The door slammed against the opposite wall with a definitive bang as the frustrated redhead burst into the Love Me dressing room. Completely ignoring that, Sai allowed the door to swing shut behind her as she whipped a hand through her hair and ripped out the bun that had been perched at the base of her neck.

She basically threw herself onto the couch at the center and dug her elbows into her thighs in order to prop her head up. Burying her face in her hands, she rubbed at her temples and shut her eyes tightly, trying desperately to block out all of the negative thoughts rushing around her mind.

Breaking her blissful moment of concentration, the door opened again and the soft footfalls of her friend and makeup artist met the actress's ears. Rio gazed at her with sad, worried eyes and made her way around the couch until she was kneeling in front of her.

"Sai...can you please tell me what's wrong?" She asked, her expression pleading, "You've been like this all week, can I do nothing to help you?"

Sensing the brunette's distress, Sai looked up and met her darker, mucky brown eyes, noting the hint of emerald green at the center. Wordlessly, she glancing over at her discarded tote bag and let an audible, exasperated sigh go. Taking that to mean that the problem centered around the contents of the bag, Rio reached in and pulled out a stack of papers.

"These are what's bothering you? Is it still that role you can't grasp?" She bit her lower lip as she paged through the topmost scripts, noting with a slight wince that they were hopelessly marked up and scribbled on as the redhead tried desperately to find the solution that so eluded her.

In answer, Sai took the stack of papers from her friend's hands and stood up. From there, she whipped them all to the ground with a vexed exclamation of effort. Savoring the moments that all her hard work and careful documentation hit the floor unceremoniously, she again sat down and smiled ruefully, the rest of her face blank and unmoving.

Rio looked at all the papers strewn about and let a gentle sigh go. She made no move to pick them up. Instead, she moved for the young woman clearly trying to hold back tears on the couch. She placed herself close to her friend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Together, they sat simply staring at all the mess on the ground before them, as if it symbolized the true defeat that always accompanied one's inability to complete what they set out to do.

Not even five minutes after they'd settled down and Sai was beginning to calm her anger at herself, the door burst open a third time. "Good morning, big sis!" A sweet, innocent little voice rang out. The little girl who'd produced such a girlish tone whirled around to the other side of the couch, her golden hair dancing around her and a bright, beaming smile plastered on her face. She'd completely missed the heavy atmosphere suffocating the space.

She didn't enter alone, though, as she was followed almost immediately by the tall form of a familiar dark haired actor. "Maria," Ren spoke softly, beckoning the small girl towards him. She leaped into his arms and he offered a tiny smile. "I don't really think either of them could match your energy right now. Why don't you bring it down a few notches?" He asked as politely as he could, his eyes soft and displaying true affection for the little girl.

Biting her lip, Maria looked around the room and spotted the papers lying discarded and desolate on the ground as well as how unmoving and distraught her dear sister looked on the couch. She wormed her way out of the actor's grip and walked over to the redhead, trying to meet her eyes.

"Ms. Akai…" he began slowly, guiding Maria from stepping on any more papers than she already had until both of them were seated. "Why did you throw all of your scripts on the ground?"

Completely taking him by surprise, Sai looked up with such a sorrowful, apologetic, almost puppy-dog expression that his breath caught. He was always shocked when an emotion registered so obviously on her face, and this time it seemed sunken in. She hadn't gotten as much sleep as usual. She clearly wasn't eating as much as she should. The lines in her forehead and around her lips were so creased that they looked painful. This was tearing her apart.

He knew this was going to happen. He'd known it all along. Swallowing, he tried to forget that he'd warned her about Himeko and instead he just focused on helping her in whatever way she needed. Ren offered his hand out towards the redhead, a gentle smile gracing his lips as they parted for him to speak,

"Are you ready to go to lunch? This time, it's my treat, and I'm giving you the ride there." He told her with a small smirk, recalling the last time they'd gone out with Maria. The actor could only hope that allowing her to spend some time with those who genuinely care about her would improve her mood.

