Feverish

Kisshu was sitting in Ichigo's tree, watching her do her homework. Pai was out to get him for his latest prank, which had involved Kisshu bribing Taruto to deliver copies of a very interesting picture to both Pai and Lettuce. The picture had involved Pai and Lettuce kissing- while Ryou got chopped to bits in the background. Kisshu knew that Lettuce had harbored feelings for Ryou in the past, so he decided to add that in. Unfortunately, it had apparently been too graphic for Lettuce, and Pai had told Kisshu he wasn't allowed back on the ship until he apologized. Though he had already apologized, Kisshu had decided he'd be better off spending the night in Ichigo's tree, rather than worrying Pai would poison him in his sleep if he was on the ship.

Lazily watching Ichigo, he saw that she appeared to be getting ready for bed. Looking at the sky, he noticed it was pretty dark. It was getting a bit chilly too, but Kisshu didn't really mind that much as he stretched out on the large branch he was sitting on, and slowly fell asleep.

The next morning: Kisshu woke up slowly, realizing he was warm. As he opened his eyes, he felt a sharp pain in his head, and shut his eyes again. He realized he was lying on something soft, and wondered, What happened? I fell asleep in Ichigo's tree; why am I lying on something soft?

Deciding to find out, he opened his eyes, and saw all pink. Then he heard Ichigo's voice ask softly, "Kisshu?"

Kisshu turned his head, wincing as another sharp jolt of pain shot through his head, and saw Ichigo sitting next to him. "Koneko-chan? What happened?" he asked. "Why am I in your room?"

"I think you fell out of the tree, because I found you on my front lawn," Ichigo said. "You've got a pretty bad fever; you need to take it easy. Does anything hurt?"

"My head is killing me," Kisshu said. "I don't think there's anything else."

"Can you take medicine?" Ichigo asked.

"Not human medicine," Kisshu said. "And Pai's not too thrilled with me."

"Does it have something to do with the picture Lettuce told me about?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah," Kisshu said. "I apologized, but I figured since Pai is almost certainly still mad at me, I'd spend the night in your tree."

"It was pretty cold last night; I imagine you got sick from being outside," Ichigo said. "You can stay here, but if you get worse, I'm going to call Pai, okay?"

"Okay…." Kisshu said. "Why are you being nice?"

Ichigo turned red and said, "I couldn't just leave you on my lawn; Ryou might find out, and then you'd be dead. I don't want you to die. And I wasn't sure when you'd wake up, so I brought you to my room."

"Do you love me?" Kisshu asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Ichigo replied. "I'll let you know when I figure that out. I like you, I'm just not sure if I love you." She noticed Kisshu was looking sleepy, and said softly, "Kisshu, you should get some more rest; you need it to recover."

"Will you stay?" Kisshu asked sleepily.

"Sure," Ichigo said. "I just have to get another cool cloth for your fever."

"'Kay…" Kisshu said as he fell back to sleep.

Ichigo quietly left and came back a few minutes later with a cool cloth. She put it over Kisshu's forehead, removing the old one, and settled down next to him.

Two hours later, Ichigo changed the cool cloth again. She was worried; Kisshu's fever hadn't dropped at all, and he hadn't stirred since he had fallen asleep two hours ago.

By four in the afternoon, Ichigo was even more worried. Kisshu's fever had gone up, even with the cool cloths, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing. Finally Ichigo called telepathically, PAI!

I'm not going to heal Kisshu, Pai said.

WHY!? Ichigo cried.

He's gone too far, and besides, my leader wants him out, Pai said.

But- Ichigo said, but then flinched as Pai shouted, I said no, and I MEANT no! She felt him cut the connection, and sighed. Maybe Lettuce will help…. Ichigo thought, but when she tried to call her, not only was she not answering her cell phone, the telepathy connection they had was broken. The same was true of Pudding. When she tried Moe's cell phone, it was off, and so was Miwa's. What the heck is going on? Ichigo wondered. Maybe someone is trying to keep me from saving Kisshu, but Ryou doesn't know about Moe and Miwa, so who is it?

She didn't have time to wonder; Kisshu was waking up. "Kisshu?" she asked softly.

"Koneko-chan?" Kisshu asked weakly.

"I'm here," Ichigo said. "How are you feeling?"

"Can't… breathe…" Kisshu whispered.

Ichigo felt his forehead, and held back a gasp; his temperature was nearly high enough to burn her hand. "Koneko-chan?" Kisshu whispered. "Am I going to die?"

Ichigo looked at him. He looked scared, and she said, "I won't let you, Kisshu." She knew that there wasn't much hope, but she didn't want to scare him further.

"Can I have a kiss?" Kisshu whispered.

"Yes," Ichigo replied, managing to keep her voice steady. She gently lifted Kisshu in her arms, and kissed him, feeling him respond. She felt his hand on her cheek for a minute, and then he broke off the kiss. "Koneko-chan, do you love me?" he asked.

"Yes," Ichigo said, a tear sliding down her cheek. "I love you, Kisshu."

"I'm glad… I love you too," Kisshu said. Ichigo noticed his eyes were closing, and shook him. "Kisshu! Kisshu, please don't die on me!" Ichigo cried, but it was too late. She gently laid him back down, and started sobbing. She buried her face in Kisshu's chest, and just sobbed.

It was about another three hours before Ichigo calmed down enough to think about what she could do now. She had a feeling giving her life for Kisshu's wasn't a good idea; if he woke up and found her dead, he'd probably kill himself, and then it would be for nothing. Another thought occurred to her, and she picked up her cell phone- just as the doorbell rang. Cautiously looking out her window, she saw both Ryou and Keiichiro outside, and sighing, went downstairs to open the door. "What do you want?" she asked sadly when she opened the door.

