Chapter Five

"WELCOME TO THE HOUSE OF LOVE!"

Mitsu stood at the entrance, arms outstretched in greeting.

Kanae scowled. Ren blinked. Kyoko grew cold at the word and quickly reviewed the cast meeting in her head, trying to recall a name-change. Mitsu still had his arms in the air after his enthusiastic proclamation to the new arrivals, but quickly frowned pitifully when no one else responded excitedly.

"I said," he huffed, "Welcome. To the house. Of love. No? Fine!" He turned on his heel, as if to stalk back inside, but then seemed to have a change of heart. He seemed to be inventing their responses in his head, and then responding to them in kind. "Oh, Kyoko-chan, Ren-chan, Kanae-chan, I can't stay mad at you! It's okay! I forgive you!"

The aforementioned threesome still hadn't said a word to interrupt his conversation with himself, but Kanae allowed herself to register the fact that she was now apparently famous enough to be acknowledged alongside Kyoko and Ren in Mitsu's fanatic admiration.

"Kyoko-chan?" Oh yes, the weakest link.

"Eh? Uh, that's nice, Mitsu-san, but isn't the drama called the House of Four?" Kyoko sighed, wringing her hands as she looked up at the apartment building in which they'd be working and living for the next couple of months. The red bricked building stood at several storeys high, and cheerful green curtains peeked out at each window. A balcony stretched around the building on every floor, with various deck chairs and tables placed along it. It was much less extravagant than she'd expected, for something that the President apparently owned. Then again, it was supposed to be used for the drama, and she doubted that any of the characters would be living in a medieval Japanese fortress, or an ornate castle from a fairytale.

"It is, but Lory-chan said that it was a much more suitable name. The director refused to change it, though. I can't think why," he complained.

"Yes, I wonder why," Kanae muttered darkly, pushing past him to enter the building. Mitsu didn't let her through easily, though. It was testament to how accustomed she was to Kyoko's attacks that she managed to dodge aside before Mitsu could tackle her to the ground.

"Kanae-chan! I've never hugged you before! Come back, don't leave me!" Mitsu occupied himself for the next few minutes with chasing Kanae around while she threw her hands up in the air, glared behind herself, and shouted, "Mo!" at regular intervals as she kept her distance.

Meanwhile, Kyoko and Ren regained their ability to speak and move and otherwise function, and dumped their luggage inside so that they could explore the place. Their explorations unearthed two small Western-style bedrooms in each apartment. Kyoko voiced her concerns that Ren might not be accustomed to the size, given his apartment, but he quickly reassured her that his character, as a university student, wouldn't have lived in a large room anyway.

As the President had reassured them, they did indeed have the entire floor to themselves. There were four locked doors in the hallway of the floor; two were for each of their apartments, and the other rooms were unlocked. In them they found various costume racks, so their intended use was obvious. Each apartment had a moderately sized kitchen, a dining table for four, a living room with sofas and a television, and a bathroom to share.

At the thought of sharing, Kyoko's eyes widened, and she turned to Ren. "Tsuruga-san...you're going to be living in the same apartment as Mitsu-san!" The thought somewhat terrified her. Ren lived alone, and was probably unaccustomed to living with others, especially others such as Mitsu.

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Yes."

His lack of reaction lessened her worries a little, although she had a feeling that her senpai still didn't like the overly boisterous actor too much. Well, it wasn't so much a matter of liking him or not – Ren just seemed to barely tolerate him. Tsuruga Ren was always unfailingly polite to his co-stars, and Kyoko was used to being the only exception. Dark Moon had finished already, and had far surpassed the original, and she hadn't worked with her senpai since then. Not that she would have expected to – they were at drastically different levels when it came to their acclaim in the industry.

