Disclaimer: You know the drill. I do not own any of these characters, don't sue me because I have as much money as Bush has intelligence, yadda, yadda.
Sakura-Angel: I am not putting writing this story off! Hurrah!
Dark: For once.
Sakura-Angel: Oh hush, you. So maybe I delayed with the second chapter, but I'm not doing the same with this one! And what's with you? You're all... down. It's like you have some male version of PMS!
Dark: Right. Well, you know what? I think you'll get designer's block again, and maybe even writer's block... again.
Sakura-Angel: You know, for being my best bishie and co-introducer-commentator-whatever, you're not being very optomistic. Have a little faith, why dontcha!
Dark: Just. Start. The story.
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"REE-SAAA!"
The younger of the twins grimaced. Geez, she understood that Riku needed some help because she hadn't been out for so long, and geez, she wanted to help quash that little mistake she had made of selling the record, but GEEZ, did Riku have to be so loud about it? "Coming!"
Riku was doing one of those freak-out-get-ready-for-an-event-at-the-last-minute things. If Risa remembered correctly, Riku had told her she was going to some sort of a celebration at a radio place? She also remembered in detail that a man had invited her even though he didn't really know her, and Risa started up with that protective twin sister thing. 'Maybe he's stalking you! Maybe he's trying to get to you! You never know!' But Riku, being the good-hearted person she was, insisted that Satoshi had good intentions, if not, none at all, and continued with her freaking out about not having anything to wear.
"Risa, I'm ironing and I need you to find a bracelet to go with those earrings," Riku was bent over an ironing board, relaying her situation to her sister.
"Right, right," Risa strode towards her sister's dresser, stuffed with heaps of... stuff. "For someone who claims to not have anything to wear, you sure have a lot of clothes," Risa said upon opening one of the drawers.
"But they aren't dressy!"
"Who said you need to look formal at this thing anyway? You're not even remotely connected to these people," Risa reasoned.
"But Satoshi invited me, and I need to look nice so I don't embarass him."
Risa let out a long sigh at her sister's logic and proceeded to pull open drawers. 'Ah-ha.' she thought upon encountering the 'accesories drawer'. She picked through each item, whether it was a bracelet or not. 'Too yellow... too bulky... what's this?' "Hey sis, what's this?" Risa held up a little silver ring, different from all her sister's other rings.
She looked up and tucked her head again. "That's just something Takeshi gave me," she ran the iron over the black skirt quickly, blocking out the feeling that came with seeing the ring.
Risa's eyes widened a little. "Oh God! I'm sorry sis!" she dumped the ring back in the drawer.
Riku forced a chuckle. "It's okay."
'No, it's not,' Risa wanted to say, but she just turned around and continued rifling through the earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets. She came across a pretty, simple silver bangle. "How's about this?" she turned around, holding the bracelet with both pairs of her indexes and thumbs.
Riku glanced briefly at the earrings laying on her top. "It's perfect!" She nodded.
"Need anything else?" Risa spun in one spot like a little girl. She had never lost that charming, immature air about her.
"Um, help me look for some shoes? I'm almost done," Riku said, reffering to her skirt.
"Sure thing," Risa trotted over to her sister's closet and threw open the door. "Hm..." She opened shoebox after shoebox. Slippers, runners, strappy sandals, loafers... Siiiiiigh. 'Oh! These might work...' "Hey Riku! How about these?" she twisted her torso to get a view of her sister with the newly found sandals in her hand.
The sandals were black with a simple criss cross at the top, below where the toes would be. The crossing straps were decorated with rhinestones of some sort and had a slight heel.
Riku put away the board quickly [she had already put away the iron] and came up behind her sister. "Oh! These are perfect too!" She smiled. "You don't know how much I appreciate this, Risa," she stretched out a hand to help her sister up.
"Oh, it's no trouble," she smiled. "I haven't done something like this with you in a long time, it's nice."
The older twin nodded. After a short silence, she asked "How should I do my hair?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Risa said immediately after.
After twenty minutes or so, Riku had loose waves in her hair, a becoming look she had to admit. She had adorned her black skirt, white sleeveless top, earrings, bracelet and sandals.
"You look great!" Risa clapped her hands. "And it's seven thirty."
"I better get going then. Thanks a bunch!"
Risa nodded, letting herself out of Daisuke's apartment.
Riku grabbed her purse and followed her sister out.
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"Some champagne for you, milady," Dark gave a slight bow to Hikki, seemingly teasing her.
