DISCLAIMER: I do not own Skip Beat!
It was cold when Kyoko woke.
Her bleary, sleep-ridden eyes blinked at the sunlight dappling her bare skin through the window. Had she forgotten to draw the curtains? And since when did she sleep in the nude?
The more she looked, the less this room looked like her room in the Daruma-ya.
She sat up with a start and regretted it when a throbbing in her temple made her dizzy.
Where was she? And why did it feel colder? She looked down, and to her horror, she was naked! Kyoko choked on air as she covered her naked chest, confusion crippling her.
There were a lot of things wrong with this situation.
For one, she was waking up in someone else's bed.
Two, she was naked (although upon further inspection, she had her panties on. Thank God.)
Three, her head hurt and she felt nauseous.
And four, why did she stink of alcohol...and was that Tsuruga-san's cologne in her hair? On her skin? In fact, the whole room had tell-tale signs of his cologne.
She slid out of the large bed, memory blank.
And five, Kyoko thought grimly as she squeaked an "ouch!" when landing on her feet, why was her leg bandaged and hurting?
Kyoko pulled off the sheet and wore them like makeshift toga and trooped into the living room.
She gasped.
Tsuruga Ren's face was planted on the table, fingers choking the neck of an empty whiskey bottle.
Shirtless.
Why was he shirtless? She cried. Why am I shirtless? Though the view was pleasant for Sex Kitten, Kyoko blushed furiously.
She approached him like he was a dangerous animal. Her steps were silent as she stood above him.
"Ts-Tsuruga-san?"
No answer.
"Tsuruga-san? Are you alive?" Her brows creased in worry. She had seen customers pass out after heavy bouts of drinking, many with alcohol poisoning. "Wake up,"
She hesitantly shook his shoulders.
A hoarse groan came from him, making the young actress jump.
At least he wasn't dead.
"Tsuruga-san," Her fingers sifted in his dark hair, marveling at the silkiness. "Please wake up. We have to film for Da-"
Kyoko froze.
What time was it? Shit! She ran back to his room and checked the digital clock that smugly informed her that it was approaching one o'clock in the afternoon.
One! They were suppose to be there at seven in the morning!
A blood-curdling scream woke a hungover Ren, who glared at the direction of the banshee-like cry.
"TSURUGA-SAN!" Oh.
Right. That banshee had awoken.
Ren tried preparing himself for the restraining order she'd surely put on him, now that she realized that he'd almost taken advantage of her while she was drunk. He tried to emotionally ready himself for the rejection of the century, the heartache he'd have to suffer through now that she'd never look at him again.
"You dirty old man!" She'd wail and run away from him with the force of a stampede.
If that scream was any indication, she was more than ready to give him a ticket straight to Hell, after cursing him into the next millennium.
Ren steadied himself on his feet, trying to ignore the pick-axe hammering into his brain from all that drinking. Would he be pushing it if he asked her to make him a hangover remedy before she left?
"TSURUGA-SAN! DO YOU REALIZE THAT WE MISSED AN ENTIRE DAY OF SHOOTING?" She stormed in looking like an angry Greek goddess, and Kami-sama did it turn him on.
The sheets she stole from his bed draped over her tiny frame exposed the lean line of her legs and her sloping, feminine shoulders.
"Did you hear me? We missed filming! We must have disrupted shooting so badly. An entire day's worth! Maybe they couldn't film at all without Katsuki. I'll get fired - I'm not that important, but Tsuruga-san, what does that say about your work habits? I've ruined your reputation as a professional! I should have woken up - are you listening?"
She was distinctly aware that his eyes were wandering over her body, specifically at her lips.
They were bitten red from his kisses from last night, though of that she wasn't aware.
"Tsuruga-san? W-Why are you smiling so..." So much like the Emperor?
"I didn't listen to a word," He pinned her to the spot with a predatory look and took a long step into her personal space.
"Ts-"
"Do you remember anything? At all? From last night?"
