Always There For You
Author's Note: I've written this little story on the spur of a moment...
I was half-asleep in my bed and then suddenly this came to me. I have to get it all off my chest.
Jer-Jer... you're gonna cry, just warning you right now.
This entire thing's dedicated to you.
----
I'll give you countless amounts of outright acceptance if you want it.
I will give you encouragement to take the path that you want if you need it.
You can speak of anger and doubts, your fears and freakouts, and I'll hold it.
You can share your so-called shame-filled accounts, of times in your life and I won't judge it.
And there are no strings attached...
You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give you.
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have.
I give you thanks for receiving, it's my priviledge..
And you owe me nothing in return.
You can ask for space for yourself, and only yourself, and I'll grant it.
You can ask for freedom as well, or time to travel, and you'll have it.
You can ask to live by yourself, or love someone else, and I'll support it.
You can ask for anything you want, and anything at all and I'll understand it.
And there are no strings attached to it...
You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give you.
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have.
I give you thanks for receiving, it's my priviledge..
And you owe me nothing in return.
---- You Owe Me Nothing In Return - Alanis Morissette ----
A normal spring day in Shinjuku was normally made up of a bright sun and fluffy white clouds against a perfect blue sky, and beautiful smelling flowers lining the busy brick paths, but instead the weather had turned, which turned the 'play-date' inside much to Rika Nonaka's disappointment.
It was clear across the girl's face as she and her best friend sat in her room, their lunch in front of them on the low table. She stared blankly at the open door which revealed the heavily pouring rain outside and the gray sky it emerged out of.
"Aren't you going to eat?"
Rika shook out of her zone and focused in on the bright eyed girl sitting across from her, half a ham sandwich being held out to her.
Rika nodded slowly and took it. "Thanks, Jeri..." she said rather quietly, still partly in her other world.
A concerned look crossed Jeri Katou's face as she bit into her own sandwich. She swallowed and spoke up rather quickly.
"Rika, what's wrong? You're not normally like this."
"Huh?" Rika focused again, and immediatly took a bite out of her sandwich to try and stir up an excuse for her absent mind.
"If you're so worried about it, want me to ask him for you?"
Rika about choked on her sandwich at Jeri's words. It was starting to scare her now, was it just that they knew each other for awhile now, or that the perky girl was psychic? It seemed whenever Rika was bothered by something, Jeri could pinpoint exactly what it was before Rika could even say a word.
Rika swallowed her sandwich hard. "I'm not worried about Henry..." Rika corrected. Jeri had been on the right track, but a little off. She raised her hand up as she took a quick sip from the bottle of soda in front of her, then continued. "It's Ryo I'm worried about."
"I thought you two broke up."
"No, I broke up with him."
"Didn't I ju--"
Rika held up her hand again, cutting the girl off. "Ryo's got this little mindset that unless HE breaks up with ME that we're still together." Rika shrugged and took a small bite out of the sandwich again, giving enough time for Jeri to turn all the words over in her mind.
"So....." Jeri pieced all the information together, then looked up at Rika. "You're scared of what he might do to you or Henry if you two go together to this spring dance?"
"Bingo." Rika said pointing to her just as she finished off the rest of the sandwich.
"Rika's scared of Ryo..." Jeri chuckled silently at the thought, and shook her head. "You've changed."
"And you haven't.. still obsessed with goggle-brain." Rika said causticly, causing Jeri to jump slightly from the sharp comment.
"I'm... sorry."
Rika frowned more, realising she had shot her mouth off again. "No, I'm sorry." she said rather quietly, suddenly going off on another one of her mental zones, something she only did when something was bothering her.
Jeri studied her face curiously. "What's wrong now?"
Rika refocused with a bit more ease this time. "Nothing... just nevermind." She put her bottle of soda to her mouth, and watched Jeri out of the corner of her eye.
Jeri gave Rika her stubborn look that could break the strongest tamer, and the auburn-haired girl put the soda back down, groaned and made herself more comfortable.
"How do you put up with me?"
Jeri blinked a few times. "What?"
"You heard what I said... I want it honest too... none of that 'beating around the bush' junk..."
"Well I-I..."
Rika fell silent, but not in a zone, waiting for Jeri's responce seriously.
Jeri went suddenly from her normal perky self to the rarely seen uncomfortable state she had when confronted with something she wasn't quite sure of.
The two girls' gazes met, and the only sound was the rain hitting the roof.
