disclaimer: Nope ... still don't own Skip Beat!
AN: Took me seven goddamn months, but holy shit, y'all, it's finally LEMON TIME.
*guzzles lemonade for no reason*
Prepare for some of the most neurotic foreplay ever! Also, just so no one calls bullshit by the end of this chapter, I'll say it now: There is sex ... but no intercourse. I'm saving any and all potentially procreative acts (I say potentially because nobody gets knocked up on Van's watch!) for the next and final installment of AKiSC/
The POV is shared in this chapter. I didn't want to have to shift fully back in forth in order to get both of their perspectives.
So Help Me, God (Tickled Pink)
The next thing Ren knew, there was a pillow thrust in his face. He sighed, the sound muffled by the cushion. He hadn't really expected this to be easy. Still, it would have been nice to get a straight answer.
Not nearly as exciting, not nearly as Kyoko ... but nice.
"It's a simple question, Kyoko-chan," he said archly, his words audible and only slightly muffled even through the pillow.
"No, it isn't," she replied. "It really isn't ... "
He plucked the pillow from her hands and tossed it towards the edge of the bed so quickly that her hands were still suspended in midair. He guided them back down to the comforter, pinning them gently just above her head and planted a searing kiss along the side of her jaw. She leaned into his lips like a cat rubbing against an accommodating hand. Her head resumed its spinning as his breath caressed her throat.
Oh, God, if I start purring ...
"Alright," he said softly against her skin before pulling away again, "then why do you call me Emperor?"
He watched her face turn so deeply crimson that he almost considered giving up his previous line of questioning in favor of this one. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the peculiar nickname had some sort of sexual significance to the girl. Ren was dying to know just what that significance entailed. She turned her head away, revealing that even her ears and neck were flushed pink. His curiosity, along with another key component, swelled.
"You have to answer one question or the other, I'm afraid. So pick one."
Pick the second one, pick the second one, he thought at her eagerly.
"Why do you want to know ... about Bo?"
Damn. Alright, well, I'll come back to that later then.
"Well, if he's been telling other people things I've told him in confidence, I need to know so I don't go to the effort of battering and deep-frying him for nothing," he quipped.
She swallowed, not entirely certain whether the glint in his eye was playful or not. "D-deep-fry?"
"Mmm-hmm," he murmured, stroking her forehead with his thumb as he stared her down. "It's the one type of cooking I can do."
"Perhaps I could ... introduce you," she said.
Two reveals in one night, she thought miserably. How much of this can he stand?
His brows knit together in confusion. "Really? You'd do that? When?"
"Uh ... How about right now?"
"Now? Why would ... Oh." Realization and disbelief dawned on his face. "Oh, no way..."
For lack of anything else to do, Kyoko lifted her hand and waved to him, despite him being only inches away. "Hello. Nice to meet you. Again. For the ... first ... time?"
At first he refused to believe her. Then she quoted back some of the things he had told Bo in confidence. Then she immediately launched into one of her trademark rants, disavowing any ulterior motives or ill intentions and claiming that she hadn't meant to deceive him because it had been at a time when she had had a false impression of him and yet he had needed someone to talk to and she would sooner throw herself to a pack of wolves than tell his secrets to anyone and she wasn't joking, she would really do it if he asked her to, if that was the only way to convince ... !
Whatever else she was about to say petered out into a squeak as Ren's face began to move closer to hers, his expression intense, but unreadable. She shut her eyes tight and braced herself for the scolding to end all scoldings, praying he wouldn't throw her out on her behind altogether.
About fifteen seconds that felt like whole centuries passed before she dared to open one eye. He was still hovering over her, but he was smiling. He shook his head slowly, the smile growing wider.
"You're the only one I know who can make long-winded rants seem sexy. Did you know that?"
Kyoko blinked rapidly in confusion, her mind effectively blown. " ... EH?"
"It's true. Your face gets so red and your eyes get really bright and glassy, like you might be about to cry, but you might also be about to fight, if you have to ... It's beautiful." He paused, brushing a bit of hair out of her eyes with a tender reverence she could feel down to the marrow of her bones. "You're beautiful."
The word flicked her ego in a raw spot, and she turned away from his penetrating stare, shutting her eyes as a vindictive voice within began the familiar recitation of Plain, boring, un-sexy. "You don't have to, aah ..."
Oh, God, his tongue, she thought deliriously as he laved her neck in swirling patterns, shutting up the cruel voice in her head. He's ... Oh ...
