Ritsu looked up at Takano-san, heart thudding loudly in his chest. "T-takano-san...? Are you alright?" The evening air was cold against his skin and faintly, at the edges of the alleyway, the streetlights leaked in.

Takano-san barely heard Ritsu's words through the jumble of the younger man's thoughts. The static pierced the black haired man's ears and he put a hand to them, feeling a headache forming. His eyesight blurred and he bent over slightly before it suddenly faded to nothing and he noticed his surroundings again. For a moment, he wondered if he was dying.

He pushed the sliver of a thought away even as he imagined seeing himself, bent down, hair mussed, body all hard lines visible even through his long coat in the dim alleyway. Must be a sight to see.

Takano-san relaxed slightly at the soft sound of clicking heels and the pound of leather soles on the concrete of people passing by that were contrastingly, such gentle sounds; he shook his head slightly before peeking through his locks of hair at the hand hesitatingly reaching out to him. He couldn't restrain the twitch of his lips or the desire to grab a hold of the proffered hand and never let go. Ride off into the sunset and all.

Sometimes he wondered if it was fate that he ended up in the shoujo manga department.

And everytime, he looked up from his pile of forms and manuscripts, and saw the brown bed head of a certain new recruit, he was certain it was.

But that didn't mean he couldn't make his own fate too.

"Urggh. It hurts." Takano-san groaned, continuing to bend over and hold his head between his hands. As planned, he felt a soft hand hold onto his arm and Ritsu's other arm circled around his waist to try and support the older man's weight.

"A-are you okay?" [Hospital? Was it something we ate? Home? I don't think I could carry him that far...wait it was his head?]

Takano-san blinked slowly even as he settled into Ritsu's arms, his loose strands of hair settling onto the brown haired man's shoulder and he breathed in the faint scent of paper and ink and coffee. His eyes were half lidded as he relaxed into the warm embrace of the man he loved, relishing it for as long as it lasted.

Suddenly, he faintly recalled the strange phone call from earlier. What the hell? Was this possible? Could he actually be reading Onodera's mind and if he had...could Onodera have been reading his?

He wrinkled his brow, deep in thought before he was distracted by the frantic mumbling of Ritsu that mixed with his worried and slightly - to Takano-san's amusement and annoyance - wary thoughts.

Takano-san let out another exaggerated groan as he pressed his cheek into the stiff cloth of Ritsu's jacket collar and his hand to Ritsu's inner thigh, unable to resist copping a feel. It was too good of a chance to let up. And whether real or not, he definitely wanted to see how the thoughts in his head responded.

[..did he just grope me? Wait..he's sick right? He's sick...? He had better be sick.]

The older man grinned inadvertently and Ritsu noticed the slight curve to his lips before trying to push him off with a groan. "What the hell, Takano-san!"

The older man wrapped his long arms around Ritsu, holding on tightly, his chin in the crook of Ritsu's shoulder, his soft brown hair tickling his cheek as he whispered, "I love you Ritsu."

He had said it so many times in his head, practicing sometimes, sometimes thinking it unconsciously so that it was getting easier and easier to say it out loud. He immediately felt the body underneath him tense up.

[Wh-why? Why's he saying that now?! I...it's really not fair when he acts so childish and sweet...its not fair at all...that's - I shouldn't be concerned about this right now. I mean really, Ritsu, we're out in public hugging...Hugging.] The latter thought was conveyed with unrestrained embarrassment.

Takano-san wasn't quite sure how Onodera had managed to survive if he had this kind of reaction every time Takano-san touched him. He must've died a thousand times over when he was in high school if even after ten years of loathing, this was how he still responded.

The glee that leapt up into Takano-san was unbidden, but somewhat appropriate he decided.

He smirked even as he let out an exasperated sigh right after into Onodera's neck, eliciting a faint tremble.

He couldn't help but feel unbearably fond of this idiocy of the younger man's.

And then, as if on cue, the younger man started struggling as he mumbled, "We're out in public Takano-san, please get off. If you're sick then you should go home and lay down..." [And take tomorrow off too so that I don't have to worry about this all tonight.]

The raven haired man raised an eyebrow as he tightened his hold. And Onodera was being a dick again. He was definitely using this - if it was real; he still had to confirm it and that thought reminded him again that he needed to stop getting distracted by the green eyed eager and sincere book nerd at work - to its full extent to tease Onodera.

Though if Onodera could read his thoughts...

He suddenly released the younger man who then stumbled back, emerald eyes confused and irate before turning to make his escape. "Good work today! Excuse me for leaving first!"

