AN: Apparently, to me you can never have enough Skip Beat fics. Lol, I think I have between thirty and forty ongoing ones right now but I really wanted to write this as it combines two of my fave things (me torturing Kuon a little bit and human to animal transformations). There is no bestiality in this fic but there are a lot of complicated feelings and memories.
I am slowly working on my other fics so thank you so much for your patience 😊 Retail work is hard right now.
Always With You
Chapter One – The End
I hate today already. I can't bear the pain of coming to the cemetery or the funeral home. I don't want to bury my husband, the father of our daughter, but I have to. I want to honor his life. He was sick for such a long time and Ana had to watch that. She had to watch her father get sicker and sicker from stomach cancer until he died in a hospital bed just a couple of weeks before he would have turned twenty-nine.
Ana is my four year old and she looks very similar to her grandmother, her maternal grandmother to be more correct. I feel so lucky to have a little girl like her who has Kuon's spirit inside of her. I am begging for her to keep on remembering him though maybe that's a wish that won't be granted.
Kuon's last words to me were to be happy and safe and live to my hearts content and not to let anger or revenge sway me. He knows me far too well. He asked Ana to make him a promise to try to find happiness in life and to lean on me or her grandparents if she needs help with that. He told her he was proud of her and proud that he had the chance to be his father.
When they finally said the time of death, I was a little happy that he didn't have to suffer through the pain anymore but mostly, it was the pain that was like needles into my chest. I have never felt more suffocated than I did then.
I see the open coffin and I just start bawling like a small child. Kuon was too precious for this world. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I don't know how I'm going to live without him. Father puts his hand on my back though tears are running down his own cheeks and I see his body shake as he sees the corpse of his own biological son. I turn so I can break down in his arms and then turn towards where the still and lifeless body of my husband is.
"I'm so sorry that I couldn't save you, my prince," I tell him as I nervously put a hand on that ice cold body. He's so gorgeous still. Even in death, he's gorgeous. I can't believe that I'll never see those emerald eyes again. As I know that I have to get ready to deliver the eulogy, I kiss his lifeless lips before pulling back, my own tears dropping onto his corpse. "I love you, Kuon," I tell him again and Father leads me to our seats. Julie is also breaking at this.
I really don't know what I'm going to do without him. I bow my head and wait. Life seems empty now but I have to keep going for Ana and I. She is a living part of Kuon and I need to take care of her, she's my daughter too and the most important gift that Kuon left with me.
…
…
It's June now, four months since the death of my husband and next month we will be celebrating Ana's fifth birthday. Although I've motivated myself enough to be a good mother to Ana, I can't bear to go back to acting. Ren had been my main inspiration as an actor, he was the guide that I would always look up to but no matter how many projects I take on, no matter how many studios or sets I go to, he won't be there. He'll never be there.
My phone buzzes and I dry my eyes before looking at the text that I received. I still can't think of him without breaking down. He was my husband for six years. That's over half a decade. In fact, I've pretty much known him for a decade if you put together that summer we were kids together. He knew me inside and out and I knew him the same. We would always miss one another if we hadn't seen the other for a few hours. He was my tether to this world and now I feel that I'm floating.
I look at a location that Maria has sent me. She tells me that there's some place that has fairies and magic both dark and light magic and that I should pay it a visit. I don't know why I should. Kuon wasn't killed in some freak accident where magic was involved, he died of an illness that he had suffered with for twenty long months. We all knew that he was most likely going to die.
Still, would it really hurt to pay these people a visit just to tell Maria that i have. I glance at the time on her phone, i have enough time to go to this place and then pick Ana up from school. I'll do that because it would beat waiting here and thinking about Kuon. i look at the text again before picking up a bag that used to belong to Kuon and that he'd take with him. I've made sure that I have a small bag that had a few memories of my husband and go for the door.
Am I crazy to be going there?
Well, I can tell Maria that I've taken her advice and that would be enough. That would have to be enough.
…..
…..
I feel completely surprised when I arrive at the location. I had been expecting some kind of dark magic store that looked like a souvenir or gift shop but not this. I look around at the different animals in cages and feel out of place and alien to this new environment. What is Maria doing by instructing me to go here? I take another scan of the cages with the animals in and see that there are crosses on some of them with pictures of a person hanging from them.
Were these pets to comfort those who had lost somebody? If Maria had been thinking that getting an animal was the right thing to do then why not suggest that to me directly?
