Disclaimer: The smurfs have come to take me away to Never Never Land. I'll send postcards!
Worth It
(A.N.) Hello again! This installment is coming to you all from the prompts of miss koneko, cupidsangel, PsychicOtaku182, and allie. Thanks to all reviews and readers. Love you all! It would also be a good idea, I supposed, to mention that the ending to this one was...unexpected for me. It just sort of happened. So, if it seems rather abrupt, it... Well, it is. Enjoy!
It was a normal evening at S.P.R. Lin was typing away at his computer industriously in his office, his fingers moving at phenomenal and superhuman speed across the keyboard. Shut in his office, Naru was at his usual business of reading potential case suggestions while idly solving a Rubix Cube, his sixth of the day, in fact. A comfortable silence was settled over the entire space. The sun had already set and Mai had left only thirty minutes before, waving cheerily and wishing both introverts a good night.
That blissful silence was broken when the door to the outer offices opened and Madoka Mori, master ghost hunter, flounced in with several children in tow. The woman's light brown hair bounced with her light step, her smile luminous. "Naru! Lin!" she sang out, pulling the youngest of the children, who was seven, with her gently when he tried to punch his older brother.
In an instant, both men had jumped to their feet and were out of their offices in a flash. Naru especially. Madoka was the only person living on the planet that could elicit such an obedient response from the teen. No one would believe it, but Madoka could be scary if she tried to be. There was a reason that Naru was the best at what he did.
"What are you doing here, Madoka?" Naru inquired warily, watching as the troop of four children wandered about the office. Except the youngest boy. Very firmly, Madoka kept that boy at her side, arm around his shoulders.
Madoka's smile became more radiant. "Well, I have a favor to ask of you two. You see, I completely forgot that I had to watch my darling niece and nephews tonight and I need to be at a business function in just a half hour."
Trepidation spread through both men. Surely she didn't mean for them to…
"Would you two please watch them for me? It'll only be for a few hours. They're absolute angels. You won't even notice them."
As soon as the words left Madoka's mouth, the other two boys got into a fight, biting and kicking and wailing. Frowning, Madoka quickly and efficiently separated the two and murmured a few quiet and chastising words. The boys looked abashed and scuffed their shoes against the carpet. "See?" Madoka continued, "Angels."
Lin and Naru shared a sideways glance, both thinking the same thing. Hell no. Absolutely not.
"Madoka, this is not a nursery," Naru began, scanning the so called "angels" with a cool gaze. The girl kicked her brother violently when he pulled on one of her pigtails. "We can n—"
"You will? Oh, thank you, Naru. I always knew you were a good child at heart." Madoka started to kiss each child goodbye.
"What?" Naru was stunned for a bit. "No. No, I did not agree t—!"
"Don't let him be too cruel to them, Lin," Madoka advised, completely ignoring Naru's protests. In a motherly fashion, she turned to the munchkins and added, "Be good. Your mother and I would be very disappointed if you misbehaved."
"Madoka," Lin tried, "this is not a wise th—"
"Well? You'll be good?" Madoka pressed the little girl. The woman paid no heed to either of the distressed males in the room.
"Yeah, yeah," the girl grumbled, simultaneously slugging the third boy solidly in the arm when he yanked on her other pigtail, "we'll be good." Her voice was sullen. "Or at least, I will. I don't think that Ken and Shinta and Hiro can be good." She glared as the three boys chased after each other in circles, barely missing furniture in their pursuit. "I'm always good," she added prissily.
"Of course you are, Hana," Madoka soothed, patting the girl on the head brightly. "I'm sure everything will be fine." Straightening, she walked towards the door. "I'll see you all later tonight!"
"Madoka!" Naru called after her. This was not happening.
The door slammed shut behind her.
Shocked, Naru stared at the closed door. "Damn it."
"Hey! Mister!" the little girl, Hana, yelled at the top of her lungs. When he didn't acknowledge her, she kicked him hard in the shins.
Grunting, Naru looked down at the annoying child. Her brown eyes blazed imperiously and her fisted hands were perched on her hips. "What?" Naru asked, irritated. I can't believe Madoka…
"You'd better have something for us to do. I refuse to be bored because of some stupid, boring adults."
"It's not my job to entertain you. Sit down and be quiet. I have work to do," Naru ordered coldly. A sharp shrieked tore through the office as the two older boys pinned the younger one on the ground and sat on him. "And make them shut up," he added, wincing slightly as his ear drums throbbed in pain.
"No, I don't want to," Hana pouted. Her eyes wandered a bit, halting only when she caught sight of Lin's computer through the Chinese man's open office door. Squealing, she ran in the direction of the machine before Naru or Lin knew what was happening. "Ken! They have a computer! Let's play with it!" the girl beckoned her brother.
