Author's Note: First I want to apologize profusely for the delay. I had a bit of writer's block and in the midst of that I was flung into a very busy summer working at my local movie theater and nannying my neighbor's kids all day three days a week. I've unfortunately had very little downtime. This also means that my updates will definitely not come every two weeks like they used to. Probably every three. I've been working hard on brainstorming so that writer's block won't be a problem and I can really utilize my downtime properly. At any rate, I hope that the epic-ness of this chapter will make up for the long wait. On a similar issue, I'd like to thank some of my recent reviewers whose enthusiasm really helped me get through my writer's block. You guys are the best. Also regarding my lovely reviewers, I would like to note that you guys had an enormous impact on the way this chapter went. It turned out much darker than I had originally intended and I think that was due mostly to everyone's outrage over Ren's actions last chapter. Well... he's still going to be an idiot, but everything will get sorted out rather soon. I'm still not quite sure how this is going to end since I don't like to restrict myself by plotting ahead of time, but there are probably only a few more chapters left in this thing. So before, I bore you guys to death, enjoy the last chapter of the Wedding Arc.
Chapter Twelve: Oh Dear(ly Beloved) Part Three
Kyouko stumbled numbly across the lawn towards the illuminated white tent where most of the wedding guests still danced happily, unassailed by confusion and doubt. Her high heels continued to sink into the grass and she took them off, no longer concerned about wet feet. She would probably acquire a fair bit of mud between her toes, but she didn't care.
Her mind had raced all evening to this single standstill. Over and over again she relived the moment of Ren's lips pressed against her own leading to his mumbled apology, "I'm sorry." Kyouko's face screwed up in pain and she shouted, "What sort of man does that?" Thankfully the music was loud enough to swallow up her voice. God forbid anyone heard her.
Kanae had been sitting with Yashiro, her temper now fully recovered, when she saw Kyouko wander back under the tent like some sort of zombie. "Shit," she muttered, interrupting whatever it was Yashiro was saying. She had already forgotten.
"What's wrong?" Yashiro asked, following her gaze. His face fell. "That's not good."
Kanae scrambled to her feet. "If your actor did this," she began, her voice verging on a snarl. She couldn't think of an adequate ending to her threat. "Go find him," she spat, disappearing into the crowd to find Kyouko.
Yashiro couldn't blame Kanae for the heated reaction. He was feeling rather angry himself. He had known that Ren was a failure at love, but how could he possibly have been so miserable as to reduce Kyouko to no more than a zombie? Taking a set of latex gloves from his jacket, he began dialing his cell phone as he walked off to a quieter part of the reception.
Kyouko was relieved when Kanae caught her about the shoulders and began steering her off towards the Japanese castle. Her legs would have given way at any moment and she wasn't entirely sure that she had the strength to pick herself back up again. A fleeting thought considered the consequences of her name plastered in the tabloids along with the announcement of her collapsing at Ogata's wedding. The embarrassment to her and more importantly everyone else involved would have been too much to bear.
"Where are your shoes?" Kanae asked in her ear, as their absence became apparent in the well-lit hallways of the castle.
"Mmm," Kyouko muttered, blinking in the light. "They were sinking in the grass so I took them off."
"Your feet are filthy," Kanae told her. She hadn't thought of what else to say yet. "Um, did you leave your shoes on the lawn?"
Kyouko looked around her in a daze for a moment. "I think so."
"We'll get them later. Into the bathroom," Kanae added briskly, pushing the door open with her hip and guiding Kyouko down inside.
It was hardly a bathroom so much as a private lounge. An array of couches and chairs took up the view before they could even see past to the sinks and toilet stalls. Kanae sat her friend down on one of these generously-stuffed couches and joined her after taking a quick survey of the room to determine that they were indeed alone. In any other circumstances Kyouko might have gazed around her in awe for several moments, but instead she trained her eyes dumbly to the floor. Kanae bit her lip.
"Tell me what happened to you, Mogami," she urged bluntly.
Kyouko blinked rapidly trying to clear the haze out of her eyes. "N-nothing," she insisted.
"Don't 'nothing' me. I saw you and Tsuruga-san leave the tent together and I saw you come back alone looking like the living dead. Now something happened and if you don't tell me what, I'm going to have to assume that Tsuruga-san did something terrible to you," Kanae snapped, a vicious look in her eye just daring Kyouko to try to brush things off once more.
