AN: I really do want to work on some other fics for you guys as well but between trying to pass one of my classes and doing my work shifts, it gets to be somewhat tiring so thanks for bearing with me.

Chapter Twelve – Behind a Smile

Kuon laughed to himself as he put the spoon down in the ice cream and looked behind him at the blond who had been his rival for a while before he had moved. This guy hadn't really entered his mind for about five years or so but of course he'd pop up now.

"Hello, Fuwa," he said as he lifted an eyebrow, "Tracked me down? Should I say that I'm honored you're so interested in talking to me. I thought you got replaced by some newer acts in these years since we've not met."

Sho stared at him and looked away. "Haven't been replaced, it's just their music's different," he said and Kuon nodded slowly as he gave him a pitying look. Sho had seemed to sink in the ratings for music even before Kyoko's passing. He had struggled to get with the new times, what was considered popular, but he hadn't been able to. He still released albums but the people who followed him were older than the youth demographic that the media concentrated on.

"Right," Kuon nodded, "That's exactly what's missing. Well, I don't want to ruin the third day that I get to spend with my wife so would you please screw off?" he asked and instead Sho took a seat and Kuon rolled his eyes.

"You think I don't know who you really are underneath that façade? I read all of the news articles and watched the documentaries about you. I know who you were in America." Sho told him and Kuon gave a dramatic sigh.

"Let's say that you're the kind of stalker that I definitely wasn't hoping to attract," he replied. He looked up at the sky and smiled, "and so what? I have a past that you don't because I've taken more risks than you have. I've learned how to -"

"And that thing three years ago?" Sho said as Kuon froze and his back straightened, "I bet that you haven't told Kyoko about that but your parents paid to keep it from spreading. Still, there was that one blog post."

"Is that how closely you've been stalking me?" Kuon said as he gave an over-dramatic shiver, "Now I'm feeling goosebumps," he said before seeing Kyoko come back with Isabella and her face turned to one of shock.

Sho also moved awkwardly as he studied this woman who he had thought had died. This was weird, seeing her so young but the age difference between her and her husband might allow him to swoop in and snatch her off of him especially after his divorce. He reached out to touch her but she side stepped so he wouldn't be able to touch her. "Ky-Kyoko?"

"[Why don't you give Daddy his drink?]" she said as Isabella came up to Kuon with a small black coffee. Kyoko eyed Sho carefully before she put down a vanilla shake and a strawberry shake. "Sho, wow, you've definitely aged," she laughed weakly. "How are you?"

"He's great," Kuon replied before Sho could get any words out of his mouth. "Maybe we should finish our ice creams and get far away from annoying bugs."

"Uh…sure," Kyoko nodded as she didn't take her eyes off of the twenty-eight-year-old who was making her feel more conspicuous. "Yeah…"

"[Is this your friend, Daddy?]" Isabella asked as she studied Sho, she grinned before bowing, "Hi, I'm Isabella Hizuri, it's nice to meet you."

Sho rolled his eyes, "I guess even psychopaths have kids these days," he said and Kyoko's eyes snapped open. Unable to control herself she put her hand up as if to slap him but then controlled herself and put it down.

"As interested as I am to talk and find out what's going on in your life," Kyoko said honestly, "I don't let anyone talk that way about my husband in front of our daughter. I've never been able to. I'd very much like you to leave," she said as Sho opened his mouth.

"I want to talk to you too" Sho told her honestly before leaning in closer to her, "If you had heard what he has done," he said as Kuon shifted again and looked down. He hadn't meant for that to have happened. He hadn't meant to relapse like that and he knew how much it had scared Isabella that he had done that but the idea of turning thirty without Kyoko by his side had been the cause for a string of decisions he would regret.

"You make it sounds like I murdered somebody," Kuon said bitterly as he drank a sip of coffee.

"Tried to," Sho said, "According to that doctor's blog page,"

Kyoko looked between them and then took a deep breath, her back straightening, "Whatever Kuon did or didn't do, it doesn't ma-"

Ignoring Kyoko, Kuon looked at his rival, "Suicide is different than murder," he said as Kyoko looked at him terrified. She hadn't expected that and she felt as if her ground had shaken as Isabella had tears in her eyes. What had been going on? She wrapped her arms around Bella.

