I am so sorry for this piece of crap, guys.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or Kuroko no Basuke.
Chapter 2: The Male Hoard
"Mai!" Monk shouted happily, enveloping the smaller girl in a huge bear hug, crushing her to his chest.
The air exited her lungs in a huge gust, leaving her gasping. "Hi Monk, can't breathe," she gasped, her fingers twitching as they searched for the oxygen she couldn't find.
He grinned sheepishly, letting her slide to the floor. "Sorry, I was just so excited to see you. Haven't seen you in what? 2 months? Not since the wedding anyway. I missed you, my daughter," he cooed, ruffling her hair, "And how are my favorite twins?" He turned, opening his arms wide and letting the twins barrel into them.
"Oh, get off it!" Ayako shouted from across the room, struggling into a chair, her very pregnant belly hindering her flexibility. She couldn't tie her shoes anymore without help. "You've got your own daughter on the way."
"But Mai was my first daughter," he whined, standing while still holding the twins. They squealed happily, swinging from his muscles. Ayako rolled her eyes at the idiocy of her husband, rubbing a hand down her stomach. She dropped her eyes to her stomach, watching the foot of her child push against her hand.
"Mai, darling!" Yasu shouted, dropping down on Mai with a monster bear hug, lifting her and spinning her in a circle.
"Hi, Yasu!" she shouted back just as happily, choking him out as she tightened her arms around his throat. "You shouldn't do that. You nearly scared the ever living shit out of me," she ground out, smiling.
"Sit down and shut up," Naru ordered from his office, leaning against the door jamb watching the mayhem with bored eyes. The twins grinned, shaking their heads, still swinging from Monk's biceps.
"No can do, Naru-bou. I'm entertaining the kiddies," Monk replied, hoisting the pair up higher. He grinned, spinning around. "Which is your job by the way."
Naru rolled his eyes, turning back to disappear into his office when Lin grabbed his arm, turning him back to the sitting area. "Look after your children like a good parent," he chided before disappearing into his own office.
"Hypocrite," Naru muttered under his breathe, but dutifully dropped down into his chair and allowed Kamin to crawl into his lap. She squeezed onto the leftover cushion beside him, grabbing his hand and making it into an animal. Then she started fighting it with her own hand while making dragon noises.
"Who wants tea?" Mai called. She received shouts of "Yes!" from all around the room, the most enthusiastic coming from her pregnant coworker. Grinning, she quickly made a pot, setting tea cups full of steaming amber liquid in front of each of her friends starting with Ayako. "Always be nice to pregnant women even if you don't want to," Mai instructed Tamaki, passing the cups out one at a time.
"Why?" he asked, looking up at her with questioning eyes.
"Because they're making a baby, another little life," she said.
"Ooooh," he said, staring with fascination at Ayako before returning his eyes to Mai, "Are you pregnant?"
Mai and all of the other, including Naru, choked on the sip of tea they'd just taken. "Not that I know of," she coughed, rubbing at her forehead.
Sighing, she plopped down on the couch to Naru's right. Tamaki immediately made himself comfortable in her side, opening a book across his knees. They were quiet for a few precious moments, listening to Monk and Yasu argue over what Masako and John were doing, and Ayako tapping the keys of her cell, before the little troublemaker curled in Mai's side decided to as another question. "When are the people going to be here, Mom?" he asked, leaning his head against her shoulder.
All activity came to a grinding halt around them, but they didn't even notice. "I don't know. Whenever they want to, I guess. It's really up to them. It is kind of early though, so it might be a while," she explained, dropping her chin into her hand with her elbow on her knee.
"Woah, woah, woah, hold the phone! When did he start calling you 'mom'?" Monk asked, his eyebrows making close friends with his hairline.
Mai startled, staring at him with wide eyes. "Oh, um, this morning mostly, but they've been switching between my name and 'mom' for about a month now," she explained, pursing her lips and staring up at the ceiling.
"She has infiltrated!" Yasu and Monk cried together, throwing up their hands at the exact same moment.
Mai couldn't tell if that had been planned and rehearsed, but when they glanced at each other and broke down laughing, she knew it hadn't. She let the giggles contained in her chest bubble up, breaking through her lips as full-fledged laughter.
