Growing Up by ImoutoCommissions

Chapter 1

One afternoon in the summer, around three years after their children are 
born, Ichigo is relaxing in a sunbeam, her head resting in Masaya's lap. 
Their children are out playing in the wooded area around their home, all 
within earshot of their mother, while she enjoys a nice scratch around 
the ears from her loving husband. All in all, it's a very pleasant, lazy 
day.

And then Rubus runs up on all fours, with something clutched tightly in 
his mouth. Just as his parents are about to ask what he has, he drops it 
in front of them and reveals it to be a freshly killed bird.

"Look!" he says happily, appearing very proud of his success. "Can we 
cook it for dinner?"

Neither Ichigo nor Masaya have the chance to recover from their shock 
before Cheri comes running up, also on all fours and also with something 
clutched in her mouth. When she drops it in front of them, it is 
revealed to be a dead mouse. She is just as proud as her brother, asking 
a similar question at the end of her statement.

Masaya finally recovers enough to pick up a whistle that he blows, one 
that is meant to signal for all the children to return. As the rest of 
the kittens come running, a few more have animals in their mouths, and 
those who don't express disappointment at not being able to successfully 
hunt, because whatever they were following got away at the sound of the 
whistle.

"You really don't need to do this," he says, gesturing to the animal 
they've presented. "We've got plenty of food, so you kids don't need to 
hunt."

"But we could have more food!" one protests.

"I want to hunt!" another says.

"It's so much fun!"

He continues trying to reason with them for a bit, but they're all too 
young and too driven on instinct to understand what he's trying to say. 
Ichigo whispers to him, telling him that this might be a lost cause, and 
he finally decides to try something else.

"You know," he says at last, "there's a stream not far from here. How 
about we all go fishing instead?" The kittens are incredibly excited by 
that, and the family gets ready to head down to the stream and fish 
together.

When they reach the stream, Masaya begins to get his fishing line ready, 
while his children rely on more natural means. He starts to fish, but a 
long time passes in which he does not get a single bite, and though this 
is frustrating to him, he understands that this is just a fun outing for 
his family, and doesn't take it too much to heart. It's better than 
sitting around the house, of course, and better than leaving his kids 
out to hunt birds and rodents and dragging their corpses back home. At 
least this way, it feels a bit more productive, and a bit more humane, 
even if they are still using only their claws and teeth to do it.

Not to mention the fact that it's more adorable this way. The kittens 
struggle, snapping at the fish, trying to lure them out of the water and 
catch them, but are far too impatient or klutzy to do so with these 
movements. He thinks that he could watch something like this forever, 
it's so cute and entertaining, but then he catches sight of what his 
wife is up to.

She seems to be unable to resist her instincts in this situation as 
well, and has begun fishing with her children. However, she seems to 
really know what she's doing, and is having more success with it than 
they are. She manages to catch a few fish with her bare hands, and once 
the kittens notice that, they begin to watch her closely and try to 
mimic her movements, desperate to have some sort of success. At the very 
least, it seems to be more effective than scaring the fish into jumping 
out of the water and snapping at them with their teeth, so they follow 
her lead for a good while.

And Masaya watches his feline family with a smile on his face. Once, he 
probably never would have considered a possibility like this. He never 
would have considered marrying a woman like Ichigo, with such eccentric 
abilities- nor would he have considered having a few eccentricities 
himself- or having seven children with her, all of which more catlike 
than human, but he doesn't think that there is anywhere in the world he 
would rather be than right here.

As strange as his life may seem to someone else, it's everything he 
could ever hope for, and he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. 
He's the happiest he's ever been, just watching his eight cats try to 
catch fish and knowing that they are his family. The day passes by, and 
even though he doesn't have much success, he gets to experience being a 
very proud father for each of his kitten's first catches, and they all 
manage to catch at least one before it starts to get too late.

But, once the sun starts to set, he knows that their fun day out has to 
come to an end soon. Not to mention the fact that the kids are looking 
exhausted as is, and heading home seems like the best idea for all. 
Gathering up what they've caught, they begin making their sleepy trek 
back to the house, boasting to one another in tired voices, and gushing 
over how many fish their mother managed to catch.

