On to the main course… Anyone hungry yet?

Rated M for profanity and adult sexual content/situations. So if you aren't 18 yet, this'll be something to look forward to…

Maraming, maraming salamat to Cerberus Revised for running his magical hands through this story. Without you, I'd probably be crying in a corner with a dunce cap on my head.

To Procrastination, my persistent motivator, what would I do without you?

Characters of SekaiIchi Hatsukoi are property of Nakamura Shungiku.

Dinner at Takano's

Chapter Two: Main course

Table set, candles lit, food dished up, the two men ate in silence.

The spaghetti, pretty good in its simplicity, was perfectly cooked; the bread, crusty and the salad, crisp. Takano poured the wine. The candlelight flickered in the dim room; the glow reflected off the ruby shine of the full wineglasses.

Onodera narrowed his eyes as Takano added a bit more wine to his glass. "Remember, I said no funny business."

Takano blinked as if in surprise and did his best to look wounded. "What's one glass with dinner? You have better tolerance than that, right? Loosen up some."

Onodera took his glass and gave a hesitant sniff; it smelled really good, full-bodied and fruity. He took a hesitant sip before dropping his eyes back down to his plate.

One glass. That's it.

Takano watched from his side of the table before taking a sip himself and then returning to his salad. Ritsu's eyes stayed fixed on his plate. A few more bites, and the new quiet seemed deafening.

Being the polite gentleman he was brought up to be, Onodera felt the urge to say something, start a conversation. After all the food was really good and Takano was a busy man to give up so much time, even for a meal as 'simple' as this.

"So, how is it that you know so much about cooking, Takano-san?" Ritsu glanced up at last and then realized he really was curious to know.

"Growing up at my house it was either that or starve to death." At the raised eyebrow, Takano added, "At college, I went out a lot, so most of my allowance went to drinking and cigarettes. And we both know those don't come cheap. I even tried dating girls to get a decent meal more than once.

"Have you gone out with girls, Ritsu?" Takano's expression was unusually earnest. "I mean, outside of An-san?"

"Yeah, but it didn't turn out well." Ritsu wondered where this honesty came from.

I've only had one sip of wine so far.

Taking his glass of wine, Takano ventured another swallow and then cautiously asked, "How were you after you left me in my room that day?"

Not getting a reply, he continued with an uneasy chuckle, "I needed an ice pack for my face, you know. You kicked me a good one. I was so confused. I didn't know what happened."

"I tried calling you but you wouldn't pick up. I considered chasing after you but I didn't know where you lived. " Takano dropped his eyes down at his lowered glass and ran his finger along its rim.

"I kept trying to convince myself that you'd be in the library the next day and I could say sorry for whatever the hell I did wrong.

"After you'd disappeared, I tried coming over to your floor and asked around your batch mates for an 'Oda,' but no one knew who you were. So, I started asking around for a 'Ritsu' instead and they said that Ritsu had gone to continue studies in England."

Takano shook his dark head, "I kept thinking 'Nah, that couldn't be you. How could you have left on such short notice? It was the middle of the school year.'"

Onodera was stunned by this plain confession. There was a part of him that wanted to immediately accuse Takano of this being a new and devious sort of 'funny business' and storm out. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. Takano's tone was too honest.

So, instead, he picked at his spaghetti silently, and then picked up his glass. The warm wine went down smoothly. Without looking up, he formed the words to his response slowly. "I became a bit of a recluse in high school when I was away."

Not that I was all that social here either.

"I spent a lot of time in the in the library there too because it was hard hanging out with others when they were always stumbling over my accent.

"Heh. How ironic, huh? I was trying to forget you, and yet, the one thing that we'd had in common was the one thing I turned to."

Takano watched Ritsu toy uncomfortably with his emptier wine glass a moment before he returned to his earlier question again. "How'd you get out of the country so fast, Ritsu?"

Green eyes glanced up for a moment before darting away. Ritsu's cheeks became rosy, from either his discomfort or the alcohol's quick effect on his systems.

"There was an exchange student program that I'd qualified for earlier that year and my mother kept trying to get me to go for it. I had been brushing it off until the 'opportunity' seemed perfect."

Takano cocked his head in surprise. "You never told me this."

"You never asked," Ritsu murmured.

Taking another sip of his wine, Takano pushed gently, "Go on."

"What do you want to know?" Ritsu took another deep draught of wine to bolster himself, but he couldn't bring himself to look at Takano right now, even so.

"It was past the deadline but my mom pulled some strings. I got to go two days after that day in your room." Ritsu pushed his glass away and put his hands in his lap. "The school functioned on a quarterly system; I stayed with a host family for a few weeks until the new quarter started."

Takano took a deep breath, now having one more reason to dislike Ritsu's mother. Then seeing how uncomfortable his junior was he growled, "Keep eating. The food is getting cold."

After a couple more bites and a few more sips of wine, and Takano felt ready to start the conversation up again.

"That is kind of ironic, Ritsu, because I stopped hanging out in the library to go looking for you after school. I even went to the other schools to check if you'd transferred." Another strained chuckle, "I felt like a stalker…"

Onodera rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself. "Yeah, kind of funny thinking of you as being a creepy teenage stalker," He picked up a bit of the beef he'd pushed to the side before hesitantly asking.

"So, you dated girls after us then, Takano-san?"

Takano looked down at the glass in his hand, he studied the crimson ripples as he swirled it.

"I think I was unconsciously trying to find you in the people I dated, female or male. Then, it would just turn me the fuck off when they didn't have the right eye color, or if their hair wasn't the right hairstyle or if they didn't blush enough. Crazy shit like that.

