Bare with me please, this one shot is going to be PRETTY long.

Anyways, the reasoning behind the idea of this one shot was from a picture I found online while surfing through SiH pictures on Google.

Plus, after reading over 200 SiH fan fictions, I've seen quite the common pattern of making Yokozawa a complete asshole, and the main villain. Yokozawa is a person too, goddammit!

This story was birthed from Yokozawa to have his turn in the spotlight as the good and caring person that we all know he is, and of course my OTP Onodera and Takano getting their lovey-dovey time.

I'm most likely going to split this one shot into two parts, to save us both the pain of typing the entire thing at once (Just PART of this was over 3,000 words)

Enjoy!

Embarrassment is a natural emotion, they all say. It's normal to feel sheepish or self conscious; it's part of life. You could say Ritsu Onodera has been "blessed" with this emotion more time in his life than any other man his age should have. But, alas, none of his previous shameful experiences could compare to the moment he was currently living through at this very moment.

"So, let me get this straight." A deep, terrifying voice booms, bringing Ritsu from his deep inner thoughts and his attention back to the person standing in front of him. Large, muscular arms cross each other across a broad chest, and dark eyes narrow down at quivering brunette in front of him. "You want me to teach you to cook beef stew? For Masamune's birthday tomorrow?"

The story behind this regrettable conversation was probably even more embarrassing, something the brunette swore he would take down with him to his grave. Takano, his hard-working tyrant of a boss, has been asking Onodera to make him a meal for several months, ever since the horrifying events of the past Valentine's Day with the chocolate in the curry. Of course, Onodera refused every time, and denied his multiple offers to "personally tutor" him to cook. But a few days ago, Takano mentioned that his birthday was coming up, and that all he really wanted was to spend the entire day with the person he loves.

A.K.A., a certain green-eyed brunette subordinate of his.

Of course, the brunette couldn't deny the fact that his heart started beating really loudly when those words left the raven-haired man's lips, to the point where he could hear the loud thumping in his ears while he was trying to concentrate on work. There was no way he couldn't do something for his birthday this year, since his plan from last year failed miserably.

Onodera thinks all of this information over in his head all at once, then sucks in a breath, metaphorically swallowing the pride he had built up for the past decade. And slowly nods his head.

The darker haired man's posture grows rigid, and his eyes narrow further at the shorter man in front of him. "And why are you asking me for help? Couldn't you ask that fiance of yours?"

Onodera's comparatively smaller frame jolts at the mention of his ex-fiance An, and he swallows once more, moistening his dry throat before he tries to speak again.

"I...broke off the engagement a while ago, and I'd surely feel more awkward asking her to help me with Takano-san. You've known for a long time, a-and you know him better than I do. I-I...don't want to half ass anything this time; I want him to enjoy his birthday to the fullest, so I can't mess it up. I know you don't like me very much at all, but I really need your help with this. Please, I'm begging you."

The man nicknamed the Wild Bear runs a hand through his dark hair, letting a hearty sigh past his thin lips. He can't help but feel frustrated and relieved at the same time by the brunette's eagerness to please to please his best friend for his birthday. It made sense, when he thought about it, for the younger did admit that he loved Masamune. But, for extra precaution, Yokozawa uncrosses his arms, and slides his right hand into his pocket of his dress pants, and mutters "You love him enough to learn to cook one of his favorite meals?"

Unbelievably, Yokozawa thought in his head, Masamune was right for once. It was surprisingly quite amusing to watch to the brunette's pale cheeks grow a brilliant shade of red only at a set of spoken words, his embarrassment and flustered state clearly showing. Onodera lets his chocolate brown locks fall in front of his eyes as he casts his head downwards, giving Yokozawa yet another small nod as an answer to his question.

The taller of the two lets out yet another loud sigh, reaching his left hand to scratch the back of his head. What was the man supposed to do, say no? He told Onodera that he won't accept him if he half-assed anything regarding Masamune and his relationship, and for the situation, the brunette is doing a pretty decent job at keeping his promise. This dull pain in his chest... is this what defeat felt like?

