When All Hope Is Lost

-When All Hope Is Lost-


DISCLAIMER: Tokyo Mew Mew and its Characters © Mia Ikumi


-Chapter One-


This is a simple tale of the five mews in their time of losing hope in themselves. Ichigo, who has lost the most precious person to her, looks to the most unexpecting person for comfort. Mint, who felt she could never be loved, finds what she\'s been longing for. Retasu, who has always felt like an outsider to the world, learns that she must start to trust to feel more welcomed. Purin, who has never grown up from her spirit as a child, has an experience to become more of a woman. And Zakuro, who can\'t make a single pastry, learns how to create the perfect dessert.


These five mews goes through such surprising and lesson-teaching experiences that helps them learn about others and themselves, but they mostly learn that they must never give up hope on themselves.


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Ichigo walked along the concrete sidewalk, with a smile that grew larger wit h each step. After much begging, Ichigo had finally convinced her employer to let her return to her shared home with her long-time boyfriend. Living together for more than four years, Masaya and Ichigo truly did love each other. It had been about five or six years since the incident of the mews had occured, but things were back to normal now. Well, sort of.


The girls had all continued to work at Cafe Mew Mew, for it grew into them very deeply. They had all become best friends though they were all so very different from one another. They stayed at their job as waitresses, though they didn\'t even really get the job done, but Ryou hadn\'t mind a bit, considering he was already used to the fact that he had the girls and Keiichiro with him, making him not so alone.


Either way, Ichigo was extrememly joyed as she walked home. Only she and Retasu had been working that day, which didn\'t do much, since Retasu constantly dropped dishes of china along every path on the floor, only having Ichigo clean up the mess behind her, which was of course, nothing unusual. The actual event that spread shock to the red headed girl was the fact that their employer decided to let them go home and rest for the rest of the day. It was an unusual act on his part, considering he never bothered him of how much they had to go through in one day\'s worth of work.


Pushing the thoughts of Ryou aside, Ichigo went back to thinking of Masaya. He had stated to her that he was to stay home that day and would be there when she arrived back late at night. She imagined his face as it would grow with excitement as he would recieve the surprise of her coming home so early. She figured they could go out on a date to enjoy their whole day together or have a nice dinner. Or to celebrate her early arrival, they could go under the covers and have a little fun of their own.


So many ideas formed into Ichigo\'s head and she quietly slipped the keys in the lock of the front door of their home. Opening the door, she closed it behind her, as she tiptoed inside the house. She wanted to remain as quiet as possible, so that he would not yet know of her arrival. Wondering where he could be located, she heard his laugh come from their bedroom. \'He\'s probably watching the television,\' She thought to herself, about what he could be laughing about.


Smiling, she stepped in front of their bedroom door, taking a deep breath. Placing her hands on the cold metallic handle, she turned it and pushed the door open inside, waiting to see the love of her life.


But what she saw was beyond what she had expected to see. Yes, there was indeed the love of her life, but he was not alone. Masaya lay naked with arms and legs open across the surface of their queen-sized bed, as another girl in black lingerie sat on top his member, riding it roughly. Stopping when Ichigo had opened the door, they both faced her shockly, surprised that they had been caught in the act. And to fit in with the list of the surprises, the girl who was on Ichigo and Masaya\'s bed, humping the boy\'s life away, was none other than Ichigo\'s best friend, Mint.


\"I-Ichigo!?\" Masaya shouted in surprise, as he sat up on the bed. Mint quickly removed herself from on top of Masaya and slid her blank panties back over her private area. She turned a deep shade of red, ashamed and embaressed about what she had done.


Ichigo did not say a word, but simply stared at the two as tears formed in her eyes, as flashbacks of her best friend and boyfriend having sex together on their bed flew into her mind repeatedly like a broken record player.


\"Ichigo!? What are you doing here so early!? You said you wouldn\'t come until about ten tonight!\" Masaya reminded her, which was the last thing he should have been asking her. Mint didn\'t say a word as she sat on the edge of the bed, scared to speak up to her friend.


Ichigo remained calm, trying to cough up the words to say to this. \"I...Ryou let us get off of work earlier. So I wanted to come and surprise you...but I guess you surprised me first.\" She said, looking away from the sight in front of her. This was the last thing she had expected. Masaya was the love of her life. After years together, they both had shared an unbreakable bond that connected so well. She had not expected for this perfect man of her\'s to betray her and go off to sleep with someone else. And for that someone else to be her best friend.


How could Mint do this to her? It was true that the two did not get along so well at their first meeting, but not long after, the two grew close together, and protected one another from anything that would be of harm. But this was one type of harm that Mint could not protect Ichigo from for she was the one who had cause it. \"I think I should go now. You two seemed to have been busy. I\'ll knock next time.\"


Walking back out the door, Ichigo ran down the hall of the house, wanting to leave as soon as possible. Leaving a lost Masaya and Mint in the bedroom, Ichigo raced down the street next to her home, wondering where she could run away to. She wasn\'t even really worried about that. She was wondering why she hadn\'t seen any signs of this. Wasn\'t there something that could tell her that this was bound to happen? Couldn\'t she have been warned of this incident before she had to face it with her own eyes?


As she ran, she let herself cry as he raced across the concrete sidewalk once again. She needed to run away from it all. She needed to be as far away from Mint and Masaya as she possibly could. But she didn\'t want to be alone. But where would she go? Her questions were answered as she found herself standing in front of the place she had walked from not many minutes before: Cafe Mew Mew. But what could she do here? There was no one here she could run to. And she she remembered.


There was Ryou.


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Retasu watched the leaves from the leaves fall from the brances. It had been mid-Autumn and the trees in that small park had begun to slowly die away. She was not at all worried though, for she knew they would be born again that coming winter. She smiled, as she lifted a small leaf from the ground and into her hands. She stared at its shape, feeling so much like the leaf.


She felt alone and brown and fallen. So fragile, she felt like all she ever did was fall down with all her mistakes. And she wasn\'t only refering to clumsingly tripping over her own feet as she waitressed at the cafe. She had so much of a lonely life. Even with her many friends, she felt like she wasn\'t a part of them. Like she was her own person, watching them from afar.


She sighed, pushing her thoughts away. This was no time for self-pity. She looked up from her seat on the bench, and noticed not another single soul out there on the park with her. She wasn\'t surprise, of course, for she was always alone. Sitting her back against the wood of the bench, she looked off into the distance of the park as she went off into her thoughts once more.


But her thoughts were soon interuppted as a shiffle of leaves was heard from nearby. Retasu looked at her surroundings, but spotted no one. She shook her head, quickly figuring that it must have just been the wind. She faced forward again, watching the large thick oak tree in front of her. Standing up, she stepped over to the tree and touched the bark. It had felt so dried up as if it was almost dying. Looking down sadly, she felt awful for the tree, knowing that its end would come soon.


\"Don\'t be so upset. It\'ll be back to normal again.\"


Retasu looked up to find the source of the voice. She looked over and saw a figure leaning against the edge of the bench she had earlier been sitting on. Shocked at the prescence she had seen, she gasped, \"Pai!?\"


It was indeed Pai who stood there, looking at her. The quiet alien did not respond as he neared closer to her. She backed away slowly, until her back met with the bark of the tree. \"W-w-what are you doing here!?\" She asked, eyes growing wide. She didn\'t know why she was so frightened. Problems with the aliens had been solved years before and the aliens were no longer a threat to Earth.


\"I\'ve come to see the fate of this tree.\" He answered with such a calm, relaxing tone. As he spoke, Retasu grew more relaxed at the sound of his voice reaching her ears. He was indeed no threat and would not harm her. There was clearly nothing to be scared of.


\"It\'s dying.\" She told her, turning her back to him, as she stared again at the tree\'s bark. \"It\'s getting dried up and the leaves are falling more quickly than usual.\" She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as a soft wind went past her face.


Once again reopening her eyes, she turned around, only to find Pai right in front of her. His face was so close to her\'s, cause her face to turn a deep shade of red.


He smiled at her, giving out a simple comment. \"We can fix that.\"


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Mint froze there, still sitting at the edge of the bed, wondering about what she had done. It finally came to her senses that she had betrayed her best friend. But still, what was she to do? She looked at Masaya, with tears in her eyes, regreting all of her actions. \"What are we gonna do?\" She questioned, looking back away.


