Lory's Majestic Error

A/N: This is something of a companion fic to A Life in Headlines, but it's more humorous, and contains actual dialog and plot rather than media reports. While A Life in Headlines focused on many incidents in Kuon's life as reported by the media, this fic focuses on one particular incident in Ren's life both as reported by the media, and from the perspective of those involved.

Also, I suppose you could consider this OOC or AU, as I don't think Lory would actually be stupid enough to do this – he'd be able to see the consequences – but I thought it may be funny to write about what would happen if he was stupid enough to set this up. Other characters may be OOC as well, as I'm not good at writing from the point of view of anyone.

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat. If I did, I would not be as frustrated as Lory at the lack of any romantic developments.

Ren Tsuruga Found With Underage Girl in his Bed!

On this morning's edition of the prank show Doki Doki Wake-up, there was a major surprise. The live special featured the hosts going into Japan's Most Eligible Bachelor, Ren Tsuruga's (21), apartment for a wake-up call and tour. What the hosts did not expect to find was Tsuruga's fellow LME actress, Kyouko (17), in his bed. The actress was found wearing Ren's shirt on the actor's bed, while the actor himself was sleeping next to her holding her hand.

Upon further inquiry, fans found security footage of the building showing that Kyouko comes to Ren's apartment at odd hours of the night, often with large bags of groceries. An anonymous source has also reported that the actress has stayed the night at his apartment in the past. The two have previously denied being in a relationship beyond that of good friends. LME would not comment on the matter.

The security department of LME was certainly confused when the President of the agency asked them to watch out for and inform him of any and all interactions happening between Tsuruga Ren and Mogami Kyoko. They considered protesting, but knew it was futile in the face of their boss's eccentricities. One of the officers most vehemently opposed to this change happened to be on staff that night. He sighed as he saw Ren go to knock on the Love Me room and knew he had to pick up the phone.

Lory was sitting in his office filling out some paperwork when the phone rang. While he would normally route the call to Sebastian, any call at this hour from the security department had to be important. A voice on the other line informed him something interesting was happening on the security cameras in the area of the building surrounding the Love Me locker room. Because this matter likely concerned his favorite LME employees, Lory dropped the paperwork and turned on the feed. He watched the feed with keen interest until Ren's car left the parking garage, and knew what he had to do.

"Sebastian. What's the name of that show? The one that specializes in surprise wake-up calls aired live?"

"Doki Doki Wake-up, sir."

"Ask Yashiro if he could get Ren on the show tomorrow morning. This is an important matter."

"I will do as you ask, sir."

"Oh, and tell them to pick up the spare keys to his apartment at LME tomorrow before they go."

Ren Tsuruga was just finishing a long day of work, as per usual, but today was a special day: today was one of the few days he ended his day at LME while Kyoko should have still been there. Or, at least, that's what Yashiro's schedule for her indicated. Ren had never asked Yashiro why he would always keep Kyoko's schedule on his person despite not being her manager, but Ren was certain it had to do something with Yashiro's determination to have him meet Kyoko regularly. Not that he minded that.

What Ren did mind were the rare days Yashiro's schedule was wrong, and today appeared to be one of those days. Kyoko was nowhere to be seen in the halls of LME, so Ren decided to head up to the Love Me locker room in a final attempt to track her down. As usual, he felt obligated to at least ask her if she would like a ride home, even if he knew she would likely refuse. One of the few things Ren had retained from Kuon was his insatiable desire to get what he wanted, even if he was now more tactful and patient about actually getting it.

As he went to knock on the door of the locker room, he noticed it slightly ajar. It was usually only unlocked or opened if the girls were inside, but he didn't hear any voices or the rustling of clothes.

"Mogami-san?"

No answer.

"Mogami-san?"

Still silence.

"Mogami-san?"

After the third attempt, Ren began to wonder if anything was wrong. Certainly it was possible that someone had left the door open accidentally, or Kyoko had just went for a quick trip to the bathroom, but Ren could not shake his worry. He cautiously opened the door and peered inside to find Kyoko asleep on the job – which was highly uncharacteristic of her. Her face was pale, her lips chapped, and her posture poor. Something had to be wrong.

Ren slowly walked over to her and placed a hand on her forehead. Although he was not quite sure what constituted a fever, he could tell she was at least warmer than usual. Ren began to troubleshoot: although he had never cared for anyone who was sick before, he knew he wanted to do something for Kyoko. He checked her locker to see if he could get her keys or wallet out to take her home, but it was locked. Thankfully she had her phone in her pocket so he was able to send a message to her landlords to inform them of her condition.

He pondered if he should take her back to the Daruma-ya, but with no reply from her landlords Ren was concerned they were asleep and therefore unable to help Kyoko. He decided that he wanted to take her home with him. He tried to convince himself that this wasn't what he secretly had wanted all along, after all, he was only caring for her because he couldn't get her into her apartment.

Yashiro was in a meeting, and could get home by public transit, so Ren saw no need to wait for him to leave. Immediately he put his (not quite thought out) plan into motion. He kissed Kyoko on the forehead before he picked her up, and began the slow journey down to his car.

He somehow managed to get her buckled in to the passenger seat of his car, and began the drive home. During the ride, he heard a yawn, and noticed that Kyoko had woken up.

