AN: This chapter is a little shorter than my goal but I thought the end was at a good place 😊 I really hope you enjoy this chapter. I will be explaining Julie's fear soon and it's not straightforward at all 😊

Chapter Seven – Lunch and Dinner

Kuon paused where he stood, he looked down at the table and at the salads on the plates as he saw Kyoko offer an apologetic look towards Kuu. However, as he stood there time seemed to slow and he sat down again, trying to keep his breaths steady. He looked across at his father who had a weak and surprised smile on his face.

"I'm not promising that I won't leave," he said quickly, "I just…there are more important things for us to discuss."

Kuu nodded slowly before smiling again, "Thank you," he told his son with his gratitude flowing out of him. He took another deep breath in before looking down. "Should we just start from where we-"

"Do you love me?" Kuon asked and Kuu blinked before nodding weakly.

"Kuon, the question of our love fo-" Kuu said immediately but Kuon shook his head.

"Could you stop talking as a we, Dad?" he asked before looking down. "Do you even care about me anymore?"

Kuu sighed and then looked down, "More than anything I care about the health, happiness, and wellbeing of my two biological children," he admitted. Kuon looked up. "I can see what you feel. I can see that you're thinking, I'm replaceable to my family but you're not. I…" Kuu stared down before pulling out his phone. He switched it to his email and then showed Kuon a few messages from around the time that Kuu found out he was going to be a father again,

Boss. I don't know what to do. I am so excited to be becoming a father again and I know that this time I won't make the same mistakes I did. Please could you grant me access to see Ku-Ren just so I can tell him the news. I want to tell him in person even though Julie's afraid of it all happening again. If you can, can you give me some advice on how to make it so she's not afraid?

Boss, I appreciate your warning on telling Kuon, but this is going to be his sister and she's going to be born in less than a month. If I could just get Kuon's phone number so I can tell him or maybe even if you could pass the message on. I know that Kuon, or Ren, as you call him won't break from hearing the news. Don't side with Julie on this, I think Kuon deserves the right to know.

Dear Mr. Tsuruga,

I wanted to congratulate you on the birth of your you-

Kuon, I know you don't want to hear from me when your still trying to live as Tsuruga Ren but you've got a little sister. It would be great if you wou-

Kuon studied the last two with a weak smile, pain in his eyes. "You never sent these," he said. He put his finger on them seeing that they were email accounts he hadn't been checking either because they had been associated with Kuon rather than Ren. Still, it told him the truth, it told him that his father had at least had the intentions to tell him.

"I tried to have Boss tell you," Kuu said as he looked down at his food, "I thought that even if I couldn't be the one to give you the news, that you'd know and you'd still feel part of the family. He thought that it would mess with your head and that you would lose the work you had already done at that point to recreate yourself. He said that something like a birth or a death wasn't important enough to derail you when you were still at a point where you could break."

Kuon nodded, "I still feel that I deserve to have known."

"I agree," Kuu nodded, "but on the other hand Julie was afraid that by you being an influence on a second child somehow not only would she have lost you to the darkness, but the second child too, our Katarina would get pulled in and have to be taken away from her."

"So, you think that I would have hurt her. You think that when I was younger, I would have hurt her," Kuon said and Kuu shook his head.

"I know that you'd never hurt a baby especially family, Kuon, but your mother. What happened – the aftermath of what happened, she hadn't expected you to crumble, she had never planned on you leaving and it was the right decision despite how wrong it felt at the time. Still, to lose something that precious…Julie didn't want to ever make it possible for it to happen again," Kuu sighed as he looked down. "I just wanted to make her happy and I didn't have the heart to hurt her again."

"And if I honestly said that I don't want to be a part of your family and I'm happy going back to Japan and pretending that Kuon Hizuri never existed?" Kuon asked as he saw his father's heartbreak.

"If that's what you need to be happy, I'm not going to stop you but you might have to hear about my funeral since that will kill me," Kuu said as Kuon looked down. "All I want is you happy, Kuon and I deeply apologize that you feel this way, that we – that I made you feel this way."

"I don't forgive you," Kuon looked down, "I'm not that strong of a person or that good of a person, but I do understand. I'd like us both to try," he looked at his father, "If you can include me in your family I'd love to try to be a part of it again."

