Note: I wrote this as my gift for tumblr user mustardtan in the Skip Beat! Secret Santa event held on tumblr this past December. The story is set a year and some months after chapter 217.

Though a highly skilled musician and a patient instructor, Maria's piano teacher also happened to be a celebrity fanatic. So it wasn't unusual for lessons to be delayed by bursts of excitement. Today's hot news: "Maria-chan, Maria-chan! They're back!"

"Who's 'they'?" Maria plopped down on the bench and started to play scales, looking idly over her shoulder at her teacher's rosy face. The usual gossip wasn't enough to interest Maria, who knew she could usually get the truth if she felt like it, but teacher looked even more excited than she had for the last Fuwa Sho single.

"What, you have to ask?" Maria's heartbeat picked up and her fingers trembled, making the climb of notes unsteady. "They're the number one topic this week! Oh, I was so hoping they would come back to Japan to promote the movie at least! I wonder-"

The music died and the bench scraped against the floor. Maria was on her feet. "Not Ren-sama and-"

"Kyoko!" Teacher finished, speaking over Maria's "onee-sama" and then pausing to question what she had heard her pupil say. "Who's... Maria-chan, just where are you going? Maria-chan!"

Half an hour later, she was storming into the office of the president of LME, unfazed by the visiting circus. A lion tamer quietly stepped out of her way.

"Grandfather!"

The man in question looked down at her from his perch on an acrobat's swing, and tucked the cell phone he was holding into a pocket. "You've been told before not to run out on your lessons. Your teacher was very worried."

Maria stomped a foot. "But I had to! And it's your fault for not telling me anything! Why does everybody know things before me, when you know about them first of all?"

Lory sighed and swung into a series of acrobatic feats, which Maria failed to be impressed by, and landed on the floor in front of her. "My dear," he started, and she looked at her shoes. "I'm afraid I don't always know everything."

"But you knew about this. You knew when they were going to America, and what they were doing there all that time, and-and-and you knew they were-!" No, she couldn't say that part. "And you had to know they would be back today!"

"I knew some things, this time, it's true. But what you really want to know is something you'll have to get from the direct source. Those two have never been willing to tell me all that was in their hearts." He rested a hand on top of her head, and Maria was not quite old enough yet to be embarrassed about it. "But if you ask them, they might tell you."

Maria could think of some things to say to that, but her throat felt too tight. So she only nodded.

Hushed, but lively, voices woke her.

"-kinda scary at first, but once I got into my role, it was really fun! But looking back on it, I'm truly thankful that I already had Setsu under my belt. After that, using English on the set all the time wasn't intimidating at all."

"Nobody guessed you were scared at any point. You had us all terrified."

Two different laughs followed-one amused but affectionate, the other sheepish, both achingly familiar.

Maria held her breath and kept still. After she had been made to return to her lesson and apologize properly to her teacher, after she had obediently completed her homework, and after she had poked at her dinner, Maria had been invited to wait up with her grandfather. The appointment had been for 11, and she wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep.

"But you two certainly gave all of us a shock." Maria could feel the rumble of the deep voice, and realized she was slumped against her grandfather. "To think I would hear from the Love Me section's wayward little Mogami-kun about a last minute role in a movie from one of Hollywood's top directors, when I was already complacent with just that guy being in it. You really do like to sprint to new levels when nobody's watching, don't you?"

Maria opened her eyes now, but nobody noticed. Grandfather was looking at the couple seated opposite-yes, there they both were after weeks and months, sitting naturally side by side. Kyoko's gaze was averted down at her hands in her lap, her face pink, a smile playing at her lips. And Ren-Maria's chest tightened-Ren, he was looking at Kyoko with a tender expression not quite like any he had ever directed at Maria.

"I'm sorry," Kyoko was saying. "I'm lucky I didn't cause even more trouble than I did, suddenly getting involved in something so big. But when I saw the chance..." She raised her eyes, and Maria caught them without meaning to. The shift in Kyoko's expression to surprise drew the others' attention to what she was looking at, and suddenly Maria was under all three of their gazes.

Maria sat up straight. She recognized the awkward pause that followed for what it was.

Ren was the first to speak. "Maria-chan," he called to her gently, just the way he always had, "Thank you for waiting so patiently to greet us. It's only just after midnight, so would you like to go to bed now?"

Shaking her head so hard that her curls bounced, Maria jumped to her feet. "You were talking all this time without me!"

"You were the one who fell asleep," her grandfather pointed out dryly, but she pretended to ignore him.

"I was the only one left out! Just like-just like-" Her eyes were wet. "Just like when you went away!" Her voice was starting to sound weird, all high and unsteady. "And I didn't know if you were ever coming back, and you... you didn't even say goodbye."

