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A/N: So here's my new story- The Lake. I hope you all enjoy it and be sure to read the end author's note for my new end quote as well as info on this new story. Enjoy. Love and be loved. Read… and review!
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Summer Air

The breeze swept by and it seemed to me as if this day would never end! I stared at the beautiful old oak tree that stood next to the famous Jenkins' Lake, and breathed in all its wonder. The summer air filled my lungs and I couldn't be happier with where I am. I love the scenery before me and I honestly wonder if this is what perfection is like? Maybe it is, or maybe it isn't? I change direction and stare into the slowly setting sun. It's orange, red, and yellow beauty… just another object in this perfect-

"Takato!" I hear someone yell gaily.

I turn in time to see a girl with fiery red hair hurtling towards me. She falls to the ground and wraps her arms around my waist. She rolls over my legs and buries her bushel of hair into my stomach. I looked down at her nervously. What on earth is going on? "What's the mat-"

"Hide me! Quick!" She says, looking up at me with a laugh and a frantic look on her face… yet a very mischievous smile as well. Immediately though, she buries her head back into my stomach.

I have no idea where I was suppose to hide her but I start to look around for what I'm suppose to hide her from and saw it immediately. A tall, lanky boy with blue hair is thundering towards us with a rather large water gun in hand!

I look down at one best friend burrowing into me and then back up at the other one getting ready to soak her and/or me. I looked down again and looked at what she was wearing- a white t-shirt. Hmmm…. if he does soak her, I'll be able to she her- NO! I pushed the cynical, yet tempting thought from my mind. I scrunch down so that my head is up against her forehead, and then I roll over to on top of her. I move my head and watch him come to a halt right in front of me. He holds the end of the gun up with his left hand, his right hand around the handle' his index finger ready to pull the trigger. He squints his left eye and pointed the weapon right at me. "Roll off of her, Takato, and you'll walk away dry."

"No! Don't do it, Takato!" she yelled excitedly as the pressure situation gets even tenser.

I look up at him boldly, and with derring-do, I reply, "If you want Rika, Henry, you'll have to go through me!"

He smiles at this and yells, "Fine!" and shoots his water gun and hits me square in the back.

I felt my back get wet immediately as Rika and I burst out laughing right away. The water stops flowing, and I look up to see Henry on the ground laughing, the water fun laying a got away from him. I slide off of lying on top of Rika, and I know exactly what to do. I crawl over to Henry, grab the water gun, and as he begins to try to get up, I tackle him as I continue to laugh hysterically.

"Oooh!" I grunt as I feel more weight come crashing on top of me, and Rika's laughter is right in my ear. "Ugh, well, we've got you now, Henry!" I said.

Rika rolls to her left so that her back is now on Henry's back, and my upper body lies on his shoulder blades, but if he feels any pain he isn't saying so because we were all still laughing.

I turn on my side and point the end of the gun at his head as Rika and he kept laughing, I take good aim and shoot him square in the neck. Rika bursts into even louder laughter and I throw the gun away as Henry waves his flailing arms at me. I grab his forearms and hold them away so he can't keep trying to smack me.

My nerves calm as Henry continues to chuckle and Rika's laughter begins to subside until she is just laughing to herself quietly. I roll back over so that my back is on Henry's shoulder blades, and Rika continues to lie with her back parallel to Henry's lower back. I look over at her and she smiles and her laughter grows a little bit louder, then I look over at Henry and his little smirk grows to a big grin and suddenly, we three begin to burst out laughing again.

After a few more seconds of laughter, it all begins to subside simultaneously. I look from one to the other, smiling and sighing. "Ughh," Henry finally sighs, "well… can you guys get off of me now?"

"Oh! Sure!"
"No." Rika replies, but I get up anyway..
I laugh at this and watch Henry roll over so that she is now lying with her back on his stomach. "Please" he adds
"Uggh… okay." She says, and reaches her arms out, "Takato, could you…"
"Oh, yeah." I said as she trails off, assuming I know what she means.

I grab her hands into mine and lift her right off of his back, and suddenly into my arms, as she puts her head on my chest, her arms wrap tightly around me, and my arms are loosely around her, with one arm on her shoulders and the other on her lower back, not far from her ass.

