Hey y'all! Here's the beginning of my Valentine's Day three-shot. I hope you enjoy!
Lesson 1: Romantic Plots and Feminine Advice
Kotonami Kanae couldn't believe she had been roped into helping her best friend Mogami-soon-to-be-Hizuri Kyouko move into the new house she and her fiancé Kuon had recently purchased together. Kanae was an award winning actress, damn it. She didn't do manual labor anymore. That was what her boyfriend—and soon-to-be fiancé if the ring she'd found stuffed in one of his socks was anything to go by—was for. The silver eyed woman dropped the last box on the floor of the master bedroom unceremoniously and flopped on the bed with a groan. It had been years since she'd worked that hard and she was exhausted. Kanae perked up a little as her amber eyed friend came in with two glasses of tea. She took hers gratefully and gulped it down.
Kyouko smiled and gave her friend a hard hug. "Thank you, Moko."
"Mo, you're welcome." The raven haired actress reluctantly returned the hug, before turning to the box. It was supposedly full of all the albums the other actress had kept over the years. "Now, it's time to find some blackmail so that I can actually spend time with my best friend after that big lug marries her."
Said woman laughed, but didn't bother to refute the fact that the Kanae was right. Kuon eagerly monopolized almost all her free time when he could, and it had been a bit overwhelming at first, but it also made Kyouko feel loved that her man was possessive of her. Not that she'd ever tell him that. Her blonde idiot had a healthy enough ego as it was.
Kanae tore open the box and extract the top album. Unlike the older albums, this one wasn't dusty in the least and had been looked through often. On the spine was a piece of tape indicating that it was from the year after Kyouko and Hizuri had started dating, and she cracked it open carefully. While the woman had flipped through photo albums with her friend before—especially on their monthly girl's night—Kanae had never looked through this particular one before. It held some of Kyouko's most precious photos. The silvery eyed actress looked at her friend and waited for the other woman's nod before she began looking at the pictures.
The first photo was of Kyouko and Ren kissing at midnight on New Year's Day, glass of champagne in hand and many people waving and grinning at the camera in the background. Yashiro Yukihito, Kanae's long time boyfriend, could be seen in the back with a wide grin as he held up his cell phone to take a picture of his own. The next photo showed Yashiro staring in horror at his cell phone as he realized he'd touched it without his glove on and had thus not only missed the picture perfect moment but had also destroyed yet another cell phone. The third picture featured Kanae, Yashiro, Kyouko, Kuon, the Takaradas, and the other Love Me girl, Amamiya Chiori, clinking glasses and smiling for the camera. In the background the older Hizuris grinned and made bunny ears behind their son and adopted daughter's heads.
Kanae laughed and held up the picture for her friend to see. Kyouko smiled and gently took the album flipping through the pages rapidly. "If you thought that was funny, just wait until you see the one…here!" She stopped and held up the book so Kanae could see the photos. The amber eyed woman pointed to one photo in particular.
The silver eyed woman squinted at the picture. It showed a couple—a blonde woman with green eyes in an anime t-shirt and a black haired, black eyed giant of a man wearing a hoodie that shadowed his face—in front of what appeared to be an amusement park. The woman held cotton candy and had her arm looped through the man's. He looked less than happy to be there, but worked up a grimace that Kanae supposed could pass for a smile. For several moments, the actress couldn't understand why Kyouko had this picture in her album. Then she realized that the otaku shared the same face as her best friend. Upon closer look, the man looked almost exactly like Hizuri. She couldn't believed she missed the opportunity to spy on her best friend and her then boyfriend.
"That giant doesn't have an original bone in his body, does he?" Kanae teased.
Kyouko snorted. "You think he actually thought of that himself? Otou-san suggested it. Okaa-san told him to take me on the Ferris wheel and kiss me on the top. That was our first Valentine's Day too."
Her friend tried to put on a sympathetic face, but her lips kept twitching with suppressed mirth. It was just too hilarious. The man once known as Japan's Most Eligible Bachelor was just as hopeless in romance as the rest of the male population. Well, at least Kyouko didn't seem to mind. That was what really mattered. But geez, couldn't the big idiot at least try to be original once in a while? That would probably make Kyouko happier than anything else. Might not excite his parents or Yashiro as much though, since they were Hizuri's man source of advice and by asking that advice they got insight into the two actors' relationship. Kanae was probably the second person who knew Hizuri was going to propose to her best friend before the thought had even crossed said woman's mind. That big idiot had thought asking relationship idiot Yashiro for advice about proposing was a good idea. Kuu-san would've been a much better choice. He'd actually proposed and succeeded.
Thus Kanae had long since come to a conclusion: Men were idiots. A prime example of which was the cold war between Kanae's man and Kyouko's man. Both were too stubborn to apologize, and neither was about to forgive the other.
"Tell me there's more and I can have copies."
Kyouko chuckled and nodded, retrieving a copy from behind the original photo. Kanae snatched it and went to grab her purse from the dining table. She tucked the picture into a back pocket and returned to the bedroom with the purse in hand.
They spent hours laughing themselves silly at the pictures and sharing stories about good dates, bad dates, sweet times, and romantic fails. It seemed their men had more in common than the same schedule and a thing for women who didn't believe in love.
