Thorns by liahime

Eleven Rose Luck

Disclaimer: liahime doesn't own Digimon, though it would be nice if she did.. Then she wouldn't have to insert disclaimers so last minute...

Before Rika could make a sound, she found herself swept up, wrapped in warm arms, floating inches above the ground and staring over the shoulder of Ryo Akiyama

"Wha-"

A hand clamped over her mouth and whispered. "Shh.. Don't talk."

"But-!" Rika looked down at the hand over her mouth. She expected to see a tanned hand, as well as human skin and flesh. Instead, it seemed as if there was nothing clamped over her mouth. She could feel it, smell it- she knew it was there, but yet- it wasn't?

She looked for her own body. She was here- but not. Everything going around her, she could feel, but not see- just her head, and that was shimmering away too. It was odd, watching herself dissapear, as if being eaten alive by air.

Ryo's face faded slowly away- and she was still there, suspended in his arms, above ground. Rika could hear him mumbling something under his breath, and he faded back into sight. She tried to move out of his grip, breaking free from the hand and looking around.

Priscilla was there, next to two people- a man in black, and a woman in the ancient rags of what had been adress, graying hair rattily piled up on her head.

"I was sure they were here- I felt them-" The old woman whined, voice raspy with age.

"Whatever, witch. " The man spoke, smooth as water and cold as ice. "Just find my dear little brother and get this over with. Time is gold." He had Ryo's voice, Ryo's hair- if she wasn't where she was now, she could have sworn it was him.

Ryo pulled her closer , making it impossible for her to get away- the only thing she could do is stare at him. She could feel him breathing slowly, chest rising up and down. A tinge of warmth flooded over her cheeks.

"Let me down!" Rika whispered furiously. "What do you think you're doing?"

Ryo didn't answer, just nodded. He stared at the man in black. There was a different look in his eyes- an inner fire that, reawakened from it's hidden state, flared up with anger and hatred. Without knowing, his breath caught in his throat. Breathing took a place behind hatred. It was odd for the normally cheerful Ryo to act this way, but he had his reasons.

After all, it wasn't every day he saw his older brother.

He watched as the man drew a pair of gold hilted daggers from his belt. The knives spun, almost as if they had their own life, from his hand, landing centimeters from Ryo's shoes.

'They're not there, hag... Move on." With a flick of his wrist, the daggers returned to their sheaths, and he walked towards the open door. "They're probably somewhere else."

The trio walked out, slamming the kitchen door, leaving Rika and Ryo in complete and awkward silence.

"Put me down!" Rika broke the quiet, trying once again to come out of his grip. "You didn't need to do that, you know."

"Oh. Sorry." Ryo set her down, staring at the door. "You're so light that I forgot you were there."

"Liar." Rika frowned at him. "You were doing something... there should be a reason I can't see myself, Ryo."

He mumbled a few words under his breath, and they both shimmered back into the visible spectrum. "You're right. It was an invisibility spell... one of the only bits of mage work I'm good at..."

"So you had to pick me up?"

"You need direct contact if you want to include the person in the spell."

She looked at him with an odd expression. "That's all?"

.Distracted, he nodded. "Let's go. They might come back." He walked quickly towards the door. "Are you coming?"

Rika gave no answer, bending down to search through a shelf, hiding her face.

"I'll take that as a yes, then."

She ignored him pointedly, still rummaging through a box, pulling out shoes until she found a matching pair that fit her feet. Quickly, she slipped the brown leather over her feet and tied the laces. Lighting a candle, Rika turned to face him, expressionless once more. "Now we can go."

They swung the door slowly open, and took the first step into the endless night.

-

The ground was darker than normal, for some reason- a darkness that was deeper, somehow, than the sky's own inky black.

Dirt crumbled under his feet as he slowly stepped into the kitchen courtyard, expecting solid brickwork and dirt. Ryo stepped out, straight, waiting for the solid thump of boot on stone.

There was no sound.

Black swallowed him from the feet up. He stumbled into the darkness that eagerly pulled him down with every push of gravity. Quickly, he yanked his foot out of the abyss waiting below.

