AN: I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's going to be both fun and challenging to do all of the characters but I hope that the chapter works okay 😊
Chapter One – My Big Brother
I hate this. Every day seems like a never ending torture but I have to go on. My wife isn't deceased yet and Rikuu deserves to have hope that one day his mother will get better. I still don't think he understands but he's going to be three-years-old in a few months and it's my job to help him be happy and healthy and safe.
I don't act to the extent that I have been in the past. People are considering it about half as much as I worked before Kyoko's accident, Yashiro and I have speculated it to be a little more than half. I am thankful to my parents for taking time off of their work so that they can come and support us. I don't know what I would have done without them being here to support us. I'm not as strong as Kyoko is, which is a fact that she's always helped me kept hidden.
The call was the most devastating thing that I have ever coped with and it's with full respect to Rick that I say that. Rick still gives me nightmares but I was at least able to see a light when Boss came. Kyoko however, that loss I would never be able to get over, it's only Rikuu that keeps me getting out of bed in the morning although that wasn't the case in the beginning.
"Are you excited?" I ask the two-and-a-half-year-old. Rikuu has dark brown hair, almost chocolate in color and somehow – maybe fairy magic as Kyoko always told me – he has my emerald eyes. His face has parts of my own but also parts of Kyoko as well. He's an amazing mix of both of us. I kneel down in front of him as I zip up his coat and help him with his shoes. "Grandpa is going to take you to the zoo today, that's exciting," I try to smile and Rikuu nods.
I wonder if I'm doing any good at taking care of him. I've always worked with Kyoko as a team but that accident made me his only conscious parent.
"Yeah," Rikuu nods, "Grandpa say we go see Mr. Red Panda."
"Yeah, you love the red pandas don't you?" I ask him as I ruffle his hair a little which always causes him to giggle. He nods excitedly and I turn back to my father who is watching us interact. "Thanks for doing this, Dad. I hope I'm not keeping you from anything."
"Don't worry about it," Dad smiles as he still has that sympathy in his eyes. "I love taking my grandson to Ueno. We get to go to that nice crepe stand as well," he winks at Rikuu who grins widely. I nod. Somehow Rikuu has his grandpa's appetite and metabolism rather than my broken stomach. It's good for him that he can enjoy these things, I mean anything to get him past the technically loss of his mother.
"Well you're all zipped up and you can do your shoes up, right?" I ask him because I know Rikuu feels proud when he can push the Velcro down. I pull him into my arms, giving him a huge hug and a couple of kisses. He laughs as I do that. I really have to question myself as his father, I'm mostly acting out of instinct and improvising it but I love him. I'm never going to have another child if Kyoko doesn't wake up. Rikuu's it for me and it would devastate me if I didn't give him a happy childhood.
"Again, thanks," I tell my father and he nods, putting his hand on my shoulder and squeezing slightly to tell me that he's there for me. I stand and grin down as Rikuu gazes up at me. "You go tell Mr. Red Panda that I say hello too," I tell him and RIkuu nods eagerly. "Okay. Listen to Grandpa. I love you, my little prince," I tell him as I let my hand brush through his hair again and Dad picks him up.
As they walk out the door, Rikuu waves at me. "I love you, Daddy" he calls back and I smile.
"Daddy loves you too," I tell him before my mind focuses on what I have to do today. Going to the hospital has become such a hard task for me and it's more than the fact that I have to see her with all those scars on her face but the fact that I have to argue once again with the doctor that I'm keeping my wife on life support and they can't tell me any differently.
…
…
"You never stop bringing them to her," one of the nurse comments as I toss out some of the old flowers that I had brought a week and a half ago and put some new long stemmed red roses into the vase. I look at her wondering what she means by that comment before taking the blanket that is covering her and putting a new pink one over her. "You've been coming her every day, Kuon-san."
"I'm her husband," I tell the nurse wondering what she actually means by these comments. "It's what you do when you're in love." I sit down next to Kyoko and hold her hand. Everybody knows that I spend at least half an hour sitting in this chair, holding my wife's hand, letting my finger run over her wedding ring to prove it's there, and speaking to her. They say that people in comas can hear what they're being told.
"Well, I'm done with my task in here," the nurse tells me, "her doctor will be along shortly."
I nod before closing my eyes, "You aren't going to tell me the statistics today?" I ask though I can hear a little harshness in my voice. Every medical professional has told me the difficulty of head trauma when the person is in a prolonged coma with some people telling me that if I don't pull the plug on her that they can't guarantee she won't be a vegetable when she regains consciousness or whatever consciousness those in that debilitated state have. It's as if everyone is trying to persuade me to let her go. It took me six and a half years to finally get over Rick. I can wait for a long time.
"You've heard them so many times that I don't think it'd make a difference if I did or if I didn't," she tells me before leaving and I sigh. That's true. I can repeat verbatim the facts unless there was some new polling information done this morning.
I close my eyes, take a deep breath in and then exhale slowly. "Rikuu's going to Ueno Zoo again today," I tell Kyoko as I continue to hold her hand. "I think that he's really excited to be going. Dad is really good with him, much better than I am actually. I've been doing my best to take care of him, princess," I whisper as my gut seems to twist in a half knot. "Last night he asked me to tell him a fairytale," I chuckle knowing that Kyoko would have been better than me at that. "So I told him about Princess Rosa."
