Kyoko Mogami nervously twisted the patchwork quilt between her fingers as she glanced at the soft light that had just begun filtering into the simple but clean rented room. She and her childhood friend, Sho, had taken separate rooms in the best kept hotel in Creek Bend over two weeks ago. They were registered as siblings and no one had raised a fuss about it yet. Outside her window, birds chirped to welcome the dawn. Hearing footsteps in the hallway outside her door, the young woman jumped from her rumpled bed and raced for the door. She twisted the key and pulled it open in order to peak through the crack.

"Sho!" she exclaimed as she opened wide the door and rushed from her private room. Her voluminous nightgown trailed behind her quickly moving, slim form.

Ignoring the excited girl, Shotaro Fuwa unlocked his own door and entered his slightly larger rented room. The young man tossed his hat onto the bed and sunk into the wooden ladder-backed chair that sat along the white painted wall. A huge yawn escaped his mouth as he listened to Kyoko ramble about how worried she was when he did not come home last night. Sho yawned again and rubbed his face wearily.

"Can we do this later, Kyoko?" he requested as he rolled his head to loosen the cramped muscles in his neck. His blond hair shifted to partially cover his sleepy blue eyes. He had just spent the better part of the night playing poker down the street at the Hang Dog Saloon, and he really wasn't in the mood for his childhood friend's incessant prattle. Most days, the slightly older fellow relegated the excited sounds Kyoko expressed to pleasant background noise. Unfortunately, this morning he was too tired to make the effort.

Kyoko nodded happily before kneeling to pull off his stiff boots. She sat the expensive footwear by the door and retrieved his hat from the bed. The young woman hung the hat on one of the wall hooks before turning back to her friend. She brushed the palms of her hands together to knock the clinging dust from them.

"I really was worried when you didn't come home last night," she admitted as she anxiously wandered around the room straightening the few personal items that are lying haphazardly on any available surface. As a lifelong friend, Kyoko knew that Shotara was a natural slob. For years, she had been following behind him like his own personal maid. Although for a normal girl this duty would be an utter annoyance, she never minded. In fact, Kyoko loved being able to help her friend in any way possible. He was a prince in her eyes and deserved every available comfort.

"Don't be a nag," barks Sho as he stood to wash his face.

Kyoko gasped as Sho poured water from the ceramic pitcher on the wash stand into the large ceramic basin. He had never used that tone with her before now.

"I didn't mean to nag," the young woman replied softly. "I was just worried. I don't think you should spend so much time gambling and such. It's not good for you."

"I'll do whatever the hell I want," countered Sho angrily. "I left home to get away from this crap and you brought it right along with me."

The young blond man dried his face and threw the towel against the wall beside Kyoko's head. She flinched although the soft projectile hit the wall quite a distance from her face. Turning, Sho began to roughly remove his dark suit. His clothes, the height of fashion in the East before they left on their adventure, dropped unceremoniously piece by piece onto the floor as he continues to rant.

"You're not my wife or my mother. You have no right to tell me what to do."

The angry male whipped back to face the red-faced young woman who was busy staring at her uncovered toes that peaked innocently from the hem of her floor length nightgown.

"I don't mean to tell you what to do," she whispered in anguish. "I just worry about your safety in that rough place with all those rough people."

Kyoko grimaced slightly as she thought about the unsavory ruffians Sho was sure to encounter spending all his time in saloons. Her heart clenched as she imagined the beautiful and scandalously dressed young woman who would be surrounding him in such places. She could never compete with their vivid beauty and worried that one of them will lead her love astray.

"What do you know about the people in those places?" taunted Sho as he scoffed at his innocent and morally rigid friend. She would never associate willingly with the scoundrels the Fuwa heir had recently been enjoying. "They are a hell of a lot more fun then an uptight, plain, and boring little girl like you. They know how to live. They seize every bit of joy out of the day and milk it for all its worth. You do nothing but suck the joy from life with your planning and routine. You should have stayed the hell in Philadelphia."

Kyoko gasped and raised her head with pain evident in her striking golden eyes.

"I came because you asked me to come. You said that you needed me. You said that you would never be able to survive the trip without my help," she whispered fervently.

"Yeah, well the trip is over. I don't need you here so leave me alone," he harshly replied.

Kyoko cringed for a moment as her world crumbled around her. For years, her entire existence had revolved around her childhood friend. Every plan she made, every chore she completed, and every hardship she endured had been for his sake.

Kyoko had been happy in Philadelphia. Although her early childhood had been a nightmare, her entire existence had bloomed into a veritable fairytale when her father and mother adopted her. Her parents were wealthy and influential, and they had provided her with every opportunity imaginable. She was well educated, pampered and adored. Best of all, she was given the chance to become friends with the son of her father's best friend.

The Fuwa family owned a number of high class hotels in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Richmond. Their only child, Shotaro, had grown up beside Kyoko, and both families had always assumed that when they reached the proper age that the two youngsters would join the two influential families as family instead of just friends. It was this assumption that had prompted the young man to flee from home.

Sho did not want to marry his friend. Although he did like her well enough not to chase her out of his life, he never found her attractive, and her accommodating behavior, although enjoyable for avoiding addressing his own responsibilities, reminded him too much of a servant. In his arrogance, Sho could not imagine sharing his life with someone as far below him as a servant.

The egotistical seventeen year old might not have wanted to marry Kyoko, but he was realistic enough to know that he did not want to take care of himself. Therefore, when he decided to sow his wild oats in one of the worst possible ways imaginable, he dragged his childhood friend along for the ride. They had fled the city in the dead of the night. Sho never told his parents anything about leaving but Kyoko had at least left a short note that she was with Sho so that her family would not worry. Both teens had ample money and assets available for the trip, and their travels had been relatively comfortable.

