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As rare as true love is, it is not as rare as true friendship." - Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Jyou slowly opened his eyes. Sunlight greeted his eyes and for a moment he winced his eyes shut, then opened his eyes again and yawned. He tried to get up, however found three things stopping him. One was the pain in his side if he moved, the second was Gomamon's head on his right shoulder, and the third was Koushiro whose head hung above his own, eyes closed and breathing gently on his face. Jyou immediately blushed from the closeness of Koushiro's face and looked around. Looking side to side, his head was on Koushiro's backpack which was in Koushiro's lap.
Jyou felt a little awkward in the position and was not really sure what to do.
"You need a hand?" a friendly, cheerful voice asked. Jyou looked up to see Taichi looking down at him.
"Taichi..." Jyou said softly, noticing his dry throat and that it was sore to speak.
"I'm guessing you could use some water, ne?" Taichi asked, kneeling down. He gently moved Jyou's head back to the ground, and then pulled Koushiro away to lay him down. He placed Koushiro's backpack under his head and then turned back to Jyou.
"You think your well enough to sit up?"
"Sure, I guess..." Jyou said groggily, not really aware of what he was agreeing to. Before he knew it, Taichi had placed his hands under his armpits and pulled him up against a tree. Jyou winced from the brief pain he felt then relaxed his head back against the tree.
"So how you feeling, Jyou?" Taichi asked, sitting next to him.
"Alright, like I was hit by a truck. Nothing out of the ordinary for the digidestined, right? You?" Jyou said sarcastically.
Taichi snickered. "Me and the others were worried you were going to give out on us, man. Especially Koushiro over there." Taichi gestured to Koushiro, who was sound asleep. "He finally passed out.."
"Why do you say 'finally'?" Jyou asked, looking over at Koushiro. After last night, he was not sure how to act around Koushiro now. Had he just been dreaming?
"You want to know how long you were out for?"
"How long...?"
"Three days. Straight."
"THREE DAYS?!?!" Jyou almost jumped. "I was sleeping for that long?"
"Yup. Wanna know who was watching over you that whole time and never went to sleep?" Taichi was trying his best not to grin at the shocked look on Jyou's face.
"No way." Jyou objected, his gaze widening as he looked at Koushiro in shock.
"Yes way. Koushiro." Taichi looked over at the sleeping Koushiro now. "You know, Jyou, I think it's obvious."
"What is?" Jyou asked, not sure of what Taichi meant. That is, he hoped he was not sure of what Taichi meant.
"You know, about what's REALLY between you two." Taichi almost laughed at Jyou's nervous face.
"Wha-what do you mean? Koushiro's my best friend!" Jyou objected, turning pink.
"I'm not saying he isn't, I'm just saying he's your best friend and more, obviously." Taichi winked at Jyou. "C'mon, even I caught on to this. I think the only ones who haven't figured it out would be you two."
"What are you talking about?! We're just friends!" Jyou's face turned as red as Koushiro's hair.
"...RIGHT." Taichi said, mimicking Yamato.
"Copying me now, Taichi?" Yamato came up to the pair, only having to guess at what was going on. "Jyou, you just figured it out?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Jyou said defensively, his whole face illuminated by the blush.
"...RIGHT." Taichi and Yamato said simultaneously. The two laughed at their equal train of thought.
Poor Jyou was not enjoying their sense of humour. "I am NOT inlove with Koushiro."
The other two boys raised their eyebrows with interest.
Jyou repeated himself more loudly. "I am NOT inlove with Koushiro!"
Yamato and Taichi had big grins on their faces.
"I'm....I'm...I'm not fooling anyone am I?" Jyou hung his head miserably, his cheeks a shade of Koushiro's red hair.
"Nope." Yamato said. "Even Taichi could see through you."
"I already insulted myself I don't need you to help me!" Taichi said defensively, glaring at Yamato.
"Even though you like the attention." Yamato said, patting Taichi's hair while Taichi grumbled. "So, Jyou, now that you're awake, you want anything?"
"Water, for one." Jyou said, clearing his dry throat. Then his stomach grumbled. "And maybe some food would be nice?"
