Thank you so much for reading everyone. I hope this part isn't too full of errors. I wrote most of it with a toddler crawling all over me, so I did the best I could. I wanted to get it up before I go camping for the holiday weekend. Enjoy!

It had been a long week. Akihiko should have gotten a lot of work done, but he'd spent too much time wondering what Misaki was up to at Murakawa. Apparently, it was going well. Though even after Misaki got home, he dove right into making dinner and then taiyaki, of all the aggravatingly time consuming things. When they finally sat down together on the couch Akihiko smoked while MIsaki chattered about his day.

"Onodera-san is really smart." Misaki was saying, "and the rumors really are true. Even though it's a shojo manga, all the editors for Emerald are men, and they're all so handsome." Akihiko really should be glad Misaki was enjoying his work. He was glad, even if remembering that took a bit of effort at the moment.

Akihiko leaned back to peer at Misaki's face. The first thing Aikawa had said, when he told her Misaki was going to be working with the Emerald team was a skeptical, "You're okay with him working in the eye candy department?" He hadn't thought a lot about it at the time, but now he found himself torn between annoyance and amusement. "You don't have to gush so much." He said, unable to quite keep a sour note out of his voice.

"Stop being jealous. It's not like I'm thinking about any of them like you think I am, you giant pervert." Akihiko had to laugh. He honestly couldn't conceive of Misaki doing any such thing. The young man would be red as a tomato all day long if his mind strayed in that direction. "Anyway, are you going to be thinking about Onodera-san like that while you're working with him?" Misaki said this casually, as if he didn't care about the answer, but Akihiko knew that to say such a thing, Misaki must have been more than a little worried. Sure, Onodera was nice to look at, but he wasn't anywhere near as cute as Misaki.

Usagi shrugged and gave a sly smile. He didn't want Misaki to worry, really but it wouldn't hurt to goad him a little.. "You always say you don't want me writing BL about you. If I'm going to avoid that, I need to get inspiration somewhere."

"Oh." Misaki sounded deflated.

"Misaki." Usagi murmured. "If you'd act like a proper muse and give me more material to work with, I wouldn't ever need to write about anyone else in that kind of way either."

'

"Never mind. It's fine!" Misaki said, louder than was necessary. He crossed the room and began to put away the leftovers from their dinner.

Akihiko picked up a book and waited. As expected, Misaki came over and put a hand on Akihiko's shoulder. Akihiko looked up with what he hoped was an innocent expression. "Yes?"

"Umm.' Misaki's face was bright red. "It's not possible for me!" he blurted and thundered up the stairs.

Akihiko smiled. It was enough to know Misaki wanted him, was thinking about him. Sure, his reticence could be aggravating at times, but really it was sweet. And Misaki was relaxing a little as the years went by. Akihiko quietly went up the stairs and into Misaki's room where he found his lover face down, head buried under his pillow and muttering to himself.

"Misaki." Akihiko stroked Misaki's back and reached over to the bookcase by Misaki's bed. He removed the pillow and waved one of the many coupon books he'd had made next to Misaki's face. "I know you get shy. That's what these are for. Come on." And with that he dragged Misaki to his much larger bed.

Now an alarm was blaring and Misaki was casting an evil expression in his direction. Akihiko had meant to let Misaki sleep, really he had, but one thing led to another and it was early morning before either one of them got any rest.

Akihiko grabbed the alarm and threw it hard enough that the plug came out of the wall. Somehow the awful blaring didn't stop, though.

"Batteries." Misaki said as he collected the little alarm clock and returned it to its rightful place on the nightstand.

"Just stay here," Akihiko growled, grabbing Misaki around the middle. "I'll support you. You don't need a job."

Misaki didn't even dignify that comment with an answer. He yanked himself out of Akhiko's grip and started bustling around the room, tidying up and collecting stray items of clothing before stomping off to the bathroom down the hall and closing the door with a decisive click. No doubt he had locked it to keep Akihiko from "ruining" another shower.

Akihiko pulled the pillow over his head, settled into the part of the bed that still smelled like Misaki, and went back to sleep.

"Good afternoon!" Misaki greeted his Emerald coworkers as soon as he arrived after doing some research at school in the morning. He hoped his exhaustion wasn't terribly obvious. "Would anyone like taiyaki? After all the times we went over Motou-sensei's manuscript where the main character makes them for her boyfriend, I really wanted to bake some."

"Aah! Thank you! Takahashi-kun is the best." Kisa jumped up in excitement. "Oh. Wow. These are really good. Takano-san, can we keep him, please?"

"It was nothing." Misaki gave a nervous smile. "Oh – there are two kinds. The ones in the other box aren't as sweet. Those are the type Akihiko likes better." Misaki had found it felt entirely too strange to call Usagi 'Usami-sensei', but he couldn't very well go around referring to him as 'Mr. Bunny' or 'my landlord' at Marukawa.

"Oh, wow." Hatori said. "I don't really care much for sweets, but these are quite good. Will you share the recipe?"

"Sure." Misaki shrugged. "I'll bring it tomorrow."

"Hmm." Takano fixed Misaki with a thoughtful expression. "Nice. Takahashi, what do you think about including both recipes in the magazine?"

"Really? Okay!"

"Good. Call the author and run the idea by her. We'll need a quick sketch or two for that page. Something cute." Misaki felt really nervous, like he was infringing on the manga somehow, but Motou loved the recipe idea.

Misaki made his way through a pile of Takano's old storyboard corrections, which was apparently a training exercise he gave to anyone new to manga editing. That was really helpful and it made Misaki feel a little bit better about his skills. Apparently years of reading magna obsessively and then reading all of Usagi's romance novels, not that he'd ever admit to doing that, actually prepared him pretty well for work with Emerald.