She had gotten the guts to call him up, and they had left that afternoon to go to dinner before the spring dance that all the schools in the area were coming together to throw.
She was having the time of her life, a great time, having fun...
Jeri ran the last part of that over and over in her head everytime the guilt came over her that she was about in tears from frustration that she couldn't go. No, she chose not to go. It wasn't anyone's fault but her own.
But she had to admit, without Rika to call just for the heck of it, she felt kind of lonely. She looked over at the phone attached to the wall just feet away from the bed she laid on.
Kazu and Kenta were going, just to try and pick up girlfriends, Ryo wasn't talking to any of the tamers, and Jeri was pretty sure Takato was probably going to go to the dance too if his two best friends were going to go.
Jeri sighed and reached for her sketchbook, flipping over to her stomach and starting to draw random figures of her imagination, letting her mind wander through the day's events.
~~
"I can't stand this! It's too tight, it's not the right color..... Jeri it's a dress!!!" Rika quickly corrected herself, realising she sounded like her mother.
"Listen to me... you... like.... dresses..." Jeri said slowly with as much of a serious look she could manage plastered on her face, causing both to burst into a fit of giggles afterward.
Rika turned to look at the full-length mirror she stood in front of. They had spent the entire day begging her mother to let them use her room, which contained the mirrors, the make-up, the hair 'gunk' as Rika put it, and everything else they needed, and Jeri insisted she was going to help her best friend even if it killed Rika.
Rika had to admit, it was kind of fun to get all dressed up for something when a 'girlfriend' helped you out, it wasn't something she had been used to, her mother having only introduced her to the preppy cheerleaders, the daughters of other models, so on and so forth. But how long would it last? The last 'best friend' she had dumped her to join the popular crowd, and the one before that had moved away and tottaly ignored her now, the one before that was when Rika had moved away and both had drifted away from each other. She couldn't remember any others. She watched Jeri in the mirror, pressing a long black dress against her body and twirling around in front of the other mirror and smiled slightly. She didn't want to lose a friend like Jeri. Ever. But Jeri had serious potential to be at the top of the popularity charts, and could just ditch her like Joan had. Rika felt a sudden pang in her heart that she hadn't really felt before, almost like dread at the thought of being alone again. She couldn't stand to feel that way again... it was too hard. Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she watched her best friend, tottaly oblivious to the girl's sudden sorrow. She swallowed hard and turned to look at her friend, tying her hair up in a ponytail, ready to try on another few hundred dresses tucked away in her mother's closet from years and years back.
"Jeri, why don't you try on one? I'm sure Mom won't mind."
"Oh, I'm not going." Jeri said quietly, folding the dress over on her arm, and looking over at Rika's sudden surprised face.
"What do you mean 'I'm not going'? Of course you're going! You have to! You can't let me go all by myself!!!" Rika shrieked.
"You won't be alone.. you'll have Henry."
"But--"
"Rika.. seriously." Jeri gave her a look and went back to watching her reflection in the mirror.
Rika dropped the hands she had held out in a pleading motion and sighed. "Then at least put it on so I won't feel so stupid in this thing." she made a quick gesture to the over-frilly pink dress.
"But you look good in pink." Jeri joked, dodging a clothes-hanger thrown at her, and laughing at her friend's sudden rage at the words 'you', 'good', and 'pink' in the same sentance.
"Another color!!!" Rika pleaded, already making her way to the closet.
"It was hard enough to find one in your size, but now you're limiting my options to 'no pink'?" Jeri laughed lightly.
"Will you leave me alone already?!" Rika laughed also, messing with the girl's hair.
"I'll try." Jeri smiled, and vanished into the thick piles of clothing that were supposed to be neatly arranged on the hangers of the enormous walk-in closet, but were now strung from one end of the room to the other, the ones on the closet floor mostly only pink and already considering trash by the soon to be fuming red-head.
"I can't believe my mother didn't have the mind to get something other than PINK!" Rika shrieked finally, pacing back and forth waiting for Jeri to emerge with something half-decent looking.
"Ha!"
Rika stopped pacing and looked up. "Find something?"
Jeri's head popped out of the large rack of clothing that the girls had moved in front of the doorway to get back to the clothing of Rika's size.
"Not what you want, but I found the match to that huge silver boot we dug out a few hours back."
Rika gave the girl a look and groaned. "Jeri..."
