"Onodera!"

The brunette hisses, physically wincing at the sudden stinging pain at the back of his neck. He quickly lifts his head from the desk, realizing his very loud surroundings. Quickly spinning in his computer chair, the emerald-eyed man glares up at the culprit who smacked him.

"Yes, Takano-san?" Onodera answers his boss sarcastically, rubbing the annoying sleep out of his eye.

"If you have enough time to sleep during our week of hell, then get your manuscript in!" The dark haired man yells at his subordinate, who's face twists into an expression of anger and irritation.

"It is in! You checked it first thing this morning and you watched me hand it in! If anything, you should be getting your work done instead of worrying about me!" Emerald eyes glare up at his boss's amber ones, who seem to narrow even further.

"Haah?! Who are you talking to like-"

"Onodera," The two's conversation is cut off with a dark brunette running into the office, shoving a stack of papers into the younger brunette's face. "I need 10 copies of these ASAP for the meeting later."

"Got it, Hatori-san!" Onodera dismisses the argument with Takano, grabbing the sheets from his co-worker and bolting out of the office over to the copy machines. When he reaches them, he lets out a loud sigh, pressing the button to turn in on. Onodera sets the first sheet in, and sets the amount of copies to 10 on the keypad.

Everyday this week has been like this. Thankfully Onodera's author, Mutou-sensei, didn't get too bad this month, and handed in her manuscript a little bit ahead of time. So Onodera handed the corrected manuscript a little bit earlier than usual, and had been subjected to running the copy machine for the rest of hell week.

Onodera slouches slightly, feeling the weight of nearly no sleep this week and very little to eat settle on his body. Maybe he could splurge and buy two bento lunches from the convenience store today as a celebration of not dying this week. Just the thought made the brunette's empty stomach rumble.

Someone chuckles a little, walking up next to the copy machine next to the one Onodera is using. "Someone sounds hungry."

Onodera eyes dart to his right, where a tanned brunette boy stands there, smiling up at him with his big green eyes. The paler brunette man furrows his eyebrows, and turns his body towards him.

"Why aren't you avoiding me?"

"Huh?" The younger brunette seems to have been caught off-guard by the question, and stares up at the older in confusion. "Why would I need to avoid you? Isaka-san told me that I should accompany myself with people in different departments and such, so that my work can go a lot smoother. I'm Takahashi Misaki, I work part time here."

"Ah, hi. I'm Onodera Ritsu." The taller slips his wallet out of his back pocket, and riffles through it as he continues talking. "I work as an editor in the Emerald department for shoujo manga." He finally closes his wallet, and holds his business card out to the young man. Misaki eagerly takes the business card, and shoves it into his back pocket.

"Ah, I heard about Takano-sensei from Emerald. I hear that he's quite something, hmm?" Misaki engages a conversation, and Onodera is slightly thankful that it isn't as awkward as his and Takano's conversations about work.

"Yeah," Onodera grimaces at the thought of his boss, and looks down at the progress of the copy machine. "He's something alright."

Misaki grins up at his-hopefully- new friend. "Was that an insult or a compliment?"

"A little bit of both."

"Excuse me!"

Both brunettes jolt at the sudden loud booming voice down the hall. They give each other a confused look, then lean back and look to the left, towards the entrance for the elevator. A very tall man strides in, with a very angry expression on his face and walks stiffly. He has silver hair, and his indigo eyes are widened in rage as he approaches the office in front of him: where the part timers work.

Onodera can feel the chill that runs down Misaki's spine. The editor squints his eyes at the person, wondering why he seemed so familiar.

Then it clicked.

"Usami-sensei?" Onodera whispers to himself, watching the author yell at the part timers.

"Where is Takahashi Misaki?!"

"Crap!" Misaki whispers to mostly himself , grabbing a hold of Onodera's wrist, and taking off in the opposite direction. Onodera, startled, accidentally drops all of the pages he was sent to copy.

"W-What?! What's going on? Why are we running?!" Onodera shouts at the boy running ahead of him in alarm, almost letting the younger of the two drag him along.

"I'm sorry, just bare with it for now! I can't let Usagi-san see me here!" Misaki answers his senpai, not turning his head towards him in fear of catching Usami's eye by accident.

"Haah?!" Onodera starts tugging on his wrist, wanting to break free of the younger's hold on him. "I need to go back to work before Takano has a bitch fit again!"

"I'll apologize to Takano-sensei myself! Just please hide with me until Usami leaves!" Misaki darts around a corner, dragging the confused brunette man behind him.

'Well' Onodera thinks, watching the part timer's longer brown hair sway back and forth as he runs ahead of him. 'I was done with my important work anyways, if Takano has a problem with it he can kiss my pale flat-'

Onodera's thoughts are cut off as a dark oak door is thrown open, and both brunettes escape inside, slamming the door behind them. Misaki falls to the floor in the crisscross position, holding his head as he calms his erratic heartbeat and regains his breath. Onodera lets his back slide down the door, leaning against it as he pants, looking up at the ceiling.

"A meeting room?" Onodera finally voices, looking at the large wooden table in the middle of the room, black leather spinning chairs set all around them.

"It was the only room that was open at the moment, the rest are running meetings at the moment." Misaki answers, his head lowered towards his feet.

Onodera looks over at the younger brunette, cocking his head a bit to the side. "You want to explain to me now exactly why we're hiding from Usami-sensei?"

Misaki physically winces, and he appears to almost stop breathing. He slowly raises his head, catching his senpai's confused gaze.

"Onodera-senpai." Misaki tenses up, and holds his hands together in his lap. "The truth is, Usami is my landlord... err, roommate, so to speak."

Onodera furrows his eyebrows, and leans forward at this odd statement.