Of course, he hadn't the faintest idea what food she liked. He honestly knew very little about her and what he did know, he'd found out on his own. She never really revealed anything to him on her own. There was no telling what mysteries surrounded her. Regardless, she was who she was, and at that moment, she needed his help. And there wasn't a force in the universe that would stop him from giving it to her.

Holding out his hand, he watched as her gaze focused on it and she nodded slowly, a bit of the pained tension in her face relaxing. Raising her hand to meet his, her slender fingers brushed his palm and it felt like electricity racing through the veins of his arms. Ren ignored this and tightened his grip on her fingers, pulling her up from the couch with surprisingly little effort. She weighed almost nothing, as he'd noted when he'd caught her earlier on in their relationship.

As she stood, he realized that now, now she wasn't just relaxing, now there was a smile on her lips. It was small, but it wasn't like the tight, pressed, polite smile she offered to coworkers and her employers. It was sincere, genuine. She was still stressed out, but her smile was real for him.

Without meaning to, he let this get the best of him and a smile of his own lit up his face. The redhead savored every moment that his lips turned up in such a heavenly glow, and she wasn't afraid to admit that it sent her pulse racing through her ears. Both Maria and Rio also looked on in a sort of embarrassed shock, their cheeks bright pink and their eyes wide.

"You've made quite a mess of these papers, though, Ms. Akai," he admonished jokingly, bending down to sweep some of them up. Sai looked at his broad back as he turned away from her to gather more papers and a small sigh escaped her lips.

"It's not as if they were in any kind of order. I've rearranged and reread them so many times that I practically have every word of those things memorized." Her voice was slightly raspier than normal, almost hoarse, like she hadn't spoken in a while. It made the actor flinch almost imperceptibly to hear it.

After that, she bent down to help him and the two cleaned up the papers relatively quickly as the two other girls in the room began assisting as well. "I'm sorry for making you all help me," the redhead said, her face unreadable and her eyes focusing on nothing in particular.

Maria jumped into her arms and surprised her, causing the actress's gaze to focus in on her. "You don't need to be sorry, sis. We just wish we could help." Sai's smile grew a bit at his and she kissed the little girl on her forehead.

"I know. Thank you, Maria." She set the golden haired child down and turned to face the actor behind her who was staring, his brows drawn down and together. "Mr. Tsuruga, you don't have to make a face like that...I'm alright. Just frustrated."

"You're really alright?" He asked, taking Maria's hand as they prepared to leave.

The redhead rushed about and grabbed her things, stuffing them in the already over packed tote bag and hugging Rio, telling her to be careful on her next job. When she turned to face the dark haired man again, she looked up directly into his eyes which hadn't left her since he asked his question, "Yes. I am. I'm close too, I can feel it."

They began walking out of the Love Me area, a delightful smile on the littlest's face, "You're close? You almost have it?"

"I think so. You know when you're trying to solve a problem, and it's almost like the answer is right on the tip of your tongue, but you can't find the proper way to convey it? It's like that with my image of her. It's like I know what it should be and I can feel that there's an answer, I just can't find the right things to visualize." Sai tilted her head in concentration and said feeling returned, lurking right where she couldn't reach it.

"Almost makes it harder, don't you think?" The actor said, bittersweet memories of his earlier roles drifting through his mind.

"Definitely. It's worse when I know there's an answer that I can't find." She pondered this for a moment, tilting her head both ways as if physically moving ideas around in her head. The trio reached Ren's new Porsche and Sai eyed him warily. "How's your arm?"

"A little weaker than normal. Once the cast came off, they warned me there might be some muscle atrophy and I'll need to build up the strength I once had in it." Ren glanced self-consciously at his now healed arm, flexing his fingers gently.

"But you're okay to drive?" Sai asked, the blue in her eyes so pale that they were almost white.

"Ms. Akai, with all due respect," he smirked at her as he placed the golden haired girl in his back seat, "I drove with my cast on, I think I can handle driving with it off."

"Yes, I'm aware," the redhead ventured, still edging on what to do, "But you drove yourself and your manager around dangerously like that. You didn't have a precious little girl with you then."

