Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.

A/N: Here's one a bit longer for you! I decided that, since I've gotten a couple of weeks off from Ike, I should use this time to write and post as much as I can. The weather has actually been relatively nice, lately, so I don't really have anything to complain about. I got really excited today, though, because I saw some Centerpoint Energy trucks on my corner. Hooray! Still no power, though.

This chapter is dedicated to: milmirjia: here's that chapter you wanted! You review was greatly appreciated!

Enjoy!

Floodgates

Chapter Four

Waking Up

Ren was shaken from his dreams by a knocking on his door, and he released a disgruntled groan before answering. However, when he pulled the door open, he was greeted with an all too familiar face looking over his appearance with analytic scrutiny.

"Yashiro-san was right," Kyoko muttered. "You aren't eating right. You look too gaunt." She moved past the confused Ren into his apartment, arms laden with groceries. "What have you eaten tonight, Tsuruga-san?"

"Uh," the actor was still trying to grasp the reason why she was at his apartment, "nothing?" Kyoko gave him a disappointed look before unloading the contents of her paper bags onto the counter. "Mogami-san," Ren was trying to find a way to say it without sounding uncouth. "Why are you here?"

"Yashiro-san said you weren't eating right again," she scolded, "but we'll fix that!"

I'm going to kill that little idiot. "Really, Mogami-san, you don't have to make me dinner."

"Well, I've already bought the ingredients, so, yes, Tsuruga-san, I do have to make you dinner!" She looked up at his high shelves and sighed. "Could you get the pots down for me?" He allowed himself a small chuckle and retrieved the objects.

He could kill his manager tomorrow.

As he assisted the girl in her cooking, Ren could not help but have a small smile grace his lips, and it was not one of his fake ones. Every time Kyoko would look up from her work and met his eyes, he offered her a kind gaze, and she replied with one of her room-brightening grins. Her happy demeanor, however, did not prevent her from scolding his thoroughly while they were eating. Ren merely nodded along, conceding to her requests for better nutrition.

"I should probably come every once and a while to show you how to make you something new," she ended, giving herself a nod of approval that made the man with her want to laugh.

Ren swallowed his noodles. "I wouldn't mind that," he remarked with a smile. Kyoko looked astonished for a moment, but her face lit up once more, radiating joy at his words.

The rest of the night was filled with conversation, and, ignoring his warnings to himself, Ren could not keep the ever-present off his face.

Kyoko's dinners soon became a weekly occurrence, and Ren, despite his conflicting emotions, welcomed the new tradition happily. The filming for his drama was going well, and his fans showed no adversity to his new hair color; as a matter of fact, he received mail on how much they preferred it to his normal coloring.

"Ren-san," one of his co-stars on the Aside from Heaven set cooed, "are you free tonight?" Ren almost rolled his eyes at her attempt to be seductive, but he refrained from doing so as to uphold his reputation as a courteous individual. Instead, he offered her one of his gentlemanlike smiles.

"I'm sorry, Gondawara-san, my schedule is booked. If you want to arrange something, I'm sure that my manager would be glad to help you." Usually, even if he said something bluntly, the woman would be too distracted to notice. This, fortunately, was another case like the others.

Gondawara Risa quickly shook her head, auburn tresses swaying. "No, it's alright! I'll just see about it some other time!" As soon as Ren began striding away, she turned to one of her fellow actresses and squealed. "Ren-san smiled at me!" the other actress squealed as well and they began chatting excitedly. This time, the man did roll his eyes before finding a spot to sit and read over the script for the episode.

In that day's segment, Kenji (Ren) was supposed to confess his love to Hinata (Kimiko-san) while his fiancé Kaoru (Risa) waited for her disloyal lover at home. Ren sighed. In his opinion, all dramas were the same. He enjoyed filming movies more.

The director called to him to go to hair and makeup, and, as Ren sat in a chair with a woman styling his hair and another working his feet into a pair of loafers, he wished again that he was a criminal mastermind in some action-adventure instead of a lovelorn executive craving his boss.

