Pre-Chapter A/N: Well, it took forever, ne? My apologizes.
Beta-Reader: Shana
Run(A)Way
-Chapter Five-
The fashion consultant parked her flashy, new car in the empty parking space and turned off the ignition. Rika stepped out of the car, her spirits lightened and ready to take on whatever might be thrown her way. As Mimi locked the car and turned around, a slight frown tugged at her pink-glossed lips and she pulled out a miniature brush and stood behind Rika, tugged through the wind-blown tangles.
"Honestly, Rika, I don't know what you'd do without me!" Mimi exclaimed good-naturedly. Yolei giggled behind her hand and Tai grabbed Rika's messenger-bag backpack from the car and hopped over the side. "Careful Taichi! Wouldn't want you to fall and smudge up my brand new car," Mimi teased lightly. The bodyguard grinned before straightening out his black suit and pushing his darkened sunglasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Rika, catch," he warned, tossing her backpack to the teen. She scooped down to catch it, untangling Mimi's brush from her hair.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rika saw the brunette dive for her hair once again, and ducked out of the way, avoiding further prepping.
Yolei let out a short squeal and pointed at the students beginning to mill around the courtyard. "Look! People are already coming in! Let's go check out their styles," the lavender-headed girl pointed out.
Rika fell back with her bodyguard and whispered, "Translation: Let's go judge and critic their styles…"
Taichi snickered behind his hand and fell into a professional walk next to the teen celebrity.
- - - - -
"Ryo!"
He flipped around the picnic bench to see Jeri, Kenta, and Kazu racing towards him. "Hey guys, how's it going?"
"Great!" Kazu started. "We just went by the magazine rack, and guess who got the latest issue of Digimon Collectors? That's right, buddy! Kazu's gonna whoop you up!"
Kenta rolled his eyes. "Like that will ever happen," he muttered.
"Hey, a guy can dream!" Kazu retorted back.
Ryo laughed. "And how did you get stuck with these two, Jeri?"
"Oh," she giggled, "I wanted to get my magazine." She held out the teen-girl directed magazine showing him the front cover. He took it out of her hands lightly, noting Rika was on the front cover. His chestnut eyes roamed over article over Rika and the pictures of the stunningly beautiful model. He stopped on one particular close-up of her face, her hair down and face painted in the sponsored make-up. At first glance, one would look at her and think nothing other than she was wonderfully gorgeous; however, after knowing her, even if it were only a few days, Ryo looked at the violet colored irises and found slight icy chips of blue cold and detached from the camera, the flashy smile not quite reaching her eyes.
Jeri looked at Ryo's facial expression change, what from, she wasn't certain; however, something about that moment, Jeri couldn't dismiss. Before she could think about it, however, Takato ran up panting, his shirt wrinkled and hair half combed.
"Hey guys!" he managed between breaths. Jeri rolled her eyes, as Takato was notorious for waking up late and having to rush to get to school on time. "What are you looking at Ryo?" the teen asked as he examined his friend's intense gaze on the magazine.
Ryo glanced up, bewildered as if he were pulled out of a reverie, and handed Jeri her magazine. "Just taking a look at Jeri's magazine," he said, smiling as an attempted cover-up.
Kazu raised his eyebrows in curiosity, taking interest in the recent actions and stopping his debate with Kenta. "And what, pray tell, would interest you in Jeri's magazine?" He snatched the open page, which was still open when Ryo gave Jeri it back. "You were…" he trailed off and Ryo looked at the dewy grass, a faint blush touching his tanned skin. "DUDE! Ryo's got a crush on Rika," Kazu spat accusingly. Even at eighteen, Kazu had a fetish about girls (Jeri was constantly trying to get him to date one of her friends, then would get frustrated when he turned the friend down and told him he was gay since he didn't like dating girls; which, wasn't the case… really…). [--- Lol, okay. So I've been reading too much Harry Potter slash (which is their equivalent of yaoi). Just take that last part with a grain of salt.]
"No, I don't," Ryo scoffed, raising an eyebrow. "And what would lead you to think that?"
