Chapter title: Friendship
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
Notes: I've been granted so many plot bunnies recently, I don't know how to handle them all. It's slowing everything down, so I apologise. Although, while I'm on the subject, does anyone have any unusual pairings that they want to see more of? I can't decide which ones to use, and I want to try some things which are a little bit different. One last thing, then I swear I'm done: I apologise most sincerely for my lack of knowledge about dancing. I've even tried to research it and have come up with nothing helpful. So if in doubt, just pretend they're doing something really cool.

---

Taichi grudgingly scribbled both his and Yamato's names on the entry form, the girls hovering over his shoulder and buzzing with excitement. Since the embarrassingly unsuccessful incident with the homophobe, he'd changed back sloppily into his uniform and given Mimi back her clothes, although his make-up was still visible a mile off and his hair was far from its usual gravity-defying state. He wasn't sure what the girls had done to it or how many products they'd used, but there seemed to be nothing he could do to get rid of the silky, smooth way it fell around his face and over the back of his neck. Roughly, he rubbed at his scalp again with his free hand; he much preferred his hair when it was up in the air.

"There," he grumbled, setting the pen back down on the table. "It's done. Happy now?" He himself was not happy. Sora and Mimi had practically dragged him straight to the entry form as soon as he acknowledged the fact that he'd lost, making sure that he went through with his end of the deal. They hadn't even let him make himself look more presentable first, aside from making him change his clothes at Mimi's insistence.

"Yes, thank you!" Sora bounced up and down happily. She was still relieved that Taichi hadn't surprised them all and pulled it off. When she noticed just how displeased the brunette looked, she stopped bouncing and giggled at his sour expression. "Oh, don't be such a sore loser. You should be celebrating; you get to dance with the hottest guy in school in front of everybody and making them all jealous!"

Taichi was not convinced, but decided to suck it up anyway. He'd lost, and that was that. In his defence though, he had made an effort to have a second go; the nerdy guy they'd walked past had oozed desperation, and would surely have taken him up on his offer of a date. Unfortunately, the girls weren't having any of it and pulled him on his way before he could do anything about it.

He shot a glance over at Yamato and would have winked at him if he'd been looking. The blonde had trailed miserably behind the three of them in a sulk, wondering how his day could possibly get any worse, and was currently still sulking a few metres away. He couldn't believe it; first he'd been hit on as a girl, then his 'friends' had told him that yes, he did in fact look like a woman. Now Taichi had dragged him into yet another bet that he had nothing to do with and lost, thus subjecting him to utter mortification for the next few weeks at the very least.

The only way, he concluded, that his day could possibly get any worse would be if Jun showed up with a daft excuse and insisted that he took her out. He supposed he should be thankful that it was only Taichi and not Jun that he was going to be dancing with, really. He couldn't even imagine how completely terrible that would be. Shuddering at the thought, he looked up and caught his best friend's eye.

Well, as much of a best friend as he could be considered at that point in time.

The brunette noticed Yamato's look of disdain towards him but ignored it. It wasn't like he was the only one who was going to have to do this, after all. He raised his hands in a half shrug, half peace offering and grinned. "What do you say? Feel like making all your fangirls jealous?" An evil idea crossed his mind, all thoughts of a truce forgotten, and after a short pause he added, "We could invite Jun to watch us. That'd be a laugh."

Unsure whether the fear that Taichi might actually do it or the anger at the very suggestion was more prominent in Yamato's mind, Sora jumped in before the blonde could shut his best friend's head in the door. "I think you two trying to dance will be entertaining enough, Tai. Spare Yamato at least a bit of dignity."

