Living Under This Roof

By: LIA777

Adopted By: Yoru Nekozawa-sensei

Chapter 1: President Evil

A/N: Adoption?

Well, I adopted this story from LIA777. I just really loved all the potential in the central idea of the story and I really wanted it to be finished. The first 4 chapters are from LIA777 with a few edits by me to expand the story and help my story fit into this frame.

I am to incorporate LIA777's original plans for the story into my timeline, but it's a little hard since my timeline is vague. All I know is where it starts and where it's ending up, the in-between part is not so clear…..oh well!

Note: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters.

Chapter 1: President Evil

One Week Earlier

She is like no one I have ever met.

I have been in the entertainment business for as long as I can remember, and because of this and because of my family I was always treated differently by everyone around me. I could never trust anyone to tell me the truth. Because of my looks and stature, everyone believes I am a lot younger than I actually am, and they all are always surprised whenever I tell them my real age, but not her. Never her.

She was the only one that was unfazed when she realized my true age, nor did she act overly nice towards me because of whom I was and who my parents were. She made me feel normal only for me to realize that I didn't want to be normal, at least, not to her. I knew then that I had fallen. Hard.

Kotonami Kanae. Ever since we met three years ago you got my attention and before I knew what was happening I was already long gone. . . But I know you still see me as a child. Will you ever see me as a man? Will you notice how much I've grown? Can I make you understand that this isn't some little kiddie crush? Or will I have to stay with this unrequited love forever?

The Present

Hiou Uesugi sat in the living room of the large summer house, staring outside through the large window that was the wall and cursing the certain President that had gotten him in this predicament in the first place.

It had been only a few hours ago in the President's office in LME that this whole thing had started.

A few hours ago at LME

Hio had walked to the elevator and waited until it arrived at the top floor of the building with a soft ding, then went past the doors as they opened to the large oak ones and went inside President Lory's office.

He sat on his throne like chair, wearing white Arabic robes with golden threads bordering them. Some distance away was a live camel, looking somewhat bored in the confinement of his office as it drank water from a basin.

Hiou had been shocked at first with the President's odd tastes, but had gotten somewhat used to it over the past three years since he had worked at LME.

"Good morning Hiou-kun. Please, take a seat." President Lory said, gesturing towards the lush red couch in front of his desk.

"Good morning President." Hiou answered calmly, walking towards him. "You wished to see me?" Right when he asked this he saw her. Kanae was sitting on the red couch, looking at him as he came in. Immediately Hiou felt his heart speed up as he saw her again. He had seen her a few times as he had walked through the halls of LME, but it had been a long time since he had actually talked to her.

"Good morning Uesugi-san." She said with a small smile.

"G-good morning Kanae." Uesugi- san? What happened to Hiou-kun? He answered trying his voice calm as he spoke and sat down next to her on the couch. She smiled once more and they both turned to President Lory, knowing that he was going to have to explain why they were both here.

"Well, you're both probably wondering as to why I called both of you here, so I'll cut right to it. Both of you have gotten the leading roles in a new drama that will begin filming in about a month's time, and you will be working together." He said. Hiou and Kanae glanced at each other. They hadn't heard that they would be working together. In fact, they had only heard that they had been offered the job a few days ago by their managers. They both turned back to the president, not seeing what this had to do with them being called to his office. Surely he didn't call them just to tell them that.

"You will be playing as step siblings that fall in love with each other in the drama, and so to be able to get into your new roles I will have the both of you live together for the next two weeks." He said calmly, as though he were simply stating a fact about the weather. Both Kanae and Hiou were frozen for a few moments as the news that their odd president had just given them sank in.

"WHAT?" They both yelled at the same time. President Lory was completely unfazed by their response, as though he were expecting it.

"You can't be serious." Kanae said, shaking her head.

"How in the world is this relevant to acting?" Hiou asked, staring at the president.

"Oh, but I am. And this has everything to do with acting. Both of you need to be able to get into your roles for the drama, and to do that I need both of you completely focused on it. Don't forget that both of you are in the Love Me section." Both Hiou and Kanae twitched at that.

Hiou had been shocked when he had received the uniform of the Love Me section after having entered LME. It had been turned red after hours of debate with the president, but the horrible logo was still completely visible and it was still highly embarrassing to wear. He had almost begged his manager to get him as many jobs as possible so he could avoid ever wearing that horrible uniform. Yet because of this he was still in it, no matter what. Kanae had been getting more and more jobs as she progressed as an up and coming actress, but she still had to wear the uniform every so often.

"Both of you still are unable to fully express or understand 'love,' and because of this are still in the Love Me section, despite being in it for so long. Both of you have been lucky and have been able to avoid having to act in such roles that show the emotion of deep love, but for this new drama both of you are forced to show it. Because of this, I need the both of you completely focused on trying to get the feeling of love across to the audience, helping each other as co-stars in the drama, and as fellow members of the Love Me section." He explained, his voice firm as he spoke, showing he was fully set on doing this.

Both Hiou and Kanae were silent as they contemplated what he had said. It was true, they were still members of the Love Me section, and even though they hated to admit it, they both were unable to show true love in their acting. Finally Hiou sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"You're not going to give up on this idea of yours, are you?" He asked, looking right at the President.

He smiled and shook his head, happy to see that there wasn't going to be much more of a fight on Hiou's side.

"Uesugi-san!" Kanae said exasperatedly, turning to him.

"What?" He said. "Kanae, you know him. He's not going to let this go no matter how much we argue, and you know he has a point, as strange as it is. It's best we save our breath." He said. Kanae stared at him for a moment, and then sighed in defeat as well.

