Fan Fiction |
by Hibiscus
Rainie endured the attention with laughter and gratitude, finally excusing herself to find Ariel and Mike who were sitting in one of the cafés near the studio. Angela had been sitting with them, discussing upcoming scenes but she excused herself when Rainie joined them, saying that she had a meeting with the publicity manager of the drama.
Rainie greeted Ariel and Mike and sat down in one of the chairs at the table.
Ariel closed her eyes and he was kissing her again. A million soft kisses traced like butterfly wings over her face. A nip on her lips and a playful bite to make her gasp. And as she gasped, he angled his head and kissed her properly. Slanting his head and grasping the back of her head to hold her steady, he kissed her as though starved for the taste of her lips.
Ariel felt the blush scream in her cheeks.
“Why are you blushing?” Rainie asked, looking at her curiously.
“I’m not blushing!” Ariel denied blushing harder.
“Yes, you are, here’s my compact, look for yourself!” Rainie dug a compact mirror out of her purse and tried to hand it to Ariel.
Ariel waved it away. “Yang Cheng Lin!” She growled crossly. “For once and for all, I AM NOT BLUSHING!”
“Yiish. No need to yell, Ariel.” Rainie turned toward Mike who was fiddling with his drink with a faraway look on his face.
“Mike, don’t you think Ariel’s blushing?”
Mike looked up with a dazed look. “Huh?”
“Don’t you think Ariel’s blushing?” Rainie repeated, slowly.
Mike turned and looked at Ariel who met his eyes.
Rainie watched in fascination as colour climbed in Mike’s cheeks and he smiled a bit shyly at Ariel.
“OMG! Now YOU are blushing!” Rainie shrieked at Mike. “What are you guys not telling me? Did something happen? What?”
Mike hurriedly grabbed up a book in his bag and hid behind it while Ariel called someone on the phone and started talking really fast.
Rainie sighed in frustration.
“Okay okay, I won’t ask anymore but let me tell you this,” and she gave Ariel and Mike suspicious looks, “if you continue behaving in suspicious manners and don’t tell me about it, I’ll hold a grudge for a million years when I DO find out about it.”
Ariel smiled weakly.
“You have an avid imagination.” Mike said.
“We’ll see.” Rainie said with a sniff. “Anyway, I actually came to ask if you two were free during the weekend.”
At that Ariel scowled. She glared at Mike, blushes a thing of yesterday and said, “Thanks to someone sitting right here, we aren’t.”
“Why?” Rainie leaned forward, looking like a very curious cat.
Ariel hmphed and nodded at Mike. “He agreed to go on a camping trip with me.”
Rainie started giggling. “YOU? Camping trip? You are kidding, right?”
Ariel sighed mournfully. “How I wish I was. But unfortunately, it’s true.”
“Wait a minute, why are you two going on a camping trip? By YOURSELVES?” Rainie nearly screamed the last bit out.
“Hush!” Ariel said. “You explain.” She said to Mike.
“Well, er…it’s…um…cuz…” Mike stumbled around for the right words.
“I want an explanation this century, Jun Xiang, just so you know.” Rainie said enjoying watching Mike squirm.
Mike ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath.
“Angela thinks we need to get more comfortable around each other.” He finally said.
Rainie raised both her eyebrows. “What does that mean?” She asked Ariel.
Ariel took a deep drink of her juice, cleared her throat and said, “We have a couple of kissing scenes coming up.”
“So?”
“Well, um, they are kinda makeout sessions.”
“Oooo! So?”
“She wants us to bring Xiao Feng and Ah Ken back.” Mike said quietly.
“Oh.” Rainie sat back with her mouth forming an O. “But I still don’t understand. What does camping have to do with anything of that?”
“She said that the fact that we are wary of each other carries over into the characters and while that was okay for the pre-relationship, early relationship scenes, it’ll take away from the story if we continue doing that cuz we do a time jump.” Ariel said.
“So you have to go camping cuz…”
“Ah.” Ariel blushed again.
“Cuz she said that in a situation where we have to depend on each other we will let our guards down and become more comfortable with each other.”
“Oh. How unconventional.” Rainie said sipping her own drink. “Gimme yours, I like yours better.” She exchanged her drink for Mike’s.
“But you know, if the media catches wind of this, you two could be in a lot of trouble.” She continued.
“Yeah, we told her about that. She said not to worry. She has picked our guide as someone who’s very discreet and her arrangements are top secret. No one else knows about this.” Ariel replied.
Mike stood up and stretched. “Well, my scenes are over for the day. Did you bring your car, Rainie?”
“Yeah. Want a ride?”
“Please.”
Mike turned to Ariel. He smiled at her and grinned internally knowing how much she must be dreading the camping trip. Ruffling her hair, he said, “I’ll see you on Saturday, Arieletta.”
After they left, Ariel sat in the café by herself for a while, ruminating on all that had occurred. She felt a strange sort of fear at the approaching trip; she knew that she would have to delve in matters that had been left alone.
“He’ll have his tent. I’ll have mine. And oh my God, I need to go buy sun screen, and boots and mosquito repellent and a survival kit and OH, a first aid kit.” Ariel muttered to herself as she picked up her purse and ran back to the studio to film her last scene so she could go shopping.
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Author's Note: Next up... pack your sunscreen ladies.