"I knew then that I'd seriously fucked up, you know." He took a quick swig of his glass, finishing it off, before he continued. "Ten years…"

"For ten years, I'd kept dreaming of you and it would just piss me off to wake up."

In front of him, Onodera's shoulders slumped. "Why were you holding on so much, Takano-san? Anyone would've dated you, you know. You aren't bad on the eyes."

Raising an eyebrow a quick smirk formed on Takano's face. "Ahh, so this face pleases you then?"

At this comment the fire returned to Ritsu's posture. He straightened and looked up, meeting Takano's eyes evenly.

"I already told you, I didn't follow you around for your face."

"What was it then?" Takano's voice was cool but curious, then his tone shifted back into that particular style of sarcasm that infuriated Ritsu. "Because I know it wasn't my stellar personality."

"Quit it, Takano-san. You're not getting a confession out of me." Exasperated, Ritsu grabbed his glass and downed the rest of its contents, trying to wash down his irritation along with the wine.

Takano leaned over and smoothly picked up the bottle, pouring more wine into both their glasses.

"Well, I am not so leery of confessions," Takano challenged. "I loved you for loving me in a time when I didn't feel cherished at all. You were the one thing I looked forward to when all the shit around me was starting to hit the fan."

Ritsu again, was taken aback by his old senpai's plain words.

Shit. What do I say to that?

He bowed his head. "I'm sorry for what you had to go through, Takano-san."

Onodera started when a single long finger caught his lowered chin and lifted it up. Takano's golden eyes burned with an intensity far brighter than the candles illuminating their table.

"And I'm sorry for being such an asshole in high school, Ritsu. If I wasn't trying to be all cool, I could've saved us both so much trouble."

Takano withdrew his hand, but Onodera's chin stayed up. He inhaled deeply through his nose, drawing in some courage so he could press back more than he had dared for a long time.

"How can you tell me all of this without any qualms about revealing too much?" Ritsu frowned. "Don't you have a bit of self-preservation left in you, Takano-san?"

Takano stared back; his voice had become earnest again. "I promised you that I'd answer anything you'd ask of me. And I still want to know everything about you.

"It's just so hard getting you to open up to me without getting you a little drunk first, I thought I'd try some truth along with the wine.

"Besides, if we don't get this shit out in the open, it's just going to keep coming up to bother us." Takano picked up his bread and wiped up some of the now-cool sauce off his plate.

Watching the bread disappear into Takano's marvelous mouth, the tight motions of his angular jaw as he chewed, Onodera closed his eyes. His cheeks already rosy from the wine, pinked further.

The truth huh? Something fluttered in warning in Onodera's chest, but the wine made him feel bold. Ah, to hell with it.

"I kept thinking that I didn't want to get played like that again." Ritsu admitted at last with a sigh.

"But I was more mad at myself than at you, Takano-san. Hell, I was a boy and I was supposed to be dating girls. But there was something off, like trying to fit into something that was too small or too big: it just didn't feel right. It frustrated me and so I stopped trying not long after.

"Instead, I just told everyone that I was engaged to An-chan. It worked. Or at least, it seemed to…"

Now it was Takano's turn to sigh. He took a long sip of his wine to wash down the last of the bread and the sudden surge of painful memories.

"I found out about your engagement after I thought I had gotten over you. I was in college then and I just stopped going to classes and ended up getting drunk all over again.

"If it weren't for Yokozawa, I probably would've been dead a long time ago."

Takano mouth curled up on one side seeing Onodera's expression shift at the mention of the sales manager's name.

"He can be an ass, Ritsu, I know… But Yokozawa picked me up whenever I was lost in a drunken stupor somewhere. I even went to the lengths of deleting all my cell phone contacts and only keeping his; I was so mad at the world."

Golden eyes looked up. "He kept me alive. And if that means getting the chance to be able to make this spaghetti with you now, after all that, then, I guess I owe him a lot."

Onodera shook his head, a wondering expression on his face as he stared back. "But Yokozawa-san was right there. Why didn't you just end up dating him? He told me himself that you were his."

"I don't know." Takano rubbed the back of neck as he searched the emerald eyes before him. "Yokozawa was a good friend, but he… He wasn't… you."

Ritsu stared dumbfounded by these words. He watched silently as Takano shot him an uncomfortable grin and stood up. He remained quiet as he watched Takano pick up his plates and walk over to the sink.

Takano set his things in the basin and then and turned around leaning against on the counter.

"How was the spaghetti? Did you like it?"

How the hell can you just shift gears like that?

However, Ritsu really didn't want to continue down this particular line of conversation any more, either. Instead, done as well, he gathered up his dishes too and walked over to set his things in the sink on top of Takano's.

"Yes, thanks, Takano-san. It was good."

Looking at his long-lost and now-found love, rather than grabbing Ritsu and forcing a kiss on his wine-stained lips, Takano slid carefully down the counter a bit closer, his approach decidedly more restrained. His mind flashed back to Ritsu sticking his hands in his pockets at the market.

Maybe Ritsu's not the only one learning to give in a little.

Reaching over, Takano placed his hand lightly on Onodera's upper arm. "Thank you for having dinner with me."

Onodera's eyes moved down to the dirty dishes though the rest of him didn't pull away.

"I enjoyed… making it with you, Takano-san."

Slowly Takano raised both palms on either side of his kouhai's jaw, lifting Ritsu's face up, mesmerized with how he looked in the soft glow of the candlelight.

Onodera kept his eyes open this time, his spring green gaze catching fire, when it met the golden, summer-baked fields of Takano's eyes. Ritsu suddenly felt his heart beating in his throat against Takano's hands, strong and steady, in sweet anticipation.

Thanks for the reviews everyone. I love you all. Yes, even you, my shy mystery reader. I love you, too.

Now who wants some lemonade? I dooo!

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