Author: The next song on the playlist is "Sparks Fly" by Taylor Swift.

It wasn't long until the rest of the Chimera Animas were defeated. With their task completed, the Mew Mews headed back toward the café. Ryou, who had been watching the entire battle via Masha-cam, immediately lit into Kyandi.

"What the h*ll do you think you were doing?" he spat at the peacock mew. "That is no way to behave in battle! And what was the reason for this? That petty little cake-fight earlier? Kyandi-san, you need to grow up! That doesn't matter."

"Grow up?" Kyandi grumped in reply. "Grow up? Shirogane, I'm fifteen! I can't be expected to act like an adult when I'm still obviously a teenager."

"Yes, you can," Ryou hissed in reply. "Take a page out of Zakuro's book. She's only a few months older than you. If she can do it, you can."

"Shirogane…" Zakuro murmured in a condescending tone. Zakuro Fujiwara knew herself to be a deviation from the norm. She thought it unrealistic to hold Kyandi to such a high standard, but she didn't say anything. She didn't really have to because…

"I'm not Zakuro!" Kyandi shouted loudly. "Zakuro's great and wonderful and perfect, and all of us know that you're in love with her, so just can it!"

There was a bit of an awkward pause. Zakuro gave Ryou a questioning glance, and when the blond blushed a bit, the wolf mew smirked slightly. Ryou regained his composure and stared at Kyandi with steel-cold, blue eyes. "Coffman Kyandi," Ryou began, "I'm concerned that you have attacked one of your fellow teammates over something trivial. But more than that, I'm concerned that your actions might have had a hidden motive. Thus, from now on, Kyandi, you are relieved of your secret mission."

"No," Kyandi gasped.

Ryou continued on, "You will no longer be permitted to spy on the enemy for us. I'm concerned that you have been coerced into attacking Ichigo, and I won't have this happening to anyone else."

"No!" Kyandi protested. "No, no, NO!"

"What mission is this," Minto asked, "and why didn't we know about it?"

"Secret missions aren't very secret if everyone is told," Ryou explained. "However, since she will no longer be performing this mission, I can now safely tell you three."

"Three?" Minto queried.

"Yes, three; you, Retasu and Bu-Ling did not know about this."

Minto became annoyed. "Yet Ichigo knew? What gave Ichigo the right to know?"

Retasu held up a finger. "Minto-san, Zakuro-san knew as well."

"Onee-sama is different!" Minto snapped.

Ryou held up his hand to calm them. "Ichigo knew because Ichigo is the leader of you girls. And Zakuro knew because well, Minto, you of all people should know what Zakuro would have done if she had thought Kyandi was a traitor."

Minto blushed as the memories flooded back: Zakuro sitting on the lamp post across from the lorikeet mew's bedroom balcony; Zakuro asking Minto to fight, and, when she refused, saying that dying now would make no difference; Zakuro taking out her whip and tearing a hole in the side of Minto's mansion. Minto blinked. Yes, she of all people knew what Zakuro did to deserters.

Ryou continued, "Kyandi was misleading Kisshu to believe that she had romantic interest in him, trying to get him to give us information that could turn the tides of this war. No doubt, he was doing the same thing with her. It was a challenge that I thought that Kyandi could handle. Apparently, I was wrong."

"I can handle it!" Kyandi insisted. "I can do this, but I can't back off now. If I do that, he'll be suspicious of something. Please, Shirogane, I need to do this!"

Ryou raised an eyebrow at her. "No, Kyandi. I'm forbidding you to do this."

"I can do this with your permission or without it," Kyandi growled through clenched teeth. "I will do this with or without your permission. Don't give me a reason to be angry with you, Shirogane. You won't like the repercussions."

Ryou was a little surprised. "Are you threatening me now?"

"No," Kyandi answered. "I'm only saying that I will continue to interact with him, and I that I will bring him down. However, if I'm angry at you, I might find myself venting my frustrations to the closest ear, whether it's elf-shaped or not."

