Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat! I also do not own The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, which is mentioned in this chapter.

Chapter 3

Kuon lay upon a rock by the stream. He felt the tension slowly melt away as he basked in the sunshine in the peaceful clearing. Back home, he may have been Kuon Hizuri, who wilted in the shadow of his famous father. But here, he thought smiling in amusement, he was the fairy prince Corn. He glanced at the stone still in his palm. The blue stone he'd channeled his frustration into. He held it up in the light and shifted it, watching as it changed color. He did not feel the wave of comfort that it used to bring him. He shifted on the rock, mind turning to his little friend. She could use a security blanket too. Maybe he could give it to her? A parting gift, perhaps? Their vacation was almost over. He could tell her it was magic. It had certainly felt like that for the years he'd held it.

He heard rustling in the forest and began to sit up. It looked like his little friend was here.

"Corn!"

His smile wavered as he heard desperation under the joy in her tone. She was always crying when she came to meet him.

"Hello, Kyoko-chan."

She gazed up at him and he noted her puffy red eyes and messy hair.

He ruffled her hair affectionately and asked, "Are you okay?"

It was the wrong thing to ask. Or perhaps, the right thing. He had no idea whether talking about personal issues actually helped, but he heard somewhere that it did. She averted her eyes and reached into her pocket. She wouldn't look at him as she held out the crumpled ball of paper. He took it and smoothed it back out, finding it consisted of three scraps of paper. 89, 95, 92. His eyes softened. They were the scores of a top student but the fact that she'd only brought him scraps let him know she'd still failed. He reached out and patted the top of her head, ignoring the irrational hurt he felt as she flinched at the intial contact. But as she realized it was praise, he watched her tense posture relax. Eyes closing as she revelled in the feeling, he understood. Surrounded by people who made you feel like nothing. To have the taste of failure perpetually in your mouth. To have one person, a single genuine person, that seemed to support you, that seemed to think you could do no wrong. It was liberating. He seemed to be that one person for her, just as she was for him. How many times now, in their brief time together, had he leaned closer, drawing in the warmth that she exuded, gasping in the words of praise she gave him, hoping to internalize them and make them true?

He sat, pulling her to sit in front of him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

The second he finished asking, he regretted it. Her sharp intake of breath came with the filling of her eyes, it only needed the additional prompting of a blink to overflow. Small hands came up to rub angrily at her eyes and cheeks. She winced, hands jerking away from her face. It was then that he noticed her battered hands. He reached out, cradling her hands in his own. He rubbed soothing circles on her palms, whispered comfort, shushed her softly. He dipped a hand into the clear water, filling it and allowing the water to cascade upon her beaten fists. He repeated the process, over and over, until he'd rinsed the dried blood from her hands. The cuts she had were shallow, but the bruises were worse. Angry purple and blue splotches stained her little hands. He looked at her. She was still sobbing, body shaking uncontrollably. She was deathly pale. Lips, dry and cracked, quivered. Her hiccups between sobs were excruiating, as he could tell from her obviously dry throat. She looked so hurt. She looked so cold.

So he did the only thing he could. He brought the bruised hands up to his lips and kissed them. The action took her by surprise, causing her sobs to stutter, though they did not cease. He pressed his lips to the clenched hands a few times more before coaxing them open and laying more kisses upon her palms. She was still crying. He moved closer. He brushed his lips upon her forehead. He noted that she was able to take deeper, calmer breaths now. He firmly pressed his lips to her forehead again. Then he kissed each cheek, each eyelid. She wasn't shaking anymore. He pressed his lips to her neck and what should have been a wail was replaced with a giggle. He grinned. She was ticklish. He nuzzled her neck and was rewarded as the giggle grew into a laugh and her hands moved to his chest to push him away. He wouldn't let her though, not until he knew she was feeling better. He wrapped his arms around her, trapping her arms where they were, and continued to nuzzle her. He relented when her laughter was loud enough to echo throughout the clearing and she was squirming in his arms.

He pulled back. He was glad to see her face filled with color, her cheeks bright and rosy. Her eyes sparkled with mirth rather than tears. A smile had replaced the quivering pout. But her lips were still cracked, a sharp contrast to the happy image she now made. And the reminder of her sorrow was unacceptable. He leaned in and kissed her. He felt her gasp, but she did not move away. He kept his lips against hers until he felt them warm to match the temperature of his own. He never wanted to see her look so cold again.

Stepping back, Kyoko was looking up at him, shock still evident on her face. He chuckled. He'd better explain before she blew things out of proportion.

"Better?"

She nodded dazedly and stuttered. "Y-you k-k-kissed me."

He dodged the issue. "Multiple times, if I remember correctly."

"Corn!" she admonished, arms flailing. "That wasn't what I meant!"

He sighed inwardly. She was going to have a fit at this rate. He really didn't feel like a lecture on propriety. "I was fixing you."

The statement cut off her tirade before it began. She cocked her head to the side curiously.

"Fixing me?"

He hummed in agreement. "You were hurt so I kissed it better."

"But―"

"And you looked so cold."

"Cold?"

Good, she was distracted. Now he just needed to keep her that way. "You were shivering, pale, and huddled up like you were cold. It reminded me of a fairy tale."

She perked up and he knew then that he'd been successful. "A fairy tale?"

He nodded and indicated she should sit. "The Snow Queen. In it, a little boy named Kay is taken by the Snow Queen and Gerda finds him. When she does, he's freezing. So she warms him up by kissing him. His cheeks, his eyelids, his hands and feet." He ends the sentence by grabbing her foot and she jerks it away with a shriek. She was ticklish there too. She didn't seem to notice that he didn't mention lips at all.

"Why did she take him?"

"I'll tell you the story if you want." It would be good for her to hear a story where the female is the hero.

She nodded eagerly and he began. "Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite..."

"So you were kidnapped and held hostage for those chocolates on Valentine's Day. Your inability to do anything during the event made you frustrated and so while...terrorizing someone today you were, as you said 'extra vicious'... and got left behind?"

It nodded solemnly. Ren frowned. He placed the stalker further up on his hit list.

The mini Kyoko yawned. He held his hand out and it settled down on it immediately.

"You've had a rough day. Why don't you rest?"

"I've never been out this long before, unless you count the kidnapping," it murmured tiredly. It floated off his palm and settled down at the curve where his shoulder met his neck.

"Never?"

It hummed in agreement. "I'm a grudge demon. I'm only out and awake when I'm being used. I am sustained by magic, which I get, of course, from master. It's exhausting not to... recharge... I guess is a good way to put it."

He glanced down towards it worriedly. "Will you be okay without 'recharging'?"

"I'm fine. I've been... siphoning some of your magic." it admitted guiltily.

"My magic?"

"Yes. Even if I had run straight into you like I did, if you didn't have magic, you wouldn't be able to see me." It yawned again. "Can we talk later? I'm tired."

"Of course."

It slipped into the pocket of his shirt. "Even though you can tell that I'm here, it is as if I don't exist to everyone else. It won't look like anything is in your pocket to anyone else. Feel free to go about your work as usual."

"Alright then. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

A/N: Sorry for giving you another chapter that is mostly flashback but this is important. We can finally get the ball rolling on this thing. Besides, I really hated that Sho got her first kiss like that.

Thank you so much as always for reading this.

On to the next!

Until next time friendlies,

Dfsemina