A/N: Hello everyone! No, I'm not dead-there was a problem with my computer's charging port and I had to go get it repaired, which took forever. But I'm back, with a new story! *fistpump*
Requisite Disclaimer: As a category 'Fanfiction Author' Internet Entity, I merely play in this universe, rather than owning it.
Time: 4:30 Thursday afternoon, spring of 2005.
Location: Café Mew Mew.
"It feels like it's been forever since we came here," Miwa said, gazing up at the familiar pink façade of Café Mew Mew.
"Yeah," Moe agreed, brushing a stray curl out of her eyes. "School was so crazy we didn't have any time off until now!"
The two waited impatiently in the line outside the door, regretting going home to change rather than coming by immediately after school let out. Café Mew Mew always had a line out the door and onto the street—it was a good thing the owners had decided to expand the place after the freak windstorm that fall nearly destroyed it. The café had been closed all winter and had only reopened a few weeks ago.
Eventually, though, they made it to the door and took advantage of all the servers being busy to ogle the renovated café. The style was much the same, though someone had painted an intricate mural on one wall. Part of it was a cityscape almost reminiscent of Rome or Athens, and the rest was a forest alive with wildlife. Painted vines twined up the columns supporting a second-floor dining area. The chairs and tables were different too, less silly and girlish and more stylish. The waitresses' uniforms, however, hadn't changed, and they spotted Masaya on the far side of the room in a familiar tuxedo.
"Hello, welcome to Café Mew Mew. My name is Ao, I'll be your server for today," an unfamiliar voice said. Both Moe and Miwa jumped; they'd been so distracted by the changes to the café that they hadn't noticed the waiter approaching.
They were promptly distracted by the waiter himself—he looked about eighteen-ish, with thick black hair pulled back in a ponytail and bright blue eyes. Not a swatch of fabric was out of place on his spotless uniform. He was surprisingly cute despite the deadpan look on his face.
He seemed to notice their staring—who wouldn't?—because one eyebrow arched and his lips quirked up at the corner. "Perhaps instead of standing here, I could escort you to a table?"
"O-of course! Sorry!" Miwa stammered out.
His other eyebrow shot up to join the first. "Follow me please." With that, Ao whirled around so quickly the tails of his uniform's coat snapped in the air behind him. The two exchanged startled looks and hurried after him. He guided them to a free table, setting down a pair of pink menus.
"I'll be back in a minute or so to take your orders," he said, then turned and whisked off into the café. As he went, Ichigo walked up, grabbed him by his shirtsleeve, and said something quietly in his ear. He nodded, an abrupt jerk of his chin, then headed on his way. Ichigo hurried over to the table.
"Moe! Miwa! It's great to see you!" the redhead exclaimed, beaming. Her friends nearly tackled her.
"Ichigo! It's been forever! How are you?" Miwa said.
"How were exams? Did you get into a good high school?" Moe asked—well, more like demanded.
"I'm great! I passed all of my exams, and the high school Masaya applied to accepted me!" Ichigo replied, beaming. "I got Ao to let me take over here, so once I serve you guys I'll take my break so we can catch up. How's that sound?"
"Great!" they exclaimed together. All three shared a grin, giggling.
"So what do you guys want?" Ichigo asked.
"The usual," Moe said, barely skimming the menu.
"You've got a lot of new treats on here," Miwa said, reading it intently.
"Yeah," Ichigo agreed. "The Blueberry Cream Cupcakes are the best, though."
"I'll try that, then," Miwa said.
"Okay. I'll be back in a minute," Ichigo said, scribbling their orders down on her pad before heading for the kitchen. "Oy, Shirogane! I'm taking my break in a couple of minutes!"
"Just don't take too long!" Ryou shouted from upstairs. A quick glance confirmed that the café's owner was also wearing a uniform and waiting tables. That was certainly new, though they didn't have time to mull it over before Ichigo was back with the goodies.
"So," Moe said after a few minutes of appreciating Keiichiro's baking (which, roughly translated, meant 'taking massive bites out of cupcakes and groaning in ecstasy'), "Who's the new guy?"
"Who, Ao?" Ichigo asked. She took a look at her friends' expressions and laughed. "He's too old for you guys, and he's Shirogane's cousin anyway. His parents wanted him to come to Tokyo to keep him out of trouble."
"So he's a bad boy?" Miwa asked playfully.
"A bit," Ichigo replied. "He's…um, touchy, and not very friendly."
"He's sure good at faking it," Moe said, tracking the aforementioned teen across the room with her eyes.
Ichigo shrugged. "He's loosened up a bit since he got here. Turns out he and Masaya went to the same school in England for a while, so they got pretty close when Ao first got here. It took him a while to warm up to the rest of us."
