Author's Note: Hello Everyone. Sorry for the wait, though I did lots better this time :D This chapter (as well as the last one) is unBetaed, since my Beta Reader seems to have disappeared. Hopefully everything is alright. Anyway, hopefully this chapter is a little bit less angsty since we're getting towards the end. Last chapter was just way too dark. And yes, this story will be ending soon. Next chapter most likely. It's been a great time writing this story and I'd like to take a little sappy moment if I could to thank everyone for all the amazing support and reviews and general all around awesomeness. Yes, I defied grammar and probably spelling in that sentence and I don't care. Also if you're wondering about the chapter title, blame the internet, more specifically people on Facebook putting up videos about flaming tornados o.O Crazy stuff. I'm not sure if any of my Skip Beat readers are Naruto fans or read my NejiTen story, but if you did, please see the note I added as a Chapter 12 to that story. I think that's everything important I needed to say. Enjoy the chapter.


Chapter Thirteen: Like a Flaming Tornado

It took everything Kyouko had to keep herself calm while the hairstylist tugged her short hair back into a stumpy ponytail and the make-up artist gave her a light dusting of dirt. She closed her eyes to the blaring florescent lights and forced herself to breathe. The air was charged with the heavy feeling of impending doom and her body coursed with exhausting energy.

In the next chair, one of the minor actresses chattered excitedly. "I can't believe Director Hakimori scheduled two really important scenes today! The fight scene and the kiss scene! I bet you're not nervous at all, Kyouko-san. You're such an amazing actress!"

Kyouko swallowed almost imperceptibly. "No, I wouldn't say that I was nervous," she said. Her voice sounded awful and she cringed after the words had left her mouth. 'Furious, terrified, about to spontaneously combust!' she thought. 'Now that would be much more accurate.'

Her manager, Sorata, surveyed the subtle emotions flicker across Kyouko's face in the mirror, watching from her spot leaning against the back wall. She wisely kept her mouth shout and made a mental note to hunt down Kanae and Yashiro before lunch.

"You're all set, Kyouko-chan," the make-up artist said with a bright grin.

"Thank you," Kyouko said bowing her head politely. She set off wordlessly towards the set with Sorata trailing quietly behind her.


Ren felt sick to his stomach and it pained him to feel that way. He hadn't been this nervous in years. Scratch that, he had never felt so miserable in his entire life. He would have loved to do nothing more than find a nice little niche to crawl into and waste away the day.

How could he have turned out to be such a failure? Didn't everyone say that the definition of stupidity was repeating the same action and expecting different results? Or was that insanity? He probably had a little bit of both.

Trying to affect a casual air in front of the rest of the cast and crew, he fiddled absently with the collar of his soldier's uniform and waited patiently off set while Kanae and old Yamamoto finished one of the Captain Hikari and Colonel Jira scenes that followed the big fight scene.

"There was a bit of a scuffle between the Lieutenant and Private Moyami," Hikari told the old soldier.

The Colonel circled his office, stroking his tiny beard contemplatively. "A scuffle?"

"During a training exercise. Nothing that requires disciplinary action, but I believe you wanted this sort of thing brought to your attention when you gave me my orders."

"Yes, yes," Jira replied sounding both impatient and distracted for reasons Hikari could not divine. "Keep me updated on their condition. If the situation persists I may have to have Private Moyami transferred for the sake of morale."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Go ahead."

"There are things that cannot be resolved so easily. The only way for Private Moyami to overcome her grief is to remain here and eventually accept Lieutenant Madara. I do not believe that it will put the platoon in danger. Both of them are too professional to let their emotions get in the way of work."

Jira looked her up and down. "I will make my decision based on what I think is best."

"Colonel—"

"You are dismissed, Captain."

Hikari gave her commanding officer one last measuring look before gliding off set. The Colonel watched the door close for a moment or two before settling down at his desk and taking up a sheaf of papers.

"CUT!"

Ren jumped. He hadn't realized how easily he had just gotten sucked into the drama playing out in front of him. And now that he was returned to his own thoughts, he wished that the scene had gone on just a little bit longer. A deadly cold sensation stole over him when out of the corner of his eye he spotted Kyouko making her way to the set.

"We'll come back to this scene later," Hakimori was informing both Kanae and Yamamoto. "I want to get the fight sequence in while the light is still good outside. In the meantime I want you to work on those points I mentioned."

In a flurry of motion as everyone rushed to get set up outside, Ren lost sight of Kyouko. That did not remain so for long, however, as a delicate cough behind him announced her imminent proximity.

"M-Mogami-san," he stuttered painfully.

She eyed him coldly, almost savagely. "Tsuruga-san," she acknowledged. "I hope you're ready for the next scene."

Her words seemed to cut through him like an icy dagger. "Of course. We've been rehearsing for quite some time with Katashi-sensei."

