Sorry for the delay in the chapter. I was having a problem getting the characters to behave in a way that was right for them. These seems to work better than the last five times I wrote this section. Please let me know. Thank you
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!.
Kyoko slumped quietly in the passenger's seat as Ren drove her to what she viewed as her doom. They had not spoken since Ren found her hiding in the corner of the studio café with a large cup of hot chocolate. She listened to Ren work the car as she tried to find a way to explain her actions so that Ren would not turn her out of his life.
"You've been Bo since the beginning haven't you?" Ren broke the palpable tension in the car. Kyoko sat up and opened her eyes to look at him.
"Yes." She whispered in response.
"What did you do to make the director so mad at you?" Ren asked a question that he thought would be easy for Kyoko but she froze up as she tried to think of a way to explain it without bringing Sho into the picture.
"I um…" She started "almost ruined the first live show." She really did not want to tell him all of the truth. "He fired me, but the network insisted that I stay due to the high popularity of the character." Ren nodded his head, that would certainly cause some animosity between them. They had just reach Ren's apartment building so Ren shut the car off and Ren took a deep breath to ask the question that was plaguing him.
"Why didn't you tell me you were Bo?" Ren looked over to the seat containing his body and the girl inside of it. Kyoko burst into tears as she slammed her head forwards in a bow and banged it on the dashboard.
"I'M SO SORRY!" She cried. Ren was glad that they made it back to the garage before she had made such a scene. Kyoko never moved her head from the dash as she went on in a wail that Ren was sure he could never have produced. "I WAS TERRIFIED THAT YOU WOULD FIND OUT AND TEAR ME UP!" Shock ran across Ren's face. "I WAS SO MEAN TO YOU AS BO!" Kyoko continued to wail on for a good five minutes about how she had been so smug with him and made fun of him when he didn't know common things. Ren placed his hand on her shoulder when her words started to jumble together.
"But you also helped me a lot." Ren reassured her. Kyoko rolled her head over to look at him without lifting it from the dashboard. The tears she had been crying traced lines down the handsome face she was hidden behind.
"Maybe, but I had no right to help you, I'm just a lowly..." Kyoko belittled herself and Ren cut her off with a glower.
"Everyone needs advice and help once in a while." Ren scolded her. "Even me. Don't speak about yourself like that. You have as much right to give out advice as anyone. I told my problems to a giant chicken. A CHICKEN Kyoko! How much right does a chicken have to give out advice?" Ren waited for her to answer.
"But if I had told you I was in the suit, would you have let me help you like Bo did?" Kyoko spoke softly. Ren thought about this for a moment.
"No, I would not have." Ren spoke just as quietly as she did. The pair sat silently for a few minutes, each deep in their own thoughts. They were pulled back to reality when Ren's stomach complained loudly about being neglected. The pair laughed out the tension and got out of the car to go get fixings for dinner.
Kyoko stood at Ren's stove and stirred the vegetables so they would not burn. They had not talked about much since the confrontation in the car, but Ren did not seem ready to toss her out at the moment so Kyoko relaxed a little. Ren watched her working from the kitchen table. He laughed to himself at the image of his own body chopping up food and flipping it in expertly in the skillet. Now if his body could just remember that when he got back into it, he might be able to eat better when she was not there to cook for him. Ren grunted as he registered the ache in his stomach had just past from uncomfortable to hurting. It had slowly gotten worst since they had gotten back. The only thing that he could compare it to was being constipated, but that feeling was a little different. Ren moaned a little as he rocked his hips back and stretched a little to try to alleviate the pain. Kyoko looked up from where she was plating the food and noticed Ren rubbing on his stomach.
"Are you ok?" She asked in a concerned voice. Kyoko knew she could sometimes get really bad cramps. Ren relaxed as he turned to the girl bring over dinner.
"Just a little tired from work." Ren was not about to complain about a little ache. Woman did this all the time, so he could handle a little uncomfortableness. "It's hard being a chicken." Kyoko laughed at his words and the two sat down at the table to enjoy the meal and compare their experiences at playing Bo.
Ren tried to sit still and listen to Kyoko ramble on about the hosts of the show, but pain in his stomach had grown more and he could not remain in the hard chair. Ren stood up and excused himself to the bathroom. Kyoko watched him go with a growing concern, the way he moved was stiffer then he had when they had come in.
