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: Hello again, everyone. I know it has been forever since I updated, and I could sit here and give you excuses all night, but I am sure that you are anxious to read the chapter. Two words then: Writers Block. I know, happens to the best of us, lol. I tired to post this last night, but the site wouldn't let me. Anyway, please enjoy this short chapter, hopefully I can get the next one out sooner rather than later.
"Tell me about your son," Kyoko said after Kuu had finished one of his speeches.
"Didn't you listen to a word I just said?"
"I did, but every character has his/her own traits and personality. I need to know a few things about your son in order to portray him. Even the most talented actors know a little about their characters before having to create them."
Kuu had to admit, she was right. It wouldn't be fair to not even give her a little bit to work with here, after all she was an amateur. He thought back to his son, was it even possible to describe such an amazing son in only a few words?
"I'll give you one hint – he is smart," Kuu said, proud that he was able to stop talking after only this. After all, his Kuon was the most amazing boy he had ever met.
"In fact," Kuu continued on, forgetting he was only supposed to give her a little information. The thought of Kuon got him so excited that he couldn't resist describing his remarkable son to anyone who would listen. "My son is handsome, hard working, honest, adorable, dedicated, a great martial artist, he has super fast reflexes and he's elegant. He is quite literally a glittering diamond standing among rocks!"
Kyoko had pretty much stopped listening at this point. There was no possible way that his son could be all of these things. It seemed that Kuu treasured his son very much. So much, in fact, that he had begun making his speech on top of the table. He must have been the mascot for a doting parent.
Which, unfortunately reminded Kyoko of her own mother – who had been anything but doting. Her mother had been cold and uncaring. She wanted only perfection in Kyoko and when she didn't find it she seemed to hate her daughter more and more every day. Until that one fateful day when her mother finally couldn't stand looking at her anymore and abandoned her.
Kyoko still remembered how it felt. Instead of crying and feeling sorry for herself like she used to, she now grasped onto that feeling. It wasn't her fault that her mother was like that. It wasn't her fault that her mother had abandoned her. And it certainly wasn't her fault when Fuwa Sho did the same thing to her after knowing everything that her own mother had put her through.
Kyoko placed her hand on her stomach. There was absolutely no way in hell that someone was going to do the same thing to her child either. If no one else, she would always be there for her baby.
'And Ren,' she thought unwillingly.
"And that's my son," Kuu finished is speech before jumping off of the table and sitting back in his chair. "Well, at least that was him when he was fifteen. He will forever be fifteen in my memory, but right now I should be seeing him as a twenty-year old adult."
'His child died?' Kyoko thought sadly, resisting the urge to touch her abdomen once more.
She couldn't even imagine how painful it would be to lose a child, especially one that you loved so much. Hizuri Kuu had obviously loved his son very much.
Kyoko started crying, cursing her damn hormones.
"Mogami-san?! Mogami-san, what's wrong?" Kuu asked worriedly, patting her on the back as she sobbed.
"It's... it's just so sad!" She almost-wailed and hiccupped at the end.
"Cheer up Mogami-san," Kuu hushed. "Kuon isn't gone; he is just off finding himself."
"Corn?" Kyoko asked suddenly, her head popping up instantly and tears stopping.
"Corn?" Kuu asked in response, a lot less enthusiastically.
They looked at each other for a moment, both slightly confused.
"Your son's name is Corn?" Kyoko repeated.
She didn't dare even think it. No, it wasn't possible. There was no way that Hizuri Kuu could be her Corn's father – that would make him the King of the Fairies! She looked Kuu over. He was pretty for a guy, but he certainly was no fairy. There was no possible way that he was Corn's father – nope.
"Corn?" Kuu asked again. "Oh! I am so used to English inflections I guess when I say his name it does sound a little like 'Corn'."
Kuu laughed for a moment, but Kyoko couldn't see what was funny.
"If you pronounce it very Japanese, his name his Ku-O-N," Kuu explained.
