At least my apartment looked good now. I had a full blown living room with a couch, coffee tables, TV stand, art on my walls, and a rug on the floor. My kitchen was super well stocked with things that I could cook easily, as well as other things such as spices and quick meals. I felt like I really had a home now. The guys were nice enough to follow me to almost every single furniture shop in town and help me move things in and set them up with me. My bed room has a suite to it now with an oak dresser and matching night stand and desk. My bathroom had a nice red theme going for it, and all-in-all I was very pleased with myself for choosing them.

TMM: College Years VI

By:

Satashi

"Man, what a day," Darren spoke, lying on my couch.

"You said it. I don't think I can move." Mark was crashed out in my recliner with Masaya leaning against it.

"At least we got her moved in completely."

"And a free dinner." I laughed and dropped a few lasagna noodles into a large pot before checking my sauce.

"Never turn down a free meal," Mark spoke, nodding. "Everyone knows that rule." The guys shared a laugh before Mark got to his feet and walked next to the T.V. "Hey, Ichigo, you play guitar?" He picked up the acoustic from the stand.

"Mm? No, it's my dad's. He gave it to me. I just use it for decorating. It adds flare."

Mark sat down on the couch after Darren leaned up to make room. Testing, he strummed the strings, getting a horrid sound. "Oh man, tune that thing." Darren complained, wincing."

"Sod off." Mark grinned and started to tune it. I was interested, but cooking was taking most of my attention. After a few minutes of plucking strings, he finally strummed them all again, getting a pleasant sound. "Much better."

"You play?"

"Of course!"

Masaya sat down in the recliner and leaned forward. "He plays a lot. Non-stop even."

"Music major." Mark exclaimed proudly.

"Same here." Darren agreed, nodding. "Masaya over there is an earth science major. What a loser."

Before Masaya could respond, a simple tune filled the room and Mark began to sing. "Tiny salmon in a stream....tiny salmon chasing that impossible dream! The mina bird says..."

"Ah! Ah-ah!" Darren laughed, making a bird sound.

Still going, Mark continued. "The chimpanzee says..."

"ehhhhhhehehehehehehehe!" Masaya filled in.

"The friendly owl says..."

The music stopped and everyone looked over at me. "Who?" I tried lamely to imitate an owl. A few more cords were strummed and they looked again. "Who-who?"

Mark continued. "But the salmon can only say...." Here, he made some sounds that sort of sounded like bubbles popping. "And it's saaaaaaaad."

"Excellent!" Darren applauded.

"The best!" Masaya agreed, laughing.

I shook my head. "You guys are such losers." They all laughed and went into another song while I cooked for them.

A few hours and three very stuffed guys later; it was time to say our goodbyes. The boys all offered to help clean up the mess made by cooking and all of us eating together while watching the tonight show with Conan and laughing. I refused them and shooed them out of my apartment telling them to get a lot of rest after working so hard hauling my furniture around. After Mark and Darren waved at me before running down the stairs, Masaya turned to me and smiled.

"Thanks for dinner, Momomiya-san."

"I was happy to cook for you guys." I bowed lightly. "Thanks for all of the help. I don't know what I would have done without you there to help me move and show me what to buy..."

"Anytime." He scratched the back of his neck. "So, um, I'll come by to pick you up tomorrow? What time is a good time?"

"I get off class at noon. Anytime after that. What's your schedule?"

"Same." He grinned. "Tuesday and Thursday off, right?"

"Of course."

"Then how about-" his voice was cut off as a car horn honked.

"Masaya, just kiss her and come on already!" Darren's voice shouted up at us, making me blush darkly.

"Shut up Darren!" Masaya shouted back, a little red as well. "Geeze, I swear..." He grinned at me lightly. "They're great guys, though."

"I can tell." I yawned lightly. "Ack, I'm sleepy."

"I'll go then. I'll give you a call, okay?"

"Sounds good."

