25 Days of FicMas

Day: One

Dedication: Naruisawesome (NIA)

Fandom: Ghost Hunt

Pairing: Mai/Naru

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt

Kiss It Better

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-1-

The first time, Mai doesn't understand what happened until long after Naru had retreated to his office. She had been making some more tea, as per usual, when Naru had appeared behind her and asked her a question.

Off in her own little world – as she was wont to do when she made tea – Mai hadn't even realised that he was there until a hand landed on her shoulder.

Unfortunately, she had just returned the kettle to its place at that same moment, and the sudden contact had stunned her into putting her hand against its hot surface.

Hissing, she pulled her hand back immediately, glaring at the quickly reddening skin as if it had betrayed her.

"Idiot. Don't just stand there looking at it," Naru scoffed, grabbing her hand and pulling it under the nearby tap, letting cool water run over it.

Snapped out of her momentary daze, Mai rolled her eyes. "If someone hadn't shocked me while I was handling hot items, this wouldn't have happened," she shot back, huffing.

Naru raised an eyebrow. That was an absolute lie, but he didn't call her on it. "Perhaps if you were actually paying attention to your surroundings, you would have realised that I've been trying to get your attention for the past few minutes."

Flushing a little, Mai puffed out her cheeks. "Jerk," she grumbled.

Rolling his eyes as the predictable response, he turned off the water and carefully dried Mai's finger with a patting motion, content when he noted that they were pink, but didn't seem too badly burnt.

Without thinking, he brought them to his lips, lips brushing lightly over the fingertips before letting them go.

Mai's eyes were wide, her cheeks burning red. She was unable to comprehend what had just happened even as Naru picked his teacup and left the room.

If she had been less distracted, she would have noticed the light dusting of pink on Naru's face as well.

-2-

The second time it happens, it's a cut. At this point the first incident (as she had taken to calling it to herself) was locked up tight in the back of her mind; like the other memories of Naru that she keeps in order to stop herself from strangling him.

It was very dramatic, all things considered, and Mai could almost feel the scene play out in slow-motion as she recalls it. She'd been bringing some tea into base for Naru and herself when her foot had caught on an uneven part of the rug on the ground.

Her fall from there had been inevitable, and she groaned a little as she noticed that she'd managed to break the teacups. Thankfully, they didn't look expensive, so Mai hoped that their client wasn't too concerned over them.

Sitting up, she winced a little at the bruises she could already tell were going to form, before she moved to start collecting the bigger shards of broken ceramic.

"Be careful, you're going to hurt yourself again. Just leave it for a moment and I'll deal with it," Naru warned, glaring.

Huffing, Mai ignored him, glaring at the shards as she continued to pick them up.

Getting up from the ground, she carefully moved around the broken ceramic to put the shards into the bin. Letting them fall from her hand, she blinked a little at the small smear of red covering her pointer finger.

Swallowing thickly, she returned to help finish cleaning up, noting that Naru had grabbed a dust pan and brush and was already finishing up.

Carefully concealing her hand, she sighed, silently mourning the loss of the tea.

"I'll go grab a cloth to clean up the tea," Mai mumbled, turning to head for the door.

"Mai."

Glancing over her shoulder, she cocked an eyebrow to show she was listening.

"Let me see your hands."

It was an order, not a request, and Mai couldn't help but bristle at it. "Why? I'm fine, Naru. Just a couple of bruises – nothing new."

"Now, Mai."

Huffing, she turned around to face him and wiggled her fingers in a show of a jazz hands, hoping that would draw attention from the cut on her hand. The last thing she needed to do was prove Naru right.

"See? I'm fine."

Scoffing, Naru stepped across the rug to get closer. "Fine? So that isn't a cut I can see bleeding on your finger?"

It was rhetorical, but Mai couldn't help but answer with a meek, "no?"

"Stupid. Let me take a look," he sighed.

Resigning herself to her fate, Mai nodded, stepping closer again and holding out her hand. "I was really careful, I didn't even realise at first," she muttered, pouting.

"You're a walking disaster."

"I am not!" she denied.

Cocking an eyebrow, Naru rolled his eyes before turning his attention to the finger in question, gently holding it between his fingers. Checking it for any glass shards, he pointed to the couch when he was satisfied. "I'll grab some disinfectant and a bandage to wrap this. Don't move."

"But what about-"

Naru glared at her. "The tea can wait a moment. Now for once, do as you're told."

Puffing out her cheeks, Mai walked over to take a seat on the couch, sticking her tongue out when Naru turned his back to her.

Humming to herself, she tried not to feel too warm over how Naru was reacting to her injury. It was nothing new, barely a scratch, but he was being so caring.

'Well, in his own way,' she giggled to herself.

