I own nothing!
Music floated through the air. All around Kyoko were the fanciest folk, decked out in tuxedos. And she was there, standing in a penguin costume, sticking out like a sore thumb. Fortunately, it was because she was the only human in this part of the penguin enclosure.
Splap.
That did not make it any less awkward that she'd just gotten slapped across the face with a fish.
"Honk honk!" It did make the penguins warm up to her, though. They now seemed to think she attracted fish, and started to swarm around her, hopping up and down.
She had been cast in the role of a penguin today to help promote the Tokyo Zoo. They'd just refurbished the king penguin exhibit, and she'd been hired to help show it off. So there she was, in a penguin costume, surrounded by the genuine artifact. They were adorable, coming up to about her waist - she'd always imagined them as taller. They were also, unbeknownst to Kyoko, creating a religion around her. After all, the whole time she'd been in here with them, fish had been raining from the sky (also known as the platform on which their keepers were standing).
"Honk!" One penguin, who had been named Pat by an internet poll, hopped up to her. "Honk!"
"Honk!" Kyoko parroted. She liked Pat, at least from what she'd seen of them on the zoo's social media. She'd studied up on all the penguins before starting this role. She had even decided on her own penguin name: Meep-Meep. The character of Meep-Meep was a silly penguin who was raised in captivity and was very happy to see visitors. She hopped around awkwardly in her costume - though less awkwardly than she would have had it not been for her experience as Bo. At least her face showed in this one. It was closer to a onesie than a mascot costume.
"Honk?" Pat tilted their head as another fish came flying, again smacking Kyoko. "Honk!" Pat munched the fish happily, catching it once it bounced off of her arm.
She giggled and danced around with Pat. Soon, the other penguins joined in, honking with joy as more fish rained upon them. The director of the commercial fist-bumped the zoo's publicity manager. This was going to be an adorable commercial.
"She works really well with the penguins, even better than I'd thought she would," the director commented to the publicity manager.
"Well, our penguins are sweethearts. Mostly." She chuckled as two of the penguins squabbled over a fish. "But yes, it's like she really is one of them."
"She does have a knack for becoming her characters," came a third voice. The two turned to see Yashiro. He and Ren had arrived to pick her up, but were early - Ren's last shoot had gone so smoothly that they'd wrapped 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Which meant that yes, Tsuruga Ren was on set. Watching a completely unaware Kyoko dance around in a penguin costume
What surprised the crew the most was not his mere presence. That was a surprise, yes, but it was not the most surprising aspect. Nor was the fact that Kyoko hadn't even noticed him.
It was the look on his face.
There was something so devastatingly tender about his expression, so hopeful, so longing. Something that told them he wanted nothing more than to gather the young woman in a penguin onesie in his arms and keep her there forever.
And then he got an idea, and a smile came across his face that they'd only ever seen when Katsuki had played piano with his beloved. He hurried around to where the penguin handlers were tossing fish and spoke quietly with them for a moment, his eyes glittering with excitement. They laughed, bemused, but handed him the bucket of fish.
He took it with thanks - and promptly dumped the contents of the bucket onto Kyoko's head. She let out a shriek of surprise as he doubled over in laughter. Full, gut-busting laughter.
Yashiro pinched the bridge of his nose. This man was going to kill his secrets with stunts like this.
Kyoko, once she'd wiped the fish out of her eyes, looked up and was not at all surprised to find her boyfriend responsible. She puffed her cheeks at him in annoyance, but was quickly overwhelmed by excited, hungry penguins. Their keepers had to intervene to keep her from getting trampled by their little flippers.
Ren dropped down into the enclosure with her once the director had signaled that it was a wrap (and yes, the dumped bucket of fish would make it into the final cut). "Sorry?" he offered with a grin.
"No, you're not." She giggled then, because this whole situation was ridiculous. "Besides, it's your car that's going to stink like fish."
"If it helps, I got you something?" He fished in his pockets and pulled out a cool rock he'd found. It was very smooth and looked sparkly in the light.
She turned a bright pink but accepted the rock. The penguins hopped around joyfully, knowing that the exchanging of pebbles meant only one thing.
(Later, Yashiro would have to do severe damage control and purchase the film of this interaction off the cameraman. However, he would save it to play at their wedding reception.)