The two liplocked girls pulled away and glanced in horror as they saw the forms of Ichigo and her boyfriend, Masaya. Mint began to turn red. She didn't know whether to feel embarrassed for having been caught kissing a girl, or angry for having been interrupted by that stupid Strawberry in the middle of one of the most amazing moments in her life.

No one said anything for a moment. Then Zakuro spoke, calmly, in the manner she always spoke in. "Why are you in my house?"

"Well," Ichigo said, looking anywhere but the two girls. She was speaking very fast. "After Kendo practice, Masaya and I saw that Mint left with you, so we decided that we should go visit! The butler let us in and then, well-"

"I'm aware of what happened after that, Ichigo." She said. "Are you?"

"Umm... well... you... and Mint... you know..."

"Kissing?" Mint blinked. Wow, Zakuro seemed to be a pro at this. She was handling the situation so calmly. If it had been Mint in that situation, she probably would have just smacked Ichigo in the head with a broom to cause memory loss. Mint admired Zakuro's calm disposition. It only made Mint want to kiss her again.

"Well... ummm... yes..." Ichigo stuttered. She wasn't quite sure where Zakuro was going with this. Zakuro sat back down and bit into a cookie. After swallowing, she spoke.

"I'm not seeing a problem. People kiss all the time." She said. Ichigo blinked.

"Yes, but not girls!" She said. She bit her lip. She hadn't meant to say that. She paused. She wasn't sure what she had meant to say...

"Well, sure they do. You just witnessed it. Now," Zakuro said, walking towards Ichigo. She glanced at her and then at Masaya. "Not a word of this leaves this room. Understood?" Ichigo gulped, nodded and then bolted out of the room. Zakuro left as well, into another room. Masaya and Mint looked at each other, neither quite sure of what had just happened.

The next day, the girls were all working. It was a Tuesday, and no one liked Tuesdays because that was when Pudding put on her weekly plate spinning show. She played with the plates on almost every day of the week, but it was only on Tuesdays that she decided it would be fun to break them. It was more work and no one liked to work more.

This particular Tuesday was quite awkward for the Mew Mews... well, for three Mew Mews in particular. Mint propped her elbows on a counter and glanced at Zakuro. She was sitting at one of the tables on her break, sipping tea. Mint sighed. Perhaps only two of the Mew Mews were feeling quite awkward then. She didn't know how Zakuro was feeling. Zakuro was quite an enigma, for no matter what she was thinking, her face almost always kept its stony, calm disposition.

Mint could tell on Ichigo's face, however, that she was still affected by yesterday's events. Ichigo was a lot easier to read. It wasn't even reading, really, it was more like glancing. She always wore such elaborate facial expressions... she held her heart right out on her sleeve. Ichigo was so obvioussometimes that it pained Mint. At the moment, Ichigo was sweeping. She would hold the broom crooked and sweep back and forth in the same spot, as if not really concentrating on the task. (Which Mint knew she wasn't; she never really did) Sometimes she would look up to glance from Mint to Zakuro or vice versa. If Mint caught eye contact with her, she would become startled and sometimes (If Mint was lucky enough) she'd drop her broom and Ryou would yell at her.

Mint only felt awkward towards Zakuro. Things had gone... back to normal. She paused. No, that wasn't right. It couldn't have gone back to normal. They had only ever switched from normal for that one second, right? Mint was so confused. She wanted a straight answer from Zakuro about her feelings. She was tired of Zakuro the Puzzle and tired of being puzzled all together. She sighed, pouting. This was tiring! She didn't like this. She was used to getting everything she wanted and she wanted Zakuro right now!

Zakuro sipped her tea lazily. She was quite enjoying her break because today was Tuesday and she had actually been working and was actually in need of a break. She didn't need just a physical break, either. She was in desperate need of a mental one as well.

Since yesterday, her mind had been flooding with thoughts and fears and useless ponderings. Normally, She never let this happen. She would block out anything that would cause her problem or grief and would use indifference as a sort of tool to block out anything that could hurt her. However, she had let her guard down. She marked down yesterday as bad judgement. She didn't understand why she had invited Mint over or why she had told Ichigo she was looking for Mint at the beggining of the day.

She did, however, know why she kissed Mint and did not regret that at all. Today she had been evaluating how she felt for Mint. She used to find Mint annoying. That did not last too long because behind the snobby attitude, there was a girl yearning to be loved. Zakuro took pride in being able to figure people out, and she was beginning to see how Mint ticked. They were a lot a like in some ways. Mint used her snobbery to keep people away and to keep from being hurt; Zakuro used indifference. As Zakuro had begun to peel away the layers of Mint's character, she realized that she had fallen in love with her.

Zakuro was not dumb. It was clear as day that Mint had a crush on her. But Zakuro thought of her track record. She had dated so many people and she had always been hurt. She had always hurt others. Zakuro was the type of creature who fell for someone but could never show them she was in love with them. The indifference she used to defend the pain would cause it.

She did not want to lead Mint on. She knew she wasn't... because she did actually feel that way about the young girl and leading on was only leading on if you didn't care about the person... But she did not want to return Mint's feelings. She did not want Mint to have to go through loving her, having to settle with emotional detachment instead of public displays of affection. She did not want Mint to get sucked into her world where there was very little of anything except pain.

Ichigo couldn't figure out what was going on. She was thinking so hard that she nearly burst. Too much thinking! Sometimes she suspected that her natural hair color might have been blond. They had a lower mental capacity for thinking, so it hurt a lot. She knew that girls kissing girls wasn't right. It was just something you didn't do, you know? Girl marries boy, Girl makes baby, they have a huge family and live happily ever after. The equation didn't quite fit if it was girl plus girl... But, Ichigo thought outside of the box, too. She began to think that if she could ever put two girls together, she would pick Mint and Zakuro. She had never expected it, but she had seen how Mint had idolized Zakuro. Perhaps it was not idolization but adoration.

And then her traditional narrow-minded self would kick in. Girl+Girl WRONG!

I'm so grateful for all the reviews you guys gave me! I really appreciate it! Sorry this took so long! The story will get better I promise. I am completely open for suggestions, too! Just email me at with any ideas. I'd be happy to take a few.

Miss Whatsit