"Contrary to what you and the president think I have a social life apart from Kyoko, thank you very much." Yashiro remembered Ren's sarcastic statement from a couple of days ago, once again. He could nearly hear the with annoyance dripping voice .
"Don't make me laugh. As if...", he mumbled to himself as he walked down the hallways of LME. For once he was alone.
Yashiro returned to Tyoko to negotiate a contract for a new drama. Ren stayed a day longer on set for his latest movie, but he should be in the crew bus on the way back home. A mishit grin stretched over his face, he will be a good manager and do Ren a favor if he wants to or not. He just hung up on Kyoko, who darkly promised to stop at Ren's place to make him dinner once he is back home. Maybe he exaggerated a tiny winy bit how sloppy Ren had been with his food, but who cares? The second favour was a bit trickier and in the end the reason why Ren felt the need to proof his social skills. His had sent an e-mail request to Sawaras and hoped that he would answer before he leaves.
Flashback three days ago
"Hello Mogami-san. How are you?" He said in his rich dark voice into the phone.
"Tsuruga-san? Hello. What can I do for you?", she sounded genuinely surprised to hear his voice.
"That's what I want to ask you. I saw on my phone that you called." He had been on set for twelve days now. That had been twelve days without any contact with her. Appropriately happy had he been, when he saw a missed call from her and with it an excuse to call her.
"Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't even leave a message." He could imagine her big begging eyes and deep bow at her words to him and a gentle simile grew on his face.
"That's no problem. So what can I help you with or did you just want to talk with me?" Part of him wants to tease her a bit and part of him just want to offer this idea as a legit option for her. His voice was light and playful as he leaned back into his chair.
"No, no, no! I would never dare to waste your time like that. I promise!", she quickly responded either not hearing his teasing tone or not willing to trust it.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't have a problem with that either. You can call whenever you want." He didn't expect her to really get his point, but he hoped that with steady repeating she would someday understand him. "Now why did you call in the first place?", he sheered the conversation back on track.
"It's stupid and I shouldn't have called you at all. It's nothing you can really help me with.", she told him in a dismissing way. But that only got his attention more.
"Amuse me. Maybe I can help you."
"I really don't think so..."
"Come on. You made me curious. Tell me. It's about work, right?", he pressed her for information about her problem.
"Well, yes...", she whispered back. He could hear the embarrassment in her voice and he wondered if she as blushing.
"So please tell."
"Do you even have time for this? It's in the middle of the day.", she tied one last time to distract him.
"If I didn't have time, I wouldn't have called you.", with a chuckle in his voice he continued, "I'm on a location shoot and for at least the next two hours I wouldn't be needed. So I'm all yours. So what is it about? Did you get a new role?" A waitress brought his coffee and gave her a thankful nod. His table was in a secluded area of the cafe's patio and together with a base cap and sunglasses, he had a bit o freedom and privacy.
"Ehm, no. We are on location, too actual. But not for filming, just for a photo shoot, only for today." Finally she answered some of his questions.
"Who are 'we'?"
"Oh, the Box-R girls. It's for a magazine, for promotion."
"Where are you?"
"Zushi."
"The beach?"
"Yes, we have a shoot in- swimwear." Her voice sounded more relaxed and professionally clam. Maybe a bit to relaxed for Ren. At this all expression was whipped off Ren's face and his eyes stared unfocused into the distance.
"Ah..." It was more breathing that talking.
"It's for the May issue, but now at the beginning of April it's really cold." Apparently she didn't noticed, most likely because she was about to talk herself into rage.
"Ah..." He imagined her in front of him siting on the beach, inviting him over to her.
"l have goosebumps all over me." She sounded kind of sulky. The fantasy in his head shivered in the cold and looked pleadingly up to him.
"Ah..." At this point he had to bring his thoughts back to order. /Now is not the time to think about her breasts. How firm they would look and begging for attention. And how I could feel them pressed against my chest, when I take her in my arms to warm her up./
"We all wear thick ropes when we aren't in front of the camera." Here she sounded more forgiving. He tried to force some ropes into his imaginary Kyoko as well.
"Ah..."
"But that's not really the problem." Now her fighting spirit returned into her voice. Was this his saving grace to concentrate on something else?
"Ah?"
"No, it's that the shooting has two parts. One in character and Natsu didn't have a problem in running around in that shameless excuse of a swimsuit." Her voice switched between neutral describing and being scandalized. She would be even more scandalized if she knew that with her words not only did any rope for her disappeared from his mind, but it was more than unlikely that any from of outer garments would enter his fantasy again in the near future.
