I'm alive! And updating a fic instead of posting a oneshot! Miracles can happen! Anyways I hope you guys like this chapter, I'm running on fumes because it's almost 2AM and I really wanted to post this lol.

When Takano woke up the following morning, he could hear the light snores of the brunet laying beside him. Rolling over onto his side, he took a few moments to watch Onodera's sleeping face.

It was calming to see his face absent of the irritation and worry that plagued it so often, but even looking so much younger didn't save him from the darkness under his eyes that he had gained over the years.

Giving into temptation, Takano reached out with one of his cold, large hands and ran it through the younger man's bedhead with a slight scowl.

He didn't mind living together for the time being. In fact, living together with the one he loved had been something he had wanted for quite a long time. It was Onodera's current circumstances that made made the whole situation so annoying.

Letting out a deep sigh, Takano decided that it would be best to allow Onodera to sleep while he made breakfast. He needed the rest after what happened last night.

"Ritsu," An unusually soft voice met the brunet's ears and roused him from his sleep. "Ritsu, wake up."

Opening his eyes, Onodera looked up at the man leaned over him with a loose awareness of his surroundings. To his irritation, Takano's expression wasn't as cold as he normally found it to be. Rather than what he was so used to, the brunet was met with the slightest of smiles that made him want to go to his own apartment and lump up under the covers of his bed.

To make it worse, Takano was towering above him right now, and Onodera wondered just why he was feeling so tiny compared to-

'Oh, right.' He thought to himself bitterly, looking down at his legs, barely able to tell they were there under the blanket. 'I shrunk...'

"Hey, are you getting up, or do I need to drag you out of bed?" The smile vanished just as quickly as he had realized it was there, leaving Onodera to wonder if he had even seen it in the first place.

"I-" He paused slightly at the high pitched voice that hit his ears. "I can get up on my own, Takano-san. You don't have to keep carrying me around."

"Are you sure? I don't know if you can even reach the toilet at your current height." Takano observed, remaining straightfaced.

"I wasn't that tall of a kid, okay?!" He sat up quickly and hopped to the floor. "Don't you have a stool or something?"

"I'm afraid not. If you haven't noticed I'm somewhat tall." He crouched down to Onodera's height. "I'll just have to hold you up while you-"

"No, you won't. Just give me a stack of books or something."

"It's not like I haven't seen your-"

"This is totally different!" He rushed out of the room to the bookshelf and came back a few seconds later blew past Takano and into the ensuite, slamming the door behind him with a kick.

"Guess I'll have to get to look into getting a stool." He mused aloud as he made his way out of the bedroom.

"So," Takano broke into what had been a mostly silent breakfast. "I think for today at least, it's best that you stay at home. You have plenty of work in that bag you brought home to keep you occupied, so I'm not worried about that."

"'Old ahn," Onodera swallowed the last of his food. "I mean, hold on. What are you going to tell the others?"

"You came down with a cold and want to run back home to nurse you back to health because I'm just so worried about you?"

He put down his utensil with a sigh. "Okay, I think you could omit that second part. Seriously though, I can't just stay home however long this lasts. We don't even know how long this will be going on for."

"That's true, but do you really want to walk into work looking like this? This isn't exactly going to be easy to explain."

"The only thing that's changed is that I'm a little shorter. I've retained all my knowledge and memories."

"Yeah, but do you want someone seeing you, maybe Isaka-san, and having words making its way to your parents?"

He shivered at the thought of his mother busting down Takano's door, taking him home, and making him redo his life in a more favorable way. "...H-he's in meetings most of the time. Can't we just ask people to not spread it around?"

"Since when are you so trusting of others, Onodera?" Takano got up and began to gather the plates, not noticing the brunet's suddenly sullen face. "If that's what you want, I guess I could yell at everyone, but I can't make any guarantees."

"Okay, I'll stay home. Only today if I can help it."

"If that's what you want." A hand came down and ruffled the brown bedhead. "I guess I'll go and buy a few things before coming back tonight. A stool, some more fitting clothes, and maybe one of those wrist leashes?"

"Quit it! I won't get lost, I still remember my way around perfectly fine."

"Ah, but it'll be from a different angle now. We should always hold hands whenever we go out from now on. For safety."

"Augh, Takano-san, quit enjoying this!"

Takano ended up leaving not too long after breakfast to go to work. Onodera felt odd being in this apartment alone, but was able to remind himself of his circumstances and get to work.