Kyoko didn't know if she was happy or heartbroken.
"Have the character ready by tomorrow morning. From then on, you will be Hizuri Kuon."
The morning after next, Ren made his way towards the president's office. He had requested the meeting be there instead of somewhere more public because he was sure that no matter how he broke the news to Lory, there would be some sort of outburst. With the paparazzi still following him closely, Ren couldn't take any chances.
"Just what are making her do?" Ren asked, getting right to the point as he sat down on the couch opposite the president.
President Lory looked as if he had had a long night – more than likely with his sim video games, Ren thought darkly.
"If you are talking about Mogami-chan, I am getting her to cook meals."
"Don't act dumb with me, please. There is something more to it than that. She called me last night and was acting really weird – more so than usual. I think that the guy that you have her staying with is troubling her, but she denied it. You must have heard something from him, right?"
Lory chuckled a bit.
"She did come into the office last night and was acting kind of strange, now that you mention it. I asked her what was wrong, but she didn't seem to want to be pressed further, so I just let it be. Maybe it does have something to do with Kuu – she did say it may be work related."
"Don't say 'maybe' to me, it is so irresponsible," Ren groaned and swiped his hand through his dark locks.
"Don't be so upset Ren, I can try and find out from Kuu."
"That is just the thing, President. Please, just remove her from the situation as soon as possible."
"Why are you so serious? Is there something I should know about?"
"Actually, there is." Ren paused and took a breath. "Please don't think that we have been hiding this from you, we just found out ourselves when we were on location. And, as you know, there were a few situations then that needed to be tended to so we were distracted."
"Found out? Have you and Kyoko finally resolved the issue that happened a few months ago?"
"Well, not exactly. That it what this is about. Kyoko is pregnant."
Lory's head snapped up and looked at Ren, checking if he was serious.
"I'm sorry; I must have heard you wrong. I thought that you said that Kyoko is pregnant."
"She is."
"Kyoko? As in Mogami Kyoko?"
"Yes, she is about three months along now."
Lory pulled up his fingers, his mouth moving silently as he counted something on his fingers. He seemed to come to a solution, but recounted just to be certain. After the second round through, he stopped and looked up at Ren.
"You?" He asked, pointing towards him.
Ren nodded his head.
"I hate to admit it, but the tabloids were at least a little correct. Kyoko had come over to help me run lines for my rehearsal for Kazuki, which I was nervous about. Things got a little out of hand afterwards."
"A little out of hand?" Lory snorted. "Are you kidding? This is more than a little out of hand. How many people know about this?"
"Just Kyoko, Yashiro and I," Ren said. "Then there is you, and Kotonami-san."
"Only people in our company that is it?"
"Fuwa Sho as well."
"Fuwa Sho? What does he have to do with any of this?" Lory asked, pulling out his cell phone.
"That's what I would like to know," Ren muttered.
"This is a serious situation, Ren. We are going to have to go about all of this delicately."
"That is what I thought," Ren frowned. "Even more reason to get her away from him."
"Really? Because I believe that that this may cause less reason to take Mogami-chan away from Kuu."
"But Sir-"
"I am calling them now and having them both come in. We need to straighten this whole situation out before the press really find out about it and have a field day. The last thing we want is for yours, or even Mogami's, reputation to be tarnished or destroyed. Your careers would be over."
"I realize that, sir."
"I believe that you do. So, I am calling them over for some damage control. Kuu, I think, is scheduling the funeral for his stage name; I believe they may actually be in the building right now. How about you go for a short break while I contact them – you probably haven't eaten yet today."
Dismissed with a wave of Lory's hand, Ren exited the office.
Yashiro met up with Ren in the lounge of LME while Ren waited to be summoned back to Lory's office. Yashiro insisted that Ren at least have a canned drink for breakfast, which Ren could not refuse. His stomach was churning nervously all the way to the vending machines while Yashiro rambled in his ear.
