"Eh?" I woke up slowly, wondering who was shaking me. Sitting up, I saw Kish in front of me, a light grin on his face. "Kish, what time is it?" I asked him sleepily, debating laying back down and returning to dreamland. "Wake me up in five minutes..."

College Mew Mew 17

By: Satashi

"It's time to go home," Kish told me, making me sit up again. "It's about five in the morning your time. Come on, Ichigo, you've slept enough and I, hey that's my favorite pair of pants!"

I looked behind me at my tail, which was currently too lazy to be moving around as it normally did. Following it up, I noticed the cut in the pants next and blushed. "You kidnapped me in a bathing suite, what do you want from me?"

He sighed. "Fine, you can keep them. I get something of yours though."

I grinned. "I have the cutest bra/panty set that would look-"

"On second thought, I don't need anything from you." He grinned lightly.

I touched his hand. "Kish, are you okay?"

"Eh?" He pulled away a little. "I'm fine," but his voice told me he was still hurt from my rejection. "Besides, didn't a group of great prophets not once say 'Love is sweet misery.'?"

"That was Aerosmith, Kish."

"I see." He looked at me, and then smiled. A true smile. Laughter came out next. "Ah, forget it." He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Ready? Don't move around."

"Why not?" I felt my cheeks color out if instinct when his hands wrapped around my waist.

"It throws off the teleportation. Why do you think I drugged you last night?"

"For the fun of it?" I retorted, with a scoff. The air phased around me and I suddenly felt a little sick as I realized I was several stories up in the air, and suddenly cold. "Kish, don't do that!" I scolded him as he laughed. "Get me down, I'm freezing!"

"Yeah, Yeah," He flew me down to the balcony, which was thankfully unlocked. "Talk to them today?" He was referring to his proposal from last night. "Tell me later?"

"How can I contact you?"

He shifted in his pocket and pulled out a small device. "Here," He flew over to me, but remained in the air. "Place this around your cell phone. Press the button and you can talk to me." He pointed to his ear, where for the first time I noticed he had an earring. "I have a communication device already." He tapped it and the device he gave me vibrated a little bit.

"Thanks." I grabbed my purse from just inside the balcony sliding glass door and took my cell phone out, attaching it. "Oh...Here." I unzipped a small section and pulled out a small bundle of pictures. Rooting through them, I handed Kish a picture of me taken for our college year book. "You can have this."

He took it from my fingers and looked over it, smiling fondly. "Thanks. I'll keep it around." This was the time when he would always swoop down and steal a kiss from me, and I even prepared myself to turn my head so he would land on my cheek instead. To my surprise, however, he merely floated back some and waved. "See you." And with that, he teleported off.

I shivered, rubbing my arms. His shirt still refused to stay over both my shoulders at the same time. I was lucky it was long sleeved, even if the cuffs did go halfway past my hands. Walking inside, I closed the door and walked across the house silently, heading to my bedroom. The sun would come up within the hour, so I decided to let everyone sleep until they woke up. They were probably worried sick about me last night.

I opened the door to my room and felt my heart twinge a little bit. Masaya was on the bed, still dressed, and passed out with a blanket half over him, probably placed by one of the girls. Softly I padded my way over to him and kissed his forehead. "Masaya?" I whispered to him softly, making him stir. He was obviously in a rough sleep. "Masaya, honey, wake up. I'm back."

"Ichigo?" He opened his eyes lightly, blinked a few times, and then was instantly clinging to me. "Ichigo! Ichigo!"

"That's my name," I replied to him, hugging him back. "Ow, that hurts, let go a little bit would you?"

His breathing broke and he just pulled me closer to him. "I was so worried."

"Yeah, sorry about that." I was finally able to pull away a little bit and catch the air that was shoved out of me in the fierce hug. "I'm fine," I told him before he could ask. "Just a little cold."

"Here," He pulled the blanket around me, making me sit beside him in the process. "Better?"

"Much," I cooed, snuggling up against him. "Mm. I missed you."

