Blatantly obvious, he'd been, but as always, to everybody but her, who was still as ignorant about his feelings as she had been a year ago. Perhaps she always had been - she was hardly among the most gifted persons when it came to reading other people. She had, of course, noticed his attraction to her, but he had made such a show out of it all… She had played along at times for reasons that she weren't exactly sure about herself, although maybe it was because his attention had felt nice, no matter how much she had tried to deny to herself that she wanted him to care at first or knew that she didn't return those feelings like he wanted to later. But he hadn't been in love as such, she had learned that in those few moments they had been alone from Digimon and friends and didn't have to pretend to be more than they were. Not in love – attracted, that was clear, and maybe as much as a… crush, yes, that sounded likely. But being in love, in love, was a thing for older people and boys who could take life a bit more seriously.
Takato had been in love, and maybe still was, but he had never told. What he clearly had intended to be date had turned out as something unclear between a double date and a group outing, because Jeri had convinced her to come with them, and Ryo had volunteered out of what she assumed was pity for Takato, and some very un-subtle elbow nudging from Henry had been the only thing keeping Kazu from joining their party as well. So this was where they were, with Takato looking less dejected than when Jeri had first accepted his proposal and then tried to invite the rest of their friends as well, Ryo not even pretending that he didn't enjoy having her in a position such as this, and Jeri constantly trying to get Takato to go on rides with her, for reasons clear even to him. Maybe especially to him, because Takato's self-esteem wasn't always so very reliable. Rika always had the feeling that time passing had made him see his chances for having a non-platonic relationship with Jeri diminish from slim to impossible.
The blatant reason for Jeri's attempts to leave the other couple alone was of course that they weren't a couple, and she, being a girl at the age when romance is important and True Love sacred, had decided that things couldn't be like that forever. And still oblivious as she always had been to the one who had wanted to give her his heart for such a long time, and to the one who just recently discovered that she did as well, she kept on her matchmaking, confidently deciding that their next stop on the fair was to be the booths were boys could win plushies and teddy bears for their girlfriends and get kisses in return.
"Isn't it kinda childish?" Ryo asked with a slight frown, and Jeri's face momentarily twisted into an uncharacteristic fretful expression before she once again looked like the sweet girl she was most of the time.
"But we don't care about that! It's only a bit of fun, but…" Her face, usually so innocent, was suddenly wearing a sly grin. "If you want to make it more… interesting…" Her eyes closed briefly before a finger pointed in the air and the grin widened. "If you win, you get to kiss Rika."
Not what she had predicted, but they all knew what the girl had had in her mind ever since she realized that she and Takato would be the sole company of Rika and Ryo this day. It needed to be stopped, to be denied or to be changed into something harmless so that even Jeri could understand. Rika didn't want to kiss Ryo, both because she vehemently having any sort of interest in the boy (it was almost true) and because she always had assumed that should she fall to the level of actually receiving a first kiss, it should at least be with somebody she did care about, and not a silly playmate like him. She had hoped for his assistance, but the way he grinned when their eyes briefly met made it obvious that he wasn't about to let the chance go. Before she had the chance to say anything, Ryo declared it to be 'unfair' and suggested that Takato could join them as well.
This made Rika utter some very unladylike about herself, Takato and kissing, but there was no help other than Jeri finally deciding that if it made everything better, she could be in as well, and that was the last thing Rika wanted. For reasons that she, of course, never would let a soul know about because it wasn't as much fear of rejection as it was embarrassment of having fallen to this level, so she had to quietly watch Jeri decide the rules of the game.
"And then," she said with a very meaningful look aimed at both her best friends, "The first boy to win a prize will choose a girl to give it to."
Like that the rules were set, and the game with the very obvious winner of Ryo and unimportant but potential winner of Takato was to start. It was simple, throw the dart and hit the balloon, and you'll get a prize of matching color. It was not as easy as it looked, and Ryo did miss the first time, smiling easily when all his darts were gone and pulling out more money for another round while Takato, probably unconsciously, had taken a pose that looked like one of the battle stances Henry always refused to demonstrate but Terriermon quite often showed off to the less nimble Digimon.
