Now for some fun with the managers. Please let me know what you think. **** MORE FLUFF ALERT****
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!
Yashiro settled into the seat next to the woman plaguing his heart. He watched her every moved as she shifted her dress around as the front split halfway up her thigh. He could see she stocking between the buttons where the dress rested across her leg. He shivered as he thought about how easy it would be to unhook those buttons to expose more of the stocking covered skin on her legs. He listened to the dulcet tones of her voice caress his skin and muttered his agreement to anything she wanted. It was the harsh clearing of the throat that snapped his mind back to the here and now. He looked at her face to see that she was waiting for something from him. He searched his memory for the question she asked, but could not pull it out of the fantasy he was just having.
"I am sorry, what did you say?" Yashiro was ashamed to have to ask her to repeat herself. Catherine giggled at the man.
"I said where are we going for dinner?" Catherine teased her passenger. "Unless you just want to forgo dinner and just jump straight into the sack?" Yashiro blushed as she suggested the very thing he had been fantasizing about. He could tell from her tone that she was not serious.
"Sorry." Yashiro apologized again. "I have reservations at Amerigo's" Yashiro gave Catherine the address and she headed out with a smile on her face. They rode is an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Yashiro was embarrassed to have been caught looking at her legs, again. He couldn't help himself, she had such nice legs, and she always had them covered up by those blasted pants. Catherine decided that she needed to do something so that this would not ruin their evening.
"How was your day?" She glanced over at the quite man in her passenger seat. Yashiro jumped on this opportunity to change the subject. He rambled on about what Ren had done and his plans for Ren's date tonight. Catherine listened to him for a while, but all he seemed to talk about was Ren. Catherine laughed as she realized how much the actor regulated and dictated this man's life. Yashiro stopped his story and looked at the woman.
"What's funny?" Yashiro could not think of anything that he had said to cause her mirth. Catherine stopped giggling and glanced at him before changing lanes.
"I just realized how much both of our lives revolve around our charges." Catherine explained. "I asked you what you did, and you told me what Ren did." Yashiro stopped to think about the story that he had been telling her, and had to laugh at it too.
"I guess I did." Yashiro smiled at her. "What did you do today?" Catherine giggled and told him what Kyoko did. By the time the two had arrived at the restaurant they were laughing at their shared plight.
They had both calmed down by the time they had been showed to their candle lit table in the little Italian restaurant. Catherine folded her menu and looked at the man across the table from her.
"I didn't know that you like Italian food." Catherine smiled at him. Yashiro broke a bread stick in half and dipped the end in the oil and swirled the spices around.
"I do like good Italian." The man admitted before he took a bite of the oil covered bread. Catherine smiled and joined him in eating the bread. "So tell me something about yourself." Yashiro looked at his date over the top of his glasses. Catherine blushed at the intensity of his gaze. She chewed her bread slowly as she thought about the best thing to share.
"Italian is my favorite food group." Yashiro smiled at her. He knew she would like it after the chicken parmesan that she had made. She went on to explain it was the tomatoes in it that made her enjoy the food. Yashiro closed his eyes and let her voice wash over him; he loved the way she pronounced her Japanese. She spoke her words very well, but it had that little hint in the intonation that let him know that it was not her native language. His mind caught a word that did not belong in her torrent about tomatoes. He came back to hear her describing the purple tentacled alien tomatoes that had landed their space craft in downtown Tokyo and were in the process of turning the town over to find the best sake to take back to their intergalactic rave. He couldn't help but laugh at her imagination. "You're listening again?" She asked in a teasing tone.
"I can't help it." Yashiro sighed. "I love listening to the way you speak." Catherine gave him an odd look, but he was prevented from explaining further by the waitress coming to get their order. Both Yashiro and Catherine ordered red wine and lasagna with stuffed mushrooms for the appetizer. Catherine took a sip of the wine and turned her attention back to the conversation they were having.
"I was under the impression that my pronunciation was very good." Catherine almost sounded offended at the idea that her Japanese was poor. Yashiro shook his head.
"You pronunciation is very good, and you speak very well. You just have a slight bit of an accent." Yashiro smiled at her warmly. Catherine giggled a little under his gaze.
"Everyone likes a good accent." Catherine teased him.
"Yes, everyone likes a good accent." Yashiro spoke to her in English with a thick Japanese accent. Catherine giggled at him again.
"Stop it." She smacked his hand on the table. Yashiro saw the movement and caught her hand when it came down. All teasing left his voice and warmth filled his eyes.
"You really do have a beautiful voice." Catherine blushed harder. She got lost in the glint of the candlelight reflecting in his honey-brown eyes. They held this position for a few minutes until their attention was pulled away when the waitress came up with the appetizer. The couple pulled apart with a slightly embarrassed blush and turned their attention to the food presented to them.
It was a wonderful meal and several glasses of wine later when the managers left the restaurant with a larger order of tiramisu in a bag. Catherine insisted on the decadent dessert, but was unable to eat the treat at the moment. Catherine giggled at Yashiro when he stood up to find that he had at least one glass of wine to many. She had managed to get the drunk and giddy man to the car before his phone rang. Yashiro pulled the device out and answered it. He listened to the man on the phone for a moment before the line went dead. Yashiro looked at the silent electronic device trying to figure out why it stopped working. He let out a very colorful swear word when he realized that he had answered the thing with his bare hand.