"What happened? Where did he take you?"

"To their place," I told him, closing my eyes and leaning on his shoulder. "To make a deal with me. I'll explain it all later when everyone is together. He was just too scared to stay here with everyone."

"Why did he drug you?"

"He said teleporting is dangerous when the person you're with moves around."

"I see," He spoke softly, probably debating how true that was. His skill of teleportation was still new to him at best. He had only managed to do two long distance jumps so far, and that was the first time he ever did it in the first place. Turning to look at me, he smiled, relaxing now. "I'm glad you're safe. Did he do anything to you?"

"You know he wouldn't hurt me."

"I didn't mean that."

"Oh," I blushed. "He's not that bad of a pervert...But..."

"...But?"

"A kiss."

"What?"

I looked up at him, in his eyes. "We kissed." He looked shocked, but I smiled up at him gently. "I broke his heart. I had to tell him that you were the only one for me. He never listened to my words, and-"

"Ichigo, its okay," He hugged me. "You don't have to explain it. You know that stuff makes me jealous."

Sighing against him contently, I nodded. "Yeah. I know." I was happy he said that. I didn't want him to know, but I felt a little depressed since our little scuffle over the phone. "It's still early, why don't you get some sleep? You look like you need it."

He gave me a lopsided smile. "You look like hell too, thanks." Pausing a moment, he looked down at me. "What are you wearing?"

I laughed.

Everyone was glad to have me back at least. I was sure Ryou was going to make some sort of comment about how I wouldn't hog the bathroom for an hour since I was kidnapped, but to my surprise, he hugged me after everyone else had and whispered to me that he was glad I was safe.

Keiichiro had made me a special breakfast that morning to show how glad he was that I was back safe. I love waffles and strawberries. I really do.

After breakfast, I finally told everyone what Kish had asked of me while I was with him last night. There was a small pause from everyone as they considered it, and we ended up leaving it at that for the day so everyone could think on it.

I took my afternoon nap a little earlier than usual and slept through lunch. Upon waking, I stretched out and started debating on what to eat, when I heard Masaya shout out downstairs loudly.

"You little punk! I'll show you no mercy!"

I stood up straight. Was Masaya fighting someone?

"I should have killed you in the first place!" Ryou shouted next. "Prepare to die, Masaya!"

I quickly ran to the door and flung it open, hearing Masaya call out how he was going to avenge Mark's death. I leapt over the second floor railing and landed in a crouch in the living room, scaring everyone at my sudden appearance.

"What's going on?" Mark asked, looking over at me, shocked. "Did you just jump from the second floor!?"

"I...uh..." I looked over at Masaya and Ryou. The latter suddenly leapt off the couch.

"Ha fragged you! Pay up, a thousand yen."

Masaya stood next, muttered under his breath and slammed a bill onto his hand, chucking the Xbox controller onto the couch. "You cheated."

I blushed darkly. "I...I'll be back later." I ran out of the room and into the kitchen, blushing darkly. "Oh wow, I'm an idiot."

"Are you?" I jumped lightly and looked to where the voice came from. Keiichiro was sitting in the dining room, reading a book. "Care for a game of Go, Ichigo?"

"Um, sure." I walked over to him and sat across the table, noticing a board was already on it. "You like playing?"

"I enjoy it." He opened two small circular bins. "White or black?"

"White goes first, right?" I got a nod from him. "Then I'll be white of course."

"Of course," He repeated, smiling as I placed a piece on the board. "What do you think about Kish's offer?" He placed down a chip next to mine.

"I'm for it," I responded, placing another piece down, which he quickly countered without even thinking it seemed. "What do you think?" I put another down.

"I'm not entirely sure about trusting them fully," He admitted, playing.

"Hmmm... I think its okay. They only want to help their planet. Kish wouldn't lie to me."

"I trust your judgment." He spoke softly. "It'll all work out in the end, I suppose. Just like last time."

