Hello. :)

So this is the prologue for LoveStory. I think it's gotten rather long, but don't lose hope, the next chapter will contain Henry (Whey!)! I hope you enjoy this! If so, let me know. :)

Love!

It was only dawn, dew was still lingering on the flowers in the parks of Tokyo as a black car with shadowed windows drove down the streets in the direction of Shinjuku ward. The woman sitting behind the steering wheel looked tired. Her light brown hair was short, her face showed the first traces of crinkles. Her name was Seiko Hata.
Seiko shook her head to get rid of the sleepiness, she looked into the rear mirror, where two younger women were sleeping. Seiko smiled. They wore messy ponytails and weird marks on their faces from whatever they had rested their heads on. She grinned and returned her focus on the empty streets, taking a left turn. Suddenly, she heard a sound from behind, checking the rear mirror again, she saw her daughter, Rumiko stirring and slowly opening one eye after another.

"Morning, dear." The driver smiled at her.
Rumiko blinked a few times, then stretched, yawning. "Good morning, Mom. What time is it?"
"5:30 AM."
"What?" Rumiko exclaimed. "I've been sleeping for five hours?! You should have woken me up to switch!"
"It's alright, Rumiko." Seiko hushed her daughter. "I'm heading for the next coffee shop. We're almost there, but I thought we could use some breakfast first." She continued after a moment.
"Almost there?" Asked another sleepy voice from the back seat.
Rumiko turned her head to the side, only to see her own daughter, Rika, rubbing her eyes.
"Yes. This is almost Shinjuku." The elderly woman smiled at her grand daughter.
Rika smiled. "Great."
Seiko parked the car and stretched her sore back.
"Let's go eat, shall we?" She said
"Yes!"
"Hmhm."
"Wait!" Seiko exclaimed, before neither Rika nor Rumiko could open their doors.
"What, Mom?!" Rumiko asked, taken aback, looking around in panic.
"You two should fix your hair first."
Rumiko and Rika looked confused, then turned to look at each other. Rumiko looked as if she had nestled gum in her hair on one side and Rikas ponytail was hardly a ponytail anymore. She fixed it, shaking her head at her grand mother for being so dramatic. They had had enough drama in the last four years.
As the redhead had adjusted her hair, she stepped out of the car and looked into the window to see if it were alright to face early-morning-public like that. While looking at her reflection she realized again, how much she had changed in those past four years.
Now, at the age of seventeen, her hair was not in a spiky, but fairly normal ponytail, her hair was now too long to stay in its spiky form. Her face had lost all traces of baby-fat and puberty had been good to her. She sighed. She couldn't deny that she was her mothers daughter anymore. Although the haircolour was still different. And of course, they dressed different. While Rumiko still liked wearing dresses and girly shirts, Rika settled with more plain things, which Rumiko and Seiko never got tired to outline looked absolutely perfect and beautiful on her.

"Rika!"
Rika's head snapped around.
"Are you coming, or what?" Rumiko called, already at the entrance of the store.
"Tss." And with that, the redhead followed her mother into the coffee shop.
Inside greeted them a way too motivated waitress and took their orders. Rumiko groaned, when the waitress had left and Rika sighed.
"She's soo annoying." The ex-model whined.
"Nana, now. Be nice." Seiko lectured her daughter.

Tss. You'd think with 35 she'd be matured, but no. She's still being lectured by her mother.

Rika grinned slightly at the thought.

"Hey, Rika, what'cha grinning at?!" Rumiko flicked her daughter's forehead.

"Geez, Mom!" the girl exclaimed. "Since we were allowed to go back you're so annoying!"

Rumiko looked at her for a moment in surprise, then she averted her gaze and smiled a sad smile.

"Yes. You might be right. I'm sorry. I just can't believe it yet. We can finally go home."

A weird silence engulfed the three females. They were all staring in different directions, lost in thought, a somewhat sad look in their eyes.

"Aaaaand here's your order! Three giant coffee mugs, pancakes for the young lady, eggs and bacon for you, Miss, and a huge sandwich for you, Madam." The waitress was back and pulled them out of their thoughts at once.

"Thank you." Seiko muttered quickly, as the girl set their breakfast in front of them.

"Bon Appetit!" She chirped and set off again.

"Can you get more annoying at this time of the day?" Rumiko muttered.

"Well, you sure can." Rika grinned evilly at her mother.

"Tch, look who's talking. The feisty teenager." Rumiko stuck her tongue out at her daughter, before taking a huge bite from her eggs.

Half an hour later the black car reached its destiny. It parked in its usual spot beneath the dark house, designed in ancient japanese style.

"We're home." Seiko breathed, as she looked up at the house and slumped back into her seat, defeated.

Rumiko and Rika watched in quiet admiration of their home from four years ago.

Slowly, the three stepped outside, closing the doors as if in trance and walking up to the house with wide, wondering eyes.

What would wait for them within those walls? Would it be the same? Of course, to Rika, it wouldn't, because she wasn't there.

Slowly, they stepped up to the front door. Rumiko gulped and opened it with her keys.

Inside the house, it was quiet, eerily quiet. The model stepped in and looked around, followed by Rika and her mother. Nothing had changed in those past years of their absence. Nothing. Even the slight cracks in the wooden floor and the signs on the wall, documenting little Rika's height were still the same. Of course, the agency had cleaners wipe and vaccuum the floors, before they returned, but still, she hadn't awaited it to be so... unchanged.

