Chapter 9

Friday morning…

Maria failed. After all her efforts in planning and gathering everything, she wasn't able to get the last ingredient for her spell, Ren's cologne.

It was rather easy getting his hair. She was able to visit him in one of his shoots and as soon as they were done styling his hair she took the hair brush. She had a little bit of a scare when it happened though.

Ren stood up from his chair. "I need to go Maria-chan but I'll see you later." He bent low and hugged her. It was odd how much he was seeing of her recently but perhaps she was extremely bored. He really didn't mind, he was able to see Kyoko more with her as well.

As soon as he left, Maria grabbed the brush and completely forgot about the make-up artist who laughed.

"You got a little crush too huh?" The woman smiled at her and Maria froze as she spoke. She had seen her leave but not come back. Maria blushed with the brush frozen in her hand.

"It's okay, sweetie. I understand completely." Maria took two strands of hair and then put it back as the artist spoke, "I had this thing for Kichida Daichi. Ooo boy, that man was gorgeous." She said in a dreamy tone.

The make-up artist picked up the brush and started to clean it up. "I kept everything that was used on him when I did his make-up, cotton balls, foundation wedges, tissues and even his hair." She sighed. "Too bad he's married."

Maria stared at the woman like she was a freak. She never took anything of Ren's. The only Ren thing she has is the Ren doll from Kyoko. Maria blushed. Okay maybe that was the same thing. Still it wasn't trash. It was a half size model of the man made in perfect detail. How could anyone not accept that?

She quickly smiled at the artist and asked, "Does he have his cologne here too?" If acting like a love sick girl got her the ingredients then so be it.

"No, he does smell good doesn't he. He came in already smelling like that, so I guess it's his personal bottle at home. I don't recognize it though. I wonder what it is." It seemed like she was use to talking to herself and Maria wanted to leave. She thanked her and left.

After that, she hasn't been able to get even the tiniest clue as to what his cologne is or where he keeps it other than "at home". She couldn't find a way into his home. In fact, it seemed that he was out of his home more than he was in it. She was thinking about asking Kyoko to do this. She was going to ask her to find out what he wore for her doll; however, she has yet to find Kyoko since the sleepover.

This was where Yashiro found her. She was sitting alone in one of the benches tearing up a piece of paper solemnly.

"What's the matter, Maria-chan?"

She recognized his voice and answered truthfully, "I can't do the spell."

He smiled not really surprised. The spell was only an excuse to get them to spend an evening together but he decided to play along. "But why? It's tonight, isn't it?" He sat down next to her.

"I don't have all the stuff. I got everything from the chocolate to onee-sama's hair and perfume, but I can't get Ren-sama's cologne. Without that, it won't work. I'm going to have to try again next month." She was on the verge of tears and Yashiro wanted to chuckle. To her a month seemed like forever, while to him it was nothing. But her little problem was an easy fix.

"That's simple. Ren keeps his cologne in the glove compartment of his car so he can refresh it when he needs to." He paused with a smile, when he was about to see Kyoko-chan. "Why don't we take you home, and I'll distract him long enough for you to get some." He smiled at her as her whole face lit up.

"Really? He does? That's great! Let's go, let's go!" She bounced off of the seat and started tugging on his hand.

"We can't right now. But at one, he is free for a bit and we can do it then. Wait till then okay?" He stood up and patted her head gently. She pouted but nodded. It was only till one, and she could spend her time with her studies and eat then she would have everything.

Well okay she still had to gather the little things but that wouldn't be a problem. Once the time came, Maria and Yashiro came hand in hand towards a curious Ren.

"Maria asked for a ride home. Takarada-san took the driver, and I thought it wouldn't be a problem since we are free. Is that okay?" He asked and of course the taller man nodded.

"Of course, we will be cutting it close but we will pick up something quick to eat along the way." Ren smiled his gentleman's smile and Yashiro winced. He could feel him saying, "If Kyoko finds out, it's going to be entirely your fault I didn't eat well."

