In This Life

A Tokyo Mew Mew fanfic

by Abigail

Summary: Shirogane Ryou knew there would be side effects when he began the Mew Project, but he never imagined to what extent. Not, at least, until the symptoms began to manifest themselves in the Project's very first human experiment… himself. In the uncertainty that follows, can he and Ichigo make the most importation realization… about each other?

Author's notes: This story will probably loosely follow the anime as far as reference to past events goes, though readers of the manga shouldn't be confused. The story doesn't particularly fit into the anime timeline since it'll be changing future events, but for reference's sake, you could say it takes place between episode 36 and 37 – after Ichigo discovers Alto's identity but before Aoyama discovers Mew Ichigo's identity. Oh, and it's a working title… I may change it yet. Oo

chapter one. symptom

soundtrack. 01. i hate you so much right now. kelis

"You're late."

Ichigo froze. She'd almost – almost – managed to sneak in unnoticed. But now Minto's dark chocolate eyes were glaring daggers at her. In the petite, well-bred young lady's hands was a tray of various tarts and gourmet desserts.

Purin bounced to Ichigo's side, balancing two other trays on her head and in one hand. "Ichigo-oneesan was late, so Minto-oneesan had to wait on the customers!" the lively monkey-like girl declared. Even if she wore a waitress' uniform, everyone knew the most work Minto usually did in a day was to lift a teacup to her lips.

"Aaah," the strawberry-haired girl said with realization and a hint of sarcasm. "So Minto is angry because she had to work? Maybe I should be late more often!" She'd had to call Aoyama-kun today and cancel yet another date because of her work at the café, thus Ichigo was not in a particularly good mood.

Minto's eyes flashed lightning as she shoved the tray into Ichigo's hands. "That is absolutely no excuse," she said haughtily before stalking away.

Ichigo sighed heavily, letting her head droop so low her hair almost brushed the desserts on the tray. Why, oh why, was she here waiting tables today when she should be out walking through the park with Aoyama-kun… or visiting the aquarium with Aoyama-kun… or even cleaning rivers with Aoyama-kun…she didn't really care as long as it was with Aoyama-kun. She'd waited so long for a chance for this date, and then… overtime waitress duty.

Life wasn't fair. It really wasn't…

"Hey. So you are here, after all." Ichigo tensed as a familiar rude voice sounded behind her. Yes, that voice, the source of all her problems… "What are you doing just standing there? There are customers waiting." With those brusque words, Shirogane walked past with teacup in hand, taking a seat at a table, he leaned back and crossed his legs culturedly.

She felt her blood boil, fingers tightening around the tray's edges until she was sure it would snap. But it was her control, and not the tray that finally snapped "Why is that I always end up doing all the work around here while other people sit around and do nothing!!? Why is it, huh!!?" she ranted loudly. "Shirogane, you're just as bad as Minto!! No, I take that back! You're even worse!"

"I take offense at that," Minto put in.

"Are you complaining, or just trying to make insults?" The blonde boy blinked, unfazed. "Either way, you're not accomplishing much. Wouldn't you agree, Minto?" He smirked in Ichigo's direction.

"Most definitely," the stuck up ojousama agreed, sipping her tea.

Ichigo glared for several long seconds, ready to explode again. Finally she took a long, cleansing breath, and with a loud "hmph" stuck her chin in the air and ran off to work with stubborn determination, dashing from table to table and taking orders with more vigor than ever. She'd show him… by working harder than ever! Then he'd have nothing to pick on her about!

Shirogane watched the girl's renewed energy with some amusement. Well, he couldn't fault the girl for her persistence. Though he didn't allow his emotionless outer expression to flinch, his inward smile manifested itself in a playful glint in his eyes, and the slightest of smirks when their eyes met once and Ichigo sent him her best glare. She flitted from table to table, smiling and bowing and laughing at customer's bad jokes, acting every bit the perfect waitress. She refused to favor Shirogane or Minto with even one glance. She would not let them get to her, she would not! She stuck out her chin determinedly and transformed her face into her best smiling, peppy, I'm-a-happy-waitress grin. "Sooo, are you enjoying your desserts?" she oozed to the group of customers at her table. "Can I get you anything? Would you like more whipped cream on that? You look low on whipped cream. Let me go get you some more. It's just not a parfait without whipped cream."

"No, that's really not necessary..." the customer protested.

