A/N: Same universe as A Christmas Story. Set nearly about 2 years after. Well, it can stand on its own so you don't HAVE to have read the prequel story, but it helps!

GUYS. This is meant to be a one-shot, but it's getting long, so I'll release a chapter 2 soon. But I'm not expanding it any further than that! Full Disclosure was meant to be a one-shot as well, but for some reason people started following it... heh. I don't have anything planned for that case! I'll just be expanding Mai and Naru's story by releasing a bunch of related one shots.

So They Have Kissed

Chapter 1

August 03. 2:00 a.m

"How long will he be staying again?"

"Only until the end of September. Then he won't be back again until December for the short winter break, then he'll be off again for the rest of the year until his next break in July."

Ayako tentatively sipped her hot coffee and wiggled an eyebrow in response. After swallowing the liquid, she mused, "That really doesn't leave them a lot of time to spend together. Must be difficult." She leaned over the table, planting her elbow down and propping her chin up with her palm, while absentmindedly swirling a spoon in her cup with her other hand.

She continued, "To think they managed to make it work out despite starting off having only nine months of being physically together, then spending the next ten months in a long-distance relationship. And to have to do it this way for two more years."

Yasuhara re-adjusted his glasses. "Matsuzaki-san, you sound strangely melancholic about it."

The miko frowned. "How are they managing to make it last? They've been together for nearly two years. Two years! And in that manner! I mean, I know Mai is seriously in love with that guy to the point that she's loyal to him like a little puppy... Could Naru be the same? Or is it that he's just socially inept that he'd just rather stick to something familiar?"

Yasuhara poured a half teaspoon of sugar crystals into his coffee.

"Really. I would have never thought in a million years that that ice cube of a brat could hold on to a lasting relationship like this."

Yasuhara then poured a bit of creamer into his coffee.

"To think that he'd manage to find someone who could deal with his arrogance. Isn't that weird?"

Yasuhara took a sip of his coffee.

"I'm not nearly as arrogant as that brat. How come I haven't found anybody yet?"

And there it was. He was about to reply when their resident monk plopped down on the seat across from her, holding on to his own cup of freshly brewed coffee.

"There you go whining about something stupid again, Ayako," he said tiredly with a yawn. It was already two o'clock early in the morning and still nothing paranormal had occurred so far. Things were getting pretty boring. Takigawa could have attributed the mistake of taking this case to Naru's unprecedented lax with his requirements, figuring the young man must have been all too eager to get back in the field after being away in England working on his traditional PhD degree for the past several months, but he couldn't really fully blame him. After all, the case did sound interesting when they spoke with the client. Perhaps it was a case with a really, really shy ghost.

"You may not be 'nearly as arrogant' as Naru-chan, but you've got other problems on your plate. For one you're too bossy. You whine too much. You're loud. You're violent. And you're old. It really isn't too much of a wonder, you know. What kind of guy would like someone like that?"

Ayako glared daggers at him and gritted out, "I wasn't speaking to you, you stupid monk."

"Some people are into that type," Yasuhara said pensively with a playful smile. "In fact, some people go out of their way to tease the person they like just so they see them get flustered and act out." He saw Takigawa frown and eye him suspiciously, but instead of addressing him he deflected, "Like Shibuya-san. We all know he liked to irritate Mai because she always got so immature. You just have to find someone who treated you like that, Matsuzaki-san."

Ayako shrugged and waved him off, while it took Takigawa a few seconds to ponder if the boy was trying to have a go at him before letting it be. Several seconds later, John and Masako entered the room, each carrying a mug of their own and joining them around the table.

"It's a very slow case, isn't it? Lin-san isn't even manning the screens," John observed.

"Ah, I'm supposed to be looking at it. Boss took him and Mai to investigate the shed next door."

"Then why aren't you watching it, Yasuhara-san?" Masako asked tonelessly, covering her mouth with her kimono sleeves.

Yasuhara held his mug up. "Coffee break."

A few minutes of silence reigned as the group sipped their drinks. Suddenly, Ayako began again. "They've been together for a while, Mai and Naru, but I've never seen them once act like they are."

