Summary: A (hopefully) constantly growing collection of one-shots, without a plot or a happy/unhappy ending. These stories exist only for the sole purpose of entertaining the readers and the author herself. The chapters are completely unrelated to each other. The main theme is Kyoko's and Ren's relationship. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Just the usual - nothing belongs to me, I'm just a restless fan who cannot stay still between two new chapters.
Teaser for this scene: Yashiro is eavesdropping again, this time on Kyoko and Sho. But he is not the only one who overhears their heated conversation, because - be surprised! - Ren is on his way as well. (Written after chapter 194, but doesn't contain any spoilers and is not connected directly to the storyline.)
A Dangerous Man
Ren was walking through one of LME's hallways cluelessly, not even suspecting what was waiting for him ahead. As he was getting closer to a corner, he noticed his manager standing there looking at something - or someone - with an indescribable expression on his face. He was clearly eavesdropping on a scene that had to be rather interesting judging from how surprised and confused he looked. The tall actor frowned, increased his pace, and made a bee-line to the man.
"Yashiro-san, whatever you're doing, I'm pretty sure it's morally…" He was cut off at the middle of his sentence when Yashiro realized his presence and shoved him a few steps back from the corner of the hallway, signalling him to be quiet. Ren's frown deepened, then his whole body became rigid when he heard the voices coming from the direction his manager was looking earlier. He recognized the male voice instantly; it definitely belonged to that singer jerk, Fuwa Sho. Yashiro peeked around the corner worriedly, and then started to explain the situation to his clearly upset charge, trying to keep his voice down.
"It's Fuwa Sho. He's talking to Kyoko-chan. No, wait-!" Yashiro pushed Ren back once again, who was obviously taken aback by his manager's actions.
"What the hell, Yashiro? Let me go! What is that jerk doing here at LME?!" Ren's voice was dangerously loud, not to mention the fact that he was swearing - the word "jerk" was not supposed to be a part of the ever so polite top-notch actor, Tsuruga Ren's vocabulary. Yashiro now had one more thing on his list to worry about. After hearing Ren's outburst, words like 'damage control' came into his mind. But before that, he had to keep the man away from the corner, and from the event that took place around it.
"They are talking about you, Ren!" the shorter man whispered. If Yashiro thought this would magically make the actor calm down and stay hidden of his own accord, he was wrong.
"So what?!" Ren didn't like the idea of Kyoko being stuck with the blond singer, and the fact that they were discussing him didn't make it any better. In fact, that was even worse than their usual topics. Who knows what hideous ideas that boy wants to plant in Kyoko's head? He was about to leave their hiding place, but he froze when he heard the singer's voice.
"That Tsuruga guy is bad news, Kyoko!" Ren couldn't decide which was more disturbing; the fact that Fuwa was calling Kyoko so intimately by her first name without any honorifics, or the content of the sentence which preceded that certain form of address. So this is what it was about. That Fuwa was trying to scare Kyoko away from him?
"You're still going on about that? You must be really jealous of his fame to make things up about him. Just leave me alone, and leave him alone as well, while you're at it."
"That's what I'm talking about! I've barely said anything and you're already protecting him! I've known you for a long time, Kyoko, and you're incredibly naive. That man is dangerous, so stay away from him!" Kyoko snorted at the last sentence, then a short and sarcastic laugh left her lips.
"Yes, of course, because you know so much about him, the two of you being best buddies and all that. Stop this nonsense, Shotaro, and let me go already!" Ren could hear strange noises coming from their direction and couldn't resist the urge to take a look at what was happening. When he peeked out from behind the corner the sight didn't make him any calmer; Fuwa was pressing Kyoko against the wall, clutching both of her wrists in only one of his hands, pulling them above her head and pushing them to the cold tile. The singer's face was only inches away from the girl's, and he was hissing every word through his teeth.
"Don't ignore me, idiot! You have no idea how dangerous Tsuruga can..."
"What the hell, Shotaro?! Do you want me to scream?! Let go of..." The rest of her sentence was muffled; the singer used his free hand to silence the girl in front of him. He clamped his palm over Kyoko's mouth, knocking her head to the wall, causing her to wince in pain. Ren could no longer stand by doing nothing, and started to rush towards the couple, but Yashiro grabbed his hand and pulled him back into hiding again. Ren stared at his manager with a bewildered expression, but Yashiro only shook his head silently.
