This is an AU based off of Shinkuu Yuusetsu, a wonderful manga by Bikke. I do not own Skip Beat or the premise, only the plot.

Hollow Junction

Chapter 3

"Let me work here!" Kyouko demanded angrily, slapping her hands on Sawara's desks. The man jumped and hastily grabbed a towering stack of papers that threateningly leaned to one side. Once secured, he glared at her.

"Excuse me?"

Clearing her throat, Kyouko tried again. "Let me work here," she enunciated clearly, and Sawara's scowl deepened.

"It would have been just fine if you had said that without trying to drown me in these papers," he replied waspishly, and Kyouko pursued her lips, determined to achieve her goal even through embarrassment.

"Then… you'll give me one?" She asked hopefully.

Sawara chuckled, evidently amused. "No, not so fast. Here, sit, sit, this is going to be a long conversation in fact-" he glanced at the mounted wall clock and grabbed his blazer from the back of his chair. "Join me for lunch. You just charged, yes? You should eat."

Kyouko obediently followed him from the clinic and upstairs to L.A. Hearts, whose clientele seemed to be at the end of their lunch rush, mostly empty plates surrounding the pair as they walked in. Sawara quickly found a recently vacated table, if the faint gleam of cleaner on its surface was any indicator. He draped his jacket against the back of his chair and then gestured towards the counter. "We order over there."

Kyouko, conscious of her dwindling money, simply ordered a cup of tea, citing to Sawara, who ordered similarly but along with a salad, that she'd eaten at home already.

The pair returned to their claimed table and Kyouko politely waited until he had taken a bite of his salad and she a sip of her drink before she broached the topic again. "Will you hire me?"

"Slow down," he reprimanded lightly, taking a sip of his tea and relaxing into its aroma before side-eyeing her. "We're very picky with our employees. Our boss...well, he's a bit on the side of eccentric." Kyouko thoughtfully kept the words 'I can tell' to herself. Anyone who names their company 'Lory's Majestic Enlightenment' qualified as the kinder term 'eccentric.'

The chief steepled his fingers, elbows on either side of his salad. "So, I would like to know… why do you want to be here?"

"Why?" Kyouko parroted incredulously as she remembered the reasons behind her resolve. A slow wind built up and the lights overhead darkened momentarily. Even the warm sunlight streaming from the floor to ceiling windows nearby dimmed.

"Because," Kyouko growled as her grip tightened around her cup and she consciously tried to relax each finger until she was no longer threatening to break the glass, jaw aching with how hard she was gritting her teeth. She couldn't afford to replace a cup. But her anger needed to go somewhere, and so she slammed her fists into the table top, fixing a glare onto the chief who had dared question her determination. "I want to beat Fuwa Sho!"

Sawara stared open-mouthed at her, shivering at the sudden chill in the room, then recovering and coughing.

"Would you stop harassing our tables?" He cried with his first breath, before finally calming to look at her askance. "Beat Fuwa Sho? I'm sorry Mogami-san, but you have the wrong agency if you're chasing after that one."

Kyouko's ears caught the strange wording - that one - but she shook her head vigorously. "No, no! You misunderstand. I want to beat him, into the ground, beneath me, where he belongs!" She couldn't help the delighted smirk that curled her lips at the imagery her words provoked, and her toes twitched with the imagined bliss she would feel stomping the bastard's face into the dirt. "I want my revenge on him!"

Sawara was not looking at her with understanding, Kyouko dimly realized. She had to make him understand, but before she could he held a hand up. "Okay… Okay. Throwing away your reasoning-" Kyouko opened her mouth to protest his fickle treatment but a glare from him shut it "-tell me what do want to do here. What position are you looking for?"

Kyouko's blank look must have lasted too long because he scowled. "Are you seriously just storming into any agency with guns ablaze and firing and not a single idea about what you want to do there?"

"Hey!" Kyouko cried, offended. "This is the first one."

"Not the point here."

Kyouko sighed, tracing a finger along the rim of her cup as she stared down into the tea. It was getting cold, she mindlessly thought, and so she took a sip, ever thrifty as she was. She was a bit hungry, after charging earlier -don't think of that jerk- and so she sipped a bit more, and Sawara respectfully allowed her, returning to his forgotten salad.

They stayed in silence for a moment, and Kyouko thought she looked particularly pathetic because Sawara sighed after a while. "I'm too soft for this… Okay. Okay. Tell you what, I'll let you meet our president. You're…" he waved a hand up and down at her, at a loss for words, and Kyouko scowled at what seemed like an insult. "You're like him," the chief eventually said, "so maybe he'll understand you better than I can, or ever will." The last part was said in a grumble that was not lost on Kyouko, but she took what she could get. She jumped from the table to bow deeply.

