Skip Beat! is by Nakamura Yoshiki

An alternate view of the last scene of Chapter 8 for Longing. (^.^) v

Because sometimes, Prince Charming have to scheme in the shadows in order to keep his Princess.

May 29th

He had been sitting in the dark for almost an hour now, eavesdropping on a conversation between two people who should not even be in speaking terms - much less sitting across each other on the kitchen counter, having tea and cake. He leaned his head against the wall and stretched out one of his legs on the floor before him. His position afforded him a view of the bleached-blond rockstar who was carelessly draped on one of the high chairs that lined the counter. Kyouko would not be within his line of sight; not without him opening the bedroom door a crack wider and chance being discovered all together.

"If you had anything to say to the me from two years ago, what would it be?"

His own half-hearted musings were brought to a halt by Fuwa's question, curiosity had him tilting his head towards the door to better hear her response.

"I-I don't know... I mean, what's there to change?" Her candid reply had a bittersweet note to it, one that he would rather not think too deeply into. "Besides, I doubt the you back then would want to listen to anything that I have to say."

"Aren't you even going to warn me that I would someday regret losing you?"

Even he could tell that was meant to be a joke. But jokes were half-meant after all, and he could clearly hear the undertone of desperation in Fuwa's voice.

She laughed, as if she found the sentiment to be completely absurd. "I never thought I'd be someone you'd regret losing."

Kuon turned away from the scene and focused his eyes on the blank wall of Kyouko's bedroom. He didn't want to see Fuwa's face right now.

"You know, my birthday wish was for a chance to go back two years ago - this is the closest thing I could manage..."

"And what was it that you would have wanted to tell me, back then?"

His brow furrowed in concern, he sure as hell did not like where this conversation was going. He peered through the doorway crack just in time to see Fuwa reach for Kyouko, bringing her forward as he leaned across the countertop to rest his forehead against hers. His own hands fisted in helpless anger at being rendered powerless in situations such as these.

"What I did to you is not worthy of forgiveness, but please, don't give up on me, yet."

Time and again, he would find himself in the position of an outsider when it came to those two. Loving Kyouko meant that he had to realize the bond between her and Fuwa would always be there. Bonds that even he himself could not break.

He stood up and walked away from the door to stand at the farthest corner of the room. He brought his phone to his ear, pressed '1', and waited for Kyouko to answer his call.

"Excuse me, but I need to take this call... Hello?"

"Hi, Kyouko." He greeted softly, her name brought a smile to his lips without fail, even though his heart trembled in anxiety. "Did I wake you up with my call?"

"No-no! I'm pretty much still awake."

"So, what's keeping you up?"

He knew he made a mistake the moment he asked that question. He raked his fingers through his hair as he slid down against the wall and sat on his haunches. The last thing he ever wanted to do was to back her into a corner and force her to lie to him. Sometimes he really, really hated himself.

"It's my friend's birthday and... we haven't talked for quite a while, so... uh, we're just having a small chat over tea."

"I see." He whispered, eyes closed as he focused on the sound of her voice instead of her words, "Well, just don't stay up too late, okay? I'll see you soon."

"Okay..." Her frustration and guilt were almost palpable, but she would not dare say anything more, especially since he was there. "Goodnight."

He opened his eyes and solemnly declared the one truth he would always hold sacred, "I love you, Kyouko."

"I love you, too."

He closed his phone and slowly made his way back to peer through the doorway. He never considered himself to be a heartless schadenfreude, but there was an almost dark sense of satisfaction at seeing Fuwa's expression.

"Kyouko...?"

"I'm sorry Shou-"

"Don't give up on me," he pleaded, cradling her face between his hands, forcing her to meet his gaze, "Someday, I'll prove myself worthy of-"

"Don't," Kyouko said firmly, stopping his words with the light touch of her fingertips against his lips, "Don't put yourself through this, Shoutaro. We're just not meant to be."

Fuwa finally let go and took a step back. His smile seemed frayed around the edges and so very close to breaking. "Seems like I've already overstayed my welcome. Thank you, for granting my selfish wish. Goodnight, Kyouko."

"Goodnight, Shou."

Kuon waited a full minute after Fuwa left before he finally stepped out of the bedroom.

He have a lot of explaining to do, more so than her, considering he already have a clear idea how Fuwa ended up in her apartment in the first place. He saw everything after all.

The myriad of emotions that flashed across Kyouko's tear-stained face shifted from one after another in the space of a heartbeat. He made sure to smile, of course, since she almost always expected that. It would not do well to disappoint his Princess.

~ 2/3 ~

I had fun writing this one... The concept of this little writing experiment was to write a story on each character's birthday from another character's POV. That being said, the last installment would be a story about Ren's birthday from Kyouko's perspective. I've never written a straight out Ren x Kyouko pairing. I personally would rather read it than write it myself. But since I already committed myself to finishing this little monster... we'll just have to see how this would pan out.

p.s. Many thanks to the wonderful reviews for Shou's story. This one is dedicated to AlexandriteKnight whom I want to thank via reply but was not able to since the review is not linked to an account ;p