Chapter 8

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As we were almost to the tea aisle, we passed by another guy who just so happened to wink at me. Naru quickly pulled me closer to him.

I couldn't help but say, "Jealous are we, Naru?" Naru just scowled at me after he'd finished glaring at the guy who'd dared to wink at me. I just grinned.

"Doesn't feel good, does it?" I teased. We finally got to the tea area, thank god! Or that is what I would say until I realized that Naru was going to procrastinate over every last flavour of tea sold and question me on their benefits.

"Alright, pick the tea you want." I ordered him.

"I'm not sure what flavours I want." He said. I sighed. How was this a good idea again?!

"Please, Naru, for the love of God pick something!"

"Hmm..." He picked one called 'French Vanilla Chai.'

"How about this one?"

"That's fine. Whatever kind you want." I told him.

"Then maybe this one and this one too. Oh, and this one..."

"N-naru, I think that's enough tea now." I stuttered as he loaded my arms with more boxes of tea in different flavours.

"Nonsense, Mai. I must try this one and this one and possibly this one."

"Naru! I can't hold anymore!" I said as I tried to peek around the mountain of tea flavors. It was too tall to peek over.

"That's nice, Mai." Naru mumbled absently as he continued studying the shelves of tea. I moved my arm just a little which resulted in two of the flavored tea boxes falling on the ground.

"Mai, don't drop them."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Naru. I didn't realize you wanted to purchase the entire tea aisle, if I had I'd have brought a truck with me." I replied sarcastically. Naru glared at me before picking up the boxes.

"I guess that's enough, let's go." He announced before grabbing one more flavor. When we got to the register and dumped the tea down the cashier looked at us with a strange look before doing a double take when her eyes reached Naru and making goo goo eyes at him.

"Is this all for you?" She asked him breathlessly. He smirked and nodded at her. "I like a man who likes tea." She informed as she scanned the tenth box of tea and reached for another in the pile we'd dumped next to her. I secretly glared at the girl. Naru's probably the only one you ever met that drinks this much tea, you little... Before I knew it Naru wrapped his arm around my waist.

"I'm not interested in her, Mai." He murmured in my ear as he pretended to be grabbing a bag to put the tea in. He gave my waist a gentle squeeze before returning his attention to the cashier. "I'm sure you do, but I have no interest in whatever other charming lines you wish to produce for I already have someone special." He informed.

"This is her then I suppose?" She asked, nodding her head at me.

"And by that assumption you would be correct." He declared. The cashier smiled and winked at me.

"You're really lucky to have a boyfriend like that."

I smiled back and snuggled into Naru's side. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Well, looks like that's all." The cashier said after scanning the last box of tea. We paid for our purchases using Naru's bank card as he got way too carried away and didn't have enough money on him and then gathered all five bagfuls of tea and exited the store.

"Is all of this tea really necessary, Naru? I think you got every flavor they had in there!" I asked as we were walking to the van.

"Of course it was necessary, Mai. What if I missed out on a flavour I might like?" He asked.

"Heaven forbid!" I commented dramatically. Naru glared at me and I laughed. We put the five bags in the back of the van and then got in the fronts seats.

"Well, that was an interesting shopping trip." I mumbled a few minutes later after we were on the road again.

"Hmm, do tell me why, Mai." Naru said as he focused on his driving.

"You know with all those people..."

"Be more specific Mai, there were, after all, a lot of people."

"You know what people, Naru! You should with every single girl in there ogling over you!" I reminded him. I crossed my arms and legs and then huffed.

"Were they? I wasn't paying attention...much." Naru said. "And don't pout, Mai, unless you want me to pull this van over and kiss you senseless."

"Yes, they were! And you wouldn't do that!"

"I wouldn't do what?" Naru asked, smirking. I bit my lip and looked out the window away from Naru.

"That you wouldn't do...what you said you'd do...if I didn't stop pouting. Which I wasn't!" I answered, blushing.

"Try me." He challenged. I looked at him with wide eyes before turning my head back to my window. I knew his smirk just probably got wider.

"Pouting includes turning your head away so I can't see your expression." Naru informed. "Do it again and I seriously will pull over and kiss you." He said lightly. I turned my head slightly to look at him through the corner of my eye. Part of me wanted him to kiss me but the other part didn't... I mean what if someone saw us?!

"You're threatening me now?"

"It's not a threat, Mai, it's a promise." Naru said in a low tone. I wanted to turn my head straight, but I was blushing so bad I just couldn't! I'd never hear the end of it from Naru.

"I will give you to the count of three to turn your head straight and then I'm pulling over." Naru warned. "One..." I wasn't sure what to do. Do I turn my head and risk him seeing my blush, or do I not turn my head and risk him pulling over and kissing me?!

"Two..." Naru counted out slowly, reaching his fingers out for the indicator to pull over. Crap, he's really serious.

"Three."

"Okay, fine!" We said at the same time. Naru had already pulled over though.

"Too late." Naru smirked. He shut off the engine and turned to face me. My eyes got big as I saw the smirk on his face. He leaned over to me and I leaned back against the window. I somehow had ended up with my whole body facing him.

"Resistance is futile, Mai." He purred as he came closer. I laughed nervously, sinking further into my seat. Naru was about two inches from my mouth. Could I get any redder?

Naru smirked even more when he saw how red I was. He stared at me a moment before his eyes flickered to my lips. He gently brushed his lips against mine before moving away. He...he was just teasing me?!