Takano-san glared at the escaping figure, feeling unbelievably vexed at the lack of progress between them. Once the flapping tan jacket was no longer visible, Takano-san let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding and it turned into a long drawn out sigh.

No...he would take some time to think about it first. But it seemed that Onodera wasn't reading his thoughts, or at least if he was, it didn't have the same requirements as Takano-san's apparently did. Making physical contact or so it appeared. He could work with that.

He used one hand to pull up his collar at the quickening wind and another to push his hair out of his eyes before shoving both numbing fingertips into his pockets and strolling back home slowly to an apartment with one too many walls.

He was accustomed to being alone though. Except for the company of books, yelling and the soft mewl of a chubby cat. Sadly, the entrance of a bright eyed, bushy tailed underclassman had changed all that..

He wouldn't have had it any other way.

At least this would give him some time to think about it. He didn't exactly want Onodera to think he was insane and give him any more reason to avoid him. And this was, of course, assuming he still retained his sanity. Sometimes he wasn't really sure about that. Though right now, he felt like his head was much clearer than it had been in a long time.

On his walk home, all he could hear was the soft patter of footsteps and a flustered voice that echoed in his head saying, "...I should really tell him I love him..."

There was a thump as Ritsu slid down, his back against the door, onto the floor of his genkan, feeling the cold tile through his trousers. He sighed, biting his lip as he stared blankly, straight forward into could still feel the press of those warm, dry hands against his skin, sliding under his shirt to palm his midriff.

And through his thoughts, despite his flurry of confusion and questions, he could still hear Takano-san's thoughts slipping in. After only a day, they were becoming a familiar background hum in his mind, as comforting as it was disconcerting although faded in and out.

Ritsu took a deep breath in and slowly got up, slipping his shoes off on reflex.

He swallowed and then went to the bathroom, happening to glance at his reflection as he splashed his face to cool down. His swollen lips and his still faintly dilated pupils and the light bruise on his neck were all that he caught in his quick view.

Takano-san was okay right? Ritsu hadn't just ditched the man to die painfully alone in a dark alleyway hopefully.

Ritsu made sure not to look at the mirror again as he, for once, tried searching for the additional thoughts in his head and the voice came crashing into his mind, clearer than ever as it reverberated in his skull.

(I have to go call Hatori about the new author contest since Sakura-sensei's thinking about retiring. Really...retiring to go to the countryside for her grandkids. It's a pity that we;d be losing an author like her though...) There was an undertone of amusement and Ritsu could see that slight smirk and chuckle that Takano-san would make under his breath. (..I wonder how Onodera would feel about kids...right...I want to hear his voice...) Ritsu cut off the thoughts at that, his mind immediately occupied by the thought of having kids with Takano-san.

That was...Ritsu had honestly imagined having the typical two child family when he was a kid; he had even played house with An-chan and dolls, but the actual idea of producing life was foreign to him.

Although it was possible to have a surrogate mother, or adopt, or with the way technology was developing, probably their own genetically related chil-and Ritsu slammed his head into the nearby door frame. He shouldn't be thinking about this.

He didn't exactly appreciate his roaming thoughts when they led him to babies.

Ritsu rubbed his bruised forehead and trudged slowly to his living room table and moved to shift the stacks of plates and clothes and magazines to the floor so he could lay out his work. Takano-san had told everyone at the office to make sure their authors didn't procrastinate because soon there would be an influx of stories from hopefuls and they would all have to split them. Apparently, there was a tendency for there to be several hundred submissions, and if they had to do that along with work, then Ritsu supposed the Emerald department would be his home for a couple of weeks.

He was thrilled though. He had never gotten the chance to do this type of thing before. With literature, his father, despite any of Ritsu's protests did tend intervene, but even without it, his boss wouldn't dare to upset his possible future boss, so Ritsu had never had had to do grunt work.

Which he supposed was something he hadn't really realized since everyone in his department had a tendency to ignore him and lie politely with smiles plastered on their face while their fists twitched as though they were tempted to hit him. He was pretty sure if he had ever gone drinking with them when they asked obligatorily, one of them would've faked drunk and done so.

Except Saeki-san of course, but she didn't know much about grunt work in literature. She was an otaku through and through and she had dragged him to several new anime movie showings at the theater before, though she had never quite convinced him to start reading manga. Especially not shoujo manga of all things. He hadn't wanted to remember running back to school and waiting at the entrance of his high school with two umbrellas, lying to his teacher as to why he was there, and running away at the slightest touch of his hand.

He wanted to know what new stories he would get to read and it was always a thrill finding a gem among so many other cliched and awkwardly written stories. It was why he loved old bookstores despite basically having free access to any of the books from Onodera publishing.

