Corn, You're My Hero

Chapter One – You Always Protect Me, Corn

Kyoko could hear the rain coming down outside of the ryokan. It had been two years since she had met Corn and he hadn't come back to her during that time. She still had his stone though. Whenever she needed to cry she would go off somewhere quiet and just hold onto the stone and talk to him. She kept it close to her heart. She really wanted to stop thinking of her mother and the way that she left her alone. She held tighter to the stone and smiled, "You always protect me, Corn."

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"You always protect me, Corn," Kyoko said in her sleep as her husband gently tried to wake her up. Kyoko sat up and turned to Kuon to see that he had parked the car in the garage below LME to let her out. She was going to be talking to Sawara-san about a new show that wanted her and some other acting opportunities. She was said to be the actress who represented Japan whereas she was married to an international Academy Award winning actor who resided in Japan. Kuon couldn't have the mantle of Japan's actor because he didn't work within Japan all of the year (although he still took Japanese dramas and movies if they interested him) and he wasn't technically Japanese as he had mostly American blood.

He laughed as she woke up and winked to her, she blushed as she looked into those emerald eyes of his. He was so dreamy and he was hers. He was her precious husband. Kyoko smiled as she realized that once again. They had been dating since just before Kyoko was eighteen. He had proposed to her the New Years Eve following her nineteenth birthday. They got married in January when she was twenty. Now, two years later and the twenty-two-year-old Kyoko was gazing at her twenty-six-year-old husband. They had both been able to get their dreams including the dream of finding someone they loved who understood them.

Kuon winked at her as Kyoko's back straightened, "I will always protect you. Glad I'm doing it in your REM cycle too," he told her and Kyoko blushed again. She hadn't meant to be sleep talking but it wasn't a bad thing to say. She trusted her husband.

"You should go or you'll be late for the modelling shoot," she told him before brushing her hand through the golden strands which only she got to touch in that affectionate manner and kissed him on his lips before pulling back. "You'll meet me here after the shoot? If possible, I'd like to see how Maria is doing with her new school so don't worry if the shoot runs over."

Kuon nodded. He had thought that he was going to be working full-time in the US when he was this age and he had tried to do a long distance relationship before but he had missed Kyoko far too much. As Kyoko was about to close the door after getting out, Kuon heard a strange buzzing and a heavy clanking. He got out of the car as Kyoko watched him confused and then went to where there was a gas line. He put a hand to it and frowned. It felt hotter and heavier for some reason but he didn't know why, he wasn't an engineer or a mechanic but it gave him a feeling of deep shock as if he were faced with a premonition that something bad would happen.

"Kuon?" Kyoko laughed as she saw a work crew pull up. "What are you doing? I don't think that you're supposed to touch that," she told him. She saw a strange blue light come from the pipe and she quickly rushed over. Electricity? Was Kuon going to get electrocuted right in front of her? "Come on," she said quickly, "Don't touch that."

"What are you doing?" one of the workmen said and Kuon turned.

"Something didn't seem right with the tubing," Kuon gestured and the men all looked between one another.

The leader of the team spoke up again, "Don't worry, Mr. Hizuri. We've done this a countless number of times, we know what we are doing." Kyoko gestured for Kuon to come back to the car and he turned back to look at the men with a troubled expression before sighing and went to join Kyoko.

"I'll see you once you've finished with your shoot," she tried to reassure him before hearing his labored breathing, she put her hand to the back of his neck and felt it hot and sweaty. "Kuon?" she asked with a tilt of her head. "Do you want me to drive you to the hospital?"

"No. I'm fine. I'm fine," he told her quickly before hugging her again and for some reason, Kyoko felt like he was holding her for the last time. "I'll see you soon," he smiled before getting into the car. Kyoko had a bad feeling about this. She put her hands to her chest and held her necklace, a pink and white gold necklace in the shape of a heart that Kuon had bought for her as well as her locket that had a picture of him on one side and the two of them on the day of their wedding on the other. She knew that it was either childish or old fashioned to wear such a locket but it meant that even when he was filming overseas, she still had his strength with her.

xXxXxX

Kyoko could hear a strange cracking as she sat opposite Sawara-san in the office. She had never been transferred into the actors section of LME despite being called the top actress in Japan, apparently the president felt it ironic or something. She heard a buzzing but looked around trying to work out if it might be coming from the lights or the radiator. She felt nervous but tried to calm herself down.