"The other Mews are brainwashed for some reason; we wanted to see if you were," Ryou said. "You're not?"

"No," Ichigo said.

Keiichiro sighed. "Ichigo, we know what happened," he said. "The only reason we didn't get here sooner was that I was lecturing Ryou on giving you privacy."

Ichigo looked at Ryou. "You've been using my pedant to spy on me?" she asked. "Does that mean you're perverted or something?"

"I'm NOT perverted," Ryou grumbled. "We came to give you this, since Keiichiro claims that you'll commit suicide if we don't." He held out a ball of Mew Aqua.

Ichigo took it, and said, "Thanks…." Then she ran upstairs to her room, and went over to Kisshu. She put the Mew Aqua over Kisshu's heart, then pressed it into his body. He started to glow rainbow colors, and Ichigo shielded her eyes a few minutes later as the glow flashed.

When the flash faded, Ichigo looked at Kisshu, and saw he was breathing again. As she watched, he stirred a bit, then opened his eyes, looking puzzled. "Koneko-chan?" he asked. "I thought I died."

"Keiichiro brought me some Mew Aqua; apparently Ryou's been spying on me, and he knew what happened," Ichigo said. "How are you feeling?"

Kisshu sat up, and said, "I feel fine."

Ichigo sat down with him, and hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder as he hugged back. "I'm fine now, you don't have to worry," Kisshu told her softly, pulling her onto his lap as he stroked her hair.

"You're sure?" Ichigo asked, not taking her face out of his shoulder.

"I'm sure," Kisshu said. "I'm hungry, though."

Ichigo looked at him, drying her tears. "Do you want to go find something to eat?" she asked.

"Yeah," Kisshu said. "Are Blondie and Keiichiro still here?"

"Not sure," Ichigo said, getting up. Kisshu got up too, and they went downstairs.

They found Ryou and Keiichiro sitting at the kitchen table with a laptop. They both looked up as Ichigo and Kisshu came in, and Keiichiro asked, "Kisshu, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Kisshu said. "What's with the laptop?"

"We're trying to figure out who brainwashed the Mews," Ryou said.

"My guess would be Deep Blue; I think Pai and Taruto are brainwashed too," Ichigo said. "That's the only explanation I can think of for why Pai refused to heal Kisshu."

"His human host is that treehugger kid," Kisshu commented. "I could go kill him, and that would probably snap the brainwash."

"What's going to happen then?" Ryou asked.

"We go along with Lettuce's plan to give the Cyniclons all our Mew Aqua to save their home planet," Ichigo said. "And NO, you don't get a say in this, Ryou. I'm the leader of Tokyo Mew Mew, not you."

"Mmph," Ryou said grouchily, and started sulking.

"I'll go kill the treehugger," Kisshu said.

"Please be careful," Ichigo said.

"I will," Kisshu promised. He teleported out, and Ichigo sighed.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Ichigo," Keiichiro said.

With Kisshu: Kisshu found the treehugger at Ichigo's school, and mentally groaned. Then he noticed Aoyama was coming out of the building, and took his chance, swooping down and grabbing Aoyama by the throat before teleporting to one of the more secluded parks in Tokyo. As they landed, Kisshu noticed Aoyama was trying to get out of his grasp, and tightened his grip on Aoyama's neck, then snapped it. Letting him drop, Kisshu took out his sais and incinerated the body with an energy ball. Satisfied with his work, he teleported back to Ichigo's house.

He landed in the kitchen, and barely had a chance to register what was happening before Ichigo threw herself at him and hugged him tightly. He hugged back as he asked, "Koneko-chan, what's wrong?"

Ichigo didn't respond, and Keiichiro sighed, then said, "She hasn't gotten over seeing you die. I don't think she's ready to be separated from you for more than about an hour."

Kisshu looked down at Ichigo, who was attached to him, and said softly, "I'm fine now, Koneko-chan. And the treehugger is dead, so Deep Blue can't hurt us anymore." He felt Ichigo snuggle against him, and started stroking her hair, causing her to purr and start to fall asleep. When she was asleep, Kisshu gently picked her up and went upstairs, tucking her into her bed and settling down next to her. He started stroking her hair again, and she rubbed against his hand in her sleep.

A few hours later, Kisshu had curled up with Ichigo, and was fast asleep.

The next morning, Kisshu woke up to the sound of teleportation, and opened his eyes to see Pai looking down at him. "Are you okay?" Pai asked. He sounded really worried.

"I'm fine now; Ichigo used Mew Aqua to bring me back to life," Kisshu said.

"Why didn't you come back?" Pai asked.

"I didn't want to leave Koneko-chan; she's still kind of traumatized, and doesn't like it when I leave," Kisshu said. "I was thinking of staying anyways."

"After we heal the planet?" Pai asked.

"After you heal the planet; I'm not going back," Kisshu said. "The harassment and swarming will get far worse now; you can go back and tell the others that I'm staying here."

Pai sighed, and said, "Taruto and I might be coming back as well, but while we're gone, don't go overboard with Ichigo."

"I won't," Kisshu said. He looked down at Ichigo, who opened her eyes sleepily, and asked, "You're staying?"

"Yeah, is that okay?" Kisshu asked.

"You can stay forever," Ichigo said happily.

Kisshu smiled happily, and said, "Pai's going to go confess to Lettuce, so we can spend the day cuddling."

"Mmph," Pai said, and teleported out as Ichigo giggled.

"Well, that worked," Kisshu said happily. "Let's cuddle!"

Ichigo smiled and hugged him, snuggling into his chest as he hugged back.

I'm not sure if this came out how I wanted it to, but I think it's pretty good. Please Review!