Author's Note: Hey guys, I really need to know you people like this thing, so please review it if you do. I'd appreciate it and if I know people like it, my mind works better and I can get chapters written quicker. I'm sure other authors on ff.net can agree with that.

And for all you Rukato fans that for some odd reason are reading this story, enjoy the following Rukato-like song:


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Yes I am, I hope you think you need me, hope I start talking crazy before you understand me.
Are we through, you think that I'm beneath you, but you like the things that I do....
Wrap 'em up and take 'em with you.
I'm alright, hope I can sleep for one night. If not to cool my insides... maybe they caught my back-side.
Rain on me, I've got a weakness in me, I think that weakness feeds me. I don't think you think you need me.
Sunshine, you're the best time I ever ever had, but I think I've made you feel bad.
A black fly on your neck-tie time after time.

But when the sun starts sinkin' on your beautiful soul, make you cry cry baby make you feel so cold.
Don't you know it's alright, sometimes you've just got to show how you feel. 'Cause that's you baby, yeah you're so real.

Run this 'round in your head like you don't know what's on the inside. You don't know me too well, you ain't seen my bad side. Shame on me, shame on the things that I'd be, If you could complicate me, if you could get inside me.
Sometimes you're the best time I've ever ever known, a pretty girl with a wicked smile on.
But I've cried for the last time, somethin' just don't feel right.

But when the sun starts sinkin' on your beautiful soul, make you cry cry baby make you feel so cold.
Don't you know it's alright, sometimes you've just got to show how you feel. 'Cause that's you baby, yeah you're so real.

You always know just who you are. You never needed someone else to realise yourself..

How when the sun starts sinkin' on your beautiful soul, make you cry cry baby make you feel so cold.
Don't you know it's alright, sometimes you've just got to show how you feel. 'Cause that's you baby, yeah you're so real.
Yeah baby you're so real.
Yeah baby you're so real, so real, so real.
Oh..

----- Real - Matchbox Twenty ----


Morning had come quicker than they had expected with the midnight visit by Suzy. Henry squinted from the sudden burst of light that hit his face as he woke up, but as his eyes adjusted from night to day, he found that curled against his chest was his younger sister taking deep calm breaths in her sleep, but not much farther than Suzy was Rika, also out cold, probably having fell asleep sitting up rocking the girl and had slumped over onto him.
"Well good morning."
Henry groaned slightly from all the weight on his chest, and sat up as best he could without waking up the other two, looking straight at Rika's mother who stood in the doorway, smiling.
"G-good morning." Henry stuttered, realising she had probably witnessed the scene of all three of them lying there.
He gently pulled himself out from under the two girls, and snatched his sweater off the floor, sliding it over his head quickly.
"Breakfast is ready, make sure to get the other two up for me." was the only thing she said as she left, almost laughing at his sudden urgancy to go back to being the proper boy he had been before. She closed the door behind her, and her footsteps faded away into silence.
Henry stood there for a few moments, running his fingers through his hair to straighten it out of it's jumbled mess, and looked down at the two girls. Rika was starting to groan quietly and move, so Henry figured her eyes would be opening up to the light soon also, which was perfectly fine with him now. Before he had dreaded having Rika take care of him and Suzy, because of that horrible temper of hers, but he couldn't figure out why she hadn't shot it off at him yet. It wasn't like Rika to be nice all the time, maybe she was capable of it at some times, but he'd never seen her like she was now. Maybe not hanging out with the rest of the tamers day in and day out was doing her some good after all, or maybe the angry thing was just an act she put on to scare Takato half out of his mind.
Rika's eyes opened slowly, and she looked down at the girl spawled across her chest, fast asleep. She sat up much like Henry had, and gingerly placed her at her side.
"Sleep well?"
Rika jumped almost two feet in the air and whirled around to look at Henry.
"Uh-- yes I did." she said quickly, a blush crawling across her face again, and flipping her fingers through her hair quickly, realising it has frizzed out a bit from her tossing and turning in her sleep before Suzy had came in.
"You look fine." Henry said quietly, then turned to walk down the hallway, towards the kitchen where the smells of breakfast were already seeping into the rest of the house. "Breakfast is ready, by the way."
"H-hey! Wait up!" Rika stuttered out, and ran up behind him as he walked briskly down the hall, a little bothered by Henry's sudden rage.
She snatched her scrunchie from the end table that sat just inside the doorway leading towards the kitchen, and pulled her hair up as she talked to him.
"I was talking to you, Henry." she said rather sharply at him, and followed him into the room.

