Romantic Reveries
Dear readers,
Thank you for stopping by and reading this story. I would like to hereby thank you all for your comments, reviews, follows and kudos! ＾▽＾ As always, you guys are simply the best!
As for me, DAMN! What happened to the regular Thursday updates, you might ask?! Sorry, sorry! I'll try and get better! Just a quick heads up, there may be a slight delay with the next chapter as well, since we are really starting to go all drama in! Speaking of drama, a lot of you are probably wondering what the actual hell is going on with the story, right? And, yes. These thoughts are totally valid, I agree! We have a lot to unpack, that's for sure! Including and especially the relationship of our favorite protagonists. Is Kisshu being real with Ichigo, or is he only playing her to further his own agenda? And what about Masaya and the others? How will their involvement affect everything? Until next time!
The music I used for this part is Tatu's 'Not Gonna Get Us' and Limp Bizkit's 'Behind Blue Eyes.'
DrDark7 - Thank you for your comment! As always, you have hit the nail on the head. How long would it take for the others to notice what is going on? And how will they react? That is yet to be found out!
Lucero Perez - Thank you for your comment! I totally agree. Masaya will soon be out of the picture, that's for sure! The question that remains is whether or not it is going to be good for Ichigo. Cyniclons are evil creatures, after all!
Sorakitten - Thank you for your comment! Yes, I'm back. Despite the irregular updates, I can assure you that this story will be finished at some point, one way or another. It might just take a little longer!
Lulyy Elizabeth Vaca - Thank you for your comment! Yes, you're totally right. Toxic relationships are terrible! Is this going to be one of them? You have to keep on reading to find out!
bebedorara - Thank you for your comment! I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the last chapter so much. We are only going to build on all that drama from now on, so prepare for even more abrupt plot twists and dramatic revelations!
AnimeRoxx - Thank you for your comment! Yes, the last few paragraphs were quite drama-loaded, weren't they? Let's sum it up, Masaya is suspicious, Mint shocked, Pai and Kisshu, apparently, evil and Ichigo completely unaware. What else could go wrong?
Kishlover985 - Thank you for your comment! Yes, yes. It was very long! That is why I'm immensely enjoying the fact that this following update does not exceed 9000 words haha. I can't answer all your questions now, but they will be addressed in the upcoming chapters, rest assured!
Mew2 - Thank you for your comments! I am super happy to hear that you are enjoying this fic so much. TMM is great, isn't it? And, yes. Usually, I upload on Thursdays. But, as you can clearly see, sometimes I fall behind my schedule, so feel free to bookmark this story if you ever make that account!
Wildfaerie - Thank you for your comment! Yes, the drama is getting real! Very real, indeed. What will happen next? And, is there any possibility how Ichigo could navigate her way through this colossal mess without Ryou strangling her with his bare hands somewhere in the process? Only time will tell!
As always, please enjoy and review!
I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew
For the next couple of days, Ichigo's mind was fraught with all sorts of things and ideas that had kept buzzing in her head in an endless loop.
There was, of course, her late night encounter with Kisshu at the party; the fact that nobody had caught them; that Ichigo had managed to successfully restore the radars without any trouble; that Ryou had not yet killed her, even though that could very well be only due to Moe's intervention; and, last but not least, her last argument with Masaya.
Ichigo halted to a stop.
Had she really been too awful to him?
Define too awful.
Recalling Masaya's poor attempt at sex in the locker room, the red head slightly grimaced.
Yes. Perhaps, her behavior was rather appropriate, considering all the alleviating circumstances. Still, Ichigo could not help the twinge of guilt that had been clawing at her heart. All the more, since she had not seen her boyfriend for the whole weekend and, due to her busy schedule, she had not had a chance to talk to him even today as of yet. And, with Ichigo being Ichigo, despite how weird her present thoughts sounded, she could not brush off the notion that she should apologize; that she should repent for her earlier behavior. Somehow, anyhow. Because only upon then, could her spirits be lifted again and she could finally breathe without any sinking feeling in her chest.
Maybe, I should take him out for a dinner sometime this week?
'Why? So that you can continue in this farce?' her conscience scoffed.
'So I can make it up to him,' the girl countered readily.
'WHY?!'
Ichigo heaved a long sigh, too tired to keep bickering with her inner voice.
Instead, she opened her phone and began to type.
Hi Masaya…
However, before any solid plan of what exactly Ichigo should write to her boyfriend had popped in her head, Masha all of a sudden puffed out to his maximum size and started frantically flapping his small red wings in an extremely distressed manner.