"I live in his gigantic apartment, at the cost of my doing all the housework, cleaning, laundry, making food, etc." Misaki goes onto explain, his delicate face growing red at every word he utters.

"You managed to survive living in Usami-sensei's house?" Onodera asks in disbelief, getting up on his knees to lean towards the younger brunette. "I went to his place a few times to collect his work a couple years back, and last time I checked he could take care of himself no better than a child."

Misaki lets a smile slip onto his lips, and he looks down as his face lights up even more. "Yeah, most people say that. He can't cook, never cleans, and he lets all of his bears litter everywhere. It's a pain to take care of him, it's like having a grown man-child. But, all in all, I somewhat enjoy it. I was always the one being taken care of, and it's nice to have a bit of change. Plus Usagi-san isn't that hopeless, he's trying to learn some things and it's fun to watch him grow."

Misaki breaks from his trance, and shoots his gaze to his senpai, who is watching him with an unreadable expression.

"Uh, that sounds weird, huh?" Misaki lets out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head.

"No, I can relate." Onodera mumbles, looking down at the boring pattern on the carpeted floors. "My neighbor often forces me to go to his house to eat, since I neglect it a lot due to work. He makes us a full meal, and almost makes me sleep there since I rarely sleep in my bed anymore. As a child, I had to occupy myself with things like books and quiet things because my parents were usually working for the company, and I wasn't very good at all with making friends. I feel like I finally have someone to lean on...sort of..." Onodera darts his eyes toward his kouhai, who is watching him the same way he was watching Misaki before.

"Well," Misaki clears his throat awkwardly, and throws Onodera a half-smile. "The reason I'm hiding from Usag- er, Usami is because yesterday I got really angry with him, and I didn't go home, I actually ended up sleeping over at my friend Todo's house. I was going to go back after work today, now that I've cooled off, but I didn't tell Usami that, so..."

"So he's here to abduct you?" Onodera finishes the sentence, and Misaki nods. Under his breath, the older one mutters "Sounds like someone else I know..."

"Actually this isn't the first time," Misaki continues on, putting his index finger up to point towards the ceiling. "Usami-san has come and kidnapped me from school, from work, and once from my brother's house."

"Wow," Onodera awes at Misaki. "It's like we're the same person."

"Hmm?" Misaki furrows his eyebrows at his senpai. "How so?"

"Ah..." Onodera winces, realizing what he just set himself up for. "T-Takano-san comes to my apartment almost everyday, even when there's no work. On work days he'd come get me up early to go to work together, then when we're off he whisks me away to somewhere and won't tell me. It's like he doesn't realize that I'm-"

"A person too, that has hopes, dreams, and feelings!"

The two finish Onodera's statement in unison, and smile at each other.

"Onodera-senpai!" Misaki's eyes fill with tears of joy, then he leaps towards the unsuspecting editor to envelope him in his arms.

"W-woah, T-Takah-hashi." Onodera leans back, then after a few seconds he finally gives in, awkwardly patting his kouhai on the back.

"I finally have someone that understands!" The murmurs of Misaki's overjoyed cries find their way to Onodera's ears, who's emerald eyes widen. The editor raises a shaking hand, and pats the younger's long brown hair that resides near his abdomen.

The men are cut off from their moment of rejoice by a loud series of bangs, drawing the two pairs of green eyes to the door, which they had locked to keep safe. The door physically bends as three more bangs echo across the room. The two brunettes cower into a corner, scared of the door popping off its hinges.

"Oi."

Onodera flinches at the familiar voice, and Misaki turns his terrified eyes towards his senpai.

"Who the hell is in here? We need this room for our meeting." The banging on the door continues, and Onodera sighs, motioning for Misaki to stay in the corner. Onodera takes a few steps forward, then grabs a hold of the handle. He turns his emerald eyes back to Misaki, who gives a shaky nod. Onodera lets out his own shaky breath, then presses the handle down and swings open the door.

"Onodera." Takano instantly lets his name slip from his lips, and from the frown and scowl near his eyebrows, he definitely was not happy.

Onodera tries to give a convincing smile. "Oh, a-ah, I was j-just umm, f-feeling dizzy and I-I h-had to stop and t-take a res-st..." Onodera plays with his fingers, looking down at the floor.

"Bullshit." He hears an even deeper voice from behind his boss, and the brunette looks over Takano's shoulder to find silver hair and indigo eyes set into a broad scowl.

"U-Usami-s-sensei, h-hi..." Onodera awkwardly waves, slowly shriveling up to make himself appear smaller.

"You were supposed to be making copies for our meeting." Takano crosses his arms, glaring down at his subordinate. "What happened to that, hmm Onodera?"

"I-I-I..I..." The brunette fails to make up an excuse, and starts backing up into the room as if he could escape.

"Abort mission!" The editor finally turns around, running to the other side of the room.

"What?! AAAHHHHH!" Misaki jumps up from his hiding spot in the corner, and joins Onodera on the opposite wall from the door.

The two semes stand at the doorway, dark angry auras surrounding their intimidatingly large frames. Takano and Usami step foot into the meeting room, and the silver-haired author kicks the door shut behind him.

Both younger brunettes gulp, and latch onto each other in fear.

"It was nice knowing you, Onodera-senpai! You were a very great friend for the ten minutes we've spent together! Please keep being a great person!" Misaki begins bidding his senpai goodbye, squeezing his eyes shut as the editor-in-chief and author make their way towards them on either side of the large table.

"You too, Misaki! Hopefully we can see each other again on the other side! It was a nice life on this Earth while it lasted!" Onodera squeezes the younger tighter with every step his boss and ex-author take closer. He gulps once again, and wants to sink into the floor.

"Usami-sensei?"

"Yes, Takano-san?"

"Mind to teach these two a lesson about hiding from us?"

"Of course. They should know by now, they can never hide from us."