Disclaimer: After the 7 years it took for me to start this fic, and the four years break in between Ch 8, and this. . . I STILL don't own Digimon.

AN Feel free to reread the other chapters if you don't remember this fic; I don't blame you as I had to reread them in order to pick this up again. It's also a good laugh . . . the difference in my writing style and ability between the first and this chapter is just amazing.

Measures Misunderstood

Chapter 9

Running was something that Taichi would rarely do . . . he usually was the first to stand his ground, to be the protector – the pillar of strength. That however, now seemed to be more the case when he was protecting someone else, when he had to be strong for someone who couldn't be strong for themselves.

The tables had turned now.

It turned out that Taichi, with all the courage that he possessed, just wasn't able to harness it for himself. Not when, suddenly, he found himself in a situation he was completely unfamiliar with. Seki . . .

Seki . . . was always more observant than he was about these sorts of things. Should it be a surprise that he might have figured out something Taichi had been struggling with for years? No, probably not.

Damn, his methods sucked though.

Taichi came to a halt inside the gymnasium locker rooms. Shutting the door, he walked to one of the benches and plopped down, elbows on his knees and head in his hands.

Was he in love with Yamato? He was probably just about the most important person in Taichi's world, sure, but did that mean he was in love with him? Seki sure seemed to think so. The green-eyed man had put two and two together, and it wasn't really difficult for Taichi to see how his ex had come to the conclusion he had.

After all, Taichi's memory of waking up in a hospital bed, knowing that Yamato was hurt – could even be dead, was still very fresh in his mind. The desperation he felt upon waking, not seeing his sapphire-eyed friend, but only his sister's red rimmed eyes – he had been more terrified than he had ever been in his life. Even after not being friends for so long, after his foolish overreaction caused such a chasm between them . . . he couldn't even begin to imagine an existence where Yamato had ceased to be.

They'd always been there for each other. Although it'd been rocky at the start – fists flying, angry words, and just silly bickering – the friendship they had forged throughout their time in the digital world and beyond was something extraordinary. Though, friendship was one thing. He could handle that. The thought that he'd actually fallen in love with the man . . . it was frightening.

Their friendship, which had lasted through so much . . . that was so strong that they could pick it up again like a two year fight had never even happened . . . what if it wasn't strong enough to survive a relationship? Relationships dissolve, people break up, hearts get broken . . . if he were to get into something like that with Yamato and things went awry, would they be able to recover their friendship then? It was, after all, the most important thing that Taichi wanted to always hold onto. Not having Yamato in his life again was unthinkable.

But, dammit, Seki was right. Taichi wanted to hold Yamato, to kiss him, to have the first thing he saw in the morning be a couple of sapphire eyes looking at him warmly. He wanted to find out how soft Yamato's hair really was, to smell his shampoo, to give him random hugs from behind and place affectionate brushes of lips on his neck. . .

Fine. Okay. So he was in love with him.

But the risks . . .

A soccer ball rolled out from under the bench Taichi was sitting on, and frustrated, the boy kicked the black and white object with as much force as he could muster. Unfortunately, the sound that came when the ball ceased moving wasn't the expected bounce off of concrete.

"I thought I'd find you he . . . OOF!" Taichi shot up off the bench, eyes widening in surprise.

"Shit! Seki!" Seki coughed, squinted his eyes and clutched his stomach, putting his other hand on the wall for support. Taichi ran over to his friend and put his hand on the other boy's back.

"Suppose I deserved that. Damn, Tai-tai, no wonder you're the captain . . . you kick like a friggen Rockette." Emerald eyes shone with a bit of mirth, and the blond managed a smirk through his grimace.

"I'm not THAT gay, Seki . . . and . . . and I didn't mean to hit anyone. Didn't expect anyone to come in . . ." Seki rolled his eyes.

"Oh please . . . after what just happened, you really didn't think one of us was going to find you? Ishida was freakin' pissed that he couldn't . . . his dad came up right after you ran off and dragged him away. Could hear him arguing with his pops almost all the way to the door." Groaning, Seki pushed himself to standing independently. He shook his head. "So . . . Tai . . . on a scale of one to ten . . . how pissed are you right now?"

