Well, from yesterdays responses I've concluded that most of you would read a ShoKyoko…if it was done right.

Now, I'm not saying that this will turn out to be a ShoKyoko - but then again I'm not saying that it won't either.

: D

Nah, seriously? You guys rock. So I'm going to tell you. The main pairing is [Error 404: Text Not Found]

So you see? Well, whatever pairing you support I hope you enjoy this.

Dedicated to my editor - WriterofShadow who wouldn't give me a long review because of the pairing in the last chapter. You amuse me so, dear friend of mine.

Advent '08

December 9th - 16 days to go

It snowed during the night and Kyoko had woken up to a world blanketed in white.

Now she was standing outside wrapped up tight in her coat and waiting for the filming crew to set up. It was before school had started and there were students milling past hoping to catch a glance of Sho.

The man in question was standing, chatting with his agent and the director. Kyoko wanted to go over but she didn't want to impose on anything. So she stood by herself and thought about what had happened over the last few days. And just what was going on with herself.

She had no real clue as to why she was acting this way. Sho was here and she should be feeling distant or angry even, but she wasn't. He had smiled at her and she had felt butterflies and she didn't know why.

Now she wanted to go over and talk to him? It was like she had been put under a spell and she couldn't break free. She didn't even have anyone who was close to her here to help her break out from whatever she was under. The soonest she was going to see anyone was going to be this afternoon and she had a feeling that that may be too late.

She sighed and blew on her hands. Things were not going well.

She was so caught up in her musing that she didn't notice Nanokura stalking past where she was standing and talking loudly to the group of girls that were surrounding her.

"I can't believe that she's acting so unprofessional! Fancy begging the director like that to get a part in the video opposite Sho-kun."

Kyoko flushed in embarrassment and turned to stare at the group, she wasn't the only one either, a group of men setting up cameras also turned to look to see who was talking. Turning, Nanokura smirked at Kyoko before she started up again.

"She must be sooooo in love with him if she would go to that length. It's disgraceful if you ask me."

The group burst into cruel laughter that faded as they walked further and further away. Kyoko flushed harder when she realised that the men were now all staring at her and whispering between themselves.

She was incensed!

How dare she?!

How dare she say those things in front of the people she was working with? How dare Nanokura make her out to be some sort of hussy? She wasn't a hussy! If anything Sho was the hussy, living with that agent of his while she paid for everything he wanted.

He used her and now he was acting like it had never happened!

Turning slowly she glared at him. He was still laughing and chatting with the two older women. Her anger increased.

And Nanokura thought that she wanted to be with him? That she had begged Asami-san to give her the part? It was completely untrue.

That bastard had broken her heart. There was no way that she would go out of her way to try and spend more time with him? That wasn't likely.

Sho suddenly stopped laughing and shivered violently. Kyoko watched as the jerk looked around himself, trying to find the reason he was feeling like his life was in danger.

He had broken her heart without ever giving her a second thought.

He was going to regret that, she would make sure of it.

---/---

It was nearing the middle of the morning when they got to the last scene Kyoko would be filming that day. She had gotten through the morning barely able to restrain her anger at having to work so close to Sho and hold back.

He was still acting weird towards her, smiling and so on. If she didn't know his true character she could have sworn that he was trying to be nice to her.

Ridiculous.

Sho was heartless through and through.

And, even though they had had to take a few re-takes she had managed to live up to Asami-san's expectations. Sho had asked her if everything was ok after one of the re-takes but she had brushed him off.

Of course everything wasn't ok, but it wasn't for the reasons that he thought and him standing there being all concerned had not helped. It made him seem like a nice guy to anyone watching when really, Kyoko knew that he was anything but.

The last scene was a difficult shot. They were outside still and were going to have to waltz through the snow as a part of a montage sequence. Sho had donned a tuxedo and Kyoko had been dressed in a white cotton dress with an emperor cut. Silver trimming ran around the edges and she sparlked when she moved.

She was standing impatiently while Sho got the last minute instructions of the director before he made his way over to her and waited until Asami-san had called action.

Taking her hands he led her around in a gentle circle. Kyoko was stiff to begin with, unable to get past the fact that he was holding her close and had his hand on her waist. She let him spin her, increasing the pace.

He was staring into her eyes and she could see the love in them. He was a good actor and she could admit that he was out-acting her at the moment because she just couldn't get past the fact that everything he had ever been to her was one big lie. He was out acting her but she wasn't happy about it, in fact it made her angry that he could ruin the one thing that she was doing for herself.

The waltz finished with an elaborate twirl and she ended up held tightly in his arms. They paused for a second, Sho staring into her eyes. Kyoko stared back. She had always hoped…always thought…always dreamed…but no.

He had hurt her and things were never going to be the same.

Sho leant down slowly, his eyes sliding shut and his lips parting slightly.

