Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew or its characters in any way. If I did, there's no way the story would be published, or be half as good. That said, let's continue!

Ichigo watched Ryou surreptitiously as he swam through the sun warmed waters of the bay. Ryou… Her cheeks pinked. He was Ryou only in her mind. She dared only to call him "Shirogane-san" to his face, or on those not so rare moments that she lost her temper, just "SHIROGANEEE!" Ichigo laughed a little at the memories that brought back. Her thoughts wandered a little as she watched the water sliding through the glistening strands of pale blond hair on Ryou's - Shirogane's - head.

Was it just her, or had he been acting a bit strange lately? He was actually nice sometimes. Not that he was normally mean, but he tended to keep to himself. Unless, of course, he was teasing Ichigo. Sometimes she swore that was his favorite activity. Lately, though, he'd done things that seemed a little uncharacteristic, such as letting her off early for a date with Aoyama-kun, or jumping into the middle of a fight when it looked as though they'd bitten off more than they could chew. Actually, when she thought about it, he jumped into a lot of battles, usually to rescue her. She bit her lip in embarrassment. Maybe she needed to work on her fighting skills…

There was one day she was sure Shirogane was actually going to give her a raise. He was quiet and serious as he listened to her reasoning (a.k.a. arguments) and just when she thought the raise was a sure thing, he'd leaned forward and flicked her forehead, saying, "In your dreams, Strawberry!" Then he'd turned, hands in his pockets, and strolled away, but not before she saw the corner of his mouth turn up just the slightest bit. Odd.

She remembered the party that he'd thrown for her and the girls, that seemed so long ago. Had it been only Ichigo that had been flustered by their dance? And later, that tender moment on the balcony, what had that been about?

Then, too, he'd invited her on this trip to the ocean. Ichigo knew her surprise was plain on her face, and he'd been quick to add that it was as a thanks for all the hard work she and the other Mew Mews had done. But still, she wondered…

Ryou turned in her direction, but before he could make eye contact, she hurriedly glanced away, making her little bell tinkle. 'Aoyama-kun…' She put a hand up absently to the bell, jingling it lightly and running her fingers along the smooth red ribbon. Was something wrong with her? She loved her dear Aoyama-kun with all her heart. She knew it. But the little butterfly wings that tickled her insides every time she saw that tiny quirk to Ryou's lips, or when she caught him watching her work in the café (right before he yelled at her to work faster), felt like a betrayal of that love.

She sighed. Being a teenager could be impossible.

Suddenly, she was splashed with cold seawater. Or, more accurately, she was drenched as a bucket of the icy stuff was poured over her head by the very object of her musings.

"Aaaahhh!" she shrieked, making sure to hit as shrill a note as possible. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Get in the water, already. I didn't invite you girls out here just so you could sit and mope all day!"

"Th-th-that… Water! From Hell-Frozen-Over! Just slid down the front of my suit!!!" Ichigo screamed in his face. "And I'm not moping! Just because I'm having a thoughtful moment doesn't mean you get to ruin my daydreams! And for your information, I've been doing plenty more than 'moping'!" With this, Ichigo turned her head to the side and stuck her nose in the air in a purposefully snooty manner.

"All down the front of your suit, hm?" Shirogane trailed his eyes down the front of Ichigo's bikini-clad body, leaving damning trails of heat in his wake.

"P-pervert! I'm w-wet all over! Jerk!"

"Wet… Really?" Shirogane raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up! What's with you today?"

"What's with me? What's up with you? Idiot." He snorted softly. "Come on, let's go swimming."

Without a "by-your-leave", Ryou grabbed Ichigo's hand and dragged her into the water.

"Follow me," he said, swimming out into the big blue.

Ichigo rolled her eyes. It would serve him right if she just turned around and swam back to shore right now.

'Let him rot at the bottom of the ocean, for all I care,' she thought to herself. But she immediately reprimanded herself for such nasty thoughts, heaved a great sigh, and began to swim after the retreating Shirogane's swiftly moving form.

Ryou swam out, way out, until the girls playing ball on the beach were almost specks dancing around in the warm sunlight. Then he headed around an outcropping of rock that stuck out from the shoreline like Ichigo's tongue during a particularly sassy moment. How he'd wanted to just lean down and tease that tongue with his own before pulling it into his mouth and nibbling it with his teeth--

'Gah! This isn't good! Quick! Umm… Think of something nasty, like pop stars on a diet!' Images of sickly skinny women filled his mind, gagging him and driving away any hormone-induced images of Ichigo's pale pink tongue, so aptly shaped just like a strawberry…

"AAARRGH!"

"Shirogane-san! Are you alright? Did you get stung by a jellyfish?"

Ryou looked around, frankly surprised that Ichigo had followed him at all, and a little embarrassed by his witnessed outburst.

"Uh… no," he said, thinking quickly. "A fish swam by and tickled my foot. I was startled, that's all."

Mentally, he groaned. 'That's the best you could come up with? And you call yourself a genius? A senile old lady wouldn't believe that!'

