Just a warning I am Dyslexic so my stories will not be perfect but I now have one Beta reader to help me along the way :D

Thank you so much to rsrdiall for offering to work with me :D

Hello my sweeties,

Well lets see how well I get back into this story :P

Enjoy.

Neh xxx

I do not own Skip Beat!

The information Kanae unknowingly departed that morning to the already understanding listeners was simple. Mitoki Sakura was the bain to any entertainers existence. She had a love hate relationship in the industry, an industry that she had an amazing power to control and influence to her liking.

"So basically she's not a very nice woman?" Calvin asked in his broken Japanese.

"Basically yes," Kanae replied as Chiori nodded emphatically. Neither of the girls could even begin to describe how terrible this woman could truly be.

"Well I think we have one up on her anyway," Sayuri remarked as she picked up the last of her tea and sipped it with her steady hand.

"And how do you figure that one our dearest?" Calvin asked as he turned to his beautiful wife.

"Because we have two not very nice women," she replied as her eyes sparkled.

"Especially when it involves our family... right Setsu?" the four other seated around the table looked between the two of them as Cain fought not to smile at his father.

"And God help the one who stands in our way." Setsu simply purred in reply.

Chiori shivered as Kanae's hair on the back of her neck rose. Their tones and wording said it all and all they could both think as Calvin began to chuckle softly was really God help Mitoki Sakura. She was going to be in for one heck of a show with these four individuals.

"OK so we will be back later, Cain... Setsu stay out of trouble!" her eyes said it all as Sayuri glared at her children.

"Have a nice day girls," she added with a pleasant smile towards the LoveMe ladies. They had said they were off to visit Sayuri's friend so they would not need one of the young ladies to assist them today. Kyoko and Kuon both knew it was more like Calvin was starting to get food withdrawal. Kuon was amazed his father hadn't started eating the furnishings.

The two women bowed as Cain and Setsu gave half-hearted nods. Today they had been dropped off under the car park normally use for deliveries so didn't have to worry about the paparazzi and public. It was one of the places where they had been lucky enough not to be watched. They walked towards the elevator.

Setsu pressed the attention button and as the doors opened they waited inside for the green light to come on. Konoe had explained how the lift worked. Both buttons had to be pressed at the same time for the elevator to work correctly. Depending on which way they were loading in or out they would either need one man at the top or the bottom of the lift while the person inside the lift pressed the traveling button.

The green light came on as expected and Setsu idly pressed her finger onto the traveling button as the lift lurched into movement and slowly trundled its way up.

"I hate lifts," Chiori commented as she grabbed the bummer rail that was fastened to the outer walls. Setsu and Cain simply looked across at the smallest woman who blushed at the scrutiny of the silver eyes that settled on her.

"I think any small spaces can be quite daunting." Kanae agreed as she looked at no one rather focusing her eyes on the operation cables you could see through the wire top of the elevator. She too was feeling a little off centre. Maybe it was the fact the top of the elevator was simply made of grating so you could see everything around you and how it all worked. Or maybe it was the fact the lift seemed to shudder a lot as it traveled. Whatever it was she had to agree almost completely with Chiori this lift was horrid.

As always, Setsu and Cain stood together as they turned their attention back to the wall before them watching the elevator shaft pass before them as they waited to reach that all needed exit point. It was the sudden jolt as the elevator stopped that almost knocked Setsu off her feet was the starting point.

"Setsu?" Cain questioned as he caught his sisters stumble .

"Not me," she said as she punched the lift travel button a few times wondering if it was stuck or something. The green light was still on showing whoever was above them was still pressing the call button. Cain gently moved his sister from the control panel and pressed the travel button as Setsu had.

Nothing...

"Heel-san's?" Kanae asked as she pushed herself away from the wall and over towards the pair by the control panel. Setsu simply shrugged as Cain looked over the panel to see if there was any obvious thing that could be wrong but after a moment he shrugged too.

"Maybe give it a minute and see if it works again," Cain suggested as Setsu leaned backwards into his solid chest, she sighed visably. Kanae stepped back towards Chiori who was fidgeting slightly. Her foot tapped on the floor as she looked at the pulley system above and the control panel, the green light was still shining brightly.

After 5 minutes and no success with getting the lift going again Kyoko knew they would have realised in the studio that something was wrong.

Or she hoped so anyway as she watched Chiori become more uncomfortable by the moment. It would not have been visible to most people but Kyoko and Kanae knew the young women now and knew she was starting to panic. Setsu slipped her mobile phone from her pocket before she flipped it open. Her call was answered after a few rings,

"Hello, Setsu? Can you hear me?" Director Konoe asked as Setsu smirked.

"Hai, Director-san. The lift seems to have malfunctioned on us." The others in the lift watched as the girl nodded and said a few more words to the director on the other end of the line.

"Ok let us know." and with that Setsu ended the call.

"Seems there has been an issue somewhere. They are waiting for the repair guy to come look at it but for some reason the director could not get through to my phone when he called." Setsu shrugged nonchalantly as she leaned back once more against Cain who was perched comfortably on the bumper rail.

"But how long will that take?" Chiori's voice held the slightest quiver as Setsu simply looked at the girl.

"As long as it takes I suppose." she answered with another shrug as she closed her eyes, showing her own uncaring attitude to the situation. Kanae watched as Chiori visibly paled.

"I'm sure it won't be that long, Chiori." she assured the now visibly frightened girl.

The fact that Chiori nodded in quick jerking movements just increased Kanae's resolve that they needed to get out of here as soon as possible. She had no idea how to cope with the panicking girl and sadly had no Kyoko moments to call upon to help her deal with the situation. The only thought that came to mind was her own hopeless panic when she believed her end had come with the Curara commercial auditions. She doubted the slap which Kyoko had given her was the answer in this situation.

It had been forty-five minutes and with each minute that passed Chiori got paler and paler. The Heel siblings had hardly moved simply happy to be close together as Kanae tried to think of ways to get Chiori to calm down. She had taken to pacing looking up every few minutes hoping the lift would suddenly spring to life with magic or something.

Cain and Setsu both seemed indifferent, but Kuon could feel Kyoko's need to comfort her friend. All three had to admit they also wanted to calm the woman who was quickly approaching a catatonic state. Gently pushing Setsu away from his body Cain slowly slipped out of his leather trench coat. Flipping it open he placed it on the floor in the middle of the elevator too the two LoveMe girls confusion.

"Shall we sit?" Cain asked as a command rather than a question. Yet as he sat slowly on the floor pulling Setsu down next to him on the edge of the large coat so there was room for the other two girls, Kanae looked at Chiori. Deciding this was probably the best for her young friend she took a seat.

"It will not get done any faster the more you pace." Setsu added as she saw the moment of indecision flash in Chiori's eyes.

Kanae watched both Cain and Setsu who seemed unbothered yet they were offering comfort in their own way. Sayuri was right. Setsu and probably even Cain were not good at showing their emotions and feelings to any but their family, but they had there own way of showing care and concern.

Chiori nodded a little less jolting in the movement as she sat down carefully on the coat before smoothing out the material below her as if trying to take her mind of the situation. Cain decided he was the man in the situation and his father was right. No matter what the situation he was always to look after the woman.

"You are both actresses?" The question coming from Cain's lips was enough to stir both girls into attention on him rather than the position they were currently stuck in.

"Yes," came the joint answer from both women as Cain simply nodded his head. It was a simple encouragement but Kanae jumped upon this opening from the normally almost silent man. It took encouragement on Kanae's behalf to get Chiori really involved in the conversation, but when Setsu also seemed to take pity on the young woman Chiori was so shocked she too joined in with zealous attention.

"So who would you say is good in Japan?" Cain had only asked a few simple questions maybe 3 in all. Setsu had been more opinionated and always towards the stating of her wonderful brothers talents.

"Well of course there is Japan's number one actor Tsuruga Ren, but he recently became ill and is currently recovering according to the president." Kanae snorted slightly as she tried to cover a laugh. The steel grey eyes instantly turned to her rather than Chiori.

"Sorry." she said as she tried to calm her face as Setsu and Cain just looked at her.

"What's funny?" Kyoko asked trying not to let her anger show through. Why the hell is Moko laughing? It's not funny that Tsuruga-san is sick with a fake illness.

Ren was rather happy to feel how Kyoko had stilled at Kanae's reaction. He could tell she was not happy by her best friend's behaviour and it held hope in his heart as he saw her willing to stick up for him even against her best friend.

"I'm sorry. Don't get me wrong. It is very bad that Tsuruga-san is unwell. I was thinking more about my friend who if she was here would be berating the man telling him it was his own fault due to his bad eating habits." Ren felt Kyoko calm as she watched Kanae's tender smile.

"I suppose if you want to know about good actors and actresses in Japan, I doubt we would get far without mentioning Kyoko. She's the LoveMe section's number one member, but she is also one of the most talented actresses I have ever had the pleasure of working with and watching." Chiori was nodding firmly her colour back in her face as she smiled at Kanae's words before taking over.

