Chapter 2: Igniting Old Flames

Onodera had accompanied Takano back to the old grind the next Monday morning. After nights like Friday, he really doesn't like to talk to his superior unless it's work related. Well...that's really all they can talk about...

Friday night was just too weird, though... the newbie coordinator pondered sitting down at his station.

It was the first day of the new cycle so cleaning up after last month's disaster was in order. Mino and Hatori already hard at work doing so. Kisa and Meiri seemed to run a bit late, but it was really because all of them had come in so early to clean up and redecorate the department back to its usual pink glow.

Onodera was actually compelled to finish the manga volumes that he'd bought on Friday; that being the first 3 volumes of Never Getting Older by his own kouhai. Only to find the sex scenes in the next couple of volumes were more subtle than the first. Or...so he thought. They were never exceedingly graphic and certain body parts weren't really drawn out. As if Meiri wanted the reader to pay more attention to the atmosphere and drama going on between the two lovers and not the bits that would make it obscene. Though if you never read the story line and just spotted the pages from an outsider's view, you'd think it was the horniest thing ever. Don't know how she does it...but it really is incredible! Onodera said again in his head. Though maybe...I should stay far away from Takano-san if I'm going to read it again...

"Ohayo!" Meiri greeted bright-eyed and bushy tailed just like the rest of her department. A yawning Kisa followed her in, but still looked like he was ready to go.

Onodera snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to the author of the series he'd just read. "Ah! Meiri-san I..." Onodera cut himself off while greeting her. He was about to praise her on her comic, but immediately thought against it. Telling her he read it would also mean telling the entire department, including Takano. And Takano DID NOT need to know something that could ultimately shatter his barriers just like it did Friday night. Especially if Takano himself was reading it as well.

"Eh? What is it Ricchan?" she was a bit perplexed as to why he cut himself off. Wasn't he about to tell her something?

"Eh?! Oh..." Onodera scrambled for words trying to cover up what he was about to tell her. "Um...I forgot! Ha ha ha!" he tried to play off as a mind slip.

"Ehhh..." Meiri hummed and got ready to work.

"Awww, Ricchan...spit it! You read her books!" Kisa teased. Onodera immediately turned to stone.

"Oooohhh is that what you wanted to tell me?" Meiri's smile grew big. She was of course proud of all her works. Though because of its content, the really shy fans like to congratulate her in a private setting; she was used to it.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of. I read it..." Mino spoke up. "It's very brilliantly done!"

"Never Getting Older, right? I'm on Volume 6," Hatori said next. "No harm in supporting your fellow team mate right?"

"Volume 4 here. Not just that, how could we resist? Kisa made it sound so good...and he wasn't lying," Takano said nonchalantly as he was going through a new storyboard. "I'm quite enraptured with it myself," the professional air with which they were all praising her seemed to ease Onodera's mind quite a bit. But he still didn't favor Takano knowing that he was reading it. The reasoning was obvious.

"Ehh!? Wow! Thank you all so much!" she bowed toward them feeling a puff of pride. "Now...if only I could write a story to follow it up..." the last statement ended with a whine. Meiri sighed as she settled in herself.

"Aw I'm sure you'll think of something, we're all rooting for you!" Mino said, his trademark smile and gentle voice could really do wonders in brightening someone's spirit. As long as you didn't upset him of course...

Onodera was relieved the attention wasn't on him so much anymore. That is until Kisa spoke up, "You're on volume 3, right Ricchan? Yukina told me last Friday night," he said about to munch into his doriyaki breakfast. So that was who he was waiting for...

"Eh? Ah yeah," There was no point in hiding it now. "It really is good, Meiri-chan!" he said finally feeling like he could praise her. He'll just deal with Takano when the time came.

"Bet you loved the Library scene," Takano answered giving a knowing look to the one who started this whole conversation. Onodera froze again.

"Ahh... you think so? The dorm room scene was better I think, but yeah nothing could counter the very first scene," Kisa countered.

"Chiharu-sensei loves that one too, I prefer the boy's bath scene myself," Hatori added his own take.

Takano kept his eye on his nervous subordinate after his initial comment. He didn't think the conversation would then involve the rest of his team making comments, but ah well. One thing settled in his mind though... So that's it, huh? He said to himself. Onodera just wasn't himself when he was with him on Friday night. Usually his tsundere uke would put up a fight before he gave into Takano's advances. But this last time was like his barriers were already down when he got to him. He entered his bedroom without a fuss, even stayed for breakfast on Saturday morning; but that reason may have been because the little slob didn't have any real food at his place.