He was told to text his progress every few hours and call if something was wrong, but that hadn't stopped his boss from sending a text at least every thirty minutes within the last few hours between the times where he had gotten up to heat up some food from the fridge.

One of the times he unlocked his phone, he noticed a missed call and checked for a voicemail. He had never felt more uncomfortable with the words "missed call from Mother" in his life. Sighing, he began playing the message.

"Ritsu, call me back when you can, alright? I wanted to talk to you about something. Don't get too absorbed in your work and forget to call back!"

"Greaaaaaat." Onodera placed his phone on the table and rested his head beside it. Just what could he do about this?

Tell his parents about this and hope they believe him, and if they do hope they don't force him into some hospital? Definitely not the preferred option.

Pretend to have lost the phone and call back as he was right now? No...she'd get the phone back then. And see all those texts from Takano. Another bad choice and a reminder to clear his text conversations some time soon.

Ignore it and hope that he can get things back to normal before she gets involved? Perfect.

While weighing out his options, his eyes slipped shut and he yawned. He decided that a nap wouldn't hurt too much.

Takano glanced over to his phone and checking for new notifications for the third time that minute. Onodera hadn't sent him a reply text in over an hour and he was going sick with worry.

Most of the time when something happened between them, he could put it aside during work hours, however the current situation left him more prone to letting his thoughts slip towards the brunet. Was he ok right now? Did he eat what was left for him? Did he slip and fall trying to piss while standing on a stack of books and hit his head? Was he steaming on the floor again, shrinking to a baby? Endless scenarios came to mind as he tried to finish editing the storyboards in front of him.

With one last check of his phone, he stowed his work into his bag and stood from his desk.

"Good work today everyone, I need to head home a little early." Takano threw his bag over his shoulder and began to walk out of the department. "Ask Hatori if you need help with anything."

"Alright, Takano-san. Good work today." Mino and Kisa parroted back, while Hatori simply nodded.

After Takano's quick steps fell out of earshot, the three of them eyed each other, almost too knowingly.

Kisa was first to say what they were all thinking.

"How much do you want to bet he's going to see Ricchan?"

"That's my only guess." Hatori didn't bother to look up from his own storyboards. "I saw him looking at his phone every few minutes. Looks like Onodera stopped sending texts back."

"Takano-san really puts his all into everything, huh?" Mino said, smiling as always. "You know, Yamato told me that on the onsen trip he saw Takano-san go into Onodera-kun's room while he was going to the bathroom during the night. He asked me if something was wrong with Onodera-kun and was all worried."

"Seriously?" Kisa laughed. "Jeez, it was a vacation, he could've let him rest."

"No," Hatori interjected. "I would say that's the best time to be together. Our vacation time is few and far between. It can be hard to actively maintain relationship in this line of work."

"I suppose." Kisa seemed to drift into thought as he rested his chin in his palm.

"Yep." Mino agreed as he circled something in red ink.

"Ritsu!" Takano called out as soon as he entered the apartment. "Are you okay?!"

The lack of response only worried him further as he kicked off his shoes and stomped into the living room.

He felt relief come over him in waves at the sight before him. It crashed in when he realized that Onodera was only sleeping, and receded when he realized he would have an ache in his neck later. It crashed in again when he felt his forehead and found it to be a normal temperature, and receded once more when he felt the brunet leaning into his touch.

"You're too damn cute." Takano sighed out. "Quit making me feel like I'm some shoujo protagonist."

After almost painfully removing his hand from Onodera, he went to go make some dinner, figuring he could wake him up when it was ready.

It didn't take long, and he was able to poke fun at the same time. He wasn't sure if Onodera would notice the meal was one that Takano has asked him to make back in February when he was still feeling the effects of his cold.

It looked like a completely different dish now, particularly the way that he had cut the perilla. And maybe it was sauteed properly. And maybe it was seasoned better. And maybe they should use the extra time they would be spending together now to learn a few things about cooking.

Takano plated his dinner and a smaller serving for Onodera and moved them to the table.

"Ritsu," He called across the room. "I made dinner, get up."

"Mmm?" The brunet's head popped up like a spring. "You're home?"

"I've been home for almost an hour now, sleeping beauty. You stopped replying to my texts and freaked me out so I came back early." He took a seat and sighed. "Seriously, don't do that, I felt like the world was going to end."

"S-sorry, I was really tired." Onodera stood up from his spot on the floor and massaged at the pain in his neck. "I finished correcting my storyboards first, so could you check them later?."