When they make it back to their house, Masaya says, "Well, if you 
promise to leave the mice and the birds around, then we can make trips 
to the stream a regular thing. But only if you keep that promise!"

The kittens manage to muster up enough energy to loudly cheer about 
that, and he thinks he's done a very good job with them today. They sit 
down to dinner, and while Ichigo cooks for them, they struggle to stay 
awake at the dinner table, having worn themselves out completely. Once 
they've rested up, they'll be back to their usual energy, and probably 
begging to go fishing again, or maybe on to some other interest, and 
either way, Masaya looks forward to the next day with them.

Chapter 2

Within two years of the fishing incident, the kittens are grown up 
enough to be attending kindergarten. Getting citizenship for the kittens 
was difficult, but what with how much the Mew Mews once did to save 
Tokyo, and the rest of the world, it isn't hard for Ryou to pull strings 
and make it known that these strange hybrid children might become more 
common as a result of the aftermath of Project Mew Mew.

In this way, the kittens are able to be enrolled in school, but their 
experiences in kindergarten are not always positive, and some of the 
children are still so simple that they have a hard time seeing them as 
children of heroes, and see them more as freaks, due to their catlike 
characteristics. And so, they're oftentimes the victims of bullying, and 
it falls to Rubus and Kinomi in particular.

Rubus is more soft-spoken than his brothers, and is often mistaken for a 
girl, due to his pink hair. Because of that, he is victimized quite a 
bit, and he's too subdued to properly stand up for himself most of the 
time. Besides him, Kinomi is not only the smallest of her siblings, but 
the smallest of her class in general, and gets teased for looking like 
she's too young to be in school in the first place.

One day after school, a group of bullies manages to get the both of them 
together, and separate from their other siblings. When it's all seven of 
them, it's hard to effectively tease them, so the bullies have relied on 
dividing and conquering, and with these two appearing to be the weakest, 
they're the easiest of all to conquer. Cornering them, they begin to 
tease them, calling them names and giving some light shoving when one of 
them tries to break free.

They've taken to calling Kinomi "runt", which, while it is technically 
true, is still incredibly hurtful to her, and she is reduced to tears by 
their chanting of it. As she starts to sob, their laughter grows louder, 
and Rubus, nearly in tears himself just from how intimidating it all is, 
tries to step in and defend.

"D-don't say that about my little sister!" he cries.

"Are you her big sister?" one of them asks.

"Little girl!" another calls.

"The runt's sister!"

"Rubus is a little girl! Rubus has pink hair!" The insults aren't 
particularly clever, but they're children, so it's to be expected, and 
the insults are very effective against other children.

And, of course, it causes Rubus to tear up even more as he says, "Stop 
it, that's not...that's not true! I'm not!"

"Yes you are! You're a little girl and your sister is a little runt!" 
The teasing gets louder and louder, and he struggles to defend himself 
and his sister against them, unable to keep his tears from falling all 
the while, and Kinomi shrinks behind him, terrified and wailing.

"What are you gonna do to stop us? Huh? Weak little girl!"

"You'd better cut that out," says a voice from behind them, sounding 
fairly threatening for being just a child. When the bullies turn around, 
they see that the voice belongs to Kuroichigo, and Kiichigo stands at 
his side, both scowling.

"Oh, look, the other freaky cats are here too! Are you gonna cry like 
the little girl and the runt?"

"Cry! Cry! Come on, just like them!"

But the two oldest siblings are not willing to back down for these 
bullies and, in fact, are ready to fight back.

"You can't pick on our little brother or sister!" says Kiichigo. 
"They're our family, and we won't let you!" She actually hisses, which 
causes the bullies to laugh at them, but Kuroichigo steps forward, 
hissing as well.

"Nobody else gets to pick on them but us, got it?" he asks.

"What are you freaky little kitties gonna do about it?" It's a taunt 
they've already used, but they don't have much original material to work 
with.

