Hello~
I haven't published anything in years but (like many of us I assume) I got motivated again in the times of 2020 quarantine and decided to finish this story that I started writing in 2016! Rika+Ryo is still my favourite Digimon couple and I really enjoyed writing this.
I don't own Digimon and its characters & English is not my first language and I will never not make mistakes.
Tamers in this story are all in their early 20s.
All Those Years Ago
Rika wasn't too thrilled when she finally sat on her bike to drive to Jeri's. Jeri called her two days earlier to beg her to be her plus one on a Katou family reunion night, because Takato came down with a flu. 'If I go there by myself,' she said, 'my dad will force me to help in the kitchen and I won't be able to just enjoy the evening!'
Rika first tried to convince her to take Henry instead but their friend already had plans and when the only possibility left were Kazu or Kenta, Rika felt bad for Jeri and decided to do her friend a favour ('You owe me one,' she sighed into the phone after Jeri ended the phone call with a happy squeak.)
She came to Jeri's house on time. She got an email from her friend telling her a bit more about the dinner. Rika only skimmed the whole wall of text - the only information she found usefull was the name of the restaurant, the one owned by Jeri's father, the one next to their house. Rika hadn't been there for years now, the last time around the time their Digimon left for the Digiworld.
She was surprised to find a bunch of people waiting in front of the restaurant. Katou family seemed to be quite large. She waved to Jeri, who just came out to meet her.
'Heey,' Jeri said and gave Rika a quick hug - she was allowed to do that for a few years now - 'this might take a while, so many of them came unanounced and my dad is trying to sit them all.'
'Shouldn't you help him?'
'No, that's ok. It's my brother's turn and I promised to help clean up afterwards anyway! I'll keep you company, my date!' Jeri giggled.
Rika smiled and asked her to tell her more about those awesome cousins she mentioned on the phone two days earlier. Jeri was happy Rika pretended she was interested in her family and told her everything she could think of.
'And I'm so happy Yuki is coming, we never had much of a relationship until two years ago when I visited her in Fukuoka .. ooh, you must remember that, I told you, you know- ooh there she is!'
Jeri started to wave to someone behind their backs and Rika was trying to remember what she had told her about her cousin. Yuki .. Fukuoka .. there's something I can't quite lay my finger on.
'Oh shit,' Jeri suddenly gasped and Rika, surprised because of her friend's language, looked in the direction Jeri was looking at to see what fazed her.
'Jeeeri!' Yuki had long black hair, a dark green hoodie with a cat silhoutte on it and really cool boots without heels. She was a bit taller than the two girls and two years older.
The two girls hugged eachother and Yuki turned to Rika. 'Hi, I'm Yuki!'
'Hey, I'm Jeri's friend-'
'Rika?'
Jeri gasped again and Rika turned towards the known voice behind the black haired cousin and-
'It is you!' Ryo said and hugged her friendly before she'd realise what was going on and avoided his arms.
'Ryo! What the hell! What are you doing here!' she said, way too surprised to react to the short hug. 'You came ..
Fukuoka!
.. just in time ..
Fukuoka and Yuki!
.. for Jeri's ..
Fukuoka and Ryo!
.. dinner party.'
Her brains finally made the connection. Jeri told her about meeting Ryo in Fukuoka a year or two ago when she visited her favourite cousin and she totally forgot about that.
'Oooh,' Rika added and looked back to Yuki when all suddenly made sense. She blushed a little and made a mental note to herself not to allow her tongue to speak ever again before her brains would get the situation.
'Hey you,' Ryo laughed. 'Jeri!' and nodded to Jeri. 'We were invited to the dinner, I'm the plus one,' he added and pointed his finger at Yuki. 'I wasn't expecting you though, I thought Takato was coming.'
'He-he's sick!' Jeri said louder than necessary and before anyone could add something to the weird situation, Jeri's brother asked them to follow him to the restaurant and take a seat. Rika was never so happy to see him and he would never know how he saved her before things got even more awkward.
Ryo and Yuki stayed behind to wait for their seats and Ryo winked at Rika before Jeri pulled her inside.
Rika shook her head a bit. There was so many different info from the surroudings at the same time that she was totally confused. And now Jeri was pulling her into the restaurant and making a weird face .. oh no .. that face she did recognize because Jeri kept showing it everytime a certain guy was mentioned. Now that he was actually there (and from all the places in the world they had to meet him at this specific restaurant) Jeri's face expression looked even worse.
'Would you stop that?!' Rika barked at her. 'That was hundred years ago!'
'Seven!' Jeri opposed.
'Wha- ok, seven, whatever, it's been seven years, stop making that face!'
'But Rika ..'
Rika shut her up with a loud 'Nooo!' (that scared an old lady who they were being seated to) but Jeri's expression didn't change and Rika had a hunch there was something else bothering her friend. She was sure though that it had something to do with Ryo and decided to ignore her. Instead, she looked around the dining room to see how much it had changed in the last - seven I guess - years.
