Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew (forget this in the last chapter so disclaimer for that too!)

...Ryou's POV...

"Oh Mint Aizawa," I thought, watching my friend chat up Momomiya, "If only you knew the reasons behind this catastrophe."

Telling Mint my engagement to Ichigo Momomiya-I had to admit-was a little difficult the first time. It had been a little less than a month after I had found out my parents lawful secret plans and I knew that the girl I had known for years and trusted as my financial advisor wasn't going to take what I was going to tell her well. "An arranged marriage!" I could see her throwing her small hands into the air then returning them to her waist, "That's preposterous! You don't have to go through with something stupid and wasteful like that Ryou. No! You will not be engaged to some silly, poor bimbo who will suck you dry clean of all your finances. You will go to the courthouse and cancel any ties to it, whether your parents have made arrangements or not."

I shook my head every time I thought of telling her the real reasons behind the marriage. I knew she wouldn't take an arranged marriage well, and personally, I didn't want her or anyone else to know of it. The fact that I was stuck in a bind and Momomiya was the only way out was a little degrading on my pride. I had grown up half of my life without parents and had taken care of myself and only now, were my parents telling my what to do, who to marry, and when to do it. It didn't look good on my part and knowing that there was no way out was something I would have rather kept to myself.

I was sure that if Mint had known everything, she would have gone straight to the lawyers and made a mess of trying to find a way out of the will. I didn't want that. It would have been more of a hassle then just getting married and calling it done. Within a couple of years I figured Ichigo would be sick and tired of me and would return to her parents, where I wouldn't have to worry about her again. I would have gone through with the marriage and that would have been enough for the lawyers-I was sure. You can't force someone to stay in a marriage if they don't love each other, let alone like each other. And in the end, that would be okay with the courts and the hell hole I was in would be over.

But I didn't want Mint to know that. Not even Keiichiro knew everything I had in mind. So I decided to keep the engagement quiet and when I told Mint, she was very much taken aback.

"Engaged?" She looked at me like I was a complete stranger, which I probably was. I had never been interested in dating. Not since I was fifteen when I had one girlfriend for ten minutes. I had never even spoken of being with a girl or ever wanting to marry one so I was sure Mint was as surprised as I felt when I told her.

"Yeah," I scratched the back of my head, "I proposed last week. She's...the girl of my dreams." I lied. Big lie. Huge lie. I had no idea what Ichigo Momomiya looked like, what she liked, or even what her personality was. How was I to know if she was the girl of my dreams?

"Ryou Shirogane had a girlfriend and now he has a fiancée?" Mint asked with an amused look on her face. She was sitting at her desk in one of the office buildings I owned in the downtown area of the city. Papers were stacked on her desk, a pen resting behind her ear as she stood up and paced her large office. Mint had enough money from her family to never have to work ever. But growing up, her father had told her she should be prepared for everything and to always expect the unexpected. Assuming the worst, Mint went to a variety of schools that offered her an education in money management so she could make sure her fathers fortune never went down the toilet. With that, she got a job at one of my offices and became not only her parents financial advisor's but mine and everyone else who knew of her.

"Yes," I answered and watched her stop pacing and sit up on the top of her desk, crossing one pale leg over the other.

"I don't believe you," her smile lazy and her expression unconvinced.

"You don't have to," I shrugged, "She's moving in, in about a month though."

"You can't be serious?" Mint's expression turned to anger, "And you're playing house too? Ryou you've never been interested in dating or girls or marriage. What are you doing?"

"I love her," I replied, "and I want to be with her. It'll be easier if she moves in now so that after the wedding we don't have to get her settled in."

Mint shook her head, "You're in your prime. You have your whole life in front of you. And you're steadily working your way up in this management. Why would you want to get married and have that bring you down now of all times?"

"I don't," I thought, "I really don't."

"It can't be helped now," I picked up a crystal paper weight on her desk, "And I don't want it to be helped either. I want her." my lie was just getting bigger, "But I do plan to work steadily through everything. I'm not going to let planning everything out get in the way of work."

Mint seemed alright with this answer and threw her hands up in the air with defeat, "Fine." she answered, "Whatever. This is your decision."

I grinned, "Thanks Mint."

She waved me off, "Go away. I have work. And I need to put aside a fund for your marriage thing or whatever it is."

And I stood there, months later, my fiancée finally meeting Mint, the girl who I knew wanted this probably not to happen as much as I didn't want it to happen.

"You sure know how to pick 'em, Ryou?" Joked Mint after she had left Ichigo to her room.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, leading her back to my office where I had originally left her before. I had gone to grab some papers for work and when I returned to my office, she was no longer there, leaving me confused on where she had gone.

