Ch. 10

"You're sure?" Came the almost hoarse whispered. He'd hoped so much that it had all just been a dream.

"Yeah." He bowed his head. "Rika looked pretty freaked out by the whole thing." The two boys were sitting quietly by the surf, Takato cross legged and Ryo still partially emerged in the water, both the utter picture of defeat. Monodramon hoped down the embankment from the tree line and dropped himself in beside his Tamer silently.

"Takato?" Jeri asked quietly, Calumon trailing behind her as she went over to sit beside her boyfriend, joining the conversation instead of just observing. "Which way did Rika go?"

He looked up at her. "That way-ish." He responded, motioning his hand towards the trees in general. So very helpful of him, you know, giving her directions and everything.

"Ryo," She announced, "I think you need to go after her." She leveled one of the most serious looks she could muster at him, watching his azure gaze flick around over her face as he tried to make the decision.

Not now… his mind whispered, she doesn't want me now, she doesn't want anyone now… She glared at him this time. "What do you want from me Jeri? It's not me she wants around, and I'm not going anywhere." He stood, aggravated at everyone. Suzi made as if to ask him a question, starting to rise from her little spot farther up the shore where Lopmon had stationed herself. Ignoring her, he pulled himself up the embankment and started limping towards the tree line. Jerks.

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15 minutes later, Rika wandered out of the woods, her temper slightly pacified by the walk and various odd stone carvings scattered throughout the grey forest. She hadn't paid attention to where she'd been going, and only now, as she realized that she had no idea where she was, started to think rationally again. A very long, open stretch of sand away was a lighthouse, and behind her a set of brick steps complete with aluminum railings were set into the ground. She shook her head, this is such a random world, there's no order to it.

The ocean was calm, a few ripples she decided must be made by some sort of fish swirling maybe 10 meters from the surf. The lighthouse finished one of its slow rotations, momentarily winking its black light at her. It's chilling, but it's so isolated, almost nice in its own way. She couldn't have known that this was how Ken Ichijouji had first viewed the world he'd stumbled upon, isolated, quiet, and beautiful in its own way.

"Rika?" A voice behind her called, it effectively shattering her bubble of quiet, shattering her oasis in the dark.

She glowered, not wanting anything to do with him at the moment, and at the same time quashing the small part of her that whispered: but, would you listen to anyone else now? Without turning, she answered him. "I suppose you're here to try and cheer me up, right?" She snorted. "Exactly what I was looking forward to. Leave, Akiyama."

Ryo felt like he'd been slapped. This is what Jeri wanted? This is why I came after her, to be neatly sliced and put on the side of the plate? He didn't let himself hesitate long, continuing towards the figure standing near the water, using the cool railing to help himself down the stairs. "I'm not going anywhere." He said calmly, limping over to where she was standing and letting himself collapse onto the sand. "I think – "

"I don't care what you think." Rika almost snarled at him.

Ryo waited until he was sure she wasn't going to say anything else before he spoke. "I think you do care, and I think that you need to calm down and look at things reasonably." He ground his teeth at hearing himself say it. "Regardless of how you feel, because you owe myself and the rest of the Tamers at least that much."

There it was again, that 'for the Tamers' idea, damn Landersmon, he's deleted and I still hear him muttering away in my head! Damn that digimon! She felt like some sort of trapped animal, Ryo wouldn't be satisfied until she gave him a reason why she was so upset, and really, when she looked at her reason, it had nothing to do with the group; just Lee. Falling back behind the old poker face she'd used so many times in the past, she said quietly: "I don't owe you anything."

Ryo glared at her. "Nonaka, what the hell is your problem? Lee may have gone and made you mad, but the rest of us had nothing to do with it!"

He didn't shout, that was the problem, if he'd yelled she could have yelled back, or if he'd made any sort of move towards her, she could have hit him. No, he'd said it in an almost monotonous voice except for the unmistakable hurt. Since… when can he… ! She was furious that he could just sit there, almost apathetic to the situation. Without a word, she drew back her fist and punched his jaw with everything she had.

