Tomoyo raced through the men and women with the computer disk, eventually dropping it off at the features desk with a relieved sigh. "Finished as promised," the black haired woman sighed in relief, watching as the young man loaded up her story on his computer then nodding in approval as he quickly skimmed the file. "Tomoyo!" the voice growled from the chief's office, causing everyone in the room to jerk to a sudden stop. Once they all realized it was the young reporter that the boss wanted, they resumed their frantic pace of work. "Oh hell, what did I do this time?" Tomoyo muttered before the reporter headed back towards the editor in chief's offices. Walking through the open door she kept her voice as meek as possible and asked, "Yes, ma'am?" Kaho Mitsuki looked up at Tomoyo from behind her large desk, the older brown haired woman studying her thoughtfully for a moment. "Close the door and sit down," she said, just a bit of coldness in her tone of voice. Tomoyo sat down in the leather cushioned seat as requested, covertly studying the other woman as well and trying her best to guess exactly what was going on. 'Does she know about my working with Sakura?' she wondered. Part of her wanted to ask aloud, but she held her tongue, determined to see what Kaho wanted. A slight smile teased Kaho's lips, then the older woman sighed. "I have a problem," she softly confessed, "one I hope you can help me with." "Yes?" Tomoyo made it a question. Kaho looked at her searchingly for a long moment then she surprisingly confessed, "It involves your mother." Tomoyo kept any trace of her reaction off of her face, but it was hard. "Is she all right?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair. "She's fine," Kaho was quick to reassure her. "It's a problem of a... more personal nature," she finally added. "You and Sonomi are dating," Tomoyo suggested with a faint smile. "How did you know?" Kaho blurted out in surprise, eyes flashing. Tomoyo smiled back at her wryly, "Well, I didn't know for sure until just now, but there have been rumors, ma'am." Kaho grumbled something uncharitable under her breath about gossipy reporters, then she reached up to run a had through her hair with a sigh. "Sonomi's birthday is coming up," she said, "and she was hoping that you'd attend." As Tomoyo opened her mouth to say something Kaho quickly moved to cut her off, "And yes, I'm aware of the issues you two seem to have, I'm just asking you to put them aside for one night." Tomoyo looked at her boss' face, feeling a flash of sympathy for how uncomfortable this whole situation seemed to make her. "You know it isn't as easy as you're making it sound," she pointed out as gently as possible. A frown, "And why didn't she ask me herself?" "Did you check your messages? I suspect there's a few requests from your mother to call her back," Kaho noted dryly. Tomoyo winced at that well scored hit. She usually got a call back request from her mother at least once a week, and most of them went right into the trash. "Point made," she sighed. "Her birthday only rolls around once a year," Kaho reminded her. A faint smile, "If I could I'd order you to go, but we've already got a society reporter covering the event." "And I'd make a terrible society reporter," Tomoyo grumbled, silently wondering if there was any way she could make this event bearable. A thought struck her and she smiled slightly, "Could I bring a date with me?" "I don't see why not," Kaho said with a broader smile, glad to see that Tomoyo seemed to be giving in. She hesitated a moment, studying her then gave in to the temptation to ask, "What is it between you two?" "Mother hasn't told you?" Tomoyo raised an elegant eyebrow. "No," Kaho studied the young woman thoughtfully, "I think she thought it was inappropriate to tell me her side, considering we work together." "Mother always was honorable," Tomoyo conceded. "Well?" Kaho raised an eyebrow, "If I'm going to be stuck playing referee between you two, I'd at least like to know why." "This'll stay between us?" Tomoyo asked. When Kaho nodded she sighed, "You know that my parents divorced nearly ten years ago?" "Yes," Kaho acknowledged, "though Sonomi hasn't told me much else." "Probably because it was embarrassing," Tomoyo sighed. "At the time I had noticed that my mother was tending to slip away on nights that my father was out of town...." "I think I can see where this is going," Kaho winced. "Sonomi was having an affair with a young lady," Tomoyo confirmed. She made a face, "And to make matters worse I took photos... ones that my father eventually acquired." "Leading to a somewhat messy divorce," Kaho nodded. "No, my parents were already on their way there," Tomoyo sighed, "but the photos made an already complicated situation even worse. You see, father was having an affair, too, and it all came out during the divorce proceedings." "They each probably expected to take the other to the cleaners with the photos," Kaho sounded faintly amused, "it must have came as a shock to discover they each had the other's sins documented." "Of course Mother found out about my role in Father getting the information and she was...just a little upset, shall we say," Tomoyo kept her face carefully blank, trying not to remember the hurtful things they had both said. "We had a fight and before we could clear the air, I left for university..." "And you two never patched things up?" Kaho blinked. Tomoyo shrugged just a bit uncomfortably. "I was living in the university dorms," she said quietly, "and... from what she said she didn't want me home." She shook herself, banishing thoughts of the past as she asked, "Is there anything else, boss?" Part of Kaho really wanted to pursue this, but she also could tell that Tomoyo had quite deliberately cut her off. 'And I got what I wanted, she's coming,' she reminded herself. "That's good," she said, "we'll see you and you guest at seven?" "See you on Saturday," Tomoyo agreed, walking out with a sigh. 'I'm sensing great reluctance,' Kaho thought, closing her eyes, sitting back and rubbing at her temples. "And to think," she muttered, "getting them back together as family seemed like such a good idea a few days ago when I talked to Sonomi." "Ma'am?" a familiar voice questioned. Opening her eyes Kaho saw her secretary looking at her with some concern.. "Yes, Mei-Lin?" she asked the perky young woman. "I'm sorry to bother you ma'am," Mei-Lin said to her apologetically, "but you were talking to yourself again." "Sorry," Kaho sat up, trying to focus her concentration. "Are the proof sheets ready on the latest edition?" she asked crisply. "Yes ma'am," Mei-Lin produced the newspaper sheets and passed them over. "The webmistress was also asking for updated biographies of the staff," she added. "She can't just make something up?" Kaho asked as she scanned the pages for errors as well as noting the empty spaces reserved for late arriving stories. Mei-Lin looked amused, "Considering this is Rika we're talking about, she'd do a web search and do bios salted with all our deepest, darkest secrets." "She would, too," Kaho chuckled, thinking of their enthusiastic head of files. "Any other problems?" she asked. "Just the typical stuff," Mei-Lin shrugged casually, "fan letters, crank mail, a few threats and some roses arrived for one of the staff." "Who?" Kaho asked curiously. "Yukito, actually," Mei-Lin smiled thinking of the blushing blonde photographer, "from someone called Toya." "Cute," Kaho chuckled,
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