Glass Slipper by liahime

9 Slippers of Roses

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I, liahime, do not own Digimon, and never have.

The hospital room door swung open, and Rika sat up, startled. How long had she been there?

Was this even the same hospital room? The bed was completely surrounded by roses. Sunlight streamed in from the open window. Who had sent these? She looked at the card on one.

Dear Darling Darling Ryo!

This is Ayashi-chan! I miss you very much! While you were gone, I was so brave! I didn't cry a bit, so that my makeup would stay perfect for you. Aren't you proud? I hope you get better really soon!

Rika set down the card. The entire thing was covered with- what else- pink gel pen hearts and even pinker writing. Attached to the card was a bouquet of huge scarlet red roses. The card continued.

Since one red rose means "I love You," I sent you 36!

The florist had left an ad on the huge bouquet. Rika stood up, and read it.

"Deep pink says thank you, dark red means unconscious beauty, and yellow indicates joy? Who remembers all of this?" Apparently the fangirls. In vases all over the hospital room, were red roses. The florist card read "Red Roses symbolize sincere Love, Respect, Courage & Passion".

There was a banging on the door. Ryo turned over and groaned. "Five minutes...please? I'm having a perfect dream..."

The door kept banging. Rika wondered if she should open it. A high pitched scream came from the other side. "RYO-CHAN!"

Ryo mumbled something with his face in the pillow. She wasn't sure, but it sounded like "and it just was ruined..." He sat up and yawned. His eyesight blurred, and then focused on a disgusted looking girl with flame colored hair. "Rika?"

She set down the florist's ad. "Ryo." The car must not have hit his face. The fangirls are going to be overjoyed. Except for a tiny cut and his casts, he looked almost exactly the same. He was smiling at her, smiling the perfect and patented Akiyama Ryo grin. He had gone through getting hit by a car, and somehow, grinning. His ocean blue eyes were smiling at her too. Endless ocean blue... She stopped herself. This stupid person has been through a car crash, and you are turning stupid with him.

"So, Rika. What's up?"

Rika raised an eyebrow. "You know what, Akiyama Ryo? This is what's up. You just jumped in front of a car to save me, went through emergency room care, and are sitting in a hospital right now. And you say, what's up?" There. I did it. Now stop looking at his eyes. Look at something else. His nose. His ear.

"Were you worried about me, wildcat?" He was laughing. "Completely full of trauma and out of your normal adorable personality."

"You're doing these things to impress me, aren't you." She was starting to glare at him.

"Maybe."

"Trying to make me realize my "hidden feelings", fall completely head over feet in love with you, and fall into the hero's arms with absolute devotion? Ryo, girls like me usually don't fall for those kinds of things. They normally just say thank you. That's it. Harsh rejection. Life isn't always a fairytale full of roses, you know."

"Blame it on hormones, if you want." He pulled out one of the roses from the vases, pulling off the petals one by one. Rika sat on the edge of the bed, right next to him, looking at the petals.

"But Ryo..." Her glare was fading now, falling into a tiny smile. "Very rarely, you end up surrounded by roses... and every once in a while... life isn't normal." She looked up at him and smiled. "And once in a million times... life ends up being a fairy tale, and has a happy ending." She was leaning closer to him, and she couldn't help it, she was completely drowning in those ocean blue eyes and that perfect-ryo-akiyama smile. She gave up.

"And the hero's hopeless plan?"

Rika grinned at him. "It worked."

Ayashi Fujiwara was in not a very happy mood at that moment. She had gotten up at only 10:00 in the morning, and she had -gasp!- a zit under her eyebrow. After a complete and very thorough make up job by the cosmetic specialist, she had to deal with all of the nail polish, mascara, and reorganization of the pink lipsticks, and after all of that, she had to explain to her dear father that the reason the silly little credit card was used up was because it had just been too little for one week. And after that long and tiring day of work, she simply wanted to go back to sleep with cucumbers over her eyes. But no, she had to go out and visit her boyfriend-to-be and be very nice to the rest of the tasteless fan club. Standing outside the door of the hospital, she tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the door to open, and visiting hours to begin. The fanclub was a ridiculous idea- after all, there was only one true love for Ryo, and that was obviously her. Perhaps she should create an "Ayashi-loved-by-all-especially-her-boyfriend-Ryo" club. That would be so much more tasteful...

That horrid hospital staff had kept her waiting here for half an hour. And Ayashi Fujiwara does not like to wait. She sighed. Might as well be the patient, loving, angelic girlfriend again. Opening her huge cosmetics bag, she began to test which color would make her eyes look teary-yet-joy-filled and just as absolutely close to perfection as possible.

"RYO-CHAN!" One of the more energetic fangirls started to scream.