The statement rid Yamato of all thoughts of Jun and brought forth in his mind once again how humiliating this entire competition was going to be. He slid down the wall to sit on the floor, holding his head in his hands. "My whole reputation is about to go down the drain…" Then he was struck with an idea; he spoke it out slowly, thinking it through at the same time. "Wait a minute…we wouldn't have to make much of an effort, right? That wasn't part of the deal. All we had to do was enter; there was nothing about trying to win. If we could tweak it so we dance first, then get booted out for being so terrible, we'd only have to dance once. And because we were first, hardly anyone would remember it anyway. It'd be forgotten quickly, so the embarrassment would be minimal. That'd work…wouldn't it?"

He looked over at Taichi, waiting for confirmation. Mimi wanted so badly to intervene. She wanted to call the singer a boring coward and tell him that it'd be no fun if he didn't try to win. She might even have offered him a cookie or something if he made an effort. But, if she was honest, it was her fault that he had to do this at all. Actually, she thought, scrap that; it was Taichi's fault that Yamato had to join in. Even so, she'd feel a bit bad making Yamato do more than was necessary. She could handle making a fool out of Taichi because he'd get over it quickly, but the blonde would be sore about it for ages.

She turned to Taichi too, wondering what he'd have to say about the idea. Fortunately for her, he didn't look too impressed. "We can't do that!" He began to flail his arms wildly in the air, "We're doing this whether we want to or not! The least we can do is make an effort. Wouldn't you rather win and be ridiculed than lose and be ridiculed? I know I would."

"We won't be ridiculed if they forget we were even there!" Yamato's hands balled into fists at his sides.

Taichi took a step closer. "We'll be praised if we win! And we'd get a prize! I refuse to go about this badly. Don't you think it'd be cool to win a dancing competition when neither of us dances?"

"That's exactly my point! We can't dance for toffee! Whether we make an effort or not, we'll be booed off the stage. I will not be booed off a stage, Taichi. Never in a million years, will I."

"Well…" the brunette held his chin between his finger and thumb for a moment while he thought, before clicking his fingers, "we could learn! Join some dancing classes or something."

All three of the others stared at him in disbelief, and Yamato blinked a few times. "Say what?"

"I said dance classes!" Taichi was beaming; this was the best idea he'd had in weeks as far as he was concerned. "We could join some, and they'd teach us. Then we won't look like complete morons when we compete."

Yamato could tell that Taichi was getting far too wrapped up in his idea, and that if he didn't do something quickly the brunette would sign them up anyway. He grasped his friend by the shoulders and shook him roughly. "Have you gone mad? Think of the humiliation, Tai! The news that we were taking dancing classes would spread like wildfire, and we'd be subjected to a never-ending onslaught of abuse! Besides, it's not like they're free. They'd cost us both a fortune."

"You're the one who's gone mad! You can't make up your mind; you don't want people to make fun of you, but when I suggest something to prevent it, you refuse! What do you think we should do, then? Come on, ideas please!"

Mimi and Sora watched the two bicker with amusement and a little bit of pity. The girl with pink hair in particular was feeling sorry for them, especially Yamato. None of this was his fault. She tapped her foot a couple of times, wondering how she could help. She could find them the cheapest dancing classes possible, perhaps; they'd both appreciate that. Then a better idea came to her mind, and she waved her arms in the air to get the arguing pair's attention.

"Excuse me, excuse me! I could teach you both to dance!"

Taichi and Yamato froze briefly before turning to her. Neither of them said a word, so she happily continued. "I could! I wouldn't make you pay anything, and you wouldn't have to worry about people teasing you because you could say it was all in the name of fun!"

They both looked sceptical, and Sora broke in. "I didn't know you danced, Mimi."

"Of course I do!" She put her hands on her hips proudly. "I had lessons for two years when I was a child."

Taichi began to look interested but Yamato, still unconvinced, sent her a doubtful glance. "Is your dancing anything like your singing?"

"I'd say I'm just as good at both of them. Although, my singing lessons were for three years, so obviously I'll be a bit better at that."

The blonde turned to Taichi, his mind made up. "Let's take the professional lessons. Where did you have in mind?"

