Hmm… well, upon reviewing what I had previously written to you, I see I have lied slightly. Retasu's parents don't come in right now. But! I think it's a pretty good chapter, so enjoy!

The next day Taruto and Kish stayed mostly out of Pai's way.

Unlike his normal cold and expressionless self, Pai literally was emitting frustrated emotion for a 10-foot radius. Where his face was normally impassive, there was a big, deep, and irritated frown on his face, complete with furrowed eyebrows.

Naturally the other two knew why, or at least Tart thought he did. No Cyniclon wanted to by outsmarted by the Ryou guy who told the mews what to do, and it was clearly having a huge impact on the oldest alien. Kish had some other thoughts, adding to Taruto's own, but he didn't voice them, and instead kept them hidden beneath his smirk while his mind churned with unknown thoughts as he watched from his hidden point while Pai's right ear occasionally twitched, forcing a growl from the purple head's throat.

Regardless, nobody willingly went near Pai, unless they had question they couldn't answer, in which case Kish and Tart would battle in rock-paper-scissors to see who would have to go ask it (Tart lost every time).

So Pai was left alone with his thoughts. His horrible, obscene, and foolish thoughts. He couldn't get her out of his mind! And he had no decent excuse! His top priority right then was ensuring the safety of his current project, making sure that Ryou didn't connect anything that Lettuce said too well and start snooping, since he was so into breaking the rules.

Pai's frown deepened and he closed his eyes wearily. I need to stay calm; I need to be in control of myself. Ryou's not as much of an idiot as I like to think, I need to be prepared for whatever move he makes. If he finds my creature, all our planning will be lost, and if he somehow finds a way to take Lettuce-

Twitch.

Pai blew his breath out angrily. He had to put a stop to this nonsense! This is a mew that's making him act like a fool, an enemy! And he l- No, Pai shook his head firmly. No, no, no, no, no, I am interested in her, I am curious about her, I may even be somewhat fascinated, but I AM NOT that.

Pai's ear disagreed.

Xxx

Kish could barely hold in his laughter.

Below him, Pai's ear was freaking out, and causing the rather upset Cyniclon to stand abruptly and pace angrily about. Kisshu watched with a calculated gleam in his eye. He won't be able to do this much longer, he'll have to go occupy his mind with something, and I know just what to occupy it with. His fanged grin was the last thing to disappear as he teleported.

Xxx

Ichigo wasn't having a good day.

It wasn't necessarily like such a thing was unusual, she tended to have one of those at least once every two weeks, but this one was rather early, since her bad day had already been used up on when Lettuce was taken captive. After the alien's came and made their terms, she had wearily gone home. Masaya had called, wanting to make sure that she was all right, since she hadn't contacted him like she had said she would. The redhead called back and said that she had to stay late for work, and she was sorry. But apparently her thoughts were playing out in her voice, since he asked if she had something on her mind. And since she was thinking about her promise to Kish, she had a little trouble explaining how that math test they had in two days was really worrying her.

Regardless, after she went to bed that night, and the next, she continued to have some rather disheartening dreams involving the rejection of Masaya, completely falling in love with Kish, and one dream that she could barely recall where Lettuce had sided with the aliens and was attacking them. But at least the last one wasn't possible.

These were the main causes for her next bad days, but in regards to the current day…

To sum it up, she woke up late, forgot her history homework at home in her rush to make it to school on time, and you know that math test? She'd be lucky if she got half of the answers correct. To top the day, the café was closed so she was walking home, and it had started to rain.

Ichigo wasn't having a good day.

That's about when a certain alien showed up.

After ducking under some of the park trees and muttering some choice words about how much her life sucked, she became aware of something behind her. Upon turning, it was all she could do from shrieking. Where the heck did he come from?!

Kisshu smiled in amusement. "Hey kitty! Enjoying your afternoon?"

"Kisshu! What are you doing here?! I don't have time for this!" Ichigo wouldn't admit that seeing him brought back some very funny feelings from their last encounter. "Get going." She turned and started a brisk walk towards her house, telling herself that she didn't care what he did so long as he left her alone for a bit.

"So you don't want to know how the porpoise is?"

That stopped her in her tracks. Stupid aliens with their stupid schemes! Turning and regarding him wearily, she walked back slowly till she was back to where she had started. "Fine, Kish, tell me how Lettuce is."

