Chapter Four

A/N: Really sorry this took so long, and it's my most popular story too. Really, really, really sorry. I don't think this is my best chapter, but I had to finish off the last one.

Disclaimer: If I owned, I would not be currently trying to breed flies

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Naru allowed the door to click into place and stood there. He continued standing in front of the door in shock, his hand not leaving the door handle. His brain seemed unable to process the information he had just stumbled upon. After a few minutes of standing in front of his own office's door trying to sort out just what was going through his mind; he could hear a door inside the office open, the door that he was thankful had been closed when he'd opened the outer office door.

When he heard someone moving towards the door he was still holding, something in him brain finally worked, in fact it panicked. The fear of how red he would turn if either of the two people he was certain were currently occupying his office saw him caused him to let go of the handle he was gripping and flee the building.

Once he was in a near-by-park he stopped running and worked on willing his cheeks back to their normal color. After calming down a bit, in true Naru fashion, he started analyzing the situation. Starting at the beginning, Lin and Mai had developed a personal relationship. The sarcastic side of him thought that 'personal' didn't cut it, and should be replaced with 'intimate' or with something else entirely that indicated the fact that they were… he was not going to finish that thought. Continuing his analysis he thought that logically, it should not be all that surprising. They saw each other almost every day, had a good working relationship even with Lin's prejudice towards the Japanese, which could be evidenced in the fact that Lin had saved Mai's life quite a few times. All that was needed was physical attraction to get where they were.

However, it did not add-up because Mai was supposed to be in love with Naru. Her love was supposed to wait for… how long?

Naru suddenly wanted to stop thinking. He did not want to realize that he was jealous and that he had been especially selfish wanting Mai to wait until he had realized and grown more comfortable with the fact that he loved her, and who knows how long that would have taken without this forceful little push. And then there was the fact that he had never given Mai any encouragement or even hinted at his own feelings, and had in fact been driving her up the wall with his treatment of Masako, even though he really did not like the other girl.

He loved her. A part of him wanted to deny it still, but if Naru was anything, he was stubborn and once he realized it he would not lie to himself.

Continuing to walk in the park; Naru's next thought was "Have I lost her? Has all hope of being with Mai gone? Why did she and Lin get together? How long have they been together? Is Lin good enough for her? Why…"

The rate that the questions were flying through his head right after his ground breaking realization made his mind reel. However, the biggest one seemed to be, "Is there any hope of getting her now?"

Sighing he sat on a bench, holding his head in his hands. Thinking of the past few weeks, he discovered that Lin and Mai's behavior had changed, if looked at carefully. Then again, when Lin had so openly defended Mai against Masako, alarm bells had sounded in Naru's head, though at the time he did not know why. Now that he thought of it, for the past few weeks every time that Naru had gotten particularly sarcastic with Mai, Lin had stepped in.

Naru groaned. All the signs that something had changed were there, he had just been too self absorbed to realize it, Mai had really hit the nail on the head when she called him a… well, self absorbed super narcissist who would only realize something else if it hit him over the head and an idiot to top it off. But now that he knew what was going on with Lin and Mai, and now that he knew how he felt about it… what?

Nothing infuriated Naru more than, well Mai, and not knowing something. Not knowing what he should do in this situation was beyond frustrating. He knew what he wanted to do, he knew it very well, in fact he had known when he had been standing in front of the office door. He wanted to run in there and stop them, maybe fire one or both and make Mai his…

However, he knew that he could not do that. This led back to the question of what should he do. Deciding that this was not helping, he went home with the walk back filled with all the same questions.

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The next day, Naru could hardly look at Lin. Their morning routine was usual, but they never did interact during it. The ride to the office was quiet, as normal, and they walked into the building together, all normal to outward appearances.

Naru had wondered what time Lin had finally gotten home at, but stopped himself from wondering too much for fear of where his thoughts would lead. Lin himself was wondering just how many cups of coffee he would need to make it through the day. After Mai and he had their little tryst, she had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for him to finish his work. He then drove her home, which resulted in another half hour of kissing, not making it back to his own bed until long after Naru had fallen asleep.

