Chapter 10

Things seemed like they were going to be fairly normal after the date. The article about it and their relationship in general wasn't going to run until that Thursday, and then Yukina had his Tokyo concert before he went on his world tour for a month. For the most part, the both of them simply spent time with each other when they could, which was getting to be less since the cycle was starting to crescendo for Kisa and even Kawano wasn't bothering to try to save him.

Still, he'd made sure Takano knew he had to be at that concert on Saturday night. They weren't quite at the point in the cycle where they were there from morning to the next morning, but he'd rather put that in than have his boss call him to demand to know where he was while he was enjoying the VIP treatment in Ajinomoto Stadium.

He wasn't trying to dwell on it, because he knew he'd have a better time there if he had as much of his work done as possible. Which was why, on Thursday, he had completely forgotten about the article and was going about his work, trying to get his authors to turn their things early so he'd have that much less work.

Then again, he might end up grateful for the distraction while Yukina was gone. He'd still have to be without him for a month, but he'd dived into his work plenty of times before when he was trying to forget how awful his life was, so it'd be easy enough to do again.

Plus it helped that they were hyping up the anime for the Strawberry series once this cycle ended, so he'd have plenty to do. He was supposed to act as the 'handler' for the manga-ka, because he was indeed the person who had the easiest time getting her to behave. Even if that was only relative and he still had to threaten lives to get things done.

He was thinking about this as he headed out to talk to one of his authors face-to-face, and when he left through Marukawa's front doors, he didn't even realize there was a huge crowd of reporters outside it. It didn't take long for them to flock to him, however, and his eyes went wide. "Uh, can I help you?" he asked to the crowd in general.

"Is it true that you're only dating Yukina for his money?"

"Would you consider yourself into younger men?"

"Does Yukina know you're thirty years old?"

Kisa's eyes went wide at all the questions, and he quickly backed up, bumping into someone who was just coming out of Marukawa. He looked up sheepishly only to find Yokozawa Takafumi glaring down at him. It only took one second for the glare to be directed at the crowd of reporters who were crossing the sidewalk so they could continue their interrogations.

"Get the hell out of here!" he yelled at all of them. His usual methods seem to only slightly phase them.

"And who are you?"

"Your worst fucking nightmare, now get out of here before I call the police and get out the hose!" That seemed to make them realize the gravity of their situation, because they quickly scattered in different directions down the sidewalks, leaving regular people passing by rather confused about what had just happened.

They had never really not gotten along, considering Kisa did his job and didn't cause trouble for the sales department, but Yokozawa was the most intimidating man he'd ever met- and that included the likes of Kawano and Takano-san. He had a perpetual scowl on his face like the world was constantly lowering his expectation of humanity, and in all the years they'd been coworkers, he'd done his best to avoid him.

Still, he was thankful he'd happened to be coming out right then, because Kisa wasn't sure what he would have done without his help.

"What the hell was that?" Yokozawa asked once Kisa had stepped away and tried to get his bearings again. When Kisa just shrugged, his scowl only got deeper. "Whatever the hell it was, keep it away from Marukawa. We have enough drama here without paparazzi sniffing around for a story."

And with that, he was gone, down the sidewalk and probably heading for a bookstore to check sales. Kisa let out a sigh of relief and put a hand to his chest, just trying to steady his heartbeat. When he looked at his cell phone's display and saw 'Thursday' on it, he could feel his stomach plunging right down into his shoes.

He had a feeling he knew what that was about, and as soon as he'd bullied his author into handing over storyboards, he was having a talk with Kawano.

xxx

"This." Kawano had known exactly why Kisa was there in his office at Kappa Records. Kisa hadn't even had to wait, he'd just had the secretary call up and mention his name, and Kawano had ended a meeting he was in to see him. If it was any other situation, Kisa would've liked that he was getting the VIP treatment, but this was definitely not something to celebrate.

Before Kisa was the magazine that Kaneda and Yamato were reporting for. He had thought that it would be innocent enough, simply reporting on the date and how cute they were together. Despite that Kawano had thought the night deserved to be ended by drowning his sorrows in sake, they had agreed that Kisa hadn't necessarily acted out, other than the incident at the clothing store where he'd almost given Yukina a blowjob. And even then, Kaneda hadn't seemed to know what they were actually doing in there.

So when he saw the article, he was horrified.

"'Yukina Kou announced his relationship with Marukawa Shoten shoujo manga department staff member Kisa Shouta some weeks ago, but it seems we were all being misled. What we thought was an innocent young adult romance is actually-'" He had to stop there, because he actually gagged. "'-quite possibly a case of Yukina-san acting as a sugar daddy so an older man, who obviously enjoys it. Yukina-san's manager even had to break them up from possibly having sex in a dressing room on their date.'"