"No problem." Yamato turned to walk away, Taichi got up to go with him.
Jyou looked away for a minute then called out to them. "Hey!"
The two boys turned around.
"Look, about, about yelling at you guys like that-"
"Don't worry about it man." Taichi smiled.
"Things worked out for the better. We should thank you." Yamato said, turning around again, grabbing Taichi's hand.
Jyou looked after them with envy. 'I wonder, if Koushiro and I will be like that..?'
Jyou's eyes settled on the sleeping Koushiro's face. 'He looks so peaceful now..'
'I wish I could..' Jyou blushed from the remainder of his thought, as a memory from last night returned to him.
DeviJyouMon was gone, now and forever. Thanks to the help of his best friend, Koushiro Izumi, Jyou Kido had finally overcome his shadow and was now ready to continue on with his life. With his best friend, Koushiro.
His best friend.
Just as Jyou was slipping into a state of deeper unconsciousness and rest, he heard Koushiro's voice say three words to him. Three, beautiful, precious words.
"I love you."
Had he heard right? Was this the final trick of DeviJyouMon, tricking him into believing that his dark secret desire had come true?
It was then he felt lips pressed against his own in a kiss. A kiss. If it was real, it would be his first kiss. At first he was shocked, then, finding the experience to be a pleasant one, returned the kiss with earnest.
Then rest finally took him.
"Was that...real...last night?" Jyou asked the thin air, looking up into the sky.
"What was?" Yamato's voice startled him. The happy couple had returned, Yamato offering Jyou a steel can of water and Taichi carrying some food.
"Uh..nothing." Jyou blushed as he took the steel can of water from Yamato and drank it thirstily.
"Ugh." Taichi grunted with frustration, shaking his head. "Whatever is going on between you and Koushiro, I hope you fix it soon because you're driving me nuts with all this blushy blushy secrecy business."
Jyou took the food from Taichi, saying nothing as he ate, the blush never leaving his cheeks.
"Don't mind Taichi, Jyou. He has no sense of romance, that's all." Yamato glared at Taichi and then grinned, not being able to resist the cute face of his love.
"That's not true!" Taichi objected, holding up a defensive fist at Yamato.
As the two boys began to argue, yet again, Jyou's thoughts returned to the clouds and wandered around, constantly back to Koushiro. 'What..do I do now?'
Koushiro and Jyou, neither having homework, had been allowed to go out to their favourite park. The two had jumped for joy and raced to the park, playing tag, crawling through tires, and then eventually just swinging on the swing set.
Soon that stopped too, and they were just sitting in the swings, staring at the sunset, until finally Jyou decided to break the silence.
"So how are you feeling?" he asked, looking over at Koushiro. Koushiro had something of a distant look in his eye, staring at the clouds. Thinking about something.
"The way you're so jealous of me and everything, you think you were inlove with Jyou!!!" Mimi 's fierce voice returned to Koushiro's mind. 'Is she..is she right...?'
'Am I inlove with Jyou?'
"Koushiro?" Jyou asked again, leaning over and laying a hand on Koushiro's shoulder.
Koushiro jumped and blushed, then looked over at Jyou. "Yeah, nii-chan?"
"Are you ok? You seemed really out there just a minute ago." Jyou asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm fine! Sorry about that." Koushiro said softly, his gaze returning to the clouds.
"Thinking about something?" Jyou asked, started to jerk his swing back and forth.
"Someone..." Koushiro replied softly. Jyou almost jumped off his swing.
"SOMEONE?!" Jyou shrieked, shocked. Then he got a huge grin on his face. "Koushiro have a crush on somebody?"
Koushiro's face turned bright red. "N-no!" 'Yes, you.'
Koushiro's eyes widened at his own thoughts. 'WHAT?!'
Jyou's grin got bigger as he started to torment Koushiro. "Koushiro has a crush, Koushiro has a crush!" he chanted. 'Koushiro has a crush..' he thought sadly to himself.
"I do not!" Koushiro said, his face turning redder and redder by the minute. 'This can't be right, I can't feel that way about nii-chan.'
