Love the Game; Hate the Player

Jade slowed her approach to the lab door, glancing at the bottom to see if any light was spilling from the inside. She sighed when she saw darkness. Jade unlocked the door and slowly opened it, expecting his hand to reach from behind the door and grab hers like he had done when she walked in a month prior. Jade sighed once more. No hand grabbing hers, no deep chuckle, and no smooth-talking. Jade pursed her lips and flipped the switch, the lights of the lab stalling for a moment before suddenly flashing on. She rolled her eyes when she saw the used beakers and flasks sitting on the table. She hadn't seen Naraku for two weeks, but she had been cleaning up the messes he left. Apparently, he worked in the lab in the evening hours now. He had left her only one note asking her to do a favor two weeks prior, but since then, he just left his messes on the table with no instructions. Jade cleaned everything, dried them, and placed them back into the correct cabinets. She did this every day before starting any of her experiments.

After finishing the clean-up and drying of the equipment Naraku had used the previous night, Jade pulled her phone from her pocket and quickly typed up an email to send to Bruce. She had finished the last experiment on the list of Chemistry 1 Lab experiments. She also answered all of the questions the reports for each experiment, so she had nothing more to do and it was only the middle of June. Jade placed the folder of all her written work on the table and looked around the empty lab.

"I guess I can find more to clean," she said with an exhale, walking to the storage room to find the broom. She hadn't swept the floor for a few weeks, so she figured that needed to be done. Jade regretted not bringing her laptop, something she began doing when she realized that Naraku had swapped his hours. Usually, he would tinker with things around the lab, or torment her, or simply discuss something with her, but without him, the lab was so silent that it almost hurt her ears. If she wasn't boiling a solution or playing music, she felt like she was going to go insane. Jade gritted her teeth, pressing the broom bristles to the floor harder so they would make a louder scratching sound.

After sweeping the dirt into a dustpan and throwing it in the trash, Jade placed the broom back into the closet and decided to wipe down the counters. She snatched the rag from the sink and began scrubbing the counters down. They weren't dirty; just dusty. When she heard the door jiggling, her heart skipped a beat and she quickly looked over, expecting to see a tall man with long, wavy black hair, but she was met with the much shorter Bruce with much shorter hair.

"Alright, I received your email. Finished all of them, hm?" Bruce asked, leaving the door open as he walked towards the table. Jade tossed the rag into the sink and walked to the table to speak with him.

"Yeah, everything I've done is in there." Jade said, nodding to the folder. Bruce scooped it up, flipping it open and looking through it briefly.

"I will look these over and critique them. It will definitely take me a few days."

"Okay. What should I do now?"

"No idea. I don't have any immediate projects that need to be prepped, or at least, not ones on your level. Oh, but tomorrow I will have you take a test. It's part of the procedure to becoming the TA. You'll watch some videos, take a test based off the videos, then sign some papers saying that you won't help students cheat or be unhelpful, blah, blah, blah."

"Sounds fun," Jade said sarcastically. Bruce shrugged as he nodded.

"But, you'll like this part; you get extra pay for being a TA. When classes start, your hours in here will drop from twenty-five a week to twenty a week. But, the TA will bring you back up to twenty-three, so you'll only be losing two hours of pay."

"Oh, alright. That actually makes me feel better." Jade chirped.

"I figured you would like that. Until then, just come in here for your regular hours and clean or mess around with an experiment you find online. I'll email you some links for funding for projects. A lot of places will offer you a small project to complete and some funding for that project. We can find something for you to do."

"Well, Naraku said,"

"Right. I meant to ask you what you did with his body," Bruce interrupted with a chuckle. Jade tilted her head slightly, frowning as she pointed at herself questioningly.

"What?"

"I haven't seen the bastard for two weeks. The last I heard from him was two weeks ago when he emailed me to send him the paperwork for an office in the basement so he could work uninterrupted." Bruce told her.

"And you think I," Jade trailed off, a smile twisting its way onto her face, but it wasn't a happy one.