Kish gave her a fanged smile; she could be so cute when grumpy! "The bookworm is safe and sound, which is lucky since your boss put her in danger like that. Oh, but here's the thing," He hovered up to the tree branches and plopped down on an outreaching limb. "And you didn't hear it from me. As you can guess, Pai's pretty disgruntled about this whole situation, with Ryo taking charge and stuff."

Ichigo wasn't in the mood for one of these conversations. "No, really?"

Kish's smile grew. "But something else is really bugging him too."

Ichigo rolled her eyes, "What? That we figured out he's up to something?"

"That too."

"And are you going to tell me what that is?"

"Nope."

"I don't have time for this Kisshu." I can't believe I gave him the time, what a day! Ichigo turned to go.

"Pai's falling for a human."

Ichigo stopped dead in her tracks.

"And not just any human," Kish's amber eyes gleamed as he took in Ichigo's rigid figure, her very pores listening for the information on his voice. "He's falling for the sweet, delicate, and boring porpoise mew."

Ichigo whirled on him, her eyes catching some of his gleam. "Lettuce? Are you- there's no way- him?- and her?!- How can you tell? What's he said? What's he done? Does Lettuce know?"

Kish was practically bathing in this newfound attention. "So you want to know more?"

Ichigo fought against screaming at him. "Of course I do!"

"It'll cost you a kiss…" Kish licked his lips.

Ichigo's heart did a traitorous jump. No! Bad self! Masaya's the one who's there for you, not running around trying to kiss you one day and then kill you the next! "Kish, I can't, don't even go there."

Kish's eyes momentarily flared as he caught her line of thought on the normal boy she was obsessed with. "No kiss, no information."

Ichigo sighed heavily, fighting the urge to give in. "Then I'm leaving, my parents are going to wonder where the heck I am."

After about twenty feet, she got results. Kish teleported in front of her. "Fine, I won't ask for the kiss, but I need your help in something." He tried his best to look innocent (it didn't suit him).

Ichigo let out a small sigh of relief, "What?"

Xxx

Lettuce opened her eyes without doing it herself. Where am I? Something didn't feel right, and Lettuce couldn't name it, her body felt… like it wasn't hers. Am I me?

The head turned, as though consenting to Lettuces voice, to a puddle of water on the ground. At first Lettuce was relieved to see herself, but then she realized it wasn't her. This other Lettuce was in mew form, and it had every feature possible of Lettuce, but it wasn't her. The face staring back was impassive, bitter, and even… frightening.

As if sensing these thoughts, the reflection smirked at the inward Lettuce.

The real Lettuce wanted to curl up, far away from this image, but she realized that whoever was smirking in her body, they weren't supposed to be there, she was. Lettuce fought for control of her face, her arms, her legs, but it was like trying to grab mist, she could do nothing to gain it. The face's eyes grew a wild glint, and though it sounded like Lettuce's voice coming out of the mouth, it wasn't hers. The false-Lettuce grinned wickedly and uttered two words.

"My body."

Lettuce shot up from her bed drenched in sweat, her breaths heaving violently. Calm down, just a dream, just a dream… what was the dream? This revelation momentarily caught Retasu off guard. She couldn't remember! How strange… What ever it had been, it had shaken her to the core. What had it been! She remembered her mew form, what about her mew form? What was wrong with it? Lettuce shook her head quickly. Dwelling on the nightmare won't make it go away. Maybe mom still has some of that new herbal tea left in the pantry, that'll calm my nerves. Lettuce went to rise from the bed and found it was not her bed.

Oh, right.

The nightmare had scared her so badly; she had forgotten how terrible her real circumstances were.

The aliens had captured her.

Everybody except the mews thought it was a freak accident.

And only Retasu (and the aliens) knew the entire truth.

My poor parents, they must be so worried for me…but what can I do? I can't contact Ryou again… who knows what Pai would do if that happened. And all the innocent people, they don't know, they have no clue what's going to happen… Retasu sighed wearily. Worrying will get me nowhere; I need to focus on what's important.

But, upon walking past the bathroom mirror, she found the most important thing for her right then was to clean herself up. Along with her body being sweat covered from both the target practice the day before and dream that night, her braids were starting to look like fuzzy ropes, and she hadn't changed out of the previous days clothes, since she had no pajamas. After several flustering minutes of mental debate, Retasu took her chances and did the shortest shower of her life, while still coming out refreshed and clean.

Putting on an elbow length shirt with some pants (and both were still large on her), she exited the bathroom and just about ran back in.

