Title: Kissing Booth
Title: Kissing Booth.
Description: When Rima Toya, world renowned (very young) supermodel, finds her ratings slipping, she couldn't care less. Her agency, however, has mad plans in store to boost those ratings for her, with unexpected results.
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight. All characters belong rightfully to Matsuri Hino. I also do not own the song 'Kiss Me.'
Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance
Silver moon's sparkling
So kiss me
-Sixpence None the Richer
(Cross Academy, 1830 hours. Moon Dormitory- Yuki Kuran and Zero Kiryu's room)
"No!"
"Oh, come on, Zero! It'll be really fun!"
"For the last time, stinking Chairman, I said, NO! I will not take over that dumb booth thing!"
Zero Kiryu glared as hard as he possibly could into the eyes of Chairman Cross. Both were arguing- well, Zero was arguing- about the festival that would be held the next day, while Yuki Kuran sighed, muttering about her idiot partner (and now mate) and overly enthusiastic father.
Over the last month, peace had been restored to the academy. Kaname Kuran was reported missing and Rido Kuran was long dead. Yuki took over as class president of Night class and Zero, now with a B-class vampire ranking, became her mate. Of course, with these happy events happening concurrently, the Chairman saw it fit to hold a celebration for everyone, in the form of a 'little' festival in the school grounds.
The Day class swooned when they heard the news. Ichijou celebrated by popping copious amounts of champagne (and flooded his and Senri's room in the process). Aidou sighed but cheered up at the prospect of a date with Yori. Kain and Ruka both groaned. Senri merely said 'hn' and Rima did not say a single word.
As for Zero, he was about to kill the chairman with his newly equipped Bloody Rose.
"I repeat myself," he seethed. "I will NOT take charge of the kissing booth!"
Around them, vines started to crawl through Yuki's window.
"Zero, stop this nonsense." Yuki lifted her hand and the vines withdrew. "Anyway, Chairman, Zero's right. He'll only scare away the girls." She stuck her tongue out impishly at Zero. Even as a pureblood vampire slash princess, Yuki was still childish.
The Chairman smirked. "Ah, but I've already thought about that! That is exactly why you will be joining him, my cute little daughter!"
"WHAT!"
The Chairman sighed happily at the thought of his adorable children being in charge of the kissing booth. He sank into the cushy chair behind him, drifting off to his wonderland (organizing a festival with two uncooperative and very powerful vampires was tiring him) while Yuki and Zero both made signs of protest in front of him. Zero went as far as to point the middle finger at him.
"Oh, don't be melodramatic." Chairman Cross smiled, waving his hand. "You won't have to do duty on that day! That's a huge plus for you two!"
"Right," Zero hissed. "Scaring annoying twits versus kissing annoying twits. That's such a privilege, Father."
The Chairman stopped midway through a nursery rhyme. He was, beyond all other emotions, shocked.
Zero called me Father!
He acknowledged me as his Father!
I AM HIS FATHER!!
With these three thoughts running in his head all at the same time, the Chairman was about to burst into fireworks (until he remembered that the festival was the next day). His favorite Vampire Grinch called him Father! Hip-hip-HURRAY!
Seeing as his plan (to distract the Chairman) had worked (the man was currently doing the 'happy happy, joy joy! song'), Zero grabbed Yuki by her wrist and left the room. "Come on," he muttered. "Let's find a solution."
(Cross Academy, 1837 hours. Moon Dormitory- Main Lobby/ Living room)
Rima Touya, world famous supermodel. Approximately 15-16 human years old. Very tired.
"RIMA, THIS IS A CRISIS! PAY, ATTENTION!"
Rima puffed her cheeks. "Hn," she said, fiddling absentmindedly with the ribbons in her hair. For the past hour, in which she attended (and was still attending) a meeting with a representative from her agency and manager, she had said about two sentences, mostly consisting of 'Hn/ ah/ tch'.
The frustrated manager, Caroline, threw her hands up in the air. "Look at this!" she threw several folders in front of Rima. "Your ratings have dropped ten-fold since you got injured. This. Is. Dire!" she yelled. "We HAVE to do something to pull it up."
