Disclaimer: If I owned TMM… I wouldn't be me.
A/N- I have a headache! Not the best way to type a chapter… tell me if it turned out ok, d'accord?
"Of course, yes, I know," Ryou replied to Ichigo's dad. "We had a date today, but she didn't show. I just wanted to make sure she's okay."
"FINE! Just FINE punk, come barging in, invade her privacy, disrupt our lives! Just bloody FINE!" he roared, looking like a demented shark with it's hair on fire and flaming eyes. (A/N- Heehee, I LOVED that part of volume 5)
"He means, 'yes, come on in.' Ichigo was sleeping in today, she probably just overslept," Ichigo's mom said, leading the boy upstairs as her husband melted, refroze in the form of a flaming dragon, and breathed fire. She left the blonde outside Ichigo's door and went downstairs to calm down her spouse.
"Ichigo?" Ryou called, knocking on her door.
"Oh, Ryou! Shoot. Give me a couple minutes, okay?" Ichigo asked through the door.
"Masaya, hide!" Ichigo whispered urgently to the boy, who grabbed his clothes and ducked into the closet—such an imaginative hiding place, isn't it?
"Ichigo, your father and I are leaving! We'll be back in a few hours," Ichigo's mother chirped from downstairs. Ichigo's heart sank; without her parents to protect her from Ryou… where would she be?
"Okay! Bye!" Ichigo said, struggling to keep the apprehension out of her voice. She dressed quickly, straightening up her room as she went. She had to hide all the evidence before Ryou saw her room! "Give me a couple more minutes Ryou, let me do my hair!" she called through the door, glancing nervously at the closet, where Masaya hid.
"Ichigo? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Ryou! I'll just be another couple minutes, that's all!" Ichigo finished straightening her sheets and ran a comb through her hair. Several minutes later she thrust open the door. "Okay, let's go!" she exclaimed, her face red from the rush.
"One minute," Ryou said, suspicious. He stepped through the doorway into her room.
"Ryou, come on, we don't have time! We'll be late!" Ichigo cried, slightly panicked. Okay, very panicked.
"Since when does that bother you?" the boy asked. "I think you're lying to me Ichigo." His voice was dangerous, his ice blue eyes stormy. The boy turned to the closet and pulled the door open, revealing Masaya.
Ryou looked from Ichigo to Masaya, his face a mixture of bewilderment, hurt, anger, and betrayal. "Oh Ryou, we'll be late! I'm not hiding anything from you," he mimicked in a high, falsetto voice. "Oh of course I wouldn't hide anything from you, I gave you my word!"
"Well, you're the one who put me in this position! You and Kish!"
"No, your precious Aoyama-kun decided on the plan, and it's not my fault he was incompetent and lost!"
"I made that plan to save my life!" Masaya yelled, infuriated.
"And look where it got you," growled Ryou. He leapt across the room and knocked Masaya over, fastening both hands around the younger boy's throat.
"No!" screamed Ichigo, dashing over to the two boys and trying in vain to remove Ryou's hands from Masaya. Ryou, feeling wronged and betrayed, released the boy with one hand and slapped Ichigo in the face, hard enough to knock her backwards.
"Masaya! MASAYA! Ryou, stop!"
"Ichigo, it's not worth it!"
Ichigo looked up—and there was Kish! Her heart gave an odd leap, but she put it aside. Now was not the time! "What do you mean it's not worth it? HE'S KILLING MASAYA!"
"Ichigo, Masaya's a cheating bastard who's going out with Mint! Did he tell you that?" inquired Kish.
"You—you're lying!" screamed Ichigo, feeling as though she had been slapped again. Masaya wouldn't cheat on her! He loved her!
Kish grabbed Ichigo as though to hug her and teleported her to his ship, pulling her close to him. "No! Masaya!" she screamed, trying to shove Kish away, pounding on his chest with her fists. "Let me go Kish! LET ME GO!"
"You're screaming too much," Kish commented. "It's going to ruin your voice."
