Author's Note: I FINALLY have all (well... 98%) the tamers songs... Japanese and all for all who are actually clueless about this. So now I'll REALLY be in character with this story... happy.. fun... and... joy.
Sorry it took me so long to update guys... I had absolutely no inspiration whatsoever as to what to put in this chapter. I know the basic story of my life, but I'd rather stray from that for awhile and make it all happy and tamerized. I'm glad y'all finally figured out the Icedevimon situation. This chapter should confuse people a bit, but if you start to read "Sky of Dreams", you might understand it. (Although the chapter in that story that connects to this one hasn't really been posted yet, but the basic idea of a human Icedevimon makes sense if you read it.)
So, enjoy, and thank you for being so patient with me.
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Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
I'm drivin' by your house
Though I know you're not at home
But I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got your hair combed back and your sunglasses on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
I never will forget those nights
I wonder if it was a dream
Remember how you made me crazy?
Remember how I made you scream
Now I don't understand what happened to our love
But babe, I'm gonna get you back
I'm gonna show you what I'm made of
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
I see you walkin' real slow and you're smilin' at everyone
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice Inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back."
I thought I knew what love was
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but-
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got that top pulled down and that radio on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
----- Boys of Summer - DJ Sammy -----
Well there went that idea. He wasn't sure if he should talk Rika into actually going to the dance now, or if he should let her get her rest. Every single one of the tamers were at the dance waiting for them, and he knew in the back of his head that more rumors about his and Rika's 'romance' would surface if they didn't show up.
Henry looked back to the auburn haired girl, staring stubbornly into the blazing fire in the fireplace, blankets draped around her by Henry. She hadn't stopped staring at the fire for about an hour. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to piece together the events of the last couple of days. They both had already gotten the idea now that it was in fact Icedevimon, or someone like that, who was trying to hunt down Rika so badly, but neither could really figure out why. Henry knew Rika was holding some information back from him, as she had explained what she had felt and seen. Just felt and seen. Not heard. He asked her about it, and she retaliated in her normal Rika fashion.
"You're saying you don't believe me?!" she had shot at him quickly.
"N-no I wasn't saying that at all-- I just want all the sides of the story and I was just mak--"
"So you think--" she started up again, and Henry's two fingers hit her lips and her stubborn look faded slightly.
"I'm trying to keep you safe." Henry had corrected her, pulling a thick blanket up around her shoulders and smiling at her warmly. "That's all."
He had stood and walked out of the room, and there ended the conversation.
She didn't realise he was standing in the doorway watching her at the current moment. His straying thoughts came back to reality as he heard her mumbling something under her breath for the first time in thirty minutes.
"Renamon... you helped me through this before... how am I supposed to get past this one without you here?" she repeated over, this time loud enough for Henry to make out the words.
His mouth opened, but he quickly willed himself not to speak as she continued on, this time changing the words of her sentance into something else.
She sounded like she was at a gravestone talking to a long past relative, and even looked the part as the cold-hearted girl broke down into tears at explaining the helpless situation to her digimon that wasn't there for her to hear the words.
Henry being so caught up in Rika's words didn't notice the latest addition into the Nonaka household sitting at his feet expecting attention from him.
"Rrowr?" it asked in a loud voice that caused Rika to sit upright, her hair bouncing slightly from her quick move, and a slight gasp escaping her lips.
Keeping his cool, Henry bent down and picked up the gray colored cat, and looked Rika's way.
"How long have you been standing there?!" she snapped, with just the hint of fear in her voice.
Even from where she sat she could hear the cat purring as Henry stroked it's head, then sat it back on the floor and used his foot to push the cat gently back into the hallway and on it's way to find Suzy to play with.
"Long enough." he said with a slight laugh in his voice at her uncomfortable look.
He took a few steps into the room, studying her body language to see if he would get killed if he proceeded any further, but she sat still, almost expecting him to sit down beside her to 'talk' about it.
And he did, sitting down smack against her like he normally did when picking up a vibe from someone that they were afraid. He stretched his arm across the top of the couch, and looked straight into her eyes.
"You want me to start talking?"
"It's why I sat down, isn't it?" Henry asked with a bit of humor echoing in his voice, which caused one of Rika's half-smirk-half-smiles.
She turned her eyes back to the fire raging on in the fireplace, the only source of light in the room at the moment, and slowly started explaining this emotion called fear, something she had never really felt before.
She leaned forward on the couch so that her elbows were on her knees and her chin was in her hands as she went farther and farther into the story, and yet the entire time, even thought most of the story was repetitive and was stuttered through, Henry listened intently.
"The only time I ever felt something like this was--" her voice trailed off, and Henry swore her eyes began to overflow with tears.
"Go on.." Henry put his hand on her back and slowly started moving up and down it, a silent motion for her to continue even after his words.
