A/N: Thank you to all that reviewed! This is a whole new story by the way, my prequel and sequel to "Lost Before the Dawn" are still in the works at the moment! I wanted to finish this story first before I started the others!
Mai awoke the next morning to not much better circumstances as she had seen the day before. Once again she had a restless night in which she got little sleep and of course she was running late to the office. Rather than taking the risk of burning down her apartment by making breakfast, Mai skipped it all together…an act that she was sure she would regret later. Making things worse she had failed to plan ahead the night before and did not pack a single thing for the investigation.
Mai ran around her small apartment frantically throwing things into a backpack. Undoubtedly, she would forget something, or many things as it were, that she would desperately need. She jetted out of her apartment thankfully remembering to lock the door and have her key in her pocket. Things might just be going better today…
As her foot hit the second step of the flight of stairs leading down she vaguely thought, 'Nope…not better at all…'
In her haste to leave Mai was traveling down the steps at too fast a pace and slipped when her sore ankle was taxed with too much pressure and gave way. Mai fortunately had been holding onto the hand rail when she fell so she only succeeded in crashing to her butt and sliding down about four or five steps before coming to a stop. 'Great…now I am going to have a bruised butt…just what I needed…' Mai thought darkly as she stood and rubbed her sore bottom. The fall was defiantly going to leave a mark.
True to her misfortune, Mai arrived late to the office. She immediately knew it was going to be bad when she saw that the van was all packed, ready and waiting. Even Bou-san's car was parked next to it neatly packed with the luggage and carry bags. Mai shuttered at the sight and slowly made her way up to the office; there was no reason to hurry after all considering there was going to be no way out of the impending doom that she was going to face from her boss.
Mai trudged up the stairs and reluctantly opened the door to the office. She didn't bother to say anything as she entered, considering nothing was going to save her now. Sure enough, as soon as she walked through the threshold she was faced with a mass of bewildered gazes and one single glare that was burning holes through her head. Mai wondered briefly what Naru would do with such a power; burning holes in people with that evil glare of his…probably use it to kill idiots like her.
"I had a bit of trouble getting here…" she didn't have a chance in hell of finishing for Naru verbally jumped on her before she could really even start.
"Do you realize what time it is, Mai?" he asked in a cold, dark tone. Mai flinched but responded.
"Yes…" she answered shyly.
"And you did know what time to be here by, correct?" He shot her more death glares.
"Yes…" she scoffed a bit.
"So, please enlighten me as to why you were unable to match the two and be here on time." He crossed his arms authoritatively awaiting her answer.
'Jerk' Mai thought heatedly as she tried to quickly come up with an excuse that would work. She had none. Anything that came to mind she knew would be shot down instantly and would only further his session of harassing her. He would call her an idiot and then probably make some comment about her staying in school so that she didn't degrade into more of an idiot and so on and so forth. Mai huffed. There was no way she was going to give him the pleasure of that.
"I don't have a reason why I am late…" she smirked, "but I thought you would have discerned the reason for your self while you were driving me home last night. I mean you clearly saw…that" her smirk widened as she emphasized the word 'that' and shot a triumphant glance as Masako who was probably snarling or something akin to it behind the sleeve of her kimono.
Naru's eyes widened the slightest bit. 'This girl…' he thought with a grin while looking at his battle ready assistant. She knew how to rile him up like no one else could. "Hmmm…" he smirked back, "I suppose you did but I was under the assumption that it was not so great as to cause you delay this morning…" his grin deepened, "but I suppose for an idiot like you it can. Get to the van; you have wasted enough of our time." He inwardly smiled at her reaction. She always had the greatest reactions to his antics, 'Cute…' he thought as he watched her mouth drop open and stare at him dumbfounded. That expression fell as her anger rose flushing her cheeks with bright red and her face pouted while she clenched her fists. He didn't tease the girl for nothing…
"Ah…gr…Naru!" she attempted to shout but the others effectively silenced her as they grabbed her and headed out the door.
"Easy there Mai-chan" Bou-san patted her head as they made their way to the vehicles, "we still have a long drive ahead of us. It would be a shame to lose either of you before we even got there!" he smiled at her warmly.
"Yeah, yeah I get it" she huffed angrily. She was still mad and still really wanted to hurt her arrogant boss. Just the sight of his cool, collected, and absolutely gorgeous face pissed her off.
"Now, now Mai…" Ayako was suddenly at her side whispering in her ear while leaning on her shoulder, "what happened last night after we left?" she sported an eager expression. Mai immediately blushed which only increased the caddy miko's curiosity.
"N-nothing…" Mai stuttered out before she rushed off towards the van where she would be riding with Lin and Naru leaving Ayako behind to fester her interest with Masako, John, and Bou-san.
