Camera Flash~

This is gonna be a good life- One Republic

Keira threw her schoolbag to one corner of the room. With a sigh, she let her body fall onto the individual mattress of her aunt's guest room.

Staring at the flat patterns of the tall ceiling, her mind slowly flew back to the happenings of the last hours…

Just after the audition and the cheerleader's choreography that was meant to close the event, Kaede, Maia and she were summoned to the judge's deliberation table. Glancing at each other, the trio made their ways to the seats set in front of the stage.

There, a group of unknown faces met them. One was a blonde, slim woman who seemed to be kind, since she extended her hand towards the group of girls the moment they appeared. Keira took it instantly, aware of the Westerners' customs, and dedicated the woman a gentle bow. Kaede and Maia followed her example unsurely.

"I am Klaud Nine," she introduced herself "and I am the Producer of this project."

"A pleasure" The three girls said in a chorus. At first sight, it was plainly noticeable how unsettled they felt, with all those wealthy critics eyeing them curiously. Keira didn't recognize any of them and didn't endeavor to do otherwise. Instead, her attention seemed to drift to certain spot where a redheaded kept on looking at her intently without any reason at all. She shuddered under the scrutiny while she intended to maintain her eyes away from him.

"Jeez, this Oriental customs are really weird" a tall, lean man commented, stepping beside Klaud Nine confidently. Two locks of fair hair fell at the sides of his face, framing the spectacles that he wore. He observed the girls from head to toes with a raised eyebrow.

"And this grown ass man is Reggory Peck, our Executive Producer" Klaud introduced.

"I'm delighted to meet such a group of talented girls" the man praised, squeezing alternatively their hands.

Keira didn't like him. He was kind of pompous and gave an air of huge egocentrism and self-satisfaction. Perhaps his self-esteem was slightly high.

Never mind, it was too soon to make precipitated conclusions. He could be nice, first impressions never had to be the definitive ones. Except with Kanda she thought.

After those two first presentations, a group of men approximated to introduce themselves too. There was a young, blonde guy who was the Director and which name Keira didn't bother to learn. Then it appeared Fujimoto, the agency's manager, a person who pretended to be kind even when it was obvious that he looked down at everyone in the room.

Following Fujimoto, a serious woman introduced herself as the makeup artist and image designer of the team that was there in order to verify that they actually fitted the physical aspect of the character. Nevertheless, the last word about this relied on the short, white-haired boy that appeared at final.

Next to him was a man which presence's only purpose was the one of a translator.

His physics easily confused Keira's first-impression judgment of him. Even though his features were remarkably young and flawless, except for the scar that crossed his left eye, his hair was as white as Santa Clause's one, and she was sure as hell that Santa Clause was a full grown-up man.

He spoke in a gentlemanlike way. Without the need of the translator, Keira caught up the meaning of his sentence immediately.

"I am Walker Allen, the scriptwriter, it is a pleasure to be here" he bowed. Keira took a mental note that he knew and respected the Japanese culture, therefore, didn't force them to a hand-to-hand contact. What a detail.

"My name is Onozawa Keira, the pleasure is mine, Walker-san" she responded in perfect English. Her companions glanced briefly at her before repeating the same in Japanese.

"I congratulate you for your good job," the Brit said "I assume you still don't know why you were called here, right?" he smiled at them.

The three girls shook their heads. They really had no idea of why they were called, it didn't make sense at all, except for the fact that maybe…

"Your performances were terrific, that's why" someone gleefully interrupted in English. An arm then appeared surrounding Allen's shoulder, while a red head popped from behind his head.

Keira felt her breathe being taken away. He was so gorgeous, and it didn't help that he kept on darting looks at her. What the hell was he looking at? Did she have monkeys on her face or what?

She vaguely heard the translator repeating the same phrase in clean Japanese for her companions to understand.

Perhaps Lavi Bookman was not staring at her for no reason. Noticing that Allen's eyes were fixated on her too, her mind tried to work for a logical answer to explain their behavior. The only acceptable explanation was that she was going vain and they weren't really staring at her more than they did to her other friends.

She huffed. Probably vanity and egocentrism were contagious. She had to establish some distance between Kanda and herself.

"The decision is hard to make" the blonde Director approximated to them before Lavi could properly introduce himself. As if he needed any introduction. His face was plastered all around the world. Even Keira with her cluelessness remembered his features from a huge poster outside Esashi Airport.

