AN: I didn't know it had been so long since I updated this fic. I've had some tough stuff happen since I did. My (nearly) fifteen-year-old kitty had to be put to sleep because she had end of life kidney failure. I also got a warning that there would be disciplinary action if I didn't change my behavior at work. I've been trying really hard but I can't cure having bipolar disorder/borderline personality disorder.

Anyway, what I mean to say is thank you for your patience in the update.

Chapter Seven - Lies

Kyoko looked to Kuu and Kuon as they stood in the restaurant together. It was the afternoon and Kyoko had returned from school carrying some large books. Kuon had gone over to them and was studying them with a curious look on his face. Kyoko turned to Kuu knowing that Kuon hadn't been to school since he was a kid. You didn't really have the luxury of going to school when you were being sold as property.

"Did you want to look at them?" Kyoko asked as Kuu tried to approach Kuon slowly, hoping not to startle his son and trigger something. He saw the interest in Kuon's eyes. Maybe he should try to figure out a way of homeschooling or at least working towards the equivalent of a high school degree.

"No, it's interesting," Kuon said as he turned to her. "The Meiji Restoration."

"Oh that was a time period o -" Kyoko tried to explain but Kuon caught her off, looking at the two of them a little nervous and drawn back. He bowed his head.

"The Meiji Restoration was a the time of the Boshin War which lasted from the 27th of January 1868 to the 27th of June 1869. The Meiji Restoration allowed for the emperors to reclaim the imperial rule starting with Emperor Meiji. Before this, Japan had been ruled over by the shogunate structure to be specific the Tokugawa shogunate," Kuon looked back to Kuu and Kyoko who were staring at him impressed and in shock that he knew all of this. They were in shock that an American boy who had been abducted when he was a preteen actually knew information like this about a Japanese time period.

"That's right, isn't it?" Kuon asked unsure as he listened to the silence and they both nodded slowly.

"Impressive," Kuu commented and Kyoko tilted her head to the side.

"How did you learn that?" she asked and Kuon bowed his head and shook it. He didn't want to tell his father that he used to steal books and read by a crack in the window where the moon shone. He wanted to absorb as much information about the outside world as possible so that he could at least mentally and emotionally escape the world that he had been in.

"Does it matter?" he asked them and Kyoko opened her mouth slowly and turned back to Kuu.

"No, it doesn't matter how you learned it. I'm impressed," he tried to smile. His son had been making use of resources which might not have been readily available to him and were most likely not but he had been reading and learning and even if it had seemed hopeless he had been trying, that was most likely the key to his survival.

"Thanks," Kuon shrugged before returning to the kitchen.

Kuu watched him. There was so much sadness in his body language. There had to be a way of helping him cope with that. Maybe some type of therapy or psychiatric help, Kuon had seemed to be open to that. He approached him slowly. "So, did you want me to see if there's a way of you returning to acting?" he proposed and Kuon felt his body tense.

"It's really fun," Kyoko tried to persuade him, "I'm sure that you'd be amazing at it. I only started a little time ago but I'm already learning more about myself and working to be the best form of me that I can be. Acting has helped me see some of the beauty and magic that exists in this world."

"I'm fine," Kuon said as he returned to helping his father with his work. Kuu looked over at him, his emotions scaring him with how Kuon seemed to be wanting to isolate himself. When he was a kid, he had wanted to become an actor but now that he was exposed to the harsher reality, his dreams seemed to have changed. He appreciated the motivation that Kyoko had behind her words but there had to be a better way of helping him.

"I'm going to call a few of my contacts see if there's a doctor that we can go see tomorrow morning," he suggested and Kuon turned to him nervously.

"I already scheduled something for this evening," he said and Kuu blinked trying to take that in. Kuon looked to him apologetically, "they were on the list of names on your desk. I thought that it might be better sooner rather than later."

"Yeah," Kuu said nervously as he nodded to himself, "this evening sounds good, yes, I think I can take this evening off," he said as he tried to figure out what the schedule was for the restaurant. He wanted to be there with Kuon when he went to speak with somebody. He didn't want for his son to feel that he had to face the world alone any longer.

"I can go by myself," Kuon tried to tell him but Kuu stared at him uneasily. "I can do this," he promised him and Kuu shifted.

He nodded feeling that he wanted to argue with Kuon and feeling the need to be with him but he also knew that that twelve year old wasn't there anymore. Kuon was seventeen. He was an adult. His childhood had been taken away from him and Kuu had no way of restoring it for him.

…..

…..

