I do not own Skip Beat!

"Am I seeing things?" Kyouko asked, staring up at the expanse of wrinkled gray adorned with rainbow colored paisley silk.

"God, I wish," Ren said, making a personal note to kill the president. He had told him about his plan out of courtesy, not so that he could take over and turn it into some sort of circus act. There was a completely empty restaurant, just blocks away, waiting for their appearance. He did not need this.

"So, I'm not hallucinating?" She asked, just to make sure. Her eyes were still fixed on the colorful mass in front of her.

"No, unfortunately, not," he replied.

It was obvious that Kyouko was too distracted for him to get her out of there.

"Well, I was going to do this one way or another," he said. "I guess it'll just be a bit more theatrical than I'd planned."

"What were you going to do with an elephant? Isn't anything you do with an elephant pretty much automatically pretty theatrical?" she asked, staring at the colorfully arrayed beast. It was standing there, colorful fabric splayed across its back, beneath the equally colorful and ornate sedan chair.

"I wasn't doing anything with an elephant," he said with a tense grin, "That part was the president's idea."

"Oh," Kyouko said, comprehension dawning on her face. She laughed, finally turning to look at him, "What does the president want you to do with an Elephant?"

"Well, it's not that he wants me to do something with an elephant, specifically," he said. "He just wants to make a production of things, but forget it, if we leave quickly, we can get out of here before we get stepped on."

He took Kyouko's hand and began leading her to the exit. Handholding, however, seemed to be some sort of cue for the well trained animals that were present, for no sooner did Ren take Kyouko's hand, than the monkey that had been sitting in the sedan chair atop the elephant's back, scurried down its trunk, rose in hand to present to Kyouko.

Kyouko laughed at the display.

"What's this all about?" she asked, taking the rose.

Ren sighed. "I'd hoped for a little different atmosphere, but..."

Kyouko raised an eyebrow in question.

Ren knelt before her and took out the ring. "Mogami Kyouko, Will you marry me?"

Kyouko's face turned red. She looked like she was holding her breath, and then, finally, from her firmly pursed lips, came a sputter, then a giggle, then an all out belly laugh.

Ren knelt there, stunned. This was not the reaction he'd been hoping for. This had to be a nightmare. He would wake up and it would be their honeymoon, and all this would just be a bad dream. He would turn to find Kyouko, now his wife, asleep in bed beside him, and they would get a good laugh out of it when he told her about it over breakfast.

Kyouko's laughter and tears became subdued a bit, as she finally noticed Ren, still kneeling there with a horrible blank expression on his face, hand outstretched presenting the ring.

"I'm so sorry!" she cried, realizing she had yet to give him an answer. She got on her own knees in front of him, ready to prostrate herself in a dogeza.

"You don't need to bow, Kyouko," he said. Not marrying him wasn't an offense she should have to bow down and apologize for. He could feel his heart beginning to crumble.

"No, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have laughed," she said, "It's just— Poor Ren! You must have had it planned out so beautifully, and then…" she began to sputter again.

Ren's heart stayed its crumbling for a moment.

"The president hijacked your proposal!"

"In a word, yes," he replied. "But, hijacked or otherwise, do you think you could put me out of my misery?"

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she apologized again.

Ren wondered if she would ever actually give him and answer.

"Yes!" she said, throwing her arms around him. "I'll marry you."

It ended up more of a mess than a grand proposal like the president had had in mind. It wasn't the poignant romantic scenario Ren had planned. Nor was it the magical fairytale proposal Kyouko had dreamt about as a young girl.

Both Ren and Kyouko ended up kneeling on the floor and embracing in front of a rather stoic looking elephant, and an apparently hungry, monkey, which had begun to nibble on the rose Kyouko had discarded in favor of the engagement ring. Still, they ended up engaged, and that was the important part.

"I wonder who will be more excited about this," Kyouko mused, "Yashiro-san, or your parents."

Ren groaned. "Can we just elope?"

Kyouko laughed. "Now how would it look if Japan's number one actor just eloped?"

"I don't know," he grinned, "Probably about the same way it would look if Japan's number one actress eloped."

"No! No! No! I absolutely will not permit any talk of eloping!" the president said, bursting forth from the behind the curtains of the sedan chair.

Ren looked Kyouko in the eye, mischief sparkling between them. They looked over at the president, who was having quite a difficult time trying to alight from his excessively large steed, and back at each other, before clasping hands and running.

"You know we're going to pay for this later," Kyouko said with a bright smile.

"He said we couldn't talk about eloping. He didn't say we couldn't do it," Ren said, placing the ring on her finger. "He hijacked my proposal. He's not hijacking our wedding too."

After all the proper papers were signed, they hopped back into Ren's car.

"I never would have imagined today would turn out like this," Kyouko laughed.

"Me neither," he said, squeezing her hand.

"You know we'll still have to tell everyone eventually," she said.

"I know," he said, kissing her hand.

"And we'll still probably have to have some big elaborate ceremony," she said.

"I know," he said.

"So…what was the point of eloping exactly?"

"Being married to you even one second sooner," he replied.

"Oh," she said, blushing and looking at her lap. "I guess it's worth it after all then, isn't it?"

"It absolutely is," he said.

AN: So, I know this is complete and utter pointless fluff with no real worth, but I've been writing a really dark and emotionally draining story for a class, so I wrote this to lift my spirits. Also, I have never written a fanfic with a completely conclusive and happy ending where everything is rainbows, bunnies and kittens, so here it is. It will probably be the only one of its kind from me. Thank you for reading! Leave me a review if you'd like to let me know what you think.