Chapter 2

Yukina Ken didn't look especially like his younger brother. Although, Kisa supposed, it was probably the other way around: Yukina didn't look much like Ken. However, as they both sat on the floor of Yukina's apartment while he changed out of his work clothes, Kisa couldn't help but feel like they'd met before.

"So you're Kisa-san?" Ken said, breaking the awkward silence. "Kou's talked about you. I thought he said you were older than him, though."

Kisa almost asked what that was supposed to mean, but he stopped himself. Not having a new guy every night almost made him forget how young he looked, especially while going out with a guy nine years younger. So he just frowned and averted his eyes. "Why, how old do I look?"

"I dunno, maybe eighteen?" Ken gave a small smile, as if he really did believe Kisa was that young and was trying to humor him for Yukina's sake.

Without a word, Kisa brought out his ID and slapped it down, just as he'd done with Yukina. Not seeming to understand at first, Ken just stared at it for a few seconds before picking it up. His eyes scanned the contents until he got to Kisa's birthday.

"You're…"

"Thirty years old, yeah." Kisa grabbed the ID and put it back in his wallet, not daring to look at Ken the entire time. Yukina was still in the bathroom, and Kisa stood up. "I should probably go home. Work in the morning, etcetera." He really did say etcetera; that was how awkward he felt.

Ken could do nothing but look amused as Kisa ran for it. Well, that's not true. He could also get that same feeling that Kisa had, that they had met somewhere before. Ken, however, decided to shake it off. If he couldn't remember where, it obviously wasn't that important.

"Kisa-san?" Yukina was out of the bathroom just as the door closed, looking rather confused at the turn of events. He started to go after his boyfriend, but then the door opened again.

Kisa looked extremely embarrassed as he walked back over to Ken and picked up his wallet, which he had failed to put back in his pocket after putting his ID back in. When he saw Yukina was out, he gave a halfhearted smile. "I'll see you tomorrow. You're not working, right?"

"No, but I have my studio class until seven…" Yukina looked rather sad that his studies were getting in the way of them being able to spend time together, especially so early in the month when Kisa wasn't dead on his feet the few days he didn't stay in the office until early in the morning so he could push his titles through on time.

Kisa just nodded and looked like he was going to leave it at that. He was used to leaving it at that, mostly because he knew Yukina wouldn't say anything. But then, forgetting that Ken was there at all, Kisa muttered, "I could… wait for you, at the university if you want." He wouldn't look Yukina in the face. He wasn't very good at looking Yukina in the face. "Just let me know what building you'll be in."

Yukina immediately brightened up. Kisa had never offered to meet up with him anywhere but outside the bookstore, and the fact that he was now willing to hang around the university and wait for him made his heart grow about three sizes. Without another word, he wrote down the name of the building on a piece of paper, and even the room name of his studio, although he doubted Kisa would be that brave.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Kisa-san." And then he kissed him just as Kisa was remembering they had an audience. Kisa, of course, didn't have the heart to pull away until Yukina did, at which point he left the apartment for the second time.

"So where's the big boss today?" Kisa asked, eying the empty desk that was usually occupied by Takano. He asked this of Ritsu, who just shrugged.

"How should I know? I'm not his keeper," he said. He proceeded to try to look busy, but it didn't really work. All he had on his desk was a finished project proposal and his laptop, which was open to the sales figures for his series. He decided to look extremely interested in these, even though he had looked them over a million times already.

Kisa was about to tease him as he usually did, but Hatori looked up from his desk. He actually had work to do, but that was mostly because his star author lived right there in Tokyo, so Hatori could go over and threaten bodily harm if the storyboards weren't ready in time. Not that it always worked. "Takano-san is meeting with an author right now. One of the ones that lives down in Kansai, I think."

"Oh, yeah, it was crazy!" someone else said. She wasn't one of the editors, so Kisa didn't really know her name. "She came with a bodyguard and everything. Seems her parents were paranoid about her being here in Tokyo."

"Parents?"

"She's eighteen," the woman went on. "One of those prodigies you hear so much about but never actually meet. Takano-san recently took on her first manga."

It sounded like the entire office was going to go into gossip mode, and Hatori slammed his hands down on his desk. "If you spent as much time working as you did gossiping, we'd be more prepared when our authors get their work in late!" Everyone scrambled to look like they were doing something, and Hatori breathed a sigh of relief and went back to his own work.

"Not a bodyguard, an escort."

All eyes but Hatori's went to the young girl standing in the office, with Takano right behind her. There was no hint of anyone else, though. "My parents had a family friend come with me, to make sure I didn't do anything too stupid." Then she bowed. "Nice to meet you all. I'm Kobayashi Miyuki. And this is…" Then she turned, and seemed to realize that it was only Takano behind her. "Huh, that's weird. Where'd Yukina-san go?"

A record scratched in Kisa's head, and he threw some of his papers around in a frantic way before realizing how conspicuous he looked. He calmly put them back in order, despite the fact that Miyuki was staring at him.

"Uh, anyway!" Miyuki clapped her hands together. "I'll be here in Tokyo for the rest of the month. I thought it would be easier, since this is my first time doing a chapter for the magazine. I hope we can all work together!" At that she turned, and then a grin split over her face. There was Ken, standing with two drink cans. "There you are!"

"You're the one that said you wanted green tea," Ken said, sounding only slightly annoyed. His eyes shifted into the room, and Kisa quickly ducked his head. Because of this, he wasn't able to tell whether Ken saw him there or not. "Anyway, how about we get back to the apartment? I'm sure Takano-san would enjoy having those storyboards in on time."

Takano made no comment, just glanced at them both, then over at the still-panicked Kisa, before lighting up a cigarette and going back to his own desk. Takano had enough of his own drama without caring about Kisa's.