Breakfast had been a complete disaster. Rika spent most the morning wondering why Henry had suddenly turned so sour on her, and it seemed to be able to bug her until the afternoon. He had stayed in his own angry little world most the day, which surprised even Suzy. He was normally the sweet and calm tamer who would think things through before he said them, but it was almost like after the incodent with his parents all that was wiped away and his hatred for them was starting to seep over into his other relationships. He had yelled at Suzy twice already that morning, and wouldn't look Rika in the eyes, and snapped at her more than he did anyone else. Rika just let him go, knowing how he felt a bit with the anger she had built up against her mother almost a year before still fresh in her mind. At times she just wanted people to let her have a bad day and cry herself to sleep at night, because she knew she'd wake up the next morning in a better mood if it worked out that way, so she just let him have some space.
It was more evident later in the day that he was tiring of his little game, as he soon spoke gently to his younger sister again and would look at Rika now and then, but nothing more.
It was sunset now, and Rika walked onto the porch just outside her room from the hallway in the house, and was surprised to find Henry sitting against one of the wooden poles holding the roof above the porch up, and staring off into the orange sky. He had one leg propped up by the other one, and his one arm over his knee, letting his hand dangle in midair.
It was quite easy to tell he was thinking about something, which he had been doing alot lately, but when Rika thought about it, he had done all the time, just in excessive amounts now.
He didn't even seem to notice she was there, just sighed deeply and leaned his head back even more.
He looked as if he was giving up on something, probably figuring out why all this was happening to him of all the people on earth, and a look of sorrow was filling his eyes, and Rika swore he would've come to tears right then if the floorboard hadn't creaked under her weight and his head had snapped up.
"Rika--" he said quietly as she sat down across from him, realising he had seen her.
"You okay?" Rika asked, leaning against the other post and looking his way.
Henry shrugged, and went back to staring off at nothing in particular in the sky. "I'm not exactly sure right now. Oh, and I'm sorry about earlier." he gave her a quick side glance, then looked back at the sky.
"When you yelled at me or when you almost hit me?" Rika said a bit teasingly, but noticed by the look that flashed across Henry's face that he wasn't as amused.
"Both, I guess."
Rika mentally slapped herself, and back-tracked a bit in order to try that again. Yeah, she messed that one up BIG time... she wasn't exactly the queen of tact.
"It's alright. We all have our slips." Rika shrugged and hugged her knees to her chest, placing her chin on top of them and looking straight at the boy as he sighed again and returned her glance.
"Yeah-- it's just going to take me a little longer than I thought to adjust to this."
"No-one said you had to just waltz in here and accept it all like you had lived here all your life." Rika almost snapped, and Henry couldn't help but smile at her sudden attempt at wisdom. "Your parents just ditched the two of you like you were garbage on the side of the road! You don't really need to forgive them right off.."
"I know that." Henry cut her off before she could continue.
Rika went silent, waiting for him to explain his words, and for once that day her waiting paid off. It took a few minutes, but at the sound of Suzy's laughter at a television show in the background, one tear escaped his eye and he cracked.
"Just for Suzy I'm trying to at least look like I'm staying strong." his voice cracked once or twice, and Rika could tell he was desprately trying to hold back a flood of tears. "It's hard to, though. If I try being too tough, I end up like I was this morning-- I almost hit her, again."
It took Rika a moment to register the again, but soon the flash of him almost hitting Suzy in the digital world came through her mind, and she didn't even bother trying to calm him until he was finished with that image fresh in her brain.
"What am I going to do now?" he said a bit quieter than before. "She wants to know when we can see Mom and Dad again, but not even I know that. I don't even know if they want us back there again or not.."
"Of course they'll want you back!" Rika interjected, and Henry looked up suddenly, using the back of his hand to get the few tears he had shed off his face.
"They have to.." Rika said slowly, realising the sudden remark she had made surprised the boy.
Henry sighed deeply, but never took his eyes off her. "I wish I had the faith you d--"
"I don't have faith." Rika cut him off mid-sentance. "I just.. know. I know how your parents are, they wouldn't just go and leave you stranded like that, not without good reason."
"You're contridicting yourself."
Rika held a puzzled look for a few moments at what he mumbled. "No I'm not." she said simply, the look still splashed across her face.
"You told me before to for the most part forget about my parents, and now you're defending them.." Henry stood up, and gave a small smile at her when she laughed.
Yeah, he still had to get used to her laughing. At least used to it enough that he didn't smile whenever she did it, almost as if he had accomplished some huge feat.
"Henry! Rika! Dinner!"
Both turned and looked towards the house, hearing the grandmother calling both the teenagers to the kitchen table that Suzy had already been sitting at, fingering her modeling-clay into a random digimon an hour before.
"After you.." Henry motioned towards the door that led into the house, and Rika made a face, but then walked through the door.
"Oh, and Rika--"
She stopped short of closing the door behind her, and looked back at him. "Yeah?"
"Thanks."
She paused a moment, but then smirked. "Yeah whatever." she mumbled and closed the door behind her again.

