I would like to thank the only two people who reviewed this edited version of Right Place At The Right Time as of...May twenty-fourth. trulyanimelover06 and ginensu, thanks a million for spending a little bit of your time to give me your comments. Anyway, I want to dedicate this chapter to you two! I was really down when I thought no one had bothered to review this story so I'm truly grateful! (Smiles)

Chapter Five: New…Relationships

"So…what you're trying to tell us is that you and Dark are friends?" Daisuke's eyebrows shoot up towards his hair line, making it almost invisible.

"Are you guys high right now?" he asked incredulously, turning his eyes to Riku then Dark then back again. The cycle was annoying Riku's already paper-thin patience after all her crazed meetings yesterday. She thought she'd actually have a peaceful lunch without any aggravation for once this week.

The four of them were in one of the most famous cafes in New York, Day in Night Out. Daisuke and Risa were widening their eyes every second and they seemed to have been experiencing breathing problems.

"Is it that hard to believe?" Riku glared at the couple noticeably staring at her like some kind of science experiment. She arched a brow, subtly allowing the corners of her mouth to turn upward.

"Of course it's hard to believe! You can't expect us to just say 'Oh, that's great, you guys. So what do you want for desert?' when you two have been enemies since before we even knew what enemies meant. How did this happen?! I mean, not that I don't like what's happening but you can't blame us for being a little skeptic." Risa allowed herself a shy blush, realizing that she just insulted her sister and her boyfriend's best friend.

Riku couldn't help but snort at her sister inwardly. 'This is what she calls 'a little skeptic'?'

"Well…" Dark began, a grin playing on his lips. He turned to Riku with a meaningful look. They already talked about not telling anyone of the book publishing deal but old habits die hard and they died harder for Dark when it came to his feisty former sworn enemy.

Riku glared at him, she knew what he was getting at and she didn't like it one bit. But since their friendship was still rocky, she couldn't try anything drastic, like hit him for example. What a lovely world she lived in when she could still cause bodily harm to the infamous Dark Mousy whether he deserved it or not.

"You wouldn't dare. We already went over everything, you jerk!" Riku's voice had steadily hardened with every word she uttered threateningly to the twenty-three year-old sitting smugly beside her. How dare he think he had a right to say anything that had to do with her without her voiced permission?

"You don't even know what I'm thinking." Dark was clearly trying to get Riku pissed off. A look at her dark scowl told him that was doing, as usual, a marvelous job. It wasn't earth-shattering that they would still fight. Twelve years of abhorrence did not go away with just one, albeit astoundingly grand, favor.

"You two seem to be getting along together," a dry, cynical voice commented with amusement lacing his hard words.

Four heads turned to the owner of the voice. Satoshi Hiwatari.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have some houses to destroy, families to ruin?" Risa asked scathingly. What she was saying wasn't true, of course. Satoshi was an architect but Risa wasn't about to be convinced that he would help anyone other than himself.

You had to be blind not to see the determined look on the younger Harada's face, unafraid to tell the world that she was ready to kill the blue-haired genius with her own bare hands, if necessary. Obviously, her hatred towards the man hadn't softened in the years—her willingness to act on it didn't subside either.

"Visiting New York, trying to finish a construction project, like always. Dark, I heard your partner got fired." He looked at Dark, his eyes clouded with flawlessly masked anger towards the young fashion designer seated beside Daisuke.

Dark and Satoshi were long-time friends, though the way they treated each other would tell you otherwise. Daisuke and Hiwatari didn't exactly get along but they weren't enemies either. It just so happened that Satoshi was Risa's 'Dark', her avowed rival, and so Daisuke had a loyalty issue with his girlfriend.

Risa and Satoshi were the creative geniuses in their old school in Azumano, playing instruments here, painting masterpieces there. When Satoshi left it seemed as if Risa had finally cooled off and forgiven and forgotten her number one enemy. Apparently, that was not the case. They had met somewhere only months before and clearly he did nothing to appease the Harada's temper, one milder than Riku's but a force to be reckoned with nonetheless. Not a good choice for someone as brilliant as Satoshi Hiwatari.

Dark nodded, ignoring the other three he was with. He asked what the other man was doing in New York simply with his eyes. They were that close. Their ability to communicate wordlessly and the fact that they chose the same career paths in life couldn't hide their friendship, even if they actually tried.

"You're my new partner for the Player building?" Dark asked with a straight face, his voice unusually cold. He stood up and motioned for Satoshi to follow him to another table without excusing himself.

