The café-turned-ballroom was alive with energy. Guests were laughing, chatting and dancing in the brightly-lit circular room. Ichigo scanned the crowd looking for Masaya. He was nowhere in sight, to her relief. She still didn't know what she would say if Masaya saw her dancing with Quiche, but she doubted he would take less than ten minutes to clean the red wine from the back of his shirt. She knew she had time on her side.

The waltz had just finished, another song just starting up. It was a slightly quicker song, something akin to a slower swing tune.

Ichigo shivered as she felt Quiche's hand rest on the bare skin of her back. They strode into the bright lights of the circular dining area of the café. Ichigo focused on the rhythm of the song just starting up and the sounds of the guests around her, trying to keep herself calm under Quiche's touch. It was easy to distract herself with the buzz of activity swirling around her as she allowed Quiche to guide her to the center of the room. She felt several guests' eyes on them, watching curiously.

Something told Ichigo she would regret agreeing to this dance.

Quiche slipped his hand from Ichigo's back and came around to face her with a look of amusement. He took her hands in his, and she felt herself stiffen.

"Relax, kitten," Quiche purred, observing Ichigo's tense stance. "I won't bite."

Ichigo scowled up at Quiche and let out a long breath through her nose. "Just follow my lead," Quiche added, glancing down at their feet. He moved her hand towards her, and stepped forward in the same motion. Ichigo found herself stepping back naturally with his firm guidance. He continued to guide her in three more steps, pulling her towards him for a step forward, then quickly left and right. Ichigo vaguely recognized the pattern of steps as a swing step, and found herself following along with notably less effort than her attempt at a waltz not long ago.

She looked up at him, perplexed. "Where did you learn how to dance?" she asked, genuinely curious. Despite being an immature, classless pest, Quiche was not half bad at dancing.

Quiche's hand moved to her back and pushed her to spin outward; she did so with ease, and his arm guided her back with more confidence and force than Masaya's gentle touch. It was the confidence in pushing and pulling, back and forth, that made it so easy for Ichigo to follow along with his steps.

"I've had to learn fast since Pie, Tart and I returned home," Quiche said finally, a vague look of distaste passing over his expression. "We get invited to too many stupid fancy parties now that we've moved up the political ladder."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo questioned, furrowing her brow. She remembered how Lettuce told her that the alien boys had been given some sort of position in their government, but Ichigo was curious to know more. Quiche stepped around Ichigo and twirled her out, then back in again with another firm push and pull. She felt elegant as she reveled in the feeling of the silky dress whirling around her legs when she spun.

"Restoring your planet's ecosystem and restarting a world economy comes with some ... perks," Quiche quipped as his hands returned to Ichigo's. "When we got back home, all three of us were given a title kind of like what you would call … a duke? At least, with how it works in our society, that's what it's called here on Earth. Though we call it a 'prince' in our government."

Ichigo, startled, lost her focus for a moment and had to correct her footing. She bewilderedly found herself fixated on the thought of the 3-part idiot circus being called "princes". They were all so young, and Quiche and Tart were far from mature. Ichigo could hardly trust them to remember how to work their cash register in the café kitchen – how were they expected to help run an entire government?

"Wait, really?" Ichigo sputtered finally. "I mean, Lettuce told me before that you, Tart and Pie work for your government but I don't know much else. What do you do? What is that like?" Ichigo's annoyance with Quiche was temporarily forgotten, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"It's boring, mostly," Quiche replied nonchalantly. He twirled Ichigo outwards again before continuing. "A lot of the job of the princes – there are twelve of us – is making decisions about laws. Pie, Tart and I were all part of our military growing up. So it was kinda natural for us."

"Right," Ichigo mused, drinking in all of the new information. It was still hard for her to visualize the three alien boys in a position of political power, especially Quiche and Tart. It made sense that all three of them had been in the military – how else would they have been sent to Earth? – but she could scarcely imagine the young boys having any sort of power to make decisions about laws. A curious question bubbled to the surface of Ichigo's mind. "Wait, how old are you?" Ichigo asked suddenly, snapping her gaze back up to Quiche. It was trivial, but she was genuinely curious to know, especially with this new information.

Quiche appeared amused at the question, his eyes traveling up and to the right as he searched his memory. "Well, our years are different from yours, since our planet is further from our sun. But if my math is right, I'm somewhere around 19 in your years." He paused briefly. "And since I know you'll ask – Tart is around 15. Pie is about 21."

Ichigo wasn't sure what to do with this information, other than being a bit surprised. Quiche was two years her elder, and a year older than Masaya. She had expected him to be her same age, considering his usual level of immaturity. Her mind swirled with questions as she felt Quiche move to spin her out and to the left, then bring her back to his grasp.

