By the time the last customer of the day left the café, Ichigo felt like her legs were ready to give out from under her. After the gala the night before, her knees were sore and her feet were chafed from the strappy heels she had worn. Not to mention the body ache that came with dancing for several hours. Her regular shift at the café had been long and arduous. Ichigo was relieved to finally lock the front door of the café, turning and leaning against the heavy red doors with a sigh.

Lettuce came from the back area of the café wheeling the mop bucket and mop. She locked the wheels at the far edge of the floor and wrung out the mop.

"Tired?" she asked Ichigo with a weary smile.

Ichigo nodded, rubbing her forehead with the back of her forearm, "Aren't you?"

"Of course," Lettuce replied. "But last night was worth it." She began to mop the back left corner of the floor, working outwards. Ichigo lifted off of the door and went to go get the rest of the cleaning supplies out of the storage closet.

On her return, Ichigo set the caddy of cleaning supplies on one of the café tables and got to work scrubbing the first table with disinfectant. She felt Lettuce's eyes on her; turning, she caught Lettuce's gaze. She looked flustered to have been caught staring.

"Ah– um, Ichigo?" she started hesitantly, "I was actually wondering if I could ask you something."

Ichigo blinked, setting down the disinfectant spray. "Sure, Lettuce. What's up?"

"What – er, what exactly is going on with you and Quiche?" Lettuce asked in a hushed tone, checking behind her to make sure no one was listening. "I'm sorry if that's too forward of me … I just saw what happened last night and things seemed … tense."

Did everybody see the dance? Ichigo thought to herself. She knocked her jaw back and forth, considering how much to divulge to Lettuce. She considered the fact that Lettuce already had somewhat of an established relationship with Pie, and would likely be more understanding of her emotional plight. She shifted her weight from one hip to another.

"It's … complicated," Ichigo said finally, checking again to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. She continued in a hushed tone. "Quiche acted like a jerk last night, trying to make Aoyama mad. He agreed to leave us alone if I danced a song with him. Then he left."

Ichigo sighed and moved on to the next café table, spraying disinfectant and starting to scrub. Lettuce was thoughtful for a minute, continuing to mop upwards to the other corner of the café.

"It sounds simple if you explain it like that," Lettuce remarked finally. "But it sounds like that's not all there is to it. Right?"

"Right," Ichigo sighed. She threw the dishrag down on the table with a frustrated slap. "I don't know, Lettuce. He's messing with my head."

"What do you mean?" Lettuce asked. She came to stand by Ichigo, leaning on the handle of the mop, head tilted to the side. Her bright blue eyes shone with curiosity. Ichigo blew her bangs out of her face and crossed her arms. She sat down in the chair to the left of the table she was cleaning. Lettuce was not one to pry, but she had a natural air of trustworthiness that often yielded secrets from her friends with little effort.

"It's stupid," Ichigo murmured, her voice barely above a whisper, "but I can't get him out of my head. And he won't freaking leave me alone."

Ichigo sighed and leaned her head on her hand. She spoke slowly, "I feel like I'm going crazy … trying to fight my own brain. To stop thinking about things I shouldn't. I don't know."

Lettuce considered Ichigo's words carefully, her expression remaining neutral. "You can't control what you feel, Ichigo," she said quietly, "but you can control what actions you take because of those feelings. I think it's healthy to talk about what you're feeling."

"Thanks Lettuce," Ichigo sighed, her melancholy expression lifting lightly. "It's hard to deal with, you know? Fighting my own thoughts all the time."

Lettuce blinked owlishly. She shifted her weight from one hip to the other. "Ichigo, I know … I know you've been dealing with Quiche being back for over a week now, but … if I'm being honest, I didn't know it was this bad. Do you think you feel something … romantic with him?"

Ichigo inhaled deeply, running a hand through her ruby locks. "I– It's complicated," she muttered. She plucked the intrusive thoughts about Quiche out of her head one by one, examining them to see how much she would divulge to Lettuce. As soon as she began to welcome the thoughts to the forefront of her mind, all of the strange and complex emotions began to burn in her chest again.

Ichigo exhaled, snapping out of her daze and focusing back to Lettuce with a grin. "Tell me about your evening with Pie, though," she exclaimed, abruptly changing the subject. "You two were awfully cozy last night."