"I wasn't finished! Where did that overly polite girl go, who I knew so well?! OW!" Sho suddenly let go of her mouth and jerked his hand away as if it got burnt. Kyoko was once again struggling to get free, but the singer didn't let go of her wrists. "Did you just bite me?! Are you completely insane?!"
"About that overly polite girl, you were the one who killed her, so don't act so surprised! Now let me go or I swear I'll scream so loud everyone in the building will come rushing!" Sho suddenly let go of Kyoko's wrists, which has actually taken the girl by surprise and she almost fell when the pressure holding her up disappeared. She was frowning and was visibly confused, but recovered in a few seconds and started to walk away, carefully staying out of the blond man's reach.
"Kyoko, please, listen to me." It seemed that Sho changed tactics; now he was being polite. Kyoko stopped and looked back at him over her shoulder, then sighed and turned back to face him. Ren was seeing red. Why was she still willing to listen to him?! And what was Yashiro plotting, not letting him go there?!
"If this is about Tsuruga-san being dangerous and all that, don't waste your breath."
"How can you trust him?! You don't know anything about that guy! For all you know, he could be a serial killer!" Ren winced and a pained expression appeared on his face. Yashiro was becoming more confused by the second while he was looking at the actor's reactions, but he didn't say anything, just watched out for any sign of him wanting to rush to Kyoko again.
"Yeah, right. Bye, Shotaro."
"He can be violent, I know that for a fact!" Sho grabbed Kyoko's hand and pulled her back, raising his voice while doing so. "He. Is. Dangerous!" Kyoko's expression changed in a heartbeat. Her previous irritated and angry demeanour was replaced by something entirely different. Sho instinctively let go of her hand and took a step back. He has never witnessed anything like this before; Kyoko was dead serious, and she clearly decided to drop the act and say everything straight out.
"He would never hurt me. That is what I know for a fact." Two short, very quiet, but very firm sentences. She looked like she was phrasing the ultimate truth that cannot be argued or questioned. Ren was trying to put on his usual poker face, but Yashiro could tell he was deeply affected by the girl's words - he just couldn't decide in what way. Ren wasn't sure about that himself either. Kyoko didn't protest against the part about his favourite senpai being violent, but according to her words she trusted him wholeheartedly. That was actually surprising, considering how many times she has seen his darkest side. Surprising and stupid, at least that was what Ren thought.
"God, Kyoko! You just admitted that he is violent! And how could you possibly know that he won't hurt you?! You've lost your mind!" Ren's face became plastered with worry and fear, which didn't go unnoticed by Yashiro. The manager frowned, but decided to stay quiet.
"Okay, I've had enough." The actress squared her shoulders and put her right hand on her hip, standing a bit like Natsu would. Ren started to suspect that she tried to use the bully's persona to end the conversation, but the girl's face suggested otherwise. She was still Kyoko, she just acted in a way none of the onlookers have ever seen. "Let me tell you this, Shotaro. Sorry to be the one to break the news, but I know Tsuruga-san better than you do. I have seen sides of him you probably never will. And I've most certainly spent more time with him than you have. You can try and convince me how dangerous he is, but let's make this clear. He never slapped me for being honest and trying to help, he never shoved me up to a wall covering my mouth, and he never dragged me away from my life to throw me away as soon as I became unnecessary. I can tell which one of you I should avoid, and that is not Tsuruga-san." All three men looked at her with wide eyes, trying to find the naive and innocent girl they all knew. But Kyoko stood her ground firmly, and when didn't get any reaction from Sho, she turned around and walked away, luckily not in the direction of Ren and his manager.
"What the...? Seen sides of him...?" It took a few minutes for the blond singer to recover, then he ran his hands through his hair in frustration, kicked the wall he was pressing Kyoko to a few minutes ago, and walked away mumbling a great variety of swear-words under his breath.
Ren and Yashiro stood dumbfounded for a few more minutes until Ren closed his eyes, sighed, and started to walk away. Yashiro looked at his back and finally asked one of the many questions swirling around in his mind.
"Violent? You were violent? What on earth did you do, Ren?" His voice was barely audible, but Ren heard every single word. He stopped, trying to come up with an acceptable explanation to everything they heard, but failed miserably. He turned around and looked Yashiro in the eye.
"If that counts for anything, I would really never hurt her. Not intentionally, anyway." Yashiro was staring at the actor, who had a heart-wrenchingly sad smile on his face. His eyes were full of misery, and he looked crestfallen. Still, Yashiro couldn't let it go just like that.
"Not intentionally? That was not very reassuring, Ren."
"Good. I didn't want it to be."