"Be careful where you walk. Those three before us- they don't like playing follow the leader." He held a hand out to Rika and bowed from his precarious foothold. "If you're not afraid then, my lady."

"This isn't a game, Ryo." She pushed his hand away, and tested the ground in front of her with a toe. "It's life or death."

"Why die sad?" He leaped a few steps forward, feet finding the path effortlessly.

"Why die?" Rika walked quickly forward, searching the darkness for the path. She glided with as much ease as he had, without stumbling once on the packed dirt. Her candle flashed in arcs of light as she strode forward, without any apparent fear.

Jumping forward from island to island in the dark, guessing through flashes of candlelight for land-it was a game, fraught with fear. Consequence of losing were steeper than the average card game here. The game bet with life and death. One wrong move sent you falling to the seemingly endless pit below.

"Rika!" Ryo's voice called out from the dark night. "Scared?"

"No, not really." Her voice echoed, followed by the bobbing of the candle light.

"Nervous? Worried? Think that you'll fall?"

"I don't fall." The voice was matter-of-fact, as if stating an obvious fact known from the start of life. "No stumbling, tripping..." An arc of fire flame flowed from jump to jump. Her voice was wary, as if expecting something nasty from the other end. "It just happens."

If she had expected a question, she didn't hear one. "Ah. You must be blushing then."

"WHAT!"

"You weren't blushing back there? You looked like you were, a moment ago."

"I wasn't." Indignant, she nearly jumped too far. Rika took a step back onto firm ground.

She could hear him grin in the dark. "You were. Don't deny it, princess. I have that effect with most females."

"I doubt it. You being the girl's perfect guy?" Her rolled eyes were obvious- he could see the expression on her face as plainly as if it was in front of him. "It's about as likely as me, tripping."

Sometimes, it's as if there's a big tap in the sky, dispensing bad luck to the world. Little drops of bad luck, dripping on everyone. There are brief showers of misfortune, to keep one from being overconfident and remind one that rain is still there.

But if you endure this, and still reach out to taunt fate, fate reaches out to you. Fate will turn the handle of the tap with a vengeance, soaking you in full, leaving you drenched.

Rika barely stretched for the next island-two feetaway, an easy step. She was there- she could see flat, familiar ground in front of her, mud covered and solid. For anyone, blessed with fairy gifts of feet that never stumble, matchless grace, it was nothing to take a step.

But the dirt crumbled under her feet, and she found herself taking her next step in thin air. Darkness closed in around her, and she found herself falling.

It's an odd thing to fall- gravity pulls your body differently than on solid land. Rika couldn't move her legs and arms the way she wanted them to go completely. The walls of the holeclosed in around her, the bottom rushed closer and closer. It was the unshakeable feeling of death approaching and holding you in it's vice before you actually died. Rika closed her eyes, and prepared herself for landing- it was strange, and she found herself more scared than she thought she would be, approaching death-

But death's oncoming rush stopped suddenly as she was unceremoniously pulled up and staring back into the face of Ryo Akiyama

"Hah. I knew it. You were blushing."

-

"You have really bad luck, don't you..."

Rika stood there, trembling in the cold wind. "I don't."

"You do." Rika and Ryo walked foward, thankful for firm, unchanged ground. They walked past the stables, where sleeping horses snorted and sniffed in their sleep. "It's as if whatever luck you had at birth evaporated somehow."

"Luck?" She raised an eyebrow. "Four-leaf clovers don't really do anything, Ryo. They're plants. Gardeners weedit out of the lawn. Horses eat it."

Ryo bent to pick something off the ground. "Let me see your shoe."

"My shoe!"

"Yup."

"No."

"You're always this cooperative, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am." She turned and began to walk away. "Now go away."

"Your feet don't smell, Rika!"

He took her foot in his hand, propping it up on a nearby bench. He untied it, and began to whip the laces out of her shoe. "Hold still." Ryo began to thread the laces through the tiny nail holes in what looked like a bent piece of metal.

"What are you doing?"

