Accidental Connotation

Takato, Henry, and Jeri were in the park looking for a four leaf clover.
"Find any yet?" Takato asked, crawling around in the grass.
"None." Henry replied. "Those are very rare to find. Good
luck and all."
"Three…Three…Three…" Jeri counted, annoyed. "Still nothing. Oh!"
A caterpillar had crawled onto Jeri's finger.
"Aww how cute." She said. She walked over to the park bench and let it crawl off her finger.
"I'm going over there." Jeri said, pointing to a spot.
Takato nodded. "Man, I really wish this was easier…"
"Well what do you expect?" Henry said. "They are rare."
"Yeah yeah I heard you the first time." He replied grumpily.

"Hey, look what I found!" Jeri's voice called.
Both boys looked up, excited.
"Did you find it?" Henry asked anxiously.
"Come on, show us!" Takato urged.
Jeri turned, and a rose was in her hand.
"Aww." Takato groaned. "Just a flower."
"Actually Takato, it's a rose." Henry said matter-of-factly. "Odd, I didn't know those grew here."
"Meh, just another useless flower." Takato said, bored.
"Aww come on Takato." Jeri exclaimed. "Here, you keep it."
"Eh, alright." He replied. Taking the rose carefully, he placed it partially in his pocket.

"Eh!" Takato exclaimed, his eyes falling on a certain spot. He reached his hand out and grabbed something green.
"Ah ha! Found it!" he yelled happily, holding up the four leaf clover. "Feel the magic guys!"
He suddenly heard a grumble noise. He looked, and saw it was Jeri. She clutched her stomach, blushing.
"I'm hungry." She said embarrassed.
"Let's go to my place and make some pizza!" Takato said.
"Yeah!" Henry exclaimed. "Let's go!"
And so the three of them bolted for the Matsuki bakery.

Rika Nonaka walked around, looking at the various digimon cards in a window.
"Hmm…" she wondered. "Maybe later..."
She took a step towards the sidewalk when…

BAM!
"OOF!"

Takato banged into Rika hard, sending them both to the ground.
"Arrgh!" Takato groaned. "Sorry about that Rika…"
She shook her head. "It's fine. What're you up to?"
"Just going to my house to make pizza with Henry and
Jeri." He replied. "Wanna join us?"
"Nah, I may go into the card store." She said. Her eyes
then spotted the rose in his pocket.
"Hey is that a rose?" she asked.
"Yeah…" Takato replied. "I don't know what do to with
it…"
"Well…" she started. But was cut off by Henry's voice ahead of them.

"Come on Takato! We're hungry!" Henry called.
"Coming!" he replied. He took the rose out of his pocket,
and gave it to Rika.
"Here, you keep it." He said. Before she could respond, he bolted towards Jeri and Henry.
She looked at the rose, and a smile crept to her face.
"Ohhh Takato…" she mused. "How romantic…"

"Takato and Me were meant to be…" she spoke softly. A blush appeared on her cheeks.
She then started skipping to Takato's house.

"Big cheese!" Jeri called, carrying a large box of cheese.
Takato chuckled. "Talkin' to me Jeri?"
Jeri rolled her eyes smiling. "Oh you…"
The three kids were in the kitchen making the pizza. Henry had a pot with tomato sauce and a spoon, while Takato had a bowl with eggs in it.
"Tomatoes…and a dash of oregano!" Henry called. Slowly pouring the oregano onto a spoon.
"And a one egg, and FIVE EGGS!" Takato yelled out,
smashing the five eggs together in the bowl.
The noise scared Henry, who dropped the spoon into the pot.
"Takato!" Henry said, annoyed. "I'm trying to concentrate!"
"What?" Takato asked innocently. "How much yeast?"
"Just a tablespoon, Takato." Henry warned.
"Bleh, whatever." He replied, and poured a load of yeast into the bowl, immediately, the bowl began shaking and bubbling.
"Nice!" Takato said.

"I got the pepperoni!" Jeri called, she started cutting the pepperoni with a cheese grader.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Someone's at the door!" Henry called.
"Can you get that Takato?" Jeri asked. "I'll handle the yeast."
"Got it." He replied. With that, he walked to the door and opened it.

