Ryou awoke to find that his headache had not disappeared, but he felt somewhat refreshed, as if he had taken a long bath. He felt the sun coming in from his window and groaned. He really didn't want to get out of bed right now. He slid under his covers and pulled the pillow he was holding closer to him…the pillow that was strangely warm and smelled like strawberries…Ryou's eyes shot open. Ichigo? What was she doing here? In bed? With him? He began panicking. Okay, calm down and think, he commanded himself. Just remember what happened last night. He began to replay the events of the previous night in his head. His head…which had hurt…a lot…and he took a nap…and obviously didn't wake up… how did Ichigo get in bed with him?
The only explanation he could think of had to do with alcohol or drugs and some other things I won't mention because of immature readers. He looked at the sleeping girl and realized they were holding hands. He smiled at her. Well, judging by the fact that they were both fully dressed—or mostly, since Ryou had taken his shirt off before he went to bed—and she was wearing pink Hello Kitty pajamas, he guessed that they hadn't…done anything. Or at least not anything serious.
He started climbing out of bed, being careful not to wake Ichigo up. He changed his jeans and put on his black vest. He had a lot of work to do that day. But…so did Ichigo…He looked back at the sleeping girl. It seemed a shame to wake her. It was Sunday, after all. And…she looked so pretty sleeping there… He shook his head. She's got a boyfriend, baka. Nevertheless, he kissed her lightly on the cheek before walking out of the room and going down to the café. Yes, she had a boyfriend. Or crush. It didn't really matter to him; the only thing that mattered was that she liked someone. Someone other than him. Why was she in love with such a—a pretty boy, anyway?
Well, she was in love with the pretty boy, and Ryou decided that's all that mattered. Besides, he hadn't really liked her until last night. What was that all about anyways? He still couldn't completely figure out why he liked her at all. He had never been in love before, and he hadn't planned on doing it until…well, never.
But alas, love is not something avoidable, and it cannot be planned out. One minute you can be angry as heck at a person, and the next—boom! You're in love. It's a curious thing, really, and most of the time it has no logical explanation, which was a bad sign for Ryou since logic was what he was best at.
Ryou put his hand on his forehead. His headache had suddenly become a lot worse. He decided that he had had enough logic for one day, although it was only eight in the morning. The combination of the cat DNA, logic, love, and the events of the previous night were sending his head spinning, and he really couldn't take any more of it.
He walked into the kitchen and made his coffee, not adding any sugar or cream. This made the beverage taste extremely unpleasant, but Ryou was not a morning person and strong coffee was the only known thing that could wake him up completely.
Although finding a girl in bed with you can awaken you equally, if not more, so.
Ryou forced down his coffee and tried to think of something requiring less logic. He had really had enough of that.
Keiichiro walked into the kitchen wide-awake (like he had been since he arrived at three hours earlier), whistling and sipping his coffee, which had at least six scoops of sugar and two pints of cream. He was reading his newspaper as he walked in and so at first he did not notice his young friend.
If you ask someone the difference between Ryou Shirogane and Keiichiro Akasaka, the chances are you'll end up talking to that person for a very, very long time, because the list of their differences never seems to end. For that reason, I'm not going to write down the entire list, and if I did it would take almost as much space as the list of things Ichigo and Ryou have fought about, which is also extremely long and would fit in the state of Florida if written on paper. This is why you'll never see the entire list of either subject—although you probably won't want to—but you don't need to see the list to know both things to be true. You need only see Ichigo and Ryou together for about sixteen seconds to know that they argue more than any other couple in the history of couples that stayed together; and you need only see a picture of Ryou and Keiichiro to know that both men share little in common.
However, if you only saw a picture of the two bishonens, you'd never guess that the two men were the closest friends you'd ever meet. Although Ryou seemed to never talk and always ignored Keiichiro as the brunette talked his young friend's ear off, they had known each other long enough that they didn't have to talk or pay attention to each other to know what the other was thinking.
And so it was understandable that when the ponytailed man walked into the kitchen and looked up at his friend, he knew that there was something troubling him. "Ryou, is something wrong?"
