Me:...wow, I'm slow now XD Chapter six! I spell checked them all but if there's anything that needs to be fixed don't hesitate to say so. SORRY That It's So Late!

Special thanks to Suuz112, Jenn55, Oceanfur and ForeverxKatie! Lol because I was having a strange day, full of writers block and seeing that review just made my brain work XD Writers block has been defeated!!

Yay Thanks to every one who reviewed -cough three people cough-, I'll try to keep this story being good...introducing: Pai!

Pai: ...

Me: Talk...they won't read a stupid A/N forever you know.

Pai -silence-

Me: -! Hmm, Pai say the disclaimer or something might happen to Lettuce...

Pai: -raises eyebrow- ...She doesn't own TMM...

Me: Okay, ACTION! -victory sign-

Ichigo woke up, the bright morning light quickly replaced by darkness as she pulled the covers over her head. She had spent the last three days at home, claiming to be 'sick' so she didn't have to go to school, or even worse; see her ex-boss.

"Never! I re...fuse," she mumbled, fighting to stay asleep, even though the loud, annoying and very much hated beeping, echoing throughout the room had other ideas. "No...baka alarm!"

Ichigo threw the covers back vexed at being woken from her dreams by that insufferable noise, even if her dreams weren't that peaceful, at least they were better than the reality.

She grabbed the alarm clock and and slammed her hand down hard on the snooze button, she was incredibly tempted to chuck it out of her window but that would mean having to go outside and get it, instead she settled for throwing it onto the floor.

It landed with a smug crack, snapping her out of her sleepy daze as her eyes traveled tiredly to the floor.

"Oops," Ichigo stared at the broken plastic and glass on her pink carpet. She was now fully awake and had realised what she had just done. "Maybe that was a mistake..."

"Ichigo honey! Are you awake?" She heard her mum calling up the stairs.

"No," she groaned, falling backwards with the covers flying back over her lightly, covering her completely. "I don't feel well, I can't go to school."

Her bedroom door opened a crack letting in some light, and her mothers head poked in. "You'll be late for school sweetie," she said softly, walking fully into her room. She gave wry smile when she saw the broken alarm clock smashed on the floor and her hidden daughter. "Looks like we'll have to buy a new one of those."

"I'm not going, I still don't feel good okaa-san," Ichigo whined pulling the covers tighter around her, grumbling.

Sakura pulled back the sheets and put her hand to her daughters head. "You're a bit hot...well one more day's rest shouldn't be too bad," her mother said, thinking about it. "But you haven't got much of a temperature though...well since you're late anyway. After you get dressed you can go and buy a new clock."

"Okaaaa-saan," Ichigo groaned.

"It's only fair considering you broke it, and you're skipping school. You're not even that ill," Sakura said, in a that's-final voice. "You might want to take an umbrella too, the weather looks threatening."

"Hai, hai...I'll go get dressed later," Ichigo yawned, going back to sleep. She already new it was raining, her cat half sensed it.

Sakura sighed and stood up, some times she thought, Ichigo could be the laziest child she had ever met. She shut the door quietly and went back to her house work. Ichigo would probably wake up again around lunch time, the worst case scenario was she that slept till the evening...

-- --

Ryou Shirogane opened his eyes to darkness, the harsh noise of his alarm clock resonating around the room. He pulled his arm out from the covers, slowly stretching it up and searching along his shelf blindly for the accursed object.

Hitting the button the sound obligingly stopped and he sat up slowly, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light of the room, not that it was bright or anything. Ryou yawned and stretched as he slid out of bed taking a look at the photo on the side, he opened his curtains and blinked blankly at the grey sky out side his window. The clouds were swelling and churning angrily as the pressure built up inside of them. It wasn't raining yet but they looked ready to burst any second now.

Oh great, what a lovely day... he thought sarcastically, cat DNA depressed at the weather, turning away and walking towards the on suit bathroom for a shower.