"What? Lie?" he whispered against her skin, wanting more than anything for his words to soak into her very being, to strike directly at the doubt and loathing he sensed in her. "I'm not. You'll be able to see it for yourself one of these days. Until then, I'm going to tell you and tell you until, at the very least, you believe me. And even then, I'll keep on telling you, because it's true. You're beautiful ..."
"Tsuru ... R-Ren, sto -" Her protest was cut short by his mouth caressing her throat, continuing along the same path of goosebumps as before.
"Beautiful ..."
She shuddered at his praise, nearly overcome. "S-so you're not mad at me?"
"For being beautiful?" he asked with a wide-eyed innocence that didn't fool her in the least.
"About Bo! Remember Bo? We were just talking about this not two seconds before you ... " Started licking me! She never would have said it aloud, but the thought was there between them all the same.
He grinned. "No, I'm not mad. You were trying to help me. And you succeeded, I might add. If it weren't for Bo's advice, I doubt we would have made it to this moment."
"Really? How so?"
"Don't you remember? 'Seduce her with all your might'? That may well have been what gave me the gall to bring you up here."
She slapped her hands over her reddening face. "I only said that because I thought you were dealing with a mature sixteen. Someone who could handle something like that."
"So you don't think you can handle me?"
"I-I'd certainly be willing to tr - Oh, for crying out loud!" she shrieked when she caught a glimpse of his laughing face through her fingers. "Me and my big mouth ... It's the hammer incident all over again!"
"Speaking of which -"
She reached up and covered his mouth with her hands. "Let's not and say we did!"
He laughed against her fingers, then began to kiss them.
"You're really not mad?"
He pretended to dwell on it for a moment. "No, just mildly paranoid. How many other people in my life are going to unmask themselves and turn out to be you?" He squinted at her in mock suspicion. "You're not hiding Yashiro in there somewhere, are you?"
She shook beneath him with laughter. "I guess you'll have to wait and find out!" she said through her chortles.
"You're so cute when you laugh," he said in a curiously dreamy voice. He sat mesmerized by the pink glow warming her cheeks and the way her chestnut hair fanned out against his sheets like a muted flame.
She trembled ever so slightly as he ran his fingers up her side. "A-are you sure ... ?"
He shut his eyes, trying not to laugh too hard as he touched his forehead to hers. "Kyoko ..."
"I'm sorry, I just - !"
He pulled back slightly, shaking his head at her. "Would you rather I be angry?"
"N-no, of course not, it's just really unexpected that you aren't. It would put me at ease ... Wait, no, it wouldn't, what am I saying?"
"I'm wondering. It makes you sound like some sort of masochist."
She raised her eyebrows and shifted her gaze contemplatively over his shoulder. Ren's eyes widened slightly. "What? Are you?"
"I've never really thought about it." She shifted her golden gaze back to his. "Till just this moment, anyway ..."
They stared into each other's eyes for quite a while, neither of them knowing how to process what she had just said. Kyoko shifted uncomfortably beneath the weight of his scrutiny, brushing against the weight of ... well, him in the process. A searing heat fanned out through her skin at the slight contact. He watched as her eyes grew slightly unfocused, her lips pursing in wonder and anticipation.
Mine. She's all mine now ...
The feeling of primal ownership that surged forth in him was strong enough to give him pause. And the sudden image of Shou Fuwa's smug face flashed into his mind, effectively negating his libido and coldly re-enabling his rationality. Ren suddenly wanted to kick himself. Hard. How big a fool was he? Hadn't she had enough of that kind of rank possessiveness the first time around? And what made him think he could just take advantage of her like this? She hadn't been with anyone before, so of course she wasn't going out of her way to stop him. These feelings were new to her, after all ... Naturally, she was curious ... Pliant ...
His teeth clenched. What in the hell were you thinking? Were you even thinking? Jesus Christ, Kuon, you're not Bluebeard. You can't just - !
It was at this point that Kyoko made the same restless movement. This time her thigh slid much more firmly against the length of hardening member. His body gave a slight lurch, too surprised and titillated to fully control the movement. He drew himself up.
Alright then. That's enough torture for one night.
He flashed her a smile that felt like a grimace etched across his face. "It's gotten so late. Guess I better get you home, then."
As close as she was, she couldn't miss the pain that forcing himself to say this caused him. The thought of just leaving him by himself didn't sit well with her. Her mind kicked into overdrive as he pulled away, seeming in slow motion in comparison to the swiftness with which she took his measure.
