Advent '09 [10/25]
Advent 09
December 10th - 15 days to go
Yashiro had had enough.
For the past week or so Ren had been ignoring him, and all because he was trying to help!
Ok, sure. He could have gone about it in a more tasteful way, but he had spent months trying to get Ren to see the light so to speak and get together with Kyoko.
This holiday had been a Godsend. They were away from the fans which allowed some privacy, away from other actors and actresses which meant that professional jealousy wasn't a factor and they were away from work.
Meaning that they were supposed to not be doing anything except notice each other!
But they weren't.
Because one was oblivious and the other was Ren.
So he had gone for the blatant in-your-face technique and hounded after Ren at every possible opportunity.
It hadn't gone well.
Apparently Ren didn't like being hounded and had promptly cut ties to the annoyance. Which meant Yashiro.
Yashiro had thought they had had a deeper relationship. Maybe not best friends - but something definitely more than just manager and client.
They way Ren was acting towards him now though, threw all those thoughts into doubt. He was treating Yashiro, not as a friend, not even as an enemy, but as someone who he could not be bothered working up the effort to deal with.
Hence the major silent treatment.
It kind of...hurt.
Yashiro sighed into his morning cup of tea.
He just had to come face to face with the facts. It seemed like, in helping Ren, he had lost all trust and respect the actor had in him.
And still his plans were incomplete!
Even after yesterdays step forward they were still being idiotically oblivious about the whole thing. He had expected...he didn't actually know. But he had expected something.
That something had not come, and the frustration had mounted until he had decided to take on this matter by himself.
No longer would he leave Ren's love life up to Ren. The guy obviously had no clue how to go about anything in that department, whereas Yashiro did.
So, now that he knew that after this holiday he was practically fired (for what actor can perform to the best of his skills if he does not trust the people behind him?) he found himself in the unique position to practically tie those two together until they realised what morons they were being.
Thus, Operation Moron had begun.
Stage One - get Ren to realise how much he cares for Kyoko with a little help from jealousy.
And how would he do that? Well...that would just remain to be seen.
-/-
Kyoko was having a good day.
She had woken up without feeling stiff and sore from a day's worth of skiing, an odd occurrence but one for which she was happy about.
She thanked Ren for all his help. Because of him, she hadn't fallen once yesterday.
...Except that time at the bottom of the ski lifts where she had jumped him and brought them both crashing to the ground.
But she wasn't going to think about that!
Earlier that morning Maria had woke her up and practically begged her to stay at the mansion today to play with her.
Feeling a little guilty for practically ignoring the small girl for so long, she immediately said yes. Then tried to think a way that she could tell Lory that she was going to miss the second day in a row, of skiing classes that he had paid for.
It hadn't seemed to matter all that much to him once he had learned that she was going to be spending the day with his granddaughter.
Though she did account some of the acceptance to Maria's effective puppy-dog expression.
Kyoko shivered when she remembered it. That look was practically lethal, and she pitied the poor man that ever stood in Maria's way.
"So," Maria asked once they were outside the dining room, "what do you want to do?"
"Well, we could explore the place?"
"And see if it has a dungeon?"
Kyoko shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Why not?"
"Cool!" Maria said excitedly and tugged on Kyoko's hand, pulling her down the corridor. "We should go this way! 'Cos it goes downhill!"
Kyoko put up no resistance to being dragged through all the rooms and hallways the mansion had to offer. In fact, she was relatively sure that they were the first two to disturb some of the lower level rooms in decades, if the amount of dust had anything to do with it.
Unfortunately for Maria, they didn't find any dungeons. But they did find a suitably creepy cellar that Maria claimed for her own as some sort of secret base.
Kyoko was amused and helped tidy the place up some and making Maria promise never to light candles in their on her own which she seemed a little disappointed about.
By the time lunch came around they were both extremely hungry and quickly made their way back to the dining hall. It was with some surprise that she saw Ren sitting at the table along with the President and Yashiro.
As they entered the room everyone looked at them in surprise.
Kyoko stopped short, wondering just what they were staring at. It was only when she looked down at herself that she realised that she was entirely grey with dust, as was Maria. They hadn't realised when they were exploring the cellar because of the dim light.
She flushed a bit in embarrassment but before she could do anything Yashiro was standing next to her, helping her brush off the worst of it.
Her smile faltered a little when his hands lingered just a second too long on her shoulders. She looked at him, wondering what he was doing but as soon as her eyes made contact with his own she was caught.
She stood helplessly as he slowly wiped away a smudge of dirt from her cheek.
"There," he said lowly, "all better."
Kyoko's eyes widened a fraction when he didn't move, one hand still on her shoulder and the other resting against her cheek, the thumb tracing her cheekbone.
