Valentine's Day at the Café Mew Mew

By Rostockgirl

Series: Crossover (multi)

Disclaimer: None of the stories I'm using were created by me.

It was a bright, icy February afternoon at the little jewel box of a café, and business was in full swing. Pudding was whirling around like a little dervish, performing her acrobatic acts; Ichigo's hair was escaping from its ponytails and even Mint was working hard for once, albeit sulkily.

Lettuce was on hostess duty today, wearing a pin-neat uniform and her best professional smile. "Welcome to the Café Mew Mew," she told the three couples who had just arrived.

They looked about her age: a pink-haired girl with yellow ribbons in her hair with a brown-haired, athletic boy; a pretty brunette clinging to the arm of a tall and athletic blonde boy, and the oddest couple Lettuce had ever seen: the boy pale, skinny, red-eyed and gray-haired despite his youth, awkwardly holding hands with a feisty-looking green-haired girl.

"Let me just get some tables for you," she said, "Zakuro-san? Can you help me push these together?"

"Oh no, we can do it," said the two handsome boys and the green-haired girl. They had two round tables and six chairs arranged into a party before Lettuce could say a word.

"Thank you," said Lettuce.

"No problem, sister," said the green girl, with a wink - referring to their almost matching hair colors.

Lettuce smiled, bowed, and went back to her post.

"Welcome to the - "

The words stuck in her mouth as the next customer caught hold of her long braid and brought it to his lips. He had deep blue hair almost falling over his face, amber eyes, and a very charming smile.

"Hello there," he said in a deep voice. "You're a shy one, aren't you? Tell me, what's your name?"

Lettuce could feel an acute case of embarrassment coming on. Did he have to do that in front of everyone? What if Shirogane-san saw - ?

"Excuse my boyfriend, miss," said a young woman, appearing from behind the stranger, with chestnut-brown hair curled on either sides of her head. "He's in a totally pervy mood today. Get over yourself, Chiaki!" she hissed, grabbing his arm and steering him inside.

"Just making friends," said Chiaki, with the most innocent look in the world. "Never tell me you're jealous, Maron-chan," he added mockingly.

"Maybe I am," pouted the girl.

"Thank you," Lettuce told her, making her grin. "Um - anyway, I'll show you to your seats. This way, please - whoa!"

Turning around, she had completely overlooked the chair-leg standing in her way. With a gasp of surprise, she fell spectacularly...

...into her employer's arms.

She blushed like a volcano.

Unbeknownst to her, so did he.

The two customers chuckled and chose a table for themselves.

"Careful there," said Shirogane-san, slowly depositing her upright on the ground.

"Sorry, so sorry..." she muttered, once again feeling like an utter idiot. "I thought I was growing out of it, really..."

"Relax, Lettuce," he said kindly, brushing back a strand of her hair. "It's not half bad. C'mon, that...uh... table needs clearing," and he fled back into his computer den at the back of the shop.

Lettuce shook her head vigorously and went to clear that table - half a piece of cheesecake had been left uneaten, what a waste - and prayed that she wouldn't have another mishap, since her hands were still trembling after that feeling of being held in Ryou's arms.

He didn't know how she felt and she intended to keep it that way.

An hour or so later, she had switched to serving tables; her hand was starting to cramp up from the speed of her note-taking.

"One large-sized hot fudge sundae with two spoons, please," said a little beauty with amazingly long blonde hair in two 'odango' buns and the most annoying voice Lettuce had ever heard. Her companion, tall and dark-haired with piercing blue eyes, nodded and smiled at her fondly across the table.

"Coming right up," said Lettuce, with an automatic smile.

At the next table, there was an argument going on.

"Listen," a white-haired boy with pointed ears in a bright red outfit was saying waspishly to his date, "Just because you dragged me into this hellhole under pain of Sit, doesn't mean I have to like it."

The girl, who had curly black hair and a green-and-white school uniform, hissed back: "Well, I'll have you know, Inuyasha no baka, that if you don't know good taste when you see it - "

"How dare you call me an idiot, wench - "

The two looked just about ready to murder each other. Lettuce slammed the menus she was carrying into the table. The squabblers looked up.

"Excuse me," said Lettuce.

"Whaddya want?" snapped the boy.

