Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt.
Please Teach: Geometry
(A.N.) This is the first in a series of one-shots that I'm planning to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to live up to that aspiration. I tried to keep everyone in character, but this is my first Ghost Hunt fic, so I may have failed. Love it anyway!
There are few things in this world that Mai Taniyama hates, but math is one of them.
She'd never been one for numbers. Sure, she could do all the basics well, but the more complicated stuff eluded her comprehension as if she were trying to hold water in her hands. Mai excelled at history and language and the arts, not this numbers crap.
Geometry, she decided while doing her homework, was the most evil of all the math she'd had yet. All those formulas that she couldn't memorize, all the theorems and postulates. Who needs this stuff anyway? she thought grumpily to herself. It's not like I'm going to be an architect or anything.
The office of Shibuya Psychic Research was silent, the only sound coming from the air conditioning unit. The steady drone was a soothing background noise that tickled Mai's hearing as she stubbornly tackled the next problem she'd been assigned for homework. She refused to let a stupid book with shapes everywhere in it defeat her. I'll finish it even if it kills me, she growled silently.
Technically, she was supposed to be working, but she'd finished all the secretarial and cataloging work that her boss, Kazuya Shibuya, had told her to do. Naru, as she called him because of his narcissistic tendencies, had locked himself in his office and told her not to bug him. So, with nothing else to do, Mai had decided to do her homework. Scholarships or not, she would have to pass her classes. The school wasn't about to give her a completely free ride, and she really didn't expect them to.
And she was actually doing well in all her classes.
Except Geometry.
Pencil scratching away at the paper, Mai's brow furrowed in irritation and confusion. A proof. I hate proofs! She inspected the problem again.
And wasn't enlightened the least little bit as to what the hell it was talking about. Something about the angle formed by a tangent to a circle containing a triangle and how to prove a bunch of stuff congruent. Mai wasn't a very violent person, but this book was making her wish she'd brought a lighter and some gasoline with her that day.
Fed up with the incomprehensible problem, Mai's mind wandered shameless on to other topics. Like Naru. Seventeen, her boss, and so good looking that she was pretty sure people stared at him on the streets. Unfortunately, Mai didn't think he even really knew that she existed outside the realm of her part time job as his assistant. A slight blush stained the brunette girl's cheeks as she thought about him, about all the things that he'd done. The arrogant things he said. The rare smiles that really reached his gorgeous eyes. The long lashes that framed those eyes. His intelligence.
"Wait a minute…" Mai mumbled to herself, glancing from the evil Geometry book to the closed door of Naru's office. I wonder if… "Nah. He'd call me an idiot. Again."
Another look at his door.
"Well…" Mai examined the problem again and sighed. There was going to be a test on this lesson next week, and she really needed to do well on it. Really, really needed to do well on it. With another sigh, she stood up from her desk and gathered up her book, pencil, and notebook in her arms and approached Naru's door.
Nervously, she tapped on the wood, and then tucked her short hair behind her ear as she waited.
"Come in," a deep, smooth voice assented from inside.
Steeling herself, Mai grasped the brass handle of the door and pushed it open. The room was dark and covered in bookshelves. The only real light was being cast from the computer screen, illuminating everything in an eerie blue glow. Typing rapidly, Naru didn't take his eyes off the screen as she entered the office. His only acknowledgement of her presence was the words "I'm busy. What is it, Mai?"
Hesitating for a moment more, Mai toyed with her pencil, and then finally asked, "What do you know about Geometry proofs?"
Almost as if startled by the out of place question, Naru paused in his typing and looked at her. Mai felt the familiar sensation of her heart pounding when he did. It was a common occurrence. So common that she'd almost gotten used to the rush. She didn't even blush that badly anymore.
"Why do you ask?" Naru inquired in reply, narrowing his eyes.
"Well… I sort of don't understand it," Mai admitted, a bit embarrassed. And now he'll make fun of me.
Right on cue, Naru smirked and said, "That's what you get for skipping class all the time, idiot."
Flushing, Mai resisted the urge to stab him with her pencil. "Fine," she snapped, "This is the last time I try to ask for your help." She whirled around, prepared to make her angry exit.
His voice stopped her. "I didn't say I wouldn't help you, though I won't if you leave. I don't have time to deal with you temper tantrum."
Trying to hold on to her fleeting anger, Mai wanted to just continue on her way so that she could just leave this whole situation behind her. I just know I'm going to regret this, she thought too late as she pulled up a chair next to him at his desk. I'll just end up embarrassing myself.
"How do you not understand this?" Naru asked blankly, scanning the problem over her shoulder. His breath blew over the skin of her neck, completely distracting her from what she was supposed to be doing.
So, naturally, she stuttered a bit. It was her normal reaction to whatever Naru did that just made the air leave her body. She'd heard her friends talk about this when they'd fallen for guys at their school. Mai had come to realize that she'd fallen for Naru, much to her complete astonishment. After all, he was a narcissist. Usually, she would have never gone for someone with as much attitude as Naru had, but Naru was...
He was special.
With an aggravated exhalation of breath that made her shiver, Naru cut off her mangled words, saying, "Never mind. Just watch." He picked up her pencil and began sketching and writing formulas and theorems on the paper, leaning over her as he did it.
Mai's attention was completely focused on how close and warm he was, not the math. It's just not fair, the brunette moaned in her mind. His voice flowed over her, explaining the steps as he wrote. Of course, she barely understood it and told him so.
An hour later, Naru told Mai that she was utterly hopeless at the subject since she seemed unable to pay attention to what he was saying for more than a millisecond. Mai responded that maybe he was just incapable at teaching.
He told her that, just for that remark, he was going to tutor her everyday she came to work, just to prove a point.
oOo
About a week later, Mai raced into the SPR office, completely excited. "Naru!" she called, throwing open the door to his personal office.
Naru was standing at one of the bookcases when she burst in, flipping through some text about the paranormal. Before he knew what Mai was going to do, he found himself wrapped in an exuberant hug and kissed on the cheek.
"I got an A on my Geometry test!" his assistant squealed happily, "Thank you so much!" She hugged him again and rushed back out of the room, flushed and humming an upbeat tune.
Once she was gone, Naru smiled slightly, touched his cheek, and said into the empty room, "Your welcome."
(A.N.) REVIEW PLEASE!!!!! I can't make my characterization better if you don't let me know what you all think!