AN: First, I have too many Skip Beat fics but I wanted to write this and I am trying to find the best way to work on the others. Second, there have been some changes in this like the fact that Kyoko and Kuon are only two years apart age-wise, not four

End of A Very Long Road Home

Chapter One - Tragedy

As the early morning sun rose over Tokyo, Kyoko kept her head to the pillow hoping that the sound of the alarm clock wouldn't continue to beep but she had to take care of herself. She looked out the window at the new day and then glared at the picture of Shotaro Fuwa, someone who had ditched her four months ago and she had gone into the talent section of LME to impress. She had even started to work as an actress for them although she had only done a commercial and spot inside of a rooster costume so far.

She looked to the other rooms of the restaurant housing. Apart from the room that the manager kept for her, the rest were just offices and storage rooms. There was one other bedroom down the other side of the hall but what this place had was an amazing restaurant with amazing food. The couple who owned this restaurant had once been very famous in America and the chef had once been an actor who worked in Hollywood. A lot of people came here to visit with them and taste his food.

However, at the front of the restaurant there was a scared space and Kyoko wondered if this was why the Hizuris had taken her in because she had once met and played with their son if only for a summer. The space at the entrance was a shrine to the young boy, Kuon Hizuri, who had died been murdered when he was twelve. That was a little over five years ago. This ramen shop had opened three years ago and she had worked here for just over half a year. Her history to the Hizuris was small and yet she felt connected.

She managed to clean her appearance before her back straightened and she heard sounds from the kitchen. He couldn't be here already, could he? She walked over to the kitchen and froze as she saw the brunette former-actor working on the noodles for the day. She checked the clock. It was an hour before he was supposed to get here. Kyoko walked over to the kitchen and saw him look up at her, he was pale again and he had a black bandanna over his head. That usually meant that he had thought about his lost child.

"Good morning," Kyoko said suddenly as she dropped down into a bow and Kuu smiled to her.

"Did I scare you?" he asked as he tried to steady himself. Usually this man wouldn't be rattled by anything but what had happened in America all those years ago haunted him. Kyoko didn't know all the details and she had never asked him for them. All that she was aware of was that Kuon Hizuri, or Corn as he had told her, had been abducted and murdered when he was twelve and his parents hadn't been there to protect him. Kuu-sama had never told her anything else.

"No," Kyoko said before looking around, "I'll go and wash up and then I can -"

"Don't work off the clock," Kuu tried to joke with her, "I want to be able to pay you for your work. Don't you have your classes today too?" he asked her and Kyoko blushed. She had requested that Kuu not pay for her school tuition or acting classes but he had gone ahead and done so as if she were their own child. She would definitely have to pay them back. She had even told him to take all the pay but they still gave her free room and board and a generous wage. They were extremely kind people and it was obvious why they were so beloved.

"I don't mind," Kyoko tried to tell him but Kuu shook his head. "Thank you. I will join you for breakfast though," she told him and Kuu watched her before getting back to work.

…..

…..

Kuu looked at the gate to the front entrance of his home. He had chosen somewhere with high gates and somewhere that would be protected, somewhere he and his family could have as his very own. His family had always been very charismatic and social but they all needed a place to be themselves and this was his castle. However as he saw the twisted metal, the sharp pain in his gut seemed to dig further. Something was wrong, something had gone terribly wrong.

He looked at his driver, "Call the police when we get there," he said before pausing. Kuu pulled his phone out of his pocket and rang the phone number for the house. "Come on, come on," he said as he hoped that somehow Kuon was still there even if there had been a robbery. He knew that his son was good at hiding and running and so he could avoid an intruder, as long as he didn't approach them in any attempt to protect the house. It wasn't worth it.

The phone wasn't answered and Kuu pushed a hand through his hair. He looked around to see that there were police cars just outside his house with bright lights and sirens. What were they doing there? He jumped out of the car before making his way to who seemed like the chief of police.

"What's going on here?" he asked as he saw the open door to the house. He tried hard to control himself and steady his breathing but the lights and the loud noises were putting him on edge. "Where's my son?" he asked as he looked around.

"You're…" one of the officers said as the chief didn't seem to be responding to him. Kuu felt himself get more out of breath but the important question was where the hell was his son!?

"This is my house and I demand to know what happened!" Kuu yelled at him and the chief officer turned.

"There was a break in and a possible murder," he said and Kuu's body turned cold. There was only one person in that house, there should have only been one person in that house. He shook his head in an attempt to deny that they had said that. He had heard wrong or they had gotten information mixed up. He couldn't -

Kuu felt his stomach lurch forward as he saw a Gucci coat that had once been green like his son's eyes but now was soaked with blood. It made his heart stop and he grabbed hold of it before anyone could stop him. He remembered the way that Kuon had been excited for Julie to buy this from him. She had told him so much about how she loved the company. Kuu tried to steady himself before he saw the crime scene.

