Right! My first Digimon fic! Go me! So, um this will be a Ryuki with major JenryaxRuki friendship! Sort of!
Summary: All Ruki asked for was a simple favor. All Jenrya was doing was helping out a friend. Too bad they didn't expect the consequences of a stupid magazine. Life's complicated and so is love. Jenrya hates that he's stuck in the middle of this, but maybe Ruki and Ryou can finally learn something from this. But not before making it complicated. It's not that easy, after all.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon Tamers or any Digimon mentioned in the fic. However, I do own Arashi and all the other girls whose names I mention as well as their full characters.
Ruki, Jen and all Tamers save for Ryou: 17
Ryou: 21 (how's that for pedophilic?)
Arashi: 24
All other models: ehh to be decided at a later point. ^^
Chapter 1: The Instigation
Xxx
Ruki Makino hated asking others for favors. It showed that you couldn't do something yourself and it forced you to bow your head to another. That showed weakness and if she was going to admit it, on her list of "things that Ruki hates with a burning passion", showing weakness was definitely in the top five, if not the number one thing on aforementioned list. The seventeen year old didn't like admitting to others when she was in need of help, though her stubbornness and pride had lessened somewhat over the years. She attested the change to the time she had spent with Renamon and the personality shift that had resulted due to their relationship. However, it didn't mean that Ruki was okay with how things were turning out.
After the D-Reaper incident and the (temporary) disappearance of their partner Digimon, life had more or less returned to normal. Though Ruki had more friends than she had prior to the discovery of Digimon's existence, life at the girls' private school she attended didn't change. Ruki still didn't get along with the girls in her classes. The fights she was involved in reduced significantly, but the animosity between Ruki and everyone else at school was still at a tension filled high. Some of the girls (the slightly dumber and more plastic ones in Ruki's opinion) tried to befriend the girl after Ruki had decided to become a part-time model for the [insert company's name here] line. Naturally, she'd become a great hit and, much to her dismay, Ruki was, if not more, popular than her mother three months after her debut on the scene.
Thankfully, with the discovery of a bridge between the Digital World and the real world when Ruki was fifteen (thanks to the hard work of Jenrya and Alice), Ruki had Renamon as support and a great means of escape from the never ending paparazzi. Ruki was already used to dealing with a fanbase- being the "Digimon Queen" had given her enough experience. However, not even Renamon could save Ruki from the party that was being thrown the coming Friday night. Unless somehow the lupine-like Digimon could transform into a date for her.
Which was why Ruki was on the phone right now, asking a guy friend to be her escort for the accursed party. She leaned against the wall, listening to the silence that was on the other line, twirling the cord around her fingers, waiting for the information to sink in for her friend. The seventeen year old kept reminding herself to keep her patience in check; she needed the favor and he could have said 'no' at any moment.
"Okay, okay, I'm back…." Jenrya sighed into the phone, and Ruki could see her fellow Tamer trying to keep his laughter in. That and it was evident in the way he talked. "So…" Silence once more and Ruki heard the lightbulb go off, "Holy…you were serious weren't you?" He asked.
"Jen. Think about it; would I be anything but serious if I was asking you to be my….date," she almost spat the word with utter disdain, "for this stupid party?" Ruki grumbled, amethyst eyes rolling upward at the ceiling. For being the smartest Tamer out of them all, even Jenrya had his moments.
"What, did Ryou say that he couldn't do it?"
Ruki blinked, brows furrowing together. The conversation had begun with her telling him about the modeling party and had led into her subtly mentioning how she was required a date, and had ended up with her flat out asking him to be her friendly date for the party. Nowhere in the conversation had Hero-boy ever been mentioned and Ruki had to wonder what had led to the twenty-one year old being involved in their conversation.
"Um, no; I haven't talked to him since the last time that idiot decided to hang out with the Tamers. Why?"
