I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or any of it's characters, I only own Midori.
This update is for my friend, Rev-On V5.O who's sick right now. I hope she gets better soon because I miss talking to her! Anyways, this chapter will have something that looks like this 000 that means that a dream scene is starting and until you see it once more, it's not over.
Enjoy!
Lettuce had come home from the sleepover and was now sitting in bed on Sunday night, fearing meeting up with Midori the next morning. She was just so nervous about what or would go wrong the next morning, but at the same time she wanted to feel all the feelings she had felt before once more.
I'm too nervous. Lettuce thought as she shoved her face into her pillow. What if something goes wrong? What if I say something stupid?
Another feeling came up from her stomach as she lay down on her bed and looked up towards the ceiling. She couldn't find words for this feeling but this feeling was one that she found she didn't like. She looked down towards her hands to see that they were once again shaking as they had done during class.
I need to watch what I eat. Lettuce thought. I don't think I'm getting enough sugar in my body.
Lettuce shook her head and took off her glasses so that she could sleep. She placed them on the nightstand next to her and then relaxed only to start thinking of Mint. For some strange reason, Mint had acted so strangely during the sleepover but once she came back from her walk she acted as if nothing was wrong.
Did I do something wrong? Lettuce asked herself. I wonder though…what was wrong with Mint?
The next morning Lettuce showered and dressed quickly. As she was combing her hair, she could hear her mother calling her from downstairs. She stepped out of the bathroom and looked downstairs with her hair in her hands to see Midori standing in the doorway.
"Ready?" Midori asked with a gentle smile.
"Yes!" Lettuce perked up. She moved her hair up until it was the way she liked it and ran towards the door, grabbing her back on the way. "Bye Mother! I'll see you after school!"
"Be careful Lettuce!" Her mother answered back sweetly.
"I will be!"
Lettuce closed the door and held her bag in her hands tightly as Midori led her down the streets. Their walk was silent until Midori sighed heavily, and moved her hands behind her head along with her own black bag.
"Midori?" Lettuce asked, breaking the silence.
"What?"
"Why do they call you the Queen of Gangs?"
Midori laughed. "They call me that? They properly call me that because the gang I run is the biggest around."
"Oh." Lettuce looked away.
Midori blinked and looked towards her. "Is something wrong?"
"No." She shook her head back and forth.
"Ya sure?" Midori asked, moving her face into Lettuce's playfully.
"Yes!" Lettuce pulled away with a heavy blush on her face.
Midori pulled away and moved her hands behind her head and held her brown bag along with it. Lettuce lowered her head once more and took in a deep breath, still nervous about everything that was going on around her. Wanting to find something else to talk about, Lettuce looked back towards Midori.
"So how long have you been working at that store?" Lettuce asked.
"A few years now." Midori answered, shrugging. "The people who own it are friends of my family so I volunteered to work there at a young age."
"Can you drive yet?"
She shook her head. "Nope. I can't use my family's car anyway, my dad is always using it for his job."
Lettuce quickly thought of another topic. "What do you want to do when you get older?"
"I wanna be an artist." Midori asked with a large smile on her face.
"You can draw?" Lettuce perked up and looked up at Midori with bright, excited, eyes.
"Yup!" Midori smiled.
"Can I see a picture that you've drawn?"
Midori blushed. "I don't have any of them with me now, but we can meet up after school and I'll have one for you then."
"Really?" Lettuce smiled.
"Really."
Midori dropped Lettuce off at school and then walked away towards her own school. Lettuce had just settled down in class when her hands began shaking again. She ignored it the best she could but she suddenly found herself tired in the middle of class.
What's wrong with me? Lettuce thought, moving her hand to her forehead. Why am I so tired all of a sudden? I got plenty of sleep last night so I should be fine.
Towards the end of class once all of her work was done, Lettuce folded her arms and laid them onto the top of her desk. She moved her head down onto her folded arms and gently closed her eyes, only to fall into a deep sleep within moments.
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Lettuce was underwater the next time she opened her eyes. She opened her mouth by instinct only to take in a deep breath of water. Her lungs burned deeply, and slowly a small river of blood slipped out of her mouth.
