DISCLAIMER: Skip Beat! belongs to Yoshiki Nakamura.

~ Spit Take ~

Just as Sho was slipping the candy between her parted lips, Kyoko felt a strong arm snake around her shoulders from behind. She was almost tempted to panic as she found herself drawn firmly into a man's embrace, but she quickly realized two things: first, he was trying to protect her from Sho; and second, the man holding her was Ren Tsuruga.

Ren felt the girl relax into his embrace slightly, and a triumphant thrill went through him at her acceptance of his possessive actions.

Kyoko tried to say something, but only gibberish came out as her mouth was still obstructed by the candy.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Ren said. He lifted his free hand up to her face so that his palm was level with her chin. "Here, spit it out."

Is he crazy? Sho wondered. No way is he going to get her to spit in his hand! And not just spit in his hand, but spit chewed food into it? Ha. Like she would ever do something that rude and disgusting.

"It's alright," Ren said softly, when Kyoko hesitated. "I wouldn't tell you to do it if I wasn't okay with it. Spit it out."

Sho was shocked. It looked like she was really going to do it! No... she wouldn't. Not here, in front of all of these people. Kyoko wouldn't do something as embarrassing as that.

But, apparently she would be more embarrassed to actually swallow the candy, which could be seen as an indication that she accepted her number one enemy's feelings.

In a last desperate effort to stop her from spitting out the candy, Sho said, "You wouldn't waste food like that, would you? That chocolate cost five thousand yen!*"

But it was too late, because she'd already spat the candy out before he'd finished speaking.

Ren looked down at the melty saliva-covered lump of chocolate in his hand, then gave the singer an extra super sparkly smile and declared, "You're right, it would be a shame to waste such an expensive candy."

And before either Sho or Kyoko had a chance to stop him, Ren popped the candy into his own mouth.

~end~

*approximately $50