[Maki]

Silverware clinked against plates at the dinner table. The sound was very sharp and pronounced in the dull silence of the dining room. It was a very large table, much too large for the mere three occupants, one of which was just a four year old boy.

"Mommy, I want more!" He exclaimed, jarring the two other adults from their stiff eating. The woman at the table smiled softly at the request.

"Sure thing, Makio." Maki said, leaning over the table to place some extra food on her son's plate.

The man at the head of the table grunted, not looking at her. "Aren't you just spoiling him?"

Maki faltered for a moment, before sitting back in her place. Silence fell on the dinner table once again.

This has been the case much too often as of late, Maki thought. For the past two years, actually. Any time she was in the same room as her husband she felt chilly, like she was with a stranger. Which was all wrong. He was her husband! And they were deeply, passionately in love!

Or at least… Maki told herself they were. This was not quite how she had pictured love would be like, but she was sure she could work it out easily!

"So how was your day, darling?" Maki asked, forcing herself to sound cheerful and interested. Her husband shot her an odd look as he finished chewing.

"Fine." He had a handsome face, with a head of black curly hair. No one had quite seen the resemblance, but he was obviously the very real reincarnation of Daki! Or so Maki liked to claim. Back in college when Maki had first met him, bumping into him in a hallway just like she had always fantasized, she was convinced it had been destiny!

It wasn't until much later—after Maki had dropped out of college to marry him two months into their relationship—that Maki had the thought that perhaps she had let this particular impulse carry her a little too far.

"Makio and I had a lot of fun today, didn't we, Makio?" Maki tried to stir up conversation again, flashing a smile at their young son. Makio nodded his head very vigorously up and down. "I was thinking once he starts grade school, we could enroll him in soccer. What do you think, darling?"

"Natsuo…" His voice sounded strained as he stared at his plate. "I...can't do this anymore."

"Hm?" Maki's heartbeat went crazy even as outwardly she remained calm and oblivious. "You can't finish your dinner?"

His hand tightened around his chopsticks until his fists were trembling. "I want a divorce."

Maki's heart went from crazy to utterly silent in the span of a few seconds.

"Mommy, what's a 'divorce'?" Makio asked innocently, canting his head. Maki stared at the boy for a few moments, face perfectly calm. She stood up from the table and picked him up.

"Did you not hear me?" Her husband asked from behind her, voice nearly choking as she ignored him.

"Not now, darling." He looked surprised that Maki seemed completely unfazed by what he said. "Come on Makio, I'm going to put on a movie for you, okay?"

"Ehhhh, don't wanna!" Makio complained as she led him away from the room. She reassured him that it would be his absolute favorite and he brightened up immediately after, forgetting all about the tense dinner. Maki set him up in his room and left the door open a crack in case he called for her. She stood there for a few moments, staring blankly at her son through the crack in the door.

How dare… How dare he bring that up in front of their son? Anger and disgust overtook her numbness, and she turned around and strolled back to the dining room table where her… husband was waiting for her.

When he spotted her again he looked nervous, as her usual calm was more icy as she looked at him and he could've sworn a stiff breeze was present in the room.

"Darling," Maki said, without any of the forced sweetness she usually injected into her voice when she spoke to him. "Mind explaining to me what you meant?"

"What's there to explain?" Her husband asked with a tight voice. "I can't do this with you anymore. I want a divorce."

Maki just looked at him, hurt in her eyes despite her anger. "I don't understa—"

"It's obvious why, isn't it?!" He suddenly snapped, making her peer down the hall where her son's bedroom door was still ajar.

"Please keep your voice down." Maki didn't want their son to hear this.

"Why should I? I'm tired of playing house with this pretend 'family'!"

Maki blinked in surprise. "But… we are a family."

"It doesn't feel like it." He growled, pushing aside his plate of food as if he was disgusted. "I feel like we only got married to fulfill some… sick fantasy you have."

Maki felt like he punched her in the chest. "Wha…"

"Face it Natsuo, it all happened too fast. The spark was gone within the first week of marriage. We don't even sleep together anymore, for crying out loud!"

Maki just listened, mouth slack as he finally voiced the reality of the situation. But still, a tiny part of her denied. Who cares if they didn't sleep together anymore? Sex wasn't something she cared about. She could admit that she had been very curious about it at first, but she had quickly come to realize that it was an unpleasant experience that only lasted a few minutes.

But oddly enough, she felt more alarmed than sad or surprised. She had spent so much time carefully crafting her ideal existence and the ideal picturesque family she had always envisioned having. But it might as well have been a house of cards, because it was coming tumbling down the moment someone pointed out that no foundation existed for it.