"Great job today, Bo!" One of the crew members shouted to the retreating girl. "Keep up the good work!"

"Thanks!" Kyoko waved good-bye to her colleagues and shouldered her bag, happily exiting the studio. She looked up at the sky and noted the clouds that were rolling in. Once she got to the street, she hailed a taxi, but she chose to return home rather than the agency; it was already late, and Okami-san said that business was going to be very busy.

She greeted her kind landlady before heading upstairs to clean up. Once she reached her room, however, she noticed a piece of mail waiting for her. The girl looked curiously at the envelope on the table, picking it up and flipping it around to get a good look at it. "I guess Okami-san brought my mail up for me." Kyoko raised an eyebrow at the LME return address. "From LME?"

Ren rapped his knuckles lightly against the president's office door before entering. "You asked for me?" The actor observed the LME executive's elaborate dress and telltale eye-patch. I suppose today he's a pirate captain.

Lori smiled. "Of course! Sit, please."

"No thank you, I'll be leaving soon."

The man nodded and shooed his parrot off his shoulder, thanking his assistant as she left with the bird. "I just wanted to extend my invitation to you personally, Ren, since you seem to not want to see me so often," he said with a slight fuss. The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"Your invitation?"

"Yes! I'm throwing a party for the agency's twenty-fifth anniversary." Lori's grin broadened. "I'm sure it'll be exciting."

"I'm sure," Ren agreed, nodding. The actor bowed to the elder man. "Excuse me, please, Takarada-san, I've a photo shoot for Aside from Heaven at seven, and-"

"Yes, yes," Lori admitted almost tearfully. "Get to work. It was rude of me to ask you to come so suddenly." Ren bowed again and left the office, meeting with Yashiro in the hall to continue to the location of the shoot.

Kyoko watched the colorful lights of the cars below from her bedroom window. Her shift was finished, but the work at the restaurant was not the reason for her exhaustion. She sighed and continued her observance of late-night Tokyo traffic.

Who did Blonde-Ren remind her of?! The situation was driving her insane. Sure, it had been several weeks since he had washed out his brown dye, but the resemblance and sense of déjà-vu seriously unnerved her. The girl pulled out her cell phone and typed in a familiar number.

Kyoko heard the person on the other side yawn. "…Hello?"

"Moko-chaaaan!"

"…hello, Kyoko. What do you need at…" her dark haired friend paused. "Do you realize that it is one-thirty in the morning?!"

"Sorry, Moko-chan! I have a problem I need help with, though, and you're the only one I can call!"

"Does it have to do with acting?"

"No, but-"

"Is it life-threatening?"

"I don't think so, but Moko-"

"Then goodnight!"

"It's about Tsuruga-san!" Kyoko blurted out.

"…"

"…Moko-chan?"

"…This interests me. Continue."

Kyoko explained everything, from her experience with Ren to her straying thoughts towards the man. Her friend released a sigh.

"Kyoko, this is so simple: it means that you like him."

She had been lying down, but the younger girl now shot straight up in bed. "That's impossible!"

"It's entirely possible. Now let me get some sleep."

"But Moko-chan! I liked Shotaro before, and it didn't feel anything like this!" I don't want to be in love with Tsuruga-san! Brief memories of him passed across her conscious: the feather-light touches and worried gazes sent her way… she shook her head. "It's not the same feeling, Moko-chan!"

"Face it, Kyoko: you're in love with Tsuruga Ren. I'll see you at work tomorrow. Goodnight." The line went dead. Kyoko disconnected her side, flopping back down onto her bedding on her side. What could she do? It was times like these that she usually held Corn…

She stopped. That was it. She dropped her phone, and she didn't flinch like she normally would when it clattered to the floor.

"Oh, my gosh."

A/N: Here it is! Skye's super-fast-longer-chapter-update! BWAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, this'll probably be the last update from Hurricane Ike, but watch for more!