A/N: Hi, hi everyone!! How's the story going?!

Kisshu: You're torturing me…

Tsukiko: Is it about the first chapter? I'm sorry, Kisshu-sama.

Taruto: Why does she call him '-sama'?

Pai: I do not know.

Kisshu: It's not that. It's what happening in THIS chapter!

Tsukiko: Well don't say anything!! You'll ruin it. Anyway, can you say the Author's note?

Kisshu: -sigh- The torture lady here does NOT own TMM or the songs or the movies she uses in her stories. She only comes up with the changes and the ideas. Thank you all for the reviews and please keep them coming. She enjoys them to the fullest. She would also like to appreciate the amount of reviews she received from only the first chapter. Thank you and please enjoy.

Tsukiko: I'm not that mean, am I Kisshu-sama?

Kisshu: Stop call me 'lord'!!

Ch. 2: Shopping Trip

"Do you think it should be a 'White Christmas' theme or 'Candy Land' theme?" Ichigo asks, debating rather to get the snow flake or the lollipop Christmas ornament.

Pai looks at the two ornaments and answers, "Candy land. The party is taking place at the café anyway."

Ichigo looks at the two and says, "True but maybe something different might be interesting."

"'White Christmas' is beautiful but it doesn't mix well with the café," Pai notes.

"Well we could use some white stuffing and use it to line on the floor boarders and a bit on the Christmas tree. Then we could use white ribbon on the ceiling."

"If you already have it planned out, then use the 'White Christmas' theme."

"No. I think the 'Candy Land' theme would fit the café better."

As Ichigo puts the snow flake ornament down, Pai rubs his temples. He thinks, 'Why does Kisshu like this girl so much?'

At ten o'clock, Pai and Taruto met up with Ichigo, Pudding, and Lettuce at the shopping center. To make them look human, Pai was able to create a device that could hide their ears, like a hologram or an illusion. The device replaces their big elf like ears with human ears and their eyes to not look so sharp like cat eyes. They look like normal, human eyes. The only thing the device doesn't do is cancel out their powers. They try not to use them in public as best as they can. The device is in the form of a silver ring band. Kisshu usually wears his ring on his ring finger, Taruto wears it on his index finger, and Pai wears his on his middle finger. Then to add more to the disguise, they would also wear human clothing. They can blend in better with human clothing than their traditional clothing. Because it's so cold, Taruto is wearing long pants, a red turtleneck sweater, and a black and white coat. Pai is wearing something similar, except his sweater is purple and his coat is a body length coat and completely black. Taruto's coat almost looks like a football jacket.

Pudding was so happy to see Taruto that she jumped on him and hugged him, like always. Lettuce only greeted Pai with a sweet, gentle smile. He greeted back, almost a bit nervous. When Ichigo didn't see Kisshu, she asked where he was and they answered that he refused to come out of his room. He made it very clear when he slammed the door in their faces three times; the first time when he went back to bed, the second when they tried to drag him from the bed, and the third time when he slammed the front door because he wanted them to leave. Ichigo looked worried and Lettuce and Pudding look sympatric. Then Ichigo got angry and claims that she doesn't care. She'll just have to find decorations by herself. While Ichigo is in charge of decorations, Pudding and Lettuce are supposed to look for games and any form of entertainment. Lettuce is going with Pudding to be in charge of the wallet and to make sure that Pudding doesn't get too crazy. Then Pai claimed that he wished to go with Ichigo, she was surprised as well as the others but he explained that while 'Lettuce-san' is suppose to keep Pudding in check, he's going to keep Ichigo 'in check' as well. Lettuce understood while the others were thinking about if 'decorations' and 'Pai' are a good combination.

As Ichigo puts the snowflake ornament away, she asks, "Hey, Pai! Why doesn't Kisshu want to come out anymore?" Pai looks up at Ichigo after she asked that but she doesn't look at him. "I mean, the last time I saw him was after the Thanksgiving feast. He wouldn't be having some kind of alien sickness that keeps him bedridden all during the Christmas season, would he? Or does he not like the cold because it reminds him too much of his past?" Pai stares at Ichigo a little longer before saying anything. He knows that she's talking about the weather conditions his planet used to suffer and how their lives before the Mew Aqua or Tokyo Mew Mew. How could and dark it was. But the only thoughts he could think of as he stared at her were that she must really care for Kisshu, despite the fact that he keeps bothering her with never ending hugs and kisses.

Then he says, "It's not the cold season he hates. Kisshu hates Christmas." Ichigo's eyes widen after hearing that. She sharply turns around to face Pai and he could see the disbelief in her eyes.

"He…hates Christmas?" she asks, the disbelief also being noticed in her voice.

Pai nods. "I'm afraid so."

"But everyone loves Christmas! How could he hate it?"

