Oh bother. Finals will be coming up next week and I feel horrible. Thanks to IsabelleWalker, Princess3975, Athena of wisdom, and Interficere for their reviews. And of course StrawberriCat for making sure that it isn't horrible or muddled.

This is somewhat of a continuation/different perspective of what happened in the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Certainly not Skip Beat!

Tora sighed softly as she went back to meet with her father. Kyoko was working this afternoon, leaving her alone to deal with Kuu. Not that Tora was really reluctant to spend time alone with her father, but she still felt bad about the act that they were using to trick Kyoko. She could only hope that the President's plan went well or Kyoko would be extremely upset and maybe broken by the time that they finished.

Kuu waited nervously for Tora, anxious about seeing his daughter again. He and her mother had agreed to let her to to see Kuon, but they hadn't expected her to still be so reluctant to enter into the acting field. Julia and he were proud of their daughter, but they did wish she would give acting a try again. Her experiences with the occupation before were not particularly pleasant, but they weren't average either. He sighed as he remembered why Tora said she didn't want to act anymore.

Tora was only six when she had her fist role in a movie in which Kuu wasn't also participating. Kuu was so proud, though he'd never tell her the director had chosen her as a favor to him. His daughter would proved to be as good as the rest of their family, he was sure. She was not a main character, but that was not a problem. Even so, Tora would shine. She had proven herself capable of working with her father in other small roles; acting as an extra who needed to be a small child. Her skills weren't really used, mostly she just read, drew, played, or sang in a group of other children needed for the scene. Now she would need to remember her lines and act with adults other than her father and his friends.

In the first scene that she was shooting, Tora forgot her lines and started crying. The director wasn't used to working with children and he yelled at her till she stopped. Kuu was busy on another set, having left his daughter in the care of those working with her and trusting them to watch out for her. He didn't know till he came to pick her up that she was completely incapable of talking to anyone on the set and wouldn't talk to anyone for almost a month. It hurt him that she had been scared and he hadn't been there to keep her from being upset, but he couldn't understand why she was having problems with it. It never occurred to him that she simply had stage fright without him around.

Even in the following years, Tora continued to show signs that she was uncomfortable talking in front of large groups. When she was eight, she started crying at the sign of any camera. It was heartbreaking to Kuu and Julia to watch their daughter fall to pieces under the pressure, so they stopped trying to get her to act any more. They had already seen how badly it had broken Kuon and they were afraid the same thing would happen to her if they continued. Tora was almost fine after that, only having a few breakdowns when asked for a photo or autograph. Until her brother disappeared.

When Kuon left, Tora completely shut everyone out for a while. She didn't talk to her parents or anyone, though she seemed to understand when they talked to her. Julia cried for months that their son was gone and Kuu was hardly far from doing the same. Though eventually they healed enough to continue with their lives, trying to work through the pain that their choices had caused. It wasn't till Tora was old enough that Kuu thought she was ready to know what had happened to her brother. He told her that Kuon had left for Japan and had become Ren Tsuruga. She had looked shocked and sad before seeming determined. He was surprised that she asked to see her brother, so much that he had agreed without thinking about it.

Kuu sighed sadly, shaking his head clear. Such thoughts of the past were too sad for him to think of now. He needed to focus on the future of his family. His own hopes were that he could reconcile with his son and daughter, making sure to do his best to make them happy no matter what.

I'll write up the next chapter today and get it proof-read. It'll be up next time I feel like getting on here. ^w^