Chapter 6: Say Something

Ren sped down the street in his car. For some reason there had been a rather long wait at the fast food restaurant he had stopped at and so it had taken him much longer than expected to buy their food. I hope she didn't get tired of waiting for me and unpack my suitcase… he thought anxiously. But if she had, Kyoko would've called you by now demanding an explanation.

He parked his car and hurried into the building. It felt like hours waiting for the elevator to move up to his floor. Finally, the elevator doors opened and he nearly ran down the hall. He listened at the front door for a moment, before pulling out his keycard.

Well, I don't hear anything, he reasoned with himself before realizing that meant nothing.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside. After switching out his shoes for slippers he moved down the entry hall and into the living room.

There he found an unexpected sight.

Kyoko was relaxing on the couch watching television. She glanced up when he entered and gave him a smile.

"You're back!" she jumped up from the couch and began to help him set things down on the coffee table. "I was starting to get worried."

Ren stared at her, and let out a sigh of relief. Everything's normal. She doesn't know.

She waved a hand in front of his face. "Ren? Everything okay?"

He smiled at her. "Yes, of course. Sorry it took so long, the line was longer than usual."

Kyoko nodded and they settled themselves down to watch TV while they ate. A couple of times he thought he felt her watching him, but every time he looked she was focused on either her food or the television.

Must be my imagination. He told himself.

After they finished eating, Kyoko cleared the table. "I'll take care of the trash, since you went out to get the food." She told him.

Ren watched as she quickly cleared away the trash and a few minutes later returned from the kitchen with a tea tray.

"Here," she said, holding out a cup to him. "I thought some tea might be good before bed."

Ren accepted the cup and sipped at his tea. They sat together enjoying their tea and watching random shows that appeared on the television until Ren yawned.

"I guess we should go to bed." He said taking the tray to return it to the kitchen.

Kyoko followed him. "All right, I'm going to take a shower before bed. Don't forget to unpack your things."

Ren turned around from his place at the sink to respond to her. He had expected her to still be near the doorway but instead she was right in front of him. Before he could open his mouth to respond she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to kiss her.

Ren was shocked at this passionate kiss. Kyoko had never kissed him like this before. She pulled away slightly and looked into his eyes. "I love you," she said, her voice soft.

Ren couldn't help the heavenly smile that flooded his face. "I love you too, Kyoko."

Kyoko's face flushed with embarrassment as if she had just realized her actions. She jumped back and across the room. "I'm going to go shower now." She called over her shoulder.

Ren laughed. She is too cute, he thought happily as he finished washing the cups.

When he had finished he moved back into the bedroom and began to unpack all of his things. He sorted the clothes, adding the dirty ones to the half-full laundry basket. And then carefully stored away the two bottles of hair dye in the bottom of a drawer in his dresser. He returned to the suitcase and continued removing the clean clothes.

He pulled out the shirt he had carefully wrapped around the photo strip. But it wasn't there. Where is it?

Ren shook out the shirt completely. When nothing fell out, he moved on to all the other clothes in his suitcase. Dammit! Where are they?

He dug through the dirty clothes he had placed in the laundry but found nothing. "Maybe I dropped it." He climbed onto the floor and crawled around searching for the strip of paper. Even going as far to search under the bed.

"Nothing!" he sat up. Where could I have left it? Maybe I forgot it at the hotel. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

He heard the click of the door opening and Kyoko entered the room, hair still wet, dressed in her pajamas. She continued drying her hair with the small towel in her hands.

"Did you lose something, Ren?" she asked, and Ren heard something strange in her voice. A sound he couldn't quite place.

He stood up, "Um, no. It's fine. It's nothing important."

Kyoko nodded and moved across the room to her nightstand. She opened the top drawer and pulled something out.

"Really?" she asked, holding up the photo booth pictures. "Because I thought that these were very important." She looked down. "And I thought Corn thought so too."

Ren felt like everything had come crashing down around him. His whole world stopped as he watch Kyoko. Listened to the words she said.

Her gaze returned to him. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

Ren couldn't speak. He couldn't find words. How could she act as if it was so simple? He had spent so much time trying to figure this out.

