This is dedicated to Kami, congratulations on turning the big eighteen. Welcome to adulthood..it sucks lol.
Power of Words
"Hey, Rika!" Kazu called out as he rolled his chair over to a stop by her locker where the redhead was putting books away with a speed that was unusual, especially since it wasn't like she had to catch a bus or something. "You're in a rush today. I mean no one wants to stay in Mr. Yuama's classroom longer then necessary but you were seriously burning rubber to get out of there. Got a hot date or something tonight? Or maybe you need to rush off before four o'clock when you turn into a pumpkin." Kazu said jokingly, trying to get a smirk out of her. She'd seemed tense all day and if she didn't settle down she was really gonna blow a gasket.
"Well if I'm obviously in a rush then why are you slowing me down by attempting to start a conversation?" Rika pointed out darkly as she slammed her locker close, sliding the lock into place with a click. "Besides, shouldn't you be on the other side of the school where your locker is? Especially since you need Takato to drive your stupid ass home?"
"Why do you have to be so mean, Rika?" Kazu said with a smirk, rolling his chair after her when she attempted to leave him behind.
"Because as soon as you're all healed and well again I'm going to kick your ass back into that chair for those pictures of yours. Don't think I've forgotten and forgiven you for those pictures that you sold to that Internet guy." Rika shot back sweetly, pleased when the idiot paled a little bit at the reminder of what would have been his fate if he hadn't already been getting his ass kicked. "And the other girls are going to help so be afraid. Be very afraid."
"The guys wouldn't let you." Kazu said weakly, not about to admit that none of his friends would risk their necks for him in this case. Well Kenta might but they were after his best friend's ass too. Henry, Ryo and Takato had already made it clear that they weren't gonna save their asses this time. For one some of the pictures had featured his friends' girlfriends in bathing suits so they weren't pleased at all about that and second none of them were suicidal enough to risk the wrath of their women. The women were damn mean after all when they were angry.
"Well we'll just see, now won't we?" Rika said with an evil grin on her face as she continued to walk away, her mind blissfully thinking about other ways to scare the hell out of Kazu and Kenta so that they learned their lesson. At least until she thought about the idea of the two idiots going running to Ryo for protection. That got her to thinking about the reason she was rushing to get home and that sent nervous butterflies whirling in her stomach. She was not looking forward to this evening at all. Give her a fight with the D-Reaper any day.
)
"Are we really gonna still beat the crap out of them?" Suzi wanted to know, interrupting Rika's thoughts as she fell into steps beside the obviously deep in thought Rika. The fact that Rika hadn't even heard her coming was telling. "I mean they've kinda already paid for what they did and as it is you left Kazu back there in a white, practically quivering jelly state. Beating them up now seems kinda like over kill to me."
"Probably not but telling them we might keeps them in line better then any other threat I've ever uttered." Rika said dryly, pleased that she'd left Kazu in a well deserved petrified state. "I figured we should take advantage of that as long as possible."
"Oh you are good and mean." Suzi said with a laugh as she patted Rika on the shoulder companionably. "Though Ice is going to be disappointed that she won't be able to have some fun with them. I think she was looking forward to it. She was talking about how many ways you can cause pain to someone without leaving a mark last night. I don't even want to know where she finds out about these things."
"Who knows, maybe she's Triad." Rika said jokingly even though she could see Suzi's slightly weird cousin as a member of the Chinese version of the mob.
"You know..it wouldn't surprise me if she was." Suzi said as she shook her head at the idea. The fact that she really could see it was both scary and kinda cool at the same time. "All I can say is I'm glad we get along reasonably well."
)
Ryo parked his car then locking it up took out the piece of paper his father had given to him. It was a message from Rika apparently but he still couldn't figure out why she hadn't just called him on his cell phone instead of the home phone. Well women were a screwy species when it came to doing what made sense. Looking over the directions of where he was supposed to meet her he was pretty sure he knew where he was supposed to be going. It didn't help that the woman gave lousy directions. Tucking the paper back in his pocket for future reference Ryo took off, strolling along the path that should take him to where he thought he was supposed to be. She would have to chose the biggest park in the area. A good seven minutes later Ryo was more then a little turned around but pretty sure he was now on the right track or at least hoped so. Spotting Rika's car up ahead Ryo gave a large sigh of relief that turned to open mouth shock at the sight that lay before him under a large wistaria tree to his right. There was Rika, Miss Tomboy of the year, seated on a blanket, a large picnic basket nearby and what appeared to be the basket's former contents set down on the blanket as well, waiting for consumption. But that wasn't the biggest shock. The picnic, while out of character to some extent was something he could imagine her doing. What he couldn't imagine was her doing it in a skirt, her hair down with an almost delicate lady presence going. That he couldn't get. Wandering over in a daze he looked down at her with a mixture of puzzlement and shock. "Did hell freeze over while I wasn't looking?"