"Of course I found something." Jeri said quickly, hearing the annoyance in the girl's voice. She squirmed out of the rack and emerged with a long sparkling baby-blue dress. "And look.. it's blue." she said back to her cheerful voice.
Rika's eyes lit up for the first time ever at the sight of a dress. "It's beautiful!"
Jeri smiled warmly. "Well what are you waiting for?" she shoved the dress into the girl's chest, then pushed the girl towards the large screen they had dragged in from Rika's room. "Try it on, try it on. It's a six, so it should fit..."
Rika smirked, and vanished behind the wall. "Uh, no it's an eight." she corrected, but Jeri saw the pink frilly dress get flung over the top of the screen anyways.
"Oh this is good for my ego..."
"Hmm?" Jeri looked up curiously as the girl emerged from behind the screen.
She was almost taken aback at the sight of the girl. "Rika! You look great!"
"... it's an eight..." Rika said a little bothered, then snapped herself out of it, smacking her forehead. "What am I saying...?"
Both girl roared with laughter, until Rika cleared her throat, smoothing down the long silk dress.
"You sure you aren't going to come?"
Jeri smiled slightly, and nodded. "You have to do something on your own, I can't be there for you all the time."
Rika sighed, and looked at the floor briefly, then back up at her friend. "Thanks, Jeri."
Jeri smiled her normal perky smile back. "Anytime, and sometime you'll do something for me when I need it, right?" she held out her hand.
Rika gave a rare smile back and took her hand and shook it. "Right."
~~
(( Ding Dong ))
Jeri sat up straight, having been shaking out of her daydream. Across the paper she had been drawing on was Leomon, something she always drew when her mind wandered far away from her. She pushed the artpad aside and sat up. She was the only one home that night, her half-brother had a baseball game and both parents had gone to that.
Who could be here at this time of night anyways? And ringing at the back door none-the-less...
She slowly walked down the stairs, but sped up as the person at the door rung the doorbell a few more times. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" she snatched her scrunchie off the end table as she rushed by and quickly twisted her hair through it, wanting to look at least half-decent when she opened the door to the cool air of the night.
She twisted the handle of the door and jumped half out of her skin at the face that emerged from the light of the back porch.
"T-Takato... what are you doing here?"
There stood the boy she'd been holding all these weird feelings for, leaning against the doorframe, in a handsome looking suit, one hand behind his back.
"You didn't think I was just going to leave you here when there's a dance to go to?"
A shot of red went through her cheeks. "But.. I wasn't planning on--"
He stood upright, bringing the hand from behind his back revealing a single red rose.
"Rika called."
Jeri's heart stopped almost immediatly, recalling the look in Rika's eyes when she took her hand earlier that day. She had already filled her part of the deal, and now Rika was filling hers. A flood of tears welled up in the brunette's eyes as she looked at the well-dressed boy in front of her.
Takato's face brightened with a smile as the girl nodded slowly, wiping her cheek that had a few stray tears running down it. "I'll.. go get ready." she said quietly, opening the door further and pushing the boy inside gently, wiping a few more tears.
The gym of the large highschool, just down the road from the middleschool most the tamers went to, was dimmed as couples danced on the cold wooden floor. The disco ball had been put down, and it seemed like something out of an old movie. Takato and Jeri, of course late from Jeri having to scramble for those little details of her outfit, walked in arm in arm, catching the attention of the auburn-haired girl on the dancefloor.
"Rika?"
Her violet eyes met the gray ones of Henry as they danced to the slow beat of the music that flooded the gymnasium.
She just smiled, and tilted her head briefly towards Takato and Jeri, drinks already in hand, talking away, half-flirting.
Henry's gaze fell on the two, and he smiled. "You didn't go 'freshen up'... did you?"
Rika shook her head and laughed quietly, the first time Henry had ever really heard her laugh, which caused him to smile more.
"I owed her a favor.... but you know what?"
"Hmm?" Henry asked, brushing a piece of hair out of the girl's face.
"I owe her much more... just for being there for me when I needed her, heck even when I didn't need her."
She looked to Jeri again, just as Jeri's eyes had moved her way.
Both girl's eyes filled with tears again and both forced smiles at each other. A tear escaped Rika's eye as Jeri mouthed 'thank you'. She just smiled a bit wider and shook her head, then turned back to Henry, putting her head gently on his shoulder.
"No, Jeri..." she thought to herself. "Thank you.."