Kyoko smiled hearing this from where she had been sitting, eating, and just observing the two of them. She squeezed Kuon's hand and grinned up to him, "I'm proud of you," she smiled as she saw Kuu smile in gratitude as well.

"How about tomorrow you come eat with us?" Kuu asked the two of them and Kuon nodded silently. He was terrified of approaching his mother again. He wondered if she was more scared of him or if he was the one who was most terrified of her rejection.

…..

…..

Katarina was so excited, her father had said that her older brother would be eating dinner with them that day and she had now been excited for a full day. She had put on a very cute white blouse and pink and brown plaid skirt and had been on her best behavior. She was really excited to get to know more about this mysterious person who she hadn't been told about before.

Her daddy really liked him.

Hearing the door, Katarina looked up from where she was playing with her princess dolls and skipped off to the front door. She waited as her father came to get it and as soon as the door clicked open she felt her mother take her arm and pull her into the kitchen.

"Mama?" she asked confused as she looked at her mother who appeared very serious. "Did I do something bad?" she said confused but Julie shook her head.

She closed her eyes and hugged Katarina close, "No, you didn't. You're my perfect little girl, I just needed another hug before you see your older brother. Whatever he says, you know that violence and guns are wrong, right?" she asked and Katarina tilted her head to the side.

"Yeah! But Kuon doesn't talk about those things, he mainly talks about fun dates that he and Kyoko have been on and how much he loves acting and reading and how he likes nature. He doesn't talk about those things and he told me I'm too young," Katarina tried to tell her mother.

"If he tries to give you a gun then you're-" Julie began only to hear Kuon ask in a very disturbed voice.

"Am I passing out guns now, mother?" he asked. Kuon looked aside, pissed off and not really understanding why his mother was trying to drag his name across the dirty blood stained ground. "That's a shock since I never even used one of them myself, well off set anyway."

Kyoko sighed before dropping into a bow, "Hello, Hizuri-san," she said before looking at Katarina, "Hey," she grinned to the little girl. She paused and looked at Julie with a challenge in her eyes but put on a Tsuruga-style smile. "Kuon has shot me with a gun before," she said before smiling, "A water gun."

Kuon rolled his eyes, "I believe it was one time and it was you who Maria had given it to. I think Maria told you to shoot people who might come and steal me, a Ren Tsuruga security device," he said before taking a deep breath in and pulling something out of his bag. It was an expensive bottle of white wine and he also had a Tinkerbell plush toy. "Dad said that white wine would go better than red with -"

"We already have wine," Julie said as she studied her son. She looked down feeling guilty and humiliated with how she had treated her only son. However, it looked as if she was trying to avoid eye contact with Kuon because of how much she didn't want to look at him.

"This one looks more promising than the one we have, it was really nice for you to buy it for us," Kuu said quickly as he tried to play the mediator. He looked to Kyoko for help.

"I'm really looking forward to our meal. I've only tried a few things whilst we've been here, Father always talks about how much he loves cooking. What I've tasted from him so far has been amazing," Kyoko nodded as Kuu smiled back at her and then everyone looked at the mother and son who struggled to find something to talk about.

"Kuon, come I want you to watch the movie with me," Katarina said as she took his hand and Kuon blinked.

"Uh, sure," he said caught off guard by her. He let the little girl pull him into the room where there was the TV and Kuon noticed things that had always been there as well as things that were new. He paused before feeling his heart break as he saw a photo of Julie, Kuu, and Katarina where a picture of him and his parents used to hang.

"Kuon?" Katarina asked before Kuon shook off his bad feelings and smiled at her.

"What are we watching?" he asked as Katarina turned on the TV which showed a kid's show that Kuon had once appeared on as Ren Tsuruga. "You found this."

"Daddy had it in his files," Katarina grinned, "He has all kinds of things that you're on. He and Mama watch them, they see how strong you're getting. I'm not allowed to watch The Dark Moon," she told them as Kuon looked at Kyoko who was standing in the doorway watching them.

"So, let's watch it," Kuon said as he sat down on the floor and was surprised when Katarina sat in his lap. She looked back at him to see if it was okay that she had sat there. Kuon grinned and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close as they watched the show together.

AN2:

Thank you for your support everyone 😊 Special shout out to my reviewers of the previous chapter: brennakai, Crazy4Animation, DreamIdol, and ktoll9. I'm also planning on working on an original novel that I've been thinking about for three years now 😊 I'm super excited.