Notes: So I've become a bit obsessed with Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi. I think I may love it even more than I loved Junjou Romantica; which is seriously saying something. ;) So I decided to just start a little story and see where it took me. Unlike Junjou, the main pairing is my favorite (My favorite Junjou pairing is Egoist, actually) although they ARE tied with Chiaki and Hatori. So those two might be showing up as well, if I decide to post more than one story. Knowing me, I probably will…

Please excuse me if I don't have a good grip on the characterizations yet. I've only read half the manga and watched the anime. But I'll do my best with what I have!

Music: Boku wa Kimi ni Ai ni Iku. Otherwise known as the closing credits song to Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi. I've been playing it on perpetual repeat since I downloaded it…at about nine o'clock yesterday evening. XD It doesn't look like I'm going to stop soon. This is probably the first time I've liked an end credits song more than the opening—I actually kind of find the Junjou and Junjou 2 end songs kind of annoying…(WHAT? BLASPHEMY.)

I DON'T KNOW WHY. I just really like it. It gives me chills. Especially in the actual end credits—with Takano and Ritsu standing back-to-back? :3 The vocals are also amazing. (If you want the download link, ask I will provide.)

Pairing: Takano/Ritsu

Warnings: A bit of swearing thanks to an angry Ritsu, and mentions of adult content

Disclaimer: I do not own Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi. Takano, Ritsu, and all other characters and concepts belong to Shungiku Nakamura and her associates. The only thing I, Katlynn888, own is the story below as you see it written.

It's Cold In Here

If there was one thing that Onodera Ritsu knew about Takano Masamune, it was that the man was a very light sleeper. It had first become apparent during their relationship in high school (Back when Ritsu knew him as Saga-sempai) when Ritsu slept over and the other man would wake up if you so much as breathed on him the wrong way. With this information in mind, Ritsu always kind of wondered how he slept through the loud fights his parents were always constantly involved in.

Later, Ritsu realized that he most likely hadn't.

Ritsu asked him about it, once—why he was such a light sleeper. Takano (Then Saga) had thought about it for a moment before replying, "I suppose it's because I'm an only child. Whenever people would come over, my mother would shush people. 'Shhh, the baby's sleeping,' she would say…At least, that's what my cousins tell me. There was never any noise in that house, so I never got used to it."

That made sense. Although Ritsu, too, was an only child, his family was large and noisy, and half a dozen of his cousins came before him, all old enough to be running in and out of his nursery. His parents had been far from trying to contain the situation, and so Ritsu had learned to tolerate the noise. Even today, it was hard to wake him up. He had to set his alarm clock at the highest level, and when he fell asleep incredibly tired not even that worked. He'd woken up more than once to someone banging on his door or ringing his cell phone.

Usually it was Takano. Ritsu wasn't afraid to show how much that fact pissed him off.

The one thing that did manage to affect Ritsu, that had never seemed to bother his sempai-turned-boss, was temperature. If the temperature of the room shifted too much in the night, it was sure to wake Ritsu up more often than not. Usually he wouldn't hesitate to fling off the blankets, or get up and adjust the thermostat if the room happened to be cold. But on nights like tonight, he couldn't help but be a little bit conscious of his sleeping partner.

Glancing at the clock, he realized it was half passed midnight. That meant it was Christmas Eve. Sighing, Ritsu laid back against the mattress and tried to ignore how cold he was and go back to sleep. He was pushed as far to the opposite end of the bed from Takano as was possible; of his own volition, not Takano's. If the other man had his way, he would have pulled Ritsu as close as physically possible. Ritsu had made sure he was far out of reach for that reason exactly.

The past week had been awful. He'd only been home three times in six days. The holiday season was always incredibly busy for Marukawa Publishing, but especially for the manga editing department. After all, there were countless girls in Japan who were expecting manga for their Christmases, and many mangakas who wanted the massive revenue a holiday release could bring. Ritsu swore, he was seeing dialogue boxes and cross-hatching in his sleep. Well, what little sleep he'd managed anyway.

Takano—the cunning bastard that he was—dragged Ritsu out of the office the moment the department was given the okay to leave. Ritsu protested, saying he could get home perfectly find on his own, thank you very much. The fatigue of his knees chose that moment to make him stumble and he had to use Takano's arm as means to catch himself, which made his argument invalid.

It just so happened, the end of the 'cycle' had managed (Again most likely with Takano's cunningness) to coincide with the day before Christmas Eve. And as such, Takano had also managed to rope their entire team of half a dozen editors an entire week off work. Ritsu was the only one who knew how he did this—he was standing next to the man when he intercepted Isaka-san in the hall to ask. Isaka-san, it appeared, was a sucker for any sort of sob-story, and Takano's tale of the crippling exhaustion his team was experiencing (Though it was not far from the truth) was all it took for Isaka to give the go-ahead.

