Grapefruit Juice

Set during the series.

"Oi Taruto!"

"What!?"

SLAP!

"KISSHU, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"

"Let's have a slap war!" Kisshu said.

"You're going to lose," Taruto said, and slapped Kisshu.

"Is that the best you can do?" Kisshu asked. "Pitiful. I barely felt that. My turn." He slapped Taruto, and the younger alien went flying. He caught himself and slapped Kisshu again.

Fifteen minutes later: Pai was in his lab when he heard Taruto scream, "OW!"

Pai sighed and teleported to the sound. He found Taruto about to slap Kisshu, who was snickering. Before Pai could stop him, Taruto slapped Kisshu in the face. "Not bad, Midget," Kisshu said, seemingly not noticing Pai. "My turn." Then he slapped Taruto hard enough to send him into a nearby wall.

"OKAY! You win! Now stop slapping me!" Taruto screamed.

"What are you two doing?" Pai asked wearily.

"We're having a slap war, and I just won it!" Kisshu said happily.

"You two are so immature," Pai said.

"You're worse," Taruto said. "I know about your plushy wall. And guess who else knows?"

"I don't want to know who you told," Pai said.

"Pudding knows!" Taruto said. "She said she'd tell Fish-girl!"

"TARUTO, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Pai screamed.

"That hurt," someone said from behind the three aliens. "I thought you guys had hearing like mine."

Pai and Kisshu spun, and found Ichigo, Lettuce, and a smirking Pudding behind them. "How the HELL did you get here!?" Pai shouted.

"Pudding dragged us through a portal on our way back from shopping, and we landed in what she said was Taruto's room," Ichigo said. "And then she gave us a tour of your ship, including a room filled with plushies. Is there something you're not telling us?"

Pai and Kisshu whipped around and glared at Taruto. "You've been letting Mew Pudding on our ship?" Pai asked in a dangerous voice.

"It's not my fault! She found this portal machine, stole it from Blondie, and reset it to make a portal directly into my bedroom!" Taruto said.

"That doesn't explain why she was able to find Pai's plushy collection," Kisshu said. "Not that I mind, but does that mean you let her in my room too?"

"Pudding likes Kisshu-oniichan's room!" Pudding said happily. "Ichigo-oneechan likes it too!"

Kisshu groaned. "I'll take that as a yes…" he moaned.

"Relax, Kisshu, it's not a bad thing," Ichigo said. "Go look under my bed. I know you know where I live."

Curious, Kisshu teleported off. Pai sighed and said, "I suppose you're all going to tease me nonstop about my plushies?"

"Yep!" Ichigo said cheerfully. "Except for Lettuce- right Lettuce?"

"Yes… but Pai-san, why do you have so many plushies?" Lettuce asked. "And why are they color-coded?"

"I like plushies…" Pai said. "And I like being organized. And I want Ichigo to stop snickering at me."

"Oh, fine," Ichigo giggled.

Suddenly Kisshu teleported back in, and asked, "What is with you?"

"I like to draw," Ichigo said, shrugging.

"There's five million pictures of me under your bed!" Kisshu said. "And about a third of them include me kissing you!"

The others had their jaws on the floor as Ichigo said, "Since I haven't seen you in a while, I didn't get to let you know that I broke up with Aoyama about a month ago. And the day after, although you attacked, Blondie was spying on me again, so I couldn't tell you, and I haven't seen you since."

"Y-you do love me?" Kisshu asked, shocked.

"Yes, but I couldn't tell you with Blondie spying on me," Ichigo said. "So I had to fake hating you. Sorry about that."

Kisshu hugged her happily, then teleported them both to his room. They landed on the bed, and flopped back together.

"Koneko-chan?" Kisshu asked.

"Yeah Kish?" Ichigo asked.

"Can I- wait, did you just give me a nickname?" Kisshu asked.

"Yeah… do you like it?" Ichigo asked.

"I love it," Kisshu said, and kissed her. And she kissed back.

Back with Lettuce and Pai: They were now kissing, and hadn't noticed the disappearance of Taruto and Pudding- until it was far too late.

They were just breaking off the kiss when they heard Taruto scream, "IT'S ABOUT TO EAT ME!"

Pai sighed, grabbed Lettuce's hand, and teleported to the sound. Sure enough, Pudding and Taruto were in Taruto's room, eating candy. "Taruto, what is about to eat you? I don't see anything- besides Pudding," Pai said.

"YOU MUST BE BLIND! THERE'S A GIANT FANGED TEDDY BEAR IN THE CORNER!" Taruto shrieked.

Pai looked, and saw a small, harmless teddy bear with no fangs in sight, and a yellow ribbon around its neck sitting calmly in the corner as its owner screamed his head off. "You had way too much sugar," Pai said dryly. "But if it will get you to shut up, I will take the teddy bear away."

