Disclaimer: I do not own nor draw Skip Beat! All rights belong in the rightful hands.

Note: This story was begun before reading Skip Beat Act 199. Spoilers through Act 198, and added canon notes from 199, 200, 201, 202 & 203. Main thing that I'm ignoring or pretending didn't happen as yet to further this story plotline is White Day along with the appearance of Mr. Understanding Love-Me and Kyoko's resulting confession. This story pretends there is an extra week in between, thus not requiring her to give up Setsu for school reasons just yet.

Another PV

By Matelia-legwll

Chapter One: Shock

"So, President. Let me make sure I understand. You want Cain Heel to work in Fuwa Sho's newest PV?"

Ren was currently sitting on the couch opposite the President, alone with him in those private chambers of Lory's in LME. Lory was this time dressed in a toga, eccentric as always, assuming his newest role as some Roman Caesar.

"It's an opportunity to consider," Lory soothed, leaning back on his dais.

Ren covered his face with one hand, trying fruitlessly to make the situation disappear. "How did you hear about this opportunity anyway? The Heels are not part of LME."

This would be terrible. There were too many factors to consider. It had the potential to really get out of hand. He had let some of his own resentment of Fuwa and Kyoko's relationship leak over into Cain already. Having both of them at such close range with his emotions as Kuon at the surface… surely he wasn't the only one that could see the disaster in the making. He'd barely been able to keep from slipping into Kuon in front of Fuwa the last time the idiot had tried to confront him.

Lory plucked at a bunch of grapes, leisurely popping a few into his mouth, before answering with, "Fuwa-kun's manager somehow found out that LME has a way to contact Cain Heel. So she and Queen Records called requesting that we somehow reach Cain Heel and offer him the job."

Ren sighed, staring at his hands. And that wasn't even taking into account that if he had what he wanted, Kyoko would never even see that guy again. He was definitely going against fate and the gods to try to keep them apart.

"Have you told Mogami-san yet?"

Lory sat up, surprised. "Eh? Does that mean you will take the job?"

Ren froze, his eyes widening in shock. "Eh?"

"I didn't want to address it with Mogami-kun, unless there was a possibility of Cain doing so."

"Ah," Ren relaxed. "No. Good."

Lory gave him a lingering glance. "Did you perhaps want to tell her yourself?"

Ren's head jerked up. "I need some time… to think… about this," he said eventually.

On the positive side, if Kyoko didn't know that this was a possibility, it wouldn't complicate her current work even further. On the negative, there would be no way that Cain Heel would survive this newest disaster from the teasing gods, without Setsu by his side. And therefore bringing Kyoko and Fuwa again into each other's company. Even if Kyoko didn't know it yet, this would affect her dramatically.

"Unfortunately," Lory's voice cut into his thoughts. "Mogami-kun was another request from Queen Records. I let Asami-san think that there was a possibility of a scheduling conflict as Heel-san was requested first. However, if Cain Heel rejects this offer, I will have no choice but to extend the offer to Mogami-kun."

Ren wanted to groan. He wanted to complain and shake his fist at the uncaring sky. But none of that would delay this particular disaster in the making. If he refused, Kyoko would be offered the job alone. If he accepted, Kyoko would have to be at his side as Setsu. Either way, he could not prevent Kyoko from interacting with that jerk.

Suddenly realizing Lory had let him drift off into thought without moving, he stood. But he had one last question to ask before he left. "President?"

Lory met his eyes, his expression carefully blank.

"What role did they have in mind for Cain to play?"

"The antagonist." Lory nodded to himself. "It appears Cain's attitude is rapidly becoming famous behind the scenes as they wait for B.J. to appear on screen."

Ren didn't know how to process that particular piece of information. So he bowed and turned to leave.

"Ren," Lory said in a deep warning tone.

"Yes?" He turned back momentarily, hoping to soon escape so that he could think.

"Please think this over, but don't make your decision based on emotions alone."

Ren felt incredulous. Is that really what the President thought of him? Of course he would use reason with himself. If anything, he would probably think this to death, imagining all the different scenarios before finally giving his answer.

"And give me an honest answer by tomorrow," Lory added briskly. "I should get back to Queen Records about whether they should find a replacement soon."

He bowed again, turning and exiting the room, feeling like sand was quickly slipping from his grasp, and he didn't know where to turn to start gathering the grains of sand that were pieces of his life.

Ren had entered that room expecting a telling-off about the irresponsibility of his choice to allow Setsu to affect that patch of skin on his neck Miss Woods had had to help cover up. And he came out of the room with yet another job offer.

Kyoko was, to put it mildly, disappointed. While she didn't really expect to hear reports from Moko-san and Amamiya-san, she couldn't deny that a part of her had been hoping one or the other would have discussed things with her regarding each of their missions. If nothing else, it would serve as a welcome distraction from her cliff hanging thoughts which instantly turned her into a sea of darkness and turmoil upon contemplation.

However, she knew what a double standard that would be, as she obviously could not tell either one of them of the results so far of her own dangerous mission. And what results might those be? Setsuka was impossible. Kyoko froze again remembering… Oh, how could she ever begin to explain? She, a young Japanese maiden, doing those kinds of things to her senpai, all under the guise of acting.

So, yes. She completely understood the reason why she must remain silent. However, what was causing the silent tension in the room from the other two Love Me Members?