As long as they agreed to conduct some business from home.

Ritsu sighed just thinking about it. This week off was just an opportunity for Takano in disguise. Working from home gave the editor-in-chief the perfect excuse to hang around Ritsu almost constantly. It would be an annoyance.

Or, at least, that's what Ritsu told himself.

To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure what he thought anymore. He still didn't exactly trust Takano—they'd messed each other up pretty bad back in high school, and Ritsu certainly did not want to make the same mistake twice. But, then again, they'd been teenagers back then—their hormones dictated their lives and Ritsu especially, being only fifteen at the time. They were older and wiser, now.

But, just as susceptible to heart-break. Ritsu really didn't want to open himself up to that again. But sometimes, like tonight when Takano had almost picked him up and carried him into his own apartment to make sure he ate a good meal, it seemed like Takano really cared. Like he was completely genuine when he claimed he was in love with Ritsu all over again. And at those times, Ritsu didn't think it would be so bad to let himself fall.

At the moment, all they could really claim to have was a half-formed relationship-slash-fling. It wasn't really certain which it actually was. They worked together and Takano was his usual tyrannical self, unless they were alone at which time he invaded Ritsu's personal space while almost tenderly instructing him how to better perform this job he'd so unwillingly been thrust into. It was kind of disconcerting how often they ended up being the last two in the office. Hell, in the whole building.

Sometimes, once they finally did leave, they went home and had dinner. They were both pretty decent cooks, so it could happen at either of their apartments.

And sometimes after they had dinner, they had sex. This was more likely if dinner had taken place at Takano's apartment.

And somewhere along the way, 'sometimes' had turned into 'periodically' had turned into 'usually' had turned into 'regularly'. Eventually it got to the point where they at least had dinner together three out of five nights that they didn't pull all-nighters at work. And on Saturday nights especially Ritsu almost unfailingly found himself pinned to the mattress by the hands and legs and body of Takano Masamune atop him. His holds were always easily-broken, something Ritsu realized and at first took advantage of.

But after a while, he stopped doing even that. Takano was getting too hard to resist and for all the right reasons, and Ritsu feared he was beginning to fall without his own permission.

Ritsu groaned and flung himself back against the pillows. He was cold. Really,reallycold. He had no clothing on and the sheet was flimsy—Takano hadn't taken out his winter-weight blankets yet for whatever reason. Maybe it was because for the past three weeks everyone at Emerald had been coming home (If they even came home) and collapsing right into bed without so much as undressing or pulling up the covers.

Well, that's what Ritsu had been doing, anyway.

All Ritsu knew was that it hadn't started getting really cold out until about two weeks ago, and Takano probably hadn't even turned on his heat yet. And they had the same basic apartment—the furniture was different, but Ritsu was pretty sure the thermostat would be in the same place…

Ritsu glanced over his shoulder at Takano. Still sleeping. Back when Takano had been Saga, Ritsu had memorized the way his chest rose and fell when in a deep sleep. He hadn't changed enough for that trait to be any different.

Taking a deep breath (He wasn't kidding about Takano waking up if you breathed on him too hard—it had happened before) Ritsu carefully propped himself onto his elbows, then sat up fully. Checked again to see if Takano was still sleeping. Then carefully moved his legs out onto the floor.

He had to really force himself not to yip as his feet made contact with the floor—it was utterly frigid; like stepping foot on pure ice! He took a second to get used to it (Or, at least, get over the shock to his senses—there really was no getting used to cold like that) then bend over his lap to root around in the dark for a shirt. He managed to find a pair of pants and Takano's boxers (Which he flung away from himself quickly) before finally laying hands on a shirt. It wasn't his own, but it would do. A shirt was a shirt and, in these circumstances, any shirt would do.

Ritsu quickly pulled the shirt on, buttoned it, and then slowly stood up. The room was dark, and Ritsu wasn't yet familiar enough to know where all the furniture was. He figured he would just have to wing it. He was pretty sure he remembered where everything was, but he couldn't be sure…

Slowly, he felt his way around the bed and then past the foot of it. So far so good. Following this feat, he shuffled to his next destination—the dresser. His hands successfully made contact with the wood of it, which was just as cold as the floor might he add. He silently cheered in his head—making it halfway across this room in the dark was something he could be proud of himself over. Or, at least, that's what his slap-happy mind told him.