Where before her insecurity might have led her believe she had somehow committed some faux pas, she was seeing much more clearly. And what she was seeing was all the times in the past when they had, through some twist of fate or another, gotten into this same kind of close proximity, when she'd seen that same pain flash in his eyes. She saw these times in a new light, taking into account not only that he had loved her even then, but that some dark tragedy in his past had been at least part of why he had restrained himself.
Just as he was restraining himself now.
This isn't about me at all. He thinks he can't be trusted. He doesn't trust himself.
Before she could stop to get a hold of herself, she had a hold of him, her fingers reaching out to grasp the edge of his shirt as he began to sit up. The plan was formed and her resolve stronger than iron, even as some small part of her wailed in shock at her own audacity.
"Don't!"
He blinked. What?
She took her hand off of him and tried to settle down, even as her heart pounded. "I mean, um ... can't I ... stay?"
"Stay?" This isn't happening, he thought. She can't have just asked to stay. "Why?"
"I don't want to leave you." The acute longing in her own voice would have sickened her before. She didn't even flinch.
He just blinked down at her, not moving or saying a word.
She blinked back and pushed onward. "Aaaand, uh, I don't want to disturb the Taisho and Okami-san by traipsing in after dark. So ... it might be best if ... I stay."
Ren folded his arms over his chest. "Won't they worry if you don't turn up till morning?"
Her face lit up like a slot machine. "No, of course not! They'll think I'm staying at Moko-san's house! We were going there anyway to run more of her lines, before ... well, before you abducted me."
He sighed. "Kyoko, you aren't obligated ... that is, you don't have to -"
"But I want to stay! I want to stay with you."
He felt something loosen in his chest then, a tightness he hadn't been fully aware of until he felt its absence. She trusted him enough to want to stay. She trusted him. The weight of that trust settled around him, warm and comforting. He took a deep, steady breath and uncrossed his arms.
"Of course," he said softly, "you can stay. I'll just be a minute."
He turned and began to walk towards the door when he heard her next words:
"You're not banishing me to the guest room, are you?"
Ren froze, then slowly turned back around to face her. Where exactly were you planning on sleeping?
"No, not banishing. I just ... thought you'd like some privacy."
After you kissed me like that? she almost asked, incredulous at the shift from warm-blooded lover to the reserved gentleman before her.
"The bed is right under the air vent, you know," she said, staring down at her feet, "I'll bet it gets really drafty in there." She looked up and met his gaze squarely, her face much too still and her gaze almost eerily intense. Then her eyes softened to a liquid heat that threatened to dissolve him into a puddle on his bedroom floor.
"I get cold so easily, Ren-kun ... "
A different kind of tightness seized his chest then, squeezing his heart in a steely grip; sweat began to collect at his hairline.
As a bit of panic began to creep past the initial shock, his own mind kicked into overdrive. He had already said he wouldn't take her home, so he couldn't go back on that even if he wanted to (which he certainly didn't, despite knowing better). She didn't want to go to the guest room, and he sure as hell wasn't about to suggest she sleep on the couch ...
How far are you willing to take this? he asked silently.
"So, the guest room's out ..." he said, feigning a convincingly casual tone as he stuck his hands in his pockets and returned her stare, "what do you want to do then?"
She lifted her chin at him, recognizing the challenge he posed her. She very deliberately sat down on the edge of his bed, confirming both his worst nightmare and his fondest dream in that one gesture. She pinned him with those golden eyes, intent and unwavering.
"I told you. I want to stay. With you."
Meaning, you'll be mad if I take the guest bed, he realized, feeling both beyond elated and utterly trapped.
"... If that's alright with you," she added, realizing just how demanding she sounded.
"Ah ... well. If you like. It's fine by me."
She smile in blatant triumph, unbalancing him further. "Thank you. Could I borrow one of your shirts? This one isn't long enough to sleep in."
The thought of her trundling about in one of his shirts produced a lump in his throat the size of a boulder. He swallowed hard and walked over to his dresser. He fished a handful of fabric out of the second drawer and handed it over without really looking at it or her. She thanked him sweetly and disappeared into his bathroom, trying and utterly failing not to find his nerves absolutely adorable. She closed the door behind her and slid off her black gakuran.
Out in the bedroom, Ren stared down into his open dresser drawer far too intensely. He couldn't do pajamas. They were all too easily removable. He couldn't get into bed with her wearing something he could easily yank aside. Not when she was just in his shirt ... Wait, she would be wearing underwear, too, obviously. No, it was still too risky. He settled on a soft cotton shirt, the fabric breathable enough that it wouldn't trouble his sleep. He kept his pants on, then started to undo his belt. Then thought better of it and left it alone.