It was still one big space with those low traditional tables that expected you to sit on your knees and take off your shoes at the entrance. Rika had a similar dining room at home so she had no problems sitting like that but she knew a few people from school who couldn't sit still for more than 10 minutes before changing their position. Different tables were put together this time, forming one long table for the whole Katou family to sit around it. The room seemed bigger with all these people in it - Ryo and his date joining them on the other side of the table in that moment - but still very cosy.
Jeri started talking to her uncle, while Rika's attention changed to the people.
She knew two or three uncles and aunts, there was a cousin Jeri always complained about, a couple that looked older than the Earth itself (grandgrandparents?) and of course Ryo and Yuki. She was just introducing him to a young guy next to her.
Jeri of course turned her face to Rika that exact moment and interpreted the situation all wrong. She then asked Rika to follow her into the kitchen and when Rika didn't reply, she pulled her by her arm again.
What's wrong with this girl tonight?!
Rika followed Jeri to the kitchen - 'Be careful, miss Katou!' one of the cooks said because the room was full of people running around trying to work - and Jeri made a turn to a giant fridge-room, pulled Rika inside and completely ignored her rised eyebrows.
'Fridge, really? You're scaring me and I'm losing my patience here!' Rika said and moved away a few onions that were sticking from the shelf, poking her head. 'It's freezing in here!'
She wanted to complain about the onion too but she realized her friend looked extremly nervous, looking at the floor, playing with the end of her dress.
'Jeri ..?' she asked as calm as she could and a clowd of smoke escaped her mouth because of the cold.
Jeri lifted her face and looked at Rika, her eyes looked so .. sober? .. and focused ..? Rika couldn't find a better description.
'Rika I'm so sorry!' she practically yelled at her friend. Rika opened her mouth in confusion but let Jeri continue: 'I introduced them. When I was visiting her in Fukuoka. We met Ryo one night and I was so happy to see him, so we hanged out together a few nights! But she never told me! Rika I swear I didn't know they were dating, she didn't tell me! Rika! I'm so sorry!'
She finished, every sentence was louder than the latter and in the end she covered her mouth with her hands and looked like she was going to start crying.
Rika's brain was a bit frozen already and she could hardly follow Jeri's confession, and the first thing she wished for was to be in that warm and sunny Fukuoka instead of this onion fridge, and then she started to feel bad for her poor friend.
'Oh, Jeri,' she finally said and put her hands on her friend's shoulders. 'It's okay. Really. I'm okay with it, I don't mind it, not even a bit.'
'But Rika,' Jeri was apparently trying to convince her otherwise, 'you and Ryo ..'
'No, Jeri,' Rika continued a bit more harshly than she intended, 'there's no me and Ryo, not in that sense anyway.'
Jeri would let Rika out of the fridge after she promised her at least ten times that she didn't hate her for bringing Ryo and Yuki together.
Dinner began at 8 and the table was full of food and drinks. Rika took some sashimi and while chewing on her third piece, her eyes intentionally looked for Ryo. He was drinking homemade umeshu and talking to the guy he was introduced to before.
Jeri acted like this around her everytime Ryo was only mentioned. She got used to it in a way that it still made her mad but she never thought about their relationship. She remembered things from the past, she was still in contact with him (when checking her phone before the dinner she found a message from him that he was going to be in Tokyo for a few days) but they were .. friends, just like she was friends with Jeri or Takato.
This Yuki thing did feel weird though, it made her realize how distant they had actually become.
She turned her eyes away from him - the last thought hurt her more than she could ever admit to Jeri.
Would she tell him if she met some guy and started going out with him? Probably not but she wouldn't tell anyone .. except for Jeri probably, she could sniff those things from afar anyway. But Ryo was different, was he not? She knew what he was up to in Kyushu, he told her about her classes at the university, his jobs, his travels and they always hanged out when he came to Tokyo. Did he think she didn't want to listen about his love life? Did she want to listen about it? Or did they just become distant and he didn't feel like they should know these things about eachother .. or were they always like that? Were they so distant because she wouldn't let anyone close to her? WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT THIS NOW? All of this is so irritating! Jeri is making a fuss about something for years and now I'm suddenly doing it too! STUPID!
She reached for the bottle of umeshu and poured herself a full glass. She drank the sweet drink way to fast and started coughing. The old lady next to her offered her some water but she declined it, excused herself and stood up to get out of the room to the toilet. She chose the longer way out to avoid Ryo; Jeri had disappeared into the kitchen and Rika didn't have to explain herself to anyone.
She stopped coughing and decided to go out on the fresh air instead. She knew of a terrace on the second floor that was usually empty. Standing in front of that door leading to the terrace felt a bit weird but she ignored her feelings. It was a bit chilly outside but it suited her fine. She stepped to the handrail to look down at the street. There were some Katou people there smoking and chatting. She felt a bit dizzy because of umeshu. It was so calm there though, compared to the restaurant, that she didn't mind the feeling and closed her eyes.
It's been seven years since she was last here on this very terrace.
