Chapter Six: The Directors Who Direct… Directly

Kyouko was proud of herself. For once she was actually running on time for something. With a satisfied smirk, she shrugged into denim jacket while Sorata waited patiently by the door. Her pride would quickly fade however.

"Kyouko-chan, when was the last time you read your mail?" Sorata called from the front of the living room.

The young starlet bit her lip, thinking while she tugged her feet into a pair of shoes. "Uh… maybe…" She slipped the straps around her ankles and stood up. Sorata was standing imperiously over a pile of mail scatter haphazardly over her end table.

"It looks like at least a week," Sorata said disapprovingly. "Maybe two."

Kyouko winced. "Well, maybe there wasn't anything important," she said hopefully, striding over to where Sorata stood.

Sorata held up a creamy envelope. "No such luck, Kyouko-chan. I believe this is the invitation to Director Ogata's wedding."

Kyouko's eyes widened considerably. "Isn't that this weekend? How did I forget?" She tore open the envelope and began reading the curly writing on the invitation: "You are cordially invited to the wedding of Hiroaki Ogata and Moriyama Sakura." Kyouko crumpled. "I'm a bad person!" she wailed. "It's on Friday!"

"So you have three days to come up with a dress and a date, not to mention a wedding present," Sorata thought out loud. "You're lucky I caught the mail or you would have hurt Ogata-kun's feelings."

"Wait, wait, wait," Kyouko said, holding up her hands. "Date? I have to bring a date?"

Sorata looked at her like she had grown several extra heads. "Of course. Everyone knows it's pathetic if you don't bring a date to a wedding."

Kyouko began wailing and pounding her head anew. Sorata glanced at her watch. "So much for being on time."


"Ren, have you made sure to get a wedding gift for Ogata-kun?" Yashiro asked, as they drove towards the studio where Duty Binds Us was being shot. It was Tuesday, the first day of filming.

"Of course," Ren replied. "I got them an electric mixer," he said proudly.

Yashiro shot him a funny look which Ren promptly ignored. "So do you have a date?" Yashiro prodded.

"No," Ren admitted. "Do you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

Ren was surprised. "Who?"

"Kotonami-chan."

"Kotonami-chan?" Ren parroted back. Quite frankly it astonished him that Kyouko's best friend was giving his manager the time of day. Had he missed something or did Yashiro actually have a life beyond meddling in his?

Yashiro was offended by Ren's surprise. "Don't look at me like that, Ren. Plenty of women think I'm attractive. Just because I'm not the Tsuruga Ren doesn't mean I can't get a date. Actually, it seems I got one before you did."

It was Ren's turn to be annoyed. "I don't plan on taking a date," he replied snidely.

"So you're going to sit in a corner like a creepy bachelor and not dance with anyone," Yashiro said sarcastically. "Great plan."

Ren ignored him.

"You need a date, Ren. This isn't me as your friend speaking; this is me as your manager. Tsuruga Ren can't go to a wedding by himself. It'll be bad for your image," Yashiro said seriously.

Ren didn't want to admit it right away, but Yashiro was right. The problem was, there was only one girl he wanted to take out and he didn't deserve her. He could bring himself to ask anyone else though.

Yashiro sighed, knowing pretty much exactly what was going through Ren's mind. "You don't have to take her as a "date" date. Just ask her as a senpai. Kyouko-chan has to go to the wedding too. She'll probably be glad to go with you."

Ren frowned. He didn't want that either.

"Would you rather her take someone else?"

He gripped the steering wheel harder and took the turn into the studio parking lot a little faster than he should have.

"Because that's what will happen. I've heard through the rumor mill that her other co-star is already infatuated with her. You're the only man I know with this kind of self-control, Ren."

"Yashiro," Ren said quietly, pulling into a parking space and turning off the car. "Please. Stop."

The pained expression on Ren's face was horrifying to see. Yashiro felt guilty for all his poking and prodding. "I'm sorry, Ren," he said. "Take a few minutes before you go in. We're early."


"We're going to start with the opening credits today," Director Hakimori announced happily to his captive audience of actors and crew members. We'll be getting three or four second shots of all the major actors in the series and then play out a little scene with Ichirou, Rin, and Akio."

"Scene?" Yasu Hayate, otherwise known as Lieutenant Ichirou, asked, looking a little worried.

"Yes, Yasu-kun," Hakimori replied, grinning broadly. "A brief kiss between Ichirou and Rin, we'll end up doing special effects so that Ichirou seems to fade away into the darkness. Rin looks off into the distance, forlorn and broken, only to have Akio come from behind and wrap his arms around her."

"Kiss?" Hayata and Kyouko said in unison.

