Kuon 13 – The Parents of a Monster
Mom is looking over me and I have the feeling that I'm not human any longer. I wonder if it was just my imagination, my wanting to be human that led me to imagine it but Mom still loves me. She still wants to take care of me and it's obvious in the way that she's looking at me.
"Always, he's always going to be my little boy, my son. I'd never be one to turn him away," she says with so much heart in her words that it's very comforting. I reach a hand out but then place it down again. I'm just so glad that she's willing to accept me and love me.
"That's good," I laugh and see my mother step back to give me some room. Kyoko takes a step back as well and reaches her hand out to help me up. I take it and see that she's turned herself in her new form so that the blue of our hands is the same. I look at my mother as she smiles sadly.
"You look perfect for each other," she says and I know she's trying to mean it in a kind way. I guess with what happened to us, our new forms do compliment one another. I look down and then quickly turn to Kyoko. I make it so that my tail is wrapped around her waist and she smiles as she looks at it playfully and plays with the part at the end shaped like a triangle.
"It's cute," she says as she strokes it and looks at me. "Julie-san, we don't mean to scare you," Kyoko says and Mom nods as she takes both of us in. The damaged souls, the blue monsters.
"You're not scaring me but my heart is breaking at what those monsters are making you endure," Mom says with her hands at her sides in fists. I can see that she's not judging us but it is making her sad to look at us. I don't know how to resolve that. Mom moves forward and she wraps her arms around me, pulling me into a hug. "Kuon, no matter how much your outside changes, I'm still your mother, I will never forgive you if you forget that."
"I won't, Mom," I promise her and she smiles as she kisses my cheek. She reached for my tail and gently runs her fingers down it, I don't want to tell her that it activates some nerve cells in my bottom. "I need to find you some clothes that accommodates this," she says as she gently turns it. She's being extremely careful with this new body part. "It's not hideous," she tells me, "It's kind of cute actually but it'll probably hurt if it's always underneath the fabric of your pants, it needs to move around a little."
I look at her in surprise, "You think it needs to move around?"
"I do, I think that you'd have more comfort that way," she places a hand on my cheek, her fingers feeling the fur and she smiles weakly. "I still love you, my little Kuon," she tells me.
Kyoko walks over to the table in the kitchen and pulls out the chair, gesturing for me to sit down. I walk over and take the seat that she's offering and she turns to face me. "I think that you might be able to transform, right now for a short time but then you'll get the same power as me, I hope so anyway."
I look at her. What is she talking about? I didn't have that power before. I see the conviction in her eyes and sigh, as I try to think about my old self I see my blue fur turn into flesh-colored skin and I pause. It's getting hard to do more than just my arm. How did Kyoko learn this so easily?
I sigh and let my arm go back to blue. Kyoko reaches out and I look into her eyes.
"We'll work on it together, okay?" she encourages me. She squeezes my hand again before putting her other hand over it, "I love you," she says softly and I nod.
"Love you too," I tell her.
Mom sighs and we both look at her, she shakes her head, "I'm just trying to figure out what would be the best way of getting revenge on those assholes," she says and I smile whilst looking down. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll think of something."
….
….
I feel nervous as I keep turning my arm back and forth from the blue furry arm to the regular human arm, I've managed to get down to my fingers and turning those normal again but it's very slow, it's moving far too slowly. Maybe this was because Kyoko was in that forced coma, her cells probably could settle a bit more. I feel someone beside me and sigh before hearing a voice.
"Hi, darling," Mom says and I look at her, "Do you mind if I sit here with you?" she asks and I smile, moving to the side as I sit on the bench in a secluded part of the back yard. "How are you feeling?"
"Would you mind if I tried to swim?" I ask her and Mom blinks.
"What do you mean, darling?" she asks as she looks at me, tilting her head to the side, "I'm sure that your fur will get a little matted but we have towels and a hair dryer, it'll be okay."
"And if I leave fur in the pool?" I ask as I bow my head and Mom hugs me.
"That doesn't matter okay, if you want to swim then you can do it. We can see how your fur reacts to water," she put her hand on my wrist and smiles. It's weird hearing her say that. Hearing her just admit that I have fur and that I'm more of an animal than her son.