"Hey!" Mimi yelled before Taichi had a chance to reply, "Are you saying that I sing badly?"

"No. I'm saying you can't sing at all."

"You're horrible, Ishida!" The brunette broke free of Yamato's hold on his shoulders and moved to Mimi's side. "So what if she can't sing? She's not offering to teach us to sing."

"She just said her dancing was worse than her singing!"

"She can't be that bad if she's had lessons!" Taichi retorted. "What're you complaining about anyway? It's the perfect solution; it's free and you won't get made fun of."

Folding his arms tightly across his chest, the blonde sighed. "Fine, fine. You can teach us, Mimi. Just nothing that'll make us look stupid, ok?"

Sora raised an eyebrow as Taichi and Mimi began to bounce with joy at the idea being accepted. This could end up being very interesting.

---

After school…

At Mimi's insistence, the first lesson went underway that same day. She was only too eager to express how pleased she was that they were letting her help them, and she wanted to show off her dancing skills; especially to Yamato. He was going to regret saying that she couldn't dance, that much she was certain of.

The hall was, of course, empty, due to the rest of the school going home half an hour ago. Hardly anybody was around the building at all, actually; only a few of the staff and the select few students who had detention that afternoon. Mimi had decided that the hall would be the best place for the lessons to be due to all the space. Three bags and pairs of shoes had been sloppily thrown by the stage, and it hadn't taken long for three school blazers to join them. Activities, Mimi found, usually worked best without shoes or blazers.

Also, because it was getting towards summer, the three of them had soon found themselves becoming too hot to be comfortable.

"Can we have a break?" Taichi whined, his arms slumping at his sides, "I'm exhausted."

"Me too," the blonde added before collapsing onto the floor. His face was tinged with pink from the heat, and his hands and feet were sweaty and clammy from all the movement. He didn't need this; he had things like science he could be catching up with.

"What? Another one?" Mimi tugged lightly at her hair and moaned in despair. She had had no idea that offering to teach her two friends would be such a hardship. "How many breaks have you had now? We've only been going for half an hour. I'm keeping track of the time, and trust me; we will be doing an hour of dancing, excluding breaks. So the more breaks you want to have, the longer we're going to be here."

Taichi dropped himself next to Yamato and leaned against his shoulder. "I know that. But have mercy on us, please! We've never danced before. All this stepping and twirling and swaying could give anyone a headache."

"I feel as if my legs could fall off," Yamato agreed. "I wish I could just die here, right now. Then I wouldn't have to worry about losing limbs or dying of dehydration."

Mimi stamped her foot on the hard floor. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Will you two babies listen to yourselves? Really; Taichi, with the amount of sport you do I refuse to believe that you're exhausted after a half an hour session of dancing with four breaks so far! And you, Yamato; you're always jumping around all over the place at your gigs! You can't even say that you're tired because you're hot, because the stages you play on must be ten times hotter than this room is right now!"

Leaning his head on top of Taichi's, the blonde squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "But I'm thirsty, and I'm bored-"

"If you're thirsty, there's some water left in my bag that you can have."

He slowly began to drag himself away, and Taichi looked up at Mimi with big, pleading eyes. "Can I have some too?"

"Yeah, share it."

The brunette's face lit up with a grin, and as he made a frantic dash for the stage Mimi could tell that he hadn't really been thirsty. She watched with a strange kind of fond annoyance as he fought his best friend for the bottle, clearly wanting to get the first drink, and sighed. Perhaps she hadn't quite thought it through enough before she made the offer to help; they were going to be a handful. Like trying to make five year olds sit still.

Well, she figured, best not waste the break they'd forced into the session. She sat on the floor and, folding her warms, watched them as they squabbled and finished her water. How could she make this less boring for them? She should have known in advance that they simply were not going to be interested in this if they didn't have some kind of incentive to make the effort. The excuse could always be made that the contest itself should have been their motivation, but Mimi knew the two boys better than that. It was like exams; they knew they should prepare for them, but the fact that they were actually going to happen would only kick in the day before they happened, and by then it was too late to do anything but hope that Lady Luck would be kind to them.

