Author's Note: Hello, everyone. This is a gift fic for Miss Koneko who was wonderful enough to make me a Skip Beat! amv using the song Doll Parts by Hole. It's badass and on youtube and therefore you should check it out. Anyway, it's taken me far too long to finish this oneshot for her, but I hope its quality makes up for it. A brief side note, before I let you guys read though. I have been contemplating a return to fanfiction this summer. Probably no long stories, but perhaps some oneshots and/or drabbles. So, you guys may actually see things from me again :D All right, I've said my bit and now it's time for you guys to enjoy!

Rock

By MadnessinmyMethod

Kyouko watched the clock like a cat stalking a mouse. One could almost imagine whiskers sprouting out of her face and the rhythmic swish of a big, bushy tail. The second hand slid by with casual ease. It was infuriatingly slow. Five minutes… four and a half minutes… three and three quarters…. She had to force herself to look away and back at the history teacher in the front of the room who was apparently still intent on finishing the lesson despite the obvious lack of attention she was getting from the class.

"And then in 1917…."

Kyouko was no longer paying attention to what supposedly happened in 1917. It was irrelevant, immaterial even. All that mattered was being able to sprint out of the classroom, claim her bike that was chained the rack in the front of the building and pedal home as quickly as she could. She didn't want to see HIM, if she could help it.

One and a half minutes… fifteen seconds….

She leaned forward on the edge of her seat. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead in anticipation of what was to come, the great task at hand. She had a lot riding on this one.

Blessedly the bell rang and she bolted. The cream hallways of her high school passed by in a blur of lockers and tile. Faint glimmers of other students shone in her periphery, but she elongated her strides, reaching ever farther towards the front doors that stood at a distance like a beacon of hope.

The heavy doors slowed her only briefly and she unlocked her bicycle, with swift, practiced ease. Kyouko had drawn her bike from the rack and mounted before anyone else had even begun to exit the building. She was safe. She had to be. She thought she was.

Until she saw the red convertible out of the corner of her eye. It was instantly recognizable. She had known her luck had been too good to be true. Kyouko cast her eyes downward, for a moment, her cheeks tingeing a bright red. Her best friend's voice echoed in the back of her head like a conscience, demanding she pick up her gaze and ride off proudly.

Reluctantly, she did as Kotonami's voice demanded and began to pedal briskly out of the parking lot towards the road. She was dead careful not to rush. If she did, all hope would be lost. As she drew closer to the convertible, she could pick out the blonde shock of hair she would recognize anywhere. The hood was down and she could make out several unfamiliar bobs of hair. She used to long to be one of those lucky ones, even just in the back seat. Now she seethed with a scornful fury.

Anger empowered her to continue pedaling past the car. Somehow Kyouko even managed to feel confident and strong as the wind blew her hair back and played with a few dancing strands.

Kyouko ignored the whispers and giggles as she passed the convertible. She could pretend they didn't hurt her for now. Later, when no one else was around, she would remember them and feel miserable about it. Kyouko hated to admit it, but she was rather prone to crying.

She pushed onwards, past them, onto the main road, and down a hill where she picked up speed and coasted. The wind nearly peeled her face off. Were those teardrops in the sky because of her misery or the wind? She wasn't entirely sure. Dangerously, she squinted her eyes closed for a moment to clear them as she swooped wide around a turn. She didn't notice the sleek black car in front of her, or the shouts of pedestrians attempting to warn her that she was steering dangerously off course.

All she remembered was a splitting pain and an overwhelming blackness.

"Mogami-san." The voice that called her name was gentle and unfamiliar. "Mogami-san." Well, it couldn't have been too unfamiliar since it knew her name. "Mogami-san? Please wake up, Mogami-san."

She moaned a little and the muscles in her face twitched as if trying to remember which ones were for opening eyes. Her vision was blurred but slowly settled into clarity. Kyouko was dazzled at first by the face that was only about a foot from her own. She blinked and realized that this face belonged to Tsuruga Ren, one of the legends of her school, not to mention its most eligible bachelor, even before HIM.

"Thank God, you're awake," he breathed. Ren leaned farther back now that he was no longer so worried. Now Kyouko could see beyond her and realize she was lying out in the middle of the sidewalk, her bike was caught under the tires of Ren's shinny black car in a mangled heap, and somehow she wasn't even bleeding. It was a miracle of sorts.

"I—" Kyouko began, trying to get up, but Ren forced her back down.

"You shouldn't be moving yet," he told her. Kyouko bristled. Who was he to order her around? He was the one who had just hit her with his car! "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying enough attention to the road," Ren said solemnly. "You came out of nowhere."

All of Kyouko's irritation melted away with his apology. He looked so earnest. "I… I wasn't paying attention either. I was… upset about this thing and… yeah."

Ren looked at her with interest, but said nothing. His gaze was becoming unbearable. He cleared his throat. "I'm Ren, by the way," he said. "Tsuruga Ren."

"Of course. I would tell you my name," Kyouko replied, "but you seem to already know it." She blushed. She had absolutely no right to be so forward with one of the upperclassmen who had his own fan club!

"Yes," Ren agreed. "Mogami Kyouko."

A dark thought entered her mind that perhaps the only reason he even knew her name in this instance was because of all those rumors about HIM!

