"I don't see why you have to leave," grumbled Takano, plucking one of the shirts out of the suitcase.

"Well, I don't see why it takes me explaining it five times for you to understand," snapped Onodera. "That I'm going on vacation."

"Why?"

"Why?"

Onodera grabbed the shirt back, folded it in his lap neatly, and packed it away again, ignoring his boss.

Takano leaned over. When he got too close, Onodera glanced up; he froze. The collar of Takano's shirt had dropped and with his chest exposed like that– ever so slightly– it was making Onodera distracted, more than slightly. Takano took the shirt again, and when Onodera came back to reality, he blinked, and frowned, and blushed.

"Hey-!"

"You can't go," said Takano. "That's final."

Onodera rolled his eyes. Takano pinched Onodera's arms and rubbed his hair, and when that didn't work be flopped down on the couch, got up again, and flopped down again. He tried putting his feet up on Onodera's table. But Onodera just kept packing, folding clothes, being an ass.

"Oh my god, who do you think you're ignoring, Onodera?" He dropped his head on his hand, sighing in defeat. "…where are you going again?"

"I'm going to my parent's house."

Takano smirked. "Sounds great."

Onodera looked over his shoulder and ended up staring at Takano's crotch. Takano, by sitting directly behind Onodera on the couch, had made this happen, and by the smile in his eyes it had been intentional. Onodera pressed his lips into a tight line and Takano leaned down.

"We can go together," he whispered. And then-

Takano shot up straight when Onodera giggled. What the fucking hell? When had Ritsu ever done that? He tried to sift through his memories, fascinated, but his mind was all blank now and filled with Onodera's giggling. He could fall in love all over again. He wanted to record that sound. He wanted to play it back every hour of every day. But it hurt, too, because it reminded Takano of how much this asshole controlled him, just by walking and talking and being a brat and….

"Yeah, go together to see my parents," Onodera was saying, smiling like Takano had told the best knock-knock joke in Japan. "No way. Do you know what my mother would say? Not to mention my father…."

Onodera closed the clamps on the suitcase and got up to put on his coat and shoes, muttering. Onodera was telling him to get out so he could lock up the apartment. He had to be at the train station in twenty minutes. He needed to leave. He needed to leave Takano. He needed to go. No.

Takano put his hands on Onodera's waist and yanked him onto his lap. Onodera blushed, about halfway to death-by-embarrassment, and Takano kissed that face, those lips, holding those hips.

"Takano!"

"Shh."

That train would be the last fucking place he was going.

Onodera squirmed off and made an agitated show of wiping his mouth off with his sleeve. Takano stood up, and Onodera quickly walked toward the door, pretending the wobbling in his legs wasn't there. He would never, ever admit that being grabbed like that had been incredibly, incredibly ho-

"Onodera-"

"What do you f-"

"Promise me that you'll come back."

"Sorry, Takano," Onodera sighed loudly. "I'll stay in my parents' house forever so I can live with them and the constant nagging from my mother. Ritsu, take over the company; Ritsu, get married. That's exactly the kind of thing I want."

Takano, walking to him, draped his arms over Onodera's shoulders. "You want to get married?"

Onodera yanked himself backwards so forcefully that he collided with the door.

"Fine, fine. I'll let you go," said Takano. "But you need to promise to call me every day. If you forget, I'm docking it out of your salary."

Onodera gave Takano a look, a glare that laid somewhere between the "oh-please-you-don't-have-the-authority-to-do-that" and the "please-don't-do-that" notches on The Fed-Up Facial Expressions Scale. "Please get out of my house."

"Whatever you say, Ritsu." Onodera blushed.

He opened the door for Takano, and turned away to lock it behind him. He fumbled with the keys, dropping them, but a big hand reached under his arm and caught them smoothly. Takano prodded Onodera's enflamed cheek with his nose.

"…well?" "What can you possibly want now?"

"Rude. Don't I get a good-bye kiss?"

Nearly choking, Onodera ducked out from under Takano's hovering presence, grabbed his keys, and started walking briskly down the hall. He made the one mistaken of turning around. And, before he knew it, he was retracing his steps, and in God's presence, under those little lights lining the hallway, he watched himself stand straight and kiss Takano's cheek. He blinked. He was on the elevator, feeling like someone had hit him in the head with a baseball bat. And through the space between the doors, the space quickly disappearing, he saw Takano's figure frozen in the middle of the hallway.