Riku had never, in the childhood she had spent arguing with and throwing back insults at Dark, seen that look on his face. Ever. This was a new side of Dark Mousy: emotionless, unfeeling and oddly professional. She had to smile at her last thought. If she had been asked five years ago if it was possible the younger Mousy to be mature in any way, she would have laughed outright at that poor, naïve, love-struck girl.

"What's wrong with Dark? Is he the 'never mix business with pleasure' slave-driving type of person?" Riku asked Daisuke, unable to stifle her laughter at the prospect.

"Who knows? Maybe Hiwatari cast some spell on him. Do you want me to find out? I'm more than willing to help you, sis. No really, just tell me," Risa cut in, hints of desperation, hysterics and a lot of anger laced in her sweet, angelic voice.

Daisuke chuckled before coughing when Risa turned to him. "Yeah, Dark's always like that when it comes to work. It's fun seeing the transition, really."

"For all we know he could be like that only because Hiwatari made some concoction and made Dark drink it! It's possible, 'Ku! I'm already volunteering here, Riku!" Risa almost shook Riku from the excess adrenaline her body wasn't used to.

Riku rolled her eyes at her sister. Sometimes she found herself thinking that Risa must like Satoshi in some way but she's too much in denial to actually admit it, even to herself. "Oh, whatever Risa. Just come clean and say that all you want to have is a reason to spend some private alone time with Satoshi." Riku grinned mischievously at the younger twin, in a way that reminded the couple of Dark's own infamous smile.

Risa's eyes narrowed instantly and she was almost going to lunge at her sister when the two absent men came back in a more casual, friendly manner. "Hey guys, what's up?" Dark quirked an inquiring eyebrow at his friends, Dai had his hands busy trying to tame his girlfriend, Riku was snickering at her sister and Risa looked absolutely livid.

"My dear sister just admitted to me, with Daisuke as a witness, that…" But before she could finish her taunt, Risa's hand was quickly and securely clamped over her mouth.

"It was nothing, Dark. You know my sister, always saying the weirdest, most random things." She smiled brightly at the Mousy and completely ignored the blue-haired genius beside him—and the look of…sorrow in his cerulean eyes.

"Well anyway, I invited Satoshi to our trip on Saturday, alright with you guys?" Dark asked, pushing his aforementioned friend into the seat beside Daisuke then taking his own on the other side of Riku.

Riku nodded her head since Risa's hands made it impossible to open her mouth. You didn't need to see the look on the younger Harada's face to know that she would have rather walked out in broad daylight without any clothes on than be stuck with Satoshi for a weekend.

Daisuke was hesitant to give his answer. He had two choices in the matter: choice number one, say no and be rude to his childhood friend or choice number two, say yes and risk having Risa break up with him. He had to take a lot of things into consideration.

"Um…sure, the more the merrier, right?" Daisuke's voice wavered as his girlfriend's eyes widened in horror, betrayal and rage.

"What?! Please tell me you didn't say you're okay with him coming with us?! Daisuke!" she shrieked in utter shock, her hand leaving her sister's mouth to hold unto her boyfriend's shoulders.

"I didn't say I'm okay with him coming with us…?" He had a guilty look on his face and his smile was far from reassuring.

Risa sighed, earning a glare from Satoshi. "I'll bring along Mio if it won't be a burden on anyone," he said in a monotone, looking at everyone but Risa—who he should have known would faint at the thought of Mio Hio still being related to him in any way.

And she did, almost immediately in fact. She caught herself in time but she was pale and shaking when she recovered. "You can't be serious…" She shook her head, trying to erase his last statement from her mind.

Mio Hio was Risa's on-camera best friend and off-camera modeling rival. How is it possible that the only two people she hated in the whole world were dating each other? There were six billion other human beings in the world for heaven's sake! What was Hiwatari compared to all those models, actors and entrepreneurs Hio dated one after the other?

Risa was experiencing a sensory overload; there was too much confusion, hatred, anger and fear in her system for her to function properly. Her mind was going through possibilities of the worst kinds, scenarios of the most embarrassing moments and other painful and terrible things a mile a minute. And she thought only her mouth could do that.

Satoshi, albeit his hate for the younger Harada, was worried about the glassy look in her usually radiant chocolate brown eyes and the blood rushing too quickly from her face. He knew that Mio didn't get along with the younger Harada but he never thought that his joining the trip and his bringing just the one other enemy of Risa would bring this about.

