Disclaimer: I love Skip Beat!, but that doesn't mean I own it. Pure fan love here.
Story: Kijima was just looking for a little fun. And somehow, it all turned into a learning experience and he wasn't quite sure he qualified as a teacher. And yet, Kyoko on the other hand, seems to be an eager student.
Set somewhere after chapter 101, with some previous scenes beforehand being switched in time.
Spoilers: Yeeeessss. Yes, yes, yes. Beware?
Warnings: Hm, I need to think about this time.
Pairings: Kijima/Kyoko, side-Kyoren, side-(very downplayed XD) Kyosho, one-sided Hikaru/Kyoko….and we can't ignore one-sidedness from strange Reino, eh?

An Education
Chapter Nine: Burn Up

She hated the cursed pink uniform with a passion…only she actually didn't hate it as much as she used to. Why? Because of that idiot…

"Hey, hey! Don't worry. I think you're really cute in this uniform!"

Kyoko grumbled under her breath, but she knew there was a light red color dusting her cheeks right then.

Her embarrassment at having to once again wear the Love Me uniform again was exacerbated by the large crowd inside of Narita International Airport, in the area where she was supposed to pick up Kuu Hizuri. And she knew her uniform was drawing too much attention…

When he came out, she thought he seemed pretty okay. Everyone was cheering for him, and he was willingly interacting back to the fans. He had a nice smile, tall, styled blond hair, dressed pretty stylish too…and he was handsome. All in all, Kyoko thought that maybe this assignment didn't seem like it would be too bad.

And then he looked up, straight into her eyes, and gave her a glare.

She twitched and heard alarm bells going off in her head, at the same time as her anger antennae demons popped up. Why did it seem and feel like he actually hated her, when they'd never met before and she hadn't done anything to him?

It didn't seem like a smooth assignment after all.

Even when he reached her, insulted her, and basically told her to walk far away from him because she was strange and it would be embarrassing, she kept her mouth shut and smiled. She promised Kijima his autograph, and a promise was a promise.

Even if she really was starting to dislike this man.

At the Tokyo Imperial Herald Hotel, they were quickly directed to where he was staying, on the Imperial Floor Special Suite. It was an amazing place, and a commoner like Kyoko was easily dazzled by the extravagance and lavishness of the rooms. The splendor made her mind whirl, and her giddy, princess-infected side of her brain giggle at the luxuriousness that would be sure to be fit for royalty.

She almost missed Kuu being rude and demanding she leave him alone to sleep, while she should be off to make his "Kyoto-styled food." Citron in the miso soup, rice in a wooden container, raw and grilled fish included –got it. Now she could continue to ogle and be amazed at the suite.

It wasn't long until Kyoko started to prepare the ingredients and then began prepping for the meals. She hummed to herself as she did so, her lips twitching up a little as she realized she was singing Kijima's "wolf song." She wondered what he was doing and if he was okay. She wondered if he was thinking about her right then…

She cut that thought off and immediately felt alarmed, before thinking she was just over thinking and being silly. It was just a simple thought…Kyoko continued on with her work, and tried to ignore the heat on her cheeks and the uneasiness she felt and knew was on her face.

Of course, when he came back out and insulted her food that she really worked hard to make and learn to do so beforehand (and that he'd been hoping she'd been clueless and didn't understand English, so he could have just kicked her out), she just nearly went ballistic. Calling for room service and then threatening to call President Lory was just "icing on the cake."

So she decided it would be fair if she called President Lory herself. Sweetly and cheerfully, she talked into the phone and fibbed a little about the job, but the bigger lie was that President Lory wasn't even on the other end anyway. She hung up, feeling very smug.

Kyoko pretended Kuu was a drunk and treated him accordingly, as if he were a drunk and her behavior was good enough for her to be the Okami of an inn or restaurant.

In retaliation, he went over and gathered all of the food she worked hard to create, and dumped it all in a bag. Then he started mixing up the beautiful results of her hard, hard, hard work and she was screaming "HATE!" inside of her.

To her consternation, he even mockingly told her to give it over to her "commoner friends" that she worked with in the Tsukigomori remake. He snidely insulted Ren, and she was already off and ready to go ballistic for sure.

She didn't notice how she had somehow managed to create medium-sized craters all over the room as she glared angrily at Kuu.

