"I'm joining you for your hand-over." Takano barged into the conference room just as Onodera was about to enter.

"Umm.. what?" Onodera asked, still standing cluelessly by the door of the conference room.

"Hurry up, newbie. Everyone's waiting for you." Takano's voice boomed from inside the conference room. Onodera heaved an exasperated sigh as he entered the conference room and closed the door in annoyance.

At this point, you're probably a little confused, so let's back up a bit.

It is a tradition for new editors visit authors directly for hand-overs, and vice versa. Onodera was recently assigned a new, up-and-coming mangaka, Harukichi Ayumu. Fresh-faced and eager to take on the role of an ambitious young author, she volunteered to meet Emerald Division's own newcomer, Onodera Ritsu, right here in Marukawa. Tucked in the corner of the Emerald Division's office is a teeny-weeny conference room, which consisted of a ridiculously small, mahogany table, and pretty much nothing else. Due to the size of the conference room, the hand-over was originally supposed to only be between Onodera and Harukichi. However, just as the hand-over was about to start, Takano turned up out of the blue, uninvited, and joined in.

Which brings us to now. Confined within the 4 dull walls of the cramped conference room, Takano, Onodera, and Harukichi were all seated together around the tiny, squarish table. Onodera and Takano facing each other, on opposite ends of the table, and Harukichi adjacent to them. After a few seconds of lingering silence and awkwardness, Takano sent Onodera a reprimanding look.

"What?" Onodera questioned with a trace of irritation in his voice. Then he looked down at his papers and finally came to his senses and remembered that he was supposed to initiate the hand-over.

"Oh, sorry! Umm… nice to meet you, I'm Onodera Ritsu. Sorry for having you come all the way here for the hand-over…" Onodera cleared his throat nervously, introduced himself to Harukichi and stretched out his left hand.

"Oh, no it's okay, I'm Harukichi Ayumu, pleasure to meet you too." Harukichi's left hand shot out as well, making for an awkward handshake between 2 left hands. When they both realized that the handshake wasn't going well, they retracted their left hands and out came their right. At the exact same time.

"Aha.. hahaha…sorry about that…" Onodera forced out a strained laugh as he unconsciously scratched the back of his neck. Wow, we are off to a terrific start!

"And that, is why I don't allow noobs to handle hand-overs on their own." Takano finally spoke up, his firm voice bouncing off the walls of the conference room. "Nice to meet you, I'm Takano Masamune."

Takano introduced himself with a dazzling smile and impeccable manners. The dimly lit room seemed to brighten up simply from the shine of his pearly whites. The contrast between the charismatic man in front of him now and the person he usually is sent Onodera into a daze for awhile. However, Harukichi seemed to hold her breath for a second as her eyes flashed a hopeful twinkle. Onodera was once again outshone by his superior, but that wasn't even the thing that was bothering him. What the hell! He's always such an ass to me.. don't you fall for it, Harukichi, it's a trap!

Onodera tuned out of their mundane conversation as he observed Takano's superb acting skills. You're smiling so much, it's nauseating! Ugh, I'm gonna hurl. God, I sound like I'm jea- Hey! Stop laughing with her!

"Onodera!" Takano slammed both his hands on the table as his blaring voice jolted Onodera from his thoughts.

"Huh?! W-what?" Onodera jumped, frantically reshuffling his papers for no particular reason.

"Nothing, just wanted to see your reaction." Takano said, earning chuckles and high-pitched "Oh, you're so funny"s from Harukichi. Onodera rolled his eyes in vexation and drifted away from their conversation topic yet again. He was currently resting his cheek against his right palm, emerald green eyes following every subtle, suggestive gesture Harukichi was making. Her little nods, smiles, chuckles, and playful touches had not gone unnoticed. This girl's not easy… she's got experience! Look at her! Looking so interested in everything he says… and he's not even saying anything funny! Why is she laughing so much? Damn it! I need to focus… focus, Onodera! You've got work to do!

"So, umm…!" Onodera was just about to get the conversation back on track when he felt something touch his left ankle. Something warm. Something that was moving.

"Yes?" Harukichi asked.

"Oh… uhh, nothing! Carry on…" Onodera blabbered as he tried to kick whatever was on his ankle away. Eww gross, is that a giant bug or something?! Onodera shuddered at the thought of that. He didn't hate insects, but the image of having an overgrown millipede or something latch onto his ankle gave him the willies. Oh god I'm creeping myself out… After mustering up some much-needed courage, Onodera tried his best to keep a straight face as he reached his arm below the conference table and tried to sweep away the "bug". Then, he felt it. The unmistakable friction of fabric against his finger. Onodera flinched in shock as he drew his arm back quickly. Wide-eyed, he stared at Takano with a subtle expression of disbelief. He was still chattering away with Harukichi about something which, Onodera could guarantee, wasn't about work. But for a split second, Onodera swore he saw Takano dart his eyes towards him, smirk, and then dart his eyes back to Harukichi, his lips still quirking ever so slightly.

