AN: I want to start by telling all of you how appreciative I am for you all but I'm going to stop responding to comments at the end. I have my own reasons of why I don't like to have people asking me to update things quicker but it's painful to talk about. In short, someone once told me daily that if I didn't write new chapters for a fanfic quickly that they were going to end their life and that has haunted me for nine years. I was really hurt last night by a guest reviewer who told me that I was chastising people without even seeing how begging is wrong but I felt that not publishing until January was being pretty petty.

Please forgive my lack of author notes until I am comfortable with doing it again. Please enjoy

Act Twenty-One – Preparations for Tea

"It is a tea ceremony scene."

Those words floated around Kyoko's head as she studied Ren's steady face. Having grown up at the ryokan and having been trained to help out with the customers, Kyoko had learned about the tea ceremony and sometimes that hurt your body even if you were healthy at the beginning. It seemed pure madness to be doing it with a fracture over your foot. She watched Ren. She wanted to make him proud of her as well. She couldn't get scared and give up right now.

"I estimate that it will take at least fifteen minutes before it is okay," Ren told her as he helped slide her sandal on and Kyoko watched him nervously. "If you are careless and get injured then it will take even longer," he continued and Kyoko looked at her foot and thought of the gentle way that Corn had touched her. Only fairy princes touched her in those types of ways.

"Your ankle has been sprained, it hurts a lot just by walking," Ren told her and Kyoko knew that she hadn't have much of a leg…or a foot to stand on in these circumstances, "This one scene," he looked at her with a heavy severity on his face that made Kyoko's breath stop in her chest. "From the beginning until the end will require a kneeling position for the filming. Do you have the confidence to last that long?"

Kyoko paled as she thought about the pain that she would have to go through to get to the ending point but then she also had spent countless nights awake or with very little sleep in order to take care of Shotaro and to pay for the apartment. She felt herself shiver a little and her eyes showed her terror.

"If it's too hard then I can take care of it," Ren continued to tell her and Kyoko was starting to see that he wanted her to not focus on the scene. Did he have that little trust in her abilities?

Ren was hoping that she would understand that it wasn't worth it, he wanted to protect her. He looked at Kyoko as her face changed to a more stubborn one and he felt the power of the two rivals as Kyoko and Ruriko looked at one another. This was a challenge that no third party would be able to enter. This was something that the two of them wouldn't just agree to a surrender upon. This was war.

…..

…

Kyoko watched Ruriko as she seemed to have a slight mastery over the tea that she was making. It was impressive, yes, but Kyoko knew that her technique was better. She had grown up in the type of environment that she was supposed to be acting natural within. This was as if she were back in Kyoto, of course if she was back in Kyoto then she wouldn't have met with Corn.

She thought about the way that Ren had looked at Ruriko with interest but she didn't take it as an attack against her. Ren cared a lot about what he did and Corn had made so many sacrifices so that he could participate in the acting world. It made sense that he would be curious and want to keep things in his control.

Kyoko bowed her head and smiled softly. She could impress him by being better than Ruriko and then she would accomplish two things and she would be able to tell him that he was an inspiration to her and that she treasured their friendship and that she knew fairy-human relationships were off limits so she'd have to try and control herself so that she really didn't fall for him.

It was okay to fall in love with a fairy, right? It was only human men that she couldn't fall in love with.

One of the crew members turned to Kyoko who was just watching Ruriko refine her technique, "So then, do you also want to practice for a bit, Kyoko-chan?"

Kyoko smiled softly, "No," she held up her hand trying to be polite to those who, in her mind, she could be working with quite soon. "I'm fine. If possible I do not want to kneel down."

The man looked at her confused, Kyoko was leaning on a large stick but she was trying to keep her injury to a minimum so that the director didn't immediately disqualify her. She frowned before looking up at the light and then turned to Ruriko. Maybe it was petty but Kyoko didn't want to keep too tight a lid on her pettiness. "By the way, I have been bothered by something for a while. Ruriko-chan, you…aren't you allergic to UV rays?"

Everyone turned to Kyoko in complete shock but Kyoko continued to look at Ruriko as if challenging her, she saw everyone rise to look at her. "No way! Isn't she simply avoiding the sunlight!?" they asked and Kyoko took a step back.

Wow. She had had a feeling that she had been wrong but the way that everyone reacted around her was more shocking. Was she the only person that someone like Ruriko had ever lied to? No that couldn't be possible. Still, she was tricked into believing Ruriko in the beginning so it must be the same for everybody else as well.

Now she was seeing everything as a way for Ruriko to manipulate her, well she wasn't going to let anyone push her around anymore.