"All night I've been waiting…" her voice cracked, full of emotion, "I just kept thinking 'Please, say something. Say something to make it all, all right.'" She closed her eyes, struggling to hold back tears. "But you never said anything. This whole time, you just let me make a fool of myself."

She ran past him and he heard the slam of the guest bedroom door. His legs went weak, and he lowered himself to the ground. "I tried so hard to keep it from her so she wouldn't hate me." He laughed at his own stupidity. "And now I've hurt her trying to protect myself."

He heard a crash from the guest room. He pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face.

I'm sorry, Kyoko. I'm so sorry.

In the guest room, Kyoko stared down at where the table lamp now lay shattered on the ground. She kneeled next to it. "I-I didn't mean to…"

Kyoko had stormed into the room and searched for something to throw. She always threw stuff when she was angry. She had grabbed a pillow from the bed and thrown it, but it had inadvertently struck the small lamp, knocking it to the ground.

She began to pick up the broken pieces of ceramic and place them in one hand. "Ah!" she cried out. Her distressed state had caused her to cut herself on a broken piece.

A scene flashed through her mind. Mizuki kneeling to collect pieces of a broken cup, Katsuki taking hold of her hand, offering to disinfect it. Her face flushed and she threw the pieces back to the floor.

"Now is not the time to be thinking of him like that." She scolded herself. She sat down on the edge of the large bed. "How could I have not noticed?"

But I did, didn't I? I just chose to believe the lies he told me instead of my own eyes. She could feel a pain in her chest that she hadn't felt in a long time. Several years in fact.

She hadn't felt like this since…

"Shotaro." Kyoko shook her head. "No, this hurts worse than that." Tears began to flow down her face and she threw herself face down onto the bed.

So much worse…

The next morning, Ren woke up lying on the floor of his bedroom. Why am I on the floor? He wondered as he struggled to sit up. His head was hurting.

The images from the night before flashed through his mind.

"Kyoko."

He jumped up and half ran down the hall to the guest room. He was about to throw open the door when he thought better of it.

"Kyoko?" Ren called through the door, giving a light knock. He waited but there was no response.

Ren cautiously turned the handle and opened the door. But the room was empty. In fact, aside from the missing lamp, it looked as if it hadn't been touched.

Ren sighed, "Well, I guess the crash I heard was the lamp." He walked to the bathroom but found it empty as well. Within a few minutes, Ren had searched the whole apartment and found that Kyoko was not there.

I wanted to talk to her this morning and get everything cleared up. He ran a hand through his hair. "I guess, I'll just have to talk to her tonight."

Ren forced himself to get ready for the day, and pick up Yashiro for work, even though all he wanted was to wait at home for Kyoko to return. But wasn't it me who told her that a true actor continues working even if their parent were to die?

He hung his head, leaning it against the steering wheel. "Why did I have to say something like that? If I hadn't then I could stay home all day with a clear conscience."

There was a tap on the passenger window. Ren clicked to unlock the car without even looking up.

"Really, Ren. You should check who it is before you just unlock your car. What if I had been some crazy obsessed fan?" Yashiro lectured his charge as he climbed inside of the car.

When Ren didn't look up, Yashiro pulled his head up. He stuck a hand on Ren's forehead. "Are you sick?"

Ren pushed away his manager's hand. "I'm not sick." He said, grumpily.

"Did you and Kyoko-chan have a fight?" Yashiro asked. "I thought things were going so well after the trip." He sighed.

He froze though when he felt Ren's dangerous glare on him. "Why are you the one sighing? Last I checked, I'm the one who is dating her and therefore the only one who should be sighing if we fought."

Yashiro squeezed as close to the door as possible as he tried to hide from Ren's glare. "Yes. Yes. Absolutely right." He replied, trying not to whimper in fear.

He watched as Ren threw the car into gear and drove them towards their first job.

Kyoko-chan, what on earth happened between you two?!

A/N: First things first! Thank you so much for reading! Second, the song that I used for this chapter was "Say Something" and if you feel like it, I'd recommend re-reading the chapter with that playing in the background. Third, I'm sorry it's a shorter chapter but on the bright side it's not a cliffhanger lol.

I'll see you again soon with chapter 7! Please leave a review if you're able to! :) thanks!