A/N: True N-Hala. Yet my thought went that Corn is her only Fairy Prince, she wouldn't ever call someone else a Fairy. Still, I'm glad to see that it wasn't exactly hated by anyone that he's not her Playboy Princess too [I doubt I'll keep the Man-Boy unless she's really really mad at him as Roman!]
-Oxford - Friday: Part 14-
Kuon's eyes focused on the road ahead of him as he drove. His mind, however, was wondering how the everything came down to this in her mind. Even with the knowledge, he had as Ren Tsuruga, what he knew about her. What he couldn't understand was why she was creating someone name, Marian Walters, to bar hop, when she wasn't old enough to do so and could likely be carded in the first place. 'Not that it stopped me when I was even younger than her.' Her eyes never left the passenger window as if she was searching or something outside the passing buildings on the road. All she had said when they got into the car, was to drive around. There was no direction, no clue. When he had attempted to ask she had simply told him that his job was to go with her and if he didn't like it, she would walk. 'Would she had told me if I was Him?' His eyes darted towards her for a moment before moving back towards the road. 'So how do I get her to trust me?'
He couldn't tell her exactly who he was, he knew that but he needed her to trust him. 'She trusts Ren and Corn' his eyes narrowed. Yet he wasn't exactly sure what he had done as Ren Tsuruga to gain that trust, only that it was enough for her to lean upon him. 'No I'm pretty sure it deals with Mother but...' he thought about the things she had said and sighed. 'Well, that's not going to help me... Corn.' As her Fairy Prince, he had listened to her, he never pushed her into anything and even when he asked a question she didn't always answer him right away. Sometimes she would blurt out the answer hours sometimes even a day later. "Can I ask you a question?" It still amazed him that he was speaking only in Russian with her. 'Of course, while she realizes that I know English, as far as she knows I refuse to acknowledge anything said in English.' He mentally sighed, 'Mainly because I can't risk her realizing that I'm Ren Tsuruga and she's only heard a few words from me in Russian as Ren.' That was only because he hadn't expected to be doing this in the first place though.
Kyoko eyes turned towards him for a moment before looking back out the window. "You can ask all the questions you like." That was what Grandma Leiko told her. To choose your words carefully, to answer with as much truth as possible, because the questions would just keep happening. Yet, of course, that didn't mean she had to answer them either. Kyo, on the other hand, said that it was different when it came to the press around her as a child under the care of the Queen and the Prince Escort that people were going to be wary as no one wants to insult the Royal family so they would never directly ask her the questions that they really wanted. It was the same when it came to her husband when she stood next to him, people were wary to ask her anything about certain things. Yet the moment her husband was there, the moment it became about her label KYO those sort of questions changed. They no longer were likely to hold back. Kyoko knew this all very well, she hadn't really needed them to tell her these sort of things. She had seen how quickly things changed from when she was within the Fuwa's care and when she had become the Blue Rose. The difference between how the world was quickly left its mark on her.
'I doubt he is like those men.' The idea of this man even being able to do anything but draw attention to himself in the form of women didn't help matters either. Her eyes darted towards him for a moment before looking back out the window 'Besides, he's Juliena's son, he can't be that bad of a guy right?' She sighed as she leaned her head against the glass window of the car. 'Then again, it's pretty clear he's a really bad playboy, what kind of guy doesn't know how to turn down women? Even a child knows how to turn down unwanted attention.'
"Mind telling me what exactly you are planning?"
"To be kidnapped" her whole body jerked with the way he hit the breaks on the car. "What is wrong with you?" She knew this would be his reaction, it's the sort of reaction anyone would have that didn't mean she expected him to hit the breaks so hard that her whole body had jerked forward even with the seatbelt, 'I could have died because of you before I even did what I needed to do' her eyes were glaring at him as she was trying to keep her anger in check.
"That's my question! Who the hell wants to be kidnapped?" That had not been what Kuon had thought this whole thing would result in. 'I seriously thought her thought was to get to Heth, for that guy General Brown.' Not that he could ask her that question. He waited in silence for ten minutes before sighing heavily, clearly, she was not going to answer that question. 'Doubt she even has an answer for it' his eyes trailed back towards her but not once did she look at him. If he was to say anything she looked bored. 'I doubt she's even Kyoko right now' he mentally sighed he didn't know who Marian was other than she seemed to want to help people, which he was pretty sure was more of a Kyoko trait than a Marian trait.
