I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. If I did, then a nice boy like Masaya wouldn't end up with Ichigo. She'd be jumping into Ryou's arms right now. Um, yeah.

(Written on August 11, 2006)
Chapter 2 | A Desperate Solution

Ichigo sighs as she gets into the bath tub. "It's been a long day; I can't believe what happened..." A short glimpse of Ryou reaching in to kiss her passed through her mind. She starts to blush then realizes that her cat ears have popped out. "Why am I getting excited? It's only Ryou after all. He's not that great... He's just... He's... I don't know anymore." Ichigo sighs again and ducks her head into warm water. She's been feeling confused about her relationships a lot lately, but the incident with Ryou just made it worse for her.

"I guess I'm just confused about my emotions. I know I shouldn't be, I love Masaya," she says lightly as if she didn't want anyone to hear her. "But then why did I kiss him back?"

"Kissu kissu!" A familiar voice repeats in a perky voice.

Ichigo glances around the room unaware of whose voice exactly that was. It was Masha. Ichigo smiles slightly. 'I guess I know what I have to do now. It isn't right to do this to Masaya. I kissed another boy, I was unfaithful. Maybe I just.' She pauses for a moment, believing that she's just in denial about her true feelings. 'No, I want a relation-'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the usually perky Masha. Except this time it didn't see that Masha was perky anymore. Instead Masha looked a bit uneasy, as if they could feel the pain that Ichigo was enduring.

"It's okay, Masha." She said as she smiled softly at her little perky robot. She reaches up to grab Masha and holds her tightly against her chest. 'Ryou gave me this... Oh Ryou, why did you have to kiss me now.'

She gets up and puts on of her feet on the rug and reaches to pull the plug. She walks up to the sink and draws a heart in the fog on the mirror. "I've got it."

"Got it! Got it!"

"That's right. I know what to do now, Masha!"

"Masha's good friend." She says with one of her most perkiest faces ever.

"Yes, Masha, and it's all thanks to you!"

The next day wasn't that beautiful. The sky was a dark gray with some touches of navy blue; it looked as if it was going to have a storm later on. The wind was blowing so hard, it looked like the trees could be pulled out of the ground at any time. Ichigo sighs. "I guess I can't blame the weather. I still have to do it no matter what."

She rushes out of the house, after saying goodbye to her parents. 'I have to hurry; I can't risk being late anymore.' She races past all the shops. "I've got to see Ryou today." She starts to think of the kiss from the other day and blushes. 'Too much excitement...' she states as she notices that her cat ears and tail popped out once again. The customers from the shop glance at the shadowed figure running incredibly faster than all of the average school children.

"Momma, that girl has a tail!"

She starts to panic. 'Oh no, someone saw.' She starts to concentrate thinking of nothing that could possibly excite her, maybe just the bad weather. She stops right in front of the little child who noticed her tail.

"Huh?" She asks.

"You have a tail! I saw it!" She smiles, looking so innocent. "But... Where did it go?"

"What a wild imagination you have! Heh heh heh..." Ichigo says as she messes up the little girl's hair. "I don't have a tail, now bye bye!" She begins to race to get to school on time once again.

Just a couple minutes before the bell rings, she finally makes it to her school. She quickly stops and leans against the wall gasping for air.

"Ichigo? Is that you?"

"Huh?" She questions, glancing around. She can't seem to find a single face though.

Masaya walks out of nowhere and smiles gently. "You're not late this time." He says, laughing.

He notices a disappointed look on Ichigo's face and asks her if there's anything bothering her. She glares up at him wondering how she could possibly do this to such an amazing man. He looks at her, more worried than ever now. "You know, you can talk to me about anything."

She sighs one more time. A long pause. "It's just... I really need t-" It had to be done. "I need to talk to you. It's important, so I'm really glad you met me here on such short notice." She smiled a little.

"It's no problem. What's on your mind?"

"I don't think I have the same emotions for you anymore. It's just, um, well I've go-" She couldn't believe that she was about to say something like that to him. She can't believe she was about to say something like that about... "I've got these mixed feelings." She quickly came up with another good reason for him. "I'm really sorry, Masaya."

"It's alright, Ichigo. I understand. I understand... completely." With that, he parted on his way.

- Q -

Ichigo slowly walks into Cafe Mew Mew, looking more gloomy than ever before. Ryou is on top of the stairs watching her. "You're late again, Baka Strawberry." He says with a small smirk on his face. "Get to work."

"I know. I had to do something. I'll go change now." She quickly runs to get changed. "I don't want to look at Ryou. I can't bare this right now. It hurts too much." Her face starts to turn red. She slowly walks out of the change room to join her friends.