"Alien alert. Alien alert," he squealed.
Ichigo warily glanced between her phone with the unfinished message on the display, and the crimson bile of smoke that was rising up to the sky in the park directly in front of her.
"Well," she let out an exhale, "At least I tried."
Pocketing her cell, the red head swiftly transformed and, without looking back, quickly headed towards the locus of their enemy.
"There are simply too many of them!" Lettuce cried out in a desperate tone of voice, as she finished destroying yet another bee-like Chimera Anima that had kept swarming around her green-clad body as if she was made of honey.
Ichigo did a backflip, thus successfully dodging the long, pointed sting that was directly aiming at her, and landed back on her feet close to where Zakuro had been standing. They exchanged a brief glance with the wolf girl before Ichigo's eyes returned to the finless porpoise Mew who had kept on splashing the Cyniclon creations one by one, only to face more of them, once those that had been hit with her Ribbon Lettuce Rush had disappeared.
Ichigo's pupils slightly narrowed.
Lettuce was right, she knew.
As far as the numbers were concerned, Tokyo Mew Mew was definitely losing. There was no denying that. Notwithstanding, Ichigo could not ignore the distinct fact that although the Chimera Animas buzzed basically everywhere she looked, their power, in truth, was not all that intimidating. Was this battle meant to simply deplete their energy levels and exhaust their strength and stamina? Hard to say, but the longer they had fought, the more Ichigo had started to ponder that there could be something even more sinister awaiting them once this battle was over.
"Keep attacking, I'm sure these bees are only a diversion anyway," Ichigo wiped the beads of sweat that began forming on her brow, while she threw another dirty look at the alien trio that continued to hover in the air above them effortlessly.
As usual, all three of them were present. And, not unlike any other time, each of their facial expressions varied drastically from each other. Whereas Pai's and Taruto's respective impassiveness and ferocity could not clash any harder, Kisshu remained seemingly collected, looking on in genuine, somewhat calculated interest that was blazing all across his fiery eyes.
To Ichigo's mild surprise, he appeared to have been solely invested in Zakuro today for the majority of their fight, following her contours with his pale index finger everywhere she moved, as he kept on telling something to Pai in regards to what he had been presumably seeing. Nonetheless, when his focus skidded to Ichigo and their gazes locked, his serious visage briefly dropped and he grinned widely, making the red head immediately swallow hard and avert her eyes in shame.
This was not good.
His stare felt too real, too burning; too reminiscent of what all they had been doing together behind the closed doors. And that was not good. Now was not the time to day-dream. Now was time to fight. And having the alien anywhere near her had made the task at hand all the more challenging.
Ichigo clenched and unclenched her fists before she eventually turned on her heel and attacked yet another series of Chimera Animas that appeared in her peripheral, not willing to let her secret affair stand in between any of this.
"Ribbon Strawberry Check!" she screamed, unleashing her inner frustrations fully.
"There you go, Ichigo," Mint applauded once she herself efficiently eliminated the monster that had been levitating close to her right.
"If we keep fighting like this, we will soon succeed," Zakuro added, while her violet whip continued hitting one Chimera Anima after another.
"Right," Ichigo nodded vigorously, as she waited for the dust around her to settle down so she could attack all anew.
And, with their determination hence fully restored, it did not take too long until every single one of the Cyniclon creations was ultimately wiped out from the picture, leaving the wind that was wildly gushing around their bodies make their hair swish in all directions, while their human, resolute eyes remained glaring at the three alien figures in the air in sheer defiance.
"Now it's your turn, na no da!" Pudding shouted, with her weapon at a ready, and before anyone could stop her, she lunged herself forward and attacked the Cyniclon trio head on.
"P-pudding, wait!" Ichigo tried to get a hold of Pudding's arm, but the Monkey Mew was deaf to the latter's pleading.
"Pudding Ring Inferno!" Pudding yelled and within the next few seconds, the yellow jelly substance, which had burst out of her small hands, collided with a blinding electric blue current, thus creating a loud explosion in the air, along with a huge puff a smoke that enveloped the whole area in a whirlwind of dust and debris.
Various leaves, branches and gravel were instantly diffused everywhere around them, making Ichigo cough and her eyes water and itch. She squinted against the obvious discomfort she was feeling in her eye muscles and it took another minute or two for her vision to finally clear out only to see all the three Cyniclon bodies hovering in the foreground, with their shoulders rolled back and some sort of electric energy sizzling in their hands, ready to strike.