"I would recommend this one though," Sawara told her as he held up a script. "It would be perfect for you especially since it's the hottest new thing right now within the acting world. Now, they have a couple of people they are considering for the female love interest but they are hoping to get your husband to be the male -"

I'll take it," Kyoko said eagerly. It had been eleven months since she had last acted across from Kuon in a drama and that was one where she was a lead detective despite being a woman and he had been the red herring of the murder episode. His character had been nerdy and insecure around women and it was adorable to have seen him wearing glasses so often. The only problem with that role was that they requested he dye his hair brown so he fit more with the others.

Kyoko loved his blond diamond dusted hair. Ren Tsuruga may have been gorgeous and looked ultra cool and had her fall for him but natural Kuon looked so much better. Kyoko heard another rumble and she looked at Sawara, "Is something wrong?" she asked as she saw him look around nervously.

"Hold right there," he said before picking up the phone, "It's most likely an earthquake. We're prepared for that of course but maybe you should take cover," he told her. Kyoko nodded before Sawara looked at the phone again. "It's dead. The line's dead," he said before bowing to Kyoko. "I'm sorry. I'm going to head into the hallway where I get better service, please wait here," he told her and Kyoko nodded again.

All of a sudden the power went out and Kyoko could hear a thumping before the smoke alarms started to go off. What was happening? She stood but felt herself pushed forwards and she rolled onto her side before getting to her knees. If this was an earthquake then she needed to take the stairs because she didn't want to be trapped in a burning elevator. She reached for her bag and her phone before also taking the script in front of her. She walked into the hallway and saw crowds of people heading towards the main staircase.

Kyoko tried to merge with the people coming towards her but knew that the staircase may get blocked. There was a special exit path that Kuon had once shown her during a date and sometimes they still used it when it seemed the easier way to get home. Kyoko knew that people most likely weren't allowed to use it but Kuon had special permission….or the president just turned his head when Kuon took advantage of it.

As she neared the bottom floor, she realized that the smoke was becoming thicker the nearer she came to the exit. She tried to cover her mouth with her sleeve so that she wasn't fighting with it so badly. As she reached the secret exit, she pulled but found that the door had been locked. She froze. The smoke was becoming worse and she felt that she couldn't breathe. She needed to go back up but as she looked to the stairs, she heard an explosion and felt the building shake around her. She needed an exit.

Terrified, she tried to get out of the way of the smoke and then she saw the breaking of the glass on the small window before the door was pushed down and came crashing towards the wall. She tried to breathe but at this point she couldn't stand, there was too much smoke in her -

She saw a familiar person enter. This person was wearing a fire resistant hoody with the head drawn low and a mask on but she could see those emerald eyes that told her she was safe. "Put this on," he said as he looked to her, his eyes showed a mix of relief and fear and Kyoko immediately put the mask over her own face. "Okay, take my hand," he instructed.

Kyoko attempted to get up and onto her feet but it was hard, she struggled so much that Kuon picked her up, holding her close to him. He started to move towards the exit and Kyoko could see that people were still fleeing. She put a hand on her purse and the script that she still had. She should have let those things go. As she heard the walls rumble again, she clung harder to Kuon and then saw brick crumble in front of them. The fire had spread so wide and the foundation was crumbling.

"Yashiro," Kuon said behind the mask as they saw the final people making their way to the outside. Kuon rushed forwards as there was another sound of the building falling down. Kuon placed Kyoko into Yashiro's arms and Kyoko noticed that he was holding back a piece of metal larger than himself fall down on them. No. This was craziness. He should be the one holding her. Another barrier fell down between them and Kyoko's brain was scrambling to come up with the truth. It was moments later when she finally heard a loud explosion and the building seemed to completely disappear in the flame. The structure of the building fell down onto the ground, burying so much underneath it.

"Kuon!" Kyoko screamed wishing that he would take her out of Yashiro's arms. "Kuon!" she screamed again and looked around but it was hard to see and even harder to continue speaking as the black ash and smoke settled on the ground.

….

…..