Kyouko stuttered for a few moments, thinking desperately. Her mind swirled in a chaotic tornado of confusion and despair. "I… well, umm…." She took a deep breath and started over. "I'm confused, Moko-san." Kanae waited patiently for an explanation. "About what Sakura-san said to me and what you told me. I was feeling strange through the whole wedding ceremony and Tsuruga-san's presence seemed to have a very weird effect on me. I was only starting to feel better when I was dancing and then I saw Tsuruga-san all alone and I was worried.
"We went for a walk towards the trees and we were… just talking. Tsuruga-san kissed me, then he apologized and ran away." Kyouko could hardly believe her own words. In what sort of surreal world did men like Ren go around kissing girls like her? It just didn't happen.
"Did he kiss you against your will?" Kanae demanded. She was beginning to suspect that she would do more snarling than usual today.
"N-no… it was… it was nice. Moko-san, what if I'm in love with him?" Kyouko felt like she was suddenly drowning in fear. The threat of love had been hidden in the back of her mind for hours and suddenly in was in the forefront, threatening to engulf her.
Kanae was quiet for a minute or two and then in a soft voice that Kyouko had to strain to hear she said, "Then I suppose the Love Me section was a success." It took another minute for Kanae to snap out of whatever spell she was under. Her rage returned in full force as she thundered, "So the asshole kissed you, apologized, and ran away?"
"Um, y-yes," Kyouko squeaked. Kanae was a little bit frightening.
"I'm going to have to destroy him," she declared with vehemence.
"But—"
"What sort of man does that?" Kanae shouted, startling her friend with the déjà vu.
"I'm sure Tsuruga-san had a perfectly good reason for what he did. For all we know, it could have been an acting exercise for that scene coming up in Duty Binds Us."
Kanae gave her a measuring look. "Mogami, your character is supposed to freak out and run away in that scene, not his. And why would he do an acting exercise in the middle of a wedding without telling you that was what he wanted to do or at least explaining afterwards?"
"Because Tsuruga-san is a very serious and dedicated actor," Kyouko replied though the excuse sounded hollow even to her.
"Why are you defending him? He's the one who ran away and left you feeling like a zombie! It's his fault!"
His fault? But why would Ren hurt her without a perfectly good reason? Kyouko was quiet for a few minutes, thinking to herself. There was an irritating lack of answers, which left Kyouko feeling frustrated. Ren was usually so good at explaining himself, so perhaps since he hadn't explained himself, there was no explanation. Which would mean that there was no reason for hurting her and yet she was still defending him. So why was she defending him when he didn't have a good reason? A little voice in the back of her head was singing that it was a sign of her growing ability to love.
The fear came back in full force and she was feeling pretty well justified. Assuming she was in love with Ren—and that was a large assumption—it was already starting to hurt again. Just like before.
"Moko-san," she said quietly. "Why does this have to be so hard?"
"I don't know. But you're looking better and it's almost time to leave so we should go find your shoes."
Kyouko nodded. "Ok."
Yashiro finally found Ren by following sound of the unanswered rings of the actor's cell phone. The young man had found himself a stone set of steps to sit on with his head laid tragically in his hands. He looked more like a depressed teenager than a grown man in his twenties.
"You see the thing about phones is you're supposed to answer them when they ring," Yashiro said by way of greeting.
Ren gave him a brief dirty look before returning to his previous position.
Yashiro sighed. "No more," he declared. "I will not be your outlet for frustration when you've royally screwed up with Kyouko-chan."
The actor looked taken aback. "I—" he began, but Yashiro interrupted.
"Kyouko-chan just wandered back to the tent looking like the living dead. Kotonami-chan is taking care of her right now." He bit out another hefty sigh. "So I'm asking: what did you do to her?"
Ren's face contorted slightly in pain. "I lost control, Yashiro. I kissed her. I stopped and apologized the minute I realized what I was doing. Then I panicked and ran away."
Yashiro bit his lip and surveyed Ren for a few moments before winding his arm back and smacking him squarely in the face.
"What the hell was that for?"
"You are the biggest idiot in Japan, possibly the world," Yashiro added.
"What?" Ren demanded, feeling highly affronted and annoyed.