She swallowed thickly, the air around them seemingly crackling with electricity.
A low growl broke them out of...whatever that had just been and Kyoko looked away sharply, her heart pounding a mile a minute and her breath shaky.
The growl sounded again and this time Kyoko could see that it was coming from Ren, who looked at Yashiro with such hate in his eyes that Kyoko was sure Yashiro soon beg for mercy.
A quick glance to Yashiro had her dumbfounded. For instead of Yashiro cowering like any sane person would do, he was standing beside her, his face completely blank.
Kyoko looked back and forth between the two men who, for all their supposed maturity, seemed to be having a staring competition.
Eventually Yashiro slowly raised an eyebrow, as if taunting Ren for being so immature, and turned back to face her. Ignoring everyone else in the room.
"I find myself not particularly hungry at the moment." He murmured softly to her, "I hope you will excuse me from your company."
His unwavering focus had Kyoko blushing self-consciously. She was nervous, but also slightly flattered at the attention. "Y-yes, of course." She managed to stutter out from under his gaze.
He smiled softly at her and stroked the back of his fingers down the side of her face and neck.
"I will see you later then."
Kyoko nodded once, a jerk of her head and watched as he practically glided out of the room, the door closing softly behind him.
With wide eyes Kyoko turned back to face the others who were sitting at the table. Ren looked like he could happily and easily kill someone at that very moment, his teeth grinding together. Lory was staring at her with wide eyes, obviously shocked.
Maria, though, was staring at the door and managed to succinctly summarise the entire situation with one word. "Whoa."
-/-
Kyoko had never been at the mansion whilst lunch was served so she was curious about the food that was presented to them as traditional Italian dishes. All she wanted to do was enjoy the different food and try to forget what had just happened.
Obviously Yashiro had just hit his head on a low-hanging chandelier.
Obviously.
Unfortunately, whatever hope she had for a peaceful forgettable lunch was dashed.
The atmosphere around the table was oppressive. Ren still looked angry and it was a testament to how strongly he felt about what had just happened by the fact that he was actually showing his emotions and not just hiding them away behind a blank mask and his polite smile.
It didn't stop Kyoko from wincing every time he viciously stabbed his fork into whatever was on his plate in front of him, mashing it into a thick paste.
Lory was silent as well, his gaze fluctuating between the closed door and Ren's bad attitude. After the first shock had worn off he had relaxed a little, and Kyoko even thought that he seemed a little amused by what had happened.
Indeed, every so often the corners of his lips would twitch as if he was in on some amusing secret that he wasn't going to tell anyone else about.
Kyoko didn't find that in the least amusing.
Maria, though, was looking worried. Closely mirroring Kyoko's own feelings on the matter. She was staring morosely at her plate and eating quietly, lost in her own thoughts.
Kyoko's shoulders sagged. And today was supposed to be relaxing! It had started out so well.
Just what the hell had Yashiro been playing at?
-/-
After lunch Kyoko and Maria went outside. Fortunately no one else followed them for they had many things to discuss.
Under the guise of making snow angels the two girls talked.
"Do you know what happened in there?" Kyoko asked as she lay on her back, spreading her arms out to the side of her.
"No." Maria answered from her position to the right, "But I don't like it. They shouldn't be fighting like this!"
"I wonder why they are though," Kyoko mused, "I mean...they've been acting like this the entire time we've been here, right?"
Maria took a moment to think about this. "Yeah, I think you're right! But why? Why are they fighting? And why did Yashiro-san act all weird with you."
"I don't know. Maybe he hit his head?"
"But would Ren act worried for him if he was hurt?"
"I...maybe? It doesn't make sense."
They both lay there on the snowy ground, staring at the cloudy grey sky that promised a fresh layer of snow.
"Kyoko?" Maria finally said in a small voice, "I don't like it when they fight."
Kyoko sighed. "But what can we do? We don't know why they're fighting in the first place so we can't fix it."
"Maybe..." Maria trailed off, "how long do you think this will last?"
Kyoko shrugged, standing from her position and admiring her work. "Until one or both of them realises that they're being idiots, I think."
"But I want to help them!"
Kyoko sighed and pulled Maria to her feet. "I know you do, but we really can't do anything at the moment. Our best bet is to get them to talk, or get them to realise how much they mean to each other."
"You mean like lock them in a room together?"
Kyoko paled as she imagined how that would end up if they trapped them both in a room together right now. "Er...I think Ren would actually kill Yashiro if we did that. Maybe we just have to make Ren realise how much he would miss Yashiro if he was gone from his life."
Maria looked up at Kyoko. "So...if Ren thought Yashiro was in trouble...?"
Kyoko grinned "That could work."
They both looked down at the imprints they had made in the snow.
They would make this better, and no force in heaven or hell could stop them.