Disclaimer: When pigs fly, I suppose...
A/N: A HUGE holler to HARRY . HOLY FREAKIN GOODNESS, GIRL! Thanks for all the love! i saw all that and i just HAD to update JUST for you!
Btw, missjewels also had a fabulous review and brought up SUCH a valid point that i forgot to clarify for you all! This story is placed in an american setting (alternate universe! i did warn that, lol) simply because i am too lazy to research a japanese setting. lol.
Another thanks to all my AMAZING reviewers! I've done a humiliatingly poor job at responding to individual reviews but know that they are soooooo appreciated!
Also, I swear I started it with the full intention of just having fun with whatever humor i can pull out of Sakura and Itachi. However, they had other plans. So i changed it to a drama. Therefore the angst. But bear with me! It is not forever!
Her former CEO returned to leaning on the counter. His dark eyes bore into her mother's. "Yes, Naomi, please, do tell. What is going on?"
Instead of answering, her mother began quietly returning the food to their original places in the kitchen. After she replaced the spam in the refrigerator and closed the door, she leaned her forehead against its cool metal. "Please leave, Itachi. Please."
"No," Sakura spoke up, staring at the dark-haired man. "I want to know how you know my mother."
"Because your father used to be friends with mine," he said.
What? "When was this?"
"Before the accident."
Sakura's hand grasped the fabric of her skirt. "Why did I never know this?"
This time her mother spoke up while still leaning against the fridge. "It was a business acquaintanceship that developed into a friendship. It wasn't something you needed to know about."
Sakura kept her eyes on Itachi. "But why do you feel responsible for our family? Just because your father was friends with mine doesn't mean you have to carry our burdens."
Itachi pinched his nose between two fingers. "It's not just that."
"Then what is it?"
"Why is your father in a coma, Sakura?"
Her mother yanked her head from the fridge. "Don't, Itachi!"
She looked between her mother and former CEO, then slowly replied, "He'd been on his way home early from work. He was hit by a drunk driver a few blocks from the house."
"That drunk driver was my father."
Sakura felt her insides turn cold.
A soft sob escaped her mother before she slid down the fridge and to the floor. There she knelt; her head buried in her hands.
"And so…" Sakura took a deep breath. "So that's why you feel responsible? Because your father…" She couldn't complete her thought. Her brain couldn't complete her thought.
Itachi's hand slid up and ran through his black hair. "My father wasn't just randomly drinking that day, Sakura."
"What do you mean?"
His eyes met hers, then looked away. "He and I…we'd gotten into an…argument. About Sasuke's position at Uchiha Tech. He was infuriated at me but I refused to accept his demands." His head tilted back as he stared up at the ceiling. "I never refuse him. I'm always the good son. The obedient son. But that day…that day he pushed me too far and I couldn't agree. So he stormed off. I assume to a bar. It wasn't many hours later that I got news of the accident."
Sakura's hand groped blindly behind her for the table so she could sink against its stabilizing strength. But she missed the table anyway and ended up plopping down onto her bum on the floor. It makes so much more sense. Why I'd been allowed a job at Uchiha Tech despite him knowing about my age. Why he never fired me despite how much I pushed him. Why he…why he was always so interested in me in the first place. It was all out of a sense of duty to my family. She closed her eyes. And nothing more.
A soft touch enveloped her hand. she reopened her eyes to so Itachi kneeling in front of her; her hands cradled in his. "If it weren't for me, Sakura, my father would not have drank that day. And your father would not be in a coma. I cannot express how much that haunts me."
Sakura's heart broke at the vulnerability, the sheer regret, in the depth of his eyes. "You are not responsible for your father's actions," she whispered.
He squeezed her hand. "Nonetheless, I am responsible for doing everything in my power to make things right." Then he looked at her mother where she still sat against the refrigerator with tear trails down her cheeks. "If Naomi would let me."
Her mother sucked in a rough breath and fresh liquid filled her reddening green eyes.
"But one thing I don't understand," Itachi continued, his gaze still on her mother, "is the location of the accident."