"Giving you good luck!" He grinned up at her and held the horseshoe against her shoe. "Which way do you want it? The U shape facing up or down?"

"I really don't care, Ryo.. It's a bent up, dented piece of rusting metal! Not some magic charm!"

He ignored her. "Some people think that having it pointing up, keeps the luck from running out. Other people think it should be pointed down, so that the luck pours all over you." Ryo wove the lace through the tiny clovers pierced in the metal, turning the horseshoe so that the bottom rested over her toes.

Ryo tied the laces of her shoe back to it's original bow, and grinned. "Now you are officially triply lucky! The luck pours down on you, doesn't run out, and-" he paused, "the holes are four leaf clovers! See?"

Rika snorted. "Right. Lucky."

"Yup. Lucky as four leaf clovers and horse shoes and rabbit foot charms!"

"More like lucky as a black cat." Rika turned, and walked forward. I'm a princess, of all the useless things to be, with no father, her entire castle asleep, being searched for by a blonde idiot, an assassin and one of my fairy godmothers. Lucky. Right.

But she turned her back, all the same. "If you're not coming, Ryo, I'm not waiting." She looked back just in time, to see Ryo grin back and attempt a ridiculously heroic pose. His cloak caught on his shoe, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Rika sighed, and reached out a hand to help him up. As he looked up at her from the ground, she felt a tiny twitch from her mouth. Before she could stop it, she felt something bubble out of her, letting the captive sorrow out into the night air.

Her laughter, rusty from a long silence, rang through the silence, joined by Ryo's hearty laughter. Pent up sorrow and tiredness flowed out of her, lightening her face. It was as if she had dropped a heavy load she had carried for miles- she became brilliantly, joy-filled alive- and nearly shone as she laughed in the darkness.

Their laughter mixed together and faded away slowly. Rika turned her head away, and the reality and solemness of the situation she was in came back to her in a frown. But her traitor face was happy and her traitor heart was dancing, and the corners of her traitor mouth were sneaking up slowly.

And for the first time, lucky horseshoe or not, Rika felt fortune smile on her, and she let her traitor mouth break into a grin. There was an odd feeling in her heart- a mixture of joy and laughter and the feeling of never falling again, but flying with an indescribable lightness-

Rika felt lucky.

My Dream's Shadow- thank you tons! (I'm sorry everyone..replies are short so I can post this...)

mango-is-good- thanks very much for reviewing!

tsuhime- yes.. Priscilla is back.. Thank you for the curry and the compliment

lady-snow- I'll try to stick more ryuki in.. Hope you like this chapter!

Lisha- I want to kill Priscilla too, but if I did, the plot would die.. I'll try to stick more ryuki in ASAP!

DigiChick- Thank you! Sorry for the long wait..

editor-kau-sama- ... stop being so unsympathetic.. Thank you though!

DD6- too much homework..aish.. Thank you!

Lil' Lilo- yup.. Priscilla is back.. Thanks very very much!

kunoichixxkanna- Thank you... I'll try to clarify the stuff later.. lol.. please don't murder me for taking so long..

Dolce Saito- hope you get better soon! And I'll support penguins...XD

authoress comments:

GAAH I HATE HOMEWORK! cough.. Ok.. Sorry... I've been swamped again... dead swamped with science and polynomials and SAT II and everything... So I always feel guilty and I typed this chapter in between phone calls and tutoring and etc. etc. etc... Fall is always busy..

Yes, I will try to stick in more ryuki! I've been wanting to stick in more fluff for a loong time.. And now that Rika's awake and Ryo's out of jail, I can do it! yay.. Hope you like this chapter... (blame my teachers for the wait! they enjoy giving homework to us... and then not grading it. And then while they do grade it, they give us extra work so they can catch up on grading... it is driving me absolutely crazy.. or crazier.. sigh..) I absolutely promise though, that the next chapter will come soon, and be better quality.. Please send suggestions, comments, compliments, critiques (is that a word?) and curry! I adore curry... especially on days when I eat ramen for dinner..

- (guilty) liahime