Disclaimer - I don't own Digimon. Yep, yep.
Note: I prefer using the original Japanese names rather than the dub names in my stories. I don't dislike the dub names; I just like using the Japanese ones better. But I grew up watching the dub, so if there's any mistakes in the writing - please tell me!
Valentine Cookies --
Ruki bakes Ryo a batch of cookies for Valentine's Day - unfortunately, Ryo Akiyama is stuck home sick with a cold. Ruki pays him a visit. [one-shot Ryuki fluff. Slight Jurato.
The kitchen was a complete and total mess. Sixteen-year old, Ruki Makino surveyed the room, in shock that just minutes ago it was so shiny it rivaled Mr. Clean's bald head. She, herself was a mess - head to toe covered in an dusty substance. She wrinkled her nose as she tried to cross the kitchen, trying to avoid making a bigger mess.
Her friends Alice McCoy and Juri Katou were waiting on the other side - equally messy, equally confused.
It was a challenge, a quest that they were heading - with a stiff Renamon sitting at the kitchen table watching them warily, being ready to come if they needed aid. The battle had been clearly lost since the kitchen had been transformed so oddly, but they had tried...and that's was what mattered...right?
Ruki shook her head to let her hair clear, then pulled it back up to its usual spiky ponytail as she handed everyone brooms and mops.
"I hate cooking," Ruki said, as she swept up some flour on the floor.
"You hate everything," Alice pointed out.
"Except A-" Juri began, but was stopped by Ruki's famous icy glare.
"And I hate cleaning more."
"You hate everything."
"Except Ak-"
Glare.
"And I really hate cookies, why the hell did we have to bake them?!"
"You hate everything."
"Except Aki-"
The oven ding-ed and Juri and Alice dropped their brooms to hurry and rush over. Alice's face turned disappointed as she withdrew a tray of burnt cookies onto the kitchen countertop.
"I think we left them in a little too long," Juri frowned.
"Oh well, I guess we can try again," Ruki sighed as she put away the cleaning supplies. Alice and Juri washed their hands and collected their cookie making materials.
It was the traditional Valentine's Day in Shinjuku - and the Tamer girls had decided to bake sweets for their...sweets (as Juri said.) Juri was looking forward to giving her homemade cookies to Takato tomorrow morning - wondering what his expression would be. Alice had a mysterious senior who she was going to send her cookies to, and, well, Ruki...she was being Ruki and refused to tell who she was giving her valentines too. But everyone knew she was making them for Ryo.
After another minutes' work of hard labor they stuck a second batch of cookie dough into the oven and waited for them to bake. The girls triple-checked the timer this time.
"I can't wait to give Takato my cookies...I hope he likes them!" Juri said enthusiastically.
"Oh, he will. You know he will," Alice pipped in.
Ruki gave a grunt that sounded like approval.
"Why are you so...down?" Juri asked.
"It's nothing," Ruki mumbled, she rested her head on her left hand as she checked the time on her watch. She set down her watch hand and looked out the window.
Suspicious glances.
"Are you waiting for someone to come?"
No response.
"Maybe a certain Ryo Akiyama?"
The table they were sitting at suddenly toppled over. At the mention of his name, Ruki had abruptly jumped up - her leg knocked into the table and made it fall to the ground.
"So, he is coming!" Alice concluded - her tone acusatory.
"...for homework. He...needs help on it!" Ruki argued, her cheeks flushing.
The phone rang.
Ruki hopped up to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Hey, wildcat!"
She hung up.
"Who was that on the phone?" Juri asked, as Ruki returned to the table.
"Nobody."
The phone rang again.
"I guess nobody really wants to talk to you," Alice smirked. Ruki rolled her eyes and walked back to the phone.
"Hello, this is the Makino residence. We are not here right now - please leave a message after the beep. BEEEP!"
"Hey wildcat, just calling to tell you that I'm in the neighborhood now. I should be up your driveway in a couple minutes. See ya!"
"...WHAT THE HELL?!"
She slammed the phone down again, panicked. "Akiyama's coming!" Ruki exclaimed, the kitchen (and herself) were still covered in flour and other unknown ingrediants.
"I'll go distract him! You guys clean up as fast as you can!" Juri announced, as she headed out the door.
