Happy December everyone! I can't believe the holidays are already coming up! And that means I get more time to write! Hehe, with school coming to an end for the year, I'll definitely put more time in to update. But anyway, here is part 6 of the story and I can't thank you enough for all your reviews. You guys are great! Thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters.

Kyoko couldn't breathe. She had no idea what to do. Every part of her was screaming for her to move and step away, but her body refused to listen. Her hands remained still on his naked chest as he asked in a worried voice, "Mogami-san, is everything okay?"

She mechanically shook her head from side to side, feeling her stomach give another lurch as he gently lifted her face to his. "Are you hurt?"

Managing to find some kind of voice, Kyoko stuttered, "No—it's just—I tripped—"

Ren looked down on the floor and clenched his teeth together in frustration. He couldn't believe he forgot the rug while he was fixing up the room earlier to make it safer for Kyoko to sleep in. He was so worried about the bed that he completely ignored everything else. Wanting to beat himself over the head for such carelessness, he was just about to pick up the rug off the floor when she suddenly said, "Tsuruga-san, the phone."

He stared back at her in surprise. "What phone?"

She didn't provide a response, but instead pointed at the floor where a black device was carelessly laid open.

And when Ren listened closely enough, he could hear a male voice say, "Hello? Kyoko-chan? You there?"

In an instant, his body went rigid when he realized who it was. Scowling at the ability of his nosy manager to figure things out, Ren quickly bent down and picked the device off the floor. Sighing heavily, he brought the phone to his ear and said in a wary tone, "Give me a minute and I'll explain everything."

Recognizing Ren's voice immediately, Yashiro scoffed and replied stiffly, "Fine."

Ren placed the phone side-down on top of his drawer behind him and turned his attention back to his pupil who was still frozen from head to toe. He noticed how her hands hadn't moved at all and that it seemed as if she was almost okay with the close proximity of their bodies. And when he looked down at the both of them, Ren finally registered the fact that he was shirtless. Instantly feeling the heat rush to his face at her tender touch, Ren cleared his throat and said in a shaky voice, "Mogami-san, I'm going to carry you to the bed alright? And then I'll take the phone call outside."

But as soon as Kyoko was about to open her mouth to deny his request, he had already lifted her knees right from under her and gently cradled her to his chest. Kyoko's heart thumped loudly as she realized that her face was placed right against his bare skin. He even carried her with such ease that it made Kyoko wonder just how strong her mentor was, not to mention the fact that it didn't even seem to bother him at all that she was touching him. Ren kept her close against him and when she breathed in deeply, she recognized a familiar scent that only made her more crazed than earlier. It felt as if fireworks were going off in her head.

Then very slowly, he lowered Kyoko onto the edge of the soft bed and knelt down at her feet. "Don't move. I'll be right back."

Kyoko nodded tentatively as she heard him walk over to the drawer and pick up the phone.

"Hello?" Ren said.

Kyoko couldn't hear what Yashiro said, but he must have been pretty excited since Ren answered with, "Yashiro, you're killing my eardrums—will you calm—alright, I know I should have told—let me explain—"

But that was the last thing she heard before her mentor's footsteps began to fade away down the hall. Once left alone, she clenched her hands together into a tight fist on her lap, waiting for her sporadic heartbeat to slow. The smoothness of his skin still lingered on her fingertips as she absentmindedly rubbed her fingers together. She could even still feel the heat that was emanating from his body upon her face.

Placing her head in her hands, Kyoko groaned internally at the foolish mistake she made. He must have thought she was insane! She couldn't even believe the fact that she touched him while he was naked! And this was coming from the girl who vehemently opposed to share the same the bed with him, but now brave enough to feel him up.

Kyoko really wanted to scream. Every part of her was spinning in turmoil, but the one thing that bothered her most was that a part of her—

She swallowed the heavy lump in her throat.

—didn't hate what happened.

"AHHHHH!" Kyoko shrieked into her hands so that the scream came out muffled. There was no way she thought that. Kyoko had to push that horrid thought out of her mind. It was wrong, the whole thing was wrong!

"But his skin was so soft," she thought with a light blush.

"SHUT UP!" she suddenly yelled at herself as she flung herself back onto his bed. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

"He smelled good too."

"NO MORE!"

