As you may have guessed, Skip Beat is not owned by me.

The prompt for the letter D was Diplomatist.

A diplomat.

1. a person appointed by a national government to conduct official negotiations and maintain political, economic, and social relations with other countries.

2. a tactful person skilled in managing delicate situations.

The story is: Kuon and Kyoko are together, yet this is still a secret from the Japanese public, How will Yashiro cope when a picture of Kuon and Kyoko doing... that! is released.

The story is: You make pick a genre as its an open plot line :)

Characters: Yashiro others as you choose.

Here I go!

Diplomatist

By Matelia-legwll

Yashiro Yukihito prided himself on his excellent managerial skills. Not only could he appropriately find and schedule new projects that would expand Ren's fan base, but he could also manage to fit in time for the actor's personal life, sleep, and food, the latter of which Ren almost actively avoided. He nodded to himself. It was certainly a sign of a manager's success to be assigned to Japan's number one top actor/model for this long.

In addition to his overall skills in managing Ren, he's also for the last year or more, kept good tabs on Kyoko-chan's schedule too. Even as her schedule got so intense with all the new work that Natsu opened up for her, he still managed to arrange weekly or biweekly meeting times between the two on their breaks.

It wasn't just his fangirling nature that prompted him to do such a thing. Yes, he did find watching Ren go through his first real deep romance with the young talento entertaining at times. Especially when he could forget the reality of the dilemmas that Ren must face on a daily basis, and romanticize their interactions. But the more pressing thing was that Kyoko somehow had the ability to make Ren forget that he was indeed eating, and thus the actor would eat more in her company than anyone else's, including his own.

Of course, he wasn't spotless for enjoying a convenient snack when he should have insisted on a meal. Kyoko saw fit to remind him of that as well at times, which he didn't begrudge, but perhaps unfairly put most of the blame back on the one driving-in other words, Ren.

Thus, he was shocked during his routine (glove protected) checking of the headlines surrounding his charge to find a picture of that on one of Ren's fansites.

Mouth gaping, he turned to stare at Ren, who happened to be in the middle of a shoot for Rmandy. Ren, of course always the professional, didn't show his consternation at his manager's now blatant surprise at something or other, but Yashiro could sense his gaze was making an impact on his younger charge.

Trying to make sense of what had been going on when the picture was taken, he turned back to the startling photograph.

However, the more he looked at it, the more he doubted the accuracy of the shot. It was just too unbelievable that the two of them had been caught in such a situation. He was even praising the poster's Photoshop skills by the time Ren had a break and could come over and find out what had his manager all twisted up in knots. Yashiro turned to his charge, fully expecting Ren to deny the event photographed ever happening.

"Ren, I found a very interesting photograph linked to one of your fan sites."

"Oh?" Ren answered, taking a swig of the water bottle Yashiro had gotten for him earlier.

Just what he expected, Yashiro thought. "So, would you mind confirming the truth of what the photographer actually caught you doing?"

He passed over the tablet showing the picture to the actor, who took it and after a cursory glance, froze entirely, staring at the condemning photo.

Crap! Yashiro screamed mentally. That can't have been true, right?

"Ah. That." Ren delicately handed over the tablet once more, and pointedly ignored looking in the direction of the electronic device.

Yashiro endured the silence after that admission only for ten seconds before bursting out with, "Are you telling me that picture accurately depicts what actually happened there with Kyoko-chan?"

Ren cleared his throat, and hid his mouth and most of his lower face with a hand before muttering, "She probably won't kill me, will she?"

"Don't you dare change the subject, Ren!" Yashiro hissed. "As your manager, I need to know the truth."

He gave a blank stare in response. "Well, we certainly weren't planning on going public this soon."

"I'll say. I haven't got the servers to upgrade your combined website from the fifty or so members it's at now to the influx it will become when all your fans join in supporting you and Kyoko-chan!" ranted Yashiro, before he caught himself, glanced at Ren's raised eyebrow and immediately went on the defensive. "What?"

"Aren't you downplaying the fans' initial responses to that picture a bit too much, Yashiro?"

Yashiro considered that concern for the instant it was worth, before shaking his head. "It might be a delicate balance for a few days, a bit of a tricky situation overall, yes. But that's why you have Japan's best diplomatist as your manager, Ren. I'll make sure both you and Kyoko-chan come out on top of this situation."

Ren was praying that his own sense of diplomacy wouldn't leave him as he approached the Love Me Section's office. Kyoko wouldn't physically harm him, right? Although he also dreaded any mental or emotional rebuttals the young girl could take in order to repay him for getting them both in such a quandary.

