AN: Hope you enjoy. Trigger warning for more suicidal thinking.
Chapter Thirteen – It's Too Late
Soon after they had dropped Kyoko off for her dinner, Kuon had received a call from Kuu that he had been given a lot of food from an old friend that he was visiting and asked if they wanted to share it with him. It was obvious that Kuu was worried about Kuon but they had gone to the slightly larger hotel room at the same hotel that he and Kyoko were at.
Kuon had asked if he could watch the TV to clear his head and Kuu had gone to put the spread of traditional Japanese dishes out. Isabella had helped him with the plates and she was currently playing with her sketchpad and stuffed piggy.
Kuu smiled as she seemed to be drawing a comic using the pig as the main characters in both male and female roles. He laughed at her creativity before looking over at his son. He had trained himself in keeping note of Kuon's behavior and his son didn't seem to be alright.
"What are we watching?" he asked as Kuon stared at the screen where Kanae was starring as the main character's sister. Kuu hesitated as he saw this and then looked back to Isabella who wasn't paying attention. "Isn't this -"
"I'm watching it, Dad," Kuon said as his eyes were glued to the screen.
Kuu reached over very slowly to take the remote. Kuon just didn't look okay, natural wasn't the word that Kuu wanted to use to describe it when it felt more intense. Kuon's eyes were directed towards the screen but he didn't seem to be engaging with it, his body looked as if it were suffering from a terminal illness and the expression and exhaustion on his face were of someone who had just run home a very long way in conditions with a lot of rain and a lot of wind.
To be concise, Kuon Hizuri did not look okay.
"I thought that I would love Kenji, no matter what, but he's just so old now."
"That's what comes from twenty years in a coma," Kanae said with a sigh. "You married Kenji when you were a teenager. Of course he's going to be different. Take it from me, you'd both be better off moving on from one another."
"How did my little sister get so smart,"
"It's not that I'm smart, it's that I want what's best for you, for both of you. Too much time has gone by and he's being selfish in trying to for-"
"Kuon," Kuu said sharply to try to get his son's attention, "Kuon, I hate to treat you like a little kid but I really feel that you need to turn off the TV right now. Give me the remote, there has to be some game show on now, there's always a game show on when it comes to Japanese TV."
"Do you really think Kenji is hurting Naoko, Dad?" Kuon asked as he held the remote closer to him. "He's being selfish, he was the reason that she entered that coma, he was the reason why she got hurt and Rinoa's right," he said as if caught in a trance. "There's too much time. He's hurting her,"
"Kuon…" Kuu said as even Isabella looked around because of the strict sounding way that he had spoken to her dad, "Give me the remote. I know that you're a grown man but you need to give me the remote right now," he said with his hand out and a very severe look in his eyes.
"So-Sorry," Kuon whispered as he looked down and took some deep breaths, "Yes, the remote," he said before handing it to his father who found a random episode of Doraemon which Isabella came to watch. Kuon reached down to his pocket and his phone buzzed, he picked it up and smiled at it as Kuu looked at his own watch.
"Kyoko had a short dinner, maybe she's tired but she's asking me to pick her up," Kuon said as he stood. "Can you do me a huge favor, Dad?" he asked as Kuu watched him trying to determine whether he was acting or not. He didn't seem to be.
"Okay, I can take care of Bella whilst you meet Kyoko," Kuu told him before looking down. He didn't want to be an overprotective father but he wanted to know if what Kuon was saying Kyoko had told him was something that she had actually said. It just seemed far too much of a convenience that Kyoko had texted him before Kuon had had a chance to calm down from the drama that he was watching. He debated on the issue as Kuon got his coat and shoes on.
"You'll be safe right?" he asked before Kuon went over to Bella and hugged her for a little longer than usual, his face somewhat blank. "You'll take care of yourself?" Kuu asked desperately and Kuon nodded.
"Sure, Dad," he said before leaving.
As Kuon looked down at his phone, a sad expression came over his face. There wasn't a text message on there but Rinoa had said it best, Kenji had done nothing but hurt Naoko and Naoko definitely deserved better.
….
….
Kyoko smiled as she sat with Kanae whilst they enjoyed their meal. Kanae had been telling her all about the acting roles that she had had which made Kyoko a little bit envious of her. The younger woman definitely wasn't regretting her decision to step back from acting so that she could fulfill the duties of a loving wife and mother but she did wonder how her career would have changed in the past six years.
"You should consider staying here," Kanae said with a slight pout, "The idea of going to America when you've always been planning on living –"
"Kuon's really excited about his new role," Kyoko told her with a laugh, "I know that it might sound as if I'm going to follow my prince again and that I might be doing a lot for his benefit instead of going out independently and getting roles but Kuon is so much different than Sho."
"What's his role again?" Kanae said with a softer look, "Captain America or something?"
"The Green Arrow, he's not as well known but I want to read the comic books that Kuon has. I think that because it has a lot of acting but he's a generally good guy that it will match Kuon very well. I love when he's doing work that he enjoys because - well, he just has a lot of positive energy," Kyoko smiled as she thought about when they were just married and Kuon had had a role that he loved. He was always so supportive of her and so loving when it came to her that she wanted to make sure he was acknowledged as well.