"...Fine."

The face that was contorted in embarrassment and slight guilt soon morphs into one of confusion. Onodera tilts his head upwards, meeting Yokozawa square in the eye for the first time since the conversation had started.

"On one condition."

Onodera bolts up into a formal pose, straightening his back and his hands laying flat at his sides. "Of course! Anything!" The words flew from his lips before he could even think about it.

Yokozawa grabs his bag from the couch beside him, and then turns back to Onodera with his business face still on. He takes his time in digging in his bag and pulling his phone out, flipping it open. The brunette shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other being in the Wild Bear's intimidating aura, while the other man calm presses the buttons on the keypad. He finally flips the phone around, and nearly shoves the screen into the brunette's face, who's skin jumps at the sudden movement.

"Her name is Hiyori." Is all Yokozawa says as Onodera steps closer, and inspects the photo on his small phone screen. Its a small girl, around the age of 10 or 11, with dirty blonde hair and large chocolate brown eyes. She's wearing a yellow apron over a pink sweater, and is in a kitchen with Yokozawa off to the side with his sleeves rolled up. The picture is from a distance in a different room, so someone else had to have taken the photo.

"Who's she?" Onodera let slip, but quickly curses under his breath and covers his mouth with both of his hands. "Sorry!" He apologizes, shaking his head slightly. "It's none of my business!"

"She's Kirishima's kid." Yokozawa snaps his phone shut, completely ignoring the brunette's apology. "I have to stay with her at Kirishima's place and watch her until he's done with work. If I'm going to be helping you out, you're going to have to help me with Hiyo."

"I'll try my best!" Onodera relaxes his position a little. "I just have a couple questions, if you're willing to answer them..."

"Everyone always does. Now hurry up and get your stuff, I'm leaving now with or without you." Yokozawa barely bids a goodbye, spinning on heel heading towards the door of the break room. Onodera is quick to follow him out, breaking into a sprint to get back to his desk.

Luckily, hell week didn't start until a few a days, so work isn't as hectic as it usually is. Though the few editors there were surprised to see a panting Onodera run into the office, and grab everything of his off the desk. The editor in chief tsks, and leans forward in his seat.

"And where do you think you're going, Onodera?" The raven-haired man crosses his arms, lowering his long legs from being crossed on top of his desk. The brunette internally sighs, and slowly turns his head toward his boss in clear irritation. What was it about this annoying man that he loved so much?

"None of your business. I'm done with my work, so I can go as I please." Onodera replies angrily as he slips his jacket on, fastening only the top three buttons.

"Sit your ass down, newbie. If you're done, then get ahead and start on the next thing. I won't allow you to waste a perfectly good work day." Takano glares over at the brunette as he hurries to shoves his work into his black work bag. Onodera's eyebrows twitch in irritation, and he steps away from his desk to face his boss.

"I complete my work in a timely manner! Now excuse me, I have an engagement I have to attend. Good work today!" The brunette calls to the rest of his coworkers, giving a shallow bow and spinning on his heel, pushing open the door to the office.

"Oi, Onodera!" Takano shouts, rising from his seat, only to watch the door shut with his brunette lover on the other side. The dark haired man lets out a loud sigh, collapsing into his computer chair. He slips the black rectangular glasses off the bridge of his nose, and begins massaging the skin there. 'That man is more trouble than he's worth.' The editor in chief decides in his head, making a note to himself to call Onodera later to find out what was so important that he had to leave so early for.

Onodera, however, had no time to think about the consequences of his actions. By sprinting down the nearly empty halls and trying not to drop his things on the way, he managed to catch up to the elevator doors just as they were sliding shut.

"Wait, hold the elevator!" The brunette managed to shout out, quickening his pace. He slips his slender fingers through the small crack, just in time before they shut completely. The doors slide open once more, and the brunette stumbles over his feet as he runs, collapsing against the back wall.

"Took you long enough. Here I was thinking you were going to chicken out on me."

