A/N1: I don't own Itazura na kiss.
Irie Naoki paid off the taxi driver and let himself into the quiet house. His son was visiting his grandparents, and Sahoko nowadays retired no later than 10:30, so he was alone downstairs. He poured a glass of wine and opened the sliding door to the back patio. He sat down at the table and lit a cigarette. A bad habit, he admitted, but not as bad as the one he had taken up the past couple of years.
What part of Kotoko had this one reminded him of? He exhaled toward the sky. Ah, yes, she had tripped over her own feet and sat on the floor laughing at her clumsiness. He shook his head ruefully. Of course, the reason they all ran together in his mind was because, upon closer examination, none of them were Kotoko.
Not for the first time in the past two and a half decades, he wondered where she was, what she was doing, what she looked like, who she loved… He could have found out all this information from his mother, of course, but if he asked he had the terrifying suspicion that she would look sadly at him and shake her head at the stupidity of his twenty-first year.
He barked a laugh. And it would certainly be justified. Hadn't he also deeply regretted not listening to the warning voices of those closest to him? But he was so certain that setting aside his own desires and preferences was his duty to his father and the business that he had nurtured for all of Naoki's life.
Well, that bitter decision of long ago was certainly now bearing fruit even more bitter. It had begun when the loud laughter of a stranger in a bar in a distant city had brought up memories long buried. It was a testament to how well the years treated him that he was able to convince the young woman to accept his invitations.
It had ended quickly, as had all the others, and as this one would. Some people you were given only one chance with. It was too bad that those people are generally irreplaceable.
He looked once more to the sky and, finding no answers there, stubbed out the cigarette in the empty wine glass and entered the house to find his cold bed.
A/N2: As you know, I enjoy writing light-hearted, humorous stories. This one came to me while I found myself deep in the bowels of the Sahoko story arc, never my most favorite place to be. I believe it shows how warped Naoki's soul could have become without Kotoko and how fatally wrong was his decision to sacrifice himself to save Pandai.