Dearest Readers,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope that you enjoy this fic about Kyoko, there is a slight romance at the end. I hope that you enjoy it! There is room for a sequel, so if you would like to see it, put the story on alert and aske for me to write it. Please review! I even take anonymous reviews! Just give me your honest opinion! Flamers are welcome! I don't own Skip Beat!
chu!
nakima-chan
It was nearing the end of November at LME when Kyoko noticed something on the bulletin board.
"Moko-chan," the girl asked her 'friend', "Why do we have Thursday off this week? Is there a holiday?"
Kotonami Kanae turned her pink partner in crime. It annoyed her to no end that this girl, simple as she may be, may surpass her in acting. It was a never ending battle with Kyoko, aside from her demons and mode swings she ranted on about that 'Sho' too. Sometimes Kanae thought to kill the man herself just to get Kyoko to shut her mouth. But lately Kanae had been feeling close to Kyoko, thinking of her as 'good friend' rather than a rival.
She gave Kyoko the most sincere smile she could muster and made her voice light and whimsical.
"I think that Maria-san wanted to through a party for an American holiday, Thanksgiving. I hear it is a family affair, but Maria is inviting whom ever she likes. That is why we have tomorrow of Kyoko-chan," she smiled again and Kyoko stared. Then Kyoko gave her the biggest smile, one that would send a plethora of paparazzi to her if she were famous.
"Thank you!"
Kyoko was walking out the door of the LME building when she ran into Maria. She wore her usual kind of dress and her hair the same as she used to before. But lately Maria seemed to be much happier than she used to.
"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!" She ran up to Kyoko giving her a big hug.
"Maria, it is nice to see you today! Are you excited for the holiday?"
Maria stood there in silence for a long time. She tried to maintain the smile that she was trying to give Kyoko, but even the amateur actress could tell that the sincerity of the grin faltered for a split second.
"Is something wrong Maria-chan" Kyoko bent down to the girls' level in order to get that special eye contact you need to get when someone needs attention.
"Yes," Maria whispered, deciding that it was useless trying to lie to her big sister. Kyoko waited intently for Maria to continue.
"Do you know how my mother died?" She began, "It was my fifth birthday, all my life and all my birthdays my parents had been traveling. That year I told grandpa that my deepest wish was for my parents to come to my birthday party. He sent out an email an before I knew it my mommy called to tell me she was on her way to see me … Her plane crashed, no survivors, I guess you can figure out the rest of that story…
"… My father sent me an email last night, like he always does. Saying that he wishes he could have made it to my piano recital last week and congratulating my good grades, you know the usual. But at the end of the letter he wrote 'p.s. I'm coming to Japan for Thanksgiving, see if you can find me a turkey.' At first I was very happy. I told grandpa to give everyone Thursday off so that we could have a party. I wanted my dad to have the best Thanksgiving ever! But then, when I went to sleep, I had a dream that my father's plain would crash like my mothers. I just can't bear to lose another parent, I've barley gotten to know him," With that Maria burst into tears, and couldn't be consoled.
Kyoko stood there for a long time. She wanted with all her heart to console the girl. But she knew that the best she could do was give Maria a shoulder to cry on. Suddenly, Kyoko felt a shadow looming over her.
"Did you make Maria cry Mogami-san?" a deep voice questioned. Kyoko almost jumped at the sound of the voice. She turned and came face-to-face with Tsuruga Ren. Well, she would have, if he wasn't extremely tall!
"Tsuruga-san?"
"Ren-kun"
Ren bent down and picked up the now hushed Maria. She blushed madly for a seven year old.
"What is wrong Maria?" he whispered.
"I'm scared for my daddy," she replied in her shy way.
'When I ask her "what's wrong?" She gives me a sob story; when he asks she gets right to the point. He is very privileged!' Kyoko thought meanly, letting her demons take over a small part of her heart. But her number of angels has been growing, so she barely even noticed when Maria cared more for Ren then her. She just continued to smile.
"Your daddy will be fine Maria, come Mogami-san, we'll escort Maria to Takarada-san," Ren commanded Kyoko.
'Ah, right when I was going to go home too,' Kyoko thought dismally. She knew all too well that she was going to be completely ignored by Maria and Ren on the way to the office. A long time ago Kyoko would have been grateful to Ren for not bothering her, but things where changing. Just like things were changing with Kanae
"Are you going to the Thanksgiving party Thursday, Nee-chan?" Kyoko thankfully heard while in deep thought.
"Of course I will!" she replied in a smiling voice.
"And you Ren-kun?" she added after, starry anime eyes replaced her usual sharp glance.
"Of course," Ren replied. He too gave her a genuine smile.
Kyoko lay down in her room contemplating the day. She took out her daruma and stared it in the eye. She had done this many times since receiving the object, and every time she would poke it and watch it fall over.
"I think that my life has always been full of these," she contemplated.
"My mom," she poked the daruma
"Shotaro," poke.
"Ruriko," poke.
"Maria," poke.
"Erika," poke.
"Moko," poke.
"Ren …" but this time she didn't poke daruma. Her finger stopped right before it could tough the eye. For some reason she could feel a sort of power in the way she had said his name. He was so calm around Maria, and so rude around her. He was so patient with Maria, and so short to her. He gave her genuine smiles … What in the world was she saying? That she was jealous of a seven year old? Kyoko shook her head and wondered to herself, again, if she was sane.
'KNOCK! KNOCK!'
"Come in please," Kyoko replied to the knock.
"You just got a call Kyoko-chan."
"Who would call me?
