Just think about it

Sunday was full of atypical decision making for Oliver; all of which were unanticipated by the young scientist, making the occurrences even more noteworthy. It started while he was brushing his teeth that morning, leaning back against the edge of the sink, his wet hair dripping on his bare shoulders as he stared off into space. He had been thinking about his pending search for a more permanent residence in Japan.

During his first stay in the country, he and Lin had gotten adjourning hotel rooms for the duration of their 'visit'. But now that he had returned with a different purpose he wanted to pull the trigger and get an apartment. Lin had seemed to agree with the idea, but Noll knew that Lin would prefer to have his own place.

He spun on his heel and peevishly spat out some tooth paste before returning to brushing his teeth, perhaps slightly too vigorously. Unfortunately, due to the lack of trust both Lin and his parents have for him to be able to properly care for himself, he was not allowed to live on his own. Brushing that insult aside, he refocused on his need to begin hunting for a two bedroom apartment in Japan.

As he finally rinsed his mouth and put his tooth brush away he caught a glimpse of his own pale, lean form in the mirror and made eye contact with himself. Some of his rebellious feelings from his family's lack of faith must have still remained, because in that moment he decided that he would lease a car of his own. It would provide him with another avenue of independence that he so craved, and that way he wouldn't have to take the large and unwieldily van every time he wanted to go somewhere. Parking in Japan was hard enough without having an oversized vehicle.

This new decision felt right as he left the washroom while buttoning up one of his usual black shirts, and he planned on crunching some numbers as he ate a quick breakfast before work to determine what he would be able to afford.

Once at work, he gathered all the things he would need to bring to the Florists even though they wouldn't be open for another couple of hours. He intended on visiting a couple of dealerships before hand, now that he knew exactly what kind of a car he was looking for. Being a Sunday he would only sit in a few and pick out his favourite deals, then cross reference some reviews of the different models in question online before returning on Monday to make his purchase.

When his perusing of vehicles was over with, he was just in time for the opening of the flower shop at noon. He retrieved the roses from a cool dark spot in the van and returned them to a delighted and grateful store owner. She expressed her disappointment at not being able to thank Mai personally and asked him to pass on her gratitude for her as he was handing over the reclaimed roses.

This is when the next random decision occurred to him. Before he really thought it through, he had requested to purchase two dozen of the very roses he'd just handed over.

Delighted, Tanaka Sakura refused payment and allowed him to choose whichever ones he wanted. He tried to ignore her too large, knowing smile as he chose a representation of the completely random sizes and colours of flowers. The variety seemed to have delighted Mai, and he found himself eager to hear her reaction to finding them in a vase on her desk at work on Monday.

He thanked the kind, old woman who had handed him a cheque once he had retrieved what was left of their equipment before waving a cheery goodbye as he turned and left the shop, flowers in hand. She did well on the case, he'd thought to himself, and had been making a solid effort to be on time and office appropriate lately, so he would't have to defend his actions too much. Why he was justifying it to himself was another question entirely, that he decided would be better to cast away without investigating too closely.

Later in his office, after he had watered and arranged Mai's flowers on her desk; completely ignoring Yasuhara's wide-eyed stare from across the room while he did so, Naru sat in the dark typing up the beginning of what was to be his notes on Mai's psychic progression. Hours passed as he summarized what he knew of her passed paranormal reactions and outlined questions to ask her for further details while he sifted through old case files. It was late before he decided to pause and scan his work so far. Upon reviewing his words, he found them to be overly appreciative. His next unexpected decision was to never show these notes to anyone, before he hid them in a deceivingly named file on his documents list.

Monday morning Naru was ready to sign a deal to lease his new, standard, two door, black car with tinted windows. He didn't want something that would invite too many unwanted passengers (the noisy Monk and Matsuzaki came to mind) but something that could fit a second or third passenger if necessary, all they would have to do is crawl in behind the front passenger seat that easily folded forward and out of the way. The drivers seat did the same, obviously, but he wasn't going to let the others know that.

