Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne.
Chapter Thirteen
Shooting the Breeze
The photo shoot had been scheduled for midsummer and the weather outside was beastly, but because the ads needed to look like they had been taken in the fall or winter, Hitomi and Allen's wardrobe selections were extreme. Allen was stuck wearing a dark grey sweater and a Matrix style ankle-length overcoat while Hitomi was wearing thigh-high black suede boots. Folken kept on talking about texture, so she was wearing a tweed skirt, an exceptionally shiny cream blouse, as well as an overcoat that wasn't completely unlike Allen's. Folken had seen the shots of Hitomi wearing the scarf and decided that they needed one as a prop as well. It was boiling hot out. Hitomi couldn't see how she was going to make it through this without making gigantic sweat stains through her top, but she didn't dare say anything to anyone.
Now she was sitting in a makeup trailer with Merle fluttering behind her and a gigantic mirror in front of her. Allen was two feet away snoozing in his chair. His hair dresser was using a straightening iron to make Allen's hair as smooth as silk. As if it wasn't already! The trailer had air conditioning, but it was only a matter of time before they were out in that blazing sun. Hitomi didn't know how Allen could be so composed.
Hitomi hadn't see Van much that day. She saw him for about fifteen minutes in the office that morning before she had to get going. She was disappointed.
Their romance had been … Hitomi didn't know how to describe it. She wasn't sure if it was going well or not. To be truthful, she hadn't ever been in a serious relationship and so she didn't know if the feelings she was experiencing were signs of real love or not. Van was kind to her, attentive when she had his attention (granted, getting it wasn't always easy), and she felt goosebumps when he touched her and when they kissed. Yet, even with all that, she didn't feel comfortable. Yes, she had fallen asleep on him that night at her apartment, but after closer evaluation, she felt like it had been an act of shear exhaustion rather than a sign that she was more comfortable with him than anyone else. She hadn't been able to fall asleep on their hammock date – not even a little bit drowsy. She sensed that Van had been disappointed. He seemed to want them to accelerate the pace of their relationship, but too respectful of Hitomi's feelings to monopolize her time. It was clear he thought she wanted space.
The first location for the photo shoot was outside the coffee shop. Hitomi was supposed to lean against a brick wall, hold a cell phone and smile warmly while Allen was supposed to be inside the coffee shop looking at her through the window. Hitomi thought it sounded simple enough. She was also delighted to see that Folken had set up a few fans – not only to give her hair a slightly wind-blow effect, but also to stop her from fainting from heat exhaustion.
Allen gave Hitomi a reassuring smile as he stepped into the coffee shop to take his position by the window. Hitomi was surprised. She thought that he was supposed to be difficult to work with. He seemed easy enough to her.
Van, Dryden, and Merle came to wish Hitomi well before they took up positions behind Folken and his crew.
"Break a leg, or an arm, or a camera lens," Merle said sheepishly before she hustled away. It was clear that she was a little overwhelmed by the glamour of working on a real photo shoot. From Hitomi's conversation with Merle the night before, she knew that sugarplums were dancing in her head. She couldn't stop thinking about where this might lead if she did a good job.
Dryden didn't say anything much. It wasn't that he didn't want to be encouraging, but Hitomi knew he had his hands full. He was a busy man – putting out fires. Celena showed up on the set just as Dilandau warned Hitomi she would and Dryden had gone to talk to her.
Van came up and said quietly. "You know, I have been thinking about what you've said about being two faced."
Hitomi smoothed the straying strands of her wig and nodded. "You mean the act I put on when I'm working as an escort?"
"Yeah. You keep saying that has nothing to do with who you are as a person, but I think you're wrong," he said, and as he spoke his eyes seemed somehow darker and more intense.
"Oh?" she asked, her eyebrows slightly rose in interest.
"I think your ability to morph into whatever is needed in a given situation is part of you. It might not be the part closest to your heart, or the part that I need to win over, but it's the part of you that's going to carry you through your entire life," he paused. "And, incidentally, help you get through today, which, by the way, is going to be unpleasant at best. Allen is a handful. Work hard and if it gets too rough, let me know and I'll intervene. You don't have to talk to me – just look at me – and I'll get you a break."
Hitomi gulped. Was Van beginning to understand a part of her that she didn't yet understand herself? She had never considered the idea that everything she did – whether real or pretend – contributed to the person she was growing up to be. She pushed the thought out of her mind and focussed on the professional part of what Van was saying.
