A/N: My first Taito on this account! Happy reading!
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-Room 303-
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Tai was finally in Sydney, Australia.
That was where the third years all wanted to go for their final class trip, and he had been dreaming about it for weeks on end. He hated being swamped in school work, and all this talk about what he wanted to do for his career was getting to be too much. All that time spent with the soccer team wasn't enough to keep his mind off of it all.
Even worse, he nearly lost track of time dealing with the paperwork for the trip. Even with Sora's nagging and Matt's bickering. Somehow, he missed the booking for the flight the rest of his classmates booked, and ended up taking a later flight that arrived later in the evening. Luckily, Izzy was there to lend a helping hand and had everything arranged for him.
He stepped into the elevator of the hotel, his duffel bag swung over his shoulder. He was exhausted, but he knew he was one full night's rest away of joining his classmates at the beach, joining them to play beach volleyball or pushing Sora to take a surfing lesson with him.
Sora's hotel room door was the one he stopped by first. Izzy ended up working it out for Sora to take care of his hotel room key until he arrived. She opened her door by a crack, and held out the keycard through it.
"You're the best, Sora, you know that?" he asked.
"Third floor, Tai," she said with a smile. "Room 303."
Had Tai been more awake, he would have stared at her with suspicion. Instead, he grabbed the keycard and went on his way.
He decided to take the stairs, just for the heck of it. As he reached the floor, he walked down the hallways that turned out to be a maze as he searched for his room number. When he finally found the door to his room, he realized that Matt was already standing in front of it, already inserting his own key card.
"Oh, hey Matt," he said, even more exhausted after his search. "I didn't know I'd be sharing a room with you."
Matt paused just as he removed his card, unlocking the door. He turned to Tai. "Sharing a room? What do you mean?"
"I was booked in Room 303, too."
"That's not possible," said Matt, looking as though he was taken aback. "I was booked in 303."
"Gee, Matt, if you want the whole room to yourself."
"You don't understand - no one is supposed to be sharing rooms."
"I don't see what the problem is, Matt." Tai crossed his arms, now getting annoyed. He knew Matt liked his own personal space, but did he really need to act like this while they were out on a trip?
"Fine! I guess I have to show you, then." Matt unlocked the door and pushed the door open, letting Tai walk in to see for himself, and Tai nearly dropped his duffel bag to the floor.
One bed.
There was only one bed.
Tai was now wide awake.
"How in the world did this happen?!" Tai asked, appalled.
"How am I supposed to know that?!" Matt asked back, his voice raised as high as Tai.
With his mind beginning to race, Tai set his bag on a chair by the door, the only other piece of furniture in the room. "There's got to be some sort of mixup," said Tai as he took a few steps forward and back in his pacing. "I know Teacher would have paid attention to something like this. And I'm sure Izzy would have caught something wrong, knowing him."
"So, you didn't turn in your papers in on time, either?" Matt sat on the edge of the bed.
"You didn't?"
Matt leaned forward holding his palm against his face. "Mimi said she wanted to help me."
Tai stopped pacing.
Mimi.
He knew what she did, and he knew Matt did, too. She had her plan in mind, and, knowing Izzy's crush on her, she used that to her advantage for Izzy to help set her plan in motion.
Both Tai and Matt fell silent. There was only one obvious option for tonight, and Tai wasn't sure if he wanted to go with it. He didn't want to sleep in the chair, and he was sure Matt wouldn't, either.
"Think 'Teach' is awake?" Tai asked.
"I'm sure he's in his room, snoring loud enough for his neighbors to hear," replied Matt.
"What makes you say that?"
"Nishijima's been tired since we got here. He even fell asleep on the plane. I was twelve rows in front of him."
They resorted to the obvious option, and decided to talk to Nishijima in the morning. Matt used the bathroom to wash up first and change into his boxers and T-shirt. Tai debated, but decided he should dress down to only his boxers as he usually did.
He stepped out of the bathroom and stopped as he met eyes with Matt, who was already lying on the side of the bed closest to the window.
"I like waking up to the sunrise," Matt mumbled.
Lucky for Tai, who was not a morning person at all.
Still, the closer he approached the bed, the more hesitant he became. It was only Matt, right? They've been in the top and bottom bunk beds respectively at summer camp. They even lay around the campfire with their friends in the Digital World. What made this any different?
Matt was facing the edge of his bed. Sleeping back-to-back made it less daunting, right?
As Tai lay on his opposite side, he turned off the lamp and said goodnight. Each second of silence seemed to relax his mind, each heart beat seemed to soften and slow its pace.
Then, he felt Matt rustling behind him. "Hey, Tai?"
"Yeah?"
"This doesn't have to be weird, you know."
Tai shifted and rolled to lay flat on his back to find Matt doing the same, and his face illuminated by the soft glow of the moonlight through the window.
"You're right," said Tai. "We can pretend like we're together with everyone else, like in the Digiworld."
Matt took a few seconds to respond.
"I don't want to pretend."
Tai's words were caught in his breath as he felt Matt move his hand next to his, his fingers slowly interlacing. Even through the dim moonlight, Tai could see Matt's cheeks turn a shade of pink.
He felt his own cheeks burning.
But he didn't want to pretend, either.
"Okay," said Tai, closing his hand on Matt's interlaced fingers. Then they both rolled to lay facing each other, holding hands. Tai could see Matt's lips curl into a smile, and he felt himself do the same as he closed his eyes.
Inspired by AU Yeah August 2019 Prompts
[ 01 - Bed Sharing ]