"She's about as average as average gets," she sighed, tossing back the loose strands to her dark hair that was pulled up into a bun.

"Really?" I sounded less than interested, hardly even fazed by her words.

Honestly, I had never really looked at Ichigo. From the day she ran right into me, I never took into consideration or admired her looks. Slightly wavy, deep red hair that spilled over her thin, pale shoulders was usually how I identified her. That and the obnoxious voice she used to talk. I chuckled inwardly at the thought.

"And she's a little shy," Mint added as I held to the door open for her to my office, "Okay well, maybe not that shy. But she does get quieter whenever you're around."

"How long were you talking to her?" I asked, sitting down at my leather chair. She took the seat across from my desk and opened a file.

"Not long. Although you can tell, when you walked into the room she defiantly got a lot shyer. Especially when you kissed her. The look on her face was 'oh wow'." Mint laughed, flipping through a few sheets of paper in the file, "Here's the amount that's in your wedding fund by the way," she pointed at a paper in the file.

"Oh," I signed off a few papers, "just give that to Keiichiro. He's taking care of all the preparations and wedding stuff."

"Oh," Mint sounded surprised and I glanced up at her, "well that's strange."

"What?"

She shook her head, "Never heard of the best man planning a wedding with the bride. Just strange is all."

Strange was not the better way to put it. Strange didn't even come close to what the situation really was.

"Mint," I thought, "You don't know the half of it."

… "You want to do what?" Keiichiro asked a week later. I stood in his room, large dry erase boards and memo cork boards were hung on his walls with pictures of wedding ideas and drawn out pictures posted everywhere. He stood as his drawing table, his glasses at the peak of his nose, a lamp shining down on whatever he was working on. He was a sight to behold. I glanced around at the boards on his wall and repeated what I had said to him before.

"I want to help with the wedding a little I guess." I shoved my hands into my pockets.

It was silent for a moment before Keiichiro laughed so loud that I had to take a step back and glower at his sarcasm.

"Wow," he laughed softer, "where did that come from?"

"No where," I answered, taking a picture of a wedding dress down from the cork board to look at it. Honestly, I had the misfortune of having Mint tell me for days that she was becoming skeptical on Ichigo and mines relationship based entirely off the fact that I didn't help with the wedding plans at all. Every day as Ichigo and Keiichiro skipped out the door, laughing and pointing out plans, Mint happened to walk in at the same time and notice that I wasn't joining them.

"What is that?" she asked, looking from me to them, "Where are they going?"

"To meet with the wedding planner," I'd reply.

She'd hand me the stack of files and go on pestering me on why I didn't go. Or why I didn't help. Or if I even knew what type of wedding I was having. Then from there she'd get quiet and ask if I were hiding something. And because I wanted to hide the secret I'd reply no. With that she'd tap her foot against the floor and question if maybe I really knew Ichigo that well. Would Ichigo cheat on me with Keiichiro? I wish. And that was why I had come to the decision to get Mint off my back and really try to keep the secret by helping out.

"Something the matter?" Keiichiro asked.

"Mint wont get off my back. She thinks that Ichigo is cheating on me with you because I don't go help plan the wedding."

Keiichiro was silent and I stared at him.

"Maybe she is?" he asked after a long while.

"Seriously?" I shot back with a glare and my friend proceeded to crack up at his own jokes, "I'm serious though. Mint comes up with all sorts of accusations. She even asks if I'm hiding something from her. And because I don't want this to get out, I've decided to help you guys or whatever."

Keiichiro nodded and continued to nod as he looked back at the paper he was working on. After a few seconds he asked, "Do you even know a thing about this girl you are going to marry?"

Not a single damn clue. And I liked to keep it that way.

"She's a girl, eighteen, red hair," I answered.

"Physical attributes are things everyone knows," Keiichiro was serious, "She likes pink, she loves cats, her favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry." he sketched something out on his paper, "And those are just things you can tell when you're walking with her. How do you expect to be married to this woman for forever when you don't even know who she is?"

"Isn't that the point to an arranged marriage?" I asked.

"At one point Ryou," Keiichiro looked up at me, "you're going to have to get to know her. You can't ignore her forever."

That was where my dear friend was wrong. I didn't have to talk to her or know her or anything with her to get my golden ticket. As long as the deed was done in my opinion, I was the winner.

"Whatever," I mumbled.

Keiichiro seemed less than impressed with my attitude and took his glasses off, giving me a long, hard stare. I tried to ignore him and after a few minutes he sighed, "Tomorrow is usually one of the days I go with Ichigo to see Elsa, the wedding planner. It probably isn't entirely appropriate that I go to this one tomorrow anyways. So you can go with Ichigo."

