Struggling to move on

Summary: The fic starts when Yuu and Yokozawa are in the same situation where the men they like love other guys. Yokozawa is heartbroken and Yuu tries to settle his feelings for Chiaki (kinda heartbroken too). That's when they meet each other's and then begins the Struggling to move on. Can they and do they have will to really make it?

This was weird. Even Yokozawa had a love life - and apparently heartbreaks as well. It was difficult to think that someone as cold and restrained as the man had any notable feelings or emotions inside him...

Beta: yup I have

Disclaimer: I don't own Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

A/N: Hiya there ! This is the first story I publish in here… and hopefully not the last ! I began to write this before_ I got to know about Kirishima who is kind of perfect D: But well, even though that man appeared, in my opinion it works between Yuu & Yokozawa too. When I was writing this I noticed that they like each other's pretty much 8))))

23.2.
I promised to add the betaed version here and here it is !

It took long time from us to fix this up... My beta pointed out one big problem which was that I had written Yuu working for Takano and Marukawa, but it isn't actually the case, because he works for the mangakas, for example for Chiaki. Another thing which we were thinking on was the timeline, because Yuu & Yokozawa's lives must be placed on a same timeline. Sekaiichi's timeline is pretty messed up F_F So:

THE TIMELINE:

This page was really helpful: forums . mangafox . com /threads/344172-Unofficial-Timeline

The fic takes place on February when Yokozawa confessed Takano & was rejected. For Yuu it is after the anime episode where he and Chiaki were in the hot springs. (Yuu's story is based on anime, because there isn't information of him in manga.)

I hope you'll enjoy !

Chapter one

The long day had finally come to an end.

Yuu Yanase sighed contentedly and stood up from his chair, stretching his arms and groaning at the pain which radiated from his back up through his whole body. His butt had gotten numb so he was glad he could leave now. Why had the day felt so tiring even though he had just started working on the new manga volume? Maybe he was just getting old. Or maybe not, because he was only in his twenties.

He picked up the pages he had earlier finished drawing and left the lonely room. Its atmosphere had started to feel slightly gloomy and that had started to affect his mood. Yuu began to make his way through to the studio where he was supposed to help Chiaki with the toning process.

While walking he eyed the pages and as always, his thoughts began to turn towards Chiaki. That was the downside of working with him but despite that Yuu never wanted to quit being his main assistant.

They hadn't seen each other since their trip to the hot springs. He was wondering whether he should visit him now, or if it was alright to. Yuu didn't want to avoid his forever – which may have been what he was doing – even if he was a little hurt and disappointed. Yuu had decided that he would act like nothing had happened when he met Chiaki again. He was planning to give him some time to think about things because he didn't want to feel like he was harassing Chiaki... And he wasn't sure what Chiaki thought of his 'confession' - the other man was a little dense sometimes.

Yuu remembered the trip with bitterness because Chiaki hadn't answered him; he had just apologized and hurried to look for Hatori. "I'll owe you one now," he had said. Chiaki had probably realized that he shouldn't be spending his birthday with his friend but his boyfriend.

He wondered if Chiaki thought he was just drunkenly babbling confessions, after all, they had drunk a considerable amount of sparkling wine that night. Yuu's intention had been to get him drunk so he could convince Chiaki to sleep with him.

He wouldn't seriously have gone that far.

Maybe.

The fact that Chiaki probably thought Yuu's words were all said under the influence of alcohol or in a fit of momentary insanity wasn't that good of a thing because Yuu wanted Chiaki to know his feelings for the mangaka were serious, and show him how deep they were. Well, that sounded cheesy.

Chiaki had always been so genuine and Yuu loved his blue, innocent eyes, big, puffy lips and that very perfect ass, too.

Yuu couldn't believe Chiaki's fax machine had broken down and what's more: he couldn't believe he was the one who had been forced to come down all the way to Marukawa to hand the file in himself. Why couldn't Hatori have just come over and picked up the things? It was his own fault that he couldn't finish his work on time, and Yuu had to suffer for that. The only reason, he reminded himself, he did this was because it was Chiaki who had asked him to.

Despite that, he whistled happily while he went to turn the lights off in the room. The reason for his happiness was that he was finally going to get to bed and have some sleep. He so loved that feeling where he could throw himself on top of the bed, spread out his tired limbs and straighten his aching back.

Perhaps he could have a sleepover with Chiaki at the other man's place. Or not, because Chiaki would probably not warm up to the idea after the trip so it would probably be just a quick visit. Hopefully Hatori wouldn't be there.

A refreshing cool breeze welcomed Yuu and swept stray strands of hair from his sweaty forehead as he stepped out. Was it too late to see Chiaki? What time was it anyway? Yuu reached his hand to search for his phone towards his bag but it grasped at nothing. He must have forgotten his bag inside. A discontented huff escaped from his mouth.

Yuu strode back inside and pushed the elevator's button harshly, though of course, it didn't help the elevator come down any faster.

The same brutalising of the button was repeated once again inside the lift. After thoroughly mashing the button Yuu began to restlessly tap his foot on the floor. The lift made a strange little whining sound while going up. Yuu didn't usually pay attention to such things, but now that he was alone he noticed it. The lift slowed down and made a clinging noise which told that someone else was coming in.

The person who came in was Yokozawa Takafumi from one of the Marukawa's sections. Yuu nodded at him politely. He had seen the man at a few parties before, but hadn't really talked to him. The man emitted unfriendly aura so Yuu hadn't approached him on his own accord.

"Are you going to work?" Yokozawa asked.

"Nope, I just forgot my bag up there," Yuu said. "And you, working overtime?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I hope I can be home before its morning", Yokozawa answered tiredly. He hesitated a bit but then asked: "Have you seen Takano? I mean, Takano Masamune?"

