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: Just so you know, I am not going to spoil you like this every weekend – this is a present for being so patient for the last chapter. I hope you guys like cliffhangers – I certainly do.

I hope that you don't mind that nothing much gets done in this chapter. I am trying to set it up so that I can clear up everything and get rid of the nitty-gritty in one big swoop – you know, that thing called a climax lol. Well, enough of this. Wanna know more? Visit my website at: krisblack (dot) webs (dot) com.

Kyoko sat across from President Lory, her back straight and hands resting in her hands as she was taught from a young age. Lory was also sitting straight, arms folding across his chest. Ren, beside her, had his arms resting at his side, eerily calm as well. Hizuri Kuu, who was sitting across from Ren had a confused expression on his face – Kyoko thought he was probably wondering what he was doing here if it was a personal matter, Kyoko wondered at that as well.

Yashiro remained standing, just a little distance off, looking almost terrified.

The tension in the room was so thick that someone could cut it with a knife and put peanut butter on it.

"So," Kuu spoke up, finally. "What is so urgent that we all had to be called together for such a matter? Why is everyone looking so serious?"

"Kuu, I believe that there is something that Ren should tell you," Lory said simply.

"I don't think that this matter has anything to do with him, honestly," Ren spoke up.

"I don't understand. Is it because I am currently working for Hizuri-sempai that he is here?" Kyoko asked innocently.

Ren spared her a glance, remembering all that he had failed to tell her already.

"That would be a good enough reason," Lory replied. "However, there is a greater reason."

"I think that I would like to know what is going on now," Kuu spoke up, seriously.

Ren paused and looked up at Kuu, almost like it was for the first time. He then looked desperately over to Lory, who responded with a look of grim determination.\

Ren wasn't ready for this. It had only been a mere five years – only five years to himself, to his own identity.

"I thought we agreed that this would happen only when I was ready."

"Under normal situations, Ren, I would have allowed it. But I think that Kuu deserves to know what is going on now. Think about Julie."

"Julie?" Kyoko spoke up. "Who is Julie? Ren, what are you talking about?"

"Kyoko is pregnant," Ren said finally, ignoring Kyoko's last question and hoped that Kyoko would forgive him.

He had kept so much from her. Ever since he realized who she was, he had been withholding the truth from her – was that not the same as lying to her?

No. It had been for her protection then. No one needed to be burdened with his past mistakes.

And yet, here she was, about to be so. She was on the verge of knowing everything about Tsuruga Ren. Who he really was, what he was, and what he wasn't. He had always been worried that Kyoko would cut her from her existence. That, one day, she would wake up and realize what kind of person he was and leave. Now, with her carrying his child, the intensity of that concern was multiplied by a thousand.

Now, if Kyoko cut him from existence he didn't think that he would be able to survive it, as Tsuruga Ren or not.

"Pregnant?" Kuu asked. "Well, I guess that congratulations are in order. I know that you are young and inexperienced and that your own mother wasn't the best model, but I firmly believe that you will be a great mother Kyoko. After all, look at all the great people around you to support you!" He smiled. "But I still don't understand what this has to do with me."

"What I am trying to say," Ren hesitated. "Is… is that you are going to be a grandfather. That is what you wanted me to say, right President?" Ren glowered.

Yashiro's jaw, Ren saw out of his peripheral vision, looked like it detached and dropped to the floor.

President Lory sat motionless, with a small smile on his face. Kyoko furrowed her brows. Was Ren going nuts? She had only been acting the part of Kuu's son, he wasn't really her father.

"Ren, don't be ridiculous," she said nervously. "I was only acting as Kuu's son as part of character development – he isn't really my father."

Ren looked over at her for a moment, measuring her face it seemed before he replied surely.

"I never said that he was, Kyoko."

"But- what-?" Kyoko asked, confused.

"A grandfather?" Kuu asked in a slight daze, calling both Kyoko and Ren's attention back to him. "A grandfather?"

"Sempai – please don't be mistaken!" Kyoko asked hurriedly as Kuu's facial expression began to change slightly.

"I'm going to be a grandfather," he repeated more assuredly this time, ignoring Kyoko. "It is a little early, I suppose. But this is cause for celebration! I must call Julie!"

"What we need to do first, is decide what we are going to do about the situation," Lory scolded slightly.

"Who is Julie?" Kyoko asked out exasperated. It appeared as if she was the only one here who didn't know what was going on, which was making her anxious and she started tearing up.

Damn hormones.