"Woah, it's really loud in here isn't it? Hey, this is Shibuya Psychic Research, right?" a female voice asked accompanied with the ringing of the doorbell.
Mai, Monk and Yasu tried to pull their laughter back in, but every time they went quiet, they'd burst out laughing only seconds later. Tears gathered in the corners of Mai's eyes as her sides began to ache. "Sorry, sorry," she gasped, waving at the group standing in the doorway.
They weren't paying any attention to the three laughing idiots though. "You idiot, why would even you ask that? It's right there on the door. Are you stupid or something?" the teen wearing thin glasses and sporting choppy black hair snapped at the girl in front with short, brownish red hair.
"Hey! I am still your coach!" she shouted back at him, shoving her finger in his face menacingly.
"Come on, you two, calm down. We came here to ask for help, not to get in each other's junk," yet another teen, taller than the rest with chocolate brown hair coaxed, dropping his hands down on their shoulders.
"Stay out of this, Kiyoshi!" the pair shouted together, glaring up at the taller teen.
"We aren't making a very good first impression. I'm sorry for the way my teammates are acting," a boy with strikingly ice blue hair murmured, bowing to Naru from where he stood behind Ayako.
She nearly jumped from her seat. "When and how did you get there?" she shouted in surprise, staring back at him with wide eyes.
They boy began to explain, pointing towards the door, but a huge hand dropped down on his head causing him to hunch slightly. The new male was definitely over six feet tall, just as tall as or taller than Lin. He had a mop of red hair that ended in black tips, and eyebrows that split off into two points. "Yeah, sorry about that. Kuroko does that a lot," the literal red head who could give Ayako a run for her money apologized, scratching the back of his head.
Mai, Monk and Yasu couldn't help but laugh harder at Ayako's predicament. They slid from their seats to the floor, slowly dying of laughter. She struggled to her feet, glaring daggers at her friends and husband.
Naru nodded to the blue haired teen, ignoring the two red-heads, his eyes burning with annoyance. "My employs are not making a nice first impression either," he replied, glaring at the three slowly crawling away to make room for the visitors.
A group of loud, rowdy boys crowded through the door into the space that made up the reception/interview area of the SPR office. It had never felt so packed. It seemed as if every square inch of space was filled by someone. Ayako, claustrophobia winning her over, took refuge in the kitchen, nursing a cup of tea she'd snagged from the tray before hiding.
"I'll get more tea," Mai choked out, snatching up the tray.
"I can help with that," Kuroko offered, but Mai turned the tray out of his reach.
"No, I've got it. Thank you though. You should stay in here for the interview," she replied kindly, smiling widely. As she waited patiently for the water to boil and attempted to figure out how many cups she needed to scrounge up, Naru began the questioning. She sat across from Ayako, giving herself the ability to glance around the door and see what exactly was going on.
The red-head had her head down on her arms, probably catching a small cat nap before they had to actually start doing anything. She was about two months outside her due date. Mai silently wondered why she even bothered getting up in the mornings.
…..
"My name is Riko Aida. I coach the Sieren High School basketball team. These guys make up part of the team," the female with the reddish-brown hair started, waving at the group of boys currently milling about the office.
Lin typed away at his computer, glancing up at the group with watchful eyes. "Why did you come to us?" Naru asked, his eyes glancing around at the teens every few seconds. He didn't feel as if they were any harm, but as a general rule, he didn't trust new acquaintances. He had Kamin and Tamaki tucked into his sides in his chair. Somehow, he still managed to look professional with two five-year-olds clinging to him.
"Well, you see, there've been strange things happening in our gym for a while now. It's nowhere else on campus, just our gym," Riko explained confidently, sitting straight in her chair.
"And you think it's a haunting?" Naru stated, leaning back in his chair. He didn't miss the way Tamaki went rigid beside him or how Mai peaked around the doorframe of the kitchen curiously. He slid his arm protectively around the boy's shoulder, pulling him closer into his side. "Strange things happen everywhere that can be explained by the simple settling of the building, the shifting of belongings, or electrical issues."
"Well, yeah, we all thought that at first…" Riko began, but another member of her team piped up, cutting her off. She shot a scathing glare towards him.
