AN : Thanks for the reviews guys and thanks for being so patient with the storyline. The kiss and Darien are in this chapter!—even if it's brief and whatnot. Read on!
serenity287 : Glad you loved it, hope this chapter is just as good ;)
Echizen Ryoma : Haha, this story will have a jumble of pairings but you'll just have to read to see what the final one is.
iluvboys : I like your username, very cute. Haha, these days I've been home sick and just stuck writing this fic , lol . Hope you like this chapter.
starangel07 : Thanks and I hope this was quick enough for ya ;P
Kiminoke : Lmao, sorry you have to be a bit patient with this fic the plot goes rather steadily. Never fear Darien will make an appearance in this chapter!
fantasy4luvr : Thanks for reviewing and enjoy!
Kiweee : Lol I'm really glad you loved it! Haha, the kissing scene is but a few moments away.
Love on the Catwalk : Chapter 04
dizziified
Reason to Change #4 : You don't get to kiss models very often
"Okay," Seiya started. "Let's run through this again. I'm Rei. You see me at Mode. What do you say?"
"I quit?" It came out more like a question than a statement.
"You what?" His Rei imitation was frighteningly exact. I could see the flames roaring around him already.
"I quit…," I trailed off and looked down.
"What are you saying, Serena," he huffed. "Look, I'm a very busy woman; I don't have time for this chitter-chatter. And oh yeah, can you go buy us breakfast? The list and money are on your desk."
"I quit!" I proclaimed in a near-shout and looked into his/her eyes.
"Ha ha ha," Seiya/Rei laughed. "What are you talking about? Go to your desk and go buy us some breakfast."
"I'm … I'm serious Ms. Hino!" I insisted. "I'm tired of being Mode's little slave that everyone walks all over. I'm human just like the rest of you! What, just because I'm an ugly dork you guys think you can take advantage of me and make me do all the dirty work? Well, not anymore! I quit and I expect my last paycheck to be in my mailbox by the end of the week. There's a 20 bonus for someone of my position when they quit, no? It's been a pleasure working with you, Ms. Hino; maybe I'll see you around."
After letting it all out, I stood there pink and slightly out of breathe. Seiya smirked and clapped his hands.
"Bravo, Usa," he cheered. "I knew you had it in you."
I smiled. "That felt good."
"We should dress you up," he suggested. "It'd be a total blow to them."
"…I don't know."
"We'll rush over to the studio and you can get everything done there—we still have an hour before you start work—and then you can walk out with me! No Seiya Kou or "Mystery Woman" on their magazine anytime soon!"
scene
We cabbed it to the studio and Seiya went to work on me. With a flurry of fabric, accessories, and shoes, I was done with clothes and jewelry.
"Perfect," Seiya said as he twirled me in front of the mirror-wall.
I couldn't believe it myself. I looked like a totally different person… but still me at the same time—like I became that non-existent older sister who has a few of the same traits as you and yet is 100x more glamorous and outgoing than you will ever be.
I had on a flouncy blue-green dress that went above my knee and a long white petticoat under to give it extra volume. A stiff white, short-sleeved jacket went over that, closing in a lone button. A belt lay across my hips and a single-red-stoned necklace graced my neck. And who can forget the cute white sandals, golden bangles, and pearl earrings?
AN : I drew a quick sketch of the outfit if you want it. It's pretty messy though :X it took less than 2 minutes to draw and label : http // x20 . xanga . com / 470a340b5823453489196/b35872357 . jpg … don't forget to delete all the spaces
"Come over here and sit down." Seiya pat a barber-chair sitting in front of a mirror.
"We're gonna be late…" I complained timidly.
"Who cares?" He laughed. "You're quitting anyway."
And so, like a professional hair stylist, he threw a covering around me and stepped back to look at my hair, pulling it out of its usual bun.
"Low ponytail it is," he nodded before squeezing gel onto his hands and swishing my hair this way and that.