"Yeah, leave them on the table and I'll take a look after dinner."

"Okay, thanks." The brunet walked over and climbed onto the chair next to Takano's. "This is…"

If Onodera was waiting for the other to confirm his suspicions, he didn't get what he wanted. He sighed and grumbled something about Takano being a jerk and began to eat.

After dinner, rather than check over the corrected storyboards as Onodera asked, Takano decided that they should go take a bath together.

His arguments as to why they needed to be in there together weren't exactly incorrect, as he was still not quite used to being in his current body and he didn't need to go and slip. Additionally, as Takano always loved to add on, they'd seen each other naked on quite a few occasions, a handful being in that bathroom. Onodera didn't exactly appreciate the reminder, especially right before entering the bathroom together.

Despite himself, he striped out of the baggy clothes he had been borrowing for the day and made his way towards the bath, Takano following closely behind.

"We should wash off before getting into the tub." Takano grabbed the showerhead from it's holder, turned on the water, and allowed it to warm up for a few seconds. He tested it on his hand before pointing it towards Onodera.

Green eyes screwed shut the raven sprayed him from head to toe before turning off the water.

"Sit down, I'll shampoo your hair." Takano grabbed the bottle off of the shelf and squeezed some onto his hand.

Onodera blushed all the ways to his ears but went along with it anyways, telling himself when this was done he could get into work mode and get his mind off of all of...this. His eyes couldn't help but to wonder when they were facing each other, so having his back to Takano was probably for the best.

"Don't be so tense," Takano began to work the liquid into Onodera's hair slowly, running his fingers through the messy brown strands over and over again. "I hate seeing you so freaked out by my touch."

If it wasn't for their argument from the night before and the fear that his mother might be calling his phone out in the living room right this second, maybe he'd admit that this was pleasant. After all, he was fulfilling one of the fantasies that he had had many times in his adolescence.

"Close your eyes." The showerhead was turned on again and the suds flowed out of his hair and down to the floor drain. Onodera worked some of it out himself and dropped his arms to his sides when he was done.

"Okay, I'll wash your body for you now."

"I can do that myself!"

"At least your back then."

"...F-fine."

After, and only after Onodera reciprocated the attentions Takano had given him (after quite the fight not to) did they soak in the tub. And when they did it didn't last long, as if they remained in their any long they knew the brunet would pass out again.

After getting dressed, they settled on the couch to look over the storyboards the brunet had corrected earlier.

Onodera spaced out to the sound of Takano's pen moving across the papers, his thoughts falling back to his mother again. He glanced to his phone that was resting on the table, forcing himself not to check it.

"You okay?"

"Oh, uh, I was just thinking about Mother." The brunet admitted. "She called last night and left a message and I don't know what to do."

"Couldn't you just text her?" The raven replied, tapping his pen on the table.

"She hates when I do that, she says it's not as proper as a phone call."

"I see."

"..."

"...This was mostly good, I just added a couple more changes to make it flow better. Good job." He stood up from the couch and walked to bedroom without waiting for a response.

"Thank you, Takano-san…"

After putting all his work away, Onodera followed the raven's lead and hopped onto the bed with minor difficulty. He crawled under the blankets and turned so that he would be facing the wall.

"You know," Takano said as he turned off the light. "We should do that more often."

"Do what more often?"

"Bathe together. It was nice."

"W-well…" Onodera grumbled quietly. "Maybe I would do it if…"

"What was that?" Takano scooted closer. "I didn't hear you."

"Nevermind, don't think about it."

"If it had anything to do with jumping you, it always started before we got into the bathroom, if memory serves. You could correct me if I'm wrong."

"..."

"See? You remember."

"Just keep your hands to yourself, Takano-san." He moved himself to the very edge of the bed, distancing himself as much as he could without falling onto the floor.

"Just accept your fate already. You're stuck with me for good, cause I'm not letting you go."

Onodera's face scrunched up into a familiar scowl and he wrapped the blanket around him a little tighter.

It's almost 2 AM! I gotta get to bed, but I'm glad I finally got this done since I've been meaning to do it forever lol. How did you guys like this chapter? I intended to include the scene where Onodera takes care of Takano in the bath too, but I was getting tired and I honestly just wanted to get this up already. Also it was already a very self indulgent scene and I didn't want to put readers through it but honestly they need to take a bath together and not be sexxing it up lmao.