Masako added, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen them spend time together outside of the office."

"I've seen her leave with Lin-san and Boss before."

"Dear God. Well that doesn't mean much, especially with Lin as the third wheel. Ugh. Lin and Naru are like joined at the hip, aren't they? That must make it difficult for Naru to make some moves. Poor Mai. Or maybe it's the other way around."

"Ayako, you're being creepy."

"Shut up, monk. I just can't imagine those two being together. Are they really together? Can you even imagine how they'd be like on a date?"

The rest of the group contemplated the question, but all came up blank.

Bou-san pointed out, "Haven't you gone on dates with him before, Masako-chan? How did those go?"

The medium looked miffed. "You all know that didn't count. He was being forced to spend time with me. But to answer your question: quiet. He barely spoke to me and only replied to my questions only if it was about work-related things."

Everyone shivered.

"Poor Mai-san," John surprisingly lamented.

"Hey, Jou-chan is pretty spunky on her own. Like she'd accept something like that. She'd probably get exasperated with him and force him to talk about things, you know. And then he'd get provoked and end up insulting her, and she'd yell at him and call him names..." he trailed off.

Sounds like a grand time. Everyone sighed collectively.

"..Do you think they've slept together yet?"

There were cries of indignation all around the table, though at varying degrees. The priest looked embarrassed, the monk pale, Masako livid, and Yasuhara hypocritical. Ayako sneered. "What? Was I the only one wondering about that?" When no one answered, she scoffed triumphantly. "I only said it out loud. How would it even begin? Who would initiate?"

"We are not talking about their sex life, Ayako," Masako cried indignantly.

Ayako rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It probably doesn't exist anyway. Those two are completely naive. And frankly, weird. They probably have never even held each other's hands."

"What makes you think they don't? Have sex, I mean?" Yasuhara asked, ignoring the fact that Masako started having a coughing fit, while the poor priest willed himself to disappear into his chair. Takigawa looked slightly put-off by the question.

"Well they're practically teens, young adults, right? That means their hormones should be at full blast. For example: it's pretty common in school to walk in on some couple in the middle of a make out session, right? Or finding them in compromising positions. But we see none of that with those two. Not even innocent flirting."

Upon hearing this, Yasuhara turned to share a knowing glance with Takigawa, but the two said nothing. Unbeknownst to the other three, something of the sort happened not a few hours earlier. As bro-code, they decided to keep the details of the incident to themselves. But for Yasuhara, it made for some great blackmail material.

-00-Earlier-00-

August 02. 10:00 a.m

They had just finished setting everything up for their latest case: the shelf had been built, the monitors brought in, the cameras tentatively placed at strategic locations around the house... when suddenly Mai let out a shriek. She realized in horror that she made a huge, huge blunder. She accidentally left the bag containing the all the power cables to their monitors back at the office, which was now currently an hour drive away. When she eventually found the courage to tell Naru, the young man gave her an eerie blank look.

"I pose you an important question," he said quietly. "The whole team drove out for an hour, met the clients, built the shelf, carried all the equipment, set up all the cameras... and now you tell me we have no means of actually turning any of the monitors on."

"T-that wasn't in the form of a question, Naru... but yes..." she squeaked, already feeling half-dead from terror.

Naru pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sharp breath. "Since I wouldn't be able to monitor multiple rooms at a time, I expect you to patrol each room, observe it for at least ten minutes, and report any anomalies to the rest of the team. Every hour."

Mai's jaw dropped. "T-that's..."

"You'll be assigned five rooms to monitor out of the ten rooms total. Let's make it easy on you and have you be in charge of all the rooms upstairs."

"B-but that means I'll only have 10 minutes to myself per hour while we're investigating... Isn't that a bit too much? And I'll be doing it by myself?"

Naru was unmoved. "I get paid to do my job, Mai, which you somehow always manage to make more difficult to achieve than it should be. How do you expect me to work without my equipment? Those monitors are basically dead weight and useless now, not unlike someone on this team. So since you and the monitors are basically interchangeable at the moment, this arrangement will have to do."

