A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you guys will enjoy this newest plot bunny! Now, those of you reading Affliction (all 2 of you), I will keep working on that story. But this one just grabbed my interest and hasn't let go. I have a lot of material hand written, so I will be getting it typed up on here. And because I'm so excited to get this story started, this first chapter hasn't even made it to my beta, Nimblnymph. So it may be chock full of grammatical errors, but I need to just get this story going! Too excited!

Please let me know what y'all think! Thanks! ~SW

"You're a meanie, Takkachi!" The girl on the screen wailed before the image dissolved into black and the message "GAME OVER" appeared with the funeral dirge playing in the background.

"What did I do this time?!" Lory Takarada, President of LME Agency, threw the controller on the couch beside him and ran a hand through his long, dark hair in exasperation. "Honestly! All I did was ask for a kiss and she thinks I'm making fun of her?!" Agitated, he got up and paced the confines of his office. His ever-present, ever-silent assistant, Sebastian, watched with a bland look on his face.

"I bought her presents, I rescued her from the stalker in Class 2-D, I even babysat her little sister, and she think's I'M mean?!" Lory muttered to himself "I just don't get these dating sim games at all!" He paused in his pacing to glance up at the clock on the wall. "Hmm...3:45 pm. Those two should be free right now, if memory serves. Sebastian!" Lory turned to the stoic assistant who stood by the door. "Please fetch Ren and Kyoko-chan to my office."

Lory turned away to walk across the room to the wall where a framed picture of his dear granddaughter, Maria, perched on the wall. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that Sebastian had left before turning back to Maria's portrait. A devious glint shone in his dark eyes as he gently grasped the frame and lifted, revealing a small safe set into the wall. After quickly spinning the combination with the dial, he opened the safe door to reveal a thick manilla envelope. He reached in and reverently took the envelope out. It was still sealed and bore the postage marks and address from the guy who'd sent it to him. Lory had bought these on a whim one night when he was surfing the internet and as a collector of rare and eccentric items, this matched pair of scripts had called to him.

He closed up the safe and replaced Maria's picture before carrying the packet to his desk. He folded his lanky frame into his chair and continued to stare at the packet. Slowly, he turned it over in his hands and broke the adhesive seal and bent the metal tabs forward to undo the flap of the envelope. He grinned to himself, the story behind these scripts was unique. Supposedly, they forced the pair reading them to switch roles in the dialogue. Lory gathered that they were cleverly written so that the actors unknowingly found themselves at opposite positions in the argument from where they first started reading. He had seen the description and they were cheap enough at the Buy-It-Now price that he figured they would make a good acting experience. And he knew the perfect pair to try them out for the first time. His LoveMe Girl #1 and Japan's #1 Top Male Actor. If they could learn something from this exercise, he could implement it throughout his Acting division. Lory smiled and felt the excitement bubble up within him, things have been a mite too quiet since those two had finished the Tragic Marker project.

He placed the opened packet on his desk and leaned back into his chair while idly playing with his mustache. He was proud at how far Kyoko had come from when she hand first come to LME. She had openly admitted her feelings for Ren to Lory right here in his office. He had been ecstatic and had expected things to progress from there-but no. His #1 Love Me Girl and hopeless Top Actor still stubbornly clung to their Senpai / Kouhai relationship. Honestly, it was enough to drive a man to drink (or in his case, play countless otome games). Lory frowned into space at the thought that his favorite two actors might never get together? NO! He thumped his fist into his open palm with a determined grunt; not if he could help it! Those two kids just needed a slight push-okay shove-in the right direction and hopefully nature would take over. He glanced at the packet lying innocuously on his desk and smiled wolfishly. Yep, this pair of scripts might be just the thing.

There was the briefest of knocks on the door before it opened, allowing Sebastian in. He stood off to the side to allow a pair of bewildered actors into Lory's office. "Tsuruga Ren and Mogami Kyoko for you, Sir." Sebastian bowed slightly with his left hand folded over his chest while his right hand held the door open.

"Ah! Excellent! Come in, you two!" Lory excitedly leapt up from his chair and gestured to the two chairs in front of his desk, "Have a seat, please."

