…:Chains:…

Here I am with my first Ryuki long fic (it won't be longer than 5/6 chapters though).

I will definitely try my best for my most favourite OTP ever. I will never get tired of writing about them. They are just so perfect together. 3 Plus, every time I write about them I end up writing some lime/lemon. I cannot do otherwise; I fear it's just their fault. Too much repressed sexual attraction, I guess.

Hope you'll enjoy the reading!

Prologue.

Rika sighed, looking at the trembling ceiling above her head. She closed her eyes, feeling her head fuzzy and aching. Since they left Tokyo on the train, Kazu and Kenta didn't stop chattering and laughing even for a moment, and Takato and Jeri kept on cuddling and giggling endlessly. Her head was going to explode before they could even reach the airport, she was sure.

"Train sickness, pumpkin?"

Rika lowered her head, looking at the smirk of the blue-eyed boy in front of her. When their eyes met, she felt weird for a moment, or better… embarrassed, somewhat.

"No. I'm fine. Just weary, I guess." She said, avoiding his gaze by looking outside the window.

"Yeah, I think it's normal… you know, after all we've been through lately." He said in a soft sweet voice. "I'm sure this trip to Okinawa will turn out just fine."

She smiled softly, hiding it behind the hand on which she was leaning. She didn't want to let Ryo know he was able to make her feel better, sometimes.

Soon, Henry and Alice were back from the toilet, and they sat next to Ryo and Rika, respectively. Ryo and Henry started to talk about the last mission, the Digiworld, Ryo's work at Yamaki's association, and so on. Alice kept on reading her book. Rika half listened to the boys' conversation, half thought about the latest events of the past weeks.

They were called back at Yamaki's headquarter, after nearly five years of silence from the Digital World. The researchers were close to find a way to communicate with it and they found it, but something went wrong and four Digital Gates appeared all around Japan. Henry's dad and the other Monster Makers created four cards which allowed the Tamers to close the Gates, so they had to split in four groups in order to close them. Takato went with Jeri, obviously. Henry went with Alice and Suzie. Kazu and Kenta went together, just as a lovey-dovey couple. In order to avoid both of them, Ryo and Rika silently decided to team up. Ryo had been studying at Tokyo's university for a year, but he decided to reach the Gate in Kyushu, his homeland. She went with him. That experience had been… strange. They got so much closer. Rika got to know him so much better: she met his father, his friends, saw his home, his room… slept in his bed, too.

Rika shook her head slightly, feeling a flush of heat warming her cheeks. Those thoughts were… inappropriate, definitely inappropriate. She had promised to herself never to think about it, but she was thinking about it over and over again… she had even decided not to speak to Ryo anymore after that week in Kyushu, but then summer vacation started and Takato proposed to travel to Okinawa all together. "A group holiday to strengthen their friendship", Takato called it. "A group holiday to make me hate Kazu and Kenta even more and to make my situation with Ryo even stranger", Rika thought to herself. She wanted to refuse, but Jeri and Alice insisted so much that she had to agree, at the end. Much to Ryo's joy she could tell, since when he saw her at the train station his eyes started to sparkle, just as his perfect smile. How hateful.

That trip seemed endless to her: even though everybody was having fun, travelling really wore her out. Plus, she could feel Ryo's presence in a kind of stronger way: it was as if she could feel his aura getting brighter, pressing her against the floor. It was frustrating, irritating, tiresome.

"You like him."

Rika raised her wet face from the sink of the airport's toilet. Alice stood by her side, washing her hands in the next washbasin, and Rika looked at her through the reflection in the mirror.

"What?" she asked, in an irritated voice.

"Something happened between you and Ryo while you were in Kyushu, but you don't want to admit it."

"Ah-ha, that's funny. How can you say that, blondie?" Rika snorted, leaving the sink to dry her hands.

"Because you keep on starring at him. And he keeps on looking at you, in a very… intense way. If you know what I mean."

"No, I don't. And you're talking bullshit. Stop it." Rika said, leaving the toilet without waiting for answer.

As Rika finally fastened her seatbelt, someone plumped down on the nearby seat.

"What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing. Here." Rika asked, petrified.

Ryo smirked with his usual cheeky face.

"Alice wanted to switch seats. I think she's into something with Henry." He said, fastening his seatbelt.

Rika widened her mouth in disbelief, ready to say something very, very bad. But she just hissed a 'bitch' and turned her vexed face towards the little window.

"Are you okay, Princess?"

"No."

"Airplane sickness, again?" he giggled, reminding of their plane trip to Kyushu where Rika felt sick during the whole journey.

"No. Just nausea. Caused by your presence." She snorted, crossing her arms.

"Hey, that was bad!"

"No. It's just that we're sharing too much of the same air, hotshot."

"Oh, I like breathing the air around you. It smells like cherry blossoms and grumpiness. It's lovely."

"Oh, I thought it was you the one that was perfuming air around me. You one, it smells like aftershave and cockiness."

"Yeah, I didn't want to shave it for a while, but since you told it bothers you, I decide to shave my splendid full beard."

"It was a couple of bristly hair. And I don't remember ever telling you something about your stupid shaggy beard."

"You did when you fall asleep in my arms on my sof—"

"GOOD NIGHT, AKIYAMA." Rika burst out, turning her side to Ryo in order to look out of the window. She DEFINITELY needed to ignore him. Definitely.

Oh, that smell was… was great. Soooo sexy. And hot. And manly. And arousing. And…

"Oh, fuck…" Rika hissed to herself, lifting slowly her eyelids just to see a soft darkness around her.

The plane was flying by night, and the lights were dimmed during the journey. Everything was quiet and people on the opposite seats were sleeping.

Rika didn't want to lift her eyes. Didn't want to find out if Ryo, on which she was leaning half asleep, was looking at her with a satisfied expression on his cocky face. She could feel his hand resting lazily on her back, but according to the rhythm of his breath she was nearly sure he was sleeping, too.

Rika lifted slowly her head from his chest, careful not to make his warm hand fall off her back. Ryo's head was leaning peacefully against the headrest, his eyes closed and his breath regular.

He was really handsome. Rika couldn't stop thinking it.

Then, she felt something.

A rush, a hot rush of something, rising from inside of her chest. No, actually it came from somewhere below her belly, a feverish desire that came rushing through her veins and made her lean forward, towards Ryo's face, her lips a few inches away from his. She could feel his breath against her chin and a tickling feeling pinching her stomach.

It took her a few moments to regain control over herself. Over her mind. Over her body.

Rika distanced herself from Ryo's body, she took his hand off her back and delicately set it on his lap. She then snuggled up against the opposite side of the seat, as far as she could get from him, nervously picking at her fingernails. In the middle of most total darkness, she could see something glittering from far away: they were reaching Okinawa, finally. The place in which, she decided, she will have to try to ignore and get rid of Ryo Akiyama from her life.