"She truly is amazing! When I first met her I stupidly labelled her as one of these actresses getting by with her looks rather than talent but i have never been so wrong in my life! She's like a chameleon or maybe you will know the story of the eternal butterfly?"

Both of the seated siblings shook their heads as Kyoko sat shivering inside Setsu's body as she awaited wondering what her friends could possibly find so amazing about her. She was simple, plain and in her mind a talento compared to all of the people seated in this lift.

Yet Ren had called her beautiful as Kyoko and not Setsu. Kanae had showed her own care for her best friend in a way Kyoko would never have imagined. And here was Chiori a veteran in the field. After acting as a young child, here she was talking about her as if she was special.

-I'm looking for an immortal butterfly.

Just as the name implies, it's a butterfly that will never die.

Its transparent wings

don't sparkle or glare.

It quietly lives,

deceiving our human eyes.

Sometimes it turns a passionate crimson,

sometimes a frozen, clear blue.

Sometimes it's a dull, earthy colour that no one could call beautiful.

Its wings change depending on the time and place,

so that the lucky people who have borne witness to it

know not

that they have all seen the same butterfly.

No one knows its true form.

They don't know it exists.

When they cease to be dazzled by its phantasmagorical wings and accept the

butterfly's "real self,"

the name they don't know, the name I replace with "immortal butterfly,"

echoes in their minds:

"Fairy."

I'm still searching.

in this fairy-tale world of celebrity,

for someone who can breathe life into the "role," and change their form over

and over.

The one called "actor,"

the immortal butterfly.

The human

with transparent wings.

Kyoko was spell bound by Chiori's words. It was only the hand of Cain on her lower back that held Setsu deeply in place as inside Kyoko cried for the words Chiori had just spoken so simply about her.

"I remember going to this presentation with my mother when I was little. And that was what I took away from it. What I strived to be and what I wanted to be able to become more than anything." Chiori chuckled to herself as her eyes softened.

"But I never truly knew just what he was talking about until I met Kyoko. 'We've seen the same things... in so many different forms. It's not what it seems.' It has been said in so many ways, but Kyoko... she's someone who is ever changing. She truly not only tells the character's story, she becomes the person, bringing them to life in a way I have never truly seen anyone do before." Chiori chuckled again and smiled at Kanae.

"I know exactly what she would say if she could hear us now." Kanae smiled too.

"Oh yes she would be completely modest and tell us she is nothing special and her senpai Tsuruga-san is the real thespian, the real amazing actor in Japan... I hate it ... the way she puts herself down when I doubt I will ever be able to reach her level. I call her my rival, but even I doubt I could ever be anything close to her." The sad smile on Kanae's face was more than Kyoko could take as she shot out of Setsu's skin.

"Don't say that!" she almost shouted as the two women's heads shot to her. Kyoko was fighting herself down as she tried to call out Setsu once more, tried to compose her own need to comfort her friends and tell them how truly wrong they were. Tsuruga-san ... no he would never slip in his acting as she had. Cain's hand had stiffened on her back as she forced Setsu back to the surface.

"If my Nii-san had said that he would never have surpassed otou-san, he would never have become the amazing actor he is today if he had given up! If this Kyoko is as good as you say you fight until you have reacher her level. Or do the Japanese give up so easily?" Setsu's drawl at the last few words annoyed the girls as they scowled slightly. Kanae was about to give a scathing reply when Setsu continued.

"I thought not." The two girls simply looked at the woman before them, wrapped in leather and silk yet in her own way she was just a little like the girl they both cared about. At the end of the day she was right.

Setsu's phone started ringing in her pocket as Chiori jumped to her feet as the thunder and lightning cracked from the device.

"Hello?" Setsu nodded as she listened to the call before standing effortlessly and pressing the traveling button. To everyone's relief the lift jolted into action.

"We're on our way up." Setsu snapped her phone shut with a smile for her brother. When the elevator finally reached the desired floor there were more than a few disgruntled faces among the happy ones at the four occupants rescue. Murasame was one. He couldn't really be bothered either way. It wasn't as if they were in danger though he did look first to the young woman that had been almost crushed the day before. He could not miss the loud tut from behind him as a few people cheered.

Well I hope its not too disappointing, I'm slowly getting back into my own stories mind.

next chapter will be the interview...

hope your looking forward to it!

thanks for reading

Neh xxx

Comments and reviews please, I will happily reply to PM's and questions