"Last night...Tsuruga-san, pl-please don't say things that would cause a misunderstanding," Her cheeks turned pink. "The important thing is to call Director Ogata and apologize for -"
"So you aren't curious at all about why we are wearing significantly less clothing than we did when we entered my home?"
"Well, of c-course-" Lord, the Emperor's smirk was getting her very hot and very bothered. He towered over her in a dominant way, making her back away.
He caught up, advancing to match her retreating.
"Are you honestly more concerned about missing a full day's worth of work-" Fuck, that really is bad, though. My reputation is scarred. "-than knowing why you woke up in a man's apartment, in his bed, with little clothing? Not remembering a thing and having a hideous headache?"
"Well, I'd like to apologize for our poor work ethic before-" Before you devour me! What's with that look in your eyes, Tsuruga-san! "I get to the bottom of this,"
She motioned to her state of relative undress, cheeks a lovely pink.
"How are you not upset about this, Tsuruga-san?" Kyoko asked, tilting her head up in that endearing way of hers.
"It's like this, Mogami-san," He sighed, scrubbing his head with his hand, backing away from her. "There are so many bad things happening one after the other, I think I'm in the state of shock,"
Hungover, blue as the berry, horny, sleepy, disappointed - oh, he could go on.
This made Ren beyond angry. So angry, in fact, that it cancelled out and became indifference.
Kyoko was beyond confused. Was this really the Tsuruga Ren who had drilled professionalism into her brain so many times it became the mantra she recited every time he was upset? The one who had actually down right hated her for her reasons for entering show business? The one who had thrown illness into the wind to film a scene under pouring water?
And yet he was regarding missing an entire day's worth of filming flippantly. What the hell! Had some alien taken over his brain? Or maybe he'd been possessed by some devil-may-care demon who scoffed at acting.
Such a ridiculously complex man.
While she was giving him an exasperated and suspicious look, Ren was examining her bare neck.
The reflection of the table he had slept on had revealed a dark, misshapen mark on his jaw that resembled a hickey. In the midst of assaulting Kyoko, he really didn't notice the little vixen's teeth nipping at his face until the tinted mirror of his pillow for the night told him otherwise.
"Mogami-san," He interrupted what seemed to be a piercing and paranoid stare at his forehead. "I think I'll tell you what happened last night,"
"Don't say things that will cause a misu-"
"Mogami-san is a very bad drunk,"
NO! This is not the time for the Emperor to show up, she griped.
"That Emperor bastard - !" The Sex Kitten whipped her head at his direction, peering through Kyoko's eyes. "He won, didn't he?"
The Grudges had since turned into ashes at the torture that was Ren's lust.
The Angels cowered in a dark corner in their Master's mind.
"S-She fell asleep before he could do anything else," Angel Kyoko said.
"HA! How's that for a cold shower, grandpa?" Sex Kitten sent an ugly sneer at him.
"Grandpa? 'Tsuruga Ren' might think four years is a big age difference, but I have no problem copping a feel from her," The Emperor proclaimed arrogantly.
"Cradle robber."
"A bad drunk? How so?" Kyoko edged away, but The Emperor of the Night continued till her butt hit a wall. His large hands pressed upon the wall on either side of her head, effectively caging her between his long arms.
"Well," Kyoko gulped when his hot breath dusted her neck, making her shiver. "You hate seeing me in clothing,"
WHAT?
"You insisted on taking my shirt off," The Emperor grinned into the crook of her neck. "Managed to rip out a couple of buttons," He lightly pressed his lips on her neck, receiving another shiver from her. "It was a nice shirt too. I'll have to replace it,"
"W-W-What are you-"
"Let me finish, Mogami-san," The devil clucked his tongue, and she felt it flicker on her skin. A jolt of electricity spread throughout her body at the single motion. Kyoko dared to glance at his face and found him looking up at her with dark eyes through his lashes.
"After you stripped me, you decided that you didn't like wearing clothes yourself,"
"LIES. HE'S A LIAR". Angel Kyoko roared, stunning the Sex Kitten.