"You're getting whipped cream!!"

"O...okay..." the customer cringed under the suddenly very scary waitress that loomed over her with flaming eyes.

"I'll be right back," Ichigo sparkled, all smiles again. She ran off, glad she was armed with an excuse to be away from his smirking eyes, however short a time it may have been. Back in temporary shelter of the kitchen, she fetched a can of whipped cream from a cupboard shelf and sighed for the hundredth time that afternoon.

"Um, Ichigo-san?" Retasu's soft mousy voice hesitated to interrupt. "You're beeping."

"Huh? Oh! My cell!" She hadn't even realized she'd put her cell phone in her pocket until the peppy ringtone finally seeped into her thoughts. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the caller ID displayed on the screen. Aoyama-kun…

Stomach aflutter, she eagerly brought the phone to her ear. "Aoyama-kun?"

"Ichigo, hello!" Aoyama-kun's voice! Ah, warm tickly feelings... "I wasn't sure if you'd be at work or not."

"Well, um, I actually am at work…" Yes, unfortunately I'm trapped in Shirogane's sweatshop right now. Ugh.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Ichigo! I'll call another – "

"No! It's okay, really!" Don't hang up, please don't hang up. "I can talk."

"Oh… okay. Well, I was just wondering if you'd like to reschedule our date. How about, say…tomorrow afternoon?"

A date! Yes!! "Tomorrow sounds great!"

"You work tomorrow."

Ichigo stiffened yet again at the intrusion of an uninvited third voice.

"And since when do you take personal calls on company time?"

Shirogane… This really was the last straw. She wasn't going to let him push her around anymore! She felt her grip on the cell phone tighten.

"Ichigo…? Hello? Is something wrong?" Aoyama was left stranded on the other end of the phone.

"Aoyama-kun, yeah, tomorrow… is perfect."

"Um, are you sure it's okay? 'Cause if you have other plans or something…"

"I'm not going to work anymore!" she declared loudly. "It's just not fair at all!"

"Er… okay, well, maybe I shouldn't have called at a bad time. We'll get together another time, alright? See ya."

"No, wait, Aoyama-kun! Aoyama-kun!" Ichigo stared in shock at the dead phone in her hand, feeling absolutely like she wanted to cry. She'd been waiting so long for this date, and now it was never going to happen. It was like the whole world was plotting against her to keep her away from Aoyama-kun. She couldn't believe what had just happened. And it was all. His. Fault.

She whirled in fury at the blonde demon that had come from hell to make her life miserable. Heat flushed her face, and she felt ready to explode. Bitterness stung her eyes, but she didn't care anymore. "Shirogane, you are the absolute worst! I HATE YOU!!"

He silently watched the girl turn and run blindly in the direction of the storage rooms. Had he really just seen tears in her eyes? He hadn't exactly expected a favorable reaction, but that was a little much, wasn't it? It's only one date. Stupid girl. He supposed he could have let her have the day off, but that would mean he would have to pull kitchen duty, and there was important research to be finished. He found the sugar cubes he had come to the kitchen in search of, and dropped one into his tea with a sigh. He felt another headache coming on…

Ichigo squatted inside the storage room, squeezing her knees to keep her trembling fury inside. Why did he have to be so mean all the time… and only to her? Why did he hate her so much? She just wanted to be a normal girl, with a normal boyfriend, but he would never let her. Arrogant, selfish, pig-headed…

"Ichigo-san?" A floating pair of glasses framed by green grass-like hair hovered over the sulking catgirl. "Excuse me, but, um… Shirogane-san said you needed some help with something?"

"What? Retasu…? I don't need any…" Ichigo dropped her head into her knees. She sighed, not bothering to finish her sentence, and not really picking up on everything the other girl had just said. "Waaah, Retasu, why is he so meeeaan!? It's so not fair!" she wailed in a sudden outburst, flailing her arms and legs like a child with a temper tantrum.

"Um…well…" The shy girl was quite unsure how to react to this behavior.

"But what's worse is…" Ichigo fell back into quiet depression. "I think Aoyama-kun hates me."

"But why would he ever do that?"

"I'm sure he has to!" she despaired. "I'm always canceling dates and making excuses because of work and Mew Mew duties. He must think I'm trying to avoid him. He must think I... I don't even like him!" Horror crept through her paranoid teenage mind at the thought of it. "He must hate having a girlfriend like me."

