First Time for Everything
"Mai, Tea." Naru barked from his den.
It was a good thing that he did, too, or Mai may have never heard. Today, the entire cast of ghost hunters were in the building, each had claimed Lin called and told them to come, but the problem wasn't that they were there; it was the noise they were making. Bou-san and Ayako were fighting; Madoka and Yasu were laughing loudly about something, Mai suspected it was one of Yasu iffy plans, and somehow, in all the noise, John and Masako were keeping a quiet conversation amongst themselves.
She opened the door to Naru's office. She expected to see him flipping through a file or reading a book at his dimly lit desk with his back to the closed window shades directly facing the door, but instead he was standing in front of his bookshelf. He appeared to be deciding which to pull out of the neatly ordered rows. Not the rarest of sites but still considerably low on the list of things she expected to see Naru doing when she open the office door.
"Um, Naru?"
"Yes?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the old spines, some dating back before Mai's parents were born.
"Have you accepted a case and not told me about it?"
"Mai, if I had accepted a case, you'd be the second or third person to know."
"Huh?"
He had found the book he wanted and pulled it out.
"Really, Mai, must I explain it to you?"
"Yes, because I'm so stupid," she stated sarcastically.
"Yes, you are," he sighed and sat down. "I'd be the first to know, obviously, and the client would be the second and you would be the third." He turned the page, how was he reading and being arrogant at the same time? Mai wondered. "Unless you are sitting with the client and me or the one convincing me after the client has left, like you often try to do."
"Oh."
Naru, flicked his eyes to the empty cup and back to Mai as if to say, 'aren't you going to take that?'
Mai grabbed the cup by its rim and huffed on out of the room, leaving Naru smirking to himself.
Mai was annoyed, really annoyed. She was annoyed with the way Naru talks, with the commotion in the building and the fact that she had to walk though that commotion to get to the kitchen to fix tea for the arrogant addict! Normally, she'd welcome the noise as a way to escape from boredom and annoy Naru at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone. But today it didn't seem to bother him and the team just kept looking at her funny, as if they knew something she didn't and when she would ask they'd claim 'nothing'. And now even Lin had ventured out of his hiding place and was talking to Madoka happily.
Since she was already at it, Mai decided she'd ask the group if they wanted any tea as well.
They all replied they did, much to Mai's dismay because she'd have to use all the cups they had AND carry them back out to the other room.
Finding a little bit of quiet in the kitchen, she relaxed. It's wasn't that bad; it was a nice change from the silence of everyday office life, not that she wanted it to remain this way, no, even Mai likes quiet some of the time.
She sighed, a little bit off Naru seems to have rubbed off on me, she thought as she got the ingredients out.
As the tea brewed, she thought of how much has happened over the years. If someone had told her three years ago that she'd be telling ghost stories with her classmates one night and using her dreams to hunt them the next, she'd say they were crazy. But here she is, hunting ghosts with her friends, in love with her arrogant boss, and talking to his dead twin brother in her sleep.
The kettle whistled and she started to pour, leaving Naru's used cup in the sink in hopes that she miscalculated and silently scolded herself for breaking so many over the years and failing to replace them.
Lin walked in, surprising Mai a bit. The kitchen is one of the last rooms she expects to see him willing walk into. Actually, it was strange for him to leave his computer for any reason other than assisting Naru or interviewing a client and even then the computer usually went with him.
"Yes, Lin?" she asked, recovering from her moment of shock.
"Just came to help carry the cups," he said.
"Oh, thanks, can you teach Naru that?" she joked. "Almost done."
7 cups, I guess I'll have to wash out Naru's out then, she thought.
She grabbed the cup and heard a rattling.
Curious, she looked at where it was coming from and gasped.
The cup had been washed out and placed inside was a ring.
She took it out and examined it. A gold band, laced with small diamonds. It sparkled in the light.
She turned to Lin, who had decided to continue filling the unfilled cups. He smiled and nodded at her.
Her face lit up and she smiled bigger than she had in years.
She slipped the ring on (finding it fit perfectly), poured what was left of the tea into Naru's cup and tried to put on the straightest face she could manage. She had to settle with a small smile, which twitched at the edge of her lips in its struggle to spread from ear to ear.
Walking to Naru's office had never taken so long before. Had she really taken the trip between Naru's office and the kitchen a hundred times before? It seemed miles away now. Covering that distance would take ages; she couldn't help but walk a bit quicker than usual, not acknowledging the faces that turned to look at her as she passed them.
As she closed the door she heard a cheer, signaling Lin had brought both the tea and the good news they were all there waiting for.
Naru looked up from the file he was staring at and up at Mai, or rather Mai's hand and how it glinted even in the dimly lit office.
He got up and walked over to her, a hint of a smile played on his lips.
"I guess that means you accept?"
She nodded and smiled.
"So you're finely at a loss for words." He took the cup and set it down on the desk untouched, and inched closer to her, "I should have should have asked you to marry me a long time ago."
"Yea, you should have, idiot."
And that was the one time he ever rewarded such a comment with a kiss.
Haha, wasn't that fun? I liked it, or... at least enough to write it. I was thinking to myself about Naru and Mai and the thought crossed my mind "If Naru was going to propose to Mai, how would he do it? Surly he wouldn't get down on one knee." And thus this baby was born. I only spent a day writing it and a few hours editing so it's not the cleanest of projects but I still wanted to write it and post it. Oh and before the noise makers left, Bou-san taped a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on Naru's door. And they all snuck out unheard. Happly ever after