Hikki gave a little skeptical look at Dark's sudden manners. "Thank you," she said with a raised eyebrow, and accepted the little glass.
Dark shot a funny look right back at her. "Hey, if I've got to make something up to you, I might as well do it right."
Hikki almost had a heart attack yesterday, when Dark decided to do what he called 'freelancing'. In exchange for not killing him, Hikki accepted his offer [grudgingly] of being her date to the little banquet/celebration/excuse-to-spend-money. They had gotten there a little ahead of time, as was expected because they headed one of the most successful programs the company had ever put out.
"Mister Mousy," a cold, professional voice accompanied a small tap on the shoulder.
Dark spun around to meet a well-dressed, blue haired man. 'Ah, one of the heads.' "Mister Hikari," Dark stuck out his hand.
Satoshi shook it with an iron-clad grip. "Miss Ono," he extended his hand to Hikki.
She switched her champagne glass into her other hand and shook Satoshi's hand as well.
"It's a pleasure to hear of your success upon the opening of the station," he started out formally, "It must be due to the hard-working producer," he turned to Hikki and she smiled gratefully, "And the ever-bouyant, amiable host," he gave a single nod in Dark's direction. Dark gave a small smile at the comment.
"It is quite a feat to be able to gain such popularity so quickly. You have raked in the largest amount of listeners ever since the two of you started," Satoshi revealed the reason he was saying all this, "And that is why the heads -- myself included -- have decided to give you extra funding."
Hikki's smile lit up and Dark broke out into a grin. "That's fantastic, Mister Hikari!" Dark nodded enthusiastically.
Satoshi merely nodded back and raised a hand in farewell, "Enjoy the party," and he walked away.
Hikki turned to Dark, "This is great! I thought you ruined everything by arguing with the Rika or Riku girl, but we're getting more support from the heads!"
Dark smirked slightly, "How could I ruin anything?"
Hikki tossed him an incredulous look which seemed to say 'don't even get me started' and she grabbed his arm. "Come on, I'm getting the full treatment for putting up with you," and she dragged him off to the dancefloor after stopping to place her champagne glass on a table she decided was theirs. Dark did the same.
She continued dragging him to the dancefloor, recieving a few dangerous looks from the female crowd.
"Hikaru, Hikaru, calm down. The pianist is just playing a little piece for people gathering." he used her full name to sound authourative.
She gave him a pout. "Well, you better come flocking to me when he starts."
Dark chuckled a bit and winked. She turned a light shade of pink.
"You can count on it."
Hikki, satisfied, left his side to go chat with some of her producer friends, slowly recovering from Dark's little deep-chuckle-and-wink bit.
He watched her walk away and decided to mull around a bit. He started walking to 'their' table to retrieve his champagne, when...
"Dark!"
'CRAP.' "Hoshino-san," he forced a tight-lipped smile.
She hit his arm a bit too hard. "Oh, you're so silly! You're calling me Mikiko, remember?"
Dark started up with the walking again and replied with a half-hearted 'uh-huh'.
She stuck to him, unknowingly wanting to make him hit her, which was pretty impressive, considering Dark didn't hit girls and had never felt the need to.
"-- and then this guy requested 'Shine We Are!' and producer-guy couldn't find it and the listener got mad and so did I so I complained and daddy fired him," she smiled in what she considered a charming manner.
Hoshino -- he refused to get on familiar terms with this screaming, rabid fangirl -- headed a small station, featuring popular Japanese singers with a sort of pop sound. Her father was the manager of their little division, one of those sort-of-big-kahuna types in Tokyo, but not really anyone anywhere else. He headed five stations out of the twenty or so in Tokyo, one of which, unfortunately, was his. Which meant that his boss was her father, which meant he couldn't shake her off or be remotely rude to her. But his fuse was really starting to run short.
"Hoshino, do you know where Hikki is?" he made up an excuse, using Hikaru's nickname, nonetheless.
"Oh, why?" she let the 'Hoshino' thing slide, considering she was curious.
He was taken slightly aback, but this was Hoshino, she was kinda rude and not too forthcoming about 'sharing' him with any other girl.
"She's my date."
The girl merely blinked and processed this. "She's talking to Keiko about pieces the pianist can play," and she walked away, more than dettered.
Dark, having successfully driven her off, kept up the front and walked over to a tall plant, underneath which Hikki was standing. "Hikki!" He waved, making sure Hoshino heard.
"Dark!"
He approached her rapidly and the collar of his shirt flapped, since he had the first few buttons undone. He shifted his gaze to the full-length windows. "Hoshino's driving me crazy," he whispered hoarsely. "Help me out here."