Mai's lower lip trembled as she closed her eyes in defeat. When she opened them again, she mumbled dejectedly, "Yes, Boss... On it..." and she slumped out of the room, grabbing a nearby clipboard to jot down notes during her patrol. The rest of the team watched her pityingly.

Once she was out of earshot, Yasuhara asked, "Uhh... Doesn't Lin-san keep an emergency bag full of extra power cables in the back of the van? I'm sure those have at least six cables that can fit the monitors."

The entire group was surprised when Naru turned to them, sporting a smirk. "Let her ponder her mistake for a while. She must learn her lesson." Lin rolled his eyes and shook his head. Then, moving on to business, Naru ordered, "Matsuzaki-san, please prepare the charms for our rooms and the base as a precaution. John, Hara-san, do a walk-through of the house to get a reading. Bou-san, Yasuhara-san, I want you to walk around the property and see if there are suspicious areas nearby we can further investigate."

Yasuhara lagged behind and let the other teams filter out first, wanting to exchange a few more words with their deliciously sadistic boss. Once it was just him, Takigawa, Lin, and Naru, Yasuhara commented, "Shibuya-san, you sure love teasing Mai, don't you?"

Their almost-twenty-year-old boss didn't deign to reply.

"You know, I bet you won't be able to last 24 hours without teasing her in some form or another."

Takigawa chuckled. "It's not fun to make a bet that you know you'll win, Shounen."

"Well it's really a matter of self-control, Takigawa-san. See, I believe since we are talking about Big Boss here, that he might be able to control himself, but I think you might be right. It's too much of a temptation for him. What do you think, Lin-san? Do you think you'd take that bet?"

The tall Chinese man shook his head. "It is not fun to bet on something you know you'll lose against, either."

Yasuhara rubbed his chin. "Hmm... Both of your convictions are swaying my beliefs."

Naru sighed in irritation and looked scornfully at the three men before him. "I'm not impressed with your shameless attempts to provoke me."

"How about 10 hours? That's not still impossible, right?" Yasuhara continued, undeterred by his boss' pointed remarks. Both Takigawa and Lin still managed to look unconvinced.

"Fine," the young man spat coldly. "Ten hours without making a sarcastic remark toward Mai. Easy enough. If I am successful, I will dock both your pay for this month. This also means you'll get no commission on this case, Bou-san."

Lin raised his hand to stop him. "I have no wish to participate, Noll. Save your breath."

"You were so confident about your statement earlier."

"I will not be provoked."

The two British men straightened up to their tallest and faced off with a stare-down, but eventually, the younger man had to look away in irritation. Lin had never been easy to intimidate; he had been his teacher for all these years after all, teaching him how to control his emotions to put a lid on his oftentimes uncontrollable power. Obviously, Naru still couldn't hold a candle to Lin's impressive demonstration of his zen-like patience.

"Er, okay. So if Takigawa-san and I win-,"

"-Oi, oi, wait, Shounen. I never said I'll take the bet, either. Naru-chan has nerves of steel, you know."

"You know the urge to tease Mai will be too strong for him to resist, Takigawa-san."

Naru interjected sharply, "That remains to be seen."

Still, Takigawa insisted, "No, I think I'll pass."

Yasuhara shrugged. "Suit yourself. Well if I win, then you'll owe me, Boss."

Naru narrowed his eyes. "Owe you what, exactly?"

"A favor. I don't know what yet. It'll come to me. Deal? Or are you uncomfortable with agreeing to such a vague statement because you think you might slip up?"

Takigawa felt a shiver run up his spine as Yasuhara's bantering remarks were answered with the coldest, snidest, most deadliest smirk he'd ever seen on Naru's face, but strangely enough, Yasuhara appeared to be completely immune to it.

"Not at all, Yasuhara-san. I accept your terms," came Naru's deceptively polite reply.

Suddenly, a loud, thundering noise sounded and appeared to be fast approaching their base. For a moment, the men thought it was the knocking sound of a poltergeist haunting, but the door swung open violently and Mai's shrill voice tore through the air.

