Disclaimer: You guys didn't seriously think I'd just let Tenjo week, and especially this day, go by without contributing a little something, did you? Lol I'm back! And I've come with a Valentine's gift for you all! A promised one-shot taking place after the third chapter of my fic, 'Night To Remember.' Yup, the Diamondshipping alternate take from my Anxietyshipping fic 'The Morning After.' To be honest, I hate Valentine's Day. Why? Because it's not only the day where you show loved ones your love but for me I have to work DOUBLE because it's also a friend's birthday! My wallet hurts lmao. Well I've already showed and appreciated love for my friends and family, including birthday-girl, so allow me to show YOU some love. This idea came to me when I remembered a few years back that an old ex wanted to do something similar with me but never got a chance so I figured why not and now this happened. It sounded fun and I decided to go along with it so enjoy!

Rio the Stylist

Valentine's Day arrived and everyone passed around small gifts and friendly gestures for their friends and loved ones. Couples exchanged gifts while friends passed around notes appreciated for what they'd been through and all the way through. With the school day now ending, many were disappointed that the Valentine's Dance was cancelled, but to a certain Water duelist, it seemed worth it.

Even though Ryoga was caught he at least accomplished his task, making sure the gymnasium was in no condition for the dance to take place. The only problem he had after completing his week-long detention was that his accomplices, Yuma and Thomas, were nowhere to be seen when they were caught. With them escaping, he took the full blame and was seen as an acting-out delinquent to some teachers but mostly seen as a somewhat hero to the boys who didn't really want to go anyway. Fortunately for him, many of the staff members assumed the reason why he did it and didn't see his actions as a way of grabbing attention.

Plus, Ryoga knew that either Rio or Saichi would try to convince him to go with her but he had no interest in the matter, nor did he want anyone to go, especially his own sister. But he knew everyone would get their just desserts just as he would, because despite his plan going accordingly, it somehow backfired when Rio still planned the rest of the day for them. He would've been slightly happier taking his chances back in the classroom for another detention.

…

"So what are you and Yuma doing today, Kotori?"

"Well since we're staying in, his grandma went to go visit Rokujuro and Akari is spending the day with Chri, I thought I'd cook him something."

Kotori and Rio walked down the hallway and out of the school, the day was over and their Valentine's afternoon began with whatever they planned.

"How do you find the energy to feed him?" Rio giggled, "besides, you always make meals for him."

"I know," Kotori smiled, "but today is special, I'm going all-out and topping it off with heart-shaped desserts."

Rio tried to imagine Kotori and Yuma sitting in peace and enjoying whatever she cooked up, but the image quickly changed to Yuma stuffing his face with the food instead. She shook her head at the thought as the girls came to a stop in front of the school.

"What about you?" Kotori asked Rio, "did Kaito make any plans for you both?"

Rio shook her head, "I was with him yesterday and he didn't really say anything," she replied, "with Kaito, you never know what he'll do."

"Is he picking you up today?"

"Yep, you should totally see him, I didn't know if we were doing anything today but I wanted to make sure he looked presentable so…"

"Rio? What have you done to him?"

The Ice Queen put on a playfully confused look, "why Kotori Mizuki, I would never do anything bad to Kaito…never."

Kotori's eyes widened, "did you…?"

Rio nodded, "wanna' see? Just wait here with me and you'll see him for yourself."

"Does Ryoga know?"

Rio responded by bursting out laughing as she tried to tell her friend the story.

The previous day…

"Rio, I don't think we should do this."

"Oh come on Kaito, a lot of couples are doing this."

"Somehow I don't believe that."

"Trust me, you'll like it."

Rio led Kaito up to her room and closed the door, she already had a chair in the middle and motioned for him to sit down. He was hesitant at first, he even glanced back at her but she flashed him her innocent smile and ultimately obeyed. Rio took off his jacket and tossed it on her bed. She then stood in front of Kaito and kneeled down, "trust me," she told him, "after today, you'll be like a whole new person."

She looked up back at him and smiled again, Kaito didn't smile back, he was still trying to take in what Rio was planning to do with him and he still wasn't sure of the idea. He felt a little uncomfortable since he never had someone do this with him before and he wasn't really looking forward to it either. The Photon duelist looked down at Rio's smile and just looked straight into her eyes, she was waiting for him to give her the okay.

