadn't changed a bit after the weird answer. "NEXT!"

"When will we meet?"

"Today is a fine day,"

"NEXT!"

"What's your favorite color?"

"I hate you very much!"

"Now, now, that's very harsh. Next!"

"Why are you here?"

"Because I'm forced to come,"

"Hehehe, not bad. Next!"

"What's your name?"

"I'll give you my everything if you want,"

"Uhm...next,"

"Why are youbi?"

"Because I love you,"

"Wow! You guys think alike, next!"

"Why is the dog whimpering?"

"Because you've kicked her,"

"Hehehe, are you all telepathic? Next!"

"Why are you swaying?"

"Because I'm drunk,"

"Yep. I believe you people can read minds. Dammit. I've to shield my thoughts before any of you have read anything inappropriate in my mind. Hehehehe, next!"

"What are you eating right now?"

"I'll give you it tomorrow,"

"Uh, wow. Pick-up lines. I haven't noticed how smooth you guys can be. Next,"

"Why are you at school?"

"Because I've no choice,"

"Hmhmhmhm, next,"

"What are you wearing right now?"

"I'm very sure you're a virgin,"

"Tsk, you're all horny,"

Miss Inoue clapped her hands at last, to indicate they're all done for the day and widened her smile. "Now, wasn't that fun? You all can even read each other's minds. Very scary. So why can't any of you work together in peace?"

For some reason it felt as if she was pointedly asking both Yamato and Takenouchi... because everyone in class turned to look at both of them automatically. Yamato's face remained grim, while Takenouchi's was carefully blank.

---

The door to the living room opened with Yamato stepping inonly to freeze in mid-step and stare. Two pairs of eyes regarded him, scrutinizing him. Both pairs belonging to Takenouchi and some girl -what's her name?- with the strange obsession for red roses.

Takenouchi averted her gaze instantly.

The action didn't go unnoticed by her friend, who was regarding both of them with a certain empathy. She smiled politely at him, stood up and went towards him with an earnest smile.

"I'm Tachikawa Mimi. And you're Ishida Yamato, are you not?"

Yamato stared at the girl with his dull eyes. Tachikawa Mimithe name wasn't very familiarbut she was probably the type of girl Taichi had always dreamed of meeting or had that been Kido Jou, an older classman who hung out with Taichi's other friend, Izumi.

Her smile never wavered. She looked over her shoulder and suddenly look determined when Takenouchi did not look up at her.

"Now, come. Let's talk about this, just the three of us," In a very unlady-like way Tachikawa grabbed hold of his wrist in a tight hold before he could excuse himself, and pulled him along to the couch.

"I've been noticing very strange things going on between the two of you. So cold. So distant. What a shame. Although I've no idea what your relationship is with him, Sora-chan, I'm positive you aren't just being mean to him because he's a guy. And you, Ishida-san, I need not to spare you from my words. You have been quite withdrawn lately, even Taichi is complaining. So where exactly do I fit in, when you two are simplyhow should I say it?having a sort of lover's quarrel or some sort-," Tachikawa prattled on merrily as she made her self comfortable sitting across Takenouchi and Ishida. She sent them a small encouraging smile and took her cup of tea.

"Mimi!"

"Just ignore me or pretend that I'm not even in the room. I'm sure I might not have any idea what you guys would be talking aboutso go on, clear things up," she winked lightly and grinned good-naturedly at Takenouchi.

Takenouchi stared at her.
Tachikawa stared back in response, smiling slightly and then suddenly shot up from her seat.

"All right! All right! I'm leaving. Who knows, a heart to heart talk between the two of you might help a bitI mean it's not so bad to have an arranged marriage. You see, it can be some kind of rescue to those who don't know much of loving and devoting someone. With an arranged marriage you two can learn to like each other at least and-," Tachikawa stopped abruptly as she looked down at Takenouchi only to meet a glare. She let out a twinkling laugh and glided deliberately towards the door.

"Please excuse my presence. I'll be off. See youprobably some time later," And Tachikawa stepped out of the room, leaving Yamato and Takenouchi to their own devices. Whatever Tachikawa was trying to do with her merry babbling, unusual mind reading and abrupt departure, it didn't change the situation of both Takenouchi and Yamato being engaged for an arranged marriage.

An uncomfortable silence immediately settled upon them. So disturbingly clichéd that the room was silent enough for one to cut the silence with a sharp knife and break the metal in the process. One could also say that a certain heaviness had settled in the room, for the air in the room was simply getting a bit hard to breathe in. What were they supposed to do? Play pranks on each other? Hurt each other? Kill each other because they were simply engaged? One being not-so-rich, while the other filthy-rich.

"AAAARGH!" Yamato suddenly screamed out, grabbing his hair.

Takenouchi looked up in shock.

"I can't take this anymore! It's too silent! And it's all your fault!" He shouted while pointing an accusing finger at the other's face. Takenouchi looked cross-eyed at the finger in surprise and slowly, let her anger rage an internal war within her.

She slapped the offending finger away and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ishida. But did you just accuse me for causing the silence?"