He shrugged and grinned as if he knew something. Suddenly, Jeri gasped and pointed an index finger toward the enlarged group Rika was with.
"That's… that's Mimi Tachikawa and Yolei Inoue!" she squealed in delight.
"Huh?" Takato raised question. "Who?"
"Mimi Tachikawa and Yolei Inoue! The brunette is the fashion consultant of Rika, Mimi Tachikawa and the purple-haired woman is Yolei Inoue, Rika's dietitian!"
"Really?" Kenta asked feigning interest while flipping pages of his magazine.
"I love Ms. Tachikawa's work and same with Ms. Inoue's!" Jeri confessed openly.
- - - - -
Rika's gaze found itself on the group of people she knew best at the school and grinned at the sight of them. Yolei glanced back at the redhead and followed her stare to the small group of friends.
"Do you know them, Rika?" Yolei questioned.
"Yeah, sort of," she admitted. Rika watched Yolei as she cast a calculating watch at them, then turn to her. Rika almost felt nervous.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. Why should I care about her approval of them anyway? I'll make friends—I'll talk to whomever I choose, Rika thought indecisively.
"They look nice," Yolei finally stated. "Let's go meet them. We can get information from the girl in the group about where she shops, I like her style." She gave the model a bright smile and grabbed Mimi's arm directing her towards the company.
"Hey guys," Rika greeted nonchalantly.
"Hi Rika!" Jeri chirped. The others greeted her in a similar manner.
"This is Mimi and Yolei," Rika briefly introduced.
"Wow! I like your scarf!" Mimi exclaimed, picking up the piece of cloth wrapped around Ryo's neck. "Where'd you get it?"
"Uh… the mall?" he replied uncertain.
Mimi nodded curtly and pointed at Yolei. "Make a note:" Yolei pulled out a small notebook and pen from her handbag. "Winter scarves," she felt the cloth between her thumb and forefinger, "wool, worn." Yolei wrote down the information told to her before stashing the notebook away in the handbag. The brunette smiled down at a sitting Ryo. "Green's a good color on you." She moved on to Jeri. "Vests. Yolei, what do you think?"
"Vests are in, not patterned though. We should invest," she giggled, Taichi looked up from his glasses at her. "Get it? Invest?" she giggled more, the stopped abruptly. "Well, I found it amusing. No patterns, plain or stripes, but not on Rika--"
"I'm on a sabbatical anyway," Rika grit out, slightly annoyed.
"Oh! Right, sorry about that…" Yolei trailed off, avoiding eye contact.
"It's… it's all right," the redhead replied hesitantly.
Ryo stared at her in curious wonder. Could she be different around these people? What's fake with her? Who is the real Rika Nonaka? But, of course, the question that plagued him most was: Why am I so drawn to her to figure out what's beneath the surface? Rika turned her head and caught his gaze, holding it unnoticed by the others as Yolei and Mimi flitted around making notes and comparisons, except for Taichi. He watched from behind his darkened shades the interaction between the two, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, and a renewed hope that Rika would escape the isolated world she created for herself to find a lighter dimension with friends who would see past the image of fame.
The ten-minute bell tore the two confused teenagers away from the stupor and pushed them forcefully back into reality.
"We should get going. Calculus is on the other side of the school," Ryo reminded. The group became smaller as people spread out for their homeroom classes. While entering the Calculus class, they heard a squeal of delight from their teacher.
"Mimi? Yolei?"
"Sora?" they chorused in question.
"Mimi! Yolei!"
"Sora!" The three females grasped each other in hugs and stood back to talk and titter on as if they were old friends.
"…Do they know each other?" Rika asked Tai.
"Heh… yeah…"
"Oh my! I had no idea you were--!" Sora exclaimed unfinished. "This is so amazing!"
Mimi giggle frivolously, "It's like it was destiny!"
Yolei shot her arm up in the air, index finger extended. "Perfecto!"
Taichi coughed, bringing them back from their reverie, reminding Sora that she needed to begin the class.
"Um… well, go ahead and grab those empty desks to sit next to Rika. We'll talk after the class is over."