"Be careful, the fangs are poisonous," Taruto said.

Pai went and got the teddy bear as Pudding said, "Pai-oniichan, why is Taru-Taru acting like he's on drugs? He only had two bags of chocolate."

"ONLY!?" Pai shouted. "How many did you have?"

"Three, and one bag of fruit candy," Pudding said. "Pudding's sugar rush hasn't kicked in yet, na no da…."

"What is WRONG with you!?" Pai screamed.

"Nothing, why?" Pudding asked.

"Didn't Taruto tell you that sugar is like a drug to Cyniclons?" Pai asked. "If you gave him two bags of chocolate, and he ate all of it, he'll be like this for days!"

"Pudding knows how to counteract Taru-Taru's sugar highs," Pudding said.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us? We've been putting up with nonstop screaming about 'fanged snowflakes' and 'shampoo monsters' since the two of you met!" Pai yelled.

"Lettuce-oneechan, go get the juice from the bag," Pudding said. "The grapefruit juice."

"O-okay," Lettuce said, and left.

Taruto hadn't noticed a thing, having been staring fearfully at an empty wall. Lettuce came back a few minutes later, carrying a bottle of grapefruit juice. Pudding took it, then told her and Pai, "Don't say anything." They nodded a bit hesitantly, and Pudding called, "Taru-Taru! Soda time!"

Taruto zoomed over, and grabbed the bottle. He opened it, and took a large gulp. He swallowed, then put the cap back on. "Thanks Pudding-chan, I needed that," he said. He had completely calmed down. Then he teleported off to put the juice away.

Pai looked shocked. "How did you do that?" he asked Pudding.

"For some reason, Taru-Taru's sugar rushes can be counteracted by drinking grapefruit juice," Pudding said. "It doesn't matter how much he's eaten, all you have to do is say, "Taru-Taru! Soda time!" He thinks you're giving him more sugar, so he'll drink the grapefruit juice, and that will calm him down. Does Pai-oniichan want Pudding to bring some grapefruit juice over? Pudding can steal from the Café any time she wants to."

"That would be great," Pai said.

"Pudding will do that," Pudding said. "But this trick only works if you call him 'Taru-Taru'. He doesn't respond on sugar high if you call him Taruto. Pudding doesn't know why."

"Okay," Pai said. "Thank you, Pudding."

"Pudding was happy to help, na no da," Pudding said.

"I wonder how Ichigo-san and Kisshu-san are doing?" Lettuce said.

"Knowing Kisshu, we might as well go check on them," Pai sighed.

With Kisshu and Ichigo: Kisshu's room was on the other side of the ship from Taruto's, so he and Ichigo hadn't heard a thing. Especially since they had fallen asleep curled up. Ichigo had fallen asleep because Kisshu was stroking her hair, and Kisshu had fallen asleep listening to her purring. So now they were curled up on Kisshu's bed, and that's how Pai and Lettuce found them.

"That's cute, let's leave them," Lettuce said. She tugged Pai out of the room, softly closing the door behind them.

Some time later, still with Ichigo and Kisshu: Kisshu was woken up by something beeping, and woke up Ichigo. "Koneko-chan, what's that beeping?" he asked.

Ichigo sleepily opened her eyes, and said, "Probably my pendant. We should ignore it, it's just Blondie."

"I hate that noise," Kisshu grumbled.

Ichigo sighed and took the pendant out of her pocket, then tapped it and said, "Hi Ryou, what's up?"

"WHY ARE YOU ON THE ALIEN'S SHIP!?" Ryou shouted.

"Pudding wanted to give us the tour," Ichigo said. "I was sleeping, can I go back to sleeping, or do you have something else to bug me about?"

"PUDDING!?" Ryou shrieked.

"Seriously, tone it down, or I'll hang up on you," Ichigo said. "You're hurting my ears, and you're hurting my boyfriend's ears too."

"Since when is KISSHU your boyfriend?" Ryou asked grouchily.

"Since today," Ichigo said. "Oh, and Lettuce and Pai are together, and I'm sure you already knew about Pudding and Taruto."

"You three are fired," Ryou said.

"YAHOO!" Ichigo said. "Good riddance, Blondie!" Then she tapped the pendant, cutting off whatever Ryou was going to say next.

"I take it you don't like working for him?" Kisshu said.

"Nope, and now I'll never have to do it again," Ichigo said. "So we can spend more time together."

"Yay!" Kisshu said. "Let's go tell the others!"

Ichigo smiled, and followed him to find the others.

I know it's called Grapefruit Juice and there's not much about it, but I thought it would be cool to make up a cure for Taruto's sugar rushes. The idea for the slap war at the beginning is attributed to kisshu'sfanclub. Thanks! Review plz!