I promised an Omake featuring how Ren and Futonami met, so here it is! It's not much, mostly because it's how her mind works rather than others. Short and to the point. Enjoy!

OMAKE – Futonami Seri and Tsuruga Ren

Seri didn't think it was a great story, but she did tell it to people every once in a while, with details omitted of course. Some things just shouldn't be shared without the other party's consent.

It started with Tsuruga Ren's second production. He wasn't well known yet, even if his break out role did get people interested in him. And he's as sixteen, on his own. His manager didn't arrive until the modeling jobs started and offers came rolling in. His image was barely coming together.

Seri was the lead writer for the series, and was annoyed every time the director decided something needed to be changed. The evil man insisted the writers watch the production as it went too, instead of letting them hide in their room and perform their craft. So there she was, watching the acting progress while being bored out of her mind and hiding her frustration at the director for being a self-righteous jerkface.

Lunch was called and the writer just took her laptop and sandwich to the most isolated part of the studio for some peace and quiet. She had a feeling Mr. Director was hitting on her and she would not have it. She was after all a married woman with children! Teenaged children! The little perv…

Hiding among the boxes of props, she found some solace in her fantasy novel she was writing and a BLT. It was only when she heard someone muttering to himself that she thought something wasn't right. Sighing, the lady folded up what she had to find another refuge, only to look around a box corner and see the strangest sight.

The new, sixteen year old Tsuruga Ren, had out his phone, a script, a half-eaten sandwich, and an open pill box. Seri cocked her head to the side, curious. Since when did teenage boys preferred being alone, eating and reading their homework, rather than be with those his own age? There were plenty of beautiful girls on the set, and they were all trying to catch his eye. There were teenaged boys there too, so he could easily make friends with the other actors. But here he was, isolating himself with a serious expression on his face and…

Pill box. Was the kid sick? Well he certainly looked a lot thinner than most boys his age, but she thought it was just the awkward phase of his growing. Maybe he had problems he didn't want anyone else to know. That she could totally understand. For a moment she thought about leaving quietly, but then the kid rubbed his eyes and cursed in English. Something wasn't going well with the script.

"Something troubling you kiddo?" Her voice jerked him out of his thoughts so quickly, she was sure he was going to get whiplash!

He stared at her for a second of two, dumbfounded, then threw on a charming and oh so fake smile. "Of course not! I'm perfectly fine! I was just trying to think about how my character-"

"Uh huh." Quick as lightening, she swiped his phone to see what he was looking up.

"HEY!"

'That's the loudest I've heard him speak all week.' Pushing her thought aside, she raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Having trouble with the kanji? You could have just asked. Not everyone uses kanji as regularly as our director. I prefer keeping things simple. So," she handed his cell back, smiling to herself, "what are you having trouble with?"

He watched her carefully for a moment before taking back his phone. For once since first seeing the kid, he looked troubled. Guess he didn't like asking for help. Eventually he caved. "I don't quite understand these lines."

He passed her the script, pointed out the next scene scheduled to be filmed. There were quite a few kanji on the page. Carefully Seri read it off, mostly relying on her memory. "'Tsubaki-chan, we can't go through the forest. The mayor warned us to stay clear of it. There's a serial killer on the loose and it's not safe. Let's just get to work.'

"'Chicken. You just follow whatever that fat cat says, don't you!'"

"'I'm just trying to follow the law. You know I-'

"'Yeah, yeah, truth and justice and all that crap. Hiro, you really need to get your head out of the comic books.'"

"That's what it says?" Seri looked up to see Ren dismayed at the simple altercation. The kanji made it more confusing than it had to be. She nodded slowly, watching his actions. He tried to control his features, but in the end his head landed in his hands, frustrated. "So simple and yet so…"

"Take it you didn't study a lot of kanji growing up." She passed him back the script as he nodded.

"It wasn't important… until now." Looking over the script, he read over the lines she quoted, murmuring to himself for a few seconds to make sure he got his lines right. She had a feeling he wouldn't be asking about those kanji again.

"So what was? Your medical expenses?" She gestured to the pill box still open next to him, making him still once more. Kid really didn't want to talk did he. "What are those for?"

"Nothing you need to worry about ma'am."

"If you don't outright deny something, then rumors start and people make their own assumptions. Not denying is the same as saying yes." That stopped the kid once more, caught but not knowing where to go. Tsuruga Ren seemed to be a very uptight individual. When was he going to learn to relax? Trying to put him at ease, she thrust out her hand. "Futonami Seri, chief script writer and editor."