I feel her give a grunt as she squeezes tighter and I involuntarily return the pressure. The next second though, she releases her grasp and so did I, and Henry was standing up smiling. "I warned ya! I told you- all you had to do was roll off of her-"

"Oh, shut up, Henry!" Rika says with a laugh, and turns to walk away.
"Oooooh, she gave you the cold shoulder!" I say laughing as I follow her, although I'm not quite sure where.
"Wait! We need to get the water gun stuff and… and… where are you two going!?" Henry calls after us.
I stop as Rika turns around and smiles at him from across the way, "Get it yourself! And I'm going home!"
"Hey! That's not fair!" Henry yells back although the humor is still present in the air. "And don't go home yet!"
I turn around and look at Rika, "Yeah, c'mon Rika, let's all still hang out."

She gives an 'ah-I-don't-really-want-to-but-will-anyway' face to me and rolls her eyes. I smile at her, "What!? Why ya in such a rush to get home? I thought you hated there anyway"

"I don't hate it there… it's just more enjoyable to be other places." She says and I laugh as I watch water drip off of her shirt.

Henry picks up the water gun, unscrews the cap that was keeping the water inside the gun, and pours it out into the soil of the tree that I was just sitting underneath of. "Oh, Henry, dear, you are so considerate of the environment." Rika says, slinging an arm around his shoulder with one hand, and letting her hair down with the other, all the while somewhat mocking Henry as well as erecting an aura of a black-and-white movie wife.

I smile at this as Henry turns and looks Rika in the eye, "Now, Rika, you may be tough, but if you don't get your arm off of me in two seconds I'll break it." He says coolly, and I giggle more as this gets more and more interesting every second.

Rika smiles, looking Henry dead in the eye. "But darling, how will we ever be able to conquer world hunger and pollution if you're busy breaking my arrr-!"

Rika runs like hell as Henry shakes her arm off his shoulder and reaches for her wrist. She runs to behind me again and grabs the back of my black t-shirt. I stare up at Henry and he looks at me with a look of 'oh-come-on-this-is-ridiculous.' I laugh, but she's not taking me with her this time. "Uh-uh, Rika. Not this time!"

I shake about until I'm sure she'll let go. Al… most… free! I break free of her hands but before I can get away, she wraps her whole arms around me. Yeah… now I'm not going anywhere. She puts her head on my shoulder from behind me. "Well now, Takato, what do you propose we do now?" she says again with humor in her voice, but also I can sense her serious question behind the tone.

"Well… do you guys want to go back to my place? We can hang out a little while longer, if ya want?" I propose

Henry just gives a blank stare and then says, "Yeah sure… I mean, if that's okay with my parents."
"Yeah, same I guess." Rika agrees.

"Well, let me call my parents first and see if they're okay with you guys coming over. 'Cuz, there's no point in you guys getting the okay if I get a 'no.' Ya know?"

"Yeah, of course. Go right ahead." Henry says.
"Here, allow me!" Rika says excitedly.

Before I can react or expect anything to happen, Rika reaches into my khaki's pocket and pulls my cell phone right out! "Hey!"

"Don't worry about, Takato. I got it!" she says with a laugh still and turns her back on me and hunches over my phone to block me. This time it's Henry's turn to laugh at my misfortunate at the hands of this tornado on legs!

"Rika! Hey! Give me my phone back! Right now! Rika! No! Stop it! Who are you calling!?" I franticly yell as I try to get my phone back, but she just turns her back in unison with me.

"Don't worry about it! I got it!" she says, going through my contacts. "There it is!"

"There WHAT is!?" I yell frantically, but now she stands upright, with my phone to her right ear. She holds out her left arm out like an NFL running back and stiff arms me away, literally keeping me at arm's length.

She blocks me off for a few seconds as she waits for, I guess, for whoever she's calling to pick up. I try to get around her but she's much quicker and more powerful than me and keeps me away until- "Hello?" she says as whoever she called picks up.

"Hello! Hey, it's me, Rika. Rika Nonaka." She says into the phone and I back off… I can't stop her now.

She waits a few second as I can barely hear the sound of someone's voice on the other side. "Yes, yes, that would be me- the lovely red head. Yes and how are you, Mrs. Matsuda?"

"MRS. MARSUDA! RIKA! GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK RIGHT NOW!" I yell, realizing who she's calling! Oh my God, my mom called her a 'lovely red head!' Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! She has no idea what she's talking about!

