Omake: Alternate Ending

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June 23

Mai drooped in shock as Naru stood straight and turned to face her, holding up her strainer triumphantly.

"Found it," he said simply.

"'Found it'?! What are you doing here? I thought you'd at least be another five minutes. How'd you get here so fast?" Mai's cheeks reddened; her apartment was still so messy!

"Easy, I was already on my way here."

She sighed in frustration, but continued to watch as Naru placed the strainer in her sink and dumped the noodles. "You can cook?"

"Anyone with common sense can cook. It's as easy as first-grade math," he laughed silently.

Mai grit her teeth in anger. She huffed, finally cooling down. "But, um…aren't we supposed to go to the office? You said we had a new case."

"It can wait. Besides, I haven't had any breakfast yet."

'By the tone of Naru's voice I had thought it was some emergency! That sly…' Mai smiled, slamming her hand down onto the counter beside her boss. "Aha, so I'm your cook now, too?"

His chuckle suddenly turned meticulously sarcastic. "I'm sure you don't want to lose your job, now do you, Mai?" Her name rolled off of his tongue beautifully. Mai blushed.

'Naru's acting weird...like he's happy or something…'

"Oh! By the way Naru…"

Her boss nodded once in acknowledgement, showing her that he heard.

"How…how did you get in here? I'm sure I had locked the door earlier…"

Naru snorted, turning around to give her a face that said the obvious. "I thought you knew that you had left your door unlocked?"

"Uh…"

"This might be a problem. Men love to prey on cute, innocent high school girls like you. Maybe you should move in with someone more responsible?"

Mai flushed. 'He called me cute?'

"I–I'm fine, really. I'm not usually this cluttered and disorganized! I–"

"The seasoning is done," Naru said in a melodic manner. "Ready to put the noodles in?"

Mai raised an eyebrow. "That was fast…Oh! I'll get you a bowl."

Mai reached up to a cabinet above her head, but could quite reach. Since when were these cabinets so high? Her hand twitched nervously; she felt her boss' eyes boring into her back, watching her every move.

Suddenly, he chuckled from behind her, and the next thing Mai knew was that her feet were off of the ground. "Ah!" she exclaimed with alarm.

"I'm not going to drop you, Mai," he chided, setting her so that she was kneeling on the granite counter. "There."

"T–Thank you…Ah! Can you stir the noodles?" she inquired as she retrieved two porcelain bowls from the shelf, placing the gently on the counter-top near her.

"Yeah," he replied smiling.

Mai blushed, wobbling slightly as she jumped from the elevated height. In a drawer she pulled out two pairs of chopsticks.

"All done," Mai smiled. "Ittadakimsu!"

-

"Hey, Naru?"

"Mai?" Naru questioned into his cell phone. He had just finished a ton of work and scheduled a date in which the team would go over and investigate some haunted art camp: the 25th.

"Naru, it looks like I've locked myself out of my apartment and I can't find my spare key," she cried.

Naru's worried expression soon became that of relief. "If it's something like that you can stay over at my place; we'll call a locksmith in the morning, okay?"

"Really, Naru?! Thank you! Will you come and pick me up? I'm right outside of my apartment."

"Sure."

"–Oh, and Naru…?"

Naru grunted as if for her to go on.

"I haven't eaten any dinner yet, so feel free to order me some pizza."

Naru smirked, fingering the small silver key in his pocket. "I will."

-

Hahaha! Thanks for all of your reviews and such. This rewrite is dedicated to FallenRaindrops for being the first to suggest and alternate ending~

And yes, as sad as it makes me to say it, this story (after this little chapter) is officially over.

Thank you for all of your constructive criticism, comments, etc. I hope they will help me to become a better writer in the future!