"Mogami-san? Are you alright?" Kyouko realized she had been consumed and was making a terrible expression at Ren. "Do you want me to drive you to the hospital?"

"Oh, oh no," she said. "I'm all right, really." She started to get up and surprisingly did feel quite fine. She wasn't even the slightest bit dizzy. "I think I can ride—" She stopped, her mangled bike glinting out of the corner of her eye. "I mean, I can walk the rest of the way home."

"I insist on giving you a ride home, Mogami-san," Ren said seriously. "After all, I was the one who destroyed your bike."

"But—"

"I insist," he said imperiously. He turned a bright, shimmering smile in her direction and its brilliance seemed to have a mind-numbing effect that forced her to obey. She found herself seconds later in the passenger seat of his sleek black car with her distorted bike in the back seat. Ren was speeding along the road, humming quietly to the radio.

Kyouko's face was a brilliant shade of red and there seemed to be no way of controlling it. All she could think of was that this was not they way she wanted her afternoon to go. She had only wanted to get out of school quickly enough to avoid HIM and make it back home to finish her work diligently like the good student she was. Instead she was laughed at, the victim of a traffic accident, and consequently sitting in the passenger seat of Tsuruga Ren's car.

It was unbearable. Kyouko could feel tears starting to form in her eyes, which only served to make her more upset because she didn't want to cry in front of Ren. He was a complete stranger! She couldn't go sobbing on him. Kyouko tried to stay quiet and trained her gaze out the window so he couldn't see her face. She didn't realize that Ren had actually been stealing glances at her this whole time, utterly intrigued and immensely worried.

When she let out a small hiccup he felt it necessary to say something. "Mogami-san? Are you sure you're all right?"

There was a sweetness in his tone that made her want to immediately collapse. It always got worse when people worried about her. Damn, if only he had ignored it, she could have pulled herself together. Her entire body was shivering and her heart felt as though it were beat so fast that it had left her. She wanted to curl up into a small ball and disappear she felt so miserable. "I'm f-fine," she stuttered. Furiously, she wiped away the tears that were starting to stream down her cheeks in gentle slopes.

"You're… crying…" he said, completely confused. "Did I… say something?"

"No," she wailed. "I'm sorry for losing it, Tsuruga-san. P-please just ignore me." She buried her face in her arms.

Instead of following her directions, Ren pulled his car over to the side of the road and put it in park. He passed Kyouko a tissue and rubbed her shoulder soothingly. "Real men don't ignore a woman when she's upset," he told her kindly. "Would you like to talk about it?"

She whimpered a little bit, but he wasn't sure what that meant so he waited. "You've probably heard the rumors," Kyouko said at last.

"Something about that Fuwa prick?" Ren said airily. He wasn't a fan of the showy underclassman who was notorious for his shallow behavior and lack of depth. All he had going for him was his good looks, which amounted to very little in Ren's estimation.

The corners of Kyouko's mouth twitched in the ghost of a smile. "He didn't used to be so…"

"Egotistical," Ren supplied.

She nodded. "We were childhood friends and I sort of… loved… him back then."

"And now?"

"I gave up on him about a month ago because he used me. I hate him. I hate what he did to me. I can't even bring myself to love again because of him. And now he torments me because I used to love him."

She looked up and she realized that her tears had stopped. Ren was smiling slightly at her. Not so much as to be inappropriate. But it was a reassuring sort of smile. It was nice. "Do you feel better?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"Good."

Kyouko couldn't explain it. She had been feeling lost, but suddenly it was like a cold, dead part of her had awoken. She felt warm, the sort of warm that so pleasant because you hadn't even realized you were cold, you'd been cold so long.

Ren held her gaze for a moment, then put the car back in drive. They were quiet, but it was no longer a tense or awkward silence. Kyouko enjoyed it. She felt safe. She was rather sad actually when Ren pulled his car into her driveway. Rather reluctantly, she made for the door handle.

"Mogami-san," he said stopping her. She looked at him expectantly. "Can I… have your cell phone number?"

Kyouko was dumbfounded for a moment. Was Tsuruga Ren actually blushing? She smiled a little and told him her number. "Thank you for the ride, Tsuruga-san. You are very kind." Sadly she hauled her mangled bike out of his back seat.

"I'm sorry for hitting you with my car," he told her. "But, I'm glad I could give you a ride home." Ren's smile was dazzling. She didn't think she was ever going to get used to it. She watched him drive away and when his black car disappeared around the corner she sighed and took her bike up to the garage.

She hadn't even made it to the door when her cell phone buzzed that she had a text message. Kyouko looked down at the tiny screen. It was from Ren. "I got something for you. Pick you up at 7 tomorrow." She stared at it curiously, smiled, and went inside to study like she had intended to.

Kyouko really shouldn't have been so surprised. He had told her he was coming after all. But somehow she had convinced herself that he couldn't possibly have meant it. So when she found him and his sleek black car in her driveway that morning she was rather astonished. Even more so when he opened the car door and rolled out a shinning new bicycle.

"You won't need it today, of course," he told her, "if you let me drive you. But I'm sure you'll need it for things besides going to and from school." Ren grinned.

"You're too nice," she accused him, nonetheless getting into the passenger seat.

He smiled. "I'm just your friend, that's all."

She looked at him. "Right."