Things didn't go too well, at least not for the boys, although that meant very well for Rika, who had very little interest in exchanging spit with Ryo or watching Jeri and Takato do the same. The other girl seemed indifferent, but considering how much she actually had noticed about Takato, that was probably caused by a complete and utter lack of sexual tension from her point of view. Darts were thrown and missed every time, and new ones were paid for and thrown only to miss again, and Jeri's satisfaction in getting the boys to do it had dwindled down to bored annoyance.
The boy who pulled down the darts and took the money to give them back was bearing it with a forced smile, and his three friends who had been hanging around talking to him were having much fun with it. Ryo's easy smiles weren't as easy as they had been, and Takato's already stressed manner had increased by tenfold. His hands were shaking lightly. Darts were thrown and missed over and over again, and at last Ryo pulled out a coin and handed it over with a smile that nearly had disappeared now. The boy didn't look at him when he gave him the darts in the hand, and Takato dropped the one he was holding and bit his lip so hard that it was nearly white when he stood up again. The boys were now laughing openly whenever the younger ones missed, and Ryo threw his second to last dart with more force and less aim than any before.
While things had gone steadily downwards and the chances of any girls getting either plushies or kisses had faded away, Jeri had taken a look of disappointment that could have broken the heart of any tyrant on earth, and Takato had grown more and more desperate as she became sadder. And while he was standing there with only one dart left, he was smiling reassuringly at her, suddenly so very much calmer than he had been before. So, maybe Jeri would get a plushie and Takato would get a kiss, and that shouldn't be as bad as it admittedly did feel when she imagined it – after all, her own feelings were silly and childish, and not to be bothered too much with, because she knew, deep down, that she didn't want anybody, not even Jeri, to get that close to her.
Rika calmly observed that Takato, unknowingly, had reached the level of despair and compassion that more than once had made him ready to sacrifice his all to reach his goal; she recognized it from some of those rare times when he came out as something more than a bumbling moron. She absently noticed that Ryo had realized it as well, and a silent look of respect had settled on his face. Jeri smiled encouragingly back at Takato, and Rika felt her fingers twitch.
There was suspense, oh yes. Takato all but radiated the spirit of a hero ready to slay the dragon and save the maiden in need, and even the older boys stopped their loud whispers to watch him draw his arm back. His face was contorted in concentration, as if he was using a skill that Rika knew he didn't possess at all; Guilmon was the one of that team who had the aim. But that didn't mean that Takato didn't have the confidence in himself to at least do as well as he could, it didn't mean, by far, that he couldn't succeed. Takato had a strange ability to do his best and do it more than well enough when it was needed.
But not so today – the dart missed like all before it, and the boys laughed louder than ever. Maybe it was the laughter, or the way Takato jerked away from his disbelieving trance to stare at them like a kicked puppy, or both, but Ryo's head whipped towards them just before she turned herself. The furious look on her friend's face couldn't have swept by the boys for much longer than necessary just to let them notice before he picked the plastic dart up from where he'd put it down and slung his arm back to throw, obviously with the loss of his usual dignity because of the anger and protectiveness he felt for Takato.
And then she did it, without really thinking. She leaned over and ripped it out of his hand, before chucking it at the wall behind the boy, nearly catching his ear because he was looking at his friends. And despite this, or maybe because of it, she hit it. The tiny, blue balloon gave a small sound of breaking, and the dart stood in the wall surrounded by pieces of navy rubber.
They stared at her. She stared herself as well, not having expected to hit anything at all, because that wasn't what she had been going for – she had hurled it in fury, not really having aimed for anything else than the boy's head. But by missing her original goal, another one was hit, and it seemed like her target finally caught up with himself. While everybody else were still staring at her, he walked over to the wall, fumbled with a string, and placed a white teddy bear wearing a bowtie in a horrible shade of pink in front of her before stepping back as though he knew that she could be likely to jump on him.