Ren looked at Kyoko questioningly and she helplessly shrugged back and began to walk towards the desk. As they walked, Ren noticed that the office had not been decorated with any sort of theme. The Boss himself was even dressed in a mundane button down shirt and dress slacks. There was a playful glint to the older man's eyes that told Ren that something was afoot. Wordlessly, the tall actor made sure Kyoko was seated before he settled into his own chair.

"You wanted to see us, Sir?" Ren remarked dryly. Might as well get this over with.

Kyoko looked questioningly over at Ren when she heard his curt tone.

"Now, now, no need to be hasty." Lory tsked, "What with your most recent project completed, things are rather quiet around here. How have you guys been since then?" He asked playfully while looking from Kyoko to Ren. He was pleased to see Kyoko blush a pretty shade of red as she looked down and fiddled with her hands. Ren, however, wasn't buying Lory's congenial tone if his narrowed eyes were any indication.

Lory watched as Kyoko lifted her gaze to meet his, "Things are going well, President Takarada." He waited for her to expand on that, but the chestnut haired girl fell quiet again.

Awkwardly, Lory cleared his throat, "Ah, well, that's good then!" He looked down at the open packet on his desk. "Right. Might as well get down to business." He reached in a drew out the two scripts and handed each to the two actors in front of him.

Ren looked down at the plainly typed, stapled script. "Role Reversal?" He read aloud and looked back up at Lory.

"Yes! An acting exercise. I got a great deal for them online and if they can benefit my top two actors-" Lory didn't miss Kyoko's face blaze crimson at that comment, but he continued, "-then I shall implement this exercise into all of my acting classes. But for now, I just wanted to run through this here in my office to see if they're any good."

Ren's eyes narrowed, "And you chose us, why?"

Lory feigned hurt, "Why, because you two are my go-to couple!"

Ren arched an eyebrow and his lips thinned in displeasure, but he let out a sigh of resignation. "Fine, let's get this over with. Are you okay with this, Mogami-san?

Lory watched as Kyoko blinked herself out of whatever thoughts she was lost in and looked quickly between the two men. "Yes!" She picked up the script and the two actors opened their copies and began to read.

An hour later, Lory was struggling to hold the smirk off of his face as he watched Ren's frustration and irritation grow. The younger man was uncharacteristically letting his emotions show rather than hide behind the 'Tsuruga Mask'. He and Kyoko had been going over and over the "script" and arguing over how it should be read. Ren was raking his hands through his hair as he paced in front of Lory's desk. Kyoko had also risen to her feet, but she stood off to the corner of the President's desk-and out of Ren's path. She too, bore signs of frustration, but also hints of nervousness and anger. Lory could read her face like a book. Even if this script never made its way to the acting school, Lory would count the purchase as justifiable-if only for entertainment value at this moment.

The script itself wasn't even well written. It was merely a circular argument nestled into a two person dialogue between a man and a woman. One of those "nothing" fights that couples had all the time. The script was as far from an intellectual screenplay as it could get. Heck, made-for-cable movies or even-gasp!- soft core porn had better written dialogue. And because of this, the #1 Male Actor was getting quite riled up. And Lory was loving every minute of it!

"I'm sorry, Tsuruga-san. I'll get it next time." Kyoko's eyes were narrowed as she watched Ren pace like a caged tiger.

"We've been over this script for an hour now, Boss." Ren sneered the title in his frustration and anger, "Surely you have what you need?" He pinned a lethal stare at the older man.

Lory "hmmmed" and stroked his mustache idly as he thought about Ren's question. "I don't think so, maybe once more-with feeling?" Ignoring Ren's low growl of impatience, Lory continued, "Why don't you give Kyoko some feedback on her role; so that you both can learn from this experience?" Inwardly, Lory was laughing at Ren's frustration. Lory never had the opportunity to torture the younger man like this so he wasn't going to cut it short. Plus, this hoax script had also allowed Ren to spend time in Kyoko's company. It was refreshing to see the boy show more of his true emotions, his true self-Kuon. Of course, Lory mused, with only the four of them in the room, Ren felt comfortable with all the occupants in order to display the level of anger and frustration he was.