Masaya stared at her sadly, before scooting over to the blue-haired girl. Bringing his hands to her face, he wiped her tears away, kissing her cheek. \"Please, don\'t cry, my love.\" He whispered softly in her ear.


\"But what about Ichigo!? We betrayed her! We shouldn\'t have done this!\" She shouted, though she wasn\'t angry at Masaya, and only upset with herself. This had all been her fault.


He just shook his head, wrapping his arms around her waist. \"Listen, Mint, this wasn\'t your fault. This is mine.\" He sighed, kissing her forehead. \"I fell in love with you and then all of this happened.\"


Her eyes went wide, finally returning to looking at his face. \"In love!? With me!? But--! I thought this was all just--!\" She couldn\'t finish her sentences as she sat there full of surprise. In love with her? That was something she hadn\'t expected from him.


He smiled. \"I\'m in love with you, Mint. Ichigo and I...I don\'t know about us. We just weren\'t....I wasn\'t happy with her.\" He admitted, closing his eyes. \"Well, I was during the first years, but then I just didn\'t feel like it was right. There were so many times I wanted to tell her that I couldn\'t be with her anymore, but I just couldn\'t speak the words.\"


Staying at him in silence, Mint wondered what to say in reply. \"You did love her at one time and then your love just went away....How do I know you won\'t do the same to me?\"


He hadn\'t expected a question like that, though he did know how to answer it. \"Mint, never with Ichigo did I feel the things I feel when I\'m with you. I thought it was love, but....\"


Indeed she regretted betraying her friend, but her feelings grew with happiness at this new found love. For years, she had felt love for Zakuro, and did not know what to do with them, knowing that love was impossible. But now she knew that she had found the love in Masaya. A love that had been there in front of her the whole time.


Bringing her face to his, she kissed his lips, combining her breath with his, which created such a strong heat of passion exchanging through their mouths. Pulling back for only a second, she whispered, \"And I love you.\"


He smiled at her, kissing her cheek. \"We\'ll talk to Ichigo about this when we see her again.\" He said, for he wanted to solve things with the girl he thought he once loved. Though he did not love her, she did not deserve the pain that they had just given her when their secret was discovered.


Mint brought her lips to his neck and began sucking on the curves of it. \"But for now, let us show each other the love we have...\" She whispered, bringing her face down to his chest, sending wet kisses all over his body.


He did not protest with this idea. \"Yes. Let\'s.\"


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Purin giggled, tackling the alien boy down to the ground. \"I got you this time, Tart!\" She shouted, as she spoke between giggling.


Tart growled, as he laid on the ground with the young girl laying on top of him. \"That\'s not fair, Purin! You cheated!\" He protested, angrily. He wasn\'t exactly upset at her. It was nothing personal. He just hated the thought of losing. Especially to a girl. No, especially to Purin.


The two friends , though much older now, in their teens, still acted much like children. They spent almost every day they could with each other and always seemed to have fun. Purin had to go to work at the Cafe every other day, but as soon as the work was done, she rush out to meet Tart at the locations they decided to meet at.


For that day, Purin had the day, so as soon as she noted this to Tart, they agreed to meet that afternoon at a small nearby forest. Still having the hearts of children in them, they had begun to play a game of tag. Purin had often caught Tart, but each time, he would come up with an excuse about her cheating.


\"How did I cheat? I was it and I chased you! And then I caught you! So that means I win!\" She gave in reply, with a large smile. She wasn\'t actually angry about Tart\'s constant protest about her winning him, and she didn\'t mind. It actually made the game funner.


\"B-because!\" He started, as he took a moment to come up with the correct excuse. \"Y-y-you can\'t tackle someone down in tag! It\'s cheating!\" He said, though he wasn\'t even sure if it was or was not allowed in the game at all.


Purin shook her head. \"What are you talking about!? Everytime I play tag with Ichi, Mint, and everyone and my sisters, I tackle them and I always win! They never even said anything about me cheating!\" She admitted, still holding onto a smile.


