Description: Even though Ichigo feels safer, she decides to stay on Pai's ship one last night. Kish's new plan gets set in motion and Ichigo's troubles have just begun.

Rating: T

[][][][][][][][][][]

Ichigo ruffled a soft towel through her wet hair as soon as she jumped out of the shower and got dressed. The humid air billowed out of the small bathroom when she opened the door. It wasn't very late, and Ichigo found herself to not be as sleepy as she had hoped- despite her stressful day.

A deep sigh filled her lungs, and she made her way out of her room and into the ship. She had somewhat figured out the layout, finally.

The ship was always too chilly, her soft white pajama bottoms didn't protect her much from the cool air. She tiptoed through the corridors until she found Pai's room. The door was open, and it was dark in his room except for the soft glow of a computer screen. His silhouette was all she could see in the darkness, he turned his head when he heard her footsteps.

The red head's voice was timid when she first called out to him,

"Hey, you're still up?"

The alien nodded and turned around in the chair,

"Indeed."

The girl walked right up to him with a small smile playing her lips,

"What are you gonna do for the rest of the night?"

Her question seemed pointed to him, like she had something in mind. Pai leaned back in the chair, putting his hands together in front of him,

"It seems you have something in mind."

"Well…"

The girl shifted her weight and rubbed her hands together as she finished her statement,

"We could curl up and watch a movie! You wanna do that?"

The alien seemed a bit uncomfortable with the idea, he wasn't one for leisurely activities like this. He shifted his gaze from her to his lap and back, obviously contemplating her offer. As he opened his mouth to respond, Ichigo reached out and grabbed his wrist and tugged on it,

"Come on Pai, you never just chill out and have fun."

Ichigo knew full well that she was being pushy. She wanted to get Pai out of his comfort zone, and bring him out of his shell for a little bit. He had already opened up to her a little, and seeing how he was once he was more comfortable was fascinating. Now that he had piqued her curiosity, she was going to see how far she could take it. The girl wanted to help Pai come out of that shell and see what he was really like.

The alien reluctantly stood up, obviously in thought as to what they were going to do.

"I suppose… We can go to the bunker-as Kish and Taruto call it."

A cheesy smile spread across her face and she stepped aside,

"Lead the way!"

…

Once they made their way across the ship, they finally arrived at the bunker. The 'bunker', as Pai called it, was just what she pictured when she thought of the name. It was a round room, and had a half circle sofa in the middle with a projector creating a hologram screen in front of the couch. It was all darker colored, and it was lowered a few steps into the floor, with the window behind the couch showing off the beautiful view of space.

Ichigo cooed and darted over, hopping right on the couch and snatching up the blanket on the back.

Her actions puzzled Pai, she seemed so at ease now, so comfortable. She didn't seem to be terrified to be on the ship, could it be because he opened up to her somewhat? If she knew some personal information about him, did this make her feel safer? The alien wasn't sure quite what to make of her, it baffled him that she would suddenly take such an interest in him.

"What do you want to watch?"

Her perky question made him snap back to reality and realize he was standing awkwardly beside the couch. The alien looked at the blank screen and pondered if they had anything from the human world to even play for her. He held up a finger to her to tell her to wait as he moved behind the sofa to the pile of DVD cases that Tart had collected to watch in his spare time. After sifting through a few cases, he had no idea what to make of any of them and simply handed her a handful of them.

"Well this one is sad…I saw that recently…maybe this one?"

Ichigo said as she handed a case out to him, he glanced at the cover and nodded silently as he put it in the player. The movie was called "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", it was a horror movie of some kind. After inserting the movie, Pai sat on the sofa an entire cushion away from Ichigo.

The movie picked up quickly, and to was easy to see that the girl beside him was frightened. She had the blanket pulled up to her nose and her eyes were wide, glued to the screen. Pai was not impressed by the effects in the movie, and predicted the annihilation of the characters for being so naive. The alien also realized that Ichigo had somehow made her way across the sofa and was now sitting directly beside him. Her small hands startled him when she grabbed his upper arm and hid her face behind his shoulder.

