Disclaimer: Once again I do not own the anime or manga version of Mew Mew.
Sakura M.: I want to thanks Angelic Ichigo for giving the plot of this story! Though I kind of tweak it. .
Chapter 1"Shirogane! I demand a raise!" A voice said.
That voice belongs to no other than Ichigo, leader of Tokyo Mew Mew. Not that anyone knows except those who worked in Café Mew Mew and the aliens. She was only a petite teenager with red hair and brown eyes.
"What for?" The young man replied.
His name is Ryou. He is the creator of the Mew Mew project. His first subject was himself, however it turned out that the Red Animal DNA did not completely fused with his DNA, thus resulting in allowing Ryou to change into his wildcat form only for a couple of minutes.
"Because of all the work I do around here! None of the other girls worked as hard as I am!" Ichigo yelled at him.
"Do you ever noticed a pattern?" Ryou asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ichigo shook her head. "What pattern?"
"Every time you asked me to give you a raise, and every time my answer has remain the same." Ryou smirked.
"Grrr…" Ichigo lets out some frustration. "You're unbelievable! What's wrong with me asking for a raise? I never volunteer to work in this place!"
"There you go. Since you never applied for the job, therefore no raise." Ryou said as he pushed Ichigo out of his room.
"I'm not done yet mister!" Ichigo started to ramble, only to have a door shut on her face. "Ooohhh…that jerk!"
Heading downstairs to where the rest of the team was, Ichigo glared at the customers.
"Ichigo? Is everything okay?" Lettuce said softly, not wanting to add any more fuel to her friend's hot temper.
"Oh everything is going peachy thank you very much." Ichigo snapped. Quickly seeing the hurt look plastered itself over Lettuce's face, she said to her softly. "I'm sorry for snapping at you Lettuce. It's just that for once, I want my wage to be the same as my hard work. It's not fair that out of all of the people here, I'm doing most of the chores around." Cutting off Lettuce's reply to that. "I know you do some work around here, but…you understand don't you?"
Lettuce nodded. "I understand. I'm clumsier than you are. So what are you going to do?"
"Right after the store close, I am going up to his room again and demand that I should get a raise or I'll leave the team!" Ichigo said, hitting her fist to her palm.
Overhearing this, Mint couldn't help but said. "Are you crazy or something? You can't leave the team. What ever happen to your 'Mew Mew' team spirit? If I recall, when Zakuro tried to leave the team, you insisted that she should stayed because we're a team."
Ichigo rolled her eyes. "I'm not exactly going to do it. I'm bluffing so that Shirogane has to take me seriously when I said that I want a raise."
"Like that's going to work." Mint said calmly as she stirred her tea around. "Why are you so insistent in getting a raise? You don't have to ask every single day you know."
Pudding barged in. "Maybe it's because onee-chan has the hots for Shirogane." Rolling around the tomato face Ichigo.
"I. DO. NOT. HAVE. THE. HOTS. FOR. HIM." Ichigo grinded her teeth.
Pudding stuck out her tongue. "That's what you think."
"Come back here you little monkey!" Enraged, Ichigo chased Pudding around the café as the other girls looked on.
Meanwhile in his room, Ryou looked at his work. Satisfied, he put it on his desk and headed down to the lab to work.
It was time for the cafe to close down. The other girls had left, after leaving Ichigo to clean all the mess. Keiichiro offered to help Ichigo, but she insisted to do the work since Keiichiro have to do something right after the café closed. When Ichigo finally finished all the cleaning, she started to head upstairs; ready to take her plan into action. Unknown to her, Ryou was still in the lab trying to figure out a problem that he could not solve.
Finding that the door was unlocked, Ichigo barged in ready to give Ryou a hell of a lecture of why she should get a raise along with her bluff. "Shirogane?" She said, after realizing that the young blond was not in his room. "Ryou?" She said once again, only softly.
"I guess he's not here. But then where could he possibly be?" Ichigo said to herself. Wandering around Ryou's room, she could not help but notice a piece of paper lying on the table. "He won't be mad if I take a little peek." She said to herself. 'Maybe it's a love letter to someone.' Gleeing, she took a look.
