A/N: I don't own Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, Nakamura-sensei does. I hope you'll enjoy my new story, and thank you for reading! (Also, by the way, Nijiro means rainbow, in case you didn't know.)
Chapter One: A New Co-worker
The first time Yuu saw Nijiro Hatsuharu, the man was passed out on a desk in Chiaki's study, worn out after one of the mangaka's all-too-common deadline all-nighters.
After he'd shown Chiaki how serious he was about liking him, and been punched in the face for his trouble, Yuu had taken a week off from working with the mangaka, worried about how their friendship might be negatively affected by his actions. But when Hatori had called him and said the mangaka wouldn't make his deadline without him, Yuu figured that was the jealous editor-slash-boyfriend's way of telling him it was okay to keeping working as Chiaki's assistant.
He was apprehensive to begin working with the mangaka again, not knowing how his actions might have changed their relationship, but when he arrived that Thursday, Chiaki wasn't there, having gone out to fetch coffee for his exhausted assistants. Yuu passed through the main room and into the study as usual, and that was when he noticed the extra figure facedown on the desk next to Chiaki's. Yumiko, Aoki, and Megumi had been working with the mangaka so long he expected to see their faces whenever he came to work, but there, slumped at the desk that was usually his, was someone new. The man was collapsed face-first onto the desk, and at first Yuu, unable to see Nijiro's hidden face, assumed he was a girl, as the rest of Chiaki's assistants were. The man was wearing a short-sleeved sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, so Yuu couldn't even see his hair to see if it was long or short for a clue as to his gender. Instead, it was the way the girls were acting that told him the new assistant was a member of his own gender.
"Hey, Yumiko, do you think he has a girlfriend?" Megumi was asking. She was the one who was always thinking about boys, so it was no surprise.
"Seriously, Megu-chan?" Yumiko replied, fixing her long ponytail. "Didn't you have a crush on Yuu just recently?"
Megumi's cheeks flushed red, and Yuu cleared his throat delicately to let them know he was within earshot. The three of them immediately whipped around to face him, Megumi blushing even redder when she realized he had been listening to their conversation.
"Oh, Yuu, you're back," said Aoki, the most serious of the three. Her brown eyes narrowed, "Where have you been? You know Chi-sensei can't cut it without you. Sure, we've got Nijiro-san now, but he doesn't know Chi-sensei's work like you do."
Yuu arched one delicate brown eyebrow skeptically.
"So his name's Nijiro, huh?" He smirked, then strode purposefully up to his desk, where the man slept. He delivered the desk a determined kick, shouting,
"Hey rainbow dick, wake up!"
The man made a sound like death and raised his head slowly, his hood falling gently off of his hair. He had a feminine face, but there was no mistaking he was a man–his face was a little too angular to be confused for a girl's. His endless black eyes, laden with heavy bags, hid under large-framed glasses that had been pushed uncomfortably up against his face by his sudden sleep. He had shaggy black hair, red and bleached streaks slashing angrily over his right temple. The immensely irritated look he wore on his face in reaction to having been woken made Yuu like him instantly: this was the kind of guy who was just like him.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked rudely, his voice scratchy from sleep.
Yuu scoffed.
"Excuse me, I've worked here a lot longer that you, I should be asking that," he retorted angrily.
Nijiro ground his teeth, then relented.
"Nijiro Hatsuharu," he introduced, sarcastically adding, "nice to meet you, I'm sure."
Yuu scowled back at him, determined he would be the one to come off as more rude in this introduction. "Yanase Yuu," he shot back, neglecting any introductory courtesy.
Aoki rolled her eyes. "Cut it out, guys," she said, sounding exhausted, "you don't need to have a rudeness contest."
"Who's having a contest?" came a beautifully musical voice from the door. Yuu's heartbeat skipped a beat as it did every time he heard that voice, the voice of the love of his life.
The rude expressions immediately dropped off his and Nijiro's faces, as did the critical expression from Aoki's face. The five assistant turned to face the new arrival as one: they were all a little bit in love with their author, after all.
"Yoshino-sensei!" Nijiro cried happily, "You're back!"
