AN: I know it's been a while since I've updated this. Hope you enjoy it. Also, please know that a lot of writers do not look on it kindly if you leave a comment as if they're not going to read it (aka talking around them) and especially that you want to 'adopt' their fanfic. You have all the freedom to write whatever you want but 'adopting' someone else's work is like asking someone to adopt their pet they still love and care for but might not have as much time as before to play with. It's a tough choice but if you want to write something inspired by my work, fine, but 'adopting' it is disgusting unless it has truly been abandoned.
Chapter Six
6.1
Kuon really didn't want to think of the girl who filled his head. There was no way that she would get into LME and the weird aura he was getting from her made him want to step into the spotlight and physically stop her. He sat at the back of his parents restaurant with his large wings spanning more than half the room easily. It was hard to find a space where he could unbind these wings and let them spread.
He heard the sound of the key in the lock and grabbed to his shirt. His parents had always made him feel welcome even though he was so different from a regular human and he felt guilty that they had changed their lives in order to keep him safe.
"Hey, baby," Julie smiled as she came over with a large towel, a small cloth, and a bowl full of warm water and the special ointment mixture that helped his wings without aggravating his skin. She came behind him and let her palm rest between the wings before her fingers slid onto them and saw Kuon flinch. "I wish that you didn't have to hide them," she sighed. "It must cause you pain."
"I've learned to deal with the pain," Kuon said, not fighting with her that he didn't feel it. These wings did cause him certain physical as well as emotional and psychological pain. "Why did you never take me to someone to cut them off?" he asked her. "Would it really have killed me?"
"They said that the pain would be unbearable for you and you'd still have the scars from where they were and those scars would only increase the pain as you grew up and your body grew. I didn't want them gone anyway," Julie said as Kuon reached for the bowl so he could wash himself but Julie snatched it away from him.
"This is something special that I get to do as a mother, now lean forwards and relax. I've been doing this for you since you were a little boy and it's not fair if you don't let me help you," she said stubbornly. Kuon opened his mouth to argue with her but saw her look telling him just how badly she wanted to do this. He lay forward and Julie started to tend to the red sores where his wings were.
"It must have been difficult for you, raising someone like me," Kuon said and Julie stared at him but continued to get rid of the blood around the base of the wings.
"I told you not to talk about yourself that way," she said as she remembered how the doctors had insisted that Kuon be killed because he was so different from everyone else. She saw tiny fractures in the wings and dealt with those although she wanted to know how long they had been there and how it had happened.
"Mom," Kuon said awkwardly. "Do you mind if I really stop holding back?" he asked her and Julie stood up.
"Just one moment," she said as she pulled out a blanket that she kept in the room and placed it on the ground before moving the furniture back a little bit. "Okay," she said gently and Kuon consciously put himself into his Pegasus form. Whereas before he hadn't had control of that form now he did and it actually was the best way for his body to get restored in terms of energy and health. "Are you feeling better now," she said as she saw that some of the dead feathers on his wings were sticking with some of the more living ones, had this been where the fractures were before.
"Have you gone around flying in this form?" she asked as she let her fingers brush through his mane. She saw him close his eyes and she smiled as she continued to clean him up. "I understand that you're careful but I don't want to imagine what would happen were somebody to spot you." Julie shivered as she imagined ropes, cages, nothing that she wanted for her little boy.
"Mom, there's an energy that I'm suspicious of," he told her as he lifted his head and turned to her.
"Okay." Julie said firmly, "I don't want you getting involved with a magic hunter," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You know they exist and you know what they did to that mermaid girl. They put her in a tank and made her an exhibit. Imagine what they would do to you if they realized you were a fairy. I'm not going to have you put in a cage with a sign on it saying fairy and then some ridiculous information."
"And if it said Pegasus instead?" Kuon dared to ask.
"Even worse. They would probably take your voice from you and then allow those stupid pretentious women to ride on you. If you weren't able to speak and your magic was limited, they'd whip you to get you to do what they want for them or even worse. It's cruel how they treat show ponies but a Pegasus would suffer even more mistreatment."
"How would dad feel about that?" Kuon asked nervously.