Maria ducked her head, unable to take the looks she knew she would get. She was sick, sick, sick of being the pitiable little girl who needed comfort and understanding, but here she was again. And this time, she had been let down by the two people she had been sure she could count on to never disappoint her.

A soft rustle signaled Kyoko's movement before Maria saw her feet, then her knees, then her face. Maria turned her head.

"Maria-chan," Kyoko said solemnly, and then there were noises of alarm from the men in the room.

Maria looked back to where her onee-sama's face had been a moment ago, and found it wasn't there anymore. Looking down, she saw Kyoko in a dogeza, and stumbled a few steps back. "Wait-"

"I am truly sorry! I didn't think-"

"Mogami-kun, please-"

"-of Maria-chan's feelings! I went away thinking I would only be overseas for a week, so I didn't mention it. But I should have taken more care! No, I should have properly said goodbye no matter how long I was going to be gone! I was very-"

"Onee-sama!" Maria nearly shrieked it. "Stop that! I don't like it when you're like this!"

A beat, and then Kyoko sat up and looked at Maria gently. "But really, Maria-chan... I'm sorry. I left because I was invited to visit someone important to me, and I thought I would be back soon. A lot of unplanned things happened."

Maria's throat felt tight again, but she made herself speak through it this time. "He invited you?" she mumbled, eyes flickering in Ren's direction for only a moment. "Even though he was away on work and very busy, he invited you to come see him, and then the two of you..."

Ren cleared his throat. "No. That isn't what happened. Actually, I didn't know she was coming to the States either, until I heard she would be joining the movie cast. You weren't the only one to be surprised."

Blinking a few times, Maria looked between Ren and Kyoko. "But then... Onee-sama, who else would you visit there?"

Suddenly bashful, Kyoko spoke up. "I was finally making good on an invitation kindly extended more than a year ago by my fath-my teach-um, by Hizuri Kuu."

This was a rather out of the blue revelation for Maria, but after a moment of consideration, she didn't feel the need to question it. Of course important people were starting to recognize the greatness of her onee-sama, and it only made sense that they would love her and welcome her into their homes.

"He and his wife were also the ones who got me to go for that part in the movie, when it suddenly became available." Kyoko twisted to look at Ren. "I'm sure I wouldn't have seen you at all while I was there, if not for that."

Ren quickly turned to cough into his hand, but not before Maria saw that he had a funny sort of look on his face. After a moment, she realized that he was actually blushing.

She had never seen him do that before. Something in her gut suddenly felt painful, almost heavy.

"And then, working together over there by yourselves, you fell in love," Maria said quietly.

There was silence again. The scent of her grandfather's tobacco filled the air, and Maria knew without looking that he was sitting behind her and observing this all play out as if it were one of his love dramas. Maria watched as Kyoko and Ren looked startled, then uncomfortable, then met each other's eyes for a kind of communication that Maria couldn't be part of. Because it was as she had always known: she was just a kid, and wouldn't be included in grown-up affairs.

It wasn't like she had ever really thought, deep down, that Tsuruga Ren would someday fall in love with her. She had just wanted...

"Maria-chan." Kyoko was looking at her again now, intent. She folded her hands around Maria's. "The truth is, you're mistaken."

Maria yanked her hands away. "Don't lie! Everybody knows! Even though you didn't tell me, I saw the pictures for myself!"

Color came into Kyoko's cheeks, but she shook her head. "That's not what I mean. It wasn't while we were in America that we..." Her eyes strayed over Maria's shoulder to where the LME President sat, but she quickly refocused on Maria. "... that we fell in love."

"It was well before that." Ren had taken a knee next to Kyoko, and he was fixing Maria with the same kind, sincere gaze that had first made her think, so many years ago, that perhaps he was an adult she could believe in. "I'm sorry the rest of the world found out before I could tell you. And I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly to chase a job across the ocean. I was thinking only of my own future, and I neglected my friends."

Maria swallowed hard, and was horrified to hear herself sniffle. Kyoko took her hands again, and this time Maria didn't resist.

Leaning in close, Kyoko spoke softly and seriously. "Maria-chan, I know what you're thinking, but this... taking him from you is something I just can't apologize for. But you're precious to me, too. I promise, as long as it's possible, I won't give you a shock like this again. So, do you think you can forgive me?"

Maria's hands trembled as she thought about Kyoko, who'd had so little happiness in her life, even though she was so wonderful. And Ren, who was also among the best people in the whole world, but had always seemed alone in it until now.

That man spoke up. "We'll both be in Japan for a while after this, and I'm not sure of everything in my future yet. But I'm certain that I'll need good friends to support me. Can I count on you?"

When it came down to it, there was only one answer she could find in her heart, and it was the same for both questions. So she gave it to them. Maria could hear her grandfather laughing fondly as she was pulled into the arms of two of her favorite people, while she cried and smiled so hard her cheeks ached.