He smiled and turned to go and I waved. After seeing him go down the stairs, I walked over to my balcony and looked down, seeing Mark sitting on the car hood. "Get any tongue?" He asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Masaya, in return, grabbed him and gave him the noogie of his life. Grinning, I shook my head and walked back into my apartment. Sliding the door close, I took off my cap and scratched my ears as they came up from being pressed against my head all day long. Walking to my bathroom, I let my tail unwrap from my waist and sling out behind me. It waved as I walked like always, pleased to finally be let free to hang down.

I closed my door and locked it, humming as the cool morning air washed over me. It was a bright morning today, something I liked. I slid down the rail by the stairs to the second floor and then again for the first floor. Landing, I shifted my backpack and ran across the lawn to my car and pasted it, deciding I would enjoy a nice walk across where I lived. As I made my way to the walk-way to campus, I passed several people. A few waved as they tossed their back packs into their cars while others whizzed by me on a bicycle or roller blades.

Upon reaching the walkway, I noticed Darren already half way down it on his skateboard. It was easy to tell it was him from his long blue hair. Masaya was the only one with short hair it seemed. Mine was long enough to pull into a six inch ponytail, and Mark's went clear to his waist, although he kept it neatly trimmed and in a low ponytail. My ponytail was threaded through the back of my baseball cap, and swung with each step I took, tickling my neck a little bit.

Kish was already at our table when I got to class, a full five minutes early, despite me getting a slow start when I first woke up. He grinned at me as I sat down. "Hi," he greeted, looking me over. "You look nice today."

I smiled and blushed. "Thank you." I was wearing a tight fitting long sleeved white shirt with pink sleeves and an air brushed flower on the front of it. My jeans were dark and had a sunflower on the right leg, twirling up to my pocket, where it bloomed out. "You're pretty cute yourself."

Kish gave me a goofy smile. He was wearing a black shirt that had a crimson leaf on it with the word 'NERV' next to it. His jeans were low cut and tight, showing off well developed legs. "I thank you."

I flopped my backpack on the floor and rooted out my text book and notebook. "First real day of classes for me." I spoke aloud, a little nervous all of a sudden. "I wonder if they'll be hard."

"Shouldn't be." Kish leaned back in his chair, making it tilt back and balance on the back two legs. "We'll probably start out with the easy stuff at first then work into things you didn't learn in high school."

"What about you? You're from Australia, right? What if things you learn here are different than there? You'll have a real hard time keeping up won't you?"

Kish almost fell backwards, but managed to keep his balance by grabbing the table in front of him and pulling himself down. "Oh, that was close. I don't think I'll have any troubles."

I was about to ask more, but the professor chose that time to walk in the door. Looking around a bit, he grinned at all of the people who were early for his class and then hopped onto his desk. "Good morning everyone!" He greeted us, leaning forward. "So, third day of college and second in my class. I hope you're all learning how things work. Any of you have Tuesday and Thursday classes?"

A few people nodded, and I noticed that Kish next to me also did. I liked the Way College worked. Instead of Monday through Saturday eight to three, college was sectioned off into hour blocks. There was a class from seven AM to nine PM and you could chose any hour you wanted as long as your class was offered at that time. Tuesday and Thursday classes were an hour and forty five minutes, since they only met twice a week. Luckily I had all mine from eight till noon so I had all afternoon off and the other two days off completely. Adding in the weekends, I was only in school for twelve hours a week total. Although I don't know how much homework and studying I'll be putting in just yet, it seemed to be a whole lot better than high school was.

My class was fairly interesting. Although I didn't really get into it as much as Kish seemed to, I still had a page and a half of notes already from things the teacher just said 'be sure to know' about. Toward the end of the lecture, I realized that if took this many notes a day, especially with my small hand writing, and we met three times a week and tested every other week, I would have to study a lot to learn everything.

I sighed as we were dismissed and closed my notebook. "Wow. Almost two pages of notes, and an entire chapter assigned to read."

"Sounds like a blast," Kish replied, standing as well and zipping up his backpack. "Hey, do you know where the Rumiko building is? I got my schedule changed and I have no clue where I'm supposed to go."