I don't even want to begin with makeup. I wouldn't even be able to describe what he used on me if I tried.
But in the end, I was looking all chic with my bangs to the side, low ponytail coming in front of my right shoulder (hair slightly scrunched), rosy cheeks, pink lips, and all that natural looking makeup.
"Tada!" Seiya swished the covering off me and I was done.
"I should have taken before and after pictures," he said offhandedly. "Do we have time for a little fashion show?"
"What the heck," I said flippantly. I don't care anymore, I'm quitting!
"Let me go get my camera. You just stand right there."
scene
And now, we're in the cab on the way to work.
"You were born to do this," he said and teared up from as he laughed into his digital camera.
At first, I had walked with the emotionless model face on… then things got all crazy and I ended up having some poses with legs in the air and overly exaggerated motions. And then the oversized dark pink bag got thrown in … that's another story altogether.
"$6.50," the taxi driver called as he screeched to a halt right outside the Mode Building.
"Keep the change," Seiya said as he handed the man a $20 bill.
'Rich fool.' That man was just hurting himself by throwing money around like that.
"Ready?" Seiya asked as he pulled me out of the yellow cab.
"As I'll ever be," I replied, feeling small against the towering skyscrapers surrounding me.
And arm in arm, we marched into the impending building and started to head to the elevators.
scene
The office was bustling with activity by the time I got there. Everyone looked a bit frazzled … I was over two hours late; maybe they didn't have breakfast yet.
We had gotten into a bit of a mix-up with the security guard—he insisted that he had never seen me before and that I was "committing an illegal act by stealing Ms. Tsukino's ID pass".
"I'll be waiting over here," Seiya said and nodded towards the elevator.
"Uh huh," I nodded. "I'll only take a few minutes."
I started walking towards Rei's office and I could feel people stopping to stare at me. It was pretty nerve wracking, really.
"Excuse me, doll." I felt a tap on my shoulder and automatically knew who it was.
I turned around and saw the one and only Jadeite Millers standing before me. Him and his blonde hair were all the buzz with the office girls in the bathroom—not that I ever joined them; mostly stayed in the stall and listened to snippets of how "fucking hot" he is and the latest sex report from his most recent toy—not that I wanted to hear it but I kind of had—okay, I'll stop rambling now.
"Couldn't help but notice that you seem a little lost," he smiled. It was totally fake but it reeled girls in every time.
'It's not half as good as "the smile".' I thought in the back of my head.
"Actually—," I started.
"How about I help you out?" He interrupted. "But it won't be for free." He smirked perversely and I couldn't help but feel the need to gag.
And this was coming from the same slop who called me an "ugly spinster" behind my back?
"I don't need your help," I spat.
Whoa, whoa, where is this newfound confidence coming from? The clothes really are getting to me.
"Ouch," Jadeite smirked. "How about we start over?—Jadeite Millers, at your service."
I flashed a smile that would make Barbie proud. "Serena Tsukino—I believe we've already met."
The look on his face was enough to sustain me for a year. Oh God what I would give to have Seiya's camera with me.
I quickly span around and entered Rei's office, slamming the door in Jadeite's face behind me.
Rei was on the phone, sitting in her huge desk chair and twirling the extension cord. Seeing my entrance, she promptly ended her conversation and ran a hand through her hair.
"Why don't you sit down?" she asked as she motioned to the chair in front of her.
I shook my head. "I'd rather stand."
"Don't be scared," she laughed. "I don't bite."
'Pft,' I mentally scoffed. 'You're the dragon—you eat knights for breakfast!'
"I've been calling Seiya Kou about you," Rei went on. "Is there a chance that he's with you?"
Rei Hino had been calling about the "Mystery Woman"? Now if this isn't a sick twist of fate, I don't know what is.
"A-Actually, I'm here to quit," I informed, steadily strengthening my voice with each word.
"… Pardon?"
"Don't you recognize me?" I tilted me head. Boy I'm getting good at this. I should wear pretty clothes/hair/makeup/jewelry all the time.
