Hello, my lovelies! :D Was the last chapter fluffy enough for you, or is more fluff required?
Part of me hopes that you want more fluff, because that's what you're probably going to get. ;D
I hope that you enjoy this, despite my not owning Skip Beat!
Ren nodded, and then raised his glass to her. "As you wish."
Kyoko blinked, and Ren realized that she would not know what he was referencing. Making a mental note to convince her to watch the movie version with him as soon as possible, he resumed eating. This action made the tension evaporate from her shoulders, and she smiled at him. He beamed in return, although the glow was slightly diminished when he saw her wince from the bright onslaught. She shook her head, as if to dispel a stray thought, and turned the conversation back to the faeries.
"Thank you for taking me to see them, by the way," she murmured almost shyly. "I haven't been able to go there on my own much lately, since work and such have gotten busier. I'm glad for more work of course – I love being able to act out new roles – but I do miss the faeries when we're apart for so long."
"You're quite welcome. I enjoyed our visit as well. It was quite…" he paused, as if searching for the proper word. "Uplifting. The visit was quite uplifting."
"I agree! The morning made up for this entire month," she proclaimed earnestly, earning a smile from him.
"I'm glad to hear that, but I must ask: What exactly happened this past month?" And so, with a combination of careful wording and a slight wounded puppy expression, Kyoko presented an (judiciously edited) account of her horrendous month. Ren spent most of the account wincing in sympathy and offering words of comfort whenever Kyoko stopped to take a bite of her food. By the end, though, Kyoko had started laughing – some of the events, like the near-death-by-rubber-duck experience, were truly scrapes into which only she could get, and were laughable for it. Even Ren chuckled at some of these events; honestly, how on earth could she get both of her feet stuck in the same bucket? Two different buckets, he could understand; but the same bucket? It was ridiculous. Of course, Kyoko is Kyoko, and therefore a magnet for all types of chaos, so he really shouldn't be too surprised… keyword being shouldn't. He was, and so he laughed with her as she turned her awful month into the comedy of legends.
Her story (sans Bo and certain sensitive issues) carried the conversation through the rest of their meal, and sufficiently distracted her so that he could pay the bill. She still protested, of course, but by that point it was too late for her to do anything about it. Instead, she thanked him, and he handed her back into the 'carriage' with a grin.
"Where are we going now?" she inquired as they buckled their seatbelts.
"Why, to get thee into thine attire, milady," he stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yes, but where shall we get it?"
"Ah…" he released a small, mischievous grin. "That would be telling."
"Indeed it would," she concurred, "but I must admit to my curiosity. You have already, after all, completed thine oath tenfold."
"Nay," he refuted, "I have completed but a third of mine oath. The day is yet young."
"And time shall not be wasted if ye but tell me, sir knight, where we doth go." She was smiling; how she adored speaking like someone out of a fairy tale! That was, after all, what the day had been so far, hadn't it? A perfect fairy tale. I never want this magic to end, even if my heart can barely take it.
"Ah, milady, that would be telling, telling indeed!" His voice was tinged with laughter, as if he was only partway through telling his favorite joke… which, in a way, he was.
"Telling? What is wrong with it being telling?"
"Nothing, I pray, for telling it shall be."
Kyoko sighed slightly, and admitted defeat; it was obvious that she would get no further information from the man about their destination. Instead, she inquired, "But what of you, sir knight? Will thou also be garbed in a way more befitting thine station?"
"Of course, milady," he assured her. "I would not dream of allowing thee to go without a properly attired escort. It would be unseemly." He had guessed, correctly, that Kyoko would prefer to have company during this next section of their day. Besides – this way, if she protested cost, he could explain that he enjoyed his role of a knight fulfilling an oath, so he'd wanted costumes for them to match. Part of him suspected, though, that this would not be too much of a problem… he'd probably be unable to get her out of la-la land for any measurable amount of time once she was properly attired.
"That is good to hear," she responded, at length. He sent up a feeble wish to be able to read her mind. His wish went unnoticed, and gave birth to a wish-nick floating on the breeze. They settled into a comfortable silence, broken only when he told her to open the glove box and take out the CD with her name on it.
"This one?" she asked, popping the otherwise unmarked CD out of its jewel case.
He glanced over at it; they were at a red light. "Yes. Go ahead and put it in. I hope you like it."
She did as he bid, and gasped with delight as a familiar tune began playing.
He grinned. "I take it that you do like it."