As I hear the bell on the door ring, a woman with purple colored hair tied back in a ponytail steps out o behind the counter. She looks at me and in only a number of seconds, her expression has turned mournful. "Oh, my dear," she begins and I wartch her. It's nice that this woman doesn't seem to recognize me. "I am so so sorry for your loss. It's always hard to lose a soulmate isn't it?"
I look at her. Maybe she does recognize me or maybe I just give off the air of a widow who is still grieving for her late husband. I nod. "Did someone tell you…."
"Your bag," she gestures and I look at her nervously. I pull the bag closer to me. This used to be Kuon's, I'm not going to let her do it any damage. This is precious to me. Kuon used it to carry around his scripts and the bentos that I made for him. I blink sadly but hold it closer to me. "There is another bag inside of it holding four items, I can tell you what those items are."
I stare at her. What is she talking about? What does she know?
"Okay," I challenge her, "Tell me."
"There is the stone that your husband gave you when you were children. There is the chain from his father that he wore around his neck since he was seventeen and forgot that he had brought it with him. There is the watch that his friend wore when he died. Lastly, there is the wedding ring that you gave him when he became your husband."
I freeze. How could she know that? I look around, staring at a chicken next to a pig. This store really does have a wide assortment of different animals. I take a deep breath in and nod. I take out the bag but hold it to my heart. I don't know what I'd do were these precious items to disappear. "These are…" I begin but she cuts me off.
"I know, very sacred and precious items to you. I wish you no harm but if I could see them," she says and I place them down on the counter. I close my eyes and as I open them she is holding an empty jar and the items have been laid out on the counter. I feel nervous seeing them there. The woman sees me and places the jar down, tightening the lid on top. She carefully puts the items into the bag and hands it to me.
"You will soon get a visitor," she tells me and I raise an eyebrow. "They will bring you what you really want."
I shake my head. Nobody can give me what I really want because no one can bring my husband back from the dead.
The woman leans forward again, "The visitor will come within the next week, you should pick your daughter up from school," she says before disappearing into the back and I feel I have no choice but to accept the suggestion.
…..
…..
I won't tell anyone apart from Maria about that baffling event that happened. I feel a little stupid about going and I definitely won't tell Ana. She wouldn't understand anyway and I don't want to mislead her. She's been a little quiet since Kuon passed away and I don't want her to get any strange ideas in her head or think that there's any possibility of Kuon coming back.
I grin down to her as I hold her hand and we walk to the front door of our house that has been so lonely without Kuon here. "So," I try to smile, "What do you think we should have for dinner?" I ask her and she hums before stopping, "Ana?"
"Kitty!" Ana squeals and she rushes forward. I blink before looking up. There's a tiny cream tabby kitten on the doorstep. He has one paw on the door and is on his hind legs, the other paw seems to be desperately trying to reach the door knob. This must be a neighbor's cat and there must be a spider or something on the doorknob.
"Ana, honey," I call out to her, "Leave the kitten alone, she's probably one of the neighbor's cats," I tell her and she looks back at me before nodding and just watches the kitten. She comes over to Ana and starts to paw at her legs before starting to rub her side against them. I see that Ana is excited for this kitten to be paying her attention.
The kitten finally sees me and instead of running away, she comes over to me and starts mewing in a high pitch to me. I freeze as I see the same emerald eyes that match Kuon's. It makes it hard for me to ignore her. "Hi, sweetie," I whisper as I kneel down and the cat rubs her head against my cheek. "You're a cute girl aren't you?" I ask her and the kitten turns from one side to the other as if a child checking for traffic at a crosswalk. "You're too sweet to be out here alone with no collar," I rub her back and she mews again before purring and nuzzling me. "Let's find out who you belong to."
"Mommy," Ana calls out and I turn to look at her, "The kitty was in a box, it says To Hizuri Kyoko," she announces and I sigh. Maria probably went back to the store after I had left to get me a pet. I sigh. She has good intentions and the cat is rather cute. I look at her. Should I return her? We aren't really prepared for a kitten but it might ease the sadness from the loss of one very important person from our family.
"Let's take her inside then," I smile to Ana. "Want to come with me?" I ask and the kitten looks at me and mews and without any struggle, I pick her up and hold her close to my chest. I manage to slip my shoes off and unlock the door without putting the kitten down. "Well," I tell her as I kiss the very furry top of her head. "I guess this is your new home."
"We get to keep her?" Ana asks excitedly and I nod.
"We get to keep her," I reply as the kitten's eyes softly fall to a close.
End of Chapter One
Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated
