AN: Thank you for your patience with this chapter, there's been a lot going on

Chapter Thirty-One – Kuon's Hero

He had been acting for thirty years. Thirty years of acting was a long time for an actor but his first roles had been minor high school slice of life ones. However, it was only when he met his wife that he had learned family was so much more important than acting. Now his son was being pushed through a painful situation and he couldn't take it. Kuon deserved so much better.

Kuu had gained a reputation when he was a young actor of being someone from the wrong side of the tracks, a bad boy rebel and this had been reflected in one of his major roles, Kyoshiro. He had had to push himself through the anger and pain when he had played that role but he had been well loved. Kuu sighed as he looked down at the phone in his hand. The meeting shouldn't be too far off now.

Kuu had managed to get clothes that were ideal for street fighting. He didn't care how old he was or the way that his body wasn't as athletic as Kuon's was. He didn't care that he might get hurt because this type of game that Rick was playing with Kuon wasn't something Kuu could ever approve of. He closed his eyes and waited.

…

…

"Damn you Kyoshiro!" Kuu heard as he entered the house. He paused as he looked around. Wasn't the nanny supposed to be helping them today because Julie had a fitting she had to go to. Why was he hearing this? Why would a three year old be wearing this?

Kuu put his bag down and went to the room where the noise was coming from. He wanted to fire that babysitter for putting Kuon through this. Kuon was too young for this type of movie. Kuu felt his blood freeze within his veins as he looked at the screen and saw that his character had blood on his face that was trickling down his body.

"Kuon!" he said as the nanny paused, her eyes widening at the screen. "Hey, don't…don't watch this, okay, this isn't…can you turn this off?" he asked and the nanny immediately rushed forward and put it on pause but there was just a still image of Kuu's character.

"Daddy" Kuon grinned up at his father, "Welcome home," he chirped before looking at the screen and shivered. Kuu paused and he dropped down onto the floor next to Kuon. Kuu turned the TV screen off and then saw Kuon come to him for a hug. Kuu nervously held Kuon in his arms before standing up so he could carry Kuon. His little boy was so important to him and Kuon had just witnessed something so scary.

"I'm really sorry," the nanny said, "When I saw that you were in it I thought that it would be good to see your work. I must have turned my back for a -" Kuu put his hand up to pause her and sighed, he took a deep breath in.

"It's okay, we'll discuss it later," he said. He turned to Kuon and kissed his forehead. "Kuon," he said slowly as he sat down on the sofa with his son. "Daddy loves you, right? You know what acting is, right?"

"Pretend?" Kuon asked and Kuu grinned.

"Yeah, it's playing pretend. Do you know who was the person on the screen?" he asked and Kuon nodded.

"That was you playing pretend, Daddy," he grinned and Kuon smoothed his hair back.

"Exactly," he told him with a thumbs up, "You're my smart boy, aren't you?" he asked and Kuon laughed with a nod. "And so that was Daddy playing pretend, he was trying to be scary but I hope you weren't scared, Kuon, were you?" he asked and the nearly-four year old turned his head to the side.

"No. I think Daddy was a good guy," Kuon told him and Kuu's face softened as he felt relief at the fact that his little boy wasn't terrified of him. "I love you, Daddy," Kuon told him and Kuu sighed, he cuddled Kuon closely, pushing his hair back from his face as he grinned.

"I love you too, my little Kuon," he grinned and Kuon hummed happily in his father's arms.

…..

…

Kuu looked at his son's phone, he felt a little guilty about taking his grown son's phone but how else was he going to confront this asshole who had made his little boy suffer so badly. He closed his eyes before hearing someone join him in the alleyway and he looked up, his face turning cold in a way that Rick had never seen before.

"You're not Kuon," Rick said and Kuu chuckled in a cold manner, he raised an eyebrow, "Why are you her-"

"Well, my son trusts me, my son would tell me what's going on, my son that you screwed over multiple times. I don't want you going anywhere near my son. He's happy. He's finally home and happy and I have you to hold responsible for messing with his life. Kuu struck forward a punch, his gloved hand hitting the brick wall before pulling back and blowing the dust off the leather glove.

"Have you noticed that I'm in a wheelchair, Kuu?" Rick asked and Kuu raised an eyebrow.

"I don't have a problem with that. I think we've gone far beyond the idea of using physical disabilities to get any kind of sympathy. Plus, how do I know that it's not a trick, another one of your deceptions," Kuu kicked the wheel of the chair putting the brake on so that Rick either had to get up or he had to stay there.

"You really don't expect to win in a fight, do you?" Rick asked with a smug smile. "You're an old man. You know, if you were a decent father then Kuon wouldn't have broken but you weren't…"

Kuu chuckled darkly as his expression turned into one that could rival either of his son's. "You have no idea what I'm capable of," he said, "just because I like to use peaceful means to get what I want doesn't mean that I'm incapable of destroying you. I mean, I could beat the crap out of you right now," he said as he drew his arm back and then felt someone grab hold of it.