"You three are perfect for the paper" Reever spoke. A circle formed around the girls, Allen and Lavi. "You, Hiragizawa-san, are an excellent actor. Funaki-san made a really great job, whilst Onozawa-san covers perfectly the physical skills." He said, pointing at each girl as he praised them for their job, or looks, in Keira's case.

Keira could hear the fast buzz of Allen's translator as he repeated Reever's words in a rush to the Brit's ear.

Allen nodded when everybody turned to see him, as if expecting for his approbation of Reever's words. It seemed to Keira that he had the last word in the issue. It was perfectly logical, she thought, since the script was his and as any good writer, he must desire that everything could stick as close to the way he imagined it as possible.

"If it was up to me," the Brit said. He waited until the translator had finished repeating that first phrase for the not-English speakers to continue "I'd choose Onozawa-san. She is just like the way I imagined Nakuru Dazai, but looks are not everything here" he directed said girl a warm wink.

Keira wryly returned a smile. Not used to receiving any kind of special flattery from an unknown person, she just came up to bowing humbly at it. She would have preferred to be recognized by her ability on stage, though. Well, perhaps it was much to ask, Maia was definitely better than her and had participated in a lot of plays, and Kaede was not bad either. In comparison with them, Keira was just an inexperienced novice.

"And that's why we are going for an eliminatory round" Komui interfered, giving a step inside the circle that had formed. He smiled at his students, evidently proud of the quality of their execution.

"Just the three of you, performing a different scene" said he.

"What kind of scene, Sensei?" Kaede inquired, blinking cheerfully at him. It was obvious, from the way her feet couldn't stay too much time glued to the floor, that she was really excited about being part of the movie. Her eyes, as well as Maia's, were shining with expectation.

"Titanic" Reever answered. "The Epic Rail Scene" the director emphasized. He surveyed the girls for their reactions.

Kaede let out a small shriek of excitement, while Maia and Keira gasped in surprise. It was well known, even for a film-ignorant like Keira, that that romantic scene was a classic, renowned moment thorough the movie history, therefore, it was very hard to pull it successfully off. Ruining it would be like blaspheming one sacred temple of the whole cinematographic world.

"And you need to find new companions or exchange the two you had acting with you today" Klaud cleared "It should be preferably if it is someone you are not close to"

"But that's not even a part of the movie, right?" Kaede exclaimed, the difficulty of the challenge finally washing over her "Why shall we perform it?"

"Because we need to press you" Reggory answered "Push you to your limits. If you are able to pull this decently off, you'll be able to perform any Geek in the Pink's scene easily"

Keira gulped. An excessively unachievable, unattainable challenge displayed in front of her. From any other scene of the damned history of cinematography, why did they have to choose such a romantic, cheesy one? Why that genre? Couldn't just be terror or action? She was pretty sure that those ones could be a piece of cake for her, but, God damned them all, they had to choose romance.

Lying on her back, Keira let out a sigh at the memory. Anyway, what had she been thinking all along? She didn't have experience enough to appear in a movie, she never had an opportunity. The only reason, in fact, why she had endeavored to make a good job during the casting was to piss Leverrier off. Apart from that, she had no aspirations of entering the movie industry at all.

Having any true hope was helpless. Hope was not going to take her anywhere.

Her mind flew back to the romantic performance that Kanda and she tried to make some days ago. Even when they practiced it one and a thousand times in the park and she, herself, did it a few more times in front of her mirror, the final result was as lame as the first time she intended to act romantically. The words came out flat and rushed.

Blaming Kanda for her incompetence didn't work anymore. It wasn't his fault to be such a terrific good actor that could make her feel all the warmth that he intended, without feeling it himself. It wasn't his fault that her mind got all screwed whenever he approached to her in that needed way, like a lost puppy looking for a way back home.

Alright, maybe it was his fault, she convinced herself. He was arrogant all the time that witnessing such a change was like looking the sky falling down in pieces.

Besides, why the hell was she thinking in Kanda at all? Oh yeah, because Kaede had already chosen Raito and Maia, Fye, so she had no other person with whom she could perform the stupid, romantic scene. Komui notified her, before leaving the school after a hard day of work, that only Kanda was left from the Drama Crew to play that part with her. She should have been faster and asked Fye for the favor before Maia did.

