Harumasa and Yanagi (Patreon)

It all started in a certain difficult week during the winter.

Starloop was recently attacked but miraculously saved through the artifact carried by New Eridu's most famous singer and multimedia celebrity, Astra Yao. Even though no fatalities ocurred, the amount of reports and operations being pushed to increase secutiry overwhelmed every major New Eridu organization - Section 6 included.

It didn't need to mention how pissed Yanagi was about that. How two corporations trying to sabotage each other had something related to Section's 6 business? Why they had to review all their security when everything they did was related to hollows and other existential threats? Who the hell had the idea to install turbines into a building to make it fly?

Sometimes she asked herself if New Eridunian's had any sense of self-preservation.

She arrived at the office 9 o'clock. Everybody at the building already left home (most of them on vacation, being new eve's and all that), so she turned the lights on of her table and left the huge pile of paperwork she was carrying there. First, she needed a coffee to amass courage to stare at the paperwork without fainting, but something else caught her attention.

"Y-Yanagi! I didn't expect you to be here!"

Harumasa was on his table... doing paperwork? Or at least it looked like that. She approached him, narrowing her eyes when looking at the documents he was working on.

"Harumasa, what are you doing so late at the office?"

"I've been... Hmmm... Working? Paying my overtime, helping with the paperwork..."

"That's Soukaku's medical prescription" Yanagi pointed at the paper over his desk. She took that last year when taking Soukaku to the dentist. "To pay your overtime, you have to actually work, you know?"

"Hehe... I guess so" he smirked at her pretending to not hear her reprimand. "Most importantly, why are YOU here, Miss Yanagi? It's still new eve's, why aren't you going out with Soukaku and Chief?"

She sighed, walking to the coffee machine to pour a cup for her.

"Soukaku is with the proxies on Random Play" . Yanagi watched the black coffee fill the cup. "Miyabi took her there so someone else could get her home after the party. I thought... well..."

"Ah, you thought I was going out with the proxies too?" Harumasa stretched on his chair., relaxed. "Well, I'm not exactly in the mood for a party, so I decided to come to the office work on the reports I'm owing".

"But you weren't working-"

"Anyyyyways!" He suddenly stood up and walked to her. He was so close she could smell his cologne, standing just behind her, reaching for the cabinet over them to get a cup. "I believe I'm the need of some coffee too. Beyond coffee, what else do you do when doing overtime late at night?".

"W-What else?" She could glance a bit of his chest. Why she was blushing?! C'mon Yanagi! Take a hold of yourself! "I... Work? I guess?"

"What? You carry on with this torture with just coffee and sweat?" Harumasa leaned against the table, watching her. "Nothing like music or treats?".

Yanagi looked at him with suspicion.

"Asaba... Are you trying to suggest something?" She faced towards him, letting her frustration transparent on her voice. "It's already rare to see you on the office at all, now I find you late at the night during new year's eve slacking off? Are you trying to tease me? This is not the time..."

"Hey, hey! Easy there!" He laughed, raising his hands apologetically. "I was just wondering if you checked the lowest cabinet behind you".

She sighed, exhausted. Reaching for the cabinet to find...

"Red bean buns?" and a whole box of them. "How did you manage to get so many on this time of the year?"

Harumasa shrugged, as it wasn't be a big deal.

"You can thank the proxies for that". And as remembering something, added. "And Soukaku too. She was the one who picked those for you. Thankfully Chief was there to prevent her of eating the ones on the box. I'm speaking for the whole Section 6 now: thank you for taking care of us, Yanagi!".

Yanagi looked at the red buns, giving a quiet smile while thinking about everyone.

"Thank you... I really needed this".

"Oh, but that's not everything. There's another thing inside the cabinet". Harumasa pointed behind her.

Crouching, she reached deep to find something less heartwarming. Actually, a forbidden item inside any office.

"What's this, Asaba?!"

Yanagi showed a bottle of whiskey, still sealed and very fancy-looking. She hold that bottle as it was some kind of forbidden ethereal artifact ready to explode.