Even having spent a good portion of the morning out on a joy ride in his new car, the wait for Mai's shift to start seemed to take longer than usual. He continued working on the final touches of his latest thesis before moving on to his studies of Mai's numerous and varying abilities. It was taking longer and filling way more pages than he expected it to, and he hadn't even began testing her yet. If things kept up like this he might have enough new information write a paper on his findings, or even start a new thesis. He received a small thrill of excitement at the prospect and immediately tried to suppress it, he didn't want to get a head of himself.

A quick glance at the clock told him that Mai's streak of punctuality had come to an end, and with a heavy sigh he mentally prepared a lecture for when she finally turned up.

Naru heard Mai enter the office around quarter after four, making her sufficiently late for work. She was probably trying to sneak in undetected, because she did not shout her usual greeting to them. He decided to catch her in the act and use this opportunity to give her a hard time, so he finally stood from his desk and smoothed out his rumpled slacks before exiting his dim office and headed for the kitchenette where he was sure to find his former assistant.

When he rounded the corner he saw the kettle on the stove and her hunched over the counter with her back to him, her hands tightly gripping its edge. He leaned casually against the door frame, crossing his arms over his chest and let the haranguing begin.

"You're late, Mai." He let the sound of accusation seep into his voice, mildly eager to see whether she would go with defensive or apologetic with her response. Needless to say he was surprised when she didn't turn around but instead hung her head a little lower and trembled slightly before responding.

"I know, Naru. I get it, I'm so stupid. I just need a minute okay? I will bring you your tea when it's ready." Her voice trembled with self-deprecation and she sounded to be on the brink of tears.

Naru's heart dropped into his stomach and he changed gears immediately. Uncrossing his arms and pulling away from the door frame, he was feeling wrong footed as he made to approach her .

"What happened?" He could detect the worry in his own voice but didn't bother to mask it because it was only Mai, and it was okay for her to know that he was concerned. Especially at a time like this. But he only received a shaky intake of breath and a whimper for his trouble. "Turn around, Mai." he tried to keep his voice soft to let her know it was alright to do so, and took another step towards her.

He saw her shoulders tense for a moment, and he thought that maybe she would deny his request, but finally she relaxed her grip on the counter and slowly allowed herself to turn around. Her face wore the most heartbreaking expression, her large cinnamon eyes were wide and brimming with tears, her cheeks were flushed and her full lower lip trembled sadly. He felt his heart squeeze painfully as he let his eyes wander over her person to look for further clues as to what had happened to his employee. Her hair was slightly mussed and the blouse of her uniform had a tear around the collar and looked very rumpled, but it was her torn up knees and a still red hand print around her throat that had him seeing red.

"Who did this to you?" His voice had dropped into a very menacing calm as his jaw clenched and his eyes hardened, which must have been hard for Mai to take in at the moment, for she dropped her gaze to her feet. To try to take her off the spot and let her answer in her own time, he busied himself by fetching the first aid kit from the cupboard.

"It was the same boy from Friday." She finally responded quietly. The kettle had begun to whistle and before she could reach for it, Naru turned off the burner and set the kettle aside so it would quiet down.

"And just what was his justification this time?" He was trying not to shake with rage. She still hadn't given him a name, and considering her forgiving nature, he didn't want to give her a reason not to. So he decided to pour her a cup of tea himself to mask his impatience for information.

Mai watched him work and dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve.

"He lost his game on Friday." At this answer Naru stopped what he was doing to shoot her a deadpanned expression which earned a watery giggle from Mai. "I know right? As if that is my fault. I guess all that matters is that he seems to think so." Naru put the completed cup of tea on the counter next to her and then gently placed his hands around her small waist. The high-schooler turned bright red and looked up at him questioningly.

"I am going to clean up your knees, alright?" He explained, to which she meekly nodded her consent. He gripped her waist more firmly before lifting her up and back so that she was sitting on the counter. The extra pressure on her tender ribs caused her to wince in pain, which did not go unnoticed.

"That's it, I am calling Matsuzaki." He turned to get the phone but was stopped by a tug on his sleeve.

