Disclaimer: I love Skip Beat!, but that doesn't mean I own it. Pure fan love here.
Story: An accident causes Kuu Hizuri to lose his beloved wife and his memories. Kept safe and secret in Japan, Kuu is lost and alone. That is until he is assigned a caretaker by the name of Kyoko, who looks at him with such pained eyes.
Set as an AU, what if? universe.
Spoilers: Yeeeessss. Yes, yes, yes. Beware?
Warnings: Hm, I need to think about this time.
Pairings: Kuu/Kyoko

Comae Berenicids Falling on Winter
Chapter One: When the World's Been Painted Grey

The living room was empty and dark, but he didn't care too much at the moment. He tiredly watched the television, smiling slightly at the video of him about to promote his new movie. He'd worked with a nice kid on that movie. He wished he could be able to act alongside his son and spend time with him again. If only Kuon would just…

"Kuu Hizuri, everyone! Let's welcome him onto stage –"

He closed his eyes and turned off the TV, ignoring the blond strands that fell forward as he bent over and cradled his head in his hands. He loved acting. He really did. It was his beloved craft and he never wanted to stop.

But the ache of the empty, lonely house haunted him more days than not, especially with his sweet wife's increasing withdrawal and depression and the missing son whose presence never seemed to go away in the worse way.

"Kuu…" a soft, lilting voice reached his ears.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked over to his wife, with Juliena hovering by the entrance to the living room and giving him such a hopeless look.

"Yeah, Julie?" he asked, forcing a smile onto his face and pushing cheer into his voice, pretending he was okay. "Come here, babe," he opened his arms to his wife, giving her a tender look.

She swept forward and nestled herself into his embrace, sniffling quietly.

"I miss our son," Juliena said. "I wish he would just come home."

"I know, I know," Kuu murmured. "But he has to do what he has to do."

If only Kuon would just hurry up with it, so he could reunite with his family.

"Let's take a trip out," Juliena tugged at his collar. She wiped at her eyes and gave him a watery smile. "Let's just…let's just take a drive and not worry about anything. I want to get out of this house. "

He did too. It was too stifling and lonely, and the two of them bonded better outside of it than when they were trapped inside and couldn't even look at each other sometimes.

Kuu nodded and smiled at her. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go?"

She got off of him and he stood up from the couch. Holding each other's hands, they headed to Kuu's car and backed out of their garage, not deciding on a destination and just driving around as they had first thought to do. It was silent as a grave in the car though and Kuu would do just about anything to make the silence go away, to go back to how it used to be –him, Juliena and their perfect son happy and together. Kyoko, too, would've been happy with them and fitting in as if she had always been a part of the family.

"Do you think Kuon hates us?" Juliena asked, voice flat and quiet.

Kuu looked at her in dismay, wanting to pull over. "No! Of course not! Julie, don't –"

Whatever he was going to say, he never got to finish. All of a sudden, the loud screeching of tires sounded and all he could do was watch the car coming from the other side of Juliena, smashing into her side of the car and then there was nothing but blackness and silence.

The chestnut-haired girl took deep, even breaths, sitting very still as she tried to meditate as part of her continuous training for her role as Momiji (Uesugi-san would be very upset if he found out she wasn't!). Mogami Kyoko was a name that was going to be taken serious, and so help her, she was going to make sure she did a more than fantastic job on the role she had gone above and beyond to secure.

Because there was no way Kyoko was going to lose to Sho.

Letting herself grin a little and feeling giddy, she still almost fell off her perch when she heard Producer Kuresaki talk to her. Her eyes snapped open immediately and she looked to him, giving him her full attention and hoping she didn't look too silly in her meditation or just now when she startled at his presence.

"Good job today, Kyoko," he quietly praised her. "We managed to fit in more than the scheduled scenes today."

She smiled widely at him, feeling her cheeks warm up. "T-thank you, Kuresaki-san! And I'm glad. I hope things continue to go well."

Kyoko was happy to know Kuresaki was pleased. It was hard to please him –as was apparently widely known (though she hadn't until the audition) –Kuresaki was a strict, no-nonsense kind of guy and was usually very hard to please. That he was actually pleased meant that things really were going great.

"Alright! I'm off then," her co-star, Koga Hiromune stopped by them, smiling cheerfully. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Bye, Koga-san," she said brightly, though still a tinge shy. "See you tomorrow."

Koga was really fun to be around and he was nice. She was glad that he didn't mind helping her out and practicing with her, and even ridiculously claimed that he needed her help and was inspired by her too. It was still flattering a veteran actor like himself would pretend about such a thing for the likes of her.

Between he and Kuresaki, she really loved working on "A Lotus in the Mud."

Especially (squealing in her mind) since she finally got to work with her beloved Kanae! That, more than anything, made everything perfect in her world right now, and she was only sad that Kanae hadn't been on set that day and hadn't needn't to be there again until next week.

