AN: Hope you enjoy this chapter 😊 I had a lot of fun working on it.

Chapter Ten – Birthday Gift

Kyoko grinned as she watched her husband sleep. She always treasured these moments when she would wake up before Kuon and she could just admire him and take pleasure in the fact that she had allowed herself to fall completely in love with her Corn. She let her fingers roam his golden hair as the sun made the yellow color shine even more.

This was his birthday. She could celebrate another year in the life of Kuon Hizuri and she could celebrate it beside him.

He was always treating her and she just hoped that she could treat him in the same way and make him feel as special and important as he always made her feel. She slowly and softly placed a kiss on his forehead wondering if that was enough to wake him up. She giggled as she saw those emerald eyes open and in the sunlight turn to the sienna that she always tried to catch a glimpse at.

He turned to her with a grin and reached out, letting his fingers slip her hair behind her ear. "Morning, my princess," he told her as Kyoko kissed him a few times on the lips and smiled lovingly at him.

"Happy birthday, my prince," she said warmly. "You wait right there, I'm going to make you breakfast," she saw a slight flash of fear in his eyes as if he was expecting her to go overboard. Didn't he know her by now or was there still some strange trust issue when it came to food preparation. "Don't worry, I won't make too much. I was thinking that if we have a light breakfast and a snack for lunch, I can spoil you when it comes to dinner, that way you'll actually want to eat dinner with me."

"I always want to eat dinner with you," Kuon laughed as he gazed upon her.

"Yes, but you say that because of the company and not because of the food. Today I really want for you to experience enjoyment in both," she let her hand run down the side of his cheek and then lifted her head as she thought about something. "Kuon, if it's alright to ask -"

"It's alright to ask me anything you want at any time," Kuon interrupted her and Kyoko placed a finger on his lips to gesture for him to be quiet. She lifted it before asking her question.

"Is today MAZE's birthday as well?" she asked as Kuon shook his head with a laugh. "So, when is MAZE's birthday?" she asked, "That information wasn't provided to the public yet."

"It's October 31st," Kuon said as Kyoko rolled her eyes and then closed them. She sighed as a smile came across her lips.

"Of course it is," she said, "You do understand that all of this information is going to make people believe that MAZE isn't a real person."

Kuon chuckled, "If he was, he has a pretty stupid name," he admitted. "The idea of a stage name is that everything about it is fabricated apart from…well the president helped create Ren Tsuruga and because he didn't want me to be alone on my birthday or not have anyone wish me a happy birthday, he said that I was to use my actual birthday."

"I'm glad he did," Kyoko said, "I would have felt upset if your birthday went by every year that you were Ren Tsuruga without anyone caring. Plus, I think I prefer Kuon Hizuri and celebrating his birthday."

"Isn't that why you became Kyoko Hizuri," Kuon hummed and Kyoko kissed his cheek again.

"You just stay in bed whilst I make you breakfast," she said before a thought came to her. He could always make use of her first gift to him whilst she was in the middle of preparations. "I want to give you your first birthday gift," she smiled as she got off the bed and went to her bag. She picked up a square package and handed it to him.

Kuon smiled as he took it and then opened it to find that Kyoko had created a hardback book with a picture of them on the cover and the title that read: "Happy Birthday, My Kuon." He took a look inside and saw that there was a dedication on the front page.

To my Kuon,

Kuon, I just wanted to make this book so you can always be reminded of how much I love you and how grateful I am for your existence. I love you the same way that I know you love me, unconditionally and without limitations. You make my world complete and every single day that I get to call you my husband is a day on which I feel strong, I feel safe, and I feel loved. I'm not afraid to say that though I was terrified of love when I met you the second time, I am proud of my love and keep our love in my heart always.

Again, I love you, your princess

Kyoko

Kuon smiled as he read those words and then read them again with a smile, "I love you," he told her before seeing her eager face for him to see what the book was. He opened it and grinned as he saw that each page had either one or two pictures of them as a couple or a picture of him and also a picture of them as a couple. These had all been taken over the past year and included things from magazines and still pictures from interviews they had both had together as well.

Either to the side, above, or underneath each picture, Kyoko had written one reason as to why she loved him so much that corresponded with what the picture showed. There were more than fifty pages and more than fifty reasons as to why Kyoko's love was so deep.

As he looked through the pages, Kuon turned to his princess. "Thank you," he said as she kissed his cheek.