He was a fool if he thought otherwise.

Without thinking Kyoko clenched her fist and punched him as hard as she could in the stomach.

His eyes shot open and he let out a big 'oof' before folding in half and crumpling to the floor, gasping for breath.

Kyoko stared at him for a moment in complete silence as she tried to figure out what had just happened. There was silence on the set as everyone stared at her with wide eyes before Shoko called out.

"Sho-kun? Oh my God, are you alright?"

Sho was still on the floor, curled into the foetal position. Shoko rushed over to where he was lying and triggered everyone else into movement. The crew turned and started gossiping between themselves and Asami-san rushed over to where Kyoko was standing.

First making sure that Sho was going to be ok she turned to Kyoko with incomprehension in her eyes and dragged her off to the side so that they could have some privacy. Kyoko was too stunned by her own actions to protest.

"Kyoko-chan? What happened?"

"I…I don't know?"

"What do you mean? He was about to kiss you, it was a great moment! And then you punch him in the stomach?"

"I..I…oh no…I ruined the shot?"

Asami-san sighed.

"Well…no. I could work with what I've got. But it would have been better with the kiss."

"I honestly don't know what came over me. He was just there and it just happened and it's all just a big blur."

Haruki gripped her shoulder.

"Do you think that that's going to happen again? I can't have you working for me if you're going to punch the main character."

Kyoko was horrified. Was she going to get fired for this?

"I'm sorry! It won't happen again!"

"That's a relief. I don't want this to happen again when the scripted kissing scene is shot."

Kyoko's eyes shot wide open. Scripted kissing scene?

"Look." Haruki was talking again. "I don't think we're going to get anything else done this morning as Fuwa-san will need some time to recover. Why don't you go to your agency and work out what happened? We'll pick up filming your shots tomorrow, okay?"

Kyoko nodded, feeling dazed. She had come close to being fired but had been given a second chance. Though with what else she was going to have to do she was unsure about whether this was a good or bad thing.

She glanced over to where Sho was being helped up off the ground and into a small awning that had been set up for the crew and actors to have their lunch. Sighing, she pinched the bridge of her nose.

She really needed to talk to Kanae about all of this. She'd know what to do then as she couldn't act like this again.

…no matter how good it felt to punch Sho in the gut.

---/---

The bad thing about Ren having long legs was that Yashiro sometimes had to jog to keep up with him, especially when he strode about the place. This only happened when he was deep in thought and forgot to regulate himself.

Fortunately Yashiro had long legs too so when this did happen he didn't get too out of breath.

"Ren-san? Are you ok?"

Yashiro watched as Ren started and looked over at him.

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be Yashiro-san?"

"Well. It's just that you're practically running and you only do that when you're thinking too hard or worrying about something."

"That isn't true."

"Yes it is. Now, which is it? Thinking or worrying?"

"Yashiro, you're confused. I'm not worried about anything nor am I thinking too hard. It's just too cold to be standing in one place for too long."

"Uh huh."

Yashiro kept silent for a few minutes, eyeing Ren's back. He smirked.

"I wonder how Kyoko-chan is doing with her filming?" he remarked casually, delighted to see Ren's shoulders stiffen.

"I'm sure she's fine."

"Yes, yes. Hey, what exactly happened when she dragged you into that storage room?"

This time Ren stopped completely and Yashiro had to quickly hide his smirk as he turned to look at him.

"She asked for my advice."

Yashiro waited for a few seconds before sighing in annoyance.

"And?"

"And what? That was it. She asked for my advice and then we talked about the awards. You know all this already."

"Yes, you're right. And I still think she was hinting that she would like to go."

Ren brushed him off. "No. I don't think so."

"Yes, I do. I'm sure that if you talk to her again you'll see. She wants to go and she wants you to take her."

"Yashiro. She wasn't hinting at anything. Besides, I'm not even going to the awards so how can I take her?"

Yashiro shrugged.

"I'm just offering my opinion to you on the subject."

Ren turned and started to walk away again.

"Well it is unneeded, thank you."

Yashiro fell into step behind his charge in silence. Ren might believe himself to be not going but he was, really, and it was all due to Yashiro. By mentioning Kyoko, he had planted a seed of doubt into Ren's mind that was going to grow the more he thought about it.

Yashiro grinned. His plan was developing wonderfully.

---/---

Kyoko arrived at work that afternoon desperate to talk to Kanae. Unfortunately that was not to be, as she soon found out that Kanae had been called away to re-do some of the speech for the project that she had been working on in November.

Kyoko groaned when she heard the news. Now who would she talk to?

Taking a break from her cleaning work, she sighed and sat on the steps. This wasn't good. She needed to talk to someone so that she could get past this block she found herself against. She was also worried rumours about what had happened would be spread about her.

Urgh. This was bad.

