Flu

Naru paced in his office. The usual sounds of laughter and giggling filtered through the walls. Really, he should have picked an office with thicker walls. A vein throbbed on his forehead. That was it. This time was the last straw.

"How many times do I have to remind you this is not a café?" He glared at each person. He didn't understand why they were all there, after all Mai hadn't come into the office for two days, five hours, twenty-six minutes and seventeen seconds.

Surely Mai was the only reason they came in every single day?

Maybe they were hoping she'd be here, or eventually turn up. They were all looking at him, a mixture of emotions on their faces: guiltiness, awkwardness or just plain defiance. He intensified his glare, and slowly they got up to leave.

Naru breathed out in relief. Finally, finally, some peace and quiet.

"It's alright, she'll be back soon." Naru would have jumped, if jumping was a thing he did. He turned on Lin, who had his straightest face on.

"I can't think what you mean." He said icily. Lin didn't say anything, but retreated back into his office holding a glass of water. Of course Naru knew exactly what Lin meant. Mai had been gone for far too long, and he didn't know why. What was even worse was that everyone else seemed to know, and they wouldn't tell him. Well, he wasn't going to actually ask. Instead he was stuck imagining every possible accident, injury or ailment that could have happened to Mai.

Naru sank into his chair. At first he'd been terrified – not that he would admit to anyone or anything except for some dark region in his mind – that she'd been in some kind of fatal accident. If she got hit and killed by a car, he knew that he almost certainly wouldn't be able to look at a car again, let alone drive one. Cars were evil things. Sometimes they seemed to be sneering at him. It wasn't hard to imagine that they were conspiring to kill everyone remotely close to him. Like they were going, '1 down, about 3 or 4 left to go'.

But as the long hours melted into a day, he knew that if something horrible had happened, and she'd ended up in hospital, or, God forbid, a morgue, as her employer, he would have been told.

So that offered some small comfort, and severely limited his suddenly over-active imagination.

That was the strangest part. Why did it matter to him so much? Of course he didn't want her to get hurt, in the same way that he didn't want Lin to get hurt. And there were any number of perfectly normal reasons why she could be away for two days, five hours and (he glanced at the clock) 33 minutes.

The minutes ticked past slowly, the clock the only sound in the strangely quiet office. It reminded him of the times before he met Mai, when days were, comparatively, un-eventful. He and Lin would arrive at the office, work, deal with clients if there were any, and go home. Conversation between the two during working hours had been rare. If they wanted to talk, they could talk after work. And then he'd met Mai, and suddenly the office was noisy.

Not to mention, did everyone else know what had happened to Mai? If so, why was he then the only one who hadn't been informed? As her employer, he had a right to know…

He realised he was glaring at the clock, as if he were warning it that if had the guts to stop time right there and then it would severely pay. The clock continued ticking innocently.

Another thing he'd picked up from Mai – inanimate objects were sometimes downright evil.

The day passed slowly.

"Are you sure about this?" Mai asked.

"Yeah. Don't waste your energy, we'll tell Naru-chan." Monk reassured her. Mai nodded, sinking back into her bed.

"Still…"

"I promise." Monk said.

"Okay." Mai said softly, watching him through half closed eyes.

"Go back to sleep." Ayako said. They left the apartment and made their way towards Shibuya.

"Right, so-" Monk began.

"This isn't another one of your harebrained schemes is it?" Ayako asked suspiciously.

"They aren't harebrained! They would work, if only Naru was more cooperative." Monk folded his arms, offended.

"You realise you've got to fit the schemes to the people right?"

"Of course. Are you trying to imply something?"

"That you're a bit thick."

"Guys, stop bickering. Now, what we have to do is this…" Yasuhara said quietly.

Naru unlocked the door. He took off his jacket and hung it by the door, before going into his office. He dropped the keys on his desk, and flopped into his chair.

I will actually become Christian if you get Mai to come back today, Naru thought to God.

Hang on… he did just think that? What was wrong with him? He dispersed his traitorous thoughts and settled down to do a day's work.

An hour later the front door opened.

Okay, don't do anything. Just sit here. Relax.

"Morning Naru-chan!" Monk called out. Naru almost hit his head on the desk. Why? Why did Monk have to come instead of Mai? Disappointment flooded through him.

"Don't worry, I'll get your tea." Yasuhara said. Naru gritted his teeth. He didn't want Yasuhara's tea. He glared at the still innocent clock. Half past eight. He still had half a day to go until he could go home…

Yasuhara entered, holding a cup of tea. Naru glared at it, as if willing the cup to simply disappear, preferably with the tea inside it. Yasuhara placed it on his desk, a big grin on his face.