Cluelessness, again, became her worst enemy.

"What were you dreaming about, Onozawa?" she said to herself in the loneliness of her room "Pissing Leverrier off cannot get as far as getting into a movie"

The ringtone of her mobile flew through the air, interrupting her messy inquisitions. With a groan, she stood up and flipped the device open without looking at the screen.

"Onozawa Keira" she spoke into the receiver.

"What the hell DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

Keira separated the phone a few centimeters from her ear. She liked her eardrums enough to not wanting them perforated.

"Nice to greet you too, Hitler. How many Jewish did you kill today?" she contested. Oh, the sound of his yelling voice was like music to her ears, even when it almost made them bleed.

Making him upset was an excellent hobby, especially when there was nothing that he could do about it, being separated by thousands of kilometers as they were.

"Stop playing, kid. I thought I told you specifically not to act in the goddamned casting, and now I've been informed that you are a finalist!" he angrily exclaimed.

"Correction: You never told me, it was your bitchy secretary the one who gave me the message. And, yes, I am a finalist, am I cool or what?"

"Do you want to be kicked out of Black Order, huh?"

"Oh, yes, I'd love to" Keira sardonically responded. Well, it was the truth, as long as it implied going back to Esashi.

"Stupid moron, you don't know what you are saying. Listen to me carefully, you are not going to act in that goddammned movie, do you understand? I don't care if it is the dream of your life." Leverrier deadpanned in an undertone. It was kind of horrifying, Keira thought, to hear him being that evil, but she was not going to backtrack after all the effort. He wanted to play rude; she was going to play along then.

"And what if I decide not to hear you? What are going to do, eh?" she challenged him.

"I'm gonna make your fucking life impossible"

"Wrong answer. My life is already impossible. Good-bye, Leverrier, tell mom I'll call tomorrow in the morning again" Rejoicing in the way he was now the one cornered, she hung up. From his lame answers, she deduced that he didn't know what else to do to avoid her presence in the movie. It wasn't as if she was going to get in, anyway, but making him suffer believing that it was otherwise was an excellent way to get revenge for everything he had done. She was going to make him regret sending her to Tokyo.

Still wearing her grin, Keira sat in front of her computer and pressed the power buttons. She waited for the screen to glow alive and register the signal of the house's Internet modem, then typed Titanic Epic Rail scene in the search engine.


"What were you thinking, Bookman?" Reever furrowed his eyebrows "Appearing like that in the middle of our casting, didn't you think that it would elicit suspicions?" He was trying to contain himself, but having Lavi almost ruining their plans to keep the size of the project as a secret threatened with making all his self-control crumble. He clenched and unclenched his fists slowly.

From the withering looks that the others tried to hide around, he could tell that he was not the only one angry at the American actor.

"Relax a bit, Reever-chan" Lavi yawned. He let his body sink on one of the theatre's now empty seats. "The official version of my steady here is for simple recreation. You can call my manager and ask about it right now"

"Because recreation means: appearing in the middle of the casting that the producers that are rumored to have hired you organized for their next movie. Very clever, Lavi" Allen rolled his eyes sarcastically. The Brit was scribbling something like a maniac on a little notebook, an action that contrasted terribly with the sardonic smirk in his lips.

"Oh, c'mon, the names of the actors will be released within the next two weeks, knowing one of them is not going to hurt anyone." The redheaded defended. "Now, who wants to take me for sushi? I really want to try Japanese's original ones"

Everybody sighed. It was fruitless to try to fight against the simplistic answers of a Westerner's relaxed 'I-don't-care' mentality. Better to leave him alone than to piss off the director. More.

"Come on, let's go" the American wimped. His only big eye shimmered with excitement and plea. Despite the terribly tender image he caused, his new companions blatantly ignored him.

"Killjoys" Lavi snorted after fruitless tries. He crossed his arms and sulked in silence like a nine-year-old kid until certain Japanese actor approached silently the stage's base.

"YUU-PON!" Kanda stumbled back when a pair of arms abruptly embraced him in a hug. The penetrating smell of Giorgio Armani cologne reached his nose as the unknown gay-hugger stretched him in his arms. "You will take me for sushi, right, right, right, right, right?" a male voice spoke.