Ren sat down on the toilet to try and relieve the pressure in his stomach, but only a little liquid came out. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and doubled over closing his eyes. He was sure there had to be something wrong. Kyoko had said that it would still be a day or so before she started so this should not be happening yet. He had heard about women having cramps but there was no way this was normal. The pain radiated out from his center to climb up his lower back. He stretched forward some trying to get comfortable, but gave up when it did not work. Ren finally decided that the best thing to do was admit that he was in pain and ask Kyoko what he needed to do to make it stop. After all, she would know what to do for her own body.
Ren pulled a fold of toilet paper down to gently pat away any remaining traces of urine and dropped the paper in the bowl before pulled the clothing he borrowed from Kyoko back into place. Ren nearly passed out when he turned to flush the excrement away and found that the water in the bowl was fresh blood red.
"KYOKO!" Ren screeched in shock.
At hearing Ren scream her name, Kyoko tore from the kitchen and bounced into the hallway wall as she cornered too fast. She nearly ripped the door from the hinges as she tried to get into the bathroom to find out what was causing her senpai such terror. Kyoko stopped when she final saw Ren standing over the toilet with his hand pressed into his stomach. Kyoko did not need to see the contents of the toilet to know what her senpai's problem was.
"What do I do?" Ren whispered quietly as his brain refused to process what was going on. Kyoko walked in and patted Ren on the back reassuringly.
"It's ok." She soothed him and pushed the silver handle on the tank to release the water to flush the red water away. "Just wait here for a moment." Kyoko left Ren standing in the bathroom starting at the water as is slowly filled the toilet to the proper level. Kyoko found her bag and rummaged into its bottom to get the item that she kept there of emergencies. Not finding it, Kyoko dumped the bag out onto the table and scattered the junk inside it, but her stash was not there. She checked the empty bag before swiping the loose contents back into it. Of all the time to be unprepared this was the worst. Kyoko went back into the bathroom to find that Ren had sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall with his hand pressed into his stomach and knees up.
"I have to run out to get what you need. Just wait here and be calm. Everything will be ok." Kyoko informed him. Ren nodded from where he sat on the floor. If Kyoko was not worried then everything would be fine, but a slight fear still trickled through Ren. His rational mind told him that this was normal for women and it was just the way the menstrual fluid had mixed with the water, but it had looked as if the entire bowl had been filled with blood. Someone had died the last time he saw that much blood spilt unchecked. Ren shuddered at that thought and curled up to wait for Kyoko's return. He did not know if he was strong enough to face this challenge without her to help.
It seemed like an eternity to Ren, but it was only about ten minutes till Kyoko came back with a bag from the store in his apartment complex. Ren eyes widened as he watched Kyoko pull a box from the bag and open it. She took a think paper wrapped tube from the box and squatted down next to where Ren was siting. Ren closed his eyes in horror. Tampons… Of course she would prefer tampons. Ren opened his eyes back up as he listened to Kyoko rip the paper away to expose the cardboard tube.
"I usually use the ones without applicators, but I thought this would be easier on you." Kyoko blushed as she spoke. Kyoko help the little tube out so she could show it to Ren. "This is the end that goes in." She pointed to the round cottony end. "You insert it to about here." She pointed to a spot lower on the tube. "And you press the end like this." Kyoko pushed the tube so that the tampon slipped free. "This comes out and gets thrown away." Kyoko pulls the applicator tube away so that the tampon was free. "If it is uncomfortable, it's not in far enough. You can either try to push it in a little more, or pull it out and try again." Both Ren and Kyoko were both bright red by the time Kyoko had finished explaining to him how the tampons worked. Kyoko pulled an unwrapped tampon from the box and handed it to him before standing to leave. Ren looked at her with horror still written all over his face.
"What if I hurt you?" Ren asked as he stared up at Kyoko gathering the bag up from the counter. He was pretty sure that Kyoko was still a virgin and worried about damaging that part of her. Kyoko looked down at him and smiled weakly.
"You will not need to push hard to get it in, and if it starts to hurt, just back it out a little." Kyoko explained as she turned to leave. "Call if you need help." Kyoko disappeared out the door.
Ren turned his attention back to the small object in his hand. There was no way he was going to be able to do this. He had dreamed of a time that he would be able to touch Kyoko in such an intimate way, but he had never imagined it would be under such complicated circumstances. Ren pulled the paper from the tampon and looked at the shiny white cardboard and chuckled weakly. It reminded him of a little missile. Ren plucked up his courage and stood up to take care of what needed doing. It was not the object he would have chosen to insert into Kyoko, but unless he wanted to spend the next three days leaking everywhere, he was going to have to buck up and use the tampons.