Surprised, he let out a little sound and ducked, her hand brushing his hair as it flew past. As he straightened up, he looked her. "Why did you do that?"

She narrowed her eyes until they were slits, clenching her fists at her sides. "I felt like it, you're ticking me off." Came the cold answer. They watched each other closely, standing there on the grey beach with the cool water hardly reaching their shoes as it rushed up the sand.

Rika was debating whether or not to say something when Ryo completely surprised her. He drew back his fist and clipped her across her jaw. His expression didn't change as her eyes widened and her mouth went slack. "You – just hit me." She managed.

He nodded, dark blue gaze hard. The actual hurt had been incredibly small, the area wouldn't come anywhere close to bruising, it was more the shock that Ryo, her Ryo Akiyama, had raised his hand to her. "I felt like it."

That put her over the edge, she ducked left and turned at the last second, throwing her weight to the right and trying to deliver an uppercut to his chin. He swung his bad leg back out of harms way, using it for balance as he caught her arm and twisted it behind her back, letting her dance forward out of his grasp with her facing away from him. She didn't wait to turn herself to face him, she dropped to the pale sand and whipped her foot around, catching the back of his knee and making the tall boy fall.

The air rushed out of his lungs as he hit the beach, a small grunt accenting it. His arm snapped forwards, snagging her wrist and pulling her off balance. While she was still recovering from falling, he rolled up onto his knees and straddled her, pinning her arms above her head and locking her ankles down with his good leg. Breathing hard, the pair exchanged fierce looks.

"Are you going to actually listen to me now, Rika?" He asked, studying her face. What happened in the first place, what happened to make her so cold? She's beautiful, and when she wants to be, fun. What hurt her so much?

The red-head sniffed. "Ha, like you're really giving me a choice." Despite her attempt at sounding cold, her tone only carried slight discontent that he'd beaten her, and the almost-crying stage that came after being emotionally exhausted. He watched her pretty features change smoothly back to the sad, quite state he'd found her in. It tugged at his core to see her giving up like that; under normal circumstances she would have lashed him so thoroughly with verbal abuse that he'd be ready to throw her into the ocean. Her sigh caught him off guard. "If you want to say something, say it."

Ryo let the ghost of a smile tug at his lips. "Thanks." He whispered. "Alright, I know something happened between you and Henry, whatever it was, it was not good." She confirmed his statement with a slight nod. "Honestly, I think I can deal with it should you two decided to throttle each other, or date, s'not really my business." Rika caught his wince as he spoke, almost saying something, then deciding against it. "In either case, it shouldn't affect how you act around the rest of us. So, stop being such a jerk and come back! Jeri's worried sick and Takato is all but convinced you're ready to commit suicide or murder."

She smirked at the last comment. "And you? You're the one who came looking for me… that mean anything?" She asked slowly.

Ryo's eyebrows rose, is this what Jeri wanted to happen? "Ahm… perhaps… " He started to answer carefully. "… would you… want it to mean anything?"

"More then - no – ye – no – I'd… like - " She tripped over her words, stuttering slightly and not finishing her sentence properly, her ears were also shading themselves a light pink.

He let the smirk come to his face fully, watching her stumble through a few more almost-words before he interrupted her. "You're cute when you're flustered." Her jaw dropped, and his smirk broadened into a grin. "Tell you what, how about I take you for sushi when we get back. There's a great little restaurant with cheap, good sushi a few blocks from the train station on 12th."

She closed her mouth and smiled crookedly, amethyst eyes softening. "You know what? I think I'd really like that."

He smiled back, letting her sit up before he pulled her to sit in his lap, leaning against his solid chest. "Good," Ryo whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her neck. "Because if you didn't like sushi, I'm not sure what I would have done."

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s/k: oh, look who updated! Look who devoted an entire (er… short) but entire chapter to Ryuki. I think the next chapters start to get longer after this, I keep finding all sorts of random stuff that doesn't make any sense, and I'm really, really going to work on finding a way to keep Henry in character this time -.-'

P.S. Thanks to Keeper of Lost Souls for correcting my amazing brain collapse on Kazu's partner -.-' it's been changed.