Letters Never Sent
A TamaChanMyu film of the Tokyo Mew Mew genre

Yo! TCM here, with a flufftastariffical Lettuce/Ryou oneshot, that focuses on the Japanese holiday, White Day. It is on March 14, a month after Valentine's Day, where all af the boys who got chocolates from girls a month ago give the girls a white-colored present of thanks. The part about Zakuro's emo-corner came from Tamao on deviantART. I honestly came up with this idea 5 minutes before I started writing this. I am using the Japanese honorifics used in the anime, because it's anime-centric, so if you have a problem, pretend they aren't there. Ah, well, what can ya do, eh? Certainly not flame, because I will use them to power my flamethrower targeted at the flamers!
Now, ONWARD! Defrosted Tuna Girl! Because the world needs more Lettuce/Ryou!
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Once Upon a Time, there was a shining white prince with blonde hair and blue eyes. He lived in a cute pink castle in a forest clearing. The prince knew all of what was going on in the kingdom around him, formally known as Tokyo. What he did not know was that one of his 5 maids, the green one to be exact, was in love with him, but was too shy to speak out.

The green maid was unlike the other 4 maids. When she transformed into the green warrior with the other maids, she could turn into a mermaid. None of the other maid/warriors could do that. Once, the prince had been thrown into the sea by the evil wizard and was drowning, when the green warrior transformed into a mermaid and saved him. When he wouldn't wake up, the green mermaid warrior gave him a soft kiss, just like in the fairy tales. The prince awoke soon after, but he never knew that it was the green maid who saved him. Thus, the green maid continued to watch over the prince sadly and silently, as he pined for the pink maid, her comrade.

The prince and the maid were Ryou Shirogane and Lettuce Midorikawa. In reality, Ryou was a super-rich, genius high schooler who owned Cafe Mew Mew, or the pink castle, and Lettuce was a waitress there. This was the story that Lettuce told herself when she was feeling depressed, to convince herself that the fairy tale was not over, and she had not had her Happily Ever After yet. But, deep in her Heart of Hearts, she knew this wasn't true. Lettuce didn't have a happy ending.

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Cafe Mew Mew had different uniforms for different holidays. Christmas was red and green, Halloween was black and orange, Valentine's Day was pink, and so on and so forth. Today's holiday uniform was white, for White Day. The cafe was super busy, because the boys who got chocolates had placed orders for white desserts for the girls who had given them the chocolates.

Ichigo Momomiya, the pink maid was doing all of the work, as usual; taking orders and delivering food to tables. The blue maid, Mint Aizawa was drinking her afternoon tea, because it WAS a tradition. Ichigo was yelling at Mint. Pudding Fong was the hyper yellow maid, and constant source of tips for the girls' bonuses, with her acrobatic and martial arts tricks. The beautiful model Zakuro Fujiwara, or the purple maid, was sitting in her reserved dark corner, which radiated despair and anti-holiday-ness.

Only one maid was left out of the picture: the green maid. Lettuce had been sitting at one of the tables, writing a letter.

Pudding stopped performing for a minute to skip over to where Lettuce was sitting. "What'cha writing there, Lettuce Onee-chan?" Pudding asked, tilting her head to the side adorably.

Lettuce quickly hid the letter and stammered out, "N-nothing, Pudding. Just a formal ask for a raise to Shirogane-san." It was unusual for Lettuce to lie, but it was partially true. The letter was a White Day love letter to Ryou.

Pudding had a semi-serious look on her face, and Lettuce wondered momentarily if she had been caught. "Well, something formal would be more likely of success than one of Ichigo Onee-chan's tantrums, no da," Pudding joked, before going back to performing.

With a sigh, Lettuce pulled out the letter and continued writing. She figured that she was safe because she was near Zakuro's Emo-Corner(c), and no one ever came there.

However, Lettuce's reprieve didn't last long, as Ichigo and Pudding came over with sheets of paper. "We'll write for raises too, na no da!" Pudding chirped. Lettuce sighed and pulled out another piece of paper.

