AN: I am so surprised and so thankful for the popularity of this story. To be honest I wasn't expecting it and it really means a lot to me that so many people followed/favorited/reviewed/and read it. I hope that this chapter will bring enjoyment as well despite (warning) it being pretty sad. Thank you so much for believing in me and supporting me, it means a lot 😊
Chapter Two – At the Hospital
Kuu didn't know what to do anymore. All he could do was stare at his little boy hooked up to machines in the ambulance. He couldn't keep his eyes off of him. He was so pale and the doctors had already said that Kuon had seemed to have lost a lot of blood. Kuu felt his heart break as they stopped abruptly and he saw Kyon's body shake a little due to it. He kept his eyes glued on Kuon and grabbed his hand. "It's okay," he said trying to comfort himself more than the unconscious boy, "Daddy's here. He's going to stay with you," Kuu nervously looked at the doctor. "I can right…go in the emergency room with him? He's not from this country and he hasn't been hurt before this badly. I can -"
The doctor nodded seeing how Kuu was falling apart and was obviously stressing over the possible loss of his only child. "We need you to dis-"
"Anything, just I need to be at his side," Kuu argued as he looked at Kuon. "Kuon has the same blood type as my wife. She's on her way, she can give him blood, right? If he needs it?"
"We can do a blood transfusion at the hospital," the doctor told him, "but I think we have enough in our storage that it shouldn't be a problem." The doctor looked Kuu over as he looked at his little boy on the gurney. He felt so guilty that he wasn't able to keep him safe. He was so terrified that he wouldn't be able to take him home.
As he exited the ambulance, Kuu felt himself die inside a little bit as he saw the flashes of cameras and the words of interviewers. His son was dying and all they wanted was a stupid story for their media outlet.
….
….
Several hours later, Kuu was sitting in the private hospital room where they had moved Kuon. Kuu didn't know what to say, he felt dead inside and the only thing that had brought him relief was that they were giving a high probability that Kuon would pull through. He wanted to be told his son was stable but there was still a chance that he could pass away.
The things that the doctor said about Kuon's condition, the physical therapy, the possible brain damage, the different medications that he could be put on, all of this made Kuu feel as if he was an elementary level student facing the problems of a difficult tax filing status. He felt that there wasn't any happiness anymore. He looked at Julie who was looking at Kuon in exactly the same way that Kuu was.
"If he's…if he's got a disability" Kuu said and Julie looked down.
"Then we research it, we find out what it is, we find the best possible treatment for him," Julie stressed. She looked down, "If his eyesight is gone then we'll teach one another brail so that we can teach him it. If his hearing is gone then you brush up on your sign language since I already have it down."
"And if his mind is…" Kuu suggested only to meet Julie's determined look
"We get him home. We get him the best therapists, we pay the money to the best schools, we find out his limitations and we help him through it. We find out what his passions are and what he can still do and we encourage him in those. If it's so bad that he can't cope without having someone to look after him then I'll put my job on hold so I can take care of him," Julie insisted.
"You have international modelling contracts," Kuu attempted to argue, "I should be the one to stay with him.
Julie looked down, "I don't care," she argued with tears slipping down her cheeks. "I don't care about those. Kuu, we might lose our son. If he's got some kind of brain damage that makes life harder on him then I'm not going to be able to go to work even if I know you're there with him. I've done charity work with those children who had those…conditions. If our son is disabled in that way then I won't let someone else care for him. I don't want anyone to ever laugh at him. He's our Kuon."
Kuu looked down before he heard a very weak and fragile voice, "M-Mom? D-Dad?" the ten-year-old asked. Kuu's eyes widened and he got to his feet, getting to one side of his son and Julie got to the other. He saw those small emerald eyes looking up at him.
"Hey, buddy" Kuu said trying to hide his own pain. He could tell that Kuon was in pain and he couldn't let his son try to hide his pain whilst he had his own on show. "I'll get the doctors," he said before Kuon looked to him.
"D-dad, I can't," Kuon coughed a little and Julie's face turned to one of more concern, "I can't move…" he said and Kuu nodded slowly. The doctors had told him that there was a strong chance of Kuon being paralyzed from the waist down. It had haunted him, but at least he would be alive.
"Just stay calm," Kuu said before looking over at Julie who had wrapped her arms around her son trying to provide a mother's comfort to him. "I'll put in that order for the wheelchair today, we should have it by tomorrow," he told Julie as Kuon bit his lip. "I'll go get a doctor," he said.
Julie sat opposite her son and studied him carefully, she reached out and put a hand on his cheek. "Baby what is it?" she asked as she looked at the part of his head where they had had to shave his hair off to sew up the scar that had been caused by the rock. "Tell me what's wrong," she said. "Please tell me what's wrong, I know how brave you usually are but remember that in the fairytale I used to read you when you were little, even the knight got scared. Then he found the courage to rescue the princess once he understood how it was good to know fear and how without knowing fear you can never be brave."