"Oh. Well, I just figured he'd be your first choice, not me." Jenrya shrugged and she heard him clacking away on his laptop, presumably to check his schedule. Sure enough, he gave her a, "Yeah, I can do it," in affirmation a few moments later. It was quite entertaining how much Jenrya relied on his computer- if the Tamers didn't know any better, they would have said that it dictated his life. But it was Terriermon and Suichon who controlled Jen, even if the seventeen year old boy refused to say so.
"Jen, Takato's got Juri, Kenta and Kazu are the last people on earth I would even dream of asking and you're the only reasonable choice." Ruki scoffed, though she wasn't going to tell him that Ryou had indeed crossed her mind. Her eyes narrowed. "What makes him my first choice?" The dangerous tone in her voice made It clear that he was going to have to answer or face consequences from Ruki.
Jenrya was shuffling nervously in his room. Ruki could see his blue eyes darting nervously around the room as he struggled with wording his answer. "Well…it's the way you guys act around each other…I just sort of figured you to go to him first." He said hesitantly.
Silence for a few seconds…and then, "Wear a suit to this Friday's thing- I'll give you the rest of the details tomorrow." Ruki all but growled, slamming the phone onto the receiver. It occurred to her that she hadn't thanked Jenrya for accepting her offer. Then she remembered that he had brought up Hero-boy and she stalked off to find some way to distract herself. Thinking of Ryou always annoyed her.
Xxx
When the two arrived at the venue that Friday night, Jenrya couldn't help but whistle lowly in appreciation for the venue. When Ruki's company threw a party…they threw a party. The blue haired young man turned to Ruki, offering her his hand and when she gave him a look, he grinned and offered an elbow instead. It was more than obvious to both of them that she was going to refuse, but Jen grinned wider.
"C'mon Ruki- it's all for show, right?" He chided, and he started chuckling when she glared at him after taking his offered elbow, hooking her arm through his. With Ruki in tow, Jenrya led them towards the hotel that Ruki's company had booked.
"I hate this." Was all Ruki grumbled as they entered the brightly lit lobby, steering them straight towards the elevator, tugging at the dress she had been forced to wear. (Her mother wouldn't let her out in the house in a skirt- this event, her mother had said, called for a dress).
They relaxed as they stepped in, arms falling to their sides. "Of course you would; it's not really your scene." Jenrya pointed out, pressing the button to the topmost floor, thankful that no one else was in the elevator with them. The blue-head wasn't in the mood to play Peacekeeper to anyone suffering Ruki's temper that night. He was saving all his energy for Ryou, if and when the Legendary Tamer found out he was with Ruki as her date, pretend or not.
"What are you talking about, Jen?" Ruki asked in a fake voice. "I love all these girls! It's like we're sisters!" She smiled fakely before scowling again and after a moments silence, the two started to break out into laughter. "The president of this company's not bad; it's the models she chooses that annoy me."
Jenrya bit back the retort he was dying to say, remembering that there was no escaping Ruki at the moment. Besides, he had to play nice as her date. "You look nice, by the way." He said instead, hoping that he wouldn't get a punch to the arm for the compliment. He never thought that pink would be her color.
As if reading his mind, Ruki tugged again at her dress. "It's lavender." She corrected, a bit glad that Jen had actually noticed the dress. After a long debate with her mom, Ruki agreed to wear a dress, as long as she had been the one to choose it.
And the redhead had decided on a lavender, knee length dress that held a boat-shaped neckline, exposing just the right amount of her collarbone while the back fell in folds to her waist, revealing the creamy skin on her back. A bit more…forward than usual, but these models were just asking for it. They didn't think that Ruki could step up to her game, well…they were wrong. The girl's shoulder length red hair was tied in an elegant bun, a step away from its normal high spiked ponytail. A set of simple dangling earrings topped off her attire. As for shoes…well, if she was going to be bold….a slight heel with lace that wrapped around a good two inches above her foot in the same shade as her dress.
