Yays.. more story! Oh wow.. we are up to 70 sections! I really had not expected this to go on for this long, but I am really enjoying writing it.
Note: I do not own Skip Beat!.
Kyoko woke up slowly. She felt warm, comfortable, and safe. She wiggled a little as she tried to process where she was. The memories slipped back in when strong arms squeezed her just enough to let her know she was being held. She raised her face to look at the tall actor underneath her. Ren had laid his head back against the couch as he dosed. As she moved, he raised it back up to look at her. Ren reluctantly let her get up from his lap. Kyoko looked around at the darkened room and stretched the sleep from her muscles. The sun had set, but the colors had not faded from the sky. Kyoko looked down at the man still relaxed on the couch. She so wanted to cuddle back up with him, but she felt something was not right. She cast around in her mind trying to find what was wrong. Ren was safe and she could smell the wonders issuing from the kitchen. Then it hit her, she turned to the man that was starting to pick up on her worries.
"Why is it so quiet?" Kyoko asked. She expected to hear noises from the other occupants in the house, but there was nothing. Ren perked to attention and listened hard. Silence.
"I don't know." Ren stood up and took his love's hand and led her down the stairs to the living room. It was darker down here, so Kyoko flipped on the light by the couch. There were still no signs of life except the occasional bubble of cooking noises from the kitchen. Kyoko pulled away from her protector to go check to make sure everything was ok with the food. What she discovered pleased her very much. Kyoko stirred the viscous stew simmering on the stove and dropped the lid back on it. It was just about perfectly done, now all they had to do was find where the two managers had gone. Ren watched as Kyoko tended the food before rejoining him to go locate the missing people. He had an idea where they would find them and lead Kyoko out into the greenhouse. It was quiet here too, but he spied the two lovebirds as soon as he cleared the path to the pool. They had finished their swim and were cuddled together in one of the teak lounges wrapped in a towel. Both Ren and Kyoko faltered in there steps as the two managers looked over at the newly arrived couple.
"Did you guys come out for a swim?" Catherine uncurled herself from the Yashiro's arms and went to stand up. Kyoko blushed and Ren averted his eyes as she stood up and let the towel drop away. He sighed with relief that all the parts of her bathing suit were still in the right place. His speculations on their previous activities and the very intimate positioning the two were found in had led him to believe that they had walked in on something less then proper.
"NO." Kyoko's voice squeaked as she blushed harder. She was embarrassed that she had thought that the managers were being dirty. She tried to swallow it down and tried again. "We were coming out to see what you were doing." Catherine considered the guilty air around the two actors. Kyoko fidgeted under her scrutiny.
"We were just drying off from our swim." Catherine said it slowly to gauge the reactions of the two actors. "What did you think we were doing?" If you could die from embarrassment, Kyoko would have at that moment. Ren just cleared his throat before trying to save his love.
"We were worried when we found food cooking and no one else in the house." Catherine decided to let them go at that. She turned to take the yukata that Yashiro had brought over to her. He had taken the time she was questioning the actors to belt his into place.
"The stew needed time to cook, so we came out here for a swim." She shrugged into the robe and pulled the belt into place. "It should be about done." Kyoko jumped at the chance to change the subject.
"Oh yes, I checked on it before we came out." She explained. "It looked good." The two girls led the way back to the house to finish dinner. Yashiro stepped up beside the man watching the girls walk away.
"And what did you think we were doing?" Yashiro raised an eyebrow at his charger. Ren refused to look at him. "Pervert." Yashiro chuckled at him and followed the girls inside. Ren had not looked at him because he had made assumptions about the managers' activities, and he also did not want to risk the observant man noticing his blue eyes in the darkening room. Ren let out a sigh and went to locate his contacts before he really got himself into trouble.
Dinner was delicious. Catherine served the beef stew with some fresh bread that she and Kyoko had made the day before. Kyoko noted that this was nothing like the sukiyaki she was used to. This was thicker and richer food made for cold weather and comfort. It had cooked for a long time so the vegetables had started to break down and add their starches to the broth, making it more akin to gravy. It was much heavier food then she was used to, but it was still very early in the evening, so they would have plenty of time to digest it before going to bed. Catherine pulled her attention from the food to the ring on Kyoko's hand.