"His name was Tsuruga-san. He said that his manger, was told be the president, who was told by his grand daughter, Maria, that you had to right a list of things that you are thankful for."
"Thank you for the message," Kyoko replied.
"You're welcome," and with that Kyoko was left in her room.
"What I'm thankful for … what I'm thankful for …" she took out a pen and paper.
"What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for …. What I'm thankful for? … What I'm thankful for? …"
And this is how she spent the rest of her night.
The sun rose and Thanksgiving began. Maria was seeing over people cooking. Ren was heading toward the Takarada residence. Maria's father was flying over the Pacific Ocean. The list goes on and on. The most important thing though is that a certain auburn haired girl had collapsed in her room from exhaustion. And if she didn't wake up soon she was sure to be late to the party at noon.
'KNOCK! KNOCK!'
A disturbed Kyoko opened her eyes immediately.
"Wake up it is nearly eleven in the morning!"
'You have got to be kidding me,' Kyoko cursed inwardly at herself. There is no way that she could get to the Takarada house by twelve. She was dead meat.
"Maybe I could call Ren-kun and ask … I just called him 'Ren-kun'?" this was around the time that Kyoko collapsed from self-inflicted shock.
Soon she felt herself go into a pit of utter darkness and confusion.
A long time ago Kyoko had had a hard day at the tea ceremony, she was extremely sad that she wasn't good enough that night for Shotaro's mother. And even worse Shotaro! So she took out her precious rock and went out for some air on the porch to find her 'love' sitting there as well.
"Kyoko-chan, do you remember the boy who gave you that rock?" Shotaro asked his 'maidservant' one day out of annoyance.
"A little," Kyoko replied shyly.
"Do you like him?"
"He is amazing!" pure Kyoko was excited now at the thought of her 'Corn'.
"Hmph," the bad prince snatched the precious stone from her and tossed it into a patch of tall grass.
"…"
"Amazing huh, more amazing than me?" Shotaro raged.
"Of course not," Kyoko tried to sound as sincere as she could, but she was in reality on the verge of tears.
"…"
"Never," she whispered in a barely audible voice.
"Hmph!" and the spoiled boy slammed the sliding door on the sad heroine.
She spent all that night looking for her treasure. She searched and searched for the stone. It was not an option to lose it.
Finally, when the sun rose, she found it, nestled safely next to the stump of a sakura tree and breaths away from a four leaf clover.
In the mist of her tears, for a split second, she saw his face clearly again, Corn.
"mi-san … Mogami-san … Mogami-SAN!" Again Kyoko awoke to a rude awakening.
"What?" Kyoko groaned.
"The young man that called yesterday is here. He says that he was sent by Maria to retrieve you."
"WHAT!?" Kyoko rushed to the driveway to find a red corvette parked in front of her.
"Are you coming Mogami-san?" Ren smirked, "If not then Maria is going to have your head.
"Yes," Kyoko rushed up to her room and threw on her best clothes in a hurry.
"Why are you so late today?" Ren asked as they both drove down the highway in his sporty, red car.
"Um, well first I was looking at my daruma …" Kyoko began trying to remember what exactly had happened.
"Daruma?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, I live with the owners of a restraint called 'Darumaya' … one of them gave me a daruma, so that when I finally reach my goal I can fill in the right eye," Kyoko explained to Ren, in case he didn't know, "You see, whenever you push a daruma over, it wobbles right back up again, like me!"
Ren just stared in amazement at the girl, she really was something else. Yes, she definitly was something else.
"So you're telling me that you spent your whole night staring at a daruma?" Ren chuckled at the thought.
"Of course not! Last night I was thinking of what I was thankful for!" Kyoko argued, trying to redeem herself. Ren was intrigued, what could this girl possibly be thankful for. She is an almost famous, poor, and has no loved ones.
"Oh really? Did you think of anything?"
"Five things!" she replied happily.
"What are they?"
"I'm thankful for the owners of Darumaya for letting me live in a spare room and giving me their wisdom …
"I'm thankful for …. For Sho … because if it weren't for him I wouldn't have ever come into show business …
"I'm thankful for the Takarada's for being there for me and creating the 'Love Me' section …
"I'm thankful for my first ever female friend, Moko …
"And lastly I'm thankful to the boy who gave me this stone," Kyoko pulled out a blue stone from her pocket.
"That is quite a list," Ren smiled in a way that would have made anyone swoon, but it was the worst smile for Kyoko, it was his BEST smile, a forced smile.
"What is it Ren-kun? …" Kyoko inwardly swore.
"Ren-kun?" he repeated in a deep voice. It was a weird kind of voice. It was some where between a teasing taunt and a severed laugh.
"I asked what was wrong! Don't try to change the subject!" Kyoko demanded.
"… Well, you put in all of the people at LME that have helped your career. Even him. But you didn't add me, why is that?"
There was a long silence. Kyoko made a serious face.
"Kyoko-chan?" he asked, following suit to the new trend.
"…"
"Kyoko-chan?"
"This morning there were six people on my list … then I collapsed … and I only have five."
Silence overtook the car again.
"Why did you take that person off? Did they cause you to collapse?" Ren had an odd feeling inside him.
"Yes and no."
"He did make me collapse, but that is not the reason why he was replaced by Moko-chan"
"Why then?"
"It was because he was the same person as my prince." Kyoko's face softened and became whimsical, "Isn't that right Corn?"
Kyoko kissed Ren on the cheek, as the pulled up into the driveway. Little did she know that a certain pair of eyes had seen her act. And let's just say that this seven year old was stubborn.
Thank you for reading! I'd love it if you could review! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
chu!
nakima-chan