Lol.
Just...lol.
Yeah...was yanking your chains with the Yashiro/Kyoko comment (or was I?!) The Yashiro/Kyoko story is still in the planning stages :P
And yes, if you did enjoy the Yashiro/Kyoko moment that DOES mean you're a fan! Ahahaha – welcome to the weird side!
I want to thank all of you who reviewed the last chapter – it really made my day :) AND my computer is sorted – I think.
The internet is still acting a little screwy though so...¬¬
Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.
Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're all mine.
Beta'd by Aerisiera
Advent 09
December 11th – 14 days to go
The atmosphere at breakfast was painful.
And not just painfully awkward, though it was that as well.
Kyoko, with wide eyes, kept her head down and tried to ignore what was going on around her. Namely the glares of death that Ren was shooting at Yashiro.
Kanae, who was sitting next to her, kept looking between the two older males in confusion. Kyoko would have explained why Ren was trying to kill Yashiro with his eyes but she really didn't want to bring attention to herself.
She valued her life, thank you very much.
When it looked like Kanae was going to open her mouth and say something Kyoko grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed hard, trying to get it across to her that saying anything at this time would be a very, very bad idea.
Kanae shot her a confused look but seemed to understand the silent warning and stayed quiet – with a warning of her own that she would get an explanation by the end of the day.
Kyoko looked up then quickly looked back down at her plate.
At this moment, she wished that Yashiro hadn't come down to breakfast with them. She felt a little mean about it because Lory specifically invited him here for a holiday whilst she was only brought for help, but with the way he had acted yesterday...
He hadn't turned up for dinner that night, and Kyoko was both pleased and a little disappointed. She had shared a look with Maria that reinforced the decision that they had made earlier that afternoon.
But now, once she knew how they acted when put in the same room with company...
She sighed.
She had no idea how she and Maria were going to make this work. They hadn't thought it would get this bad in such a short space of time.
They had assumed that after a night to sleep on it Ren's voice of reason would kick in and he would be able to think over what had just happened logically. And maybe it would make sense to him. Because, no matter how many times Kyoko thought over what had happened (always with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks) it didn't make sense to her.
But no. Apparently life wasn't fair that way, and instead of Ren listening to his voice of reason – or at least becoming icily polite like he did when faced with someone he didn't like – he had let the incident and his emotions fester until he was one raging ball of...well...rage.
He was still showing his emotions openly damn it! And that was never good. Kyoko had never seen him act this volatile for such a long period of time.
He must be really close to Yashiro, she thought, if he's this comfortable in showing his emotions to him.
Yashiro, who for all intents and purposes was calmly ignoring Ren, reached out to pick up the jug of juice sitting next to Kyoko. The killer intent in the room spiked drastically at the close proximity.
Yashiro continued to ignore everything, and calmly poured himself a drink, even as Kyoko shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Ren's rage wasn't directed at her but she could still feel the backlash.
Like it was her fault that the juice had been placed next to her!
In the end it was Kanae, again, who saved her. Standing, she dragged Kyoko up by the hand. "Well!" she chuckled nervously, "Time to go!" Then started pulling her out of the room.
Kyoko was all too willing to go and didn't even try to hinder her.
"Wait." Ren's voice cut across their quick escape. "I believe I will accompany you." He said this whilst looking at Yashiro, daring him to challenge his choice.
Yashiro raised an eyebrow, which only increased Ren's bad temper. Then he smirked and Kyoko had to repress a full body shiver when he turned in his seat to look at her.
"Kyoko," he murmured, reaching for her hand, "have a good day on the slopes." He pressed a kiss to the back of it. Kyoko could feel the slight smile against her skin. "Stay safe."
As the rest of the group stared at him, Yashiro stood and quickly exited the room.
Slowly, Kyoko pivoted to look at Ren. He was standing, staring at the door, his right hand twitching as if he was imagining throttling someone.
No second guesses as to who that would be.
His face though, was completely blank.
Kyoko didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Though she had a feeling it was more to the oh-my-god-why-aren't-you-running? end of the scale.
She was thankful when Kanae seemed to collect her wits about her and finish pulling her out of the room.
"Ok," her friend hissed, "What was that?!"
It took Kyoko a moment to get her throat working again, but when she finally did figure out how she told Kanae the whole story, including the plan she and Maria had cooked up, culminating in what had just occurred mere minutes ago.
Kanae looked suitably terrified. Even more so when Ren joined them outside, getting ready to ski down the same slope he had taken Kyoko down a few days before.
"Does he have a death wish?" Kanae hissed to Kyoko as both girls carefully followed Ren's tracks.
"It certainly seems so. I don't think I've ever seen Ren act like this. He doesn't even seem to be the same person."
"He's a lot more...violent..." Kanae shuddered at the vibes she was getting off him.
Kyoko nodded, concentrating on getting down the slope without tripping and rolling the rest of the way. "I don't even know how we're going to fix this."
