Confabulation. (A Skip Beat! Fanfic)

Facing Reality

They only needed that one sentence to know that what they had feared was here and now, as Kuon woke from his slight concussion the confusion in his eyes as he looked at Kuu made both Kuu's and Lory's hearts break.

"Dad?...What are you doing here?"

Julie who had been just entering the room took one look at her son and turned. Sobbing she ran from the room she had just entered.

"What?...MOM!" Ren called trying to jump up from the bed. He had no idea what was going on, he had no idea why he was here, but seeing the look in his mother's eyes and the way she had turned and ran from him, he felt completely out of his depth.

"She's OK son. But I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a little while if you wish to speak to her." Ren looked at his father's own tear stained face and the hurt in his eyes as he looked at the man he hadn't really seen truly as his father for over 6 years.

"Dad what's going on?" he asked, his fear and confusion of the unknown making him appear to Kuu like the child he had loved so deeply before the hurt and violence had corrupted his soul completely.

"Kuon I need you to listen to me now. I need you to listen to my story and not speak until I have finished OK?"

Ren was terrified, what was going on? Why was everyone so serious? Why was Lory looking 50 years older, his eyes and face drawn as small tears leaked from his eyes? What was happening? So he did as his father asked and he listened to the story of his life for the last 3 months. The longer he listened the angrier he became.

"GET OUT." he screeched Finally as Kuu got to the point of telling Kuon about his romantic evening out with Kyoko that night.

"GET OUT!" he screamed again.

When Kuu tried to touch his son to comfort him as his son grasped his head, fighting back the painful headache that was threatening to destroy his mind as he knew it. Kuu and Lory could do nothing but leave him. When Dr. Benkia came and tried to explain to Ren about his condition, he grew angry, throwing the jug of water that had been beside his bed at the doctor who swiftly ducked from the room as Ren screamed his anger and frustration. That seemed to be all that was in the man now, roiling anger and hate as he screamed, hit and kicked at anyone who approached him. Not even the nurses were saved from his wrath as he refused to co-operate with anyone. It took 4 orderlies plus 5 nurses to finally pin Ren down and inject the sedative into his arm. When they strapped him to the bed, Julie sobbed even more.

It appeared Ren or Kuon had done more than lost his memories of the last 3 months, and as Dr. Benkia sadly told them it appeared he had lost his control on his emotions and in a way his mind. Kyoko had been lucky, she had missed the main bow of the branch that had almost dropped onto Kuon, she had been pinned by only the smaller branches and the shrubbery. The fact her mobile had been in the trousers she had quickly dressed in was their saviour as she called Kuu and between moments of consciousness, had managed to tell him where they were and the last part of what had happened. They had found the pair of them on the pathway. Emergency services rushed to the scene and helped with the rescue and removal of the fallen bough off of the young actress, who had thankfully received only minor bumps and bruises. It had been Kuon that had worried them most receiving a second blow so close to the first he had received not so long ago. They rushed him to the ER.

Kyoko looked up at Julie entering the room she had been assigned. It took only one look into the eyes of the woman she now thought of as a mother to know the truth.

"He's gone, hasn't he?" the simple quiet words brought on new waves of tears for Julie who looked down at Kyoko as she watched the girl's heartbreak. Without the need of her words she nodded silently before in a breaking, cracking voice she tried to speak.