"Any time you feel that Kuon Hizuri isn't worthy or any time that you feel sad or depressed about anything, I want you to take a look at that book and see that even if you have negative feelings about who you are or what you've been through in the past, I can't keep myself from loving you. You are my Corn. The MAZE to my Mina Ta," she said before stepping away from the bed. "I'll make you some hot tea and breakfast," she said as he looked after her.

This gift was one of the best that she had ever given to him and Kuon knew that as the years had gone by, Kyoko had developed a greater and greater understanding of him.

He heard his phone buzz with a text and smiled as he saw that his parents had wished him a happy birthday. He knew he should be grateful that his life was coming together right now, but he still had doubts about the future. However, he shouldn't let that bother him because as long as Kyoko was a part of what was to come, he could make it through.

…..

…..

Yashiro always knew that when Kuon's birthday came up, it was his duty to be able to locate a place to store the gifts, however usually Kuon would be in Japan and they could sort through them together. Sometimes there would be boxes that Kuon would take back to his apartment to look through later. Before Kyoko had helped him with his insecurities, Yashiro knew that he often felt guilty if he used one gift and not the others especially since he got so much chocolate for Valentines Day.

Kyoko had seen Kuon pick up something with a lot of interest and even check the tag and consider the lasting value of the piece before donating it. Only gifts from close friends and – once he was Kuon rather than Ren – family made the cut, but then she had told him that many fans might have given him the same gift and they would be beyond thrilled that Kuon had used or worn the item that they had given him in public.

He just had to say that he considered all of the gifts important and he wouldn't have offended anyone.

That just made everything even more complicated for the manager. Now things had to be stored. The chocolates were something else, Kuon rarely ate sweet foods and he did only keep those from people he was close to. Kyoko usually made something for him so he would only keep a few confectionary things and those were from people who Yashiro had made a list for.

The chocolates along with anything that there was triple in quantity of would be given as an anonymous donation. The only donations that Kuon put his name on was money and that wasn't because he wanted acknowledgement, it was more that he wanted the charities and organizations to have peace of mind.

Then there was all the Valentine's items that MAZE had received. Somehow whilst Kuon got a lot of different varieties of chocolate, MAZE just got the darkest chocolate and he even had CDs and guitar picks and microphones sent to him. Surely some of these things would be useful. Well, to be honest, all of these items weren't really an annoyance, what they were, however, were items that couldn't be distributed or donated until Kuon was back from his trip.

Yashiro had wondered why Kuon had chosen to have another manager for MAZE until he had found out who he was. Of course, Kuu Hizuri would have a lot of fun with this and he had even offered to help pitch in with the work for Kuon. Yashiro didn't know whether to be offended or thankful. He admired Kuu and in turn he knew that Kuu loved his son and did everything out of that love, but it was getting to be very confusing without the main guy here.

It was whilst he was sorting things into boxes that Yashiro heard the door open and he saw Kanae Kotonami standing there. She was holding up a photo on her phone and Yashiro knew why she was doing so and why she had come to him as soon as she had seen it.

This was MAZE and Mina Ta.

Of course, she would have figured it out, but Kyoko had chosen a really cheesy name and she had styled herself in an over the top manner. Had he really expected anything different from her?

"I was told that I could find you in here, Yukihito," she said as Yashiro turned to her with a smile. He and Kanae had interacted several times but it was always with either Kuon or Kyoko present. He had known her outside of a professional environment though. "You let your client lie to his wife?" she asked.

Yashiro smiled before pointing, "Clearly that's Kyoko so I don't think…"

Kanae sighed, "Yes, I know that's Kyoko. I've been friends with her for a long time, but I don't think it's right that her husband is duping all of Japan because he wants to sing some songs."

"Isn't it an actor's duty to fool the world, Kotonami-san?" Yashiro challenged her and Kanae sighed. "I'm not sure why you're angry."

"I want you to do something for me," Kanae said and Yashiro paused hesitantly.

"It really depends on what that something is," he told her and Kanae looked away.

"Once Kyoko comes back to Japan, I want you to see if she can sing. I mean, what annoys me is she's just going to act like a groupie and not stand in the spotlight, mo."

Yashiro grinned, he had thought about that too. He was glad he wasn't the only one who had that type of experiment in mind.

AN 2:

Thank you again to all the supporters of this fic, I think I've expressed how much it means to me 😊 A special shout out to: Crazy4Animation, daphne121, DreamIdol, and Moon-lit Shadows12. I just want to let you guys know that I do read and think about your comments and if you want to review in your own first language then please do so, I admit that I just feed it into Google Translator though 😊