Pai shrugs his shoulders like he doesn't know. A lie was told but it was unnoticeable to Ichigo. "His heart just shrinks two sizes too small compared to a normal heart around this time of year."

Ichigo tries to figure it out as she asks, "So you're telling me that Kisshu hasn't been out because it Christmas season? You're not going to tell me that he isn't coming out until New Year's, are you?" Pai didn't say anything. "He isn't coming out until New Years?" Pai nods and Ichigo turns around to use one hand to lean on the counter of ornaments and the other to hold her forehead as she's facing the ground. "That idiot!" she mumbles, almost like a curse. "How could someone hate Christmas? It's the one holiday everyone looks forward to."

Pai stays silent for a moment. He was thinking of something. "Your boyfriend is on the mainland, correct?"

Ichigo looks up at him, confused as she answers, "Yeah. He's going to spend Christmas with some of his relatives. Why?"

Pai answers, "No reason."

While across the streets, watching them through binoculars, Kisshu growls. "Look at Pai, getting it on with my girl." He puts the binoculars down and his big sunglass come falling down as well. He puts it back up on the top of his head as he grumbles, "He doesn't see me going on with Lettuce. That bastard!" Kisshu's hiding behind a trashcan with long baggy jeans and a grey sweat jacket with a hood over his head. He also has sunglasses on and sneakers for shoes. In his hands is a pair of binoculars for spying on Pai and Ichigo and his ring is on his ring finger.

As Kisshu stares at the store that both Ichigo and Pai are in, a Christmas tree truck goes passing by. The smell of pine made Kisshu's stomach turn and the sign 'Christmas' on the truck made his skin crawl. "It's bad enough that I'm out here on my own accord," he grumbles again. "But if Taruto didn't say that it was just going to be the three of us plus the three girls on a little shopping trip after I told him that I was never coming out, then I might have reconsidered. Now here I am, hiding behind some trash can, there is Christmas decorations and even the word 'Christmas' at every inch of the city, and it's freezing cold!!" He hugs himself and starts rubbing his arms as his teeth clatter for a moment. "The first thing I'm doing when I get home is taking a really hot shower and staying in there so the steam can remain inside."

"Hey mommy! Mommy!" Kisshu looks up when he heard the voice of a little boy and he sees a mother and a child holding hands while walking down the sidewalk. "There's a weirdo behind a trash can!"

'Weirdo?' Kisshu wonders, slightly insulted.

The mom looks nerves as she says, "Yes, yes, very good Kiseki. Let's go home now." Then she pulls her son away and runs as fast as she can down the sidewalk.

Kisshu looks down at himself and wonders, "What? Do I look like a hobo or something?" When he turns back to the decorations store, he doesn't see the form of Ichigo or Pai. He uses the binoculars again and he still doesn't see them. "Crap," he grumbles, lowering the binoculars. "I lost them. Thanks a lot, Kiseki." Then he lets out a sigh before standing up and putting the binoculars away. "Oh well." He puts his sunglasses back on and says, "I was getting sick of seeing Christmas everywhere anyway. Time to go home." He walks pass the trashcan and puts his hands in his jacket pockets.

When he walked away from the store, Ichigo and Pai came out. Ichigo grumbles, "That woman took forever to check our bags! Just because they're big doesn't mean that she can go through everything and made sure that everything is on the receipt!"

Pai only says, "She was only trying to be careful about what people by. Some of the ornaments in there are made with real crystals."

"But we didn't buy any stupid crystals!! We're going with Candy Land theme. Not Winter Wonderland."

Pai only lets out a sigh as Ichigo continues to fume about the lady at the doors. But before he could turn to the opposite direction to follow Ichigo, he sees something at the corner of his eyes going the other way across the street. He stops and turns around, just in time to see Kisshu turn at a corner and walk away. All he could think was one thing, 'I knew it.'

"Pai!"

Pai turns around at the sound of his name and Ichigo reminds him, "Let's go back to the café and start decorating. Keiichiro will serve hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies when we get there."

"Alright," he answers, following her as they head to the café in the park.

While for Kisshu, he's ready to blow.

"Merry Christmas!" a man in front of the super store greets while ringing the silver bell for donations.

Kisshu turns to him and smiles. He waves and says, "Y-Yeah. You too." Then he turns around to walk away while thinking of that man in a murder scene. 'If I hear that one more time, I might turn this whole city into a blood massacre!!'

Then he hears the speakers for a store announce, "Good morning everyone and Merry Christmas!!" Kisshu stops walking and his body begins to shake with rage with a huge vein pulses on his head. "Right now, everything at Matsumodo's Antique Store is eighty percent off!!" Kisshu looks confused for a moment and turns to the side. Right next to him is the Matsumodo's Antique store. Kisshu sweat drops when he sees that.

