Naru sighed in relief shutting the door behind Mai as she left the house. The gang had insisted upon a Christmas party at the office and by the time it ended it had started to snow. Mai had stayed behind to help clean up after the party and when they were finally ready to leave the snow had gotten bad making driving tricky. Len wasn't sure if they would be able to make it home through the storm so Mai offered to go with them instead of flying back home herself.

She was able to use her magic to clear the roads directly in front of the van so Len could navigate the roads back to their house. Upon arriving Naru felt obligated to offer her a cup of tea for having gotten them home. So she stayed a bit to drink her tea and talk to him before just now leaving insisting she would be fine flying through the snow it wouldn't bother her too badly and she could always move above the clouds if it got to bad.

Naru settled down on the couch with a book not tired enough to go to sleep yet so he choose to read instead. It was nice and toasty warm inside with the heat on he still didn't fully understand how Mai could be more at home outside in the snow then inside. He still didn't have a full grasp on her powers and they kept evolving and changing so it was hard to keep track of everything.

It was a couple hours later that he heard a sharp rapping on the door. Frowning he looked up wondering briefly if he ignored the noise would go away. Len stuck his head in as the rapping sounded once more. Sighing Naru got up and trudged to the door opening it to see who it was.

To his surprise it was Mai. She stood there on his door step fully transformed in her advance state her fur cloak drawn tight around her to keep out the wind that was blowing harshly and threatening to knock the girl over. When a extra strong just of wind blew her into him he wrapped an arm around her and drew her inside closing the door to shut out the cold.

"Mai?What on earth are you doing back here?I thought you were going home?" He asks her sitting her down on the couch as she shook snow off herself. "I tried to but this storm won't let me. I didn't get very far either and this wind just grew stronger the harder I tried. After crashing for the third time I took a hint and back tracked here." She explains actually giving a shiver.

"You crashed?!" Len asks in surprise and concern moving over with a cup of hot tea for the girl. "Yeah three times. I didn't get far when I crashed the first time into a snow drift luckily. I got up and manged to eventually get back into the air. I got a bit further before crashing again this time into the street which is impossible to drive on now. There were no cars luckily nor any plows." She sipped her tea grateful for something hot for once.

"It took me even longer to get back up into the air again I had to clear as much snow in a long strip as I could and run as fast as I could to try and get into the air before more snow covered my runway. It was really coming down fast by that point making it insanely difficult to see let alone fly. I tried to get above the clouds but the snow was weighing down my wings making it hard to move them. No matter how many times I shook the snow off them." She rustled her wings glancing over her shoulder as if to ensure they were no longer covered in the heavy snow that had made it impossible for her to fly.

"My wings started to freeze up by then my muscles not wanting to move I was getting cold and my wings hurt so I stopped and transformed using my powerup transformation since my clothes are warmer like that. It worked somewhat I was able to get higher and further along like that but I was still a long ways away from the school or any of my friends houses. It was then that I crashed again." Naru and Len listened on in horror as she described her fight to get home they knew it was bad when she got cold and her muscles froze because of it. She was normally perfectly at home in the cold but not tonight.

"I was trying to fight my way through the clouds but they were so thick and heavy. Filled with so much snow I couldn't get through them. My wings froze up while I was part way through a cloud and I started to fall I couldn't get my wings to work at all I barely manged to get them tucked in before I crashed. I wasn't so lucky that time. I hit some trees crashing through some woods getting scratched up by the branches before I hit the ground." She removed her cloak so they could see that her shoulders and arm were covered in scratches from the tree branches as she had fallen.

Len went to go get the first aid kit to treat her wounds while she continued on with her story. "I chose to turn around by then shifting into my fox form to get out of the woods before shifting back and trying to fly again this time low. I crashed several more times before giving up and shifting back into my fox form again deciding that it was better to take it more slow on the ground then risk crashing again. I finally made it back here though. And I don't think I'm going to be going anywhere anytime soon that storm doesn't want me to. I can't get a hold of any of my friends either. So I'm kind of stuck here in the mean time until this storm subsides enough for me to make it home."

She finished telling her tale as Len finished dabbing at her wounds with alcohol. "Thank you." She says with a grateful smile to the man who simply nodded as he went to put away the kit. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience I'm causing you if the storm lets up sometime soon I''l head back out I don't mean to cause you trouble." She says giving a bow to him.

"Don't be stupid." He growls at her feeling awkward and frustrated with her for being stupid enough to keep trying to get home through this bad of a storm when she kept crashing. She was hurt and covered in wounds because of her own stupidity and because he didn't insist she stay the night like he should have.

It was freezing outside and storming pretty bad but he had let her leave anyways and now look at her. Sitting there huddle up under her cloak which she had put back on nursing a cup of tea or what was left of it anyways. She looked cold and miserable as well as in pain from her wounds.

He felt guilty for letting her leave like that and for not making her stay here with him where it was safe and where he could make sure she didn't get hurt. He hated seeing her bleed. Knowing she had gotten hurt upset him but knowing she got hurt and he could have prevented it tore him up inside.

"You aren't trouble or a burden or anything your the one who got me and Len home without crashing ourselves its not that big of a deal for you to stay the night. And you will stay the night not just wait for the storm to let up. You can sleep on the couch we'll produce some extra pillows and blankets for you so you'll be comfortable. And more tea." He says firmly taking her now empty cup and going to refill it.

Mai blinked shocked by Naru's tone of voice and the way he was acting it was almost ...nurturing in someways almost as if he was caring for his girlfriend. She had to be dreaming. That's it she was lying passed out in the snow somewhere after crashing again and was dreaming. But ohh what a fabulous dream it was. "If I am dreaming please don't wake me up." She murmurs

This drew a slight chuckle out of Len who brought her some blankets and pillows for her. "He's worried about you. Although he isn't happy about it he is worried. He worries a lot about you in particular and the risks you take." He tells her with a smile. "Len that's enough not another word out of you." Naru says sharply coming over with a mug of what turned out to be hot chocolate.

Mai breathed in the delicious scent before downing the rich chocolaty liquid nearly scalding her tongue in the process. "I thought you only drank tea?" She asks when she had finished the cup of coco. He took her mug from her turning his head away with a muttered "You said you liked hot chocolate better then tea the last time you were here so."

Mai couldn't help but giggle noting that his ears were red meaning he was blushing. The last time she had been over which had been when she had fallen ill during a case and brought here afterwards she discovered several things about Naru like how he liked to decorate his bare looking room with pictures of his parents and Gene as well as pictures of the gang taken during various cases. What surprised her most was he had all kinds of shots of her and her alone.

She had been secretly thrilled to know he collected pictures of her that she had the feeling her friends were providing him with. She also discovered that when he blushed which he rarely did he turned his head away so she couldn't see but she could still see his ears and they were always red. She still thought it was rather cute.

"Thank you." She says deciding to work up the courage like she did the last time and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for everything." She says trying not to blush herself as Naru took her mug to refill it again while she set up the couch to sleep on. She gave him a grateful smile when he came back with her refilled mug curling up on the sofa with it savoring the richness of it. "Night." He says somewhat awkwardly his ears still red.

"Night Naru. Night Len." She calls as her mate left the room shutting out the light as he left. She finished her cocoa and settled down under the blankets her cloak wrapped around her still. She was tired and exhuasted from trying to get home in the storm and was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. She silently thanked her friend Cameron Guardian of Storms for the storm that let her stay the night at Naru's place. Even if Cam had nothing to do with it.