With the abrupt motion of the boy stepping back and nearly tripping over his own feet .she suddenly remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She snatched the bear from the counter that separated the two of them, before turning around and meeting the expectant eyes of Jeri. It didn't seem like the sudden turn of events had discouraged the girl very much, and maybe it was because Jeri hardly had been all that interested in following all sorts of rules slavishly. It was obvious that Rika being the one to win Ryo gifts wasn't enough to bother her perfect setup, and it was obvious that she was becoming increasingly impatient with Rika's hesitation. Ryo himself didn't look all too comfortable when she turned to look at him instead, but he shrugged and smiled encouragingly at her in nothing but kindness when their eyes met. Gone was the smug look, and he made an almost invisible gesture as if to beckon her closer. So he had finally started to treat this seriously, and was actually trying to be nice to her. And maybe she could have taken him up on what seemed to be an offer to just get it over with and make him stop making semi-serious passes at her, but she turned away. Kissing Ryo had been the last thing she intended; somehow, in this mess, even kissing Takato would have been better because nobody expected that to be the beginning of something more. Love was a business she had sworn to stay away from until very recently, and even then it had been only in silly daydreams she only could shake her head sadly at herself for, because it wasn't like she would have a chance anyway. Making herself believe so even for short moments seemed like nothing but a waste of affection, and affection was, after all, something very precious to Rika. It had never really been an issue before because she never had taken it seriously, and maybe she didn't now, either.
But the fact that she most likely would have to kiss somebody unless she was to yell at Jeri met with the reason why kissing Ryo would be such a disaster, and together they sparked an idea so wild that she almost didn't have the time to register the way her hands were trembling in well concealed nervousness. She smiled and turned around, looking straight at the other girl. And before either of the boys had the chance to say something, she had thrust the prized bear into her hands and stepped so close to her that she could smell the perfume she was wearing, which she knew had been a birthday present from Takato once. Takato, yes, he would be the one hitch in this. But it wasn't like it would damage him anyway, not any more than all his months of being quiet had. So she smiled sweetly at Jeri, before rather clumsily cupping her chin with both her hands.
It was meant to be revenge. Jeri was sweet, and a very dear friend of hers, and yes, Rika did have feelings for her that some might have said exceeded those of friendship, but that didn't mean all things were tolerable. The day had been one gigantic test of Rika's patience, from Takato staring miserably after Jeri to Ryo constantly trying to put his arm around her and only laughing when she shrugged him off, so she had given in to the temptation, and done what she always had wondered what would feel like ever since she'd seen the girl alone and cold after their return from the Digital World – she kissed her.
There was one regret, and that was that she probably was ruining Jeri's dream of receiving her first kiss from her One True Love, but there are just so many times you can hear a story such as that before you start wanting to tell the storyteller to be quiet. She didn't feel too bad about it – didn't dwell on it long enough to, anyway, because somewhere in what she had planned, or at least expected, to unsettle the girl enough to leave her alone for the rest of the evening, things had taken a very unexpected turn. Jeri's eyes had widened in shock at first, but instead of reaching up to push the other girl away, she had let the lids fall shut and tilted her head slightly to the side, as if to make it easier for Rika to get closer.
That was almost enough to make her pull away, but sometime during the time that had passed since she first touched Jeri her brain seemed to have switched gears entirely, pointing out that she'd never have a chance like this again, and that wasting it probably would be what looked the best option, but far from was what she actually wanted. So she closed her own eyes, taking a step closer and letting one of her hands drift back to tangle in soft, auburn tresses. Jeri wasn't protesting, and Rika was too lost to care about why. It was insignificant at the time being when she was much more busy with trying not to let go off what little control she still had over her own body.
Jeri's mouth tasted of sugar, like the cotton candy she had been eating and forced Takato to finish for her by claiming to be sick, and the lip-gloss she very nearly had convinced Rika to try a week ago. It opened slightly beneath Rika's, so that she almost could feel the teeth behind her lips. No, that had not been what she had expected, nor had the feeling of childishly plump fingers making their way up her arms to briefly come to rest on her shoulders before one of them drifted further up to cup her own face, as if to make sure she didn't move away. Again, Jeri's reactions were completely different from what Rika had intended, if not what she unconsciously hoped for, and again, Rika found herself helplessly incapable of stopping this insanity. She wasn't fully conscious, couldn't possibly be with the way her nerves were tingling and something inside her chest was contracting, while her heart was throbbing as if it wanted to make its way up her neck. She had known that something like this would have to happen if Jeri kissed her, but she had never actually thought that Jeri would. Everything had spun out of her control, and the only thing she could do was to hang on for all she was worth while trying not to loose her head in the vortex of sensations that had hijacked most of her willpower. Velvety skin beneath her hands, lingering nervousness somewhere above her navel, hands gripping her tightly and a pleading, whimpering sound that was almost inaudible even to her. And more than anything, the moist warmth still pressing against her mouth and the aching bliss in her chest.