"How did you do it? Either he's avoiding you or you killed him and if it's the latter, can you tell me where I can pay my respects?" Bruce asked, quoting the air with his fingers on the last portion of his question.

"But I….I didn't do anything! The last time I saw him in here was two weeks ago. I've been cleaning up his messes, though. He's definitely alive." Jade insisted, feeling the blood drain from her face.

"Whatever you did, it spooked him. He wants an office where he can read and do work by himself with no one to bother him."

"Oh," Jade looked down at the table, tapping the glossed surface with her finger.

"Jade, don't tell me you feel bad," Bruce's voice sounded strained and bewildered at the same time.

"No, well, yeah, a little. He's just as much a student of this lab as I am. He was here first. I didn't mean to make him uncomfortable. I was just….I don't know." Jade explained, waving her hands and finally shrugging.

"What did you do? Did you hug him or come on to him?"

"No! I-wait, does that work? Whatever! All I did was try to help him with the extractions!" Jade stated, her voice raising with disbelief. Naraku was avoiding her? It should have been the other way around!

"You helped him with the extractions and now he wants to avoid you," Bruce repeated slowly, his eyes showing the terrified shock of his inner thoughts. Jade looked down at her hands once again, falling silent. It sounded completely outrageous when her professor said it that way, but it was the truth! Jade locked her interlocked her fingers, massaging them together nervously.

"I don't remember saying or doing anything else. He said he still wanted me to be his lab assistant, but he didn't want my help." Jade finally said after a moment of silence. Bruce's shoulders sagged as he placed her folder down on the table. He let out an exaggerated exhale, both hands rubbing his lightly-bearded face.

"If he wants you so badly, he should ask nicely. You're free to do whatever you want. I have another grad student. It's pretty much official, minus a few signed papers. If you end up wanting to work with him, then go for it. If you want to work with Naraku, fine. If you want to find your own project, then that's fine, too. I'm not going to force you to do anything."

"What kind of work does the new grad student do?" Jade questioned, looking up at her professor.

"He's biology-based. Not too different from Naraku's aim. Actually, he'll be visiting on Tuesday, if you care to meet him." Bruce said with a broad smile.

"Really? What time?" Jade asked curiously, wondering what this grad student was like.

"Noon. I don't feel like talking to anyone before noon anymore. I'm glad Naraku is working in the evenings now. At least the tour I give to this student will be Naraku-free." Bruce chuckled.

"It's just not the same without him, though. You can't get the full experience of this lab without experiencing Naraku." Jade insisted sarcastically. Bruce pointed at her while nodding.

"Don't let this get to you. Naraku is just being a bully. I'll give him a separate office and he can deal with his issues on his own.

"Alright,"

You know, now that I think about it, maybe he's not avoiding you," Bruce said to her, his eyes widening as a thought hit him.

"No?" Jade questioned curiously.

"No. I told him that the new grad student was visiting soon when he asked me for his own office. I didn't tell him which day in hopes of him randomly showing up and being heavily disappointed and mad. So, he probably figured he'd avoid it all together."

"I see." Jade replied with a slow nod. Bruce shook his head while scooping up Jade's folder once more.

"The man is incredible in many ways. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Feel free to do whatever." Bruce said as he left the room, closing the door behind him and allowing the lab to fall silent once more. Jade looked over at the desk Naraku usually sat at to do his reading, sighing heavily.

'Why am I feeling bad? I didn't do anything!' Jade rolled her eyes while shaking her head. She walked over to the desk and pulled out a piece of paper, folding it a few times before grabbing a pen and sitting down in the chair to think about what to write. At this point, she figured he was fickle, so she had to be thoughtful about what she wrote to him.

'I'm willing to discuss being your lab assistant….no, that's too nice, probably.' Jade thought, shaking the pen back and forth beside her head, her elbow anchored to the desk for the ultimate pivoting movement.

"Hey asshole, are you too fuckin' butt-hurt to talk to me about being your stupid lab slave?" Jade asked aloud, a part of her hoping he was standing on the other side of the door listening to her. Jade breathed heavily, leaning back in the chair. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to be his lab assistant, but she was willing to hear him out. Jade assumed he would offer her something in return, but she knew better than to think he wouldn't somehow rip the rug out from underneath her. Suddenly, she knew what to write to him.