But Ichigo just giggled. "You're ticklish?" He could almost see the gears turning in her head, and he wasn't surprised in the least when she suddenly sported a devilish grin and let slip a wicked little laugh.

"Don't even think it, baka. It'll never happen."

Ichigo looked up. "How did you--? Never mind." She sighed. "I was doing it again, wasn't I?"

Ryou didn't deign to answer. He simply turned in the water, said "this way", and began to move again.

Ichigo couldn't help but admire how Shirogane's body seemed to cut through the water like a knife. He made swimming look so easy! She sighed in envy. If she could swim like that…

Daydreams began to float through her head of winning Olympic swimming medals at an unprecedented young age, but she shook them off just as the crowd started cheering, and began to swim after her young employer before he thought to yell at her.

They swam around a really bizarre rock formation, and then…

"Oh!" she gasped. She stopped swimming in wonderment, and for a short time, words failed her.

Finally, her voice returned. "Wow! How absolutely perfect!"

In front of her lay a pure, untouched crescent of beautiful white sand. Everything, the beach, the trees beyond the watermark, the flashes of colorful feathers, were unspoiled in any way.

Ichigo swam closer, drawn to the beauty before her. As she stood in the wavelets washing in, she paused. Ryou seemed to fit here, already standing on dry ground, but she felt as though she would taint the flawless splendor that left her in awe if she were to join him.

Ryou turned when he realized Ichigo hadn't followed him out of the water. She stood with the sea washing around her ankles as though she were a mythical creature risen from the depths to lure him in. Her bikini did little to cover and much to accent her soft, somewhat girlish curves. Her pale skin seemed almost luminescent in the afternoon sun, and her eyes stared at him with a look he couldn't define.

They were dreamy and timeless, drawing him in and mesmerizing him. He felt as though he would drown in the velvet glow they radiated. He would gladly have followed her at that moment to certain doom at the bottom of the sea if only she would beckon…

Shaking his head abruptly, he snapped his mind free and glanced away.

"What are you still doing in the water?" he grouched. "You look like an idiot."

'Oh, crap! I don't want to make her mad! I'm starting to think I'm the idiot!'

As predicted, the strawberry woke from whatever daydream had gripped her and yelled, "Shirogane! I'm not an idiot, you jerk! If you must know, I was taking a moment to appreciate the beauty!"

Unable to stop himself, he quipped, "You think I'm beautiful?"

'Gah! That was so lame! Dumb, dumb, dumb!'

Ichigo flushed a very becoming shade of pink and stomped up next to him.

"No, I don't! If you ask me, you mar the view! But," her voice softened, "this place is amazing! Why doesn't anyone come here?"

"That's simple," he answered, inwardly sighing in relief that his idiot---the idiot---hadn't stomped off in fury. "Look." He pointed in the direction the rest of their party lay.

There stood a rocky incline almost tall enough to be a mountain. It looked impossible to scale.

Ichigo opened her mouth, but Ryou beat her to it.

"If you're going to ask why they don't just swim around, it's because there's a very dangerous riptide out there, and if you don't know what you're doing, you can drown."

Ichigo figured she should be angry at the thought of Shirogane risking her life (even though he did it every other day), but she just couldn't bring herself to get worked up. This place seemed to have a soothing effect on her, and she rather enjoyed the feel of unwinding.

With this thought in mind, she took a couple skipping steps up the beach and plopped down. She closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the warm afternoon rays of the sun and gave a gentle sigh of release.

Here, everything seemed not to matter so much. There was no school, no aliens, no Aoyama to hide her true self from…

"Haaaaah…." She sighed again, dropping her head to the heated sand.

Hearing footsteps, Ichigo cracked an eye. She'd almost forgotten who had led her here to begin with.

She tensed a little as Shirogane sat next to her, halfway expecting a smart remark to make its way through those serious lips of his, but he was silent, staring out toward the ocean.

She watched him through her half-closed eye, wondering what he'd look like if he really let loose and smiled. Would his face crack? She giggled internally at the mental picture that conjured.

"What?" came a voice from the aforementioned lips. "Your whole body shakes when you laugh like that, you know."

Ichigo shot up to sitting. "Nya?!"

'How embarrassing! I can't believe I never noticed!' She folded her arms over her knees and rested her cheek there, trying to casually look the other way so her pink cheeks would go unnoticed.

"Well?" Shirogane pressed. "What were you laughing about?"

Thinking she'd hurt his feelings if she explained her mental images to him, she brushed it off, saying, "Oh, nothing much!"

Then, hoping to change the subject, she grabbed at what first came to mind, which was unfortunately still close to her current train of thought.

"But I was wondering what you'd look like if you actually smiled."

'Oh!' Ichigo slapped her hand over her mouth as she stared at Shirogane with wide eyes. 'I didn't mean to say that! Why couldn't I have asked him something else, like--- like---'

But all thoughts, whether on the subject or not, suddenly disappeared into a magical void of nothingness, leaving her staring, hand still covering her mouth, at the boy beside her.

He was smiling! It was-- It was--- WOW!

