Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Just a little one-shot idea I thought might be fun – first ever fanfic so reviews and constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read :)

Better Looking

Kyoko snapped. She just couldn't stand it anymore. That voice grating over her senses, the smugness and cloying conceit. The oozing sweetness that disguised her vicious intent behind a little-girl smile. Nanokura Mimori without doubt featured in Kyoko's top ten most annoying people of all time that were probably still only able to talk because ripping out the voice box of another human being was frowned upon by the judiciary system.

Even so, Kyoko put up with it. She was mature. She was responsible. She was the bigger person. Every time they met at school, which thankfully wasn't too often, it would begin. Mimori would get insecure and worried about what sort of relationship her beloved Sho had with Kyoko, and launch verbal assaults to warn her self-imagined rival off. Kyoko would bear her sugar-coated taunts with a smile. It wasn't a particularly nice smile, true, and any responses she gave were ground out through gritted teeth, but she was always polite and managed to keep her temper.

She even went so far as to be reassuring, to confirm that Mimori was prettier, had a better body and was definitely more Sho's type than her. This seemed only to make matters worse though – Mimori seemed to take this entirely the wrong way and interpret it as a challenge or making fun or something else Kyoko really didn't understand. So recently she had taken to trying to ignore the other girl until she got bored and moved on and limiting her responses exclusively to 'hmm' or 'ah'.

But this time was different. This time Mimori, during an unsupervised study session, dared step foot in forbidden territory. She could say anything about Kyoko herself and not elicit any sort of emotional response – Kyoko, after all, had been belittled by experts for as long as she could remember, so Mimori was at best a buzzing fly in comparison. However, this tolerance would not stretch to forgive the insult of certain other parties.

It was ridiculous really. What started off as one of her poorly disguised digs made Kyoko snap. Perhaps it was just the strain of holding back so long that suddenly got the better of her. Perhaps Kyoko did overreact and would have been better to just let it go without reply. Almost certainly if there had been a teacher present Kyoko would have just bitten her tongue.

However, there was no teacher and the comment was uncalled for. Kyoko simply would not stand for one of the people she respected most to be subject to it without some sort of retaliation. So she retaliated. Mimori was shocked at first to finally get a rise out of her usually stoic rival, but then returned with a similar attack. Now that she knew this button existed, she pushed it over and over again.

The sniping turned into bickering, which broke in to a squabble and then rose to a quarrel. Then it escalated further in to territory Mimori was not really equipped to handle: a full on spat.

Both the girls involved were actresses and even in the heat of the moment they refrained from anything physical on a subconscious level. It was so ingrained in them to avoid injury that neither crossed that invisible line – so instead they postured as though they were going to fight, but only words were thrown rather than fists.

They leaned over each other, gestured and battled for higher ground – both wanting to intimidate the other. Voices rose, words sliced and their classmates began backing up. Arguments and counter arguments became more and more ridiculous as the spat progressed until they were essentially screaming overblown nonsense back and forth. Logic, propriety and common sense became foreign words to both. Nothing violent had occurred yet but there was no doubt in the minds of any of their classmates that this was a battle to the death, and they absolutely wanted no part of it.

Mimori's gang of friends left her, and facing the substantial wrath of Kyoko and all her demons all on her own she soon found herself outclassed. The fight climaxed as Mimori had no choice but to back off with tears of frustration welling in her eyes as an enraged Kyoko surged forward, one foot already on her chair, and slammed the other squarely in the middle of her desk and from a great height roared down at her,

"NO ONE IS SEXIER OR BETTER LOOKING THAN TSURUGA REN!"

The force of the yell and the furious passion behind it nearly knocked her over. She tried to muster up her resolve to argue back, to fight for Sho, but frankly the wild, almost crazed, look on Kyoko's face was frightening. She was saved from the utter humiliation of public defeat by a classmate she didn't even know.