Hikki rolled her eyes and flipped her short brown hair. "Her presence is rather grating, isn't it? I pity you, you poor, poor attractive babe magnet, you," she was tempted to tug on Dark's cheeks.
He looked at her now with both eyebrows raised and his hand curled underneath his chin with a finger laying on his cheek. "Now, do you really think that? Becaus--"
She suddenly giggled flirtatiously, complying to Dark's hidden request to make Hoshino jealous. She took advantage of the situation and leaned over to give him a peck on the cheek. If looks could kill, poor Hikki would've been lying on the floor from all the daggers being shot at her from the rest of the female population's eyes.
Dark gave no reaction - except for a sly smile, "So you do thin--"
"Get me my champagne, would you?" she turned slowly to Keiko, but whispered in Dark's ear on the rotation, "If you want her off your back, that is."
Dark got the feeling that he had been roped into something, but went to retrieve the champagne anyway. Hikki was a nice girl, after all. He walked over to the table, surprised and very relieved that an annoying co-worker hadn't jumped him yet. So he had the glass in his hand and was walking over to give his exterminator her drink when a somewhat-familiar face walked in through the doors.
'It's that girl that bumped into me on the street.'
She walked in looking a bit overwhelmed. She accepted a glass of red wine from a server and took a sip. She suddenly stuck her hand in the air and waved and went over to what must've been a friend. Dark looked over his shoulder and saw her meet up with the Hikari head, of all people.
"Hey, why are you just standing there?"
Dark whipped his head around again. Oh yeah... "Here's your drink, " and he extended the glass to Hikki, who was walking over to talk to him.
"So, I figure that a couple dances with other girls will get her to stay away from you for good, and you should probably... Dark? Are you listening to me?"
Dark was watching that girl speak to Satoshi in what seemed to be an enjoyable manner. 'How can anyone talk to Satoshi and smile so much? The guy's as frigid as ice.'
"Dark!"
He turned around abruptly, "What?"
"I was trying to help you with your little fangirl-problem, but you seem to be ogling some girl who doesn't work here!"
"I was not ogling her," he said firmly. "I was wondering how someone could talk to creepy-boy for so long and not go crazy."
"He's the same age as you. How can you call him a boy?"
"He's... he's just creepy."
Hikki sighed. "Well, back to helping you with your little problem," she paused to get his full attention. "I figure that you should just dance with some other girls to get her to stay away, you know? It's subtle, but it tells her you're not interested without being overly rude."
He nodded enthusiastically. "You're a genius!" He hugged her. "What would I do without you?"
She raised a sarcastic eyebrow and said, "Get trampled over by lusty women?"
He just gave her a little smirk and pushed on. "So, I'm your first dance?"
"You better be, after what you did yesterday."
He let out a laugh. "I wasn't that bad, was I?"
She let out a cry of indignation and hit his arm.
He merely laughed again.
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Riku looked over at the purple haired man once every sixty seconds. At least. Around his neck was a becoming necklace that complimented his white collared shirt, which was underneath a greyish purple, vertically striped shirt left open with light purple cuffs. It was also slit in the back. She noted to herself that it would've looked stupid on any other male she had ever seen before, but he had somehow managed to look devastatingly handsome in it. He also wore a pair of light grey pants and he held those pants up with a white belt. He definetely had flair. And she was inexplicably drawn to that. She was talking to Satoshi though, and she couldn't afford to be rude to him since he had invited her.
"Got your eye on someone, I see," it was most definetely Satoshi's voice.
So much for not being rude. "Um," was all she got out.
"Mister Mousy has many admirers it seems," Satoshi said, turning around while stating the obvious.
Riku had noticed the scary amount of women in the room with their eyes on the man as well and she felt very childish for staring like the whole lot of them. But that didn't mean she didn't enjoy it. "Yeah, he does, doesn't he?
Satoshi got a look on his face, one she hadn't ever seen on his face before. He wasn't very expressive. But this look... it was... akin to mischieviousness. It scared the crap out of her.
"Why don't you go talk to him?" it was very strange, seeing Satoshi slip into the position of matchmaker/confidante.
Riku's eyes grew a little wider. "He seems to be talking to that girl..."
"Oh, Miss Ono. She's just very friendly. His producer, you know."
"Oh! He hosts a station?"
"Yes. Our most successful one actually."
Riku smiled a bit. "Well, that's impressive."