It wasn't until Jeri took another step closer and her arms started making their way around Rika's neck that she found the will to disentangle herself from the other girl. She hardly had time to think the thought before it was done, and she was standing on Earth again, panting and trying to shake the blackened edges of her vision away. Jeri had yet to open her eyes again, but her hands were slowly falling back to her sides again while her chest heaved to compensate for the loss of oxygen Rika could feel all too well herself. They stayed closed for a few seconds after her hands came to rest, but then they opened slowly to stare at Rika while the fingertips of her right hand fleetingly brushed across her lips. The dim look in them lifted, and Rika expected her to be flushed, embarrassed, maybe even angry with her.
But the strangest thing happened. Jeri didn't look angry or embarrassed; the only thing her face reflected was shock, for a few moments until blood seemed to stream to her cheeks, and she smiled. It was a strange, shy smile, and it was so very obviously meant for Rika and nobody else.
And suddenly, as if nothing had happened at all, she shrugged and picked the teddy bear from where she'd dropped it to the ground.
"Well, since we finally got that silly game over with…" She turned around and smiled brightly at Takato and Ryo, maybe ignoring but probably just not noticing the looks of disbelieving shock both of them displayed. "I say we find somewhere to eat. All this walking has made me hungry."
Her voice had gone back to normal from the slightly high pitch it had when she first spoke, and by the time she had turned around and started walking, it seemed like nothing had changed at all.
"Rika?" She turned to look at Takato, who didn't look quite as heartbroken as she would have expected, although his voice was oddly faint and trembling slightly. Blinking one more time, she shrugged and stuffed her hands into her pockets, following the tracks of their friend.
"Well," she said at last, not knowing of anything else to do, "you heard the lady."
Nothing much really did happen after that – Jeri seemed to have given up on her matchmaking and both Takato and Ryo were too busy looking weirdly at the girls to pay any other sort of attention to them. Which maybe was just as well, at least in Rika's opinion. The world just seemed so much lighter without the constant heft of expectations about love hanging all around them, and nobody seemed too eager to find what had been. Or maybe it was just that they knew it lingered around Jeri's lips whenever she spoke to Rika.
Takato had been in love, and maybe still was, but he had never told. What he clearly had intended to be date had turned out as something unclear between a double date and a group outing, because Jeri had convinced her to come with them, and Ryo had volunteered out of what she assumed was pity for Takato, and some very un-subtle elbow nudging from Henry had been the only thing keeping Kazu from joining their party as well. So this was where they were, with Takato looking less dejected than when Jeri had first accepted his proposal and then tried to invite the rest of their friends as well, Ryo not even pretending that he didn't enjoy having her in a position such as this, and Jeri constantly trying to get Takato to go on rides with her, for reasons clear even to him. Maybe especially to him, because Takato's self-esteem wasn't always so very reliable. Rika always had the feeling that time passing had made him see his chances for having a non-platonic relationship with Jeri diminish from slim to impossible.
The blatant reason for Jeri's attempts to leave the other couple alone was of course that they weren't a couple, and she, being a girl at the age when romance is important and True Love sacred, had decided that things couldn't be like that forever. And still oblivious as she always had been to the one who had wanted to give her his heart for such a long time, and to the one who just recently discovered that she did as well, she kept on her matchmaking, confidently deciding that their next stop on the fair was to be the booths were boys could win plushies and teddy bears for their girlfriends and get kisses in return.
"Isn't it kinda childish?" Ryo asked with a slight frown, and Jeri's face momentarily twisted into an uncharacteristic fretful expression before she once again looked like the sweet girl she was most of the time.
"But we don't care about that! It's only a bit of fun, but…" Her face, usually so innocent, was suddenly wearing a sly grin. "If you want to make it more… interesting…" Her eyes closed briefly before a finger pointed in the air and the grin widened. "If you win, you get to kiss Rika."