)
"You were supposed to be here five minutes ago." Rika said as she shot him an annoyed look. The way he was looking at her was starting to bug her. What, she couldn't look nice and plan a picnic? She wasn't stupid, even an idiot could do either and if he didn't stop looking at her like that she was gonna have to hit him.
"Guess not, you're still in there make up or not." Ryo said as his dazed look was replaced by an amused one with a hint of puzzlement still there. "So what's the occasion? I didn't forget something did I?" Ryo asked slowly, a growing sense of dread coming over him as the grin slid away. He couldn't think of any importance in date but if there was she was gonna kill him for forgetting.
"No, no occasion. There doesn't have to be an occasion to eat together." Rika said feeling the nerves that had been plaguing her all morning come back full throttle. She wasn't entirely sure she was going to get through this without making an idiot of herself.
"True but you don't usually doll up to this extreme unless you have to or it's a special occasion that calls for it." Ryo pointed out as he picked out a grape from one of the bowls and popped it into his mouth with a wink. "So I figure something has to be up."
"This is not to the extreme. I only put a little make up on and it's only a skirt for Christ sakes." Rika said with a scowl, absently thinking that none of this was going the way she'd planned. They were supposed to be getting along, enjoy the picnic and then she was gonna tell him her well practiced speech. How was she supposed to tell him how she felt and sound believable when he was annoying the hell out of her with his little fashion digs? She had been a model for Christ sakes. She knew how to dress and look pretty. So maybe she didn't use those skills much but that was no reason to make cracks about it when she did make the effort. Especially when she'd made the effort for the stupid idiot in question.
)
"For you that's an extreme." Ryo pointed out, amazed that she was getting so riled up. She must be really stressed about something if she was letting him bug her this easily. "So what's up, Rika? There's no way you're gonna be able to enjoy this truly delicious looking spread when you're more wired then Calumon."
"I really want to bean you in the head with the damn picnic basket right now. You're my boyfriend god damn it. You're supposed to say I look pretty in the skirt, compliment me on the food and talk civilly with me!" Rika said looking more then a little close to following through on her threat of smacking him, perilously close to yelling at him now. "This was not the way I planned this and it's all your fault!"
"Oh ya, something's up." Ryo said with a knowing look, too use to Rika to be really afraid at the show of anger. "Just spill it, Wildcat. You obviously need to get something off your chest and it's driving you crazy. Did the idiots do something? Are you worried about what's happening in the Digital World? Upset because Yaamachi isn't letting anyone go there until further notice?"
"No."
"Well as cool as it would be I'm not a mind reader so you're gonna have to spell it out, Rika. What's up that's got you so jumpy and on edge?"
)
"You've so ruined this. Years from now when we talk about today it's going to be all your fault it wasn't half as good as it would have been if you'd behaved like you were supposed to." Rika muttered bad temperedly, crossing her arms in front of her chest with a large scowl on her face. "Trust you to ruin it all. And don't even think about blaming it on me because it's all your stupid fault."
"And what exactly is my stupid fault?" Ryo wanted to know, completely out to sea for the moment. This was getting weirder by the moment. If she wasn't wearing the bracelet he'd given her he'd have entertained that thought that maybe he was talking to her bizarrely messed in the head twin.
"This was supposed to be perfect and romantic. But oh no, of course it isn't. Why on earth did I expect that this would work. Spent two friggin hours deciding what to wear and I had to promise to do extra chores to get grandma to make all this stuff on top of dinner." Rika continued to mutter though she looked more like she was pouting then scowling at him. "Go to all the trouble of finding the perfect spot, getting your dad to help. All for nothing."
"Just because it didn't go exactly like you wanted doesn't mean it was all for nothing, Rika." Ryo said gently, moving over to sit beside her so that they were shoulder to shoulder. He still didn't get what was going on but he got that Rika had gone out of her way to try and make this special for some reason. "Now what is it that's going to make today worth talking about years from now?"
"Wo ai ni." Rika finally said after several moments of brooding silence.
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"It's Chinese and because you're such an idiot I'm not gonna translate." Rika said as she stuck her tongue out at him. "You don't deserve to hear it in a language you can understand."
)
"Fine then." Ryo said with a roll of his eyes and pulling out his phone dialed Henry's cell phone number and smirked when Henry picked up. "Hey, man. Got a question for you."
"Lay it on me." Henry said as he turned down the volume on his stereo.
