Well, it's been a while! Um… I blame… uh… ok, I've just been too lazy to update. I kinda curse myself for making these chapters so long sometimes…

Disclaimer: Hm, yup, I'd write Tokyo Mew Mew fan fiction even if I owned it! Sad but true. However, I don't own it. :(

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Kish was freezing all over, except for the prickling and painful skin on his hands and lower legs. The burned skin itself was blissfully numb, but the inflamed skin around the wounds was inflamed and burned in the raw, cold air. Whenever the alien shifted his weight, stabs of pain shot through the affected areas, so he kept as still as he could, although it was not comfortable to lie on his side, off as many of the burns as possible. He also regretted that what with the cold, he'd be stiff in the morning. As though he needed something else to plague him…

There really wasn't anything for the alien to do but sleep. However, whenever he tried to drift off, his mind focused on the pain, or the cold, or the fact that he hadn't eaten in a while and was hungry, or the indignity of his situation. The boy tried to come up with some idea of the time, but could only guess that it was after sunset. No way would it be this cold otherwise—it was only September after all.

Cold? Kish mentally kicked himself. He couldn't call this cold, not when he thought back to his home world! He must have grown soft, to consider this cold. On his world, the sun broiled the surface, making it impossible to live above ground. Under ground, the atmosphere was damp, and the temperature never exceeded ten degrees Celsius. The air beneath ground was just barely breathable—attempts by scientists to create heating systems that didn't spew out emissions had failed, and had ended up destroying a town of three thousand people—nearly a quarter of the current population of Kish's race. The teenager growled softly. He should consider this really, really warm! He was lucky.

Well, okay, so acid burns were not one of the everyday woes of his race—but count your blessings.

Kish decided to try that. "Count my blessings," he muttered. "Uh… it's warm…" 'No, it isn't' the alien thought bitterly. He'd gotten too used to Earth weather to call this warm. "Um… well… I'm at Ichigo's house!" 'You're in her cellar,' the cynical voice in the teenager's head reminded him. "Um… uh… I don't think Pai's found the cockroaches in his sock drawer yet," Kish uttered lamely. He'd really wanted to see Pai's reaction to the cockroaches though… well, maybe Tart would film it. That would be awesome. Knowing his chibi friend, he'd come home and there he'd find a video of Pai… and a broken X-box no doubt. That would impede his DDR playing...

Kish grimaced. This wasn't helping. "Um… if 9X3Y+90 and I get the answer wrong, how will Pai kill me?" Trying to figure out how his friend would murder him instantly put the middle alien to sleep, and to unsettled dreams of the alien's vague leader Deep Blue turning into a banana and killing Ichigo while Pai hit Pudding with an unbreakable ramen noodle.

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"Uhn…" Kish muttered, groggily opening his eyes. He wondered vaguely why him palms and legs were throbbing painfully and why he was on a hard floor—if this was a prank of Tart's, he was going to tie the chibi to the Tokyo Tower with his own shorts streamers!

Wait… "Ugh…" Kish articulated, sitting up stiffly. That was right, he'd been kidnapped, hadn't he? Well, maybe it was daytime, and his koneko-chan would come to tenderly salve his wounds before throwing herself into his arms!

With his hands in this state, he'd probably drop her. The teenager sighed. It wouldn't happen anyway. Well, maybe she'd come to salve his wounds, and he'd pull her into his arms! And get slapped. It would be worth it though!

The emerald haired alien sketched a tic-tac-toe board aimlessly into the thin layer of dust on the cellar floor. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. However, the dust irritated his wounds, and he couldn't see, so the boy gave up after a few games. What fun is it to play tic-tac-toe against yourself anyway?

The telltale shifting of cinderblocks sounded overhead, and Kish stiffened. So Ichigo was coming. The door swung open, and Kish's eyes welled with tears, protesting the sudden light. The alien blinked the annoying drops away, until he could make out Ichigo's form. His heart began pounding hard, to his vexation. It would be so much easier if he didn't love her! He could knock her out and make a break for it—but he couldn't bring himself to do it. All the times he had threatened to hurt her, yet he'd never actually done it, and he somehow doubted he ever would. Huh. Maybe Pai was right and emotion was weakness. How was that for a nice thought?

"Kish, give me your arm," ordered Ichigo softly. She looked a little—guilty? Well, maybe she felt bad about spilling acid on him. That didn't make the wounds hurt any less.

Kish had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't going to kiss his wounds and make them better. So rather than obeying, the teenager locked his hands behind his back and backed away from the pink cat mew. "First, I'd like to know what foreign materials you're planning on injecting into my bloodstream," he informed her, guessing that that was the only reason why she'd need his arm.

"The teleportation preventer," Ichigo replied, not meeting his eyes. "It has a time limit, so you'll need it daily."

"No! What if you can OD on that stuff?" Kish asked, sidling as far away from the girl he loved as he could. "Besides, I like my ability to teleport. It's been with me since I was… born. That stuff has scarred me for life," he added, nodding at the injection in Ichigo's hand, only half-joking. "So now I'm physically and mentally scarred. Are you ev—"

"Kish, I'm sorry about the acid already!" Ichigo snapped, her temper rising. "But maybe it'll teach you not to hit on me!"

Kish snorted. "You know you love it kitten," he teased, patting her on the head and jerking his arm away before she could grab it. "Hey, didn't your mom teach you not to grab?"

Ichigo hit her boiling point at that statement. "EXCUSE ME? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU DO? YOU'RE ALWAYS GRABBING ME AND DRAGGING ME ALL OVER AND TELLING ME TO COME WITH YOU AND THREATENING TO KILL ME—"

"Well, you always seemed to like it, koneko-chan," Kish replied, mock-contrite.

"You—" Ichigo's face contorted angrily. Abandoning attempts to get hit arm, she jammed the needle into his neck. She was pretty sure there was a vein there…

"Ouch!" the green haired teenager yelped, jerking away and rubbing his neck. "Watch where you stick that!"

"Well if you were a little more cooperative—"

"To what? My continued imprisonment? I didn't even do anything!"

"WHAT DO YOU CALL DESTROYING THE WORLD THEN?" Ichigo shrieked, fury radiating from her.

Kish blinked. "We're saving the world koneko-chan. You—"

"Don't call me that!" the pink cat mew snapped, fuming. "You may call me Ichi—no, wait, you may call me Momomiya-san. I'm not on first name terms with you!"

"Fine. If I call you Momomiya-san, can I have breakfast?" Kish asked, a hint of sardon in his voice as his stomach informed him that it was hungry and ready to do battle with the world to get food.

"Huh? Oh… oops," Ichigo muttered, remembering belatedly that even though Kish was an alien, there was a slight possibility that he needed to eat. "Uh… sorry, I'll go get some food… but you sit! And make sure you quit the nicknames!"

"Fine ko—oh nickname-less one—agh, no, wait! Wait, Momomiya-san!" Kish yelled as she stalked out, apparently very offended. "Jeez, where'd she leave her sense of humor?" the boy asked morosely.

Kish sat back, and wondered what he'd be doing at that moment if the mews hadn't caught him. Probably he'd be sitting with Tart and Pai, ignoring Pai's plan explanations while pretending to measure Tart with a ruler, then dodging the following blows. Or maybe he'd be playing DDR or some other sort of game that they'd picked up from Earth. Maybe he'd have gone to Earth to flirt with Ichigo. There were numerous possibilities, all of them more pleasant than his current predicament.

The alien shifted to the side casually, his burns all but forgotten until one of them brushed roughly against the wall. The raw tingling of nerves sent Kish's head spinning. He forgot that he was hungry. He forgot that he was bored. He forgot everything except the pain in his hand, where a splinter had pierced the tender surrounding skin. The teenager screamed long and loud, but the pain didn't stop. If anything, letting loose seemed to intensify the suffering.

"Kish!" The alien looked up, barely seeing, and vaguely comprehended Ichigo's face. His body vaguely registered her gripping his shoulders. "Kish, come on, snap out of it!" When the boy didn't respond, the leader of the mew team became frantic. "Kish! KISH!"

The teenage boy stopped screaming, but his face was contorted with anguish. "It's burning…" he managed to force out, his voice thick with agony. "Please… make it stop… please—" he clenched his fists, and his nails dug into the inflamed flesh. "OH GOD, KILL ME!" the boy shrieked, shaking in pain.

"Kish!" Ichigo cried, trying in vain to think of something to help him. "Oh god, KISH!"

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Ouch. Poor Kish. Sadly, you'll have to wait a little to find out what happens to him—next chapter is focused on Pudding's predicament!