"Great," Mint scoffed, shooting a harsh glare at Pudding, "Now we have to fight them as well, thank you very much."
"S-sorry, na no da," Pudding smiled sheepishly.
"It's ok, Pudding. You meant well," Ichigo replied, not letting her eyes steer away from their enemy.
There was no way that they would let that one slip; no matter how much Ichigo had prayed for the opposite. And when she spotted the evil glint burning bright in Taruto's gaze, she only grew more sure of it.
"You losers really don't know when to call it quits, do ya?" the youngest alien cackled wickedly as he began shifting the electric power from one palm of his hand to another.
"Maybe they just want more," Kisshu sneered, causing Ichigo's ears to grow hot, once they reenacted eye contact.
"Or they are delusional," Pai finished in a solemn voice before extending his right arm and chanting his attack, "Kuu Rai Sen."
Not a minute later, the ground underneath their feet immediately began to shake, as a new dangerous fight erupted in between them.
'What the hell?' Ichigo growled in annoyance, evading the aftermath of Pai's blow in the nick of time, "Are we really going to fight them when we are almost at our limit?' the Iriomote cat girl mused, while she continued to jump from one tree to another in order to avoid the relentless electric currents that were hurled at her from all different directions.
But before she could make up her mind, a beam of vibrant purple light quickly flashed in front of her eyes, as a familiar deep female voice resonated within every single cell of her body.
"Ribbon Zakuro Spear!"
And, soon after, the others quickly joined the fight, giving Ichigo no choice but to concur.
"Ribbon Lettuce Rush!"
"Pudding Ring Inferno!"
"Ribbon Mint Echo!"
It was a battle unlike any other, brimming with colorful hues and hearty screams, as the Mew Mews returned the alien attacks with equal ferocity.
"Ribbon Strawberry Check!" Ichigo clasped at her Strawberry Bell tighter before landing safely back on the ground.
Her victorious smile quickly morphed into that of an annoyed scowl, however, once she turned around and instantly noticed how the stream of her pink light became gradually neutralized by Taruto's click clacks, rendering her attack fruitless as a consequence.
"Is that all you have, old hag?" he mocked.
Damn.
When was the last time the Cyniclons had actually actively engaged in a fight like this? Was it during the battle in the cave? Or sometime even after that? Why was Ichigo's memory so blurred in regards to their previous fights all of a sudden? That did not sound right. She should pay more attention to their fighting techniques from now on, as, evidently, apart from creating their Chimera Animas, the enemy still had a lot of tricks up their sleeve.
Ichigo was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she merely vaguely registered Pai's shadow opposite to her.
And when she did, it was a second too late.
"Kuu Rai Sen."
Fuck!
She pulled her weapon in front of her, trying to brace herself for the inevitable attack that was surely going to hit her with a massive blow, but before the searing yellow light could blast her with its ominous power, a sudden forceful kick in her stomach made her wince in pain. And, in a flash, Ichigo found herself flying in the air, only to crash in the nearby tree with a loud thud a moment later.
What the-
Slumping down the uneven surface, she could feel the little splinters piercing into the soft skin of her exposed back, as she tried to regain her breathing pattern. There were small trickles of blood that kept pouring down her arms, Ichigo noticed, and her stomach still ached with an inexplicable sensation of agony. But, apart from that, she was okay. Not scorched, nor electrified. Okay, which had made absolutely no sense, considering the circumstances.
Could Pai really miss from such a short distance? No, she did not believe that, nor was she particularly convinced that the alien had suffered from any last-minute change of his heart. None of these options were plausible by any stretch of Ichigo's imagination. No. It must have been something else. But what?
Propping herself on her elbows carefully, Ichigo peered from her position on the ground to fully process what had just happened only to find Kisshu hovering exactly where she had been standing not a few seconds ago, as the smoke slowly started to disperse around him, the annoying grin still plastered across his face.
He reclined his head playfully and cocked a curious eye brow at her, as if to ascertain how she was doing, but that mere gesture proved lethal to the alien, as it had inadvertently left an opening for Zakuro to attack him directly from the front; a chance that the purple-haired Mew Mew did not miss.
"Ribbon Zakuro Spear!"
Ichigo's eyes widened in horror when the violet blinding rays exploded out of her friend's weapon, hitting Kisshu effectively with a fatal blow before he could teleport away.
