I don't own the works of Nakamura Shungiku.
This one I'll be doing March, April, and May!
Then June, July, August! Sorry about what I said last chapter, I forgot about June and July so O.o I can't believe I forgot...
Haha... ending with May on this chapter, then it'll be June, ha loving the timing there...
March; Birthday Weather:
"Finished!" Misaki happily says, putting up his homework. With one look on his school uniform that was hanging near his window, he thought to himself, 'Around this time next year I'll be graduating...'
'Hmm... I'm still undecided on where I should go for college or university... Should I go to M University like Nii-chan?'
After a moment of pondering, he went to sit on his bed. 'Mom suggested culinary school but I don't think...'
'I mean, I like cooking very much but to that length...' Then his expression turned grim. 'Then there's-'
["You don't have to answer me yet, but-
"In a year, I'm going to pursue you no matter what anyone else thinks, so be prepared"]
He pales at the memory, and puts his face down in his hands in horror, 'Why?!'
'I mean, what am I going to answer to that..?'
Misaki's maiden vision:
"Akihiko-san, I.. I want to be with you too," Misaki looks up with watery eyes. "I love you,-" "WAIT, wait! What the hell?!" Misaki grabs a pillow to his face, hitting his head repeatedly. "What am I thinking? Who the hell confesses on the spot just like that?!"
'But...' Misaki lies on his side on the bed. 'I mean, I guess I've liked him since I was little. And I'm not interested in anybody at the moment either,' he remembers those wet dreams years back. 'Ugh...' He groaned, 'He knew where to touch and it wasn't fair!'
'That's right,' he thought after a while, sitting up and looking over at his wall calendar. 'It's his birthday tomorrow. I think everyone had plans, and the weather is still bad...' He stands up and goes to desk, picking up the wrapped gift. 'I should at least...'
...
"Hello, Akihiko-san?" Misaki calls out, walking into the man's apartment the next day. Seeing that the lights were on the man was home, but it was quiet. 'Did he go nap?'
His question was answered when he walked into the man's childish bedroom, finding said man sleeping tiredly next to Suzuki-san. Setting the present on his nightstand, Misaki then backed away quietly to let the older man have his peaceful birthday sleep.
'Happy Birthday, Akihiko-san...'
March; White Day for the two of us:
'Should I, or should I not?' Ritsu glanced from side to side, unsure with the item in his hands. 'I mean, he gave me a Valentines gift and then I gave him a Valentines gift so...'
'Wait, what if he doesn't want chocolate this time around?' He looked down at the simple, white wrapped box of chocolate with a sparkly beige ribbon. A note was slipped in between, just wishing Masamune a happy White Day.
With much hesitation, he ended up bending down and tried putting it through the mail slot. However, almost halfway in it stuck, and Ritsu pulled it out quickly; the bow was the problem. Since it was so pretty though, Ritsu felt it was a waste to remove it, so he pressed it down hard as he pushed the wrapped box through the slot again.
Once it got through he gave a sigh of relief before rushing back to his apartment to get ready and go out. What a morning.
...
Masamune walked out of his room, dressed for the day. Before he headed to his kitchen he heard something at his front door so he went, surprised to see a wrapped gift. Hearing Ritsu's door close, he went and picked it up, taking out the note and reading it before looking at his box of chocolates and smiling.
As he prepared his breakfast and ate, he listened to the sounds of his neighbor getting ready for work. He hadn't expected Ritsu to give a gift to him; he wondered if Ritsu will like the brownies he planned to give him...
...
Coming home, Ritsu felt his heart leap a little seeing a wrapped container with a letter on top. He knew he shouldn't really get too excited, but he couldn't help it. For a split second, his heart went from high to low.
'What are we doing, exactly?' he thought, moving forward to pick his gift and the letter up. 'It's sort of silly, actually, when we're next door neighbors.'
'I understand though,' he began in his head, now in his apartment and sitting down on his couch. 'That he's doing this to make up for back then, I know.'
'And maybe it's for the best that we don't see each other just yet.' Reading the letter, he flushes towards the end, wondering what he had written to make Masamune reply like that.
'But whenever we do meet again, after all this space between us...'
'Hopefully I'll be able to face him straight on without running away like I did that day...'
March; Birthday for 2:
"Thank you for sharing your birthday with me, Onodera." Akihiko says, his violet eyes lighting up at the cherry blossom petals in the air.
"Ah, you don't need to thank me. Misaki told us you never got to go cherry blossom viewing with your family or friends, so we're really happy we can all come here together! Are you having a good time?"
"Yes, much better than I expected," the older man looked down at the food on the mat. "I didn't know there so much cherry blossom themed food..." He noticed something really disgustingly pink on a tray close to them that looked like sliced pieces of omelet egg, but he wasn't sure. "What is that?"
"Hmm?" Ritsu looked over, mindful of Maeko napping with her head on his lap, and laughed. "I think someone dyed those eggs pink."
'How horrible,' the author thought, crying inside for the wonderful yellow that was tarnished before its completion. 'How could someone do this?'
"Aki-chan! Ritsu-pyon!" They looked up to see Sumiko running up to them. "They're going to feed some koi and ducks. Why don't you guys go with Mae-Mae; I'll watch the food."
"Sumiko," Akihiko begins, pointing at the egg. "Who did this?"
