Hey, my TMM friends. Here's a one-shot for you which I left open for interpretation unless this does well. I basically wrote this because I was bored and needed a break from another fanfic I'm writing (I know...I'm terrible!). Also I was reading a few stories the other day and noticed that Masaya has a fangirl/boy! I know - I'm just as shocked as every other Kisshu/Ryou-fan it's amazing! They exist! They actually exist!Well, at least they're the group that's happy with the ending, right? Right? They should be - their man got the girl :)

Note = Apologies for any spelling mistakes or grammar errors (please note that I am British, so I spell some words differently to American English). If the errors are too much to ignore, please make me aware in a review and I shall edit and re-upload :) Thank you!

*~ Long Awaited ~*

All grown up, in his late twenties and he was back here again – back on Earth. Kish stared at his reflection in the river of the park he used to fly around looking for new chimera anima victims. He sighed at himself and threw a small rock making the water ripple and disfigure his reflection in to shimmers and shadows of the murky waters underneath.

It was a truly desperate and embarrassing act that someone of his age had actually run away from home like they were a child with no other way to escape. But he really had no escape! That girl was psychotic and he actually wondered if he was experiencing what Ichigo had to put up with all those ten years ago – but from him.

Ichigo…he wondered if she would be angry or frightened by his sudden appearance and he wondered if she would order him away the moment she set eyes on him. But he had to at least see her first, see how she had grown, and see what she had done within the ten years passed. He also wanted to tell her something that had been on his mind all the while he was gone. He wanted to tell her thank you and that he still loved her. Which was another thing he wondered; was she the same person he used to love?

With all of these questions running through his mind he couldn't wait to find her and get some answers. His stomach was twisting and flipping in anticipation and nerves as he set off zooming across the park in the direction of her old house.

Did she still live there? Had she moved out? Had her parents moved out and left it to her? And did she live alone? Did she live with Masaya or someone else altogether? He needed to know.

The house came in to view and the smile that crept on to his face was impossible to suppress. He decided to teleport the rest of the way reappearing at the window beside the tree. Peering in, he saw her teenage bedroom and all its girly-ness still intact. But a few things were missing – he couldn't pin point what exactly was gone but the room just looked…kind of empty.

He teleported inside and looked around. As he inhaled he caught the familiar scent of strawberries and sighed as memories came flooding back to him. But there was dust on the window sill and dead leaves from the autumn on her balcony outside the window. She must have moved out then.

But just before he was about to teleport out and head toward the café, he heard a familiar voice. He opened the door ever so slightly to hear better.

"…for dinner it was wonderful. The perfect going away present, Mrs Momomiya," Kish recognised this voice as his, Masaya's. So she was still with him, huh? But is she…

"Yeah, thanks, Mum. It really was lovely." She is here! She's here! The girl he had waited so long to see again was just a few feet away, on the floor underneath this one. His heart began to race and for a moment he felt numb as panic raced through his system. The only thing that brought him back from the slight trance was her voice again, "Go wait in the car, honey, I'm just going to pop to the toilet before he end off."

"Okay, sweetheart," Masaya replied and the clicking sound of a kiss echoed up the stairway to the alien's ears before he began to hear light footsteps of someone ascending to the higher floor.

Kisshu moved away from the opening and hid round the other side of the door and as Ichigo's steps grew closer and closer they slowed as well.

"That's strange…" he heard her sweet voice and after a moment she entered the room, but her back was to him. She went straight to the window and looked out, "I wonder…"

Kish wanted to reach out and touch her, hold her, kiss her. But he was afraid…afraid of scaring her, of being turned away, of being rejected again.

He could see that she had slimmed a little but she still had those beautiful curves of hers and her red hair fell loosely to the middle of her back.

Ichigo slid the glass door open disturbing some of the leaves and stepped out on the balcony, crunching them beneath her flat-sole shoes. Once out there she looked around and then finally sighed as she leaned against the little half wall that kept her from walking off of the balcony.

Then she looked down at the bottom of the tree and laughed, "I remember once when I was very ill, I jumped in to the tree to try and run from Kisshu. I remember that he laughed at me cause I fell out of the tree and hurt myself," she chuckled happily and then turned round to face him, "You remember that day, don't you?"

Kisshu gasped his eyes wide with surprise, "How…"

"I closed my door and there are only three people I know who can get in to a house without a sound and why would Pai and Taruto feel the need to visit me without letting me know first?" she smirked at him, when his face reddened slightly. She walked towards him, Kish watching her cautiously the whole time…and then she hugged him.

After a moment of surprise he wrapped his arms around her as well and hugged her back tightly and pressed his face against the top of her head, to be as close as he possibly could after all these years. He was so happy that she wasn't mad at him. He was so happy that he even got to cuddle her.

"I thought you wouldn't want to see me," he whispered in to her ear.

"Wow, your voice is deeper than I expected," she giggled pulling away but not too far. She let him keep his arms around her still, "And you're taller," she seemed to be studying his features just as much as he was studying her. Her smile brightened slightly as she picked at his hair, "You still style your hair the same. Hey look at the floor for a minute, I wanna see if you're greying yet!"

Kisshu chuckled and commented only half-jokingly, "I bloody well hope not! I'm only young!"

Ichigo thought for a moment, "If you were sixteen at the time you must be twenty-six now!"

"Just turned Twenty-seven actually, but you're close," he corrected her smiling; "You're twenty-three, aren't you?"

"Yes!" she smiled and nodded. She then sighed and stared but at him, "Wow. It's been a long time, Kish."

"It has," he agreed not wanting this moment to ever end after a short silence he whispered to her, worried how she would react, "You know, you're still as beautiful as ever."

He watched as she blushed at the comment. She then she narrowed her eyes but she was still smiling as she playfully commented, "This isn't another 'Come away with me to paradise' is it, Kish?"