"We've been married for five years…" Maki's voice shook with repressed anger, even as she stared helplessly at the wall in front of her. "Why now? Why end it now?"

He shifted in his seat, finally looking uncomfortable. "I've… met someone else." He admitted. Maki moved before she even realized it, and only felt her palm sting after she slapped him across his face. He slowly turned his head back to look at her, eyes cold and unmoving even as he stared at the offended tears forming in her eyes.

"It's time you face it, Natsuo. What you and I have… is not love."

[Riko]

Riko groaned as she poked her disheveled head from under her thick covers. She spotted her tank top near her and she groggily grabbed it and slipped it on. A loud clatter from outside her bedroom made her jump. "Inori?" Riko called just before she yawned loudly, standing up and stretching her arms over her head. There was another clattering sound and she peered out the door curiously. "What's going on…?"

There was a cardboard box set up in the middle of her small apartment filled with her girlfriend's belongings. Well, currently filling up with her girlfriend's belongings, since a new item was thrown into the box as Riko stared at it.

"Oh, so you're finally awake?" An angry voice asked, and Riko looked at her girlfriend, a petit girl with long dark hair. "Took you long enough to notice."

"You're leaving?" Riko asked in confusion.

"Yeah!" The other woman snapped, evidently pissed.

"Oh…" Riko just had a blank look on her face.

"'Oh'? Is that all you have to say for yourself?" She looked immediately offended and hurt by Riko's lack of reaction. "Don't you care about me at all?"

Riko instantly winced and walked forward, hands outstretched to offer the woman a comforting hug. "Of course I care about you, Inori!" But her girlfriend slapped her offending hands away, eyes brimming with tears.

"Who is she?!" She demanded, looking at Riko with pleading eyes.

Riko looked aghast and bewildered by the accusation. "What? Who is who?"

"Who is she? The one you've been cheating on me with!" The much shorter woman pointed a trembling finger at Riko. "Last night you called some other girl's name! You called me 'Maki'!" Inori looked a second away from breaking down.

Riko's jaw dropped open at the name that she hasn't heard for years. She stared at her girlfriend, searching her eyes. "Maki..?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Riko!"

Riko shook her head slowly. "She's… Oh for crying out loud, I'm not cheating on you!" Riko exclaimed pleadingly, reaching out for the other woman's hand again. But the hand was yanked out of her grasp.

"Maybe not. But you love her, don't you?" Inori asked, tears streaming down her face. Riko's eyes were wide in the face of those words combined with those tears. She felt like she had dug her own grave, and her throat was closing up so fast that she couldn't get words out to defend herself.

"And you don't love me," Inori tried to keep her voice strong but it came out as a whimper instead. "Even though we've been together for six months." She shook her head and picked up the large cardboard box, struggling a little to balance it in her arms. "I'm done." She headed for the door, half hoping Riko would gallantly stop her and beg her to stay. Hoping that the tall woman would hug her from behind and say the words she has longed to hear all these months.

Riko finally seemed to find her voice when she heard her apartment door open and she whirled around. "Inori!" The other woman stopped and looked back at her hopefully. "I…" Riko hated that hopeful look. It made her feel absolutely dirty. "I'm sorry." Riko finally said, voice miserable, but honest in the apology. "I'm really sorry I wasted your time."

Inori's eyes bloomed with renewed hurt and she shook her head and left, slamming the door behind her. The whole apartment rattled slightly at the force of the slam and Riko flinched. She continued to gaze at the door for a few moments before she plopped down on the couch behind her, covering her face with her hands. How did that go so wrong so fast?

"Maki…" She sighed. Even after she hasn't seen her for so many years, how was it that girl still managed to screw her up?

Her heartbreak wasn't something she liked to think about. When Maki had squealed over the phone to her in the middle of college that she was getting married to her first boyfriend, Riko had dropped the phone in horror. Riko had felt more devastated by the news than she thought she'd be. She felt… betrayed by her best friend. It was at that moment— too late, much too late— that Riko realized that she had been in love with Maki.

And now, she couldn't even keep a damn relationship together for more than a few months at a time, all because Maki was a stupid, selfish, self-absorbed woman whose impulse took her away from Riko without looking back once! That stupid, stupid girl!

Riko's teeth clenched painfully as she resisted the urge to cry and pinched her own cheeks. Why was it, in the face of her breakup with her girl… ex-girlfriend… she was crying over her ex best friend who she hasn't seen in years?

Riko sniffed and stood up, ravenously craving a strong cup of coffee. She had some serious love issues.

A/N: Yo. Not sure how long this'll be. Probably short, like three or five-ish chapters. Rated T for now, haven't decided yet. Should be fun.