Here is the next section… Now I have to write more.. I hope everyone enjoyed the dance.
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!
Once at LME, Ren took Kyoko by the arm and escorted her back to the dressing rooms were her clothing was. Ren noticed the awkward silence that had developed between the managers. Yashiro kept looking at her with the oddest expression as he tried to figure out how to get the camera from her. Catherine was still struggling with her feelings and was putting as much distance between them as possible without being rude. He had to suppress a laugh as he watched the antics of the two managers as they went back to the changing rooms.
When the girls opened the door to their changing room, they were surprised to find everything had been cleared away. Their clothing was nowhere to be found. They checked on the guys' things and found they were missing also. Confusion filled all four parties as they made their way to the only person that may know what is going on, Takarada Lory.
Ren opened the door to Lory's office and met with drapes of red material covering everything. Many long lengths of the material hung randomly from the ceiling blocking the way through the room. The sounds of waltz music drifted out from the forests of red cloth as the couples walked into the room. Ren stepped between them as he led the way followed close behind by Kyoko. Catherine followed the young woman and Yashiro took up the rear position. The lower light added to the mystery as they approached the area where the president's desk should have been. The red drapes rustled as a man stepped from them and swooped Catherine up into a waltz. He was dressed in a black tux with a cape and a mask that covered the left half of his face. Catherine chortled her surprise and the coat on her shoulders slipped off as she was whisked away into the dance.
Yashiro and Kyoko were startled at the black mass that passed and swallowed the girl that had been between them. Her surprised laugher caused a shiver to run down the spines of all three remaining people. Kyoko has turned to see what happened to her friend, and Ren had whipped around to wrap Kyoko in his arms protectively. He was not sure what was going on, but he was not going to let anything happen to his lady. Yashiro snapped in the direction that the mass had gone, but the red material had swallowed the stolen girl up. He picked his coat up and closed the distance so that he stood between the two actors and the possible threat. Kyoko stood frozen, heart fluttering, as she found herself pressed into the chest of the tall actor. Fear was building in the three friends when they heard Catherine's laugher bubble up from the other side of the room. Following the sound, Yashiro pushed through the red cloth to discover what happened to the missing woman. Ren practically carried Kyoko as he followed his manager close. Any protest Kyoko had at how close he held her were squashed by the severity of their situation. One of their party had just been kidnapped by a dark stranger, it was no time to complain about formalities.
Yashiro stepped free of the red drapes to find the seized woman dancing with the man in black. He sighed with relief as he recognized the masked man. Ren stepped up next to his manager and shook his head at the view before him. Catherine was turning a fast waltz with none other than the president they had been looking for. Her mirth spilled forth as he swung her around. Kyoko was still pressed to the taller man's chest and could not see what was going on. It was only when she wiggled that Ren remembered her and released her from his grasp. Spilling from his arms, she whipped around to locate her manager.
As the music slowed, Lory drew the laughing woman closer to the shocked group and stopped in front of them before releasing her. Catherine continued to giggle hysterically as her legs folded up under her and she ended seated on the floor at the feet of the group, her shock and relief had combine to steal the strength from them. Lory had not expect this and reached to catch the fallen woman. Yashiro also reached for her. Laughing harder at this development, she waved both men off and took a deep breath to try to calm down.
"I am fine." Still laughing a little, she pulled her legs under her and went to stand up. Both Yashiro and Lory offered her hands to help her. Taking one from each they lifted to her feet. She chuckled again before blowing out an amused breath. "Adrenalin will do funny thing to your system." Once her feet were securely under her, she released the men and brushed off her skirt. No one in the group knew how to react to what just happened. They should to be mad at the president for his antic, but they were confused by Catherine's reaction. Catherine turned to the elaborately dresses man and hugged him. "That was fantastic!" Catherine released him and blew out another amused breath. She took a long deep breath and steadied herself even farther.
"What are you doing?" Ren turned to the masked man in black. He had finally gathered his thoughts and was not going to let the president get away with scaring them. Lory bowed with a flourish.
"I'm preparing for tomorrow." He stood up and held out the edges of his costume. "What do you think?" Catherine clapped hardily before the tall actor could speak his mind.
"It's magnificent." She breathed heavily since she was still recovering from her fit. "But I would suggest that you not snatch up you visitors tomorrow." She sobered up as she continued. "You may really scare someone with that entrance." Lory bowed to his guests.
"I understand and apologies for any concern I may have caused you tonight." Lory took in all four people as he stood up. "Now what brings you to my office so late this evening?"
"We came to find our things." Ren answered for the group. "They were not in the changing rooms." Lory's light hearted manor slipped away.
"I am sorry. I did not think you would be coming back here after the ball, so I had Sebastian take your things home for you." The president confessed. Relief was visible on everyone's face. Their things had not been stolen.
"That's good." Ren replied, "If everything is safe, then we will take our leave of you tonight." He turned to go, but was stopped when Catherine cleared her throat.
"There is one problem." She addressed the group before turning to the president. "My keys were in my coat pocket." Registering the issue, Lory bowed to the lady with a flourish of his cape.
"No problem there." He walked to a drape of material behind him and revealed his missing desk. He opened a draw and pulled out a box containing keys . He handed one to Catherine. "You apartment key my lady." Catherine took it from the man. Ren looked at the pile of tagged keys and card in the box and shivered. He wondered if Lory had spare keys for all of his talents and if having his locks changed would do him any good. He shook himself of the possibilities in that box, glad that his eccentric (yet sometimes meddlesome) boss was a good person who actually cared about the wellbeing of his charges.