"No! Naru, Please!" She begged, as he turned to give her an incredulous look. "Please don't tell everyone, I'm so embarrassed, please can we keep this just between you and me?"

"What do you have to be embarrassed about? This is something that happened to you-" He tried to explain before she cut him off.

"I know, I know! I just… I just don't want to cause a fuss. I won't be able to handle it." She stared at him pleadingly, with tears pooling in her eyes once more.

He released a heavy sigh because he obviously wasn't going to be able to deny her at this point.

"Fine. But once I am done with your knees I am going to have to check your ribs." He left no room for argument as he began to dampen a clean dish rag with warm water to clean her knees with.

"Check my ribs for what?" The prospect of letting Naru look at her ribs made her flush again, and wanted to know why it was so necessary.

"We need to be sure that you haven't cracked any, and check for serious bruising." He nudged the forgotten cup of tea in her direction and proceeded to gently clean the dirt out of her scrapped knees. "Now, are you going to tell me what he did, or not?"

Mai took a long sip of tea that seemed to calm her nerves, giving her time to think about how she wanted to answer. She figured that the truth would be her best option, seeing as she was terrible liar and Naru was a professional investigator.

"He punched me in the stomach." She started suddenly, causing Naru to pause before continuing with his work. "Then he picked me up and threw me into the wall, where he pinned me with the front of my shirt. Then he… he grabbed my throat and began to squeeze." At this point, Naru was putting polysporin on the pads of two bandages and securing them to her tender knees. She hadn't even realized that she'd hurt them until he mentioned it. Her heart warmed at his gentle fussing, doing so much more to repair the damage done to her than he realized. She continued sipping the soothing beverage.

Once he finished dressing her knees, he straightened up to look at her directly.

"And then?"

"And then I spit in his eyes and kicked him between the legs! But then some of his team mates found us and I had to run and hide. Am I all done?" He gave her a small crooked smirk; proud of her ability to escape, and held out a hand to help steady her as she gingerly slipped off the counter top and onto her feet.

"I still have to check your ribs. Do you want to do that here or in the washroom?"

"Do we have to?"

"Yes. Unless you are willing to let Matsuzaki take a look at them…"

"No! Fine, maybe we should do this in the washroom." She awkwardly crouched down; trying not to strain her achy ribs, as she picked up her backpack that she had left near the doorway before heading for the bathroom. Ayako and Bou-san were likely to turn up on Mondays, and it would not do for them to walk in on Naru giving her ribs cage extra attention. Especialy if she wanted to keep her assault quiet.

As Naru watched Mai head for the washroom, he considered changing his mind and demanding that she tell the others what happened and let Ayako fix her up properly. It wasn't that he didn't know what he was doing; there were plenty of times that he had to patch up his brother after a fight, their martial arts training led to many a bruised rib. It was that now, he had to close himself up in the washroom with Mai and touch her bare torso, which under the right circumstances would have been great, but to do so because some dirtbag roughed her up wasn't how he hoped a moment like this would go. Remembering this so-far-nameless-scum gave Naru renewed purpose as he finally moved from his spot in the middle of the kitchen to follow her. He was going to use this excuse for skin to skin contact to get a clearer picture of what she experienced and just who this bastard really is.

He entered the washroom to find Mai standing there awkwardly in the middle of the room. Shutting the door behind him he took control of the situation.

"Let's start with where he punched you. Would you show me?" He tried to remember to be considerate of her feelings. She had just been attacked after all. But the ever resilient Mai didn't seem to concerned about showing him her mid-drift, for she bunched up her shirt in her hands just beneath her breasts, showing the beginnings of an oval shaped bruise forming right over her solar-plexus.

Naru remained stone faced as he inspected the damage.

"I'm going to need to touch it to check for internal bleeding, all that means is that I am going to roll my hand over the affected area to check for any lumps that shouldn't be there. Alright?"

Mai tried not to burst into flames under his scrutiny, and managed a small "Alright." in response. His hands on the skin of her stomach sent electricity shooting down to the tips of her toes, as he slid his hand across her tender abs, gently prodding as he went along.

