Originally written and posted of fanfiction.net under the name of Mew-Sahara (which happens to be my name on that site).
This takes place a few years after the aliens leave at the end of the Tokyo Mew Mew series.
Broken up into two pages because I thought it might be a bit easier to read that way. c:
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I’ve had this idea in my head for quite a while. And I’m quite a bundle of nerves right now, and I SERIOUSLY felt the need to write it.
To write something.
And so I decided to try and get this out into words. :D
My bundle of nerves come from watching the best movie ever (Howl’s Moving Castle), my hands smelling like varnish, reading too many sappy HMC (the shortened version of the previously mentioned best movie ever) fanfictions, and hearing a song that totally fits the couple PuddingXTaruto.
By the way, everyone is… About five years older. So I think that the ages would be as follows.
Pudding - 15 (and a half)
Taruto - 16
Ichigo, Mint, Lettuce - 18
Zakuro – 20
Ryou- 21
Kish – 18
Pai – 21
Keiichiro - 26
Heicha – 10
The quadruplets (in my understanding): 13
Little Miss Sunshine
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“Tell me what you thought about when you were gone
And so alone
The worst is over
You can have the best of me
We got older
But we're still young
We never grew out of this feeling that we won’t give up.”
– from “Best of Me” by The Starting Line
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A stirring next to Pudding startled her from her sleep. Groaning faintly and biting back a string of swearwords after a glance at her alarm clock, Pudding sat up with some strain. She turned in the darkness to see what was making the noise.
Staring silently back at her was the ten-year old Heicha. “Oi, Pudding-onee-chan, isn’t it time to wake up for school, na no da?” whispered the youngest of the Fong family. She, as well as the other young members of the family, had picked up Pudding’s catch-phrase. Pudding, on the other hand, didn’t use ‘na no da!’ to end her sentences as frequently as she used to.
Pudding blinked sleepily over at her clock’s glowing red numbers again. 5:00 a.m. Her eyes trailed across the dark room to her calendar. A happy monkey grinned at her from the top of the calendar, and Pudding had to contain the flinch that she felt coming. The monkey was cute looking in the daytime, but when it was dark…
Letting her eyes continue their path down the calendar she squinted to make out a big circle on the calendar. It circled the current day (Saturday) and some of the days the followed, which included: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Then realization hit Pudding like a ton of bricks. She took a deep breath and began to whisper to Heicha in return.
“Heicha, what time did I put you to bed last night? What did your clock say?”
The girl cocked her head and tried to remember back the previous night. Coming to a conclusion she smiled. “My clock said 12 a.m., na no da!”
Pudding sighed. “Heicha-chan, I put you to bed at 9 p.m. Not that late.”
The monkey girl’s sister continued to gaze at her, confused. Pudding continued. “Were the boys fooling with your alarm clock again?”
Realization slowly spread over the younger girl’s face. “Oh…” she murmured.
‘Three hours off,’ Pudding thought. “So your alarm clock probably says 8:00 a.m., now, right?”
Heicha nodded, looking bashful. The yellow monkey-girl smiled down at her younger sister. “And anyway, Heicha-chan, we have off of school from today until Wednesday.”
The younger of the two gazed up at her. “Really, na no da?” she asked, excitedly. Pudding laughed at her reaction and nodded. Heicha jumped up and down. “Yah!” she whispered loudly.
Pudding ruffled her younger sibling’s hair. “Now go back to bed, silly. Get some sleep.” The brown-haired girl nodded at Pudding and swiftly made her way to the door. Once there she silently closed the door behind her.
After her younger sister was gone, Pudding let the smile that she had plastered onto her face slowly melt off. She sighed deeply and curled back into the nest of covers she had made.
It was January and very cold in Tokyo that year. Sharing DNA with a tropical monkey was not exactly helping Pudding out right about now. Despite her dislike of cold, it had gotten much better over the years. The first winter she wore at least two layers of everything. Minto was even worse then poor Pudding had been, and the curse continued in its strength for Minto. Pudding snuggled deeper into the covers. Zakuro was lucky; having grey wolf DNA meant that she was better prepared for cooler weather.