Did Takano-san feel the same way? He said he liked the neighborhood library because it had old books. Did he know about the old family owned bookstore a few blocks away? Ritsu had only happened upon it because he had gotten lost.

He probably didn't. Ritsu allowed a little feeling of superiority, as childish as it was, to wash over him. He settled down onto the floor and leaned on the bottom of his couch, head tilted back to stare at the ceiling's bumps of plaster.

He wanted to know what Takano-san's reaction would be to the well worn, precious bookstore and the owner, an old man who smelled like tea leaves and treated books like they were his children. Would he be excited? Would he actually break out into a smile like he does when he talks to Yokozawa-san?

Ritsu thumped the back of his head on the soft seating and sighed, trying to push the thoughts away.

(Ah. Erika-sensei might throw a fit if I ask her to hurry up this issue's manuscript, but I reaallly want to read all of the new stories. It's almost one of the best parts of this job. Considering the annoyances I have to deal with, with the printers and the sales or accounting department, I think I deserve a break.) Ritsu couldn't help the smile that broke onto his face as Takano-san pictured, fondly, the scene of Shikoku's fields and the scent of grass; the weight of a book in hand was transmitted to him. (Not that Isaka-san would give it. I swear if he wasn't the boss...not that he's not competent, but he's a goddamn pain in the ass. I should go bug Yokozawa. He's been taking off early recently. Some girls were gossiping about him and bakeries and Kirishima-san...they wouldn't be dating would they? I doubt the stupid tsundere would tell me anyway. I should just go make fun of him. He gets riled up to easily especially when it comes to his age. The last kid that called him ojii-san, I wanted to give my compliments. My stomach hurt from laughing afterwards.)

Ritsu muffled a laugh, but it spilled out anyway, feeling guilty for finding this kind of thing out about one of his superiors. He shouldn't be laughing at Yokozawa-san especially after the help he offered and how he had conceded...though the guy could be a right prick he chose to be. Stubborn. Hardworking. It was a wonder Takano-san hadn't fallen in love with the blue-eyed man instead.

His chest felt tight as he pulled out the manuscripts and uncapped a pen. He twiddled the slim instrument in his fingers before starting in on it. It didn't help that the male lead looked like Saga-sempai. It especially didn't help that the heroine was also stalking the main lead and getting very close to molesting the indignant boy. She had so far attempted to snag him by getting in with his best friend, tutoring his younger sister, and claiming that her authority as student council president allowed her to order him to marry her.

Ritsu did not understand teenage girls' minds.

Let alone teenage boys' minds apparently. One sound and he kicked Saga-sempai and ran away to England. Which was much more ludicrous sounding than it had felt at the time.

Ritsu sighed, reflexively circling an awkwardly placed joke and after several more pages, stood up to stretch, his hands linked and his arm pulling his stiff back muscles upwards as he yawned. Coffee would be nice. Coffee was his only friend at this point, considering he had been quite isolated in England and Japan during school. Coffee and books. Well, his mother and father too, but that was a bit embarrassing for him when he was in his late twenties. His mom had even signed him up for a monthly vegetable delivery.

Once when he was younger, he had found porn magazines in his room of women that looked faintly like An-chan. He could make a general guess as to how those had ended up in his room. He asked for an electronic lock on his room for his birthday from his dad that year.

So coffee and books. As Ritsu set the boiler, he heard a faint buzzing and glanced at the brightened screen of his phone and hurried over to the short table. He hoped nothing had gone wrong for any of the authors. He wanted more experience, but usually problems ended with him needing his next door neighbor's help. Not ideal at the moment. At least he would be able to read a straight answer from Takano-san's thoughts instead of having to deal with his roundabout teasing that eventually led to help.

The caller ID labeled the cause as Takano-san. Ritsu sighed, looking around the room guiltily as he wondered if he could ignore it. He couldn't describe how much he wanted to ignore it. Because he really wanted to. So much.

But. He did sort of call him randomly in the morning. And he had ditched the somewhat wounded man in an alleyway by himself late at night.

He should probably pick it up.

He hesitantly picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

Takano-san sighed, looking over his past emails. The company's sales had been booming in the shounen and shoujo departments specifically which was why they wanted the fair. With the large fanbase, they would be able to draw an even larger revenue with the merchandise or signatures and pictures with the authors.

It was a gold mine. He flipped through the forms he would have to fill out and he would have to tell all the editors to contact their authors about coming to the signing. He knew Yoshikawa Chiharu of course wouldn't be coming, but among the five of them, they still had 11 authors to convince. Isaka-san wouldn't be satisfied with only a few, and he would be a pain until they actually got at least 2/3's to agree to come.

