Greetings Readers!

So Please don't kill me! I know I'm in the middle of two other fanfics, but I wanted to write this one for Onodera's Birthday,
This was supposed to be up on March 27th, Onodera's Birthday, but my computer shut down while I was in the middle of typing and all my work was lost, so I had to rewrite it, but I didn't get a chance to until today.

Two-Shot. (Rewritten 5/6/14)

WARNING: Rated M! I think you know why. Yes... that's right! Lemon. (yayyy)

Enjoy this story!

March 26:

Once again, the Emerald editing team of Marukawa Shoten managed to get through hell week and the dreaded cycle. And believe me, it was a rough one this time around.

The month had started out just fine. To Emerald's surprise, all the authors got their storyboards drawn up and submitted on time, which was incredibly rare, what with Emerald's authors who, when it came to getting work done on time, were absolute serial offenders. Authors like Chiharu Yoshikawa, Sato Iori, Erika Ichinose, and Mutou Yukina, almost always succeeded in wriggling out of getting done before and at the deadline. However, this time, with the help of the editors, they managed their time well and, to their surprise, got their storyboards in a day before the deadine.

But then things turned for the worse.

A flu had broken out amongst half of the authors as well as their assistants, making them work slower and slack off, earning them long, loud lectures over the phone from Takano Masamune, Chief Editor of Emerald. Which didn't help the situation at all whatsoever.

The authors, however, did continue to work as they fought the flu.

While it took three assistant replacments, two postponings at the printers and a long trip to and from Hokkaido, in the end, the manuscripts got delivered right before the scheduled release of this month's issue of Emerald.

As they got the final manuscript in from Yoshikawa-sensei, a sigh of relief swept across Emerald.

'At Last' Onodera Ritsu thought, 'It's over.'

It was near 11:00 by the time most of the editors went home.

The only two remaining in the entire office were Takano and Onodera.

Noticing how late the time was, Onodera decided that since he had no work left, he would head home as well.

"Good work today." Onodera said to his boss, as he got up from his desk. "I leaving now." He started to walk off, before Takano stopped him.

"Wait a minute," he said, "I'll go with you."

"Oh... No. Don't bother. There's no reason for you to do so." Onodera protested. He so did not want to walk home home together with Takano.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something." Takano explained as he got up and walked over to where Onodera was standing.

"W-What do you mean by 'something'?" Onodera asked. His cheeks were visibly reddening . He was still nervous to be around his ex-lover.

"Just come on." Takano said, "and this is an order from your boss."

Onodera sighed. 'You know, that excuse is getting old really fast.' he muttered under his breath so Takano couldn't hear.

*******TIME SKIP********

Silence had fallen between the two editors. Neither said another word on the walk to the station or during the train ride itself. They just stood side by side, looking straight ahead. In fact, neither said or did anything else until they reached the hill that would take them to their apartment complex.

"So about tomorrow..." Takano started out.

Onodera looked up at Takano with a confused expression on his face. His deep green eyes full of wonder.

"Huh?"

"Your birthday. It's tomorrow, isn't it?"

The confused look was erased from Onodera's face, and was replaced with a look that totally said "I forgot"

'Oh Dammit, I forgot,' Onodera thought. 'my birthday is tomorrow. W-Wait a minute... Does that mean... Takano is expecting to do something? Oh God, what do I do?'

Onodera began to sort of panic. After last year, he started to resent his birthday. Last year, his birthday was a total wash. After being forced to plan, book, schedule, and attend a company Hanami* party, while drinking himself senseless, not to mention enduring the embarassement of being dragged home by Takano, only to find himself and Takano sleeping in the same bed (fortunately fully clothed) it all led up to... sleeping in the same bed... without any clothes. Onodera blushed at the thought.

I guess you could say that he didn't exactly look forward to his birthday this year.

"So what do you want to do?" Takano asked, interrupting Onodera's thought stream.

"W-What?"

"For your birthday. What do you want to do? I'm still fine with getting a cake and eating it at home. Or maybe going out to dinner together. Or maybe we could go back to Kyoto..."

"DON'T JUST DECIDE THINGS ON YOUR OWN! I TOLD YOU THAT BEFORE!" Onodera yelled. "A-And... besides. Y-You... really don't have to."

"I know I don't have to. But I want to. If it's for you, I'll do anything" Takano said, simultaneously taking hold of Onodera's hand.

Onodera stopped at Takano's sudden action.