"Oh, thank you so very much Sawara-san! You won't regret this!"

"I hope not," the man mumbled beneath his breath, lips pressed in a thin line before he resumed eating his salad with a half-hearted vigor, already foreseeing what troubles someone who was as eccentric as the president could bring working under him.

Kyouko was glad Sawara was going with her, even though she had just meant the man. Meeting the president of a business seemed like a big deal, and Kyouko steeled her nerves. She would get a job here, no matter what!

From where she stood before the oak doors Kyouko could see Sawara converse with a secretary, and then he headed towards her, a genial smile on his face. "She said he's available, and that he'll see us." After a beat, he side-eyed her. "You're very lucky, you know that? You have impeccable timing."

She flushed at the comment, and was glad when Sawara forewent any more conversation, rapping smartly on the wooden doors. A deep voice beckoned them in, and Sawara took a deep breath before looking at her again. "Remember what I told you. Our president… he's a bit eccentric, okay?"

Before Kyouko could ask with sudden trepidation exactly what he meant about eccentric and why he felt the need to tell her twice, he pushed the doors open and she suddenly understood.

"Oh," she said in a small voice, overwhelmed.

The room was bathed in an eerie blue light, visible smoke curling around the edges and diluting the light so that everything looked mystical and shrouded. Far off giggles surrounded her and Kyouko shuddered, her nerves high-strung. Next to her, the chief groaned. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Kyouko followed directly behind him as he trudged through the gloom on some path only he could see. Quickly - enough so that Kyouko guessed the room was smaller than it looked and the fog denser than she thought - they approached a raised dais surrounded by torches lit with blue fire, and on top was a throne of bones.

But, the real spectacle was the ghostly man sitting on the throne. Black silks were draped across his body in stark contrast to his pale skin. In his equally dark curls nestled a crown of roses, thorns and bones interwoven so that it looked at once deadly and lovely. Seated on the arm of his chair was a beautiful fairy who looked stunningly out of place with the soft pink tones of her silken dress and the multitude of flowers woven into it and her hair. Her crown seemed to be made of pearls and white floral, so that she was the picture of innocence and spring.

The regal man spoke, his voice deep and foreboding. "What brings you to my humble kingdom today?"

Sawara was unamused. "Shacho, what theme is it today?"

The man pouted, throwing Kyouko who gaped at the character gap. "Sawara-kun, you boring man, you! Can't you at least entertain me some?"

"Certainly not," the chief replied dryly. "I have a special case for you."

The king perked at that, eyes bright and drawing an ever starker difference against his backdrop. "Oh! My manners, I seem to have lost them. Excuse me," he said to the fairy on his side as he stood, moving down the steps to meet the commoners.

Once he was level with them, though he was still laughably taller than Kyouko, the man grinned white teeth and waved with a graceful hand, indicating the dark gloom around him. "Hello, i'm Takarada Lory and welcome to LME! And whom do I have the pleasure to be speaking with today?"

Kyouko gasped and shook herself from her stupor, bowing quickly with an audible snap of her spine. "Hello Takarada-san. I am Mogami Kyouko and I am seeking to work here."

Lory hummed, placing a hand on his chin and walking towards her and then around her, inciting a slightly stifled but still heard long suffering sigh from Sawara, who seemed to put up with Lory's antics more often than not. Once he was in front of the duo again, he hummed again, even deeper in tone, and Kyouko hid her frustrations well.

She remained polite, a congenial smile on her face even though internally she thought what are you thinking? Why do you keep humming? Do you like what you see or do you not? Are you judging me? Is this a test? Are you testing my patience, my resolve? WHAT IS IT?

"Tell me, Mogami-san, what do you think of love?"

Immediately following his words the room, already dark with dim lighting, suddenly felt even more like the realm of death as a foreboding chill whipped around them. Everyone shivered and stared at the girl whose face had twisted in such anger it beyond recognition.

"A harbinger of destruction and a worthless emotion that should be damned to hell!" Kyouko spat instantly, fury licking at her suddenly. Kyouko wanted to curse the emotion into damnation until it never reared its ugly head in front of her again! It was worthless, useless, and needless and all it did was bring suffering!

Agitated, Kyouko lifted her gaze to tell the idiot president off but was met with pitiful eyes.

Beside her, Sawara groaned unhappily, digging a frustrated heel into his forehead as if to rub an ache away. Kyouko got the sinking feeling she had screwed up somewhere.