The morning was uneventful, with the exception that neither man was able to concentrate, both of them having their thoughts filled with the same girl. Mai came to the office at her usual time, looking a little worse for wear from lack of sleep. As she went through her own routine, Naru actually came out of his office. He simply stood in the hall watching her as she put on a pot of tea and looked for any messages that he or Lin would have left her, telling her what she needed to do for the day. After she was done with this she turned and saw him standing there, it was such a surprise to her that she yelped.

"N-N-Naru! Why are you there?" She asked pointing her finger at him.

"Last I checked this was my office and I could stand anywhere I wanted to."

"Yes, but you never come out of your office unless… oh I didn't see any messages that we have a client coming today."

"We don't"

"Then why are you standing there? Are you not feeling well?"

Naru really wanted to smack her upside the head, but he realized that Lin would probably reprimand him for it and being scolded by the other man was not something he wanted to do. Instead he decided that sarcasm would work best.

"My health is fine, I simply wanted to make sure that you saw the note I left you about mailing those letters on your desk."

Mai reddened in her face, she had not gotten a chance to look at her desk for notes, just the usually places in the kitchen. Naru knew this since he had been standing there the entire time and was being unfair, even he realized it, but he reasoned that it served its purpose of getting her to stop being so damned concerned.

"I hadn't seen it yet, but I'll go check on it now." She managed to get out in an even tone.

Naru was surprised, she would usually yell, but then he noticed that she had looked behind him, so he glanced and saw Lin standing in his own office door. Naru glared and went back to his office, shutting the door firmly. Lin was a bit amused and surprised at Naru's reaction, but he instead turned to Mai.

"So it worked?"

"Thank you Lin for teaching me how to calm down."

Lin smiled a gentle smile and walked towards Mai. Once he was near enough he kissed her on her forehead, making her blush to her toes. It really surprised him that she was so innocent, after everything they had done the night before.

"You did a good job. Now we just have to teach him some manners."

"I thought that I was supposed to be the one to say that." Mai whined.

Lin laughed.

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The end of the day finally came and Mai skipped out of the office, after Lin had thoroughly violated her of course, with a smile on her face. Lin did not know what to do, something was up with Naru but he did not have a clue as to what. After awhile he just gave-up, deciding that Naru could tell him when he wanted.

When Lin heard the door to the office open he was a bit surprised, since they were not expecting anyone. Thus he made his way into the office to find Yasuhara standing in the middle of the waiting room.

"Yasuhara-san, is there something we can do for you?"

"Hello Lin-san, I just dropped by to return a book a borrowed."

"Oh"

"Is Mai around?"

"She left for the day."

"Too bad, I wanted to tease her a bit before I headed back to work on my papers again. How about Naru?"

"I believe he is in his office."

"Great, I borrowed the book from him anyways. Thank you Lin-san."

Lin watched the young man make his way to Naru's office. He did not even knock before opening the door, this made Lin smirk.

In the office it was going much the way that Lin was imaging and laughing at. Naru had glared at the smiling Yasuhara the moment the door was opened. He did not want someone like this to be around. Yasuhara seemed oblivious to the death glares he was receiving as he smiled brightly at Naru.

"So what crawled up your arse and died?" Ok so maybe Yasuhara wasn't that oblivious.

"Nothing. Why are you here?"

"I was returning this book, but you still didn't answer my question. You can't fool one of the best actors around, one which even you recognize the quality of."

"There is nothing wrong with me."

"Ok, since we are not in an honest mood let's guess… Well nobody's died… All body parts appear intact… so this must mean that it was something in a personal matter… Ah I know! One of the girls from your fanclub got a boyfriend!" Yasuhara had meant it as a joke, but the way Naru jerked at that let him know it was true.

"You have no guessing abilities."

"Yeah… right… So let's go with the fanclub idea," Naru twitched, "let's see, right now the only ones I know of in your fanclub are Mai and Masako. If it was Masako I think that we would have known by now, since she enjoys bragging so much, thus would have to be Mai." Another jerk, Naru was trying his best to not let it show.