"Hmm I think you all haven't lived until you reached volume 8, you'll love the little rendezvous in the back seat of Keibu's car..." Kisa snickered.

"You all are working on shoujo manga, right?" a certain grumpy bear made his appearance. Though in light of hearing their conversation, he even wondered if he made a mistake and had the wrong department. Everyone immediately jumped (except Takano and Mieri) and continued working.

"Yokozawa," Takano set his papers down. He usually gets a long rant from him but it seems that he wasn't here for that today. "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?" Yokozawa didn't look like he was going to gripe at him, but he geared himself up just in case.

"One of your authors is getting a new anime. So naturally they want to have a special showcase of the series about the time of release,"

"Ah? Don't suppose you can up the reprint volume of said manga?" Takano replied. They then tried to renegotiate a print volume at Takano's request (for once).

Mino leaned in a bit to Hatori and whispered, "Well...looks like they actually can have a civilized conversation," to which Hatori nodded in agreement.

"Hah?" Yokozawa turned his head toward the whispers. Hatori and Mino went back to work on their laptops as if they weren't doing anything. Meiri tried her best to stifle the laughing that threatened her features. Though she did try to duck down and hide behind her storyboard.

Once the discussion was finished the grumpy bear made to take his leave. Everyone on the floor was in awe as they expected yet another screaming match. But in light of recent events and small rumors floating about he and Kirishima Zen, they managed to link up why there's a lighter air about him.

Meiri thought she was in the clear and let her head rise from her paperwork. "What are you doing here?" came Yokozawa's voice again. This time from him leaning over into her ear.

"Eeeeeeek!" One would've thought she jumped about 5 feet into the air by how startled she was. "Taka-chan no fair!" she managed after his jump scare.

"Aren't you supposed to be working on a new series? ….And I keep telling you it's 'Yokozawa-san' when we're at work," he had his arms crossed in front of him.

"Yeah maybe you should stop scaring me like that, then we'll talk..." Meiri looked like she was trying to reclaim her heart. Though this looked like an over exaggeration at this point.

"As if you'd ever stop," he sighed. "Anyway, back to my first question,"

"I know you're not asking me this question for the 50th time,"

"Well more like I expected you to return to Sapphire if you were going to make the decision to go back to editing," he countered. The way they spoke to each other so familiarly was becoming more and more interesting to the rest of the Emeralds.

Feeling this conversation should be a little more private, the red head got up and took a file filled with sketch paper from her bag. "Hey I need to run this by Isaka-san, care to escort me?" Meiri said to him. Of course she only meant that so they could talk a little more to answer his questions. "I'll be right back, Takano-san!" she turned to him. All he could do was nod her away.

"Well...they seemed close," Kisa said after they were out of earshot.

"Indeed..." Takano said rather perplexed himself. "Well we aren't going to figure it out just sitting here, back to work. We need to go over our new storyboards before the day is out. So let's get to reading..."

"Hey since you guys are reading Meiri's work, you can also look into her earlier works. She's been doing manga since her middle/high school days!" Kisa the fanboy remarked as he took out his own storyboards. "I never looked into them, but I've been hearing other fans of hers praise it,"

"Wouldn't mind checking it out. It'd be interesting to see humble beginnings," Mino remarked.

"Ah, you'd have to find them under her maiden name though..." He replied. "Uhhh damn it slipping my mind right now. I'll find it after we get done with this,"

Takano chuckled, "Aren't you a little young to be going senile?"

/(^x^)\

The day wore on without any further disruption and was topped off by a conference with the Emeralds in a separate meeting room. They could discuss every storyboard they had more efficiently without the phones and noise of the editing floor to bug them. "Good work, today!" Meiri stretched as the final minutes were ticked off.

"Ah hey Meiri-chan, may I ask your maiden name? You published your early works under that name, right?" Kisa asked bundling his things to go home.

"Those old things? I promise they aren't as good as the one you all are reading right now," she started to get a bit nervous as this would humble her to a great extent. "Ah but...if you really want to, you should find them under Yokozawa Meiri,"

"Yokozawa?!" Kisa shot a bit thrown back. He didn't mean for it to sound so surprising, but it was clear his shock echoed through all five of them. How on earth did he manage to forget that?!

"Judging by your state of shock, I'm assuming you didn't know the famed Marukawa Grumpy Bear is my older brother?" Meiri laughed.

"Ahh so that's why you called him Taka-chan..." Hatori added with a smile. He actually shared a comradery with Yokozawa as far as professionalism went. They had a couple things in common as well.

