Thank you to the people who sent ideas for Purin and Tart :) I already used one in an upcoming chapter -the seventh- and I'm going to work in another one at some point. Enjoy the fifth chapter!


Ichigo was at her front door with Kisshu. "See you in your room," he said as he was about to teleport.

Ichigo grabbed his wrist and raised an eyebrow at him, "we're going to watch a movie, remember? My parents have to know you're here. The TV is in the living room."

"But I thought they couldn't know about me?" Kisshu asked.

"Not the whole alien thing," Ichigo said, "but you look human enough. It'll be fine."

"Oh, okay," Kisshu was a bit nervous at meeting her parents. He wasn't sure why, though. It wasn't like they were dating. Yet.

Ichigo unlocked the door and stepped in. "Mom? Dad? I brought a friend home. We're going to watch a movie in the living room."

"All right dear, I'm making cookies and your father is staying late at the office!" Sakura called from the kitchen.

"Okay!" Ichigo said. She led Kisshu to the living room and told him to sit down on the couch. She pulled out a box from next to the TV that had a least a dozen movies in it.

"Something funny, action packed, or a romance?" Ichigo asked. She prayed he didn't pick something scary.

"Umm..." Kisshu sifted through them, looking at all the covers. "This one!" He grinned as he held up his choice.

"A-are you sure...?" She asked. He had picked The Grudge.

"Yes." Kisshu said, starting to read the synopsis on the back.

Ichigo sighed, "okay..." She mentally kicked herself for letting him pick. "I'll make the popcorn first."

"Okay," Kisshu said, still reading. Ichigo got up went to the kitchen.

"So, how is Berry?" Sakura asked.

"Um, fine? Why?" Ichigo questioned.

"That's who's here isn't it?" Sakura said, "she's usually the friend you bring over these day. Or is it Retasu and Minto this time?"

"No, his name's Kisshu," Ichigo said. She put the bag of popcorn in the microwave.

Sakura looked at her daughter, "A boy?" She grinned, "bored with Aoyama now, are you?"

Ichigo blushed, "No, of course not! He's just a friend. He's new here, so I thought it'd make it easier if he had someone to show him around and stuff."

"Well, that's nice of you," Sakura said, "just don't do anything I wouldn't do." She gave her a wink.

Ichigo didn't respond as she took the bag out of the beeping microwave and dumped it into a bowl. She added some butter and salt and headed back to the living room to put the movie in. She checked her phone.

"Waiting for something?" Kish asked.

"Aoyama-kun hasn't called or even sent a text in several days," Ichigo said with a sad face. He fell silent as the movie started.

Kisshu's eyes were wide with a small amused smirk on his lips. He liked horror movies, he discovered, although he didn't find this one particularly scary. But he also discovered that Ichigo did not like them, as she was curled up in a tight ball next to him, clinging to his shirt as she hid her face in his shoulder. He had wrapped an arm around her but she either didn't notice or didn't care. They had finished all the popcorn well before it was over and had gotten glasses of water at some point in the middle.

"That was a good movie, Koneko-chan!" Kisshu grinned down at her.

Ichigo peeked at the screen to make sure the movie really was over. "Why did I let you pick..." She groaned, sitting up.

"If you don't like scary movies, why didn't you say something?" Kish asked as she got up to put the movie back in its case.

"Because it was your first movie," Ichigo said, "I figured I might as well let decide what it was." Her phone started to make noise from the coffee table.

Ichigo scrambled to answer it. "Hello?...Aoyama-kun!" Kisshu rolled his eyes with his face turned away so she couldn't see. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees, and put his chin in his palm. Ichigo glanced at him, "Hold on a sec." She darted around the couch and up the stairs to her room. Kish sighed and decided to take the empty popcorn bowl and their water glasses to the sink. Her mother was cleaning dishes.

"Oh, um, is it okay if I..." He didn't know if it was polite to put dishes in the sink while other people were cleaning or not. He knew they did at the cafe, but this was a home.

"Just set them right next to the sink, Kisshu," Sakura said cheerfully. "So, how did you and Ichigo meet? I know it couldn't have been school since she transferred to the all girls academy."

"I, um..." Kisshu thought of a good and believable explanation besides diving off of a building to kiss her. "I go to Tasuku's school."

"That must be fun," Sakura said, "he's such a nice boy. Are you two good friends?"

"Kind of," Kish said. He and Tasuku did seem to get along pretty well.

They heard a soft crash from upstairs and both looked towards the ceiling. "Would you go check on Ichigo for me?" Sakura asked, "I'm a bit worried with her boyfriend traveling so much."

"Yeah, sure," Kisshu made his way upstairs and found her curled up on her bed in the corner, her knees pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around them and her face buried. Her cell phone and jingly bell choker were on the floor near her desk.