At four, when the girls got off their jobs, Ichigo, Lettuce, and Pudding marched up to Ryou's room on the second floor. Ichigo pounded on his door to the point where a normal door would fall down, but Ryou's were enforced with a titanium-diamond alloy.

When Ryou opened his door, he wore an annoyed look. "What is it now, Ichigo?" he asked.

The three girls held out their requests. "These are for you, Shirogane!" Ichigo shouted, with her usual aggressiveness.

Ryou looked confused and asked, "Love letters for White Day?"

Ichigo was fuming and yelled, "NO! THEY'RE REQUESTS FOR RAISES!" She was so mad that the hairs on her cat ears and tail, which had come out, stood up.

Ryou took the letters and put them on his desk. "I'll get to that later. I'm busy now. Sorry," Ryou said, which was his way of saying, "Don't expect anything at all". "Oh, before you go, make sure to clean the floors extra good. It's a real mess," he added. Ryou quickly closed the door before the shoe that Ichigo had thrown could reach his face.

Ichigo stormed down, wearing one shoe, and Lettuce was trying to calm her down. "What happened, Ichigo?" Mint asked. She was already dressed in a kimono for her Japanese dance lessons, and was halfway out the door.

Pudding bounced out from behind Ichigo and said, "Shirogane's making all of us do a big cleaning tonight, na no da!"

Mint looked blank for a second. "Oh. Zakuro-nee-sama has already left. Have fun!" Mint said as she rushed out the door, before Ichigo's other shoe could hit her.

After Ichigo had destroyed enough of whatever was in her way, she sighed, "Well, let's hurry. I've got a ton of math to do tonight."

Pudding bounced up and down. She was in a hurry too. "I have to pick up Hei Cha from kindergarten, na no da."

Lettuce saw this as an opportunity to finish writing her love letter. When she made sure that Keiichiro had left, she approached Ichigo and Pudding, who were working super-fast. "Why don't you guys go do what you need to? I'm able to finish up the cleaning on my own," Lettuce offered. "Besides, I'm not doing anything tonight."

"Are you sure, Lettuce? I mean, I could always finish my work tomorrow morning," Ichigo said. She wasn't worried so much about Lettuce being tired, but more about Lettuce tripping and hurting herself BECAUSE she was tired.

Lettuce smiled brilliantly and said, "Don't worry! I'll be fine. Besides, Shirogane-san is here to help me out."

"Pfft! As if HE'LL do anything," Ichigo said with a roll of her eyes. "Well, we'll be off then! Bye!"

Once Ichigo was gone, and the cafe was clean, Lettuce sat down. She pulled out the letter and started adding more:

Dear Shirogane-san, on White Day,

You are a shining white prince who lives in a wonderful pink castle. Five maids protect you, and you protect them. You are a wonderful man, and I admire you for it so much. To the point where admiration has turned into attraction, which has turned into love. I just wanted you to know that I love you with all of my heart, and even if you don't love me back, if I can still protect you, then I'll be fine.

With all of my heart,
Midorikawa-san

Lettuce had been so engrossed in her writing that she hadn't noticed what time it was. It had been getting late, and Ryou noticed that there was a light on downstairs. He had gone down, only to find Lettuce hunched over a piece of paper. Ryou went over and read the letter over the green Mew's shoulder.

There's no way I could give this to him, Lettuce thought, her head held in her palms. She crumpled up the piece of paper and took out another one. Oh, now what do I write? Lettuce mentally kicked herself.

"Hmm, why'd you crumple that up? I thought it was good," a voice from behind Lettuce said. She had been so startled that she jupmed out of her chair and fell back. "Whoa, watch out!" Ryou shouted as he caught the falling Mew. "You gotta be more careful."

Lettuce's face was brighter than the walls. "H-h-h-how long... Have y-y-y-you been th-there?" Lettuce stammered out. She then noticed that Ryou was still holding her and practically passed out.

Ryou didn't notice Lettuce's mental break-down and went on, "That was a great letter. I think that it's sweet that you feel that way about someone." He obviously hadn't seen the name at the top, or the first sentence.

