Author: Rae
Title: To Dare, or Not To Dare
Dedicated to: Pilot02
A new twist to an old game
Carl Flowers looked at the rest of the soccer team, his brown eyes excited. "Did you guys hear?" They looked at him, eleven teenage boys from Varsity. Tai and Davis glanced at him momentarily, before resuming their thumb war. "Steve Masters, from the starting Varsity line-up came out today at practices."
"What?" There were general cries of confusion, denial, and curiosity. The tanned duo looked up from their competition, both snagged by the gossip spreading throughout the living room. They were attending a sleepover held by one of the goalies.
"Seriously, guys! One of my buds on the team called me a few minutes ago, and said that he admitted that he was gay to his whole team. They're going to hold a meeting about what action should be taken, but they can't afford to take him off the team if they want a winning season."
"Wow." Bob Zanderhoff shook his head. "Isn't Steve one of the guys that got his ass kicked when they tried to beat up Takaishi when he came out?" Several heads around the room nodded. "His little brute squad isn't going to like that. They'll cause trouble for him on the team, at least."
"They better not. With all the backing that TK has, he's not likely to let a fellow teammate, even a former enemy, get the crap he did. He quit voluntarily, and he'll make sure that Steve gets the same rights, despite their past history. He's not the kind to hold a grudge." Tai looked at them each in turn, letting them know where he stood.
Carl grinned. "Don't worry too much. A lot of the guys from the basketball team are here, too, so you can take your aggression out on any jerks on the field." They all laughed, knowing that Tai Kamiya was as likely to take out his aggression on a teammate, as he was a competitor.
Mark Butress walked in, carrying two 2-liters, and a bag of cups. "Here, guys. Refreshements." They scrambled to their feet, trying to get in line for the pop of their choice. Davis elbowed his way to the front, only to be pushed aside by Tai.
"Stop cutting, Motomiya." The brunette took his cup, and left the redhead glaring after him. "So, Mark, what's on the list for entertainment tonight?"
The goalie grinned. "In honor of Steve, I have a game to play. Since most of us here support the gay right's activist on campus, I thought it only fitting that we play this little version of Truth or Dare that was sent to me via Steve himself."
They looked at him in apprehension, fourteen pairs of eyes waiting. "I don't think I want to know." Wayne Keller, another goalie, put his cup down slowly, and started backing out of the room.
"Get back here, Keller. It's not that bad." Mark rolled his eyes. "It's basically like playing T or D, but it takes less time, because the questions are set, and so are the dares. You can only answer one of three questions, or do one of three things. Eventually, you may have answered three questions, and done three things, or we can set a certain number per person."
"I think that one question and one dare per person sounds reasonable." Bob looked around for support, and received a few uncertain nods. "What are the questions and dares?"
"Question one: If you had a choice, would you rather screw Matt Ishida, or Mimi Takaiwa? No offense, Tai." Mark held up his hands defensively when the soccer star glared at him. "Two: Would you willingly make out with any of the guys in this room, without a material, or cash, reward, and who? And three: Have you ever had a wet dream about another guy?"
"Yuck! Dude!" They all turned to Lester Grable, the third string goalie. "I really don't want to hear about your wet dreams! That's just wrong, man!"
"Whatever, Lester. The dares are as follow, and depend entirely on the person giving the bet. Kiss one of your teammates, make out with one of your teammates, or pretend for two days at school that you're dating one of your teammates, but without telling anyone that it's only a dare." No one raised any objections, and Mark's grin widened.
"You get to go first, Butress."
"Dare. Just beware that kiss, when classified by Steve, had to be open-mouthed, preferably with tongue."
"Pick your victim." Carl looked at him with a smirk.
"Fine. You." He chuckled at the horrified expression on his face. "Just because you won't make the dare that bad if you're stuck on the other end."
Carl laughed. "That's just really not fair. If everyone cops out this way, this could be a short-lived game, indeed. Kiss." There were snickers as Mark approached his teammate. Most of them turned away when he leaned into his teammate. Tai and Davis, as well as Bob and another watched, making sure that they followed through on the dare.
When they pulled back from each other, Carl excused himself from the group for a moment, and Mark popped in three pieces of extra strength mint gum. "Okay. Lester, our little newbie."
"Truth?" The small teen frowned, trying to think of the least punishing course.