"Rumiko? Yeah, I'm heading there now. I have psychology there."

"With Takahashi?"

"Yeah! Hey, you transferred into my class?" I took his schedule when he offered and I nodded. "Yeah, we're together. Come on, it's a long walk." I shouldered my backpack and smiled. "At least I won't be bored on the way there anymore."

Kish laughed as we started to walk together. "I feel honored to relieve your boredom, really."

Giggling, I shook my head. "You're a funny guy."

"I try." He stopped walking all of a sudden and knelt down. "Hey, Ichigo, look. A praying mantis."

"Oh?" I looked down at him. "Ew, a bug!"

"These things are neat! It's like they know kung fu or something!" He touched it and smirked to himself. It looked a little weird for a moment, seeing that look on his face, but it passed by quickly and he stood up again. "I'm sorry; you said it was a long walk, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Come on or we'll be late."

My psychology class was large. At least three hundred people were in it. I was amazed the first day there, as I was expecting a normal classroom like my History class. To my surprise, I found a large lecture hall with stadium style seating. When the room was full, I felt cramped and a little uncomfortable. At least now I would have someone familiar sitting next to me.

"The teacher doesn't take roll," I told Kish as we sat somewhere in the middle where two seats were open. To tell the truth I don't remember where I sat last time, as the rows of seats were so many. "So I doubt it'll matter where we sit as long as we're here."

"Sounds tasty." He pulled a small arm rest up from the right side of the set and flipped it over to make a small desk in front of him. "Hey, neat. I was wondering what we were going to bear down on when writing."

"Yeah, I thought so too." I did the same thing and put my pink notebook on it and flipped it open to a clean page. "I bet you can get a syllabus from the professor after class is over. If not, you can borrow mine when you need it."

"Thanks," He looked it over and nodded. "Wow. Only five test the entire year."

"Yeah. And you have to volunteer for things too. You need five points or something like that. So you have to volunteer for five different things. Here's the list." I pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to him.

"These look like experiments and stuff."

"They are. Different things and situation. This is psychology you know."

He hummed before handing it back. "I see."

After class was over, Kish waved goodbye to me and promised to come see me at the bar. After adjusting his sunglasses, he ran off to his next class, leaving me alone to walk all the way back from where I came from my history class to get to my Math class which was the next building over. Sighing, I started to walk.

My trip was interrupted a few steps later, however, when I bumped into so someone. "Oh, I'm sorry!" The girl bowed to me. "I wasn't looking..."

"Its okay, my fault. Kind of spaced out." I helped the girl pick up the notebooks she dropped.

"Thank you." She smiled at me. "I have such a long walk to my math class that I try to hurry."

"Algebra I?"

"Why yes!"

"I'm going there too." I smiled. "My name is Momomiya Ichigo."

"Midorikawa Lettuce. Nice to meet you." She bowed again.

I smiled and we started to walk together. "Are you a freshman?"

"Yes, you?"

"Yeah." I giggled. "I'm still trying to get used to everything. It's so much different than high school!"

"I know, I'm so nervous. I hope I do well here..."

"I'm sure you will."

Lettuce seemed to be a nice girl, although she was really, really polite. I felt at ease with her, though, as if she would somehow be a long lasting friend to me even if we just met. We sat together in class, and talked while waiting on the professor to show. I learned that she lived in the dorms and was granted several scholarships for college due to her good grades in school. I had only been granted one since I was only average in the school category. Bringing this up, I told her about my job and invited her to come by tonight, which she said she would.

After Math, we said our goodbyes and went separate ways. I only had Japanese Literature left, which was close to the building I was currently in. Shifting my backpack, I walked over to the building and walked into it, looking around. My class was on the third floor, but the elevators were so packed looking, I went to the stairs as most other students were doing. Reaching the top, I paused as Masaya walked next to me. Turning around, I was pleased to see that he noticed me as well.

He smiled at me and nodded. Happy, I smiled at him. "Hey, Momomiya-san," he greeted me as students walked around us. "Having a good day so far?"

