Chapter Text
“New message from Pudding PuddingEmoji MonkeyEmoji to the group ‘Mew Mews SparkleEmoji’!”
Masha ended the cheerful notification by snuggling into Ichigo’s face.
Ichigo groaned into her strawberry-print pillowcase and resisted the urge to swat Masha away. It wasn’t the robot’s fault that she had woken her up, after all; setting Do Not Disturb mode to last until noon felt a little too much like admitting defeat for Ichigo to handle.
Chatting to the girls wouldn’t be a bad way to start the morning, anyway. Ichigo rolled over, pushed her hair out of her face, and reached for her phone.
She remembered Pudding mentioning that she was going to visit the botanical gardens yesterday — something about a new arboretum that Tart had helped cultivate. Hopefully, she had gotten some nice pictures; Ichigo would rather hand-feed a Chimera Animal than admit it to Tart, but the two of them made a stupidly adorable couple.
The picture that greeted Ichigo when she flipped her phone open was indeed adorable. But if there were any trees or flowers in it, Ichigo couldn’t see them.
Instead, the frame was taken up almost entirely by Pudding’s face at a haphazard selfie angle. Ichigo thought she might be smiling more brightly than she ever had before — which was saying something, for Pudding — but it was hard to tell, because her grin was pressed into Tart’s cheek in a kiss.
For his part, Tart was blushing so deeply he could have passed for a human, if it hadn’t been for his ears. Which were also blushing.
And beneath the picture, the caption:
HE SAID YES!!!!!
Ichigo read the caption once, then twice, then sat up so quickly that Masha flew into the air like a startled cat.
HOLY SHIT PUDDING, was her first reaction and her first message in the chat.
Pudding reacted with a sunglasses emoji.
Ichigo quickly keyed in about 12 sparkly heart emojis, and then opened up her direct chat with Pudding.
Pudding!!!
This isn’t a joke right??
Of course not!!
pudding this IS something u 2 would do bc u thought it was funny
ok yes. But it’s not a joke!!
Taru-taru is so embarrassed he’s hiding in the garden hehe
i can’t believe you’re the first one of us to get married omg
Ichigo meant that last message mainly as a joke. But as soon as she hit send, and as her heartbeat started to come down from the bubbly rush of excitement, she felt — weird.
Not good weird — or at least not all good weird. Weird like she might be about to cry.
She needed a distraction. Anything.
what does kish think????
does tart mind if i message him about it lol
Taru-taru says that’s OK!
Flipping over to her conversation with the alien, Ichigo was greeted with the last few weeks worth of their conversations. On Kish’s side, it was a mess of selfies and soundcloud links; on hers, a series of snarky replies.
She typed and deleted at least five different messages into the chat box. Everything looked wrong — it felt wrong to start to say something sincere against that backdrop of banter.
“Screw it,” she muttered to herself, eventually, and just hit the ‘video call’ button.
It rang four times.
“Ichigo?” A very bed-headed Kish appeared onscreen, and Ichigo was briefly relieved that she wasn’t the only defender of Earth that had woken up at half twelve on a Monday. “To what do I owe the—”
“Shut up, Kish,” said Ichigo. She struggled for a moment with where to begin, before just settling for, “Pudding and Tart?!”
“What? They haven’t done the black hole thing again, have they?”
“They’re engaged, you idiot!”
It was rare for Ichigo to see Kish’s cool, teasing exterior slip — but at that moment it fell right off. The look of pure shock in his wide golden eyes would have been funny if Ichigo hadn’t been caught up in such a storm of emotions.
“You’re kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding, Kish?”
“No way. Isn’t that like… illegal?”
“...What?”
“Isn’t there like… an Earth law about teenagers getting married?”
Ichigo massaged her temples with one hand. “First of all, no. Second of all, Pudding and Tart aren’t teenagers.”
“Oh… right. Wait. Oh, God.”
“Kish, we’re 23 years old.”
“Oh, God. ”
They both just sat with that for a while, until Ichigo realised something. “Wait. You didn’t know? Tart didn’t tell you?”
“Yeah,” said Kish. Then he frowned. “Hey, yeah. How come I’m hearing this from you?”
“Tart told Pudding it was OK for me to call you! I just assumed…” Ichigo flailed her hands. “I just assumed!”
“I bet he hasn’t told Pai either! What the fuck!”
“Do you think he’s—”
“Oh shit, I have to tell Pai! Sorry, Ichigo! Call ya later!”
