When Will the Truth Come Out
Summary- Takano is close to reaching his limit, he just wants Ritsu to tell him how he really feels instead of lying about not loving him. Ritsu doesn't know what he should do about how he feels.
Disclaimer- It's an attempt at cuteness and features a boy's love relationship. This could have potential spoilers in it as well. This is my first fanfiction that I've written so there's a possibility that there's grammar errors. I don't own Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, sadly that honor belongs to Shungiku Nakamura. Please let me know what you think of it and if you would like a part two that could follow how their lives have changed.
"..." speaking
-Takano's Point of View-
As I entered the elevator and turned around, I saw him entering the building. Who's this person you might ask, it's the love of my life Ritsu Onodera and also the person that refuses to tell me that he loves me. What's hard to understand is why he won't tell me his true feelings, he did when we were in high school and he was really shy then. He seems to not be as shy as he used to be then because he doesn't hide his face or seem afraid to say anything. Here I go again trying to figure out why he acts the way that he does and getting myself distracted, I need to go upstairs and see how everyone is doing.
"Please hold the door!" someone yelled after I punched in the floor number for the Emerald editing department and the elevator doors started closing. Reaching out to hold open the door for the person that yelled, which turned out to be Ritsu. You could tell that he was running since he was panting a lot when he got in the elevator. He really needs to take better care of himself especially during the times when we're close to deadline because he looks miserable.
"Thanks for getting the door, I really appreciate it," he says, after catching his breath and turning to look at me. After seeing that I'm in the elevator he starts fidgeting next to me, I think that he's still trying to avoid me. Hopefully that will stop happening soon, it's really starting to irritate me.
"Of course," I said, as the doors closed and we started going up the floors. Due to him being closer I can see how worn out he is, he looks like he hasn't had a decent amount of sleep in a while. Which makes sense since we've been really busy trying to put out another manga. If it weren't for the fact that the deadline is so close, then I would just tell him to go home since he looks like he would fall over if given the chance. Sadly though I know that the team really needs him and I want to be around him as much as possible.
"Hopefully today will be the day that we finish everything quickly so then we can go home and rest," he says softly, as he leans against the elevator wall until the doors open.
A few hours later
-Ritsu's Point of View-
Once finished with all of the work that's been assigned to me so far today, I look around the room to see everyone moving around very sluggishly and try to figure out how these situations keep on happening. I'm really trying to understand why everyone can't keep to the original schedule that was posted near the end of last month but, instead they wait till the deadline is really close to start getting the majority of their work done. If they stuck to the schedule then we wouldn't have this level of panic and we would all be acting like normal people instead of resembling zombies.
Taking a break sounds really good right about now but, what should I do. Maybe I should get some coffee from the vending machine in the break room or rest my eyes for a few minutes so the sleep deprivation will hopefully lower. My eyes blurring make the decision for me, pushing my computer away from me so I have room to lay my arms on the desk to act as a pillow and then close my eyes.
Waking up startled to a loud bang that sounded like it happened right next to my head. After blinking a few times to try to take care of my blurry eyes and turning to my right to ask Kisa what that noise was to see Takano standing there. He had a rolled up manuscript, at least that's what I imagine it is, in his hands which was probably used to make the sound that woke me up.
"Um hello," I tried to say as confidently as possible after seeing a start of a frown on his face. He seems to like hitting me on the head with papers all the time, especially when he's trying to tell me how to do my work so hopefully I didn't upset him too much.
"Well hello sleepy head, how was your nap?" he says with a hint of amusement in his voice, as he smiles and leans against Kisa's desk.
-Takano's Point of View-
Trying to supress my amusement at him just turned out to be a failure and it didn't help by how cute he looks while trying to wake up. I feel really bad about waking him up and how I went about it but, when I was shaking his arm it didn't do anything so I had to resort to a different way of getting him up. We should really be heading home soon or else we'll have to find a different way of getting to our apartments since the trains will stop going soon.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he says awkwardly, while turning around and looking at his desk. He must've noticed the papers on his desk because he started looking through them really quickly after picking them up. The rest of the team put them there while he was sleeping since they didn't want to wake him up. After noticing the papers contained the work that everyone has been doing recently so then he can submit them tomorrow morning. Well at least he can stop being stressed out now which is a good thing.