"His name is Ren," she growled angrily. "And I have no doubts he'll surpass the likes of even you soon. As for my 'commoner friends,' Itsumi-san is far from being a commoner and I would dare you to call her that in front of her leagues of fans," and she knew about Itsumi's rabid fanbase of loyal guys. "And Oohara-san is nowhere near being a commoner like myself either! And there's Iizuka-san, who you should know and would definitely make you take that back. And Kijima-san," her cheeks grew red from both an unnamed emotion she couldn't identify and also huge fury on his behalf. "Don't ever talk about him like that!" she said shrilly.

Somehow it further escalated (or should she rather say 'spiraled down?') into a screaming match between the two, whereas they both began to be childish and insult each other, and then somehow downgraded to where she dared him to eat the leftovers. This "test" goaded him on to eating the food and he ate it immediately.

Her mind was boggled when he even demanded for more and finished the entire thing.

When she left the place, she was just so irritated and frustrated that she immediately and unconsciously headed to Kijima's place, and began mindlessly banging on his door vehemently. Of course, she started to feel really guilty when she saw that Kijima looked like he just woke up as he answered the door.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Kijima-san," she apologized quickly and was starting to begin excessively bowing in apology, when he just sighed and pulled her close.

She felt her cheeks warm as she stood absolutely still in his embrace, feeling his breath tickling her neck as he held her and had his chin resting on her shoulder.

"Something tells me you're riled up," he murmured. "Come on in, sweetheart."

He dragged her in tiredly, yawning every few seconds.

"Sorry I woke you," she apologized again, still feeling guilty.

He waved her off. "Nah, I needed to wake up anyway. Got a presentation I need to get ready for tomorrow, and I need to finish reading the material for it."

"Presentation?" she asked curiously.

"For school," he informed her, grimacing.

Kyoko twitched. School…school…school…When was the last time she'd gone to school?

He let her start, and she couldn't help talking about it. Soon, she was just venting and working up steam, getting all worked up as she recalled the day and meeting this so-called infamous Kuu Hizuri. Then she apologized to Kijima for not being able to get his autograph like she'd promised.

Kijima looked surprised. "Huh. I'm surprised he's such a jerk. I'd always heard he was such a nice guy. I guess not."

But Kyoko was already starting to feel bad and embarrassed about her behavior. She'd apologize to the famous actor tomorrow, and beg for forgiveness and Kijima's autograph.

Soon enough, the two of them had settled outside of his apartment, on his balcony and basking in the open air. He sat on the ground, leaning against the glass doors as he started reading with his glasses on. She watched him as she sat across from him, feeling fond and cheerful then.

"So you worship and want to be like Tsuruga, huh?" he asked in a measuring voice, though she was surprised and thought it would sound a little more teasing. "As his kohai, who he takes care of, you two must be very close. He must be your favorite sempai, right?"

Kyoko frowned in thought. "No, not really. We're not really close, I think. I really look up to him and want to one day be on par with his skills, but we don't really hang out too often, not like we do. I think we're closer, because we're not just sempai and kohai. We're…we're friends," she added hesitantly, looking at him tentatively.

But he was beaming at her when she looked up to him, and she returned the emotion.

He closed his book with a loud snap and tossed it to his side, before gesturing to her to come over. Confused, she started to come over when he shook his head.

"Crawl over. Onto my lap too," he said huskily, and his eyes were dark and it was all making her breathe heavily.

She licked her lips anxiously before she started to crawl on her hands and knees towards him, and then crawled onto his lap. He helped adjust her to straddle him, and then he was pressing her down onto his bulge and she inhaled a sharp breath, immediately beginning to blush.

"Kyoko-chan," he murmured into her ear. "Let me show you how friendly I can be," he teased.

She let out a squeak.

And then his hands was on her hips and was helping her move in a rocking motion, and then she was rocking against him and feeling her eyes rolling in her head at the friction.

"K-Kijima-san," her voice broke, instinctively squeezing her thighs together.

Being that he was between her legs, it just further made her rub against him and she made a highly embarrassing keening noise. But she couldn't help it, more so when she started to rock against him faster.

"Come for me, Cinderella. Come," he growled into her ear, and she could immediately feel herself just let go when she heard him.

Dear Kami, don't tell her she had a fairytale fetish or something…

She slumped against him, hiding her face in his neck.

"Um, Kyoko…–"

"Don't. Just…don't." she muttered.

Her face continued to flame red.

The next morning, she left his apartment and headed over to where Kuu was staying, feeling much happier but also still horrified with herself for her behavior the night before. As soon as his door opened, she was going to apologize.

And she did. Profusely.