"You're drifting off again," she heard Kuresaki say in amusement and she flushed red in embarrassment. She gave him a sheepish look. "I'm sure whatever it was, was an amusing thought," his voice came out dry, but his face gained a small smirk.

Before she could reply back, surprised at him though, her cell phone rang and she confusedly dug it out of her purse. She didn't recognize the number, and didn't know if she should just ignore it or answer it. Eventually, she decided that it was probably best to answer it.

"Um, I'm sorry, Kuresaki-san. I'll just be a bit," she apologized, but he waved her off and gestured to her phone. She quickly answered it. "Hello?"

"Is this a Kyoko Mogami?" someone said professionally in English.

"Yes?" she said hesitantly, also switching to English. That drew a surprised look from Kuresaki that she looked away from in awkwardness.

"You were listed as an emergency contact by a Kuu Hizuri," the woman on the other line said to Kyoko, who stiffened up and felt herself start to breathe faster, feeling ominous about the call now. "We're calling to inform you that he and his wife have been in a serious car accident. Right now, they're both in surgery. We will call you –"

"Wait, is this America?" Kyoko cried out. "What's going on? I'm sorry, I don't understand –"

"Please calm down, Ma'am. I'm sorry, but at the moment, there's not much information I can give you. We'll call when there's been an update."

"Thank you," Kyoko said faintly, not resisting when the other hung up. She rushed to call President Lory. "President Lory, this is Kyoko. Did you get a call from America? Did anyone call you about Hizuri-san?"

"Mogami-kun? Yes, I was just called and heard about it just now. I promise I'll get more information, but in the meantime, would you like to come here and wait with me?" He too sounded distressed, but he was still kindly trying to reassure her.

"Please," Kyoko said, her voice having already become thick with tears she hadn't noticed had come and were threatening to fall right then and there. "I'll be there."

She hung up, before realizing that she didn't have a ride and would have to wait for the bus in an hour to get there and she couldn't just wait and do nothing when her mentor was hurt and something had happened –

"Kyoko, calm down. Breathe," Kuresaki's hands were on her shoulders and he was directing her to breathe in and out slowly, and she struggled to listen and follow his directions. "You're having a panic attack."

For a minute, he helped her calm down before she was calm enough for him to ask what happened. She wiped hurriedly at her face.

"I have to," she took in a shuddering breath. "I have to go to President Lory's office. Someone…someone close to us was in a car accident and I need to get there and find out what's going on. He promised he'd find out more. I have to get there. I have to…I have to…"

"Breathe," Kuresaki instructed her again and she did so.

"I have to get there," her eyes were teary again. "I have to get there, but I can't because I don't have a ride. The bus won't come for another hour and I'm stuck, but I need to get there. I need to get there."

The urgency built up in her as much as the terror.

"Do you want a ride then?" Kuresaki asked and Kyoko looked at him in shock and utter gratefulness.

"Please," she croaked, sounding just as terrified and needful, as she had when she pleaded with the President to let her be there while they waited for information together.

"Let me retrieve my things," he said solemnly. "I'll be quick."

And while he was gone, Kyoko buried her face in her hands and cried.

"What's the status?"

"Broken leg and femur…several broken ribs…might be brain trauma. We took him into surgery to at least get started on his leg before moving onto other problematic areas."

"So he's in the OR? What about the woman?"

"Died on the operating table. We tried to stabilize her in the ER, but when she was brought in for emergency surgery, we lost her."

"Damn…is he stable at least?"

"Yeah, got him in a good spot for now. He's been there a while, but we still need to keep a watch on him."

"Schedule an MRI once he's completely stable and awake, and cleared for it after the surgery. If we need to, we might have to schedule a CAT scan to look into any of that brain trauma, but we should save that at a later date. What medications is he on?"

"He woke up once he got to the ER, so we had to prep him with general anesthesia. He lost a lot of blood, so we've hooked him to receive a blood transfusion while he's being worked on. We haven't given him anything, until we're sure what he needs and can handle."

"Good –keep me updated. I have to give a phone call."

Lory had been called out of nowhere as he was playing his favorite game. He'd been annoyed up until he actually answered and heard the first things out of the nurse's mouth.

And then he sat anxiously, trying his best to get more information, demanding to be redirected to whoever would help him best, until he'd been told that Kuu was in surgery and the doctor in charge of him was going to find out what he could and give him a call back. Kuu was being worked on and there was nothing he could do or be told until a new status update would be given.

And he hated that. But wait he would, just as he waited for Kyoko to come join him and the two of them would wait together in misery together.

Started 7/14/17 – Completed 7/18/17

A/n: Um, yeah –I didn't want to start this just yet, but it's been bugging me and I said what the heck. Compared to my other Skip Beat! stories though, I really doubt I'll be updating this story quickly. Dunno. I have at least around 10 chapters (including this one) planned, but eh…Don't know the interest in this one too either, since the one-shot this is based off of seemed sort of skipped over…We'll see, I guess? Review please!