"What the fuck? Who the fuck are you?" Kanda scandalized. He roughly pushed away whoever weirdo thought he had the right to hug Kanda Yuu, and gave a step back to establish enough distance between them. His hand clenched into a tight fist, prepared to blow a punch if the other tried any fucking-gay approach.

"Oh, it is so cute to hear you talking in Japanese! Come, let's go for sushi" the redheaded shifted his tongue into Japanese mode and clung like any random, crazy fangirl to the male actor's forearm.

"I'm not going anywhere with you" Kanda hissed icily. He harshly released his limb from the American's reach before walking into Komui's direction to finish with any stupid business the Chinese man had called him for.

"Oh, but you are my wannabe-boyfriend! My heart is aching now, oh no!" he heard the redheaded whining.

Kanda thought that, for being an actor, Lavi Bookman's performance of a heart attack was pretty pathetic. He made exaggerated movements around the room until he let himself slump onto one of the seats.

"Tsch, ridiculous" he rolled his eyes exasperatedly." What do you want?" the actor averted his attention from such a pitiful sight and focused on Komui.

The Chinese man suppressed one last chuckle and strayed from the rest of the group to join Kanda. Turning into serious mode, he spoke: "Just to inform you that you are acting with Onozawa in this second round. Titanic epic scene, you know it" said he.

"You are fucking kidding me" Kanda blurted. "You know how useless she is for that kind of shit"

"Onozawa? Keira Onozawa?" Lavi suddenly interested. Placing his elbows onto his knees and leaning his body forward in the seat, he blinked expectantly at the two males in front.

"Yes, the girl of the last performance" Komui cleared his throat, evidently uncomfortable with Lavi's reaction. He tried to recover his conversation with Kanda, perhaps a little impolitely towards Lavi, but the American didn't notice that, or just ignored it, because he kept on asking questions.

"Why do you say she is not useful for this? Her performance was quite impressing" said he.

"Romance" Komui explained reluctantly "For some reason, she doesn't seem to be able to perform romance onto the stage."

"Well, if she tried to act that with Yuu~" Lavi pointed to Kanda's direction with one of his longs fingers, smiling "I wouldn't be so surprised. No offence, but you are as cold as stone, mate" the American exclaimed. He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back in the chair.

"Stop calling my by that STUPID NAME!" Kanda stormed.

"Ow, you don't like it, Yuu?"

"I'm going to rip your head off and-"

"Alright, going back to business" Komui crossed an arm in front of Kanda's chest before the actor tried any aggression against the American. From the distance, the murmurs of their peers, who had stopped discussing between themselves to search the source of commotion, reached their ears within the intense silence.

Kanda growled, resigned, but swore for his depths that someday he was going to open the rabbit in two and take his guts away. He sent one last assassin's look to Lavi.

"I'm not working with Onozawa" he said instead, discharging his angers in the figure which he blamed was the reason of all his recent problems. If it hadn't been because of her stupid name, probably Bookman would have never directed the word to him. Stupid, stupid girl.

"You are part of the Drama crew, Kanda, you just can't-" Komui started scolding, until Lavi interrupted his phrase again.

"I'll do it, then" the redheaded proposed. He stood up from his seat, cleaning some invisible dust from his Polo shirt.

"I'm sorry, Bookman-"

"Lavi"

"Lavi," Komui corrected "but it is against the policy letting a professional actor perform with a student"

"But Yuu-pon" Lavi contested, utterly ignoring how Kanda stared at him as if he could send bullets through his eyes "is a professional actor too"

"He is a student" Fujimoto interfered. He walked to their directions, lightening a cigarette between his fingers. He gave one puff to the stick and the smoke ooze through his lips when he talked again. "He has the rights"

"Jesus, Renjiro" Klaud exclaimed, shaking her hand in the air in a fruitless intent of repelling the cloud of cancer "Smoke outside"

Reggory stepped forward too. "Well, I really don't see why Bookma-"

"Lavi"

"Whatever" he took off importance from Lavi's interruption with a vague gesture of his hand "I sincerely prefer Hiragizawa for the paper, but if Onozawa is to take it, it'd be good if she could try her skills with the real actor of her love-interest" the Producer explained.

"Well, that'll be unfair for the rest of the participants" Allen spoke out in English after his translator had repeated the same discussion to the scriptwriter's ears. He shut his notebook close and stood up, determined to leave at once.

