All For Kiko's Sake, Ch. 16

It took Rio a few minutes for her brain to register just exactly what had transpired. Kozue had given her the wedding ring that Leon had bought. Did that mean she was giving up. Had Kozue reached her breaking point?

"K...KOZUE!" Rio called as she ran out of the room and into the hall. "Kozue! Wait up!"

Kozue didn't respond, and just kept going down the hall.

"Kozue!" Rio called again as she caught up with Kozue and got in front and put her hands on the armrests of the wheelchair. "Don't do this, please!"

"Don't do what?" Kozue asked, looking up at Rio with a glare.

"Don't leave," Rio answered. "Don't just go like this. If you do, you'll be making an even bigger mistake than Leon and I just made!"

"No," Kozue shook her head. "That's not the mistake. The mistake--my mistake--was not seeing it from the beginning. You've liked Leon and had had feelings for him since the first day we met him. You liked him, and I cut into your territory. I'll admit that I was a bit unwilling at first, but I did eventually step in your way."

"No, no, no NO!" Rio protested. "You've got it all wrong!"

"Have I?" Kozue asked as she broke loose and turned her chair around and started wheeling the opposite direction. "Seems like I'd gotten it pretty accurate, to me."

"Wait!" Rio exclaimed as she grabbed the handles of Kozue's wheelchair and dug her feet into the carpet, halting Kozue's movement. "Just listen to me, for just a minute. That's all I'm asking. Alright?"

"I have been listening to you, Rio," Kozue countered. "I've been listening to you for my entire damned life. Like you were my mother or something. I've always done what you suggested. I'm tired of listening to you. I want to listen to myself for once. At least now I know why you were so adamant that I stay in those first few weeks. Well, congratulations, Rio. You've finally gotten what you wanted. Leon's all yours to pursue."

"Now just a damned minute!" Rio yelled. "I'm not entirely sure about all you're saying, but I do know that you're totally wrapped up in what you want, that you can't see what you're doing! You're just going to up and leave your daughter, your husband, and your home, just like that?"

"Who said that I'd be leaving Kiko?" Kozue shot back.

"Oh, I get it," Rio crossed her arms. "So, you're just going to uproot Kiko from a happy home that she loves, and separate her from both a loving father and aunt? Surely, you can see the trouble in that decision."

"She hardly knows me anymore," Kozue shrugged. "Maybe she should stay with you. She'll at least be happy, well-fed, and well-loved."

"How can you say that?!" Rio exclaimed. "She's your daughter! You're the person who she needs to get through her day!"

"Does she really?" Kozue asked. "She seems pretty well set up already. Whenever something important happens, or she needs help, she runs to you first. And if you're kind enough, you tell me eventually. Everything I do to help her, she has to say that I've got to do it like the way you do it. It seems to me that she sees you as more the mother, than I am."

"Kozue..." Rio sighed. She didn't know what to say.

"Just answer one question for me," Kozue said. "What could have possibly been so great that you would risk this?"

"What are you talking about?" Rio asked.

WHY DAMMIT?!" Kozue yelled as she pounded the arm of her wheelchair.

"Why didn't I push him away?" Rio asked. "Is that what you're asking?"

A loud slap echoed across the hall as Kozue backhanded Rio firmly. "Don't play stupid with me, bitch! You know damned well what I'm talking about! Did you think I wouldn't hear, or find out because I was asleep? WHY? You complained to me about my boyfriends for years, about how they were trash and probably were cheating on me! And then, when I finally manage to land a decent guy, and settle down and marry him, you go and do this. Are my choices just not good enough for you? Is nothing I do going to satisfy you?"

Rio held her cheek as the expression of shock faded from her face, and then turned into one of anger. She slapped Kozue in response. "Listen," Rio started. "And listen good, because I'm only going to say this once. It's true that I did like Leon from first sight. I was heavily attracted to him. It was almost an obsession. But then I realized something. Leon only had eyes for you. He could never see me as a significant other. All he could see me as was a good friend, and the sister of the woman he loved."

"I pushed my feelings down when I realized this," Rio continued. "Because I realized that it would only make me miserable if I tried to pursue a fruitless effort. Ever since then, I've been quite happy with being like a sister to him, and just being nearby. All I've ever wanted was for him to be happy. When you started reciprocating his feelings, I was glad for him, and when you married him, I was ecstatic. Not only because you'd finally gotten what you'd wanted in the form of a guy who could keep up with your pace, and also treated you well, but I was also ecstatic for him because he was positively flying on that day. I don't think that he could have been any happier than he was on your wedding day."

"But since you've been in a coma for the last six months," Rio kept on. "You haven't seen what he's gone through. The counseling and therapy sessions he took to stave off the onset of depression and other emotional issues. The hours on end that he's locked himself in his lab tirelessly toiling away to try and find a way to give you back your ability to walk! Or the endless nights where he practically attacked the water in the pool as he furiously swam laps to release all his pent-up frustration!"

Kozue arched a brow and looked at Rio, silently.

"I've watched all that," Rio explained. "And I thought, for one crazy moment, that he deserved to have at least one thing to try and kick him back into smiling again, at least for a little while until the time you woke up. And you know what? Yes, I am satisfied that you married a man that is everything you said that you wanted. I'm not satisfied, however, by how you're not giving this marriage your all, and you're just giving up right here. A man who loves you enough that he cried himself to sleep every night for the last three of those six months just went running off to God knows where, and what do you do? You just let him go. And to top it off, you go and try and shove this off on me!"