"Stop it!" he snapped at him.

"I told you before, that if you refuse, I just have to drag you. If I didn't, I'd never get to spent any time with you."

Onodera blushed. Takano was always so persistant when it came to him. It was sort of annoying.

As they continued up the hill, walking to their building, Onodera allowed Takano to keep holding his hand. He was pretty sure that Takano could feel his heart beat like crazy. He could feel it himself. The pulse was rushing quickly between their hands. They could both feel the heat of the other's hand. Takano smiled to himself, and looked down at Onodera, who continued looking straight at the sidewalk that lay ahead, trying to forget they were holding hands in the first place.

* * * * * * TIME SKIP* * * * * *

The two men finally made it to their Apartment Building. All that remained between here and getting out of Takano's sight, for now at least, was the elevator. Onodera knew that tomorrow, his birthday, Takano would be twice as clingy as normal, and since tomorrow was a Saturday after the cycle, and they didn't have to go to work, Takano would have Onodera practically all to himself. There was no doubt in Onodera's mind that Takano would try something.

Right then, the elevator door opened and they walked into the small mirrored room. Takano pressed the button that would take the two to their floor, and the elvator door closed and started going up.

During that time, Onodera was silently praying that the elevator would go faster, but it was extremely slow at their building, and what made it worse was that they lived on the twefth floor. This would take forever.

Just then, he noticed was that he and Takano were still holding hands, and Onodera was unconsciously getting redder with each passing minute, as if it were even possible. And his heart was loudly thumping, and his palms were getting sweaty. But he still didn't let go. He looked up at Takano, only to meet with those golden brown eyes, which were staring deeply into Onodera's beautiful green eyes.

"Onodera." he said, inching closer and closer to Onodera's face.

Onodera couldn't bring himself to look away. In fact, he did the opposite, as he moved unconsciously closer to Takano's face. Their lips were centimeters apart and their noses were touching.

That's when Takano decided to close the gap between them with his lips. Onodera's eyes widened as he felt Takano's lips on his own, but he didn't resist.

Takano began to slowly but passionately kiss Onodera. He closed his eyes as he brought Onodera closer to him, capturing him in his arms.
Onodera didn't stop him. Contrarily, he wrapped his arms around Takano, and then, he started to kiss him back.

"Takano-san." he said, his mouth opening slightly. Giving Takano the opportunity to slide his tongue into Onodera's mouth. He brought his hands up to the back of Onodera's neck, and pushed Onodera closer against him, deepening their kiss.

Onodera gave slight moans to Takano's actions, begging for him to continue.

But just then they were interrupted by the ever so irritating ding of the elevator, signaling that they reached their floor.

Both men sighed in frustration. Takano dragged Onodera out of the elevator and quickly into his apartment.

When they got inside, Takano rushed Onodera into his room. And got back to where he left off. He brought Onodera close to him and started kissing him again, this time with more urgency.

Onodera was partially aware and partially unaware of his own actions. While half of him was begging to stop, and struggling to get away, the other half was fighting the first half, responding lovingly to Takano's every action. Desperate for his touch.

Takano was just as desperate for Onodera if not more. Seeing him actually complying rather than running away, he was so happy. But he realized that now just wasn't the time. Both were tired. And besides, tomorrow was Onodera's Birthday. The perfect time to take Onodera for himself. He just needed the strength to stop.

And so he did stop. When he did, Onodera whimpered, begging for Takano to continue.

Takano put a finger up to Onodera's lips.

"Save it for tomorrow, Ritsu."

"Tomorrow." He continued, "I'm not holding back. I won't be just stopping here. I'm going all the way, whether you like it or not."

Onodera whimpered again. He knew that tomorrow wouldn't be the same. He wanted Takano now. Tomorrow, he will have snapped out of it and just go back to treating Takano like normal.

But still, he nodded. "Okay. But," he grabbed Takano's hand, blushing terribly, "Can I stay here tonight?"

It was already 1:10, March 27th.

Takano smiled, and nodded.

"Anything for you. Happy Birthday Ritsu." he said, kissing Ritsu's forehead, then getting under the covers.

Onodera blushed again and got under the covers as well.

'Hopefully tomorrow will be Okay.'

*Hanami Party: Flower Viewing Party. Companies have them during the time when Cherry Blossoms are in bloom. Good Time to get together with company and drink together.

*Sakura no Hidatte: Literally translates to "Day of Cherry Blossoms" or "Cherry Blossom Day"