Always Be My Baby
by Kris Black
Summary: After going over lines for TDM, Kyoko and Ren have a night of passion and the result could not only cause a scandal, but ruin both of their careers. How will the two lovers withstand the trials of their love?
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Skip Beat! the manga or the anime. I do not own any characters listed in this story except those you don't recognize. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money is being made off of the story as a whole, or in part.
AN: And this is the chapter that you have all been waiting for, well semi – you know me and cliff-hangers. I will warn you beforehand that it is a little short, but I never intended this particular chapter to be long or drawn out to keep the essence, allure, and suspense about it. Next chapter you can expect probably Monday, but no promises yet. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you are all amazing!
Breakfast the next day made Kyoko incredibly nervous. She knew that it was less than a fifty percent chance that Ren would even eat breakfast, but the thought of him still being angry made her jittery.
"Hey, Good Morning; Looks like another nice day," Ren called out in a chipper voice to the cast and crew.
'Oh no,' Kyoko thought anxiously. 'Of all the days for him to eat breakfast.'
When she heard him approaching, she instantly jumped out of her seat to greet him.
"Good morning!" She exclaimed, bowing quickly and hoping to god that he still wasn't angry from last night.
"But you know, I was offended last night," Ren said in a terrifyingly sweet way – one that would make dogs run for the hills with their tails between their legs.
"After being treated like everyone else on the set."
So, this wasn't the first time god ignored her prayers. Ren was still furious.
"Here I was, giving you advice when you had trouble with your Mio role," he continued on in a sarcastic tone. "I stuck up for you, and I even called you concerned before you left to go on location. Despite being closer than anyone to you, I am still treated like a stranger. Whether you are heartless or have no sense of obligation, either way it is terrible."
"I- I am sorry," Kyoko managed to sputter out.
How was she supposed to defend herself against that? She knew that she could no longer hold the capacity to love anyone, but did that make her heartless?
"And what else?" Ren added. "You were protected by Fuwa, who you are supposed to be exacting revenge on. Scandalous isn't it? To tell the truth, I am terribly disappointed in you this time. From now on, please avoid speaking to me outside of work."
Kyoko stared at him shocked as Ren looked away from her. Was it really the situation really this bad? She had meant to tell him about Sho, he just beat her to the punch. She knew that he would be angry, but she had no idea that he would be this angry. What would he do when he found out about her not telling him about the baby if he was this angry over this? She shuddered slightly.
"W-wait, are you breaking up with me?" Kyoko sputtered out.
"We would have had to be together for that to happen," he replied icily.
Kyoko reached out to Ren, to try and make him reconsider. However, his image gradually faded away to nothing as she reached up for the ceiling.
"A dream?" Kyoko asked herself. "Thank God."
Kyoko laid her head down on her knees as she began to sob again. Would Ren really never talk to her again? She needed to calm herself down and she knew of only one place where she could do that. She quickly dressed herself and headed towards the woods.
Ren had always loved nature; it always had a way of clearing his mind and sorting his thoughts. He stepped on a twig and a bunch of birds flew away from their nests.
"I must have startled them," he noted.
He instantly thought of Kyoko. She always became like a terrified little bird when he was angry and he was scared that someday he would push her too far, that she would never want to stay near him again. As soon as Yashiro had called about Kyoko's stalker he had known why she had called him and he had known why she hadn't told him. It touched him that she had called him when she was in danger unconsciously, but it still made him angry that she hadn't just told him the truth.
Kyoko knelt beside the stream in the forest. She figured that there had to have been one close, she had heard it during one of her walks and was fairly sure that the waterfall in the hotel courtyard used the water from it. She could almost see the fairies swarming around her, creating a sense of harmony and light. This place reminded her of home, reminded her or Corn; it calmed her.
Figuring that if there was a stream there was probably a river nearby, Kyoko lifted herself up to follow it to the river, thinking of Corn as she walked the narrow, almost invisible pathway.
'Even though it looks like Corns home, there is no way that he would actually be here,' she told herself. 'That would be impossible.'
She lifted the branch at the end of the trail, hearing the rushing water of the nearby river. The sun had finally risen, she noted before looking up and stopping dead in her tracks.
'Corn?!' She thought instantly.
There was a man standing beside the river, the light illuminating his body like a true fairy. When he turned his head to see who had joined him, Kyoko was still in shock.
"R-R-Ren?"
"Kyoko?"
