Chapter 4

The apartment was fully-stocked as far as food went, and Yukina decided to make dinner. Ken would probably stay at their parents' place, and Yukina seemed to feel bad that Miyuki hadn't eaten yet.

"Well I did offer," Yukina said as he searched the cabinets for a rice cooker. "She was going to sit-in on my studio class, though, and said she didn't want to bring food in." He finally found the rice cooker and set it up. "Kisa-san, would you mind cutting up the vegetables?"

Kisa eyed the various vegetables Yukina had set out along with the cutting board. He picked up a cucumber and laughed despite himself. "I kind of want to keep this," he said, picking up the knife in his other hand.

Yukina smiled as he washed the rice. "And what would you need it for?"

"You'd be surprised." He started working on the vegetables, so he missed the somewhat dark expression that passed over Yukina's face. He only looked up when he heard Miyuki stir on the couch.

She appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, looking disoriented for a second. Then her eyes landed on Kisa, and she jumped. "Marukawa's already sending people after me!" She then disappeared, but Yukina and Kisa could hear her talking to herself.

"Kobayashi-san, it's okay! He's not here for that." Yukina set aside the rice and looked around until he found her under the light table. She was clutching a pencil and had draft paper spread before her. "That's Kisa-san. I told you about him."

Miyuki peered out from under the table, giving Kisa a curious look. "Are you sure? I saw him at Emerald. He's one of the editors."

"I think I'd know my own boyfriend, Kobayashi-san." Yukina smiled and sat down on the floor in front of her, reaching for the finished pages of storyboard she had piled around. "Do you need help? I know Onii-chan was supposed to act as your assistant, but he's not around, obviously."

Miyuki ducked her head, like she needed to think about this. She'd heard from Ken that Yukina really liked shojo manga, to the point where he'd managed to become overseer of the shojo manga department at the bookstore where he worked even though he was only a part-timer. She had been impressed and wanted to meet him, which was why she was glad to be given the opportunity to sit-in on one of his classes.

"Well…" Then she glanced over at Kisa, who was still doing his best to prepare the vegetables for their dinner. He sensed eyes on the back of his head and turned to look, and Miyuki quickly looked away. "It would be nice to have help! I mean, this installment is only twenty pages since it's my first, and Takano-san's been really helpful of course but I don't feel like I should call him…"

To tell the truth, Yukina didn't know if she could or not. He didn't know much about Takano, mostly because Kisa never really talked about him beyond basic things. Yukina didn't even know if he should be jealous of his boyfriend's boss or not, he knew so little.

As Yukina and Miyuki went to work, Kisa slowed his hand and eventually put the knife down so he could listen to them. It fascinated him how much Yukina knew about shojo manga; he might be able to rival the editors at Emerald, and some of those guys, including Kisa, were seasoned professionals. He almost hoped that when Yukina graduated, he'd want to be in the industry somehow. Obviously Marukawa wasn't the only publishing firm with a shojo manga division, but knowing Yukina, if he did go into the industry, Emerald would be his first choice.

"What's Onii-chan doing lately, anyway? He doesn't talk a lot about his job," Yukina said after they'd gone over the flow of five pages of the storyboard.

"He's a freelance designer still." Miyuki sat back on her bottom, staring at the red pen corrections that mostly belonged to Yukina. "That's how he and my parents met. He did the logo for my father's company."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, my parents own a toy company," Miyuki said, smiling. "Even though I'm eighteen now they still like to give me things to try out or just to have. Teddy bears, train sets, models, all kinds of stuff. They really hit the jackpot when people found out a famous author likes our teddy bears." Suddenly she stood up, saying something about showing Yukina one of them and she disappeared upstairs.

Yukina smiled, and Kisa absentmindedly went back to chopping vegetables. "Are all your authors this friendly? I don't think I've actually met any," Yukina said, taking the finished storyboards and evening out the pile.

"Hah, I wish," Kisa said. "Just wait until she's gotten a few installments in. Takano-san will be flying out to Kansai to tell her to get the hell to work."

"Have you ever had to do that?"

"Nah, I'm not that dedicated." He stopped chopping again and looked around. "Heh, maybe I should be."

Yukina put down the pile of storyboards and went up to Kisa, then hugged him from behind. "But you've put out so many good titles, Kisa-san. I think you're doing a good enough job." He laid his face in Kisa's hair, much to the older man's blushing. "Besides, airplane tickets are expensive. Wouldn't you want to save that money for when you can actually go on a vacation?"

"I haven't been on a vacation in years," Kisa said. He was about to elaborate when there was a crash upstairs, followed by a scream. Yukina let go of Kisa and ran up the stairs only to see Miyuki had been buried in an avalanche of bears.

He sighed and started digging.

Meanwhile downstairs, the door opened and Ken looked around. The rice had been left to cook when Yukina started helping Miyuki with the manga, so he could smell it. He was surprised; he didn't think Miyuki could even do that much.

"Oh, Kisa-san! Is my brother here?" Ken said, not acting the least bit surprised that Kisa was standing in his temporary kitchen.

"Upstairs." Kisa just continued chopping vegetables, not able to look Ken in the eye. Finally he had to, though, because Ken just kept staring at him. "What?"

"Did we… go to college together?" he said, that feeling that they'd seen each other before coming back.

"I don't know. Did you major in art administration at M University?"

"Yeah…"

They stared at each other as Yukina yelled upstairs, telling Miyuki to hold on as he kept pulling the bears out of the way.

"I don't think that's all, though." Ken scratched the back of his head, frustrated. Kisa just shook his head and went back to his work.