"Kuon's given up a lot for me over the years, I know that if I asked to stay in Japan that he'd uproot both his and Bella's lives to do it but this is about what's best for us as a family," Kyoko said before taking a sip of her drink. "I really hope that I'm not too young for him and his friends."
"Aren't Americans into that though?" Kanae asked as she ate another bite of her salad, "Older men being with younger women."
Kyoko shrugged with a slight laugh, "So, I'll be his younger woman. He's the same Kuon but with an older body, he's still him underneath all of the layers," she said before her phone buzzed and she frowned. This was a temporary phone that they had bought that day for when she was still in Japan but there weren't a lot of people who would be calling her.
"I'm sorry, Moko," Kyoko said as she took the phone out and her eyes widened a little. "Kuu-sama?" she asked herself as she read the number on the phone. "I'm so sorry, Moko," Kyoko said as she stood and bowed to her. "Is it okay if I take this? I know that Kuu is aware I'm at dinner and he wouldn't call me unless it was an emergency."
Kanae smiled, "Go ahead," she said as Kyoko went to outside the building to take the phone call.
"Father?" she asked as she answered the phone, her expression was one of concern. "Are you okay?"
"Kyoko, can I ask you not to tell Kuon about this phone call?" Kuu asked and Kyoko felt that there was a lot of panic hidden in his voice. Had something happened? Had she done something that upset Kuon that he would only be comfortable telling his father about?
"Sure," Kyoko said as she sat down on a nearby bench.
"Did you text Kuon to come and meet you?" he asked as Kyoko paused and looked at the ground confused.
"No, it took us a while to get seated and then the order took a while to prepare but I'm still at the restaurant," Kyoko said as she wondered why Kuu would be saying that. She had a flash of her dream in her head, Kuon taking the hand of another woman and running off to be with her instead. She shook her head. No, Kuon wouldn't be doing that, she had to trust more in his character than her own insecurities.
"Thank you, please call me if you see him" Kuu said before hanging up on her and Kyoko looked in shock at the phone. She felt an odd twist in her stomach and walked back into the restaurant. She looked down at the table as she tried to figure everything out.
"What was that?" Kanae asked as Kyoko looked ahead of her at her salmon.
"Something's not right," Kyoko whispered, "Something doesn't feel right."
…..
…..
"What are you talking about?" Lory asked a member of the LME security team as they stood in their office. "How on earth could someone breach security? I thought that you were all experts in your job field. Do I actually have to make an audition round for agency security now, that does sound like a fun idea though. Maybe later."
"Sir, we don't know how it happened," one of the men said, "but we do know that there is somebody on the roof. We don't know how they got past security."
"Do you have an eye on whoever got up there?" Lory asked as he rubbed his chin. This person would definitely score themselves an audition form with this flair and love for the dramatics. There were people who would dream of doing those fantastic leaps and bounds across city buildings and he wanted to know how this daredevil got up there.
"We're employing people to go up there right now," the man said again before calling in, "Matsushima," he said on the device, "Do you have -"
"We have an identity," the man responded as Lory raised an eyebrow trying to decide whether these people were really this useless at doing their jobs, "You will never guess who it is. Hizu-"
Before they could get another word out, Lory was headed immediately for the stairs. What was that boy thinking of? What was going on in his head? He had finally got his wife back and now he was acting stupidly enough to go and sit on the roof to think? Lory paused as he started to run and his heart beat faster. There was only one reason Kuon Hizuri would be on the roof that high up without a film crew around him and it was definitely not an act of terrorism.
As Lory made his way up there, he saw Kuon standing on the edge of the very tall building.
"Kuon?" Lory asked with a shaky voice as he gestured to his staff to stand down and just let him approach the man who appeared as if he were about to jump. He saw the blond turn to look at him and noticed how shaky he was. "Hey, I've got some of that tea that you like if you want to come down and talk about it."
Kuon shook his head, his eyes wide and Lory looked at him again. He noticed the way he was closing his eyes and as much as he wanted to run forward and tackle him, Lory knew that Kuon had ways of getting out of that, he was quicker than nearly anyone Lory had ever known.
"It's too late," the blond told him as Lory stood there, slowly making his way towards him so as to not startle him. "It's too late. She'll be happier now, both of them will be happier now."
"How can this make them happy, Kuon?" Lory asked as he raised an eyebrow, "Surely you don't think that Kyoko will be happier without you. Isabella definitely wouldn't be ha-"
"I just want them to be happy and now they can be," Kuon said as he took one foot off the ledge and looked at the busy street below. "I'm sorry that I was such a disappointment to the agency," he said before closing his eyes and letting his body go from the building into the dark abyss below him.
"Kuon!"
End of Chapter Thirteen
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reviewing Chapter Twelve
Ashenvale: Yes, it is very sad
Brennakai: Glad you liked the chapter, Kanae is definitely feeling more at ease with the past now
KrisXD: I hope that the emotion in this chapter wasn't too much
Ktoll9: Aww, that's such a cute analogy
Paulagato: Well, we'll have to see the outcome of those results.