They both stared at each other awkwardly as a silence enveloped them. They were both terrified of saying the wrong thing and ruin whatever chances they had. Ren, who had to ensure that he didn't scare her, decided to act completely normal.
"Hey, good morning Kyoko," he topped it off with a sincere smile. "Looks like another nice day."
Kyoko instantly stiffened. Oh god, her dream was coming true! Is this where he was going to tell her to leave him alone and never speak to him again? She began to edge away, back towards the path that had led her there. As long as he kept looking at her she would be okay, she repeated as her mantra. She felt a familiar sensation rising from her stomach.
"Would it be a bother if I came over there?" She whispered.
"What?" He asked, horrified that he may have scared her away forever.
"Would it be a bother if I cam over there?" She repeated loudly, and quickly closed her mouth as the bile rose steadily.
"You're no bother at all," Ren said to her gently, smiling.
Her demons, which had been carefully hidden, began to dry up and die in the light of the smile, but she had no time to pay attention. She hurried over, past Ren and quickly relieved herself in the bushes beside the river so she didn't block their path out.
"Kyoko, are you alright?" Ren asked her carefully as she finished and quickly washed up in the river.
"Yes I am fine," she replied hastily.
"Did you really see the doctor, have you gotten your results back yet?"
"Well, I – " Kyoko began when Ren's cell phone buzzed. He quickly opened it and read the message.
"Breakfast is beginning, we should get back," he replied.
Kyoko nodded and began to walk behind Ren as he led them out of the forest.
"By the way," Ren said. "You shouldn't be walking out here at a time when no one else is around, especially when you have a stalker."
"I don't think that he is the type to get up with the birds," Kyoko stated. "It's better for those visual kinds of people to appear unhealthy – even he does that."
"For visual types… meaning what? Wasn't the stalker just a member of the public?"
Kyoko stopped for a second, her eyes showing alarm.
"Could you mean a musician?" Ren asked.
Kyoko quickly explained the situation and who Reino was.
"So basically, I got caught up in a fight between those two idiots. When I had called you nothing definite had even happened yet, I just felt overwhelmed. So, I was hesitant to tell you afterwards because I was scared that you would never want to speak to me out of work again." She ended looking at her feet.
Ren's heart pounded painfully in his chest.
"I would never say that!" He scolded. "Plus, it isn't exactly like you asked Fuwa for help; he just kind of barged in."
"That's right!" She exclaimed.
Ren walked Kyoko back to the hotel, where she went back up to her room to change into something clean for breakfast. She dragged her feet to her bed and plopped down with a sigh.
'I can't believe that I still haven't told him,' she groaned and rolled onto her back, placing her hand on her stomach.
'The longer I wait, the worse it is going to be."
Kyoko heaved herself back up with a sigh and changed quickly, eager to put something back into her empty stomach.
On her way to the breakfast hall, she noticed a blonde in the crowd of people. She peered over the shoulders of the throng of people and recognized it as Sho. She looked to the door of the breakfast hall, then to Sho's quickly retreating body. Deciding quickly, Kyoko took off after the blonde. She finally caught up to him at the bottom of a set of stairs and grabbed his arm.
"Kyoko?" He asked, surprised.
"I have something to say to you," she stated.
He stopped and leaned up against a wall, waiting for her to speak so she continued.
Ren had decided not to take the elevator, the stairs were better for the body and he needn't be so lazy. He happily walked down the stairs, glad to finally have sorted out at least one thing with Kyoko. He paused when he heard a couple talking and began to turn around to give them their privacy, until he heard a familiar voice which made him stop.
"Yesterday was really messed up and I forgot to say a very critical thing to you…" Kyoko paused and looked like she was in some weird sort of pain.
"Well, what is this 'critical' thing?"
"About yesterday, when you saved me," she started. "I'm not grateful to you, but at least as a person with common sense, it would be reasonable to offer you a single word of thanks."
Sho looked at her as if she were crazy.
"That has to be the worst way of expressing thanks that I have ever heard of!" He yelled at her.
"Well, I didn't ask you to help me and yet you complain when I take the trouble out to thank you?" She yelled back in retort.
"You could have at least said 'thank you', totally un-cute!"
Ren couldn't stand the atmosphere as they argued, as if they were in their own little world that no one else could intrude in. As if it would be impossible for him to break, impossible for him to separate her from him.
"I think that I would vomit if you thought of me as cute!"
"It seems that you may have been doing a lot of that recently," Sho smirked, finally getting the upper hand.