"I don't think Allen will be that difficult. He seems to want to work with me. He just smiled at me."
Van shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I don't know that his smiling at you means anything. Today is a day of surprises. Did you see Celena? I wonder what she's doing here."
Hitomi was tempted to tell him that Dilandau's plan to pair off Folken and Celena, but decided to keep it to herself. After all, Dryden was dealing with that. Besides, Hitomi thought smugly, it wasn't going to work. She didn't think that Folken was the type to try to romance Celena in the way that she had schooled the boys from the escort service. He just wasn't that type of guy. Hitomi thought he was more of the 'take it or leave it' variety. Unless she was wrong …
"I'll try my best to make this work," Hitomi said, speaking again of the photo shoot.
"That's my girl," Van said encouragingly. "After this, I want to take you for dinner if you don't have any plans."
"Do I have to come like this?" Hitomi said, indicating her appearance.
Van smiled mischievously. "Only if you want to."
If Van had a crystal ball that let him see the future, his prediction of how the day was going to go couldn't have been more accurate. Everything happened exactly the way he said it would. It started out easy. Allen was in the coffee shop and she was standing outside, so because they weren't near each other, Hitomi couldn't do anything to offend him. However, once they moved onto the next series of poses, she couldn't do anything right according to Allen. She did what Folken told her to do, but apparently her 'interpretation' of Folken's instructions was all wrong. It would go something like this:
Folken would say something like, "Allen, put your forearm against the wall and lean into Hitomi. Take your right hand and take a strand of Hitomi's hair between your fingers, but don't let go of the cell phone. Got it? Now Hitomi, let Allen pin you against the wall and look at him like he's your entire world. Hold your cell phone to your heart with your left hand and … bite your lip."
Hitomi would put her hand to her heart (cell phone in tow), bite her lip and try to look at Allen like she was a blushing girl with all kinds of hopes tied to Allen. She would even begin to feel her cheeks get warm when suddenly –
Allen would pounce on her. He would be looking directly into her eyes and then he would say something like, "Folken, I'm just not getting the feeling like I'm her entire world."
"Shut up and look pretty," Folken would say caustically and the flash from his camera would start going off like mad.
Allen would break pose and move away from Hitomi while exclaiming something along the lines of, "This just isn't working. I'm not getting the correct vibe from her that Dryden described in the meeting. She's not working with me."
Then Hitomi's cheeks would flush for real and she would find herself saying something like, "Come on Allen, and let me try again." But it didn't really matter what she said or how hard she tried, Allen just kept right on saying that she wasn't doing it right and that she wasn't easy to work with.
At around ten thirty a.m. he stormed off to the trailer almost screaming, "She's just NOT model material."
At a moment like that, Hitomi half expected herself to burst into tears, but she couldn't help but feel like Allen's temper tantrum had nothing to do with her. He was just a freaking brat! Either that, or Dilandau told him that he had to make things as difficult as possible in order to discredit Hitomi. Yeah, she could see Dilly doing something like that. It was just like him. But, that would mean a partial loss of Allen's reputation. Was Dilandau really willing to sacrifice something that important?
Well, where was he right now?
Hitomi finally spotted him approaching the trailor. He didn't quite make it to the steps before Folken got to him and reproached him. Hitomi couldn't hear their conversation, but it was clear that Dilandau was getting told off. Hitomi had never seen Dilandau cowed by anyone and apparently 'scary' Folken didn't intimidate him either. Instead, they ended up going to talk to Allen together.
After the door closed, Van came up to Hitomi and slipped his fingers around hers as subtly as possible. Hitomi doubted anyone noticed.
"I wasn't that bad, was I?" she asked, trying hard to keep the venom out of her voice.
Van rolled his eyes. "I don't know. You looked good to me and Folken didn't say anything before he started snapping off pictures. He would have said something if he didn't find your poses satisfactory. I don't think you did anything wrong, but this is crazy. You two have only finished a quarter of a day and haven't even finished the second series of poses. The more time Allen spends in his trailer, the less time you have to work on the coffee shop series. We weren't going to come back here tomorrow."
"Oh, yeah, tomorrow we were supposed to take pictures in the subway, right?"
Van nodded.
"Well, since Allen's in the trailer, can I sit down for a few minutes?" Hitomi asked.
"Probably, since Folken's in there too."