"Then you fell asleep in the bathtub after you made me carry you there," His full lips pressed harder against the sensitive skin of her neck. Then she felt his teeth.
"Tsuruga-san!"
He was sucking on her neck like a leech! The sensation caused her skin to prickle with goosebumps and it hurt in the strangest way. His hands slid closer to her head on the wall as he bit harder.
She yelped, and to her horror, a strangled moan stumbled out after the yelp.
The Emperor smiled and pulled away.
His face was a breath away. His eyes were far too intense for her, the way they devoured her.
"Do you see this?" The Emperor pointed to the odd looking bruise on his jaw. "You did that too,"
"I beat you?" She breathed. Was she going to make the Demon Lord appear too? What the hell kind of drunk was she! Stripping poor Tsuruga-san and then beating him up?
He let out a dry laugh. "No," His nose brushed hers as he forced her to look him in the eyes. "You gave me a love bite,"
If her eyes were wide before, now they were stretched like elastic.
"L-L-Lo-"
"I was just returning the favor," He smiled cheekily and pointed at her abused neck.
Ren pushed off of the wall. Kyoko tried to blot the feel of his lips on her skin.
LOVE BITE?
"No, she actually did do that. The author of this fanfic just forgot to wr-FFFOO-"
"Was that chloroform?" The Sex Kitten pointed at the angel who had been dragged off with a white rag over her terrified face.
A surviving Grudge shrugged.
"Therefore, Mogami-san," The shirtless liar stretched sinuously, like a wild cat waking from a nap. "take heed before drinking. God knows what you might end up doing while drunk. You're lucky the first time you drank heavily was around me - who knows who could've taken advantage of you. Although, you shouldn't be drinking at all, am I right, Mogami-san?"
"I APOLOGIZE." Kyoko dropped into a dogeza. Her teary face looked up at him. "I will never drink again. I am so so so sorry!"
Ren expected this. If she hadn't blacked out, he would have been the one in a dogeza, begging for her forgiveness.
In fact, he could have told her that they found a couple of puppies on fire and that they had used their clothing to beat the fire out. Then they went to his place and drank away the sorrows of unsuccessfully extinguishing the fire.
He could have used anything, really.
The view down the toga is nice though, isn't it? The Emperor murmured his approval.
"It's alright. I'm just glad you've learned your lesson," Ren squatted down and petted her little orange head.
She nodded furiously and stood up.
"We need to call-"
"The day is shot. We could call Director Ogata, but filming has been over for hours. I've missed a couple of public appearances and interviews,"
"I'm suppose to be at school. Thankfully there's no shooting for Box 'R' today," Kyoko sighed and drifted to the kitchen.
"Maybe this is a sign from the gods," Kyoko spun around to see, dare she say it, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "Let's be reckless today,"
"Play hooky?" Kyoko screeched, a pot in hand.
He held his hands up in peace, in case she used the pot as a weapon to bash his head in.
"We're human after all. I haven't had a break in...God, for a long time," Ren tousled his hair with his eyes looking beyond her. His eyes darted to her startled gold ones. "I'm sure you've been just as busy."
"Not as busy as you," She shook her head, remembering his schedule as his temporary manager.
"Still. Sometimes you have to let loose,"
Unbelievable. This could not be Ren. No way. 'Let loose'? Kyoko sooner thought the stars would turn off before she heard Tsuruga Ren say something so...uncharacteristic of his serious disposition.
"Don't look at me like that, Mogami-san," He chuckled at her face. So expressive, though she usually regarded him with horror or fear. "Is it so wrong of me to actually do something fun for once?"
Uh, yes.
"Fun?" Kyoko fussed over the stove, performing things a food-illiterate person like Ren couldn't follow.
Besides work, which Kyoko found to be very fun indeed, her mind wandered to the memory of her and Shotaro's early days in Tokyo.
For fun, idiot Sho had indulged in his competitiveness by challenging unsightly adolescent boys in the arcade.