I looked at my friend, "What do you mean by, 'entirely appropriate'?"...

...Ichigo looked at me and I looked at her.

She was in a black sweater and pink skirt. I was in a jacket and jeans. It was cold outside. The so-called office that the wedding planner, Elsa worked in, was closed. My car-it was gone. The driver? He was gone too. I couldn't explain the situation better than that. The first thought that rolled through my mind was, "Gee Sunday is a strange day to go to the wedding planners." My second thought was, "Keiichiro today is the day I plan to murder you."

After about two seconds of standing in front of the front doors to the office in the downtown area, I easily pieced together Keiichiro's little plan. "Of course," I thought, looking at Ichigo, "he would do something like this."

The fact that he was so serious about me getting to know Ichigo was the first factor. Sending me alone with Ichigo to the planners was where his plan began. Getting the driver to simply 'drop' Ichigo and I off so he could find a parking space was where the plan was left off with a bang. So Ichigo and I stood in front of the rotating doors, our reflections looking back at us almost in a mocking way. And that's how it stayed for a good two minutes.

"Fantastic," I groaned, running my hand through my hair.

"Hm," Ichigo pressed her hands to the window, peering into the building, "who knew they weren't open today."

"A lot of places aren't opened on Sundays." You dope.

Ichigo set her hands on her hips and inhaled deeply, "Well I guess we can start walking back home then."

I stared at her. Was she a freaking moron?

Walk.

Walk!

Back to the mansion?

I glanced down the street. There was no way we could walk back when I couldn't even see the hills in which my house rested upon.

I shook my head, "No. It's too far."

She looked up at me and cocked an eyebrow, "No it's not."

"I can't even see the hills," I protested.

"They're right around this building," she held her hand up to one of the bank buildings that stood in the way.

I rolled my eyes, "Why should we walk when our driver was just here? It would be a waste to walk when he can simply drive us."

I could've sworn I saw Ichigo mimic me and roll her eyes but I ignored it. She crossed her arms across her chest, glanced at me, and started walking away. I watched her get about ten feet away from me when I asked, "Where are you going?"

She turned around and walked backwards, "I'm walking back to your mansion." She replied.

I started after her, "I told you, our driver will be back any minute. We don't need to walk. There's no reason to!"

She spun back around so she was no longer facing me and called over her shoulder, "You're just a big lazy."

"How irritating," I thought as I walked after her, "This girl is irritating. She irritates me!"

Clearly with frustration and irritation I couldn't think of a better word to describe her as. We walked down to the corner of where the downtown area began to turn to homes when I stopped. Why was I following her in the first place? I didn't have to watch her. She technically wasn't my responsibility. If she wanted to walk back to the estate then she could walk. I, however, wanted to get a ride home. And I was going to do that.

But as I watched her continue up the sidewalk, I noticed she never even glanced back to see if I was following. For whatever reason, this fact caused an uproar in my head. I didn't know Ichigo that well, I knew that. I liked it like that. But the girl who was living under my roof, living off my hospitality, and was currently my future 'legal partner'-did not give a shit whether or not I was coming-made me incredibly angry.

Balling my hands into fists, I clenched my jaw and chased after the red headed girl. When I caught up to her, she spun around and smirked, "Falling behind?"

"You didn't even bother to wait," I growled, glaring at her.

She shrugged, "I figured you follow whether you wanted to or not."

I narrowed my eyes, "Why is that? I could go wherever I wanted to. I could call up a taxi right now if I wanted to get a ride home. Or simply call the driver. Or even get Keiichiro to come. I don't have to follow you."

"Of course you don't have to."

"Then why would you say it?" I hissed again.

She smiled, "Because I watched you leave your phone in the car."

My hands immediately flew to my pockets on my sides. I patted them, dug through them, and pulled out their insides, only revealing the lint that lived in my jeans. "Shit," I thought, glaring at Ichigo, her smug expression taunting me.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Doesn't matter. I still have my wallet." I patted my back pockets and to my great displeasure found that they were also empty.

"Convenient," I thought as I dug into them and pulled out a measly five dollar bill that had gone through the wash too many times.

"Unless you find a pay phone, looks like you're out of luck," Ichigo snickered, "You handed Keiichiro your wallet before you got in the car, remember?"

Of course. And with Keiichiro's little plan to get me to spend time with my annoying fiancée, he would've pocketed my wallet. I stared at Ichigo and she innocently whirled around and started back up the sidewalk.

"Looks like rain," Ichigo skipped away, "Better hurry and find that pay phone."

