A/N: ...I got inspired by LyLBunny's Skip Beat! blog when she talked about Chapter 149. I forgot how much I love sweet and dark Katsuki.
Disclaimer: I don't own Skip Beat! In no way is LyLBunny's awesomeness associated with this steaming pile of shit. I also don't actually know what Misao and Mio are to each other... so suspend any working knowledge of the Dark Moon series, cool?
Premise: Mio flirts. With danger himself. The results are disturbing.
Miss Priss and Mister K. Danger Tachibana
They were surrounded by crystals and flowers, but the words between them weren't nearly as delicate or trivial.
"What can I do for you, Miss Hongo?" Katsuki asked. He was ever the gentleman to his future in-laws, and doubly so to a talented, if distant, student.
"For me, Tachibana-sensei, not much," Mio said, continuing her discomfiting appraisal.
If he were alone in a semi-hidden hallway with any young girl but the formidable Miss Hongo, Katsuki would have worried on how anyone would have seen them. In fact, Tachibana had the feeling that any guests passing by would pity him, cornered by Miss Hongo's haughty aura.
"But as to my lovely relation, I am sure your charms would find purchase."
"I am fortunate to be with Misao," Katsuki smiled faintly.
Miss Hongo's smile grew, but not in mirth. "Misao is also lovely; however, she is not who I had in mind for you, sensei."
Fortunately for Katsuki, she chose to be amused by his answering silence. Her heels clacked in time to the seconds it took for Katsuki to reject every wrong answer that came to mind. Miss Hongo wore none of the musky perfume that defined a young woman of her status, but she smelled like wealth.
Katsuki wondered if his face reflected the instinctive revulsion rising in him as she reached out and skimmed her lacquered finger down his tie and untucked it from his blazer. "With all due respect, sensei, I would respect you more if you would drop your facade."
Then she tilted her head modestly, but it had the effect of baring the puckered mess of scars on her face. Her scar looked especially grotesque, paired with the flowers and finery that also crowned her.
Yet her jaw was carefully relaxed and her face perfectly blank, and pity crept into Katsuki's heart. She spoke of facades and respect, but she was still a young, troubled girl.
"Now there's a million yen word," Katsuki said. "You must have been very bored in my class, Miss Hongo. I doubt I ever taught you anything." He had long since given up the laughable notion that he could truly teach Hongo Mio anything.
His sympathy must've bled through his natural guardedness because her eyes narrowed and the smile was frozen on her lips again. "Oh, but you did, sensei. It was in your class that I learned a humbling lesson."
That cracked him up. "I highly doubt I could humble anyone from the Hongo clan, but I am flattered as your teacher that I make a difference." Spoken like a veteran of parent-teacher conferences.
Mio looked like she was ready to slap him. Katsuki braced himself, but what transpired staggered him anyways. He had assumed that she had stiffened her fingers to strike and sting. Instead, her clammy fingers touched his cheek with the lightest brush. Her lips never pressed on his skin, but by her breath and the ghostly fluttering of her penciled lash, he knew exactly where she would have kissed him.
Quick as a flash, he held her at arm's length. "I am your teacher. You are a child."
"Being my teacher hardly precludes you from acting like a man."
Katsuki heard a gasp, but Mio's lips were straight and taut. He turned his head and explanation failed him as Mizuki, perfectly out of reach with her sunny hair and floaty dress, apologized for "barging in on them" and fled.
As predicted, Tachibana-sensei turned on his heel and chased after her lovely cousin Mizuki. Now there was a child-like girl if ever there was one. Mizuki was boring, cheerful, and, by extension, perversely enticing.
"You have proved yourself more of a man than ever you knew, Katsuki. Men always pick on the helpless ones."
Mio gazed intently at a vase of passion flowers, a pretty blush on her that no man would see for her cousin's blustering radiance. A dark moon washed out by the noonday sun.
"That was... wow, Kyoko. If the Mio/Katsuki fan speculation doesn't boost our ratings, I don't know what will."
She recovered long enough to thank him, but Kyoko's eyes popped widely open at Ogata-san's encouraging words.
"Where's Ren? I was going to commend him as well."
Hearing Director Ogata say his name catalyzed an interesting phenomenon of equal and opposing forces in Kyoko's overtaxed brain. Did I make him run away? Impossible! He's too professional to be offended if I am playing with him through my character. But he looked really caught up. Ahh, I did something wrong that only he could see...I should have just kissed him like the script called for! I'm unworthy..." And so on.
Her head was simply too full of him.