Disclaimer: I don't own Skip Beat! Or any of its characters…

I'm really very sorry for the very late update… so if you please… here it is… Enjoy!

Chapter 22

Ren looked up to where Kyoko stood frozen. Their eyes met and he saw confusion and hurt in her eyes. His eyes widened in surprise and fear at what she must have been thinking the entire time. His smile disappeared from his face and he stiffened. The two older people noticed this and followed the gaze of their son. There, they saw Kyoko holding out her tears from streaming down her cheeks. She slowly shook her head without breaking eye contact with Ren.

"…it's not true, right?…" She asked in a whisper, Ren strained to hear it. He wanted to say 'no, it's not true' and hug her comfortingly. But it was true and he did not even know how much she realized just from that family scene she witnessed. She was so fragile standing there. It was as if a single breath could make her break apart into tiny little pieces. He opened his mouth and was about to start explaining but no words came out of his mouth, so he closed it again.

Kyoko shook her head and considered the silence meant it was all true. The tears she was holding back flowed down her cheeks. She could not stand being in that room anymore. It was suffocating. She turned away and ran for the door.

"Kyoko!" She heard Ren called behind her at the same time the baby started crying. He glanced at the Baby and turned to look at the fleeing Kyoko. "Wait, Kyoko!"

Ren was torn between attending to the baby or running after Kyoko. Ren felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go after her. Take care of the baby." His father, Kuu, told him. He watched Kuu half-ran to the door where Kyoko disappeared from his sight. He let out a heavy sigh of a thousand years of misery. His mom rubbed his back in comfort.

"Don't worry. It's going to be okay." Julie assured him. Yeah, right, He thought but nodded anyway and went to take care of the crying baby. I can't even imagine what her mind is thinking right now. He sighed mentally. I seriously screwed this one up.

Kyoko didn't know where she was going. Her feet were moving, running, taking one step and another on their own. All she knew was she had to get away, to go as far away as possible from that room and from the pain that she was feeling. She wanted to breath fresh air that would not tightened and squeezed her heart painfully till she could not breath anymore. She wanted to feel the wind blew passed her and take all the pain she was feeling with it. She wanted to bathe in gentle bright lights that would swallow her whole and make her disappear into nothingness. She did not want all of that pain. She worked hard the past three years so she would not feel that kind of pain again. The pain of betrayal. But why? Why am I feeling it now? She thought to herself.

Her feet finally stopped and her knees gave out. She sat their crying on the ground, just crying, letting it all out. And for what felt like years and after the flood gates finally closed, she began to take in her surroundings. She felt sand beneath her, tickling between her toes. She was down at the beach that she saw in the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room of their suite. Her heart squeezed painfully again when she thought of the suite and Ren being there. She looked at the endless horizon, the sky above her, the calming vast sea with its constant sound of waves and the peaceful slow setting of the sun which paints lovely colors on the clouds, the sky and the sea. It was painfully beautiful. Painful, because it marks the end of each day. She smiled sadly to herself. She thought of Baby Ren. How he was doing. She remembered that he was crying when she ran out of the suite. She wanted to go to him and comfort him but Ren was there with him and when she thought of Ren, it was painful.

She felt someone sat beside her. She was startled and quickly turned her head to look at the person. She calmed down when she saw it was Kuu. He handed her a handkerchief. She accepted shyly and wiped her face. He ruffled her hair and rubbed her back in comfort. He didn't say or asked anything. He just continued comforting her and put his arm around her shoulders while they watched the sunset.

"Aren't you gonna ask? …or say anything?" She asked quietly. He looked down at her.

"Shouldn't you be asking him that?" He asked back. Kyoko just stared back at her otou-san. "Let him explain first before you go running around." He smiled and Kyoko looked down. Kuu gave her a comforting squeeze on her upper arm. "I'm sure he has a good reason."

That last sentence kept playing in Kyoko's mind as they made their way back to the suite. She was still uncomfortable going back and seeing Ren. Her heart was tightening and she had a hard time breathing again as they came nearer to their suite. Kyoko was holding tightly to her otou-sans arm and little by little hiding behind him. She took a deep breath before Kuu opened the door to their suite. The first one they saw was Julie holding the baby and happily playing with him. Kyoko focused her attention to the baby and nothing else. She did not want to see Ren.

Baby Ren saw her and a sweet smile appeared on his face. He reached his hand out to Kyoko and made cute noises. "mamamamama…" He called adorably.

Kyoko forgot about Ren and went to hold the little one. She showered baby Ren with kisses. Kuu made his way to his wife. "Honey, it's already six." He reminded her. Julie's eyes widened.

"OH MY GOD!" She exclaimed which startled baby Ren. Kyoko could not help but laughed at his funny startled expression. Then, she felt a burning feeling at the back of her neck and turned to look at who was staring at her. It was Julie. She was looking at Kyoko like she was a jackpot prize she just won. Kyoko looked at her otou-san confusedly. And before she knew it, the baby was already out of her hands and Julie clasped both Kyoko's two hands. "Please help me." Julie pleaded with pleading eyes.

