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. Ryou and Keiichiro have gone after her as she ran off. Can anyone get anything out of her?

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

Chapter 2 – Truth revealed

Shirogane and Akasaka reached the park, both of them panting slightly, out of breath. It was still pouring down with rain, and there wasn't any sign of Ichigo.

"Damnit, where else could she have gone?" Ryou hissed under his breath.

"Shh, listen carefully." Keiichiro muttered. They had to listen incase it was Ichigo, she'd never run off before, well this was the second time and she hadn't told anyone about it. Kiwi was lucky enough to catch her as she ran off this time. Both boys headed off towards the noise, as they got closer they could make out a rather shaken female voice which belonged to Ichigo right enough. Ryou caught a glimpse of who was with her and quickened his pace a little before Keiichiro took his wrist to stop him.

"Wait. We should at least try to find out if anything's wrong here."

Ryou never replied, but he was certain of one thing, if Aoyama wasn't treating Ichigo right, like he said he was doing then he'd make sure that he was sorrier than he'd ever been in his life. Quietly listening they couldn't hear much being said between the pair of them. Keiichiro thought that maybe Aoyama had heard something and quickly changed the topic. Ryou couldn't take it anymore, so he got out from his hiding place concealed from Aoyama's line of vision to out in the open, he acted like he was still looking for Ichigo without noticing them.

"Ichi- oh, there you are, Ichigo." He said turning to them, Keiichiro followed a minute or so later. Aoyama stared at the older boys trying not to narrow his eyes at them giving himself away; he leaned in towards Ichigo, keeping his voice low enough so they couldn't hear him.

"Remember, don't say a word… or else." He muttered pulling away and returning to his normal position he was in.

"Well, I'll let you get back to work. See you later love." He spoke as he walked off, waving to the three. Ichigo wiped her eyes, and since it was raining it'd hopefully hide the fact that she'd been crying.

"Ichigo? Are you ok?" Keiichiro asked. Ichigo even ignored him and walked straight past them, heading back to the café.

"Damnit Ichigo!" Ryou shouted after the girl, Keiichiro sighed and turned to the younger male.

"For her to ignore a question from me there must be something terribly wrong."

"Yeah and I think it has something to do with that Aoyama prat!" Ryou replied stopping to look back at the path Aoyama walked down. He'd find out one way or the other what was going on. The two walked behind Ichigo all the way back to the café, if they tried to catch up to her she'd quicken her pace, maybe one of the girls could get it out of her, Zakuro or Kiwi would probably be able to do it no problem.

"Do you think she'll be meeting up with him again after they've finished up?" Ryou questioned Keiichiro, who in return just shrugged unsure of the answer.

Reaching the café they went through the back door, Zakuro and Kiwi managing to keep the café under control as expected. Ryou had managed to talk Ichigo into going up to his room for a bit so that the girls and the aliens wouldn't start bombarding her with questions. Keiichiro went back to his washing up and handling the kitchen as Ryou was busy upstairs trying to get something out of her by the sounds of it, Ichigo was yelling that she wouldn't tell him, it was getting into an argument. At this point Kiwi had come to the kitchen to hand over an order. Keiichiro sighed as he took it then turned to her.

"You fancy going up there to see if you can get anything out of Ichigo, and tell Ryou to come down here."

"Sure thing," She said walking off and up to Ryou's room. She stood outside it listening for a split second or two before knocking on the door, with no reply she muttered something before turning the handle and walking into the room. Ichigo and Ryou now turned to look at her.

"Shirogane-san, you're wanted downstairs." She said she'd also have to ask what he managed to get out of her. She stood back in the hallway waiting for Ryou to come out, after he closed the door, she talked to him in English as Ichigo still hadn't managed to keep much of the language in her head, therefore she wouldn't be able to understand a lot of what was being said between them.

"What's happened? Did you manage to get anything out of her?"

"Not a thing. She refuses to tell me anything, all Keiichiro and I know is that she was with that boyfriend of hers." He replied back, leaning up against the wall, he felt really guilty now for losing his cool with the red-haired girl.

"Right, well, I'll try to get something out of her, Akasaka-san sent me up to do just that actually."