His body tensed up when she grabbed him, the contact made him feel troubled. This girl was getting close to him, and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. As the movie was coming to an end, she had stopped reacting to the jumpier parts of the film, and he took notice. Her grip had loosened on his arm and he glanced down nonchalantly to find that she had dozed off. A deep breath filled his lungs and he blinked a few times, just staring. Now what?

The violet haired alien shifted slightly, and her weight just went with him and she leaned against his shoulder. The lead mew looked so peaceful when she was asleep. He was so used to seeing her fighting and defending herself against Kish. It was somewhat nice to see her so calm and at ease. She really needed it, especially after the week she had been having. Kish was just being unreasonable about her not having feelings for him, and was just making the situation worse. Pai knew this girl didn't deserve the attack she had suffered. Remembering the attack- he glanced down to her lip that had a scratch on it from where she had been bitten.

The small scratch was almost healed, but her lips made him twist a little in his seat. Her lips were a perfect shade of pink, that much he could see, even in the dim light. Little lips, dainty looking, like a feather. Pai shook his head and looked back up to the screen, he couldn't think these things. Not now. He couldn't be interested in someone like her. Just because they were no longer enemies, didn't mean that meant she had room in her life for someone like him. He wasn't a touchy feely sort of guy anyway. Pai wasn't sure what he liked about this girl, but opening up to her- made him feel somewhat cared about.

No one cared what happened to him, or what he was doing. He didn't feel like he needed any special attention, but it was a nice change of pace to have someone take an interest in his life. When the credits began to roll on screen, it made him realize he had to do something. He had to move her or wake her up.

He turned his head back down to look at her, and she shifted about, snuggling into his shoulder muscle. He wasn't really sure how they had gotten here, especially from their former relationship as enemies. The warmth of her cuddling almost felt…good?

The credits were almost over now, and he knew he had to stop this. Ichigo befriended him, he was looking way too hard into this new found friendship.

The girl stirred in her sleep, lazily lifting her head and sitting up slowly. Her eyes were only half open as she looked around the dark room.

"I missed the end huh?"

The alien stood up and corrected his shirt, the girl grudgingly followed suit. The red head groaned as she followed Pai out into the hall, he walked slowly for her to keep up. She grumbled as they walked,

"Sorry if I fell asleep on you..I do that sometimes."

"Not a problem."

He wasn't quite sure what to tell her, but he walked with her down to her own doorway, so she wouldn't get lost. The mew yawned and stretched when they reached her doorway,

"Thanks for watching it with me, you're actually a lot of fun."

As she finished her statement, she shocked him by gently reaching out and pulling him into a hug. Pai became frigid and held his breath as she pulled him close, her warmth coming through his shirt. Her forehead was against his chest, he could smell roses on her. After his admiration of her scent, he hesitantly returned the gesture; lightly placing his arms around her. The girl chuckled lightly and leaned her head back to look up at him,

"Sorry, I don't mean to make you uncomfortable."

She half mumbled her sentence, and the alien released her so she could stand up straight and look up at him. He hesitated- just for a moment- in his response,

"You didn't."

After giving him a warm smile, the mew turned and walked back into her dim room. The tall alien stood still for a moment and watched her scoot over to her bed and collapse onto the mess of blankets. He then turned on his heel, and walked off into the dark corridors without another word.

…

A groan escaped his throat as he lifted a messy head out of the pillow. A pile of dark green hair stuck out every which direction, gold eyes scanned around the room. A deep throbbing pain pounded at his forehead and temples. Everything was blurry, and a familiar voice spoke to him. It sounded garbled at first, Kish rolled off his stomach and on to his side. The sofa creaked under his weight and he blinked a few times to make out the figure of a red haired alien in front of him.

"Yeah, hello Kish. Good morning! Jeez get the hell up."

The aliens sarcasm earned him a groan from Kish. The golden eyed alien sat up slowly and rubbed the pounding side of his head,

"I feel awful, what happened?"

"You drank yourself into a stupor last night after you got back here. The whole time you were babbling about some girl you love and how you can't believe she wont want you."

The red headed alien stared at his friend, waiting for a response. Kish grumbled again and looked over at him,

"I need to go talk to her."