"Ah..."
"It was pretty much only a bikini just with some web-like strings over the stomach." It was obvious that she didn't even realized inappropriate it was to talk about that with a young, straight man.
"Ah..."
"So shameless!" She was all fired up as she claimed this.
"Ah!"
"But that's not the worst part." She sounded a bit more clam again, but not much.
"Ah?"
"No! The second part of the shooting is as ourselves!", she uttered in an offended way.
"Ah..."
"And they want me to wear a bikini!" He wasn't sure what she expected him to do or say. Should he protest against this and tell her that she shouldn't do this shoot or should he clam her down and saying that it was completely normal that now that she is an actress strangers (and some acquienace and friends or mentors) what to see her nearly naked body.
"Ah!"
"How could they expect me to be myself, if I would never wear something so skimpy?" Nobody in this world could blame him for the directions his thoughts were running.
"Ah ha ..."
"Like I said nothing you can really help me with. It's not like you ever had to wear a bikini or something. But-" She was interrupted from a voice in the background. "Kyoko-chan, stop complaining to your boyfriend. It's your turn in the mask!" "He is not my boyfriend!", she screamed after her co-worker, before she turned back to the phone, she sounded embarrassed now, "Oh my God! I'm so sorry, that you had to hear that stupid joke. I have to go now , thank you for listening, I already feel better. Work hard."
His basic linguistic center fought its way back online. "You too. Bye."
After the call ended he sat there for one more minute listening to the disconnected line, before the rest of his brain managed to return to reality. After that he got up and payed. For the rest of the time at the location he associated with the rest of the crew a lot more than usual. He pretty much spend every single moment he wasn't filming with some of the crew members, talking, joking and general interacting. He even went with them to drink a beer or two in the evening. When Yashiro address him about it, he responded with the sentence Yashiro thought about even days later.
"Contrary to what you and the president think I have a social life apart of Kyoko, thank you very much."
End of the flashback
It took him a short while longer to finally figuring out, what Rens strange behaviour was about. Just in that moment his phone ringed to inform him about an incoming e-mail. The short check proofed it contained the pictures from Kyoko's photo shoot, he requested from Sawara. He immediately sent the pictures to Ren with the address line: a little present. With a diabolical grin he went to his office to put the carefully negotiated contact away. Ren just had to sign it tomorrow. As he was about to leave the office his phone rung and the display showed Ren's number.
"Yes?", he answered cautious. Ren didn't necessary have the best track record, when it comes to teasing him about Kyoko.
"Hellooo." An overly cheerful voice greeted him. There was laughter and singing in the background.
"Ren?" Now that was a reaction he didn't expect at all. Yashiro knit his eyebrows at this, Ren normally wasn't so open with it good mood.
"Yessss.", he pulled the word in a strange way to a hiss.
"Are you drunk?" That was the only explanation he could come up with and it worried him a bit, because he never saw Ren drunk, nevertheless in public and he wasn't there to take care of things.
"Nope.", he popped the P at the end. He sounded so much younger than normal and Yashiro could hear a small giggle from the line.
"Yes you are.", he stated, while massaging the bright of his nose.
"Only a tiny bit." Now the actors voice was sulky.
"Where are you? Do I need to pick you up?" It would be difficult to take a company driver and pick the drunken man up. The last thing the manager needed was for the young celebrity to stand outside piss drunk.
"Nooo. I'm in the bus with the rest of the guys." Ren reassured him. In the background a lot of people were cheering. Well, at least he wasn't in public like this.
"Do I need to pick you up somewhere?" Yashiro asked again. While he knew that Ren had become friends with the crew, he would prefer him to be under his own watchful eye.
"Nope. They drop me of home." Once again the popped the P's in the words and seem to habe fun with it. At least he wouldn't have to worry about him meeting any fans in this intoxicated state.
"Is everything alright?" Slowly he felt a headache coming up to him. While he was thankful, that Ren gave him a head start on the drunken situation, he doubt that, that was the reason for the call.
"Yessss, manager-chan. Hihi, chan like as if you are a girl." Ren definitely had to much fun with the Japanese language, because he giggled at his own words again.
"Yes, very funny. Why do you call, Ren?", Yashiro tried to sound patient, even if his real patience started to vanish.
"I wanted, I wanted to tell you that you are the most bestest manager in the world and friend too.", Ren admit to him with an affectionately voice.
"Thank you." This actual took him be surprise, but made him feel strangely warm inside. He knew or at least hoped that Ren saw him as a friend too, but the other man was never very open with his feeling and to hear him say it, made Yashiro feel appreciated.
