A/N

In a little less than two week, I will be heading off to college. With a full course load ahead, my writing time will be limited and muse and motivation low. Just a warning that updates might become even less frequent in the months to come.

Thanks for reading~

MWG

Outside Théâtre de Durepos, Kyouko turned off her small green sedan and gave her two passengers stern looks. "Both of you are to stay in the car." She gave her younger passenger a warning glare. "You are not to scream your head off when you see Yuki, you are not to try and touch him unless he initiates it first such as a hand shake, and under no circumstances do you two reveal how exactly I know you. Understood?"

Two black heads—one amused and the other far too serious—nodded, and with a resigned sigh the amber eyed woman left her car to the mercy of her passengers as she went collect her son. Kyouko hadn't planned to bring them with her to pick up Yuki from his rehearsal, but she couldn't exactly leave a popular Japanese actress and her daughter back at Le Goût du Vin and risk them revealing her celebrity identity unwittingly. Her employees' high intellect was usually a useful trait, but not in this case. Kyouko wanted to live quiet for as long as she could. She didn't want to subject Yuki to a life in the spotlight either, since he really was a good kid with the beginnings of a heart of gold. He still needed to work on his temper, but he'd be a good man some day.

It took a few moments of navigation, but Kyouko managed to find a door leading into the audience. The seating section was completely dark except for small lights along the sides of the main aisle. The stage was clear of actors, and stagehands were moving props offstage, so the black haired chef searched the seats for the troupe leader Durepos. She had absolutely no idea how to get backstage after all, and the two passengers back in the car would be getting more anxious the longer Kyouko stayed in the theater.

She bit back another sigh. There were reasons why she had talked about going back to Japan for a visit, rather than having them come to Paris. As if there wasn't enough on Kyouko's plate already with her date later that night, making sure Jeanette and the rest of the staff didn't destroy the restaurant when her back was turned, making sure Yuki stayed out of trouble, and half a million other things it seemed like some days. Maybe her staff was right. Maybe she did need a vacation. Maybe after Yuki finished with his play, they could go to California, go sightseeing, and maybe Kyouko could slowly introduce her son to the fact that she'd been lying for the past fifteen years about his relatives.

That sounded much worse than she had thought it would fifteen years ago.

Kyouko heaved a sigh, resigned yet again to be tired with worry and an idiot for it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gone out and just gone wild. Sure, Jeanette had dragged her on some girl nights but the amber eyed woman had always been reserved and withdrawn during those times and it had had the desired affect: no man had dared to approach her, and very few had dared to approach her single friend, much to the Jeanette's disappointment.

A weary smile on her face, the black haired woman searched the seemingly endless rows of seats for the troupe leader and found him looking thoughtful by another set of doors on the far side of the theater. Mr. Durepos wasn't a very tall man, but he was easy enough to spot in a complete empty audience.

"Monsieur Durepos!" she called out, picking her way through a row towards the man.

He glanced her way and raised a hand in greeting as the small woman managed to worm her way into the other aisle. "Mademoiselle Mignon, good afternoon. Here to pick up Yuki?"

"Yes, and would you please show me how to get backstage?" she asked, a bit embarrassed. "My sense of direction isn't the best and I get turned around easily."

The man chuckled and nodded, placing his hand between the beautiful woman's shoulders as he guided out of the seating area. After a few twisty turns through a few different hallways, they arrived at a door that proclaimed Staff Only. Kyouko hesitated for a moment, but since Durepos had brought her it must've been alright for her to enter. She pushed the door open and entered the backstage of an actual stage for the first time.

Before she left Tokyo, the LME president had discussed with her the option of performing before a live audience via stage acting, and had even lined up scripts if she'd accepted his offer. Kyouko never had the chance to accept since, three days later, she'd found out she was pregnant and had started planning her disappearance, coordinating with Moko so the two could still keep in touch afterwards, while erasing any trail the younger actress might've left as she made a new life. Kyouko still didn't have the heart to tell her friend that they hadn't done a good enough job, though, since it had taken Kuu and Julie just over a year to find her.

