Onodera Ritsu & Takahashi Misaki no Baii

Chapter 4

Onodera was about thirty minutes early arriving in front of the extravagant apartment complex that the taxi had dropped Takahashi-kun off at. He hadn't really seen the huge building that night, but now with the sun shining, he had the opportunity to fully appreciate it.

And appreciate it he did.

"Woah, this is amazing!" he exclaimed to no one in particular. He sat down on a bench in front of the building, wondering about how rich Takahashi-kun must be.

"O-Onodera-kun?"

Onodera's head snapped up to see Takahashi-kun standing there, looking embarrassed next to a tall, good-looking silver-haired man. His eyes widened in shock.

"Usami-sensei?" Onodera couldn't hide the surprise in his voice.

His previous author's face brightened immediately. "Oh! You're going shopping with Onodera Ritsu!"

Takahashi-kun glanced at Onodera quizzically, but didn't ask anything. Just then, a voice spoke up from behind Onodera.

"So the short one is this Takahashi Misaki kid, and the tall one is one of your old authors, am I correct?"

Onodera jumped in shock, spinning around and screaming, "Takano-san!" at the top of his lungs.

The black-haired man grinned. "Yes, Onodera?"

"Why the hell are you here?" he shouted, not even trying to regain his composure.

"I wanted to follow you to see who you were going out with. But if it's your old author's roommate, I'm sure it'll be okay." He tossed a knowing glance at Onodera, who blushed slightly.

You're too open! Onodera thought, annoyed.

But then he realized that Usami-sensei was saying a similar thing to Takahashi-kun. "It's fine if it's Onodera. Have fun, Misaki." Takahashi-kun blushed, then hastily whispered something to Usami-sensei, who widened his eyes. "Okay."

Takahashi-kun then walked up to Onodera and said, "Usag—Usami-san can come with us, right? I mean, you two can catch up if you want to. And your friend can come as well," he added, glancing up at Takano-san.

"No!" Onodera immediately protested, which caused the three of them to stare at the brunette. Oh, crap, he thought. "I mean, well, I…" He could feel Takano-san's smirk.

"Sure, Takahashi-kun, I would love to come. I've actually been meaning to go out and buy some new books, anyway," the dark-haired man said.

"Okay!"

Onodera clutched his stomach. Oh God. Why?

Usami-sensei offered to drive them out to the closest bookstore in his red Ferrari. The only person who was completely against the idea was Takahashi-kun, but majority rules. Even Takano-san sounded interested.

"It's not every day you see an Italian sports car, let alone ride in it," he said, shrugging.

True, Onodera thought.

They all exited the car that Usami-sensei had skillfully parallel parked right in front of the store. Takahashi-kun's face instantly brightened the moment he entered through the double doors, and he ran off into the manga section of the store.

Onodera glanced around, trying to decide where to go first when he saw someone unexpected.

"Kisa-san?"

The tiny, petite man spun around from his conversation he was having with a tall, princely-looking man.

"R-Ricchan!" Kisa-san exclaimed, wearing a shocked expression. He spun around again to look at the man he had been talking to, then back to Onodera. "Um, right, uh, this is my friend I was telling you about!" He pointed at the princely man with both his hands.

"I see," Onodera said. "Hi, then. I'm Onodera Ritsu, Kisa-san's co-worker." He walked up to the man to shake hands with him.

"Hello, Onodera-san! I'm Yukina Kou," he said, handing Onodera a business card. Always prepared, Onodera handed Yukina-kun his own. (A/N Ha. Always prepared.)

"What are you doing here, Ricchan?" Kisa-san asked, his surprise fading. He looked around and spotted Takano-san almost immediately.

"T-Takano-san! Haha, hello!" Kisa-san's shock returned, along with a pinch of awkwardness.

"Hello, Kisa-san."

Kisa-san turned back to Onodera and walked closer. "I didn't know you were friends with the boss!" he whispered into Onodera's ear.

Onodera's eyes widened. Oh crap, it is unusual to see a boss and a subordinate just going out to buy books! Think, self, think! What lie can I make up?

"Um, well, that's—we just ran into each other, walking up to the bookstore! Right," Onodera stuttered, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

Before Kisa-san could reply, Takahashi-kun shouted from the manga section, "Onodera-san! I found a volume that you edited! I'm going to get it!"

Immediately, Usami-sensei hushed him with a, "Shut up, we're in public."

"Sorry!"

Both Kisa-san and Yukina-kun looked to Onodera. "Who're they?" Kisa-san asked.

"They're friends!" Onodera assured them. "Well, actually one of my previous authors and a friend."

Yukina-kun gasped. "Isn't that Usami Akihiko, that famous author?" he exclaimed, his eyes shining pools of amber. "Onodera-san, you were Usami Akihiko's editor? Wow! That's so cool!" He looked down at Kisa-san. "Why didn't you tell me one of your co-workers used to edit the Usami Akihiko's works?"

