Brought Together Chapter 3:

Caring for Kisshu

Pai finally came out of shock, and said, "Thank you, that's a big help. Should I show you where Kisshu is?"

"Hai," Ichigo said.

Pai led her to a room near the main room, where they had been talking. He opened the door, and motioned for Ichigo to go in. She did, and gasped at what she saw. The room was huge, but that wasn't what had caught her attention. Kisshu was lying in the bed in the center of the room. His cheeks were flushed, and like Pai had said, he was having trouble breathing. He was also still unconscious.

"He's been like this since I brought you here," Pai said. He watched as Ichigo went to Kisshu's side, and gently put a hand on his forehead. She almost immediately yanked her hand away.

"Do you have fever medication here?" Ichigo asked. "His temperature is very high."

"We do, but we have to wake him up to have him take it," Pai said.

"I guess we'll just have to wake him up, then," Ichigo said reluctantly. "He shouldn't be left in that condition without medicine for very long, if the fever rises much more, it could kill him."

"I'll go get the medicine, you try to wake him up," Pai said, and teleported out.

Ichigo put a hand on Kisshu's shoulder, and tried shaking him gently, saying his name softly. He didn't even stir. She then started stroking his hair, saying his name over and over, her tone getting more and more urgent. This too proved useless.

By the time Pai got back, Ichigo had tried everything she could think of and was sitting on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands. She looked up as Pai teleported in, and said, "He's not waking up, and I've tried everything I can think of."

"That's not good," Pai said. "Move over, let me try something." Ichigo obeyed, and Pai leaned over Kisshu. He put one finger on Kisshu's forehead, and whispered something that Ichigo didn't catch. Pai's finger began to glow. Suddenly he tapped Kisshu on the forehead once, and took his finger away.

A few minutes passed, and Ichigo finally said, "Was that supposed to do something?"

"Yeah, it was supposed to wake him up," Pai said. He sounded confused.

"Well, I guess we'll have to come up with something else," Ichigo said. "Still, this is worrying."

"I agree, that technique I used usually works no matter what the situation," Pai said. "Hey, what if you kissed him?"

Ichigo turned red, but said, "I guess so…." She leaned down, and kissed Kisshu on the lips. Finally she broke off the kiss, and stood up again. A few minutes of watching Kisshu later, she turned to Pai and said, "It didn't work."

"It was an idea," Pai said, smirking.

"That's totally creepy," Ichigo said dryly.

"What is?" Pai asked.

"You smirking," Ichigo said. "You better not be like Kisshu when he smirks like that."

"What do you mean?" Pai asked.

"Usually when Kisshu has that smirk, he's thinking of something perverted, I can tell," Ichigo said.

"Hey, I'm nothing like Kisshu!" Pai said indignantly.

Ichigo giggled and said, "Sorry. We still need to find a way to wake Kisshu up."

"You're right, any ideas?" Pai said.

"No, I'm pretty much out of ideas," Ichigo said. "Do you think Taruto would have any?"

"Probably not any that I couldn't come up with on my own," Pai said.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Ichigo, and she said, "Did Kisshu ever have problems getting up in the morning when Ichigo was still alive?"

"Sometimes…" Pai said.

"Did Ichigo ever do anything to help him get up?" Ichigo asked.

Pai saw what she was getting at, and said, "Yeah, but if we do that, he's going to be sad to see that it's not really his sister if the idea manages to wake him up."

"We need to do something," Ichigo said. "I'd rather he'd be sad than dead from the fever."

"Good point," Pai said. Then he sighed. "Ichigo used to tickle him awake."

Ichigo sighed, but said, "Okay, where is he ticklish?"

"His stomach," Pai replied. "Just so you know, he would wake up and start a tickle war, so if you're ticklish, and he wakes up, I suggest getting off him fast."

"Great…" Ichigo said, then sighed, and took the blanket off Kisshu. Then she started tickling him in the stomach.

At first it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Kisshu remained motionless. It turned out that this was just an act, as Ichigo soon learned. Ichigo had just turned to look at Pai, when she suddenly felt fingers on her stomach, and she looked back at Kisshu. He wasn't completely awake, but his eyes were starting to open, and he had started tickling her. Ichigo started giggling, which led to full-out laughter soon enough.

She looked down at Kisshu, just as he opened his eyes, and said, "OKAY! I'm awake…." He trailed off, however, as he realized who was tickling him. He immediately stopped tickling her, and looked puzzled- and a bit sad.

Ichigo got off him. Pai came up behind her and said, "Well, your idea worked. Good job, Ichigo."

"Pai, what's going on, why is Ichigo here, and why do I feel awful?" Kisshu demanded.

"You collapsed almost as soon as you got back," Pai said. "Ichigo is here because we figured she had something to do with your collapse, and you feel awful because you have a really bad fever. I have some medicine here, and I think you should take it, it'll help."

"Yuck…" Kisshu said. "But why was Ichigo tickling me?"

"We couldn't wake you up any other way, and we tried everything- including Ichigo kissing you," Pai explained. Ichigo turned bright red as Pai continued, "She asked me if your sister ever did anything in particular to wake you up in the morning, and it seems her idea worked."

"Wait, how did you even know I had a sister, Ichigo?" Kisshu asked.

"It was part of Pai's long explanation about why he and Taruto brought me here," Ichigo replied.

"So Pai basically told you my life story?" Kisshu asked. He sounded angry.

"No, I just told her that you had a sister named Ichigo," Pai said. "And that you really loved everything about her…" he trailed off as Kisshu started to look murderous.

"Pai, if I wasn't feeling so weak right now, I would be strangling you," Kisshu said in a cold voice that Ichigo had never heard him use. "If I wanted Ichigo to know those things, I would have told her. You did not have the right to tell her about my personal issues. Besides, why didn't you just kill her? You're the one always going on about Deep Blue and how he's always right."

"Deep Blue abandoned us," Pai said bitterly. "Apparently we weren't good enough for him. I was going to tell you as soon as you got back, but you collapsed before I got the chance."

Kisshu looked shocked. He looked like he wanted to say something, but suddenly started coughing.

"Kisshu, you should really take some of the medicine," Ichigo said.

"Since when did you care?" Kisshu asked after he stopped coughing.

"Since Pai explained that you weren't just toying with my feelings and that you actually did love me," Ichigo said.

"And the treehugger?" Kisshu asked skeptically.

"He dumped me when he found out I was a Mew Mew. If I go out with someone, I need someone who will accept me for who I am, not someone like the treehugger, who can't accept anything that he doesn't understand," Ichigo said.

"I accept you for who you are," Kisshu said.

Ichigo smiled. "I know."

I know it's kind of a crappy chapter ending. I'm putting more fluff in the next chapter though.

I also haven't decided when Kisshu is going to recover, because Ichigo taking care of him is fun.

And I know Pai is OOC, but I'm not good with his character, so please forgive me. REVIEW!