Words: 376
Characters: Hatori, Kana, Mayuko
Time: Anytime after Ch. 54
Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort
Disclaimer: Tayaka Natsuki owns everything.
It felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. Hard.
Hatori had never thought he would see her again, especially not just walking down the street. He thought she had moved away with her new husband. So why was she here, holding hands with two toddlers?
Hatori took a half-step towards Kana, before he remembered that she wouldn't even recognize him. It felt like his heart was twisting, but he forced himself to turn away from the woman he had loved so much.
Then he heard her laugh, behind his back. It sounded like tinkling bells, penetrating through the clamor of the street. He heard the high-pitched giggles of her children. He thought about what it would be like to twirl one of them high in his arms, and call it his own. He wondered what it would be like to be Kana's husband, the father of her kids.
He wondered what he had done to deserve losing it all.
Hatori, realizing he had come to a dead stop in the middle of the sidewalk, took a small step forward. To his surprise, he didn't collapse. He took another, and another. He tilted his head forward and let his short bangs cover his eyes.
His eye.
For a brief moment, he let himself remember what it had felt like to have tears running down both sides of his face, instead of only one.
"Ha…Hatori?"
He turned to the voice to see a very tall woman leaning against the door frame of an old bookshop. He blinked tears from his eyes to see her better.
"Mayuko?"
She stepped down from the doorway and walked over to him. Hatori, feeling only like locking himself in a dark room, turned his face away.
"Yeah, it's me," she said. She sounded concerned.
Damn, Hatori thought, I don't want her to worry about me. He reluctantly looked her in the eye and pulled his mouth into a smile.
"I wish you a good day," he said, and started to walk away.
"Hey," she called out to him. He half-turned back to her. She smiled.
"You paid back your tears, Hatori. That means you can keep mine."
Hatori nodded and started to walk again. But strangely, it seemed a little easier.
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