"I can't move my arms," Kuon told her and Julie froze.
She hadn't expected to hear that and she had to take a moment to pause before she considered what she had heard. She tried not to cry in front of him so she just nodded, "It's alright, baby, maybe it's the medication," she suggested. "They are quite strong dosages for such a small body,"
Kuon nodded slowly and Julie looked at Kuu as the doctor came in to give Kuon another examination. Julie felt her heart burn in her chest and she saw Kuu's alarm in her change since he had left the room.
"My little prince," Julie said as she kissed his head extremely gently, "Daddy and me are going to talk in the hallway for just one moment. You yell if you need us and we'll come right back in," Julie said before Kuu looked at her. He wasn't expecting her to leave Kuon alone so soon.
Once they were outside, Kuu gave Julie a confused look. It was obvious he just wanted to return to Kuon's room. "What was that? Is everything okay?"
"Kuon told me he can't move his arms," Julie said before she pushed her face into her husband's chest. "He's paralyzed Kuu," she sobbed, "My little boy will never run or jump or…" she shook her head and cried into him as Kuu wrapped his arms around her trying not to break down himself, "He's helpless…he hasn't been helpless since he was a tiny baby. What if it's permanent? What if he has to-"
"We have to focus on the fact that he's alive," Kuu told her as he placed his arms on Julie's shoulders and then brought her in for a tight embrace. "He's alive. He's going to get better. He's not dead. Just focus on that."
Kuu stood still and allowed his wife to cry as she held onto him tightly. They only turned when they saw the doctor approach them.
"I assume you've found out that at the time being he's a quadriplegic," the doctor said and Julie nodded, her face hot and red with the tears. "I think right now his arms are just from shock, I think in a couple of days to a couple of weeks he should be moving them again, his legs though…I can't say at this moment if the damage can be reversed. He's also developed a lung infection due to the rain water gathering there. I'd like to do a brain scan to see what the extent of the head trauma is."
"He hit his neck didn't he?" Kuu asked still feeling weak.
"What's the damage to his lungs? Could you talk about what kind of an infection it is?" Julie asked.
The doctor paused, he nodded to Kuu and then turned to Julie. "I would need to run more tests to be conclusive."
"What's your best guess though?" Julie asked, "as a doctor you must have an educated guess."
"Pneumonia," the doctor said with a straight face and Julie nodded trying her best not to shed any further tears.
…..
…..
Kuu knew that one thing Kuon needed was a strong and able father but what Kuu needed was somewhere where he could let out his emotions. He had failed as a father. He had let his son get hurt and he hadn't been able to shield him from the pain that the world inflicted. Already the doctors were saying that he might have injured his brain or he might wake up a completely new Kuon. Kuu hadn't kept him safe, he hadn't helped preserve his innocence.
That was why Kuu was sitting down in the place that Kuon had injured himself and was staring across at the rock which still showed some of his son's blood. He hadn't been able to guard his son and now his son couldn't move his body. He couldn't fly anymore and he might have been able to stop this from happening.
As Kuu sat looking out onto the stream, he heard a small voice calling out the word 'Corn'. He laughed, it was always a little funny hearing how Corn and Kuon sounded very similar. Maybe he was hallucinating though, after all of this time maybe he was just wanting for this all to be a dream so much he was hearing things that weren't there.
Or, that would have been what he had thought had it not been for the young Japanese girl who had come with an umbrella. Kuu blinked before realizing that it had started to rain. He just couldn't feel it any longer.
He looked at the girl who stared at him in shock and looked around. "Sorry…I thought it was…I wanted to see Corn, umm, please don't tell anyone I was here," she said before dropping into a bow. "I don't want to get in trouble with Mother."
Kuu shook his head, "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you. It's okay. Are you with anyone?"
The little girl shook her head, "No. I came to see if Corn decided to stay, he said he was going back to fairyland and we wouldn't be able to see each other anymore, but I really want to see him,"
"So you're Kuon's friend," Kuu said trying to show his kindness, "Kuon's my son. I…" he didn't know how to explain that they would be staying but that Kuon wouldn't be able to play in the immediate future. He didn't have to figure out how to say those words however because the young six year old had curtsied to him.
"It's so good to meet the fairy king," she smiled as Kuu stared at her.
He looked aside, the fairy king? Him?
AN 2:
Sorry for all the sadness in this chapter, I promise the other ones are going to be less sad but I had to write a sad one here. I also promise not to stretch out the quadriplegia for too long. This story has had so much more support than I expected and I am so grateful to everyone who has supported by favoriting, following, and reading.
A special shout out to: DreamIdol, Guest (x3), ladygraywolf, and Mainaru974 for their reviews of the first chapter. It really did mean a lot to me 😊