"Leave," Kyoko whispered as her eyes showed that she wasn't willing to negotiate about this. She didn't want to talk about it when it obviously upset people. She glared at Sho again, "Did you lose your hearing?" she asked as her anger came out in her eyes, "Leave."

Sho opened his mouth before shrugging and walking off and Kyoko saw the guilt and shame that Kuon had been carrying around with him. She reached out for his hand and held it whilst looking up at him lovingly, one arm around Isabella who was shaking.

"Hopefully you won't feel like that again," she told him not wanting to hear such an upsetting story but if he wanted to tell her, she would give him her full attention and listen carefully to each word that came out of his mouth. Kuon looked to her sadly and tried to smile through the pain.

"Thank you," he said slightly paler than before.

…..

…..

Bella didn't know who that man had been when she and her daddy were looking at dresses the other day. She knew that the man was speaking Japanese to him but she hadn't practiced enough to really catch the words. The dark look on his creepy face gave her shivers and she had caught the words Ren and Tsuruga which were names her daddy had used in Japan and then the words Kyoko and mother and dead. So, this was a Japanese man who looked like a demon talking about Tsuruga acting bad which meant her mother wasn't there.

The four-year-old sighed as she pushed her back to the wall of the school building. Her daddy always met her on time or he would tell her that someone else was meeting her. He hadn't said that he wouldn't be meeting her but he wasn't here. The four-year-old smiled awkwardly up at her preschool teacher.

"Where's Daddy?" the teacher asked in a soft tone as she approached the young girl. "Maybe he got caught up in a fun project or maybe he's doing such amazing scenes at his work that -"

There was a knock on the door which made the teacher stand and go over.

"Daddy?" Isabella asked as she looked up with hopeful eyes but then froze as she saw her grandfather standing there. He didn't look well and it was scary. It was like in those sad movies and Isabella didn't like it. She loved when she got to spend time with her granddad but she had a feeling that things weren't okay.

"Mr. Hizuri," the teacher said as she studied him, "Is something wrong? Isabella, look, your grandpa came."

"Hey, Bella," Kuu smiled to the little girl as he looked extremely troubled.

"Grandpa, where's Daddy?" the little girl asked.

"Let's go home, Bella. Daddy gave me the special job of looking after you today," he said before taking some chocolate from his pocket, "Grandma bought me this from when she did her modelling shoot in Germany. I thought we could share it," he tried to persuade the little girl. Kuu turned to the teacher once Isabella had run to take his hand and put her coat on. "Thank you so much for staying with her," he thanked the woman. "It's…the situation has been handled so I hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience on you."

"Oh, don't worry about it, we have lots of parents who get tied up at work and Kuon is always coming here with a lot of positive energy. I know it's hard to do that sometimes as a single father," she commented and Kuu nodded.

"For the next couple of days, it's going to be either myself or my wife who meets Bella here," Kuu tried to inform the teacher. "Thank you again." He grinned to Bella, "Come on, sweetheart, let's go home. We can cook together and then we can play with your princess costumes," he said as Isabella nodded and said goodbye to her teacher.

…..

…..

"Are you two going to be okay?" Kyoko asked as Kuon and Isabella walked her to the restaurant where she and Kanae were going to be having dinner. Kuon had told Isabella that her mother needed time with her friend and that the two of them would see her later. Isabella had asked to go to dinner with Kyoko but Kuon had told her that sometimes two friends needed to have a private meal.

"We're going to be just fine," Kuon told her with a smile and Kyoko kissed his cheek.

"Forget about what that idiot said. I love you, Corn, and remember," she whispered, "you once said that I knew you better than anybody. I still want that to be the case even with all this time between us," she said as Kuon nodded slowly.

"I love you too," he said before seeing Kanae there and dropped into a bow which Isabella copied. "Kotonami-san," he said as she stared at him and shifted uncomfortably.

"You're the woman Mommy calls Moko, right?" Isabella asked with a wide smile. Kanae opened her mouth to say something but Isabella continued to speak in Japanese, "Daddy told me lots and lots of stories about how amazing you are. He told me that you and Mommy had good adventures together and you worked in the Love Me section. Daddy always speaks highly of you."