She took a staggering breath. "-- when Dad decided he wanted to see me."
There was a moment of silence before she continued on, as she pieced together her words carefully. She felt Henry's hand rub a bit harder than before, so that now she could actually feel it instead of faintly feeling the blanket move.
"I had no idea what he looked like, what he sounded like. My father has a fiancé now." she cut off into an entirely differant subject, and now even sounded angry.
"And they already have a kid. He's five now, named Joshua. They call 'im Josh."
Henry couldn't help but smile as he saw her slowly open up, and become comfortable with telling him all these little details about her life. He knew that Jeri probably didn't even know most of this stuff, and definately didn't know about the half-brother. Rika leaned back into the couch again, another sign that she was becoming more comfortable with her current surroundings. Henry pulled his arm out from behind her and instead draped it over her shoulders as she still went on, about everything from how she hated her future stepmother to how much she really did look like her mother in comparison to her father.
They talked for another whole hour, the only sound cutting off their conversation being the grandfather clock in the hallway loudly bellowing it's notes out, sounding the time of 11 o'clock.
It took a bit of work, but both managed to summon the energy to stand up from the couch and turn to one another.
"Go get some sleep, I have to go check on Suzy and make sure she's still not up, waiting for Santa and all."
Rika let off a smile and nodded. "Alright, goodnight then. Wake me up tomorrow morning." she said almost with a laugh as she turned and headed for her room.
"Don't worry.." Henry turned and started walking in the opposite direction. "Suzy will wake us both up to open presents."
Rika laughed and reached the doorway leading to the hallway about the same moment Henry did the same on the opposing wall. Rika fingered the edge of the doorway a moment, figuring Henry was already gone down the hall, but her voice called up anyways.
"Henry?"
"Yes?"
She turned around to see Henry had also stopped completly in the other doorway, and was turned just enough for their eyes to meet.
"I don't want to be alone anymore." she said almost under her breath, and even though Henry couldn't hear her, the look across her face was enough to pull him back into the room and towards her.
"I already told you.. I'm not leaving." Henry stated simply, not even realised he actually answered her remark.
He stood in front of her and gently put his hand under her chin, placed a small kiss on her lips, smiled, and went to turn around again until Rika grabbed his arm.
"Come out here with me." she pulled on his arm sharply, and moved her own body towards the doorway she was going out before. It led to the open hallway, which also led outside, and Henry figured that's where she wanted him to go. Both were still dressed warmly for the night, so he didn't see the harm in it.
Snatching both their coats from beside the door, they headed outside into the crisp night air. It was still snowing outside as Rika continued to pull Henry towards the small bridge over the now iced-over pond. The snow was seeming to drift off however, as the moon cut through the clouds, shining a bit of blueish-silver light on the two, now caught up in a fit of giggles at Rika about tripping over the bridge in her process of walking onto it. Both reached the top of the bridge at about the same time, and were able to get out one last breath of air before the cold overtook them and they were almost completly glued to one another for warmth. This time Rika didn't want to pry herself away from him, this was a different type of warmth she was feeling being caught up in his arms. Henry placed another kiss on her lips, this time longer than the previous one, and ran the back of his hand across her cheek.
"This is probably the best Christmas present I could ask for." he whispered, a smile flashing across his face.
"Just shut up and kiss me again." Rika said in her old temper-filled tone, trying to force anger in her eyes, but failed miserably.
Henry just laughed and pulled her into another kiss, this time not planning on letting go for a good while, and neither did Rika.
In the lighted window of the house, neither teen noticed a small face peering out at them, a wide smile plastered there. She was good, probably should be called "Cupid's little helper". After all that work, there was her big brother and probably soon to be big sister, kissing like she saw in all the movies on TV. She had to admit in the back of her mind, she was thinking it was gross, but cute none the less. Even from this far away she could hear them both giggling once the kiss was seperated. They looked EXACTLY like in the movies now that she thought about it. Henry had given Rika a quick spin and kissed her again after Rika had said something to him, and both giggled once more. Suzy couldn't help but let a giggle of her own escape her lips, but let out a small shriek when two arms picked her up and started carrying her back to the bedroom she slept in.
"Let me go let me go!" she squirmed.
"That's enough spying for you, young lady." Rika's grandmother's voice said sturnly as she dropped the girl off in the dark bedroom. "Get some sleep, you need to be awake for Christmas morning."
One thing was for sure, the longer they sat out on the wooden porch, the colder it got. Maybe it was common logic, the later at night it got, the colder it got, but it wasn't like the weather in the city of Shinjuku to drop a full thirty degrees in half an hour.
It was happening again. He was after her again.
With that thought flashing through Henry's mind, he stood upright from the step, pulling a shivering Rika up beside him and pulling her as close as possible to his body.