"Wh-what do you mean by that?" She sputtered out.
"I mean, the morning sickness must be horrible – with you being pregnant with Tsuruga Ren's baby and all."
Ren's eyes widened to an unimaginable degree as he stood shell-shocked, staring at the couple below him.
"I don't care what happens to Tsuruga, or Vie Ghoul," said Sho softly to Kyoko as he reached out to touch her. "All I care about is your safety. To me, you are my – "
Ren acted quickly. He didn't care that these two people had a past, he didn't care if they had some sort of divine fate – he would smash all of that to bits and go up against the gods if he had to. Kyoko was incredibly important to him, more so than he had ever realized, and if what Fuwa had said was true, he would never let her go.
'I manage to bind myself to her repeatedly,' he thought darkly as he jumped the remaining amount of stairs to cut Fuwa off.
"Kyoko! What are you doing here?" Ren asked, drawing their attention to him.
Her brain went into overdrive. What was Ren doing there of all places? How much did he overhear? What was he going to say when she had been here, with Shotaro of her own free will this time?
"Are you ready to leave?" Ren asked. "There is only thirty minutes until the assembly."
"What?" Kyoko shouted. "I haven't even had breakfast yet!"
"Then, shall we go together? I was actually on my way to breakfast. Yashiro-san kicked me out of my room and told me to eat something."
Ren smiled down at Sho.
"Good morning Fuwa, I am sorry about last night."
He made eye contact, receiving a glare from Sho in response to his fake, gentlemanly smile.
"Because of my mistake, I forgot to tell you one critical thing…"
Sho instantly became angry – with that one sentence he knew that Ren had been listening to his and Kyoko's conversation from start to finish. It seemed that Kyoko had realized that too because her face was an instant sheen of shock and terror.
"I've heard the details," Ren continued on. "When I think about what might have happened were you not there, it gives me the shivers."
Ren twirled the unsuspecting Kyoko around and into him, grabbing his arms around her like they were together.
"I am grateful from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for saving them."
Sho glared at them. Ren was trying to declare that Kyoko was his, even in this subtle way. Kyoko stared up at Ren, not missing the plural 'them' instead of 'her' at the end of his sentence. She couldn't measure his anger while he was smile-glaring at Sho, but she was certain that he was less than happy about this whole situation.
"R-Ren?"
"Kyoko, if we don't get going we are going to miss our chance to have breakfast."
"R-right," Kyoko nodded as Ren led her away from Sho and towards the breakfast hall.
Once Sho was out of sight, Ren took a right and instead put himself and Kyoko into an elevator.
"Ren?"
"I'll call the director and order room service," he said tersely. "I think that you and I have a few things to discuss before we go any further today."
"Ren, I swear, I didn't tell him-"
"Save it for when we get to my room," he replied.
Kyoko folded her hands into her lap and rung them in her nervous manner as she watched the numbers on the elevator ride up.
Meanwhile, Ren pulled out his cell phone and proceeded to work their schedules out to free up a couple of hours due to an "important personal matter", which the director had agreed to upon Ren promising to drive them there as soon as the matter was taken care of.
The walk down the hallway and to Ren's room felt something like a funeral march, Kyoko noted. The silence was deafening and her Prince of Darkness radar was constantly on in the fear that he would emerge. Once every few seconds it would beep, but nothing solid enough to scare her yet. As the door to Ren's room shut behind them Kyoko felt kind of dizzy.
"Are you alright?" Ren asked, catching her shoulders and steadying her.
She nodded her head lightly as Ren led her to one of the couches in his suite. Once she had settled and she had ordered room service in the midst of an uncomfortable silence, Ren popped the question.
"So, is it true? Are you pregnant?"
"Yes," Kyoko whispered as she examined the hands folded in her lap.
"How long have you known?"
"I found out for certain yesterday morning."
Ren looked at Kyoko and didn't know what he was feeling. Dread, excitement, eagerness, nervousness, anger, happiness, his whole body was in chaos.
"I think that it may be time for us to figure out where exactly we stand with each other and what we are going to do."
"I suppose so," Kyoko whispered once more, terrified that she would be rejected.
Little did she know, Ren was worried about the exact same thing.
AN: To tell you the truth, I am not really sure what I promised as a preview for this chapter – I kind of got carried away with the writing. As you can tell, the next chapter will have a completely new scene in it, completely away from the canon. It will lead back to the familiar manga though afterwards. A lot is still ahead for this poor love triangle!
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