"Yeah! I've met a lot of people."

"That's good. We still on for this afternoon?"

"Of course."

He winked. "Then I'll call you later. My next class is on the other side of campus."

"Oh that sucks. You better hurry then."

"Right." He turned and waved over his shoulder, running a little bit to make up for lost time.

I smiled lightly and turned to walk into my classroom.

After my last class was over, I felt like doing nothing but getting a nice lunch and taking a small nap before Masaya called me to meet up. As I was walking to the union, however, a weird feeling made me stop and change directions. Running past students, I noticed that my legs were taking me to the park on the west side of campus. I've never been there before, but I could feel something pulling me in that direction.

Finally stopping, I looked around and panted lightly. "Well well, you came." A voice spoke up. Turning, I tried to find the speaker but didn't see anything until he spoke again. "Did you miss me?" Looking up in the air, I saw Kish fly down to me quickly. His lips claimed mine, shocking me. After a moment I jerked back and tried to kick him, but he was already back in the air. "Yummy."

"You jerk, what was that for!?"

"Fun." He laughed and I growled at him. His falcon was above his shoulder like normal and his armor shifted as he readied himself. His voice was a little familiar, but I couldn't place it because it had a sort of electronic tone to it. "Oh, I forgot to mention." He lowered himself down so he was standing on the ground a few feet away from me. "I brought a friend this time."

Kish moved his hand and pointed behind me. I turned lightly to look and gasped as a six foot tall praying mantis appeared. "What the..."

"And that's not all!" Kish declared happily. "I also found this one." At that time, I turned back to Kish, who had Lettuce in a headlock. "She was by the pond so I decided to have a little fun."

"Let her go!"

"Momomiya-san..."

"Let her go, Kisshu!" I shouted at him. "She has nothing to do with this!"

"Actually, she does." He replied easily. "According to our research, she is one of you. I don't want to have another opponent to deal with, so she'll die here and now." He pulled a dagger from his boot. "Say goodbye!"

Lettuce's eyes were wide, and her voice screamed out for help as Kish reared back to stab her with it. I ran to them quickly and leapt at Lettuce, tackling her hard and rolling as the knife was swing, cutting my shirt.

"That was just low," I glared at Kish as I stood up and turned. I felt my shirt fall from my body, having been cut clean in half on the back. My hair turned from red to pink and I my vision got better as my pupils narrowed and started to look more like cat's eyes. I felt my body get stronger as the genes inside of me started to take over. Black fur covered my arms and hands, going past my shoulders and giving me what looked like a one piece bikini made out of black fur. I took off my cap and let my tail unfurl from my waist. "You picked the wrong cat to mess with, Kisshu."

"Hmmmmmmm."

The giant praying Mantis chose that time to attack me. I ducked under its scythe like arm and leapt forward, punching it in the chest. Following it up with a kick, I managed to knock it over and then dodge to the side as Kish flew down at me. He turned in the air and flew back at me, slashing with his dagger. I moved to the side again and grabbed his arm, twisting it and throwing him down into the ground.

I had to jump into the air as I was attacked again from behind. Flipping over, I slashed hard, cutting down the hard shell of the mantis' side. Kish kicked my side then, sending me flying. I hit the ground and bounced hard, but quickly got back up. Both of my enemies were running toward me and Kish made it first, attacking again. Blocking his thrust, I grabbed his wrist and elbowed him hard in the chest. It only made my elbow throb in pain when I connected, as his armor didn't give at all. Not letting this stop me, I twisted in his grasp and kicked off of him.

Landing, I ran to the mantis and slid under it. Getting back up, I hit it hard in the back and gashed it with both of my hands, which I was coming to realize that my fingernails were now sharp claws that extended from the tips.

My hands had pink fur on my palms and black on the other side. I was learning how to call forth my claws at will and finding out that my agility was so great I could literally dodge something at the last second without worrying about getting hit.

