A/N: Thank you for all the e-mails telling me it was so sweet but why don't you people review instead of sending e-mails? *kinda sorta confused about that* but anyways having about 12 reviews in the first two chapters is good for me! and...... Lyra you are TOO better than me... this story sucks compared to yours... so deal with it. Anyways as this goes on I was listening to country music... and the Matchbox Twenty song, 'If You're Gone' started playing half-way through this first paragraph, and you can see when it started to change ^_^;;... then again when I decided to write more with the Mary J. Blidge song "Family Affair"....
~
Takato stared at Rika a moment, looked her up and down in the short pink skirt and white tank top, completly with a pink velour vest, and burst into roaring laughter.
Rika pushed back a piece of long hair behind her ear and just glared at him. Henry warned her about this, and truth be told she was glad he did. Takato seemed to take advantage of this, and try to make himself come out on top all the time, may it be the card game, or just regular conversation on things she couldn't remember. But, Rika knew how to stand her ground, something Kazu taught her in the past few days.
"OW!"
Takato clutched his foot with his hand, putting the other to keep his balance against the glass counter of the bakery that Rika had walked into a few minutes before.
"DANG!! Why'd you do that?!" Takato demanded.
Rika walked across the room slowly, highheels, which one had gone into Takato's foot, clicking on the floor, the light from the sun outside being blocked off a bit, casting a shadow of a tall slim girl across the bakery floor.
Rika put her hand on her bare hip and turned quickly around to look at him. "Do I seriously need to answer that?"
"Have you met Renamon yet?" Takato jumped onto another subject, knowing well that he'd get a piece of Henry's mind later over the phone.
Rika grew a curious look on her face. "No... should I know him?"
Takato put his foot back down and boosted himself up on the counter, putting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. "Not he... she.... you two were good friends."
"Renamon? Her name's Renamon? Weird.." Rika made a face, then growled suddenly, using her other foot she slid off her high heel, then soon the other followed. "I can't stand those..."
"You never could." Takato snickered inwardly, then leaned back on the counter, putting his hands behind him and watching the girl observe some loaves of bread on display.
"She isn't human though... she's a digimon.."
"A wha'?"
Takato's eyes grew wide when Rika stood up straight from her bent over position of looking at rolls with another weird look on her face.
"You.. don't know.... what digimon.. is?"
"Nope not a clue.."
Takato still held his blank look on his face. She didn't know digimon yet? But.. wasn't Henry working on her about th-- oh nevermind.... Henry was probably too busy worrying that his 'relationship' with her was on the break of going.
Rika went back to looking at the selection of breads as Takato watched her. Maybe this was the break he was looking for, he always wanted to be friends with Rika, and since she couldn't remember them being enemies, it seemed only logical it was time to try again.
"Um, Rika?"
Rika looked up and smiled. "Yes?.. uh... Takato, isn't it?" she still didn't have names down yet, anyone except Henry and Suzy seemed hard to remember to her.
"What'cha doin' tomorrow afternoon? Me and Kazu are going to the arcade down at the mall, you can come with us, if you want."
Rika smiled once more, something Takato couldn't remember seeing often. Takato decided he sort of liked it... seeing this side of Rika.
"I'd love to, except I told Henry I'd go over to his house tomorrow afternoon."
"Henry, huh? You two seem to be getting close." Takato put one leg over the other and rocked back a bit, careful to not flip over the entire counter.
"Not like we're a couple or anything." Rika shrugged, and crossed her arms over her chest and kept looking at the bread, walking down the line of shelves holding the day's fresh merchandise.
"Yeah, right."
Rika looked up slowly, one eyebrow narrowed. "What do you mean, do you and Henry know something I don't?"
"What'cha mean, me and Henry?" Takato wanted to know.
Rika sighed. "When we went to the beach yesturday he said he wanted to talk to me alone, and when he did he started to talk about our 'relationship'.... I asked him if we were more then friends and he sa---"
Rika stopped in mid-sentance, and Takato saw her soft lilac eyes grow far-away almost as if she had sunk into her own world. "--- he was cut off and he never answered the question."
Takato laughed. "A wave I heard..." he slid off the glass counter and stepped back behind it. "Henry called me yesturday."
"Takato, can I ask you something.. and I want you to respond to me.... truthfully." Rika looked at the floor, then back up at Takato.
"Sure.. anything."
Rika still held the far-off look, and Takato was half afraid of the question she was going to ask.
"Takato, were me and Henry... more than friends?"
Takato turned his back to her, and grimaced, closing his eyes tightly and cussing under his breath.
He turned back around and sighed, planning on lying to her completly. He swore to keep it a secret until Henry told her himself, but...
Takato took one look at her, a bothered look across her face now that she came back to reality. She looked concerned, worried that she might be not good enough for Henry right now, was the only thing flooding Takato's mind.