Ryou took another swig of his bitter coffee and shook his head. "No," he lied. It was probably the biggest lie he'd ever told. His cat DNA was acting up, he was falling in love with a girl who was taken, that same girl was sleeping in his bed with absolutely no explanation as to what she was doing there, and his coffee wasn't strong enough. Oh, if only he was legal…Keiichiro was not convinced. "Are you sure?"
Ryou nodded, gulped down the rest of his coffee, and left the kitchen; and Keiichiro knew that it was best not to speak of it any further. If Shirogane wanted to talk about it, he would talk about it, but pressuring him into telling him what was wrong was an majorly bad idea. Although, perhaps, this time Keiichiro should have pressured the blonde into telling him what was wrong. Perhaps if he had, he would have realized what was wrong and done something to stop it, thus avoiding the ironic future that lay ahead. But Akasaka remained silent, respecting his friend's privacy, although this time it might have been better if he didn't know Ryou well enough to do that.
…………………………
Ichigo's eyes fluttered open when the bed suddenly became colder. She shivered and reached for Ryou, only to find that he had just gotten out of bed. That would explain the sudden coldness, Ichigo thought, although it didn't explain at all why she was just trying to hold her boss. She turned to face Shirogane buttoning his pants (she was glad she turned around when she did, and not too early) and then put on his black vest that he seemed to like so much. She smiled.
Ryou…
What? Since when did she call him by his first name? Shirogane, she quickly corrected herself. She didn't stop smiling, though. I hope he's okay this morning.
The blonde finished dressing and looked over at Ichigo. She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She heard him walk up close to her and soon felt him breathing on her face. What the heck is he doing? the redhead thought, more nervous and confused than angry.
He kissed her quickly on the cheek and left the room. Ichigo opened her eyes and sat up as soon as he was gone. She touched her cheek, which had suddenly become warm and tingly and, along with the rest of her face, bright red. He…kissed me… He had kissed her, hadn't he? What…what did that mean? Did it mean he…No! He couldn't like Ichigo! He was supposed to like Retasu. That was the plan. But…What if he did like her? What would that mean? How would Retasu react? How would Aoyama-kun react? How would Ichigo react?
She shook her head. She couldn't even comprehend that. Shirogane like her? It didn't even seem possible. Ryou was not the kind of guy Ichigo could imagine herself with, and that was that. Besides, he was two whole years older than her. What would her parents think of that?
The catgirl gasped. Her parents! "I am so dead!" She jumped out of bed and hurriedly put on her slippers, which she had taken off before getting in bed with Shirogane the night before. She smiled to herself. He was so warm and smelt so good… Whoa, what was she thinking?
She shook her head as if it would get rid of the thought and quickly brushed back her hair with her hand, like it would do any good. She was about to leave the room when she saw something on the floor. I guess Shirogane didn't see my note.
She picked up the piece of paper. Looked like she would end up giving it to him after all. Sighing, she walked down to the café. She was still wearing her pajamas, but there was nothing she could really do anything about that. She had to give Shirogane the note quickly so she could get back home. Her parents were probably still asleep since it was the weekend; maybe she could sneak in without them ever noticing she was gone.
She sure hoped she could.
Luckily, the café hadn't opened yet and no one was around. Keiichiro was the first one to see her coming down the stairs. "Ichigo?" he said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Ichigo stopped suddenly and stared at Akasaka, feeling her face flush as she tried to think of a good reason for coming out of Ryou's room at eight in the morning, wearing pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers. "I—erm, nice whether we're having, huh Akasaka-san?"
As you know, small talk doesn't work with Shirogane; but as you also should know, Shirogane and Akasaka are absolutely nothing alike. "Yes," he agreed, not realizing that she hadn't even been outside yet, "it's very sunny, but they say it's supposed to rain later. Of course they could be wrong—they usually are. That is, they're usually not right. I have a feeling it might sprinkle a little, but I doubt it'll be the big storm they're expecting. Then again, I could be wrong too, but—" He stopped, realizing he was rambling. "Ichigo-san, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here at this time?"