The tall actor looked in on Maria sitting there and smiling at him through the glass, her bright forest green eyes gazing up at him happily. Why did that damn redhead have to be so good at arguing with him? He sighed and gestured with his jaw for her to sit in the driver's seat. Circling back around, he climbed into his own passenger's door and sat with a huff.

"Don't pout. You can drive her all over when your hand is back to full strength." Sai told him, a smile playing at her own lips.

"I'm not pouting." The actor insisted, ignoring a giggle from the back seat.

"You are too pouting," the petite woman argued back as she pulled out of the parking space.

"Am not."

"Are too. You're such a child." She joked, taking a careful right onto the street.

"You're arguing back," he pointed out.

"I didn't say I wasn't a child at heart, I only pointed out that you're also being one."

Ren tsked at this, "Technicalities won't win you everything."

"And pouting won't win you anything." She flashed her coworker a bright, teasing smile before turning back to the road and navigating to another one of her favorite restaurants she used to drag Lory to.

Maria had listened to their entire exchange, bouncing in her seat, an excited smile on her lips. The way the two interacted fascinated her, as she'd never seen either act like that with anyone else. She knew they had feelings for each other even if they denied them. She knew she'd meddle here and there, but mainly she'd just wait, and when the inevitable happened, oh she'd have bragging rights until the end of time.

Bantering back and forth relatively successfully a good majority of the time, the two talents occasionally bringing Maria in on their conversations as Sai navigated through streets neither of the others recognized. They arrived not soon after the golden haired girl's stomach growled for the first time, and they all unloaded into a more modern looking restaurant than Ren was used to, all sleek metals and sharp angles.

He sent the actress a sideways glance and she exhaled quickly through her nose in laughter. Pointedly ignoring his gaze, she sidestepped him and took Maria's hand, twirling her around and making the young girl laugh adorably as they approached the building. At first, the actor hadn't been able to understand why Maria had taken such a shine to Sai so quickly, finding their relationship baffling. As he watched them now, though, he could clearly see why their bond was so strong.

The young girl held her "sister" in a high regard, but also treated her like a mother figure. In return, the redhead was gentle and caring, but wasn't overbearing or demanding like a parent. She treated Maria like an adult when that was appropriate, but also wasn't afraid to spend time with the young child that Maria never really got to be. It was really sweet to watch.

Again, she'd managed to bring Ren to a place which had an upper balcony and was fairly secluded, away from the public eye. Sitting down, Maria engaged her beloved actor in a conversation concerning her father and her current school subjects which gave Sai the opportunity to relax and fall silent for the first time in a while.

The waiter eventually came and got their drink orders, after which the redhead slumped into her chair and allowed her thoughts to wander over to the progress she'd been making on Himeko. She swirled around the ice in her water glass as she thought, her gaze soft and wandering across the walls of the restaurant.

"Big sis?" Maria asked for the third time, blinking sadly at the woman who sat beside her, completely in a world of her own.

"Ms. Akai, are you alright?" Ren asked, slowly moving his hand to touch her forearm. The sudden pressure against her skin woke the redhead out of the trance-like state she'd been in and she jerked violently away from him.

Blinking slowly, she shook off the remaining fluff in her head and cleared her throat, "Ah, yes. I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Were you thinking about Himeko again?" The actor asked, his expression still but slightly sterner than Maria was used to. She hoped they weren't about to argue again.

Sai looked at him with round, sad eyes, the paleness in them darker at the edges, like a dying flower.

"You need to take a break, Ms. Akai. Really, you have dark circles under your eyes and you look so exhausted. You really need to focus on keeping yourself healthy, you owe it to your professionalism as an-" In the middle of his lecture, the actress's eyes widened significantly for her and she whipped herself downwards towards her tote bag.

Quickly, she dug out four notebooks and whipped them on the table in front of her, frantically flipping through one of them before discarding that one and picking up another. Narrowing his eyes, he picked up the notebook she'd set aside and flipped through several of the pages.

