…Tabby's back and ready to roll!~ Sorry I've been away SO LONG on Hiatus, been keeping up (barely) with my schoolwork…but anyway, Chapter 4 is here.

Ren sat alone in the lift stairwell, his script lying abandoned beside him, flipped to the scene they were shooting that day. He rocked back and forth, his head held heavy in his hands due to a pool of emotions squirming about. He contemplated the reasons why Kyoko hadn't turned up at the set for the day's shooting yet – was she sick? Perhaps she had another job? Or was she incessantly disgusted with his behaviour the day before?

He exhaled slowly in a long and heavy sigh, trying to calm his nerves. 'I think I'm just overreacting,' he thought to himself. 'It isn't even time for work to start.' Closing his eyes, Ren went over his lines again once more, sifting through every emotion in each word, to bind Katsuki to himself once more.

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Kyoko hurriedly stepped inside the building at 7:59:59. She wasn't exactly early, but she wasn't "on-time", highly typical of her indeed. Sprinting up the stairs at top speed, she spotted Tsuruga-san at the top step, his legs easily covering the short flight of stairs he was sitting on.

She saw the frustrated aura emanating from him, swearing that the white walls were tinted with a greyish blanket of smoke. Quickly and silently she covered the distance between them, crouching down and placing a gentle hand on his forehead to check for a fever. Kyoko only remembered the flu incident too clearly to let it repeat itself.

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Ren jumped away from her out of sheer shock. As his focus adjusted, he saw Kyoko flinch, drawing her hand back into her lap. Both of them recovering from the general surprise, he decided to break the tense silence first. "Ah, Mogami-san, good morning," he greeted her with a smile.

She snapped back to her senses, jumping into a standing position before bowing deeply. "Good morning, Tsuruga-san! Please excuse me for startling you back there. I merely wanted to check if you were ill," she trailed off, hesitating for a moment with her brow furrowed. She didn't dare to voice her question but ended up spitting it out anyway. "You seemed…frustrated, senpai, what's the matter?"

He smiled reassuringly at her, not at all like the 'gentlemanly smile', which was too bright to bear. "It's nothing," he said, "don't worry about it. Ren was just happy to see her face, that she wasn't angry with him.

She offered him a nervous smile and helped him to his feet. It faintly reminded her of the scene they were filming that day – when Katsuki cries over his loss of Mizuki, who had committed suicide. Kyoko had spent days considering why Mio would have stretched her hand out to Katsuki – a man she hated to her core.

Ren and Kyoko set off towards the set together, discussing the scenes they had to film over the course of the next two days. She was ecstatic.

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There was a flash of black locks that made everyone on set freeze in ice. Mio was poised on a chair off set, confused and thinking hard. After a time skip in the series, Mio's short hair had lengthened into gorgeous ebony waves, but were always pulled away from her face to keep her scar in sight.

Katsuki gazed at her, sitting right beside, wondering what his wife was thinking. The ring glittered in the stage lights, reminding him all too clearly the contract they were bound in. He started to fiddle with the clasp of his belt, always wondering what to say to her. However, his mind was always clouded with Mizuki's face.

"Scene 56, everybody! We're ready for Katsuki and Mio!" Ogata's voice could be clearly heard in the studio, and the two actors, now in their normal states, ran to their spots on set, giving each other a quick smile.

Katsuki slumped on the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling fan rotating. The air blew gently on his face, pushing his hair away. His mind landed the news once more, like a blow to the gut – Mizuki had committed suicide that morning.

Almost involuntarily, tears started to roll down his face. He closed his eyes, letting all the pain and sadness flow out in his sorrow. He sobbed for his beautiful girl, his student, and most of all, his friend. He cried and cried, like he didn't have enough for her. And he missed the lighter footsteps that were barely heard over his weeping.

He got a clear, sharp slap across his face, springing his eyes open and reflexively restraining his attacker. As his vision cleared, he saw a trembling, pale hand tightly grasped in his. The blue diamond sat in the gold ring on this hand's finger. He followed the arm up to his wife's face.

"Stop crying, it's weak," she shot at him, looking dead into his eyes. "It's not like she was important to anyone," continuing, she referred to Mizuki. Her hands were cold as she ripped them from him, clenching them into fists. "It's so weak," she repeated.

Hongo Mio would know least about the importance of a person. She cried very rarely, being beaten and abused when she was younger. Tears, she learned, gained no one's sympathy and made you vulnerable. They were useless.

"What would you know?" He stood to face her and she visibly backed under his towering figure. "What would you, of all people, know about love? And importance? Tears aren't a weakness. Mio, they're an expression. She meant everything to me!" He ranted on and on and only halted when he saw her eyes brimming, like he'd struck a nerve.

"What…what is love, anyway? I've heard so much about it, what is it? A possession?" She muttered out bitterly. As she'd criticised him minutes earlier, her own tears stained her porcelain face as all the years of bottled up anger, hurt and sadness poured out. Her scar almost faded away as colour drained from her face.