...the president aimed to enlighten and help all couples and partners in their endeavors and reunite them with love.

Oh, Kyouko thought. I've really messed up. This was the part where she was supposed to smile, nod her head, and agree, and she had done everything but that. Oh, Kyouko you idiot, you! She wished there was a nearby hard surface so that she could bang her head into oblivion. She had just basically spat on his life's motto and his entire business plan, there was no way he was hiring her now!

Sawara tried to appease the situation. "Sir, she's just lost her partner, she's not ready for anything like love!"

Lory seemed mollified at this, and he directed his gaze at Kyouko. "You've lost your partner?" He asked bluntly, causing the chief to flinch and for the beautiful fairy to sigh and cast her gaze skyward.

Kyouko shook her head, unwilling to lie. "No. We separated," and Kyouko could not help the bitter note that crept into her tone. She did not look at Lory, already aware that she had lost the job and that he was asking only out of courtesy.

"Then! Consider yourself hired, Mogami-kun!"

"Hah?" Kyouko said ungracefully, but was overshadowed by Sawara's own incredulous exclamation that was so loud the president looked at him warily. The chief blushed and shuffled nervously.

Lory continued then, resuming his earlier vigor. "Oh, yes, yes, you're perfect! I have just the job for you!"

And Kyouko's heart, instead of jumping for joy at being hired, sunk at the maniacal gleam in Lory's eyes. She cast a pleading gaze on Sawara, who nervously looked at anything but her, and Kyouko had the sinking suspicion he knew exactly what Lory was scheming.

"This is perfect!" Lory cried happily, clapping his hands in glee. Kyouko felt horror.

"Please tell me, Chief, what this is?"

Sawara looked at her with pity and Kyouko wanted to scream.

"It is what it is, Mogami-san. A work uniform."

Kyouko gave him a look that said please stop messing around. "This isn't just a work uniform. It's...it's… it's an abomination to mankind."

"Now now," Sawara said kindly. "It's not that bad."

"Please repeat that sentence while actually looking at the uniform."

Silence prevailed and Kyouko sighed in misery. The chief tried desperately to cheer her up.

"Come now, Mogami-san! It isn't so bad! Why, I think you got an amazing deal! Not only do you get hands-on experience, you're even trained on the job! It's the perfect opportunity to discover where you would like to work in the company while gaining experience!"

"You mean an official errand runner and dog of the company." Sawara flinched at the blunt statement and finally lost his patience.

"You're really very lucky Mogami-san. Not many - in fact, I doubt any - people walk into a company and get a position tailor made for them on the spot. Count your blessings," the chief said sternly.

The rebuke worked and Kyouko sighed and let the abomination in her hands fall from her line of sight. "Yes, Sawara-san."

"And I don't think the president would appreciate hearing such ingrateful words, hm?"

Kyouko's glower could have driven holes straight into the other side of the Earth, but she nodded in acquiescence.

"Good. Then why don't you change and come to my office and I'll explain your duties?"

"Yes, Sawara-san," Kyouko said again, and the chief left the locker room, turning the lock as he left so Kyouko could change in peace. Said girl collapsed into a foldable chair and dropped her head into her folded arms.

It wasn't even just the uniform, though it really didn't help, it was the job itself. Sawara could sugar-coat it all he wanted, Kyouko had basically secured a job as the dog of LME and was being told to jump first and ask questions later. 'Or never.'

Still, Kyouko was ashamed at how she had reacted in front of Sawara, her supervisor now, and she dreged herself up from the chair and slowly put the uniform on.

It was a pink disgrace to mankind that was so bright it hurt even when in her peripherals. The worst part, however, was the giant logo emblazoned on her back and a smaller version on her breast pocket. The words LoveME stared back at her unrepentantly.

"You need to want to love and be loved, Mogami-kun. How could you work properly in a business all about love if the very emotion detests you?"

Lory was right, but it didn't mean Kyouko had to be happy about it.

She could only hope that the gods took pity on her and never let the bastard-that-shall-not-be-named see her this way. He'd never let her hear the end of it. She could just imagine him now, with devil's wings on his back and a sneer curling his lips, guffawing to Shoko that 'Look! Now she's dressing as tacky on the outside as she is on the inside!'

Scowling at the imagery, Kyouko shoved her feet into her shoes and zipped her jumpsuit up, slamming her locker door shut. She'd have to buy a lock, she realized, though she sincerely doubted anyone would come near her locker for fear of burning their eyes on what Lory somehow decided would be a uniform. Sighing, she worked her way to Sawara.