"If you don't need me, then why did you bring me here?" accused Kyoko as a bit of her natural spunk forced her to stop cringing along the wall.

"Temporary insanity?" he replied harshly. "I had to be insane to want to bring along a clingy, boring, useless girl whose only skills are picking up my clothes and nagging that I stay out too late."

"I'm not useless," Kyoko cried passionately.

"Right," Sho snidely answered as he crossed his arms across his bare chest and smirked.

"I can take care of myself better then you can take care of yourself," the young female stated with conviction.

Sho stepped towards the dresser where he had laid his belt with his twin revolvers. They had been a gift for his sixteenth birthday from his father, and he prided himself on his ability to shoot. He yanked one of the holsters off the leather belt and tossed the gun and holder at the fuming female. Kyoko clumsily caught the weapon and held it against her nightgown clad body.

"Now we're even," growled the exhausted young man. "You take care of yourself, and I'll take care of myself."

For a moment, Kyoko stared at her friend in disbelief.

"Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out," Sho prompted as he waved her towards the entrance before rudely unclasping his pants and dropping them to the floor.

With a flustered yet angry gasp, the innocent young woman fled from the room and back to her rented space.

Instantly regretting picking a fight with his best friend, Sho still crawled into bed. He figured that he would apologize after he woke up. Kyoko always forgave him for everything so he reasoned that this time would be no different. Sleep pulled at his weary form and slumber overcame him. Unfortunately for the spoiled young man, he would not have a chance to voice his regret. By the time he awoke, Kyoko was long gone.

Kyoko sat stewing on the neatly made four poster bed in her room. Never before had Sho been so cruel. Not even when they were young children had he wielded words that were as custom made to hurt her so efficiently. The words that he does not need her and that she should leave him alone echoed repeatedly in her mind. Her delicate hand raised to swipe a single tear from her cheek. Just as swiftly, her chin raised. Kyoko took a deep breath and glanced about her room.

Her eyes rested for a moment on the revolver that announced to the world that Fuwa had no intention of protecting her like the noble prince she always imagined him to be would have done.

Never one to allow something bad to linger too long in her mind, Kyoko stood resolutely. If Sho Fuwa was not her prince then she would become one herself. She was not useless as her friend had cruelly taunted. Kyoko resolved to prove this to him in the best way possible. She turned her head and caught the long, thick, braid that fell down her back to just beyond her waist. Her thick, black hair had been a blessing and a curse all her life. It was a curse because it forever marked her as an outsider in the blond haired, blue eyed family that adopted her.

Conversely, her hair was a blessing because it was the only thing about her physical appearance that Sho had ever complimented. When they were little, the child Sho had loved to lay on the grass in the shade of one of the huge oak trees that surrounded his home. While he relaxed, the boy would run his fingers through Kyoko's hair. The heavy, shifting strands were fascinating to him. He would wrap them around his fingers and gently tug them in an attempt to create curls. He would even brush her hair if he was in a really good mood. As the friends matured, Kyoko had refused to have her hair cut into the latest fashions just because her prince loved her locks. The teen could never hope to count the number of nights she had spent sitting in the Fuwa parlor reading books to Sho while he absently wrapped her thick braid repeatedly around his hand. He would wind the long rope of hair around his hands a number of times then wiggle his hand free only to repeat the process all over again. Kyoko yanked her braid once to refocus her resolve.

With renewed vigor, the young woman walked to the small dresser in her room and pulled open the bottom drawer. She withdrew her sewing kit. Extracting her scissors from the small basket of needles, thread, and extra buttons, Kyoko gripped them tightly as she moved to the small wash stand on the opposite wall. With the gilded mirror on the wall as a guide, Kyoko set to shearing away her hair until all that remained was a cropped, messy shadow of its former glory.

Tucking her hack job under her oldest bonnet, Kyoko gathered the rest of her things. She carefully packed the nightshirt she had stolen from her adopted brother as a reminder of home along with the revolver. She added all her available cash into the smallest bag. She removed the delicate blue topaz ring that her mother gave her for her last birthday. Her mother had hugged her tightly and promised that the next piece of jewelry her princess received would surely be a shiny diamond from Shotaro. Kyoko placed the ring on a simple chain and tucked it inside her oldest blouse. Everything else in her room she stored carefully in the larger bag.

Kyoko dragged her possessions from her room. She left only her partially unwoven braid on the stand as she exited the hotel without a backward glance. Hours later when Sho entered her room with an apology on his lips, all he would find was the haunting reminder of his precious childhood friend.

A/N: Since AlitaBlake kindly tuned me into this challenge, I thought I would lend my own twist to the Dime Store Novel (although no, sorry, this will not be novel length... one of those is good enough for now). I am floundering in unknown territory here though because I have never been to Texas, never read a Wild West Romance novel, and only know rudimentary info about cattle drives. Hopefully my lack of knowledge on the era and place (since the sum of my Old West knowledge is John Wayne movies, a single Western novel and a childhood affection for The Young Riders) will not detract from this attempt - Me

The Challenge:

The Kyoko and Ren Travel To The Old West Challenge(for lack of a better name)
Ok, I guess it could be the anybody from Skip Beat travels to the Old West Challenge, but I only like Ren/Kyoko fics. hehe. Sorry.

The Rules:
1) It must take place in the old west (is there an old west in Japan? IDK. Any location, as long as it is Old and West. Just play with it.) and fit the bill of a typical western.
2) It must end KyokoXRen, but feel free to throw in whomever you please (The idea of Lory in the Old West intrigues me
3) There MUST be a gunfight. Doesn't matter who's in it, but there are ALWAYS gun fights in westerns.
4) In character would be nice, but OOC is understandable to a degree. However, basics should be kept. (Any scenes where Ren shoots Sho, perfectly acceptable)