"But it is also unfair," he continued "that because of Kanda, Onozawa is not able to perform correctly. The presence of certain actor will definitely influence in the final result of its partner, perhaps she'll be able to give the one hundredth per cent if she changes actor." The Brit reasoned. His gray eyes fixated on Komui. Truthfully, the young boy wanted Keira to be his Nakuru Dazai; she was just perfect for the paper. Maybe her brilliancy on the stage wasn't as outstanding as Maia Hiragizawa's, but that could easily be improved before the shootings of her scenes were made.

Exerting Komui to accept his logic with that creepy smile that Allen knew intimidated his companions, the Brit waited tranquilly while the teacher's brain processed his arguments. Nobody in the room contradicted Allen's words, understanding at once the logic of his reflections. The Brit knew that Brigitte, the image designer, supported him, and that the other ones, with an exception of Reggory, probably thought the same as him.

Finally, after one complete minute, the teacher sighed with resignation. "Will you be okay with this, Kanda?"

"Tsch, whatever, I don't care" the Japanese shrugged "I'll be leaving now"

"YAAAY! Monday three o'clock here, right? Right. See you, guys!" Lavi gleefully jumped.

As he watched the two male actors leave, the Japanese one with long strides and the American hopping at random, Allen realized how dangerous the idea of getting them together could be. Especially, getting them together as a gay couple. They were two worlds apart. Kanda: serious, cold, aloof. Lavi: cheerful, warm, friendly.

He wondered how Keira's presence would complement the picture. Could she be the one to fix the differences, balance the scales or break the little attachment that could grow between the two renowned actors?

For a moment, Allen prayed to the heavens that Keira could act romance well along with Lavi. Even if that was whimsical and childish, it was a desire that he couldn't suppress, and he was going to do anything possible to make it come true.

It was not that he was capricious neither unprofessional. Like any other writer, Allen wanted perfection whenever his scripts were passed to the big screen. A single defect, even a wrong placed window, could change the perspective of a scene, for not thinking in the flaw of an unfitting actress. That was unacceptable.

"Onozawa, please, do a good job" he murmured once he was left alone in the backseat of the black Rolls Royce Reever's men had rented for his personal use, together with the bilingual chauffeur.


"I hope whoever had the idea of stupid Titanic gets into a hole and die" Keira muttered to her insides as she sat down on the table with the rest of her group of friends.

All of them turned around to glance at the annoyed expression of the girl. Keira just pocked her fruit with the chopsticks, her teeth chewing her lower lip instead of the food. After some time considering if the pieces of apple were worth eating, the girl set aside her plate resignedly.

"It's not that bad" Maia commented nonchalantly before taking a big mouthful of ball meat to her lips.

Keira snorted "Not that bad? There's a kiss in it. I have to kiss fucking Kanda!" slowly, as the magnitude of her words sank into her mind and her companion's, her countenance grew paler at the mere idea of establishing lip-to-lip contact with the Japanese actor. A ghost of his warm breath upon her neck spread across her skin, eliciting a thousand of mental clouds that overcastted her thoughts.

"Oh, come on, Keira" Kaede half laughed "Every girl in this town would kill to be in your place. If I had remembered that there was a kiss in the scene, I myself would have chosen Kanda-sama as my partner"

"Wanna change?" the blue-eyed girl moaned helplessly. The images of his strong, taller body approaching her, his deep cobalt eyes shining as they surveyed the reactions of her organism under his influence, and the physical memory of his penetrating but nice cologne embracing her senses kept on bombarding her mind. She buried her face in her open palms to hide the blood that she could feel crawling to her cheeks.

"I'd love to! But Komui-sensei already delivered the partners to the judges" Keira's friend sighed, disappointed. "Never mind" she smiled immediately, as if no trace of hopelessness had ever crossed her face. "Is just a kiss; nothing extraordinary"

"Nothing extraordinary? How can you say that?" Keira surprised. She lifted her head once she was sure that the bombard of images had stopped, or at least decreased enough for her cheeks to recover their natural color, and stared wide-eyed at the girl who had said that nonsense. That a kiss wasn't extraordinary? Wasn't it supposed to be the expression of love that couples used to have between them?

