Who likes RyouxLettuce? I do! I also enjoy Honeyworks songs. So short Song-fic based on Byoumei Koi Wazurai, or Suffering from Love Disease, song by GUMI. I used the English lyrics because the Japanese ones wouldn't have really made any sense, right? Anyway there is no M rated material in this, I just wanted to write something kinda sweet.

Byoumei Koi Wazurai

Pairing: RyouxLettuce

These days where getting longer.

Lettuce wasn't the kind of person to shy away from hard work, but lately it was getting harder and harder to work at Café Mew Mew for an extended period of time. It wasn't the customers nor her coworkers but the problem was someone who was there all the time. She sat in the backroom during her break, pouring all of her attention into something rather embarrassing, a love reference guide. While it was embarrassing, Lettuce had always turned to books when she didn't have the answer and this was no different. Although, was this really helpful? Guys have different types they are attractive to! Are you the traditional beauty? Are you outgoing? Lettuce didn't really consider herself as either of those things. Maybe this book was useless. She sighed.

Love textbooks, love reference guides

Since I can't get anywhere with you, I might as well read them.

The sky is rife with the scent of winter,

So I'm pretty sure wanting to be with you is the fault of the season.

Lettuce stood up from her chair and checked the time, finding her break almost finished. "What a use of a break." A small smile crossed her lips and she pushed in her chair, cleaning up for whoever's break was next. Looking at her book she was tempted to throw it away, but she had never done that to a book before and didn't want to start now. Maybe she would just give it to Ichigo. This seemed like the kind of thing she would be into. But then she would have to explain why she had it and that seemed like a whole other ordeal. Maybe not. I'll figure out something to do with it. For now, she was content putting it in her locker with her other belongings and walking out to the front of the café.

Her break came much later than it usually did, but since it was winter and around Christmas, couples loved to come in and the café had become quite the date spot. Since her break was so late, however, the café was closed by the time she was back on the clock and all there was left to do was clean. I'll ask Ichigo was needs to be done and... As she walked into the empty main room of the café, she found the person who was making the day run so long for her talking to her red haired friend. He seemed to be teasing her, his hands crossed and a frown planted on his face but in his eyes were full of amusement.

I didn't even ask for this…

Argh!

Life can be so unkind!

Suddenly remembering that night where the stars filled the sky…

Wait, no!

I won't be fooled by all this!

They look so good together. Lettuce thought, with casting her eyes downward. She gave a small shake of her head and did her best to hide her emotions. "Hey Ichigo." She called out, making her way towards the two. When Ryou saw her, he gave a friendly smile and Lettuce returned the favor. Ryou's always been nice to me. But he's nice to all the girls. Except Ichigo. When she stood in front of the previously mentioned girl, and gave her a shy smile and pushed up her round glasses. "I'm back from break! What needs to be cleaned?"

"Zakuro-san and Pudding are cleaning the kitchen, Mint is outside sweaping… Well hopefully. So you can help me clean up the front here." Ichigo replied, looking grateful for both the distraction from Ryou and the company. When Lettuce nodded, Ichigo pointed to the tables with her free hand, the other holding a broom. "I just started so why don't you put the chairs on the tables?"

Eager to help, even with Ryou standing there watching the two of them, the green haired girl nodded and quickly began to work, picking up chairs and turning them upside down.

Let's also go half and half on these feelings that make my heart race.

I won't do it for to be just anybody!

I want to become more than friends;

Whether you push or pull, I won't be swayed!

Just supposing here, what if you were to fall in love with me?

Even if you gotta make an exception, the answer should be easy…Right?

'Love' really is a sickness!

Surprising herself, Lettuce had yet to drop any chairs. She wasn't terribly strong but she was able to lift up the chairs and set them on the tables with ease and even something that might be mistaken for grace! With the last table to go, Lettuce lifted the chair more confidently and instantly regretted it. She took a step to place the chair down and slid just slightly, but that was enough to throw off her balance and with a chair in her hands, it was even harder to regain her balance. She tried stepping down with her other foot but it slip as well and she saw the table coming up fast towards her face. This wouldn't end well but it would at least be fitting. She didn't feel like she broke enough things today.

"Lettuce!" She wasn't sure if it was Ichigo or Ryou in her slightly panicked state.

Suddenly the weight from the chair was removed and she was able to brace her hands against the table and stop herself from falling completely over it. "Are you alright? Did Pudding mop here earlier? She goes over board and it never dries completely!" Ichigo called out, looking around her to find anymore spots that seemed slightly wet.