"What does Wo ai ni mean? Rika just said it to me and I have no idea what she said. She's too mad at me to translate." Ryo said with a shake of his head, absently watching Rika pour herself some fruit punch into a plastic cup, her hard grip on the cup telling. If she squeezed it any harder she was gonna bust it.
"She said that and she's angry at you? Well she has always been one hard to understand girl. She just said she loved you, man. Wo ai ni translates to I love you. Ryo? You there? Ryo? Guess not." Henry said with a laugh as he hung up, chuckling over the whole thing. Oh to be a fly on the wall.
Ryo's cell phone laying on the grass where he'd absently dropped it Ryo stood staring at a belligerent looking Rika, his mouth opening and closing for several moments before he found the brain power to speak. "Before I react I just want to confirm that you just told me that you love me."
"Maybe I did... so what?" Rika said as she glared at him from over the rim of her cup, just daring him to say something that was going to make her hit him.
"So I love you too." Ryo said before he tackled her to the ground, kissing the daylights out of her. Wrapping her arms around his neck Rika grinned against his mouth. Maybe it wasn't so ruined after all.
)
In the same park Jeri absently looked down at her watch and did some figuring in her head as she walked along the park's path. She was supposed to pick her brother up from his soccer game and she wanted to be there in time to see the last ten minutes. That way she could claim later that she'd seen him play and had actually gone to a game, Jeri thought with a slight smirk. But she was going to have to hurry if she wanted to get there before it was over. Picking up the pace from a leisurely stroll to a quick walk Jeri absently admired the weather, so involved with looking around for various signs of spring that she jumped when she heard someone call her name. Her full name at that. Looking around she caught sight of a large black sedan close by, a man in a dark suit standing by it, motioning her over. What on earth, Jeri wondered as she walked over, absently cursing the fact that there was no way she was going to get to the game now. "Yes?" Jeri said, stopping a few meters away just in case. She didn't know this guy after all but he did know her name.
"Mr. Yamachi sent us to come get you. They need you at Hypnos immediately." The man said as he opened the car door, motioning her to get in. Apparently it didn't even occur to him that she wouldn't immediately throw herself into the car when he raised an eyebrow when she didn't move.
"He did?" Jeri said as she slowly got a bad feeling in her gut, not moving an inch. If there was a meeting Yamachi would have called her first to get her location, no one but her family knew she was here. She wasn't even supposed to be picking her brother up, her dad had left a message at school saying that he needed her to do it. So how had they known she'd be here, especially since her dad was off on an emergency business trip. There would have been no one at home to tell Yamachi where she was.
"Yes, now please get into the car, Miss." The man said again and there was something in his tone Jeri didn't like at all, adding to her misgivings. Something wasn't right and there was no way she was going anywhere with this guy until she knew it was safe.
)
"Uhm..okay but I just have to call my dad to tell him that someone needs to pick up my brother since I have to go. The reception on my phone is kinda lousy so I need to do it from here." Jeri said with a weak smile as she drew her phone out, dialing Yamachi's private number that all the Tamers had in case of emergency. When Yamachi barked out a who is it Jeri did her best to keep her voice level and steady. "Hey, Daddy. It's me, Jeri. I'm just calling to let you know that Yamachi called an emergency meeting and so someone has to come to the squirt's soccer game to get him."
"Jeri...I didn't call for any meeting." Yamachi said slowly, his heart rate picking up as he felt a wave of dread land square on his shoulders. He knew. "What's going on?"
"Oh don't worry, Dad, I don't need a ride. Yamachi sent a driver and an escort to come get me and everything. It's even a black sedan, very ordinary and inconspicuous." Jeri said with a laugh, trying to act like the idea was funny. She couldn't recall the last time she'd been this scared. "They even found me in Hisaki Park and you know how big that place is. Speaking of big you should see what a bunch of kids did to that huge statue of a tiger they have here. I just passed it before they caught me and it's a disgrace, dried egg everywhere. Some people have no respect for historic landmarks."
"We need to be going." The man in the black suit said as he moved so quickly one minute he was beside the car and the next he was right in front of her, towering over her. "You can continue this conversation later in a safer location."
"Jesus Christ. Jeri, how many are there? Can you get away?" Yamachi demanded to know, able to hear the suit's voice through the phone. He'd called in the police as soon as shed given the name of the park and the location but would they be there in time? Damn it what was he going to do? "Is there anyone around that can help you?"
"No, I don't think so. Not a chance really in all honesty." Jeri replied with a sad look coming into her eye. "But I'll give it my best shot. Bye bye till the next time I see you." Jeri said then hung up the phone, sliding it back into her pocket before she looked up at the man in the suit. What the hell, she wasn't going down easy. Drawing back her right leg she kicked him in the shins as hard as she could then took off running, not getting very far before a shot rang out and she went tumbling to the ground in a heap.