"K-K-Kyo-Kyoko-chan!" the unknown girl squeaked.

"WHAT?" Kyoko roared, not taking her blazing eyes from Mimori for a second.

"Look!" the girl said in a panicky sort of whisper.

With a terrifyingly authentic growl, Kyoko tore her gaze from her prey and looked at the girl, who squeaked again and pointed to the door. Kyoko looked up and froze. The fact that a teacher had entered the classroom unnoticed was not really that surprising given the circumstances, however it was the person standing beside him that caused her blood to curdle in her veins.

He looked shocked, was even blushing a bit, but it was unmistakably Tsuruga Ren. Her own words of a moment ago echoed in her brain and she realised it was impossible for him not to have heard them. The burning fury left her and she took the only sensible option open to her. She let out a horrified scream and fell off the table.

Once she had regained vertical alignment and was just steeling herself to look in his direction again, he let out a bemused chuckle.

"Mogami-san," he said and she flinched at hearing her name even if his tone was completely devoid of anger, "if I'm so sexy and good looking, why do you scream like the grim reaper himself just tapped you on the shoulder when you see my face?"

"Because you always appear so suddenly, and always at the worst possible moment!" Kyoko blurted out, flushing gloriously.

The whole class laughed, and the tension eased. Ren fought down a smile as he approached the blushing girl, holding down the desire to push his luck a bit even though he was currently feeling bolder than usual. He glanced over at the girl Kyoko had been yelling such very interesting things at and raised a brow as she gaped back at him with what was possibly the best impression of a frozen halibut he'd seen all day. He sent her a polite but entirely cold smile and her mouth snapped shut. He decided he'd ask later and returned his attention to Kyoko.

"What are you doing here Tsuruga-san?"

"The president wants to see you, and he asked if I'd stop by to pick you up on the way back from my shoot – it's on the way."

"I'm sorry that you were inconvenienced." Kyoko said with a wince even as she gathered up her things in preparation to leave.

"Not at all. It turned out to be quite to my amusement."

She went bright red, followed by a sort of sickly green and Ren wondered briefly if she was going to do a complete traffic light and go yellow as well. She actually settled on a light blush that was really rather charming and coughed to try and hide her embarrassment.

She walked out of the classroom without another word in the sort of way that suggested she was trying hard not to run. He shook his head, smiling, and followed her out. She of course stopped to apologise profusely for her behaviour to the teacher, who accepted graciously on the basis he'd found the whole thing rather funny, and Ren led the way back to his car.

He could see Yashiro had migrated to the back seat since Ren had left him there a few minutes ago, and now understood why his sneaky manager had insisted on not going with him to collect her. Kyoko blinked as Ren opened the door for her and she found the front passenger seat available, but she had more important things to panic about and got straight in without comment.

Ren got in the drivers' side and mouthed in the rear view mirror at Yashiro, "Three, two, one…"

Of course Yashiro was mystified until zero came and suddenly Kyoko snapped around to face him as best she could, and managed a bow so deep she smacked her head on the central unit with a resounding thunk that made both men jump.

"I sincerely apologise Tsuruga-san for my inexcusable behaviour and for saying… those things! You must be furious. I-"

He cut her off by grabbing her shoulders and pulling her upright to check her for head injuries. None found he smiled and opened his mouth to offer her some reassurance, but instead found himself laughing in her face. He could feel the astonishment of them both, and fought to control himself. He just couldn't help it; her expression made him hysterical – not only from humour, but also another sort of hysteria born from the idea she would ever think he'd be angry with her for saying that sort of thing about him. It was either laugh or scream.

"Mogami-san, I can honestly say I'm not at all angry with you." He finally managed to say in such a sincere tone that she sighed in relief. "I must admit I'm curious though. That was quite an… interesting class I walked in on. What happened?"

Kyoko, if possible, turned even redder and dropped her head as her shoulders drooped. "Mimori seems to think I have designs on a certain moron who I'd rather not name and tries to warn me off."