"Yes! Yes, that's him. He's right here, yelling at me! I know, right! What on earth, is he thinking? Yelling at girls? How does he ever plan to get married if he keeps yelling at girls?" she continues to nag about me with my mom.

Henry is probably in tears laughing at this point as I can hear him continue to howl with laughter. "Rika! PLEASE give me my phone back!" I say, attempting to calm down.

"Oh, now he's trying to kiss up and be all nice. That's not gonna work."

Oh my God, I am gonna kill her in like two seconds! "Give me my phone! Stop talking to my mom!"

"Ah well, anyway, the reason why I am calling. Well, as you can see, it's getting late." She says, looking towards the almost set-sun, "And well, Takato was wondering if he, myself, and Henry Wong could come back to your house before it gets dark?"

After another second or two she smiles, "Okay? Thank you very much. We will be over in a few minutes. Oh and here's your son. I think you need to give him a little lesson on how to treat ladies." Rika says with an evil smile, handing me back my phone.

I stare at her with seething hatred, but she just stares back and smiles, "I love you, Takato." She yells loud enough for the receiver to pick it up.

"I-"

"Don't leave your MOM waiting, Takato." She says with an evil smile.
I turn my attention to the phone and put it to my ear, "Hey, Mom."
"Takato Matsuda!" she yells at me, "Never, EVER yell at a lady. EVER!"
"But Mom! She-"

"She is a lovely young lady, and you will NOT yell at her ever again!"
"But Mom, she-"

"She nothing! She just said 'I love you.' Now what is the correct way to respond to that kind of affection, TAKATO?"
I turn around and stare at Rika who is smiling devilishly and as I turn to her she high-fives Henry, who is on the ground now. "Low-five!" she says as she does so.

"But-"

"Taaaaaaaakatoo!" Mom yells at me.

"UGH!" I respond and move the phone off of my ear. I stare at Rika and she gives me a bright smile, as if she's done no wrong. "I love you too, Rika." I say with the burden of every word present in my voice.

Rika and Henry burst out laughing again as I bring the phone back up to my ear, "Happy now?"

"Yes. Now, you said you were going to be near Jenkins' Lake, correct? Well, head home and we'll see you in about 5 minutes. And, have Rika or Henry called their parents to ask permission to come here?"

"Ugh… no, not yet." I say defeated.

"Well, make sure they do that, and when they do tell them to invite their parents over here for dinner. Your father and I will fire up the grill and we'll all have hot dogs and hamburgers."

"Ugh…. Okay, I will." I say, the defeated voice still super-present.
"Okay, I'll see you soon."
"Yup, love you, Mom."
"Love you too, bye."

The phone clicks off before I can say 'bye,' and I look up at Rika and a now just getting up Henry. "My mom said to have you guys call your parents and tell them where we're going and to tell them they can come over too for hot dogs and hamburgers."

"Awesome, I love hot dogs!" Rika says excitedly.

Henry's eyes grow HUGE in a matter of a second, "Oh really, Rika? What kind of hot dogs do you like, exactly?" he says, smiling broadly.

I smile at this as well, as he gets Rika back for everything she's done in the last fifteen minutes. She closes her eyes, smiles, and blushes brightly. She opens her mouth to say something but smiles and laughs again. "Umm… hehehe… well, not the kind that YOU like, Henry. I prefer to eat my hot dogs, not suck them."

He laughs at this loudly but says, "Whatever."

I smile at this. "I love hot dogs… they're my favorite. I'd eat them ALL day if I could. Wouldn't you, Rika?" I say with a mischievous and gleeful tone.

She looks at me with awe as the awkwardness as she begins to walk in the direction of my house, "Yeah, sure."

We burst out laughing again as Henry runs to catch up, and I begin to walk beside Rika on our way back to my house. We walked across grass and tree roots on our way to the concrete sidewalks. "So… besides the fact that Takato loves 'hot dogs' what else don't we know about you, Takato?"

I smile at this, deviously thinking of something dumb and funny to say, "Well, I enjoy chocolate bars, a good baseball game, tranquil fishing trips, warm bread, romantic candlelight dinners, and long walks on the beach."