"Candi Coffman, you try my patience," Ryou murmured in English.

"Ryou Shirogane," she replied in like tongue, "you try your luck."

Ryou frowned. She was manipulating him! On top of that, she was humiliating him in front of the rest of the Mew Mews. Of course, he didn't really have a choice. He could only consent. "Fine," he grumbled. "Continue the mission, but be careful not to let him mess with your mind." Kyandi nodded her acceptance of those conditions.

"Kyandi-oneechan is scary," Bu-Ling whimpered.

Kyandi, stunned at the monkey mew's sudden declaration, turned to look at the little girl's face. The expression that Kyandi saw there was one that was very familiar to her. She had seen it in the mirror several times, usually after her father had gone on one of his tirades. Kyandi's breath caught in her throat. She bit her lip and made eye contact with the frightened Bu-Ling. "Please," she said in a suddenly small voice. "Bu-Ling, please, don't make that face."

"Kyandi-oneechan…" Bu-Ling whimpered again.

"Gomen!" Kyandi exclaimed, turning away and rushing out of the café, ignoring the shouts that followed her as she disappeared into the trees.

"I can't believe it…" she thought as she ran. "I'm… I'm turning into my father! I never wanted to be the cause of a child's fear. Why? … Why? Why? Why?" Crying, she stopped and punched a tree, the rough bark bloodying her knuckles. Through the trees, the sun set in a similar display of red. "Why am I… turning into him?"

"Turning into whom, peacock?" asked a familiar voice.

Kyandi spun around to see Kisshu sitting in the branches of the tree directly opposite her. His eyes seemed tired, and there was a bandage wrapped around his right arm. Kyandi was quick to hide her bloody knuckles behind her other hand. "Kisshu, why are you here?"

"I was on my way to see you, but I had to stop for a rest," he answered truthfully. "Like I told you, that Blue Knight guy isn't to be messed with."

Kyandi nodded. "Thank you… for protecting me," she whispered.

Kisshu's large ears easily picked up the small sound, and he smiled tiredly. "Of course," he answered, looking at her with a twinkle in his eyes. "Like I'm going to let any other guy touch you?"

Kyandi laughed, and her tears stopped flowing. She reached her left hand up to wipe away the liquid sorrow, and that's when he noticed her other hand.

"Peacock! You're bleeding!" he said with concern. Shifting his legs, he dropped from the tree and hovered over to her.

"Oh… it's not so bad," Kyandi lied.

Kisshu frowned. "Yeah, I can see that," he sarcastically replied. He shook his head as his expression morphed into one of sympathy. "It needs to be cleaned," he stated simply. "Here." Then, he brought her hand to his mouth. Sticking out his tongue, he began to lick away the blood. Soon, he switched to kissing her knuckles, taking away small amounts of blood with every kiss.

Kyandi found this slightly embarrassing. "K- Kisshu…" she stuttered uncomfortably, a blush forming on her cheeks. She found it strange that his saliva began to fizz and sting in the open wound. "W- What are you doing?"

He looked up at her with his piercing, golden eyes. "My species has a gland in our mouth that produces an anti-bacterial acid. It only activates when it comes in contact with blood from our kind, but I guess that humans must be similar enough to make it work. However," he grinned, "you might want to avoid kissing me for a while. It doesn't taste very good."

Kyandi smiled demurely. It was sweet of him to take care of her. It seemed unlike his normal self, but she still appreciated it.

Kisshu held out his other hand, palm up, and summoned something. It was a small, glass vial of blue liquid. He uncapped it with his teeth. "Here," he told her, lowering her injured hand. "This is some medicine that Pai made to take care of my injury. It should easily heal a little surface wound like this." He tilted the vial over her hand, ever so slightly. A single drop of the blue medicine fell onto Kyandi's broken skin, and Kyandi watched in fascination as the wound began to close rather rapidly.