"Alright, fine," he finally gave in and received a squealing hug from her.

"You're gonna' look awesome when I'm done!" she exclaimed, "I'll go get the supplies, ooh I can't wait to get started on that hair!"

She playfully patted him on the head as she exited her bedroom to fetch her stuff while Kaito buried his face in his hands.

"Why did I agree to this?" he said to himself, "I'm going to look like Mizael after today."

About a minute later Rio returned with hair conditioners, combs, hair gel, spray, and a few magazines of men's hairstyles, "okay then," she chimed, "let's get to work!"

A few minutes in and Kaito started to deeply regret the whole thing, Rio was re-styling his entire scalp and he couldn't stop her, at least, not now. Worse, she didn't want him seeing himself in the mirror so she turned him around to surprise him, now he didn't even know what she was doing and how she was doing it. The Photon duelist knew that the Ice Queen wasn't cutting his hair, much less trimming it either, he didn't see any pair of scissors so he at least had a clue as to how he'd look like when it was over.

After Rio was done styling, she reached for a comb and started to comb down, even Kaito was amazed at how long his green bangs were, they practically reached his jaw line.

"So Kaito," Rio spoke out while she was having a blast at his mane, "tomorrow's Valentine's Day."

"I know," he reassured her, "I'm supposed to pick you up after school tomorrow."

"Sooo…will we be doing anything then?"

"I don't know, I never really celebrated it."

"Really? Umm, not to get personal about the past but…um, did you and Droite ever do anything on Valentine's Day?"

Kaito would've shook his head but Rio held on to it while still keeping focus, "Mr. Heartland wasn't really Cupid's Angel so we weren't exactly passing out little pink notes, there wasn't much time for any of that."

Rio felt a little bad, she didn't mind hearing about him and Droite since she knew they had a long history together but hearing about Mr. Heartland made her see that Kaito was still in the process of letting that go. Spending a good majority of his early teens with a control-hungry madman could make anyone a little broody.

"But…I did catch her a butterfly once, that should count for something," he concluded, "so I'm pretty new at this holiday."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, I mean, with a name like Heartland, you'd think he'd literally be in love with the day."

"I'm glad he wasn't, imagine Gauche giving me a Valentine's card with one of those little heart candies."

Rio cough-laughed at the image visualized in her head, she'd pay to see that just to see how Kaito would react.

"You know what?" she asked, "we don't have to do anything if you don't want to."

"Well Rio, what can we do?" Kaito replied as she went back to his head, "your brother already destroyed your school's gym so that dance is out of the question, we can't see Chris since he has plans with Yuma's sister and there is no way we're inviting Thomas and his woman out with us."

"Why not? We couldgo to a restaurant and stick them with the check."

"Knowing Thomas he'd probably take us all to get matching tattoos, or something, afterwards."

Rio laughed at that, "I can actually picture that!" she exclaimed, "with the style I have in mind, you'd look like a biker with the number 62 on your arm."

"He'll have a black eye tattooed when I'm done with him."

Rio playfully slapped his shoulder, "aw come on," she said sarcastically, "if it wasn't for him and Ryoga's stupidity then we wouldn't even be together."

Kaito looked up at her, "we got together because I chose you, not by two of the worst movie ushers in Heartland."

Rio laughed again as he spoke up again, "speaking of, where is he, anyway?"

"Oh, he's out with Saichi, I sent her over to pick him up after his detention."

"You do know he'll just take his motorcycle home, right?"

"No he won't," Rio struggled with the comb in her hand that was behind Kaito's head and used her other hand to reach in her pocket. The Photon duelist heard jangling making their way in front of him in the form of keys in the Ice Queen's hand.

"He can't use the bike if he can't start it," she laughed, "besides, he deserves it after that stunt he pulled in the gym, he cost us the Valentine's dance!"

Kaito brought his eyes to the side to see her in the corner of them, "how did you even get them?"

"I know his locker combination."

Impressed, the Photon duelist nodded to himself, "so he's stuck with her?"

"Pretty much, she seemed happy to do it and who am I to stand in the way of that?"

Kaito heard the sarcasm in her voice, "I should thank that idiot for destroying that dance," he thought to himself, "maybe Thomas and Yuma too."