Rika laughs again at this and Henry just shakes his head and smiles broadly. It's days like these that make me so happy to be alive… just days when everything makes sense and everything is fun, and enjoyable, and just… just hilarious! The breeze sweeps by again and I let the summer air hit my cheeks again. Perfection? Yes, I really think so.

We reach the sidewalk and after a few moments we start to go downhill very quickly, "Alright, so now that we're moving faster, how's about a challenge?" Rika says hurrying her footsteps along as she moves down the steep hill.

"What kind of challenge?" Henry says as he and I stay slowly behind her and move quickly.
"How's about we race to Takato's house?" she says.
I turn and look at Henry with a bit of dare in my eyes. "Sounds good to me." I say.
"Me too." Henry agrees.
"Alright, on 'go' we start." She says, but I know she's up to something. "Ready… GO!"

Before I can blink she's off sprinting… she skipped 'set' and I wasn't expecting. But I don't let my feet betray me. I take off after her and Henry, who didn't wait as long as I did to take off. I rush off towards them down the steep hill, but as I reach the bottom, I can't help but look over towards my right. There, sitting immobile for as long as I can remember is the famous playground where I used to play cards… sitting there is the jungle gym where I first found the blue card that led me to Guilmon and the crazy adventure that brought me Rika and Henry. There it is… and it'll always be there, and I'm sure it'll be there tomorrow after I outrun these two losers! I turn my attention to this race and I let the engines go! I let my legs do the work as I plan on speed and, more importantly, endurance to get me the win!

I take off sprinting until after a few seconds I'm passing Henry. He reaches out with his hand as he runs to try and grab and pull me but he swings and misses! He stumbles and slows downs, but keeps his balance. One down… one to go.

Rika is much further ahead, but she doesn't have the kind of endurance that I do. She's almost at the gates to the end of the park, but there's still a good distance to my house from there, so I might be in luck. But I don't want to have to run all the way home… I want to win this right now. I take everything I've got and go for a full out sprint. Rika's the Digimon Queen, Henry's the black belt… and me? I'm the runner.

Before Rika knows what hit her, I'm brushing shoulders with her as I pass through the park gates. I come to a stop and look around at the street road in front of me. It's too late for rush hour traffic with these summer sunsets, but it's not worth it to just run flat out into open road and possibly into on-coming traffic.

Rika comes up besides me, takes one step forward- 'NO!'

I throw my arm up across her chest and pull her backwards as a car zooms by and beeps its horn emphatically at us. Rika stops moving and stares as blankly as death at where she almost met her end. She and I breath in heavily and Henry comes up behind us and also tries to catch his breath. I look up at Rika and she turns to me as well. There is a very eerie silence among the three of us, calculating the implications of what almost just happened. "Ta-Takato." Rika says weakly.

"Yeah." I respond, trying to figure out what on earth she'll say.

"Get your hand off of my chest, or so help me God I will break it."

I smile broadly and look down at my hand resting right across her… well… anyway! "Umm… wow. I'm sorr-"

"Don't… say a word. Not one little word. Thanks for saving me, but never mention that ever again." She says, her eyes closed and her head to the ground.

"What about me? Can I say a word?" Henry says with a laugh, but that was a bad idea.

Before he can respond, Rika turns on him and gets him square in the jaw with her right fist! Wow… that's gotta hurt! "NO! Not a word!"

Henry stops laughing but looks at her with a smile. He doesn't seem to fazed by it. "Doesn't that hurt?!" I ask him, surprised.

He looks at me still with a smile, "Egh, I've felt worse."

Rika smiles at him, "I can make it worse if you want?"

"No! No! That's alright, c'mon guys; let's get back to my house without anymore bruises."

Rika gives an uneasy smile but looks both ways and begins to cross the street, as Henry and I follow suit. "But really, Rika, are you alright?"

She turns and smiles more securely this time, "Yeah. I'm fine."

"I'm honestly glad." Henry says, and I smile at this. I really honestly prefer to have my best friends happy with one another rather than furious with one another.

We cross the street and after another couple of minutes Rika and Henry call their parents and tell them where they're going and invite them to dinner as well. Surprisingly all three parents agree to come, but mom's in trouble- all of Henry's siblings and Rika's grandma are gonna be coming as well. I call Mom as well and tell her, but she doesn't seem to mind. Rika tries to take the phone again but I refuse to let this time. Then, after another few minutes of joking and walking we finally arrive home, to the more than welcoming arms of my parents… more specifically, my mom. "Rika! And you brought Takato!"