"Way to go, Zakuro," Mint chirped enthusiastically from the air, whereas Ichigo rose back to her feet unsure and in dumbfounded silence.
Every part of her body should have been pulsing with happiness that they had just scored. Big time. But, instead of the feeling of elation, Ichigo was gripped by a cool chill of fear that something was terribly wrong.
She leant against the tree, slightly panicky and disoriented, and it was only upon hearing Pudding jovial voice that had made her gulp in immediate understanding.
"Yea! That's what you get for targeting Big sis Ichigo all the time, na no da!"
Oh yes.
To anyone else on her team, it all seemed as a deliberate butchered attack during which both Kisshu and Pai had teamed up against her to finish her off. No one would ever think that that was not really what had happened; no one would even deem it possible.
Only Ichigo knew the truth.
The truth that Kisshu hadn't attacked her and, in fact, that he was the main reason why she was currently still breathing.
The strange mixture of emotions, which had been prickling at her skin, only increased in volume, as she watched Zakuro and the green-haired alien continue with their fight in the air, making her suddenly realize that she did not want either one of them to get hurt, or win; that she truly had no party to cheer for.
And the fiercer they had battled, the more anxious Ichigo felt about these two particular revelations.
"Kisshu," Ichigo whispered softly, when she witnessed yet another clash of violet light and blue electric current.
"What was that?" Mint asked, appearing quickly by her side and noting the clear concern dotting in Ichigo's eyes.
"N-nothing," Ichigo recovered briskly, trying to calm her breathing when another hue of violet light flashed across the sky, "Go, help Zakuro. I will take care of Taruto and Pai together with Lettuce and Pudding."
"Gotcha," the blue lorikeet nodded and soared back in the air to assist her idol.
"Ribbon Zakuro Spear!"
Zakuro's low voice thundered all over the place yet again, however, this time, Kisshu had anticipated as much. Before the violet beam of power could surge through his body, he swiftly vanished only to reemerge above Ichigo in the next second. His pale hand unexpectedly latched on the Mew Mew's arm and, without any further warning, he started dragging her up by her arm in the air with him forcefully.
"W-what?! Hey!" Ichigo yelped and began to squirm but one look in his eyes informed her that there was nothing to worry about.
As far as their battle was concerned, at least.
"I've had enough fighting for today. How about you?" he snickered devilishly, letting the cheeky grin play across his lips once more.
Pausing at her antics, Ichigo stopped struggling against him and, for a while, gawked at him in shock.
Was he for real?
How could they possibly take off in the middle of the battle and without throwing any more suspicion their way? Was he truly mentally deranged?
But once she caught a glimpse of his shimmering gaze, it was enough of a confirmation for her to persuade herself that it was worth it. That he would make it worth it, in spite of how risky and ridiculous it all sounded to her.
Noting the change in her facial expression, his grin merely widened.
"Ready to leave?" Kisshu asked cheerfully, as the many fireworks of colorful explosions that had been haphazardly blasting above their heads reflected within the molten gold of his intense eyes.
With baited breath, Ichigo gave a determined nod and instantly sensed how his hand relinquished its firm hold on her arm and, instead, slid down to intertwine his fingers gently with hers. She clasped at his hand tighter, feeling him pull her in the air almost immediately with no more resistance on her part.
And, not after a whole half-minute later, they sailed high up in the sky.
Away.
From the spotlight.
From the battle.
From any prying eyes.
Somewhere far, far away, to relive the secret fantasies only the two of them were aware of.
In a retrospect, it did seem as a rather potent idea why the hell Kisshu had not instantaneously teleported them away. But, on second thought, Ichigo knew that the ever so arrogant alien had a propensity for the grandiose, which gliding in the air freely, while having the enemy still in his hands definitely qualified for.
Not to mention that there was something extraordinary about the feel of the soft clouds surrounding them, as they continued to fly above the green crowns of the forest and the blue pristine lake that began to spread lazily beneath their feet.
In a way, it all felt as if Ichigo was in a dream. Content and completely oblivious about what was happening around her. And, maybe, that ignorance was exactly what had temporarily clouded her judgement, making her totally forget that moving in the air in the open was not exactly wise, when the Cyniclons were not the only ones who wielded the ability to fly and attack from the above.
"Oh no, you don't!" Mint exclaimed indignantly, once her eyes rested on the two figures sailing high in the sky.
With laser precision, the blue lorikeet Mew protruded an arrow and, having the alien's body in her field of vision, while making sure that Ichigo was nowhere close to being hit, she extended her bow and subsequently fired.