Confused and still stressed, the guy took her hand on reflex and shook it. "Tsuruga Ren, I play Tsumori Hiro."

'Hmmm… strong grip, looked me in the eye while shaking my hand, firm but not over the top… He's not from Japan.' Smiling, Seri sat on a nearby box, trying to ease the kid's tensions. Bows were natural introductions to Asian cultures, not handshakes. His reflex was a handshake, and it was just the way Europeans and Americans were taught. "Yeah, I've heard about you from that director of ours. Says you have a lot of talent. But he didn't say you were sick. What are those for?"

Hesitant, the foreigner whose contacts were irritating him (the redness had to be addressed before he went back on set) but was still Japanese enough to pull it off, looked at the box. "Light anxiety and increase appetite. I wasn't in a hospital."

"Appetite huh?" She looked up and down him one last time. He noticed her eyeing him and crossed his arms. Definitely either American or Western European. Her money was on the US, but she wasn't about to write it off yet. Well, what did she care if he wasn't completely Japanese? Her husband was from Canada! "Eating disorder?"

"Overcoming one." Ren was confused, watching her carefully. She was not helping his anxiety, and she was distracting him from his lunch. "Look, I don't want to-"

"Don't worry about it. Mum's the word." Grinning, she pointed to his sandwich. "You better finish that kiddo, or I'm going to start stuffing you on my own time. Clear?"

Going on frazzled, the kid stuttered. "Ah… I… I guess… Why are you-"

"Because you're interesting." And he was. Seri was looking for someone to watch all through the filming, and until then thought everyone was boring, even this kid. "I want to see you become big and strong, then I want to see what you can do on stage. Do things well enough and I'll use you in one of my books. Now eat. You need someone to watch you and make sure you don't relapse."

"I already have someone watching me," he tried to lie, a fake smile ready to go on his face. Oh yeah, so American. Grin and bear it, smile and nod, push things aside, fold arms whenever slightly uncomfortable, that handshake, all she needed was him to shrug and click his tongue at her and she was sure. Some habits were so hard to break.

"Who? I don't see anyone here." Seeing he was stumped and unsure what to do, Seri made his life easier. She reopened her laptop. "Look, I've got a lot of things to work on and you have a script to figure out and lunch to eat. Ask me anything about the script as you run across it and I'll make sure you eat something. Idle chatter bores me. I prefer a good drama with a lot of comedy thrown in. Mysteries are too easy for me. You don't want to be bothered, I won't bother you. But you really do need to learn to relax kiddo. You look like you're in your late twenties when I'm not throwing curveballs at you."

"I see… thank you." Shyly, and still confused, Ren looked back down to his script and lunch. She smiled at him over her computer and let him be. She knew he would be a source of entertainment for her, but she wasn't sure yet how. Either way, it'd be fun watching one Japanese-American making his way in the entertainment industry here.

Kanji was just one obstacle in front of him. The future was another.

The story she told others was simply they met when they were seeking privacy during lunch and swore to not bother each other while eating during the project. Ren would ask her small questions about the script and Seri would bounce ideas off his head for her book. The arrangement kept going until the end of the production, and whenever they worked together on other projects, they repeated the pattern. Yashiro Yukihito was a nice addition to their lunches later, but that was when Ren stopped asking what certain kanji were. He continued to look far older than he was each time they met, and she would try to bring out the honest kid she met the first day as often as she could.

When she saw Mogami Kyoko doing so without trying, all she could do was smile. His non-girlfriend was cute, and if she had any way in it, the non would be dropped before her next birthday.

As she watched Ren go into the car after that shoot for Fuwa Sho (who was a brat she was not planning on working with again) she noted how he finally looked his age, was a healthy weight, and for once didn't wear his contacts. Smiling proudly, Seri strode to the bus station thinking about the future. Foreigners who did their best to adapt to Japanese culture made the best husbands. Kyoko would be an idiot to not grab him.

"I better get an invite."

END

A/N: if anyone wants to use Futonami Seri, be my guest. She just pointed out all the small things Ren does to prove he's an American, and only those who know what their looking for would be able to tell. Kyoko sees a few things, but the real kicker/tell is that handshake. I remember learning it growing up, along with the smile and nod/grin and bear it. These are things we're taught to show respect and not cause a scene when we really want to do something else. You can learn a lot about a person from their handshake

Again, thank you for reading and I hope you liked it! I'll be posting other things soon enough, but I want to get a little farther in writing them first. Until next time! ^^V