Summary: Collection of ficlets, drabbles, one-sentence drabbles and future fic previews. Some sweet, some sad, some silly, but all short and all KakaNaru and/or NaruKaka. #23: Dying Solo. Sakumo knew that his son had died alone. There was something in his eye that showed it, hurting even as he smiled... —Brief preview of Regret, which is related to an earlier fic, With the Sky in His Eyes.

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Sakumo knew that his son had died alone.

There was something in his eye that showed it, a lingering strand of attachment wound tightly around something never quite fulfilled, pulling at him and hurting even as he smiled. It was the reason Kakashi had ended up in that place with him, father and son trapped in the same quiet loneliness, unable to move on even after death had claimed them.

"Will you tell me about yourself?" he asked the man his son had grown up to be in those long, long years without him, wanting something to fill the gaps in both their hearts.

And so Kakashi did, recounting his life bit-by-bit until Sakumo could see how everything pieced together and made him who he was. Yet for some reason that single-eyed gaze kept flicking away to stare into the surrounding emptiness, thoughtful and sad, as though he was looking for something which was not there. The something of his lonely death only seemed to grow as Kakashi spoke, and Sakumo wondered if his son even knew what it really was.

A distant longing.

A helpless pain.

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Regret

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He knew his son had died alone.

He wondered if anyone would try to find him.

And he also wondered, bittersweet smile almost at his lips, if there would be anyone who mourned for Kakashi just as he had once mourned for the boy's mother (for his son had still been a boy then, only a boy).

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Full version, titled Regret, along with some other oneshots I'm working on will be posted when they're complete. Hopefully soon? ^^;; Chapters 8 and 9 (final) of Windchime are set to be posted on 29th June (END OF EXAAAAAAAAAMS) and 29th July (BIRTHDAY! :D) respectively. :3

Now back to revision, exams on Monday...