In the middle of it all, she starts to get lose her attention to the customers. She keeps getting the orders mixed up and ignoring when they're trying to order. Keiichiro walked up behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Are you sick? You can take a little break if you wish." She thanks him and accepts his offer.

After the cafe closed, the Mew Mews gathered in the change room to discuss Ichigo's condition. They're worried that something happened with Masaya. They're right. Their idea of what happened is all wrong though. Ichigo slumps on the chair and starts to think of where to go from here. 'Ryou... Could I possibly?' She starts to blush but quickly stops as she hears a noise.

"By the looks of it, it looks like it's about Masaya."

"Huh? Oh, Zakura. Everybody." She looks somewhat relieved, trying to hide her real emotions inside.

They all look at her funny with damaged looked on their face. "Did something happen?" Retasu asks. "You can tell us what happened." Ichigo looks up to see such a happy face on Retasu, as if everything will be okay soon.

"Oh. I broke up with him."

Everyone's expressions went from worried to shock in less than three seconds. Mint screamed "WHA" and asked her to explain what happened.

Ryou seemed to be a little worried about his Strawberry. "There I go again... My strawberry. That's not right." He sighs and goes to look for her. He wants to tell her to cheer up and stop making mistakes or else he'll take money off of her pay check. It seems to work often, at least in most cases.

Ichigo explained the situation of what was happened, excluding the vivacious kiss she had with Ryou. She doesn't think it would be right to include that. 'It probably meant nothing to him anyways; he has kissed me before when I was a cat.'

"Is there someone else?" one of them asks.

"What?" She starts to blush. She shakes her head quickly. "No way. I love Masaya. I do."

Zakura looks at her. She knows she's in denial about her feelings. For she feels the same way, just about someone completely different.

"I just had to end it with Masaya. There... Um, I just couldn't do it right now. I know it sounds silly but, I guess there is another person. It's just mixed up feelings but I'm having. They probably will mean nothing and I made him go through all this for nothing." She sighs with distress.

"Maybe it does mean something and you just haven't figured them out yet. Love is mysterious." says Zakura.

Mint adds "You're so lucky, more love advice from Zakura." She has huge starry eyes now, holding her hands together close to the side of her face.

Ryou starts to come along the entrance of the change room. 'I'm sure they are changed already...' But he got to hear something from the girls. He heard about the breaking up with Masaya. Though he did miss the part about another love interest. So he walked away.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll have to think things over again."

"Be patient, it will come." Zakura adds as she walks away.

All of the other four Mew Mews left as Ichigo finishes getting ready to leave. She sits around in the same position for over two hours or so, thinking of exactly what is suppose to be her next move. She had decided. Absolutely nothing would get in her way. She puts on her shoes and walks out of the room. Ryou is walking past the door and they happen to bump into each other. Thinking it was Keiichiro, she apologizes quickly, bowing her head to him.

Ryou smirks. "It's okay, Baka Strawberry."

She glances up to him and starts to blush. Her entire face is red now.

"What are you doing here? It's late."

She starts to mumble but she can't make out a word.

"I'd like a raise. And I would like it now!" She suggested to him. She didn't want to say anything about her feelings, though they were in need to tell him. She couldn't tell him now; he didn't feel the same way. She had concluded what she was going to do only earlier. She was ready to make it happen.

"What are you talking about? I told you you're never going to get a raise. You don't do enough." He smirked at the thought of getting her upset. This time, her cat ears and tail didn't pop out. It disappointed Ryou.

"You know I do all the work around here. I've already explained myself." She said, trying not to be so hot-headed. "Now give me that raise." She demanded once again.

"Are you sick?"

"What? What does that have to do with anything?"

He glared at her. His hand reached out and grabbed her face. He moved in closer to her, which made Ichigo gasp. 'What is he doing?' She closed her eyes, expecting the normal kiss from Ryou, but it never came.

"Baka Strawberry." He said once again, moving away from her. "You should go home."

"What about my raise?"

"Why are you still going on about that?"

"Because I deserve it!" She smiled at him. Her smile was wide, she looked so happy. He didn't understand why, he knew that she had broken up with Masaya earlier, she was in pieces.

"No, you don't."

"If you don't give me a raise, I quit."

"Oh, is that so? Alright, bye." And he walked away, snickering.

She growled at him. 'I can't believe that. I should have figured. He would never like someone like me.' She continued to think as she stomped out of the cafe. She stomped all the way home, scaring the birds from the trees. She didn't bother to tell her parents that she was home; she just went straight into her room and slept. 'I guess I can sleep in tomorrow morning now.' She thought to herself as she dozed off.

