I do not own Skip Beat!

"Ren, are you alright?" Yashiro asked. "Was Kyouko-chan not done with filming yet?"

"No, she was done," Ren said, jaw tensing.

"So then why are you upset?" Yashiro asked.

"Why would I be upset?" Ren asked, flashing a brilliant smile.

"Ok, never mind," Yashiro said, putting his hands up in surrender. He knew better than to mess with Ren when he was in this sort of mood.

The two went to Ren's car, and actor dropped Yashiro off at LME before heading to the studio where Kyouko had just finished filming.

Ren had been worried that something would happen today. Ryou's crush on Kyouko had been pretty obvious from day one. It seemed the boy never stopped staring at Kyouko, but she was oblivious to his attentions as she had ever been to Ren's. Perhaps that should have relieved him, but it just made him worry about her defenselessness.

Ren sighed and hit the accelerator.

"That was fast," Kyouko said, answering a knock at her dressing room door. When she opened it however, it was not Ren, but Ryou who stood before her. "Oh, Ryou-san, it's you. Sorry I thought it was—"

"It's ok," the boy interrupted. "I um, I knew you had plans, but I was wondering if I could talk to you for a little bit before you left."

"Oh, um, sure," Kyouko said, "Juts let me get my things."

She popped back into the room, gathered her belongings and rejoined Ryou.

"I have to go when Tsuruga-san gets here, but if you want, we could sit and talk while I wait," she offered with a smile.

"That would be great," he said, answering her smile with a wide grin of his own.

They walked out to the studio lobby, Kyouko smiling and bidding goodbye to the cast mates she passed along the way. She noticed that some of them were giving her confused looks, but she shrugged it off and continued toward the lobby.

They found a couple of chairs and sat down.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Kyouko asked.

"Ah, um, well, first off, I just wanted to say how honored I am to be working with you. I mean, really. I've been following your career since you were in the Kyurara commercial. You're really amazing! You make all of your roles come alive! Just watching you—"

"Ryou-san, please, stop," Kyouko said, blushing bright red, "I'm really not as amazing as you're making me out to be."

"Eh? No way, you really are! It's like you completely become whatever role your portraying. It's been a dream of mine to get a chance to work opposite you, and now I really am," he said. "I only hope I'm not frustrating to work with."

"Eh? Why would you be?" Kyouko asked. Ryou was very professional. He was always on set on time and had his lines properly memorized. They would sometimes get a few NGs, but no more than when she worked with most other actors or actresses. Ren aside, of course, he could not be compared with anyone.

Ryou looked at Kyouko and a faint blush spread across his cheeks.

"Well," he said. "When I act with you, I— I get lost."

"Eh?" Kyouko asked.

"Well, it's like you pull me in. I get so absorbed by your performance, that I don't even know what I'm supposed to be saying or doing and just react," he said.

Kyouko blushed. She had just been given a high complement indeed.

"I know exactly how you feel, Ryou-san," Kyouko said.

The young man's expression shifted from one of utter bliss to fear and Kyouko looked over her shoulder to see what had cause the change.

"Are you ready to go?" Ren asked her, smile at its highest wattage.

Kyouko nodded silently, picked up her things and stood.

"See you next time, Ryou-san," Kyouko said.

Her anger sensor quivered as it sensed a spike in Ren's negative feelings. Kyouko was almost afraid to go with him when he was so upset, but she needed to know what was wrong.

"Um, Tsuruga-san," she began timidly, once they were alone in his car, "What's wrong?"

Ren took a deep calming breath before answering.

"Mogami-san," he said, almost spitting out her name, "What were you talking about with Shirota-san?"

"Acting," she said, almost as a question. Ren was making her nervous, and not in a heart thumping, blushing head over heels sort of way.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"Ah, come to think of it, there seemed to be more than one thing Ryou-san wanted to discuss, but we never got to it," she said.

"Ryou-san?" he asked.

"Um, yes?" she said.

"Why Ryou-san?" he asked. "Weren't you calling him Shirota-san just last week?"

"Um, yes, but he asked me to call him that," she said.