"Who was it on the phone?" She asked.
"It was the waitress from the restaurant Ren and Kyoko went to." Yashiro shook his head trying to clear the wine from it. "I think he said that they were done." The movement made him dizzy and he laid his head back against the seat. "I had him put in a hidden camera in their room to find out what happened on their date." Catherine looked at him with an open mouth. This man was spying on their chargers. Then an idea hit her.
"Want to go and get it?" Catherine smiled at him evilly. Yashiro agreed and they were off to do mischief.
Catherine made Yashiro sit in the car while she went in to get the tape. The waiter told her that there was something good on it and she gave him a very large tip before taking the tape and heading back out to the car. She found her date sitting in the passenger seat singing the song Catherine had grown up knowing as 'Sukiyaki'. She listened to him whistled the song to the end before she interrupted his thoughts.
"What do you mean you're 'all alone tonight'?" Catherine poked at him as she started the car.
"I just love the tune." Yashiro admitted as he whistled the course again.
"It is a very good song." Catherine listened to him sing it again. When he finished he looked at her.
"You sing something." Catherine shot him an odd look. "I want to hear you sing something." Yashiro had sat up and was leaning over imploring her to sing. Catherine chuckled and cleared her throat.
"Oh Danny Boy, the pipe the pipes are calling." She started into the well know Irish tune in English. Yashiro listen enthralled until she let the last note ring out. He had loved her voice when she spoke Japanese, but this was like angles singing to his ears. The slight Irish accent she slipped into the words made his heart flutter. He did not even notice when she was slightly flat in the high points, or the way her voice would waver a little when she couldn't find the right note. He loved it and begged her for another. She slipped into the haunting tune of 'Scarborough Fair'. He didn't even care when she forgot the words in the middle of the song and slipped into an open mouth hum of the tune. She shook her head when he asked her to sing again.
"You don't want to hear me butcher anymore songs." Catherine blushed as he insisted that she had not hurt the songs. Catherine parked the car at his apartment and refused again. "Which do you want to do, listen to me mangle songs, or would you rather watch this." Catherine held up the tape she had just gotten from restaurant. Yashiro was torn with the decision, he wanted to listen to her some more, but he REALLY wanted to know why the waiter was so excited. He apologized and pointed to the tape. Catherine agreed and gathered up her cake to bring it in from the heat of the summer. Yashiro had sobered up enough to walk himself inside without help.
Yashiro took Catherine's dessert and placed it in the refrigerator while Catherine settled herself on the floor near the table in his living room. To her surprise, Yashiro placed a glass of chilled riesling on the table next to her. Catherine picked up the wine and swirled it in her glass before letting a little of the dessert wine slide across her tongue. Yashiro sat down and placed the tape in the player.
"I did not know you liked wine." Yashiro smiled mischievously at her before turning his attention back to the electronics.
"I figured you would like this while we enjoyed our entertainment." Yashiro settled himself behind the table so he could be closer to the woman touching his heart. He noticed the odd way she had one leg tucked under her while the other was straight out stiffly. "Did you hurt your leg?" Catherine could hear the note of concern in his voice.
"I fell and scuffed up my knee this afternoon, no big deal." Catherine tried to draw him away from the scrap. Having seen what she called 'no big deal' Yashiro moved to her side so he could see the cut. She sat still as he shifted her hem to see the torn skin under her stockings. "See, no big deal." Now that he was sure that she was telling the truth, he was reluctant to move back to his previous position away from her. He had Catherine hand him the remote and his glass before settling in next to the woman to watch the actors' dinner.
They watched the video and sipped on their wine talking about the actors. Catherine felt a little bad about the spying, but she really wanted to know what had excited the waiter. Catherine nearly choked on her wine when Yashiro's fan-girl kicked as he watched Kyoko ask her question of Ren. Yashiro continued to bounce through the rest of the film while Catherine watched with an open mouth.
"HE CONFESSED HE CONFESSED!" Yashiro squealed and bounced on the floor. In his excitement, he turned and threw his arms around Catherine's neck. Being a little drunk, neither of their balance was very good and they fell over and ended with Yashiro on top of Catherine.
Catherine stared up at the man pressing down on her, surprise showing on her face. She had not expected him to launch into her like that. Surprise also showed in his eye as his mind processed what had just happened and the position he found himself in. He studied her smoky blue eyes while she lay on the flood of his living room. Catherine watched the heat rise in his eyes as he slowly leaned forwards and captured her lips in a soft kiss. When she didn't protest, Yashiro deepened the kiss and ran his tongue across her lips so she would open them and let him in. When she parted her lips, he slipped in to devour her and she moaned into his mouth. She was left panting from his voracity, and he only pulled away when the need for air overrode his need for her. Catherine slid her hands up and under his coat as he ran a line of kisses down her neck to her collar bone. Yashiro sat up and tore his coat off and slung it across the room before turning his attention back to the woman underneath his. He kissed the bare skin on her chest as he ran his hand up the outside of her thigh. His fingers stopped when he encountered the strap holding her stockings in place. Catherine knew she was not going home tonight when he flicked the strap lightly and grinned at her.
"I love thigh high stockings."