Summary: Naru has been reverted to a child after an encounter with an especially mischievous spirit and Mai, through some circumstances, has been asked to care for him until Lin finds a way to reverse the effects of Naru's curse. Ultimately, it doesn't go well for the sixteen-year-old brunette.
Warning: OOC. Possible Profanities. Crackfic? Rated T.
Pairing: Naru/Mai
Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter One
~ In Which Naru Is A Four-Year-Old ~
How had it come to this?
Mai juggled a four-year-old Naru in her arms as she continued to stare at Lin with a mixture of desperation, incredulity and amusement. She blinked, stared at Naru then back up at Lin.
"It'll only be for a while," Lin said. "When I come back, I should be able to break the curse."
Naru glowered at him. Mai couldn't seem to break from her disbelief. Lin, feeling awfully uncomfortable, took the chance to quickly turn tail and run. Mai looked down at the child and both engaged in a staring contest until the brunette decided to break it.
"Naru," she began, brightly, "are you hungry?"
The child opened his mouth to tell her to put him down, but what came out was a "Pwut me down". He stopped trying to speak, clamping his mouth shut, and Mai burst into laughter. Naru looked absolutely scandalised. He shot her a glare but the impact of that fell short because he was so short and so adorable.
And because she was still holding him.
Afraid that she would actually smother Naru to death, Mai stood her boss on the floor and watched as he hurried away into another room, never glancing back at her. Mai snickered and shook her head. The situation was too ridiculous. But the cause had been equally absurd.
Their latest case had left Naru as a child and Mai as his caregiver until further notice. See, that particular ghost loved playing pranks—in her case, being dead enhanced her powers and her creativity—and she had decided she needed to cause another before moving on. Her attention had been drawn to Naru and that was that. Naru had been zapped to his child form, but only physically, Lin had decided to take the task of finding a way to reverse it by asking his family in China and the others were conveniently too busy to look after him—even Masako!
She had a sinking suspicion that everyone was plotting something, with the exception of Naru and, most likely, Lin, but she hadn't any proof.
Mai sighed and looked at the clock ticking away on the wall. It was time to feed Shiro. She rummaged through her cupboard and took out a can of cat food, emptied it onto a dish and headed to the door. She found Naru walking out of the toilet and told him she'd be back soon and to not go into the kitchen out of curiosity. Naru frowned at the teasing order; he looked like a child but he didn't think like one.
Mai left with a big smile on her face, leaving Naru alone.
The teen-turned-child wouldn't admit it aloud but he was curious. Where was she going with that plate? He wanted to follow after her, and it scared him just a little because he was never usually interested in Mai's escapades. Was he, mentally, turning into a child also? Granted his pronunciation on words had deteriorated but would he soon be exhibiting the deadly curiosity a child usually had? Would Mai actually be correct in warning him—though, playfully—to not enter the kitchen where all things sharp and dangerous were?
He shook his head defiantly and tried to tell himself that he was only curious because, last time he checked, Mai didn't have any pets. He easily came up with some logic—or excuse—as to why he would be following Mai like a stalker child because 'curiosity' was not a good enough excuse for Naru.
Mai was clumsy and highly accident-prone. He had to watch her otherwise she would injure herself and then he would have to look after them both instead of it being the other way around. He "hmph"-ed quietly. It was a miracle she could go up and down the stairs without tripping herself every time.
Okay, maybe he was exaggerating.
But then memories of another previous case flashed in his mind and he realised that, no, he wasn't exaggerating in the least. Mai had fallen down the stairs and had also tripped going up. Her excuse had been something about how she didn't see the, extra, steps or thought she'd reached the landing already.
He reached for the door knob and found that although he could touch it, he couldn't wrap his hand around it to turn it. Naru's eyes darted to the small stool he'd found before and used to help him sit himself on the toilet seat without having to touch it. He could've asked Mai to help him with that—and also help him reach the sink—but he did not want her to dote on him further or laugh at him. That was already too much of a humiliation.
Standing tall on the stool, he grasped the knob and quickly opened it. He hurried down the flight of stairs as fast as his stubby, little legs could take him without injuring himself and when he finally reached the entrance to the apartment complex, he spotted Mai's skirt outside. With all his might, he pushed the door open and squeezed out, careful to not let Mai suspect his presence.
He peeked from behind the wall and saw a small shelter. Craning his neck, he caught sight of a cat. When the cat flicked its tail in his direction and stopped eating altogether, he quickly hid back behind the wall.
"What's wrong, Shiro?" he heard Mai ask.
"Meow," the cat purred and resumed eating once again. Naru, for all that was odd about him at the moment, had the insane urge to pet the cat. He pouted; Naru was agitated at having to fight off, and fend himself from, impulses he had never bothered himself with before.
He peeked at the cat again but this time, he lost his balance at the small step and found himself falling quickly. The impact between the ground and his small body hurt and the tears threatened to shed involuntarily but he stopped it. He had an image to uphold, after all. Child or not. Mai heard him and turned to find him standing himself up, brushing off the dirt that was now dirtying his clothes.
"N-Naru?" she said. "What are you doing here?" She hurried over to his side and examined his injured knees and hands. "Well, the wounds aren't too bad. I'll have to disinfect and patch it up when we get back so hold on until then, okay?"
"Mai, I'm not a child and I'm not going to cwy," he said and immediately scowled at his words. "Don't tweat me like a kid."
"Yes, yes, Naru-sama."
They both stood in silence for a long time until Naru took a step towards the cat, forcing himself to keep his excitement in check and to remain as casual as possible.
"That's Shiro," Mai said. "The landlord won't let me keep him in my apartment but he allowed me to use this small shelter."
Naru reached a hand out to pet the cat, which had once again stopped eating to look a Naru, and unknowingly grinned when he did. Mai decided to stay quiet as she wanted to see his smiles as much as possible; that and the fact that she'd never seen Naru grin before. Such a rare sight must not be wasted and destroyed.
She reached for her phone in her pocket and, to Naru's obliviousness, quickly snapped a picture.
…
"Madoka," Lin sighed, "I did what you wanted."
"Good boy," his colleague grinned. "Here's the photo and I swear I will never breathe a word of this to anyone."
Lin grumbled and quickly pocketed the embarrassing photo Madoka had used to blackmail him.
"Now all we have to do is wait for those two to bond, fall in love, get married and give me lots of godchildren to pamper and spoil!"
Lin shook his head. When Naru found out about this, he was going to be livid and Lin had no intention of sticking around and staying in the same room as him when he did.
"Say, I know you said the effects of that spirit's prank would eventually die down," Madoka mentioned as an afterthought, "but when is Naru going to turn back?"
The spirit's words ran through Lin's mind—something about it had bugged him continuously and now that he seriously thought about it, the prankster had mainly been speaking to Naru—the Naru who had been too occupied with staring at his chubby, little hands and feet in horror.
"Have a great two months!"
Two hellish months of lying to both Naru and Mai and playing along with Madoka and Yasuhara's plans. He, Madoka, Yasuhara, Bou-san, Ayako, John and, surprisingly, Masako were playing a very, very dangerous game.
To Be Continued…
I wrote this to relieve myself from stress and worry and so this, somewhat crack-ish, fic was born! I'll update this whenever inspiration next hits so that means it could be tomorrow or months later.
But! I hope you enjoyed this so far.