Kanae glanced at her watch and groaned seeing the time. "I've got to get home. Yukihito has this big thing planned tonight for Valentine's Day and he'll cry if I don't give him the chocolate I made him. Can you believe I had to hide in the bathroom so he wouldn't eat it early?" She rolled her eyes at the thought. "Anyway, does Hizuri Jr. have anything planned?"
"No," Kyouko murmured, more disappointed than she'd let on. "He's busy filming a new episode of 'It Takes a Village'. You know, the one about a single dad who gets help from the people of his hometown in raising his four year old daughter?"
The silver eyed actress scowled. "The one with that man-eating, boyfriend stealing bitch Kagesawa Ai as his love interest? She's had her eye on Hizuri Jr. ever since he revealed his real name." It didn't help that both Kyouko and her fiancé had insisted on keeping their engagement a secret until after the wedding in three months.
"Yes." The amber eyed actress's eyes narrowed and her face contorted into an angry scowl. "Kuon's been brushing her off—repeatedly —but she won't take no for an answer. After their location shoot last week, I found a pair of her underwear in his overnight bag. He didn't see it, but I was so pissed. I had half a mind to hunt her down and strangle her. As it was, I burned the underwear. I've been burning dolls of her every week too."
Kanae hugged her friend. "She's got nothing on you. You're smarter, you're prettier, you're more successful, you're sweeter, and you're twice as sexy and badass as she is."
Laughter burbled from Kyouko's lips, and she hugged her friend back. "I know," she said. "Now, you need to get home before Yashiro starts to worry."
The silver eyed woman gave her friend a critical look before sighing. "Yeah. But if you feel lonely or just want to bash Kagesawa, you call me. I don't care if it's in the middle of dinner or at four past midnight. You will call me."
"I promise I will, Moko. Now go home. If you keep Yashiro waiting too long, he'll start to think you dumped him."
Kanae gave her friend one last hug before she left. Kyouko waited until her front door closed before grabbing her phone and hitting her fourth speed dial. After a few minutes the other line picked up.
"Kyouko-chan? Has Kanae left already?"
"Yep. So you better put a move on it, Yashiro. Or should I start calling you Yukihito-kun?"
The manager chuckled. "Either is fine since you always call Kanae 'Moko'. I'm almost done so she's actually right on schedule. The string's just giving me a bit of trouble. It doesn't want to stay tied around the doorknob."
"So you already have the table set up? Don't light the candles until you hear her try the doorknob otherwise they'll be dripping wax by the time she sits down," Kyouko reminded him. Yashiro had decided to ask her advice for planning his romantic Valentine's Day dinner and Kanae was about to get one hell of a surprise.
"Yes, I know. Have you heard from Kuon today at all?" Yashiro knew how sad Kyouko had been when she learned her fiancé and his charge would be busy with filming all day. He didn't think she'd had a chance to give the actor her chocolate either, which she had spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening making.
The actress pulled her knees up on to the bed and laid back. "No, but I'll see him tonight. It'll be a little later than I like, but it's enough that he gets my chocolate on Valentine's Day." At least, that's what Kyouko told herself.
"Ah, well, I've got to go, but Kyouko-chan?"
"Yes?"
"Kuon loves you more than anything else. Never forget that."
She smiled. "Thank you, Yashiro."
"You're welcome."
They ended the call and Kyouko set her phone down beside her. She curled up with her back to the small device and stared at the far wall. Despite Yashiro's reassurance that her husband-to-be loved her, Kyouko was still miserable.
This was turning out to be the worst Valentine's Day ever.
Kanae waited until she was in her car to put on her Bluetooth and called Hizuri Jr. If it wasn't for the fact that he had this big ol' romantic plot planned, she would've ripped him a new one for making her best friend so sad. She still thought the whole idea was more than a little sappy, but Kyouko loved fairytales and legends and most of those were sappy to Kanae too. She hated to admit it, but Kuon knew Kyouko slightly better than the Kanae did.
"Hello, Kotonami-chan," Kuon said, answering his phone.
"Yeah, yeah, hi to you too. Phase one's complete: she's miserable. I think pride and the knowledge that you love her are the only things keeping Kyouko from crying her eyes out," the actress informed him venomously. "If this doesn't make her deliriously happy and sickly sweet for the next week, I'm going to save her the trouble and kill you myself."
The actor wasn't at all surprised at his bride-to-be's best friend's opposition to his first attempt at original romance. He'd consulted the raven haired actress because while he knew Kyouko better than anyone else, he was totally lost when it came to romance. Sure, he'd acted in plenty of romantic dramas, but he was a novice in reality.
"I've told you before, if I ever make Kyouko unhappy and fail to make her happy again, you're free to take my head off. I deserve it if I hurt her."
"I know," she grumbled, starting her car. That undeserving attitude was one of the reasons why Kanae had reluctantly handed her best friend over to the lug. The second reason was because Kuu-san had given her those big, creepy puppy dog eyes behind his son's back when Junior had asked for her blessing on his and Kyouko's relationship.
"I left the front door unlock, but are you sure this will work? She's a trained actress and can spot an actor more than a mile away."
Kuon grinned on the other end of the phone, and was promptly told to stop by Jelly Woods. "Oh, I'm sure. Remember, I know her one, true weakness."
"Sometimes I wonder if either of you two are truly sane."
"Kotonami-chan, are you complimenting me?"