Lin watched what had just transpired with a bemused expression. He knew that the miko would be relentless until she got to the bottom of what had happened the night before. In truth, nothing had happened. He knew since he was the one who drove. Mai apparently had hurt her ankle earlier in the day and Naru requested that they drive her to her apartment. Once in the back seat of his car she had fallen asleep against her window, softly breathing clouding up a small circle on the glass. Only Lin knew how his boss looked at the girl when he thought no one was looking.
That night Naru had gently awoken the girl, though she still seemed to be mostly asleep when he had helped her all the way to her door and even guided her safely inside and to her bed before returning back to the car. Yes, Lin knew all too well how the boy looked at her when she was not around to see…
Lin sighed as he saw the girl rushing towards him; she really shouldn't be pushing that ankle so much. He slipped into the driver's seat and watched as she hopped up into the passenger seat and smiled at him before sliding over to sit in the middle spot of the bench seating. Naru soon followed and sat next to her before he closed the door and they were off.
Mai had long since gotten used to the awkward drives that awaited her on investigations. She had learned that conversation, well engaging conversation anyway, was impossible and she no longer even attempted it. She also picked up that use of the radio was apparently forbidden. So for trips like this Mai always packed her trusty MP3 player to keep her occupied while staring at the passing scenery while Naru miraculously was able to read a book or some other material that probably related to work in some way or the other.
Yep, this day was no better than yesterday. She forgot her music player…it was like she was dead in the water so to speak. She had no idea what to do with her self now. She turned this way and that but could find no way out…no way to alleviate her growing boredom. She started to fidget and squirm in her seat which finally gained the slight attention of the boy sitting to her right.
"If you have to go to the bathroom, we are not wasting time to do so. You should have gone before we left. Since you were so inordinately late, I would have imagined that you would have done so in that time…" he said condescendingly. She blushed immediately and Naru smiled on the inside. Lord knows he loves that expression.
"I don't have to go to the bathroom!" she shouted rather forcefully at him causing him to raise an eyebrow at her.
"Then, pray do tell, what is the matter?" He asked in the way that meant he really didn't care to know but if she was going to keep up her annoying actions he might as well hear the reason way.
"I…have nothing to do…" she looked at him seriously. "I forgot my music player…and so…um…"
"Here" he shifted over a stack of papers on to her lap. She looked down at them with surprise and he smirked. This was going to be entertaining. "You can read those in preparation for the case since you are bored" he grinned knowingly as she started at them in shock. Much to his surprise, and disappointment in lack of resistance, Mai complied without much fuss and started to shift through the papers silently.
Just as Naru had predicted, it was only a matter of time before Mai's head nodded forward as she tried to continue reading the pages of the text and was asleep. Naru easily caught her before her head drifted forward and hit the dash…she didn't need any trauma to her head since she needed all the brain cells she could get.
Lin smiled softy to him self as he pretended to be paying attention to the road. He watched in amusement as Naru debated with him self on what to do with the sleeping girl he had caught with his free arm. Let her rest back on the seat? No, she would probably fall forward. Let her rest on Lin? No, he was driving. Lin watched out of the corner of his eye as Naru finally came to the only logical solution; let her rest sleeping against him. Naru's face and inner contemplations were so amusing Lin almost chuckled out loud but held it in as he watched his young boss shift the sleeping girl so that she was lying on her side with her head resting in his lap.
Satisfied with the solution and the position the girl was in; Naru resumed his research and pretended as if nothing had happened at all. It remained this way for almost two hours of the ride and all was peaceful. With a little over an hour left until they reached the inn Mai became restless and started to mumble and stir. This had startled Naru but he refused to let it show and tried to remain indifferent. It was not long after that Mai tossed in such a way that she hit Naru hard with a curled up fist directly in his crotch.
Lin watched as the boy immediately stiffened and groaned hoarsely at the pain of the impact before trying to settle back down. He still wore a pained and shocked expression when he tried to take the sleeping girl's hands into his own to prevent the occurrence from happening again. He would like to have kids some day, and after that blow he was debating how many more like that he could take before that dream became impossible.
Luckily for the men the remaining hour of the trip was uneventful and quiet. Mai began to wake shortly before pulling into the inn and Naru quickly returned her to her original position before she even realized she had been sleeping in any other spot than what she was. Naru smirked at his ruefulness as he saw Mai's dazed expression as they parked the van and opened the doors to exit.
"Mai" Naru called as he exited the van, "stop wasting time and start unloading." He grinned as she looked around confused before he watched as realization washed over her and she all but fell out of the van in her haste to do as he had ordered. Naru made a mental note to watch what he said in the future to take her injury into account.
A/N: Well, there you have it! Please review! The actual plot will start in the next chapter! DUN DUN DOOON! The CASE!