Aishiteru: Ryou's Gift

Summary: Ryou's affectionate emotions for Lettuce are discovered when a letter he was writing to her in secrecy is found. Pudding, Ichigo, Minto, Ringo, Zakuro, Berry, and even Tasuku all pitch in and help him to express his feelings.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew. Duh.

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Chapter 1: Letters, Cheerleaders, and Pudding

"Wheee! Look at me, na no da! I can spin plates! Around and around and around and arou-"

"Would you please stop that, Pudding? I'm trying to have my tea."

What can we say? It was pretty much a normal Saturday morning at Café Mew Mew. Except today, the cute pink café was completely deserted, minus the Mews. There wasn't a customer in sight.

Just then, Berry popped in waving around a piece of paper containing Ichigo's childish handwriting. "Ichigo-chan is out with Ringo-chan, who just came back from the reservation, so she left me this note!" the French-Japanese girl announced loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. "It says here," she continued, this time reading from Ichigo's note, "that inventory must be taken in the storerooms. And Akasaka-san is out judging a baking contest, Tasuku-kun has his guitar lesson today, and Lettuce-chan is home sick with a cold."

Everyone sighed at hearing that three people were out. However, Pudding broke the mourning and suggested: "Pudding will take inventory, na no da!"

"Go ahead, Pudding. No one else wants to do it," Minto said, and Pudding bounced down to the storerooms.

"Well, back to work!" Berry said cheerfully, but Zakuro came in and told her that there weren't any customers.

Berry, Zakuro, and Minto all heaved a heavy sigh.

"WE'RE LOW ON SUGAR NA NO DA!" screamed Pudding from the storerooms, scaring the heck out of the three bored girls.

"GO TELL SHIROGANE! HE'S IN HIS ROOM!" Berry screamed back, followed by a scolding from Minto to lower her voice.

Pudding immediately skittered up from the storerooms, swooshed past the three older girls, and dashed upstairs to Ryou's room. The small Chinese acrobat flung open the door to the blonde boy's room and screamed: "KONNICHIWA SHIROGANE-SAN NA NO DA!"

Ryou was so startled he fell out of his chair, thrusting the clipboard and pencil he was holding into the air.

Pudding caught both the clipboard and the pencil skillfully and examined the paper attached to the clipboard carefully. She saw that Ryou was writing a letter, which read:

My Dearest Midorikawa,

I give you my best wishes for you to get well soon. I also want to tell you how much you mean to me. You are

Pudding finished reading Ryou's unfinished letter and eyed the boy suspiciously. Ryou, who had managed to pull himself together and climb back onto his chair, glared back at Pudding and calmly asked, "What?" He thought that if he just remained calm and didn't say too much, she'd forget about it and go away. Boy was he wrong.

Pudding cutely hopped into Ryou's room (which consists of a desk with a computer and a bed) and hopped onto the bed, saying in a very innocent voice: "Well, I originally came to tell you we were low on sugar." The monkey-girl paused for a second, then changed her tone of voice and yelled: "BUT THEN I FOUND OUT YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON LETTUCE-ONEE-CHAN NA NO DA!"

"Shhhhh! Not so loud! Do you want the whole world to hear!" Ryou hissed, blushing slightly.

Pudding took this the wrong way and immediately responded by yelling: "SO IT'S TRUE! YOU DO LIKE HER NA NO DA!"

Ryou slapped his forehead and rubbed his temples in frustration. He knew perfectly well that it WAS true, but he wasn't going to give in that easily. "No, no, no! It's not like that!" he moaned. "It's just that..."

"DON'T FIGHT IT SHIROGANE YOU'RE IN LOVE NA NO DA!" Pudding screamed and jumped up and down on the bed, throwing in an aerial or so every now and then.

"Don't do that!" Ryou whined. "You're going to pop the springs out of my bed!"

Pudding continued her acrobatic jumping while saying: "Who cares? You're going to have to get a new one anyway! There's no way this little cot could sleep TWO people, na no da!"

Ryou was taken aback by this. "WHADYA MEAN 'TWO PEOPLE'!" he demanded, losing his cool. The acrobat-girl was driving him nuts!

Pudding did a flip in mid-air off the bed, landed neatly in front of the boy, and giggled. "What I mean is," she explained, "is that there's no way you AND Lettuce-onee-chan can sleep together in that little cot, na no da! You need a bigger bed, na no da!"

"WHAAAAAAAAT!" Ryou screamed. His eyes were flaming, his face was fuming (from anger and blushing), and a big popped-vein had appeared on top of his blonde head. In other words, he was ANNOYED. No, beyond annoyed. PISSED OFF.

"Don't you 'WHAAAAAAAT!' me! I can see that blush, Shirogane," Pudding sassed and crossed her arms, deliberately imitating her snobby friend, Minto.

Ryou growled and grabbed the nearest pen and starting chewing on it, mumbling under his breath between bites about how he'd kill the acro-brat if he ever got his hands on her.

At that very moment, a big smile spread across Pudding's face. "DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE LETTER NA NO DA!" she yelled and pulled out the clipboard she had gotten a hold of earlier.

"GIMME THAT!" Ryou bellowed and threw down his chewed-up pen, and chased after the small blonde girl, trying to get a hold of his clipboard. For a high-school-aged boy, Ryou was being very immature.

Pudding was too fast for the boy. She leaped back 10 feet into the hallway and dashed downstairs, cackling maniacally but triumphantly, and holding the clipboard hostage.

Ryou ran after the acrobat-girl, but by the time he was only halfway down the stairs, she was already out of sight, so he gave up and dragged himself back up to his room, this time remembering to lock the door.

Pudding, meanwhile, had found Minto, Zakuro, and Berry in the storerooms taking inventory. The three girls didn't know exactly what was going on because the storerooms were in the basement, which was soundproof. But they could figure out that Pudding and Ryou had had a fight. Pudding hadn't shown them the letter yet, though.

Right now, the monkey-girl was in a different room in the basement, calling Ichigo on Berry's cell phone. She thought that if there was anyone who knew what to do with Ryou, it'd be the strawberry-girl.

Phone Conversation:

I: Moshi-moshi?

P: ICHIGO-ONEE-CHAN NA NO DA!

I: AAAAAAAAUGH! PUDDING! WHAT IS IT! NYA NYA NYA NYA NYA!

P: We need you and Ringo to come to the café right away! It's about Ryou, na no da!

I: Ryou? But the Saint Rose Crusaders have left us alone since-

P: It's not the SRC, na no da. It's about Ryou's cruuuuuusshhhhh...

I: Oh I see. Who is it?

P: You'll see. You and Ringo just come right away, na no da! Oh, and do you think you can get your two cheerleader friends to come too? Tell them to wear their cheer gear, na no da!

I: You mean Moe and Miwa? I'll try. See ya in about 15 minutes, OK?

End Conversation

Pudding came back into the storerooms and returned the cell phone to its rightful owner. Berry put the phone back into her waitress uniform pocket. "What was that?" she asked the acrobat-girl.

Pudding put on an innocent look. "Oh, nothing," she said in a sing-song voice.