"C'mon, Koushiro, who's your crush?" Jyou asked, leaning closer to Koushiro. 'That way I might be able to get over this...feeling..'
"It's...it's...nobody you know!" Koushiro lied through his teeth. 'I should hope you know yourself, Jyou.'
"So? Tell me anyways!" Jyou said, his grin never leaving his face. "I'm your best friend, you can trust me, I won't tell anybody!"
"Well.."
"C'mon, please?" Jyou started to pout. The pout Koushiro had always claimed to never be able to stand.
The truth was it was the pout Koushiro could never resist because it was just too cute.
"This is something that just came up so I would like some more time to think about it and then when I am really sure that this is a serious crush then I will tell you." Koushiro said the first thing that came to his head.
Jyou held out his pinky finger. "That's a promise, cause I really want to know who you're crush is!" 'That way...I won't have to suffer too much..'
"Of course." Koushiro said, shaking the pinky finger firmly with his own. 'By the time I figure this out, I hope I have another crush so Jyou will never have to know that I had a crush on him.'
'If it's even a crush.' Koushiro tried to reassure himself.
After the trip to the playground, Jyou returned home. After eating his dinner he went up to his room, reached a hand under his bed and pulled out his secret box.
Jyou kept letters to himself and special drawings he had made in his secret box, simply because they were very important to him and were dear to his heart.
No one knew about this. Not his parents, not even Koushiro. Just himself.
Jyou pulled the lid off the box, pulled out all the papers and looked at his own handiwork. From sloppily written "letters to me" to drawings.
Special drawings.
At first these were drawings of him and Koushiro doing things together, such as saving the world or building a rocket, things that normal best friends do.
As he grew older, he and Koushiro started to do different things in his drawings.
Such as hugging, kissing, holding hands, Jyou patting Koushiro's hair..
Jyou pulled out his recent work of art, the best drawing he had ever made.
He and Koushiro had their arms wrapped around eachother, their lips locked in a kiss and their eyes closed. A gigantic heart surrounded them, and along the bottom there were words: "Jyou Kido + Koushiro Izumi"
Jyou blushed at the picture and continued to admire it for awhile, part of him being happy for Koushiro for finding his crush, and the other weeping for a dream which could never be.
However, it was not as though it had ever had hope before.
Koushiro yawned and slowly got up, rubbing at his eyes. What time was it? Had he fallen asleep on Jyou?
A minute later Koushiro realized that Jyou's head was not in his lap, and his head started to whip around trying to locate Jyou. He caught his breath when he saw Jyou sitting against a tree nearby, the moonlight gently highlighting his azure hair, giving him an angelic appearance.
Jyou turned his gaze towards to where Koushiro was, and realized that Koushiro was awake and looking at him. He smiled softly at Koushiro. "Ohayo."
"Ohayo? What time is it?" Koushiro asked, getting up and walking over to Jyou.
"Midnight." Jyou replied calmly. He seemed rather..happy.
"Midnight..? Was I sleeping the whole day?" Koushiro asked, sitting next to Jyou. Close enough, that if he wanted to, he could wrap an arm around Jyou. Koushiro pushed the thought from his mind and focused on the more important matter, if Jyou was ok or not.
"Pretty much. From what I've heard, you deserve it." Jyou looked at him. "Thanks for taking care of me, Koushiro."
"Of course, nii-chan." Koushiro whispered softly, his gaze wandering down to Jyou's wound, and his glance became worried by the dry blood. "How're you feeling?"
"A lot better than what I was when I was hit." Jyou chuckled, patting his side gently. Jyou looked down at his wound, and realized that he had been wrapped with orange cloth bandages. When Jyou looked over at Koushiro, he realized his shirt was torn.
"There was nothing else available at the time.." Koushiro said nervously.
"Thanks..Koushiro." Jyou said softly.
"You were hit, because of me, it's only fair that I look after you." Koushiro said, his voice trailing off. For a moment the two were silent. Then Jyou spoke up.
