A/N: I do not own Skip Beat! Or, Howl's Moving Castle. Hope you're enjoying the story.

Chapter 4

Two months of filming, most of the time, and two months off. In the down times, it was the modeling jobs, interviews, movie promotions and time spent on each other. Yashiro was a genius and Kanae and Chiori had come to visit them several times. In that spare time they had to themselves, they also spent visiting with Kuu and Juli and had several vacations traveling around the world together. Their first vacation was spent at home in London just seeing the sites and enjoying time spent together. Their second in France and they slowly went further and further from home as time went on.

Yukihito had started dating Kanae long distance and the percentage he was getting paid for representing his favorite couple was starting to give him a nice little padding to feather his nest. Initially he had objected to the 10% but they drew up a contract with the Hizuri family lawyer, told him it was the average for a Hollywood agent and that he should get used to it or, they would sneak the money into his account. He finally gave in. When they received their first check for their first movie together, he was able to move from their house to his own and pay for Kanae's flight.

It came quickly. With their work ethic and talent, the pair had amassed close to $2.5 million USD in a year. It was more that they had ever expected coming out of Japan where the pay for an actor was only a fraction of the amount.

It had been a little over a year since they married and left Japan and they were reluctantly back for the filming of their most recent project and the promotion of the release of their first. The airport was flooded with screaming fans, security at the hotel was tripled and the television stations were swamped.

Their first interview was with the LME talents, Bridge Rock. It was suggested by the production manager, due to its popularity. TBM seeped in nostalgia for the pair and Kuon couldn't help but tease his lovely, beautiful wife about being Bo the Rooster; although, it was a bit irritating for him to watch the oldest of the hosts basically pine over his wife before the interview. "Oh well, Early bird gets the worm." He teased in a whisper in her ear and she playfully slapped his shoulder.

"Kuon... You're terrible." She giggled and he kissed her neck, causing all onlookers to blush at the pair's canoodling.

"That may be my love, but you still love me Mrs. Hizuri." He kissed her again and gave her a mischievous grin.

She shook her head. "That would be correct Mr. Hizuri. Just don't get too cocky."

He chuckled. "Never."

Aki Shoko thought for certain that her charge would be sulking and glowering by this point, but he was holding up surprisingly well. Was he finally maturing? Did he finally accept what his mother revealed to him almost a year ago? She sincerely hoped so. She wasn't so sure she could tolerate his old temper tantrums.

Of course he was fuming over it. They had been sitting in front of them in the greenroom and neither had even noticed his existence. It was as if they were in their own little world. He was disgusted by it and still couldn't see how two people could be so dedicated to each other. He wondered if they did it just to piss him off.

No, that really wasn't the case. From the moment after she had left Kuon standing in the halls of LME alone, he never again allowed another female to get close to him and she was doing pretty good at deflecting the advances of the males. When they were together, it was as if a protective bubble had formed around them and others just didn't feel comfortable intruding. One could say that the only ones that didn't have a problem with it, was their best friends Kanae and Yukihito. The atmosphere was always interrupted with a "Get a room or, Too cute." spoken respectively by the parties.

Needless to say, Sho was doing his best not to make a complete ass of himself in their presence and prove his mother's assumption that he was the biggest "jackass" on the planet. Oh, the joy that it would give him to douse them with a bucket of iced water or, just fucking tear them apart and prove that he was better than that bastard in every way. His brow furrowed at the thought after they left the greenroom for their segment of the show. Why do I feel, that I have to prove to her I'm better? Wasn't it always the other way around when we were growing up? When did it switch? He groaned and rubbed his face then raked his fingers through his bleached hair and sighed. Maybe doing this show wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Sho? Are you going to be okay?" Aki asked with worry. She really, really didn't need him acting childish right now. He had fallen back down in the rankings since his temper tantrum at LME a few months ago, she didn't need another mess to clean up if he lost it on live television.

He groaned. "Yeah... I can hold it together until we're done."