"Y-you feel it t-too, d-don't you?" Rika's body shook from the cold, causing her to stutter her words.
Henry just nodded, and ran his hand up and down her arm quickly, trying to keep the girl as warm as possible. He'd take her back inside, but he knew in the back of his mind that creature was near them, and if he ran into that room, both of them would be cornered and there would be no hope of escape. At least in the backyard they had some options.
A blueish fog was starting to form at the edge of the property, and seemed to be growing larger and larger, coming right towards the two.
"What the---" Henry said out loud, and the fog stopped dead in it's tracks for a few seconds, then slowly proceeded forward.
That's what confused Henry about this entire situation. As soon as he had entered the room before, the creature fled, and now when he spoke, the fog froze in it's place, afraid to go on.
"This is when I wish I had the talent of an auctioneer.." he said aloud again, and once more, the fog stopped, this time the edge of it at the base of the stairs, Henry and Rika now pressed against the back wall of the porch.
The center of the fog slowly lifted, leaving just the edges in a sort of semi-circle, making it impossible to see where the exits were, and also impossible to see anything that was inside the circle of fog.
There won't be any witnesses, Henry thought to himself as he watched the course of events unfold before his eyes.
The situation was hopeless. They didn't have the digimon to save them this time, and he was pretty sure this thing was a digimon out to kill him and Rika, Rika especially. He looked towards the door leading into the house quickly, and back at the figure of a man taking shape in the small bit of silver fog left in the middle of the circle. He could get Rika out of here before it was too late, but only Rika. What was he saying, Rika was all that mattered right now anyways.
"Rika. Run into the house. Get out of here, I'll handle him." he said suddenly, eyes narrowing at the creature in front of him, now clearly seen to be the exact thing he had encountered that night in Rika's room.
"W-what?! You're kidding me!! You can't handle him-- Henry you'll be killed." How many times would she have to say that before these guys would stop risking their lives for her? As the words had left her mouth, she was already getting images of the D-Reaper and Ryo waiting impatiently for her to transfer Sakuyamon's energy his way. This time Henry Wong was already pushing her towards the only exit in the entire area, and staring down the creature who would most likely cause the end of his life. He seemed to be fearless as he kissed her quickly, mumbled an "I love you, Rika", and shoved her towards the door. Jumping off the stairs he made his way towards the creature, already asking pointless questions in order to buy Rika some time.
Without another thought, the girl ran. This was so unlike her.. why wasn't she staying behind to fight? She could do *something*, couldn't she?! This was the boy-- the boy she had fallen in love with. He was going to die in order for her to live. She ran through the house faster, and out the front door, and raced down the street in some random direction. At first she was running to run, until she realised subconciously, she was getting help. She took the streets that were suddenly getting more and more famillier to her.
She found herself taking a sharp right turn and stopping in front of a tall apartment building, and racing into an elevator. It didn't seem to move fast enough for her, but she readied herself anyways for when the doors opened on the fourth floor, and she would take off down the hall, to apartment number 27, into the house of the Wongs.
She banged loudly on the door, and leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hall, panting for breath. It had taken her almost five minutes of straight running just to get to the elevator, and another five minutes just to find the apartment number in the dark. Ten minutes... Henry could be dead al-- no. She wasn't going to start thinking like that.
Janyuu Wong slowly opened the door, and blinked at the girl standing there, sweatdrops pouring down her forehead as she struggled for words.
"Henry... he's in trouble."
"I know." Janyuu straightened himself out and gave a grave look at her. "It's why we sent him and Suzy out, I see he found you."
"Look, Mr. Wong." Rika caught the last of the breath she needed and stood up straight also, growing very impatient. "I love Henry."
Janyuu's eyebrow rose at her words.
"I am not about to stand around here and do nothing. If you can help me, say so. I'm not about to lose him because of you." she snapped viciously at him.
Janyuu stood silent for a moment. He and his wife had sent them out of the house in order to protect them. He had already known from a side project he was doing that something was cutting through the layers reality, towards the tamers. He knew that one or more of them could die unless he could band them all together somehow, and he also knew that Henry would somehow take refuge with one of these tamers if he and his sister were left to their own devices. Little did he know that Rika would become the target of this digimon that cut through to the real world, and he was sending his son into a death trap.
"I can't help you."
Rika's heart sank farther than it had ever gone, even farther than it had when Renamon left her on this hell of a world.
Now what was she going to do? There was really only one more thing she could do in her opinion.
Go back.
She couldn't bare to think of a life without Henry anymore, so why even bother. If there was indeed a heaven, or afterlife of some kind, she'd be there with him forever. She liked that thought better than to know she'd have to 'go on'. Without another word, she raced off towards the elevator again.
"I've asked you this once, I'll ask you again." Henry circled around the blue-tinted human once more, keeping just enough distance from him that he couldn't get attacked too easily.