"Who would you rather screw: Matt, or Mimi?" He smiled glad to be off the hook.
"Mimi, of course. She's so pretty, and sweet." His expression was dreamy, eliciting more snickers from the group at large. "Davis."
"Truth." He snapped his goggles on his head at a jaunty angle, raising his chin.
"Who would you rather...be with: Matt, or Mimi?" He smiled at his friend and comrade.
"Matt." There was a shocked silence. He shrugged innocently, taking a sip of his pop. "He has better hair." There was a relieved sigh from most of the group.
"Wait. Before you call on someone else, let's try something different. We'll place each of the truths and dares in a jar, and our names in another, and draw at random, the last name drawn being the one to go next, as well as the victim for the person that drew there name. Everyone write your name on two pieces, so that we can play two rounds."
Mark passed out paper and pencils, and then sat a jar in the middle of the coffee table, where everyone could reach it. Carl came back in, and sat down across the room from him. When all the names were in, Davis drew one out, as well as his challenge.
He unfolded the paper as his team waited impatiently. The first was the dare. "Pretend to date _______ for two days at school, without telling anyone the truth." He set it down on the table, and looked at the other sheet.
They tried to look over his shoulder, but he folded it before anyone could look. "Who is it?" Bob asked him, sitting on his left.
He swallowed before answering. With dark brown eyes, he looked up at his idle and hero. "Tai." The group laughed and snickered. He simply put the papers in his pocket, and stood up. "I have to go guys. I said I couldn't stay all night. I have an eight o'clock curfew."
"That's right. Sorry, Davis. I forgot you told me that. You're going to be late, do you want me to call your mom?" Mark stood up, prepared to walk him to the door.
"Don't worry about it. I've been late before. It's only half an hour. The worse she'll do is ground me." He smiled broadly.
"You're driving him home, right Tai?" Mark turned to the brunette, who nodded wordlessly, following his friends silently to the door. "See you two later." There was a mocking humor in his voice as they shut the door behind them.
How to announce what isn't true
They walked in silence to the car, the tension between them thickening with every step. Tai unlocked the doors, and slipped into the driver's seat. Davis climbed in beside him and buckled his safety belt. The engine started, and music poured out of the radio.
As they started toward the other end of town, where the Motomiya's lived, Davis glanced at his idol and friend. "Sorry, man." Brown eyes glanced at him for a moment, before the older teen smiled.
"Don't worry about it. There's not much either of us could do, without chickening out."
"Not going to happen." Davis chuckled slightly. "Both the bad and good thing about having the same stubbornness: we don't give up. At least I didn't get stuck with Lester."
"Yeah." Lester Grable was a short, stocky young man with a bad case of acne, and a body odor problem. "Poor Lester. I wonder what his dare will be. Could you imagine his face if he got stuck dating Mark, or Carl?"
The redhead burst out laughing. "Poor Carl. I think he nearly choked when he kissed Mark." He laughed again, and then looked at Tai. "What are we going to do, man? I'm not worried so much about the people we go to school with, since Mark and TK, both stars on the basketball team, have come out, there's not much of a group against them."
"True. And our friends will stand by us. It's only for two days." The brunette pointed out, changing the radio station.
"What exactly are we supposed to do? Kiss in the hallways, sneak off for pretend make out sessions? Write our names together on the boards?" Tai laughed.
"I don't know. I guess we could ask someone what a couple should do if they wanted their relationship as public as possible."
"As in: we're going to have to do this, why not go all the way?" They grinned at each other. "Okay. So we'll do all the things that couples do when they want the world to know."
"Right." They let the music take over for a couple of minutes, before Tai glanced over. "Do you have any idea what that is?"
Davis gave him a look that seemed to question his intelligence, and then grinned sheepishly. "Not a clue. I can ask Jun. She knows enough about embarrassing herself in public, it should be easy to find something from her."
"I'll ask Kari. She and Matt did the whole smooch thing when they went out."
He shuddered as he remembered it.
"Doesn't it bother you that your best friend went out with your sister, the girl you once thought you were in love with, and Mimi?"
"Not really. He treated them all very well, considering Sora treated him like an object, Kari acted like a little kid all the time, and Mimi is still trying to squeeze every last ounce of life out of him. Personally, I think he should go out with Yolei."