"This is my new year's gift to you, Yanagi!" Harumasa took the bottle off her hand, "It was quite hard to find this one: it's a genuinely whiskey from before the fall of the capital, untouched by corruption and never tasted... Until tonight". He opened the alcohol, serving the glass he was holding and offering to her.

"Asaba... we can get in trouble if someone sees us with alcohol inside the office!"

"Don't be so uptight, miss Yanagi" He laughed loudly. "It's just us at the building right now. And by the way, we can't leave evidence of the crime. Join me?".

She still reproved that attitude. But it was uncommon to see him acting that way, and she could use a little break.

"Just one glass".

They didn't stop in one glass.

Harumasa and Yanagi kept talking amongst themselves for the next few hours while the alcohol poured him, sharing the glass while watching the city lights. They talked about silly small things, like places with the best coffee, the music they enjoyed, the best drinks in Reverb Arena... She honestly forgot about all the paperwork at her table while feeling more relaxed, both her and Harumasa leaning against the window, just... Looking.

"You were looking for me, right?" Yanagi asked sudenly. "Don't try to hide it. You knew I was working, that's why you were at the office".

"Nothing escapes you, hm?" Harumasa sighed. "Soukaku was enjoying her time, but she asked for you. I realized you were overworking again, so I came to the office see if you could at least get some company during New Year's Eve, since it's pretty hard convincing you to leave while there's still work to be done".

"So... you came to help me with the paperwork?" She inquired in disbelief.

"No way! Why I would do that?" He laughed. She gave him playful smack. "Ouch! Hey, I just wanted to help you relax for a bit! Everybody needs a time for themselves... Besides, it's not right letting you pass New Year's Eve alone."

"Asaba..." she smiled at him, blushing. "Thank you".

She never knew if Harumasa planned for this, because the timing was perfect. When the first fireworks lightened the sky, he took her in his arms and kissed her. Yanagi was caught off guard, but feeling his lips was like a rupturing dam being destroyed inside her; she even didn't realize the feeling she had bottled up inside her until that moment.

Who fell in love first? Her or him? Does it make a difference?

***

They eagerly desired for each other. He ripped her clothes and kissed every inch of her body while she moaned, whispering quietly to him, as if someone could hear them over all the noise of the fireworks.

She always thought of him as a lazy man, without energy to even take copies from a printer. But that night... He proved her wrong so many times. They made love on top of Miyabi's table, disogarnizing her mementos and rearranging the paperwork she diligently separated before the holidays. After that, they disorganized his own table before going to Yanagi's and making a mess of that too.

The whole office was turned inside out as they had sex in every corner in all positions imaginable; some of those she even wondered how he learned (!). So it was true all the rumors of him being a playboy?

After an intense hour, Harumasa and Yanagi layed naked on the ground looking at the ceiling. She was exhausted, but smiling.

I could use for more moments like these...

***

They actually shared more moments like these. On the positive side, Harumasa stopped using excuses to slack off from work and actually started to come to the office.

The problem is that he started to come to the office and... those moments happened even more frequently.

Not that she was complaining, but all those reports! She couldn't keep concetration filling them while he was under her desk. Multitasking had limitations!

Plus, she didn't know how Soukaku would react if they started to date openly. Or maybe she already assumed that?

Being her boyfriend or not, Asaba was always giving more work to her. Some things never change.

--------------------------------------------

Harunagi? I believe that's the name of the ship.

I went a bit overboard on this fanfic, but I was a bit inspired to write some romance today. Hoyo will never give us the Harunagi scene we deserve, so I have to be the change I want to make!

It can't be only me seeing a cool dynamic between the two. Harumasa definitively needed to be a bit more mischievous imo, even more considering the lenghts he goes to slack off from work. In my headcanon, I even consider him a womanizer/playboy kind of character which's way funnier then being just "nice".

Yanagi is already a pretty great character. Her interactions reveal a little tiny details to make her more complex beyond the "workaholic office woman", like a inferiority complex and effects of ether corruption on her (now that I think, everybody on Section 6 is a bit fucked by ether corruption. Everybody but Soukaku, maybe).

Really like these two. The potential is there! Let my fanfic live! CREATOR, REFINE ME! (⓿_⓿)