She nodded. "Do you want me to call Mimori? She seems to be able to calm you down lately."

He shook his head. And when did that start happening? "No, I'll be fine. I can get through this." He gave her a weak smile. "I promise."

On the large television screen behind them in the large studio, the teaser trailer for their movie began to play for the studio audience.

{Through the dense fog, one could see the faint outline of a large moving structure. The scene cut to a chestnut-haired Kyoko dressed in 19th century clothing with a long braid down her back, sitting at a bench making hats. The next scene showed a blond Kuon, holding Kyoko closely and skimming along the rooftops of an older city. It then cut to various other scenes that looked like a military parade. Finally, a scene with Kyoko with white hair sitting on a hearth talking to a living fire and a raven-haired Kuon walking through the door, shaking off black feathers.

"A story of a timeless love and magic. Howl's Moving Castle. Coming to a theater near you." The voice announced and the trailer ended.}

"Wow you guys! That was amazing. A live action Howl's Moving Castle?" Hikaru gushed and Kuon chuckled.

"First you have to tell us... What was it like doing all of that CGI? Was it hard?" Shinichi asked.

Kyoko looked at Kuon and he nodded. She giggled. "It was actually really fun. You do have to use your imagination quite a bit though. They used a plushie for Calcifer to mark where he would be. Sometimes we would only have a little "X" mark on the spot to tell us where to look, but I think it turned out well."

"So, how many of those rooftop and flying scenes were actually CGI?" Yuusei asked Kuon.

Kuon chuckled. "Actually, there was a lot of green screen and stunt work. I would say it's probably about half and half. Especially where all of the flying was involved."

The interview, for the most part was about their movie but slowly eased into questions about their personal life. The couple had expected it. Yashiro had warned them, that now that they were no longer part of LME they should expect to be treated without the kid gloves that were used on them in the past and Bridge Rock did not disappoint.

"So how long have you two known each other? We all know that you've been married for a little over a year and living in London." Hikaru asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Kuon looked at Kyoko with his silent question and she smiled softly and nodded to him. "Well, funny thing is... We've known each other for a little over 13 years. We met when we were children."

There were gasps and awes from the audience. "Wow... So how long did you date before you got married?" Yuusei asked them.

Kyoko giggled and Kuon just shook his head. "I guess you could consider what we did, dating." She smiled at Kuon. "We did spend a lot of dinners together, ran lines, built characters and did normal things like watch TV and such together."

Kuon nodded in agreement.

"So when did you decide to get married?" Hikaru asked.

They both smiled and Kyoko blushed beautifully. "My adoptive aunt kind of pointed out that we were made for each other and when Kuon asked me... She kind of encouraged me to take that step. I would have said yes, but she was so enthusiastic about the whole affair, she never gave me the opportunity to respond properly."

Kuon laughed. "She just kind of pushed Kyoko into my arms and excitedly yelled, "She'll do it!". After that, she had everything ready for us three days later. A very efficient woman when it comes to party planning."

Kyoko giggled. "Now you know where I get it from." Kuon nodded.

Sho was standing backstage, waiting for his entrance listening to the couple tell the world how his own mother had basically thrown Kyoko into Kuon's arms and held the wedding three days later. She had never told him that juicy little tidbit. No wonder she had been so evasive every time he asked about Kyoko. He sighed. Well, too late now. Then came his cue to enter for the music segment and the end of Kyoko and Kuon's part of the show. Kuon only nodded to him as they passed the former friend on their way out, with his arm protectively around her waist.

Kuon kissed Kyoko's temple. "That went a lot better than I expected." Kuon sighed in relief.

Kyoko pulled him close to her and kissed him. "I just want to get back to the hotel and spend some quality time with my man." She told him in a familiar lusty tone that burned his ears and sent a thrill up his spine.

"As you wish my Queen. We should probably check with Yuki before we do though... to make sure we're done for the day." He told her as he pulled out his phone and they headed out the doors of TBM to their limousine.