'I shouldn't do this,' Jade thought as a wicked smirk pulled onto her face, but the pen hit the paper and the words poured out before she could talk herself out of it.

'I'm sorry I scared you, Naraku. I hope you can overcome your fear and return to the lab. It's quiet without you.'

Jade stared at the note for a few moments, a tiny seed of regret sprouting in her chest, but she jumped up from the chair and dropped the pen on the desk, repeating the word, "Nope," to herself as she grabbed her keys to take a walk around campus and enjoy her afternoon off. The note spoke true, but it was definitely twisted, and Jade was prepared for whatever backlash she received for it. Jade froze when her hand touched the doorknob, another idea striking her.

'When he reads that note, he'll almost definitely come in to prove me wrong the next day. But, Bruce doesn't seem to want him and this new grad student to interact and Naraku doesn't seem to want to meet this new grad student, either.' Jade realized, backing away from the door for a moment. Her green eyes were locked on the note she left on Naraku's desk. She walked over and picked the paper up, placing it in her pocket.

"Tuesday, then. If he wants to make me feel like shit and embarrass me, two can play that game." Jade said bitterly as she walked back to the door to leave and enjoy her free afternoon.

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"Did you try working the shaft?" Jade asked sarcastically after placing her bottle of unopened beer on her desk and readjusting the microphone to her mouth.

"Ha-ha, hilarious," Ginta replied with equal sarcasm.

"I don't mean to sound like one of those people, but turning it off and then turning it back on actually works," Jade said, her eyes shifting to her other monitor where her chatroom exploded with comments, possible solutions, and various other conversations happening between her viewers. They could hear the entire conversation between her and Ginta, so it was amusing to read some of their responses.

"Alright, alright. Be back in a minute." Ginta relented with a sigh, his name disappearing from Jade's Skype list. Jade turned back to her camera and shook her head slightly.

"So, who wants to bet I can't drink this entire bottle of beer in fifteen seconds?" Jade asked, holding the bottle in front of the camera to show it was still unopened. She saw countless replies of, "Me" explode, along with some time negotiations. Some people even asked how much she wanted. Jade waited for a moment before clearing her throat.

"Alright, ten seconds, then. I'll put the timer up." Jade stated, clicking her countdown back onto the screen. She set it to ten seconds and then twisted off the bottle cap, tapping the bottle on her desk a few times to release some excess carbon dioxide. She maximized her camera screen so everyone could see her from the shoulders up, rolled back in her chair to give her audience a better view, and placed the bottle to her lips with her fingers on her other hand resting on the start button. She clicked and tilted her head back, chugging the bitter liquid in a smooth, rhythmic fashion. Each second was a gulp, but as she neared the end of the bottle, she sped up, tilting her head back more. When she finished, she held the empty bottle up with two seconds to spare and watched as the donations began rolling in like an avalanche. Her chatroom was filled with calls of her name and howls.

"THANK….YOOOOOU….GUYSSSSSSS!" she belched out loudly and monstrously. Another flood of donations and another round of howling followed suit and she giggled.

"That was attractive!" Kagome stated sarcastically, leaning her head in the doorway of Jade's room. Jade belched again with a crooked grin. Kagome rolled her eyes, but was still smiling as she walked away.

"Wow, Jade, what the hell?" Sango's voice called from her bedroom. Jade's giggles evolved into laughter.

"Sorry!" Jade called back, looking into her camera and snickering while mouthing the words, "No, I'm not," to her viewers. Jade saw Ginta calling, so she answered his call and waited to hear if his equipment was finally synching up or not.

"You were right. Working the shaft does work." Ginta stated, fidgeting with his headset.

"Mm, is that why you took so long to call back?" Jade asked, suppressing a burp. She was actually surprised with how fast he logged back on, but she couldn't resist an easy joke.

"Duh. Alright, so Hakkaku said he's on right now and that's he checking his camera. I still haven't heard from Koga."

