Chapter 6. "We're at Risk!" (For S.T.D's)

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew, UPS, or "Charlie the Tuna Fish" but I do own the characters I've contributed. (Note: The fanfic rating has been changed to M for language content.)

"I hate this!" Mayko said trying to comb her hair.

"Hate what?" Fern asked slipping on one of Mayko's ex-boyfriend's shirts.

"I can't comb my hair with these fricking ears in the way," Mayko complained. "It's impossible!"

"Don't worry. You'll have many centuries to perfect your hair combing ability." Fern dodged Mayko's poor attempt to hit him.

"That's not funny," Mayko said. "I have to stay up in my room every morning until my parents leave for work because of these." She pointed up at her black, fuzzy ears and pulled out her tail for him to see.

Fern shrugged one shoulder. "Just wear a hat."

"Then what about when I go back to school? We can't wear hats in school."

"You can shave your head. Then you'll have an excuse to wear a hat."

Mayko threw her comb at him and it bounced off the wall. "Not funny!" They heard the doorbell ring downstairs.

"Just let my parents get it," Mayko said and the doorbell rang again.

"Are you sure your parents haven't left?" Fern asked.

Mayko opened the door. "Looks like it." The doorbell rang again.

"Sheesh! It's like they know we're here," Fern said.

"It's the psychic UPS man," Mayko joked.

"Don't you mean the UPA man?"

"What?"

"Universal Pain in the Ass."

Mayko giggled.

The person ringing the doorbell began to pound on the door then they could hear a sharp scraping sound like nails being dragged across wood.

"Dammit! I'm coming!" Mayko yelled as she bounded down the stairs. Fern ran after her and she gripped the door handle tightly and narrowly tore the door off of its hinges as she swung it open. On the other side of the door was a girl with short black hair wearing a long, shear blue skirt showing the outlining of her legs and a sheer green top showing her black bra underneath. She was wearing a yellow straw hat on top of her head and a ring on her left ring finger.

"Are you Mayko?" she asked.

"Yes," Mayko replied slowly.

"Are your parents home?"

Mayko raised one eyebrow suspiciously. She hoped that Fern hadn't decided to rent prostitutes while he was living with her. "Who wants to know?"

The girl took off her hat, revealing a pair of black cat ears.

"Holy . . . . !"

"Miko!" Fern cried.

"That's new," Miko said looking from Mayko to Fern. "I've been called many things before, most of then bad, but Holy Miko. Are you trying to worship me?"

Fern raced up to her. He wrapped his arms around her and picking her up, spun her around in circles. "Finally! A demon roommate!" Fern exclaimed placing Miko back on her feet.

"I should scratch your eyes out for that," Miko hissed brushing herself off. "And exactly what do you mean by "roommate"?"

"Fern," Mayko said. "You're not saying that Miko is going to be staying with us?"

"Well, where else can she go?" Fern asked.

"Nozomi, her vessel," Mayko said between clenched teeth. "Right?"

"Nope," Miko said. "Nozomi adopted me along with my Sadren." She glared at Mayko. "You remember my loving Sadren, don't you?"

"Oh yes," Mayko said. "You two were very loving the last time I saw you both on top of each . . . .er. . . . .I mean together, just together." Miko and Fern watched in amazement as Mayko's face turned a bright strawberry red.

"Do you have anything sharp I can cut my skirt with?" Miko asked changing the subject. She thought Mayko was really pathetic and didn't even bother with trying to subject her to more mind games.

"Why? You have nails."

"I'm losing the feeling in my tail and besides," she flashed her long, black nails. "I use my nails for more important things."

"Uh-huh." Myako went into the kitchen and brought back a pair of scissors. Miko took them and made a hole in the back of her skirt to pull her tail through then handed the scissors back. Mayko cleared her throat. "You're really not going to be staying with us, are you?"

"Of course not. Why would I want to stay with you?" Miko asked. "Besides, I have to search for my Sadren."

"I'll help!" Fern piped up.

"No, you won't," Mayko said. "What about your wing?"

"They're hidden."

"No. The wing I dismembered."

"Oh, I grew it back!" Fern said proudly pulling off his shirt to flex his wings. His left wing didn't even look like it had been torn off. "I have the ability to heal myself and others unlike Ryou who can only heal himself, that self-centered bastard."

"Nice," Mayko commented.

"Nice chest," Miko purred.

"Fern, put your shirt back on! You're making Miko horny!"

"I am not!" Miko protested.

Fern pulled his shirt back on. "Don't worry, Mayko. Miko has a soul just like Ryou and I do."

Miko pouted. "Well, it doesn't hurt to fantasize." She put her straw hat back on. "Tell Ryou I said "Hi"."

