Haven't updated this one in forever. Sorry about that.
Anyways, I know it's a day early but, Happy Winter Solstice! :)
Also, I'm hosting a contest! It's an Alternate Pairing/Opposite of what you Ship Contest. There's a link at the top of my profile page where you can find the details if you wish to participate!
That being said, enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-One:
After taking a deep breath, Lettuce put on a soft smile.
"Mew Lettuce," She said gently, correcting but not reprimanding.
Uri blinked and ducked his head some.
"I'm sorry," He said. "You… Your voice, for a moment it sounded like that of my Onee-Chan. Her name is Lettuce."
Lettuce's smile grew even softer. She gently cupped Uri's chin, raising his head.
"Your Onee-Chan is probably worrying for you very much right now," She said. "Go home. It is already dark out, and I don't want to see anything or anyone harm you."
Uri nodded and bowed.
"Thank you, Mew Lettuce." He said.
Lettuce smiled, turned and departed the clearing.
Uri stood for a few minutes.
It wasn't his ears playing tricks on him. He knew it.
He jumped as he heard a rustling, eyes wide. Had the alien come back? Should he run?
He heard a squeak and Lettuce tumbled out of the tree line, stumbling clumsily as she tried to free her shoelace from a bush. She smiled at him, her glasses askew.
Uri smiled back, though he knew his eyes weren't deceiving him either.
For Mew Lettuce had given him the exact same smile just five minutes before.
"There you are," She said with a sigh of relief. "I was so worried when Mom said you hadn't come back yet…" Lettuce hugged her brother tightly. "What were you doing out here so late?"
"Getting some last minute things for my science project," Uri admitted. Lettuce ruffled his hair gently.
"With your dedication, you're sure to win a prize," She said, her smile growing. "Come on, let's go home. Mom's making yakitori tonight."
"Okay," Uri said. Together, the siblings walked out of the clearing.
There was silence between them, then Uri said,
"I met Mew Lettuce tonight."
"Oh, you did?" Lettuce said, faking both surprise and excitement. Then she instantly went into worry. "Wait, why did you meet her?"
"That alien guy… I think he was messing with the tree," Uri said. He shook his head. "All I know is that I fell asleep, and when I woke up, he was gone and Mew Lettuce was there, and the tree was dead."
"That's so sad," Lettuce said.
"Yeah," Uri said. He studied his sister. "Onee-Chan? Are you… has there been anything strange going on lately?"
"Well, there's been that odd alien attacking with those monsters, oh, and the Tokyo Mew Mew of course, that's definitely strange." Lettuce said.
"No, I, well, I meant with you," Uri said.
"With me?" Lettuce said, trying hard to not sound frightened by the question.
Uri nodded.
"No, nothing comes to mind," Lettuce said. "Why?"
Uri hesitated.
"It's… it's nothing," He said.
"You know you can tell me anything," Lettuce said gently.
"No, you'd think it's just silly," Uri said, shaking his head.
"No, I won't," Lettuce insisted.
Uri hesitated again and paused in his steps.
"It's, well," Uri said. Then he took a deep breath and said quickly, "You and Mew Lettuce look a lot of like. It's like you're twins separated at birth or something."
Lettuce's eyes widened slightly, her mouth going into an 'O'.
Whatever she had been expecting, it definitely wasn't that.
Uri blushed.
"Forget it," He said, averting his eyes. "I told you it was stupid."
With that, he tucked his hands in his pockets and kept on walking.
It took Lettuce a moment to start walking again.
What was going to happen if Uri found out her secret?
She needed to know soon, because it was looking like he was going to come to a definite conclusion soon.
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The tension between the Midorikawa siblings was awkward, and neither knew how to get past it. Their parents had no idea what to do, or what the problem was, as neither would say a word.
Lettuce left the apartment earlier that morning that usual, just to avoid sitting at the breakfast table with her brother longer than she had to, the unspoken discomfort was just too much.
Lettuce was not expecting to see Ichigo on her journey to school, though.
"Ichigo-San?" Lettuce said, tilting her head at seeing the red-head come down the sidewalk in a brisk pace.
Ichigo grinned and jogged over to her friend.
"Hey, Lettuce!" She said. Then she frowned. "Aren't you a little early? The girls you walk with aren't even there yet."
"Just wanted to get to school a bit early," Lettuce said, giving the excuse she had told her parents. "What about you? Usually I just see you as you're running past."
Ichigo smiled and laughed.
"Yeah, usually running late," She said. "An unfortunate trait that I've had even before the cat genes made me want to sleep-in. But today, Aoyama-Kun has kendo practice before first period, and I wanted to go watch him." She frowned then, not a sad frown, but more concerned. "What happened last night, afterwards?"
Lettuce diverted her eyes. She had gone home without giving her team an explanation. It was only when she arrived home with her mother having just answered Ryou's phone call, passing the phone off to her a minute later, that her team knew that she was alright.