"Kisshu!" she gasped. "Don't you need that for yourself?" She glanced at the bandage that was wrapped around the entire top of his right arm. Beneath it was the injury that he had no doubt acquired while distracting the Blue Knight. She switched her gaze back to her hand. The wound that had previously been there was completely gone; there wasn't even a scar.

"It's okay," he assured her. "There will be enough. It apparently works better for you than it does for me." He grinned somewhat sadly. "I'm a bit jealous." There was a pause, and then he asked, "Can you untie this for me?" He indicated the bandage on his arm.

"Yes, of course," she answered. Gingerly, she reached out and placed her fingers on the tie that held his bandage on. Gently and deliberately, she pulled the two strands of cloth until the knot came undone. The bandage fell away, as long as Kisshu was tall, and Kyandi gasped at the gash in his arm that she saw. It was horribly deep and red, and just the sight of it made her want to vomit. "Oh, Kisshu," she whimpered.

He chuckled quietly. "This? This is nothing. I've had worse." He lifted the vial and poured its contents onto his wound. The horrible gash shrunk to about half its original size. Instead of being a scary, burning red, it was now a less threatening bright pink. The empty vial vanished into thin air, and Kisshu took the bandage from Kyandi's hand and began to re-wrap his injury. When he was finished, Kyandi helped him tie it. The sun could no longer hold itself above the oppressing horizon, and so it slipped beneath in defeat, leaving the two lovers in the darkness.

Kyandi stared into his tired eyes. "Again, thank you… for helping me. And… I'm sorry I got mad at you."

Kisshu wasn't paying attention. His eye was on Kyandi's left ear. In the newly shining moonlight, he saw an object twinkling there. "What's this?" he asked, reaching out to touch it with his fingers. Did he dare to hope?

"Huh? Oh, it's my new earring," Kyandi answered. "I forgot to rotate it, actually." She reached up and twirled the stud in her earlobe, hissing with the small sting that came from waiting too long to rotate it. When she had finished, she looked at Kisshu and smiled. "Do you like it?"

"Very much," he said softly. He looked at the ornament that she had placed in the hole that his fang had made, and a warm feeling spread over him. His mark would stay with her forever, because she had chosen to let it. This felt better than that night on the beach, somehow. It felt like a truer acceptance than the one before it. Before, she had merely given in to him. Now, she had chosen to keep him with her. The importance of that difference was not lost on him, and he moved forward and embraced her. "I like it very much," he whispered, looking at the bit of starlight that twinkled on her ear.

She rested her head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was strange. While human hearts seemed to be on a steady rhythm of two beats, his was not. Instead, it was on a strange, almost melodic timing of three beats: Thumpa-thump-THUMP. Thumpa-thump-THUMP. He had said that they were similar enough for his saliva to clean her wound, but there were still big differences.

Kisshu noticed the sour, acidic flavor of his enzyme dissipate. He pulled back somewhat and placed his left hand under her chin, lifting it upwards. Then he lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers. He began gently at first, but soon reverted to his normal, rough self. Kyandi kissed him back until his hands wandered somewhere that they didn't belong. She broke the kiss and admonished, "Kisshu, no." He moved his hands down to her hips instead, and they began to kiss again. Once again, Kisshu tried to put his hands on something a little more personal. Kyandi pulled back and warned him once more. "Kisshu, stop." One more kiss, and he tried it again. "Kisshu! Quit it!" she spat, pulling back.

"Please," Kisshu begged in a sensual whisper that sent a shiver up Kyandi's spine. Still, the peacock mew shook her head. Kisshu frowned. "Why not? It's not like we haven't done it before."

"That's what I'm worried about," Kyandi murmured.

Kisshu was surprised to hear that. "What?"

"Kisshu," Kyandi began, "what if I'm pregnant?"

The thought instantly killed Kisshu's mood.

"Is that even possible?" Kyandi asked him.

