Disclaimer: This story is not at all affiliated with the owners and/or creators of Tokyo Mew Mew.

Author's Note: This is how I think "To Be a Traitor" should have gone.

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The squelching heat inside the Mew Mew Café was inescapable. The summer had started off with a merciless heat wave, leaving the mew mew gang feeling sweaty and stifled in their polyester uniforms.

"So…tired" Ichigo said aloud to no one in particular as she finished cleaning the last table. Pudding was spinning plates lazily on long poles; she hadn't back flipped in the air once all day and Ichigo was starting to worry. Mint sat with her iced tea and cold cakes, looking forlorn without her idol around; Zakura had left earlier that day for a photo shoot.

"Well, another day another dollar," Retasu said unenthusiastically. She flipped the sign from open to closed and plopped down on a chair. Just then there was a knock on the front door.

"We're closed." The girls said in unison, none of them bothering to see who it was. The knocking continued. Finally looking up, Ichigo gasped and then glared through the glass door at Kish. He was smiling a bit, but the heat was apparently getting to him for his shoulders slumped from fatigue.

"What're you doing here?" She exclaimed. It was way too hot for this right now. She was about to morph and kick some alien butt when she felt a hand on her arm.

"Retasu?" She turned to her friend, confused. Retasu just nodded toward Kish as if to say, "Look closer". Glancing back, Ichigo noticed nothing different about the perverted alien at first. His pigtails were green and his grin was mischievous as always, but his golden eyes were…off, diminished somehow. Then she heard a gasp emit from Mint who was now on her other side.

"He's bleeding!" she pointed. Ichigo saw that behind Kish a puddle of dark blood was forming steadily. For one horrific second, she just stood there, mouth agape and mind whirling with jumbled thoughts. Then she ran to the door and wrenched it open just in time to catch her foe as he passed out.

"Kish? Kish!" Ichigo knelt to the floor under the awkward weight in her arms. His eyes were closed, his body limp and she shook him, repeating his name again and again to no avail. The rest of the mews gathered around, all shifting their weight from foot to foot, not knowing what to do.

"We have to stop the bleeding!" Ichigo cried. When the rest continued to do nothing, she snapped, "Hurry! He'll die!" Uneasily they knelt by the alien, giving each other nervous glances. The whole scenario was crazy, even suspicious. They flipped Kish onto his belly unceremoniously and found his entire back sticky with clotted blood. Retasu held a hand to her mouth, either from shock or nausea and something clicked in Ichigo's mind. In a moment of absolute clarity, her panicked thoughts were silenced, replaced with a solid goal: Save Kish. She began to bark orders, and tore his shirt away to get a better look at the wound.

"Retasu, there's a fist aid kit in Ryou's bathroom."

"Pudding, go get Ryou and Keichiro"

"Mint! Hot water and a clean rag." Mint, though impartial to being ordered around, hesitated for only a second before she left the room.

She was then left alone with the unconscious alien, her mind in sharp focus and her actions somehow detached as she untied her apron. Bunching the material, she applied pressure to where she thought the wound was. With so much blood, it was hard to tell.

Mint arrived with the water and rag, setting the ceramic bowl by her side. She squeezed the rag and began to dab at Kish's back. The bleeding had stopped, but she was worried about how much blood he had lost.

Ryou and Keichiro arrived with Pudding in a floury of hurried footsteps and unanswered questions. They stopped abruptly when they saw the mess before them, and Ichigo was only vaguely aware of Ryou kneeling across from her as she continued her task.

Minutes melted into hours. Kish's clean back revealed a lengthwise gash running across his back from is left shoulder to his right side, putting his kidney at risk. The wound was grotesquely jagged, with traces of burns along the edges. Similar slashes, though minor, sprouted from it. His head was now lying atop a makeshift pillow, courtesy of Retasu, but other than that everyone kept their distance.

Ichigo finished applying antibacterial ointment and was considering the best way to bandage it when he started to stir. His brow contorted into a wince of pain and he began to talk incoherently. A wave of relief washed over her. He was alive!

"What is he saying?" Pudding asked. Ryou looked on with a cold indifference.

"We need answers," He stated. Ichigo, who had been stroking Kish's feverish forehead soothingly, stopped to look at her boss incredulously. Interrogate him? Now?

But the topic was dropped when Kish became still once more, and Ichigo saved the confrontation for until after his wounds were properly dressed.

---

"What now?" Pudding piped up. Ichigo had done all she could for Kish, and now they sat, eyeing the alien.

"We'll keep him here, in a secured chamber." Ryou declared, leaving no room for argument.

"No."

"Ichigo, you can't really think that-"

"Think what? That he can be trusted?" She met his eyes, "Of course not." She stood, her legs aching from sitting on the floor. "I just think that he wouldn't feel as open to answering any questions after waking up in a metal box."

Ryou paused and she could tell he was mulling it over. "Fine," he bit out, "He'll stay with you."

"What?!" Nearly everyone in the room blurted, including Ichigo.

"He needs to feel a sense of security; he needs to feel in control." Ryou explained, "There isn't a better place,"

"Why doesn't he go back to the mother ship, or whatever that thing is called?" Mint voiced.

"Because he isn't welcomed there any longer," Retasu was quiet, but she was heard and she made sense. The fact that he was with them and not the aliens was proof enough.

"We can take him in my car," Keichiro offered, jingling a set of keys in his hand.

"Alright," Ichigo assented, looking down at the unconscious figure at her feet. It was decided.

Kish was staying with her.

At her house.

Alone.

She wondered if she should tell Ryou her parents were out of town for the week…