Meiri laughed remembering the name she uses for him. One she she should use outside the office. "Of course you heard him gripe before about my using our family name for him. And it's right I use 'Yokozawa-san' in the workplace...I actually do it to tease him. Like he does me," Meiri huffed. "But it's also just so weird for me to address him like that! C'mon we grew up together! We shared toys and coloring books, had to split chores and allowance, fought over who did what, we still horseplay on occasion, and we tease each other to no end like a couple of slapstick comedians," She giggled. Takano could relate to this as he and Yokozawa do the very same to each other on occasion.

"Woah...Yokozawa horseplays?" Kisa was getting very amused with this as was everyone else.

"Ah yeah, I think I still have the scuff on my toes from when he tried to prank me by pushing me into the pool at Papa's house," she laughed recalling memories of the past summer. "Before I fell in, I managed to grab his wrist and in he went with me! Serves him right..."

There was something that was irking Takano though. "If you are his sister, why didn't he ever mention you when we were in uni?" he honestly wasn't trying to make her seem like she was lying.

"Well, you met him in uni right?" Meiri began trying to remember what went on around that time. "I already had a bit of high standing in the ranks of my mangaka career, not to mention I was lucky enough to get married to one of the biggest names in J-pop culture," she answered him. "The harassment of family from paparazzi is something to worry about. But also mentioning you have ties to big names kinda destroys the ability of those you're involved with to do things on their own as far as school or career is concerned," It was then that Onodera resonated with what she was trying to explain. Being the son to the CEO of a publishing house was the very reason he transferred to Marukawa in the first place. Yokozawa was another that wanted to rely on his own skill and not let his sister, who's name was becoming heard 'round the world', have any influence on his chances at real life just for being her brother.

"Ah I understand now," Takano smiled then. Being involved with Onodera and knowing his backstory drove that point home.

"Ah but...please don't let anything I'm telling you leave this room. The Grumpy Bear should stay a big ol' grumpy bear and I'd appreciate it if you still treated him that way. If this ever got out of hand, no one would take him seriously anymore. And you all know his intimidating stature is how he does business. I think I'm doing enough damage by letting our family names slip," she laughed nervously. "He really is a wonderful big brother, though..." she said this even knowing that he was slowly losing the image thanks to whatever Kirishima-san was supposedly doing to him. She didn't know any details of their relationship. When she asked him, he only seemed very apprehensive to talk about it.

/(^x^)\

The team met back at their place on the editing floor just to pick up their belongings and go home. Onodera was doing his best to make a speedy escape. Though, he'd only meet him again on the train home. Of course Takano being Takano would choose the seat nearest him on the empty train home. He sat anxiously next to his superior praying with all his might that he wouldn't bring up the manga they were reading.

"Oi, I kinda want to change-" Takano began figuring he'd touch on a certain spot in one of Onodera's storyboards.

Onodera jumped five feet the moment he spoke. "Ah...ah, yes?"

Takano got a little startled himself at his subordinate's actions. "The hell is wrong with you?"

"S..sorry...i..it's just one of those days..." Onodera rubbed the back of his neck.

Takano wasn't falling for his usual lame excuses. His nervousness had to be due to when they were talking about Never Getting Older. The editor in chief already made all the ties to why Onodera was pleasuring himself that Friday night. "You know your lame excuses aren't working, right?"

"Hah?!" Onodera shot back angrily. Now Takano's tsundere was sounding like his usual tsundere.

"Get over yourself, this is all about me finding out that you're reading that manga. Or shall we say your new weakness against me?"

Onodera's blush couldn't be bigger, but he was getting pissed he was talking about this now of all times. "What are you talking about?"

Takano then leaned into him on the seat. "That library scene... It brought back memories, didn't it?" he used a sulfurous voice that tickled the mousy brown hair gently covering his ear.

"T..Takano-san...what are you talking about all of a sudden...ON A TRAIN," Onodera backed up a bit.

"Ahhh...so you're saying this is okay to talk about at home then?" Takano hummed with a smirk. "Got it, let's have dinner at my place,"

"Sorry I have plans..." Onodera shot back.

"How many times are you going to tell me that before you realize I know you're full of shit when you say it?"

Grrrr I really need to move!

When they made it home, Onodera tried in vain to rush to his apartment before Takano grabbed him by the scruff of his hoodie dragging him into his own apartment. "We have a date remember? We just have to go over our favorite scenes, don't you think? We finally have something to talk about now..."