The arrow shot through the air with lightning speed.
And before anyone could say or do anything, it had struck its intended target in one swift movement.
Quite alarmed, Ichigo's head shot upwards at the squishing unnatural sound and she froze when Kisshu's carefree face suddenly dropped the moment the blue beam of light went straight through his chest. She stared in utter consternation at how his eyes rolled back before his mouth opened wide with a loud gasp and blood immediately came gushing out. His grip on her hand then instantly loosened until it gave up on her entirely and the gravity began pulling them both downwards, forcing them to fall down through the air with rapid speed.
'Shit,' Ichigo cursed under her breath.
This wasn't looking good. If anything, this was looking absolutely terrible.
What was she supposed to do now? If they were to keep plummeting at this rate, they would soon fall straight into the lake beneath them. Again, a lake was a much better alternative to that cold, flat surface of the cave that Ichigo was dreading so much while she had been caught up in the air with him the last time. Even so, the Mew Mew refused to relive her trauma of diving in the unknown, so, instead, she took a deep breath and thought fast of a way out, not waiting for Kisshu to come up with any brilliant idea for a change.
And for that she, fortunately, did not have to wait much longer.
Getting a hold of a long, thick branch of tree that was protruding over the lake, Ichigo suspended herself in the air and shot the alien a quick glance to see if he would catch upon her antics and do the same.
However, when her eyes found him, her pupils went as wide as saucers at the sight of his motionless form that continued in the rapid descend with no indication of life whatsoever.
A strange wave of emotions coursed through Ichigo's body, then, all at once.
There it was, at long last. Their mortal enemy had been taken down in one swift attack. And, from the looks of it, Kisshu's consciousness did not seem very likely to return anytime soon, meaning that if things were going to stay this way, he would not only fall straight into the lake but also drown.
'Serves him right!' her inner voice declared triumphantly, "One Cyniclon down, two more to go."
'Yes,' Ichigo mentally saluted, already picturing Ryou's satisfied face during their next debriefing.
That was, at least, how the Mew Mew initially felt until another feeling, far less comfortable, settled around her heart, making her stomach drop unexpectedly, the moment one distinct thought crossed her mind.
Shouldn't I help him?
If Kisshu was a human, a person, a stranger, Ichigo would not hesitate to jump after him and save him. Not even for a damn second. Why was she hesitating now, then? Was it because he was not a human? Because he was her enemy? An alien? Why was she experiencing these second thoughts whether or not she should help him in the very first place, then?
Was it because she did not want Kisshu to die?
But why?
This time, it would not be a matter of her killing him as it was at the Explo premises, so her conscience would be free of all the subsequent guilt. Plus, Ichigo hardly thought that Mint would feel anything but ecstasy about the fact that she had managed to eliminate the Cyniclon leader. Why was it so hard for Ichigo to share her friend's enthusiasm, though? What was wrong with her? This was the moment that Tokyo Mew Mew had been long waiting for. With Kisshu gone, the Cyniclon attacks would soon come to a rapid halt and there would be no more fights to fight. Earth would be safe once and for all.
Why could she not perceive Kisshu's untimely death as something desirable, then?
Was it due to her inner desire?
No. That couldn't be. Granted, they had had a couple of good moments together. Very pleasant moments, during which he had made her feel that no other human being ever had. But that was it. He was her enemy. Always had been. Long before Kisshu had become her lover, he was a Cyniclon. And no amount of great and out of this world sex would ever change that. Now they were fighting, not fucking.
She should not let her personal feelings compromise her professionalism, not more than she had already had.
Wait a second…
Feelings?!
Since when did she feel anything for Kisshu?!
As if on cue, Ryou's biting voice echoed in Ichigo's mind, riling her up even more.
'You are letting far too many emotions to steer you away.'
Shut up!
Ichigo swallowed hard, slowly coming to terms with the notion that she had only two options to go with.
Either let Kisshu fall and drown, never looking back.
Or save his life.
She squeezed her eyes shut, grinding her teeth together at her inability to decide what was the right thing to do.
A reel of images of how he had kicked her away from Pai's lethal attack, the moans, the feels, the touch, Ryou's face, the Mews, Masaya and everything else began floating in her mind in a jumbled glitch of memories, as Ichigo tried to solve her inner dilemma. But no sooner had she reached any satisfying answer that she had reopened her eyes and clenched her jaw.
Screw this!