"It's alright," Ren said after seeing the tears beginning. He turned towards her and took her hand. "You must be confused now, and I am sorry. Do you remember our fight when you found out that Tsuruga Ren was only my stage name?"

"Yes," Kyoko remembered, she had said rather mean things at the time.

"And you remember how I told you that Tsuruga Ren was the only man that I wanted you to know?"

"Yes," she replied, resenting the fact.

"Well, now I think it is time to tell you who I used to be. My real name, Kyoko, is Hizuri Kuon."

"Kuon?" She whispered. Her eyes widened as she turned her head towards Kuu.

"Hizuri Kuu is my father," Ren continued. "As you know from your character building, I was raised in America. I came here when I was fifteen under a stage name to make my own in the entertainment business without being compared to my father."

"That is why you pretended not to know each other?" She whispered.

Kuu nodded.

"Kuon has decided that he will not resume his old life until he has made something of himself, until he has established his career without any influence from mine."

Kyoko nodded. She understood. Ren – Kuon – was just like Corn. In America he must have been stuck under his father, unable to move because his father was so large he could not see passed him.

"You are the first person I have told," Ren confessed. "You and now Yashiro-san as well are the only people in Japan who know my real identity besides for the President."

Kyoko nodded, looking down at her hands. There was so much about Ren that she didn't know – did it matter?

"Kyoko?" Ren asked as her silence continued.

"Could you excuse me for a moment?" She asked quietly, still looking at her hands.

"Of course," President Lory answered. "Take your time; I know this is a lot to take in."

Kyoko nodded again before standing and heading out the door. She needed to digest this, she needed fresh air, and she needed to be by herself for a moment.

Once Kyoko stepped out of the room, Kuu began again:

"A grandbaby! How exciting, what should I do? So much to buy and do! I don't think I have felt this much joy since Julie was pregnant! Shame on you, Kuon, for getting such a young girl involved," Kuu added as an after thought of good parenting before continuing: "Oh, what should I buy first?"

"Just behave yourself," Ren said calmly, but Kuu recognized the anger hidden behind his voice. "Do your movie promotion and immediately go home."

"But I need to see my grand-"

"No." Ren cut him off. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?" Kuu asked disgruntled.

"Why did you get Kyoko to act out 'Kuon'? How much did you tell her for her to be able to replicate the ten-year-old Kuon so closely? I understand that you loved your son with all of your heart. So, rather than the rough and wild, jaded and no longer loveable son who despised this world, I understand why you would want her to act out the son that was loveable and cute. However-"

Kuu cut Ren off with a hard slap directly to his forehead.

"Loved? I still now love my son with my whole heart, even if to other people he has become jaded, rough, and wild and looks down on the world. He cannot be replaced."

"Somehow, this feels as if we are talking like Kuon isn't actually here," Lory remarked.

"That's because he isn't," Kuu said. "This is Tsuruga Ren. The character that he works so hard to perfect and persistently keeps it up, so I shouldn't forget to behave as if we are strangers.

As for asking her to act out Kuon, I was merely giving her a theme to create a character. She needs to learn how to act out characters that are already on her list of people in which to act."

Ren thought for a minute. The only people that Kyoko wished to act were a rich young lady, which she found in Mio, a princess, a fairy and a prince. Could she really get over her dreams of only acting those parts?

"Once she can get into the role as she pleases, the role will start running. Because she is a scary type of actor, the same as you," Kuu said darkly, looking at his son.

Kyoko walked aimlessly down the hallways at LME, the rock lodged in her throat, by her hormonal emotions, refusing to go away. She wiped the tears falling from her eyes before they fell down her cheek, betraying her. She should feel happy that the big secret that Ren was keeping from her was out, that he had finally told her and only her (besides for Yashiro). She didn't know why she was so upset. She had known that "Tsuruga Ren" was merely a stage name. Still, despite that, she couldn't stop herself from crying.

Deciding that it was probably time for her to stop walking around this emotionally unbalanced, she moved to the nearby bench and sat on it, resting her face in her hands. Her crying began to become uncontrolled and she moved on hand over her mouth to keep the sobbing noises from escaping her racking body. She ignored the tears running down her now-drenched face.

A white handkerchief suddenly appearing in front of her face startled her. She hadn't thought that there was anyone in this part of the building right now. She took the handkerchief from the proffered hand and gently wiped her tears off of her face with it.

"Better now?" A sickeningly familiar voice asked to her right.

