Tokyo Mew Mew Fan Fiction ❯ Lucky Seven ❯ A Pretty Dress for a Pretty Kitten -Nya! ( Chapter 2 )

Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to post, but I'm a slow poster, so be informed. However, this is Spring Break, so I might post more…

Current Status: Two chapters posted, Seven chapters finished, One in process.

You know the drill. I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. Nobody here does. Get over yourselves.

Time to Choose!

Chapter Two.

Read on.

Ichigo sat by herself in an ice cream parlor outside. She absentmindedly stabbed her strawberry parfait repeatedly, watching the sunset behind the clouds.

"Excuse me," someone said from behind her, tapping her on the shoulder. She turned and saw a young man with short brown hair, skin was perfectly tanned, and eyes so deep.

"Masaya-kun?" she asked.

"Pardon?" he asked. She shook her head and realized that his face had a different structure, and his shoulders were a little weak to be Masaya.

"Oh, sorry. I had you mistaken for someone else. Can I help you?" she asked politely, recovering quickly.

"We were wondering if you'd mind taking our picture behind the sunset. It's so beautiful." He stepped back after handing his camera to Ichigo, wrapping his arm around a girl, no doubt his girlfriend.

"I'd be glad to." They stood in front of the setting sun, with the sakura trees playing in the wind. She looked through the viewfinder at the colors. The sky was as red as strawberries. It brought her back to the color or the dress Ryou had bought her when she was younger. It had a big red ribbon on the front and was a nice pink color. She missed the reds and pinks. She didn't wear them as much as she used to.

"Thanks," the couple said, taking their camera back after it was shot. They walked off into the sunset, hand in hand. Ichigo sat back down and monitored them.

"It's just like a romantic movie," she sighed, taking a bite of her ice cream. She looked at the wall clock inside the ice cream parlor. "It's time for me to go home."

***

"Hurry! Hurry!" Minto cried. Purin started to sweep faster while Retasu polished some of the nicer crystal. Keiichiro was putting the final additions on the cake, which was strawberry flavored, and Ryou was nowhere to be found.

"Where are they?" Purin complained, dumping a final pile of dirt and dust into the trashcan. "We've been cleaning all afternoon!"

"Retasu, there's a spot!" Minto pointed out on one of the plates.

"Do you really think that we need twenty plates?" she asked. "There's only six of us."

"It's customary that when someone is finished eating, they exchange their plates from dirty to clean if they want extras. One thing I've learned from our tea parties is to always be prepared! Besides, you may never know who might walk through that door!" she proclaimed, pointing to the front entrance. The door swung open, and Ryou stood with the sun behind him, making him hard to see.

"What?" he asked, seeing Minto pointing at him. She looked at him as he walked inside, holding Ichigo's luggage.

"Oh! Is Ichigo-chan here? Where is she?" Minto asked happily.

"She isn't here. She went for a walk."

"But I want to see her," Purin pouted.

"She wanted some time for herself. Take this," he said, throwing the largest, and mostly heaviest, suitcase in her arms, "and put it upstairs in one of the empty storage rooms. When you're done, come downstairs and take up everything else."

Purin shot him a more than pathetic look, and then tried her best to drag the huge suitcase up the stairs.

"Ryou, that was cruel," Minto mentioned. "Why are you making her do that? You haven't been this harsh on us in a while." Ryou turned to her, about to dignify that comment with a reply when someone knocked on the side of the doorframe.

"Do I have the right place? This café is so much cleaner than I remember…"

"Ichigo-chan!" Retasu proclaimed. Minto turned to her with the biggest smile on her face.

"Ichigo!" she cried, tears swelling up in her eyes as she ran over to hug her. "I missed you!" Retasu ran over and joined in. Purin fell out of nowhere and hugged Ichigo's neck.

"Ichigo onee-chan!" she shouted. "Welcome back, and SURPRISE!" She jumped back a popped a streamer popper.

"You mean all of these decorations are for me?" she asked, brushing a red bang behind her ear. "This is amazing!"

"Keiichiro made one of his famous cakes just for you!" Purin said. "And there's going to be ice cream and cookies and fruit and-"

"It's a party welcoming you back, Ichigo-chan. We've missed you," Minto said profoundly. Ryou approached her leaned into her ear.

"I got you something after I picked you up," he whispered. "It's your room. Try it on and see how it fits." When he back up, he had a faint smile on his face, which meant that he had to be really excited about it. Ichigo couldn't help but smile, too. She rushed upstairs to her room and found all her luggage already aligned, and a thin, black clothing box tied with beautiful pastel pink lace. She shut the door behind her and slowly approached the box. Pulling on one side of the ribbon caused it to completely untie, and she lifted the box lid to reveal a gorgeous gown. It was strawberry red and strapless with a pink ribbon around the waste.

She took off her shirt and pants and held the dress up her while looking in the mirror on the back of the closet door. It was stunning. While twirling around the room with the dress still held up to her chest, she could have sworn that she heard someone laughing. She turned towards the window, which she stupidly left open. She also noticed that the branch of the tree right outside her window was swinging oddly, but there was no wind. It was like something heavy had been lifted off it. Just like at the park. She made sure to cover herself up as she walked to the window and closed the curtains.

"That was odd," she said to herself. She put on the dress quickly to distract herself of that she might have been spied on. She only combed through her hair a few times, being too excited to worry about her appearance. Besides, she was amongst friends. The outfit Ryou gave her came with matching red gloves along with red, almost adventurous/casual boots. The dress stopped just above her knees, but had a few layers under it to make it poof out. The earrings were also spectacular, she was sure if they were real rubies or not. She opened the door and tied the red ribbon choker around her bare neck so the knot was in the back. When she turned towards the staircase, she was Ryou standing in the hallway.

