Hi again! Thank you everyone for the reviews and subscriptions! ^_^ (and Miss Mysty, thanks for the grammar comment. Lol, grammar is the one aspect of english I am not friends with...)

I'm relieved everyone is taking well to the new character and hopefully he will be much loved by the time the story is finished. I'm also trying to keep Yuu IC as much as possible, but I can only get so much info from three measly episodes -.- so hopefully I portray him accurately as well.

I took the initiative to draw a proto type of Hisashi and upload it to my deviant art. I also tried to keep the style as close to Nakamura's as possible, but hers and mine are very different so it's not perfect (grrz) And eventually I plan to do one of him and Yuu together :) yayz

here's the link for the pic, enjoy ch 3! review please :)

TBF101

theblack flamingo101 dotdeviantart dotcom /#/d4dqk5f

(take out spaces and dots)

Always

Chapter Three: Blatantly Obvious

"Everyone, I would like to introduce Ijuuin-sensei's newest assistant." Ijuuin's head editor spoke to the team, motioning towards the short boy next to him. Yuu's garnet eyes drifted up from his sketch and a flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes as he saw the stranger from yesterday.

"Please welcome Araki Hisashi-kun from Hokkaido."

The blonde, blue-eyed manga assistant dipped his head and bowed respectfully. As he looked back up, his gray-blue eyes caught Yuu in recognition, and lingered for a moment before he spoke.

"It is nice to meet you all," he murmured in polite, but quiet monotone.

The other five assistants, including Yuu, all stared at the new addition to their team. But while Yuu gave a single curt nod, the other four (all of whom were girls) immediately had their eyes get all starry at the sight of the cute new boy wearing the too-big hoodie.

But the cunning brunette was interested to note that the blonde subtly ignored their glances as he took the empty seat at the end of the table. Yuu felt his lips curl into a slight, musing smile. Was this Araki-kun merely shy?

Or was he surfing for cock.

And as wily as he was, Yuu couldn't help but lean towards the latter, even while he recognized that it was fairly early to tell.

The head editor briskly regained the attention of the assistants to line up this month's projects before heading off to find Ijuuin-sensei, who'd gone awal in search of strong coffee.

As soon as momentary order was repealed, the blonde was pounced upon with greetings.

"Welcome Araki-kun!" The four girls chirped, inclining wide smiles and eyelashes towards the new blood—er blonde. The blonde paused a second before giving them a quiet thank you. Yuu dryly went back to his sketch, but heard every passing emotion of the ensuing conversation.

Hisashi's dull blue eyes briefly traveled to each of the new faces, but showed neither negative nor positive reactions. They simply stared, not even when his new co-workers began asking him questions he'd answered a thousand times in his life.

"Is that your natural hair color, Araki-kun? Or do you bleach it?" An assistant named Yuka asked.

"It's natural." He replied simply.

"Wow!" The girls stated in amazement. "It's so blonde it almost looks white!"

"And it's so curly!" Mitsuki giggled. "Can I touch it?"

Hisashi sighed inwardly but nodded and endured the brief petting. What was with people? It was like they'd never seen naturally curly hair in the entire Asian continent.

But he eventually remembered that Japan-wise, that pretty much was the case…

Unfortunately for him.

"Amazing, it's so fine and soft." Mitsuki cooed afterward. "Are you really Japanese?"

"I'm half German." Hisashi replied (also for the thousandth time in his life).

"Oh really? Your mother or your father?"

"My…mother." The blonde replied, though this time a little more hesitantly.

"Have you ever been to Tokyo before? Or is this your first time here?"

"N—No…I lived…here when I was around t—ten." He stammered, his blue eyes starting to dart around.

"Do you have family here?"

"Hey now. Quit piling questions on him. He just got here five minutes ago."

Hisashi's wide gaze flickered over to Yuu, who's piercing eyes had briefly glanced up when he'd heard the discomfort in the newbie's voice.

"Oh Yanase-kun," Yuka groaned. "We're just curious."

Yuu snorted.

"Oh you girls and your questions. You know you'd probably learn a lot more about a person if you just watched them for awhile instead of giving them a verbal frisk."

"Well you're as high and mighty as always." Mitsuki pouted, sticking her upper lip out at her fellow assistant.