Rika was standing there, an absentminded smile on her face.
"Hi there Takato…" She said seductively.
"Uh…Hi Rika…" Takato said awkwardly. What's with her?
"Watcha doing?" she asked.
"Just making pizza." He replied, puzzled.
"Cool…" she said.

Suddenly, she pushed him into the house, shutting the
door behind her.
"Err…Rika?" Takato asked. "What are you…?"
"Just wanted to see you." She said coyly, winking.
Takato blushed deeply. "Well I feel honored."
She started walking towards him, while Takato started backing up into the kitchen.

"Sauce is done!" Henry called. He turned to Jeri, who was flattening out the yeast.
He grabbed his pot and started pouring the sauce onto the yeast.
"Sweet!" Jeri said. "I'm gonna love this pizza!"
Henry suddenly dropped the pot on the table by accident, splattering Jeri with sauce.
"Hey!" Jeri exclaimed. "What happ—"
"Look!" Henry pointed. She turned and gasped in shock. Takato was backing up into the kitchen while Rika was following him, a coy smile on her face.

Takato turned and bolted into a storage cupboard.
"Come out of there silly." Rika giggled.
"I'm fine here, thanks." Takato said fearfully.
"Hey Rika," Henry started. "Don't you think you should—"
"BACK OFF HENRY!" Rika yelled.

"Gah!" Henry jumped back a foot.
"Whoa…" Jeri wondered, wiping her face with a towel.
Takato suddenly ducked from the cupboard and jumped
on top of the fridge.
Rika jumped and attempted to grab him.
"Henry, Jeri, help!" Takato yelled.
"Come down Goggleh—" she started, then saw the letter magnets on the fridge.
She quickly rearranged the letters with a grin on her face.
"What the-?" Henry shoved Rika out of the way and read:

RIKA + TAKATO

"W-WHAT!" Henry yelled. He was suddenly shoved out of the way by Jeri.
"No way!" she screamed.
Rika quickly shoved them both out of the way and jumped onto the fridge and embraced Takato.
"Gah!" he yelled, blushing.
"You're my boyfriend!" Rika giggled like a schoolgirl.
"I'm WHAT!" Takato replied loudly.
"Let's go Romeo!" Henry yelled, grabbing Takato and yanked him off the fridge and away from the house.
"What about the pizza!" Jeri yelled.
"We'll worry about that later!" Henry replied.
"GIVE ME BACK MY BOYFRIEND!" Rika yelled.

Jeri, Henry, and Takato poked their heads out of a bush near the park.
"I think I'm sitting on a twig." Takato said.
"Looks like the coast is clear." Henry assured. "Let's go."
The three of them crawled slowly out of the bush, first Henry, then Jeri, finally Takato. He noticed the 'twig' getting heavier and heavier. When he emerged, he looked down, and gasped in shock.
"AHHH!" he yelled.
"Come to my love nest boyfriend!" Rika exclaimed, holding his leg.
"That twig looks like Rika…" Jeri said sarcastically.
"Quick Takato!" Henry yelled. He grabbed Takato and yanked him away from Rika.
"HEY!" she yelled.
The three of them ran for it, but Rika was faster.
She dived and tackled Takato to the ground.

"Come on boyfriend." She mused.
"Hey Rika!" Henry said annoyed. "Your boyfriend wrote you a poem!"
He handed her a small slip of paper.
"For me?" Rika asked, honored. She opened the paper and read:

GET LOST

"Get lost…" Rika read. "Aww that's so…HEY!"
She looked and saw the three of them were gone.
"COME BACK HERE!" She yelled again.

Takato's 'garage'
(A/N I don't think Takato has a garage. Convenience)

"Aww we made it." Henry said, closing the large garage door.
"Ugh man, I'm sweating." Takato said.
"Hey, what's this, Takato?" Jeri asked, looking at a large bowl of white paste.
"Instant cement." He replied. "Just for my dad whenever he wanted to do projects and stuff."
She dipped a finger into it, and the cement covered her index finger, drying and hardening it immediately.
"Cool!" she said. She plunged her hands into it and her hands hardened.
Rrrraaarrrgggghh!" she pretended. "I'm a dinosaur!"
She paraded around the garage hands out front.

