Chapter 192: Happy Drugs
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Skip Beat, for if I did, the Hizuris would be close to Tina.
Kuu offered Tina an apologetic smile as his wife showered her with affection and dragged her through the hotel toward the restaurant. He couldn't bring himself to rein Julie in since he was feeling just as guilty for keeping such a big secret from Tina in the first place.
"Hey, Damian, good to see you again." Kuu shook the bar owner's hand with one and patted him on the back with the other while they followed the ladies. "Thank you for being here for her."
"She doesn't know it yet, but I'm not going anywhere, ever" Damian whispered conspiratorially, a wide grin splitting his face.
Tina glanced over her shoulder and eyed them suspiciously. Kuu laughed and draped his arm over his shoulder and gave it a little squeeze, "Glad to hear it."
They made small talk for the remainder of the walk, postponing the heavier discussion for when they were away from prying eyes. There were still many guests from last night's gala around and the herd of paparazzi camping outside had only increased as the sun rose higher in the sky. Kuu didn't want any of them to overhear their conversation.
They followed the hostess through the restaurant, ignoring the other patrons, and were shown to a private section outdoors where Enzo and his crew were putting the final touches on the meal.
Damian let out a low whistle once he saw what awaited them.
"Wow! Are you having a luncheon?" Tina questioned, glancing around the secluded garden for other guests that would be partaking in the meal. "We don't want to intrude."
Kuu understood why she would think that by the quantity of food spread out on the table. Even he could agree this was way too much for two people. From left to right it started with cold-cut meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies, bread, nuts, crackers and dips then moved into the heavier stuff such as small platters of grilled chicken, fish, and shrimp along with various salads and other side dishes. To finish it off there was a vast array of mini desserts waiting to be devoured when the fancy took them.
The amount of food here could have easily fed eight. With Kuu's bottomless pit of a stomach, it would be way more than enough to tide him over until dinner.
Julie responded with her beautiful laughter. "This is just for us. Chef Enzo here is quite familiar with Kuu's insatiable appetite so he made sure to prepare an exorbitant amount of food."
"It's always a pleasure to feed the Hizuris. It strokes my ego when Mr. Hizuri eats everything in sight," Enzo joked. Introductions were made and the chef gave them a brief rundown of the food he prepared.
"If there's nothing else, we'll get out of your hair so you can enjoy in peace."
The group murmured their thanks to the chef and his team as they left to give them their privacy.
"There's plenty to go around, so dig in," Julie said, gesturing for the young couple to get some food when they hesitated to start. Kuu knew they had to be hungry because the rumbling sounds coming from Damian's stomach echoed his own. He was starving.
"Not you, Kuu," Julie scolded and tapped his hand as he snuck a piece of cheese from the board. "Let the kids get whatever they want first before you inhale everything."
"Hey," Kuu laughed and popped the cube into his mouth. The young couple stared at him with worried eyes. "She's messing around. Go ahead," Kuu assured the young couple.
"I mean it. Make sure to claim whatever you want before this bear has at it," Julie whispered loudly.
Kuu pretended to be offended, but she wasn't wrong. He could eat. A lot. Especially when he was worried or sad.
"Thank you, we appreciate it," Damian replied and focused on the food.
"He's good," Julie whispered into her husband's ear, observing the couple.
Kuu hummed his approval and watched as the young man took control of Tina's plate, knowing it would be difficult to maneuver with her injured hand. Tina's happiness with him was apparent by the way her whole face lit up whenever Damian gazed at her. They playfully made a sweep of the table as she pointed to the food she wanted to try. Kuu liked the way he always added more to her plate.
It was only until they were settled at the table that Kuu was allowed to make his plate or three.
"Thank you for being so patient, darling." Julie kissed his cheek as Kuu was already piling a pasta salad on his second plate. He flashed his wife a good-humored smile and returned the kiss on her temple.
"Tina looks happy," Julie whispered, glancing at the couple over her shoulder. Kuu tilted his head in their direction and agreed at the genuine laughter coming from the table. It was good to see her like this after everything she's been through.
When Kuu finally joined them at the table with his full plates, Tina was teasing Damian to eat an olive.
"Kuu, can you believe Damian doesn't like olives?" Tina remarked, popping the green fruit in her mouth and chewing. The guy grimaced and his whole body shuddered with disgust. Damian's adverse reaction to a harmless fruit had them all laughing.
"I can't," he defended himself. "I was traumatized when I was six. My older cousin had me try one for the first time and after I ate it he told me it was a rotten eyeball...to this day, I'm still teased about the time I ate a rotten eyeball," Damian sulked.