And before Ichigo could stop herself, her fingers let go of the branch at which she was so desperately clutching, and, with a scream, she dove right after him, not willing to let him die just yet.
She watched wordlessly, with a terror-stricken expression on her face, how Kisshu's body hit the lake with a loud, heavy splash and she immediately followed, breaking the still transparent barrier once more, with her hand extended directly in front of her.
Sinking deeper into the underwater world, she squinted at the unfamiliar prickling sensation in her eyes, but all her discomfort was momentarily forgotten once she caught a glimpse of his lifeless, drowning form.
"Kisshu!" she bawled and gripped his hand in hers, unwilling to let the fact that she was basically endangering her own life because of him get to her.
It did not matter that he was a dead weight. She refused to give in, or to stop. She couldn't. Not even when she felt the little bubbles forming at her mouth, as she had been losing air. Giving in was not an option here. She would save them. Both. Just like he had previously saved them. She would not let Kisshu drown, she just simply couldn't. And the longer Ichigo had been pulling them back to the surface, the clearer it had become to her that she did not wish death upon Kisshu anymore. Not sincerely at least. And that was primarily what had kept her going.
A little more. Just a little more.
And then, there came the day light at last, and Ichigo knew that she had made it, and that they were going to be alright.
Not wasting any more time, the Mew Mew dragged them both to the shore and, heaving loudly, she laid the alien on his back, resorting to the first aid not a second later.
"Kisshu, come on! Wake up! Come on! Don't you fucking dare to die here on me! Open your eyes already, will you?!" she screamed at him in a rush of panic and adrenaline, but he was completely unresponsive.
'Did Cyniclons even have a heart?' Ichigo inwardly wondered, while her hands kept on pushing deeper against his rib cage as her mouth continued with breathing air into his lungs.
But they must have. Even if their biology vastly differed from that of humans and they were used to totally different treatments, they were still linked to their species in some way. She just had to carry on with what she had been doing and it was going to be fine. She would save him. She knew how to save him. Keiichiro had showed her time and time again how to act in a situation like this in order to save one's life, so she would not fuck it up.
There was no way.
"Damn it! Kisshu, come on!"
It was only upon the moment when Ichigo almost lost all of her faith in herself and her medical abilities that a familiar, though a bit hoarse, voice reached her ears.
"You were that worried about me, mm? That's cute," he sputtered some water, tilting his head to the side to note the genuine surprise teeming in her teary eyes.
A huge sense of relief washed over Ichigo's face then and there, as she noticed the feeble semblance of his signature, fanged smile stretching on his lips.
"K-kisshu!" she managed to choke out in a rather breathless voice.
He was really ok. A little battered, but ok.
She briefly marveled at how his wet emerald hair stuck to his alabaster skin, making it seem even a shade paler, only to catch herself and whack him automatically, suddenly very aware of who was the person next to her that she was dealing with.
"Of course not! I just want to win against you fair and square, not when you are distracted by other things," Ichigo huffed, rising to a standing position.
"If you say so," he laughed, before his handsome face became marred by a slight frown, "By the way, seems like there won't be much of an action now that I'm still sorta bleeding all over. Sorry about that," he gave her an apologetic look as he finished inspecting himself.
Ichigo gaped at him incredulously.
Would someone who was not utterly insane think about sex under the current circumstances?
It had made her think of Masaya. Particularly, the non-existent sexual libido of Aoyama Masaya.
"I-I mean, of course. I expected as much," Ichigo replied, mentally debating whether Kisshu was as much of a sex addict as she was.
"Good."
He then snatched her wrist and, with a bit of effort, yanked himself upwards.
"Thanks, kitten. I'm almost tempted to say it was fun, but that'd be a lie."
Meeting her eyes, he sent her a small wink and just then the air around him shivered and Pai appeared beside him.
Surveying the situation quickly, he looped a hand around Kisshu and shot Ichigo a menacing glare. She gulped at the palpable hatred that was bunched in his gaze and made a step back, too appalled that he would attack her.
And, maybe, he would, but whatever plan he had in his mind was put to an immediate stop when Kisshu's soft whisper reached his ears
"Let's retreat," the green-haired alien said simply and soon began to teleport away.
Pai nodded and followed suit. But not before he threw another cursive heated glare at Ichigo.
'Did I do the right thing?' the Mew Mew wondered silently, as she watched their contours gradually disappear out of thin air.
Knowing it would be best for her to return, Ichigo turned around and, upon releasing a long, languished sigh, she did just that.
Being the only Mew Mew endowed with the ability to fly had always put Mint at a distinct advantage among the others.
Not only could she thus face the Cyniclons high up in the air, but she could also pursue them and predict their teleportation portals with great accuracy.
That was, at least, what the blue lorikeet Mew had believed until she had heard a sudden sound of a ripple somewhere close beneath her form.
She cast her eyes to the side in order to identify the owner of the unexpected movement and, shortly after, spotted Kisshu hovering a few feet to her left, panting and glaring daggers at Zakuro from whose grasp he had successfully escaped not a full half minute ago. Rather unfazed, Mint expected the alien to either return to fight the eldest Mew or, even more likely, to engage herself in a battle with him, but what Kisshu did confused Mint to quite some extent. They briefly exchanged eye contact, aware of each other's presence, but before Mint could initiate any attack, he vanished again, only to reappear at the other side of the battle scene, directly above where Ichigo had been standing.
At first, Mint had hardly regarded such an action as anything special, since the alien's obsession with her friend was a secret to no one; a simple fact, which was only solidified earlier today when he had attacked Ichigo once again together with his fellow alien in tow.
What, however, struck Mint as somewhat peculiar was the sudden shift in Ichigo's behavior, when she abruptly stopped squirming against Kisshu's persistent advances, making the blue lorikeet's puzzled expression screw into that of mute shock at the unexpected change.
And that was when she saw it; the confirmation of what Masaya's curious question had triggered in her head previously.
It was a quick gesture, almost imperceptible to human eye, really, but, for a fraction of a second, Mint noticed that there was absolutely nothing crude about the way how the alien's hand went into Ichigo's; nothing that would even remotely suggest violence in the manner how he was pulling her up in the air with him and away from the rest.
And neither in the way how he had been gliding in the sky with her shortly before Mint had struck him with her arrow, aiming directly in between his shoulder blades.
She was positive that she had hit him. Directly. Only him. Not Ichigo.
The moment Mint saw how his body began plummeting right after her arrow had pierced through him, she knew she was successful.
That was why the blue lorikeet Mew became momentarily so confused, when Ichigo's form all of a sudden seemed to follow his limp body down on its own accord.
Could the branch she was suspending herself against snap? Forcing her to fall? There was no way she would let herself get involved in such a dangerous situation voluntarily, right? Especially after she had already thrown herself over the cliff once.
Unless…
'Unless there was really something going on,' Mint finished her own thought.
How?
Why?
The blue lorikeet Mew knew that she would get her answers eventually, but now was not the time to focus on such trifles when the fight with the Cyniclons was far from over.
One thing was for sure, though. Masaya had not been delusional in his belief that there might be more that was meeting the eye; of that much, Mint was fairly certain now.
Ichigo was lying in her bed, gradually falling into the realm of her deep slumber, as another day slowly came to its end, when she sensed a sudden touch on her body, light as a feather, tracing the shape of her breast softly.
"Mmhm…Kisshu?"
"Were you expecting someone else?" came a low, amused response.
"No, of course not," she mumbled, still somewhat drowsy and reveling in the way his fingers glided across her skin, coaxing her into submission by his almost reverent touch.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you like recuperate or something?" Ichigo arched her back, pressing herself further against him, when his mouth found the crook of her neck and he started biting into the delicate flesh playfully.
"I'm here to finish where we left off earlier today. I promised you pleasure. I never go back on my word," he answered in an even voice, "Besides, I'm all healed up now, anyway."
"You're so silly," she smiled, while her hand reached behind her and tugged at his emerald tresses, splaying her fingers within them idly.
So soft.
How many times had she touched his hair? Was this the first time she had sincerely paid any attention to it? Come to think of it, how many things did she truly know about him, really? Except that he was a Cyniclon who was trying to destroy Earth and great in bed. Did she know anything else apart from that? Probably not.
Kisshu continued to trace the line of her hip with his fingertips and she shuddered when she felt his hand move onto her thigh, squeezing it lightly and making Ichigo moan at the contact.
There was something extremely intimate about the way how he had been touching her tonight.
Was it because she had saved him earlier today?
Or because he had saved her from Pai's electric current even before that?
Whichever it was, Ichigo could sense the difference. And even if she could not see his face in the darkness of her room, she felt like she was opening up to him in a way she had never opened up to anyone else before; as if his dexterous fingers somehow goaded her curiosity on and, suddenly, she wanted to know more; she wanted to know everything about the person who was lying beside her, making her feel nothing short of fantastic whenever he was around her, touching her, kissing her, holding her tight.