The warm water was calming and made the cold disperse from his exposed, shivering body. It felt comforting while the temperature outside was beginning to drop.

The steam was rising around him, acting some what like a heated blanket, warming the water further that made trails down his torso and dripped from his hair. Usually blonde, it now took on a darker colour as the water tangled his hair together. Ryou sighed contented while he lent his head against the tiles, the water clearing the fog from his mind.

Today is going to be long, Ichigo isn't even here to make it go quicker...

Twenty minutes or so later Ryou emerged from the bathroom, towel wrapped loosely and thoughtlessly around his waist as he opened his cupboard. He pulled out the usual outfit of black vest top, white trousers and the red choker he wore most.

He took his time getting dressed, not having to worry about a certain stra- girl...walking in on him half naked this morning, and headed downstairs for something to eat.

The girls were all there, except Zakuro who was on a photo shoot in Kyoto, and of course Ichigo who had quit. The three mews left were all changed and setting up the cafe ready to be opened.

"Morning," he said, entering the kitchen.

The two eldest girls smiled politely, while Pudding on the other hand... "Morning Bossman na no da!" she shouted, overly hyper for so early in the day. "It's about time, we were waiting na no da."

"Good morning Ryou," Keichiiro greeted, as Ryou sat down at the table inside the kitchen. "I'm surprised to see you slept through your alarm."

"I did? It was going off when I woke up," Ryou said, taking the glass of orange juice Keichiiro handed him.

"It has been going off for about and hour before you finally turned it off," Keichiiro informed him, hiding his irritation perfectly. "We had to restrain Pudding-san from running up and waking you." A little more violently than you would have liked, he 'forgot' to add.

"Oh, so I guess the cafe's about to open any second then," Ryou said, holding back a yawn. "Better eat now then."

Ryou stood up, wanting to get some breakfast but Keichiiro pushed him back down. "Ahead of you on that one Ryou."

Keichiiro walked over to the side and brought back a tray of food, putting it on the table in front of him. "Knowing that you over slept, I thought you'd be wanting this."

Ryou stared down at the freshly made pancakes before him, they were golden with butter and syrup, a banana was cut up on the side also draped with the sweet sauce. A lot of sugar...but it smells great.

"Uh, thanks Keichiiro," Ryou said, enjoying the pleasant aroma floating in the air. "...you don't usually do something like this though, so what's the catch?"

"Oh Ryou, can't a friend look after another," Keichiiro said, looking at his friend warily. "Just eat...such a suspicious kid."

"Kid? Pfft," Ryou huffed, taking a bite and watching his elder friend sceptically. Why did he make me breakfast? and Why aren't the girls being noisy? Hm...

"Well lets get to work then," Keichiiro cheerfully said. "Girls open up please."

"Hai," they called, leaving the kitchen.

They soon heard the noisy hustle and bustle of customers as they talked amongst themselves, and were shown to their tables. They were squealing and gossiping taking their menus from the girls serving them.

"Looks like it's going to be a busy day," Keichiiro said conversationally, taking a tray from the oven.

"Mm," Ryou agreed, finishing off his food. It was good, better than that; it was delicious. "And only three workers, well two since Mint does nothing."

"Oh well I guess I forgot to mention," Keichiiro added, leaving the freshly baked cupcakes on the side to cool. "Pudding-san has to leave early today for both the morning and afternoon shifts, so we'll be one girl down."

"So we have one waitress...Why is she leaving?" Ryou asked, dreading the day ahead.

"She has to look after her sister, and her brothers class has an after school play," Keichiiro started. "Then she has to take her sister to the dentist, and then her brothers are going over their friends so she has to drop them off...little sister then has a birthday party to go to and she has to drop her off, the two oldest boys have to baby sit her and then she has to take the other two home."

"I asked 'why' Keichiiro, I didn't ask for her life story," Ryou sighed, yawning loudly.

"You've been doing that a lot lately," Keichiiro stated.

Ryou raised an eyebrow. "Doing what?"

"Yawning, are you getting enough sleep?"