"Wow, your cousin was a jerk." Damian nodded in agreement. "Surely, adult you, figured out it's not true. Have you ever tried it again?" Tina asked, perplexed by his childhood fear.
"I can't," he shuddered. "It's too ingrained into my psyche. The texture of it squishing down between my teeth and the way the juices sq—."
"Wait a minute," Kuu stopped Damian from saying anymore before he permanently turned him off and never drank a dirty martini again. "You own a bar. Don't you use olives as a garnish in your drinks?"
Damian laughed. "I can handle them just fine. If I'm helping behind the bar, I tend to let the other employees handle those drinks,"
Tina gave an unladylike snort. "Great, the guy I'm falling for is a big weirdo." Her lips twitched, a clear indicator that she was teasing the poor guy.
"Yeah," Damian beamed, responding with a peck to her temple.
"Ewwww," Tina cried with a giggle and wiped at the spot with her linen napkin.
For now, it seemed Kuon was right about bringing Damian in on his secret. He seemed genuine and down to earth. The man was good for her and appeared to make her happy; however, Kuu was not taking any chances. He put an old contact on the case to confirm that the man was indeed worthy of Tina's affection. If he could help it, Kuu didn't want to see this sweet young lady get hurt again. Without her knowledge, he had sworn to protect her like he would his children. Now that Kuon made himself known to her, Kuu and Julie would be able to be more present in her life instead of resorting to secretly supporting her from the shadows. Not including their extended relatives that were scattered around the world, it had been him and Julie for too long. Kuu was excited by their growing family.
"Awwwww," Julie cooed and gently patted Tina's bandaged hand. "I'm so happy for you both."
"Me too," Kuu added, lowering his voice. They were alone, but he didn't want to take any chances of being overheard. "It's good to see you and Kuon healing and moving forward after so long."
Tina's happy countenance drooped at the mention of his son.
"I'm sure you two will make up," Julie assured her, noticing the change in her demeanor.
Tina had every right to be upset. Cedric had blindsided all of them with that public confession last night. When Kuu invited him to the gala, his only expectation was to have Cedric support the fight against bullying. The actor had surprised every one of them when he stood on stage and delivered that shocking speech. The fact that he was willing to risk his career, his reputation, and have a falling out with his family proved to Kuu that he was a changed man. He thought things would start looking up for Cedric until this brutal attack. It seemed fate wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily and drove home the need for change.
Kuu and Julie had tossed and turned all night, sick with worry. Those old anxious feelings from the past welled up inside of him threatening to bubble over. It was Tadashi's message assuring him that the men responsible for threatening his children's lives were caught that finally unraveled the knot. For some reason, the police were keeping it under wraps for the time being, but at least they had informed Cedric's family of the arrests.
"I have an idea," Julie exclaimed, her emerald eyes flashing with excitement. "We were thinking about having a little going away party for Yuki and the kids today. You and Damian should come if you're both free. Dinner will be at six since the kids have a work function later. You can come early and bring your suits. We can lounge by the pool and soak up some vitamin D while the weather is still mild. I think we all could use some fun and relaxation. What do you say, Tina? It'll be a good opportunity to sort things out before they leave."
Tina sighed and nodded. "I have to go home first, but I'll be there," she answered, pushing the food left on her plate around with her fork.
"Great! And you Damian?" Julie prodded. Kuu knew his wife could be very persuasive with just one look if the young man thought he could get out of this one. Kuon kind of threw his identity at him then kicked him out of the room last. The poor guy probably had a lot of questions.
"Sure, I'll be there. My manager can handle things for a few hours."
"Great! I already have Andres at the house, preparing dinner for this evening. I'll let him know about the extra plans." Julie picked up her phone and walked away to call their chef. He wasn't due to come back to work until tomorrow, but he was happy to return to prepare for this dinner.
While his wife was occupied, Kuu continued to eat and make small talk with the couple.
"Is your hand hurting you?" Kuu asked Tina as he watched her switch hands to take a drink of her orange juice.
"It's not so bad. I took some Tylenol earlier," she answered.
"Is it broken?"
"Yeah, it's fractured at the knuckle here." Tina pointed to the knuckle area between her pinky and ring finger.
"Ooh, a boxer's break," Kuu replied.
"How did you know?" Tina responded curiously.
"Kuu here used to be a delinquent in his teens," Julie interjected before he could answer the question. "He broke his hand a couple of times."
Kuu held up his hand to show her where his knuckles looked slightly enlarged compared to his other hand. It wasn't something anyone noticed unless he pointed it out to them.
"Ooh," Tina and Damian cried in awe.
"If you're wondering what he was like back then, I can let you borrow the DVD set of Wild Slam."
"Wild Slam? I never heard of it, but it sounds interesting," Damian replied.
