Chapter 169: Pizza and a Movie

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Skip Beat, for if I did, big sis Tina would give Kuon a hard time.

Tina turned down the alleyway and noticed Damian's sports car parked by the back door of the bar. She pulled up behind it and cut her engine. Grabbing her purse, she got out of the car and paused a moment, her gaze fixated on the brownstone halfway down the alley. The back door swung open startling her.

"Hi, you're here," a flustered Damian greeted her with that sweet dimpled smile.

"Hi," she replied breathlessly and smiled, her eyes wandering over his body. He looked good. The white t-shirt he wore fit him snugly displaying every contour and dip of his muscular chest and washboard abs. The seams of his sleeves screamed as they strained from his biceps; it was a miracle he had not busted yet...and those jeans. They hung at his hips…

Ahem!

"Are you going to come in or are you going to keep checking me out?" Damian smirked, shaking her out of her perverted assessment.

Tina flushed and shook her head to clear it. She was wasting time.

"You have graffiti all over your walls back here," she pointed to the area covered in bright red and yellow spray paint in an attempt to get over her embarrassment. "Was that there last night?" She asked, stepping through the door he held open. They had left the bar through this door, but Tina was too engrossed with the warmth radiating from his hand as they walked with their fingers interlaced to notice their surroundings. The alley was too dark since the only light source came from the bulb illuminating the door.

Damian sighed, "I noticed it when I came in to meet the delivery truck this morning to replenish all the booze I gave away last night."

Once she was inside, Damian let the door fall close and lock behind them. He pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her until they both needed to come up for air.

"You look beautiful," he whispered and stepped back to gaze at her.

"Thank you," she smiled, accepting the compliment. She had put a little more effort into her appearance today, knowing she would be hanging out with a couple of amazing women.

"So…" she began, trying to get them back on track.

"Right," Damian clasped her hand as they walked down the hallway. She felt a tingle run up her arm from his touch. As they walked he explained how he came to his discovery.

"I was checking the footage from last night in the alleyway to see if I could find the culprits that vandalized my wall when I...uh...um…"

"Wait!" Tina stopped abruptly. "Are you telling me...out there...in that dirty alleyway?" The only thing on Tina's mind when Damian dropped the shocking news on her over the phone was getting down to the bar and helping him out after he tripped over what he was planning to do to fix it. She didn't ask for any details.

Damian nodded solemnly.

"I'm going to kill him!" Tina growled and began stomping her stiletto booties down the hall with a purpose. "And you're sure it was them?" She asked, pulling up short and turning to address Damian again.

"The camera has night vision," he replied quietly. Tina huffed and entered the office. "Plus, they started in the hallway."

"What happened to using the good old fashion storage room?" Tina grumbled.

"I started locking those doors several years back to deter people from using it. Kyoko did try," he chuckled and shook his head.

"Kyoko?" Tina almost tripped, luckily Damian was there to steady her.

"You'll see," Damian smirked.

"Wait? What do you mean? You didn't delete it yet?" She asked incredulously, as she dropped her purse on his desk and removed the sweater coat she wore over her dress.

"I kind of, sort of, wanted you to see it before I did. In case..." he shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets while staring at the floor unsure of himself.

"In case?" She repeated hoping he would finish his sentence.

Vulnerable baby blue eyes rose and made eye contact with her. "In case you thought I was lying."

Tina's eyes widened. The thought had never crossed her mind. Where did this lack of confidence come from? He had always seemed so assertive when they spent time together.

"Damian, I trust you. When you called me, I didn't think you made up some elaborate ruse against my friends just to get me down here."

"Sorry, it's just that now that we're official...I don't want to screw it up."

"Are you feeling pressured?"

"What? No! I don't feel pressured. My feelings for you are effortless...loving you is as natural as breathing air. I just don't want to scare you away."

"Oh," Tina squeaked. She felt her face turn as red as a tomato. Damn musicians! She patted her cheeks with her palms trying to alleviate the heat in her cheeks. Even if Damian was only a drummer, he still had a way with words.

Her reaction must have helped him regain his confidence because the teasing smile was back on his face.

"Do you want to confirm it's them before I delete it?

"God, no!" Tina exclaimed aghast by his suggestion, making Damian laugh. Plus, Kuon didn't even deny it when she confronted him on the phone, confirming Damian's claims.

He grabbed one of the empty leather chairs in the office and placed it next to his behind the desk for Tina.