It was well after dark by the time he finished the stack. He hoped Usagi wasn't upset that he hadn't come home to make dinner. Even he was still technically part time, work was taking up a lot more of his life over the past couple of weeks. A quick text exchange assured him that all was well. Apparently Usagi and Onodera were still working on their translation and would fend for themselves.

"What do you want for dinner?" Takano was saying into his cell. After a long pause he said "I don't mind waiting." Then he sighed and Misaki thought he looked incredibly sad for a moment. "Fine."

"Takahashi, come on, let's go get a drink and something to eat." Misaki thought Takano's expression was strange for a minute, but maybe he just imagined that because now he was giving a charming smile.

"Ah. Okay." Misaki answered. He supposed since Usagi was busy anyway, he wouldn't mind if Misaki was a little later getting home.

Misaki sipped his beer, careful not to drink too much.

"So, how did you end up with Usami-sensei?" Takano was asking.

"Living with him, you mean?" Misaki asked. Takano nodded, but his expression was definitely funny. "Well, he was really close friends with my brother when they were in high school. My brother raised me since I was eight – so when I needed a place to stay while I went to university, Akihiko offered to let me stay with him in exchange for doing the housekeeping and cooking and such."

"Oh?" Takano looked confused. "As a full time editor you definitely won't have time for that. Are you looking for a place of your own?" Misaki's face fell.

"Well," Misaki laughed nervously. "He's-ah-definitely not kicking me out or anything, but yeah, I'm trying to figure that out." He really didn't want to get into this conversation. His boss definitely did not need to know about his relationship with Usagi. Takano's eyebrows raised at this, and Misaki really wished he could tell what the man was thinking. He looked a little sad again. "I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, Takano-san, but is something wrong?"

"Hmm?" Takano seemed a little distracted.

"You seemed sad when you couldn't make plans with whoever you were talking to earlier, and you just looked a little down."

Takano sighed. Takahashi seemed very easy to talk to for some reason, or maybe it was the several double Hibiki's he'd downed since they'd been out. "The person I love is spending an awful lot of time with someone who I think might be more their type than I am."

"Oh." Takahashi patted Takano on the arm. The gesture should have been awkward, but it was actually pretty comforting. "I'm sorry. Sounds like someone you've loved for a long time."

"Ten years. I fell in love with them in high school. And when we met again after all that time, they didn't even remember me."

Misaki's green eyes glistened with compassion. "Oh. I'm sorry."

Takano chuckled. He did see what Ritsu meant, there was something about Takahashi that made it seem not so unfathomable that he could seduce someone like Usami. Of course, if he was planning to move out once he started full time, maybe they weren't together, or not serious. Maybe twenty-two was awfully young to be living with someone in any case.

Takano chuckled. At that age, he'd been trying to ignore everything he felt by sleeping with anyone who'd have him. He hadn't been very careful back then either. It was pure luck that he didn't get a disease or have a kid with someone he actually couldn't stand.

"What?" Misaki asked.

"I was just thinking you seem to have a pretty good head on your shoulders, kid. When I was your age-" He was cut off by Misaki's phone ringing, the ring tone was, of all things, the theme song from a BL anime that had been popular a little while back Junai something or other, he thought.

"Well, I didn't ask you to do that!" Misaki was saying. "I'm having a drink with Takano-san, right now, Mr. Bunny." Bunny? In his somewhat inebriated state, Takano found that entirely too amusing. "He's my boss! He's not doing anything like that!" Misaki got up and walked outside for a few moments. He was clearly annoyed.

Misaki sighed and returned to the table he shared with Takano. Usagi insisted on coming to pick him up with Onodera in tow. They were already on their way to Murakawa anyway, apparently not realizing that other people might want to eat something eventually.

Takano seemed very thoughtful when he got back. "Takahashi," he asked, "what is Usami-sensei like?"

Oh. How many ways there were to answer that question. The most honest answers were too personal to share so he found himself saying, "He likes to get his own way most of the time, and he's way too interested in odd every day things."

"Hmm." Takano looked lost in thought. "His writing has always had a sort of distant tone. I wondered about that."

"You'll see more for yourself." Misaki said. "He's on his way to pick me up."

"When will he be here?"

"Soon, probably." When Misaki said this, he couldn't help but notice Takano seemed a little too excited. After everything that had happened with Sumi, he had to ask. "Takano-san, where did you go to high school?"

When Takano told him, Misaki was not at all comforted by the thought that it was where both Usagi and Takahiro had gone.

"And this person you loved, were you in the same year?"

"No, we were three years apart."

Misaki fixed his smile in place and died a little inside. That was about the right age difference. Could the person Takano loved be Usagi? He didn't want to ask outright. What if it was true? Usagi always said Misaki was the only one for him, but he'd loved Takahiro first, hadn't he? Takano-san was gorgeous, wicked smart, and almost certainly wasn't too embarrassed to match Usagi's pervert-level the way that Misaki obviously could not. He didn't see how he could compete, but he wasn't about to give up, either.

"Takahashi?" Takano prodded his shoulder, "Is something wrong?"

"No. Of course not." Misaki laughed awkwardly and wished his emotions didn't show so clearly on his face.

A moment later, Takano's expression changed, and Misaki was glad he didn't seem to be asking any more questions. Except that from his sad smile, Misaki thought he must clearly be looking at the person he loved. When Misaki turned around to face the door, he saw Usagi striding in with Onodera trailing behind him. It was enough to make him want to cry.