It looked like the one she'd been writing in on the set. Except now there were four and there weren't only notes and bullet points, but also diagrams and graphic organizers with dozens of differently colored lines and arrows. It looked insane.

"Ms. Akai…" He ventured, paging through another while she furiously scribbled in the only one with blank pages. "Are these all filled with notes on Himeko?"

Finally looking up, her expression was strange and there wasn't enough movement to really go off of. She appeared somewhat inspired, but there was obviously still an issue in the logic she'd just tried. Sai nodded wordlessly and then resumed writing, oblivious to Maria peeking over her shoulder and Ren trying to make out some of the text in the third book.

Finally catching on to their curiosity, she flipped to the first page in her current notebook and held it out to her two companions. "This is the map I'm currently going off of. Anything is blue is a consistency I've warped a personality to fit and anything in red is still inconsistent." The rest of the page was filled with all kinds of colors and writing utensil types, marking character traits, quotes, and details that the actor couldn't quite make out.

Ren flipped to a page in the book he was holding and found a similar map, except this one was covered in a lot more red. "So have you made a lot of progress, then?" He asked, curious.

Her brows drew together about a quarter of centimeter and her lips pursed. "I suppose if you consider where I started. But it's still not enough."

"What's holding you back?"

"Well, I figure she can't be all shy, or nothing works. I've tried all sorts of traits, like having a temper, or having a more confident personality underneath. I've run through all sorts of scenarios, but one or two pieces never fit. She's sarcastic to disrespectful authority figures, but kind to her mother who is the most disrespectful of all. She's delicate and doesn't talk unless addressed but somehow is surrounded by friends."

"So nothing fits all the way. Hmm…" The actor hummed, flipping through a few more pages and thinking himself. "Maybe there just isn't an answer, Ms. Akai. It seems almost like you're trying to put together a puzzle that has no picture and you accidentally dumped pieces from another puzzle into it. There are too many pieces and they don't fit together."

Sai shook her head back and forth, a pensive stare seeming to burn a hole in the table. "No, it's just one puzzle. One massive, ambiguous, picture-less puzzle. But it has a solution. I can feel it."

The actor pressed his lips into a thin line and handed the notebook back to her, resting his elbows on the table and lacing his fingers together. He simply watched as she put everything back in her bag and settled back down, glancing at the menu for the first time very quickly.

There was a moment of awkward silence that started resting over the table and Maria shrank down, unsure of what to do, when they were interrupted for their orders. Ren hadn't been able to pin down exactly what kind of restaurant they were currently at, as the menu gave nothing away. The one consistency he could find was that most of the meals seemed to be lighter fare. Perfect for him.

He ordered for himself and Maria, picking out something the golden haired child was sure to like. After that, he busied himself looking at the water fountain in the center of the lower restaurant levels and how it rippled against the copper backdrop, making beautiful rainbow colors against the metal.

"Why does it have to be just like the books?" Maria finally asked, unable to help herself any longer.

Sai looked at her with a somewhat upset expression, her lips pressed tightly together. "Well...it doesn't have to be exactly like the books, Maria. If I can find a good personality, I can deviate from the descriptions in the novel, but at this point, the changes would just be too drastic."

"And why is that a bad thing-" She began asking before watching Sai's already fairly changed features dip lower until she looked more distraught and upset than the little girl had ever seen her. Her mouth instantly snapped shut and she looked down at her lip, the sight of her sister so upset too painful to watch.

Still watching her was the actor, whose own expression partially mimicked hers in empathy. He knew what it was like to have to face a director and tell him that it was impossible to work with what was there. In many cases, this meant that your job was endangered, as any actor too incompetent to work with what he was given should be cut. In her case, though, she didn't have to worry about that because the director was already less sure the material was any good than she was.

Because of that, he actually found himself agreeing with Maria this time. "You know, Ms. Akai, I honestly can't see what you see." He told her bluntly, inwardly flinching as she looked up at him with shocked, hurt eyes. "I've been doing this a lot longer than you," he continued, as much as he hated that look. "And I can't see any possible paths you haven't already tried."