Rio finished combing and reached for the hairdryer, "I saw someone with this similar look," she said, "your hair is going to put soap stars to shame!"

"You're not talking about that 'Manning' guy are you?" he asked her, "Thomas is better for it, he has the scar and shares the same first name."

"Huh, you're right," Rio immediately went back to work while Kaito seemingly assumed that she just ignored his statement. She finished drying his hair and turned back to grab the last tool needed for success.

"Aww," Rio scoffed, "I left the hair straightener in another room."

Kaito looked up and hoped that this would mean that she'd leave the room so he could at least see himself.

"I'll be back in a bit," the Ice Queen went out the door but as soon as the Photon duelist was about to get up, she ran back inside, "I almost forgot something." The next thing Kaito heard was a heavy object being dragged around his way, sure enough, Rio dragged her own bedroom mirror outside the room.

"Do you…need any help?"

"No no, I'm fine, just making sure," Rio smiled and left the room, mirror and all.

"Nice try, Kaito," she thought, "don't ever underestimate me."

Kaito looked around the room to see if there was anything that casted a reflection but it looked like Rio really thought this through, she was going to keep him on edge from whatever look she gave him. He sighed and buried his face in his hands again, only for his parted and frizz-waved locks to slowly flow in front of his face. He tried moving his bangs away from his eyes while blowing the other annoying strands away.

…

"Well at least you know where your keys are."

"Yeah, whatever."

"So we really don't have any plans for today?"

"Did you see the gym? Whatever plans we had are cancelled."

Ryoga exited the school and went straight to his locker to find his motorcycle keys missing. Before he could suspect anything surrounding this problem, Saichi appeared, that's when he started putting two and two together. Realizing that Rio disabled his only way home, the Water duelist had no choice but to walk it, to make things even more awkward, Saichi joined him.

Ryoga wasn't big on relationshops no matter the attraction, it just wasn't him to admit things or act affectionate towards anyone. Saichi understood that to an extent but still, she offered to have her relationship with him be at a slow pace, if he needed time and space to get used to that idea then she could try it too. Since she met up with him a few weeks ago at the movie theater, Saichi tried her hardest not to act too hyper or too distant to the point where the Water duelist would think she'd abandoned him. Like Rio, she wanted Ryoga to open up with the rest of the world but after examining him from afar, she realized that he was better off doing his thing just to maintain his cold demeanor. That's not to say that he hated her, just like Kaito, Ryoga just wasn't used to relationships, he was still very new to this game.

One thing Saichi learned about Ryoga was that he didn't like to be touched and preferred to walk alone so she'd let him walk a few steps ahead of her but still stayed close. She never held his hand nor did she hug him or cling on to his arm unless the time or moment called for it. The only exception Ryoga made for her was back at the theater with Rio, Kaito, and Thomas, despite their failed attempts of sabotaging his sister's date. If Saichi liked him enough, then she'd wait until he was ready to open up on his own.

With Ryoga walking and Saichi only a step or two away from him, she informed him that Rio wanted her to walk him home. He believed her, Rio has been telling him to get closer to Saichi if he was going to be with her but couldn't ignore her through the whole walk home. Telling the girl to leave him alone because he wanted to walk by himself would just crush her. The two walked with Saichi making awkward small talk here and there just to lighten things up between them. Watching her hesitate with words somewhat amused the Water duelist, Ryoga was at least entertained for the majority of the walk home.

Eventually the two arrived at the Kamishiro mansion, "you know, Ryoga," Saichi said, "no one's here to see us, maybe today we can, I don't know, maybe…do something together?"

Ryoga turned around and just looked her, he didn't know what to do, "I don't know, maybe."

"Well I figured that since the dance has been cancelled then we could go out somewhere, if you're uncomfortable with it being just us then I can invite Sei and Thomas."

"No! That moron will probably send us to Vegas and get us all hitched!"

Saichi giggled at that, "that's not so bad, sounds like fun."

The Water duelist was getting a little nervous, "I gotta' get outta' here before she starts wanting to have kids!" he thought, he had an idea.

"Uh, hold that thought," and he rushed inside the house looking for Rio.

…

Kaito couldn't take it anymore, he had to see what his hair looked like. With Rio away at another room in the big house, he should have enough time to sneak to the washroom for a quick peek.

