I have notes for before and after this time. The character that shows up (I'm sure you'll recognize which one) is a bit of a self-created meme. I believe it's episode eleven of the anime where they have a flashback to Takano's college days. While everyone else saw the red heels at Takano's door and complained about him sleeping with a woman, I jokingly said, "Did Takano-san pick up transvestite hookers in college?" So. There you go.
If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.- The Duchess, Alice In Wonderland.
The World Goes Around
The very first Valentine's Day Ritsu and Masamune were together was supposed to go by without much incident. They had work that day so it wasn't like they could spend the entire day together on a date, and the one time Masamune had brought up Valentine's Day chocolates, Ritsu had gotten pissy and informed him that he, of all people, should know that he was most certainly not a girl. Masamune had to say that he couldn't argue with that.
The special Valentine's Day issue of Emerald Monthly had been produced during January, so February wasn't much different from any other month as far as workload. Ritsu was kind of thankful for that; the office had been decorated to look even more like Sanrio had puked all over it, and when things got really rough, everyone in Emerald, not just the editors, tended to get violent with the stuffed animals. Mino has once stuck the sharp end of a pencil into the side of a bear only for an intern walking by to double over in pain.
"Are you and Takano-san doing anything special, Ricchan?" Kisa was grinning at Ritsu as the younger man sat down in his chair. Kisa had seen the two coming in, though them coming into work together had gotten to be a rather common occurrence even before they got together. He made a note to investigate that further someday.
Ritsu gave him a vague glare, one Kisa recognized as the look he got when he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. Usually it was reserved for when he was up all night editing panels or some such. "No. Why would we?"
"It's the day for lovers!" Kisa grinned as he spread his arms out wide, as if the entire Emerald department were some kind of demonstration of what he was saying.
"Do you have a date?"
The teasing grin immediately slipped from his face, and Kisa ducked his head, not willing to say any more. If Ritsu didn't know any better, though, he could've sworn he saw Kisa start glancing at his phone. The thing went off so much during the day with text messages that he had to have someone. Ritsu had come to that conclusion a long time ago, being not quite as dense as a telephone pole.
"What about you, Hatori?" Kisa asked, finally recovering from his embarrassment. The joint editor-in-chief of Emerald had been quietly working at his desk across from Kisa and Ritsu, pointedly ignoring the conversation.
"I don't have time for things like this," Hatori said.
Kisa leaned over to Ritsu and put his hand to the side of his mouth as if he were telling a secret. "He's probably counting the minutes until he can go spend time with Yoshikawa-sensei. The sexual tension between those two can be felt through the phone."
Ritsu laughed, but it came out halfhearted. He almost wished he could tell Kisa that Yoshikawa-sensei was a man, and an incredibly sensitive-looking one at that. Surely someone like that wouldn't be able to put up with being in a relationship with someone like Hatori. While he wasn't as aggressive as Masamune, he was learning quickly.
"Aw, here he is!"
Every single head in the room shot up to see a man was standing in the doorway. He was dressed in so much pink that in normal circumstance he would've stood out like some kind of walking shojo manga cover, but in the Emerald offices, he looked quite at home. And this walking testament to the saying "real men wear pink" was heading right for Masamune's desk, much to the utter horror or amusement of the other editors.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Masamune asked, adjusting his glasses as if that would make the man before him disappear.
"Aw, don't you remember? I think you were in college at the time." He had been leaning on the desk, but he pulled back at that. "That friend of yours was rude enough to throw me out and I never even got my heels back."
Ritsu snorted at that, though whether it was from surprise or amusement, he had no idea. No one even noticed him, though.
Masamune narrowed his eyes. "And what exactly are you doing here?"
"Oh I've cleaned up since then." The man waved a hand in the air dismissively. "I work for Studio LEEN now. I have a meeting to discuss an anime adaptation with the lovely women over in Sapphire. The minute I heard you worked here, though, I just had to come up and say hello."
"Well, I'm… flattered that you remember me." If none of the other editors knew any better, they would've said Masamune was blushing. They did know better, however, and not a single one said anything about it.
The man grinned. "Oh honey, how could I forget you? You were so sweet, and calling you 'sempai' wasn't the weirdest request I've gotten from a man before."
Ritsu started coughing violently at that to cover the blush that was now covering his cheeks when he realized the man's implications. This particular action caught the attention of the man, and he carefully picked his way through the various documents on the floor. "Oh hello! I'm Fujihara Hiro. And who would you be?"
"Onodera Ritsu." Ritsu blinked rapidly at the amount of pink that was suddenly in his vision.
