**NOW EDITTED

Yo everyone, sry anout the long time b/w updates, I know that I promised to update soon, but with the end of the school year coming up I've had a lot of work to do and I have been getting ready for exams next week! So SORRY!

As for a disclaimer...do I really need it? alright...I OWN NOTHING! Hear me lawyers? I said NOTHING, N-O-T-H-I-N-G! NO suing the author PLZ!

Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers, ya'll are the best! This is for you!

(w/Lin yay)

SQEEK, SQUEAK, SQUEEK...

Lin sighed in utter boredom, he could hear the squeaking of Naru's chair and decided that he would burn the accursed object before it drove him mad. He paused from his continuous typing to rub his temples in a failed attempt to combat the incoming headache. He really wanted some tea, but Taniyama-san wasn't in yet.

Annoyed, he glanced up at the clock on the wall through the veil of his hair. Hmmm, she was really would yell at her again, she would sulk again, and the tea would be cold before she remembered that Lin had nothing to do with Naru's behavior. This was work. Lin smirked, he had one hell of a job, babysitting the two lovesick children.

The Chinese man grinned in amusement, this was what happened when you leave a man to himself for hours on end, he starts to make jibes about the people around him. He resumed his typing unconsciously. Naru could be so foolish sometimes. He didn't seem to quite grasp what it was he felt for the young girl who worked for him. Lin actually found it highly entertaining.

Things had changed since Mai joined SPR, even Naru had to admit that the office seemed brighter. Of course, the yellow pillows helped. She had put yellow pillows on the couch and had actually tried to put them on his chair before he put a stop to it. No one touches his chair.

Absent-mindedly Lin ran his fingers lovingly on the leather armrest of his favorite chair. It was the perfect amount of squishy to keep his bottom from getting uncomfortable after hours of typing. Oh Squishy, I love you.

Lin shook his head, this was the problem when you were left alone for a long time, you thought random thoughts...oh well, it's inevitable. He swiveled (hell, I can't spell that) his chair to look out the window, searching the streets for their wayward employee. If anyone had looked in at the scene they would have seen a tall Chinese man looking rather sternly out the window, but if they looked harder they would have seen the softening around his eyes.

Lin had found the object of his thoughts. He could see young Mai running along the sidewalk at a breakneck pace. Amused at her obvious panic, he continued to watch her approach. She bumped into a man and stopped. Lin became concerned when she didn't turn around, she just froze. The man she ran into put a hand on her shoulder and her face seemed to drain of blood.

Lin frowned. He sent his Shiki out and received just the glimmer of their answering warning before Mai collapsed. He shot to his feet, his squishy chair crashing to the ground. "NARU!"

(w/ Naru)

Naru didn't know what to expect when Lin yelled his name, but having the Chinese man literally drag him out of the office in a blind frenzy was not it. Then again, neither did he expect the sight of his young part-timer passed out in the center of a mob of people on the sidewalk. At this point he pulled himself out of Lin's grip and pushed through the crowd to the girl's side. An older man was crouched down next to her, his fingers at the hollow of her throat, checking her pulse.

"What happened here?" Lin's every steady voice cut through the muttering of the gathering like a knife.

A fat man from the fruit stand answered, "Noth'n, th' gahl jus collapsed thar, bu' she seemed ta be in a 'urry to someplace."

Naru ground his teeth together in annoyance, that told him nothing. Meanwhile, Lin bent down as if to pick Mai up, but Naru frowned and waved the man away before snatching her up himself.

Lin nodded, bemused, but Naru missed the look in his eyes as he was already walking away. (Here I use the word walking, but it was really on the verge of running)

Lin turned to catch up, but was stopped by an old woman with thick glasses and wispy grey hair, "Young man, that lady dropped this."

She handed the Chinese man a white grocery bag that he took before turning to follow his young boss. Naru was already half way down the street and moving so fast that he'd reached the door far before Lin had a chance to reach him.

Naru glared at the door that blocked his path, but he couldn't open it without dropping the unconscious girl, and while the more wicked part of his mind contemplated doing just that to see if it woke her, the more sensible side won out. He had to content himself with sending a look of vexation over his shoulder to 'encourage' Lin to hurry up.

Part of Naru noticed to amused smirk that his associate sent him, but he pointedly ignored it in favor of being the better man and rushing through the newly opened door with his precious burden. He paused only to brush away the vibrant yellow pillows before laying Mai down on the couch. At that point he stepped back and let Lin take over.

He watched as Lin took her vitals and felt an uneasy fluttering in his chest as a frown of concern crossed normally passive features. For lack of anything better to do, Naru paced, back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth again.

(w/Lin)

Lin was concerned. He checked Mai's pulse, noting that it was weak and thready. He frowned when a thin sheen of sweat was seen on her overly pale cheeks. Her hand was clammy to the touch and her temperature seemed to be dropping by the second. When she started to shiver he began to curse the lack of a blanket. He turned away from her to search for a makeshift cover to warm her when black cloth was shoved into his grasping fingers.

Naru had seen the dilemma and had recognized the need for warm the so he had sacrificed his own trademark black jacket. No sooner had Lin covered the trembling girl in the black material still warm from Naru's body heat, than Mai began to whimper and beads of sweat broke out on her body. Both men were alarmed when the drops froze on her skin and her lips began to turn blue.

"Naru," Lin's voice was urgent, "we have to wake her up, now!"

(w/ Naru)

Wake her up? How the hell was he supposed to do that? For once, Naru was at a complete loss of what to do, "Mai!" Naru settled for the old tactic of yelling and shaking.

His hand settled on her shoulder as he tried to jostle the young woman to awareness. "Mai! Mai!" His voice grew in volume and his shakes became harder, "MAI!"

She shook violently in his grip and her lips parted slightly. The whisper of a name seeped out, "n...na...naru..." Tears froze on her cheeks. Naru, in a moment born of sheer desperation, slapped her forcefully across the face.

Her brown eyes shot open and she bolted upright. She held Naru prisoner in her gaze for the breath of time it took for him to realize that their faces were nearly touching, and that her full lips were mere inches away from his own before her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she went limp in his arms. If Naru was a lesser man he would have been blushing, also if he were a lesser man the sight of her tantalizing lips would have been far too tempting.

Fortunately (or rather unfortunately in this humble author's taste) he was not a lesser man. Lin helped him lower Mai back down on the couch before checking her pulse again. Only when Lin reassured him that her vitals were returning to normal did Naru rise from his position. His back cracked as he straightened his spine prior to heading to his office door.

If Lin noticed that Naru left the door open and had moved his chair to within sight of the couch, he didn't mention it. Which, Naru noted, was most likely a good thing seeing as if he did he would probably find himself at the other end of Naru's wrath.

That is not to say that Lin didn't look amused, oh no, rather he looked quite entertained almost to the point that he couldn't contain a grin at his young boss' expense.

"Lin, tea."

All good humor disappeared from the man's face. The slam of the kitchen door was evident to his displeasure, but Naru just smirked, his eyes looking over a file to the couch and it's slumbering charge.

Mai would have a lot of questions to answer when she woke, but for now, Naru was contented to sit and watch over her, because even if she didn't know it, that's exactly what he planned to do for as long as he could. He planned to watch over her, even if she never knew it, he would always protect his angel.

Woohoo! There ya go! Chappie 2 is done! I hope you all liked it, it was hard to write and revise!

Now warning you, for the next couple of weeks it may be difficult for me to update what with the beginning of Summer Break and all, but rest assured I will not stop this story, it's too fun to write!

Leave me reviews and I will grow stronger and better!

Luv ya,

Blood