"What do you think apologizing and running away made her think? She'll think you had no good reason for kissing her. That you were just trying to hurt her. And you know what sort of category you'll get lumped into then."
A dark glint appeared in Ren's eye of an entirely different sort. Yashiro didn't know exactly what was on Ren's mind, but he could make a rather educated guess that Ren knew more about Kyouko's past and the reason why she was in the Love Me section to beginning with. And judging by the look of fury that was slowly making its way into Ren's expression his thoughts were turning to Fuwa Shou.
"Well, pull yourself together, Ren. It's almost time to go and we have to find the girls."
The night air hung flat and silent between Ren and Kyouko with Kanae and Yashiro dangling quietly in between. Kyouko was staring firmly in the opposite direction and Ren was trying desperately to catch her eye as he absently took his keys back from the valet. She opened her car door, sat down, and closed it before he even had a chance to be chivalrous.
Ren was horribly confused. Kyouko was no longer the zombie Yashiro had described, but rather an angry demon hell-bent on punishing him with her silence. He had always imagined that Kyouko would run away in fear if he ever tried to kiss her, which was why he had refrained from doing so up to this point. Anger was certainly not an enjoyable alternative and he was wishing fiercely that he had maintained his precious control.
Kyouko's eyes were fixed unflinchingly out the window as Ren began to drive out of the parking lot. The vague attempts at small talk that filtered through from the back seat were lost on her ears as well as Ren's.
Her mind was a stewing mess twisted of fear and anger. Her lack of a reasonable explanation for Ren's actions had sent her on this spiraling journey. She was infuriated now, not just confused. And the fact that she was angry made her afraid, because there was really only one good reason for her to be so furious. That would mean she was in love with Ren.
She shivered for a second as she dwelled on that one thought. Loving Ren? How could such a thing be the truth? And more importantly how could she have fallen in love with a man who would kiss her and then run away? It was beyond comprehension.
Kyouko carried on in this same vein for quite some time, repeating over and over the vicious cycle of poisonous thoughts and contemplations with nothing to show for the effort.
The car came to a stop, jarring Kyouko out of her reflection. She watched passively, barely managing to utter a goodbye, as Yashiro and Kanae slid out of the back seat and her best friend shot her meaningful looks as they drove onwards.
It was utterly silent now. Painfully so. The minutes and seconds ticked by with excruciating delay.
Ren cleared his throat. "Mogami-san?"
She ignored him until he pulled the car up to the curb by her apartment complex.
He tried again. "Mogami-san?"
"Goodbye, Tsuruga—" She stopped, realizing that his hand was gripping her bare arm tightly. Kyouko glanced at his hand and then at the door handle with she very much wished to pull so that she could escape. "Tsuruga-san," she began.
She could get out no more before his lips crashed over hers for the second time that night, only this time with more force and desperation than she would have thought possible. Kyouko longed to succumb to the insistent pressure. She almost did. Until her anger and fear flared up once more and she shoved him away roughly.
"No!" she declared. "You… You don't get to do that sort of thing after what you pulled at the wedding reception!" Kyouko shouted, her voice rising in volume with each word. Ren gaped at her wide-eyed. "I will not be treated like this! I will not be made a fool of!" She panted slightly as she took a deep breath. "Thank you for the ride," she said coldly. "I'll see you at work."
She slammed the car door shut behind her and stomped into her apartment building, her stilettos clacking loudly after her as if to emphasize her displeasure. When she at last reached the sanctuary of her apartment, she locked the door, broke down, and sobbed.
Though most of the cast and crew of Duty Binds Us could not explain it, there was a palpable aura of tension on set when they reconvened on Monday. Yashiro and Kanae shot each other nervous glances when Kyouko and Ren crossed paths and ignored each other. Sorata, who had—much to her displeasure—been left out of the loop watched on curiously and determined to get the answer out of somebody before the day was out. There was no doubt that she would do just that.
Director Hakimori, though he was well aware of the strain between his two co-stars, chose to ignore it. After all, a little tension would not be such a terrible thing when the day's filming was to focus on the epic fight scene between Lieutenant Madara Akio and Private Moyami Rin. If anything, it might just make the scene ten times better than he could have ever hoped.
With that decision made, he waited patiently for his actors to return from wardrobe and make-up so that he could begin what was to be an interesting day.