"Ah, who shops at an antique store anyway?!" he says, trying to calm himself down.

Rumble

Kisshu turns to the other side and he sees a crowd stampeding. "Oh, them." Next second later, he was run over by a crowd of last minute shoppers.

2 minutes later…

There was a crowd still running to the store.

5 minutes later…

Kisshu is on the ground with foot prints all over him and a deserted sidewalk. Even the guy who said 'Merry Christmas' to him while also ringing for donations was gone. Kisshu twitches for a bit a moment longer before picking himself up and a vein growing on his head. He sudden stands up and screams, "What the hell is wrong with these stupid humans?!!!" He's ticked. "That's it! I had it! I don't care if anyone sees me! I'm going home, flying!! I can't stand walking through the city streets without getting run over or greeted by the two most ugliest words in the history of the universe!!"

Kisshu turns around to the skies and jumps up. He starts flying home with a vein still on his head and a few choice words escaping his lips.

While on the ground at the crosswalk between the stores of Tokyo and Tokyo park, Pudding is cheering and jumping for joy.

"Hooray, na no da!!" she cheers, jumping. "We found awesome games, na no da!! Everyone will praise Pudding for her good choice, na no da!"

Taruto looks in the shopping bags and list off the names of some of the games. "Trouble, Twister, Battle Ships, Uno Poker, and Mouse Trap. These games a really childish, Pudding."

Then Lettuce says, "But you and Pudding are about the same age."

"We're thirteen years old. These games are at least eight and under." Still Pudding ignored him. Nothing seems to be ruining her day.

While in the sky, Kisshu is flying almost directly over them. But as he's flying, his binoculars come falling out of his pocket. He notices when he doesn't feel the weight of them. He stops fly and watches them fall to the ground. "Damn!"

The binoculars land in the middle of the crosswalk and Pudding notices them. She stops jumping and stares at them in the middle of the street. Seeing that her excited character is gone, Taruto raises a brow and asks, "Pudding? Something wrong?" She doesn't answer. She puts her stuff down and runs to the streets. "Ah, Pudding!!" he calls.

Lettuce yells, "Pudding, get back here!! Cars are still coming!" But she ignores them as she gets out of each car's way. They beep at her as she continues to run to the binoculars. Kisshu sees her and stares down at her in confusion and surprise.

"Pudding?"

Pudding stops in front of the binoculars and picks them up. "Weird, na no da," she notes. "What are binoculars doing falling out of the sky, na no da?"

"Pudding!!"

Beep, beep

Pudding looks up where she heard the sound of the beeping and she sees a truck coming at her in full speed. Lettuce gasps in shock as Kisshu's eyes widen in terror. Taruto looked angry.

"Damn it!" he curses, ready to run into the streets to save her but he stops when he sees something.

It all happened to fast but it happened and Taruto saw it. He saw Kisshu suddenly appear right next to Pudding's side like he teleported there and he grabbed Pudding. Then they were gone right before the truck ran them over. The binoculars are left behind and run over instead.

Lettuce calls, "Pudding!!" But out of reaction to her sudden disappearance.

While on the roof of a building behind Taruto and Lettuce, Kisshu has his hands on Pudding's shoulders and he asks, "What the hell were you thinking?! Were you trying to kill yourself?!"

But all Pudding says is, "Kisshu onii-chan is out of his apartment, na no da." That only added another vein to Kisshu's head.

He retracts his hands from her shoulders in case he might hurt her as he tells her, "The next time something falls from the sky, don't go running after it in the middle of the road."

Then Pudding hugs him. He's surprised by that as she cheers, "Kisshu onii-chan saved me, na no da!!" He pulls away and smiles cheerfully at him. "You have the caring Christmas spirit in you, na no da." Kisshu cracks when he hears that.

He has three veins pulsing on his head as he tells her with a crocked smile on his face, "I do not have the Christmas spirit. Taruto would kill me if I didn't do anything when I could. I'm going to drop you off at the ground and not a word to the others, alright? I don't want everyone knowing that I left the apartment. I still have my pride you know."

"Pudding knows, na no da!" she tells him.

'She's thirteen years old and she still talks like that? Oh well. Might be one of the reasons why Taruto likes her so much,' Kisshu thinks, exhaling to calm down his nerves.

"Well, see ya, Pudding-chan," he tells her, before the air rippled around her and she was gone. Kisshu lets out another stressed out sigh as he thinks out load, "I think I'll just teleport home. Being out in the open is giving me more stress than I need." After that, the air ripples around him and he disappeared.

On the ground, Pudding comes up behind Lettuce and Taruto and yells, "Here I am, na no da!!"