Onodera's heart jumped. He had him there. There went one of his barriers. They barely had time to discard their shoes at the genkan before Onodera was once again brought into his superior's bedroom.

"You remember, right? That part about them fucking in the library," Takano smoothed over helping his little Ritzu out of his outerwear. "It brought back memories of when I could barely contain myself after saying you wanted to be with me that night. You wanted to help me just by staying with me. You wanted to be there for me..." his voice a low baritone breaking down Onodera's barriers one by one.

Onodera was surged with the memory of that day while his heart wanted to jump out of his chest again. He loved him so much that he wanted to do anything for him. Even if it meant all he could do was keep him company. Why...why do you remember all this?! He screamed internally as tears started to well up.

"Ritsu...I love you...and I wish you to continue to be there for me," Takano purred pulling Onodera into a very heated kiss, tears managing to choke him as well, but never letting one fall. He sat them up so they can continue to undress. Leaving kisses on newly exposed skin. "I need you..."

Onodera's will to fight was long gone. Seemed his will was weakening every time they did something like this. What flowed through his head now was how desperately Takano wanted him all those years ago. And now he knew why. Takano's family was cruel to him apparently. They didn't care much for him and learning recently that his dad wasn't even his dad was adding all new volumes of how much love Takano really craved. And even now how he doesn't spend any sort of holidays with his family just because both parents have new ones... "T...takano-san..." Onodera breathed as the one he used to address as 'Senpai' pressed inside him; forcing more tears out.

"Onodera...you're too tight," he gritted through his teeth. He reached down and started to stroke the member growing harder and harder before him.

"Unn...aahhh!" Ritzu panted releasing his tension at the pleasure that surged through him. Takano then seated himself within the one who once wished to stay by his side; beginning a steady rhythm. Sounds of scorching intimacy then filled Takano's bedroom.

"Aaaahh Ritsu!" Takano moaned leaning back using his hand to hold himself up against the bed; he continued to pump Ritsu's member as he himself thrust into him. This position would allow him to see himself going in and out; growing in girth and tempo each time.

Ritsu's yelps weren't the only ones to permeate the silence of the night. He began to hear Takano add his own moans and deep throaty hums of pleasure. This caused his heart to beat so fast, it was getting really hard to hold his stamina. "Ah ah ah ah, Takano-san...I'm gonna..."

That drew Takano's attention and he gripped Ritsu's cock tightly. "Don't you dare, we do this together..."

Onodera gripped the sheets as the ability to release was now being hindered. "N...nooo! Takano-san...please!" the plea ripping itself from his throat.

That almost made Takano lose it. He regained himself from the blow and leaned over his precious Ritsu. "What's wrong? Do you want to cum?"

Such dirty words being spilled into Onodera's ears were making him trust up into his superior's hips on his own volition. "Yes! Yes please Takano-san!" he cried urgently for his release.

"Fuck, you're so damn adorable! I can't..." Takano loosened his grip on his member only to grab both sides of Onodera's hips pounding into him without mercy. The headboard starting to slam into the wall. Thankfully that wall only linked to Takano's empty living room. "Ritsuuu!" Takano called into the night as he filled Ritsu's insides with his white hot passion.

Onodera also came gloriously. His load even managing to land on his chin and neck. He whined cutely as they came down from their nirvana. "Well damn!" Takano stifled a chuckle seeing the mess Ritsu made on himself.

"W..what?" Onodera managed his voice. Takano merely just went down and began to lick it off his chin. The newbie editor's eyes grew wide as he figured out just what he was licking and why he was laughing. "T...Takano-san! Stop that, it's gross!" he cried searching Takano's night stand for some tissues.

"It's not gross. I love the way you taste. I thought you'd know that with all those blow jobs I love to give you," he said holding fast to Onodera's body and nuzzling his neck.

"Stop saying such embarrassing things!"

"You're really some idiot..." Takano laughed again into his love's neck.


Author's Remarks

Ahhhh kinda rambled with this one ^^;; Ah well. I'm hoping to stop talking about this oc so much now that you pretty much know all about her now and I can have some real fun XDD I think I can make her character a bit more subtle while still having her play a role in their lives. She's a mary-sue after all...or supposed to be...

Also. When you see the guys gush about Meiri-chan's manga, some of these are actually my REAL thoughts I have about Nakamura-sensei's work (Particularly the huge comment back in the prologue that Kisa gave). Some comments you see going toward Meiri's manga are really compliments I myself give about Sekaiichi Hatsukoi and Junjou Romantica. So when it sounds like I'm tooting her horn...it's really me just being a fan girl to Nakamura-sensei ^^