"NARUUU! YOU ASS! I just remembered Lin-san has that emergency bag in the van!" She stomped her way up to her boyfriend/boss and pointed at him accusingly, "You knew about that, didn't you! The moment I told you that I forgot it, you actually already knew we had the back-up, but you just wanted to make me feel bad about it. Didn't you?!" she pressed vehemently.

Naru held back the retort that was on the tip of his tongue, especially since he felt Yasuhara's smug look directed his way. He calmly took Mai's outstretched hand and gently set it down to her side and said neutrally, "I simply wanted to teach you an important lesson."

The girl rapidly blinked in confusion at the lack of nonchalant insults. "W-what?"

"Since you've had the chance to contemplate your mistake, grab a thermometer and we'll do a thermal sweep of the place." There was a thick silence in the room and no one moved a muscle.

He grabbed his black notebook and a pen before taking a few steps toward the door, but then turned around to address the men. "I don't pay you to slack off, Yasuhara-san. You and Bou-san best head out and do your job. Lin, make sure the monitors are already set up by the time we get back. Mai," he paused, "let's go."

Everyone was stunned speechless. Yasuhara inwardly cursed at first, but he wasn't yet defeated. It was still the beginning, after all.

-00-

August 02. 05:13 p.m

"Naru, are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine."

Mai continued placing paper plates and chopsticks all around their makeshift dining table so that once Yasuhara and Bou-san returned from picking up their dinner, they would be ready to eat right away. "Really? You're not acting like yourself."

Naru was currently in charge of monitoring the screens and kept his eyes glued to it like the workaholic that he was. Suddenly, he heard the microphone from Camera 4 pick up some strange screeching noise so he placed the headset on his ears and turned up the volume. It was muffled, but it sounded like a child screaming, just like what the client reported. He grabbed the handheld radio transceiver beside him. "John, Matsuzaki-san. You're the nearest ones. Head to the second room upstairs where camera 4 is located and investigate the origin of the screams that I'm currently hearing on audio."

The radio buzzed and John's static-laced voice replied, "On our way."

A few tense moments ticked by. Finally, it buzzed again. "We aren't hearing the sound anymore."

Naru clicked his tongue."Alright. Please resume your rounds. Lin, Hara-san, report your current location. I don't see you in the cameras."

"We were investigating the shed, but Hara-san is feeling light-headed now so we are heading back."

Naru breathed sharply and agreed before putting the radio down and pushing it away. Finally, he turned to Mai and replied, "I'm acting no different than usual."

"Earlier when I asked you what 'subjective apparition' was, you just explained it straight up."

"And that tells you there's something wrong with me?"

Mai pursed her lips. "Well, yes. Usually you'd make some sarcastic comment about my intelligence first, or something. In fact, you haven't said a single teasing word to me after I blew up on you this morning. You've been pretty tame."

He gave her a shrug but offered no other explanation.

"... Do you think I'm mad at you?" When Naru raised his brow at this, she emphasized, "No, Naru. I wasn't that mad at you. I know that was my mistake to begin with. I won't yell at you again for a while, I promise. So you don't have to be so afraid of making me mad, you know. I can never stay too mad at you."

Naru only pursed his lips and secretly bit his tongue. She thought he was afraid of making her mad? That was his favorite past time. His hobby. There was an art to it, and only he knew how to coax just the proper amount of anger in her without being downright abusive. He knew enough to make sure she'd never stay mad at him. When he didn't answer, Mai smiled kindly and made her way towards him.

But when she got nearer, as expected of his utterly clumsy, ditzy klutz of an assistant/girlfriend, her foot got caught on a cable cord that wasn't properly taped down and tripped ungracefully, falling face first. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, he caught her mainly with his lap, her face nearly crashing into his crotch. He sighed in relief at being spared the pain that could have caused.

He placed his hands on her shoulders as she lifted her head slightly and was surprised to find her eyes slightly misty. "Yowch, I hit my nose hard against your leg," she mumbled.