Takato and Henry laughed hard. They laughed so hard they didn't see Rika slip in through the garage door.
Suddenly, Rika shoved Takato into the wall.
"Waaahh!" Takato yelled.
"Hello there boyfriend!" she mused. "Will you dance with me?"
"Guys help me!" he yelled. He quickly crawled under her and ran for it.
"Come back here Takato!" Rika called.
Henry ran towards Takato to help him, but in his haste tripped over the large bowl of instant cement, sending a large batch of it into the air and covering Takato, freezing him in place.
"Whoops…" Henry said.
"Hello my trapped boyfriend." Rika giggled. She grabbed a bucket of red paint and started painting red hearts and lips on him.

"Kill me please…" Takato muttered.
"What're we gonna do Henry?" Jeri asked despairingly.
"I don't know." He replied. "First we gotta get that instant cement off him. Maybe a bath will help."
"Let's get him in the house first." Jeri agreed.
Jeri and Henry bounded forward and grabbed Takato's arms.
"Wha-?" Rika started, but before she could say anything, they had rushed into the house and shut the door behind them.

"Oh man, Rika is in love with me!" Takato said, astonished. "I don't know what to think about that."

The three of them had escaped into Takato's bathroom, where he plans to wash all of the cement off.
"Let's be fair, you and her did grow closer together." Jeri said. "Closer than any of us had been to her."
"Yeah, and it's not like it's a bad thing." Henry added. "Did you ever think of Rika as a possible girlfriend?"
"Huh…" he said thoughtfully. "Well I'll think about it when
I wash all this off, I still can barely move!"
"Alright, we'll leave you to this." Henry agreed. And with that, both of them turned and shut the door behind them.
Takato then stripped down to nothing and lowered himself slowly into the bath.

(A/N don't ask me how he did with the cement still on him, more convenience.)

"Ahhh." He said softly, sinking into the bubbled could already start feeling again. He tried to move his arms and his neck. Slowly but surely, they moved again.
"Finally." He said. But suddenly, he heard movement in his bathroom.
"Huh?" he sat up and looked around. Nothing.
"Hmm…" He wondered. He then shrugged and went back to his bath.

Suddenly, he heard a giggle echo in his bathroom.
He gasped, and sat upright, alarmed.
"He-hello?" Takato called fearfully.
"Tee-hee-hee…" the voice giggled again.
"R-Rika?" he stuttered. "Is that you?"
The giggling increased, which started to crawl under his skin.
He quickly reached for his clothes, but found that his legs were still not completely movable yet.
"Crud!" he exclaimed. He leaned over further towards his clothes. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed him and pushed him into the bath.

"Oh…shoot." He said, looking up. Rika had climbed through the window near his sink.
"I can't believe I missed that…" Takato cursed himself.
"Hi…Takato." She said seductively. "Want me to wash your back?"
Takato nearly exploded. WHAT DID SHE SAY!
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I." Takato was stuttering worse than ever. She was pushing him past his limit.
She giggled. "Oh silly, I just want to make sure you're clean, that's all."
That didn't help much, as Takato was still stuttering.
She shook her head. "Hey calm down. You started this with the rose."
"I—what?" Takato stammered. "It's just a flower!"

Rika sighed. "A rose is a symbol of a romantic connotation."

He gasped. "Man am I dense…"
She laughed. "You got that right."
He shook his head. "So uhh…Do you want to go out for pizza later tonight?"
"Takato? Are you asking me on a date?" she asked.
"I…yes!" he replied quickly.
She smiled widely. "Of course I'll go with you."
He smiled too. "Thank you…"
"Anytime." She said laughing. "By the way, this is the funniest, strangest, most spontaneous asking someone out way I've ever seen."
Takato laughed. "I know huh? I'm so bad at this."
She laughed. "No worries.
"Man will this be something to tell Jeri and Henry." Takato said.

Rika smiled. "We can tell them after your done."
He nodded. "Indeed."
Rika then left the room so he could change. After he emerged, Rika smiled.
"Good, all clean." She said happily.
"Ready?" he asked.

"Oh, one last thing." She added. Rika turned and planted a kiss on his cheek.

He blushed. "Warm."

Her smile widened. "Just for you."
Guess that four-leaf clover was worth it after all...Takato thought gladly

He turned around and called:

"Hey Jeri, Henry! I got something to tell you guys…"

THE END

Hmm…I think I could've ended that better. Either way, this was another idea stuck in my head. Like it? Hate it? You know what to do!