"Eh? Oh," she laughs, "I was going to leave it alone, but then Haru-chan wanted to help and he thought that, since the mochi and most of the other foods that I had around were lightly pink, that the eggs should be pink."
Akihiko frowned as she further explains, "He put in a little too much as I was cooking them, but still tastes good though, I assure you."
'Of course,' Akihiko thought, 'It was a horrible person who did such a thing...'
Overall though, it was a great birthday.
April; Not this:
"Sorry you had to come with me, Takano-san," a rushing Shouta apologized. "His editor for his novels is normally the one to get him in gear, but he's busy at the moment and the deadlines-"
"I'll give your mangaka a piece of my mind," Masamune replies gruffly, pissed. "Didn't you say earlier something about a hiatus?"
"A-ah, that..." Shouta fidget his hands together nervously, "That was for his other two mangas, his novels, and then this one so for the acting and school-"
"What?!" Masamune turned on him. "Acting?! School?!"
"I-I-I-I mean... did I say acting and school? I said-"
"Explain this to me right now, or I'll-!"
"Okay, okay!" Shouta tried taking a deep breath. "You see, Satoshi-san is actually," he looks around before pointing up at a billboard, "Satomi-san."
Masamune looked back and forth before giving him a deadpan expression. "Are you shitting me, right now?"
"No, I'm serious! After this, she's going to be done to focus on the other stuff and then back." He cries a little, "His other editor somehow gets her doing what she's supposed to do along with a friend, but they're all doing something! Even her little sister is busy!"
"Aarrrghh..." Masamune growled as he rushed faster, wanting to get this over with.
...
"Satomi!" Shouta calls out when they enter the apartment. "We need the..." he sees the huddled over blonde sitting at the little dining table, papers out and holding a pen.
"Hey, man."
"Why aren't you done yet?!" Masamune yells, "We need it in half an hour!"
"Chill," she pauses, looking at him, frowning. "You look familiar..."
"Satomi, please!" Shouta says, going over to her. "How far are you?"
She thinks for a moment, looking over the papers. "10 more pages, but I think I want to re-do some-"
"We have to get this in in half an hour," Masamune says, arms crossed and close to the table. "You can't just re-do pages, here, let me check the pages you've done so far."
"Sure." She turns to Shouta. "Want to go drinking this weekend?"
"Focus on your work!" Masamune ordered, and Shouta goes to sit next to her.
...
"Wow." Satomi says after a while, and they look up at her from their checking. "I'm done."
"Really?" Shouta asks.
"Nope, psyche." One of Masamune's eyes twitch in irritation. "Nah, just kidding, I really am done."
Oh, how he did not like this mangaka.
She nudges a drained Shouta. "You never met Rits yet, right? Or seen him. Want his number?"
Shouta laughs tiredly. "Will he give me tips on how to get you to finish on time?"
She shrugs. "I don't think so. I don't know why but I'm more intimidated by my friends than my co-workers."
"Are you for real?" Shouta whines, and Satomi pats him on the head. "We've known each other for years! And the wig!"
"Yeah, but in that co-worker way that we aren't in each other's lives. I mean, I ask you to hang out with us, but you're always doing..." she is aware of Masamune, "doing your... single guy stuff."
"But Satomi, all you guys are way younger than me-"
"Not an excuse baby-face. The other week we went cherry blossom viewing for Rits's birthday along with an author friend of ours. And mind you, we were very mature and fun." She looks at Masamune again, frowning. "Are you sure we haven't met? You look very familiar."
"I don't think so."
"No, I'm not wrong. I've seen you before... maybe as Satoshi."
"Satomi," Shouta notices, "You don't seem afraid at all of Takano-san."
"Takano-san?" Her eyes widen. "'Takano-san?!'"
"S-satomi?"
Satomi points at Masamune, shocked. She mimics Maeko's way of recognizing him. "Takano Masamune!"
Masamune frowns at her loudness. "Yes."
"Heheeh..." She grins. "This is too good!" Suddenly, she stops grinning. "Damn, nevermind. I can't use this. He wouldn't want me to and he'll get sad."
"What?" Shouta and Masamune say, lost.
May; How the dares begin:
Eri sighs. When that goes unheard, she sighs again more obviously.
"Woah, you sound so upset, what's wrong?" Satomi asks, finishing her homework on Akihiko's coffee table. Ritsu and Eri were gauging personality patterns concerning their two authors. Maybe there was a way to get them both working more productively if they could just figure it out.
They didn't get anything though.
Eri, at the moment, was a little stumped remembering something many fans asked for in the mail. Ritsu had left to get them lunch, and Akihiko retreated to his bedroom for a nap.
"Fans asked," Eri begins to Satomi, "If we can have more daring artwork, photos. And I just don't know..."
"You mean, like, nudes?"
"No, no! Just," Eri tried to remember more of the fan mails. "More intimacy, more reactions from both sides. Maybe some shirtless too..."
"Hm... I think I can help with that."
"Really?"
"Of course," she says confidently, "Remember when I helped with the question of 'What color of hair should I get when getting my wig for my Akihiko cosplay?' And then I got some of his hair and analyzed it and sent out the info?"
'Oh, if only she were into her work then the trivial things...' Eri thought, impressed and somewhat disappointed at the same time with the direction of her dedication.
"Although..." Satomi pauses in thought, "I need to see if my secret weapons are available..."
"Secret weapons?"
If anyone remembered when Shinobu and Misaki had to get a piece of Akihiko's hair, yes.