"If you don't mind subtitles…" Julie continued to explain that it was one of Kuu's earlier works when he used to act in Japan.
Kuu's phone chirped, pulling him away from the conversation. His eyes widened as he read the text from Kyoko one more time.
"What is it Kuu? Is it bad news?" Julie asked nervously.
"No, the opposite," he murmured. He lifted his head from his phone and held their gaze, "Cedric woke up."
"Oh my God!" Julie shouted, scaring all three of them with her outburst. "He's really awake?" she questioned skeptically as tears sprung to her eyes. He handed her the phone so she could read their daughter's message for herself.
"Mr. Bennet is awake. He's in a lot of pain, but there is no head trauma according to his doctor. We should be home nlt 3 depending on traffic. TYSM for collecting our stuff. Heart emoji, K." Julie glanced at her watch after reading the message out loud. She stared at the timepiece a moment longer, lost in her thoughts, probably thinking of how close they had come to losing him. Shaking out of her stupor, Julie broke the silence with a deep breath. "I'm glad he's awake. Eltra and his parents must be so relieved...we'll have to check in with them later."
Kuu hummed his agreement and wiped his mouth clean with the linen napkin resting on his lap. He placed it on the table as a sign that he was done eating for now.
"Has everyone had enough to eat?" Julie directed her question to the young couple.
"I'm good," Damian answered.
"Me too," Tina added. "What can I do to help?"
"Well, I'm going to have them pack the food up. You can help by taking some home with you," Julie told her. Kuu would never let food go to waste since he was almost always hungry. Between the four of them, they had made a considerable dent in the meal.
They gave their compliments to the chef and his staff with Kuu apologizing for leaving food on the table. He assured Enzo that it would be eaten within a day. Once everything was packaged up, each couple went their separate ways. With their spirits raised from the news of Cedric's awakening, everyone left more excited for the impromptu dinner party.
After convincing the couple that he was fine for them not to call the doctor on their way out, Cedric shut his eyes and dropped the facade he had fought so hard to maintain in front of them. It was his fault he was feeling like crap. The joke he cracked, trying to lighten the mood, backfired on him. Although Kyoko's reaction was priceless, his laughter sparked an inferno of pain to ripple through his body that left him gasping for breath. He was now trying to recover from the effects, resisting the temptation to press the little button currently under his thumb.
The pain was so intense that Cedric thought he blacked out and returned to floating in the darkness; however, the sound of a guitar in a far-off place drew his attention. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking away the dream-like state. Cedric was now cognizant enough to recognize that the music was coming from inside his room and not his head. He was no longer alone. The strumming eventually gave way to a male vocalist singing.
"Life's too short to even care at all, oh; I'm losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control, oh oh.
These fishes in the sea they're staring at me, Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh…"
His eyes landed on the tall, lean, young man, with a full head of disheveled dark hair and naturally tanned skin dressed in a pair of tight tartan plaid ankle pants and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up at the elbows. The whole ensemble was obviously designer. The problem that even Cedric's swollen eyes could see was that the pieces were ill-fitting on his body and the colors clashed. He would never be caught dead, looking anything less than perfect unless…
Cedric resisted the urge to laugh at the vision in front of him, knowing how stressful it would be on his body. Flynn stood by the door, holding his cell phone above his head, bopping to the beat, and lip-synching with the vocalist as the song played on. He was so lost in his performance that he didn't notice Cedric's eyes open to narrow slits.
"You're so not funny," Cedric muttered loud enough to gain Flynn's attention. It had played often on the radio and was catchy enough for him to learn most of the words, singing along whenever it came on.
Flynn's eyes widened and shut off his phone, closing the gap to stand at the foot of his bed. "I don't know, it seemed applicable to your current situation. Since they say, patients can hear while they're in a coma I was planning on playing it for you when I got the chance...you know," he shrugged, "to coax you back."
"I was just resting my eyes, you dick."
Flynn's eyes flashed with amusement. "Good to know. I've been waiting forever to have my turn with you," he complained.
Cedric's lips quirked at his friend's impatience. They stared at each other for another moment until his gaze drifted down.
"Did you steal your Gigi's tablecloth to make those?" Cedric teased, eyeing the ridiculous mustard-yellow pants.
"I might have grabbed the wrong pants when I rushed out last night," Flynn answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Cedric cocked his brow, curiously but Flynn didn't indulge him. He didn't want him to anyway, the guy tended to overshare about his hookups.
"So... last night was a real shit show," Flynn sighed. He ignored the seat by the bed and maneuvered around the tubes and wires connecting to Cedric to lay beside him.
"You have a bad habit of climbing into my bed uninvited," Cedric grumbled, making Flynn laugh.
