Disclaimers Apply. I do not own Skip Beat!, only this story plot.
Aberrant Postscript
[Kyouko & Ren]
Lory watched her keenly. So, this was the infamous Kyouko. Well, infamous in so much that she had rattled Ren and swept him off his feet. It made Lory smile in amusement, enticing a twitch from her.
She was demure in her posture, hands clasped politely before her and back straight, eyes trained on him, awaiting his response. There was something about her stance, her air of servitude, that bothered him.
"Did you go to a formal finishing school, Mogami-kun?" Lory asked, watching as she stiffened.
"No sir," she replied, her tone just telling enough that Lory could tell she was upset.
"I see," he said, before grinning and throwing his cape to the side, even more amused when she followed the flourish with sparkling eyes. "Then, Mogami-kun, what is your opinion of love?"
Immediately her face contorted into sadness and anger, posture rigid and a deep furrow developing between her brows. Ah, Lory thought, this girl has been burned before.
"It's an unfortunate burden society must carry and forces upon girls and begets only-!" She choked, then, face even more contorted.
"Oh?" He encouraged, watching her sharply but without judgement.
"...it's troublesome," she finished at last. Lory roared with laughter. Perhaps not all was lost, then. There was hope still.
_-/-_
"Then, Mogami-kun, I look forward to seeing all that you will accomplish," Lory said deviously, mouth curled beneath his mustache and arm thrown out to the side, his cape flaring out in the progress. The high collars of his cosplay leant the normally genial man an evil look and Kyouko repressed a chuckle at the sight.
Sweeping into a curtsy, Kyouko bowed her head. "Yes, my liege," she murmured demurely, and then swept from the room as if she dragged full skirts and wasn't wearing only a simple denim skirt with an equally practical blouse. Lory chuckled behind her.
Outside the president's office were Ren and Yashiro, chatting softly a little ways off. She waved eagerly at them. "I didn't get to see, but what was the theme today?" Yashiro asked, bounding over in an effort to keep up with Ren's long strides.
"He was dressed as Dracula," Kyouko said brightly, giving no hint that the hand Ren had wrapped around her shoulder was sending shivers down her spine and burning her cheeks. "He had the cape and teeth and everything!"
Suddenly, Kyouko sensed Ren's heady smile from where he stood beside her, and she resolutely refused to look up at him, focusing entirely on Yashiro. "Well, what did he say?" The manager demanded, his curiosity evident.
Kyouko scowled at the memory. "He's creating a new section for me," she said thunderously, face dark.
Yashiro gaped. "What? But that's amazing Kyouko-chan! What is it? What is it called?"
The words came from her like evil minions from hell were dragging each letter from tightly clenched teeth. "The...l...LoveME Section." She gritted out.
Silence descended on the group as they processed this, and Yashiro laughed weakly. "Come now Kyouko-chan, be serious. What did he name it?"
Kyouko stared at Yashiro pitifully. "Don't make me repeat it, Yashiro-san."
Yashiro's mouth worked silently as he tried to wrap his mind around the new name, but Kyouko was slowly growing aware of Ren's shaking frame beside her. She knew what this meant.
"Tsuruga-san," Kyouko said dangerously, finally turning to look at the man. His face was the perfect picture of solemnity.
"Yes?" He deadpanned, and Kyouko scowled. She whirled on him, all long hair and puffed cheeks.
"I know you were laughing at me, don't try to deny it you actor, you!"
He allowed an amused smile. "I don't know what you're talking about Mogami-san."
Incredulous, Kyouko stared at him until he broke again, laughing in her face and then turning around to hunch in with shaking shoulders. Yashiro and she watched in dismay.
"You're awful Tsuruga-san-!" Kyouko wailed, eyes tearing in her frustration. "You're not the one who has to say," she faced Yashiro with a beatific smile, one hand on her hip and the other in the shape of an L by her face, "LoveMe Number 1 at your service!"
If possible, Ren laughed harder, and even Yashiro was hard-pressed to keep the smile off his face. Kyouko huffed indignantly. Soon, Ren calmed, and all that was left was a bemused smile.
"What did you expect, Mogami-san? You came in with absolutely no idea aside from the vague 'I want to change myself,'" he said not unkindly, though Kyouko still stiffened at the veiled criticism.
She scuffed at the floor with the toe of her shoe. "I know," she said, tone near petulant. "But that's the whole point of this! I want to know more, to see more, to learn and experience things outside of this little bubble I built for myself!"
Kyouko thought that Ren should not look at her like that, with that kind smile and gentle eyes. She wasn't used to receiving such soft looks and gazes, and so she turned away, abashed.
"Then," Ren began, and the strength of his bare face diminished as he moderated his expression. "Take this opportunity to work with the different departments and learn from them as much as you can. I know you can do it," he ended seemingly encouraging, but Kyouko was not fooled.
"You knew!" She said, aghast. "You knew exactly what the president was going to tell me when I went in!"