Lettuce immediately started to blush, nervously smoothing the front of her uniform's skirt. "I– well–" she stammered, "It … it was perfect." She beamed up at Ichigo, her face pink with bashfulness.

"Is he a good dancer?" Ichigo prodded. She smiled and rested her head on her hands.

Lettuce nodded, eyes wandering throughout the café as she began to reminisce. "Yes, wonderful," she sighed. "It was such a dream, Ichigo. All of it."

"I'm so glad to hear that," Ichigo said. "Quiche was telling me more about their lives back on their planet. I didn't know they were all called 'princes'?"

Lettuce nodded. "Y-yeah, it's quite complex, actually," she said. "It sounds like there's twelve of them, and they get their positions through an election? And they all elect an emperor? It seems very much like old Greek or Roman societies, really."

Ichigo listened intently, her head on her hand. "Hm, yeah," she remarked. "And that's how they got so good at dancing, but somehow none of them know how to total a receipt for a table."

Lettuce giggled. "It's all quite silly, isn't it?" she said. "We have these boys as waiters in the café when they have an entire planet to be taking care of back home."

Ichigo wondered to herself how much Lettuce knew about Pie's plans to return to Earth to see her. After her conversation with Quiche, Ichigo had no doubt in her mind that Pie had been concealing deeper feelings for her friend than he had ever cared to admit. Ichigo fought to keep her mouth shut. An admission of love (or something like it) needed to be kept between the happy couple, and she didn't want to spoil it.

"You had your date with Pie the other day, right? How did it go?" Ichigo asked instead.

"Ah!" Lettuce exclaimed, "I forgot to tell you about the date! Yes, we had a great time. We went to the boba café on the north end of the park, then just spent our time walking around the park and talking. It was … really incredible."

Lettuce sighed, leaning on the handle of the mop again. "I just can't believe all of this is happening," she continued wistfully. "I didn't think I'd ever see Pie again. And now we're going on dates, and dancing a waltz together…"

Lettuce's voice trailed off as she ruminated over the events of the past week. Ichigo continued to smile warmly at her friend, watching her dreamy expression. Her mind was going elsewhere, too, thinking about all that had occurred over such a short period of time.

"He makes you really happy," Ichigo observed, tilting her head to the side.

Lettuce's blush deepened, her posture straightening. "I … yes," Lettuce murmured with a smile and a nod. "It's just … effortless. You know?"

"Effortless," Ichigo repeated thoughtfully. Effortless.

Now allowing her mind to wander, Ichigo straightened up, grabbing her dishcloth again. "So when's the next date?" she asked Lettuce.

"Maybe sometime this weekend?" Lettuce replied, her voice uncertain. She grabbed the mop handle again and went back to washing the floor. "We talked about it a little last night, but we haven't figured out what we want to do yet."

"Have you had dinner with him yet?" Ichigo asked. "One of my favorite date spots is this sushi place about five minutes away. I can send you the –"

"Ichigo!"

Mint's voice echoed loudly from the back hall. She came jogging into the dining area, wearing her street clothes with her bag over her shoulder. Her panicked eyes darted between Ichigo and Lettuce nervously. "You two had better come quick," she said, out of breath. Ichigo and Lettuce exchanged a worried look and set down their cleaning supplies. They followed Mint out through the hall and out the back door.

The golden light of the approaching sunset lit up a tense scene in front of them. Masaya was standing rigidly, fists clenched, just around the bend of the café near the front door. In front of him was Quiche, who was leaning against the wall of the café nonchalantly, still in the white button-up shirt and black slacks of his work uniform. Neither boy seemed to notice or care that they had an audience.

"This is a waste of time," Masaya said loudly. "I was really hoping for an apology, but it's obvious that's not going to happen."

"Mm, you're a fast learner," Quiche replied snidely. "Glad to see your expensive education thousands of miles away from your girlfriend is paying off."

"I thought I already made it clear to you the other day," Masaya growled, voice raised, "but Ichigo is mine. Embarrassing me in front of her was childish and out of line."

"Whatever you say, my lord," Quiche replied sarcastically, picking his nails.

"I told you to stop calling me that," Masaya snapped. Quiche let out a short laugh.

"You're making an awful lot of demands for a powerless human with a superiority complex," Quiche spat back.