"Wait, so isn't that … really young to have that kind of political power?" Ichigo prodded.

Quiche smirked. "So many questions, kitten," he teased. Ichigo looked bashful at her sudden curiosity, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she waited for Quiche's answer. If she was going to comply with his request for a dance, then she wanted to glean as much information out of Quiche as possible.

"Tart's age is unusual," Quiche replied finally, "but Pie and I are about at the right age for a younger prince. Our people have a lower life expectancy than the humans here." He paused for a moment, considering what to say next. The smug visage normally present on his face was replaced by a thoughtful, distant calm. "Who knows if that will change now that our climate is more forgiving – we're all hoping so."

Ichigo regarded his response thoughtfully. It was incredibly rare for them to be speaking about something so serious, without Quiche's constant flirting. It was concurrently refreshing and startling. But Ichigo felt like she couldn't pass up the opportunity to get information from Quiche while he was in such a startlingly cooperative mood. Stringing all of the new information together, she felt like she was finally connecting the dots between Quiche's past and what life was like back on his home planet.

"Wait, so why did you want to stay here on Earth, then?" came Ichigo's next question. "With everything you have to do back home, why didn't you three just go back after giving us the Mew Aqua?"

Quiche was growing slower at answering Ichigo's rapid-fire questions. He pondered his answer for half a minute before replying carefully. "Interesting you ask. We weren't expecting to encounter a chimera as soon as we came back to Earth," he said. "All three of us agreed it was best to stay and figure out what was going on, obviously, with the café work as a cover. And it's a good thing we did, since you girls can't seem to stay out of trouble with the chimeras."

Ichigo scowled and let out a huff as Quiche regarded her with amusement. She did not take well to his insinuation that she or her team were incompetent. But she couldn't deny that the aliens' help had been welcome over the past week. Ichigo was readying a comeback, but stopped herself as she watched Quiche glance over his shoulder briefly. He turned back to her and grinned. "I'll tell you a secret, though," he said. Ichigo raised her eyebrows in suspicious curiosity.

"Wait, what?" she prodded.

Quiche began to guide Ichigo to rotate in another direction as they continued in the easy swing steps. "We didn't come back to Earth just to return the Mew Aqua ..." Quiche divulged, his voice lower, quieter. His eyes quickly darted to his right. "Look to your left, and you'll see the other reason we're here."

Ichigo broke eye contact with Quiche and peered over to her left, searching the whirling masses of people dancing and moving about the circular room. She spotted a flash of sparkling blue, and then she was smiling.

Just a few couples away, Pie was guiding Lettuce in a dance. Lettuce looked over the moon – smiling and laughing as she and Pie danced with an easy grace. They were the very picture of elegance. Lettuce's shimmering, blue mermaid-style gown fit her like it was made for her. Her long, minty green locks fell in a cascading waterfall of silky curls down her back. Pie was smiling – a real, rare smile – for the first time Ichigo had seen in quite a while.

Ichigo grinned. "I think that's the happiest I've seen Pie –"

"– in forever, I know," Quiche finished. Ichigo laughed, looking up at Quiche with a genuine smile.

"I'm glad he's so happy," Ichigo said, glancing at the happy couple again. "Lettuce likes him a lot, but I think she's unsure about how he feels."

Quiche let out a "hmm" in amusement before spinning Ichigo again. When he brought her back, he pulled her body closer – barely an inch separated them now. Ichigo sucked in a breath, biting her lip. Quiche locked eyes with her as they continued to dance in this close proximity.

"Some of us are a little more subtle than others," he remarked, raising one eyebrow.

Ichigo bit the inside of her cheek anxiously. What had Quiche meant by pointing out Pie and Lettuce dancing together? Did he mean that Lettuce was the other reason they had come back to Earth? He seemed to imply that Pie had personal reasons for returning. That he had come back to see Lettuce. But that made Quiche's remark – some of us are a little more subtle than others – even more concerning in Ichigo's mind.

As if to answer her question, Quiche's hand moved to the bare skin of her lower back, and Ichigo found her free hand falling to his shoulder instinctually. She felt the familiar electric buzz of Quiche's touch run up her spine as he caressed her back. Their dance suddenly felt a lot more intimate, closer and affectionate in nature. This was dangerous, Ichigo knew. He was getting too close.

"Some of us also have enough class," Ichigo finally retorted with a scowl, "to not dump wine on people we don't like. I'm still mad at you, you know."

Quiche let out a snort of amusement. "Pretty sure we already addressed that, kitten," he muttered. "A small price to pay for this."