Yuu rolled his eyes.

"Just making sure you don't scare any of our newbies off. You saw how Ijuuin-sensei was with the last deadline. He needs all the help he can get."

"God, don't we know it." Ritsuka sighed, remembering how particularly hellish last hell week had been. The other joined in with their own personal horror stories about mangaka and keeping their deadlines, or lack thereof.

Hisashi noticed that the conversation had been skillfully steered away from him and was grateful from the bottom of his heart. He quietly went back to unpacking his pens and tools as the other's talked, his presence put in the back of their minds.

Where he wanted it.

Since it was the first week of the cycle, most of the work that day consisted of Ijuuin working on his storyboard and the assistants drawing and toning spare backgrounds and filler panels for the upcoming month.

Over the course of the long, uneventful day of cutting boring toner, Yuu found himself casting glances at the new assistant. The insightful rust-red eyes had taken a slight interest in the blonde's psyche. The girls were easy to read. In fact, they barely needed reading at all as they often said outright what they were thinking. But the way the blonde had so easily crumbled earlier made Yuu muse. With hair and a face like that, Araki obviously got a lot of stares and questions, and at first he'd seemed comfortable (if bored) enough to answer them. It hadn't been the interrogation that made him stutter, it had been the topics of the inquiries. The subject of the blonde's German mother, and whether of not he'd lived in Tokyo before had been the stumbling blocks of the conversation. His family and his past. It was blatantly obvious that there were problems lingering there, though Yuu knew none of the details.

Another area of interest was Araki's facial expressions, or lack thereof. The blonde gave of an air of disinterest, but the clarity of his tone indicated that he wasn't shy in the least. And he clearly didn't think along the lines of someone like Hatori, who thought idle chatter to be beneath him when there was work to be done.

No. Yuu saw clearly that the blonde wasn't antisocial because of some personality defect. He just truly, seriously wanted to be left alone.

That left one plausible explanation, something, or someone was creating an invisible barrier that kept this guy from his surroundings. Even as he silently worked, his stony blue eyes were clouded, as if he were lost in his own mind.

Yuu's eyes lingered for a brief moment on the new assistant's unique irises. Blue was a rare color around here. In fact, the only other person Yuu had known with blue eyes…was Chiaki.

Yuu's auburn brow briefly furrowed. Was the shade of Araki's eyes similar to Chiaki's?

No. Not in the least.

Even though Chiaki was so laidback he was almost in a coma, his irises had a brightness to them, a kind of positive cheer that glowed even when the mangaka was in less than stellar physical (or social) shape.

Araki's eyes weren't bright. They were as dull and gray as the large hoodie he wore, with only a little twinge of color to prove they weren't the shade of rocks.

And as far as Chiaki and Araki went personality wise….

They were all the more stark.

"Oh!" Yuka barked suddenly. "Araki-kun, let me give you my business card."

"Good thinking Yuka-chan," Mitsuki nodded. "I almost forgot too."

Hisashi nodded and murmured several 'thanks you's' as he accepted the small white cards. After he'd put them next to his work page, he wordlessly reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a few of his own, passing them out. The girls were ecstatic as they took them gratefully, as if he'd just handed them an unexpected paycheck. Hisashi offered one to Yuu indifferently (even though had not given the blonde one of his own cards) and the reddish brunette took it without a single word. But before Yuu could break eye contact to shove the card into his pocket, his gaze met yet again with the blue marble pallor of Hisashi's eyes. Yuu didn't shirk or glare, but merely stared boldly into the gaze, his eyes ever searching and ever finding insight.

And once again, he saw emotions stirring inside the blonde.

Sorrow. Lethargy.

Regret.

As much as that blonde tried to hide what he felt, Yuu saw it all…

"Hey, Araki-kun," One of the girls asked. The two male assistants broke their locked eyes and glanced other to her.

"Yes?" Hisashi replied.

"Your name on this card, is this the correct spelling?"

The blonde nodded, causing the other girls to chirp excitedly again.

"Wow, what a pretty name Araki-kun!"

"Wait, I'm confused," Ritsuka cut in, tilting her head. "What is it?"

Hisashi looked up again, his blue eyes almost seeming to moisten in the stark lighting.

"Hisashi. It's the character for the word 'Always.'"