"Yes!"

"Brat! Where's the logic in it?"

"You-You should apologize this instant for-for youruhmimproper behaviour!"

"Shut up, bastard! I'm not apologizing! You're the one who started this whole thing!"

"What whole thing? How dare you!"

"Ah, how dare I? We're here, talkingno, shouting at each other. What do you expect me to do? Sit back and listen to you scream nonsense to the world? To hear you shout at everything for your unfortunate situation?"

"Where the heck did those come from?"

"I don't know. You started this random accusing!"

"Hmph. Fine. It was just too silent, that's all. Let's talk,"

"So, now you're deciding to talk?"

"YES! Now shut up, Takenouchi! Or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?"

"Or I'llor-or-I will-will-willstuff you in those damn stupid flowers!" Yamato pointed at a random vase filled with freshly-picked (or bought) flowers in the living room.

Takenouchi could only blink several times, afraid that she'd heard it wrong. Nope. She didn't hear wrong. The answer was confirmed when she followed Yamato's pointing finger in the direction of a large vase with wild flowers standing next to the window. Suddenly she couldn't contain the bubbling laughter and thus burst out into fits of laughter.

Yamato turned red as soon as he caught on. His red face made Takenouchi laugh even harder, her eyes suddenly getting tears.

"Stop laughing! Stop laughing, Takenouchi! It's not funny,"

Takenouchi wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes as she let her chuckles die down. "Sorry. But you're a bit lame when it comes to verbal threatening,"

Yamato glared. Quite offended with such a comment coming from her. "I suppose you're good at it?"

"Of course!" She smirked at him.

He rolled his eyes in response. "Anything important for me to know how to be good at it?"

"Can't tell. It's my secret," Her smirk widened.

"Hmph," Yamato snorted at last, leaned back on the couch and crossed his arms on top of his breast.

"You know, Ishida-san, thank you for the gifts. Very awfully thoughtful of you. I like all of them," Takenouchi changed topic out of the blue. And it caught Yamato off guard.

"Gifts? What gifts?" He wondered in confusion.

She brought her hand to her chin and looked thoughtful. "Thought so,"

"What 'thought so'?"

Takenouchi looked contemplating at him, probably battling whether or not to tell him about some unexpected turns of events concerning the many, many gifts she'd received. And at last she made up her mind and decided to do it anyways. The reason as to why she would do such a thing will probably stay a mystery.

"Lately, I've been getting gifts," she trailed off and looked up at Yamato, wondering if he was listening.

"And?"

"And it's under your name,"

"What? I did not send you gifts!"

"That's what I've suspected. Because it's very unlike you to send me such generous gifts," Takenouchi explained with a disinterested tone.
The words hit Yamato dead on.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, shooting her a glare.

"What I mean is, you're just not the type of person who would send me letters and white roses every day,"

"Your point being?"

"My point is that you're a teenager who doesn't want to leave his childishness behind. I'm sorry to say this, but reallyyou're acting like a child,"

Yamato stuck his nose in the air, feeling offended again. "Hmph. And what has that to do with the strange gifts,"

"Everything? I don't know. It just struck me as odd when I found gifts with your name at my door,"

"And your deal being?"

"Someone is framing you,"

"And why is that?"

"And why is that?"

"That you would get beaten soon,"

"You make no sense, Takenouchi," Yamato grumbled.

"It's your mind, which isn't making sense. I know perfectly well that someone is ought to kidnap me under your name," Takenouchi smirked again, dramatically pointing at herself.

"And why would anyone want to do that?" He raised an elegant eyebrow at her.

"Because I'm too beautiful to resist?" She chuckled evilly.

Yamato's eyebrows shot up higher. "Because what?"

"Never mind," Takenouchi hung her head, sighing.

"Takenouchi,"

"Hm?"

"You're very weird," Yamato commented, his eyes turning seriously.

"Hm? Weird, huh? I guess I'll take this as a compliment," Takenouchi smiled at him; not the usual evil smiles or the usual smirks she used to sent his way. Just a small simple smile.

Yamato felt his face heat up at those words and roughly turned away to face the walls. "Whatever,"

End chapter 12

1. I don't know Cat language, so please assume the translation is like that.
2. It's a fun game if it's your first time. My class played this game, when none of us wanted to have more Dutch lessons pounded into our heads after the tests week. It's very fun and funny too.

Endnotes:

I apologize for taking so long. It's about a year or so without any updates. :bows frantically: I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry.
Are there any endnotes besides the apology? 9.9 Not that I know of other than the fact that this story will still get an end in the near future and is, now, treading a very bumpy road because of the author's divided attention. I'll speed things up a bit since it will be quite a bother to write about every day stuff, while making fanreaders WAIT for the next update and hunger for more romance. :sighs:
This whole story will be re-edited soon. Too many errors :sweatdrops: Way too many grammatical errors and typos (and too much "..."). I apologize for the inconvenience; I'll try to hunt down all my errors which had slipped my mind while I re-read this story.

Thank you for reading! And Thank you for being very, very patient... is there anyone reading this anyway?