Not what she had predicted, but they all knew what the girl had had in her mind ever since she realized that she and Takato would be the sole company of Rika and Ryo this day. It needed to be stopped, to be denied or to be changed into something harmless so that even Jeri could understand. Rika didn't want to kiss Ryo, both because she vehemently having any sort of interest in the boy (it was almost true) and because she always had assumed that should she fall to the level of actually receiving a first kiss, it should at least be with somebody she did care about, and not a silly playmate like him. She had hoped for his assistance, but the way he grinned when their eyes briefly met made it obvious that he wasn't about to let the chance go. Before she had the chance to say anything, Ryo declared it to be 'unfair' and suggested that Takato could join them as well.
This made Rika utter some very unladylike about herself, Takato and kissing, but there was no help other than Jeri finally deciding that if it made everything better, she could be in as well, and that was the last thing Rika wanted. For reasons that she, of course, never would let a soul know about because it wasn't as much fear of rejection as it was embarrassment of having fallen to this level, so she had to quietly watch Jeri decide the rules of the game.
"And then," she said with a very meaningful look aimed at both her best friends, "The first boy to win a prize will choose a girl to give it to."
Like that the rules were set, and the game with the very obvious winner of Ryo and unimportant but potential winner of Takato was to start. It was simple, throw the dart and hit the balloon, and you'll get a prize of matching color. It was not as easy as it looked, and Ryo did miss the first time, smiling easily when all his darts were gone and pulling out more money for another round while Takato, probably unconsciously, had taken a pose that looked like one of the battle stances Henry always refused to demonstrate but Terriermon quite often showed off to the less nimble Digimon.
Things didn't go too well, at least not for the boys, although that meant very well for Rika, who had very little interest in exchanging spit with Ryo or watching Jeri and Takato do the same. The other girl seemed indifferent, but considering how much she actually had noticed about Takato, that was probably caused by a complete and utter lack of sexual tension from her point of view. Darts were thrown and missed every time, and new ones were paid for and thrown only to miss again, and Jeri's satisfaction in getting the boys to do it had dwindled down to bored annoyance.
The boy who pulled down the darts and took the money to give them back was bearing it with a forced smile, and his three friends who had been hanging around talking to him were having much fun with it. Ryo's easy smiles weren't as easy as they had been, and Takato's already stressed manner had increased by tenfold. His hands were shaking lightly. Darts were thrown and missed over and over again, and at last Ryo pulled out a coin and handed it over with a smile that nearly had disappeared now. The boy didn't look at him when he gave him the darts in the hand, and Takato dropped the one he was holding and bit his lip so hard that it was nearly white when he stood up again. The boys were now laughing openly whenever the younger ones missed, and Ryo threw his second to last dart with more force and less aim than any before.
While things had gone steadily downwards and the chances of any girls getting either plushies or kisses had faded away, Jeri had taken a look of disappointment that could have broken the heart of any tyrant on earth, and Takato had grown more and more desperate as she became sadder. And while he was standing there with only one dart left, he was smiling reassuringly at her, suddenly so very much calmer than he had been before. So, maybe Jeri would get a plushie and Takato would get a kiss, and that shouldn't be as bad as it admittedly did feel when she imagined it – after all, her own feelings were silly and childish, and not to be bothered too much with, because she knew, deep down, that she didn't want anybody, not even Jeri, to get that close to her.
Rika calmly observed that Takato, unknowingly, had reached the level of despair and compassion that more than once had made him ready to sacrifice his all to reach his goal; she recognized it from some of those rare times when he came out as something more than a bumbling moron. She absently noticed that Ryo had realized it as well, and a silent look of respect had settled on his face. Jeri smiled encouragingly back at Takato, and Rika felt her fingers twitch.
There was suspense, oh yes. Takato all but radiated the spirit of a hero ready to slay the dragon and save the maiden in need, and even the older boys stopped their loud whispers to watch him draw his arm back. His face was contorted in concentration, as if he was using a skill that Rika knew he didn't possess at all; Guilmon was the one of that team who had the aim. But that didn't mean that Takato didn't have the confidence in himself to at least do as well as he could, it didn't mean, by far, that he couldn't succeed. Takato had a strange ability to do his best and do it more than well enough when it was needed.
