higuchimon | [fanfic] Digimon Adventure 02: Denial

Title: Denial
Romance: Takeru x Daisuke
Word Count: 1,895||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Summary: Takeru's best friend isn't Hikari or Patamon or his brother. It's denial, and when he's watching Daisuke, he wants his best friend very close indeed.

Denial was his new best friend. Actually it had been his best friend since shortly before his parents had divorced, but this was the first time he was actually admitting it to himself. Takeru had a lot of practice not letting himself believe in things he didn't really want to believe in, and he was putting it all to good use right now.

The current object of his denial was seated less than a foot from him, a huge bowl of popcorn in his lap, a soft drink within arm's reach, and a wide grin on his face as he pointed and laughed at the television screen. A pair of round goggles were perched on his head, looking as if they might fall off at any second, since he'd recently developed the most annoying habit of running his fingers through his hair and displacing his headgear.

Takeru highly disapproved of that. He wanted to be the one who was playing with those richly colored strands, and the goggles would just have to be taken off anyway. Even after all these years, he still kept thinking about them as Taichi's, anyway. Daisuke's goggles were square. And like him, they were cracked.

Not that Daisuke knew that his old pair of goggles were safely kept in Takeru's bedroom. He wasn't ever going to know, either. The blond had kept them safe for the past seven years, and Daisuke hadn't missed them once in all that time. They were just a souvenir from the day he'd first met this piece of annoyance that had turned into one of his best friends. Not to mention he'd wanted to keep them out of the Kaiser's hands at the time.

“What're you thinking about over there, Takeru?” Daisuke squirmed around, somehow managing not to displace his popcorn or soda by so much as an inch as he came to face the other Chosen. “You're pretty quiet.”

“I was just thinking about how long we've known each other.” Takeru once again denied that he'd been thinking about anything other than what had really been going through his mind. The overhead lights gleamed slightly off of Daisuke's hair once again, and he had to do his best to make certain he didn't say or do something to indicate the truth.

He'd known he liked guys and girls both almost for as long as he'd been aware something like that was possible in the first place. He couldn't quite place his first girl crush offhand. It was entirely possible it had been either Sora or Hikari. They were the two females he was closest to, after all. But it was quite certain who his first male crush had been.

It has nothing to do with the goggles or both being Children of Courage. Takeru told himself severely. Taichi and Daisuke did resemble each other, but he was quite positive that the fact he found them both extremely attractive had nothing to do with their similarities. They just had too many differences. Just a coincidence. Just more denial practice.

“Yeah, it's been about seven years now.” Why did Daisuke have to start talking and interrupt his mental ramblings? He liked being able to think quietly. It helped him plot out things for his writing, and it was a good way to rehearse his part of a conversation ahead of time so he didn't accidentally say something he thought he might regret, like mentioning how soft Daisuke's skin looked no matter how much time he spent in the sun. “So what was the first thing you thought when you saw me?”

Takeru blinked slightly, surprised. Daisuke had never asked him that before. Well, there was a first time for everything, and it wasn't as if the answer was going to give away anything. “First thing? I wondered if you were somehow Taichi.”

“Oh, not that 'you look like his clone' again!” Daisuke threw popcorn at him fiercely, and Takeru did his best to grab a few pieces. Those that fell to the floor were eagerly vacuumed up by V-mon and Patamon, both of whom were giggling and laughing to themselves about something or other. Takeru wondered if Daisuke was going to ask what was on their minds, and give him time to ogle him a little more. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out like that. “I've heard that way too many times! Can't you think up something new to have been thinking?”

“Hey! It's what I was thinking!” Takeru defended himself, shooting an annoyed glower at the other boy. “What about you? What were you thinking when you first saw me?”

He was almost certain that Daisuke's cheeks turned the faintest hint of blush at the question, but dismissed the thought. Daisuke didn't blush. Even when Hikari had finally agreed to go out on a date with him when they were fourteen, he hadn't blushed. Crowed like a rooster, yes. Blushed, no. Now he wanted to know the answer more than ever. If it really was a blush (and it wasn't), then he wanted to know why.

“I was just wishing you'd hurry up and give me back the ball.” Daisuke kicked a foot in the general direction of thin air, reminiscent of the soccer he'd been playing at that first meeting. Takeru frowned; he was almost certain he'd caught a hint of something else in his friend's voice. Something that could possibly have been a lie. He was just as almost certain that Daisuke had never really told one of those before, not like this. Fast-talked to get them out of a bad situation with the Digital World, or so Mimi and Michael had claimed, but an out and out lie? Denial wasn't supposed to be Daisuke's friend. So this was what it was like to be betrayed. He'd be able to write that a lot better now. Write what you know, after all.

