Next chapter!! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!! I know, late, not excuses, I'm lazy. You'd think the holidays give you more time, but I feel less and less motivated...
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.
CHAPTER TEN!!
Kyoko sat in her room, utterly depressed. Since she found out, rather abruptly, that she actually liked Ren somewhat more than a friend or sempai, she couldn't do her scene. She just couldn't. She'd start off fine, but when it got a little too warm she'd blush and break down, unable to look at him properly. Which was why she'd gotten so many NG's on a crucial scene and the Director had finally called a break period, to let her get herself organised. Which she couldn't do.
Normally when she was having problems, Ren would come and help her out. But right now, Kyoko couldn't let him. After Shinkai had called break, Ren had come over to talk. She'd deliberated and left. She hadn't really realised how much she relied on Ren, but now it seemed painfully obvious. There was a scraping noise, and Kyoko looked up in time to see yet another envelope being pushed under her door. She could guess what was inside. Quickly standing up from the corner she was sitting in, she ran to the door and yanked it open, hoping to catch the person leaving the letters. There was no one there.
She stared at the empty corridor for a while, frowning. Then she turned and picked the letter off the floor, walking over to her desk to open it. Once again, the note was made up of newspaper clippings, undistinguishable.
Ha! You call yourself an actress? You're pathetic Quit
At the moment, Kyoko had to agree.
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Ren was worried. Kyoko couldn't do a scene after already gripping the character. It was a first. It was like watching a holograph waver and disappear. He'd be standing there, saying his lines, and he'd see the cracks appearing on her character. Then Marguerite would shatter and Kyoko would be there, looking embarrassed and uneasy. When they finally gave it up, he walked over to talk to her, worried about her mental state. The past few weeks had been hectic. They'd had lots of misunderstandings, and he was anxious to avoid another one.
"Kyoko," he said, "What's wrong?"
Kyoko gave him a self-depreciating smile, which he knew was false.
"Oh, nothing, I'm just feeling a bit off. Maybe I'll go have a rest." She wasn't meeting his eyes.
"Anything I can do?" Ren asked.
"No, don't worry about it."
She walked away, somewhat quicker than usual. Ren got the feeling she was escaping from him, which was annoying as she'd never done it before. Well, once they'd got to know each other, anyway. She was the type of person to walk straight up to you and admit a wrongdoing, or something she thought of as rude, and demand swift punishment. It bothered him that she was lying. Her act wouldn't break just because she was feeling sick. Hell, he could still remember the first time they acted together. It was another on Shinkai's projects and she'd had a fractured ankle, and she still could act quite well. And her talent at that time was nowhere near her ability now.
Shinkai approached him. "Five NG's. Ren, this is highly unusual."
Ren looked at him and sighed, "Actually, you have no idea how unusual it is."
"Why don't you enlighten me, Ren."
"She won't talk to me," Ren confessed, not looking at the older man, "She used to ask me when she had problems, and she's never lost a character once she had already created it. Ever since we started this project, she's been strange about things. She was late the other week with no reason. And now she won't tell me what's gone wrong."
He sighed. Shinkai led him over to a seat in the hall, and they sat down. Ren put his elbows on the table and dropped his head in his hands. The Director looked sympathetic. Love could be so hard.
"Look, Ren, we'll give her a break and then try the scene again. If you guys still can't do it, we'll film it later. Don't worry."
"Ok." Ren took a deep breath, "I'll go and tell her."
Ren walked out of the room after nodding to the Director. Shinkai seemed to realise that the scene wasn't working, and that no pushing would just suddenly make it work. But he also said they'd film it later, as he would not settle for second best. Some people did not understand that; it was why Shinkai was such a good Director. Ren looked up and saw Kyoko's name plate right in front of him. He'd walked straight to her door almost unconsciously. Raising his right hand, he gave a soft knock. There was a slight noise from inside the room, sort of like a drawer shutting, but no answer. He sighed.
"Come on, Kyoko, open the door."Ren called, staring at the part of wood where her face was bound to appear. The door opened slightly, and he saw Kyoko look at him, blush and look down before opening the door.
"Kyoko, Shinkai is going to try the scene once more today, and then we'll do it later." Ren said gently, "Don't worry if you can't get it."
She still didn't look up. Ren decided to change his approach, maybe that would help. He sighed, loudly and obviously. Kyoko sunk a little lower.
"Kyoko." Ren said again, this time not as gently. "Get it together. Even if for some reason you can't do this scene, you need to do as well as you can. This is not the shrinking attitude one expects from a professional. Ignore this scene, work on it later, but don't let your failings leave the set."