As Kyouko strolled towards where the actors were gathered, the heavy black curtains slid closed and the stagehands finished moving the props back into place backstage. Her tennis shoes squeaked softly on the polished wood as her eyes lifted to look at the lights hung high above the stage. It would've been different to act in a place like this where there was no such thing as a green screen or CGI or retakes. It would've been a challenge she would've loved to participate in and to work together with actors who performed on stage instead of in front of a camera. Perhaps after Yuki had gone off to college or moved out, she could see ifDurepos knew of any small community troupes that would be willing to take her on as a part-time actress.

Kyouko could use a hobby, now that her hobby had become her career.

Suddenly a hand passed in front of her face, causing Kyouko to blink in confusion for a moment before turning to look up at her son who smiled down at her.

"Welcome back, Mom," Yuki teased, slinging an arm over her shoulder as he tried to follow where her line of sight had been fixed. "I've been trying to get your attention for a while and you were off in your own little world again."

The mother winced and gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, just a lot on my mind today. Now, let's get you home." She herded the tall boy towards the exit, but before they could leave the stage he dug in his heels and refused to move.

"What's the big hurry? I'd thought I'd introduce you to some of my new friends."

"Maybe next time." The raven haired chef glanced at the watch on her wrist and shook her head. "Come on now, Yuki, I don't want to embarrass you in front of your friend by carrying you out over my shoulder, and if you don't get that behind I gave you moving, that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Panic clouded his clear blue eyes and he got moving. Kyouko almost had to jog to keep up. The middle school boy found her green sedan easily enough, but he paused a few parking spaces away as he realized there were two unfamiliar faces in the car.

"Mom, who are they?"

"An old friend and her daughter. Moko's husband's working and since Hime was on summer vacation, they tagged along. I didn't realize they were coming until they came by Le Goût du Vin or I would've told you sooner," she said honestly. "Especially about Hime."

A slight hint of fear crept into his eyes as he asked carefully, "What do you 'especially about Hime'?"

"She's your, um, fan."

"By fan, do you mean like look but don't touch kind of fan or crazy screaming, I'd better run for my life kind of fan?"

Kyouko averted her gaze from her son's searching eyes and even if she didn't say anything, he had his answer.

"Damn it, Mom, why'd you bring her with you?"

"Watch your language, Yuki Mignon," she scolded sternly, ineffectually pushing at his shoulder in hopes of getting him to move. No such luck. "And I didn't have much of a choice. Moko wouldn't let me leave her back at the restaurant to be looked after by Jeanette."

"Then why didn't you just leave them both there?" he asked as if it was the most rational course of action and she should've known that, but the thing was, she knew that it wasn't the best option, let alone a rational one.

"I couldn't, Yuki."

"Why not?" he argued, brows drawn together in earnest confusion. "It's not like they'd wreck our apartment or the restaurant."

"I just couldn't, okay?"

He grabbed her shoulders and dug his nails almost painfully into her skin, forcing Kyouko to look at him. "No, Maman, it's not okay. I'm not five. I need a real reason."

She knew this was going to happen at some point, some day in time, but she didn't think it would be this soon. "Fine, but not here. I'll tell you when we get home."

"No," Yuki said fiercely, holding his ground and face mulishly set. "I'm not leaving until you tell me."

She snapped. Maybe it was the way he asked it, looking his father with eyes flashing and lips set firmly, or maybe all the stress and worries had finally taken their toll. Kyouko didn't know.

"Fine! You want a reason?" Her finger found its way within a centimeter of his sculpted nose and wriggled there. "I'm not who everyone thinks I am!" She hissed at him, arms flailing widely to encompass the general sense of the world. "I've been lying about almost everything for fifteen years and I've been planning on lying till the day I die!"

Neither of them was sure what caused Yuki to stubble back: the force of her delivery or the shock of her words, but he did and Kyouko used it to her advantage and towed him towards the car, pushing him into the back seat alongside a pretty twelve year old with big brown eyes and short black hair. No one said a word as Kyouko slammed her door shut and started the car. As they pulled out of the parking lot, however, Moko decided to try and break the tension.

"Kyouko, what happened?"

"Nothing that wouldn't have happened eventually," Kyouko muttered, glancing over her shoulder before changing lanes.

