Work Text:
“..miya!”
Karou tried to focus back on the scene in front of her, but the sun was right in her eyes and she had been up far too late working on touch ups. The world was flashing lights, and the not so distant murmur of Kenshin asking the model to change position.
“Earth to Kamiya!” Yahiko was literally snapping fingers in her face, and then nudged a wheeled rack of clothes in her general direction. “You were supposed to have this in the women’s dressing room like an hour ago!”
Oh shit, the late van. The men’s collection had arrived on time and the other delivery driver had end up on the wrong side of a small freeway pile up, or so the frantic phone call had informed her not so very long ago. It hadn’t seemed important when she was popping an aspirin and drowning herself in coffee while getting the reflective panels set up on set.
“Unless you’re implying I should march right in there with the models.” Yahiko looked hopeful but unsure and Kaoru made a predictably disgusted face while she mobilized her body to begin to push the rack of leather skirts, bomber jackets, corsets, and sweatpants and tried not to groan as her back reminded her she should be pushing with her legs not her arms.
Behind a curtained off section of the warehouse, organized chaos was in motion as Megumi ruled over her skincare and cosmetic kingdom. Assistants were applying tinted moisturizers or blending away blemishes as natural beauty emerged from aggressive technique. Models with finished looks were either scrolling through their phones with bored expressions or chatting with one another.
“At last!” Misao appeared in front of Kaoru, albeit in a slightly diagonal down direction from her line of sight. “I felt like I was going to start biting my nails or something. I know Kenshin is our buddy and all, but you said that he was booked this evening for some hoity toity award thing and if we can’t get these pictures now then I have no idea how we would ever get everything sorted with marketing before—” Words kept pouring forth and Kaoru nodded and smiled while somehow Misao matched tops to bottoms and handed them out to waiting models who immediately began to get dressed.
A captive audience, and increasingly unsupported by the rapidly lightening roller rack, Kaoru finally saw an opening to escape as Misao had to pause her torrential monologue in order to listen to a question from a model who couldn’t figure out how to fasten a cross body accessory bag. Mumbling something in Misao’s direction, she had almost made it out when Megumi clapped a beautifully manicured hand on her shoulder. That distinctive royal purple gel had Kaoru pulling yet another face this wretched morning.
“You’ll get weird wrinkles if you keep doing that,” The tutting wasn’t helpful. “You need to hydrate better, you’re too young to be this ashy. Here, take this, and while you’re headed back out bring me some of those orange slices and one of the box salads.” A sample of some moisturizer purporting to be all natural while also containing a long list of unpronounceable pharmaceuticals on the side, was quickly ripped into and Kaoru was just about to absently rub it onto her face on her way over to catering when she ran into a wall.
The wall kindly mumbled an apology, but more importantly when Kaoru looked up said wall had a splotch on his striped track suit right near his pec. Like a misshapen nipple. Horror woke Kaoru up faster than coffee ever could have.
“NO!” Dragging the beanpole of a man by the front of his suit, Kaoru navigated the shuffling model to the edge of the women’s area. “Misao! Code fluorescent orange!”
A head only emerged from the curtains after a moment, and eyes narrowed and took everything in. “For f—”
“Before you blow, just know it isn’t his fault. I bumped into him while running out to get Megumi some oranges. What’s your name?”
“Sanosuke.”
“Right, so Sanosuke is probably expected on set in negative two minutes and I need to know what will get this out.”
Misao’s eyes darted back and forth as if she was searching her memory for an answer. “All you can do is haul ass back to Soujirou and see if he has a spare something. Then bring the top back to me and I’ll see what I can do and get this piece back into rotation.”
“Gotcha,” Kaoru didn’t hesitate and continued to haul Sanosuke by the jacket, a determined tugboat. The model seemed to also have finally registered that this was urgent and began to pick up the pace. By the time Kaoru was confidently storming into the men’s area, they were walking side by side. Within moments Soujirou was out of his relaxed persona and fully back to professional designer mode as he took in Sanosuke’s height and build and made a judgment to have him switch with a different model waiting his turn and instead give that other model a new outfit creating a cascade of confusion immediately.
Emergency sorted, in a way, Kaoru flew out of that space to find a salad and process her burning shame and embarrassment for almost ruining the day for her friends. This was her goddam job. She was supposed to be professional. Not staining designer samples, getting scolded by junior assistants, and fetching food for moody divas. It was all suddenly too much on no sleep and a cup of coffee.
Glancing up, she noticed the warehouse office and jetted up the four floors of clanking stairs, skipping as many steps as her restrictive plum pencil skirt allowed. After a small walkway she was at the door, and then immediately into frigid blessed half light and privacy. Quickly pulling out her hair sticks she jabbed them in the air like she was stabbing something repeatedly, and then gave a huffy sigh before sinking down onto a nearby computer chair. It protested with a prolonged metallic whine and only when she had smoothed back her hair did Kaoru see a reflective flash from the glasses of the man inspecting her from the other side of the office.
Now under observation, Kaoru took a moment to straighten her posture and reapply her customer service smile. “Is there anything you need? I know the models were told to try to stay close to the shooting area. The pair and group shots will start soon now that the women are changing.” She carefully wound her hair back up and replaced the securing sticks.