Eh, how the hell would he know where Takano was? Maybe it was because there were only a few people working at the time like this.

"No idea, I've been stuck working in a studio for the whole day."

The polite conversation stopped there, because Yokozawa was a man who worked in the same industry as him, and who just happened to be riding the same elevator as him now.

"Ahnn..."

Yuu's eyebrows jumped so high they brushed past his hairline. The lift had reached its destination and Yuu was sure he was hearing muffled moans and groans behind the doors of the lift.

"Ah... Haa... Ha... get off! Mmhnnh... Where are you putting your hands! A-Ah!"

Yuu grinned and waited excitedly for the doors to open. Somebody's back thumped against the lift.

"Resisting is pointless..." a deep voice purred. "Ritsu..."

The doors opened and the person whose back had been pressed against them yelped and began to fall backwards. Yuu was right behind him and caught the person who appeared to be Onodera Ritsu.

"Uh, huh?" Ritsu made a confused noise and bent his head backwards to face the person whose arms he had fallen into.

"Good evening", Yuu nodded to Ritsu and then to Takano who was standing right in front of them. Takano didn't look nearly as astonished as Ritsu, but on the other hand, it was only normal that you couldn't read the man's thoughts just by looking at his face. But Yuu hadn't missed the small flash of jealousy which was probably caused by Ritsu being trapped in Yuu's embrace. Ritsu's cheeks were beet red and his brownish hair was all ruffled up; Yuu was sure those lips were a little swollen.

"Good evening," Takano greeted him like there wasn't anything odd about the situation.

Yuu didn't have any time to waste and he was also dead tired. He got straight to the point. "So... This must belong to you," Yuu smirked. He took Ritsu by his shoulders and handed the still puzzled man over to Takano. Takano nodded with satisfaction but Ritsu didn't look as pleased.

"You are mistaken," Ritsu said, having got a grasp of the situation. His blush was somewhat more noticeable than before. "Good night everyone!" Ritsu bowed deeply, turned away and left.

"Onodera!" Takano called after him. He turned towards Yuu, who was trying to stifle his laughter, with hands on his mouth: "It would be good if you stayed quiet about this." He sounded slightly apologetic.

Takano left to chase after Ritsu down the corridor. It seemed to Yuu that Takano looked exhausted, poor man. But the case with Onodera Ritsu was interesting.

Half way down the corridor, Takano turned to look back. "Oh, and hi Yokozawa, let's keep in touch!" He waved his hand and continued running. Yuu wondered whether Takano would reach Ritsu in time.

The person next to Yuu mumbled, "Yeah, let's."

Yuu had completely forgotten about his earlier lift-companion and he glanced again at Yokozawa. Only a moment ago the man had said that he was looking for Takano but then now, he had just barely greeted the guy and nothing else. Yuu studied the other's face and pondered if the he had known about Takano and Ritsu's relationship but Yokozawa hadn't seemed too surprised.

In Yuu's opinion, the situation had been extremely amusing, because he would never had expected Takano to murmur seductive words towards Ritsu, and the latter's resisting was like straight out of Chiaki's shoujo manga- add to that the fact that Yuu had been working on it that very day. More specifically, his lines were similar to a female character's. "No way, maybe, yes!"

Yokozawa's lips were curved down into a frown and his eyebrows were wrinkled. His eyes were followed Takano as long as they could. Yokozawa snorted – who knew why – when Emerald's editor-in-chief turned around a corner and disappeared.

It seemed that Yokozawa too had forgotten about his companion's existence and didn't realize Yuu was standing there till he tore his eyes away from the corridor. Their eyes wandered to meet each other.

Yuu pursed his lips together and tried to explore Yokozawa's face. The taller man's eyes looked faded and the paleness on his face made them seem even hazier. Yokozawa looked like he was ill, like he was feeling awful. Yuu wondered whether it was seeing Takano and Ritsu that seemed to unnerve Yokozawa. Yuu tried his best to make sense of the man's expression, but the natural blank look on his face made it tough. Yuu shifted back to look at the grey-blue orbs - that was a good move, because apparently the emotions were hiding there. Those eyes seemed to hold a lot of anger and a deep sense of hopelessness.

So that was the case.

Sometimes, when Chiaki had been an idiot, Yuu would look into the mirror and stare at his own hazelnut eyes. At times, he watched those miserable eyes closely until he lost count of the time. There was no way he wouldn't realize what was going on in Yokozawa's head right now.

But had those emotions in his eyes something to do with Takano and Ritsu or were they like that before the lift had stopped on this floor?

This was weird. Even Yokozawa had a love life - and apparently heartbreaks as well. It was difficult to think that someone as cold and restrained as the man had any notable feelings or emotions inside him...

And what was that longing gaze and those eyes which followed Takano's back? Longing for just love or longing for love from Takano?

He shouldn't be this interested about Yokozawa's love life when he had unsolved problems with his own too.

Yokozawa glared at the smirk on Yuu's face so bad that he found it slightly scary – he wasn't one to be so easily startled about things, but that glare was definitely something. The dark haired man backed off into the elevator and kept pushing the button to the ground floor until the doors closed. Yuu waved his hand merrily and then continued towards his destination. His thoughts were focused on whether he would find Takano and Ritsu making love somewhere ahead.

A/N2: Thank you for reading, please make a review if you have time ^-^ See you in the next chapter!

It takes still time to work on the chapter 2. ;_; The reason is that there were problems with the chapter 1 and it took time, and I have Final exams soon (all I would want to do is to write but...) F_F_F_F I try to get the next chapter ready quickly !