The battle continued to rage for another few minutes before I was once again double teamed. Kish grabbed my tail and yanked on it hard, making me almost pass out in pain. He then took my arm and threw me over his head hard. I flew into the air until Kish appeared next to me and grabbed my ankle. Turning, he threw me back down to earth at an angle.

I hit the surface of the pond hard and skidded across the water until the momentum died down and I finally sank down into it. Quickly I found out that being covered in fur wasn't a good thing underwater, and I strained hard to try and break the surface with the added weight. After a moment I felt a hand grab mine and I was pulled easily to the surface. Someone held me as I coughed up water and tried to regain my thoughts.

I gasped audibly as I realized that the person who saved me was actually standing on the water. My eyes trailed from the feet and up the body until I saw Lettuce's face. She was glaring at Kish and the mantis. "I don't like it when people hurt my friends," She shouted out, voice scared but determined.

I noticed Ryou on the side of the pond then, and caught what he threw at me. It seemed to be a type of glove. Putting it over my right hand, I felt a strange new power inside of me. "This end snow!" I told Kish, pointing.

Lettuce seemed to read my mind and darted forward over the water, leaving a large wake behind us. "Strawberry Bell Bell!" I named my new attack as I reared back a punch. A crimson heart shaped bell rang on my wrist from the motion. "Strawberry check!" I punched, and a blast of energy shot forward.

Kish's body twitched in shock before hitting the ground to avoid the blast. The mantis behind him wasn't as fortunate, however, and took the hit hard. The bug seemed to shatter into pieces, leaving nothing but a small jelly fish looking thing and a bug that fell to the ground and scurried off.

Stepping onto land, me and Lettuce glared at Kish hard s he got to his feet. "Amazing," He whispered. "Simply amazing..." He looked at us and I tried to get a read on him again. His face was mostly covered by his helmet which left me at a blank with him. "I'll let you go this time, but don't think it's over, Mew Mews. It's not over by a long shot." With that, the alien teleported away, taking his falcon with him.

"R-2000! Retrieve!" I noticed a small plushie looking thing literally eat the jellyfish-type alien. It then flew back over to Ryou, who was walking over to us. "Well done girls." He congratulated us. "Ichigo, you need to work on your martial arts some. That was a little sloppy. As for you," he turned to Lettuce. "I bet you're really scared, aren't you?"

Lettuce sniffed and looked at me for some encouragement. I smiled at her in return. "Shirogane is an arrogant jerk, but a nice guy."

"Hey!"

"He'll tell you everything you need to know." I finished up. "Right now, I have to get home or something and get a new shirt..." I looked down and rubbed a hand across my stomach that was still covered in fur. At least it covered everything. I'd hate to be topless in front of Ryou. "Shirogane, I need some cloths." I eyed his jacket. "Let me borrow that until we get to the restaurant?"

"Yeah, sure." He took it off and wrapped it over my shoulders. "Lets get you changed before you catch a cold." His eyes went to Lettuce. "And Keiichiro will make you a nice lunch as we explain everything. Don't worry, it'll all be okay."

I smiled as we walked. Ryou always seemed to surprise me. As soon as I thought I new how he was, he would go and act so totally not like himself it was scary. But at least now I was covered. I picked up my cap as we walked and put it on. My tail was a little more trouble, but I managed to get it wrapped around my waist and tuck it in over itself. I would have to learn how to control it soon, so I could do that without my hands.

As we walked, my body itched lightly, letting me know the new fur was going away. With a quick look at my hand, I smiled as the pink and black faded away. I was really scared I was going to have to shave it all off. My legs were bad enough, if I had a full body razor burn, I would just have to kill Ryou.

My phone rang, waking me up from my sleep. A little confused at first from the sudden awakening, I reached up on Ryou's headboard and grabbed my phone. "H-hello?"

"Momomiya-san?"

I smiled. "Aoyama-kun! What's up?" I sat up and pulled the covers to my chin to cover myself. Keiichiro had taken my wet cloths earlier to dry them for me, and told me that he would give me some clean cloths that I had left over here before to wear home. Looking over to the computer chair, I saw them waiting for me. It was a little embarrassing, but I didn't mind Keiichiro doing my laundry for me. He was too sweet to think anything weird.

