Written by request for Cross your Heart for me, who wanted a second chapter written from Naru's POV. Hence, a one-shot became a two-shot. Such is life. ;) Read and review please!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt. It belongs to Shiho Inada and Fuyumi Ono.

Naru's POV

"You're such a jerk!" Mai shouted, slamming my office door shut. Judging by her face, I had offended her in some way, but I couldn't figure out what I had done. Considering that it was Mai, it could have just been the way I was holding the cup of tea she had given me. She was an easy person to upset.

Oh…Maybe it was more of what I said (or in this case, didn't say) than what I did.

Mai had just ferried a cup of tea to my office and set it on the table as she always did; totally normal. But then she stuck around, looking at me pointedly with her piercing brown eyes. After a moment, she had sarcastically said "you're welcome."

Well how was I supposed to respond to that? Especially when she was looking at me like that; almost daring me to say something smarmy back at her. It wasn't like I could just back down.

Because I didn't want to engage in a verbal fireworks show, I politely asked her to leave, my excuse being that I was working on something important (in reality, I had been staring out the window almost all day, lost in my thoughts, but that was beside the point). Then she had shouted those rude words, spun on her heel, and left.

I glanced at the cup of cooling tea on my desk, wondering if there was something ethically wrong with drinking it. It just seemed wrong, sort of like taking a dead man's watch.

Pushing the tea away, I leaned back in my desk chair. What was I supposed to do now? Usually I didn't care if Mai was in one of her moods, but today it bothered me for some reason. The tension had been building up between us for awhile, and I suppose I knew it would eventually end in a squabble like this.

Which was all this was, really; just a squabble.

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't even lie to myself today.

Mai was probably moping around the office somewhere, probably fantasizing about sticking pins into a Kazuya Shibuya voodoo doll and then setting it on fire. Frankly, I didn't understand why girls were so easy to upset. You only had to do one thing wrong and they snapped at you.

So what now? It wasn't like I could go out there and apologize…right?

Then I remembered Lin and winced. If Lin had heard our argument, I was never going to hear the end of it. Then he would tell Madoka in one of their email conversations, and I would get in even more trouble. I imagined the emails and letters that would haunt me until I made amends: "how could you be so mean?" "Your parents didn't raise you to let grudges grow," and the worst; "What would Gene do?"

I knew what Gene would do. Gene wouldn't have said what I said in the first place; he wouldn't have to be told to say thank you.

In many ways, I think Mai would have preferred Gene over me.

But I was all she was getting.

Reaching some odd mental solution that I couldn't put into words, I got up from my chair and walked across the office, cracking open the door slowly to assess the situation before I jumped into it.

Mai was curled up on the sofa, clutching a pillow to her chest. I could only see her shoulders and the top of her head.

Cute…

The word echoed in my head before I could stop it, and I instantly choked that line of thought off. I had promised myself I wasn't going to think about her like that.

"Mai?" I asked softly, forcing myself to say her name normally.

Her head lifted a little, but she didn't respond. I walked across the floor towards the chairs, debating where I was going to sit.

After a moment, I decided to sit across from her. When I got a glimpse at her face, I was suddenly glad that I hadn't tried to sit next to her: she looked mad. Her face was flushed, her thin eyebrows drawn together over dark chocolate eyes. She held the pillow like she was imagining she was crushing my head. It looked like she would have ripped my arm off if I tried to sit close to her.

There was a long silence where I tried to make eye contact and Mai refused to look at me (why were all girls so stubborn?). Finally, I said awkwardly, "I'm sorry if I was a little harsh to you a moment ago."

"A little?" Mai echoed angrily, keeping her eyes firmly riveted on the floor. "You told me to 'go find something else to amuse my obviously smaller-than-average brain!'"

"I didn't say that," I said, trying to keep my voice at a normal tone. Her impression of me was insulting. I didn't talk like that, did I? "I asked if you could possibly find something else to do because I was busy."