"Ah, Mogami-san…"

"Ts-Tsuruga-san?" she said groggily, "Where am – wait – why am I in your car? Where are we going? I'm supposed to be at work." Despite her previous grogginess, her realization quickly woke her up.

"You feel asleep in the Love Me Room. When I found you, you looked very sick, so I decided to take you to my home," he replied calmly.

"I can't burden you like that, Tsuruga-san! Just take me back to the Daruma-ya. I'll be okay!"

"I want to take care of you, Mogami-san. Are you saying you don't want me to?"

Kyoko froze as the Emporer of the Night made his appearance. She replied with a small nod, and Ren kept driving.

After pulling into his apartment building, Ren helped Kyoko get out of the car. As she stood up, she began to sway back and forth, leading her to lean on his car.

"Mogami-san! Are you okay?"

"Just… Just a bit dizzy," she slurred.

"I'm going to help you until we get to my apartment," he insisted, "you're not well."

"N-no. I'm okay."

"I insist," he responded as he put his arm around her shoulders, "you won't be able to make it on your own." Ren then flashed one of his brilliant but threatening smiles at her and Kyoko once again gave in.

He helped guide her to the elevator before helping her sit down on the floor for the duration of the ride up. When they reached his floor, he once again held onto her as they walked to his door. Upon arriving at Ren's apartment, Kyoko stumbled to the guest bathroom as quickly as she could in her condition, and began to throw up into the toilet.

Ren contemplated running after her before deciding against it – he still had no idea how to take care of a sick girl, so he needed to use any time he could to figure it out. He went to the living room and collapsed onto the couch. Not wanting to wait for his laptop to start up, Ren began furiously typing on his phone. After skimming parenting blog after parenting blog he finally had some idea of what to do. His tenuous knowledge of kanji relating to medicine meant he had to go to English language sites, and he was unsure if Kyoko would agree to the Western ways of home care, but he had to do what he could understand. Through translators he was able to figure out what medicine to get, and added it to his list of things to get for Kyoko.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Kyoko had come out of the bathroom looking exhausted. Her clothes had become sweaty and smelled of vomit, so Ren immediately ran to find her something to wear. Quickly grabbing one of his shirts (he didn't have time to check how nice it was, and frankly he didn't care) and a pair of sweatpants, he put them on the guest bed.

"Mogami-san, I've put some clothes out for you in the guest room. Why don't you change into them? Your current clothes must be uncomfortable," Ren called out. Slowly she came into the room and walked to the bed. She paused for a moment before he understood that he would need to leave the room. He waited outside the door while she changed. It was one of the few times that night he had let the thought of her wearing his clothes creep into his mind. Most of that night he was consumed by worry: worry that he was scaring her, worry that he was doing this wrong, worry that she was afflicted with more than just the stomach flu, worry that he wasn't good enough to care for her.

"Tsuruga-san," Kyoko said, interrupting his thought process.

"Ah! Mogami-san, are you okay?"

She opened the door, showing that she was dressed in his clothes. She was holding her Love Me uniform and white t-shirt in one arm, and appeared to be looking for somewhere to wash them.

"I'll wash those for you," Ren said, slowly grabbing the clothes from her as to not scare her. "I'll be right back." He opened the closet with his rarely-used washer and dryer before throwing her clothes in for a cycle. Taking the few steps down the hall back to the guest room, he contemplated what his parents did for him the one time he was ill. He went to check in on Kyoko, who had managed to get herself into bed in the short time he'd been gone, and then went to find a trash can.

After grabbing the trash can, Ren noticed she had already fallen asleep, so he placed the towel he had grabbed next to her pillow, and put the trash can down next to the bed. Ren also left a note to say he was going to the store to get some supplies, but he hoped she would stay asleep long enough to make the note unnecessary.

Upon his return to his apartment, Ren got back to work. He put the salty crackers he found on the counter with the medicine, and put a pot of water out to boil for when Kyoko wanted to eat. The water bottle would go with him straight to Kyoko. He walked at a brisk pace to the guest room door and knocked. There was no answer, so he decided she must still be asleep.

Ren opened the door and found quite the opposite of what he had hoped. Instead of sleeping peacefully, Kyoko was kneeling and gasping for breath over the trash can. He saw that she had accidentally gotten sick all over the sheets while he was out.

"Mogami-san! Are you okay?"

"Y-yes, Tsuruga-san. I think I'm feeling all better now," she replied, still gasping.

"I'll wash the sheets for you. Why don't you go to my room and rest on my bed. I'll bring you some food and fresh clothes," he said, knowing it would likely be in vain. He was wrong, as she was too tired to protest, and began to hobble straight to his room. Ren followed her until he was sure she was safely in his bed, and began to get to work.

After getting her a fresh change of clothes, brought crackers and the water bottle to Kyoko. He helped her break the crackers into small pieces to eat, and tipped the water bottle up to help get water to her mouth. Ren brought the medicine in with her food, and she dutifully took it, even if she insisted it wouldn't help. Once he was satisfied she had eaten enough and gotten her medicine, he got her two more towels and changed the trash bag in the can he had moved next to his bed.

Finally, he decided he had done all he could for her, and collapsed on his bed next to her before falling into a deep sleep.

Part one of this two-shot is done! Part two will be up… eventually? A time. It will be up at a time.

We have the set-up, and now we need the result: the wake up call.