Betraying My People Chapter 26:

Turning Back

Lettuce woke up early the next morning, since Kisshu was mewing at her. "Kisshu, do you know what time it is?" she asked. "It's early. And I was hoping to sleep in."

"Nya…" Kisshu said in a disgruntled tone. Lettuce sighed, but before she could get up, she felt something like sandpaper touch her cheek. She looked, and saw Ichigo licking her cheek from a perch on her shoulder.

"Ichigo, why are you doing that?" Lettuce asked.

"Nya?" Ichigo asked, as if the answer was obvious. "Myu, nyan."

"Are you trying to get me to get up?" Lettuce asked. Ichigo nodded. Lettuce sighed and said, "Okay, I'm getting up. Stay here while I take a shower, okay?" Kisshu and Ichigo sighed, but nodded.

Lettuce gathered her clothes, and went to take a shower. As she had predicted, no one else was up. When she was done, she was about to braid her hair when she remembered that Kisshu and Ichigo liked to play with it. She left it loose, and went back to her room. She noticed the kittens were staring at her cell phone, and asked, "Did I get a call?" Kisshu nodded.

Lettuce picked up the phone and listened to the message, which was from Keiichiro. "Lettuce, I need you to bring the kittens here as soon as possible, I think we found a way to turn them back. And if they stay in that form for too long, they might not be able to change back." Lettuce's eyes widened and she immediately dialed Keiichiro's number. When he picked up, Lettuce said, "Hi, it's Lettuce. Can you come get me and the kittens? No one in my family is up yet."

"Sure, I'll be there soon," Keiichiro said, and hung up.

Lettuce wrote a note for her parents, and picked up the kittens. Then she went outside to wait for Keiichiro.

He pulled up about ten minutes later, and Lettuce got in his car, settling Kisshu and Ichigo on her lap. "How have they been?" Keiichiro asked as he started driving.

"They're getting more kitten-like," Lettuce said. "This morning Ichigo was licking my cheek. And last night they were rolling around on my bed. They've also become very clingy to me."

"Ichigo was licking your cheek?" Keiichiro asked.

"Yeah, and last night they seemed to think that I was their mom, because Kisshu started wailing when I told him I wasn't really his mother," Lettuce said. "And then Ichigo started wailing too, and they only calmed down when I said I'd be their mom."

"That's very odd," Keiichiro said. "I wonder how old they are as kittens."

"Why?" Lettuce asked.

"Kittens usually leave their mother at about three months old, sometimes a little older," Keiichiro explained. "It's not normal for kittens to be this clingy, either, unless they're only a few weeks old."

"Maybe we'll figure it out when they go back to normal," Lettuce said.

Keiichiro pulled into the back of Café Mew Mew, and he and Lettuce got out, then took the kittens out, and carried them to the basement. Pai and Taruto were waiting, and Pai said, "Good to see you, Lettuce."

"Y-you too," Lettuce said, blushing.

"How are Kisshu and Ichigo?" Taruto asked.

"Clingy," Lettuce sighed. "Do you have a way to turn them back?"

"Hai, we have to put them on here," Pai said, pointing to a circular pedestal.

"Are we doing them one at a time, or both at once?" Lettuce asked.

"We can do them at the same time," Keiichiro said. "Put them on the pedestal."

Lettuce gently placed Kisshu and Ichigo on the pedestal. They mewed nervously, and she said, "You want to go back to normal, right? I'll be right here, don't worry."

As soon as they nodded, Pai pressed a button, and said, "Okay, you two have to stay still, or this won't work." They nodded again, and a light enveloped them. Lettuce and the others watched as Kisshu and Ichigo started to grow, then revert to their original forms. Kisshu turned back fully first, and Ichigo wasn't far behind. The light went away, and Pai said, "Okay, that's done."

Kisshu leaped down lightly, then helped Ichigo get down. "Thank you so much," they chorused. Then they turned to Lettuce, and said together, "Thank you, Lettuce, for taking care of us." They both bowed to her.

"You're welcome," Lettuce said. "I think I'm glad you're back to normal, though. You two are a handful."

Ichigo and Kisshu turned red. Lettuce noticed and giggled. "Ichigo, why did you lick my cheek this morning?" she asked. "Do I taste nice?"

