Locked Up Tight

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I feel like I've been locked up tight
For a century of lonely nights

The stars were bright tonight. Like a ribbon of silver light, the path streaked before him, picked out in the white stones that marked it's winding way. Each stone glittered in the starlight, casting brilliant reflections against the darkened foliage. Why was he doing this?

Waiting for someone
To release me

Not that the doubt stopped him from trotting down the path purposefully, his dark green shirt and blue jeans blending remarkably well with the surrounding area, only the blonde hair and sharp sapphire eyes flashing exotically in the random, filtered light. A challenge wasn't worth losing sleep, was it? Certainly not!

Your licking your lips and blowing kisses my way
But that don't mean I'm gonna give it away
Baby, baby, baby

Breaking from the woods into the clearing he remembered from earlier in the day, he spotted Tai, back to him, hands behind head, waiting with uncharacteristic patience for the one who had just emerged behind him; Yama. This was simply insane ....

Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oo
My body saying let's go

Turning, the other boy grinned at him, dropping easily onto the clearing's mossy floor as he gestured at the ground. Sliced neatly into the green moss was a game board, a pile of stones, half black and half white lay nect to it. Tai smiled up at Yama as he stood there impassively, "Well?"

Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oo
But my heart is saying no

That's -- The thought petered out at the winsome smile, "Fhn ... "

Was Tai grinning or was it just the evasive lighting as he dropped to the ground across from their unofficial leader and went about the first move. Why was he doing this? Because the other boy had asked?

If you want to be with me
Baby, there's a price to pay

Comrades in arms mentality? Of course, that's what it was. Tai, just like Jyou and Izzy, were his companions. Companions he admitted a loyalty and a caring for, however weak. This game was just a way to pass the time before Jyou's return to the camp. Exactly. With that consolation for his irrational actions, he concentrated on the checker game.

I'm a genie in a bottle
You gotta rub me the right way

It didn't take long for Yama to figure out that he was sadly overmatched. Not in skill or even strategy, but in the pure, undiluted randomness that seemed to be Tai's trade mark. Every move was careless, without seeming plan or design, piece sacrificed after piece, with little regard to future value or importance. It was a radically different style from Yama's precision planning and calculated losses, forcing him to counter again and again, losing his plans and pieces one by one till it was a struggle to keep Tai's pieces from running rampant across the board. He admitted to a new feeling. Respect.

If you want to be with me
I can make your wish come true

He had always had a modicrum of respect for Tai, mainly based upon his digimon's battle performance more than anything ... but now ... as he stared at the board, silently admitting his own defeat, he realized he respected Tai for more than just peripheral involvement. I respect him for him. But then, had he always or had he just realized it now?

You gotta make a big impression
Gotta like what you do

Perhaps it wasn't respect ... perhaps it was ... affection? It didn't feel like affection. Not like the type he felt for Takeru for instance, or for Jyou and Izzy, or even for Mimi and Sora. No, it was different, not unpleasant, but odd, as if a swarm of butterflies had taken up residence in his stomach. There were ways to deal with this.

I'm a genie in a bottle, baby
Gotta rub me the the right way, honey

Slowly, as if stalking a wary and elusive cat, he leaned forward almost imperceptibly. Tai's attention was focused on the game that Yama had already decided he was no longer interested in (losing did that to him), so he never noticed that Yama was now uncomfortably close until fingers tilted his chin up and ...

I'm a genie in a bottle, baby
Come, come, come on and let me out

... Yama kissed him.

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