Onodera finds himself glaring down at the floor, the raises his gaze to the man standing beside. The wild bear returns the green-eyed man's powerful glare for a few seconds, but then diverts his gaze up to the glowing red numbers up on the wall with a sigh.

"I know... that I've been unnecessarily hard on you, mostly for my own selfish reasons, and false accusations according to Masamune. It was wrong of me to reject you right away when I didn't know the full story of what happened. This doesn't meet that we're all buddy-buddy now, though, I just..." Yokozawa grits his teeth, almost in pain. The crease between his eyebrows deepens as he moves his gaze to the floor, then his dark eyes find Onodera's green ones. "I want to make sure that you'll truly make Masamune happy again."

It takes a few seconds for the sentence Yokozawa barely whispered to register into the brunette's head, maybe because he wasn't always the brightest crayon in the box. But, when the message did make it to his brain, his cheeks flush a deep red, and he averts his eyes to the elevator doors.

"T-to be perfectly honest, I don't think I can make Takano-san happy."

Yokozawa furrows his thick eyebrows, and turns his hard glare over to the brunette. However, the angry bear finds his eyes softening a touchat the sight of the man beside him, who had built a large pride, and at the same time having his walls torn down brick by brick.

"I also honestly don't know why Takano is attracted to me in the first place." The brunette goes on to explain, not looking the dark-haired man i the eye. "I'm a complicated, try hard idiot that flusters easily and has major trust issues. I jump headfirst into problems without thinking about the consequences, and people get hurt because of it. All the while, the self conciousness that he caused so long ago is keeping me from being able to tell him my feelings, in fear of being rejected again. The reason he says he loves me: I have no clue, and I'm too scared to ask and get an honest answer from him. I don't think I can satisfy him the way and he wants me to."

"Wait.." Yokozawa trails off, scratching his chin a little in thought. "What do you mean... 'rejected again'?"

Onodera flinches at the last two words, physically wincing at the painful strike in his chest. Wrapping his arms around his torso, the brunette bites his lip and looks up at the red numbers, just as they reach one. "Makes sense," The green-eyed editor murmurs to mostly himself, tightening his hold on his bag as he steps off the elevator. "Takano wouldn't tell you something like that." The darker-eyed salesman follows at a quicker pace after the other, his face contorted in confusion and irritation.

"The hell do you mean? Rejected by Masamune again? He's been thinking about nothing but you for the past 10 years and-" Yokozawa begins interrogating Onodera as he rushes after the latter, before he is cut off.

"Thank you, but I don't want to talk about it right now." Yokozawa turns to object as Onodera says this, but stops when Onodera's green eyes turn dark, and he leans his head forward so his eyes aren't visible hidden by his bangs. "Maybe later, since you already know most of the story, and it wouldn't hurt for you to get the rest of it."

"...Right. We'll talk about it we're finished with the job at hand." Yokozawa decides, slowing his pace to walk at the brunette's side. "So...you said you had questions?"

"Oh, right!" Onodera perks up, eager for the subject change. "Why are you watching Kirishima's daughter anyways?"

Yokozawa furrows his eyebrows in thought, putting his index finger up to his chin. "Well... I'm in debt to him, for a number of reasons. And Hiyo has got me wrapped around her little finger, she's imposssible to deny when she gives you those giant puppy eyes, so I've been going to see her after work.

"That's...really nice of you. No wonder Sorata and Takano-san trust you so much. I guess that's where I fall short, huh?" Onodera chuckles slightly, thinking back to when he woke up in the hospital for sleep deprivation, not eating, and overwork. "I can't even take care of myself properly, Takano-san has to force me to eat with him every morning."

"I suppose..." The darker haired one grumbles, raising his gaze up to the magenta tainted sky. It was a bit strange, being able to see the sun on hus way home after getting so used to leaving his office at unthinkable times in the morning, just to wake up 6 hours later and do the same thing over again. Maybe it was like Onodera said, being able to take care of yourself and others while in this field of work was quite the difficult task, maybe even as far as a talent of his. The wild bear finds his eyes returning to the brunette beside him, who was glaring down at his ringing phone that he had retrieved from his bag.