One of the older boys immediately sprung up from pinning the youngest, though he had to pause a little to wrest his glasses from the captive's grasp. As soon as the glasses were back on Ken's nose, the boy (who was maybe around nine years old) sprinted into Lin's office with his sister.
Face drained of color, Lin bounded after them. From the dark room, Naru could here the curious exclamations of the two children. "What does this button do?" seemed to be the most frequent shout, but there was a lot of "ooh" and "ahh" happening, as well.
About to follow Lin, Naru froze as a coaster smacked him in the chest. He turned slowly to the object's point of origin and glared icily at the two boys (who must have been Shinta and Hiro). Both children had armed themselves with whatever mobile small items they could find. Naru spotted more coasters, pens, a stapler, a cordless phone, and a multitude of other things sticking out of pockets and nestled in small hands. The youngest boy pulled an arm back, aiming, and chucked the stapler at him.
Ducking, Naru avoided the projectile and practically ran, followed by a barrage of missiles, to Lin's office. He briefly thought of grabbing both kids and physically stripping them of their weapons and then tying them up with electrical cords, but cringed away from the plan when he thought of Madoka's reaction to such treatment of her "angels".
Damn it all to hell! Naru cursed to himself, rushing into Lin's office.
Since he'd been expecting to find somewhat of a refuge in the dark room, Naru was startled to see Lin frantically typing with one hand, sweating, and holding young Ken by the collar. "What key did you press!?" Lin asked angrily.
"Let him go, you meanie!" Hana shrieked, trying to come to her younger brother's rescue. She jumped onto Lin's restraining arm, pulling with all her laughable might.
Lin didn't even seem to notice the increase in weight on his arm. Determinedly, he continued his furious typing. Without looking up from the screen, he ordered, "Naru, get these horrific little monster out of here before I kill them."
Stunned didn't even begin to describe how Naru was feeling. Lin didn't order him around. Much. And he certainly didn't have bouts of murderous rage.
Then again, Lin had never done very well around children.
Neither did Naru, for that matter.
Gingerly, he releived Lin of his struggling burden and hauled the boy out of the room Hana followed, stomping angrily, in his wake. As he shut the door, Naru heard Lin muttering angrily under his breath and the loud clack of keys being stabbed with more force than necessary.
However, exiting the office meant that Naru was back in the line of fire. A series of pens flew at him, whacking him in the face and chest.
That's it! "If you don't stop that immediately, you will not like what happens next!" he said in a deadly voice. Madoka's wrath or not, these kids were evil incarnate!
Hiro and Shinta hesitated, but Hana rallied them. "There're more of us than there are of him! We can take him! We have to rescue Ken!" The girl grabbed the cordless phone from one of her armed brothers and hurled it at Naru.
Fed up, Naru caught the phone with a little telekinetic aid, and stared at the device for a second before coming to a decision. He didn't have the time or the patience or the large amount of holy water to deal with these demon children. So, he was going to call someone else to do it for him.
It was the first time he'd ever called Mai at home, but he knew the number by heart. Knowing that one little fact of knowing betrayed him, he dialed quickly, releasing Ken to his siblings and hiding in his own office, locking the door as soon as he shut it.
After three unbearably long rings, Mai picked up. "Hello?" For some reason, she sounded out of breath and frustrated.
Naru didn't even bother to greet her conventionally. "You need to come back to the office. Now."
"Naru? Is that you?"
"I said 'now'."
"Yep. It's you. Look, Naru, I'm really sorry, but I'm a bit—Ow!" Naru heard a loud crash on Mai's end of the line following her yelp of pain.
"Mai?" He did his best to keep a growl of concern from his voice. Someone better not be there hurting her…
"I'm fine," she replied after a few seconds. Quietly, she muttered, "I hate technology…"
Naru sighed. She had done something clumsy again. The knot of concern in his chest eased a bit. "If you don't come here, then I'm bringing this problem to you," he informed his assistant.
His cheerful, wonderful, beautiful assistant.
No. Don't go there, he warned himself. This was not the time for such foolish thoughts. He had demon children to round up and deliver to Mai. This wasn't about how much he secretly cared about Mai, it was about survival, damn it.
"Problem? Please, Naru, I really can't—"
He cut her off. "I'll see you in a few minutes." Without further ceremony, he hung up on her while she spluttered protests.
Now all he had to do was get the kids in the van.
