Hello there everybody! I hope there are still people who remember this story; it has been such a long time since I updated it! Sorry I take so much time, hopefully it will be worth the wait. Special thanks again to the reviewers of the last chapter, namely Twilight Archangel, Hoshi-Naito and Kaoru2585. Thanks also to you readers who haven't reviewed, though if you did review I could thank you properly. *wink wink, nudge nudge* And now, on with the story!
-Lusankya
Disclaimer: If I owned Digimon, I would be very happy. I unfortunately do not own it, but you are reading this story of mine and that makes me very happy too.
Leaning back in his chair, Ryo sighed contently. "Ah, that was delicious. I don't think I could eat anything more."
Rika smiled. "Yeah, I'm pretty full too."
At this moment, the waitress passed next to their table. To Rika's surprise, Ryo's eyes widened when he saw her and cracked his neck to follow her movement. While she was first highly annoyed by his antics, Rika quickly understood the cause.
The waitress was carrying an enormous piece of chocolate cake.
"I changed my mind. I think I still have some space left", said Ryo, hypnotised by the cake.
Rika shook her head. "I really don't think you do."
Finally tearing his gaze from the chocolate wonder, Ryo looked at her quizzically. "Why? These cakes are not as good as they look?"
"Oh no, the cakes here are great. But they're big portions, very filling, and they're not exactly cheap."
"How much?"
Rika held out the dessert menu to him. Ryo winced. "That would indeed cut into my arcade budget. But," the blue-eyed boy conceded as he looked forlornly at the piece of chocolate cake currently being devoured between occasional fits of giggles by two schoolgirls, "it looks so delicious…"
As she looked at her cake-longing companion, Rika was torn between her emotions. One little part of her thought "Poor him, he looks so sad…", but the major part of her thought "Come on, let's be serious, I mean it's just cake."
She sighed. She regretted it before she even said it. Rika cleared her throat, snapping Ryo's attention back to her again.
"Ahem. Akiyama."
He looked at her, slightly puzzled. Rika began stammering.
"Well, erm, since, you know, the cake pieces are kind of big…"
"Yes?" Ryo answered, still looking a little confused.
"Well, maybe, maybe we could, erm…" she continued, her cheeks getting tinted with pink.
Smiling, Ryo nodded, urging her on.
Rika's cheeks reddened.
"God, Akiyama, let's just share that stupid cake already, if that's what it takes to get you to shut up about it! I am not going to spend one more minute listening to you whining about how you want cake!" The red-head yelled while throwing herself into the back of her chair while folding her arms over her chest, her violet eyes ablaze with anger at her embarrassment. To the untrained eye, she would have effectively looked as if she were sulking.
However, Ryo just smiled brightly.
"Wow, you really mean it? Thank you! You choose which cake we'll have then!" He cheerfully said while giving her back the dessert menu, seemingly oblivious to the biting and angry tone of her two last sentences. Rika looked back at him, a little surprised at his lack of acknowledgment of her little outburst.
"Erm, thanks…" she said, her tone uncertain, before accepting the offered menu. She browsed through it for a minute, trying to ignore Ryo's gaze which was fixed upon her, before announcing her decision.
"What about the raspberry and chocolate fudge cheesecake?" Rika finally said.
Ryo's eyes shone brightly and his smile widened. "Great! I was hoping you'd choose this one", he happily said. Locating the waitress in the front of the restaurant, he then quickly proceeded to call her.
"Oh, hey, miss waitress! Over here!" He began shouting as he waved his arm around, trying to get the waitress' attention. She turned around, gave a little laugh and nodded, signalling she'd be with them soon, as she was currently busy with another client.
Rika rested her forehead in her palm, discouraged by his antics. "You can be such a child, Akiyama," she grumbled.
"Me, childish?" Ryo innocently said. "I'll have you know that I can be very serious and mature when I need to be. I just don't often feel like it" he added with a wink.
Rika shrugged, but couldn't find a witty comeback to this. She had personally witnessed just how serious he could be as they had fought the D-Reaper; how he had been willing to throw everything into a near-hopeless attempt to defeat it, and how he had protected her as she lay helpless as Sakuyamon after giving her power to him. Lost in her reminiscence of the Tamers days, she hadn't noticed the waitress joining them.
"Hi!" she ever-so-cheerfully said, making Rika jump slightly. "What can I do for you?"
"We'd like a piece of your raspberry and chocolate fudge cheesecake, please!" Ryo asked, smiling. "Oh, and could you please bring us two spoons?"
The waitress' smile would have widened, if such a thing was possible. "Sure, no problem! I'll be right back!" And so, the waitress bounced away.
Ryo then turned his attention back to Rika. "So, your Highness, if you don't mind me asking, what plans do you have for us today?"
"Nothing special, really" the redhead shrugged. "I figured we could go see a movie and spend some time at the arcade, since it's right next to the movie theatre."
"Sounds like a plan. What's playing these days?"
"I came prepared," said Rika as she pulled a piece of paper from her jeans' back pocket. She unfolded it before him to reveal a newspaper's movie schedule. "I'm not very difficult movie-wise. However, I refuse to go see this one, this one, this one, and you'd have to drag my corpse into the theatre for me to see this one, and even then I'm sure it would manage to hold on to something in order to prevent it."
"Funny, these movies you refuse to see are all either romantic comedies or tear-jerkers," said Ryo, highly amused. "But I'm sure we can find a compromise. What else do we have?"
Rika looked over the schedule. "Two horror movies, three animated ones, a thriller…"
"No, I saw that one," said Ryo as he shook his head. "It wasn't as great as the critics said."
