25 Women 1 Wife. (A Skip Beat! Fanfic)

The Job

Thanks always to my wonderful Beta reader @rsrdiall

I do not own Skip Beat.

Or any of the songs used here after.

25 Women 1 Wife.

Kuon was flustered and all Lory could think was how perfect this was, not for Kuon of course, but for him. There was no better opportunity. He had done it on purpose, asking questions he knew would get the young man flushed. Questions that he knew he would not feel comfortable in asking.

How had Kyoko been acting the last 12 months after his coming out with his real identity? How had she taken the fact that the man who treated her more like a daughter than any of her blood family ever had, had turned out to be the father of the senpai she admired? How was it now his mother and father had returned back to Japan to live?

Of course he knew the answer to most of the questions so he didn't need to ask. Kyoko had taken the announcement of Kuon's true identity in stride and she had been supportive in a work colleague kind of way, but Lory had hoped for more. She had also taken the announcement that the man she called father and the boy she had acted out was the man who had in 'Kyoko's own words to him in private', been the reason she had wanted to act in the first place.

He also knew that twice a week Kyoko was going to her 'adoptive parents' house for tea at the request of her new mother Julie and her father Kuu. For what Julie called bonding time which Lory had almost instantly seen a difference in the young woman's behaviour and stance on emotions. It wasn't hard to see she loved her new parents but hell Lory was hoping that love would have extended out to their son who Lory knew on good authority was dragged to these family meals as much as his schedule would allow by his matchmaking mother. Lory truly had always loved that woman.

So Lory had riled him up, kept him later than needed and was now watching the young man squirm as he looked at his watch and realised if he didn't leave now he would be late for his first appointment that day.

"If that's all boss, I had better be off." Kuon said, standing as he tried to leave. As if by an after thought, Lory grabbed an envelope from out of his desk draw.

"Oh before I forget Kuon, I just need you to sign these 4 forms. It won't take but a moment." Kuon looked at him a little confused.

"What are they for?" he asked, as Lory pulled them out of the envelope and just spreading them so he could sign the 4 pages without reading the papers themselves. Lory smiled,

"Oh nothing to worry about just some paperwork Director Ogata sent over for, 'Wild Winter' he forgot to get you to sign it at the script reading the other day." Kuon nodded as he read the name of his new drama at the top of the first sheet of paper and signed all four without so much as moving the pages.

"OK well I had better be going." Kuon said again, but this time as he strode off Lory didn't stop him. Though the smile that graced Lory's face was blinding.

"I cannot believe he fell for it!" Yashiro exclaimed in a breathless whisper as he strode after his charge still in shock. Lory picked up the paperwork and tossed the top sheet onto his desk with little ceremony. Grinning maniacally at the three signed sheets before him, he smiled to himself.

"Oh he fell for it alright, now let the games begin." Lory stood and strode out of his office. Handing the forms to his secretary, he asked for them to be sent straight to the legal department for processing. He was not going to be able to back out now, Lory would make sure of that.

Lory sat at his desk and looked out at the three women before him. Two years, it had been two years since he had specially created the love me section. Well if he wanted to be finicky it was 678 days 11 hours and 39 minutes. But who was counting?

There was no denying the fact the women before him were wonderful, amazing actresses in their own right. But still, after all this time they had made minimal improvement on that one thing they lacked, that one thing that made them human. None of them could fully understand the full spectrum of the word, feeling and emotion that was love. That, in his opinion, was one of the saddest things. Lory sighed.

"We will be celebrating the Love me section's 2 year anniversary in 7 weeks. On the 21st February the love me section will officially be 2 years old. With its birthday approaching, I think it is about time we have a few graduations, don't you?" Lory watched the girls go through the full range of emotions from squirming with discomfort, to the look of fevered hope in their eyes at the possibility of release from the pink curse.

In truth their official débuts as full-fledged actresses with LME and in Chiori's case LME sponsored SoftHat début. He looked at his calendar before him. It was the 3rd January, Kyoko had been 19 for 9 days now. She had graduated high school top of her class surpassing any other student they had ever had the fortune of teaching, coming out with a genius score, and admission to any university of her choice.

Her career as an actress was really starting to hit the big time and she had even been offered her first leading role. Plus she had lots of supporting roles coming in constantly and not all of them for bully roles. Kanae, now Kanae was a mystery to him, he had to admit that. Though he loved the girl: her spark, her personality along with her amazing photographic memory that never ceased to amaze him. Her career too had skyrocketed though that had come mostly from the fact she had started accepting modelling work after he personally told her it would boost her acting career which it had. Then of course there was Chiori. She was probably the most progressive of the love me members into her rehab, as Lory liked to call it and all he could say for this fact was it was the other 2 love me members that were helping her.

These women would be the death of him, they really would. They were enigmas the lot of them. It had become plain to everyone that loved Kyoko that she was smitten with Ren, but after his true name had gone public he was no longer sure. Kanae had truly fallen in love with her best friend, her first true friendship. But it would be like pulling teeth for the girl to admit it, then there was Chiori who offered to join the love me section!

"Well ladies, I'm afraid for your chance to graduate you have one final Love me test to complete." Their faces fell as he placed an envelope before each girl. Each of them just looked at the envelopes like they are going to bite them and Lory grinned.

"Well?" he asked, watching them. They looked at each other as Kyoko being the bravest, picked up her envelope. Kanae and Chiori followed her lead as they, completely in sync, opened up their envelopes and pulled out the sheets of paper they contained. Lory wondered with their synchronization skills, do they practice that? Or is it their shared curse that makes them so perfectly matched. The 3 faces dropped as one as they looked at the acceptance forms before them.

Mogami Kyoko, you have been accepted to join the 24 other lucky contestants

for the new reality TV show The Bachelor.

You will be spending 6 weeks from the 10th January until the 21st February,

taking part in this thrilling new venture, though you may not be required to stay the full term depending on how the show progresses.

Enclosed you will find the shows dossier and information.

You will be picked up on the 9th January to be transported to the secret location.

We await your arrival with excitement.

Yumi Makoto.

Kyoko glanced at her two curse bound friends and saw they had the same acceptance letters as her own. Sighing with relief a little as they would be together at least, she flipped through the pages reading the information given, going paler with each line as Kanae's head shot up after reading the entire thing 3 times. She glared at Lory.

"You have got to be joking!" Lory smiled at her as Kyoko and Chiori both looked up white faced, hoping he too was joking with them.

"I would never joke about a Love Me assignment" They all looked back down at their acceptance letters. No he wasn't joking.