"You look beautiful," he said in a breathless whisper.

"Shirogane," Ichigo commented, bringing her hand up to her mouth to hide her unsure look. She didn't hear what he said. Ryou blinked and stood up straighter, losing his calm smile. Ichigo walked up to him slowly.

"We got tired of waiting," he said, moving out of the way so she could get by. "They sent me up here to get you." Ichigo paused for a moment and turned her head slightly.

"Why would they send you?" she asked, mostly with a sarcastic tone.

"Ichigo-chan!" Retasu commented loudly. "You look absolutely stunning!" Ichigo blushed as she walked down the stairs with Ryou close behind her. Everyone had changed into much nicer clothes while she was upstairs. Minto was in a dark blue, very sleek dress. Purin wore a yellow Chinese dress with a high collar and many frog toggles. Keiichiro stood with a plain black tuxedo.

"Everyone is dressed up so nicely!" Ichigo said. "Thank you for doing this for me."

"Let's eat the cake!" Purin suggested. Grabbing a knife and cutting the large strawberry cake before them, everyone paid attention to make sure she wouldn't hurt herself with the sharp object. Ichigo turned towards Ryou.

"You dressed up nicely too," she said softly. "Thank you for welcoming me back like this."

"You've been so out of it since I picked you up. You're not like you used to be."

"I know. It's been seven years since I've been home. I guess all the events that happened in the last few months can really change a person."

"There's no need thinking about that now," he said. He took a plate with cake from Purin and fed her a piece. Ichigo chewed it slowly and swallowed.

"Shirogane," she said, surprised.

"This night is for you."

"Ichigo, you've been so depressed," Minto said.

"We want you to have fun tonight!" Purin exclaimed.

"We want you back to your old self," sighed Retasu.

Keiichiro passed out more cake. "I'll get the ice cream," he said, walking out of the room. "Ryou, will you help me, please?" Ryou turned his head slightly and sighed, handing Ichigo her plate. He followed his colleague into the kitchen, and as soon as he was gone, Ichigo found herself swarmed by her friends.

"How long has this been going on?" Purin asked.

"How long has this been going on?" Keiichiro asked.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo replied.

"What do you mean?" Ryou replied.

"It's totally obvious!" Minto said loudly.

"Ryou was totally hitting on you!" Purin shouted.

"Purin, not so loud," Retasu whispered.

"What was that you were doing with Ichigo?" Keiichiro said.

"I was giving her share of the cake."

"You were <I>feeding</I> it to her. She just came home after a horrible breakup with Aoyama and you jump on her the first chance you get? What kind of person does that make you?"

"Ryou-kun was jumping all over you!" Purin said, blushing. "I've never seen him feed cake to a girl. I bet that means he likes you!"

"Guys, I just broke up with Masaya-san. I don't think I'm ready for a relationship just yet."

"But, Ichigo-chan," Retasu commented, "Ryou-san has waited for you all this time."

"I never trusted that Aoy-whatshisname the first time I saw him. I waited all this time to make sure that Ichigo was safe, and now she comes in sick and injured. I'm going to make sure she stays safe for the rest of her life."

"Ryou… You can't keep her…"

"You mean… he's never even had a girlfriend because he was waiting for me to come home."

"Ichigo, he's loved you since before you and Aoyama discovered your feelings for one another," Minto explained, holding Ichigo's hands so she was forced to pay attention to her.

"But it seems like he was just waiting for me and Masaya to break up… I don't like that."

"You're reading too much into this! Don't you understand? Ryou knows now that you're single, and he'll do anything to try to woo you into his arms!" Minto said excited. "I always wondered why you never went to him. He's gorgeous, kind when he wants to be, handsome, has a great personality, attractive, rich, and above all, good-looking!"

"Minto-chan, most of those words mean the same thing," Ichigo sighed. Suddenly she became extremely flustered. "B-but now that I know that he likes me, what do I do? I can't act normally around him, or else he might get the wrong idea! I can't be friendly, either. But I don't want to be mean to him, he'll think I hate him."

"I've got ice cream!" Keiichiro said happily, coming out of the kitchen. A very disgruntled Ryou followed not far behind. He noticed in a second the abnormally large smiles plastered on three of the girl's faces. Ichigo, however, was moderately more panicked.

"What?" he asked. Ichigo's hands darted to her mouth as she laughed nervously.

"Ahahaha… What? Is something wrong?" she spoke shakily. "I have no idea!" Immediately, her cat ears and tail popped out. She couldn't tell at first, but judging by the strange looks Ryou was giving her, she found out instantly. "Oh, wow!" she cried, running to Keiichiro. "Is this homemade ice cream? It's delicious! This cake is fantastic! I don't think the café ever looked better with these party decorations! I'm getting a little sleepy, so I'll be going to bed now! Good night Minto! `Night Retasu, Purin! See you in the morning, Keiichiro-san!" She rushed up the stairs, holding her tail low to make sure that it didn't raise her dress up. She stopped midstream and walked back down. "Good night, Ryou-kun!" she added quickly and then scampered back up the staircase.

"What a shame. She didn't stay down long," Retasu sighed.

"She's probably tired. She's had a long day," Keiichiro said. Minto took a sip of her drink and walked up to Ryou.

"She called you Ryou-kun," she said silently. "What do you think about that?" She smirked and looked up to him. He kept his eyes on the stairs and smiled.

There you are. I'd like to thank my three loyal reviewers whose names I can't remember. You guys rock! Keep bringing those reviews, because I can't work without them. I'm a reviewer whore. I'm sorry.