Kisshu gulped before answering. "It could be. If your DNA composition was similar enough to activate my healing gland, then there's a good possibility." He paused for a minute, staring through Kyandi with an emotionless and awkward expression on his face. "Do humans have five-chambered hearts?"

"F-five?" Kyandi sputtered. Well… that did explain the difference in rhythm. "No. Our hearts have only four chambers."

"D*mn," Kisshu muttered, regaining his emotion with a frown. "It's possible, then. The kid wouldn't be able to get proper circulation to his ears, and probably couldn't fly or teleport. But still, there's the possibility that you could be…" He trailed off, unwilling to say the word.

Kyandi began to get nervous. "So then… What if I am?"

Kisshu shrugged. "Geez, I don't know."

Kyandi turned and stared at the ground. "I should go."

Kisshu exhaled in defeat. "Kyandi, wait. Just… Please."

"What?" she spat, whirling around to face him again.

Kisshu paused. "Can I… just have a good-bye kiss?"

Kyandi shook her head. "Not tonight, Kisshu. I'm not in the mood." And with that, she stormed off, the grass swishing beneath her bare feet. She walked away in her oversized T-shirt, the one that she slept in, the one that she had been wearing earlier when she had transformed. She left him standing there, and she didn't look back.

Kisshu sighed as he watched her leave. "D*mn," he swore before teleporting away.

The alien reappeared outside the window of a certain cat-girl. Since Kyandi had rejected him, he needed a release tonight. Ichigo was sitting at her desk and scribbling away on something that Kisshu didn't care about. He hovered outside of her window, not bothering to hide himself in the tree this time.

Ichigo was doing her homework. School was so demanding! She really wished that she could be doing something else. She paused in her work to daydream about the roller skating date that she had planned for Saturday.

"Ah! Aoyama-kun! Help!" Ichigo yelped as her wheeled feet began to get away from her.

"It's okay. I've got you," Masaya Aoyama smiled as he caught her and lifted her up. "Alien! Alien!" he said. "Alien! Alien!"

"Ichigo, alien! Alien!" Masha peeped.

Ichigo snapped out of her daydream and looked at her furry robot sidekick. "Eh?" she panicked. "Masha, what do you mean 'alien'? Where?"

"Over here! Over here!" Masha flew to the window.

Ichigo followed the robot with her eyes. She yelped when she saw Kisshu looking into her window. Leaping from her chair, she grabbed her pendant. She glared at his image through the window and began her transformation phrase. "Mew Mew Strawberry, META -"

Kisshu teleported away before Ichigo could finish. "D*mn!" he muttered, reappearing in the green fog the bathed the aliens' alternate dimension headquarters. She had seen him. She would probably tell Kyandi. And then, Kisshu Ikisatashi knew that he would soon be entering a world of pain.

Author: Everyone, please welcome to the stage, Zakuro Fujiwara!

Zakuro: (stage-persona smile) Hello, everyone.

Author: So, Zakuro, what do you think of Kyandi?

Zakuro: (sympathetic face) I worry for her. Shirogane expects too much from a girl with the kind of past she's had. And with her mother's recent death, I honestly don't know how she functions. I know the feeling of losing someone close.

Author: I see. What is your opinion of her personality?

Zakuro: I suppose that she thinks she is a strong girl. But really, she is rather weak. I can tell that she doesn't truly trust anyone. To be too scared of being hurt to let anyone in - that's not strength. That's weakness.

Author: (nods) I agree.

Zakuro: I am truly worried about what she would do if someone whom she trusted betrayed her. I think that -

Author: No spoilers! Ryou was bad enough with that stuff when he had his interview... Darn the two of you and your foresight. And... speaking of the two of you, what do you think of him, Zakuro?

Zakuro: (coy smile) I'm not telling.

Author: Aw, come on! Why not?

Zakuro: You just said, "No spoilers!"

Author: ... Look at you, using my own words against me. Oh, well. Your wisdom is something about you that I admire. Anyways, until next chapter, bye-bye!