"Cheer up, Naru-chan!"

Naru certainly didn't want to cheer up. He was now looking at the tea cup with more hate in his eyes than he'd looked at anything for a long time. Yasuhara didn't say anything else, and left him to sulk.

Or whatever it was that Naru was doing. He wasn't sure.

Naru didn't touch the cup. It seemed to be a constant reminder of Mai's absence. So, it was rather reasonable that Naru should hate that rather innocent cup. He stared at it for a long while.

"Noll?" Naru looked up. Lin still had his straight face on, but there was a slight twinge of pity in his eyes.

"What?" Naru snapped. Lin's face became straighter.

"She's here." For one happy second Naru willed Lin to be talking about Mai, but unfortunately he knew in reality Lin meant Masako. Naru felt the best way to describe his relationship with Hara Masako as a never ending game of hide and seek, where Naru acted like she was a leper and kept well away. Masako wasn't shaken off that easily though.

Naru bitterly wished his office wasn't a dead end. Maybe he should install a hidey hole.

"Tell her I'm not in?" Naru asked desperately. Lin left the office. From outside he could hear him greet Masako.

"So sorry, Naru isn't in at the moment." Lin said quietly. He heard Lin's office door softly close. Suddenly his own office door flew open. He dived under the desk.

"Naru? I know you're in here." She sounded about as irritated as he felt.

"What are you doing there?" Masako asked, bewildered, as she came round the desk.

"Oh, er, I lost a button." Naru said. He straightened up, smartly dusting off his clothes.

"I wish you'd stop hiding from me." She said in mock sternness. Naru didn't feel the need to answer her. He wished she'd stop forcing him to hide, but seeing as that was not going to happen any time soon, he felt no reason to give up on his own wishes.

"What do you want?"

"I'm feeling quite hungry, but I forgot my purse…" Masako hinted.

"Here's some change." Naru reached in his pocket.

"Silly. What would I want change for?"

"Public transport fare?" Naru said hopefully. Masako giggled.

"You are funny. I know a really great restaurant…"

Naru inwardly groaned as he picked up on the hint. Inwardly he was also throttling Masako, but he felt it would be better if he didn't divulge that little piece of information.

"Fine. I'll come." He said with the most amount of despair he could get away with in his voice. Masako brightened up and fluttered her eyelashes at him. The fluttering of eyelashes, though, was lost on him. To him it looked as though she was trying to beat the world record for most blinks in a minute.

"You would? You're such a gentleman…" She continued, acting as though he actually had a choice in the matter. She latched onto his arm in such a way that for one moment he was grossly reminded of a leech or something of the like, and they exited the office together.

One hour of hell later, Naru finally managed to escape back into the free plains of his office. He didn't think he'd ever loved it so much. He wasn't sure that he'd ever loved it, but suddenly he was feeling immense amounts of gratitude towards it.

Not towards his office door, though. He couldn't lock it.

Which was slightly pointless, he thought, because he felt that the majority of doors in the world – if not all – should have a lock on them. Doors, in general, should be lockable.

Luckily, Masako hadn't followed him back to the office. She occasionally did that, which always slightly scared him.

For some strange reason which was beyond him, Monk, Yasuhara and Ayako were still there, creating the usual amount of noise. What was so special about the SPR office, he didn't know, and doubted he ever would.

He sighed. There had to be some way to get Masako of his back. There must be something that would dissuade her from dropping in from time to time. He felt that the answer was somehow somewhere right there in front of him, but he just couldn't see it.

Day four of Mai-less-ness.

The time was officially 10 o'clock. Well, 3 minutes past, but close enough.

And Naru was annoyed. Ticked off. Irritated. Seriously pissed off.

Reason? The never ending noise next door. And Mai's continuous absence.

He had called her home phone. Twice. And she could at least have called him back.

He put his head in his hands as another roar of laughter ripped through the walls.

"Are you sure I shouldn't go back to work? I feel a lot better. If I took a painkiller I'd be perfectly fine…" Mai said befuddledly.

"No, stay another day or two in bed. You don't want to catch another illness, do you?"

"But Naru…"

"It's fine. We did exaggerate how ill you were to Naru anyway." Bou-san lied.

"If you're sure…" Mai said, not completely convinced.

"We're sure. It won't do you any good to get ill again."