"Good luck, you'll need it."

"I'll come back down when I'm done." She said putting her hand round the door handle again.

"Alright, see you later."

She sauntered into the room and closed the door behind her, she then walked up to Ichigo who was sitting on the bed and sat next to her and placed an arm around her shoulders.

"Ichigo, no one likes to see you this down, what's wrong?"

"Noth-"

"I know it's something. If there was nothing wrong you wouldn't be this down. Everyone's worried about you."

"Shirogane-san's not… he's always mean to me when I'm down." Ichigo sighed, leaning into the older girl beside her, she needed a hug from someone and Kiwi being able to notice this small fact hugged her in a friendly reassuring way, it'd help calm the other person down a slight bit and hopefully then she'd be able to get her talking about the whole thing. Ichigo hugged her back, and sniffed a couple of times, Kiwi looked down at her she could see that Ichigo had been crying for a while now, her eyes were bloodshot and the skin around her eyes were reddened.

"Do you want to tell me what happened, Ichigo?" Kiwi asked her gently. When she lived in England and in Scotland, she had gone through this sort of thing with a few friends, males and females so she knew how to approach this situation well. Ichigo took a minute or two to reply, she knew that if Kiwi was told everything then she was likely to tell Shirogane and the others… or maybe just those that could be trusted.

"Yeah…"

"Ok and I can't promise to keep any secrets. If it's a really bad thing, then I'll tell Shirogane and Akasaka-san ok?"

"N…Ok."

"Good. Now, tell me what's happened, from the start. It's been going on longer than today I can tell that much."

"It's Aoyama-kun. He's not been himself lately, last week before this all happened he was acting strange but a couple of days later he began to get nasty." She paused.

"And, what happened after he got nasty?"

"He, started to…order me about, eventually threatening me if I didn't go along with what he said. If I was ever late for meeting up he'd make sure I was sorry," She said, indicating her arm and the bruises on her face. Kiwi's eyes were narrowed slightly, oh how she'd smack this boy about if no one else had killed him first, then again she could always make sure he was dead as a stone.

"Is that why you suddenly took off earlier, to go see him otherwise he'd hurt you?"

"Yes."

"Has he been drinking or anything? You know doing things that could possibly trigger the aggression?" Kiwi hated to admit this to herself but Aoyama was sounding like her own father, he was one of the reasons she wanted to move permanently to Japan. She figured she might as well ask her that, it could very well be anything from drink, drugs to simple anger management issues.

"He sometimes drinks, when he goes out with his other friends, I don't know how much he has or if he has any at home. He's sometimes nice to me and sometimes horrible, that's when he gets nasty."

"I see. Are you planning on meeting up with him after work?"

"He… said that he was coming here to pick me up."

"Oh, I see. Well, I better get downstairs. You should stay here for a bit just to clear your mind. If you want my advice Ichigo, it'd be to dump that good for nothing male, steer clear of him and find someone who'd treat you right. You of all people don't deserve to be pushed around or hurt for no reason."

"Have you…dealt with things like this before?" Ichigo asked turning her face up towards Kiwi, who was heading to the door. Kiwi stopped and looked over her own shoulder.

"To many times, I hate seeing friends getting hurt especially when it's these issues."

With that she left the room, she couldn't show Ichigo any anger or sadness, not yet anyway. She made her way back through to the kitchen where Ryou and Keiichiro were talking, both of them looked to her as she entered.

"Well?" Keiichiro asked.

"Did you get any information out of her?" Ryou asked, sitting down at the table.

"Too damn right I did," She replied and sat down across from him, Keiichiro stood and listened while working at the same time. Kiwi started to tell the two of them everything that Ichigo had told her. She could tell by the way Shirogane's expression was going that he wasn't to pleased with what he was hearing, in fact it was probably just as well Ichigo never told him first, the outcome of his reaction could have been the worst, he may have took off as soon as he found out and would have probably started to hunt Aoyama down, but who wouldn't?

2nd chapter. (this hasn't been proofread either -.-; aheh) To tell the truth i'm uploading this one all at once without the proof reading, however i shall update it with the new and improved one once my bf comes to eventually reading it.