"You know that your father would do anything to keep you safe even if it meant eliminating those who would do you harm." Julie finished applying the medicine to Kuon's back and had picked out some of the dead feathers. She started cleaning the rest of his body being very careful around his hooves. She then cleaned his face for him, kissing the top of his head as she finished.
"Now, rest, your father and I will make sure that you're not disturbed," she said protectively before putting another blanket over his large body and going out to the front of the restaurant.
6.2
Kuon woke up about an hour later and transformed himself back into the fairy form of his human self before feeling someone else was in the room with him. He turned towards the chairs and saw his father watching him with a smile on his face however there was also a look of concern there as well. "Dad," Kuon said as he pushed himself up and went to sit with him, making sure to accommodate his wings as well.
"Your mother told me about the blood and the fractures although those," Kuu double checked Kuon's wings, "I'm not seeing anymore so they must have been the dead feathers but she also told me about you sensing something or someone."
"Just someone hoping to get into the industry for selfish and bizarre reasons," Kuon said and saw Kuu frown. "I don't think they're really a problem, just unpleasant, it's not good to make waves."
"You do understand that Boss has always known about your situation," Kuu said and Kuon looked down. He didn't want to rely on that family connection. Yes, when it came to giving him a space to retreat to for emergencies, he was thankful for that preferential treatment but he didn't want to use it to eliminate someone he was unsure of.
"I'm not going to ask that. I'm sure that this girl won't even make it through the audition round and there will be questions if it's leaked that I requested her termination, I'd rather see her fail out by herself," Kuon said. He groaned. That sounded really rude and arrogant. He should never be concerning himself with anyone else's downfall but the fact still remained that this girl had had a lot of different energy around her.
"Regardless, I just hope that she's harmless. I saw all of those videos about the mermaid girl and I don't want anything to happen to you like that," Kuu said wondering whether he should provide this knowledge to Lory to ensure Kuon's own safety. Fairy or otherwise, his son meant the world to him.
"I'll just see how it plays out," Kuon said before pushing his wings back in and binding them. He also slipped his necklace on so that he could appear as Ren Tsuruga to the rest of the world. "I think I should return to 'real life' he told Kuu who stood and hugged him.
"Anytime you need a retreat, we'll be there," he said and Kuon nodded.
"Tell Mom that I love her," he said before slipping out the back of the building.
6.3
Ren knew in his blood that the audition process was going on but he wasn't able to tell anyone what his fear was about and he even refused to talk to Lory about it. He wasn't sure how Lory would handle it were he to talk about his suspicions about her being a person to hunt him but maybe she wasn't and if she just went away that would be best for him.
"It's about time for the second half to start," he stated without thinking. His mind was just spinning with the possibility that she was a magic hunter and fairies were her main course. Although he hadn't really met other fairies, they were a type who preferred to keep themselves secret although he did feel their energy sometimes.
"What?" Yashiro asked and Ren's back straightened, "What's about to start?"
"The second half," Ren replied as he leaned forwards and then bowed his head. There was no chance that she would have gotten through and she hadn't turned up in this area looking for him, Maybe she was just a dumb girl after all and therefore he could secretly wish her success in her life which needed to take place a long long way away from him.
"What second half?" Yashiro asked and Ren sighed.
"The agency auditions," Ren nodded and Yashiro looked at him skeptically.
"I'm surprised that you want to know how the audition's going. Every year you realize that there was an audition after the newcomers make their debut. Is there someone you're curious about?" he asked and Ren looked at him. He knew that Yashiro was open minded but there was no energy surrounding him that said he was anything other than a neutral human. He was going to make sure that the truth of what he was never made it to the public but in the wildest of chances, Ren felt he could trust Yashiro to at least ask questions about him rather than running to the tabloids.
"Well, in a way, yes," Ren admitted. That reason of revenge was not something he took lightly. Was she just some silly girl who wanted revenge on some pop singer because he snubbed her or whatever or was she more dangerous than that and the answer revenge was to hide how she wanted to capture him. Well, she would never capture him even if that was her goal. He would make sure that she broke before she could break him.
End of Chapter Six
Thank you for reading
Thank you to those who left a review on Chapter Five
H-Nala, Kaname671, Novelsadoge