"No, not really," Ryou answered, shortly. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Right, well make sure you get a good rest," the brunette said, concern evident in his voice.

"Well, customers are waiting," said Ryou, dismissing his friend's worry, and putting his cup and plate into the sink to be washed.

"Right."

The rest of the day was spent in a mad panic as the girls, not counting Mint who sat there 'inspecting' the tea, rushed to get orders and serve customers. It was almost as though the entire day was nothing but a huge blur, people running around this way and that, plates breaking, trays clattering and Pudding hadn't even left yet!

However when she did leave chaos ensued; Lettuce was on her own speeding from table to kitchen, to the next table and then tripping over sending the food every where. The result; several failed orders and the whole pattern would start again, with Mint watching amused from the sidelines. It even got to the point where Ryou was forced to work as well.

"Dammit Keichiiro there should be some law against this," he complained.

"Table three, seven and sixteen," Keichiiro said, placing the freshly made desserts on the tray. He heaved a sigh watching his friend run off, ultimately avoiding Lettuce at the last possible second.

"Table twenty wants two cherry cheese cakes and Cherryade, table four wants a fruit tart and table nine needs more tea..." Lettuce let the out the rest of the breath she had been using to announce the orders, and held onto the side to stop herself from collapsing.

"Okay well here's the order for table four, and the tea is done," Keichiiro said, putting the items onto the tray. "I'll make the other order now."

"Hai," she said, running off and passing Ryou on the way back.

It was now getting close to the end of lunch and they were both exhausted. Ryou walked up to the pass groaning as Lettuce ran past.

"This is...torture," Ryou sighed, leaning heavily against the counter.

"Well it's not over yet," Keichiiro gave him a sympathetic smile. "I need you to go to the store and get me some ingredients, we're running low."

Ryou rolled his eyes, great... "Fine, I'll be back later," he moaned, taking the shopping list. Keichiiro nodded his thanks and went back to work, Lettuce looked absolutely mortified seeing Ryou leave the building, meaning she would be the only one working.

Keichiiro looked out of the window thoughtfully and frowned, maybe I should have told him to take an umbrella...

Outside in the the unforgiving autumn weather, the sky was the darkest and most threatening it had been in weeks, Ryou could feel the wind nipping at his clothes and mussing his hair. It was freezing too and he now regretted leaving without a jacket on.

Leaves were thrown around in miniature whirlwinds at the base of the trees, their colours blending brilliantly to create a welcome sight from the grey and black above.

Ryou shivered, he knew it was about pour down any second and he wasn't any where near a building. He sighed and turned quickly heading in the direction of the park, it would be quicker to reach the shops heading this way.

I don't think I've ever worked his much in a long time, trust everyone to be off today...this was even worse than the time the I had to do ALL the work when they were off fighting chimera...Ryou sighed, shivering again.

He looked around the park, it was more or less deserted apart from the few parents taking their children to feed the ducks, and the old couple sitting on the bench at the opposite end of the fountain.

Even from where he stood he could see the iciness of the fountain as it rained down from the statue. He stared at it disdainfully and carried on walking, trying to distract himself from the chill biting his exposed skin.

So what am I getting? Ryou wondered, taking out the list Keichiiro had given him. Flour, milk, cherries, eggs, vanilla, strawberries...Ichigo, damn it what happened with her? She was acting so strange, I hope she changed back okay...but why did she scratch me?

Ryou groaned and stuck the piece of paper back into his pocket. I'm thinking too much, she's probably fine at school...most likely late for it, pfft.

"Isn't there a shorter way to the shops?" He asked irritated, not expecting any answer. "Or a quicker way..."

Ryou shrugged, at least if he did this he might get there at least a little bit faster than walking. But then again there really wasn't a need to do it, he could walk perfectly on two legs so he didn't really need four. Demo...I don't need to freeze to death on the way there, it'll be easier and give me more time to walk back.