Ichigo decided she had heard enough. She took a deep breath and marched over to the two boys, fists clenched.

"What is going on here?" she yelled, getting both of their attention. She stopped between the two of them, who were standing more than 5 meters from each other.

"I was coming to pick you up for our date," Masaya started warily, "but Quiche wanted to pick a fight."

Quiche let out a "pffft" of disbelief. "Your kidding, right?" he drawled. "I made one joke and you decided to make it your self-righteous crusade for an apology. Which, might I remind you, you're not going to get."

Ichigo looked from Quiche to Masaya with narrowed eyes.

"He's the one who wanted to rehash the incident last night," Masaya insisted, crossing his arms.

"All I asked," Quiche cut in, "was whether he'd prefer a white wine next time."

Ichigo rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration. She caught the smug look on Quiche's face as he continued to pick at his nails. His cocky attitude and usual snide demeanor had returned in spades.

"Quiche, could you lay off for at least a day?" Ichigo said, annoyed. Quiche lifted his eyes to catch her stare. Ichigo glared at Quiche as he raised an eyebrow. Ichigo hoped that she could communicate her thoughts wordlessly with Quiche, like she had a few times in the past week. She hoped he would walk away from the fight like he had a few days ago, when Masaya had discovered that Quiche could hear her voice. But something sank in the pit of Ichigo's stomach as she caught his eye. His look was intense — like a predator stalking its prey.

"Fine," Quiche said to Ichigo finally, in a low tone. "We can settle things on our own later. Alone."

It was then that Ichigo realized that Quiche was not going to back down – not this time. She immediately glanced over at Masaya, terrified of his reaction. He stood fuming, glaring at Quiche.

"You and Ichigo aren't spending any time alone," Masaya challenged. "Your behavior this week has made sure of that."

"What are you, her dad?" Quiche mocked, pushing back from the wall and rolling his shoulders back. Ichigo could sense the tension in the air rising.

"How many times do I have to tell you to leave Ichigo alone?" said Masaya, voice raised. He took a step forward and uncrossed his arms. "Your stunt last night didn't do you any favors. You're embarrassing yourself."

"Funny you say that, because you're dead wrong," Quiche interjected. His voice was steely cold, but his eyes were on fire.

Ichigo's heart was beating loudly in her chest. She knew in her gut what was coming next. Quiche continued: "Ask Ichigo what happened while you were gone during the party."

Ichigo froze, feeling everyone look at her, including Mint and Lettuce still watching from the back doorway. Her jaw fell open as she stumbled over her words. "I—I was—" she started, meeting Masaya's stare with terrified eyes, "Quiche... told me he'd leave us alone... if I danced one song with him."

"So you did?" Masaya asked, voice still raised. Ichigo, shocked at his angry tone, felt her throat tighten with the squeeze of guilt and fear. She felt like she was choking.

"Y-yes," she murmured, casting her eyes to the ground in shame. She continued quietly, fighting to keep her composure, "I just did what I thought was right."

Ichgo's throat felt like someone was wringing it out like a dishrag, squeezing and twisting her airways. She fought back tears forming at the corners of her eyes. It was only a few moments before she felt Masaya's warm hand gently touch her back. Ichigo leaned into his comforting touch. She rested her head on his shoulder and breathed his familiar scent.

"I understand," Masaya murmured into her hair. "It's ok."

Ichigo nodded warily into Masaya's shoulder, grateful for his calm presence and soothing voice. Even with Masaya's comforting arm around her, she was unable to shed the guilty thoughts collecting in her head and gripping her throat. She was relieved to have Masaya's forgiveness, but she felt unable to relax. She realized why when she lifted her gaze to Quiche. He met her eyes with a fiery stare. His focus flickered between Masaya and Ichigo briefly as he observed their embrace.

Ichigo bit her bottom lip in anxious habit. Quiche's stare landed on Ichigo again. He narrowed his eyes.

"You still haven't told him, have you?" Quiche murmured.

Ichigo's jaw dropped open, her back suddenly going stiff. She inhaled, snapping her mouth shut and scrambling to gather her thoughts. The memory of the night in the café kitchen began to replay in her head. It was familiar to her now, after playing it back in her head so many times over the past couple of days. That didn't stop Ichigo from recoiling at the thought of what would happen next. He's going to tell Masaya about the kiss.