"I'm terribly sorry," she didn't hear anything but silence and she knew her entire body was bright red. "I'm sorry for last night. Even if I was insulted by an esteemed sempai, to display so much rude behavior in my rage, is truly…something I am shocked at myself…and I'm reflecting on it," Kyoko didn't dare look up, especially when the silence continued.

"Humph! It's because the Japanese are like this and don't have pride that I don't like them. You don't have to immediately start bowing and scraping all the bloody time. If you have time to waste flapping your lips, then I'd much rather you get on with your duties."

She was so ecstatic her head shot up, and she smiled brightly at the already turned back of her employer.

"Right! I'll get on breakfast right away, Mr. Hizuri! Thank you very much!" she bowed several more times, before happily skipping off to the kitchen. "I didn't get fired, I didn't get fired~ Yay, hey! Time for work," she hummed to herself as she went on her way.

She thought that it seemed like he didn't want high-class Kyoto meals, so maybe some simple stuff. More things a commoner like her would eat usually…

"Right! I'll try making some Kyoto commoner style breakfast," and she started to think of the ingredients she'd need and could use for breakfast that morning.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the television.

"The beginning of the legend of Fuwa Sho's legend of invincibility?" was how the report ended in her ears.

"…legend…of…invincibility?" she muttered, feeling heavy and claustrophobic.

She felt motionless. She was completely immobile as she watched the television dumbly, feeling numb and cold. The graph highlighting his hits, the play by play talk of his conquering of the music charts, it all went through her in a daze.

She felt jolts of pain go through her.

Pain. Really. She couldn't believe it, but she hurt and she didn't want to admit it and she felt so, so, so numb but she hurt too and –

The rambling going on in her head went on and on, and she felt like she'd been pushed out of her body and was held captive as she stood stuck in front of the television, unable to turn or look away. Her chest was tight and her heart felt like it was being squeezed. Everything was just too much.

"Hey…"

She hadn't even noticed that she'd been joined by a worried Kuu, though he played at being cool and nonchalant.

Though he had begun to stare at her in shock and worry, she was staring at the television in horrified dismay and despair.

'I felt like I was about to collapse from despair.'

She could not take the usual pride in her work as she made Kuu's breakfast, retreating into a corner as she huddled there and further spiraled into her misery.

Sho's voice…the style in which he sang…in how he managed to create a depth to his song and his tone to the level he'd never had managed before…It's all different…

Because she could not recall him ever having conveyed such depth of feelings in his songs.

She did not want to admit that his voice sounded so beautiful; that even after all this time, she could be pulled into his voice and his song, and experience such an emotional response.

She felt ill realizing all this.

As she sunk to her knees and curled into a ball, unheeding of anything, she recalled dully what Kanae had told her before.

It was like Kyoko was losing.

And now she understood what the other female had meant, and she knew that was exactly how it was. She was losing. To Sho. And she was on track to keeping behind.

She didn't want that.

"Losing," she muttered under her breath.

Not to Sho. Never to him.

"Hey. What's been wrong with you? You're slacking off. There's not enough side dishes. Make something."

She felt dead inside and couldn't correctly respond or do anything. She could only weakly hand over a package of furikake, knowing she mostly likely resembled a zombie with the way she was acting.

Why? Why was it always like this? She thought she was finally catching up and that she would show him.

She went back to her corner, slumping into her lifeless position, probably looking more like a corpse to Kuu. She knew this display of her wasn't impressive, but she couldn't muster any energy or care in her right then.

Even after he'd thoughtlessly took the package and stared at her in apprehension, Kyoko's thoughts were continuing to grow more and more depressing as she brooded.

She wasn't making any progress. At all. Not when she was being offered the same sort of roles, and not getting a chance to grow. Sho gave her such a challenge…

Yet, she was failing to meet it when she was stuck doing things like this.

Was it really okay then? To be cooking and doing silly assignments like this, when he was off making a legend out of himself?

As lunchtime came, she mechanically and yet furiously went through making Kuu's meal. The thoughts recycled through her head and she couldn't get them out. She wanted to do more! She wanted to act in all sorts of roles, to challenge herself, and make a name for herself too! Was that too much to ask? Could she not do the same, be a legend and find her own niche in this world?

She didn't want to be behind him anymore.

It was time, she decided. Despite Sawara letting her wait and the wise words of her dear Kijima…she really wanted…she had to…!

Kyoko called Sawara immediately, and told him about her decision to not accept any of the roles. When he panicked and asked her if she was sure, she was desponded as she replied as certain as she could back to him.