Ren said it as hard and as professionally as he could, trying to ignite the fighting spirit in the girl he loved. It seemed to have worked, but not the extent it normally would. The normal Kyoko would have looked up and gritted her teeth, before loudly exclaiming her intention to fight on, to act well and to make a great movie. This time, his words seemed to rouse her only enough to let her shake off her immovability. Something was definitely wrong. He reached out and touched the top of her head.
"Could you tell me what's wrong?" He asked.
"I'm sorry, Ren, I really can't just now." She said, looking pleadingly at him.
No one could resist those eyes, and Ren was not an exception. He looked a question at her, which she disregarded, and so he decided not to ask again. She'd tell him eventually.
"Fine, don't worry about it." Ren muttered, "We'll go and try that scene again."
They walked out the room, and down the hall, motioning to the Director that they were about to try it again. Taking their places on the terrace while the sun set fast in the background, Ren turned his back on Kyoko, casually leaning on a pillar, and waited for her to begin.
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Marguerite wandered onto the terrace and sighed, worried about the situation with Armand and Chauvelin. The Frenchman had told her that no one had come into the Supper Room at one o'clock, but she had got the feeling that he had found out something nonetheless. Looking up at the house, she saw lights streaming out the windows. On one side of the mansion were her rooms, on the other were his, and divided from each other by the whole width of the house. Now with such a problem on her hands and no one to turn to, Marguerite felt very alone.
A slight noise alerted her to the presence of another person outside, and she silently rounded a corner to see her husband, dressed in his heavy driving coat, hands in pockets. He apparently did not notice her, and after a minute turned, about to go inside.
"Sir Percy!" she called.
At her voice, he started and looked searchingly into the shadows. She came forward into the moonlight, and he immediately said with his usual affected gallantry "At your service, madame." But his foot stayed on the steps, and everything about him told of a wish to leave.
"The air is cool," she said, "Will you not stay awhile, or is my company so distasteful?"
"Not at all, but I wager you'll find the garden more inviting without my company." He rejoined placidly.
"I protest, you mistake me. The rift which has come up between us was none of my making." Marguerite said hurriedly.
"You must pardon me there, madame, my memory was always of the shortest." Sir Percy said coldly.
Her eyes softened as she came closer to him on the terrace steps. "Was it? Was it really? It was three or four years ago when you first saw me for one hour in Paris on your way East, and two years later, you had not forgotten me."
She looked divinely pretty as she stood there in the moonlight, eyes turned up to look at him. He stood absolutely motionless but for the clenching of his hands on the railing on the terrace. After a few seconds he said:
"You asked for my presence, madame. I trust it was not to reminisce in tender memories."
His voice was cold and uncompromising, and Marguerite was torn between returning coldness with coldness and sweeping away, and staying to try to talk. She stretched out her small has and he kissed her fingertips ceremoniously.
"Is it possible that love can die? Is there nothing left of that love, Percy, which might help to bridge our sad estrangement? "
"With what object, madame? My dull wits are unable to understand the cause of your ladyships new mood. Do you wish for me to once more kneel at your feet so you may have the pleasure of kicking me aside, like you did last year?"
"Percy! I entreat you!" She cried, unsettled and worried by the bitter tone in his voice. "I was vain and frivolous; I married you hoping that your great love of me would beget me a love for you then, but..."
"Twenty four hours after our marriage, the Marquis de Saint-Cyr and all his family were sent to the guillotine, and popular rumour reached me that it was Sir Percy's wife, who put them there."
"No!" she declared vehemently.
"I asked you myself, and you said it was true."
"You already believed the tale recounted to you by strangers. Yes, it was my fault that the Saint-Cry died under the guillotine, but if you had asked instead of believing me of deceiving you, you would have known that up 'til the morning of our marriage I was doing all I could to save Saint-Cyr and his family! Pride sealed my lips when your love seemed to vanish."
Her voice became chocked with tears, but when she regained some sort of composure, she looked back at her husband. Sir Percy's normal good-natured expression seemed strangely altered, and a fiery passion seemed to glow from beneath his drooping lids. Marguerite knew that for the past few months she had been mistaken, that this man still loved her as much as he had a year ago, and that while it might have been dormant it was still as intense as when they had first met. Suddenly it seemed that the only joy that life could possibly bring would be to bridge the gap that had come between them, and restore his love to her.
"Listen to the tale, Percy. I will tell you what happened..."
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To all those people who so long ago asked to know what Marguerite did to kill the Saint-Cyr family, you'll soon find out!
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