"Risa, calm down. It's just Mio Hio, you can handle her. Haven't you done it a thousand times at least?" Riku tried to get Risa to snap out of whatever she was in. She didn't like it when her sister got like this. The only other time this had happened was when Satoshi had become valedictorian of his class, received every arts-related award at the ceremony and allowed Mio to kiss him on the lips in front of everybody in the after-party.

Risa had already hated Mio since they were in elementary and it was harder for her because Mio was a year younger than herself, unlike Satoshi's age advantage on her. The graduation was just shock over shock on Risa and she had to be taken home a few minutes after the kiss.

She didn't understand herself. Why should she care if her two enemies went out and kissed…and did other couple-y things together? She hated them! She shouldn't be affected! She didn't like Hiwatari either, she knew she didn't. She was as sure of that as she could see the budding romance between her sister and Dark!

But…

Risa couldn't help the stabbing pain in her chest as she continued to sit, quieted by the shock. She knew at the back of her mind that she didn't care about Hiwatari, never had and never will. But she also knew what a catch he was, as much as it pained her to say it aloud in her mind. Intelligent, artistic, rich, thoughtful (there were a few times in their so-called relationship that he wasn't such a bad guy) and…gorgeous.

She hated herself. How could she do this to Daisuke? Daisuke Niwa, the only other person besides her sister who stood by her when she failed, when Dark told her that it wouldn't be right leading her on when there was no attraction on his part…when Satoshi won all those awards then French kissed Mio Hio with ten supervising adults and a thousand students watching.

What in the world was she doing?! She wasn't like Mio who went from one guy to the next, never caring about anything other than her need to be praised. She loved Daisuke and he loved her, had always loved her despite everything she had done and said to him in the span of twelve years and in spite of her ridiculous crush on Dark (who's clearly meant for her sister).

She stood up abruptly from her chair, not caring if it fell or not. She got her purse and her jacket then quickly strode out of the café.

"Risa, wait!" she vaguely heard Daisuke's voice before the door closed behind her.

She hailed a cab and told the driver her address. She leaned back in her seat and resisted to let the tears behind her closed eyelids fall.

What was wrong with her? She had Daisuke! He was the best boyfriend she could ever imagine!

She clenched her jaw to stop the tears and formed her hands into tight, white-knuckled fists to ease the throbbing pain in her heart as another more upsetting thought came to mind.

How could Satoshi do this to her? She had spent years trying to show everyone what a jerk he is and now he's off again with that bitch!

How dare he?!

--

"Don't worry about her. She'll be fine, Riku," Dark said quietly as he followed Riku's worried eyes straying towards the door.

She knew she could trust her sister and that she had nothing to be afraid of. But what kind of sister would she be if she didn't worry like crazy over her younger twin? She turned to Daisuke who looked about ready to jump out of his seat and follow Risa wherever she may have went.

Then her eyes landed on Satoshi, he was paler than usual and his eyes were dull and void—as if Risa walking out of the café was heartbreaking for him. If this had been any other time, Riku would have teased Satoshi and Risa about the look on his face.

"I know…but she's Risa, she's sort of a magnet for trouble. If anyone could attract danger on a perfectly safe, bright day as this, it can only be her." Riku tried to smile up at Dark but failed miserably. She was thankful for his strength. Without it, she would have already gotten a cab and tried contacting her sister even if she knew she wanted some space to think and let the news sink in completely. Who would have thought he could actually help her in things like this?

"I apologize for letting things get out of hand. Please tell her that I've backed out of the trip, Riku. Dark, we'll have a meeting on the Player building Wednesday afternoon." Satoshi stood up, his glasses and bangs covering his eyes and the misery that resided there. His coldness was the only thing covering the cracking of his voice had he allowed some emotion to seep through.

"I think I'll go too, you guys. Risa should be somewhere, I'll try to find her and calm her down. I'm sorry, Satoshi, I know she didn't mean to act the way she did," the red-head of the group apologized with his usual guilty expression.

"I can assure you she did," the other man replied in the same monotone before exiting through the doors Risa had just used only minutes before.

"Will you two be okay? Do you think you can handle left alone together?" Daisuke glanced at Riku and Dark when he had already donned his coat over his suit.

"Of course, Dai. If she does anything to annoy me, I can always just storm through the doors and enjoy myself," Dark answered with his usual cockiness, trying to lift the melancholy that hung in the air around the table.