"Wait," Mayko said. "Where are you going?"

"I told you. I'm going to search for my Sadren."

"But you can't," Mayko said. "There are possession demons out there," she paused. "You might even already have one in you!"

"What are you going to say next?" Miko asked. "That I also have fleas."

"I'll take that into consideration."

"Miko, ignore her," Fern said. "She's just PMSing over the fact that she's turning into a demon like us."

"Oh! So that's why she has the ears and tail. I see," Miko walked around Mayko to look her over. "Too bad she hasn't learned how to properly groom herself yet." She laughed.

"Quiet! You flea-bitten hairball!" Mayko snapped.

Miko stopped laughing. "Why? You're just the same."

"Not quite!"

"Will you two please shut the hell up?" Fern asked. He turned to Miko. "Anytime now, Rei should call up. She'll probably know what to do, so just stay here for a little while. We'll look for Sadren when we at least have a clue to where he is."

"Fine," Miko said.

"Mayko, will you at least try to get along with her?"

Mayko sighed. "I'll try."

"Good," Fern said satisfied that he had peacefully talked everything out between them. "Now, Rei should be calling any . . . ." As if on cue, the phone rang.

"I'll get it!" Miko sang racing into the kitchen to pick up the phone.

Mayko quickly followed her. "Why do you want to answer it?" she asked.

"Because I've never used a phone before."

Mayko's jaw dropped.

"We normally use telepathy to make calls," Fern explained to her. "Phones are more or less non-existent."

Miko picked up the receiver and turned it over in her hands. "Ooh! It looks exactly like one of my toys Sadren and I play with." Mayko almost fell to the floor in complete shock from what Miko had just said out loud. Miko held the receiver up to her cat ear and giggled finding it funny to be putting something near her ear that was in the shape of something she normally wouldn't. "Hello?"

"Hello," an unfamiliar voice said.

"What the hell!" Miko hissed. She shook the receiver in the air. "This is not Rei!"

Mayko grabbed the phone from Miko. "Hello?"

"Hi . . .my name is Stacy and I'm calling as a representative for . . . ."

Mayko hung up quickly.

"Who was it?" Fern asked.

"Some telemarketer." Mayko glared at Miko. "What did you do that for? You didn't know who it was. What if it was my mother?"

"I would have told her she had the wrong number," Miko said innocently.

"Yeah, after you would have cussed her out!"

The doorbell rang.

"Hide!" Mayko squealed.

"Why?" Fern asked.

"Don't ask questions. Just hide!" Mayko replied.

"Come on Miko," Fern said grabbing her arm and dragging her behind the couch.

Mayko took a deep breath and opened the door. "Rei?"

"Rei!" Fern and Miko said in unison as they jumped up from behind the couch, looking as if they had been up to no good.

"I thought you were going to call," Mayko said.

"Even if I did call you, I'd still wouldn't be able to tell you anything until I got over here, so I decided to save us some time," Rei replied. She looked over at Miko. "Hey Miko! What's up?"

Miko shrugged. "Nothing." She sniffed the air. "You smell like fish."

"Hopefully not a tuna," Rei said pulling off her gloves that hid the scales on her hands. "I hate these damn things."

"Howdy, Charlie the tuna fish," Fern greeted waving his hand wildly in the air. Rei glared at him.

"At least your scales are easy to hide," Mayko said.

"Yeah, but I have a constant thirst for salt water."

"Come on in and I'll get you some," Mayko paused. "Salt water?" Rei shrugged. "And then you can tell us everything you know." She and Rei walked into the kitchen, leaving Miko and Fern to themselves. Mayko poured some water into glass and added two tablespoons of salt, grimacing as she did so. She poured a glass of lemonade for herself and sat across from Rei at the kitchen table. Rei took the glass of salt water and swallowed it down.

Mayko stared at her wide-eyed. "I can't believe you drank all of that."

"Guess I'm officially an aquatic demon," Rei mused.

"So what's up?"

"I know who the next victim to be possessed is," Rei said as she closed her eyes. "And it's not one of the demons."

"But if it's not a demon, then who is it?" Mayko asked.

"It's one of us."

Mayko's eyes widened to record proportions. "One of us? You mean it's possible that we, you, me and Nozomi, can become possessed?"

"Apparently."

"How did you find this out? Did you read it in No One's diary?"

"Let's just say a little birdie left me the information as a present on my window," Rei mumbled.

"You mean it was written in bird shit? That must have been one hell of a load," Fern commented walking into the kitchen shirtless.

Mayko almost choked on her lemonade. "Fern! You're supposed to have a soul! You can't have sex with Miko, especially not in my house!"

