A/N: I wasn't supposed to be writing this.
Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt is not mine. At all.
Italics denote thoughts.
oOo
"They've been dancing around one another for ages, you'd have thought that one of them would've caved in and confessed by now."
"Well, it's not really that surprising. They're both so stubborn."
"I wonder who is more hard-headed …"
"You know, I'm pretty sure that what both of them need is just a little push in the right direction."
A snort of disbelief sounded.
"Yeah right, a little push. As if that's going to help."
"You don't believe me?"
"Of course not! I know you're smart and all but they're like two stubborn old mules. It's definitely going to take more than that to get them together."
"Wanna bet? ¥10,000 says it's as easy as pie to get them together."
"Since you're so eager to lose, you're on."
oOo
It was a dare, plain and simple. And she was never one to back down from a challenge. Not when the one who issued the dare was openly taunting her.
"Come now, Mai, don't tell me that you have the courage to face ghosts and evil spirits but not Naru?"
The girl growled.
"I'm not afraid of Naru."
"Yeah right. You're not afraid of Naru, you're just afraid of the big bad Naru," Yasuhara replied.
"Am not!"
"Then what's stopping you? I dare you to do it, Mai."
Before she could answer, Yasuhara leaned forward and whispered, "You're not a chicken, are you?"
That did it.
"Fine! You just watch. I've got more guts than you have!"
The smile on the dark haired youth's face was smug as he leaned back in his seat and motioned for her to go ahead with a wave of his hand. The girl was amazingly easy to rile.
"They'll be back soon," he noted, glancing at the clock that hung on the opposite wall.
The minute the last syllable left his lips, the door opened and in stepped Shibuya Kazuya, clad in his usual black from head to toe.
Mai took a deep breath and stood from her seat, striding up to him before she could lose her newfound (and somewhat false) bravado.
She stopped an inch in front of him. With one hand fisted in the front of his shirt, she yanked the man down towards her and tilting her head upwards, covered his lips with her own.
He was surprised, to put it mildly. It all happened so quickly that he couldn't even utter a squeak, not that Naru the narcissist squeaks or do anything as degrading as that. So, one minute he was stepping over the threshold of his office and the next he was being kissed by his assistant.
His pretty, part-time assistant was kissing him, her boss.
His mind, yes, the same one with the Mensa level IQ, chose that particular moment to go blank, leaving nothing behind except two little words – Mai and kiss.
Just as it finally registered in his mind, he felt her lips moving away from his and there was no way he's going to take that lying down. Feeling her hand loosen its hold on his shirt and slipping away, he quickly latched onto her wrist with one hand while his arm wrapped itself around her waist to pull her closer to him.
Any reservations, fears or inhibitions of engaging in such an act before his office staff disappeared conveniently.
Mai's chocolate brown eyes shot open in surprise but slid shut once more when Naru captured her lips with his, muffling whatever she wanted to say in the process. Her arm seemed to have acquired a mind of its own when it slid around the back of his neck to enable her fingers to tangle in his hair.
Angling his head, he parted his lips as his tongue darted out to trace her lower lip. He heard her gasp softly as so he casually repeated the motion. Involuntarily, she gasped again and her mouth opened just wide enough for his tongue to slip in.
Naru, ever the opportunist, wasted no time in taking advantage of that fact.
In the warm cavern of her mouth, his tongue slid against hers and sent jolts of little shivers down her spine. Idly, she wondered where Naru learned to kiss like this as the tip of his tongue ran across the smooth surface of her pearly teeth.
Unconsciously, she pressed her body into his, uttering a soft, almost inaudible moan at the same time.
When he felt her soft body pressed up against his as her fingertips brushed his scalp, Naru thought he had died and gone to heaven. If this was what heaven felt like, he would've given anything to remain dead.
The fact that Mai tasted wonderful helped a lot. He knew for a fact that he was going to love jasmine tea and sakura mochi for the rest of his life.
Naru pressed his lips even closer on to Mai's when he felt her tongue enter his own mouth shyly. The grip he had around her waist tightened, and if it weren't for the white blouse she wore that contrasted greatly with his black shirt, there would be no telling where one began and the other ended.
The hand that was on her wrist moved behind her to trail down her back in a slow, sensuous motion before settling in the small of her back where to his delight, some of her smooth skin was exposed thanks to her low rise skirt and short blouse.
He drew a random pattern on her exposed skin with his index finger and she shivered, feeling more of those delicious, electrifying sparks shoot down her back as well as an odd, fluttery feeling in the pits of her stomach.
Dimly, he registered a polite cough somewhere to the right, as in his right and her left. Or was it her right and his left? He found out that he didn't care much where it came from and ignored it in his usual fashion. The activity at hand was way more interesting than figuring out where that cough came from anyway.
When the cough sounded again, this time louder and a bit more insistent, it was as if a bolt of lightning had struck the two teenagers what with Mai jumping about a mile while the unflappable Naru took two steps backwards.
Mai was sure that she resembled a very ripe tomato. Why, in fact, she could even put one to shame easily with her flaming red face.
"I-I … We … y-you … I … and … it …"
While she stammered, coherent thought flooded Naru's brain once more. For a millisecond, his deep blue eyes widened a fraction before settling on her furiously red (but still pretty) face.
Noticing the look he was giving her, Mai swallowed. Great Kami-sama, he's so going to fire me now. Damn, why oh why did I have to take that stupid, stupid bet? Me and my stupid pride! Stupid Mai! Stupid, stupid Mai! I'm really such an idiot.
"NaruI'mverysorryitwasabetandIknowIshouldn'thavedonethatpleasedon'tfiremesorry-"
Naru stepped up to stand at less that an arm's length away from her, looking at babbling girl with something akin to amusement in his eyes. He managed to make out a few words though, something that sounded like 'bet' and 'fire' and oh yeah, 'sorry'.
Gently, he cupped her face with his hands, effectively stopping the stream of words that gushed out from her mouth.
"What are you apologizing for?" he asked, a small part of him hoping that it really had been the word 'sorry' that he had heard.
"T-The … that kiss …"
He looked at her quizzically.
"Kissing you like that," she mumbled.
He felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.
"Idiot," he admonished softly. "Don't be. I liked it."
Mai's chocolate brown eyes widened.
"In fact, I think we should do it more often, Mai, like right now and …"
He dipped his head and whispered into her ear, "in a more private place."
Her pink face flamed up once more as butterflies, lots and lots of them, began fluttering around in her stomach at the slightly husky tone of his voice.
"Wh-What?" she squeaked.
Turning, he slid his arm around her waist again and pulled her flush beside him before leading her out the still open office door.
"Lin, I won't be back later. Don't bother waiting up for me tonight, I'll be returning home late," he called out without even bothering to turn around.
The Chinese man only remembered to nod when the door had clicked shut.
Beside him, a certain dark-haired youth was smirking in what could only be described as a victorious way as he fished out his cell phone from his pocket.
"Takigawa-san, it's Yasuhara. You've lost the bet."
oOo