When the background noise of Yashiro's blathering ceased abruptly and Ren heard something heavy landing directly in front of them, his neck snapped up quickly.
There, before him, stood a replica of his ten-year-old self in the form of his child's mother.
Kyoko looked up, stunned, before regaining her composure. She straightened herself up and smirked, a glint in her eyes.
"What the-" Ren thought as Kyoko bowed to them.
"Nice to meet you," she said in English to a stunned Yashiro and Ren. "Mr. Ren Tsuruga?"
"Why was that a question?" Yashiro muttered.
"I heard that you were playing Katsuki in Dark Moon," Kyoko continued. "I gotta say your performance is only so-so in comparison to the other Kazuki."
"Kyoko, what the heck is wrong with you?" Yashiro panicked. "Are you ill? Did you hit your head? Are you alright?"
"What are you doing over there?" A voice rang out above them.
Yashiro jumped out of skin and turned quickly, Ren's back stiffened and he kept staring straight ahead, straight at Kyoko.
The sound of footfalls coming down the stairs made Yashiro squeal a bit.
"Ren! Ren! It's Kuu – we met Kuu! What should we do?"
"Just calm yourself," Ren said as Kuu descended the stairs, despite his own heart beating hard in his chest – for a different reason.
"You're way too calm!" Yashiro exclaimed, causing Ren's head to jerk over slightly.
It was then that his eye caught Kuu's.
"Kuon," Kuu said. "We are going home."
Ren began sweating; his heart beat up impossibly faster as his mouth became dry. He opened his mouth, willing his dry-cracked lips to force out some sort of discernable sound, but failed.
Instead, Kyoko spoke up.
"Dad!"
Ren glanced quickly over to Kyoko, who was making her way up to Kuu quickly.
"Look, its Ren Tsuruga from Dark Moon!" She pointed.
"You shouldn't point at people," he lectured and put her hand back down.
Kuu finished walking down the stairs and walked over to Ren, extending his hand.
"It is nice to meet you, I am Hizuri Kuu," he greeted a startled Ren.
"Tsuruga Ren," he replied, shaking the actor's hand.
"It was nice meeting you, Tsuruga-san," Kuu said and smiled brightly. "But Kuon and I need to be going now."
"Actually," Ren spoke up before he was just turning. "President Lory needs to speak with you; he has been trying to call you."
"Oh, I was in an interview and my cell was turned off," he remembered and pulled the phone from his pocket, turning it back on.
"Don't worry about it." Ren waved. "He needs to speak with all of us."
"All of us?" Kuu asked.
"You, Kyoko and I," Ren said simply.
Kyoko froze up in her position behind Kuu.
"Why?"
"It's a personal matter," Ren explained and motioned the way.
"Ren, why would Hizuri Kuu need to be let in on this?" Yashiro whispered to him. "I thought that we were just waiting on Kyoko."
Ren ignored his manager and walked over to Kyoko, leaning down to look at her in the face.
"We are going to need Kyoko back for a while, Kuon," he said to her. "This is a very serious issue."
Kyoko shook her head slightly and smiled back at him, in the regular Kyoko fashion.
"You told the president?" She asked.
Ren nodded in response.
"How did he take it?"
"As well as could be expected I guess. He isn't exactly throwing a party."
"He may have if I were older, and married," Kyoko noted.
"Well, there is no point in wondering now, is there? We can't undo the past no matter how much we would like to," Ren said glumly. "You may find that out sooner than you think."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing," he smiled the demon king smile.
Kyoko flinched a bit at the terrifying smile before Ren turned and walked towards the office of the president, followed by Yashiro and Kyoko.
AN: That's all for now, folks. The next chapter we will have the confrontation between everyone, Kuu's solution, and the first ultrasound! I am hoping to move things right along after that and jumping a few months. Please remember to review – it motivates me like nothing else! That is the main reason for this chapter – a wonderful review kicking me in the butt!!