She looked up towards the top of the water and saw the sun shining on the top of the water. The water didn't look too far away so she stretched her arms forward, trying to reach the top of the water. Her fingers stuck out of the water but when she tried to push herself up to reach the top something tugged her down. Looking down Lettuce found that her legs were tied together by a thick, sliver chain.
She panicked.
Reaching over and over again for the top of the water, Lettuce began to open her mouth again and again, trying to scream even though the water just flowed into her mouth. Blood began pouring out and pain stuck the middle of her chest.
Suddenly things became black and Lettuce opened her mouth once more to scream when a new light came to her.
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Lettuce opened her eyes and saw that the classroom was now empty. When she fully woke up, she realized that the teacher was shaking her.
"What?" Lettuce asked, blinking.
"You were shaking in your sleep." The teacher answered. "You kept moving your mouth like you were screaming and moving around! I was worried about you!"
"Oh." Lettuce blushed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you at all. Please forgive me."
The teacher pulled away. "It's alright Lettuce, why don't you go to lunch? Maybe getting out of here will make you feel better."
Lettuce giggled a bit, humoring the teacher. "Maybe. Thank you."
Lettuce found herself back at the café instead of the school for lunch. She normally wasn't one to skip the end of the day but she had finished all of her homework already so she justified her skipping to herself. Once inside of the café, she could see that Mint was there as well.
"Mint?" Lettuce asked, walking over to her.
Mint looked up towards her with a cup of tea in her right hand as always. Seeing Lettuce, Mint scooted over, opening the seat next to her. Taking the invite, Lettuce walked over and set her bag down.
"What are you doing here?" Mint asked, not looking at the green haired girl.
Lettuce looked away. "I just came here to get something to eat and then I'm going home. I'm not feeling very well."
"Huh." Mint blinked. "Is that all?"
"Yes. What are you doing here?"
Mint looked away. "I came here to relax. At least Ichigo isn't here, I can finally be here and relax without her running around."
Lettuce looked at Mint strangely. "Is something wrong Mint? You've been acting strange for the past few days. Did I do something to make you angry at all?"
Mint placed her cup down onto the white saucer. "No, don't worry about anything, it's nothing you've done."
"Can you tell me?" Lettuce moved closer towards Mint.
"No. I really don't want to talk about it."
Lettuce sat back in her seat, placing her hands in her lap. "Alright. I'm sorry I bothered you about it."
"Don't worry about anything Lettuce." Mint closed her eyes. "I'm fine."
A smile crossed Lettuce's face. "That's good!"
A few hours later, Lettuce walked back to her school and stood outside, waiting for Midori to come like she promised. After waiting for a few moments, Midori came walking up with a happy, yet tired look on her face.
"Hey Lettuce." Midori said gently once she arrived next to the young woman.
"Are you okay Midori?" Lettuce asked, looking at the sleepiness in her face. "You look very tried."
"It's nothing, just a long school day." Midori laughed. "So you wanna go get something to eat? I've got to work in three hours so we have plenty of time to walk around if you want."
"We can go to my café." Lettuce said, thinking it over for a moment.
"I love that place!" Midori grinned. "Come on, let's head over!"
A few minutes later the two arrived at Café Mew Mew. They walked inside and found a table by the kitchen. As they sat down, Ichigo walked over to the two, dressed in her café outfit.
"Welcome to Café Mew Mew, how can I…" Ichigo blinked as she noticed whom the two customers were. "Oh hi Lettuce, Midori!"
"Hey Ichigo." Midori answered back with a small wave.
Ichigo shook her head. "Here are two menus, just call me when you're ready to order alright?"
"Ichigo!" Ryou yelled from the kitchen.
"Coming!"
Ichigo took off towards the kitchen as Midori picked up a menu to look at while Lettuce looked around the café. Mint, and Ichigo seemed to be the only ones working today for whatever reason. As she looked, Mint walked by the table.
"Mint." Lettuce said gently, causing Mint to stop walking. "Are you off for today?"