"Huh. Why am I not surprised?" Jade questioned while dramatically waving her hand.

"Because you're psychic." Ginta replied with a heavy sigh. Jade belted out another loud belch and received a few more donations for it. They even wrote notes to send with the money saying, "Nice one." Ginta laughed about it, too, and sent her a few dollars.

"I don't know if Alpha will be here tonight, guys. He's playing the, "I don't remember that I own a phone," game without us. We'll keep you updated." Jade explained, seeing a few people comment about where Koga/Alpha was at the moment. To be honest, she was irritated with him. Lately, he had been ditching her, Ginta, and Hakkaku both at work and for hang-outs. She would understand if he had legitimate reasons to do so.

"I mean, surely he didn't forget," Ginta stated skeptically after a few moments of silence.

"I would hope not. This was his idea." Jade responded, leaning forward when she saw another name appear on her Skype list. It was Hakkaku, so she answered him and placed everyone on a conference call.

"Sorry about that, guys. The girlfriend needed some help." Hakkaku chirped happily.

"You can suck your own dick? Well that's nice of you," Ginta shot.

"Ooh, get some," Jade giggled, watching the chatroom explode with more howls and calls to Hakkaku.

"It is nice of me since, you know, I have a girlfriend." Hakkaku replied haughtily.

"That I introduced you to, thanks." Ginta responded with equal arrogance.

"Save the shit talk for the game, guys." Jade interjected, wiping away some of the condensation of her now-empty beer bottle.

"Oh, we have plenty of that! We have plenty!" Hakkaku reassured her with a laugh.

"Why don't you go help your girlfriend again? It was quieter on here when you did that. And smarter." Ginta whined. Jade bit her lips shut as she read some of the comments in the chatroom. The viewers seemed to enjoy the bickering, so she decided not to comment on it anymore.

"What are we playing again?" Hakkaku asked.

"Skate 3." Jade and Ginta said. They heard scratching noises and assumed Hakkaku was digging around for something. Jade saw her phone screen light up and leaned over to see who messaged her. She rolled her eyes, realizing it was Koga, and unlocked her phone to read the message.

"We're just going to have to start without him. We have over three-thousand people waiting right now." Ginta announced with a sigh.

"Oh, lookie, lookie, someone's trying to get some nookie," Jade sang, holding her phone in front of the camera briefly.

"Of course he messaged you." Hakkaku grumbled.

"Well yeah, because he knows you and I will tear him apart." Ginta retorted.

"And I won't?" Jade asked skeptically.

"Not right now you won't. You like to wait." Ginta answered candidly.

"Yeah, she likes to wait when your shitty feelings about yourself surface in your mind," Hakkaku added on.

"Yeaaaaaaah! You're just sitting alone in your room, maybe crying or not crying about how you hate the way you handled a situation from like, five years ago or something, and then all of a sudden, you get a text from Jade saying, "Remember that one time you ditched me for a date? I do." And then the shitty feelings intensify." Ginta explained with a nervous laugh.

"Do I do that?" Jade asked, looking into her camera with a confused look.

"Yeah, yeah you do. Pretty sure it's on purpose." Ginta said accusingly.

"You know exactly that you're doing, you emotion-whore!" Hakkaku spat loudly. Jade began laughing, nodding slightly.

"I realize it sometimes, but I don't know when you guys are sitting alone in your rooms, sobbing over how much you suck at life." Jade shot back evenly.

"Sucky-Sucky five dollar! Me suck your emotions long time!" Ginta stated loudly with a fake accent.

"Me remind you of every-ting you did!" Hakkaku joined in.

"Everything?"

"Every-ting."

"Anyway. Koga's going on a date, so we'll have to hunt without him." Jade announced professionally into the camera. The donations were pouring in and she figured it was because of Ginta and Hakkaku. The two were best friends and had been for years, but no one would guess that from the way they spoke to each other. Their viewers ate their banter and arguments up like a dog with a piece of hamburger dropped on the floor.

"Did you reply to him?" Ginta asked curiously.

