Steal You Away
Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat!
A/N: We came home! My 960 sq ft house feels like a mansion after living in a 140 sq ft travel trailer for 3 months.
Any English spoken by the characters will be in BOLD! Flashback with be in Italic.
Previously...
While in thought she doesn't notice the heavy foot prints fast approaching. In a blink, her arm nearly jerks from her shoulder and she falls to the ground. Stunned she looks up watching almost in slow motion as her bag is carried away into the dark. She immediately losses character, and a word quietly escapes.
"Corn..."
Ch. 11
Instantly tears start to well up. Within seconds but what feels like ages to Kyoko a firm grip takes hold of Kyoko's shoulder.
"Are you okay?! I saw the whole thing, wait here!" Kyoko recognizes Tama-san's voice but doesn't move an inch or even look up, keeping her eyes locked on the patch of darkness Corn vanished into. Tama rushes into the same darkness after the man.
A breath later Cain kneels down studying her face, an instant later a Cain dressed Ren wipes the tear escaping down Kyoko's face with a gentle thumb stroke.
"What happened?" Ren asks softly his eyes searching hers concerned.
"My purse was taken, he stole C...Corn!" As she chokes out the name of her precious stone the tears start to free fall and she begins sobbing uncontrollably.
Ren had seen Tama-san run away from her in a hurry and he wanted to follow now but he wasn't gonna leave her on the ground bawling so he gently raises her head and wipes the tears from her eyes, when she meets his gaze he speaks quietly.
"Let's go join Tama-san and see if he caught the guy, if not we'll figure out what to do then, okay?..."
Kyoko sniffles lightly and nods her agreement. She stands her legs shaking with some pain from the fall. Ren notices her difficulty and offers her his back. She rejects his offer but takes his hand as support instead and they begin after the thief. As they walk a question lingers in his mind. For a split second he swears he heard her say Kuon but when he back tracked he realized she'd said Corn, what a strange name for something. He wondered what it was. After about walking two blocks Tama-chan comes into view waving her purse over his head like a trophy. He jogs toward them and smiles.
"Thanks to a police venue I got this back, check and see if anything is missing the guys in the booth about a block away if there is." He hands Kyoko the purse and her smile toward him could steal any heart, even the devils. Ren is awestruck by it and so it Tama. Kyoko chokes out a "Thank You." and searches the purse frantically not looking at anything as she digs but for something in particular. At last she pulls out a small pink change purse with a blooming flower design. She snaps open the clasp and tips the content into her waiting hand. A blue water sapphire stone appears and the tears well up as she clutches it to her chest.
"Corn..." She whispers. "Thank you so much!" She says some spirit returning and she bows respectfully. Tama-chan scratches the back of his head embarrassed and smiles replying.
"No problem."
Ren is lost however in the reflection that he saw in the blue stone when it fell out of the coin purse. A flash of a memory from another life playing before his eyes.
A cute pigtailed little girl is crying in front of him after he tells her he must leave soon.
"When will I see you again? Next week?"
Kuon shakes his head no.
"Next month?"
Again no
"Next year?!"
Kuon sighs he'd grown attached to her too but his father was leaving Kyoto and he didn't know if they would ever come back. He felt the water sapphire his father had bought him at the souvenir shop earlier that day and an idea popped into his head.
"Come here Kyoko I have something that will keep me beside you until I can return. He sits down on Hamburger Rock and she sits next to him the sniffling already coming in waves.
"Close your eyes." He instructs and makes sure she isn't peeking. He pulls out the stone and puts it in the path of the sun. The water sapphire changes from the solid blue to multiple ripples of color.
"Okay, you can open your eyes. Look up." As she does as she's told the alligator tears automatically stop and a look of wonder and happiness replaces it. While she's lost in the colors Kuon whispers.