The porpoise girl, who had shut her eyes tight for the upcoming pain, now opened them and looked up at Ryou's concerned face. He set the chair down on the table and turned back to her looking at her from head to toe. "I-I'm fine." She assured him, red covering her face pretty quickly.

"You're really a handful." Ryou muttered before sighing, releasing a breath Lettuce didn't even know she was holding. He looked into her eyes again, this time with kindness instead of concern and her heart raced. He was closer than she had originally thought. "Be more careful alright?"

She could only nod. Love really is a sickness…

My love schemes don't go well…

Having started to make these kind of efforts...

It's pretty shocking for me, right?

Walking under the autumn sky,

When the feelings in a girl's heart come to change.

If I don't look back over my shoulder,

I'll wind up regretting things.

Since that day, Lettuce did her best not to fall or break anything. It was going… semi-well. Ryou didn't really seem to notice any difference but it pushed Lettuce to try harder and not break anything even more. One day he's sure to notice, especially if she didn't break anything the whole day! I felt so silly. I shouldn't think like this… I shouldn't be coming up with schemes or ways to get him to notice me. But she found she couldn't stand around and not think of ways to make him happy or make him smile in her direction.

Well, she mostly found she couldn't stand around. It was busy again, even if winter was over. New couples were coming in and Lettuce was trying to recognize any of them from the previous season, but they all seemed different. At least to her.

"Lettuce! Table 3!" Ichigo called out, having just sat two girls in a small corner of the café. One of them looked angry and the other looked like she was trying to cheer the first girl up. "They're going to need your cheerfulness." The redhead laughed and hurried off to the other side of the café.

The green haired girl took a deep breath and did her best to build up her confidence to take care of the table. She pulled out a little notebook from pocket and made her way over stopping in front of the table. When she was about to open her mouth, the smiling girl turned to her friend and pointed towards the door to the kitchen. "Look, Ren, the guy there! He's cute! Look!"

The other girl looked in that direction and her frown lightened a little bit.

You are getting praised by someone

I feel selfishly happy about it, but

As for that 'someone'

If it's a girl, well…then there'll be some mixed feelings...

"He is kind of cute…" The angry girl, apparently called Ren agreed.

"Hello!" Lettuce spoke up, doing her best to sound cheerful, even if she wanted so bad to turn and see who they were looking at. "I'm Lettuce, and I'll be you're server today! Our specials are earl gray tea and strawberry cheesecake."

The cheerful look looked at Lettuce the whole time she spoke, while Ren seemed to ignore her and continue looking in the way of the kitchen. "Can we get two specials please?"

Lettuce nodded and quickly jotted down their order in her notebook before flashing them a smile, assuring it would be right out and turning on a heel, finally getting a look who the girls were looking at. Of course, it was Ryou. Looking over the café in his usually standoffish manner from a corner, trying his best not to interact with anyone. She laughed a little to herself, feeling a ping of jealously. She did her best not to think about it, though.

Share the load already!

This love is too bitter all on my own!

It's so bitter that I can't drink it down…

Let's go half and half on the painful throbbing in my heart as well;

There's no medicine effective against this ache!

Lettuce made her way to a window facing the kitchen and placed her paper on a hook that spun to face the kitchen, giving Keiichiro her order. "Two special's please, Alasaka-san." The emerald haired girl gave her best smile, feeling bad for making the brunette work, but he just smiled and began boiling a pot of water for her tea.

"Of course, Lettuce-san. Order up for table 5." He placed a tray with a strawberry parfait in the window, nodding to her. Lettuce loved the parfaits, it was probably her favorite of anything Keiichiro ever made and it always reminded her of when she first met Ichigo-san. Those mean girls… and Ichigo was trying to look out for her…

Ichigo-san deserves him more than I do…

Lettuce took the tray, pushing the thoughts out of her head to focus on walking without spilling any of the order. She took a step behind her and started to turn, when his voice was much closer to her than she expected it being. It happened quite quickly. She assumed he had something to tell Keiichiro by the way he called out his name but he was coming from the direction Lettuce was turning towards and she was powerless to stop herself, already in motion.

The tray slammed into him, getting some whip cream on his shirt before the large glass cup the parfait was in tipped over and fell towards the ground, hitting it and breaking into a pile of glass and sweets.

I want to make off with those two letters in 'su-ki'*;

Not really hoping for anything special beyond that.

Suppose you just fell head over heels for staring at me today?

Come on now!

Sometimes you just gotta let your imagination run wild, right?

'Love' really is a sickness!