It's no chastity belt, but it'll have to do ...
"Oh, um ... Ren?"
The sound of his name floating through the half-open door may well have been a phantom hand caressing his skin. He felt her voice with every inch of him as a feeling of bliss both stoked his anxiety and crowded it out.
"Y ..." He cleared his throat, appalled at the barely audible squeak that just came out of him. "Yes, Kyoko?"
"Could I borrow those scissors again? I can't seem to get out of my bindings."
For one very deranged second, he thought this was her way saying that she felt trapped and wanted to leave. All the air left his lungs in that moment, and his heart threatened to shatter his sternum.
Bindings? What, I was just ... Oh.
She was talking about her chest; it was still bound from her turn as Kyoichi. The fact that her breasts were bound flat had slipped his mind ... Somehow.
"Okay," he called back.
He walked back down the hallway to his office, feeling like the biggest fool to ever walk the earth. His pulse was still running so high that he was almost certain she could hear it all the way back in his bathroom. He got the scissors off the desk and returned. He knocked on the door, despite it already being slightly open.
"Come in," she said. He did ... and tried not to dash his brains out against the door frame as the urge to swoon hit in full force.
His shirt, still neatly folded, sat on the marble counter-top just by the sink. Next to it was the black gakuran and the white tee she had had on under it.
And right smack in front of him was a - for all intents and purposes - shirtless Kyoko Mogami. Save for the white bandaging around her chest, she was topless before him. She smiled sweetly, as if daring him to find even the slightest hint of self-consciousness. He swallowed discreetly, careful to keep his eyes on her face and not let them stray elsewhere.
She turned away, presenting her back to him. "I hate to bother you again, but ... do you suppose you could cut them for me? My hands are so unsteady."
Ren had to consciously loosen his sudden death-grip on the scissors in his hand.
Now he knew she was doing it on purpose! Her hand hadn't even shaken when she'd cut the bandaging off her tattoo, so this had to be a lie. And not even one to be believed, if the overtly, almost apologetically sweet tone of her voice and the almost but not quite imperceptible furrow of her brow was any indication: She wanted him to see her. He knew it. She knew it.
Kyoko blinked placidly over her shoulder at his hesitation, stomping down her second thoughts with the sheer force of her own determination. "You don't mind, do you?"
He stared down at her. This was no cunning seductress before him. Though she hid her nerves remarkably, he could still sense them just beneath the surface. She was shaking, just a bit, but she wasn't about to back down.
She trusts you, you moron. She thinks you can be trusted. So help me God, if you prove her wrong ...
"Not if you don't."
She turned away once more. He carefully wedged the scissors under her bandaging, creeping up her spine with each snip. With one finally cut, the stacks of cloth opened like a corset. She cradled them to her chest. For that he was eternally grateful. He started to step away, then got distracted by her back.
"They left marks." He traced one of the red indents with his finger and was perversely gratified when he felt her quiver just a little at his touch.
"Bad ones?"
He shook his head. "No ... They'll fade soon enough. You might have just wrapped them too tight."
"Oh, good. I mean, that they'll fade ..."
"Yeah ... "
"I wouldn't want you to have to look at them."
So you plan to have your skin bare for me a lot, then?
Before he could talk himself out of it, he leaned down to her, planting a hand onto her bare stomach to draw her back against him.
"I wouldn't mind," he whispered.
"Oh ... good."
In that moment, he was painfully aware of just how much his presence seemed to have an almost drugging effect on her. He could tell: it was the same effect she had on him. This was a dangerous game they played, and he damn well knew it. But he had only to feel the silky touch of her skin against his hand, to feel the heat coming off of her ... This was going to be a long night.
"I should ... probably let you get dressed now."
"Probably ..."
Ren didn't budge. Neither did Kyoko.
He groaned inwardly. Why? Wasn't it enough that I torture myself, Kyoko-chan? Do you have to join in as well?
That was unfair, and he knew it. It was his own damn fault if he couldn't control himself. He held onto her for another few seconds, clinging to her warmth as though he were about to go face a blizzard, and then very slowly took his hand off of her and straightened ... Only to lean back down for a split-second to give her a quick peck on the cheek before fleeing the bathroom, shutting the door with a bit too more force than necessary behind him.
Christ, you're hopeless ...