A minute later, Naru reappeared with some cotton balls, a bottle of disinfectant, and a band-aid. It was silent between them as he knelt in front of her and dabbed at the cut, rolling his eyes when she hissed.

It was only a minute later he was wrapping the band-aid securely around it. Before Mai could jump up (the proximity was making her dizzy, and she just knew she was blushing red), Naru brought her finger to his lips and pressed a quick kiss to it – just as he had last time.

Blinking, Mai gaped at the back of his head, unsure of how to react.

"You're fixed up now, so hurry up and grab a cloth to clean this mess up," Naru ordered, smirking at her expression.

"I- you," she stuttered for a moment before huffing. "You are such a jerk, Naru!"

With those words, she quickly left the room, her cheeks still on fire, much to Naru's silent amusement as he retook his place with a case file in hand.

Across the room, Lin sat forgotten at the monitors; silently amused and so very glad that everyone seemed to forget about him. Madoka was going to love this.

Now if only Noll would get his act together and actually confess – well, baby steps, he supposed.

-3-

The third time, Naru isn't actually there when the injury happens.

She'd managed to fall (not unusual) and when she'd put her hands out to catch herself, she'd fallen at just the wrong angle, resulting in a fracture in her pinky. All things considered, it wasn't actually a new injury, so she wasn't concerned.

As expected, the doctor had splinted it with the finger next to it, told her to be careful and to avoid any heavy lifting. She'd have to get it checked in a few weeks to make sure the healing was going well, but otherwise there wasn't much they could do.

Originally, she'd kept some ice on it to help with the pain and swelling, but that was long before she'd made her way into the office after school.

Shrugging off her jacket, Mai immediately headed for the kitchenette to make Naru his afternoon cup of tea, relieved that she'd broken her left pinky, so she shouldn't have any problems with her normal jobs.

Humming to herself as she finished making it, she headed towards his office, knocking lightly with her left hand careful not to jostle her injury too much, and grinned brightly as she entered.

"Afternoon, Naru," she chirped, placing the cup down on his desk.

For a moment, Naru didn't bother to look up from his work, amused when he heard the tell-tale huff of annoyance from his lack of manners.

When her footsteps started back towards the door, he glanced up, hoping to catch sight of her annoyed face, but frowned when the first thing he noted was an unusual white bandage on her hand.

"Mai."

Stopping, Mai raised an eyebrow at him, hand on her hips as she waited for him to say something else.

"What did you do?"

Blinking, it took a minute for Mai's mind to catch up with what he meant, before she flushed. "Uh, right. I may have fallen over and fractured my finger..." she trailed off nervously.

Narrowing his eyes, Naru scoffed. "May have?"

"Definitely did," Mai amended, defeated.

"Give me a look."

Mai narrowed her eyes but headed over to him. "I know you're smart and all, Naru, but the doctor already looked it over and okayed everything. It just needs to heal for three to four weeks – what are you-" Her rant was cut short when Naru immediately brought the finger to his lips and pressed a kiss to it.

Instantly, her cheeks flared with heat, and Mai couldn't help but stand there and gape at him. Once or twice was... she didn't know what it was. But three times? That was the makings of a pattern.

A very confusing pattern.

"Six weeks of no heavy lifting, if I recall correctly. Don't be an idiot until after then, understood?"

Still trying to figure out what was going on, Mai could only nod in silence and leave the room still caught up in trying to solve the mystery that was Naru as she exited his office.

She would get to the bottom of this, even if she had to force an explanation from him.

-4-

Unfortunately for Mai, she never has a chance to force an explanation from him the next time.

They're on case again, and it happens when Mai isn't paying quite enough attention to what she's doing and shuts the drawer on her finger, jamming it.

At her shout of pain, Naru immediately looked up from the file he'd brought to read and narrowed his eyes.

"I'm beginning to think that you have something against your hands, with how often you're hurting them," he mused, causing Mai to huff.

"I'm not trying to hurt myself, you jerk," she hissed, glaring as she moved to run her finger under cold water.

Shaking his head, Naru headed for the freezer to grab a small ice-pack. Wrapping it in a small hand towel, he motioned for Mai to give him a look at the injury.

Turning off the water, she held out her hand and let Naru take a look at her finger that was slowly turning purple and swelling up.

Leaning over, he pressed a quick kiss to it, smirking at the pink of Mai's cheeks, before wrapping it to the best of his ability with the ice-pack.

Opening his mouth to say something else – most likely rude – he's cut off by a sudden scream somewhere in the house.

Needless to say, Mai is much too distracted to remember to interrogate Naru about the kisses in that moment (or in any moment after).

-5-

The fifth time it happens, Mai has pretty much given up any hope of understanding why he keeps doing this and is more annoyed that she can't seem to stop blushing every single time.

