AUTHOR'S NOTE: As promised, chapter two is ready to go! I generally try and stick to the dates I promise my chapters (give or take a day or two taking into consideration RL interferes or technology fails), mostly because if I give myself a deadline it gives me a reason not to procrastinate ^_^

Welcome to chapter two of Transparent Wings and it is with great fondness I introduce Mia Akizaki (she and her twin brother, Alex, have been muses of mine for going on a decade). I do, however, promise that the main focus will remain on Kyoko and Ren because they're the entire reason for this story of mine. Just as a reference, the Akizaki family as it was created over a decade ago is an extremely wealthy family and is made of of businessmen (and women) and entertainers. Most of the Akizakis have also been blond with gray-green eyes since the beginning (exceptions are the two eldest siblings) which just happens to align with Kyoko's view of fairies (which I found incredibly amusing). I'll probably chat more about them at another date if I feel things need clarification later in the story ^_^

As it stands Skip Beat! doesn't belong to me it belongs to the lovely Yoshiki Nakamura-sensei. This particular story line, the original characters I have within the story, and the various things I make up to move the story along (clothing lines, drama series, etc.) are mine.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story (and review if you get a chance)!

Next chapter will drop around July 29, 2015

Regards,

Yuki

PS: This is going to be a "Review for a Review" chapter. What that means is: If you review my chapter (though I would like to require more than a 'Great Chapter, Please Post a new one ASAP' review-please name at least one thing you like (or dislike) about the chapter), I will do my best to either read one of your stories and post a review or, if you don't have any stories up, I will check out a favorite fan fiction of yours and leave a review for that author (same standards apply to the review that I leave that I'm requesting here). Now then, there is a caveat involved; I will pick the story I choose to review for two reasons 1) It has to be something in a fandom I follow and 2) It has to be something that I'm comfortable reading (I have very few squicks when it comes to stories, but the few I have tend to be very hard lines I don't cross). You may offer a suggestion, but I can't promise that will be the one I choose.

I won't be doing this every chapter mostly because of the time it takes to read stories (unfortunately I can't spend all day reading fic no matter how enjoyable it would be as I do have my own writing (you want the next chapter right? ^_^), work, and outside obligations). Once I post the next chapter, the offer will be ended until I post another R4R (review for a review) chapter.


Chapter Two: First Thing in the Morning

It was long past midnight when the police officers were finally satisfied that they had collected all the evidence they could and left the scene. As soon as the last officer was gone, Kyoko's mask crumbled and her knees gave out from under her and the tears started. Ren started across the floor, but was beat by Okamisan who pulled Kyoko into her arms again as the girl began to sob.

There was a touch on his arm and he turned to see Taisho frowning up at him and the older man gestured down the stairs and Ren took the hint. He followed the white-clad man downstairs and they settled at one of the tables while Taisho vanished back into the kitchen and returned with a cup of coffee for the actor and his manager.

Ren settled back to wait, wondering how he was going to explain to the couple that he was going to take Kyoko to his apartment once she was prepared to go.

Kyoko scrubbed the last of her tears away in the bathroom and took a deep breath. She'd collected what pieces of clothing that remained in good enough shape to wear, thankful she'd had both her school uniform and Love Me coverall with her when her room was ransacked—at least she had her proper uniforms for most of what she did. Her fingers went to the place where Princess Rosa rested while she was acting out the part of Natsu and wondered how in the world she was going to continue on with the role without the necklace that had become the trademark of it.

Even if a parent has died, don't drop a job. To be able to change your feelings in an instant and get over that makes you a 'pro'.

Tsuruga-san's words from just after her birthday echoed through her mind. She took a deep breath. She was due at the studio for filming the next scenes of Box 'R' in the morning, and if she arrived early she could talk to the director and figure out what to do from there. They couldn't halt filming because Kyoko had been foolish enough to leave the necklace to be stolen.

Belatedly, she realized that she hadn't told Tsuruga-san good-bye and automatically assumed that he was already gone because he undoubtedly had a busy schedule in the morning. She went for her bag and pulled the cell phone out, drawing Okamisan's questioning look. "I want to leave a message for Tsuruga-san to thank him for coming with me…" she explained.

