Onodera Ritsu & Takahashi Misaki no Baii

Chapter 1

As usual, Onodera Ritsu was feeling exhausted, hungry and confused. At work today, Takano-san had dumped a stack of old manuscripts onto his desk just before Onodera was about to leave, and told him to explain why certain edits were made to the upper half, then make his own corrections on the bottom half. He ended up staying two hours later than he had planned and buying another bento from the convenience store in front of the station.

It's all stupid Takano-san's fault, Onodera thought bitterly, blaming his fatigue, hunger, and muddled thoughts all on the older man.

Then, after Onodera had finished the old manuscripts and was preparing to leave for a second time, Takano-san whispered in his ear, "I love you."

Jeez, how cliché and persistent do they make people these days? Onodera grimaced down at the sidewalk, shaking his head at his thoughts of Takano-san. I need friends or something. Well, not saying that I don't have any friends, but… Come to think of it, Takano-san was the only person he really talked to on a regular basis outside of work. Dammit.

As he walked up on his apartment, he made a vow to himself. This Saturday, I swear I will go out and have a good time with friends. That'll show that stupid Takano-san!

Unfortunately, the next day when Onodera asked his co-workers if they were free that Saturday, no one seemed to be.

"Ah, sorry, Ricchan!" Kisa-san exclaimed, looking awkward. He slapped his hands together to look as if he were praying and continued, "But I already have plans for Saturday! This is our first actual day off in months, and I made plans with…with…" He trailed off, looking anywhere but at Onodera. "But really, I'm sorry!"

What the hell was that? Onodera thought as he watched Kisa-san practically fling himself onto his laptop and begin to type furiously.

Hatori-san had a similar answer. "I'm going to meet with one of my authors on Saturday, so I can't."

"But Saturday's a day off. We don't have to meet with our authors!" Onodera protested, though his hope was rapidly fading.

Hatori-san looked away. "Right."

Damn this! Onodera couldn't even muster up the confidence to ask Mino-san. He was sure that a forever-smiling, polite and handsome man would never have a free day to spare. It would be full of girls who had booked the day months ago. Or, Mino-san probably had some guy friends of his own.

Just then, Takano-san strolled into the room, his black bag full of papers slung over his shoulder. "Onodera. Make sure your own manuscripts are done before you go making plans for Saturday," he said coolly as he sat down at his desk.

"I am done with my manuscripts!" Onodera shouted. The office, however, immune to Emerald's frequent outbursts, carried on as if no one had even spoken.

Only the Emerald editors took notice to Onodera's cry. "Ricchan, keep it down," Kisa-san mumbled, not looking up from his laptop and certainly not pausing from his overly-dramatic typing.

"Take it easy, Onodera-kun," Mino-san piped up from his own work, but also not making the effort to look up.

Hatori-san just ignored them all, currently talking into the phone in a low, irritated tone to one of his authors. (A/N Oh-ho, who could that be?)

Onodera sat down at his desk and glared at his laptop. "Sorry," he muttered. He could feel Takano-san's intense gaze as he opened his laptop and began to finish up the proposal he had started yesterday.

Already, Onodera's stomach was hurting. Now, it was either the constant immense amount of stress from work, or the old rice he had eaten last night from the back of the fridge.

Once again, Takano-san flagged Onodera down before he could escape Marukawa.

"Onodera. I need you to—"

"No!" Onodera shouted, not even letting Takano finish his sentence. "I refuse! Get someone else to do it, I'm tired and I'm going home!"

Takano-san didn't miss a beat. "Oh. So you want to act useless all of a sudden? That's fine. I'll just get Hatori to do it." He shrugged and began to walk away.

Leaving Onodera sitting there, infuriated at Takano-san for deliberately leaving him torn between being labeled useless and going home and taking a well-deserved (and very much needed) hot bath.

"Fine!" Onodera shouted, catching up to Takano-san and glaring at him with piercing jade eyes.

Takano-san handed him a stack of papers. "Take these to a woman called Aikawa. I saw her in the lobby about thirty minutes ago, but I didn't get the papers until now."

Onodera nodded and snatched the papers out of Takano-san's hands, then quickly maneuvered around the taller man and scurried down the hall. I really, really hope she hasn't already left. And wait, dammit, I don't even know what this woman looks like!

He found himself in the lobby alone with another boy, who looked like a university student. He walked up to the boy, who also seemed to be looking for someone.

"Um, hello," Onodera greeted hesitantly. The boy jumped, startled, but turned around all the same. His eyes were widened and Onodera noticed that they were a similar green to his. "Hi, I'm Onodera Ritsu from the Emerald Shoujo Manga department. I'm looking for a woman named Aikawa, do you happen to know who she is?"