"Thank you. That's all well and good, but what about my car keys." She inquired. There was no way for her to get home tonight without them.
"I can take you home tonight." Ren offered. Catherine turned and bowed her gratitude to the man.
"I can get myself home. I was just worried about Kyoko's safety."
"I will be happy to drop you both off." Ren revised his offer to the woman. Lory clapped his hands together.
"Well, now that is taken care of, have a good night." Lory ushered the group to the door. After another apology and a warm farewell from Lory, the party of four found themselves in the hall outside the closed office door. They laughed about the about the eccentric man's antic clear to the parking garage. When they stepped out into the cool night air, Yashiro draped his jacket over Catherine's shoulders once again. When the warm material touched her back, she turned slightly to look at the man taking care of her. A small smile graced her lips as she pulled the jacket closer around her. Ren had caught the subtle gesture from Catherine. He was sure that she liked his manager, at least a little. He thought about the conversation he had with Kyoko earlier about getting the two managers together. It may be easier than he imagined it to be. He looked at the young woman getting into the front of his car. If he could get Kyoko to help him get the two managers to fall in love, than maybe it would soften her heart a little.
Ren turned over the possibilities in his mind as he drove the group home. His thoughts were only interrupted when Catherine gave him directions. Her directions ended at a store where she got out. She slipped out of Yashiro's jacket and handed it back into the car.
"Wait, this is not where you live." Kyoko protested.
"No. But I need to pick something up." Catherine explained. Yashiro started to get out too. "You don't need to come." Catherine waved the man back into the car. "I only live right around the corner." Yashiro tried to get out of the car anyway.
"We can't leave you alone this late at night. It isn't safe." Yashiro argued with the woman.
"Look," she retorted to him while pushing him back into the car. "I can take care of myself." Ren and Kyoko watched as the two managers argued.
"You were easily snatched up in the office." Yashiro tossed the most recent event at her. It stung her pride that he was right. Ren could see that this was escalating out of control.
"Well, you didn't do anything to stop it!" Catherine fired the truth back at him. It stabbed at his heart to hear that he had failed her. Yashiro was about to fire back more hurtful things, when Ren broke in.
"ENOUGH!" The tall actor had it with the fight. He realized that if he let them go, it would ruin anything that the two had between them. He did not want to but, he was going to have to pick a side. His eyes turned to Catherine. "You only live around the corner?" He confirmed what she said.
"Yes." She pointed to a tall apartment building. "Right there." Ren turned to look at the building just down the street.
"Alright. We will let you go here. Please call Kyoko as soon as you get home so we know you are safe." Ren instructed the woman. Both Kyoko and Yashiro were shocked at this. She nodded her agreement and turned to go.
"Wait." Yashiro was livid at Ren for the suggestion. Catherine ignored his protests as she walked away. "We are going to just leave her like this?" Ren shot Yashiro his best gentleman's smile.
"Would you rather we stay here and fight about it?" Yashiro blanched at Ren's anger. Kyoko sat quietly watching the woman walk into the store. She could see the anger rolling off her manager. Her grudges here happily basking in the dark atmosphere surrounding them. "We will wait here until she makes it into her building." Ren turned back around and watched for the woman to come out of the store. This soothed Yashiro just a bit. He was still pissed off, so he crossed his arms and grumped into the seat. He refused to look at the man driving the car. In a few minutes, Catherine came out of the store with a bag and headed to her building. She noticed that Ren's car was still sitting in the same spot. She flipped her head and made a point of ignoring them as she walked the 100 yards to her building. It was only about three more minutes till Kyoko's phone rang.
"Hello." Kyoko answered it.
"I'm home." The anger was very clear in Catherine's voice. "You can leave now." She hung up before Kyoko could response to her. Kyoko looked at the beeping object in distress. She had never seen Catherine so angry. Ren started the car and drove his grumpy manager home in silence. At his home, Yashiro got out of his car and left the pair without a word. Kyoko watched as he left. She was worried about the two managers. Ren patted her on the shoulder.
"They will be ok." He reassured her. "Just give them time to cool down." Kyoko nodded to him. Ren hoped that they would get over their little tiff fast. It would be harder to get them into a relationship if they stayed mad. He took Kyoko home and dropped her off at her door before heading home himself. He would have rather rolled her in his arms and kissed her soundly, but she would not have it, it was getting very late, and they did have work tomorrow.
Yashiro threw his jacket down on the couch. His anger at the entire situation burned in him as he started to strip off the fancy clothing from the evening. No matter how mad he was, he needed to make sure the tux was hung up properly so that it was not damaged. After folding the pants onto the hanger, he settled the coat over it. His anger flared as images of that stubborn woman in his coat filled his head. An epiphany struck as he remembered the camera that Catherine had slipped into his pocked. A quick search of the pockets revealed that she had forgotten it. Excitement pushed his anger away; he could get those pictures off before returning the device to her. He flipped the small electronic device over and popped the battery door open to find that someone had already removed the memory card from it!
Ren slipped the small chip into the port on his laptop and clicked the icon to upload the pictures to his hard drive. Surprise filled him as the first pictures from the benefit were of him and Kyoko dancing. He laughed at the cunning managers and picked an especially good one showing a light blush on his lady and the love he felt for her to make his new desktop wallpaper.