Ren smiled secretively. "Well, Yashiro and I have to be going, and you have to go see Sawara-san, so I'll see you later, then?" He was already walking away, somehow escorting a confused Yashiro and Kyouko was left behind, surprised at his boldness and at his abrupt leave.
She scowled. "That man!"
_-/-_
The locker room, to Kyouko's dismay, was detailed in pink and shone with a bedazzled sheen, enough so that Kyouko closed the door to the room in denial. She inhaled deeply. This was what she wanted, right? To find herself, to be Kyouko and not someone's daughter, or someone's maid. To be herself.
She opened the room and found the locker bearing the number one. Inside hung an egregious uniform so flamboyant Kyouko seriously reconsidered her current life goals. Okay, was this really worth it?
Resigned to her fate, Kyouko explored the locker, finding a stash of stamps and pens, a small handbook detailing information about L.M.E. they felt she ought to know, and a key to her locker taped inside the door. Puffing air from her nose, she slipped into her uniform, tying her hair up and out of the way. She fingered the tips of the strands, idly wondering if she should dye it.
Kyouko jumped when the door slammed open - she should have locked it, she thought - and in stormed an angry brunette, eyes piercing and face pinched.
"You!" The pretty woman roared, and Kyouko lifted a hesitant finger to point at herself.
"M-me?" She stuttered, more shocked than anything.
"Who else would I be talking to?" The woman demanded angrily, before stomping over to the locker designated 'number two' besides Kyouko's. "To think I would be lumped together with someone like you. Me, the talented me!"
Kyouko privately thought that anyone who thought so highly of themselves must surely be lacking in any actual talent, but kept the sentiment to herself and only raised a curious pretty woman scowled.
"What, are you looking down on me?" The woman yanked the pink horror out from the locker and stood facing Kyouko with a hip cocked to one side and pretty shapely eyebrows lifted in arrogance.
"No," Kyouko replied calmly, settling into a well-practiced mien. "I am not in any position to look down on you from," and her answer was so painfully earnest that the pretty woman stepped back, eyeing her shrewdly.
Kyouko endured the scrutiny even though it chafed against her slowly growing pride. Who was this girl, anyways, to look at Kyouko that way?
"You have more bite than I thought you would," she replied finally, before sighing and gripping the uniform with both hands. "And without you I wouldn't be here, so… I'm Kotonami Kanae, and I'm the reluctant second member of this awful horrible excuse of a department."
Kyouko blinked at the sudden turnabout, before hope sparked in her chest and her eyes grew wide. "You mean we share this pink curse, together? Like comrades? Like...like friends?"
Kotonami stuttered and blushed. "What! Mo, don't be ridiculous! And what pink curse?"
_-/-_
The day had been long and filled with menial chores that, though simple, still left a knot in her shoulders. Kyouko sighed and rolled them, hoping to work the kinks out. The evening sky was soft in color and Kyouko was suddenly struck by the sense of peace she felt. Sure, she had a lot of work to do, and her future was tumultuous at best, but she was moving forward, setting goals and achieving them, something she had never done while with Sho.
Kyouko smiled staring down at her hands as she approached the apartment building now as familiar to her as if it were her own. Yes, inner peace was never something she would have achieved with Sho.
The guard recognized her and smiled when she waved, holding the door open for her. Kyouko couldn't help the delighted smile that arose at the small gesture of kindness, and so she skipped merrily into the lobby and sat in the lounge area off to the side, awaiting Ren. She didn't have a keycard so she couldn't access the elevator or stairwell.
To keep herself busy Kyouko retrieved one of her pet projects. It had been something she started when she felt the need to keep busy while her mind argued and tore itself apart through all the changes she was going through. Kyouko certainly adapted quickly, yes, but it didn't mean the process wasn't equally as heinous. One day she was safely in l- ...crushing stupidly on Sho, and the next she was out on her ass with not a penny nor a friend to name.
Well, that's not entirely true, Kyouko thought, blushing. There had been Ren, who had frantically sought her out, even going so far as to visit her old apartment and call the okami-san on her behalf. Kyouko still cringed when she thought of this. She had just up and disappeared without a notice, honestly, she could have given the man a warning or something!
Kyouko sighed and glanced down at the now finished product in her hands. A crying Sho wailed back up at her, tiny stumps for hands rubbing his eyes and mouth forever contorted as he bawled. It was soothing in a dangerous kind of way, to see Sho like this. Kyouko felt a dry black humor at how changed she had become.
As she folded her materials back into the pouch of her bag, her fingers brushed against the dark hair of another doll, and so she retrieved it, mindlessly allowing the Sho doll to fall off her lap from her shifting into the space between her leg and the side of the armchair she sat on. She tenderly stroked back the dark strands from the dolls face, a bemused smile - one she saw far too often on the real face - greeting her. It had been the first expression that had come to mind when she had been making the doll.
No...that's a lie. Kyouko blushed. The first expression that had truly come to mind had been that mind-blowing earth-shattering smile, but Kyouko could barely allow herself to imagine it let alone replicate it on the tiny doll's face.