"It doesn't look like you have any serious internal damage, but you are going to be sore for a few days. Now let me check your back. Turn around." Once Mai's eyes were finally off him, he allowed himself to let out the breath that he had been holding. Her skin had been terribly soft, and he'd had a difficult time staying focused. Now that she was turned around, and he had more surface area that needed checking, he could use his psychometery to catch glimpses of her altercation and hopefully the face of the loser who was about to learn a painful lesson.

Naru gently raised the back of her shirt, and continued to lift it until all of her bruise was showing. Unfortunately for both of them, this required exposing the back of Mai's turquoise bra. Mai was beet red with embarrassment but thanked her lucky stars that she wasn't wearing one of her laundry day bras that had silly animal patterns on them or something.

"I'm going to need you to hold this in place here." Mai crossed her arms over her chest and held the back of her shirt up over her shoulders and out of Naru's way.

"Okay, I want you to tell me whenever I touch something particularly tender." He instructed, before his long agile fingers started slowly prodding along each rib.

"Wow Naru, are you sure you're not a medical doctor?" Mai said with a nervous giggle, as Naru rolled his eyes at her silly question. Though he was just glad that she was starting to sound back to normal.

"Yes I'm sure, Mai." He started picking up bits and pieces of a scene in an alleyway and glimpses of an athletic teenaged boy with messy brown hair and angry eyes.

"Well how do you know all this stuff then?" Mai wanted to keep the conversation going to distract herself from how close he was getting to the clasp of her bra.

"Experience." Naru was trying to keep the conversation to a minimum so that he could focus on his vision. He ended up pushing a little too hard when he got to the part where this asshole decided to grope her, and received a hiss of pain from his patient.

"Ouch, that one really hurt." he came back to the present for a moment to focus on the sore rib just three ribs below her shoulder blades, which were also bruised.

"Take a deep breath for me." Which she did, without much complaint of pain and Naru didn't feel anything moving in a way that it shouldn't. He determined that nothing was broken or cracked so she didn't need her ribs wrapped, but he had yet to get the name he was looking for. So he spent the next few moments pretending to be checking until he saw the moment Mai began to run, and heard some of the idiots who found their team mate on the ground of the alley call his name. 'Taku!' and 'Yoshida!' coming from two different people.

Satisfied that he retrieved the information that he was looking for, he began to pull away, his fingertips lingering on the warmth of her skin when they heard the bell of the front door ring as it opened to let in some very familiar loud voices. Great.

"Nothing is broken but you have some deep bruises. No heavy lifting or fighting with baseball players for awhile." Mai had tensed up at the sounds of her friends calling her name and speculating on whether or not she was running late again, before popping back into motion as she felt his hands finally drop away from her back. She dropped her shirt back down and turned to face him.

"You're not going to tell them, are you?" She misinterpreted his far away look for considering reneging on his promise. Her question brought his focus back to her.

"I won't, but I still don't understand why. Besides, you are going to have a difficult time explaining what happened to your clothes and your knees." He turned around and placed his hand on the door knob before turning to look at her over his shoulder. "Or explaining just why we were in here together in the first place."

Mai gave a nervous laugh.

"Well I brought another office outfit today which thankfully will cover my knees. And I don't want to tell them because if I do, I will have to relive it all over again when I just started feeling better. Not to mention how angry they will be, and then they will try to get involved, and if they tell the school it will become a he said she said situation where I won't have any allied witnesses and will be going up against one of the schools star athletes. I need to find a different way out of this, or hope that he slips up in the presence of a teacher or something." She looked sad again and Naru felt compelled to reassure her.

"Don't worry Mai. We will fix this." The menacing expression on his face made Mai wonder what he meant by that, but before she could ask he left the room.

Outside the washroom, four sets of inquisitive eyes were direct at the brooding teen who had just firmly closed the washroom door behind him.

"Hey Naru-bou, is Jou-chan not here yet?" The monk asked as he made himself comfortable in his usual spot.