"Well...that's fine then," she finally said, and moved past him to open the blinds. Pale sunlight filtered into the room, and she stopped at the window to look outside. The view consisted mainly of other buildings, which was not too interesting. The view inside, Ren decided, was far more pleasing to the eye. Light illuminated her face, mellowing out the faint shadows she had under her eyes from lack of sleep, and softening her features. In the serene morning glow, she looked ethereal; otherworldly; as if she was one of the fairies who seemed to delight her so much. What you don't realise, Kyoko, is that you're just as magical as any of those fantasy creatures. You wield a different kind of magic.

He sighed at the thought – he had never expected the girl to earn such an important position in his heart. He had never even expected to be able to let anyone into his heart. And yet here she was, as amazing and oblivious as always, but still so unaware of him. Despite that, he knew he wanted her in his life, and he would do anything to belong to her, to make her seem him as a man with faults and feelings, rather than a distant senpai placed high on a pedestal.

Disconcerted by his silence, Kyoko turned to face Ren, and was startled by the look on his face. It was similar to the Emperor of the Night, but it also looked like something that Cain would show to Setsu. His eyes were warm, rather than filled with the usual devious sensuality, and while he did look somewhat hungry, there was some pain in there too. Something wistful yet determined. Before she could catch onto that thought, she recalled the hungry part.

"Tsuruga-san?" Kyoko simpered menacingly, smiling up at him with something akin to a death threat lurking in her eyes. "Have you eaten today?"

He flinched. "Well, I had breakfast?" Why did she specifically as if I'd eaten? Why couldn't she ask if I'd had breakfast yet? Then I could've answered honestly! All that milk for nothing...

"Oh? You mean a mug of coffee? That, Tsuruga-san, is not breakfast."

And when you put it like that, I can't even use the milk excuse. Damn it. "I'm not hungry?" he added weakly.

"Hmph. Come on, I'll make you something. Let's see..." she traipsed into the kitchen and checked the cupboards. There were stocked with kitchenware and cutlery, but no food. The fridge yielded some meat and vegetables, so she took some out and set to work.

While she was busy cooking, Kanae and Mitsu joined them, the latter somewhat docile and meek as long as the former kept the glare on her face. It wasn't hard – in Kanae's opinion, even Kyoko was less stubborn about getting a hug.

"Oh, Mitsu-san, I remember Takarada-san saying something about your manager. Is she here today?" Kyoko asked as she added more ingredients to the pan. She'd decided that she may as well cook for all of them, since that's what she was planning to do while they lived here anyway. Kanae wasn't the type to cook, much less eat, and she would hate acting like a housewife for her co-stars anyway. Mitsu was entirely too excitable to be allowed in a place as dangerous as a kitchen, which was full of hazards such as stovetops and knives.

"Ah! She's just still busy packing. I expect that she and Yukihito-chan will both arrive later today," Mitsu said, leaning over to examine the cooking food.

"Yashiro-san's coming too?"

"Yes," Ren said, "Remember those other two rooms that were locked? They'll be staying there. We do have work other than this drama, after all. In fact, I don't expect that we'll even be here all that often."

"Huh," Kanae muttered. "So why did we bother moving? May as well have just stayed home."

"Moko-san! This is a great opportunity to really develop our characters," Kyoko said, waving her spatula emphatically. "I've almost finished anyway, how about we go and eat out on the balcony? It's so nice today!" She didn't vocalise her happy fantasies about ojou-samas who sat out on balconies with a parasol and sipped delicately at fine tea.

"I'll help you set up," Ren offered, standing to get the bowls and chopsticks for her.

"I suppose I'll go and check out the balcony," Kanae sighed, and glared at Mitsu. "You. You're coming with me. I'm not going to let you out of my sight, only to have you pounce on my from behind." Mitsu nodded weakly, and sent a pleading glance in Kyoko's direction as he followed after her to the balcony.

"So, Tsuruga-san," Kyoko said, as she divided the food up. "Do you have any work today? I thought that you wouldn't have the entire day cleared just to move in."

"I do," he admitted. "Just an interview and a photo shoot, though. It'd be a good idea to work out how we're going to live as our characters, so we can get started as soon as possible. We'll be filming the first episode tomorrow."