"Yes..."
Rika's breath stopped in it's tracks, she closed her eyes tightly and turned around on her heels walking a step or two away, running her fingers through her hair.
"... You were..." Takato finished, waiting for her to respond with something other than body language.
Rika let out a slow breath, lifting her face to the ceiling. "That's what I thought."
"But before you tell him you kn--"
"I know, Takato..."
"No.. you don't."
Takato's eyes grew fierce as he looked at her. "I know you think you have to keep it a secret that I told you, which, okay so you do, but, look, the real problem is when you said you didn't know what digimon was... Digimon was your life..."
"Digimon, that's the TV show on every afternoon, correct?"
Takato nodded at her, seeing he had her attention now.
"Look I know you now think you were just obsessed with it, but Digimon are real..."
Rika blinked a few times at him, clearly confused. "Takato, you lost me."
"I'm serious... ask Henry who Renamon is... then if he tries to skip the subject just said 'Renamon' sharply."
"Um... okay.." Rika slipped the high-heeled shoes back on and winked at him. "See'ya later Takato."
Takato just laughed and went back to what he had been doing before Rika had walked in, sorting the papers his father had given him earlier.
Takato kept the simple grin on his face. "For once I was able to see why Henry's so obsessed with her..."
Takato shook his head. "Listen to yourself, going on about Rika Nonaka..."
"HENWY!! WIKA'S HERE!"
Dead silence in the rest of the house made Rika fold her arms over her chest and raise one eyebrow. "You sure he's here?"
"Yes I saw him walk down the hall juss'a moment ago.." Henry's little sister Suzy protested, leaning back to look down the hallway from her place in front of the door.
"Aw, nevewmind.. you come in... you can sit on the cwoch."
Rika followed the small girl's instructions as she tore down the hallway, yelling angrily.
"Henwy Wong! I said Wika is out hewe! Henwy whewe awe you??? Thewe you a--"
Suzy froze in the hallway as her older brother walked out of his room, straightening out a loose white buttoned shirt, the one she'd only seen him wear when he took Rika to the carnival awhile back.
"Wow... you look nice.."
Henry smiled down at his little sister and messed with her hair a bit. "Thanks twrip."
Suzy giggled and ran down the rest of the hall to her own room to go play.
Henry laughed himself, half at the first look on Suzy's face, half at the second look.
"Rika?" he asked, peeking his head around the corner of the hallway, towards the large sofa where a tall beautiful girl sat.
Rika stood up, smiled sweetly, and held her hands behind her back.
Henry shook his head fiercely, trying to come back to reality after staring at her. He could not ever remember Rika looking like that, not even in the first week or so after the carnival.
"You look... perfect...." Henry breathed, not even aware of the checked-out look across his face.
Rika blushed. "Thank you... you look--"
A blank look crossed Rika's face and she blinked a few times, then pointed at Henry.
"That shirt..."
Henry grabbed the bottom of his shirt with his hands and pulled it forewards to look down at it.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I... remember that...."
Henry looked back up and her and smiled. "You should.. I wore this first time we---"
"Went out?" Rika finished the sentance for him, sitting back down on the couch and motioning for him to sit beside her.
Henry's mouth stayed open, having been cut off mid-sentance, but he made his way across the soft carpeted floor and sank into the couch beside her, only inches away from her.
"Yeah..."
"We were more than friends... I kinda figured we were..."
Henry looked over at her soft lilac eyes that had been set on him this whole conversation.
"I was afraid you'd say it like that.."
Rika grew another confused look on her face.
"Huh?"
"You said.. were..."
Rika blushed once more. "Are..." she corrected herself, then looked back up at him. "I need all the love I can get through this, and I can pretty much see why I might've been angry before... Mother's been going back to work all the time, trying to drag me into it, which for some odd reason I don't want to be..."
"Could've fooled me." Henry motioned to her outfit of hot-pink clothing.
Rika grinned. "Well she wants me to wear white lace-like stuff..."
"Ahh.." Henry nodded, and put his hands behind his head, leaning back in the cushion.
Rika sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry.."
Henry look down at her, letting on of his hands drop from the back of his head, and falling around her.
"For what?"
"Being like this... forgetting everything.... forgetting whoever Renamon is..."
Henry went completly silent. "Renamon?" he managed to squeak out.
"Yes... Renamon." Rika sat up straight. "You know who I'm talking about, don't you?"
"No.. no I don't." Henry lied, biting his bottom lip, then putting himself back into place after realizing Rika had one eyebrow raised. "I don't..." Herny repeated.
Rika stood up abruptly, not taking his eyes off Henry.
"Renamon!" she snapped fiercely, just like Takato had told her to.
Rika gave a frightful little shriek and jumped back a bit, having her attention diverted from Henry to the large fox digimon that had appeared behind the couch.