Taichi blinked, sighed, took his hand off his friend's back, and walked over to sit back down on the bench. He patted the space next to him and Seki joined him.

"I'm not . . . mad, really. I'm just, I don't know . . ." Seki blinked.

"Really? You mean you don't hate my guts for what I did?"

"No dude. Really. You were just being you and trying to help me out . . . you knew more about what I wanted than I did . . . again." Taichi put his thumb to his mouth and bit his nail in thought. "I think I should be apologizing to you . . ."

"Say what? Tai-tai, what the hell would you need to apologize to me for? I mean, I pretty much shoved your feelings out in the open . . . both to Ishida and to you . . . when you obviously weren't ready for them to be thrown out there, and . . ."

"And," Taichi interrupted "You basically slapped me upside the head and woke me up from denial-ville . . . even though . . ." At this, the brunet's voice softened. "Even though I know you still have feelings for me, and if I got with Yama . . . it'd basically mean you'd have, well, lost in a way."

Seki sighed and kicked at the floor tiles at which he was sadly staring.

"Yeah . . . man, you're all dense about this Ishida thing but you noticed I still . . ." Taichi shook his head and smirked.

"Nah. I didn't notice . . . I am that dense . . . but I heard you say it to Yama when I was walking Daisuke to the guidance office . . . I just didn't fit your voice to the words 'til I started running . . . while I was thinking about the whole thing."

"Oh." Taichi's gut clenched and his heart sank at the depressed sound of his normally cheerful friend's voice. He reached over to the other and tilted Seki's chin up from its fixed gaze at the floor, forcing emerald eyes to look at him. The brunet bit his lip, seeing the utterly melancholy look on Seki's face . . . the blond was practically in tears.

"Hey . . . Seki . . . you do know that . . ." Taichi sighed. "As probably one of the very best friends I've ever had, that I do love you . . . right?" At this, the dam that was holding back Seki's tears broke and Taichi leaned over to hug the broken boy, letting him cry on his shoulder.

"I . . . Taichi, I was so freakin' scared. I . . . I thought you were going to hate me after all this." He sniffed. "I thought after our whole relationship thing and then the breakup and then me trying to play matchmaker with you and Ishida . . . that I was going to lose you and our friendship and . . ."

Taichi gasped. Wasn't this whole thing that he was currently going through with Seki just the thing he was worried about with getting into a relationship with Yamato? His breakup with Seki hadn't killed their friendship . . . It was awkward at times, yes, but never in a million years would he even think of not wanting him as a friend . . . when it all came down to it, Seki was an awesome friend, and Yamato . . .

Well, it was almost an insult to his and Yamato's friendship to think that more love could possibly hurt their relationship. His friendship with Yamato was so unbelievably strong . . . if something would happen in any . . . romantic relationship they might choose to pursue . . . they could make it through and still be friends. Forget could . . . Taichi would make it work if things went downhill. He managed to make it work with Seki; of course he could make it work with Yamato.

Not thinking, with a great big grin, he absolutely squeezed Seki . . .

"OW! Dude! Soccer ball of doom ring a bell?" Taichi released him, rubbed the back of his head and chuckled nervously.

"Sorr . . ."

"Thank you." Interrupted Seki, "I really needed that hug . . . not so much the ow part, but, you know." Standing up and stretching through a small wince, Seki smiled.

"Okay Taichi, back to business . . . Ishida's going to be back in school Monday. . . I overheard the teacher say he was going to be here tomorrow, but seeing as that's Saturday, I'm just going to guess the guy didn't know what day of the week it was . . . and normally, I'd bug you to go run to his house and profess your undying love to him right now, but . . ." The boy smirked semi-evilly.

"I have an uber cute, super sweet, freakin' fantastic idea for your little reunion . . . may get you punched in the face, but I'm . . ." Emerald-eyed eyelashes fluttered over dramatically as the boy put his hand to his heart and smiled. "I'm willing to take that risk."

Taichi turned a shade paler as Seki dragged him out of the locker room. This . . . this was going to be interesting.

TBC

AN2 I was going to finish this up with this update, but I promised on my profile page that this fic would be updated by today. The next chapter will be up soon; it's already half written. I promise.