Truth to be told, modeling was something she couldn't be bothered with at this point of time in her long life. She had other situations to deal with.
"Look at this chart! Shiki's ratings have only been climbing, day by day! Yours, on the other hand are dropping. Dropping!"
Rima merely blew a strand of her orange hair out of her eyes nonchalantly.
"Let's see… we can create a sex tape for you. That always brings ratings up. Or we could create a picture of you and Jonathan Deep holding hands on a beach!"
The representative from the agency jumped into the conversation. "There's also making scandal photos! Or a rumor that she got raped!"
Rima glared at the both of them.
The two humans in front of her started going deeper into their conversation. Phrases like "nude photos" and "cameo appearance in Sexy and the CCTV" popped up and Rima scowled.
Why do they even bother? Haven't they noticed that I'm about to quit this industry anyway? I have better things to do, like working on my violin. Oh. And getting out of this mental slump.
"We could force Kain to burn down the festival," a voice drifted into the room.
"Don't be an idiot, Zero. You'll hurt your darling Father's feelings," a different voice replied teasingly.
The group of three looked up to see Zero and Yuki walking down the stairs, with Zero grabbing Yuki's wrist.
Rima stood up and bowed. "Yuki-sama, Zero-kun," she greeted them politely.
Yuki smiled at the amber haired girl. "Good evening, Rima. Try not to be late for class, ok?"
"I'll do my best," she nodded and glared at the two humans. "But these two need to be willing to let me off on time."
Behind Yuki, Zero was mumbling incoherently to himself.
"Zero-kun?" Rima called out. Normally, she wouldn't make conversation with the silver haired boy, whom she was on good terms with, but heck. Anything to get out of the dumb meeting. "You look troubled. Is something the matter?"
"Kissing booth," he said sourly.
Before Zero could carry on, Yuki cut in quickly. "Nothing serious. We just need to find a replacement for the kissing booth. The chairman wants Zero and I to take charge of it but to be honest, we're not exactly willing to."
"Excuse me." Rima's manager piped up. "Did you just say Kissing booth?"
The two humans lighted up like the Sun and Rima groaned. Thanks a lot, Yuki.
(Cross Academy, 2037 hours. The Next Day. Festival grounds, Fun and Games Section)
"Please look here, Miss Rima! Ok, one, two, three." A flash went off from the black pit of the camera lens. "Perfect! Thank you for posing!"
"Pleasure." Rima said dully.
The poor supermodel had been working since the festival started at 7 p.m. To her horror, word got around (very) quickly that Rima Touya, top model, would be giving out kisses at her school. The fact that the details had only been finalized that morning made it scarier. Maybe her ratings weren't dropping, like her manager claimed them to be.
The festival started off with a huge bang. With the Chairman's immaculate planning, the event was set to be a success. Only an hour and a half into the festival and everyone who wasn't eating candy floss or shooting hoops was either on the dance floor or busy browsing around. In some cases, they were queuing up to kiss Rima Touya.
"Next!" she called out, clearly bored. Ew, she thought, as she planted her lips on the next boy. I don't think he brushed his teeth. Gross!
When the fanboy had left (after taking a picture with her), she quickly turned aside to reapply some L'Oreally! lipstick on her sore lips.
Strange. It was the one Shiki had given to her after they had finished with a major shoot three years ago.
/3 Years Ago/
"Ok, that's a wrap!" the director of photography called out.
Senri and Rima, both extremely exhausted, stumbled out of the set to meet their manager. They were clad in attire created specially for them. The material on Rima was light and floaty and she looked like a nymph, except for the fact that she was technically a vampire. Senri on the other hand, looked liked a character out of the set of 'Finale Fantasize 7'.
"That was terrrrrific!" the woman, Caroline squealed. "Keep up the chemistry, ok? It's suuuper important for your next shoot. You two will have lots of kissing frames with each other. Isn't that just great!"
"If you say so..." Shiki said quietly, not really caring. He just wanted some sleep, dammit!
"I'll leave you two to make it perfect! Ciao!" she skipped off to chat with her fellow colleague.
The two tired models slowly trudged to the lobby to wait for Rima's mother to pick them up. Not bothering to change, Rima sighed loudly and plopped herself down into the plush chair that was in the lobby, specially for tired models like Shiki and herself to rest upon.
"Hey, Rima..." Shiki called from his seat. He was settled into the chair, clearly very tired from the long photo shoot. She stared at him blankly, as if to say 'what?'
He continued. "I was thinking about that next shoot. That Caroline did say we'd have to kiss."
"So?" she cocked her eyebrow.
"I've never kissed anyone before. I don't think you have either."
Rima gave a 'hn' in reply.
"Want to practice?"
She looked up at him, mildly surprised. "If you want to, I suppose so…"
And he leaned forward to press his lips against hers.
/Present Time/
Rima gave a small smile at the memory. He gave the lipstick to her after their rather vigorous 'practice', citing the fact that she liked the color as his excuse.
Then again, it was but a memory. If only… if only she could relive the past. But she had made a decision, and she would stick to it.
I just want to go back to my room and never come out again.
(2249 hours, Festival grounds, Main Stage area)
Senri was bored to death. It was amazing that he hadn't begged Aidou to arm-wrestle with him, just for the sake of entertainment. So bored that he wouldn't mind insulting Yuki (she is his cousin, so technically, he's allowed to do that to his family) just to have the entire Night Class rip him into shreds.
He was bored and worried.
The lad frowned. A lot of things had been stressing him lately, but they all revolved around the same issue.
Rima.
Immediately after she had woken up from her coma, she smiled at him, crying at the same time. Then she ran out of her room and ever since, she had been avoiding him.
They didn't even model together for a whole month.
He had also found out by chance that Rima had been taking antidepressants daily, starting three weeks ago. What was she killing herself over for?
She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't take blood. She didn't even roll her eyes at Ichijou when he acted silly anymore.
Why, Rima?
Why must you make me worry so much for you? 'You should love yourself more,' eh Rima? Well, same to you.
"Shiki-san!"
Ichijou waved to Senri and flashed his award-winning smile, with a grumpy Aidou and mystified Kain in tow.
"Ichijou." Senri acknowledged the three. "What's wrong with Aidou?"
"Yori." Kain muttered.
"Ah."
"Come on, you guys!" Ichijou grinned widely. "The night is young! Let's have some fun!"
Senri sighed. "She went that way," he pointed to the fountain.
"Huh? What! Why didn't you say so earlier?" Aidou yelled. "Kain! Let's go!"
And the two shot off towards the fountain, Kain cursing Senri silently.
Ichijou smiled at his friend. "She's going to become worse if you act like this."
Senri sighed.
"Rima hasn't been able to smile properly since that incident. I know she cares for you, Shiki." (A/N: As in the incident with Rido)
Senri looked away. "I'm going to look for Rima, Ichijou. See you." And he ran off, hopefully to find another world where Rima was happier.
(Cross Academy, 2302 hours. Festival grounds, Fun and Games Section)
Finally. Rima sighed. She had been working for four hours non-stop ever since the festival had started and currently, the stalls were all deserted. Even her very popular stall was short of a queue. Everyone was gathered at the Main Stage to watch the reveal of the festival king and festival queen, save for a three or four humans/ vampires loitering around.
No doubt half the Night Class were in the running.
Well, except for her. She insisted on being taken out of the polls to the point where she grew so angry that a thunderstorm raged in the Chairman's office (the nominees were brought to his office to be told about their election a week prior to the festival). Poor Chairman Cross had to spend the day mopping the floor of his office.
After the long night, Rima sat down, ready to fall asleep at any moment. Really, it was quite ridiculous. She was a vampire. The common sleep hours for adult and teenage vampires was roughly from 9am to 4pm, given that they had around 7 hours of rest (school started at 7pm and ended around 2 am for the Night Class). So why was she so tired, especially when she had about 10 more hours of her day (rather, night) to go through.
She was tired. As she closed her eyes, her mind began to wander towards other thoughts. The fact that she was medically diagnosed as depressed weighed heavily on her mind, like a knife trying to cut off a very worn-out rope.