"Ichigo-san, I'm sure he understands..." Retasu attempted to console the girl. For all her merits, Ichigo had a bad habit of jumping to irrational conclusions, and, as the saying went, making mountains – often rather large, irritating mountains – out of molehills. When this happened, her transparent moods could affect the entire café, so Retasu was eager to cheer her up. "Why don't we go back to work and it will take your mind off of it, okay? Please?"

The green-haired girl nearly fell over as she was attacked by a glomping pink catgirl. "Wah, Retasuuuuuu! You're so nice!!"

Retasu laughed nervously as she twirled and tottered inside the cramped storage room attached to Ichigo, until naturally, inevitably, she tripped. The two girls lurched forward together onto the flimsy shelves, after which followed the inevitable rain of cardboard boxes, plastic silverware, random nuts and bolts, and a package of flour which broke on Ichigo's head. When Purin appeared moments later to investigate a suspicious noise she had heard coming from the back rooms, she found a pair of coughing, giggling girls sprawled in the center of a white cloud of dust. And her first reaction was – elation.

"Waaaiii! It's snowing in the storage room, na no da!!"

Once the girls had explained to a disappointed Purin that a June Christmas miracle had in fact not occurred in the café's storage room, they returned to the kitchen. Ichigo and Retasu both left floating clouds of flour as they attempted to brush off their powdered uniforms, and Retasu had begun to sneeze. Zakuro raised an eyebrow at the two but made no comment.

"Ah, back to work, I guess," Ichigo spoke, giving her hair a final shake. She picked up the forgotten can of whipped cream and ventured back into the dining room.

"Shirogane-san?" The underlying current of concern in Minto's voice when she repeated her address for the second time caused the other girls' heads to turn.

He was ignoring her, which wouldn't have surprised Ichigo if it was herself, but he was usually polite enough to the rest of the girls. But this time he was acting strange, bent over in his chair as if he were studying the tabletop intently. Forgetting her waitress business for a moment, Ichigo stepped forward curiously with half a notion to chew the boy out for his rudeness. That was when his arm caught her attention, and sinews that twitched and trembled ever so slightly, like they were under great strain. She followed the length of his limb to his hand, where white knuckles grasped his teacup as though desperately trying to hold something in.

Ichigo glanced around at the other girls, who all lingered about like her in a state of surprised confusion, looking to each other but finding no answers. Was he playing some kind of joke? This really wasn't funny.

The teacup shattered inside his fist, causing squeaky gasp of startlement to escape from Ichigo's throat before she could bite her lip to suppress it. Shirogane was visibly trembling now, his fist still clenched and knuckles whiter than before. He was scaring her, and for that reason Ichigo found herself hating him even more just then, if that was even possible. What kind of tasteless joke was this? What a jerk! But yet…just maybe…he was…

The clatter of a silver tray against the floor shattered the silence. Retasu rushed to Shirogane's side with no regard for the ice cream cakes that now melted into broken glass on the floor. "Shirogane-san, are you alright!?" Her usual timidity was lost beside sudden concern.

"I'm fine," he rasped, pushing Retasu away with a sweep of his arm. Ichigo could see the blood that smeared across the tabletop as he did, from the teacup shards that had dug into his hands. He didn't lift his head, but she could see now his face was distorted in a mask of pain. Something was terribly wrong. Panic rose inside of her. What should they do? Akasaka-san… of course, he would know. Where was he!? She turned to find Zakuro had been one step ahead of her, and had already fetched the tall pastry chef and elder of the café.

He took in the situation in one moment, his countenance turning to deep seriousness, and in no time he had dashed to the basement and disappeared. The girls were left hovering about Shirogane in rising confusion and fear. Despite his continued insistence that he was fine, his pain seemed to be increasing, his shaking fist pressed against his forehead, breath coming in shorter gasps now.

Suddenly Akasaka was there again, fumbling with a vial and syringe in his hand. Glancing up with gritted teeth, Shirogane reached out and snatched the needle from the other man's fingers before plunging it into the side of his neck. He pulled it out and let the syringe clatter to the floor, as everyone still held their breath. The blonde's head slumped forward into his hands, and within a few moments his breathing had gradually returned to normal, his muscles relaxing. Then he startled them all by pushing himself to his feet, taking a moment to orient himself, and brushing past Zakuro into the kitchen as though nothing had just happened, with no more than a mumbled "Excuse me". A stunned silence weighed over each waitress in the room

When he had disappeared, Akasaka, left alone to the task of damage control, held out his hands just as a fury of questions began to spew from each girl's mouth all at once. "Ladies! Ladies, please… do not worry."

