Mai felt tired. Actually, tired didn't even begin to describe how she felt; exhausted was more like it. After battling the spirit that haunted the Moonrise Inn in some far off forgotten town, which was 4 hours away from the SPR building, Mai wanted to collapse and fall asleep where she stood, but she knew that would just earn her a nasty reprimand from her narcissistic boss. Despite the late time and dark, moon lit sky the SPR gang was currently packing up the equipment that they had used over the past 3 days. They were almost finished packing up the last of the boxes, when Mai had sleepily stumbled and sent the box she had been carrying flying across the sidewalk. Luckily, there were only some small containers and papers inside, but to her dismay they managed to go everywhere. Mai groaned as she set the box down and lazily trudged over to where some of the papers had flown. She could hear Monk chuckling in the distance, most likely at her, and normally she would have shouted at him to come and help her, but she just couldn't muster the energy. She bent down and gathered up some of the papers and walked over to the yard where she attempted to grab one of them which was swiftly being carried by the wind, when she began to feel as though she couldn't muster the energy to move anymore. Mai stopped where she was and willed her eyes to stay open, but the cold night air soothed her features, and they slowly slipped shut. She could feel herself falling to the side and was about to open her eyes when she felt a warm arm wrap around her waist from behind. Her eyes snapped open as she twisted around to see who she was being held by, when she met a pair of dark and slightly annoyed eyes.

"Mai," Naru began, pulling her up to a standing position again. "What do you think you're doing?" He said as he dropped his arm from her small waist.

Mai regained her balance and felt a wave of embarrassment creep over her, her face turning red. "Oh, well I- You see- The papers-" she sighed, too exhausted to care about explaining to him what happened. She could feel her eyes beginning to slid shut once again and-

No Mai! She thought, snapping her eyes open once more, willing them to stay that way but failing miserably. You can't…

"Mai-" Naru said as he grew impatient of waiting for her to explain herself, he was cut off as he saw her body beginning to fall once again. He quickly leaned forwards to catch her sleeping form in both his arms. She was out cold.

"Mai, wake up," he tried, shaking her slightly. "Mai get up. Now."

She would not budge. Naru sighed in annoyance and repositioned her in his arms so he could lift her, carrying her bridal style. Her head rolled to rest against the side of his neck, and he could feel her light breath on his chest.

Honestly, he thought. It's as if she never sleeps to begin with.

Naru walked towards the group, earning some suggestive looks from Monk and a poorly hidden look of irritation from Masako. John looked up to see Mai in his arms and rushed over to them.

"Naru?" he said, looking over her body, concern in his voice. "What happened? Is Mai alright?"

Naru was about to answer when Lin walked out of the building with the owner of the Inn, who was talking about making sure that they would come back to stay, when he looked up to see the boy holding an unconscious Mai and gave him a questioning glance. He ended his conversation with the owner as he walked back into the Inn, said a good bye, and quickly walked back over to the others.

"She's out cold." Naru stated as he arrived, "I can't wake her."

The trunk to Bou-san's car closed and he and Ayako, who had been helping him, walked over joining the conversation. Bou-san was still giving Naru suggestive glance, though Naru effectively ignored them. Ayako elbowed the monk in the side then turned her attention to Mai.

"I'm not surprised she's tired," She said. "The poor girl hasn't been getting any sleep these last few cases, and I think receiving all of these dreams has been taking their toll on her lately." A concerned tone laced her voice as she worriedly looked her over. "You should get her to the van so we can-"

She was cut off by loud bang made by the front door of the inn being thrown open against the side of the building. The inn keeper jogged towards them from the porch of the inn, stopping in front of Lin. "Oh thank goodness!" He said, out of breath. "Good thing I caught you before you left, there's been a weather warning on the radio just now-" He was swallowed. "-And there's a storm heading our way. They were saying that we're supposed to get around 3 feet! It said that people should stay inside and off the roads for a few days, and that there were quite a few accidents on the main roads, they're all backed up."

Naru scowled, and as much as he hid it, he too just wanted to go home a get some rest. Lin turned to him, waiting for a decision. Naru glanced down at the sleeping Mai in his arms, who had not even twitched at the commotion, and unnoticeably held her a little closer. His arms were going a bit numb from the cold, making holding her slightly difficult, but he held on none the less. "I suppose we'll have to stay the night." He said finally.