Ichigo turned dark red and said, "Humans have salt on their skin, and it tastes good, but I was actually trying to get you to wake up. Kisshu and I got bored around 5:30."

"Jeez, you two woke Lettuce up at 5:30?" Keiichiro asked.

"Um… yeah," Kisshu said. "Sorry, Lettuce."

"Why did you two get so upset last night when I told you I wasn't really your mother?" Lettuce asked. "You both started wailing, and it was only after I said I'd pretend to be your mom that you stopped."

Kisshu and Ichigo turned red again, and Kisshu said, "We're about two months old as kittens for some reason, and I guess that kittens like having their mothers around at that age. We knew you weren't our real mom, but I wasn't lying when I typed that you're comfy yesterday. Something about being near you was different than the others, and you felt like home to us." By now Kisshu was tomato red, and Ichigo wasn't much better.

"You're only two months old as kittens?" Taruto asked.

"Yeah, so we're old enough to eat solid food," Ichigo said. "Which is good. Otherwise, you'd have to find some kind of milk, because kittens can't get enough nutrients out of cow's milk."

"I wonder why you're so young," Pai said.

"I don't know," Ichigo said. "Have you figured out a way to stop this from happening again?"

"Keiichiro created a serum that will cause your cat genes to remain dormant unless you need to fight with them or heal," Pai said. "So you both can still heal, and Ichigo can still fight if necessary. The serum will simply keep your cat form from coming out. However, if one of you becomes very weak for some reason, like the time Kisshu got sick, you will turn into a kitten to retain energy. You'll only go back to normal when your body has recovered. I'm not anticipating something like that ever happening, so you shouldn't worry about it."

"Okay, thanks," Kisshu said. "I suppose the serum involves needles?"

"Yes, but it shouldn't hurt," Keiichiro said. "Who's going first?"

Kisshu pointed to Ichigo, who sighed. "I'll go," she said. "You're only putting off the inevitable, Kisshu."

Kisshu sighed as Ichigo went over to a chair, and Keiichiro took a needle with a canister attached off the counter. Then he put the needle in Ichigo's arm, and pushed all the serum into her vein. When he was done, he put a bandage on her arm, and looked at Kisshu, who sighed and came over, sitting down in the chair. Ichigo took his hand and said, "Just don't look."

Kisshu looked away as Keiichiro pushed all the serum into his vein. Keiichiro put a bandage on Kisshu's arm, and said, "You're both all set."

"Thanks, Keiichiro," Ichigo said, then nudged Kisshu.

"Thank you," Kisshu said.

Keiichiro smiled. "You're welcome."

Pai sighed. "I think we should get back," he said. "I don't want to stay away too long."

"Okay," Kisshu and Ichigo said. "Keiichiro, Lettuce, it was nice seeing you again."

"And thanks for getting us back to normal," Ichigo said to Keiichiro.

"Thanks for taking care of us," Kisshu said to Lettuce.

"Sure," Lettuce said. She turned to Pai, and said, "Pai-san, I'll miss you."

Pai looked a bit startled, but said, "I'll miss you too. I hope to visit again soon, though."

"Next time, can you contact me?" Keiichiro asked. "We weren't sure if it was you guys when the computers sensed a spaceship heading for Earth."

"Alright," Pai said. "I guess I forgot, I was thinking about how to get Kisshu and Ichigo back to normal."

"That's fine, I can understand you being worried," Keiichiro said. "Hopefully next time you visit we all can just have fun, instead of pulling all-nighters to make sure Kisshu and Ichigo don't turn into kittens permanently."

"I hope so too," Pai said. "We'll come back whenever we can. Taruto is getting attached to Pudding."

Taruto blushed and said, "I am not!"

Kisshu smirked. "Denial attack."

Taruto growled, but didn't attack Kisshu for once. Pai sighed and said, "We'll be going now, thank you for all your help. Sayonara, Lettuce."

Lettuce blushed slightly and said, "Sayonara, Pai-san."

Pai nodded and teleported back to the ship, followed by Kisshu, Ichigo and Taruto.

Okay, a bit short, but at least I got Kisshu and Ichigo back to normal. Review plz!