A/N: Only a few words. First: Skip Beat! Is not mine, obviously and Second: The Fredricks Experiment. Humans need love to survive... 8) I also apologize for the OOC-ness of this story, but do we really know what jealousy will do to Kyoko? You know the old phrase, don't get mad; get even... I'm just guessing right now and basing it off of what some females would do in her situation and with her resources, exposure and position. Hope you like it.

Diamond

Chapter 1

BEGINNING OF MAY:

She had been avoiding him. Yes, she had definitely been avoiding him since his return from Guam. Yashiro looked at his male charge and wondered just what on Earth had happened between the pair for the male to constantly seek her out and the female to avoid him at every opportunity. She had been moody, seemed as though she was constantly on the verge of tears and whenever she saw Ren in the distance speaking to another female, her face would fill with an intense rage, then she would turn and leave in the opposite direction without so much as a single word.

Yukihito was confounded and so was Ren. Actually, Ren was getting quite perturbed and frustrated by the situation. The photos that Lory had shown him of that night, weeks ago hadn't helped the situation either.

END OF JUNE:

Perfectly honest, yes now she was being perfectly honest with herself. She definitely loved him and she was jealous as hell. She absolutely hated this feeling. It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of her and attack any female within a 20 meter radius of him. She hated the cooing idiots that fawned over him blindly. They didn't know shit about him. They didn't know he could be soft and gentle or, as hard as steel and as cold as ice. They knew nothing at all about Kuon.

It didn't take much for her to figure it out after she had let go of all of her grudges not too long ago. Everything had just fallen into place and as much as he lied to her for all of that time, she just couldn't hate him. That made it hurt even more. He had kissed her in Guam and told her he loved her. He had done that without any thought to the girl that he claimed he loved to Bo, the one that he felt he wasn't allowed to love. So, in essence he was using her as a substitute, right? Now, that did piss her off. She scowled at the thought again. The same thought she had running across her mind for the countless number of times each day.

She refused to be one of those side girls that Sho had always tossed her aside for. She wondered just exactly how many times this had happened to her and she felt pity for the unfortunate girl. If his love was so fragile for this girl that he could tell her that he loved her and kiss her like that, he was just as bad, if not worse than Sho. At least Sho had never come out and thrown her that particular bone. He had actually done everything to avoid saying it to anyone, including his own parents. She was disgusted. It made her feel filthy for having this emotion for him now. It made her feel used and it hurt so damn much.

"Mo! Stop making that face. You're scaring everyone that comes near you." Kanae scolded.

Kyoko sighed again for the umpteenth time that day.

"What is wrong with you? You've been acting like this ever since Tsuruga-san came back." She sat next to her strange best friend.

"I'll be fine, Moko-san." Kyoko said glumly and leaned back in her chair.

"MO! Tell me now or, consider this friendship over." Kanae didn't actually mean to pull that little phrase from her book and she had been trying to use it less, but it was something that actually worked. Except... This time.

Something clicked in her mind and Kyoko stood, grabbed her bag and walked toward the door. "If that's how you think things should be Kotonami-san... Then maybe it's for the best." Kyoko told her stoically and left her stunned best friend regretting every word that had fallen from her lips.

BEGINNING OF AUGUST:

Lory was stunned after his meeting with his LoveMe #1. This was bad. Yes, she had opened that curtain and allowed her feelings to grow. She had nurtured them and this is what had happened.

{"I just don't understand Takarada-san. I don't see how people could just use that phrase so carelessly. I have so many people around me that are clearly loved by others. They hear it everyday from the time they are born until they die. Their parents, their friends and their lovers love them and there is no problem there. What I don't understand is why I'm not allowed to have that too. Not once has anyone ever said that to me without acting a part. I wanted someone to say it to me and actually mean it. Am I that much below being human?" She began sobbing and Lory could hear his own heart break for her. She wiped her tears, straightened herself and took a drink of the tea he had served her. "I apologize Takarada-san, for my moment of weakness. I assure you, it will not happen again." She stood, bowed properly and left without being dismissed. She reminded him of the encounter that he had with her mother many months ago when he had met with her.}

Lory was still stunned. No one, not a single person had ever told her? He was starting to think that bringing together the Heel Siblings had been a huge mistake. That perhaps he had made matters worse in this case, given her a glimpse of what she thought she knew in her heart she would never have. Subtle actions of love that others could pick up on and clearly see were not enough for her, because she had never experienced any of it. She didn't know they loved her, because no one had ever told her and shown her at the same time. She was a person that needed to hear those words and hear them often and everyone around her was failing her.

As things stood at the moment, because of Kuon and his actions in Guam that she had told him about, she would never believe anyone if they did tell her sincerely. She was beginning the process of locking her heart tightly away. Protecting herself from all of the pain that was surely to come. Certainly the hatred she had for the young man that started all of this was gone, but it had been replaced with nothing. It was now just an empty shell and Kuon hadn't made a sincere effort to fill it without the guise of acting.

She most certainly knew how to portray those emotions and she was very close to being a perfectly cut and polished diamond; however, if something was not done soon, she would be just as hard and as sharp as one. She would cut anyone that got close enough to her edges and that just wouldn't do. But how could he repair this kind of damage? She needed to hear that she was loved, truly but she was at a point where she wouldn't believe anyone if they had told her and she was never actually shown love either. She really wouldn't be able to recognize it. It wasn't that she was naive or, oblivious. It was that she was just never actually loved and didn't know what to look for. How do you teach someone that, when it's something that is usually taught at birth? How do you teach someone that, when they're almost an adult and what exactly would happen to a person in adulthood that was like that? Someone in her infancy had to have shown her some type of affection or, she wouldn't have survived. He had read studies on it. Babies just didn't thrive without affection and human contact. So what had happened?