"You need to keep driving Roman" Kyoko knew this was going to happen, even if she was Marian no one would understand the guilt she was feeling about this whole matter. Someone like Roman could never understand exactly why this was important, even if she did tell him. 'I wish that Man didn't have such an aura about him.' She mentally sighed. Her eyes trailed slightly towards Roman whose knuckles seemed to be going white with his grip on the steering wheel. 'It's too much for him' and deep down it was too much for her too. Yet, once she put her mind to something, it was near impossible for her to back down. Her fear of growing up alone and a burden had assured that personality trait was rooted deeply in her soul. Kyoko unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, "Go back to the hotel Roman." She would be fine, she had her dark children didn't she? Not that she really knew how to use them but as long as she had them she knew she would be safe from any true harm. Yet seeing him this upset over this, she just couldn't put him through it.
Kuon grabbed her wrist, he was fighting pulling her back into the car. "No, it's fine. I... owe Lory so if he is alright with this." He couldn't believe that Lory would be about such a thing. With how protective he was when it came to those text messages. 'No he likely doesn't even know' his eyes trailed towards her as she seemed to be thinking about it. 'I can't let her do this on her own.' Even if she hadn't been his childhood friend, he wouldn't have been able to let a woman do such a thing. It wasn't how he was raised. 'Do my parents even know exactly what's she's doing?' He could almost be sure that his mother wouldn't know, there would be no way that she would allow Lory to let her do this. 'Yet how much does Father know?' He mentally shook his head 'Don't matter... I just need to keep her safe even if this is stupid.' Kuon really wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel of this rental car. Yet he wouldn't release her until she was back inside the car, besides she was standing in the street, all he had really done was put on the emergency lights afterward. "Come on" her shoulders sank slightly and she closed the door.
Once her seat belt was back buckled he restarted the car and began to drive aimlessly, hoping that she wouldn't find whatever it was she was looking for. "So... he does know right?"
Kyoko didn't bother to look at him, she allowed Marian to cover her it seemed with a light blanket of calmness, "People are getting hurt because of her." It wasn't the answer to the question he asked.
"So, Lory doesn't know." Kyoko eyes turned towards Roman for a moment, she clicked her tongue slightly as she looked away from him.
"Of course he knows." The truth was he didn't know all the details, he did know that she would be out here. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, her eyes trailed the edge of it before holding it out to him, "Gayle King's cell and room number. If you get a General Brown that's fine too."
His eyes turned towards her hand for a moment before taking the piece of paper into his hand and shoving it in a pocket of his. He'd make sure to add the number the moment he had time. 'Well if I was Ren Tsuruga I could have just given her my phone to add it.' He didn't want her to figure out exactly that Ren and Roman were the same people. It would bring up to many questions and while there was nothing that hinted that he was Kuon Hizuri other than maybe the unanswered text messages from his father. Though he deleted those messages, 'I wonder how Keiji was able to lock certain things on his phone' he had a feeling that was more due to Daiki and he also knew that Daiki wouldn't help him at all on this matter. 'Does that mean that Kyoko has parts of her phone locked as well?' It wasn't exactly impossible. After all, Kyoko was part of the largest empire more or less in the world.
"Who's Gayle King?" It was a simple question and he had heard the name at least once or twice but he could not recall who she was. 'Not that it's surprising, I don't tend to pay attention to such things.' That was perhaps one of his worse habits to date. Not that anyone could blame him, he was in showbiz and even before that he had never cared much about who was who because all that had mattered to most people was that he was a Hizuri and their hope of getting closer to Kuu or Juliena. To the money his parents had and even when he had arrived in Kyoto Japan nine years ago, people only talked about how he was Kuu's son. They were nice to him because it meant being on Kuu's good side.
"Someone whose job is to protect the royal family." Well, that wasn't exactly true, the person herself was only meant to follow the Crown's orders. That really just meant that Heth had to be taken elsewhere, not that he would be in that pit of darkness for long. 'Even if he is... it wouldn't be so bad in the end. Heth will still be for everyone else in the world dead.'