And Mimi was certain that Yamato would be highly pissed off if he ended up having to rely on that particular Lady again, especially in a situation like this.

So, the problem came with making the whole practice less boring for them. What could she possibly do? Dancing was dancing; as far as she was concerned, there was no way that it could be jazzed up any more. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pondered, what had they done so far today? It was a frustrating moment when she realised that she had only showed them how to carry themselves a little bit more elegantly. But there hadn't been time to do anything else yet, what with all the breaks that the boys (Taichi in particular) had been demanding. Besides, they'd really needed instruction on their graces; they'd clomped around heavily like apes before. And their postures had really needed work.

Maybe what they needed to do was get hands on with each other? They were going to have to dance together anyway, so she might as well just throw them in at the deep end. At least it would stop them being bored for a while, and anything was worth a shot. She stood up suddenly with this new idea and clapped her hands repeatedly, wanting their attention and only stopping when both of them had wearily turned to face her. Smiling brightly, she spoke. "Up you get, break's over. You've had your drinks, now it's time to get dancing! Come on, on your feet. Chop, chop."

She was obviously eager for them to get going. Then again, Yamato mused as he begrudgingly got to his feet, she'd been very eager about this whole thing from the start. He and Taichi wearily obeyed as she ushered them to the places she wanted them to be standing.

It didn't take long for both of them to realise that they were standing close enough together to be invading one another's personal space. To make it just that little bit worse, they were facing each other. Taichi, being the slightly shorter of the two, could feel his best friend's breath on his face. It wasn't all that pleasant, he decided after a slight, worrying hesitation, due to the amount of sweat he could also smell radiating in his direction. Sweat never had been the most attractive scent.

Instead of focusing on that particular aspect of his friend, he looked up at him. Courtesy of the close proximity, he could distinctly make out the heated blush staining his cheeks. It swept most ungracefully across the bridge of his nose, becoming more pronounced under his eyes and continuing to run all the way to the tips of his ears, which were displaying a vivid red colour. If he weren't so hot himself, he'd have probably jeered at him and made a few mocking comments about how the colour of his fact contrasted harshly with the colour of his hair.

Then there was the matter of his eyes; if anything, they stood out even more now that Yamato's face had darkened in shade. They didn't stand out in brightness, however, only in colour. Blue never had complemented red, really, as far as Taichi was concerned. The heat had also lent them a hazy, overcast appearance, making the blonde look almost feverish.

Taichi was certain he didn't look much more attractive himself, nor did he smell it. On the contrary; he could smell his own sweat along with that of the young man in front of him. Definitely not the most appealing thing in the world. That meant also that, were anyone looking closely enough, they'd probably be able to see sweat leaking through his shirt. Nice.

He reached up to wipe yet more of the wretched stuff from his face, grimly noting the slight remnants of make-up that came away on his hand, and momentarily hoped that Yamato wouldn't notice just how gross he actually was right then.

Fortunately for him, Yamato was far too occupied with a few problems of his own to care about Taichi's moment of slight self-consciousness. In fact, he had gone beyond the boundaries of self-consciousness and into the realm of simply not caring any more. He knew that he stank and that his face was changing colour like a kaleidoscope. But it was just too stuffy and too hot for him to make much of a complaint. Besides, there was no point in kicking up a fuss over something this impossible to change, especially when Mimi was the one in charge. He also knew that his sweat must have been visible, at least from where Taichi was standing.

Therein lay a problem; however unwilling he was at the particular moment to express it, it always had made him a little uneasy when Taichi saw him in a state such as this one. He wasn't entirely sure why. He just knew that he wasn't comfortable with Taichi staring at him when he was aware that he didn't look as good as he would have liked to. It was even worse when he knew he looked particularly below standard, and his best friend was standing close enough to be able to see every single imperfection.