He moved his left hand to the top of her head and tilted it side to side to inspect if she had a broken nose, then, satisfied that no serious injuries were inflicted (on both of them), he smirked. "Of course, the day would never be complete without you getting injured on cases. It seems it doesn't even have to be ghost related. Deliberate self-infliction to make sure your streak isn't broken?"

Mai frowned. "What!"

"Are you going to stand up, or do you just love being in that position so much? I am afraid this is not the time nor place for such things," he teased provocatively.

"S-SHUT UP, NARU!"

Unfortunately for them Yasuhara and Takigawa were already at the hallway right by the door and heard the latest commotion. Yasuhara suddenly burst in the room, excitedly crying, "That is the unmistakable sound of Mai's righteous anger! That means Boss teased her before the 10 hours are up! I wi-oh?"

"Congratulations, Shounen! I didn't expect to-now wha-?"

The four of them stared at each other, frozen to their spot. Yasuhara and Takigawa's mouths hung wide open, staring in complete disbelief and shock at the scene before them. Naru was sitting with his legs slightly spread apart, with Mai on her knees and her head nestled suggestively nearby his crotch area. To top it all off, Naru's hands were placed on top of her head and shoulder.

"I've walked Hara-san to her room. Noll, the shed will need- WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" Lin roared, joining Yasuhara and Takigawa in their utter shock at the provocative display before them.

Mai quickly stood up and brushed her skirt, flushing a deep red and sputtering an excuse at their misunderstanding. "I-we weren't-it was an accident, really. I swear. We weren't doing-that you know-"

"I expected you both to behave better than a couple of crazed, hormonal teenagers," Lin began, but Naru cut him off coldly.

"It was an accident. She tripped and fell, and unfortunately I caught her that way. Spare us."

Takigawa raised his brow. "An accident? Well Jou-chan is prone to accidents."

"Bou-san! Jeeze!"

"It seems someone forgot to tape down the cables properly." Naru's voice was dangerously low and venomous. "Through someone's carelessness, Mai and I almost got injured."

Bou-san snickered. "You mean she almost smashed your jewels?"

Naru looked at him coldly and continued, "And resulted in putting the both of us in that humiliating situation. Was that not your responsibility, Lin?"

The Chinese man looked put-off and guilty. He coughed. "I... Yes. It seems I've been careless. I should have made sure the cables were properly taped down. I apologize, Taniyama-san," he gave her a low bow.

"E-eh? No, please, not at all. I'm fine anyway," she bowed back.

Yasuhara chirped gleefully, "Well now that all the blame had been settled, I would like to point out my resounding victory to everyone present. Thank you very much for playing and thank you Lin-san and Takigawa-san for being my witnesses." He winked toward his boss. "You now owe me, Shibuya-san."

Naru glared pointedly toward Lin, his eyes cold and sharp, baring straight into the onmyouji's soul. Even Lin felt a bit discomposed under this devastatingly deadly stare. Then Naru scoffed, rolled his eyes, and sighed in irritation before turning away wordlessly.

"Wait," Mai said slowly, utterly confused, "what bet?"

-00-Back to current time -00-

August 3. 02:10 a.m

"I think it isn't fair to assume the two of them are completely innocent when it comes to sex, Matsuzaki-san," Yasuhara admonished. "Have faith in our school system. Mai would at least be aware of how it works, and Boss is a smart fellow."

"We. Are. Not. Talking. About. Their. Sex. Life. Yasuhara-san," Masako gritted out.

"And I thought it was impossible for the lot of you to be any more shameless. Inappropriate conversations during the work hours is strictly prohibited. I should have thought that went without saying."

"Shibuya-san!"

"Naru!"

"Naru-chan!"

"Sweet Christ, that scared me." Ayako placed her mug down angrily.

Most of the irregulars, at least, had the decency to look somewhat guilty. However Ayako was staunchly unapologetic, while Yasuhara looked chipper as usual.

"Welcome back, Boss. How went the investigation?"

