Here is a longer chapter for you. I thought about cutting it in half, but it was just not as enjoyable without the second half. I hope it is not too long. As always, I live for your thoughts.
I want to that kashudoreineko for speaking up for all the silent readers. I really do appriciate your support.
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!.
As Catherine took Kyoko to work the next morning, she stopped and picked up a big wall calendar and to stick up on the wall in the kitchen so Kyoko could keep track of the days till she was free again. Kyoko counted the weeks till she turned 18, it was the first week in September, so she only had 14 weeks till she married Ren and this nightmare was over. She was still having an issue dealing with the face that she was going to be marring the star, but she preferred that over the other options she was given. Lory had cleared most of her schedule so she did not have to come to LME for LoveMe work, and he had also informed the school of her situation and they arranged for her to be listed down on hiatus so that it would not affect her standings. The directors of her dramas had agreed to rewrite some of the scripts so that Kyoko would not be needed as much for them. They had not written her completely out, but she would only be needed a few days a week. This left Kyoko with something that she was not use to, free time.
The first two weeks in the villa were not too hard on Kyoko. She spent part of her time coaxing storied of Kuon out of Catherine. Now that Kyoko knew his history, Catherine was only too happy to oblige her with the most embarrassing storied that she could think up. These would always leave Kyoko laughing and wondering if the suave man that she had grown to love could really do such fooling things. When their talks would lead into the man's darker deeds, Catherine would find a way to lead them away from the subject. This would frustrate Kyoko, she wanted to know all about the man she was going to marry in just a few short weeks. Once she even called Catherine on the evasion. Catherine only looked at her seriously and informed her that it was not her story to tell and to ask Ren.
Kyoko was glad to see that Catherine really did know her way around a kitchen. The two women would spend meal times sharing tips on the best ways to cook things. Catherine taught the young woman several American dishes that she assured Kyoko Ren should love; and Kyoko returned the favor by teaching Catherine how to cook Japanese food. Kyoko was amazed at how many different baked goods Catherine could make without a recipe. Kyoko especially loved the fresh bread that she made, it was light and fluffy and melted in your mouth, yet still strong enough to hold up to anything Kyoko tried to put on it. When they had more than enough baked goods to feed a small army, they moved on to other hobbies.
It had taken no time at all for Kyoko to work up the blond Ren doll that she had promised to Catherine. Now she knew who it was for and why, she added those gorgeous blue eyes. Catherine was excited to see the miniature Kuon and quickly packed it away with letters from both girls to be sent to Kuu and Julie in the states. Catherine promised to stop at a fabric store on their next trip into town to get Kyoko some new supplies as payment.
There were two things that Kyoko would look forward to in her day. She would wake up to Ren calling her in the morning to tell her that he loved her, and he would call her again in the evening to tell her about his day and wish her a good night. She had already gotten use to his unrestrained show of affection over the phone, and she was getting use to telling him her feelings too. At first she would stammer and blush, but she grew more confident and comfortable with ever phone call. Ren held hopes that she would remain confident and comfortable when they saw each other in person again.
The two women spent most of the rest of their time in the swimming pool. Kyoko had started to notice that she had not been getting as much exercise as she had before Catherine became her manager. She did not have the option to break out her bike and go riding like she would have liked, but the pool gave both girls the opportunity to work out daily. In fact, Kyoko would often wake up to find Catherine swimming laps in the cool water.
It was in the third week that Kyoko started to have trouble living a 'quiet' life. She had cleaned everything twice and put together several more Ren dolls with blond hair and blue eyes. She couldn't cook anything more, there were already three cakes and a plethora of cookies in the kitchen. She was starting to get restless until Catherine presented her with book and a dictionary. The cover of the book showed a rolling country side with an English title written in a large red box.
"Here, why don't you try reading this?" Kyoko took the book and sounded out the English words on the cover.
"The Hobbit." Kyoko was sure she had heard that word before, but could not place it.
"It's a great book and I think you will like it." Catherine pressed the dictionary into her other hand. "Just in case there is something you don't understand." Kyoko accepted the book and went to find a quiet place to occupy her time. Catherine was wrong; Kyoko did not like the book. She loved it. It only took her a few days to devour the entire novel. As she closed the cover and sighed, sad that she would not be able to spend more time with her new friends, Catherine dropped another book on the couch next to her. Kyoko looked at the new paper back, it had the same type of picture and box on the front, but this one read "The Fellowship of the Ring." Kyoko giggled as she pulled the book to her and read the author's name. She realized that his was a continuation of the story and poured herself into the new book.
Kyoko sat in her swimsuit on the lounge chair near the pool while Catherine swam laps in the water. She was drawn from her story when Catherine stopped swimming in mid stroke and bobbed in the water. She could see her manager concentrating hard on something. Catherine pulled herself to the edge of the pool and climbed out quickly.
"Is everything alright?" Kyoko asked. Catherine looked tense.
"I think someone is here." Catherine dried herself quickly with a towel and dropped it on the ground next to Kyoko. Fear washed over Kyoko as she uncurled to get up. Catherine waved her back down. "Stay here. I will go check it out." Kyoko nodded but got up and moved back to the edge of the plants decorating the area. If anyone got past Catherine, she wanted a good place to hide. Catherine slipped out of the greenhouse through the changing room and stopped at the door to the entry way. She listened for a moment as she heard thumping from the front room. Catherine readied herself for the possible physical confrontation and opened the door silently. She tiptoed down the hallway and stopped just before she entered the living room to listen again. She let out the breath she was hold and relaxed as she heard the familiar voices coming from the room.