"Shut up," said the girl, then smiled and ducked her head in an embarrassed sort of way. "She's the waitress. Sorry, miss," she added. "I, um, didn't see you."

"That's okay," replied Lettuce, trying to spread calm in the best way she could. Heaven knew that couple needed it. "Would you like to order now?"

"Which one of the foods on the menu," explained the girl. Lettuce wondered where that strange dog-boy had come from, if he didn't even know that.

"Oh yeah. Um. Green tea," said the dog-boy.

"I'll have a hot chocolate," said the girl. "And a spice cake, please."

Lettuce scribbled it down, bowed to them and turned away; she could hear the boy asking, "Aren't you worried about your weight?" and the girl replying in an angry voice.

I do hope, thought Lettuce, Akasaka-san hasn't overdone it with the cinnamon again. More fire is exactly what they don't need.

At the third table, an older woman with severely cut, light brown hair in a brown pantsuit was sitting with a handsome blonde man wearing glasses. He had a faint whiff of cleaning solutions about him, as if he had just come from a hospital.

He ordered a black coffee. The woman's choice was a small whisky, but her date covered her hand with his and whispered, "No, darling. You're just out of rehab, remember?"

"Coffee then, please," said the woman.

Lettuce pretended not to hear the whisper, marveling about the strange customers they had sometimes.

On the table closest to the entrance were a tall girl with boyishly short blonde hair, wearing a pink, yellow and green school uniform, and a boy with dark green hair and a black uniform who looked acutely uncomfortable, as if wishing himself a thousand miles away.

Before Lettuce could get to them, however, the green-haired boy jumped back from his seat as a loud Pop! made the empty plate in front of him jump. A small piece of paper had appeared from underneath it.

Lettuce, eavesdropping in spite of herself, caught the end of his exclamation: "...Saint Tail!"

His date fumed; Lettuce suddenly recognized him as Asuka Junior, the youngest detective in Tokyo, dedicated to catching a certain young lady thief with genuine supernatural powers.

Asuka ran from the café immediately to begin some sort of plan; his date did not even spare a glance at Lettuce as she said: "Two brownies and a chamomile tisane. Now I'm mad!"

Lettuce couldn't help but feel a little bit honored that a note from the famous Saint Tail had appeared right in her own café. Although of course it would be much less of an honor if she actually broke in.

She stood still for just a minute, to take a breather, and looked around the room. The two squabblers were relatively quiet; the odango girl and her handsome older man were blissfully feeding each other ice cream. Mint was sitting at her leisure at one of the few empty tables, sipping her tea like a duchess in her manor. Lettuce decided to leave it to someone else to tell her off this time.

But what was that? Underneath another empty table she could see a shadow, which on closer identification proved to be a teenage boy, with a goatee and sunglasses, huddled up into a lump of abject misery. He was staring at a little girl with two little ponytails like an insect's antennae. She was sitting across from a pale, black-eyed boy with a very accurate haircut, and both of them were very silent.

Lettuce knelt down to look the victim of heartbreak in the face.

"Oh, it's you," he said hoarsely. "Please, Midorikawa-san. Don't you have anything poisonous in that kitchen of yours?"

"Harima-san," she said in her best attempt at a soothing voice. "Don't say that."

"Kill me now," he moaned. "Look at them. They're on a date, for Pete's sake. On Valentine's Day."

"Yes, well," said Lettuce, holding out a hand to pull him up. "Where there's key lime pie, there's hope, don't you think? On the house."

He brightened up immediately. "On the house? Hey, thanks!"

"But this is the last time this month, okay?" she reprimanded him. "Your allowance is coming up soon, so I request that you please pay for your next pie."

He crawled out from under the table, painstakingly dusted off his leather jacket, and grinned at her.

"You're the best, Midorikawa-san. If only you didn't have such a long name."

"It's not my fault," said Lettuce, and wrote down the order for a key lime pie. "I knew an Edomurasaki-san once, that's even longer."

Meanwhile, the arguing from the Squabblers' table was getting louder. When Lettuce came back from the kitchen balancing plates and cups, they were shouting loudly enough to shake the walls.

"I hated you from the beginning!" screamed the dog-boy. "You stink up my air, you poke your ugly nose into everything - if I didn't need you for the mission, I'd have kicked you out long ago!"

"That's IT!" replied the girl. "I never want to se your face again! You go back to Kikyo  and to hell, because I'm through!"

With that, she took her half-full mug of hot chocolate and threw it into the boy's face. He cursed; she threw some banknotes onto the table and ran.

He followed with supernatural speed. "Kagome!" he yelled. "Damnit, Kagome, where do you think you're going..."

Lettuce put down the plate with the brownies to pick up the money. It was more than enough for both of them; she wondered if Kagome had meant to apologize for their behavior, or simply been too mad to count properly.

When Lettuce put down the brownies for the short-haired girl whose date had ran out on her, she noticed that the girl looked much calmer; she was looking at something over Lettuce's shoulder with a dreamy, wistful expression. Lettuce turned around; it was the odango couple, the ones who were so much in love. The man was kneeling down in front of his girlfriend, holding a tiny box with something sparkly in it.

"Usako, will you marry me?" he asked.

"YES!" shrieked Usako, like the steam engine on an old-fashioned train. Everybody applauded, laughing; Ichigo and Mint had stars in their eyes; Zakuro was trying and failing to hide a smile.

"Gross, na-no-da," said Pudding, making those who heard her laugh some more.

Lettuce turned away and wiped a tear off her face under the pretext of adjusting her glasses. Her chances of getting married in the future were, in her opinion, very low.

It was closing time; the café was even more of a mess than usual, and Zakuro was off for a photo shoot. Lettuce was tired; probably not physical so much as emotional fatigue. The broom and dustpan seemed heavier than usual as she carried them around to the next pattern of crumbs.

"Aoyama-kun!" squeaked Ichigo, at the sight of a familiar dark-haired, tanned face peering through the window. She flew to the closed door and outside; Lettuce could faintly see them walking away hand in hand.

A tear dropped onto the dirty floor, then another, as she dropped to the floor to sweep the crumbs into her dustpan - because tears were not enough to wash the floor.

"Hey, Lettuce," said Ryou, gently taking the broom from her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Shirogane-san," she mumbled, keeping her head down. "I'm all right."

"You're washing the floor with tears. That can't be right. We have water from the sink for that, you know." His turquoise eyes were full of concern, despite the casual words.

"I'm just...it's hard on a single girl on Valentine's Day," explained Lettuce. "All those happy couples...even the unhappy ones must have been happy once."

Neither of them noticed that Mint, Pudding and Zakuro had also left. Keiichiro was cleaning up the kitchen, so that left Lettuce and Ryou alone in the room.

"I know," said Ryou. "Kinda depressing, isn't it?"

Lettuce didn't know what gave her the courage to be so bold. "Is it...is it Ichigo?" she asked.

"Ichigo - why - what do you mean?" he asked, obviously startled by such a direct question.

"I know you were in love with her. Is that what's bothering you? You don't have to answer, it's just...maybe...if you need to talk..."

She wanted to comfort him, in any way she knew, even if it meant hearing that he still loved Ichigo.

"If you must know," said Ryou, "That's not really what bothers me. Ichigo is happy, you know. She and Aoyama are meant to be together, I can see that. That chapter in my life is over. It's actually...someone else...whom I really like."

Lettuce stood up sharply, feeling like someone had punched her. This was worse than she'd thought.

"She is...kind, generous, intelligent, beautiful...but she doesn't know it. She's so shy and insecure, always putting herself down. I wish I could tell her that to me, she's perfect, and she should stop feeling so depressed. I want to see her happy."

"Who...who is she?" asked Lettuce, imagining the beautiful lady he was about to describe. Bet you anything she's a redhead, like Ichigo, she thought bitterly.

He laughed. "She has green hair, blue eyes, and she's standing right in front of me. Now, I've done it. If you don't feel the same, that's okay...you know, just being honest."

He looked about as embarrassed as she felt after one of her mess-ups.

There was only one thing Lettuce's confused, dizzy mind could come up with.

"Do you...do you mind if I call you Ryou?"

"Is that a yes?" he asked, illuminated with hope.

She nodded.

He put one finger under her chin and kissed her, slowly but passionately. Tears came into her eyes for the third time that day, but this time, they were tears of joy.

The End