Plus or Minus
By Dragon's Daughter
Rated G
Warnings: Married!Naru/Mai, Smart-mouthed Doctors, and Yasuhara's blood pressure. Un-betaed.

Summary: Plus is yes. Minus is no. So what does a weird little lumpy triangle mean?

000

Mai did not want to be spending her morning cloistered in the staff toilet staring at a little white stick and trying to make head or tails of the little symbol that had appeared on it.

It looked kind of like a scalene triangle that was dying from a wasting disease.

She leaned against to tiled wall and blew up into her bangs. Well, that had been a waste of 850 yen and no joke. She could have bought some stomach medicine instead.

Mai was about to toss the offensive item into the trash and go back to her desk when the door to the bathroom opened to admit her bespectacled co-worker and sometimes-ally, Osamu Yasuhara.

Yasuhara blinked when he realized the room was occupied and took a reflexive step back. "Sorry, Boss-chan! Didn't realize you were using the..." His gaze flicked down to the stick in her hand with uncanny accuracy and then back up to her face. "Is that a... hey!" That last came out on a surprised grunt as Mai grabbed him by the collar and hauled him back into the bathroom. She gave the corridor outside a brief inspection and closed the door behind him, remember to lock it this time.

"Mai-chan, I do like you, but I fear your husband way too much to get involved in an affair with you." Yasuhara quailed under Mai's glare and shut his mouth.

"What is it going to cost me for you to keep quiet about this?" She growled.

"Depends. Did you get a plus or a minus? Because if you got a plus sign I can keep quiet, but I think people are going to notice eventu..." Yasuhara broke off as Mai threatened him with one of the toilet slippers. "Shutting up!"

"I have a diseased triangle." Mai showed the stick to Yasuhara, who politely declined to touch it.

"Congratulations. It's an onigiri." Yasuhara paled as Mai lip trembled at the joke and held up his hands. "Oh hell... don't cry. Please don't cry. Look, drugstore pregnancy tests are a shot in the dark anyway. Wrap that up in some toilet paper throw it in the bin then we'll get your coat and tell your husband that we're getting lunch. One of my drinking buddies is a family doctor and he can do the test for you. There, no more squinting at unfortunate geometry so just please don't cry."

Mai sniffed and managed to hold back the tears she'd been fighting since she'd thrown up that morning and had realized that she couldn't remember when she'd last had her monthly. Naru had wanted her to stay home, but she'd felt better almost as soon as she'd finished. It hadn't been until she'd gotten to work that it occurred to her that there might be a reason other than nerves and possibly Naru's cooking for sickness that occurred in the mornings.

She followed Yasuhara's advice and let him put an arm around her shoulder to lead her out of the bathroom and towards her office. However, Yasuhara jerked to a halt as soon as he opened the door and Mai looked up to find out just what had stopped him.

Her husband was leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom door with his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for them. Mai heard Yasuhara gulp as Naru turned chilly blue eyes on him and raised one eloquent black eyebrow in a silent demand for explanations.

Yasuhara whipped his arm off Mai's shoulders like she was burning him and began to babble excuses. It would have been funny to see Yasuhara that discomfited under any other circumstances. Next to Naru he was perhaps the second most unflappable entity in the SPR office. However, given the circumstances and Mai's already shortened temper, the scene was just the straw the broke the camel's back in terms of an awful morning.

"Oh, for God's sake, Naru. Stop that. He was just taking me to the doctor." Mai's hand flew up to stop her traitorous mouth the second the words cleared her lips. Naru's other eyebrow joined the first as he dropped his hands and pushed away from the wall.

Yasuhara looked at her, looked at Naru, and chose that moment to flee the scene. Naru didn't even notice him go. Instead he put a hand in the small of Mai's back and propelled her into the lobby, pausing only to grab their respective coats and Mai's bag, before literally dragging her out to where the SPR van was parked and from there onwards to the nearest hospital.

All that and the stupid jerk still hadn't asked what was wrong.

Half an hour, one blood test, and a sonogram later Mai had her result.

"You are officially 'knocked up' as they say back in the states." Doctor Jones, a young Caucasian man doing his residency in Tokyo. "Very knocked up, as it turns out. You're three months along. I'm surprised you aren't showing yet. So, which one of you has a family history of twins?"

Naru paled ever so slightly and Doctor Jones snickered sympathetically, if such a thing was possible. "Please wait until I've left the room to punch him, Ma'am." He winked at Mai and handed her a manila folder. "Moving onto more pedestrian matters, I have a diet plan that I'd like you to follow. I took the liberty of printing out a few pictures of your babies. They don't look like much just yet, but they will. We should be able to discern a gender once they're a little older. The pictures in the folder. There's also a prescription in there for pre-natal supplements that you are to take religiously. I've included a referral to an Obstetrician. You need to make an appointment with her and she'll set up a schedule of appointments so she can monitor your progress..."

The rest of Doctor Jones' good natured chatter, punctuated with some cheerful heckling, faded into white noise as Mai held onto Naru's hand, which was holding onto her shoulder and was trembling a little. Eventually the good Doctor cut them loose 'to go celebrate' and Mai was beginning to be worried about Naru's persistent silence. She held onto his arm as he led the way out of Doctor Jones' examination room and towards the elevator.

Naru remained silent as they boarded the empty elevator. Mai pursed her lips and resisted the ridiculous urge to sniffle. Now that she had hormones to blame it on, the crying jags were at least a little more understandable. She knew that Naru didn't take surprises well and always needed a little bit to come to terms with changed circumstances. That said, she still wished that he'd say something, anything, instead of just standing there watching the numbers change over the elevator door.

Mai had cause to regret that wish about five minutes later when Naru abruptly hit the Emergency Stop button precisely in-between the 11th and 10th floors and pushed her back against the slick mirror. Mai gasped in surprise and Naru, being ever an opportunist, took full advantage of it. What came next was lost in a haze of kisses and the insistent ringing of the emergency phone.

About five minutes later, the elevator restarted with a lurch and Naru pulled back to rearrange their clothes with some reluctance. His face betrayed him though, because a small almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of his mouth all the way back to the van where he pulled out his cell phone to direct Lin to shut down the office for the rest of the day.

Mai watched him out the corner of her eyes as he flipped the phone closed. "So... when are we going to tell your parents?" She asked and Naru snorted, that little almost-smile still hanging on.

"Later." He reached over and threaded his fingers through the hair at the back of her head. "Later."

-Fin