Possessed

Part 1

Everybody knew better than to laugh. Even so, Houshou found himself ducking his head to hide a smirk as he watched the scene before him. Oh, déjà vu, he thought as Lin stood, looking more than a little perturbed, with Mai's arms wrapped around his waist. If Mai has a neon sign over her head that begs "ghosts pick on me please" than poor Lin-san has one that reads "safe haven for psycho possessed people."

The case had seemed relatively straightforward at first—it had seemed standard poltergeist activity, and with more than a few teenage personalities working for the agency which had employed them, the possibility of the phenomena being caused by one of them was fairly high. However, after hypnotism, none of them showed any reaction—Naru had sent Yasuhara off to research anything that might have happened in the old studio, only an hour ago—personally, Houshou know believed that the canny college student's skills were unneeded. Ah, he's going to miss the show, poor boy, he thought, and once again stifled his amusement. No good—if I start laughing now, Lin-san'll have my skin!

"Taniyama-san?" Lin cautiously attempted to remove Mai's hands from his waist—she only tightened her grip. He gave up on it; instead, he reminded himself that this was no different than any other time that Mai had been possessed. It didn't mean anything—just because the young part timer was clinging to him like a limpet didn't mean that she felt anything for him. She was possessed. She couldn't be expected to know what she was doing when she was possessed. Therefore, he had to stay calm—it was his responsibility to her, as he was in full control of his actions and she—wasn't.

It was hard, though, with her pressed so close and turning her face up towards him, her eyes practically starry.

It was even harder when she reached up and placed a small hand on his cheek. He was aware of her touch, of the soft brush of her skin—it took all the control he had not to lean closer and/or push her away—he wasn't quite sure which he wanted more, but the idea of her being this close right at this moment was torture. The thought of pushing her away and seeing the hurt on her face was just as bad. So he stayed neutral, casting a dark look over her head at Takigawa-san, whose face was contorted quite interestingly as he fought to contain his amusement at this whole situation. Let's see how funny you'd think it if this happened to you, he thought.

"Itoshii?" Her voice was soft, almost disbelieving. "I thought I'd never….I thought you'd gone. Left. That's what they told me—you'd gone to France, they said. But you never came back…."

Before the stunned Chinese man could construct a proper response, Mai—or whoever had taken over her body—smiled and shook her head. "Ah, well. It doesn't matter, does it, now? You're here. That's all that matters." She stood up onto her tiptoes and wrapped an arm around the back of the other assistant's neck. "Itoshii…..I did miss you…."

Houshou was practically dying.

The look on Lin-san's face was priceless as well—Houshou wished he had a camera, so as to preserve this moment forever. Eh, it would make such wonderful teasing later—I didn't know Lin-san could turn that color. And Mai-chan…who knew? At least with Kenji, she seemed a complete child—but not this time, obviously, he thought with a grin.

"Itoshii…. I did miss you…."

Houshou's eyes almost popped out of his head. Um, okay…..He glanced at Naru. "Hey. Don't you think we should do something about this, Naru-bou?" Oh. My. God. Mai-chan….and Lin-san? No, it couldn't be. Not in real life, anyways. Only….it has to be the fact that she's possessed, but she looks quite serious about this….Lin-san doesn't look as irritated as I thought he would, either….

Naru seemed quite unperturbed about the whole thing. "Yes, I think we should, Takigawa-san. Before anything more serious occurs in front of our eyes. We don't want that, do we?" He was smirking, obviously amused.

You know, that's the first time I've ever thought the boss anything like Yasuhara, but there is a first time for everything, I suppose….

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mai came to her senses to find herself lying on the floor of the studio, Bou-san, Yasuhara, and Ayako crouched over her.

"What—what happened?" she asked. She vaguely remembered walking into the studio and feeling a little odd…. She took a moment to put two and two together and realized what must have happened. "I was… possessed, wasn't I? By whatever's here?"

Ayako nodded. She was, Mai noticed, wearing her ceremonial robes. She must have driven the spirit out. I cant remember…anything. Nothing at all. Except I remember something about someone's darling….

"So…what was it?" she asked.

Bou-san glanced at Yasuhara, a smile playing around his lips. "Umm… you might want to prepare yourself…" he said.

Mai groaned. Okay… "What was it? Did I do something embarrassing? And where are Naru and Lin-san?"

"Fetching Masako and hyperventilating, respectively," Ayako said with a smirk.

"You see…." Yasuhara began, a twinkle in his eyes. "While you were possessed, you…ahh…."

"Just tell me," Mai said, sitting up. "What did I do?"

"Well," Ayako began.

Bou-san gave a little shrug. "To put it plainly…." he said.

"You kissed Lin-san."

Shocked silence.

Mai's mouth dropped into a perfect O, and she blushed fiery red right to the tips of her ears.

"I what?!"

A/N—Eh, I'm not so sure about how good this is…..it's a "therapy" piece of writing. I wrote it because I was under a little bit of stress and I needed to relax. *shrugs*

Itoshii—darling, dear, beloved.

This is a twoshot, so you should see the second part of it very soon ;D