"We also have a fictional biography on a 17th century German writer, a badly translated Bollywood production, a few dumb and tasteless comedies, and a martial arts movie. That's about it."
"I don't know about you, but I love a good martial arts movie" said Ryo.
Rika looked at him with interest. "Actually, I quite like them myself. Plus, I have been waiting for a chance to see this one for some time now. I mean, Yu Tsi-Ang and Hideaki Kurosawa in the same movie? It's almost too good to be true."
"My thoughts exactly! So it's settled then?" asked Ryo, grinning from ear to ear.
"I suppose it is."
It is upon those words that the waitress returned, carrying her precious chocolate-filled load. "I'm back!" she exclaimed, as happy as ever. Rika wondered how she could possibly have so much energy all the time. Maybe the air she inhaled all day long contained a high quantity of caffeine and sugar?
Oblivious to the fact that she was being analysed as such, the waitress put down the cake between the two teenagers. Though, to merely call "cake" such a divine treat would be an insult to its artisans. Words could not possibly describe faithfully this heavenly treat, but if you were to imagine the most mouth-watering, scrumptious-looking cake your mind can picture, well, you would not be close to the truth but it would be a start. Even Rika, who was not even hungry anymore and accepted to share the cake only to please Ryo (not that she would ever admit it, mind you) suddenly found that there was some space left in her stomach.
Mesmerized by the cake, she was shocked out of her hypnosis-like state when the waitress cheerfully said "Well, there you go, you lovebirds! Enjoy!" And with a wink she was gone.
Rika opened her mouth to answer, to correct her, but no sound would come out. Her face paled, and then progressively reddened. Lovebirds..? Lovebirds..! She... she thinks we're...dating?!
In front of her Ryo seemed perfectly indifferent to the cause of her distress, though he certainly noticed her troubled demeanour.
"What's wrong Rika?" He asked, slightly worried. "Why are you so upset? I mean, we have cake!"
Mortified and angry that Ryo wasn't as mortified as she was, Rika stuttered: "She thinks that... The, the waitress... that you, that I..! She thinks that we, we are..."
"A couple," finished Ryo. He shrugged. "So?"
Infuriated that Ryo could be so indifferent to something that upset her so much, Rika gritted her teeth. "That waitress thinks we're dating and all you can say is «so»?"
"Well, the mistake was easy to make, no? I mean, we were having lunch together, making plans to go to the movies and sharing a cake. If we had been two guys or two girls, nobody would have thought anything, but as it is, we are a boy and a girl. It's normal people are confused. Besides, since when do you care what people think about you? We both know that you'd rather eat a living snake than go out with me, after all," Ryo calmly said with a small smile that looked almost... sad.
Even though the rational part of her had to recognize Ryo was making perfect sense, Rika was reluctant to admit it. "Maybe," she began, "but still-"
She never had the chance to finish that sentence because Ryo then shoved a spoonful of cake into her mouth. "Now Rika, why can't you just let it go? By making a big deal of correcting the waitress, you would only embarrass her. Surely you couldn't be mean enough to want to dampen her spirits, could you? And I forbid you to make a single other sour face in front of that cake. It has done nothing to you," he gently scolded her.
To tell the truth, Ryo's words were hardly necessary, for as soon as the cake entered Rika's mouth, all her thoughts about the waitress and her strange relationship with Ryo just flew right out of her head: the only thing she could concentrate on was how delicious that cake was.
"Oh my goodness" Rika said with wide eyes, after swallowing, "this is heavenly."
"Really?" asked the blue-eyed boy excitedly.
"Like you wouldn't believe!" And with these words, both teenagers pounced on the helpless cake, the waitress' words forgotten for now.
A few minutes later, there remained nothing of the poor cake but the memory of its delectableness in the minds of the two tamers. Leaning back into his chair, Ryo sighed contently. "Ah, that was delicious. Now, I really can't eat anything more."
Rika rolled her eyes at him. "I heard that one before."
Ryo chuckled. "Ready to head out, then?" he asked. When she nodded, he motioned to the waitress for the bills. She arrived, with her huge reserves of energy and happiness.
"Ready to leave so soon?" She asked, grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm afraid we must," said Ryo with a smile.
"One bill, I suppose?"
"No, two bills," corrected Rika, flushing slightly.
"Ah?" Surprise was evident in the waitress' voice. She turned to Ryo. "Not treating your girlfriend today?"
Rika opened her mouth to protest, but Ryo was quicker. "I would, but she wouldn't let me," he smoothly said, which made the waitress laugh. She then produced the bills, which the tamers promptly paid. Ryo then rose up from his chair, bowed towards Rika and said with a playful smile "After you, your Highness."
The red-head rolled her eyes and scoffed while making her way out of the café, a tint of red still colouring her cheeks. Once Rika's back was turned, Ryo glanced at the waitress, caught her eye and winked at her. Grinning, the waitress gave him the thumbs-up in return. Ryo then hurried out of the café after Rika, for the great amusement of the waitress.
"Hey, wait for me!" shouted Ryo as he ran to catch up with Rika, who was walking quite quickly. When he finally caught up with her, she coldly said "I am not your babysitter, Akiyama. I intend to go to the movies and the arcade. Either you follow, or you get lost!"
Since the time he had known her, Ryo had ceased to be intimidated by her harsh words, so he only chuckled. "Come on! Leave your side? What fun would there be in that?"
And so, the pair marched towards the movie theatre.
End of Chapter 4