"Warn you off in what way?" Ren frowned – he didn't like the idea of anyone threatening Kyoko.

"Just pointing out obvious things – that she outclasses me in every category and I could never hope to compete for the morons' attention when compared to her. I usually just agree or ignore her."

"This happens every day?" Ren interrupted, suddenly finding no mirth in the situation at all. It sort of stung that she could so easily trivialise such insults against her – probably even believed them.

Kyoko shook her head. "Only when we're both in class on the same day – due to our work schedules it's not really that often. She usually gets bored after a while if I don't react and moves on to squealing about the moron with her friends, so it's fine. Today, um, I got mad and argued back… it was a self study session so there was no teacher around and it all got stupidly out of control and ended up as you saw."

Ren smiled wryly and nodded. "What did she say to get you so mad? I only ask so I can make a point of never saying it – I wouldn't want you that mad at me." He added in the hope of lightening her mood. He winced as it had the opposite affect and made her hunch up more as she mumbled something he had no hope of catching. "Pardon?"

"She was so rude about you!" Kyoko suddenly exploded, making Ren, who had leant in closer to hear better, jump back in his seat. "She said you probably had to spend five hours in makeup to cover your raging acne! Hah! You probably don't even know what acne is!"

Ren blinked at her heated tone as she scowled and folded her arms, a dark aura suddenly engulfing his passenger seat. Just as he was starting to wonder if his dashboard would holdout against her acidic glare much longer, she let out a sigh and slumped into a contrite heap. "I can't believe I lost my temper over an unfounded zit accusation."

Ren forced down what was surely a dopey grin. He had been fooled before and needed to confirm absolutely before he allowed himself a moment of hope. "So, you got so angry you got in to a huge fight in class… because she insulted me?"

Kyoko hunched again, but nodded. He had to turn away so she wouldn't see his face. "Well, unfounded or not, you should avoid getting in fights at school over anything. In our business professionalism is everything, no matter where we are or who we're with. The media won't care that it was just a schoolroom spat if they get hold of something like that." He said, attempting a stern tone but knowing his voice was far too gleeful to pull it off – to anyone other than Kyoko of course, who drooped further at his words.

"Yes, Tsuruga-san, of course you're right. I won't let it happen again."

He couldn't quite suppress a smile despite himself, and even decided to tease her, just a little. "But I honestly can't be angry you defended the honour of my complexion. So... that line about no one being sexier or better looking than me was just a heat of the moment retort?"

Predictably, an explosion followed, accompanied by much spluttering and incoherent explanations. Still he clung to the fact her first shriek had been a "NO!", even if it was closely followed by a frantic "YES!"

Ren chuckled, in a considerably better mood than an hour ago, and started up the car. He checked his mirrors before reversing out of the parking space, and froze. His mood plummeted. There, reflected in the rear view was an image of demonic proportions.

Damn. He'd been so caught up sorting out Kyoko he'd completely forgotten Yashiro was still in the back seat. He'd seen and heard everything, and the sneaky little bastard hadn't said a word. Ren did something he'd hardly ever done in his life before: he blushed like a school girl. The devilish grin on his manager's face broadened, and Ren swore for just a moment that a pair of horns manifested atop his head. He cleared his throat and hastily put all his concentration in to driving them all back to LME in a safe and responsible manner.

The remainder of his day had not been good. He had eventually given in and explained the entire incident to Yashiro after the man had taken the snippets he'd overheard and proved that his imagination was far too dangerous to be allowed to out unsupervised – the truth was far less lurid than the many scenarios Yashiro had come up with, each of which had reinforced Ren's belief that his manager probably read far too much Shoujo manga. The teasing had been incessant, and Yashiro had been lucky to make it home without being brutally murdered.

Despite everything though, Ren was still unable to stop a little smile sneaking across his face every now and then. Small and insignificant progress was still progress after all.