I drop my head as I try to maintain my composure. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. If it wasn't for my acting skills, I'd be a complete wreck but I'm able to survive by pushing through with the skills that I have and with having Yashiro become my manager once again. It's as if I'm drowning and one day I might not be able to tread water any longer.
As I sit there, wondering if I should tell Kyoko the Princess Rosa story, I hear a beep that sounds different than usual and I turn to the heart monitor. It's spiked. Spiking is good, right? Or is it bad? It starts to settle down to something that might be considered more healthy but if it's spiked once it might do again. Oxygen. Sometimes in sleep your heart rate spikes because of a lack of oxygen.
I push the call button for the doctor and see him rush into the room. He stares at the heart monitor and this makes me more panicked. Something is different and different might mean wrong. The beeps are more steady although they are weakening a little. No. She's not dying. She can't have given up already, she has more guts than anyone I've ever met. "You have to help her, right?" I panic before I feel her fingers twitch in my hand.
I'm imagining things again. I can't let my imagination bring me to that point where I believe in things that aren't happening. Not again.
I hear the doctor call for a nurse and the words that he's saying must be my dream, this can't really be happening.
"The patient is regaining consciousness."
…
…
Every so often I feel that I'm being dragged out of my sleep. I'm pulled in and out and it's giving me a headache. At least my brother is here. He wouldn't leave me. He's not one of those cowards who will leave a person. I kind of have the feeling that I'm in a hospital but it's not Cain's fault. It's the rest of the stupid world's fault but it's definitely not Cain's fault.
They don't understand him like I do. I don't care about them, the doctors. The doctors can say whatever the hell they want as long as they don't upset Cain. My eyes widen and I see him wake from his sleep. Ugh. He looks so…pedestrian. They somehow did something to him, brainwashed him. I appreciate his scruffiness and those bags under his eyes but they turned him blond. Cain always had such nice thick black hair, it's chilling to see him as a blond twat.
I put a hand to the oxygen mask that these simpletons are suffering me with and I slowly try to move it from my face. I don't need this. Cain provides the only oxygen that I need. He quickly tries to put it onto my face but I pull back. His concern flashes through. Heh, Cain managed to change his eye color too, I knew he was magic.
"I'm okay….big br-rother," I smile to him though the outside air feels toxic to me and I put the mask back on my face. Maybe these doctors do know a little of their work but Cain shouldn't have to suffer just because most of the world is moronic. He blinks at me confused. God, they have brainwashed him. My poor big brother. How could they do this to him?
"Big brother?" he asks me, he looks completely baffled and I'm annoyed at them for doing this. Cain Heel is not supposed to be caged like the animal that they attempt to make him out to be. He's not supposed to be some blond, green-eyed sheep who looks like a Californian more than the British gent he is. He would never accept an acting job like this in his right mind. It would be beneath him.
Damn it. Cain isn't understanding me and that makes me upset. I try to sit up but he moves forward to help me. At least it's Cain's hands which are touching me. It would creep me out if it was anyone else. Only Big Brother Cain gets to touch me.
"They brainwa—ashed you," I tell him, somehow my lungs aren't working in the same way. They better not have harvested my organs. I would gladly give Cain my organs or it would be fun to be a zombie as long as Cain was there but I hate that he seems brainwashed and my body isn't cooperating with me. "Cain," I tell him and he has a flash of recognition in his eyes. It's as if they somehow didn't bury all of him. Well, Cain's too smart and too strong to truly be brainwashed.
"Cain," he whispers in a Japanese accent before his eyes show some recognition. I knew that he couldn't resist me. He starts to speak in his normal British accent. I knew that I could always do far more for Cain than someone could do to him. "Keep the mask on Setsu," he points to me and I smile as I do so now that I know Cain is back. I like when he shows his brotherly concern over his little sister. "Don't make me tell you again, you're to keep that on. You don't want to worry your big brother."
I slide down in the bed and shake my head as I keep the mask on.
Cain looks from side to side as if trying to figure out what happened to him. As soon as he dyes his hair back then things will be fine. He probably doesn't really know where he is. My poor brother was taken advantage of the doctors at the hospital and at least they aren't doing the same to me.
"I can't believe you, Setsu," he tells me and I smile at him knowing there's a playfully mischievous expression on my face. "You leave me on my own for six fricken months. I bet you didn't know that. You've been in your little coma for six months and I mean comas are fun but don't worry your big brother. What if these doctors had been huge pervs? You can never trust Japanese doctors."
I smile innocently as I let my fingers intertwine with his. He's going to get angry if I take my mask off again and not in that cute way. I hate that I worried him so much but at least we're together now.
"You really wanted to worry your brother," he huffs in his childish way and I shake my head. "You should promise not to do it again. I had to protect you because none of these people can be trusted," he tells me and I smile, I nod my head obediently.
Maybe not becoming a zombie is okay because Cain's here and he's obviously concerned.
"Sorry," I mouth under this mask and his expression softens as he leans down and kisses my cheek. I pout. I want a more adult kiss from my big brother but without this stupid mask off of my lips, I can't expect anything with more than a G-rating.
End of Chapter One
Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated
Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Zero
Kaname671, KrisXD, Paulagato,
Author Response
The reason that the other fic can't be seen is because I was debating over two story lines and decided to go with this one instead. They use the same first chapter so I'm working on this one and not that one. Hope you guys enjoy and thanks for the support.