Author's Note: I've written this little story on the spur of a moment...
I was half-asleep in my bed and then suddenly this came to me. I have to get it all off my chest.
Jer-Jer... you're gonna cry, just warning you right now.
This entire thing's dedicated to you.
----
I'll give you countless amounts of outright acceptance if you want it.
I will give you encouragement to take the path that you want if you need it.
You can speak of anger and doubts, your fears and freakouts, and I'll hold it.
You can share your so-called shame-filled accounts, of times in your life and I won't judge it.
And there are no strings attached...
You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give you.
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have.
I give you thanks for receiving, it's my priviledge..
And you owe me nothing in return.
You can ask for space for yourself, and only yourself, and I'll grant it.
You can ask for freedom as well, or time to travel, and you'll have it.
You can ask to live by yourself, or love someone else, and I'll support it.
You can ask for anything you want, and anything at all and I'll understand it.
And there are no strings attached to it...
You owe me nothing for giving the love that I give you.
You owe me nothing for caring the way that I have.
I give you thanks for receiving, it's my priviledge..
And you owe me nothing in return.
---- You Owe Me Nothing In Return - Alanis Morissette ----
A normal spring day in Shinjuku was normally made up of a bright sun and fluffy white clouds against a perfect blue sky, and beautiful smelling flowers lining the busy brick paths, but instead the weather had turned, which turned the 'play-date' inside much to Rika Nonaka's disappointment.
It was clear across the girl's face as she and her best friend sat in her room, their lunch in front of them on the low table. She stared blankly at the open door which revealed the heavily pouring rain outside and the gray sky it emerged out of.
"Aren't you going to eat?"
Rika shook out of her zone and focused in on the bright eyed girl sitting across from her, half a ham sandwich being held out to her.
Rika nodded slowly and took it. "Thanks, Jeri..." she said rather quietly, still partly in her other world.
A concerned look crossed Jeri Katou's face as she bit into her own sandwich. She swallowed and spoke up rather quickly.
"Rika, what's wrong? You're not normally like this."
"Huh?" Rika focused again, and immediatly took a bite out of her sandwich to try and stir up an excuse for her absent mind.
"If you're so worried about it, want me to ask him for you?"
Rika about choked on her sandwich at Jeri's words. It was starting to scare her now, was it just that they knew each other for awhile now, or that the perky girl was psychic? It seemed whenever Rika was bothered by something, Jeri could pinpoint exactly what it was before Rika could even say a word.
Rika swallowed her sandwich hard. "I'm not worried about Henry..." Rika corrected. Jeri had been on the right track, but a little off. She raised her hand up as she took a quick sip from the bottle of soda in front of her, then continued. "It's Ryo I'm worried about."
"I thought you two broke up."
"No, I broke up with him."
"Didn't I ju--"
Rika held up her hand again, cutting the girl off. "Ryo's got this little mindset that unless HE breaks up with ME that we're still together." Rika shrugged and took a small bite out of the sandwich again, giving enough time for Jeri to turn all the words over in her mind.
"So....." Jeri pieced all the information together, then looked up at Rika. "You're scared of what he might do to you or Henry if you two go together to this spring dance?"
"Bingo." Rika said pointing to her just as she finished off the rest of the sandwich.
"Rika's scared of Ryo..." Jeri chuckled silently at the thought, and shook her head. "You've changed."
"And you haven't.. still obsessed with goggle-brain." Rika said causticly, causing Jeri to jump slightly from the sharp comment.
"I'm... sorry."
Rika frowned more, realising she had shot her mouth off again. "No, I'm sorry." she said rather quietly, suddenly going off on another one of her mental zones, something she only did when something was bothering her.
Jeri studied her face curiously. "What's wrong now?"
Rika refocused with a bit more ease this time. "Nothing... just nevermind." She put her bottle of soda to her mouth, and watched Jeri out of the corner of her eye.
Jeri gave Rika her stubborn look that could break the strongest tamer, and the auburn-haired girl put the soda back down, groaned and made herself more comfortable.
"How do you put up with me?"
Jeri blinked a few times. "What?"
"You heard what I said... I want it honest too... none of that 'beating around the bush' junk..."
"Well I-I..."
Rika fell silent, but not in a zone, waiting for Jeri's responce seriously.
Jeri went suddenly from her normal perky self to the rarely seen uncomfortable state she had when confronted with something she wasn't quite sure of.
The two girls' gazes met, and the only sound was the rain hitting the roof.
She had gotten the guts to call him up, and they had left that afternoon to go to dinner before the spring dance that all the schools in the area were coming together to throw.
She was having the time of her life, a great time, having fun...
Jeri ran the last part of that over and over in her head everytime the guilt came over her that she was about in tears from frustration that she couldn't go. No, she chose not to go. It wasn't anyone's fault but her own.
But she had to admit, without Rika to call just for the heck of it, she felt kind of lonely. She looked over at the phone attached to the wall just feet away from the bed she laid on.
Kazu and Kenta were going, just to try and pick up girlfriends, Ryo wasn't talking to any of the tamers, and Jeri was pretty sure Takato was probably going to go to the dance too if his two best friends were going to go.
Jeri sighed and reached for her sketchbook, flipping over to her stomach and starting to draw random figures of her imagination, letting her mind wander through the day's events.
~~
"I can't stand this! It's too tight, it's not the right color..... Jeri it's a dress!!!" Rika quickly corrected herself, realising she sounded like her mother.
"Listen to me... you... like.... dresses..." Jeri said slowly with as much of a serious look she could manage plastered on her face, causing both to burst into a fit of giggles afterward.
Rika turned to look at the full-length mirror she stood in front of. They had spent the entire day begging her mother to let them use her room, which contained the mirrors, the make-up, the hair 'gunk' as Rika put it, and everything else they needed, and Jeri insisted she was going to help her best friend even if it killed Rika.
Rika had to admit, it was kind of fun to get all dressed up for something when a 'girlfriend' helped you out, it wasn't something she had been used to, her mother having only introduced her to the preppy cheerleaders, the daughters of other models, so on and so forth. But how long would it last? The last 'best friend' she had dumped her to join the popular crowd, and the one before that had moved away and tottaly ignored her now, the one before that was when Rika had moved away and both had drifted away from each other. She couldn't remember any others. She watched Jeri in the mirror, pressing a long black dress against her body and twirling around in front of the other mirror and smiled slightly. She didn't want to lose a friend like Jeri. Ever. But Jeri had serious potential to be at the top of the popularity charts, and could just ditch her like Joan had. Rika felt a sudden pang in her heart that she hadn't really felt before, almost like dread at the thought of being alone again. She couldn't stand to feel that way again... it was too hard. Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she watched her best friend, tottaly oblivious to the girl's sudden sorrow. She swallowed hard and turned to look at her friend, tying her hair up in a ponytail, ready to try on another few hundred dresses tucked away in her mother's closet from years and years back.
"Jeri, why don't you try on one? I'm sure Mom won't mind."
"Oh, I'm not going." Jeri said quietly, folding the dress over on her arm, and looking over at Rika's sudden surprised face.
"What do you mean 'I'm not going'? Of course you're going! You have to! You can't let me go all by myself!!!" Rika shrieked.
"You won't be alone.. you'll have Henry."
"But--"
"Rika.. seriously." Jeri gave her a look and went back to watching her reflection in the mirror.
Rika dropped the hands she had held out in a pleading motion and sighed. "Then at least put it on so I won't feel so stupid in this thing." she made a quick gesture to the over-frilly pink dress.
"But you look good in pink." Jeri joked, dodging a clothes-hanger thrown at her, and laughing at her friend's sudden rage at the words 'you', 'good', and 'pink' in the same sentance.
"Another color!!!" Rika pleaded, already making her way to the closet.
"It was hard enough to find one in your size, but now you're limiting my options to 'no pink'?" Jeri laughed lightly.
"Will you leave me alone already?!" Rika laughed also, messing with the girl's hair.
"I'll try." Jeri smiled, and vanished into the thick piles of clothing that were supposed to be neatly arranged on the hangers of the enormous walk-in closet, but were now strung from one end of the room to the other, the ones on the closet floor mostly only pink and already considering trash by the soon to be fuming red-head.
"I can't believe my mother didn't have the mind to get something other than PINK!" Rika shrieked finally, pacing back and forth waiting for Jeri to emerge with something half-decent looking.
"Ha!"
Rika stopped pacing and looked up. "Find something?"
Jeri's head popped out of the large rack of clothing that the girls had moved in front of the doorway to get back to the clothing of Rika's size.
"Not what you want, but I found the match to that huge silver boot we dug out a few hours back."
Rika gave the girl a look and groaned. "Jeri..."
