Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Tale Begins

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat. This is for fun and not for profit. That is why it is on Fan Fiction and not in your local bookstore.

o-o-o-o means a major scene break or change in point of view

v-v-v means minor time skips or scene change.

'A cold-blooded murderer.'

Echoed through Kyoko's mind. As she ate lunch in the school's cafeteria, Kyoko had gone over what Murasama had said to Tsuruga-san trying to find what had caused such as strong reaction from him. After going all she knew about Tsuruga Ren, Kyoko was fairly convinced that, this phrase had cause Tsuruga-san to lose control of Cain.

She begins to wonder if somehow his actions had caused the death of someone in Tsuruga-san's past. This tidbit of information casts a different shadow on how Tsuruga-san had told Bo that he was not allowed to love. It also explained some of the darkness that Kyoko had got glimpses of ever since Tsuruga-san had taken on the role of Cain Heel. She still did not like to admit that the man she greatly adored and looked up to was not perfect.

Kyoko had realized ever since the Dark Moon car accident that Tsuruga-san seemed to be enveloped in a deep darkness of guilt and self-loathing that prevented anyone from reaching out to help him. As she ate the pre-made sandwich she had brought from the cafeteria she wondered why this revelation did not scare her. She reasoned that even if Tsuruga-san had caused someone's death it was unintentional and an unfortunate accident.

She was confident that she knew his true character, yes, there were things she had no knowledge of, like his past or real name. Nevertheless, after observing him very closely in several different situations Kyoko was sure she knew what made him tick. Ever since his newest movie had started and the Heel Siblings born, Tsuruga-san had been clearly struggling with something.

Whenever she saw him like that something within her just wanted to gather the shattered pieces of him and help put him back together. She never questioned this need to help him and drive out the darkness that recently always seems ready to consume him if she was not there. Kyoko did not even realize how much her presence helped her sempai in his fight against the darkness. As she bemoaned her uselessness in helping her sempai her purse started to shake violently.

She reached in and retrieved her vibrating phone. When she opened it, she found she had received a text message. Cursorily she opened the text and was instantly assaulted by a sudden explosion of color and moving pixels. It was a text from Kijima-san about a shop that sold really tasty treats.

Unknowingly Kijima-san had placed himself in the same category as a teenage girl in Kyoko's mind. By sending Kyoko, a text that was the perfect example in her mind of what high school girls send each other, her mind automatically sorted him away from man to girlfriend.

It was only because of this was that Kyoko was even willing to respond with more than a simple plain text after her momentarily bout of fairy fantasy inspired by the colorful text had passed. To her surprise, he texted right back asking what she was doing.

Still wary but her mind said it was okay, she responded that she was eating lunch and asked what he was doing. Kijima-san texted back that he was on his lunch break at a photo shoot with Tsuruga. Kijima told her about the photo shoot he was doing with Tsuruga Ren. She asked a few questions here and there, about what the shoot was like. As they texted, back and forth Kijima started to bemoan how it was unfair that Ren only ate so little but still had more energy than he had.

This was the wrong thing to tell Kyoko. Even before she realized it, she was already dialing Tsuruga-san's number.

v-v-v

Tsuruga Ren, considered by many to be Japan's top actor and most desirable man sat in his chair struggle to resist the urge to punch Kijima. He and his manager Yashiro had started their lunch break meeting Kijima Hidehito, his co-star in the photo shoot, in the break room for the models. As they exchange pleasantries and discussed their day Kijima reveled that he was sending a text to Kyoko. Ren had to grit his teeth as Kijima explained how he had finally managed to get Kyoko's number at the Dark Moon Finale party.

Thoughts of the party and the dress Kijima had dressed her in still filled Ren with anger and jealously. As he tried to calm down by thinking there would be no way Kyoko would respond to a man's text Kijima's phone gave a loud beep. To his horror she had responded, and not just a simple response but also one with color and moving text. Granted it was only one line but that still spoke a lot for someone of Kyoko's demeanor to do if she did not feel anything for Kijima.