"Koushiro, about DeviJyouMon, I.." Jyou began, not sure of what to say. Then he swallowed the lump in his throat. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright, nii-chan. Everyone gets lonely." Koushiro said sadly. "I..I've been lonely for the past three years."
"Lonely..?" Jyou asked, looking into Koushiro's eyes and noticing the tears that were there.
"I made a big mistake and pushed my best friend away. The only true friend I've ever had, away..." Koushiro's voice started to choke.
Jyou, by instinct, wrapped an arm around Koushiro's shoulder and pulled him close. "Koushiro, shh, it's ok.."
"I should of just told you what happened.." Koushiro started to sob, shaking his head.
Jyou squeezed Koushiro's shoulder. "Tell me now. Tell me what happened, Koushiro."
"You're adopted..?" Jyou said softly, shocked. Koushiro rubbed at his eyes from crying.
"Yeah...I thought, since I was adopted, that all that I had been taught by my parents over the years, all I had ever learned about how to be from them was a lie. That I had suddenly lost myself." Koushiro sighed. "I was going to tell you, but then at the last minute I didn't. I was afraid, afraid that you would think something was wrong with me since my real parents gave me up. That's what I thought, at least, that something was wrong with me since I was adopted."
"Koushiro..." Jyou ruffled Koushiro's hair affectionately. "I could never think something is wrong with you!"
"Nii-chan..?" Koushiro asked, looking at Jyou through tear-filled eyes. Now Jyou was crying.
"You've always been my best friend. All this time I thought you hated me! I'm, I'm relieved you don't, but I wish you had told me."
"I'm sorry, nii-chan..." Koushiro looked to the sky. "I didn't want to worry you.."
"I always worry when you're upset, Koushiro. I worry about everything, it's my job." Jyou said with a smile.
Koushiro chuckled. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, if I had known that this would happen, that I..." Koushiro blushed. "That I.."
"That you mean so much to me?" Jyou smiled. "Taichi and Yamato were saying the only people who hadn't realized what was really going on between us, was us.."
"I guess that means, that you remember last night then..?" Koushiro said hopefully.
"Of course." Jyou raised an eyebrow at Koushiro. "You were the one..who kissed me, weren't you...?"
Koushiro shyly nodded his head, blushing. 'This is..a rather awkward way to settle this.'
"You know.." Jyou said irritably. "You could of waited until I was awake to kiss me! That was my first kiss, you know, and I would of liked to been awake during it." Fuss, fuss.
Koushiro smiled. "Did I ever tell you that I think your fussing is really cute?"
Jyou blushed. "No.." Jyou then held up his pinky finger. "You know, you have a promise to keep."
"Oh...?" Koushiro blinked. "What promise is that?"
"You never told me who your crush was.." Jyou grinned. Koushiro laughed.
"There was only one reason I didn't tell you. Take a wild guess." Koushiro grinned, now it was his turn to torture Jyou.
"Hmm...Mimi?"
"WHAT?! NO!" Koushiro yelled. Jyou covered Koushiro's mouth with his hand.
"You know, it's rude to yell and be loud when people are trying to sleep.."
Koushiro quieted his voice. "You didn't really think I had a crush on Mimi, did you?" he whispered very loudly.
"Did you?" Jyou asked seriously. Koushiro sweatdropped.
"Of course not! My crush was you!"
"Really..?" Jyou blinked. "You've had a crush on me for that long..?"
"It's..more than a crush, now.." Koushiro said softly.
"Does that bother you..?" Jyou asked worriedly.
"No..." Koushiro leaned closer to Jyou, minding Jyou's woud.
For awhile the two sat there like that, leaning close to one another, enjoying each other's other presence and what they had found.
After awhile..
"Jyou?" Koushiro asked.
"Yeah?" Jyou responded quietly.
"I love you.." Koushiro whispered shyly, blushing.
"I love you too, Koushiro..." Jyou whispered back, reaching a hand under Koushiro's chin, turning it up and giving him a sweet kiss.
'I think I'll always kiss Jyou when I'm cold, his lips are so warm...' Koushiro made his decision for life and did not give it a second thought. Not now, not ever.