"Nothing too much. I got Mark's car now, want to go to the museum?"

I climbed out of bed and started getting dressed while talking. "Yeah, that would be wonderful. Where are you?"

"Campus. I just dropped the guys off. They are going to the Hiroyuki building. Ever been?"

"Nuh-uh." I shook my head even though he couldn't see me.

"I'll take you some time. It's huge, has twelve tennis courts in it, a rock wall, an Olympic sized indoor swimming pool, an arcade, and a lot more. Also have a section for physical classes such as karate and two full sized gyms to work out in."

"Sounds like a blast." I struggled with my shirt and finally got it on without losing my cell phone in the process. "I'm at the restaurant right now; can you pick me up here?"

"I just passed it." He laughed. "I'm turning around. Give me three minutes."

"Sure!" We both laughed and I hung up, quickly pulling on my jeans. Hopping a bit, I finally got them right and noticed that Keiichiro had them tailored to be low cut in the back so my tail wouldn't be in the way. Smiling, I wrapped it around my waist and stole a cap off of Ryou's desk since I couldn't find mine.

A knock came on the door and I called out for whoever it was to come in. Ryou opened it and stepped inside, cutting on the lights. "You're up," He noticed with a grin. "And already dressed, that's a plus."

"Thanks for letting me nap." I winked at him and looked around. "You have a comb I can borrow?"

Ryou walked over to the desk and tossed me a brush. "Here. Keiichiro told me you were taking tonight off."

"I'll work Thursday to make up for it." I told him, brushing my hair quickly. "I got tickets for the museum. I want to learn about all of these animals."

"That would be good." He walked over to his desk and pulled open a drawer. I watched him as I pulled a spare hair band from my key ring to pull my hair into a ponytail. To my surprise, Ryou took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.

"You smoke?" I asked, nodding to them.

"Nah, I just keep them in my drawer and light them occasionally to see how long it takes till they burn."

"Smart ass." I returned the brush to where Ryou got it. "It's a bad habit."

"Keiichiro tells me everyday. Don't tell me to quit, it's not easy."

"I know." I pulled on my shoes and looked myself over in his mirror. "I smoked for half a year almost."

"Quit?"

"Parents found out. Couldn't get a hold of anymore." I winked at him and posed. "Do I look good?"

He shrugged. "Same as always."

I growled and ran to the door when I heard a car door close. "That'll work. Bye!" I ran out and down the stairs. When I reached the restaurant, I noticed Lettuce. She was wearing an outfit that seemed to match the one I wore, but the red was replaced by a green to match her hair. Also instead of a flower on her jeans, she had a water design at the bottom and a dolphin jumping from it. "Lettuce, you look really cute!"

"Th-thank you," She blushed and looked down. "I'm a little nervous. I've never been a waitress before."

"Don't worry, it's easy! I'll be here with you tomorrow. Just smile and be polite." I waved at her happily as Masaya walked in. "We'll talk later okay?"

"Okay. Have fun, Ichigo-san!"

"Ready?" Masaya asked, looking down at me and smiling.

"Uhn!" I nodded happily and walked with him outside and into the evening light. "I keep forgetting the sun starts to set earlier now." I mused, looking for Mark's car. It was a bright yellow sports car, and it almost seemed to jump out at you when you went by it. I assumed it was a graduation gift considering how all three boys were jobless and survived off scholarships. The one that I had paid for my books and supplies, but that was just about it. Still, it was a few hundred dollars I didn't have to spend myself.

Masaya opened the door for me, making me grin. "Wow, a gentleman, huh?"

"But of course," He gave me a fake dramatic bow before closing the door of the car. When he got in himself he laughed. "I just want to score a few points so you won't take over the radio."

"Too bad." I started messing with it as soon as he started the car and found my favorite station. "Yay, E-jump is on!" I sang along a little bit. "You don't like them do you?"