"Well it's so nice to meet you." He looked like he was going for a hug, but Ritsu ducked just in time, and Hiro resumed his harassing of a somewhat flustered-looking Masamune.
"Don't you think you should do something, Ricchan?" Kisa asked, gazing at Hiro as he continued to reminisce about the time he and Masamune had spent together. When Ritsu looked confused, Kisa smiled. "Well it looks like Fujihara-san is moving-in on Takano-san right before your eyes."
Ritsu ducked his head and tried to get back to some paperwork he'd picked up before Hiro came waltzing into the office. "I don't have anything to worry about."
"Aw, well, it is Valentine's Day, after all. Did you already give Takano-san chocolates?"
"I am not a girl." Ritsu was visibly shaking when he said this.
Kisa frowned. "So you didn't get him chocolate?" When Ritsu shook his head, Kisa stood up. "You're coming with me!"
"I am not!" Ritsu protested, but Kisa had an amazingly strong grip. At this point, everyone was too distracted with Hiro trying to flirt with Hatori to notice that they were leaving.
xxx
Ritsu wasn't sure how it had come down to it, but Kisa had convinced him to buy some strange, red colored chocolates. Kisa had tried to get him to buy one of those big chocolate hearts, but Ritsu had refused and Kisa had made a remark that it was no wonder it took him and Masamune a year to get together. Ritsu had decided to ignore that one.
When they got back to the office, though, there was yelling coming from it. Kisa didn't seem to think his life was in any immediate danger because he waltzed right in and sat down. Ritsu was more cautious, holding the bag with the chocolates up to his chest. If anything sharp was going to be aimed at him, he would've preferred to sacrifice those than any vital organs.
It seemed someone had tracked Hiro down and was cursing him out. Ritsu blinked a couple times; the guy looked like a kid, certainly not old enough to be an employee of Studio LEEN. Perhaps he was just an intern, sent out as the ritual sacrifice to reign-in their flamboyant coworker.
"And another thing! How dare you spend so much time with another man when I'm right here!"
Ritsu winced. Or maybe not. Masamune was being completely ignored at that point, though, and he seemed thankful for that.
"Takano-san! Ricchan has something for you!" Kisa called.
"Kisa, Onodera, get back to work. Neither of you are entitled to special treatment." Masamune didn't even look up from his work. If it weren't for the slight twitch of his eye as Hiro and his apparent boyfriend argued (mostly the apparent boyfriend was yelling, though), it would've looked like he didn't even care about his surroundings. Kisa looked like he was about to say something, but Ritsu threw a glare at him, and that was the end of that thought.
"I am not going to give him chocolate here in the office," Ritsu said, glaring down at his paper. When he looked up, though, he saw Masamune standing over him, holding out a hand. "What?"
"You said you have Valentine's chocolate for me."
"I said I'm not giving it to you here!" He glared at his boyfriend, knowing even as he said it that simply saying it didn't make it true. Finally, Ritsu sighed and reached into the bag, producing a box with a bow tied onto it. "And before you ask, the bow was Kisa-san's idea."
"And I'd do it again!" Kisa said, leaning back in his chair a little and losing his balance.
Ritsu hadn't even realized that the yelling had stopped, but he did realize it when Hiro was upon them. "Aw, that's so sweet, you got a boyfriend!" Hiro gazed at Masamune like a proud father might. Before he could say any more, though, the younger man was dragging him out of the room with the excuse that they had a meeting to get to.
Masamune at least had the dignity to not do more than smile at Ritsu before going back to work. Ritsu turned to his own, but then he heard a voice behind him say, "I'm from Japun. I was told there were some papers here the head editor needs to look at."
"Oh, right, the joint project. I have them right here." Masamune produced them quickly, ever efficient. Ritsu was curious enough to look up, and when he got a good look at the man over at Masamune's desk (probably about the same age as the one who'd been in there after Hiro) he started choking. Kisa thumped on the back until he stopped. "Onodera, stop fooling around."
Ritsu nodded, blushing to the ears. When he looked back up, though, he confirmed that he wasn't seeing things: the person from Japun looked too much like a young Masamune for his comfort. He gazed over at the real Masamune, who was adjusting his glasses. His eyes suddenly turned to him. "What's with you?"
"Nothing!" This was why Ritsu didn't like Valentine's Day. All the crazy people came up and amped it up to eleven.
i527 . photobucket . com / albums / cc355 / MissMysty / takanoandishi . jpg Just. That. My mind was blown when it was pointed out to me.