"…Yes. If I wait any longer, I'll just be causing trouble for them, so…"

She continued trying to reassure him, before she tried to make it final.

"Really…For all of the requests to be 'Mio-like' mean roles…I'm scared for my image to get hardened on such roles. When I consider that I might not get to act other types of roles, then…for acting, there's no way I want to continue acting 'mean roles,' so…this is my decision after thinking this through."

Sawara tried again, but she cut him off. "…Yes. I'm terribly sorry, but…please refuse all the requests that I –"

The phone was suddenly yanked out of her hand, and she turned in shock to see that Kuu was the culprit.

"Sorry to jump in. Hizuri here. Please ignore everything she just said."

"Eh, who?" she could hear Sawara ask.

"Kuu."

"Ehh?!"

"She simply doesn't understand everything about the situation she's in yet," Kuu continued coolly, without pause to Sawara's amazed reaction. "Please wait until the fever that's gone to her head has cooled down."

"Yes, of course! Please tell her to call back then."

"Sure. Please take care of it," and then he hung up and chucked the phone over his shoulder back to her.

"I-I haven't lost my head," she yelled at him.

And then she got the most memorable lecture she ever remembered getting, with Kuu speaking calmly, collected and yet oh so wisely. She couldn't help hearing a soft overlap of Kijima's voice over his in the back of her head, and regretted acting so rashly in the face of Sho's seeming invincibility in regards to her.

He wasn't invincible, and especially not to her. And she had to be patient.

She needed to grow and on her terms.

"Giving life to the 'role' is the duty of the 'actor' and nobody else."

She listened carefully to everything he had to say, and took every word Kuu advised her to heart. She devoured every advice he had to give her.

Then he was encouraging, daring, challenging her –and now she had the assignment of "Kuon" that she had to perfect and make him proud of.


When Kijima saw her on the Dark Moon set after she'd seen to Kuu Hizuri for the day, he hadn't expected her to be…bipolar. As he watched her, she went back and forth between looking cheerful, before she was suddenly looking like the world was ending.

He was really worried and wondered what was wrong.

Kijima felt disgruntled as he saw Tsuruga approach her on one of the times she looked contemplative, but just stayed back and let her interact with her other sempai. He saw the two have a rather normal conversation, though Tsuruga looked worried and anxious. And then at some point of their conversation, Kyoko was looking at Tsuruga like he was God and she needed salvation. And then she freaked out when it was her time to film, and she practically ran away from the other actor.

When it was the end of the day and time to get out of there, he passed his dressing room and headed straight to Kyoko's, intending to talk to her and get to the bottom of her odd behavior.

He found her moping at her head dresser, looking miserable and self-pitying. He went over and sat down next to her without a word, patiently waiting for her to speak. And then she was telling him everything that happened that day, glazing over Fuwa Sho's minute involvement in all of it.

While wondering over Kuu's odd turnaround towards her, a part of him was more concerned and bothered about this deep resentment towards Fuwa, that he was sure was more important than she was trying to let on.

He was a bit amused about Tsuruga's tiny part earlier though.

"You told me about it easily," he pointed out. "Not worried you'll be asking me for help?"

She blushed. "Well…it was just really easy and natural to blurt it all out to you. We're friends too, so I didn't really think too much on it…"

He laughed lightly and ruffled her hair fondly. "Alright, it sounds like you don't want any help, so I won't be offering any. How about you try to come up with 'Kuon's' character now, and I'll take you shopping for his clothes after?"

"Okay!"

He was then treated to Kyoko going through the motions of thinking of how to make this Kuon character, and was amused by all the different characteristics she imitated subconsciously outwardly. But it was when it looked like something finally clicked in her, like a light bulb lit up in her head, that he was treated to something much more astonishing –and saw a change in Kyoko that was remarkable.

She combed her hair in a certain way and gave a soft smile to the mirror, and Kijima was struck dumb and utterly enraptured.

"How do you do, Kyoko. My name is…Corn. No! Ah, wait. Kuon, my name is Kuon. Wait, it's supposed to be in English –"

Boy Kyoko was just as cute as Girl Kyoko.

He was in a daze as he took Kyoko away from the Dark Moon set, heading straight to a store he knew would open for him, despite it being closing hours. Though he vaguely remembered Kyoko protesting and saying she could just borrow clothes from LME, he just said it would be fine since he knew the owner. And he did –being that Nodoka was the owner, and as an ex-partner, current friend, and that he'd helped her get together with her fiancé, he had no qualms pulling favors for Kyoko.