Kyoko's blotched eyes widened slightly as she turned slowly to view the perpetrator of the voice. There, directly in front of her with a worried look splattered across his horrible face was Fuwa Sho.

Her demons came out with more force than usual. Here he was, standing in front of her while she was just crying like a baby.

"What are you doing here?" She growled at him, throwing the handkerchief he had passed her back as if it was disease ridden. He caught it easily.

"I am here discussing my next music video with the talent company. The last one went so well, my company wanted to try LME talent one more time," Sho scowled.

"At least someone can recognize talent," she shot back. "It's a shame that they flopped up on you."

"They would beg to differ, I think," he said, sitting down beside her. She scooted as far away from him as the bench would allow.

"I am surprised that they are still letting you work now, though," Sho said, glancing at her. "You are beginning to show, I would have thought that LME would have kicked you out to the curb by now. Too bad, you may have had potential there for a while."

Kyoko shot him the look of death, her demons began to swarm.

"I still have potential; in fact, I just finished a job."

"Oh really, and is that why you were just sitting her crying like there was no tomorrow? Because it was your last job?"

"No, why I was crying is none of your business," Kyoko said with finality. "I have no connection with you any longer. Besides, it was only hormones to begin with."

She stood quickly and began to walk away. Sho shot up and grabbed her by the arm, turning her around back towards him.

"Not connected to me?" Sho asked incredulously and laughed. "I am willing to bet that I am all that you think about before you go to bed at night."

"What I think about before I go to bed is none of your concern," she snarled back at him. "But believe me, you are the last thing on my mind. I have more important things to do with my life now than exact some petty revenge on you. Get over yourself, Shotaro."

"Why is that? Because you are about to be a mother now?" He shot back, obviously hurt. "You wouldn't know the first thing about being a mother – didn't yours abandon you?"

The hurt that crossed Kyoko's face was undeniable. So much so, that Sho released her arm.

"Kyoko- Kyoko, I am sorry, I didn't mean that," he said softly when she looked away, obviously crying again. "You're mother has nothing to do with you any longer – you are nothing like her."

Kyoko shook her head – he didn't know that. She could turn out to be just like her mother.

He just stood there, staring at her blankly. He never knew how to deal with Kyoko crying – even when they were little. That is why she had always gone to that stream to cry, so that she would not be a burden to Shotaro.

But this time, he pulled her close to him, holding her tightly. She struggled against it for a few minutes but he didn't relent. She gave in and broke back down into sobs. Why was she crying like this today?

"Kyoko?" Ren's voice called from behind her.

Kyoko pulled out of Sho's arms like he was on fire and turned to face Ren, her face still blotched from the crying.

Ren took three long strides towards them, grabbing Kyoko gently by her wrist and pulling her over to himself. He shot a dangerous look over at Sho.

"We were beginning to wonder if something had happened to you," he explained, ignoring Sho briefly.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to worry anyone." Her voice was hoarse from crying.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

She smiled back and him and nodded gently. "Just hormones, I think."

Ren nodded and smiled back at her, glancing down at her stomach.

"Why don't you head back to the president's office?" Ren suggested. "I think that Hizuri-san ordered food for you."

Kyoko glanced over to Sho and then back to Ren. Although she was hungry, she knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to leave these two together alone.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. You can go," Sho said smugly.

"I wasn't worried about you," she spat back.

"Nothing is going to happen, I just have to talk to him," Ren assured.

She looked back to Ren and then at Sho again and back once more.

Ren was a man of his word. If he said that they were just going to talk, then she was sure that that would be all they would be doing; although, the words didn't look like they were going to be pleasant.

"If you aren't back in fifteen minutes I am coming back down here to get you," she warned.

"You don't need to worry about me," he smiled. "I am sure that Hizuri-san will keep you so busy you won't even notice the time go by."

She was sure that Kuu was going to be fawning over her, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't be worrying about Ren with each second that passed.

"Fifteen minutes," she said again before turning and leaving.

It was best that they both said what they needed to say to each other. It was bound to happen with the way they spoke of each other, better to get everything out before things escalated into something more.

Kyoko thought back to the way Ren and Sho were glaring at each other when she had left.

Maybe she would give him ten minutes instead – they would both be able to survive a fatal wound for that long, right?

AN: That's the end of that chapter. Look forward to the next chapter where things actually get solved! Please remember to review extra hard for me because I posted this so early I missed out on some from the previous chapter! Remember – review = kick in the butt for Kris to get moving.