"Did Goody Two-Shoes do something?" He asked, walking to the bed.

"I want my friends," Ichigo said shakily.

"Okay..." He was surprised she didn't reprimand him for name calling. He looked at her cell phone on the floor and walked over to pick it up. The screen was cracked but it was still usable. He fumbled with it for a minute, trying to figure out how to use it, but managed to find Berry's number.

After it rang for a few seconds, "Ichigo, what's up?" he heard on the other end.

"It's actually Kisshu," he said.

"Oh...what's going on?" She sounded worried.

"I don't know," Kish said, looking back at Ichigo, who hadn't moved. "Ichigo was on the phone with Masaya and now her cell phone has a cracked screen and all she said was that she wanted her friends."

"That can't be good..." Berry mumbled, "alright, I'll handle it from here."

"Okay," Kish said, "thanks, bye." They hung up and he set the phone down on the desk. He looked back at Ichigo, "Koneko-chan, is there anything I can do?" He wasn't good with people when they were upset and especially didn't know how to handle Ichigo in this state.

"No," She sniffled. "Just go, please." He watched her for a moment, worried. He knew she was crying; he could hear it in her voice. Without another word, he made his way to the door and went back down to the kitchen to let her mother know that something had happened between her and Aoyama, that he was "heading home," and that her friends were going to be there soon. Sakura thanked him, although she was clearly worried, and he left, teleporting himself to the base Pai and Tart were staying at once he had gone out the front door. He told himself she'd be safe in the time it took for the other Mews to get there.


The next day at the cafe, Kish noticed Ichigo was very upset still and that her nails had been painted to look like strawberries. He walked up to Tasuku who was leaning on the front counter, waiting for Berry to come back from the kitchen with their next delivery. "Do you know what happened last night?" He asked.

Tasuku looked at him, "Masaya told Ichigo he wanted a break for while he's in Italy. Told her they should try seeing other people. He said it was because of him traveling and insisted she would get lonely with him gone so much."

"Oh," Kisshu looked back at Ichigo. It made sense now with how she reacted to the phone call and how glum she was. Despite this, he couldn't help the rising joy knowing that Ichigo was now free and he might actually have a chance if he played his cards right.

He walked over to where she was standing by the kitchen and grabbed her hand, "cute, Koneko-chan, did you do this?"

"No," she said monotonously, "Zakuro did."

"I like it, it fits you," he said, "so-"

"Please don't, Kish," she interrupted him, "I'm not in the mood today." He stared at her for a moment before Ryou walked up.

"Would you two stop flirting and get back to work?" He said. Ichigo silently walked off and Kisshu lingered for a second before doing as Ryou had said.

Ichigo was a mess all day. Ryou had told her to "suck it up during work" when he found Berry trying to console her on the kitchen floor as she ate strawberry chocolate swirl ice cream right out of the carton, to which she threw the spoon at his head. He had dodged it, but just barely. Keiichiro told him to leave her alone for now and let her grieve in peace. Kish constantly made jokes, poked fun at her, and made perverted comments in an attempt to get her riled up but it wasn't working like it usually did. She would just shoot him a glare before sulking away.

At the end of the day when they closed up the cafe and Ichigo was sweeping, Minto walked up and grabbed the broom from her. Ichigo looked at her in shock but then Keiichiro walked out with a strawberry cheesecake and set it on a table.

"What's this for?" Ichigo asked.

"To cheer you up, doofus," Minto said, "you've been sulking all day."

Retasu smiled sweetly, "we're all trying to help you feel better, Ichigo-san."

"Purin wants Ichigo-oneechan to be happy again, na no da!" Purin said, bouncing on her toes.

"Yeah, I haven't even called you old or fat all day!" Tart piped up.

Ichigo's face started to scrunch up and tears slid down her cheeks, "you guys..." she started wiping rapidly at them with the back of her hands, "I'm sorry, I-I don't mean to be like this, it's just..."

Berry hugged her around the shoulders from behind, "we know it's hard, but we're all here for you. Why do you think we dropped everything to spend last night with you?"

"Purin had to leave her siblings alone with Tar-Tar, na no da," Purin said.

"Thank you!" Ichigo was still crying, but she also smiled for the first time that day which made Kish grin. Everyone dug into the cheesecake and drank tea.

Pai and Retasu shared one of the two-seated tables as they ate, "Pai-san, may I ask you something?" She said.

"Of course," he said.

She stared down at her cake, "what was Suika talking about? When he said something was all over your mind."

Pai's eyes snapped up to look at her but his face remained blank. No, he would never be able to confess what that nuisance was talking about, and especially not to her. "I do not know," he said monotonously. Retasu remained quiet, knowing that he was not telling her the truth. She silently wished he would trust her more.