Once she was seated, Damian took up his seat and adjusted the monitor so she had a better view of what he was doing. A quick tap of the keyboard brought up his login screen. Since his information was saved a click of the mouse revealed his desktop. Tina frowned. Couldn't anyone access his computer that way?

"Where is it?" He murmured scanning the icons on the desktop until he finally found the one he wanted and double-clicked it.

She was relieved that this one asked for a password. Tina didn't realize she was holding her breath as she covertly eyed the keyboard while he typed in his password until he was done. She exhaled and giggled.

"What's so funny?" He turned away from the screen to gaze at her.

She shook her head and continued to smile.

"Seriously tell me what," he pouted.

"It's nothing, I'm just glad your password wasn't your birth date like the gate code."

"Hey!" He nudged her with his shoulder, making Tina laugh earnestly. "You know how difficult it is to remember strong passwords."

The security application loaded and Damian went about clicking links, searching for the right camera.

"One of these days, I need to go in here and rename the cameras by location," he commented, a little frustrated when the fourth click turned out to be another one inside the bar. Tina noticed that the list read CAM01 to CAM18.

"Are those all the cameras you have in this place?" Tina asked looking up at the wall of screens. She counted eight.

Damian followed her line of sight. "I tend to only leave the high traffic areas on the screens. I can make each window smaller and add the other cameras if I wanted to view them," He explained without her having to ask the question. The clicking of links resumed.

"Smile, you're on candid camera," Damian joked as the live feed for the office camera opened up. Tina glanced around the room in front of her and found the small camera tucked in the right corner. Damian chuckled as she gave a small wave. He closed it down and clicked on another one.

"Wait! I have an idea," Tina exclaimed grabbing a pen and loose paper sitting on his desk. "Can I use the back of this?"

Damian examined the sheet to make sure it wasn't an invoice for something he needed then nodded. He leaned in close looking over her shoulder that Tina could feel his breath on her face. She jotted down the camera numbers they had run through so far and with Damian's help listed where each one was located in the bar.

"This way you have a cheat sheet for next time," she said, glancing in his direction.

"Of course," he sighed, smacking his forehead. "Where would I be without you?"

"Okay, let's keep going. What's the next one?"

They got through two more cameras which put them at CAM07 when Damian's cell phone chirped followed by the desk phone ringing.

"Birdie," he answered in an all-business tone. "You're here. Okay, I'll be right out."

Damian pushed back the chair and stood, patting his pockets. Tina raised a curious brow at him. "I'll be right back," he told her with a sneaky smile.

What is he up to?

Tina remained in her seat and clicked on the next camera. She heard Damian conversing with someone in the bar and glanced at the screens. It was a delivery man, and by the size of the box he handed to her new beau, she knew exactly what to expect. Her stomach even rumbled in anticipation. Since she woke up late this morning, all she had was a cup of coffee in her system.

The next camera link she clicked turned out to be a hallway. Damian had mentioned that there was also questionable footage of her friends there. To be safe, she thought they should delete that too regardless if it was only of the Japanese couple kissing. Her friend's relationship was nobody else's business.

She was writing when he walked back in the door. Without looking up, she said, "I hope you got the meat lovers special."

Damian laughed. "What gave me away? Do you have a keen sense of smell or something?"

"Big brother is always watching," she teased in an ominous voice.

"I figured since you're here, you were missing out on your lunch date." He gave her a weak smile and set the box down on the other table.

Tina beamed at him as the warmth in her heart blossomed. It was so considerate of him.

"Thank you, Damian. I'm starving."

"I'll go get us some water," Damian said, handing her a paper plate that was too small for the large New York-style pizza slice.

Tina took a bite immediately and moaned with pleasure at the myriad of delicious flavors in her mouth. She had closed her eyes briefly as she chewed and opened them to find Damian staring at her.

"It's good," she said, her face blushing.

"I'll go get that water." Damian rushed out of the room.

Tina had devoured most of her slice when Damian returned with their drink.

"Who knew, pizza and a movie would be our first date?" he joked, sitting next to her with a slice of his own.

Tina glared at him.

"Too soon?" He chuckled when she stood to get another piece.

"I think I found the hallway," she motioned to the monitor and sat back down.

"That's it," he exclaimed. "I can't believe I looked at this an hour ago and already forgot the camera number. I hate that I always shut down the screens out of habit. If that's there…then."

Damian put his pizza down and took control of the mouse. He clicked three cameras down the list and whooped, "found it!" They were now looking at the alley in real-time through the camera lens.

"Great, so can we just delete a certain time frame or even the whole day would be ideal, just to be on the safe side?"

"According to the manual, I can select blocks of time to be deleted," he told her, holding up a thin booklet.

Tina took the manual from him and opened it to the dog-eared page. She read the instructions aloud while Damian clicked through the process of deleting the video.

"Once complete, click OK. A follow-up prompt will pop-up to confirm your decision. Click yes or no per your preferences."

A couple of clicks later and it was done. To be on the safe side, they deleted a four-hour section of footage.

"That's it?"

"I think so. Does it say anything else? Like a way to verify it worked?" Damian asked, snagging a few bites of his pizza.

"It says you could playback your footage to confirm that the section was deleted," Tina shrugged. "I guess if we see that section missing then it worked."

"Makes sense." Damian clicked on the recorded files starting at 10:00 at night. He increased the speed by 2 to fast forward. At the 10:30 mark, the timer jumped to 2:31 in the morning skipping the deleted section.

Tina sighed with relief when the video showed no sign of the couple.

"Good, that worked. Now let me go back to the hallway and erase that one too."

While Damian worked to delete the hallway footage for the same block of time, Tina continued to read the manual silently. She frowned at a note at the end of a section.

"Damian, what does this mean?"

"Just a sec, let me finish this up…" He clicked to confirm. "Voila, it's done!" His relieved smile faded when he turned to Tina.

"What's wrong?"

She began to read the manual. "Deleted video can be retrieved for up to one year from the time of termination before it is purged permanently from the backup database. To have the video restored, please call our technical service department at…"

Damian took the manual and read it over quietly.

"Does that mean that it's still floating around like the cloud or something for anyone to get a hold of if they wanted to?"

"I'll call this number and verify," Damian told her, picking up his desk phone.

Tina's mind was racing and she immediately pressed on the phone's base to hang up the call.

Damian raised his brows in question at her.

"Wouldn't calling them alert them to the video? What if this representative is the curious type? Can they watch the video on their end? I mean I know it's a matter of ethics, but companies can't guarantee their employees won't betray them. What are the consequences? They get fired at a maximum, meanwhile, the damage is already done, lives are ruined. And why would they care about it, they would get a huge payout if sold to the right newspaper."

"So what should we do?" Damian asked in a defeated tone. "Do we just leave it in storage and pray no one finds it there?"

Tina weighed their only option. She couldn't come up with a better idea at the moment. They had a better shot at leaving it alone than alerting the security company of its existence.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Damian pick up a piece of crust from his plate and nibble on it.

"Do you want another one?" She nodded toward his now empty plate and stood.

"Yeah, thanks. I can't think with an empty stomach."

While she got him another slice of pizza she heard Damian's phone chirped.

She didn't think anything of it when in her periphery she noticed Damian standing in front of the screens as she busied herself with the pizza.

"Is that…" he turned toward her, pointing at the screen. "Kuu Hizuri?"

It took less time to get to the bar than Kuon anticipated; bypassing most of the traffic by lane-splitting and breaking the speed limit laws worked every time. Kuu was still in the dark over the whole situation.

"You can explain later, let's get to Tina," his dad told him when they got out of Louie's bar. Kuu had overheard his one-sided conversation and concluded that Tina was in some sort of trouble. Kuon had spent the whole ride over bracing himself for the verbal beating he was bound to get from both Tina and his father.

Kuon led his father down the back alley of the bar, knowing from past experience with Rick to park back there. Seeing Tina's car parked by the door confirmed that he made the right choice to come this way. He parked his bike, dismounted, removed his helmet, and briefly made eye contact with his father. Kuu's brows knitted with worry.

He sighed. "Please remember that I'm Ren Tsuruga, boyfriend to your sweet and talented adopted daughter, Kyoko. As such, I beg you not to kill me. It will only make her sad."

Before his dad's eyes widened in surprise, Kuon noticed the moment of pain flash across them. Sorry, Dad. I fucked up.

"Ku-," his dad started to say when the back door banged open.

Tina stood there with a panicked expression as her head swiveled between him and Kuu. He noticed Damian standing a few feet behind her.

"Tina!" Kuu rushed forward to her. "Is everything alright? Ren told me you were in some sort of trouble."

"Mr. Hiz- ah Kuu, what a surprise?" Tina greeted him with a hug. She had to correct herself this time since the parents of her close friend insisted that she call them by their first name. "I'm fine, physically and yes we're having a bit of a computer issue and hoped Ren could help."