Kuon knew the logical answer to ask next was and without much thought towards the answer, he asked. "Then why isn't she here with you?" The answer he didn't really need to know, because he knew deep down that this was because they were using her as the target. It made perfect sense that she wouldn't be with Kyoko at the moment even if it was her job to protect the royal family. 'Then again she's not really a member is she?' From what he understood Lory was basically an honorable member of the Royal family granted to him at the time when his the Queen's Mother was actually the Queen Consort to the King. His children were simply additional honorable members but their own children didn't have that place not unless they married one of the members. In many ways, it was likely the same when it came to Queen's cousins, they were just additional honorable members who held no real place. Their children weren't so much deemed as Royal members anymore, unless they married back in or the Queen's own children died and their own heirs, then they backtracked. At least from what he understood within the history books.
Kuon sighed, she hadn't answered his question. 'Well maybe I'm not supposed to know, and the only reason Ren knows was that he was there when the order was made.' That would make the most sense he supposed, didn't make it any less annoying, it bothered him the differences between the now four parts of his being around this girl. 'I could make this so much easier by just telling her' but the thought of doing that made him sick to his stomach. The idea of having to most likely admit who he was to her. 'Yet she cares about Tomi...' There was truth in that and he knew that. Yet he was not the man who truly saved her in the end so the chances were that Tomi just held that sort of status in her heart because he had gotten her out. He had kept her alive and hid who she was. The only thing he couldn't understand was why and no matter how he thought about it she either had an unreasonable ability to draw people to her that he had to be wary about or she was and always had been Lory's daughter and that gave him even more things to be wary of. 'Besides to get a whole Royal family... to be able to pull that sort of lie.' No, he didn't want to even start questioning that, all that mattered was that she was his Kyoko-chan and that she had ended up as the Blue Rose and was now safe and loved. 'And hopefully, her mother and Shoutaro never cross her path again'
Kyoko knew she should tell him more but Marian didn't see the reason for it, 'Kindness... he should know at least why' she felt Marian sigh through her 'We owe him that much.' There was the truth in that and Marian knew that Kyoko was right. "Kyoko Takarada as far as the cops care is at fault. She uses her father's name and power she has a member of the Royal family to get what she wants." She sighed heavily, Marian was bored of it all but for Kyoko herself, she was just tired. It wasn't the reason why for everything but it was the start of why she ended up here in the end. Had the cops just taken him away, taken him so the Ankou could get to him without drawing attention to themselves none of this would be happening, none of those women would have been taken simply to find the replacement for her.
As the businesses moved passed her eyes shot up toward a woman who flashed three different styles almost as if she was dancing, a club. Yet that wasn't what really truly caught her eyes, it was the words under the neon woman, Bien Fleur. "Stop!" she snapped reaching for his arm his eyes shot towards her for a moment before pulling over and looking at her. Her eyes personally never leaving those two neon words. "Why?" She shook her head, the club was too small, too small for a training ground. Yet the name, once she translated it into English was simple Fine Flower.
Kuon's eyes noticed her hand had not moved from his arm, that she was digging into his arm didn't bother him. He could tell there was panic, she wasn't Marian at the moment, no she was fully Kyoko and she was terrified. "Hey. Look at me." He said pulling her arm down while turning her face to meet his. 'As Corn, I was always able to get her to open up. Roman should be able to do that too' he patted her on the head. "Why don't you tell me what's bothering you right this moment. It will help I promise."
Kyoko licked her lips for a moment her eyes darting back towards the sign but he drew her attention back and then kept his hand on her cheek so she couldn't look back again. "That place, it means Fine Flower... it's... where we need to go now." She couldn't drag him in, she couldn't share that with him. Maybe if he was that Man, or Ruto, or her father. Anyone but this stranger to her she removed her hand from his, "I just wasn't expecting them to use that name is all." No, that was the last thing on her mind. She wasn't sure what she had been looking for when she told him to drive around. 'No that's a lie too, I was looking for a place that seemed like a prime spot to scout women, if this is the same as there... people could pay without ever having their name on the list.' She closed her eyes trying to find Marian again before feeling her wash over her, Marian could do this. She smiled softly at him, "I think there might be a perfect reason for Lory choosing you afterall." She said unbuckling her seatbelt.
A/N: For those who don't remember Bakkin Hana also meant Fine Flower. This time it's being used in French.