*Tsk* "I thought, she was going to start trying harder to be on time." huffed Ayako, as she finished hanging her things from the coat tree to turn around and cross her arms over her chest, tapping her finger on the crook of her elbow in disapproval.

"Since when do you care whether or not Mai is on time?" Monk replied in amusement.

"Since I wanted to hear how her case went on the weekend. It must have been a dud since they didn't call me." She waved a hand in the air with an air of self-importance, a smug expression on her face.

"Apparently Mai-chan had the whole thing sorted out by lunch, right big Boss?" Yasuhara was already typing away at his desk by this point, and managed to bring the groups attention back to their employer who had been using their idle chatter to try to quietly slip into his office. He had made it to the door before being addressed by his part-time researcher.

"The case lacked any real danger. Your assistance was not needed." Was all he said before slamming his office door behind him.

"Oh! So you only involve us if there is a chance of someone getting hurt, is that it?!" Ayako shouted at the unresponsive office door.

"Now, now." Piped up John. "I think what Naru is saying is that the case was simple enough for the two of them to handle on their own. There's no need to involve everyone if it's an open and shut case."

Ayako had rolled her eyes and muttered a 'Whatever.' when the washroom door opened once more, revealing Mai dressed in slim white pants and black, long-sleeved turtleneck. A stunned silence greeted her.

"Hi everyone! Your usual drinks today?" She asked with a too large smile, as she made her way over to the kitchenette.

"I'll have a green tea today Mai, if you don't mind." John spoke up, getting a nod from Mai before she disappeared behind the wall and rousing the rest of the group back into motion. They all shot glances at one another, to see if they weren't the only ones thinking it.

"Er, does anyone else remember Naru coming out of there just a few moments ago?" Ayako asked the group.

"I do believe that's what happened." Yasu replied sounding mystified.

"Just what would he be doing in a closed washroom with Jou-chan?" Evidently, Monk's blood was beginning to boil.

"Hang on, lets not jump to conclusions. Maybe there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for them both to be in there at the same time."

"Oh yeah? Like what, John?" Monk didn't seem to be buying it.

"Well, why don't we just ask her?" John was beginning to sweat under the intensity of Bou-san's glare and was relieved when the girl in question re-entered the room with a tray of drinks.

"Here ya go!" She cheerfully chirped as she began handing out beverages to her friends. From the looks on their faces, she knew she had some explaining to do. She gave Monk his last since he looked to be the most disgruntled and was therefore the one most likely to question her. She wasn't wrong.

"Just why would both you and Naru be closed up in the washroom together, Jou-chan?" He asked in his most disapproving fatherly tone. Being treated like a daughter warmed her heart a little, helping to combat the embarrassment she was feeling at the implications of the question. Luckily she had been working on her excuse while she was in the kitchen.

"Oh, well I had accidentally dropped an earring down the sink drain and asked him to help me retrieve it." She answered innocently enough, while rearranging the cups left on her tray.

"I didn't know Naru was any good with plumbing." Ayako said skeptically.

"I don't know if he is either, since it was such a small object and not very far away he used a little PK to get it back."

"I still don't see why the door had to be closed for him to help you." Monk didn't seem ready to let it go yet.

"Well Lin-san doesn't like him to use it; no matter how little he uses, so I think he closed the door incase Lin-san came out at just the wrong time." Monk seemed to roll this explanation over in his mind before finally conceding.

"Okay Jou-chan, I believe you." Mai mentally sighed in relief.

"Good, then I can finish delivering this tea." And she did so by first stopping off in Lin's office and visiting Naru's next. She didn't want to linger there too long since the group was already a little suspicious of them so she just shot him an appreciative smile for keeping his promise before quickly leaving the room.

Finally heading towards her desk she stopped and gasped in surprise. There in a vase was over twenty roses of various colours and sizes, just like the ones from their case.

"Are you only seeing those for the first time Mai-chan? Big boss put those on your desk yesterday." This had been a moment that Yasu was waiting for ever since he saw the undemonstrative employer arrange them.

"What!?" Ayako gasped, jumping up from her seat to get a closer look.