A dark eyebrow raised to meet the shaggy fringe of the man’s white hair. Interesting styling choice, but it fit him.
“If you came up here to have a quiet moment, I totally understand, but we really need all the models on hand. Can you stand up a moment please?” Kaoru got closer and tapped a sensible flat until the man unfolded from his seat near an open laptop. That must be why he had sneaked off, but thankfully it just looked like some email program and not anything suspect. It wouldn’t have been the first time she had come across a model doing something rude in expensive borrowed clothes, but she really didn’t have patience for funny business today. Most of those messier times were long behind her. Memory dust of growing up in a studio with her dad doing small time catalog work and senior pictures, only to fall in with the supposedly washed up Kenshin Himura after college. His sudden artistic rebirth and popularity had kept them both bustling the past couple years.
Every model, male or female, towered over Kaoru but somehow this man had a presence that felt like he had surrounded her despite being a socially acceptable distance in front of her. As she swallowed she felt like the air was drier than normal.
“Let’s just do a quick check to make sure nothing’s wrinkled. Excuse me.” Perfunctorily, Kaoru went about straightening the unzipped navy and orange jacket with smooth hands, pulling down the hem of the fitted tank top, and squatting down to make sure the pant cuffs hit the shoes just so. “You must do a lot of athletic modeling, you have great muscle tone. What’s your name?”
“Enishi.”
His haughty stare was impressive, but a little too high fashion for leisurewear, Kaoru thought to herself. “Not a lot of people can wear orange, but I bet they will sell loads of this when your pictures come out.”
Normally people at least said thanks when she was hyping them, thought Kaoru. It really wasn’t her day today. The soft sell didn’t work, so time to move the mountain.
“Now, I need you to come back down to the main floor with me, Enishi. I’m likely expected on set soon as well.”
Finally he began to shift towards the door. “As…” Algae bloom eyes ate the distance between them again. She needed to get out of this office which, despite its air being beyond conditioned, felt stuffy.
“The photographer's assistant. But overall I’m here to make sure things happen the way they should.” Kaoru couldn’t help herself. “Being shot by Kenshin Himura is a big deal. He hasn’t done a purely fashion shoot in ages, and likely won’t again for a while. You must be excited to add this to your portfolio.”
“I’ve never been shot by… such a noted photographer.” The man agreed with a secret smile. “And after this?”
“What?” Kaoru was now leading the way, trying to take the stairs more carefully on the way down. She hadn’t realized how treacherous they were initially. “Oh, then I help pack up and drive to some sort of awards ceremony. We need to have this wrapped up by lunch time, hence the hustle. Make sure to check in with Soujirou before you head out.” Gesturing vaguely in the right direction, Kaoru couldn’t even look back with the way her cheeks flamed red. What was even wrong with her, today?
Feeling like she had acquitted herself well despite being in an awkward situation there for a hot second, Kaoru hit the floor running in order to grab Megumi’s food and left her stray model behind. He’d be fine. He looked like if someone crossed him he’d crush their windpipe, honestly, and that was the kind of attitude that would either get him far in the industry or sink him.
Drinking from her water bottle, she finally handed Megumi a salad which the woman accepted with a grunt as she scrolled through her social media feed. Megumi was always paying the closest attention to her MUA competition, and likely wouldn’t surface until she felt satisfied no one else was challenging her position. At least sitting next to her made Kaoru look busy, and she watched the models file out on their way to the sets. Kenshin would need her in a moment, but likely Yahiko had the clipboard with everyone’s positions and it would take him some time to sort that out.
A familiar burnt umber track suit seemed to be conversing with Soujirou, lagging behind the rest. Well, at least he had gone to check in as Kaoru had recommended.
“Gosh it’s like the stars aligned. Even if Soujirou had to use his favor with, you know.” Misao flanked Kaoru by crashing into another folding chair. She was drinking an energy drink and Kaoru shuddered to think of her friend’s energy level accelerating right at the moment she no longer needed to be doing her job. Ah well.
“Kenshin doesn’t keep track of stuff like that, even though sometimes I wish he did; he’s happy to help you both.”
Misao laughed. “Oh my gosh, I didn’t mean Kenshin.” In a low whisper for Kaoru’s ears only Misao ruined the intent by clearly rolling her eyes in Enishi’s direction and gesturing broadly. “You know. Who else keeps empty warehouses by the port you can get with nearly no notice?”
Kaoru didn’t quite know what Misao was getting at, but she had the feeling that didn’t end with the words ‘legitimate businessmen’.
“OMG don’t make eye contact. I’m just happy he likes Sou’s clothes enough to give us a leg up. But, like, I really hope we hit the mainstream and can stop relying on special orders from people Sou knew from his, er, former life.”
Kaoru felt her legs cross one way, then the other, as she simply couldn’t find a casual enough posture as she watched this Enishi character make concerted eye contact with her and hold up a finger. Just a moment, that said, I’m coming for you next. She could practically still feel his abs under her fingers from when she had straightened out his clothes. Kaoru slowly closed her eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Pretending I’m still asleep in bed and the alarm is about to go off so that I can go help my best friends in the world do a photo shoot for their brand launch.”
Misao giggled. “You’re so funny, Kaoru. But you shouldn’t make that face, you’ll get wrinkles in weird places.”
Megumi chuckled next to them, still glued to her phone.