…

…

Ren was a little worried as he looked across at Seiji who seemed to be walking with a slight skip in his step, he was actually having fun during this time whilst Ren was concerned about Kyoko and how she would handle the acting challenge. He didn't want to make his feelings known to everyone about Kyoko especially since he couldn't do anything with her.

Seiji turned to Ren, "The next scene will be shot outdoors, I didn't think Ruriko would so quickly agree to have an outdoor shooting. I was even thinking that Takarada-san's plan would be difficult to execute. Ruriko-chan most definitely does not want to lose to that girl."

Ren frowned as he said this. It was true. Ruriko did not want to be the loser in this challenge but Ren cared far more about how Kyoko would be in this situation. He didn't want for her to not understand how hard the acting world was and find herself a failure in it. He knew that there was only a slight chance of her actually being chosen in the role and it was next to nothing if Ruriko didn't quit on them but he still wanted her to be happy.

He sighed as he tried to think of how happy Kyoko had been when she was a child. As they walked to the area where the girls were practicing their tea ceremony, Ren paused as he heard the sound of them fighting. This brought him back to his teenage years with girls fighting all around him. Still, it was nothing to how he had fought with guys when he was a young kid. He sighed as he looked in that direction.

What was wrong with him? Kyoko was a child and in America, he would be labelled as a pedophile if he even tried to have a relationship with her. Their age gap was far too large and the immature sounds of two teenage girls fighting was making him realize how dangerous the things he had been doing actually were.

"Director, what's wrong?" he coughed pretending not to know about it. He knew that it was Kyoko and Ruriko but he really wanted to be proven wrong and for it to be Ruriko with somebody else. Where had the mature Kyoko gone?

…..

…..

Kyoko was standing opposite Ruriko with their hands together as they each tried to get the other one to submit and to fall onto the ground. They were angry at each other but Kyoko was done with this. She didn't want to hear people lying to her and abusing her anymore. If say Corn had told her that he wasn't a fairy but just pretending to be a fairy, well that type of lie would only make her hate the world more. No. Corn was good. She had to concentrate her disgust on the woman opposite her, the one who had caused all of this.

"Saying that you are sensitive to UV Rays is actually all a lie! To think that you look cute on the outside but the personality is such a big deviation! You lying idol!" Kyoko yelled loudly with sweat on her cheeks, her eyes lit with a dangerous intensity.

Ruriko snapped back with the same force, "You are mistaken of your part! I have never said that I am sensitive to UV Rays! Do not pretend to know when you don't and then push the blame onto me! You useless LME Member!"

Kyoko tried not to bite her own tongue off but it was like a devil had just entered her, all this black energy that had been building up and now it was spewing out orally as well, it was as if she were vomiting it up. "Since I am mistaken, why didn't you tell me then! Why do you still purposely pretend that your body is weak and I had to end up carrying such a big umbrella. What do you mean you are just afraid of being under the sun? Because of this lame reason, I actually believed and wanted to protect you, and I even hurt my ankle. I cannot be more stupid."

Ruriko felt more disgust and anger on her own expression since she wasn't used to being yelled at like this. "Hurting your ankle should be your fault since you fell down yourself! Moreover I said to you to "carry me" You shouldn't blame me and if there is blame to be made, it should be on that stupid brain of yours!"

Ren watched as Seiji tried to get involved in breaking up the two girls fighting. Ren wasn't sure how to feel about this. Girls fought a lot but he wanted Kyoko to mature out of this as soon as possible. He wanted her to have a good life and maybe if he wasn't in the picture then she could do so and achieve that.

Was this all his fault that she wasn't moving on, the fact that he just continued to lie to her?

Ruriko pushed Kyoko down again and whilst the director took a step away so that he could talk to her, Ren was relieved that he could give Kyoko his attention again. "You," he began, "to be honest, you really are stupid." At first it looked like he was scolding her but as Kyoko dared to look at him she could see his concern and how worried he was about her. She shouldn't have scuffled because that just made things feel worse but she had been brought to do so by Ruriko's bad mood.

"To me," Ren sighed, "Wouldn't it be better this time for you to give up?" he asked her and Kyoko froze. Was Corn really asking for her to give up? He wouldn't do that, right? She closed her eyes wanting the pain to stop but listened to his words.

"Even though the director did put into consideration your foot injury and greatly reduced the shot of the tea ceremony. Judging by your injury its not possible to kneel anymore," he stated and Kyoko closed her eyes.

Please let me try, Corn. Please just let me try.

She opened her mouth to speak but already Ruriko was attempting to pull Corn away from her. She wanted to prove who she was to him. She would have to try.

End of Chapter Twenty One

Thanks for reading

Thanks for the reviews on the previous chapter:

FleetingStarDust, Guest, H-Nala, Kaname671, Kris XD, misherukuro, MWEH, Paulagato, The Real Jackie-O