So yet another one-shot. This takes place during the Urado thing.

Warning: Mai/Lin fluff, cuteness, and permanent markers, some minor language.

Mai was setting up equipment bored as only Lin was in base with her. This case had her a bit nervous and she had a feeling that they were up against something stronger than just a ghost.

Idly she looked over Lin's shoulder in boredom and curiosity not notice him tense. He could smell her shampoo strawberry kiwi he noted as he glanced at her momentarily.

"So what are you even doing?" She asked staring at the article and reading some of it.

"Researching and taking notes." He replied note looking at her so he could try to focus on his task. Even though he felt a headache coming on from staring at the screen for so long.

"You've been doing that for hours take a break." Lin paused and looked at her now. She stared at him with her head tilted in question.

"I'm fine, but thank you." She pouted before sliding his laptop away and staring at him.

"You take a break unless Naru wants you to end up blind and unable to do this later on. Your eyes need a break and if Naru says different I will find him while he's sleeping and draw on his face with permanent marker." She stated and Lin couldn't help the smile on his lips.

"If it'll appease you I'll take a short break." Lin giving in as the feeling of looking anywhere other than his screen already felt better.

"I can do the research in the mean time. Go lay down and there's some headache medicine in my bag if you want it." Mai smiled and Lin couldn't help letting himself smile back.

Her smile was contagious he mused as he indeed went to lay down on the couch. He watched and listened to Mai typing on the computer and was lulled to sleep not having realized how tired he was.

It wasn't until he heard Ayako and Monk bickering that he woke up and found that he was covered with a blanket. Mai was rushing between the kettle and the computer. Lin noted that his charge was eyeing him and glancing at Mai warily not that anyone else would notice the slight flicker in his eyes.

He got up and was about to take his usual place when Mai raised an eyebrow at him before giggling. Half-heartedly he wondered if she'd used those markers on him. He looked into the wall mirror and just saw a strand of hair that was sticking up on end.

Lin ran a hand through his hair satisfied when it settled back to usual. Mai got up and went to make tea or coffee since Lin tended to drink coffee more.

He could feel Naru boring holes into his back and mentally rolled his eyes.

"Naru you leave him alone." Mai whacked him in the arm glaring at Naru who stared at her. "Not everyone can keep working like you all the time jerk. Seriously do you want his eyes to go bad or something?"

"Lin is an adult and-"

"And what? Everyone needs a break we're only human."

Lin was content when Naru finally relented and went back to sipping his tea and reading the file.

It wasn't until later that he stopped working to listen to Mai talking. She looked sad as she smiled looking as some memory no one else could see.

"My dad died when I was younger. And my mom died when I was just enrolled in middle school. But then one of my teachers took me in..." She paused gritting her teeth at the memory. "At first it was nice, but he changed as soon as everything had been settled. But now I'm in high school and I live by myself." She went on to explain a bit more smiling brightly as she looked at her key.

Lin smiled again glancing to see his charge staring at her. Lin could take a guess at his line of thinking. Despite always calling her an idiot he respected Mai's strength. It was easy to curl up behind a giant wall and always be angry, but Mai didn't let the world get to her.

But idly Lin typed in Mai's name in order to see her file. That teacher seemed off and he wanted to know why. His mind went to the worst places and despite the laughter around him, he narrowed his eyes at the article he found.

Name: Takamaru Nato

Age: 34

Hight: 6'2

Status: Dead

Takamaru Nato was convicted for abusing a minor. Evidence suggests he was-

Lin didn't show it, but his blood boiled as he saved the article to read later. But he returned to watching the monitors. No activity at the moment and everyone besides Mai was left in base with him.

She made him more coffee and he thanked her as she took a seat beside him. Her eyes watching the screen and they sat in a comfortable silence. Absently he took a piece of chocolate from the bowl of snacks she sat between them.

She giggled while eating a piece of Pocky as Monk and Ayako appeared on the screen. Bickering as usual before Monk stole a kiss. Mai blushed and both Lin and she watched the screen with more interest when Ayako kissed him back.

"Oh my gosh yes!" Mai squealed excitedly. "Finally!"

Lin's lips twitched up his thought about the same. He watched her go back to looking at the other screens as a sign of privacy. It was about an hour later when he felt a weight on his shoulder.

Looking down he saw a mess of brown hair and smiled. Their chairs were close now that he realized. He listened to her soft breathing as he continued taking notes.

The strawberry kiwi was a bit intoxicating and the mentally shook himself. Mai was cute and all but he would not have thoughts about her like that.

Idly he thought about Naru, Yasu, and then John bemusedly. The girl on his shoulder had no idea how they felt. Not that they were overly obvious about it, he mused. Except for John, but the young priest was usually easy to fluster. Though John was always a little more flustered around Mai.

But unfortunately for Yasu and John, Mai had her sights on Naru. Even after knowing all this he found himself kissing her forehead.

"You have all the guys wrapped around your pretty little finger." He murmured smiling as she nestled into his side a bit more.

Idly he wished he could stay like this for awhile more. That he could just enjoy this moment. But despite that, he didn't wanna confuse his feelings. He felt nothing short of fatherly towards her and he would keep it that way or so help him.

Mai groaned as she looked around the astral plain. She was waiting for her dream Naru and she had some questions. She grounded herself and was prepared for him to try and skip around her questions.

He came into view smiling as usual and rather than get flustered Mai crossed her arms. She saw him falter as he stopped a few feet in front of her. Seeing the look on her face.

"I will not look at another vision until you answer my questions," she stated mater-o-factly making his smile turn into a nervous grin. "Who are you? Because you look like Naru and yet for the life of me I can't figure out why. I may have a crush on him, but I had a crush on a lot of people before I even met you."

"I guess the cats out of the bag... My names Gene." He sighed and smiled lopsidedly this made Mai smiled back slightly.

"Why do you look like-"

"Noll? Well, he is my younger twin." Gene stated and Mai stared at him in surprise.

"Why the fuck are you doing in my brain- err mindscape of the astral plain?" He laughed finding my outburst hilarious.

Mai pouted but a smile tugged at her lips at seeing Naru's twin laugh. And for some reason, she really wanted to hear what Naru's laugh sounded like. Gene was so handsome when he was smiling and laughing and it tugged at her heart thinking of why Naru was so sad all the time.

"I-uh aha- um I actually don't know. I was trying to contact my brother and then you came into the picture. I tried to contact you in order to tell Noll something, but I never got around to asking it." Gene shrugged making her frown at him.

"You're a ghost?" She murmured sadly and now understood better.

"Yeah..."

"Um.. why didn't you correct me when I called you Naru?" Gene smirked crossing his arms amusedly.

"Because it was adorable~" she flushed at this and they talked for a long while.

Gene explained what happened and who Noll really was. Mai told Gene about how his brother was and everything else. She also included how Lin and Madoka were doing. He seemed to appreciate this and they conceived a plan to find Gene's body.

The thing was Mai wasn't going to let Naru know. And Gene was going to help her better now that their link was stronger since they had spent the time to talk unlike before.

In the end, she ended up watching a vision so she had something to give Naru when she woke up.

The next night's dream wasn't so easy. She'd experienced dying for the first time. Urado was frightening she thought as she bawled into Ayako's shirt after she'd woken her up.

Despite that when Naru entered the room she looked up and started laughing. His face was covered in marker and it looked like make-up. The others forgot about her dream to take a good look at his face.

Ayako snapped a picture with a phone and that snapped Mai back into reality remembering her dream and the humor of Naru's confused marker covered face died. In the dream before the vision, she and Gene had been experimenting. It looks like their test worked extremely well.

She calmed down enough to explain her dream leaving out the part of Gene and herself drawing on his face. Drinking the tea as Ayako kindly handed him a mirror to see why everyone kept bursting into giggles when looking at him.

Suffice to say Naru was pissed and Mai was glad he had no idea she'd done it. The case ended a few days later and Mai was filing paperwork when Naru suddenly came in as if he'd just had an epiphany.

"Mai," she looked up nervously wondering why he had a death glare pointed at her. "You gave Masako a key while she was captured. A key that was in your physical pocket."

"Yes Naru I remember," Mai said staring at him puzzledly as Lin peaked out from his office to see what was going on.

"And you're the only person who brought markers." I stared cluelessly at him trying not to let on that those dots made a line straight back to me.

"And?" She asked surprisingly keeping her poker face.

"I hope you don't have plans as you will be here late writing everything down on paper and filing." He stated and turned to walk to his office and just before he closed it he added. "Oh, and Mai, tea!"

She sunk down into her chair giggling to herself as Lin sighed shaking his head and closing his door. Lin went to his computer that had an email open. With the picture of his charge covered in permanent marker. Chuckling he sent it to a Luella Davis with a short report on how her son was doing in Japan.

I hope this was amusing enough for you. Personally, I think I suck at writing Naru. All I ever make him to is glare/angry but it's fun XD