The talk about whether had bought her enough time to think up an excuse, although not a very good one. "I dunno," she said, hoping she sounded convincing enough. "I'm always late, so I got here early today."
Keiichiro raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you dressed?"
Her face turned redder than it had been before. "I guess I was in such a hurry to get here, I forgot."
The brunette sighed. Ichigo couldn't tell if he believed her or not, but either way, it wasn't surprising to hear what he said next. "Well, you'd better get home and change. Come back after that, okay?" He gave her a small smile.
Ichigo sighed in relief. "O-okay. I'll do that." She started to leave, but stopped when she remembered why she had come in the first place. "Um, Akasaka-san? Can I talk to Shirogane first? I need to tell—er, give him something."
Her employer nodded. "Of course. I believe he's in the laboratory."
"Arigato!" Ichigo gave him a bright smile, waved, and skipped down the stairs to the lab. She never really liked the room: it was always dark and there were always so many technical things that she never understood. She would rather be in the café—even on a bad day—serving food and talking to her friends, than to be down in the cold, unwelcoming (or at least to her it was) laboratory. Every part of the building seemed better than the dark room, especially—Ichigo stopped skipping when the thought crossed her mind. Why couldn't she get that out of her head? And why did she suddenly like that room so much? It wasn't like there was anything interesting in there. A desk, a computer, a bed, a window, a door that lead to the bathroom, and a picture. That was all. Wait, she had actually paid attention to all that?
She tried to shake off her thoughts again and opened the door to the lab. Everything was as she expected it to be: it was dark, cold, confusing, and unwelcoming. Ryou sat in front of a computer, doing whatever it was he did all day. As always, he was too wrapped up in his work to notice Ichigo enter the room.
"Ahem," she said, trying to get his attention.
He turned around. Ichigo? "Ohayo, Ichigo," he said blandly. What…?
She cleared her throat. "I'd like to—I'm here to give you—well, I need you to—um…" She sighed. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Small talk doesn't work with me," he said in the same tone.
"I know that," she said impatiently, "but I mean…I was just wondering how you… how you were…feeling…" She had suddenly become very nervous and her grip on her note grew tight.
"I'm fine." What's she talking about? "Did you want something?"
"Um, I came to give you…" she stopped. Heck, she didn't care about the note anymore. "I wanted to ask you how you feel," she said quickly. "B-because, um, well, y'know."
Ryou stared at her for a moment. "Ichigo, I'm very busy and I'd rather you not waste my time."
Ichigo looked like she had just been slapped. "Ryou…"He looked surprised at her. Did she just call him by his first name? That was something only friends did, right? And he was her boss, not her—her friend. Unless of course…she did like him… But she wouldn't like him like that…would she?
No, he told himself. Of course not.
"You have no authority to call me by my first name." Ooh, bad move.
Ichigo clenched her note tighter, although now she was getting more angry than nervous. Even after she helped him last night he still treated her like this? What was wrong with him? "Y-You—I hate you!" She ran out of the lab, slamming the door shut.
Okay, he didn't mean for it to come out like that. But it had anyhow, hadn't it? He sighed. Well, now it was certain she hated him. He always had to screw it up, didn't he? She was acting…well…not so annoying just then. She must have wanted to tell him something important. Especially after spending the night with him.
He had forgotten to ask her about that, hadn't he?
Crap.
Now he'd never know. Well, maybe he could put the pieces together… She asked him if he was feeling better. So that meant he must not have been feeling well that night, right? Why would that be?
Once again, the only explanations he could think of involved the use of alcohol, drugs, and the other things I won't mention. He should go out and ask her what happened… But then that'd ruin his image.
Oh, that's all that matters, isn't it Shirogane?
Stupid little voice in his head. For some reason, it sounded a lot like a cross between Ichigo, Keiichiro, and his mother.
He sighed again. This would obviously be another one of 'those days', unfortunately. It seemed a long time since he had gone a week without one. This would just be another day in the life of the most unfortunate blonde ever. There seemed to be no way out.
And all because he was too 'man' to do anything about it.