Ren, meanwhile, ground his teeth and turned to Kyoko. "In the interest of getting this exercise completed as quickly as we can, let's do better on this next run-through."

Kyoko nodded. "Yes, of course. What can I do to improve?" She was also frustrated, and even though she loved every opportunity to expand her acting abilities; she had specifically taken this evening off to study for her upcoming finals. She felt the bite of impatience and agitation eat away at her mood and Ren's highly uncharacteristic show of anger and snark towards the president wasn't helping matters. She almost saw glimpses of the willful character of Cain nii-san emerge. She would have been quite content to watch, if Tsuruga-san hadn't been determined to continually criticize her read-through. He'd been hyper-critical on her tone, cadence, heck, even how she was standing! Her patience had been wearing thing for a while now.

"This time, if you could put a little more emotion into your voice, Mogami-san. Your portrayal of Asami is still a bit flat and forced." Ren explained.

Kyoko, in a rare show of anger herself, glared at her senpai. "You said I was putting too much emotion into it last time. Now it's not enough?" She crossed her arms and met Ren's gaze.

When he gave her his 'American' shrug as she called it, she felt the blood boil-and her temper snap at his words: "Yes, it was too flat. Please adjust and do better next time so we can get out of here."

Kyoko had had enough. They had read through this stupid script three times now. "If you think me that incompetent, maybe you should read Asami's part!"

Ren's eyes widened and he quirked an eyebrow, "Hmm...perhaps I will. We'll switch spots!" He folded his own arms and glared determinedly back at Kyoko.

"Fine!" Kyoko nodded sharply and began the scene again, only this time by reading Ryu's male dialogue.

Lory was desperately wishing for popcorn as he watched the drama unfold. After watching the two read through the script with the roles reversed, he decided to show mercy. He held up a hand, calling a halt to the two actors before they could get into another argument. "That's enough, you two. It's getting late. Just put those on my desk here." He stood and looked at the two exasperated actors, who were staring incredulously at him. "What?" Lory asked, flicking his gaze from Kyoko to Ren.

"That's it?" Kyoko asked haltingly, "We're done?"

Ren wasn't quite as level as Kyoko, "What the hell, Boss? You drag us in here, have us waste the evening reading through the worst script I have ever laid eyes on and just like that-you've had enough? Time to go home?"

Lory just grinned. How he loved pushing Ren's buttons. "Yep! You kids have a nice night!"

"I don't believe this!" Ren threw his script on Lory's desk and turned to Kyoko, "I apologize for my behavior, Mogami-san. My patience with this whole debacle has completely escaped me." He told her in as gentle of a tone as he could muster, "I'll see you tomorrow?"

Kyoko blinked at the rapid attitude change and it helped settle her frustration a little as well, "Oh, yes! I'll be around the agency." She turned to Lory, "Here." She placed the script on his desk, then turned back to the tall actor, "Tsuruga-san, thank you for helping me with this acting exercise. I'm sorry your valuable time was wasted on a lowly kouhai such as myself." She bowed deeply from her waist.

Lory watched as all traced of anger quickly left the younger man. In fact, he'd say that Ren looked abashed as he looked down at the short haired girl. Ren reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "You've nothing to apologize for, Mogami-san. You didn't waste my time, and I'm always happy to work with you. I merely object to the banality of this sad excuse of a script." He shot a dirty look in Lory's direction.

"Mm...I don't think it was a waste. I learned about levels of emotion in my inflection." Kyoko mused as she looked off into space.

The girl may have missed Ren's look, but Lory caught the warm gaze that the younger man bestowed on her. Ren's smile was gentle and compassionate, "Well then, my time wasn't wasted at all."

Kyoko looked up at that and blanched when faced with such a heavenly smile. "Eh? Th-that's good then." She sputtered out.

"Shall we get going? I can give you a ride home." Ren offered as they turned towards the door.

Lory smiled as he heard the now familiar, "I-can't-accept-a-ride-and-end-up-being-a-burden" speech from Kyoko.

As the pair exited Lory's office in full debate over Kyoko accepting said ride, the door clicked softly behind them, leaving Lory in silence. He looked down at this desk, "They didn't even say goodbye!" He pouted as he put the scripts back in the envelope.