"He's still downstairs, Kyoko-chan," Okamisan said with a slight smile. "He is likely waiting for you."

Kyoko's eyes went wide and she flew down the stairs and skidded to a halt in the middle of the room where the owners and she usually took their meals. Sure enough, Tsuruga-san was sitting at the table calmly sipping coffee and Yashiro-san was also waiting. She immediately bowed low in front of them. "Thank you for coming with me, but Tsuruga-san is probably very busy in the morning and should be going home," she said. "I'll be fine. I—"

Ren stood up as she bowed and shook his head a bit at her words. "You're not staying here tonight, Mogami-san," he said quietly. "There have been other arrangements made for the time being."

"What…I—" Kyoko began.

Ren shook his head and moved to where Kyoko was standing and reached out and ruffled her hair. "Do you think we could let you stay in a room like that tonight, Mogami-san?" he questioned.

Kyoko wanted to protest, she didn't want to make more trouble for everyone, but something in Tsuruga-san's gaze told her that she wasn't going to get very far arguing tonight. "O-okay," she said hesitantly.

"Go get your things, we'll head out as soon as you're ready," Ren said.

He watched her go for a long moment and heard the rustle as Yashiro gathered his things. He headed towards the back door where he'd parked his car and found the Taisho working on installing new locks on the doors. The older man looked up at Ren when he entered and Ren spoke. "We'll be taking her somewhere else for tonight provided by LME."

Taisho nodded. "I will check the cost of a security system," he said gruffly.

Ren barely stopped himself from informing Taisho that if he had his say, Kyoko would not be returning to live here again on a permanent basis. He stuffed his hands in the pocket of his jacket as he heard footsteps on the stairs that preceded Kyoko's appearance. When she reached the bottom of the steps she nearly prostrated herself in front of Taisho brimming over with apologies for troubling him and was silenced by a dark scowl. "Not your fault," he said. "We will handle this. You try and rest tonight."

Kyoko's eyes filled again and she bowed deeply to him, the words of thanks barely audible.

Ren guided Kyoko out to his car and Yashiro took the front seat this time while Kyoko settled in the back. Ren watched her through the rearview mirror, wishing he could find a way to make her smile again tonight, but even the fairy prince Corn might have trouble with that this evening.

"Kyoko-chan, what's your schedule look like tomorrow?" Yashiro asked.

Kyoko was jarred out of her contemplations of the buildings passing by and scrambled for the planner she kept in her bag that she listed her schedule in since she had to keep track of it for herself mostly. "We're filming Box 'R' tomorrow at eight then I was going to go to school for a few hours after that and then Sawara-san had some jobs he wanted to discuss with me in the afternoon around three. I was going to work the dinner shift tomorrow night at Darumaya," she replied. "I need to try and get to the set early for Box 'R' because the Princess Rosa is gone and I need to talk to the director about what we need to do. It's Natsu's trademark…oh no, the cosmetics…"

Yashiro aligned Kyoko's schedule with Ren's and nodded to himself. "We can drop you off at the Box 'R' set on the way to Ren's first job in the morning and I'm sure that the President will be willing to provide transportation to school…"

"No! I can't trouble you any further, I—"

"Mogami-san."

Ren's voice cut Kyoko off midsentence and her eyes flashed to the dark-haired man who turned to look at her as they stopped at a red light. "It would cause more worry if you don't accept the rides tomorrow," Ren said. "There's no telling who did that to your room and there is a possibility they could come after you directly…"

Kyoko still looked like she wanted to protest, but finally she sighed and dropped her eyes to the fingers twisting nervously in her lap. "Okay, just for tomorrow though…I'll be fine, really."

Ren's jaw clenched against the urge to tell her that he wouldn't be fine and if he could do it, he would clear his schedule entirely to make sure that Kyoko was being taken care of the entire time. Yashiro seemed to read his expression and shook his head, silently reinforcing the fact that he couldn't just blow off everything tomorrow to watch over Kyoko.

They finally reached one of the high rise apartment complexes and Yashiro gathered his things and opened the door. "I'll see you at six-thirty tomorrow?" he asked. "Your first job starts at eight AM."

"I'll be here," Ren said and Yashiro nodded and exited.