"Eh, I like a few of their songs."

That made me giggle a little bit. It was obvious that he wouldn't like this kind of music. I pictured him more as a J-rock type of person.

The ride to the museum was filled with random talking about our day and what classes we were taking. I found out that Masaya had Earth Science, Chemistry, Japanese Literature II, and Calculus. He was going for an Earth Science major so he could become an animal right's leader and maybe even a leader of some sort of earth protection agency. I thought he was a little dorky, but what he was serious about what he wanted to be in life, and I haven't even chosen my major yet so I couldn't say anything

Walking into the museum was kind of neat in itself. I have been here a few times before and each time was different. Now at the door stood a cute looking golden cat statue with wings. Just past that was a long line that we had to wait in before going into the main section that branched off into many different areas. There was an option of headsets that said information about what you was looking at, but we skipped on that so we could talk to each other.

"Momomiya-san, look." Masaya pointed to a picture taken of some large cats in the jungle. "Iriomote Wildcats. Aren't they neat?"

"Iriomote..." It clicked. That was the animal who gave me its genes. Leaning forward, I smiled. "Aww... how cute. Aoyama-kun, do you know anything about them?"

"A little bit," He seemed impressed that I would ask. "They live in the jungle mainly. Not many left in the world."

"Aw." I pouted a little. I knew they were almost extinct, but actually hearing made me a little sad. "Poor things. I wish I could keep one at my place so nothing would happen to it."

Masaya leaned next to me and looked over in my direction. "You're kind hearted, Momomiya-san."

"Oh?" I turned to look at him and realized just how close we were. Blushing, we both looked away a moment. Acting on a whim, I took his hand, and pulled lightly. "Let's look at that next, okay?" I used my free hand to point at a display about some type of birds."

"Okay." He smiled and allowed me to drag him off before I let go of his hand and leaned on the rail. "I wonder if they could fly. I've heard that some birds can't."

"These kind can," he answered simply with a grin. "See?" He pointed to a picture above the one I was looking at, which showed them in flight.

"Oh... Um... I knew that... I was... testing you... you passed." I nodded to myself. "Just making sure you was paying attention."

"Right." I could tell he was holding back a laugh, but I blushed anyway and looked away.

"Hey, Momomiya-san?"

"Yes?"

"Why do you always wear a hat?" He thumped the bill of my cap making me squeak and put both hand on it to adjust it back. "You have pretty hair."

I felt my cheeks color yet again. "I don't know. I just like them I guess..." I laughed nervously. "Oh look!" I pointed to a random thing next to him. "They look neat, let's go there!" He looked and I sighed in relief. I avoided that nicely.

As we walked around the museum we got separated several times, each time laughing as we met back up. It was a little strange, but a little scary at the same time. I never liked being in large buildings surrounded by people and yet by myself. When I couldn't find him for several minutes after being parted again, I started to panic a little bit.

When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I yelped lightly and spun around to see him standing there with a shocked look on his face. Relieved, I quickly hugged him. "Don't do that, I was scared."

After a second, I realized what I was doing and quickly shot away and turned so he wouldn't see me. To my surprise, I heard him chuckle and then felt his hand take mine and our fingers interlace together. "Come on, I found a really cool section over here." He began to lead me away and I followed with my gaze to the ground. A few older couples whispered something about 'cute young couples in love' but I ignored them.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. At the exit there was a small gift shop, which we both enjoyed walking around in. To my surprise, Masaya bought me a cute little ribbon with a bell on it. When I gave him a pleased, yet confused look, he simply tied it to my neck as a make-shift chocker necklace. Giving the bell a small thump, he made it jungle and laughed. "This way you won't get lost anymore."

I smacked his arm playfully before laughing. It was a cute, playful little gift, but I liked it. It jingled when I walked, which made me giggle even more. Finally leaving the museum I noticed it was pitch black outside. "It's going to rain tonight," I mused, looking up and sniffing. "It was so clear this morning, too."

"Rain is good sometimes. You'll sleep well tonight at least."