"Well that was awfully nice of him." Commented John, as he kneeled in his spot on the couch to peer over the back of it at the bright bouquet. Seeing it now, he wasn't sure how he missed it when they first came in.

"So those are from him." Apparently Monk had managed to spot them before hand.

"What a strange arrangement." Ayako commented while appraising each bloom.

"Well, it had to do with our case on the weekend. The ghost was stealing all the roses, so when we convinced him to move on we were left with a couple hundred different roses in every colour." Mai explained as she traced the petals of a red one gently, her eyes held a dreamy glaze. "I guess he asked to let me keep some."

"Aww, well isn't that sweet!" Teased Yasuhara.

"Shut up, Yasu!" Defended Mai, as she fought off her signature fire-engine blush. She glared him down while the others laughed at her efforts.

The rest of her shift passed smoothly, and she was feeling less rattled from her altercation after school. The others had left hours before, after she had gone into further detail on her case at the flower shop, Yasu bringing up parts of the tale she had told him on Saturday that she had conveniently left out this time around. Afterwards, Naru had come out of his office to tell the others that 'this wasn't story time for toddlers' and sent them all away. A couple hours later, he poked his head out of his office door once more to request tea and told Mai to bring her assignment in with her.

She sighed, pressed send on an email and picked up her paper as the kettle whistled. With it tucked under her arm, she prepared them each a tea and then headed into darkness that was her boss' office after sunset. Thankfully, as she entered he turned on his desk lamp, illuminating the immediate area surrounding the desk.

"Thank you for my flowers." Mai found the courage to say. She couldn't not express her gratitude when he had done something so thoughtful.

Naru looked up at her from some document he had pulled up on his computer monitor. He seemed to be considering her words before he responded.

"You seemed to enjoy them and you did well on the case." As if those were the facts and that's all there is to it. He didn't leave room for her to continue, either.

"This is no time to be delaying the inevitable, Mai. Hand over your paper and lets see how poorly you did. I can only assume that your homework assignments are something like a disaster, if your organizational skills are anything to go by." He held out his hand, waiting for her to hand over her paper, with a hint of a smug smirk dancing on his lips in the dim lighting.

This immediately got Mai's back up, her cheeks puffing up briefly in indignation before her own smug smirk grew across her face.

"Here you go." As she cheerfully handed it over to a suddenly not so sure, Oliver. He eyed her suspiciously as he accepted the paper, finding no extra explanation in her features he glanced down at her work. His expression immediately went deadpan as he looked up at her once more.

"Mai, this is in kanji." He said as though she must have been extremely stupid. Mai just kept smiling, obviously pleased with herself.

"Yup! and if you are going to live in Japan you will have to get better at reading it, right?" His expression remained completely unimpressed. Having his short comings addressed was not his favourite.

"Sheesh, Naru. Relax! I emailed you a written out version too, incase you completely lacked a sense of humour. Which you clearly do." She still appeared to be having a laugh at his expense. While he secretly found her snarky sense of humour to be charming, he suddenly found himself feeling drained.

She sat there looking as care free as ever. You wouldn't have guessed that she had been threatened and assaulted earlier that day. But Naru hadn't gotten passed it as easily as she had, apparently. The combination of using his Psychometry and his stewing rage had left him worn out. He decided it would be better to do this some other time, his focus just wasn't what it should be.

"Fine. I will look these over tonight and we will discuss it tomorrow. If you have finished all your filing for tonight then gather your things. I will drive you home tonight." He set the paper aside, secretly looking forward to the opportunity to compare the two documents. His kanji did need work. Not that he would admit it out loud to her.

"But Naru-" She was about to protest the need for an escort but was stopped dead by the cold look he was sending her way.

"Mai, do not start. Not today." He punctuated every word very sternly, his tone as icy as his glare. The combination of which seemed to drop the temperature of the room a few degrees.