"Where did you get that?" She knew, but she thought she would let Kyoko show it off. Kyoko blushed and held her hand out to show her manager.
"Ren gave it to me." The squee that issued from Yashiro was deafening. Catherine smiled and looked at the diamond.
"That is very lovely." She patted Ren's shoulder. "You did a good job." Both the actors blushed as Yashiro wiggled in his chair. He wished he had his phone so that he could take a picture of that for the president.
The rest of dinner when fine until Kyoko cut some pie for dessert and set a piece in front of Yashiro. His eyes grew to the size of saucers when he heard Kyoko pop the top off a whipped cream can and shake it.
"Would you like some whipped cream?" The innocent girl asked him. He nearly popped a blood vessel as he escaped to the bathroom. Shock filled the young girl's face. "What is wrong with him?" Ren tired hard not to laugh while Catherine came over with an evil smile and took the can from Kyoko's hand.
"I think he would like some." She sprayed a large helping on top of his pie before adding some to hers. Kyoko looked at his plate.
"Are you sure?" She was still worried about the man's rapid exit.
"Oh, I am sure he likes whipped cream." Catherine's observation drew a snort from Ren as she tried his best not to explode with mirth. The young girl was much too innocent to be hanging around with the older woman. "I am sure he was just thinking about other uses for it." Kyoko added some cream to her and Ren's pie.
"Other uses?" She looked at the mountains of white foam on her plate. Catherine just smiled politely at her.
"Ask Ren. I am sure he can think of some." She answered as she licked some of the cream from her fingers.
Yashiro came back in to find Kyoko pressing a very red Ren for other uses of whipped cream and Catherine, looking like a bird fed cat, licking her fork. He had to turn around and head back to the bathroom before his nose really did start bleeding.
They had spent the rest of the night enjoying each other's company. Kyoko was a little cross with Ren because he would not explain to her what other uses whipped cream had. She kept popping the question on him throughout the evening as they played the board games that Lory had left for them. He nearly died laughing when the lead pipe in Clue! became a whipped cream can. From that point on it became the weapon both girls would use the most in the game. She finally stopped when he promised to make a list of all the ways that one could use whipped cream and share it with her the next time they got together. This seemed to make both Yashiro and Kyoko happy, but for obviously different reasons.
The next morning Catherine and Kyoko both got up very early so they could make breakfast for the men before they had to be off to work. Their clothing was finally dry, but they decided to stop off at their homes to get changes anyway. This meant that they would need a very early start indeed. When Ren came down from his shower, Kyoko bounced over to him excitedly.
"Catherine just told me about other uses for whipped cream!" Both Ren and Yashiro nearly fell over at the excitement in Kyoko's voice. Ren could not believe that she would be so excited about 'that'. Catherine walked over and handed a plate of eggs to the tall actor.
"You can add them to scrambled eggs to make them light and fluffy." She added a fork to the plate as the actor stood with his mouth hanging open. He had not expected that. "What did you think I told her?" Ren closed his mouth and moved to the table to eat the eggs he was given. He was not about to voice his opinion. She offered the same fare to Yashiro.
Catherine pulled what was left of the two men's phones from their bed in the rice. After shaking them off, she plugged the battery in Ren's and said a silent prayer before switching it on. To everyone's surprise, it powered right up. Next he put together Yashiro's phone. When she tried this one, nothing happened. She handed the dead phone back to its owner with a kiss.
"Sorry love." Yashiro took it and returned the kiss. "Sometimes it works, sometimes not." Yashiro shrugged.
"I'm always getting new phones anyway, so everything is backed up." He laughed. Ren laughed at the poor man's plight. The men finished their food and farewells to the girls and left before they were late.
Author's note: Sorry I just could not pass up the whipped cream reference. I enjoyed writing that way too much. Now that I have shown my Freudian slip I think it's time to get back to the story line.
You really can use Whipped Cream to make scrambled eggs VERY fluffy. You just have to keep stirring it untill it all combines well. Found that out one day when we ran out of milk to add to the eggs