But, of course, these words are just enough to provoke the young kittens 
and, rather than backing down, they decide to show these bullies exactly 
what they're made of. Launching at them, they give in to their animal 
instincts, using their teeth and claws to tear at the bullies until a 
teacher finally intervenes and manages to pry them off, telling them 
that there mother is going to hear about this.

Though Kiichigo and Kuroichigo are nervous about getting in trouble, 
they don't regret defending their little siblings in the slightest, and 
would have been willing to do the same for any of the others. After all, 
they're a family, and they can't let anyone else get away with picking 
on the younger kittens, no matter what the consequence.

~X~

Ichigo comes to school, nervous about picking up her children. She picks 
them up every day, but today she was called ahead of time and told that 
the two oldest were in big trouble, so she's unsure of what she's going 
to have to deal with when she gets there. The teacher takes her aside 
for a moment to inform her of the fact that Kiichigo and Kuroichigo 
attacked other students, and she hurriedly brings her children to the 
car, saying that once they get home, she and the oldest are going to 
have a private chat.

Sending the other kittens off, she immediately lays into the two. "Just 
what did you think you were doing, using your abilities like that? You 
know those kids you hurt had to go to the hospital, don't you?"

Frowning, Kiichigo says, "But they were being mean to Rubus and Kinomi."

"Yeah, we couldn't let them get away with that!" her brother adds.

"I don't care what they were doing! That's no excuse to do something 
like that to them!" their mother replies. "It may not be right for them 
to be mean, but you get a teacher involved in that case. You can't hurt 
them like that when you have such an unfair advantage."

Finally, the kittens begin to show some remorse, so she drags them to 
the hospital to apologize. The bullies aren't injured too terribly, but 
they have a lot of bandages on, and the kittens claws are so sharp that 
the resulting cuts are going to need stitches. Still, they're so 
terrified of the kittens now that they accept the apologies without 
hesitation, and it doesn't seem as though they're going to be bullying 
again any time soon.

As they leave the hospital, Ichigo speaks, mostly to herself. "I wonder 
what it'll take to teach you all some discipline. After all, you're 
stronger than other kids and need to be able to control that...maybe we 
could get your Aunt Pudding to train you? If anyone could teach you some 
discipline, I'm sure she could."

Imagining Pudding in their minds, the two kittens gulp in unison, 
picturing someone much scarier than the bubbly monkey girl. After all, 
she's the heiress to her family's fighting style, and has been known to 
best even her father in combat. She is, by far, one of their scariest 
aunts, second only to a very angry Mint.

They decide then that perhaps fighting isn't worth it.

Chapter 3

One night when the kittens are around seven, Ichigo and Masaya are 
awoken from their peaceful sleep by a loud sound coming from the other 
room. It sounds like a pained yowling, and they jump up, wondering if 
one, or several, of their kittens are injured in some way. Both run 
through several horrible possible scenarios in their minds as they jump 
out of bed and run to go see what's the matter.

However, neither of them are able to predict what they actually see when 
they enter the room. Three of their four girls are laying face down with 
their rears in the air, while their three brothers are on top of them. 
Kinomi, the only girl remaining, is fervently licking at herself, 
running her tongue along her pussy.

Ichigo screams at the sight, nearly hysterical, and shouts, "What is 
going on in here?!"

Kinomi jolts, and stops her licking to try to explain, though her 
explanation is fairly childlike. Her parents are still able to 
understand the gist of it. "I'm waiting for my turn, so one of my 
brothers will put his...the thingy that makes boys different where my 
girl privates are! But I couldn't wait too long, so I started licking 
myself while I waited for them!"

"All of you!" Masaya calls, trying to get their attention, but then 
Kinomi begins staring at him.

"Wait, wait, daddy is a boy too!" she cries in delight, before running 
in front of him and presenting herself to him. She wiggles a little bit 
in anticipation, but, of course, he has no intention of giving in to 
what she wants, and completely ignores her attempts at seduction, if 
they can even be called that.