"At least I'm wearing clothes this time," Flynn joked, lifting a leg to show off the ugly pair of pants.
"Don't make me laugh," he groaned. "It hurts like a mother."
"I heard. I was expecting to see a baby crying in here."
"Huh?"
"On my way in here, I heard your friends telling your family that you were doing Lamaze breathing exercises to relax."
Cedric grimaced thinking about the last few minutes he had spent with the couple.
"Are you okay?" The concern etched on the Japanese actor's face was alarming. If this guy that should hate his guts was worried about him, he really must look like shit. Cedric was still a little stunned and a lot suspicious that Kuon could be so cordial after all he had done to ruin his life. Like seriously, didn't he know how to exact revenge or hold a grudge? The sudden urge to apologize over and over again welled up within him, but Cerdic fought it down. Kuon wouldn't want to hear it. He had done so much wrong to him that Cedric didn't deserve to be treated like a decent human being. He could only follow through and be a better person.
"Fine," he ground out stubbornly, refusing to press the button that would dispense him a nice dose of happy drugs. He knew if he did, he would be under in minutes and there was still so much he wanted to know.
"Really? Cause you're breathing like a pregnant woman in labor. That can't be good," Kuon replied sarcastically as they stared at Cedric struggling.
"Just don't make me laugh," Cedric warned as a weak chuckle bubbled out. 'Fuuuuccckkk, this hurts!'
"You lied to me," Flynn accused, bringing him back to their present conversation. Cedric managed to roll his eyes as he waited for his friend to continue. "You said you weren't suicidal."
"I'm not suicidal," Cedric frowned.
"What do you call that speech you made last night? You practically drew a target on your back. Look at the state you're in now. I heard those guys were your buddies from high school."
"It's not what you think and for the record, I didn't know the guy that shot me," Cedric snapped, frustration building inside him. Charles had led him out to that alley, straight to Martin and his friends. Right now, he couldn't be certain if Charles was a friend or a foe. The finer details of the night were jumbled up in his head since he was too busy fighting for life and defending a couple that had endangered themselves to help him. He would forever be in their debt and couldn't thank them enough for their selflessness. Despite what Flynn might think, Cedric wanted to live.
"I'm tired," Flynn sighed without argument and closed his eyes, relaxing against the goose-down pillow.
Cedric pursed his lips and gazed at his friend from the corner of his eye. "You should go home and sleep. Maybe burn those pants."
Flynn chuckled, "they are pretty awful." He made no move to leave. "Since I'm your only friend, I can't exactly embarrass you with my poor taste in clothing. And with that face, it's obvious that I'm the beauty in this relationship."
"Hey, I have friends," Cedric protested, not denying that his face was in bad shape.
"Besides your saviors, name another person you consider a friend."
Cedric skimmed through his mental Rolodex to come up with another person he trusted and cherished. There was one person that came to mind immediately. Someone he realized he was supposed to call last night. Someone that was probably worried sick about him.
"Can I borrow your phone?" Cedric asked Flynn. "There's someone I need to call."
"Sure, I'm not sure we're supposed to be using this in here, but what the heck. You seem fine."
Cedric tried to hold the phone, but typing in the number was proving cumbersome. Flynn offered to set the call up for him on speaker. After only a few rings the call connected and a heavily accented voice filled the room.
"Hiromune Koga speaking. Who's this?" the actor answered in Japanese.
"Koga, it's Cedric," was all he managed to get out before his Japanese friend exploded.
"You fucking bastard! Do you know how many times I've called you? I even messaged Kyoko-chan to see if you were alive. Fuck, Ric. What the fuck happened? American news reporters suck. They aren't even saying anything. I told you going back to L.A. was a bad idea. Come back to Japan!..."
"See," he proudly said to Flynn. "I have friends."
Flynn chuckled, "I like this guy already."
"Who the hell is that? Are you cheating on me?" Koga shouted his accusations, making Cedric groan. I have the worse taste in friends.
He introduced Flynn to Koga and the pair of them joined forces and plowed Cedric with questions for the next few minutes. It was so hard to keep from laughing at their ridiculous remarks that Cedric was sure he was going to blow out his stitches or whatever they did to patch him up. By the end of the call, he couldn't have been more positive about his predicament, but they left him gasping for air.
This time when his thumb grazed the magic button, Cedric pressed it for his single dose of happy drugs. When his mother entered the room, he was flying high as a kite.
AN: Hiya, thanks for sticking with me! I had a heck of a time finding a stopping point that I had to cut some scenes from this one and place them in the next chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you for the reviews and for continuing to read. I appreciate it.
The song here was "Cough Syrup," by Young the Giant.
Until next time, ja ne! ^_^