Kish held a package in his lap and had made himself comfortable at her (their, she reminded herself) kitchen table, and looked up expectantly at her, munching a cookie in the process. "Mmph bowf tmph oo goph mear."

Retasu resisted the urge to reprimand his manners. "Um, pardon?"

Kish emptied his mouth with a loud gulp. "It's about time you got here."

"H-how long have you been waiting?"

Kisshu opened his mouth to loudly proclaim his 5 minutes of boredom, but decided against it and changed the subject immediately to her clothes. "Those are too big on you, I can't belief Pai got your size wrong."

To say Lettuce blushed furiously would put it mildly; the heat her flush was producing was bringing her close to a swoon.

Kish assessed her reaction with a glinting eye. "Did you tell Pai he got it wrong?"

Retasu was tipping back and forth now. "I- no- he- it's fine! They fit fine! Pai- I can't expect- he doesn't need-"

Kish sighed. She was so fluttery! At least when Ichigo did it, she was full into it, not this 'hide! everything's okay!' attitude. "Look bookworm, it's really obvious."

The green mew looked down at the ground and refused to bring her head up. "S-sorry."

"Doesn't matter! Anyway, we figured you, being human and all, would be able to help us with some things while your staying here." Kish smiled to himself. "We have a rather large green room, Pai usually uses it for his research and all that, but you might be able to tell us some more on the plants in it, right? Right. Okay then, let's go!"

A small voice in Lettuce's mind warned her that the crafty look Kish naturally had was bigger than normal. "I… alright."

Just as they reached the door Kish turned to face her. "Wait! Forgot. This," his finger pointed at her attire, "won't do. Go put this on and then get back here." He extended the package to her and looked at her expectantly.

Blushing still, though now simply from the dying reaction of her earlier embarrassment, she went back into the bathroom and opened the package. Inside was a rather breathtakingly beautiful sundress, with lacy straps and ruffled, flowing cloth that had delicate pink watercolor flowers printed on it. It's lovely! Retasu gave herself time to wonder how the aliens could have possibly picked this out after their last attempt, and then put it on. Though it was only a shoulder length mirror, she could tell it fit her perfectly. Strange, she thought suspiciously, I'm sure Ichigo has one just like it…

When she exited, still slightly blushing, Kish looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Wow, that was a good idea. We'd better go then." He got up and walked to the door, "Oh, Pai told me to remind you, no funny stuff."

Retasu hesitantly nodded, her fingers briefly crossing themselves within the folds of the gown.

Kish hid his smirk as he opened the door and led the way to the greenhouse.

Xxx

Lettuce's breath caught in her throat as Kish opened the door to the new realm. The green-room was exceptional! Plants from all over the continents grew hand in hand, flowers ranging from common garden ones to exotic blooms rare to behold sprouted every which way. Already Retasu's mind was making a mental list of the herbal plants and their capabilities and theorizing what other ones could be and could do. It was gorgeous! Lettuce couldn't help but gasp in delight. "Kisshu, this is remarkable! How do you maintain each plant in the same climate? Some of these plants are practically extinct on earth! Where did you get them? Think of what humans could learn from all this!"

"No, let's focus on what we could learn by what you tell us." Kish walked her away from the doors and windows towards the deeper portion. "We might have the plants, but we have close to no information on what they can do. So," he grabbed a notepad and pen out of his pocket that he had 'borrowed' from a store, "here's something to write with, and there's the plants, get to it!"

Retasu temporarily fought with herself on whether or not it was wise to help them by teaching them more. Retasu, what are you doing? If there's any chance our people can co-exist, we have to be willing to trust them! And that means sharing what humans know. A small part of her brought up the fact that she was a captive and there were no plans as to them co-existing, ever. But she pushed it aside and went to work. Let's see, this is a Japanese brome…

Kish left her without a sound.

Xxx

Pai paced down the corridors briskly. There was nothing for it; no way he would be able to do anything about this mess until he calmed his nerves. Normally he would go to some secluded part on the earth and dwell on his thoughts there, but who knew what Shirogane was up to? It was too risky going to earth without a proper reason.

Nothing to worry about, of course. Whenever earth wasn't an option, he often went to the greenhouse to at least sit in the room, or work on finding more information on his various collections. Earth was usually proven to be the better idea, since Kish and Tart couldn't find him as easily, but with his current mood, he doubted he would be interrupted.

He turned down the corridor and raised his hand to turn the door handle, but found it locked. Strange… who would be in here? Perhaps Tart? He had caught the young Cyniclon admiring the plants (usually the spiky poisonous ones) occasionally. No matter, he could easily throw him out, he needed time alone to think, and he needed it now.