"H-how?" Kyoko asked hesitantly and confusedly.

"Come with me." She was about to drag Kyoko out of there when Ren came out from one of the rooms.

"Mom?" He called questioningly. Kuu was cheerfully playing with baby Ren not paying attention to the others. Julie stopped mid-way in hauling Kyoko out of there. Kyoko froze like a statue when she heard his voice.

"Oh, Kuon! I'll borrow your wife for a little bit. You can kiss and make up later." She said with an excited smile and with that they were gone. Kyoko blushed tomato red when Julie referred to her as 'Ren's wife'.

When they arrived backstage, Kyoko was thrown into fitting of the gorgeous dress and luckily, Julie only made few alterations. Kyoko really felt like Cinderella who got a stunning dress from her fairy godmother. She was going into la-la land mode but then she realized the situation and snapped out of her wild imaginations.

"Uhm, Julie-san?" Kyoko called. Julie made a sound that she heard her but continued working on the dress. "I-I-I-I don't think I can do this." Julie finally met her eyes and stared at her. "I mean, this is your finale dress, right? What if I make a fool of myself and ruin your show? Surely, there are more suitable and beautiful models than me. I'm not even a mo-"

Julie cut her nervous, self-condemning speech with a stern look. "First, call me Julie. Just Julie and last, why would I choose you if you weren't suitable?" She asked.

"But-"

"Sshh! No buts." She turned Kyoko around and unzipped the dress. "Now, stepped out so I can continue to alter it while you go to make-up, okay?"

Kyoko was guided to the make-up artist and she entered la-la land once again when the make-up artist started working on her. Next was her hair (or her wig). She was nervous that the hairdresser might have found out she was wearing a wig, but if she found out, she did not show it. Finally, on to the dress and shoes.

When Kyoko stepped into the shoes, she was shouting inside her head. It was the highest heels she had ever worn. It felt like her feet and ankle were going to snap any second. She was more nervous than ever before. Julie was busy preparing with her other models. She was standing in a little dressing room. She was instructed not to sit because of the dress. She tried pacing due to nervousness but her feet hurt. She escaped to la-la land and continued her imagination as Cinderella who got a grand make-over from her fairy godmother.

She came falling back to earth when she heard the door opened and she turned to see a suspicious man with a cap and sunglasses carrying a car seat with a baby and a diaper bag slung on one shoulder. Well, to anybody else, he would be considered suspicious but to Kyoko, one glance or even his presence alone, she knew who it was. She stilled and stopped breathing when she saw him. Her fairytale came crashing down as the painful memories of realization played back in her mind. He closed the door behind him and took off the glasses and cap. They looked at each for a few seconds.

Ren was the one to broke off when he put the car seat on a chair nearby and took the baby in his arms. She could finally start breathing again when he broke off eye contact and she swallowed the urge of crying. The baby looked at Kyoko and was leaning forward to go to her. Ren held him in place and distracted him with a shiny toy he fished from the bag. The baby's presence made it easier to breath and forget about the pain in her heart.

"How are you feeling?" Ren finally spoke.

There was a moment of silence before she answered. "Nervous." She sighed shakily and looked down.

"You'll be fine." He assured her.

"No, I won't!" She disagreed strongly. "I-I-I'll trip or fall down and ruin Julie's show."

Ren sighed and Kyoko felt a stab in her heart and realized that she might have just disappointed Ren. She felt guilty and ashamed. "Don't go out there as yourself." Kyoko snapped her head up to look at him in surprise. He had a small smile on his lips. "I'm sure I know someone can handle this kind of thing." He gave her a look of challenge. Her eyes slowly started shining in determination and her fist clenching tightly.

Someone knocked and told Kyoko, it was time for her to go prepare outside. She glanced at the door and then back at Ren. He was smiling his heavenly smile that knock the lights out of her demons. "Good luck!" He wished her as he held the door open for her. She paused before the door. She leaned forward to the baby and kissed his hair lightly. She quickly pulled away before baby Ren could grabbed something on her and ruined it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath slowly, exhale and then opened her eyes. She was no longer Kyoko. She was Natsu and she strutted outside confidently to go line up and wait for her turn.

When it was her turn to go out on the runway, she wowed the crowd. She walked as if she was a true runway model with years of experience.

I really hoped you liked it. And I'm very, very sorry for the very late update. I was very busy with work. I'm really sorry… *doing a million dogeza* Thank you so much you guys for continue reading, reviewing, alerting, fav-ing and everything… love you guys ^_^ BTW, who's going to go to anime expo 2011 this July 1-4?

Oh check out my FanMusicVid of Skip Beat! KyokoxRen! Go to my profile to see the link… it's my first ever fmv, so please go easy on me ^_^