"You're right." She said disdainfully.

"Splendid!" President Lory said, beaming at the both of them. "The helicopter is waiting for you on the roof. Come on, there's no time to waste." He said. Suddenly both Hiou and Kanae were led away in a hurricane of excitement and confusion by the President, who somehow managed to get them to the roof where a large black helicopter stood ready to take off, push them into the helicopter and shut the door before either of them could say anything. The pilot took off immediately, leaving them looking out the window at the ground as they went away, President Lory looking up at them with a wide grin on his face.

They later had a talk with President Lory on the helicopter explaining that they would be going to his summer house in Karuizawa for the next two weeks, and that their managers had already cleared everything up for then so they could relax. "Take it as a sort of vacation." he had said, then left the two actors bewildered and cursing their managers and president, and in the back of their minds dreading what their strange president had in store for them in decoration.

In the end they arrived at Karuizawa in complete silence, and when they arrived at the summer house they saw that it was relatively normal, considering what they would have expected. The large white building was two stories tall, and held a large pool at the back, along with large windows in every room, letting the sunlight pour into the rooms and give off a nice clean feel.

Both guest rooms looked the same, with large king-sized beds and white sheets, the walls and ceiling a bare white along with a night stand next to the bed with a single lamp, a walk-in closet and next to it a bathroom with both a shower and a white porcelain tub. A large bookshelf filled with books of all genres was some distance from the bed, two leather chairs and a single glass table in front of the large window that led to a balcony looking over the pool.

Both rooms were on the second floor, and were right next to each other. Both of them already held the items of the two actors, and much to their surprise and dismay, all of their clothes-including underwear-were in the closet of their rooms.

Kanae and Hiou were both too shocked to do much other than gaze at everything in awe, not exactly sure what to do with themselves in the odd situation, the awkwardness between the two growing more and more as time passed.

Kanae had excused herself to her room, and Hio had done the same, trying to let everything that had happened sink in. In the end he splashed some water on his face and went down stairs to the living room, sitting on the white leather couch while he drank some juice, his mind already wrapped around everything that had happened.

Back to the Present

Stupid President. Always doing things at his own pace. Hiou continued his mental tantrum for several more minutes until Kanae's descent down the spiraling stairs from the second floor distracted him. His eyes met hers.

"Hey." She said, only a trace of awkwardness in her tone.

"Hey." Hiou said turning back to the spot on the wall he had been staring at for the past few minutes. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that the situation was back to normal, well as normal as it could get considering the circumstances, he could see the changes in Kanae.

Kanae had matured a bit in the past few years. She had let her silky raven hair grow and reach to the small of her back, and on her body she wore a little blue halter top, along with a medium black skirt and simple black sandals. She stood with a new sense of confidence, different from the kind she had when they first met, but he couldn't place what made it so. But she wore it like an accessory, and it suited her well. Unknown to Hiou, she had also warmed up a bit to everyone, no longer the cold ice berg she had been before when she first joined LME. After so long being next to Kyoko, she had warmed up to people, even though her heart was still not fully healed.

Hiou noticed her small changes, and felt a thought cross his mind. She must have gotten a few boyfriends with her looks. I wonder if she's single now. He wondered. No, she would have immediately thought about what he would think of her being gone for two weeks . . . Wouldn't she? He thought. Despite Kanae's small changes, Hiou had changed quite a bit in the past few years.

Hiou had become taller, still short at 5'4, but he had grown nonetheless. He had started to become a bit more muscular from all of his job offers that required him to be up early and going all over the place. His face had become a bit more masculine, no longer a child, but not quite an adult; although it hinted that he will be a definite looker in a few years' time. He became more mature as well, no longer being as arrogant as he was as a child, even though he was still a kid at heart in his own ways he was humbled during his time at LME and the shock that was the LoveMe section. Kanae briefly looked over him during his distraction. He wore a close fitting black T-shirt that brought out his slim build, along with dark blue jeans and converse sneakers.

Kanae had noticed these changes now that she spoke to him, and had a single fleeting thought cross her mind. He's changed so much. She thought, and started to admire the way his slim build was emphasized by his shirt, and started to wonder if he had grown some muscle as well in the past three years. She internally shook her head and forced those thoughts away. What am I thinking? I'm not a freaking pedophile. She thought, and was brought back to the present as she arrived at the living room.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." She said, remembering what she had planned on doing before.

"Ung." Hiou grunted in acknowledgment, facing back towards the spot he had been staring at before, forcing himself to stop thinking about Kanae's personal life. It wasn't any of his business whether she went out with anyone or not.

Kanae stood there for a few moments more, then went to the front door, about to leave when Hiou called out behind her.

"Have fun." He said. She didn't answer as she closed the door.

This is going to be a long two weeks. They thought.

A/N: So who hates me?

This is my slightly changed version of the story, it took much longer than I thought, but planning for the rest of the story was very distracting. I plan to have the next revised chapter up before the end of the month, but don't get your hopes up. In the meantime, I recommend reading some of these other Skip Beat fanfics, they are the gems that we look for in the piles of crack fics on here, and all of them are completed, longer than 3 chapters and addictingly beautiful.

Ren\Kyoko

Broken Slipper, CoStar Killer, The Shadow's Heart

Kanae/Hiou

Runaway Royalty is sadly the only recommendable one I could find for this couple :^( Maybe a Kanae/Hiou challenge is in order?

Innocent Whispers isn't completed, but its Kyoko centric, 115 chapters and she will end up with someone, it just isn't given away by the character pairings :^D