I do not own Skip Beat!

"Tsuru— Ren-san," Kyouko complained, bushing, "you don't have to say my name so much. It's embarrassing."

"I'm practicing," He said with a smile. He had been using it in practically every sentence he addressed to her. He liked the feel of it on his tongue, but what he liked more was the sound of his name coming from her mouth. "You should practice too. You keep starting to call me 'Tsuruga-san.'"

"Eat your food," Kyouko said. "You'll be late for your next job."

"I'll be fine. It's nearby," he said. "Now why don't you practice too, Kyouko?"

"I—it's embarrassing," Kyouko said. "I'll say it when I need to. Now, eat your food."

"I'll take a bite for every time you say it," he said with a smile.

Kyouko stared down at his barely touched plate.

"I'm not saying your name for every bite," she said, glaring.

Even her glares were cute.

"It's ok, Kyouko," he said, pushing his plate back. "I'm not very hungry. I don't think I could have eaten much more anyway."

"Eh? But you hardly touched your food!" she said.

Her loud exclamation drew the curious looks of passersby. Thankfully, due to the time constrains caused by spending such a large portion of their lunch breaks in conversation in Ren's car, they had opted to eat at LA Hearts, where the wait staff and clientele were both used to seeing celebrities. As such, the onlookers only looked, and went on their way.

Kyouko shrunk down into her seat, embarrassed at being noticed.

"Yes," he said. "It is a pity to waste food."

Kyouko straightened in her seat and quickly glanced back and forth before leaning across the table and whispering, "Ren-san."

Kyouko was back in her seat, sitting with her characteristic perfect posture, sipping her water, before Ren could even fully process what had happened.

"I'm sorry, Kyouko, I didn't catch that," he said.

Kyouko glared.

He took a bite.

"Eat your food," she said.

"I'm sorry, who are you talking to?" he asked, looking to his left, then to his right.

"I'm talking to you," she said.

"Who?" he asked.

"Tsu— Ren-san," Kyouko pouted, blushing bright red. "You know I'm talking to you. Now, eat your food."

Ren smiled widely and took another bite of his lunch. He couldn't remember a meal he had enjoyed more.

The Red Kyouko stared down at her plate.

Ren leaned across the table and touched Kyouko's hand.

She looked up.

"I'm sorry, Kyouko," he said. "I didn't mean to tease you so much."

"Yes you did," Kyouko said. "Ren-san, you're mean!"

"I'm sorry," he said, lightly rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. "I'll eat now, so will you forgive me, Kyouko?"

"I'll forgive you if you finish your lunch," Kyouko said.

Ren smiled, relinquished her hand and went back to eating.

The lunch was over all too soon for Ren's taste. Kyouko had forgiven him in the end. After they had finished eating, she had said goodbye and gone to meet Amamiya Chiori so they could go to their Box R shoot together. Yashiro had then appeared out of nowhere with one of his trademark wicked grins in place.

Ren sighed.

"What is it, Yashiro?" he asked.

"Ren," he said, stretching out the name, almost as if in song, "You're finally calling Kyouko-chan by her first name."

"Yes, I am," he said.

"You were still calling her 'Mogami-san' on the phone earlier. Your mood seems to be improved too. Did something happen?" Yashiro asked.

"We simply had a discussion," Ren said.

"Ren," Yashiro said.

"What is it?" he asked. Sometimes talking to Yashiro was like having teeth pulled. No matter how much you complained, he would get it out in the end.

"I know her reaction is cute, but you shouldn't tease her too much," he said, still grinning evilly, "she'll hate you."

Ren sighed and wondered for exactly how much of their lunch Yashiro had been present. He was going to have to be more vigilant. If he wanted time alone with Kyouko, he would have to spend it in a place where Yashiro and President Takarada didn't have such ready access to them.

The President smiled as he watched over the security footage of LA Hearts. He couldn't exactly have sound equipment installed all over the restaurant, at least not good enough equipment to be able to hear the conversations at every table. He would have to wait for a call from one of his informants before he knew what their conversation consisted of, but he was happy to see the actions of the couple.

Kyouko had been blushing almost nonstop, but she hadn't made a move to disengage herself when Ren had touched her hand, and she had even, very briefly albeit, leaned across the table and whispered in his ear.

It wasn't exactly the progress he had been hoping for, but progress was progress.

Now that the couple had separated, he switched back to watching the video of their interview practice. It seemed Chiaki was right. They weren't entirely hopeless. They were slowly getting closer to where they needed to be. He only hoped they would get there before something happened that necessitated an interview.

Aki Shouko sighed as she eyed her charge. He had been horribly sullen ever since the encounter with Kyouko at LME. The statement issued by Akatoki hadn't been enough to counteract the rumors that he had been dumped by Kyouko. And though he could have used the rumors to his advantage, to write songs about lost love which would deepen his emotional impact on his fans, his pride had gotten in the way. His latest songs had nothing to do with his real emotional state and thus came off shallow. For the first time in months, none of his singles had made it to number one.

Since LME's statement confirming the relationship between Kyouko and Ren, he had gotten even worse.

He grumbled to himself as he flipped through the channels at light speed.

"Shou, why don't you turn off the TV and we can go take a break," Shouko said, gently removing the controller from Shou's hand. "You haven't left the apartment in a while."

Shou continued to stare at the device which seemed to only cause him further irritation.

Shouko sighed, pointed the remote toward the screen, which was showing images of Shou's most loathed couple, holding hands outside of a film studio, and turned off the TV.

He continued to stare at the blank screen.

"Shou, why don't you call her and actually talk to her?" Shouko suggested. "It might not be too late."

"Who would want to talk to such a plain, boring, unsexy girl?" Shou snapped.

Shouko shook her head and left the room.

"You would, Shou," she whispered. "Among others."

AN:GAH! Taking a break from the school project (which is kicking my butt) to post this. Memorizing lines in foreign languages is hard! At least I will be on break after my final tomorrow morning :D Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Feel free to leave me a review if you'd like to let me know what you think :D