"A-ano, Yokozawa-san..." Onodera begins nervously, turning toward the taller man beside him. "It's my mother, do you mind if I...?"

"Oh, no, go ahead." Yokozawa shakes his hand, then buries it into the pocket of his long coat. Onodera nods once, then jabs the accept button on his phone keypad, then holds it up to his ear. He soon regrets it. and pulls the phone away from his ear, physically wincing at the loud volume.

"Ritsu! How dare you ignore my calls?! I've been calling you call day!" The woman on the line, Onodera's mother, screams so loud that Yokozawa was able to hear what she was saying.

"Mother!" The brunette objects, returning the device to his left ear. "Could you quiet down?! I was at work, I'm not allowed to take personal calls! What is it that you needed to call me so many times for?!"

"I have a marriage confrence set up for-"

Yokozawa wasn't able to hear the rest of what she was saying, due to as soon as the word 'marriage' was said, Onodera scrunches up his nose and pulls the phone away from his ear, pressing the large red button and snapping his phone shut. The brunette shoves his phone back into his bag, ignoring the buzzing sounds it made from inside.

"...Sounds rough." Yokozawa says after a few minutes, looking down at the young editor, who glares down at the ground.

"Yeah. but it's nothing I can't handle." Onodera mutters back, still irritated by the random call from his mother. "Did you...happen to hear all that?"

"Your mother is a loud woman." Was all Yokozawa in return, but that's all that was needed to answer his question. Onodera's shoulders quickly sink, and his head falls to hang right in front of his chest.

"She's been...trying to set me up for marriage interviews ever since An finally cancelled our engagement, no matter how matter how many times I've told the woman not to." The brunette tries to explain briefly, gripping the strap on his bag very tightly.

"Doesn't she know that you're already interested in someone?" Onodera flinches as the question exits Yokozawa's lips, and the brunette knew that this conversation would slowly go to shit. And of course, it was when the two were finally getting on somewhat good terms.

"I...may have...forgotten...to mention that fact. To my mother. I know that if I did, I wouldn't hear the end of it." Onodera murmurs a response, the tone of his voice saddening as he spoke on. It was a fact no one could deny: The man Onodera loved was a man, through and through. And even if he did present Takano to his parents, they were both still men, so they couldn't get married even if they wanted to. Plus, the brunette doubted his parents or the public would appreciate the owner of a big time company to be a naive man without a wife, and being gay didn't help the situation too much. That was one of the many reasons Onodera didn't want to take over the company in the first place, on top of the fact that the editor still had a lot more to learn to prove that he could handle owning a large publishing company such as his father's.

"I guess the question I want you to ask yourself," Yokozawa starts saying, at the same time that he forcefully grabs the back of Onodera's coat, and nearly drags him around a corner towards a rather large apartment building. "...is, who's approval is more important to you? Your parents', the public's, or Masamune's?"

Onodera's eyes widen, and as Yokozawa releases his collar, he finds himself automatically tailing closely behind him like a lost puppy. What kind of a question was that? If he had a choice, the brunette would most likely say none of the above. But realistically, that was another story. Was it even possible that his parents or the public held a bigger place in his heart than Takano-san?

The two men entered the tall building after the doors slid open, and Yokozawa leads the shorter brunette over to the elevator, pressing the up button before spinning on his heel to face the person behind him.

"Do you have the ingredients with you?"

"Huh?" Onodera blinked his eyes as the random question, not understanding at first. His mouth formed an 'o' shape after a few seconds, as it dawned on him that Yokozawa was asking about the beef stew. "Oh, yes! I hid them in my work bag and brought them with me to work."

"Gross." Yokozawa wrinkles his nose, and complains about the unsanitary-ness of keeping food in the same bag that he keeps his work and ink. "Oh well, we'll have to make do. Hopefully the heat will melt away the bacteria." He continues murmuring as he spins around on his heel, just in time for the elevator doors to slide open. The two step into the empty elevator, and Yokozawa jabs the button for the doors to close, then hits the floor level where Kirishima's apartment is.