He moved the tips of his fingers up and down Ichigo's spine, gently feeling the bumps under her bare skin with his fingernails. Something in the bottom of her stomach stirred – her chest felt light, her head fuzzy. Alarm bells went off in the back of her mind: too close, too dangerous. She grasped at the feelings of anger and annoyance with Quiche, and held them like a shield in her thoughts.

"You know," Quiche said, tilting his head to one side as he danced, "that color really suits you."

Ichigo had nearly forgotten about the color of her dress. Quickly, defensively, she said, "It wasn't my choice! Zakuro had some of her stylists pick outfits for all of us girls, and they gave me this dress!"

"So you did think of me when you saw it," Quiche pointed out with a smirk.

Ichigo instantly regretted being so defensive about the dress matching Quiche's dark, forest-green hair. She huffed in annoyance, clenching her jaw.

"Fine, yes," Ichigo said stubbornly. "I didn't have a choice, though. It's not even my style."

"No, it's perfect," said Quiche quickly, taking in Ichigo's appearance as he stepped back from her in a wide step. Ichigo opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it, feeling her face heat up again. Focus, Ichigo, she told herself, Change the subject. Say something.

To Ichigo's relief, the song they were dancing to came to an end. She glanced behind her, then slowly stepped back from Quiche. His hands traced down her arms and came to rest in her palms as he gripped her hands in his own.

Ichigo looked from Quiche's hands back up to his eyes. His fiery gold gaze searched her, looking for her next move with curiosity. Ichigo felt strangely drunk with his touch; she found it hard to pull her hands away from him.

"I…" Ichigo started slowly, "...I have to go."

"I know," Quiche replied simply.

Ichigo sucked in a breath as Quiche brought one of her hands to his lips. He brushed her knuckles with a kiss. "Thanks for the dance," he murmured with a smirk, his warm breath tickling the hair on her wrist.

Ichigo bit the inside of her cheek, trying to calm herself lest her cat features suddenly appear. The moment reminded her too much of the first time she met Quiche; she was almost certain he had meant it that way. A distant memory flashed before Ichigo's eyes, a recollection of butterflies in her stomach and Quiche's bright, curious eyes: "Thanks for the kiss."

Everything had changed so much since those early days when Ichigo was still discovering what it meant to be a mew. They were different people now, her and Quiche. But something familiar passed between them in that moment, like a fleeting moment of playful nostalgia. A remembrance of a distant time. Ichigo found herself frozen in place, wordless for a few moments more. Then, suddenly, she tore herself from Quiche's hands and held her breath as she turned away, avoiding looking him in the eye.

She was running away again. It was like how she responded to his kiss in the café kitchen. An anomaly in how she would normally respond to Quiche's flirting – no yelling or fighting. Ichigo didn't have time to think about her change in behavior around Quiche. She willed herself to act natural as she walked away.

She strode over to the opposite wall of the café, where she spotted Mint and Zakuro having a drink and chatting. Ichigo's mind was whirring, digesting everything Quiche told her in their short dance and feeling a buzz on the skin of her hand. She swore she could feel her makeup melting off her face.

Ichigo still had so much she didn't know about Quiche, but she felt like she was beginning to understand him more deeply after hearing about his life back home. He had implied that Pie wanted the three of them to stay not just because of their worry around the chimera animals, but also because of Pie's fondness for Lettuce. Ichigo resolved not to tell Lettuce about this personal detail — it would be better for her to hear it from Pie. More concerning was that Quiche had implied he was harboring some level of affection for Ichigo. She was unsurprised that Quiche still felt something for her, but now she began to wonder exactly how deep that affection was.

Walking up to Mint and Zakuro, Ichigo hoped her appearance didn't seem too frazzled. She should have known better – Mint immediately put one hand on her hip as she hissed Ichigo's name.

"Ichigo! What the heck was that?" Mint demanded.

Ichigo laughed nervously, crossing her arms. "Wh-what?" she stammered.

Mint rolled her eyes. "We saw everything! The red wine, your dance..!"

Ichigo grimaced, shifting her weight anxiously under Mint's judgmental stare.

"Listen Ichigo," Mint continued, leaning in to speak quietly, "if what I think is going on is, in fact, going on … you are in deep, deep trouble."

Ichigo stiffened, laughing nervously. "I–I promise it's not what you think!" she insisted, swishing her wrist dismissively.

"So," Mint challenged, "Quiche did not just dump wine on your boyfriend so that he could buy time to have an extremely intimate dance with you? And you agreed to it?"

Ichigo felt her face growing hot again as she became more flustered. Mint was spot on. She began to worry that Mint and Zakuro were not the only ones who had pieced together what had just happened. "I– what– it was NOT intimate!" Ichigo squeaked, stammering.