But not so today – the dart missed like all before it, and the boys laughed louder than ever. Maybe it was the laughter, or the way Takato jerked away from his disbelieving trance to stare at them like a kicked puppy, or both, but Ryo's head whipped towards them just before she turned herself. The furious look on her friend's face couldn't have swept by the boys for much longer than necessary just to let them notice before he picked the plastic dart up from where he'd put it down and slung his arm back to throw, obviously with the loss of his usual dignity because of the anger and protectiveness he felt for Takato.
And then she did it, without really thinking. She leaned over and ripped it out of his hand, before chucking it at the wall behind the boy, nearly catching his ear because he was looking at his friends. And despite this, or maybe because of it, she hit it. The tiny, blue balloon gave a small sound of breaking, and the dart stood in the wall surrounded by pieces of navy rubber.
They stared at her. She stared herself as well, not having expected to hit anything at all, because that wasn't what she had been going for – she had hurled it in fury, not really having aimed for anything else than the boy's head. But by missing her original goal, another one was hit, and it seemed like her target finally caught up with himself. While everybody else were still staring at her, he walked over to the wall, fumbled with a string, and placed a white teddy bear wearing a bowtie in a horrible shade of pink in front of her before stepping back as though he knew that she could be likely to jump on him.
With the abrupt motion of the boy stepping back and nearly tripping over his own feet .she suddenly remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She snatched the bear from the counter that separated the two of them, before turning around and meeting the expectant eyes of Jeri. It didn't seem like the sudden turn of events had discouraged the girl very much, and maybe it was because Jeri hardly had been all that interested in following all sorts of rules slavishly. It was obvious that Rika being the one to win Ryo gifts wasn't enough to bother her perfect setup, and it was obvious that she was becoming increasingly impatient with Rika's hesitation. Ryo himself didn't look all too comfortable when she turned to look at him instead, but he shrugged and smiled encouragingly at her in nothing but kindness when their eyes met. Gone was the smug look, and he made an almost invisible gesture as if to beckon her closer. So he had finally started to treat this seriously, and was actually trying to be nice to her. And maybe she could have taken him up on what seemed to be an offer to just get it over with and make him stop making semi-serious passes at her, but she turned away. Kissing Ryo had been the last thing she intended; somehow, in this mess, even kissing Takato would have been better because nobody expected that to be the beginning of something more. Love was a business she had sworn to stay away from until very recently, and even then it had been only in silly daydreams she only could shake her head sadly at herself for, because it wasn't like she would have a chance anyway. Making herself believe so even for short moments seemed like nothing but a waste of affection, and affection was, after all, something very precious to Rika. It had never really been an issue before because she never had taken it seriously, and maybe she didn't now, either.
But the fact that she most likely would have to kiss somebody unless she was to yell at Jeri met with the reason why kissing Ryo would be such a disaster, and together they sparked an idea so wild that she almost didn't have the time to register the way her hands were trembling in well concealed nervousness. She smiled and turned around, looking straight at the other girl. And before either of the boys had the chance to say something, she had thrust the prized bear into her hands and stepped so close to her that she could smell the perfume she was wearing, which she knew had been a birthday present from Takato once. Takato, yes, he would be the one hitch in this. But it wasn't like it would damage him anyway, not any more than all his months of being quiet had. So she smiled sweetly at Jeri, before rather clumsily cupping her chin with both her hands.
It was meant to be revenge. Jeri was sweet, and a very dear friend of hers, and yes, Rika did have feelings for her that some might have said exceeded those of friendship, but that didn't mean all things were tolerable. The day had been one gigantic test of Rika's patience, from Takato staring miserably after Jeri to Ryo constantly trying to put his arm around her and only laughing when she shrugged him off, so she had given in to the temptation, and done what she always had wondered what would feel like ever since she'd seen the girl alone and cold after their return from the Digital World – she kissed her.
There was one regret, and that was that she probably was ruining Jeri's dream of receiving her first kiss from her One True Love, but there are just so many times you can hear a story such as that before you start wanting to tell the storyteller to be quiet. She didn't feel too bad about it – didn't dwell on it long enough to, anyway, because somewhere in what she had planned, or at least expected, to unsettle the girl enough to leave her alone for the rest of the evening, things had taken a very unexpected turn. Jeri's eyes had widened in shock at first, but instead of reaching up to push the other girl away, she had let the lids fall shut and tilted her head slightly to the side, as if to make it easier for Rika to get closer.
