We’re back for another year of Takaritsu Week to celebrate Takano and Ritsu's budding relationship now that they're dating!
Any art form is acceptable for the prompts above, so long as it's your creation! Drawings, writing, graphics, and more are acceptable! If you have any questions regarding what would be okay, don’t hesitate to send in an ask!
To get your submissions onto the blog, you can either submit your post to the blog (specifying which day it is intended for) or post it to your own blog.
If you post it onto your own blog, be sure to tag it with #takaritsuweek and mention our blog @takaritsuweek to be sure that we see it!
Please reblog so that we can get good participation!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It's the first New Year's party Marukawa has held since Takano and Ritsu have started dating. The two of them have a bit more trouble coping with it than they thought they would.
Day 3 of the Day 0 Celebration Event hosted by @takaritsuweek!
This is my very first submission for this event! Ritsu wants to sweep Takano off his feet with his confession, but this is my version of how I think it will go down lol. A full circle moment where feelings overflow and all plans go out the window, making the confession just as sweet as the very first time :,). Can’t believe we’re almost there folks. It’s been quite the ride.
“Hello,” Ritsu answers his cellphone as he rushes along the sidewalk towards his next appointment. It’s crunch time for the publishing editors to get their authors drafts turned in. “This is Onodera— Oh, hello Miyashiro Sensei. Yes, I’m on my way…what, oh, um, passing 7/11 on Koyama Street … uh-huh, maybe 10 more minutes till I get to your apartment. Oh, good, you’ve got the storyboard ready, great! Then we’ll be able to get it to the printers on time for—”
“LOOK OUT!”
Ritsu quickly turns toward the piercing scream only to see a car barreling straight for him…
Meanwhile, at Marukawa Publishing, senior editor Masamune Takano is busy helping his editors to get the drafts turned in on time. Print day is always the hardest time on the Emerald shojo staff, but so far things have been progressing well with one exception. The only editor he hasn’t heard from yet is Ritsu Onodera, and this is making him nervous. Ritsu’s not one to just disappear and definitely not on print day.
Masamune looks at the phone on his desk every few minutes, ready to scoop it up if it rings. Where the hell is Ritsu?! He rifles through papers, staring at and not really absorbing what he’s reading as a sense of dread eats away at his consciousness. Maybe he’s just being paranoid… He and Ritsu have finally started dating, officially, a couple of months ago and there is that small part in the back of his mind that worries his first love will run away again. ‘No that’s silly,’ he chides his mind and goes back to reading. They’re all just busy today.
RING RING
‘See!’ Masamune snaps at himself. That’s probably Ritsu. “Hello!” He practically screams into the receiver. “Rit— Wait what?! Ritsu is— Yes! I’m coming right now!”
He hangs up and grabs his coat, yelling at one of his shoujo editors Shouta Kisa that Ritsu’s in the hospital and to hold down the office.
“What?!” Shouta yells back, but Masamune is already in the elevator. He hadn’t quite understood what his boss said, something about Onodera and hospital, but it sure sounds bad. So, he alerts Takafumi Yokozawa of the sales team and goes back to getting the printing completed. With his boss out, they’ll need to get things done without him.
As soon as Masamune arrives at the hospital, he’s directed to the surgery floor and rushes to find out what is going on, cornering a poor nurse at the head station. At first, she refuses to tell him anything, so he lies and tells her Onodera is a cousin, but that only gets him told to wait in the waiting room for now because Ritsu is in surgery. Surgery for what?! How bad is it?! He’s like a caged animal, continuously pacing around the waiting room as the worst-case scenarios threaten his sanity. It must be really bad to be rushed into surgery, right? Like, rushed, as in we need to stop him from dying, rush?? “Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Masamune mutters to himself like a deranged patient as he paces. Someone needs to tell him something and soon!