The article kept going on like that, detailing about how obviously Kisa had been fooling them all, and feeling sorry for Yukina that he was obviously in love with a gold digger, though puzzling over the fact that the ages were usually reversed for this sort of situation. There was not a single thing about how Kisa cared about him too, only that he was going after Yukina for money.

No wonder Kawano had so easily let Kisa through to see him.

"We have two options here," Kawano said, snatching the magazine back from Kisa and depositing it on his own desk. He pressed his index fingers to his temples, then took a deep breath. "Do you know what those are?"

"…no." Yes, but Kisa didn't want to admit it. He knew what one of those options was, and his stomach started twisting worse than it had when he had realized why those reporters were outside Marukawa Shoten.

"We either get the press on your side with an incredibly sentimental stunt," he said. Kisa knew a thing or two about sentimental stunts. He had been editing shoujo manga for years, after all. "Or you break up with Yukina."

"…that second one isn't happening," Kisa muttered, wringing his hands in his lap and frowning at Kawano. "What should we do, though?"

"…as much as I hate to do this, I'm leaving that up to you." Kawano still had his fingers pressed to his temples, like he had a migraine coming on. "For now, keep me updated. And make sure to call the police if the press is harassing you."

Kisa was quick to leave, even though he hadn't actually been dismissed. He had a few calls to make.

xxx

Despite that Yukina was getting work for his classes done early and getting ready for his world tour, he was more than happy to join Kisa for a date that night. Kisa had been successful in getting the storyboards and had corrected and faxed them off at lightning speed so his authors could start actually making the pages. He was hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd be the first one to get their chapters in that month so he'd have one less thing to stress over.

So there they were at the park, in full view of the press that had been following them both around all day, playing with Kisa's three-year-old niece. Kisa had called up asking his sister if he could have her for a few hours, and she'd seemed happy to allow him that. Apparently, she and her husband hadn't gotten a lot of time alone since the baby arrived. Kisa could sympathize, considering his authors sometimes acted like cranky, high-maintenance toddlers.

"Shouta, candy!" Shizuko demanded of him after she had exhausted her options on the playground. She wasn't the only kid there, and she was clearly having a hard time sharing or making friends. Or maybe she took after her uncle and just really didn't want to.

Rather than giving-in to her demand, though, Yukina quickly got up and took her hand. "Shouta will give you a lollipop if you can walk all the way around the path with me. Can you do that?"

"Yeah!" And she was off, with Yukina running behind her. It wasn't hard to keep up with her even if she was running pretty fast, considering her legs were so much shorter than Yukina's. Rather than sit there on the bench alone, Kisa quickly got up to follow them.

"Thanks for coming here with me, Kou," Kisa said, fully aware that one of the reporters had managed to follow them and was listening in. "Shiori wanted to have a date night with her husband, and I was the only one who could take her." It was an entire lie, except for the fact that after Kisa had asked to take Shizuko, Shiori had said they'd take the opportunity to go out to dinner without worrying about her.

But Yukina didn't know that, and the press didn't have to know that.

"It's alright, Shouta-san," Yukina said, still holding Shizuko's hand as she very determinedly speed-walked the path that circled the playground and wound up into the forest before quickly coming back around to the bench they'd been sitting on. "I like kids. And I find it really admirable that you were willing to babysit when you could've had the night to yourself."

"Well, you know me. I love kids, too." He actually hated kids except for Shizuko. Not in an active way, like you'd never see him going off on them in public, but even if he weren't gay, he doubted he'd want any of his own. "And Shiori's worked so hard to raise Shizuko while her husband works that I felt like she deserved a break."

He could feel the reporter trying to approach them, and he turned, a bright smile on his face. "Can I help you?"

Finally, she smiled and bowed. "Hello! I was wondering if I could get an interview with you both. I saw the article written about your last date, and I just felt like it didn't do you justice at all!"

Kisa glanced at Yukina, who was looking a little uncomfortable. Not anything visible to those who didn't know him that well, though; after all, Yukina had already almost mastered the art of pleasing the public without actually giving them what they want.

Kisa fully turned to the woman and smiled. "I'm sorry. We're babysitting my niece, and she's really antsy so we probably shouldn't make her wait. Maybe another time." And with that, he took Shizuko's other hand and they were off again to run the trail so she could get her candy.

When he looked over his shoulder again, he couldn't help but grin. The reporter was watching them, but wasn't writing anything down in her notebook. Hopefully step one of damage control had gone well.