Was it because it was so slow and completely incongruent with how they had been always doing it? Or because Ichigo was currently too dazed and drowsy to be able to think straight? She couldn't tell. But, with her eyes closing shut and her guard low, she did not really care about what she was feeling. Not in the slightest, actually. All that mattered was that his touch on her felt fabulous, so when an unexpected idea crossed her mind, she just voiced her direct thoughts, without any real remorse of what kind of reaction her words might bestow upon them both.
"Tell me something about your planet," she breathed out an unexpected request.
His hand paused for a short moment before it resumed its way down in between her legs the following second with not too much hesitation on his part.
"What would you want know?" he bit her shoulder teasingly, and she moaned at the sudden action.
"I-I don't know. Anything. What do you guys do for fun?"
There was a pause until she felt his hot breath tickling the soft shell of her ear again.
"I can't speak for others but my favorite hobby presently consists of pleasuring a certain auburn-haired human girl," he chuckled, as his hand found its way in between the juncture of her thighs.
"K-Kisshu," she half moaned, half whispered.
"Mm?"
"I was serious."
"What makes you think I wasn't?" he deadpanned without missing a beat.
She should have known that he would brush her off; he always did.
And still, a part of Ichigo wished he would have shared something with her, anything really. Anything personal, anything that held some real value to him, anything that she could keep with her as a tangible memory of him that did not involve blood, fighting, heated kisses and rapid breathing. Why was it so hard for him to answer the simplest questions for her? If the roles were reversed, she would tell him; whatever he would ask, she would tell him anything. Had she not already told him about the data storage? And he did not use it against her. Despite everything, he had gained her trust, or a substantial amount of it, why could she not gain his, then? Why could he never lower his walls around her even when they were about to become as intimate as two beings could ever be with each other?
But, maybe, it was meant to be this way.
Less complications; more pleasure.
"Are you really ok?" she mumbled instead, enjoying his tender caresses.
"Yea, nothing too serious. Don't worry."
"That's good," Ichigo sighed airily, as she snuggled further into him, reveling in the heat that radiated from his body.
So warm.
"Comfortable are we?"
"It's ok. I know that you're not really a meanie. You just do it to get my attention," she giggled softly.
"Is that so?" he chuckled in response.
"Of course. You pretend to be this big bad and scary guy, but deep down…you're actually really nice and caring…ehh and not scary at all."
He did not reply but his arms around her tightened and Ichigo moaned in bliss at the close contact.
"I like spending time with you, you know. You always make me feel sooo good and safe."
"Do I now?" he asked, his voice somewhat cracking in disbelief.
"Uh-uh, always," she drawled distractedly.
Could it all be a dream?
Was he really even there, or was Ichigo simply dreaming it all? Along with all these emotions that started bubbling in the pit of her belly? Emotions that were unlike anything she had ever felt before and that began to slowly come to the surface, even though they could have been buried deep down inside her for some time. Or maybe not. For all Ichigo knew, it could have all beeen just in her head; or, perhaps, it was only the heat of the moment, or the way how gently his fingers touched her tonight, that reminded her so strongly of all the cuddles and warmth she had once received from Masaya.
Yes. That was probably it, an analogy based on similarity to something Ichigo had already known.
Notwithstanding, she could not help but dream what it would feel like if, for one night, she would forget that she was the Mew Mew and he was the Cynclon warrior; forget that they were destined to kill each other and, instead, that she could pretend that they were nothing more than two horny teenagers in her room, bound by feelings deeper than anyone could ever imagine. One night. That was all Ichigo asked for. One night under the illusion of perfect unity that was temporary and fragile, but which momentarily encapsulated all of her unfulfilled heart.
It could have been due to her prevalent drowsiness or her strong need to make that hopeless dream reality, but, in the next moment, Ichigo arched her back further into him and whispered softly.
"Kisshu?"
"Hm?"
"Will you make love to me tonight?"
There followed a deliberate silence, as she felt his hand briefly freeze above her belly, but the movement was so quick, so indiscernible, that Ichigo hardly paid it any heed amid the hazy shadows that kept swirling in her dazed state of mind. And, even more so, when Kisshu's hot breath soon returned onto the vast expanse of her bare skin, caressing her lightly.
"As you wish."
He lifted her leg slowly and, for that one night, let Ichigo live out her little romantic reveries.