Summary: Zakuro Fujiwara is a Japanese superstar by day and an evil fighting heroine by night. She is used to being a lone wolf, however, and so her life becomes a bit more complicated once a blonde-haired boy is insistent on having her join his affiliation.

Rated M for language, mature situations and possible lemons.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew or these characters.

It had been a couple of days since she had saved that couple in the park and was not short of work since then. Every night there was an attack, and every night she would appear just in time to save the innocent civilian from being harmed or killed. She would still feel those eyes on her too, with every move she made and it was starting to frustrate her.

She could have been imagining it, becoming paranoid for the sake of her identity at risk of being compromised, but then again she always had an excellent sense of her surroundings.

" Hey, watch where you're going!" Zakuro exclaimed, after she was bumped into from the front.

Talk about being aware.

She jumped back, her books falling onto the floor. The blonde man before her fell back a little with an "oof", startled at the sudden impact. His eyes widened a little as they made eye contact, and Zakuro hmphed, bending down to retrieve her books.

A couple of students began to stare at the exchange, and Zakuro looked up at the culprit with a glare.

He bent down to help her, handing her a book. "Forgive me for bumping into you Ms. Fujiwara."

His voice was extremely masculine and boyish. He was a bit taller than her, with short messy blonde hair and eyes as blue as the morning sky. His skin was slightly darker than hers, tanned it seemed like, and he was dressed in male uniform for the private university that she attended. He looked down at her with a startled expression as she continued to glare at him.

She hadn't seen him around before that day, not that the campus had few students, but felt like she would have noticed someone like him. His features were just too unique, much like hers had been. Which was why she had come to the conclusion that he had bumped into her on purpose to ask her out on a date, being the most one of the most idolized and lured after women in all of Japan.

And it wouldn't be the first time this would have happened.

He had known her name, so he knew exactly who she was- practically everyone at the university did.

He held her gaze for what seemed like hours on end, when in reality it was less than a minute. It was like he was studying her and making observations in his head. When Zakuro's eyes narrowed he finally blinked, his cheeks reddening at the purple-haired girl that was fuming before him.

" If this was some kind of set up to ask me out on a date, then I'm telling you right now that I'mnot interested." She felt her face growing warm, and she cursed herself mentally for that reaction, hoping he wasn't getting the wrong idea by her blushing in irritation.

"Oh no not at all." He assured her sincerely, chuckling a little. "I was just being clumsy. I apologize. It won't happen again."

"Good."

Zakuro turned on her heel then towards her next class, her hair whipping behind her and nearly hitting the blonde in the face. But before she could fully take her leave, she heard the boy's voice once again call out to her.

Apparently he wasn't finished apologizing. Zakuro rolled her eyes. She turned around to face him and nearly bumped into him again at how close he now was to her.

She took a step back.

" I'm Ryou. Ryou Shirogane." He introduced, holding out his hand in front of him. Zakuro eyed it warily.

He had called her over just to introduce himself?

But now that he had mentioned his name.

Shirogane...

Why did that name sound vaguely familiar?

When she didn't meet his gesture, Ryou lowered his hand with a smile and stuffed it in the pocket of his pants. It seemed like he was resting it there at first, until he pulled out what seemed to be a business card of sorts. When he outstretched his hand for her to take, her eyebrow arched.

She practically snatched the card from his fingers when he said that then, realizing that he had in fact been lying about his intentions when he bumped into her. Still, she looked at the card between her fingers now and skimmed its contents. In italic, bold font it read:

Ryou Shirogane

The Mew Project

03-5678-8975

" I know what you can do, Ms. Fujiwara and I want to help you understand it better."

Her eyes widened a little and her eyes snapped up to look at his in shock.

She snapped back into the strong persona she usually carried and narrowed her eyes, even though she was a bit curious.

"I think you've mistaken me for someone else. I have no idea what this- thisfoolishness is about." She said, hoping he would take that as his cue to leave her alone.

The bell sounded throughout the halls, indicating that the students only had a few moments left to get to their classes. Zakuro by this time was fuming internally. Where did this guy come from all of a sudden? He had purposefully ran into her, to schedule a meeting that had something to do with a Mew Project? Did this project have something to do with her ability to transform into something not quite human, as seemed to have been hinting at?

Was that how she... gained her powers in the first place?

And was he in charge of it all?

" Please contact me if you happen to know of whom I should actually be speaking to then. If you don't, then disregard this encounter entirely. I would greatly appreciate it Ms. Fujiwara." He said with a smile, before turning away to leave. With a wave of his hand, he walked away, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pants. He seemed to be quite pleased of himself, like he had it all planned up to this point.

Zakuro turned swiftly and started for her class, her lips pressed in a tight line, not knowing if she could actually trust this guy, if he was was actually someone trying to harm her.

This one person out of the rest of the world it seemed like, knew of her alternate reality.

And that made him a person of interest.

She had to be cautious.

Author's Note: I'd like to thank the few people that have reviewed and/or favorited so far. I plan on updating this story regularly, and so I hope everyone enjoys what this story develops into. I am trying to stick to the original plot of the Mew Mew concerning Zakuro as much as I can, and I will, but I am also adding my own ideas as well, and I hope you guys will like them.

And what did you think of Ryou? That was a pretty bold move eh?

Short chapter, but I promise I'll working on making them lengthier.

Thanks for reading!

xthoselacedgreyskies