fanfic: skip beat, ren/kyoko

1,000-ish words of fluff. Er. Well. It TRIES to be fluff, but kind of fails?

Written for my lovely Debby ♥

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She's calling him again. Ignoring Yashiro's look, Ren picks up. They're at a traffic light, anyway, which is close enough to responsible driving that Ren doesn't feel guilty about using his cell phone while at the wheel.

"Mogami-san?" he greets. She doesn't answer. Yashiro's look has evolved into a Look, complete with knowing grin and a particularly disturbing twist to his eyebrows. Ren tries again: "Mogami-san?"

Ren frowns. He keeps his phone pressed to his ear until he hears a familiar click as Kyoko hangs up. He's worried now--one hand is gripping the steering too tightly, the knuckles near-white. He relaxes it, digit by digit, and then puts down his phone. Yashiro says, "You should probably drive."

He's grinning. Ren's head snaps up. The light changes from yellow to red just two seconds after he's accelerated. Kyoko is turning him into an irresponsible driver.

He drops Yashiro off--("Stop smiling like that," Ren says, and Yashiro returns, "Smiling like what?" and his grin widens)--and the moment the other man disappears from his sight his thoughts slam back to Kyoko. She needs his advice. Or, she's in trouble again. She's being harrassed. She just wants to talk. Something happened. Something didn't happen.

Ren's hand is inching towards his phone.

In the end, though, he doesn't call.

... But only because, when he turns into his street, she's standing right there. She's wearing a scarf, silk-bright and green. She looks adorable. Ren feels the usual guilt settling in, lets his eyes linger over her for one second, two, three....

The car slows, stops. He rolls the window down, and is immediately attacked with an over-enthusiastic, "Good evening, Tsuruga-senpai!" and a bow.

Ren manages, with some difficulty, to return with a, "Mogami-san, good eveni--"

"I'm sorry to impose on you like this," she says. "I'm really sorry, but, um--"

"It's fine, Mogami-san." Ren hesitates for only a second. Then he's reaching into his pocket and pulling out his keys. He pressed them into Kyoko's hand and tries not to feel pleased at her dumbfounded expression. "Why don't you go on ahead and make tea?" he says. He knows--hopes--giving her a task will lessen her anxiety and guilt at imposing. "I'll park the car."

"But, Tsuruga-senpai," Kyoko starts, and falters. She tugs at the end of her scarf; it frames the curve of one breast, and Ren is--Ren is a pervert. She hasn't noticed, because her fingers curl around the keys, and she gives him a smile and says, simply, "Okay."

He waits until she's turned around and walking before he eases the car forward.

Ren worries, and worries, and worries some more as he exits the garage. Kyoko--seems okay. There is none of that fear he remembers from that location shoot, from Fuwa Sho, from....

This is ridiculous, Ren thinks, and opens the door to his apartment. All he has to do is ask. He's unsurprised, but pleased, by the sweet smell of tea that wafts against his nose. He takes off his shoes, removes his jacket, and folds it over his arm. The hall is spacious, and he follows the smell of tea to Kyoko. She's taken off her jacket but she's still wearing the scarf. He indulges a moment to study the fall of her hair, the twist to her lips that might be a smile but might also be a frown. Her fingers curl over a cup, one thumb brushing against the lip. Right now, she's unreadable to him, and that makes him--itch.

He wants to know... he isn't quite sure what he wants to know, but. But.

But.

He steps forward with exaggeratedly loud movements, and Kyoko transforms, straightening her shoulders and smiling up at him. "I'm really sorry for imposing, Tsuruga-senpai," she says, but at least this time it sounds more polite than anxious. Ren kneels down--across the table, not next to her--and assures her that it isn't. Kyoko could never be an imposition, he thinks, even if she's wearing bright clothes that accencuate her features too well.

He should ask, now. He should ask. But if nothing else, he's learned that pushing for answers is not the way to deal with Kyoko, not when he's unsure what he's pushing against. So he takes a sip, eyes slitting as if he's closing them, and watches without wondering the way she's looking at him. Her face is unreadable again. She smooths her hands over her skirt.

"I'm... thank you," she says. Which makes absolutely no sense, but Ren nods in acceptance anyway.

He thinks, Did something happen? but doesn't say it. A moment later he's rewarded with a beseeching look. "I just wanted to... make sure of something," she says.

"Of what?" Ren asks, mildly, as if he doesn't want to shake answers out of her. He sets the cup down, cushions it with a finger, but the sound seems to echo anyway.

"Well, it's...." She seems embarrassed. "Nothing! It's nothing. Um." Absurdly, she's relaxing, the slope of her shoulders not quite so stiff. She always sits properly but there's the slightest hint of slouch, now, and when she beams at him the expression is entirely natural.

... Too bad it leaves Ren feeling entirely confused. He's not sure what he's done. In fact, he's rather sure that he hasn't done anything.

"It's just something Mouko-sa... um.. no, something I heard, about, um... friends." Kyoko says. "I guess they were right. When I'm with you, everything seems...." She closes her eyes and breathes out--not a sigh, but a long exhalation, and Ren imagines whatever worries she had escaping into the air.

When I'm with you, everything seems.... she said, and Ren wonders what would complete the sentence. He knows how he would finish it: When I'm with you, everything seems alright.

He doesn't say it, just as he hasn't voiced anything else. Firstly, it's not quite true. Everything's not alright, not when Ren keeps looking at her, noticing her, noting every slight difference from yesterday, the stray hair clinging to her cheek, her earrings--new ones, he gusses--the curve of her eyelids.

--But it's right enough, Ren supposes. He lifts the cup; she opens her eyes, and smiles at him. Ren smiles back, and everything is, indeed, mostly alright.

Labels: _fanfiction, c: mogami kyoko, c: tsuruga ren, fandom: skip beat, p: ren/kyoko