I didn't answer him on that one. Instead I stayed silent, playing a quick going game. Mint came in at one point and offered us hot chocolate, which we both took. I'm not entirely sure how long we sat there, just playing, but by the time my stomach growled at me, I realized that the board was completely full already.

"Hungry?" he asked me, smiling as he started picking up the trapped pieces and setting them aside.

I started helping him, collecting the other trapped pieces. "I am. I think I'll nuke some fish sticks." I loved those things. "Quick and easy."

Keiichiro chuckled to himself. "You're a weird one, all right."

"Thanks." I replied with a grin. "How many you have?"

"This much," he moved his hand to show me all the chips of mine he captured. I felt my mouth drop, not even realizing how many I had lost over the span of time we played. I only had thirty at most of his chips and he had two semi-large piles of mine.

"You're insane," I mouthed out, amazed.

I didn't know what to think when riding the ski lifts for the first time. I had never been scared of heights before, but sitting in a bench like chair scaling a snowy hillside with people skiing below me made me uneasy somehow. I couldn't keep from clinging onto my boyfriend's arm tightly, scared out of my mind that the thing holding our ride to the moving steel above us might break at any second and we would fall down and die.

"Ichigo?"

"I don't want to die!" I replied, shocked at the sudden speaking. I felt my ears pop out under my warm cap and my tail fidget uncomfortably in my pants, finally sneaking out the top of them. He looked at me a moment, silent. I looked back at him. Masaya turned and looked out in front of us, and I followed his gaze. Then, he broke out laughing so hard I thought he would fall over the safety rail. Personally, right now I almost had the urge to push him the rest of the way.

I felt my cheeks color, and I turned my gaze back below us, watching people slide by on their skis as if it was the most natural thing to do. As the ground started getting closer, I realized that we were reaching the top of the mountain. The rest of the gang was already waiting on us.

The safety bar rose automatically, making me screech lightly. "Come on," Masaya told me, pulling me along with him as our skis made contact with the packed in snow. He dragged me off to the side where everyone else was waiting. Only Pudding and Lettuce seemed to be a little unstable. Ryou was wearing a snowboard, as well as Keiichiro.

"Wow," I looked over at Keiichiro and smiled. "You snowboard? How cool is that?"

He scratched his cheek with one finger and laughed lightly. "Ryou and his parents always invited me on their trips to the beach and to the mountains."

"It's just like surfing," Ryou added in. I recalled him once telling me that while he was in America, he lived near the beach. I knew he surfed a lot, but I never thought it would be the same as on the snow. "Everyone have their watch?" He asked, snapping me back to the present. "There's no doubt we'll get separated as we ski, so everyone remember to meet back at the cabin at five tonight." He pointed to my side, and I turned to see where exactly. "That is the beginner course, so you should probably start there."

"How can you tell?" I asked, amazed.

"It says so on the sign," Mint answered him, grinning at me.

"Oh." I laughed nervously, and everyone seemed to try and stifle their laughs as well. "Anyway, that's where I'm going."

"If anyone needs help, come find me." Keiichiro smiled at us before he turned and started to slide down on the snow, ponytail flying out behind him.

"Or me," Ryou added in, jumping down and swooshing across the powdered snow. Watching him, I gasped loudly as he hit a ramp, reached down to grab his board, and turn around completely before landing.

"I... think I'll stay with the beginner course." Lettuce smiled and bowed at us lightly before slowly making her way over to it and sliding down very slowly.

Turning to Masaya, I smiled. "Well then, shall we?"

"Let's shall."

A/N: Sorry for such short chapter after not updating in two days. I've had trouble sleeping recently and I can't concentrate enough to write. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow or the day after.

Oh, I just noticed something today. On page 82 of volume one, Ryou's hologram tells Ichigo that he got Mint's ballet tickets through his parent's connections, but later it's revealed that his parents died when he was like eight or so...so how can his dead parents, who died in America have connections like twelve years later in Japan? Weird, huh? Yeah, I know I think too much.

Shout outs go to the Chibi fluffy muffin and KrysOfDeath this time. It was nice meeting you two. ==