----

One more day down,
Everybody has those days.
Where one soft sweet song's just enough to clear my head.

Fall on real life.
Is anybody left there sane?
If we slide on over and accept fate,
Then it's bound to be a powerful thing.

If it's just that you're weak,
Can we talk about it?
It's gettin' so damn creepy
Just nursing this ghost of chance,
The fiction, the romance..
And the Technicolor dreams,
Of black and white people.

----

Takato was still in the same mood that night on the date with Jeri, and even the waiter at the resturant he took her to seemed to notice.
Jeri just sipped her tall glass of water and watched him over the rim of the glass.
She put the glass down slowly and cleared her throat.
"So..." she started, trying to grasp her mind for anything to start a conversation with.
"How's Henry doing?"
Takato's face grew sour and Jeri mentally slapped herself for bringing up the one subject that seemed to be the one he didn't want to talk about and was bothering him the whole time.
Jeri placed her white cloth napkin in her lap and stared at the black skirt she was wearing.
"Just.. forget about it." she said quickly.
Takato sighed. "You deserve to know, Jeri."
Jeri looked up, and smiled weakly at him.
Takato leaned back on the metal french-bistro style chair and layed the back of his head on the top edge of it.
"He kissed Rika today... I don't know why or what the conversation he pulled her aside for was about, but I don't like it. All this dating and kissing and love is messing up our group. People will soon be turning on everyone else and next thing you know we'll hate each other and won't want to be a group anymore."
Jeri made a slight face.
"No we won't." she said a bit puzzled.
"Haven't you heard of the season two digidestined?" Takato snapped, lifting his head from the metal working of the chair.
"Yeah.." Jeri sipped her water causing perfect silence between them, then calmly set it down and talked to Takato in a smooth and casual voice.
"And they were a better group later on." she replied cooly.
"But--"
Jeri looked up at him with soft hazel eyes. "Now Takato just enjoy the evening and forget about Henry and Rika."
Takato smirked. "Yeah.. you're right."
"I know." Jeri laughed.
~
Rika turned up her radio to her favorite song playing on her favorite station, and walked back over to the small inflatable couch she had bought to put in her room and sunk into it beside Henry who was in the middle of jotting things down in a notebook.
Renamon stood on the other side of the room, too busy trying to get Terriermon to leave her alone to notice the two teens moving closer and closer to each other.
But even Renamon could pick up on a giggle escaping out of her tamer, and both she and Terriermon's attention was diverted to the two across the room practicly on top of each other.
Terriermon shrugged it off, and went back to trying to figure out what the heck the large glass sculpture with the bright bubbles in it was for. It moved so slowly, but was so neat to watch.
Renamon just stared at her tamer who was too caught up in Henry's arms to notice that there was more people or digimon on the planet then just her and Henry.
A knock on the bedroom door made Rika and Henry jump half out of their skins and scoot back to opposite sides of the couch, just as Renamon vanished and Terriermon slumped against the mirror on the dresser like a stuffed animal.
"Um.. come in!" Rika said a bit surprised.
Her mother popped her head in the room after sliding the door just enough to look in.
She then spotted Henry who Rika had snuck in earlier that afternoon.
"Oh! Hello there! Henry, right? Mr. Wong's child?" Rika's mother stepped into the room, and ignored the angry groan of her daughter.
"Yes Ma'am." Henry nodded.
"How long do you plan on staying?" her mother asked.
"Ummm...." Henry looked over at Rika for a quick answer.
Rika perked up immediatly to his rescue. "As long as he can."
"Oh. Well, if you need anything just yell." her mother smiled at Rika and walked out.
When the door was slid to a close, Rika slumped further into the couch.
"I'm SO sorry." she groaned.
Henry scooted back over close to her and smiled.
"It's perfectly fine!" he laughed. "Trust me, I have a family that's three times as big as yours and they're always popping in on me."
Rika just smiled and looked up at him.
"You mean that's why you wouldn't spend time at your house?"
"Oh, we'll spend time there.." he sighed, looked straight in front of him.
Rika sat back up and looked at him.
"When?"
Henry looked over at her again and laughed.
"When my parents are out of town and I can hook up my sister and brother with their boyfriend and girlfriend and have Suzy spend the night at her friend's."
"It's that bad, huh?"
Henry laughed and quickly kissed her.
"You'll learn soon enough."
~
"Sooooooooooooo..." Rika dragged out her word as she sipped one of the sodas Takato had bought for the whole gang of digidestined that sat on the floor of the small cold and dark building they now used for their headquarters.
Henry passed his soda to the now panting Terriermon and watched him gulp down the bubbly liquid.
"I think you've lost it Takato." he commented.
Takato frowned.
"I just think there shouldn't be any romantic intrests in the group. It might tear us apart."