"Are you so sure of that?" Zakuro chimed in, raising one eyebrow. "The casual observer might say otherwise. Let's call a spade a spade." She took a sip of champagne as Ichigo's panicked expression darted back and forth between her and Mint.

"Have you seen Aoyama?" Ichigo prodded, glancing around nervously.

"He didn't see you two, if that's what you're worried about," Mint replied coolly. "Haven't seen him come out of the men's bathroom yet. Good thing, too – he'd throw a fit if he saw how Quiche was dancing with you just now."

Ichigo grit her teeth, taking deep breaths and scanning the room again. "Was it that bad?" she hissed to Mint.

"I mean, Quiche has been looking at you like you're something to eat," Mint remarked. She took a sip of her drink. "He's not a bad dancer, either, at least by most people's standards. It'd be cute … if he didn't just humiliate your boyfriend in front of you a few minutes ago."

Zakuro wordlessly nodded in agreement with Mint. Mint smirked, a spark in her eye as she observed Ichigo's reaction carefully. She looked like she had just unearthed the juiciest piece of gossip in a century.

Ichigo rubbed the sides of her face, sighing loudly. "I know…" she groaned in exasperation. She wondered to herself how many of her friends had noticed her dance with Quiche. She cringed at the thought of having to explain the situation to all of the mews.

Just then, Ichigo spotted Masaya rounding the corner from the back hallway. He had his grey suit jacket back on again as he fixed the cuffs of his sleeves. Ichigo inhaled deeply and plastered a smile on her face, willing herself to focus her attention on her boyfriend, and put the earlier events of the night out of her mind – at least temporarily.

Masaya spotted Ichigo quickly, and smiled as he came to stand next to her. "Hey, sorry about that," he said, kissing Ichigo on the head. He wrapped an arm around her waist. Ichigo beamed up at Masaya, pointedly ignoring the suspicious glare coming from Mint.

"Don't worry!" Ichigo chirped, putting on a grin to mask her nerves. "I don't think Quiche is around anymore, thank goodness. Want to get back to dancing?"

The lie by omission fell easily off of Ichigo's tongue. She inwardly cringed at her own behavior. I'll tell him about everything later.

"Sure," Masaya agreed. He turned to Mint and Zakuro. "Mind if I steal her?"

Mint smirked, curiously observing the interaction unfolding in front of her. "Go right ahead," she said, her voice oozing with intrigue. "We were about done talking anyway."

Ichigo grinned anxiously at Mint and Zakuro, waving as she and Masaya turned to get back to dancing. Mint rolled her eyes at her, a knowing smirk still lingering on her delicate features.

The rest of the night continued without incident. Quiche had disappeared from the main area of the café after his dance with Ichigo. Masaya was able to have a few more scattered conversations with guests, joking about the red wine "accident" as if it was nothing. Ichigo could read his mood, though – Masaya's disposition was tense, more so than it had been after his confrontation with Quiche the day before. She knew that under his calm exterior, he was still furious.

Ichigo leaned into Masaya's gentle touch over the rest of the evening, but she couldn't help but think of her dance with Quiche. It was difficult to pinpoint exactly what it was about their dance, but something new was stirring in her. Something that felt soft, strange and familiar, something more than just the ball of electric emotion that bounced around her stomach whenever she recalled the feeling of his touch on her skin. She swallowed the feeling and hoped it would dissipate with time, fighting to keep her attention on Masaya.

Masaya was a comforting shoulder to lean on, a trusted confidant, and someone she loved deeply. He had less than a week until he had to go back to the university in London — and Ichigo wanted to make his last few days of spring break the best she could, confusing feelings be damned. She knew now more than ever that she had to tell Masaya about the kiss … and about the dance. But the atmosphere between them felt wrong, and Ichigo knew that she had to find the right time to tell Masaya about all of it. His mood felt volatile, too raw for a delicate conversation. Ichigo figured she would tell him on their next date, after they both had time to sleep on the events of the evening – and after the figurative dust had settled.

When the last of the guests began to leave, Ichigo and Masaya made plans for a date the next day. Ichigo sensed Masaya's mood was still off. She hoped their date would smooth things over, and calm the turmoil rushing through Ichigo's head like a hurricane. They ended the evening with a sweet kiss goodnight under a dark, inky sky.

(A.N./

I must have re-written this chapter at least three times by now, and I'm still not totally happy with it, haha. This one was tricky to write.

Some small notes on the made-up lore here – I am basing the aliens' system of government off of a non-hereditary, elective monarchy, in case anyone cares to be as geeky as I am. It strikes a nice balance of an old, military-ruled system of government that makes sense for my purposes.

Ichigo has dug herself into quite a hole by this chapter – any theories on what happens next? :) Thanks again to all of my readers and reviewers!)