"Yes." Mint nodded. "I've got a fan dance lesson I have to go to."
"Who else is coming in?"
Mint opened her mouth to answer but stopped as she spotted Midori. She paused for a long moment, and then shook her head a bit.
"Pudding is and Ichigo is staying for the rest of the day." Mint answered in a harsh tone. "I'm leaving now, I can't be late."
"Mint…" Lettuce blinked.
Mint walked away without saying anything else to the green haired girl, and leaving her in wonder. She thought she had done something wrong again but just couldn't figure it out. What was she doing wrong? She had never seen Mint act like that before.
"Something wrong?" Midori asked, breaking Lettuce's thoughts.
"No." Lettuce shook her head and then lowered it. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Midori lowered her menu, and placed it down onto the white table.
"Yes." Lettuce sighed.
Wanting to cheer Lettuce up, Midori reached down into her brown bag and searched through the papers in there. After finding what she wanted, she pulled out a small piece of white paper and moved it towards Lettuce.
"What?" Lettuce asked, looking up towards the paper.
"Remember? You wanted me to draw you a picture." Midori said as a blush crossed her face. "Here it is, I haven't gotten a chance to color it yet but it's shaded."
The blush crossing Midori's face caused the frown on Lettuce's face to disappear. She just thought it was cute and she had never seen the older woman blush before, she had always been the one that blushed.
"It properly looks fine." Lettuce said, taking the paper.
Lettuce brought the paper up to her face and took the drawn picture in. It was a simple drawing of Mew Mew Lettuce, Midori's favorite Mew Mew. As she looked at all of the hard work and all of the shading, a deep blush crossed Lettuce's face.
It's me. She's drawn a picture of me without noticing at all. Lettuce thought, the blush causing her face to grow hot.
"Do you like it?" Midori asked, sinking down into her chair with embarrassment.
"Yes…" Lettuce said breathlessly. "It's…so well done."
"Good." Midori smiled. "Because I want you to have it."
"Really?" Lettuce looked back up towards the older woman with her mouth open. "I don't think I could keep something like this! You've worked so hard on it!"
"I worked hard on it for you." Midori blushed once more. "I wanted you to like it."
Lettuce lowered her head a bit. "Really? Why would you draw something like this for me?"
"Because you're the only one who has really sat down to talk to me." Midori said, causing Lettuce to look back up to see her with her head lowered.
"What?"
"Some people are afraid of me and don't want to talk to me." Midori confessed, gripping the sides of her chair. "I've never let anyone see any of my pictures because they never want to sit down and talk to me. You're the first."
"Midori." Lettuce said gently. "Why is that?"
"My reputation." Midori answered. "It's gotten so bad before that I had a hard time finding a job until I found that store to work at."
The Lettuce remembered what she had asked earlier. She had asked why they called her 'The Queen of Gangs' meaning that Midori's reputation had come into play once more. Feeling bad, Lettuce placed the picture Midori had drawn onto the top of the table and gave a light sigh.
"I'm sorry then." Lettuce lowered her head as if she were bowing without getting up. "I didn't mean to bring up those rumors this morning. If I had known that it bothered you then I wouldn't have brought it up at all."
Midori giggled a bit. "It's fine Lettuce, I know you didn't mean too."
"Still." Lettuce sighed once more.
"Don't be upset." Midori laughed. "Let's talk about something else, I didn't mean to ruin the mood."
An hour later the two and finished their small meal and were now walking down the street, talking to one another. They walked towards Lettuce's house where Midori stood outside and walked Lettuce towards the front door.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning alright?" Midori said with a smile. "I've got to get to work before I'm late so I'd better get going."
"Alright." Lettuce blinked and smiled. "I'll see you in the morning."
"See ya!"
Midori walked away from Lettuce, allowing her to walk inside. Once she had closed the door behind her, she ran up into her room and jumped on her bed. She had no idea why but there was a large smile crossing her face she couldn't make go away. She just felt so happy that Midori had opened up to her and spoke to her almost all day.
Midori. Lettuce thought with a slight giggle. I think…I do like you but…how do I tell you? Or anyone else?
R&R please!