Chapter Thirty :: A Visit to the President

Early the next morning Kuon and Kyoko went to the Takarada house accompanied by Yashiro. Kuon looked exhausted from not having slept and Kyoko looked just as restless. After that dream where Ren had turned into Reino, Kyoko had found it incredibly hard to go back to sleep which was good because Kuon needed someone to help him decide what to do. It was interesting since it was also around that time that Kuon noticed the missed phone call and voice message from Lory asking them to come directly to the house in the morning.

"Do you think he's awake?" Kyoko asked nervously as she sat beside Kuon in the car, having convinced Yashiro to sit in the back seat.

"He asked us to come over as early as we could," Kuon replied, "I'm sure that he's awake by now, it is six thirty and he is the president of a large agency."

"But..." the pregnant teenager muttered before looking at her boyfriend, "I suppose that I'm just worried."

"Don't be," Ren commented, "It's not like Cain will come out just because I'm talking to the president. Yashiro," he said as they got the clearance from the security guards to enter the grounds, "Will you come in with us or are you..."

"I have a few things I need to talk with the president about," Yashiro nodded, "So I'm coming in," I know you may dislike me for this for a long time Kuon but if the president knows something about your condition that may help you then I'm all for trying it.

"Alright then," Kuon nodded before looking at Kyoko who was wearing her school uniform without a jacket whereas he had on a hooded sweatshirt, "Tell me if you get cold, I have a jacket in here as well."

Kyoko looked at him nervously, "I'm...I'm alright, plus it's May now so it's going to be getting hotter right?"

Kuon smiled at her, "That's true and don't you have your break from classes in the middle of June?" he asked her as she nodded, "How about we go down to Kyoto then? I think...after today I won't be acting that much with Konyaku Konyaku hopefully over"

Yashiro and Kyoko exchanged a look with each other that read the same thing, Perhaps after today he won't be acting at all. There was silence in the car after that and Kuon put on an actor's smile as he parked and then went up to the front door followed by Kyoko and Yashiro. As they approached they heard the door open and saw Lory standing there with Maria sitting down on a chair in the hallway. He looked as if he too hadn't slept that much.

Kuon dropped into a bow as the other two did as well, no words needed to explain the sense of awkwardness and depression as they looked into his eyes. Maria however broke the silence.

"Hey Kuon," she smiled at him before looking to Kyoko, "Nee-san, come talk to me whilst grandfather talks to Kuon."

"Ah, I wanted to talk to the president too Maria-chan, perhaps afterwards," she suggested as Yashiro looked at his charge wondering if he really was going to be okay. After all he could only guess what this conversation would be about knowing Lory's secret methods of doing things.

"I think talking to Kuon alone would be best for right now, you'll get your chance to speak to me," he looked at Yashiro, "The two of you will."

With that Kuon nodded and followed the president as Kyoko grinned at Maria. "Maria-chan, it's been a long time." She froze, Maria-chan has feelings for Ren and really bullied those actresses that she thought were interested in him, now that the two of us are having a-

"I'm not mad at you nee-san" Maria commented interrupting Kyoko's thoughts, "I mean, when I heard that you and Kuon-san were going to be raising a child together I grew a little jealous, but it isn't because of that I haven't been around," she replied, "It's just father..." she had a bittersweet smile on her face, "Father and I have been talking, he came back to Japan for a few weeks in April and so we spent some time together. It was in March that Kuon learned about the baby wasn't it?" she asked as Kyoko nodded, "A white day gift perhaps?"

"No, not like that," Kyoko replied, "And it's not really a gift because it was something that was taken from me that this child is a result of."

"So the child is unloved," Maria commented staring into space

"No!" Kyoko protested, "Although I didn't love the actions that caused this child, I've started to learn to love the baby inside of me and I can't wait to meet them. I can't wait until Maria meets them as well."

Yashiro leaned forward interested in this, "Kyoko, do you have any thoughts as to what you'd like to name the baby?" he asked interested.

"Well..." the chestnut haired girl replied, "Not really, I wanted to find out the gender of the baby before I thought about names."

Maria looked at her stomach and reached out a hand, "May I feel your stomach nee-san?" she asked. Kyoko nodded quickly and then felt Maria press against the baby, "A boy" she nodded, "Definitely a boy."

"Nope," Kyoko shook her head determined that she was right, "It's a girl, I'm pretty sure of that...sorry Maria-chan," she told her young friend as the girl sighed.

Meanwhile

Kuon looked down as Lory offered him a seat, the air in this room had the feeling of gloom and it didn't look like a living room at all. There were so many items from different countries making it resemble more of a museum than anything else, he looked up at Lory who was dressed in what one might expect Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon to be wearing. "So..." he began, "Did someone tell you?"

"No need," Lory replied, "Monitoring the LoveMe room is one of my favorite activities," he saw Kuon's shock at that before he stared down. "You said that Kuu knew about your condition when you first got diagnosed," he said as Kuon nodded, "and yet you both neglected to inform me when I offered you an acting position at my agency,"

Kuon looked away trying hard to defend himself and show confidence but he couldn't meet Lory's eye contact, "I..." he replied, "I..."

"Did you think that you deserved special treatment?" Lory asked calmly not showing any emotion although Kuon imagined he was angry about this, angry about being lied to and deceived.

"I...I was desperate," Kuon replied staring straight down at his lap, he put a hand to his forehead before running both hands through his hair messing it up, "I thought that if you knew you wouldn't let me act, that you wouldn't help me."

"You're wrong again," Lory replied before quickly adding, "And you're right."

"Huh?" Kuon blinked

"About me not helping you you're wrong, do you know that I care about you like you were my own child or grandchild," Lory replied, "Which makes this even harder."

"So I was correct about you not allowing me to act?" Kuon asked looking down depressed, "I can get it under control boss," he tried to reason with him.

"Kuon, that's not enough," Lory said strictly as the blonde stared at him

"So you're kicking me out of the agency?" Kuon asked slowly as Lory shook his head.

"No, not exactly. I'm ordering you to take a short break from acting and modeling and doing anything even remotely similar to those two things," Lory said sharply, "I want you to get this problem sorted in under a year and have planned to send you to a highly confidential therapist I know. Now I don't know how severe your condition is but I urge you to understand that if it is a risk to yourself or others I can't keep you at LME."

"So if I don't go to the therapist?" Kuon asked nervously, "I'll lose my job,"

"Exactly," Lory nodded, "I'm sorry I have to pressure you but I can't take the chance of you losing this battle, I care very much about you Kuon, perhaps more than a president is meant to care about one of the actors. Now if you understand this I'll ask you to send Yukihito and Kyoko in whilst you stay outside,"

Kuon nodded weakly and left taking a look at the card, guess he really was going to have to go to Kyoto.

So I was going to write more but my migrane has come back :(

Hopefully you enjoy what I've written here. I'll try to update again soon

~Myst