SADISTIC STREAK

Disclaimer: I do not own Skipbeat!

Chapter 4

3 days catching up with work as Tsuruga Ren.

3 days with no contact with Mogami Kyoko.

It's really unfair. His relationship with Kyoko as Ren is not yet close enough so that he could drop in wherever she is so he could just see her. He still had to rely on excuses to get her to talk to him. If she had no problems connected to work, she wouldn't approach him at all. If Yashiro doesn't drop hints that he wasn't eating right, she wouldn't go out with him. If there is no job connecting them together, he couldn't see her.

As soon as he finished his last assignment as Ren, he eagerly went back to his Cain Heel alter ego. But when he arrived at the movie set, the person he most wanted to see wasn't there yet.

Ah, so frustrating.

-o-o-o-o-

Setsuka walked in the room to find Cain sprawled on a stool with his back against the dressing table and his face covered with a hand towel.

"Nii-san?" she softly called as she came closer. She walked right in front of him and took a peek under the towel. When he opened his eyes, Setsuka pulled the towel off altogether.

"Setsu..."

"I'm back, nii-san. Did you miss me?" she teased him.

In response, his arms snaked around her waist and drew her closer so she was standing right between his knees. Her face registered a look of surprise, but she let him hold her in this loose embrace.

"Awww... I missed you, too," she said, chuckling a little as she patted his cheek dotingly.

What a precarious position she was in. Standing so close, with his arms around her waist, she was close enough that he could count each individual eyelash if he wished. Close enough to admire how smooth and clear her complexion is. Close enough to steal a kiss.

"Setsu, show me a funny face," Cain ordered.

Setsu scrunched her face and held her breath so she looked like a blow fish.

"Stick out your tongue."

She stuck out her tongue as requested.

"Pout."

The edges of her lips drooped down as she gave him a cute pout.

"Funny, horrible, stick-out-your-tongue-while-pouting face."

Setsu looked at him as if he grew two heads.

Cain chuckled. "Huh. I really did miss my Setsu," he said contentedly to her with a little sigh. He casually laid his head on her shoulder and nuzzled her neck.

"Don't move, okay. I'm going to take a nap," he mumbled. With his face buried against her neck, he didn't see the blush blooming on Kyoko's face.

"Hey! What the heck, nii-san!" she protested.

"Quiet!" he hushed her, wrapping his arms around her waist more securely. He smiled a little as he heard her mutter about spoiling him too much and letting him torture her by making her stand in place as he slept.

o-0-o-0-o

The director of Tragic Marker looked bemused as he left Cain Heel's dressing room.

He came looking for Cain Heel to brief him about what scenes they were going to shoot today, but he wasn't able to accomplish his mission. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Setsu with her back towards him. He immediately noticed the arms around her and the head propped against her shoulder. She glanced at him and held a finger to her lips to signal silence.

"My idiot brother suddenly decided to take a nap. With me as his security blanket," she said drily. "Sorry to ask you this, director, but can we let him rest for a bit more before I wake him up? He looked a bit worn out."

"S-Sure. Tell him to go to my office when he wakes up. I want to inform him what scenes we'll be shooting today."

Setsu's request to let her brother rest sounded innocent enough. And the nonchalant way she stood inside Cain's arms with an almost irritated look on her face made him think that the scene he had accidentally walked into was by no means romantic at all. It was an innocent scene of a doting sister lending her shoulder for her beloved brother to rest on.

But what bemused the director was not the sister. It was the hand stealthily making a shooing motion at him.

"Why would Cain pretend to be asleep and shoo me away? That doesn't exactly fit in with the his character at all," the director mused.

Suddenly, the director stopped in his tracks in shock.

"... Or could that be Tsuruga-san who was shooing me off?!" he asked himself in astonishment.

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. .

. . .

"Naahh... couldn't be. I must've been imagining it," he shook his head as he muttered to himself. Tsuruga Ren was a perfect gentleman. Surely, he wouldn't stoop to playing tricks just to hug the innocent Kyoko. It's not something the highly sought-after, Japan's no. 1 actor would do.

Successfully dispelling his doubts about Tsuruga Ren, the director resumed walking towards his office with a lighter gait.

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Snicker. snicker. snicker... Let me know what you think!