"…Aren't you the "Mystery Woman"?" Rei's puzzled face was priceless. She and Jadeite will last me a century.
"You know me better as Serena Tsukino." I smiled at her dawning revelation.
"Is this some sick joke?" Her eyes narrowed. "Did she send you here to quit for her? She always was too spineless—."
"I'd appreciate if you'd stop insulting me," I interrupted; all the years of harbored hatred were just gushing out now. "I'm tired of being Mode's slave-girl; doing all this crap for everyone else and not getting a shred of appreciation for it. I hate how shallow and superficial you all are—is it so hard to believe that ugly Serena can be this beautiful "Mystery Woman"? Well, I quit. Take advantage of someone else and good luck, because there aren't many people as meek as I was out there."
I turned to leave but spun back around.
"Oh yeah… I expect my 20 bonus quitting paycheck in my mailbox by the end of the week," I finished dumbly and stumbled out the door… into the whole 6th floor Mode staff.
I stared back at their unblinking eyes, at a loss of what to do.
Enter knight in shining armor.
"Yo, Usagi!" Seiya called. "Let's go!"
The crowd parted like the Red Sea as I zipped through towards Seiya and into the open elevator.
scene
"I can't believe I did that," I confessed dazedly as I leaned back into the chair. We were at a local café, sitting at a two seater with ice coffees and cookies between us.
"HA HA!" Seiya laughed. "It was hilarious. Good job, Usa."
"Wow."
I had done it. I finally quit my job and stuck it to them. … But I'd miss it terribly.
"What now?" I asked, turning my eyes to my partner in crime as I took a sip of coffee.
"I was thinking we let the gossip spread for a while—I'm sure half of Manhattan knows what happened at Mode by now. I doubt it'll come out in actual news though—no one really knows anything about you there."
He was right. I doubt they even have a picture of me—other than the one on my ID pass. They don't even have my new address!
"You have to make some appearances," he stated. "Come with me to a few shows and all that. Oh, you can help me pick out fabrics and stuff—and look at my sketches. You'll be my human mannequin."
"Alrighty there," I laughed.
Seiya absolutely refuses to work with anyone else when making his clothes. He's his own boss and I'm pretty sure I'm the first person other than himself to have even stepped foot into his studio.
He usually walks around the city sketching new designs or just looks out the window to the street for inspiration—that and his "Inspiration Wall"; a wall tacked up with magazine pictures, fabric swatches, and random doodads like flowers and feathers.
"Today we can just chill and look all pretty for the public," he smiled.
"… I can do that," I nodded. "After we cut your hair."
Oh ho ho. Yes, I am the spawn of evil—and no, I am not ashamed.
Seiya sighed. "Might as well get it over with… My friend owns a shop a few blocks from here; I'm sure he can squeeze me in."
scene
"You don't look so bad," I smiled as we exited the parlor.
"Hnn." Seiya reached up to scratch his head. "I feel a lot lighter."
"And you made a bunch of money off your hair," I added. His friend had bought his hair off him, claiming that he would make a wig out of it.
"Probably could have made more selling it off Ebay," he shrugged. The scary thing is that he's right.
"I like your new hair," I decided, standing on my tiptoes to give it a whack.
I really did. There was more hair framing the base of his neck and it looked pretty cool. No more tight-ponytailed men here.
"A picture for celebration," he declared before whipping out his digital camera from his pocket. "Cheese."
I flashed a toothy grin, eyes barely open.
"Cute." He smiled down at the display. It really was a cute picture—very carefree and people might even mistake us as a couple—which we are anything but.
"Where to?" I asked, turning to the newly liberated Seiya Kou.
"Anywhere you want." He looked back at me, cocking his head to the side and offering a smile.
scene
We ended up at Jupiter—my visit to Lita was long past due date and I really felt like eating there today.
"Do you have any reservations?" the maitre d' asked us.
