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Enjoy! ^_^

Playing with Naru-chan: The Trouble With…

The trouble with having both Mai and Yasuhara in the office at the same time is that they never seem to get anything done. Or at the very least, stop anybody else from being as productive as they should be. It was a problem Naru had yet to find a solution to, try as he might. And this particular afternoon was no different, he found himself pondering, yet again, why exactly he had decided to employ either them. The answer was that he couldn't afford not to, both had proven to be valuable assets, talented and able to cope under pressure in almost any circumstances. It would be sheer stupidity to let them slip out of reach.

And Naru was not a stupid man. But sometimes he just simply couldn't help but wonder.

Times like when he would walk out of his office to find them doing something ridiculous again. Like racing around the couches on their swivel chairs, or arm wrestling, or playing catch with Lin's stress ball whilst hoping back and forth between their desks. It was something he'd grown accustomed to over time, and it always felt strange when they weren't doing something he should yell at them for.

Today was no exception.

"Mai, tea." Naru said to his young employee as he proceeded to the filing cabinets to retrieve a file on a previous case. He took no notice of the stifled laughs coming from her cubicle where she and Yasuhara were huddled over a stack of sticky notes. He heard Mai get up and move towards him; not strange at all, he was right next to the kitchen door. What was strange was that she stopped next to him instead of going straight into the kitchen.

Naru gave her a curious glance, wondering what it was she wanted when she should be getting his tea. The small brunette was holding out a folded sticky note. Naru raised an eyebrow at her, but took the proffered note anyway. She smiled at him, her brown eyes sparkling mischievously, before hurrying back to her desk. Naru stared after her a moment, a bit baffled, before unfolding the note in his hands and reading the untidy message she had written on it.

TEA.

Naru blinked. He slowly scrunched up the piece of paper and turned to face his two employees, who were watching him with amused expressions. He gave them a glare, focusing on Mai, and was about to tell her to hurry up and get his tea, when the door slammed open and a tall woman strode in beaming, Lin trailing along behind her.

"Hello everyone!" She said cheerfully, taking in the scene before her.

"Madoka-san!" Mai cried, waving the woman over, not that she needed to, Madoka was already half way across the room. Naru fought the urge to roll his eyes as the two hugged, babbling loudly. He was beginning to regret having allowed the two to get on friendly terms, it was worse than having Matsuzaki and Takigawa in for an afternoon. He glared at the two females, choosing to ignore Lin and Yasuahara's discussion on Tokyo traffic.

"Mai," he said warningly, annoyed at being ignored. "I believe you're supposed to be in the kitchen."

Silence. Mai and Madoka stared at him indignantly, and his two fellow males let their conversation die.

Naru stared as Mai quickly scribbled something on a sheet of paper, scrunched it into a ball and threw it at him. He caught it with ease, and shot her an annoyed glare as he straightened it out enough for him read it.

PATIENCE.

Naru resisted the urge to growl in irritation. He glared at Mai, ready to threaten her with docked pay when Madoka suddenly appeared next to him.

"Naru, I think we need to go over your manners." She said sternly. "That's no way to treat your employees. You should be nice to Mai-chan. She might put something in your tea if you're not careful."

"She isn't drunk." He scoffed, knowing very well that that was only time he was in danger of substandard tea was when she was intoxicated. He'd unwittingly fallen prey to it previously, and wished to never repeat the experience. As a result he had forbidden everyone from ever giving alcohol to the girl if there was any chance that she'd run into him before she sobered up.

Madoka glowered at him.

"That's no excuse." She snapped. "Now I'm going to go put my things in Lin's office, and then we're going to go over your manners, young man. No arguments."

Naru was about to protest, but thought better of it at the last moment. Her eyes were practically screaming 'Just you try and get out of this!' Naru sighed, and watched as the woman disappeared in to Lin's office.

Just great.

He threw Mai a nasty glare, only to find she was no longer at her desk. Glowering in the direction of the kitchen, the only place she could have run off to, he thought she'd better be getting his tea. But before he could enter to check if that was what she was doing, Madoka re-emerged and dragged him to his office.

He'd only just sat down when Mai entered carrying a tray with a plate of biscuits and two tea cups. She seemed to be completely indifferent to Naru's glare, much to his annoyance. His eyes followed her movements as she placed his tea cup in front of him, before placing Madoka's down opposite him. She straightened up to leave, and paused long enough to throw something in his direction, before turning to the door.

A second ball of paper fell into his lap. Clearly annoyed, he smoothed it down and glared at its message.

MORAL SUPPORT.

Naru's eyes snapped up to meet hers. She looked like she doing her best not to laugh. He gave her a withering glare. This was why it was never a good idea to let her and Yasuhara at work at the same time. That damned troublemaker was a bad influence on his young assistant; she'd never played around like this previously. In fact, aside from her habit of battling with him verbally, he'd never had much trouble from her.

Damned Yasuhara had corrupted her. Corrupted his prized tea maker in such a way that she was no longer making the tea when she should be. He glowered at his cup of tea, as he pictured Yasuhara luring Mai over to the dark side with cookies. The dark side where tea was replaced with coffee! He shuddered at the very thought.

That was the trouble with male university students… He thought bitterly. Never mind the fact that he and the object of his annoyance were only a few months apart in age.

Naru made a mental note to chew Yasuhara out for it later…As soon as Madoka was gone.

Scary woman. He thought, watching her warily as she started to lecture him on his lack of manners.