"But the way you said it…" Mai protested, tossing a piece of hair out of her face. For the shortest instant, I imagined my hand tucking that piece behind her ear, and then quickly shot that thought down as well before it could progress. What was wrong with me?

Still trying to be civil, I leaned against the back of the couch and crossed my arms, attempting to appear engaged even though my thoughts were tugging me in an entirely different direction. "How did I say it, then?"

Mai's eyes flashed up to mine, and I instantly wished they hadn't. I immediately lost my train of thought and had to concentrate to realize that Mai had apparently lost hers too. Her grip on the pillow loosened a little.

"How did I say it?" I repeated when she didn't answer, surprised to discover that I was actually interested in her answer. I didn't want to hurt her with what I said. "I don't mean to be…" I trailed off hopelessly.

"Mean…?" she completed, shooting a hopeful smile at me.

I smirked despite myself, and something in the air between us relaxed. "Yeah, pun unintended."

Mai glanced sideways before returning her gaze to me, and then answered my original question, saying, "You were just extremely condescending."

"Aren't I always?" I asked, and then mentally cringed. What a stupid thing to say.

Mai blinked, equally startled by my statement. After a moment, she recovered enough to say, "Well…yeah. I mean, would it kill you to be nice once in a while?"

I winced. A poor choice of words on her part. "We can't be nice all the time, Mai. Look at yourself." Look at Gene. Look where his kindness got him.

"That's mean!" Mai exploded, her face flushing in anger again. "Why don't you ever take me seriously?" When had I not taken her seriously? "You treat everything I say like it's a joke, or like it's so stupid you can't believe I said it, or you don't say anything at all! I hate that! I hate you! I hate you, Naru!"

Before I had time to think of a good response (how did one respond to that?), Mai threw the pillow at my head. I wasn't ready, and it hit me square in the face. Then it slid down onto my lap.

Mai looked startled for a moment, like she hadn't meant to do that. Then her expression relaxed, and she just looked at me curiously.

Her face looked so much like his….

My mind cast itself back to when Gene and I were little, and we had fantastic pillow fights ranging all over the house. Nowhere was safe. I remembered a time when I had just crept around a corner, expecting to spring an ambush, when the tables had turned and Gene had flung himself out of a closet to tackle me, and we were rolling around on the floor laughing until Mother and Lin heard the commotion and came upstairs to break it up…

I couldn't help laughing a little at the memory.

Mai raised an eyebrow, and I realized that I had never laughed like this in front of her.

To my surprise, I didn't care as much as I normally would have. Who cares what Mai saw? I could let down the façade a little in front of her.

"Feel better?" I asked lightly after I had stopped chuckling. She still looked skeptical, and her guard was obviously down. All the better then…A small, immature plan formed itself in the back of my head.

"Uhh…" She looked like she didn't know what to say. "Yeah…?"

Without pausing to consider the possible repercussions of my actions, I snatched the pillow from my lap and flung it at her, smirking when it 'thwacked' against her face.

"Are we having a pillow fight now?" she asked as she lowered the pillow, revealing a red mark on her nose. Oops.

"Did I hurt you?" I asked.

"No, but…" she trailed off, obviously embarrassed. Her face was bright red again.

Cute…

I forced myself to stand up and not look at her as I pulled the creases out of my shirt. "Then it's an eye for an eye." All's fair in love and war.

But this wasn't love, was it?

Mai rolled her eyes, but her face had softened, somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the way she looked at me now was different.

I made a retreat for my office, but something made me turn around and face her again. "Mai?"

She turned around to look at me, startled. "Yeah?"

Feeling like an idiot, I said, "I'm sorry if I ever treat you unfairly. It's just teasing."

"Oh…" she said slowly, her face going red again.

"You're cute when you get mad," I thought, then realized that I said it out loud and nearly slammed the door to my office to make sure that Mai didn't see my resulting blush.

I flung myself into the desk chair, unable to believe what I had just done. I wasn't supposed to be thinking that! What was wrong with me?

And yet…

I glanced at the now cold tea still sitting on my desk from where I had left it.

And yet, I had spoken the truth.

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