Me: "Missed me?"

Ryou: "No!"

Me: "Too bad! Anyways, sorry for my late update but it's hard to write a story for a newbie like myself!"

Ryou: "Well, I didn't complain about that!"

Me: "I was talking to my viewers!"

Ryou: "Never mind then! Oh, and must I not forget! I have a question for you after you finish writing this chapter, so don't forget to remind me!"

Me: "OK! Now, the story:"

Chapter 2

Long time no see

~Café Mew Mew, Ryou's Room~

Shirogane Ryou was sitting in his room watching some readings displayed on his PC's screen. Except for the noise made by him pressing the buttons on the keyboard his room was quiet as usual because, to put it bluntly, Ryou isn't one of your ordinary "noisy teen neighbors". In fact you could even hear the drops of water that were leaking from a water pipe in the cafe's basement from here. This was a true restroom, perfect for Shirogane since he needed this silence to concentrate and work. Yep, nothing out of the ordinary here.

Ryou: "Temperature, pressure and radiation readings are on a normal scale. The scanner didn't detect any odd life form yet and no energy signatures." he said in his mind while analyzing the data. Everything seemed fine until a red light started blinking at the left-bottom corner of the screen. Then a message box (with a warning sign on it) appeared in the center. "What's this? The atmosphere is losing water vapors? That's weird!" he said while clicking the button on that message box. "Wait a sec! This is not normal!" he realized while watching the results. And so, the calm atmosphere escalated to a tenser one in just 4 seconds. Ryou tried to maintain his calm and not to alarm himself although the results were frightening him. "This can't be! Things are getting wrong and ..." but his thoughts were quickly disrupted by the sound of knocking on his door.

Ichigo: "Shirogane!" she called out for him but without opening the door. After her last 2 incidents she learned her lesson. "Are you awake?"

Ryou: "What do you want? I'm busy!" he said, clearly suggesting he wants to be left alone. "Go bother me some other time!"

Ichigo: "Listen, this is important!" she replied but the tone in her voice changed to an angrier one because she was annoyed by his last comment.

Ryou: "If it's not about a global cataclysm or a mutagenic disease then I don't want to hear it!" he answered turning back to his screen.

But before he could resume his work, the door opened. Ryou heard the sound the hinges made when they were moved and immediately got annoyed.

Ryou: "Now what did I tell you?" he said turning around. "What if I was completely naked this time and... " he stopped himself realizing that the girl who entered was not Ichigo.

Then, Ryou's mind started overworking and hundreds of memories started playing in his mind in just a few seconds. The girl simply smiled back at him and looked like she was enjoying this.

Sarah: "I wouldn't have minded." she said.

Now, Ryou isn't a man who gets scared by anything, especially, not after what he saw in his life, but this just freaked him out.

Sarah: "Missed me?" she asked sarcastically. Seeing her confidence, Ryou regained his ability to move and speak but he still couldn't believe it.

Ryou: "Sarah? You were supposed to be in USA! What...? How...? Why...?" he tried to ask but his mind was still overrunning.

Sarah: "What? That's how you welcome me after all these years? Looks like you still haven't changed at all even now. You should learn something from Akasaka-san".

Ryou was astonished but his mind was already used to processing tones of info very quickly so he already started recovering from his shock. Realizing that he was staring at her, he closed his eyes to relax, took a deep breathe to clear his thoughts and calmed himself:

Ryou: "Ok! What's going on here? Is this real or just a dream?"

Sarah: "I'll take that as a compliment. And it is real. Funny that even you can overreact like that. And I thought only Keiichiro-san was like that!" she responded losing her smile. "Anyways, it's been a long time. MUCH too long. In fact I never even thought you'd grow up so much and so...so...how can I put it?...handsome?" she said as she started moving closer to where Ryou was standing.

Ryou: "(Sigh) You haven't changed either! You're still childish and carefree, I see!" he said, putting a smirk on. "Seems that you're not too different from me!" he retorted. "And I see you still haven't forgotten about me! You should have started your own life just like I told you to. That's what you should have done and I bet it wasn't that hard. I mean, you had Roy, you had many boys who were practically begging you to only look at them. Why didn't you just accept a new life?" he asked fully calm now.

This comment changed Sarah's expression and from confident she became angry and impatient, but she stopped approaching when he was only inches away from her:

Sarah: "What's wrong with you? Don't you remember when I said that you were the only one? I meant it!" she said, now calming herself back and wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling her face closer to his. "I meant it, Ryou (she whispered in his ear). And now I'm going to continue where I left." Closing her eyes, Sarah buckled her lips and began moving in. Ryou immediately guessed what she was doing but had no time to react so he just closed his eyes too. Her face was so close he could feel her breathe and she was intentionally pushing her breasts against his chest (yep, he was enjoying this). But just when they're lips were millimeters away from each other, they both stopped remembering that they were not alone.

