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: Well, I finally trudged through this. Big plans for the next two to three chapters. Gotta love Paparazzi, right? There's your hint.
Wanna know more? Visit my website at: krisblack (dot) webs (dot) com.
Kyoko made her way back to the president's office, counting each second that ticked by. One-one thousand, two-one thousand. Sixty seconds in a minute. Ren had eight minutes left.
Ren, of course, had been right. When Kuu opened the door for her there was already enough food lying on the coffee table in the president's office to feed a small army. He quickly ushered her to sit down and motioned towards the table.
"Please, eat!" He said excitedly. "You must be so hungry; I should have taken better care of you!"
"I-it's alright," Kyoko bowed slightly. "You didn't know."
"By the way, where is Tsuruga-san?" Kuu asked lightly.
Kyoko still found it odd that Ren and Kuu referred to each other as 'Tsuruga-san" and "Hizuri-san" even in private – she could only guess that it kept them in the habit so they didn't mess up in public and let it slip that Ren is really Hizuri Kuon. But, she didn't really have first-hand knowledge of how children and parents are supposed to interact.
"He met someone he knew and said that he needed to speak with them. He should be returning in about five and a half minutes," she replied. 'Or at least he better be.' She thought.
"So, he sent you to the wolves by yourself," Kuu tsked. "I thought I taught him better."
He finished with a teasing laugh while Kyoko denied anything of the sort.
In fact, she thought, he had saved her from the wolf. And now, he and Sho were secluded in a low-traffic part of the building with only each other for company. She shuddered, wondering why she had decided to leave them there without supervision in the first place.
Four minutes left.
"Stay away from Kyoko."
"Perhaps I should be the one saying that to you," Sho replied with a slow drawl. "After all, it is my family who raised her. She was raised from a young age to be my wife. My mother even trained her to be the mistress of the family business. She ran away to Tokyo with me. In anyone else's point of view, you would be the one interfering here, wouldn't you?"
"You have done nothing for her except use her as a means to an end. You brought her along with you so that she could work harder than she should have had to pay your rent, cook your meals and encourage you. You didn't appreciate her. You left her broken because of your selfishness and vanity. And now, now that she has finally pulled herself together and could be happy, you show up and try to worm your way back into her life as if you were never gone. It isn't going to work. She hates you for everything you did to her."
"It sounds like you are trying to convince yourself of that more than you are me, Tsuruga-san," Sho scoffed. "She and I have a lot of history together. She can't just forget all that."
Ren's face changed in a way that Sho never thought possible. His eyes narrowed and his whole face became angry as he glowered at him. Everything about him changed, even his posture was different – in a mere second, Tsuruga Ren turned into an alternate person.
"Listen to me Fuwa Sho," Ren said lowly as he stepped closer to him, a dangerous aura coming off of him. "She is carrying my child. She doesn't want anything more to do with you. You would do well to leave her alone from here on out, that is your last warning."
"Are you threatening me? Because you should know who knew she was pregnant first, and it wasn't you."
"By some strange coincidences, you have been thrust into her life repeatedly and against her will. I am not going to put up with it any longer."
"Or what?"
"Excuse me?"
"What if I refuse? What if I keep coming around Kyoko? You aren't the boss of her, and you certainly aren't the boss of me. You can't stop us from interacting with each other."
"I will ruin you in every way I possibly can. Your career, your finances, your image, your reputation – you will have no other choice to crawl back to your parents and beg for the family business."
"Tsuruga Ren wouldn't do something like that," Sho laughed. "Your image is squeaky clean besides for that little one-night stand you had with Kyoko."
"This isn't Tsuruga Ren you are talking to and that was far from 'a one night stand' as you call it," he said darkly. "This is a side that you will wish you never met. You ever come near Kyoko or my child and you will regret it do you understand?"
Sho opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by Kyoko's voice as she walked into the hall.
"Ren? I finally managed to escape Hizuri-sempai for a few moments to come and fetch you." She said tentatively. "Are you finished?"
The change in Tsuruga Ren was almost instantaneous, Sho noted. His whole demeanour changed back into the cool, calm Tsuruga Ren.
"We're done here," he said, glaring at Sho, in response to Kyoko's question.
"Is everything alright?" She asked, looking back and forth between the two.
"Yes, I think that we have come to an understanding now," Ren said to her, grabbing her hand gently. "We should get back before the president and Hizuri-san think that we are intentionally avoiding them."
Kyoko nodded, glancing back at an ashen-faced Sho before following Ren.
"I believe that I have come to a decision about your situation," Kuu said. "I have spoken to Julie about it as well and she agrees. You two are to be married as soon as possible."
"You can't possibly be serious," Ren said, his face frozen in a mask of calm, but the Demon King antenna on Kyoko's head began sounding off.
She wondered if it would be feeding the flames if she moved away from him a tiny bit. Looking at the small couch that they were sitting on across from Hizuri-sempai and President Lori, it probably wouldn't do any good anyway.