-----
Ryo Akiyama was seventeen, handsome, rich, and famous. These qualities, to a normal high school girl, would make them sigh, gawk, or faint at the sight of him. Of course, his wildcat wasn't normal. Of all the girls in school he had his eyes only set for her. He rounded his way up the Makino house's driveway only to find his friend, Takato's, girlfriend running up to him waving her arms around as if she was communicating with mad sign language.
"YOU CAN'T COME IN!" She yelled at his face.
He took a few steps back, frightened.
"Why not?"
He wanted to see his wildcat - simple as that.
"B-because..."
"Because?"
"Because."
"Um, right Juri..." Ryo gently pushed her aside and walked on.
"RUKI HAS A C...OLD! YOU CAN'T GO IN!" Juri ran up to him again, blocking his path.
His eyes widened, and his lips tightened into a frown - a worried look replaced his confused one. "She's sick?! Well...she sounded fine on the phone...I have to see her!"
"...but she's highly contageous!"
"I don't care."
Juri took a second to 'awww' at his devotion.
"...er...did I say cold? I meant...um...mold! Ruki has a...mold..." Juri exclaimed nervously.
"Mold?"
"Yeah, um, she's busy cleaning mold out of her house right now! You know...mold..." Juri explained, twiddling her fingers.
"Oh, okay then...I guess I'll call her later?" Ryo said.
"BOLD IDEA!"
-----
Juri returned to the kitchen to find it in the tip top shape it was when they first arrived at Ruki's house. Eat, that, Mr. Clean!
"He's gone," Juri said with a sigh. The oven gave a ding for the second time today and they were happy to see their cookies were a nice shade of brown.
-----
The next morning had very unpleasant weather for a Valentine's Day. The previous night it had rained and the atmosphere was very stuffy and wet. Ruki looked nervous as she tried to conceal a red box under her school jacket from the other giggling girls with overly decorated boxes with ribbons, hearts, and flowers. She wondered how many of those frilly boxes would end up in Ryo's locker this morning. Juri and Alice joined her halfway up her walk to the school - Alice's box was gone. Probably given to the elated senior, Juri still had her box carefully tucked into her hands.
They reached their classroom and hung up their coats. Ruki hid her cookies under her desk as soon as they entered - being careful to avoid anyone's eyes. She would die if anyone found out she was sending them to Ryo.
Suicidal, of course.
She watched as Juri handed her box at a blushing Takato. They smiled at each other, Takato pecked her cheek, and they sat down - holding hands.
Ruki glanced at her watch. There were two more minutes until the bell rang, although she knew Ryo. He was the type who ran in thirty seconds before the bell rung - arrogantly getting everyone's attention on him as he did.
She bit her lip as her watch hit thirty seconds.
She looked up from her desk.
Twenty.
She eyed the classroom door.
Ten.
Just as the bell rang, somebody shuffled from outside the door way and ran into the classroom.
"Jenrya Wong! I didn't expect you to be late of all people!" Kazu taunted as he sat down at his seat, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
"Sorry, I had a call from Ryo. He said he caught a cold from walking in the rain yesterday and couldn't come to school today," Jenrya explained.
"Damn, I was hoping he would share all his Valentine cookies with me like he usually does," Kenta frowned.
Ruki's hand suddenly touched her Valentine Day's present had the same fate - to have her hard labor be shoved down the throat of such losers. Juri's face was towards Ruki - giving her a nervous, but comforting look. Ruki's expression was blank.
Why am I worried about him anyway? Him and his stupid cold...he deserves it if he was just going to give my cookies away to Kenta and Kazu! Not that I care anyway...I should've never spent all that time baking the dumb things. I hate baking. It's stupid. I hate Valentine's Day and all its lovey doveyness! And I hate that stupid Akiyama the most! For the rest of the lesson she threw angry thoughts at the missing blue-eyed boy mentally.
-----
"Ruki!" Jenrya ran up to Ruki - panting. After homeroom had ended Ruki had practically run to her locker, shoved the cookies into her backpack, and then sprinted her way to the next class. Herds of people avoided her - the usual anger in her expression had increased ten fold and everyone could feel it.
"Here! It's Ryo's address...go visit him afterschool! He'll want to see you!" He shoved a paper into her hands.
-----
What am I doing here?
Ruki was standing in front of a very large mansion surrounded by a large iron fence. There was a small patch of wall next to a gate that let visitors come in.