He shook his head finally coming to a decision. Ryou walked over to the trees where no one would see and transformed into a small grey-lavender kitten. Walking out from behind the tree, he ran full pelt through the park. Never done this to save time before, he mused. Happy as he was that having fur that kept out most of the cold, he was pretty annoyed at how many times his paw had gotten stuck in the mud with the help of it. It was starting to become a nuisance as he ran down a side street that led to a fork in the streets. One way leading to the busy main street, the other leading into the forest, it didn't really matter which way he took as they both led to the market and shops.

So far Ryou had used up practically half of his time as Alto, and he still wasn't any closer to the place he needed to get to. He was now stuck with the choice of choosing which road to go down; if he went to the main street he would get trampled on by all the busy shoppers, but if he went through the woods he'd come out a muddied mess. Neither option was much of a comfort, and both paths took the same amount of time to get to the end.

It seemed as though the weather made the decision for him; a bolt of lightening cracked across the sky almost causing the koneko's heart to stop, as he jumped a foot off the ground from shock. A split second after, the heavens opened sending the rain chucking down in a fury like no other.

Alto pegged it into the forest in hopes of some shelter from the unforgiving torrent above. The rain drops hit the ground and bounced away leaving room for the next, and within a matter of seconds the ground and everything else out in the rain was drenched, including a small grey cat.

Alto shivered shaking the water from his fur, he was soaked from top to tail and he could feel it heavy against his body. Thunder exploded through the air sending chills through his entire being. Being a cat amplified all the sounds that a human would hear normally, making everything seem a lot more scary than it actually was. Alto couldn't even change back because he was so shocked.

Dammit, stupid flaming weather. Why now? He all but screamed in his head. In fact, why didn't I bring an umbrella!

Alto was currently walking his way towards a tree, hoping the leaves -what was left of them- would provide some shelter, to no prevail though.

-- --

"I can't believe I slept in! It's almost noon, how could I not have woke up?" She cried.

Several people on the street turned to watch the ferocious red head stomping down the street, yelling at her self. If they looked close enough they could see the snakes on the ends of her hair.

This had not been a good day, she would even have gone so far as to say it was the worst. What with breaking her own belongings, skipping -well sleeping- through her break fast and lunch, and now here she was out in the most miserable conditions ever.

"Oh and not to mention I had to go all the way to the damn store to get a new alarm clock," she screamed. "It's freezing, why didn't I bring an umbrella? Well at least I remembered my coat."

Ichigo Momomiya stomped her foot on the pavement, trying to get some feeling back into her limbs. "I can't believe how cold it's got, I hope no one else is stuck out here."

Ichigo followed the path towards her route home. She wasn't wrong about the weather, within the last half hour the temperature had dropped several degrees and the wind was hostile and biting at where ever it could. Ichigo shivered tightening her grip on the plastic bags she held. Not only had her mother made her go out and buy a new clock, she also had to buy the groceries and pick up her dads package from the post office, and in this weather too!

Slave drivers, It's freezing! ...Demo I should be grateful I was let off school though, even still I didn't have to walk, she could've drove me, Ichigo grumbled, shaking the bags in the air. Like today could get any worse!

Apparently Ichigo never understood the concept of jinxing yourself, and so she never noticed the swelling clouds above her head. She continued walking down the street mumbling about the unfairness of it all, crossing the road to get to the post office.

When she got to the building she nearly screamed seeing the sign on the door. "Closed!" No but I really needed to pick the package up...otousan's gonna kill me, mou all the way down here for nothing.

Ichigo stopped, she knew that crying or complaining would not make any difference, it would just make her look like a bad child having a tantrum in public. She sighed and sat down on the step staring out at the road in front of her, contemplatively. I haven't seen anyone in a while...I really should go and see Mint before she thinks I've abandoned her again. Pfft probably with some tea crises, I wonder who she's bossing around now for that? Hm, Moe and Miwa didn't seem to mind that I stayed off school, it's nice I have understanding friends.