"Unless Rio took the mirror from there too," he said to himself, he slowly opened the door and looked both sides to see the hallways clear. Kaito then made his way to the washroom that was only two doors down. Just his luck, there was a mirror in there alright but it was even smaller than Haruto! The Photon duelist could barely see his whole face in it. There was only one more washroom in the house and it was downstairs, he couldn't risk it but he still had to do it. He checked the hallways once more and ran downstairs.

Once he got in there, he didn't notice the comb that Rio left in his scalp fell off upon entering. Kaito noticed there was a mirror in front of him and it was at a decent size. As he walked closer he removed his bangs to get a better look. Once his sight was clear, his eyes widened. His hair was indeed parted down the middle but all the frizz was all over the place. His green mane was crowned on his head no longer but now hanging low, over his face.

"Rio…this isn't funny," he whispered to himself, "how am I supposed to explain this to everyone else? I look like I just got out of bed!"

Aggravated, he crumpled his frizzy locks in his hands and was almost tempted to pull them out until he saw the faucet. If he decided to wet his hair and re-style it back to the way it was then Rio's hard work would've been for nothing.

"Knowing her, she'd probably make me sit through it all over again," he growled, "if I do this then it's going to take me a lot of these 'Valentine's gifts' to make up for it, ugh, I hate this!"

Scowling back at the mirror, Kaito ran his hands through his scalp and gripped it tightly while quivering at what he saw. He was about to pull at his locks again until the mirror he was looking into started to change reflection! Kaito's eyes widened once more at the reflection he saw coming intact. For a second, he thought he was looking at himself but instead he wished he was.

"Mizael?!" he yelled out in shock, his former Barian rival opened his eyes and looked back him.

Mizael opened his mouth to speak but the first thing he saw was Kaito's messy hair. After glancing at the Photon duelist for just one second, he already was speechless. He widened his eyes and his mouth stretched in a confused grin while pointing his hands at his head. Kaito sarcastically glared at him and after a few seconds Mizael moved his mouth trying to find the right words to speak but couldn't. He tried once more but ultimately just threw his hands in the air and gave up, he turned around and disappeared back in the mirror.

Kaito looked insulted, "you jerk!" he yelled, "some help you are!"

…

Ryoga entered his home and closed the door with Saichi still outside. He told her that he'd return but after the little conversation they had, he wasn't planning on doing so.

"Rio!" he called out for her, "hey Rio!"

He started to step forward until he noticed something on the floor, one of Rio's combs. He picked it up and looked to the side to see the washroom door slightly opened. Ryoga heard yelling in there and automatically assumed it was his sister.

"Probably complaining about a split end or something," he mumbled, "hey Rio," he headed for the door and opened it, "do me a favor, Saichi's outside so can you-"

Silence took over as both Ryoga and Kaito came face-to-face with each other, and just like Mizael, the Water duelist was speechless after glancing at his friend's hair. Kaito did the same as he did with the dragon tamer, he scowled back at him, knowing that Ryoga was never going to let this go for as long as the other lived. Ready for the laughter or teasing or anything of the sort, Kaito was aiming for it and wasn't going to hold back if it came to it. Since Ryoga already admitted that Saichi was outside, and judging from what he was going to say, the Photon duelist was ready to head back out there and mastermind a scheme to get them to leave together. He could rival Thomas in that area.

After about a minute of staring at each other in anger and shock, Ryoga slowly exited the washroom with his eyes still on Kaito's hair. He left by awkwardly walking backwards and even closed the door on the way out.

"Ugh," Kaito scoffed, "that Numeron Dragon should've kept my soul instead," he put his face on his hand with the teal bangs not far behind from flowing in front of him. He tried to whip them away and remembered that he had to get back upstairs before Rio returned!

…

Saichi was getting a little impatient, "maybe Ryoga ditched me?" she asked herself, "oh no, I was probably annoying him the whole walk home, ugh, how could I be so stupid!"

The door opened and out came the Water duelist, "alright let's go," Ryoga grabbed her by the arm and walked off in a hurry.

"Wait, where are we going?"

"Somewhere far away from here."

"Don't you have your keys?"

"Look, do you want to do something as a couple or not?"

