ok... people I am trying. I have jet lag in tons and tons and tons and so I am trying to make something decent here... thank you all for your patience... I am here in Korea feeling guilty about this... so here goes... thank you for everyone's patience and support and help... if this sucks (cuz I always think it does! So worried about it. ) then please tell me. It is really early in the morning here and I feel like sleeping... but I can't... augh.. I don't travel that well...

-pathetic liahime

Thorns by liahime (the tired, the jet lagged, the worried...)

Four Rose Dawn

Disclaimer: Don't own digimon... do you?

High above the palace, blazing spheres of fire roared and grew larger and larger as they spiraled off through the sky. They collided and crashed, sending out burning sparks into other spheres, and speeding down through empty space, flames rushing up and up as they fell towards land.

Down in the palace, the queen smiled and pointed towards a tiny speck of light falling down, far, far away. "Look! It's a shooting star! Make a wish!"

Young women swirled and waltzed to the piano music in the early morning light.Going back and forth to the beat, completely trying to ignore the pair in the back of the room. They talked louder, laughed longer, and stepped harder to mask out the sound of argument in the back, using the noble art of ignoring to forget who was in the room.

"Please, princess. Try it?"

"No." She crossed her arms together and frowned at the goggle-headed boy. "This is pointless."

The dance instructor, oblivious to what was going on, leaped in between them. "Pascal doble, everyone! Ready? Begin!"The dancers spun off again in adifferent pattern. The instructor turned to the princess.

"Your Royal Highness... Please try this." She trilled. "It's a lovely dance. Spin out, step in twice, and it feels like you're flying in the arms of your partner."

"No."

"Please?"

"Absolutely not. As your highness," she said slowly, "I command you to stop making me dance. I'm leaving." The princess didn't pull rank often- this was serious.

The instructor shrunk back. "But who shall dance with the prince?"

Rika scanned the room. She pointed to a petite girl sewing on a bench nearby. "Her."

"A lady in waiting!" The instructor dared to raise a delicate eyebrow. "But that is not done!"

"That is why I command it." She walked over to the girl. The prince, feeling a bit left out of deciding his future life, followed her. "Lady Jeri, this is prince Takato. Prince Takato, Lady Jeri." She turned to Jeri. "Are you OK with this, Jeri?"

She nodded.

"And prince, you are fine with this as well."

He nodded.

"Then we are done here." She smiled at the dance instructor. "Any objections?"

People not at their neccessary caffiene and sleep level are dangerous. They are to be left alone in the morning at all costs and not woken up earlier than eight o'clock for lessons in things such as fourth language or calligraphy or even dancing. The human equivalent to dragons, if you prefer. If you meet one such person, that has just been irritated past saving, please back away slowly and flee, without looking back.

Unfortunately, the dancing teacher was not aware of this.

Several moments later, Rika was outside, with a very quiet class of dancers behind her. She headed straight outside, where there was no hope of finding her, or of her finding some person remembering that she had some duke to meet or some lesson to take. Even princesses had to rest, neh?

She walked into one of the old, weed choked fields in the back of the grounds, and pulled out the step from one of the cracked staircases. In between the stone step and the base was a small space with clothes- no lace, no frills, and most importantly- clothes she could breathe in. She grimaced as she pulled the clothes out, remembering that day her mother had decided that her daughter had grown up.

"Darling, you know that you're sixteen now, so I've decided that you need a new wardrobe, to attract a husband. We borrowed the best seamstress in the kingdoms just for you! She's already making the patterns for your new dresses. Do you prefer pink or white?"

She let out a sigh of relief as soon as the stiff taffeta was off and the peasant's pants- smuggled into the palace by Jeri- were on. Shirt. She looked around for it... Not there. She couldn't have left it... there! Sticking out of a lilac bush. She pulled it towards her, but it danced just out of her grip.

A little monkey sat innocently playing with the shirt. It's jeweled collar sparkled in the sunlight as it bounced along.

"Why you little..." Rika lunged for the monkey that leaped away, chattering. She chased after it, leaping across the missing step. The monkey was impossible to catch. It jumped up trees, ducked under benches, perched on statues. Rika grabbed a piece of fruit off one of the trees and held it out to the monkey.

"Here, nice monkey," she growled behind clenched teeth. The monkey took a step closer to her. "That's right, come closer now..."

The monkey grabbed the apple from her hand and sprinted away.

"YOU LITTLE-" Rika ran after the monkey, screaming... and hit something that was definitely not a wall.

