AN: The idea for this one came from several odd sources. It is an attempt at comedy/romance, and hopefully it will work. This is mainly Mai x Naru, and Bou-san x Ayako.

(4/30 EDIT: LOL...took the implied out with Bou-san & Ayako because it is pretty obvious. I have also fixed my consistent incorrect placement of punctuation within the quotes...otherwise this is unchanged.)

I always wanted to know what exactly would happen if they tried to date. Here is my take on it.

This is my first attempt at GH fan fiction. So bear with me.

Obviously I don't own Ghost Hunt. The characters all belong to Fuyumi Ono. I'm just playing with them.

Adventures in Dating: A Ghost Hunt fan fiction

Chapter one: An Unexpected Party

They could have found the party from the noise alone. Laughter and music echoed down the sparsely populated street, which was located in an equally empty neighborhood. The area was a new building project and most of the empty homes were half finished at best. The narrow street was lined with an irregular border of parked cars that pointed the way. Light streamed from all the windows of the large two story house, which was the only finished house on that end of the street. The house was obviously packed with people. The crowd spilled out to fill the front yard and several people were sitting in the grass under a tree listening to someone play a guitar. Inside, the couches and dark corners were already filled with dangerously close couples and the air was hazy with cigarette and other types of smoke.

Naru eyed the scene with distaste, though his face remained calm as always. He glanced at the nervous girl beside him and sighed.

"...You really want to go in there?" he asked her, even though he knew the answer.

Mai nodded and tried to look confident. She was more intimidated by the large crowd than she wanted to admit. This "small" party looked like it had at least two hundred attendees, if not more.

"Don't even think about trying to back out now," she said and determinedly grabbed his hand. Naru was surprised, but did his best not to let it show.

"All we have to do is say hi to Michiru and mingle a bit. It can't be that bad. Who knows, it might even be fun," Mai added with a tense smile.

He bemusedly let her drag him into the noisy hell and wondered again why exactly he had agreed to this.

Neither were aware that they were being watched from behind a large red SUV parked on the edge of the street. Two pairs of curious eyes followed the teens as they entered the house.

"...I don't believe it," the tall sandy haired man finally said. He looked completely shocked. "Were they really holding hands? Isn't that like a sign of the apocalypse?"

The elegantly dressed woman next to him laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Really Houshou, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise," she said and flipped her long red hair. "Mai has had a thing for him for a while."

"Yeah...but did you ever expect him to act human enough to notice?"

She pondered that for a moment. "Good point."

They both turned to look at the house that was obviously hosting a giant party. It really didn't look like a place either of their coworkers would normally go. To see them go inside together on what appeared to be a date was odd to say the least. Scary was a more fitting description. The thought of their extremely serious young boss acting like he was a normal teenager who did things like go to drunken parties was mind boggling.

The man, who was a fairly well known studio musician, leaned against the SUV. There was no need to hide behind it now. People who didn't know him well often assumed he was an airhead because of his fun loving personality. They were invariably surprised by the sharp mind that lurked behind his light brown eyes. He was staring at the house now with the intent look he usually reserved for his other job, which was exorcising evil spirits in his official capacity as a monk.

"I would love to be a fly on the wall in there," he said thoughtfully.

His companion laughed and leaned against him. "You just want to spy on them," she teased. He shrugged, unrepentant.

"It was my turn to pick what we wanted to do tonight," he reminded her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for a kiss.

"Then start thinking of how we are going to crash the party," she whispered against his mouth. " I will never forgive you if this is a boring date."

He grinned at her and winked suggestively. "You're with me babe. I can promise you won't be bored."

She snorted and poked him. "Pervert. I'm serious though. I want to know how in the world Mai got him to go to a party."

Earlier that Day

Even Naru, who was not very observant when it came to other people, had noticed that something was wrong with his part time assistant. She had been acting weird all afternoon with her face alternating between a sickly shade of white and a furious red blush. Most damning of all she had managed to spill not one, but two cups of tea.

"Mai!" He was completely exasperated after having to catch what would have been the third cup of tea spilled on his desk that day. "What is wrong with you?"

