Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew

Title: Opening Up.

Warnings: Maybe a slight bit of OOCness, characters ages have been changed ; so they're roughly all the same age apart from Akasaka-san and Ryou who're slightly older of course (and also I attempted a cute scene xD )

Author: Mairi. (Dark Winged Angel Mairiel).

Proof Reader: Kaoru Saotome

Summary: Ryou's slowly building up the courage to tell Ichigo about his feelings for her. He tells Ichigo about the encounter with Masaya. Ichigo hopes for no more trouble in the near future, but not all goes to plan, and Ichigo gets a little nasty.

Pairings: Ryou x Ichigo.

Chapter 4 – Trouble,

Masaya looked at the café, his eyes narrowing a little. His hand glided gently over the spot where Ryou had punched him. Even though he had been warned to stay away from Ichigo, he wasn't about to obey rules. Ryou didn't own Ichigo, so he could see her whenever he wished to. He took a step or two towards the building before stopping in his tracks, fists clenching…what was this feeling surging through him? Was he afraid that Ryou might be there? No, he couldn't let that incident get to him. He moved again, quickening his pace towards the entrance of the café and opened the door, the only one that was about happened to be Ichigo, the other girls hadn't shown up yet as they still had a bit to get there.

"Ichigo," he said, closing the door behind him and making her freeze, she had her back to him. Ichigo clutched the mop handle tightly, and close to her chest. Why was he here? Why of all places, and at such a time.

"What…do you want now…?" she managed to mutter quietly, just enough so he could hear her. She knew that Keiichiro was in the kitchen if she needed help at any time.

"I want to apologise, for earlier."

"You want to apologise for cheating on me?" she spat back at his completely lame reason.

"Yes. I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry."

"Forget it, Aoyama."

"But Ichigo, I'm so-"

"Why the hell are you here, Aoyama?" came Ryou's voice. He'd been in the kitchen with Keiichiro and had obviously heard them. He narrowed his blue eyes into a glare; Masaya glared back as though challenging him.

"I'm here to get Ichigo back."

"Keep trying," was all Ryou replied to him, but he had to admit that he didn't expect the next action by the other boy. Masaya ran past Ichigo and straight for Ryou, trying to hit him, and this time managed to connect his fist with Ryou's face. Ryou tensed a little from the impact and just managed to push Masaya off of him. There was a fair distance between them now; Ryou could push quite hard. Masaya went for Ryou again, but this time Ryou was expecting the hit. He watched the other boy raise his fist, ready to swing down on him. Ichigo had been yelling at the two of them in the background and he'd only just realized it, and before he knew it, Ichigo had positioned herself in front of him ready to take Masaya's hit. A loud echoing smack had filled the room now, Masaya staggered back. Ryou was staring at Ichigo in bewilderment and amazement, he'd just seen Ichigo beat Masaya to the ground in one hit - and it had to have hurt the guy, as he was now muttering in pain on the ground.

"Get lost Masaya!" she yelled at the curled-up form on the ground. Masaya moved his face towards the red haired girl, his left hand still clutching at his face. She'd caught him on the other side, and her impact was a tad bit worse than that of Ryou's impact earlier. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ichigo had already spotted it and beat him to it, guessing what his next words would be.

"Go! I won't accept your lame excuses! You're a complete moron, and I wish now that I had never laid my eyes on you from the start!"

Without another word she turned her back to him and faced Ryou, blushing slightly; neither of them knew she had it in her. Ryou looked at her with caution, was he about to get one of those slaps that some females famously dished out after getting involved in a fight? If he was, then he was going to be well prepared as of now.

"Ne, Shirogane-san."

"Ye-yes, Ichigo?"

"Are you alright?"

Ryou relaxed a little; at least he wasn't about to get hit and scolded by her. He nodded a yes in response to her question; immediately, Ichigo quickly ran past him and into the kitchen, where Keiichiro had decided to stay put. His attention was then drawn to the door as it opened, four girls walking into the building and now staring at the boys in front of them. Masaya got up and gave another glare at Ryou before turning and barging his way through the small huddled group at the door and running off as he hit the end of the café's street. The girls watched this then turned back to Ryou, who was now putting on a smile so as not to worry them much.

"Shirogane-san, what happened here?" Mint asked, a little confused.

"I've never seen Aoyama that rude before!" said a slightly irritated Pudding; she'd been one of the ones that Masaya had shoved aside to get past.

"Where's Ichigo-san? Is she going to be late again?" Lettuce asked quietly.

"Ichigo's already here, it'd be best if you didn't talk about…him," Ryou replied bluntly. Right now he was more worried about Ichigo than explaining to the rest of them, although he probably should. He didn't think Ichigo would be up to telling her friends what happened.

"Well, it's just about time to open up, I think you better go get changed. Ichigo may be a couple of minutes."

The girls nodded and went to change while Ryou sauntered on into the kitchen, checking on Ichigo. She wasn't crying. She had been, but she'd calmed down rather quickly by the looks of it; maybe she'd heard the others and didn't want to cause a scene.

Keiichiro looked to Ryou, and a small reassuring smile that told him that she was fine put some relief into him.

"Ichigo, are you going to be ok for getting to work now?" Ryou asked, hoping that she wasn't going to snap at him. Instead she gave a timid nod and got up and looked at him, her chocolate brown eyes gazing into his azure blues momentarily.

Keiichiro at this point had turned away to do something; he guessed it'd be one of those moments.

"Shirogane-san."

"Hm?"

"Thanks, for helping me out back there." Ichigo said, hugging Ryou tightly. She needed to hug him, or rather she needed someone to hug and he was closer than Keiichiro was. She didn't expect Ryou to hug her back, however; he didn't hug her as tightly but just enough to give her some reassurance.

"It's alright; I'll be there no matter what." He smiled a little bit after he said that. Ichigo's expression changed from slightly depressed to a happier look.

"Thank you…eh, I better go get changed before they all come looking for me."

She hurried off to change into her waitress outfit and join the girls. Keiichiro turned to Ryou after she'd gone.

"Do you think we'll have any more trouble from Aoyama?" he asked, leaning up against the counter.

"I hope not. When they go home, I think I'll follow Ichigo at a safe distance just in case," he replied to Keiichiro while sitting himself down on the chair that Ichigo had sat on previously.

"If we do have anymore trouble from Aoyama then I'll deal with him. I won't sit around and watch him try his damndest to get her back, not after what happened."

"Fair enough, but just remember not to take it too far, okay?"

"I won't. I'm heading to my room for a while, if anyone wants me then I'll be there."

"OK."

Ryou left for his room, taking a quick glance into the main area and smiled to himself quietly. He was glad that Ichigo was acting a little happier. Satisfied, he moved on up to his room.

Lying on his bed, Ryou looked to the ceiling and sighed quietly. He had thought of what he wanted to tell Ichigo, but he didn't know when. Just now would be too soon for her. Maybe he could do it while on the holiday. Yes, that seemed the best option right now. Now all he had to do was wait for a few hours to go by before they discussed the plans.

He shut his eyes and went for another short nap, since he didn't have much do at the moment.

Wooo sorry about the delay -.- freaking net problems and what not i've begun on chapter five, for both fics. so Yay, chapter 4 of Kiwi is getting looked over as i write this (or it had better be > )anyhoo. Read and enjoy. >> I've also had a new idea but i think i might write it up and leave it be for a bit, as my loving boyfriend may kill me if he has to read to much >> not that i give him much anyway xD