Van found her a folding chair and sat her down. Then to her immense surprise, he stood behind her and started rubbing her shoulders. And of course, every muscle in her body seized. Did he really have to do that in public?
"Don't tense up," Van rebuked.
"But-"
"But nothing. I'm your agent and in a situation like this, I think you need something to help you relax."
Hitomi tried to do what Van said. No one was looking at her funny or even really noticing what she and Van were doing. Folken's crew had all gotten themselves drinks and were mellowing on equipment carriers. Dryden was nowhere to be seen, and coincidentally, neither was Celena. A few minutes after Folken and Dilandau went into the trailer; Merle and the other makeup artist were quickly shooed out.
Merle came over to Van and Hitomi with a frown the size of an upside down row boat. "Whoa," she said, "that guy is really something else. Isn't he?"
"Did he say anything to you?" Van asked.
"No," Merle said, "but I was having a serious conversation with Sapphira about makeup and he comes trouncing in … argh!"
"Well, she's right over there," Van said, pointing to Allen's makeup artist. "And they might not be out of the trailer for awhile. You might get more time to talk out here."
"Of course I was going to go talk to her," Merle said, sounding offended that Van pointed out something so obvious to her. "I just wanted to come see how Hitomi was holding up."
"I'm fine," Hitomi said earnestly. "I just hope that Folken isn't disappointed with me."
"Well, he's not out here explaining how you're a screw-up, now is he?" Merle said thoughtfully before saying to Van snottily, "And Van, if you want to be alone with Hitomi all you have to say is 'scram'. Okay? It's not like I'm her mother." Then she stalked away to go stand by Sapphira.
Van kept on rubbing Hitomi's shoulders, but she was pointed towards the door to the trailer and she couldn't stop worrying about what was happening in there. Was Allen really being chewed out?
The minutes seemed to be going very slowly as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. Soon it was past eleven and lunch was scheduled for twelve noon. Van got Hitomi a bottle of water and a couple of guys from Folken's crew went for a cigarette break. Now it was eleven thirty and the door still hadn't opened.
Finally at a quarter to twelve, Folken came out of the trailer. His eyes looked dark and angry. He came over to Hitomi and Van. "Where's Dryden?" he asked briskly.
"I don't know. He hasn't been back since you went in," Van said.
"Whatever," Folken said grouchily as he took his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialling. Then he moved away from them and over to his camera.
"Stay here," Van said as he moved to follow him.
Soon Folken was surrounded by a small cluster of people, but Hitomi didn't see if Folken got a hold of Dryden or not. Her attention was distracted by Allen coming out of the trailer. He was wearing his own clothes and Dilandau was following after him quickly with his cell phone pinned to his ear. It sounded like he was arranging for a car to come pick them up. Allen didn't look at Hitomi or anyone else as he left the set. He merely covered his eyes with a pair of dark sunglasses and disappeared behind the fans.
Hitomi would have loved to go have a chat with Dilandau at this moment, but it was clear that he was too busy to talk to Hitomi just then. If Folken looked like a thunder cloud when he came out of the trailer, Dilandau looked like a typhoon – the kind with shrapnel in the wind. Despite a perfectly healthy Allen walking in front of him, Dilandau looked like he had just committed murder – infuriated beyond understanding. Hitomi would have loved to talk to him.
Van came back over to Hitomi and explained, "Obviously, Allen has refused to model."
"With me?" Hitomi asked carefully. "He doesn't mind doing the photo shoot, but just not with me, right?"
Van ran a hand through his hair. It was obvious that he desperately didn't want to answer that question. "That isn't what Folken said, but the photo shoot has been put on hiatus for the time being. I guess we'll be back in the office tomorrow."
"Okay," Hitomi said slowly. She was still absorbing Allen's rejection and deciding how she was going to deal with it. Once again, she thought she was in a situation where she would normally want to cry, but she didn't. Who cared if Allen didn't like her? He was so bratty that not even Dilandau could reel him in.
"They were going to have a catered lunch here, but I think everyone would understand if you and I didn't stay for it. Can I take you for lunch and dinner?"
"You're just trying to make me feel better," Hitomi said.
"Yeah, and if we don't get out of here quickly, I'm going to fail."
Author's Notes: Hiya everyone! Thank you everyone for following my story and for reviewing. It's really wonderful when people review. I didn't have a beta reader again, so there might be lots of mistakes. Try to ignore them. Thanks!