But the authors were still quite shy, many were the type he recognized from high school that sat in the back of the class with ear phones on, book or pencil and paper in hand, notes covered in doodles. This didn't bode well...he could always flirt, shake his hips and flip his hair a little and convince them to come and make Onodera jealous in one blow...

...he could bait them. He knew that many of them were big fans of Kirishima-san after his interview in the magazine as well as of the author of Za Kan. A lot of them liked shounen manga too, so that should be able to drag the women out of their ink splattered and paper covered apartments.

Chewing on the end of his pen, he figured he should finish up a third of them. He wouldn't have much time to edit or talk to the authors tomorrow considering he would be stuck in meetings all day discussing things that were obvious to him with stubborn bastards.

Yokozawa could be such a pain sometimes. Onodera too.

Was this a pattern? Did he just like stupidly stubborn people to the point that his best friend and his romantic interests basically refused to budge an inch whenever he wanted something? He should probably be trying to make out with Mino instead.

He was certainly not making life easier for himself. With a long sigh, his thoughts flickered back to Onodera's expression, the feel of the younger man's thoughts through his mind. There was the faint sense of embarrassment, warmth, and panic that was just so like Onodera. If this was real then at least he knew that Ritsu was exactly as he appeared to be. A person sincere to the point of idiocy.

He wanted to call..he actually did have to for work to...but he couldn't help wanting to hold onto the thought for a little while longer. He replayed the thoughts in his mind over and over again and couldn't wait for the next day, so that he could figure out what the hell voices were doing in his head. And so he could grope Onodera.

Something on the paper caught his eye. The venue would be at the hotel where they had had the author's event...or as he liked to call it, at the hotel where Ritsu had basically admitted he was in love with Takano-san, but still acted like he had admitted nothing. Seriously, what could possibly get Onodera Ritsu to admit it to his face?

After filling out several lines, he flipped to the second page, feeling irritated that he had to do this kind of menial work. At least all of them were online as well as him having hard copies. He would call after he dealt with some of the forms. It was silly that he was slightly nervous; he always was when it came to Onodera, but it still remained a foreign, uncomfortable feeling. No one else could make him into a wreck inside. Not even his parents had quite the same amount of pull over him.

He fingered his phone and then texted Hatori. "I'm sending you some forms. Fill them out. P.S. please remember this while you look at the papers: sleep is a privilege not a necessity."

Takano-san let a faint smile decorate his lips. And this is why he would take dealing with idiotic superiors: so he could abuse his underlings as he pleased. Especially green -eyed and brown haired ones.

The response was immediate. "If I am required to fill out all these forms by myself, I will be requesting a month long break for Yoshikawa-sensei as well as for myself."

Touche.

"Finish the ones that deal with the authors. Give the ones that need other departments' approval as well to Mino, and I'll finish the rest."

He glanced from the stack of forms in his lap to the papers spread out on his table again and fingered the new story arc sent in by Erika-sensei before he heard his phone beep and flash. "Understood." Takano-san stared at the screen for a long moment, before pressing the contacts button and scrolling to Onodera Ritsu name.

The man would never know what it took to call him sometimes. Of course sometimes it took no effort at all especially when he just wanted to bug him, but otherwise...well, that was something Onodera didn't need to know about. It was embarrassing after all.

He pressed down on the screen and waited as the phone rung.

"Hello?" Takano-san felt a wave of warmth wash over him and he let his body slump a little, feeling as nervous as he was relaxed. He smiled as he pressed his ear to the phone, picturing Onodera, before he turned the volume up to its highest level and the younger man's voice echoed in his apartment. He leaned on one hand, his elbow on the table, staring intently at the bright screen of his phone through his glasses.

"Onodera. I want you to help Hatori convince the authors to come to the shounen-shoujo manga fair and then pass the information on to the secretarial department so they can prepare their accommodations. Make sure to ask if the authors need any specifications and they're allowed to bring a plus one if they wish. "

"Understood." Could Onodera be reading his thoughts right now?

"Also, if your own authors agree, you'll be the one managing them at the event. It should be pretty similar to the book signing event we had at the bookstore, so there's no need to be nervous."

"...understood. Thank you."

"And let's have dinner again together tomorrow."

"No thank you...good night Takano-san." Ritsu replied swiftly, huffing slightly in irritation. He could see Takano-san's thoughts; the picture of them eating at a nearby Italian restaurant together.

He sighed and glared at the rough drafts, for once, feeling unethusiastic about editing as Takano-san's stray thoughts, a humming blur, weighed down his mind.

(He's missing out on some fucking good dinner and dessert then.)

Ritsu would've laughed. Except the thought was dry and echoed with loneliness.