Kuu sat with a blank expression on his face on the bed where his little boy used to sleep. They hadn't changed anything in this room for the three or so months that he had been gone apart from cleaning the dirty clothes and removing a glass. This was the way that his son had left the bedroom. This was his own private room in the house and yet it wasn't going to ever have him in it again.

Kuu knew that he looked awful. Somehow he had managed to complete the ongoing contracts but now that he wasn't doing any work, his roots were showing and the blond of his hair had faded. He also had a beard now that he wasn't taking too much care of. He held onto a teddy bear that the infant Kuon had snuggled up to and looked at the pictures of his friends and family that he had pinned to a corkboard.

There was nothing left of his son anymore. He was gone and though Kuu desperately wanted to fight for the belief that he was still out there somewhere, it might be time to face the facts that Kuon was most likely never going to return.

"I was told that I might find you here, Shuuhei," Lory chuckled as he stood in the doorway but Kuu didn't even turn to look back at him. He was frightened of this room changing and the remains of Kuon disappearing into nothing. He wanted his little boy back. If he could have any wish, it would be to have his little boy back.

"Hey, boss" Kuu said as he stared blankly in front of him.

"Did you want to come and have some tea with Julie and me?" Lory asked as he stepped forward and Kuu shook his head. He looked at the teddy bear that had belonged to his son. He shouldn't have even been a parent. He hadn't protected the young boy. He should have had a friend looking after him if he needed to leave Kuon alone for a night. He shouldn't have put that much pressure on a twelve year old kid.

"Do you think there's any chance of him being alive?" Kuu asked, he had struggled with that question for months but despite his want to find Kuon, nothing had even given him a clue to him being alive. He was wishing on anything and trying to make sense of it. He would kill to get his son back if he was alive. It didn't matter how he would have to do it or who he would have to kill. Kuon would be alive and safe and that was all he wanted. He would even sell his soul to the devil to get it.

"If he was alive then it would probably be in a state worse than death," Lory tried to remind him and Kuu bowed his head.

"I understand that," he said wishing that there was some way of saving his child. "Still, he'd be alive. We could rescue him and then it would be better than him being dead. If we rescued him. I mean, things would be bad for some time but even if he had been maimed or disabled or raped then…then he could recover and he'd be able to live. We'd support him. Julie and I would do anything to support him even if it meant that we had to quit our jobs in order to take care of him."

"You'd do that even if he was disabled?" Lory said uneasily.

"It would be hard to see him in any pain but anything, even if he had a head injury and he was disabled in that way, we would do anything to take care of him. Do you think there is any chance of him being alive?" Kuu asked with shining eyes.

"No," Lory hesitated and Kuu shivered, "No. I don't think there is."

…..

…..

Kuu had to know for sure why someone he had trusted as much as Lory Takarada had lied to him and kept information from him about what had happened to Kuon. Even if there didn't seem to be any hope in his findings, Kuu would have done everything he could to at least find out what had happened to his son and to take revenge on the people who had hurt him.

He had come to LME, ignoring the people who were gossiping about him. He was a man on a mission and despite him disliking the affection that people were directing to him, he had to find out what the truth was. He spotted Lory down a corridor and made his way towards him.

"Shuuhei, this is a surpr-" Lory said before seeing the anger on his old friend's face. He paused and nodded to Ruto who was carefully studying the brunette former-actor.

"I need to know the truth," Kuu said as he felt his breath catch in his throat. "How long did you know that Kuon wasn't dead?" he asked and Lory paused, watching him carefully. "I demand to know the truth. How long a period of time was it? Weeks? Days?"

"Does it matter?" Lory asked and Kuu felt a cold chill sweep through his body. Of course it mattered. He tried to resist making any kind of physical attacks. He didn't want to punch Lory. As disgusted as he was, he needed to figure out the truth. "I was never even sure that he would still be alive."

"You could have told me that there was a chance," he said and Lory shook his head.

"Telling a grieving father that, giving him false hope, that was something that I didn't feel it best to do. To my knowledge, being in the type of situation that Kuon had been in. It was better if you didn't know that information. How would you feel knowing that not only was your son dead but that he had been captured and tortured for months after the incident, how would you feel knowing he had been raped?"

Kuu shook his head, he didn't want to hear this because it honestly didn't matter. He would at least have been able to try to track down his son or hire people to make absolutely certain that he wasn't alive. "At least I would have been able to find out if he was alive," he growled.

He looked at Lory before feeling an anger filling his entire body. He shook his head and walked off, "You're not worth it," he stated as he felt the pain in his heart. Had it been his fault that Kuon hadn't been found? Was he truly the greatest failure of a father?

End of Chapter Seven

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Six

H-Nala, Kaname671, Kris XD, paulagato, The Real Jackie-O