"I'm a close friend of the owner," I replied. "Can you call her over to our table? Tell her Serena Tsukino is here."
He seemed a bit put off by my nature and even a bit suspicious of me, but he nodded curtly and brought us over to a two-seater outside.
"Miss Kino will be with you shortly," he said snootily before whipping around and storming off to the kitchens.
"What crawled up his ass?" Seiya asked as I stuck my tongue out at the stuck-up man.
We took to looking at the menu for what to eat. I had forgotten how good everything was here—I was juggling between four orders by the time Lita got to our table.
"Seiya!" Lita called and he stood up to give her a hug. "How are you?"
"I'm good," Seiya replied before going off to pull a chair over from a nearby table.
"Manny told me that Serena was here…?" Lita looked around confusedly. "Is she in the bathroom? And who's this? New girlfriend?"
"Hey Lita," I smiled. "Remember me?"
"Oh my God, Serena!" Lita shouted and gave me a bone-crushing bear hug. She always was a bit on the strong side. "You look-you look fantastic! I couldn't even recognize you—not that you didn't look good before but—."
"It's fine, Lita," I dismissed with a laugh. "I'm a modern day ugly duckling turned swan."
"You look like a model," Lita gushed as we all took a seat.
"Actually, I'm going to start modeling for Seiya."
"That's great!"
"Mhm," Seiya hummed. "She'll be a hit."
"We don't know that," I blushed.
Seiya turned and gave me the eyebrows. "You're already a hit as the "Mystery Woman"."
"Wait—whoa whoa." Lita sat back, giving us fishy eyes. "You're the "Mystery Woman"? Did I miss something here?"
"Didn't you know?" Seiya nudged me from underneath the table and shot me a smile.
'I smell a prank.'
"We're in love," he continued, draping an arm over my shoulders and leaning his cheek against the top of my head. I tried my best to look all love-struck and giddy—I even let out a very convincing giggle.
"NO WAY!" Lita shouted. "You guys are back together! Oh my God, I've gotta tell—."
We took this moment to burst out in laughter.
"I-I can't bel-ieve you actually believed us," I choked out.
"Ha ha, very funny," Lita laughed disdainfully and got up. "I think I'll walk out of this holding on to whatever dignity I have left in me. Watch out for strange tasting bits in your food." With that warning she retreated back into the kitchens, leaving us to fall off our seats from laughter.
scene
"Hurry up, Usa! The cab's not gonna wait forever!"
"Hold your horses," I fussed. "You try walking in these shoes!"
After lunch we had went around a bit—walking around at a park, eye-shopping at random boutiques, and we even managed to buy a few rolls of fabric—before heading back to the studio to get ready for a show.
Seiya had rambled on about whose lines would be showing there but all I needed to know was that a certain Andrew Bradshaw would be there… meaning that my dreaded kiss was going down tonight. Seiya had only oh so happily stalled his camera into his pocket as we were leaving.
"You look fine," Seiya said and practically manhandled me into the backseat. "We'd better not be late."
"Jeez," I huffed. Some designer that Seiya worshipped was going to be there and he had been off his rockers ever since we had started getting ready.
We wore complementary outfits—remind me of those couple ice-skating outfits… except they're a lot less subtly paired.
He had on a very nice black suit; the jacket only having two buttons with a thin V opening. Out from it peeked his white and cream dress shirt and intricate black and cream tie—he pulled it off pretty well.
I had on a slinky black dress and chunky cream pearls. My hair was partially bunned off and fell in random soft ringlets, my handbag black with a swatch of Seiya's tie fabric tied to one end of the straps.
"Where will we sit?" I asked.
"I got us seats right up in the front. Refrain from drooling all over the runway," he teased. "You need to get used to being around beautiful people."
"I've seen plenty of those at Mode," I retorted.
"We're talking about a whole different level here, my dear." He smirked and wiped away a stray lash from my face.