It didn't matter anyway. He was going to eat a full course meal cooked by his one and only tonight. They walked to his car and they let Maria in first. As soon as the door closed, Yashiro let his brief case fall open with dozens of loose papers flying everywhere.

"GAH! Help!" He started reaching for the papers and lightly tapped on the door. Ren moved down with him and started to gather his things.

"Yashiro-san, you aren't usually this messy. Didn't you just get that suitcase?" He asked.

"Ah well yeah since it's new, I'm not use to the lock yet. This is all of this week's paper work I was going to do tonight. We can't let any of it escape." He worked to be as clumsy as possible pushing paper slightly under the car, letting others slip out of his hands again. He felt like such an idiot.

Meanwhile, Maria jumped from the back seat to the front and opened up the glove compartment. Sure enough, there was a small dark blue bottle of cologne. She practically jumped for joy as she pulled it out. She came prepared today too. She pulled a small empty vial that she gotten for this spell. She got a set of six but she only needed a few. She poured some of the clear fragrant liquid in and then quickly closed it up.

She crawled to the back seat and then slapped her hand on the window a few times. Yashiro sighed in relief, he quickly grabbed the sheets on the floor in microseconds and then stood up as Ren did. He took the useless sheets of paper and slid them back into his briefcase and locked it with no effort.

"Thanks so much. We should go," Yashiro said as he opened the passenger side door and slipped in. Ren shook his head and went with it. Sometimes, his manager was weird.

Once home, Maria raced to her room and pulled out the book and the bookmarked spell. She had to rewrite everything she needed for the spell since she had tore it up at LME. Not that she minded, she was actually bursting at the seams in excitement. She looked through the list and got the easiest one first.

Lace. She ran to her closet and cut off a strip from a dress.

She needed a red candle but she had that already in the closet. Next was money. She ran into her grandfathers room. She knew that he kept a small amount of money in his room on the top shelf of his closet.

As she walked into his bedroom she turned to the right and walked into a second room larger than the first. To say that his closet was full would be an understatement. Maria walked through the first hall then turned left and then another right. Finally she reached his shoes. She started to count. It was on the 5th shoe rack. She looked up and there was a solid brown box. She started to climb, dropping shoes along the way.

Once she reached the top she flipped it open and pulled out the first note she saw. She climbed back down and tried to put everything back. It actually took a little longer than she expected since some shoes looked the exact same as other pairs.

Now she had to find a love letter. She figured that she would be able to find a love letter from her grandfather as well. The problem was that she really didn't know where to find one. So she went to the first place where she thought one would be - his book shelves.

She looked through the titles.

Just for Jess

Diamond Assets

An Unwanted Hunger

Resisting Tamaki

Just Press Play

Entwined Hearts

Maria stopped. That sounds good. She was trying to join two hearts so then this should work. She opened the book to a random page and read.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her fingers playing with his hair playfully.

"Kissing you," he said as his soft lips pressed and teased her skin

"Perfect!" She said out loud, ripped out the page and put the book back. It was a good thing she didn't continue reading. The smut book probably would have scared her for life. She took the sheet of paper and the money and put it with her other items.

Now for the champagne. This she knew was down stairs in the wine cellar. Grandfather had lots of different champagnes and wines down there that he never allowed her to drink. "It's not for children," she whined to herself. Going to the stairs she pasted one of the maids dancing to a soft song.

It sounded so pretty she stopped and listened,

I'll make love to you
Like you want me to
And I'll hold you tight

She walked in and the maid stopped in shock.

"Maria-chan!" She quickly turned off the little stereo she carried around. "I didn't see you." Her hand was clutching her chest.

"I'm sorry, Mimi-san. I was just listening to the pretty song."

Mimi blushed. That song wasn't really for children, but then the words were suppose to be romantic. She probably didn't understand what they were implying. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to explain it.

"It is. I enjoy it very much."