A slight smirk appeared on Satoshi's face. "Yes."
"Maybe I will go talk to him."
"I wish you the best of luck, Miss Riku."
Riku walked casually over towards the attractive stranger, only to find he wasn't standing in his previous spot. Where was he? She spun in a slow circle, sweeping the place. "Oh!" She bumped into someone.
"So sorry miss," a smooth voice apologized.
"It's alright, I was ju--" she looked up. It was him.
He looked down. Ah. It was her. He replied in a mildly inquisitive voice, "You were just?"
She started blushing. She was actually going to say she was looking for him, but she had already found him. "I was just looking for you, actually," she rushed on, trying to ignore his charming eyebrow-raise-smirk combo. "I wanted to congratulate you. I was speaking to Satoshi and he told me that you've been very popular among listeners lately."
"Ah, it's not that big of a deal. All in a day's work," he gave her his lady-killer smile. She visibly blushed. "So, I haven't seen you around the station."
"Oh, I was invited by Satoshi. I'm Harada Riku." She stuck out a hand.
His eyes grew a little as he took her hand and shook it. 'Riku?' And he remembered yesterday's fiesty caller. 'Her? Maybe... but there must be a lot of Riku's in Tokyo.' "Mousy Dark."
She felt a little weird at the look on his face. He knew she was a writer, didn't he? She hoped he wouldn't do that flattering thing most people did. She didn't like being in the limelight all that much. "You're not going to talk about my column are you?"
"Oh, not at all," he took in this new piece of information, being fast on his feet. 'A writer. Nice.' "Not unless you want me to."
"Please don't. It feels strange having people talk about it."
"I can relate. I can be ordering a drink or something and people will recognize my voice. They'll get excited and tell me in high-pitched voices that I'm Dark Mousy from eighty-eight point seven," he sighed a genuine sigh. "It's kind of annoying."
Riku froze. Oh gosh. Eighty-eight point seven? The station she had called yesterday to chew out for talking about her love life? "You!"
Dark had a confused expression on his face and chuckled a bit. "Me?"
"You're the guy who made fun of my love life!"
"You must be the bristly girl!"
"I am not bristly!"
He smirked again, a very becoming look for him Riku hated to admit, now that she had discovered he was the man who had poked fun at her. And she never let those people get away with it.
"You read a private message of mine on air from a record that belonged to me and was sold without my consent!" she raised her voice and people began to look.
"Then why was it sitting in a little store, waiting for me to come along it, huh?" he shot back. "It couldn't have been that important to you if it was sitting in a store!"
"My sister took it! How could I have known?"
"Why do you want it back anyway? This guy looks like he left you!"
That was the last straw. "You are incredibly insensitive!" And she wasn't proud of it, but she tossed her red wine over his nice shirts.
"Hey! This is a white shirt!"
She pushed past him and didn't look back. She passed Satoshi on the way and apologized to him, "I'm sorry for ruining your evening. I won't be coming back here."
Part of him wanted to coax her into staying, but he knew better than to get in the way of an angry woman. So he hung back and drifted off towards Dark.
"Don't worry too much about it. You know women."
Suddenly, a seductive red dress cut in between the two. "Oh! Dark! You've got wine all over you, I'm cleaning it off for you!" And the random admirer began 'cleaning' his shirt. To Dark, it really seemed more like fondling.
"Thanks, but I've really got to go get it cleaned professionally. You know wine stains..." and zipped away.
"Dark!"
God, he really didn't have the time to deal with anyone, he had to get this shirt to the drycleaners. Washing machines were useless when it came to wine... "Hikki, I have to go. Do you want your date smelling like alcohol?"
"Are you coming back?"
"Probably not."
"Daaaark..."
"I'll make it up to you. Dinner?" He walked out before she had the chance to answer.
Whoo. He had really struck a nerve with that Riku girl. It was too bad, she was one of those few rare, smart, pretty girls. She was one of the girls he actually wanted to get to know. You had to have considerable smarts to have a column in the paper after all. But he wasn't regretting what he said about the record. He bought it, and the store owner didn't say anything. He shouldn't have to give it to her. Still, something in him didn't want to lose contact with her.
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Dark: Hmpf.
Sakura-Angel: Ohhh... you were being grouchy because of the wine...
Dark: Hmm.
Sakura-Angel: Sorry, love. It had to be done.
Dark: I liked those shirts.
Sakura-Angel: Anyway, how was it? I know the plot's coming pretty slow, but there'll be more Riku and Dark run-ins soon.
Dark: And less wine.