Naru walked toward the monitors and started shutting them off, Lin and Mai soon entering the room after him. He announced confidently, "The case has been solved. Begin packing up and we will report our findings to the client at the earliest convenience."

Bou-san stood up. "How? What did you find out?"

"The electrical sockets are connected in a ring circuit. If the shed nearby is wired that way, most likely the house is built the same. This kind of wiring generates strong EMF, and long exposure to these electromagnetic waves often affect people's senses, which likely caused these people to experience these subjective apparitions. It explains why different people report different ghosts showing up around the shed and some parts of the house."

"What about the sound of screaming children?" John asked. "You heard them earlier."

"When we stepped outside, we saw an owl fly out the attic window. Lin went to check it out and saw that it had nested its chicks there. Owlets shriek in a high pitch when they are hungry." The team looked both disappointed and impressed at this conclusion.

"Everyone, begin packing the equipment."

"Boss, it's not even 3 a.m yet. There's no point in packing now," Yasuhara observed. "If we pack now, we'll have to wait for the client anyway, and they won't be showing up here until 8 a.m. And maybe there might still be a ghost. We should leave the cameras running until the morning."

Naru sighed. "I am confident of my conclusions, Yasuhara-san. But I can't fault your reasoning. Very well. Everyone is dismissed until morning."

"We're hopped up on coffee, Boss."

Naru gave him a look that unmistakably said, 'I couldn't care less', before turning around to turn the monitors back on and sitting down on the seat. Knowing that watching the monitors would only waste his precious time, Naru decided to pull out his notebook and begin reading his previous case notes to prepare for his reports.

"Well what should we do to pass time?" Bou-san asked.

"How about we play a round of Truth or Dare?" Ayako suggested.

"Aren't you a little too old to be playing those kinds of games, Ayako?"

Thwak. "Woman! Have pity on my shoulder."

Yasuhara laughed. "I think that's a good way to pass time. We'll use this pen as our bottle. Will everyone be playing?" he asked the group. Everyone (except Naru and Lin, of course) nodded, even John. Perhaps, Yasuhara thought, the priest wasn't fully aware of what the game could truly be like. He looked to the two morose-looking people. "Boss, you playing?"

Naru ignored him and simply flipped the page on his notebook. Mai shrugged and asked rhetorically, "Really, you expect him to play?"

Yasuhara snapped his fingers. "Remember that favor you owe me? I think I'd like to make use of it now. Come, Boss. Play!"

Takigawa chuckled. "You sure you want to waste your favor on something like this?"

"Eh, it's the perfect time to call in that favor." When Naru didn't budge, Yasuhara readjusted his glasses. "Now, now, Shibuya-san. I had thought you'd be a man of your words. We did make that bet after all. And I won." Naru stared at him and he stared back unflinchingly. Finally, he grinned and said simply, "Deal's a deal, Boss."

The raven-haired boy sighed in defeat. He had no choice. While still holding on to his notes, he stood up and approached group, but before sitting down he glanced at the Chinese man and said, "Lin, it seems I've been coerced to join a game." His tone was full of unconcealed disgust. "Wouldn't you like to join in?"

Lin, knowing that Naru held him responsible for his current situation (and because he really was a decent human being), felt guilty and had no choice but to agree with the farce, despite not wanting to.

Naru settled himself in his seat, with Mai and Lin flanking him on either side. He opened up his notebook again and continued reading where he left off.

"Alright," Takigawa said, rubbing his hands eagerly. "Let's play! I'll spin first."

A/N: Strange cliffhanger... Up next: John is mortified!

Confused about Naru's status? Naru finally decided to go back to England to finish up his PhD degree. So in September, right before turning 19 and before their 1st year anniversary (which is Christmas!), Naru left for school. He came back shortly during Christmas break, then went back to UK again. So he had just finished his first term and is currently on his 1st summer break. He and Mai are almost 2 years together. In his absence Madoka takes over the office, and whenever he comes back, they switch. Madoka goes back to England for her break. Lin always comes back with Naru and the duo participates in field work until it's time to leave again.

I would be greatly honored if you people left me some reviews! Thank you for reading!