Her eyes are like chocolates,
--seductive and sweet.
Her hair is made out of strawberries,
--for they have not only given her their scent, but their color as well.
Ichigo grinned. "Looks like someone got a thing for a girl." She continued on with the poem.
Strawberries and chocolates,
The most favorite desert.
Like many people, it is too, my number one desert.
Yet, it is out of my reach…
She does not know how much I craved for her
How much I restrain myself
How much I torture myself for denying this favorite desert
For another has claimed her for the taking
I only want her to be happy
I'm willing to destroy everything I got—
--just to see her smile
I'm brave enough to do this, but really…
…I am nothing but a coward.
A coward who wrote this poem instead of saying this to her,
Maybe someday I will have to courage to say or give this to her
But for now, this will do.
Someday, I wish I could get my favorite desert…
-Shirogane Ryou
Dazed, Ichigo unconsciously placed this insider her pocket. She did not know how long she stood in Ryou's room, but once a thought entered her mind that Ryou might be coming back to his room anytime soon left her in a panic. She flew downstairs and out the door. On her way room, she nearly bumped into Keiichiro.
"Keiichiro! What are you doing here?' Ichigo cried out.
"I'm on my way to the café. I'm done with my appointment. How about I walk you home? Since it looks like that you're heading there." Keiichiro offered.
"I don't want to be a bother…" Ichigo trailed off.
Keiichiro shook his head. "You're not. Come on. Let's hurry before it gets dark."
They started to walk. Moments passed by before Ichigo gathered enough courage to ask Keiichiro. "Keiichiro? Do you think that there's someone in Shirogane's life?"
"What are you talking about?" Keiichiro said, confused by her question.
Ichigo pulled out the poem that she had tucked and showed it to him. She watched as his expression changed from the look of shock into realization and then into a knowing look.
"I guess you're right about that. Now here's my question to you." Keiichiro said after giving the poem back to Ichigo. "Do you know who he's referring to?"
Ichigo bit her lip. 'Whom could Shirogane be referring to? Lettuce? No. It couldn't be. The poem states that the girl must have red hair and brown eyes. Who else do I know that has red hair and brown eyes?' Giving up, she said to Keiichiro, "I don't know who that person might be."
Keiichiro smirked. He pulled Ichigo to face the window next to them. Looking at her reflection, for the first time she noticed that she fits the description. At that point, realization decided to slap her in the head.
Glancing back at Keiichiro, whose grin widens. "No way. He can't be referring to me!"
"Well who else can it be? I don't think Ryou knows any girls with red hair and brown eyes. Neither do I except for you." Keiichiro stated calmly, though enjoying the different shades of red that started to appear.
"But...but I really like Aoyama-kun." Ichigo said, though still blushing at the thought that she was the girl that Ryou referred to in a poem meant for her.
They continued on walking, suddenly Keiichiro said. "Do you? Do you only like Aoyama? Does your feelings for Aoyama blinded the feelings that you might have for Ryou? Think about that."
Ichigo stayed silent. She never thought about considering the feelings that appeared whenever Ryou was being kind to her. A few more paces and they were at her house.
"Keiichiro. Thank you for walking me home." Ichigo grinned at him.
Keiichiro grinned back. He waved to her. "Don't forget what I said about your crush for Aoyama might be blinding the feelings you might have for Ryou. See you tomorrow!"
Ichigo waved back and started to head inside. 'Don't worry Keiichiro. I will.'
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Sakura Moon:
That's the first chapter of "An Unknown Love Letter".
Now if you're thinking, "That's not a love letter. So why is the story called 'An Unknown Love Letter' when it should be called 'An Unknown Love Poem'?
Never fear! You will see as the story progress.
Once again, I would like to thank Angelic Ichigo for providing the base or foundation of this story. As mentioned before, I tweaked it, but her idea is still there in the story.
So review! If it's rude such as "Your story sucks" or "Why bother to write?" or anything that you and I both know that is rude, don't bother because not only does it waste my time reading it, but also yours since you're the one who is typing it. So do both of us a favor and don't review if you don't have anything nice or critical to say. Other than that, review and give out your opinion/suggestions/mistakes about this chapter/story!
Sakura Moon signing out.