"Of course I found something." Jeri said quickly, hearing the annoyance in the girl's voice. She squirmed out of the rack and emerged with a long sparkling baby-blue dress. "And look.. it's blue." she said back to her cheerful voice.
Rika's eyes lit up for the first time ever at the sight of a dress. "It's beautiful!"
Jeri smiled warmly. "Well what are you waiting for?" she shoved the dress into the girl's chest, then pushed the girl towards the large screen they had dragged in from Rika's room. "Try it on, try it on. It's a six, so it should fit..."
Rika smirked, and vanished behind the wall. "Uh, no it's an eight." she corrected, but Jeri saw the pink frilly dress get flung over the top of the screen anyways.
"Oh this is good for my ego..."
"Hmm?" Jeri looked up curiously as the girl emerged from behind the screen.
She was almost taken aback at the sight of the girl. "Rika! You look great!"
"... it's an eight..." Rika said a little bothered, then snapped herself out of it, smacking her forehead. "What am I saying...?"
Both girl roared with laughter, until Rika cleared her throat, smoothing down the long silk dress.
"You sure you aren't going to come?"
Jeri smiled slightly, and nodded. "You have to do something on your own, I can't be there for you all the time."
Rika sighed, and looked at the floor briefly, then back up at her friend. "Thanks, Jeri."
Jeri smiled her normal perky smile back. "Anytime, and sometime you'll do something for me when I need it, right?" she held out her hand.
Rika gave a rare smile back and took her hand and shook it. "Right."
~~
(( Ding Dong ))
Jeri sat up straight, having been shaking out of her daydream. Across the paper she had been drawing on was Leomon, something she always drew when her mind wandered far away from her. She pushed the artpad aside and sat up. She was the only one home that night, her half-brother had a baseball game and both parents had gone to that.
Who could be here at this time of night anyways? And ringing at the back door none-the-less...
She slowly walked down the stairs, but sped up as the person at the door rung the doorbell a few more times. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" she snatched her scrunchie off the end table as she rushed by and quickly twisted her hair through it, wanting to look at least half-decent when she opened the door to the cool air of the night.
She twisted the handle of the door and jumped half out of her skin at the face that emerged from the light of the back porch.
"T-Takato... what are you doing here?"
There stood the boy she'd been holding all these weird feelings for, leaning against the doorframe, in a handsome looking suit, one hand behind his back.
"You didn't think I was just going to leave you here when there's a dance to go to?"
A shot of red went through her cheeks. "But.. I wasn't planning on--"
He stood upright, bringing the hand from behind his back revealing a single red rose.
"Rika called."
Jeri's heart stopped almost immediatly, recalling the look in Rika's eyes when she took her hand earlier that day. She had already filled her part of the deal, and now Rika was filling hers. A flood of tears welled up in the brunette's eyes as she looked at the well-dressed boy in front of her.
Takato's face brightened with a smile as the girl nodded slowly, wiping her cheek that had a few stray tears running down it. "I'll.. go get ready." she said quietly, opening the door further and pushing the boy inside gently, wiping a few more tears.
The gym of the large highschool, just down the road from the middleschool most the tamers went to, was dimmed as couples danced on the cold wooden floor. The disco ball had been put down, and it seemed like something out of an old movie. Takato and Jeri, of course late from Jeri having to scramble for those little details of her outfit, walked in arm in arm, catching the attention of the auburn-haired girl on the dancefloor.
"Rika?"
Her violet eyes met the gray ones of Henry as they danced to the slow beat of the music that flooded the gymnasium.
She just smiled, and tilted her head briefly towards Takato and Jeri, drinks already in hand, talking away, half-flirting.
Henry's gaze fell on the two, and he smiled. "You didn't go 'freshen up'... did you?"
Rika shook her head and laughed quietly, the first time Henry had ever really heard her laugh, which caused him to smile more.
"I owed her a favor.... but you know what?"
"Hmm?" Henry asked, brushing a piece of hair out of the girl's face.
"I owe her much more... just for being there for me when I needed her, heck even when I didn't need her."
She looked to Jeri again, just as Jeri's eyes had moved her way.
Both girl's eyes filled with tears again and both forced smiles at each other. A tear escaped Rika's eye as Jeri mouthed 'thank you'. She just smiled a bit wider and shook her head, then turned back to Henry, putting her head gently on his shoulder.
"No, Jeri..." she thought to herself. "Thank you.."