"Who are you, what are you, and what do you want with Rika?"
The man snarled at him, and flipped a piece of snow-white hair out of his face, glaring at the boy. "Master Brede Darcio." was his only responce to the entire line of questions. "And you know what I am. I can see the fear in your eyes, the fear of death."
"The only fear I've had this entire night is that Rika would get hurt, and I don't have to worry about that anymore." Henry responded cooly.
"Is that so, child? Well, what is she to do when I have destroyed you and there is no-one left to protect her?"
"How are you so sure you're going to destroy me?" Henry challenged, although in the back of his mind, wondering what the heck he was getting himself into.
Brede waved one hand, and Henry felt something like an enormous truck hit his chest, and he went stumbling backwards, and with a thud, collided with the brick wall with a bit more force than he thought. He slumped down into the grass, half unconcious by that one blow.
"And that's just the beginning." Brede taunted, walking closer to the boy, a small ball of spinning white light growing larger in his one hand.
He lifted his hand up once towering over the boy, and seemed as if he was about to slam it into Henry's stomach, and Henry closed his eyes, knowing that was it. He was going to die. All he had ever lived for, all his goals and dreams, gone.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
Brede spun around, coming face to face with thousands of glowing white crystals, that soon cut through his body, and sent him tumbling backwards much like Henry had, and Henry barely got out of the way as Brede collasped onto the ground.
Henry looked towards the other end of the property just as the graceful yellow fox hit the ground again, and looked his way. Behind her stood a female figure, her long hair waving in the wind that had kicked up from the fog vanishing around them. He couldn't see much of her, but for some reason even through the darkness he could see a pair of sturn violet eyes watching him intently.
"Rika?" he asked weakly, just as he heard the iron fence at the front of the house open. The other two seemed to hear it to, for a voice identical to Rika's called out Renamon's name, and with that the digimon vanished into thin air. The fog had almost completly lifted now, and the moonlight was finally allowed to enter the area. Before the door to the porch opened up, Henry caught a glimsp of the mystery girl again, this time in the light. He couldn't see much of her face even with the moonlight, but he did see the dark blueish colored hair sparkling as the wind ran through it. She fixed her deep violet eyes on him again, and with a sharp beep which he soon realised was a digivice much like the ones they had used, she was gone.
Rika ran into the backyard, and Brede slowly awoke, and seeing the position he was in, vanished into thin air like the girl had.
Henry still looked in the area the blue-haired girl had been standing in, blinking in astonishment at what he had seen. That had been the same Renamon he had known, that was for sure, but-- that girl--
Rika almost skidded the rest of the way towards him on her knees, and soon was cradling the boy in her arms, sobbing words that he couldn't understand.
"I'm okay, Rika." he attempted comforting her.
"I'm okay."
The bell from the church down the road rang out loudly, over and over again. It sang a joyful melody, seeming to fit the moment in Rika's mind, and then it started it's dings and dongs, giving the proper hour.
Once... twice... three times... four times... all the way to twelve times, signaling to the two tamers it was in fact, now Christmas day.
Henry sat up a bit more, and teasingly put a kiss on her cheek and grinned. "Merry Christmas, Rika."
"Shut up and let's just get to bed already." Rika shot at him, seeing he was in fact, just fine and completly alive except for a few bruises on his arm. Henry stood up, and offered his hand down to the girl, pulling her up beside him and meeting his forehead to hers. He grinned childishly again and kissed her.
"As you wish."
Rika couldn't help but give a small smile as they walked back to the house, not noticing the creature in the large tree not too far from where they had been sitting.
"Merry Christmas, Rika." Renamon repeated Henry's words, and took a staggering breath.
"Renamon? We're due back to the base..." the girl on the other side of the tall brick fence called out loud enough for only Renamon to hear. "... an hour ago. No wonder this thing keeps beeping at me." she said in a disgusted voice, and Renamon hopped down from the tree, landing beside her.
"You sound like your mother."
The girl gave a stubborn snort and pushed back a piece of her dark blue hair behind her ear, letting one of her curls loose into her face. She fixed her eyes back on Renamon. "Well you can stay here you know. That Drake dude said you didn't have to come back with me."
"You're my tamer now, Carmina."
Enough of an answer for the semi-wise semi-stubborn girl, as she shrugged and pressed the button on her silver colored digivice, sending a bright light in between the two, and they both vanished from sight again, this time not to come back.
----
Author's Note: *looks at all the little lost people* Hahaha now you have to read "Sky of Dreams" to find out who the heck the girl is and why the heck she saved Henry, how she did it, and why Renamon's her digimon. I love my job. Although fair warning: You're only going to find out about the Guilmon side of the story until I get up the next chapter explaining who Carmina is. And no, this isn't the end of this story, I still got Christmas Day to create, right?