"Tell me what?" Masaya demanded, squeezing Ichigo's shoulder before releasing her from his grasp. His warm brown eyes darted between Ichigo and Quiche. Confusion clouded his expression. Ichigo panicked; she couldn't think of what she could tell Masaya now to mitigate the impending fallout from telling him the truth – now, several days after the fact.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," Quiche said, hands in his pants pockets. His stare was locked on Masaya. "Your cat is more fickle than you think."

"What do you mean?" Masaya shot back. "Stop talking in riddles!"

Ichigo took a deep breath, trying to cut into the conversation, but Quiche beat her to the punch.

"Fine. You want the plain truth?" Quiche barked. "Ichigo and I have spent more time alone than you know. In fact..." he paused, eyes flicking to Ichigo momentarily. He clicked his tongue thoughtfully, "...out of all of the kisses that Ichigo and I have shared, the one three days ago was my favorite."

Ichigo felt like her blood had gone cold. Her heart pounded in her chest as she felt Masaya stiffen next to her. Masaya's head slowly turned to meet Ichigo's wide-eyed, gaping expression.

"Ichigo," Masaya started, his voice barely above a whisper, "...is this true?"

Ichigo's head was a whirlwind, a chaotic mess of guilt, sadness and terror. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to find the words to say something – anything – to her boyfriend. Anything at all to excuse what she had done; to explain not telling him sooner.

And she had to say it without giving away the fact that she hadn't hated the kiss. Not even after days of languishing over how to tell Masaya, not even after Quiche's constant teasing and prodding. Not even after all of the trouble it had caused her. Not even a little bit.

However, Ichigo didn't have time to find the words. She read Masaya's expression and knew that he had read hers. He knew instantly that it was true. Ichigo watched his face sour to a solemn type of anger.

The next second happened so fast that Ichigo could barely register what was happening. Masaya took three wide strides towards Quiche, and his fist connected with Quiche's face in a dull crack.

Ichigo's instantaneous reaction was to let out a shriek. Lettuce and Mint gasped.

"Masaya!" Ichigo screamed in shock. Quiche stumbled back two steps, holding a hand over his face. Masaya clutched his fist to his chest, massaging his fingers.

Quiche slowly turned towards Masaya, dropping his palm from his face. His catlike pupils narrowed into tiny slits. Ichigo watched as dark, inky blood began to trickle down from his nose. He turned his head to the side and spat blood, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I've wanted to kick your ass for a week..." Quiche growled, lifting his arms and summoning his weapons, "...so I'll enjoy this a lot."

Ichigo saw Masaya clench his fists again. She had to do something. She knew Masaya couldn't win this fight. Ichigo willed herself to move, and found strength in her legs to dash between Masaya and Quiche. She planted herself directly in front of Quiche, glaring up at his furious expression.

"Don't," Ichigo pleaded in a heavy breath. She clenched her jaw. The smell of iron filled the air as blood dripped down Quiche's face and fell in thick, dark droplets from his chin. Ichigo searched Quiche's eyes with her own, begging for peace in his angry expression. Slowly, she watched his pupils widen again, his breathing slowing. His fury was dissipating with every exhale.

"Ichigo!" called Mint, coming to stand protectively next to her friend. Lettuce quickly followed behind her and put her hand on Ichigo's arm.

"Ichigo," came Masaya's voice from behind Ichigo. Ichigo broke eye contact with Quiche finally, whirling around to meet Masaya's pained visage. Any stiffness and fear in her heart melted in that moment as she saw Masaya's hurt so clearly reflected on his soft, boyish features. Ichigo's shoulders slumped. She slowly walked over to Masaya.

"I– Masaya, it's…" she started warily, unsure of what to say as she took painful step after painful step. "I didn't know how to tell you…"

"Like the dance? You kept that a secret too?" Masaya replied; his voice was deadpan, callous. Ichigo winced. She knew in that moment that Masaya was deeply hurt.

"I just didn't want to ruin everything!" Ichigo lamented, holding her face in her hands. "I wanted to tell you! About both of those things! I just didn't know how."

Masaya ran a hand through his thick, dark hair, letting out a pained breath. He turned to face away from Ichigo, resting his other hand on his hip. His breathing was laboured, heavy. Ichigo came to stand by Masaya's side and rested her hand gingerly on his back.

