Okay, it is now officially the holiday season, so I am now obligated to write a holiday themed kinda thing. And who better than Onodera and Takano to put through it? I hope you likey!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sekaiichi Hatsukoi
Not only were we in the midst of hell week, but we were also being dumped with the schedule for the big Christmas issue yesterday, so as one could guess Takano-san has gone into demon mode. He's demanding we come in an hour earlier than usual even for hell week, work nonstop all day of course and then get little to no sleep. I guess nothing that out of the ordinary, but those extra hours of sleep are going to come back to haunt me in the next few days.
That being said you can guess what happened on the last day of hell week of days, I overslept. Once I realized this I was in a flurry running around my house getting ready. I skipped breakfast and even my morning coffee in order to make the next train on time.
Once showered and dressed, I grab my manuscripts and keys off the table and run for the door. When I get there I slip on my shoes and get ready to race down the stairs since the elevator would take too long. At least that was the plan, but like everything else today, nothing was going my way, because as soon as I make it out my door I find myself face planting into the floor. The culprit of my tripping, was none other than a large package sitting outside my door. Not having time to see who it was from I hastily push it back inside my apartment, lock my door, and continue my plan of running like hell until I make it to work.
Running into the building I am completely out of breath, but I forge onto the elevator and try to catch my breath in there on the way up. I hear the ding signaling that I have reached my floor and I walk over to our cubbies that we work in. I almost don't want to turn that last corner knowing Takano-san is going to be pissed. I am fully aware of what this week is, but I can't help it when my body works against me. But knowing I can't avoid it forever I turn the corner and begin to set up my desk.
"Oi! Onodera, what the hell? Why are you late?" Takano yells at me from across the office.
"I'm sorry! I slept through the alarm I set, it won't happen again!"
"Better not, we don't have time for you to be sleeping in! We all made it here early! I better not be seeing you slacking off today!"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry! And I won't I have everything almost done for this month's issue!"
"You better! You have to get your authors working on that Christmas issue!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it!"
And with that I sat down at my desk and began furiously working on what I had left for this month, of course I was until I was interrupted by Kisa-san.
"Aw Rit-chan, do something super exciting last night?" He asked jokingly
"Please! During Hell week? Of course not, just passed out and didn't wake up after my mountain of manuscripts."
"Ugh, I know what you mean, it's a wonder how we do this every month."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Why did we want this job again?"
"Because we love it?" He responded whimsically
"Sure let's go with that." I laughed
And that's when the stapler from Takano came flying at us. "What did I just say about slacking off?!"
I didn't even bother to respond I just got back to correcting and calling, non-stop for the rest of the day. By 8:00 I was ready to go home and so was everyone else, I put my things back in my case and got ready to head home. It was going down the elevator that I remembered that I had a package waiting for me and that made the incentive to get home even greater. I drag myself to the train station and patiently wait for the train to drop me off at my own.
As I got home I take off my shoes and drop off my work on the table in the living room. Then I grab the package off the floor from when I pushed it in earlier and bring it to the kitchen counter. It wasn't overly heavy, but it was a little struggle to lift it up.
I went to grab a box cutter and I sliced open the tape sealing the box. Inside were several containers and a letter neatly placed on top. Looking closely at the signature I discovered the letter was from my mother.
Dear Ritsu,
I'm sorry that you had to find out like this and that I didn't get a chance to tell you formally, but everything was so very last minute that there wasn't any time. Anyways, this letter was to tell you that we are not going to be having our usual family holiday party this year. Your father and I are actually going to be celebrating 15 years together and we set up a vacation that unfortunately interfered with the date that was normally have the party, so we decided it would okay to miss it for one year. I'm sorry we won't get to see you this year, I know that this is usually one of the few times of year that you can come home to see us, but there are always other times. I didn't want you to get too sad over not having the party though, so I sent you plenty of containers filled with the various sweets that I only make this time of year just for you because I know they are your favorites, so maybe you could have your own little mini party at home for yourself! Or even better you could invite An-chan over and share some with her! Anywho, hope you have a wonderful holiday season! We will see you after the new year begins!
I had to admit I was a little sad that we wouldn't be meeting up as it was one of the few times of the year I made the time to go see my parents, but on the bright side, I won't have to listen to the non-stop begging to go and marry An-chan. Plus I could focus on getting the Christmas issue done in a more relaxed fashion instead of trying to be done 3 days early, which is almost impossible, but I somehow have managed to do it.