Now we get to be all cute and lovey and have Jeri about kill Rika for not showing up at the dance. Yay!
Sorry it took me so long to update guys... I had absolutely no inspiration whatsoever as to what to put in this chapter. I know the basic story of my life, but I'd rather stray from that for awhile and make it all happy and tamerized. I'm glad y'all finally figured out the Icedevimon situation. This chapter should confuse people a bit, but if you start to read "Sky of Dreams", you might understand it. (Although the chapter in that story that connects to this one hasn't really been posted yet, but the basic idea of a human Icedevimon makes sense if you read it.)
So, enjoy, and thank you for being so patient with me.
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Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
I'm drivin' by your house
Though I know you're not at home
But I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got your hair combed back and your sunglasses on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
I never will forget those nights
I wonder if it was a dream
Remember how you made me crazy?
Remember how I made you scream
Now I don't understand what happened to our love
But babe, I'm gonna get you back
I'm gonna show you what I'm made of
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
I see you walkin' real slow and you're smilin' at everyone
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice Inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back."
I thought I knew what love was
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but-
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got that top pulled down and that radio on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
----- Boys of Summer - DJ Sammy -----
Well there went that idea. He wasn't sure if he should talk Rika into actually going to the dance now, or if he should let her get her rest. Every single one of the tamers were at the dance waiting for them, and he knew in the back of his head that more rumors about his and Rika's 'romance' would surface if they didn't show up.
Henry looked back to the auburn haired girl, staring stubbornly into the blazing fire in the fireplace, blankets draped around her by Henry. She hadn't stopped staring at the fire for about an hour. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to piece together the events of the last couple of days. They both had already gotten the idea now that it was in fact Icedevimon, or someone like that, who was trying to hunt down Rika so badly, but neither could really figure out why. Henry knew Rika was holding some information back from him, as she had explained what she had felt and seen. Just felt and seen. Not heard. He asked her about it, and she retaliated in her normal Rika fashion.
"You're saying you don't believe me?!" she had shot at him quickly.
"N-no I wasn't saying that at all-- I just want all the sides of the story and I was just mak--"
"So you think--" she started up again, and Henry's two fingers hit her lips and her stubborn look faded slightly.
"I'm trying to keep you safe." Henry had corrected her, pulling a thick blanket up around her shoulders and smiling at her warmly. "That's all."
He had stood and walked out of the room, and there ended the conversation.
She didn't realise he was standing in the doorway watching her at the current moment. His straying thoughts came back to reality as he heard her mumbling something under her breath for the first time in thirty minutes.
"Renamon... you helped me through this before... how am I supposed to get past this one without you here?" she repeated over, this time loud enough for Henry to make out the words.
His mouth opened, but he quickly willed himself not to speak as she continued on, this time changing the words of her sentance into something else.
She sounded like she was at a gravestone talking to a long past relative, and even looked the part as the cold-hearted girl broke down into tears at explaining the helpless situation to her digimon that wasn't there for her to hear the words.
Henry being so caught up in Rika's words didn't notice the latest addition into the Nonaka household sitting at his feet expecting attention from him.
"Rrowr?" it asked in a loud voice that caused Rika to sit upright, her hair bouncing slightly from her quick move, and a slight gasp escaping her lips.
Keeping his cool, Henry bent down and picked up the gray colored cat, and looked Rika's way.
"How long have you been standing there?!" she snapped, with just the hint of fear in her voice.
Even from where she sat she could hear the cat purring as Henry stroked it's head, then sat it back on the floor and used his foot to push the cat gently back into the hallway and on it's way to find Suzy to play with.
"Long enough." he said with a slight laugh in his voice at her uncomfortable look.
He took a few steps into the room, studying her body language to see if he would get killed if he proceeded any further, but she sat still, almost expecting him to sit down beside her to 'talk' about it.
And he did, sitting down smack against her like he normally did when picking up a vibe from someone that they were afraid. He stretched his arm across the top of the couch, and looked straight into her eyes.
"You want me to start talking?"
"It's why I sat down, isn't it?" Henry asked with a bit of humor echoing in his voice, which caused one of Rika's half-smirk-half-smiles.
She turned her eyes back to the fire raging on in the fireplace, the only source of light in the room at the moment, and slowly started explaining this emotion called fear, something she had never really felt before.
She leaned forward on the couch so that her elbows were on her knees and her chin was in her hands as she went farther and farther into the story, and yet the entire time, even thought most of the story was repetitive and was stuttered through, Henry listened intently.
"The only time I ever felt something like this was--" her voice trailed off, and Henry swore her eyes began to overflow with tears.
"Go on.." Henry put his hand on her back and slowly started moving up and down it, a silent motion for her to continue even after his words.
She took a staggering breath. "-- when Dad decided he wanted to see me."