And then there was the almost unbearable heat, which was the cause for both of the prior difficulties he was faced with. He swore he was highly likely to pass out if Mimi asked him to do anything too physically demanding. Walking was only just still within his capabilities, after all.

He and Taichi had both been too preoccupied to notice Mimi first looking them over in an unhappy manner, and then advancing towards them waving her hands about. She had to speak before they properly remembered that she was even there. "No, no, that's not right. Stand closer."

Taichi was the one to break the locked gaze he was sharing with Yamato and send an exasperated look at Mimi. "How much closer could we possibly get?"

The answer was an action rather than speech; she put each of her hands on their backs and firmly pushed them together. They stumbled at first, not quite prepared for something like that, before finding their feet and balancing themselves. They were chest-to-chest now, forced to look at each other for the sole reason that they didn't have room to look anywhere else. Someone paying very close attention might have noticed Yamato's blush deepening a little at this contact, but it went unseen by the other two occupants of the room as Taichi immediately began to laugh, and the blonde quickly followed suit.

Mimi did nothing but stand and look less than amused with her arms folded, wondering what was so funny. In all honesty, their ability to laugh at anything and everything could get pretty tedious at times; particularly at times like this when they had important things like dancing to be getting on with. She sighed quietly and, while she waited patiently for them to finish, reached back to tie her hair up and out of her way. She had to admit, it was rather hot in that stuffy hall, and her hair constantly falling into her face wasn't helping the matter at all. When she was satisfied that her hair looked fantastic while still being secure enough not to fall out of place, she folded her arms again and tapped her foot lightly on the floor.

The laughter eventually began to subside and Yamato took a step back, clearly not comfortable with the invasion of his personal space which Mimi had forced upon him but at the same time staying close enough to avoid provoking her to push them together again. What was the matter with him? He didn't usually have a problem with physical contact, especially not with Taichi; after all, he was his best friend. They were bound to conflict physically sometimes. God knew they'd touched each other in the most unspeakable places before, although granted that it was usually very hard and with a fist during a particularly nasty disagreement. Even so, it had never bothered him before. It must have been the heat making him over-sensitive.

He looked up, still stifling giggles, at the unimpressed Mimi.

"And what is so funny?" Her expression was unchanging. It made Yamato's laughter return with full force, so Taichi had to calm down enough to step in with an answer.

"It's just…the way you shoved us. It was funny."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and inhaled sharply. "I should have known you two would be immature about this. Now listen. You can't prance about having a laugh for the whole duration of these lessons because you'll end up with nothing to do when it comes to the actual contest. And wasn't the whole point of me helping you with this that you didn't want to end up standing there in front of everyone like a couple of idiots?"

This harsh reminder of reality quickly brought Yamato down from his laughing high, but it was clearly going to take a little more to stop Taichi. He was suppressing his amusement fairly well, but the other two could tell that it was still there from the way his shoulders quivered every few seconds. It eventually became too much for Yamato to bear, so he used the lack of distance between them to his advantage and jabbed the brunette sharply in the ribs. "Mimi's right. We can't just mess about. We've got to do this properly."

This seemed to curb Taichi's glee just enough for him to retort without laughing. "Well, maybe we'd be able to do it properly if she'd tell us what she wants us to do instead of just moving us about however she pleases."

Mimi appeared to take this as a warped kind of apology and smiled. "I was trying to help you. You've got to learn how to stay balanced and focused when you're so close together before I can teach you to actually do anything, because you two fall over your own feet sometimes. It wouldn't look very impressive if you tripped over each other's feet on stage, would it?"

Taichi mumbled in agreement while Yamato nodded and wiped some sweat from the bridge of his nose.

"I'm glad you're beginning to see the light." She gestured for them to move together again, but this time didn't physically push them. "If you please?"