As Sora taught the lesson for the day, reviewed the quiz material, and talked endlessly about a subject very uninteresting; Mimi, Yolei, and Taichi all fell asleep, Tai and Yolei snoring rather loudly.
Sora rolled her eyes and said, "Rika, wake them up. It's okay they're here, but they're snoring is disrupting." Rika poked Mimi, who jumped in surprise, then rubbed her eyes. She did the same to her bodyguard and food consultant; however, neither was roused.
"Tai!" Sora shouted, startling the students. "TAI!" No response. "YOLEI!" She sighed in resign, then pointed to a rather long equation on the board. "Who can tell me what the answer is?"
Without warning, both Tai and Yolei shot up awake, saying, "42!"
"Well, they're awake now…" Mimi muttered. "But I don't think the 42 answer will work this time, guys."
Sora raised her eyebrows and laughed, "It is! I can't believe it!"
Rika sighed in frustration, pondering the quandary that was her 'family' and their unknown past.
"Hey, Rika," Ryo whispered while Sora was still laughing, and the rest of the class murmuring about the strange behavior of their teacher.
"What is it?" she whispered back.
"Me and the gang were going to go to the arcade this afternoon, want to come?"
As a pleasant feeling flooded her from the invitation, she nodded, previous thoughts of Mimi, Yolei, and Tai abandoned.
- - -
Chapter Four:
Anatra: Hehe, I like Kouyako too, and I still stand with my opinions on Mimato ;P.
SunFloramon: Thanks! Glad you like it!
SWP: Sorry it was short…
KaYuTa: lol, all right, no advice from you. Glad you like it!
Fiery-chan: lol, there's really a Mimi shirt? I did that simply on a whim! *must find Mimi shirt*
Chibi Mei Chan (x2): Ha! Losers at Bandai… like Matt would ever be an astronaut… honestly, that ending was so wrong…// I think I'm going to have Kari be something different than a teacher at that school. If I have too many of the digi-destined at that particular school, it'd be kind of repetitive.
Arabella Silverbell: Lol, I'm glad you're easy to please. Free reign of couples, eh? mwahhaahaha… *cough, hack, wheeze*
Endless Rain: *glomps Endless Rain* You picked Daiyako! squee! I'm not the only one that likes this couple! Score!
Asira: Yeeeessss… a bridging chapter… that's what we'll call it *looks around shiftily* lol, thanks.
DarkShadow9247: Will do.
Mika aka Digiberry: Well, Mimi's not with anybody so, Mimato avoided. I'm glad you like it!
RyoCrimson: Yes, this is an alternate dimension fic.
Silver sunlight: I hope it'll kick ass ^^
Hanway: No! Criticize me! Criticize me! I'm glad you think I did well with the characters, however I want to know what you have to say. As I said before, I haven't seen many of the Tamers episodes, so I need to know if I'm doing all right. As for the plot, it's going to get somewhere eventually. ^^'
Lady Tskuya: *sigh* I miss the old ones too. Glad you like!
animegurlie45: Will do!
Demon Wolf: ^^ I'm happy you like it!
I am I: I'd tell you what happens next… but then what would the fun in that be? mwahhaaha…
Adam (x3): Thanks! But sorry, no Kenyako.
- - -
Because of the chapter five reviews mainly being votes, I only stuck a few notes from people who said something I felt the need to respond to.
Lady Espelle: Yeah, I think the original groups aren't going to be the better ones, it's just they're there and something will happen to them. (Like in 02 where the older destined weren't able to help much except advice and whatnot.)
butterfinger: I believe you misread the note. It said something like: Because it's a Ryuki, I wouldn't be focusing much on Taiora.
*cough* Anyhoo, I've decided to make it go into the digital world. Again, my apologizes for this taking so long. Every time I would want to write I couldn't and when I should've written on it, I couldn't get into it. As for the short, abrupt ending… I couldn't go on much longer without going into other things I was hoping to leave for the next chapter. And I think I confused Kenta and Kazu with each other. Stupid 'k' names… grr…
Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers!
~TF