Kanae looked at Kuon in shock, completely taken aback by that, "He…does?"

"Yeah, he says how important Mommy was-is to you and you are to Mommy," Isabella continued as Kanae had a look of guilt over her face.

"He does?" she asked and looked at the husband and father who had come over and taken the small seven-year-old's hand. "You're Isabella, right?"

"Yes," Kuon nodded, "Bella and I were just walking Kyoko here. It's nice to see that you're doing well, Kotonami-san," he said formally before smiling to his daughter. "Why don't we wish Mommy has a good meal and go find some food for ourselves?"

"Okay," Isabella said, "It was really nice to meet you."

Kuon smiled before kissing Kyoko's cheek, "Call me if you want us to meet you," he told her before grinning to Kanae. "Have a good meal." He turned to leave and Kanae felt herself twitch as he and Isabella started to walk away.

"Kuon!" Kanae called out which caused the blond to turn and look at her as he stopped. "About-you know, I'm really…I didn't…I mean I…"

Kuon laughed softly, "It's okay. I understand," he nodded. "The past is in the past and I don't hold it against you. Have a good meal."

"You too," Kanae said as she looked shocked that he had just seemed to move on from how cruel she had been to him.

…..

…..

A few days later, Isabella came home to see her Daddy's shoes by the front door. She hadn't seen her father for about three days and her grandfather had said something about seventy-two hours. She didn't know what that meant but Grandma had told her that it was about three days so it was good that her dad had come back.

Isabella rushed excitedly to his room before Julie could stop her.

When Isabella knocked on the door, it felt strange not to get a response but she pushed the door open anyway. She froze as she saw that her father had cocooned himself in his bed. He was wrapped up in the blankets and covers and she couldn't see him. She frowned. Her dad would usually welcome her back with open arms and he would tell her she looked beautiful and that she was intelligent and kind and he would try to find something for them to eat.

Her dad always brought a lot of happiness into the house. This wasn't like him.

"Daddy?" Isabella asked. When she didn't get a response, she climbed up on the bed next to him and put a hand on the lump in the bed. She saw him move a little and then roll over to look at her. Bella pulled back as she saw his face. Her daddy didn't cry but it looked as if his eyes were red with bags under them. Her daddy always had a happy expression in front of her but it was as if he hadn't smiled in years. She didn't know why her daddy looked so sad and tired.

"Hi, Bella," he whispered as if the words were painful for him to say. He reached out to her and Bella noticed that his wrist had a lot of bandages on it. She stayed frozen as her father tucked a strand of hair behind her ear looking like a ghost. "I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you," he apologized as Bella blinked. This didn't look like her normal daddy. "I should have been there for you."

"Bella," Julie said as she stood at the doorway, "Your daddy needs some rest, why don't we play together?" she asked as Bella looked between her father and her grandmother.

Bella looked at her dad again, he didn't seem right, all of this didn't seem right. She threw her arms around the clump that was her father's body, "I love you, Daddy," she said as she kissed his cheek and saw her dad give a slight smile.

"I love you too, Bella," he whispered, "I'm so sorry I tried to leave you. I wo-n't do it a-again," he apologized as Julie pulled Bella off the bed and took her hand.

When they were outside and the door was closed, Bella looked at her grandmother. "Why is Daddy sorry? Why was his hand hurt?" she asked before Julie crouched down next to her and brought her close to her body.

"Why don't we pretend that we're in a spa today?" she asked, "Grandma will pretend to give you spa treatment," she said and Bella knew from her face that those questions were not going to be answered.

End of Chapter Twelve

Thank you for reading

Thank you, reviewers of Chapter Eleven

Ashenvale: Well, Bella doesn't hate Kyoko, she just adores Kuon.

Brennakai: I think that we can. Thank you 😊

Kris XD: Well of course, Bella loves her father and I think you were right 😉

Ktoll9: Bella is very creative 😉

Paulagato: That's correct, just like Snow White. Isabella doesn't hate Kyoko though, she just loves her Daddy so much that she doesn't want him taken away from her.

RichkeyZero: Thank you for reading it 😊