“Wait, Kish! Don’t just—”
Beep. Ichigo glared down at her phone.
Why had she even wanted to call him in the first place? Because he was one of the two people she knew that really knew Tart, she supposed — and the other person was Pai.
But that wasn’t it; that wasn’t the whole reason. Ichigo flopped back down on the bed, looked up at the ceiling — with Masha circling overhead — and made a conscious decision to stop feeling so weird about the whole thing and be excited for Pudding.
Because she was excited for her. A sudden memory came back to her: Pudding, the day after the aliens had started work in the café, dancing into the back room with such a joy and lightness in her steps that Mint would have been proud.
“I’m going to show Taru-Taru everything in Tokyo!” She had said to Ichigo that day. “Everything!”
Smiling, eight years later, Ichigo picked up her phone again and started typing another message to her youngest teammate.
The chat window popped up on Lettuce’s laptop, interrupting an article about krill swarms with Pudding looking delighted and Tart looking squished.
Lettuce very nearly squealed out loud. Then she remembered she was in a library.
Clapping one hand over her mouth, she packed up her things as quickly as possible, made it outside the library doors, and then she squealed out loud.
A few other passing students gave her curious looks, but Lettuce didn’t notice. Without noticing where her feet were going, she found an empty table at the university’s cafeteria, slung her bag down, and pulled her phone out.
She was in the middle of typing a string of heart emojis when she glanced up — and saw that someone with dark purple hair and pointed ears was sitting two tables away, wearing a button-down, olive-green chinos, and a very familiar slight scowl.
Lettuce froze. Her shyness — which was always that much worse around Pai, probably because of how he obviously never wanted to be around anyone— battled with her urge to gush about such amazing news, even with the scariest person she knew.
Surely even Pai would be excited that his brother was getting married, right? And anyway, wouldn’t offering her congratulations be the polite thing to do?
Pai looked up from his notes, his heavy braid slipping off his shoulder, when Lettuce took a few hesitant steps toward him. He gave her the usual Nod of Mutual Awkwardness that they exchanged when they passed each other in the university — and then froze himself as he saw that she was actually walking over to him.
“...Midorikawa?” He sounded wary.
“Um,” oh, thought Lettuce, this was already not going well, “I just heard about Pudding and Tart, so I wanted to say congratulations! You know… in person…”
Her voice trailed off. Pai was looking confused.
Oh no. Oh no.
“Pudding and Tart…?”
“...Are getting married?”
Lettuce probably should have chosen a moment when Pai wasn’t taking a sip of coffee.
“Sorry,” she squeaked.
Pai looked as if he had been hit by a truck driven by the two most annoying people in his life. “OK. Right. Maybe you should sit—”
Just then, his phone went off, playing a few tinny lines of classical music.
“Uh-oh,” said Pai.
“What?”
“That’s my ‘probably just ignore this’ ringtone.” With a look of resignation, he flipped the phone open.
“PAI!” Kish’s voice burst out of the phone with such force that the whole cafeteria seemed to jump. Peeping over the table, Lettuce could see Kish on the screen, looking about as all over the place as he sounded. “Did you know—”
“Yes, ” said Pai, pinching the bridge of his nose, “even though it seems I’m the last person in the wider Tokyo metropolitan area.”
“I know! Can you believe that little shit didn’t tell us himself?!”
“Kish, I know this is a hard concept for you to grasp, but I’m in somewhere called a university right now…”
“Fuck it, I’m getting him in here!”
“Wait, what —”
There were a few short beeps, and then Tart’s face popped up next to Kish’s. He was still blushing almost as frantically as he had been in the picture; Lettuce wondered if it was now a permanent feature.
“Um. Hi, guys?” Tart was fidgeting with the end of his ponytail. “I guess, uh, Pudding told you about —”
“No, Ichigo did! So —”
“And Midorikawa,” Pai noted.
“Right, so basically everyone except our brother who’s actually getting married! What gi—”
“Oho, did I hear someone call for Pudding?” Pudding waltzed into frame behind Tart. A towel was draped around her neck, and a few strands of blonde hair stuck to her forehead; she had obviously come up from the gym in their basement. “Hi, Kish! Hi, Pai!”
“Hello, Pudding,” said Pai, before Kish broke in with a, “You’re not seriously —”
“Of course we are!” Said Pudding, as if it would have been weird if they hadn’t gotten engaged. “You called to say congrats, right?”