"MOM!" I yell in exasperation.

"What? Oh. Rika! You brought Henry too!"

"MOM!"
Henry and Rika continue to crack up laughing at this hilarity, but I can't help but be over the top. Insanity, thy name is Mom!

"Well, everyone, make yourselves at home, and when do you expect you're parents and siblings to arrive?"

"My mom and grandma should be here in like another 5 minutes." Rika says through tears of laughter.

"Yeah, same for my family." Henry says, also speaking through tears of laughter.

"Alright, well just take a seat and we should be ready to eat by the time they get here."

The three of us go outside and sit out in front of the store and just talk and wait for their parents to show up, laughing more all the while. Sure enough, everyone showed up in ten minutes. So, we ate dinner together around the house and it was just as much fun as the whole day had been collectively!

However, I found myself alone outside after dinner was over. We had three white plastic chairs set up and I found myself in one of them as I stared up at the stars. Suddenly, however, a red flare flew up into the night sky. I watched it go up on an arc, leaving a trail behind it until it exploded! Another blue flare went up and exploded. Then a purple. Yellow. Orange. Red. Purple. Orange. Pink. Fireworks.

"Beautiful." I said to myself.

"Yes, yes I am. Thanks for noticing." A familiar voice said as Rika pulled up a chair across from me.

"Not you. The fireworks." I replied.

She turns her head around and looks up into the sky and watches the fireworks with me.

"Yeah, they really are nice." Another familiar voice said, as Henry came up and sat in the last chair near by.

"Yeah, but it kinda sucks that the summers just about over now." I replied, looking up at the three consecutive blue fireworks that set off in quick succession.

"Yeah, it really does. But hey… now we're gonna be in 8th grade. Last year before ultimate freedom." I replied dreamily.

Rika chuckles at this, "Not quite. That's gonna take another four years after next year before we're quite at 'ultimate freedom.'"

"Yeah, but… oh, you know what I meant." I reply, a little befuddled.

"It's gonna be a very interesting year. I guarantee it." Henry says.

I look at him questioningly, "Why do you guarantee it?"

He just smiles while he continues to look up at the fireworks, "Just because I know. Don't worry, Takato… I've got something big planned for this year."

I continue to look at him strangely, but give up and look back up into the night sky as the fireworks continued to reign beauty upon us. "What about you, Takato? You got any big plans for this year?" Rika asks me.

I stare up into the lights and wondered about this question. The first thoughts that came to mind were not really… but it would certainly be nice to have something big happen. Something to make the year memorable. "Nothing of mind… at least not yet." I replied.

"Well good luck to you losers. I hope I only have to see you losers 2 days a week."

I look over to her, "Awww, she likes us, Henry. She plans on seeing us on Saturday AND Sunday."

"Takato… SHUT UP!" Rika yells and the three of us burst out laughing again at this.

As we continue to laugh at each other the fireworks continue to explode over our heads. The summer air is present throughout and I can't help but feel a sweet aura about the entire situation. The night sky continues to be illuminated by the fireworks and the hopes and dreams of everyone in the city are drifted away onto cloud nine as happiness and joy abounds. The air in the night is overwhelming and I love it for everything I had to offer.

Oh yes… I can feel something big happening this year.

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A/N: So yeah, this is my new story! Yay! Just of note- this is NOT, I repeat, NOT a one shot. In case any of you don't know- a one shot is a one chapter story, entire of itself. This will be multi-chaptered and it is gonna be AWESOME (that is, of course, if I can get everything that I want to go down and in the right way that I want). This was a wonderful little chapter and some of you may even ask me to keep it a one shot, but that's too bad. Once again, this chapter was actually dreamed up a couple of years ago and I told everyone this story was going to be coming along when Autumn Leaves first started (go back and read a couple of the end author's notes to see what I mean). But yeah, this is it and it is, in a way, drastically different from Autumn Leaves, but at the same time, it is VERY much like Autumn Leaves. You'll see as the chapters start to come together. So my original plan was to write the whole story during the summer and then release the chapters periodically at the end of the summer through the fall and winter and so on and so forth, but I never got around to writing it but I did get this down so far. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and please… review it so I know what you all think and feel. Okay, peace!

Love Always. Rukato Forever!

Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
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