Rika took her legs out of the crossed position and lifted one knee up, setting her elbow on it and leaning her forehead on her hand.
"Takato.." she groaned. "How many times do we have to go through this?"
"As many as we need to." Takato snapped at her.
Jeri sighed and slid her back down the cold stone wall, sinking further into the ground.
Takato eyed her a moment, then went back to Henry and Rika.
"Now everyone knows what you've been like together... it's sca--"
He was cut off when Henry stood up, taking Terriermon in his arms and started walking out of the building.
"HENRY WONG GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!!" Takato screeched at him in anger.
No responce. Henry just kept walking, until he stopped and without even turning around said one silent word.
"Rika."
With that Rika stood up and followed him out.
Henry kept on walking, hearing her footsteps behind him, and they walked side-by-side until they were out of Takato's view.
Takato just sat with a mouth gaping open.
His head turned to look at Jeri and he pointed outside the gate that stood in the front of the building.
"Did you see what they just did??"
Jeri looked at him with soft hazel eyes. "They have every right to've walked out, Takato."
"But... we're a team.."
"Did you ever think.." Jeri started to say, going back to staring at the wall opposite them so she wouldn't have to look at Takato's furious salmon colored eyes. "... that maybe it's not the relationship between them that's tearing the group apart..."
She looked over at him for a moment. ".. that maybe it's just how you're taking it? It's how you've responded that's making us all drift apart. They aren't drifting away from you.. you're drifting away from them."
Takato just went silent, watching her. Then he shifted his eyes to the ground and stared hard at a small pebble laying in the dirt.
Jeri scooted sideways, closer to him.
"Com'on Takato you really have to lighten up on them. Did you even consider that maybe Rika being in this relationship with Henry is better for the group?"
Takato looked up at her, a bit stunned at her words.
"No.." he said simply.
Jeri just smiled. "Well, think about it."
There was a silence in the small building, except for the faint sound of Leomon and Guilmon talking outside, and the silence lastest for what seemed to Jeri like forever.
~
"HENWY, WIKA, PHONE!!" Suzy called out from her little perch on the white stool, phone clamped against her baby-pink shirt as she looked down the hall at the closed white door covered in 'DO NOT ENTER' signs.
It wasn't long before it opened and both teenagers came walking out, looking a little fased from the sudden yelling from Suzy for them.
"I hope you both wewent kissing again!" Suzy sighed, remembering how she had walked in on them earlier.
Henry growled at her and yanked the phone away.
Suzy gave a startled shriek at Henry's anger and buried her face into Rika's stomach.
Rika just picked the small girl up, and gave a playful glare at Henry.
Henry tried to ignore it, and talked into the phone.
"Hello?" Silence followed for a moment as the person on the other end answered.
Henry gave another bothered look and raised an eyebrow at Rika and she scowled.
With that return from Rika, Henry hung the phone up.
"Wika.. why'd you let Henwy hang up the phone on the angwy boy?" Suzy asked curiously.
Rika shook her head, shifted her weight, and leaned against the warm yellow painted wall.
"Because he dosen't like me." Rika replied kindly, trying to make it easier for the small girl to understand.
"Ohhhh....." Suzy cooed.
The trio looked up at Henry's parents as they grabbed their coats off the hooks on the wall and slid them on.
"Sweety," Henry's mother started, talking more to Henry then Suzy. "me and your father are going out to dinner. Since Rika's here she can keep you company. We'll be back around eleven, okay?"
Rika and Henry exchanged looks a moment, and then both looked at Suzy.
Rika shruged. "I have nothing to do."
"Just call your mother." with that the wooden door closed and the three were left alone in the house, Henry's sister and brother both out on dates.
"That... was weird." Henry made a slight face, folding his arms over his chest and raising one eyebrow.
Rika almost laughed at his look, she still had yet to break the laughing stage of her opening up.
Suzy however was in stiches now, and Rika set her down on the wood floor and pushed the back of her head a bit, pushing her towards the living room.
"We'll be in here." Rika smiled, still pushing the small girl along slowly.
Henry nodded, then noticed Rika had set him up to have to make the call to her mother.
He groaned inwardly, but yet he DID want to hear the sound in her voice when he explained that the reason her daughter wasn't going to be home was because she was stuck with a boyfriend.
His reasons to call won over the ones not to, and he dialed the number.
"Hello?" a high-pitched voice came over the line, that Henry immediatly recognised as Rika's grandmother. Good enough for him.
"Uh... yes... um.." Henry started, feeling his finger twisting around the phone-cord in nervousness. That always happened when he called Rika's house. Talking to her or not.
"Oh you must be calling for Rika... I'm sorry she's not home at the moment."
"I know she's not. Uh, I'm supposed to call you and say she won't be home until... later..."