"Uh huh is that what we're claiming happened?" I whispered, while moving close enough so then I can put my arm on the back of his chair.
"I think you must have been hallucinating Takano. Why are you getting closer by the way and shouldn't you be on your way home or at home already?" he says, while stacking the papers again to put them on top of his computer.
"Well to answer your questions, the reason why I'm getting closer is because I'm going to kiss you and I'm waiting for you to go home," I said, as I turn his chair around so that I can lean in and kiss his lips gently. At first he started to pull away from me until my arms wrapped around him and kissed him harder, it seemed like that flipped a switch in him since he started kissing back. I felt his arms wrap around my neck and lean into my embrace more. After I don't know how many minutes we separated from each other and try to compose ourselves.
-Ritsu's Point of View-
Due to being so close to him and how we were acting, my face started getting all hot. As a way to distract myself I looked around the room only to see that it was just the two of us with most of the lights off.
"Wait, where is everyone?" I said panicking.
"I'm surprised that you've just now realized that everyone is gone. I didn't see a reason for them to stay here since they finished everything that they needed to get done for the deadline. I was going to tell you earlier that you could go home but you decided to take a nap and I didn't want to wake you up."
"We've already talked about this, you were hallucinating. So I guess that means that I will be leaving then," I said, while grabbing my bag, scarf, and jacket. Takano and I started walking over to the elevators after turning off all of the lights that were left on for us.
As we walked to the train and rode it home, all I can think is about how I don't know if I can resist my feelings anymore. I've always loved him since I first saw him in the high school library and especially when we first truly met each other. But back then the fear of never being good enough to be at his side or worthy of being loved by him so to avoid that happening I hid my feelings and tried to overcome them. We all know how that went, we dated, slept together, and then had that misunderstanding that shattered my heart. When that happened it brought back all of those fears that I had in the beginning which I was slowly overcoming and made me more critical of myself.
Until recently I never really thought that I would overcome how I felt all of those years ago but, as it turns out having someone like Takano trying to break down the walls that I built around my heart constantly trying to get me to fall in love with him again does work.
-Takano's Point of View-
Looking over at Ritsu you can tell that he's thinking about something important because he's being really quiet about the fact that I'm sitting so close to him and keeps either smiling or frowning every now and again. When his cheeks started to get a light pink tint to them, jealousy started to fill me because I don't know what he's thinking about or who's bringing out those reactions. Pushing down my jealousy since it won't do me any good and if I say anything it will just make him close himself off again, which is something that I definitely don't want.
One hour later
-Ritsu's Point of View-
By the time that we got to the hallway where our apartments are at I'd made up my mind for what I wanted to do. As we reached Takano's apartment door, I stopped next to said door as he started to unlock it. With the door unlocked, he opened the door and looked toward my direction then did a double take. I guess he wasn't expecting me to stay by his side as a way to reassure him I gave him a smile.
"Well, are we going to go inside, it's been a long day and I don't feel like standing out here for a long time. You look like I just gave you a huge shock."
"I didn't think that you would want to come in so it would make sense that I'm surprised," he says, as we walk into his apartment.
"Well you know how I am, I have to be surprising every now and then or else I would be boring," I said laughing at my joke, while going over to the couch and sitting on it.
"Are you hungry at all?" he asks with concern.
"No, I'm more tired than anything, do you think that we could go to sleep?"
"Are you sure that you want to sleep here? I mean you don't seem to like staying here for any length of time," he says, after gesturing for me to go to his bedroom and then following me when I went inside.
"Maybe I've changed my mind," I say, while walking over to the bed so that I could lay down and get comfortable.
-Takano's Point of View-
"I think that you've changed your mind because you've come to the conclusion that you love me again. Please tell me how you really feel about me?" I say with a hopeful smile, as I lay down next to him and get comfortable as well.
"I love you, there I admitted it. There are you happy now?" he says, while blushing.
"Very much so and I love you too. Let's get some sleep, we wouldn't want you sleeping at work again," I whisper into his ear, then wrap my arms around him.
"Again I don't know what you're talking about," he said, before he jabbed me in the stomach with his elbow then closed his eyes.
As I closed my eyes and started to fall asleep, all I could think about is how I couldn't be any happier than I was at the moment and looked forward to tomorrow morning.
The End