Wishful Thinking (Antique Bakery, Chikage/Ono)

Ono sipped his wine slowly and watched the other patrons through the mirror behind the bar. There were a number of choices, if he was willing to approach them. It was tempting. There was a burly guy sitting near the window who didn’t seem able to stop smiling. Then there was the group of high-class executives two tables away from where he sat, engrossed in a conversation about investment returns and the coming end of the fiscal quarter. In the corner at the far left, a tall man in sunglasses sat by himself, staring out the window and waiting.

None of them were the person Ono wanted, though the man in the corner was a passable imitation.

He sighed into his drink and turned his eyes back to the counter. His demonic charm had yet to fail him. If he pulled off the baseball cap that was currently shading his face and shrugged off his bulky jacket, he would have been surrounded by men in twenty seconds. But that wasn’t why he was here. For once, he wanted a drink and only a drink.

In other circumstances, he wouldn’t be having this problem. He wasn’t used to restraining himself like this. He’d tried before, it was the only way to keep his job sometimes, but his charm always got in the way. His charm made sure that when he wanted a man, he got that man eventually. But his demonic charm failed whenever Tachibana was concerned, not surprising considering Tachibana was the cause of it. Which meant Chikage… Chikage was off-limits, no matter how much Ono was tempted.