It was fourteen hours later and Kyoko had found that Kuon had parked his car on the street a few blocks away and then had run the distance to the agency building and even though he had left his door unsecured and easy for someone to steal, nobody had. Kyoko had found that from walking around but she had quickly come back here. This was the position where she had kneeled hoping for a chance to start her acting career. This was the place where she had last seen her husband. She knew that there was only a percentage of a percentage of a chance of Kuon having survived but she wanted to cling onto that.

She watched as the people cleaning the wreckage moved another pile of bricks aside and on the other side, a machine was scooping up rubble. She looked around and felt her heart break before she ran over to them. They were moving to the area where Kuon had last been seen.

"Ma'am," one of the police officers tried to call to her and Kyoko froze as she heard the crunch of broken bones under her foot. She looked down and froze, her heart pounding in her chest as she saw that she had stepped on Kuon's corpse. She screamed as she fell to her knees. Parts of his body were hard to see through but you could and then other parts were an ashy black or even white and black where his bones had been burned.

Kyoko put a hand over her mouth to stop a sob as she stared at the remains of her husband. She looked up and saw that there was still something on his hand. His wedding ring. She reached for it but a police officer grabbed her shoulder.

"We need you to back away from the crime scene, ma'am," they said before staring at the body. Somehow almost a quarter of his face hadn't been damaged meaning easy identification. "Oh my god. We've got the corpse of Hizuri Kuon over here. We need to get this black bagged."

Kyoko struggled to breathe but she protectively put a hand on his skeleton. "Don't touch him," she whispered as she felt the deep loss inside of her. It wasn't as if Kuon was supposed to be here anyway. He had come to collect her from work. He had died saving her. She wanted them all to get away from him. He was the best thing to ever happen to her and she wasn't ready to say goodbye to him.

As her hand remained on his skeleton, she saw people coming towards him and then felt something strange, her hand was getting warmer and there was something firm underneath. She looked up to see some faces looking shocked and in disbelief and others who looked terrified. She turned back and saw something different under her hand and she flinched, pulling back for a moment but as she saw that blond hair and saw the green eyes blink and open, she couldn't hold back and she pulled him onto her lap and into her arms.

She stopped as she brushed some of the ash from his hair. Kuon was alive but he was no longer the Kuon Hizuri that she had married. In her arms was Corn the fairy prince just as she remembered him….when he was ten. He coughed and looked around before grabbing his ring before it fell off the tiny finger. He groaned before collapsing into Kyoko's chest.

"You're safe," he said in a sweet manner and Kyoko paused as she blinked at him but wrapped her arms around him protectively. Did he know what had happened? She saw people attempting to get closer and glared at them keeping them back. Had they all seen this transformation?

"Kuon," Kyoko asked gently, "Do you remember who I am?"

"Yeah," he coughed again before pushing a hand through his own hair, "I don't think I have a concussion but I don't understand how I'm alive. You're Kyoko, my wife. We've been married for two years. My name is Kuon Hizuri but a lot of the country still refers to me as Tsuruga Ren," he told her. He said all of this in the sweet voice and tone of a young boy. Kyoko pulled him even closer to her feeling more protective of him. She didn't know what was happening either but they weren't going to take him from her. She noticed that there were reporters even coming closer to them and she glared. She managed to find the strength to pick Kuon up in her arms and tried to move him so his naked body wasn't too badly exposed.

"Kyoko?" Kuon asked still feel exhausted, he blinked up at her not sure what was happening or why his perception made her feel so big. "Why can't I feel my legs?" he asked despite the fact that he was kicking them trying to reach the ground. Even though ten-year-old's weighed a lot, Kyoko managed to pick Kuon up in her arms and looked to him.

"There's a lot to talk about and I'm not sure I'm able to explain any of it but I love you, okay?" she asked before kissing his forehead and pressing her forehead against his. She moved him to her chest so that his tiny head could rest on her shoulder. He didn't understand any of this. She was holding him? This was the smoke affecting him, right because any other explanation didn't make any sense.

End of Chapter One

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated

Author Note

So, I have the feeling that I have too many Skip Beat fics and fics in general but I always want to try writing new things. I also have a new calendar of fics to update so hopefully I'll be able to keep to that.

Along with other fics, I think I'm going to update this one more often depending on how many people want to see it