Riku glared at him and was almost about to hit him when Daisuke laughed and she understood what Dark was doing for his best friend. She found it strangely sweet. "Oh yeah, Daisuke, you have nothing to worry about. If he does anything, I can always just…oh, I don't know, hit him and hang him upside down by his toes." Riku smirked at the scowl that formed on Dark's usually carefree face.

Daisuke chuckled again then grinned at his two friends. "Well, alright, if you're sure. I'll call as soon as I receive word from Risa."

With that, Dark and Riku were left alone in their previously full table. The plates were already cleared and only Riku's tea and Dark's bottled water were left to be paid.

"Didn't you say that you 'want no form of caffeine to touch my digestive track'? Or did I mishear and you actually said 'are you insane? I can't possibly live without my tea'?" Dark inquired with a grin, his previously darkened face restored to its original god-likeness.

Riku was still surprised to find out that he remembered their arguments and conversations from seven years ago. She laughed at…them. In just a week, Dark had been able to get a foot on her good side. He was the same charmer she had loathed in her childhood but somehow he matured through the years they'd been absent in each other's lives.

"Of course I said 'are you insane? I can't possibly live without my tea'! What kind of self-respecting, slave-driven fashion magazine editor do you think I would be without some kind of caffeine to get me to stay up 'til the wee hours of glorious workday mornings?" Riku asked back, her voice full of sarcastic and her eyes overflowing with mirth.

Dark shook his head at the younger woman in front of him. He would never have thought this day would ever come. "You know what? I never imagined you as a fashion magazine editor slash CEO, honestly."

"And just what did you think I would grow up to be?" Riku raised an eyebrow in challenge.

"Which answer do you want? Pick-up line or the sincere, I-may-be-punched-in-the-face-because-of-this one?" he asked back sarcastically rolling his eyes, already knowing her response. He wasn't sure if he would really be open with her but he would try his damnedest. He cared for their friendship, that much he could allow.

Riku acted as if she was actually thinking of an answer. 'Let's surprise him, shall we?'

"Pick-up line, lay it on me." Riku grinned when Dark almost fell out of his chair from the astonishment. Which would have been such a waste, he was wearing his usual office attire after all.

"Sorry, I thought I heard you say you wanted to hear the pick-up line?" Dark looked wary of her, afraid that she might be recovering from some rare mental illness he'd never read about.

Riku grinned again and nodded her head. "Well, yeah, where's the fun in knowing how you really thought of me? Humor me, come on," Riku prodded, her smile growing even wider.

Dark shook his head at her. First it was Risa running out on them and now this. Was he being punished for some unknown crime he had done in his sleep? Then he saw the pure delight in Riku's brown eyes, her worries for her sister almost completely forgotten. Okay, well maybe this wasn't as much retribution as it was fun.

He was about to give in to Riku's request when a loud, shrill ring reached their ears and caused them to cringe. "What the hell? What kind of normal human being would have that ring tone?" Riku hissed in pain and irritation.

Suddenly, another person was standing in front of their table, her perfume overpowering and vomit-inducing.

"The abnormal types, that's who," Dark mumbled back, looking up to the towering Saehara who had a sly smile on her clearly plastic surgery changed face.

"Dark! What a surprise to see you here!" She laughed in her high voice and then frowned when she noticed Riku. "Oh, you must be Riku Harada, Dark's girlfriend, correct?"

Riku didn't even have to pause to think of an answer. "Yes, I am, you bitch. Who do you think you are, interrupting our conversation with that idiotic ring tone of yours? Do you think you could do us a favor and fucking leave us alone? Dark doesn't need someone like you stalking him and breaking into his house," she said in her most scathing tone, standing up to make her point. Even if the other girl was wearing four-inch heels, Riku was still taller and that made Megumi cower in her place.

She took a deep, overdramatic breath and stood her ground. "Whatever, I have as much right to be here as you. And, if you haven't hit your head too many times trying to get your brain to work, you'd know that I did that only one time, could you stop with it already?" the younger girl glowered at Riku, her determination slowly ebbing away when she saw the raw, untainted rage in her eyes.

"Leave, Saehara. If you haven't asked your father, I have another restraining order against you, ten yards," Dark stood up, at least two feet taller than the girl.

Megumi looked like she was about to cry when her crush raised a challenging eyebrow at her but then smirked at Riku and turned around. "I'll get you, Riku Harada. Mark my words, I will."

Dark and Riku looked at each other then at the retreating figure that was Megumi Saehara.

"What a nutcase," Riku declared when they sat back down.

Dark grinned, repeating the words Riku had said to the youngest Saehara earlier.

"I know."