Taruto and Lettuce turn around to see her and as soon as Lettuce saw her, she jumps on Pudding. "Pudding-san!!" she calls, hugging her. Pudding looks up at Lettuce as she looks like she's ready to cry. "I was so scared. Don't ever do that again!"

Pudding hugs her back and says, "I'm sorry, na no da. But I'm fine, na no da. I was saved, na no da!" Lettuce looks down at her in confusion as Taruto looks suspicious.

"Who was it?" Taruto asks.

Lettuce looks at him now in confusion as Pudding answers like nothing is wrong, "A friend, na no da! But I can't tell you who he is, na no da. He made me promise, na no da. Claims that it would hurt his pride if Taru-Taru found out, na no da." Then she pulls away from Lettuce's hold and hugs Taruto. "But next time, Pudding wants to be saved by Taru-Taru, na no da."

Taruto turns red from her hug as he tries to push her off. "Get off me, Pudding!! Humans can see!!"

XxX

"Kisshu!" Taruto calls, entering the apartment with Pai behind him.

Kisshu is sitting on the couch in front of the TV, watching a war movie on full volume. He looks up like he's bored as he greets, "Yo!"

Pai closes the door behind him and he yells, "Turn that down! We have neighbors!"

Kisshu puts his hand behind his big elf like ear and he asks, "What?!"

Getting frustrated, Taruto goes up to him and steals the controls from Kisshu's hand. He turns off the TV and puts his hands on his hips. Kisshu was watching him as he was turning off the TV. "I was watching that, you know."

"And you were going deaf!" Taruto adds. "Mind telling us why you were wondering the streets of Tokyo after you said that you are never coming out of this apartment until after the holidays?"

'Crap,' Kisshu thinks, his expression not revealing any emotions. 'Pudding must have talked. That's what happened when you talk to a monkey.'

He quickly says, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was in here all day. I was hearing caroling outside so I turned the movie and have been watching Wind Takers, a bit of Death Note episodes, and there was a Blood Plus episode marathon. It was really good. Lots of blood and war scenes."

Pai tells him, "Don't try to fool us, Kisshu. We saw you."

'Okay, I take that back,' Kisshu thinks, hearing that. 'Pudding didn't say a word. These two are just really observant. Especially Pai.'

Kisshu shrugs his shoulders like he's clueless. "Still don't know what you're talking about."

"Then you weren't in front of the Christmas Decoration shop?"

"Or the crosswalk between the shops and the park?" Taruto asks.

Kisshu answers, "Been in the living room and my room all day."

Taruto asks, "Then why are you wearing a sweat jacket and long pants instead of your sleep clothes?"

"I was cold. It hasn't snowed yet but it's freezing!"

"Why is your ring on the table across from you?"

"In case the pizza guy came before you did."

"How could you even tell if the pizza guy came when your volume was on full blast?"

Kisshu looks like he's getting bored of this. "Did you two not hear me say that there were people caroling and it was irritating the hell out of me? Jeeze! Six years made you two lazy."

Taruto has a vein on his head and he looks like he's about to murder Kisshu is cold blood when the door bell rang.

Ding-dong

Ding-dong

Kisshu reaches for the ring on his finger and puts it on. "And that would be the pizza guy." He starts walking to the door as he continues to talk and appear human. "I ordered us individual pizzas. I got the four cheeses with pineapple for Taruto, the mushroom with spinach for Pai, and the anchovies with pepperoni for me." As he stands in front of the door, he reaches for his pocket to take out the money. But when he opens it, he sees the pizza guy in a Santa Clause's outfit and he's holding the three pizzas in one hand. Kisshu tenses up when he sees that.

"Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas young man!!" the guy greeted in a deep, jolly voice. What he got was the door slammed in his face.

Slam

"Hey! I was just kidding! You did order pizzas, didn't you?!" the guy asks in his normal voice. But as he was knocking on the door, Kisshu was walking away, frustrated.

When he passes Taruto, he gives him the money. "You pay for them but no tips for that hideous outfit!" Then he marches to his room and slams that door too as soon as he entered.

Taruto goes to the door and opens it. The guy asks, "Where's the other guy?"

"You'll have to excuse me friend," Taruto tells him. "He woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Are those the three individual pizzas, one with four cheeses and pineapple, one with mushroom and spinach, and the other with anchovies and pepperoni?"

The guy nods. "Yeah. 15300 yen, please."

Taruto goes through Kisshu's money and he mumbles, "I swear, the prices get higher and higher every time." Then he passes the guy the exact amount of money. The guy then gives him the pizzas. "Thanks, and by the way. My friend told me not to give you change because that outfit is hideous. Unless you also work at a shopping mall, I suggest not wearing that." Then Taruto closes the door in front of the guy's face.

"And here I am wearing this outfit because I thought I could get tips," the guy whines with tears running down his face.