\"Whatever!\" He shouted, still upset about losing to her. He decided that Purin was too difficult to defeat in this game and wanted to do something else. \"Anyway, this isn\'t fun anymore! I don\'t want to play this game right now!\"


She shrugged, rolling over from laying on him and rocked back and forth on the ground. \"How about we play another game then?\"


Sitting up, Tart shook his head. \"What does it matter? In every game, all you ever do is cheat anyway!\" He wasn\'t exactly lying either. There were some games that Purin would do something that was considered cheating though she didn\'t even have an idea that that was what she was doing.


\"Oh! Oh! I know!\" She shouted, ignoring his words. She giggled, poking his arms. \"I know of a good game for us to play! We haven\'t played this before! And you can\'t accuse me of cheating!\"


Though he was afraid of what game she had in mind, he shrugged, wondering what it could possibly be. \"What?\"


Purin\'s smile grew larger, quite proud of her idea in mind. \"It\'s a game I saw some people playing over in the park! They were hiding behind a tree playing it!\"


Still confused about what she was talking about, he tilted his head in wonder. \"Purin, what are you talking about? What game is it!?\"


\"It\'s called, \'I\'ll show you mine, if you show me yours\'....\"


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Licking the cream off the wooden spoon, Zakuro looked down at her work. She stared at the pastry in front of her and frowned. It was a complete mess with frosting spilled all over the place. What was supposed to be a cupcake, looked more like a pile of colorful dog food.


She shook her head, wanting to already quit. It had been her day off, though she had realized she had no such plans. The modeling agency did not have an appointment for her and everyone else had plans of their own. Now knowing where else to do, she went to Cafe Mew Mew. Only finding a tired and grumpy Ryou, he simply asked her if she needed anything. After shaking her head, he just told her to make herself at home and if she wished to help herself at any treats in the kitchen, before turning around and going into his room.


Going into the kitchen, she stared at the wonderful delicious desserts in the fridge, she had realized that she had never before created her own dessert. Though without a recipe, Zakuro had taken out any ingrediants she felt would be in a cupcake and began doing anything that she could think of. Of course, that never works when baking, which led her to a disaster.


Giving up on creating her own dessert, she grabbed a cloth and began wiping the mess of frosting from the kitchen table.


\"May I help you, Zakuro?\" A voice spoke from the entry door of the kitchen. Turning around, Zakuro spotted Keiichiro standing there with his usual and typical kind smile.


She shook her head, trying to give a smile back. \"No, there\'s no need. I\'m just cleaning up the mess here. I\'m sorry for making it.\" She apologized, looking away. She felt quite embaressed of herself. After all, she felt ashamed about being caught in the act of trying to make a cupcake and failing in the process.


Keiichiro, though, did not think badly of her, and kept his smile. \"No need to feel embaressed. You must want to learn to create a dessert and there should be no shame of trying to make it. It\'s only natural for things to go wrong in your first try. Then, you learn of your mistakes, and you can begin to start a new.\"


Zakuro stared at Keiichiro, repeating his words in her head. He was right. She had nothing to be ashamed of. And what had she expected? To create a beautiful pastry the first time she tried. Of course not. Finally giving a neater smile, she nodded. \"You\'re right. Thank you.\"


He walked over to her, and looked down at the mess of frosting and cake crumbs all over the table. \"I see you don\'t have a recipe to help you create this. I also assume you\'re going to try again?\"


She blushed, realizing it was a large stupid act of hers to not have the recipe for making a cupcake especially when she had no knowledge of cooking. \"Yeah, I\'m going to try again. Though I really do need to find a recipe.\"


\"No need for it.\" He gave a smile. \"I\'ll be your guide in helping you with what to do.\"


She was surprised about his offer, though she hadn\'t the need to. It was a typical act on his part for he was always kind about things, even to the rudest of people. \"Um....you don\'t need to.\"


\"I insist. I\'m going to help you create the most delicious, tasty, savoring dessert you possibly can.\"


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-To Be Continued-


This chapter is simply an introduction to the stories that will further be told. This current chapter has no adult-related content so far, but it will be included in the coming chapter, which will be brought to you soon.