Hello everybody! Here's another chapter that I hope you enjoy! This chapter is really cute and just a little break from the intense situations that I'm sure you all know are ahead on the horizon.


For a few months, the couple lived together in Ren's hut with Kyoko cooking and Ren gathering the food. Since Kyoko had come to live with him, Ren had appreciated the company and had grown to know Kyoko better. She was an amazing cook and could make him eat anything that she whipped up even when he wasn't hungry. She loved to talk about fairytales and would tell him these tales until she would fall asleep, and he would just smile at her enthusiasm zapping up all her energy and would carry her bridal-style to their shared bed. One night, he had woken up in the middle of the night and found that he had wrapped his arms around her. She awoke as well and explained to him that he did this every night, making him blush profusely and apologize. Luckily it was dark, and Kyoko couldn't see Ren's blush, but she just smiled and said that there was no need to apologize. After that day, he consciously wrapped his arms around her instead and wondered if the smile that she gave him every morning was even brighter than it was before.

One of Ren's biggest problems was her smiles. One of her smiles would send his heart reeling and make his breath hitch. She had an effect on his emotional state that no other girl in the village had on him before, and even though he would feel more embarrassed and shy than usual around her, he couldn't actually say that he hated these responses.

After months of living with Kyoko, Ren gradually began to wonder how he would live without her when her injuries healed. He wondered if her injuries were already healed, and she just didn't tell him since she had realized his attachment to her. Whenever he thought she wasn't looking, he would secretly admire her busying around the kitchen and just doing normal day-to-day chores, but there were times when she caught his gaze and blushed. He quickly looked away, embarrassed that he had been caught, but learned to act well enough that it seemed as if he had been looking around the room and hadn't noticed that his eyes had been trained on her. He was thankful that he had this hidden acting ability that allowed him to hide his true feelings from her. She would probably freak out if she found out that he had started to become attracted to her innocence, her beauty, her joyful personality, her hardworking tendencies, and pretty much everything else about her.

He also frequently caught himself looking at her lips whenever she spoke to him, wondering how they would feel against his own. He knew that these weren't thoughts to have towards a girl who potentially already had a marriage arrangement, but he couldn't stop himself from loving her smile that shined into the darkest depths of his heart, her figure that he knew would fit perfectly flush against his own, and her eyes that glowed like molten gold and hypnotized him. He had fallen hard for her, but he sadly realized that his love was probably unrequited. There was no way she loved him back, right? They had only been together for a few months after all...

"Kyoko?" Ren asked one day as she cooked up a vegetable stir fry.

"Yes?"

"Your injuries look fairy healed. Don't you have to leave soon?" Ren asked, internally dreading her answer. He enjoyed her company more than he did of the small animals he usually brought home, and he couldn't imagine living without her now. He had only asked the question because he knew that their time together had been pretty extensive already, and he was concerned that she had people that cared about her looking for her.

"Do you want me to leave?" Kyoko asked back, earning an immediate rebuttal from Ren.

"No, I was just wondering if you had to get back to your family. It's been a few months, so they must be worried about you," Ren reasoned.

"But naturally I should stay a while longer to repay you," Kyoko replied, not mentioning her family situation. Saena would probably be furious at her for staying here, not worried like Ren thought.

"You don't have to repay me. It was my pleasure to provide care to you when you were injured," Ren smiled. He didn't want to hinder her from her life, but each time he told her that she should leave, his heart ached at the thought of her departure.

"I should still stay to repay you in some way. I'm not an ungrateful woman, so I need to do this. You can take time thinking of what you want me to repay you with," Kyoko replied, refusing to leave his side. She had enjoyed the feeling of being in love way too much to allow it to just end like this. She had to guiltily admit that she wasn't willing to part with Ren as long as he would accept her presence.

"Then what about you repay me by staying here with me, Kyoko?" Ren asked, making Kyoko's eyes widen in surprise. She had been expecting to drag out her stay to fulfill whatever request he had, but this she had not expected.

"The only thing I lack in this hut is a companion. Before you came, I was living by myself and it was very lonely. If you want to repay me, then what about you stay here?" Ren asked as he looked down, guilty that he had asked for such a selfish thing. When he looked up at Kyoko however, he saw her smiling brilliantly at him, making his heart catch in his throat again as it had done many times over the last few months.

"I accept. I will devote myself to you," Kyoko agreed immediately.

"Are you sure? I didn't expect you to agree so quickly. I thought that you would at least need a couple more days to think it over-"

"These few months that I've stayed with you have been some of the happiest times of my life. I would love to stay," Kyoko smiled.

"Well in that case, since we're going to stay together forever, then what about we get married?" Ren blurted out, surprised at what he had just asked for. He hadn't meant to reveal his feelings, but this sort of thought just came out naturally since they would be a man and woman staying together. His heartbeat quickened when she smiled at him.

"I would love to marry you, Ren. I've never been to a marriage ceremony before though, so I'm not quite sure how it's done," Kyoko replied as her angel cheered for her progress. The thought of being married to Ren made Kyoko forget completely about any other duties she had as Crown Princess and about how long she would be able to stay with him before being found out. She just wondered if he was asking her this formality since it wouldn't be proper for men and women at their ages to live together for an extended period of time without being married. Would her heart be able to take the prospect of forcing him into a marriage that he didn't want?