Amamiya-san had made sure that the next off-day they both had would be in the home office rather than Kyoko going to school, apparently wanting support while continuing to try to see any good points in Kawagoe Michika's acting. However, the animosity she held towards the shallow actress was causing her once more to write more in the poison notebook and leaving the response papers blank.

"Moko-san?" Kyoko whispered, deciding to start in on her best friend rather than tackle distracting Chiori from scribbling in her poison notebook.

Kanae briefly met her eyes, then looked back toward the script she was hiding her face behind. "Eh?"

"Moko-san? Why aren't you telling me what's bothering you?"

"Why should something be bothering me?"

Kanae's offhand tone belied the cold atmosphere of the Love Me Section office. Kyoko narrowed her eyes.

"You've been reading that script for longer than fifteen seconds, Moko-san," Kyoko easily pointed out.

Her best friend tensed, then gingerly set the booklet down. Kanae looked disapprovingly at her. "I was just trying to think. To figure something out. That's all."

Kyoko beamed with this progress. "What were you trying to figure out?" she asked happily.

"Your mission from President."

Kyoko froze under the cold gaze of her best friend. Her professional smile bubbled to the surface and then she asked blithely, "Why should that bother you?"

Registering the smile and suppressing her shudder, Kanae wondered if she should divulge exactly how worried the other girl had made her when she had turned off her phone the other night. The knowledge that absolutely nothing was wrong didn't dissolve that worry instantaneously. "How come yours was done so quickly?" Kanae frowned, losing her sense of pride in her thoughts and reasoning. "I have to continue to shoot the drama for another three weeks, Amamiya-san still has more appearances she must make on 'For Real?!' and yet you got off after that one afternoon."

Kyoko paused. Treacherous territory. However could she navigate through these landmines? She must protect the existence of the Heel siblings with her life. But it wasn't like her to keep all these secrets from Moko-san. And secret kept building on secret with this dangerous mission. Kyoko waved a hand, brushing off Kanae's comment.

"Ah, President must have realized that it was enough." She wondered for a moment yet again about how soon President had come up with the idea of Setsuka. Was it meant to be part of her dangerous mission officially? Or was it a thought that President had after Ren had revealed his identity to her anyway? Remembering that glare and the dangerous feeling from that afternoon this all started, she was intensely glad Cain liked his sister. "It certainly scared me," she muttered.

"Kyoko-san?" interjected Chiori.

"Yes?" Kyoko quickly seized on this new interaction in an effort to avoid the spotlight Kanae's line of questioning was forcing her into.

"Where have you been spending your time?"

"Eh?" This was bad. This was really bad. They were teaming up against her weak spots without any prior rehearsal.

"Your schedule for Box-R is light enough you should have loads of time on your hands now that Dark Moon has finished as well. Have you gotten more offers?" Chiori was wide-eyed with innocent curiosity.

Kanae was watching her reaction to this line of questioning suspiciously.

Kyoko opened her mouth to respond, with what she had no clue, and was thankfully interrupted by a knock at the section door. All three girls gave each other terrified looks. The last person to visit them in here was the President, and none of them wanted additional tasks from him.

"Mogami-san? Are you in there?" the voice called through the door, causing Kanae and Chiori to breathe a sigh of relief. However, Kyoko jerked as if electricity had shocked her.

"Tsuruga-san!" The one person she didn't want to see. The only person that could rescue her. For he was the person who knew enough to know why she had to use any excuse to dodge this conversation, and also the one person that she didn't want to burden by making him save her.

Kanae looked at Kyoko's frozen professional smile, and tilted her head in curiosity. What in the world was going on with Tsuruga-san that Kyoko had to put on this mask? Had the idiot actually kissed her on Valentine's Day and not resolved it with the young actress yet? It had been almost a month.

"Mogami-san?" Another jolt ran through Kyoko's body, and Kanae took it upon herself to shove her best friend towards the door.

"Open the door, you idiot! Mo!"

And before Kyoko could prevent it from happening, Kanae pulled the door open and threw her hapless friend into the waiting arms of Tsuruga-san, who just looked shocked, but Kanae suspected he was also slightly pleased with the turn of events.

"Eh?"

"Kyoko-chan?" The glasses guy, Yashiro, peered around Ren in order to see what had happened. "Eh? What's going on?"

"Erm…" Kyoko's face was adorably shocked. "I'm sorry!" She quickly jumped back, but Kanae stopped her from escaping further into the Love Me Section room with a glare.

"Don't come back until you're ready to finish our conversation."

"Moko-san!" Kyoko exclaimed before the door slammed shut.

Kanae flounced back to that stupid script she'd been blankly staring at earlier. Maybe this time her brain would actually process the words instead of going over what the couple from the Daruma-ya had told her when she had called to locate Kyoko and invite her to stay the night. Kyoko hadn't spent the night at home for five days, and before that it was still sporadic; they didn't know the next time that Kyoko would be there, but her absence had something to do with work.

Kanae sighed. She wouldn't have even tried to call them if Kyoko's phone hadn't been off.

Yes, Kyoko had later told her that an accident had happened in her room to her phone, but that didn't put the other comments out of Kanae's mind. What was that girl up to now? And why hadn't Kyoko told her yet?

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! And stay tuned for the next part of this story. It's certainly nowhere near done yet!