Her gaze went up, and for some reason, the day got much hotter, as if the sun had risen into her face and was scorching her cheeks. She was staring into orbs of endless aquamarine blue that sparkled back at her. Their gaze traveled downwards, and-

The owner of the eyes was promptly slapped. Hard.

"PERVERT!"

The instructor was very happy. With the princess gone- though she'd never admit it- things were so much easier to teach. All was happy in dance-land, and so she could sit back and just watch her drama on the television hidden behind one of the curtains. She even got paid to do this. Perfect job. She glanced at the new pair that Rika had left behind. They were fine. Everything was fine. Back to her drama.

"Oh... I couldn't take this from you, Mitsuko-kun..."

"No, you have to. It's a present! Just for you!" said a starry eyed girl.

She sighed as she ignored her class, losing herself in the theme song's lyrics, humming along.

Jeri smiled nervously up at the prince. "Um... hi."

"one..two.. three..." He looked up. "Oh. Hi. I'm Takato. Nice to meet you." The prince resumed his counting.

"I'm Jeri, your highness." They spun in perfect harmony, falling back into the familiar one-two-three, one-two-three.

Step left, step right, spin... Jeri loved dancing. There wasn't much chance to dance like this in the village, and whatever chance she got, she took it. One two three... one two three... The piano music shifted to a waltz, and the dancers changed. Dancing was like floating, flying. Everything free and smooth until-

"Ow!" Jeri rubbed her foot.

"Ah.. sorry." Takato grinned sheepishly. "I'm not that good at dancing."

"Ah, no, no, it's fine, it was my fault-" Jeri stammered. They kept dancing slowly, trying to keep up with the beat. She bit her lip as a foot crashed down on hers again.

"You know, if I step on your foot, you don't have to pretend it doesn't hurt, OK? It's really my fault."

"I'm sorry, your highness, I won't do it again in the future." She blushed and looked down, concentrating on her feet, trying to move them out of the way as discretely and as fast as possible. The lady in waiting glanced up, only to bump her head into the prince.

"I'm sorry, your highness! Are you hurt? Please forgive-"

"-I'm really sorry! Do you need ice for that-"

They both laughed and stopped. Takato looked at the bump on Jeri's head. "Do you need ice?"

"No, it's fine. Really. I can get it later, your highness-"

"It's Takato, Lady Jeri. I'll get the ice for you. Just sit. I'll be right back." He called one of the butlers passing by. "Hey! Could you tell me where the ice is here?" The butler pointed and gave him directions. Takato waved to her and ran off in the direction the butler pointed.

Jeri sat on the chair, for the first time in her life actually waiting for someone to serve her. It was an odd feeling- it felt like she should be going and moving... But here she was, like some member of the nobility, waiting for ice. The girls dancing past the chair whispered as they moved by.

"She's getting ice from the prince? Personally? Her?"

"I can't believe it! It's a scandal!"

Jeri tried to ignore it. They were nice people, just not used to this. Maybe she should go get the ice herself... She stood up to go run down to the kitchens. Her foot ached just a bit. She could go pretty quickly. Putting her foot down, she winced. Streaks of pain rushed up her foot and she sat back down.

"I must have stepped on your foot really hard... I'm sorry.." Another first. An apology from a prince. Was the world upside down today?

Takato handed her the ice. "You might want to rest for a while. Most people do after dancing near the realm-famous klutz prince." And yet another first. A prince insulting himself. Three in a day.

"So where are you from, Lady Jeri? Are you a native to Middle kingdom?" He sat down next to her.

"I'm from East kingdom, but I left when I was a lot younger… around four, I guess."

He looked at her closely. "Have I ever seen you anywhere? It's funny... but though I've been here so many times, I can't remember seeing you."

"Um... you must have forgotten me..."

"No... I'm sure I've seen you before... Oh, I remember."

"You do?"

"In my kingdom, I used to have this friend who I lost touch with when I got older, who looked sort of like you. She had this canary, and when it died, we buried it on the castle grounds. My dad got really mad at me then..."

Oh kami... Jeri gasped. Something like that had happened to her. She couldn't remember the faces, but she remembered her own bird, and burying it... But time had washed out the faces and the voices. The poor girl.. She could understand the pain... A tiny tear leaked out of her eye as she imagined the other dead bird.

-
Ryo held his aching cheek. "It's not my fault...ow..." He held the monkey, still holding the shirt in it's tiny paws, towards her. "Here. You should thank me."

Rika snatched the shirt and turned. Her head whipped around again. "You don't have to stand there and stare, you know."

"Ouch... you hit hard, Rika."

"You, Ryo Akiyama, deserved it."

