Gift for You

This is for Onepwanch on tumblr. I decided to take a few of your headcannons and turn them into some fics. Unfortunately I ended up sick and this is the only one ready for you in time for the Christmas season. I'm soooo sorry! :(

It's a kind of ish Future AU before Ren admits his feelings. He has to stop himself from buying things he thinks Kyoko would like.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please Enjoy!

. . .

The sight in the store window stops me cold in my tracks.

Luckily the sidewalk is empty and I don't seem to disrupt any sort of pedestrian traffic. A shame. Causing a hold up would keep me away from the display at sight.

I should walk past the display and continue my trek back to my apartment. I have to meet Mogami-san tonight to help with her latest project. That's where I need to be. Not in front of a dress store. Especially not again. This is... I purse my lips together and silently tick it off on my fingers. One.. two...three? Is is three times? Yes. And this makes four.

Four times I've minded my own business and found myself enamoured by a passing display. It's always glitter. It's always pink. Clothes. Jewelry. Purses and knick knacks. They all thread together with a single denominator: Kyoko would love them.

Consequently, she would also probably curse my way back to America to my parents if she ever found out about these spontaneous stops. They happen too often. On the way to work. From location to location. On the way to LME. The stores nowadays obviously know I can't resist stopping if there's even a chance Mogami-san might like what they have to offer. All too often I have to step away from the store with empty hands. And it's all because of what I cursed myself with back at the Dark Moon Closing Party:

If a man buys you clothes, it means he wants to have his way with you.

It's not a lie. It's actually an entirely true sentiment in regards to Kijima-san-who finds Kyoko's starlet presence more intriguing than herself. After all, isn't that what the tabloids love to gush about? Rising Stars, bound by love, and rising together in fame. I hear about it all the time in my interviews. It's stupid. Tasteless. A cheap way to move forward in your career.

I simply cannot have Kijima having his way with her. Not only sexually (my teeth grit even at the thought), but in the way he would use Kyoko's rising fame as a way to gain leverage in the entertainment world.

So I projected my anger onto as silly a sentiment as buying clothes.

In turn, I've managed to dig myself into my own grave.

Take the dress in the window, for instance: She would absolutely swoon at the sight of the pink dress and it's draping handkerchief skirt that I could almost promise she would call a fairy skirt without any sort of hesitation. I could buy it now and call it a reward for working so well in her most recent project (another bully role, but this one focused more in seduction and being a temptress than Natsu or Mio). But if I used this excuse I would, in turn, have to buy something for Chiori-san, who snagged a non-bully role in the same drama.

I worked with both of them as a cameo appearance and buying something for just Kyoko can be considered rude. Chiori-san would understand, seeing as she definitely knows about my feelings for her senpai. But Kyoko? She would scold me into next week for not only buying only her something. But the shouts would be especially bad if I buy her clothes.

If I am to buy her clothes now after the Dark Moon fiasco, Kyoko will definitely question my motives and insist that my interests lie in tarnishing her reputation as a pure maiden.

There are several other things I would much rather do to "tarnish" her reputation as a "pure maiden".

Buying clothes.

Is not one of them.

(The fact she can still call herself a pure maiden after her stint as Setsu is beyond me.)

I should just buy the dress in the window. Make it a Christmas present. A birthday present. Any excuse will do. If I simply have it on hand I can always be prepared. Except...there are so many other things that I given in and bought. My guest room is cluttered with things I've promised myself I'll eventually give her. The dress will go out of style before I can gift it to her.

That sells it.

I should ignore the dress and simply continue my way home.

But...

She would love it. Especially with her hair for the new drama: A deep brown that resembles the pictures she's showed me of before she and Fuwa made the jump to Tokyo. Yes. It would definitely look good.

So I should buy the dress.

And suddenly: I'm in the exact position I was in five minutes ago, my hand hovering over my wallet and my eyes staring closely at the glittering display.

"Tsuruga-san! What are you doing here?"

Inside, my heart does about fifty somersaults as my ears perk to the sound of her voice. What is she doing around here so early? Now I definitely can't buy the dress. Not with her right here. Quickly schooling my face, I turn from the storefront to the dark haired girl. "Mogami-san," I greet with a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "You're done early."

Her golden eyes narrow and her brows furrow together as she steps closer. "Tsuruga-san, it's eight thirty." Is it really? Damn. I've spent nearly half an hour gaping like a fish at this display. "I'm actually running late," she raises and eyebrow. "I'm surprised you can say the same for yourself, Mister I'm Always Punctual."

"I got distracted on the way home."

"Looking at dresses?"

"Y-Yes."

Between me, the display, and the dozens of similar displays, I see how bad this looks. I mean, there's no real excuse for a man to be here. They can't be for myself-so the dresses I'm interested in obviously have to be with someone in mind. The question is: will she make the jump to herself.

I study Kyoko as she tries to work it out in her head. A mix of confusion and awe swirl just behind her eyes as she takes in the display I've been obviously studying.

I was right, by the way, she loves the dress.

She never gets anywhere with trying to determine why I'm looking at the dresses. Instead, the mysterious expression that crosses her face quickly fades and is replaced with a stern gaze. Directed at me. Wait? What did I do?

"Tsuruga-san, were you getting ready to ditch our dinner date?"

She continues with her reprimand, but I can't help but circulate around how she phrased it. A dinner date. Dinner. Date. Date. Date.

Date.

She's referring to our working together as a date.

I can't help the grin that spreads its way across my face.

Kyoko stops, her eyes going wide and her face going red. "Are you laughing at me?" She screeches. "Tsuruga-san! How can you be so cruel? You know how important this role is to me!"

Damn.

I really need to watch my smiles around her.

"N-No, Mogami-san," I start, trying to wave off her anger, "I was by no means laughing at you! I was just..." What was I doing? I can't very well tell her I loved how she was calling our dinner a "date". No, that would confuse her.

Her eyebrows furrow. "Just...what?"

"I was simply smiling at your enthusiasm for your new job, despite it being a bully role again."

That shut her up. Instead, Kyoko simply gapes up at me with trembling eyes. I expect her honestly to start crying-to have her insist that she doesn't deserve such a compliment from me. But instead, a uneven smile crosses her face.

"Thank you, Tsuruga-san."

I return her smile and nod away from the store and instead to the direction of my apartment complex. "Now, shall we get to work?" To our dinner date, I mentally celebrate as we turn together into the sidewalk.

We walk silently side by side and I'm suddenly thankful that the area pretty much dies at six every night. Anywhere else in Tokyo and we would have never been able to share this moment. Which just makes me appreciate the moment even more.

In the back of my mind, I make a note to return for the dress.

. . .

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