Yasuhara continued, "Who would Mai like to go out with? Someone kind," jerk, "and caring" twitching was starting, "someone that goes to her school?" Naru was able to stay blank. Yasuhara was wrong and Naru was happy, though if Yasuhara had been right Naru may have stood a chance.

"Ok so not someone from her school… maybe someone she knows well and works with?" Tightening of the jaw and clenching of the hands let Yasuhara know he was right. "Well John is a priest, so he's out. Takigawa and Lin are both a bit old for her… she didn't decide to be a lesbian and her and Ayako?" The look of mock-horror that passed Yasuhara's face was hysterical, but once again he was wrong and he knew it by the way Naru just looked at him. "Ok, well Masako would be the only other one that she could do that with and with the way those two are I don't see them kissing any time soon, in reality at least." Naru just stared at him.

"So does this mean that John has decided to stop being a priest?" No response.

"Guess not, that only leaves Takigawa and Lin… I really can't see Takigawa…" No reaction.

"Lin on the other ha-" There were three jerks followed by several twitches and Naru was glaring rather openly at Yasuhara who currently had his mouth hanging open.

"No way! No Friggin Way!" Yasuhara sat on a chair and just stared at Naru.

"Man you must feel like shit." Naru looked a little confused at the Yasuhara for saying that.

"I am just trying to figure it all out." Naru replied.

"You could talk with them about it." Yasuhara suggested.

"No, they don't even know that I know."

"Well, I do understand how you feel. There was this girl in my first year of high school that I had the biggest crush on, thought I was in love, and she actually made me think that she liked me. But in the end she went out with the captain of the baseball team. Personally I find most women to be like that, Mai isn't and if I thought I had stood a chance against you I would have tried but…"

Naru looked at him, "That was not helpful."

"Sorry, but if you want to be cheered up I have a party I'm going to this weekend, going to be lots of beautiful and smart people, also going to be lots of easy-going, easy to get along with people. You should come. I think you should do your best to not think about Lin and Mai, and wait to see if it lasts. If it doesn't you have a shoe in and if it does you don't have to feel miserable for the rest of your life, you just have to find someone else."

Naru looked at the young man and thought that he finally found what he should do, which was a relief but also not since he did not want to do it. Deciding that Yasuhara was right in the end, Naru just let the other man talk, it was soothing on his nerves and helped him to relax. By the time Yasuhara had left they felt like friends, something Naru had never really experienced with someone his own age.

When Lin and Naru locked-up Naru looked to his companion.

"Aren't you going to go and see Mai?"

Lin stared.

"I know… I accidently overheard some of last night when I came back for a file."

Lin blinked, Naru looked uncomfortable, and Lin could only think of how mad and red and embarrassed Mai was going to be if she found out how Naru found out.

"Listen alright, I don't know what to do, I just realized that I L-L-Lo-like Mai and I do not want you to hurt her in any way. But if she has chosen you I won't get in the way." Lin blinked again.

"However, stop doing things in the office. You know my abilities and if I had accidentally gotten some of what you guys were doing I would not be happy ab-"

"You would not be happy about an orgasm?"

Naru blushed.

"Not in my office."

"Ok, but you have to tell Mai you know about us. I refuse to let her know that and be the one to receive her anger."

"Fine. Lin?"

"Yes?"

"If you ever make her unhappy I will take her away from you."

"Good, if I ever made her unhappy I don't deserve her."

The men looked at each other for a moment.

"If you need to spend the night over there to get some sleep just let me know so that I don't worry in the morning." Naru finally broke the silence.

"Good-night Naru."

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A/N: I have no idea where that end came from, sorry about the lack of, well, mature content in this one. The next one that I have planned out in my little mind should more than make up for it. I just had to torture Naru a bit, since I think he's an ass in the series when it comes to Mai… personal opinion, but I am still an avid Naru/Mai fan and yet I'm writing Lin/Mai… okay so I think I'll have to do a Naru/Mai one day when I have oodles of free time. Arg, enough from me, please review.