There was a moment of silence before she continued on, as she pieced together her words carefully. She felt Henry's hand rub a bit harder than before, so that now she could actually feel it instead of faintly feeling the blanket move.
"I had no idea what he looked like, what he sounded like. My father has a fiancé now." she cut off into an entirely differant subject, and now even sounded angry.
"And they already have a kid. He's five now, named Joshua. They call 'im Josh."
Henry couldn't help but smile as he saw her slowly open up, and become comfortable with telling him all these little details about her life. He knew that Jeri probably didn't even know most of this stuff, and definately didn't know about the half-brother. Rika leaned back into the couch again, another sign that she was becoming more comfortable with her current surroundings. Henry pulled his arm out from behind her and instead draped it over her shoulders as she still went on, about everything from how she hated her future stepmother to how much she really did look like her mother in comparison to her father.
They talked for another whole hour, the only sound cutting off their conversation being the grandfather clock in the hallway loudly bellowing it's notes out, sounding the time of 11 o'clock.
It took a bit of work, but both managed to summon the energy to stand up from the couch and turn to one another.
"Go get some sleep, I have to go check on Suzy and make sure she's still not up, waiting for Santa and all."
Rika let off a smile and nodded. "Alright, goodnight then. Wake me up tomorrow morning." she said almost with a laugh as she turned and headed for her room.
"Don't worry.." Henry turned and started walking in the opposite direction. "Suzy will wake us both up to open presents."
Rika laughed and reached the doorway leading to the hallway about the same moment Henry did the same on the opposing wall. Rika fingered the edge of the doorway a moment, figuring Henry was already gone down the hall, but her voice called up anyways.
"Henry?"
"Yes?"
She turned around to see Henry had also stopped completly in the other doorway, and was turned just enough for their eyes to meet.
"I don't want to be alone anymore." she said almost under her breath, and even though Henry couldn't hear her, the look across her face was enough to pull him back into the room and towards her.
"I already told you.. I'm not leaving." Henry stated simply, not even realised he actually answered her remark.
He stood in front of her and gently put his hand under her chin, placed a small kiss on her lips, smiled, and went to turn around again until Rika grabbed his arm.
"Come out here with me." she pulled on his arm sharply, and moved her own body towards the doorway she was going out before. It led to the open hallway, which also led outside, and Henry figured that's where she wanted him to go. Both were still dressed warmly for the night, so he didn't see the harm in it.
Snatching both their coats from beside the door, they headed outside into the crisp night air. It was still snowing outside as Rika continued to pull Henry towards the small bridge over the now iced-over pond. The snow was seeming to drift off however, as the moon cut through the clouds, shining a bit of blueish-silver light on the two, now caught up in a fit of giggles at Rika about tripping over the bridge in her process of walking onto it. Both reached the top of the bridge at about the same time, and were able to get out one last breath of air before the cold overtook them and they were almost completly glued to one another for warmth. This time Rika didn't want to pry herself away from him, this was a different type of warmth she was feeling being caught up in his arms. Henry placed another kiss on her lips, this time longer than the previous one, and ran the back of his hand across her cheek.
"This is probably the best Christmas present I could ask for." he whispered, a smile flashing across his face.
"Just shut up and kiss me again." Rika said in her old temper-filled tone, trying to force anger in her eyes, but failed miserably.
Henry just laughed and pulled her into another kiss, this time not planning on letting go for a good while, and neither did Rika.
In the lighted window of the house, neither teen noticed a small face peering out at them, a wide smile plastered there. She was good, probably should be called "Cupid's little helper". After all that work, there was her big brother and probably soon to be big sister, kissing like she saw in all the movies on TV. She had to admit in the back of her mind, she was thinking it was gross, but cute none the less. Even from this far away she could hear them both giggling once the kiss was seperated. They looked EXACTLY like in the movies now that she thought about it. Henry had given Rika a quick spin and kissed her again after Rika had said something to him, and both giggled once more. Suzy couldn't help but let a giggle of her own escape her lips, but let out a small shriek when two arms picked her up and started carrying her back to the bedroom she slept in.
"Let me go let me go!" she squirmed.
"That's enough spying for you, young lady." Rika's grandmother's voice said sturnly as she dropped the girl off in the dark bedroom. "Get some sleep, you need to be awake for Christmas morning."
One thing was for sure, the longer they sat out on the wooden porch, the colder it got. Maybe it was common logic, the later at night it got, the colder it got, but it wasn't like the weather in the city of Shinjuku to drop a full thirty degrees in half an hour.
It was happening again. He was after her again.
With that thought flashing through Henry's mind, he stood upright from the step, pulling a shivering Rika up beside him and pulling her as close as possible to his body.
"Y-you feel it t-too, d-don't you?" Rika's body shook from the cold, causing her to stutter her words.