The boy's eyes instantly shone with relief. "Ah, thank goodness! I'm kind of Aikawa-san's helper, she's already gone home because she felt sick—and kind of irritated—but I stayed so I could pick these up for her." He smiled at Onodera, who handed him the papers. "I'm Takahashi Misaki, nice to meet you!"

Onodera smiled at the boy's intense enthusiasm, even for just a favor such as this. "Nice to meet you, too, Takahashi-kun. Well then, if you'll excuse me." He wasn't even five steps away before Takahashi-kun called to him again.

"Um, Onodera-san!" Onodera spun around to see Takahashi-kun gazing up at him with pleading eyes, which looked close to tears. "I'm so, so very sorry to trouble you, but…I forgot my money and my cell phone at my landlord's apartment, and I don't have a car, and I have no way to get home, and…" He sniffed a few times, his previous innocent joy for successfully running an errand long gone. "Will you please lend me money for a taxi to get home? I promise I'll pay—"

Onodera couldn't help it. Somewhere in the middle of Takahashi-kun's plea, he felt a laugh coming on. He shut his eyes and laughed right in Takahashi-kun's face, much to Takahashi-kun's surprise.

"Sorry," Onodera breathed as he caught his breath after about thirty seconds of intense laughing. He would be the first to say that he'd do the same thing, but hearing about someone else doing it for him kind of relaxed him for a moment. "Anyway, I think with how much of a klutz you sound to be, I'll pay for your taxi and go with you to make sure you don't get lost halfway there."

Takahashi-kun forgot about the brunette man's rudeness and smiled as well. "Okay, sounds great! I just hope Usagi-san doesn't get impatient waiting for me!" The boy scratched the back of his head guiltily. "I was actually supposed to come back an hour ago, but then I met up with Aikawa-san and we just kept talking!"

Onodera smiled as he realized that he did the same thing to anyone Takano-san. Well, at least, he tried not to talk to Takano-san too much.

"Alright, are you ready to go?" Onodera asked the shorter brunette.

"Yeah!" Takahashi-kun exclaimed, his brightness almost overwhelming to Onodera.

The older man flagged down a taxi and they both climbed in. Almost halfway down Takahashi-kun's destination route, Onodera realized that he could have just made a friend. I wonder if Takahashi-kun is doing anything this Saturday?

"Hey, Takahashi-kun," Onodera said, not looking at the younger male but instead looking out at the city blurring by through the taxi window.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing this Saturday?"

Pause.

For a fleeting moment, Onodera thought that he had creeped Takahashi-kun out. But then, he replied, "Nothing much, I was just going to go out. What about you, Onodera-san?"

Onodera barely caught himself from shouting, "Really? Are you sure?" which would probably scare both Takahashi-kun and the taxi driver. Instead, he silently took a deep breath before he replied. "I'm the same. Would you mind if I went along with you to go buy manga? I actually want to see some myself."

"You read manga, Onodera-san?" Takahashi-kun asked, sounding skeptical.

Onodera forced out a laugh. "Ah, no. But remember, I'm a shoujo manga editor and I just want to see, you know, who all is buying my author's manga…?" he ended up asking more of a question than answering Takahashi-kun's. And plus, he was the one who had gotten all worked up about how Saturday was their day off and that Hatori-san didn't need to meet with his author.

But this isn't work, Onodera forced himself to think. This is personal interest!

"Oh. Okay, then!" Takahashi-kun didn't press Onodera further, much to the older man's relief. "But we can't only spend a Saturday out buying manga. And even if we did, it'd be such a waste of a perfect day! We should…" Takahashi-kun trailed off, and Onodera glanced over at him to see the boy's chin rested on the heel of his palm, deep in thought.

"Well, we could go and buy manga for you, then we could go buy some books for me. Then we could just wing it from there," Onodera suggested.

Takahashi-kun snapped out of his pondering daze at the word "manga" and nodded eagerly. "Sure! That wouldn't take up too much time, but enough to let us think about what we want to do next."

"So how about we meet up outside your apartment on Saturday around ten? Then we could eat lunch out," Onodera said. He was kind of surprised that Takahashi-kun was just going along with him, an almost complete stranger. He, on the other hand, would take anything he could get, desperate to prove that he could spend time with people other than Takano-san and his co-workers.

"Sounds great!" Takahashi-kun exclaimed. Suddenly, the taxi pulled to a stop.

"Thank you for the ride," Takahashi-kun said to both the taxi driver and to Onodera.

"You're welcome," the driver said, complete with a flashy smile.

"Anytime," Onodera replied, waving goodbye to his new young friend.

I'll show you, Takano-san!

ent here...