Sighing with defeat, I rolled my eyes and followed after the bouncing girl.

"Why are you so aggravating?" I asked aloud, shoving my hands in my pockets.

Ichigo slowed her pace a bit and glanced over her shoulder questioningly at me. I watched her then tore my gaze away and continued at my pace Figuring there was no other way to reword my question, I waited for her answer.

"Aggravating?" she asked after a little while, "You think I'm annoying?"

"Irritating." I corrected.

"Basically the same thing," She scoffed, "They're all unappealing meanings to the opposite party."

I was silent and she swung her arms from side to side, brushing her fingers against her ruffled skirt. After a minute she asked, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"You think I'm aggravating?"

"Yes."

"Why?" She looked over her shoulder again at me, her expression not humorous but more as if she were ready to fight back at whatever I had to say. And I was willing to take that challenge.

"Because you are. Like walking instead of going along with the plan to wait for the driver. It would have been simpler, but now we're walking all the way back to the mansion. Which is up hill, by the way." It was the easiest way to begin explaining how much I disliked her at the moment.

Ichigo stopped walking and spun around, facing me. I didn't stop walking however and continued to trot up hill, walking right pass her. She huffed and chased after me, "I can't believe you're so lazy that you have such a problem walking a few miles to your house!"

"I'm not lazy," I narrowed my eyes, glancing at her as I walked, "I'm telling you that a walk is much more of a hassle than waiting for our driver who is paid to drive us places."

"Laziness!" Ichigo retorted, "That is exactly laziness."

"Look at the sky, Ichigo. You said it yourself, it looks like rain. Who wants to walk with a chance of a shower?"

"What's wrong with a rain walk? Nothing. You're just thinking up excuses to not walk. How hard is this? See? I can see your house from here." She held up her hand to the hills, which looked a lot further than a few miles.

"You've got to be joking me!" I glared at the girl, "See? How could you say, 'see?' I can see that it's too far! It's going to take more than an hour to get back. This is why we drove here. So we wouldn't have to walk!"

"The driver left, Ryou! How did you expect to call him to go get us? Clap your hands three times?" Ichigo snorted, rolling her brown eyes.

I started to feel my blood boil. How dare she argue with me over something I'm providing us with? Not to mention, my side was ten times more logical. Her only argument was that not walking would be pure laziness. How the hell did that make sense? When provided with the transportation, take it. It's as simple and smart as that.

"What the hell is your problem?" I growled.

"My problem is you." Ichigo answered, shooting a glare so sharp and icy that I had to take a moment to brush the look off.

"And you're my problem." I snapped, "You're rude, obnoxious, and an overall priss. You have no appreciation for anything I do for you and you actually have the nerve to fight with me about finding a ride back home. Something I'm providing us with."

"Oh shut up Ryou. You're a total fake, lying, smug bastard with not a single redeeming quality."

Ouch.

Ichigo was pissed. Really pissed. This was another first for me with Ichigo. I knew arguments. We'd had one on the day we met. But serious anger was something I had yet to see on her.

She didn't finish there either, "How dare you act like you know me when you don't have a single clue. Since the day I've met you, there has never been a moment where I felt like you've provided me with anything but hostility. You act like shoving a roof over my head is a warm welcoming but it's not. Get a clue, Ryou, nobody likes to live with an asshole. And you're grade A ass meat."

And she was gone; walking so quickly up the sidewalk that she was practically a block away from me by the time her words registered. Hostility? Shoving a roof over her head? Asshole?

Words. So many words that I had never once associated her as a person to say. I watched Ichigo get all the way up the block and around the corner where she completely disappeared before I turned around and started back towards the downtown area. I was angry. Trust me. And I planned to have a serious talk with that fiancée of mine before things went any further.

But I had to calm down first. And I had to pick and choose my arguments before I could continue on. And I had to find a ride home.

Because there was no way in hell I was going to walk home after being called grade A ass meat.

...to be continued...

A/N: Kind of a silly ending, I know. But it leads to action! Now it's time to make things better in the next chapter (along with other things). I am aware that Ichigo was a little out of character. But she's defiantly not a timid character when she gets into an argument in my opinion. Mint's little shpill in the beginning about Ichigo being "shy" is totally off just fyi in case someone points it out. I know it's off. It's because Mint and Ichigo haven't really associated yet and Mint thinks Ichigo is shy around Ryou (and because of the little part in the last chapter haha). Time can only tell. Thanks my reviewers! It was a pleasure getting to hear from you. To answer one suggestion, I am planning on adding in all the Mew Mews. I just have to give them all good opportunities for entrance. You know the drill. See you next chapter. :)