Tina glared at Ren from over Kuu's shoulder; he mouthed the word sorry to her.

Kuu turned back toward Ren suspiciously. "You thought Ren could help... with a computer issue?"

Ren grimaced once Kuu turned away from him and entered the hall. This was gonna suck. He nodded appreciatively at Tina for trying to give him an out. It would be so easy to run with this scenario and cover his ass, but he didn't deserve it.

In the hallway, Damian introduced himself. "I'm Damian Bird, Tina's official boyfriend for about 12 hours so far. It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Hizuri. " He thrust his hand out. When Kuu shook it, Damian's tone turned serious. "I'd like to think I was a friend of Kuon's, he used to come around all the time. Good kid. I'm sorry how things turned out."

"Yeah, thanks. It's good to meet a friend of Kuon's," Kuu played along and gave Tina and Ren both a questioning look.

"Let me show you the way, Kuu." Tina hooked her arm with his father's and began walking. Damian stared after them for a moment his expression unreadable. He felt a pang of guilt for deceiving him but was relieved that the man didn't recognize the old kid that used to hang out in his bar.

"Hey, Ren," Damian greeted shaking out of his stupor. Ren shook his hand when it was redirected to him. Tina led the way down the hall toward the office chatting with Kuu. "Hey Damian, thanks for the heads up," Ren told the bar owner as they followed Tina and Kuu.

"No problem, man. Kyoko's a talented girl. I don't want this to get out and hurt her career."

Ren nodded in agreement without hesitation. He knew that she would be deeply hurt by this scandal. As the guy, he would get away with it unscathed; the men always do. There was no doubt in his mind that Kyoko could pick herself up from this and come back stronger than ever; however, if he could, he would do everything in his power to stop it from happening.

Once in the office, Ren's eyes slid over the screens monitoring the different areas of the bar. He turned his back on the video to face Damian.

"I'm going to need all copies of the compromising videos, Damian. I'm willing to provide compensation for the trouble and your discretion!"

"Ow," Ren exclaimed, hunching over and rubbing his head. The hit to the back of his head was swift and unexpected that it hurt.

"Why do you want copies, you pervert!" Tina shouted at him. "I was going to go easy on you too. Damian, do you have a baseball bat or something I can use to break his knee caps? Did you know I had to lie about my whereabouts to that sweet girl because of you?"

"What? That's not what I meant at all," Ren began to explain. "I was referring to obtaining the security tapes to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. I don't want this to get out and hurt Kyoko!"

"Wait, wait, what's going on here? Why would Kyoko get hurt?" Kuu interjected speaking Japanese to Kuon.

Kuon replied in kind. "I fucked up, Dad. According to Damian, Kyoko and I were caught on his security cameras being...ugh...intimate."

"What?!" Kuu screamed in English. "Damian, where's your bat?" Kuu demanded angrily charging at Ren.

Ren gulped. He hoped Damian didn't have a bat.

"I do have a bat, but it's behind the bar counter." Damian stood between the Hollywood star and Ren, pleading with the irate actor, "please don't kill him in my bar."

"I can't believe this! You of all people should have known better. We trusted you with her! You're older and have more experience than her. You've been in show business longer, you know how this world operates. Society tends to condemn the woman far more harshly than the man. The one that will suffer from this would be Kyoko while your career skyrockets," Kuu ranted, pacing back and forth.

"I know, I'm sorry. I didn't even think about cameras last night. I thought it was safe because it was dark. I wasn't expecting us to be captured in a deserted parking lot. Please let me try to make this right."

"Did you just say parking lot?" Damian asked for clarity.

Ren stopped pleading and turned to Damian. "Yeah, you have footage of us in the parking lot, right?"

"The parking lot?" Tina repeated.

Ren's eyes flicked to Kuu gaping at him. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yes, well, um, we made out heavily outside of the car for a few minutes and then finished insi- "

Kuu let out a painful moan, making Ren cringe.

For goodness sake! Shut up, idiot!

All that hard work of obtaining a pine tree freshener to mask the smell of their sex in his dad's car all went down the drain. Kyoko was going to kill him if she ever found that his father knew they did the dirty in his car.

"So not in the hallway?" Tina asked.

"What? No, we only kissed. Initiated by Kyoko I might add," Ren confessed.

Another painful wail came from across the room.

"What about in the back alley?" Damian asked.