“No! Well, uh, yes, I guess, but…” that was Kish.
“Yes. Can I go now, please?” That was Pai.
If Pudding heard him, she ignored him. “It’s like an engagement party! Ooh, I know—” she clapped her hands — “we can add group chats, right? I’m gonna call the girls in!”
Pudding and Tart’s portion of the screen went dark as Pudding (presumably) grabbed the phone and began tapping away.
“Pudding!” Tart’s voice was that of a man steadily losing his grip on the situation. “Pudding, you really don’t have to—”
The screen split again. Ichigo and Zakuro were an almost absurd contrast: Zakuro in a chic oil-slick of an evening gown, hair and makeup immaculate against the restrained elegance of her hotel room, and Ichigo with her hair sticking up and her pink flannel pyjamas buttoned up wrong.
But they both said together, “Pudding!”, as soon as the youngest Mew sat back enough that they could see her.
She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something — and then she just grinned.
“Hi, guys,” said Tart. He sounded a little muffled, because his head was in his hands.
“You look amazing, Zakuro!” Pudding said — only Pudding, Lettuce thought with a smile, could be distracted by her friend’s dress when they met up to discuss her own engagement. “What time is it in France?”
“I’m in America, Pudding,” said Zakuro, smiling. “And Mint’s on a plane, if you were wondering why she’s not here.”
“Actually, where’s Lettuce?” Asked Ichigo. “She was messaging a second ago…”
“She’s here, actually,” said Pai. He shifted his chair so that he was closer to Lettuce, and her friends could see her in the frame.
Lettuce waved, trying not to blush. This might, ridiculously, have been the closest she had ever been to Pai in the eight years they’d known each other. She could smell coffee, and something familiar that she couldn’t place.
Everyone looked a little taken aback, and Lettuce immediately felt like kicking herself for not speaking up earlier. It had felt too awkward to jump in, but didn’t it look like she didn’t care that much about Pudding’s news? And, now she thought of it, hadn’t she been basically eavesdropping on a private conversation between Pai and his brothers?
She opened her mouth to apologise, but Kish jumped back in before she could.
“We’re not done here, Tart! You’re our brother and you didn’t tell us!”
“S-so what?” Tart was looking steadily down at his kitchen table. “You heard about it anyway, didn’t you?”
“That’s not the same! Tell him, Pai!”
Pai closed his eyes briefly, as if he was trying to work out what would get him out of the conversation fastest. “I suppose it would have been nice to hear it from you.”
“See! You even upset Pai—”
“I am not upset—”
“So why—”
“BECAUSE I KNEW YOU’D BE REALLY EMBARRASSING ABOUT IT!”
Two students at a nearby table paused their own gossip to stare.
There was a long, abashed pause, and then Zakuro took a sip of her drink — something clear with a twist of violet. Her bracelets jangled as she put the glass down.
“You know, I’m back in Tokyo by the end of the week. And Mint will be, too.”
“So…” Pudding frowned, as she tried to work out what Zakuro was getting at.
“So,” said Zakuro, “why don’t we save our congratulations until we can actually see each other? It’s been a long time since I was at the café,” she smiled one of her rare, stunning smiles, “and I think champagne might be in order.”
“Oooh, like a proper engagement party?” Pudding clapped her hands. “That sounds so fun!”
“More like a ‘why-the-hell-are-you-engaged’ party,” muttered Kish.
“Shut up, Kish,” said Ichigo cheerfully.
“And Ryou and Keiichiro can be there too!” Pudding grinned — and then a look of realisation hit her. “Oh! Taru-Taru, I haven’t told Ryou and Keiichiro yet! We should get them—”
“I think that’s my manager at the door,” Zakuro cut in breezily. “So, this Saturday, Pudding?”
“Hm? Oh yeah! And everyone remember to bring cake for the happy couple!”
“Pudding!” Tart looked like he was ready to melt into the floor. “Uh, bye, guys. And thanks. Or whatever.”
Pudding gave Tart a playful shove that almost knocked him off his chair. “See you soon, everyone! And thanks! From the both of us!”
There was an overlapping chaos of goodbyes and congratulations, although Pai cut most of them off by snapping his phone closed.
Neither of them said anything for what seemed like a painfully long time.
“Well…” she said, finally. “That was…”
“Something, yes.”
Pai downed the rest of his coffee. “I’d better go and distract myself from… all of that.” He started gathering up his notes.