"I'm so sorry!" Face flushed, Lettuce dropped to her knees to pick up the pieces as fast as she could before giving a small yelp in pain. She didn't dare look up to see if he noticed so instead she looked down and found a small shard of glass poking into her knee.

Of course you don't sit on broken glass, Lettuce… What are you thinking? Oh he must think I'm an idiot!

When she looked up from the glass, to her surprise, Ryou's face was at eye level with her, although he didn't rest his knees on the floor. "Are you okay, Lettuce?"

And the world stopped, ever so briefly as if letting this silly in love school girl savor the moment. I wish you were head over heels for me… Like I am for you. But the world continued shortly after and Lettuce blushed brighter, turning her head to the floor and proceeded to pick up pieces of glass she broke. "I'm fine, Ryou-san." She mumbled softly. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to get any on you, I can-"

She spoke a little too fast and Ryou stood up, taking her arm softly and pulling her up to stand. Lettuce winced as the glass in her knee moved and noticed people had stopped eating to look at her. How mortifying a situation could this possibly be! Honestly, was she about to look down and see that she was naked? Ryou, still holding onto the arm he used to pull her up, wrapped his other arm around her to touch her shoulder and steer her into the back room of the café and Lettuce, finding that she couldn't walk without limping, let him escort her away.

I've heard one-sided crushes are 'fun', but…

That's a lie.

It's just painful, and full of tears.

But…

When I realized this was love, I …

Felt really happy!

Once they were out of eye sight of the rest of the customers, things sounded like they were back to normal, not the awkward silence that would now haunt the green haired girl's dreams. Ryou walked her to the break room, found a seat, set her down on it gently, Lettuce doing her best not to make any noise when her knee moved, and knelt beside her, looking at her knee closely.

Don't be so close. Not when we're alone. Please…

"I'll grab some tweezers and fish it out. It's been getting deeper as you move." The blonde stood up and reached for a first aid kit hanging from the wall behind him.

"Ryou-san, this all isn't necessary." Lettuce pleaded with him, watching his every move. He pulled out a chair and sat it next to hers before sitting down in it and opening the first air kit. "It's a small piece of glass, I can-"

"I want to help." The blonde assured her and Lettuce shut her mouth. He leaned in close and carefully took the tweezers to her knee, clamping it down on the glass and pulling it out slowly. It came out easily enough, for it was just a small piece of glass, but Lettuce felt much better with it gone. "There? See, was that so bad." He smirked at her,

Share the load already!

This love is freaking heavy!

Too heavy to keep holding onto it all alone!

Let's go half and half on these feelings that make my heart race;

If it's not something special, then it's no good!

It made her heart race. Ryou cleaned up her cut and bandaged it before cleaning up the small mess he made. Lettuce stood up, testing putting weight on her leg and found it hurt her much less than before. She smiled and looked at Ryou to thank him, but back turned to her, putting the first aid kit where he found it.

So many things I want to say to you, Ryou-san… Why can't you take some of these feelings? Let's share them so I don't feel so alone. It's so heavy…

"Lettuce, do you hurt yourself this much even when you're not at the café?" He asked, turning to face her.

It was so sudden of a question, Lettuce was caught by surprise and nodded her head quickly. "I've always been clumsy, but I don't typically carry glass on trays."

Ryou pulled out his phone from his back pocket with a deep sigh and flipped the older model open. "What's your number? I want to make sure you're not getting injured and no one is around to help you."

What?

Was someone playing a cruel trick on her? She looked at him nervously, weighing the options before softly muttering her phone number. She knew he was actually putting it in his phone too by the beeping that followed every set of numbers he recited. "There. Now I'll send you a message so you have mine too. Now, think you can finish out the day?"

Too stunned for words, Lettuce nodded and turned to finish up the day, her mind racing.

I want to become more than friends;

Whether you push or pull, I won't be swayed!

Suppose you started to love me more than anyone else in the world…

I'll show you that I can be your ideal kind of girl!

A beeping noise came from the pocket of her apron and Lettuce reached inside, pulling out her cellphone. She had gotten a message from Ryou, proving to her that it really happened.

Call me or text me if you need anything alright? Keep this number.

Lettuce felt herself grow just ever so slightly lighter. Taking a deep breath, she saved the number and pushed the buttons on her phone, pushing send before she could lose her nerve.

Ryou would receive a text from the green haired girl that day, one that he would smile at and save in his phone to look at when he needed something to cheer him up from thinking about the red head in his café. Something to brighten his spirits whenever she talked about the dumb 'Aoyama-kun.'

Thank you for helping me again, Ryou-san. You are the kindest man I have ever known.

'Love' really is a sickness!