"What's it called?" Maria asked.

"Um… it's by Boys II Men. I'll Make Love to You." She tried to hide her embarrassment. She prayed that this won't get her fired.

"Is it about love? Like how someone were to make two people fall in love?" She asked sort of excited.

Mimi didn't really want to tell her the truth so she said yes, "Absolutely! You are such a smart girl." She grinned like an idiot and then let out the air she was holding when the little girl left.

Maria quickly wrote down the song, she could buy it on her computer later. She continued down stairs and met with another challenge. The door to the cellar was locked. She never remembered it to be locked. Every time there was a party, people were going in and out of it all the time. She tried to pull on the lock in vain. She looked to see if there was another way in but to no avail.

She sighed. Maybe there was an open bottle in the fridge. She ran back upstairs and straight into the kitchen. She rose on her tip toes and looked around. She found all the normal things but absolutely nothing that looked like the bottles down stairs. She closed the door and started looking through the cabinets just in case.

Nothing. She was walking out of the kitchen trying to think of any place she could find some of the champagne. A door closed far off to the left, and she remembered that the servants' quarters had a fridge of their own. Maybe they would have some.

Maria was always told that this is where they went to relax and to not bother them inside but since she wasn't there to ask them for anything she didn't think anything wrong of going inside. Still she waited till there was no one there before she stepped in. She looked inside the fridge and found… nothing.

She sighed and then quickly regretted it. She tried to suck it back in so she wouldn't lose her good fortune and started to look through the cabinets. She smiled as she found a bottle. It was almost empty and it looked a little different than the ones she was use to.

"Tee…ki…la," she tried to sound it out but it wasn't in Japanese. Maybe it was English champagne. It was gold color like the others. She decided it was the same and took out another vial and filled it half way up. She put everything back and left.

She took off to her room and gathered all her items. She moved to the back of her closet and started to put everything away while double checking that she had everything.

Champagne – check

Kyoko's hair and perfume – check

Ren's hair and cologne – check

Lace - check

Dark Cho….

She forgot about the chocolate bar. She stood up and went to get it.

Dark Chocolate – check

Red Candle – check

Money – check

The last thing on her list was the song and two pictures, so she put all of her stuffed animals on top of it. She left feeling satisfied and booted her computer up.

Friday Night…

Kyoko smiled as she left the grocery store. It was close to nine, and she was heading over to Ren's. She didn't understand the reason she was feeling so good. She was simply in a great mood all day like something good was going to happen. Nothing out of the ordinary did though, and the day was almost over.

Well, she was going to see Ren. She hadn't seen him in a while. In fact it was on the roof that she last saw him. She was so distracted with Maria it didn't feel real. She blushed, not to mention her own mind making things up towards the end. So this was nice. Hopefully, he won't mind her coming over after his long day. She swore to herself after he ate, she would clean up and leave him to rest.

Since Kyoko was yelled at the last time she waited for him down stairs, she would wait upstairs at his door. She thought twice about it. Maybe down the hall a little so it wouldn't seem like she was a stalker.

She was a little bit early, so she set the bags down, sat on the window sill and looked out the window into the city lights. She lived in a city her whole life. Granted in the ryokan it felt like she lived in the country, since it was in the outskirts of town. But that was required for the quiet lodging.

"Kyoko?" A deep voice tore her sight from the city to a much nicer one of Ren. She stood up and bowed.

"Good Evening, Ren-san. I'm here to make you dinner." She smiled brightly.

"Oh. Did Yashiro-san send you again?" He tried to say it as calming as he could. That would explain why he was so quiet in the car. Normally he would be talking up a storm about Kyoko this and Kyoko that.

Kyoko heard this trick before, and he got angry when she told him yes. Still he absolutely hated when she lied. "Yes and No," she said.