"After the show we're going to an afterparty—before we leave I expect for you to have kissed Andrew and it won't count unless I get a picture," he informed and wiggled his camera about.
Oh cheers, this night was looking brighter already.
scene
The show was incredible.
Like Seiya had said, the seats were right up in the front and I could actually feel the breeze that the models wafted every time they passed by. The show was mostly menswear but a few female models were incorporated into the show as well.
I saw every color of the rainbow on the runway—black to yellow to blue—and materials of every kind—velvet, leather, fur, you name it.
And of course I saw Andrew. And of course I went into a raging blush.
From then, I started avoiding faces altogether and just looked at the clothes—but that kind of turned into a problem as practically topless men started to appear.
Right now everyone is being ushered out of the room as to have enough time to clean up the place before the next show.
"Let's go backstage," Seiya said and pulled me over and against the push of the crowd.
"Oh God," I gasped when we finally made it to the back. I thought I was going to die out there!
Seiya flashed security our backstage passes and ushered me forward by the small of my back.
The place was pretty desolate when we got there—boy, those models sure change fast. There were but a few workers pushing around racks of carefully enclosed clothing and stray models on their way out.
"Well, no one's here, let's—," I started and turned to see Seiya adamantly talking to a certain blonde-haired model while gesturing wildly for me behind his back with a free hand.
'Do I really have to do this now?' I questioned. 'I could just slow-ly back away like nothing happened and—ugh, take your dare like a man, Serena! You can do this!'
I steeled myself and took a few deep breaths to quell the psycho butterflies pounding against the wall of my stomach.
"… for helping me out last time," I heard Seiya say. "Well, better head out to the afterparty now."
Andrew turned away to pull off his shirt and Seiya gave me curt jerks of his head towards the man, whispering: "He's right there, go, go!"
Taking a final breath I marched up to the man and span him around by the shoulder. Ignoring his puzzled face, I stood on my tiptoes and locked my arms behind his neck, one hand in his hair, pulled him down a bit and closed my eyes before planting my lips right smack on top of his.
I felt him drop his shirt and I definitely saw a flash go off through my closed lids.
'Am I doing it wrong?' I wondered as I felt him not responding.
As I was about to pull away, I felt his hands lacing behind my back as he pulled me closer and returned my kiss. When I felt a hint of saliva I freaked out and pushed away, all pink and fluttery.
He opened his eyes lazily, his mouth upturned in a hint of a smile.
"Oink oink," I whispered breathlessly and escaped from his embrace to shuffle behind Seiya's back, totally mortified at what I had said.
'Oink oink? Oink oink! Nice one, Serena, very nice.'
Hweet-hwew.
I looked up to see a rather handsome black-haired man pulling his fingers out of his mouth. He gave me a smirk—sending me into another flurry of red. I couldn't help but bury my face into my hands.
'Oh please God, let the ground open up and just swallow me up!'
"Who's this?" the stranger asked and walked past Seiya and I. "New fling?"
"I'm not really sure," Andrew answered.
"HA HA!" I felt Seiya's shoulders moving as he laughed. "Andrew, don't you remember her?"
"Not exactly…," he answered with uncertainty.
"This…," Seiya started and spun behind me, ushering me forward. I stubbornly stood with my back to the two men and went as far as to crouch with my hands still in my face.
"Is…." I felt Seiya spin me around and pry my arms apart.
"Serenity…." He sighed and poked at my waist.
'That cheap shot!' I thought as I stood up and let out a loud laugh.
Wide-eyed, I clamped my hands over my mouth.
"Tsukino," he finished and draped an arm over my shoulders. "I believe you've met."
"… Miss Piggy?" His voice was tentative and a bit incredulous.
"Ah… hi," I waved weakly.
"Holy fuck!" he exclaimed.
"Miss Piggy?" The dark-haired man gave his friend the eyebrows. "What the hell is going on here?"
end Love on the Catwalk : Chapter 04
AN : Hope you liked it :D! Review please!