"No, thank you for the pictures." He heard how some guy demanded to see the pictures. "NOOOOOO. You shall never see them! That's just mine." Ren sounded possessive and a hint treating as he said those words.
"Ok. No problem. Do you need anything else?" All this started to feel surreal and ridiculous the longer this conversation was going on. Yashiro had to suppress a laughter.
"Yes we guys decided to make a band!" The actor announced proudly and was once again answer with a loud cheer from the background.
"No, you don't.", Yashiro relied imminently.
"Yess, we so do." The volume of his voice was swinging and Yashiro deduced that most likely because Ren was nodding profusely.
"No, because when you sing you sound like a tortured crow." It was crucial to know your own strengths and weaknesses in the show business. So Ren had a little singing test two years ago. The least said about it the better. Only this, should the actor, for some unknown reasons, be force to play a role that required him to sing, they were in need of some really talented and patient sound experts with some high quality equipment.
"Ohhhhhh..." It seemed as if this fact slowly reintroduced itself to him.
"That's it? Because in this case I'm now going home. I have the feeling I have some work to do tomorrow." He hoped not to many videos of this bus tour would find their way to youtube or facebook.
"But you said there is nothing planned for tomorrow!", Ren sounded completely shocked and a bit betrayed.
"There is nothing for you tomorrow, but I have the feeling that there maybe is some unplanned for me.", he accursed his charge patiently.
"And you know that today already? Are you psychic? Kyoko sometimes says you are. She is very clever, so maybe she knows it." There was a dreamy tone to his voice as he talked about Kyoko.
"I really have to go now. Have fun, Ren." A huge grin stretched over Yashiros face as the tried to finish the conversation.
"Bye bye." He was cheerfully dismissed.
As soon as he disconnected Yashiro cracked up with a laughter. He was kind of curious what kind of footage would show up on social media in the next couple of days about this bus ride. But right now he should probably call Kyoko that today wasn't the best day to stop at Ren's place. He wasn't sure how well she would react to a drunken love confession from her mentor.
"Yashiro-san, hello." He was on his way out of LME, his phone already in his hand, when Sawara greeted him.
"Ah, Sawara-san how are you?", he replied politely.
"Fine, how were the negotiations this morning?" He had told Sawara about the meeting for that, when he had dropped by to pick up some papers and in that conversation Yashiro had mentioned that he heard about Kyoko's photo shoot and that he was curious how it went and what the results look like.
"Easy, the studio fell over themself to fulfill all of Ren's wishes.", Yashiro joked back.
"That's good." The older man's eyes fell on the phone in his hand. With a conspiratorial gleam in his eyes he whispered, "About to call Mogami-kun?"
"Actual yes. How do you know?" He was a bit stunt about it and felt strangely caught red handed.
"You know, it's quite obvious." Sawara answered with a knowing smile
"It is?" That alarmed Yashiro a bit. He didn't know that Ren's feeling were that obvious to other people around them. He always felt like Ren was hiding them quite well, but if Sawara knew about them who else?
"Yes. Always asking for her schedule, calling her over, offering her rides and now with the pictures." His colleague counted down the hints on his fingers. At least some of those hints were only because he works so close with Kyoko and weren't obvious for everyone.
"Well, once you see it, it is kind of obvious.", Yashiro answered with relief and a hint of embarrassment.
"Don't worry, I'm on your side." The older man winked at him conspiratorially.
"Thank you, I'm sure that will help." Actually that was probably a good thing. There were already plans forming in his head how truly helpful his new ally could be in his matchmaking schemes.
"But of course. I think you will be good for Mogami-kun." Sawara patted his back in a fatherly approving way.
"W...wha...what?" Full stop. What was going on now?
"Maybe you can clam her down a bit." But he talked on, as if he didn't even heard Yashiro.
"Me?" He was completely flabbergasted. How could anybody misunderstood the situation so much?
"Good luck with that. I'm on my way." He said his farewell and turned back to the door. Leaving poor Yashiro standing there with his mouth hanging open, trying to find words.
"B-b-but... it's not- I mean it's for-"
But Sawara was already gone and left the young astonish manager behind. Who completely forgot about the phone call he wanted to make.
Disclaimer: you know the drill. Nothing is mine and I don't make money here. Please leave a review for me of you like it or if you don't like it, tell me why.
It's planned as a one-shot, but maybe I will one day write a sequel to it, but I'm not sure about that. I had a hard time finding a title, so if one of you knows a better one tell me. And in my head-canon Sawara is the only member in team Yashiro without realizing that there is no team Yashiro.