Confabulation. (A Skip Beat! Fanfic)

Meeting old friends.

The rain was torrential again, flood warnings had been put in place over the last 4 days, as even the sky seemed to be lamenting the pain so many people were feeling. Tina sat in the waiting room, well she kind of sat. In reality she had perched herself on the window sill watching the cascading water as it fell from the heavens.

"He really needs you Rick." she whispered to the skies. No tears fell from her eyes yet still they held a monumental sadness.

"You left us all too soon Rick and it's not only Kuon that needs you...I cant help but feel..." Tina's voice broke slightly as she tried to swallow away the lump that had risen in her throat. It wasn't budging so taking a deep breath she forced out the last part of her sentence.

"I cant help but feel its my fault Rick...I broke Kuon...I broke Kuon with my own words in my despair." Finally the tears she had been hiding behind calm eyes fell freely and rapidly, just like the rain outside the window.

They fell in torrents of angry, sorrowful emotion. Tina never realised she hadn't been alone in the room until the strong slight hand rested on her shoulder, the strong slight body wrapped warming arms around her, and the sweet melodic voice spoke.

"It was not your fault Tina. Just as it was not Kuon's fault Rick died. We all make choices in our life whether they are for good or evil. Never can we blame ourselves for the choices of others." Julie held the weeping girl, her own tears were dry now.

She had lived long enough to know the tears would do her no good. They would not bring back her son or the girl and granddaughter she loved. If she wanted that she would have to work for it, pray for it and that was exactly why Tina had been called and why the video of Kuon's happiness had been made. They were fighting against the storm, and all they could do was hope that they were winning.

Kuon was floating, or that's what it felt like: a feeling of complete and utter weightlessness. A freedom he decided he had never really known before. Looking around himself it felt as if he was looking through a thick fog. It was white and dense, but the longer he looked the more he saw. Slowly bit by bit, his feet found the floor and his eyes looked upon the clearing he had visited daily all those years ago.

"Hello Kuon." the voice had a very sweet tone to it, a voice he had heard during his childhood but had too soon been taken away from him.

Turning around Kuon came face to face with two people he had cared about deeply. Walking out of the forest on the path that had always been Kyoko's in his mind came Takarada Jun and Rick Henshaw.

"Hey Bro! How's it hanging?" Rick said with his easygoing smile.

Kuon was speechless for a few moments as he looked over two people who had been gone from his world for so many years.

"Am I dead?" he finally heard himself asking as both Jun and Rick shook their heads.

"No sweetie, you're not dead." Jun said hugging Kuon close "Just a little lost." Kuon hugged the woman back who had been like a second mother to him for his first 2 years in Japan before her untimely death due to cancer.

"And do not say what you are about to say!" Rick said with a scowl as Kuon shut his mouth which had been about to say death was more than he deserved.

He changed his mind and asked another question he was wondering.

"So if I'm not dead where am I?"

He knew where he was in reference to the clearing and Kyoto, but was it his ghost? Or maybe his spirit that had travelled to Kyoto to be here? Kuon wasn't sure if they could read his mind or what, but the two smiling friends seemed to understand his question.