"God no, she became impatient and pushed me up against the wal…" Ren replied absentmindedly, recalling the wonderful memory of his girlfriend's aggressiveness. His dad brought him back to his senses.

"La, la, la, la,..." Kuu repeated loudly with his fingers plugging his ears.

"Shit, I got carried away. Forget I said any of that," Ren begged, glancing at his father.

"Damian, what did you watch?" Tina questioned her boyfriend annoyed by his oversharing.

"Well, I saw them in the alleyway in a passionate embrace. I stopped it before seeing if they went all the way. I just assumed they did from the way they were grinding and groping each other. Moves like that only have one end."

Kuu growled at him.

Daggers flew from Tina's eyes and stabbed Ren repeatedly. "I can't believe you, Ren. In the alleyway?"

Ren clamped his mouth shut from retorting. It probably wouldn't bode well for him if he told her that he tried to search for a clean spot.

"We're getting off-topic here," Damian told her and sat behind the desk. "We may be in the clear if all they did was make out. We need to check the parking lot footage."

Tina took the seat next to Damian as he began clicking away at his mouse.

"Try number sixteen," Tina told Damian. Ren ignored his father's icy glare and moved to stand behind them, looking over their shoulder.

"Do you guys mind if I have some of this pizza," Kuu asked, making all three of them look up at the actor. "I'm a stress eater."

"Help yourself, Kuu," Tina offered, returning her attention to the sheet in front of her.

"Thanks," the actor responded despondently, picking up a slice of pizza. He can't be too mad if he can still eat, right?

"Well, it's not any of the last three," Damian informed her and began clicking lower numbers that they skipped. He finally clicked on a link that pulled up the video of the parking lot's gate area.

"I have another one covering the lot," he murmured, clicking another link. The pop-up screen pulled up the now empty parking lot. Damian adjusted the time to last night and began fast-forwarding the video. He made it play at normal speed when his dad's Porsche entered the lot.

It was just his rotten luck that he parked closest and directly in line with the back camera. Everything they did last night against and in that car would have been captured in a very vivid and cinematic light. Even with the car's dark tint, he could tell that it would be bad if this got out.

Damian paused it right after the trio exited the car and the footage confirmed, clear as day (thanks to night vision technology), that it was them.

"Can you delete it?" Ren whispered, once again feeling like his perfectly constructed world was crashing down around him.

"Damian, can delete it from here, but we still have a big problem," Tina explained, "the security firm has backup storage for up to one year in case its customers change their minds. There's still a risk of it getting out. We haven't figured out how to handle that part yet; hopefully, you have a solution."

Ren considered her question. He didn't know jack shit about computers beyond browsing the internet and checking his email. At the moment, he was severely lacking in many of life's important skills. What was the point of being an actor when eventually all it would amount to was hurting the one most precious to him? This was all his fault. Kyoko was against getting in the car and he coaxed her into it because he couldn't control his lust for her.

Ren's hand moved to his chest massaging the ache developing there. He thought it would be as easy as collecting tapes and paying off Damian to keep quiet. Apparently, his plan was antiquated. That was how security systems worked when he was a child enamored by his father's spy movies. The world was digital now.

"Hey, pull yourself together," Tina shouted and shook him. "We need to figure this out for you and Kyoko's sake."

"I don't know what to do," he despaired, raking his fingers through his dark hair. "This isn't a movie! It's not like I'm some hacker that can penetrate the firewalls of an elite security company with my superior computer ski-..." Ren cut himself off. He wasn't a hacker, but he knew people that knew hackers.

He looked up at his father and found him staring at him mid-bite of his pizza. Kuu nodded encouragingly.

Ren took a deep breath then whipped out his phone and unlocked it. His gaze lingered on the home screen of him and Kyoko for a moment while he contemplated the consequences of what this call could do to their relationship. He concluded that it didn't matter, he needed this man's connections.

AN: Ahhhhh, gomen, gomen! I was struggling to find a stopping point and decided to cut off the next scene that I was writing. I hope you guys still enjoyed it. I procrastinated terribly on this chapter because I discovered angsty werewolf stories on wattpad and have been binging them all week. Don't judge me! XD

Thank you for always reading and I appreciate the reviews of the last chapter. I'm glad you guys enjoyed the YukiNae special.

Spoilers for 291: Confirmed! The Faerie Queen is playing with her future daughter-in-law and our prince opened up a bit to our dear Yuki. I also love that Julie pulled a fast one on Lory...bwahaha. I'm so excited for the next chapter.

Until next time, ja ne! ^_^