"No. I'm going to wait for him to start sobbing alone in his room about how much he sucks at life." Jade answered with fake hostility.

"Alright! He's here! Bye!" Kagome's voice called out. Jade immediately looked up from her screen, her brain putting two and two together. When she started streaming, Kagome mentioned going out with "someone."

"I'll be right back, guys." Jade said quickly, pulling her headset off and marching out of her room. She spotted Sango in the living room, looking out the sliding glass doors to watch Kagome take off. Jade strode to the doors and watched as the neon blue lights of Koga's car pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Sango asked Jade, noticing the angered look on her friend's face.

"I'm so confused. And pissed."

"Why? What happ-"

"Why is Kagome going on a date with Koga? Doesn't she have a boyfriend?"

"A boyfriend? Who? It's not a date."

"Inu-the-fuck-ever-his-name-is! I don't know! I thought they were a thing!" Jade stated with frustration.

"Well, they kind of are. It's kind of weird right now. Why are you upset? Also, don't let Kagome hear you call him that,"

"Because Koga wanted to do a stream tonight with us and now….this. Also, Kagome isn't here."

"I know, I'm just saying she'll yell at you. A lot. She's going to tell Koga she's not interested, but that she wants to be friends. So, be prepared for him to be upset." Sango told her. Jade looked off to the side, fighting away the urge to make a biting comment.

'I'm angry with Koga and no one else. I'll deal with him later.' Jade reminded herself.

"Sooooo….are you still going to stream?" Sango asked curiously.

"Yeah," Jade answered with a nod.

"Can I….Can I watch?"

"Yeah, of course!" Jade replied with a smile and immediately forgetting her anger.

Sango was sitting on Jade's bed, which was fully out of view of the camera. She was holding Jade's laptop in her lap, but she moved it onto the bed after doubling over from a laughing fit, both hands covering her mouth so no one watching could hear her snort. She snorted earlier and Jade's microphone was so sensitive that it picked up on the noise, so Sango, watching the chatroom while watching the three community players, got to see everyone's reaction to her snort. People were mostly funny about it and any rude comments were dealt with immediately by the chatroom moderators.

"This is just silly now," Jade said with a laugh, watching as Hakkaku's skater character ran off the side of the building, ditching his skateboard and tucking in his arms, legs, and head for a cannonball maneuver. Originally, they were trying to pull off sick tricks, but that became too boring too quickly. Now, they were leaping off stages and trying to build points based on their injuries. The game even allowed them to rate the "trick" by pushing a button.

"Aw yeah! First place!" Hakkaku celebrated after mashing all the buttons on his controller to gain the high score.

"For now," Ginta pointed out, the game's camera zooming in on his character.

"Oh no, I can't anymore," Sango breathed out, still laughing profusely. She wiped tears from her eyes. Ginta's character leapt off the building and Sango hoped he wouldn't do the "thing" again.

"Hnnnnnnnnnnnnngh! Yeah, buddy! Yeah, yeah! Ooooooooh, hnnnnnng! Damn it, nooooooo!" Ginta shouted. Jade had been laughing, but was trying not to lose her composure too much. It was hard enough listening to Sango beg some higher power to not let Ginta make those noises again.

"Ginta, why does it sound like you're having some violent orgasm every time it's your turn?" Hakkaku asked skeptically, but he was laughing, too.

"I just, I really get into it, guys," Ginta explained bashfully. Jade could almost see his cheeks reddening in her mind.

"Uh, yeah, uh, guys, this is my first, uh, sex-sexual experience, and uh, I'm really terrified," Hakkaku stated, mimicking Ginta's voice perfectly.

"I caaaaaaaan't! I can't!" Sango called out pathetically. Jade looked back at her while giggling. Sango's face was red and wet with tears and she was curled up on her bed in the fetal position as her body shook with laughter.

"My roommate is losing her mind right now," Jade announced with a grin.

"I can kind of hear her over your microphone," Hakkaku chuckled.