The door opened again, and Yuu was unsurprised by the arrival of Hatori, right on Chiaki's heels. He understood Hatori's jealous protectiveness–the mangaka could be amazingly thick-headed about his own desirability–but he couldn't help resenting the editor for the way he tried to keep anyone from getting too close to Chiaki. It had negatively affected his own quest for Chiaki's heart, after all.
Today, the editor was acting, as usual, as Chiaki's devoted servant, carrying a six-cup carrier full of coffee and a box Yuu assumed was probably full of onigiri for the hungry assistants. There was a noise behind him as Nijiro pushed back his chair and rose to his feet, revived by the sight of the food. He walked up to Hatori and took the box the editor gave him, turning to place it on the long table Aoki, Yumiko and Megumi shared. Yuu's eyes were magnetically drawn towards the open box, which, true to his suspicion, was full of six delicious-looking rice balls. To his surprise, however, Nijiro didn't instantly snatch a rice ball and stuff it into his mouth, as he would have done. Instead, the raven-haired man left the onigiri where they were, slipping past Hatori into Chiaki's kitchen.
Huh, thought Yuu, maybe he's a neat-freak and went to wash his hands or something. It was clearly something the man had done before, though, as none of the others paused even a moment. Aoki, Yumiko, and Megumi each selected a rice ball and took their coffee from Hatori, settling themselves down at their usual stations. Soon enough, Nijiro was back, and when he returned he did as Yuu had expected, cramming one of the remaining onigiri into his mouth with such vehemence Yuu would have been afraid he might choke, had he himself not done the same thing many times before. Practically inhaling the mouthful he had taken, Nijiro strode up to Hatori to take his coffee.
"Which one's mine?" he asked the overbearing editor. Yuu wondered what he could be doing, weren't all the coffees identical? At the same time, however, he smirked at Nijiro's defiant tone towards the editor, hiding his expression behind his rice ball. He recognized his fellow male assistant's tone: it was the same attitude of thinly veiled dislike he displayed towards Hatori.
To his surprise, the editor only set his mouth into a thin line instead of scowling dangerously at the young man.
"This one," he said shortly, indicating the coffee on the end, and Nijiro took the cup, sipping gratefully from the straw.
"Thanks Hatori-chan!" he said, all mock-gratitude and saccharine sarcasm. Hatori bit back an angry reply, not wanting to distress Chiaki, and Yuu internally applauded Nijiro's daring.
Finally, with his typical airheadedness, Chiaki realized the reason why Hatori had bought six cups of coffee–the sixth was for Yuu, not Hatori himself. Yuu could see conflicting emotions run across the mangaka's face as he remembered their last encounter, and Chiaki cast a glance over his shoulder to meet his boyfriend's eyes before welcoming Yuu back.
"Yuu, you're back!" he exclaimed once he had garnered Hatori's permission. Then his expression suddenly became worried as he took in Nijiro lounging in his longtime friend's usual seat, paying no attention to anything but the onigiri on which he was feasting.
"Oh, Yuu, have you met Haru?" he asked nervously. Yuu could see he was concerned his assistant would think that bringing in Nijiro meant Chiaki was planning to replace him. Seeing the anxious look in Chiaki's eyes at the thought of losing his faithful friend and invaluable assistant, Yuu understood why Hatori had decided to allow them to continue working together despite how it would inflame his jealousy every time he saw them together.
"Yeah, we're bffs already, right, Yuu-kun?" Nijiro answered before he could, and Yuu turned to the other assistant, ready to tear him a new one. He was about to chew him out when he saw the man was grinning deviously at him, and he couldn't help but chuckle. It seemed the glasses-clad man had come to the same conclusion as he had during their "rudeness contest", as Aoki had dubbed it, and decided they were sure to become fast friends.
He returned his fellow assistant's smirk, saying, "damn right, rainbow princess."
The remark earned him some shock from Chiaki, who could always be guaranteed not to follow any exchange with even the least bit of complexity. Nijiro, however, laughed abruptly and raised an elegant black eyebrow at Yuu, an intimately secret smirk.
Taking his coffee from Hatori, who gave him an irritated look as if to say watch yourself, Yuu sat down at the far end of the girls' table.
"Well," he said as Chiaki took his place at his drafting table, "let's get to work, then."
