Family Planning

Summary: Sequel to Families are Important. Kyouko and Ren will get their happy ending, even though they are determined to drag themselves through hell on the way.

It gets pretty dark in the middle, but it is surrounded by fluff.

Trigger Warnings: Bullying, suicidal thoughts.

This is a sequel to Families are Important.

To get you back into the story, here is how it ended:

Preface

Yashiro was teasing Ren in the parking lot as they waited for Kyouko. Ren had offered her a lift home, and she had accepted without complaint.

The change in atmosphere between the two intrigued Yashiro, and he was determined to get the truth out of his friend. Now that the president was back, and Ren's electronic equipment was easy to replace again, he had more leverage than he'd had before the break.

It wasn't working, though, so he resorted to comments about how it was probably just another meaningless thing that had made Ren happy. The result of this was that when Kyouko arrived, Ren was glaring at his manager with an evil aura around him. Feeling sorry for Yashiro, she reached up on tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

"Kuon, don't be angry"

The two of them had finally got round to explaining their full relationship to Kuon's parents, and the four of them had come up with a solution. They had created a new persona for him, slightly more complicated than the original Tsuruga Ren. He was currently Kyouko's Kuon, acting as Tsuruga Ren. It was a good compromise. It allowed him to be Kuon, and Ren, so that both his family and fans could relate to him. It also gave Ren the ability to express his emotions a little more openly, and that had been a part of Yashiro's confusion.

His dark mood had dissipated instantly at Kyouko's words. He hugged her tightly, happiness radiating from him, almost blinding Yashiro with its brilliance. Kyouko didn't resist, or freeze. To her, Kuon was American, and this sort of hug was just a greeting; she could get used to it. Ren didn't mind the reason. He was allowed to hug her, and he no longer cared what Yashiro said about meaningless progress; he was a step closer to his goal, and he was the only person with this privilege.

Nothing was going to dampen his mood anytime soon.

Family Planning

Chapter 1

Life had become hectic. Since coming back from America, not only did Kyouko have to catch up on delayed work caused by her impromptu departure, but she had been offered a new movie role. It was a huge step towards her dreams of playing a princess role one day.

True: she was still the antagonist, and Kyouko had initially been invited to audition due to her uncanny ability to be scary, but the thing that had got her the role over the other actresses was her purity and innocence.

Kyouko's character is sweet and gentle: designed to be the favourite of the audience - but she is neither the victim, nor the heroine. Having met Kyouko, and realising that the rumours about her personality were true, the director would have no-one else for the role, and was relieved when she accepted so easily : he would have begged if necessary.

It is after all very rare for an actress to be able to pull off looking so innocent. Most actresses have an egotistical sort of pride which shines through the eyes and ruins the effect. Kyouko did not. She still truly believed in her lack of self worth, and although director Tsukuda was a little saddened by the idea, it made her perfect for the role. Thankfully for him, Kyouko was delighted at finally getting a role in which she would be able to act like a true princess for most of the film. Even if her character was actually the villain, she would be able to show the world that she would be a great choice for her dream princess role.

Unfortunately, the role required deliberately trying to get the audience on her side and she still did not know how to do this. The president had suggested that she would not be able to do the role justice if she did not find her ability to love: after all how could she get the audience to love her, if she did not care for the emotion.

Naturally, her first choice for help would have been Tsuruga Ren, but it was different now. Firstly she knew that his experience in love was polluted by as many bad feelings as hers was, and secondly, their relationship had become strained. After the initial shock and adrenaline rush had gone, the strong willed character that she had created to support Ren had left her body. She could not believe how bold she had been, and some of her actions made her cringe when she thought of them. What exactly had gone through her head to make her think that she could hug Ren in public!? How despicable, he must be so ashamed to have been seen like that with me. Also, to think that she could just become part of the Hizuri household was atrocious. They were clearly just being polite and making her feel welcome : they are nice people and were not going to let a visitor feel unwelcome.

Even with those thoughts in her head, however, she still had a little voice from one of her surviving angels, which insisted she see things as they were, and reminded her that Kuu had let her call him "Father" even before she had visited. The poor little angel did not have a loud enough voice to convince Kyouko, but he never relented, and Kyouko always had that nagging half formed thought at the back of her mind.

Her gradual distancing herself from Ren caused him to fear that she had finally processed what he had done as teenager, and was afraid to be near a murderer like him. Not wanting to confront her about it in case she said the words he feared, Ren retreated more and more inside his old 'Tsuruga Ren' mask and distanced himself from her. Kyouko, in turn, read this as confirmation of her thoughts and the miscommunication expanded until they were both avoiding each other with such conviction that even Yashiro's planning could not get them together.

Yashiro reluctantly reported his failings to Lory, who was silent for a long time before resignedly thanking the over worked manager for his hard work and hanging up. Yashiro stared nervously at his phone like it would eat him: his eccentric president was never that calm in the face of lost love.

When the Hizuris got the phone call from Lory they were not overly surprised. They had kept in contact with both their children, and had noticed that the number of times that Kyouko and Ren were together when they rang had decreased from almost always, to almost never. Both their children had seemed perfectly fine on the phone: too fine - so fine, in fact, that they must be trying so hard to hide their feelings that they forgot to include imperfections in their characters to make the situation seem realistic.

Tears ran down Julie's face and Kuu wrapped his arms around her, taking the phone and turning off speakerphone.

"Boss…" he murmured, both his voice and face creased under the pain of his emotions. He listened to Lory for a while before relaxing a little and squeezing his wife's shoulders in comfort.

"Boss, you sure? We can really visit our children?"

Julie looked up, her eyes searching her husband's face. Seeing Lory's reply in Kuu, she jumped up to pack. Kuu arranged the details with Lory, leaning against their bedroom doorframe and watching his wife pack one-handed, whilst talking rapidly to her assistant on her mobile.

"You better make him see us" he murmured into the phone, concern for his wife making him be short with his long time friend.