"Rima Touya? May I have the honor?" A voice called from in front of her booth. No doubt it was another fan-boy.
Rima groaned. "Could you give me a minute to rest?" she asked, looking up to face the man. She froze.
It was Senri. Her Senri.
Immediately, Rima stood up to turn away from him, but he grabbed her wrist. "Rima. Please," he begged. "Stay. I need to talk to you."
She looked away from his silver eyes, knowing that if she looked at them, she would never be able to fully carry out what she had set out to do. To set him free.
Because of this innate desire of hers, she had avoided him the entire month. Every time her agency wanted her to do a photo shoot with Senri, she'd turn it down. All this stress had caused her to fall into depression rapidly.
Each time he had tried to talk to her, Rima would find some excuse and run off.
"Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked. The pain in his voice hurt her so much that subconsciously, she turned to face him.
"Because it's my fault that you got into that mess," she whispered.
Senri looked frustrated. "Rima… It's not your fault!" his grip on her wrist tightened and he pulled her towards him.
She swallowed. "I failed to love you enough. I didn't make you smile as much as I could have and soon, you got taken over by Rido-sama. I'm… I'm sorry! It's my fault that you got into all that trouble. All because I failed to care enough for you! If I stay with you… who knows? Things will probably get worse."
They stared at each other for a while, Rima's cerulean eyes filling with tears. They fell to the ground and Senri stared at them miserably.
Then he grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.
"It's ok, Rima. It's not anyone's fault. But then, because of me, you fell into depression. But I'm fine now, Rima. It's not your fault that I got taken over by my father." He whispered into her ear. He felt her body relax. "Stop killing yourself over this. Everything's ok. Everyone is ok. But you, my favorite flower in the world, are sad."
He lifted her face. "You should love yourself more, Rima." He said.
The amber haired vampire looked into his eyes, the twisted rope of her mind finally getting untangled. In his eyes, she finally saw the truth- she wasn't at fault for the incident with Rido Kuran. She could never cause him pain (she saw that he loved her too much to do that). But at last, she saw what she'd been struggling to understand.
His heart.
It was only for her.
Rima smiled at Senri. "Gee Senri. You're such a cheeky boy," she said, looking down to hide her blush. Everything was suddenly so right. They were perfectly right for each other.
He laughed. "I'm sorr-" Rima began again but he cut her short, kissing her fully on the lips. Moments later, he pulled away from her face.
"You were saying?" he taunted.
"Nothing." Rima said, gasping for air, her face flushed (Senri's heart thumped). "Except…"
"Hmm?"
"That I love you."
Behind them, the crowd started filing back in, eager for their last piece of candy floss, or their last chance to win a prize from the shooting booth. The festival would remain open until 12am, where the Day Class would be shooed back to their dorms. From what everyone was buzzing about, it appeared that Aidou and Yori had won as festival King and Queen.
"Dang." Senri muttered, still locked into an embrace with Rima despite the curious onlookers. "Hanabusa's going to be unbearable later."
"Just what he needs. An ego boost." Rima commented dryly. It seemed that all was well with Rima now. Out with the anti-depressant pills (which were quite annoying because they looked an awful lot like the blood tablets)!
Unfortunately, the great King Aidou and Queen Yori weren't much of a distraction. Ardent fans of Rima came running up to her. Midnight gave them enough time to grab their last chance to kiss Rima.
"Miss Rima! May we have one last kiss?" they chanted.
Rima cocked her head to Senri. "Senri?" she called, as though asking for permission (the fan boys eyed our favorite vampire supermodel with great suspicion).
He smirked. "Sorry to disappoint everyone," he told the crowd. "But as of now, I'll be Rima's only customer."
And he leaned in to kiss her again.
Forever.
Kissing Booth, End.
A/N: I hope that wasn't too confusing!! Basically, Rima felt that it was her fault that Senri fell into that mess with Rido Kuran and so she avoided him and ended up depressed. But all is well! Because we have Shiki to clear it all away Which he did! I love happy endings!!
Please Review!!