"He doesn't seem so bad," Moe said, watching Ao bump shoulders with Masaya as the two passed each other, a slight smile playing across his face.
"Only because he's playing nice in public. Take my advice and don't get mixed up with him."
"So how's Aoyama-kun?" Miwa asked, quickly changing the topic.
"Great," Ichigo said, her face going dreamy. "We've got the next few days planned—we're going to alternate doing stuff to protect the environment with more traditional dates—and then there's the kendo match this weekend so of course I'll be there to support him, and I get to see him every day at work anyway—"
"Just how long were you planning on being on break for, anyway?" Mint asked, pausing beside the table with a full tray.
"Not as long as your breaks usually are!" Ichigo retorted.
"Just get back to work! Your boyfriend is getting swamped."
"Okay, okay!" Ichigo scrambled to her feet. "Sorry Moe, Miwa. I've gotta go—see you later!"
The two watched their friend dart off into the madness that was the café after school let out.
"Is it just me or is this place getting stranger?" Miwa asked.
"It's definitely not you," Moe said.
"Nice cover, Ichigo," Deep Blue said after the last customers had left for the day. The red-haired Mew wasn't sure whether or not he was being sarcastic. It was hard to tell sometimes.
"Hey, it was all I could come up with at the time!" she protested. "My friends were asking questions, and—"
"That wasn't sarcasm," the alien said, a smirk tugging at his mouth. "It was a nice cover, if a bit rushed. I think I'll use it in the future."
"…Oh," Ichigo said, flushing. She paused, looked at the grin crossing her co-worker's face, and scowled. "You jerk; you made me think you were being sarcastic!"
"It's part of my charm," her replied, tugging at the ribbon that kept his ridiculous mane of hair (he refused to cut it shorter than waist-length) out of the way. It pulled free and, the instant it did so, a few strands of air tumbled over his shoulder. He growled under his breath and shoved them back, instigating a full minute of increasingly aggravated hair-shoving that left Ichigo rolling on the floor laughing.
"You two are so weird," Mint said. "You act like you were never enemies."
"Times change," Deep Blue replied. "You, on the other hand, still act like you expect me to eviscerate you at any moment."
"Well, it's not like you've tried it before or anything."
"Enough!" Ryou exclaimed, bursting out of the kitchen. "You two never stop fighting! Do I need to put you on separate shifts?"
"It won't do any good," Deep Blue deadpanned. "I live here, remember?"
"I can kick you out if you like."
"You won't. You'd not be able to live with yourself if I caused trouble elsewhere."
"Only because you're still a risk to humanity."
"And the Mews aren't?"
"They are human. You aren't. You don't think or act like a human, you don't have human morals—"
"So now you accuse me of being an amoral monster?"
"I never said that. I just meant that I can't trust you with unsupervised access to a civilian population."
Deep Blue rolled his eyes. "Please. My entire existence has been spent in the company of people I could easily destroy with my power. At over three hundred million, you'd think I would know how to control it by now." And with that he stalked off—into the men's locker room to change out of his uniform.
"Nice job defusing the situation," Ichigo said, standing up and dusting off her uniform.
"He's gotten angrier over the last week, hasn't he?" Lettuce said, lingering in the door of the kitchen.
"It's a little worrying, na no da," Pudding commented.
"Hm," Zakuro said.
"Masaya, do you know anything?" Ichigo asked.
"About Deep Blue?" Masaya asked. "He's unhappy about something, but other than that I have no idea."
"Oh, for gods' sakes!" Deep Blue hollered, popping his head out of the locker room. "You can't tell me you don't sense it too."
"Sense what?" Ryou asked.
"The Author's watching us again, and you all know what that means!"
The teacup Mint had been holding fell out of her hands and shattered on the floor.
"W-what?" Lettuce stammered.
"Yep. I got a note last night, with all of our assigned roles for the next week or so on it. Seems I'm the 'token evil teammate' or some such nonsense this time. Apparently I failed badly enough at 'designated Anti-Hero' to get a promotion."
"How do you get promoted if you're not doing your job?" Ryou asked, more confused by that than by the fact that the Author had left a note for Deep Blue to find in the first place.
The alien shrugged. "Author logic."
"Where's the logic in that?"
"Hey, don't question the Author and watch the Wall. I'm not in the mood to—"
There was a sound almost identical to the sound Mint's teacup had made a few lines of dialogue before, only several hundred times louder. Unfortunately, it was familiar. The entire staff flinched, grabbing each other's arms or hands (Mint to Zakuro and Ichigo to Masaya) or making sudden moves towards the walls or doorways as if the sound of the Fourth Wall breaking were a signal of an earthquake rather than an invasion of Fangirls.
Zakuro sighed. "In the first chapter, too. I think it's a record."
A/N: Here we go again! *laughs diabolically*