Kyoko swayed slightly in Ren's absence. It was like being drunk all over again, only without the constant sense of seasickness. Really, though. Who needs alcohol when there's Ren Tsuruga? Goodness ...
With a chagrin that bordered on shame, she realized that she had grown very slick between her legs. She hoped to God he wouldn't be able to smell it. Then realized that he just might if she was going to be sleeping in his shirt and no underwear the way she planned. Maybe she should keep them on ...
No. I either do this right, or not at all! There can't be any barriers between us tonight. He has to see that he can resist temptation ... Or ... maybe give into it just a little ... without going over the line.
She slid the burgundy tank over her head, shivering slightly as the soft fabric caressed her skin. It swung to about mid-thigh. She took a deep breath and slid her pants and then her underwear off. She folded the white cotton into a triangle and sandwiching it between the shirt and the gakuran.
Are you an idiot, girl? a part of her shrieked. She ignored it and stepped back out in the bedroom. He wasn't there, so she scrambled into bed, clad she didn't have to make some sort of grand entrance in his shirt. There was only so much she could take, even feeling as determined as she was. She slid under the covers and waited for him.
About five minutes later, he came back and shut the door behind him.
"Where'd you go?" she asked, then flinched at how possessive she sounded.
He smiled. "Just turning off the rest of the house lights."
"Oh. Right."
He slid under the covers, as far away from her as he could get without seeming obvious, and switched off the light at his bedside table.
"Good night, Kyoko," he whispered in the dark, somehow finding himself nearly at the opposite edge of the bed anyway.
"Good night, Ren," she whispered back.
Won't be long now, they thought in near-perfect unison as the silence stretched on, punctuated only by their poor attempts as slow, steady breathing.
Approximately four minutes later, the shivering began.
He could feel her shaking all the way on his side of the bed. So her nerves had finally gotten the best of her. He wasn't sure whether to be saddened or relieved at her imminent departure.
He reached out to tap her, to get her attention, so he could get her home where she belonged.
Only to find a quivering block of ice where where once there had been warm, yielding flesh.
His eyes widened in the dark. "You really do get cold easily."
She giggled slightly. "P-poor circulation. I get it s-sometimes."
He retracted his hand, relieved to know he wasn't the cause of her shivers and praying he wouldn't go straight to Hell for what he was about to suggest.
"If you'd like to ... you know ... slide over - Oof!"
She was plastered against his side before he could even finish making the suggestion, nearly hurtling across the gap between them.
The cool touch of her flesh was a shock to his system, even as it quickly warmed in response to him. He was painfully aware of how little his shirt covered her. He'd had the misfortune to pick out a sleeveless tank that didn't reach her knees. Her cleavage bracketed his arm. Her bare thigh slid against his clothed one, the heat of it scalding him even through the relatively dense fabric.
"Warm yet?" he asked after a few agonizing minutes.
Why the hell are you asking that? What, you're going to let her get warm and then push her back to the other side of the bed? Right. Sure.
"Mmm-hmm. You're like a furnace." She snuggled closer, setting off firestorms of lust and anxiety when she managed to burrow under his arm. She chuckled, perhaps a bit unsteadily. "That's a funny image. Ren Tsuruga ... My own personal furnace."
He felt his muscles relaxing despite himself. He brushed his lips against the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair and something else he couldn't quite identify, but seemed familiar nonetheless. "I'm glad I could be of some assistance."
The low voice did strange things to Kyoko's gut, but she soldiered on - towards what exactly, she wasn't yet sure. She tilted her head back to look at his dim outline in the darkness. The tip of her pert nose grazed his cheek. An answering shiver ran down his back. "Aren't you always?"
It isn't ... a bad smell. Why is it so familiar ... ?
"What do you mean?" he asked.
She chuckled. "You didn't seem like the type to fish for compliments, Tsu ... Ren. But if you must know ... you're always there for me. Even when you're not really there beside me ... I think of you in the midst of my mind's chaos and then there is order. You're solid like that. Sturdy."
"I'm glad," he said, daring to tighten his arm around her ever so slightly.
"Do you ... usually sleep with your belt still on?"
He grimaced. "Only when I have unexpected guests."
"You are the one who brought me here, remember? How unexpected was this, really?"
He snorted. "Well, I wasn't planning on you sleeping over ... I mean, the hope that you would someday was always in the back of my mind, but I never really counted on it. I'm not quite the seducer you seem to think I am, Kyoko-chan."
She very deliberately shifted, pressing more fully against him, very nearly on top of him at this point. "You seem to be getting along just fine."