"I haven't either, so we can skip some of the formalities," Ren smiled back, amazed that she had accepted.

"Are you sure you want to marry me? I asked to marry you not because it's the proper thing for us to do if we want to live together, but because I think I've fallen in love with you. I don't want to hinder you if you don't love me back-" Ren started to say before seeing Kyoko start to cry. He immediately regretted confessing if it prompted this response from her.

"You l-love me?" Kyoko smiled as tears of happiness came to her eyes.

"If I did, then how would you react?" Ren asked, nervous that she would reject him and leave him, never to be seen again.

"I would tell you that I'm also madly in love with you and that I have been for a while," Kyoko smiled as her angel did backflips in joy at her confession. Ren felt like the luckiest man in the world as he learned that he shared mutual feelings with her. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would fall in love, and to actually be marrying the object of his affections right after learning she loved him back was just unbelievable.

"Then I love you, Kyoko, and I don't know if I can wait until we're married," Ren smiled back.

"Then let's go to the village tomorrow and buy the nuptial cups and sake. We can also try to find our wedding attire there," Kyoko said.

"I look forward to it," Ren smiled back at her lovingly, no longer hiding his affections for her. She turned back to her cooking to hide her blush from his smile before he lightly brushed her arm a few moments later as he stood next to her.

"Is there something else you need to speak to me about, Ren?" Kyoko asked as Ren looked at her with an expression that she had never seen before directed towards her. That look caused her breath to hitch as she realized that he was looking at her with lust. The only words she could think of at that moment were "Emperor of the Night".

When he didn't respond after a few seconds, she started to get worried that he had passed out or something. "What's-hmphh?" Kyoko started to say before Ren claimed her lips. She melted into his embrace, deepening the kiss that they both had craved for so long. As Kyoko pulled away for a breath, Ren pulled her back in for a kiss even more filled with passion than the last. They repeated this multiple times until Ren reluctantly pulled away.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time. I couldn't control myself after you agreed to marry me, but I'm sorry since we have to stop. If we continue, then I don't know if I'll be able to control myself before I do something unthinkable to an unmarried woman," Ren said as he brought his hand over his mouth to cover his rising blush. As Kyoko understood his implications, she blushed furiously.

"Let's wait until we're married, then I'll be ready to continue," Kyoko said shyly.

Kyoko held onto Ren's arm as he guided them through the market. They had sold many of the pieces of jewelry that Kyoko had procured with her magic (Ren wondered why he never saw her wearing these pieces before) to buy the things that they would need for their wedding. Ren had been a bit confused when he had found out about her enormous wealth, but she just told him that her family was wealthy enough to own such things.

"Are you sure you're ready to get married to me then? I'm not wealthy, and I don't know if I can provide much for you-"

"I really do want to marry you. I don't care about wealth as long as I can stay with you," Kyoko smiled back at him sweetly, making Ren want to kiss her again right there.

"But what about your family? You don't already have a marriage arrangement?" Ren asked. A flash of panic shot through Kyoko's eyes as she thought of her engagement to Hizuri Kuon, but she shook her head in response to Ren's question.

"My family situation is complicated, but I still intend to marry you. Let's not worry about them for now," Kyoko replied. Ren looked at her skeptically before her eyes were entranced by a glimmer of light from a merchant's stall. She pulled Ren over to the stand, and he saw that she was interested in a certain blue stone.

"How much is this?" Ren asked the merchant.

"It's fine, Ren. We don't have to buy this, I just wanted to come and see what it was-"

"Can we have this, please?" Ren asked the merchant, interrupting Kyoko's protests. Once he had paid, Ren grabbed the stone and held it out for Kyoko to take.

"Consider it my wedding present to you," Ren smiled as he bent down to kiss the stone. Kyoko eyed him scrupulously before gently taking the stone from his outstretched hand. She held it up to the sun and gasped when it changed from its deep blue-purple tone to a golden amber.

"Thank you, Ren," Kyoko smiled as she brought the stone up to her cheek, feeling as though it were now imbued with his essence after he kissed it.


Thanks for reading this chapter! I would really appreciate it if you could leave me a review telling me how you're liking this story so far since I'm not exactly sure if it's the same experience for you guys as it is for me. This chapter might have seemed a bit quick in Kyoko and Ren making progress in their relationship (at least compared to the 258 chapters of Skip Beat!), but hear me out since this story has to do with them finding each other time and time again. There's way more time for them to fall in love with each other again and again.

Loyalty counts- If only Skip Beat! updates were quicker so we could see what happens because of that kiss. I think it was forced, so I'm just crossing my fingers that Kyoko doesn't find out about it or else that might lead to her getting the wrong idea... Thanks for reviewing!

ivy- Hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for the review! :D

Chuck Taylor- I'm glad to hear you like it! Thank you for reviewing!

So after reading the latest manga chapter, it seems there was no mention of 11 white day gifts like I talked about in the author's note last chapter that I made after reading the summary by Vampirecat. Wonder where that information came from to be put in the summary...