AN: I feel like a lot of people understood where I was going with the previous chapter but some people didn't. I hope that this chapter clears up any questions. Thank you for reading 😊

Chapter Seventeen – Road Signs

Kyoko nervously held her phone to her ear as she watched Kuon turn pale and reached out for him. As soon as Kuon lost consciousness, Kyoko moved him onto her lap and let her fingers comb through his hair hoping he'd wake up. She was so glad that she had made them pull over, losing consciousness in the middle of the road would have led to an accident. The fact that they were in LA made that more of a possibility.

"Hi," Kyoko said as she remembered when she had had Kuon on her lap during the Dark Moon shooting. "It's Kyoko, father are you able to get out here. There's something - something's happened to Kuon and he's currently unconscious and…." Kyoko paused as she heard Kuu's concern, "I mean, no there's nobody else here. I don't know what happened? Where are we?" she asked before looking at the two street signs that she did see.

After she repeated them, Kuu's voice turned calmer and he seemed to understand the strange situation that they were in. She smiled as Kuu told her that he was on his way and then turned her attention towards Kuon. "Corn, what is it?" she asked, blushing a little as she thought about how his head felt. "Corn, please be okay."

She slid her hand down until she could feel his pulse. It didn't seem as if he had had some kind of attack, it didn't seem bad enough to send him to the hospital, but what had happened? Kyoko kept her eyes on the clock in the car. He should have regained consciousness by now right? She looked over him. What if it was something more serious and she was just sitting here and not taking him to the hospital. She looked at him again, he seemed to be breathing though these were more nervous breaths.

Had something scared him? Maybe a trigger of something? What was bad enough to completely break him like this? "Kuon?" she asked again. Finally she heard something, a weak voice – and weak was never the word she described Ren being -.

"Kyoko," he said as he continued to stay on her lap.

"Yes," Kyoko asked as she felt his forehead. There wasn't a fever there, he seemed to be okay as far as the usual tests told her. He had just had a panic attack and fainted, but then did Kuon get panic attacks.

"I can't get out of the car, I can't stand there…not again," he whispered painfully and Kyoko continued to let her fingers roam his hair.

"Nobody's asking you to get out of the car, Corn. You don't even have to go up if you don't feel well. Do you think you could try to tell me if you're okay?" she asked before Kuon felt his stomach hurting him. If they were anywhere else, he would have thrown up on the ground outside the car but he couldn't go out there and he had to swallow it.

"I…I was fifteen…" he said as Kyoko nodded. "I was a stupid fifteen-year-old," he closed his eyes and Kyoko paused.

"We're all stupid when we're young. I think I've definitely made my own share of mistakes," she attempted to tell him but Kuon shook his head.

"I was standing here when I….I saw…" Kuon started shaking again and Kyoko attempted to draw his body closer to hers. She saw how his hand went to where he had used to wear his watch. Everything seemed to be clicking together at this point and although she was scared of his reaction, Kyoko had to make sure.

"Kuon, is this where…your friend died?" she inquired. She didn't want to trigger Kuon to get worse by saying Rick's name but it seemed that that was why he was like this. Of course, if she had lost Moko-chan in an accident that she felt she was the cause of, she would never be able to see that spot again. She would try to avoid the memories of that happening as much as she could.

Kuon nodded uneasily. "I cost him his life. I cost Tina her future with him. They would have gotten married, they would have been living together. I caused -"

Kyoko pressed her lips to the side of Kuon's head. "I know," she said not wanting to cause an increase in his emotions by disagreeing with him. "It's alright. We'll get through this together, okay?" she said. "I promise that I'm not leaving. I promise that I'm not scared of you, okay?" she asked and Kuon nodded shakily.

Despite Kyoko attempting to hold him down so that there could be no further triggering, Kuon looked up and stared at the world around him. As he looked forwards, he started shaking again and Kyoko allowed herself to wrap her arms around him. "You shouldn't look," she told him before seeing him get out of the car. "Kuon! Stop it! Stop pushing yourself. I don't care if you get scared sometimes, I love you, things like that don't matter. Remember that I told you about pudding?" she asked, "and Shotaro laughing at those comedy shows. I accepted him for that. I can definitely acc-"

"I wonder if the blood's still there," Kuon said as his eyes widened and he seemed to have broken from reality again. "I wonder if you can still -"

"Kuon," Kyoko said as she saw him start to walk forwards. He wasn't paying attention to the traffic, it was as if he had given himself a self-fulfilling prophecy and that because he was paying so much attention to the fact that Rick had died in this spot, that he was going to get hit by a vehicle as well.

No! One thing that Kyoko Mogami would not do is watch her fairy prince die right in front of her?

