Amaryllis Dusk: This has to be my favorite one, so far. My birthday passed last weekend and I was thinking about obnoxious singing balloons when this idea hit me. You know those balloons that sing when you flick them? Yeah well my friends had threatened to buy them for me-it's kind of a big joke between us. There are probably some mistakes here and there but I think I caught most of them. Hopefully you'll like it. Review please!

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.

Notes: A collection of Ryou/Ruki drabbles.

OBNOXIOUS SINGING BALLOONS

"Fear me for I am…MAN!!!"

Ruki silently observed the ridiculously comic heroic pose the boy had struck and came up with two possible explanations for his madness.

One, he was on some kind of drug. If this was the case she would need some too in the unfortunately frequent situations in which contact with the adolescents dubbed 'Kazu' or 'Kenta' is involved.

Two, boys are stupid. Therefore, this should translate into Ryou being stupid since he was in fact (though sometimes questionably) a boy. His stupidity had gone by pretty much unnoticed by her (despite her many admonitions to him that may prove the opposite) up till this point AND/OR Ryou had finally cracked from keeping such an enormous amount of stupidity inside for so long.

Either way, there was no way she was about to let herself be associated with Ryou, He-Man of Japan. Or whatever the testosterone-pumped creature that he was currently imitating was supposed to be. She abruptly turned around and began walking quickly away, hoping that she could get home fast enough to change out of her school uniform without exploding. The three flirtatious innuendos that Ryou cautiously threw at her about hot school girls had left her with a more irritable than usual temper and Ryou with some deep emotional scarring. She was going to have to think up more creative threats next time; she had already completely exhausted her supply of sterility threats.

"Ruki, wait!"

Ryou jumped down from the fountain that he had been standing on and jogged to catch up with the speed-walking girl. Not even winded, she noted, disgruntled.

"You know, for a birthday girl…you're awfully grumpy", he grinned. A violent glare and flashing violet eyes hardly served to dampen his spirits and in fact, seemed to increase them. "You're 16 today, cheer up! We should throw you a sweet sixteen…like those Americans do, buy you those really cute balloons that sing when you touch them…" He trailed off suggestively, causing her to stop and turn to him grumpily.

"Do you honestly wish to be strangled by the so-called balloons, Akiyama? If so, continue on in this vein and I honestly will go to a store and buy them right now to shut you up", she snapped crankily. His only answer was to grin again. Giving him another flashing glare, she abruptly turned and continued walking.

Yesterday, she had decided rather reluctantly to let Juri and the rest of the gang know that it was her birthday the next day. Much to her horror, the group of kids had responded with immense enthusiasm and today, they had all come down to the private school that she attended with their various assortments of gifts. Kazu and Kenta had even taken it upon themselves to sing "Happy Birthday" to her on bended knee and when Ryou had come by after-school to walk her home (a duty that he had inexplicably took upon himself to do), he had attempted to hug her after a cheery "happy birthday" and a brief explanation that caused Ruki to resolve to call Juri that night and yell at her for telling Ryou (who had been absent from the group's hangout yesterday).

"C'mon…you're sixteen!" He said after a brief reprieve, apparently enjoying himself greatly.

"Sixteen schixteen", she muttered in reply. You didn't even get me a present, she added silently. Not that she cared. Really. Because she didn't. She wasn't some vain, spoiled princess or something. She raised her voice. "Come on, boy wonder. My mom's going to have a hernia if I'm any more late." In reality, her mother had practically died of happiness when she saw Ruki arrive on the doorstep with a guy "and a good-looking one at that"! She had had to endure several weeks of badly disguised speculation about the relationship status of her and "that cute boy" despite the many unvarying answers that no, in fact Ryou was not her boyfriend and that he was actually quite a dork.

"That's a new one", he remarked as he tripped up alongside her. "Nickname, that is."

She snorted, causing him to make yet another witty comment, this time on the unattractiveness of snorting females. She ignored him and a cheery/annoyed silence prevailed until they reached the gates to her home and he paused briefly, poking around inside his school briefcase and procured a large gaily wrapped present.

"Here, I think you'll like this." Shooting another dimpled grin at her, he checked his watch before adding, "I've got to go. See ya tomorrow." He shot off, a few female passerbys eyeing him in undisguised admiration, she couldn't help but notice.

She stood there in silence for several minutes and then before she could lose her nerve, she flopped down onto the ground, throwing her school briefcase next to her and began to unwrap the present. This yielded a cardboard box with a bright purple envelope taped to the front. She took off the envelope and laid it carefully beside her before lifting up the top of the box.

It was a box of glistening plump chocolate truffles. Curiously, she turned to the envelope next to her and pulled out a jaunty birthday card.

At least I didn't buy obnoxious singing balloons.

-Ryou

FIN.