[Drabble] Someone Like You
Title: Someone Like You
Author: shiroikazex
Group/pairing: Yuto/OC
Genre: Angst, romance
Rating: G
Summary: Yuto ran into his childhood friend and love after a long time, and realized that sometimes it really was too late to rekindle old flames.
Disclaimer: Not mineee.
Notes: Requested by mhadz0394 :) I am so sorry that I took your fluff and killed it >.< I didn't have many other ideas. Based very loosely off the song Someone Like You by Adele :)
The little girl in the aisle looked up at him with huge, dolly eyes that were just so familiar. He pushed back the possibilities to the back of his mind and could only look back. She suddenly turned around and scurried down the aisle, disappearing around the corner.
Yuto went back to browsing through the items on the shelf. Having just moved into a new neighbourhood alone, he had a ton of household items to pick out. The shopping trip was taking longer than he had expected, due to his lack of experience in the area of purchasing the mundane everyday items around the house. He finally picked a ladle from the shelf, and turned around to see the same little girl, now with her mother behind her.
"See--Mama, isn't this the ojisan in your photo album?"
Yuto looked up, and came eye to eye with the same pair of dolly eyes that were on the little girl's face.
"R-Rika?"
"...Hisashiburi, Yuto."
The little girl--Nagisa, her name was--was running around cheerfully in the playground with the other children when Yuto returned from the vending machine, 2 coffee cans in hand.
"Here--"
"Thanks," she smiled, taking the can offered.
"How long has it been?"
"I don't know, 7 years?"
"You moved away when we were 16..."
"Yeah, 7 years it is," she chuckled. "Time sure flies."
"How old is Nagisa?"
"She's turning 5 this year."
Yuto nearly choked. She kept her composure and quietly sipped her latte.
"I met her father after I moved."
"Are you... married now?"
She raised her left hand where a simple wedding band decorated her slender ring finger.
"Oh, wow, congratulations."
"Thank you. I had to give up on music school to have her, but I've been well. Her dad took over his family's ramen store. We get by."
"Are you happy?"
She looked down at her hands--hands he had once hoped to hold--in her lap. They retained their former beauty, and Yuto was suddenly thrown in the past, when he used to chill out on the balcony of his room and listen to the piano pieces that came drifting from her window, day after day, year after year.
"Rika... Don't be so hard on yourself. I mean, we all make mistakes--"
"That's where you're wrong," she chuckled again. "You're always worrying about me and the decisions I make. Trust me, 7 years ago I would have thought of having a kid at 18 as being the greatest mistake of my life, but after going through the entire process of carrying her... I changed, somehow. I never want Nagisa to feel like she was a mistake. She's the greatest thing that has happened to me."
"Sorry--"
"How have you been, anyway? Busy with work as usual?"
"Well, yeah, I have drama filming nowadays--"
"I've been watching every week loyally."
"Thanks," he laughed. "That's great to hear."
"23 and at the height of your career... Your group is fairing well. I'm proud of you, Yuto."
They watched quietly for a moment as Nagisa slid clumsily down the slide, not forgetting to wave before she went down. Rika waved back with a word of caution.
"I'm proud of you too, being such a good mom to Nagisa."
"I try, I try."
"She looks a lot like you."
"Only the eyes. She has her dad's nose and lips."
"He must be quite a handsome guy."
"Nothing compared to you though--" she halted in mid-sentence, realizing what she had said.
"Rika--"
"I mean, you've always been popular."
"Rika, I've been meaning to ask--"
"I have to go soon."
"Wait," he turned to face her on the wooden bench. "I just wanted to ask... If you had never moved away, would we have..."
She looked away from his face, and followed her daughter around with her eyes.
"Alternative histories will always be 'if's, they're not meant to be explored."
"But--"
"Things happen for a reason, Yuto," she looked him in the eye. "If fate had planned for me to move away and meet Naoki, it was meant to happen."
"So we were never meant to be?"
"Not as lovers, Yuto, no, never. I'm sorry. I did love you, but I was 16."
"But you become a mom at 18."
"Like I said, things change. I'm so sorry."
He sighed, attempting to take her hand but she drew it back while shaking her head.
"I'm married now, that's out of line."
"I'm your childhood friend, damn it. We practically grew up together."
"We both know you wished for more. "
"Maybe I still do."
"Thank you, Yuto, I'm happy to hear that," she smiled sadly. "But it doesn't work that way anymore."
"If you had chosen me, I would have let you go to music school. And let you chase your dreams of becoming a world-famous pianist, you know that? And after we're done chasing our dreams, we would settle down, maybe adopt a kid and a dog--"
"Don't talk like that."
"I'm just saying--"
"Do you know what's my dream now?"
"What?"
"To raise Nagisa to have a happy childhood, like the one I had with you in it. And I'm content with my job at the kindergarten, anyway. Some time in your life you're gonna stop and reconsider your priorities too, Yuto, and your dreams change. You stop chasing after the big things and settle for the little things in life that make you happy."
"Piano made you happy."
"It still does, but nowhere near as much as spending time with Naoki and Nagisa."
"...So are you happy?"
She paused.
"Yes, very much."
"I see..."
"I have to go, the dinner rush is gonna start soon and the shop is going to be flooded. Do you want to come for dinner?"
"No--It's fine, I've got some late night shooting to deal with anyway. Now that I'm in the neighbourhood I can drop by more often."
"Alright," she stood up to leave. "I'll see you around then, it was nice seeing you again."
"You too--"
"Oh and Yuto..."
"Hmm?"
"I missed you."
She left him in a cloud of melancholy as he watched her stroll away, groceries in hand, with the little girl skipping beside her.
Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you, too
Don't forget me, I begged, I remember you said
Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead
~END~
;~; I'm on a roll of writing emo shit omg.