"You look nice as well." Ruki returned, though she had been expecting it. Jenrya would never show up to something looking shabby. Unless the event called for it. He'd taken on a regular black tux, atop a navy-blue dress shirt that matched his hair. Even his bowtie was navy-blue, and he wore a pair of dress shoes and black slacks. A simple outfit, but very well-polished on Jenrya.
"Thanks; I will make sure to write down that Ruki Makino can compliment people." Jenrya smiled and Ruki wondered if he, Takato, Kazu and Kenta hadn't been hanging around Ryou one too many times. It was starting to seem that the older Tamer's attitude was starting to rub off on Jenrya, which was a sad shame.
"And I'll make sure to give you a proper beating later on." She replied easily, putting on a frighteningly sweet smile while she looped her arm through his once more. "Remember- you are not my boyfriend, you are just a friend."
"Right- because if I was your boyfriend, then I'd be Ryou Akiyama." Jen smirked, stepping out of the elevator. Which was lucky, because with witnesses around, Ruki couldn't bash in his head.
The hotel that had been used had a ballroom of sorts at the top floor, giving them a wonderful of the city through the purely-window side. The ballroom was classy and wide, with a few chandeliers hanging from the ceiling to provide a nice amount of light. There was a DJ at one end of the hall, set up on a stage and it reminded Jen that this company did hire a fair amount of teenagers. At the other end of the hall, white-cloth tables were set up, with people milling around, eating and talking to one another while a buffet table was set up nearby. Overall, the ballroom was ornate in design, but set up just like another dance party…slightly.
"Your geek face is showing, Lee." Ruki grumbled, guiding him over to a table, where a young woman was seated, no emotion whatsoever on her face. "Hey, Arashi."
The young woman looked up, dark green eyes blinking as she registered who was standing in front of her. "Oh, Ruki- you did show up." Her eyes flickered over to Jenrya, who waved with his free hand. "Boyfriend?"
"No; my male friend." Ruki corrected, both her and Jen taking a seat. "Arashi, this is Lee Jenrya, Jen, this is Kitayama Arashi- the president and, consequently my boss. She's the main designer and-"
"You're wearing my dress." Arashi interrupted, blinking rapidly as she pointed her cake fork (as there was a slice of half eaten chocolate cake in front of her) at Ruki. The president tilted her head, a stray lock of her almost silver like hair falling to the side. "Hm. It looks nice." She concluded, returning to her cake. "Go mingle and, please, don't kill anyone tonight. It's supposed to be a party."
That was their cue to leave, as Ruki motioned for Jenrya to follow her to where a group of girls were huddled with their dates off to one side. Jenrya swallowed nervously; those girls (despite how pretty they looked, seemed quite intimidating).
"Ruki, are you sure you're not going to bit off more than you can chew? Because I'm not really comfortable with hitting a girl…." Jenrya whispered, leaning over slightly to cup his hand around Ruki's ear.
That simple motion caused the group of girls to stop their chatter as one pointed out Jenrya to the rest. The blue-haired Tamer sighed as he realized his mistake and threw an apologetic glance at Ruki, who gave a 'it would have happened sooner or later' shrug. Still, he caught her take in a quick, nerve-steeling breath before joining the group.
"Makino." A dark haired, dark eyed girl acknowledged with a slight frown.
"Sachiko." Ruki greeted in reply, inclining her head ever so slightly. "Girls, I'd like you to meet Jenrya, my friend." She emphasized, amethyst eyes daring anyone to challenger her on that. "Jen, that's Sachiko, Ayame, Taiko, Amano, and Miu." She introduced, pointing to them. Sachiko, Taiko and Amano all had dark hair while Ayame was a brunette and Miu's hair was dyed blond.
From the way Ruki had said their names, Jen could sort of tell who she tolerated and who she loathed in the group. The girl was quite talented in hiding her dislike for others…sometimes. "Nice to meet you all." Jenrya smiled, bowing his head.