After a moment's hesitation Kyoko got out of the back seat and moved to claim the front seat as Yashiro entered the building. She fastened her seatbelt and Ren moved the car back into the street.

Kyoko didn't ask any questions, figuring that Ren would take her where she needed to go and was left speechless as he pulled into the parking garage in his own apartment complex. "Tsuruga-san…" she began.

"You'll stay in my guestroom tonight," Ren said.

"But won't that be troublesome?" Kyoko questioned. "I mean I—"

"Mogami-san, if I had to worry about where you were staying tonight it would be more troublesome," Ren stated flatly. "Please, humor me?"

"O-okay."

A rather large chunk of Kyoko was absurdly relieved to be staying in a familiar place after the nightmare that had made up this night after Yappa Kimagure Rock wrapped the night's show.

Kyoko woke from a nightmare just before 4:30 AM and tossed and turned for a few minutes before deciding to get up. For Tsuruga-san's kindness the least she could do was make him a proper breakfast and maybe a lunch to accompany him on his work today. She dressed in her Love Me coverall and headed for the kitchen after pulling her hair back into a quick ponytail, realizing it was starting to get long enough to pull back again. She went through Tsuruga-san's kitchen and found many of the ingredients she needed for the food already and breathed a sigh of relief; it would be difficult to procure supplies at this time of morning.

Ren emerged from his bedroom dressed in a robe and slippers and watched Kyoko for a long moment. "Did you sleep at all last night, Mogami-san?" he asked.

Kyoko jumped as his words echoed and she turned, pasting on a smile that Ren saw right through, but decided to let her think she'd fooled him for now. "A bit," she said. "If time permits I'll catch a nap between school and meeting with Sawara-san."

"You didn't have to get up to cook, we could have picked something up—" Ren began and then fell silent under Kyoko's glare.

He held up his hands in surrender. "I'll go get ready then," he said.

He retreated to his room to take a shower and get ready to go for the day. He knew he had two photo shoots, a meeting with two producers for upcoming commercials, and a few scripts to look over to pick his next project now that Tragic Marker had wrapped up. The plan was to let Cain Heel fade into blackness now that the filming was over, but Ren wasn't entirely sure that would work out, but that wasn't his worry right now.

Kyoko got breakfast on the table and wrapped the bentos for Ren and Yashiro's lunches. Once Ren emerged they settled at his dining table and ate, both of them staying away from the topic of last night's break-in for the time being. The enormity of what happened was starting to crash down on Kyoko, but she couldn't trouble Ren with it further so she purposely kept the topics light.

At six, the two headed down to the garage and Kyoko climbed into the passenger seat and took a deep breath. She'd see about taming her hair into Natsu's preferred style and figure out the cosmetics once she was in the dressing rooms on the Box 'R' set. They arrived at Yashiro's apartment just as the manager emerged, already in deep conversation on his cell phone.

Kyoko moved to the back seat automatically and Yashiro finished his conversation before snapping his phone shut and getting in the car. "Good morning Kyoko-chan, Ren."

"Good morning," Ren greeted him and Kyoko echoed the greeting bowing as much as she could from her position in the back seat.

Kyoko gave Ren directions to the studio where she was filming Box 'R' and they pulled up to the back entrance where no one would be able to recognize the car or its driver when Kyoko got out. She thanked them for the ride and bowed deeply before settling her bag and squaring her shoulders before heading in to talk to Anna-san about what to do about the necklace.

The director was already there as she'd hoped and seemed surprised at her early arrival. "What's going on Kyoko-chan?" he asked.

She took a deep breath and explained the events of the night before in a halting voice, being stopped from apologizing by the director's hand on her shoulder. "We'll draw some references from the earlier filming and we'll see about creating a replica of the necklace for the remainder of the filming," he said. "More importantly, are you going to be okay?"

Kyoko nodded firmly. "I'll be fine once the cameras are rolling," she said quietly.

"Good girl, head for your dressing room. Wardrobe and makeup will be along shortly. We'll film the scenes so the necklace isn't visible for now until we can get the replica made. Let's have a good filming day," he said.

She headed for her dressing room.

"Good work today!"

The greeting followed Kyoko out the door and she managed to keep a smile in place even though as the morning wore on her nerves were getting more frayed. She'd already changed into her school uniform and exited the studio getting ready to head for school, forgetting that Tsuruga-san had said something about LME providing her with transportation.