It had to be one of the smallest, most tentative smiles Ichigo had ever seen, but it left her breathless like a punch to the gut. Ryou's whole face just seemed to light up, as though heaven was shining its light on him alone. He looked so pure and sweet in that moment that Ichigo felt as though she could cry.

Ryou was confused. She wanted to see him smile, right? But she was staring at him in shock and… horror? He couldn't tell. Wait, was that a tear?!

His smile faltered. He was pretty sure that wasn't normal.

"What-- what's wrong? Hey! Don't… Look! I won't do it again, alright? I'm sorry if I scared you or something!" He was almost frantic in his efforts to get some kind of response out of Ichigo. He reached over to shake her, but as soon as he touched her arm, she jerked away and woke from her trancelike state.

Ryou felt like a monster. Was his smile that terrible? Could a smile be that terrible? He was a little out of practice, but he was pretty sure he could at least avoid looking like a serial killer!

He avoided looking at Ichigo, instead gazing at the incoming waves. Rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment (he could feel the heat burning his face), he said, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize… Geez, who'd've thought you could mess a smile up so bad? Just forget… it?" He looked up in confusion.

Ichigo had reached over and placed a gentle hand on his knee.

"Could…" She cleared her throat. "Could you do it again?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

Could he… smile again? She liked it? He'd hid it for so long, only to think it was strange---freakish, even---but she wanted to see it!

He couldn't stop himself. He smiled. Heck, he beamed. He even laughed a little!

And Ichigo couldn't look away. She almost had to shield her face from his brilliance. She laughed helplessly with him, caught so completely in the moment.

Just a few seconds ago, he'd looked so depressed. Had he thought his smile that bad? What a strange thing to get so upset about.

But now! Ryou's face looked as bright as blinding sunlight on new fallen snow, with these fresh new crinkles at the corners of his sky blue eyes. How did he do that? Ichigo had never seen someone light up like that just from smiling. It was so---!

For the second time that day, words failed her, so she did the only thing that seemed right at that moment.

With his light and warmth spilling into her, Ichigo leaned over and kissed Ryou.

He was caught totally unaware. One moment, she laughed with him, and the next, her eyelashes tickled his skin as she pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth.

Ryou waited breathlessly for the redhead to pull back in horror at what she'd done, but one timeless moment passed, and then another. And then he couldn't help himself.

His hands reached up into her damp and tangled hair and cradled the sweet curve of her neck as he turned his head oh, so slightly to capture her lips with his own. Then he kissed her, with all the fiery passion he'd locked away since the moment he'd rescued her from that first Chimera animal and taught her to become a Mew.

One hand slid down to the small of her back, and Ryou pulled Ichigo as close as he could in their sitting positions. Fire burned trails from his lips to his fingertips, along his chest where she was pressed against him. He thought he would surely burn up from the star that had been born within him.

Ichigo's lips were soft and sun warmed against his, moving with a passion that belied his own. Yet he could taste the sweet innocence and inexperience in her gentle uncertainty. Was this her first kiss? He prayed it was her best.

Unsure of his reception, Ryou slowly slid his tongue between his lips and flicked it against hers. Hearing her quick breath, he pulled her lower lip gently into his mouth, nibbling lightly and playing his tongue over its swollen softness as he ran his thumb slowly over her delicate jaw line.

He felt Ichigo yield and shift closer to him, and he was quick to take advantage. He slid his hand from her neck to the back of her head, tangling it in her magnificent red hair, and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. His tongue slid past her delicious lips, exploring her mouth and gliding against her own pliable tongue. He attempted to wrap his tongue around hers, teasing her, and then, against it, she moaned.

Oh, sweet sound! It tickled his tongue, sending a warm caressing puff of air into his mouth. He thought he would die on the spot, his personal supernova consuming his flesh in an all-encompassing burst of flame! Butterfly wings burst to life in his stomach, like leaves caught on the swirl of an autumn wind, fluttering, tickling, and scorching him from deep within.

Wanting nothing more than to lay her down in the warm, welcoming sand and cover her body with his own as he kissed her senseless, Ryou found himself gasping for air and staring at Ichigo as he held her at arms' length.

She moaned again, this time in clear disappointment (though it had the same effect), and moved as though to bring herself closer to him, and Ryou almost gave in, but with a tremendous amount of willpower, he stopped them both.

"We… we can't!" He gasped. "It's too much! It's--- I--- It, we---!" He gave up trying to explain and released her arms, looking away.

He tried once more. "I just… I want… I…" He sighed in frustration and instead said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten so carried away." Then he stood and walked off down the beach, away from Ichigo, away from the mountainside, away from everything.

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AN: Okay, so it's not the best. This is my first, after all. =) But... How was it? Do I use too many commas? LOL

I do plan on actually having a plot to this, I promise! (If I can ever find time to work on it!) And I didn't plan on these two making out in chapter one! (For crying out loud!) Talk about characters taking over! Oh, well. I hope it was enjoyable! ;)

Please review! I'd say 'go easy on me', but I want honest feedback. Please let me know how to make it better! And yes, Shirogane-san is a little OOC. *sighs* Sometimes keeping him in char is a difficult task.

Let me know your thoughts!!!

BH=^.^=