The girls all looked like they were trying to decipher how Ruki had snagged such a nice person as her friend before resuming their earlier chat, which fell on deaf ears with Jenrya. Ruki, on the other hand, seemed to be able to easily match any questions they threw at her and Jen had a subtle feeling that there was some sort of unspoken challenge and he politely excused himself to the small group of males, hoping that their conversation would be slightly more interesting.
Surprisingly enough, their conversation was focused on Digimon and, even more surprising, Ryou Akiyama. It was pretty funny how many different rumors were circulated around the Legendary Tamer and when Jen laughed at one that was particularly outrageous, all the males fixated him with a glare.
"Sorry….moumentai, guys!" Jenrya chuckled, waving his hand dismissively at their glares. "You guys make Ryou sound all ficitiony. He's not like that, really. He's a normal guy." He told them matter-of-factly.
It was easy, sort of, to talk to them after that and while the conversation steered to what type of Digimon they'd like as partners (Jen was a bit shocked that they'd still be into Digimon at their age, though he wasn't one to talk), Jen was a bit short of being forced to say Terriermon was his partner. He shrugged. "The little guy isn't as weak as you guys think." He said, a bit miffed at the ragging being done on his partner.
He was quite thankful then, when Ruki appeared again to pull him out of their as the models she'd been mingling with had decided they had wanted to dance and neither Ruki nor Jenrya were in the mood. So they opted to seat themselves with Arashi, who apparently had a Digimon on the table and Jen took out his D-Arc, earning a raised eyebrow from Ruki. The male shrugged it off- all Tamers carried it with them, whether they realized it or not.
The small red Digimon turned out to be a Sunmon, an in-training Digimon. It was shaped like a sun, triangular points spread out around its circular form, with the tip of his head burning in a small fire. It smiled when Jenrya and Ruki sat down, heading over to greet them.
"You're not smiling." Arashi noted.
"Neither are you." Ruki retorted.
"I wasn't aware of that." The young woman said with a roll of her eyes. "But you not smiling means that you didn't hurt anyone. That's good. No, Sunmon. You aren't allowed to light anything on fire." She said firmly, pinching one of the triangular points on the Digimon to drag it back to her as the Digimon was inching its flame towards the tablecloth.
"The little guy yours?" Jenrya asked, watching as the Digimon first looked depressed before brightening up again when Arashi fed him some food.
"Unfortunately; found him in my office one day- setting fire to a slew of papers with that little flame of his. Couldn't find it in my heart to get rid of him." She smiled faintly, feeding Sunmon another morsel of food.
"That and…a D-Arc appeared, right?" Sunmon smiled, black eyes shining.
"Yeah, that too. And don't talk with your mouth full- it's rude." Arashi frowned, flicking the Digimon lightly between the eyes.
Sunmon pulled a face and swallowed. "Sorry…I forget." He muttered, mouth curved into a pout.
Arashi sighed, rolling her eyes at Ruki and Jen. "He's a dramatic Digimon. Anyway, Ruki, you guys can head on home if you want; there's not much left to this party." She told them, checking a watch on her wrist. "Better be careful getting home and Jen, it was nice meeting you, even if we didn't get the chance to talk." She waved at them.
Jenrya and Ruki said their goodbyes to Arashi and headed back to the elevator, where, they were, once again, alone and both slumped against the wall as they waited for the elevator to descend. Ruki was frowning, arms crossed over her chest.
"You did good tonight, Jen. Thanks for putting up with it." Ruki said, mildly impressed by the blue-haired Tamer.
"Eh…just, next time….ask Ryou; he's better suited to these things. Not me." Jenrya sighed with a small grin. The night had gone surprisingly well.
If only the two knew.
Xxx
So that is the end of chapter one, I promise that this will be a Ryuki! Ryou will be making his appearance into next chapter! Sorry if this seemed rushed, but I'm tired! And I've got summer homework still! Please leave any comments or questions in a review! Please point out any and all mistakes so I can edit it right away!
-nell