That was when he got cocky and that, ultimately, was his downfall. He actually started picking up his feet after that, hoping to hurry towards the carpet of the living room so his feet didn't have to be tortured by the cold any longer. Not three steps later, he slipped on a sock and fell against the dresser with an almighty bang.

"God damnit, Ritsu!" cried a very familiar voice into the darkness. Ritsu squeaked as Takano's voice gave him a shock. He hadn't expected the strong voice to boom out in the silence of the night, especially so clearly. Ritsu would have expected a tired groan more than anything. "If you're going to wander around in the middle of the night, at least turn on a light instead of trying to kill yourself."

"I was trying not to wake you up!" Ritsu cried, immediately defensive as he tried to figure out how to get his legs untangled from each other.

Takano turned on the lamp on his nightstand, and raised an eyebrow at the flailing mass that had become of Onodera Ritsu. His subordinate glared at him balefully, and that was when Takano chuckled slightly and inquired, "Need help?"

"N-no," Ritsu muttered, disentangling himself finally and rising onto his knees to stand. He crossed his arms and turned away from Takano's stare—he could see both great amounts of condescension and a small bit of concern, neither of which he wanted to deal with right now. He simply continued towards the door of the bedroom, much surer of himself thanks to the light Takano had flipped on.

"What are you getting up for?" Takano mumbled, laying back against the blankets with his head under his arms. He wouldn't be able to get back to sleep with the light on, and he wasn't just about to turn it off again. Ritsu would be coming back in the room soon enough, and God knew he'd try to pull the same stunt twice.

"I'm cold and I'm thirsty," mumbled Ritsu, the last part only having been decided as he opened his mouth again and actually felt the dryness there. His mouth tasted sour—like a combination of sleep and semen. It was awful, and never again would he fall asleep in a post-coital haze without brushing his teeth. "I also need to brush. I'll be back." He marched two or three steps, before he realized what he'd said, and at the same time decided that he most definitely did not want to see Takano's smirk at Ritsu's assurance of his return. Usually, Ritsu wouldn't let something so blatantly domestic slip out of his mouth.

It was a quarter 'till one in the morning. Ritsu decided that he really didn't care and could later blame it on sleep deprivation. For the moment, he continued out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Then, he realized his stupid overnight bag (Which had been in this apartment perpetually since about this time last month) was still in the bedroom, and began to troop back in. Saw Takano had moved to wander over to the window to have a smoke. Ritsu leaned against the doorjamb for a moment, letting himself stare. Takano was easy on the eyes—and that was surely an understatement. Even his silhouette was tall and statuesque; a physique that was not at all common for Japanese men.

Then again, Ritsu was pretty sure Takano was half—or one of his parents had been. His mother was short and had the eyes, so he was pretty sure she was completely Japanese. But his father (The whole two times Ritsu had seen him) had looked odd—especially in the cheeks and bone structure. He hadn't been the typical slender, small Japanese man. Takano had taken after his father probably more than the editor-in-chief cared to admit.

As Takano took another drag off his cigarette, Ritsu found annoyance tugging at the back of his mind. Not so much that Takano smoked—two of Ritsu's cousins did, and so had his father until very recently. But that Ritsu was starting to pick up that second-hand smoking aroma.

"So I had lunch with my younger cousin the other day," Ritsu muttered, and he crossed the room to pick up his mesh overnight bag, "Ume; you've met her."

"Have I?" Takano pondered, crossing his arms and blowing out smoke once more.

"It was about ten years ago, so you probably don't remember," Ritsu mumbled nonchalantly as he could, shrugging his shoulders. One thing he'd learned was not to refer to their previous relationship as anything vague such as "…before…" because Takano would undoubtedly get on his case about it and demand he not side-step the subject in such stupid ways, which would embarrass Ritsu.

"Hmm," Takano mumbled.

"Anyway, I was talking to her, and do you know what she asked me? And this annoyed the hell out of me, too."

"Hmm?"

"She asked me when I started smoking." Ritsu made a face at Takano's cigarette. "She could smell your stupid cigarette smoke on me. And from that information, I have drawn the conclusion that I've been around you far too much."

All Takano did, the self-serving bastard that he was, was smirk and tap his cigarette against the ashtray that he had on the windowsill. "I thought you were brushing your teeth or something?"

"I had to get this," muttered Ritsu, holding up the bag before turning on his heel and walking out of the bedroom once more. He could feel something trailing down his leg, and he had a pretty good suspicion what his sudden wakefulness had shaken loose from his body. When he got to the bathroom, he turned at an odd angle in the mirror to stare at the backs of his thighs and thus his suspicions were confirmed. Disgruntled, he groaned the name of the man whose seed was trickling its way down his thighs.

