Ichigo dropped her apron on the hook by the door with a sigh. What a day, she thought to herself, slinging her backpack over one shoulder.
If she hadn't had enough to think about from her dreamy date with Masaya, she was now lost in the hurricane of worry spiraling around her conversation with Ryou, Masaya's newfound abilities, and Quiche's incessant pestering. All she hoped for was to spend more precious time in the company of her boyfriend, and less time in the chaos of the café.
She had another date planned with Masaya over the weekend – she resolved to focus her attention on what she would wear to her next date, and put the other worries out of her mind.
Sighing, Ichigo shut the doors of Café Mew Mew behind her. She fiddled with her keys and locked the door, taking a long, deep breath of cold spring air. It was just evening, the sun gone beyond the horizon only minutes ago.
Ichigo dropped the keys in her pocket and turned before hearing a voice.
"We didn't finish our conversation, did we?"
Ichigo sucked in a breath and looked up to where Quiche was sitting on the roof of the cafe, observing her with a grin. He looked so nonchalant, then – wearing black skinny jeans, a t-shirt and hoodie – Ichigo could have mistaken him for an average teenager. Quiche looked on at her with amusement, jumping off the roof and landing gracefully three stories down. He dusted off his hands and locked eyes with her again.
"Let me walk you home," he demanded, placing his hands in the back pockets of his pants. Ichigo furrowed her brow, opening her mouth to protest, before she remembered her conversation with Mint.
Quiche isn't stupid, though. He and Ryou seem to be on to something.
Ichigo snapped her mouth shut. If she was going to get to the bottom of what was going on with the appearance of a chimera out of the blue, she needed to be able to talk to Quiche. Ichigo closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.
"Ok, sure," she sighed, "Walk with me."
Ichigo observed a brief flash across Quiche's gaze before the corner of his mouth turned up. Not waiting for a reply, she turned and began to walk out of the park and on towards the sidewalk. Quiche fell in step next to her as she strode.
"So," she started hesitantly, "Mint said you've been talking with Shirogane recently."
"He is my new boss, isn't he?" Quiche replied coyly. Ichigo bit the inside of her cheek, thinking about how to approach the conversation subtly.
"Well, you and Shirogane have been talking about something to do with the chimera we battled the other day," Ichigo continued.
She briefly glanced behind her for any other passers-by who may have been listening. She caught Quiche's eye contact as she turned back, his amber eyes burning into hers, tinged the light of the pinkish sky. Just like the sunset, she thought as she turned back. She quickly shook the invasive thought out of her head.
"What did you talk about with him?" she asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Fishing for information, are we?" Quiche replied. He paused, thinking. "Ryou is interesting to speak with. He seems to know so much, but is slow to do anything about it."
Ichigo narrowed her eyes, looking back up at Quiche. "What do you mean?"
Quiche hesitated for a moment before replying, "Nothing really. He was really screaming at you today when you were having tea with Mint, wasn't he? I could hear him from the kitchen."
"Yes!" Ichigo exclaimed, momentarily delighted to be gossiping about her workday, "Wasn't that SO ridiculous? Mint didn't lift a finger today and Ryou has the NERVE to start yelling at me after five minutes..!"
Looking up at Quiche, she realized quickly he was diverting the conversation; Quiche was stifling a laugh. Ichigo frowned. She quickly put aside all of her work gossip from her mind and refocused.
"But that's besides the point." she sputtered, "You were just telling me what you and Shirogane were speaking about."
Quiche grinned. "Was I? I suppose so," he said. "Yeah, we had a good talk. Mostly about the café."
Ichigo resisted the urge to let out a sigh, feeling as if she was getting nowhere with Quiche. He was purposefully withholding information from her. Despite the fact that Quiche wasn't blatantly flirting with her – which was a welcome relief for Ichigo – he was obviously avoiding the topic of his conversation with Ryou. Regardless, their conversation was admittedly one of the most normal ones Ichigo had ever had with her alien admirer.
Thinking out loud, Ichigo muttered, "Funny how our conversations are so different when we're not trying to kill each other."
Quiche grinned, amused. "Mm, yeah – I enjoy this a lot more."
They walked a few more steps in silence before Ichigo blurted out, "Listen, I just want you to tell me what you think about the chimera the other day."
Quiche stayed quiet for a moment as they walked. Ichigo continued, "I'm just really worried about the whole thing and I know you, Pie and Tart know all about the chimeras, so I just wanted to know why you think they are showing up all of a sudden."
She glanced up at Quiche, hoping her direct strategy of asking his opinion would pay off. He looked deep in thought, as if he was piecing together what information to divulge. His eyes flicked back and forth as if he was flipping through a catalog of thoughts in his head.
"Yeah, we've been wondering about that too," Quiche muttered finally, breaking the silence. Ichigo curiously observed his uncharacteristically casual tone. "Chimeras are strange things; they feed off of power and hate. Any hateful thing in the world can be influenced by a chimera … all it takes is power to infuse it."
Ichigo mulled over this for a few moments, turning the thought over in her mind's eye as she listened to the tapping of their steps on the sidewalk. "Then what would infuse the chimeras from a few days ago? The leopard cub on the train seemed to transform out of nowhere."
"That's the question, isn't it?" Quiche replied. "Only you and Aoyama were on the train, not any of us with abilities to control the chimeras. If the cub didn't transform on its own, who did it? Why would the chimera infect the cub and transform as soon as it entered the train?"