"In America I know that this kind of thing happens all the time, but it is frowned upon. Here in Japan, this is life breaking. In order to keep the baby and for both of you to keep your careers the only solution is marriage."
"I-I am too young to be married," Kyoko said softly, squeezing her hands together tightly. This was the last thing in the world that she wanted – to trap Ren in an unwanted marriage.
"Seventeen is hardly too young," the President said. "In older times in was considered the norm."
"We are in the twenty-first century now, President," Ren said. "There must be some other way besides for a shot-gun wedding."
"If you two do not get married, I will have no choice but to let one or both of you go from the company," President Lori said. "If news of any of this mess leaks to the media, things will get bad fast."
"And forcing a seventeen year old to marry won't be bad?"
"We aren't forcing her to do anything," Kuu sighed. "I just think that it would be for the best. Your child will have both parents together to raise him or her, you will at least be able to salvage your careers and Kyoko won't have to worry about supporting herself or the child."
"Even without marrying me, she wouldn't have to worry about that. I won't just abandon her."
"And adding her to the family registry is just the way to ensure that," Kuu said.
"Marriage is the only way?" Kyoko asked. "Don't be ridiculous. I can't possibly marry Ren-"
"And why not? Did you two not think of the repercussions about what happened that night? You are both must care about each other at least a little. Marriage is built upon mutual trust and respect, which I know you both hold for each other. Are there other prospects, hm? Would it be so bad to be together for the child that you created?" Kuu lectured.
"Even if I agreed to it, it would be impossible," Kyoko argued. "I won't be eighteen until next year. In order for me to be married, I would have to have consent from my mother."
Kuu looked at Ren and back to Kyoko. He remembered that Kyoko had said that her mother had abandoned her at a young age.
"Then I will find your mother and convince her to allow you to marry." He said simply.
"E-excuse me?" Kyoko stuttered.
No way would he be able to find her mother, she thought. That woman never cared for her and abandoned her as soon as she could. She didn't want her life to have anything to do with someone so selfish that they put their own needs before their own child.
She paused.
She wasn't doing that right now, was she? Would it be best if she married Ren so that their child could be together with his or her father all the time? She didn't think that she could ever love someone ever again in her life – she didn't want Ren to have to live in a loveless marriage for the rest of his life just because the emotion no longer had any meaning for herself.
"If I find your mother and she agrees to it, will you marry him?"
"By the look on your face, I can tell that you think that it may be impossible for me to track down your wayward mother. I would like to make a wager. If I find her and get her to agree to this marriage, you will marry Tsuruga-san."
Kyoko looked at Kuu. He was an actor and he had lived in America for a long while – surely he wouldn't be able to find her mother. What were the chances?
"I do not appreciate you wagering on the rest of my life," Ren practically growled. "You have no right to just barge in and dictate what I will and will not do."
"Perhaps if I had done this sooner, this would not have happened," Kuu sighed.
"Somehow, I remember that same phrase from you five years ago," Ren said calmly, but the demon king was out full force.
Kuu flinched as if Ren had actually hit him with his words. Kyoko looked over to him as his dangerous aura filled the room. Her demons came out, swarming around him like he was the charger to their batteries.
"Kuon, I-" He began put that just made Ren angrier and he stood up.
"We are done here," he said. "I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but no longer."
The waves that were flying off of him would be enough to make a grown man cry. He stood up and took Kyoko's hand, helping her up off the couch and moving to leave the room.
"I'll do it," she said right before Ren began to pull her out of the room, causing him to falter slightly.
"What?" Ren asked.
"If you can find my mother, find her and get her consent, I will marry Ren," she said to Kuu. "She has been gone for ten years; I am probably the last person she wants to remember."
"Excellent. I feel that this is the best choice for everyone, Mogami-chan," Kuu said lightly, causing Ren to glower.
"Well, we are leaving first," he said to his seniors and Yashiro, pulling Kyoko gently out the door behind him.
The demon king was out full force and there was no way Kyoko was going to say anything to make him turn around and show her the terrifyingly calm expression masking his face. Her demons were swarming more than she had ever seen in their entire life and she knew that Ren was the angriest she had ever seen him. He kept her hand held tightly in his own while they walked down the hallway of L.M.E together. She wanted to ask where they were headed, but instead she held her tongue.
There was no way in hell that she was going to ask the demon king anything.
She found out soon enough when they went to the underground parking and began walking to his car.
"I am taking you home," he said.
"But, I haven't been released from working for Hizuri-sempai," she argued.
Ren stopped and turned around, smiling that sickeningly fake gentlemanly smile that made most girls swarm. It had the opposite effect on Kyoko – she knew what was really behind there. The demon king was out full force.
"He must really be amazing," he said, still smiling. "That you still want to go and work for him even after he is trying to force you into marriage."
"I-it isn't like that," Kyoko replied. "He is just trying to look out for you – for us. He thinks that this is the best way-"
"You didn't seem to think so when I proposed last month," Ren cut her off.