"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed softly, so as to communicate her enthusiasm without drowning out the music. "I adore Disney movies, so of course I like the songs. They're so well-done, even if many of them concern… concern…" she trailed off, and allowed herself to leave the sentence unfinished, instead opting to sing along with the CD.
Ren wondered if he should be celebrating the fact that she had not outright cursed the word, but instead allowed herself to trail off and sing about it indirectly. Yes, he decided, he should be celebrating; it was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. He pulled into the parking lot, and waited for the song to finish before shutting off the car. Then, hurrying out of and around the car, he opened Kyoko's door for her. "We have arrived, milady."
Kyoko thanked him and allowed him to hand her out of the car – and then she caught sight of the sign on the building, causing her jaw to drop.
"Is something the matter?" he inquired, tone a bit odd with barely suppressed glee.
"Telling?" she choked, pointing at the sign, which indeed proclaimed that the building was Telling: Costume and Makeover Shop Extraordinaire. "That would be Telling?"
"Indeed, milady," he replied, now laughing in short bursts as she subconsciously took his arm, still staring in shock at the sign. "Did I not say that it would be Telling?"
"But I – you – oh, never mind," she giggled, realizing how ridiculous the whole thing was. "Did you choose this one just for that joke?"
"In part, yes," he admitted with a sheepish grin, "but they're also very discreet, and do good work. The president often hires their services, and Woods-san trained a few of them personally. I would have preferred to have her help today, but she said that the president required her services for something."
"They were trained by Muse-sama?" Kyoko gasped, effectively diverted from the pun. "Then they must be wonderful!" She then proceeded to expound upon the excellent qualities of Jelly Woods, leaving Ren to stare at her openly (she never noticed much when expounding upon someone's good traits). Really, she didn't even need the makeover; she was already more than prepared to take up her 'rightful position.' He chuckled softly after he had finished memorizing, once more, her beauty, and led her inside. Her happy rant broke off when they were greeted just inside the door.
"Welcome to Telling!" A rather young-looking girl bounced up to them and bowed. "You two are the R-treatment, right?"
Ron nodded while Kyoko simply looked perplexed.
The girl bounced some more, understanding a portion of the situation. "Oh, it's a surprise for you? You lucky girl! Come on, let's go get you all dolled up in your proper attire. I'm sure that your escort has something wonderful planned." With yet another bounce, she turned to Ren, and sent him down a corridor to the left, where a young man and a motherly-looking woman awaited him. She then turned back to Kyoko, linked their arms, and led her through a doorway on their right.
Kyoko gaped at the costumes stuffed into the rooms they passed, and nearly fainted from pleasure when she saw the contents of one of them.
Her companion giggled again, and bounced as they walked. "You've got the house specialty coming your way! I can't wait for my R-treatment – it's usually just a service we offer, but it's also a gift commemorating your first anniversary of working here. Mine's in two months, so I'm really psyched. And I get to help with yours today! This is fabulous."
"What exactly is the R-treatment?" Kyoko inquired, snapping back to reality.
"Ah, ah, ah!" the apprentice of the witch tutted, waving a finger at Kyoko. "We've been given express orders to not let you see yourself or let you know what it is until your escort's ready and in the room. He wants to see your reaction. I wish I had a man like him," she sighed, and threw open the doors to a room at the end of the hall before Kyoko could respond.
Her denials of her having Ren in any interpretation of the phrase died in her throat at the glorious sight before her. It was a make-up room, yes, but one unlike anything she'd ever seen – including the ones that had been used during Truth or Dare in the Takarada mansion! To have the president outdone in something was… unthinkable, amazing, breathtaking, astounding, and completely capable of derailing Kyoko's train of thought. She went into happy transports at the sights laid out before her, much to the amusement of the gathered make-up artists and costumes gurus. Once the transports had died down a bit, they had Kyoko sit in a chair facing away from the mirrors, and descended upon her to make her a masterpiece.
Ren changed into his outfit (sans the assistants and blindfold that Kyoko would have, to keep the surprise a surprise), noting that he would only ever do something like this for Kyoko (and, he smiled, for their possible future children); he seriously doubted that he would even take a role like this if Kyoko was not playing opposite him. To be perfectly honest, the outfit wasn't really his style, with the sole exception of the cravat, but at least it was relatively simple (it was mostly bereft of frills, and it was a pleasant royal blue). His mother had managed to instill within him a deep love for cravats after forcing him to watch one of the many movie adaptations of The Scarlet Pimpernel. It was, however, a very deeply buried love, and therefore remained dormant much of the time. He reminded himself that this was for Kyoko – the sight in the mirror was slightly embarrassing, truth be told – and stepped out to allow the stylists to finish working their magic.