Ren continued to sit there listening as Kijima texted back and forth with Kyoko unknowingly increasing Ren's anger while Yashiro watched with ever-increasing worry. "Stop reading them out loud you idiot! Better yet stop texting her." Yashiro was screaming in his mind as Kijima continued to enjoy reading aloud Kyouko's texts. As Kijima continued to read aloud, Ren noticed that he started to come up in the text and what shocked him out of his haze of jealous anger was Kijima complaining about how little food Ren ate during the day.

"You fool why you start talking about that." Ren thought, as dread seemed to squeeze his heart. Any moment now, he was expected Kyoko's wrath to come crashing down on him. Ten-seconds later Ren's phone started to vibrate. He opened it, raise it to his ear nervously, and greet the girl he knew was calling.

'Tsuruga-san...' A quiet dangerously sounding voice came out of the phone speaker. Even though it was a low quiet voice, everyone in the break room could hear it sending shivers down their spines.

'Hello Mogami-san, how are you doing?' Ren said calmly before she goes into her rant hoping to distract her. He stood up and walked over the far corner of the room for privacy.

"That was Kyoko-chan?" Kijima asked Yoshiro as he looked at Ren standing in the corner. By the expressions on his face, you could tell that he was being chewed out like a little boy who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Yes, I afraid that she is a little zealous in making sure Ren eats" Yashiro answered distract as he too watched Ren while Kyoko was raking him over the coals through the phone. He had to suppress a high-pitched fan-girl scream when he realized Kyoko was the one who called Ren. "Don't screw this up Ren, remember she is the one who called first even though she was texting Kijima" He thought as he watched his charge talk to his love.

"Tsuruga-san, what's this I hear about you not eating?" Kyoko asked in a scary quiet voice. Ren shivered at her tone but had to smile at the fact that she stopped texting Kijima to call him. The rational part of his mind pointed out that she was just calling out of a misleading sense of responsibility left over from being his temporary manager. The more fanciful side imagined that it was because she cared for him. He decided to play dumb and see if he could throw her off his trail.

"What ever do you mean Mogami-san? I was eating lunch right before you called." Ren said in a smooth even tone.

Unfortunately, for him Kyoko saw through his attempt at placating her, though he did not really expect it to work he could still hope. She proceeded to question him about what he had eaten so far. She reminded him that she knew he did not eat breakfast this morning as getting out of the Heel Sibling disguises took a lot of time. As he verbally navigated her anger, Ren started to enjoy himself.

Eventually he managed to turn the conversation into what she was doing. As she explained about all the upcoming tests to her horror and his amusement, he started to chuckle quietly under his breath. This was the wrong thing to do as she started to berate him for making fun of her. He asked what the rest of her day was like. She replied that she had to go to LME to talk to Sawara-san about some new offers she had before going home.

"Well, if you're really want to make sure that I eat, why don't I pick you up from school and take you to LME. Afterwards we could go out to dinner." Ren offered nervously.

Hearing Kijima talk about how his plan to get closer to Kyoko was starting to work made Ren want to be a bit more proactive in his actions towards Kyoko. For the moment, no concerns in his life were on his mind as he waited quietly for her response. The line was so quiet Ren could almost hear the cogs in her brain turning trying to come up with an excuse to turn him down. He started to think up some counter arguments while he waited for her first excuse.

v-v-v

"Well, if you're really want to make sure that I eat, why don't I pick you up from school and take you to LME. Afterwards we could go out to dinner." Ren offered.

Kyoko sat at her table in shock over Tsuruga-san's offer to pick her and take her out to dinner. "Is he asking me out on a date?" She thought while blushing. Her grudges quickly swarmed that thought and removed it before it could trigger other similar thoughts. However, the locks on her heart started to shake and one by one start to fall off until one was left shaking Kyoko out of her shock.

"Whoa that was dangerous; I must remember not to let my guard down around Him." Kyoko thought as she started to think of ways of turning him down without actually saying no. Her first volley was that she would not dare be an inconvenience by having her Sempai by driving a lowly unworthy newbie talent like her around town. Ren countered by saying that it was he who offered in the first place and that he would not have done so if it was an inconvenience for him.

