-Oxford - Wednesday: Part 28-
Kyoko made her way back to the table, the further she got away from where Shoutaro was on the patio with those other men. She knew she should have been kinder to the other three but she couldn't, she couldn't be kind and not break down. It would not have done her any good. Deep down she knew this could help her, it had to help her otherwise what was the point? 'My mind is my weapon right Tomi-sensei' she thought as she forced herself not to wrap her arms around her, to hold herself. 'Keep it together, just keep it together' she had to find a way to thank the blond she paused for a moment before it hit her quickly she could just pay for their meal tonight. Well her father could, she was sure he would be fine with that. Not that he would be happy to learn what had happened but in a way, he had picked this location for whatever reason.
Making her way to the Maitre'D she smiled, this was something she could handle she could refocus using this. "I would like to pay for a party's meal" The man looked at her for a moment before giving a small nod of his head.
"Yes of course Lady Kyoko, I just need a name of the party" and there was the issue she didn't know the name she did know but she had caught the silver-haired boy's name when she was walking away his friend had called him Reino and they both seemed to know the other man.
"I'm afraid I didn't catch his name that there is a man name Reino, he has silver hair and violet eyes. He was with a man with long blonde hair..." she had to admit they were both rather attractive. Not in the same way as Ren but she could easily see them being quickly near the top of the list of most desired. "To make up for that I will also be paying for their meal. Send their bills to my father."
Maitre'D looked a bit unsure for a moment but he seemed to make a quick choice and he nodded his head with a smile. "Yes of course Lady Kyoko, I will send the bill to ArchDuke Lory," he said with a bow of his head afterward. "Will that be all?" she chewed her lower lip before a small smile played across her lips. This was something she could right?
"Yes there is a man name Sho Fuwa here, I would like him to be removed from this location. I'm afraid he assaulted me sexually and while I would call the police on the matter, I rather not bring down this wonderful restaurant with such awful news. You see that's why it's most important that those two parties get some sort of reward even if it isn't much." she said sadly, she placed a hand on her cheek, "But I suppose if I'm left with no choice on the matter..." she whispered softly more to herself but the Maitre'D seemed to almost leaping into the direction she wanted him too. She had expected more of a fight.
"There is no need for that Lady Kyoko, I will personally see to his removal and banned of all our locations," he said with a bow of his head.
"Thank you so much, you have been so very helpful," she said touching his arm some "The last I saw of him he was on the patio." He blushed slightly before quickly leaving to take care of the matter. She wanted to watch but she wasn't sure she could keep herself in check to do that. It would just have to do for the time being she supposed as she turned to go back to the table. Feeling a little more like herself again. There was one other thing she had to do before she really could call it a night, which she so badly wanted to do right now.
Kyoko closed her eyes as she sat down in the booth, she didn't move close to him she wasn't exactly ready for physical contact at the moment of any kind even if it was an act. Even if he didn't like her at all it was important that this was done right? That's what she kept telling herself as she felt his arms wrap around her pulling her into his chest. She tried not to be so stiff but she was finding it hard not to do just that. She closed her eyes trying to calm herself, when he leaned in some, it wasn't like they would be heard but it was relaxing somehow.
"Are you alright?" He ran his fingers down her arm as if to comfort her but she was not finding it comforting at the moment she wanted to pull away but she didn't do so because she knew what she had to do.
"Yes of course, why wouldn't I be alright?" she said looking up at him a smile painted her features but she knew just as he seemed to do so that it was a business smile, a smile that she used to hide her true emotions one that most couldn't see through but Ren was not most people. He caught on fast not as fast as Cody had done, not as fast as Keiji but still remarkably fast, perhaps because he was an actor.
"Kyoko-chan" he growled she didn't acknowledge it at all, instead of looking away from him, she really didn't like him calling her that. "Did something happen?" there was a tone to his voice that made it clear that he wouldn't take 'nothing' as a response from her and she was having a hard time not fighting off the cold energy that seemed to be coming from him at the moment.