His attiring was done rather quickly, even with his briefing on swordsmanship, and Ren was sent to wait in the hall of mirrors, with a warning not to enter Kyoko's room before the all clear was given upon pain of death – or something infinitely more painful, such as the president and Yashiro being shown pictures of him dressing up for Kyoko. So he waited patiently, seated comfortably as he was on a cushy, hamburger-shaped chair. He spared a moment to wonder why a chair shaped like a hamburger even existed; another to note that it was almost obnoxiously comfortable; and then a third to wonder idly if his father would like it, or if he would simply be disappointed that real hamburgers were not made that large. This uncharacteristic chain of food-related thoughts was, of course, dwelled upon solely to distract himself from Kyoko's possible responses. After all, she had accepted his offer… but had she accepted all of it, or just the first half? If he were to dwell on it too much, he would surely go insane; thus, the hamburger chair thoughts.
Kyoko was doing her very best to stay still, though she was on the very brink of failing miserably. This was understandable – she was being worked on by the muse's trainees, after all, and for this mysterious R-treatment, at that! She'd already been dressed (blindfolded, with the aid of one of the muse's female protégées) in something that felt amazing, and could now feel her hair being brushed and styled – and this was after her make-up being applied by professionals. It was all she could do to keep from squealing and dancing about – she was excited, and extremely curious as to how they would be re-creating her. She released a dreamy sigh, causing her stylist to stifle a laugh. Really, she'd never expected him to go this far, even when he'd talked about getting her attire 'befitting her station.' He was, she reflected, far too nice for his own good; she didn't deserve his kindness. To think, she was being 'properly attired' on a day when she was a—
"Alright, you're done!" her stylist announced, lowering the chair so that Kyoko could stand. She bounced around to the front of the chair and took Kyoko's hands, leading the still-blindfolded girl out of the room and into the hall of mirrors. She giggled when she heard Ren's slight intake of breath at the sight of Kyoko, and bounced the girl over to stand in front of one of the largest mirrors. She motioned Ren to come stand by his match, and then scurried out Kyoko's line of sight. "Take off her blindfold!"
Ren did so, but only after gathering his wits together again – they'd completely scattered at the sight of his beloved, beaming with excitement and curiosity. Her reaction… the moment of truth. He knew that she would probably be pleased beyond belief with the theme… but would she react well to their being a matched set?
Kyoko was aware of his presence behind her, and wondered if their unknown costumes were of the same theme – and then tried to decide how she felt about that, since all of her locks had been ground to a fine powder by now. This question flew out of her mind when she heard him swallow, and then felt his hands working at the blindfold's knot.
"Close your eyes," he whispered, wanting her to see the full picture, sans blindfold. He undid the knot completely, and quickly handed the blindfold to Kyoko's stylist.
"Can I open them now?" she murmured, as if afraid of breaking a spell. He became suddenly aware of how very close behind her he was, and had a faint, quickly dashed hope that this was why she sounded breathless. Shaking off this hope – she was excited to see the costumes, he told himself – he nodded, before realizing that she couldn't see him.
"Yes." His breath caught as she slowly opened her eyes.
She stared at the girl before her, and blinked several times. Who is that? She raised a hand, tentatively, to wave. The unidentified girl waved simultaneously, and Ren – standing behind the girl – smiled. Kyoko's eyes widened. I'm… I'm really a…
"Do you like it?" Ren inquired softly, reaching past her and tapping on the mirror's surface.
He… he wasn't kidding about it. About any of it. He really did make me a…
"We match," he continued, something unnamable in his eyes, "I hope you don't mind."
"N-No, of course not…but I thought you were a knight," she whispered in shy confusion, finding her voice at last, though her gaze remained, fixed and stunned, on her reflection.
"It's quite common, historically speaking, for to be both," he commented.
She nodded; she knew this, but… Is his costume in reference to the second half of the offer? He… he couldn't be serious about that, right?
"You're beautiful, you know." He'd spoken without meaning to, but it was too late to retract his statement – not that he truly wanted to do so. If he had his way, she would hear those words from him every day, and believe them. But now….
She snapped out of her stupor, if only to contradict him. "That's just because of the costuming and artistry of the stylists! On my own—"
"—you are beautiful, too, if only in a way that fewer people take the time to see," he smiled, still gazing at her reflection. The damage had been done; he might as well make his point known.