Ichigo furrowed her brow. "So you really have no idea?" she mused, glancing up at Quiche. He shrugged lightly, catching her gaze only briefly before focusing ahead.
"I have my theories," Quiche said, glancing back down at Ichigo. "For instance, your boyfriend seems to have some part of Deep Blue's power still living inside him."
Ichigo stopped walking, crossing her arms. She began to piece together information in her head, her brows furrowing in concern. "Wait, you think Aoyama is the reason the cub turned into a chimera?"
"Maybe," Quiche said quickly, stopping next to her. "After all, his powers stem from something sinister – he could be influencing chimeras without even knowing it."
Ichigo shook her head. "No, no … Deep Blue is dead," she murmured, starting to walk again. Remembering the source of her information, Ichigo's stare quickly snapped to Quiche as another thought crossed her mind. "You're trying to get in between Aoyama and I with all of this, aren't you?" she demanded, straightening her back as she strode.
Quiche smirked. "I'm simply answering your question like you asked, kitten," he replied. Ichigo's face grew flush at the mention of her old nickname. Quiche's walls were coming back up; the flirting had returned. "...though you're always free to make your own choices."
Ichigo faltered, confused. "What?" she said, refocusing to Quiche's gaze as he walked alongside her. He smirked, his eyes darting elsewhere briefly before focusing back to hers.
"I mean that you're an awfully fickle cat," he mused.
Ichigo paused on that word – fickle. Quiche had called her that before – a few days ago, at the airport. It was right after he had the heated argument with Masaya.
"What do you mean by that?" Ichigo asked suspiciously. "You keep calling me that word, 'fickle.' What does it mean?"
Quiche's smirk widened. "It means to often change the object of your affection."
"For example..." Quiche continued, giving Ichigo a squeeze on her waist, "I've been holding you like this for the last ten minutes, and you don't seem to mind."
Ichigo instantly realized that Quiche was right, and he had been walking with his hand on the small of her back for the better part of their walk. She had instinctively fallen into the routine of physical affection with Masaya, and had neglected to notice Quiche placing his hand near her waist. A common physical sign of affection from her boyfriend – a hand on her waist – was indistinguishable from Quiche's touch.
Ichigo jumped away immediately, and realized that, in her flustered state, her cat ears and tail had made an appearance. Panicked, she squeaked in surprise and backed up against the white wood fence adjacent to the sidewalk. She slapped her hands over her ears and searched the road for any passers-by. She could feel that her face was flushed, her heart beating loud and fast.
Quiche let out a snort of laughter, "Cat got your tongue?"
Realizing there was no one around, Ichigo put on her best face of intimidation and glared at Quiche, who was standing in front of her, amused. "Quiche! This is your fault!" she hissed, sinking further down the fence.
Quiche, still grinning, unzipped the hoodie he was wearing and quickly slipped it off his arms. The shirt underneath was sleeveless; this did not go unnoticed by Ichigo, whose blush deepened at the sight of his slim, muscular arms. Despite feeling like she could melt into a puddle of nerves, she tried her best to continue looking angry at him.
"Here," Quiche said, swinging the hoodie over Ichigo and dropping it on her head, "Use this."
Ichigo pulled the hood further over her ears, smelling something like cloves. She was immediately taken back to her train ride with Masaya – when he hid her cat ears with his jacket after the ears appeared in front of all of those people.
Thinking of Quiche, then, she felt immensely guilty for comparing the two. She picked at the zipper of the hoodie nervously.
"Th– thanks," Ichigo sputtered reluctantly, feeling the heat lingering on her face. She glanced up at Quiche – he looked on with one part amusement and one part something she couldn't place.
Glancing down the sidewalk, Ichigo realized she was only a block and a half from her house.
"I – I'm close to home," she muttered. "I'm … I'm ok for the rest of the way."
"If you say so, kitten," Quiche said, his voice lower this time. He was close, Ichigo noted – too close. "Don't get lost."
Ichigo felt frozen in place, like her limbs were made of steel. She lingered under Quiche's gaze for a few moments, surrounded in his scent from his jacket.
It was getting dark – the sky a deep bluish purple, shadows beginning to lengthen. A loud sort of silence passed between them, the kind of silence only brought on by the absence of something needed to be said. Something small, something strange stirred in the pit of Ichigo's stomach as she locked eyes with Quiche, and it terrified her.
Forcing herself to break eye contact, Ichigo wordlessly turned and began a brisk walk to her house, feeling her heart beating to the rhythm of her steps. Suddenly, impulsively, she turned her head to look behind her – but Quiche was already gone. Ichigo let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and turned the corner on her street, marching up to her front door in minutes.
"I'm home!" she announced to her parents, shedding her shoes at the door. She didn't wait for a response before adding, "I have to shower! I'll be down soon!"
"Ok!" came her mom's response from the kitchen. Ichigo raced up the stairs and dropped her bag on her bedroom floor. She slammed her door behind her and leaned up against it, letting her head fall back with a thud.
Slowly, Ichigo reached up to touch her ears. They were still fuzzy. She groaned, taking the hoodie off her head. Holding it in both hands, she examined it thoughtfully.
She sniffed– everything smelled like cloves now, even her hair. One of her ears twitched.
The next two weeks were going to be harder than she thought.
(A.N.
Holy crap, I am blown away with how many of you are reading this self-indulgent hot mess of a fic. My story stats tell me over 100 of you have been reading so far?! I am floored. Please drop me a review with what you love so far in the story, predictions, what you want to see more of, etc. Love and appreciate all of you from this little fandom.)