His reply was followed by a long, suffocating silence. Kyouko's eyes blazed with a barely concealed fury. Even before they had learned to understand each other, she had never gazed at him with such blatant contempt.

Like a godsend, the director's voice cut into Ren's misery. "Tsuruga-kun, Mogami-chan!" They hurried over to Hakimori, avoiding eye contact like the plague. "I want to start right away," he continued. "Katashi-sensei has informed me that the both of you are ready, so let's just get right to it."

Kyouko found her place on set among a crowd of other actors assembled on the training grounds, while Ren—blessedly—got ready off set. He waited for Hakimori to set the cameras rolling and call out "action" before strolling onto the set as Lieutenant Akio.

His eyes swept over his soldiers, lingering briefly on Rin's cold lifelessness, and he smiled. "I've only met one of your number so far, so I'll introduce myself. I'm your new lieutenant, Madara Akio, but if you call me Madara, I may have to kill you." He was rewarded with a hearty chuckle from most of the soldiers, which bolstered his confidence enough to continue. "Eventually I'll learn your names… or at least I hope so. For now I'll try to get to know you while we're training. We'll be starting with hand-to-hand sparring. Please partner up."

Akio watched for a single satisfied moment as his soldiers neatly paired off, with the exception of one Moyami Rin. He paused for a second, a brief kernel of inexplicable fear rising up through his belly. "I'll be your partner, Moyami-chan," he said at last.

Rin smirked back at him evilly. For a brief moment Ren almost lost his character in the face of such fury. "Don't complain when you're black and blue," Rin whispered.

"Pardon?"

"I said, yes, sir," she replied, almost sickeningly sweet. Without any further ceremony Rin dove towards him with a well-aimed punch that was meant to send him sprawling several meters away. Though he did not fall as far as anticipated, he was nonetheless on the ground. Rin stared down at him triumphantly until he hooked his foot around her ankles and brought her tumbling down next to him.

Akio got to his feet with Rin following furiously after. Her cheeks were beet-red and a fine layer of dust from the ground had gathered in her hair and on her uniform.

"Your first reaction was good," Akio told her as she caught her breath, "but then you left your guard open."

Rin looked as though she wanted to scream with fury, while Akio calmly adopted a blank exterior. He dodged a blow aimed for his head and sent her crippling backwards with a fist to the abdomen. She spun to the left and wrenched his arm behind his back. His eyes widened slightly in astonishment.

"You left your guard open, sir," Rin told him, her voice dripping with acidic sweetness.

Akio fought the urge to laugh and twisted in her grip before she could get a solid hold on him. He broke loose and skittered sideways in an off-balance sort of dance that brought up clouds of dust with each step.

Other soldiers were watching them now as they circled each other like vultures. Their eyes were locked tight, trying to anticipate each other's moves. It didn't matter that Ren and Kyouko had rehearsed this scene with Katashi-sensei over a hundred times. It felt like every step they took was completely new.

Suddenly, Rin broke their stalemate, lunging forward with almost killer intent. Akio caught her deftly by the arm and spun her to the side."It appears that whoever taught you to fight neglected some of the basics," he told her jokingly, a light smile playing across his lips. Instantly, he knew he had said the wrong thing. Some sort of delicate balance seemed to snap and Rin broke.

"Do not insult Lieutenant Ichirou," she thundered. "He was a better man that you will ever hope to be! Stop trying to take his place!" She stormed away. If there had been anything around worth destroying she certainly would have taken care of it on her way out.

Akio watched her go, a distinct sadness reflected in his eyes. Then quietly, almost so no one could hear, he whispered, "… I'm not…."

A gentle sort of quiet spell rested over the set. Hakimori almost forgot to yell out "cut" until Kyouko bothered to clear her throat contemptuously. Hakimori was ecstatic. "That was brilliant! I don't think we could get anything better than that." He rubbed his willowy hands together triumphantly. "Well," he continued motioning to his crew. "Let's get back inside and finish Part Two Scene One, shall we? Tsuruga-kun and Mogami-chan, we'll come back to your other scene after lunch, hmm? We should have a decent sort of dusk at this time of year, I think."

Hakimori wandered off, humming pleasantly to himself already forgetting the incredibly palpable tension that was flowing erratically between his two co-stars. Kyouko practically glowered as Ren sought out her eyes. Before he could say a word, she had stomped away.

Several yards away, Sorata said quietly to herself, "I don't know what he did, but I'm going to find out."


In no less than ten minutes, Kyouko's mother hen of a manager had aggressively cornered Yashiro in one of the studio's low-traffic hallways. Sorata crossed her arms and looked down her nose at him. Nervously, Yashiro fiddled with his glasses and tried to avoid eye contact.

"Um, how can I help you, Sorata-san?"

Sorata made a big show of clearing her throat. "There's something going on with Kyouko-chan and Tsuruga-kun," she said bluntly. "You may not know everything, but you know something and you're going to tell me what that is."

