Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew. I do own my own Mew Mew characters though.

Title: Bitter Sweet

Author: Mairi (DarkWingedAngelMairiel)

Proof Reader: Kaoru Saotome.

Warnings: OOCness, Masaya harming…maybe killing, bit of violence slight hints of sexual violence to. (No this is not a full on hentai fic…) and obviously characters are of legal age for me to do this -.-; if you don't take that in and then flame me for it then I shall have to laugh at your bakaness

Other notes: I've put Kiwi into this one couldn't help it.

Summary: The Aliens are now part of the Mew Mew staff at the café, and Ichigo's started being quieter than usual over the past week. Sometimes coming to work and demanding to wear a long sleeved shirt? What's going on?

Pairings: Let's see…guess, Ryou x Ichigo, Kishu x Mint, Tart x Pudding, Pai x Lettuce, Keiichiro x OOC, Zakuro x Gin

Chapter 1 – Avoiding questions.

It'd been a long while since the battle with the Aliens, who were now working with the Mew Mews at the café since they'd, come to stay on earth after a long thought about it. Kishu had long decided to give up on trying to get Ichigo to go out with him and instead asked Mint if she'd go with him. Tart had built up the courage to ask Pudding out, which was kept secret from the others for now, and the same had happened with Pai and Lettuce. On the other hand, Ryou had still been developing feelings for Ichigo, and wouldn't date anyone else and Keiichiro had a small thing for the new Mew Mew, Kiwi who'd moved over from England a year or two ago. Zakuro had shown interest in a boy that she was 'secretly' seeing over the past few months. The café had just opened, and everyone was present for work…everyone except a certain girl, Ichigo.

Ichigo rushed through the café doors, late again. Her arm was hidden securely under her jacket, or to be more precise about it, it was in a sling.

"Late again I see, typical Ichigo." Mint smirked from behind her teacup. Ichigo didn't retaliate like she would have. She had a very good excuse for being late, and that was where the arm came in, she'd had an 'accident' a while ago and went to the hospital.

She went straight for the changing room and got changed, then went straight to the kitchen, bypassing those that greeted her.

"Akasaka-san…" She said timidly to the older male. Keiichiro turned from what he was doing to face her. His usual happy smile turning into a concerned frown.

"Ichigo, what happened?" He spotted that her cheekbone was a little bruised and she had a slight cut on her forehead.

"Uh, nademonai… just an accident from this morning. I came to ask if I'd be able to do something other than serving for a while, it's going to be a little impossible."

"Is your arm broken?" He asked,

"No… just fractured." She said, quieting her voice down as she remembered what had happened to her that morning, so early to. Keiichiro could tell that something was seriously wrong, she'd been acting weird all week but now that he saw her like this he was beginning to get concerned, Ryou would probably be in a silent panic if he saw her.

"Fractured… shouldn't you be home resting? It'll take a while for the bone to heal."

Ichigo shook her head from side to side, she didn't want to go home, and it was going to be bad enough when she got home tonight never mind going back right now.

"Are you sure? I don't want you doing anything rash that'll be likely to put pressure on that arm Ichigo."

At that point Zakuro had made her way through to the kitchen to.

"Mint said you were acting odd, Ichigo. Are you ok?" Zakuro asked she hadn't noticed the sling yet.

"Yeah I'm fine." She replied gloomily to the older girl. Zakuro bowed her head a little, her instinct told her that Ichigo didn't want to talk bout something and so she left, hopefully she could get to talk to Ichigo on her own she didn't think Ichigo was really telling the truth. As Zakuro left to get to work with the others Kiwi had come into the kitchen, she looked to the depressed girl sitting at the table. Keiichiro knew that Kiwi had managed to get Ichigo to talk about something the other day when they both stayed behind to clear up while the others left for home.

"Akasaka-san, what's going on?" Kiwi asked as Ichigo began to sniff, and then started crying a little. Keiichiro looked to Kiwi, about to explain to her and then approached her.

"Come with me for a moment," he said walking by her, out of the kitchen and headed up to Ryou's room. They could talk about it up there while giving the red haired girl some time to calm down.

"Ryou, can we come in?" Keiichiro asked while knocking at the blonde haired boy's door.

"Yeah."

Keiichiro opened the door and slipped into the room followed by the dark-green haired girl.

"What's this about?" Ryou asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Ichigo,"

"Again? She's been acting weird over the last few days don't tell me she's not appeared." He moaned irritably.

"Oh she's here. Only looking worse than yesterday, I've asked her if she wanted to go home but she's refusing." Keiichiro paused for a moment then turned to the girl beside him, she could go keep an eye on Ichigo and try talking to her to see if she could any hints as to what really happened out of her.

Kiwi, could you look after her for the time being? We'll be back down in a moment."

"Sure thing," She replied dismissing herself quietly from the room.

"What's wrong with her?" Ryou asked, his face becoming concerned. Deep down Ryou knew what his true feelings towards the girl was, and they grew within every minute of the day, but he'd be damned if he was to ever show them when she was surrounded by everyone else, also she didn't need him bothering her with feelings since she'd already had a boyfriend Ao-something.

"Well, she's got a fractured arm, and a little bruising on the face. She said it was an accident but somehow I don't think it was, not from the way she's been acting Ryou. It's got me concerned as well as Zakuro and Kiwi, and I think the others are beginning to realise that Ichigo isn't acting herself…"

"AKASAKA-SAN, SHIROGANE-SAN!" Kiwi yelled, bursting back into the room, startling the two boys. She caught her breath back before continuing.

"Ichigo's gone, she ran off a couple of minutes ago after getting a phone call from someone. She sounded terrified when talking and looked terrified as she ran past me and out the back door, I tried to call after her but she wouldn't stop or answer me and I even chased her to the end of the path."

Keiichiro and Ryou looked at each other, that had settled it, there had to be something going on somewhere along the line.

"Can you and Zakuro take charge? Ryou and I shall go look for her."

Kiwi nodded and returned to downstairs, she couldn't describe how terrified Ichigo had looked after coming off the phone. She looked like someone had just threatened to do something to her if she didn't obey, and she didn't know just how right she was. She looked outside, it was now pouring down whereas a few minutes ago it was bright and sunny, and something didn't feel right to her. Zakuro felt the same way, uneasy and worrying about the younger girl. Kiwi made her way through to the kitchen as Zakuro had taken to cleaning the dishes since Keiichiro had gone upstairs.

"Zakuro, Akasaka and Shirogane-san are away out to look for her; they seem concerned as much as we do. We've been left in charge."

"Alright, let's try and keep calm about it, we don't want to have everyone worrying about her, otherwise things will just get hectic."

There was a loud crash from the main part of the café, Zakuro's eyes narrowed a little as Kiwi sweat dropped.

"If they weren't already hectic that is. Come on we better go check out the damage then count how many plates we have left."

Kiwi giggled in response to the comment, she found Zakuro funny in a way even though she knew that she was the serious type.

Just outside the café's entrance path stood Keiichiro and Ryou, they didn't know which way the girl could have went; it then struck Ryou that she could very well be at the park. Without another thought they sprinted off towards the park, the bad vibes tingling within them both grew stronger. To top it off, Ichigo's week had started off with not having enough sleep, then to coming in and having various bruises on her body from a lot of 'accidents' and she'd only ever ran off without telling anyone the once, two days ago, and now she had a fractured arm and a worse bruise to the face with added cuts. They had to find out what in hell was going on.

Okies this is the new story. Which hasn't been proof read, as i'm havingtrouble with the stupid word program and my bf hasn't got round to doing it. I should have chapter 6 of Opening Up, uploaded tomorrow (hopefully -.-)