Silence a moment on the other end. "And you want me to tell Renamon."
Henry paused, not sure what to say, but he managed to squeek something out.
"You.. know Renamon?"
Rika's grandmother laughed, and suddenly he recognised where Rika got her laugh from.
"Ey, I see my granddaughter didn't tell you."
"No Ma'am." Henry said a bit slowly, peering into the other room at Rika who was currently being shown how you dress 'Miss Pretty Pants' correctly.
"Well bring her back whenever you can. I'm sure she's in good hands."
Henry couldn't help but smile at the remark, still watching Rika as Suzy handed the doll to her giving the impression it was Rika's turn. "Yes.. Ma'am."
"I'll tell Renamon."
"Thank you Ma'am."
"Good-bye."
"Bye."
Henry hung up the phone and smirked at Rika in the other room, now laughing right along with his baby sister over something that wouldn't be funny to her at all before.
He leaned against the wall, just watching the two for what seemed to him like forever, until Rika looked up at him with sparkling lilac eyes, while in the middle of moving a game-piece on the game that Suzy dragged out.
She blushed a bit and smiled, realising he'd been watching her.
He just smiled back and Rika went back to the game, glancing over at him now and then.
Henry gave a dreamy sigh.
"And now, my life is perfect." he said just under his breath.
~
The small pink electronic Power Puff Girls clock sitting on Suzy's white wicker dresser shown the numbers 10:30 on it, and Suzy turned in her bed to stare in the dark at it. She couldn't sleep, even though Rika herself had put her to bed a little while before, but even that didn't work.
Suzy held her little stuffed fluffy cat close to her chest as she slid out of her bed and walked down the hall in her soft pink pajamas.
She rubbed her eye with her fist and stood in the doorway to the living room. The lights were all off and Rika and Henry sat, Henry's arm around Rika, on the couch watching the TV.
Suzy caught Rika's eye and she turned her head towards her.
"Hey Suzy... what's wrong?"
"I couldn't sleep." Suzy said, a bit of drain in her voice.
"Awwl..." Rika said sympotheticly. "Com'ere baby." she held one arm out, motioning for Suzy to curl up next to her.
Henry just gave Rika a weird look, but didn't mind. He was on the other side of Rika so Suzy wouldn't bother him.climbed up onto the couch and sunk in against Rika's body. She curled into almost like a ball from Rika's legs being in front of her, and it made her feel safe for once since all the attacks on the city occured.
She heard Henry and Rika's whispers about her clearly, but pretended not to hear.
"Don't you think she's a little young to see this movie?" Henry whispered to Rika.
Rika leaned towards him a bit, as not to disturb Suzy, and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry. She'll fall asleep soon anyways."
And Rika was right, for soon enough Suzy was fast asleep against Rika's side, fluffy stuffed white cat in her arms.
Henry smiled at the small girl, but soon realised he was the only one awake.
He felt Rika suddenly lean further against him, and he smiled at the blank look on her face.
He softly stroked her hair and smiled again. "My poor babies." he almost laughed.
Terriermon stretched a bit from falling asleep against Renamon in the large leather chair, but fell right back to sleep in her lap again, Renamon fast asleep herself against the edge of it.
Henry chuckled to himself at the scene of the two digimon. Rika had brought up the week before that if two tamers fell in love, and were destined to be together, that most likely the digimon would have to be together too.
He chuckled yet again at the thought. The small rabbit-like digimon asleep against the huge fox-like digimon, that almost twice as tall as Takato.
Henry just shook his head. "They'll figure something out." he said a bit to himself.
"Hmm?" he heard out of Rika who appeared to be half-awake.
"Nothing, go back to sleep."
In no time at all he felt her almost dead-weight against him as she drifted back to sleep.
~
Rika woke up to a bright light hitting her face, and she sat up and yawned, looked to her right at the small girl on her thigh and to her right at the boy holding her in his arms.
She kissed his cheek and brushed his hair with her fingers, only to hear a loud sound of a throat being cleared.
She whirled around to see Mr. Wong standing in the doorway.
A horrified look crossed her face, and he smiled.
"Rika... Rika Nonaka... the model's daughter, right?" he asked, running his thumb across his navy blue coffee cup.
Rika nodded slowly. "Yes... sir..."
He smiled again. "You.. like my son?"
"Yes sir..."
"Love him even?"
Rika hesitated a moment, not sure what he was getting at, but nodded anyways.
"Good." with that Henry's father vanished behind the wall that separated the living room from the hall.
Rika looked around, and looked over at the chair that Renamon and Terriermon had been asleep on earlier that morning when she woke up at around two.
There was nobody there.
She sat up abruptly, stirring the boy from his sleep.
He sat up beside her and smiled, leaning to kiss her good-morning, but she just stared at the chair.
He followed her gaze over, and was shocked to see that not only Renamon had left, but Terriermon also.
"But... where--?"
~