Saichi's face lit up, "okay, let's go!" Now it was her turn to lead them off, Ryoga groaned at his own 'misfortune' while being hauled off by her.

"So does this mean we have plans for Valentine's Day?" she asked him.

…

Back inside, Kaito ran upstairs and into Rio's bedroom, he didn't see or hear her so she must still be out. Entering the room, he was caught red-handed when he faced Rio sitting on his chair.

"What took you so long?" she asked, "I was only gone for a minute, what happened?"

Kaito blushed, he knew he was caught so there was no sense in lying his way out of it.

"You don't like it, do you?"

Kaito looked to the side, he couldn't say 'no' outright so he just avoided the eye contact.

"Of course you don't!" Rio laughed, "I'm not done yet!" she brought out the hair straightener, "you peeked."

"I'm sorry, I just-I didn't want to look ridiculous."

"Why? Kaito, don't you trust me?"

"I do, I just don't trust my hair, I usually kept it the way it was because it suited me best, I didn't think the new style would match."

"Well still, I told you not to look but you did it anyway, so there's only one thing you have to do."

"What is that?"

Rio got up off the chair and walked over to him, "you can make it up to me."

"Fine by me, I suppose you're going to finish up?"

"Well at least you didn't put water on your head so yeah I'll finish up, but that's not how you'll make it up to me."

Kaito sighed, "fair enough, it's my fault anyway, so what do I have to do?"

"First, you and I are going out for Valentine's day, just the two of us."

"Alright, but since you seem to love surprises so much, I won't tell you where we're going."

That seemed to have backfired, "that's not fair."

"Neither is working on my hair without a mirror to look at."

Rio crossed her arms and softly growled at him, "fine, and the second thing is…when you pick me up from school tomorrow, you show up the style I give you today, no questions asked."

"I'm sure there'll be questions asked when I show up tomorrow."

"Kaito!"

Now it was Kaito's turn to cross his arms and playfully scowl at her.

"Can you blame me if I want to show you off?" Rio giggled, she walked over to him and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek, "come on, let's finish up."

…

Present time…

Both Rio and Kotori burst out laughing, "wow, so Ryoga saw him with bed-head?" she wiped away a tear, "that's just too much!"

"I know!" Rio exclaimed, "then he started telling how even Mizael was laughing at him…from a mirror!"

"Hey, where is Ryoga anyway?"

"Probably saying goodbye to Yuma since I also appointed Saichi to accompany Ryoga in his last detention, it is Valentine's Day after all. "

Their laughter calmed down when a group of students gathered around to get a better look at a certain individual driving up in his cycle. His attire stood out mostly as a black jacket, black fingerless gloves and long wavy blond hair with a green mane parted down the middle. He turned off the ignition of the cycle and got off of it. Rio waved at him and walked up to him. She hugged Kaito while he hesitantly did the same giving the Ice Queen enough time to go for the greeting kiss.

Kotori smiled as she saw them, she waved at Kaito and he nodded back at her. Rio turned around to face her and waved, "bye Kotori, say hi to Yuma and Astral for me!"

"Bye guys, happy Valentine's Day!"

Kaito and Rio got on the cycle and he turned back on the ignition, she wrapped her arms around his waist and he turned the handlebars. Ready to go, the two drove off to their Valentine's Day date.

The End

A/N: Here's a fun fact, before any of you saw my uploaded videos on YouTube, I actually used to have long hair, one of my friends said that the way I styled it closely resembled Ryoga's lol. I finally got around to work on my profile and I still can't seem to finish that up! Also, this fic was done last minute and I wasn't planning on doing it until a few weeks later but I'm glad I got it out of the way. Thanks for reading everyone, this was a bit rushed but I had fun with it, did it in only two days :-) hope you all had a good Valentine's Day and also, I've read all of your Kaito stories this week, sorry I wasn't able to review them, I had a really busy week, but know this, Durbe the Barian, frozen galaxy, senshi moon, K.I.T.T RIDER, StuffStuff, you guys did great, I loved the Kaito stories you all did, whether it was Anxiety/Diamondshipping I still found them enjoyable(and the time to read them)so keep it up, creativity lives on. Thanks again for reading, you're the best and hopefully I'll come back around the Zexal archive soon, I miss it. Until next time!