"No, I promise," he answered seriously looking away feeling a little ashamed, "I heard Masaya anyway, I know you're still together."

Ichigo placed her hand on his cheek and pulled his gaze back as she told him gently, "Yeah, we're still together but I don't want you to feel bad about all that happened. We were kids and I don't regret a day that passed."

"You weren't the one chasing someone who was already taken, Ichigo," Kisshu pointed out with a sad smile.

"Technically I wasn't taken to begin with," Ichigo shrugged and then blushed, "Although you could be terrifying at times, the attention was kinda nice – but only sometimes. You have to admit that you freaked out a lot."

"Yeeeeah, I'd rather not talk about that," he replied and Ichigo could see that he really felt bad about all that had happened.

"Alright then but, let me just say this, I wouldn't change the past if I could. I'm glad that I met you and that I fought you – and won, by the way," Kisshu laughed softly at her emphasizing that certain point with a wink. She laughed too and then continued, "I'm glad that you fell in love with me, that you visited me all the time, that you died for me, that I died for you so you're alive today. I'm glad that you came back so that I can finally say thank you for saving me, Kisshu. I didn't believe you until you did that. I'm sorry."

Kisshu looked torn; he hadn't expected any comments like this. He hadn't expected a thank you or an apology or anything of the sort. All he had expected and prepared his heart for was rejection and anger. But these comments – the complete opposite of hatred and fear – melted away all the defence he had built up to protect himself.

A tear slid from his eye.

Her hand reached up and wiped it away with a smile over her lips, but her eyes trembled too and tears started to form in their corners. She gasped as the first broke and she turned to the side, muttering, "Sorry, I know I shouldn't cry."

But Kisshu pulled her back to him and held her as they cried silently.

"Ichigo?" her mother's call shocked them both and made them jump. The voice was close and not distant too. Ichigo ran to the door and poked her head out shielding Kisshu by closing the door over mostly. Her mother added when she saw her, "I thought you were going to the toilet. Why are you taking so long?"

There was a pause while Ichigo tried to think of some kind of excuse and when she couldn't she sighed and swung the door wide open, revealing Kisshu standing there half turned away. His face slowly crept to her mother who was staring not in fear but in surprise.

This was the first time he had seen Ichigo's mother up close and now he could see the resemblance more clearly.

"You remember when I told you about the Mew project?" her mother flickered her eyes between them and nodded, "Meet Kisshu. One of the aliens."

"So you told your parents in the end?" Kisshu asked Ichigo, she nodded.

"I thought they were your enemies, honey," Sakura commented confused.

"They were," Ichigo replied and looked up into Kisshu's eyes and held out her hand to him. There was a moment before he accepted it. When he did she turned back to her mother and told her, "This is the one who saved my life in the last battle."

Sakura walked up to Kisshu and stood right in front of him. A second later her expression softened and she said, "Thank you for saving our daughter. My husband and I could never repay your kindness, but just know that we are forever grateful."

Kisshu nodded and replied, "I don't expect anything for saving Ichigo's life, she already saved my life in return the same day. She brought me back."

Sakura just smiled up at him and then turned to her daughter, "Do you want me to tell Masaya-"

"No!" Ichigo and Kisshu cried at the same time making Sakura jump. Ichigo laughed a little awkwardly and explained, "Masaya-kun and Kisshu didn't really get along very well. Just tell him I'm saying goodbye to the house and that I need a little time alone. I just need to talk to Kish without him here."

"Oh, okay then," Sakura nodded and looked at them both before walking away leaving Ichigo to shut the door behind her.

"So you're calling him Masaya-kun now?" Kisshu asked non too interestedly.

"Not still jealous are you?" Ichigo asked, with a small smirk but the tears had made it weaker than before. Kisshu just stared at her for the longest time until she stopped smiling and asked, "You can't still…it's been ten years, Kish."

He sighed, "I know." She frowned and her eyebrows arched making her look upset and the tears fell again. Kisshu immediately pulled her close again and felt terrible for making her feel bad, "Please stop crying, Koneko-chan."

"You even remember the nickname you gave me," Ichigo sobbed and pressed her face in to his chest. After a moment she took a deep breath and pushed away from him. She was still crying but she was trying to stop and hold them back, "No, I'm okay. Don't comfort me, I don't deserve it."

"What do you mean?" Kisshu asked confused.

She looked up at him with an absurd expression like she couldn't believe how he didn't understand her meaning. As another stray tear fell from her eyes she explained to him, "I mean…just look at what I've done to you. A decade later and…I thought you would move on."

"I tried," Kisshu shrugged and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He then brushed his eyes with the back of his hand, "The only one that came close turned out to be crazy. I don't want anyone else."

Ichigo frowned at him, still holding back the tears, "Kish this isn't fair…for both of us."

"I'm sorry," was all he could say.

Ichigo sighed and collapsed on to the bed. He watched her as she stared up at the ceiling her arms spread out beside her.

"I missed you, y'know," she told him still staring up at the ceiling, "I wondered when you'd show up. But I started believing that you weren't coming back in the end."

Kisshu floated up and over her horizontally and despite how she felt at the moment she smiled up at him. He smiled sadly down at her, "I'm sorry," he repeated.

"So am I," she replied.

There you go! Please, let me know your thoughts and opinions in a review and I would appreciate it if you guys would keep them polite. If you have criticism it is much appreciated as well and helps me to improve my writing skills. But please note that if you're going to review just to curse me and tell me how much you hated it - well, I'll just ignore you because that doesn't help me in the slightest, it just makes me think that some people on the internet are morons.

Anyway, I know you guys are lovely so thank you for reading! ^_^

Lv Lv Hazzard ^_^ x x