He doesn't need me.
Her finger touched the doorbell.
Why would he care if I came by to see him?
The doorbell rang.
Well, if he's expecting me to play maid and nurse him back to health he has another thing coming. And it isn't pleasant!
"Hello?" came a weak voice from the doorbell pad.
"Ry-...Akiyama?" Ruki said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Hey pumpkin, come on in!" His voice sounded much more chipper, thought still very weak, "My room's up the stairs - third door to your left!" A loud buzzer sounded and the gates unlocked - she pushed her way through and stomped into the house, up the stairs, and slammed the door open to his room.
Ryo laid in his bed, resting on his side and grinning at her. All her angry thoughts wiped away at the sight of his smile - and she punched herself internally for being such a pushover for one lousy smile. She pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed.
"...how...are you?" She wasn't use to caring about people like this.
"I'm doing okay," his smile widened, "but now that you're here I feel much better."
Silence.
"Well, since you're feeling better, I guess I'll just leave..." Ruki got up from her chair and turned around, but Ryo grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
"Stay with me," he said, looking disappointed.
She turned away again, but Ryo pulled on her backpack. She flew backwards and out from the mouth of her backpack was her box of homemade cookies.
"What's this?" He asked. Ruki tried to grab it, but he was too fast and picked it up before she got to it. "To: Akiyama, from: pumpkin."
"It does not say that!" Ruki spat, crossing her arms around her chest.
"Now, that's more like my wildcat!" Ryo wripped off the wrapping paper and lifted the lid off the box.
"Cool! I guess I get them hand delivered this year!" Ryo exclaimed hapilly, popping a broken cookie into his mouth.
"...this year...?"
"Oh, I know you bake me cookies and hide them amongst the other cookies in my locker every year. I can usually fish it out from the others by your scent, but-"
"So...you don't give them to Kazu and Kenta each year?" Ruki looked down at her feet.
Ryo realized why she was mad, he set the cookies next to a table next to his bed then reached out a hand to her. She slowly glanced up at him. He was smiling at her. He tugged her in the bed with her, and pulled the blankets above her - holding her in his arms.
"W-what are you doing?!" Ruki tried to say angrilly, but it came out with a slight tone of fear. His grip tightened around her.
He rested his head next to her ear and whispered, "I love you."
Her face turned bright red, and she could feel it growing hot. He smirked, knowing he'd gotten to her.
"Wildcat, I love you." He turned her around so he wasn't facing her back and leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you," he reapted.
"O-okay...I get it..." she said, her voice coming out in a whisper. He swooped down and kissed her smack on the lips. Her eyes widened in shock for a couple moments before closing again - peaceful. The kiss started gentle, but Ryo advanced on - holding her closer to him. Her arms entertwined behind his neck - and their lips pressed tighter.
Finally, after what seemed like forever they parted - breathing heavilly.
"Hmm. Not bad, your kissing still needs a bit of work though," he teased. He flipped around and laid on his back - closing his eyes. "Back to sleep!"
She scooted slightly away from his sleeping figure and waited a couple minutes until he was sure he was asleep. He took his hand in hers and whispered softly, "I love you, hero boy."
-----
"AaaaCHOOOO!" Ruki sneezed into a tissue and wrinkled her nose. Her boyfriend, Ryo, laughed as he sneaked her hand in his. "Great, now I have a cold too!" She moaned. "This is all your fault!" With her other hand, she punched him on the shoulder.
Same old, wildcat.
"Ruki! You have a mold? I mean...a cold?" Juri asked, worried. "You were fine yesterday until..." her eyes turned to Ryo, and his hand linked into hers. Realization. "OOOOOOOOH!" She then dashed away, waving goodbye at them.
"...they know," Ruki frowned as they continued up the path to school.
"Good, so now I can do this," and he bent down to kiss his pumpkin once more.
Yes, Ryuki fluff is love!
At first, I wasn't confident in writing fluff stories (because I feel so awkward writing kissy kissy moments), but I want to practice! I hope you enjoyed this overall, and if you don't - feel free to leave constructive criticism on why.
If you're interested in reading a longer Ryuki story - I'm writing up another one called "Ten Days" just check out my profile to read it! (And if you do, I'd REAAAAALLY appreciate it if you left a critique!)
Thanks!