---/---
Sho was having a good day.
He had been a little disappointed over the past few days when Kyoko hadn't turned up for lessons. Kanae had explained it to their instructor who seemed to understand.
He just couldn't get rid of the thought that it was his fault Kyoko had skipped out. Was she mad that he had made her crash – even though he had only been trying to help? Was she just avoiding him?
Had Ren gotten his slimy paws all over her?
The last thought made him bristle. Damn it, if Ren had done anything to her...
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the figure that was sneaking up on him until an arm wrapped around his waist and a firm body pressed against his back.
"Hello, Sho."
Sho squeaked (something that he would deny to his dying day) and scrabbled at the arm around him, trying to dislodge it.
Reino just chuckled darkly, his mouth next to Sho's ear sending shocks travelling down his spine.
"Reino." Sho ground out, and was eternally thankful that his voice didn't waver. "What the hell do you want?"
That arm around his waist tightened briefly and Sho's eyes widened when Reino nuzzled into his neck.
"Oh, Sho..." he practically purred. "You have no idea, do you?"
"No idea about what?"
Reino chuckled again and Sho cursed himself for reacting at the sound. "Sho," Reino continued, "If you don't leave Kyoko alone...I'm afraid something bad will happen."
It took Sho's brain a few seconds to work out what Reino had just implied. "Are you threatening me?!" He asked incredulously.
"Threatening?" Reino asked, stepping away and allowing Sho to turn around, "No, no. Nothing so uncouth. I'm merely...warning...that's all."
"Why you...!" Sho said, starting forward.
"Oh look!" Reino said, "You're little friends have arrived."
Sho turned sharply to discover that Kanae and Kyoko were indeed skiing towards him, led by Ren. It wasn't until he whirled back round to confront Reino again that he realised that Reino had used this as a distraction.
Sho cursed under his breath, brushing off the whole encounter. Reino could huff and puff – but that's all he would ever do.
A threat by him wasn't something that would be acted on. He was more about psychologically attacking his enemies than doing anything physically.
And he was confident that he could handle anything mental that Reino dished out to him.
He certainly wasn't going to give up Kyoko because some psycho wanted her for himself!
By the time he had finished pumping himself up, Kyoko, Kanae and Ren had arrived.
Sho took one look at Ren and his eyes widened.
"Whoa." He whispered to Kanae, who he was on more or less friendly terms with, "What crawled up his butt and died?"
Kanae shushed him, even though he was whispering, and shot a fearful glance at Ren, who was standing with his back to them.
"It's a long story." She whispered back, "But the short version is that Yashiro has been hitting on Kyoko and Ren is pissed about it."
"Yashiro?" Sho asked, nonplussed.
"Ren's manager."
"Wow. That explains the bad mood then." Sho paused, "Wait." He said, his eyes narrowing, "Someone made the moves on Kyoko?!"
The last part was shouted out and brought Ren's attention to the conversing duo. Kanae paled and tried to edge backwards to where Kyoko was keeping herself out of the way.
Sho ignored the anger radiating of the taller man because he was pretty angry himself! Yashiro had apparently cornered Kyoko or something and forced himself on her!
The bastard!
And Kyoko had to sleep in the same house as him every night! This was unforgivable!
"This is all your fault!" Sho shouted, pointing at Ren.
"Excuse me?!" Ren practically hissed at the blond male.
"Yeah." Sho said, absolute in his conviction. "If you only learned to keep your manager in line this would never have happened!"
Ren's eyes widened, but before he could say or do anything, the instructor arrived and interrupted the confrontation.
"Ok!" he said chirpily, "Today we'll be using the ski lifts to get to a blue run. The lifts seat three, but because I don't want one of you sitting on your own we're going to split off into pairs. Kanae, if you come with me – we'll go first, and Kyoko and Sho can come up on the next one."
The argument was on hold for the moment, and Kyoko could only feel relief at the fact.
She really didn't want to try and stop Ren committing murder on holiday.
Unfortunately, fate seemed to hate her because, when she sat down on the lift seat with Sho on her right, Ren took the place to her lift.
Before she could protest this the bar had come down and they were off.
She felt completely and utterly helpless as her feet dangled in thin air, the ground far below them, as she sat between two feuding males hundreds of feet above the ground.
They were glaring at each other over the top of her head and she really hoped that they wouldn't start to try and claw at each other because she really, really didn't want to fall.
Nervously, she gripped the bar in front of her and prayed to every God and Goddess she could remember that she would survive this.
She just wanted this day to be over already!
It was foggy today! Woo! Anyone else got any bad/wintery weather? (Though I will admit that fog is more autumn than winter...)
Ahaha – the image of Reino when he sneaked up on Sho amuses me to no end.
Speaking of! I have another question that I would be grateful if you'd answer – Would you read an Advent if one of the couples was Slash? And if so – which characters?
Again – the question doesn't apply to this – I'm just curious.
HONEST! It's for future reference!
DS