"Stop it, Kuon!" Kyoko begged as she took his hand and attempted to pull him back. "Let's just wait by the car and talk," she wrapped her arms around him and started to bury her face in his chest. "Please? Please can we just wait here and we can talk. Kuu-sama's coming and he'll -"

"Kuon!" Kuu said as he stopped his car behind theirs. Seeing Kyoko look back at him helplessly, Kuu rushed and stood between Kuon and the busy street. He knew how this location affected his son and he would rather a car run him over than Kuon get hurt. "I will not allow you to do this! Do you hear me!?" he yelled as Kyoko looked at him.

She saw the love that Kuu had in his eyes and the desperate way in which he was attempting to control the situation. As Kuon shook this time, Kuu stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around his son despite his son being so much taller than when he was a teenager. "It's okay, everyone has those weak points." He told him before looking at Kyoko.

Kyoko stepped back as she heard a loud bang coming from Kuu's car door.

"Don't ever try to lock me in that car when my son is in trouble, Kuu Hizuri" Julie said as she came out and Kuu felt Kuon sink onto the ground. Julie crouched down in front of her son. "Hi, sweetheart," she smiled as she kissed his forehead. "Let's go home now, okay?" she asked as she tried to direct him and Kyoko to their car. "You can drive the rental one," she told Kuu as Kyoko quickly handed him the key.

Julie opened the front door for Kyoko but Kyoko just slipped in next to her boyfriend who was starting to fall asleep. Julie smiled and shut the door as she saw Kyoko keep a close eye on the young man. She was very glad that her son had been able to find someone like Kyoko. "I'm sorry that that happened," Julie told her and Kyoko paused.

"It's something that is always going to be a part of him," Kyoko said, "Do you think that we should get him checked out? I thought that he was okay. I know that -"

"I was trying to show my sympathy for your date ending like that. Kuon's going to be fine, he has you," Julie said as Kyoko blushed.

"I'd prefer to be with someone honest than someone who has to pretend to not like pudding," she told her boyfriend's mother. Julie looked surprised before starting to follow Kuu to their home.

"Someone who doesn't like pudding?" she asked.

"It's a…it's sort of an inside joke between Kuon and myself. It means, I'd prefer to be with somebody who isn't afraid to show who he really is," Kyoko tried to explain.

"Trust me, Kuon wouldn't feel safe breaking like this in front of anyone. The fact that he didn't try to escape says a lot about how much he loves you." Julie made an attempt to explain.

Kyoko blushed at that.

…..

…..

Was it wrong to go into the bedroom of your boyfriend just to make sure he's okay? Did the stage of the relationship have something to do with it? What if it was after seeing him the way he was when he was scared or weak? Did that entitle you to just knock on his door.

Kyoko didn't know.

Why was it so difficult to do it now when she would knock on Shou's door as a child and just ask him if he needed help? Kyoko sunk to the floor with the mug of hot milk and placed it beside her. She wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to concentrate on her breaths. She wanted to make sure that he was okay, but she was scared. She had seen a lot of different Rens and some different Kuons, but the man that she had seen that night. Could she help him?

As she sat there, she heard the sound of a door open and she looked up at the blond. "Hi," she said as he yawned and stretched before approaching her.

"Hey, were you waiting for me?" Kuon asked and Kyoko paused, she looked down before blushing slightly.

"I wanted to make sure that you were okay, I brought you some hot milk in case you wanted to talk. It's supposedly good for you and there's milk in it which has a lot of things that the body needs daily. I thought that maybe if you couldn't sleep then we could talk about what -" Kyoko bowed her head, managing to stop herself from completing that sentence.

She shouldn't push too hard to have the two of them discuss that night's events. Those were most likely events that Kuon would never want to talk about.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, but I should be fine. Do you remember when I had those bad feelings whilst we were the Heel siblings and I just wanted to sleep holding you?" Kuon asked as Kyoko nodded.

"I think I can get to sleep this time without counting fairies if you're holding me. I don't want to do anything more than snuggle but I'd be happy to share your bed with you," she said before her face turned red and she smiled softly. "That is if you don't mind."

"Of course, I don't mind," Kuon said as he kissed her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He pulled back. "My point was that I've dealt with the sadness by myself in the past. I'm certainly prepared to do it in the future."

"But I don't want that," Kyoko said stubbornly as Kuon looked at her. "I mean, I don't want you to be sad. I want both of us to make one another happy."

Kuon smiled lovingly, his whole face brightening. "Okay," he nodded. "Let's work on doing that together." He kissed her hand and shared a smile with her. So there was still darkness out there, but he had the strongest light now: Kyoko.

End Chapter Seventeen

AN2: Thank you so much to everyone who reads and supports this story. Special shout out to the reviewers of Chapter Sixteen: brennakai, DreamIdol, PaulaGaTo, RichkeyZero