"Well" Kaede contested "Is not like we have never kissed anyone before, right? Just one more or one less peck won't make a difference" she shrugged to take importance from the business

"Do you remember your first kiss?" Kaede asked excitedly out of the blue. Her eyes jumped from one face to another, searching for the one who dared to answer the question.

"Well, it was nothing incredible" Maia was the first one to talk, always taking the initiative. "My first boyfriend; outside the classroom. It was…wet" she bit her lower lip, a little bit embarrassed about such a confession. One quick glance towards Raito escaped through the corner of her eye, so fast that Keira wondered if she even saw it.

"I was fourteen" Raito was the next one to talk. His hazel eyes fixated upon the empty tray in front of him. "A bottle game"

"Same here" Koji replied. "Actually, I was with Rai. It was a pretty girl. I wonder what happened to her. I remember she…" whatever the dreamy boy was about to say trailed off when he started rummaging in any far memory inside his head. Those moments of silence were so common in him that none of them tried to force him to come out from his mental cage. Instead, they turned to see the other two girls who hadn't answered yet.

Keira sent rapid looks to Hikari, the shyest of the group. She didn't like the way the conversation had gone and regretted ever bringing the topic of kissing to the table. What were they going to say when…

"Last year" Hikari's small voice murmured sheepishly "With Tom, during Summer. Remember?"

"Oh, how could we ever forget it?" Raito joked "Your first Summer-love, that was epic" he smiled widely at the blushed girl.

Hikari only nodded sharply and concentrated again in his tray of food, hiding behind the glass of her big spectacles.

"What about you, Keira?" Kaede inquired after it got obvious that Keira was not going to talk voluntarily. Her insensibility bothered her, especially because she had no real answer to give because…

"I…don't remember" she mumbled.

"How can you not remember? It was your first kiss!" Maia interfered.

"Don't remember"

"First kiss is always the most memorable one" Kaede pushed "You have to remember it. Unless…" realization crashed onto the gleeful girl, and Keira knew it when her smile became a gawk.

It was just a matter of seconds for her to exclaim aloud, being the noisy, insensible person she was, the obvious.

5…

Keira felt ashamed.

4…

She could sense it coming. Like looking at something in slow motion, she appreciated all the changes in Kaede's expression.

3…

Her mouth closed. Then opened. Then closed again, like a fish seeking water.

2…

A gasp from the other side of the table. Maia had realized it too. Now it was just a matter of time…

1…

"You haven't received your first kiss!" both girls, Maia and Kaede, exclaimed at the same time. They covered their mouths in horror, like if Keira had confessed that she used to kill kitties during her childhood. Probably their reactions wouldn't have been so extreme if that had been the case. But it wasn't –in fact, Keira loved animals-, of course not, because the only sin she had made, the one that converted her in the blank of speculations and criticism was not having kissed anyone in her seventeen years of life.

Questioning her about the number of kisses she had given was the worst thing they could inquire about.

"Didn't your last boyfriend kiss you?" Kaede whispered, still stroked by the notice.

Wrong. That last one was probably the worst question of all.

"Err, well, let's say that I haven't had a boyfriend for the last seventeen years" Keira responded sheepishly. Well, she had never had a boyfriend neither stick her tongue inside someone else's teeth, was it that bad? Her life hadn't been normal at all, did they really expected her to do normal things like any other teenager? Well, yes, because they didn't know her past.

"No way!" Raito blurted "You have to be kidding us. Really, no boyfriend, no kiss? Never?"

"Never" Keira reaffirmed. "Can we change subject, now?"

"Hell, no!" Kaede, Kaede, pigheaded Kaede, Keira exasperatedly thought. "Isn't this like a dream came true? Kanda-sama is going to take your first kiss!"


"Lavi Bookman is going to take your first kiss!" The shriek that Kaede let escape echoed in the farthest corners of the dark theatre. Before Keira could even digest the information, her friend was already clinging to her arm, jumping excitedly.

"Holy shit, Funaki-chan" the brunette hissed when she found her voice again. Keira could feel all the amused looks following her movements, including Lavi's and Kanda's ones. Did they really need to know that she hadn't yet received her first kiss? Evidently, yes, at least according to Kaede's criteria.

This is an excellent moment for zombies to start their invasion… she thought for herself. Where were the zombies whenever she needed them? Rotting, probably.