Rio then grabbed one of Kozue's hands and firmly placed the ring back in her palm. "This isn't mine," she stated. "And it never will be."

Kozue then looked up at Rio. "Are you quite done?" she asked.

"I see," Rio sighed. "And nothing I just said mattered, so it went in one ear and out the other."

"No," Kozue shook her head. "I heard everything you said, albeit you being a bit long-winded. I just didn't hear anything that justified what you did. All I heard was what he did and how you thought that I was treating him horribly and how you felt it was your job to help him."

"Then listen," Rio replied. "Don't just hear. I thought, for a single moment, that he needed something to get his mind off of his misery. He's been sinking into a depression for the past three months, Kozue."

"And a trip outside," Kozue offered. "A game to play, anything in this house wasn't a more viable option?"

"That's where I made the mistake, yes," Rio admitted. "But I was still so worked up from getting that disc back from that CEO. He might not have been the ideal man, but let's see you start a strip-tease, and see if your hormones stay level!"

Rio then closed her eyes and shook her head as if realizing something. "I..." she sighed. "I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry."

"No," Kozue replied. "You weren't. And for the first time in this discussion, you finally stopped making excuses, I thank you for that. But right now, it would be best if you just leave me alone for a while."

"Kozue..." Rio sighed as she tried to say something.

"Don't," Kozue stopped her as she started wheeling away again. "Just don't. Leave me alone now, all right? Otherwise one of us will say something that we won't be able to take back, alright?"

Rio hung her head and silently turned and walked away.

Kozue wheeled her way to the kitchen and started making herself a sandwich, and poured herself a glass of sake. She set the ring on the table next to the glass as she stared at them both.

A couple hours later, when Keiko walked in, Kozue was still sitting there with one-third of what once was a full bottle of sake just a few hours earlier. "Great," she sighed, muttering to herself. "I have absolutely no idea where he went."

"Aw, I wouldn'a worry 'bout it-HIC!" Kozue said with breath that reeked of liquor. "I'm sure he'll a'come back when he wants'ta-HIC! It's his-HIC-house after all."

"Kozue McNichol!" Keiko gasped and snatched the bottle away from her. "You promised that you would never drink again!"

"Da name's Kozue Kinezono," Kozue grumbled. "Best ta 'member it. It'll do ya some good."

"I'm afraid that I can't do that Kozue," Keiko said as she poured the remainder of the bottle into the sink.

"HEY!" Kozue exclaimed. "That's good sake! Don'na go wastin' it like dat!"

"Yes it is," Keiko nodded. "But you don't need it. It's just going to make you angrier and angrier. In situations like this, one needs a heat that's not clouded by anger to make choices that one won't regret later."

"Ya mean'na like one-way plane tickets to 'Merica?" Kozue asked.

"I sincerely hope you haven't," Keiko said, with obvious concern.

"Haah," Kozue grinned. "Nah, I hav'na gotten to da computer to make it yet."

"And that's precisely why I think you shouldn't drink anymore," Keiko explained. "But I think you just need to give your head... and your heart, a little time to cool."

"Coo?" Kozue asked. "I been sleepin' fer six months. I'ma just gettin' warmed up!"

"Please," Keiko snorted. "You're totally, and understandably angry at two specific people right now. You think that I can't see it?"

"Uhh," Kozue stared at Keiko in a drunken stupor. "I dunno, can you?"

"Yes!" Keiko just sighed and smacked her face. "Gah. Look Kozue, I saw you when you first came here, and I've watched you since. You might not admit, or even like to admit it right now, but I've definitely noticed. Being around Leon makes you happy. You sure as hell didn't smile much when you first got here, and I know for a fact that I didn't ever see you smile the way I've seen you smile at him, ever since you two got married. Do you really, really want to never smile like that again? To just walk out on the obvious feeling of peace you've had here and go back to always looking over your shoulder, and having to scrape enough money together to just get something to eat? Is that really what you want?"

Kozue groaned as she held her head. "Uh, wha' was dat?"

Keiko half-laughed, half-cried with frustration as she took the handles of Kozue's wheelchair. "C'mon," she said. "Let's get you to bed for now, alright? We can discuss everything after you've slept this off."

"Heh," Kozue chuckled. "Soun's good."

Keiko then smiled as she started to push Kozue out of the kitchen when a light reflection off of Kozue's ring caught her attention. She grabbed the ring and turned back to Kozue, whose head was hanging as she had already fallen asleep.

Keiko chuckled as she pushed Kozue to her room and put her in her bed and pulled the sheets up over her. "Sleep well Kozue," she said as she placed the ring back on Kozue's finger. "And I hope you're better in the morning."

"Mommy," Kozue mumbled in her sleep, as tears came from her closed eyes. "Please... Please don't let Daddy go."

Keiko arched a brow and then tucked Kozue in. "Don't worry, honey," she said. "Everything will be fine." She then leaned over and gave Kozue a kiss on the forehead before she walked out.

What was that all about? Keiko thought to herself as she started heading to Leon's office, to use his computer terminal there. Had Kozue's parents broken up? All the hours that Kozue had spent talking with her, the subject of Kozue's parents, somehow, had never managed to come up. And Rio had never said anything either. Whatever happened, she was going to find out.