"But they made me into a—"
"—representation of what you always are." …and how you deserve to be treated, he mentally added.
She blinked. "What I… always am?" It was ridiculous. She couldn't be a….
"Yes." He wasn't lying – she could always tell with him – or at least didn't think he was.
What could she say to that? "But…"
"Hmm?" he murmured, gently, and met her eyes in the mirror without masking his emotions.
Her brain short-circuited. "M-Magikarp!" she squeaked, looking away from his dangerous, dangerous eyes.
He blinked, bemused. "I beg your pardon?"
"I don't know how to respond to something like that!" she protested, but did not scoot away from him. Instead, her fingers clutched at the many layers of her skirt as her face grew steadily redder.
He took heart from this, and asked in a teasing tone, "So you chose to say the name of a fish Pokémon instead?"
"Yes!" she declared this almost defiantly, seizing upon the change in topic. She punctuated her surety with a nod of her head, which sent the few ringlets that had worked their way out of her small bun flying.
He met her defiant gaze in the mirror, and was able to keep a straight face for all of sixteen seconds before he began laughing, almost doubling over. Really, she was just too much. How on earth was he supposed to ever compete with her?
"Do you not like the R-treatment?" Kyoko's bouncy stylist inquired, a bit put out by their lack of focus.
Kyoko whirled around (almost crashing into Ren), and immediately began assuring her that she adored it with every fiber of her being. Ren, after listening to a few minutes of Kyoko's exuberant rant, was able to straighten and add that he, too, admired the work. The stylist, thus confirmed and comforted, waved them a cheery good-bye and bounced out of the room – calling a reminder to Ren that, since the arrangements had been made ahead of time (over the phone, with the aid of his credit card), they were free to go. She added, as a side note, that she hoped that they'd enjoy the costumes again – they got to keep them, after all. This left Kyoko torn between exploding from sheer pleasure from being able to keep such an outfit and being upset that Ren had spent what must have been a very considerable sum on her. Before she could make up her mind as to which, Ren caught her attention by smiling at her – and she thoroughly inspected his outfit for the first time since her blindfold had been removed.
She would definitely be making a version of this for the Ren doll. He was, every inch, a prince charming – from the golden circlet atop his head to his snazzy yet sophisticated cravat, from his deep blue shirt to his deadly-looking sword to his black pressed pants and shoes. She ducked her head, her white-gloved hands smoothing her skirts, tracing the golden swirls of glitter that decorated them and dancing over the same royal blue shade that Ren's shirt boasted. One hand followed one of the swirls up onto her torso, where the fabric became a pale blue. She shifted her weight, suddenly shy, and her pseudo-glass slippers clinked against each other.
Ren rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly for a moment, wondering what on earth he was supposed to say. He glanced to his left, only to be met with the sight of his reflection, looking as awkward as he felt. So much for being an actor. He glanced to his right – and saw the bag he'd brought with him. Kyoko glanced up, startled, when Ren suddenly hurried away from her and across the hall. After grabbing the bag he'd brought with them (presumably to carry their street clothes), he hurried back to her, plopped the bag down on the floor, and began rummaging through it. Within moments, he'd found the object for which he searched, and straightened, keeping it out of her line of sight (no mean feat, considering that they were surrounded by mirrors).
"Milady," he began, "I now believe that it is time for me to call thee by thine proper name."
Though she blushed lightly and feared for her heart, Kyoko resumed her role. "You may, sir knight."
"Thank you." He smiled, then stepped behind her and held the object he'd purchased weeks ago above her head.
She gasped, a happy sound of half-belief. This… is this actually happening?
Ren then placed the tiara – a delicate silver structure with pink crystals surrounding a stone similar to Corn – on her head, and whispered, "I crown thee Princess Kyoko, ruler of Cor Meum – now and forever."
Her eyes were wide, her mouth was open, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. This really is a fairytale… and I don't ever want the magic to end.
There you go! :D Did you like it? Were they too OoC? Was there enough fluff? Did you like Ren's slight awkwardness?
If you guess what the R-treatment is, I'll give you a virtual cookie! (I'd offer the reveal, but that would be telling. ;D)
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. There should be one, maybe two more chapters, depending on how things flow. ^^ Stick around, though! The second half of the reveal (I will give you the word-for-word, no worries) is the less predictable part. ;)
By the way… in Latin, Cor Meum means "my heart." Just let that sink in, and then please review~!