"Alright, guys. Time to blow your minds. Time to change everything." Jade announced with a smug smile, pushing the control stick up and forcing her character to charge off the top of the building. Instead of the cannonball formation Ginta and Hakkaku's characters used, Jade's character took a torpedo approach to the fall, even going as far as spinning.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ginta shrieked.

"That was sick! That was sick!" Hakkaku stated as he up-voted her trick.

"Oh, I'm not done! I'm not done! Keep wiggling! Keep wiggling!" Jade said excitedly as her broken character's body landed on his shoulders and arms, twitching and jumping as her score skyrocketed.

"What? Whaaaaat? No! That's bullshit! That's total bullshit! Slut! Slut!" Hakkaku shouted with disbelief as Jade's score passed his quickly. Ginta began laughing, unable to form words for what he was seeing at the moment. Her character looked like it was possessed by a demon.

"Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah!" Jade chanted as her character kept twitching and bouncing, finally losing balance and falling over.

"I can't breathe," Sango gasped, pounding her fist into Jade's mattress in hopes that her lungs would allow her to inhale soon.

"Yeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuh," Jade giggled, high-fiving her camera lightly.

"Get that cheating shit out of here! Nooooooo," Hakkaku cried dramatically.

"I told you I was going to change everything." Jade reminded him.

"No, seriously, how'd you do that?" Ginta asked after regaining his composure.

"I don't know, dude! I just mashed buttons and shit happened!" Jade insisted honestly. Her character just happened to land in a position where she was allowed to mash. Any other time, he would have landed flat and the score window would have been closed immediately.

After a few more rounds of who could fail the most at Skate 3, Jade and Ginta switched to Killer Instinct while Hakkaku bid them good night. Jade and Ginta practiced with their shared character, Sabrewulf, for a few hours before calling it a night, thanking their viewers for their time, donations, and commentary. Jade shut down her computers and monitors, and draped a small towel over her camera. She walked over to her bed where Sango fell asleep and tapped her friend on the arm.

"Bed time," Jade chirped, closing her laptop and turning around to place it back on her desk.

"Mm, on one condition," Sango said back groggily. Jade snorted and shrugged.

"Sure. What?"

"Go to the gym with me tomorrow."

"Aw, okay," Jade relented. Sango slowly sat up and stood from the bed, patting Jade on the shoulder lightly before walking out of her room.

"Good night. I won't be too rough on you tomorrow." Sango called back.

"The last time you said that, I couldn't sit for three days," Jade said in a low voice, knowing Sango couldn't hear her.

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"One….two….three….four," Naraku counted off under his breath as he lifted the heavier bar of weights. He wanted better toned arms, so he increased his weight on curls, which he was currently conquering. Now that he worked in the lab in the evening, he could go to the gym in the mornings, which gave him more time and energy to workout. He finished the set of curls and bent over to place the weight bar on the floor at his feet.

"There we go," he whispered, now feeling the burn in his muscles. Naraku imitated the curl movement a few more times with his arms, clenching and unclenching his hands. He counted down the last few seconds of his break before bending over and grabbing the bar underhanded once more, curling it slowly towards his chest. His reddish-brown eyes stared out the tall, wide windows of the gym that overlooked the track. A few men were practicing short sprints, a woman was jogging, and two other women were standing off to the side, one with pads strapped to her arms while the other punched and kicked at the pads. Naraku found himself staring at them the longest. It wasn't often people practiced fighting or boxing outside. The attacking woman would stop and talk while repeating her movements slowly, seemingly instructing the defending woman on how to throw a punch or kick effectively. Naraku smirked. The instructing woman had a hell of a body. Even from the distance and height he was at, he could see her biceps and calves bulging with each flex of her movements. He was almost jealous. The defending woman was wearing baggy sweatpants and a loose T-shirt and the padding she wore on her arms covered them from any judgments from Naraku. When the defending woman turned to face her opponent in a different direction, Naraku almost dropped the weight bar on his feet.

'Jade?' he questioned, almost telling himself it wasn't her and to turn around. He had spent the last two weeks thinking nothing of her and trying to push her from his memory. But at this moment, his mind betrayed him. He watched as Jade held the pads up and allowed the other woman to unleash a barrage of quick punches and then end them with a half-powered kick.