In a way, the chief had been right. She'd be getting hands-on experience and learning the inner-workings of the one of the most (if not the most) successful agency in Japan. There was no way that wasn't beneficial. And Kyouko didn't really mind menial tasks. Cleaning was not a shameful act to her, unlike what certain blowhards would say.

She would get experience, education - they had promised to train her for whatever tasks they pushed on to her - and once she got her hands wet enough she'd accompany actual consultants on their jobs, acting as help.

Specifically, given the horrendous name of her department, she'd be helping on jobs focusing on finding and restoring love lost between pairs, resolving tensions and issues that tend to crop up when you spend most of your life with someone.

"A chance for a second chance, for lost love to bud anew and shower Japan with an eternal spring!" Lory had cried extravagantly, waving his arms about. Kyouko had stared at him with a deadpan look, still trying to consolidate the imagery of Hades with the personality of Lory.

There was no end-goal promise, but there was enough to leave hope. Sucking in a breath, Kyouko determined that she would view her newfound paying job through a lens of positivity, even if she ended up blind from the uniform.

All around her were cries of dismay as people's eyes feasted on the burning neon that was her outfit, and Kyouko tried her utmost to keep the furious blush of her face. She wasn't doing it because she liked it, okay? She wanted to scream it at everyone that turned away from her to whisper to their companions, but now she was an employee of LME and she had a certain image to uphold.

…

Oh, who was she kidding? There was no way there was any kind of image of LME she could hold onto even if she used both her teeth and hands with the uniform she was wearing.

Sighing in defeat, Kyouko finally arrived at the clinic. As if stirred by recent memories, she felt the familiar bubble of energy and she scowled.

Of course that little peck with that jerk hadn't taken all the energy she'd stored up in two days. There was still more than was comfortable growing inside her, spreading throughout. The more she thought about it, the more she felt suffocated from the sensation, as if the energy were trying to crawl its way slowly up her throat to somehow be expelled from her body that way. Kyouko resigned herself to kissing another stranger, her mouth curling in disgust at the thought,

"Oh."

Startled by the neary voice, Kyouko whirled around to spy the man from earlier, glaring at her through narrowed eyes. She didn't blame him, it took a while to adjust to the... pinkness of her outfit.

Still, she didn't like his tone, as if he had stepped in something particularly disgusting and was surprised to find it on the floor of LME's shiny lobby. "What?" Kyouko snapped irritably.

The man frowned down at her from his impressive height, and Kyouko idly thought that had he been standing the first time she met him she'd never been able to kiss him without effort on his part. She banished the thought immediately.

"What are you looking at?" Kyouko demanded when he remained unresponsive, only then noticing the quiet bespectacled man beside him.

"Your uniform… it's very eye-catching," the taller man finally said atlast, eyes struggling to stay on hers. Kyouko snorted at his diplomacy.

"Takarada-shacho picked it out," she defended. There was no way she was claiming this outfit as her own.

"Shacho?" He echoed. Kyouko frowned. For some reason she had assumed he worked here but…

"Yes. Lory Takarada, the president of LME?" Her face was polite but her tone was all You're standing in LME's lobby but you don't know that?

The man scowled and Kyouko cheered internally at the sight. "I know who he is," he said dryly. "I was just taken aback that you called him president yourself."

"I work here." Kyouko said simply, daring him to say anything other than a polite 'oh' with her eyes.

He apparently could not read her glare very well. "You work here?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kyouko cried, offended.

But the man was frowning down at her. "It means exactly what it sounds like. I don't know about Takarada-san hiring people who attack others while they're asleep."

She gasped. "I didn't attack you! I was trying to help you!"

"By kissing me when I wasn't even aware? Sure, that's exactly the impression you gave."

Kyouko scoffed and stumbled over her words, wanting to say something to defend herself but unable to when he was right, and looked away. Dammit, she had kissed him when he was asleep! She had thought her first time charging a stranger would have been easier if she didn't know he was awake, but he had fooled her. Kyouko flushed in anger and shame.

"LoveME…" she heard him read aloud, and she looked back up to him scrutinizing her. "Oh. It's that department. Well, I'm sure there is plenty of work for you here. Like stapling papers."

Kyouko gasped and her skin darkened a shade. This man…! How dare he! Even if she had kissed him while he had been asleep, her first thought had genuinely been that he'd fainted from lack of energy! She wanted to demand he give back her kind feelings, but the shorter man stepped forward to tap the jerk beside him.

"Ren, we have to go now. I'm sorry to interrupt," the light-haired man said, nodding to her and then dismissing her.

