I can't say that I'm entirely happy with the way this turned out but I guess it's a worthy continuation to the first fic I ever started. I reuploaded chapter 1 to make it easier to read and "hopefully" with less grammar mistakes. Enjoy!
Disclaimer - Whatever Chapter 1 said :p
"" = Speech
' ' = Thoughts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Ok, I'm gonna get to the bottom of this today" Rika said aloud with a hint of determination. It had taken some doing but she managed to coax Henry into meeting her here to talk. She was standing alone for the moment, leaning over a railing very deep in thought. She couldn't understand why Henry was so dead set against meeting her at the park to talk, but she didn't really care at the moment having other things on her mind.
"He just can't be doing this on purpose, there's no way he's like that…" She quietly whispered. For reasons unknown to her, it had been a couple of weeks, maybe a month and half since she even last noticed Henry being remotely near her, this she noticed to a teeth. It wasn't so much that she missed his company it was just that she found it quite…unsettling… that one of her first true friends in life had made himself so scarce. The only conclusion available to her was that she was being avoided and she didn't like it. 'Maybe it's only my imagination, I haven't exactly made myself available being busy with…'
Before she could even finish that thought though, an interruption by the name of Henry Wong greeted her. "Hi, Rika?" he spoke. "Oh, hi…" she replied. Henry took his place to the left of her and leaned over the railing as well. For a couple of minutes there was nothing more than silence between the two teenagers, both seeming to be admiring the less than stellar weather they were currently bathed in. A passing feeling of nervousness began to consume Rika as Henry seemed to take the initiative by speaking first.
"You sounded a little…concerned…on the phone, is there a problem?" Henry asked still not facing her. Despite the weather he was still dawned with his sunglasses, which some how made him at ease to deal with his current situation.
Rika took a few moments to gather her thoughts, she couldn't exactly figure out what she wanted to say 'Where have you've been? Are you Ok?' came across her mind but since not being very in character of her they remained thoughts, but instinctively she began to speak without even knowing it.
"I've just kind of been wondering, Gogglehead says you've been around, but it seems that…lately…ahh…" Rika mentally scolded herself for not being able to finish what she was saying. "I've been busy…" Henry drifted off still staring off into space. The air seemed kind of colder between the two as he did and the silence grew longer. It was pretty evident that the two weren't exactly very comfortable with each right now, both for their respective reasons. A passer by might even have mistaken the two for two people who were trying to make up after a fight.
Rika sighed at her defeat from her direct approach and decided to move on to an indirect question. 'This is going to seem way out place but it's worth a shot' she thought. Still not facing each other she began
"Henry?" Asked Rika
"Hmm?" came the reply
"What's your problem with Ryo?" finished Rika calmly
Henry immediately spun around to face her "What?! Where did that come from?!" he asked in a slightly raised and shocked voice.
"He just notices you've been avoiding him lately, so I was wondering what do you have against him" explained Rika still very calm.
Henry replied with emotion to express his innocence "I can tell you I have absolutely nothing against Ryo!"
"Oh…" leaked out from Rika's mouth 'so much for the idea Ryo was the problem…' she thought, which brought her to the last conclusion. "So I guess the problem is with me then…" she stated.
"Huh? I never said that." Henry defensively answered
"Well that's the only choice left isn't it?!" started Rika now angry "Don't think I haven't noticed you avoiding us and if Ryo isn't the problem then it has to be me right? So spill it!"
Henry took an instinctive step back as if that would calm her current wrath, even though Rika kept staring down at him right in the eyes, reminding him why he decided to wear his sunglasses in the first place, her looks could probably kill. "Is it too late to change my answer Ryo being my problem?" Henry nervously answered as if a joke would help right now.
"I'm not laughing…" Rika said trying to calm herself and recover from the rush of her last accusation.
Henry took off his sunglasses while looking Rika in the eyes. He then turned again to lean over the railing. "You trapped me you know…" Henry said almost as if he was smiling.
"It seemed like the only way to get a straight answer from you." Rika answered now back to her calm self "so…are you mad at me or something?"
"No… nothing like that…" Henry quietly said shaking his head
"So what's the deal?" She said facing him. Henry did the same and stood straight up from the railing.
"Remember when you were first kind of accepting things, you know, your relationship with Renamon, the tamers, your mother, that sort of stuff?" Henry asked
"What has that got to do with anything right now?" Rika questioned. 'He better have a point to this…' she thought
"Remember how you tried resisting it, how you tried to fight it, how you tried to…dismiss it but in the end it was just better to accept things the way they were?" Henry continued to ask
"What about it?" Rika answered growing impatient then looking down and away from his face.
"I'm kind of sort of going through the same thing…" Henry finished somewhat drifting.
"What?" Rika answered still kind of confused and surprised.
"Don't get me wrong!" Henry tried to rush "I know who my friends are, I know your one of them…" with his hands up as if trying to push Rika's wrath away "it's just that…it's just that… I'm having trouble accepting a certain …aspect of things right now."
"Henry, what's that got to do with me?" Rika questioned quietly looking at him 'He's almost making no sense' she thought
Henry once again stood up straight and took a step forward toward Rika, all as if by instinct. He raised his right hand slowly toward Rika's face, his eyes locked with hers, bit by bit his hand was getting closer and closer to caressing Rika's face. Rika herself was frozen by the moment and could even be caught trying told hold down a shade of red from her face. But as she did, Henry stopped dead in his tracks, he clenched his hand slowly into a bit of a fist and brought it down.
"More than I want it to Rika" He whispered "more than I want it to…" he repeated looking toward the ground. With that he once again found himself doing an about face. His sunglasses had once again found its way toward covering his eyes as he began to walk out of the park, but he did have a few last words before he left though "Sorry to have made you worry Rika" he announced "do me a favor and not think about it will you?" Having said that Henry began to walk home, with mix feelings of relief and regret.
Rika watched Henry disappear off into the distance still frozen in the moment. The heat from his near touch was still lingering as she brought her own hand up to where his hand would have been. Part of her was still confused and wondering what all that was about. The other part of her, the part that kept her eyes from blinking and her heart from slowing down, just wished that the moment had lasted just a little bit longer.
THE END?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
To tell you the truth I "may" have one more chapter in this but to end it the way us Henrika/Jenruki would like I need to have Ryo get hit by a comet or something which just seems kind of off. So let me know what you think.
Well as always, love it? Hate it? I'd like to know, flames accepted as always, I don't take things all that personally. After all, if compliments were the only thing anybody ever got nothing would ever turn out better.