Disclaimer: I don't own Sekaiichi Hatsukoi because if I did, Ritsu and Takano-san would be living together already.

His back arches off of the bed sheets, face twisted in intense pleasure as he comes, all over his stomach. As his muscles clench around me, I groan Ritsu quietly and lean forward, capturing his lips in a messy kiss, gathering him in my arms and holding him tightly. We both catch our breath for a moment, the only sounds in the room our quiet breathing and outside noises from my apartment. He doesn't say anything for a moment, which leads me to believe he's fallen asleep—because who wouldn't after that amazing-I mean—but the sound of his irregular breathing that he's trying to pass of as peaceful tells me otherwise.

Burying my face into his neck, I stroke his hair gently, feeling comfort in the idle movement, as if reassuring myself that he's still here, with me, and not some figment of my imagination, because, honestly, I've had enough of those already.

"Takano-san?" He whispers.

I hum in acknowledgement, moving to kiss his forehead and breathe in the sweet scents of his hair.

There's a weighty silence in which I wonder what he's going to say, probably something about his author's storyboards, because work seems to be all he can think about most of the time. Other than me, of course.

It comes so quickly I almost trick myself into not hearing the question, but it's still there, a quiet Do you love me? coming from the body lying underneath me.

I almost laugh, to say how silly it is for him to ask a question like that when he knows that I love him, knows that I tell him at least twice a day, even if he doesn't want to hear it, then-

Oh.

This only reminds me of the time he asked the same question ten years before, after we'd just had se—made love, and in a moment of extreme vulnerability, he must have asked that. At that time, I laughed, not because I didn't love him—heavens no, I loved him so much my heart ached whenever I saw him, and it's still true today—but because I was nervous about why he asked such a question. After all we'd been through together, he shouldn't have had any doubt that I loved him.

I remember the confusion when he roundhouse kicked me and fled the room without even a single word.

I remember the anguish and panic that I'd felt the next day when he didn't come to school, and when I caught word that he'd traveled abroad to study.

I remember feeling as if my heart had been ripped out of my body the following years. Not weeks, not months, years.

It took so long for me to even place that impenetrable mask over my face again, but even then, it was a poor imitation of the indifference I'd felt before I met Ritsu.

Ritsu, my first love. My only love since then. The only person I'll ever love.

College began, and the days blurred together, went by on fast-forward. I drank, and smoked, and slept around, but none of it was enough to fill the hole where my heart was. Because Ritsu, when Ritsu left, he took my heart with him. He took all my love with him.

Then I met Takafumi Yokozawa, and...he really helped with all the shit I was dealing with at the time. Ritsu's leaving, my parents' divorce and consequent re-marrying, changing my last name from Saga to Takano...he helped with all of that, but that painful longing for someone who was long gone was still there, still creeping up on me when I would least expect it. Yokozawa and I entered a no-strings relationship after one night drinking too much, but that also just faded away after a while.

More years passed. The sharp pain had turned into a dull ache that I could probably manage.

Then—

When I realized that Ritsu was the new editor at Emerald at Marukawa Publishing, I felt a new hope. Hope that he still at least remembered me. Hope that he remembered what we'd shared—and what I still felt for him. Hope that I could get him to love me again. But all he did—all he's done—is run away, whether from my apartment or from the elevator or from our working environment itself.

I nearly gave up on trying to pursue him, but...that night in the rain when I told him why I broke down, why I turned out to be who I was today, I actually, I actually...heard him say it, under the sudden downpour.

I love you.

To cut him a little slack, and because his face was turned away and as red as a tomato, I pretended not to hear him. But I kept it with me until now, and now there is no doubt that Ritsu, this boy who was brave enough to slip into my heart and make his home there, this boy who suddenly became my everything so quickly and so passionately, returned my feelings. Perhaps he even had them all this time, but that's another passing hope for later.

I come back to the present with a start and realize that it's only been a moment since Ritsu asked me that question. Pulling him closer to me, closer to where my heart beats steadily, loudly, for him, I force a breath out, forcing myself to shake those past experiences behind. Ritsu is here with me, right now, and I should enjoy it as much as I can, before he realizes and runs away again.

Though with my luck, hopefully he won't, and he'll stay here for good this time.

"Takano-san?" He asks again, his voice already wavering, already filled that with uncertainty that I want to kiss away until it's gone.

It's time to put those past memories aside, I tell myself. It's been ten years.

With a kind of new determination, and with a new love from this new Ritsu filling my heart until it's close to bursting, I whisper to him in the cool autumn night, "You are the one, the one who lies close to me, the one who says, 'Hello, I've missed you quite terribly,' the one with whom I fell in love with quite so suddenly, and the one whom I'd rather be with forever."

A/N: So, this is my first Sekaiichi Hatsukoi fanfiction, and even though it's probably horribly overused and super cliché, I hope you guys enjoyed reading it!

-ChemicallyEnhanced