Davis smiled. "They have one major thing in common: they both think Matt's the greatest."
"Actually, I was going to say that they've both gone out with Kari, but that works, too."
"Well, yeah. I'm glad to see that Kari's happy with Izzy. I was worried for a time that they wouldn't hook up, despite the fact that they make up excuses to talk to one another."
Tai glanced at him again, braking for a red light. "Since when?"
"Man, you didn't know?" Davis looked at his stunned expression and shook his head. "Right after Matt started dating Mimi, they went out on the excuse of being a comfort to the other. In truth, neither of them really cared for their exes, but they wanted a reason to meet. Izzy asked her out, and the rest is history."
"Hm." Tai bit his bottom lip, frowning as the cars passed on the cross street. "I guess they have been together quite a bit lately. I just thought that he was tutoring her, or something."
"And they say I'm not observant." The brunette punched his arm playfully, and then turned onto a side street. Several seconds later, he stopped the car in front of Davis' apartment building. "I'll call you on Sunday if I have something. He said two school days, so I'm assuming we don't start until Monday morning."
"Sure. I'll talk to Kari, see what advice she has. Remember, though, that no-one is supposed to know, so be careful how you ask." Light brown eyes looked at him pointedly.
"I will, Tai. Don't worry. I can handle Jun. I have been for years." One dark brown eye disappeared for a second as he winked. With a broad grin, he spoke in a fake, high-pitched voice. "And I'll be handling you soon, lover."
Tai rolled his eyes. "I'll see you later, Davis." The redhead backed away from the car, and watched as his idol drove away.
_______________
"What's up, squirt?" Jun looked at him over the top of a romance novel, her brows drawn together questioningly. Davis sat cross-legged on the floor of her bedroom, his head resting tiredly against her mattress.
In a voice lined with fatigue, he told her the truth. "I have to pretend to be dating Tai on Monday and Tuesday, as part of a stupid bet."
She patted his head gently, rolling to her stomach and pushing the book aside. "That sounds bad. How's Tai taking the bet?"
"He's all gung-ho, typical Tai. He wouldn't back down if they told him that sex was part of the bargain, whether he was gay or not." He patting stopped, then turned into a smoothing of his hair.
"And how are you taking it?" He looked up at her, his dark chocolate eyes sad and drained. "That bad, huh?"
"I'd like to see life get anymore difficult than it is at this moment. It's bad enough that he's my friend, and my hero. Now the bounds of our relationship our going to change, whether he's aware of it, or not. Things won't be the same between us on Wednesday, like they were Friday."
"Sorry, Davis. I guess this means that you'll tell him? Sit down and have that long over-due chat with him?" He shook his head, pressing his forehead into her bed.
"I don't think I can. He's going to go on like normal, totally oblivious to what exactly has happened, and I'm going to be stuck paying the price." He sighed, bringing his left hand up to rub his temple. "Why are things so complicated?"
"Because you weren't honest with yourself, and with him, years ago. If you had told him before, you wouldn't have to worry about Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday. You would already know the parameters of your relationship." She rolled onto her back, twining the fingers of both hands over her abdomen.
"I wish I had followed your advice before. Now, it's too late. Two days, and we fake a romance for the world. In four days, my world is over." He let himself fall to his back, dropping his hands to lie by his sides. "So, what wonderfully horrible things should we do to fool the world?"
She leaned up on an elbow, and grinned at him, her eyes devilish. He simply raised an eyebrow and groaned.
____________
"Hey, Tai." TK and Kari sat at the dining room table, looking over textbooks. Izzy and Cody sat on the opposite side. "What's up, big brother? You look miserable."
"Nothing much, Kari." He glanced at her with a reassuring smile, and then looked over their friends. "Actually, I need some advice. On Monday, me and my significant other of the moment have to show the world that we're an item. What is the most obvious and flamboyant sign that two people are dating?
"Kissing on the front steps." TK grinned at him, before winking at his boyfriend. Cody smiled shyly, blushing.
"Making out by the lockers." The slim brunette added. Kari covered her mouth to hide her smile, and Izzy smirked, looking at his girlfriend. TK just looked into green eyes with a suggestive look.
"Thanks, guys. That's a lot of help." He shook his head with a smile, and went into his room, shutting the door behind him. He doubted that Davis would be in for a knockout, drag out, make out session in front of the entire school.