Henry just nodded, and ran his hand up and down her arm quickly, trying to keep the girl as warm as possible. He'd take her back inside, but he knew in the back of his mind that creature was near them, and if he ran into that room, both of them would be cornered and there would be no hope of escape. At least in the backyard they had some options.
A blueish fog was starting to form at the edge of the property, and seemed to be growing larger and larger, coming right towards the two.
"What the---" Henry said out loud, and the fog stopped dead in it's tracks for a few seconds, then slowly proceeded forward.
That's what confused Henry about this entire situation. As soon as he had entered the room before, the creature fled, and now when he spoke, the fog froze in it's place, afraid to go on.
"This is when I wish I had the talent of an auctioneer.." he said aloud again, and once more, the fog stopped, this time the edge of it at the base of the stairs, Henry and Rika now pressed against the back wall of the porch.
The center of the fog slowly lifted, leaving just the edges in a sort of semi-circle, making it impossible to see where the exits were, and also impossible to see anything that was inside the circle of fog.
There won't be any witnesses, Henry thought to himself as he watched the course of events unfold before his eyes.
The situation was hopeless. They didn't have the digimon to save them this time, and he was pretty sure this thing was a digimon out to kill him and Rika, Rika especially. He looked towards the door leading into the house quickly, and back at the figure of a man taking shape in the small bit of silver fog left in the middle of the circle. He could get Rika out of here before it was too late, but only Rika. What was he saying, Rika was all that mattered right now anyways.
"Rika. Run into the house. Get out of here, I'll handle him." he said suddenly, eyes narrowing at the creature in front of him, now clearly seen to be the exact thing he had encountered that night in Rika's room.
"W-what?! You're kidding me!! You can't handle him-- Henry you'll be killed." How many times would she have to say that before these guys would stop risking their lives for her? As the words had left her mouth, she was already getting images of the D-Reaper and Ryo waiting impatiently for her to transfer Sakuyamon's energy his way. This time Henry Wong was already pushing her towards the only exit in the entire area, and staring down the creature who would most likely cause the end of his life. He seemed to be fearless as he kissed her quickly, mumbled an "I love you, Rika", and shoved her towards the door. Jumping off the stairs he made his way towards the creature, already asking pointless questions in order to buy Rika some time.
Without another thought, the girl ran. This was so unlike her.. why wasn't she staying behind to fight? She could do *something*, couldn't she?! This was the boy-- the boy she had fallen in love with. He was going to die in order for her to live. She ran through the house faster, and out the front door, and raced down the street in some random direction. At first she was running to run, until she realised subconciously, she was getting help. She took the streets that were suddenly getting more and more famillier to her.
She found herself taking a sharp right turn and stopping in front of a tall apartment building, and racing into an elevator. It didn't seem to move fast enough for her, but she readied herself anyways for when the doors opened on the fourth floor, and she would take off down the hall, to apartment number 27, into the house of the Wongs.
She banged loudly on the door, and leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hall, panting for breath. It had taken her almost five minutes of straight running just to get to the elevator, and another five minutes just to find the apartment number in the dark. Ten minutes... Henry could be dead al-- no. She wasn't going to start thinking like that.
Janyuu Wong slowly opened the door, and blinked at the girl standing there, sweatdrops pouring down her forehead as she struggled for words.
"Henry... he's in trouble."
"I know." Janyuu straightened himself out and gave a grave look at her. "It's why we sent him and Suzy out, I see he found you."
"Look, Mr. Wong." Rika caught the last of the breath she needed and stood up straight also, growing very impatient. "I love Henry."
Janyuu's eyebrow rose at her words.
"I am not about to stand around here and do nothing. If you can help me, say so. I'm not about to lose him because of you." she snapped viciously at him.
Janyuu stood silent for a moment. He and his wife had sent them out of the house in order to protect them. He had already known from a side project he was doing that something was cutting through the layers reality, towards the tamers. He knew that one or more of them could die unless he could band them all together somehow, and he also knew that Henry would somehow take refuge with one of these tamers if he and his sister were left to their own devices. Little did he know that Rika would become the target of this digimon that cut through to the real world, and he was sending his son into a death trap.
"I can't help you."
Rika's heart sank farther than it had ever gone, even farther than it had when Renamon left her on this hell of a world.
Now what was she going to do? There was really only one more thing she could do in her opinion.
Go back.
She couldn't bare to think of a life without Henry anymore, so why even bother. If there was indeed a heaven, or afterlife of some kind, she'd be there with him forever. She liked that thought better than to know she'd have to 'go on'. Without another word, she raced off towards the elevator again.
"I've asked you this once, I'll ask you again." Henry circled around the blue-tinted human once more, keeping just enough distance from him that he couldn't get attacked too easily.
"Who are you, what are you, and what do you want with Rika?"