The actress glanced back to an obviously shell-shocked Yuki. "Did you tell him everything?"

"Not yet."

"Should I call Hiou to come and get Hime?" Moko asked, calm and patient and not berating Kyouko for being an idiot as always.

The chef relaxed a little, but shook her head. "No. Hime-chan can wait downstairs under my wait staff's supervision. I doubt she'd want to see something like that."

"You knew it wasn't going to pretty when you made this decision, Kyouko," Moko reminded her.

Kyouko sighed. "I know, but I had hoped. It was stupid, but I had hoped he'd listen long enough to understand it had to be done."

"It didn't have to."

The amber eyed woman shot her friend an unfriendly look. "Don't start, Kanae. Just don't. You can yell at me all you want after I get back after my date, but not now."

Silver eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as the actress gaped at her obviously mentally disturbed friend. "You're going on a date when you know He's here, in the same city limits, with Mr. Hollywood?"

"Yes, I am, and the chances of running into Him while I'm out are a million to one. Mr. Hollywood"—the retired entertainer smiled at her friend's nickname for Kuu—"is running interference too."

"Knowing you're on a date?" Moko asked sketptically.

Kyouko didn't look away from the road as she replied sheepishly, "No?"

Kanae looked at her friend and tried not to laugh; she really did. Kyouko scowled at her as they reached a red light. "It wasn't that funny, Moko."

The look the older actress gave her long time friend said she didn't agree, but didn't say it. "Anyway, should we get Mr. Hollywood in on the conversation?"

"No," the chef said firmly. "You know what he's like, Kanae, and I don't think Yuki's going to be prepared for him."

"True, but I don't think your boy will ever be ready for that."

Yuki blinked blankly as a glass of water appeared in front of him on the kitchen table. He looked up to find the beautiful woman his mom had introduced as Kotonami Kanae, despite the fact the chef called her Moko. He'd been too preoccupied to ask. Or care really. When your sole parent suddenly tells you she'd been lying about almost everything for the entire time you existed, you tend to focus on that and ignore everything else.

But now that he was semi-rational again, Yuki realized that he had a virtual gold mind of information standing in front of him. "Kotonami-san, how exactly do you know my mom?"

He didn't know much about her, but if he remembered correctly, she was a famous celebrity in Japan and a fairly famous model in Europe. Which begged the question of how exactly had his middle class, sort of average, fairy-obsessed mother met and become friends with a beauty like this?

Definitely not through normal circumstances.

"We meet each other through work," Kanae answered honestly. She just happened to leave out the fact that it had been an acting audition and she'd been rude and malicious towards his mother, whom she'd also called a housewife. That was nearly eighteen years ago and all had been forgiven, but from what the actress understood of her best friend's son's personality, he wouldn't be very happy about even such a small slight so long ago.

"Work?" asked Yuki, bewildered. "You worked together at a restaurant?"

The black haired woman glanced towards the hallway Kyouko had disappeared down five minutes ago and had yet to return from. "Your mother will explain once she finishes her phone call."

He frowned in frustration at the non-answer but let it be. "Do you know my dad? Or at least what he looks like?"

"I know your dad, yes. Kyouko used to be referred to as his exclusive kouhai. She nearly worshiped the ground he walked on before we finally got it through her thick skull that she was just as good as he was at her job."

"That sounds like Mom," Yuki acknowledge with something resembling a teeny tiny smile.

"Uh-huh, but, dear lord, do you know how long it took for her to figure she was in love with that giant? Three years, three whole years while he covertly tried to court her. Can you believe? A drop-dead gorgeous guy invites you out to dinner and it's just dinner between colleagues? Yeah right."

"Kotonami-san, what's my dad like, really?"

Kanae sighed, knowing he wouldn't wait to ask his mom. "I never got to know him like your mom did, but he's not some criminal or anything. Well, he's made a few mistakes, but he's never been prosecuted. I entrusted him with your mother though and he did his best he could, I suppose, to make her feel cherished and protected."

"Then why'd she leave?"

Kanae didn't answer at first. "Kyouko still has troubling believing she deserves to be loved and she decided fifteen years ago that she wanted to protect the people she loved and would come to love. That was her belief."