"Yup," Hakimori said, oblivious to what he was doing to his two newbie actors. "Of course, I want all of you to add a little improv here, there, and in between but that's the general gist of it. Any questions?"

Kyouko opened her mouth to speak out, but Ren put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "You're going to have to do this eventually," he whispered in her ear. "Yasu-kun looks up to you. He's depending on you, Mogami-san. Don't show him your hesitation."

She didn't look very reassured, but at least she listened to him. Hayate looked equally ready to speak out, but she spoke before he could form a sentence. "I am sure I can rely on you, Yasu-kun," she said, smiling brightly.

"Good job," Ren whispered. He realized that his hand was still resting comfortably on her shoulder and removed it at once.

Hakimori smiled at them all. "Well, then. Off to costumes and make-up, everyone. You have an hour to prepare!"

The cast and crew broke apart, wandering off to their various destinations and tasks, but Kyouko hung back, looking worriedly at Ren. "What do I do, Tsuruga-san?" she asked pitifully.

The way she was looking at him made him horribly uncomfortable. Ren wanted to do something to make the pained expression in her eyes go away, but he wasn't sure what that might entail.

"I've never kissed anyone before," Kyouko continued. "What's it like?"

Ren was startled by her question. Of all the things! "It's…" he pondered over his words. "It's nice, I suppose…" He felt lame for not saying anything else, but he couldn't come up with the right explanation.

"I don't even know how!" Kyouko exclaimed.

"From the looks of it, neither does Yasu-kun," Ren replied without thinking. It was obviously not the right thing to say.

"It's going to be awful!"

Ren was glad he didn't have much time to think because in retrospect he was going to regret his next choice of words. "Mogami-san, do you… do you want me to help you?" She turned to him with a pair of hopeful eyes that said 'yes' a thousand times over. "Go get into costume, then come to my dressing room." He glanced at his watch. "We only have fifty-five minutes now, but if you hurry, I can probably teach you to kiss properly before you and Yasu-kun have to act."

Kyouko flung her arms around Ren's waist. "You're the best, Tsuruga-san!"

He patted her softly on the head and watched her run off to her dressing room, wondering just what sort of trouble he had managed to get himself into now. Just around the corner, Yashiro and Kanae watched with amusement.


Kyouko was feeling nervous again as she stood outside Ren's door. Just what exactly did kissing lessons entail? Kissing most likely. Though she supposed it was better to kiss a senpai than humiliate herself later. She knocked hesitantly on Ren's door and waited for about five seconds—she counted—until the actor opened it.

Ren's face was an infuriatingly blank canvas devoid of any emotion that might clue Kyouko in as to what sort of experience was awaiting her. His eyes glanced over her uniform quickly. "The military is quite your style," he said smoothly, trying to ease his own nerves.

She colored faintly. "You pull it off rather nicely too, Tsuruga-san," she replied truthfully. Indeed, he looked even better than she did in the crisp, starched jacket, decorated with gleaming pins and medals. Hers was plainer in comparison since Rin was only a private.

Ren closed the door behind her and directed her towards the small couch placed up against the wall in his square dressing room. There was little else to look at in the room besides a rack of clothes, a mirror, and a small coffee table—and Kyouko had seen it all before in her own dressing room.

Kyouko looked over at Ren earnestly as he sat down next to her. "So, what exactly do I do?"

"Your kiss with Ichirou is supposed to be on the gentler side, so I'll give you some basic guidelines for that kind of kiss," Ren said, talking a little faster than usual. "It'll go faster that way." He cleared his throat, finding that it was rather difficult to keep talking when Kyouko was watching him so intently. "Almost as important as the kiss is how you lead up to it. You want to start slowly, look him in the eyes. Then put your hands on his shoulders, maybe even touch his face." Kyouko nodded to show she was paying attention. "When you lean in, you don't go in all the way. You want him to meet you for the last ten percent of the distance. And then, soft and slow…"

Ren trailed off, looking at Kyouko rather helplessly. "I'm not sure I understand. Could you—"

"Demonstrate?"

She had been about to say "repeat that," but she couldn't bring herself to do anything but nod and watch as Ren reached out slowly to put his left hand on her shoulder. Gently he stroked the side of her face with his other hand, teasing at a lock of her hair. His eyes stared down at her penetratingly. He leaned closer. She could feel his warm breath bearing down on her and remembering what Ren had said, moved to meet his lips.

Kyouko understood immediately what Ren had meant by soft and slow. His lips were tender on hers. She could hear her heart hammering fiercely in her chest. All too soon, he had pulled away.

"I understand," she whispered.