"Ah!" exclaimed a pink-suited girl upon exiting the Love Me room. "Mo! Tsuruga-san, don't do that. It's scary."

"Sorry, Kotonami-san. Say, is Kyoko...?" Ren trailed off, staring meaningfully at the door behind the young actress.

Kanae frowned. "You didn't know? She's on her way to Fuji TV right now. She got a lot of requests for last minute interviews today, and she had decided on an appearance on Maki-san's show."

Ren didn't conceal his grimace.

Kanae's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What happened? Ren-san?"

"Really, it's nothing, Moko-san. When does that show start?"

"Around forty minutes. Mo, what did you do?" she asked flatly.

Ren sighed. "There's enough time to get there, then. Thanks, Moko-san. I'd rather warn her about the picture than have her go in unprepared."

"Picture? You got yourself caught?"

"Sorry, I'd love to talk more, Kotonami-san, but if I'm going to get there before it starts, I'll need to leave now and drag Yashiro away from his office."

Ren turned and left, without responding any further to Kanae's astonished "Mo!"

Yashiro's jaw dropped in amazement, as he and Ren watched from the sidelines on Maki-san's show. The founder of the Love Me section, Miss Anti-Love herself, was an absolute natural at making people respect and then love her.

Neither he nor Ren should have worried so much about her. Technically a photo like the one he'd found earlier on Ren's site should have affected Kyoko's reputation the most. Thus he had been on the phone to all the interviews the two had previously lined up for this week, expressing how much the actors wanted to talk about work, rather than their personal life. But she was an even better diplomatist than Yashiro.

"Now Kyoko-san, there have been rumors of an on-set romance between you and one of your co-stars. And early this morning this picture was posted on one of his fan sites. Would you tell us, and everyone watching, what really is the truth?" Maki-san leaned forward, eagerly.

Yashiro was horrified that the picture had been displayed, and lifted his foot to take that necessary first step to interrupt the taping, but Ren placed a hand on his shoulder, restraining him.

On set, Kyoko smiled at the photograph. She studied it for a moment, then giggled. "Ah, that picture certainly brings back memories."

"Memories?" The host questioned, confused by the phrase.

"Ah, sorry. I should explain better. Yes, last week, Tsuruga Ren and I went into that jewelry shop, and we were playing with the rings. In that way, the picture is entirely accurate. We did not walk out of the shop with the rings, if that is what you are asking. But as far as memories, it brought back the conversation we were having at the time."

"So he didn't propose?" Maki-san asked in her surprise.

"No, he did," corrected Kyoko. "We were both aware that he was only acting at the time, though."

Yashiro glanced at Ren and whispered, "Were you really?"

Ren shot him a silencing glare.

Kyoko's eyes returned to the still displayed photograph. "You play so much more with childhood friends," she murmured.

Yashiro almost choked. "What?"

Ren rolled his eyes. "Quiet now."

Maki-san's eyes widened. "Childhood friends? How come no one has ever said anything?"

Kyoko laughed, then blushed. "It took such an embarrassingly long time to recognize each other. I can't speak for Ren, but I certainly didn't want to be the first to admit how long I was blind to our history together."

"Ah, I see." Maki-san signaled for a commercial break, and started to sum up what Kyoko had revealed in the segment thus far.

As soon as the live light went off, the host turned to her guest and said, "Kyoko-san, feel free to take a break for the next few minutes. We'll start taping again in around twelve minutes." She stood up and started walking off the stage, when she spotted Ren standing in the wings and froze. She stayed frozen in place while Ren walked across the stage to talk with Kyoko.

"Sheesh, those two are close," she muttered before leaving the stage. "Childhood friends? It's always those types of friendships that lead to..."

Yashiro could have completed her sentence if he had continued to listen to her, but instead he focused on his favorite pair.

"You did really good, Kyoko-chan."

"What if that's not enough?" Kyoko fretted, finally showing some of her nerves.

"You could always accept my proposal, then," pouted Ren.

"Kuon!" She blushed horribly as she shoved his shoulder. Anything to erase that cute puppy face before she utterly succumbed to it.

"Shh," hushed Ren placing a finger on her mouth before leaning closer and brushing a kiss on her forehead.

Yashiro beamed, even though his cheeks were a little pink. These two would surely survive this tricky situation, with flying colors, and Kyoko perhaps becoming a little closer to accepting Ren's proposal of dating publicly. Yashiro nodded, surely that was the limit of the proposal in the ring shop. Ren always moved so slow after all.

Check out the forum for more details on future letters. I think we're up to H now.