"This is a magical stone. Anytime you feel lonely or bad just hold this stone and it will suck all those feelings within itself and become these rays of color that will make you happy again. This is my gift to you so even if I'm not in front of you I'll always be here." Kuon points at her heart when he says here. He puts the stone in her small hands and she holds it tightly to her chest as he hugs her his final goodbye. As they part her bottom lip quivers but no tears fall. Spell complete. She tries to smile and say farewell with that watery voice. As he walks away from that seclude spring the trees keep him from looking back and seeing her tiny form shrinking in the distance.
As the flashback fades he feels shock. She couldn't be, right? He looks at her face carefully as she waves a hand in his face and at the stone again. But what a coincidence. How could it not be her…
Tama-chan leaves the two heading back to the car he'd left running in his hurry. So the two were alone again and still out of their characters. When Kyoko realized what they were supposed to be doing again she began apologizing but Ren wasn't listening. She waved her hand in front of his face to try and snap him back. He seems to come back and a smiles gently his eyebrows furrow in question.
"So, the stone is named Corn?" Kyoko blushed a little at the question.
"It is a little embarrassing but this stone has gotten me through a lot… Here look at this." She holds the stone up to the streetlight and the stone sparkles with lots of colors just like he knew it would.
"When I was little this was given to me by a fairy, he said this was magical and that it would take away all my sadness and loneliness just like when he was there. I named it after him. Corn." She says smiling up at him innocently.
His mind runs a mile a minute as it processes. Corn… she got his name wrong, but with his accent back then being new at Japanese and being from America himself he could understand why she heard Corn and not Kuon plus she probably forgot some with time he had till he saw the stone. A bubbling begins rising in his chest, he starts laughing like he hadn't in years.
She seems shocked at first hearing him laugh but then angry that he laughs at her past. She starts defending it.
"I'm not lying! That really happened, fairies are real!" She stands cross armed waiting for him to stop.
"No, no..." He wipes his eyes getting rid of the tears at the corner of his eyes. "I believe you! Really." He only wrestled with the question in his heart for a second after he looked into her unbelieving eyes at his statement. He would show her.
He digs out his phone and opens it speed dialing a number. Kyoko stares confused and a little miffed.
"Hey, where are you?"… "We'll meet you there, I have a favor to ask." … "Yeah, be there in ten minutes." He closes the phone and grabs her hand heading back to the car.
When they enter he tells Tama-chan the destination.
"Dreams Studio. Please." The car takes off on the way Kyoko asks where they're going but Ren's lips stay seals. "Spoiler." He replies with a playful smile, making Kyoko more nervous. After about a ten minute car ride they stop and get out in front of a classy looking hair salon with a neon sign that reads 'Dreams Salon' with the picture of a wand and some sparkles flying around the words. Waiting outside is Jelly Woods her hands on her hips. "What happened? Tired of the characters already?" She asks. Ren shakes his head no as they all enter the store.
"Like I said over the phone, I need a favor, we'll need your backroom is it open?" He asks looking around at the lit but empty salon the shades on all the windows down, the business hours long over. "Sure, I was here doing inventory." "Good." Ren leads Kyoko to the back of the building and sits her in one of the hair salon stylist chairs. "Wait here, it maybe about an hour. But believe me it's worth the wait." He gives her hand a squeeze and a smile. Then disappears with Jelly behind the curtain asking the question as she follows him back there. "What's going on!"
Kyoko waits quietly, curious and fidgety in the unfamiliar place. She gets up occasionally and checks out the hair products and the books with potential hair styles. A wavy pixy cut catches her eye but she keeps flipping she could afford it now it would definitely be more manageable but maybe after she found a new place to live.
She went to sit back down in the chair he'd left her in. When finally a hand parts the curtains, he steps out wearing the same Cain cloths but his hair is gold and his eyes are cerulean blue. Her mind goes blank and without realizing a word escapes her lips, she hears it but she seems miles away.
"Corn..."
Ren smiles gently at the mistake and shakes his head lightly, his golden locks sparkling from the salon light.
"Kuon."
A/N: Man even I didn't know I was doing that, it just wrote itself. R&R what do you think!? I can't wait to hear your opinions!