"I'm sorry," Ichigo murmured. She could feel her throat tightening again. Masaya remained quiet, shaking his head slowly.

"Ichigo, I … I don't know what to think," Masaya said, staring at the ground in disbelief. Ichigo chewed the inside of her cheek, her eyes beginning to water. This could be it, she thought, I could lose everything with him.

"You know that I love you," Ichigo whispered, her voice cracking as the first tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. It was the truth, and it was all Ichigo had. It was all she could think to say. She took one of Masaya's hands in her own. She delicately stroked his fingers as she listened to his breathing.

"I love you too," Masaya replied finally. He lifted his head to look at Ichigo. His expression held an amount of hurt Ichigo had never seen. A fresh wave of guilt and sadness washed over her.

"I just … I need time to think," Masaya continued, his eyes drifting to the ground again. Ichigo's heart dropped to her stomach at his response. Think about what? She wiped the hot, wet tears off of her face with the back of her free hand and squeezed Masaya's hand with the other.

"None of it meant anything," Ichigo murmured. She ignored the voice in her head telling her she was a liar. She attempted to tamp down any confusion, throwing a blanket of guilt over her thoughts instead. "None of it."

Masaya looked up again, meeting Ichigo's watery gaze. She sucked in a breath and focused intently on him, honing in all of her thoughts towards all of her love and concern for him. After over three years of dating, Masaya knew her like the back of his hand; Ichigo hoped that he saw only love in her expression and nothing else.

Masaya let out a deep breath through his nose. "I should go," he muttered, running a hand through his hair again. "I need time. I'm sorry."

Masaya shifted his weight and began to walk towards the walkway of the café, slipping his hand out of Ichigo's. He looked back at her once, expressionless.

Ichigo brought her hands to her chest and watched him walk away into the light of the setting sun.

She wondered to herself how they would ever come back from this. How would Masaya ever trust her again? They had less than a week until Masaya returned to London – how could they repair their trust in a matter of only a few days? What could she ever say to fix this?

Ichigo felt wet tears escaping from the corners of her eyes once more. What could she have done differently? Where had she gone wrong? Her conscience told her that she should have just told Masaya sooner, but as Ichigo replayed the events of the past 10 minutes, her sadness quickly morphed into something harsher, darker. She reminded herself how Masaya found out about the kiss. She turned to look back at Lettuce, Mint and Quiche, all standing a short distance away.

Fury clouded her features as she glared at Quiche, who was still holding a sleeve of his shirt over his bleeding nose. She hoped he could read the hurt in her features and the anger in her eyes. She clenched and unclenched her fists. Quiche's expression was unreadable, something between bewilderment and dissipated anger. Lettuce and Mint looked on with concern.

"Ichigo," Lettuce said finally, coming over to embrace her, "let's get you inside."

Ichigo nodded solemnly. She allowed Lettuce to walk her inside the café, her mind still numb, and heavy with guilt. Once inside the back room of the café, Ichigo took her uniform's headband off and stared at it blankly as she struggled to process the hurricane of thoughts swirling in her head.

"Ichigo, what happened back there?" Lettuce asked in a hush tone. "You and Masaya are … you're not…"

"I don't know," Ichigo murmured stiffly, closing her eyes. She pictured the look on Masaya's face as he turned away from her, the feeling of his hand slipping out of her grasp. "I just … I just know I've made a huge mistake."

(A.N./

Thank you for all of the lovely reviews! These next few chapters really crank up the drama, and the next chapter (chapter 11) is one of my favorites I've written so far. I hope you'll love how crazy this fic gets from here on out.

I have a big question for you all about how I'm writing this story, and I'd love to get your input.

So far I've been writing this fic in a Third Person Limited point of view from Ichigo's perspective only. It's been super fun to build this story from one character's point of view, but I want to know – do you want a chapter (or a section of a chapter) where we break from Ichigo's POV and do a Third Person Limited POV from another character? One of my amazing reviewers, sungkyungrr, pointed out that I haven't done as much building around some of the supporting cast, and that's mostly due to the nature of POV I've written this in so far.

Contenders for getting their own POV in the upcoming chapters are: Quiche (obviously), Pie, Lettuce, Masaya and Mint. Who do you want to get a different perspective from? Or would you rather stay in Ichigo's head the whole story? Let me know what you think!)