Oh, hell.
oOo
Slamming the back doors of the van harder than necessary, Naru made sure that that the midget monsters were locked in. He climbed into the driver's seat and started the vehicle, hearing the four kids banging on the walls of the back compartment. Sadistically, he hoped that they bruised themselves thoroughly in their efforts. God knew that he had enough bruises because of them himself. At a red light, he inspected his left hand and the red bite mark that resided on it between his thumb and forefinger. Damn kids…
The way to Mai's apartment was not complicated, nor was it particularly long. Naru tried not to dwell on the fact that, like her phone number, he knew the way without any aid of a map or further direction.
By the time he pulled into the parking area of the apartment complex, the pounding on the van's walls had ceased. As had the whining and the angry shouts. In fact, there was no sound whatsoever coming from the back compartment of the van. None at all.
With some trepidation, Naru opened the door and gracefully slid from the driver's seat to the concrete. He stared at the closed back doors of the van for a moment, and then shook himself. It was absolutely ridiculous, he tried to convince himself, to be afraid of a bunch of munchkins. He was bigger than they were, and smarter.
For some reason, Naru was not completely comforted by that thought.
Steeling himself, the teen unlocked and threw open the doors.
And was attacked by four small children. Again.
"I can't believe you locked us in there, you jerk!" Hana screeched, clawing at his eyes. Her brothers had all attached themselves to his various limbs. Two of them had his legs and one was wound around his right arm. "We could have died!"
I hate kids! Growling silently, Naru grabbed Hana by the back of the neck with his left hand and hauled her off him by her collar. "Call. Them. Off," he commanded, sapphire eyes like chips of ice.
"Or what?" Hana challenged, already shrinking from him. Those eyes were creepy!
"Or back into the van with you. And I'll leave you there." And I would be happy about it, he added to himself grimly.
"You wouldn't! Aunt Madoka and Mommy wouldn't let you do that!" Hana protested, flailing.
"They would have to find you before they could let you out, wouldn't they?" Naru smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Besides, neither of them is here."
Paling, Hana immediately stilled and ordered her brothers, "Okay! Hands off him!"
The boys slowly released Naru, pulling away and glaring at him at the same time. Naru, knowing that the fear he'd inspired wouldn't last, wanted to get them to Mai as soon as possible and leave them there. Mai liked kids. Hell, kids liked Mai.
Dropping Hana on her feet, Naru jerked his head towards the door of Mai's building and said, "Follow." When the youngest boy (whose name, Naru had discovered, was Hiro) tried to sneak off in the opposite direction, Naru snatched the child's arm in a firm grip and yanked him along. The others, following Hana's lead, trooped after them. He had no doubt that the whispers he was hearing were their plots for revenge.
Two flights of stairs later, Naru and his brewing mutiny leaders were standing in front of a door labeled "15C—Taniyama". He took a few seconds to make sure that he didn't appear as anything was wrong, and then knocked on the door forcefully.
About a minute passed before the door was opened. He was surprised by the uncharacteristic look of harried annoyance on Mai's face, but hid the surprise well. Children in tow, he entered her apartment and took in all the confusing details at once.
A mangled cardboard box lying in the middle of the living room. Cables strung about. A pair of scissors. What looked like a VCR…?
"Naru, I told you that I was busy. What in the world…" Mai trailed off as the four kids followed her boss into her living room. "Um. Naru?"
"What?" His voice smacked of irritation.
"You know that you have four kids trailing after you, right?"
"No. I was completely unaware of that fact."
Mai frowned at him. "There's no need to be sarcastic. I was just making sure." Her frown turned into the brilliant smile that Naru knew and welcomed. Kneeling down so that she was eyelevel with Hana, Mai chirped, "Hi, there. I'm Mai Taniyama."
Like most people, the girl was dazzled by Mai's warmth. God, and only God, knew that Naru was as well. "I'm Hana Murakami."
Fluidly, Mai turned her sunny attention to the sullen boys huddling near their sister. "And who are you fine gentlemen?" There was a teasing note to her voice, a caring note.
Naru looked on in wonder as she not only got each boy to respond, but that she also managed to whisk them and their sister into her kitchen and sit them down without any fuss at all. Promising cookies and tea, Mai had secured the children's instant affection and good behavior. Her very presence seemed to keep them calm and compliant. With a laughing flourish, the brunette presented each child with a plate of warm cookies, bestowing smiles and attention on each one.
Watching, Naru leaned against the kitchen's doorframe. A small part of him was jealous, but he ignored it.
When Mai finished serving out baked goods, she told the kids that she needed to finish up something in the other room, but that she would be back in a bit. The kids (still Satan spawn, in Naru's mind) nodded with full mouths and waved cheerily. Mai waved back and passed Naru, tugging on his sleeve in an indication to follow. Brown eyes curious, she asked, "Why are they with you?"