He sighed. "You can be so merciless, you know that? I know what you're doing, you know. Needling me like this is dangerous."
"I'm in no danger with you, Ren," she murmured with absolute confidence, "And if I am ... "
"If you are ... ?" he asked, almost scared to know.
"Then I'll have to get dangerous right back, won't I?" she said with enough self-assurance to put Natsu to shame.
He bit back a growl at her provocative tone. "You shouldn't say such daring things to me ..."
"Well, I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea. Not ... now."
He became very still in that moment. He recognized what that smell was, the knowledge striking him with all the force of a speeding vehicle. And ... that was pretty much it for holding back.
"What would the right idea be, Kyoko-chan?"
Her eyes opened wide in the darkness.
The question was a grenade, shattering Kyoko's boldness as easily as it would a wineglass. He had her there: She didn't know what she was asking of him. She didn't know what she wanted out of this night. She only knew that the wanting was there, flowing like a dark current under her good intentions. It pinned her to his side even as her resolve fled. It warmed her from the inside like a bed of hot coals even as the cold reality of her own cowardice threatened to make her sick right then and there.
Fortunately for her, Ren seemed to know what he was doing.
"Hmm?" he prompted, shifting ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly. "Well?"
Oh, God, he wants an answer. Quick think of something. Think. "U ... u-um ... I ... "
Light poured slowly - so slowly Kyoko thought she was imagining it - into the room, blooming next to the entwined couple. Eventually there was just enough light for her to see that Ren had reached over to the dimmer switch on his bedside table, turning the dial ever so slowly. Just enough for her to cringe at her provocative pose, her body cleaved to his in a way that seemed shockingly desperate. More importantly, there was just enough to see him.
To see him staring down at her. Patiently. Expectantly.
And with the Emperor's smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Hmm ... what do you want, Kyoko-chan? What's the right idea? What is it you want me to do?"
"I ... I don't know ... I just ..."
"Hmm?" The smile widened, serene and predatory and loving all at once.
"I w-want ... "
"Is it to go home?"
She answered quickly enough, but her face was mashed against his chest. He placed his fingers under her chin and tilted until her gaze met his, revealing that even in the dim light he could see her blush plain as day.
"What was that?" he said, letting his fingers slide gently under her chin.
"... No."
"Is it to talk?"
The time for talk was long past, and they both knew it. "No ..."
He glanced a bit lower, noting that she hadn't even tried to pull away from him. Not once. "Is it to stay so close to me, Kyoko-chan?"
"I was thinking ... "
"Yes?"
"... maybe a bit ... closer?" That makes no SENSE. How much CLOSER can I BE?
He slid his arms around her waist, hoisting her up along his body until they were eye to eye. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, clinging for dear life against the firestorm that sprang to life inside her as the fabric at her back bunched over his arm, exposing her bare behind to the open air.
"And how might we make that happen? We're so close already ... Do you know how close we are, Kyoko-chan?"
"H-how close are we?" I don't think I want to know the punchline to this joke ...
His lips brushed against her ear as he whispered, "I can smell how wet you are. That's how close we are."
Kyoko's blood roared in her ears as her pulse skyrocketed. She shuddered against him without an ounce of fear. And that in itself was scary. That she was loving every minute of this teasing inquisition even as a panic attack seemed imminent. That she was ready to do god-knows-what if he so much as asked her to ...
"If it's ... b-bothering you - " she began.
He chuckled low and deep. The sound rolled through her like the distant echo of thunder. "Why would it bother me? It shows that you want me the way I want you. That could never bother me ..."
"O-oh ... good. I wouldn't want ... to ... U-um, what's wrong?" she asked, noting that his piercing gaze had finally left her face in favor of something else.
"You're not wearing underwear."
A few tense moments passed this statement.
"... Does that bother you?" she muttered somewhat petulantly against his chest.
A few more tense moments passed. The next thing she knew, the dimly lit room spun before her eyes, and she was lying on her back, looking at the ceiling. Then he arched over her once again, close enough for his silky hair to tickle her face.
"Maybe a little bit," he growled against her cheek. "Why aren't you wearing underwear?"
Her nerve came back with a vengeance, giving an extra but thoroughly unneeded boost to her libido along the way. "They didn't seem ... necessary."
Lightning quick, he nudged her legs apart with his knee and slid his long fingers against her slick entrance. She gasped at the scalding contact. Then emitted a long, long sigh as two of those graceful fingers slipped easily inside her, igniting jagged little bolts of lighting within that raced out from her womanhood to the tips of her fingers and toes, then back again in an infinite loop of blissful torment.
