A.N. The storyline is running along fast. A little too fast. I am adding these A.N.'s after writing chapter 24(It's the 8th of December), so I can tell you that somewhere along the line I have attempted to slow it down. Me telling you right now might be confusing, but you'll see if the story slows down or not. =)

Have a nice day (and enjoy the chapter)!


To say that Ichigo was surprised to see the tears falling from those golden eyes, would be a huge understatement. One moment he seemed more than ready to explain himself, to make her see reason. And then, BAM! Just like that, all his hope, self control, well everything he had actually, disappeared and he turned from that witty, proud boy to a broken man.

There he sat, on his knees, looking up at her, as if searching for even a glimpse of what forgiveness should look like. She felt the sudden fury extinguish slowly. Was this him? Was this a killer? A broken being, silently begging her not to say anymore, for it would kill HIM.

Regardless, he himself took someone's life away. 'But look at him! Isn't he just adorably hopeless there on the floor? The poor thing probably didn't want this to happen either. But he just wanted to protect you and he lost control of his fury.' The voice in her head was there again! Why did her mind want to play tricks on her?

But there was no denying it. Ichigo felt guilty for yelling at him like she did, so she gave in to the urge and dropped on her knees. As her tears started to flow too, she pulled him in a hug. She could feel him shaking in her arms and soon felt his trembling hands on her back.

They sat like that for a minute or two, both guilty and ashamed. Kisshu was the first to recover though. He had stopped trembling and as he pulled away from her carefully, he finally whispered the words she longed to hear: "I… am so sorry…"

Good. That was all she needed to convince herself that he was not ruthless, like Masaya believed him to be. Her Masaya was only human after all. Humans can be mistaken. And obviously aliens could be too, but still. This alien before her seemed able to make up for his all the mistakes he made.


He wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her so damn bad! He loved her. He loved her and would never love another like he loved her. With all his heart. With everything he was capable of. But that would mean ending the whole 'Let's be friends'-façade. And he would be back at point zero. He knew that all too well.

"I…" How he was wasting away, yearning to tell her what he couldn't possibly ever tell her. "am so sorry…" He had wormed his way out again, but for how long?

Ichigo looked very happy however. Even though it wasn't exactly what he had wished to say, she lit up like a flame, hugging him tight for a mere second, before moving away rather fast.

"You are forgiven." Ichigo replied softly. Then she noticed the mess he had made. "Kish…" she asked dangerously low. "What did you do while I was away?"

Kisshu smirked. "Do I really have to answer that, Kitty, or can you conclude by yourself that I went through your clothes? Including your underwear and socks, by the way."

Ichigo had to bite all her self control together to refrain from screaming at him, again. "Kisshu, you have seen nothing, understood? This is our secret, no one needs to know, and if you do it again, I'll transform into Mew Ichigo and kick your sorry-arse back to your home-planet, got it?" She whispered through her teeth.

"Got it, Miss with the panda-underwear and ice-cream socks!" He called, while saluting quite seriously.

"Why, you little-" Ichigo was interrupted by the sudden sound of a song erupting from one of the shelves and she jumped up.

Her phone was ringing.

She looked at the screen of the device, her smile widened and she took the call. "Hi Aoyama-kun!"

It was HIM. THAT. Ugh, Kisshu felt the immediate need to leave the room, but his curiosity got the best of him. So he stayed, picking up as much of the conversation as he could, while he watched Ichigo's back, she had turned away from him. What he heard was not much, but enough to understand the essence of the call. This was what he heard:

"No, I'm not busy at all today!" … "Another exhibition on Red Data Animals, with new information?" … "Of course, I will! When?" … "Ok, we meet up at the usual corner?" … "Ok-" …. "What?" … "No, no, I'll take care of it!" … "Sure! No need for that." … "Trust me, I can handle it." … "No, no, I don't doubt that!" … "Can we talk about this later?" … "Alright, see you there! Bye bye!" -

She was going on a date with the fag. But what about the second part? It was rather mysterious, but Kisshu wouldn't be Kisshu if he didn't have a hunch. It was about him. Clearly, Ichigo had gone all secretly when he became the topic, as she knew he was still in the room. It was obvious enough.

