Some Things Are Better Left Not Said

"One day our old head editor was just replaced," was what Ritsu had been told when he asked about Takano being put in charge. It wasn't that Ritsu wondered why he was given the position; Takano was clearly capable. But for the head editor to just be suddenly replaced, and for no one to seem to know why, seemed suspicious. It wasn't that Ritsu was normally a conspiracy theorist, but he couldn't help but wonder about that old head editor.

"Ah, she was a woman named Suzuki," someone outside of Emerald told him once when he asked, because his coworkers were still being tightlipped about it. "I'm not sure what happened. I heard she got pregnant and quit as soon as she found out. I would, too; that kind of stress would kill a baby before it even got a chance."

This, Ritsu had to admit, was entirely too true. And thus, he completely forgot about it until the woman named Suzuki showed up in the Emerald office one day, toting along the rumored baby. The baby girl seemed to like Kisa, so Suzuki handed her off to him while she walked around Marukawa and talked with the other departments. Kisa, for his part, didn't look happy.

"Here, Ricchan, you take this," he said, unceremoniously dumping the baby onto Ritsu's surprisingly clean desk. Before Ritsu could protest, or at least ask Kisa where he was going, the older man had disappeared. He could move pretty fast when the hideous deadlines didn't turn him into a zombie every month. Then again, not all zombies moved slowly. What was that American book he read, where some moved quickly if they weren't a lot of other zombies around when they turned? Something about a forest.

His musings over foreign literature were interrupted when he realized the baby was crying. Ritsu, quite honestly, had no idea what to do. Being an only child, he'd never had the pleasure of taking care of a younger sibling, or a niece or nephew from an older sibling. Suzuki had dropped the baby bag in the corner when she abandoned her daughter with Kisa, and Ritsu eyed it like he thought it might be full of explosives. The other editors were gone except for Takano, and the non-editing staff of Emerald seemed to just be going about their day, completely ignoring the wailing infant on Ritsu's desk.

"Here."

Ritsu looked up to see Takano had retrieved a bottle of formula from the baby bag and was looking down at him with indifference. For once he wasn't smoking, but he held an unlit cigarette in his hands like he wanted to. Suzuki had been very clear what she'd do to him if she found him smoking around her baby girl.

"It's probably hungry," Takano elaborated. "Feed it before Suzuki gets back or she'll throw another fit."

Ritsu scowled at his boss, ready to ask why he couldn't take the baby if he was such an expert on them, but he just sighed and did as he was told. Feeding a baby couldn't be that hard, right?

By the time Suzuki got back, she was puzzled to find her baby girl asleep in Ritsu's arms as he worked. There was a stain on his shirt from when he'd tried to burp her (the one thing he knew about babies) and she'd ended up spitting-up on him instead, but otherwise he looked completely fine.

"Onodera-san!" Suzuki said. "I'm so sorry! I'll make sure Kisa-san gets an earful for leaving Nana-chan with you."

Ritsu hadn't even noticed that Kisa never showed back up after giving him the baby, although Hatori and Mino had come back at some point between him feeding her and her falling asleep.

"Hn. It's okay. But I'm glad I'll never have children." Ritsu sunk back in his seat once Suzuki took Nana back, looking like he'd just gotten out of Hell Week.

"A handsome guy like you? I'm sure there are plenty of women falling over themselves to have your children." Suzuki smiled, at least half-joking.

Takano snickered at his desk, where he'd ended up dropping his pack of cigarettes instead of smoking outside and started chewing on the end of a pen that was out of ink.

"What's so funny?" Suzuki asked, looking around at every one of the Emerald editors sitting there at the group of desks.

They all went back to work. Suzuki never did get her answer.