He took a sip of his water, and stared into his glass as if it could give him the answers he wanted. "So she left 'cuz she was pregnant with me?"

"Simple answer? Yes. Complete answer? No. She could've stayed if she trusted we'd be able to protect her, but she probably would've left Japan either way after discovering her pregnancy. The difference, Yuki, is that she would've come back after you were born."

"Does he even know Mom was pregnant when she left?"

Kanae looked at her hands. He would've asked sooner or later. "No. I am the only person beside Mignon-san who knew."

"Pépé knew?" Yuki asked, gripping his water tighter. "He'd never said anything, didn't even blink an eye when he collaborated Maman's story about my father being dead!"

"Kyouko may not have told him."

"Her own father?"

The actress closed her eyes in horror. Dear god, he didn't know. "Mignon-san never had any children."

"Are you saying Mom's adopted?"

"No, Yuki," she said gently. "It's just that Kyouko doesn't know who her real father is and has never had an official one. He's mostly likely deceased anyway if anything that woman said is true."

"That woman?" he repeated faintly.

"The bitch from hell, evil incarnate," Kyouko cut in as she took a seat, "also known as Himeji Saena, your grandmother. Oh and a word of warning, if someone ever approaches you claiming to be her or somehow connected to her, run like hell and don't look back, even if they put a gun to my head."

"Mom…"

"No, Yuki. You and I are expandable to her and if she so much as suspects we'll blacken her name, we will not survive long." The retired actress took a deep breath. "Promise me, Yuki."

His expression was mutinous, but agreed anyway. "I still don't see why."

Kanae's eyes softened and she placed a hand on the shoulder of her friend's son. "We all do crazy things for our kids. This last year Hime's been confessed to thirteen times and every one of them has withdrawn their confessions within a week."

"Hiou-kun?"

"She's got him wrapped around her little finger and has him thinking she's a perfect little angel."

"Ah," Kyouko said knowingly, "like Maria used to be."

"Yep, but instead of having a Ren-sama who she doesn't have a chance in hell with, she has her Yuki-sama."

Both middle-aged women turned to smile at Yuki who paled. "I'm not interested in dating. At least not yet. Maybe in a couple years. A few decades."

They both looked at him impassively for a long moment before Kyouko's poker face crumbled and she dissolved into laughter. Kanae followed shortly.

"My life just one big joke to you, isn't it?" the fourteen year old muttered, bowing his head in hopes it would hide his rapidly spreading blush. No such luck.

"We're sorry, Yuki." Moko's face clearly said she wasn't but Kyouko ignored her. "We both know that you and Hime are still young and will have plenty of time to find someone you truly love from the bottom of your hearts. We just hope you two wind up together."

"Geez, Ma, that's sooo comforting."

Kanae smiled at the Hizuri Jr. clone and ruffled his hair. "It's thanks to a lot of people hoping and pushing your parents together that you're here, Yuki."

"Hey. It thanks to too much alcohol and a lot of passion that he's here. And Ogata-san."

The silver eyed actress snorted. "Wrong. It's President Takarada's fault. He's the one who suggested to Yashiro who suggested it to the director that you should have some wine."

"I should've known. That man is devious in his old age. Does he have any grey hair yet?"

"None," the older woman said with great distain. "Not even in that damn mustache. I've search his office—the normal one that doesn't change—and couldn't find anything to suggest he's been dyeing it."

"Lucky Maria."

"She's got a fiancé now you know."

Kyouko stared at her friend slack-jawed. "You never told me that."

"Of course not. You would've wanted to be there for the wedding and we can't have that."

"I know," the chef said with a sigh. "But that doesn't mean I don't like to know. She's like the little sister I never had."

Yuki was of course totally lost, knowing none of the people his mother and her friend were talking about. Thank God for the internet—he could just search the names and see what came up. The black haired boy doubted it would be much, but you never knew.

Kanae listened absently as her best friend rattled on about a time little Maria-chan had let loose a tub of spiders on an unsuspecting woman who'd been flirting non-too subtly with Hizuri Jr. They'd gotten off topic without Kyouko realizing it and the actress didn't want to make her friend face reality again just yet.