"Okay." She replied meekly, and waited quietly as he downed his tea as though it were a stiff drink and rose from his seat. Mai made quick work of the dishes before collecting her things from behind her desk, pausing only for a moment to memorize her eclectic roses before meeting Naru at the door. She gave an exaggerated wave goodbye to Yasu who was still present and currently wearing a large set of headphones while he worked and then shouted a goodnight to Lin who was hidden behind his office door, as usual.

Naru led the way into the parking garage across the street to where the van could usually be found but didn't approach it. Instead he walked up to a shiny black, two door car with tinted windows that was parked next to it.

"Uhh, Naru? the van is right here." Mai looked concerned and sounded confused by his behaviour as she pointed to the van.

"I am aware of that Mai. We're not taking the van." Mai gasped in shock, causing her boss to quirk an eyebrow at her.

"Naru, we're not stealing a car!" Looking scandalized and stage whispering her protest, Mai took a step forward as if she were preparing to physically intervene. Naru fought the urge to roll his eyes at her and responded by raising a key fob in his right hand and pressing the 'unlock' button, causing the car in question to lightly beep its consent.

Oliver did not fight the urge to smirk at Mai's open mouthed gape of disbelief as he continued to the drivers side door.

"Get in." He reminded her as he shut his own door and started the car. Recovering from her shock, Mai did as she was told, setting her backpack at her feet before buckling up. The inside was luxurious, not that Mai had been in a lot of cars, but compared to Bou-sans old beater of a car, this one was fancy.

"Naru, who's car is this?" She asked as he put the vehicle in reverse and began pulling out of the parking spot.

"I thought that would have been obvious." Was his only reply, as he began to focus on the task at hand. He knew Mai's address but he had never actually been there before, so he was finding his way after having looked up the directions on his phone while she was tidying the kitchen.

"Are you trying to say that this is your car? Since when?" Mai was shocked, she never knew anyone so young who owned their own car, but she never knew someone so young to own their own business either. Until she met Naru.

"Since today. I don't want to strand Lin every time I have somewhere to go."

"Why don't you just take the train like the rest of us?" Mai continued her line of questioning as they pulled up to a red light, giving Oliver the opportunity to focus on answering her question.

"For a number of reasons. First of all, the woman who killed my brother is still out there somewhere and I don't want to be recognized. Second, people seem to think that I want their attention just because I'm attractive, so the more time I spend among the general public the more time I waste on meaningless, unsolicited interactions. And third, I don't like crowds." The light turned green the moment he finished his explanation, allowing him to continue on his way.

Mai sat quietly, processing what he said. It wasn't like him to be so candid, usually he would give a fraction of the truth and expect you to accept his reasoning and move on. Maybe she was starting to wear him down, since she was probably the only one stubborn enough to keep asking until his answers finally satisfied her curiosity. Except for maybe Madoka.

Mai was roused from her musings when she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Naru was beginning to frown. Well, as much as Naru allows his face to wear expressions in calm situations, anyway.

"What's the matter?" She prompted, causing him to glance her way before continuing to scan the side of the road as they went along.

"I must have missed a turn somewhere, we seem to have ended up in an unsavoury neighbourhood." Mai took in their surroundings.

"No, you're going the right way. You'll need to take a right after these next two blocks, then my building will be the fifth one on the left." She directed before cheerfully continuing to watch the activity on the street wiz by.

Meanwhile, Naru was busy trying to identify the weight that just settled in his stomach. He was aware that living in Tokyo wasn't cheap, especially when you're a self-supporting minor. But Naru had always been sure to pay Mai a living wage, hoping that she would manage to live comfortably. So why did she live in such a seedy area?

He made the turn as directed and pulled over in front of a decidedly decrepit looking building. He gave Mai a speculative look, almost expecting her to shout 'Just kidding!' and give him directions to the right place, but she didn't. All she did was beam a radiant smile and thank him for everything from keeping her secret, getting her the roses and the drive home before refusing his offer to see her to her apartment.

She opened the car door and began to pull on her backpack before stepping on to the curb when Naru remembered another important part of his plan. Thankfully, like many teenaged girls, Mai had a couple cutsie animal figurines clipped on her zippers along with a few short strings of shiny beads. While her back was turned to him, just before she got out of the car, he used a small amount of PK to unclip one of them, causing it to fall into her empty seat.