"Go to sleep and get the rest you need. Relax."

Mai nodded uncertainly. "Okay…" Monk patted her head, and they left. Mai narrowed her eyes. Something was definitely fishy. As soon as her front door clicked shut she swung her legs out of bed.

The laughter suddenly stopped. Naru didn't even bother looking up, that is until a soft voice floated through his office's walls.

Mai.

He eagerly stood up. Then realised what he was doing. Naru sat down.

He had to act like he didn't want to run out of there and hug her and scold her and demand for tea or whatever.

He heard the others trying to persuade Mai to go back home, but Mai ignored them. His eyes narrowed.

He waited for a few more minutes until she knocked on his door.

"Come in."

Mai came in with a cup of tea, which she set on his desk.

"Mai." His voice stopped her from leaving.

"Yes?"

"Where the hell have you been?"

She blinked confusedly.

"You've been absent for the past 4 days, 12 hours and 22 minutes." And 34 seconds, his brain added.

"Er… didn't the others tell you?" She asked weakly.

"Tell me what?"

"I was ill. I got flu, and the others said that they'd tell you…" They both looked at the door suspiciously. Naru was about to go and give his employees a mouthful when Mai stopped him.

"Wait… were you worried about me?" Naru froze.

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, you said 4 days, which is fine, 12 hours and 22 minutes." Ahh… Naru panicked. Mentally.

"I was paying you during this time."

"But still… most people don't know how many minutes."

"Don't they?" He managed.

"Nope." Mai shook her head. "So I'm guessing you missed me."

"No." Yes. Naru gulped subconsciously.

"Really?" She was giving him a weird look, like she was trying to work out whether he was lying or not.

"Would I bother lying?" He challenged. Haha. She couldn't beat that one.

"I wasn't thinking about whether or not you were lying or not." Damn.

"You weren't?" It had sounded like she was.

"No." She leaned over his desk, grinning. "You did miss me."

Naru mentally panicked even more. There must be some excuse…

"Aren't you going to deny it?" She asked grinning broadly. Naru got the distinct impression that she was laughing at him.

"Well, I missed your tea."

Her grin faltered. "My tea?" She asked weakly.

"Yasuhara's tea is awful." He continued, happy that he'd found an escape route. Okay, he hadn't gone so low as to actually try Yasuhara's tea, but he was confident that it was awful.

She stood up straight again. "Oh." She said sadly. "Is that it?"

He took a sip from the tea cup on his desk.

"This is lukewarm." He stated.

"When I made it was hot." She defended.

"It's not hot anymore."

She pouted. "And?"

"Make another cup. I've had to go 4 and a half days without your tea. I'm not going to drink a lukewarm cup."

She deflated. "Fine." She left with his ex-cup of tea.

Naru smirked to himself. This day had brightened up considerably. Mai had been returned to his office, safe and sound, and got out of admitting that he'd missed Mai.

His brain replayed over events.

Wait… had she wanted him to miss her?

Mai made another cup of tea, grumbling under her breath about annoying, lying colleagues and tea addicted bosses.

"So, what did Naru-chan say?" Yasuhara asked from somewhere behind her.

"Why didn't you tell him I was ill!" She spun around, brandishing the kettle like it was a weapon. Yasuhara eyed it nervously.

"Um… we forgot?"

"It wasn't that hard of a task! Now I have to make another cup of tea because Naru's got too cold while discussing my absence!"

"It's not my fault…" Yasuhara said weakly, slowly sneaking away.

She put the cup of tea on a tray. "You're awful." She knocked on Naru's door.

"Come in."

She entered nervously. From his chair, Naru watched her.

"Mai, did you want me to miss you?" He asked suddenly. She looked up, panicked.

"Um, no…" She said nervously. His smirk broadened.

Naru stood up, leaned over the desk and kissed her soundly on the lips.

Mai's heart skipped a beat (or three (or even twenty-three)). Her eyes widened, as she tried to take in the information that Naru, Naru was actually kissing her and she was awake. Then, when she had, he slowly pulled away, watching her carefully with an unreadable look on his face.

"You… you…" She gasped out.

"I what?" Naru asked, a smug look on his face.

Mai paused while she waited for her brain processes to start working again so the sentences wouldn't scramble together.

"You kissed me." She managed.

"Are you complaining?"

"No but…"

"Good." And he leaned in and kissed her again.

Started this aaagggeesss ago, but only dug it out and finished it recently.

Please review! ^_^