Ask Game AU: Where Nao grow suspicious of her husbands "friend" and his constant need to involve himself in their lives so she does her own investigation of the man.

1- Nao was glad, at first, that Kotaro was befriending people at work. He's always been slow to trust. With this friend, though, he wasn't. Kotaro ended up working later, and when he wasn't, going out to dinner or drinks with his coworker. Nao didn't want to bring anything up, didn't want to discourage him, and it wasn't like she had been abandoned to watch Hana all day by herself- her parents were there, and Kotaro wasn't out every single night. Just a lot of them.

2- Still, she doesn't say anything, until one night, Kotaro is back and in bed next to her, only a bit of wine left on his lips, when he brings up trying for a second child. She stares at him, and he withdraws, but she tells him it wasn't a bad thing- just, she had no idea he was thinking about it. They were both only children, and Kotaro had spent some years in a home with many other kids and didn't speak fondly of the experience. Kotaro tells her his friend brought it up, is all, and Nao nods, but is more worried.

3- Kotaro's office is hardly difficult to find things in. She discovers that he was the one to hire his friend, which she notes is weird, because he never mentions that detail. The address on record for him doesn't seem to be a place someone lives. The numbers on his bank account are... fine. But she doesn't find any trace of him online. She asks a few questions to Kotaro here and there, what his friends qualifications were, where he went to school. He's not even found there, on any list of graduates or alum forums. It's odd. but maybe he is just very private.

4- Hana brings up having a little sibling. Nao asks her if her father said anything, and she says no, they had a substitute teacher that day who'd told some stories and said he used to have a little brother. When Kotaro comes home late from work, he's unaware of what his daughter said when Nao asks if he's been thinking about it still. He says he has, and she says she still doesn't know. Two kids after all is a lot of work. and he's not home very often anymore.

5- Nao looks at the package of pills, the last row of seven, and opens her next box instead. She's done it before, once, for a vacation to the beach. She'd spotted a little then, but this time its more. Her birth control's been tampered with. Kotaro couldn't have done it, she'd just gotten the new box the day before she'd opened it and what'd he know anyway about it? What had that pharmacist looked like? Perhaps it was a defect, something she should notify the manufacturer about. She resolves to do so. Kotaro doesn't eat dinner with them that night, and when she asks how it went, he tells her that his friend told him such a funny story about his little brother, listen, he'll tell her and she'll laugh. She asks about the brother, Kotaro goes quiet and says his friend talked about him in the past tense. He's got enough dead family of his own to not press more than that. But really, the story was funny. Nao thinks about Hana's substitute- but clearly, Kotaro's friend was at work that day, must be another coincidence. In a line of many bad ones. Kotaro asks her if she'd like a second child. Nao thinks she might have, before all this. Now, she isn't sure what she'd like. Instead, she tells him that he barely sees Hana. is he really sure that he wants another kid? Kotaro goes quiet again, realizes she's right. He offers to take the next day off. Nao tells him she just wants him home on time for dinner.

+1- Kotaro agrees, and the next day Nao's parents watch Hana for an hour while she meets with her friend Shirota Akiho at the park. Akiho gives Nao a hug, and an unopened box of birth control. She tells her that her sister Beru's bridal shower is in a few weeks, and she can give her another box then. She agrees everything sounds weird- but Kotaro probably isn't to blame. Nao goes home. Kotaro on time for dinner that day. But he realizes when he reacts to Hana telling him she is playing heroes before bed (and Nao and Hana react to his reaction) that maybe he should spend more time at home before welcoming someone else into it.