He looked at her confused so she continued, "He did ask me to do it, but I also wanted to. I had been trying to figure out a way to come over or ask if I could and Yashiro-san gave me the opportunity." She wasn't looking at him when she spoke. If she did she probably wouldn't have been able to finish her thoughts. She glanced at his face, and he was guarded. Maybe he didn't like her coming over. She pressed her lips together. She was too bold.

"Why did you want to come over?" Ren asked, and she blushed. She didn't have a good excuse, which is why she couldn't ever convince herself to stop by. She didn't need help with a role. She didn't have to return anything to him or have a LoveMe job that required his presence. So she never came over or asked to do so.

"Kyoko?" He asked, and she couldn't look at him while she spoke.

"I just wanted to see you, maybe talk about things," she mumbled getting more embarrassed by the second. "But of course, if you are tired, I will go. It was very rude of me to come unannounced, I thought Yashiro-san would tell you so…" She started walking out to be stopped with an arm in front of her.

"No. Please stay. I would love a good meal," he spoke softly, his voice sending shivers down her skin. She risked a glance up and was face to face with his stunning smile. Kyoko nodded softly, and he escorted her inside.

Maria looked up and down the hall. It was full dark and the perfect time to perform the spell. There was no one around but she could never be sure. She quickly went into her room and locked the door. She rushed to the windows and quickly reached up and turned the little hanging stick to close the blinds. After drawing the curtains, she waited in silence.

Ten minutes past and there was still no sight of her grandfather. He had noticed the mess she left in his closet though she had no idea how. She told him she wanted to play dress up. She didn't think Lory bought her lie, but he didn't ask anymore questions. Maria determined it was safe to do the spell. She went deep into the back of her closet and pulled away all the stuffed toys to retrieve the ingredients of the spell.

She opened the book to the spell and read it again. She had to say the magic words while performing certain actions at each of the lines. She had the words memorized now but wanted to make sure she did everything right.

She set everything up in the order she was to use them. She set the candle on the small heart shape plate and then walked over to her computer and turned on the MP3 she got. A soft beat started to filter though the speakers. It was softer than she remembered, so it was perfect. It said a soft romantic song. She turned it on low, because she didn't want to be disturbed if it was too loud, but she also wanted to be heard.

Maria had to think about the two of them as she performed the spell so she placed the two pictures of them in front of her. She took a deep breath and started.

"Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, I invoke thee on this eve." She took two hairs, one from each of them and twisted them together.

"To guide these two lost souls into a perfect match that is surely meant to be." She tied the entwined hair around the red candle stick and then placed it back on the dish.

"Passion burns as I ignite this flame." She stood up and lit the candle with a match.

"May they never taste an ounce of shame." Maria picked up the bar of dark chocolate and let some of it melt over the candle.

"Close them into a warm embrace." She took a small eye dropper filled with the liquor and lifted it very high into the air. She leaned back and let a single drop burst into the flame. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and quickly moved it far away from the fire.

"And make their hearts begin to race." She took another eye dropper filled with Kyoko's perfume and Ren's cologne and allowed the mixture to mix with the melting wax.

"Don't let their words drown this fire." Maria lit the corner of the ripped love story page and set it next to candle the burn.

"Let them fulfill their every desire." She took the 10,000 yen note and burned that after the page.

"Let this spell guide them to unite." Lastly, she burned the scrap of lace.

"With love to last forever and a night." She knelt down and bowed deeply with the last line.

Maria bounced up with a huge smile on her face. The spell said that the candle had to burn all the way down and extinguish on its own. If anything caused the flame to die too early then the spell wouldn't work. The hairs and the ashes of all the items will merge with the wax and as soon as they say their love for each other it will be permanent.

She took the two eye droppers and the vials she used and put them in her bathroom sink. She cleaned them and let set them out to dry. She walked back, turned off the music and turned on her television. She was going to stay awake until the candle burned all the way down. She found a fun anime and ate the rest of the chocolate bar. She fell asleep half way through, the candle slowly burning out throughout the night.

A/N: Those are real book titles, and I do Not own them.