Teleporting into the room he found it as quiet and as peaceful as it normally was, the only sound coming from the misting machines.

His ear twitched.

No, not the only sound, what is that scuttling sound? Quietly Pai floated along the path, searching for the source of the new noise. Tart's frog must have escaped again, and he locked the doors to keep it in for now. Kisshu will have to stop releasing it soon, it's far too childish for his rank. Pai's ear indicated the scuttle was coming from around the corner.

He peered around, expecting to see a young Tart attempting to sneak up on a fully aware frog, but instead jumped like a startled rabbit and almost ran for the door. It was Lettuce! Why in the world was she in there?!

But Pai noticed it wasn't just Lettuce. It was Lettuce in a beautifully stunning gown that swayed to her every turn as she examined various plants and scribbled down things after looking at them. She had clearly freshened up as well, her hair having somewhat of a soft, wet gleam, and her face more so alive then it had been.

Regardless, Pai couldn't stop looking at the sundress, and (to his ever lasting horror) her figure. This… is absolutely, without a doubt, Kish's doing. What's the slowest and most painful way to dismember someone? Why can't I remember what it was?

But realization shocked him into attention, and he found that, though this was his enemy, his captured, subdued enemy, he was the one hiding behind the bush, looking for the world like a scared animal. Dismemberment is too good for him, how about slowly pouring acidic compounds on his body? Or into his body, that would be more satisfying. With another jolt, he found that she had turned and was walking towards him, though she clearly hadn't noticed him. Well, I'm not waiting till she sees me like this. Resuming his dignity, Pai silently stood up. "Mew Lettuce."

Her reaction was instantaneous.

Her headshot up from the notepad she was carrying and looked at him with wide eyes. Her body attempted to both jolt away and stand firm, the result sending her pen and paper flying to the corner where he now stood. Her dress swayed agitatedly at her abrupt end to the calm walk, and her braids flew forward in alarm. "P-Pai? Oh!" Her eyes registered the utensils at his feet.

Before she could awkwardly come to claim them, Pai picked up the papers and examined them, his eyebrows rising as he read. "'Seven common uses for Spearmint. Unusual uses of Corn Stalk. Various medicines made by common herbs and their capabilities.'" He looked up at the blushing Lettuce with admiration. "You were writing notes on the plants?"

"Well, of course." She searched him with puzzlement. "Hadn't you asked me to do that?"

Kish…Pai's immediate frown must have given her her answer. "I… see. Um, I had thought perhaps you would find it useful, Kish had told me you needed information on most of them, so…" She squirmed under Pai's cool and expressionless stare, her cheeks reddening to dangerous levels. "I-I'm sorry, I hadn't realized I wasn't really supposed to be here, I didn't mean to offend you…"

Pai couldn't believe she was apologizing for this. It's that blasted Kish's fault for this! That 'amusing' prankster decided to mess around and used her as the tool; she had no control over the matter! All at once he realized that part of her intentions to mend the 'mistake' was his own doing. He had told her if she didn't cooperate that people would get hurt, and after the episode with Ryou, he probably had the appearance of a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. KISH! You manipulative, negligent, ludicrous Cyniclon! You knew this would happen! Pai's mask must have frowned even deeper, because Lettuce had suddenly become more profuse with her babbling apology.

The increase in the flow of vocabulary brought him back to reality, and for what felt like the first time, he really looked at Mew Lettuce. What he saw was a venerable, young girl who had the world cast upon her shoulders. A girl with green hair, blushing cheeks, and innocent sapphire blue eyes that read her soul to you as if an open book.

Despite his frustration, he realized how unfair this was to her. And without knowing why, his lips curled up ever so slightly into a small, simple smile. "Please calm down. You've done nothing wrong, Lettuce."

Xxx

Retasu couldn't believe what she had just seen. Did he just… smile? At me? The porpoise mew's heart beat even harder as she realized at he had called her Lettuce. Not the Green Mew, or bookworm, but Lettuce.

Pai looked away from her and back down to the notes, the smile still playing on his face, but his eyes back to their calculating, hidden selves. "These are very well put together, and I know a few of these. Tell me, do you recognize this one over here…?" He gestured towards a young tree ripe with fruit, and the mew could do nothing but follow with amazed (and quite possibly happy) shock.

Hidden safely from view, Kish laughed silently at his first victory.

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