"Is this what you wanted, Kyoko-chan?" he whispered sweetly from somewhere above her. Her eyes were shut in pleasure and some residual shock. "Is this why they didn't seem necessary?"
"Uhhmm ..." She rolled her hips as she twisted back slightly, exacerbating the sensation.
"Then why are you wriggling around, hmm? Like you're trying to get away ..." He was at once gently mocking and crushingly sincere. He steadied her by using his other hand to clench her right hip. The fingers dug firmly into the flesh of her buttock, guiding her back down against his probing fingers.
He leaned over her, spellbound by the unraveling nymph beneath him. He didn't want to miss a moment of her bliss. And it was bliss. There was no denying that she enjoyed this. And in that moment, and in every moment to come, that was enough for him. He could have her without having her. He could toe the line without crossing it. He could give her something in return for all that she had given him.
Brilliant, a very small, skeptical part of him hissed. Let's see you stick to that then, you animal ...
"I-I'm not," she protested feverishly, "I just ... can't seem to ... keep still. I'm sor ... Uuh!"
She cried out as his fingers took up a new angle, curving upwards against a particularly volatile spot inside of her. She covered her mouth, embarrassed by the noises coming out of it. He reached up and pried her hand loose. He kissed it before pinning it by the wrist to his mattress.
"I want to hear you. Every sound you make, I want to hear."
Her answer was to bite down on her lower lip, cutting off a strangled gasp.
"Don't be stingy, Kyoko-chan. Let me hear you."
Ren shifted so that he was lying next to her on his side. He slid his arm under her, arching her back slightly as he gripped her midsection with one hand and continued to drive her crazy with the other. Eventually she couldn't close her mouth at all, the pleasure too acute to allow for such a thing. Depraved sounds poured from her, and she had neither the wish nor the will to stop them.
"Much better," he whispered. He kissed her cheek in the most tauntingly chaste way. She let out a gasp as she felt her internal muscles clench around his fingers. It was only once, but it was a hard enough squeeze for the both of them to feel it.
It was at this moment that Ren stopped altogether. Suddenly, his fingers were gone and he was sliding away from her side.
She fought down the sudden and inexplicable urge to yank him back to her by his hair. Her fingers contorted into claws before she got a hold of herself.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she wailed, not even caring how shrill she sounded.
He growled his reply against her womanhood, bracing her parted thighs up onto his shoulders: "Drinking of your divinity."
She started to sit up a little. She opened her mouth, perhaps to ask why he was quoting her or what he meant by what he said. What ended up coming out was a startled gasp that mellowed into a cry positively aching with lyricism when she felt his mouth nestling against her slick folds. It sang in his blood like a siren song, tethering him between her legs as effectively as a chain.
This is where I was meant to be, he thought deliriously. This is where I will stay.
Kyoko's body hummed like it was running on some kind of generator. Many wild thoughts blazed through her mind, getting less and less coherent: C-can he breathe like that? How long can he stay down ... Oooh, God, what is ... What do I ... How ... ?
His tongue licked into her, slipping deftly into the wet, fleshy petals. He dragged his tongue across the distended nub of her clitoris, using as much force as he felt he could get away with and was immensely gratified to see her come almost entirely off the bed in response, her back arching as her hips pushed harder into his face. The smell of her was intoxication itself, at once pungent and sweet. He opened his eyes just in time to see her stomach ripple, her lower body rolling.
"P-lease ..." she whimpered. "Ah, God, please, Tsuruga-saaaan ..."
He took her clit firmly between his lips and just as promptly let it go in a smacking kiss. Her thighs quivered against his face, and he heard her gulp back a sob. "There's nobody here by that name, Kyoko-chan."
"Please, Ren!" she groaned.
That name either, he almost said before grabbing the tail end of his common sense. This definitely wasn't the time to go into that.
"Please what?" he asked, his fingers taking up the same rhythm his tongue had a moment before. "What do you need?"
"M-mercy," she gasped, writhing against his touch in a way that guaranteed her very little.
He twisted his fingers inside in a corkscrew motion. She nearly came out of her skin right there. He lunged back up from between her thighs and whispered in her ear:
"You had none for me, Kyoko-chan. There will be none for you."
Oh, God, yes, she thought insanely. "Y-yes, bu-but ..."
"Mmm-mmm," he said, diving back down to the pungent petals of her sex, "none for you."