"Is there anywhere I can go without her being there?" Naraku asked himself, quickly looking around to make sure no one heard him. He placed his bar on the floor and allowed his arms another rest since he just mindlessly curled several sets while staring at the woman he had been trying to erase from his life. This wasn't the first time he had seen her in public, either. He saw her at the grocery store with another young woman, he saw her at a stoplight, sitting behind him while she danced in her car, and he saw her at the little artwork shop with the man who tried to spot for him at the gym once. And now she was at the gym he used! Naraku shook his head, picking up his bar for the third and final set, exhaling as he brought the bar towards his chest.

Naraku walked into the lab after showering, napping, and eating dinner. He figured he would read a few papers and prepare the analyses of the extraction process he performed to be mailed to Bruce's clients. He had taken the data he received from the spectrophotometer and placed them onto line graphs to help demonstrate the levels of phosphorus for each type of phosphorus he extracted. He wished he knew the location the samples came from. He would have loved to actually analyze and give some sort of conclusion to the work he performed, but alas, it didn't work that way.

"Hm?" Naraku spotted a note on his desk after gathering the papers he printed out the previous night and stashed in his desk. He grabbed it between his index and middle fingers, flipping the words towards himself and instantly recognizing the handwriting.

'I'm sorry I scared you, Naraku. I hope you can overcome your fear and return to the lab. It's quiet without you. Maybe we can discuss me being your lab assistant. I'll come in at noon tomorrow if you feel like it. – With much love, Jade'

"You bitch." Naraku murmured while gritting his teeth. But, almost as soon as the anger came, so did his smile and his chuckle. It had been a long time since someone got a rise out of him so often. He wanted to shake her hand almost as much as he wanted to strangle her. Naraku threw the note in the trashcan next to his desk and sighed heavily.

"Fine." He breathed. If she wanted to see him so badly, then he would give her what she wanted. He began organizing the papers he held into order before slipping them into a folder to be mailed off the next day.

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Naraku fluffed his long black hair as he walked down the hallway of the Science Building. It was a few minutes after noon, so he expected Jade to be waiting for him in the lab or be a few minutes behind him. He still had his doubts about speaking to Jade, but maybe if he confronted her, the sickening feeling in his stomach would go away. He checked the cuffs of his shirt, brushing away a few wrinkles in his sleeve and speeding up his pace towards the door. His fingers fished around his pocket for his keys, but he saw the door was slightly ajar.

'She must be expecting me.' Naraku thought, reaching out to push the door open. His eyes locked on Bruce, who was standing across the table from another man. Naraku recognized the white hair and his eyes widened as his heart skipped so many beats he was sure it stopped beating entirely.

"Of course you showed up today," Bruce remarked with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. Naraku's reddish-brown eyes had locked with the other man's golden ones.

"How quaint of you to show up and welcome me into your lab, Naraku. For a moment, I thought you didn't like me," The man's voice was as calm and smooth as Naraku remembered when he last heard it. Naraku closed his eyes, inhaling through his nose.

"Where is Jade?" Naraku asked slowly.

"She came in early and took the rest of the day off. You would know that if you talked to her more often." Bruce replied with annoyance as he crossed his arms.

"Took the rest of the day….off," Naraku repeated in a quiet voice. His entire body had gone numb and his mind was in a frenzy. He couldn't even form another sentence at the moment. Naraku gritted his teeth when he finally realized that Jade set him up.

"What's your problem?" Bruce asked skeptically, noticing that Naraku seemed to have shut down. He was just standing in the room with his eyes closed and his shoulders slumped.

"Nothing pleases me more that you're here, Sesshomaru. However, I have something more important than you to tend to," Naraku stated after a few moments of silence. He backed out of the room and turned around to walk back to his car. His pace was hurried, forceful, and angry.

'Jade, you will swing for this!' Naraku thought, throwing the doors open and heading towards his car. He opened the driver's door and sat down, slamming the door shut and opening his mouth to let out a scream, but it never came out. Instead, he began laughing.