Ren had not seen Kyoko in three weeks and when they canceled his afternoon filming due to a blown transformed, he jumped on the chance to go and see her. Yashiro had agreed whole-heartily and tried to call the two girls to let them know to expect company. He had been baffled when neither girl answered their phones. Ren's nerves twisted into a knot as Yashiro tried again to no avail. Ren broke every speed limit as his anxiety pushed him to the villa and what he might find there. Ren barely got the car shut off at the villa where his love was staying before rushed from the car with Yashiro hot on his heels. He hammered on the door as multiple scenes played through his head, each one worst then the last. Yashiro produced a key to the door and pushed the actor aside. Lory had given it to in in case of an emergency.
"We need to just calm down Ren, I am sure they are ok." Yashiro tried to sooth the actor's frayed nerves unsuccessfully. He was nearly as worried about the girls as the actor was. He had been trying to hold on to his head and the actors for the entire ride over, but each unanswered call shook them both more.
"Hello, Kyoko, Catherine are you here?" Ren pushed past him and into the room. He stopped for a moment in the living room scanning for any signs of a struggle or the girls. He was about to turn to the kitchen when Catherine stepped out of the hallway to greet them.
"Hey, what are you guys doing her?" Catherine she called in greeting. Ren nearly collapse as relief flooded him. Yashiro just stared at the woman in the damp white bikini. Her long hair dripped down her back and the water droplets glinting on her skin made it was obvious that she had just gotten out of the pool. Instead of answering her question, Ren shot one back at her.
"Where is she?" Catherine stopped and looked at the tormented actor.
"She's out by the pool reading." Catherine informed him. Ren took off before she could warn him to announce himself to the girl. She turned back to the manager that was still standing in the living room.
"What's up with him?" Catherine closed the distance between them. Yashiro shook his head to get his mind back to where it needed to be and off the strings holding the girls suit in place.
"We could not get a hold of you and he was worried that something might have happened." Yashiro explained as he tried, unsuccessfully, to only look as Catherine's face. Catherine gave him a puzzled look and turned around to the table next to the couch. Yashiro pulled his glasses off to clean them so he could not watch the woman's back as she bent over to pick up her phone plugged into the charger. She thumbed through all the missed calls and chuckled.
"I am sorry we gave to cause to worry." Catherine put the phone back down and turned around to see that Yashiro had come over to her. As he reached his arms out to her, Catherine raised her hand and took a step back to stop him. "No, I'm wet." Yashiro showed how much he care about that by grabbing her wrist and using it to pull her against him to be kissed soundly.
Kyoko hid in the shrubs next to the pool waiting for Catherine to come back. Every second that she did not hear anything made her heart beat harder. She had collected a pool noodle to use as defense. Admittedly, it was not the best weapon, but it was the only thing lying around that she could get, and it was better than nothing. Kyoko held her breath as she heard the door to the greenhouse open and footsteps that were too heavy to be Catherine's come down the path. She quickly decided that she would need to defend herself and as soon as the tall man entered her line of sight, she rushed him. She threw herself into the mass as hard as she could to topple him, but froze when her name in a familiar voice told her that it was Ren that was in the process of pushing into the pool. She had planned to bounce off her possible attacker and flee, but the delay cause by her shock left her too far out of balance, and she splashed into the water with to the stunned actor.
The two actors surfaced coughing, neither one had been prepared to enter the water and had inhaled a little of the liquid in their struggle to the surface. They were close to the edge and quickly clung to the side to the pool as they tried to clear their lungs.
"I AM SO SORRY!" Kyoko cried as soon as she could. She was sure that he would be furious that she had pushed him in. Now that he had a moment to process what had just happened, Ren chuckled and reached for the upset girl. He pulled her against him in the water and gave her a tight one armed him and kissed the top of her head.
"It's ok." Ren soothed her. He had not expected her to take such drastic actions in her own defense. "I should have let you know it was me." This seemed to calm the girl a little. He released her and lifted her from the pool before climbing out himself.
"Is everything ok?" The concerned tone of Kyoko's manager drifted up the path to greet the wet actors. Kyoko nearly cried again as she informed Catherine and Yashiro about how she had attacked Ren with a pool noodle thinking he was here to hurt her. "Well, you did a good job." Catherine survived the wet actor trying to wring the water from his shirt. Yashiro stood behind Catherine giggling like a girl.
"But he's soaked now." Kyoko whined again. "He is going to catch a cold."
"Well, let's see if we can find something that he can change into." Catherine turned and headed back to the house while Kyoko fussed over a very wet Ren. Yashiro made the mistake of walking over to the actor while still laughing at this situation.
"If you wanted to take a swim, you could have at least taken your clothing off." Yashiro poked at him in fun. The tease on top of the last half hour was too much for the Ren to handle and some of Kuon slipped through. Before he knew what hit him, Ren had shoved the teasing man into the pool too. Yashiro nearly drown in a fit of laughter as he pulled himself to the surface. He knew it had been a bad idea to tease the poor actor like that, but he just could not help himself. Catherine looked back at the sound of the splash to see Yashiro missing in the pool and Kyoko freaking out. She shook her head and continued on her mission now to find two sets of clothing instead of one.
Author's Note: Thanks Yoshi, I don't think I will be able to watch that movie again for a while without that playing in my head. LOL Although, Ren would make a great Jereth... Love David Bowie in that!