“O-of course,” said Lettuce, standing up so quickly that her chair screeched. Pai gave her a slightly confused look.
“I suppose I’ll see you on Saturday, then.”
“Right!”
Lettuce made her escape, almost tripping over her feet. As soon as she rounded a corner she let out a deep, deep sigh.
So far she had managed to basically avoid Pai, the final boss of awkward social interaction, through eight years of working together, fighting monsters on the same team, and attending the same university. Lettuce might not have been a social butterfly, but she could make small talk, and that had tided them over. Until now.
Only she, she thought miserably, could manage to go straight from “hope you have a good semester” to “by the way, your brother’s getting married”.
It wasn’t that Pai was mean. He had never been anything but polite to Lettuce since the day they had started working together. He was just… scary. That was the word she kept coming back to.
And if there was a part of Lettuce’s mind that had a suspicion that there might be something under that word, scary , she forced herself to ignore it.
The announcement chimed over the tannoy: they had landed.
Mint sighed, blinking awake, and stretched. In the years since she had started touring properly, she had grown used to this: the stiffness of a long flight in her limbs, the strange light of a new city pouring through the round windows of the plane.
Not so strange this time, though: she was back in Tokyo. She was home.
She expected a couple of messages from Zakuro when she turned her internet on, wishing her a safe flight. What she didn’t expect was the flurry of notifications that came trilling out, one after another.
Oh no. Mint bit her lip. A Chimera Animal? It had been more than six months since they had last seen one, but they all knew not to get comfortable. What if they had needed her, and she had been—
Then she opened the group chat, and her screen lit up with Pudding’s smiling face. Mint felt relief wash over her, followed by surprise, delight -- and some fond amusement. Seeing Ichigo, Lettuce, and Zakuro’s flurry of squeals and congratulations and heart emojis made her feel as if they were all 15 again, gossiping in the café’s back room after a shift.
She was in the middle of typing her own congratulations when another message popped up. She didn’t need the wolf and heart emojis at the top of the notification to know who it was from.
How was the flight?
fine! Good to be back.
isn’t it like 5am where you are
wolves are nocturnal
staying up waiting for your girlfriend’s flight to come in… seems pretty gay…..
wolves are nocturnal!!!!!
did u see the groupchat??
I did omg
i can’t believe it
how adorable are they
they’re so cute it’s actually kind of gross
so, when’s it our turn for a wedding?
Mint could almost picture Zakuro’s laugh, her wolfish grin.
let’s see how this one goes first…
Ichigo felt a lot better.
Chatting to Pudding was amazingly good for anyone’s mood, and chatting to Pudding when she was obviously having one of the best days of her life was even more fun.
After Mint had landed, the Mew Mews — minus Zakuro, over in another timezone — had spent almost all of the afternoon hanging out on video chat. Seemingly by mutual agreement, they didn’t talk about anything practical; no discussion of dates, of venues, of whether or not getting married at 20 was strictly sensible. That could all wait for another day.
Instead, Pudding spent most of the time sending them increasingly elaborate cake ideas.
They talked about other things, too; about how Mint’s ballet tour had gone (“I watched all of the livestreams!” Pudding declared), about Ichigo’s newest movie cameo (“Like, three months of pay for just a couple of hours of work!” “And your dignity,” Mint said drily), and about how Lettuce’s master’s was going (good, and yes, she was dreading the next time she ran into Pai in the library).
Ichigo was drying her hair after a shower, already dreaming of bed, when Masha piped up again.
“New message from Masaya Aoyama!”
Ichigo’s hands stilled, and for a moment she just stood there, leaning forward, vision full of her wet, dark-red hair.
She had to force herself to open his message; she always did, even though their chat had, since the breakup four years ago, been a model example of how to have a long-distance friendship with your ex: picturesque views of London and Tokyo swapped back and forth, good luck wishes for exams, ‘happy birthday’s.
This time, he had written:
I heard about Pudding and Tart!
Wow!
Ichigo started typing a stock response, just as Masaya’s last message popped up.
So crazy that people we know have officially started getting married ^^;
That bad-weird feeling was back, that bubble of something like tears, and then Ichigo knew that both she and Masaya were thinking about the same thing: about a frilly, tiered wedding dress that her friends had stuffed her into, about a veil with an almost comically huge bow, about Ichigo looking like a little girl’s dream come true.
I know! I’m so happy for them ^_^
Me too :)
Three dots bobbed for moment.
And then Masaya stopped typing.