Kyoko looked down at her hands. She did refuse to marry him last month; he had tried to do the same thing that his father thought to do. Did she seem fickle now that she agreed if Hizuri-sempai found her mother?
"He isn't going to find her," Kyoko almost whispered. "She disappeared off the face of the planet."
"That is where you are wrong. No one has the ability to do that. Furthermore, once Hizuri Kuu puts his mind to something, he will use all of his resources to complete it. He may find your mother sooner than you think."
"I was instructed to take care of Hizuri-sempai until he leave Japan though," she responded, more determined now. Regardless of the situation, she never left a job incomplete.
Ren sighed, frustrated. He ran a hand through his dark hair for a minute, taking a deep breath.
"How about this – I take you back to the daruma for tonight. You have your first appointment tomorrow, right?"
Kyoko nodded. "At eleven o'clock."
"I have a photo shoot then, I won't be able to make it," he replied, sounding genuinely sorry. "But how about I get Hizuri-san to attend with you instead? I am sure he would enjoy it. After that, you can go back and complete your job with him. Just take a break for the rest of today and rest well tonight."
"Will that really be okay?"
"Of course it will. No one will argue about you taking a short break. In fact, it may be encouraged."
He opened the passenger door of his car and Kyoko slid in before he jumped into the driver's side.
When Ren returned from dropping off Kyoko, he was furious – to say the least. How dare Hizuri Kuu waltz back into his life and think that he suddenly had a right to have a say in it again. He was Tsuruga Ren now – not some fifteen year-old that had to be punished for sneaking out again.
He marched straight through the hallways of LME to the President's office. He had only been gone twenty minutes and was sure that both men were still in there. There was a good chance that Yashiro had already fled.
He knocked on the door sharply, twice. When the President's voice allowed entrance, he let himself in.
Sure enough, President Lori still sat on the sofa he had been in before. Hizuri Kuu had moved to the chair beside them. They were both drinking tea.
Ren marched right over to them, his face set.
"Where is Mogami-chan?" Kuu asked.
"I have sent her home for the night. The last thing she needs is more stress from the likes of you."
"If I had known about the situation before hand I would have been more careful with her," Kuu argued.
"She was on a job, Ren," President Lori lectured. "Who will take care of Kuu now?"
"He can take care of himself, I am sure," Ren growled. "But she said the same thing. Her work ethic is second to none. I told her to take a rest for tonight and she could start again tomorrow."
"That is a good idea," Kuu commended. "She needn't work herself to death, the poor dear."
"I told her that you would pick her up tomorrow. She has her first appointment and I told her you would be there, because my schedule won't allow it."
Kuu looked shocked at first, as if that was the last thing on Earth that he expected Ren to say. His face then softened a bit.
"Thank you. That would mean so much to me."
"I didn't do it for you," Ren said. "Take a picture and give it to your wife when you return to America – soon."
"I can't return yet," Kuu sighed. "I miss Julie, but she would kill me and never talk to me again if I returned without making sure that you, and now Kyoko, we alright."
"How is she?"
"Who?"
"My mother, how is she?"
"She said that she only has three months left to live."
Ren faltered for a moment, before taking a breath.
"That sounds so realistic this time, I almost believed it."
"I know, it is usually a minute, an hour, a day, two days," Kuu sighed again. "She misses you more than anything. She wouldn't even talk to me for half a year after you left. She is angry that she didn't get to say goodbye and only gets a letter or a picture now once in a while. She claims that you are worrying her to death."
Ren hung his head slightly. He did miss his mother, but he hadn't attained his goal yet and he promised himself he wouldn't return to his parents until he did.
"And now with this pregnancy issue," Kuu continued, "she is even more insistent that she speak with you. She said that she wanted to get on the next plane to Japan when I told her, but I had to talk her out of it because she is filming right now."
"I am sorry, I can't see her yet."
"I know, and she knows. She is just worried about you, that's all. Maybe you could do something for her to ease her mind a little, or at least stop her from coming all the way to Japan and hauling you back home by the ear."
Ren looked up at his father.
"She wants her Kuon back, not Tsuruga Ren who she sees on the television and in movies. Maybe you could make a video or something-"
"I'll do it."
"What?"
"If you leave Kyoko and me alone, if you return to America as soon as possible, then I will do this one thing. I will do it for my mother."
"She insists that I return with baby pictures and wedding pictures-"
"You can get a baby picture from the ultrasound tomorrow," Ren said. "And this marriage issue is not up for discussion."
"Ah, but the pretty lady will marry you if I can find her mother."
Ren glared at him intensely.
"Regardless, Kuon, thank you for doing this for us," Kuu said briefly, smiling at his son.
"I'll call your stylist back from Hawaii," President Lory finally spoke up, pulling out his cell phone.
AN: So, that is it guys. Not really a cliffhanger this time, I guess. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter up as soon as possible!
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