That was almost enough to make her pull away, but sometime during the time that had passed since she first touched Jeri her brain seemed to have switched gears entirely, pointing out that she'd never have a chance like this again, and that wasting it probably would be what looked the best option, but far from was what she actually wanted. So she closed her own eyes, taking a step closer and letting one of her hands drift back to tangle in soft, auburn tresses. Jeri wasn't protesting, and Rika was too lost to care about why. It was insignificant at the time being when she was much more busy with trying not to let go off what little control she still had over her own body.
Jeri's mouth tasted of sugar, like the cotton candy she had been eating and forced Takato to finish for her by claiming to be sick, and the lip-gloss she very nearly had convinced Rika to try a week ago. It opened slightly beneath Rika's, so that she almost could feel the teeth behind her lips. No, that had not been what she had expected, nor had the feeling of childishly plump fingers making their way up her arms to briefly come to rest on her shoulders before one of them drifted further up to cup her own face, as if to make sure she didn't move away. Again, Jeri's reactions were completely different from what Rika had intended, if not what she unconsciously hoped for, and again, Rika found herself helplessly incapable of stopping this insanity. She wasn't fully conscious, couldn't possibly be with the way her nerves were tingling and something inside her chest was contracting, while her heart was throbbing as if it wanted to make its way up her neck. She had known that something like this would have to happen if Jeri kissed her, but she had never actually thought that Jeri would. Everything had spun out of her control, and the only thing she could do was to hang on for all she was worth while trying not to loose her head in the vortex of sensations that had hijacked most of her willpower. Velvety skin beneath her hands, lingering nervousness somewhere above her navel, hands gripping her tightly and a pleading, whimpering sound that was almost inaudible even to her. And more than anything, the moist warmth still pressing against her mouth and the aching bliss in her chest.
It wasn't until Jeri took another step closer and her arms started making their way around Rika's neck that she found the will to disentangle herself from the other girl. She hardly had time to think the thought before it was done, and she was standing on Earth again, panting and trying to shake the blackened edges of her vision away. Jeri had yet to open her eyes again, but her hands were slowly falling back to her sides again while her chest heaved to compensate for the loss of oxygen Rika could feel all too well herself. They stayed closed for a few seconds after her hands came to rest, but then they opened slowly to stare at Rika while the fingertips of her right hand fleetingly brushed across her lips. The dim look in them lifted, and Rika expected her to be flushed, embarrassed, maybe even angry with her.
But the strangest thing happened. Jeri didn't look angry or embarrassed; the only thing her face reflected was shock, for a few moments until blood seemed to stream to her cheeks, and she smiled. It was a strange, shy smile, and it was so very obviously meant for Rika and nobody else.
And suddenly, as if nothing had happened at all, she shrugged and picked the teddy bear from where she'd dropped it to the ground.
"Well, since we finally got that silly game over with…" She turned around and smiled brightly at Takato and Ryo, maybe ignoring but probably just not noticing the looks of disbelieving shock both of them displayed. "I say we find somewhere to eat. All this walking has made me hungry."
Her voice had gone back to normal from the slightly high pitch it had when she first spoke, and by the time she had turned around and started walking, it seemed like nothing had changed at all.
"Rika?" She turned to look at Takato, who didn't look quite as heartbroken as she would have expected, although his voice was oddly faint and trembling slightly. Blinking one more time, she shrugged and stuffed her hands into her pockets, following the tracks of their friend.
"Well," she said at last, not knowing of anything else to do, "you heard the lady."
Nothing much really did happen after that – Jeri seemed to have given up on her matchmaking and both Takato and Ryo were too busy looking weirdly at the girls to pay any other sort of attention to them. Which maybe was just as well, at least in Rika's opinion. The world just seemed so much lighter without the constant heft of expectations about love hanging all around them, and nobody seemed too eager to find what had been. Or maybe it was just that they knew it lingered around Jeri's lips whenever she spoke to Rika.