Katsuki was visibly speechless. He'd never expected the cold, cruel Mio to know so little. He felt like he understood her behaviour just a little more, behind her bangs and relentless gaze. Instinctively, he reached out to wipe away the tears – he couldn't bear to see a girl cry.

She suddenly froze and became rigid, her back a straightening and her eyes froze over. Her aura suddenly seeped into the room and the atmosphere dampened. Her eyeliner was only ever so slightly smudged, but she didn't release her hold on Katsuki's concerned look.

With all the pride she had left, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room. Before she could get to the door, though, Katsuki had begun to play the piano, his face unreadable as he played "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" for her. He smiled at her, having caught her attention, and nodded towards her violin sitting in the corner.

She was spellbound by the music, despite herself. It was the first time anyone had chanced over her favourite song. How did he guess? In her alarmed state, she failed to notice that she had moved closer to the piano. Slowly, she lost herself in the music, something she had always considered her friend.

Suddenly, the music stopped. Mio was a little startled out of her trance, having rested herself on her elbows on the piano. Katsuki was staring at her scar and for the first time, Mio felt the need to flatten her hair over it. She stopped herself – when did she ever feel this self-conscious?

He chuckled a little and she felt practically insulted. But he reassured her, "I'm not laughing at you. But…tell me the truth about your scar. I know someone like you couldn't have been as careless as to fall down a hill that was conveniently covered in glass. You don't have to lie to me," he added, seeing her panicked face. "I won't ever tell anyone." She was backed up against a corner.

He probably knew the truth in his heart. She made quick decisions in her mind, judging the consequences. In the end, she decided that he couldn't hurt her. So, she gathered up all her guts and courage – she needed to tell someone soon, anyway, before she lost her sanity.

Crossing her arms, she managed a sentence or two. "Onee-sama pushed me down the hill…I fell on my violin strings." She spat each word bitterly, remembering the pain and the blood that flooded her mind. Misao's gold hair was imprinted in her mind, and her resentment of her sister's beauty plagued her once more.

Katsuki muttered to himself. "How could she…her sister has been deprived of love, and she's making it worse." He knew, however, that Mio had refused to have her scar removed as the biting reminder of her past. She was thinking hard about his wrongdoings, all of a sudden, and closed off her heart.

She pulled away from the piano, remembering her promise to herself. He had betrayed their family by two-timing two members of the prestigious Hongo family. He would eventually pay for making her so vulnerable.

Wiping away the last of the tears, she slammed the door behind her.

"Okay, that's good, cut! Please call the actors for scene 87!" Ogata sounded elated as Ren and Kyoko cleared the stage to change for their next scene. Ren walked rather quickly, aiming to stay ahead of Kyoko. His mind was buzzing and completely full.

She had definitely shed real tears. And it had taken every fibre of his body not to reach out and hug her. She looked so open and fragile, what could she have been thinking of? Perhaps, it was Shotaro again…

Ren honestly couldn't believe that she was still so hung up over him, even though she denied it on a daily basis. It nagged him that another man was definitely dominating Kyoko's heart. All he wanted was to restore her happiness and let her know how he felt. But how, he thought as he lowered his head, bangs falling into his eyes. I'll have to use Katsuki to get through to her…I wonder.

The next scene they were about to shoot continued on from the one they had just completed. So Kyoko's makeup was touched up, fake tearstains added. They were praising her for the dramatic reality she created with real tears. However, Kyoko was worried about the next scene, in the hallway set. There were only too many opportunities to trip and fall.

In this scene you could see Mio's feet as she lifted her skirt to climb stairs, so her shoes were made as simple and trip-free as possible. "Kyoko-sama, Ogata-sama is calling you," a pretty redhead stagehand came knocking. She looked familiar…

She shook it off and joined the cast on set. In this scene, her mother and father get involved. Therefore, her "parents" were standing just off set, preparing to enter at any minute. The scene would begin right before the end of the last one.

Wiping away the last of her tears, she slammed the door behind her.

Mio hurried down the corridor, trying to get to her room as soon as she can. She stopped, however, to glare at the mirror, fussing over her red eyes and tearstains. She smoothened out the rumples in her clothes and adjusts her posture. She knew a lady must be impeccably perfect.

As she adjusts herself, her mother and father came walking down the hall. She could not have heard their light footsteps, turning around just in time to crash headlong into them. Her eyes darted between them, not saying a word.

The silence is deathly as Mio and her parents have a stare-off of an abyssal intensity. She puts her hands behind her back on the table, inclining herself as far away from them as she can. Her father gives her a tight slap and rips open the door to the living room, seeming to already know someone is in there.

Katsuki is braced, expecting his father-in-law already. He had sensed his cold presence as the older man flitted down the corridor.

Hey there, everyone. This is the result of Tabby's writer's block. Sorry if it's not as good as the others, I tried. ;) I still welcome your awesome reviews, please give me all the constructive criticism you can!

If anyone's rereading this (thank you very much!) I fixed a few grammar errors in the second scene.