Chapter II: Not Such A Good Idea.

A/N: This chapter is sooo overdue its not even funny. -_- sorry to anyone who was looking forward to a fast update. You can thank Emily F.6 for the update, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gotten off my butt to do this. Enjoy guys!

Yashiro had a pretty strong feeling of where Ren would take Kyoko, so he wisely stayed downstairs, rather than risk catching them en route to his hotel room. Way too awkward. He'd have to pretend not to see the desire raging rampant in both their eyes. He shuddered. Yeah as much as he loved the both of them and wanted them to be happy, he didn't think he'd be able to stomach that.

Sipping his coffee in the lobby café lounge, he waited for Director Ogata to come back from taking an important phone call. The café had a tranquil and serene atmosphere, he noted, other patrons were working on laptops and drinking various beverages or chatting quietly with friends and co-workers.

The serenity was broken however, as Fuwa Sho came storming through, with his manager struggling to keep up.

"Sho, calm down! Please!" Shoko pleaded, very conscious of the curious stares they were getting from other patrons.

"Like hell I will! If that 'Beagle' thinks this is over, he has another thing coming! I'm going dump his ass out of the business so fast he won't even know what hit him!"

Yashiro listened to the upset musician, smiling. He could destroy the Beagle and do whatever else he wanted, but the one to heal and hold Kyoko's fragile heart would be Ren. Suddenly, Yashiro realized with a snort that Sho had caught sight of him and saw him go slightly purple in the face as the implications of his presence set in.

"You," he glared as he strode over. "You're here, that means that Tsuruga is here. Where's Kyoko?"

Yashiro indulged himself in raking the hotheaded boy over the coals a little as he continued to sip his coffee, calmly observing him.

"If Ren is here, then where you do you think Kyoko-chan is?" He allowed the 17 year old to ponder his statement for a minute and then continued. "Of course she would be with him. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, they're probably in his room now. " He said it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Sho growled some quite indecent words and stalked off. His manager watched him in horror, mortified at his behavior and looked at Yashiro, embarrassment coloring her cheeks. She bowed low in apology and Yashiro replied with a slight inclination of his head, the amusement on his face clear. Shoko hurried after her charge.

Ren let himself into his hotel room, opening the door with one hand, never letting go of Kyoko. The room was dark, with only the smallest sliver of light streaming into the room through the black out drapes. There was a king sized bed in the middle of the room and a large dresser with an equally large mirror over it. A closet was located to his immediate left, and a little ahead of him to the right was the bathroom. The whole room was tastefully decorated and colored in a palate of chocolate browns and crème golds. The whole way to the room, Kyoko hadn't said a word, just clutched at his shirt, snuggling closer to him. Every few minutes she would run her fingers over his chest, her hands lingering over his heart feeling it beat under her fingers. It was like she was making sure he was really there and that he wasn't a figment of her admittedly, overactive imagination. His breath would hitch at her touch but he didn't say anything, understanding her need to know he was physically there for her. Ren closed the door behind him and sat down on the king sized bed in the semi-darkness of the room.

"Mogami-san?" Ren said gently.

"Mmm?" She didn't open her eyes. She looked quite comfortable, which was a change from her previous shivering and emotionally wrecked state. Ren chuckled. Time for drastic measures.

"Not that I mind this position but –. " Kyoko's eyes flew open. They were red and swollen but now alert. She seemed to finally realize her position. She removed her hands from his shirt and sat up in his lap, wiping her eyes frantically.

"I'm sorry!" she hastily tried to get up from his lap. How could she have done something so stupid? Me the epitome of the modest Japanese woman, sitting so comfortably in a man's arms! Shame on me! She suddenly found however, that she had no where to go as Ren's arms had formed an iron cage around her.

"Tsuruga-san?"

"Tell me what happened Mogami-san." He said simply. Kyoko instantly faltered, her previous embarrassment forgotten, her eyes dropped and she stopped struggling.

"Do I have to?" she murmured.

"Yes." He replied firmly, leaving no room for any argument. He understood that she probably didn't want to relive it, but if he didn't know what had happened, then how was he to help her? He felt her sink against him, leaning against his chest. She closed her eyes.

"I don't know if you know this, but probably not. Recently a new band is getting really popular called Beagle." Beagle? Ren wondered. "So naturally I got curious and did some investigating. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were ripping off his music. " Ren stiffened. They both understood who she meant when she said him. "They play the same type of music and they wear the same ridiculous clothing. When I found out a few days ago, that Sho was here, I decided to tell him and ask him why my rival was letting some newbie amateurs rip him off. The baka knew of course, but he was too much of a coward to do anything about it. It was clear that he was scared silly. I called him out on it, I wanted to know where his arrogance from before had gone and why he wasn't kicking their asses. Naturally he didn't take that too well. He slapped me in a momentary minute of rage." Ren's eyes widened. He turned her face towards him and for the first time took in the small bandage on her face. The bastard had slapped her?

"I was trying to help him." She said bitterly, for once not caring about how intimate he was being with her. "But of course, my help never mattered. I could slave my life away for the betterment of him and his goals and he'd never notice. I could kill myself for him and he'd just ignore me, like he always has." Ren instinctively held her tighter to him.

"Mogami-san…" He was at a loss of what to say.

"Anyways," she continued. "The stupid leader of the group saw us talking and thought that was important to Sho." She snorted. "He concluded, therefore, that I must be of value to him. Outside the public baths, he told me whatever belonged to Sho he would take away and make it his. That includes me apparently. So today while we were on set, the Beagle showed up, asking to see me. I told the stagehand to tell him I wasn't there but the baka ignored him and forced his way on set. I didn't want to meet him, he just …scares me. So I …..I ran. " She hung her head, "I'm so ashamed. I caused so much trouble for everyone and I was too much of a coward to face him head on. I ran until he corned me in the woods nearby." Ren was familiar with the area so he could easily picture the surroundings. "We argued and then…" She trailed off. Ren saw that she was struggling with having to continue the story; he took to rubbing her shoulders and arms to try and calm her down.