"So you just did?" he asked. "No qualms about it?"

"Ah, well, I would have preferred to call him Shirota-san, but he said it felt weird to be calling me by my first name if I was calling him by his last name, and since our ages aren't that far apart…"

Ren sighed.

"Tsuruga-san?" she asked.

Ren wasn't looking at her. He leaned his head back against the headrest, eyes closed, trying to calm down. He had walked in to hear Kyouko, calling by name and enthusiastically sympathizing with the feelings of the young man who obviously had a crush on her. He had already been on edge, and it pushed him dangerously close to falling over.

He opened his eyes when he felt a small hand on his. He turned to find Kyouko looking at him in concern. He turned his hand over and pulled Kyouko's more securely into his grasp, using her touch to anchor his emotions.

"Why am I the only one who calls you by your last name?" he finally asked.

"Eh? Um, well, The President calls me by my last name too," she said.

"He's your boss," Ren said. "I'm your boyfriend."

"Um, I don't know," Kyouko said. "Why do you call me by my last name?"

"What?" Ren asked.

"Um, well, you were the one who first started calling me that," Kyouko said. "Before that, it was just 'you.'"

Ren's brow furrowed in confusion. Hadn't Kyouko always been the one who was so adamant about proper terms of address?

"I did?" he asked.

"Well, at first, you didn't call me by name at all, so when you started calling me 'Mogami-san,' I was happy," she said, blushing. "I thought maybe it meant you didn't hate me anymore. Well, I mean, I know you don't hate me now, but back then, I thought, well, you know."

"Didn't you tell me not to call you Kyouko?" he asked.

"Eh?" Kyouko asked. "I never said that."

Ren searched his memories, and then it hit him. Kyouko had never prohibited Tsuruga Ren from calling her anything, but she had told Kuon to add a suffix to her name. Ren felt incredibly stupid.

"Then can I call you Kyouko?" he asked.

"Eh?" Kyouko asked. Her face was bright red, but finally she glanced up at him through her lashes and gave a timid, "Ok."

Ren smiled. He had been wanting to call her 'Kyouko' for so long. He felt like a stranger, calling her 'Mogami-san,' when everyone else was calling her some variation of 'Kyouko.' Every time that arrogant musician called her name, it grated on him.

"Then, you can start calling me Ren too," he said.

Kyouko's face looked like it had just gone up in flames.

"Eh? I couldn't do that. It's impossible," she said.

"If I can call you Kyouko, you can call me Ren," he said. "And besides, we're dating now. It's not out of place."

"Eh? But, even if we're dating, you're still my sempai and older than me and—"

"So it's the age thing after all," he said, growing upset again. "You can call some guy you just met by his first name because he's only two years older, but you can't call your boyfriend, who you've known for years by name, because the age gap is four years."

"Eh? No, it's not the age gap. I mean, as someone older than me, of course that difference should be reflected in terms of address, but you're also my sempai, and um, I really respect you, so um, calling your first name without honorifics is a bit…"

"Kyouko," Ren said, calming down, "saying my name without honorifics doesn't mean you don't respect me. It just means we're close."

"But—"

"Do you think I don't respect you anymore just because I'm calling you Kyouko?"

"N—no," she said, blushing.

"Then try and say it," he said. "Please?"

Kyouko looked up at him with anxious eyes and blushing cheeks.

"Ren…san. Ah! I can't do it!" she said. "I'm sorry! I can't do it without the 'san.'"

Ren turned away.

"Tsu— um Ren-san," she said tentatively. "Are you angry?"

He took a deep breath and turned back toward her with a smile. Maybe it was better if she didn't call him without any honorific. When she called his name, he had some very strong urges that would not be appropriate to act on just yet.

"No, Kyouko, I'm not angry," he said. "'Ren-san' is fine."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "Now let's go get some lunch."

He needed to get to a public location before he did something he would regret.

AN: Ah! So many good updates to distract me today, but I was a good little girl and wrote my chapter first ;) Thanks for reading, reviewing, subscribing etc. Feel free to leave me a review if you'd like to let me know what you think :D Now, off to read.