“You know, you don't have to lie, Daisuke,” V-mon climbed up his partner's legs easily and settled beside him, reaching his paw into the popcorn bowl. “You told me what you were really thinking a long time ago, remember?”

Well, now, this was interesting. Takeru had always known there was something more to Digimon than just being animate fighting machines. They also had potential to tell amazingly embarrassing secrets about their partners. He wondered if Koushirou and Miyako had ever thought about this. Or perhaps Sora. Maybe some of what she knew about love was due to a lot of dirt-dishing by the other Digimon to Piyomon. He'd have to check into that.

“V-mon!” Daisuke tried to sound reprimanding, but he wasn't really constructed for something like that. “You're going to embarrass me!”

“When's that ever bothered you?” Takeru leaned over to steal some of the popcorn for himself, instead of having it thrown at him again. He'd popped it after all, before Daisuke and his blue partner had shown up, so he had a right to it. Daisuke just had a habit of keeping the snacks right beside him most of the time. “So what was it really?”

Daisuke looked down at his partner, who gazed back at him so completely innocently, then turned his eyes back to Takeru. “All right. I was wondering why someone so good looking was wearing a hat that looked so darned much like that one from that old American show Gilligan's Island.”

Takeru reached his hand automatically up to his head, though he'd stopped wearing those hats years ago. He'd never really given it a lot of thought, but now that Daisuke had said something, he had to admit he was right. He'd only seen a few badly dubbed episodes of the show in question, mainly thanks to Mimi, but a silly looking hat was a silly looking hat in any language.

“Well, that's good to know.” He toyed with a few strands of his own hair and wondered what it might feel like to have Daisuke's fingers in his. Would he have the same weakness for a touch on his hair that Yamato did? It was rather amusing to see his brother lose all of his cool and turn into a purring creature of contentment at the merest touch on those glittering golden locks. “I was kind of wondering if you were going to confess to having a crush on me back then or something.” Where the hell was denial when he needed it? And for that matter, where was a muzzle, which just might possibly keep him from saying things like that anymore!

Daisuke laughed, shaking his head. “No way! I was all hung up on Hikari back then, you know that.” He sipped some on his drink, and Takeru followed suit. At least nothing bad had come of his little verbal slip. “The crush on you came about two weeks ago.”

Takeru choked, spluttering the soda across his shirt and sending Patamon flying up from where he'd been seated to a safer, and drier, spot. He pounded on his chest until he was quite certain he wasn't going to choke to death offhand, and stared over at the goggle-wearer. “What did you just say?”

“I said, I've had a crush on you for about two weeks.” Daisuke calmly turned to look at the calendar on the wall, then looked back at him. “Two and a half now, really. While it's on my mind, you want to go see a movie tonight? There's this really great one playing at the downtown theater. Ken saw it last week and he said it was a lot better than the previews said it would be.”

Takeru blinked several times, just staring across the intervening space. Denial appeared to have taken a vacation of some kind, and he had the faintest hint that it wasn't going to be so bad if that happened to turn into a permanent hiatus. Or maybe it would be. He'd have to wait and see. “Um. Okay. Sure.”

“Great.” Daisuke's grin nearly tripled in size. Takeru couldn't bring himself to pull his eyes away, and found a rather goofy smile spreading across his face. Yeah, just maybe it wouldn't be so bad not to have denial around after all. And just maybe he'd find out what it was like to touch Daisuke's hair after all. In fact, he couldn't think of any more reasons to deny it to himself right now. They had a date. Sure, it didn't mean a whole lot beyond a promise to spend more time together than they usually did, and not every person that dated wound up going out regularly. After all, Daisuke and Hikari hadn't lasted more than a half a dozen dates, nor had any of the other people Daisuke had dated over the last few years, no matter their gender. Everything had to start somewhere, though.

This started seven years ago when you first saw him, idiot. Was that denial trying to make a comeback? He denied that. This was just starting now, and that was all he needed to know. Except for just how Daisuke's hair did feel between his fingers. That required something more.

The look on Daisuke's face when he moved across to him, removed the goggles, and started to play with his hair was priceless, and absolutely worth the years of waiting for it.

And he'd never deny that.

The End