Tomorrow would be the first of December, we would be in the end of Hell week, but beginning the the chaos known as the Christmas issue. Or in other words less time to recover from the effects of Hell week. Knowing this I make myself an easy dinner and go to sleep.
The next 3 weeks were hell. Everyone was cranky, authors were being annoying and refusing to get their jobs done, Yokozawa-san refused to be any bit of help with the printing situation and Takano-san looked just about ready to kill everyone with his permanent glare. I was never more happy to be done with an issue than I was with this one, just to get past the higher than normal stress of this job.
As the last document was handed in I happily realized we were done. It was December 23, and I now had nothing left to do. I packed up my things and headed for the elevator. As I stepped in a pressed the button though, a certain someone just had to call out to me.
"Oi Onodera! Hold the door!" He yelled from down the hall racing to the elevator. I silently put out my hand to stop it from closing, which once he was in I removed to let myself be trapped inside, alone, with Takano-san. "Honestly Onodera, you aren't the only one dieing to be out of here."
"Sorry, I thought you still had some things to get done."
"Nah, the rest is for Yokozawa and the printers to deal with, I'm all done."
"Oh." Was all I replied to the statement before retreating to silence.
As the elevator reached the bottom floor we both walked out and headed for the train. For once on the way home Takano-san wasn't trying to force a conversation to happen, probably because he was too exhausted to, but I wasn't complaining. It wasn't until we were off the train and walking towards our apartment complex that Takano-san finally broke the silence.
"Ugh! This is way too quiet!"
"Is it now? I was enjoying the relaxing atmosphere."
"Well I'm not, it's unsettling. So I'm breaking up the quiet right now!"
"Yeah? Fine, so what do you want to talk about, it can be anything but work, I'm done with that for at least the next two days." I say giving up to the inevitable of having this conversation with Takano-san.
"Don't even mention it, even I need a break after that hell of a week."
"Tell me about it, you looked like you were ready to kill somebody. Haha."
"I was if we one more screw up, this is what makes me hate this time of year, the company demands too much in too short of a time, just so that they can make an extra bunch on the quote unquote extra special Christmas issue."
"Well everybody is doing them this time of year, they have to keep up with the competition."
"Still it's just an excuse to force more out of the authors than they have ideas for, and so all manga goes through the obligatory Christmas special because of this. It's getting cliche at this point. Speaking of, what do you usually do this time of year."
"Normally I go see my parents and they hold their Christmas party, but this year they wanted to celebrate their anniversary, so I guess this year I'm just hanging around this year. And you? I'm sure you usually do something." I say as we are stepping into the elevator in the apartment complex.
He sighed loudly clearly showing that he didn't want to talk about it, but I stood there looking at him expectantly since I had just told him myself.
"Well as you know my parents are divorced and even before they were Christmas was never a family thing for us, mom usually just went out and got me some toy to try and appease me I guess. I don't really go to visit them either, if I want to see them I'll go whenever, not just because it's Christmas or anything like that."
At this point the elevator had reached our floor and we had stepped out.
"So you don't do anything special?" I asked
"No, there really isn't a reason to, not like there is anyone to celebrate with. I mean Yokozawa and I used to go drinking in college, but we stopped that once we graduated and got jobs, plus Christmas is usually a busy season so not really time to celebrate." He finished as we got to our apartment doors.
I honestly don't know why, but his words struck a chord with me. The thought that someone could feel that there was no one to celebrate with bothered me greatly. Even I could find someone else to consider spending the day with just to do something special. I didn't act on it though, being me, I let it go. We said our goodnights and walked into our respective apartments. I couldn't let it leave my mind though, it just seemed to sad to think about. It kept me up half the night just thinking about it.
It wasn't until the next morning that I thought of what to do. My mother actually being the one to give it to me, I just had to give Takano-san to celebrate. I had all this extra food from my mother sending it to me, may as well do something worthwhile with it. I knew the sweets wouldn't be enough though, so I got dressed and headed for the market to pick up some drinks to go along with them.
I spent the rest of the day making sure everything was ready before heading to bed. The next morning I had woken up around 10 letting myself sleep in, it was Christmas Day after all. I got myself in the shower and dressed completely and by the time I was done it was around 11 O'clock. I went over to my phone and called Takano-san.
The phone rang four times before being picked up.
"Who is this and what do you want?" Was the grumpy answer I received. I obviously woke him up.
"Ritsu, and get over here." Was all I said before hanging up.
He began to try calling me back several times, but I stubbornly refused to pick up forcing to come over to my apartment. My plan had soon succeeded as I heard Takano-san loudly banging on my door.
"Oi, Onodera!"
I briskly walk over to my door and open it to reveal Takano-san. "Good you're here, get in." I say dragging him into my house and into the kitchen where I had everything set up.
"Hey, what is this?" He asked
"Well I decided that your answer to Christmas was too pathetically sad even for me, and it was bothering me, so I am rectifying the situation. My mother sent me a bunch of her Christmas sweets and we are going to have our own little mini party here. I have nothing better to do with them anyways, so I went and got some drinks and we are going to spend the day celebrating."
"Most of those don't look very Christmassy though."
"Well not all of them are Christmas themed, some are just some special sweets that mom makes only this time of year because they are my favorite or they mean something." I say handing him a beer.
"So what's this pink bunny cookie?" He asks taking it from me and cracking it open.
"Oh that she has been making since I joined Marukawa, she saw their mascot and thought she could make a cute cookie out of it and decided to make them as a congrats for getting the job there. Now she just keeps making them more as a congrats for keeping your job kind of thing."
"How about the all green cupcakes, even the cake is green. I would think Christmas, but I don't see any red ones to match. Actually I don't see much red at all."
"Oh that's been a joke since I was a kid. You know how my eyes are green, well since I was a kid, I always liked green so when Christmas came around, I always went insane with the green decorations and got mad when anyone tried to add some of the red ones, so mom would make me all green cupcakes every year. As time went on it just became a family joke to give me all green."
"Seems like you." He said smiling. He reached out his hand and took one and took a bite out of it. "It's good, it's sweet like you."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" I asked indignantly
"So what's the overly brown cupcakes?" He asked ignoring me.
"Answer me first!" But he wouldn't he just kept eating the cupcakes like I hadn't said anything. Sighing to let it go since it was Christmas I answered his question. "That's mom's constant reminder of the fact I don't have a girlfriend. She of course is still continuously trying to get me to hook up with An-chan no matter how much I tell her I don't like her like that. I don't complain too much though, I like the flavor they are double chocolate after all."
A couple of hours had past as we were talking about all the various sweets and what they meant. We exchanged stories and drank more beer, but we weren't drunk. It was actually pretty pleasant until Takano-san had to ruin it.
"So it was bothering you that I was all alone on Christmas?" He said flirtingly
"What?! No! Well, maybe, but not like that! It just kills me that someone could feel that there was nothing to celebrate alright?! Don't over think this!" I yelled far too over the top then needed.
"Come on Ritsu, no need to be like that, I know the true feelings lingering around in you."
"I was being a good friend! There isn't a love confession!"
"Say that all you want, but I know you, you're just too shy to say it." He said getting up from his seat and coming around the counter closer to me.
"That's not what this is!" I yell once again. "Wait, what are you doing?!" I ask as he sneaks an arm around me.
"Getting to the real point of me being over here." He says, and before I can respond he pulls me into a kiss. No matter how I pushed I was trapped in his arms and couldn't escape. I could myself losing my conscious train of thought getting caught up in the haze of the kiss. We kept going over and over just kissing, but all the alcohol that we had been consuming and we let it get ahead of ourselves. I could feel this going further that it should, yet I did nothing to stop it. Takano ended up leading us all the way to my bedroom and the rest was history from there.
Later on in the night after the deed had been done, we were lying down in my bed with me in Takano's arms. In midst of the afterglow feeling he whispered "We should make this a tradition Ritsu, every year just the two of us on Christmas."
"Yeah." I agreed with him before feeling myself falling asleep, but before I was completely gone he whispered one more time.
"I love you Ritsu."
And in the haze of going to sleep and being in his arms, I couldn't control myself, I finally gave him the truthful answer he had been waiting for, for so long.
"I love you too, Takano."
Well this one turned out a lot longer than I had expected, I thought it was gonna be a couple of pages and then this 7 page beast pumped itself out. I know Ritsu is a little OOC here, but it's Christmas and I don't care, this is what fanfiction is for, you know you would have wanted a scene like this is the anime too. :) So anyways plz R&R and tell me what you thought of it :)
