Losing

She thought for certain she was going to die when they blindfolded her and tossed her over the railing. Never in her life did she believe that anyone would actually be there to catch her. She was so ecstatic by the fact of being alive, that she ripped off the blindfold and in a flurry of emotions, kissed her savior.

His eyes went wide, then drifted shut as her sweet, warm taste assaulted his senses. He pulled her more tightly to him to enjoy his reward. She was perfect. He had known it from the moment that he met her, that she was made for him. Perhaps now she could accept him and his heart.

She slowly ended the kisses and blushed. "H-how did you know?"

He smirked at her and gave her quick small kiss on her lips. He was now officially addicted to her taste. "I love you Kyoko. I just knew you needed me."

"Thank you. Thank you for saving my life." She whispered into his neck as she hid her face and blushed.

"Are you okay my Queen?" He murmured into her hair as he slowly walked her to the bench a few feet away and sat with her on his lap.

She nodded silently.

Yashiro froze at the entrance of the mall, where they had been dining, when he witnessed his female charge in the arms of her savior. Although, he didn't have the entire picture of what had happened. All he was seeing at the moment was Kyoko-chan sitting in the lap of the man holding her and not pulling away from him as he would have expected.

His horrified gaze caught sight of the other male standing, frozen in place watching the aftermath of what he had just witnessed. He looked up at Yashiro and once again he felt the pain of not being there for her when she was in danger. Once again, someone else had saved her from a devil; however, this time it had been the Devil that did the rescue. Kuon/Ren watched as the platinum-haired, violet-eyed singer spoke softly to her and checked her to make sure she had no injuries. He wanted to rip her from his arms, but after what he had just done, he could hardly find fault in her knight.

"Is she okay?" She asked worriedly.

Her helpers nodded. "She didn't need us after all." Sayou told her.

"Did you get the footage?" They needed it if they were going to have any vindication at all.

All three smiled widely. "Yes Mistress. We got it from three different angles." They told her proudly as they held up their video cameras.

She furrowed her brow. "What happened? Who caught her?"

Sayou smiled. "Reino caught her, that singer from Vie Ghoul. He just came out of nowhere and there he was. Like he was waiting for something to happen." He explained.

Erika gave him a confused look. "Did he know what was going to happen?"

Todo shook his head. "It didn't seem like he did. It seemed as though he was waiting for someone; just looking around and then he looked up when he heard her scream. That's when he caught her."

Erika looked down in deep thought. "Strange."

Sayou, Todo and Sakazaki all three agreed, but they had their footage of Kimiko Morizumi and her manager forcing a blindfolded and groggy Kyoko over the rail of the balcony. That's all they needed. Erika would make several copies of the videos, give one to her father and send a few out to the news media and the police for good measure. Kimiko Morizumi was not going to get out of this one.

When the video was finally released during the next few days, all could clearly and cleanly see that Kimiko Morizumi and her manager had tried to kill the actress Kyouko and the lead singer Reino from Vie Ghoul, had saved her life. The Jewel Troupe had added a little extra footage in to make it appear that they had caught the horrific act by accident and sent in the recording that had the cleanest images on it. They kept the other two to send in at a later date if it came down to whether it was believed or not. Fortunately the gift to the news media had been accepted and spread about like an ointment on a wound and that's exactly what it was for Erika.

Kanae Kotonami was irritated with herself for not being there for her friend like Erika had been. She had been off sulking about not getting the part for Chidori, instead of eating dinner with Kyoko. She was completely guilt-ridden by the fact that if she had been there, Kyoko would have never been in the situation to begin with.

Ren was convinced that even Reino was better for her than he was, simply because of the fact that he had been there for her when he wasn't. He was withdrawing from her and breaking his own heart out of jealousy and insecurity. He still couldn't get past the photos that Lory had shown him.

Reino was on Cloud Nine. Kyoko was finally his. Some would call what she felt, Savior Syndrome. Others would say that she fell for her rescuer. Some would even think they were dating because she felt grateful to him, but Kyoko would say that he just happened to be the only person that had never lied to her about how he felt about her and proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

A significant amount of clarity comes to mind as one is falling to one's death only to be snatched from its clutches and the pieces of those little puzzles in her mind just fell into place. Kuon lied to her, Lory lied to her, Kanae hadn't inquired about her to see if she was okay, and she frankly didn't really care what Sho thought about her dating Reino because it wasn't his business. She wasn't sure what to think about Yashiro-san, he never indicated that he knew of the lies and deceptions.

Lory was livid that any of this had happened in the first place and was upset with himself for putting his two LoveME girls in danger in the first place. He was upset that Kuon and Kyoko's relationship was now laying in pieces because he showed those pictures to him. He felt that had he not done that, Kuon would have possibly been there with her. He would have been the one to save her and the new element in Kyoko's life wouldn't have had the opportunity to step in and take his place. Up until this point, it seemed as though the only thing Kuon had been saving her from, was her falling in love with anyone else but him. It brought to his mind the old phrase, "If I can't have you, then nobody else will.".

And so dear readers, I end this here. For this was not a story about finding love but losing love, revealing lies and how the most unsuspecting things can happen when you least expect them to. How one can lose everything in the blink of an eye when playing at being indifferent or being selfish. Finally, how jealousy can ruin everything and cause you to lose everything you worked so very hard for. That was the difficult lesson learned by at least three that lost their worlds that night, hopefully...