"What…" She closed her eyes for a moment trying to find her voice to make herself sound as normal as possible, "What possibly could have happened?" Yes her voice sounded close enough to normal, that she felt a hint of pride but that cold energy seemed to be freezing now. She shivered unsure exactly why she was doing so, she tried to take a deep breath but felt his hand still and she all of a sudden wanted to run. 'Yep... I don't want this directed me' she cringed mentally. He said nothing at all but the coldness and the energy he was throwing off that spoke more than words could ever do made her look down at her hands instead. Slowly his fingers began to trail up and down her arm again, making her feel colder but moving closer to him only enhanced that feeling and she knew that looking away from him would not be any good either. He would just likely pull her back to him and she didn't think she wanted to know just how below zero the energy around him could get. 'Forgive me Tomi-sensei' she mentally cried as she blurted out what he wanted to know, "I just ran into some people, one of them was Shoutaro, but it's fine. He just wanted me to go back to Kyoto, to be his bride... or at least have some sort of claim on me that way." It wasn't exactly the truth but it seemed to calm him down just enough that she could feel warmth returning to her limbs. His anger was no longer directed at her and that seemed to make all the difference to her. "He honestly didn't do anything," she said once more and to her, he really hadn't done much of anything. No, he would have she knew that too, but what he did was far less than what those other men did, far less than what Heth did.
"There were other people with you?" She sighed as she leaned against the table, pulling away from him. Which she noticed he didn't exactly like but she really didn't care.
"You do realize I'm not required to tell you anything, you aren't my boyfriend." She felt the coldness wrapping around her but she wouldn't stand down from this. He wasn't even a friend, he was hired to do this, he was her father's friend. He was Maria's friend. Her friends were Cody and Keiji and that was more than she ever had as a child. She dare not ask for more, she had a wonderful family it would be one thing if they were asking her questions but even then she likely wouldn't have told them either. Still, she had something else she needed from him and she leaned back into the booth thankful his arm was not in the way, nor did he move to wrap it around her. A fact he wasn't even looking at her but he was still cold feeling. He was mad at her but at least he wasn't trying to push the subject anymore. "but yes, three people to be exact, Reino knew them." alright so she didn't know who Reino was but at least she had that name and she felt another wave of coldness wash over her before fading quickly.
"Reino, do you trust him?" He sounded almost like a small child when he asked that and she turned to look at him
"No," she watched him carefully as he seemed to almost cheer up over this fact which to her was odd. "But there is something that needs to be done." she looked away she really didn't want to look at him while she said the next words. "Your performance is lacking..." she felt the energy grow colder again, 'Yep she never had told him that' she mentally sighed, but she supposed she had no real choice in this matter in the end, "You already been outperformed so you should up your performance don't you think?" Of course she didn't exactly know what a date was supposed to include to know that they already have done a great deal when it came to it, all she could really think about is that Sho and that French woman had gone a lot further, not that she was comfortable with that but she figured it was for the best as well. Should the information about Sho get leaked by any of them including Sho. It would not look good if the man she came with was tossed beside she was sure that no one would believe that she would trade someone like Ren in for Sho and do more with Sho than Ren. It was really a bit too much for her, she could feel her face already burning at the thoughts that were entering her mind.
Kuon stared at her, he couldn't believe someone was telling him that his performance was lacking more so someone who wasn't even an actress. It bothered him on a level that he didn't understand, Yet what had happened to make her think that his performance as her boyfriend or at least someone she was seeing if not her boyfriend lacked. He never had a woman complain about such things before. True they never lasted but that's was because he wasn't the one for them they found someone else. That or they couldn't handle that his acting came first, it wasn't like he didn't go into those relationships making it clear that his dream came first. Then there were the countless women he had been with, so many that he couldn't even count, truth be told he could hardly count his girlfriends either but at least they were a much more reasonable number compared to just the sheer number of women he's been with. Slowly anger began to boil in him but when he saw how she was turning red, he began to relax some.
"So my performance is lacking?" he thought about it for a moment, what was exactly she asking for from him? He knew that she had been sold to a sex slave business but she acted so innocent, he doubted that was an act. No, she likely shut that part of herself off from them. So now what she expected was all screwed up in her head. His eyes trailed to the empty booth that Sho had been sitting at, wondering if she was expecting something along those lines. Not that he would mind but no matter how he thought about but at the same time he reminded himself that she was only fifteen years old it didn't matter that her birthday was at the end of the year, so close to the very end of the year actually she was still only fifteen and he was nineteen and that was an issue. No part of him told him that wasn't even the issue either, it was the fact he was her Corn, her Fairy Prince and while she didn't remember who he really was anymore, she still held onto that blue stone he had given her all these years. He couldn't allow himself as her Fairy Prince the one role he played that made him truly free inside his heart, that made him believe in his dreams, that even now he was trying so hard to reach that feeling again, that true love for a role he played that it hurt to let it go. Ren's eyes watched her as she turned to face him, shifting herself so there was still a distance, even though she had been the one to say that he had to step up his game she clearly wasn't ready for such a thing.