Both then looked at the sill of Ryou's door where Ichigo was standing (or more like blushing and staring). Realizing this, she just took a defensive pose and started laughing nervously:

Ichigo: "Oh don't mind me! I was just about to leave!" she said as she closed the door, leaving the two in the room alone.

Sarah, now having lost the mood to, ahem, talk to Ryou released his neck and gained a reasonable distance from him.

Sarah: "(Couch) So what have you been doing these years? I see that the Mew Project is a success." Sarah said taking an innocent look. Ryou also took a serious look like nothing had happened.

Ryou: "You can say that. The purpose of the project was accomplished and the goals were all met. It even worked better than I expected and everything went just fine."

Sarah: "So it's over?" she asked very curious.

Ryou: "So it seems, although I'm still checking for any clues to make sure there are no problems!"

Sarah: "So, that means that you're almost done?"

Ryou: "Yep!"

Sarah: "And that means you'll return with me in USA?" she asked, the impatience returning in her voice.

Ryou: "Sarah, you know, or at least can guess, why I won't do that." he said changing his voice to a sadder one.

Sarah: "I see." she responded doing the exact same thing. "So, you still haven't forgotten about that, have you?". As a response, Shirogane just closed his eyes letting her know that the answer was obviously NO. "(sigh)Fine, if there is no other way, then I'll have to move here at the cafe!" This sudden answer took Ryou off guards. He looked at her quizzically but, of course, only for a short while. Then he just smirked:

Ryou: "Yep, you definitely didn't change at all! Don't you know when to give up? Why do you insist of staying with me? Am I that important to you? Or you just can't accept a rejection?"

At this, Sarah sat on his bed and tried to maintain calm:

Sarah: "Well, that wasn't a very nice question! Ryou, have you ever even thought these last years of, or at least recalled how much I cared about you? What we shared together? How much I LOVED you?"

Ryou then abandoned his smirk and turned serious again.

Ryou: "That was just a child's relationship and you know that! You need to move on. WE need to move on!"

Now Sarah completely lost her calm and started heightening her voice:

Sarah: "How can you even call a serious 3 year relationship a childish one! Ryou, I know you better than anyone. Well, maybe not as well as Akasaka-san but still. I already know that you're trying to keep me away from you just to protect me but you need to know that this is for the better. You should already know that I still love you as much as then, maybe even more. And I grew up, I'm much more mature now than then! I can handle a serious relationship!"

Ryou: "Sarah!"

Sarah: "Do you have any idea how much love letters I received every day? How many boys had fallen for me? But I didn't care! I've chosen you over everyone else because I truly love you and..."

Ryou: "SARAH!" he screamed just to stop her. "Listen to me! I did care for you and I still do. That's why I did what I did. I've just tried to make you happier by letting you start all over and forget everything. I just hope I didn't hurt you too much!"

Now, Sarah, after so much moods she experienced, took a deep breathe too and sighed.

Sarah: "Listen Ryou! I'm not an idiot. I know what you were thinking back then and why you did that and I forgave you a long time ago." she said smiling softly. "But now I want more! Now I want for us to become a couple again!" she said becoming more and more serious and rising from his bed. "I want you to be my boyfriend again! That's what I want! That's what I came here for!"

Shirogane just looked at her for 20 seconds without moving. He was expecting this answer but still didn't found anything good to say, so he searched his mind to find the best way to make her change her mind.

Ryou: "Sarah, I..." he started but was cut off by a hug.

Sarah: "Don't worry, I promise you won't regret it! Just give me a chance and I'll make you happier than you ever was. So happy you'll even forget about that past incident!"

Ryou: "I-I don't know. This is just too quick!"

Sarah: "Why? Don't tell me you already have another girlfriend!"

Ryou: "No, it's not that! I just am a little..." but before he continued, an image of Ichigo's face appeared in his mind, a projection of a recent memory: You're jealous that I have a life and you don't, or you're jealous that I've found my other half and you didn't. This certainly changed Ryou's mood too. "Hmm, maybe this will turn interesting." he thought. "Okay, I haven't had any girlfriend since I left you so I guess it'll be alright."

At this Sarah's face turned happier and she practically jumped to kiss Ryou but was stopped by his finger on her lips.

Ryou: "But, we'll take this slower. MUCH slower than this!" he replied with a smirk. Sarah smiled at him and poked him on his head.

Sarah: "You really do remind me of Roy! I kind of like that in you!" she announced in a happy voice, kissing him on the cheek.

Sarah: "So that means we're now a couple?"