Kisa-san's mouth dropped as well. "Wait, you were Usami Akihiko's editor? Why didn't you tell me?" He grabbed Onodera's black sweatshirt sleeve and shook him as hard as the tiny man could.

"S-s-sorry, it j-just didn't com-me up!" Onodera stuttered as he was shaken. Finally, Kisa-san stopped at a word from Yukina-kun.

As Onodera was regaining his composure, Takahashi-kun skipped up to him and announced, "Onodera-san, I got one of the volumes that you edited!" He held up the first volume of Girl's Savvy. "I've never really read shoujo manga, but if a guy like you edits this kind of thing every day, I think it would be fine!" He took the volume away from Onodera's face to look at Kisa-san and Yukina-kun.

"Who're they?" Takahashi-kun asked, still smiling.

"This is my co-worker, Kisa-san, and his friend, Yukina-kun." Onodera was growing tired of introducing people. In fact, he was growing tired of this Saturday in general. He hadn't even gone looking for a book yet.

Wait, where's Takano-san? He just realized that his boss was nowhere to be seen. I hope he got bored and left or something.

"Hello! I'm Onodera-san's friend, Takahashi Misaki," the boy greeted brightly, shaking both of the men's hands in turn. Onodera sighed and tried to walk away towards the literature section of the bookstore, but before he could do so, Usami-sensei walked up to the group behind Takahashi-kun.

"What's going on?" he asked, glancing at everyone.

Yukina-kun and Kisa-san's jaws dropped as they stared at the revered author. "U-Usami Ak-Ak-Akihiko?" they both stammered in unison.

Onodera could tell that Usami-sensei was a little annoyed at having people gawk at him, but he was used to it. "Hello." At least he wasn't a show off, and didn't say something like, "In the flesh," or some clichéd line like that.

"I've loved your works for years!" Kisa-san exclaimed.

"Same, same!" Yukina-kun chimed in.

Onodera wanted to facepalm. To a person who didn't know Usami-sensei personally, you couldn't tell, but both he and Takahashi-kun knew that Usami-sensei was growing annoyed with Kisa-san and Yukina-kun's admiration.

"Thank you for your support," Usami-sensei replied, pasting a fake smile onto his face. Onodera had seen Usami-sensei smile for real, and there was no comparison. He was pretty sure that even the two fans could now tell that Usami-sensei was faking his small smile.

"You're welcome," they both replied, attempting to put a cap on their enthusiasm.

"Onodera, where did your friend Takano go?" Usami-sensei asked, noticing that the man was gone as well.

"I don't know, maybe we should go look for him!" Onodera said hastily, casting a quick glance at Kisa-san and Yukina-kun. "Sorry, Kisa-san, but we have to find Takano-san. I mean, because, he said he wanted to talk to me about one of my manuscripts!" he added gracelessly as Kisa-san raised an eyebrow.

"Alright then, Ricchan! We'll talk more at work tomorrow! Bye!" the petite man finally said, waving. Yukina-kun waved also, after seeing Kisa-san do so.

"Those are some interesting friends, Onodera," Usami-sensei said, following Onodera as he swiftly fled from Kisa-san's knowing eyes. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Which reminds me, why in the world are you working with shoujo manga?"

Onodera froze. "Uhm, well…" he began, starting up his pace once again and scratching the back of his head. How was he supposed to explain exactly why he had stayed? He hadn't even accepted the truth himself. "You see, there was a mix-up and…I just ended up liking working with shoujo manga!" he finished lamely.

Dammit, dammit, dammit! Who would like working with manga at all?! You'd have to be a hardcore masochist to even consider enjoying the shit we get!

Usami-sensei raised an eyebrow, mirroring Onodera's thoughts in a single gesture. "Huh…" he said, narrowing his eyes.

"Onodera, over here."

Onodera's head snapped up to see Takano-san waving him over from the literature section of the store.

Saved! But, he was there the whole time?

"Ah, there you are, Takano-san! Haha, okay, we're leaving now," Onodera said, suddenly wanting to escape the bookstore. He could feel Kisa-san's stare from behind the manga shelves. Thankfully, Takahashi-kun didn't complain, and Usami-sensei didn't show any sign of irritation. And to top it all off, Takano-san actually grinned and consented.

A grin that made Onodera slightly uneasy of what lay behind his boss's dark eyes.

...Am I that predictable? Thank you again for the reviews~! I absolutely love them! Ah, and about the Girl's Savvy thing, I have no frickin clue what the names of the manga Onodera edits are. If you know, uhm, good for you? You can let me know and make me feel like an idiot. Anyway, things are about to get kinda random, so just bear with me. You may think "Wtf is this chick doing, I thought this fic was actually good, etc." But please, bear with me, it'll get better!

Also, if you want to see the other two Junjou couples appear, it'll have to be on request...I never watched Terrorist because it annoyed me (no offense! But if it's a request, I'll watch and read it) and Egoist was good, but I have no idea how I would incorporate them into this story. Obviously, all of the Sekaiichi couples were easier, and I like Sekaiichi just a fraction better than Junjou. So...

Till next week!