Pyro huffed and shook his head, sliding his hands into his pockets. He had been friends with Kish for a long time, and he hadn't seen him so distraught over a women before. He'd like to think he knew Kish pretty well, and they were constantly told they were 'twins' without looking identical. His hair was a vibrant, stop-light color red; and his eyes were a royal purple. His hair was spiky, frayed all over the place with one short hair band on the right side of his face. Kish and Pyro were very similar in personality, making them seem like brothers to those around them. Pyro wouldn't admit it, but he had a bit more of a temper than Kish did, he wasn't a very patient guy.

Rocking back on his heels, Pyro shrugged and looked around the room; as if looking for his thoughts.

"I think that's a bad idea…you were a mess last night dude. Maybe you should let me talk to her, see whats up."

Kish stood up and stretched his shoulders in a circular motion, keeping his eyes on his childhood friend.

"You gonna talk to her for me?"

…

A deep breath of sugary sweets filled her lungs as she entered the cafe for the first time in a few days. Pai had dropped her off at her apartment about an hour earlier because she knew she had to get back to work. It had been a few days since the incident, and Ichigo was no longer really worried about Kish. Hopefully he had cooled off and was getting his own life together.

Purin and Lettuce were happy to see her, Zakuro wasn't there, and Mint waved haphazardly at her as she came through the main thoroughfare of the cafe. The lead mew ignored her comrade's lackluster greeting and got to work. The first couple hours seemed to fly by, but then she got stuck with the terrible job of trash duty.

As the cat girl struggled to yank the garbage bags through the back of the kitchen and out the service door, she did not notice the presence waiting for her behind the cafe. She cursed under her breath as she yanked on the three heavy trash bags full of leftovers. The white bags crumpled as she pulled them off the small staircase, not realizing there were a pair of eyes staring her down. With a frustrated huff, she released the bags and tossed open the dumpster lid.

"That shit looks heavy."

The sudden voice made her help and trip over the trash bags as she recoiled from the shock. The girl whirled around onto her rear and whipped her head in the direction of the voice.

An unfamiliar alien.

"Can I help you?!"

She practically yelled, craning her neck forward at him with a flustered expression on her face. The red haired alien chuckled and pulled his hands out of his pockets, holding his hands up like he was surrendering. The cheesy grin on his face didn't falter as he spoke to her,

"Chill out kitty cat, I am just here to talk!"

Ichigo kept her eyes on him as she stood up, brushing off any leaves or dirt on her cafe uniform. The girl still felt nervous as she stood upright,

"About what?"

Her tone was stern, she didn't like this guy just appearing like this to her. Pyro pulled a hand from his pocket to run it through his mess of hair as he responded to her question,

"Well I just wanted to talk to you about Kish."

His words trailed off when she took in the information and her expression darkened to one of slight anger. He was visibly taken back by her sudden change in demeanor, she rolled her eyes and continued what she had been doing. The girl struggled with the trash bags, and he instinctively jumped over, helping her dump them in the dumpster. Ichigo turned and took a few steps back from him, creating a small bit of distance. Her eyes were locked on him like she was a predator eyeing prey. She wanted to show no weakness, no sign of being frail.

The alien struggled to find words and chuckled awkwardly as he did so,

"I uh… Well Kish sent me here, because he wants to talk to you, but knows you don't really want to see him. Sooo he kind of sent me to talk with you."

"Look, I don't even know you, but you can tell Kish I'm not interested in talking to him. I want some time to myself, and the way he treated me was unbelievable."

Pyro sighed and gave her a pleading look,

"Just talk to him! Kish is a good guy, I've been friends with him almost my whole life!"

The lead mew scoffed and walked over to the service door and looked back over her shoulder at him.

"I don't care how long you've been friends with him- or how 'good' you think he is. He attacked me, and…it was so different, it was truly scary for me. I wont give anyone the chance to do that to me again."

Pyro's expression became really serious and he shifted his weight, putting his hands back in his pocket. There was silence between them as they locked eyes, it became rather tense after a few moments. His voice was low, and almost had a hint of threat in his tone,

"Don't do this…Just let him show you what you mean to him. You broke his heart."

Ichigo narrowed her eyes at him, not intimidated in the least;

"I know that better than anyone, and he is just going to have to let me go."

[][][][][][][][][][]

MewMid: I was just re-reading some of my stories, and realized that I still love all these ideas, and I need to update! Please let me know what you think!

Please R and R my dear!