"Mogami-san!"
The inhuman screech that came from Kyouko scared even herself as she scrambled to stuff the doll into her bag, remembering a moment later that she had the Sho one out as well and hastily shoving him further down so that her skirt hid him.
She whirled around to face Ren where he approached her from the side. "Y-yes Tsuruga-san? Wow! What a coincidence to see you here!"
He raised a shapely eyebrow and already Kyouko felt indignant at the action.
"Really, quite a coincidence considering this is my apartment building," Ren replied dryly, and Kyouko had the grace to blush.
"Uh, right," she said at last and as she stood grasped the doll figure in her hand to transfer it to her bag. She peeked up at Ren as she came by his side, sighing in relief when he gave no indication that he had seen the dolls. Really, even if it was embarrassing she could at least explain the Sho doll, but Ren's? No, she'd rather bury a hole and become a saint then let Ren find out.
Shaking her had to physically remove herself from the thought, Kyouko smiled brightly up at Ren. She followed the gesture by bringing the bag of groceries she held up in front of her as well. "I thought I could cook dinner for us tonight!"
Ren smiled, smoothly retrieving the bag from her and scanning his keycard within the elevator. When he pressed the button for his floor it lit up, and Ren turned back to her. "You didn't have to, Mogami-san, but I would love to eat your cooking again."
They fell into the same routine, chatting softly about their day and Kyouko still felt her heart swell when she noticed the slippers that had somehow become hers in the entrance of his home. They were always there, now, like she lived there and wasn't simply a too-common annoying guest.
_-/-_
Ren watched as she moved about his home, placing the groceries away - only a few sundries, given that she came often enough that his refrigerator and pantry were always stocked - and retrieving pots from the various shelves she had insisted he replace them in because I'm not a tall giant like you Tsuruga-san, I need to actually reach them without a chair and a box to support me.
Ren had complied easily enough when the mental image of her balancing on such unstable objects propelled a sense of fear through him. She would try to balance herself like some acrobat just to cook.
Still, Ren loved the way she had unassumingly ordered him around, taking reign in his kitchen and in his heart. (He removed himself from the room where she was when he had this thought, because even he had been embarrassed at the horribly cheesy line his mind had come up with.) He came back from his room after he had tugged off his necklace, scarf, and jacket, clad in only a black sweater and gray slacks.
Kyouko was in the kitchen, then, with her hair bound back by a clip and an apron cinched around her waist. When his heart lurched at the sight Ren realized he still craved her simple domesticity, and so he stepped into the kitchen to come closer to her.
Gently, he trailed his hand down her arm to tug it away from the stirring spoon she used, lingering until he reached her hand and interlaced their fingers. She gasped, softly, and so he pulled her closer.
"I'm cooking, Tsuruga-san," Kyouko said, voice soft and tone gentle. Feeling particularly petulant, he pulled her even closer so that she had no other option but to look him in the face. A tinge of red dusted her cheeks and she frowned minutely. "Really Tsuruga-san, do you want to burn the apartment down?"
He laughed and hugged her, her free hand coming to rest on his chest as his other arm wrapped around the small of her back. She was a bit stiff, still unused to the contact, but Ren simply rested his head into the groove of her neck and breathed, feeling warm and content.
"I don't believe in love," Kyouko said suddenly, her breath warm on his ear, and Ren knew she felt the way he had tightened his hold on her. He exhaled.
"I know," he said simply, and he thought of her mother, of Sho, of himself. "I know," he said again, simply because it felt like he had to.
"I don't believe in love but," she pulled away from him just enough that they could see each other, his arm still loosely wrapped around her and her hand now resting on his upper arm. "...I do believe in you, and that you won't hurt me, or do what...what he did. Is that enough?"
Her voice was so small, her eyes so sad. Ren thought he didn't deserve her, at the same time that his heart swelled and his breath felt taken away by her words.
"Yes," Ren murmured, because he didn't have enough breath to say it any louder. The hand not holding hers came up to caress her warm cheek. "Yes, that's more than enough."
I want to kiss her, he thought, and just as he moved to lean forward Kyouko's eyes widened and she screamed. She broke away from him to hover frantically over his stove.
"Noooo! The foood! Tsuruga-san, how could you do this?" Kyouko wailed, and Ren smiled bemusedly.
Well, he could take baby-steps. So long as she stayed by him, he would go as slow as it took. All he wanted was to be near her, and he would be happy.
A/N: Well, I caught the flu and had exams, so this fic sat on the backburner until now. But I'm finally better, aside from an annoying persistent cough, and I have two exams out of four out of the way. I've been writing this in-between breaks and when I've been feeling well, but hopefully it doesn't feel too choppy. There's still a few more postscripts planned, but I hope you enjoyed this one! Not really a view into their dating life, per se, but maybe into their feelings as they get used to all the changes.
Also, sorry for sappy Ren at the end, but he really is so melodramatic. I hope everyone stays well and healthy, so until next time!