Confabulation. (A Skip Beat! Fanfic)

More trauma.

Julie didn't need to look up at the two sets of footsteps she could hear approaching her. Rosa slept sweetly in her car seat while Julie cradled Kyoko's sleeping head in her lap. After crying herself raw the beautiful young woman had fallen asleep in Julie's arms.

"Evening boys." Julie said with a quiet tired voice.

"Any news honey?" Kuu asked looking down at the 3 women he loved more than anything in this world or beyond that. Julie shook her head as her fingers smoothed Kyoko's hair softly.

"She's exhausted, the poor mite and from what I gather she's not been sleeping much since these headaches started. She's terrified."

The two men watching them sighed. Julie had looked at neither of them, Kuu knew his wife was crying and didn't wish to disgrace herself, but Kuu thought her tears were well justified.

"We are all worried Julie." Lory said quietly, and they both saw the shudder in her shoulders and heard the small sniff.

"I think we have reason to be worried. If Kuon...if he...I think if he doesn't come out of this well, we will lose the Kyoko we know and love so deeply. I don't think she will be able to pick herself up so easily if Kuon hurts her like that brat Sho and her mother."

The two men knew her words were wise, but still Kuu needed to hope.

"She will still have us sweetie, and all her friends and the boss. She will not be alone."

For the first time since they arrived, Julie looked up at the two men. Her eyes were red from crying, her face solemn.

"Yes she will still have all of us, but what you have to think about is she has no one around that does not remind her of him. I doubt Kyoko will be able to handle being around us no matter how much she loves us. I know what pain feels like Kuu. After you took Kuon from us I was unable to see you in the same light. I couldn't even stand looking at you! Not because I didn't love you and didn't need you at that time. It was simply because seeing you reminded me of what I had lost and that made the pain all the more real. I cannot watch Kyoko collapse Kuu, but in the same breath if Kuon hurts her we will have to respect her decision if she chooses to run from what causes her more distress. We will have to let her go." Kuu and Lory stared at the woman before them who made so much sense yet at the same time spoke words neither of them wished to hear.

"What about Rosa?" Kuu asked softly looking down at the girl he saw as his granddaughter, not wanting to imagine if he was unable to see her, be with her.

Julie smiled sadly. "That will be up to her mother Kuu, and maybe her father if he chooses to be so."

All they could do was nod at her words and pray. Pray that the boy they all loved did the right thing, that they themselves had done the right things, they prayed the confabulation would end, but the life it had created would continue.

When Kuon woke up his head felt stiff and heavy. The first sense that assaulted him was the smell of cleaning fluids and disinfectant mixed with the smell that can only be known as sickness. Am I in the hospital? He wondered on that fact then just as suddenly he remembered what he had been doing before his mind went blank with pain.

"ROSA!" he cried sitting up swiftly from the bed he was lying on, which he realised a moment later was a stupid thing to do. He lurched to the side, throwing up the contents of his stomach. A steadying hand was on his back within a moment, a cardboard hospital dish catching the contents of his stomach that had not yet hit the floor.

"Rosa is fine Kuon. Kyoko and Julie are with her and last I saw she was sleeping soundly." he knew the owner of the voice, the strong hand that was caressing his back with love and affection, the strong hand that assisted in lifting him and pushing him back onto his pillows in one movement