Ryou: "I think so. Now that you're here we can..." but was stopped at a sound made by the door. The sound was like somebody accidently hit his/her head against the door while falling.

Sarah: "Who's there?" she asked, while Ryou opened the door to see who was behind it. But by the time he did that, whoever was eavesdropping on them already ran away to the stairs. Shirogane, then looking on the floor found a trace of hair on it. A red hair!

Sarah: "Any idea who it was?" she asked Ryou while he picked it up and analyzed it more carefully.

Ryou: "Yea, a pretty good idea!"

~Cafe Mew Mew, first floor~

Ichigo was at the lower end of the staircase panting badly because she was exhausted of her sudden sprint she had to take. Sweat was already formed on her forehead and she was pushing her arms against her knees just to stand up.

Ichigo: "I can't believe they almost caught me. If Ryou found out, he'd probably cut my paycheck for the next two weeks. Good thing I had some speed!".

2 seconds later, someone behind her shouted her name almost making her faint:

Mint: "Ichigo! What do you think you're doing? You were supposed to take care of the customers while we were gone! I leave you 10 minutes and you already slack work. What's wrong with you!"

Ichigo, realizing who the owner of the voice was, got annoyed:

Ichigo: "That's none of your business and you should know I had a very important thing to do involving Shirogane while you were gone and had to help him in a matter until now!"

Mint then changed the expression on her face from angry to grossed out.

Mint: "I don't know if you intended to make it that way, but it sounded perverted to me!"

Ichigo: "NO!" she shouted with a little tent of red forming on her face (it was because she was angry, not blushing).

Mint: "Then what were you doing there, huh?" Mint asked devilishly smiling at Ichigo.

When Ichigo was about to answer, another voice came behind her, this time on the other end of the staircase:

Ryou: "Yeah, Ichigo? What were you doing?" he asked with a smirk. "You weren't peeping or eavesdropping on me were you?" he sarcastically asked as Sarah came too, right beside him.

Mint: "Peeping? Well that sounds a bit perverted!" responded Mint to Ichigo.

Now Ichigo's face was turning red (this time it was a blush) and her cat ears popped up. But before anyone could say anything else she ran to the door of the cafe.

Mint: "Where do you think you're going?"

Ichigo (while running): "I've got to see my mother! It's important and...uh...bye!" she said between breathes as she exited the cafe.

Mint: "Rude and impolite as always!", "although it's quite obvious that she's hiding something regarding Shirogane" she said looking suspiciously at the girl standing right before Ryou. "We're having guests today, Shirogane?"

Ryou, sighing, closed his eyes and turned his back heading to his room:

Ryou: "I guess you can say that. I'll introduce her after you and the other girls finish working!" he said as he entered his room followed by Sarah (don't get perverted thoughts, yet).

~Outside~

Ichigo was running as fast as she could, trying to get home. Her day was a complete mess and she didn't understand a bit of it. She thought that going home earlier and taking a nap would help her clear her mind.

But because her stamina was already over and she was exhausted since she ran away from Ryou before he opened his door, she was already dizzy. Some of you may already know this, but after you're getting tired and you keep running, you're vision becomes blurry and you can't see any more as you should. So Ichigo was having problems right now with this and because of that, in her hurry, she hit a boy walking in the opposite direction knocking both of them on the ground:

Ichigo: "Ouch! Go-gomenasai!" she apologized to the young man while trying to calm the pain from the fall. The boy woke up before her and without reacting to the pain (suggesting it wasn't even there) like he wasn't really hurt although he suffered more injuries than she did and offered Ichigo a hand out of kindness to help her get up, although he was much shorter and younger than she was. Much younger.

Boy: "It's ok, oneechan!" the boy smiled. Ichigo rose to her feet and stretched her body (much like a cat) and gave out a barely-hearable nya. She then proceeded to pick up her lash but the boy caught her attention almost immediately.

Ichigo: "Sorry, wanna make it up to you by buying you an ice-cream or something?" she asked the little man.

Boy: "I'd like that!" he said shyly.

Me: "So?"

Ryou: "So what?"

Me: "The question!"

Ryou: "Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me! About your last chapter, after I read it, your description on Sarah was ambiguous. Beside her clothes, I couldn't really imagine how she looked like from what you wrote."

Me: "You're not the only one. To be honest, I couldn't imagine either. Initially, I wanted to make her pretty with a very girlish attitude, but for her looks I don't know. I imagined her to look exactly like Winry from Full Metal Alchemist but with different clothes."

Ryou: "But, doesn't that mean that you're copying a character from another anime?"

Me: "Maybe, but in fanfiction, anything is possible and legal."

Ryou: "Anything?" he asked raising his eyebrow.

Me: "Well, almost, but in any case there's your answer. For those who read this, please comment and let me know your thoughts about it."