"It's not changed a bit." Rika voiced her mother's thoughts.

"No." Seiko and Rumiko muttered.

They parted in front of the living room. Seiko went into the kitchen, examining the oven, microwave and everything else, lost on memory lane. Rumiko opened the door to the living room and stepped in, looking closely at her surroundings, then, she walked straight through the room and opened the doors to the japanese garden. The blonde smiled. That was what felt most like home. The view of her beloved garden.

Rika on the other hand was headed for her old room. She was scared to go there the most, but she was never one to back down from something, so she headed there first. Silently, the doors slid open. Rika waited for a moment, ready for anything that could happen, but nothing did. She stepped in quietly and took a look at her room. She sure hadn't been one to decorate nicely or anything. She scoffed over her past self. She hadn't changed much, you wouldn't find flowers and pink hearts everywhere in her room, but at least a few pictures of those she held dear to her heart would be spread around the room. Maybe even something colourful here and there, if her mother or grandmother had bugged her to keep it. It was dark in the room. Usually, she would be hid in these shadows, but she wasn't there anymore. Rika bit her lip and walked over to open the doors to the garden. The past taught her to not feel save in the dark anymore, but to fear every step she made in it. She wanted to feel save in the dark again, but she didn't think it possible anymore, without her there.

Rika shook her head. She had to get those thaughts out of her head! It was over and he would never come back.

Let's get it friendlier in here. She thought and set off through the hall to get the first of her boxes out of the car.

"Mom? Grandma?" She called. "Let's get started unpacking!"

Seiko and RUmiko came from different directions, looking a little surprised.

Rika smiled at them. "It doesn't really feel like home without Mom's weird magazines flying around the house."

"Ha!" Rumiko shouted. "My magazines?! I remember your shirts and shopping bags were flying around the house!"

Rika out her tongue out and Seiko snickered.

"Let's unpack." She smiled at her two hot tempered girls.

"Fine."

The morning went by in a blur, while the Nonaka-Hata family unpacked their things. It was late afternoon, when they decided to go to the next restaurant and grab something to eat.

Apparently the next restaurant was an italian one only ten minutes by car from their house, where they settled for giant pizzas. The three females were exhausted and so the meal stretched longer than it would have actually needed to.

"Rika, dear, would you go and pay the bill?" Seiko asked her granddaughter after they head devoured their food and drank the second round of espresso.

"Sure." She took the money Seiko handed her and walked over to the counter. She had to wait only a few seconds, when a young man, around her age, she guessed, stepped out from the kitchen. He looked a little surprised to see her standing there, than he smiled and asked if he could help her. Rika payed their bill, tipping the boy nicely, as her grandmother had taught her, turning and leaving the restaurant with her family.

That night, when Rika lay on her futon - although she had come accostumed to using a proper bed, but it hadn't been delivered yet -, Rika couldn't help but think about the boy from the restaurant. He had looked surprised. Could it be? She bit her lip. The hair, the color of his eyes... Maybe. But he lived on the other side of Shinjuku... It couldn't've been him. Rika shook her head and looked at the small frame that she had placed beneath her bedlight on the floor. It was the tamers, a picture of all of them, taken four years ago. She herself was on the right, standing in front of Henry, who smiled at the camera, beneath her was Kazu, his arm over her shoulder, his other arm over Kenta's shoulder to his right and he was shouting something at the one behind the camera, grinning like an idiot. She had beaten him up, for sneaking his arm around her at the last moment and pulling her and Kenta into him while he was yelling like an idiot.

Rika smiled. She had missed them so much. This photo had accompanied her for the past four years and was the only thing that she had left of her friends, after she had made her sudden disappearance. It was the thing she held dearest to her heart out of all her belongings.

The redhead sighed. She needed to get some sleep. She was beyond tired. And so she closed her eyes and drifted off into deep sleep.

The next day and the one after that began as early as the last one. Rika didn't mind, after all that meant, that their furniture would arrive and their home would eventually look and feel like home. They were quiet busy, after small breakfasts, the furniture arrived bit by bit and Rika, Rumiko and Seiko helped the furniture removers to build everything up.

As Rika had put the last bodylotion of her mother into the bathroom-shelf, sighed and looked at the clock, stretching. It read 17:07 PM.

"Mom? I've finished unpacking! Is there anything I can help you with? Grandma? You?" She called from the hall.

"No, sweetie, thank you." Seiko called from her room.

"Nope, there's not much left to do, so you can just go out." Rumiko stepped into the frame of the living room door. She put a hand on her hip, smirking evilly as she continued. "I know that you're burning with curiosity to go meet all your friends again."

Rika smiled slightly, but her mother caught the worried glance in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"It's been so long..." Rika said after a short silence.

Rumiko stepped towards her and put her hands on her almost adult daughter's shoulders. Rika looked up and blue met lavender.

"They will love to see you back, Rika. Believe me." She said truthfully.

The redhead smiled. "Thanks. I'll be going then!" She shouted and ran off.

Seiko stepped out behind Rumiko. "She went to see her friends?"

Rumiko nodded.

"Finally." Seiko smiled.

"Yeah." Rumiko grinned, still staring at the door where Rika had left.