His friend Takafumi is the first to stop by to check on him, knowing this will be difficult on his old friend. Takafumi manages to get Masamune to sit down and stop pacing, but Ritsu’s unknown status eats at him. So, he buries his face in his hands still unwilling to show his tears, forgetting that the ache is painfully evident in his tone. This is Masamune’s ultimate fear come to life, to lose Ritsu again. “I can’t go through that again,” he vents to Takafumi in barely a whisper. His friend rubs his back and keeps repeating everything will be okay. If only he could believe it right now. Ritsu’s parents also show up and wait for their son to come out of surgery. Because of his mental state, Takafumi bridges the conversations with Masamune. They know their son Ritsu is in a relationship with the man but are still in the stage of accepting it. Perhaps seeing the pain he’s going through over their son will help to heal that gap.
It’s an agonizing 3 hour wait before they are led to a room in intensive care. The doctors tell them that a car lost control and jumped the curb, striking Ritsu head on which sent him flying into the building’s wall. There is extensive internal damage in his chest and abdomen from where the bumper struck along with head contusions that have caused some swelling in his brain, a broken left arm, and twisted right ankle. They’ve managed to reduce the swelling, remove excess fluid from a bruised lung, and casted the arm, but have placed him in a sedated state for the night to keep him calm while he fully stabilizes. Ritsu is expected to pull through as long as the damage in his brain has been contained. They’ll know more for sure if he stays stable till the morning.
After they thank the doctor, Masamune tells Ritsu’s parents that he’ll stay here until their son wakes up, so they don’t need to. They thank him, and he promises to contact them as soon as Ritsu is awake. He also asks Takafumi to go to he and Ritsu’s apartment to grab them a change of clothes and basic toiletries since he doesn’t know how long he’ll be there.
“I know how important Ritsu is to you, but you know you have a job to do, right,” Takafumi scolds Masamune. “Luckily today’s print was taken care of by your editors, but that doesn’t mean you can leave everything in their hands.”
“Think I don’t know that!” Masamune snaps back. “They’ll call me if they need anything, but I’m not leaving no matter what anyone says. Ritsu means more to me than the job!”
Takafumi rolls his eyes. “You act tough, but you’re such a sap for him.” He waves curtly as he starts to walk out of the room.
Masamune yells after him, “don’t forget my stuff!”
“Yeah, yeah…” Takafumi can be heard snipping back from the hall.
“Ugh,” Masamune drops onto the seat beside his boyfriend’s bed, keeping his head down as the tears well up and ache in his heart threatens to tear him apart. Tough, yeah, he does act tough to those around him, but Takafumi has him dead to rights when it comes to Ritsu. Can anyone blame him? Over 10 years of an unrequited love will turn anyone into a sap if they finally get who they want. Thats why this is so unfair! Hasn’t their relationship gone through enough pain and angst for a lifetime that this is thrown into the mix? Masamune clenches his fist, digging his nails into the skin to feel something other than emotional pain.
The scene in the room is enough to break anyone’s heart. To see the man he loves lying there, unmoving except for the rise and fall of his chest with tubes to help him breath. Ritsu’s head is wrapped with a bandage that covers all the way to the brow line, the left ear completely, with tufts of brown hair peeking through a few areas around the crown. Masamune takes note of the purplish-blue bruising on the left side of his face from where it must’ve struck the car hood or wall and assumes there are bruises elsewhere covered by the hospital gown or blanket. Next, the cast on Ritsu’s left arm extends from the hand to above the elbow because the ulna and radius has snapped, and the doctors did surgery to hold them back together until the bones fuse and heal.
Masamune takes hold of Ritsu’s right hand… ‘so cold,’ he flinches because the skin is cold to the touch. He clasps both his hands around to warm it. Likely a useless gesture except to make him feel better, but when you desperately wish you could do something to help when there is nothing you can do, hope is the only avenue left. He squeezes his eyes shut to dam his tears. “I’d trade places in a heartbeat,” the voice low and cracking. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here. Onodera you better not go anywhere either.”
