An Unknown Love Letter
Disclaimer: Once again I do not own the anime or manga version of Mew Mew.
Sakura M.: Hey there, it's been awhile but I finally decide to go through the story and edit some parts. I've also added a couple of details here and there, so it's recommendable that you guys should re-read this again. Enjoy and R&R!
Chapter 1
It was just a typical day in Ichigo's life. Sleep, study, work, and saving the world from annoying aliens that just like to take up your free time and day.
There was chattering amongst the various groups of people as they waited in line to be seated, served, or getting the bill. Only a couple of the staff was working. The rest were just doing nothing around the female-populated café. Overall, it was a normal day for these people and their customers; a normal day for the owner of this establishment.
"Shirogane! I demand a raise!" Annoyed and a bit bossy, a young, petite, redheaded teenager glared daggers at her boss. Although she may seem like the type who can be easily bossed around, most people don't know that this girl just happened to be a leader of a vigilante environmental-saving team—known as the Mew Mew Team.
Hearing his name called, Ryou merely glanced at her. "What for Ichigo?" Nonchalant about the potential danger of loosing an employee, he flipped a page of the book he was currently reading. Ryou Shirogane. That was his name. Owner of Café Mew Mew and a young prodigy. He was the one that started it all--this whole Mew Mew project.
Ichigo huffed a bit. "Because of all the work I do around here! None of the other girls worked as hard as I am!" There was a wild look on her face. Feeling the rush of blood pumping within her and the energetic rush of a migraine, Ichigo slowly took a deep breath in order to calm herself.
He leaned against the wall, one foot placed on it for better support. "Don't you ever notice a pattern whenever you asked this question?" Ryou asked, raising an eyebrow.
She shook her head. "What pattern?" Sounds of Pudding's footsteps were heard as she quickly went from one table to another with different plates of desserts balancing on her hands and arms. Ichigo tried to ignore the sounds.
A huge smirk emitted from his face. "Every time you asked me to give you a raise, my answer has always been the same." Ryou turned his face in the other direction, away from Ichigo's angry expression. "Though I'm not surprise you haven't noticed it really. With you being so gung-ho about…what's his name…Mark?" Pushing himself off the wall, Ryou leaned close to her and said this softly, "I bet the only reason why you want a raise is so you can impress him with…," Ryou went for her ear; hot air breathes gently gazed Ichigo's skin. "…better clothes for you to wear and make yourself look good in his eyes." Ryou leaned away from her, eyes gleefully enjoying the spectacular view that he had created.
"Grrr…" Ichigo released out some frustration. She didn't need a mirror to tell her that her face was flaming red. It was obvious to her because she had literally felt the raising temperature when he did that to her. Realizing where she was and what just happened, she accusingly pointed at him. "You're unbelievable! What's wrong with me asking for a raise? I never asked to work in this place!"
He yawned. "There you go. Since you never officially applied for the job, there is no document that states whether or not you will receive a raise or not, so therefore no raise for you." Ryou said as he pushed Ichigo out of his room.
She struggled against his pushing. She dug her heels to the carpet, hoping that will create some force resistance between her and that jerk of her boss. "I'm not done yet mister!" Ichigo started to ramble a few words, only to have the door shut in front of her face. "Ooohhh…that jerk!" Marching downstairs to where the rest of the team was, Ichigo glared at some of the awaiting customers--who were appalled by the rude service.
Witnessing a low-level tantrum, one of the workers quickly went over to the steaming volcano. "Ichigo? Is everything okay?" Lettuce said softly, not wanting to add any more fuel to her friend's hot temper.
"Oh everything is going peachy thank you very much." Ichigo snapped. Quickly seeing the injured look plastered over Lettuce's face, Ichigo said to her softly. "I'm sorry for snapping at you Lettuce. It's just that for once, I want my wage to be the same as my hard work. It's not fair that out of all of everyone here, I'm doing most of the chores around," cutting off Lettuce's reply to that, Ichigo continued. "I know you do some work around here as well, but…," at this point, Ichigo couldn't look at her friend in the eye. "You understand, don't you?"