"What?" Takano asked, obviously having heard Ritsu. It hadn't exactly been a quiet groan, and the apartment was small and quiet.

"I'm going to kill you," Ritsu whined, the tone of his voice completely unconvincing as he pulled a washcloth off of the rack in front of the sink. He soaked it in warm water and wrung it out, before reaching behind himself at an odd angle to wipe his legs down.

"Hmm." Ritsu looked up and met Takano's eyes in the mirror. Glared. "You're insufferable, do you know that?"

"I've been called that and several other, not very nice versions of the same word," Takano mumbled, pushing off the doorjamb where he'd perched to watch Ritsu and step into the room. He reached down and took the cloth into his own hand, to severe protest from Ritsu, and knelt down to tenderly swipe away the mess on Ritsu's legs. Sometimes, the young editor was amazed at how blatantly Takano's words and actions contradicted each other. While most of his sentences came out condescending and tyrannical, his actions were sometimes very gentle. Only sometimes, though; others, they could be just as intolerable and sardonic as his words.

"…I'm brushing my teeth," Ritsu mumbled, scowling as he pulled his toothbrush out of his overnight bag and wet it. Takano continued to run the clothe down his thighs, and it wasn't an unpleasant sensation by any means. He even cooperated when Takano pushed his legs apart slightly, to better reach that which had gotten between them.

Then the cloth become strangely absent for a long period of time, and Ritsu thought it was done. That, however, did not explain why Takano was still down there…unless he'd gotten up and walked out without Ritsu taking notice?

He was about to turn around when one big hand was suddenly on the front of his thigh and a pair of lips was moving up the back, and Ritsu jerked ferociously in the grip. "Takano! Stop! No!" Notagainnotagain…!If Takano started this again, for a second time tonight, Ritsu was quite doubtful of his ability to resist.

Unfortunately, the still had the toothbrush in his mouth and his protesting whine came out as more an unintelligible gargle. Takano chuckled and mumbled, "Relax, Ritsu…I just couldn't resist. I love your legs."

"Shut up!" cried Ritsu, explosively spitting into the sink and spinning around to push Takano's head away from himself. "There's nothing special about them; they're actually really skinny! So leave them alone, leave me alone, and make yourself useful by finding your winter-weight blankets and putting them on the bed. It's freezing in there!"

And Takano did stand, but instead of doing as Ritsu asked, he instead pressed the younger editor against the sink and leaned down to kiss the crook in his neck. Ritsu gripped his shirtless arms; one bicep of the left, the other on the forearm of the right. Takano's hand traveled down Ritsu's form, following his silhouette, until he was cupping the swell of the largest part of Ritsu's thigh. The other hand tipped Ritsu's head up, and pulled him in for a rather invasive kiss that Ritsu told himself he was an unwilling victim of.

In truth, he honestly was not at all so sure anymore.

"Hey," Takano said, pulling back. "Come back to bed."

"Uhg, in a minute," grumbled Ritsu, looking anywhere but Takano's eyes. This was hard, because they were forehead-to-forehead, and Ritsu rather failed at the endeavor. "I…need a glass of water, and to find those winter-weight blankets. You do have some, right?"

"Yes," Takano mumbled. "And I turned up the thermostat on my way in here. But, you know Ritsu, it really does make you colder when you sleep on the veryedge of the bed."

"Sh-shut up," mumbled Ritsu. "You annoy me…"

Again, Takano chuckled and kissed him again. Rebelliously, Ritsu bit his lower lip and, when Takano pulled back, let it snap back only after keeping it hostage for a long period of time. To his own chagrin, Takano only seemed amused.

"Get your glass of water, I'll get the blankets. If you're not back in bed in three minutes I'm hunting you down."

"Is that a threat?" grumbled Ritsu, finally ripping himself away from Takano's grip.

The editor-in-chief smirked. "No, it's a promise.'

Ritsu gave a tsk and stomped out of the bathroom, arms crossed. Takano, behind him, chuckled and grabbed the winter-weight blankets from the hall closet.

75 days until Onodera Ritsu falls in love.

End Story

A/N: I'm not at all sure how this ended up. O_o If you like it, then that's good. If you don't, it can't be helped. I hope I at least captured them semi-satisfactorily for you guys.

I took some liberties here, I know; I have no way of knowing if Ritsu has any siblings, and if he does how many. Also, I know I mentioned that it was Christmas Eve and then kind of made no big deal of it. In Japan, where most families are Shinto Buddhist, Christmas really isn't as big of a deal. They still enjoy celebrating it, but they're much more sedate celebrations and many more fundamental families don't celebrate it at all.

My titles. They're so original, yeah? XD

Well, I hope you enjoyed. :3

-Lynn