He paused, unsure of who was touching him but if it was the authority then he didn't care.

"You don't want to do this," he heard Kuon say as he stood behind him and then as Kuu lowered his fist, Kuon threw his arms around his father. "Just think about it, I love you but aren't there are other ways of us dealing with him?" he asked and Kuu felt his body weaken and Kyoko quickly took Kuon's phone out of his wallet and then, in the hand that wasn't holding the bag, dialed a number on a piece of paper.

"I knew that you would save me," Rick laughed, "You've always been loyal to me."

"Heh," Kuon laughed and raised an eyebrow. "You think that I'm doing this…for you?" he asked with a cold smile before putting his hands on the back of Kuu's shoulders. "I owe you nothing and that includes my attention. I'm here, stopping this because of my dad, my hero. I don't give a crap about you but I don't want my dad to risk his career."

"You're a daddy's boy, aren't you?" Rick laughed in a mocking sense and Kuon shrugged.

"Yes. I'm a daddy's boy," he repeated and then saw his father looking at him with such warmth in his eyes, he sighed before dropping his head and then opened his mouth. "Dad, don't say anything, don't apologize or anything. You were doing this to protect me and I'm so thankful but I'm going to be okay."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Kuu asked nervously and Kyoko returned to them with a huge grin on her face.

"It's done," she told Kuon as she handed him back his phone and he looked at his father.

"Why don't we go home?" he asked, "And nobody tells Mom any of this."

"That sounds like a deal," Kuu said before hearing a car near the area. He was about to turn thinking that it was a police car and it would probably damage his reputation if anyone found out he wanted to hit a guy in a wheelchair. However, what he saw surprised him. Rick's mother and older brother.

"Come on, Father" Kyoko said as he tugged at his hand and Kuu sighed. He really was thankful that his children cared about him so much. He might have done something that he wouldn't be able to take back if it wasn't for Kuon. He really did want to protect the two of them and their happiness.

"Kuon," Kuu said nervously, "I just want to apo-"

"I told you," Kuon replied firmly, "No apologies. I should be the one to apologize for leaving for Japan but tonight, Kyoko has reminded me that if I hadn't left for Japan then I wouldn't enjoy acting the way that I do now and I definitely wouldn't know how it feels to be in love with an amazing woman. If I hadn't been Tsuruga Ren then I would never have been Katsuki in Dark Moon and that was a drama that I did with Kyoko. I should be grateful at the way things turned out because I became a stronger person and I met the love of my life."

"And I met the love of mine," Kyoko blushed. "Corn is my prince, he was in the past and he'll continue being in the future," she grinned at him. "Let's just call this a temporary lapse of judgment," she tried to tell Kuu to cheer him up. "Let's prepare dinner tonight, Father"

"Sure," Kuu said as he turned to look back in the direction that they had just come. "Yes, we can call it that."

"I do love you, Dad" Kuon said as Kuu smiled. All he needed was for his son to be happy and safe and it seemed that Kyoko was doing such a good job at doing that, better than he had ever done.

…

…

"Are you sure that you're not going to have nightmares after what you saw today?" Kuu asked after he had given Kuon his bath and got him changed into warm pajamas before tucking him into his bed. "I want you to know that I will never act like that towards you. I will never hurt you, my little Kuon."

"I'm good," Kuon grinned, "That's your job, you play pretend for other people."

"Yeah, I act so that other people can enjoy it," Kuu smiled softly at his son. He really did love this little boy with his entire heart and though he knew he couldn't bubblewrap him from the world, he could try to show that the world wasn't as scary as it might seem.

"Daddy, I want to do that too," he said, "you're my hero."

Kuu's expression softened and he smoothed down the little boy's hair. He would be turning four soon and though four wasn't such a big step, there would be much more that Kuon was exposed to. He just wanted his little boy to be smiling and happy forever. "You promise me that if you have any bad dreams, you'll come find me?" he asked and Kuon nodded.

"I'm good. Love you, Daddy" he laughed happily and Kuu kissed the top of his head.

"Love you too, my little Kuon."

End of Chapter Thirty-One

Thank you for reading

Thank you reviewers of Chapter Thirty

EmmaLasagna, Grayladywoolf, Guest, Kris XD, misherukuro, PaulaGaTo

Response to Reviews

I always thought that chicken thing was weird and I kind of didn't like the way Kuon was before and after he was friends with Rick, it seemed that he really changed and it was more than the accident that changed him. Kuon doesn't want anything more to do with Rick so he's definitely going to be going through some moral changes as well but he has his family and Kyoko there for support which is more than can be said for Rick.