Lettuce nodded, shining warm eyes looked at Ichigo. "I understand. I'm clumsier than you are. So what are you going to do?"
"Right after the store close, I am going up to his room again and demand that I should get a raise or I'll leave the team!" Ichigo said, hitting her fist to her palm.
Overhearing this, Mint couldn't help but said. "Are you crazy or something? You can't leave the team. What ever happen to your 'Mew Mew' team spirit? If I recall, when Zakuro tried to leave the team, you insisted that she should stay because we're a team." Sly eyes glanced pointedly at Ichigo. "Unless, those were just cotton-stuffed words that has nothing in them."
Ichigo rolled her eyes. "I'm not exactly going to do it. I'm bluffing so that Shirogane has to take me seriously when I said that I want a raise."
"Like that's going to work." Mint said calmly as she stirred her tea around; the sound of classical music continously played around them. "Why are you so insistent in getting a raise? You don't have to ask every single day you know."
Pudding barged into the middle of the conversation, her hair was flying wildly. "Maybe it's because big sister Ichigo has the hots for Shirogane." Pudding rolled around the tomato-face Ichigo on her huge orange ball.
Ichigo attempted to get away from the circus-loving pest, but failed as she was entrapped by the constant blockage. "I. DO. NOT. HAVE. THE. HOTS. FOR. HIM." Ichigo grinded her teeth as fingers dug deep onto her palms.
Pudding stuck out her tongue. "That's what you think."
"Come back here you little monkey!" Enraged, Ichigo chased Pudding around the café as the other girls looked on.
Meanwhile in his room, Ryou looked at his work. Satisfied with what was on it, he placed the paper on his desk. There was a sense of light-weightiness surrounding him. With a calm feeling, Ryou headed down to the lab; anticipating the numerous paperwork he would have to do.
It was time for the cafe to be closed. The other girls had left; leaving Ichigo to clean all the mess once again—as always. Keiichiro offered to help Ichigo, but she insisted to do the work since Keiichiro have to do something right after the café closed. When Ichigo finally finished cleaning all the mess, she started to head upstairs. There was an absolute resolve on her posture as she readied herself to take her plan into action. Unknown to her, Ryou was still in the lab trying to figure out a problem that he could not solve.
Ichigo stood outside Ryou's room. Finding that the door was unlocked, Ichigo barged in; ready to give Ryou a hell of a lecture of why she should get a raise along with her bluff. "Shirogane?" She said, after realizing that the young blond was not in his room. "Ryou?" She said once again, only softly. She glanced around. There was nothing. Nothing that indicated that Ryou was there at all.
"I guess he's not here. But then where could he possibly be?" Ichigo said to herself. Wandering around Ryou's room, she could not help but notice a piece of paper lying on the table. "He won't be mad if I take a little peek." She said to herself. 'Maybe it's a love letter to someone.' She paused after that thought. 'Him? Write a love letter? Yeah right, when pigs fly.' With a gleeful expression, she decided to take the look anyway. Besides, it might be her getting that raise she had always asked.
Her eyes are like chocolates,
--seductive and sweet.
Her hair is made out of strawberries,
--for they have not only given her their scent, but their color as well.
Reading over the note, Ichigo could barely contain her laughter. With a huge grin on her face, she commented, "Looks like someone got a thing for a girl. I always wondered what his sexuality is." Ichigo's eyes drifted lower, scanning over the rest of the contents.
Strawberries and chocolates,
The most favorite desert.
Like many people, it is too, my number one desert.
Yet, it is out of my reach…
She does not know how much I craved for her
How much I restrain myself
How much I torture myself for denying this favorite desert
For another has claimed her for the taking
I only want her to be happy
I'm willing to destroy everything I got—
--just to see her smile
I'm brave enough to do this, but really…
…I am nothing but a coward.