"Naru, you jerk! You—" Before I knew it Naru crashed his lips on to mine. It was a very...er, heated kiss. Like he said he would, he kissed me senseless.

He had his right hand cradling the back of my neck with his other hand resting on my hip. While both of my arms were wrapped around his neck. After who knows how long, we had to separate. I, for one, was lacking a good amount of air.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" Naru crooned as he settled himself back into his seat and started the van up again. We sat in silence for the most part of the rest of the ride. I was still blushing a little and Naru...I'm not really sure.

"You know, Mai, I found this trip rather enjoyable." Naru said, breaking the silence as we pulled into the car park of the chocolate factory again. I smiled teasingly at him.

"I know."

We walked into the base with the bags of tea.

"Wow, how much tea did you get? The store's whole stock?" Monk joked, flashing a grin at me. He probably thinks that even though he lost the bet he still won since I had to go to the store to buy more...with Naru.

Naru went to the monitors while I walked over to Monk and stood in front of him. I held out my hand.

"Pay up." I whispered.

"Nuh-uh, Mai, I won so you pay me!" He insisted.

"How did you win? I bet he'd go nuts in two minutes and that's exactly what he did." I informed.

"Yeah, but you had to go buy some meaning it took longer."

"That doesn't matter! He still went nuts within two minutes." I said crossly.

"Fine, let's call it a tie and both keep our money." Monk suggested. I was about to respond when John and Ayako burst into the base panting like they'd run from somewhere.

"Guys, what happened?!" I asked worriedly.

John pointed in the direction they came from. "The...spirit." He answered between gasps.

"What about the spirit?" Naru asked sharply.

"It attacked us! What else would it do?! Invite us on a picnic?!" Ayako said testily.

"Don't you get sarcastic with me, Miss Matsuzaki." Naru responded. Ayako rolled her eyes.

"Where were you when the spirit attacked you?" He questioned, standing next to Lin looking at the monitors.

"We were near the cocoa storage room a couple of hallways from here." John answered, pointing to the eighth monitor along that showed a hallway. I thought I recognized it a little and looked more closely at the monitor to see two sets of faint footprints.

"Hey Naru, isn't that where we..." I started. He nodded as though following my thought.

"I believe that is near the room where we fell in the chocolate vat, you're right."

"Wait!" Ayako shrieked. "If you two were over there, why didn't you get attacked? You know ghosts can't stay away from Mai. Take the possessed Kei for example."

"We most possibly did. Only I saved Mai and switched places with her so I went into the chocolate vat first..."

"It was spectacular, you should've seen it. It was better than the Olympics!" I crowed, sniggering slightly.

"Thank you, Mai." Naru ground out between his teeth. "As I was saying, I believe I could feel something either push me slightly or hold me down through the entire accident as though trying to kill me."

"Well, I guess we know who our ghost is if you said it tried to drown you in the chocolate..." I said.

Naru nodded. "Right."

"Wait a minute; you know who the ghost is? Why didn't you tell us?!" Monk chided.

"Because we are still trying to find more information on our probable ghost, Takigawa." Naru informed.

"That doesn't mean you can't tell us." Monk grumbled quietly.

"I don't actually recall having the necessity to tell you anything. As you don't officially work for my company and are in fact freelance and just someone who hangs around my office, I have no actual obligation to discuss anything pertaining to my business with you." Naru told him.

"NARU!" I reprimanded him.

"What? It's true." Naru stated.

"It may be true, but...but..." I floundered.

"But what, Mai?" Naru encouraged.

"It's still—"

"No, it's okay, Mai." Monk said roughly. He laid a hand on my shoulder and he glared at Naru.

"If he truly feels that way, maybe we'll just leave." Ayako said stubbornly.

"Do as you please, Takigawa, Miss Matsuzaki, I am not stopping you." Naru replied simply as he turned to look at the monitors again with Lin.

"If they go, Naru, so do I." I said defiantly.

"As you wish, Mai, but don't expect any pay or references as I don't give them to people who quit for stupid reasons."

My mouth and heart just dropped. How can he say that?!

"I have a job to do, Mai. I have no time to pander to the whims of others. If you don't like the way I conduct my business you know where the door is." Naru informed, although it sounded a little strained as though he were fighting his emotions. I looked at Ayako and Monk. Would they really leave? Truthfully, no I don't think so. Naru has said this kind of stuff once before—they didn't leave then.

I shook my head and sighed. "I'm going to my room." I murmured heading towards the door.

"I think we should all get some rest, it's been a long day." John advised.

"Yeah...I'm going to go make sure Mai doesn't get lost." Ayako announced.

"I think I'll go to bed too." Monk said. Naru didn't say anything. After everyone left, Naru turned back to the monitors only to find Lin staring at him.

"What?"

Lin shook his head and turned back to the monitors.

Naru scoffed. "If you have something to say just say it."

"I have nothing I wish to say to you, Naru, as it isn't my place to say anything." Lin replied calmly. About five minutes later Ayako burst through the door.

"Miss Matsuzaki, why—"

"It's Mai! I can't find her!" She interrupted him.


Naruisawesome: Haha Naru should be good with the tea stock for the rest of the case!

Treelow955: Yep! So what do you think happened to Mai?!

Naruisawesome: We know what happened to Mai! Duh! We're the writers!

Treelow955: Not you! The readers! *Mumbles* Moron...

Naruisawesome: *Glares* What?!

Treelow955: Nothing! Please review our lovely readers!