The man snarled at him, and flipped a piece of snow-white hair out of his face, glaring at the boy. "Master Brede Darcio." was his only responce to the entire line of questions. "And you know what I am. I can see the fear in your eyes, the fear of death."
"The only fear I've had this entire night is that Rika would get hurt, and I don't have to worry about that anymore." Henry responded cooly.
"Is that so, child? Well, what is she to do when I have destroyed you and there is no-one left to protect her?"
"How are you so sure you're going to destroy me?" Henry challenged, although in the back of his mind, wondering what the heck he was getting himself into.
Brede waved one hand, and Henry felt something like an enormous truck hit his chest, and he went stumbling backwards, and with a thud, collided with the brick wall with a bit more force than he thought. He slumped down into the grass, half unconcious by that one blow.
"And that's just the beginning." Brede taunted, walking closer to the boy, a small ball of spinning white light growing larger in his one hand.
He lifted his hand up once towering over the boy, and seemed as if he was about to slam it into Henry's stomach, and Henry closed his eyes, knowing that was it. He was going to die. All he had ever lived for, all his goals and dreams, gone.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
Brede spun around, coming face to face with thousands of glowing white crystals, that soon cut through his body, and sent him tumbling backwards much like Henry had, and Henry barely got out of the way as Brede collasped onto the ground.
Henry looked towards the other end of the property just as the graceful yellow fox hit the ground again, and looked his way. Behind her stood a female figure, her long hair waving in the wind that had kicked up from the fog vanishing around them. He couldn't see much of her, but for some reason even through the darkness he could see a pair of sturn violet eyes watching him intently.
"Rika?" he asked weakly, just as he heard the iron fence at the front of the house open. The other two seemed to hear it to, for a voice identical to Rika's called out Renamon's name, and with that the digimon vanished into thin air. The fog had almost completly lifted now, and the moonlight was finally allowed to enter the area. Before the door to the porch opened up, Henry caught a glimsp of the mystery girl again, this time in the light. He couldn't see much of her face even with the moonlight, but he did see the dark blueish colored hair sparkling as the wind ran through it. She fixed her deep violet eyes on him again, and with a sharp beep which he soon realised was a digivice much like the ones they had used, she was gone.
Rika ran into the backyard, and Brede slowly awoke, and seeing the position he was in, vanished into thin air like the girl had.
Henry still looked in the area the blue-haired girl had been standing in, blinking in astonishment at what he had seen. That had been the same Renamon he had known, that was for sure, but-- that girl--
Rika almost skidded the rest of the way towards him on her knees, and soon was cradling the boy in her arms, sobbing words that he couldn't understand.
"I'm okay, Rika." he attempted comforting her.
"I'm okay."
The bell from the church down the road rang out loudly, over and over again. It sang a joyful melody, seeming to fit the moment in Rika's mind, and then it started it's dings and dongs, giving the proper hour.
Once... twice... three times... four times... all the way to twelve times, signaling to the two tamers it was in fact, now Christmas day.
Henry sat up a bit more, and teasingly put a kiss on her cheek and grinned. "Merry Christmas, Rika."
"Shut up and let's just get to bed already." Rika shot at him, seeing he was in fact, just fine and completly alive except for a few bruises on his arm. Henry stood up, and offered his hand down to the girl, pulling her up beside him and meeting his forehead to hers. He grinned childishly again and kissed her.
"As you wish."
Rika couldn't help but give a small smile as they walked back to the house, not noticing the creature in the large tree not too far from where they had been sitting.
"Merry Christmas, Rika." Renamon repeated Henry's words, and took a staggering breath.
"Renamon? We're due back to the base..." the girl on the other side of the tall brick fence called out loud enough for only Renamon to hear. "... an hour ago. No wonder this thing keeps beeping at me." she said in a disgusted voice, and Renamon hopped down from the tree, landing beside her.
"You sound like your mother."
The girl gave a stubborn snort and pushed back a piece of her dark blue hair behind her ear, letting one of her curls loose into her face. She fixed her eyes back on Renamon. "Well you can stay here you know. That Drake dude said you didn't have to come back with me."
"You're my tamer now, Carmina."
Enough of an answer for the semi-wise semi-stubborn girl, as she shrugged and pressed the button on her silver colored digivice, sending a bright light in between the two, and they both vanished from sight again, this time not to come back.
----
Author's Note: *looks at all the little lost people* Hahaha now you have to read "Sky of Dreams" to find out who the heck the girl is and why the heck she saved Henry, how she did it, and why Renamon's her digimon. I love my job. Although fair warning: You're only going to find out about the Guilmon side of the story until I get up the next chapter explaining who Carmina is. And no, this isn't the end of this story, I still got Christmas Day to create, right?
Now we get to be all cute and lovey and have Jeri about kill Rika for not showing up at the dance. Yay!