Kisshu wanted details though. What did that guy want from him? Probably he wanted to give him one of his kind smiles while subtly trying to tell him to piss off. Too bad for him, Kisshu was not even close to considering leaving. It would take more of the faggot to make him back off.


How was she supposed to tell him this? 'Dear Kish, I'm going to ask you to leave me alone today, because I want a quiet, peaceful date with my boyfriend in some dusty exhibition hall.'? Yeah, like hell that would work.

She didn't want him to come for a whole other reason than the reasons of her love though. She still had to ask her recently reacquired boyfriend some questions about their break-up. Most importantly, of course, 'Why?'. Why break up, only to make up a few days later? Didn't he have a new love? What about her? Where did she go?

It was bothering Ichigo and she wanted to find out. Kish couldn't be there. He would hear what happened just before the break up, when they broke up and why they made up again. It was all very personal information that he didn't need to know.

Nor did he want to know, because no matter what he said or did, she knew he would always hate Masaya. Neither could stand the other, even now. It was in the air of one of them when the other was even mentioned. There would be a great grave tension in the room and there words would be filled with disgust and venom. Even Masaya, who was usually kind and nice about and towards anyone, couldn't rid his voice completely of the resentment he felt when he talked about Kish.

So, Kish would definitely NOT be amused to hear all of the story. But how could she keep him away?

Sighing, she decided to give just asking a shot.

"Say, Kish. That was my boyfriend on the phone…" She began carefully. "I realised." He replied shortly. "I thought so…" She licked her lips nervously. "And I wonder… Would you mind.. Not.. Spying on us? I mean, you see… There are some things I want to ask him, pretty important and… I would appreciate it if you… You know… Would not be there to overhear everything.."

"I thought so." He muttered darkly. "You thought what?" Ichigo asked heatedly. "He asked you to tell me to bugger off, didn't he?" Ichigo started to feel annoyed. "I won't deny it! But, as your friend, I ask of you to stay away, too! Not only for our sakes, but also for your own!"

"Ah, so it's 'us' now, isn't it? You teamed up with him? I see. Well, don't worry, I'll stay away. Those so-called dates are boring anyway.." He huffed. Ichigo felt very offended and ready to blow. "I didn't 'team up' with him! I just don't want you there! And don't you dare to judge my dates! They're spectacular!"


"And don't you dare to judge my dates! They're spectacular!"

"You don't even believe that yourself! Your face betrays you, Koneko-chan! You don't seem very excited to spend your whole afternoon in some giant, boring, uneventful hall with your boyfriend!" Kisshu half-exclaimed, knowing that they had to keep their volume down. Ichigo's mom left a while ago to do some shopping's, but her dad was still downstairs, watching TV.

Kisshu didn't know much about his Kitty's dad, except for three things: 1. He was very protective of his daughter, 2. He didn't like the tree-hugger, 3. The man had a HUGE temper, worse than his daughter's.

So, even though making his point by raising his volume, he did his best to do it as 'silent' as possible. Ichigo seemed to understand. And because of his earlier statement, she was totally flushed. That was one point for Kisshu.

"It doesn't matter where we are, as long as we're together…" She mumbled. Kisshu grinned. She knew he was right, she knew it! But she wanted to deny it so bad, it was cute to watch.

He sighed as though in defeat. Even if she knew, she would never leave her beloved Aoyama-kun. He mattered too much to her. So he had to be content with just one point today.

"Sigh, alright, Koneko-chan, I won't spy on your entire date with that guy. Just, please, don't do anything you don't want to do, like going to a boring exhibition, I know some of those Red Data Animals undoubtedly interest you, but don't let him drag you of to the really somnolent section. I don't want to see you leave that building in a body bag." He ended his 'promise' with a joke.

She wouldn't realise what he had said entirely, so he would have barely a promise to break. He wasn't going to spy on their ENTIRE date, just the important part.

Ichigo unknowingly consented and then left him to tell her dad about the date that she had in a few hours, before skipping happily into the bathroom to ready herself.

Kisshu wasn't quite sure about how this afternoon was going to turn out. He had a strange feeling about this.


A.N. And why would that be? Suspicious, huh?

Anyway, Review or/and continue!