"Is that true? You haven't received your first kiss?" Lavi asked. His only eye was opened like a plate, his green iris gleaming with curiosity. Watching him there, leaning on the false wall of the stage with his hands hid into his pockets, made Keira's heart stop beating. The ungainly image that his attitude emanated contrasted significantly with the natural elegancy of his movements.

It didn't help that his hair fell gracefully around his features, feeding the red-haired fetish Keira had. Some seconds of expectant silence indicated Keira that they were waiting for her answer and that she had been staring indiscreetly at the American actor. She gulped, embarrassed, wishing once more for the end of the world to arrive.

"Err, ehrshr… n…ssthrreea…o" she dumbly mumbled. Now she wasn't just the romantic-less girl, but also the dumb, retarded one. She cursed herself in the insides and nagged her tongue for striking like that.

"Oh that is so cute!" Out of nowhere, Lavi incorporated and jumped towards Keira. The girl noticed Kaede hastily moving aside to leave complete space for Lavi to embrace the brunette in a huge, bear-hug.

It shocked her, left her limbs numb and stiff, but her mind didn't collapse. Instead, it registered the motion like something natural, like if that was just another piece of a puzzle. When Lavi finally released her, despite his unbelievable gorgeousness, no blush attended her cheeks. She felt nothing weird at all, and that made her feel good, sure.

Unfortunately, her peace had to be killed by Kanda's harsh words.

"Pathetic" the Oriental actor sneered.

"Go to hell, Kanda, please, and die there" she retorted.

"Che, going to hell requires dying first. Idiot, don't you know rules of life and death?"

"Don't you know social rules of interaction?"

"I know them!" like a little kid participating in class, Lavi raised his hand happily. "I know them, ask me, Keira-chan!"

Stunned, she turned around to face Lavi. At the watch of him hopping repeatedly with his hand shaking in the air, a giggle escaped through Keira's teeth. It was so cute and funny to watch him so excited about participating in a non-existent class that the sight of it easily slipped through her anger barriers.

"Oh, you are so cute when you laugh!" the redheaded yearned for another hug. Nevertheless, Komui interrupted the action with his calmed voice.

"Alright, it's time to work. The participants, go backstage and prepare yourself, the other ones, please help me set up the scenery. Fast, fast, fast" clapping to emphasize his words, he guided Maia, Kaede, Raito, Fye, Keira and Lavi to the back part of the stage, while Hinata, Rika and even Kanda crossed the emergency door in search of anything they were going to use.

Keira sat down on the floor and reviewed her lines under the dim light of the backstage. She cooed them aloud to herself, decided to give her best to stay with the role in the movie, even when she knew she had no opportunity against Maia neither Kaede.

"Relax, girl" Lavi Bookman whispered. He sat down cross-legged beside her. "Is just a rehearsal" his white teeth shone in the darkness like neon lights when he smiled. Keira noticed that they were straight and perfect.

"I'm not staying with the paper" she unconsciously mumbled. "I can't even learn this" Keira let the bunch of copied fall to the floor. "And I can't perform romance. The two first times were a disaster"

"Because you acted with Yuu-pon" the redheaded reasoned. He bent over to take the papers Keira had thrown and re-accommodated them in the right order. "It is like that in romance. If you don't feel comfortable with someone, performing a cheesy scene is hard, even for professionals"

"That's why they assigned you to me?" Keira asked.

"Nope" the actor shook his head. "I requested this"

The girl blinked. He requested it? She could have sworn that somebody had the idea to match them together in the scene and ordered Lavi to do it. But, thinking of it better, he was completely alien to the entire project, why would he accept to help someone he didn't know having absolutely no obligation to do so?

"I am of your team, if you want to call it like that" Lavi responded her unasked question. "I want you to get the paper, and when I heard that you were unable to perform romance, I decided that I should help"

"Why? I mean, why you want me to be in the movie?" Keira inquired. This was getting even more confuse.

"Isn't it obvious?" the actor raised an eyebrow enigmatically. Seeing he being this serious after fooling around was an abrupt change for Keira, it made her even more perplexed than ever.

"Would you mind speaking clearer? I'm not in the mood for this shit" she blurted out, annoyed. Playing cryptic games infuriated her, especially when it made her feel stupid, and she already felt stupid enough.