"Hai!" Kyoko beamed up at him, eager to get started. Her previous unease about Nanami had by now faded a little. She was still trying to ignore the fact that she had to play some romantic girl who went out on dates all the time. Ren smiled back at her, and together, they carried the food out to the balcony.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly. Yashiro arrived and left with Ren for his interview. Kanae had gone to the gym, and Mitsu had gone out to meet his manager, so Kyoko took the time to call the okami-san, who she had failed to say goodbye to that morning. It was some time after lunch, and she knew that business had probably quietened down a bit. At worst, she would be interrupting their preparation for the evening rush. Settling down on the zabuton at the low table, she dialled the number of the Daruma-ya, and greeted the okami-san cheerfully, inquiring after her day and asking if she was free to take the call.

"Of course, Kyoko-chan, we're always happy to speak to you," the okami-san replied warmly. In the background, Kyoko could hear the familiar sound of a knife dicing vegetables, and smiled.

"I just wanted to let you know that I've arrived safely and that you don't need to worry about me," Kyoko gushed apologetically. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to let you know I was leaving this morning – we were in a bit of a rush," she said, suddenly awkward, as she recalled the events of the morning.

"That's no problem. Ah, but Kyoko-chan, that nice man who always drives you home, Tsuruga-san; you were holding his hand this morning! Why didn't you tell us about the two of you being together? We'd love to meet him officially," she said, her voice heavy with amused implications.

"Eh? No! Tsuruga-san...Tsuruga-san isn't...we're not...I was just dragging him along by the hand. We were late! Tsuruga-san would never be interested in someone as plain and boring as me," she said frantically, desperate to defend her senpai against such aspersions.

"Kyoko-chan, this self-deprecation isn't good for you. The taisho and I both care about you very much, and you are a very talented and hardworking girl. I am sure that Tsuruga-san respects your diligence and your kindness and he would certainly not object to someone like you," the okami-san said comfortingly but sternly, not pushing the issue.

"Still, we are most definitely not together! He is my senpai, and I could never aspire to that sort of a relationship with him. Not that I'd ever want to," she added quickly and resolutely.

It was fortunate that Yashiro and Ren did not return until early evening, since it would have been a crushing blow to the morale of both men if they had overheard her stubborn rejection of 'that sort of a relationship' with her longsuffering senpai. When they did arrive home, though, Kanae had also returned, and Mitsu got to introduce his manager, Asano Eiko.

To put it simply, her ability to quash Watabe Mitsunari rivalled Kanae's. Kanae had taken one look at the tall, aloof manager with her dark hair wound tightly around her scalp and a formidable, bulging leather planner tucked under one arm, and had nodded approvingly with a hint of a smirk on her face. In turn, the tall, aloof manager had taken one look at Mitsu's baffled face, and had gotten to work on him with the kind of psychological oppression that is rarely seen in polite society. Suddenly, Kyoko was a great deal less apprehensive about her senpai having to live with this man.

/

Zabuton: A flat, square cushion used for sitting on the floor.

I feel like a broken record, but honestly, thanks for your reviews/alerts/favourites. Unfortunately, I've got a lot of SACs coming up (School Accessed Coursework), and while I've got quite a few chapters lined up, they've yet to be edited. Either way, I'll do my best to keep to my updating schedule of Tuesdays/Saturdays. Just a heads-up for anyone who cares. (: I also have a feeling I've got way too many OCs brewing up in this fanfic. Must. Refrain.

And a special thanks to pielovingchick for requesting that I include a phone call to the okami-san. I'm sorry if it sounds disjointed – I've had this chapter typed up since the day I first uploaded this story, so revisiting it in order to add the last part didn't work out too well. (Especially since I have no clue how to write the okami-san, not to mention it's nearing 3 AM over here.)

Anyhow, your feedback would be much appreciated and welcomed, so please let me know what you think of the story so far.

- Interficere