"Mogami-san!"

The voice was light and Kyoko turned to see a blond girl just a little taller than her approaching. "May I help you?" she asked guardedly.

The girl smiled and it swam across Kyoko's mind that the girl could be a fairy from the same world at Corn. She had long blond hair pulled back on the sides with barrettes and clear gray-green eyes regarded her calmly. Her face was fine-featured and the subtle make-up created a light shimmer in the sunlight. "I'm Mia Akizaki, I was appointed from LME Entertainment to help you today," she introduced herself handing Kyoko a business card to validate her claim. "Takarada-taichou asked me to pick you up from here and take you to school."

"Ah…um…thank you very much," Kyoko said with a bow.

Mia returned the bow with equal grace and Kyoko followed her to the four-door sedan that waited for them on the curb. Mia opened the door for her and she slipped into the back seat and then went around the front and climbed into the driver's seat.

"You can drive?" Kyoko gaped, she'd pegged Mia to be her age or younger.

"I spent a lot of time in America, I learned to drive when I was sixteen, so it was a fairly easy matter to get my license here in Japan as soon as I was able," Mia replied. "It wouldn't do to be your escort if I couldn't drive you, would it Mogami-san?"

"Ah…no," Kyoko said.

"According to Sawara-san you will be at school until about 1:00 PM and then you will need to be picked up to go to the agency for your meeting with Sawara-san at 4:00 PM?" Mia questioned.

"Yes, that's what I have written down," Kyoko said.

"All right," Mia said and turned her attention to the road. "Sawara-san gave me directions to your school so I should be able to navigate there from here easily."

She slipped on a pair of sunglasses and started the car, pulling out into traffic and making her way to the school.

Kyoko fell silent, uncertain if she would be at liberty to talk to the girl while she was driving or not and fell into a heavy silence. "Akizaki-san, this is just for today right?" she finally asked. "I really will be fine…"

"It is up to Takarada-taichou and Sawara-san," Mia replied. "I just started working with LME Entertainment in conjunction with DS Entertainment as our agency is currently very small and overstaffed."

"So today is your first day?" she asked.

"Something like that, thus I was free to be of assistance to Mogami-san in light of what happened last night," Mia said.

"Y-you know?" Kyoko gaped.

"Yes, Sawara-san told me about it this morning when he handed me my assignment. I am very sorry that something like that happened to you, Mogami-san, but I'm sure everything will be okay soon," Mia assured her.

They pulled up to the school and Kyoko was out of the car before Mia could come around and let her out. "I…thank you, Akizaki-san," Kyoko said and bowed.

"It was my pleasure, I will be back here at 1:00 PM to get you," Mia smiled.

Kyoko headed into school and forced herself to focus on her lessons as she would be graduating next spring and she wanted to make sure she got good marks. The conversation swirled around her, but, as usual, no one really spoke to her at school. She hadn't really managed to make any friends but Moko-san and Moko didn't go to school with her. She ate her bento and pulled out the books she needed to study to make sure she was caught up on everything that had been covered while she was in Guam for the last days of Tragic Marker and the Heel Siblings.

Her phone rang in the middle of lunch and she pulled it out and answered it immediately. "Good afternoon, Mogami-san, is everything all right?"

She relaxed a bit as Tsuruga-san's voice came over the line and rose from her desk to go outside. "I'm doing okay, Tsuruga-san, the director said that they'll see about making a replica of the Princess Rosa for the remainder of Box 'R'. I was worried that he would fire me for losing something so important."

"Mogami-san, what happened last night was not your fault."

Kyoko's hands tightened on the receiver. "But—if I'd…"

"A break-in like that is not something that you can predict and it lies on the shoulders of whomever decided to do it, not the person it was done to. Remember that."

"I-I'll try," Kyoko said hesitantly.

"Did you get a ride from the studio to school?"

"Y-yes, the president sent someone to escort me today. She's very nice," Kyoko said. "She looks like a fairy…"

"Oh does she? Tell me more."

She could hear the smile in Tsuruga-san's voice and allowed herself to drift off into the fairy-tale land that she knew so well for the few minutes that she was able to speak with him.