Clenching her jaw together, the redhead forced her gaze down to the table and refused to look up. She wouldn't believe that it wasn't possible. She'd find the solution. She had to. She didn't know the reason why she had to, but she knew she had to.

Taking her intense silence to mean that she'd dropped the subject, he simply pressed his lips together to keep himself from saying anything else. The trio then sat in relative silence as their food arrived and they busied themselves with the first few bites. Slowly, conversations began again and the two actors even bantered back and forth a little.

Mostly, though, the talking was all from the little golden haired girl sitting next to the redhead. She desperately wanted to lighten the mood and the most she could do was talk to Ren, as Sai barely replied. The more their meal progressed, the less the actress spoke and the more she seemed to space out.

The moment Maria finished eating, she was overwhelmed with the heavy atmosphere and immediately excused herself to wash her hands. Now sitting alone in silence, the two talents met eyes and the older of the two cleared his throat.

"Ms. Akai. Something occurred to me while we were eating that might help you and I was wondering if you'd like to help me give it a try. Would you come over tonight?" He asked, not daring to sugarcoat his words or risk smiling in a nongenuine way that would tip her off.

Suddenly very interested, the redhead leaned forward and looked at him with such sincere, sparkling eyes, the actor felt a pang of guilt run through him. He didn't really have a solution for her. He just wanted her to relax for a while. "Why can't we just try it now?"

"Well…" he ventured, searching for a reason, "it may take some time and I want to dedicate that time to you. I wouldn't want to have to cut it short due to the job I have soon." He knew if he brought work into it, she would listen.

Nodding slowly, she slumped back down in her seat and ran a hand through her hair. "When can I expect you?" She asked carefully, her eyes closed in concentration.

"My last job of the night ends at nine. I know that's pretty late, but I can't make it any earlier and I want to help you before we have to be on set tomorrow."

Desperate for something, anything, to present to the director the next day, the redhead found herself nodding, willing to agree to such a late time if there was any chance that things would improve. "Alright. I'll meet you in your dressing room a little after nine."

Right as she was agreeing, Maria had come back and Ren had finished paying for the meal, so the three headed back to the car where Sai got into the driver's side without a single word to the others. Maria could tell the air was lighter, but still no one spoke.

When they arrived back at LME, Sai parted with her two companions on a gentle note and headed back to her room to finish her work day. She felt a bit better after spending the afternoon with Maria and Ren, and the promise of a possible breakthrough bettered her mood considerably.

She finished her day rather easily, spending an hour afterward relaxing in her dressing room to the wondrous sounds of her favorite composers. Her alarm went off at nine and she dragged herself out of her trance-like state, gathering her belongings and heading towards the elevator bay to approach the floor Ren would be on soon.

Reaching his room, Sai knocked softly on the door and was surprised when it gently swung open for her. On the other side was the tall actor, dressed more casually in a simple long sleeve shirt and jeans, a smile gracing his lips beautifully and his eyes shining when they fell on her relaxed, at ease expression.

"Good evening, Mr. Tsuruga," she greeted with a soft voice, pleased to see him brighten even further.

"And to you, Ms. Akai. Please, come in." He stepped aside and she brushed past him into the room, noting the absence of the usual ever-present manager.

"Where's Yashiro?" She asked, tilting her head at the actor.

"He already went home, before my last job. Something he had to attend to."

"Damn." She said with a smirk, surprising the actor who still wasn't used to her cursing. "I was looking forward to arguing with him about where I'm sitting."

"Won't you be in the driver's seat?" He asked, a toying smile on his own face.

"Ah, no, not unless you want me to. I only wanted to drive because Maria was in the car." Her voice was much more honest and sincere than he'd been expecting and it took him rather by surprise.

"So you don't trust me to drive you and Maria, but I can drive you around just fine?"

"It's not that. I'm confident enough in you to place my life in your hands, but I don't feel right placing another person's life at stake without permission."

"You'd trust me with your life?" Ren asked, completely taken aback by that.

"Any day." The woman said, gazing up at him with gentle eyes, the blue darkening until it was the exact color of the midday sky.