"I had to take Uri home," Lettuce explained. She stared at the sidewalk beneath her feet. "Ichigo-San, he was there. He saw me as Mew Lettuce."
"Your little brother?" Ichigo said, her eyes wide with surprise. "Did he recognize you?"
"He called me by my name," Lettuce whispered. "Not 'Mew Lettuce'. Just… 'Lettuce'."
"What did you do?" Ichigo pressed.
"I, well, I gently told him that he had mistaken me for someone else, but then later on, he told me that I did look a lot like Mew Lettuce."
Ichigo was silent for a moment, fiddling with a strap on her school bag.
"Do you… do you think he knows?" She asked.
Lettuce shook her head.
"I don't know," She said mournfully. "I mean, I just… well… He's smart. He can put two and two together. He could easily piece together that I am indeed Mew Lettuce."
Ichigo frowned in thought.
"Aoyama-Kun could figure out my identity, too," Ichigo said. "If he saw me as Mew Ichigo. My parents, too. Anyone who was close to any of us could figure it out. I bet Mint's nanny could figure out who puts those buns in Mew Mint's hair. Pudding's parents have got to be onto to something, with her staying out late and suddenly disappearing in the middle of the night. Little kids don't do that, or shouldn't at least. It must be scary for them, and she would have a hard time explaining. And Zakuro's, well, famous. Eventually someone's going to figure out the exact same way that we did that Zakuro was a Mew Mew."
"Do we prevent that? Or do we only let a few people in?' Lettuce asked. "Should we let them figure it out or do we tell them?"
Ichigo shook her head.
"You're the leader," She said. "I think it should be up to you if we tell anyone or not." She paused. "You know, Shirogane may have some great advice. I mean, sure, he's a grump and a bit mean, but he likes you, so he'd do anything for you."
"Whaa...?" Lettuce said, reeling back like she had been struck, eyes wide, bringing up her school bag in front of her chest defensively, her cheeks red. "N-no, S-Shirogane-San, h-he doesn't, I mean, why would he—?"
"Oh, come on," Ichigo said, smiling. "It's obvious that he likes you. Half the time he can't stop staring at you. You've either not noticed at all, or have noticed and try to pass it off as nothing."
"W-we're just friends," Lettuce insisted with a stutter.
"Uh huh," Ichigo said, smirking now. "Friends with rather obvious crushes on each other."
Lettuce's eyes went even wider.
"It's not really that obvious, is it?" She squeaked, turning redder than Ichigo's hair so that her entire head looked like Christmas with the mixture of red and green.
Ichigo laughed.
"Duh!" She said. She glanced at her watch and grimaced. "I gotta go, or I won't be able to get through the crowd of fangirls to see Aoyama-Kun. I bet if you get to the Café early enough today, you'll be able to talk with both Shirogane and Akasaka-San before things get too crazy! Ja ne! See you this afternoon!"
And, like that, Ichigo was gone.
Leaving Lettuce alone on the side-walk, her cheeks still flushed red.
Did Shirogane really have a crush on her? And she was just too blind to see it?
Or was she trying to tell herself there was no way he could like her?
Either way, the thought of Shirogane liking her in a romantic sense made her stomach twist into knots with nervousness.
Because now she had to figure out if she liked him, too.
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Pie watched from the rooftop at the children playing in the schoolyard. His indigo eyes narrowed as they focused on a green-haired boy with glasses, laughing and playing some sort of card game with his friends.
The boy somewhat resembled Mew Lettuce. Were they related? Yes, they had to be. They shared many similar features. He had the same sapphire eyes she did when untransformed. Younger brother? Most logical answer.
The corner of Pie's mouth lowered and his lips tightened.
He had seen the boy before. Just the previous night, in fact.
The defeat was still ringing in Pie's oversized ears. But he pushed the obnoxious sound aside to process the information presented to him and determine the best use for it.
And that information was that this boy was the most precious thing to Mew Lettuce.
The only way he could soundly and properly defeat her was to take away what was precious to her, just as the humans had taken what was most precious to the Cyniclons.
Maybe then she would understand that reconciliation was just not possible.
Maybe then she would just lay down and die.
Maybe then he would finally be victorious.
And, maybe then, he could be happy.
Pie teleported again, looking over a dirty stream. He usually would have scowled at the filth of the water.
But today was an exception.
Today, it was useful.
Today, the humans would experience their downfall, all because of their self-centeredness that resulted in the poisoning of once pure water.
Pie held up his hand palm-up, then turned his wrist over, something small hitting the water with a ping, making the murky water ripple.
Pie studied the result, watching the slime creatures of his creation crawl around the water, growing larger and larger as they ate the murk.
"Enzyme one, infusion complete," Pie said out loud, mentally logging the information. "Mortality rate: seventy-eight percent."
Mew Lettuce may be able to survive his greater parasites.
But her brother surely could not.