Being Kissed

Takano had been the head editor of Emerald for about three months. If Kisa had to be truthful, he wasn't sure what he thought of his boss. It was clear from day one he was a hard worker, of course; he was already whipping Emerald into shape, even if the sales were barely reflecting that, at least yet. But Kisa didn't know much about him other than the rather intense stares he sent around the room sometimes, like he was trying to size them up.

He did learn something near the end of one cycle, though. One of Kisa's authors was especially late on their pages, and he and Takano had ended up going over to the woman's studio to help finish the pages. When Kisa finished his work on one and went to give it to her, his author said, "I don't know… I'm just having trouble with this and I don't know why…"

"Which one is it?" Kisa asked, leaning over to look for himself. "Oh, a kissing scene…"

"Yes… I've done them before but I can't seem to get the angle right," she said, frowning.

Kisa looked down and tilted his head. He laughed and said, in a joking voice, "Maybe you need a live demonstration!"

Everyone laughed a bit, except for Takano. He glanced up from the page he'd been working on and said, "…Kisa, come over here."

"What is it, boss?" Kisa asked, following orders. Before he could do anything, Takano stood up, angling himself so the author could see them both, and kissed him hard.

Kisa's eyes went wide, but he resisted opening his mouth in case Takano decided to make the "demonstration" even more real. Once he was thoroughly shaken-up and red-faced, Takano pulled away and said, "Was that helpful?"

"Y-yes!" The author went back to her work, drawing furiously.

Takano sat back down, but then he looked back up, noticed Kisa staring at him, and said, "What?"

"…nothing."