She woke up the next day feeling so fresh, she just couldn't wait for the day to start. She had remembered that she quit the other night, but couldn't help to go to the pink cafe. She enjoyed seeing her friends every day, and despite the fact that she really would never have admitted it to herself, nor to anyone else, she enjoyed seeing Ryou.

She decided that she would go there, just to order some food and watch the other girls worked, as Ryou got more upset that she wasn't doing anything. She didn't know him well, but she knew him enough to know he'd be upset with her for that. She had planned to even come in late, and wear something very attractive. One of her best outfits. Sadly, she couldn't decide what Ryou would like...

She floated over to her closet, opened it, laying her chin on her hand with one finger on her lip. It was as if she was in a very serious moment, though it was only decided what to wear. She had decided to wear one of her black skirts. She couldn't decide what to wear for her t-shirt. The choices were obvious. It was either her pink tank top with the frilled white trimming, her yellow sweater, or another t-shirt with a strawberry on the top right side. She had left on the bell that Masaya had gave her. She had become attached to it. She enjoyed how it rang every time she turned around quickly. Besides, it looked good on her.

Now the only thing left was to do her hair. She wasn't planning on keeping it down, so she grabbed the two red ribbons. She quickly tied up her hair in two pigtails, making sure that it was perfect. She looked in the mirror, thinking that Ryou would be sorry now.

She knew that she would be late enough; Ryou would surely be on her case by now, if she was there that is.

She started walking to the cafe. As soon as she was there, she popped her head inside and looked around. Everyone was doing their usual routine. It was just like a normal day at the cafe, excluding Ichigo's random daydreams. Ryou wasn't any where to be in sight though. She just walked in. "Girls, today..." She started.

"You're late, Baka!" The unpleasant voice again.

"As you could recall, with your high IQ, that I quit last night. Now I'd like a strawberry cupcake."

The other Mews looked at her. Mint didn't bother to put down her tea, and continued drinking. She called over to Ichigo. When Ichigo had arrived, Mint asked what happened.

Ryou was upset. He didn't take what she had said the other day seriously. Now his Strawberry had quit, he would hardly see her anymore. He couldn't bare that.

Before Ichigo could explain the situation to Mint, Ryou came up to her, grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her upstairs. He wouldn't lose his Strawberry. Not today. Not ever. He pulled her into his bedroom, leaning against the door, after closing it. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean? I quit. I want a cupcake now." She smiled at him. This was exactly what she thought would happened, well somewhat.

"You quit because I didn't give you a raise?"

"Yep."

"I don't believe you." She was sitting on his bed now, feeling comfortable. "You're giving up on the people you've been destined to save?"

"No."

"What?"

"I'll be Mew Ichigo when the people need me."

Ryou just had this "..." look on his face. He didn't understand what she was trying to get at.

"I'd just like a raise."

"I told you no. You're not going to get a raise, Baka." He had a smirk on his face. He thought that she was only doing this for a raise, which she'll be back in no time afterwards.

"Well then-"

"Actually," He pauses for a moment, looking as if he's really serious about giving her one. "Sure."

Ichigo was shocked. She couldn't believe what he had said. "Did you... Did you say yes?"

"Yes. Yes, I did." He said with another big smirk on his face. He wasn't really going to give her a raise though.

"Great!" She exclaimed.

"Now get to work, baka."

"What? No, I'm taking the day off. Where's my cupcake?" She insisted.

Ryou growled. He came up closer to her, pulling her wrist. "Oh, you'll get your cupcake, baka." He pulled her downstairs, pulled out a chair for her, making her sit down. He went into the kitchen.

"Keiichiro... I need a cupcake."

"What for?" His curiosity spoke.

"Baka Strawberry won't get to work until she gets one..." He sighed.

Keiichiro hands over a cupcake to him. He knows what Ryou is thinking of. "Here you go."

Ichigo was explaining why she quit and how she'll be working the next day now that she had finally gotten a raise when Ryou walked back into the room. She didn't mention anything about the kiss, or her new-found feelings for Ryou. She didn't want him to overhear. "Here you go. Now get to work."

"I told you I'm not working today. But thanks." She said with a cheery face. She glanced over at him, only to see how much anger was in his face. She thought it was the perfect time...

End | Chapter 2

What's this; it's the perfect time for what? Ichigo, oh, Ichigo, let me know. I'll have to write Chapter 3 next. Har har, no time for sleep.