Dropping her head in her hands, thoughts ran through her mind.

She was so caught up with mentally disgracing herself that she didn't notice when a shadow fell across her. It wasn't until she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat that she looked up.

"Kyoko-chan? Is everything ok?"

"No." She answered in a small voice. Ren frowned at her response and sat down beside her.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm going to get kicked out of the industry after I am shamed and disgraced."

"And why would that happen?"

"I…I did something bad. Something unprofessional."

Ren blinked twice and raised his eyebrow. Kyoko was acting completely out of character.

It made him want to hug her.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"Oh, it was."

"Well then, what happened? I might be able to help."

Kyoko looked at him for a moment, weighing whether or not to tell him about what happened. One the one hand she really needed to talk through this with someone but on the other this was Ren.

In the end her needing to talk won out. She sighed and started her story, keeping her eyes trained on the floor.

"Well, you know how I asked you for your advice on the video? Well, I was filming today, a dancing scene with Sho-kun. And…he went to kiss me."

Kyoko paused and took a deep breath, unable to continue because she was so mortified by what she had allowed herself to do. Ren stayed silent beside her, looking stony.

"And?" he asked shortly.

Kyoko flinched at his tone and took another deep breath. "And I punched him in the stomach."

There was silence. Kyoko kept her eyes on the floor, sure she would see condemnation at her unprofessional-ism in Ren's eyes. A weird choked, snorting sound had her looking up in bemusement.

Ren was sitting there, looking at her and biting the insides of his cheeks to keep himself form laughing. It wasn't working very well.

As soon as she looked at him he couldn't control himself and he dissolved into laughter.

"It's not funny!"

He tried to pacify her but he was laughing to hard too get any words out. This only served to incense her more which added more fuel to his amusement until he was leaning forward and clutching his sides.

Kyoko watched him, her mouth hanging open before his laughter infected her and she joined in with him as well.

---/---

When they had finally calmed down they sat in a comfortable silence until Ren cleared his throat.

"So. You're worried that rumours are going to spread because you…because of what you did?"

"Yeah. I don't want people to think I'm unprofessional."

"Kyoko-chan. Not everyone is going to like you. There are some people who are going to be determined to hate you when they've never even met you or know who you are. It happens to everyone, even me, so I wouldn't worry over what someone says or thinks. Your fans will stick by you."

Kyoko opened her mouth to protest that no one could hate him when she remembered with sudden shameful clarity her own hatred towards him before she had changed. Her face fell.

"I'm also worried about not being able to act like I love him tomorrow. I really will be seen as unprofessional if I can't act out a basic emotion."

Ren looked at her, his expression thoughtful and a little apprehensive.

"You could always think of him as being someone else. Someone you're in love with?"

Kyoko blushed furiously. "I'm not in love with anyone. I can't fall in love. It's impossible."

A myriad of emotions passed across Ren's face.

"Well," he said slowly, "has there never been anyone you've loved before?"

"I use to think that I was in love with Sho-kun. That was before he called me plain and boring and I found out he used me."

Ren looked shocked at the omission Kyoko had made. He hadn't known this about Sho. He schooled his face into something that was politely curious.

"Has there been no one else?"

"Well," Kyoko started apprehensively, "there was someone…but he left."

"Who?"

"You'll think it's stupid."

"I promise I won't laugh or think it's stupid. Who was it?"

"Well. There was this one person. His name was Corn and he was a fairy prince. I thought I was in love with him too."

Ren was stunned. "What happened? Are you still in love with him?"

"I don't know. He was a prince. Sometimes I wished he had taken me away to his palace and saved me. But then I thought that Sho-kun had done that and then he left me too."

"Do you hate this…Corn?"

Kyoko looked sadly at Ren.

"I could never hate him. I just wish I could see him again. I want to thank him."

"Why?"

She smiled sadly.

"Because even though he left me too, he also saved me in a way. I couldn't have gotten through some of the things I did without his help."

"Then that's your answer. Pretend Fuwa-san is this 'Corn' person when you act. It's obvious that you don't hate him so you should be able to overcome not being able to act cordial."

"Do you…really think that would work?"

"Yes. After all, if it works for me then it'll work for you."

Kyoko jumped up happily. "Thank you so much Ren-san! I'll do just as you say." She waved goodbye to him as she ran down the steps, off to finish the jobs that she had left and completely free of worry.

Ren sat in silence as he watched her leave, thinking furiously.

Ha ha - she punched him in the gut!

You see? You should never mess with a girl, it just turns out bad.

And you know that this is going to be canon someday in the future. Kyoko's revenge! Ha ha ha ha. Don't get me wrong, I do love Sho…but he's so easy to hurt.

…did that sound wrong to any of you?

Also, I find it amusing that Kyoko basically confessed everything…without realising it.

Thanks for all of the reviews so far!

DS