"Ok, I'll get your rooms ready," said the inn keeper. "But you should know that there are other guest staying here, and there are only…" he paused to count in his head and on his fingers at the same time. "Three- no, four rooms left. Two have one single bed in each, one has a double, and the other has two singles. But there are seven of you so-"

"That'll be fine." Naru said cutting him off. "Lin, get our and Mai's bags and bring them inside. Monk, Ms. Hara, John, and Ms. Matsuzaki do the same. We will figure out sleeping arrangements after." As he began to walk towards the inn, it started to snow.

"Well maybe if you and I share that room we could-"

"No way! I'm not staying in the same room as her!"

"Well I could stay with Naru if-"

"Forget it Masako."

"Enough."

Naru's patience was wearing thin. The group of so called adults before him had to have been the pickiest bunch he had ever met. Currently, Monk was trying to claim that being the oldest (even though Lin had him beat by a few years) he deserved to have the room with the double bed, Ayako was arguing back that a real man would let the woman sleep in the large bed, Masako was trying with everything she had to sleep in the same room as Naru, John was trying to calm Ayako and Monk down, Lin was standing there with his eyes closed, and Mai was still out cold on the couch behind where Naru stood. They had been bickering for the last ten minutes, and Naru was close to just leaving and sleeping in the van, but his utter stubbornness kept him there, determined to figure out how they could all sleep that night with the least amount of whining possible.

He glared around at the group before him. "Since it seems that none of you will be capable of deciding this for yourselves, I have decided where you all will be retiring for the night." The group quieted down at the sound of his threating tone, but Ayako was against having him decide for them.

"Naru! That's not even fair-"

"The two rooms with single beds will be occupied by Ms. Hara and Mai," he stated, cutting her off and not particularly paying attention to what she had to say. "Ms. Matsuzaki, Takigawa, if you both want the double bed, you can both share it." A look of shock and embarrassment captured both their faces, but neither of them objected. "And Lin and John, you will be sharing the room with the two single beds."

Silence filled the room as the group went over the arrangements in their heads, Lin being the first to speak. "What about you Naru? And where exactly will you be sleeping?"

"I will be fine. I have work to do anyway." At that, he turned around, bent to grab Mai, lifted her into his arms, and directed himself toward the room he had been shown by the innkeeper moments before.

The inn was a small place, built all on one, ground level floor, in a wide rectangular shape. As you entered from the main door, you walked into a small room with an old wooden desk and worn computer chair. A door was placed to the right of the desk from which you walked into a small sitting room with a stone fireplace and framed glass windows, which were sealed shut against the cold winter breeze. Upon entering this room, and turning towards your left, you would find a wall of doors that ran across the back length of the inn, part of which was traveled down by a long hallway that too, ran the length of the inn.

In the sitting room, the couch, which was placed under the wide, curtained window, was directly across the room and hall from the room in which Mai would be staying. To the left of her, traveling more down the hall was the room Lin and John would be in, then the one which would occupy Masako, and lastly the one holding Ayako and Monk.

Naru didn't have to carry Mai far, as he walked across the hall and into her room which he promptly lay her on her on her bed, covered her with a quilt from the edge of the bed, and walked out, closing the door halfway.

He wasn't entirely surprised to see that the rest of the team, apart from Lin, had made their way to their rooms. What he was surprised to see was the small smile ghosted on his assistant's lips, causing him to rile with confusion though he did not show it. Matter of fact, he chose to act as though he hadn't seen it at all, and to his advantage, the smile faded just as quickly as it had appeared. Lin looked him over, tiredness and slight worry in his eyes.

"Where will you be sleeping, might I ask?" He asked again as the younger man took of his winter coat and laid it over the back of the ugly pink armchair which was placed to the right of the couch. Naru did not look up and Lin understood what he was planning to do.

"You cannotspend the entire night working, Naru." He said, irritation lacing his usually calm voice. "When was the last time you've gotten any decent sleep?"

"The last time I checked, I could tell for myself when I needed to rest or not. I certainly do not need you fussing over my sleeping habits."

Lin could hear the sheer arrogance in his voice, and frankly he was just too tired to even try to convince the stubborn teen. "Fine. Don't sleep. But you'll need to eventually, Naru." And with that he picked up his suitcase of belongings and walked down the hall to where he and John would be sharing a room. He paused outside his door just long enough to catch Naru looking into the room across the hall at the sleeping form of Mai, before turning in for the night.

Okay, so I know compared to some stories and authors, the amount of reviews and follows/favorites I've gotten for this story aren't at the biggest number, but honestly every last one of them made me grin. And I mean that with complete honesty. Thank you guys so much for making my day x) I'll update as soon as I can. (Actually I didn't think anyone would care if I updated or not so this changes things!) I'll see what I can do ;3

-w0nderland5