Keeping his eyes closed to the scene barely helps Masamune feel any better. The muffled voices of hospital staff in the hallway remind him of where he is. Then there’s the beeping and whooshing noises of the machines hooked up to Ritsu. A steady beep, beep, beep of the heart monitor is anxiety inducing when they change rhythm even briefly. But if he tunes these out, a resting silence that should bring peace, brings chills instead as if some sinister presence will suddenly make itself known. Masamune opens his eyes and slaps his cheeks. “Get it together!” He chides himself. “Just settle in ‘cause it’s gonna be a long night.”
Early the next morning, the doctors come in to check on Ritsu. Masamune stands in the doorframe watching them hook his boyfriend up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to check his brain activity. Good news is the activity looks normal; the bad news is doctors aren’t sure why he hasn’t woken up. They explain the sedatives should have worn off by now but sometimes the body is not ready to wake up yet and all they can do is keep an eye on his vital signs. Ritsu is stable, so it is something to hang his positivity on. While the doctors are running the tests, Takafumi stops by before heading to work to drop off a bag of clothes and toiletries. It’s obvious Masamune didn’t get much sleep the night before, so Takafumi scolds him again about taking care of himself, to which Masamune retorts he’s fine.
Though fine is somewhat subjective in this situation. He’s fine in that he’s not pacing like a caged animal anymore or sobbing uncontrollably. But he’s not fine in that he hasn’t eaten since the previous afternoon nor taken a bath in the past two nights ago. He sits back down next to Ritsu’s bed and puts the bag on his lap to see what Takafumi brought. Inside, he finds soap, a pair of jeans, fresh underwear and socks, and a t-shirt… Uncontrollable tears instantly burst through at the sight of the shirt, because it’s one that Ritsu bought for him while on a business trip. Of all the tops to choose, Takafumi chose a heart wrenching one.
In all honesty, Masamune felt the shirt doesn’t match him, but Ritsu was adamant that he thought he looks good in the color, and since it is a gift from his boyfriend, of course he’ll wear it. He holds the shirt up, using it to cover his face as the tears flow and soft sobbing take hold. He doesn’t want the shirt, he wants Ritsu back! “Ritsu, damn it you better wake up!” He angrily mumbles through the sobbing. “Don’t you dare think you can leave me again because I won’t survive a second time! Please… please,” his sobbing grows moister and ragged, “just wake up Ritsu. Just wake up and tell me you’ll be okay… don’t leave me…”
Suddenly, Masamune hears what sounds like someone talking, but it is too soft to tell if it’s even coming from the room or from the hallway. He peaks over the shirt with his blood shot eyes and tear trailed skin to sees nothing changed.
“Masa…”
Now that caught his attention! The voice is too soft to hear, but it is definitely Ritsu! Masamune looks at his boyfriend whose eyes are still closed but his mouth is open which it wasn’t before. He leans in much closer. “Ritsu?” He asks tentatively. “Did you just say something?”
In a barely audible voice, Ritsu whispers, “I’ve never seen you cry before.”
“Oh,” that makes Masamune snort a sobbing laugh. “It just…”
“Makes me love you even more,” Ritsu finishes his sentence.
Such a statement almost sends Masamune falling off the chair. “S-So you heard me talking too?” Ritsu just nods a slow and short yes in response. “Well, I meant all of it!” He clasps Ritsu’s free hand, intertwining their fingers, pulling it to his face and places several kisses to the back while also smoothing it over his cheek. “I love you Ritsu, I need you so much!”
Ritsu weakly squeezes his hand back with a whisper. “I’m here, Masa.”
With just a few confirmatory words, Ritsu eases Masamune’s heart and allows it to settle down again. He has his boyfriend here, right next to him, bruised and battered from the accident, but alive. “Don’t worry about anything, I’ll take care of you until you’re better.”
“I’d expect so,” Ritsu snips back.
Masamune chuckles and places a lingering kiss on his boyfriend’s hand. Yeah… everything will be alright now.