Her next attempt was that she could not take what precious little free time he had in his packed schedule just so he could pick her up from school and that she would meet him later. He responded by explaining that he was working a short day and that when his last job ended he would still have plenty of time to reach her school before she was ready to leave.

Frustrated Kyoko went with her last hope. She argued that it would be improper for her as his kohai to allow her sempai to waste his time waiting while she was busy talking to Sawara-san. Ren shot back that he needed to talk to the President in the next couple of days anyway, so he would be busy and not wasting his time as she put it. Kyoko gave a frustrated sigh when she heard this.

"Argh that frustrating man, why does he keep sweeping away my arguments." Kyoko thought as she wondered what else she could use to get out of accepting. She did not consciously realize that she did not want to outright say no because sub-consciously she was pleased that Ren asked her out. Pulling back from the strange and twisted thinking of Kyoko, one could almost hear the whining tone of Tsuruga coming through the phone.

"What is wrong with this man? I can almost see him making Cain-nii-san's puppy eyes at me." Kyoko thought. Over the course of their back and forth argument about Ren's offer Kyoko could just feel Ren increasing the cuteness in his voice trying to weaken her resolve. "Dang it! He knows I can't resist him when he does that." She cursed in her mind.

"Kyoko are you willing to accept?"Ren asked feeling her resolve weaken.

"You can pick what we have for dinner." He offered as a peace-offering.

Kyoko bit her lip before responding and saying yes to his offer. She let him know what time she would be ready to leave and promised to call him before she left the campus so He could pick her up in a discrete location to avoid rabid fans of Ren. He agreed and promised not to draw attention to himself to ease her worries.

v-v-v

Ren closed his phone after saying goodbye to Kyoko. He could hardly keep from letting a loud whoop of victory. She actually accepted. Now Ren knew she was not considering this a date, but the fact she did not outright reject him and say no gave a small hope. He walked as calmly as he could back to where Kijima was sitting with their managers. Yashiro gave him a knowing look, for a moment Ren feared that he saw through his calm but then he remembered that his manager was always imagining things about him and Kyoko.

"That was Kyoko-chan?" Kijima asked as Ren sat back down.

Ren hummed a yes, but refused to reveal what they talked about when Kijima pressed him for details.

"Well, I'll just see if I can get it out of Kyoko-chan later." Kijima said airily while leaning back in his chair. "What do you mean later?" Yashiro inquired.

Kijima just gave a smug smile and refused to answer. Before Ren could try to trick the answer out of him a stage hand entered the break room and announced that the photographer need Tsuruga-san and Kijima-san on set. The two actors left to resume shooting while their managers cleaned up the mess from lunch. As Ren walked ahead of Kijima to the set one thought raced through his mind. "What did he mean by later?"

o-o-o-o

Near downtown of Tokyo, inside a well-kept apartment was a tall blond hair man laid on the rich deep carpet of the main living room. The TV blared in the background as he lay there with one arm over his eyes. All was quiet in the apartment beside the TV and the sounds of a shower running from the bathroom. All of a sudden, the young man's phone started to vibrate.

With an annoyed look in his eyes the young man grabbed his phone and looked at the text message he had received. A sadistic grin appeared on his face as he read the message. Getting up quickly, he found his shoes and coat as he made to leave the apartment. When he had almost reached the door the bathroom opened up and a beautiful long blond hair woman stepped out wrapped in a thick fluffy bathrobe toweling her wet hair dry.

"Sho, where are you going?" Shouko asked her young charge. The young man identified as Sho turned to look at her before he responded. "To school." Before she could question him any further, Sho opened the door and left the apartment while calling his driver around.

"School? I hope he does not do something foolish. Ever since he saw the Dark Moon Finale interviews he's been brooding." Shouko thought worryingly as she looked at the door Sho had left through.

The first chapter of Imperfect Perfection done.

Inspired by chp. 188 of the manga, the concept for this story has bounced around in my head ever since the Heel Siblings were introduced.

Everything AU after 188.

This is my first Skip Beat story so let me know what you people think in reviews.

Please Review.

PathKeeper out.