Lettuce breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. She couldn't help but notice the hurt look in Ryou's eyes as she said, "It's for someone who I've loved for a while, and I wanted to tell them how I felt on White Day, but it's a bit late now."

"Oh. Well, I hope that whoever it's for knows how you feel," Ryou said, looking down a bit dejectedly. Wait a minute! Why was he feeling dejected? Did he have feelings for Lettuce after all? Ryou thought back to when this had started. It was during winter, when they had fought a Chimera Anima in the Tokyo Bay, and Lettuce had saved him by turning into a mermaid. When Ryou was passed out, he had dreamt that a mermaid princess that resembled Lettuce kissed him, to save his life. But was it really a dream?

Lettuce looked up at the chandelier. "Unfortunately, I don't think he does. He likes someone else, I think. Even if he didn't, I still couldn't find the courage to tell him." Lettuce wondered why she was telling the person that she loved exactly how she felt, but why she wasn't saying it directly.

"Midorikawa, you need to find the strength in yourself to do these things, because I know it's there. It's why I..." Ryou trailed off, blushing.

Lettuce noticed the faint tinge of red to Ryou's cheeks, and there was a small spark of hope in her heart as she said, "W-why you... What? Why you chose me to be a Mew Mew? Why you always encourage me- eep!"

Ryou let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, something like that. Who was that letter for, anyways?" No, Ryou, don't ask! What if it's not for you? Then what? His mind was racing as he asked this.

Lettuce let Ryou's words ring in her head for a moment, before she cluched her fists and said, "It's for... for... Y-y-y.... YOU!" Lettuce was breathing heavily as she finally managed to choke out those words. After a moment of silence, Lettuce's eyes began to sting. She knew it! Ryou had never liked her like that, he was only annoyed at her shyness. The green-haired girl looked up and tried to blink back tears, but to no avail. Hot, salty tears streamed down Lettuce's cheeks.

Ryou stepped forward. "Why are you crying? I never told you how I felt," Ryou asked. Lettuce looked up, surprised, as Ryou embraced her. It was the warmest, most solid hug that Lettuce had ever recieved. "Lettuce, I love you, too." It was the first time she had ever heard him call her by her first name.

Lettuce cried into Ryou's chest and managed to ask, "W-what about... Ichi-Ichigo-san?"

Ryou looked confused. "I never liked her. Why do you think I refused her requests for a raise? Yours, I actually read," He joked. "Well, you managed to tell the person you love how you felt before White Day was over, right?"

Lettuce wiped her tears, and then smiled. "Yeah! Thanks, Shirogane-san... Umm, is it okay... if I call you Ryou-kun?" Lettuce timidly asked.

"Of course," Ryou answered. "But just Ryou," he said before leaning to her ear and whispering, "Sweet Lettuce-chan." Before she knew it, Lettuce was pulled into a gentle kiss, that felt like it lasted forever. But forever was not long enough.

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Aah, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Okay, so I realize that he does call her by her first name in the anime, but let's pretend he doesn't. Pretending is the only way that you can escape the hellhole that is your life! I took a bit of a break from Can I Go Home Now? to write this. I'm also writing a Sailor Moon oneshot, so look out for that. There were so many references in here! Towards the end, Ryou was so OOC! He reminded me of Sasame from Pretear. And those mermaid princess/warrior parts were like Mermaid Melody/Cinderella! And, THEN! When Ryou looked down and Lettuce looked up, it reminded me of Sheryl Crowe's "Soak Up The Sun", (Every time I turn around/ You're lookin up/ I'm lookin down) which I have loved since it came out ten years ago (and I just heard/sang along to on the radio)! The "Sweet Lettuce-chan" was in reference to the final chapter of Cyber Idol Mink, in vol. 6. Defrosted Tuna Girl was so Star Ocean 3. THERE WERE EVEN REFERENCES IN THE OPENING NOTE! Hope you liked, please review/comment/fave! Much love to those who do!