"Okay, Okay, don't get angry" Lavi raised his palms in a surrender gesture. "Stop hanging around with Yuu, he is badly influencing in you"

"Answer my goddamned question" Keira narrowed her eyes, the promise of death implicit in the gesture.

"Is just that I think you are so cuuuuteeeeeee~" Lavi reached out and manipulated her cheeks with his hands.

"BOOKMON, YOO ORE…" she tried to speak.

"Bookman, Onozawa, are you ready?" the two young actors heard Komui summoning from the other side of the stage.

"WEEE AAREE COOMMIIING~" Lavi tuned. He stood up and offered his hand to Keira to help her up.

Keira stared dumbly at the hand for one second. Perhaps Lavi was right: she didn't feel nervous about acting romance with him. Her mind flew back to the first time she was to be all twee with Kanda, and she found a wide difference of emotions between back then and now.

With Lavi, like when he hugged her, it felt natural to walk together to the stage; to watch him being all serious and then smiling in an endeavor to imitate Leonardo DiCaprio but with his own, original style. The poorness of the hastily made prop material made it less transcendental, too.

She walked into the scene, transformed completely from Keira Onozawa to Rose.


Link observed from the last row of seats the scene in front, the shadows dissimulating perfectly his slim figure, ecstatic as stone.

"It is part of the performance. Kiss him, Onozawa" the Geography teacher heard Komui ordering.

Keira shook her head. The piece they were performing was supposed to end five minutes ago with a kiss, Link supposed, a kiss that Keira refused to give.

Stubborn. Pigheaded, just as always.

"Just a peck, come on!" some of the students tried to encourage her.

"No! I'm not doing it" the brunette stormed. Her face contorted in some kind of infuriated, horrified expression. She furrowed her eyebrows until a wrinkle appeared in the middle of them.

"It is alright, Komui-san" the redheaded actor, Link concluded was a professional from his brilliancy on the stage, interfered when it was obvious that Keira was not yielding. "We don't have to do it now"

Komui sighed audibly. "I hope you are conscious that sooner or later you'll have to kiss. I know this makes you uncomfortable, Keira, but this is how it is meant to be. If you don't want to be in the movie, then just…"

"I want to" Keira interrupted. Her voice echoed firmly in the room "Just give me some time, okay?" the girl sighed, defeated.

"It's okay, take the time you need now" the Drama teacher softly said. "Funaki, Yamamoto, stage in three seconds"

Link stood up and exited in silence the theatre. He opened the double-doors just enough for him to cross to the other side and took his cell phone out of his shirt pocket.

"She is good" Link murmured when his boss responded on the other side of the line. He leaned against the corridor's wall of outside the theatre, staring at the few students that were still wandering in the school.

"Do you think she can get the role?" Leverrier's deep voice asked from the other side of the line. He seemed anxious, but hid that nervousness behind a perfectly controlled authoritative voice.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she did"

"Make sure that doesn't happen. You know what can happen if she becomes a public figure, right?" The businessman said.

"The plans ruin. Don't worry. I won't let her attend the second casting." Link concluded.

"Excellent" Leverrier conceded "Make it look casual, she cannot suspect from you. This girl is not going to win me"


A/N: Finally! Hi everyone! This took a while to be published, I am sorry for it n.n

Here is an announcement:

I have decided to turn this a KandaxOCxLavi fanfiction. I know it sounds weird, especially because Lavi and Kanda are two worlds apart, but I have just this entire idea going on in my head that I cannot let go. I hope you still like this, even when this slight change has been done, and please, don't flame me TT_TT Well, just tell me what you think of this whole new idea, if you want to.

Well, I know some of you are wondering why Lavi is all of a sudden so interested in Keira. Nope, he doesn't like her, for now. Answers will eventually come out within the course of this story.

Thank you so much for the reviews and the support, it really cheers me up! I'd like you to keep on supporting me even when this KandaxOCxLavi change has been done, but if you don't like it, well, guess I cannot change that. Just be nice, please n.n

Especial thanks to my little bro, Paco, who suggested the idea of the Titanic scene. I don't really know the name of that especial piece, but it is the one in which Jack gets Rose onto the rail of the ship and they kiss. Hope you get the idea, it is on Youtube, and the complete scene will be described in next chapter.

Well, next update may take a while too, please, be patient. I'll be putting in my profile the advances of the chapters, in case you grow despaired and want to know what is going on.

Sayo sayo!