Ichigo lent back against the door, watching a red sports car speeding past. Kinda looks like Keichiiro's car...or was it Shirogane's? I can't remember, but at least Shirogane won't kill us all with his driving skills, heh heh. Hm I bet he's still mad, I know I would be if someone clawed my face. Oh, but he was only trying to help me, and what I said to him too. Ichigo you're not the nicest person at times, ya know. Sigh, I wouldn't blame him if he never even looked at me again, let alone call me a baka or something.

The Irimote groaned, annoyed with herself, and tilted her head against the door frame. The truth was she hadn't stayed locked up in her room because she was ill, it was more of a case of being struck down by an endless wave of guilt. She knew she had been stupid for acting the way she did, it hurt even more when she remembered just how her had looked. Shirogane's right; I am a baka, and I don't think. I better walk home, it's getting late and colder. I got most of what she asked me to get for her, and I can pick up that package tomorrow.

Unfortunately for Ichigo as soon as she got half way down the road she got drenched. The rain poured down hard and fast with the unmistakable flash of lightening enveloping the sky making Ichigo jump as the thunder crashed around her seconds after her.

"This...must...be...karma," she said venomously, shivering from the icy rain. She set off in a sprint for home. Why couldn't it wait till I got home to rain? I can't even see properly it's coming down so hard. I should find some shelter until it dies down a bit.

Ichigo looked around her as best she could, working out the streets. "Where's that side road?"

She turned on her heel, skidding slightly on the wet surface. First turning, second, uhm...man I wish I could see. I hope the shopping doesn't get ruin- There it is!

Ichigo's eyes lit up in joy as she spotted the turning through the translucent water, and she sped towards it happily. Maybe the forest has some shelter.

--

Alto was still sitting under the same tree shivering his tail off, he only had a few minutes left as a cat and was still trying to calm his racing heart beat. The storm was still making him jump with every flash and rumble.

It was at times at times like these that he really regretted forgetting important little things like umbrella's and coats. He shivered, fur standing on end as the rain water dripped through the leaves a lot more than he would have liked it too.

It was still raining hard but the poor drowned kitten didn't have the energy to move. He sat there, paws over his ears, shaking as he waited for himself to calm down, and maybe the storm to let up a bit.

This was not what I expected when I left the ­-Flash!- ...c-cafe, dammit Keichiiro was it really that -Rumble!- gnn...important for me go to the store?

Alto shuddered, his tail wrapped tightly around his side. He was literally curled into a ball underneath the gigantic greenery of the forest. The sounds of the storm made louder by the echoing resounding off each tree.

By now, even in a frightened state, Alto should have realised something very, very obvious, and certainly important. The first; he was in a storm, the second; he was under a tree. Not the smartest thing to do.

The wind had been blowing the branches around wildly, letting in more and more rain until the earth was a muddied mess. What was left of the autumn leaves had now been blown of their stems and hurled high into the air with the wind dancing them around, and yet the storm still didn't relent.

Alto's ears pricked, something had caught his attention, and he now sat up straight looking around. There had been a loud crack when a large gust blew through. Now he was sitting there listening...

-Clunk-

Alto tried to hear the noise better, turning his head this way and that.

-Snap! Whack!-

The tired kitten heard the sound clearly, his head snapping up to the sky. Alto didn't even have time to see what had hit him, but what ever it was, it was big, it hurt, and had landed directly on his head.

Alto yelped, one second he had been looking up at the inside of the tree, the next everything was going black. The dazed koneko swayed to his right, before landing with a small thump on the floor. He was unconscious before he could even feel the warm liquid trailing it's way through his fur.

Well what do you think? I know it took me much longer to update...but you try writing an essay for the Devil Woman about a guy you can barely find any info about XD Lol gomen, gomen!

Is it too short? or is my laptop lying to me when it says i've done 12 pages nya? x3'''

Please review, I beg only of FIVE REVIEWS MINIMUM, so please!!

I hope to get Chapter 7 up next week maybe. xxx