They had just finished up a rather violent case, and she couldn't help but rub lightly at her wrist that was starting to bruise. She'd fallen while running from the spirit, and subsequently been dragged down the hallway before they'd managed to get it to let go, and she could already see the finger marks forming.

Great. Just another injury she'd have to hide, lest her school get suspicious of foul play.

"Let me have a look," Naru ordered, while the others rested up, exhausted from the spiritual energy they'd expended.

This time Mai didn't even have to think about what he was after, simply held out her wrist for him to examine.

Light fingers traced over the blooming fingerprints, making her shiver at the feeling, her cheeks flushing red.

"It's not too bad," she insisted, sensing the anger that was rising.

"You're the only one that thinks that. Just once, can we make it through a case without you hurting yourself?"

Mai laughed quietly. "I prefer it over anyone else being in danger."

"You're the only one."

Her heart felt warm as she laughed again. "I promise I'm fine, Naru. It'll be gone before the week ends."

Narrowing his eyes, Naru smirked slightly, his posture relaxing at little at her conviction. Bringing her wrist closer, he pressed a gentle kiss to her wrist, keeping his eyes in contact with hers the entire time.

Something about that made everything even more intimate, and now Mai really wanted to know what the hell was running through Naru's mind.

"Just to be sure."

It was something like an explanation – or so she assumed based on how he'd said it – but she couldn't figure out what it meant.

(If her wrist tingled for the rest of the day while she tried to figure it, well, that was her business and no-one else's.)

-+1-

Mai isn't exactly sure who or what does the trick, but all Mai knew is that one moment they were having an after-case debrief (read: chat) and she'd left the room for a few minutes to make some more tea. She walked back into the room, only to stop short when she noted how harsh Naru's glare had become.

What the hell had they said?

Putting the teacups on the table, she tried to smile brightly, straining under Naru's look.

"Ahhh Mai-chan's tea is the best. Thank you," Yasu sung, immune to Naru as always.

Something about that seemed to anger his further, and before Mai knew it, everyone was picking up their cup to down it quickly.

Replacing them on the tray, they seemed to run from the room, one by one, not sparing another glance for their irritated boss.

All except Yasu, that is, who took his time, slowly finishing his tea before replacing it and wishing her a good afternoon.

In that time, Naru seemed to have spaced out, glare still in place.

"Naru? You want a refill?" she offered.

Without a word, he held out his empty cup as a sign of agreement.

Sighing, Mai took it from him quickly, and headed back to the kitchen to brew him another cup. To her surprise, when she entered the main area again, Naru hadn't returned to his office yet.

Putting the cup down in front of him, she sighed at the spaced-out look that was on his face still, anger seeming to rise despite the silence and lack of other SPR members.

Shivering a little, Mai noted that a couple of things had started to float and the temperature in the room was beginning to drop

"Naru? Is everything alright?" she asked cautiously.

As if her words were enough to break whatever concentration he'd been using to keep his abilities in check, the cup that Naru was now holding shattered in his hands.

"Naru!"

Wincing a little at Mai's tone, Naru forced himself to lock down his abilities, pushing back his thoughts so that they couldn't influence him further. The pain of the heat seeping into his fingers helped to ground him if nothing else.

Meanwhile, Mai had already rushing into the kitchenette to grab a cloth to clean up with, the bin, and the smaller first-aid kit that they now kept on hand (for her sake).

"Put the pieces in the bin," she urged, noting that Naru didn't seem to be in a rush to fix the situation.

Sighing, he did as he was told, wiping his hands and lap as best as he could afterwards with the cloth Mai offered him.

Grabbing his hand, Mai sighed at how red Naru's fingers looked. "You'll need to run them under cold water," she sighed, ignoring the 'of course' look she could feel him giving her.

There was something charged about the air between them, and before Mai knew it, she was leaning over press a light kiss to the red fingers, flushing when she realised what she'd done.

It had become normal for Naru to kiss her injuries, but she'd never done it back before.

(The logical part of her recognised that this was because Naru rarely got hurt, especially in comparison to herself.)

Luckily, Naru didn't seem like he knew what to do in this situation either. For all the kisses he'd given her, it seemed he'd never expected to receive any back.

Emboldened by this, Mai smiled innocently at him, grinning even wider when it caused his to narrow his eyes.

"Just to be sure," she mocked, recalling the words Naru had used most recently that it had taken her forever to realise the meaning behind.

Getting up from where she'd been kneeling in front of him, she smiled again, before heading over to her desk to get back to work.

Too busy pretending to be busy, Mai didn't realise the moment when Naru recognised that she had finally figured it out.

'Took you long enough.'

From then on, whenever one would get hurt, the other would kiss it better. It would be a while before anyone on the team notices (and even longer before Mai realises what exactly this means), but that's a story for another time.