Kyouko didn't wait to hear his good-byes. Clicking her tongue in dismissal - a move she'd learning from the blond idiot - she snapped around on her heel and marched inside, giving a weary smile to Keel who gazed concernedly at her and then resuming her scowl once he was out of sight.

See if she ever helped that bastard again!

Kyouko stepped into the cubicle with a ready smile that faltered when she saw who she'd be kissing.

A guy.

She stamped down on her urge to growl and stalk over to Keel, whom she remembered explictly telling to not pair her with males. But, what was done was done, and the smile on her face never betrayed her thoughts.

"Hello, my name is Mogami Kyouko and I'll be charging with you."

The guy looked up from his phone and blinked at her before smiling kindly. "Ah, hello there. I'm Ishibashi Hikaru," he laughed lightly. Kyouko frowned, and the young man scrambled to reassure her. "No, no, I'm not laughing at you! It's just we normally don't introduce ourselves so politely when we first meet." He gestured for her to sit on the straight-back chair beside his lounging one, and she complied.

Hesitantly, for fear of being laughed at genuinely, Kyouko asked, "How do you normally do," she waved her hand for lack of a better word, and settled for, "-this?"

Hikaru looked fond as he recalled. "People normally walk in, declare they're a supplier and then kiss me! I even had one guy march in, grab the collar of my shirt and force me to kiss before leaving just as quickly! Turns out he was embarrassed to death to kiss a stranger and wound up being the funniest experience I had." As if guessing the question that immediately popped up in her mind, Hikaru glanced at her kindly. "So far, yours is being the nicest."

Kyouko flushed at the compliemnt, and Hikaru's smile grew. "Okay," she said shyly, pleased. "Um, how do I… how should I start?"

"If it makes you feel better, I can just lie back and close my eyes?" Kyouko nodded and Hikaru complied. She looked at him then, with soft brown hair that seemed constantly ruffled and light lashes that stood out from the usual dark ones. He was taller than her, she thought, and was grateful he'd already been sitting.

"Um… Kyouko-chan, I don't mind waiting but I can feel you staring and it's making me nervous." Hikaru stammered, and Kyouko found his own nerves eased hers.

She laughed so lightly she doubted he'd heard it, and then leaned forward to kiss him, pressing a hand on the seat by his neck to balance herself.

Whether it was habit or from actual pleasure, she didn't know, but she relaxed into kiss as the intense energy finally faded away into something pleasant. As if stirred by the sensations, a faint memory surfaced.

The sun was warm on her cheeks and she could feel his lashes flutter softly against them, too, and she sighed before pulling away. The blond boy stared at her dazedly before he broke into grin.

"Wow Kyouko-chan. I'm jealous of your prince that he gets such a nice feeling all the time."

The innocent comment made Kyouko blush hot enough to rival the afternoon sun overhead, and she giggled. He looked at her strangely.

"Didn't you know how nice it felt?"

Kyouko shook her head.

The boy scoffed and then tenderly kissed her cheek. "It's warm, like the sun, and makes me feel happy. Maybe… maybe because you're feeling happy."

She gazed at him, trying to capture the warmth of that moment forever, the glint of sunlight on his blond hair and the sweet look in his green eyes.

Corn.

Blinking, Kyouko pulled away. It had been a while since she'd thought of Corn, but it was never a bad time to be thinking of him, even while charging with another person. She felt slightly light headed, but Kyouko would rather suffer from too little energy than from too much. It had been awhile since someone had taken as much as Hikaru had.

She laughed breathlessly as she sat back in her chair and Hikaru leaned forward. "Do you have a long day ahead, Ishibashi-san? You took a lot."

He gazed at, eyes glazed. "No… no, you…" he shook his head and when he looked at her again his eyes were clearer. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. It must've been a longer time since I'd last charged than I thought… I kind of lost track." He chuckled and rubbed a hand through the back of his hair, ruffling it even more.

Kyouko giggled. She felt more free than she had in awhile, and the memory of Corn kept her in a happy mood. "Anytime, Ishibashi-san."

"Please, call me Hikaru."

A/N: Ohhhhh Man, sudden challenger on the left! Enter, Hikaru!

Ooph, euch, yea Ren's a bit of a jerk. Ah, well. Also, to that one guest who asked if Ren was gay: Being partnered with someone doesn't automatically imply a romantic relationship. Whether Ren had feelings for his last partner or not, well, those are questions for his next partner to ask :P And Corn is being sly by trying to infer she's happy because Kyouko is there with him and not Sho. Sneaky child.

Also, thank you so much for all the reviews and follows! I'm so glad you all enjoy this AU! Let me know what you thought of this chapter?

-HMD