"Well excuse me, I had no other choice, or else Takano-san would see and demand that I tell him about it and threaten to give me more desk work if I don't. I don't want him to know about this in the slightest." Onodera retorts back at Yokozawa's comment, and adjusts the black bag strap on his shoulder. The taller man scoffs at the lame excuse, and crosses his arms.

"And who said I wouldn't tell Masamune? Or Kirishima?"

Onodera's eye grow wider than saucers, and he slowly transfers his gaze up to the dark haired man salesman beside him. "Please don't tell Takano-san about today! If he found out, he'd never let me live it down! I already have too many things he won't forget that he keeps using against me! I'm begging you, don't tell him!"

"Whatever." Yokozawa quickly dismisses the brunette's plea, and steps off the elevator through the doors that the young editor didn't notice had opened. He jogs out after the tall, and halts right behind him as the black-haired man stops right in front of one of the many brown doors. Yokozawa digs into his coat pocket, and the chinging of a key could be heard from inside. But, before he could pull it out from in of his pocket, the sound of locks being undone could be heard coming from inside, and before Onodera could prepare himself, the wooden door swung open and a head popped out.

It was the girl from the picture on Yokozawa's phone, this time dressed in a thick white sweater and pick overall shorts, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail with a hot pink scrunchie. Her brown eyes raise up Yokozawa's body in a split second, and her smile grows as she reaches his eyes.

"Yokozawa-nii! You're here so early! I just got back from a friend's house, she let me hang out with her for a while after school and..." She trails off as her eyes stray to the brunette man standing behind Yokozawa, who steps aside to properly introduce the two.

"This is Onodera-san, he's going to help me watch you until your dad gets home, so I can teach him to cook beef stew. Onodera, this is Hiyori, as I had said before, Kirishima's kid."

"Hi, Hiyori-chan. I've heard really good things about you." Onodera tries to smile, and softly waves at the girl before him. Hiyori smiles back, and turns fully towards the brunette.

"Oh, so you're Yokozawa-nii's friend! Nice to meet you, Onodera-san! Please, come in and take your shoes off, the kitchen's all yours!" Hiyori takes a few steps backward into the apartment, making enough room for both men to enter into the gekan. Yokozawa enters first, and motions for Onodera to follow and shut the door behind him.

"Sorry for the intrusion." Onodera smiles warmly at Hiyo, then bends over to wrestle his feet out of his shoes.

"It's no problem! It's funny, I was just thinking of you, Yokozawa-nii. Oh! That reminds me! Dad got me a new apron yesterday, I wanna help you guys out!"

Yokozawa smiles for a brief second, and steps fully into the house as soon as his shoes were off, resting his giant bear hand onto her head. "Sure, Hiyo. Get the aprons out, if you will, please. Me and Onodera will be there quick, don't forget to wash your hands.

"Hai! And welcome to our home, Onodera-nii!" Hiyori cheers happily and waves at the brunette, then spins on her heel and runs inside and around a corner to the kitchen. Onodera finally slips both of his shoes off, and looks over in the direction that the 10-year old girl had run off in.

"She's sweet. Is she always home alone before you get here?"Onodera had let his thoughts slip out of his mouth again, but this time he didn't freak out, but turned to Yokozawa with a questioning facial expression, actually expecting an answer this time. Well, after all, Yokozawa had kind of given him the permission to ask whatever he wanted about Hiyori, in return for more in tell of what was going on between his best friend and the brunette in front of him.

"First off, of course, she's sweet. I helped raise her."

What?

Phew, 4,300+ words. That's the most amount of words that I've typed EVER, and I'm not even done yet.

And that's it for the first part of this one shot. Wait, would this be classified as a two shot now? Let's just call it a two shot, so people don't bite me in the ass for it later.

Until next time, my filthy human toilets~!

~Mina-chan

[((Psst. Check out my Wattpad Minami-Author-Chan. It's dope.))]