"True." My stomach growled at me. "Ack..."

"Come to think of it, I'm starving." He looked down at me. "May I treat you to dinner?"

"...If you want..." I looked down shyly. Wow, a museum date and a treat for dinner. I couldn't wait to tell my mom about this. She was sure I would be too shy to date at first.

"I know a great place..."

When Masaya said 'great', I was expecting some type of restaurant that he and his friends ate at a lot. Instead, I found myself in a really fancy Chinese restaurant that even had a person show us to our seats and bowed before leaving to get our drinks.

"I love Chinese food," I began, looking around in awe. There was a small chandelier above our table, casting a really elegant light pattern around. "But this has got to be way expensive."

"It's okay. I love this place." He grinned. "Besides, I want to."

I felt really bad after looking around and seeing several people all dressed up, and here I was with a baseball cap on. "Um, I know this looks really bad, but I can't take my cap off..."

He paused a moment, then waved it off. "I don't mind. I don't really look that great myself." He motioned to his tee shirt and jeans. "Didn't have time to really get dressed properly for a date."

"Me either." I laughed lightly to myself.

All too soon I found myself at my front door, looking up at Masaya. "Thanks a lot for dinner, even though I asked you out."

"My pleasure. Thanks for allowing me to go to the museum with you. I'll bring by those books on the Wildcat like you wanted tomorrow sometime."

"I'd like that." I rolled on my heels lightly and looked up at him again. He looked back down and blushed lightly. I smiled weakly up at him, knowing full well I was too shy to make any kind of move. He seemed to take the hint and began to lean down to me. Closing my eyes, I tilted my head a little and felt his breath against my lips.

Then his cell phone rang.

We each jumped apart and I held my hand to my chest, scared out of my mind. I felt my tail fall behind me as well, moved from its wrap around my waist when I moved so quickly. Luckily it was too lazy to swing at the time so I managed to hide it well by keeping my legs together.

"What!?" Masaya almost yelled in his phone.

"Yo, Masaya!" I could hear Mark's voice. "Where you at man, it's past midnight! It's your first date man, slow down!"

"For your information, we just got to her apartment and I was saying goodnight when you called."

"Did you kiss her!?" Darren suddenly yelled out, making Masaya move the phone away from his ear.

"No!"

"Ha, you owe me five bucks, Darren!"

Annoyed, Masaya flipped his phone shut and scratched the back of his head. "Um, the guys say 'hi'. "He laughed nervously.

I smiled and couldn't help but laugh a little. "Tell them I said hi too." We looked at each other a moment. Suddenly feeling confident and not nervous at all thanks to the phone call, I quickly got on my tip toes and pecked his cheek. "Call me okay?"

He touched the spot where I kissed him a moment before nodding. "You got it." Waving, he turned and slid down the rail of the stairs. When I was sure he was out of site, I sighed contently and put my key in my door, walking in before anyone could see my tail. Out of habit, I walked to my balcony, where I watched Masaya walk to his car. He paused a moment at the door and looked up at me. At first I was a little embarrassed, but he waved at me, so I waved back.

When the tail lights faded around the corner, I walked back in and shut the door. Yawning, I walked to my bedroom and took off my shirt, tossing it into the hamper soon followed by my jeans and bra. I had lost my cap somewhere in the living room. Climbing into bed, I decided to leave my bell on. I pulled a pillow close to me and snuggled up next to it as a few drops of rain started to hit my building. My tail lay out behind me lazily as my mind started to drift away.

It was a good day today, and I could sleep in tomorrow. I yawned lightly and stretched, letting out a content meow.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I finally managed to work Lettuce in at least. Pudding should come in next chapter maybe. I'm debating hitting this up to an "R" rating because of all the things I have planned. I'll try and keep it PG-13 if I can since many readers are pre-teens or young teenagers.

Oh, and before you say anything, in Japan school goes Monday to Saturday with Sunday being the only day off. Also does anyone out there have episodes 40-52? I can't find them anywhere ;

Please review, and I'll see you next chapter!