"Grrr," Rei purred. "I've never seen this side of you before."

Fern turned around for her and grinned. "You like?"

Mayko kicked Rei under the table but Rei ignored her. "I hope Miko didn't tire you out."

Mayko rolled her eyes. "I can't believe this!"

Fern pulled his shirt on over his head. "F.Y.I, Miko and I did not have sex," he told Mayko. "So there's no mess for you to clean up."

"Then why is your shirt off?" Mayko asked, suspicious.

"I was trying to tie down Miko with it."

"Why?"

"Because she was trying to leave to search for her Sadern, dumbass."

"WHAT!" Mayko yelled. "She wasn't supposed to leave!"

"That's what I tried to tell her but she wouldn't listen to me."

"Calm down, Mayko," Rei said. "It should have been expected. Miko is hotheaded like that."

Mayko sat down mumbling to herself.

"So," Fern began sitting down on the countertop. "What'd I miss?"

"We're at risk," Rei informed him.

"For what? S.T.D's?" He almost fell off the counter as he burst into a fit of hysterics.

"Uh, no," Rei said annoyed. "I mean Mayko and I are at risk of becoming possessed which makes sense since we are technically turning into demons."

Fern quickly sobered up. "That's bad."

"Yeah," Rei said. "And my little bird shit message said it was going to be one of us." She looked at Mayko.

"Yeah, but that's what it said," Fern said. "It was a stupid bird with an overactive colon for hell's sake! I think you're reading too much into the poo."

"Most birds aren't intelligent enough to leave shit-written messages in English on a window," Rei countered angrily. "With correct grammar and punctuation."

"Whoa! That must be one smart, shittin' bird!" Fern exclaimed.

"Shit, yes!"

"Alright already. Can we please stop saying the shit-word?" Mayko asked.

"But Mayko," Fern said completely amused. "We're listening to a bird that plays with its own poo."

"Not funny."

Rei pushed away from the table. "I'd appreciate if you'd take this seriously but seeing that you're not, I'm going to go tell Nozomi and Ryou and hope that they'll listen to me."

"Hey Rei, I'm just joking," Fern said. "Sit back down and finish telling us everything."

"See you tomorrow," Rei said to Mayko, ignoring Fern's plea. And with that, she left.

Fern's ears turned downward. "What the hell? I was only kidding."

"Fern, this is serious," Mayko said harshly. "Why did you have to act like such a jerk?"

"Oh, come on, Mayko," Fern rolled his eyes. "Do you really expect me to believe that a bird took its sweet-ass time to plop shit on her window?"

"Fern! I could become possessed. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Well, yeah, I'm worried about you but there's no way of knowing . . . . ."

"Of course there's no way of knowing now that you've sent Rei away." Mayko ran past him and ran up the stairs to her room leaving Fern standing by himself in the kitchen.

"Shit," he muttered.

( - )

Rei walked down the street towards Nozomi's house, upset that Mayko and Fern hadn't taken her seriously. For some reason, it brought back an old memory from her childhood. A memory she had not faced in a long time. . . . . . .

-(Flashback)-

"Tell me, what's wrong?" Rei asked, sitting up in a tree staring down at the girl to whom the question was directed towards.

"If I told you, then you won't like me anymore," the girl replied quietly. "You'll make fun of me, just like the others did."

Rei jumped down from the branch she had been sitting on. "I won't make fun of you. I've never done that, have I?"

The girl shrugged.

"Mitako," Rei whispered. "Tell me everything."

"I think I am going crazy," Mitako sputtered. "I keep hearing these voices. Sometimes they're loud and sometimes I can barely hear them." Tears started to stream down her cheeks. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"It's alright," Rei said. "It's what makes you special. Only special people can hear those voices."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. I can hear them too."

"So, I'm not the only one?"
"Of course not," Rei assured her. "There are thousands of others just like us."

Mitako rubbed the tears out of her eyes. "So what do I do?"

"Hearing voices means that you can hear things from another world. If you just learn how to control it, you could tune into other worlds on command."

"But how do I learn to control it?"

Rei put her arm around her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll teach you everything."

-(End Flashback)-

Rei shook her head. She did know what had caused her to remember that, especially now.

To Be Continued . . . . . .

BlueDragonGirl1: Well, I'm finally getting around to updating my fanfics. Sorry about the wait, especially for this one. If you noticed, the rating has been bumped up to M because I'm getting a little carried away with the language content for characters' sake and wasn't able to make the call whether or not the fic could still hold on to it's original T rating. Better to be safe than sorry. Please R&R! (Note: Mitako looks like Mint)