Instead, he walks across the room with commanding authority and, one by 
one, pries the boys off the girls, and Ichigo runs to grab the girls, in 
order to keep them separated. The kittens let out loud cries and whines 
of protests, but their parents fight them and keep them apart while 
Ichigo goes to make a few phone calls. Namely, she calls Lettuce, Ryou, 
and Pai one by one, screaming that she has an emergency and that she 
needs to get the kittens to the clinic now.

The others agree to meet her there, so she and Masaya rush the children 
to the car and drive them to the clinic in the middle of the night. 
Ichigo has to spend the entire drive keeping her children from resuming 
their orgy, and it's all Masaya can do to focus on the road. By the time 
they get there, they are both at the ends of their ropes, and they hurry 
inside, where they apologize for dragging the three of their friends out 
of bed in the middle of the night like this.

"But our children need to be looked at immediately!" Ichigo insists, 
still hysterical. The scientists set to work on running tests on the 
children but, of course, it's difficult given the fact that they keep 
trying to get back to it. Kinomi resumes masturbating, while Kiichigo 
and Cheri fight over Kuroichigo, and when they're both pulled away, 
Cheri immediately begins fighting Ume for Ringo, and Kiichigo goes after 
Rubus.

It is nearly impossible, really, given their eagerness to fight to get 
to one another, but somehow, Ryou and Pai manage to run the tests while 
Ichigo, Masaya, and a red-faced Lettuce are able to fight the kittens 
until the tests are done.

After that, it is still a struggle to keep them separated while they 
listen to what Ryou has to say about all of this.

"Well, there's some good news to share," he says. "According to our 
tests, you two aren't going to be grandparents any time soon. None of 
the girls are showing any signs of pregnancy, so, now that we know 
what's going on, it should be preventable. And the pheromones they're 
giving off seem to only affect others of their kind, and the only others 
of their kind are their brothers, so they're safe in that regard too."

"But what's going on with them? Why is this happening?" asks their very 
concerned mother.

"Well, that's the bad news part. See, what's happening is, your girls 
are in heat, and they're fertile. Not to mention that, it doesn't seem 
like they're too picky about who breeds with them, and one of them seems 
to be putting out enough pheromones to drive her brothers crazy, so the 
effect is quadratic," he says. "And, on top of that, the boys seem to be 
fertile as well, so pregnancy is a risk, if you don't take proper 
precautions."

"But I've been in heat before, and it's never been this bad," says 
Ichigo, confused. "Besides, shouldn't it be a few more years before I 
have to worry about something like this?"

"Their case is different than yours," he replies. "You had the benefit 
of going through a human puberty before you were exposed to cat DNA, so 
you were already used to some things, not to mention the fact that your 
brain is a bit more mature than theirs, so you can think past the 
signals your body is sending out. Your children are only going through 
feline heat, and haven't experienced human puberty, though if they were 
regular cats, this could have started for them years ago."

"But what can we do about it?" she asks. "They're only seven! They 
aren't ready to be parents yet."

"If we work at it, it should be fairly simple to adapt your birth 
control to be effective for your daughters," he says. "Unfortunately, 
even if we had one to start using right now, it wouldn't be too 
effective during their current heat. So the only solution for now is to 
keep the boys and the girls separated, at least until their heat is 
over. Being away from the girls should calm the boys down."

"I can watch over the boys," Lettuce offers, and they thank her for 
volunteering to babysit so quickly. However, Ryou informs them that 
there really isn't much that they can do for the girls, apart from 
finding a way to indulge their lusts.

Sighing, the parents know that they're going to have their hands full 
for quite some time. However, it's late, and they need to get back home. 
They thank Lettuce again for taking in the boys, and Masaya promises to 
drop by the morning with their things, and then they load up the car 
with their girls to head home.

"I hope they finish developing that birth control quickly," says Ichigo. 
Their daughters don't seem to be any more calm, and are, in fact, rather 
upset about being separated from their brothers. "I don't know how much 
of this I can take, and if it's going to happen often..."

"We'll figure this out," replies Masaya. "We always figure things out." 
However, even as he reassures her, he wonders just as much as she does 
how they're going to handle their four very horny daughters.