Ayashi snapped the compact shut. "You are not to call him Ryo-chan, and not to think of him as anything but your leader's future boyfriend." She opened it again, adjusting makeup- yelling gave her wrinkles. Somedays, being the popular queen of school was such hard work.

What in the world is taking the hospital staff so long? Ayashi frowned at the nurse in front of the door. After a fangirl's misguided attempt to break down the door, the nurse had been standing there. Her feet hurt, and the nurse had a tacky lipstick color on. Vulgar. Her cellphone started to ring. "Princess Ayashi, pick up the phone! Princess, Princess, pick up the phone!" Ayashi snapped it open.

Ayashi frowned at the nurse in front of the door. After a fangirl's misguided attempt to break down the door, the nurse had been standing there. Her feet hurt, and the nurse had a tacky lipstick color on. Vulgar. Her cellphone started to ring. Ayashi snapped it open.

"WHAT." She held it closer to her ear.

"Papa! What a surprise! I was just feeling stress from the staff at the hospital my BOYFRIEND" She emphasized boyfriend, hoping the nurse would catch that very important fact, "is staying at. Dear papa, could we SUE THEM? Like you did to that disgusting redhead's mother?"

She listened for a moment, and then shrieked.

" YOU MEAN THAT HER MOTHER IS THAT PERSON! PAPA, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY SUED THE ONE AND ONLY RUMIKO-SAMA! SHE IS MY GUIDING LIGHT! PAPA! I AM FURIOUS! I SHALL NEVER SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN!"

Ayashi held the phone away from her ear for a moment, and then listened to it again.

"Well... If you promise to get me in before visiting hours, I will consider it." She turned her phone off, and waited for five seconds.

Five...

Four...

Three... A phone rang, and a harsh voice could be heard shouting from the other line.

Two...

One...

A voice came on the intercom. "Would the nurse in front of the hospital room that Akiyama Ryo is staying in at this moment please unlock the door and let one Ayashi Fujiwara in?"

Ayashi beamed triumphantly. The nurse glared. She slowly turned the key in the lock, muttering about spoiled little rich girls who had fathers to get the world to bend for them.

It had been a long day, and Ayashi was looking forward to talk with her loving to-be-boyfriend and tell him about her new idea- getting the one and only Rumiko-sama to disown Rika, but to adopt Ryo! Then when she married him, she would be part of the Rumiko legacy, AND married to Ryo! She was so close to genius it scared her.

So it was a bit of a shock when she saw her planned husband and her key to obtaining her part of the Rumiko legacy- besides the most perfect human being on the earth besides herself- was doing.

Sitting up on the hospital bed, Ryo Akiyama was kissing the one and only Rika Nonaka,with no intention of stopping soon.

Ayashi fainted.

Kay- Thank you very much! Tons and tons of thank you's! You made me feel guilty about not writing this, so I started..

cheriberigurl- I'm trying not to make Rika OOC anymore, but it's hard... > I like writing sappy stuff too.. I am trying not to do OOC stuff now! Thanks, I feel a lot better now!

lady-snow- lol.. You're kind of like my mom... and me..

Darksnowstarangel- Thank you! Glad you like them!

Kari Minamoto - Nope! Not stopping yet! I'm going to stick in some more chapters for this. Thank you for the suggestions!

DigiChick-Thank you! I'm a lot better now! Yes, I would love a cookie right now.. I'm trying to get my sister to bring me one, but she won't..

My Dream's Shadow- Thank you! I feel tons better now!

GTKari-123 - Thank you! Glad you liked the chapter! We don't have snow, but we have wonderful wonderful sunny weather!

KouichiGurl- Thank you! I'm really glad you like this, especially since you normally don't like 3rd season fanfics as much!

Thank you! I'm really glad you like this, especially since you normally don't like 3 season fanfics as much!

Lil' Lilo- Thanks very very much! I couldn't kill Ryo at all...

Cat2fat900- Thank you tons and tons!

Karika88- Sorry that took so long to update!

Sparkling-Ruby Gem- Thank you thank you thank you! I absolutely can not kill Ryo.. So he had to survive.. if Ryo died, I would be so sad..

The Authoress Note!

Absolutely wonderful people who were patient! I am very very sorry I haven't updated for a long long time, but the stress is going to my head and making it harder to actually find time to write... I have a bunch of piano competitions right now, (two on the same weekend, augh..) and so I am killing my arms and my fingers and my head and especially my time practicing. I really really want to win (I'm competitive... really competitive) so after I go through the contest, I'll be writing much faster. I am even putting off Naruto reading time for my practice and writing this! Hope you like it..

By the way, I know Rika was OOC, but who wouldn't be? I think this one is OOC too, so I might have to fix this after the contest is over...

I am obsessed with piano so much right now... - liahime