"You know you liked it…"

"No! I—I—"

"See? You can't deny it…"

Angry at her subconscious by now, Kyoko beat her hands on his mattress and was just about to scream at the top of her lungs when something suddenly vibrated in the pocket of her LoveMe uniform. Breathing heavily, she dug into the pouch and pulled out her pink cell phone. Flipping it open without a second thought, Kyoko placed it next to her ear and was suddenly greeted with a thunderous,

"HELLO?"

Moving the phone back at least a foot away from her ear, she cringed as the same voice hollered, "KYOKO? YOU THERE?"

"Chiori!" Kyoko yelled back into the phone as she sat upright, "Lower your voice!"

"KYOKO!" Chiori cried back, but suddenly it seemed that something had caught her attention because Kyoko heard her mutter, "Huh? What did I do? Do what? Lower? My voice? Oh, my voice!"

Then with a sheepish laugh, Chiori said, "Sorry about that Kyoko. I'm still trying to get this not-hearing thing down. Not going very well as you can see. But anyway, where are you?"

Kyoko froze. "Where am I?"

There was a slight pause and then right after Chiori said, "Kanae nodded so I'm guessing whatever you asked, she answered with a yes."

"Moko-san is there too?" Kyoko asked in surprise. But then she remembered what the President had said back at the office, that the two of them were working together to complete the task.

"Kanae nodded again," Chiori replied simply.

She sighed. Out of everybody in the world to call her, it just had to be her two friends. It seemed like everything is going to be out in the open now. How could she hide her whereabouts from Chiori and Kanae? After all, it didn't seem right to lie to them. So biting on her lower lip, Kyoko murmured in a low whisper, "I'm at Tsuruga-san's."

There was a pause on the other end that Kyoko had to admit made her quite nervous since it seemed like her answer created a shock of some sort. Not knowing what kind of facial expression Kanae was making, Kyoko could only guess that it was blatant surprise since she heard Chiori inquire, "You okay, Kanae?"

But before Kyoko could say anything, Chiori said, "What's going on? Huh? Tsuruga-san? What about him? A house…his house? Yes, he lives in a house. Okay…now the phone. Oh, not the phone? Kyoko? So Tsuruga-san…his house…and Kyoko…Uh-huh…"

Then with the loudest gasp Kyoko had ever heard, she braced herself for the screaming as she swiftly moved the phone from her ear and heard Chiori screech, "YOU'RE AT TSURUGA-SAN'S PLACE?"

With ringing ears, Kyoko hastily replied, "Let me explain! This wasn't planned! I mean, I had no idea what was going on, I—!"

However it seemed like her words were not heard at all since Chiori continued with her tirade of, "HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL US? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? TSURUGA-SAN? THE TSURUGA-SAN? DID YOU RIG THIS? YOU GOT TSURUGA-SAN, WHILE I GOT KANAE? HOW IS THIS FAIR? OUCH, KANAE!"

Distraught, Kyoko tried to explain everything and clear up all the confusion, but since she couldn't get in a single syllable, she knew that her efforts were in vain. But then, Chiori suddenly exclaimed in pain once again as she said, "Kanae! What was that for?"

There was a lot more rustling after that as if there was some kind of struggle, but the ruckus ended as soon as it started until there was only silence over the phone. Kyoko waited with abated breath and managed to whisper, "Moko-san?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

A single noise.

Kyoko smiled, realizing that it was her silent friend after all. "Okay, let me say that I was just as surprised as you are. This wasn't planned; at least I had no idea that it was planned until it happened. President Lory said I needed a partner so from what I can infer, Tsuruga-san volunteered."

No response.

"Should I go on?" Kyoko asked.

A tiny click.

Taking it as a sign to keep going, Kyoko continued with, "So, I'm staying at his place, for my own safety according to the President and him."

Kyoko decided to leave out all the other stuff like sleeping in his bed and touching his naked body. Why add oil to the already burning flames? When finished, she waited patiently for a response until she heard the phone being passed to someone else.

Chiori was back, but her tone slightly changed. It was almost as if she was scared. "Okay…so Kanae just gave me the phone without telling me what to say. She's just standing here, with her arms crossed."

Instantly, Kyoko felt guilty. She knew she must have made her friend angry by being so careless. She must have thought that Kyoko was pathetic for getting herself into this type of predicament. If it was her, Kanae would have had full control of the problem and not just do things on a whim.

"Um…I'm just going to give her the phone back now," Chiori said uncertainly, not knowing what to do with the awkward tension.

And when she realized that her friend was on the line again, Kyoko added glumly, "I know I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have agreed, but I didn't know what to do. You're probably mad at my carelessness, but from here on out, I'll think about my choices more. I promise."