She immediately flushed and stared at the floor. He noticed she was fidgeting with her clothes which was something she only did in times of extreme stress. Naru spent a useless moment trying to remember if he had recently done anything to upset her. He sighed irritably when he realized what he was doing.

Mai looked up at the sound and seemed to come to a decision. She abruptly turned and walked towards the door, and he thought she was going to leave without offering any explanation. Instead she shut his office door and stalked back to his desk with a determined look in her brown eyes.

He raised one eyebrow at her and sipped his tea to cover his confusion at her odd behavior.

"I-I need to ask a favor."

"...And?" he prompted after a minute passed and she failed to elaborate.

"Today is Michiru's birthday," she said, as if that explained everything.

"...So?"

Mai frowned at his sarcasm. "Her boyfriend is throwing her a party. She wants me to be there, but warned me I shouldn't go alone...er...unless I..." her voice trailed off and she glanced away. "And I don't," she added cryptically, still not looking at him. For some reason she looked embarrassed.

Naru was completely lost. At this rate, it would take Mai all afternoon to get to the point. Unlike her, he actually did have work that needed to be finished today.

"Mai, just tell me what the favor is," he said impatiently.

She swallowed and then said it all at once. "Iwantyoutocomewithmeplease."

"What?" He couldn't possibly have heard that right.

"Come with m-me to the p-party," she said more coherently. Her face was so red she looked like she had a sunburn.

Naru blinked. "No."

Mai glared at him, and he recognized her stubborn expression. It was the same one she always had when they were about to argue.

"No," he reiterated. The last thing he wanted to do was attend some idiotic high school party.

She stamped her foot in irritation. "Hear me out."

Brown eyes met blue in a brief staring match. Naru looked away first with a sigh.

"My friends are trying to set me up with some guys they know," Mai explained. "If I go alone, then it will be assumed that I'm okay with that. I'm not," she added with a scowl.

"Then don't go," he said logically.

Mai sighed and looked exasperated. She rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and flung her arms out dramatically. "Don't you ever do anything remotely social? I want to go. I just don't want to be harassed by random guys while I'm there."

"Why ask me?"

"You are the only guy I know who is believable as someone I'd date," Mai blurted out. "Bou-san is fun, but Ayako would get mad if he went somewhere with me," she continued hastily. "I also doubt anyone would believe he wasn't my brother, so I'd still have to fend off Tanaka-san. John would probably go with me, but he's not intimidating enough to deter anyone." Mai paused and looked at the ceiling as she continued her train of thought. "A priest probably wouldn't be comfortable at a party anyway," she concluded.

"No doubt." He caught himself wondering if she had really ranked them all as possible dates and squelched the thought.

"Yasuhara-san would be all right, and we would have fun together...but I don't trust him not to scheme something. I don't want to go out with Tanaka-san or his friends, but that doesn't mean they deserve to be picked on. I have to go to school with them, so I'd rather not worry about possible repercussions from some prank."

Naru was surprised she had put so much thought into this. "What about Lin?" he asked, curious as to what she would say.

"Lin-san...is well Lin-san," Mai said and shrugged. "I just can't imagine him at a party...He would look like an undercover cop or something."

Naru snorted. He could agree with that. "So, I'm what...the lesser of the evils?" he said with a smirk. Her observations about their fellow SPR members were entertaining. That was all. It wasn't like he was the least bit interested in knowing why he had made it to the top of her weird little list.

She nodded, looking a bit relieved. "I can trust you not to humiliate me in front of my friends. And you are scary enough that no one will bother me."

He frowned slightly, not sure how to take that.

"It's not like I'm asking you on a real date or anything," Mai added, nervously waving her hands.

"Mai, I don't really..."

"Please!" she interrupted him. Her brown eyes stared at him pleadingly. "Please, Naru. I'll owe you. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please."

Naru sighed. Dammit.

"Pleeaase!"

"What time does it start?" he said resigned.

What will happen at the party? Will this somehow turn into a real date? Will Bou-san and Ayako successfully sneak inside? Is disaster imminent? Stay tuned to find out.