A strange rumble that shook the cafe came from outside and everyone froze, waiting to see if it had just been an Earthquake or something else. When screams were heard outside, the Mews and aliens ran for the door. Mikan floated above the trees in the park not too far away. His hands were held high above his head with his palms facing the sky.

"MEW MEW ZAKURO!"

"MEW MEW PUDDING!"

"MEW MEW LETTUCE!"

"MEW MEW MINT!"

"MEW MEW BERRY!"

"MEW MEW STRAWBERRY!"

"METAMORPHO-SIS!"

The girls transformed as they ran with the aliens following behind them. By the time they got to the park, everyone had cleared out of it and thick vines were racing up towards Mikan. Minto flew upwards, aiming her arrow at the tangled vines.

"RIBBON...MINT ECHO!" A glowing blue arrow shot out and hit one, making it recoil back to the ground.

"RIBBON...ZAKURO PURE!" A whip of purple light struck several and the ones that were hit recoiled, but still more shot up.

Mikan set his eyes on a certain Mew and a vine shot in her direction too quick for her to dodge. Purin let out a scream as it wrapped tightly around her as it lifted her into the sky and held her close to the orange haired alien. Tart flew at them, his palms out in front of him, struggling for control over the plants. Purin struggled against the grip of the vine, biting and ripping at it, but it wouldn't let go.

"Retasu!" Ichigo shouted, looking back at her. She gave a nod, understanding what needed to be done and Ichigo started sprinting as fast as her cat DNA would let her, heading right for the vines.

"Ichigo, what are you thinking?!" Kisshu called after her, following in flight.

Ichigo ignored him and kept running as fast as she could, which was faster than Kisshu could fly. She jumped up from vine to vine until she was above the tree line. "Now!" She yelled to Retasu who readied her weapons.

"RIBBON...LETTUCE RUSH!" She shot water at Ichigo who caught it with her Strawberry Bell and spun around, sending it right at Mikan.

"Ack!" He was blown backwards by the stream of water.

"Down!" Taruto yelled, commanding the vines to shrink back down and return to the dirt below. Purin landed safely on the ground, as did Ichigo. Kisshu smiled with relief that she hadn't gotten herself hurt. Tart rushed to Purin, "are you okay?"

Before she could answer, Mikan appeared next to them and he was angry. He grabbed Purin's arm and yanked her into a choke hold. "Move and I break her neck!" He shouted. Everyone watched in horror, not knowing what to do. Purin could hardly breathe in his tight grip. She tried to wriggle her way out but couldn't so she opened wide and bit down on his arm. "Ow!" He shouted, letting her go. In rage, his raised his hand and slapped her. Hard. She let out a scream as she fell to ground and Mikan disappeared.

"Purin!" Tart exclaimed, kneeling to see if she was okay.

With a red hand print on her face, she still smiled up at him, "I'm all right, Tar-Tar, na no d a!"

Tart looked angry now, "I can't believe he hit you like that! I'm so gonna beat his ass next time I see him!"

"Watch your mouth," Kisshu said, "and I told you to be careful. They know what we care about." Tart helped Purin up and the girls powered down.

"Why would they only send one?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah, that's weird for them," Berry said.

"I think they're testing to see how strong we are as a team," Kish said.

"He is anticipating no coordination or cooperation," Pai said.

"But the war was ended in peace," Minto said, "why would he expect that?"

"Because he is foolish," Pai said.


Tart stood leaning against the doorway to the living room with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, watching Purin as she swept the entryway of house. He couldn't take his eyes off of the red hand print on her cheek. He pushed off the doorway and walked up to her, taking the broom and resting it against the wall. She looked up at him curiously.

"Purin, you got attacked you today because-" He started but she interrupted him.

"Purin knows why, na no da," Purin said.

"Y-you do?" Tart was a bit surprised. Kish teased him about his crush it all the time, but never in front of Purin, so how could she know?

She beamed up at him, "Because Purin is Tar-Tar's friend, na no da, that's why she got attacked today."

He stared at her for a moment, glad she didn't know the real reason. He didn't want to lose her as a friend because of it. Kish had told him that that could happen if you told someone you liked how you felt, but they didn't feel the same. He smiled back at her, "Yeah, but I won't let it happen again."

She threw herself at him, squeezing his waist, "Purin is glad, na no da!"


Not a whole lot happened in this chapter, I know, but I needed to get Ichigo and Masaya's relationship at least sort of over. Now the real KishIchigo-ness can begin! I have some cute scenes coming up for all three main couples so I'm kind of excited to see what you all think of it :) And please review!