"Tsuruga-san, do I really-?"

"Yes." She sighed miserably.

"He grabbed my arm and twisted it around my back so hard that I couldn't move to defend myself. Ten he…he..he unzipped the back of my dress all the way down my back. Everything was exposed." She shuddered. "Then he-he used his hand to start touching me." She said it quietly, like she was ashamed. After a minute of silence she continued.

"Then Sho appeared like a tornado out of nowhere and tried to beat him up. I stopped him though, beating another celebrity up was definitely not going to make things better. That son of a bitch was not worth losing either of our careers over. I couldn't even report him to security or to the police because then I'd forever be known as "the actress that was attacked by the Beagle.'"

Ren closed his eyes as she finished her story; he was trying expel his rage so he wouldn't scare the young woman in his arms. He made a mental note to go hunt down the bastard and kill him later. Well maybe not, he amended. Kyoko was right, he didn't want to lose his career hardly seemed worth the scandal beating him senseless would cause. His eyes softened as he once again focused on her. She had begun to cry quietly into his shirt.

"Mogami-san, are you still scared of this man?" She shook her head minutely.

"N-not really." She hiccupped. "Not now that Tsuruga-san is here. But i-it's just so gross! I can still feel his hands all over me!" Ren held his breath as Kyoko looked at him imploringly.

"Tsuruga-san can't you do something to make it go away? Can't you do something so that I won't feel his touch anymore?" Ren's eyes widened n shock as he processed her heartfelt plea. The poor girl didn't even know what she was insinuating.

"Tsuruga-san, please." Ren could feel his resolve, already on a fine thread, breaking. He could feel himself beginning to lose control. Raping the girl here was the last thing either of them needed right now. It would irrevocably destroy their relationship as well. Before he could do any lasting damage, he suddenly dumped her from his lap, onto the bed, and backed away from her until his back was to the wall, giving him some well needed support.

Kyoko hit the bed with a surprised yelp.

"Tsuruga-san?" She said uncertainly. When she looked at him, she realized something about him was different, sure he was gorgeous, and that was heightened by his outfit, but he was usually gorgeous and it didn't affect her at all. Right now however, he seemed positively ethereal. Ren, for the first time, seemed to take in how she was dressed and groaned inwardly. This was not helping! She was clad in a low cut pale pink camisole that nicely accented her modest chest, a pair of cotton striped short shorts with a mid thigh length silk robe that was colored a royal metallic purple. All the colors did wonders on her pale white smooth skin and it didn't help that she was lying on the bed on her back, propped up on her elbows with a large amount of leg showing. She was more attractive to him right now, than he was willing to admit, even to himself. He closed eyes and fought the growing urge to take her up on her oblivious offer. She was so young, only 16 years old, she would break under the media pressure of being his girlfriend or even handling any of his attention. She didn't deserve someone as old as him.

"Mogami-san," he began slowly. "You have to remember yourself. As a young woman, you cannot expect a man not to do something untoward if you say things like that!" Ren brought his hands to his face, covering his face from her. "If you keep saying things like that, I – I can't – I won't – be able to hold back much longer, Mogami-san. I like you far too much."

Kyoko lay on the bed, flabbergasted, her previous dilemma momentarily forgotten. Like her too much? What the hell did that mean? Did he mean …? Like…? As in LIKE? Kyoko felt something in her snap. She felt almost like a flooding sensation, as if she was going through some sort of enlightenment. As surprising it was to find out that he liked her, she was more surprised at her reaction to it. She was strangely happy, ecstatic even. And slightly relieved. Relieved? Her brow wrinkled in thought. She was relieved? Why was she relieved? One would only be relieved about a confession like that if they –

Oh.

Oh.

Suddenly, a lot things were beginning to make sense. She didn't know when, and she didn't know how, but it seemed that somewhere in the past year, without knowing it, she had fallen in love with him. She had fallen in love with Tsuruga Ren.

BUT.

One thing didn't make sense. He said he was holding back, why? If he had tried hard enough, she was sure she would've succumbed to him at some point. Suddenly it hit her. He thought she was too young! She grinned as an idea hit her. Tsuruga-san was many things but even he responded if you tried to insult his masculinity.

"What, you don't think you can do it Tsuruga-san? You can't be certain in your ability to help me? You don't think you can erase the feel of his hand and replace it with your own?" Silently, she prayed Kami-sama would forgive her for using someone's weakness against him so shamelessly. But it did pay off to have a character in her arsenal like Natsu; it was because of her that she had the courage to say such brazen things to someone like Tsuruga-san. Ren's head snapped up in surprise. He stared at her and realized that she was goading him. He recognized the look of mischievousness that would later manifest itself as Kyoko's notorious character of Natsu. She was purposely provoking him. Why? Ren couldn't even fathom an answer.

"Mogami-san," he said warningly. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Do not provoke me."

"I think I'm well aware thanks. Although, I can understand your reluctance to help, if you doubt your own ability. After all, you do have to be all man to do something about it." She locked eyes with him and Ren could see the mischievousness dancing in her eyes along with something else he couldn't quite place. He narrowed his eyes as something in him snapped. She wanted to play dirty? Fine by me. Ren thought. He walked slowly to the bed, letting his expression melt into what the dreaded emperor of the night. (Not that he knew she called him that). The look in his eyes made her feel like he would devour her whole.

"Tsuruga-saAAH!" She cried in surprise as he pounced.

Suddenly, this didn't seem like such a good idea…