"Mom," I say and I look at her to see her just nod in response. I shake my head, I don't want to say anything that will upset her, I don't feel as if that's my place any longer. I can't upset a higher lifeform and that's what I'm supposed to think of her as, right? A better life form and myself just this disgusting animal.
"Darling, whatever happens I want you to try to be happy," she tells me. She looks down, "Maybe after some time you'll have the same powers as Kyoko, you'll be able to take on a new form to act on screen but if that never happens then you're still my son and you're still your father's son."
I sigh, I don't know what she believes but I don't think that Dad is going to be able to stop people questioning his career if I am seen in this way. I have to hide away. For his sake, I have to hide away. For Kyoko's sake the media can't know. I know that I want to protect her but I don't want her to get attacked, she needs to be protected.
"Kyoko and you can make it through anything," Mom adds as if she has now gained the ability to read my mind, "Remember that, remember that you can rely on her," Mom tries to remind me and I'm not so sure that's true anymore. Still, I have to try. I have to keep looking forward, thinking that things will be better.
"Maybe I won't go swimming," I tell her and Mom nods, her eyes glued on me. I know she thinks that something is wrong and yes something is wrong but it seems that in her mind there is something else that she can't tell me. I wonder if that's the fact that I'm a freak. "I think I need to go somewhere," I tell her and she eyes me suspiciously but even though she wants to know, I can't tell her where I am going. It might be one of the safest places but I need to talk with him. He's my father after all.
I close my eyes and vanish, appearing in my regular apartment and fortunately Dad is there looking over paperwork with some noodles in a bowl beside him. I don't know how to approach him and so I jump up but find that I can stick to the ceiling. This is something new, something different.
I stay above him for a while, watching him. He seems so much older. I know that in the entertainment industry, aging seems to be slower but Dad…he doesn't seem to be doing okay and I think that I'm the main reason for that. He looks at the paperwork again and underlines something before his body shakes.
At this point I drop down, I want to make him feel better again. He blinks before smiling at me.
"I should remember that you can do that now," he says as he tries to cover the paperwork but I've seen it. I know that it's from the hospital, I know that it's plans about what they did to me and that he's trying to get this settled in his mind for the lawsuit. I wonder if he's found out something about me that I don't know. Maybe I'm more werecat than mutant.
"There's a lot that's different now," I tell him and he sighs, "there's also a lot that I have to thank you for," I see him look at me and there's guilt and sadness in his eyes. I don't like seeing him like this but I know that it's something that Dad sometimes has going on underneath his happy-go-lucky behavior. I think that's where I learned the Japanese gentleman's smile from to hide my anger, Dad just tries to shake it off by doing something fun.
It makes me wonder what he did, if anything, when I was gone. I don't want to think that my departure from his life screwed up what he had.
"Kuon, you don't have to thank me," he tells me as he looks into my eyes. He looks around before putting a hand on mine, his fingers stretch over my fur. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you. If you need somewhere to stay then come back to America and stay with me. I'm sure that you don't need to rely on air travel anymore."
"Dad," I say slowly and he nods, I'm starting to see the depression in his eyes, it's something that is frightening to me. "If I…if I were to lose my mind, become the animal that I look like," I say and Dad sighs. He bows his head. "If that happens, I want you to get me locked up, get me killed or euthanized."
"I can't do that," he tells me and I watch him. He's always been a truly strong man inside who I have always looked up to as my hero. Today is no different. He is still my hero. "If that were to happen to you then I would still risk my life to protect you. Your mother is the same. Plus, I'm sure that since it's you underneath, you can be domesticated," he tries to joke and I know that it's more than just a throw away line.
"Like you tried to domesticate me when I was fifteen," I sigh and Dad stands, he walks over to me and puts his hands firmly on my shoulders.
"Kuon, if I did anything wrong when you were young I apologize but don't think that you're unimportant to me. I would give up acting for you, I care about you and that means more than the outside. I want to do right by you with this case because…" he looks at me with a high level of severity in his eyes, "I already failed to protect you. You being this way…part of it is my fault."
End of Kuon 13
Thank you for reading
Thank you reviewers of Kyoko 14
Erza Tsuruga, ktoll9, paulagato
Response to Reviews
Kuon is definitely showing some stupidity in this fic but he's confused and his mind has a lot of turmoil. Kuon will have to figure out how to control his body to change it. Thank you for all of your support