And Kyoko just blinked at the pretty woman, blushing cutely and giving a shy wave.

"That was Nodoka?" she whispered to him. "She's really pretty. And nice."

"She is, she is," he agreed, nodding. "But she's got a sharper tongue. She can play nice, but underneath all that niceness…" he shivered and gave a look to Kyoko, who sort of understood. "Oh she knows how to bite back if you get on her bad side, you can count on that."

He started rifling through the racks put out especially for them, looking for a good style and making sure it was a small size to fit Kyoko's slim frame. He found a few outfits, humming in approval as he eyed his choices with a critical eye.

"These should be good. And I pulled a few more to buy just in case, you know, if you ever decide you want to go cross-dressing again, rule the world by getting both men and women to bow down to your awesomeness –" At hearing her silence, he turned towards her and saw she was staring at the ground and for some reason depressed again. "Kyoko-chan?"

She lifted her head up weakly and gave him a half-hearted smile. "Sorry, Kijima-san. I'm just…tired. And still thinking about my abhorrent behavior earlier and hoping my Kuon will be well received."

"Bull," he called. "Maybe you are a bit, but I think this has a lot to do with Fuwa-kusotare," he spat the name out.

Though she blushed at the insult, she stammered out a denial. "W-what makes you think this has anything to do with Fuwa Sho?"

"Gut feeling," he glared at her. "And I almost always trust my instincts. I know you have something against him and that it's personal. Spill it." His tone and look softened. "Hey…come on. You tell me a lot, right? If this is something that really bothers you and it's really personal, I can back off. Just tell me that. Don't lie to me, alright?"

Kyoko was quiet for a moment, before she nodded and he turned back to the clothes.

"So I think this outfit would go best for tomorrow –"

"We were childhood friends," Kyoko quietly said suddenly, stopping him in his tracks, and he turned to her in surprise.

She began telling him everything, from how her mother abandoned her to growing up with Fuwa and how he'd asked her to leave Kyoto to go to Tokyo with him. That eventually, all the truths came spilling out one day, and Kyoko overheard how her childhood friend and crush really felt about her and how she'd sworn revenge and was trying so hard to make him regret everything.

And despite her obviously stubbornly holding her tears back and trying not to be as upset as she was, forcing herself to be angry more…he could tell no matter how much anger and hate she made herself focus on when it came to Fuwa, that there was still an undercurrent of hurt and pain deep inside of her that she tried to hide and not acknowledge, even to herself.

His blood boiled and he felt a deep sense of hate for a boy he'd never even met, but swore he would beat the shit out of if he ever met him. He had never really hated anyone or wanted to fight someone so much before, not even Tsuruga…but this Fuwa Sho deserved nothing more than to get his ass handed to him (and he'd be more than happy to be the one doing it), and Kijima wouldn't even fucking care if the tabloids were to catch wind of it or even see it themselves.

However, right now he had Kyoko and she was looking up at him upset and teary eyed, and all he could do was pull her close and silently promise that he wouldn't tell anyone about tears she never wanted to shed over a bastard like that.

So he just pulled her close and she felt safe enough to do so.

Started 6/19/13 – Completed 6/20/13

A/n: Really sorry this came so late! Between streamlining and updating my website (I even added a section for Skip Beat: . , where you can see the other future Skip Beat stories I plan on working on, with chapter summaries and the first chapters for some) and RL butting in, I haven't been able to write as fast or as much as I wanted. As for Skip Beat section, I haven't gotten to putting up the music stuff yet. For this chapter, Kuu finally comes in (though not as much), but he'll have a bigger role in the next chapter.

To Voidy: Yep, Kuu comes in now! And as for Kijima vs. Kuu, you get that next chapter actually. Kuu will definitely be disappointed about Ren, but he'll want Kyoko's happiness more. As for Lory and Kanae, they'll be nosying around pretty soon and won't let up. And lucky Kijima got to eat Kyoko's cooking…and continue to eat her cooking XD Nothing will ever be the same. Love you too!

To Shannie: If everyone would proclaim this as their new ship like you, I would win a million dollars. Or maybe just have more fanfics of this pairing out there for me to read XD It would be nice if that were to happen, eh? Thank you a lot! I hope you to continue to enjoy!


Citations:

1. Kyoko's beginning line defending Ren to Kuu is from original source, but her adding the others after is from me.

2. The lines in this chapter between her and Kuu (and Sawara) are verbatim from original source, but hugely novelized and large sections in between from myself.