In as few words as possible, Naru explained about Madoka's swift deposit of the children in his and Lin's care. He also mentioned that the children did not belong in the S.P.R. office, so they were going to be staying with Mai until further notice.
Mai sighed gustily. "Naru, as cute as those angels are, I'm busy right now. I can't watch them."
"Angels"? What is it with women calling the damn demons "angels"? The little brats seemed to behave for anyone who was not Naru and Lin. Outwardly, Naru frowned at his assistant. "Busy with what?"
Kicking at a stray piece of bubble wrap, Mai gazed wearily at the mess in her living room. "This stupid piece of technology, that's what! I think they write the instructions in Spanish. It may look like Japanese, but I swear to you that it's a foreign language. How can they expect normal people to understand it?" she grumbled, plopping herself down on the floor with the debris.
"Mai," Naru said mincingly, "it's just a VCR. It's not that complicated." Dear Lord, this girl was hopeless. A brief flare of protectiveness ran through him.
"For you maybe," she muttered, pulling the contraption into her lap.
It only took Naru five frustrating seconds of watching her struggle with cable hook ups before he crouched down and removed both cables and VCR from her grasp. Naru was not patient when it came to people mishandling simple things. Especially Mai. She made him lose his patience more often than most.
Mai was having a bit of a hard time. She always had a hard time when Naru was in the vicinity. Him being near made her hyperaware of what was going on, so aware that it was painful. With her nasty habit of blushing and stammering at inconvenient times, surely Naru knew it. Some days, Mai thought that the narcissist she had come to love did know that. Other times, with his cool orders, she wasn't so sure.
Either way, it didn't change the fact that Mai was, at this moment, completely unable to move. She watched as Naru's hands worked magic on the confounded VCR, mesmerized. She didn't notice when he caught her staring at him.
What is she so focused on? Naru, true to his nickname, was fully aware of his good looks, but he was under the impression that Mai had gotten used to it. Surely that wasn't what was distracting the pretty brunette now. Or is it?
"Mai?"
He watched, amused, as she blinked as if waking. His amusement increased tenfold when she blushed. She knew she'd been caught.
"Y-yes?" she stammered, her face tinted pink. Please tell me he didn't see me looking the entire time.
Smirking, Naru handed her the remote and told her to press the menu button.
"What menu button?" she inquired. "There's a menu button on this thing?"
"Idiot," Naru sighed. He tapped the correct button, wondering idly how she could smell so comforting. Cookies and fresh air. Sun dried linen. He inhaled unconsciously.
For ten more minutes, Naru continued to instruct Mai in the art of programming a VCR, neither of them noticing that four pairs of young eyes watched them covertly from the kitchen.
"He really should kiss her," Hana whispered to her brothers. "That's what's supposed to happen."
"Ew," Hiro said quietly.
"How would you know?" nine-year-old Shinta asked.
"That's what Aunt Madoka said was supposed to happen!" the girl said hotly, watching the two older people intently for said kiss.
"I still don't see why we had to do this," Ken pouted, straightening his glasses. "It wasn't that fun. I don't even like being mean to people."
"Auntie asked us to, that's why!" little Hiro chirped, stuffing another cookie in his mouth.
Quickly, Hana shushed him. "Be quiet. I think…"
All of them watched in fascination as both Naru and Mai huddled over the remote, discussing something that didn't quite the children's ears. This conversation went on for a while, long after the VCR had been set up and programmed, ending only when Mai smiled gently at Naru and said, "Thanks for helping." She bit her lip uncertainly for a second.
The children held their breath.
Hesitantly, Mai leaned forward. She wasn't really thinking straight. Such a thing tended to happen when she was close to Naru for a significant period of time. A pause. Then, quick as butterfly, pecked Naru on the cheek.
It was only a couple seconds afterward that the action registered with her. A blush bloomed furiously over her face. "S-sor—!"
Lips brushed against hers, effectively silencing her. It was the lightest touch and brief, but still left Mai in a state of profound bliss. Warmth spread through her, a feeling of elation skewing her soul. I'm flying… The smell of laundry detergent and rain curled around her. Naru's scent, and left her dazed.
When her senses were working properly again, she caught sight of his distinctive smirk. "That," he said quietly, eyes dark, "is how to say thank you."
In the kitchen, the children danced around in triumph. Their Aunt Madoka had been right. All they'd had to do was get Mai and Naru alone in a room and this would happen!
It made their being mean to both Naru and Lin worth it.
(A.N.) I hope you all loved it. Review and tell me about it!