Chiori's voice suddenly came over the phone again as she said, "Kanae just nodded."

Kyoko gave a tiny smile. "Thanks Moko-san."

"Huh?" Chiori suddenly asked in a distant voice. "What's that? Where are we going? Oh right! The fliers!"

Then her voice became clearer as she directed her voice back to Kyoko and said, "Okay Kyoko. Kanae and I have to go now. But tomorrow I want ALL the details, understand? So until then, bye!"

And before Kyoko could even utter a farewell, the line went dead. She sighed. It seemed like Kanae was still mad. This day was not going her way at all and knowing that she had to do some kind of damage control, Kyoko decided to send Kanae an honest text message of apology. Of course, without the ability to see, it was highly difficult for her to type out a proper one, but Kyoko assumed she got most of the letters right if not all of them. Then with one click of the send button, Kyoko snapped her phone shut and placed it back into her pocket.

Feeling worn out, she lowered herself back down onto the mattress and stayed there with her arms stretched out and palms facing upward. Kyoko tried to focus on the quiet ticking of the clock in the room, wanting to erase every thought in her already cluttered mind. But as soon as she started to relax, the sound of footsteps entered the room as a familiar voice said in an amused tone, "So I guess you like the bed now?"

Kyoko instantly sat up in surprise and exclaimed, "Tsuruga-san! No! It's not—I didn't mean to—"

He laughed and sat down beside her. "I'm kidding, Mogami-san. Relax."

Of course, Ren was sort of being a hypocrite here. He wasn't exactly as calm as he was giving off since on the inside, his heart was going crazy after he saw Kyoko lying so comfortably on his bed. How her lips were slightly parted and curved into a sweet, content smile…the way her hands were left open and bare…Immediately, very improper thoughts ran through his mind and he had to bite down on his tongue before any sounds escaped his lips.

At the same time, he was also quite nervous from the chaos he caused earlier with that shirtless incident. Even then it was hard to read how she felt since her eyes were covered and usually he could guess what she was thinking just by staring into them. Obviously, Ren had noticed that Kyoko was stiff from their "embrace." That part wasn't hard to notice, but what annoyed him was that he had no idea what kind of stiffness it was. Was it just her being awkward? Or was it because he had crossed the line?

Ren ran a hand through his hair and was about to apologize about earlier when Kyoko's hand suddenly went to his shoulder. He froze as he felt her slender hand gently move across his collared shirt.

"Good," she murmured softly. "You put on a shirt. Now you won't get sick."

Surprised beyond comprehension, Ren stammered, "What?"

"You just got out of the shower and if you walked around while wet, it will only make it easier for you to be ill. And since you're supposed to take care of me, that won't work if you can't get out of bed, right?"

Ren smiled at her innocent comment and nodded as he gently reached for her hand. "Right," he murmured.

Kyoko blushed profusely and let her hand go limp in his. Technically, she just wanted to make sure he had a shirt on, that way she knew it was safe to be around him. If he was still naked, Kyoko knew for a fact that she was going to collapse whenever he touched her. Besides, just having her hand in his was already making her heart thump painfully in her chest.

"So," Kyoko said slowly as her cheeks started to heat up, "what did Yashiro want?"

Ren faltered. "Umm…"

Yashiro's intention of calling Ren couldn't be exactly labeled as caring since he only wanted to make sure that his theory was true. And when he heard Kyoko's voice on the other line, he nearly cried out in glee at the prospect of the many opportunities for Ren to finally reveal his true feelings for her. However, Ren made it clear that he had no intentions of pushing himself onto Kyoko like some sexual predator. He really was just acting as her caretaker and did not plan on taking on another role besides that. Upon hearing his friend's stance, Yashiro was clearly upset at Ren's absolute refusal to let his walls down, but he continued to hope that Ren's desire for Kyoko will eventually win over his absurd rationality.

"Tsuruga-san?" Kyoko called.

Brought back from his train of thought, Ren quickly shook his head and replied, "Nothing of importance. He was just being a good manager by checking up on me."

"Good manager…yeah right," Ren scoffed silently in his head.

Kyoko smiled. "That's nice of him."

"What about you?" Ren asked back. "I heard you were talking to someone too."

"Oh!" she said, "It was Kanae and Chiori. They were just asking me where I was."

That instantly made Ren suspicious. How was it that at the exact same time his manager called to ask about his whereabouts, Kyoko's friends called in order to make sure of the exact same thing? It was just too good to be a coincidence. And instantly guessing that those three must have worked it out together, Ren shook his head from side to side in disbelief and said, "Were they worried?"