When Kyouko looked up she realized Ren was looking away from her. His body had stiffened and he seemed detached. Was he angry at her, or was she just a terrible kisser?

"Tsuruga-san, I—"

But she didn't get to finish her sentence. Yashiro knocked on the door, and not hearing any protest entered. "Ren, they want you on set now—Oh, Kyouko-chan, I didn't know you were here…"

"I was giving Mogami-san some acting advice," Ren said tersely, getting up and leaving the room.

Kyouko blushed. "I—"

"I think they need you too, Kyouko-chan," Yashiro said kindly, wondering just how he was going to get the point across to Ren that he was being completely and utterly ridiculous.


Kyouko's foot tapped unconsciously as she watched the rest of the cast get their multi-second screenshots. The grand finale, her scene with Rin's two love-interests, was fast approaching and from what she could tell Ren had decided to ignore her, opting to chat with the older man who was playing Colonel Jira.

Hayate meanwhile was hanging about Kyouko like a lovesick puppy. It had been flattering at first, but now she was wondering when he would stop stalking her. He seemed to view her as some sort of goddess-like figure.

"Mogami-chan, Yasu-kun, Tsuruga-kun! Your turn!" Hakimori called out excitedly.

Kyouko sighed, wondering exactly how her ominous sense of foreboding was going to play out this time. She took her place and fell into character as the more wholesome version of Rin that the beginning of this scene required.

Hayate reached out slowly to take her right hand twining their fingers together. He spun her around once and let her stop close to his chest. Kyouko slipped her fingers out of his hand and onto his broad shoulder. Her other hand laced neatly into the long strands of blonde hair that fell around his ear. A faint, almost nervous smile spread across her lips.

"Soft and slow," she thought, leaning in close and closing her eyes.

Just off camera, Ren felt himself grow tense. Tenser that is. He started to shut his eyes then stopped. "You knew this was coming," he told himself. "You can watch." It was like a car accident or a train wreck. He couldn't look away. Ren's eyes were glued on the scene before him and the rest of his body felt like it was shattering into tiny pieces.

Hayate backed away as he'd been instructed before the take to give the special effects artists an easier time editing the scene. Kyouko's fingers stretched out after him, grasping at empty air. Her eyes became hollow and dead.

It was Ren's turn to enter. He wasn't sure if he could handle it, not after what he had just seen, but he couldn't not go out there. To refuse would admit everything he wanted to keep hidden.

He wrapped his arms around Kyouko from behind. She felt frail and weak in his grasp. Was that really the way she felt or was it just her acting? Ren couldn't say. He folded his chin over her shoulder and looked off in the direction Hayate had disappeared. Ren's eyes said one thing and one thing only: "mine."

Kyouko's knees were trembling under the power of her character and though she didn't know it, Ren's were about to give way too. Somehow they slid to the floor in an elegant motion. Kyouko cast her eyes downward to the floor and Ren leaned close to her ear as if to whisper something.

"CUT!"

Director was grinning broadly, standing next to the main camera man just off-set. "Brilliant!" he said, waving his arms about in his usual enthusiastic manner. "Let's say we break for lunch and then we can start the first scene!"

Kyouko watched as Hakimori nearly skipped off to talk to one of his technical producers, wondering if perhaps the exuberant director was gay. It admittedly wasn't much of a stretch.

"You're shaking, Mogami-san," Ren said, reminding her that the actor was in fact still standing behind her, though not embracing her anymore.

She looked down at her vibrating arms to see that he was quite right. Kyouko shook herself vigorously and tried to rub some life back into her limbs. They felt cold. "Hmm, I didn't notice," she said, utterly bewildered. "Are you all right, Tsuruga-san? You look a little pale."

"I'm fine," Ren replied a little too quickly. He grasped for words. "Your acting was… it was very good, Mogami-san."

Kyouko flushed. "Thank you, Tsuruga-san. We better go join everyone for lunch."

Ren nodded, hoping to all spiritual powers he could think of that he didn't lose his precious control and drag Kyouko off to his dressing room right then and there. "I'm better than that," he thought. "I have to be."


Author's Note: Ah-ha, yes finally, my dear readers, we have some lip action. I'm very satisfied with this chapter because when I started this story I was a little worried that it would focus too much on Duty Binds Us, but I think with where I'm sending the plot for awhile that won't be an issue. Yay! Anyway, I'm glad I managed to get this chapter out in time. I was worried that I wouldn't because I had all sorts of really awesome things going on lately that meant I wasn't writing as much as I should have :P But it's here so it's all good. Hmm... I have to give some serious thought to Hayate's character and what I'm going to do with that. I have some ideas but do you guys have any thoughts? Thanks for reading and please review!