Kish waited until Ichigo had sobbed herself into silence. "I don't think that Ryou'd have killed Masaya, but if he was bound—and—determined to, then there's nothing you could have done but watch. And, I think if he'd killed Masaya, he may have killed you too. I—I couldn't let that happen Ichigo. Ever. Ryou's insane. He doesn't always act it, but I really think he is."
"Masaya…" wept Ichigo.
"Masaya was cheating on you," Kish reiterated. "Well, I didn't see it in person, but Zakuro told me. Somehow I don't think she was lying."
"How—how could he do that to me? Either of them! They both said they loved me! And Mint—she's my friend—why did they do this?"
"Maybe Mint didn't know about you and Masaya? You two weren't publicly dating, after all. As for—well, I'd be biased giving an opinion on the other two. I hate them both," Kish said.
Ichigo was out of tears, but she looked devastated. The look on her face was enough to break Kish's heart. "But he said he loved me!" she whimpered. "He said I was his one-and-only, he said—" she broke off miserably.
"Ichigo, I love you," Kish began. "Maybe I didn't always show it, was a little forward—"
Ichigo gave a hiccup of a laugh. "A little too forward, a little too stalkerish you mean."
"If that's how you want to see it," Kish conceded. "But I won't be too blunt, possessive, and easily angered like Ryou, and I won't cheat on you. Neither of those two are worth you."
"And you are?" Ichigo asked irritably.
"I'll prove it to you. Name anything that's physically possible."
Ichigo decided to freak him out. "Very well, Kish. I order you to rape Ryou," she decided, keeping a perfectly straight face.
Kish looked revolted. "That is not physically possible!" the alien cried, disgusted.
"Fine, you're not worthy then," Ichigo said. "Just kidding! You should have seen your face!"
"Oh, very funny," Kish proclaimed sarcastically.
"Kish!"
"Oh great. The brat's home," muttered Kish. 'The Brat' was, of course, referring to Tart.
"Kish, Pudding wanted… oh. Well, that answers that. Never mind!"
"If Pudding wanted to know whether or not I'd seen Ichigo, Ryou, or Aoyama, I've seen them all with in the past hour," Kish told his young friend.
"Good," Tart said. "That's good." As an afterthought he added, "Eh, where were Ryou and Masaya?"
"Ryou was kneeling on Aoyama's chest, strangling him," Kish answered helpfully. "Then Ryou hit Ichigo, so I got her out of there. Do you honestly think that bastard's good enough for her?"
Tart blinked. "Oookay then! I'll try to find Aoyama's body."
"Please do," Kish said. "If he's alive, tell Ichigo. I think she's sad," he said, the understatement of the year. "By the way—Tart, this doesn't concern you—Ichigo, what physically possible thing do you want me to do to prove my worth?"
"Take me back to Earth," Ichigo replied simply.
Kish blinked. He might have looked… hurt? "Let me guess. Take you to Earth, reunite you with your beloved Masaya, then leave Earth never to return, make no attempt to contact you, and so on?"
"No—no, that's not what I meant!"
"Oh good, because I'd have no hesitation towards kidnapping you and taking you to my world until you changed your mind.'
"KISH!"
"Okay, okay!" the alien exclaimed. "Geez, you have no sense of humor!"
"Come on Kish, just take me back home."
Kish looked away. "Ever since I saw you, I wanted you to love me. I never wanted to kill you. Never. Oh sure, I tried to, but I didn't want to. Well, now the battle's over, and I'd hoped you could care for me the way I do for you. I guess not." The boy smiled faintly. "Wow. What a cliché speech."
"Kish, you're overreacting," protested Ichigo. "I just want to go home, that's all. And…" she paused, biting her lip, but something told her to go on. "And I want you to come with me."
"Really?"
"Kish…" Ichigo began. Kish cut off the words by leaning over and kissing her.
For the first time Ichigo didn't push him away or slap him. For the first time she wasn't revolted by the feel of his lips on hers. It felt… the way kissing Masaya used to feel. Only… different. Better. "Okay," she said hoarsely when Kish drew back. "Now I really want you to come back to Earth with me."