A coward who wrote this poem instead of saying this to her,
Maybe someday I will have to courage to say or give this to her
But for now, this will do.
Someday, I wish I could get my favorite desert…
-Shirogane Ryou
"Strawberries? Why does he like strawberries? What kind of an idiot would named their own daughter after a…." Ichigo laughed, but stopped as realization of the true meaning of the poem slammed into her.
Dazed, Ichigo unconsciously placed this inside her pocket. Torn between crying tears of laughter because of what Ryou wrote or screamed bloody murder that it was for her, Ichigo didn't know what to do. She didn't know how long she stood in Ryou's room, but once the thought entered her mind that Ryou might be coming back to his room anytime soon, had left her in a panic. She flew downstairs and out the door. On her way down, she nearly bumped into Keiichiro.
"Keiichiro! What are you doing here?' Ichigo cried out as she steady herself from falling over.
"I'm on my way to the café. I'm done with my appointment. How about I walk you home? Since it looks like that you're heading there." Keiichiro offered. He noticed the fluster look on her face and assumed that it must be because Ryou was overworking her—again.
"I don't want to be a bother…." Ichigo trailed off.
Keiichiro shook his head. "You're not. Come on. Let's hurry before it gets dark."
They walked. No more than a couple of meters passed did Ichigo decided that she was sick of this tense awkward silence between them. A couple of moments passed before she gathered enough courage to ask Keiichiro a question that has been bugging her for a while now, "Keiichiro? Do you think that there's someone in Shirogane's life?"
"What are you talking about?" Keiichiro said, confused by her question.
She pulled out the poem that she had tucked and handed it to him. She watched as his expression changed from the look of shock into realization and then into a knowing look.
"I guess you're right about that. Now here's my question to you." Keiichiro said, after giving the poem back to Ichigo. "Do you know who he's referring to?"
Ichigo bit her lip. 'Whomcould Shirogane be referring to? Lettuce? No. It couldn't be. The poem states that the girl must have red hair and brown eyes. Who else do I know that has red hair and brown eyes?' Giving up, she said to Keiichiro, "I don't know who that person might be."
Keiichiro smirked. He pulled Ichigo to face the window next to them. Looking at her reflection, for the first time she noticed that she fits the description. At that point, realization decided to slap her in the head.
Glancing back at Keiichiro, whose grin widened. "No way. He can't be referring to me!" Ichigo's eyes were wide and wild. There was no way that a guy like Shirogane would like a girl like her. She was way too good for him.
"Well who else can it be? I don't think Ryou knows any girls with red hair and brown eyes. Neither do I except for you." Keiichiro stated calmly, though enjoying the different shades of red that started to appear.
"But...but I really like Aoyama-kun." Ichigo said, though she was still blushing at the thought that she was the girl whom Ryou referred to in a poem—that was obviously meant for her.
They continued on walking as if nothing life changing happened. Suddenly Keiichiro said, "Do you? Do you only like Aoyama? Do your feelings for Aoyama blinded the feelings that you might have for Ryou? Think about that."
Ichigo stayed silent. She had never even considered the feelings that would always appeared whenever she was dealing with Shirogane; whether he was being kind to her or obnoxious. They walked a few more paces. Soon, they were in front of her house.
Grateful that he had taken the time to walk with her, she turned to him. "Keiichiro. Thank you for walking me home." Ichigo grinned at him. There was a slight hesitation in her movement. "And for also giving me something to think about.
Keiichiro grinned back. He waved to her. "Don't forget what I said about your crush for Aoyama might be blinding the feelings you might have for Ryou. See you tomorrow!"
Ichigo waved back and headed inside. A thoughtful expression appeared on her face. 'Don't worry Keiichiro. I will.'
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Edited Mar. 11, 2009 (v.1)