"In a way," Kyoko said uncertainly, not catching his movement, "more like curious…at least I hope so."

Ren laughed. "Yashiro was too."

Blushing profusely, Kyoko turned her face away. She guessed from the outside looking in, the situation seemed slightly scandalous. After all, she was SLEEPING in her mentor's bed for goodness sake! Still, it was only him being nice…being the kind of mentor he should be…right? Kyoko furrowed her eyebrows in thought.

Was this really just him being kind? Or was this something more…? Because if she truly thought about it, he was seriously doing more than any mentor would do. In fact, it was almost painful to watch how much he was doing. And there was no way that Kyoko would be able to repay his kindness so it's obvious that he wasn't looking for anything in return. So why was he trying so hard? Why was he doing all of this?

Then suddenly, from out of nowhere, her stomach growled like some maniacal beast that had awoken from a deep slumber. Absolutely humiliated, Kyoko quickly wrapped her arms around her stomach, but Ren chuckled amusedly and said, "Sounds like it's time for dinner."

"No! I'm fine, Tsuruga-san."

"Oh no," he said with a smile as he pulled her to her feet, "I already have it all planned out and this is my chance to prove to you that I'm not completely incompetent."

Kyoko blushed. "I never said you were incompetent," she muttered guiltily. Of course there was no guarantee that she didn't think it, but he didn't need to know that part of the story.

"Well, once you try my food, it will never cross your mind."

"You're going to cook?" she asked incredulously.

"That's right, Mogami-san. I will be your personal chef tonight."

Kyoko smiled in amusement and comfortably allowed him to lead her into the kitchen. When he sat her down upon the same stool again, she placed both her hands on the cool counter and said, "Well then Chef, what will you be making?"

"Fluffy, white onigiri filled with lightly simmered pork and a warm, delectable miso soup."

"You know how?" Kyoko asked, unable to mask the surprised tone in her voice.

"Yes," Ren replied in a jokingly offended voice, "I do." Of course, he actually just learned how to cook. When he heard about Kyoko's assignment a few weeks ago from President Lory, he figured that he would need to know how to make dinner so he spent the last couple of weeks practicing. The first few tries were a horrendous failure, but he managed to get the hang of it eventually. Still, by now, he had to admit that he was pretty sick of fluffy-white-onigiri-filled-with-lightly-simmered-pork-and-a-warm-delectable-miso-soup.

She giggled. "I have to admit Tsuruga-san, I had no idea."

Ren chuckled as he washed his hands and began to lay out all the ingredients. "Then prepare to eat your words. No pun intended."

Kyoko laughed and leaned her chin into the palm of her hand. It was nice to hear her mentor so carefree. He seemed to be really enjoying himself and Kyoko realized that she was too. In fact, she was sort of almost…happy that she was here. It made the task seem more like a fun activity rather than an assignment.

"What are you smiling about?" Ren asked curiously as he was molding the sticky rice that was prepared earlier in his hands, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

Kyoko shook her head. "Nothing really."

"Uh-huh," Ren answered suspiciously. "That's convincing."

Kyoko laughed in return and instead asked, "So what are you making first?"

"Onigiri."

"Those are hard to make, Tsuruga-san," Kyoko said teasingly, "Are you sure you'll do them justice?"

Ren shook his head in disbelief. "You have no faith in me whatsoever, do you?"

She smiled. "Not in the least," Kyoko answered easily.

"Then here, let me prove it to you."

And without really thinking about the consequences of his actions, he suddenly placed his index finger covered with rice against Kyoko's lips.

At first she was too surprised to move. Kyoko couldn't believe that he actually did it, not to mention the fact that all she could feel was his tender skin upon her lips. And feeling her stomach do a a million somersaults, she tentatively parted her lips just a bit and took in the tip of his finger. Kyoko gently licked off the clump of rice as she felt him lean away.

"What do you think?" he asked in a lower voice than earlier, feeling his heart thump loudly in his chest.

Kyoko quietly swallowed. With a heat that was burning like fire within her, she murmured softly, "Sweet."

He chuckled in a slightly shaky tone. "Good, then I did it right."

Kyoko didn't provide any response after that as she allowed herself to drown in the butterflies that were fluttering within her. Because it turns out that she wasn't talking about the rice at all. In fact, dinner suddenly became the last thing on her mind…