"The arcade? I haven't really been to one," Ren mused.
Telepathy? So there is something wrong with his head!
"Stop with that face. You said 'arcade' out loud," He glowered at her.
"Oh," She mumbled in embarrassment. He laughed at her expense.
"That does sound fun. Do you know where to find one?"
This man...he really didn't realize his status as a star. If he strolled into an arcade, he'd be found out by the press. Not only would the Dark Moon cast know of his behavior, but so would the rest of Japan. People might not want him in their movies for being a naughty boy and skipping when he felt like it.
Oh, he was on a self-destructive path! Tsuruga-san!
One look at her face made him meekly say, "I'll go find my hat and sunglasses."
After a force-fed breakfast, the poorly disguised actors sneaked into Ren's car.
Ren adjusted his pair of sunglasses on his nose as he drove to the arcade. Kyoko highly doubted that idiotic Shotaro would be there. He had stopped going so he wouldn't look like a loser and damage his image.
Her mood dampened again at the thought of him.
Ugh.
"So, you're an arcade nerd?" Ren teased.
"No! Whenever I went with that stupid Sho he made me order junk food and hand feed it to him while he played Dance Dance Revolution!" Kyoko scowled.
Ren snorted. Of course he has to ruin everything for her. The prick.
In America, arcades dotted most malls. Ren, being the outdoorsy type, never liked bleaching his skin under the glow of computers or the flashy lights of arcade games.
His curiosity was piqued, though. It was a guilty pleasure he avoided as a child.
Ren parked the car and went around to meet Kyoko. She shoved the glasses closer to her face, scrunching her nose adorably. "Tsuruga-san, wouldn't it strike people as weird to be wearing hats and sunglasses inside an arcade?"
He waved her off. "We can tell them we're cosplaying."
Kyoko felt something slippery underneath her shoe. She lifted it to see a picture of a strange-looking person who had an indistinguishable gender. She picked it up and saw the androgynous person coming out of the photo booth.
"Um, is this yours?" Kyoko held it out to him/her.
The person grunted at her and snatched it from her before stalking out.
How odd.
"Mogami-san?" Ren turned around to see her blinking after some kid who had left. She looked at him and pointed to the photo booth with a shy smile.
"Could we take pictures?" She asked sweetly.
He fought off a divine, Grudge-slaying smile.
"Of course."
He held his hand out and she hesitantly took it. His giant hand engulfed hers when he led her into the photo booth.
"We need tokens-"
"I'll get some," Ren left her sitting inside the booth.
Kyoko sat, her fingers trembling, eyes wide. Her heart was pitter-pattering like crazy, like a caged bird. His touch, and then that love bite this morning - that man was driving her nuts. She touched her fingers to her neck where his lips had been, face heating up.
She peeked out of the curtain, and saw him returning. Most of the kids playing were to focused on their games to notice the giant walking to and fro. Thankfully, there weren't many fangirls, so the arcade felt relatively safe for the both of them.
Ren ducked into the booth and sat besides her. It suddenly reminded him that he could have taken her to the prince/princess shoot as a late White Day present. She seemed okay today. Was the Sex Kitten gone?
His eyes stole glances at her. Kyoko pulled the glasses and the hat off and placed them on her lap. She was still wearing the purple sweater dress from yesterday.
"Ready?" Ren took off his own disguise and place it besides him.
"Yup," Kyoko beamed and looked at the camera. Sitting stiffly with as much distance as she could, they took a picture.
"So stiff. If this was a real photo shoot, the photographer would have eaten you alive," Ren laughed at her serious face. He casually put an arm around her, allowing her to smell his delicious cologne to her heart's content.
She stiffened further at his arm until Ren's breath was at her ear, telling her to relax.
And so relax she did. If this was a real photo shoot, she'd have to look casual and happy.
With a soft smile, she leaned closer to him. This photo was of Kyoko looking completely at ease, with Ren's shocked face looking at her.