She groaned low and deep, acknowledging but not protesting the lack of mercy. She drew back, but not nearly hard enough to dislodge his tongue. And as if to emphasize his lack of pity, he kept his tongue on her clit and began to stroke inside her with his fingers, all the while holding her hip in place with his unoccupied hand.
In a matter of moments, she felt something like an apocalypse building inside her. She held it back with what little she had left, knowing that her release would utterly trounce the few she had managed to give herself furtively in the past. She arched up as resistance became impossible, letting the wave break over her. She nearly crushed him with her thighs, hardly aware of herself or him or anything except the magnificent spasms wracking her body.
And still he kept on, riding out the waves of her climax until he was sure he had wrung every last drop from her. He swallowed the nectar seeping gently from her swollen walls, delirious enough in that moment to imagine it was some kind of ambrosia.
His cock throbbed in protest as he untangled himself from between her legs, harder than it had ever been and straining for release against his trousers. He held onto the knowledge that he had given her pleasure without demanding she give him a thing. He had not been selfish. Her trust in him had not been in vain.
Yes, he thought as he wiped his face with the back of his arm.
"Sleep, now ..." he whispered.
She clung to the edge of consciousness, her eyelids dropping. "But ... You didn't ... I haven't ... We ..."
"Shhhh ..."
Kyoko let go of the edge and sank into the deepest sleep she had ever had.
. . . . .
The moment Ren awoke the next morning, he rolled out of bed, went into the bathroom and took out his contact lenses. He flushed them down the toilet and watched them circle the porcelain bowl before going back into the bedroom.
He took a deep breath, dropped to his knees at the edge of the bed and waited for Kyoko to wake up.
It began with a leonine yawn and a full-body stretch that wound him up the way an expertly performed striptease never could or would. It continued with the achingly slow roll of her hips and her shoulders against his sheets, the popping of her bones as she continued to stretch making him flinch slightly.
She startled slightly at the sight of him at the edge of the bed, then smiled when she remembered where she was. Then she got a better look at him as sleepiness fled her vision and immediately looked horrified.
"Oh, God, that face ... Don't make that face! Please, Ren ..."
He blinked. He had underestimated her heightened intuition. She knew something big was coming, even though he had fought to keep his face at least somewhat neutral.
"You have bad news, don't you?" Her eyes got even wider as something even more awful seemed to occur to her. "Last night wasn't a dream, was it? That happened, right? We .. W-we ... Hey, wait ..."
She crawled closer to him, eyes fixed on his. "Your eyes. Ren, why are your eyes ... ?"
"I threw away my contacts. I'll never wear them again. I need to be able to see you through my eyes. And I need you to know who I really am. Even if you decide you never want to see or hear from me again after what I have to tell you ... I need you to know."
Kyoko blinked and sat back on her heels on his bed, dreading the worst. "I'm listening."
He told her everything. He began at the end, deciding it was best to work backwards in time, hopefully to soften the revelation that her fairy prince had turned into ... Well, him. He spared her not a single detail.
His parents. His time with her. America. The abuse he had suffered therein. The abuse he had dished out in return.
Rick.
Everything.
He watched her face settle from the initial shock to an eery composure, those golden eyes hard and unyielding as diamonds as she processed everything he had told her.
Then watched in abject horror as she climbed off the bed, slipping past him as though he weren't even there, and went into the bathroom. She returned in a matter of moments, dressed in drag once more, save for her bandaging. She fixed him with that diamond-hard look, her eyes betraying not a single emotion. Not a single ounce of hope.
"You should get dressed. We have work to do. I'll be waiting at the car."
He watched her walk out his bedroom door. He heard his front door slam behind her.
And Kuon Hizuri sank fully to the ground as he felt the world end for him.
Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it ...
Eeek! My first lemon, you guys! AAAAH TELL ME WHATCHA THINK! I don't know why, but I feel like I'm only really especially proud of Ren's internal monologues. The way he beats himself up, I feel like I nailed it. But that's not up to me, is it? What did you guys thinks?
Next chapter will be the last and even more hot and lemon-y than this one. Like with actual intercourse and all that good stuff, just as I promised! Also, more Skip Beat fics are in the works.
Also, I intentionally left out Ren's eye color because I couldn't decide what color they should be. Going by Nakuamura-sensei's promotional color art: Brown is the color that Ren Tsuruga uses. As Corn/Kuon, they seem to be either green or blue (no one seems to be able to agree on this one). And as the elder Heel sibling, he has gray contacts that match Setsu's.
What color should I go with? I'll leave it to you for now, then decide.