"Akasaka-san! What's going on? Is Shirogane-san alright?" Retasu pleaded.

"Is Shirogane-oniisan sick, no da?" Purin hopped forward to cling to Akasaka's leg, frowning.

"Please…there is no reason to be concerned," Akasaka spoke with a voice full of sincerity, though whether she imagined it or not, Ichigo felt she sensed an extra line of worry around his words and countenance. "Ryou is… Ryou is only suffering from a temporary illness. A virus… or something like it. We are currently researching an antidote to help him recover more quickly, but it's nothing serious, I assure you. So do not be alarmed."

"It looked serious," Minto murmured to herself, but she wouldn't be one to doubt Akasaka's explanation.

"Are you sure?" Retasu wasn't ready to drop her concern just yet.

Akasaka smiled reassuringly. "Yes. Please believe me that he will be perfectly fine."

"I see…" Ichigo wondered why, if he had been sick for very long, she hadn't noticed any symptoms in him earlier. Something in Akasaka's words and the image of Shirogane doubled over in pain still troubled her. There were no obvious questions left to ask, so each girl soon wandered back to her own duties, and Akasaka bent to clean the mess of Retasu's dropped tray. Normalcy returned the café, despite a quiet anxiety that refused to disappear completely. That is, for most of it's occupants.

"Purin will perform a get-well show for Shirogane-oniisan so he gets better!!" The yellow-haired monkey girl bounced around the room, excited at the anticipation of a new performance.

"Ahaha… I'm sure he would appreciate that, Purin-san," Retasu chuckled softly.

"Ichigo, table three is still waiting for their desserts," Minto raised her eyebrows at the pink-haired waitress while she reaffirmed her seat at her tea table. "Oh, and… it seems my tea has gotten cold, would you warm it up for me?"

"Arrgh, fine, Minto, but can't you do it yourself?" Ichigo growled back. Thanks to Shirogane, her mind was now in a complete muddle, as table orders, worries and confusion over Akasaka's words, and the hubbub of the café all bombarded her at once. She stood helplessly in the middle of everything clutching a can of whipped cream. "Waaaah, Zakuro… which table was I supposed to deliver this to!?"

Yes, normalcy had returned.

----------------------------

He found Shirogane in the basement lab. The boy was slumped in a chair in front of one of the flickering screens, face tilted toward the ceiling, head resting on the chair's cushioned back. His eyes were closed and he might have been asleep. Akasaka approached without a word.

"The attacks are getting stronger, Keiichirou," the blonde boy spoke, sensing the other man's presence without opening his eyes.

"We'll continue researching the antidote," the taller man assured. "We're getting nearer to finding the solution."

"I'm not so sure there is one."

Akasaka gave no response. Finally lifting his head, Shirogane focused on the screen in front of him, where a map of Tokyo traced any Chimera Anima activity that might arise. "The girls…?"

"I assured them you were fine. Ryou…"

"There was earthquake activity in Shibuya earlier today. It might just be natural, but it wouldn't hurt to check it out," the blonde spoke briskly, zooming into the map with a few keystrokes and bringing up a green ticker of data.

Akasaka couldn't help a small smile. And you once accused me of always avoiding your questions. But he would humor his companion, as always. "Shall we send the girls?"

"No…" Shirogane mused, scanning the data once again. "As long as nothing else unusual comes up, we can let the computers monitor it from here." His fingers tickled the keyboard, inputting the data to set up the monitoring program, and then exited the windows so that the full map of Tokyo was staring back at him again. The springs in his chair gave a squeak of protest as he leaned back once again.

"You should bandage your injuries, Ryou."

Shirogane stared down at the fresh red cuts in his palm as if it were an alien thing. Today's attack had taken him by surprise. It had been much stronger, and he hadn't been able to disguise the pain and walk away to find the antidote injection like he had in the past. "Keiichirou." When the blonde spoke again after several moments, his voice had changed to a softer, serious tone. "You know I want to finish this Mew Project more than anything, don't you?"

"Yes, I know that."

Shirogane frowned thoughtfully, as his fingers slowly curled into a fist. "We might be running out of time."