She was really getting into it. Soon she had her arm around his neck, hugging her to him. Snap. Pressing her cheek against his. Snap. Grinning like the cheeky little vixen she was. Snap. Then she kissed his cheek. Snap.
"You're certainly warming up to this," He whispered huskily into her ear.
She froze. "Am I being too familiar, Tsuruga-san?"
He smiled at her. "Not at all,"
Picture of him whispering sweet nothings into her ear? Snap.
His arm tightened around her. Snap.
They both grinned at the camera. Snap.
Ren kissed her on the cheek. Snap.
She blushed and stared at him with a scandalized look. Snap.
He smiled back. Snap.
Kyoko stared at his lips. They kissed on the lips a couple of times already...was it okay to give him a friendly peck?
She leaned up to his face, lips nearing his.
"Alright, then. We ran out of tokens, Mogami-san," Ren looked down at her closed eyes and puckered lips. He hid his smile as he slid out of the photo booth.
Kyoko opened her eyes and saw that Ren had vanished. Blushing heavily, she slapped her head for being such an idiot. Stupid, stupid! Don't assume you can just go and kiss Tsuruga Ren!
"These came out really nice." Ren showed her the strips.
Tucked inside his pocket was the picture of her trying to kiss him. That was going to live inside his wallet from now on.
Interficere : Blue balls indeed! And the suspension of belief bit made me smile, because it really did seem like he was going to get some, but eh, this is Kyoko we're talking about. Her body unconsciously deflects any lust or love from Ren. *shakes head*.
21han : The Emperor and Sex Kitten interactions are fun to write. I'm happy you enjoyed it too :)
MissTiburtius : Aw, shucks. You made me blush. Thank you for reading.
mysweetkat: I feel like she would do something like falling asleep on a guy while making out with him. She's such a silly girl.
EMF6: New reviewer, I love you. Torture will be distributed to both the girls and the boys now.
StrawberryJellyPie: Wow. I made your mind faint and made you blush :D Mission accomplished. I love you.
Lemoncherry: I love you. I feel better that you think my updating is reasonable (phew). :)
Kariramos: I love you. Thank you for calling the story "fascinating".
allanimehere: I love you, new reviewer. Although your comment on "skipping a chapter" didn't make sense. About the porn thing, I really wouldn't know all about that, aha. Or the alcohol. Keep in mind that this is a fanfic.
Shiroyuki76: I like the refreshing comment :) I agree about Skip Beat! being a fun story with hints of darkness. I want this story to be happy and fun to read. And I am so sorry - I realized after reading it that the italics I put didn't show up, and since I'm technologically stupid, I'm not sure how to go back and fix it. Thank you for bringing that up, though. I'll make sure to make it clearer next time.
perfect beauty: The beauty of fanfics is that you can make your characters do anything.
(cue evil cackle).
halfdemonfan: Hm...puking would have been interesting :P I'm not that cruel.
ElheiM: Lol, it'll take some time for those two to get around to getting it on. The Sex Kitten and the Emperor shall be doing lots of communicating in chapters to come.
paigeydoll: It would definitely be better if she was sober when they have sex. There'd be a shitload of hate from her side if he took her, ahem, chastity, while drunk. He'd be pissed too, I'd imagine.
Piacine - Jadeymay: One day. Aha. Oh Kyoko. And the meeting is in the chapter after this one.
(I think).
Voidy: I love you. I think it's interesting you made the connection with Ren being a puppy type and Kyoko being a kitten. And thank you for the "simple idea but you telltale it well" comment. That's what I was aiming for. :)
J Luc Pitard: Aha, "the age old bottle instead of hot babe decision" made me lol. I love you.
Swt Cutie: Thank you :D
chaos: I love you. lol I stopped too soon xD
loveinchaos : I love you. There you are! Ren is pwned in the last chapter, but he ends up winning by blaming her for being a drunken slut. And yes, Ren and Reino are getting breaks in the following updates. Blue ovaries for the girls. hehe.
Kanae and Reino are coming up in the next installment.
Hope you enjoyed reading.