"You could at least say thank you, you know... Even a little 'thanks' would be fine..."

Rika was silent.

"If it wasn't for me, you could be chasing the monkey all over the palace."

Still silence. Rika walked past him. She threw the monkey at him, and it bounced off, screaming.

"Come on... at least say something?"

If the sun had risen in Rika's face, right now it was high noon. Ryo had looked at her, minus shirt. Ryo had stared at her. And this Ryo was dead. She drew in a deep breath.

"What, hero-boy?" Her fists tightened.

"Why were you out there changing anyway?"

"... keep your nose out of it, Ryo."

"Just wondering... it's not like you see people chasing monkeys without shirts on..."

"And it's normal for people to go stare at them?"

He laughed. "You don't change too much, princess..."

"Don't call me that." Rika started to walk faster, but Ryo sped up to match her pace, until they were walking in the same rhythm, side by side. The monkey bounced along behind them.

"Then what do I call you? Rika-chan?"

She punched him in the arm and walked even faster.

"I was kidding! Kidding! Rika, you know you look cute glaring at me, but please stop. It's bad for your eyes."

Rika kept walking, staying silent, and still glaring at anything in her way. They got to the gate of the gardens. She pushed it open. Today was not her day. She was in no mood to verbally spar with the annoying person behind her, to dance, to do anything except punch something really, really hard. Thankfully, Ryo had gone silent, giving her now almost nonexistent patience a break. One gift from the forces above. Maybe the day would get better after all.

"Ah, Rika..."

"Shut up. Now."

And the forces above, just to prove their spectacular talent at making life miserable, did not send down pouring rain. The weather stayed beautiful. They did not throw down comets or evil stuffed sheep or turn the ground to swampland. No one's face broke out in pimples. No one died.

No, what they did was much, much worse.

Rika walked out the gate, bumping into another person. She pushed past him, grumbling in her head about the stupidity of being royal. She would have gotten past, but he put out a hand to stop her. She brushed past him, but he grabbed her shoulder.

"Daughter."

staremerald: thank you.. Glad you liked it!

kunoichixxkanna- thanks so much for reviewing.. I'll try to update this is sooner in the future..

corruptedgoddess- you really got me out of my jetlag state... and for that thank you.. You made me start finding a way to write this.

Ao-Senshi- thanks for the help very much... . Sorry it's cliche and ooc, but.. I'll try to improve, OK?

supershark1/katie: I am so sorry this took forever... and I forgot who she poured punch over. We will see...

Sparkling-Ruby Gem- SOOO SORRY that this took so long.. Please forgive me everyone!

GTKari-123 and Ryuki Obsessed- Ah.. Thank you so much.. Sorry this took forever.

Strawberry'd- good job for getting it right though! I tried to stick more ryuki in this.. And I so apologize... this was a loong wait.

DD6- haha yeah I noticed what I did right after I submitted the chapter... yes, I thought it was mean to kill the dad too...

shadowcat- ah.. Thank you for reviewing this chapter.. I hope your computer gets better soon! Thank you very much!

kau-sama - ok... I used your idea! Thank you...

Hellomimmy- SO sorry it took so long, I know you waited very very long... but. I can't answer your questions because...it must be a surprise! Hehehe... and also I'm not sure...

lady-snow- oops I forgot this was dedicated to you! (Hitting myself on the head..) But I'm glad you like it!

Dolce Saito- ah.. Glad you like Ryo more... Sorry for the long long wait..

GirlGotGame234- haha... I decided to not make Rika get engaged to Ryo, I'm sorry.. But it's ryuki! So don't worry!

DigiChick- hey.. Any suggestions/criticism/help at all would help! Thank you!

My Dream's Shadow- ok! Thanks!

Lil' Lilo-Thank you very much!

Augh... tell me if this is good or not, ok? This story needs a rewrite... especially last chapter, which had too many typos (I uploaded the wrong document! ) and bla bla bla... I know this was a HUGE wait that was really long... and I am really really sorry. I was busy (very, very busy...) I went to Korea for a month, came back, the day after that- I went on a church mission trip to Seattle for a week, came back, was exhausted, and couldn't do a thing for two days. And then, I fought with my mom and found my algebra homework and etc. etc. etc... So there's my stupid excuse...

If you want a rewrite (in general, on this chapter, or etc...) please tell me. I am full of post-jetlag and am really not sure how this is coming out...

and this chapter was short too! and probably not that good.. augh..

Thanks to everyone so much... sorry for the wait! please forgive me...

worry worry worry...

-liahime