"Honestly, has anyone thought that maybe it's just Kuroko doing his creepy disappearing act?" the boy asked, "I mean, Aomine and the others thought he was a ghost haunting their gym before they found out it was just him." He looked kind of like a puppy which had Mai giggling all over again. She ducked back into the kitchen, snatching up the teapot as it began to scream.
A sharp slap echoed through the room, causing Mai to flinch in surprise and Ayako jolt upright. Mai hurried back out into the office where everyone had paused in shock. The teen wearing glasses had taken the initiative and given the other puppy faced teen a brain duster. "You don't think we've already thought of that, Koganei? You were there for the conversation, though you probably don't remember it because you were stuffing your face!"
"What?" Koganei asked stupidly, confusion twisting his features from where he was slurping down the tea Mai had just brought out. She laughed lightly, grinning at the teen.
"I think you better listen or you're going to get hit again," she advised, refilling his cup before taking the tray to the coffee table. The teen just shrugged, following after her. "We may both get hit," she whispered conspiratorially.
"I do not hit my employs," Naru shot at her, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, watching her intently.
"Not when clients are around to see," Monk called from the corner, grinning. Laughter went up around them, joined by the SPR team members that were present, save Naru and Lin, and the group of teens that had invaded their office.
Naru waited until the laughter had abated. "What are the occurrences?" he asked, rubbing at his forehead tiredly. He just wanted all these loud, rowdy males out of his office including half of the females. For once, Ayako wasn't the one giving him the headache. Lin shot him a sympathetic look, his fingers paused over the keyboard.
Riko cleared her throat, glaring at the members of her team with a look that clearly said, 'Shut up or die'. "Just little things mostly right now. Tricks that could have been pulled off by anyone, except for the fact that we videotaped the doors for three days in a row, and no one ever turned up, but all of my team's shoes were tied together and left in the middle of the gym floor. It took us two hours to untangle them all which are two hours we can't afford. We have a tournament coming up and we can't practice well if we're getting pushed down on the court during practice and itching powder is being dumped in our shoes."
Naru sighed, ruffling his hair. He glanced under his arm at Mai surreptitiously, allowing her to make the decision. She nodded almost imperceptibly, her lips pressed tight. She rubbed her hands against her thighs agitatedly when only moments before she'd been so carefree. Naru ran his hand back through his hair, pushing it back into place. "Fine, we'll take the case. We'll be there once you've cleared the investigation with your principal," he sighed, standing and making his way to his office with the twins in tow.
The team started to cheer, jumping all over each other. "Thank you!"
Mai was wrapped in a tight hug by at least half of the boys all at the same time. She laughed, wiggling her legs from how high she was. She was higher than ever, even compared to when Monk lifted her from the ground. She was dropped back, and the male hoard began to filter out, loud and delighted by their coach's success.
Two hands dropped on Mai's shoulders at the same time. Riko and Kuroko glanced at each other. "Give your boss our thanks please. He left before we could do it properly," Riko asked, smiling, turning and heading off before Mai could give her a proper answer.
"Thank you," Kuroko said as he watched his coach walk away.
"For what?" Mai asked, looking over at him.
"For convincing Mr. Shibuya. The others didn't see, but I did, so thank you," he said with a small smile. He turned and hurried to the door where the tall red head waited. They both waved to her, letting the door slam shut behind them.
Monk and Yasu bounded towards her, grinning widely. "They like you," they chimed in unison. Mai rolled her eyes.
Well, there you have it, the next chapter. I swear to all that is holy that it took me more than a week to write this thing and I have no idea why. Anyway, it's up. I'm hoping the next chapter will be easier to crank out. I think it might have something to do with the amount of characters I've decided to attempt to take on. This is going to be interesting -_-
I'll explain the whole Ayako-Monk-being-married-fiasco and how that came to be, maybe, sometime, I mean, it hasn't even been a year in the story. Only if you guys want me too though :P
P.S.- My Sherlock fic is now officially underway. I hope to have it to you by next week at the latest. I haven't started the newest C is for Change fic, but I'm sure I can whip something up for you guys. After that, I have another Hetalia fic that I actually have to proofread and post. Lots to do.