Her choice of phrase—as a demand rather than a question—was duly noted. "It seems that during the course of the wedding reception, Ren and Kyouko-chan left the party for a few a moments, wherein Ren kissed her, apologized, and ran away. And before you say anything, I've yelled at him about that. Obviously, Kyouko-chan believes that Ren is playing with her feelings." Yashiro sighed. "She was ignoring him quite well during the car ride home. I don't know what happened after Kotonami-chan and I left, but it seems that things have gotten quite worse."

"Yes, judging by their acting, I'd say so," Sorata said. "It's a pity they have to be in so much pain to produce such an amazing display as that." Yashiro nodded along with her, glad to no longer be scrutinized so closely. "Well, you may just have to have another 'talk' with Tsuruga-kun and I'll see what I can do for Kyouko-chan." And then, softly she added, "Because if they can't work things out before the next scene… I don't know what will happen."


Kyouko stared blankly at the white dressing room wall, breathing as deeply as she could manage. She couldn't even bring herself to watch her best friend act. That was how desperate she was to avoid Tsuruga Ren. It left her with a sick, hollow feeling deep in her stomach that made her want to the grab the nearest trash can and hurl.

Not only was she suffering because of her sempai, but she was also feeling pressure regarding her acting. Though Director Hakimori may have liked how the fight scene had turned out, Kyouko could not honestly say that she felt completely and wholly like Moyami Rin. The final lines when she had shouted about Lieutenant Ichirou had sounded forced and flat to her own ears. Quite possibly the Director would take a closer the look at the footage they had gathered and make them redo the last part of the scene.

She took in another deep breath and let it out with a loud huff. She flicked her eyes over to the door at the sound of a gentle tap. "Kyouko-chan, it's me," came the familiar and reassuring voice of her manager. "I'm coming in, so you'd better be decent," she added with a small chuckle.

A sneaky smile curled at the edges of Kyouko's lips for the briefest of moments. Her mood was too powerful and it faded before Sorata had even entered the room, bringing with her the manager's usual bustle and maternal good cheer.

Sorata saw only a twisted and tormented, if slightly tear-stained, face looking back at her. Tutting softly to herself, she pulled a wet-wipe out of her purse and began dabbing at Kyouko's face in a motherly fashion. "Now, now, pull yourself together, dear," Sorata said kindly. The tone in her voice only made Kyouko want to melt into further tears and hysterics.

The manager took a seat next to Kyouko on the plain, blue couch. "Tell me about it."

Kyouko bit her lip. She couldn't bring herself to speak about Ren first. It was too embarrassing. "I'm having trouble becoming Rin today," she said at last. "It that last scene I felt more like myself and I was forcing Rin's emotions into my own."

Sorata nodded. "So you yourself are angry at Tsuruga Ren." Kyouko blinked. "Yashiro-kun told me what happened at the wedding, though no one seems to know what happened on the ride home. Even if I didn't know, it's pretty easy to read your anger towards Tsuruga-kun."

The young actress was gaping slightly as her manager neatly laid her emotions out in a logical puzzle. "He tried to kiss me again and I got angry," she said, turning her face away. "Why is he toying with my emotions like this?"

Sorata let out a deep sigh and muttered something softly that Kyouko couldn't quite make out but sounded vaguely like "young people and their love problems." The manager looked at her young charge quite seriously. "Have you ever considered, Kyouko-chan, that Tsuruga-kun is just as nervous and afraid as you are, perhaps even more?" She let her words sink in for a moment before continuing. "Men are, quite simply, idiots. Perhaps he is so scared, so afraid of hurting you, that he did exactly what he was trying to avoid."

"I don't understand."

Being a mother of several children now grown and off in the world, Sorata was well-practiced in the art of patience, but hers was wearing rather thin. "I don't know all of your secrets, but I know enough of who you are, Kyouko-chan, to guess that you were hurt in the past and that you are deathly afraid to fall in love. This is half the reason why you are angry with Tsuruga-kun, because he threatens the small place in the world you have made for yourself where your heart cannot be pierced.

"This is a lie. You cannot stop yourself from falling in love and you shouldn't try to stop yourself. You can be so happy. If you'll only let yourself be open to Tsuruga-kun. In the end, what it comes down to is whether you'll be able to act when it comes time for the kiss scene this afternoon. If you don't resolve things with Tsuruga-kun, then you won't be able to portray Moyami Rin the way she needs to be portrayed."

Kyouko was quiet for awhile. After a few minutes of no response, Sorata got up from her spot on the couch and dusted herself off. "Well, it's lunchtime now. I suggest you settle things soon. From what I can tell, Hakimori-san is still being a stickler about Kotonami-chan's scene and they're working out the kinks after lunch. I doubt it will take terribly long."

She was still mulling things over in her mind ten minutes later when once again someone knocked on her door. "Mogami-san?" Her stomach twisted into an enormous knot. "It's me," Ren continued from outside the door. "Can we… can we talk?"