Is he kidding me?! In the middle of a meeting?! Onodera swung his legs back and forth swiftly to shoo Takano's legs away, but damn it, they were persistent! Takano, as usual, gained the upper hand and took advantage of Onodera's enthusiasm to tangle their legs together into a stubborn lock. Onodera began to fidget in his seat as he tried to wriggle his legs out of Takano's. After several seconds of struggling, he finally succeeded and lifted his legs up to sit cross-legged. Heh, I win. Onodera couldn't help but grin a little at his achievement despite the immaturity of it.

Then, a familiar warmth spread across his left calf slowly. Onodera cursed at the size of the table and the length of Takano's leg. God damn his freakishly long legs and this microscopic table!

Alright, as long as I don't react to him, he will stop. I'm sure he will. With that, Onodera put on his best poker-face(which wasn't actually very good) and tuned into their conversation.

"So how has your stay in Tokyo been?" Takano asked. How can he be so nonchalant?! Onodera thought as Harukichi replied excitedly, tempting Onodera to roll his eyes. She then breaks into a tedious recount of her flight and her hotel and other equally dull topics. Sweet lord, she's long-winded.

Meanwhile, the warmth around his calf has yet to lose hope, and has moved onto his thighs. He's still not giving up… heh, maybe he's as bored as I am. He's probably not even listening to her at all. Then, Onodera realized how quiet Takano actually was being. He was blinking and nodding a lot, with a vigilant look on his face, but not actually contributing anything to the conversation. Ahahaha, he's not listening to her too! This girl could probably hold a conversation with herself! Wait no, it's my job to facilitate this meeting... I have to stop getting distracted!

Onodera grabbed his papers again, determined to bring the conversation back to the main topic. It had steered off the path for way too long. Just as he was about to open his mouth again(for only around the 3rd time throughout the meeting), Takano's skillful foot inched closer towards his zipper, then backed off, lightly running it back and forth his thigh. Well… I guess I should wait till she finishes talking to start…

After several minutes of harmless massaging, Takano's foot finally travels up to the area around Onodera's zipper. He slowly rubbed his foot against Onodera's jeans, making the knots in his stomach tighten even more. Oh no… this is bad… Onodera thought, trying his hardest to not get aroused. Then, another foot lands on his crotch.

"U-ummm!" Onodera abruptly stood up while Harukichi was still prattling on about her Tokyo experience. She seemed a little taken aback as silence ensued. "I… I think we should get started on work now…"

"Oh… oh! Sorry, I tend to run my mouth when I'm nervous… my apologies. So, about work?" Harukichi blushed a little in embarrassment.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to be rude…" Onodera sat down, flushed. Nice going, that was real polite! "Umm… so, we think that your idea is really great, but there's just a few suggestions that some of us have thought of…"

Onodera began suggesting ideas that he could pick out from memory. However, being the socially awkward 25-year-old he was, he held his papers upright, pretending to be reading from them so as to avoid unnecessary eye contact.

"You're holding the papers upside-down, genius." Takano pointed out condescendingly.

"Oh! Sorry! Ha…haha…" Onodera blushed in humiliation, readjusting his papers as he made a failed attempt to laugh it off. Fortunately for him, the meeting went well after that, without any further embarrassment or foot-action.

"Thanks! We look forward to working with you." Takano flashed one last 100-watt smile before escorting Harukichi out of the conference room.

"Thank you too, see you guys soon!" Harukichi waved and left.

"Horndog!" Onodera declared in a reprimanding tone as soon as the door shut closed. "Footsie during a meeting?!"

"Well, somebody seemed to enjoy it, so I thought I was allowed to continue!"

"I-I didn't enjoy it!" Onodera cried.

"What, so I was the only one who noticed how turned on you looked just now?"

"Y-yes! I mean, I wasn't turned on at all! You wer-" Onodera was interrupted by a fleeting kiss.

"You're just too cute." Takano grinned and sauntered out of the conference room, leaving behind a red-faced Onodera.

"I…I'm not cute…" Onodera lightly brushed his lips with his fingers.

I actually did kind of enjoy it though… what's wrong with me? Maybe I really am in lo-

"Onodera! Get your lazy ass back to work!"

…Nope.

Thanks for reading!

Heyyy! Hope you liked this chapter! :D It's been awhile! I've been sick on and off these few weeks so I really wasn't in the mood to write, also, I didn't want to write just for the sake of writing and give you guys crap to read. Anyways, this chapter was inspired by KnuxadowManiac; it was an awesome idea, my brain juices literally(well maybe not) overflowed when I read your review!

P.S. It's already March! 2013 is passing by pretty damn quickly!