It took a moment for them to gather enough will to move, and when they did their tiny steps were reluctant. Yamato's in particular; he was feeling quite uncomfortable being this close to Taichi for so long in this insufferable temperature. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to survive for, and it made him wonder what on earth was going on. Of course he blamed the heat for the awkwardness. Who wouldn't? It was just making him a little edgy, that was all. What if he thought the same way when he didn't feel like he was in an oven? He didn't know what he was going to do.

His body hit Taichi's for the second time and they both paused, not quite sure what Mimi wanted them to do. Fortunately, she stepped in to help them, making sure they were close enough for their toes to be less than an inch apart.

"Now, then," she began, taking Taichi's hand and manoeuvring him like a puppet until he was comfortably holding the blonde's shoulder, ignorant to the slightly uneasy expression which crossed his face on the contact. "It doesn't really matter how you're positioned today as long as you get the general idea of what you're supposed to do, so this will do because it's easy. The lack of details isn't going to stop you learning how to balance yourselves properly. Yamato, darling, I need your hand too."

He had moved his hand behind his back and out of the way, wanting to avoid the inevitable for as long as he possibly could. A glance at the clock told him that he still had ages of the practice left, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid holding Taichi for that long. He mentally cursed; damn the heat to hell! He knew for a fact that he wouldn't be having this much trouble if it wasn't for the wretched temperature and stuffy atmosphere.

Mimi held her hand out to Yamato impatiently, and Taichi stifled another laugh. He was finding it pretty amusing that his best friend was suffering so blatantly. He'd usually care, but this time he was suffering because of the heat too so he didn't see any reason to try and make him feel any better about it. The way the blonde was getting so worked up about this dancing lark was amusing also; although, Taichi had to wonder why he was making such a fuss about touching him. Was he really sweating that much? He hoped not. He'd never liked being able to see sweat soaking through people's clothes, much less the idea of having to touch it. He supposed he could kind of see where Yamato was coming from.

It was a little insulting even so.

Still, after a bit of hassle and struggling, Mimi managed to coax Yamato out of hiding and planted his hand firmly on Taichi's waist. Only when she was completely sure that neither of them would move, she scurried round to the other side of them to join their free hands together. It was like playing with life size dolls.

She stepped back to admire her handiwork, and couldn't hold back the grin that fought its way onto her face at such a sight. "That's wonderful; just as I had pictured. Now, when I say a direction, I want both of you to take one step in that direction. Ok?"

They nodded, both a little preoccupied with the unfamiliar arrangement they were in.

"Alright. Towards me."

This first instruction was fairly successful; Yamato stepped a little faster and further than Taichi did, but both in the same direction and neither of them stumbled. At least, Mimi was pleased with them. She clasped her hands together with pride as she issued the next instruction. "Away from me."

They stepped back again, a little more in time with each other than they had been on the first attempt. Yamato was surprised he was managing this at all; he could feel both his palms growing sticky and clammy around his best friend's waist and in his hand. He just hoped Taichi was concentrating too hard on where to put his feet to notice.

"Towards the stage."

The third try didn't work quite as well as the first two had. Taichi, indeed concentrating too hard on his feet, didn't realise Yamato was a little slow realising which direction was 'towards the stage'. This resulted in Taichi standing on the blonde's feet and getting tangled up in his legs when the blonde in question yelped in surprise and tried to back away. Consequently they both toppled onto the floor, Yamato falling backwards and Taichi landing on top of him with a soft thud.

He rolled off quickly so as not to hurt him any more than he already had done and sprung to his feet, almost falling the other way due to the speed at which he stood up. Yamato wasn't quite so eager to move; he sat up slowly, and gingerly rubbed his backside. That had been quite painful. He was going to have a few bruises in the morning; there was no doubt about that. Only one option remained.

"I demand a break."

Mimi held her head in her hands and sighed. They had a long way to go, that was for sure.