She closed the door behind her and waved a cheery goodbye through the window before making her way inside while Naru watched her go. Once she was out of view he picked up the tiny trinket that appeared to be a cartoonish fox and placed it in his pocket. As he signalled and pulled away from the curb he began to devise his strategy for keeping an eye on Mai the next day.

Meanwhile, back at the office Lin emerged from his office with a file in hand, bypassing the college student who was silently bobbing his head while he worked and gave a brief knock before opening Oliver's door, only to find it empty.

"Did Naru leave with Taniyama-san?" he asked, only to receive no response from his colleague. he frowned at the back of part-timers head before moving to stand directly in front of his desk to make it painfully clear that he was being addressed.

Yasuhara paused from his reading and beat-keeping when Lin's large shadow loomed over his text book and quickly paused his tunes before removing his headphones.

"Sorry Lin-san, I was in the zone. What's up?"

"I had asked you if Naru left with Taniyama-san."

"Yeah, just a few minutes ago, it looked like he was taking her home." This information seemed odd to Lin. He was under the impression that Naru was planning on spending the next hour and a half gathering more insight on Mai's increasingly present abilities. Something must have changed. Perhaps the call of his new car had been to loud to ignore. Lin internally smirked; he was just a teenage boy, after all.

"Has big boss ever been to Mai-chan's before?" Yasuhara interrupted Lin's internal musings with an unusually serious expression, sparking his curiosity.

"I don't think so, why do you ask?" Lin watched as Yasu seemed to have some sort of internal struggle over how to respond.

"Mai-chan's neighbourhood is a little on the, dingy side." He explained carefully. "And her apartment could be described as a little… depressing." He settled on this descriptive word and watched Lin's one visible eye carefully for his reaction.

"… And you're worried that Naru is going to find it to be unacceptable." The tall Chinese man surmised.

"No," Yasu corrected him. "I know that he is going to find it to be unsuitable, I'm worried that he is going to hold it against me for not having said anything about it. So for the record, I didn't mention it because I didn't want to rat her out. She's only living there because she is trying to save up for College. You understand, don't you Lin-san?"

"Hmm." Lin narrowed his eyes and refused to comment further. He would reserve his judgement for when he has more information. Yasuhara began packing up his things.

"But now if he brings it up you can tell him that I have mentioned it to you right? But if you'll excuse me, I would like to leave before he gets back, just incase he is as ticked as I expect him to be." He swung his packed messenger bag over his shoulder and turned to face Lin as he casually backed towards the door. "Thanks for having my back Lin-san! Have a good night!" And then he was gone.

Lin stood silently in the middle of the empty office for a moment, processing this new piece of information. If Noll was going to be as displeased as Yasu expected him to be, then he will probably be looking for a way to fix it. Meaning if Lin played his cards right, this could work out for him. He and Oliver spent far too much time together, and he longed to be able to return to a space of his own at the end of the day. But the Davis' would never sleep at night if they knew that their remaining son lived alone in Tokyo. There had to be someone around to keep an eye on him. Lin allowed himself a small smile while he returned to his office, seeing as he was all alone. Who said that someone had to be Lin?

Next Chapter: Confrontation

A/N: Okay, so I am very sorry for the delay. The week before Christmas I was part of a mass layoff at work and found out I was pregnant all on the same day. Since then A lot has changed for me between moving hours away and wrapping my head around my new reality I wasn't really in the right mental state to work on a fictional reality since I was still working on my own. Plus I have a very excited fiancé who happens to soak up as much of my attention as he can (it is actually very sweet, I can't cough without him jumping up to get me a glass of water or whatever I want).

So enough with the excuses, I am going to try to pick this up again and keep at it. I actually have quite a bit planned for this story, I just need to make the time to sit down and write it up.

Thank you for your patience, and thank you for reading. If you like what you read please leave a review, it may encourage me to work harder at getting the next chapter out.

S.