There was a loose shoe and bloody footprints on the front door step before an even bigger bloody puddle. Along the wall there were small fingerprints where Kuon had attempted to stop himself from being dragged and to the side a gun. Kuu stood there frozen. This wasn't his house, this wasn't his life, this wasn't his kid.

"You're Mr. Hizuri, right?" a sergeant asked him and Kuu nodded weakly, not able to connect with the world anymore. This was one of his worst nightmares, something that wasn't happening. It was a test and soon Kuon would come running out with a filming crew on one of those extremely disturbing prank shows. The sergeant approached him and she handed him a note which Kuu could barely hold let alone read.

Hizuri,

You stole my promised spotlight so I've robbed you of your sonshine.

…..

…..

Kuu tried hard to settle himself throughout the day but after reliving the worst night of his life, it was hard to keep oneself calm. He had searched for months to try to find evidence that Kuon was alive somewhere and trying to find him and he had pestered the police as his heartbreak deepened each day to the tragedy. If only he and Julie hadn't left him home alone. They hadn't known that this would happen but they should have, he was unable to protect himself.

It was time to open and Kuu checked over his work for when the first customer would order. This life felt better for him than the stress of acting and after knowing that someone had murdered his kid over an acting role, Kuu didn't want to be in that place anymore. Still, he loved cooking and having family meals together and he adored food. Hopefully Kuon would have been proud of this choice.

"I'm so sorry that I failed you," he whispered as he looked at the small shrine at the entranceway of the restaurant. He and Julie had spoken about having other children but the pain was always far too much to bear. They didn't want to have anyone try to replace Kuon, there was nobody who could replace Kuon.

Kuu heard a knock on the front door of the restaurant, he was expecting a couple of the waitresses to be coming over soon and one other cook to help him in the kitchen but they tended to use the back. Not many people came in during the first hour of business. Kuu looked around before going to answer the door, he tried hard to smile and not let the reflection of that terrible night be the first thing that the customer saw.

"Hello," he said with a smile before taking a step back as a man stood there looking as if he were some kind of paparazzi photographer. He had a leather trench coat with multiple worn patches and had large and heavy boots on, he had a scarf wrapped around his neck and heavy blond stubble around his face. He also had a black cap that was pulled down and hid all but his designer sunglasses.

"Can I help you?" Kuu asked as he saw the height of the individual. Definitely a foreigner. It wasn't just the height but the build and the blond facial hair. That made him more nervous. It had been an American actor who had killed his little boy and Kuu didn't want to think that there was more than one person who would have been part of that.

"Are you open?" the man coughed and then gestured with his head, "Can I come in?" he mumbled and Kuu nodded slowly. He did have some knives he could use to protect himself. "Long…" he chuckled a little and Kuu eyed him warily. "Long ass month."

"Yes, did you want something to…" Kuu said and the man looked to him, coughing more and Kuu saw that the man had coughed up blood onto his arm. So he was sick? "Let me get you something to clean that," he said and the man walked in before sitting at the bar.

He was in his late teens or early twenties and he had it rough. Feeding a homeless man was better than feeding a fugitive. He took a look at him and the man put down a bag that Kuu hadn't noticed that looked as beat up as he was despite it still having a price tag on it. Kuu handed him a wet towel for the blood.

"Is English better for you or Japanese. I'm skilled at both," the man said and Kuu hesitated watching him before smiling.

"It doesn't matter," he said, "so, what can I get started for you?"

"I think that I need to contact the police," the man told him, "that's what you do for missing person cases, right? Even if they are done internationally. I probably should have done that before leaving for Japan," he shrugged and Kuu stared at him. This man was speaking Japanese without a hint of an accent but he had come from somewhere else? The whole thing was confusing to him.

Kuu sighed before looking away, "Did you seek me out because you know about what happened with my son?" he asked and the young man took off his sunglasses to show the stunning emerald eyes as well as his hat which uncovered his blond hair. Kuu stared at him. There was no way that there was somebody who looked so much like an older version of his son. No, the dream was making him go crazy.

"That is exactly why I sought you out. Took me some time to get here," the man said before staring at him intently. "What do I say now?" he asked before shrugging, "I'm home," he said weakly before dropping down from exhaustion and Kuu managed to catch his head before he hit it as he passed out.

Kuu looked at him as he tried to figure out what had happened. They had never found Kuon's body and the man in front of him did look a lot like his son but this wouldn't be the first time he was contacted by a fake Kuon. One thing was true though, he had to get this man to a hospital and hopefully order a paternity test.

End of Chapter One

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated