Note: I do not own UtaPri's Tokiya Ichinose.
"You've been here all these times?" a blue eyed, blue haired man said, startling a woman from removing table linen from a clothesline. The voice, was unmistakable.
"I didn't know that you would find me." The woman said, turning around to Tokiya Ichinose. She smiled at him fondly.
"Why did you leave?" Tokiya asked.
"I had to. I was just an Intern during that time." She answered. She landed a temporary work under the Shining Agency as an Intern/Mentor for Ai Mikase, who was working closely with Starish at the time.
"I heard you had a child. Was that true?" Tokiya asked. "We never got invited to your wedding…" He continued.
"There never was a wedding." She answered.
"A child?" He asked. She turned around to return to her task, removing the table linen from the clothesline. "Hey…" he prodded.
"You came here because this is a café. Would you like to go inside and have something to eat? It's on the house." She replied, carefully tiptoeing around the question.
"I won't go inside unless you tell me the truth. It has been 10 years when you suddenly left." He countered.
"Why don't I tell you after you've eaten? You seem a bit thin now…" she said.
"No one had any explanations…" he insisted. She sighed.
"Let's go inside and have a talk…" she finally said, carefully folding the linen that was in her hands. Tokiya reached for the laundry basket at the same time that she did and for a moment, their hands touched and both slightly flinched. "It's ok, I can manage." She said, taking the basket herself and swiftly moving to the employee's service door. "I'll meet you inside." She added over her shoulder.
"This café is yours?" he asked her, once seated in one of the cozy booths. Timidly, she smiled and nodded.
"I had some savings and converted this space. This was once our main house." She answered, cursing inside for letting the "our" slip.
"You and who? Your ancestral home is on the other side of the country." He asked. He needed answers. This woman came in a whirlwind to the Shining Agency and left without leaving a trace. In the amount of time that she was there, her natural shine awakened feelings inside him that Haruka Nanami could not, or rather, would not—owing to the no romance rule they all agreed upon. "About us… then…" he pressed on.
"I was much older for you. And there were complications…" she answered, lowering her face.
"You weren't serious about Ren, right?" he asked her. "Nor with Ranmaru?"
The woman looked directly into Tokiya's eyes. They were older, they seem to have seen more things, but still had the glint of boyishness and a hint of love that made her fall for him.
"I was only serious about you." She answered.
"Why did you leave?" he asked, the weariness of the years spent in the dark, showing up over his handsome features.
"Because there was no work left for me there." She answered.
"But you left composing and opened a café." He sarcastically said. He was growing impatient. He could not read her and was suddenly flooded by rage when his mind filled, first by an image of her kissing Ren, followed by her kissing Ranmaru in a very compromising position. He remembered the days when they were naively living an idol's life with parties every other week, some events getting too steamy.
"Those were just kisses and you always had terrible timing" She said, as If reading his mind. She could not let him know that she was forced into those situations. Not that it mattered now, those were too long ago. Tokiya's train of thought was obvious from the change in his facial features. She watched and memorized all of his mannerisms during those times that they were together.
"That does not justify cheating." He finally spat out, the rage taking hold of the last few shards of control he had left.
"I did not cheat in any way." She said, tears finally flowing down her eyes. She heard the familiar honk of a school bus and she looked at her watch. Again with his terrible timing. She hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes and started to stand up. He gripped her arm tightly, almost hurting her, not letting go. "We can talk some other time. Please leave." She said, panic replacing the tears.
"No." he growled. "I want answers now."
The sound of running feet could be heard and before having time to react, a small voice called out "Mommy!"
The blur of blue hair as he turned his head and steel blue eyes meet with a much younger set of steel blue eyes.
"How…?" he asked her.
"Mommy, who is he?" the young boy asked, his uncanny resemblance to the visitor making him tilt his head in awe.
"My dear Tokiya, meet Mr. Tokiya…" she said, seeing as the cat's already out of the bag.
"That's funny, mommy, he looks just like me and has the same name as I have." The small boy said.
"Amazing, right? Now go get a brownie as a snack and wait for me in your room, ok? We still have customers to serve…" she said, now realizing that the vise grip had already loosened.
"Ok! Nice to meet you mister!" the boy said before hurrying to the back of the café.
"What…" Tokiya muttered. His head was spinning. "You said nothing happened that night…" he breathed, remembering a night he spent with her that she assured him was just a dream. So that was why something felt really off when he woke up the following day and saw that they were on the bed together but fully clothed. Ever since that day, his body yearned for something dream-like which he could not bring himself to ask her directly. After all, she insisted that they both fell drunk and was out like a light bulb.
"I did not cheat on you. You have always been the one. But I had no right to take you away from Haruka nor from your fans. You were a bright shining star…" she said, sitting down again and lowering her eyes. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes again but she did not want him to see it. Trying her hardest, she regained her composure. "You have succeeded, you are very popular now, and I have succeeded as well…" she said, gesturing at the cozy café.
"Why didn't you tell me? I'm sorry. I would have been there for you even if it meant that I left Starish." He said, gentle hands reaching for her hands, slowly travelling up through her hair and then down to her cheek. Her eyes glazed over.
"That was unfair for all…" she insisted.
"And how about for you? For our child?" He asked, swiftly standing up and sitting beside her. In a blur, his lips were over hers, seeking some refuge from all the years of hurt and unanswered questions.
'Maybe this time, the timing would be fine.' She thought, remembering the sweetness of his kiss.
END
This Is by far the shortest I dare to write. But I really really really like Tokiya and absolutely had to write a "what if" story for all of us who love him. .