"No.. no tomorrow night's no good, Mom wants to take me and Henry to a concert."
Rika's hand flipped through the large calender hanging beside the phone, the receiver pressed against her ear by her shoulder as she continued to run her finger across the list of dates and read what was in each box.
"Err-- No, I told Suzy I'd take her to the mall on Saturday."
Rika growled under her breath, and Suzy looked up from the small leather couch, one of the newer furnishings in their house. Rika waved her confused look off, and Suzy went back to watching the cartoon on the television, flipping it back and forth between two channels, but making sure to hear Rika's conversation at the same time. She was young, but she knew how to eavesdrop on people.
"Busy Sunday too-- What do you mean I'm not spending time with you anymore?!"
Rika leaned against the doorframe, hand over her forehead as she spoke into the phone. "I know I've been spending alot of time with them lat--- it's not my fa--- Ryo!"
Suzy perked up a bit at the sudden sound of her voice turning from calm to pleading.
"Don't hang up on me-- please.." the girl walked out into the hall, and Suzy made an irritated face, standing up and looking over the top of the leather couch to where the phone cord wrapped around the doorframe. She could still hear Rika's voice in the hall, but couldn't make out a word of it.
"Suzy, what are you doing?"
Suzy quickly sank back down into the leather sofa and looked at the other doorway where her older brother stood, the book he had been reading in the study in his hand.
"Nothing." she spat out quickly, then pointed to the TV. "I'm watching B--"
Henry's hand went up for silence quickly, and Suzy blinked at him. He wasn't even paying attention to her anymore, but his eyes were turned towards the open doorway across the room where Suzy had been looking before.
Now Suzy heard it too, once she stopped and listened.
Was Rika--
Rika came back from around the corner, and she looked up having been staring at the floor before. She gave a slight gasp, and her hand shot up to her face, forming a fist and wiping away her tears quickly.
"You okay?" Henry set his book on the end table beside the sofa, and Suzy stared at it for a moment, realising which book it was. Henry never set that book down while he was the middle of reading, especially if he was carrying it around. But there it sat as he rushed by it, towards the auburn-haired girl hanging the receiver on the hook and turning to look at him.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." she responded quietly, almost like she was trying to not let Suzy hear the words she was saying.
Suzy dared not turn around and look, for fear if Henry was standing close to the girl, he'd turn red and back off. It irritated Suzy a bit to not be able to know what was going on-- and then she spotted just what she needed to see.
The decorative mirror hanging on the wall opposite where Henry and Rika stood, and in the right position that Suzy could see every movement, but completly forgot that it went the other way around too.
Henry's hands were on Rika's shoulders as she tried desprately to tell him off and wipe her tears at the same time.
"We just got into a fight-- it's no big deal." she finally forced out, looking at him, then catching the mirror in the corner of her eye, seeing Suzy grinning from ear to ear in it.
Suzy's expression changed completly though when Rika's head completly turned, and she realised that she had just been found out.
Henry's attention diverted that way also, and he sighed, slipping his hands off Rika's shoulders and walking back towards the end table, picking his book back up, and walking towards the study again.
"I'll be in here if you want to talk about it, Rika."
"Thanks." Rika said quietly, and watched him disappear through the doorway.
She walked around the couch, then sank into the cushions beside Suzy, closing her eyes and leaning her head back completly, waiting for it all to end.
"You okay, Wika?" Suzy asked, sitting up a bit more to look the girl in the face better.
Rika shook her head. "I'm not sure."
"You love Wyo, huh?" Suzy asked again, this time in a more innocent voice than before.
Rika looked down at her and smiled slightly, but didn't respond to her question, and acted as if she didn't really want to answer that.
"We had a fight Suzy, I'll be okay, I told your brother that already."
"I know. I heard." Suzy grinned at her, and Rika couldn't hold back the smile creeping across her face.
Rika rolled her eyes and stood back up, messing with the girl's hair a bit.
"Make sure you go to bed when this is over with, it's getting late."
Suzy looked at the TV screen, and looked back over at Rika, just vanishing behind the study doorway, and the door closed behind her.
Suzy grinned to herself, and went back to watching the television. It had scared her when Mommy forced them both out into the cold, but she actually liked it here better than she liked it at her own house. Since school wasn't in session, Henry and Rika were both home all the time, and Rika's mother made sure to spoil the little girl with plays and trips to the mall for new winter clothes. She could stay up as late as she wanted to, and sleep in as late as she wanted to also.
And now she even had a big sister-- kind of.
Suzy made a face at that realization hitting her. Rika and Henry didn't necessarily get along most the time, and unless they did, Rika wouldn't want to be her big sister.
In her own little-girl mind, she started to form an idea. How she would carry it out, she didn't know, but she figured she might as well try. She had seen lots of movies from the collection Rika had at her age where the boy and girl fell in love and everyone was happy all the time after it. If she could get Henry and Rika-- yeah!
Suzy snapped the TV off, and marched back to the small guest room, made up just for her, and snatched her stuffed rabbit from the table behind the couch. Rika was right, she should go get some sleep, because it was pretty late. Tomorrow she'd try out her idea, because after all, the three of them were going shopping tomorrow, according to Rika's mother. She'd have the perfect time to try and hook them together, especially since the mall looked so pretty from the Christmas decorations.
She gave a quick goodnight yell to the people in the house, and with her rabbit dragging along the floor behind her, disappeared behind the door.