"Yes..." she couldn't look at him after she said the words. Her mind replied how the French woman seemed to be so into Sho so maybe the truth was she was lacking but she didn't know how to make that sort of thing happen. All she knew was what she was told to do and he wasn't exactly telling her what he wanted her to do either so how was she suppose to know? Besides Amanda and David told him it was his job to make this seem believable right? So shouldn't he be leading her? "I know I'm not much to look at..." she said thinking about the words of other men, she didn't have the sex appeal but they did praise her for other things, even if she hadn't really been there. She didn't want to go there with Ren but what else was she suppose to use as a resource? Sho always ended his dates much the same way from what she could remember. Lots of girls talked about it even if they weren't talking about Sho, no she wouldn't go that far but didn't she have to at least make it look like she did? Isn't that how you know a date went well? She felt frustrated by the lack of knowledge and slowly shook her head.
Neither Ren nor Kuon could believe what they heard, not much to look at replied over and over in their head. 'How could you ever think that?' one wanted to shake her shoulders and demand the answer while the other part of him, his true self-wanted nothing more than to prove her wrong. Yet he wouldn't do that, neither part of him would. Yet she rose to her feet, he supposed he hadn't moved fast enough, hadn't comforted her like he should have. She rose to her feet he noticed the hurt look on her face as she moved away from the booth and from him. "Where are you going?" he didn't mean to sound so mad but he was, he was growing frustrated and mad that she thought so little of herself, that he for some reason couldn't understand exactly why he wanted to prove her wrong other than perhaps her acting was just that good, good enough that it was drawing him into her world. The world she wanted to create that would be gone far sooner than when he had been Corn.
Something snapped inside of her, something she wasn't sure why. Even acting like they owned her, Heth, Sho... and now Ren. "Stop acting like you own me" she wanted to scream but she kept her voice even and calm. She didn't raise it like she wanted to, she was just so tired of it. She placed a hand against her forehead, "I'm not property, I don't belong to anyone. I don't belong to Heth, I don't belong to Sho and I do not belong to you." Part of her knew she shouldn't end it here, that from what she understood, people in love tended to forget time, actually she knew that really well. Whenever Shoutaro had been home everything was wonderful in her mind, time would stand still, he was always waiting for her. They had been happy or so she had thought before... before he threw her away. She couldn't help the way she looked, she couldn't help that she didn't have the sex appeal that men wanted. "I think I'll go find Reino" she wanted to thank him properly, get the name of the other man and thank him as well. She was sure had Shoutaro would have attempted to hurt the kind man had there not been two others there. Shoutaro never did like to take on a group when it came to fighting, one or two people were fine but there had been three and when she had left there had been three others just down the hall. Likely if either of them had yelled for them they would have come running she wasn't sure how or why she felt that way but she was still sure about it. Most of all she was just tired, tired of acting, tired of pretending that someone like Ren Tsuruga would ever find her attractive enough to properly play out the role given to him. It just wasn't believable enough and she knew that better than anyone. The only people she could attract were old men who liked teenagers who wouldn't fight them or if they did would be able to take a beating. Both at which she would be able to do rather well she supposed.
He wasn't positive who was in control right now, the role he created for himself as Ren or his true self but he had quickly moved from the booth and wrapped his arms around her. "As if I would allow that..." he growled under his breath but he knew she had heard him because she shivered. He was angry she would dare to leave him for someone else, someone she claimed she didn't trust. What if they did something to her? No the only one who would be allowed to touch her, he couldn't finish that thought he didn't want to. The thought of her with anyone else or with him neither would work she was too young... even if she was far from a child in how she acted, how she carried herself. He buried his face into the side of her neck, she tried to pull away but she was unable to do so and he had been right. She would not make a scene she was very careful of her public image, likely because of her place within the royal family. It would reflect badly on them if she made a scene her plans would also be ruined she would just put up with it.
Kyoko hissed at him, "Let me go" he pulled her back to the edge of the booth laying his chin on her shoulder, she sighed heavily but stopped struggling. She gave in just like that and he couldn't help but smile at it. "Zalupa" He couldn't help but grin, he knew she meant to insult him but he couldn't help but tease her right now. Now that she seemed to be relaxing just a bit against him.
"Well it's not small but I'm not sure I would say huge, maybe if you behave yourself I'll let you see for yourself" her eyes turned towards him and he saw how red she looked, she clearly caught on and he was finding it hard not to laugh. 'She is still so cute. How is that even possible?'
A/N: Zalupa is Russian it has multiple meanings, the most common ones are "dickhead" and "prick" but can also mean 'Huge Penis' Kyoko, of course, meant more along the lines of the first two, while Kuon/Ren thought to turn thought to turn the tables on her.