Pudding sighed and closed her eyes tightly. She wanted to go back to sleep so badly… But she had never been good at falling back asleep. Tiredly, she let her mind wander over the events of the last few years.
After the Saint Rose Crusaders had been dealt with, Tokyo Mew Mew was demoted to taking care of stray chimera anima. The group had even gone to other countries to find them. They had gone to the United States to find Bigfoot and the southern areas for the Chubracabras, to Scotland for the Loch Ness Monster, and several other places globally. In a way, they had almost become myth busters. Pudding giggled slightly at the thought.
Besides taking care of UMAs, they took care of burglaries and some pettier crimes. All in all, Tokyo Mew Mew was still active and as Ichigo said, “on the prowl”. Ryou had scoffed at her phrase, though Pudding thought it grew on the group. Five years wasn’t bad to all of them.
Despite what Ryou had said about their powers fading when their job was over, Pudding hoped that her power never went away. As she became older, she began to grasp how lucky she was. Feeling the power that rushed over her before she attacked and when she transformed was amazing. Exhilarating. It made her feel powerful.
How many other fifteen year olds could do that?
Pudding blinked a few times and moaned softly. There was no way she was going to fall asleep now. The boys were going to get a serious beat-down from her later. Pulling herself unhappily away from her warm sanctuary, Pudding grabbed some warm clothes to change into. ‘I’ll go for a walk,’ she decided. After changing into her street clothes, she tried to make her way to the door. She reached for the handle, but tripped on her own feet and her hand hit the wall with a loud ‘thunk!’ ‘Right after I wash my face and get some caffeine,’ she decided.
---
Fifteen minutes and a half-cup of coffee later, Pudding slid quietly out the front door. It was just past 5:55, so the street was virtually empty. The monkey-girl strained her ears, but all she heard was early morning traffic and a jet. No birds.
Her boots crunched on the snow beneath them as she made her way down the street. They had gotten quite a bit of snow recently, causing traffic problems for a lot of people. The amounts of salt the authorities had poured onto roads and sidewalks were amazing.
The blonde continued walking, and she made her way in the direction of the café. Business had been good there; the amount of customers had almost doubled in the five-year span. Ryou had been convinced (and by Ichigo and some assistance he was blackmailed with some “revealing pictures”) into giving each of them a raise.
Though in Pudding opinion that all paled in comparison to one event.
Pudding cocked her head at the bench next to her as she walked. Smiling slightly she remembered being able to cartwheel on and almost completely jump over a bench that size. She had kept up with her performances, but sadly customers were scare in the winter. Her tricks had become more and more amazing with the years, so the tips she was getting also increased. There had been enough money with the combined tips and raise from Ryou to add a room for Heicha onto the Fong house. There was even an extra guest room.
Sighing happily at the bench, she slowed her pace. She stopped next to the weatherworn bench and closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath she raised her hands over her head.
“The amazing Pudding Fong shall now attempt three cartwheels and a backflip!” she announced into the cold air. There was no answer. She laughed and wiped her hands on her coat. “Here goes nothing,” she murmured. Inhaling deeply she flung her weight down at the freezing sidewalk.
Her hands hit the sidewalk hard, and Pudding felt some snow and salt get on them. She pulled her weight up sharply; then down again. Cartwheel one down. Three to go. Again, her hands smacked the pavement, and then up she went. Number two down. Then number three.
On the fourth time down, Pudding realized something wasn’t right. The pavement was slippery under her palms. She let out a cry as her arm slipped. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, bracing herself for the impact and the pain.
Instead, she felt a pair of strong hands grab her legs and hold her up right. “Pudding, put your hands on the ground,” the voice commanded. She opened her eyes and did as she was told.
“I’m going to let go of you now,” the voice warned, and carefully let go of Pudding’s legs. The athletic Chinese-Japanese girl flipped her legs over so she was standing again. She grinned happily as she looked at the event that had caused the past few years to be so great.
“Taruto-kun!”
